California Lovin'

Mobile food vendors have been around for decades, and yet in the past few years they have again captured the imagination of our nation. LA has been on the forefront of this movement with the many food trucks that are daily twittering their wares to a very hungry city. In a state that most people consider to be a culture of salad eaters and general health nuts, you are seeing people who want some haute street food with meat and spice. Not what one would usually consider "healthy".

DC is following suit with many food trucks now gathering a following, but since I am currently in LA it only made sense to try some of the originals. With my brother in law playing tour guide we made our mission, and that mission was tacos. With the help of http://www.ilovestreeteats.com/la we were able to check out all the different food trucks twitter feeds at once which made it super easy to find which truck we could get to quickly. The Flying Pig was heading to Downtown LA and with pork belly buns as a prospective edible delight we hopped in the car and headed to the freeway.

On a side note, can I just say how much I miss California driving. It just makes so much more sense to me then the craziness that is NoVA and DC. Driving around the district with friends can be quite stressful and I'm not even the one driving. Thank god I can walk and metro to everywhere that I need to go. But how I miss the buzz of driving with the windows down, warm sun coming down, and the landscape of mountains and ocean surrounding me.

Now back to the Flying Pig......

We found the truck around 12:30 and there already was a pretty decent line. We were all set to split a few things, but were a bit disappointed they were already out of the shrimp burrito. Oh well! We ended up order 2 pork belly buns, 2 duck tacos, and 2 spicy pork tacos.

As time passed we realized that this order seemed to be taking much longer than it should be. By the time 30 minutes had passed we began to wonder what was up. "Hanger" was beginning to creep in on both of us as well as all of the other customers. Trucks are supposed to quick lunch spots to grab in a few minutes and run back to the office. As another food truck passed promising delicious burger sliders, and the smell of beef wafted past, everyone seemed to surge forward on the truck with the intent of making these tacos appear.

An hour passed. You read that right. One Hour! Utterly ridiculous, I know. Why did we wait? Who really knows. We could have cancelled our order and moved just down the block to the next trick. But I was determined and kept thinking that we would soon have our food. It turns out that 2 very rude girls ordered enough tacos to feed about 20 people, which held up everything up for everyone. First of all, a mobile food truck is for quick eating not catering. Second, the people who run the Flying Pig should have a policy of what is an appropriate amount to order to keep their "kitchen" moving so as to benefit the lunchtime crowd. Needless to say, once we finally received our food we were a bit perturbed. I wanted to hate it, to have my anger justified but damn, it was so freakin good!

The pork belly bun was my favorite of the three things. Fatty pork belly with pickled cucumbers and onions in a soft pastry bun. The tacos were also delicious, though the spicy pork was my favorite. I do think that the wait was most likely an anomaly due to the those girls that ordered for an army, but I would hope that the Flying Pig would learn a lesson from this as well.

Here is the thing, I was still hungry and 2 small tacos and a pork belly bun were not going to fill me up. After an hour of waiting and smelling the burger truck down the way, it just seemed right to check it out. With only a few dollars left we headed down to the Pattywagon which sells organic grass fed beef mini sliders. We were able to order 2 mini sliders, a regular burger and another with sauteed onions and peppers. The meat was flavorful that we did not even to add any sauce or condiment. This was the ultimate burger and I would definitely love to check them out again and try some of their specialty burgers.

Can anyone please tell me why the paragraphs above were all underlined and how to remove said underline? I am too lazy to figure it out, so sorry for the inconsistency. But I will leave you with this, if you are in LA it is worth finding one of the many food trucks that drive around the county. Just remember to have some cash on hand and to have your twitter account. To close I must share the cutest little dog ever that should leave you with a smile. My aunt's dog Gigi who was saved from an animal shelter. She had some teeth problems and had to have a few of them removed, thus her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth. Awwwww! Have a wonderful week!

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

The seemingly innocent baked good you see above was a task I decided to make at the last minute. In my last couple of hours at work yesterday I ventured into a blog break and came upon Smitten Kitchen's Lime Yogurt Cake. I immediately was intrigued by the idea of making a cake with yogurt. It made me think of something light and fluffy. And with the realization that I had most of the ingredients, except for eggs, I decided to venture into this new baking territory.

The only thing I changed was the use of grapefruit instead of lime. I had invested in a grocery box with a friend and had a grapefruit and orange that I was at odds with myself what to do with. You see I am a lazy fruit eater. I hate peeling things in order to eat them, with the exception of a banana. And that pith that is such a bitch to get off just makes me upset altogether. So a recipe where I just needed to juice my grapefruit is right up my alley.

What can I say about this recipe. It was neither bad or mind blowing. The actual process was quite simple but I do think I did a few things incorrectly. After you sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients the directions say to stir with a spoon until just combined. And it is at this point, friends, that I think I just took things a little bit too literally. So with my regular old spoon that I eat my cereal with I began to fold and stir but saw that the resulting batter was full of large lumps. I thought that's why I sifted, but lumps came about all the same. With whisk in hand I decided to try to eliminate some of these lumps and did a few light stirs to take care of them. Well, i think I stirred too much too fast which resulted in a heavy cake. I wanted something that my fork would just cook through with easy, but found that I made something with a little more give. It still was edible, but I wanted something more.

I also wished the grapefruit would have been a bit more of an upfront taste. It is instead a very subtle background note. My only solace is that I still have an orange on my counter which can only mean another cake this weekend. Who wants to come over to try?

P is for Party......and Pate!

DC is full of wonderful farmers markets that dot every neighborhood in our four quadrants. And now that spring has sprung the markets have been booming with more vendors and people. Being a Capitol Hill resident I am an avid supporter of Eastern Market (the oldest and longest running market in DC) and love exploring the stalls every weekend, but I love to get off the hill and explore other venues. It was at the Dupont Farmer Market that I came upon a purveyor of all things meat who was selling pate made of pig jowl. Oh my....if you love to eat pork products than you would love this. Creamy, fatty with a bit of a spicy kick. That pate lasted about 3 days in my fridge as I was enjoying pate sandwiches way too much.

On this particular visit to the Dupont Farmers Market I was with my friends, who also enjoy spreadable meats as much as I do, and as we purchased our beautiful rounds of pig jowls it was discussed that we should have a pate party. I mean why not? We love pate. And any excuse for a party is fine by me. But this was not to be a party of pre-bought goods, because as we consider ourselves true foodies we decided we must try at our hand at making at our own pates. Crazy? Maybe. Delicious? Yes!

My assignment was to make Pistachio Pate, which includes chicken livers, onion, butter, pistachio, allspice, pepper, brandy, and salt. Really pate is a peasant food that was developed to make use of the undesirable meats that were left over as nothing could go to waste. And I thank the lord to whatever peasant figured it out since my life would be so incomplete without spreadable meat. And now a photo montage of my experience in mate making:

Browning chicken livers in butter.

Once you brown the livers and saute the onions, you blend them with the spices and brandy until smooth.

Once blended you refrigerate until it is set.

I added a little decor with some leftover pistachios and was pleased with the results. The entire pate party was a success. Every one's contributions were delicious and I am so excited for future opportunities to make more varieties of pate. Here is the website that we used to figure out what type of pate we wanted to make: http://basic-recipes.com/r/p/index.htm

Tarts and Vicars...minus the vicar

I spent most of afternoon and early evening making a tart on Saturday. I had bought a pan and had made a deal to myself signed in blood that I would achieve a tart recipe this weekend. And it was so worth the effort.....

Oh yeah! That is some good looking dough! I was a bit doubtful that it would come together, but look at me continually surprising myself. The entire process of making this dish was one of the most relaxing things that I will probably do this weekend. There is something innately comforting in getting your hands dirty with crust and having the rising smells of roasted cauliflower and caramelized onions enveloping you. With the addition of Lady Gaga in the background to provide some good cooking music, the evening just flew by.

This is a rich tart. The original recipe has you using mascarpone cheese for the custard, but I took Smitten Kitchen's suggestion of using ricotta as a replacement. Next time I would also use a low fat milk instead of heavy cream, which was another of her suggestions. I was worried with the use of skim ricotta that I would be lacking something, but hell this tart is still delicious. And I think you could definitely apply this same recipe to many different vegetable combinations. Once summer is in full bloom I would love to try it with summer squash and asparagus. Oh the possibilities.

But I think that it is important to remind you that this is me cooking. And when I cook something always goes slightly awry.

Mishap 1: When I checked my tart after 40 minutes the custard was set, but upon cutting I thought the crust still needed a little more time to crisp up some more. So with one piece missing I put her back in the oven for another 15 minutes to really finish off the bottom of the crust. Kinda ghetto? Yes! Did it work though? Yes!

Mishap 2: After finally sitting down to my dinner and taking my first bite I was ecstatic. And then I looked at my tart again and...oh crap. A hair, obviously one of mine, had somehow managed to insert itself into all of my hard work. You have to understand, I shed like a long haired kitten and am constantly battling the onslaught of stray hair encroaching on my life. Inside I battled with the fact that I had somehow managed to let a strand, albeit a small one, into my masterpiece and the fact that the only person eating this is me so who really cares. Can you guess which battle won? You better bet I just took that bad boy out and continued on. Are you disgusted by me? Well you can buy me a hair net for future recipes that will be shared, but since this tart is mine, all mine, I'm going to shake it off and move on.

2 days in a row blogging?! I surprise even myself.

I am seriously amazed with myself. I have been a bit of a lazy oaf when it comes to cooking lately, but something has hit me over the head and I am back at it. Could it be the nice weather, vegetables staring at me guiltily from the counter, or just a new lease on life? I think it may be all of the above and I am not going to question it.

Here is the problem with me. I am not much of planner when it comes to knowing what I will make with all of the lovely food that I make. I just see something pretty and go for it and then spend a week trying to figure out what the heck I should make; and then it is some lat minute thrown together meal in an effort to use everything before it goes bad. Recently I have actually been making shopping lists and looking up recipes before hand, which has made me feel triumphant with all of my wonderful left overs for the week and it is also so much more cost effective for my wallet. (Who would've thunk it?! ~sarcasm~) But alas, I am a vegetable/fruit-holic and sometimes fall off the truck when I see a scrumptious food thing. That was the case with my lovely acorn squash that had been languishing on the counter. Poor thing! I tried to avoid eye contact, but I could feel her giving me the evil eye. It must be done, and did it was! HAHAHAHA! I know...I'm the only one that thinks I'm funny.

Inspiration came in the form of Pioneer Woman and her Trinidadian Chicken Curry. It looked so delicious and I had been having a hankering for some curry. The stars aligned when I realized that I had the necessary ingredients, with the exception of chicken. But what about using my acorn squash and some shrimp that could be de-frosted in no time? Only one way to find out.

In her recipe she marinated the chicken for at least an hour in garlic, tomato, onion, cilantro and mustard. I didn't have much time for marinading but I coated my squash in dijon mustard and minced garlic. The actual curry making was very straight forward: take turmeric, curry, and water to make a slurry, add it to heated vegetable oil, and allow to form a fragrant paste. Once the color had deepened and the slurry had thickened I added the squash and water. From that point it was pretty much guess work. Pioneer Woman cooked her chicken for 15-20 minutes, but as I wasn't really sure how long the squash would take to soften so I just had to play it by ear. Once the squash was fork tender I added the shrimp and then called it day! It took about 30-35 minutes, but the results were delicious!

I had some left over colcannon from last night's St. Patrick's Day party so I used that as my curry sauce catcher instead of rice. I'm going rogue over here! Yum and yum! Though not traditional it was really filling and I had one less thing I had to worry about cooking, which is always a plus in my book.

And now it's cooking picture time!!!

Curry Slurry!

Squashing the competition...curry style!

The final product.

One more day of celebrating St. Patrick's Day...why I think I will!

Top of the mornin' to you! Okay so it is the afternoon, but let's not split hairs here. It is gorgeous in DC but I had to spend some time in the kitchen to make my dish for a belated St. Patrick's Day party. So with the theme being Irish, duh!, I was on a quest for some simple and inexpensive to make. There is definitely one thing to be said about Irish food, a lot of the traditional dishes are simple "peasant" food that had to be filling and inexpensive, which works out for me. I actually found my recipe on tastykitchen.com. If anyone has ever read Pioneer Woman you should definitely check out this newest addition to her site that is a place where her readers and friends can share recipes. It was in this member site that I found:

Can you tell why I picked this recipe? Hmmm...Difficulty=Easy and Time=35 minutes, this has my name written all over it. And Calcannon has a very short and approachable list of ingredients: potatoes, kale (or cabbage if you like), onion, whole milk (I used skim to cut some of the calories), unsalted butter, salt and pepper.

And yet with a simple ingredient list I somehow managed to make things difficult for myself. The thing is I have never cleaned, cut, or cooked kale. In the end it was not bad, it was just more work then I had anticipated. And after I had cleaned and chopped all of my kale I wondered about this line in the directions, the 3rd line to be exact:

It says, "to another small pot of water add the chopped kale......". But how was this bowl of kale possibly going to fit into a small pot?

It just didn't make sense. I mean I knew it would wilt, but it was barely fitting in my large pot and here they were telling me to use a SMALL one. But then I saw this cute guy on my bananas and all was right with the world again.

Okay, that was just a complete 180 in topic direction but I seriously saw that monkey while I was corralling all the kale in my pot and I just cracked up. Anyhoo, large pot+a whole lot of kale=perfectly boiled and wilted kale. Everything was going right with the world. It definitely took me longer than 35 minute to get this all together, but it still was easy to pull together. Since I did decide to use skim milk, I added more butter to add a bit more richness. I think next time I would add a bit of sour cream to bring some more creaminess to the dish, but besides all that I think it will be a great contribution for tonight.

After my morning of cooking it was time to enjoy the sunshine. Color has started to come to DC and there is no way you can't feel good with such gorgeousness surrounding you. And now a little picture montage of my neighborhood, enjoy!

My favorite extracurricular activity...

Here is something you should know about me: I am a pole dancer by night. There it's out in the open now. Phew! I guess I should follow that with saying it is a pole dancing for fitness class; so no I am not working for the dolla dolla bills y'all. But I am super obsessed with learning how to become a better pole dancer. Fact or Fiction: The highlight of my week was leaning how to climb the pole? That friends is a fact! Not only can I climb the pole, I can also do multiple kind of spins and turns, though I have yet to master any upside down tricks. There are always more things to aim for and I need to have goals in my life, so that is one of them: to go upside down in my pole dancing class.

Pole dancing is no laughing matter, those strippers need to be given some mad props because this sh** be hurd (that's right not just hard, it's hurd). At one point my entire left hip was black and blue from doing a simple fan kick and the other day the top of my right foot was bruised from learning to climb said pole. I totally need to think of a good name for my pole since we have such an intimate relationship, I mean we have gone to at least second base so I guess that deserves us being on a first name basis with each other.

Me: Hi, Pole, my name is Veronica. My favorite color is blue, I enjoy spinning around your svelte frame, and my favorite food is Indian.

Pole: Hi, Veronica, my name is Rupert. My favorite color is silver, I enjoy jammin' to moody girl groups, and I think you should lay off that butter chicken for both of our sakes.

Me: Uncalled for, but point taken.

So pole dancing is hard, and you will definitely gain some upper body strength but I would be lying if I said there weren't amusing parts to learning pole dancing. Hilarity 1: Part of our class involves spanking our asses and learning how to move one butt cheek at a time. You just have to take it in good fun and go with the flow because everyone else is doing it. Hilarity 2: my teacher is a very hot and very pregnant woman and the fact that she will always be sexier than me doing hip circles, even when she is 5 months pregnant, is just god's little way of putting me in my place. Hilarity 3: Mighty Grip. So this actually more of a story, an anecdote let's say. There is this fun little liquid we use called Mighty Grip which allows you to do all of these tricks without slipping/falling from the sweat that will encase your body. At my last class I put some on to practice climbing, went up Rupert twice, slid down, high fived myself, and made my way to get ready for quiz night. As I was getting dressed I was having real issues putting on my tights (as in they would not budge) and that's when it dawned on me....Mighty Grip. I had slathered the stuff on my hands, thighs, and top of my feet and now I had a protective coating that is not easily removed and would not allow my tights to be pulled up my legs. It took a good 10 minutes for me to wrangle myself back into them, and I was sweating again. Is this a lesson learned? Probably not because Mighty Grip is a pole dancer's liquid gold, and you can't give up liquid gold.
There is pain, bruises, ass spanking, big heels, and tiny shorts, but it is also seriously fun. Go try it if you can, and you will get addicted as well.