The Nasoya Tofu U Pledge Party

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

**It’s not too late to vote for my champagne luxe on a PBR budget in round 3 of Project Food Blog. You can vote here. Thanks for your vote!**

Tonight was such a treat! I was invited to the Nasoya Tofu U Pledge Party hosted at Palihouse in West Hollywood. I was excited to attend this great event.

If your a reader you probably are thinking, “tofu?! I’ve never seen her eat tofu!” You would be right. But something that I have been discovering recently is that I really like a lot of foods I thought I didn’t like. Recent discoveries include Brussles sprouts, beets, and mushrooms. I had a sneaking suspicion that tofu would go the same way as beets and tonight confirmed my suspicions.

felt so official with my name tag!

First of all, the Palihouse in West Hollywood was a beautiful venue. I loved the decor, it reminded me of my apartment.

The event was to promote Nasoya’s new website, Nasoya Tofu U which give you the low down on tofu including tofu basics, several different recipes, how to videos featuring Sabrina of Rhody Girl Tests, and a pledge (you get coupons!). We sampled some of the Tofu U recipes at the event. Guys, I’ve officially changed my mind about tofu. Here are a few reasons why…

Tofu Spring Rolls

Was there even tofu in this? It was delicious. My biggest gripe with tofu and the reason it hasn’t been incorporated into my diet is the consistency. I could not tell that this dish had tofu in it and it was yummy.

But the star of the night was the Moroccan Tofu.

The seasoning in this dish were spot on. It almost tasted like pad thai because the dish had peanuts. The tofu, again was well prepared and the consistency didn’t both me. I ate several spoonfuls of Moroccan Tofu and it was delicious. I really want to recreate this at home.

I also got to meet Kim Barnouin, author of the Skinny Bitch Cookbooks! She was so nice and chatted with all the bloggers. We got a copy of her new cookbook “Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cooking”. Based on a perfunctory reading it looks like it will be a great addition to my kitchen. I love how she lists servings and calorie information after all of her recipes. You will be seeing it on the blog!

Overall it was great to meet some LA area foodie bloggers and get more acquainted with tofu. Now I can put it on my list right next to beets!

The Olive Kitchen + Bar

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

**Please vote for me and my Luxury Dinner Party (feat. truffle butter and honey roasted veggies) in Project Food Blog. You can vote here. Thanks!**

To celebrate both the end of midterms and the start of Restaurant Week LA, Kelly and I had dinner at The Olive Kitchen + Bar in the Grafton Hotel. We got an awesome three course meal at a fraction of the usual price. We’re talking three courses at the price an entree and a glass of wine would typically be. Great deal!

Yep, we braved the rain. Nothing keeps us from a good deal!

I really liked the space that the restaurant is in. The Grafton seems like a really trendy boutique hotel. I’d love to see more of the actual hotel. The restaurant was casual which was refreshing. The prices on the regular menu are pretty pricey but the restaurant itself didn’t seem stuffy.

Because its restaurant week the menu was three courses and there were three options for each course. We had no problem picking because everything sounded amazing.

We started with Beef Carpaccio seasoned and thinly sliced tenderloin, summer asparagus salad, grape tomatoes, shaved parmesan, parsley piccata and mustard balsamic aioli.

This was one of the stand out dishes of the night. The meat literally melted in my mouth and the sauce on the beef was amazing and had a horseradish flavor. The salad was light and wasn’t over sauced. Very delicious! This is something I would order again.

We also ordered Roasted Beef and Buratta roasted beets, burrata cheese, horseradish sicilian pistachios red beet and sherry puree.

This dish was another favorite of the night. The beets were fantastic and paired well with the cheese.

For our entrees we ordered Linguine with Clams.

The clams were delicious but the white sauce left a little to be desired. The flavor fell a little flat. For me, I think I prefer clams in a white wine sauce but I did like that this dish was a different take on a classic. The clams themselves were delicious. I totally horded them from Kelly.

Our second entree was Kelly’s choice, Crispy Roasted Chicken.

The chicken came with mashed polenta and grilled asparagus. The slaw on top was delicious and flavorful. I wish the mashed polenta has more flavor but have I ever had bad grilled asparagus? Obviously not.

The final course was dessert. We ordered White Chocolate + Wildberry Bread Pudding.

The creme sauce was good but the cake was a bit dense. The creme broke it down a little bit. Overall, not the best dish of the night but not poor.

The real stand out of the night was the Traditional Homemade Tiramisu in a Burnt Caramel Sauce.

I always love tiramisu this did not disappoint. The tiramisu was light like a pillow or a cloud and so delicious. The best part of the dish was how the tiramisu was on top of the burnt caramel sauce. I’ve never had tiramisu with caramel before but it was so good. This confirms what I already believe, that there is no dish that cannot be improved by the addition of caramel.

Overall, I liked the Olive Kitchen + Bar. I didn’t try the cocktails but they looks delicious (there is a pear martini I had my eye on) and the appetizers and tiramisu are the clear standouts. This would be a great place to hit for happy hour in the future!

*also, the midterm is over. It never tasted so sweet.

Do you plan to participate in Restaurant Week? If so, where do you want to dine?

Milk

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

After the race on Sunday I wanted more food (running 6.2 miles with an 8:44 min pace per mile will do that to you). Kelly and I have been dying to try Milk for months and Sunday was the perfect day for it.

Milk had a mixture of sandwiches, salads, ice cream and treats. The star of the show here is the ice cream. I asked my friend Molly a few months ago where the best place to get ‘real ice cream’ in LA is and she said ‘Milk’. Tangent: most ice cream in LA is in the vein of Pinkberry. There is a special place in my heart for Pinkberry and Yogurtland, but sometime you want good old fashioned ice cream like you ate when you were a kid. I am not afraid to indulge every once and a while. From time to time you need to have something you really like. In my opinion, if you don’t occasionally give in to ice cream a healthy lifestyle can’t really be maintained. My opinion only.

I was still hungry from throwing down 6 miles that morning so I got a sandwich before sampling the ice cream. I read the words prosciutto and I knew which sandwich I wanted.

The sandwich had prosciutto, slivered potato, picked onion, arugula, provolone and black pepper cream. The sandwich was delicious. The bread had crispy crust and the potato in the sandwich was unexpected but a great choice with the prosciutto and the arugula.

It also came with a delicious side dish.

Lunch was delish but the real star of the show was the ice cream. There are several flavors of ice cream and several delicious sandwich and drumstick treats!

I opted for a scoop of nutella flavor and a scoop of coconut flavor.

The nutella literally tasted like ice cream fudge. It was AMAZING. The coconut flavor was better, can you believe it!? It tasted like I was eating a coconut. The flavor was fragrant and delicious. I will be coming back to Milk whenever I need my ice cream fix.

Primitivo

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

Is there a better way to end a weekend than with Sangria Sunday? I don’t think so! My friend Kelly feels the same way so we decided to finally try out Primitivo last Sunday.

Primitivo is a tapas restaurant and bar located on Abbott Kinney in Venice (one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles). Sangria Sunday is essentially their happy hour menu. Kelly and I tried items off the happy hour menu and the regular price menu. We go all out.

The decor in Primitivo is eclectic and they have a great bar that appears to have a wonderful wine list.

There is also this interesting painting of a glittery tiger drinking from a pool. Good eye Kelly.

But lets focus!

We were here for two things:

Sangria:

So good. It was somewhat fruity and had a distinct red wine flavor. It was pretty strong, but I’m also kind of a cheap date.

Aside from sangria, we also came to Primitivo for delicious tapas. We were not disappointed. We ordered several items off the Sangria Sunday menu and one special item off the full price menu. One of the many reasons that I love tapas is that you can order a few dishes and then add more throughout the meal.

First we tried one of my favorite dishes, bacon wrapped dates with chorizo.

Sweet and smokey. Can’t go wrong with bacon wrapped dates.

We also had heard good things about the sliders:

Moroccan Lamb with pine nuts and tzatziki (def the favorite of the two) and BBQ Short Ribs with cabbage. The short ribs were also very good. These sliders were some of the best sliders that I have had in recent memory.

Because the short ribs were so good we decided to order short ribs with cheddar mashed potato. It was so good that I dug right in and forgot to take a picture until it was half gone. Whoops.

Blogger fail!

Moving on. We decided at this point that we were still hungry. We got more sliders, another round of sangria and our favorite tapas dish of the entire meal: Tiger Shrimp with garlic, lemon, white wine and chili flakes.

Lets take another glamor shot:

So yummy! The shrimp was sauteed to perfection but the real star of the dish was the sauce. It was so good that we refused to give up the broth after the shrimp was gone. The waitress clearly has seen this kind of hording of sauce before and brought us a bread basket to use as a mechanism for eating the rest of the sauce. The buser than tried to take it away and we had to stop him. He gave us a raised eyebrow, quasi judgmental look but it was totally worth it for the rest of the sauce.

Last we ordered calamari. It was pretty good. The standout of this dish was the pesto aioli. It would also have been great on the bread.

Overall, Primitivo was fantastic! Definitely try and go during Sangria Sunday. It isn’t that busy and lots of the best dishes are marked down. The only downside is finding parking, but its Venice and isn’t $4 sangria worth it? I think so.

Smoked Salmon Pizza at Cheebo

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

Last night after my first class there were only three things I wanted…

1. Dinner out with a friend. Thus, Jill and I met at Cheebo‘s. I went there once before with Jill and Carolyn and I remember really liking it. They have awesome pizzas and wine. The decor is really cool. The walls are orange and there are all kinds of cool window and mirror frames hanging on the walls. The ceilings are high. Its a great funky little place.

2. I wanted wine. First day of school always should require a glass of wine. Obviously I opted for Pinot Noir.

3. Pizza! There are so many great options at Cheebo. I really wanted to try something different and delicious sounding. Smoked Salmon pizza with capers! Obviously it was delicious. I really like the crust at Cheebo. Its soft but you can tell the ingredients are of higher quality than Domino’s (don’t even get me started on THAT)

Very delicious! Like a bagel and lox but with pizza! I loved this pizza and would recommend it. Sure, its not Chicago deep dish but its pretty good for pizza outside of the Chi. I also like Cheebo because I always have leftovers which I enjoyed today at lunch.

So that’s what you need to survive a first day back at law school: dinner with a friend, wine, and pizza! Tonight I’m trying a little something different, stripper lessons complete with pole (sorry mom and dad). I hope to improve my upper body strength.

Tavern in Brentwood

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

As the grand finale of my birthday weekend my family plus Catie and Joe headed out to Tavern in Brentwood. I have been wanting to try Tavern for months and it did not disappoint. This was likely the best meal I have had in LA thus far. Get excited people.

Hey everyone, its my birthday! Thanks to Joe for the image.

Side note: I was under the weather on my birthday because I had a stomach bug the night before. All I ate all day was a small amount of water and 3/4 of a plain bagel. Let me tell you, I focused all my energy on being able to consume this meal and it was totally worth it.

First, may I comment on the space, because it is awesome. There is a sandwich, cheese, bread and treat area at the front of the restaurant which I will be frequenting in the future (or at the end of the meal). Then there is an awesome bar with great modern arm chairs. The bar is dark and low key. A great place to get a fantastic cocktail and relax. The dining room its self is light and airy. Basically it is like a conservatory. When we arrived it was light outside but as the night went on the room darken which was really cool. The light was spectacular throughout the evening. It would be an awesome place for a party (like a wedding reception). Also, the light makes for great pictures!

Source

Of course I started with a glass of prosecco to celebrate my 23rd birthday!

Cheers!

I decided to start with tomato tart with eggplant, saffron onions, goat cheese and tapanade. I knew I had to order it when I read the menu and Catie and I both sighed, “MMM Goat Cheese”.

Words cannot express. The olives and the tomato were very flavorful but were well balanced by the sweetness of the onions. I mean, it had goat cheese. The crust was flaky and amazing. I would like another please.

Catie ordered roasted peaches with prosciutto and I had to snap a pic. Look how pretty:

Salty meat with a roast fruit and cheese? I love the flavor combos.

For my entree I asked for a recommendation from the waitress. She said that the Devil’s Chicken is fantastic so that is what I ordered.

There were braised leeks, onion, potato, and mustard breadcrumbs.

The chicken was so moist and delicious. It literally can apart the moment I stuck my fork into it! The flavors were rich and delicious. I was only able to eat half since I was still queasy but it was incredible. The mustard was flavorful and melted into the chicken and the leeks and the potato. It was insane. The braised leeks added a great flavor and the potatoes soaked up all the other flavors and they were reflected against the potatoes. Does that make sense?

Catie had halibut and, once again, I couldn’t resist snapping a shot:

Couscous with the best looking piece of fish I have ever seen.

For dessert I started with decaf coffee of course.

And for dessert the girls split warm plum clafoutis with poured almond cream.It had a candle in it and I blew it out and made a wish. It was a really good one, too 🙂

Dessert:

The dessert was thick and creamy and had delicious plums! I love me some plums. I had a small portion since it was the end of the meal and I was trying to keep the food consumption to a minimum.

My portion with the addition of almond creme. The almond cream was excellent. Cream on the plums was a wonderful idea.

I was also intrigued by dessert that young David ordered.

It is basically a peach sherbet with bourbon whipped cream and mint. Can’t you see how excited he was about it?

Overall, the meal at Tavern was exceptional. I loved the way that they matched the flavors within the dishes. I also thought that the ambiance was superb. This is the best meal that I have had in LA thus far and I will be back at least to grab a sandwich from time to time. Go to Tavern. It is my FAVORITE in LA.

Biscuits for Breakfast

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

The day before my birthday I had the breakfast I have been craving since Jenna posted about biscuits. Of course I got my fix at Clementine.

Of course I devoured the delicious biscuit with white gold honey and topped with preserves.

Yum. So wonderful. White gold honey might be my new favorite thing ever.

I also grabbed a shot of my Dad’s egg sandwich which is a buttermilk biscuit with a poached egg, cheddar cheese and country ham.

So much biscuit-y goodness to be had! I always love a Clementine breakfast.

Birthday Cake

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

There was a great deal of treat eating this weekend. While I didn’t have an actual birthday cake, my mother and I made sure we hit Susie Cake’s (my favorite LA bakery) for cake!

I could salivate. Oh wait, I did. We decided to try their famous carrot cake and the tropical cake! I had the marble cake recently. You can read about it here.

First up is Carrot Cake. It is as good as they say! The cake is spicy, with the carrots and some nuts, and the filling has a praline layer. Words cannot even describe how good a praline layer in the carrot cake is. The frosting was light and reminiscent of cream cheese, without the heaviness. Overall, it was heavenly.

Next up was the tropical. I love a coconut cake. So light and delicious. It was truly tropical. I can always go for Susie Cakes. Any day or night.

Gladstone’s

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

Post hike we went to Gladstones in Malibu, which is like an LA institution. It is noted, mostly for the view.

I mean, who cares what the meal tastes like, right?

Then menu was what you would expect, tons of seafood. I was mostly excited about the raw bar. Its the New Englander in me, but I love a raw bar.

Ta da:

Oyster’s are always amazing and I haven’t had them since I left Boston. Far, far too long. They are clean and fresh. There were West Coast oysters which I suppose are different from East Coast oysters since they are from different coasts. I can’t tell the difference but I haven’t had a side by side comparison.

Soon the meal arrived:

As far as sides go, these were pretty good. The chips were warm (!) and the coleslaw was good, not too “slaw-ey”.

For an entree I had seared ahi tuna sandwich:

I love ahi tuna. This sandwich was good but not great. It had a flavorful Cajun rub which was only ok but the avocado was delicious. It would have been great with toasted bread.This whole sandwich would have been stellar if placed over a salad.

Overall, go to Gladstones for the warm chips, view, and raw bar. The prices were pretty high for the sandwich so I’d say go for the raw bar and the view.

The Spa Day

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Katherine Swanson

Today was my birthday/one week til 2L rejuvenation day at Burke Williams.

I love a “no cell phone” area. No pictures but it is so worth it!

Overall, I had an awesome Burke Williams experience. My favorite treatment was the Hunter’s Retreat which took place in a water room. Basically you lay on a massage table and have several shower heads spray you with hot water. Then you get exfoliated followed by the application of some body wash which they used a giant seaweed thing to rub into your skin. There were so many bubbles. Then you flip over. Did I mention that they are massaging you also? It was amazing. Guys, I’ve never felt so clean in my life. It was awesome.

After I got some lunch. I went to Umami again. Oops, I did it again (but this time with the So Cal burger)…

So amazing. Probably my favorite Umami burger so far!

I also had a refreshing drink:

After lunch I went back to BW and took advantage of the amenities, which really are the whole reason to go to Burke Williams. I went to the quiet jacuzzi for a while. Then I went to the quiet reading room where they have rows of lazyboys and blankets with low lighting. I read a bit of “One Day” which is very readable. I love getting hooked on a good book. I think I’m going to make my summer reading goal!

I also had a few other treatments. First I had a relaxation massage which was so nice on my aching runner’s legs. Because it was my birthday I got a free aromatherapy upgrade. I opted for muscle relief and I got a bottle to take home with me! Great perk! Then I had a manicure and pedicure which was awesome! I got an oatmeal neck pillow which smelled so delicious and I had my first paraffin wax treatment which was so cleansing. My skin felt much smoother afterwords.

While getting my mani/pedi I read September Glamour and I read about Operation Beautiful and surprise, surprise I came home to this waiting on my doorstep…

Yay! Thanks Carolyn! Caitlin is one of my favorite bloggers and I was so excited to get her book. I’ve already started reading. For those that don’t know Operation Beautiful is a movement where people post positive notes about beauty for others to get. Notes say things like “You are Beautiful” or “You’ll always be beautiful no matter how many miles you run” or “relax and smile, it’s not that big of a deal”.