Tuesday, March 22, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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. 

Monday, March 7, 2011

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."


Friday, March 4, 2011

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.