miso glazed eggplant

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that you either love or hate. As for me, I LOVE eggplant. It's just something that I've grown up eating all my life, so it's really comfort food for me. I still can't quite make it the way my mom does, so I've started exploring different recipes. One of the most recent successful ones I've tried is with a miso glaze.

peach crisp

The local farmer's markets are bursting with peaches and nectarines lately. So before we wrap up this summer, we can all use a little peach crisp. I know its back-to-school and the top of the calendar now reads "September," but we can still pretend its summer time when you have a mouth full of this peach pie.

I'm currently well into 5 months pregnant with twins. Yes, TWINS! One of the most common questions people love asking me is if I have any cravings. Cravings, that I do not have but plenty of aversions. One of them being baked goods, you're not going to catch me eating a muffin or cookie any time soon, unless its my toddler shoving it down my throat insisting that I MUST eat this and he MUST feed it to me. You'll be surprised how often this scenario plays out in our household. Just think in another two years, I'll have two more pair of hands doing this to me. Mmmm... parenthood.

Anyways, back to my crisp. Even though sweets is off my to-eat list lately, I still love fruit. The joy of living in California is that you can have such a variety of fruit all year round. My summer diet has been chock full of plums, figs, watermelon, peaches, berries, I can go on... Thankfully, my twins are okay with me eating some baked peaches because this peach crisp is a must eat. I'm sure I'll be baking one of these every peach season from now on. peach crisp

whole roasted artichoke

Here's another one on my list that I've never prepared. I love eating artichokes but I have to admit, I've always feared making it. Its got thorns and the prickly choke, just seems like a very dangerous vegetable to handle. My husband recently took me out to dinner at Houston's where we had an amazing grilled artichoke appetizer. The following weekend, we spotted some at the local farmer's market and that's when I decided to be brave and buy some.

Back at home, it had no idea what to do with them, even though I have watched professional chefs prepare them on television. It's really not that easy when you're an ordinary home cook. I battled these little suckers with cooking shears, two different knives, and even a spoon before I got to its heart. Phew. I don't think I'll be making these at home again... anytime soon.

fennel and beet salad

I feel so lucky that we have a farmer's market right outside our front down every Sunday. I haven't had to go to the supermarket to buy produce for a few weeks now. It really offers everything we need. I love supporting local farms. The kale, beets, fennel, and lavender honey goat cheese were all bought from the Old Pasadena Farmer's Market.

carrot ginger cupcake

Carrot cake has been on my mind for a while now. Last month, we were at a wedding where they served up carrot cake for the wedding cake. How brillant... and delicious. People should really do that more often. And then just last week, I had the most perfect slice of carrot cake to top off our dinner at R&D Kitchen in Santa Monica. So, it was serendipitous when I got a big bunch of fresh carrots with our latest CSA pickup from EAT South. I had to make some carrot cake, well, cupcakes to be exact.

Rather than making a traditional, rich and dense carrot cake, I reinvented the classic recipe. What I ended up with was a light, fluffy, and spicy cake. The kick is from the three different kinds of ginger: crystallized, ground, and fresh. Let’s just say this is not what I would call your Grandma’s carrot cake.

spaghetti with tobiko and herbs

One of my favorite restaurants in New York is Basta Pasta. Well, there is something to disclose here; I have many favorites. Hey, it's NEW YORK! And why is Basta Pasta on my list of faves? First of all, its a collision of Japanese and Italian, two cuisines I can eat everyday. And secondly, what is not to love about eating pasta served from a half wheel of Parmesan cheese? If you ask me what is my go-to dish at this place, I really can't tell you. I love everything, especially the pastas. My top three are probably the Spaghetti con Uova di Pesce, the Spaghetti con Prosciutto e Parmigiano (the pasta I just described earlier), and the Spaghetti as Ricci di Mare (you really can't lose with sea urchin). They are relatively simple dishes to make, so for dinner tonight, I am going to make my own rendition of the Spaghetti con Uova di Pesce. It's simply spaghetti pasta, tobiko (flying fish roe), and shiso.

Tobiko is pretty easy to find at Asian grocery stores. I was able to get some at a local Korean market called Seoul  Market. But if you have a problem finding tobiko at a local store, I found this great website called Fine Food Specialist that sell jars of them. As for the shiso, I substituted with some peppermint leaves and micro-greens from our Eat South CSA.

This recipe is great for a weekday dinner when you don't have much time but still want to whip up something yourself rather than ordering take-out.

halibut cakes

Now that Austin is almost one, he's starting to eat more like us but without the salt and some dairy ingredients (i.e. egg white, butter, milk, etc). And with this known fact, my life in the kitchen has gotten a little easier. I've been putting together some recipes that are finger-food friendly but are also delicious meals for mommy and daddy. Tonight, I baked up some halibut cakes and served them over mixed greens with roasted radishes and turnips (from our Eat South CSA).

For some reason, we never think about making fish cakes. It's always crab cakes. After trying to serve halibut by itself to a 11 month old with much of it ending up in his bib, I knew I needed to think of a better way to make it easy to grab. And that is how the idea of halibut cakes started. These tiny cakes are healthy and flavorful. Halibut is a great source of protein for babies plus it's packed with Omega-3, which helps with brain development.

pineapple mojitos

Yes, please! What is there not to love about fruit, mint and some alcohol? As I had mentioned here, we got some fresh mint from our CSA last week and I could not resist making mojitos with it. Rather than making a traditional mojito, I added some fresh pineapples to it for fun.

{the glasses are from bormioli rocco}

colorful vegetable quiche

It's that time of the year again... CSA season. For the 4th season now, we are participating in Eat South's CSA. I really can't decide which is my favorite season: spring or fall. I absolutely love the fresh variety of greens from the spring time but then I'm obsessed with all the root vegetables in the fall. I guess I'm just a vegetable lover. 

At this week's pickup, we got purple top turnips, red and Chioggia beets, green elephant garlic, radishes, red Russian kale, microgreens, and mint. This is the first time I've seen or even heard of Chioggia beets. When you cut them open, you'll find a beautiful red and white striped pattern. I was excited to eat them all. And what better way to incorporate a menu of vegetables than a quiche? 

Quiche has been my fall back dinner lately. Here's one of my favorites. It's easy to prepare ahead of time and it can be kept warm in the oven until it's time to eat. This is great on the nights when I don't know what time to expect Gary home for dinner. Once the quiche is done, I'll just turn the temperature to 200 degrees F and leave it in there. 

What I love even more about this recipe is that there is yogurt in it. I've been stocking up on organic plain yogurt for our little guy. Unfortunately, it rarely comes in the small serving size containers, so I have to buy them one quart at a time. The bright side is, I am finding new ways to use yogurt in my daily cooking... like this quiche. 

lentil tabbouleh

My husband loves tabbouleh. Actually, he just loves anything with lemon and herbs in it. I can count with one hand the number of times he's actually made dinner for me and with the exception of one of the meals, his dishes always had the same three ingredients: cilantro, lime, and bell peppers. And the best part is, he didn't even realize that until I pointed it out. So now its my turn to take his three favorite ingredients and whip up something for him. I served this healthy, delicious lentil tabbouleh with some Greek style meatballs. And the bell peppers and basil were from Hampstead Farms. I love locally sourced foods.

shrimp and grits

It doesn't get anymore Southern than shrimp and grits. Honestly, I have never even heard of shrimp and grits until I moved down here a few years ago. And look at me now, whipping up my own batch for dinner. My CSA bag of veggies from Hampstead Farms always inspires me to make something new. I don't know why I can't feel the same inspiration from shopping at the supermarket when I can choose from an array of vegetables. It makes me feel like I would be a good candidate for the cooking show, Chopped. On the show, four chefs compete by taking ingredients from a mystery box and turning them into a dish that is judged on their creativity, presentation, and of course, taste with a limited amount of time to plan and execute. Anyways, the CSA ingredients that had inspired my shrimp and grits today were chives, elephant garlic and okra. According to my sweet, dear husband, I won in all three Chopped criteria with this dish.

Tell me what you would make with these three ingredients.

green bean baby food

A week or so ago, we started feeding our little guy rice cereal. He loved it, so we decided to move onto veggies. During Austin's 4 month well visit to the pediatrician, we were given a list of first foods to introduce our baby. On top of that list was green beans and how serendipitous that we got some fresh green beans from Hampstead Farm's CSA. Unfortunately, I only got about a cup of it, as you can see in the photo above. With that and some tedious labor, I was only able to make about 2-1/2  one ounce cubes of baby food. Luckily, Austin loves green beans, so my hard work was not wasted. Scroll to the end, click on the cute picture of him eat it up for a video clip! Next up... sweet peas! Yum!

black eyed peas salad

Now that we're well into summer, I can't help myself from stocking my fridge with fresh ready-to-eat salads like this black eyed peas salad. It's a bit like a salsa with fresh cilantro, tomato, pepper, and minced raw garlic. Its so yummy. Last night we had burrito bowls for dinner (because I forgot to pick up flour tortillas) and rather having beans and salsa separately, we ate it with this. It was perfect! The tomatoes and poblano pepper were grown right here in Montgomery at Hampstead Farms. 

lentil salad with tomato and basil

I love eating salads in the summer time, not just leafy green salads but all sorts like chicken salad, cucumber salad, tuna salad, egg salad, potato salad, I can go on and on. This week I made a lentil salad with some fresh tomatoes and dill from Hampstead Farms and basil from my own (balcony) garden. This salad is not only refreshing and delicious but also very healthy.

organic egg salad

Summer is here! My favorite thing to eat during the summertime are salads. We got a ton of arugula and beets from our Hampstead Farms CSA this week, so of course I whipped up some roasted beets served over spicy arugula. We've also been getting bunches of chives, which I threw together with some hard boiled eggs for a refreshing egg salad!

roasted beet & arugula salad

The spring CSA at Hampstead Farms kicked off this week. I brought home some beets, arugula, garlic scapes, mint, and roasted chipotle peppers.  I'm really excited to see what else we'll be getting this season. For dinner last night, I roasted the beets and served it over the spicy arugula with some roasted sweet peppers, almonds, and Parmesan cheese. We didn't have any dressing, so I made a quick honey vinaigrette for this refreshing salad. 

beef liver pâté

The first time I made beef liver pâté, it was such a success I decided to make it again but with a few tweaks in the recipe. I think I like this recipe even more.

foodbuzz 24 x 24: tongue in cheek

As some of my previous blog posts have mentioned, I participated in a meat share through Randle Farms. The most recent piece of meat I got from them was a beef tongue, which I've neither eaten nor cooked before. I was excited! To my surprise a piece of beef tongue can weigh up to 7 lbs. The one I got was about 4-5 lbs, I think. So, I decided to divide it up and make it three ways. Since this is a new type of protein for me, I used the most familiar cuisine: Asian. After a few hours of cooking, I had two appetizers and one entry from this nice piece of muscle. To kick off the meal, I made Chinese Braised Beef Tongue. This is something my mom made time and time again when I was growing up (except she used brisket or some other cut of beef).

sweet potato pie

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I took a little trip to Austin, Texas. We had the most amazing "pecan pie" from Salt Lick BBQ. Except it wasn't quite a pecan pie. We thought of it more as a sweet potato pie with candied pecans on it. It was irresistibly delicious! This slice of heaven inspired me to whip up my own when I got home. I did some research and came across a sweet potato pie recipe from Alton Brown. This recipe was pretty similar to the one we had in Austin with the pecans on top.

super bowl chili with cheese biscuits

We are ready for game time tonight. I've been cooking up this chili for 24 hours in the slow cooker. I saved some smoked chili peppers from last fall's Hampstead Farms CSA, which was perfect for this recipe. And the ground beef is from my Randle Farms meat share. Now, we just have to wait for our guests to show up, so we can chow down. We're serving the chili with some cheese biscuits, (recipe here).