Must Eat: Mama Lu's Dumpling House, Monterey Park, CA

In the spirit of Chinese New Year (it's the year of the dragon!), this week I'm sharing a delicious Chinese food spot in LA! Living on the West Side, we don't make it all the way over to Monterey Park very often. But when we do, it is always worth the drive! You just can't find Chinese food like this on the West side unfortunately. Unless my parents are visiting. Sigh.

After hosting 23 people for Christmas this year, we decided to take a break from cooking and went out for a Chinese feast the day after.  This is what we ate and enjoyed ...

Cook: French Meat Pie

Since the last couple of posts were recipes for salads, I thought I'd post something meaty!  Both J and I enjoy meat pie,  but hadn't had it since we moved to LA.  I'm sure we could find it somewhere, but we decided to try making it ourselves. It was easy enough (weeknight dinner easy!), and very delicious.  We modified this recipe slightly by adding a few sliced jalapenos.  We served it with sauteed green beans and a side of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

Cook: Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

This is a gorgeous and hearty salad, perfect for fall or winter.  I made this salad for our new years eve dinner last night, and it was a big hit! I have many fantastic recipes to share in 2012, so be sure to keep checking back on the blog!

This salad recipe another gem by Ina Garten.  The only modification I made was a little less oil in the dressing. Here is the recipe I used which is doubled to serve 8-10 (party size)  To make it for 4, you can follow the original recipe here (but reduce the oil in the dressing by half).

Ingredients: