Oh, yeah, a plant update

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by adrienne

The latest in my world of plants:

Wall O Water tomatoes aren't doing any better than the ones in the house under the lights

A few of the tomatoes I've been keeping under the lights in the house are doing GREAT

More plants from inside

More tomatoes from inside

The mixed window box is doing great!

In early May I thought maybe I could leave it outside, but there was frost and it got a little damaged

So I brought it back inside for a couple weeks to recover

Frost got the beans, too. Also, I've never had any luck with beans

The wildflowers are doing great!

Last weekend I brought everything outside- it seems ok. This weekend we'll organize it and make it all pretty

Cookie Puss wants to help

Other things I’ve made lately

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by adrienne

A crazy cheesecake for DM’s birthday. You can click the picture for the large printable version.

Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

It was reallllllly good! Kind of labor intensive, but worth it!

Getting ready to make the cheesecake.

Ta Da!

Chicken, Mexican zucchini, and orzo soup

Cheese and green onion quiche

Asian noodle soup

Strawberry Agua Fresca

Pizza with carmelized onions, blue cheese, and asparagus

Is this a pizza margherita or a pizza checca?

When I was in L.A. I grilled up some stuff one night

BBQ chicken thighs

Grilled leeks- tasty but weird and hard to eat

Grilled corn with honey chipotle butter

I wasn’t that great on keeping track of the recipes, changes I made to recipes, or even where I got the recipes this week, but if you are interested in anything specific, just comment and I’ll track down the info on what I did!

L.A. restaurants

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by adrienne

Last week I went to L.A. We ate at the usual spots!

First was Amici Trattoria.

Mom and Chris at Trattoria Amici at The Americana At Brand, Glendale, CA

I have to figure out how to make this stuff!

Amazing bread at Trattoria Amici

Chris had their famous little meatballs and a salad

I had penne with broccoli and pink sauce- delish!

Mom had a salad that I didn’t get a picture of.

Next up was my fave, Recess Eatery in Glendale. We actually went there a couple times, once just for tea and hanging out, and once for lunch.

This time I got some shots of the inside.

Recess Eatery, Glendale, CARecess Eatery, Glendale, CA

I love the atmosphere but of course, the food is excellent, too. It’s a pretty basic menu with all the things you’d expect, but everything is done really well. They do have a couple of quirky items, too.

Mom had a grilled ahi tuna salad

I had a salad with pears, cranberries, gorgonzola, and balsamic. I also added chicken to it.

This little spot is near mom and Chris’ office so they stop in for afternoon coffee and cookies all the time.

Village French Bakery, Glendale, CA

I had a latte and we shared a couple of cookies, which were really good and buttery, not like some bakeries

I had to stop by my house one night so Chris and Stephen went with me. They love Spitz, home of the Doner kebab (LOL). Oddly, I had never been, even tho it’s right by my house. The food is really good, but better than that, they stay open late, and they serve beer and wine.

: Spitz in Eagle Rock, CA

The rest of my pictures came out horrible, but here's a shot of the yummy sweet potato fries!

Along with the fries, we had some pita strips, Chris and Stephen had the classic kebabs- they come as a sandwich or a wrap, I don’t remember what they had. I had the chicken kebab sandwich and it was super good. I’ll have to stop by here more often when I’m in town.

We made quick work of it all. OINK!

I guess I pretty much go to the same spots whenver I’m in L.A but I am starting a list of new places to try- maybe next time!

Rancho Liborio Mexican food and my attempt to copy it

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by adrienne

Somehow I recently got on a Mexican food kick. But I wanted real Mexican food, not chain restaurant Mexican food. We’ve been to a few local places and remain unimpressed, so I thought I’d go ahead and make it myself. We went down to Rancho Liborio on South Circle Drive to get ingredients (BTW, they are a grocery store and have locations in California and Nevada as well as Colorado). They have really good, cheap produce, like avocados three for a dollar, bunches of cilantro, two for a dollar, and so on. I kinda remembered that they had a taqueria in the store, and they did, so we had lunch there. OMG. It was so good. Highly recommended.

: Beef burrito at Rancho Liborio, Colorado Springs

My two chicken tacos and Mike's beef taco.The salsa was delicious. I want to see if they sell it there.

Aqua frescas are my new favorite thing- and of course I keep seeing recipes for them now. They aren’t loaded with sugar (altho the ones you get in restaurants might be) and are a nice non alcohol based festive drink.

: Mike had a watermelon agua fresca and I had a pineapple one.

So, of course I had to try and make this meal myself. I’ve made chicken tacos before, they’re really not hard.

I started with carmelizing some onions, adding a little garlic, and then some chopped up chicken.

Filling for chicken tacos

Then added some avocado and cilantro.

Filling for chicken tacos

Put it all into some small, fresh corn tortillas from Rancho Liborio (after microwaving them a little to soften and warm them) and there you go. I thought they were almost as good as the ones from the market. If I would have had that awesome salsa, they would have been.

Homemade chicken soft tacos

Of course I also had to make aqua fresca. Coincidentally, I had just seen a recipe for melon agua fresca in Sunset Magazine and had some frozen cantaloupe in the freezer. I used only about 1/4 cup of sugar in the whole thing so if you maike it be sure to start out with just a little sugar and add more if you need it. Part of what I like about these drinks is the fruity sweetness, rather than sweetness from a bunch of sugar.

Melon agua fresca

Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by adrienne

Mike’s mom wanted to take us out for his birthday at the beginning of the month and I had recently read about Trinity Brewing in Sunset Magazine so I checked out their menu online. They use a lot of local ingredients and lots of their items are vegetarian which is good because his mom is a vegetarian. They brew a lot of their own beers but also carry other local beers on tap, too.

: Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs

Mike and his mom at Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs. They also use a lot of "green" materials in their building and decor. I loved the beer bottle bar top which is made out of broken beer bottles.

They mostly have beer- Mike had one of their pilsners. I had a pear cider- my fave! And Linda had some kind of fruity mixed drink.

Drinks at Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs.

While they do have a few entrees, most of their stuff is snacky type items.

Warm Cheese Dip

Hummus plate

Tortilla chips with bean dip, salsa, and warm cheese dip

Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs

Overall it was a fun night. The staff are really nice and helpful if you aren’t sure what you want to get. They’ll give you little tasters of any of the stuff they have on tap. The food was good, not amazing (except the cheese dip which was!) but I gotta give them credit because it’s really hard to cook with local ingredients in Colorado, let alone feed an entire restaurant night after night. I had wondered why I had never been here before but then I found out it’s only been open about a year. It’s the kind of place that seems like it’s been around forever. In a good way!

Oinkety

Two little piggies out in the world 2.0

Monthly Archives: May 2010

Oh, yeah, a plant update

Other things I’ve made lately

L.A. restaurants

Rancho Liborio Mexican food and my attempt to copy it

Trinity Brewing, Colorado Springs