Food related
Pasta Puttanesca
This is the first dish I cooked for my partner 25 years ago. It’s relatively inexpensive and usually I can pull it together with pantry staples. There are countless variations but this is the one that I can make from memory and has served me well for over 2 decades.
- Olive Oil, 2 1/2 times around the pan
- Garlic, 4-5 cloves or more or less to your taste
- Anchovies, 1 can flat
- Red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp or a touch more if you like
- Tomatoes, 2 cand, whole or sliced ideally but chopped work. Crushed would be last choice
- Olives, about 1/4 cup sliced kalamata, oil cured, or similar
- Capers, 1-2 tablespoons to taste
- Parsley, flat leaf, 1/4-1/2 cup chopped
- Pasta of your choice. Long thin is the best like spaghetti. Fettuccini works well too. In these pictures I have a gluten free fresh fettuccine.
Sauté the olive oil, garlic, anchovies and red pepper until the anchovies melt into the oil.
Add the tomatoes and stir periodically while cooking over medium heat
Cook and stir until most the liquid is gone and the oil clearly starts to separate
Add in the olives and reduce more of the liquid until mostly gone
Turn off the heat and add in capers
Stir in the pasta and plate. Topping with the parsley.
Simple salad dressed with olive oil, white pepper and lemon juice.
Gotta have a cocktail…this is my version of a Pomtini that includes grand marnier, home Meade citrus vodka, lime juice, pomegranate and grey goose.
Lemon liqueur
I have a pile of lemons at our new home…I had planned to make limoncello as I did with grapefruit at our old house. But I wasn’t feeling it. I hinted around online and made a conglomerate recipe…
I actually used 6 lemons….all of them as this will be strained later.
I chopped them small/medium ish
I added 1 cup of sugar to the lemons
Then I poured in 1/2 the vodka and shook to dissolve. Then the rest of the vodka. This jar held 1/2 the bottle with the lemon bulk in it.
Soundly shaken again abs detached in a dark cabinet.
I feel like this will be far more lemony than limoncello! I’ll get back to you in 4-6 weeks
Pinto Bean Meatballs (with Buckeyes instead)
It started with me bumping into a recipe for pinto bean breakfast sausage….and then I saw piles of pinto bean sausages around. I decided on beans, mushrooms and garbanzo flour as a binder since I had that on hand. i started with some Rancho Gordo Buckeye Beans.
I processed the beans up, and finely chopped like a ploy d of mushrooms
After a nice cook down as far as they could go, I married the beans , some garbanzo flour, and the mushrooms with some Rancho Gordo Mexican Oregano, Penzey’s Justice, Deliciou vegan bacon seasoning, onion, garlic, salt. These guys became meatballs. They were wrapped in plastic. The ones I used, I steamed and the others are in the freezer.
After steaming, I sautéed them. I served them with my previously mentioned dried spaghetti squash, a summer squash melange and some homemade chimichurri
Dried Spaghetti Squash
I had planned to create a post about my pinto bean meatballs I made last night but I thought the spaghetti squash would just get lost…and I ordered online from the company tonight.
A few months ago we were in Sprouts and I saw this package of dried spaghetti squash.
And it’s just been hanging around since. Yesterday I had focused so hard one the pinto bean meatballs that I kinda neglected the rest of the dish. I threw some squash in a pan because it needed used…then I remembered the dried spaghetti squash and busted it out to soak. Once done, it sautéed nicely before being buried with toppings.
I don’t think it’s widely available but I ordered more online and some of their other products at Solely included fruit jerky, dried fruit and more of the spaghetti squash. I like their mission and their story so I was happy to order and share with you.
92! Scratch made fish cakes
Stuffed pepper and poached cod mixed with the leftover potatoes from the fish tacos.
Feta and cucs and tomatoes oh my!
Return to the Santa Monica Farmers Market
Finally back to the market after nearly 4 months…we tried two weeks ago but protests had it closed down (the same neighborhood had had looters)…there are still lots of boarded up windows:
But the market was busy even though its way spread out for distancing:
On of the prizes and purposes for the trip was mara des bois…from Harrys Berries
Pricey but he loves them.
I went for tomatoes and they finally are debuting:
Also found were lemon cucumbers and german butterballs.
And our first goat cheese in a long while.
This is the closest to normal i have felt in a while even with masks and spacing. I needed a brief moment to be happy….
Recent food finds
I am constantly taking pictures of food that i see and i have fallen so far behind in sharing lately. Im going to try and do a catch up of the last couple weeks of things that I thought were fun enough to share. Passionflowers are blooming, figs and squash are in season. We are like a week or two away from the Southern California summer cornucopia of ridiculous bounty.
My neighbor at the community garden has a full on passionflower wall growing. I have never had the fruit. I was planning to trellis one in my backyard this year but a young plant wont survive our july vaca so after we return.
The van nuys german deli is sooo close to my house:
Usually i will get two smoked brats, 2 swiss and 2 neurenberger for the 2 of us and simmer in saurkraut and wine…
Head cheese anyone?
Does everyone know that i love marzipan! British cadbury chocolate and marzipan enrobed in dark chocolate are two wonderful things.
Gooseberries!
If you zoom in, you will notice flavors of soy sauce in this chinese whisky
Fresh almonds
Dragonfruit
Banana blossoms
No name whiskey shots for your carry on bag
I thoroughly enjoy stroopwafel and if you have had an am flight on United, you have been gifted with a stroopwafel…not sure of the cocktail i would make with this
Last weekend was a roadtrip to the BH branch of Laduree to get the much coveted Barbie box
And of course view the special promo display dolls
Macaron!!!!!
Its fig season! I have some in the fridge waiting to be covered with cheese and balsamic
Its still peach season
Jim is scoping out his fav variety of strawberry
Tomatoes are breaking in. Next week will be full blown tomato explosion
Look close…bok choi and cress flowers
The aquash in unstoppable now.
So that updates like 2 weeks of non restaurant/non home cooking pics….home tou saw something fun or unique.
Be our guest be our guest
So some of you may have noticed my plates, serveware, cookware, is mostly le creuset.
So unbenownst to me williams Sonoma had a limited edition piece like none ive seen so far.
And today it arrived:
So…..opinions please. This is a pan i have wanted for a while, the price is inflate due to limited edition, do i use it? Keep it on “display”? Or sell it? The prices are already up on ebay:-p
James Beard Award Winners
So…Los Angeles didnt represent–except for some finalists. Chicago, who knew there was so much yum there. Heres a link to the James beard award winners…from open table so you can quickly snag a reservation. Has anyone been to any of them…let us know
Speaking of James Beard, i was bombarded by emails telling me to watch his documentary….America’s First Foodie! We havent seen it but here is he Bon Appetit article from last week : Americas First Foodie. The man had a tv show before any of the others but he was before his time…..let me know what you think!
Brian and Jim Eat 