Monthly Archives: October 2014

Mummy Dogs

Posted in Appetizers/Snacks by

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Halloween is my favorite holiday. Hands down, the best season of the year. Growing up my best friend and I were treated to some amazing Halloween treats when we would come home after school before we went out trick or treating. I’m talking individually carved orange “pumpkins” filled with purple jello, graveyard cake, squid ink pasta; the works!

I throw a shindig every year and the most popular themed snack is the Mummy Dog. It’s so simple yet so rewarding. Hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls = brilliant.

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Mini Sweet Potato Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted in Dessert by

This cake has a hole in it.  A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I went to our first meeting of the LA Cake Club.  It is just what you think…a group of people get together and share their delicious homemade sweets.  We had a sufficient sugar high by 2 pm, so not a bad Saturday afternoon.  It was hosted at a great organization, the Made by DWC (Downtown Women’s Center).  “MADE by DWC is a social enterprise created by the Downtown Women’s Center to break the cycles of chronic unemployment and homelessness by empowering women to discover talents and develop skills through vocational opportunities, and generates economic and social capital to support programs at DWC.”  I encourage you to visit their website to learn more if you are interested in getting involved.  We met one of the participants and she was so excited to tell us about the organization.  My contribution to the Cake Club were these mini Sweet Potato Bundt cakes.  You know how much I love sweet potatoes and let me tell you, these cakes almost didn’t make it to Cake Club.  They are soooo good. They’re light, moist, and not overly sweet.  Move over pumpkin, these sweet potato cakes can put you out of business.

Mini-SP-Bundt-Cakes

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Vegetable Frittata

Posted in Breakfast, Main Dishes, Vegetarian by

Sometimes I forget how satisfying a frittata can be.  Aside from being a quick meal, it is a great use to use up vegetables (and anything you want to put in it) that look like they’re getting ready say goodbye.  Have lots of half used veggies you need to cook? Throw them in a frittata!  Can you sauté vegetables? Can you add eggs to said sautéed vegetables? Can you put that combination in the oven? If you answered yes to those questions, you can make a frittata! If you answered no, well, I want to help you.  A frittata is basically a crustless quiche.  Along with the fact that this is not made with heavy cream, this is a much healthier alternative to a quiche.  It is filling enough by itself, but you can also serve it with baby arugula salad or toast.

Fall-Veggie-Frittata

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Creamy Leek Pasta

Posted in Main Dishes by

IMG_1956Leeks are an underrated vegetable. There, I said it. They are so yummy and not used enough. Whenever I’m in the leeky mood, this is my go-to leek recipe. It’s creamy, cheesy, and most importantly so incredibly leeky! Throw in come chicken and my favorite carb (pasta) and you have a great Friday night dinner.

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted in Dessert, Recipes by

I looked at the recipes we’ve posted this fall and noticed a distinct lack of pumpkin dishes.  Maybe that’s because I love sweet potato everything (including a sweet potato cake coming next week), but I thought it was time to have some pumpkin in my life.  People go crazy over pumpkin.  I made these pumpkin cupcakes last year and they were quickly devoured by my sister, roommates, and an accidental serving to my roommate’s dog.  Are dogs supposed to have pumpkin cupcakes? I guess he wasn’t about to miss out on a pumpkin cupcake, and you shouldn’t either.  The cream cheese frosting tastes like a cinnamon roll and is a perfect complement to the pumpkin cupcakes.

Pumpkin-Cupcake

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Healthy Apple Breakfast Muffins

Posted in Breakfast, Recipes, Vegetarian by

Growing up in the midwest, apple picking was a popular fall activity.  Southern California does not quite have the same apple picking appeal, but in an effort to make it feel a little like home, I like to travel to Julian, CA, and visit their apple orchards.  Julian is a cute, little mountain town that is known for their apples.  Some great cider comes out of there if you’re a fan… California is experiencing a severe drought right now, so there were only two orchards open this year.  We made the best of it and were able to come back with a bag of (fairly small) apples.  There’s no way we can eat all of the apples before they go bad without cooking them, so I used some of our haul to make a healthy breakfast muffin. These less guilt muffins are quick to throw together and you get apple in every bite.  An apple muffin a day keeps the doctor away. Buttered-Apple-Muffin Continue reading →

Roasted Sea Salt Pumpkin Seeds

Posted in Appetizers/Snacks, Vegetarian by

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While most of you are enjoying the wondesr of fall, those of us here in Los Angeles are stuck in an emotional rollercoaster of a heat wave. With a temperature range of balmy 85 degrees to “dear god I’m melting,” it’s a little hard to get into the fall spirit. Seriously, a Pumpkin Spiced Latte is not meant to be iced, its just depressing. But sometimes you just gotta suck up the 95 degree weather and carve some freaking pumpkins and roast those delicious seeds.

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