So good. Toasted Quinoa, Corn and Avocado Salad teams nutty quinoa with fresh summer vegetables and a lime-cilantro-jalapeno spiked dressing. Think vegetarian cooking requires too much time and effort? Have a look at award-winning cookbook author Marie Simmons newest book , “Fresh & Fast Vegetarian” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17.95). She has come up with ways to nuance flavors without fiddling…
How could a classic Cobb Salad get any better? Swap out the chicken breast with lobster meat. Chris Hutten, Chef-Partner at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar in Newport Beach, garnishes a minus-the-chicken Cobb mix with steamed and chilled Maine lobster. Revered for its flavor and texture, lobster also adds visual drama to the dish. Hutten fans slices of shell-off…
I am unapologetic in my love of France. No tattoos adorn my body, but I suspect that a royal-blue fleur de lys insignia is branded on the surface of my heart. My time spent in Paris has fostered treasured memories, and that includes the revelry of Bastille Day celebrations. France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14, a date that marks…
My office looks like a crazy person lives there. A cookbook hoarder. A food crazed nut-job. For years, my notes appeared in the margins of cookbooks. As I prepared a recipe, I inked-in my ideas, crossing out ingredients or adding ingredients, changing cooking times and scribbling ways that I thought would make the dish tastier. Ah, hah. Then the digital…
Italian-born Massimo Navarretta has the heart and soul of a farmer. The artichokes and large-bulb green onions he used in this delectable dish were from his gardens. Navarretta, Executive Chef-Owner of Onotria in Costa Mesa, doesn’t mind that strangers sometimes mistake him for James Gandolfini, the actor who played the lead in HBO’s hit series “The Sopranos.” Once, at South…
Half Lamb, Half Beef: The flavor will knock your socks off. Light texture and plenty of alluring spices. Plus the crunch of pita chips. Frisky Tzatziki. Oh my.And a just-right heat comes from harissa (North African chili paste – sold at Whole Foods, Middle Eastern markets and some supermarkets that stock a wide variety of imported goods). Watch the video…
How do you give an elegant-but-easy Bridal Shower? No problem. The bride, Mona Shah, has loads of pals who happen to be chefs. Along with me, the co-hosts were some of OC’s most talented culinarians: Cathy Pavlos (Lucca, Irvine), Delia Snyder (Don the Beachcomber, Huntington Beach), Deb Schneider (Sol, Newport Beach) and Phyllis Ann Marshall (FoodPower, Newport Beach). The co-host…
Crisp filo soaks up lemon-scented syrup. Inside? Luscious custard. Kathy Gabriel along with other members of Irvine’s Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church are in the midst of a cooking-baking marathon to prepare for the upcoming Taste of Greece Annual Festival (June 24, 25, and 26). The festival offers everything from Greek folk dancing lessons to carnival rides, but to my…