Grapefruit & Crab Salad

Occasionally we get these random magazines in the mail about food. I suppose this is because I subscribe to Bon Appetit so I must be on the food mailing list. Anyways we've been making lots of yummy healthy things from the recipe's listed there. SB made this delicious salad with hearts of palm, mixed greens, basil, mint, grapefruit (should use ruby red) and crab meat. He dressed it with a lemon vinagrette. It turned out really fresh, clean and super filling.

Macarons

It's been slow lately at the office, so the usual Monday crazy fest was at a lull. This left room for a nice leisurely lunch at the Little Next Door. I adore this place. It's so French and reminds me of Paris. The people watching is phenomenal. It's getting quite popular, we actually had to wait for a table this time, which has never happened. I t's full of Europeans and most of the staff all speak French and English with the most adorable accents ever. The wait was worth it, we started with the anise flavored water, not for everyone but a nice surprise.Sandwich of the day was smoked chicken, with figs and brie served on brioche. I had that with a yummy lentil salad that had green olives and something spicy, our intern had the same sandwich with a nice carrot salad.The best part was the peach gazpacho. This was so refreshing, with peaches, cucumbers, bell peppers and a nice floating moss green basil ice cube. Perfect for a hot summer.
Shoefiend had the most delicious looking Nicoise salad. Too finish off this memorable work lunch were these wonderful macarons flavored in strawberry, coffee and pistachio. Really it doesn't get better than this. The manager of the Little Next Door told us that this was an unusually busy Monday, maybe it's the French still in party mode after Bastille Day. He said that they were working on keeping the Cafe open for dinner and in the upcoming months they plan on opening the Little Door for lunch as well. Also another place worth visiting. Completely charming and a nice retreat from the L.A. bustle.

Bay Cities

This once sleepy beach town that I live in has the most fantastic Italian deli ever. It's called Bay Cities Italian Deli. I've been going here since elementary school. But it was in high-school that I found it was truly my place. I live but two blocks away now. In high school we had the rare pleasure of leaving campus for lunch and we'd all run down here, get us a Poor Boy sandwich (bolgona, cotta salami, and swiss cheese) for $1.98 or something like that, now it's $4 for a small sandwich.

This weekend surferboy and I went to get us a picnic dinner at Bay Cities and head to the beach. It was hot and we were too tired to drive to Hollywood to wait for a table at Pizzeria Mozza. We'll do this another time. I ordered my favorite sandwich "The Godmother," (pictured above and yes I did take a bite) it has genoa salami, mortadella, coppacola, ham, proscuitto and provolone cheese a meat lovers sandwich. You must get it with the works this is the best, mayo (hold this for blacklashes), mustard, onions (hold this for me), pickles, lettuce, Italian dressing and hot or mild peppers. I prefer the hot ones. I ate this on a blanket at the beach and it was so juicy and messy and totally spicy hot, you can't like your lips when you eat the hot peppers it only makes the burning worse. It was a totally a no frills picnic and completely relaxing.

White Bean Dip

Did you ever buy a bag of Fritos and that small tin can of brown bean dip and go to town scooping out every crevise? Well this is not that bean dip. Instead this is a white bean dip made from cannellini beans, garlic, lemon, olive oil and parsley. Toast some pita bread drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and dried oregano. Then go-to-town. Surferboy and I scarfed this down quite quickly, we had a friends bbq to go and knew the food would take a while to cook, doesn't always, so we made sure to eat before we left so as not to be grouchy guests. This is a great starter and sometimes a delicious meal.

Haute Couture

This is my very random post of the week. It’s the sweet things in life so it still applies. To feed my fantasy of working in the fashion industry I subscribe to Vogue magazine and get weekly e-mail updates from Elle. My favorite pieces from Elle are usually the street chic pictures. They always feature some city with the hippest peeps around. Today though the ultimate e-mail update: Haute Couture Fall 2007. And who, you may ask, is the master of this exhibition. John Galliano of Christian Dior of course. He is truly an artist, if not completely eccentric, which makes him brilliant.

Feast your eyes on some of his fabulous designs. This years show was at the Royal Chateau of Versailles in the Orangerie which once had many rare species of trees and now it’s filled with fanciful décor; a statue wrapped in boa’s, looked like a spider to me, white alligator’s standing at the entrance, a David statue with a bunny head, random.
Many of the top models Linda, Helena, Naomi, Giselle, glided down the catwalk in Marie Antoinette inspired gowns and 1940s matador styled skirt suits.

What I love is the details, the make-up is like a Picasso painting and the accessories are right out of the diamond necklace scandal of Antoinette’s short life.

This collection was inspired by the works of master painters such Leonardo da Vinci, Goya and Pablo Picasso. If you want to watch this show go to YouTube it's worth the few minutes to see. I have to say the Act I was very like the brilliant photographer Irving Penn poses. I love how Galliano always gets his models to do more then just walk up the runway. To see Kate run for her life just watch 1996 Catwalk a Christy Turlington documentary. Galliano and his show are always fantabulous. The Matador himself.

Noodle Pudding

This post is especially for blacklashes who currently resides in NYC and loves Brooklyn. I had read about this restaurant a while ago in Amanda Hesser's book, Cooking for Mr. Latte and then again in a write-up in The New Yorker. I've visited NY many times and always ended up in Brooklyn Heights staying with friends who lived in the area. So to find a charming little restaurant in the neighborhood totally appealed to me.

Noodle Pudding is at 38 Henry St, between Cranberry and Middagh Streets. I took surferboy (sb) and some friends to enjoy a nice meal their first time in NY. This place did not disappoint. We had no reservation but got their early and were given a table right away. The waiter's were great and the warm butter yellow glow of the restaurant totally set the mood for one of those wonderful meals you have with dear friends.

For starters we ordered the Buffalo mozzerella, tomatoes and roasted pepper salad that was fresh and delicious. We sopped up the juices with nice homemade bread, added a nice crisp glass of Chardonney and I was smiling. The gnochi with sage butter sauce was delicious and rich it nearly melted in my mouth. We all shared a nice dessert, which for some reason escapes my mind. If you don't know the restaurant is there you can easily pass it as we did. This makes it even more charming. By 7PM the Mahogany bar was filled with neighborhood friends and family enjoying the great ambience.

Mangos, Bananas & Coconuts

At a bbq with some good friends we had the pleasure of eating these delicious mangos, cut to perfection, with squeezed lime juice and sprinklings of pico de gallo seasoning, a salty chili powder common in Mexico on fruit dishes. This reminded me of the days when we were little kids running through the sprinkler's and dashing down the banana yellow slip and slide. Afterwards there was nothing better than a juicy piece of watermelon. Makes my mouth water even thinking about it now. Most childhoods weren't that exotic to enjoy the tropical fruits and special seasonings, but today I have a longing for them.

forty clove garlic chicken & peach cobbler

This has to be one of our favorite recipes to make, it's from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells. Whatever ails you this is the cure all. It's so easy. The chicken is juicy the sauce is amazing and the garlic, wow, it's powerful and savory. I used chicken thighs on the bone, they were on sale, seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Brown chicken in a skillet over high heat. About 5 minutes until skin is golden brown. We take the chicken out and reduce the heat to medium and throw in 40 cloves of garlic, saute them a bit then we put the chicken back in and slowly pour in white wine and chicken stock. Shake the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook for about 10 to 12 more minutes. This creates the most heavenly garlic smell in our little apartment. We usually serve this with a wild rice. But today instead it will be with french bread. This of course is fantastic to spread the roasted garlic on. Oh divine.

Now here's my first try at a peach cobler. The peaches turned out perfect but I'm not that happy with the crust it was a little gummy underneath the top layer. The top was perfect, crispy and sweetened with a bit of sugar. Overall I was looking for the crust to have more crunch. I think I'll try brown sugar next time.

Cut up 7 peaches (should have bought 8, but I can't count today).

Toss them with 1/3 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Now for the crust, I was suppose to use vegetable shortening in it, but I used butter instead (maybe why it isn't so flaky, but I hate the aftertaste of vegatable shortening).

Here's what I tried:

Mix 2 cups of flour, 8 tbsp butter (recipe said 2 tbsp butter, 1/3 cup vegatable shortening)
1 tbsp baking powder,

pinch of salt,

1 tbsp sugar

Use pastry blender until it's resembles course meal .

Lightly beat 1 egg and 1/3 milk (I used almond milk) and add to the flour mixture. Knead until it all comes together. Put the peaches in a nice deep dish completely cover them with the flour mixture, sprinkle top with about 2 tbsps of sugar and pop into the oven.

425 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Serve warm.

bread & butter

This has to be one of my favorite breakfast foods. I just love bread and butter no matter what my mood. Lately I've become partial to ciabatta bread. Ciabatta has been quite popular here in L.A. with much thanks to all the great bread makers in town, like Nancy Silverton. The ciabatta, in italian it means carpet slipper for it's shape, is originally from Italy. I'm not sure I think it looks like a carpet slipper, but some Italian thought so, it's more like a nicely folded towel. I just thought of my linen closet and that's the shape of my towels.

Today the ciabatta I ate was from Trader Joes, usually it's LaBrea bakery. I love the texture of the slice. After a light toasting, spread with nice soft salty butter, wow it's a great thing. This "light toasting" doesn't mean I don't ocassionally burn my toast, I do, and often, and I do eat it, unless flames are involved. My grandmother notoriously burnt toast in the morning, she ate it, so I and several of my cousins followed suit. We both still enjoy a nice burnt piece of toast slathered with butter in the morning.

Usually at night I have this bread with a little extra virgin olive oil and just a pinch of sea salt. With a glass of white crisp fruity wine it's the perfect way to end your day. It's become one of my favorite morning and evening meals.

it's all about the ingredients

Whether you like to cook or travel or just live life what you put into it affects what you get out of it. With the food I make I love to put the freshest ingredients available. Fresh herbs from the Farmer's Market, the ripest fruit that's in season or that special King Arthurs flour. This thought plays into just about every aspect of life. When you travel don't you put the most effort in finding the right places to visit, the right food to eat and best place to stay. Isn't your trip a result of finding the right "ingredient" for what you had in mind at that destination. Our what about your favorite meal out, yes it's usually about the food, but isn't it also about the fantastic conversations you had with your friends or your significant other. Really what you put into your food. life. travel...makes all the difference in the world.