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Hi guys how was your weekend? Mine was really nice, we are still discovering cute places around here, yesterday we went to a place called Fisherman’s Village and it was a pleasant surprise. It’s a nice area to walk along the waterfront. From the village you can look out over the Main Channel of Marina del Rey. You’ll be able to see dozens of sailboats and powerboats coming in and out of the harbor, and sunsets are often beautiful from that point. There are some decent restaurants, a place to rent boats and bikes by the hour. We loved it. Maybe next weekend we go check Catalina Island. Lets talk about food now shall we? I found this really cute Patty Pan Squash at the FM and I wanted to have something light for dinner so I decided to roast them and make a soup. I like to roast the vegetables before because it accentuates the flavors. And to accompany it, I had this yummy kale and bacon muffins, here’s the recipe.

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Roasted Patty Pan Squash and Fennel Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, preferably homemade
• 4 or 5 medium Patty pan squash or zucchinis
• 1 big red onion
• 1 medium fennel bulb
• Olive oil
• Red chili flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the zucchinis, fennel and onions in quarters, all vegetables will shrink while baking; so don’t cut them too small.

Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on a sheet pan. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, red pepper flakes if you like a bit spicy. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

In a large pan, heat 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock. Coarsely puree the roasted vegetables and the stock using a handheld blender, season to taste. The soup should be thick but not like a vegetable puree, so add more chicken stock and/or water until it’s the consistency you like. Serve with a dollop of cream or yogurt. I served mine with a kale and bacon muffins, recipe here.

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Hi guys today I don’t have a food recipe, because I’m having a Detox diet. That consists of apples, hibiscus flowers, vodka, and a tad of condensed milk. What? That’s not detox? Well… I tried… lol. Let’s get serious here, because now I’m going to talk about my BFF Denise Fletcher from “Quickies on the dinner table”. I met her online and now I’m totally hooked on her site. Her recipes are delicious and she totally got my heart when she made Laksa and dedicated it to me. Laksa is my most favorite soup ever, I mean EVAR. She is incredibly funny and right now she is having a drink contest, together with Lazaro from “Lazaro cooks” pretty sure most of you know him too. He is always cooking delicious food for his girlfriend. How great is that? My drink is my own creation; did I tell you I once worked as a bartender in NY? It was a very short career…when the cheapos started to give me 50 cents tips… I thought I’m out o’here. But turn out my bartender course is a great help for me to have fun with my love at home.

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Apple hibiscus cocktail

For the Hibiscus simple syrup:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of hibiscus flower

For the cocktail:

• 1 cup of Ice
• 1 apple peeled
• 1.5 oz of vodka
• ½ oz of the hibiscus simple syrup
• 2 tbsp of condensed milk

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the dried hibiscus flowers. And simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.  Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Strain into a glass jar and let cool in the fridge. In a blender zap the apple with ½ cup of ice and strain just to get the juice. Or you can use 1 cup of apple juice but I prefer the fruit. Now mix in the blender the apple juice, vodka, the hibiscus syrup, ½ cup of ice and the condensed milk. Serve it with an apple slice.

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Ah! The Hollywood Farmer’s Market… so glamorous, you always rub elbows with some celebrity. But the not so famous also makes a wave over there. I love that Market. Not only for the rich and famous, but because it’s the best one I have been to so far. The variety of fruits and vegetables are mind blowing. And the food? How about that? Today I had Thai coconut sticky rice with mango that was soooooo yummy. It’s really a fun way to start my Sunday, surrounded by beautiful veggies and fruits. All that inspired me to make a “Farmer’s Market” Vegetarian Paella. Also check my seafood version here.

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Farmer’s Market Veggies Paella

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggplants cut in cubes
• 2 cups green beans cut in half
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 60 ml Spanish Olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 cups vegetable
• 1-cup paella rice
• 1 red onion cut in cubes
• 1 small red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 small yellow pepper, cut into strips
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 tablespoon of Pimenton (Spanish spicy Paprika)
• Kalamata Olives to serve

Direction:

Pre-heat the oven 350F. Put the eggplant, peppers and red onions in a tray and sprinkle with dry oregano olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper. Roast them in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Heat the olive oil in the paella pan, making sure it doesn’t reach smoking point and then sauté the onion, green beans and garlic. Measure the rice in a cup and add it to the onion, mixing well to ensure each rice grain has a coating of oil (adding a bit extra if you need)

Pour the stock into the paella pan and add the tomatoes and cook on high for three minutes, then turn down to the simmer and cook over a medium heat for 20 minutes or until almost tender and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. Don’t stir the rice while cooking just leaves it to simmer away gently. Then arrange the roasted vegetables over the rice in an attractive pattern and leave them to cook in the rising steam. Continue cooking until the all liquid has been absorbed and the rice is nicely tender.

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This week was my hubby’s birthday and we had the brilliant idea to go celebrate it in an amusement park. We decided to go to 6 flags, and this shows how naïve we are. We thought… what’s the big deal? It’s just a couple of roller coasters. Right? We are not scared, we can do that, we are not too old for that.

So let me describe to you our experience there. Let’s start with the weather, we live in Santa Monica, just a few blocks from the beach, and it’s always nice here with a nice breeze. I even took a cardigan in case I felt cold. Hahahahaha! We got there and it was a Sahara desert hot. Then we got this “flash pass” with this virtual ride reservation system that holds your place in line electronically. So without reading anything or give a second thought, we got to this ride called The Viper. OMG! Really O- M- G! It was the most excruciating horrible feeling ever, EVAAAAAAR. I felt so freaking scared you don’t even know… I probably had 50 mini heart attacks from point A to Point B. Here is the description of the Viper: “The world’s tallest vertical loop at 14 stories, and two other loops at 9 stories and 6 stories. Add to that a 4-story corkscrew and a double-barrel boomerang turn”. Okay…If I had read that I would never set foot even close to this Viper. So after my near death experience in that thing, we spent the rest of the day at “Bugs Bunny world” LOL There was no freaking way I would put my behinds on any of those rides again. So lesson learned here: We are only young in our delusional minds. LOL

All right, let’s talk food, Safe, Secure, no Loops food. Did you guys see the No Reservation (Antonio Bourdain) program this Monday? It was Italian heaven; did you spend the whole program drooling? Did you consider going pack your belongings and moving to Italy? Or it was just me?

How beautiful was that? I absolutely love the Italians, man…. they know how to transform something as simple as eggs and cheese into a heavenly tasty dish. I recorded the program and told my hubby if he erases it I will look for a lawyer. LOL

So today I tried the pasta Carbonara …it was so good. I have done Carbonara before but in a completely different way, (wrong way obviously). Their recipe was really simple and amazingly delicious. So… Mangia, mangia che te fa bene.

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Authentic Italian Pasta Carbonara

Ingredients:

• 7oz spaghetti
• 2 thick slice of pancetta
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese + extra to serve
• ½ cup pecorino Romano
• 2 free-range egg yolks and 1 whole egg beaten
• Hand full of basil to serve

Direction:

Cook the spaghetti according to the pack instructions. While it’s cooking heat a non-stick frying pan and when very hot add the pancetta. Cook until crispy then remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper towel. Mix the Parmesan, pecorino into the eggs and season with black pepper. Whisking until you get a paste. When the pasta is cooked scoop the spaghetti and add to the fry pan stir in the eggs/cheese paste. The heat from the pasta should cook the eggs without curdling it. Add 1 small ladle with the pasta water.  Stir through the Pancetta and the basil and serve immediately.

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Hi guys! I know I was a bit MIA but I’m having a writer’s block (if we can call my blabbing here writing). Yes …it happens sometimes, I’m Googling my brain for some interesting subjects but all I can hear are crickets. LOL What to do? I haven’t done much…nothing glamorous at least, no fancy vacation, just work…and boring stuff. *Sigh* I think I need a cocktail with little umbrellas something to cheer me up a little. Any ideas? Anyways…I made this risotto today with this ever so cute baby artichoke, artichoke is a bit of a mystery to me, Most of the time I have to go online for some video of “how to” and believe me there are plenty. Isn’t Internet wonderful? Well… I don’t know if I can call this a true risotto because I have used pearl barley instead. It’s not the first time that I use barley for risottos you can see it here, I find that it work pretty well; the only difference is that it has a bit of a bite and an even nuttier flavor. The radishes were a bit of a stretch but it worked for me. It gave my risotto a crunchy fresh flavor. For some Blackberry Coconut Cake please check my dessert site.

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Barley Risotto with Baby Artichoke

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup minced onions
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1-tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cups vegetable stock or water
• 1 1/2 cups pearl barley
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup grated Parmeggiano cheese
• 8 to 10 baby artichokes
• ½ cup of peas
• ½ cup of shaved radishes

Directions:

Here is a video of how to clean and cut the baby artichokes. Then Add trimmed cut in half Baby Artichokes to enough boiling water with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and lemon juice to flavor the Artichokes. Cover tightly and simmer just until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes (time will vary depending on how many Baby Artichokes you are cooking at a time). Drain well. Set a side.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and onions and cook them for 2 minutes over medium high heat. Add the pearl barley and cook it for 5 minutes to slightly toast the grains. Add the white wine and cook for a minute then add 3 cups of the stock or water, and some salt. Bring the barley to a boil then cover and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the barley 25 minutes. Add the remaining stock and the peas Cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the cheese and correct the seasonings. Add the artichokes and radishes.