Veal and Creamed Spinach

This one is actually from last weekend, but it was pretty yummy. Recipe can be found here. It was really quite good. Not sure how Travis felt about the veal, but I thought it was pretty tasty. Plus, I love creamed spinach, and this was the first time I had ever attempted it.

However, there seems to be some sort of regional difference between "bunches" of greens. This recipe calls for one bunch of spinach, and the collard green recipe that I love calls for one bunch of greens as well. But, that is never enough. You can sort of tell from the photo that there is too much cream and there are way too many onions. Next time I will just have to remember to buy extra spinach!

There probably won't be much cooking going on this weekend. Yesterday Travis and I went on a 6-mile hike at Malibu Creek State Park (fun but totally exhausting), then to see The Hangover (so so funny). There was some good food to be had though. Had my first falafel at the Malibu Country Mart, which was delicious, and rotisserie chicken with roasted potatoes at this place by the movie theater, which was not so delicious.

Today I'm just marinating some flank steak for dinner to have with baked potatoes, and I'm about to go cut up some strawberries to make strawberry shortcake for dessert. Sort of cheating though, instead of making my own shortcake, I got those little cups from the bakery. Oh well, there's other stuff to do! And with that, I'm off.

Shrimp!

This isn't a recipe that I checked off or anything, I just really liked the photo and wanted to share. I had originally planned to make a shrimp and artichoke bake for dinner, but it just didn't sound good anymore. So, I just followed the directions on the Old Bay seasoning container and ended up with the most delicious peel and eat shrimp I've ever had. I had no idea it was so easy. Leaves me with plenty of time to clean up and get ready to go see the Avett Brothers this evening.

French Coconut Pie

This is a French Coconut Pie that I made this afternoon. Despite my best efforts, I still managed to overcook one side of the crust a smidge. I blame the fact that I was simultaneously trying to beat Guitar Hero World Tour (which I did!).

It tastes sort of similar to a chess pie, but with coconut. Mmm... it's a shame I already had one piece today.

Two Dinner Salads

Today for dinner, I had Tomato and Mozzarella Salad, and some Avocado Chicken Salad. Since Travis is in South Carolina, I am taking full advantage of the situation to eat foods he finds completely disgusting.


I realize it doesn't look all that appetizing (my food photography skills may require a little work), but it was actually quite delicious.

Tomato Mozzarella Salad is easy - just toss some tomatoes with olive oil, red wine vinegar, basil, salt and pepper. It's best if you let it chill a little, but not absolutely necessary. You can use whole tomatoes and a whole piece of fresh mozzarella and slice them, but I like to cut some grape tomatoes in half and use little baby mozzarella balls. Either way is fine. Definitely use fresh mozzarella though, from the deli section. You can tell, it'll be really soft, not like the weird kind over by the ricotta and refrigerated pasta.

The Avocado Chicken Salad is a really long recipe that you can find here. In the salad, I used half mayonnaise and half sour cream instead of all mayo. I also used a bit less avocado in the salad, but the full amount in the dressing. I tend to prefer avocado pureed or mashed rather than in chunks. I feel like the dressing is really the best part. Things like this make me so happy to own a food processor.

Even though it's salad for dinner, I wouldn't go around thinking this is overly healthy. The nutritional value of Paula Deen's recipes is rarely posted, but I once saw her make this salad on TV and heard her say that she had never much cared for avocados until she found out they were fattening!

Best Ribs Ever

I feel like it's important to take a minute to discuss the best ribs that you can possibly make in an oven. I don't have a grill, and I love ribs, so this is an issue that is dear to my heart. And it's really quite simple.

Just take your ribs, rub both sides with liquid smoke and some seasonings and leave them in the fridge for 4-24 hours. For seasoning, I use Paula Deen's house seasoning (which is a combination of salt, pepper, and garlic powder that I use on pretty much everything and keep a tupperware container of at all times) and seasoned salt.

Before you get really overwhelmed by the planning that will have to go into doing this 4-24 hours ahead of time, I would like to note that I rarely (if ever) remember to do this. I find that even an hour increases the yumminess factor, but if I forget entirely, they still turn out good.

Once you've done this, roast the ribs on about 325 for an hour and a half. If you like sauce, you can add some about half an hour before they're done. Sometimes I do, but usually I prefer my ribs dry.

I just finished eating the leftover ribs for lunch (forgot to take a photo before they were all gone.. oops!), and writing this has already made me hungry again.

Cookie Day!

Yesterday was a cookie day, which is a lovely sort of day. I really love these cookies, and I ate three. This probably negated the hour of Pilates I did in the morning.

This post was edited, because the first time I forgot to add this awesome cookie photo!

Chewy Pecan Cookies



This recipe yields approx. 5 dozen - I cut it in half, as I was making cookies for two people, not an army.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter
One 16-oz box of brown sugar (I used light, but I suppose dark would work too)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 cups chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 300. Melt butter and sugar together in a double boiler, remove from heat. Add eggs and vanilla. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to egg mixture, mix well. Stir in nuts. Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.

These cookies are so good! I don't even always like pecans that much. The first batch I made came out pretty crispy. On the second try, the cookie batter ran together a little, and those are chewier.

I know the double boiler thing makes it sound really complicated, but it's really not. You can make your own double boiler by putting a metal or glass bowl inside another pan. Be sure the bowl fits snugly and only goes about halfway into the pan. I like using glass, because it conducts heat nice and evenly. Also because you can see the water boiling underneath, and it feels like a crazy science experiment. You should also be careful, because the bowl does get really hot. I use a small casserole dish, because the little handles on the side reduce the odds that the bowl will slip and fall into the boiling water underneath.

I am hoping to post a blog later this evening about ribs and collard greens, but we'll see. Maybe later on in the week, so that all my blog posts aren't on Sundays. It's just that I do the most cooking then :)

okay food, wonderful weekend

So, I made two more recipes this weekend. Neither was fantastic, but this was not Paula's fault either. I made "Easy Rolls", which did seem as promised to be quite easy - only I over beat and under baked them.

Also made "Oriental Marinade", which consists of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, water, and a little sugar. It smelled amazing, the only real problem was that I may have burned the chicken a little. So, the flavor was a little masked by burned chicken bits. It was, at least, very juicy.

I realize that all of my posts so far have really involved food errors.. generally my food does turn out well, I promise!

I also used the rest of last weekend's barbecue sauce to make some beef short ribs in the crock pot, they were delicious!!

I probably wasn't totally focused on cooking this weekend because of all the activities, which I think I mentioned on Friday. The Festival of Books was this weekend, Travis and I went yesterday. I went to a cooking demonstration by the authors of L.A's Original Farmers Market Cookbook and The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook. It was really interesting, and I bought a copy of the Original Farmers Market Cookbook. I've been looking through it all weekend, and it is amazing.

I also stopped by Dan Goodsell's Mr. Toast booth. This is clearly also sort of food-related, but please please do not eat Mr. Toast. I first saw Dan Goodsell's work at Wizard World Los Angeles shortly after we moved to L.A. in 2005 or so. I had only $5 cash, and he was nice enough to let me buy $6 worth of merchandise with it. This year, there were significantly more people at his booth than I remember from previous years, and I've also seen Mr. Toast plush pop up at Urban Outfitters. Check it out, seriously!