Hey, only two weeks in between!

Not bad! ;)


The two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of insanity. Short story: Monday of last week, I had a phone interview and on Friday I was driving down to LA to do an in-person interview. In between and after all that was crazy crazy crazy.

I was completely petrified that I'd wind up unprepared when I got down to LA and anyway there were a million things to do to get ready, on top of work and everything else. But I made it, the interview went alright and I'll hear back from them in a few weeks about whether or not I've got In.

The after part was pretty interesting too.

I stayed with my cousin Tiffani, who was gracious enough to let me crash on her couch, let me be annoying and wake her boyfriend up in the morning with all the sounds of me moving around the house and who took me out and around Santa Monica for the weekend. We ended up going to a pretty good little fusion restaurant, a really nifty bar downtown and ambling drunkenly down the famous Santa Monica pier. By the way (I didn't know this before), but Baywatch was filmed on the beaches of Santa Monica. Random fact!

The bar that we went to made totally amazing drinks. I only wish I could remember what they (or it) was called:

Sunday morning took us to the farmer's market and walking along the beach to downtown. Farmer's markets are always a treat and this one did not disappoint. She picked up some produce and we nabbed some amazing eats:

Exhibit One: Tiff's Poached Eggs with Steak (Yum)

Exhibit Two: Apple Sandwich (Pink Lady Apples, some kind of delicious not too sharp cheese, grilled) and a Spring Pea and Potato Salad (will have to make that, pronto)

And because we hung around forever waiting for my sandwich to grill up, the guy at the booth was nice enough to bestow upon us some amazzzzing bread pudding topped with Meyer lemon curd. It was fantastic:

The lemon curd is SO pretty!

That lemon curd, incidentally, has got me really enthused about all the lemons that are sitting in my kitchen.

Afterwards, we listened to the live marimba band (so fun!) and laughed at the animals being silly at the petting zoo:

Marimba! :)

 The little brown baby goat is standing atop it's mum... Rude!

A Bob Ross-style chicken!!

We then walked along the beach and strolled downtown, then returned to her place, after which I went and drove around LA.

It was, all in all, a pretty decent little trip. <3

This week happens to have been busy also. This weekend, however, has been very nice on account of the fact that it has been so... nothing filled. Not that I don't have things to do, but... I've made a pretty leisurely weekend out of it so far.

Today I baked! Tomorrow, I'm baking more, seeing Erica for Bridesmaids, cooking dinner and potentially going for a run somewhere in all of this. Monday, I've got to get my eyes checked (provided that places are open) and I might go rock climbing!


Today I got excited about cooking and decided that I wanted to do something with the eight million lemons that are sitting in my kitchen (just kidding). So I decided for dinner tomorrow, I'd make artichoke lemon pasta sauce with angel hair pasta. Today, I made a lemon galette which was... interesting. It wasn't quite as delicious as I thought it'd be, but it wasn't bad either.

For those unfamiliar with a galette (I know I was :p ), it can be described as a free-form tart. Typically tarts are formed in round or rectangular shapes by a tart pan (which I just got yesterday and can't wait to use). I felt lazy today and didn't feel like pre-baking a pie crust, so I went with a galette. What differentiates a tart/galette from a pie is the depth and its contents. Pies typically tend to be deeper and with more fluid ingredients than tarts. Tarts tend to consist of fewer ingredients and are smaller by volume. I love galettes because they're really pretty damned easy to make... I guess you could say pies are easy too, but the step to pre-bake the pie crust in some recipes is just a little too much for me sometimes. (I'm lazy.) At any rate, galettes are super easy to throw together and can be savory or sweet.

Lemon Tart/Galette (Take One)

Ingredients:
3 lemons, zested, removed of peel and sliced into super teeny tiny thin slices
1/4 cup sugar (Note: I think this might have been where I went wrong)
1 tablespoon of butter
1 disc of pie crust from Trader Joe's at room temp (I totally cheated... I should make my own, but their's is so good)
egg wash

I preheated the oven to 450 degrees. I put the disc of pie crust onto a sheet of parchment paper and cut about 1/2 of the butter into chunks and scattered it onto the dough. I sprinkled half of the sugar onto the pie crust (note to self: next time, lots more sugar) and layered on top of the sugar the slices of lemon, in concentric circles that were one inch from the edge of the crust. Once all the lemon slices were layered, I sprinkled the rest of the sugar on top of the lemons and folded the edges of the pie crust over. I (should have but didn't) brushed the edges with egg wash for color and sprinkled some coarse sugar onto the edges. I popped the galette into the oven for about 20 minutes, turning the pan halfway through baking. Once the the crust was brown, I took the galette out of the oven and set it on a rack to cool. Once cool, it's your galette for the taking!

Here are some photos:

Save that zest! It's invaluable and dee-licious. I'll be sticking mine in the freezer and making lemon poppy seed muffins. :)

I'm not big enough (yet *wink*) for product placement, but some of the best tools ever are a Microplane grater/zester (since they make varying sizes) and a Shun paring knife. Shuns are super sharp which is awesome for delicate jobs like this.

Before folding.

After folding.

After baking!

Photo Two, with a tad more light. Not bad!

So the next time I make this, I will be using more sugar and possibly lemon curd. I kinda wanted to go the quick route with this, so I ended up with something that was a bit more tart towards the center, but with a sweeter, tangier taste towards the edges. Smitten Kitchen (<3) has a recipe for a one-lemon tart which I may use as a base next time, but I just think that the whole lemon slices provide such a beautiful presentation.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on doing that pasta and I am toying with the idea of making chocolate zucchini bread muffins again. They were so good, that I'm getting a special request from them from my One and Only Tim Number One. And since I'm meeting Erica tomorrow, a little baked treat might be nice since I think she's going to be having the little one this week. Yay, exciting! Stayed tuned for tomorrow's treats! I'm also going to make a pear/ricotta/honey galette to try and promote my mum's honey business a bit. :)

Until then, bisoux and a bientot!

jo

P.S. I am now a big fan of Miranda Lambert. She's kick ass.

Kind of a fresh start, I guess you'd say.

It's been a long time since I've been single and I have to tell you... I kind of love it. I haven't been single in ages and days; I guess it would be accurate to say that the past 5 or 6 years of my life I've spent in some relationship or another, which I now feel is SO much of my formative years. It's all had its ups and downs, to be sure, and I wouldn't change the things that have transpired, but I can definitely say that with everything that I've been through, I can really appreciate the freedom I have and the choices that are available to me.

This Friday, I finally took me on a date. That is to say: I made me dinner, fed me chocolate cake for dessert and whisked me off to bed after sniffling away to a lovely, romantic movie. And it was fantastic. In fact, my life lately, though busy, has been, on average, pretty damned good. There have been little hiccups along the way, but I think I'm getting better at appreciating things for what they're worth and taking lessons from those experiences. Three cheers to that!!

So Friday, I made Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, added chopped artichoke hearts, spinach and sundried tomatoes and seared a balsamic-marinated steak. Unfortunately, in my tipsy state, I decided not to take photos... Thus there are no pictures of this feast. I also desserted on a chocolate ganache cake and red wine. I do know how to treat myself well. :D My license for treating myself so kindly was due to the fact that I had entire house to myself and a little dog as a companion.

He nibbled at rawhide while I nibbled on dinner.


Saturday was a little crazy! I cleaned up the house, baked at mine, then went to the Greek festival. My reason for baking was because my Mexican mama was leaving for Guadalajara. I wanted to give her some treats to take along with her when she was on the journey down. <3

First up, lemon poppy seed bread, in muffin form (for packability and ease of consumption on the road):

Oops... the last of the batter. :D I also made chocolate zucchini bread, also in muffin form:

Can you believe that batter? Does that even look remotely good?  (I thought it looked weird.) Well let me tell you... They were GOOD. Recipes for both kinds are courtesy of Joy of Baking.com. And... I added a ton of chocolate chips. As Tim said, they were "where it's at". :) Here's what it looks like just before baking:

And I haven't had time to take a picture of the finished product yet... I've been too busy eating the fruits of my labor!

Then off to the Greek festival for beer! Just kidding! Max and I got gyros:

This is mine... Missing a little cuz I was starving and it was delicious! A gyro is lamb and beef pressed together, slow roaster (I think) in a giant rotating thing of meat, sliced off, then served with red onion, tzatziki sauce and tomato. I ran into Gordon there (yayyyy), had beers then Max and I went off for some loukomoulades:

These are basically little doughnuts but so much fluffier and lighter. They are cooked in an enormous vat of oil that looks like this:

Please excuse the photo, I was a little tipsy at the time.

Today, Sunday, was about REST and relaxation. I went for a gorgeous drive out to Livermore, admiring how beautiful the cloudy sky was, picked up some pizza and beer and went to Tim's to watch the Sharks... Lose. :( Next time, boys!

Then off to Lauren's for some girl time and wine! Good stories were had and I think we shared some valuable lessons with each other. I felt like I was a sage old woman dispatching advice: "Life is short, take the time to enjoy being happy." :)

It was a lovely weekend all in all. Very busy, but so nice! Hope yours was too!

Bisoux et a bientot. <3
jo