No love

Hello! This past week my blog has received "no love" and I'm sorry :/ But that doesn't mean I didn't eat!

For lunch I had a tuna sandwich and I usually try to spice it up somehow with different ingredients.  I use canned tuna (in water) that I drained and to that I add mayo, mustard, diced pickles (I didn't have relish!), S&P, and I mixed all these together.  I try to keep it pretty simple because what I'm looking for in a tuna salad is tuna! :]

On toasted bread I add cherry tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (thanks Manasa!) and a spring lettuce mix.

Then I piled it high with the tuna salad and some jalapenos.

Lunch is ready :]

Now for lunch on Thursday I treated myself to fries but not just any ordinary fries.  I present to you, Oscar's carne asada fries!

Yes, under that huge pile of carne asada, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, and salsa fresca, are french fries!  Now my favorite burrito is the California which has all the same ingredients, including the fries, but wrapped in a flour tortilla.  So I figured since I love the California burrito, the carne asada fries should be even better.  IT WAS!  I then added Oscar's amazing sauces, both red and green.

I'm definitely glad I tried something new this time.  I know its easy to go to restaurants and get the same thing but once in awhile try something new.  You never know, you could have a new favorite :]

For Friday night I decided to cook pasta inspired by my favorite dish from Crepe Escape.  If you all know me then you know what I'm talking about.  My salmon capellini!  The one thing that does bother me is this dish is usually a hit or miss.  I don't know if its the different chefs but it does not taste the same each time.  Thank god the majority of the time its ok.  Sometimes there is too much capers and other times the sauce tastes watered down.  So order with caution :/  Now here is my version without the capers.

In a non-stick sauce pan I added some Extra virgin olive oil and slices of garlic on low heat.  After the garlic became soft and infused in the olive oil I added tomato sauce and a quarter cup of diced canned tomatoes.  This made about 2 servings for me.

I usually like to flavor the pasta sauce myself so I added my favorite Italian seasonings.

Next I lined a cookie sheet with foil and placed half of my salmon steak and some asparagus.  Both were seasoned well with olive oil and S&P.  Under broil I cooked the salmon for about 5 minutes and the asparagus I flipped to continue cooking on the other side.  

I then added the salmon pieces to the sauce and continued the cooking.  After that I added my cooked and drained linguine pasta to the sauce.  I also added a little bit of the pasta water to the sauce to help it all come together.  Finally I mixed in my grilled asparagus that I cut into bite size pieces.

 Beautiful, if I say so myself!  Not to mention delicious :]

Now if that wasn't enough to end my day, I had a scoop of coconut pineapple ice cream!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend filled with yummy food!

"Summer, summer, summer time.."

Hey! I hope everyone had a great day :]  It was sunny here in California, finally, and I really cannot wait for summer.  Inspired by summer food, I made some chicken wings with an asian twist of course :]

Depending on how many people you are feeding it will determine how much chicken you will need.  I think 4 wings per person is a good amount.  Now I always buy a party pack at the grocery store and at home I wash them thoroughly and separate them into freezer bags for future meals.  After defrosting the wings I line a cookie sheet with foil and placed the wings, which are already coated with extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper, onto the sheet.  I set my oven to broil and place the wings in the oven.  Depending on the wing size, the cooking time will vary.  I usually keep  an eye on the chicken and  flip them when they have cooked through one side.

As the wings cooked I mixed together the sauce to coat them in.  I eyeball a good amount of Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, and minced garlic, to cover my chicken.  Make sure you do not make too much sauce for coating because it can get salty.  You really need just enough to coat the chicken wings.

After you have flipped the wings and they have cooked on both sides pull them out of the oven to cover them with the sauce you have just prepared.

Now place them back into the oven to heat up and caramelize the sauce.  It took about 2 minutes for my 4 wings to have a nice glaze but be careful about leaving them in the oven too long, you don't want to burn the sauce.  Remove the wings from the oven and let them cool down for about 5 minutes.

BAM!

I paired up the wings with some thai tea I made and was in complete heaven :]

Until next time, eat well!

Another day, another blog!

Monday, its a love/hate kinda day.  Today was more love than ever :]  It has been awhile since I made salmon and today I made my favorite dish.  Garlic stuffed salmon with roasted asparagus and a side of hollandaise sauce. YUM.

Now lets begin!  First I washed the salmon steak and patted it dry.  Then I cut slits into the salmon and added slices of garlic.  I added a dash of sea salt and pepper and drizzled some extra virgin olive oil all over the salmon.  I then turned the oven on to broil and cooked the salmon steak for about 5-7 minutes.  This method cooks the salmon all the way through so there is no need to flip the salmon over.

As the salmon cooked, I washed some asparagus and snapped off the ends.  On a cookie sheet, lined with foil for easy clean up, I added the asparagus which was seasoned with sea salt and black pepper.  Covered with extra virgin olive oil, I placed the asparagus in the oven and removed the cooked salmon.

The picture above is the asparagus cooking in the oven on broil.  Delicious :]  Now the hollandaise sauce I made from a packet and YES I will try making it from scratch another time, promise.  So here is another picture of my dinner!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and thank you Mom for the inspiration for my recipe! <3

"Sunday morning rain is falling.."

Hey everyone!  Sundays are usually my lazy days but today was different.  Cristina, my roomate Manasa's friend, was leaving today! She spent the weekend in Sacramento and I hope she enjoyed it :]  This morning we cooked breakfast along with Erin, a dancing machine, who makes the best pancakes.

Breakfast of champions I would say!

Later, I thawed some shrimp to make spring rolls for lunch.  What I really love about spring rolls is how easy it is to make and also how creative you can get with the ingredients.  I decided to spice it up a bit with the marinade for the shrimp.  After rinsing the shrimp and patting them dry I added a dash of salt and pepper, Oyster sauce, Sriracha sauce, and about two cloves of minced garlic.  Using a skillet on medium heat, I cooked the shrimp and marinade in some butter until the garlic was soft.  

Here is the end result.  

Heaven. 

For the rest of the ingredients I used rice paper, vermicelli noodles, spring salad mix, and carrots.  I didn't have mint and thai basil on hand so I did without them.  :[

Now for the peanut sauce, I usually make my own.  In a small saucepan I add half a tablespoon of peanut butter, a tablespoon of water, about 2-3tablespoons of Hoisin sauce and a good amount of Sriracha sauce for taste :]  Heat until all the indgridients melt together and you're done!  The sauce is pretty easy and can be adjusted for taste.

Not only is this fulfilling, it brings back a lot of good memories I had growing up with my Grandma.  I hope in the future I will have children who enjoy cooking and eating as much as I did with her. <3

Have a wonderful week ahead and thank you for visiting!

Brunch

Happy Saturday!

Today was a brunch kind of day so I went to a restaurant called The Orphan Breakfast House.

                  

My second trip here and I haven't been disappointed yet :]  I really like the laid back atmosphere and how friendly everyone is.  You can choose between sitting inside or the patio, which I have yet to sit at.

The food here is pretty good and I especially love how fresh everything tastes.  Im not a big coffee drinker so I can't say much about their coffee. Sorry!

Today I ordered their roast beef hash which has freshly marinated flat iron steak grilled with scallions and tomatoes served atop a generous portion of rosemary potatoes with horseradish cream sauce,
fresh baked rosemary bread and two eggs made to order (over easy please!).

I really like their rosemary potatoes which by looking at the pictures, makes up the entire plate.  I feel like the food is pretty light, not too heavy which is perfect for brunch.  The majority of the menu is meatless I believe, which made me really want to try the roast beef hash!  My friends all ordered a different plate and one of them tried the french toast which was pretty delicious!  

Now feast your eyes on the picture below :]

The french toast was accompanied by fresh strawberry and blueberry purées.  I think todays food perfectly set the tone for the rest of my day.  The weather was gorgeous and I think the food complimented it.   It was full and satisfying without being too heavy.  It was perfect.

If anyone wants to check this place out here is the link to their website, enjoy!

http://www.orphanbreakfast.com/home.html

Also, thank you very much for reading my blog!  have an awesome weekend :]

A List

Happy Friday Everyone!

Now that it’s the weekend I have more time to work on this blog and come up with a list!  So far, here is what I have:

-Fox & Goose
-Pilothouse Restaurant
-Rio City Cafe
-Blue Cue
-The Firehouse
-Ettore's
-4th Street Grill
-Frank Fat's
-Pizza Rock
-Dive Bar (Not really a restaurant but its a new bar with live mermaids swimming in a tank!)

Feel free to comment on any additional restaurants you think I should add.  I tried avoiding the restaurants I have already been to but I will post pictures and info. if I happen to revisit them again.

Until next time, have a wonderful day!  :]

 

A toast...

..to new beginnings!

(No need for an introduction because everyone who will be reading this is here by pure force and obligation. : ] Thank you.)

My inspiration for my first blog entry came from my incredibly artistic roommate, Melissa.  As we enjoyed fine dining at where else but Chipotle, she asked me about my start in cooking.

I remember barely cooking, if any, growing up but I could remember the first time I ever cooked for my family.  It was a couple of days before Thanksgiving during my senior year of high school and my mom was upset.  She felt unappreciated and threatened to not cook Thanksgiving dinner.  WELL, being that I waited all year for some honey ham I was not going to let her take that away from me.  The joy I get when I see that sweet and salty meat just glistening the way it does, centered on my plate!!!!!..

So, I had my step-dad help me pick out a ham at the store cause this year, baby I was cookin' me some ham!  And that I did :]  That year I learned two things, never to piss mom off during Thanksgiving and second, how to cook!  I was so engulfed in my new activity that I tried cooking everything.  With leftover ham of course, I made fried rice, sandwiches and anything I could find.  There were plenty of hits and misses but what stuck with me the most was how much I loved cooking.  Cooking was such a stress reliever for me, even today.  But the cherry on top would have to be the eating part.  If I could get paid for a living to travel the world and eat, I would give you my left kidney.  I would.

So, to conclude my first EVER blog post, I hope you guys don't beat me up too much for my lack of expertise and grammer :]  I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I will the food.

Sweet cooking!