Every year we hit this place since Donette and I found it 4 years ago. Giordanos pizza.
drinks to start….duh and since we went to bed at 4 am we started lunch with Bloody Mary and whatever Jim got (tasted like kool aid)
The the incredible calamari fritti
this thing has fennel, calamari, onion, lemon, peppers, green bean and probably more…
Then Donette and I had the stuffed crust veggie pizza and Jim has gluten free cheese and mushroom
Love this place!
as a direct result of not checking our bags before the 45 minute cutoff…really like two minutes late which can b as simple as the traffic we had en rout….anyway, we get to hang out here all day (well until 3:45 or something) so….
And my pic of my crabcake sandwich doesn’t seem to exist now…but Jim got a sad bunless fully loaded burger…
It was all just okay
Beef it up a bit bobby flay!
jim has this at hummus bar and grill and I’ve been making it since…I still can’t get it right but I keep trying and keep not following a recipe
Peppers and tomatoes and onion
Add eggs
The hatch chilis were spicy
So one day I will nail this!
I’m still wanting to try this place
They have yummy sounding cocktails but today I had delivery service pick up from there
Lakeside cafe
We had short rib and mashed potatoes
Fish and chips with fries
Beet salad
And a gluten free vegetarian flatbread
And I used my sriracha ketchup
For my fries 🙂
i had planned on this during the hellish heat wave last week but didn’t have tomato juice.
I have a base recipe from food network…that I tweak
Basically take some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and onion and bell pepper and purée
Reserving some of each to add in for crunch later
The reserves:
Then just put all together with 1/4 cup evoo and 1/4 cup white balsamic ( I used half ginger white balsamic and half regular) and salt and pepper And tomato juice…I use low sodium and I vary the proportions to taste
It tasted fine but the color was off this time…prolly my pepper choices …
I had an avocado that needed eaten and we needed protein so on the side I had bean and avocado and a gluten free baguette
I used the natural starch from the cannellini juice with a scant amount of olive oils and red wine vinegar and my go to penzeys Greek seasoning
Ps…I grew those tamatoes!
Now what the heck to do with it. The bottle says anything but points out salad, curries and noodle dishes….my first thought is that it would be nice on a watermelon feta salad in place of the red wine vinegar. I was also planning gazpacho today but Dos Arbolitos won out…so gazpacho this weekend probably and I usually use white balsamic in my gazpacho….I’m wondering if the ginger might perk it up or be too much…?
BR Cohn winery vinegars I already have their champagne vinegar which is nice on tomatoes…this is my new addition.
It’s not Friday and there are no margaritas but we left work late and cooking wasn’t in the cards. The sign says the “finest, most authentic Mexican food in town.”
But only beer and wine license 😦
The salsa is homemade with roasted peppers in it.
Jim got the Costallitas
And the Mole Verde for me (it’s a green pumpkin seed sauce)
This place is yummy and close to home–and without margaritas it’s a lot less expensive 🙂
So I’ll give it a try…it’s a million degrees in the San Fernando Valley today! And with one more trip planned we haven’t shopped much, I so went cool with what I had on hand….salad stuff
I kinda already knew that my kitchen and dining area are bad for pics but I really tried some “in progress” pictures and the lights are arranged so wherever I stand there is shadow…need to figure a work around!
So for my very few friends that will ask because they are interested:
There’s a yellow Gypsy pepper filled with tiny red lentil salad made with a couple chopped cherry tomatoes, a baby onion, curry powder wine vinegar and olive oil….that’s a keeper! It was similar to a lentil salad I haven’t made in forever that I loved.
There’s a purple bell pepper with a quinoa salad with sherry vinegar and olive oil…fail! The sherry vinegar was too much for the quinoa flavor
There’s a red corno do toro pepper filled with cannellini beans with Penzeys Greek spice blend and olive oil…this is a go to for me.
And the salad is homegrown tomatoe, a German butterball potato, cucumber and an avocado topped with a 60 day aged goat cheese feta from Drake family farms and some Castelvitrano olives … topped with white balsamic and olive oil.
If I was a better man i’d have more pics! But I had challenges
This was my sorta miss en place (but I didn’t have all my muse places well ahead of time) 
So let me get the kinks out these first few times and see how it goes:-)
Years ago I started a food blog (which I cannot find) where I mostly documented recipes I tried and invented and it had a lot of canning pics:-)
So at the nudging of a few friends, I’m at it again! Watch, now that I’m ready, I won’t eat or cook anything interesting for a while…so here it goes.
Brian and Jim Eat 