Biking through LA. Love it when the streets are closed

 ciclavia   

 What a sunny day in the neighborhood. 

amazing how nice it is bike through LA and not have cars honk at you, unlike the ride to the closed off bike streets  I parked about a mile and half away and rode down Beverly Blvd.  and intersected the ride.  Meet some really nice people. Taco trucks, live music, D.J's all along the ride.  march fourth marching band, saxaphones, drums, men on stilts.  I tried to attach a you tube video but it was not working in my favor.

 A little about the March fourth band:
MarchFourth is a date, a command, and a band. Imagine Duke Ellington meets Sgt. Pepper in an international big-top Fantasia. Imagine a 1920′s speakeasy where Mr. Bungle meets the Shogun Warriors in a PG Clockwork Orange. Imagine running into this giant spectacle marching through a festival, down a street, or onto stage. The impact is immediate and infectious!  (it really was)

It was a lot of fun I think I might try and catch them again.

• 10/22/10 MarchFourth Marching Band in Santa Monica, CA at Central Social Aid and Pleasure Club
• 10/23/10 MarchFourth Marching Band in Los Angeles, CA at Los Angeles Historic Park (Tour de Fat)

About

Brief Introduction:
We are currently preparing for Los Angeles’ first “open-street” Sunday.  Seven and a half miles of streets will be car-free from 10 AM - 3 PM on Sunday October 10th 2010. The streets will be safe for people to walk, skate, play and ride a bike. There will be activities along the route. Shop owners and restaurants are encouraged to open their doors to people along the CicLAvia.
A Ciclovía is not just for recreation. It is social integration.
Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space.
In Los Angeles we need CicLAvia more than ever. Our streets are congested with traffic, our air is polluted with toxic fumes, our children suffer from obesity and other health conditions caused by the scarcity of public space and safe, healthy transportation options. CicLAvia creates a temporary park for free, simply by removing cars from city streets. It creates a network of connections between our neighborhoods and businesses and parks with corridors filled with fun. We can’t wait to see you at CicLAvia!

then I went home and made some amazing chicken mango salsa with coconut chicken.

How this blog all started "hippie burritos" and Winter squash with crême fraiche and honey

Someone told me it would be good to start a blog.  So I am giving it a shot.  My friend Dawn
came over, one of her past life jobs was as a stylist.  Now she is a "Handy Gal"  personally assisting people with her  whiz-ablities.  Well there is nothing like a barter.  She helped me throw out bras from circa 2000, and well about 99% of my closet, but it was good. The cloths really did not serve me.  If a friend is going to come over and spend a good amount of time watching you try on most of your wardrobe food must be involved, but shoot if I am going to cook I should at least invite my roommate who is a vegetarian and provides me with a ton of free magazine from her advertising job,  some including cooking magazines. I saw a veggie burrito recipe from one of them, but then my sister makes hippie burritos, which is a hodgepodge  of whatever you can find. 

veggie burritos with out the burrito  this time consisted of:  (trying to remember it all)
olive oil for pan

half a scallion
some garlic gloves
 3?  green onions
handful of chopped asparagus,
1 yellow bell pepper
half a sweet potato finally diced 
1/4 of a raw beet ( because my roommate loves beets and I bought some in Bolinas, Ca when I went to visit my sister and went on an amazing hike to bass lake (this hike could be a single blog post it was amazing!
spinach
1 can Trader Joes refined black beans with jalapeno
paramasian cheese


I heard that chow mein started with a foundation and just random meet and veggies thrown in. during the gold rush era. 

It was a great success and a boost to my culinary ego.


Besides the beets that I bought in Bolinas I also bought a Kuri Squash because my sister bought one and has done some amazing stuff with squash so I thought it would inspire me.  All else fails you roast a squash because they are impossible to cut raw. 


I love google I found a recipe that could be used as a dessert.  Winter squash with crême fraiche and honey  I did not have creme fraiche so I used Greek yogurt and it it worked out ok, and my roommate hates Greek yogurt. 

Winter squash with crême fraiche and honey

This may sound like a dessert, and you can eat it as dessert if you like. But it's also a great side dish, for roast pork, roast lamb and so on. The cinnamon and cayenne add just a bit of zing that brings it all together. I could eat bowlfuls of this.

• About 4 cups of cut-up kabocha or kuri squash (here I used the orange-skinned Knirps, or kuri squash kind)
• 1 cup crême fraiche
• 3 Tbs. honey
• 1/4 tsp (or a pinch) each of cinnamon and cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. salt

Put the cut-up squash into a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the squash is tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain the water.
Put the squash back in the pan. Add the crême fraiche, honey, and salt. Stir gently and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the cinnamon and cayenne; mix well. (It will disintegrate somewhat, don't worry about it.) Serve while hot. This also re-heats in the microwave very well, and leaving it in the fridge for a day deepens the flavors.


I also added some Chinese five spice blend.  


The roasted winter squash with feta cheese sounds tasty and will be on my to cook list next time I have a winter squash.
 

a blooper turned tasty: Mango salsa to Mango sorbet, but Cocconut chicken was out of this world!

My first blog post so be gentle.

So I have started cooking and have finally found recipes that are fun and easy to make.  Tomorrow my friend Jessica is coming over and I am going to test out Rachel Ray's under $10 meals  Coconut-Crusted Chicken with Mango Salsa. 
What I liked about the recipe is that there are no bread crumbs.   I am going to make the chicken later, but I thought it would be a good idea to start the salsa.

My Cuisinart has a chop feature so I thought I should take advantage of it. The chop button turned my mango's in a puree so I decided to make a sorbet.
1/2 lb frozen mango from trader joes
~8 (a handful of strawberries)
1/4 juice of a lemon and some of the pulp
a circle squeeze of agave  around my cuisinart
dash of cinamon

it is SOOO tasty, but I will resit eating it all now and put it in the freezer.

Coconut-Crusted Chicken with Mango Salsa

October 2010

Dan Roberts enlarge

By: Stefanie Maloney

From: $10 Spot » Part of this menu: Baked Stuffed Artichokes and more

• 4 Servings  ( maybe I had huge chickens, but 2 only fit in the pan, but we were only 2)
• Prep 20 min
• Bake 15 min

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound frozen mango, thawed and chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• Four 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Place the uncooked coconut-crusted chicken on a baking sheet and freeze until solid, then store in a resealable plastic bag. Thaw in the refrigerator and cook as directed. 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small bowl, combine the mango, bell pepper, onion, cilantro and vinegar; season with salt and pepper.
2. In a shallow bowl, beat the egg with 1 teaspoon water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place the coconut in another shallow bowl. Dip the chicken in the egg, then in the coconut. Press to coat.
3. In large, ovenproof skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until cooked through, about 12 minutes. Serve the chicken with the mango salsa

Since my friend is so proud of her Mexican heritage so I added a tiny bit of Serrano chili to the salsa, just a little kick.

The dish was so tasty, now my friend thinks I am an amazing cook.  We both could not get over the fact how amazing the dish was and so SIMPLE!! 

The blog that changed my life: Pink to perfection

It was mothers day 2010 and as a novice sewer I had been procrastinating making a yoga bag for my mom.  So after countless hours of google and you tube I found Pink to Perfection.  I loved her  Yoga making video, funny and detailed oriented, of course mine ended up as a combination of the video and my own creative flare.  I will take a picture of my moms bag and attach it one day. Well 2 days ago I got an email from Pink to perfection with a tasty recipe  inside out pork dumplings, or in my case turkey 

Inside-Out Pork Dumplings
from Whole Living
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 scallions, whites and greens separated, cut thinly on bias
8 ounces ground pork (if substituting ground turkey, add 2 Tbsp. more oil)
1 pound baby bok choy, leaves separated and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces if large
1 carrot, finely grated
2 tablespoons white vinegar
6 ounces fresh wonton wrappers*   ( I did not bother with this)
Heat oil and red pepper flakes in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites. Cook, stirring, until scallions are tender, about 1 minute. Add pork, breaking up with a spoon until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add bok choy; cover and steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add carrots. Season with vinegar and salt. Set aside.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Season with salt. Add wonton wrappers one at a time. Cook until al dente, about 1 minute. Drain. Add wonton wrappers to skillet and toss. Serve with scallion greens.

 My friend and Alisi and I were going to try DineLa,  which is a steal, but sometimes you have to start being thrifty.   

				I had bok choy from the farmers market that was begging to be eating, so carpe diem bok choy.  Ailsi was starving and wanted to order pizza, but I was set on this recipe, she hesitated, but once I was done eating she was super impressed by the simplicity, taste, and over all speediness.  I think she found a new recipe and was grateful that the dish did not take forever to make. Much healthier than pizza It was so simple that I had some left over ground turkey that I made it for dinner the next day, but I did not have any more bok choy so I added some green bell pepper and Spinach, and it was still a success.