I need to post about my adventures with S. at the Greek festival and our three hour journey through "making our own baklava," but for the moment, a quick post about the amazing dinner I just had.

My friend M. brought me five beautiful avocados that he got from his neighbors. Keep in mind that right now, avocados are about $1.50 each at the market. He brought me FIVE. For the price of being a FRIEND. I love my friends.

I handled them and noticed that one was perfectly ripe and ready to eat immediately. I had been planning to eat some pasta, but realized that would be a damn shame. I needed something to showcase this beautiful produce. A salad would do.

Baby mixed greens, fresh mozzarella cheese, tomato, sweet corn, avocado, chicken, and Thousand Island dressing. Mix and eat. AMAZING.

Tags: avocado, awesome, chicken, salad, vegetables
Current Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Current Mood: happy

I'm back in Los Angeles visiting my family for Memorial Day Weekend - three day weekends are amazing - and was craving some carne asada fries. When I'm here, I always turn to the same place for my fix: Tacos El Cosas.

ah, Tacos El Cosas. One of many reasons to love the San Fernando Valley. Behind this nondescript and clean exterior lies a beast of massive proportions. A delicious, delicious beast. My friend P. thinks their fries are too messy; she's a minimalist when it comes to fries, even those of the carne asada variety. But I love the thick cut potatoes, the hot sauce, the sour cream, the messiness. In any case, this is a box full of goodness.



See that? Fries underneath a warm soothing blanket of chopped fresh tomato, melted cheese (I think it may be mozzarella), sour cream, hot sauce, guacamole, beans, and carne asada. Usually it's served with onions on it as well, but I don't like raw onion so I asked to omit them. For $5.25 you get a giant box full of all this. Order them under the name "Super Fries."

There is a salsa bar with limes, several types of salsa, jalapeños, and the most amazing thing: jalapeño pickled carrots. These carrots are my perfect condiment: spicy, crunchy and delicious. All in all it's a pretty great meal, albeit a little unhealthy.

If you're ever in the Valley, you might want to try these. They're like chili fries except so much more delicious. I rarely eat else there, but have heard they have really good burritos, tortas, menudo, and tacos.


Tacos El Cosas
Open:
Sunday - Thursday 7 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Friday - Saturday 7 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
17020 Devonshire St.
Northridge, CA 91325
Phone: (818) 366-9700

Tags: awesome, carne_asada, los_angeles, mexican_food, potato, restaurants, san_fernando_valley
Current Location: Los Angeles, CA
Current Mood: happy

Inspired by this post on this beautiful blog, I made use of the remaining disappointing store-bought artichoke dip.

This is just pasta tossed with:
- shredded poached chicken breast
- artichoke dip
- green peas, and
- sun dried tomatoes.

It was delicious - in fact, it was good enough to compensate for my mistake (buying the dip in the first place instead of making it myself).

I know the photo is bad, but I am currently sans camera, so I've been using my phone to take pictures. Once I have some cash I'm going to be investing in a new one, though. Any suggestions?

Tags: chicken, pasta

see more crazy cat pics

My camera has been dying for a while now, so there are no cookie pictures in this post. However, this LOLcat will hopefully suffice for now. It has SOMETHING to do with cookies! :P

Anyway, my roommate and I wanted a "healthy" cookie, so we made the oatmeal raisin variety. As everyone knows, oats and raisins make cookies healthy, just like an apple pie is good for you due to the apple content. We used the recipe on the back of a Nestle's chocolate chip package, but omitted the chocolate chips and added raisins.

These weren't overly flaky or too tough as oatmeal cookies can be when the recipe is off. In fact, they had the perfect amount of chewiness. They turned out delicious, and judging by the number of cookies left (not very many), it's clear that I'm not the only one that thought so!

Oatmeal raisin cookies (adapted from Nestle recipe):
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cup "old fashioned" oats
2 cups raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
3. Beat brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
4. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter, sugar, and egg mixture.
5. Stir in oats and raisins; mix well.
6. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
7. Bake 9-10 minutes.

Tags: cookies, desserts, sweets

I'm craving soppressata like MAD right now. Man. I would give one of my toes for a sandwich on ciabatta bread with provolone, tomato, romaine lettuce, and a lot of gorgeous soppressata inside. But my lunch was excellent, despite the absence of soppressata, and in fact in the absence of MEAT - fresh focaccia made last night, minestrone soup, and iced coffee. It doesn't get much more indulgent than that, especially on a cold, gray day.

One disappointment, though: artichoke dip bought from the store has very little artichoke in it. This is so unfortunate! I should have just made my own. Next time, I definitely will.

I feel terrible that I've been neglecting this. I'm going to start posting more starting tomorrow. Making oatmeal cookies tonight! Stay tuned!

Sorry I haven't been posting here lately - I got really sick last week and am still recovering. Needless to say I haven't been cooking or eating much.

But I'm starting to feel much better. Stay tuned, regular programming will resume this weekend!

Faux-caccia.. fake focaccia? Anyone? C'mon, laugh! Okay, I'm sorry, I am obviously a dork.

Further proof of my dorkiness: I left my camera at my parents’ house when I went home last weekend! This photo is not from today's bread experiment - it was taken during a baking day with my friend S. a while ago. The bread in the photo was made from scratch. However, I don't have time for that now, and anyway, I had some raw pizza dough that needed to be used up right away. I didn’t really want pizza, and had read somewhere that focaccia is related to pizza, so I just made focaccia out of the dough. It tasted great!

I had a little trouble because I didn’t roll the dough out thin enough, but baking it a little longer solved the problem. If you follow the pizza dough instructions you should be fine. Otherwise, this shouldn’t even need instructions, but hey, why not? Top your easy focaccia with anything you like! This is just what I did.

Raw pizza dough (I got mine from Trader Joe’s; you might be able to find it at your local pizzeria if there is no Trader Joe's near you)
Tomatoes
Fresh rosemary
Salt
Olive Oil

Follow instructions for baking pizza dough. Trader Joe's pizza dough needs to be taken out of the refrigerator for 20 minutes, rolled out, then baked in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes at 425F.
Eat bread. Be happy.
This definitely made ME happy! Next time I want to try olives and Parmesan cheese. yay bread!

Tags: bread, herbs, rosemary

This was just a fun thing to bake one morning when I was craving banana bread. It wasn't exactly quick but it was certainly easy. I also wanted to share my love of bananas with people I love, so I made sure not to eat them all ;D

Adapted from this recipe.
I didn't follow the recipe exactly. What I used / did:
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 mashed over-ripe bananas
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup toasted Marcona almonds, chopped
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin.
2. With a mixer or a fork, cream margarine and sugar.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the bananas + vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Add baking soda, salt, flour, nuts and mix.
5. Fill muffin tins 3/4 of the way and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the center is brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

I must have eaten three of these before I set the rest aside to send off to friends. Seriously, these are extremely moist, delicious, and addictive. Next time I'll probably use real butter and see how that goes - I just happened to have some margarine from a failed vegan coconut brownie experiment that I wanted to use up.

By the way, no, I am DEFINITELY not going vegan! :X My friend is making the transition from vegetarian to vegan, and though it's not my thing, I wanted to support her. Unfortunately my little vegan brownie experiment turned out horribly. At least, I thought so; no one else will ever know the horrors of what happened that night in my kitchen. Conclusion? Vegan cooking in my kitchen: probably not going to happen again soon.

My roommate moved out for the rest of the school quarter yesterday due to some personal issues. It was sad, because we got along extremely well and would always cook / bake together. I'm very much hoping she will move back in next quarter.

I decided to cook dinner for her, but unfortunately she wasn't able to stay until it was finished. She is very fond of lasagna, which is what I chose to make, and it couldn't have been easier.

Ingredients:
7 x 6 casserole dish
Lasagna sheets (I used 6 sheets of dried pasta, but you can use fresh. Adjust for dish size.)
8 oz. ricotta cheese
1 large egg
Salt + pepper
Spinach
1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded (I used smoked chicken. You can use cooked ground beef / turkey, or omit the meat if you like.)
Tomato pasta sauce
Mozzarella cheese
1 medium red bell pepper

1. Cook pasta according to instructions on package. Cook and drain all vegetables separately. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large bowl, mix ricotta and egg. Add 2 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper.
3. Do not grease casserole dish. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish.
4. Cover bottom of dish with a layer of pasta sheets.
5. Cover pasta layer with ricotta and egg mixture. Spread evenly.
6. Cover ricotta mixture with spinach, then add another pasta layer.
7. Top with chicken and bell peppers. Top this with mozzarella cheese and sauce.
8. Cover with final layer of pasta. Top with additional cheese and tomato sauce.
9. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

SO easy. Anyone that says lasagna is hard to make is either making sauce and pasta from scratch or not making it correctly. This is pretty delicious if I do say so myself, and it feeds two people for two meals.. or one person for four meals. I know this because I ate it for dinner last night, breakfast this morning, and there is enough left for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. Way too much lasagna for one person. Now I am doubly hoping my roommate moves back so I can cook for two instead of one again.

Tags: lasagna, pasta

My mom used to make a hilarious dish consisting of tomato ketchup, vegetables, egg, and rice. It was probably the most defining dish of my childhood: a hybrid of two cultures, a nontraditional combination of both American and Chinese ingredients. I know this is a bit philosophical for a food blog, but it's nice to reflect on how my mom incorporated my American and Chinese tastes and backgrounds into a dish that she lovingly prepared for me.

I haven't eaten ketchup rice in a while - in fact, I hadn't even thought about cooking it until my Japanese exchange student apartment-mate made a version of it in her rice cooker. I instantly began to crave it. Thus, this version of "ketchup rice," now upgraded to "tomato rice," was born.

To prepare this, you need:
Cooked rice
Tomato pasta sauce
Cooked vegetables - I used corn and broccoli
Cooked chicken
Two pinches of salt

1. Place rice, vegetables, and chicken in a frying pan and cover with tomato sauce.
2. On medium heat, toss in a frying pan until rice, vegetables, and chicken are coated with sauce and everything is heated through.
3. Add salt, stir, and cook for another two minutes or so to allow the flavors to marry.
That's all - it's so easy!
Of course, anything but the rice and tomato sauce can be substituted or omitted. Actually, you can use ketchup instead of tomato sauce if you want the authentic version, but omit the salt. You can also add scrambled egg if you want.

This is definitely my new comfort food. It reminds me of my mom, it tastes great, it's super easy, and added bonus: it's healthy! I might be persuaded to eat this for dinner when stressed out instead of standards like Spaghetti-Os, mac and cheese, Haagen Daaz Bailey's mixed with Haagen Daaz strawberry, or just a bowl of cheese (don't hate).
I hope it becomes your comfort food, too :)

Tags: rice