Recipe blog by Adrianna Adarme
Last weekend I stayed with my lovely friends of mine and we had an all-out cook fest. First, we grilled up some fish kabobs. Yum town. Then we drank one too many of these margaritas. I would like to tell you I regret this, but the fact is, I don’t. You should never, ever regret your margaritas.
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There are some things in the South that you just can’t find elsewhere in the country. Sweet tea is number one. I’m not sure why everyone else has issues with combining tea and sugar, but Southerners are pros.
Fried okra. Actually, make that okra in general. I have seen okra at the farmer’s markets here in California, but every time I buy some the guy at the stand looks at me like I’ve just asked to buy the only bruised and rotting tomato that he owns. Seriously dude, I know how to cook this stuff.
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I have no excuse for this pie. Absolutely none. I could maybe defend it by pointing out the use of fresh fruit, but I’m aware that this is just not something I should be showing you in the dead of summer, also known as Bathing Suit Season. Maybe I can place the blame elsewhere…specifically, to Saluda Grade Café, the restaurant that I worked at in high school, and the place that gave me the inspiration for this recipe.
The funny thing is, this was not a popular dessert there. It only showed up for maybe 2 months out of the year, and when it did those pies would sit and sell so slowly that eventually I would take some home to keep it from going to waste. Not that I ever once complained about this. Except when I had to put on a bathing suit. Damn those pies.
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Have you ever noticed that people are straight crazy about how they make their cornbread. Here are a few proper cornbread do’s and don’ts that I’ve heard over the years:
Do’s: Baking cornbread requires a cast iron skillet. Grease the hot skillet with bacon grease before adding batter.
Don’ts: Never add honey…or sugar…or splenda. Never sweetener. You don’t need to add kernels of corn, just cornmeal. Don’t add frilly stuff…like fruit, particularly pretty blueberries.
People get stressed out about their cornbread. I understand. Trust me. I do. Tradition is a tough thing to break. And this cornbread breaks every cornbread rule in the book. It has a 1/4 cup of sugar . Not a ton, but it’s definitely there. I added fresh blueberries, which is so, SO wrong! And I used butter instead of the traditional bacon fat to grease the skillet. But I’m okay with being wrong sometimes; especially when doing so results in a delicious, moist, slightly sweet, cake-like cornbread that is perfect for pairing with dinner or a cup of coffee.
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I have an issue with rice pudding. It’s not that I don’t love it. I do. A lot. My issue is that I always seem to convince myself that this is somehow a “healthy” dessert. I mean, it’s rice, right? How can rice be bad for you? This explains why in the past I have ordered rice pudding for breakfast, ignoring the looks of my friends when they realize my early morning meal will be coming from the dessert menu.
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Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day, but despite my heavy addiction to pancakes, (which you’ll find here, here…and here) I hardly ever make them during the workweek. I’d much rather opt for sleep than wake up early to prepare a full breakfast. Instead, I usually just make myself a blueberry smoothie which takes less than 5 minutes. But as it’s recently been damp, chilly and rainy in LA, a cold smoothie simply does not sound appealing.
I always gaze at the marble loafs and sugary-coated scones at Starbucks and dream of eating them, but having a sugar rush first thing in the morning isn’t what I want. So, to hit the spot, I’ve moved my attention to something just as healthy as my smoothie, but with less sugar than the marble loafs I lust over—Granola Blueberry Muffins. Surprisingly they’re just as flavorful and easy to make.
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In my head I know it’s September already, but I am having a hard time letting go of summer. However, the world is doing it’s best to let me know that autumn is here. I have to carry a jacket with me since it is no longer guaranteed that it will be meltingly hot outside. There are just a few more leaves lying in the street every morning and a few less on the tree branches, and the flowers outside our apartment are starting to droop and shrivel ever so slightly. The most obvious sign of the changing season, though, is that pumpkin flavored lattes have appeared in every coffee shop in the city. Ever since the birth of flavored coffee drinks, it seems that pumpkin has become the poster food of autumn.
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Butter and pancakes seem to go together like, umm…me, chocolate ice cream and midnight. No? Well, you get my point. They simply make sense together. So when I came across this pancake recipe using olive oil instead of butter I was intrigued, but waaaay skeptical.
Caroline and I have already given up butter when it comes to making eggs…but pancakes? Hadn’t even considered it. But I’m an easy going person—I went with it. When I carefully measured out the olive oil and added it to the batter, I thought to myself, Man, that seems like a lot of olive oil, but hey, that’s the recipe. What the heck do I know? But then I double-checked the recipe and realized I totally botched it. I almost had a little crisis, which I have quite often in the kitchen.
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It’s “June Gloom” in LA, and while most people spend complaining about it being cold, hazy and foggy outside, I wake up excited about it. I mean, LA is sunny EVERDAY so I welcome to change. In fact, the dreary weather actually makes me really happy. True fact: When I was a kid living in Ft. Lauderdale, I used to turn the air conditioning really low so I had a reason to curl up in a blanket and sip hot tea. I like being cozy. Whatevs.
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