It’s Getting Cold…Again

Brrrrr. What happened to our beautiful sunshine and 80 degree weather?? It was freezing today! Oh well, hopefully the Cali warmth will return this weekend even though I’ll be spending a majority of my time moving all my things into Chris’ house. Oh yeah, did I share the news? I’m moving in with my boyfriend! Woohoo! So excited and happy. Can’t wait to settle in and focus on house projects like building a doghouse for Kihei (maybe), painting the walls in the backyard, designing the den to turn it into a master bedroom (longterm goal but no harm in getting our thinking caps on), etc etc.

I made it to the gym this morning since I was up at the buttcrack of dawn to let Kihei out of her crate to go pee. This crate training thing seems to be doing her some good since she’s been having quite the number of accidents in the house since we let her roam free and play with Guido. Some lady at the vet told me if you let your puppy run around your house like a free bird, it’s like letting a baby run around without diapers. They’ll have accidents everywhere. So we’re trying to be super consistent with the crate training and feeding schedule. God, having a puppy is great practice for having a kid LOL. Even though it doesn’t even compare. But back to the gym. I did 30 minutes of cardio (10 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes on the elliptical, 5 minutes on the stairmaster, and 5 minutes on the rowing machine) and then performed 15 minutes of squats and bicep curls and shoulder presses holding a weighted bar while balancing on a BOSU ball. I haven’t gone to the gym much (the part with all the cardio machines and weights) since I have been swimming regularly so it’s nice to finally mix up the routine. LMU is on spring break right now so the gym was super quiet and filled with the old farts like me (aka the alumni bunch haha from years past.)

Chris has been working super hard at his new job so I always like to treat him to a yummy breakfast to kickstart his busy day. Today was hawaiian french toast with sliced banana, powdered sugar, and a light drizzle of maple syrup. I also picked up some Peets Coffee beans from Bristol Farms and we’ve been enjoying it every morning. By the way, I’m a HUGE coffee snob and Peets is by far the BEST. Although I’m sure of you will beg to differ. I like strong coffee with some cream in it and that’s it. No sugar, no milk, no soymilk, nothing else. I prefer it the french way, I guess you can say

This was my lunch for today: lettuce from our garden plus some sliced banana and these rosemary “quackers” from One Lucky Duck in New York that my friend got for me. I dressed it with macadamia nut oil, some lemon juice, and celtic sea salt. I know you’re thinking “Ewwww. Bananas in your salad??!!!” But it was pretty darn good.

My new facebook profile picture. Love it.

Ice Blendeds

I love ice blended drinks, especially during hot weather. Yesterday, it topped the high 80s in LA so that could only mean two things: laying out + ice cold drinks. I bought a coffee in the morning but didn’t want to drink it anymore since it was too hot for a warm coffee. Well, I found a genius way to “recycle” the coffee! This applies to those who love ice blended coffee drinks but don’t want all the calories and sugar.

My “Recycled” Ice Blended Coffee Drink

Leftover coffee (preferably with milk or half n half)

A handful of ice cubes

A couple squirts of agave

Blend everything but not for too long…you want to leave some ice shards in there! That’s it! Drink up and enjoy.

Check out our pretty bouganvilla growing on the side of the house…I just love the hot pink color. We have a couple of these planted around the home in orange and white. I absolutely love bouganvilla. Ever since our trip to the Korakia in Palm Springs, I’ve been wanting to decorate the backyard all mediterranean/tropical (if that combo exists.) I really hope Kihei doesn’t keep tearing off the flowers, though! You know puppies…they love to get into everything!

Of course, I just had to log in some time laying out in the gorgeous sunshine. I know it’s bad for your skin but I can’t help it. I LOVE being tan and since I’m half filipino, I have the advantage of NEVER burning and being able to tan about three shades darker in less than two hours of laying out!! It is awesome…thanks Dad for giving me some of that Pacific Islander blood

Breakfast Is My Favorite Meal

…and I don’t eat it enough. During the week, breakfast for me is coffee even though what I really want is a hearty plate of french toast and eggs. Mmmmm. Luckily, the weekends are devoted to cooking and eating ALOT and I always start off the mornings with a breakfast bang. Take last weekend. I was craving, what else, french toast and eggs but not just any french toast…I wanted hawaiian french toast made with the little sweet rolls from Kings Hawaiian Bakery. Double mmmm. Paired with a broccoli egg frittata, it was simple yet yummy and made my day.

Kings Hawaiian French Toast:

- 2 eggs, beaten

- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

- powdered sugar

- maple syrup

- six small little Kings Hawaiian rolls (the mini ones)

- 1 tablespoon of butter

Beat two eggs and mix with vanilla extract. Cut rolls in half and dip into egg mixture. Heat a griddle with butter and when the pan is hot enough, throw the rolls on there and cook til each side is golden brown and crisp. Sprinkle powdered sugar and drizzle a little maple syrup and try not to eat it too fast.

Broccoli Frittata

- 1.5 cups of frozen broccoli

- 3 eggs, beaten

- parmesan or pecorino cheese

- tablespoon of olive oil

- salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to broiler status. Beat three eggs. Saute the frozen broccoli in a tablespoon of olive oil in an oven-safe skillet. When the broccoli is cooked through, pour the eggs on top and cook over medium heat until the bottom is set (you can see when it is because it starts getting firm along the edges.) Shave a couple of tablespoons of parmesan or pecorino on top of the eggs and then set it under the broiler for about 2 minutes. Cut into four pieces and chow down!

Kale + Kihei

Everyone knows that kale has a ton of nutrients in it like vitamin A, vitamin C, and manganese. Personally, I have always drank my kale in a green juice, with cucumber, lemon, ginger, and apples. But we’ve been growing kale in our garden, and it’s something that I have always forgotten about when going out there to pick a couple of plump heirloom tomatoes or some hot peppers. Until a couple days ago. What was once just a few baby leaves of kale had turned into a giant bloomin’ kale plant, waiting to be plucked and turned into some sort of culinary masterpiece. So what’s my “kale culinary masterpiece”, you might ask? Um…probably the most simple recipe you will ever come across! Fresh kale – and I mean fresh like from your backyard – sauteed with some olive oil. THAT’S IT. No salt, no pepper, no raisins, no nothing. Two ingredients and that’s all you need to make your tastebuds go to heaven. I sauteed a huge handful of kale leaves in a wok with about two tablespoons of olive oil and the heat crisped up the edges of the kale leaves, making them crispy like super thin potato chips. Only better.

On a side note, I’ve been swimming several times a week now at Loyola Marymount University’s amazing olympic-sized swimming pool. I’m not usually a fan of swimming laps because it can get so tedious and boring but I have a swim MP3 player that basically translates to an underwater iPod, allowing me to blast tunes while I swim laps for a good 45 minutes to an hour. I swear, music does wonders. I can’t even workout without music or some sort of distraction. Kudos to people who can run miles with nothing to listen to. That’s major devotion.

Here are some pics of our ever growing baby, Kihei!! She’s getting so much bigger already…my little girl is growing up!! I’ve been trying to put her on my lap like when she was that little 8 week old puppy who could curl up in a little ball, but now she’s so big her legs keep slipping off.

Oh, here’s a good example of how smart she is. We keep her doggie food bowl in her crate. I guess she could tell it was dinner time because she dragged the bowl out of her crate and into the middle of the living room and sat down next to it with a “feed me, please!” look in her eyes.

Oh, hey check out the cool dining room table we just got for the house. I love it! It’s reclaimed teak and so unique. It’s kind of imperfect, which makes it totally perfect in my book. That’s why I really like artisan, craftsman items. They all have their own look and are different from the next. I’ll say no thanks to Pottery Barn and Ikea pieces unless I really, really need them.

Green Papaya Salad

So after I got turned onto Thai Green Papaya salads, I was obsessed with making my own at home. I invested in a “Miracle Knife” that is specially made in Thailand for the purpose of shredding green papayas (since a regular mandoline or peeler just doesn’t do the trick.) For $10.95 on Amazon.com, the Miracle Knife is a wonderful nifty little investment because I have since used it to shred things like carrots and cucumbers and it works like, well, like a miracle!

Here is the shredding in action. It makes the whole process so much more enjoyable and easy. I just used the recipe from ThaiTable.com to make my green papaya salad, so here goes. I also have the traditional pestle and mortar used in Thailand for this dish but I’m sure you can just a regular bowl and wooden spoon or a masher to get a similar effect. I didn’t use the dried shrimp and I purchased my palm sugar in granular form from Whole Foods…

1 1/2	tablespoons	palm sugar
3/4		lime
2	cups	green papaya, shredded
6		green beans
1	clove	garlic
1 1/2	tablespoons	fish sauce
1	tablespoon	dried shrimp
2		chili peppers
5		cherry tomatoes
2	tablespoons	peanuts, toasted

Smash a clove of garlic first. Then add green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes. Add chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like your salad really hot. Add the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.

However, if you do not have a big enough mortar you can crush garlic, tomatoes, green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the bowl. Add green papaya and mix well.

Voila!

Food! Finally!

Alright, enough with the dog pics. For now, at least. I wanted to use the remaining phyllo dough I had in the fridge so I made a very interesting breakfast the other day. I made a scrambled egg and then rolled it up in the phyllo dough along with 1 oz of Yarra Valley persian feta cheese (ummmm so creamy and delicious!!) and then baked the whole phyllo “burrito” for 15 minutes at 375 degrees in the oven. It came out so perfect and the cheese oozed on the inside and the phyllo was crispy and light. The mix of egg with cheese filled me up very nicely for what was a pretty small-ish breakfast.

For lunch, I made phyllo pizzas. I took one sheet of phyllo dough and folded it into quarters, then folded up the edge to make a sort of “crust”. I then layered it with some spinach, more Yarra Valley persian feta cheese, and some sliced sundried tomato. Two of them made a super light lunch for me.

Just One Last Post, Promise

OK OK I know I am starting to sound like one of those obnoxious parents who think only their kids are the cutest and take a million pictures of them to show to friends and family. Yah….that’s kind of how I feel right now about Kihei, our new half vizsla half labrador puppy (aks LABRALA), which freaks me out because I can only imagine what I will be like when I have real human kids!! But that’s a wayyyy later thing to deal with. For now…

OK is this not the look of love or what?? Who knew Chris was such a doting and loving father?! LOL!

Kihei is going to be a big dog…just look at those paws!!

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I did NOT pose this photo. She seriously fell asleep like this with her arms wrapped around her toy (courtesy of Aunt Nikki!!) Ehhh….her body is looking kind of barrel-like here, though

God, she has gotten so much bigger already!! I have to cherish the moments when I can still pick her up like a baby and keep her on my lap

…but no matter what a cutie Kihei is, Guido will always be our #1 Talk about a well-behaved, sweet-natured dog. Love you, little guy!

UPDATE

….not quite on food, though. Update on our dogs! When we first got Kihei, Guido was sooooo mad. I don’t blame him. He was king of the house for almost six years and for the first time in his life, in walks a little alpha puppy who not only tried to steal all his toys but his bed, too!! We were so worried that Guido would never take a liking to our little pup, especially since she was constantly trying to play with him. But within one short week of having Kihei, Guido is slowly starting to come out of his shell. Not only are the dogs playing together day and night, but tonight is the first time Guido has let little Kihei snuggle up close to him on the couch!

Awesome Weekend

It’s early evening on Sunday and I’m sitting here watching I Love Lucy with the two dogs, Guido Burrito and Kihei Fuy (pronounced foo-eey) next to me asleep. Chris is at a neighborhood watch meeting and I’m feeling super lazy and tired so decided to catch up on posting after someone (Dave, I’m talking to you) brought up the fact that the blog has been slacking BIG TIME. Thanks for the kick in the butt, Dave, I needed it!

Here’s a rundown of what I ate this weekend:

My japanese seaweed salad. I’m obsessed with the seaweed salad at the japanese restaurants so re-created my own for lunch. I bought a package of Sea Tangle mixed sea veggies from Whole Foods (make sure to rinse this over and over again because there is A TON of salt in there to keep the seaweed fresh. Trust me, if you don’t wash and rinse it enough, it will taste disgusting) and mixed it with sliced cucumber, sliced carrot, a handful of mung beans, sliced bell pepper, and sliced avocado. Then I doused it with white sesame seeds and added a homemade dressing:

4 tablespoons of brown rice vinegar

2 tablespoons of white regular sugar

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Combine the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then remove from the pan from the heat, allow to cool and then refrigerate to chill.

I am totally craving asian food this weekend so I made a batch of coconut ginger rice. Who knew it could be so easy?! I put about 1/2 cup of mixed brown and white sweet mochi rice in the rice cooker, and poured in a whole can of coconut milk (yes, very rich and very delicious) and then added some sliced ginger pieces. Let the rice cooker do its job and you’ll have steaming, slightly sticky, slightly sweet rice. Mmmmm….

I was feeling adventurous so I made a batch of sweet potato croquettes. I planned on following a recipe but wound up doing my own thing. First, I boiled two large sweet potatoes and then mashed them up when they were cooked through and soft enough. To the mix, I added one egg and some pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Then I shaved in some parmesan (about 1/3 cup) and rolled the mixture into individual balls. I then dipped each ball into regular flour, then into a beaten egg, then into a bowl of light bread crumbs. Bake for about 25 minutes at 375 degrees and you’ve got some nice little sweet potato croquettes awaiting you! I served them on top of my ginger coconut rice with a small dish of Thai sweet chili sauce. Mmmm mmm mmm!

This morning, breakfast was simple and utterly delicious! Every time I have gone to Bristol Farms, I noticed a package of artisan tortas on the shelf and was always intrigued. I finally broke down today and purchased a pack. OMG. Soooo freakin good! I always equated “torta” with the Mexican sandwich but this is a different kind of “torta” from Spain. It’s like a thin, crispy, slightly sweet, and perfectly spiced pita bread that has been baked. It’s not as thick as a pita but not as thin as a wafer or regular cracker. The one I got was speckled with anise seed and a little sugar and it was like having dessert for breakfast, but only better because it was light yet tasty. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea, I would just eat it alone so not to disturb the original taste. It’s pricey – $5.99 for 6 tortas – but well worth it if you like artisan style food products. Check out the tortas, named Ines Rosales tortas, on her website.

I also made Chris a breakfast burrito with ground turkey meat, leftover rice, scrambled eggs, and sour cream wrapped up in a giant tortilla from Trader Joe’s. Served alongside – what else!? – bacon! Duh….

Lunch was another seaweed salad only this time I added sauteed spinach that had been chilled in the fridge and a scoop of sweet mochi rice. I doused it with a homemade peanut dressing (peanut butter, water, lemon juice, garlic, minced ginger, soy sauce) and sesame seeds.

I also took a nap (can you see me? I’m in the hammock passed out) with Kihei passed out on the floor.

Speaking of passed out…

I am fondly referring to Kihei as “boss lady” since she’s been dominating poor Guido. Here she is in his bed, asleep.

Awesome Website

I discovered a really cool website I’d like to share with all of you: www.eatdrinkordie.com

I’m a huge fan of M Cafe and their macrobiotic foods, which I pick up for lunch every now and then from Whole Foods or the Santa Monica Co-Op Market. One of my faves is their soba noodle salad, which is demonstrated right here on www.eatdrinkordie.com. Check it out. I plan on making this myself soon Click here

I Know I’ve Been Missing But…

I have a good reason I haven’t been updating the blog lately. There is a new puppy in the house!! That’s right, I’d like to introduce to the world KIHEI (my favorite town in Maui). She’s a half lab, half vizsla mix and is only eight weeks old. Her mama was a rescue. She was abandoned on the highway by her owner in Arizona because she had become impregnated by a lab male (the mom was a purebred vizsla) and the owner didn’t want her anymore Luckily, the girl who works next door to me was driving on that highway visiting family in Arizona, saw the mama dog, and rescued it. She found out mama was pregnant and helped foster the litter of eight little pups (some were black and most were blond!) and I rescued this bundle of joy. She’s a total handful (which explains my lack of posting) but brings so much love to Chris, Guido, and I. If anyone has puppy training tips, please let me know. We’re currently trying to crate train her while we are at work but don’t want to leave her too long in the crate since she’s still a baby and has a baby-sized bladder. So today we left her crate open in the guest bedroom so she can wander outside the crate and pee pee on a pad on the floor … but I don’t know. We’re still testing out some methods of training. Everyone seems to have their own theory. OK since when did Pastries & Bacon become a blog about dogs? HAHA!

I Fillo Good

Fillo. Phyllo. However you spell it, this light and flaky dough is versatile and can be used in so many different ways, I am shocked I have never experimented with it before. I think I was somewhat intimidated by the “layering” process and brushing each sheet with butter or oil. Anyway, I am so glad I decided to purchase a box of it over the weekend. I was inspired to experiment with this ingredient after eating one of the most delicious frozen pizzas I have ever tried – the frozen Tarte Alsace from Trader Joes. Holy s***, this frozen pizza was AWESOME. It was better than awesome, it was orgasmic. If you’re a fan of the thin crust, and you have a Trader Joes close to you, and that Trader Joes carries this brand…get it. NOW! The “crust” was oh so crisp and light and flaky and buttery, topped with the perfect amount of ham, gruyere cheese, and onion. Light yet tasty, my tastebuds were in heaven. Chris and I ate the whole darn thing in no time…and we wanted more, more, more! Which brings me to…

Phyllo dough! I was convinced that the Tarte Alsace was not made from regular pizza dough. No, no. This dough was far too light and flaky and buttery and it tasted so much like phyllo dough crust that I had to experiment for myself. I went to Whole Foods (of course, where else do I go) and purchased a box of fillo from The Fillo Factory.

After letting it thaw out for a little bit, I neatly put one sheet on my silpat and brushed it with butter, then layered another sheet of phyllo on top of that and brushed it with butter again. Now to the fun pizza ingredients! First, was shredded cheese…

Next up: canadian bacon, tomato, some sliced mushroom, onion, and dried basil flakes

Into the oven for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees and…

Oh man, it was SO good. Just as good as the Tarte Alsace, if not better (since it’s homemade and doesn’t contain preservatives or weird ingredients.) Chris loved it and you could hear the crispy crust crunch and crackle as you bit into the slice with the melted cheese oozing everywhere, and the salty flavor of the ham bursting in your mouth. But why stop there?

I’m obsessed with greek food, especially spanakopita which is just about one of my most favorite foods. I had frozen spinach and feta cheese on hand so why not make it for myself?? First, I took two sheets and used my pastry brush to spread one half with butter. I folded the other half over it and sauteed up my frozen spinach with some diced onion, salt, pepper, and garlic.

Then, I drained the spinach of any excess liquid and put it on the phyllo dough with some room to spare on the edges since I planned on rolling this up like a burrito. I added 1 oz of sheep’s milk feta cheese on top. Mmmmm…

I rolled up the bottom tightly and made it like a burrito by folding in the sides. Voila!

And then I baked it at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes until golden on top. Check out the sides…the cheese is ready to ooze out!

The only complaint was that there was a little too much moisture from the spinach. Next time I will have to drain it more and also add a bit more seasoning as it lacked in the salt department. But it was still very tasty and delightful and I’ll be making these for lunch more often!