Lately things have gotten pretty busy and our homemade meals are few and far between. This is one of those few and far between meals. A healthy creamy sauce with no cream whatsoever and grilled chicken over noodles. Dustin was skeptical of a cauliflower-based sauce, and while I don't think he was convinced it could ever replace a rich, authentic...

I can't believe it's been more than a year and a half since I made these absolutely delicious blueberry muffins. Time flies! I used the same basic recipe  (with a few tweaks) to turn these into perfect strawberry muffins, since nice, pretty strawberries are in peak season. For a fun twist, I topped the muffins with strawberry sugar that I got...

Dustin and I had an interesting conversation and then did a little research about what makes something ice cream vs. gelato. Here's the lowdown from Serious Eats if you are interested. Despite being super rich and creamy, gelato actually has less fat than traditional ice cream. Dustin's mind was blown by that. I'm not sure what I made qualifies...

When Lent was in full force, we saw lots and lots of advertisement for Filet O' Fish sandwiches from McDonald's. Dustin has been wanting to make a gourmet version at home for quite awhile now, so this finally seemed like the time. We made an easy tartar sauce, pan fried some filets, got some nice cheese (prosecco cheddar, to be exact), and used...

These cupcake locales don't quite qualify as being in LA seeing as they are located in Huntington Beach and Long Beach, but we were on our way to the OC for a day of beach fun with the puppies (since that area is actually somewhat puppy friendly) and made a few detours for cupcakes. Frosted Cupcakery Our first stop was Frosted Cupcakery in...

The best way to end a long, warm day is with a big bowl of ice cream. The combination of strawberry and basil is a popular one, and I haven't really ever experimented with it. Until now. This ice cream has been a godsend after some incredibly brutal days. First you steep basil in milk and cream, similar to making tea, to infuse it with basil...

Dustin has mastered the art of perfect pasta making. He consistently rolls out perfectly textured, perfectly tasting, and perfectly cooked fresh pasta on a regular basis now. While he makes the pasta, I make the sauce. I think we make a pretty good team. We bought Cajun seasoning to make red beans and rice, but I was thinking of other ways we...

After a particularly rough couple of days, I really needed some sugar in my life, so we decided it was time to kick off the next version of the LA dessert challenge: cupcakes! Our rules for the cupcake-off are a little more lenient than the chocolate chip cookie version. Instead of ordering the same variety of cupcake at each place, we are...

As I mentioned a few days ago, we were brimming with Mexican food the week before Cinco de Mayo. I fully intended to write out all of the posts for the delicious food we made, but then real life happened. This past weekend was my first experience as a graduate student where I understood how being a graduate student completely overwhelms and...

For the past couple of weeks, we've been buying our meats at a local butcher shop. It isn't cheap, but the quality and selection of meats is way better than that of our local Whole Foods, which ultimately we haven't been very impressed with compared to our former Bellevue one. We purchased an awesome grass-fed 35-day dry aged ribeye that easily...