Category Archives: food

Test Kitchen

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It has been such a beautiful sunny day today I couldn’t wait to try out some new photography tricks I learned over at Hank and Hunt.  Jenny, thanks for sharing your tips from the Alt Summit.

As soon as I read about the diffuser, it made perfect sense.  So off I went to the fabric store and secured me some white nylon lining – just couldn’t fork over the $20 per yard for silk.  But let me say, the old nylon works a dream.

With the diffuser plopped in my living room front window I pulled some fruit and veg from the kitchen and started snapping away.

My first experiment was with a couple tomatoes on the vine and a few branches of dried bay leaves.

Next up were some garlic and onion and more bay.  Who says onions and garlic shouldn’t be stored together.  They certainly make swell picture companions.

Finally I pulled a couple tangelos from the garden and presented them with their leaves.

Voila, my photography test kitchen.  This is what I learned to do from the lovely Jenny from Seattle.

Food Truck Frenzy

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This weekend was a feeding frenzy.  Saturday was the First Annual Palm Springs Food Truck Festival or FAPSFTF! 

Since Riverside County doesn’t allow food trucks roving about on its streets, this festival was a special treat for us desert dwellers to at last participate in this mobile food trend.

Our VIP tickets (Thank you Debra and Ricardo!) allowed a 10am entrance to the festival.  Brunch was on!  We set upon a plan of sampling as much variety as we could by sharing everything.  A couple bites each was our strategy.

Like most meals, we began with an appetizer.  Debra chose the truffled popcorn with fig and basil.  Since I’m a sucker for anything truffled, I loved it.  The chewy bits of fig added a nice textural contrast to the popcorn and the fresh zing of basil.

On to our mains, which when we reassembled were sandwiches.  Jay chose a bul kogi beef grilled cheese sandwich.  Ricardo had the lobster roll and I picked the poutine fries.

For the uninitiated, like I was before ordering, poutine is a Québécoise style of piling all sorts of goodness atop French Fries.  Mine had cheese and thin strips of bul kogi beef and a spicy remoulade.

Not only was the lobster roll creamy and lobstery good – it coordinated beautifully with Ricardo’s shirt!

Round two found us at Ludo Lefebvre’s truck.  You may remember him from Bravo’s Top Chef.  His food truck is the one with the big red coq.

We also had giant vegetable and rice noodle rolls and Ludo’s chicken tenders with their crispy and liberally peppered crust that are deep-fried in duck fat!

Yum, I said yum!  The chicken was a accompanied by a flaky buttermilk biscuit drizzled with lavender honey.

With our stomachs filled, we decided on a palette cleanser.  We headed over to Ice Ice Shavie for hip (hop) shave ice.

We tried two of their signature ices – Hammer Thyme, a concoction of strawberry, lemon and fresh thyme and a Slim Shavie which was pineapple, lemon and jalapeno.  Both were refreshing and their names worth a chuckle.

Shortly thereafter, an afternoon nap was in order.

 

 

Hungry for Art

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Feeling famished for some art, we headed into Los Angeles to forage for provisions.  Our first stop was the Los Angeles County Museum of Art – known simply as LACMA.

We let our feeding frenzy begin.

In the beginning, we nibbled at appetizer portions, but it only served to whet our appetites.

We wanted more.  A larger serving please!

So of course, we needed bigger bowls.  We soon discovered them neatly stacked and ready to go.

We then  found plenty more where those came from.

I ask you who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner?   We do!

By the time we finished, we were toast, though enriched and satisfied.