We all know the benefits of healthier eating, so we won’t bore you with the blah, blah, blah. We will say that there is a completely different satisfaction that comes from eating healthier. We love our cheesey pizzas, fluffy cakes, buttery cookies, crispy calzones, and ketchup dipped French fries as much, if not more, than you, but usually those meals and snacks can leave you feeling empty. Sounds odd that heavy, high calorie foods can do that, but it’s true. A belly full of empty calories affects you immediately (hello, sugar high or deathly stomachaches!), but a belly full of the good stuff leaves you vibrant, satisfied and guiltless. It’s nice to have those types of meals to remind you that eating smart can still taste good. Might as well squeeze a few healthy meals in between those pizza slices and French fries when you can.
Keep reading →
Categories: Side Dishes · Vegetarian · Veggies
Tagged: aromatic, bell pepper, Bender Media, couscous, fiber, giveaway, Maison Le Grand, pesto, tapenade, tomato, whole wheat, zucchini
Sweet Potato Cheesecake Pie sliced for the judges.
Waking up early on a Saturday morning to bake is actually an enjoyable activity during the fall. It’s very soothing to do it while listening to KCRW-FM, our Santa Monica-based public radio station. At 10:00 am, there’s Ira Glass’ This American Life, and right at 11:00 am, Evan Kleiman, Chef & Owner of Angeli Caffe, comes on with Good Food. One morning this summer, Evan announced her Pie a Day project. She would make a pie every day for three months. That’s a lot of pie! Somewhere along the line, an announcement hit the airwaves that she would host KCRW’s 1st Annual Good Food Pie Contest in honor of Evan’s efforts. We were so in.
Keep reading →
Categories: Announcements · Events
Tagged: cheesecake, contest, fennel, Good Food, grape, KCRW, pot pie, sweet potato, tarragon
Well good morning. How are you? We have coffee cake. Surely you want some? Surely. Somewhere up there with fluffy biscuits, creamy vegetable tarts, and Southern shrimp and grits, there’s coffee cake as one of the most desirable breakfast dishes. Imagine waking up to this on a cool morning. Brew up a mug of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, and you’re ready to eat. This was actually made for a dinner party where the theme was ‘breakfast’. Breakfast for dinner. Let’s all just admit that breakfast for dinner is always a great idea. Why do you think people love going to Ihop for pancakes late at night? For this dinner party, everyone had to supply a traditional morning platter, and this is something that rides the line between bread and dessert. We sat down to an asparagus and potato frittata, roasted potatoes speckled with hearty turkey sausage and fresh watermelon and pineapple with cream. This coffee cake was a great way to end it all, but there’s no reason why it won’t be baked again for a future fall morning.
Keep reading →
Categories: Breakfast · Cakes, Pies and Tarts · Nuts
Tagged: allspice, cardamom, coffee cake, Eat My Blog, fall, ginger, giveaway, lemon, pear, POM Wonderful, sour cream, walnut, zest
‘Tis the season for making cakes. It’s time for gatherings with friends and family, hot cocoa, cold weather and sweet treats. That’s where cake comes in. The fall is our favorite time to kick back at home and bake, bake, bake. It’s the best time to fill your home with the smells, flavors and warmth of cookies, pies and cakes. We’ve made several different versions of this butterless, flourless cake before, and we’re sharing another one that would be perfect for your next cool fall day.
Keep reading →
Categories: Cakes, Pies and Tarts · Nuts · Sweet Treats
Tagged: allspice, Bertolli, Bon Appetit, cinnamon, contest, Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, maple syrup, San Francisco, walnut, whipped cream
View of the Bay Bridge from our hotel room.
Like Michael Jackson’s movie currently in theaters, the recent First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival proved to be the can’t-miss event of the year! From our mouths to your ears (or eyes), we’re moving to San Francisco! Well, not really, but one can dream. The best part of the whole event was its location in the beautiful Bay city. We love this place! It is a much needed departure from LA where the air is crispier, the buildings taller and the sky may be a brighter blue. San Fran = Joy. And we want more of it in our lives!
Keep reading →
Categories: Beef · Bevvies · Breads, Muffins and Rolls · Breakfast · Cakes, Pies and Tarts · Chicken and Poultry · Cookies and Bars · Dips, Dressings and Sauces · Events · Main Dishes · Nibbly Bits · Nuts · Pork · Sandwiches · Seafood · Side Dishes · Sweet Treats · Vegetarian · Veggies
Tagged: Bertolli, cocktails, dim sum, First Annual Food Blogger Festival, Foodbuzz, happy hour, Hotel Vitale, Nature's Pride, Ogilvy PR, Pie Truck, San Francisco, Skyy, street food, Yank Sing
We’re back from an absolutely great weekend at the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. So many people, so much food, so little time. Three days in one of California’s best cities, and the chance to work side-by-side with the great people of Bertolli. Plus, we had the opportunity to meet everybody behind Foodbuzz, which was a treat. We have a lot of pictures to go through and to share, but that will take a little time. While you wait, here’s a dessert to wet your appetite!
Have you ever had desserts that were just two sweet? Almost two sweet to eat? If you think back to your golden years–let’s say, the ages of five to ten–there was almost no such thing as ‘too sweet’. Cotton candy, bubble gum, chocolate bars, sour gummies, jelly beans and the like could be eaten with wild abandon without a care in the world. There may have been a a blaring sugar high followed by a roaring tummy ache, but who even remembers those things? Now, most of us have perhaps developed palettes that cannot handle too much sugar. We are the same way when it comes to certain foods, especially dishes that feature fruit. The best part of the dish is the fruit, so make sure everyone knows it. Fall’s apples are great right now, and they will continue to pop up all over the place through the season. Leave out just a bit of the extra sugar, and they will show you who’s the boss.
Keep reading →
Categories: Cakes, Pies and Tarts
Tagged: allspice, apple, blogoversary, cardamom, dough, Frangelico, giveaway, Kitchen 24, lemon, maple syrup, pastry, POM Wonderful, POMx
We’re in San Fran right now as you’re reading this, but we had to put a post in queue in our absence. This is a dip made not too long ago that was a bit of an experiment, as some of our recipes are from time to time. Have you ever felt nervous that one of your brilliant food ideas would not translate to the plate? Perhaps you were hit with an epiphany the night before, and when you’re actually putting the elements together, you begin to feel tiny twinges of doubt. No matter how much of a cook you are, there is no guarantee that each dish will be a success. Following a sun-dried tomato and basil dip that disappeared faster than you can say “Sally sold seashells by the seashore”, there was the need for another quick appetizer idea. We decided to move ahead with this shaky idea and just see what would happen.
Keep reading →
Categories: Breads, Muffins and Rolls · Dips, Dressings and Sauces
Tagged: apple cider vinegar, caramelized, dip, giveaway, Kitchen 24, pear, red onion, rosemary, Spice Girls, yeast
We promise that this is the last birthday cake you will see here for a while. Maybe. We’ll see who else chooses to celebrate with cake before the year is over. Until then, let’s all have a slice of this 1-2-3-4 cake! A good friend who just recently got engaged gets to round out October with her golden birthday! This cake was a little piece of the party. We’ve had a few opportunities to work on decorating cakes and cookies this month, but practice is still in order. This cake was a test in writing, which is no easy feat. The letters are royal icing. The pink things are the bottom are supposed to be balloons, and they are glacé icing with royal icing strings. No one’s quitting their day job to take up the pastry chef life, but one day we’ll get it perfect! Oh, and we have things to celebrate too. Wanna hear all about it?
Keep reading →
Categories: Announcements · Cakes, Pies and Tarts · Sweet Treats
Tagged: birthday, bittersweet chocolate, blogoversary, cinnamon, cream cheese, Frangelico, giveaway, happy hour, Kitchen 24, Los Angeles, sour cream
Maybe you noticed that we some how skipped over the Guest Test Kitchen for September. Our fault completely! It’s been a little crazy for both of us, and September just slipped our minds. The most exciting opportunity at the moment is a chance to do a live demonstration with the Bertolli Sauce team for Foodbuzzers at the Tasting Pavillion during the San Francisco festival next weekend. Here’s hoping you’ve voted? If not, here’s the link! October has been a doozy, but it’s the best month of the year, so we have to go out with a bang, plus tease a little something special coming up next week! It’s officially Halloween today, and the frenzy of holiday baking will truly begin now. Remember when we told you that a good friend of ours left LA? Well, this same friend has adjusted well to NY, and it appears he has been baking up new dishes for friends. Here’s one that you may want to add to your holiday repertoire. We’ll let Bobby show you how it goes.
Keep reading →
Categories: Breads, Muffins and Rolls · Guest Test Kitchen · Nuts
Tagged: bread, cinnamon, cranberry, Halloween, holiday, loaf, New York, October, pumpkin, tangerine, walnut
Empanadas, empanadas, empanadas. Just saying the word makes the mouth water, no? The stuffed bread pastries have a long cultural history across the world, and you’ll find variations in the name and fillings in Latin, Asian and Caribbean countries everywhere. They can be savory and spicy, sweet and flakey, baked or fried, square or crescent-shaped. Although there are similarities in their basic construction, the differences between each one make them stand out as all their own. After reading a NY Times article about Chilean style empanadas, it was clear that we had to give this version a try.
Keep reading →
Categories: Beef · Dips, Dressings and Sauces · Nibbly Bits
Tagged: apple cider vinegar, Beef, Chile, crema mexicana, empanada, olive, oregano, raisin, serrano
