Category Archives: food

Bits of my weekend: Vol 14

22 Sunday Aug 2010

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On Saturday we attended a fundraiser for Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries.  It was hosted by our friends the Morescos and it was such a worthy cause.  I’ve known about Father Boyle for quite sometime as he’s an alumnus of Loyola Marymount University where I work.  But nothing can really explain what he’s done for gang members and people who have been incarcerated most of their lives.  Only the words of those people can truly provide you with a sense of what this Jesuit priest has done for so many.  Their stories and words were so powerful. I really respect them for all their work to turn their lives around.  Because for most of them, it would have been easier to stay in a gang and on drugs. To hear a recent story on NPR about Fr. G as he’s referred to by the Homeboys, click here.

Sunday was spent gathering the fruits of our garden.

San Marazano tomatoes. The pinnacle of tomatoes for many Italians. Tomatoes are fruit.

We had some friends over for pizza night.  So of course I had to make a dessert.  For the recipe, visit my qt-cakes blog.

Lemon blueberry cupcakes

We had some great starters.  I suppose anything with cheese that costs $32.99 a pound would be good.  I obviously didn’t ask the price when I was convinced to buy some after sampling it at Whole Foods.

black figs with sharp cheese, drizzled with honey

We bought some fresh anchovies from the Mar Vista farmer’s market that we love.  Al mixed ricotta cheese with lemon zest and parsley for a yummy appetizer.  I had a tough time getting the camera to focus on the fish -  so a slightly out of focused photo.

white anchovies with ricotta cheese mixture on crostini

It’s always good to end the weekend with some friends, food and wine.

I got this idea of blogging about my weekend from Michelle and typically she posts links to many others who have followed suit.  Unfortunately her family suffered a tragic loss and she is on hiatus.  I pray for her family and in particular for her brother-in-law’s young children and wife.  Learn more here.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 13

15 Sunday Aug 2010

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fresh yellow roses are my mom's favorite

We’ve been going to the farmer’s market a lot lately.  And each time, we make an effort to buy some fresh flowers.  It makes the week seem more pleasant.

We got together with our friends, Alex and Jen (Aka Avery and Jake’s parents) for a nice birthday lunch.  Yes, I’m still celebrating.
We’re known as Auntie Cupcake and Uncle Owl (Al).

Pensive Avery

I tried to get lots of shots of Avery, but she spend a lot of time giggling and kicking me.  So most of my photos were blurry.

Happy Avery

Her brother, Jake, spent most of the meal asking when the cake would be arriving.

The anticipation is killing Jake.

A delicious and light cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Thank you to all the Steins for a great celebration

Jake focused at the task at hand

Last weekend, I made banana muffins and forgot to photograph them for my cooking blog.  This week I was determine to post a photo of my vegan carrot cake cupcakes.  Then I found out that my husband gave all of them away.  There is a lucky fellow with 5 cupcakes at home.  So I decided to make more.  Just so I could photograph it – yeah, I’m CRAZY.  Luckily Al was going to meet some of his fishing buddies, so I had someone to give them to.  For the recipe, click to my qt-cakes blog.

1/2 vegan carrot cake cupakes. The cake if vegan and the frosting is not.

My weekend posts have been inspired by Michelle.  Unfortunately her family suffered a tragic loss and she’s been on a hiatus.  If you are interested in helping her brother-in-law, Ryan’s, family please click here.

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 12

08 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in food, friends, Husband, weekend

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This weekend was divided into fun and chores.

Saturday we took an adventure and tried a new restaurant that had gotten some good reviews.  It’s a pizza place called Eatalian located in a warehouse in an industrial district.  When we looked past the bright warehouse feel, we somehow felt we were in Italy.

It might have been the strange “lounge area” that we met when we walked in.

Coffee table made of giantic cans of tomatoes?

It is a food processing facility (soon to be making cheese), bakery, pizzeria and gelatoria

Love the flower shaped bread.

The pizza was so thin, it was like a cracker

I haven't seen an espresso machine like this since I was in Italy

Rather than choose one or two flavors, I went with four flavors of gelato.

The chore part of my weekend consisted of going through boxes of stuff in our garage.  It’s been a few months since I’ve had the courage to go in there without closing my eyes and heading straight for the refrigerator to pull something out.  I don’t think my parents were really pack rats.  I just think that as years pass, you accumulate stuff and forget why you have it and you keep it.  So Al and I spent a couple of hours looking through things.  I’ll tell you I did find some gems of my own history.  Including my fan club kit for Howard Jones.  Only people who remember the 80s – might remember him (No one is to blame).  For now it still stays in the “keep” pile as I pick my husband off the floor from laughter.

We closed out the weekend with a dinner with our friend Mona.  We will always have a special relationship with Mona since she’s responsible for introducing the two of us.  We tried a place called Lemonade.  20 different salads, mac ‘n cheese, soups, lots of baked goods.  WOW.  Yummy.  And as we were sitting in the restaurant we caught a glimpse of this handsome dog. It was a great end to the weekend.

What a face!

I can’t believe I’ve been posting about my weekends for three months now.  I have Michelle at Six in the City blog to thank for that.  She’s on a hiatus from her “bits of my weekend” blogging as she’s suffered a terrible family tragedy.  Although I haven’t met her and she doesn’t know me except by my posts, I feel I do know her in some way.  So she and her family are in my prayers.

Bits of my weekend: Vol 11

01 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in Family, food, friends, Remodel

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I started this weekend off with a cool new closet!  Anyone who lives in an house built before the 70s can probably relate – no closet space. Our house was built in the 1950s.  Clearly they didn’t have nearly the amount of stuff we have (Costco didn’t exist).  I am trying to get rid of stuff.  But I always desire (note, not saying I am) to be more organized.  So we had our hall closet for miscellaneous stuff turned into a new built in closet.

Hall closet with 4 fixed shelves

Turned into a more functional closet with drawers and adjustable shelves.

built in closet for modern times: 5 drawers and 3 adjustable shelves

Saturday we had another Iron Chef Competition and we were ready to play!

Iron Chef theme/ingredient: olives

Al cut his crostini in the shape of olive leaves in hopes to capture presentation points. He topped a mixture of four olives on ricotta with lemon zest & parsley.

Donna & Eric decided to keep their crostini au natural and topped their green olives mixed with orange zest with smoked salmon. Garnished with orange wedges on a platter painted with olives.

Millie & Michael blew out the competition with their presentation. They used edible flowers and Italian bread sticks for garnish. The salad was flavorful with spinach, cranberries, pistachios and olives. Their wine pairing was the best. We knew the competition was over when they pulled out the edible flowers.

Shelley & Joe, fresh from their honeymoon in Italy, brought out the squid ink pasta, ahi tuna, cherry tomatoes - garnished with olives. Delicious!

Shelley demonstrates that size really does matter. The squid ink pasta was noticably bigger and better. Thank you to Bradley who first brought it to the attention of the judges.

I tried to add presentation points by bringing my own green square paper plates. The olive oil cake had grand marnier and orange zest. We served it with blackberries mascerated in sugar, lemon olive oil and orange zest. Final two garnishes - vanilla ice cream, some green olives and a small drizzle of lemon olive oil.

Winners: Everyone – we had a great time

Winners of the competition:  Millie & Michael

Today is my birthday AND my brother-in-law, John David’s.  Happy birthday John.  I received an amazing gift from my husband.  I just started group guitar lessons – I am a beginner.  But my husband arranged for me to pick my new Martin guitar after my lesson last week.  I thought I was onto him.  I thought I was getting a guitar stand.  Well he didn’t give me that, but I did get it from my in-laws!

there are no excuses for not practicing...

Lastly I got to spend my birthday with a bunch of people I really care about.

birthday dinner with some of my family

Enzo & Angela's homemade parpadelle with shaved truffles

I knew it would be just like old times.

my second birthday with a few chosen friends

Role reversal

29 Thursday Jul 2010

Posted by in food, Musings

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Border Grill

It used to be that catering trucks were a good solution for entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford a restaurant space.  That seems to have changed in Los Angeles where the hottest eating craze is to consume food off a truck.  Now we’re seeing trucks from restaurants.  Interesting phenomenon – looks like some of the restaurants realize they can get more exposure by driving around.  If the customer won’t come to you, find them.

My friend Joe and his daughter Grace enjoyed these cumin fries, black beans and red & green rice from Border Grill.

I work at Loyola Marymount University and I’m proud to say that our alumna, Gigi Pascual, is the darling of breakfast food -  anytime with her truck Buttermilk.

Bits of my weekend: Vol. 10

25 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in Concerts, food, friends, weekend

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Vegan chocolate, chocolate chip cookie a.k.a brownie cookie

I was originally inspired to make the puffy chocolate chip cookies that Michelle from Six in the City blog has been talking about.  Until I got distracted by the description of this cookie: brownie-like, gooey chocolate cookie.  Uh, the only response to that is to make ‘em.  Would have never guessed and probably won’t tell most people these are vegan.  Click here for the recipe. But boy did the recipe make a lot.  5 dozen.  There are only three people in our household.  I took some to our Hollywood Bowl outing which was great with some hot coffee!  I guess I’ll have to wait until next week for the puffy chocolate chip cookies.

We love Planet Earth.  And to watch select scenes in High Def, outside at the Hollywood Bowl accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic was amazing.  Especially cool was that the composer to the soundtrack, George Fenton, conducted.

Icebergs from Planet Earth Live at the Hollywood Bowl

We went to breakfast on Sunday and stumbled upon a lovely surprise, a farmer’s market in Mar Vista that we didn’t know about.  We didn’t stop at any of the food stands, but we might have to next time.

Always a colorful selection of flowers at Farmer's Markets

Chinese Broccoli - food of my peeps!

Zebra heirloom tomato

we had to buy some of these

All in all, another packed weekend of fun stuff.  For other fun weekends, check out Michelle’s blog, Six in the City.  Michelle didn’t post this weekend.  But you can always look at previous weekends.

Bits of My Weekend: Vol 9

18 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in Art, food, weekend

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Weekend= Art + Food

This weekend we went to two art events, hung out with artist friends and ate great food.

We started at the opening of Hugh Brown’s Allegedly exhibit.  It’s at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica.

Art featuring chainsaws

Hugh creates art in the style of the original artist, but inserts a chainsaw into the art.  It’s really clever.

Hugh Brown, "Henri Matisse"

Hugh Brown, "Keith Haring"

My favorite was a wire sculpture à la Alexander Calder.  It was hard to get a good photo.

Hugh Brown, "Alexander Calder"

Outside in the parking lot, there was a catering truck:  World Fare.  It’s the first I’ve seen where you can eat on top of the truck.  These trucks are all the rage.

"Eat-on" catering truck

Al wasn’t paying attention to what I ordered.  But boy did I catch his attention after he bit into this little morsel of flavor!

Truffle mac'n cheese ball

The only thing disappointing about this was that they only gave you three in an order.  Yummy!

The next stop was a slide show and lecture by artist, David Ligare. Not only was David’s art amazing,  he provided some great art history that gave so much more depth to his art.  I wish I had a good photo of the night – as the lecture was in the backyard, lit only with paper lanterns and Christmas lights.

David Ligare, Naxos (Thrown Drapery). 60"x 78"

We rounded out the weekend with dinner in Eagle Rock with our friends Masaki & Kristina.  On our way to a great vegetarian restaurant called Fatty’s (oxymoron) – we spotted something on top of the roof of a neighboring business.

Spidercow. Yes, his body was blue.

We continued the truffle theme with some bread and truffle oil.

A trio of tasty food.

It was a packed weekend, filled with art and food.  Check out Michelle’s and other fun weekends at her blog, Six in the City.

Bits of my weekend: vol. 7

04 Sunday Jul 2010

Posted by in cupcakes, Family, food, weekend

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Saturday, we decided to have a late breakfast at a local Mexican restaurant between the two soccer matches.

Chips and salsa for breakfast. Along with huevos rancheros - yum!

After coming home, my mom and husband proceed to watch a very exciting soccer game while I made two batches of cupcakes.  I managed to squeeze in some soccer watching while the cupcakes baked.

coconut lime cupcakes & banana cupcakes with chocolate ganache

On Sunday, we took my nieces and one nephew to the local Westchester parade.  We actually live in the city of Los Angeles, but our community of Westchester has been holding a small (5 blocks – one street) Independence Day parade for the last 11 years.  So we get to have the small town experience  – only 8 blocks from our house.

Al exercises his first amendment rights: freedom of speech with these crazy shorts

Maddie & James find their candy loot more interesting than the parade

This band could have been made of Trader Joe associates. For those of you who shop there, you'll get what I mean about the Hawiian shirts looking "Trader Joe's-ish"

I don't think I ever saw a canoe sub for a float before.

The LMU mascot, Iggy, came by for a "low 5"

This really the only "true" float in the whole parade

No need to explain this band's name: Trash

Ever wonder what the tv news reporter looks like from the waist down? The camera guy was nice enough to hold the reporter's purse too.

All July 4th celebrations must include a BBQ or at least some grilling and since I’m from Iowa, corn on the cob!

All the typical July 4th fare

In the middle of our BBQ, someone came over to purchase something I was selling on Craigslist.  Hard to believe that someone who shop on Independence Day, but since I made some money – I wasn’t complaining.

After eating, the logical next step is a nap

Overall, it was a great weekend.  It was nice to hang out with part of the family.  Although it was unfortunate that my mother-in-law wasn’t feeling 100%.  See how other people celebrated the holiday at Michelle’s blog.  Her’s seemed like a lot of fun.

Bits of my weekend: volume 6

27 Sunday Jun 2010

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It’s always good to start the weekend off with a healthy breakfast – packed with antioxidants.  I made low-fat blueberry muffins for Al and his friend Capt. Bill for their fishing excursion Saturday morning.  But of course there were extras for me and my mom.  Click here for more about the muffins.

fresh blueberry muffins

We met my friend Jen and her adorable baby Avery for lunch at the Curious Palate.  One of my favorite cafés.  It’s a great atmosphere with yummy food.

beautiful flowers on our table

Avery slept through most of the meal

The food was far from a snore. Quinoa salad and a veggie panini.

Princess Avery loved my mom. They shared a lot of laughs.

Does Avery remind you of Buddha? She certainly had the disposition of Buddha.

When I got home, I decided to do some more baking.  It’s relaxing for me.  I made a modified version of the Sprinkle’s Strawberry Cupcakes.   Learn more here.

homemade "Sprinkles strawberry cupcake"

Sunday, Al tended to our garden and we reaped a bountiful harvest of two strawberries and a malformed pepper.  But check out how big our tomato plants are – I don’t think we’ll have to wait much longer for tomatoes to come out of our ears!

from our garden

Al loves his tomato garden

I was really thrilled to see since we’ve turned on the meter for our solar panels from Solar City on Thursday, our meter is still going backwards!  It starts at zero and moves forward.  We’re negative, notice the arrow pointing left.  If you are interested in the panels, let them know that I sent you.  :)

backwards running meter thanks to solar panels!

For more fun weekend tales, check out Michelle’s blog Six in the City.

A Los Angeles Tradition

25 Friday Jun 2010

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Hot mustard inside this bag

Today Al and I needed to be downtown for a 8 a.m. appointment.  So we thought, let’s avoid traffic and go to Phillipe’s for breakfast.  This place never disappoints and where else can you get a mug of coffee for 9¢?

To me, the coffee is a public service, there are so many people who take advantage of this bargain.  And for some, it’s probably the only warm thing they’ll put in their stomachs for the day.  I saw someone order two mugs this morning and nothing else.

The ladies behind the counter are wearing uniforms that look like the ones from the 1950s (there are newspaper articles and photos on the walls to prove it).  And they usually wear a little hat that can only be described as the folded-napkin perched on the top of their heads.  It works.

We had to bring home of some their famous spicy mustard.  I love their logo – I am always reminded of the Monopoly game cards.

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