2010 was a big year for me discovering new restaurants. When I got my car in May it allowed me to travel beyond Westwood and check out many of the awesome and eclectic restaurants that Los Angeles has to offer. These are all restaurants I discovered in 2010 so while I could eat at Flour everyday for the rest of my life it sadly isn’t going to make the cut.

1. Tavern – Tavern is my happiest place on earth. Between the restaurant, sandwiches, and treats at the Larder Tavern has become my favorite LA spot.

2. Father’s Office – Back in the early days of the blog I went to Father’s Office. Personally, this is my favorite burger spot in LA. They have a delicious traditional burger, great wine and beer selection and the best sweet potato fries I’ve had in LA.

3. Umami – The other best burger joint in LA. Interesting flavors, cheesy tots and more options than Father’s Office. Its second in my mind but a close second.

4. Clementine – Where can I even start with Clementine? I’m there all the time. They have great local, seasonal, fresh eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That doesn’t even account for the delicious treats they have there. Of all the things I had at Clementine the one item that stands out in my mind is the Best BLT.

5. Mozza – They didn’t want me to blog it (the only restaurant that told me to put my camera away) but I did anyways! Mozza is some of the best pizza in LA, even Michelle Obama has eaten there!

6. Real Food Daily – I first went to RFD for a blogger meet up. All my veggie friends we’re telling me how awesome it is and I have to say, they’re right! A great Santa Monica spot with some of the freshest fare in the city. Oh, and the fake bacon? As good as real bacon. There. I said it.

7. Coral Tree Cafe – Coral Tree is a great spot in Brentwood for breakfast, lunch (omg caprese sandwich), and take away. Their curry chicken salad is one of my favorite take away prepared foods.

8. Primitivo – My friend Kelly joined me for several restaurant outing this year (including Umami), this was one of my favorites. Who doesn’t like sangria Sunday? The highlights of this meal were bacon wrapped dates, sliders, and shrimp.Oh and that weird glittery tiger painting.

9. Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada – I went the “best fish tacos” over the summer when I was working nearby. Simple fish tacos with plenty of toppings. Lightly fried, cheap and delicious, these are the best tacos I’ve had in LA thus far.

10.  Green Street Tavern – One of my more recent eats was with my Mom in Pasadena. We loved the atmosphere at Green Street and the food was delicious too! I still can’t replicate the goat cheese orzo but you better believe I’m trying. The appetizers were equally delicious and the pumpkin doughnuts we had for dessert? Unforgettable.

I’m not a big New Years Eve person (to be honest, staying up late, drinking a lot and sleeping the day away isn’t really my scene) but I am making Barefoots Grown Up Mac and Cheese. So much for detox! Whoops! Well, it is a holiday!

I’ll be back tomorrow with my resolutions!

Since the theme of the week is detox I decided to start my dinners off right last night with brown spaghetti with asparagus puree out of my new cookbook Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. My friend Brenna gave it to me for Christmas and I couldn’t wait to cook out of it! It has lots of great recipes with whole ingredients. Perfect for the freshness I’ve been craving.

This is the first time I cooked with my new camera so please bear with me while I figure out setting etc. I decided to make the asparagus puree. The recipe calls for fettuccine but I didn’t have any so I subbed in brown spaghetti. The asparagus puree is a take off of a classic pesto and I really liked the twist. It was also pretty simple to make.

I shopped yesterday but I had a lot of the ingredients around the house. Note that the asparagus is from Trader Joes. Not my first choice (farmer’s markets are always my first choice for produce) but I couldn’t find it at my usual vendor. Thus, I settled for TJ’s.

For the sake of time and dishes I cooked the pasta while preparing my other ingredients. The recipe calls for the pasta and the asparagus to be cooked separately but I added the asparagus to the pasta water for the last three mins of cooking to save time. Potentially you could also cook the asparagus, drain it, and then cook the pasta in the same pot. Basically, the moral of the story is that I hate doing dishes. I also made two servings because I love leftovers!

While 2 servings of pasta (as dictated by the pasta bag) cooked I prepped 1 clove of garlic, cut 1/4 of a lemon, and cut a handful of asparagus into thirds.

When the pasta and the asparagus were done I drained them in a pasta strainer and transferred the asparagus to my food processor. In addition to the asparagus I added one hand full of fresh spinach, a 1/4 cup of pine nuts, a 1/4 of grated Parmesan cheese, and while mixing I drizzled in EVO as needed.

I mixed it up until it resembled a thicker pesto and combined it with the lemon juice and sea salt to taste. Then I combined the sauce with a small amount of EVO, pine nuts, parm, and the pasta.

Viola!

I played around with flash, detail settings, set ups and zoom. Still getting the hang of it. I do a lot of cooking at night and thus there is no natural light. My tiny kitchen makes it hard to take a picture without having my sink or my stove in the shot. I think I need to make a light box.

Hum. Odd shadow.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas edition?

I chased my pasta with this:

I’m beginning to like this more than cocktails. I know that sounds insane coming from me but its true! I am so glad I committed to eating whole foods this week. My system already feels so much better! The stomach pain is gone and I am feeling refreshed and cleansed. Three cheers for limited consumption of preservatives!

Now I’m watching football. My Mom’s side of the family always does a Bowl Pool for the BCS games, affectionately called the Razz Bowl. I am doing pretty terribly this year with only 2 out of 6 right so far. Your welcome fellow participants. Regardless of my poor choices, its been pretty fun so far this year. We had a family rivalry for Missouri vs Iowa and it ended up being a pretty exciting and very close game. Now I’m watching the Music City Bowl which isn’t part of the pool but its really close in the final mins. It just went to overtime after a disputed call in the last second of the game. January first my favorite team (sorry to the UCLAN) is playing. I didn’t vote for Northwestern but for sake of my Brother and Father’s happiness I hope they win.

Who are you rooting for this year? Do you follow the Bowl Series?

Whose joining me?

EDITED TO ADD: I’m running the half, not the full. Don’t get too too excited 🙂

I grew up going to Northwestern events. My Dad is an alum, not to mention that I worked at Northwestern for two summers. Needless to say, our family has many connections to the school. He’s been a football and basketball season ticket holder longer than I’ve been alive. We even travel with the football team on occasion. On the 23rd I went with my Dad to a men’s basketball game. I haven’t been in a long time and it was great to go (plus, we trounced Mount St. Mary’s).

Growing up my favorite part of going to Northwestern games was the treats. I ran before this game and didn’t have time to eat lunch so by half time I was pretty hungry. Luckily the snacks have only gotten better since the last time I went to a game. Hecky’s is a restaurant in Evanston that has been around forever! They started vending at games a few years ago and I got right in line for a pulled pork sandwich with BBQ sauce.

So freaking good! I wish I had my camera when I took this picture because this really isn’t doing the awesomeness of this sandwich justice. The sandwich was WARM and the bun was soft. You can’t go wrong with Hecky’s at the ball game!

I’ve said it before, but by far my favorite part of being home is hanging out with my little brother. This year he moved into an apartment and started to cook for himself. And not just like mac and cheese from a box cooking. I’ve called him while he’s been making homemade fried rice and jambalaya. I was so impressed that I asked him to make me one of his specialties while we’re home: breakfast potatos and bacon.

Just call him the "Lake Coast Count"

This recipe is super simple but very delicious.

You start by chopping potato.

Then you fry up your bacon…

While the bacon is cooking you chop up a pepper and an onion.

When the bacon is done, remove it from the pan. You can remove some of the grease, but who are we kidding, it’s vacation… go big or go home. Place the chopped potatoes in the grease with the pepper and the onion.

Then you have to spice it up! This is where you can get creative. I believe David used a combination of red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, and sea salt (at my suggestion). We had a lot of options to choose from.

The number 1 reason I love being home. This is the spice drawer, never mind the entire cabinet shelf that houses the rest of the spices.

After spicing it up you let it cook until the potatoes are tender.

I’m not sure how long they cooked for and we didn’t the bacon because we noshed on it while the potatoes were cooking (whoops). I can say that the potatoes were very delicious.They had a bit of charring but I love a little bit of burn so it was perfect for me!

I could get used to this other people cooking for me thing 🙂

It was a white Christmas in Chicago!

Last night we did Prairie Grass and church. Today we woke up and did presents, coffee, and breakfast. Did I mention everything I know I learned from my Mother? The food she made today was EPIC.

David really wanted to get on the blog.

But before presents… there was breakfast! Barefoot Contessa challah French toast with bacon.
Then there were presents. Santa was good to everyone this year. The best part of presents is that Wally thinks every present is for him so he likes to get right in front of you. Sometimes the presents are actually for him.

He even got a pet snuggie, because he loves to be cozy.

Funny story. I misread one of the cards and gave a present to my Dad. He opened it up and said “why would I like a camera?” Then I realized that I gave my Dad one of MY presents! I shouted “I’M GETTING A CAMERA?!” It was all very exciting.

For those who don’t know, my camera has been out of commission since September. It died the week before THIS Project Food Blog challenge. One melt down later I started either borrowing cameras or using my camera phone. Taking my pictures on my Andriod made me feel like a total illegitimate food blogger. It was so rinky dink. Needless to say, the camera is pretty much the best present I could have asked for.

Doesn't Wally look handsome in his Christmas collar?

Molly's famous Brie was a big hit! I can take responsibility for making this

Christmas crackers are a family tradition

David demonstrates the content of the cracker

a favorite wine

Dinner was ham, biscuits, soup, and salad- I made the balsamic!

Potato, bacon, cheddar, corn soup from the Barefoot Contessa

And then it was time for dessert….

Grandma's cookies!

Dark and Stormies, Mrs. Turner's cookies, and bark

fruit cake cookies, spice cookies, and Enstrums

We also had a selection of small batch ice creams.

I had salted caramel and sweet potato with torched marshmallow (!) Ah-Ma-Zing. A very foodie Christmas for sure. I am rocking a massive food baby (in the words of Carolyn, “cookie Christ”) and an elastic waist band. Its been a good day.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

In the next 30 hours there will be an excellent dinner at Prairie Grass, Midnight church, presents, Layer Cake Malbec, challah french toast, soup, ham and biscuits and Christmas cookies!

Hope you have (and have had) a wonderful holiday season!