Shepherd's Pie

There are lots of recipes for Shepherd's pie, from Gordon Ramsey's to all sorts of different versions. My recipe is simple and quick. The ingredients are 2 lbs of lean ground beef, 1 chopped onion, 2 packages of hunter sauce, frozen peas, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese, mashed potatoes.

Saute the onions in a bit of olive oil, then add the beef. When all is cooked, add the hunter sauce and peas. Season w/salt & pepper. Pour in a casserole dish and add the cooked mashed potatoes. Top with the cheese and broil till brown (about 2 minutes).

Serve with your favorite salad and some red wine.

Dinner at Home

Since I do not eat out every night I have to make dinner exciting; at least try to.
The other night, I decided to make a chicken schnitzel which turned out pretty good. All I did was flatten the chicken breast, applied salt and pepper, dipped it in Wondra flour, beaten egg and panko. I then fried it in butter. I garnished it with lemon slices and anchovies. I also squeezed some lemon just before serving. I made some red skinned mashed potatoes (salt & pepper,milk,butter garlic powder and some bleu cheese). For color, I microwaved some carrots with a dash of sugar.

Tonight, I decided to experiment. I decided to just put something together without going to the market. I took 1/2lb of bacon and cut them into strips. I cooked 1 lb.of penne pasta with spinach (healthy..vegetable plus it has fiber) in my pasta boat. If you haven't heard of the pasta boat, you are wasting a lot of your time.
When the bacon was almost done, I added a whole tub of shitake mushrooms (again, healthy..lots of selenium). I then added the aldente spinach penne. At this point I was not sure what else to add. I thought of adding a jar of pasta sauce but I didn't want to drown the taste of the bacon and its wonderful fat. So, I decided to add some black truffle oil. Seasoned it with salt and pepper and a bit of parmesan. Voila! That did it. Served it with more parmesan.

Dinner at home could be exciting but then when all is done, one has to do the dishes!

El Torito Grill

Once again I had to figure out where to consume a no meat dinner since we are still in the Lenten season.

El Torito Grill in Torrance is an old staple of very good food. Value without sacrificing quality. Decided to try their happy hour menu which is a great deal. First of all, the drinks are $5.00. You can get a cadillac margarita,Jack Daniel's manhattan, and all sorts of fruit margarita for yes...$5.00! I was about to order a mango margarita when our waitress suggested the strawberry mango which I ordered. It was sooo good and refreshing. I also asked for their wonderful tortillas served with 2 different spicy sauces but I prefer the honey butter.

We started with their famous fire roasted tomato soup. I have had this numerous times in the past. It is the best fire roasted soup you can imagine. Its a bit spicy and creamy. I can only describe the taste as yummmmy!

My friend ordered from the regular menu which you can. He ordered the shrimp enchilada which came with a scoop of heavenly sweet corn cake which is made with corn, masa and lots of butter! Tried a bit of the enchilada and it was very good. I ordered from the happy hour menu..the crispy shrimp with serrano lime sauce for $6.00. Before I ordered, I asked how many shrimps come in an order. I guessed 2-3; I'm glad I was wrong as it comes with at least 8. This was served with cucumbers. It also came with extra sauce. The shrimps were tender, not overcooked and was delicious. After the 4th shrimp, I all of a sudden started getting hot; body temperature hot. The shrimps seemed to come alive, I felt like a dragon ready to spit fire! I thought I could handle spicy since I've been going to the Indian restaurant and having spicy food. On their scale of 1-5, I was a 2). This was a 4. I ate all of my cucumbers and more of the tortillas to stabilize the heat in my mouth. So for those who enjoy spicy, this will not disappoint.

El Torito is not your usual mexican restaurnt. They put a twist on everything. It will surprise you.

Bristol Cafe - Rolling Hills Estates

Went to mass this morning and had skipped breakfast(not a good idea). I thought I would eat after so I can relax and read the papers. The only hymns that could be heard from me was coming from my stomach. I was starving! So right after mass, I thought I would not make it home alive so I had to do something drastic to silence the chorus.

Bristol Farms in Rolling Hills had just finished their remodeling and I haven't been in their cafe in a long time so this was it. I didn't know what to order so I asked the waitress what she would recommend. She immediately said I should try their cinnamon french toast since it is made with their own fresh cinnamon swirl bread. This is what I ordered. It came with a choice of fruit or potatoes. I was partly brain dead from hunger that I just blurted out "Fruit" It was probably the influence of my guardian angel.

The serving was very generous. An order came with 3 thick slices of the cinnamon swirl french toast. Of course I had to ask for extra powdered sugar. Powdered sugar is good for the soul. It was very good especially after I added a little butter and poured the warm syrup. It would have been perfect with a side of bacon but oh, since it is a Friday and Lent; can't eat meat. FYI, the fruit was....... fruit!

International Express - Filipino Market

I got excited when I saw this tiny Filipino market in the corner of Pacific Coast Hwy. & Pennsylvania in Lomita, California. I stopped by yesterday to investigate and see what they had to offer. It is a mini market, a take out and catering place. They have about 3 small tables and a few chairs. They had a lot to offer, including a middle eastern menu.

Today, I ventured in to actually order something for dinner. I decided on the chicken adobo, their house specialty, and the fried boneless bangus (milk fish). They also had shanghai lumpia which is normally finger size in diameter. Theirs was the size of a regular egg roll; no complaint there..the bigger the better right?

While I waited for my order to be cooked, I went ahead and ordered a halo-halo for my lunch.(translated: mix-mix). It is a dessert with a variety of stuff, from sweetened garbanzo beans, red beans, flan, macapuno, ube, banana (sweetened from brown sugar),langka (jack fruit), ice cream and milk. This is usually served in a tall glass with lots of finely crushed ice. To eat, you have to flatten the mound of crushed ice and mixing it so the bottom full of whatever stuff you ordered, comes to the surface ready for consumption. I also ordered my favorite dessert, turon. This is like a fried eggroll but is stuffed w/ banana and langka then fried. The turon's texture was excellent, very light. The banana was o.k. and could have been sweeter. If they put a tsp. of apricot preserves or blackcurrant jelly in between the banana and langka, it would have been excellent. When the halo-halo came, it took me a long time to mix everything as the crushed ice was not crushed properly. It had pea size ice balls which was quite annoying. I had asked for only 3 items and skipped the ube ice cream. I just had the milk. Well, it was disappointing as it was quite tasteless.

I looked forward to dinner. I heated everything and got my diet pepsi ready. Don't laugh. Wine to me just does not go with filipino food. The adobo was again just o.k. I have had really good adobo so my expectations were high. The bangus (milk fish) was very good, especially after drenching it in filipino vinegar. The shanghai lumpia was good but not addicting as should be.

I have to make another trip as I am CURIOUS to see how their pansit (filipino noodles) taste. I have to be careful as you all know what happened to the cat!

Father's Office

It's funny, every time someone asks "Have you been to Father's Office" they either know what you're talking about or they give you a confused look..."whose father's office?" For the sheltered population, Father's Office is a gastropub with 2 locations: Santa Monica (opened in 1953) and Culver City, California.

I have always heard about their burgers. My friend and I were in Culver City so we decided to give it a try. They have outside seating and there were a good number of people outside on this nice warm day. We noticed an employee sitting by the door with earphones. Either he was secret service (though not so secret) or a bouncer about to check us out to see if we were fit to come in. He just greeted us and asked if it was our first time; was it written on our foreheads? He proceeded to tell us to just order from the bar.

We sat in the bar and told our bartender we were there to try their burgers. He asked us what we wanted to drink. They specialize in all kinds of beer. Cindy and I are not beer drinkers but we decided to put our lives on the line. We asked for his suggestion. He got us both the Bear Republic Racer 5, a bit bitter but is the best one to complement the burger.

The burger came and we both loved it. It was a generous portion. It had arugula, caramelized onions, bleu cheese, and bacon. The onions were so sweet which went well with the salty cheese. The beer had a hint of grapefruit and I don't mean to sound like a wine connoisseur who can taste, raspsberry or chocolate in their wine. I have never been able to taste anything other than wine in my glass of wine. But this beer really had that distinct flavor. This was like a symphony; everything just came together beautifully. I was not too crazy over their fries. It was thin and crunchy, too crunchy that I could not appreciate the flavor of the fries. They served this with a wonderful aioli sauce. Caution: they do not serve ketchup. I usually add a bit of ketchup to an aioli to give it a bit of an oomph. I hate to admit it but this really didn't need any oomph.

The man next to me ordered fresh oysters that looked really good. I asked him how it was and his response was: "very good, would you like one?" I was tempted but passed. There's always a next time.....

Love is Lovelier the Third Time Around

Unlike the song "Love is Lovelier the Second Time Around", Cafe Dulce is lovelier the 3rd time around. This is my third trip and I say trip since it takes me 45 minutes to get there without traffic via the freeway. Cafe Dulce is in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. The last time I was there, I bought $50 worth of wonderful rolls. I shared the spirulina churros with friends and neighbors and fortunately, they shared my enthusiasm. They placed their orders with me for Saturday pick up. I called James and ordered koko churros, spirulina churros, chewy spirulina rolls and tapioca chewy rolls; a total of 72!

These rolls are all healthy; especially the spirulina which is made of a blue green algae and very high in protein. So, for the health nuts....rejoice! For the rest of the population who couldn't care less about healthy bread...praise the Lord! What a bonus, healthy but wonderful. I also discovered that these rolls freeze beautifully. I wrap each one in wax paper, then put them in a ziplock bag. Just take them out of the freezer the night before, no need to heat them, and enjoy by itself or have it with butter...yumm.

Cafe Dulce also pride themselves with their Lamill coffee which is brewed a cup at a time so it is fresh as can be. While they are getting your order ready to take home, don't forget to have a bacon donut. They are not ready till about 10:45 a.m. so don't arrive too early unless you have a roll first, then have the donut as dessert like I do.