Spring Strawberries

More than 30 strawberries in the pot.

Mermaids: Mardi Gras King Cake with a Twist

My friend Rebecca went to college in New Orleans and suggested we mark Mardi Gras with a New Orleans King Cake for dessert following our Sunday dinner party. The traditional version of the cake has a plastic baby doll hidden inside, but I suggested a small plastic mermaid (the kind you find on the side of a cocktail glass; we keep a few in our garden). Our friend Maya was the lucky one who found the mermaid in her piece of cake.

Leftover Meat Mondays: Pasta with Sausage and Baby Broccoli

Mr. MVP and I talked about being part of the "Meatless Monday" movement. We didn't have to be convinced that going meatless at least one day a week can be good--for the environment, for your health, for your wallet. So we enjoyed a few consecutive meatless Mondays. But then we had extra chicken from a Sunday barbecue and wanted to make tacos with the leftovers on Monday. And then we had some remaining steak from another Sunday dinner and decided to make bolognese sauce the next day with the leftovers. We grill a lot on the weekends and don't like to let leftovers go to waste, so now we're going to try for Meatless Tuesdays or Wednesdays and we're going to make sure we compose leftover meals that don't feel like leftover meals--making them good enough to be prepared and enjoyed any day, even if you aren't trying to use what you don't want to waste.

Yesterday: 
Italian sausage on the grill, part of a mixed grill and pizza dinner

Leftovers: 
Sausage

Today: 
Pasta with baby broccoli and sausage. While pasta of your choice is cooking, cut the leftover sausage into bite-size pieces. In a saucepan, saute several cloves of garlic in olive oil until garlic is soft but not browned. Add 1/2 cup vegetable stock and baby broccoli and cover until broccoli is tender but still firm. Remove broccoli and add sausage bites to the saucepan with a splash of some more vegetable stock and cook on medium until heated. Toss pasta with sausage, broccoli, and parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

Blood and Chocolate: Valentine's Day Dinner

For our "Blood and Chocolate" dinner, we served steak for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. Guest brought the steaks: rib eye, New York strip, filet mignon, chuck roast. We added buffalo tri-tip to the mix. (It wasn't all meat; we also had roasted root vegetables and a salad of mixed greens with pears, Pecorino Romano and crispy prosciutto). Dessert was chocolate fondue (recipe from Eric Ripert via Food & Wine), with pound cake, toasted croissant, banana, raspberries, caramel, and sugar shortbread cookies for dipping.

Photo: Eat Lotsa Lobster

Photo taken in Santa Barbara, CA. Words to live by: Eat lotsa lobster.

Touchdown: Chili Recipe

Mr. MVP said the football playoffs called for chili dogs, which gave me a chance to play with my recipe.

Chili Recipe
3 lbs. ground meat (pork, beef or combo)
2 10 oz. cans of pinto beans, drained
2 28 oz. cans of chopped tomatoes

1 carrot, chopped

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 chili pepper, chopped and with seeds removed

1/2 jalapeno pepper, chopped and with seeds removed

1 tbsp. chili powder

1 tbsp. oregano
1 tbsp. sweet paprika
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1.5 oz. dark chocolate (1/2 large bar)
1 tbsp. honey
1 cinnamon stick

Brown the meat with salt and pepper (optional: add sprinkle of paprika).
Layer ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for four hours.
Serve and enjoy.

Burgers: Rectangular and Just Right

Best thing since sliced ciabatta bread? Mr. MVP had the ingenious idea to make rectangular burgers to match the ciabatta bread.

Apple Pies: One for Breakfast, One for Dessert

Fired Up: Peeps on a Stick

Ever wonder what would happen if you toasted Peeps on a fire like you would ordinary marshmallows? Toasted marshmallow goodness, with a crunchy candy coating from the caramelized sugar. Yum.

Donut Ghost: Happy Halloween

Photo taken at Zelda's Corner Deli in Venice Beach, CA.

Leftovers: Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup

Dinner Saturday night included two whole can chickens. We had a small amount of meat left and all those bones--perfect for us to make a rich chicken stock for a Sunday supper of chicken ramen noodle soup. I follow the basic recipe for making chicken stock and use a crockpot. The soup could not be more simple: make noodles; heat chicken stock and simmer with chopped bok choy for a few minutes; add leftover chicken; add cooked noodles; serve; enjoy.

Chicken Stock

Remains of a cooked whole chicken

2 bay leaves

Handful of whole peppercorns

3 crushed cloves of garlic

Half an onion

1 carrot

1 celery sprig

1 tbs. fresh rosemary

Filtered water (enough to cover chicken)

Sriracha hot chili sauce, to taste

Cook in crockpot on high for 2 hours. Let sit and skim fat from top with a spoon. Strain broth with a cheesecloth and serve immediately or transfer to a glass jar or bowl and refrigerate for use later in the week.

Leftovers: Italian Mashed Potato Pancakes

Most people love the day after Thanksgiving for turkey sandwiches. I like the potato pancakes. Our family makes what we call Italian mashed potato pancakes, from a recipe we got from my grandmother. The pan fried pancakes are made from leftover mashed potatoes, Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs, chopped fresh Italian parsley, an egg, grated parmesan cheese. When I was growing up, we had them whenever there were leftover mashed potatoes and mom put ketchup on the plate for me and my brother so we could dip warm pancakes in the cool ketchup, much like the way we used maple syrup on breakfast pancakes--it's still comfort food for me. I called Mom for the recipe recently and she gave me the ingredients listed above. Measurements? I improvised. Truth is, it depends on the amount of mashed potatoes you're starting with. What I did is approximated below; you can scale according to your own amount of leftovers.

Italian Potato Pancakes

4 cups of mashed potatoes

2 cups of Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg

Olive oil for pan frying

Ketchup

Blend ingredients in a bowl. Heat olive oil in frying pan while you form pancakes. Pan fry on medium heat. Add additional oil if needed. Serve and enjoy (ketchup optional).

Will Tip for Bacon

Tip jar on the counter of the Lardon food truck.