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A Warming Winter Soup: Posole

10 Mar

This is not a soup you usually see on a menu in a Mexican restaurant in Orange County—not unless you are in a real Mexican cantina in Santa Ana where they’re not catering to us gringos. Those are the best to go to, for sure, but it’s not always convenient for us to go to Santa Ana. Actually, it’s hardly ever a destination for us, although maybe we should try harder, because those restaurants are definitely worth the drive! At the restaurants nearer us, there’s usually just tortilla soup and albondigas soup. Speaking of tortilla soup, I’m going to have to share that recipe pretty soon too. Hmmmm….

But posole is full of flavor as well as being a very filling soup. This one is touted as being a “quick” weeknight soup, Continue reading →

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Red Thai Curry for Fish or Veggies

4 Mar

Sorry this is a bit late today. We had some trouble with the car that was unanticipated. I think it’s my fault. Luckily it seems that The Husband still loves me—for now, until the mechanic checks the car tomorrow and finds I’ve killed the transmission.

But, back to the food. That’s the important thing, right? So, a week or so ago, we had some rain here in Laguna Beach. Not unseasonal, by any means, but we’ve had so little this year thanks to a La Niña weather system. I’ve lived through an El Niño, and at this point I think I prefer the latter to the former–a little too much rain is always good for California, even if a few movie stars’ houses fall off the Malibu coast. Continue reading →

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A Recipe for More Than Just Taco Tuesday

28 Feb

A great taco, and not just for Tuesdays.

Here in Southern California, Mexican food is everywhere, and frankly, we love it. There are a few transplants from the east coast who do not like cilantro (or coriander, for my UK readers), which in my book is sacrilege. My favorite cuisines are the ones that use cilantro, like Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Mexican.And we must love alliteration with our Mexican food, as Taco Tuesday is a weekly fixture, certainly in the Orange County culinary sphere. Like we need an excuse to eat tacos—I mean, c’mon. I’ve featured about three taco recipes in this blog already!

Well, get ready for another one. Continue reading →

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Pasadena, Parrots and Halibut at Home

22 Feb

This past Saturday, my friend Heather, her two cherubs and I jumped into her car for a trip up to Pasadena and the Norton-Simon museum. I had not been there since I was about her oldest’s age, about 9, and have wanted to return ever since.

Pasadena is certainly not just up the road from South Orange County, but it didn’t take us too long to get there, and with only one “Are we there yet?” from the back seat. Pretty nice going, if you ask me. I left them at the entrance waiting to be collected for the craft event and swung into the main gallery. I asked one of the staff if it was true—could I really take photos? He said yes, but no flash ever. That I could handle. Continue reading →

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The Week of Eating Rabbit Food

12 Feb

Raw food. You know you want it.

I’m not expecting many people, if any, to make the recipe on this post, but it was one of the best things I made on my own during my raw-food diet last week. It was hard—well, it was and it wasn’t—but I needed to lose a few pounds that the Tiny Kitchen had helped put on. I’d done the one-week cleanse program from 118° (thanks to Groupon and the encouragement of my personal trainer), a raw-food restaurant up in Costa Mesa, and it seemed to work. So, during my month-long cleanse I thought I should try it again.

The Husband encouraged me to buy the recipe book (can’t quite call it a cookbook) from the owner/chef of 118°, mainly because he has such unwavering faith in my ability to make anything in a kitchen. I think he also just thought it was a bunch of chopping vegetables, and forgot about the bread-style items that the restaurant provided, made from sprouted grains and using a dehydrator. Continue reading →

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More Tacos—Stuffed with Chorizo, or Soyrizo

4 Feb

Waiting for the final touches of cilantro and avocado.

The Husband found our favorite sausage brand back at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, and there was much rejoicing. It was a brand that we found while on our wedding trip/honeymoon in Kauai called Mulay’s. They’re in Colorado. Go figure. But we did find it, cook it and discovered that it was a very, very good tasting chorizo. We’ve since tried some of their other flavors, like the breakfast sausage and hot Italian, and all have been delicious.

Then one day, in their infinite wisdom, Whole Foods stopped carrying it, both up in West Hollywood where our friends (also sausage lovers) live, and down here at our local. Now, we’re not sure exactly why—maybe Mulay’s stopped distributing, or maybe it wasn’t selling (which would be a shame!).

We were upset. It’s not like we eat sausage every day (although we’d like to, in some fantasy world where sausages were low fat and healthy), but when we do eat sausage, we want it to be quality. We considered ordering direct from the company, but there’s a minimum shipment, and we just didn’t have room for that amount of food in our freezer. Really, where would the vodka go?

So The Husband was elated when he saw the packages back in the local Whole Foods, and bought a selection, including chorizo. I responded to his excited email with “I guess it’s chorizo for dinner tonight?” The Husband replied that he always thought of chorizo as a breakfast item, not a dinner item. Seeing a challenge, I quickly found an online recipe that sounded both delicious and dinnerish. And here it is, with a few improvements. Continue reading →

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Summer in January? A Light Dinner of Halibut and Shiitake Broth

1 Feb

Delicious, light meal with that lovely shiitake flavor.

We’ve been getting the Sunset Wine Club selections for probably close to a year. It’s a great wine club—I don’t think that we’ve not liked any of the wines, plus they send recipes to do wine pairings with. And everyone knows how much I love a Sunset magazine recipe! (Okay, if you’re new to this blog or don’t know me, Sunset magazine is my absolutely favorite magazine ever. EVER.)

But have we actually made any of these recipes to pair with the wine? No. Not a one. Until recently, that is, when The Husband decide we should go for it. And, since the fish boycott seems to have been lifted (mainly because he’s not going to the acupuncturist anymore who started the ban), we were excited to try the fish recipe that paired with a Pinot Noir.

WHAT?! I know! Red wine with fish? Have those nutty Northern California magazine people lost their minds? Continue reading →

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Chicken Enchiladas With Green Pumpkin-Seed Sauce

8 Jan

Enchiladas are always a good choice for a potluck, a big dinner party or a make-ahead-and-hide-in-the-freezer dish.

Remember a while ago, when I posted yet another chicken recipe, I mentioned I made some green mole sauce that didn’t get used? Finally, here’s the recipe and what I ended up doing with it. And it was certainly worth the wait.

Especially since we served it when our friend was here from Italy. He’s not Italian, but married a lovely Italian woman after growing up here in Laguna Beach. Therefore whenever he comes home, he feasts on Mexican food as it’s tough to get in a small Italian village. I can empathize: I did the same when I would come home on a visit from London. Continue reading →

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Don’t Like Brussels Sprouts? Try This Recipe.

29 Nov

The perfect winter side dish!

I’ve always been a fan of Brussels sprouts, even when my sisters weren’t. They’re like little cabbages! What’s not to like? Well, it seems that sprouts of the Brussels variety are still much maligned, and I was happy when The Pater requested them for my contribution to our Thanksgiving meal (held unconventionally on Saturday this year). The Husband was doubly excited—it’s possibly his favorite vegetable dish I make.

Since there was only going to be one vegetarian in the group this year, I decided to add bacon to the original recipe that I cobbled together from a 101cookbooks.com recipe. Hers called for tofu and a different nut, but I like this one best. For vegetarians/vegans, omit the bacon (natch!) and just start with the garlic step. You won’t be disappointed, and if you are, please comment below so I can apologize directly. Continue reading →

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And Now For Something Not Made From Thanksgiving Turkey. Maybe.

25 Nov

We’re going down to The Husband’s family’s house in San Diego this year, as I mentioned. Since we don’t cook for the big day (besides the pie, and The Husband has requested one for himself, so we’re fine for apple-pie leftovers), we won’t have a lot of turkey that will last for days. I’m writing this to post post-Thanksgiving so there’s an anti-turkey recipe out there for people to use, if they feel so inclined.

We used to have turkey for days after T-Day when I was a kid, and we’d have turkey sandwiches for the whole next week, creamed turkey on toast, and some weird thing my Mom called “turkey tetrazini”. I think. I just remember something strange with spaghetti and a cream sauce. Wasn’t one of Mom’s more gourmet moments. I miss The Twilight Zone marathons that they used to play on Thanksgiving, but I don’t miss that dish. Or—sorry Mom, the candied yams.

Again, I digress. This is also a pasta dish, but it’s nothing like what I described above. It was a nice combination of some fridge standards that we always try to keep in the door, capers and kalamata olives, and some fresh items, like Swiss chard. I can’t help myself when I get to the pasta area in Whole Foods—that quinoa linguine is just so tasty. I keep buying it because I still can’t believe it’s gluten free.

And to all my vegans and vegetarians out there—this one’s for you. Play around with the recipe; it’s pretty easy to change up and still be delicious. We served with homemade garlic bread and a little salad, But, come to think of it, you could probably throw some shredded turkey into this and it would work very well. It probably wouldn’t even taste like Thanksgiving leftovers. And that’s something to be thankful for.

Oh, and sorry for the lack of photos! I’ll add some later.

Continue reading →

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