Food related

farmers market, Food related, Fun things I find to eat, Gluten-free, Ingredients

Recent food finds

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

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.

Cooking equipment, Food related, Uncategorized

Be our guest be our guest

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

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

Food related, Restaurants, Uncategorized

James Beard Award Winners

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

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!

farmers market, Food related, Fun things I find to eat, Gluten free, Gluten-free, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Third street promenade farmers market

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

We are blessed to have a year round growing season, and we are on the verge of the moment where the most of those riches shine!  Saturday at the santa monica third street promenade farmers market, the following are a prelude to the full summer bounty:

Figs!  I forgot to take a pic before i cut up the ripe ones…it was a nice basket of 1/2 ripe and half ripe in a day or two

My fav farmers market cheese for years…i got the mozzarella and asiago…dont for one minute think its traditional mozza or asiago…they surely have their own style .  Spring hill jersey cheese from nocal.

Lemon cucumbers

Baby red leaf heads

The very first of the tomatoes

Citrus!!!

Cucs abound

Herbs

Its still cherry and peach season

Jim Taylor waits for these puppies all year…high price, small fruit, big taste


One years i will buys these and spend the day shucking them.  Can you imagine fresh garbanzos!?!

So tonight the figs will be sharing a plate with goat cheese and a Bordeaux cherry balsamic ibought in  palm springs

Food related, Made at home, Stuff I make, Uncategorized

My new favorite kitchen tool

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

The oven crisper pan! Jim was watching HSN and a version of these came on the screen..they looked intersting so i was immediatly on the amazon app pricing and then ordering.


My first use was fries

Here they are getting ready for the over and i cannot find my “after pic” (which may mean that i forgot to take one)….

But I did remember to take a picture of my tofu fries when they were all nice and golden top and bottom

I have already bought a second set as a gift.   And im looking forward to using them fith zuchini and eggplant in the near future.

Food related, Fun things I find to eat, Gluten free, Gluten-free, Made at home, Stuff I make, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

My grill gets korean

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I wanted to grill.   I was thinking how we grill kimchi at korean bbq….somehow i didnt get grilled kimchi but i got kimchi, grilled soy things, grilled rice cakes…


I made some sprouts and cucs as sides:


Since my partner is allergic to sesame…i made it with hot chili oil and gochujang and salt


Found this recipe online…quick marinade.  Salt sugar and coconut vinegar and i threw in a few pepper flakes and garlic

The rice cake marinated a bit in kimchi

Soy ginger dressing on the eggplant

Bok choi with hot oil


It all gets grilled



Homemade kimchi on the side



Yum

Food related, Gluten free, Gluten-free, Made at home, Probiotic, Stuff I make, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Kimchi and me

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Jim bought me a new cookbook after we heard the authors on the radio


Amongst the treasures was a doable looking kimchi recipe.


And after a trip to the korean market and the farmers market i went to it:


Salted soaked and drain my veg…

Then combined the flavor:

Korean red pepper flakes

Tamari (gluten free soy sauce–aka soy sauce made with so not wheat)

Gochujang

Plus some rice wine vinegar, garlic and ginger


And there she sat for a day at room temp, then six in the fridge.


And today we are making


Stinky tofu will ferment at room temp for 48 hours. Then it will get fried…so monday is probably rice and stinky tofu night

Meanwhile, i totally made another batch of kimchi, and have a jar saved from batch 1 for kimchi fried rice during the week.

Food related, Fun things I find to eat, Ingredients, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

1/9 food finds

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

while at the farmers market and out and about we found a few fun things to try or think about trying.

Root veggies are the spotlight at the farmers market this week   

I bought some pretty pink and blue potatoes…these are colored clear through so they lose their color less than those with just a colored skin

It’s been cold so the avocado su ply train is getting a bit week.    
  

Tiny iceberg lettuces!

  

Assorted cute little lettuces

And a Penzeys trip  

  
  

My penzeys haul this week… The Turkish oregano was free (coupon)

  

Macaron for Jim at lemonade
  

Buffalo milk butter at whole foods

  

Cognac barrels!  I already have the bourbon barrel version at home waiting to be savored
  

Needed to try my Singapore spice from penzeys so made a sort of Singapore noodle

  
  

And some tofu lettuce cups

 

Food related, Ingredients

Fun food finds 1/2/16

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

 We were Santa Monica farmers market bound today and since winter is usually bland I wasn’t taking any pics until I ran into this this thing so I started with the food pics….

Having no idea what it was, I bought some.  Wikipedia and several sites have cleared up my lack of knowledge…Mountain yams are a Asian tuber that turn into goo if you grate and get mucilaginous plus have an itchy skin that needs soaked in water and vinegar to neutralize…sounds like a winner here :-p

  

Kohlrabi are also in season as I found baby ones last weekend

Sun chokes have been about for a month or so but few in attendance this week–one vendor said the ground was too frozen to harvest  

  

Sweet limes…which I always look at but never buy….and they aren’t green!
  

Unhusked walnuts which I haven’t seen in person since I used to have to collect them from my grandpas yard

  

Mushrooms!  Including white truffle which I passed on hoping for black truffle soon…but I picked up some hedgehogs

  

My favorite cheese vendor provided me with a raw 1year aged white cheddar

  

Jim found giant macaron that are gluten free at the newly opened Lemonade
  

And I picked up the foodies coloring book at Barnes and noble!