dulche de leche cupcakes

My neighbor Mark asked me to make some cupcakes for his dinner party tonight, and I thought that I would try to make something different. When in need, I turn to Joy the Baker, who had this wonderful recipe for dulche de leche cupcakes (see here). Lets just say that my cupcakes didnt turn out as perfect as hers, but I aint no baker! I also caramelized some sugar and dipped cashews in them to give them funny pointy hats that remind me of these little creatures from Pikmin:

plant funhouse

My friend is moving into a studio and needs some plant & plant friends to keep her company. We went ikea shopping (the requirement being that we get to eat meatballs and ice cream and pasta and mac 'n cheese) and I made her buy this interestingly-shaped planter (see here). I put all kinds of things in it to keep her company, but golden dinosaurs tend not to behave kindly to strangers. I highly suggest winning over dinosaurs with bologna before leaving unattended in your plant funhouse.

the hasselback potato

As per my David Chang mantra, (see here), I wanted to find a good use for the rest of my potatoes. Also potatoes are quite scary with all their fuzzy eyes when they become neglected in the pantry, so I try to use them all before they come back to life.

I got this recipe from Joy the Baker (click here). One of my favorite things about her food is how colorful it is. I was also excited to see lemon zest as an ingredient, because I love holding little bits of lemon peel as if they were lemon babies in my hand. I pet them a few times before throwing them in the food processor and apologizing profusely.

I love this pesto recipe because it uses cashews instead of pine nuts (aka expensive nuts) and it doesnt cost me 10$ for one bite of pesto.

My neighbor said that the finished product looked like a little french potato wearing a green beret. I find the key to this dish is the generous use of butter on the potato, along with the nice addition of lemon into the pesto. I made 20 of these for a dinner party and I was happy to hear mumblings of their deliciousness.

I am not a chef: part 1

I am not a chef. I am actually a busy individual that wishes I had enough time to make every recipe from scratch, but most nights I have 10 minutes to make dinner. So I love, love, love when I find something that I can put together quickly and still enjoy it. Everything from this dinner came from Trader Joes and was suuuuper cheap...

mini potatoes

fresh chives

sour cream

organic corn chip "dippers"

beef chili (they also have vegetarian and turkey)

This is what I do:

1. First I start with the potatoes. I saw my mom do this thing where she cuts a bunch of slices into the potatoes, which makes it cook faster all the way through the potato. I drop them into boiling water for 5 minutes with some sea salt.

2. Then I fish out the potatoes, drizzle them with olive oil, salt, pepper and stick them in the broiler for 5 minutes so that the skin gets a nice crunch.

3. During this 5 minutes I cook the chili on the stove, finely chop the chives, and place a handful of chips on a plate.

4. Last step is to add the potatoes and chili, a nice dollop of sour cream topped with the chives ...et voilà!

Delicious and much better than fast food.

gold & pink skull stand

Im not gonna lie. I have weird stuff. Crystals. Skulls. Robots. A boba fett helmet. I am a borderline hoarder and it is a constant challenge to make my collection look purposeful and interesting. For this, I spray a reasonably-priced ikea candlestand gold, sew a pillow from some fantastic fabric, and voilà! A pink & gold stand for my striped-skunk skull. Creepy? Mm yes but also preeeetty.

peony love

Peony season, how I love peony season. Every summer there comes a beautiful supply of peonies at the local markets. I stop and gaze at every color: the lilacs, the dusty rose, the eggwhite petals... and then always settle on the neon pink bulbs without fail. I typically cut down the stems so that they fit into a mason jar and make a prayer every night that they will last foreverrrrr.

homemade dog biscuits

My neighbor just got a new Boston Terrier puppy, this ridiculously adorable girl named Olive. To celebrate her arrival, I decided to make some healthy doggy treats and read various recipes online to find a general formula. I mixed and matched, added organic carrots, and a few tricks to make my own:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup brewer's yeast (click here to see the supplement label, ridiculously long amino acid list)

a dash of salt

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil (plus a little for brushing)

1/2 cup of low sodium, zero trans-fat chicken stock

1/4 cup of carrot shavings (local veggies, local veggies, local veggies!)

1 teaspoon of liquid chlorella

Set oven to 350C

Mix together, flatten out with a rolling pin 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Use your favorite cookie cutter shapes. I like the paw print, bones, and fire hydrants from Sur La Table (click here).

Place on parchment paper and bake 20 min

Flip cookies, brush on light layer of olive oil

Bake additional 10 min

Et voilà!

I decided to add the olive oil insted of canola because the puppy's name is Olive. Also I read that a teaspoon of olive oil a day is good for a dog's skin and coat. I added chlorella because all dogs are obsessed with Greenies and I thought this might be the secret ingredient to Greenie's success. In fact, I think it is, because dogs go nuts over my recipe.

PS. The day that my neighbor bought Olive, he originally left the house to "just buy olive oil". He passed a pet store and saw this puppy through the window and decided to save her from her cubicle and aptly named her Olive.

okra poppers

David Chang once said that true "sustainable" cooking involves using every part of an animal, including the often-discarded head of a pig. Since reading this, I have felt wasteful throwing away any unused part of an ingredient, including vegetables. Looking at my small and medium-sized okra leftovers, I decided to batter and fry the small guys and stuff the medium-sized guys with roasted jalapenos and mozzarella....the latter being inspired by my favorite Jack-in-the-box snack: jalapeno poppers :)

I served with lime juice and it was quite a nice way to add lightness to this otherwise heavy snack.

Recommended aperitif: Trade Winds Tripel beer. Especially for those of you that normally don't like beer, this is very light with a lemony flavor, brewed with thai basil and basmati rice. Read about it here.

Cheddar Dill Scones!!

I thought that cheddar dill scones would be a wonderful snack to bring to a tea party, and found this Barefoot Contessa recipe here.

I have made this recipe three times and have found the key to a perfect scone is to use COLD BUTTER. After dicing the butter (into cubes as small as the cheddar, seen above) I put them in the freezer until I was ready to use them. In fact, I also separated the butter-containing finished batch into 3 lumps and placed 2 in the freezer while I made scones from the first little bit (see above), seeing as how I am one small person that can only do so much work at a time. Keeping the butter as cold as possible until the moment it hits the oven is THE secret to a fluffy scone.

The other thing I discovered is that perfection is the enemy of the good here. I had a few scones where the cheddar bits fell of the side, and those imperfect scones were the most delicious because they had a nice little crunchy cheese appendage (and were the first to disappear at the tea party...)

I got the cheddar cheese from Trader Joes (Wisconsin Sharp is my favorite) but for some reason TJs dont carry dill that often, so you'll have to find it elsewhere (like Vons). It makes me sad when I have to make trips to several markets for one recipe.

african coo-coo

I got this recipe from Nirmala's Edible Diary: "african-style baked coo-coo" seen here.

It is a South American dish, but it has a lot of African influence from the slaves brought over by the Dutch in the 17th century.

My neighbor, originally from Louisiana, looked at this dish and said "you got that okra from seafood city didnt you? they have the best okra in town." Indeed they do have the most perfect okra, unbruised and long, priced at about 25/$3.

Seafood City

2700 Colorado Blvd # 140
Los Angeles, CA 90041-1085

I also got these shrimp there for $3.99/lb (About 15/$3), only because the local Filipino people were buying them like crazy and I tend to copy people when they seem legit. I asked a local Filipino man how he was choosing his shrimp (since you pick your own) and he said "they are all good, I just pick the bigger ones, see?" and he lifted one with his tongs and lifted it towards me. Yes. I seeeeee. You can see in the picture how big the ones I chose were, similar to the dude's pick.

Overall, some very good finds in Seafood City.

PS. I also picked up the coconut milk there for a $1.39, which is also included in this recipe.

PPs. I served with a bunch of salsas I collected this week from my frequented taco stands.