Southern Supper

My friends, donzumoto and Debbie, hosted a souther supper where we all brought a dish. Here was the menu (click on them for the recipes)...

Garlic Shrimp with Cheesy Grits (donzumoto)
Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Dried Cranberries, Pecans and a Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing (tasteedonut)
Fried Chicken and Waffles (Debbie)
Mac and Cheese (me)
Mini Cornbread Muffins (Megan)
Lemonade Cocktail, Wine (Sharon)
Blueberry Tart, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, Pineapple Gooey Butter Cake (Megan)

Everything was delicious! It is always fun to meet up with old friends and have a nice meal together. I reck'on we will have another dinner real soon!

Before I end this post, I want to talk a little bit about the desserts. The blueberry cream pie was perfect. It wasn't too sweet and the filling was light and fluffy. Megan had told me that the recipe for the Gooey Butter Cakes is from Paula Deen from the Food Network. Both desserts were fabulous! I will have to try making the Gooey Butter Cakes myself sometime!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 5, The End)

After the Bona Vista Lounge, Sandok dropped me off at a bar called Goat Hill Tavern in Costa Mesa so I could meet up with some friends. It was my first time there and it was crowded. It's a sports bar with pool and foosball tables, shuffle board, dart, and etc. They have an outdoor patio where you can throw your peanut shells on the floor and its ok! I love doing that! We all shared some pitchers and played some games. No one every believes me at first that I am good at foosball, and I totally owned that night. It was really nice to end my spectacular day hanging out at a nice, chill bar. It was also great to see so many friends throughout the day, especially the ones who are home for spring break!

That was my Fun Spring Day! The weather was beautiful that day and thanks to everyone who was a part of it!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 4, Revolving Lounge)

(elevators)
After our mac & cheese dinner, we went to the Bona Vista Lounge at the Westin Bontaventure Hotel. Its on the 35th floor (the top floor) so we had to take the red line elevator up there. The elevators are cool, because the face outward, giving us a great view of downtown during the ride. Also, you might recognize the hotel since it was in several movies, such as True Lies and Rush Hour.
Anywho, back to lounge talk. The lounge is unique because it is revolving, so you can potentially get a 360 degree view of downtown if you stay long enough and boy, is it a gorgeous view! Only the seat area of the lounge moves and at first it seems pretty slow but once you have some drinks in you, it seems to get faster. The funny part about the lounge revolving is that the bathroom seems farther or in a different spot since you last remembered.
The lounge is decorated with retro red furniture and real dim lighting. It has a nice and quiet atmosphere. It was extremely quiet the night I went but it might be because it was a Thursday night. You can order drinks and food at the lounge and they have a happy hour (but I forgot the hours). I had ordered a chocolate martini and boy, was it stiff! I had always heard they were good and indeed it was. It was like an alcoholic chocolate milk. Sandok had ordered a strawberry daiquiri in a souvinere boot cup that he got to keep. The cocktails were the typical LA pricing ($12-18) but they have a very good pour. The Bona Vista Lounge is a cool place to go once in a while or to bring someone who is from out of town.

A Fun Spring Day (Part 3, Mac & Cheese)

(Mac & Cheeza)
After both bakeries, we went to grab some real dinner at Mac & Cheeza. I had discovered this place randomly on Yelp! and since I LOVE mac & cheese and it got good reviews, I had to give this place a go. They have been compared to Pinkberry in the way their place works. You walk up  to the counter to order in these steps.

1. size (ranges from Baby Mac ($5) to Mac Daddy ($25))
2. noodles (rice noodles or elbow macaroni) - I prefer the traditional elbow macaroni

3. base sauce (cheese or soy cheese) - how nice of them to consider lactose intolerant people!

4. add-in toppings (different veggies and meats, each $1)
5. topping (melted cheese blend or spicy toasted walnuts) - they have different special toppings each day

I had gotten a baby mac with rice noodles, tomatoes, spinach, and chorizo and a cheese blend topping. It was delicious! It has the perfect ratio of gooey-ness and baked crustiness and the cheese blend on top makes its extra cheesy, yum! Mac & Cheeza also have bottled drinks, which are all only $1. I had gotten a cucumber soda, which was really nice and refreshing. You could really taste the cucumber. I had gone back with another friend and I had gotten elbow macaroni, regular cheese, chorizo, tomatoes, and cheese topping. I thought it was better than the first time I had it! I absolutely love this place!

Their concept is real simple and the food is great. Though it is more of a take out place, they do have some benches to sit and enjoy our mac & cheese. At the end they have a regular trash can and a recycling bin for the bottles. Plus they decorated with macaroni art, who could resist a place like this!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 2, Cupcakes)

After the teahouse, I met up with Sandok to head to downtown LA. We were going to pick up his sister and get dinner in downtown LA. Before dinner, we decided to hit up 2 cupcakeries.

First was Big Man Bakes. I absolutely love this bakery. They are known for having super moist cupcakes and a real simple menu with just the classics. I was lucky enough to meet the owner at a cupcake challenge I went to in February. He has a very interesting story about how he ended up in the baking world. Anywho, I love the fact that they sell mini cupcakes in addition the the regular sized ones. I had gotten 6 minis (2 lemons (they were a special that day and one of my favs), 2 old schools (yellow cake with chocolate frosting), and 2 double chocolates to share with my siblings and a couple friends at home. Of course, I couldn't not get the red velvet, which I got in a regular size because they ran out of them in the mini. They were all delicious and extremely moist. I'm a big fan of Big Man Bakes!

(Sorry! I forgot to take a picture of the bakery while I was at Big Man Bakes)

The other place we hit up was Babycakes, which is a vegan bakery that originated from NYC.Their baked goods are refined sugar, gluten, wheat, soy, casein, and egg free. They use a sweetener made from agave. I got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. It was pretty good for being vegan but it still does not compare to a regular cupcake (texture and taste-wise). It was a little more dry and less sweet. They do something cool that I haven't seen at other bakeries. They sell day old cupcakes 2 for 1. I had gotten 2 of them (1 vanilla and 1 red velvet). I didn't get to try those out since my siblings got to them before me, which is quite alright since I had bought the cupcakes for them. Babycakes not only has cupcakes but lots of other completely vegan baked goods (such as muffins, brownies, etc.). I would love to go back and try some of their other stuff.

A Fun Spring Day (Part 1, Teatime)

March 25th was a splendid day for me, from start to end! Here is the first of a series of posts about my day...

It started off with Bikram yoga aka hot yoga in the morning. What a great way to start your day!

Then I headed to Orange to met up with onewishfulgeek at a teahouse called Paris in a Cup. We decided that we would dress up in vintage dresses for our teatime. She wore a off white lace dress and I work a button up blue and white polka dot dress. Since onewishfulgeek was running late, I decided to check out an antique store nearby. It was my first time in an antique store and it was so much fun to look around.

Now, on to what we had at the tea house. Onewishfulgeek ordered a green tea, which was light a fruity, and a chicken salad sandwich on a crossiant with a baked potato soup. I ordered a spicy black tea, which was pretty mild compared to chai and it was also known as a "lover's tea" whatever that means, and tea sandwiches with a broccoli cheddar soup. The food pretty good for a light lunch and the tea was splendid. After our meal, we got a cookie platter, that consisted of a raspberry or passion fruit macaroon, glazed puff pastry cookie, and shortbread cookies. They were all lovely, but my favorite was the puff pastry cookie.

The whole place is just so darn cute! In the front they have a little store with teatime trinkets and what nots. In the back is where the tea palor is. The staff there were all so friendly (they didn't even get mad at us for being late to our reservation) and wore cute aprons.

Paris in a Cup is located in the heart of old town Orange, which is the cutest and most quaint place around where I live. The area is centered around a big roundabout. The area kinda reminds me of Stars Hallow in Gilmore girls. There are cute little shops and restaurants and they have town events. One of them was a Civil War reenactment. I didn't know those happened anywhere besides the south! Anywho, I totally love the area and will be spending more time around there in the future hopefully! Also, I can't wait for my next outing with onewishfulgeek!

Little Cheesecakes

Mini desserts are so much fun! They are just the perfect size!  I've made a goal to make more mini desserts so here I start with my Little Cheesecakes....

Here is the cheesecake recipe I used. I also used Keebler's pre-made mini pie crusts that I found at the grocery store. Normally, I would make the crust, but I was lazy that day and wanted to take a shortcut.  

How to make the berry compote: I didn't use exact measurements this time. I placed about 16 blackberries, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tbsp of honey, and some lemon zest into a small saucer pot and simmered it until all the ingredients were combined and the berries were broken down. 

My littel cheesecakes came out perfectly! They were a great treat after a session of power yoga with DJ Sandok. He normally does not like cheesecake, but he told me that he liked mine and we each had one all to ourself. DJ Sandok is also the one who took these lovely pictures. Thanks!

Animal Restaurant

Last Sunday night, I went out to Animal Restaurant to celeberate my best friend's birthday. I read some reviews about the chefs and the restaurant before we went.

Key points from the reviews....

• great food
• really friendly staff
• the restaurant feels very New York
• must try the chocolate bacon dessert

I must say that all of them are right on. We were running late and they say they have a strict 15 minute leeway policy for your reservation but they were able to accomodate for us still. The restaurant is a little hard to spot, since it had no sign whatsoever posted on the outside. (I know, so hipster, right?) The only sign was at the valet booth, but we knew that ahead of time so it wasn't too big of a problem for us. The restaurant definitely felt NYCish. It was quite small with plain walls, dim lighting, and dark furniture. The ambiance was nice and I really liked it. (menu picture)
Now on to the food....it was WONDERFUL!!! Our table shared a bunch of appetizers. Fried hominy, sweetbread with creamed spinach, blood orange salad, and blanched kelp salad. The entrees we had were the rib eye with escargo (It's made for 2 and it was ginormous as you can see from the picture), the flat iron steak with potatoes, and a salad but I forgot what it was. My favorite dish was the sweetbread. My friend and I ordered it thinking that it would actually be bread but it wasn't. We learned that it is actually the thymus or pancreas gland from usually a cow. However, at Animal, the sweatbread was from a hen. It was delicious!

Finally, I get to talk about their desserts. Right now, I guess there is a trend of pairing bacon and chocolate or just puttin bacon in desserts in general. Animal is known for their chocolate bacon dessert, so of course we had to order it to try. I am not a huge fan of sweet and salty but it was pretty good. It was a dark chocolate fudge bar with walnuts and of course crispy bacon. The texture was like that of a Crunch Bar but less airy. We also ordered the tres leches cake. Again, I am not a huge fan of tres leches cakes, but this one was amazing!!! It had the perfect amount of moisture and sweetness to it. I'd definitely order it again!  (Tres Leches Cake and Chocolate Bacon Bar Picture)

I really enjoyed my time at Animal Restaurant. The menu changes daily according to what if fresh and available from local farmer's markets. I love the fact that they use local ingredients!