In Erika's Kitchen

Wisconsin beer cheese dip with bacon

2012-05-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

Amanda's beer cheese dip I think I've mentioned that I'm territorial in my kitchen. Most of our houseguests know (or learn quickly) to do their cooking when I'm not home. Amanda, a dear friend who's staying with us for a while, has taken advantage of my days at the office and my occasional evening meetings to whip up fabulous quick pickles, "wet" burritos, and this beer cheese dip. Amanda's

Fresh herb butter

2012-05-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Give toast, boiled potatoes, pasta or a weeknight steak a quick pick-me-up with this simple herb butter, made with any mixture of fresh herbs your palate prefers. It's as simple as this: Let some good butter soften on the counter. Chop a heaping pile of mixed fresh herbs and add them to the butter with a little sea salt. Mix. Store the herb butter in the refrigerator for a week or in the

Hummus with artichokes and olives, aka Costco hummus

2012-05-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

This really is the world's best hummus I made the world's best hummus yesterday. By accident. I wasn't going for a gold medal. It just happened. In less than 10 minutes. No one was more surprised than I was. What makes this hummus the world's best? It's light and fluffy. Not too oily. And the marinated artichoke hearts and Kalamata olives throw the whole thing a little off-kilter. Are you

Fruit salsa with loquats

2012-05-12T06:43:00.002-07:00

Fresh loquat salsa pairs beautifully with grilled chicken or pork I spent this week peeling and seeding loquats. Pounds and pounds of loquats. My friends with loquat trees always call in May. I'm a New York girl who still can't believe food grows on trees. They know I won't say no to ripe loquats, and they know I'll put them to good use. Loquats grow prolifically in southern California on

Salad smoothie with avocado and wasabi

2012-05-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Don't eat salad for lunch - drink it instead! When I work at home, I try to eat salad for lunch. I have no excuse: access to the sink, a choice of dressings and toppings, pick of the vegetable drawer. I just didn't feel like a salad yesterday, but my guilt got the better of me. I took all the salad fixings I could find (not much, as I hadn't been shopping in a few days) and threw them in the

How to build a community: Food Bloggers Los Angeles

2012-05-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Food Bloggers Los Angeles, May 2012 (photo: James Abke) When I started this blog in 2008, it was just me and my keyboard. I enjoyed writing, got into the rhythm of blogging, but I was lonely. I only had a few readers and wasn't sure how to get more. I ran into technical roadblocks daily. I had lots of questions and no one to ask. Then I went to my first food blogging conference and

Bacon and egg salad for my mom

2012-04-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Bacon and egg salad: Yet another way bacon and eggs were meant to be together Mother's Day is coming right up, and to get in the mood our local food blogger posse (Food Bloggers Los Angeles) had a potluck brunch where members brought dishes inspired by their moms. It took me a while to figure out what to bring. My mother is not the world's greatest cook. She never baked cakes. No homemade

Kale salad with radishes

2012-04-27T07:44:00.001-07:00

Living in California has changed my eating habits forever. When I think back to what I put in my body 20 years ago I cringe. I was living and working in Manhattan. I ate lunch out, dinner out. There were vegetables, but not many. I remember a lot of french fries and Chinese food. I was learning to bake thanks to my friend Judith, so there was cake. And I was young, so there was drink - not

Whole wheat lime bars

2012-04-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

Remember how I said I wasn't really a dessert person? Right. Except for these whole wheat lime bars. I made a few key changes to my favorite lemon bar recipe and the results were good. Very good. So good that this non-dessert person ate (I don't want to tell you how many) in one sitting. Oh, sorry, no, not one sitting. One standing at the counter. There was no chair involved. function

Nutella yogurt cake

2012-04-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

I like to bake, but I only make easy cakes. I've tried rolling fondant and piping royal icing. I suck at both. Give me a homey, homely cake over a dressed-to-the-nines pastry chef concoction any day. A friend on the East coast (hi Paul!) made a Nutella yogurt cake he'd seen on Stacey Snacks a few weeks ago and crowed about it on Facebook. I knew instantly that it was going into my regular

White asparagus with truffle butter

2012-04-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Steamed white asparagus dressed in truffle butter My local Costco continues to surprise me. Yesterday I went into the cold room to pick up my staples - lettuce, Persian cucumbers and blackberries - only to be confronted by a huge pile of white asparagus. Each bag held 1.75 pounds of beautiful Peruvian white asparagus. I believe I shrieked and did a little dance, much to the delight and/or

White chocolate bread from Club Med

2012-04-13T08:02:00.001-07:00

My version of Club Med's white chocolate bread We spent spring break this year with my extended family at Club Med Sandpiper Bay in Florida. I've been to other Club Meds, so I knew the food would be good and the bread truly outstanding. You can take the baker out of France, but you can't take France out of the baker. At every meal we had a choice of nearly a dozen different breads. Baguettes

Passover recipes, holiday traditions

2012-04-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

Matzoh kugel with apple and cinnamon - one of my Passover traditions I've collected a lot of Passover recipes over the years. In 2009, during my first year writing about food, I asked local chefs, caterers and home cooks in Los Angeles to share their favorite Passover recipes in my LA Cooking Examiner column. I got a dozen or so, each more interesting than the next. (Click here for the entire

Grilled cheese with kale-pistachio pesto

2012-04-05T07:54:00.003-07:00

I'm on a kale kick. I'm putting kale in just about everything these days: smoothies, salads, quiche, soup. So when Tillamook asked me to create a signature grilled cheese to celebrate Grilled Cheese Lovers' Day (it's April 12, in case you want to plan a party or something), my first thought was...kale. How could I get kale into a gooey, creamy, crispy grilled cheese sandwich? I've been

Passover dessert: Matzoh kugel with apples (pareve)

2012-04-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

My kids' school is holiday-happy. They celebrate just about everything. I believe in the separation of church and state, but I like their inclusive approach. The children learn about Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Diwali (the Indian "festival of lights"), Nowruz (the Persian new year), Chinese new year. If there's a holiday, they find a lesson in it. A few years ago I helped with the Passover

Postcard from Florida: Baby food at Club Med Sandpiper Bay

2012-03-25T10:49:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about the family-focused Club Med resorts: homemade, gourmet baby food at every meal. Today's brunch at Club Med Sandpiper Bay in Florida featured pureed roast turkey with mashed potatoes. I saw several babies sucking it down with every evidence of enjoyment.

Swiss chard and feta pie ("chardikopita")

2012-03-22T20:35:00.001-07:00

I have a teenager who loves to cook vegetables. Particularly greens. Give Emery a bunch of kale, a pile of chard, a bag of spinach, and he's a happy boy. He makes Asian greens soup, spinach fried rice, mustard greens with garlic and soy sauce. When our friends around the corner clean out their organic garden and give away trash bags filled with huge chard leaves, Emery is first in line. As

Gravlax (cured salmon)

2012-03-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

Want to bring your friends and family to their knees? Want people to tell you they've never met such a genius in the kitchen? Want to see some serious plate-licking and scrap-picking? Make gravlax. Gravlax, or cured salmon, is one of the easiest super-gourmet recipes you will ever make. It has four required ingredients (salmon, salt, sugar, pepper) and several optional ones (fresh herbs,

Hummus-stuffed peppers and cucumbers

2012-03-13T21:24:00.001-07:00

This is one of those "stupid genius" appetizers you can bring to any party. It's good for the vegans. It's good for the dieters. It's good for the heart-healthy. Also, it's just plain good. I brought it to the Super Bowl party we're invited to every year. I'm pretty sure a few people were disappointed, because usually I bring these amazing cheese straws with smoked salt. But I was on

Duck fat roasted potatoes

2012-03-11T12:36:00.001-07:00

At one point I remember saying to my boys "You haven't lived until you've eaten potatoes fried in duck fat." Now, whenever I pull out potatoes, they're disappointed if duck fat isn't involved. I walked away from last week's Food Bloggers Los Angeles meeting with about 10 pounds of mixed yellow, red and purple fingerling potatoes courtesy of the Idaho Potato Commission. When I put them on

Smoked salmon on Walkers oatcakes and what motivates food bloggers

2012-03-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

Smoked salmon with horseradish-spiked sour cream on Walkers oatcakes Food companies are coming up with all kinds of creative ways to work with food bloggers. It used to be that only the elite bloggers got to participate in sponsored programs. You know which bloggers I mean - the ones who started long ago, built a huge following when competition for attention was scarce, speak at all the

Vegan strawberry rhubarb crisp

2012-03-05T20:21:00.001-08:00

I love my job as a product manager at Deluxe Corporation and I love the people with whom I work. However, I rarely see them in person. Deluxe is spread out all over the place and I'm in an outpost. The people I spend most of my time working with are in Minnesota, Toronto, Massachusetts, Kansas City - in short, everywhere but here. When colleagues come to southern California, I always invite

Amanda's quick pickles

2012-03-03T17:27:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Amanda is staying with us for a few months. In general, this is a wonderful thing, because I love Amanda with all my heart. The only problem is that, as I think I've mentioned, I am a teeny tiny bit territorial when it comes to sharing my kitchen. Luckily, Amanda knows me well enough that a) I can admit this to her without worrying about whether she will still love me back and

Spaghetti with green garlic butter

2012-02-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

Spaghetti with green garlic butter: A simple springtime dinner It's starting to feel like spring here in southern California. My roses are budding. It's still light outside when I get home from work. The moms at school are chatting about spring break plans. And green garlic has reappeared at the farmers' market. If you've never tried green garlic, I recommend it. It's the young garlic

Mustard greens with garlic and dark soy sauce

2012-02-21T20:54:00.000-08:00

Today's Superfood: Mustard greens Vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, folate, manganese, fiber, calcium Few things make this mother happier than having her 13-year-old son help with dinner. Depending on the day. Here's the thing: I'm territorial in the kitchen. At the end of a long or particularly frustrating day at work, I prefer to make dinner by myself, in silence. It calms me down. Poor