Einkorn Penne Pasta

I'd never heard of einkorn grain before, but apparently it's another one of those ancient grains. This one is very comparable to the bronze cut semolina penne I usually make for Kevin. Usually, whole grain stuff falls apart easily and tastes obviously different, but this one fooled him! For me, I drizzled some walnut oil, sprinkled on some walnuts and herbs to garnish, and enjoyed away! For Kevin, I topped it with marinara sauce and meatballs.

The Izaka-ya By Katsu-ya at Manhattan Beach

This whole thing was $9.80 at The Izaka-ya By Katsu-ya at Manhattan Beach. You get 12 kinds of sushi, 4 spicy tuna rolls, 4 California rolls, a mini udon, and a Japanese salad. The last time we came here, the $9.80 special consisted of miso-marinated black cod, the 8 sushi rolls, Japanese salad, and miso soup. Pretty good for a Manhattan Beach restaurant! The catch is that only the first 15 people get to order this weekday lunch special, so there's always a line before the place opens up for lunch.

Lavender and Walnut Oil Sprouted Grain Pasta

This penne is from Food for Life's Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain line. Now this one was obvious as far as being totally different from regular pasta. The penne tubes frayed easily, and the taste and texture were completely different! I liked it, but I had to eat this myself (Kevin wouldn't like it), drizzled with walnut oil and topped with culinary lavender buds for a twist. The ingredients are: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt. Curious as to what the verse says? Here you go: "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side." (Ekeziel 4:9)

Point-Cut Corned Beef

The point-cut is SO much more fatty than the flat brisket cut! I don't think I'll buy the point-cut again, even though it was cheaper. I've pretty much had it with corned beef for the year. All that salt! I feel like going on a lemon and wheatgrass diet or something.

Macro-Dingle and Dingle

He he he! How cute! Kevin saw this giant stuffed frog at Ralphs during Easter time, so I waited until it went on sale and bought him. We call him Macro-Dingle (since the small guy is named Dingle). Macro-Dingle looks sleepy. We have been arguably obsessed with cute stuffed frogs ever since Kevin won the little frog for me at a claw machine in the town of Dingle, Ireland. I named him Dingle, and we've gotten into stuffed frogs ever since.

Homemade BBQ Baked Beans

Actually I didn't bake these but I slow cooked them in the slow cooker. I would call this attempt a botch because the sauce was too thick and salty, and the beans didn't come out as tender as the restaurant-style ones. That's what I get for (1) dumping in BBQ sauce instead of measuring out spices and liquids, (2) using TJ's 17 bean and barley mix instead of the standard navy beans, and (3) allowing the beans to go way beyond the 10 hour setting and burn on the edges... I won't feel as bad next time ordering baked beans as a side. The ingredients may be cheap but I sure couldn't make this on my first try!

Limburger

This was the most undesirable cheese I've ever had! It looked innocent enough in its gold foil packaging, but upon opening it, this pungent odor became noticeable, and I couldn't escape that odor with my first (and only) taste. I couldn't believe a cheese could be this bad tasting, especially one made all the way in Germany, so I looked it up later and found out that this particular cheese has the same bacteria as that found to cause body odor. How unappetizing! Next time, I will do homework before embarking on random cheese adventures.

Cabernet Wine Crackers With Cheese

I visited the new Total Wine store in the South Bay Marketplace shopping center. The developers are doing a good job of enlivening that area of Torrance! I bought this package of Cabernet wine crackers there and topped it with a lot of Cashel Blue. This actually worked out quite well since the crackers have cracked peppercorns which helped to contrast with the strong blue cheese.

Cashel Blue

Sigh. I didn't really like the Cashel Blue last time, but this time it came with the label so I bought the smallest slice I could find, just to add that label to my collection! Cashel Blue is a bit too strong of a blue for me. The only blues I have been able to take so far as gorgonzola (and only in small quantities, in conjunction with something else) and white stilton (which is actually not really a blue cheese).

Tarragon Whitefish With Vegetables

I don't remember what kind of fish this was (we made this at my friend's house). We marinated it in tarragon, chervil, and vegetable oil, and cooked it in a skillet along with julienned red bell peppers and carrots. I can't believe the recipe had no salt or pepper or anything salty... we ended up adding a dash of salt after the fact to bring out the flavor.

Poppadoms

A poppadom is basically a crispy round Indian bread that is eaten with Indian food (what else?). I bought a box of these at Ralphs, of all places, and basically watched each flat disk puff up into this fluffy crisps after about 45 seconds. They would have tasted better had I brushed some oil on them, or had I deep fried them, but the microwave worked just fine. Interestingly, the nutrition stats on these guys were pretty decent as far as being relatively low calories and high in fiber (the primary ingredient in these particular poppadums was black gram bean flour). My only complaint was that these were too salty!

Wine Tasting in Solvang

This was at one of the wineries in Solvang that we checked out. We had a bunch of coupons allowing us two tastings for the price of one. Most of the tastings allowed 5 or 6 different wines for about $8 per person, which turns out to be $4 per person with the coupons. So yay! I was reminded once again of my preference for whites. I liked the two Happy Canyon ones listed on the tasting menu the best (Sauvignon Blanc and a late harvest dessert wine).

Mortensen's Cream Cheese Danish

It turned out that everything in Solvang was within easy walking distance of our inn, including this bakery called Mortensen's, where we shared this cream cheese danish. It was really good... light and fluffy, not super buttery and soggy like most store-bought danishes. I'm sure there was a lot of fat in the pastry, but it was very light and the layers were delicately crisp, almost a cross between a turnover and croissant consistency. Anyway, the inn we stayed at also provided danishes as part of the complimentary breakfast. They tasted very similar to this one. Yum! I might have gained five pounds or so that weekend =/. Time to start exercising and watching those calories again.

Smörgåsbord

The Smörgåsbord is a traditional Scandinavian buffet-style meal consisting of various items such as cheese, crisp flatbread, cold meats, pickled herring, creamed veggies, sausages and meatballs, red cabbage, beets, and some other stuff I don't remember. We ate this for one of the meals in Solvang... It was decent at first but we couldn't take it after a couple of plates. I think Kevin only ate the chicken and eggs (not sure if either of those belongs in a traditional Smörgåsbord). My favorite thing on this plate was probably the cheese and crispbread, or maybe that little cookie on the bottom right.

Pistachio Tart

This was my other impulse purchase from Le Pain Quotidien... The pistachios lent a lovely green hue and a flair of novelty (when was the last time you saw a pistachio tart?). The kicker? The base is made of marzipan (almond paste)! Alas, this all sounded better than it tasted. It was fine but not extraordinary. Basically, I wouldn't vouch for this place as I would Extraordinary Desserts (San Diego), Portos (Glendale), Scoops (Los Angeles)...

Mini Hot Cross Bun

I stumbled across a Le Pain Quotidien in Manhattan Beach the other day and bought one of these mini hot cross buns which apparently have blueberries and currants in them. Not bad but didn't wow me. Continue to the next post...

Mango Sorbet

TJ's mango sorbet made from Australian mangoes is one of the best! It's really hard to scoop out without letting it sit for a bit though. I vouch for this because it is as rich as sorbet can get while still being only 100 calories per serving. Any richer, and you have to go into sherbet or gelato land. I hate how some sorbets are more than 100 calories per 1/2 cup serving, and most of them have sugar as the first ingredient (ew). This one has mangoes as the first ingredient!

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream With Pecan Praline Cornbread

Okay that title is a mouthful, but I have to acknowledge both parts fittingly! For the ice cream, yes I made homemade ice cream again, without an ice cream maker. I used two Madagascar vanilla beans (this time from Nielsen-Massey instead of World Market's), along with heavy cream, milk, whole eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract (the alcohol helps to soften the ice cream as well as impart more flavor). I love love love homemade ice cream! The only thing I have to give up is letting it sit for a bit after taking it from the freezer, before it is scoopable. I love how VANILLA it is. Oh, I also made the Baileys ice cream again... and once again, that was softer than the vanilla (probably due to the higher alcohol content). Mmmm....

Okay so the other part of this is the pecan praline cornbread... I basically threw in this Pecan Praline Liqueur along with a bunch of pecans, flour (regular and corn), cream cheese, and sour cream (no sugar at all), and baked the batter in little cupcake liners as well as steamed the batter in the rice cooker. The above slice you see is the steamed version. I personally love pecans and cornbread so it's something I really enjoyed (not to mention the strong kick from the liqueur). Oh and I have to comment... I don't usually get tempted by sour cream, but Wallaby's European style cultured sour cream is soooo thick and tasty that I actually got tempted to eat it straight, with crackers, before dumping it into the batter...

Chocolate Brownie Soufflé

Okay okay this wasn't really a soufflé but I just wanted to call it that due to my usage of the ramekin. This was the same brownie batter as that used for the car brownies. I actually made it myself from flour, cocoa, etc. as opposed to from a mix. It came out more cakey than fudgey but I was going for that anyhow, since fudgey brownies wouldn't fare well when attempting to release them from the shaped molds. While googling for from-scratch brownie recipes, I learned there is this huge debate about whether brownies should be fudgey or cakey... I guess my lack of opinion, coupled with the misuse of the term "soufflé," betrays that I'm not really a foodie but just someone interested in food.

Car Brownies

Yay... I've posted about these before but they were time-consuming enough to warrant another post! It's not so much the baking that takes awhile, but it's the cleanup! If you're interested in the pans themselves, they are Nordicware's "Sweet Rides Classic Car" pans. I do like all the fun shaped pans offered by Nordicware but yeah the cleanup bites.

Minted Lamb With Quinoa Polenta And Carrots

So I bought this jar of Colman's Mint Sauce on a whim... and the safest thing I could possibly use it for was to pair it with lamb! Hence, I bought these boneless lamb cuts from Fresh & Easy, threw them in the slow cooker with olive oil and the mint sauce, and the carrots, and let her cook away for 10 hours. As you can see, the resulting lamb was basically so fall-apart tender! Taste-wise, the mint sauce was fine but it's probably a bit too strong for Kevin. The other interesting part of this dish was the quinoa polenta that I picked up from Whole Foods. It went well with the minty olive oil lamb sauce. I've seen the plain yellow polenta before, but not this speckled one! Apparently it's got heirloom red and black quinoa along with your standard corn meal. Looking at the package here... it's from The Quinoa Corporation based in Gardena? How interesting. They make a lot of the other quinoa products that I recognize! Didn't know they were in Gardena. Check it out: http://www.quinoa.net/ .

Raisin Rosemary Crisps

Wow! I love these Raisin Rosemary Crisps from Trader Joe's! I say this because I've actually bought Leslie Stowe's Raincoast Crisps before, which were good but relatively pricey... So compared to that, these crisps from TJ are a no brainer replacement! Granted, the raincoast crisps come in different flavors and are bigger than these mini-toast sized crisps from TJ, but the latter are always crispy whereas I've had somewhat chewy raincoast crisps before, which are no fun. I wonder if it's because the raincoast crisps are all natural whereas the TJ may not be? I'm not sure. If you want to know what I'm talking about, you can read a bit about the Raincoast Crisps. I would vouch for the TJ crisps over Leslie's Stowe's any day though, because they taste delicious, are reliably crispy, and much more affordable!

Blue Corn & Chili Lime Crackers

Picked these up from Fresh & Easy... I love the dark blue/purple hue and the slightly spicy twist. They have the consistency of a Ritz cracker though... so kinda rich and processed as opposed to rustic. The nutrition stats weren't that great calorie-wise either. Can't remember what they were but I definitely went over the daily calorie intake those days I enjoyed these guys.

Butter Tea Cookies

Yay for tea cookies from the gourmet tea brand Tea Forté... They make those pyramid-shaped tea infusers with the little paper leaf on top. Anyway these cookies are pretty good, with the white ginger pear cookie being much more delicate and buttery than the sweet orange spice, which is a bit more substantial and chunky. There's actually tea in the ingredients (pretty subtle but you can make it out). Too bad two of these cookies alone come out to 120 cals. Here is a link to their site which is visually pleasing, although I don't see any info about their cookies: http://www.teaforte.com/ .