Local Fave.

Carmella Ice Cream. 

Amazing flavors. Organic and natural ingredients. AND they let you have as many samples as you want at the Farmer's Market..... I have an endless pit of a stomach, so that to me is definitely a plus.

Favorite Flavors:
Salted Caramel
Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean
Mint Cacao
Lavender and Honey

To name a few........

What: Carmella Ice Cream

Where: Hollywood Farmer's Market. DomainLA (the best wine shop EVER!)

Why: Organic, delicious, creative flavors, local.

Annnnnnd..... if you can buy it at the Farmer's Market, not only are you supporting local businesses, but it's healthy, too..... right? No?

Roasted Sweet Potato Sliders

Ok. I am literally so bored of being sick on my death couch that I have been scrolling through my phone making fun of myself for the fact that 85% of my pictures are not of my loved ones or maybe my pets like a normal girl.....


No.
85% of all 1,987 pictures on my iphone are of food. 


FOOD. 


Pictures of that day last November when I thought it would be appropriate to bake 7 pies and cornbread in one day because I had the sniffles.


Pictures of chile, and tributes to Julia Child in my lovely dutch oven. 
Pictures of cookies, and cupcakes, and meatloaf.....
Tamales, BBQ, cheese, chinese food and ice cream.


I have a problem. 


However, amongst all of the visual proof that I may possibly commit suicided one day by in fact sticking my head in an oven- not out of pity,  but to make sure I got every last cookie crumb out of there.... I ran across a gem. 

roasted sweet potatoes topped with goat cheese salad.

Ingredients:

2 pounds sweet potatoes

4 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup toasted and cooled pecan halves
2 shallots
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon dried cranberries
3 ounces goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard

Method:

Wash and cut sweet potatoes into 1 inch coins.Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and roast about 30 minutes at 450 degrees turning 1/2 way through to get even color on both sides. 

While the potatoes are roasting, combine finely chopped shallots, chopped celery, chopped pecans, minced cranberries, chopped parsley, and crumbled goat cheese.

In a small separate bowl, combine dijon mustard and red wine vinegar. Slowly add olive oil while whisking continuously and then add half of the vinaigrette mixture to the chopped ingredients. Mix everything together and top each sweet potato coin with a spoonful of the goat cheese salad. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the coins and enjoy..... seriously enjoy. 

This is one of my favorite appetizers. Ever. They don't keep well, so eat them all.... like I do. 

Lemon Curd Pie with Italian Meringue

I have pneumonia. 

And a sinus infection. 

And bronchitis..... 

I know, right? Who gets this sick that isn't 105 years old? 

So, while lying on my death couch is kind of awesome because I am catching up on some seriously awful T.V. and some much needed blogging, my brain is not really working and the thought of coming up with clever little stories to start each post out with kind of makes me want to cry. 

That was the longest run on sentence EVER.... I blame the infection in my lungs. See what I did there? 

Please excuse my lack of creativity and just focus on how perfect my recipes are and the fact that my pictures are stunning. Thanks. 

While you are focusing on all of my sensational blogging qualities, can someone please call my boyfriend and remind him that deep down under all of the tissues and prescription bottles is actually a pretty girl who normally showers and dresses nice and sometimes even puts on a little mascara. Someone please just remind him that I will be back to pretty soon. Thanks.... again. 

lemon curd pie topped with italian meringue.

Ingredients:

For the Crust

1/2 pound butter

3 oz sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2.25 oz eggs

12 oz pastry flour (all purpose is also fine)

For the Lemon Curd

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

7 oz sugar

zest of 2 lemons

5.5 oz lemon juice

2 oz unsalted butter

For the Italian Meringue

4 oz egg whites

8 oz sugar

2 oz light corn syrup

Water as needed

Method:

Begin by making the pie dough. Combine the butter and sugar in a kitchen-aid mixer or with a hand mixer until smooth and no clumps of butter. Add the eggs and salt. Mix in the flour. Mix everything until smooth, but do not over mix. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until consistency is workable. I was in a hurry and threw mine in the freezer for an hour and it was perfect. Once the dough has rested, place it between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper and roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick and large enough to fit in the pie baking dish. Mold the dough int the baking dish. Using your thumb and index finger, crimp the edges of the pie dough and trim off any extra dough. This takes practice.... visit Sur La Table if you are lazy- they have a dough cutting tool that does the same thing. FIll the pie crust with pie weights and bake in a 350 oven until golden brown. About 10 minutes. Set aside.

To make the lemon curd, combine the eggs, yolks, sugar and zest. Whisk together and add the lemon juice. Put the mixture in a double boiler (or in a bowl over a put of boiling water) and stir continuously with a spatula until the mixture thickens. This will take 8 minutes or so and the mixture should be able to lay on top of itself. Strain the mixture over butter, let the butter melt, mix gently, and pour into the pre baked pie shell. Let cool completely before topping with meringue. 

While the pie is cooling, prepare the meringue. Dissolve corn syrup, sugar, and a tiny bit of water in a pan. Bring the mixture to 220 degrees (measure with a candy thermometer.) When the sugar reaches 220, begin whisking the egg whites in a kitchen-aid mixer or with a hand mixer. The eggs should begin to start frothing and forming soft peaks. When the sugar mixture reaches 240 degrees and resembles a thick syrup, remove it from the heat and slowly whisk it into the egg whites. Continue whisking for 8-10 minutes until the egg whites form stiff, shiny peaks and the meringue has cooled. 

Spoon the meringue into a piping bag (I use ziplock bags so that I can dispose of them afterwards) and using a large star tip, pipe the meringue on to the top of the lemon curd pie. If you do not have all of the equipment, you can just spoon the meringue on top of the pie, but it will not look as pretty as mine. Using a blow torch, brown the top of the meringue. You can also do this in the oven under the broiler, but I find it makes the meringue turn grey rather than golden.

*note: the lemon curd can be jarred and given as gifts, served with other desserts, on top of ice cream.... seriously whatever. It is amazing by itself. 

I included links to all of the tools that I used to make this..... obviously they are not all necessary or as expensive as my suggestions, but if you want a kitchen as fabulous as mine, it is time to make an investment. (Cheaper versions of the same thing can probably be found, but I made sure to point out all of the ones that I want... and those are pricey.)

Burrata and Black Truffle Crostini

My two favorite things ever= truffles and burrata.
I am a real pricey pain in the ass, I am aware (as is my boyfriend.)

So, one can imagine my enthusiasm when I saw burrata and truffle crostini on the menu at Osteria Mamma in Hollywood.

Served with prociutto and arugula, it is pretty much the only thing I ever want to eat again. That good.

Wonderful wine, amazing pasta, a very cute boy..... perfect date place and SO reasonably priced.

I am a fan. A huge one.

heaven.

Ingredients:

Toasted baguette rubbed with garlic and olive oil

Burrata cheese

Black truffles

Arugula

Prosciutto

I am stealing this appetizer for every dinner party I throw for the rest of my life. 

Look forward to your invitation.... I love hostess presents. 

Strawberry Mint Ice Pops

It is hot... and getting hotter.
If I lived in Portland I would not have this problem, but alas.... here I am sweating in LA.
I am going to make popsicle (sorry, ice pop.... that's the cool grown up way to say it) making my new hobby.

Strawberry Mint Ice Pops

Ingredients:

1 pint of hulled and chopped fresh strawberries

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup of lemon or limeade

3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint*

*I use fresh chocolate mint. It is fantastic. You can find it at specialty garden stores and grow it yourself (like me.... which you should want to do) or you can sometimes find it at Whole Foods. Regular mint is just fine, though. 

Method:

Heat chopped strawberries and sugar over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Strawberries should become soft and syrupy. 

our burners seriously need to be cleaned.... scrubbed.....

Remove from heat and add lemonade. Let the mixture cool and then add the fresh mint. 

Pour mixture into popsicle molds (I bought mine at Ikea for like 2 dollars) and freeze! Mmm.

There's a holiday weekend coming up and a splash of booze would be quite nice in these! Just remember that alcohol does not freeze well (duh) so use smaller popsicle molds. 

Mojito ice pop recipe to come...... and (fingers crossed) a good story to go along with it.

Creme Brulee

I have not posted in weeks (which may feel like years because you have missed me so much)
I was going through a very very traumatic time.... actually two traumatic times.

I lost my sense of taste.
After being sick for almost a month my body decided to torture me and not let me taste a GD thing for 6 days. 6 days is almost a week and that is like an eternity, let me tell you. A chef losing their sense of taste is like Richard Keith becoming a mute..... or like a singer having their vocal chords ripped out. It was a really hard time for me. I would look at the chocolate souffle that I had flawlessly created and taste it with my mind....... it was like a death sentence. A culinary tragedy of the worst kind. I missed out on pulled pork, birthday cake, BBQ, and everything else wonderful.

Then after finally making amends with my body and being able to taste..... I chopped my finger off. Ok... not my finger, but I chopped off half of my nail, which is the very best part of a girl's finger-- especially right before having a week off from school when I am actually aloud to have a manicure. Ugh. I am sorry to all of the people that I have previously made fun of for bleeding at school.... owwwwie. I should not have made fun of you (behind your back) for hurting yourself because it really hurts and I have a very bandaged up finger to prove it.

So, while all of this drama was going on I managed to make it through the last week of my baking class and ace my finals (duh)
Even better than getting A's on all of my finals was biting into a creme brulee and actually tasting it.
I really love creme brulee.

(really delicious) creme brulee.

Ingredients:

1 quart of heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/2 cup of sugar, split

6 large egg yolks

Method:

Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out all of the pulp. Combine the pulp and the whole bean with the heavy cream in a sauce pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Take off of heat and let the cream and vanilla bean steep (infuse) for about 10 minutes. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until the color begins to lighten a little bit. This makes my arm hurt. Temper in the cream very slowly..... like a few drops at a time. Whisk mixture together and strain. 

Pour the mixture into ramekins. Place the ramekins into a shallow baking dish or cake pan and fill the dish with enough water to come half way up the ramekins. Cover the dish with foil and place in a 325 degree oven for about 25 minutes until the custard has set, but is still loose in the center.... kind of like jello. Cool and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight. 

Once cooled, dust the top of each creme brulee with sugar. Using a torch, scorch the sugar until evenly brown on top and very crispy. Let sit for a few minutes before serving so that the sugar hardens.

If you do not have a torch, you can put the creme brulees under the broiler in an oven, but this heats up the custard and does not work as well. 

We built this garden on rock and roll.

Once upon a time there was a very nice and pretty girl who lived in a tiny studio apartment with an herb garden in her windowsill.
One day she met a handsome boy who later would ask her and her two tiny yorkies to move in with him... and his two pups....and his cat.... yep..... that makes 5 animals.

The girl was so excited for her herb garden to move outside into the sunshine and she asked the boy if she could have a tomato plant to go along with it. The boy loved her very much and said she could have 2 tomato plants.... which would soon turn into 6 tomato plants, 31 strawberry plants, 8 green bean plants, 2 grape vines, blackberries, raspberries, banana peppers, bell peppers, okra, broccoli, lettuce, arugula, carrots, onions, red onions, green onions, lemons, oranges, watermelon, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, lavender, guavas, artichokes, fennel, dill, mint, chives, garlic, sage, cantaloupe, squash, and last but not least..... giant pumpkins that will be 500 pounds.

I am not kidding. Not one bit.

zucchini

strawberries

lemons

bell peppers

eggplant

grapes

yes

zucchini

heirloom tomatoes

lettuce

garden gnome. very necessary.

eggplant

i mean.....

garden gnome

jack o lanterns

raddichio

arugula

read the sign. duh.

onions

green beans

corn

watermelons

And because credit must be given where it is deserved..... my green thumb is... well, not so green. 

However, tempt a boy with homegrown veggies on the dinner table and a girl's garden will magically grow. There is nothing like fresh veggies from the garden for dinner. 

I think we should get a chicken coup.

Bacon Chip Cookies

I really want to call these Piggy Snaps, but it feels inappropriate for some reason.

I have officially jumped on the pork bandwagon. It may have been my recent dinner at ANIMAL..... omg you HAVE to go.... or maybe just the fact that bacon makes everything more delicious. But seriously- these cookies are just that. Absolutely delicious.

achin' for some bacon.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

6 strips of bacon 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp)

2 tablespoons bacon fat

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste (yes, vanilla extract will work the same, I am just a huge pain in the ass)

1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In skillet over high heat, cook the bacon until very crisp. I add a little water to the pan to make the bacon extra crispy. If it were up to me, I would have cooked the bacon until it was black and almost un-edible because that is the way that I like it, but Richard told me that I was gross and that is not the way to cook bacon for cookies. Apparently he knows everything. 

Cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and 2 tablespoons of reserved bacon fat. This is gross, but you will be so happy that you did it.

Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until just combined. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture half at a time. 

Add crumbled bacon and chocolate chips. I reserved a little extra bacon to sprinkle on top of the cookies.

Roll dough into one ounce balls and gently flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. These cookies will not rise or spread while baking, so make sure they look perfect when you put them in the oven. 

Bake on parchment paper lined trays for about 12 minutes until golden. 

oink.

Kitchen Must Haves

I am going to start posting kitchen gadgets and ingredients that you need in your kitchen. Not things that I just think you need.... you actually really need these things.

Hopefully I will do better with my "Must Haves" than I did with my "Sunday Morning" breakfast posts.

soooo vanilla.

What.

Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Products. I have Powder, Beans, Paste, and Extract. Love. 

Where.

Whole Foods, Sur La Table, Williams Sonoma

Why.

Mmmmmm.

PS. You also need a subscription to Bon Appetite Magazine (as seen in the background.) And if you haven't already- you need to go buy Gwenyth's issue because she is perfect and it is amazing. (Thank you Rachel Hoffman for the last two years of my subscription.....I finally just got my own. xx)

Cream Puffs

The only thing that is keeping me from eating a dozen cream puffs right now is knowing that I have to shoot a commercial in less than a week. Working in an industry that would rather you be skinny gets tricky in baking class. THANK GOD that I get to wear a pregnant belly while I shoot, leaving me able to eat one cream puff. Maybe two. Ugh. 

for your inner fat kid.

Pâte à Chou

1 1/4 cups of water

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

4-6 large eggs

Method:

Bring water, salt, and butter to a boil over high heat. 

Reduce heat to medium and add flour all at once and mix together to form a dough. Continue mixing for about 3 minutes to cook out the taste of flour. 

Remove dough from heat and beat in eggs one at a time until the mixture is glossy and very sticky. 

Spoon mixture into a piping bag and pipe 2 inch 'puffs' onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Be sure to give plenty of space as they will rise. 

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes until golden brown and dry. Let cool completely. 

Chantilly Cream Filling

12 oz whipping cream

Powdered Sugar and pure vanilla extract to taste

Method:

Whisk whipping cream in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks begin to form. Sift in powdered sugar and add vanilla to lightly sweeten. Spoon shipping cream into a piping bag. If you do not have a piping bag or are super lazy like me.... use a ziplock back and snip the tip off of one of the corners. This works the exact same way and then you can just toss it out after. 

Once the pastry shells have cooled, cut the top third of the puff of. This will create a little bowl which you will fill with the Chantilly cream. Replace the lid to the pastry and sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

The cream puffs have a neutral flavor that can be filled with anything......sweet or savory. 

The same dough is also used to make eclairs