SEASONAL FRUTAS & VEGGIES // L.A.

We are so spoiled in California, we have amazing local produce all year long, but there are seasons when things taste better than others. Strawberries for example, are out of this world in May... the farmers markets have tons of varieties and tasting them all  to find your favorite is the best part. We have also been eating tons of heirloom tomatoes, perfect with fresh buratta and basil.

Check out what fruits & veggies are in season [in Los Angeles] here.

CHICKEN SOUP

Chicken soup is one of my favorite things to make.. it is practically impossible to screw up. I typically make it when one of us isn't feeling well, there is something so comforting about warm homemade soup.

I usually just throw in whatever veggies we have in the fridge along with carrots and celery [which i hate. ew] This batch had 1 giant onion, potatoes, and italian parsley. I also freeze the leftover rinds from cheese and add those as well.

I season with salt and pepper, rosemary, bay leaves and thyme.

really what it comes down to is patiently waiting, which is hard to do when your entire house smells like hot deliciousness.

 [the parts I pick out]

 [pretty neutrals]

BIRTHDAY PIE

I made my mom pecan pie for her birthday. I was surprised by the  short list of ingredients as well as the insane un-healthiness of this pie. It may be the most sugary-sweet thing I have ever baked! Turns out, we like sugary-sweet. YUM.

// Make your Mom a pie with this recipe.
// Make life easy, cheat with a frozen gluten free crust from Whole Foods.

[before]

[after - only just a tiny bit brown on top, still very edible!]

POLENTA WITH GOAT CHEESE, CARAMELIZED ONIONS, & PROSCIUTTO

3 tablespoons olive oil


3 large onions, sliced (about 4 cups)

1 teaspoon kosher salt


1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
1 teaspoon sugar


3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled (about 1/2 cup)


2 to 3 ounces prosciutto

Fresh Italian Parsley


2 cups Polenta
1 cup Shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet heat oil over low heat, add onions, salt, pepper, herbs de provence, and sugar. Continue to cook mixture over low heat, stirring often, for about 1 hour, until onions are golden brown.

Meanwhile, Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Lower heat, and slowly stir in Polenta. Cook over VERY low heat stirring frequently to prevent sticking for about 30 minutes until it is very thick. Remove from heat and mix in the parmesan.

Scoop polenta onto a well oiled cookie sheet, I used a 1/2 c measuring cup, but still managed to get a variety of scoop sizes, oh well.

I put the cookie sheet in the fridge to cool and allow the polenta cakes to firm up for 20 minutes.

If you are fancy spoon the entire mixture onto a cookie sheet and use parchment paper to smooth out the top, and then use a cookie cutter to make more aesthetically pleasing shapes. (But that would have taken too long as I was already starving when I began this 1.5 hour dinner production)

Then lightly pan fry them in olive oil.

Top with goat cheese, then broil them for 5 minutes or so until your cheese is slightly browned and bubbly.

Top with onions, chopped prosciutto and parsley.

Eat.

"Share, please?"

BARBIE CAKE

I just bravely rescued a tiny bug from my wine glass.
Now it's flying around my head being extra annoying.
Don't you know i just saved you from drowning in alcohol, bug?
I guess maybe it is drunk?
Ugh.


Last weekend I spent 5 hours baking a birthday cake & cupcakes.
and i only had ONE glass of wine.

Our dear friend was having a fabulous 50th birthday celebration and such an event can only call for he fanciest of birthday cakes, one with a barbie exploding out of it, naturally.


I cant even begin to explain the disaster that was my kitchen when this thing was done. my kitchen is not small, but every surface was COVERED in cake, frosting, eggs, meat thermometers, sprinkles, deedle balls, etc. I was also covered in frosting, egg, and deedle balls.

The cake was a hit and inspired a lovely rendition of happy birthday, and our house keeper came to clean the next day, making it all well worth it.

And yes it is on a pizza pan, it was too large for anything I have in the house, so I sent the boyfriend to the store and this is what he came back with, worked perfectly with a ring of cupcakes though.

Party Shots

Bug Cookies

I made these sugar cookies for a birthday party this weekend, they aren't gluten free, so I can't eat them, but they are so much fun to make, i love decorating them! When I was a little girl my mom had a cookie decorating birthday party for me and it is still one of my favorite memories.

This is my mom's super secret cut-out cookie recipe

1 c shortening
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients on a low speed.

She is magical and knows how to get the perfect dough texture out of these ingredients, I am not magical, so I usually add a bit of orange juice or pomegranate juice until I get a texture I like.

chill your dough (around an hour-ish)


flour a cookie sheet and roll out dough, about 1/4 inch thick, using cookie cutters (or a glass) cut out your shapes (butterflies!)

and cook for about 7 minutes, until the edges are brown

They are AWESOME.

I use powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to create my icing, start with a small amount of milk and add until you get your desired consistency, i use a much thicker icing to pipe the outline of my design and add more milk to it for the 'fill' colors.

Sweetest Cake

I am so in love with my tiny heart sprinkles. Isn't this the cutest cake you ever did see?

French Onion Soup

Fortunately, French Onion Soup is one of my very favorite soups, because it is often the only soup on the menu that isn't made with flour. I sometimes end up eating french onion soup 2 or 3 times a week.

Making french onion soup is fairly simple, I used this recipe, obviously substituting the small amount of flour with Rice flour, and forgoing the toasted bread. Also, a tip for first time onion soup makers, peel back SEVERAL layers of your onion and discard, the outer layers are much too thin and get very tough after they are cooked.

Also, in this post, I was super excited to get a new oven...

Remember?

Now, I just want to show you what I'm working with here in L.A.

My old oven could fit inside my new oven. seriously.

yahoo oven!

Potato Salad with Pancetta, Rosemary, and Lemon

I really really love potatoes. I like to think that loving potatoes is very Irish of me.. it makes my hair feel redder. Anyway, I made this potato salad last summer, but just found the photos on my camera. It is very delicious and fancy ;)

I only had one minor incident.. turns out pancetta cooks FAST! I am pretty sure i entertained all of my neighbors when i flung my doors open to let the entire apartment clear out and so that my smoke alarm would STOP BEEPING, as well as the neighbors behind me.. when i threw a pan of smoking bacon onto the fire escape.

recipe here

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

I had a science experiment in my kitchen the other day.

It started out like this...

but it ended up like this...

Turns out that while delicious, caramel ice cream is extremely time consuming and tricky to make. fortunately, I don't have a job so I have plenty of time to make and consume ice cream.

Go ahead, you try it, and then please report back on how you managed to get the sticky sugar off every surface of your kitchen. 

recipe here

basil!

I am cohabitating with a boy now, permanently.
boys don't want vanilla sugar cookie frosting sprinkle glitter scented candles in their bedrooms. (weirdos)

but.. on a recent adventure to the hardware store (uh, yay tools?) I discovered the perfect smelly candle.

It smells like BASIL. (in a sort of sweet cinnamony way) it has the best, lightest, boy friendly scent of all time. I am obsessed, and if god forbid I ever find myself back at the hardware store again, I will be buying a life time's supply.

I am a huge supporter of all Meyer's products (mostly because of the awesome packaging)
you can enjoy your own basil house, check it out here

Turkey?

My house smells amazing.

I have begun preparations for Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie is cooking, thanksgiving cake (yes cake.) is frosted and decorated, and my house is almost clean!

tomorrow a new tradition starts, pajama gluten free thanksgiving.. I intend to enjoy thanksgiving to the fullest, there will be football, cooking, movie watching, and cuddling with people I love.

and I am excited for every bit of it.

and I don't have to make the turkey... so I'm safe.
because dead turkeys are gross.

deep fried gluten free beer battered onion rings

It seems kind of pointless to write about my fabulous domestic lifestyle when I am back in the same place I was when I started this blog.. living with the boys (homeless) without much of a kitchen and no closet. Most of my pretty things are in storage and I have barely had any energy to think about moving again, although I am looking. But, I do have a shiny new computer and from time to time I try to make some sort of healthy snack, or to feed the boyfriend.. (i have to earn my keep!)

For the superbowl this year one of the roommates bought a deep FRYER. I already had this obsession with frying things
 (see here)

and now I can fry ANYTHING!

I know that deep frying is smelly and greasy and leaves your walls sticky, but let me remind you that it has been THREE years since I have been able to safely enjoy a fried treat.. its been THREE YEARS since I have had an onion ring.

and i LOVE onion rings.
My grandpa ordered me my first onion rings when I was visiting them in Arizona for the first time- i LOVE onion rings.

Bare with me on the photography, i took it with my phone and i was too anxious to eat them to really focus.

Gluten free Beer battered onion rings!
(yeah BEER, BATTERED, GLUTEN FREE! AHHhHH!!!!)
Ingredients:
1 quart peanut oil (or however much is needed to fill your fryer)
2 cup Bob's red mill all purpose gluten free flour
1 bottle gluten free beer (I used red bridge)
2 teaspoons all-purpose seasoning mix
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups buttermilk
2 Vidalia Onions
Kosher salt
Directions:
Pour peanut oil into a dutch oven or other deep frying pan and heat to medium high heat.
Pour buttermilk into a large bowl, then slice onions (about 1 inch thick) into the bowl, mix until all onion slices are coated in butter milk. let sit.

In a large bowl, mix together 1c gluten free flour, seasoning, and garlic powder.

In a second large bowl mix 1c gluten free flour, and the bottle of gluten free beer. whisk together until completely blended

One at a time, take a ring and cover it in the dry flour mixture, shake off excess, then dip into beer mixture. Shake off excess. Dip again in dry mixture, then place into fryer.

If you are looking for perfection the rings should not touch while frying.. they will stuck together into a clump of deliciousness.

If you are more excited about taste than a visual.. go ahead and pile them in.

let them sit in the fryer until golden brown and crispy

set them out to cool and sprinkle salt on them while still hot

WARNING.
if you are like me and haven't had anything deep fried in several years- take it easy on the onion rings, too many will make you sick :(

Chocolaty Peppermint Bark

Holiday baking is one of my favorite things.. when I was a little my job was to unwrap all of the Hershey's kisses. Then, as I got a little bit older I became an obsessive compulsive cookie decorating perfectionist. Now, as an adult, all of the jobs are mine, (even washing the dishes, ugh) but I get to choose what treats to make and when.. baking in my underwear at midnight is perfectly acceptable in MY apartment.

This year I am flying home (tomorrow!) for a full week, and I can't wait. I am going to spend my days sleeping in, eating Christmas cookies, drinking home made wine, and spending time with friends and family from all over the country. 

Since I am traveling, I wanted to make something that would be easy to transport and small enough that it didn't take up much space in my luggage (shoes trump baked goods) I also needed something that was easy enough that I could make several batches in one night, since I am also sending some along with my boyfriend for his family, AND need a treat for my mini- holiday office luncheon. 

Things to consider while choosing a treat for the office.

1. I better REALLY like it because I usually can't eat too many of the other treats since I am the only GF kid.

2. it needs to have a LOT of chocolate.. I work with almost all girls after all.

I had never made peppermint bark before, and it seemed easy enough so I decided to make that my festive holiday snack.

Step No.1 Pour a festive cocktail- I made Jack & Gingers [ 1 shot of Jack Daniels mixed with ½ can of ginger ale, and for me, a splash of lemon ] why this is festive to me, I'm not sure.

I used

1 full large bag of nestles white chocolate morsels (about 2 lbs)

1 full large bag of nestles semi-sweet chocolate morsels (about 2 lbs)

1 tbs peppermint extract

1 lb crushed peppermint candies

Start by putting peppermint candies (or candy canes) into a food processor until they are crushed, I like to have a few chunks left for crunch.

Cover the back side of a cookie sheet with tin foil

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate over a double boiler on LOW heat, continuously mixing, until they are all melted.

Add ½ tbs peppermint extract and mix in.

ad ½ cup of crushed peppermint candies, and mix in.

pour (or ladle) the melted chocolate onto the foil covered cookie sheet, smoothing as you go to make a smooth, flat, chocolate base.

put the pan into the freezer to chill.

Follow the same steps to melt the white chocolate, adding in the extract and peppermint candies as well. Be VERY careful while melting the white chocolate, it burns VERY easily.. keep stirring!

Add the second, white chocolate, layer on to the chocolate base, smoothing as you go.

back into the freezer!

I added a third layer, but you can only do two if you prefer.

once you have added your top layer, sprinkle with peppermint chunks and freeze until completely solid (about 30 minutes)

Cut or break into pieces, and enjoy!

I didn't let my layers chill completely (i am impatient) So mine was a bit messy.. but it still tastes great.. looks aren't everything ;)

Baked Chicken Chex Nuggets

I have been meaning to start playing around with different types of bread crumb substitutes for breading gluten-free dishes. There are so many recipes that I want to try that include breaded chicken, fish, cheese, and vegetables, so I want to figure out what substitute is the tastiest and holds up the best.

I had some Corn Chex cereal at home, so I decided to use that. (Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Honey Nut Chex, Chocolate Chex, and Cinnamon Chex are all gluten free!)

I used the simple recipe from Chex.com for Favorite chicken nuggets  

3 cups Corn Chex® cereal

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1 tablespoon milk

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1x1-inch pieces

Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with foil. Crush cereal. (To easily crush cereal, place in plastic bag or between sheets of waxed paper, and crush with rolling pin.)

In medium bowl, stir together crushed cereal, cheese, salt, seasoned salt, paprika and garlic powder. In small bowl, stir together melted butter and milk. Dip chicken into butter mixture, then roll in cereal mixture to coat evenly. Place on cookie sheet.

Bake 9 minutes; turn nuggets over. Bake about 8 minutes longer or until coating is light golden brown and chicken is no longer pink in center.

This is chicken dish number 4 or 5 for me. I am starting to get a little more used to it, but I still freak out and make grossed out sounds like a little girl being chased with a worm every time I have to touch it.. (Even when I am alone, I can't help it, it is GROSS) In fact, I am still so grossed out by raw chicken that it is affecting my taste for poultry. I can't eat it without thinking about it being raw and jello-y.. EW EW EWWWWWWWWWWW.

maybe learning how to cook chicken was a bad idea after all.

The finished nuggets were pretty tasty, the chex mix added a little crunch, but I was a bit disappointed in how mushy the cereal was in some places. It was flavorful though- I think the parmesan was the best part and will definitely include that in my breading testing in the future.

****UPDATE****

I re-made the nuggets last night with MUCH better results!

I made my 'breading' mixture with 

1.5 c smashed chex cereal 

1/2 c grated parmesan cheese

1/2 c gluten free all purpose rice flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp onion powder

Then, Instead of using an egg mixture, I minced up 2 cloves of garlic, put it in a pot with 1/2 c butter and let that melt down, and coated the chicken pieces with the garlic butter before coating with the breading mixture.

I baked them at 350° for about 20 mins and then flipped them and cooked for another 5 minutes.

They are SO much crunchier and better. 

Green Chicken

I had a health screening at work last week- I am healthy! Except there is something wrong with me diet that the poor woman couldn’t put a finger on. Although she couldn’t figure out a solution to fix me, she suggested I and eat more olive oil and drink more red wine.. Any doctor who recommends that I drink more is fine by me.

I haven’t been cooking in a few weeks because I’ve been sick, but my regular doctor gave me some super great drugs that cured me, so I resumed domestic chores last night and made myself some extra-oily pesto chicken.


Baked Pesto Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and fresh ground black pepper for seasoning chicken
1/2 cup basil pesto ( see my recipe for pesto here
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese



Preheat oven to 375° 

The chicken I selected was already trimmed and pretty thin- so it cooked pretty quickly.

Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray, then spread 1/4 cup basil pesto over the bottom of the dish. Lay chicken strips over the pesto, then spread 1/4 cup more basil pesto over the chicken.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. (Don't cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.)

When chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and sprinkle chicken with 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 minutes more, just until cheese is melted. (If your broiler is separate from the oven, start preheating it when you take the chicken out.) After I melted the cheese for 5 minutes I switched my oven to broil and broiled for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.

I also made some brown rice to soak up the pesto goodness.. Baked pesto cheese is heavenly.

yum - green chicken

sadly my computer wont let me upload my finished product photo... use your imagination :)

Satan thought pesto chicken sounded like a good dinner also

I'm fried

Growing up, mom had a pretty strict rule in the house when it came to cooking.. "no frying"

frying makes things smelly.

I wasn't really sure what it smelled like, but I knew it was BAD. 

Once, I cooked potatoes in a frying pan.. which I thought = frying.. and i apologized pretty profusely.. only to learn that cooking something in a frying pan doesn't really make it fried.. yeah, I was blonde back then.

So I have never fried anything for fear of a really smell house.

until tonight.

I made mashed potatoes (for the first time) this week. I am still getting the hang of cooking for myself.. see, most recipes are built to serve multiple people, but I mostly cook for myself.. I also have no clue what a pound feels like. So, the recipe called for, uh 3 lbs of potatoes? which i looked up online.. and it said that 3 lbs of potatoes is equal to 9 potatoes. They must have been measuring really small potatoes.

Where  is that helpful scale in the grocery store like they have in Ohio!? those don't exist in NYC.. apparently everyone else here knows what 3 lbs feels like. Or maybe the recipe was made for 40 people.. or thanksgiving dinner, or who knows what. The point is that I made A LOT of potatoes.. maybe a life time's worth. 

I made them on wednesday and I am already sick to death of mashed potatoes.

So tonight, in my exciting NY life, I stayed home on a friday night and FRIED some potatoes.

recipe that I "followed"

Ingredients

• 2 cups cold mashed potatoes (prepared with milk and butter)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Combine the first four ingredients; mix well. In a small skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add potato mixture; press with a spatula to flatten evenly. Cover and cook for 8 minutes or until bottom is crispy. Invert onto a serving plate.

except, I added about 1/4 cup of multipurpose gluten free flour (Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour, 22-Ounce Packages (Pack of 4), and 1 tbs of parmesan cheese, and I actually fried them in a lot of oil, not just 1 tbs. Also, when I made the mashed potatoes I mixed goat cheese in.. so that was already added

OH. MY. GOSH.

fried food rocks!!

I forgot how much I enjoy something battered and fried.. everything I eat is going to be fried from now on. I gained 25 lbs tonight and I don't care! YUM!

and hey mom.. MY APARTMENT SMELLS AWESOME!! it smells like french fries and i LOVE IT!

( I am so rebellious) 

P(r)esto!

I've realized that I am kind of bad at recipes. I don't know if its my creative brain at work or just lazy cooking, but I mostly just throw stuff together without measuring it when I am cooking something. I usually start out with all intentions of following the 'rules' but usually something happens that makes me say.. hey lets just throw it all in!

So while MY recipe might not be accurate.. this is the pesto recipe that I tried to follow..

• 1 cup drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (about 6 ounces)
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3/4 cup olive oil

i substituted fresh sun-dried tomatoes, and walnuts instead of pine nuts.
Also, I used about 1 1/2 cups of tomatoes and a whole bushel of basil, and extra oil because it wasn't pasty enough…

you see? I don't follow rules very well.

However, even with my additions… my pesto was awesome!

Basically, i just threw everything into the food processor, adding the oil a little at a time while it processed. So easy. So delicious.

*****WARNING****

cheese grating is extremely dangerous work and I have actually been banned from ever grating cheese in the future. (says my boyfriend.)

My pesto was EXTRA yummy because I put a lot into making it.. including a big hunk of my finger.

I don't have any band aids at my apt.. (uhhhhh yeah, i know what a bad idea that is) so I had to wrap a paper towel around my bleeding finger and rubber band it together… surprisingly successful.

Defeating the Eggplant

I like eggplant.
what's not to like really, its fat and purple and delicious.

the market across the street has had giant piles of eggplant ALL summer.
and every time my boyfriend and I have a lazy dinner and make pasta, I have said... lets put eggplant in it. This causes him to look all forlornly at me and say "no Becky, it takes too long to cook, its too complicated" (reminds me of ARTICHOKES, ahem.) anyway. I typically take his advice to be sound, he did work in a restaurant as he likes to remind me, frequently. So all summer I took his advice and avoided the eggplant.

Then yesterday I stumbled upon a recipe that went something like this..

cut eggplant up
heat garlic and oil
sauté eggplant cubes for 6 minutes
DONE.


um?
wait.
that seems pretty.. uncomplicated, even for me.

then i realized, just like the artichoke incident, he didn't know anything about cooking eggplant! AHHHHHHH. (love youuu)


At this point I was just upset that I had missed an entire season of eggplant.. because like I said, i like eggplant.. its purple.


I invented my own recipe. i figured it would be hard to destroy something so simple.

firstly, I got a GIANT eggplant.
i probably have enough eggplant to feed me fore 2 weeks. (i was excited, okay?)

my other ingredients were:
1 pack of stuffing mushrooms (I wanted shitake but my store was out of them AND portabellas, hmph)
1 large clove of garlic
green onions
fresh basil
oregano
chili powder
olive oil
parmesan cheese
s&p

I cubed the massive eggplant and sprinkles kosher salt all over it and let it sit while I prepared everything else

chopped the mushrooms and basil up

heated about 3 tsp of olive oil in an extra large pan and then added the green onions and garlic to brown up for about 2 minutes

then i threw the eggplant, 1 tbs oregano, about 1 cup of chopped basil, a sprinkle of chili powder, a bit of salt and pepper and mixed them all together, then let them cook on medium heat for about 8 minutes.

I added the mushrooms and let it sit for another 10 minutes or so.

once it was done I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and ta-da, done.

Lesson Learned: Eggplant is VERY simple to cook. Lesson 2: stop listening to my boyfriend's advice about vegetables. I don't know why listen to him about vegetables anyway... he hates vegetables.