i heart trader joe's

lemon pepper papardelle with sundried tomato alfredo sauce
Originally uploaded by lornababy

have i said that before? well, let me say it again. not only are they cheaper than the supermarkets, their selection is better and fresher and they offer so many options that are better for you and the environment.

i made this lemon pepper papardelle with sundried tomato alfredo sauce and grilled chicken for my grandmother's recent visit. it was a perfect summer afternoon meal and we enjoyed the meal and each other's company with a nice rex goliath pinot grigio.

here's the tj's shopping list:

sundried tomatoes (the dry ones, not the ones in oil)
garlic
kosher chicken breasts
lemon pepper papardelle
alfredo sauce
basil
lemon
parmesan cheese
pinot grigio

grill chicken and cut into slices. chop sundried tomatoes into strips and simmer with one or two smashed cloves of garlic in some of the wine until soft. add jar of alfredo sauce and simmer until flavors blend. meanwhile, boil the papardelle until al dente. drain pasta, add to sauce and heat over low for a few minutes so the pasta finishes cooking and soaks up some of the sauce. plate pasta and put the grilled chicken on top. garnish with grated parmesan cheese, basil ribbons and lemon zest. enjoy with a glass of the wine!

take that pinkberry

fro yo with blueberries - take 2
Originally uploaded by lornababy

had a craving for some yummy frozen yogurt with fresh fruit, a la pinkberry, but didn't really feel like taking out a second on my house. so, ice cream maker? check. quart of trader joe's non-fat yogurt? check. cup of sugar? check. mixed up the yogurt and the sugar and froze it up in the ice cream maker, then "decanted" into a container for a few more hours in the freezer. a few hours later, busted out a pint of blueberries...et voila! cold, creamy, sweet and tangy. really hits the spot on a warm summer evening. good and good for you, with all those antioxidants in the blueberries and calcium in the yogurt. and at about 150 calories and no fat per 1/2 cup serving, not too shabby for the ol' diet, either. i think you could even stand to cut the sugar (maybe up to 1/2) and it would still taste good. take that, pinkberry.

why you must brine

pork loin with grits
Originally uploaded by lornababy

one of the reasons i never used to cook pork that much was that it always turned dry and tough. alton brown taught me how to brine a turkey, but ming tsai taught me how to brine a pork loin. and now there is no other way for me to cook a pork loin.

here's my take on ming's recipe. i get a simple one pound pork loin from trader joe's, then throw it in a ziplock back with some kosher salt (maybe 1/4 cup), some soy sauce, some peppercorns, a knob of peeled ginger, some star anise and enough water to cover. let it soak overnight, then take it out, dry it off (pick off the peppercorns), rub some canola or olive oil on it and then roast in a 400 degree oven until the internal temperature is about 135. take the pork loin out of the oven, cover in some tin foil and let it rest about 15 minutes (the temperature will go up to about 140 or 145, which is what you want for medium). slice and serve. it will look a little pink in the middle, but that's because of the brine.

it's simple and flavorful and sure to impress. you could make a sauce to go over it to dress it up, but you really don't need to, because the pork is so flavorful. if you do want to make up a sauce, be warned, you won't be able to make a pan gravy with the drippings, because the pork is so lean and it doesn't give up any fat. with the asian flavors in the brine, i like to serve it with asian style vegetables with some soy sauce to pick up the soy sauce flavor in the pork. sauteed baby bok choi or, in this case, snow peas, work great. roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes (regular or sweet) or rice are also great sides, but this time i tried some grits with white cheddar (i wasn't thrilled with the result on the grits, for the record).

i got to meet ming at a book signing for his blue ginger cook book in december 1999. ming's brined pork recipe is in that cook book, btw. i generally don't like to post pictures of myself online, but it's pretty cool to have met one of my favorite chefs, so here it is...

writing about christmas tamales in february!

a mexican tradition adopted by my un-mexican family is christmas eve tamales. this year, i decided i was going to make my own. look, you can tell i did this during christmas because you can see the christmas wrap in the background on my table!



the day before, i cooked the beef and made the red sauce. all recipes were adopted/adapted from this post on laist.

beef tamale filling
5 lb boneless beef roast
1 tablespoon salt
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, sliced
3 c. beer

season meat with salt and garlic, place in roasting pan and cover with sliced onions. pour in beer and roast covered at 250 degrees for about 5 hours. reserve stock and shred meat. add a little of the red sauce. you could add some more ingredients to make it more interesting, if you want. i've had beef with olives, beef with green chile strips. and of course, you could do chicken, pork, chile and cheese instead.

red sauce
5 ounces dried california chiles
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 medium onion
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons flour

remove stems and seeds from chile pods. rinse and then soak in 3 cups hot water for 1 hour. drain, reserving water. put chiles, spices and onion in a blender or food processor. blend, adding mixture of stock from the beef and the reserved soaking water until the sauce is the consistency of gravy. in a saucepan, make a roux with the oil and flour. add red sauce and cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

masa
10 lb prepared masa (get from mexican deli)

the original recipe called for 5 pounds, but i had to go out and get another 5 pounds of masa because i only used about half the meat with the original 5 pounds of masa.

whip the masa up in your mixer adding a little of the stock and red sauce for flavoring and to get the right consistency. kind of like spreadable frosting.

to wrap a tamale, lay out your corn husk (soaked and drained), spread some masa along the top half of the husk leaving some space on both sides. add some of the meat filling, fold the two sides in and then fold the top up. you will see the masa sticking out of the top. some people add another layer of corn husk and then tie the whole thing in a bundle with the a thin strip of corn husk. too much work if you ask me, because you've got enough fixin's to make 71 more tamales, and it's christmas eve, and you should've done this yesterday and you've still got presents to wrap, and wait...that's probably just me.

to cook them, shove them all in your steamer insert (folded side down) in a big stock pot and steam for about 2 hours.



careful not to let your steamer boil dry! mooncrazy puts a penny in the water in the pan. when you stop hearing the penny, the water is too low for it to rattle around - time to add more water! i add boiling water from my kettle so that it doesn't take the temperature down too much.

serve with some red sauce and enjoy! put the rest in dozen tamale portions in your ziplock bags and give to friends or freeze.

yes, i'm alive

i apologize for being such a flake, but i've been quite busy with my [ahem] "career." it appears that i have, perhaps unwittingly, put some things in motion that are taking my career to the "next level," and have triggered things like meetings, conference calls, schmoozing, speaking engagements, etc...oh, and, allegedly keeping up with my clients, as well. i'm trying not to panic. obviously, i haven't been cooking a ton. in fact, for dinner last night, we ate something embarrassing and that something rhymes with shmaco shmell. i'm not proud. add that to the fact that our wireless router, which was less than a year old, took a total crap so my internet was basically out. we spent about a month or so trying to trace the problem and then about a month or so in denial about it before we finally broke down and ordered a new one. anyway, all this complaining is by way of explaining that the last couple of months have been a perfect storm for me not posting on pbe.

during the time of broken internet, i did cook a few things and save pictures, so i'll have a few things to put up soon. here's the first one: baked cod with panko crust.



i've never tried panko bread crumbs at home. cate over at sweetnicks l-o-v-e-s them, so i finally broke down and tried them. i didn't think the cod was too bad, but i don't think my husband loved the result. the rest of the plate was pretty tasty, though: quinoa cooked in chicken broth with rosemary, garlic and olive oil; white beans with sage and balsamic brown butter; and homegrown tomatoes with balsamic, olive oil and basil. all the herbs were from my herb garden.

baby shower food

first off, my apologies for being m.i.a. on this blog for so long. june 12 - july 31 was a black hole in my life due to some crazy s&*% going on at work - thank you department of homeland security. then i took a week off to hibernate. then i tried my hand at a little party planning and small-time catering, which kept me busy cooking, but with no time to post.

anyway, the reason for the party planning is that my good friend sarah is having her first baby, so i was happy to co-host a baby shower with another friend. sarah's expecting a little boy and, as she and her husband are true bruins, the colors planned for the new addition to the family is blue and yellow. i went with a rubber ducky theme for the party...


rubber ducky centerpiece


more rubber duckies


the buffet

for the food, i planned a pan-asian theme, which was a good reason to make cool salads and hors d'oeuvres that would also complement the family specialty egg rolls and fried rice that sarah's sister planned to make. here's what the final menu looked like:


tofu satay with peanut dipping sauce


kitchen wench's sweet & spicy soy chicken wings


chinese chicken salad


asian beef noodle salad

the chicken salad didn't follow any particular recipe, just shredded iceberg lettuce and napa cabage, topped with shredded chicken (costco rotisserie chickens rule!), sliced almonds, toasted sesame seeds, scallions and fried wontons and served with feast from the east salad dressing - a westside favorite. the asian beef noodle salad was a combination of a few different recipes for the dressing for the bean thread noodles and the sliced beef and served on a bed of spinach and garnished with basil, mint, cilantro, carrots and scallions.

for dessert, we had cupcakes...


cupcakes


duckies up close

the cupcakes were yellow cake with buttercream frosting piped on with a pastry bag and topped with rubber duckies molded out of wilton's candy. mooncrazy found me a cool cupcake stand to make out of styrofoam disks, ribbon and wrapping paper. to be honest, i cheated with the buttercream and used frostin' pride, which comes in a milk carton in the frozen section at smart and final. you thaw it out and then whip it up with your mixer. it's very easy and the frosting is lite and not overly sweet.

anyway, a good time was had by all and there were tons of leftovers to eat all week!

ripen ripen ripen

mother's day wrap up

can we eat it yet?

as you all know, the three pbe gals are related in the following fashion: mooncrazy and doodles are sisters and i, maltese parakeet, am mooncrazy's daughter. we started this blog because the family occasions are all about the food, and all we ever talk about is food, and it's only gotten worse since we started this blog. the men in our life have all learned not to touch the food until they ask, "has this been photographed for the blog yet?" i even caught my dad snapping pictures of the food as it was going on the table at thanksgiving!

so, when i invited my ma over for mother's day brunch, i knew it had to be the perfect menu and photo-worthy, as well. no pressure. i wanted to do a nice, french sort of meal with a carbon-friendly green/local theme and as organic as i could make it, too. ingredients from my crop share were on the menu as were items from the santa monica farmers' market (and i took the bus there, too). everything else was from trader joe's! (love you, tj!)


leek tart. love my convection oven!

here's what was on the menu:

mimosas with organic oj and chandon champagne (neither local nor organic, but soooo good)
leek tart with herbes de provence and whole wheat pie crust
salad with tri-color roasted beets and goat cheese with honey-dijon-white balsamic vinaigrette
chicken sweet italian sausage
roasted purple, white and red potatoes with garlic and rosemary
sicilian blood orange cake with fresh whipped cream


why, yes, the cake is crooked. but everything looks better on a cake plate with a dusting of powdered sugar. the silicon bundt cake pan sounded like a good idea when i bought it.

the cake is the same cake that i made for the is my blog burning stale bread challenge that we participated in a long time ago. i did it in a bundt pan this time, which i don't think i would do again. my bunky offered up halfway through his slice that he thought it tasted like froot loops. he got such a look from me for that one. although, i have to agree that, on second tasting, this cake is a little sweet and i might use less sugar in the batter next time, knowing that it's going to get soaked with the syrup.

all in all, i think everyone enjoyed the meal, especially the guest of honor. happy mother's day, again, mooncrazy!

moroccan night on the westside

because it's been HOT here in lovely west l.a., i thought i should make a desert-inspired dinner tonite. well, not really. i saw this review on laist yesterday about a great little moroccan joint on westwood called koutoubia and i remembered the spicy carrots that i had there once. kind of sweet and spicy and cumin-y. yum. i had some carrots in the fridge, so i got them started on their overnite spicy marinade. here's the recipe i used, called taim chef einat admony's spicy moroccan carrots:

2 pounds carrots, peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for sautéing
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar (i used a tablespoon of honey)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
pinch of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons white wine or champagne vinegar (i used half white balsamic and half apple cider vinegar)

Place carrots in a large pot of cold water and bring to a boil, cooking until slightly tender but not overdone, approximately 15 minutes depending on the size of the carrots. Drain and place carrots in an ice-water bath until cool, then slice diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. In a large pan, sauté the carrot slices in olive oil until slightly brown, cooking them in small batches if your pan becomes crowded. Place carrots in a bowl, add the olive oil and the remaining ingredients, and mix well. For best results, refrigerate overnight and serve at room temperature. Serves five.

to round out the theme, i roasted some salmon and threw together a couscous salad (chilled couscous, sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, chopped kalamata olives, chiffonaded mint (from my garden, no less), salt, pepper, olive oil & lemon juice).



it was too hot for mint tea.

weekend dog and garden blogging

inspired by my experience with the crop share and the urban homestead folks in pasadena, i decided to try my hand at some container gardening up on my rooftop/patio/balcony area. my patio was recently re-roofed, thanks to some skillful handyman and general contractor services , courtesy of my pa, which means i actually want to go up there again. so, in late february, i got me a copy of the bountiful container and started reading and planning. a few weeks later, i started planting. i thought i would start from seeds for a lot of things (except tomatoes) and after a few weeks of watering dirt and watching nothing come up, i gave that up and bought some seedlings for most of the rest of the plants. i've since learned to sprout seedlings on my kitchen window sill, which has been helpful.

at present, my little container garden is growing well. the edible portions include: tomatoes (salad size red and lemon boy); cucumbers; thai bird chilis; jalapeno peppers; nasturtium; lettuce; green garlic; green onions; chives; oregano; mint; thyme; basil; tarragon; sage; and rosemary.

here're some pictures of my growing little garden on a sunny saturday morning:


container garden - tomatoes, cucumbers/nasturtium and peppers (l to r)



baby tomato


lettuce


thyme, mint & oregano


nasturtium

and, because it's the weekend, here's a snap of my houndlettes soaking up the sun. i call it "still life with dogs and herbs" for sweetnicks' weekend dog blogging:


max & multy

Update: It turns out this is the last weekend dog blogging ever, so make sure to go check it out. thanks cate, for so many of weekends of dogs!

japanese inspired rice omelette

when we were in japan last year, i tried a funky japanese dish called "omelette rice." basically, it's a thin, crepe-style omelette wrapped around japanese rice (sticky, medium grained, cal-rose style) and topped with a savory sauce. it's served as a lunch dish. i liked it quite a lot. for some reason, i was dying for some omelette rice tonite. here's what i came up with:



the filling is brown rice mixed with cooked spinach, topped with a little mozarella cheese. the topping is a lime-dill hollandaise sauce. it took much longer than i thought and i wrecked the kitchen, but this was amazingly yummy, if i don't say so myself. unfortunately, what with the omelette and the hollandaise sauce, i've used up about a week's allowance of cholesterol and fat! but it was worth it.

a quick note on the hollandaise, i totally broke the first sauce. i got a little overzealous with adding the butter (my arm was tired from whisking) at the end and it was a grainy, oily mess. interwebs to the rescue. googling "fix break hollandaise sauce" got me to this page on making a great hollandaise. to fix it, all i had to do was whisk up a new egg yolk with some more lime juice then slowly whisk in the broken sauce. yes, i learned my lesson and went slowly this time and, as you can see from above, this technique totally worked!

tito's tacos

this is a little bit late for kitchen wench's nostalgia event, but i thought i'd get a post up before i get accused of becoming a by-stander to my own blog. due to the harmonic convergence of a relatively strong economy, an immigration system that's about to collapse and a maddeningly indifferent congress, this little parakeet found herself at the office quite a bit during the month of march preparing to file a bunch of cases for delivery to uscis on april 2. now that's over and done, i can come up for air again and maybe even start posting again once in a while. hopefully my new adventure in patio container gardening will provide some good post fodder!

anyway, on to the nostalgia. as we had some tito's tacos yesterday while we were watching the game that shall remain nameless, it reminded me that we here at pbe have never done a write up on this so-cal institution.


mecca

in business at (almost) the same location in culver city since the 60s, tito's tacos has a short menu - hard shell tacos, burritos, rice and beans - and long lines. there's also some other stuff, like tamales, on the menu, but don't waste your time. you cannot drive by tito's on a weekend and not see the four lines at the front window stretched all the way to the curb. it's definitely not fancy and some people would say they're not even real tacos (ahem, bandini), but i beg to differ on that last point...and the people keeping the lines long would probably tend to agree with me. these tacos really hit the spot sometimes, especially if you grew up with them. they haven't changed since i've been eating them (and that's basically since i was in utero). i'm sure doodles and mooncrazy would agree with that assertion. in fact, when doodles comes to town, it's the first place we stop on the way home from the airport!


tacos in situ

the best part about tito's, though, is the salsa. it's nothing fancy, but the flavor is great, with tomatoes, onions and jalepenos chopped really fine (probably milled?), and the tacos just aren't complete without them.


salsa and beans

and it really is a so-cal experience. in fact, i'm sure huell howser's done a show on it! you'll see all types of people in line: old people, young people, rich people, poor people, black, white, asian, hispanic, you name it...everyone comes to tito's and they all want the same two things: to eat a taco and for the person in front of them in line not to have a big order!