Happy Taco Tuesday, everybody!

I called these "breakfast tacos" because the ingredients are obviously morning fare. However, as someone with barely anything in my fridge aside from bacon right now, I can vouch that these would (and will!) make a deliciously hearty dinner as well. This recipe is super simple and could be whipped up on a Saturday morning, or a Tuesday night, or whenever you've got a craving for some crunchy bacon and salty, comforting, mashed potatoes.

Also these would obviously welcome some scrambled eggs on top, too, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't judge your taco habits.

Anyway. We were talking about bacon, right?
Let's talk about bacon.
Cooking the rest of the ingredients, especially the tender potatoes, in the bacon grease is paramount here. I don't have to explain why, right?

I didn't think so.

Hey people!
So, it's June.
When did that happen?
I guess time flies when it's always sunny and you're often drunk. Or something?

Speaking of drunk-- you should probably crack a beer and make this queso. Doesn't it look melty and gooey and cheesy and stupendous?
Do you believe it's vegan? I sure didn't. And I made it.

A while back I told you about buffalo cauliflower and the wonderful people at Follow Your Heart. Today I'm armed with two more recipes utilizing their products that would be an excellent addition to your next party.

So, I mean, full disclosure here: I'm a carnivore. That won't be changing anytime soon.
But-- I'm also completely able to eat gluten, but a vast majority of what you'll find on here is gluten free. My fiancé is allergic to wheat, so I plan around him.

If you have a vegan loved one, you should plan around them sometimes. Don't be a steak-eating-dick and offer them a side of burnt, grilled vegetables when they stop by your barbecue.

Offer them the queso you made for everyone that just happens to be vegan! I can assume they'll be quite grateful and you'll have just gone from would-be asshole to party hero. Do it.

You should also make the chipotle bean dip below, too, to further solidify that hero status. This stuff was great for dipping veggies but would also make a great addition to a sandwich, taco, et cetera.

Let's get on to the snacks, shall we?

Hey friends!

Memorial Day has come and gone, so I guess it's unofficially summer. I thought we could all use a cocktail recipe today. Or three. You know, whatev.

Since moving to LA, the land of exceptional Mexican food-- whether it be from a fancy schmancy spot that serves duck confit tacos, or a food truck that's just posted up on my block-- I have become a margarita enthusiast. I always enjoyed a little tequila and citrus, but I never sought out variations as much as I have in the last year. Probably because out here, margaritas aren't composed mostly of sour mix and bartender bitterness. Here, they take that shit pretty seriously.

So I figured I should, too. I also had a hankering for a spicy drink and decided DIYing it for a blog post was probably a better idea than going to a bar at 2PM on a Thursday (still unemployed over here, obviously!)

So, without further ado, here's three different margaritas made with simple ingredients, a little muddling, and a fair amount of love and booziness. Enjoy!

A few weeks ago, we had people over our place on a Sunday evening for drinks, grilled meats, and the usual enjoyment of a Southern California day in our backyard. One of Matt's friends from school came with his adorable girlfriend, which was a welcome addition to our usual group of six or so.

At one point, I came in from outside to check on the food or something, and I caught our new friend standing in our living room, intently staring at the wall.

"It's like you live in Pinterest," she said, studying each individual photograph in the 84 image collage. "It's so cool."

"Thanks!" I replied. "It was easy!"

And it really was. I mean, I get it, I suppose. What I think of as a simple little weekend project gives a lot of people anxiety. The fear of a project becoming overwhelming, or worse-- terrible once it's complete-- tends to hold people back. I know it does for me.

But I've always been one to decorate. I've never been the type of renter who throws their hands up and says "nope! Can't change a thing!" when trying to live somewhere. I usually don't paint, but I will bang nails in the walls, and cover the cabinets in temporary wallpaper, or sometimes hang fabric everywhere, and occasionally even stick seven dozen photos to the wall with removable adhesive.

It happens.

But the result is always a place that feels like home, whether we live there just a year or longer. I may be thousands of miles from where I grew up, but this little apartment in the San Fernando Valley feels like it's just where I'm meant to be.

Happy Friday everybody.

I had a weird week. And I'm currently making bacon and potato tacos for dinner, after spending an afternoon frosting cupcakes.

I didn't see my week going this way, but I'm not mad about it in the least.
Every moment in my kitchen is a pretty delicious blessing, not going to lie.

So I'll keep cooking, and eating, and telling you all about it for a while.
Cool? Cool. Thanks.

Maybe you're like me, and buy lots of produce on a Sunday with lofty goals. Maybe, also like me, you buy a dozen eggs because you think I'll eat hard boiled eggs for breakfast because PROTEIN. Or sometimes I'm going to BAKE something!

But then, sure enough, you wake up Saturday morning and you're like I have twelve eggs and yogurt and all this green shit that I thought I would eat sooner.





So that's when you make a frittata, dear people. I love me a frittata (can you tell?)

For the past year, Matt and I have been calling North Hollywood our home. Our own little corner of this sprawling metropolis we moved to, NoHo seemed to be the perfect fit: reasonably priced rent (with outdoor space!), plenty of spots to drink, and (I hoped) good places to eat as well.

Of course, my wishes came true, and shortly after moving right near an illustrious In & Out Burger (which is the only fast food I have eaten, or will eat, in decades. Seriously), we started to realize our neighborhood had a lot to offer. So much more than when Matt called it home eight years ago, and it seemed like a new place was popping up every day.



One place that had just opened its doors for the first time right around then was the District Pub. Our first venture was, I believe, two days after they opened, and we have become quite the regulars since. It's a great example of a simple concept done superbly well-- a large craft beer list, house-made sausages, and burgers. That's about it. There's also a huge, delicious, chewy pretzel if you're into that sorta thing. And really, really good French fries. But otherwise?



Go for the beer.
Stay for the meat.
Repeat.

Oh hey. It's Tuesday! And while I am certainly not limiting my taco consumption to just this one day-- it is pretty clear I have enough taco recipes to eat only my favorite non-emoji represented delicacy every day for a long time-- this blog isn't All Among Tacos, am I right?

Like everything else with this blog, it's been awhile since I've made a list of a few joy-inducing things. But I have a whole lot of reasons to smile these days-- I'm currently between jobs and, while looking for employment isn't the most enjoyable activity, the amount of time it's given me with Matt, the dogs, and my new-ish city is pretty great. I am fairly certain I'll be back to work in a few weeks, so I'm glad to share some moments that made me smile while this #funemployment stint winds down.

I'm going to lead with photos, below are some links, including an absolutely amazing app that you need to download. Right now.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Quick smiley chalkboard fridge doodle

Asparagus and Speck from Matty's work, the incomparable Pizzeria Mozza

A really, really pretty Pomeranian we met at the NoHo dog park

Beer and shuffleboard with my favorite at Sweeney's Ale House

Sage for smudging at my BFF's new apartment

1. Inside Amy Schumer - This show returned this week and Amy Schumer is incredible. If you haven't watched the last season yet, Comedy Central has them all on demand. Her sketch/standup/on the street interview style is refreshing and hilarious, and I watched seven episodes back to back yesterday while I cleaned, despite already having seen them all. Because unemployment.

2. The Illusive Traveler Grapefruit Ale from the Traveler Beer Company - I was really depressed to find out Harpoon released their grapefruit beer, The Big Squeeze, shortly after I moved from Boston and was no longer able to grab their wares at my local store. Luckily, the Traveler Beer Company filled the void in my heart with this delightful summer beer, available at my favorite local Clueless reference liquor store, Circus Liquor.

3. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Not to make it seem like I've been spending all my time watching TV these days, but I've watched the entire first season of this new Netflix hit twice. It's hilarious, quick-witted and just plain fun, and the recent Pop Culture Happy Hour that discussed the show made me go back and watch it all over again.

4. My Idol App - This app is entirely in Chinese. And really, really weird. Basically, it scans your face and then turns you into a really strange looking avatar that you can dress up and make perform in a variety of ways. After seeing the crazy shit people were doing with it on Gawker, I had to download, and am really glad I did. Here's why: (sorry Matty. Kind of. Not really.)

• 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 large basil leaf per shrimp; plus a palmful more, any size
• 1 16 oz can garbanzo beans
• 1 head (8-10 cloves) garlic, peeled
• EVOO

1. Heat a couple tablespoons of EVOO in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle the shrimp liberally with salt, pepper and paprika then add to the skillet and cook until just pink and curled, about three minutes per side. Remove from heat and immediately transfer to an ice bath or the freezer to quickly chill.
2. In the meantime, heat a small skillet over medium heat, pour in 3-4 tablespoons EVOO and the garlic cloves. Cook the garlic, stirring often, until it's starting to get soft, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. 
3. In a small food processor, combine the garlic cloves and their cooking oil, a handful of torn basil leaves, and the garbanzo beans. Add the juice of half a lemon, as well, if you have that handy and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. Purée until smooth, adding additional EVOO by the tablespoon if the mixture is too lumpy. You do want it to be quite thick, though. 
4. Smear a tablespoon of the bean purée on each basil leaf then top with a shrimp. Squeeze with lemon and add a pinch of salt. Serve immediately, preferably on a duffed up cutting board.

I've made some great friends since moving to LA.
A big part of leaving Boston was knowing I wouldn't see my people on a regular basis. There was a six month or so stint there, living in Dorchester, when my BFF Courtney would just drop by on her way home from law school every night. She'd have been in traffic for hours, and just needed to get out of her car (or sometimes use my bathroom. Especially when she was pregnant.) and would stay for an hour, just shooting the shit with me while I made dinner.

While no one will ever replace my Boston friends, my social circle in Southern California has added some pretty awesome people in the past year, and it makes living here all the more enjoyable. One such friend is Oscar, a former client turned buddy who recently started working for the awesome Vegan product brand Follow Your Heart. He came by one afternoon, armed with some product samples, and we tested drove some delicious veggie-heavy recipes. Even for the most carnivorous of us (my fiancé Fazekas, obviously) we agreed the snacks were as delicious as they were satisfying.

I must admit, we have been hitting the Thai takeout pretty hard these days. When we don't feel like cooking, and aren't in the mood for tacos (which doesn't happen very often, to be honest) Matt's go-to menu item is almost always Pad Thai, his favorite gluten-free luxury in a world of hidden soy sauce. This Thai trend, for a moment, encouraged me to step out of my drunken-noodles comfort zone and discover Tom Kha Gai soup.

Good morning!

I'm currently sipping some coffee out of the most gigantic owl-shaped mug I've ever laid eyes on, and it's making me quite happy. I love weekend mornings-- the ritual of leisurely sipping your beverage (caffeinated or alcoholic. Or both?) and planning a day that is wide open.

Lately, Matt and I have been partaking in what we call "surprise Saturday." I'll share photos from our last few adventures soon but, basically, one of decides what we will do and the other gets to be blissfully ignorant until we arrive at each destination. Last week, I took Matt to a driving range in Koreatown and out for shabu. The week before, he greeted me after my shower with a mimosa, and declared it "treat yoself!" day. We went for pedicures shortly thereafter.

There's just something about not knowing what today will bring (it's his turn. All I know is we are taking the train somewhere,) that seems to have invigorated us both to step out of our comfort zone, and explore LA beyond our little 'hood. Whatever today brings, I'm sure it'll be delightful.

But before we're off, I wanted to share another weekend-friendly post. I have some more breakfast ideas for you, but I also like to use the weekends to make more labor-intensive types of dishes. Rice balls almost always turn into a huge pain in the ass, it's just the nature of the beast, but they're almost always worth it. As per usual, I had to make these gluten-free (can you imagine if I made like twenty rice balls and then just looked at Matty and said, "oh, sorry, you can't have these." That would be a real kick in the rice balls.)

It was a while ago now, but Matt and I spent New Years in Palm Springs with some close friends. I've wanted to start beefing up my travel stories around here, and I love some of these photos too much not to share.

We stayed at the gorgeously colorful Saguaro hotel, and spent the mornings in the hot tub after snacking on a short rib skillet at the hotel's El Jefe bar. The Saguaro is dog-friendly, too (!!) so we brought the boys along and snuck in a quick hike at Murray Canyon on New Year's Eve before settling in at El Jefe with our friends for tequila and noisemakers.

Before leaving town, we headed right down the street to the amazing Moorten Botanical Garden to check out some cacti and other gorgeous plants. We came home well rested and fed, with a few new little succulents to add to our collection.

While Palm Springs is currently full of Coachella chaos, I loved our quiet holiday here so much. The mountain views, the bright colors, and friendly faces of Palm Springs made for a great little getaway we were in desperate need of. It was a hell of a year, and I was thrilled to bid it adieu on a balcony in the desert with my guy.

Hello! Here I am, back fifteen minutes later, sticking to my breakfast-recipe guns. Since there's two days in the weekend, why not two easy ideas? This one is debatably easier than the last, especially if you have previously cooked rice. And you know how to poach eggs. Which I kind of do, now. Almost.



Anyway. This was good. Like, really good. It was also good the night before when I made something similar with bacon, pesto, leftover rice and a whole lotta cheese. The moral of the story is make a ton of brown rice every time you cook, because the opportunities are endless.
ENDLESS I SAY.

Like this. Brown rice for breakfast?

Why the fuck not? Isn't brown rice nutritious? This could be diet food. I swear.

I SWEAR.

Happy Friday, everyone!

I've told you what to make on weekends past, but never consistently. Like everything lately, I'm attempting to establish some semblance of order over here. Starting with some Friday recipes that will hopefully make their way into your kitchen some Saturday or Sunday morning. Sometimes it'll be labor-intensive stuff, or the occasional baked good, but for the most part it'll be delightful breakfast recipes like what I'm featuring today. Starting with these breakfast tacos, that are quick, easy and feed a crowd (or a hungover couple. Either way!)

Sorry I'm not sorry for being heavy on the chorizo lately. When in SoCal.

I'm currently in the middle of making a batch of these for dinner to eat over some salad, but last time I made these bad boys was for an afternoon get together and sports-watching at our place. They were gone in minutes, and I couldn't blame anyone. These highly addictive little balls of spicy goodness are exactly what you want for a party spread.

Or a Thursday night dinner, apparently.

I'll keep this short as I have about five more minutes until my latest batch of meatballs should come out of the oven, and I'm getting pretty hungry looking at these photos!

While I usually come to this place armed with a recipe and/or memory of something delicious, I wanted to switch things up a bit today (and maybe once a week going forward? Maybe?) and offer up something free for the public!

I may or may not take my Photoshop skills for granted sometimes, but I feel that I'm quick with the friendly charity work, like Christmas cards and birthday invites and whatever else my people seem to need from time to time. Everyone knows they can reach out for quick design projects, because I absolutely love to do it.

On that note, I made this wifi sign for our place last month before we had some weekend house guests. Since then, I'll stick it in the living room if we're having a bunch of people over, so no one has to ask. When friends come over and want to show you a video of a pug who pees while standing on his two front paws, you want them to be on your wifi network. Obviously.

So! You'll need an 8x10" frame, a printer, and some heavy cardstock or matte photo paper.

If you're like the general public and do not have Photoshop (no judgments!) you can download a blank PDF here. Then, you can pop it in a glass frame and draw over the glass with some chalk paint to display your wifi network and password. This is especially handy if your password changes often to incentivize your kids do chores (again, no judgments. That is genius.)

As I sort through a massive back catalog of recipes I've cooked and photographed for this here space, one thing is abundantly clear-- I eat a lot of tacos. Even before our venture out to SoCal, the land of tacos, I was on board. Perhaps it's because my dearest is gluten free and I love foods that are naturally so as well.

But it's more likely that tacos are just super fucking easy.
Like slap some tortillas over an open flame and fill with meat and put in your mouth easy.
And when the filling is made in the slow cooker, it's even easier.

These are up there with the cilantro chicken I made a few weeks ago-- the braised beef is so delightfully tender, and the combination of spicy jalapeños, smoky cumin, and tangy lime juice comes through in every delicious bite.

After averaging about a tamale or two a week since our arrival out to southern California, I decided a little while back I ought to learn how to actually create these little packets of doughy deliciousness. I was shocked that it's not really all that difficult, just a tad on the time consuming side. Regardless, these tamales came together in just a few hours one afternoon, and depending on your filling it could go even quicker. I used my bamboo steamer simply because I already had it, and found it works pretty great with these little square-ish tamales I folded. This was also the first time I used vegetarian soy chorizo as opposed to its fattier pork and beef counterparts, and it was truly great-- the same tangy spicy sausage you expect, but a lot less neon orange grease to drain. Coupled with some corn, some smoky adobo sauce and a red onion, and this filling made for highly addictive tamales.

It's been forever since I've posted just a set of photos. It's been a nice few months out here in sunny LA. We had a few visitors a couple weekends ago, and I've taken to frequenting Runyon Canyon with the dogs on a regular basis. Also, I met some cute puppies in my travels including a miniature siberian husky. Swoon.

I've gotten better about bringing out my camera on what seems like a boring afternoon. Some moments are just worth capturing.

Speaking of which, I upgraded to a Canon 70D this past Christmas, and the shutter bug is strong with this one. I can't stop using it, editing photos, and learning new tricks. Here's hoping my skills keep improving so I can share prettier and prettier photos here. Also, to all my northeast loves, I am sending you all the sunshine I got.

Hello!

I'll spare you a long story about this chicken. You should just skip to the recipe and photos below and know you're going to behold some of this green glory sometime soon. If you're one of those people that think cilantro tastes like soap, this is probably not your kinda thing. However, I will say this would probably be good with basil or parsley instead.

But really? Cilantro is delicious.
The dress was gold and white.
There are some things that are just facts.

I've made this chicken a couple times, most recently when Matt's brother was in town for a visit. He kept eating it cold, right out of the fridge, with his bare hands for days to follow; mumbling "best chicken of my life," as he chewed. So, this is for Jimmy.

Don't you want to eat cold chicken with your fingers like Jimmy?
Or maybe these tacos.




You know you do.

We've been calling North Hollywood home for about a year now.
Matt lived here-- back in the day, when us being together seemed like some far flung dream that could never come to fruition. There were just too many miles between us. But, of course, he sacked up, packed up, and moved to Boston for me in 2009. The rest, as they say, is history.

Except when we came west and started looking for a place, Matt was astounded and ecstatic to see what had become of his old neighborhood. Instead of one shady bar amid a stretch of thrift shops and car dealerships, in the seven or so years he was gone, so many establishments have opened their doors and welcomed in locals. One of the first places we discovered was EAT. I think I'd just come home from a business trip and was ravaged one morning, and hellbent on finding some sort of smoked salmon to put in my gullet. A cursory Google search revealed a few bagel places way too many minutes away-- and EAT, right on Magnolia. And they had other things like "scrambles" and omelets for my gluten-free fiance. Sold.