I have no excuse for this pie. Absolutely none. I could maybe defend it by pointing out the use of fresh fruit, but I’m aware that this is just not something I should be showing you in the dead of summer, also known as Bathing Suit Season. Maybe I can place the blame elsewhere…specifically, to Saluda Grade Café, the restaurant that I worked at in high school, and the place that gave me the inspiration for this recipe.
The funny thing is, this was not a popular dessert there. It only showed up for maybe 2 months out of the year, and when it did those pies would sit and sell so slowly that eventually I would take some home to keep it from going to waste. Not that I ever once complained about this. Except when I had to put on a bathing suit. Damn those pies.
Continue reading 'Blueberry Cream Pie'»
I’m realizing that a lot of my daily life is a simple series of action and reaction. For instance, I recently read, well, more like devoured, the book “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and after reading something that good there are two logical actions that must be taken: 1) watch the movie on Netflix, 2) order the follow-up book immediately on Amazon.
Another instance is when Lindsay Lohan went to jail, and I the immediate action of people unhealthily obsessed with celebrities everyone was to look up her mug shot. I would like to tell you that I don’t often follow celebrity gossip news, but my grandmother would disapprove of me to lying to this many people at once.
Continue reading 'Roasted Red Pepper Risotto Cakes'»
I have a distinct memory from my childhood of my mother and I buying a coconut with the intention of eating the flesh and coconut milk inside. However, we got it home and sort of looked at each other to see who would make the first move to open it. I assumed that since she was my mother she of course knew all the secrets of the universe and was utterly shocked to discover that neither she nor my step-dad knew what to do. My stepfather, who flew jet planes in Vietnam and assembled my bike on Christmas day, was stumped by this little brown ball in our shopping bag.
Continue reading 'Coconut Chocolate Pudding'»
Sometimes things don’t always go as we planned. I had planned to watch “The Wizard of Oz” at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I had even called all my friends, cooked up some recipes, scheduled a time to meet, loaded up the car and driven all the way to Hollywood just to have a picnic in the cemetery. However, when we turned the corner and were preparing to enter, we were met by this:
The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but basically the entire city of Los Angeles had the same thoughts that we had. And unfortunately for us, they had the idea about an hour sooner, and we didn’t make it inside. Yeah, it was a bummer. There are few things sadder than having a picnic meal and nowhere to picnic.
Luckily, I’m blessed to have flexible and endlessly enthusiastic friends. We took our picnic dinner and headed to a teeny tiny park in Universal City. We sat on blankets and drank wine, ate our food and watched the sunset go down. It was good, even without the red slippers or munchkins.
Continue reading 'Walnut Pesto'»
I have to confess that I was once a bit of a pizza purist. To me, pizza meant crust, sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. As a kid I was incredibly stringent on this rule. It was a huge step when I finally began to eat sausage on my pizza, but no one was crazy enough to think I might try green peppers or mushrooms.
Nowadays I tend to be much more adventurous. I like pizzas with different sauces like pesto, or even those that don’t have sauce like a classic Margherita pizza. This however, might be the biggest leap I’ve ever made. There isn’t any sauce, just a drizzle of olive oil. You won’t find mozzarella but instead a mild Fontina cheese. Oh yeah, and there’s also the potato and arugula. I was stunned to learn how amazing arugula could be on a pizza when I went to Pitfire, but potato? On a pizza? My adult self wanted to try this, but I could hear the little kid in me screaming “Gross! I’m not tasting it!” Continue reading 'Potato and Arugula Pizza'»
I think that it’s time you planned a barbecue. Or a picnic. Anything that involves the outdoors, friends and good food. Seriously, it’s almost June, things are starting to warm up and we all have a three day weekend coming so now is the perfect time. And btw – there is NEVER a bad time to have a barbecue. Or a picnic.
Here’s the way to make things really easy on yourself: invite all of your really awesome friends. That will pretty much guarantee a good time no matter what. Then, you should ask all of these awesome friends to cook something to bring to this fabulous shin-dig. If you’re a little skeptical about not making everything yourself, here are the reasons why having everyone cook is a good idea:
A) It’s less work for you
B) Everyone gets to feel involved in this awesome outdoor eating fest
C) When people only have to make one component, and not an entire meal, they tend to go all out on that one thing they make.
Continue reading 'Jicama and Avocado Citrus Salad & Seared Tuna Wontons'»
We’re friends right? I mean, I like you, and if you like me then I guess that means we’re friends. So I can tell you about my guilty pleasures. What exactly is a guilty pleasure? It’s something that you know without a shadow of a doubt is bad for you and has no business being in your life, and you still think it’s wonderful. When it comes to TV shows, I am obsessed with the Real Housewives on Bravo. Notice how I didn’t specify a specific city? That’s cause I love all of them. Regardless of how loudly Chase or my friends tell me that these shows are trash TV and are a dredge on society, I still can’t help but be enthralled with the meaningless drama that consumes these women’s lives. Go ahead and judge me, I’m used to it. (Oh, and for anyone that watches, I’m totally on Team Bethanny)
Now, my food equivalent of a guilty pleasure is fettuccine Alfredo. Maybe you’re wondering why Alfredo is a guilty pleasure and not chocolate cake? Here’s the thing about unhealthy foods, you have your items like cookies and cake, that make no pretense of what they are: sugar and fat, plain and simple. Then you have things like fettuccine Alfredo that tries to convince you that it’s dinner, perhaps even part of a well balanced diet. Don’t be fooled though, this entire meal is two things: starch and heavy cream and I LOVE it. All you health nuts can yell at me all you want, you can tell me how fattening it is, how each bite is clogging my arteries, you can give me your estimates on how long it’s going to take me to exercise off this fat, and I will smile at you over my plate of steaming pasta, complete undeterred from eating the whole thing. Continue reading 'Fettuccine Alfredo'»
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