Whenever my cousin Anika comes into town, we primarily cook and drink wine together. Both of us love to cook and be in the kitchen together. Anika had the idea of making a whole octopus so we decided to do a bit spanish/mediterranean with the menu. We made Food 52's recipe for whole octopus. We went to Quality Seafood - an excellent fish market on the Redondo Pier in walking distance from our house. We bought one whole 2.5 lb octopus and 6 baby octopus. The octopus looks large, but it ...
Recipes
Clean out the Fridge Soup
We returned home from the Bay Area for Thanksgiving and I definitely ate more than I planned on eating. I generally stuck to my food restrictions given to me by my GI (no acidic foods; small portions), but the choices were not spectacular. We had also been gone a week so I needed to clean out the fridge. Enter clean out the fridge soup – a very forgiving recipe (if you can even call it that). The key is using fresh herbs (if you have them, not fatal if you don’t) and not overcooking it. I know I ...
Wild Salmon Cake Recipe on a Grateful Thanksgiving Day
The Sarnor family is a blended family. Lateef was married before and he and Sophia had Evan. One of the things I am most thankful for is that our blended family functions so smoothly. This recipe for wild salmon cakes is a recipe Sophia shared with us and it is now in my holiday brunch rotation. One caveat, this recipe does take a bit of time so I would not personally make it if I were also hosting on the same holiday, but this is perfect if you are just bringing a dish or two to someone else's ...
Review of Udi’s Gluten Free Bagels
My whole family was in town this past weekend for Sienna's dedication (like a christening). My parents and sister Jackie stayed with me and my cousin Khari (Sienna's newly minted godfather) was over every morning at 8:30 to get the party started. When I have a house full, one of the mornings I usually end up asking Lateef to run and get bagels and lox - even hungry hungry mama gets tired of cooking every meal. I asked him to stop at Whole Foods and grab me a bag of Udi's Gluten Free Everything ...
Roasted Bone-In Chicken Breast Recipe
This is one of my go-to weeknight recipes. It is excellent whether you marinate it overnight or if you only have 30 minutes before popping it in the oven. You will see both variations detailed below. If you haven't been cooking bone in chicken breasts, you are missing out on the juicy-ist and tender-ist chicken breasts you've had (hard to believe from this sentence, but I am a stickler for grammar, but you have to live a little). It takes a bit longer (and cost a few dollars more) to cook these ...
Geoffrey’s Malibu Kale Salad Recipe
I am the QUEEN of being at a restaurant, tasting something tasty and saying, "hmmm I could totally make that at home." Here's my take on Geoffrey's Malibu's kale salad. It is savory, bright, delicious, healthy and oh so easy to make! I could eat this salad every day - it's so tasty. My bestie Tatiana took me out for a belated birthday dinner yesterday at Geoffrey's Malibu. So thoughtful - we had so much fun hiking in Malibu and then catching up over a leisurely dinner. We shared the kale ...