Beef, Broccolini & Tomatoes

Trying to copy what we had from P.F. Chang's on Friday.  

The arsenal: beef, grape tomatoes, broccolini, red potatoes sliced on mandoline and lime vinaigrette.

Cast-Iron Skillet Chicken

I love cooking on a cast-iron skillet.  It gives a great texture you won't normally get from a non-stick pan.

Dinner tonight was salad with chow mein noodles drizzled with peanut sauce and topped with lemon-soy sauce marinated chicken thighs cooked on a cast-iron skillet.

Rice and Ground Beef

Organic grass-fed beef was sauteed in thinly sliced garlic and chopped onion on a wok. Steamed rice was spooned in on top along with half a cup of hoisin sauce and soy sauce.  

Thin Pancakes

Almost crepe thin pancakes, topped with butter and strawberries, drizzled with maple syrup from Vermont and garnished with fresh mint from the garden.

Breakfast is served!

Clams & Mussels

Clams were from Whole Foods Market, mussels they ran out so we went to Ralph's.  They were cooked on a pot with corn, red potatoes and seafood seasoning. 

Carne Asada Fajita

When I pulled on the curve at the Little Guy's school I saw the kids sitting on the tables eating snacks so I drove to the grocery to grab a pound of flank steak and a package of avocado for dinner.

The flank steak was chopped and marinated in fresh lime juice, smoked paprika, cumin and salt then grilled along with green bell pepper sliced lengthwise and onion.

Plated and served with avocado and sliced lime.

Cod, Gherkins and Kale

Dinner tonight was cod cooked in cast-iron skillet served with thinly sliced radishes, gherkins, grape tomatoes and kale sautéed in garlic lemon butter sauce.

Chicken, Sugar Snap Peas and Brussel Sprouts

The skinless, boneless chicken thighs were seasoned with salt and pepper and  then cooked in a cast-iron skillet.  The red potatoes and Brussel sprouts were cooked in a pot of salted boiling water.  The sugar snap peas were parboiled and shocked in a large bowl of ice water. 

They were all put together on a plate and then drizzled generously with homemade dressing made of lemon, orange, ginger, honey and salt.

Oatmeal with Banana and Strawberries

A bowl loaded with healthy ingredients will fuel me through lunch.  Work calendar today and the rest of the week is quite hectic with quarterly reports and back to back meetings.

Carne Asada Taco Tuesday

A pound of marinated beef chopped and grilled… 

• place on a small flour tortilla
• spoon in some salsa and chopped radishes
• add cilantro on top

 … fold and eat!

Santa Fe Quinoa Salad

Quinoa, pronounced “keen-wah” is a gluten-free, high-protein superfood that is endemic to Bolivia and Peru.

For this recipe I used a cup of organic truRoots quinoa cooked in two cups of water, one red bell pepper parboiled and chopped, a can of Bush’s black beans, a small bunch of cilantro chopped and the juice of two fresh lime. 

The salad is topped with grilled shrimp marinated in lime, paprika, salt and pepper.

Any leftover will be my lunch in the office tomorrow.

A package of pasta cooked two ways

1) with ground beef and eggplant in San Marzano pomodoro sauce for hubby and the Little Guy

and 

2) with tuna, anchovies, capers, eggplant and grape tomatoes for me

It's National Ice Cream Day!

~ pure delight on a bowl to celebrate National Ice Cream Day ~

Sausage & Eggs

For breakfast, I made sunny side up eggs and sausage in focaccia bread.  The Little Guy had pancakes with blueberries.

Happy Sunday!

Kale, Potatoes and Sausage Soup

... perfect for a rainy evening.  

Slurp, slurp!

Charcuterie Indoor Picnic

While it's raining outside, we had a charcuterie picnic indoor while watching pre-recorded shows on DVR.

On the table...

• jamon Serrano, chorizo cantimpalo and salchichon
• cheese (Muenster and Londoner cheddar cheese)
• peaches, olives and artichokes
• cervelat and pickles
• razor clams
• a bottle of Stella Rosa

Summer Rain

It's raining, it's pouring!

Girasol Restaurant

A refined-rustic California cuisine from Top Chef winner CJ Jacobson who has worked in the kitchen of Noma, a two Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen and named world's best.

On the table...

House Confit Tuna & Kale Salad -  pickled green beans, cherry tomatoes, shaved radish, poached egg and sherry vinaigrette
Pan Kenter Farm’s Farro Risotto - grilled shrimp, marinated grapes and tomatillo vinaigrette
Roasted Mary’s Chicken - lentel puree, sugar snap peas, summer squash, citrus jus

For a casual dining restaurant, the food here is exceptional. 

Kid's Hair Salon

Who got a new hair cut?  Me, me, me!

Black Cod Soup

Dinner tonight was black cod soup, BBQ beef ribs/galbi, beef & octopus tofu and panch'an. Where? At O. Tofu House in Granada Hills -- the same Korean joint we visited a couple of weeks ago.

T-Bone Steak

Digging our teeth into a slab of T-bone steak with happy grins.

The steak was seasoned with coarse sea salt and freshly-cracked peppercorns and then grilled on a grill pan until medium well.

Michaels Arts and Crafts

Here during my lunch break to look for a poster board for the Little Guy’s family project.  The theme is ‘’wildlife” –  a picture, a cutout, drawing, clipping or painting of an animal of choice on a medium poster board.  We have not picked an animal to showcase yet. First came to mind was lion, but the challenging part is, our Little Guy doesn’t say lion whenever he sees one (at the zoo and in books/magazines), he just roar.  Same can be said for tiger.  Maybe a bear??  I heard him say teddy bear. He will present the project in class end of the month so it should be an animal that he can correctly identify and a name that he can correctly pronounce.

Salmon Papillote

On a balmy mid-summer night we had dinner in the garden. 

The food -  salmon topped with grape tomatoes, sliced radishes, sliced lemon, sprigs of oregano and thyme from the garden.  A sprinkle of salt, a crack of pepper.  Then  wrapped with a parchment paper and cooked on a pre-heated oven for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Shrimp Curry

Dinner tonight was a pound of shrimp cooked in coconut milk with sautéed crushed garlic and sliced onion, curry powder and red potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes. Then topped with fresh cilantro.

Toddler Talk: Colors

Me:  What’s the color of this car?

Little Guy: Red (correct)

Me: How about this one?

Little Guy: Blue (correct)

Me: This one?

Little Guy: Turquoise (it’s light green)

Me: (surprised)  Huh, you know turquoise?

Little Guy: Uh, huh…

Oven-baked Chicken

Chicken legs were marinated in soy sauce,  lemon juice and peppercorns on a gallon ziploc for a couple of hours.  Then on to a 400-degree pre-heated over for about an hour.

Surprise Birthday Brunch

..for a  friend at a Mexican restaurant in North Hollywood. Husband and I both had huevos rancheros. 

Poquito Mas

Stopped by at Poquito Mas on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks to grab shrimp tacos, fish tacos, chicken petitos burritos and kids’ chicken petitos tacos “to go.”

Soccer on the Green

..at The Americana in Glendale with the new soccer ball from Grammy.

Brazilian Lunch at Gaucho's Village

Today's lunch was at a Brazilian churrascaria Gaucho's Village on Maryland Avenue in Glendale.

In a churrascarian-style dining, there are wooden block(s) on the table  with green on one end and red on the other to start and stop passadores/meat servers with knives and skewer from spearing various cuts of meat. Green on top means go, flip with red on top to stop.

The Little Guy was playing with the wooden blocks, so the passadores just kept on coming.  And since the meat all look very delicious, we just kept on saying yes, yes yes.... and came out of the restaurant extremely full. 

What we had... Polish and Brazilian sausage, garlic beef, picanha, spicy and garlic chicken, parmesan pork, cicken hearts, tri-tip, top sirloin and cinnamon pineapple.

Banana Cupcakes

I baked a dozen banana cupcakes on a 325-degree pre-heated convection oven for about twenty minutes.  Frosted when cooled and then topped with toasted nuts. 

Happy weekend!