Travel Tastes, New Orleans: A Mano

When I spent a week in New Orleans, I tried to stick with the regional cuisine as best I could, stuffing myself to capacity at the festival booths and even taking a 3 hour Cajun cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Despite my best efforts, I somehow found myself  yet again at an Italian restaurant for dinner with my dad before another night in the French Quarter. 

Most Italian restaurants in New Orleans have a Cajun-kick to them; spicy cream sauces, grilled shrimp or sausage. Though A Mano had all these things, it is run by one of the city in the bayou's favorite chefs Adolfo Garcia (Chef & Owner of A Mano, RioMar & La Boca) and Joshua Smith. Inspired by both Latin and Italian flavors, A Mano serves central and southern Italian dishes from local and sustainable purveyors. 

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Stuff That Sausage! Or, Mushroom Appreciation Day

When I was a little girl, there were several vegetables I would not under any circumstances allow in my food. My parents tried to sneak them in to sauces, chopping up onions, chives or mushrooms into tiny bits in an attempt to dissuade me from my oh-so-healthy diet of macaroni and cheese. No matter how small the diced veggies were, I could taste them a mile away. "This has onion in it!" I would cry angrily, and proceed to pout for the rest of the meal. (What a charmer.) Mostly I've come to realize that my disgust for onions and mushrooms came from the texture ("too crunchy, too rubbery, get it away from me," etc).

This might be why my parents are still shocked to the core whenever I eat onions or mushrooms (often). I will add grilled onions to almost any dish and ever since my adventures grilling with Quinn and Daniel I've been doing the same with mushrooms. I add sliced white mushrooms to my healthier version of Fettuccini Alfredo, recreate my goat cheese & shiitake omelet from John O'Groats, and sautee large portobello caps in the balsamic-dijon marinade Daniel came up with.  The other night I  took my mushroom obsession a step further. As I sipped on some girlie moscato white wine and danced around in my kitchen with Scream 2 on in the background, I made sinfully bites of sheer happiness: stuffed mushrooms.

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Sunday Seafood Paella

As the Santa Monica fog rolls in, I'll try to keep myself optimistic about the weather by reflecting on the freak-summer we had this past weekend. Sunday nights are often dinner at Quinn's house, where his mother Mado spends most of her day concocting something thoroughly delectable for the family (and sometimes me). I look forward to her meals every week, having sampled such dishes as grilled shrimp & fish tacos, red & black mole enchiladas and grilled Alaskan salmon with mango salsa and a chipotle sauce.

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Sausage and Broccoli Rotini with a Garlic Cream Sauce

Ok, ok. So I finally went grocery shopping under the guise that I would start whipping up some delicious and healthy cuisine for this blog. You might notice the sinful amount of cream in this dish and wonder, how is this healthy? Short answer: it's not. I'm sure I'll get around to it, as bikini season is nearly year-round in LA-LA land, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with a pasta smothered in garlic-cream sauce. Hey -- at least there's broccoli!

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