World Cup of Yum

Simply Tasty Heirloom Tomatoes

When you have peak season heirloom tomatoes at their optimal ripeness, you don’t need to do much to make them delicious. A little olive oil, salt, and pepper is all it takes to bring out their natural sweet goodness. Guessipe heirloom tomatoes, sliced olive oil Himalayan pink sea salt fresh ground pepper Lay out the…

Late-Summer Salad

Figs come into season in late summer, and if you’re lucky enough to have a fig hookup (AKA a friend with a fig tree) like me, then this is a refreshing and stunningly inviting salad that’s perfect for a hot summer day. Guessipe 1 head red lettuce, washed and hand-torn 1 head spinach, washed and…

Roast Green Peppers with Fried Garlic Chips

Cookbook Club – The New Spanish Table For our August Cookbook Club, we used The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen. I was at first irritated by the formatting of the book, but after an amazing meal all layout woes were forgiven. To come along on our culinary journey through all the regions of…

Chewy Fig Walnut Bars

I’m lucky to have a friend with a giant fig tree in her backyard, and around this time every year I reap the benefits of her fig harvest. One year when I was in the mood for a chewy treat, I made these bars with figs, shredded coconut, and toasted walnuts. Yum! Now I make…

Grown-up Filet-o-Fish

I still had some yellowtail in the freezer from my awesome fishing excursion, and was pondering yummy ways to use it. For some reason I flashed back to when I was a kid on the extremely rare occasions that my parents would take us to McDonald’s. My mom, I guess in an attempt to get…

Maisel Day

Living in LA, you see lots of TV studios promoting their shows in the lead-up to the Emmys. Most of the time I just ignore them, but this year Amazon did a massively scaled promotion for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel… 1959 prices for goods and services at some of LA’s most iconic retailers! Most of…

Asian Slaw

This is a super easy slaw with an Asian slant that I like to whip together especially during the summer. Works great as a sandwich topping, or a side salad. Guessipe 1 head Napa cabbage, thinly sliced salt and pepper to taste DRESSING 3 TBSP miso 3 TBSP honey 1 TBSP Dijon mustard 5 TBSP…

Cremini Mushroom Toasts

Cookbook Club – Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book In honor of summer picnic season, our July cookbook was Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book. In the book, Silverton has gathered together her best recipes from the very popular sandwich night that she used to do at her restaurant Campanile (no longer open). You can examine every bread-y bite…

Sticky Asian Eggplant

My favorite kind of eggplant is the long thin Asian variety. They are so good in this sweet garlicky sauce. Guessipe 2 Asian eggplants, sliced into angled 1-inch thick pieces 1 tsp salt 1 TBSP corn starch Neutral oil SAUCE 1 TBSP kecap manis 1 TBSP soy sauce 1 TBSP brown sugar 1 TBSP water…

Blueberry-Lemon-Coconut Loaf

Cookbook Club – Baking at Republique We did a bonus Cookbook Club event in June, using Margarita Manzke’s Baking at Republique. She shares recipes for many of the baked goods available at Republique. I was pretty excited about this, since I have eaten my fair share of baked treats at that LA restaurant and pretty…

Spiced Egg Salad

Cookbook Club – The Soul of a New Cuisine For our June cookbook, we used Marcus Samuelsson’s The Soul of a New Cuisine. In it, he includes traditional foods of Africa as well as his own African-inspired creations. I was looking forward to this meal because I haven’t had many opportunities to eat African food,…

Lemon Sesame Broccoli Salad

Blanched broccoli is so good for making a salad because it’s got great crunch and the tops absorb dressing super well so you get lots of flavor. And you definitely want all the sweet lemony nuttiness of this lemon sesame dressing. Guessipe 1 head broccoli, cut into florets DRESSING 1 TBSP lemon juice 1 TBSP…