Stumptown Coffee Roasters

In a few months my fellow bloggers and I are doing an event that will include a coffee tasting.  The good folks at Stumptown Coffee Roasters have already agreed to submit there coffee for this tasting. This past Labor Day weekend we went camping a perfect place to try some new coffee. Thanks to Stumptown we had the opportunity to try some amazing coffees. I'm kicking myself for not purchasing the camping coffee mugs, they are perfect. They will be going in my camping kit for the next time.

The two we tried were Ethiopia Mordecofe (I kept calling this one Mordecai, as in the bible character) and Holler Mountain.

Incidentally my fellow coffee aficionado, Gita, also gifted Ethiopia Mordecofe to me on our last visit to San Jose. She's up in Seattle and has been bragging about Stumptown for a few months. We have our own little coffee exchange, I sent her a bag of Handsome Coffee Roaster beans she brought me Stumptown.

Ethiopia Mordecofe definitely has a fruity taste. Can I say, seriously, tasting coffee out in the woods, before everyone is awake, just opens all the senses. Aaron, as in the other half of Deborah at my.life.at.playtime loved this one. He's a tea snob and after I read the flavor notes, which include black tea, orange blossom and bergamot which converge (their word) with flavors of lime, peach and hops. I told him you like it cause it has flavors of black tea. This is a good cup of coffee that everyone enjoyed. I think Gita mixed it with some Handsome Coffee and said it was mind blowingly good.

The second bag we tried was Holler Mountain, I really liked this blend. It went perfect with french toast and bacon. The flavor notes are syrupy, with notes of blackberry, hazelnut and toffee. We brewed these coffees two different ways. We used a French Press above from Target (only $12) and brewed the other in old fashion percolator.

I can't wait till the official coffee tasting where we all can take notes on each coffee and pick our favorites. I figure it's like wine or art, it's subjective and really your taste.  Thanks to Stumptown for letting me try these coffee's before the big event. I might be slightly biased now to Stumptown, which isn't a bad thing, since they'll be opening in LA very soon.

Failure Schmailure

In the essence of true transparency, I decided to try making a vegan, gluten free dessert. Why you ask? Because quite a few of my friends are vegan or gluten-free and whatever else you can think of, oh raw food eaters (not going to touch that one yet). This is the first time I've tried to make a recipe fully from scratch, I mean developing the ingredients and measurements with no guide. I probably should have started with something simpler, like with BUTTER, and real sugar. 

So as beautiful as the batter and the pluots look, this cake didn't exactly turn out right. First off I could taste the earth balance butter and secondly it wasn't sweet enough and one more thing, I think I should have put the pluots in halfway thru the process. They were so juicy the cake really never fully baked. So what I got was a pudding cake. I do have to say the pluots helped the sweetness. However, I think I'll stick to tarts for pluots and stone fruits. Next try will involve canola oil, instead of earth balance butter, and a little more sweetener and probably some almonds on top for crunch and prettiness. 

So I call this Failure Schmailure....yes I'm still trying to eat it, and yes I'll try this again. 

Almond Lemon Gluten Free Cake

I get so inspired by all the great photo's and blog post and especially about making things gluten-free. I tolerate gluten, but feel better when I don't partake of it. I saw this recipe and knew I had to give it a try. I still haven't been brave enough to try the vegan route...i just can't give up butter. This cake is really moist and very yummy. Give it a try.

Almond Lemon Gluten Free Cake
(Adapted from Cakelets and Dollies Recipe which was adapted from Donna Hay's Recipe)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract

(NOTE: if you have a vanilla bean, use that, split and scrap out the seeds to put in the mix For my recipe I didn't have a vanilla bean on hand, so vanilla extract worked great.) 1/4 tsp almond extract (because why wouldn't you want more almonds)
Zest of 4 lemons, if you want in more lemony taste you can squeeze a little lemon juice, but this is already a very moist cake so be warned.  Original recipe called for 1/4 cup lemon zest which can be about 6 lemons.
4 eggs, separated, make sure you let them get to room temperature
2 1/2 cups almond meal (Surprisingly I found this at Trader Joes, but you should be able to find in a local health food store or Whole Foods)
10 1/2 oz ricotta
Flaked almonds, to decorated and add more crunchiness
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325. Butter 8-9 inch cake round, I use parchment paper on the bottom and also butter that, it makes it easier to get the cake out of the pan.

I used my KitchenAid stand mixer, but you can also use a regular beater. Mix softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, lemon zest, vanilla (either extract or vanilla seeds from the bean), until its pale yellow and creamy. I did this for about 6 minutes (thus why i like to use my KitchenAid stand mixer). Add in the separated egg yolks one at a time, that is if you didn't already blend them all together, in that case just drizzle egg yolks in a little bit at a time.  You'll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl through out the process.

Mix in the Almond Meal. Scrape down sides and take bowl from under mixer and fold in the Ricotta.

In a separate bowl mix the egg whites until white and fluffy, slowly pour in the 1/3 cup of remaining sugar until it makes glossy soft white peaks. Gently fold in 1/2 the egg whites, you want to make this a lite and airy cake, finally fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Pour mixture into cake pan. Sprinkle almond slices over the top, I covered mine as much as possible.  Put in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. May need more time, I think I added about 8-10 more minutes to this, but test center with toothpick to make sure it comes out clean and the cake is fully baked. 

When you pull it out it look like a fluffy cake, once it cools down it deflates a bit. After it cools down dust with powdered sugar and serve. With coffee is great.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Cookies

A few years back I made the peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies above. I find this is still a go to recipe I use all the time.  In fact it was just over 4 years ago, July 15, 2009 last time I posted about it. We have an annual 3 day convention we go to every year and well I find a little treat and pick me up in the afternoon is just the thing to help me pay attention. I've adapted this recipe from a local small town Iowa cookbook. It's super easy and a great idea for something to do with kids. They can unwrap all the kisses and help put them on the warm cookies as you pull them out of the oven.

After you mix all the ingredients start hand rolling the dough into small balls.

Roll the balls into sugar and lightly coat. 

Place the rolled cookie dough onto cookie sheets and cook at 375 for 8 minutes.

Start unwrapping all your chocolate kisses while you wait for the cookies to bake. 

After first 8 minutes, take out the cookies and gently smoosh one chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Then return to the oven and finish baking for 5 more minutes, then let them cool on a rack. Then eat away, Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 c. Butter
1 c. Peanut Butter (I use Trader Joes or a Natural Peanut Butter, I've used Skippy before but i like a little more texture in this recipe).
1 c. Sugar
1 c. Brown Sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. milk (in a pinch i used Rice Milk, we never have regular milk in our house)
2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Additional granulated sugar
1 pkg of kisses

Directions: Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar; add eggs, milk and vanilla.  Sift together dry ingredients, except additional sugar and candies; add to butter mixture.   Shape into balls; roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and press and chocolate star or kiss on each cookie until the cookie cracks around the edge.  Return to oven for 5 minutes.

Stone Fruit Crumble

On one of my farmers market runs I went to get peaches and came back with not only those, but quite a few other stone fruits. This included nectarines and pluot's. The later I had never had, but wow were these sweet and juicy, bursting with flavor. I had to get a few.  I came home right away sliced and ate em. 

Every once in a while I find a new blog, to me, or a new food show, this time I found both. The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond is just so REAL, I would love to meet her in person. She has a great recipe for what she called a "Crisp." Only she made hers with peaches. I decided to combine my farmers market peaches, nectarines and pluot's that I still had on hand and put them in a baking dish below.

Zest 1/2 a lemon and squeeze the juice too over the stone fruit and if you want more sweetness add in 2 tbsp's of maple syrup (the good pure kind)

Have I ever mentioned that I someone how always pick the HOTTEST most HUMID day to bake and at the time of day that the sun is beaming into our little apartment. Well I do, at least the house always smells good, that's my excuse to SB. 

To make the topping, in a separate blow mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp salt and cut in 1/2 cup cold butter. Either do this with a pastry blender or a good old fashioned fork. I've done both, but prefer my pastry blender I got from Sur La Table a while back, this one.

Fully cover the fruit and pack down lightly. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 20-30 minutes until crunchy on top. I have gone the full 30 minutes to make sure it's nice and crunchy.

You can serve this with vanilla ice cream or vanilla Greek yogurt. I've done both and was happily content.  It's a great recipe, tested on myself and then on my friends three kids, it's a hit. Use whatever stone fruits you have on hand. Peaches are everywhere now, so take advantage of the deals and the amazing juicy fruits.  Enjoy!

Tomato Caprese Salad

A few years back there was a tomato scare in California.  For some reason this didn't stop us from buying tomatoes.  I believe there wasn't even any foundation on what the scare was.  It's a distant memory.

We love tomatoes.  Believe me this is not how it always was.  I use to HATE them, passionately.  But taste buds change and we make lots of Bruschetta with tomatoes these days.  I use to work right next to a farmers market and every Wednesday morning I would go down and buy what ever was in season.  This was how I got turned on to Heirloom Tomatoes.

SB loves heirloom tomatoes so we got the great idea of taking a big terracotta pot on our 3x9 balcony and growing our own tomatoes.  I of course like the romance of planting the seed and watching it grow.  Comes from my grandmother's green thumb and letting me plant my own radish garden in her vast yard as a child. Incidentally I don't really like radishes either but I loved this project with grandma.  So to make this long story longer, I bought two packets of Heirloom tomato seeds, Cherokee and Brandywines, and I planted them in the pot.

The packet said in 8 weeks we'd have some shoots, well more than 8 weeks went by and not a glimmer of anything.  So I put the seeds in a little bit of water and put them on the window seal.

Eventually these little roots grew and I planted these seeds.  Finally shoots appeared. Did I tell you we only have a 3x9 apartment patio. Well our friend gave us an Earthbox that you supposedly can grow anything in. SB nurtured this box and we had a Jack and the Giant Tomato Stalk...only NO tomatoes. When any appeared the bugs got to it. I think we eventually got ONE good tomato out of all that effort. We sliced, salted, olive oiled and ate it, all in one bite. That was the end of our tomato garden. I think we'll wait for that Farm we dream of, that way SB can get his chickens too.

In the meantime, I make weekly walks to the local farmers market and gather whatever is in season. I gathered these luscious heirloom tomatoes, in every color available.

This is the easiest recipe for fresh tomatoes. All you need is basil, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients & Directions:

Heirloom tomatoes (slice)

Salt

Olive Oil (make sure it's quality oil and drizzle it over the tomatoes) 

Buffalo Mozzarella (slice and intersperse with the tomatoes) 

Basil (rough chop and sprinkle on top) 

Balsamic Vinegar (drizzle)

Serve with toasted crusty bread drizzled with Olive Oil and rub with a garlic clove for extra flavor.  I prefer La Brea bakery bread, it just taste and toasts better.

Simple and flavorful. Enjoy!

Stuffed Squash Blossom

I love going to the Farmers Market, more in the summer than any other time.  It seems like the produce changes out every two weeks.  This day I ran down at the very end and saw these amazing squash blossoms and had to try them out.  The farmer gave me two full baskets for the price of one. Tip: go at the very end for good deals. Go at the beginning if you need the best and lots of it.

So I texted SB to look up a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms, I was bound and determined and knew I'd need more ingredients when I got home.  So I gathered the filling ingredients, cheeses, Ricotta and Parmesan were top on my list.  To be honest I had to look up a YouTube video to figure out how to put this together, especially taking out the innards.  YouTube it away or Bing it and you'll find the perfect tutorial.

Here's what the inside looks like of a squash blossom.

Gently pull out the stamen inside, you'll see it when you try to open the blossom.

Here's what the empty squash blossoms looked like with out the stamen.

Here's what the innard stamen's look like. No use for them, accept I thought they were pretty.

Filling had ricotta and Parmesan cheese, pinch of salt and chopped parsley.

Fully dip or immerse them in the tempura batter.

Quick fry em up. I would use grapeseed oil in the future, only thing I didn't like was the canola oil taste.

These were delicious.  Rich and cheesy and I loved the green zuchini, I would definitely leave them on when you make this.

Here's the recipe: 

Stuffing:

1 cup Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup parmessan

pinch of salt

chopped parsley

Tempura Batter: 

Canola Oil (I would use Grapeseed oil next time)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1  teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup Chilled Pilsner, lager-style beer, or club soda (I used Hanger 24 Orange Wheat Beer) - You may need more to get the right consistency.

Zucchini blossoms (stamens removed; about 16)                                            

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients together for the tempura batter. Chill for a few minutes.

Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing and set aside. I like the flavors to meld.

Gently pull the stamens from the blossoms and you can either cut the green zuchini off or leave it on. I prefer the green it was delicious. 

Gently put in about 1 tablespoon of cheese per blossom. More if it fits and delicately twist the blossom so the ingredients stay in.

Heat oil in a deep pan about 1 inch deep, needs to be really hot about 350. Test with a bread crumb. If it fries quickly then your good to go.  

Take batter out of refrigerator and mix well, may need to add more beer or club soda to get a good consistency for coating. Dip each stuffed squash blossom and fully coat in the tempura batter and start frying them up. It's a quick fry.

Make sure you turn them over to get it all fried up.  Do this in batches to make sure the oil stays hot.

Drain on a paper towel, salt and serve. Enjoy!

San Pedro Mini City Guide

Giving you all a quick break from Cuba and focusing on a cool SoCal city. Recently I spent a week in San Pedro, while i wasn't exactly a tourist, I did get to spend time in the area with quite a few of the locals.  I have to say I've driven to this city several times on my pacific coast highway adventures.  But this is the first time I really hung out in the area. Gaffey seems to be the main thorough fare from where the 110 ends at the coast.  South of Gaffey seems to be a lower income area and flatter to walk.  North of Gaffey you start getting more houses and less apartments, also at the top of hills up you can see the San Pedro harbor, I really never got tired of this view.

So I found out that there are lots of Italian and Croatian's living here, purely because at one time this was a fishing town. Back in the day there were up to 70 commercial boats in the harbor, now merely 12. So of course you'd expect to find some good fish in the area. Our friends took us to a place on Gaffey called Baja Fish, small place tucked in between a few other places. They had salmon and various fish tacos served with beans and rice, all very good. I'd go back to this place for sure, everything tasted fresh.

Baja Fish

611 S Gaffey St

San Pedro, CA 90731

While walking thru one of the neighborhoods I was startled to see a peacock on top of someones garage. Then they told me there are all over the area.  This was so bizarre to me, but seriously I saw about 25 Peacocks mostly male but I saw a few females and their chicks. It was a bit misty in the area and their calls were haunting, I felt like I was at a wild animal park.  The history goes that peacocks where gifted to the Vanderlip family and Estate which is in the area. There are quite a few in this neighborhood of San Pedro and Portuguese Bend in Palos Verdes.

Along with great fish in the area I also found an amazing Italian bakery. A few locals told me about the place.  I went in and asked what the favorites were and they pointed to the treats below: Rum Ball, Almond Cresent and Cannoli.

Amalfitano

9111 S Western Ave,

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275  

Oh my goodness, I took a bite of that rum ball on my drive home with coffee and I have been dreaming about it ever since. Dark chocolate covered rum infused cakey texture with just enough to not get pulled over for a DUI. I can't wait to go back.

Walking again in another neighborhood one of the locals pointed out this Corner Store, she loves to go here for breaks and raves about the lemon bars.  We took a quick stop had a few sandwiches, sodas and took some baked goods home. This is going to be a place I come to all the time, I would have never found it had I not been with a local. This is the best way to find out about these special little places. Some of my best dining experiences have been when I asked a local for a recommendation.

Corner Store

118 W 37th St  

San Pedro, CA 90731

At the Corner Store they have live music. On this day these guys were playing a few old tunes. The harmonica player was funny, he stopped playing for a minute to tell me he liked my hot pink shoes.  

Nothing fancy here, but feels like a family joint.  Simple fair with an easy-going vibe. 

We order the Italian Stallion: grilled chicken breast with provolone cheese, mayo, sicilian bruschetta on ciabatta roll. Tasty goodie.

Loved this view from the table.

They have a wide range of sodas in every flavor imaginable.  You can even take some flowers home. 

My friend insisted we take home some sweets, she order a Brownie, Apricot tart and Butterscotch Blonde. Wow were these delicious. Rob preferred the brownie. I was partial for the apricot tart, but the brownie was my second favorite. Again this is a place I'd returned to and hopefully very soon. Take a day and go explore this great little area. The views are great and I saw a few hiking trails along the coastal line with a historical lighthouse and park nearby. Enjoy!

Mindless Monday

After two weeks of volunteer work which is always rewarding we are back home to our regularly scheduled events....called LIFE.  Also back to my own cooking and city. I have adventures to share from one of the city's I was in for a week, to be shared later this week, i really like San Pedro.

One of my goals has been to lose a good 50 lbs.  It's been a struggle and getting older doesn't help.  So today is the day I start a 48 hour cleanse.  Why you may ask? Well one I got my annual physical test results back and my cholesterol needs to come down and if you've been following me on Instagram know I've been engaging in quite a few baked goods lately.  So this is a jump start to getting back on a normal healthy eating program with a cheat once in a while and not so daily or weekly. After this cleanse I have a good healthy eating program that has worked for me, it's really based on the South Beach diet, which I hate to call a diet, but it's a good way to eat balanced healthy meals.  For the initial cleanse I did a  little research and seemed to like Dr. Oz's suggestions the best.

Here's why I've chosen Dr. Oz's 48 hour cleanse, because:

1.  It's only 48 hours.

2. The foods he choses are naturally good for your liver and kidneys, none of this artificial stuff it's all things you can get at your local market or better yet Farmers market.

3. I thankfully work from home to make all this food.

4. I thankfully work from home for the other obvious reasons that a cleanse may cause.

I'll let you know how I feel and if it helps jump start me on the road to healthy living. Have a great week everyone.

Mango Madness

Last week when visiting our Ugandan family, they sent us off with a bag full of mango's and avocado's.  All of them were ripe so this past week I went to making anything I could with these mango's. Their in season this month. I think spring and summer fruit is my favorite, so excited about what's popping up at the farmers market these days.

I had decided first thing to make was mango salsa.  So I started off with my favorite ingredients, mint, jalapenos, cucumbers, lime juice, shallots and of course olive oil and salt.​ I finely chopped the mint, shallots and jalapenos (take the seeds out).  Cucumbers and avocados I left in chunks.  Pinch of salt to taste, some lime juice and olive oil to finish it off.  This was delicious, spicy and juicy.

Mango and mint is a great combination.​ I like the cucumber for some extra crunch.

Serve with Salmon, a cheese quesadilla, chips, or whatever you fancy.​

Do you want to know the best way to slice a mango?  Slice the bottom of it so it sits securely on a cutting board.  Then with a sharp knife slice off the skin. Finally take big slices all around the seed. Then it's up to you how to chop it.  I made chunks for the salsa, but if you want something fancy you can do nice thin slices too serve for breakfast, with vanilla yogurt would be awesome.

Next up was Mango sorbet.  I used mint in mine, but the recipe I found in my new David Lebovitz The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments">Perfect Scoop cookbook left the mint out.​

I swear that blender is 18 years old and still working.  For this receipe I used 2/3 cup of sugar, 2/3 cup of water, mint, squeeze 2 limes, 1 Tbsp of dark rum, and pinch of salt. Blend ingredients and then chill for a couple of hours.

Put chilled ingredients into your ice cream maker and follow instructions from the manual.​

Bits of mint and skin (probably better not to have the skin, but it still taste good.​

Refreshing mango mint sorbet, such a good spring dessert.​ Enjoy!

San Francisco Eats

I had one day to enjoy San Francisco. I flew in the morning, had a meeting at 12noon and then rushed off to my hotel, freshened up and taxi'd to Bar Agricole. I had great foodie friend give me some recommends. Read Dylan's amazing suggestions at Eat Drink +Be Merry, here's his San Francisco post.

Bar Agricole was unfortunately closed and we wanted a cocktail so we taxi'd to the area by our restaurant and ended up at West of Pecos. I had to go here, I hiked through the Peco's wilderness my whole childhood.​  Most cocktails on the list had mescal and tequila, not my type of liquor, though I'm thinking I might need to venture out. I settled for the bourbon drink called the Devils Tooth and I'm kind of obsessed with the big ice cube these days (see above).

Next up was a walk across the street to Bar Tartine.  Several recommends and write-ups on this restaurant. This place is not to be missed and has been nominated for a James Beard award this year. I hope they get it. Another thing I like, but can annoy most people, is the no sign on the door anywhere, it's like you have to be in the know to know this is even here.​ Annoying or cool?

Please note all images are with my iPhone, I couldn't fit my camera in suitcase so it's was the phone only on this trip.

Below is the menu, it's one of those menus you look at and really not sure what it is or if you'll like it, that's the great thing about places like this, you are forced out of your comfort zone to try new combinations and inventive cooking.  Also if your vegetarian our whole meal was all that. And we went home full.​

Suggestion was to order about 2 items per person, it was a lot of food, but glad we did, as it gave us the option of trying a variety of items.

Some of the most inventive flavors I've ever tried. The kale below was so good, nutty with tart yogurt and a surprise sesame seed tahini, plus they used yogurt dust. No idea what that is, but it was GOOD.

Next up was the goat cheese with peas and edible flowers.​ This was served with sesame seed crackers. Creamy, tasty and beautiful presentation.

The potato flat bread below was rich and filling I remember a slight smokey taste to this dish. These are definitely items to share as eating the whole thing would be too much.

Smoked potatoes were crazy good. Smokey, crunchy and soft inside, these were amazing (in the back of the image below).  Farmer cheese with beet was a great combo and a fun try.

Finished off with a cheesecake that was bursting with flavors, ripe and under ripe strawberries, and crunchy popping cookie crumbs. It's indescribable.​

The next morning we got up early and drove to Tartine Bakery & Cafe.  I've seen so many Instagrams of this place and it's owned by the same people as Bar Tartine. Our waiter told us to get there early.  So we were there before 8AM, short line inside.  I bought the biggest Almond Croissant ever and a Frangipane tart.  Wow both of these items and my coffee were wonderful, if only we had enough time to linger and munch.

This Fangipane tart was filled with light almond cream in a flaky pastry shell and wild blueberries. It's a seasonal fruit tar so it could be filled with anything depending on what's ripe.  I really loved this and savored it for the next day with my Philz Coffee in San Jose. I found Philz on Yelp and there was a location around the corner from my hotel.  When did coffee get so complicated, it's not small, medium or large or a tall, grande soy, non-fat latte world anymore. Philz is inventive in the coffee category, and who wouldn't like to order a coffee called "So Good" every morning. Next up is a coffee tasting day, it's all the rage these days and we all know how much I love coffee. Enjoy these suggestions the next time your up in San Francisco.

West of Pecos
550 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110

Bar Tartine 
561 Valencia Street
San Francisco, California 94110

​Tartine Bakery & Cafe
600 Guerrero Street
San Francisco, California 94103

Philz Coffee (San Francisco, San Jose, Menlo Park areas)

Twins Baby Shower

I am starting to be the minority among my friends. I have no kids, but dearly love them, just a personal decision not to have any. However, I embrace my friends with kids, and well embrace their kids. Plus SB is a serious kid magnet. They just gravitate to him. Watching my friends I see it's such a joy AND a lot of work, really they are truly SUPER MOMS, I have no idea how they work, blog, shower, or keep their sanity. 

Ok, so enough of that. My dear friend Darlene who already has a 2 year old little girl is pregnant with Twins!! Big surprise, she has twins on her side of the family, and she found out that they are identical girls. I wanted to throw her a nice little shower, so we invited a little over 40 people and a friend hosted it in her backyard.

To start of the creativity, the color palate was inspired by the invitation from Tiny Prints below.

I have to say I went a bit crazy with the colors, but it was outside and beautiful and well I wanted it to be happy and colorful. You've already seen my tissue paper pompoms here, well they were for this occasion and there were lots of them.​

I also bought crepe paper and hung it as a back drop for pictures. Initially I wanted to take polaroids, but the film was way too expensive for 8 instant images, so I used my Nikon D80 and between myself and a 13 year old we managed to take photos of all the guests.

Darlene with Twin Identical Baby Girls and her Mom. ​

I also made a tissue paper board and used the initials of the two baby girls. Darlene was brave to wait and reveal the names at the baby shower to all her friends. Her family already knew.  She texted me the week of the shower and asked if I wanted to to know, I said no, I've waited this long I wanted to guess with everyone else.  Also, I SO didn't want the pressure of knowing and accidentally revealing them. Everyone had to put the P guesses with their name on the back and the S guesses with their name on the back in the appropriate container.  At the end of the shower we read all the names off and let Darlene reveal the names. Names are at the bottom of the post.​

Now for the food.  We had a Sweet and Savory table. Go figure. We made fried wontons, chicken satay with peanut sauce, bruschetta, bacon wrapped mushrooms and salmon herb butter open face sandwiches. We had MORE then enough food.​

For drinks we made a soda station with colorful vintage and new sodas along with water flavored with oranges. I love this table, it was my favorite.​

For Sweets we had colorful meringues, mini cookie dough cheesecakes with chocolate ganache, madeleines, cupcakes, cream puffs and candy.​

One of many things I loved about this shower was the range of guests from very young to much older, its a testament to Darlene's friends and made the day enjoyable.​

For each guest I packaged up the Chocolate Bark I had made here. My friends girls all made the boxes in colorful paper for each guest to take home and enjoy.​

And finally the Twin identical baby girl names.  Their first girl's name is Charlotte and she revealed that they named their girls after cities.  So P = Paige (as in Texas) and S = Sydney (as in Australia).  So there you have it Paige and Sydney. What did you guess?​

Quick Appetizer

The other day I literally had 1 hour to whip some type of appetizer together.  So with 5 ingredients I made this happen. Baguette, goat cheese, fresh rosemary, honey, pine nuts (olive oil and salt) is that 7 ingredients now, do we count condiments?

Anyway, I sliced the baguette on an angle, drizzled them with olive oil and toasted them on a cookie sheet in a 425 degree oven, toast both sides. I like them slightly brown and crispy.  Pull them out of the oven and let them cool.

Mince the rosemary and toast the pine nuts. Smear goat cheese on each crostini (toasted bread), then drizzle the honey over each one. Finally sprinkle the rosemary and pine nuts over them all.  Serve on a simple platter and decorate with fresh rosemary sprigs.  All done.

I was complimented on this quite a few times, even the little ones like it.  It's a nice sweet and savory dish.  Enjoy! 

Chocolate Bark

I'm in the process of creating all kinds of treats and decor for an upcoming event. Most anything special involves chocolate for me. Once during the hottest day of summer I decided to make my own chocolate truffles, what a mess, they were delicious, but my white kitchen had chocolate in places I didn't think were possible.  The weather is still nice here in L.A. so I think I'm safe to try my hand at this chocolate creation.

A reader once asked me whether I tempered my chocolate while making one of my recipes. I never have done this and wasn't sure why I needed to. So I went to doing my research on why and how. The best explanation and easiest recipe was found here, David Lebovitz is the blogosphere master of chocolate in my humble opinion.

Follow his recipe and use a proper thermometer, David suggest this one at Amazon, Chocolate Tempering Thermometer, ​if only I had this, it would have been much easier. But I made due with the one I had and well eyeballed it and tasted along the way. So far the chocolate has held up.

Use dark chocolate bittersweet chips no more than 70% cacao is suggested.  I bought these at Surfas, in Culver City, California. But you can find decent chocolate in your local grocery store.

Melting and temperature checking. So hard not to take spoonfuls of this along the way. That is so not the right thermometer, try the one that David recommended on the link above.

​Here are the ingredients for my chocolate bark. I did a few batches of chocolate. One where I stirred in a tablespoon of instant espresso coffee and then added in the toasted almonds and a few dried cherries.  Of course I used my candied orange peels and pistachio for another version and finally added in apricots, cherries and almonds for a final version. Use whatever ingredients you like, pick your favorites I like to make sure to add some color so I tried to use a variety.

Here's where you get to smear the chocolate. I used a small 1/4 cooked sheet with parchment paper on the bottom. I smeared the chocolate out and started laying in my fixings, you need to work quickly before the chocolate starts to harden. Candied orange peels and pistachios for this batch.​

Let it cool in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes and then it's ready for breaking into pieces and eating right away, in my case i saved these for an event and will package them up the day before.

Voila, all done, delicious and beautiful. I can't wait to share these with my friends. Enjoy!

Candied Orange Peels

Since it's technically still citrus season and I keep seeing all these amazing blood orange images everywhere I knew I had to try something with them. So I decided to walk down to the farmers market and check out what's in season and buy me some blood oranges. Some fruits are just more photogenic then others. These have amazing color and are so tasty.​

I've seen quite a few people making candied orange peels. Admittedly this scared me a bit, but I'm always up for the challenge. So I chopped and scooped out the juicy pulp and cut out the white pithy part of the peel and went to slicing 1/8 inch strips of blood orange peels.​

I basically followed this recipe that I had cut out of a Food & Wine magazine a while back, when a friend had given me a gift subscription.​  I am going to make something that involves chocolate, but candied orange peels are the start of gathering my ingredients. 

For those of you who like the orange candies (to the left), they taste just like them. I think I am the minority in liking these candies, I have yet to find any adult or kid that feels the same way about them. I think I got my taste for these from my grandfather, who I swear ate these and lemon drops to help him to stop smoking. Weird childhood memory, but I think that's where I got my love for these.

Cut out fleshy pulp and take out as much of the white pithy part and cut into 1/8 inch slices.​

Boil the peels in water for 7 minutes. Drain. Freshen water and boil for another 7 minutes.​ Drain. Then put 2 1/2 cups of sugar and water and bring to a boil, once the sugar dissolves to clear carefully drop in the peels, let them simmer for about 30 minutes.

Lift them out with a slotted spoon and toss them in the remaining 1 cup of sugar. Let them sit there for 30 minutes until they cool down.  Store in airtight container at room temperature until your ready to use.​  Coming soon, what could I be using these for?

What do you do on your counters?

Let me tell you my story before anyone jumps to conclusions. Last weekend I played host to my niece (a dear friends daughter). We have no kids of our own so occasionally I borrow other peoples kids. Well frankly I love my friends children....especially when we get to give them back. [sly smile]

So I had a house full of teenage girls. I proceeded to walk them down to the mall, who wouldn't like the mall, I did, even if my feet didn't.  Upon returning home we chose a movie to watch. I so thought this would be the easy part, teenager girls like chick flicks right....answer here would be NOooooooo!  Though we did settle on a chick flick, iRobot was a serious contender, sorry Spongy, next time.

Ok, so why the pictures? Well I have added additional counter space for my kitchen, thanks to Ikea, It's a better place them my counter tops covered in 1960's old ceramic tiles (not the cool type, see below), that are broken and uneven. I sacrificed a kitchen table for more flat workspace. So I thought I would share it's multi-purpose use.

During pauses in the movies I had the girls roll out pizza dough, two girls to each pile of dough.  Then we put them on pizza stones, they chose their toppings, I bake.

After pizza's were in the oven we cleared the path for our art project that would start after the movie.  I got this idea from Pinterest and was posted from the 700 Experience blog

here.

  Those who follow me on Instagram (itsweetsavory) know I experimented with this by myself during the week before. By myself was the key problem, you need to have a buddy.  So each girl picked her color palate with the box of crayons I scored from the 99 cents store. Then we took some cardboard and a glue gun and glued the crayons onto the board, leave one inch of the crayon hanging off the cardboard.  Now it was ready for some melting.

Speaking of melting, here's our last melted cheese and veggie pizza....Nice right. This was delicious.  I made crust part easy and bought my dough from Trader Joes. Usually I make it myself, but I had too much to do. Toppings included cheese, obviously, tomato's, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms and pepperoni. I don't really like sauce on my pizza and though others do, I didn't remember this part, so no sauce.

Back to the melting crayons.  The girls perfected this part, they got tired of holding each other's crayons and figured out how to tape the cardboard with glued crayons on the wall behind.  And yes I have splattered wax on my wall before I realized it and then we pulled up the craft paper and fixed that. Thankfully this is my patio.

One request I had made to a few mom's, was "have the girls bring a blow dryer", weird right, well that didn't happen so we had one blow dryer, mine.  Yes I had to scrap off hard wax the next day.  So,

not

complaining, because this was easy and the girls got creative.  Some chose to cover the whole canvas and others just did one side and left white space below.

Here's one up close, great texture and color.  

Have fun and enjoy your counter as much as I do.  Enjoy!

This post is my entry into the Alt Summit Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by Wilsonart International, Inc.

Vegan Chocolate Sorbet

Quite a few weeks ago I was going to a friends house for dinner who happens to be Vegan.  So I challenged myself to make some dessert that she could eat.  I comb through a few websites and settled on David Lebovitz's amazing recipe for ice cream, he's genius and this was so rich and scrumptious you can't believe it has no eggs or milk in it.  Thank you DAVID...LOVE this.  Found his recipe on Food52

here.

Best part was I finally got my ice cream maker out again and forgot how easy it was to use.  Enjoy!

So creamy and amazing.

Milo & Olive

Milo and Olive, a neighborhood bakery and pizzeria, opened almost a year ago in November 2011. I've been hearing great local buzz about this place and have passed it many times on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica. It's run by the team of Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan who are also behind 

Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry

 and 

Sweet Rose Creamery

. 

The 

menu includes fresh baked morning 

pastries

 and

 bread

, wood fired 

pizzas

, farmers market inspired 

salads 

and small plates in a hip and warm environment.  

Seats are readily available in the morning at the counter. This is always a fun place to sit and watch the tattooed cooks. I like to guess what they are making. At lunch, counter and communal tables are available. The pastries in front look mouth watering.  First trip there I had a latte, eggs and bacon (a no carb day), so I'll have to go back to try what looked like the best sticky pecan roll 

ever.

Simple exterior

Cool simple interior.  I like the no fuss.

Next time round I shared a lovely fresh salad and a few pizzas. 

The crust was divine, and I'm a huge mushroom fan, so this, with the melted fontina cheese, was delish.

Prosciutto, Burrata, Arugula Pizza...so mouth watering.

These desserts were entering the room while we ate our lunch, I was dying.

Zoe Nathan has stated that she's using different grains to enrich the flavor of her breads.  Well if this is any indication, it's working.  It's a cornmeal cake with a blueberry jam, topped with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and fresh farmer market blueberries, your going to die happy.

Please stop by and visit this place, you'll not be disappointed.  Enjoy!

Milo & Olive

2723 Wilshire Blvd. 

Santa Monica, CA 90403

ChocoVivo Venice

During my four month hiatus from real life work, I was able to explore a few local shops.  I came across an article about Choco Vivo, a chocolate shop in Venice. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I love chocolate. So I went exploring online first to their website. If you haven't read Patricia's stories on her blog you should go 

here

. She is a true entrepreneur and someone who took a great leap of faith to do something she loves.

So I drove a mere 10 minutes to Venice and went looking for this tiny shop nestled on Abbot Kinney. I so wanted to meet Patricia, she sounded like me in her March blog posts, but she wasn't there that day. 

I sampled a few of the chocolates. I've never really tasted true pure chocolate. It's all DARK chocolate no milk or soy lecithins added, so it's pure goodness. 

Her stone-ground beans to bar method is mouth melting ecstasy.  I tried the almonds to sea salt and the mayan tradition (spicy and delish).  She also has chocolate butters and does a nice sampling on the First Friday's down on Abbot Kinney every month.  

A must visit place when your on the westside. Abbot Kinney is the perfect place for this entrepreneur.

Beside's the great little store, she's also at these Farmer's Markets:

Tuesdays:

 Culver City,  2 pm – 7 pm, 

Sundays:

  Mar Vista, 9 am – 2pm 

Try some samples.

 Loved the great packaging for my purchase. 

Choco Vivo

504 Abbot Kinney Blvd

chocovivo.com

Limoncello Cheesecake Bars

I love to bake and cook with my friend Rebekah. A couple of months ago she told me about Giada's Limoncello Cheesecake bars, but you need time for them to chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours. We didn't have 8 hours, she lives 45 minutes away and well we wanted to eat them on my day visit.  So I shelved the recipe and the next time I planned to visit her I made them a day in advance.  Giada's recipe is below but can also be found

here

.

Let me tell you my house smelled amazing when I baked the crust. So you can imagine when I put the cheesecake in the oven how amazing it smelled. This is a rich tasting summer treat. I am not the biggest cheesecake person but we really enjoyed every bite.  So try it out this summer. Enjoy!

 Baked crust.

Lemon zest.

 Mixing the batter in a food processor.

About to bake and my friends mom's homemade Limoncello.  

You need that proof of vodka and she does use Smirnoff.

RECIPE

8 ounces purchased biscotti (I bought Almond Biscotti from Trader Joe's)

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 1 (12-ounce) container fresh whole milk ricotta, drained, at room temperature
• 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup limoncello liqueur (my friends mom made her own so I used that but you can purchase from the store.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom of a 9 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Finely grind the biscotti in a food processor. Add the melted butter and 1 tablespoon of lemon zest and process until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumb mixture over the bottom (not the sides) of the prepared pan. Bake until the crust is golden, about 15 minutes. (Your whole house will smell amazing) Cool the crust completely on a cooling rack.

Blend the ricotta in a clean food processor until smooth. Add the cream cheese and sugar and blend well, stopping the machine occasionally and scraping down the sides of the work bowl. Blend in the limoncello, vanilla, and remaining 2 tablespoons of lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time, and pulse just until blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Pour the cheese mixture over the crust in the pan. Place the baking pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking pan. Bake until the cheesecake is golden and the center of the cake moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour (the cake will become firm when it is cold).

Transfer the cake to a rack; cool 1 hour. Refrigerate until the cheesecake is cold, at least 8 hours and up to 2 days. Cut the cake into squares and serve.