WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY MAKING NOW? a kitchen adventure

FIsh WIsh

2013-05-18T12:18:00.001-07:00

Everyday we wake up and open all the doors and windows up and let the jasmine scented air fill our home. The neighborhood has been really beautiful and quiet lately. Matt jogged near the old Batman cave and they were filming a music video with a bunch of viking people. This week we also witnessed the OKC Thunder fall out of the finals. Nail biters on both games. Proud to say I was the loudest at the pub on the last game. I had the mouth of a sailor and the spirit of an Oklahoman.

Last week was filled with outdoor pig eating. This week we took a lighter route with vegetarian black bean chili and a variety of fish dishes.

This is a pasta dish tossed with roasted tomatoes, basil pesto (minus the parm), peas, and topped with olive oil packed tuna, and a squeeze of lemon. Yummy!!!!

Swordfish seasoned with rendered country ham fat, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Broiled for about 5 minutes. Served with Piri Piri sauce we got form the Hollywood Farmers Market, and a hash of potatoes, jalapeno, onions, and country ham fat. I guess, the piggy found its way into our meal anyway. Forgot how wonderful swordfish can be.

Oh! and another thing we just did...we're gonna see the Rolling Stones play Monday!! Nytimes said the show was incredible and it wasn't like watching a bunch of old dudes rock out. Not a Paul McCartney show. God, do you remember him playing at the super bowl. What a bummer.

Put it in a Lasagna

2013-05-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

The idea that a lasagna is bad for you is a bunch of bologna! Why must lasagnas be assumed to have layers upon layers of cheese and ricotta? Sure its good, but you feel like a brick afterwards, especially if you have the inability to have self control.

Lasagnas are good. Actually, they are great. Lets face it, no matter how much you messed up on your lasagna, its still gonna be pretty good! We made this lasagna and almost ate the whole pan. We didn't feel like a bunch of fat asshole afterwards, because it felt so good to eat and it WAS good for us!

This lasagna is made with our leftover veggies from the camping trip. The sauce is made with crushed tomatoes and our homemade guajillo chili sauce. We start out with sauce on the bottom, pasta, roasted kabocha squash and roasted poblanos, and then topped with sauce.

Second layer has sautéed spinach, grilled eggplant, Greek yogurt, sauce, and a light grating of Parm. Last layer is pasta, sauce, yogurt, cheese and parm.

Perfect lasagna. So good!!!

Lake Cachuma Feasting

2013-05-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Best part about California is the access to wonderful outdoor excursions. Camping is accessible anytime! This weekend we say goodbye to our tent that has been housing Matt's outdoor adventures since he was 18, and has provided us shelter for the past 10 years. It has been all over the world. It kept us dry in some of the scariest storms while on a motorcycle trip. That was a damn good tent. Now we have a new mission to get a tent for the next decade of our adventures. We'll be taking applications asap.

Our first meal of the trip we stuff a kabocha squash with wheat bulgar, onion, mushroom, olive oil, salt and pepper. Roasted that in the pit for a good hour, and then grilled up some pork chops, along with Matt's famous potatoes. Simply wrapped up in foil, salt, pepper, and butter. We think of our friend's daughter Ally every time Matt makes them. She loves them! Awesome meal. Simple, smoky, and flavorful.

Along with a beautiful sunrise reflecting off the lake, we have a breakfast pita stuffed with scrambled eggs, jalapeno, tomato, mushroom, onion, and garlic.

Lake Cachuma! We rented a lil motor boat for $30! So much fun.

Dinner we've got baby back ribs, roasted eggplant, more kabocha squash, and baked potatoes. Amazing meal. Nothing like outdoor meals. Our new hot sauce of the moment is Franks Red Hot.

We got back on time to watch an incredible Thunder vs Grizzlies game. CRAZY!!! For the game we made a Med plate. Tabouli, baba ganoush, beet puree, and served with olives, pepperoncinis, and toasted pita. We had an OKC Med Deli flashback and tribute. One thing I miss most about Okc is Med Deli. Once you embrace the Med Deli culture and just enjoy what they have, lovable. We went there weekly for groceries and a salad plate fix.

The beet puree was inspired from a cook book called "A Year in My Kitchen". I roasted the beets, and pureed it with horse radish, mint, cilantro, garlic, yogurt, ground mustard seeds, coriander, fennel, cardamom, and cumin seeds. For the entire recipe for this Med Plate under the Vegetable page, you can find it on the blog! We Love this kind of food. I've had a vision for a plate of this goodness for a really long time. We almost ordered delivery, but decided..HELL no!

Kale Chips and "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka"

2013-05-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

Its not often you get thunder, a rainbow, and a badass pink moment in Los Angeles. Soaking it all in from our patio. Absolutely gorgeous. These last few nights have been lovely; sleeping with the windows open and the sound of rain.

Made some delicious kale chips. Rubbed it with olive oil and baked in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes. Funny to eat this hippy food while watching I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, a movie from 1988 "Its tough to be a black hero".

This week we haven't slacked too much on cooking at home. What you don't get to see is our make shift pho made with homemade chicken stock from the freezer, and instead of bean sprouts we used cabbage.

This dish is using up the rest of our guajillo chili sauce along with tomatoes picked from the garden. Frozen peas, corn, garlic, and tomatoes were tossed in a pan along with the sauce.

Then an egg was cracked into the sauce, along with dollops of yogurt and charred jalapenos. Lid the pan and cook until the egg is perfectly cooked over. The yogurt stays creamy, but develops an interesting encasement of a ricotta like texture. Served with toasted pita. You could do heated tortillas as well. I like how the pita sops up all the sauce.

This weekend...Cali Camping! Enjoy what you do these next few days and remember...what would Debo do?

Speaking of Debo. I am grateful that the hugest rott in history did not kill our lil man yesterday. Dragged an iron umbrella stand just to get to the lil guy. Debo's dad kicked the dog and his momma hurt her wrist grabbing the umbrella attached to the rott. Then, watched his owner beat the shit out of him...whoopsy. I think it was bad dog day. I heard a woman was killed by some pit bull strays in Palmdale too! so bad.

Departure from OKC and back to LaLa Land

2013-05-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Back in action! When Matt and I are not together, our urge to cook is definitely less prevalent. We are a great cooking team. I had an awesome time in Oklahoma. Not sure if my trip to Vietnam made me have a deeper appreciation for my family, or just simply being away from them. All I wanted to do was eat and be around them. I somehow managed to eat Mexican food 3 times, missed one Tex Mex opp because I forgot about a baby sip and peek event. 3 Chinese food consumptions, Szechuan, American, and Hong Kong style. Of course, tons of Nhan Duong food, which was mostly comfort foods (which I miss most!!). Oh, and Ethiopian. I think we have one of the best Ethio restaurants. I had a hand full of hamburger mishaps, but always around great company. While I was home, I revived my inner Thunder fan. I tried to go to a bar for every game to feed off the excitement, and it worked!

Now that I'm back in LaLa Land, where people treat rain like its the end of the world, we are gonna have Mexican food! Somehow, it never gets old.

Our awesome roasted fried chile sauce. This batch is made with guajillo, roasted onions, garlic, and some crushed tomatoes. Deseed, toast in a pan, soak the chilies, and then whiz it all up in the blender. Simmer for about 15 minutes, should turn a rich dark red.

A tribute to OKC Thunder, cheese sauce and Blue Corn chips! The cheese sauce is made with butter, flour, cream cheese, milk, salsa, hot sauce, and grated cheddar cheese. Game 2 against the Grizzlies, we lost. Bummer.

Along with the Thunder game we had quail enchiladas. They were amazing! At least the enchiladas won tonight. The photo didn't make the cut. Too much basketball excitement to focus on a good photo!

Some time this week we had pierogies. I'm a little lost with my days. What I do know is that I was shot in the head twice by an angel in my sleep last night.

These are the pierogies I had made before I left for Oklahoma City. By the way, I experienced a light flurry of snow while having breakfast with my best friend downtown. Speaking of friend, Emily Petree currently has a show up at IAO Gallery that is unreal. Its amazing. It will be up for another week, and I encourage all in OKC to go see it!!

These pierogies are stuffed with peas, potatoes, and mizuna mustard greens. Boiled until floating, and then pan fried. Its served with a guajillo chili and tomato sauce.

Hell yeah!! The best!

I am currently reading a couple of good cook books. Thai Street Food is beautiful. A Year in the Kitchen is also an inspirational book for seasonal fair. Its perfect for being in Cali with so many amazing farmer's markets. The Thai book is perfect because I am sooo close to Thai town.

A Vegetable Extravaganza!!!

2013-04-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is not an entire day's worth of consumption, close. Two. This breakfast was inspired by the first time I remember having frisee. Matt and I had just finished a 2 week hike in the backwoods of Olympic National Park. We got cleaned up and slept in a bed in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon. We woke up and had breakfast at a fun new spot near by. Don't recall the name, but the breakfast left an impression.

The frisee is dressed with a squeeze of lemon and fried country ham in olive oil. Its topped with oven roasted potatoes, pickled radishes, avocado, and a poached farm fresh egg. The best breakfast!!

Another leftover transformation. We've taken this delicious dried pasta and tossed it with the homemade radish pesto. It really is extremely tasty. Added is morels, fresh peas, and sweet breads. A light squeeze of lemon brightens the whole thing up. Yum!

Cardoon! A thistle artichoke plant. We're making cardoon and mustard green dip. Yep, still working on farmer's market veggies. After processing the leaves and peeling the outer layer, the stalks (which look similar to celery) are boiled in water with slices of lemon for about 35-45 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. Its took a really long time to get the fibrous strands to a good edible texture. While that cooked, take a huge bundle of mustard greens, chop fine, and saute with finely chopped onions. After all that is cooked down, set aside. Take the cooked cardoons and whiz it in a food processor until evenly chopped and fine. Mix it with the mustard greens. Add several dollops of yogurt, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Your call on how cheesy and yogurty you want your dip. Put it into a baking dish and top with parm. Bake at 450 degrees until a lil bit of browning on the top.

My god, its sooo good. LOVE it! The cardoon is worth it. Buying strange veggies at the market, also really good!

If someone ever prepares you fresh fava beans, appreciate them. Processing them takes forever. First you take the beans out of the pod. Then you blanch and then peel them. Very tasty and has a unique aroma. Delicious.

Minestrone! A great way to eat your veggies. We made a huge pot of veggie and chicken stock, so what a perfect way to use it. In our minestrone is onion, carrot, purple and green mustard greens, tomato, lima beans, and potato pierogies. Cook the veggies in order of cooking time. Add things one by one and make sure not to over cook anything. Boil the pierogies separately.

Pop the pierogies in a bowl, ladle delicious soup, and top with radish pesto, good extra virgin olive oil, and parsley.

Love minestrone. Make it however you want. Its like watching Bottle Rocket.

Best Strawberry Limeade Ever. Strawberry "jam", soda water, and lemon juice. YUM!

One of the most delicious lasagnas!

Roasted Beet, Beet greens, and Mustard Green Lasagna

1 bundle of beet greens roasted in the oven at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes or until fork tender

Beet green leaves only, no stem

a huge hand full of mustard greens

roasted sliced Chinese broccoli (regular will do as well, same temp as beets, about 10 minutes)

1/2 onion

Greek yogurt

1- 8oz can whole tomatoes, blend till smooth

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

pinch of dried oregano

garlic

lasagna noodles, cooked al dente

shredded mozzerella cheese

Parmigiano Reggiano

Roast the beets, cook all the chopped greens with onion, and cook the tomato puree with garlic and dried herbs.

Assemble. First layer. Tomato sauce, pasta, beet, yogurt and light on the cheese. Second. Pasta, sauce, greens, yogurt and cheese. Last layer. Pasta, sauce, roasted broccoli, thin slices of beets, enough cheese to cover the top with the mozza and grate some parm on there as well.

Bake for about 25 minutes covered at 400 degrees, and if the tops not browned, uncover crank up the heat and let it brown and bubble. Take it out and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes.

Its amazing! Truly.

Signing off for a bit. Heading back to the homeland for an art and fashion show May 4th.

Recap of extraordinary Los Angeles eating and a seafood soup.

2013-04-23T00:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a lush, fun, and delicious one! Ma and Pa Seikel came to Los Angeles, and spent their 40th Anniversary with Matt and I. We were really honored they'd spend such a special day with us and this crazy town. They stayed in peaceful Beverly Hills, but got a great tour from plenty of cab drivers and Matt.

Today we made some chicken and vegetable stock, added shrimp shells and made a lovely seafood soup. In the broth we added galangal, ginger, tomato, fish sauce, and lemon grass. Inside the bowl goes some rice noodles, shrimp, leftover black sea bass from my dinner at Providence, lobster from Jeary's leftovers, and some fish balls and fish cakes from the Korean market. Its topped with cilantro, pickled serranos and radishes, fried onion and shallots, peanuts, and roasted chillies. The platter of veggies that accompanied it was Mizuna mustard greens, purple mustard greens, romaine lettuce, thinly sliced celery, and lemon.

Nothing like a nice hot bowl of soupy goodness. Its fulfilling and cleansing!

You would never would have thought that on their actual anniversary day, we'd have dumpster dived for flowers, popped into Chinatown, a weird Korean Galleria, and then right into a Rolls Royce to an awesome dinner at Providence. We ate so much incredible seafood this weekend. The best seafood weekend ever!!!

This is N/Naka. This is by far, one of the BEST meals I (we) have ever had. This is a kaiseki experience. Which is about enjoying the moment, the seasonal ingredients, and highlighting the ingredients through traditional and modern techniques. Also, a buddhist experience. She threw that in somewhere, and I thought it sounded pretty good. We got the 9 course, and every bite was insanely beautiful and delicious. Absolutely loved it. It could possibly be the best meal ever. This is something we would never be able to recreate. Chef Nakayama, she's an artist!

Providence was unique and delicious as well. It is seafood fusion. They were also a seasonal ingredients kind of place, and everything was stellar. The uni, soft poached yolk and caviar was amazing. The salmon skin and smoked trout dip, incredible. It was a perfect anniversary dinner. They even had a message for us on the menu!

The Inner Pierogie Gramma in Me and Zen

2013-04-18T12:02:00.003-07:00

This week the Seikel parentals are coming to Los Angeles for a visit, and also to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary!! How awesome is that?? With that being said, we will not have time to cook in the kitchen.

The fridge is taunting me with all these goodies from the farmer's market. A huge pet peeve of mine is to have food go bad in the fridge. Hate it. Pierogies freeze really well. So the inner Polish gramma in me wants to have a dance in the kitchen with pierogies.

I got this pierogie dough recipe from www.tastingpoland.com. I was on a chowhound.com forum and everyone said it was legit. I was questioning his recipe because all the other recipes called for eggs and yogurt. But apparently, the real deal is simple, and it tastes just as good and better. I added more water because it was just way too dry. YOu want it kinda like pasta dough, but smoother and more elastic.

Pierogie dough: yields about 30

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix roughly with 3/4 cup boiling hot water. Let it rest for 5 minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon olive oil

3/4 cup cold water

Roughly mix again, and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Knead it in the stand mixer for about 7 minutes until nice and smooth. Add more water or flour as needed.

You can pretty much stuff pierogie dough with anything. Here are the 4 that I chose to make.

Top right: Mizuna mustard greens with peas, onions, garlic, a little potato, and turemic

Swiss chard, onion, and garlic sauteed until done.

Mashed potatoes with caramelized onion and a little yogurt

Beets, mizuna mustard greens, onion, garlic, and mace.

By having all your fillings ready for the dough. Zen can begin.

I love this kind of cooking. There's a zen like I experience in the kitchen when I do this kind of work. I find that keeping an organized and clean kitchen while working makes for a peaceful cooking experience, even though Nancy Sinatra is in the background singing about killing her boyfriend if caught cheating.

It looks tedious, but its sooo fulfilling to eat and to make. I just love making little pockets of food. Its like packaging a perfect bite every time. I hate wasting stomach space on bad food. That's why its important to have a perfect bite.

Delicate and so delicious.

Radish green pesto. Its actually really good. Its very earthy with a hint of radish. Its made just like basil pesto, but with a little honey. I thought it needed a little balance from the slight bitterness. It'll be great with some pasta and roasted tomatoes!

For dinner, heaven. Vietnamese cuisine is very interactive. I think most Asian cuisines are. Hot pots and grills. This is Bo Nuong Vi, which basically means beef cooked on a hot plate. Our cooking device is from Costa Rica. I got it, well actually I stole it from my sister, when we went to Costa Rica 10 years ago to learn spanish. Its the best!

The setup:

Thinly sliced beef bottom round

sliced onions

butter

oil

rice noodles

rice paper

greens: Romaine lettuce

purple mustard greens

mizuna mustard greens

Thai basil

cilantro

cucumber

pickled radish

Condiments: Nuoc Cham fish sauce

peanut sauce (my version has a little vinegar & spice)

Nhan's Duong's sriracha

Once you get this thing going, all the onions get super caramelized and the meat gets a nice char on it. Your house is filled with amazing smells making all your neighbors super jealous ( we ate with the windows open). The butter browns and just makes everything tasty as can be. Yum!! Love this! We had Full Sail Amber and Anchor Steam beers with dinner and it was soo good. Viet food is great with beer. Reminded us of how fun it was to eat in Vietnam with my family. All the food interaction. The drinking, some of the most festive and fun.

Matt's mega spring roll! I started to eat mine Korean style with just the lettuce instead of the rice paper, and also rice instead of noodles. We started to run out of rice products, but I love it both ways.

We were inspired to eat the spring rolls this way because it highlighted the delicious beef, and it was also a good way to consume all of our greens in its purest form. Delicious!!!

Dedicated to the Farmers of California, bees, and Strawberry Day!

2013-04-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

Its looking like Cali and Oklahoma made a trade. Oklahoma gets earthquakes and California gets a bunch of wind. What gives? Its been really cold here, but it doesn't stop us from making sunny foods. Its also a good time to take advantage of warm comforting foods. This morning Matt and I took a look at our huge box full of strawberries and thought, "today is strawberry day". Before we make our strawberry jam, we make mini eclairs. The recipe is similar to gougeres. We didn't have butter or milk, so we replaced it with yogurt, which gave it a really interesting flavor, and was totally delicious.

Mini Eclairs: makes about 20

1/4 cup yogurt

1/4 cup water

5 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 large eggs

whipped cream

finely chopped strawberries

Bring the wet ingredients to a simmer and add your flour. Stir it around for a few minutes until a thin film develops on the bottom of your pan. Pop it in the mixer with the paddle attachment, or hand mix. Mix it a bit to lose some of the heat, add the egg one at a time. Mix until well blended, about 1 minute. Put it into a piping bag, or a storage bag, cut or use a 1/2 inch tip. Pipe 3 inch long eclairs onto a silpat (which, if you don't have one, you NEED to!), or greased pan. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. Let it cool, slice them open, spread some whipped cream, top with a bunch of strawberries, put the top on, and dust with powdered sugar. Hell yeah!!! The tangy yogurt gives it a nice contrast to the sweet cream.

And now the jam.

This is about 2 cups sugars to 2 pints of strawberries. 1 lemon and lemon zest.

Melt the sugar in the pot slowly, add the strawberries. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes on really low heat. You can test the thickness by placing on an ice cube or a cold plate. This stuff doesn't really thicken like jam, but its sooo good on everything. You can make lemonade and cocktails with it. Pour it over desserts or yogurt.

The most adorable little succulent garden that's blossoming. I love this lil guy. We spend our mornings together now that Debo (our dog) has decided that he's perma hungover.

A new favorite! This is Ma'loubet el Betingan, eggplant and rice mold. Ma'louba means upside down in Arabic. This is a popular Palestinian dish that is layered and is flipped upside down onto a plate and is served like a cake. Its beautiful and delicious! This recipe is was inspired from Claudia Roden's book The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. I use her book, like most cookbooks, as a guide of ideas. Baking is the only time I try my hardest to follow directions. I'm horrible at it. I remember having Rice a Roni cooked the right way, and was shocked. It was much better than the way I had cooked it. I just popped it in boiling water, leaving out the saute of the rice part! That's when I realized at the age of 17, common sense may not always be right.

Ma'loubet el Betingan : Eggplant Rice Mold

stalk from 1 bundle of swiss chard

1 eggplant, about 1/3 inch and grilled

about 3 cups of chopped swiss chard

about an inch of bottom round beef, sliced

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup basmati rice, rinsed

water or tea

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

salt and pepper

Roast the swiss chard stalks in the convection oven at 450 degrees for about 5-10 minutes, until charred and cooked through. In the mean time, saute the onions until translucent. Add the beef, tomatoes, and 1/2 the swiss chard leaves. Add salt and pepper. Saute until tomatoes start to break down. Add water, I added green tea, until ingredients are covered. Place one layer of grilled eggplants on top. Sprinkle with half the rice and more chard leaves. Repeat one more time. Add more water or tea until just about the rice. Bring to a boil. Place a lid on top, and simmer at low for about 20 minutes. Flip it out onto a plate. Top it with the roasted swiss chard (or you could throw it in the pot to cook) and toasted walnuts. It was served it with cucumber Greek yogurt, tzaziki.

I love the spices used in this dish. Its a comforting smell. Eggplant and these spices reminds me of my Duong sisters. We use to always go to Travel By Taste, in Oklahoma City, and get their eggplant stew with lamb. It was never on the menu, but I grew up going there with my Persian friend's family and they showed me the ways. I believe they've extended their menu now that Oklahoma City has a palette for it.

A winner! Delicious!

Thanks to Cali Organic farmers for all of our wonderful veggies today. Also, a toast to the bees. I hope we can narrow down why you are dying, even though its most likely linked to Monsanto seed bank. Monsanto is going to kill us all. Stay away from Vietnam you assholes!!! And Vietnam, don't be an idiot and work with them, they introduced Agent Orange to your country! Here's an interesting article.

http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/should-monsanto-be-allowed-to-bring-genetically-engineered-crops-to-vietnam/

Hollywood Farmers Market!!!

2013-04-14T23:28:00.003-07:00

Sunday Funday! The morning started out by falling asleep as the the sun was rising, to waking up and taking a lovely walk to the Hollywood Farmers Market. Some wonderful gals and I were down there enjoying some breakfast, and somehow managed to catch the tail end of the produce section of the farmers market. I'm glad we did! Just about everything was a dollar and all organic, it was incredible!!! I thought my $30 wasn't going to get me very far, but I came back with more than I needed and money still in my wallet. I got us some cardoon, which is an artichoke thistle, candy radish, and 2 Vietnamese greens that I can't remember the name. I'll find out, don't you worry! Also got some beets, swiss chard, and Piri Piri hot sauce.

On top of all these farm fresh goodies, we went to the Bangluck Grocery store yesterday and stocked up on our Asian herbs and goods. Our fridge is busting at the seams with veggies! We also went to our international market, Jons, and got a ton of other fresh goods there too. Oh, and yes we picked up a nice crate of strawberries on our way home from camping. So don't miss out this week! We're gonna have some GOOOD veggie consuming.

We've had a craving for pho since returning from Vietnam. After having our soup tonight, I really feel that we've captured pho the best I've had in the states. We aren't shy about the spices and the soup is simmered for a good chunk of time to bring out the natural sweetness in the bones. So, since we've already provided the recipe for you guys, here's a little breakdown on serving. This is pho tai with marrow and tendon. Thanks meat slicer for being in our lives! Love me some pho!

When we were in Vietnam, this house served one of the best rice porridge soups, and by far the best grilled prawns. This is my cousin's house. They have the most modest house on a beautiful fruit farm. As we toasted a beer with him and praised him for his delicious soup, he informed us that my dad had given him some advice. He said to cook the bones in the soup for a long time. Guess where my dad got that advice from? Yes, that's right, his daughter. Me.

4 Year Wedding Anniversary perfectly celebrated with an adventure outdoors!

2013-04-12T19:11:00.002-07:00

One of our all time favorite things to do together is go hiking and camping. So off we go for our celebratory anniversary camping trip! It only takes 25 minutes to get outside of Los Angeles and into Malibu Creek State Park. There are also several wineries to stop into as well. Its beautiful out there and the air is so nice. We enjoyed it immensely.

For lunch we have a porterhouse served with a roasted chili panzanella salad. The porter house is a perfect cut for Matt and I to share because I get the delicate filet side and Matt gets the fattier side. Grilled perfect simply seasoned with salt and ground ancho chili!

Grilled Poblano Chili Panzanella (serves 2)

6 slices to French Bread

1 poblano

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1 red bell pepper

1/4 lemon juice

2 tablespoon olive oil

salt & pepper

Grill the bread, onion, and poblano. Or you can stick it in a 425 degree oven until the bread is lightly toasted and the chili and onions are cooked with color. While that cooks, saute garlic with the olive oil. After the veggies have grilled chop it up and squeeze the lemon juice on top. Tear up the bread and toss with the veggies. Let it soak and sit for about 10 minutes.

Amazing combo! The thought of eating a steak with a loaf of bread sounded WAY too lame for a celebratory lunch!

After enjoying the "pink" moment, which it really was pink, and a delicious bottle of champagne, its BBQ chicken time! The chicken was simply doused with Matt's homemade bbq sauce which is really unique and I think ethnic people really love it for its uniqueness.

It was served with grilled chillies stuffed with cheesy grits, grilled zucchini and onions. And we grilled up some ham while we waited for the chicken. It was AMAZING!!!!

I highly recommend Malibu Creek State Park to anyone that lives in L.A. Its so close and awesome! We woke up to the most amazing bird activity, and also saw 2 bright green parrots near the river. Weird.

A Day Dedicated to Mint.

2013-04-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

We still have a huge bag of mint that we had purchased for Easter brunch. I hate to throw food away. What a waste! You guessed it, part of my up bringing. My sister babies her veggies. She's just like me. We wash everything before putting them away in the fridge. She goes an extra step with special containers for all her herbs and greens. You open a Duong gal's fridge and you will almost always find fresh goodies in there.

This pasta salad was inspired by everything in our fridge. Most of all mint. I'm gonna call this a

Greek Pasta Salad

2 shallots

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

1/2 red bell pepper

1 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped mint

1 lb spiral pasta, cooked

1/8 cup toasted walnuts

1 avocado

1/2 cup crumbled Greek feta

6 olives, chopped

dressing:

1 lemon

3/4 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper.

Toss it together and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours to marinade and get cold. After its lil rest in the fridge, give it a taste and decide if you need more olive oil, or citrus. This will be great with a good can of yellowtail tuna packed in olive oil.

Of course, my next natural thought to eating mass amounts of mint is either in a Vietnamese vermicelli bowl, or spring rolls. We went with vermi bowls. The salmon recipe almost resembles a teriyaki, but with much more depthy flavors.

Vietnamese salmon with ginger caramel sauce: 2 large filets

Sauce:

4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 inch ginger, grated (freeze the ginger, and it makes it easier to grate)

1 lemon grass stalk

1 garlic clove

4 tablespoons hot water

3 tablespoon good quality fish sauce

In a pan, bring the sugar to a boil, preferable medium to medium low. Once it starts to change color, a deep caramel color, add the water. The sugar cooks fast, so work fast with the water. Its also really hot, so beware! Stir that together and add the rest of the ingredients. Let that simmer for about 5 minutes on low. If you can manage to taste it, add more water if its too salty, or add more fish sauce if its too sweet. But there should be a good balance of sweet and savory, a little on the sweeter side.

Pat the salmon dry. On a hot oiled pan, add the salmon, and then spoon on the sauce. We topped it with the lemongrass for the hell of it. It might have added more flavor! Popped it in the broiler for about 4 minutes and it was done. The skin was crispy and the sugar slightly candied on top.

It is freaking awesome. I think salmon is one of my favorite things to eat with vermicelli bowls and spring rolls. This salmon in particular was SOO good. LOVE! Speaking of love, I've had a few emails about the Pearl's Matty Woo vermicelli bowl. Are they gonna bring it back?? I hope so! They use Italian vermicelli noodles, which I think tastes great as well. If not, here's one to make at home!

Tina, I hope the asshole that stole your laptop from the car is caught or hit by an old person driver. Oh, and I wish the same thing upon the person that stole yours too Charlie. Good luck guys.

Mini What? Breakfast sandwich and turkey sandwich, that's what! Along with L.A eating and Veggie Penne

2013-04-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

A food rejoicing weekend. My sister Tina and dear friend Jon Findley are visiting, and I am off my "bland" diet! Booze and food smothered the weekend! Right before we pick up Tina at the airport we chop up some veggies from the fridge and cook a very simple pasta dish, but oh so good! SO good! First, we roasted the swiss chard stalk and carrots in the oven until tender and colored at the edges.

Secondly, the onions, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, chard, and basil are sauteed. After everything had a good sweat, a little tomato sauce and quail stock was added. In goes the al dente penne pasta and also a nice stir. The roasted veggies are sprinkled on top and along with dollops of Greek yogurt. It was baked in a 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes, covered.

Its SO good. The roasted veggies and sauteed veggie combo almost give it a meatiness that will make carnivores forget this is vegetarian. When the yogurt is baked, it takes on a ricotta texture. I'd totally make this again. And what is up with all this wind???

Mini egg sandwich. We're still working on our bucket of eggs leftover from Easter egg cake. Luckily Jon and Tina got an endless amount of egg tacos and burritos as a late night snack! Almost gone!

We had the BEST egg sandwich out of a cart in Vietnam. The eggs were cooked in lard and flipped a few times without breaking the yolk. It was then stuffed into a baguette with pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber, cilantro, peppers, chilli paste, and soy sauce. Man! Best egg sandwich I've ever had. This one comes in second. Homemade ciabatta, soft scrambled eggs, yogurt on the bread, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, baby chard and kale leaves, sriracha, and soy sauce.

Hell yeah!

Tina thinks she doesn't really like sandwiches. So she's getting another 101 on sandwich building. We've got Columbus black pepper turkey (delicious!! I may choose it over Boars Head), homemade pesto, avocado, tomato, baby greens, salt and pepper. Voila!

Yum!

This weekend we ate the world. We had delicious Thai food at Palms. Green peppercorn venison, and red snapper with a green mango and fish sauce topping, just to list a few. Soot Bull Jeep, which is by far one of the BEST Korean BBQ spots. They have the the only hardwood charcoal grills, and the most delicious squid. Its smoky, but good god its worth it French food at Little Next Door. Perfect French onion soup and beef bourguignon, and also a beautiful atmosphere. Tapas at AOC, cheap on the succulent pig, but the chicken was a monster that was tasty. El Carmen for delicious margaritas and ceviche. Terroni with the most perfect steak and an Italian truffle pasta dish. Of course gotta hit up happy hour sushi at Kabuki with their $2 Sapporos and $3 sushi. Best is the spicy tuna salad. Its a huge salad with a nest of daikon and cucumber, a terrific dressing, and a huge pile of spicy tuna. We had great food guests that were in it to win it! No wussy eaters here.

Mini Sandwiches are BACK! French Dipped Au Jus and Avo Salmon visit the house...

2013-04-03T21:21:00.003-07:00

The sweet tooth has kicked in. I've almost been booze free for 12 days. The sugar monster has arrived. How am I going to use all those eggs we have left over from our Easter egg filled cakes? Waffles. These are oil less waffles. Lil D's still got sensitive stomach with a craving for sweets.

Yogurt Waffles : makes 4 large waffles

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

a shy tablespoon of sugar

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

2 eggs (1/2 cup egg)

3/4 cup Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk it all together. Fire up the waffle iron. Spray it down and distribute about 1/4 cup per waffle, depending on your iron. We've got fat grooves, so it was a heaping 1/4 cup. While those cook up, slice up some strawberries. When they are done, top with strawberries, whipped cream and maple syrup. Yummmm!!

We need bread for the au jus dipped roast beef sammies. Of course its gonna be homemade! We attempted to cheat and went to the Gelson's supermarket near the casa. All they had were thick dense loaves. What a waste of stomach space. There's too much good food to waste it on shitty food. That's right, mini sammies are back!

Well hello there, the BEST roast beef au jus sandwich that was ever made in Los Angeles! Possibly anywhere really. The bread got a nice slather of horseradish. Thinly sliced roast beef was quickly dipped into really hot homemade jus.

Served with a bowl of jus. High Five!

Bread really highlights the good ingredients in all well made sandwiches. I'm a bread nazi in our house. Don't get me wrong, I do love good old white bread, or presliced breads. Not for awesome things like this.

Another heavenly sandwich. Smoked salmon with slices of avocado, tomato, red onion, cucumber, lemon, salt, and pepper. mmmM

Best Beef Au Jus hits Hollywood Hills

2013-04-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Lovely morning in the hills of Los Angeles. Today we are finally consuming the beef jus that was made a few days ago from the roast beef event. Los Angeles has a lot of French dipped sandwiches. We've been to the infamous Phillipe's. Its got the history, but does not have my loyalty. Then there's Cole's, the "orginators" of the French dip. I walked by there today in downtown, and it looked like a great place to have a lot of beers and a French dip sammy. I will give it a whirl next time I'm down there.

So after Matt had made his roast beef, which was baked on a baking sheet, he deglazed it with hot water, scraped up all the goodies, and placed the previously roasted garlic and onions back into the pan. The pan was stuck in the oven at 250 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Strained it and reserved was a beautiful coffee colored jus.

Here we have the rare roast cut about 1/8-1/4" thick and heated up in the beef jus.

For dinner we have a roast beef au jus with Greek yogurt mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, and roasted swiss chard stems. Don't throw those suckers away, they are really tasty! Yum yum!

Make an adventure of your day! Its what makes life so good!

Happy Easter! March 31st 2013

2013-03-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

Matt and I do really well hosting Easter! I think we host awesome food parties, but I really feel like we Easter is way fun. A few years ago, we had the Seikel and Tibb family over and made mini potato cakes with sour cream and cavier, eggs baked in cream, green bean bundles with proscuitto, French bread, and blood orange mimosas. Today we are having our L.A family over for brunch!

We prepare the bagels, rare roast, and dessert the night before to make our lives easier.

I started this bagel recipe a few days ago. This is from the Bread Bible. If anyone knows anything about the Bread Bible, it has A LOT of steps. I'm use to it, so I stuck with it.

Step 1: The sponge. 1 teaspoon yeast, 2 1/4 cup room temp water, 3 cups flour.

Whisk until smooth.

Step 2. Flour mixture: 1 cup & 3 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon yeast, 1/2 tablespoon malt powder, 1/2 tablespoon sugar & salt, 1.2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix that and sprinkle on top of the sponge & let rise at room temp for 1-4 hours, and then pop in the fridge for about 24 hours.

Step 3. Knead in stand mixer for about 10 minutes.

Step 4: Let it rise for about 2 hours or until doubled, and then deflate it by punching and the turn it. refrigerate until ready to use.

Step 5: Cut it into portions, about 10-14 bagels. Shape. I do the rolling method because its prettier and gives it s chewier texture.

Step 6: In large pot of boiling of water add 2 tablespoons molasses and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Boil the bagels about 2 minutes per side. The longer the boil, the thicker the skin.

Step 7: Glaze with mixed egg white and water and top it whatever you want.

Step 8: Bake in a 450 degree oven about 20 minutes.

My break down is pretty rad. I think I may have to print this out and use it next time.

Delicious! Always best fresh out of the oven.

Matt's first rare roast! One of his favorite things to eat, but some reason never made. This is in memory of Crescent Market.

Rare Roast Beef:

A HUGE piece of beef bottom round, about 8-14 lbs! Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Trim the chunk of beef, saving the fat. Top it with sliced onion and cloves of garlic, and lots of black pepper. Top it with the trimmings and then cover with foil. Bake it at 5 minutes per pound and then shut off the oven and let it sit in there for an hour. Take it out, let it rest for about 15 minutes and then you can carve into it. Now you can salt it. Salting ahead of time will dry it out!!

It got stuck it in the fridge, and then sliced in the meat slicer. Perfect thin slices of beautiful rare roast. A big hit!

I found this recipe online while looking for an angel food cake recipe on www.cupcakeproject.com !! This was too adorable and fun to turn down. Its a cupcake in an egg! My cake recipe kind of turned into a pound cake because I lost some of my butter, so I eye balled some olive oil into the recipe. I also added yogurt instead of sour cream. One thing that Ishould mention when making these. If the cake batter over flows, you will have an ugly egg. It strips the color off of it! Other than that, amazing!!!

Hollow the eggs, this makes 10..I somehow made only 8. I'm a horrible dessert maker, but apparently not that bad! They were delicious. Soak them in salt water for 30 minutes, after rinsing them. Then dye your eggies. Let it dry. While they dry make the cake.

1 egg, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/8 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, pink salt, 1/4 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter (room temp).

Mix that together. Put it into a piping bag, if you don't have one a large zip lock worked for me, cut the tip off. Fill it about 3/4 inch high. Then wedge them upright with some foil and bake at 350 for about 20-23 minutes.

These were served with whipped cream and strawberries. Hell yeah!!

Bagels were served with smoked salmon, cream cheese, yogurt, tomatoes, cucumbers, capers, red onion, and lemons.

Matt's oh so popular pasta salad. It has radishes, red bell pepper, green onions, tomatoes, basil, and dressed with white wine vinegar, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. We also had a zucchini salad with feta and dressed with lemon, honey, mint, and olive oil. Of course, our amazingly beautiful plate of rare roast with deviled eggs. Kept the deviled eggs super simple with Greek yogurt, sweet relish, salt and pepper. Topped with a little sriracha and green onion.

It was a beautiful day with over cast and also a light shower.

The spread!

A beautiful day! A toast to Jesus coming back from the dead (which technically makes him a zombie), spring, flowers, bunnies, sweets, and a reason to get together. Cheers!

March 29th 2013, Vermicelli Bowl

2013-03-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I think I'm totally straying from this damn "bland" diet, but isn't cutting out caffeine, booze, fried food, and acidic foods enough? My stomach thinks so. This is a REALLY great vermicelli bowl. Here's a recipe for the best tofu.

16 oz firm organic tofu

marinade

1/8 cup finely chopped lemongrass (we chop a bunch in a food processor and keep it in the freezer)

about 1/2 inch grated ginger (frozen ginger is easier to grate and also makes the skin edible)

1 tablespoon dark soy

1 tablespoon soy

1 tablespoon high quality fish sauce

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 clove of grated garlic

Lay your block of tofu on a kitchen towel, and cover it. Place a slightly heavy weight on top to draw out some of the moisture, for about 45 minutes. Slice the tofu 3/4 inch thick and lay in a casserole dish and cover it with the marinade. Let it soak for 30 minutes. Then bake in the convection oven at 400 degrees until browned, about 15-25 minutes.

All of the veggies and herbs in our fridge are always washed and ready to go. It makes cooking so much easier and funner. We now have a vermicelli bowl tupperware going with cut veggies. We can consume a bowl anytime we want. In there we've got, red leaf lettuce, herb mixture of mint and cilantro, carrots, cucumber, and radishes. Usually the carrots and radishes would be slightly pickled with white vinegar, water, and sugar.

To serve, add some vermicelli noodles to the bowl, along with all the veggies, topped with tofu, scallion oil, and roasted peanuts. YUM!!! I ate mine with hoisin and fish sauce. Matt will eat his with nuoc cham, which is fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, and chili paste.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hPQeO040j4w/UVjiNROSiRI/AAAAAAAAH5s/EXLq-lHtATI/s640/DSC_4604.JPG

Enjoy!

Thursday, March 28th

2013-03-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

Right when you think things might be back to normal. No. But, who needs normal when your up by 5am and doing tons of awesome things. The sun rises later and sets later, its the best time of year! The birds know it. Even Debo is keen to it all.

The birds are chirping and its still dark out. For breakfast, bulgar wheat plumped up with hot tea and tossed with sauteed onion, garlic, carrot, and zucchini. Its topped with a poached egg and basil pesto.

I'm not sure if this is technically considered "bland", but this was so freaking good and didn't raise hell for me, so yes..it's "bland". We took our roasted chicken, shredded it up, and mixed it with Greek yogurt, Golden Bell Brand Curry powder, turmeric, celery, and basil leave. Served it on top of an avocado, Brown Bag OKC style. Yeah!

This is a recipe that is so simple. It never sounds exciting, but its terrific. Its like Italian minestrone, but the beans are replaced with baked tofu. You can basically take any veggie you've got, proportion it out how you like. This is a small pot, so I used one of each, besides the onion.

One small zucchini, carrot, celery stalk, potato, 1/4 an onion, a handful of crimini mushrooms, 2 handfuls of baby kale, and about 1/4 cup peas.

Saute the veggies about 1 minute each, putting into the pan the veggie that takes the longest and ending with the shortest cooking time veggie. I added the mushrooms, kale, and peas at the last 5 minutes of cooking. By cooking the potato in quarters and breaking it up at the end gives the soup and the potato a better texture. While the soup is cooking bake the tofu to draw out some of its moisture, and then toss it in the pot at then end with the other ending veggies.

Top it off with avocado, tomatoes (not me), and pesto. LOVE!

Look who we have here! The samurai! He's in Korea.

8 more days until I'm free of "bland". Can I make it? Do I even know what "bland" means? Whatever I'm doing, its working.

Yes, my outfit does look like I'm a Mortal Combat character. Coming from Vietnam, I didn't really think about Korea being 32 degrees out!! But, I did purchase some really expensive tights (which kicked ass!) and socks. Then we ate great spicy Korean food to keep us warm. Asia has amazing street food vendors. I want to own all of their gadgets.

March 26th Tuesday, Pesto and Pasta

2013-03-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

An innocent stroll to Little Tokyo for lunch ended well with our bellies, but good god! Not a ticket you plan on seeing at lunch! Beware of menus without prices. Sushi Gen, you are not my friend.

10 days left of restricted diet! Self imposed restricted diet. Gotta keep that samurai in my belly in check!

Art, music and pasta. Vegan basil pesto. No parmesan in this little guy, but he's still delicious! A little garlic goes a long way. In a food processor we process almonds (replaced the pinenuts) and 1 clove garlic until finely chopped, and then about 5 really large stems of basil. Process all of that together and then add olive oil, salt, and a lil pepper.

Next stop, 1/4 chopped onion, 2 large roasted red bell peppers (we used Mezzetta), about 1 cup frozen artichoke heart, 1/4 cup peas, and garlic sauteed up. While that heats up, boil up some noodles. We're using noodles from my dear friend Emily Petree.

My version was vegan, but Matt's version had tomatoes and parmesan. Yum! LOVE these noodles. The shape is so fun and it takes in all the flavors and pesto in so well.

One last thing! Nominate us on Saveur!!!

http://www.saveur.com/food-blog-awards/nominations.jsp

http://www.whatthehellaretheymakingnow.com

Thanks to those that have already done so!

Monday March 25th

2013-03-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

We did it! Got up at 7am!

Tonight we're having baked zucchini fried and stuffed beef tenderloin.

Zucchini Fries

2 zucchini cut into sticks, about 1/2 inch

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup panko & bread crumbs

2 egg whites

Toss the zucchini sticks in salt & flour. I found it easiest to do it in a paper sack. Dip them into egg whites and then toss them in the panko bread crumb mixture. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden. They are delicious!!

Stuffing for tenderloin

1/4 of an onion chopped

1/8 cup chopped crimini mushrooms

3-4 olives, chopped

2 large handfuls of kale

Wheat bulgar rehydrated with stock. About 1/2 to 3/4 cup stock. Add more if dry.

Saute up the onions a bit, and then add the garlic, mushrooms, and kale. Cook until kale is nice and wilted. Butterfly the tenderloin and then pound it our to a thin sheet. Salt and pepper the tenderloin. Spread bulgar wheat on top, and then the sauteed kale. Roll it up and tie it up, and then fry it up. Fry it in olive oil to keep the stomach healthy. Matt's piece had butter on it at the last minute.

Yum! served with a side of dill Greek yogurt.

I'm gonna go pass out now.

Sunday 24th March

2013-03-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

What an amazing morning. The fog reminded me of Hanoi. The air had the strongest smell of mentholatum. Vietnamese people use this green mentholatum oil for everything. From headaches to back pain. It made me feel like I should use some on my tummy. Luckily I come back to America and am experiencing stomach ailments. Acidity stabs me once again, and now the new food challenge. Alcohol free for 2 weeks, and also a "bland" diet. Bland diet doesn't have to mean a shitty diet. Lets see how far we can go with this. I'm gonna try to stick with it! I should have just stuck with Vietnamese food.

Before I introduce you to some of our take on "bland" foods, let me share with you something delicious that you can not get here in America. Huge prawns with roe still attached to them. These prawns were grilled with the shell on. The roe is sweet and unique. Its delicious.

He's a big one!

The last time I had to go "bland", tuna fish in olive oil didn't conjure up the samurai and his sharp swords in my stomach. Matt whips up some delicious tuna salad. Keeping it really simple, and that's all you need when you have good tuna. We decided to taste test Trader Joe's Albacore and Yellow Fin. Albacore had a better texture, but Yellow fin had better flavor. Both good. He added celery, olives, and Greek yogurt. My sandwich did not have tomatoes, but Matt's got tomatoes and mayo on it. We went with old school sliced bread, since its been so long, and also in memory of our Ghana friends who crave old school sandwiches. Yum!

Chao, a.k.a Vietnamese congee, a.k.a rice porridge with goi, aka a shredded salad. This rice porridge is made with homemade chicken stock and jasmine rice. Toast the rice before cooking in the stock. It gives the chao a much more interesting flavor and texture. The goi is shredded roasted chicken, celery, carrot, and baby kale. Served with a side of fish sauce, or nuoc cham. Goi usually has interesting herbs and cabbage in it, but we worked with what we got! Oh, and "bland" diet, no spicy..so obviously that plate of nuoc cham was Matt's.

The interesting thing about goi in Vietnam was all the different types we had. We had palm, banana stalk, banana flower, coconut, cucumber, and cabbage. All of them always had the herb rau ram (Viet coriandar), and other herbs.

We promise to not bore you with "bland" food.

Friday...I think..a picnic

2013-03-24T01:02:00.002-07:00

Before we left for Vietnam, I had this urge to try different ways of using bulgar wheat. We went to a middle eastern shop and bought a ton of it. That same week New York Times had a whole section on different recipes for bulgar wheat. What a coincidence! Still haven't gone to the grocery store, so this is pretty impressive coming from a kitchen that hasn't been used in weeks. Pinto beans cooked in a tomatoey chipotle chili sauce served on top of bulgar wheat and topped with a pickly cabbage slaw. The wheat bulgar was treated like couscous. I poured hot tea over it and covered it with a plate. If you find it too dry add more hot liquid. Delicious!

Our schedules are still pretty messed up, but that's fine by us. We're artists. The night time is our favorite time to work. So, if you have tried to get a hold of us during the day, we are most likely asleep by 5pm but up by 11pm.

First day back and we are headed to a potluck picnic! FUN! Debo's happy his parents are home to take him all over town again. Our potluck is a vinegar based potato salad. We walked to the store and decided to shop for all the heaviest items to carry home. Real smart.

One shallot sliced thin

a few pickled peppers..like 5

1 large roasted red bell pepper from a jar

5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried dill

5 potatoes sliced and boiled

small handful of chopped parsley

We were asked "So are you tired of Vietnamese food?" Answer, hell no!

Back in the U.S.A!

2013-03-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

We ate our way through Vietnam. It was exciting to travel with our friends Jennifer Bryant and Scott Robertson who have been living in Ghana for the past two years. They jumped right in and I couldn't think of anyone better to travel with. They had been deprived of an expansive amount of freshness and flavors, so it was fun to to have people equally excited to eat as much as possible. Our crew of 5 was the best group to have to eat all that Vietnam had to offer. We broke down the walls of family member's shyness by downing beers with an uncle at 8am. After that day, word spread about us and everyone wanted to host a feast for us with lots and lots food, beers, and joyful toasts by yelling "YO!".

Half of the food pictures aren't even on here. Tina took many that I still need to get from her. Street food ranged from the most awesome looking grills that cooked marinated meats for vermicelli bowls, to small tables and chairs for soups, to crispy Vietnamese crepes.

Houses served amazing things such as huge wild prawns, some of the best fishes from the ocean, hot pots with a variety of seafood and veggies, amazing duck raised right in their yards, and tons of delicious Vietnamese comfort foods. I think we all agreed that the best time we had was being in the Mekong Delta with my family. Nothing better than home cooked meals. That's why when someone invites you to visit them in another country, you go. The experience is never the same when you get the experience from the inside. Its incredible.

We were in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay area and ate lots of the northern Vietnamese cuisine as well. We were on a boat for 2 days and they cooked meals for us. The food up north seemed to be a bit more like Chinese food with more stir fries, heavier sauces, and more fried food. The best soup they had up north was the Bun Rieu. We went to some of the "best of's" of Saigon and Hanoi, and you wouldn't have known it if you didn't know someone or ask, because half of them didn't have any signs, or looked really scary to eat at!

Oh! Jenn and I did cook something. Jiffy Pop! The kids loved watching it grow, and also thought it was too salty.

We are back and ready to cook. Vietnam is definitely a place you NEVER get tired of the food. Its too diverse!

Possibly last post while in Vietnam March 5, 2013

2013-03-06T00:03:00.000-08:00

This could possibly be our last post while we are in Vietnam. I will try my best to keep you all posted on anything we get the pleasure to cook or partake in. We spent our evening with WONDERFUL company, Alyssa from Suppin Good and Kamal a great musician. We had all American fare to prepare us for our departure. Incredible hamburgers from Golden State. SOO good!!!

Also, we were announced the Feature Blog of the Day on Foodista!!!! We got a new badge on our blog! Check it out!

We end the fridge today with larb, a Thai and Laos dish that is so good and so simple. When we get it at one of our favorite Thai places in L.A, its usually ground chicken. We thawed out some beef tenderloin the night before and decided to make larb. Naturally, the only thing fresh in our fridge is 3 serrano peppers and cabbage.

Its really easy to make. Use ground pork, chicken, chopped or ground beef. All season to taste, just like anything else you cook.

In a hot pan with oil, add garlic, peppers, and then ground or chopped meat. Then add some fish sauce, when its just about done cooking, add lime juice and finish it off with roasted rice powder. We use lemon on everything now because that's what Matt harvests in the neighborhood. Rice powder is REALLY easy to make. I bought it thinking I didn't know what it was, curiosity. When I tasted it, I knew instantly. We use it in Viet dishes too! Its superb stuff!! LOVe IT!

Served with big leaves of cabbage to wrap up and eat. So good!! Larb! Laap! This dish is Laos and Thai, wanted to make sure Laos got the credit it deserves for this simple and tasty dish. If we had green onion, onion, cilantro, and mint...you'd see those bad boys in there.

Try it!! Its really good and sooooo easy!!!

3 days to go! Mon March 4th

2013-03-05T00:27:00.001-08:00

Nothing like sleepless nights creating art and music just days before we go on an epic adventure. Hope all goes well and no one gets sick!

Still living on very very minimal amounts of food in the kitchen. Even the pantry is starting to look a little slim. Need to stock it up a little for our wonderful Debo sitter. This is probably the longest I've gone without a colorful variety of veggies to choose from in the fridge. It is a huge pet peeve of mine to have one color palette food. For instance, chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. Too white and brown. So I have to order a side salad to enjoy next to it, dressed with tabasco and oil or lemon and oil. Color!

We have pappardelle with fra diavolo sauce by Silver Palate for lunch. Topped it with the tiniest bit of parsley and Matt's crimini confit. Delicious!!! I do compliment our pantry and jarred products in the fridge.