Sunday, July 29, 2012

Camp Movie Weekend

It was camp movie weekend!  My friend Thom and I drove out to my brother and sister-in-law’s in Temecula to hang out and watch a bunch of campy old movies (mostly old movies anyway) – and also to celebrate a little for my sister-in-law’s birthday [happy 29th! Amy ;)]

We started out with Valley of the Dolls – a classic camp movie.  Neither Thom nor Amy had seen it.  Then we moved on to one of my favorites, and more current, Sordid Lives.  We moved on to another classic, The Women (and it was the original – far superior), then finished the night with Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

I was in charge of finger foods to snack on during our movie fest, which I will now be sharing with you.  Most of them were successful, but I definitely have ideas for improvement for the next time.  My menu consisted of BLT Dip, Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps, Melon with Prosciutto and Marinated Feta and Olive Skewers.

The BLT Dip is a very tasty dip I made back at Christmas that everyone loved and is based on a Sandra Lee recipe I found.  I adapted it, and also cut out the lettuce.  It consists of about one cup of mayo, two cups of sour cream, about a ¾ cup of crisped bacon, another ¾ cup of sun-dried tomatoes, and some ground black pepper to taste.  Mix it all up good and let is meld together for a while, preferably overnight.   It’s very decadent, fattening, and incredibly delicious.  If you want to feel fancy, you could core out a head of lettuce to put it in to serve it up (that’s the lettuce part).  I just serve it which potato chips, pita chips, or celery and carrots. 

For the Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps, I took three boneless, skinless breasts and cut them up into pieces, then marinated them for several hours in grapefruit juice, soy sauce, a little white wine, black pepper and some red pepper flakes.  After they’ve marinated, take a pound of bacon and cut the strips into thirds, then start wrapping the chicken in the bacon strips and skewer them with a toothpick.  On the side, throw a cup of brown sugar in a bowl and toss in some cayenne pepper and mix is up good.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and arrange the chicken/bacon skewers on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the skewers (or you can try dredging them in it) and try to coat them well.  Bake for about 30-40 minutes (let the back cook up and crisp).  Obviously, you want them to cool off a little, but they’re good to go out of the oven, just don’t pop a whole on in your mouth until they cool a bit.

I did find the marinade, while did make it tasty, could definitely be improved.  Next time, I plan to use fresh orange juice.  I might cut out the wine, but will figure that out the next time I make them.  But they were a hit nonetheless.

The Melon and Prosciutto is pretty self explanatory.  Cut up a honeydew melon in to small pieces, then skewer some prosciutto onto them and arrange on a platter.  It’s a very simple, delicious, and even elegant appetizer to make.  Salty and sweet – the perfect pair.

Lastly, the Marinated Feta and Olive Skewers didn’t come off as well as I had hoped, but they were still pretty good.  Take a block of good feta cheese and cut it into small squares/blocks, toss into a bowl with the zest and the juice from a fresh squeezed orange or two.  Crack some black pepper over it and toss in some fennel seeds (purely optional on the fennel).  Gently toss it all together in the bowl the cover the cheese blocks.  Let it marinade for a while, then when you’re ready, skewer them on a toothpick with a kalamata olive (or a green olive if you prefer) and serve up.  The fennel made it a little too sweet in a licorice kind of way, so I will not use it next time and maybe try some rosemary. 

Overall, the finger foods were a hit (along with the potato chips and Doritos).  It made for a great weekend and a lot of fun.  We finished it off today by watching Auntie Mame – a great end to a fun, and relaxing weekend.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Frustrating Friday - But An Upcoming Fundraiser

So I get home today, relax a little bit, then gather myself to walk down to the food trucks.  I changed into shorts since it’s blazing hot, and humid, in the valley today.  I get packed up, even remember to grab my biz cards, and walk on down to the NoHo food trucks. 

I get there, check out the menus on the trucks – there was a Greek one this week, Red Robin, and other sundry trucks.  After I gather in the aromas and start figuring out what I want, I reach behind to my back pocket and discover I left my wallet at home!  ARRRGGGGG! 
I was not about to walk home then walk back in that heat and make two trips, so I just went home and made dinner tonight.  I was more peeved at myself for NOT checking for my wallet before I headed out the door – but oh well.

Regardless, I did want to let the locals know of an event for the charity I support and work with, the Rock School Scholarship Fund (www.rockschoolfund.org).  My friend Wendy started this non-profit to help kids who wanted to learn rock music but didn’t have the financial resources available (most rock schools are private, for-profit operations).  Next weekend on Sunday, July 29 in Sun Valley, one of the local schools is having a car wash benefit to support the Fund. 


I am working on getting some food trucks to come and serve up some food, and hopefully drive even more traffic – so if you’re in LA, please do come and get your car washed, listen to the kids play classic rock, and get some good food.  I’ll post which trucks are coming as soon as I lock them in.

Monday, July 16, 2012

An Uneven Weekend

Back on Friday, I did visit the local food trucks in my neighborhood, but can’t give a review unfortunately due to the fact the one place I choose to eat at gave me gastro-intestinal issues later Friday night/Saturday morning.  Since this is a rarity, I am not going to publicly call out the truck, but I did notify the owners of what occurred so that they can correct any problems.  After eating at all the different food trucks that I have the past couple of years, this is the first time I really wound up having an issue with the food (other than perhaps not liking it).  So I’m giving them the opportunity to correct any problems.

That being said, I did get some cupcake that evening also from Sugar Babies Cupcakery (http://sugarbabiescupcakery.com/) that I tried the next day – after I was feeling better, of course.  They have a shop on Fulton Ave. in the Sherman Oaks area that I pass nearly every day on my way home from work, so I was glad to have the opportunity to taste their cupcakes.  On their truck, they only have small cupcakes, which is fine with me.  I got a half-dozen for $10 and took them home.  So far I have tried the Salted Caramel (yummmmm), Red Velvet (luscious), Pancake and Bacon (interesting) and Birthday Cake (it definitely is birthday cake-y).  They have all been very delicious, and a small treat so I don’t feel like I’m being a pig.

On Saturday around noon-ish I met my brother, his wife and son at Philippe the Original (http://www.philippes.com/) – the best French dip joint in L.A.  I used to go there for lunch when I worked downtown eons ago, so it’s a nice treat to go there on a weekend and meet up with people.  If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it.  They have more than just beef on the menu too – you can get a lamb dip, ham dip, pork dip and turkey dip.  I’ve had the beef mostly, along with the lamb, but have to confess I haven’t tried the others.  It’s a fun atmosphere, always very busy.  They also serve breakfast.

And yesterday, before I took myself to the movies, I decided to lunch at Pitfire Pizza in North Hollywood (http://www.pitfirepizza.com/).  I have eaten there several times, and even blogged about it, but yesterday turned out to be a disappointment to me.  I usually have a pasta dish, but decided on pizza yesterday instead.  I even “built” my own, choosing to have roasted garlic, gorgonzola cheese and prosciutto on it.  I also imbibed with a glass of Malbec wine.
Here are my issues:  firstly, while at room temp…..you don’t want a wine a room temp when it’s 80 degrees.  They leave the bottles out in the hot restaurant and make no attempt to control their temperature, which can ruin any wine.  Secondly, the pizza, while tasty and it did have a crispy crust (which I like), seem to be hastily thrown together and little thought into the way the ingredients were incorporated.  The roasted garlic was basically cast as globs onto the pizza, the prosciutto was cut way to thick (it should always be paper thin) and was scant on the pizza – and as for the gorgonzola, I hardly tasted or saw any on the pizza.

While I could have complained, I was hungry and had little time.  I am going to email them though with my thoughts and complaints.  It’s not that the food is bad, but it is being badly done and that’s a major disservice to the restaurant.  Like I said, I’ve eaten there before and enjoyed it.  And the staff is all very pleasant (albeit they all seemed to be very, very young).

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tonight's Salmon Meal

Tonight for dinner I decided to go healthy.  When I got home, I marinated a salmon filet in grapefruit juice mixed with a little prosecco and Thai spices.  I let it marinate for about 30 minutes while I threw some red new potatoes into the oven that I had rubbed with some olive oil and seasoning in a foil pouch.  I had the oven warmed up to 400 degrees before throwing the potatoes in.

After the salmon had marinated a while, I tossed it into the oven to bake on some parchment paper for 20 minutes.  I threw the marinade into a pot to reduce while it was baking to make a sauce, and set up a steamer basket in another pot to make some green beans.

When the timer dinged, I turned the oven off and threw the beans in the steamer while I mixed up some plain greek yogurt with some Thai spice to make a sour cream replacement for the potatoes.

I pulled the potatoes and salmon out of the oven, plated it up, smashed the potatoes and poured some of the yogurt over them, then plated up the green beans and poured a little yogurt on them too.  To finish it off, I took the reduced marinade and poured it over the salmon.

It was such an incredibly tasty dinner, and healthy too!  I am definitely going to use more yogurt to make sauces.  It made the potatoes sing, without adding much fat.  My doctor would be pleased!  It almost rivaled my meal earlier today at Craft!

Craft Los Angeles

For lunch today, my co-worker Madeleine and I decided to lunch at Craft Los Angeles (http://www.craftrestaurantsinc.com/craft-los-angeles/), Tom Colicchio’s restaurant in Century City (it’s just outside our offices).  While we had dined there before for work’s holiday party, I haven’t written about it before.  We both have had a brutal few weeks so this was our reward to ourselves to surviving!

We ate in the bar, thinking the bar menu – much lower in price – would be available.  Unfortunately we discovered that it was only available in the evening hours, not for lunch.  Regardless, we decided to eat there anyway.    I also decided to enjoy a nice glass of wine (a Cabernet-Franc to be specific).
We shared the Wild Arugula, parmesan and Pine Nuts salad, which was quite generous and very tangy.  The dressing was perfectly acidic and the cheese gave it a little pungency.  It was a nice intro to our ensuing meal. 

Madeleine ordered the Short Rib Sliders with Cheddar and Coleslaw – she shared one with me, and I ordered the Berkshire Pork Loin (I gave her a slice to try).  The slider was piled with short rib meat, which was incredibly tender and well flavored with BBQ sauce.  I could have eaten a platter of them.  She also had a side of potato chips dusted with parmesan that accompanied her meal.  The sliders are well worth returning to try again, and fairly priced at $18 for 3 sliders (given the amount of beef they put on them).

My pork loin was also very tender, the skin crisped perfectly.  It sat on a bed of polenta, and dressed with a sweet sauce and a few apricots.  The polenta was rather bland, but the sauce helped flavor it up.  The pork didn’t really need the sauce, but it was a nice addition, and the apricots added a sweet edge to the pork.  There was also a chunk of pork belly crisped up on the side that melted in your mouth.

To finish my meal, I ordered a scoop of their mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It was a small scoop, but bold in flavor and more than enough for a lunch meal.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures as I had planned until the end (the ice cream), but trust me – the food was appealing not only to the palate, but to the eye.  Next time I will definitely snap a few pics.

The drawback is the price.  Craft is NOT cheap.  Our bill came to about $80 (my wine was nearly ¼ of that) which is pricey for a lunch.  However, we treated ourselves and it was well worth it!

Friday, July 6, 2012

NoHo Food Trucks

It was food truck night for me tonight – back in the game!  The NoHo Flea Market has a parking lot of trucks every Friday on Burbank Blvd. near my apartment (http://www.nohofoodtruckfest.com/).   Today they had six trucks, but only five were open and running by the time I left close to 7pm, and of course, it was one I was hoping to get to enjoy (Pies and Fries – their menu intrigued me – hope they do show up and open somewhere soon).  Fortunately there were five interesting open and wanting business.


My first tasting was with the Short Rib Korea BBQ truck.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a website for them.  They are basically a competitor to Kogi BBQ – Korean Fusion.  I ordered the Spicy Pork Cheesy Fries (small order).  It was $5.  It looked really good and they were generous with the pork.  I was disappointed to find that unfortunately they weren’t spicy at all – they were more sweet than anything.  While they tasted fine, I went I think Korean BBQ and spicy, I expect spicy, and I didn’t get any heat or real spice.  They also offer tacos, and other options, so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and try them again if I see them.

For my second course, I decided to try the Vchos truck (http://www.vchostruck.com/), which does pupusas (think of a really thick tortilla, almost a pita pocket, with filling and grilled up).  I’ve seen them several times at different locations, but I never had the opportunity to partake.  Tonight I tried their chicken and cheese pupusa, which comes with a red sauce and slaw to pour over it.  The pupusa was grilled perfectly, the chicken and cheese filling ground fine and melted together.  It tasted wonderful, and the red sauce gave it a little extra zing.  The slaw added some crunch, but I can do without it the next time I order from them.  But I will definitely be looking for them again.  Yummmmm
Lastly, I tried out Cool Cow (http://www.becoolcow.com/), a relatively new food truck.  They offer organic, fresh gelatos and frozen yogurt made into popsicles.  I asked the guy running the truck how long they had been around since I hadn’t heard of them before, and he said that they literally had been up and running for two weeks!  I ordered the Be Ape, which is banana gelato dipped in milk chocolate and coated with walnuts.  It was very creamy, and you definitely get the banana flavor, and I could tell it was very fresh.  It was $5 for what is a rather small serving, but you definitely high quality and flavor.  I hope they show up at more places!
It feels good to be back visiting the food trucks.