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:

Cook: Healthy and Delicious Kale Salad

 This is one of our favorite new salads!  It is healthy and delicious!   J found this recipe online and it is apparently one of from Dr. Andrew Weil's True Food Kitchen.   Kale is among the most nutrient-dense commonly eaten vegetables. One cup provides 1,327 percent of the daily value for vitamin K, 192 percent of DV for vitamin A, and 88 percent for Vitamin C!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 cups Kale, loosely packed, sliced leaves with midribs removed (you can get pre cut, prepped kale available in bags by the salad section of the supermarket)
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• salt and pepper to taste
• hot red pepper flakes to taste
• 2/3 cup grated Pecorino Toscano cheese (or you can use Parmesan)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (we use Italian seasoned bread crumbs)

Listen: Sharon Van Etten - "For You

Sharing a lovely tune for Music Monday

Cook: Autumn Sausage and Butternut Squash Pizza

For those of you who know me personally, and/or follow my blog - you're probably aware of my passion for pizza making. To make it easier for those who are interested to find other pizza recipes featured on the blog - I've created a new label "Cook - Pizza".  The story behind this week's pizza recipe is that there was a pizza shop, Corner Grille, that J and I used to frequent when we lived in Worcester, MA.  They had this fabulous sausage and squash pizza that I loved, and since I haven't been able to find this combo anywhere in LA, I had to figure out how to make it myself.  It's not exactly the same as Corner Grille's, but if I can say so myself, this pizza is quite delicious!!!  

Bake: DeliciousLA Apple-Cranberry Crisp

Hi everyone! I'm back from a little hiatus from blogging. The past few weeks have been so busy! I have many new recipes and things to share. This weekend has been a bit on the cool side for us in LA, and it was perfect for apple crisp. I haven't made one for awhile, so I searched the internet for a good recipe, and then modified it ever so slightly to make it my own.  It came out delicious (so delicious -that I forgot to photograph it before we ate it!) and I hope you enjoy it.