Getting Big, Getting Beautiful

Sorry, I’m an obsessed dog owner. GUILTY!!!

What To Do With Leftover Mushrooms

…make stuffed mushrooms, of course! I had so many little button mushrooms leftover from a barbecue on Saturday and I didn’t want to waste them. Stuffed mushrooms are super easy to make, especially the Giada de Laurentiis way.

• 1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms, stemmed

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Stir the bread crumbs, Pecorino Romano, garlic, parsley, mint, salt and pepper, to taste, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.

Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat. Spoon the filling into the mushroom cavities and arrange on the baking sheet, cavity side up. Drizzle remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom. Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top, about 25 minutes. Serve.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

A pizza craving hit me tonight but instead of ordering takeout from our local pizza place, I decided to make the lazy man’s version using naan bread. Naan is great as pizza crust and it saves time and cleanup. I made two kinds: 1) smoked mozzarella with red onion, olive oil and fresh basil and 2) feta, kalamata olives, sundried tomato and truffle oil. My favorite was the first version because I had one too many strong flavors in the second. If I were to do it again (which I will since these pizzas came out amazing), I’ll probably omit the sundried tomatoes.

Smoked Mozzarella, Red Onion, Basil Pizza

- One slice of Fabulous Flats Garlic Naan Bread (there are two slices in one package)

- 4 oz of smoked mozzarella, cut into medium slices

- a few VERY THIN slices of red onion

- a few pieces of fresh basil (more if you like the taste)

- salt and pepper

- olive oil

Place the smoked mozzarella slices on top of the garlic naan, layer the basil and onion on top, and drizzle some olive oil over all the ingredients. Crack some freshly ground pepper and lightly sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt. Bake for 10 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

Greek Pizza

- one slice of Fabulous Flats Garlic Naan

- 3 oz of greek feta cheese

- a few THIN slices of red onion

- 4 sundried tomatoes, minced into tiny pieces

- a small handful of kalamata olives, cut into halves

- truffle oil

- salt and pepper

Layer the feta cheese, olives, sundried tomato, and onion over the naan. Drizzle with truffle oil, then with freshly ground black pepper, and finally a small dash of sea salt. Bake for 10 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

Hard At Work

Hawaiian French Toast

I woke up this morning craving Hawaiian French Toast, one of THE easiest recipes to make since, well, it’s all about the hawaiian bread. Instead of serving it with maple syrup, I substituted agave syrup and also added a side dish of mascarpone cheese and blueberry preserves. Oh, and a few slices of bacon for my better half.

Hawaiian French Toast

- Kings Hawaiian bread. You can use ANY loaf size of Kings Hawaiian bread AS LONG AS IT IS Kings Hawaiian bread. I use the mini loaves.

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- butter

- 2 tbs white sugar

- agave syrup to taste

- 2 tbs each of mascarpone cheese and preserves

- Beat two eggs and add the vanilla extract and sugar. Soak the bread into the mixture and coat on both sides. You can fit about six halves on a plate. Heat up the butter (about one tablespoon) on a hot skillet and set the loaves on there to cook until golden brown on each side. Dab some butter and dust with powdered sugar.

Pancake Muffins

I’ve been battling the worst allergies all week thanks to our gnarly wind and already filthy air. My asthma has kicked up a thousand notches and it’s been nothing but sleepless nights…boo. Needless to say, I’m pooped and exhausted and it’s only Wednesday. After dinner with my parents tonight at California Fish Grill, I headed home longing for sweatpants and something sweet to sink my teeth into. I was a little too lazy to whip up cookie batter from scratch so decided to do something with the leftover pancake batter we had sitting in the fridge from earlier this morning (yup, Chris got pancakes for breakfast this morning.) I made white chocolate macadamia nut pancake muffins but you can really add ANYTHING you want to pancake batter. I also added two more tablespoons of melted butter and three tablespoons of sugar to make it extra buttery and moist and sweet. To make it even more decadent, I had it with a bowl of Haagen Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream….mmmmm.

Just A Baby

I just found these pictures of Kihei as a little baby on the CANON camera that I have not used in forever!! One word. Precious.

New Blog, New Meal

I have found a new favorite blog that I’m in love with. It belongs to a lovely girl named Jessica who I used to work with, and her blog is filled with fashion, food and great recipes. Her recipes look so good that I decided to try one out tonight at the last minute: Bang Bang Shrimp. Tonight is Tuesday, which usually consists of something picked up at the market or take-out from a local eatery. But instead of the expected I thought I would do something special since A) the Lakers are playing and B) it’s the first Tuesday in awhile that LOST is not on TV (did anyone catch the finale, by the way?) You can check out Jessica’s blog, LUALOSANGELES, here. I love her photography and genius recipes. It makes my mouth water all the time!

Jessica’s recipe for Bang Bang Shrimp is creamy, spicy and so flavorful (thanks mayo!) It borders Chinese tasting without the salt and MSG side effects you would normally get at a Chinese restaurant. So here you go, courtesy of LUALOSANGELES.

• 16 Medium Shrimp, peeled and deveined (the market only had 13 shrimp left – oh well)
• 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
• 6 tsp Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
• 3 tsp Sriracha sauce
• 2 tsp Rice vinegar
• 1 Cup Milk (I used Coconut Milk instead that I got from Whole Foods)
• 1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs (I eyeballed this and added more towards the end)
• 1/2 Cup Corn Starch

In a bowl combine mayonnaise, sweet thai chili sauce, sriracha chili sauce and rice vinegar. Whisk together until will combined, set aside.

Soak shrimp in bowl with milk. Prepare a bowl with panko bread crumbs and another with corn starch.  Dredge the shrimp in the corn starch, then again in the milk and finally in the panko bread crumbs, set aside.

Heat a large skillet of oil until it reaches 300 degrees. Drop shrimp in and fry until golden brown. By the way, watch out for the hot oil that may splatter around. I got resourceful and grabbed my sunglasses to protect my eyes. Remove from oil with a slotted spoon.  Drain fried shrimp on plate lined with paper towels. In a large bowl combine fried shrimp with prepared sauce until evenly coated.

I served this alongside an asian style salad I made with green beans fresh from our garden, 1/4 avocado, 1/2 sliced cucumber, and leftover brown rice. I then made a dressing of rice vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, and agave syrup. I made it this morning so the salad marinated well over 10 hours and was a crisp refreshing side to the creamy spicy shrimp.

HI.

Jesus, how long has it been since I’ve last posted anything? Sorry everyone, time just got away from me and one day of non-blogging turned into three days, which turned into two weeks, which eventually turned into…yeah. You get the point. Anyways, here is what’s new:

Chris and I went on our annual cinco de mayo camping trip to Leo Carrillo in Malibu, CA.

I have discovered a new favorite fresh juice: watermelon and strawberries. Perfectly sweet, so refreshing, and a great cleanser and detoxifying beverage.

I have found a new favorite wine: Maui Blanc from Cost Plus. It’s “pineapple wine” from some vineyard on Maui. LOVE.

Kihei is getting bigger…she is as big as Guido now and weighs almost 24 lbs. She also got the last of her vaccinations and can now join us on our morning and evening walks with Guido. We let them run around the park

Oh, and I got new shoes from ShoeDazzle! They kind of look like the YSL Tribute sandals only they cost like a mini fraction of the price. For any of you ladies who LOVE shoes, I highly recommend joining ShoeDazzle. It’s such a cool shoe-of-the-month club type deal except you get five different styles recommended to you by a stylist every month. And their shoes are CHEAP – $39.95/pair – and most of all, SOOO comfy. These shoes did not need breaking in at all. I wore them going up and down cobble-stoned streets and I felt like I was walking on air cushions. ShoeDazzle is also Kim Kardashian’s little baby, so for any Kim Kardashian fans, you might want to check this out if you haven’t already Excuse this silly picture of me. Chris was playing photographer and wanted to capture the essence of his backyard. Here I am before going out for a friend’s birthday in downtown LA.

There you go. My past month in a nutshell. See you soon!