Recipe blog by Adrianna Adarme

Tomato

07

Jun

Walnut Pesto

Sometimes things don’t always go as we planned. I had planned to watch “The Wizard of Oz” at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I had even called all my friends, cooked up some recipes, scheduled a time to meet, loaded up the car and driven all the way to Hollywood just to have a picnic in the cemetery. However, when we turned the corner and were preparing to enter, we were met by this:

The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but basically the entire city of Los Angeles had the same thoughts that we had. And unfortunately for us, they had the idea about an hour sooner, and we didn’t make it inside. Yeah, it was a bummer. There are few things sadder than having a picnic meal and nowhere to picnic.

Luckily, I’m blessed to have flexible and endlessly enthusiastic friends. We took our picnic dinner and headed to a teeny tiny park in Universal City. We sat on blankets and drank wine, ate our food and watched the sunset go down. It was good, even without the red slippers or munchkins.

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31

Mar

Fried Green Tomato BLT

in Sandwiches

Fried green tomatoes are pretty serious business. I found this out last week when I went to Atlanta for work, and well, it turned out I had a lot of down time since a few meetings were cancelled. I was perfectly fine with that since it meant I was able to roam around mid-town, sit in cafes for hours at a time and drink copious amounts of sweet tea (though I’m a total wuss and always go half sweet tea and half unsweetened). All this unexpected downtime meant that I was able to eat at a few restaurants, all of which were Southern. And while it did scare me a tad when the dude sitting behind me had to be carried out on a gurney by the paramedics, I decided right then, as I was eating my fried mac n cheese, that it had nothing to do with Southern food. I decided to ignore that possibility. You should too. Moving on….

I don’t really consider myself a Southerner, even though I was born just up the street from my hotel in mid-town, went to middle school in Atlanta and attended college in North Carolina, but I do have a huge affinity for Southern food. So…perhaps you could say I’m a half Southerner or something?

Anyway, the one thing that totally stole my heart on my trip were the fried green tomatoes. And I had them prepared every which way you can have them: in crispy batter, soft batter, in between crispy and soft batter and spicy batter. My favorite, to no surprise to me, was when they were super crispy on the outside and soft, but not overcooked on the inside. The thing I found out: Southerners are dead serious about the way they prepare their fried green tomatoes. Everywhere I went I kindly asked how they prepared it and each person explained their way as the right way.

When I finally nailed down my favorite way to fry up green tomatoes, I paired it with some bread, some cool butter lettuce, a bit of mayonnaise and some bacon. You should do this too; it’ll make you happy. And if you don’t? Well…bless your heart.

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{ 10 comments }

08

Mar

Eggs with Tomato on Toast

in Breakfast, Dinner

Everyone is always on the look out for a weeknight meal. Sometimes I feel like telling people to relax and just eat a bowl of cereal like I do. But then I remember that a lot of people have kids and dogs and Franklins, and bowls of cereal just won’t do. Rather than being concerned about a weeknight meal, I’m always more concerned about an easy weekend morning breakfast. When I wake up a little late and maybe recovering from the night before, going to the store to get fresh ingredients and slaving over the stove doesn’t sound too appealing. Lucky for you, my weekend breakfast can also be your weeknight meal. This, like the Croque Madame I made a few weeks ago, is a unisex type meal–it can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. And with only 3 main ingredients, (bread, eggs and a can of plum tomatoes) it’s the easiest thing in the world to make. You can do it hungover, super sleepy, or super stressed. All is well!

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{ 13 comments }

14

Jan

Fried Green Tomatoes with Jalapeno Cheese Grits

in Dinner

So, I’m back in California. Back to the real world, with alarm clocks that go off at 6:00am and traffic that robs me of hours in my day and blahhhhh…. I just don’t want to think about it anymore. Instead, let’s pretend I’m still in the South and mull over that for a while. For starters, Southern folks really love to fry their vegetables. And, we really love grits, especially cheesy grits. So, yeah that’s what I would rather think about, okay?

First, a word on cheese grits. Most self-respecting Southerners have a cheese grits recipe that involves baking in the oven to really get them just right. You know that scene in “My Cousin Vinny” where the guy is offended at the suggestion that he uses instant grits? Where he proudly says in the courtroom, “I take pride in my grits!” Yeah, that’s not an exaggeration. This recipe, however, is the “quick” version of cheese grits, meant to be prepared over a stove in less than 30 minutes. If you’re lucky I’ll give you the recipe for my stepdad’s “real” cheese grits, but that will have to wait for another day.

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{ 14 comments }

01

Jan

Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree

in Pasta

Happy New Year everyone! I have to say, it was a little hard to say good-bye to 2009. It’s been a good year; Adrianna and I started this blog, which is awesome. I got a Kitchen Aid standing mixer, which is super awesome, and Chase and I are engaged, which…well, it goes without saying how amazing that is. But nonetheless, I’m ready for 2010. I only hope that it realized how big the shoes are that it has to fill after these last 12 months.

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{ 6 comments }

31

Oct

Pesto Pizza with Sun-dried Tomatoes

in Dinner, Pizza

Halloween has gotten a little crazy this year at my apartment building. Last year, the decorations consisted of perhaps one string of lights and some scattered cobwebs. In 2009 however, without any discussion, every apartment around us has decided that this is the year to go all out. The windows surrounding us are covered in lights, cobwebs, spiders, bats, everything you can imagine. The garden in the courtyard is covered in fake skeletons, rats, and jack-o-lanterns, not to mention the scary music that is playing to accompany it.

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{ 5 comments }

28

Aug

Roasted Tomato Focaccia

in appetizers, Sides

I found a summer love this year in LA. No, not the teen angst, straight from the movie “Grease,” boy-kind of summer love, but a reason to truly fall in love with LA: The Hollywood Cemetery Cinespia screenings. During the summer, the Hollywood Cemetery screens a movie against one of their buildings that is conveniently located near an open, grassy area, and every Saturday evening people line up to picnic, watch a movie, and generally be merry. It’s really pretty awesome.

In order to get a good spot to picnic and watch the movie, you have to get there pretty early, which often means you end up picnicking in line while waiting to picnic. Due to this long wait, you need to come prepared with plenty to eat & drink. As you can see, the supply of drink was never a problem for me and my friends.

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{ 5 comments }

16

Aug

Pizza Margherita

in Pizza

Okay, in my last post we made pizza dough, so now it’s time to add toppings. The pizza Margherita is one of my favorite pizzas, as well as being an Italian classic.

Before we get started, a little history: in the late 1800s Queen Margherita, wife of Umberto I, became quite taken with a bread that was commonly made by Italian peasants. Since it was not considered very “Queenly” of her to like such a common peasant food, she asked one of her chefs to prepare her pizza using this bread that she liked so much. The chef, Rafaelle Esposito, devised a pizza topped with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil, the colors symbolizing the Italian flag. Queen Margherita absolutely fell in love with this delicious concoction, and the rest is history.

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{ 5 comments }

14

Jun

Homemade Pici Pasta & Bolognese: Part I of II

in Dinner, Pasta

When I was a kid and not under my parents’ supervision, my godfather, Don, used to let me watch mafia movies. I know, I know—it’s a strange coincidence that I used to watch mafia movies with my “godfather” whose actual name is Don. But sometimes in life things really do work out like that. Promise. And to this day I really LOVE mafia movies. They were the ones who taught me the importance of a good sauce.

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