Chocolate Almonds

New favorite snack again from Trader Joes. Thanks J for letting me scavenge around in the snack cabinet at your house. Seriously, this is like crack, well Ive never actually had crack, but this is what can easily become an addiction.

I love dark chocolate and almonds. The chocolate has bits of turbinado sugar, (for the one UK reader, it's called demerara over there), which is lighter than brown sugar. It's this crystallized sugar cane that is added into the dark chocolate and gives it sweetness with a little more crunch. But the best part is while your savoring the slightly sweet dark chocolate you'll get dab of sea salt on the tongue that just excites and enhances the whole experience.
Again, TJ's does it again. Pure indulgence and great with a nice cherry chocolate Cabernet or Port.

Bittersweet Chocolate Carob Ganache Tart

While we're on the subject of chocolate, after trying the decadent chocolate at Todo Santos I saw a recipe in Bon Appetit, February 2009 issue for a chocolate carob tart. I love it when they have a picture of the food, so I can compare if I even came close to what the recipe called for in the looks department.

I haven't eaten carob in years, I remember my mom taking me to Mrs. Gooches (a health food store) when I was a kid and making me eat carob, wheat germ, and flax seed oil. Not pleasant food memories. However, this recipe called out to "try me." The recipe is long, so I'll point you here to take a look at it.

I'll tell you how mine turned out. The hardest part was the crust. It was fun putting my hands in the butter and flour but I was unsure that the mixture wasn't fine enough. After chilling it I tried to roll it out, this was a mess and both times I attempted this I ended up with a wonky circle and just gave up and ended putting it in my removable bottom tart pan and attempted to mold it to the pan. I must have done a good job, because everyone who ate this remarked on how pretty and tasty the crust was.

Then came the baking of the crust, I don't have pie weights, I don't have beans (you'd think I would, as I keep trying to get my Grandmother's bean recipe for years) but I don't. So I just put the tin foil on it and baked it. The crust did get air pockets and puff up but when I took it out of the oven I quickly deflated it (poking w/ fork and just pushing down on the tin foil with an oven mit).

Melting the chocolate and carob and cream was easy and once the pie crust cooled down you just pour it in the crust and put uncovered in the refrigerator to chill.

Now for the best part. I've never made brittle and had no idea where to find malted milk powder. We have a store here on the Westside called Rainbow Acres, super organic and vegan. I manage to buy both the carob chips and malted milk powder there. Here's the recipe for the brittle. Seriously this was scary and fun at the same time. You must have your parchment paper ready with cooking spray on it as you have to work pretty fast once all the ingredients are ready to be poured onto the sheet.

Making the amber colored sugar wasn't as bad as I thought, I'm always worried I'll severely burn myself and ruin my sauce pan (neither happened). Once the sugar turned a pretty amber color I put in a table spoon of butter...oooh it started to bubble up slightly. Then you have to QUICKLY pour in the malted milk powder (3 tbsp). Now there was a volcano eruption, I stirred super quick and got really nervous, once everything was all mixed in I immediately poured the mixture on the prepared parchment sheet and spread it out as evenly as possible. The brittle cools fast. Once it's completely cooled you just peel it off the parchment paper, break the candy apart, and scatter it over the chilled chocolate tart.I took the whole tart to work. However, before I did that I took a sliver to taste and make sure I wouldn't poison anyone. I was so excited I took a bite before taking the picture. It was perfect, not to rich, but chocolaty and the crust was a flaky consistency. I had one piece left for SB who again was upset that I always make these things and take them to work. Since I still had all the ingredients I made it again just for him...oh and me. Yes now, once again, I fortified in my mind why I take these things to work. We ate the entire tart ourselves in one week. Not good for the diet, but I oh so delicious.

Box of Chocolate

"Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what your gonna get" that's about the only line I remember from that movie. But I'd have to agree unless of course you slice the chocolate in half or ask the owner what's in every one, which I did when we visited Todos Santos.

This place was nestled away in a little courtyard off the main street from the Plaza in Sante Fe. Todos Santos (All Saints) has this kind of day of the dead theme.

Many of the gift boxes are Saints, Mary being one of the bigger ones. I'm not into this, but chocolate I am all over.

Every one of these was so beautifully made and the flavors were exotic and surprising.

I wanted to buy some gifts for my co-workers so I bought a few boxes of chocolate and had them wrapped in nice little boxes. They were so pretty we didn't want to eat them....but we did.

The store is tiny and dark but lots of vibrant colored decorations.

I love that each type of chocolate is in a pretty colored candy holder tuttu.

With all the beautiful chocolates in the display cases, it was hard to choose which one I wanted to eat right away. I finally choose the dark chocolate with candied orange peel and pistachios. It was worth every bite. It's a hard to place to find but worth the search. The courtyard was lovely in winter as Sante Fe had snow on the ground and evergreen garlands over all the wood beams throughout the plaza area. I'm sure this courtyard will be hopping in the summer as there was a restaurant with an outdoor patio. Make sure you seek out this chocolate treasure.

Todos Santos
Sena Plaza Courtyard
125 East Palce #31
Sante Fe, NM 87501

The Range Cafe

Everytime I go to Albuquerque this place is a must visit. It's in the town of Bernalillo (pronounced Burn-a-leo). It's a great cafe that has been cloned through out the city of Albuquerque, but the original is the best. The food is good, nice American fare with a touch of New Mexico.


Often when you order your food here, burritos, tacos, burgers and eggs the question always comes, red or green? Chili that is. New Mexico chili is fantastic. I usually go for the green its roasted just right with a smokey flavor, really it goes with just about everything.


The coffee is perfect her, just black, no need for sugar or cream and I love both. SB and I always take home a bag of beans of the Range and Blue Lightening blend of coffee, to have at home. I have to say though my favorite part of this place is the ambience, it's eclectic and warm.


It's in a building with an old soda fountain. Art on all the walls (much of which was donated by local artists), colorful chairs, plates and fanciful decor.
It always makes me happy when I go here.

You have to visit this location and experience a great local place.

Range Cafe
928 Camino del Pueblo
Bernalillo, New Mexico
505.867.1700

Chocolate Maven

Ok so everyone knows I love to watch the food channel. Well there is a show called Giada's Weekend Getaway and a few months ago she featured Sante Fe. I jotted a few places down that I've never been too while visiting. One of them is off the beaten path of the famous Plaza in Sante Fe. It's called Chocolate Maven.

I told my mom about this place and told her that it was a bakery and that you should be able to sit and eat by the window and watch them make the baked goods. However, that did not register to her as she went barreling in the place, right up to the counter and quickly asked "i want to see where they make the candy," the lady was really polite, as most New Mexican's are, and simple told her "we don't make candy, we make pastries. " She says "oh, well I want to see where they make the pastries." The woman points to the dining room and then my mom bolts in there not realizing that there are 3 tables next to the window where people are dining. SB tells me "quick move over to the end of the store, pretend like we don't know her." Seriously we got a lot of laughs out of this episode.

If you've never been here you'd never find it. It's in a warehouse district of Sante Fe.

Literally we drove into a warehouse parking lot that was packed with cars, dirt, snow and ice on the driveway. The visit was well worth it. I had a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, mom had a mini cherry tart and SB had a chocolate white chocolate chip cookie. Very crunchy cookies with texture like brown sugar. Worth every calorie and bite. Mom went back to Chocolate Maven and few days later and ate at a table buy the window and enjoyed watching them make the "pastries."

Chocolate Maven

Bakery & Cafe

821 W. San Mateo Rd.

Santa Fe, NM 87505

800 • 511 • 0113

505 • 984 • 1980

Route 10

Here's the pictures I've promised.

So this winter I had 1 -1/2 weeks off from work so we decided to take a road trip and visit my family in New Mexico. As the weather was extremely bad we had to take the southern route to Albuquerque. This made our road trip 15 hours instead of the usual 11. Seriously the last 3 hours where the worst and most disappointing as it was so dark and we were going through a part of New Mexico that SB has never seen. The stars where amazing though. Here's a sampling

of what we saw along the road.

Early morning...I love to see the sun rise and the clouds were everywhere so it was amazing.

Palm Springs energy windmills.

Colorado River crossing into Arizona.

Texas Canyon Rocks, in Arizona, very cool.

Sunset time in New Mexico....finally.

New Mexico Bound

So we're leaving to New Mexico next week. I can't wait, it's been almost 2 years since we last visited. I have most of my family there and am looking forward to the "weather" as we hardly get any here in California. We look forward to the long road trip and then endless sky's and puffy clouds. Most of all I look forward to eating the yummy food my family makes. This week they are making it a family affair to work on homemade ravioli's. Yummy. Everyone is asking what does SB like, does he like Posole (a very New Mexican dish), does he eat meat, will he like such and such. Seriously they care more about what he likes then me. I'm not bitter just anxious. Pictures soon to come.

If These Walls Could Talk

So this past week I went on a video shoot for a few TV commercials. Sounds glamorous, it's usually not. But the best part, besides the craft service table, usually is the locations. This one was in an old newspaper publishing building in downtown Los Angeles.

Lots of art deco style treatments and old style lounges.

CC had been here before and showed me this old style ladies lounge. The bathrooms themselves were newer but what a great room this is.

I especially loved the tufts on these peach velvet chairs.

I actually set up shop in the Ladies Lounge at some point so I could get a few calls done and do some work other than watching the video screen and listening on the head sets to make sure we record all the lines in the script.

Vanity light fixture that glowed in the evening.

Light fixtures like none other that I have ever seen.

Lovely couch for the faint of heart.

Beaded flower arrangement.

If these walls could talk, you could just imagine a 20's or 30's style era where everyone at this newspaper was getting the scoop on the latest story, each executive dressed in a fedora hat with a secretary sitting just outside the door, a cocktail bar on the credenza and some sordid tale. It was straight out of Mad Men only a couple of decades earlier.

At one point we set up shop in the cafeteria...I think it looks more like a disco lounge.

As the U.S. doesn't have as much history as some countries we relish these old style art deco buildings and a bit of our own culture. Oh and the view is pure modern genius. Gotta love the "City of Angels."

Suzanne's at Ojai

Every few years we have the privilege of being invited by dear friends to dine with them up in Ojai (oh-hi) Valley a quaint town with an artsy, hippie flair. Ojai also can boast to one of the best spas in California, Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. This year we were invited to dine with them at Suzannes's Cuisine. Coming to Suzanne's you almost feel like your having a nice dinner at a friends house. The staff is friendly and the atmosphere is homey but elegant. SB and I drove just over an hour to dine with our friends and promptly ordered a vodka tonic and gin and tonic to refresh us after a lovely drive up the coast with views of a breath taking sunset.Suzanne's was quick about getting ready for the season as the entire place was decorated with snowflakes, twinkle lights and evergreens.Everything served from Suzanne's kitchen is the freshest and best ingredients. I shared the an arugala salad with pancetta and blue cheese stuffed figs. For my main course I and order the pork medallions with a slice of pear and a sliver of gorgonzola. Also served with roasted potatoes, baby carrots and asparagus.
Dessert for the children consisted of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, that were so decandent and rich that I'm sure they were jumping up and down when they returned to their hotel. For dessert I had Café Liegeois De La Maison , which is Suzanne's version of an ice cream sundae. Coffee ice cream, fresh whipped cream chocolate sauce and Kahlua. I figured we had a long drive home I might as well get well caffeinated for the ride home.My favorite comment of the evening was from my friends oldest boy, only 7. He was playing with the silverware making all kinds of words and such. He made this lovely interpretation and tapped me on the arm, telling me "hey look, the 405." Seriously this kid is an L.A. boy thru and thru. He's already aware that the 405 freeway is consistently jammed and commonly referenced by Angelino's as a "parking lot."

Vanity Fair

For a couple of years my friends and I would make these list of things to do, places to go, restaurants to try, exhibits to see. This list would come in handy when we had visitors but most of all give us a chance to explore this city. As L.A. daily can drain you, but if you search around there are some really cools things to do here. It also a chance for us to explore LaLa land other than the 405, 10, 101, 90, 110. We use to have time to make lists and go on what I would call an L.A. adventure, life gets in the way of fun. We would pick a few places that were relatively close together so we wouldn't have to take the 405, 10, 101, 90, 110 to get from one place to another. Today came together VERY last minute, but ended up being a lovely adventure. All of us wanted to see the photography exhibit at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). So with connections, yes it's WHO you know in this town, we were able to go for free.


Of course you can't take photo's of the photographs but I did take a few of the outside entrance. The Vanity Fair photographs are amazing, every well-known photographer, actor, musician, writer, director, politician has a photograph for this magazine. Here is a list of a few favorites: Did you know that Fred Astaire had a sister named Adele that he would dance with before Ginger? She married a Lord and became a Lady, but the photograph that captured these siblings was fantastic she had the best outfit on with wide sleeves and amazing details on the edges. C found a picture of an author, none of us could remember, but she loved the hair cut and is vowing to mimic that look.




New sculpture at the entrance of LACMA was pretty amazing and made for some cool photos.

We went on to see the William Randolph Hearst art collection which was a hodgepodge of stuff that a very rich man purchases just because he has the means. Interesting but not that exciting. There was another exhibit of photographs from all the best, William Fox Talbot, Julia Margeret Cameron (Mrs. Subs that made me think of you), Alfred Stieglizt, Weston and Imogen Cunningham to name a few of my favorites. One thing that is amazing is that these people took pictures of their friends and then they or there friends or both became famous. So I figure either I or my friends have a 50/50 chance of this happening to us. Here's to you Zeff and L, we're bound to be famous now.
As you may have seen in an earlier post I love the Chris Burton public installation. Tonight it lit up just as we were leaving the museum. After we illegally climb over everything and took lots of pictures the sun set and it was a gorgeous L.A. evening. I must admit, I think I'm rather obssessed with these lamps.

After this we took off to Sweet Lady Jane to enjoy dessert and hopefully the black ham and jarlsberg cheese sandwich. This place is a little bakery that absolutely has the best cakes, everyone who has ever lived in L.A. has to have this cake at least once. They are both tasty and beautiful. My favorite is the Triple Berry Shortcake as we have ordered that for a few parties before.
A new delicious cake just now found was the oreo cookie tiramisu....delish.

Of course everywhere in the world has to have their version of the red velvet cupcake, this was a good one to try. Love the cream cheese frosting.They no longer serve sandwiches but that didn't stop us from some amazing desserts and a pot of French pressed coffee. It's been a long time since I've been here and this area of Melrose is covered with all the designer shops that we salivate for, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Herve Leger, all places I will never be able to afford to buy at, but window shopping is a rush.

There was a slight chill in the air when we left, finally. The fog had set in as we traveled back to the Westside. Since I missed out on my ham and jarlsberg cheese sandwich (I am such a Cuban) I ran to the local store and stocked up on the necessities and made my own version with a nice glass of Voigner and a comfortable evening at home with SB.

Coconut Macaroons

For the sweet and savory party I was able to make one dessert to contribute to this feast. I had a craving for coconut. So I went through a few cookbooks till I found a recipe I hadn't tried yet. The always reliable Ina Garten provide the recipe that seemed the easiest and most tasty.

And who doesn't love chocolate right. Ultimately these macaroons ended up with chocolate. I melted semi-sweet chocolate in a double broiler and then tried to decide if I was going to dip the top of each one or brush the bottoms. Bottoms one over at a suggestion from SB. These I have to say turned out delicious.

We had plenty to give everyone and took a few home ourselves. Next day over a cup of coffee was the best breakfast.

Here's Ina's recipe from her

Barefoot Contessa Family Style

.

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

14 ounces sweetened condesed milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon kocher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and salt on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they make medium-firm peaks. Carefully fold the egg whites into the coconut mixture.

Drop the batter onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper (I tried to use my silapat cookie sheet liner on one sheet as I was short on parchment paper - this didn't work well as the sticky coconut stuck to it, even after cooling. So parchment paper is the way to go) using either a 1 1/4 inch diameter ice cream scoop, or two teaspoons. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and serve.

If you choose to put chocolate on them follow instructions below.

Put semi-sweet chocolate chips (or your chocolate of choice) in a bowl set over boiling water in a sauce pan. Don't let the water hit the bowl. Once chocolate is melted used a icing spatula to spread chocolate evenly over the bottoms of each macaroon. Put macaroons on a baking sheet upside down and refrigerate to harden the chocolate about 30 minutes. Plate and serve.

Enjoy.

Sweet and Savory Evening

Last night a good friend who is an amazing host, cook, mother, decorator, gardener, baker this list goes on, had an evening of all appetizers, both sweet and savory.

I took a million pictures of everything that came out.

Chinese Chicken Salad on crispy wontons.

Cheese plate with Chipolte cheese, smoked gouda, brie a tasty platter of interesting flavors. Delicious bacon wrapped scallops.

Mushroom sausage bruschetta. This was my favorite as I could eat pounds and pounds of mushrooms. We wanted to stuff filo doughs with this but ran out of time so a couple of slices of bread toasted and then a dab of mushrooms was a welcomed and tasty alternative.

Shrimp and frozen ice shot glasses with cocktail sauce to go.

Filo dough cups with chicken, parsley pesto and olives.

Cucumber slices with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Tabouli stuffed cucumbers, pigs in a blanket with savory sausage wrapped in the perfect pasty dough. Followed by a special turkey dinner purse with a cranberry surprise.

And dessert was fantastic. My favorite dessert that she makes are these crispy pavlova's with kiwi's and berries and a little passion fruit sauce to top it off.

Chocolate Fountain followed with various fruits and cookies to dip. I loved watching the kids dip everything possible in this fountain. Poor little ones were left rolling on the floor with serious tummy aches.

Cheesecakes with dripping cherry sauce and Champagne to follow.

This appetizer meals and array of desserts is my favorite way to eat a meal. I went back for seconds of the savory and forgot about the sweets coming next, but somehow I managed to find room for those as well. Seriously a night of good food, good wine and most of all good company.

Bravo SS it was a night to remember.

Idaho or Bust

Road Trip. I have to say I really enjoy road trips. I've spent many hours in the car growing up driving Route 66 and many other US highways, Interstates, freeways etc...

A few months ago we drove from Los Angeles to Boise, Idaho. Dear friends or ours were

moving up there. We drove their second car and made our way through California, Nevada, Oregon and finally Idaho.

We left LA at the grueling hour of 4am, it was suppose to be 3am (I took that picture above at that time, no turning the clock back for a photo op) so you can imagine how early we had to get

up for this. Our friends have two kids so it was essential to get them in the car asleep a

nd get in a good 6 hours of driving before they woke.

We took the 5 freeway and hit a few pockets of nothingness and then stumbled upon the worst smell ever. And for 5am, it was miserable. Cow's for miles and the stench j

ust wouldn't go away.

After passing the stench we get to the grapes of wrath where there are lines of fieldworkers that define this part of the continent.

Food fair on the road is pretty dismal. My mom use to pack a lunch or stop in some great little hole in the wall diner in some small little town along our route. There weren't that many options this time. So as typical Americans we stop at the usual fast-food, chain restaurants.

McDonald's, Denny's and a Subway, which is the healthiest of the bunch. For some reason this

food is appetizing on the road.

As we drive into Nevada and closer to Reno the scenery drastically changes it becomes beautiful blue sky's, tree line mountains, with patches of snow higher up.

We arrive in Reno about 2PM and are completely spent, it's the ridiculous tired feeling. We stay at the Grand Sierra Resort Casino.

I take a nap, check out the hotel amenenties while SB runs down to the pool with our friend and his two kids.

In Nevada's alternate to Las Vegas, Reno pale's in comparison for casinos, though the vie

ws are

awesome. We do however, decided to head down to the Casino to eat the buffet....seriously we

get there and the line is around the corner, through the slot machines to the race track and through to grandmother's house. Wait is 1 hour. I feel meltdown coming on all of us...finally we can't make a decision and just head to the quickest nearest place possible

, Johnny Rockets.

More burgers, fries and shake...but ooooh so delicious.

We had a great night sleep in a bed that SB absolutely loves so

much that once we

got back he called the hotel to find out what kind of bed as we need to purchase a new one ourselves. We

ate breakfast repacked the cars and took off for some interesting scenery.

You may or may not be surprised how many penitentiaries we passed in the middle of nowhere, not a lovely site.

We really got to see the little towns, abandoned shacks, farms and beautiful places.

Just before entering Boise we came through this town that had wineries and fruit orchards and the like it was really inviting.

After a day waiting for our friends POD to arrive we checked out downtown Boise, reminded me of Portland. It felt very College town like, without the FRAT boys. The next day when the POD arrived we unpacked it and it was barely empty before SB and I had to catch a plane home.

I got very emotional. These are dear friends but because of our busy schedules we didn't get

together as much as we'd like. We really bonded with them and their kids and I for one was sad to leave them. I know they'll adjust to their new 3 bedroom, 2 car garage and yard quickly and

their new friends will come to love them as much as those of us who grew up around them.

Can't wait for the next road trip, I've already got my mind spinning. We were sad to leave our friends behind, but made a promise to visit in the winter, I'd love to see Boise with snow everywhere. We miss you P family.

Chris Burden's Light Installation

If your living in LA you get this great chance everyday to listen to a truly great radio station.

Indie 103.1. This makes the morning commute bearable. Wednesday's are notoriously great as it's called Wino Wednesday, which occasionally my work mates and I

adopt at the end of a particularly grueling day in the office.

In the past couple of months on my way to work Joe Escalante, DJ, from the 80's band the Vandals, has talked about this art installation by Chris Burden on Wilshire Blvd outside LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). He said if you haven't seen it you must.

Joe said he's not artsy but this is super cool. I checked online for Chris Burden info, you've got to check out

Wikipedia's

take on him.

So I had to drive by, I had to check it out. It's pretty darn cool. Though I went there late in the day, in my opinion it's a night thing. Rows of antique lamppost all lit up. One of the many great things about this city.

Happy One Year Anniversary

Today it's been 1 year since I started this blog. It's been a journey and well worth it. I continue to struggle to find time to talk and photograph and travel to the places I want to see and eat at. Real life gets in the way along with everyday responsibilities. But to all 198 Unique Visitors thanks for sticking around to check out my blog at least once if not a few repeat visits.

I promise to finish my Cuba Bittersweet Tale and I have quite a few photographs and stories I'm working on, one is a local L.A. art installation and of course summer food...even the scary tomato.

Happy Anniversary to itsweetandsavory!!!

Rose Cafe

This place is a Venice institution since 1979, in a once converted Gas Company building.

I've been going here since I was a little girl.

I've enjoyed breakfasts with

mom on the outdoo

r full-service restaurant patio or a quick breakfast at the tables

and chairs near the deli counter and when I have more time a leisurely lunch outside with friends.

At lunch my favorite sandwich is a smoke turkey with a thin slice of nutty salty parmesan and a delicious sweet aioli dressing. It's my perfect combination.

My favorite thing to do is come

early morning, order the breakfast special, croissant, scone or bagel with a wedge of brie cheese, butter and jam and a very dark deep rich cup of coffee, latte or tea.

If you choose the coffee, be warned it's strong so if you like that kind its all yours, go black. I, on the other hand, need the milk, and lots of it.

Early in the morning you'll usually see a pack of elderly men who have just finished their bicycle ride, some scruffy celebrity incognito, or a mix of muscular men, fresh from their work-out, at the

nearby

Golds Gym.

My mom fell in love with the glass mugs here, there basic, but she loves to see the milk swirl around the coffee so I grew up with a set of these at home. Also for the jam lovers, they always seem to give me orange marmalade, so not my favorite, now, ritually I have to ask for the grap

e or raspberry, whatever they have that is NOT orange marmalade.

Every month they change the art work in the cafe, usually local artists, always cool, but not cheap.

And if you get there after 10am you can stroll through the gift shop, this is one of the best places to buy uni

que gifts from Japanese tea sets to funky business card holders.

I almost can never resist a purchase here, it's as eclectic as the Venice neighborhood. Los Angeles Magazine call it the "Best Restaurant Gift Shop." I agree.

Rose Cafe is at the corner of Rose Avenue and Main Street on the border of Santa Monica and Venice.

220 Rose Ave.

Venice, CA 90291

Corner of Main St. & Rose Ave.

1 hr free parking w/ validation

Amandine Cafe

Every Tuesday morning I meet up with C. We do our volunteer work before we have to hit the road for our day jobs. Part of the morning always includes stopping for coffee and a bite to eat. This is where I always order a LATTE and thus resulted in my adventure in the last post.

We usually like to seek out a new place that is quaint and relaxing before we have to multi-task our lives away. What always fits our needs is Amandine's, which is owned by Ryuta Toyshima and has been open since 2003. When we arrive we are shyly greeted by the same two people (Luis and Elice) who are behind the counter in white chefs smocks making your Lattes, delivering to your table, and plating your order. Behind the glass in the back you can see someone frosting their beautiful cakes that will soon be behind the glass to tempt you even more.

I time my visits to when my favorite Amandine pastry is out of the oven, the almond croissant. I don't believe I've ever had something so delicious. The croissant is buttery inside, crunchy on the outside and the sliced almonds are roasted perfectly, this is a comforting treat. I even took one to work and gave it to a coworker. I got an email back in seconds that just said "YUM, what's inside, it's so buttery?"

The fresh fruit on the pinwheel pastry is so tasty and has just enough crunch and butter to put a smile on your face.

They call themselves a European Bakery country style bakery café that features a mouth watering array of freshly baked cakes and pastries, soups, quiche, salads, sandwiches and much more. I have yet to try anything past the brioche, croissants, tarts and scones.

Their Lattes are particularly soothing with the right amount of warm delicious milk and espresso. This just puts you in the right frame of mind to face the LA commute. Every week their Olympia, Washington coffee beans are delivered within 3 days after they’re roasted, which is probably why the coffee is so enticing.

I always get to Amandine's early during the week and the line isn't too bad, but I recently made a trip on a Saturday morning, it's an interesting mix of patrons on the weekend, and the line gets long quite quickly. My favorite place is to sit in the front by the windows next to all the pastries. From here you can study the whole chalkboard menu or decide what pastry you'll try next. Or you how about the croissant aux amandes.

Amandine Cafe

12225 Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90025

What A Coffee Habit Can Lead Too

So I love coffee. I don't drink it like I used too, but I dream about it often. I also like drinking coffee in a nice porcelain cup, which says I like to drink it leisurely. Occasionally....well all the time...I'm rushing around so I usually need to get my coffee to go. As you'll learn in my next post I have a favorite place for coffee and pastries. This particular day I had my cup of joe to go. And low and behold I have been persuaded by the coffee cozie, you know the ones that keep you from burning your hands to death while you enjoy the aroma and taste of those Sumatran beans.

A little background here to this overly complicated story, I live in the City of Angels. We love our Lakers basketball team he

re. Recently though, due to a lovely British import, by way of Spain, much attention has been diverted to the LA Galaxy.

I'm a soccer fan, love to wa

tch the World Cup and enjoy watching the English League games. But having Becks in LA has really boosted my MLS viewing. Thanks to my coffee habit and a great promotional ad campaign for the LA Galaxy I succumbed to the advertising and bought 1 ticket and got 1 free from Ticketmaster's special LATTE. I got fantastic seats in the club level row. Ate the Home Depot Centers stadium food, you have to when you go to these games. I happily slurped my beer and wolfed down my hotdog. The fans at this game were great, everyone around was really into the game and kne

w the players from both teams. We cheered, yelled at the refs, and high fived it through the game. Galaxy lost tonight, but me and C had a fantastic time.

Can't wait to till the next game. Oh and I guess TomKat was there as Becks waved to someone in the stands, I just saw the frenzy of fans excited and chasing them down. I on the other hand was working my way down to row A convinced I was going to get a Beckham jersey from the real deal, to no avail. But I did I manage to sneak a few pictures.

Some people look good coming and going. What else is there to say.

Dishes, plates and silverware

Dishes, plates and silverware, oh my. I love this stuff, can't get enough of it. Recently, however I decided to retire my colorful "Forbidden Fruit" plates, cups and saucers. I had broken a few and the rest were chipped and tired. So I washed them all, packed them up and took off for Crate and Barrel for some new dishes.

Nothing too exciting at this point. I just wanted some basic white dishes. Food always looks better on white plates. SB insisted on getting a few square plates as well, I'm not adverse to that, I like choices. As dessert is positively my favorite part of any meal, we also purchased a few glass dessert bowls. They are lovely, so big though. I put my Espresso Chocolate Mousse in these cups and wow that was a lot of dessert, I only ate half. A far cry from the martini glasses I served the mousse in last time.

To add to the love of dishes I've decided to start collecting something that I would use. So each time my friends travel to a new destination, here's my request "please buy me a dessert dish" something indicative of the region your visiting.

Here's my first plate from Paris. Thank you blacklashes!!

Spring Time

Spring is my favorite time of year. I love the days getting longer and the flowers blooming, and birds chirping. Well I'm not a big fan of the birds, except a

t the Tiki Room at Disneyland, that I can get into. Long lounging lunches with beautiful surroundings and great people watching is among the finest activities. Today, we had a clandestine lunch at a special place,

Little Door Cafe

. This was in celebration of a good friends promotion and we took full advantage a drank Prosceco's with Blood Orange and Hibiscus, two different drinks. The food was fresh and a tasty and finished off by lovely macarons.