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Just A Few of My Favorite Recipes from Others, Fall 2010- Fall 2011

Every now and then I'll attempt to update my recipe collection and remember all kinds of great finds that I've discovered or that have been passed on to me.  Unfortunately, I've been slacking on this lately, thinking "Oh, I'm never going to forget about THIS recipe."  Then I eventually forget and the blog entry might get deleted by its author and after remembering and frantically searching for the lost recipe my tastebuds begin to cry.

I'll always remember you, tasty noodles with peanut sauce recipe...

So anyway, here are just a few recipes that I'm entering into my files today.  Maybe you'll find something you like as well in this list:

Roasted Red Pepper Pita Pizzas - When I actually buy pita bread, this is part of a quick and fantastic meal.  The best part is the sauce.  I <3 this sauce!  It is sooooooo good.

Happy Birthday, Bubs!

Here are some pictures from our big boy's birthday.  We spent the day eating at his favorite spots, bowling, and relaxing in the park for a few hours.

"Yay!  I'm the birthday boy today!"

Perhaps...

I should have my 5-year-old kid teach ME how to draw.

Arnabeet Mekleh (Fried Cauliflower) Salad Recipe: My Open Sesame Re-creation

My favorite salad.  If you haven't had this before, you are most likely wrinkling your nose at the lowly cauliflower.  Just like I did.  

Whenever we visit Southern California, the restaurant that is always at the top of our must-eat list is Open Sesame, which is located in Long Beach's Belmont Shore.  This restaurant opened up on 2nd Street when I was in college and it was always fun to check in on them and see the rave reviews slooowly appear on the walls and eventually take over.  As word eventually got out, it became harder and harder to grab a quick dinner there, but it was always worth the wait.

My Thoughts on Disaster Preparedness

I am guest posting this over at HeyLauraWhat.com so please go and check out the series that Laura is doing over there!


One morning in 1987, I woke up and I made my way to the bathroom to get ready for school.  A quick bath, a dry, undies, leggings, an oversized shirt, and two layers of socks in different colors....put on with one black sock first then a hot pink sock over that with exactly the opposite layering on the other foot, you know, just to look a little private school Punky B.  I brushed my hair, but before I could give myself a side half ponytail, it struck.  

There is nothing quite like running down a narrow hallway of stairs and watching humungous cracks form, chase you to the bottom and win.  I met my mother there at the bottom of the stairs and we quickly hid under our massive dining room table.  It stopped, only for a minute and then another one came.  It was quite a scene for my eight-year-old self to experience. 

Thank You, Sibelius 6!

JJ has been busy scoring strings for the past 10 days or so and I just found this in my camera this morning. Considering my child has never had a music lesson in his life, I found this hilarious.   Just learning by watching good old dad...

"Look mom, I wrote the Angry Birds theme song."

Recipe: Snowballs! Most Certainly Not Just for Winter!

One August, about ten years ago, I traveled up north to visit my aunties and their families as well as my grandmother in the state of Washington. My trips up north were always so refreshing. I loved experiencing gardening and having fields of berries at my fingertips. Except for that one time that I dropped an entire flat of hand-picked raspberries in the dirt and wound up acting like a crybaby.  For the most part I loved the slower-paced lifestyle while gazing at the snow-capped Cascade mountains off in the distance. It was always a nice breather for me to get away and experience something a little different than the smog-filled, cement-covered place I called home. It was up there that I first learned about composting, and I think that was the first and only place I ever got to mow a lawn with a riding mower. Never mind the fact that I hit a tree and for years that immature fir tree grew at an 80 degree angle, compared to his other companions. (The tree is fine now, finally.  It seems I had some real coordination issues, doesn't it?)

On that particular trip up north, my aunts and I made our way over to a magical piece of land where someone had once planted and ran a U-pick blueberry farm. The man had since passed away and his heirs were not choosing to maintain it, leaving a delicious, antioxidant-filled gift for those who stumbled across it on their morning walk.  Of course, finding a bit of land such as this was unusual for this Los Angeles girl.

On Picky Eaters: How to Develop A Sense of Food Adventure

I have been blessed in many ways, that's certain, but one of the most frequently things that others comment on is my boys' willingness to try just about anything under the sun. Yes, I do believe that picky eaters are born, but I also believe that there are specific things you can do to make trying new foods a fun and healthy experience that involves the entire family.  I'm recording down my experiences mostly as a way to remember what I did with our young boys and if it helps you figure out what works with your family, even better.

Yes, I was raised vegetarian and I am raising two vegetarians.  When you don't eat at least half of the items on menus in restaurants, you must learn to be a little adventurous.  Unless you want to starve because you don't like mushrooms, eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic.   Or unless you want to die of high cholesterol due to the appalling amount of cheese and cream you are consuming.  I have many memories of dining out in the early 80's and seeing the only option on the entire menu being a grilled cheese sandwich.   If you tried to be sneaky and ordered a baked potato without bacon, it still always came with bacon, but maybe by the third try they got it right.  If we were attending a wedding you could bet that the vegetarian option (if even offered!) would be a frighteningly huge plate of barely steamed cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli with a tiny side of Hollandaise sauce.  Luckily for me, just a few short years later California cuisine took off and restaurants became a little bit more exciting and began to offer new and colorful vegetarian options.  As chain restaurants like CPK opened up, I was delighted to be able to try new things and kiss the vegetable plate and stray bacon pieces goodbye. 

This issue is a tough one.  Like many others, it is an issue that involves cheerful guidance, positive experiences, and a child's own choices.  Having said that, here's what has worked...at least for us. 

Just chompin' on an onion slice.

Cinnamon/Chocolate Rolls. Valentine's-Style.

A few weeks ago, I made Novel Eats' fabulous vegan cinnamon/chocolate rolls.  I decided to repeat the recipe and send some to work with the hubs.  Since it was Valentine's Day, I wanted to do something a little fun and special and so I decided to make them into hearts.  I had the basic idea of what I wanted to do, but because I wanted to check and ensure that it would not be a complete waste of time by trying this idea, I did a quick google search and found this and went for it.  I've got to say that these were a success.  Here's how they turned out:

Smelly...in a Good Way! (A Chai Tea Syrup Recipe)

I stumbled upon an adorable Chai Tea Syrup Recipe this morning and instantly thought it would be the perfect recipe for today's project. While we are not regular coffee drinkers (I think coffee beans are magically delicious, but I hate singing this song after I drink the stuff), chai tea has become JJ's favorite afternoon pick-me-up. We've had a pretty good relationship with Oregon Chai for the last fifteen years or so, but after purchasing Tazo's Chai Tea Concentrate 3-pack from Costco, we both fell in love with its blend. Now I refuse to buy Oregon Chai, especially since the last box I bought tasted like the company forgot to add important ingredients like black tea to their mix!

Not yet having made this month's Costco trip and after just relabeling the contents of my spice rack yesterday, I knew I had everything I needed on hand. As I got started, well, I kind of got a little crazy and completely strayed from the recipe of inspiration. I knew that JJ would reprimand me for doing this and so I created two different batches of Chai Tea Concentrate, creating my own version and also sticking (mostly) to Lucy's recipe. Sorry, JJ. Lucy's recipe is good, but was a little too sweet for me (I should have followed her warning). The only modification that I made was after adding one tablespoon of the recommended three tablespoons of vanilla extract. I stopped at one tablespoon.

Outdone By a Vegan! Sorry Ree.

After cooking up a fierce and fattening storm for JJ's birthday, I was on a roll, and decided to keep on trucking this week. In our house I usually switch between feast and famine mode. I think that this has to do with the fact that the stuff I love to cook is really, really bad for you. I use lots of butter, cream, and cheese. Unfortunately. So usually I try to make all other stuff I make super healthy, but this was still technically a birthday week...so I picked four new recipes to work into our weekly plan.

First up, I decided to make Ree Drummond's Cinnamon Rolls. I have had great success with a few of her recipes (Migas, Olive Cheese Bread, and her favorite sandwich, which is now one of my favorites as well), but I've noticed that Ree's desserts aren't necessarily my cup of tea. The one exception are the semi-delicious Apple Dumplings. I've made a lot of these for youth people we have around. It's a really fast and relatively cheap dessert to make. I've found that kids love these things, especially after I tell them the dessert has had Mountain Dew poured over the whole thing before being baked. "Oooooh yeeeeahhh...I can TOTALLY taste it!" (You really can't.) While the Apple Dumplings recipe is still slightly too sweet for me I know that other people like their desserts that way, so it's worth keeping in my Tastebook for now.

One-year Moveiversary, Part One.

One year ago yesterday, we moved into our current little home. I clearly remember the first time I saw it. While I thought the outside of this place definitely had some charm, once I walked in the front door, I whispered, "I hate it! I absolutely HATE it! The answer is NO" to my dear husband.

Isn't that typically a rather promising first response to things we think we will despise that actually turn out to be quite good for us? Or is it just me...?

We looked at this place in December on a whirlwind interview trip. My husband had a shot at a job he thought he just might completely love. The numbers worked. But the housing situation. Oh, the housing! Living and finding affordable housing in San Diego county was challenging enough for us (but a way was made for us!). Now we were considering moving from one expensive city to one far north of that. The difference? Oh, only about twice (gulp!) as expensive as our former city. With no real pay increase. But I was determined to find something for the sake of my husband.

After pouring over craigslist ads, calling around, and getting really frustrated with people not returning my calls since we were not local, there were really only one or two affordable options out there. One was the place I didn't exactly love and the other would be stretching our budget a little too much for my comfort. After all, if we were going to rent a larger place, we had better make sure that we could actually afford to feed "all the people we could potentially invite over" something more than crackers and tap water!

Thirty-two!

I'm so happy all of these men were born.

My New Centerpiece

I was in desperate need of another plant for my living room, so imagine how thrilled I was to see that Luke had taken it upon himself to make one for me! I found him making his own Venus fly trap out of construction paper and tape, so I decided to jump in and help him finish the task after he worked about three hours on this by himself. My Venus fly traps are the ones whose spines are obtuse triangles, all the other leaves are his. I helped him trim the bottom so that it would fit in a spare plastic pot I found under our kitchen sink and afterwards he made paper beetles and slugs to fill the closed traps with.

Note the two black traps that have overeaten and must be trimmed for the health of the plant! :)

"Pardon me, but there seems to be a Venus fly trap in your hair."

A Sneak Peek!

During our Christmas break, we hired Leila to take some family pics in Long Beach. Here is a preview of some of the fun!

Snow Day