What's in a name? Tasty Burgers of Course!

It used to be that I didn't think of myself as a foodie.  I didn't have any type of education in food preparation, I haven't eaten at any of the finest restaurants, and I definitely need some kind of basic recipe to cook most things.  But as I delve further into this blog of mine, I think it has more to do with the passion that you have for good food.  The passion that makes you want to try new restaurants, cook crazy foods just to try them, and sample the best that your city has to offer.  There are several things that invoke my passions:  the non-profit I volunteer with, the customer experience, and food!  I was told recently that I haven't been so excited about something I was doing as I have been about this blog.  I.Love.It!  Getting to tell you all about the cool places I find and gush on and on about their food, it is really exciting to me.  So I think it is safe to say, that now I really feel like a true foodie.  And now I can't wait to tell you about Miru 8691.

After seeing them on the show Crave, I knew I had to check this place out.  So one day a few weeks ago, my husband and I decided to go for lunch.  We were so excited to try the Kal Bi, but unfortunately they were all sold out by the time we arrived.  Apparently EVERYONE watched the show, because this was the burger they featured.  After that slight disappointment I settled on the trio of sliders.  What better way to really see what they were all about than to order multiple tastes?  Now I'm not exactly sure which three I actually got, because it changes from day to day, and I completely forgot to ask.  But after reading the descriptions on their online menu, I'm pretty sure the three were the O.G., C.L.T. and the Guacamole burgers.

Let me start off with....wow.  The presentation when it arrives at your table is not something you would expect to find when ordering a burger.  Each bun was decorated with a sprig of rosemary, and the spicy ketchup that came with my fries was in a very interesting shortened spoon.  Very aesthetically pleasing, but how would it taste?  All three were simply amazing.  The beef was so juicy and extremely well flavored.  I wonder if I could get Chef Miru to tell me how he puts together his beef...hmm.  All of the toppings worked so well together, and really added something to the burger, instead of just being there to be there.  The O.G. was my absolute favorite.  I could seriously eat one every day, but I won't, that's probably bad for your heart and waistline.  I wish I had taken a picture to share with you!  Being a small town girl, I'm still getting used to the price tag that comes with meals around here, but after tasting the burger I understood.  The premium ingredients, paired with the artistic style that the burger was presented, I got it.  You can truly see the passion behind the food that Chef Miru prepares his food.

Since Beverly Hills is a little far from where I am, it would take a little planning before I would come back.  But if you live in the area I highly recommend that you head over to Miru 8691 and check out their great burgers.  If you aren't in the mood for burgers, they also have a pretty large sushi menu as well as other traditional Japanese dishes, but I didn't try any of these so I cannot rave about them.  The burgers were worth the drive though.

Until Next Time,

Guten Appetit!!

This is why I love California...WINE COUNTRY!

So as you might remember it was my birthday a few weeks ago.  In honor of the day, we drove down to Temecula for a little wine tasting.  Since I'm so new to this area, I did a fair bit of research online before deciding which two wineries we shouldn't miss.  I knew I wanted to sip some champagne, so we chose Thornton Winery.  For the second place, I was actually drawn to it since it had the best website layout.  Little did I know how completely opposite these tasting rooms were.

Ponte Winery - "If you like it, its good wine"

Our first stop was Ponte Winery.  Like I mentioned above, their website was the selling point for me.  If they cared enough to make a great website, I thought they might care enough to make a great glass of wine.  And boy was I right!  Wine tasting is $12 during the week, and $20 on the weekend.  But you get to keep your tasting glass if you want.  So not only did I get to sample six great wines, but I now have a set of Ponte wine glasses as well.

The people behind the counter were extremely friendly and knowledgable about the wines in their collection.  I also enjoyed that they were so engaging and passionate about their product.  You could almost say they bragged about their barrels.  I also enjoyed that they gave you a sheet with a brief description of each wine they had available so that you could write down your thoughts as you did your tasting.  I fell in love.  Not only with this winery, but I think I found my Pinot Grigio for life.  I'm not even kidding.  I haven't enjoyed white wines for a long time, but this one was heaven in a bottle.  Just dry enough and full of flavor.  Of course I had to purchase a bottle, and fully intend on ordering a few bottles(maybe a case?) online.  My husband, who is more of a liquor fan, found a great port that he really enjoyed.  Final verdict?  Well worth the drive to see.  Well worth the price.  Will be back hopefully!

Thornton Winery


After such a great experience at Ponte, we ventured over to Thornton.  I'm a sucker for a great Mimosa, so I wanted to be sure to check out a winery that had Champagne.  This tasting room handled things very differently.  The tasting room is set up on a small hill with a great view.  You check out their menu of wine flights, comprising of 4 wines a piece.  There are a ton of choices.  Once you decide on your flight, they bring it out to you, putting them on a "place mat" with more information about each wine.  For us there was really no interaction except for ordering our flight.  One great thing was that you could share the flight, and didn't have to pay for each person with you.  I think that I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more face time with the people who knew the champagne, but thats me.  I really enjoy the interaction.    I did end up purchasing a very tasty Blanc de Noirs.  I think the next time I go down we will try a different champagne winery, but all in all a pleasant experience.

So far I'm really impressed with Temecula wine country.  I really want to go back soon and try a few more places.  Only an hour and a half from LA down I-15, a very beautiful drive almost the whole way.  And it is a great escape when you just need to get out of Los Angeles.  Make your plans to check out the area when you need a day away.  Enjoy!

Until Next Time

Prost!

Couscous and Sausage, Yes Please!

I have to say, that so far my experience in LA has been great.  I especially love the restaurants I've found.  But every so often, you really just need a little time at home.  Getting in the kitchen and trying something new is probably one of my favorite things these day, besides blogging of course.  So tonight, I thought I might try something I've seen several times, but never cooked.  Tonight I made sausage with raisins and toasted pine nut couscous.  And to add to the visual, I managed to take pictures of the entire thing!

So first, I started with the sausage, since it takes the longest to cook.  Ever notice how gross it looks when its cooking?  Yeah, me too.

1.) Sear the sausage on both sides, then add 1/2 cup water and cover, simmering until links are 160 degrees

Next I pulled together all my ingredients for couscous.  Feel free to toss in your favorite spices/herbs to the broth.  I love coriander.

2.) Make couscous according to the directions given.  I use chicken stock instead of water to add some extra flavor

Next, I toasted the pine nuts,  just to add a little extra....umph

3.)  Toast the pine nuts in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  You know its done when you can start to smell the nuts toasting.  

Once the nuts have finished roasting and the couscous has puffed up, toss the nuts in the pot with the couscous and fluff.  You can also add the raisins now if you like.  My husband hates raisins, so I just waited and added it to my individual bowl.  I picked up some fresh basil from the farmers market this weekend, so I decided to add a little of that to the bowl as well.

4.)  Toss in raisins and basil, or your favorite flavor profiles.  I used regular raisins, but you could also use golden raisins

Last week I visited Ponte Winery in Temecula, CA for my birthday.  Great winery by the way!  I picked up an amazing Pinot Grigio, and I was looking for the perfect dish to uncork it for, and I thought this would make a nice pairing.

5.) Uncork your favorite wine and relax, because its going to be an amazing dinner!

Finally, after letting the sausage rest once it finished cooking, I sliced it into disks and added it to my bowl.  Take a look at the finished product.  What do you think?  Looks good right?

6.)  Let's EAT!

Now I don't want to brag, but this was actually amazing!  The soft couscous with the chewy raisins mixed so great with the toasted nuts.  I also really enjoyed the sweetness that the raisins brought to the table.  All in all I was really impressed.  Might try to switch it up a little.  Maybe add chicken next time, or some dried cranberries or apricots diced up.  It seems like a great dish to play around with.  I would highly recommend trying this out if you are in the mood to stay home and whip up something quick.

Until next time,

Guten Appetit

Epic Fail....and I mean Epic

So I hate to say anything about restaurants that I really didn't enjoy.  I guess it goes back to mom always preaching about "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  Or was that just my southern upbringing?  There are just too many great places to eat to focus on the bad ones.  Anyways, I feel my due diligence to inform you of this epic fail.

Let me start off with, perhaps I am spoiled.  Perhaps mexican food is simply different here.  But in my quest to replicate all the restaurants I loved in Atlanta, I have YET to find a great mexican restaurant.  And this one was the worst one so far.  There is no way that I will step foot near this place again.

The place that I am referring to is Mucho Mas in Burbank/NoHo.  Now if you are surprised that I didn't like it, trust me, I am equally surprised at the amazing ratings the place has on websites like yelp.  While the decor is cute, and its a fairly large place, we rarely saw our server.  It took forever to finally order, but when he was around, he was very pleasant to us.

I ordered two very basic mexican foods, a combo plate with a chile relleno and an enchilada.  Both came out swimming in a pool of refried beans and the red sauce that usually comes with enchiladas.  Everything kind of congealed on the plate when it was cooling, and the effect wasn't pretty.  Not to mention the breading around chile relleno tasted stale when I bit into it.  The portions were huge, but only because the plate was ladled with way too much rice and beans.  The flavor of the enchilada was nice, but there was so much sauce slathered on that it made it hard to enjoy.  Neither my husband or myself ended up finishing our dishes.  I don't think I made it half way through.

But I will say this.  My meal came with a tortilla soup, and it was extremely tasty.  Lots of veggies, cheese and chips in a delicious broth.  When this came out first I was so excited for my meal.  Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed once our plates arrived.

So now I need your help foodies.  For those of you who live in LA, can you PLEASE suggest a great mexican place to try?  We are really looking for a place that has some type of Queso Blanco dip, and freshly made salsa.  I would love your suggestions.  For those of you in Atlanta, be thankful for La Parilla!

Until next time,

Guten Appetit

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Oh October.  Easily my favorite part of the year.  And for several reasons.  Finally the air starts to cool and the leaves turn, which I haven't really noticed a lot of in Los Angeles, but maybe soon right??  I hear the seasons here turn a little later than they do on the east coast.  Second, Halloween, which is my absolutely favorite holiday of the year.  I love the pumpkins and witches and scary movies all over TV. Also, its my birth month!  Yes, happy birthday to me this coming Tuesday!  I'm excited to check out Miru 8691 for my birthday dinner.  Who wouldn't want to go after seeing their episode of Crave on the Food Network!!  I can't wait to tell you all about it on Wednesday.

But my favorite part of October is that all of a sudden the food starts to change.  We start craving richer flavors and warmer dishes.  I know for me, on the first cold day of fall I want to pull my crock pot out of summer retirement and make a huge serving of Taco Soup or Chili.  Not to mention all of the amazing fall desserts that start to come out.

My favorite of all of these is pumpkin cheesecake.  I found this recipe from Paula Deen and wanted to share it with you.  It actually won a recipe cook-off that one of my friend's moms puts on every year around this time.  Such a great alternative to traditional pumpkin pie, which might be another reason I love it so much.  I love traditional recipes that you can tweak a little and make into something just as tasy, but just a little different.

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

***Or I cheat and use store bought crust, taste the same to me and so much easier!***

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.  ***Or like I said above, use a store bought one...either way***

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

One tip, put this in a water bath when cooking.  I've attached a link below describing this technique in case you aren't familiar.  I sure wasn't and the first time I tried this the cheesecake cracked and didn't look too appealing.  Don't get me wrong, it was TASTY!  but not cute to look at.  So if that is important to you, check out the water bath technique.  

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/what-is-a-water-bath.htm

Check out this recipe, I KNOW you will love it.  What other things do you enjoy adding pumpkin to?  I'm just now starting to enjoy the flavor and texture of pumpkin and would like to try it in other things.  

Until next time!

Guten Appetit!