Deborah Dishes

What does Beyonce eat?

2010-04-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

It is so great to see a healthy looking beauty like Beyonce.

I love to teach young women to cook, and role models like Beyonce set the tone - NOT those strained looking q-tips.

I am concerned that young women do not receive good advice, only trendy info dictated by folks who make millions selling garbage instead of fresh, whole foods. Simple things, like learning to make an entree salad that's NOT drenched in gooey dressing, but tossed with fresh juice and real olive oil.

Choices are important, but even MORE important is knowing the options. You get those by checking your sources and becoming a good consumer.

Many times students will complain that berries are expensive, but when it is pointed out to them that they cost the same as a box of junky snack, they look at things differently.

And which one do you want in your body - or your kids' ?

I Love Gordon Ramsey

2010-04-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

If you knew me, you'd know how much I do not care for celebrity chefs: to me, they're all about taking short cuts and dumping ingredients. But not Gordon. He shows respect for techniques, superior ingredients and clean kitchens .

OK, so occasionally he gets a little hot under the collar, but so do I when I watch cooking shows that teach little, constantly selling the idea that fancy appliances, shiny untesils and designer knicknacks make for good home cooking.

Chefs are for RESTAURANTS - not for cooking at home. (However, I have to say, Chef Ramsey's one-minute lesson on how to cook scallops on a show last season was not only spectacular, but USEFUL to any home cooker.)

(Food Network, take note: he and your very own Alton Brown HAVE IT RIGHT.)

Good friends, good deeds and good cooking.

Deb

PS - the Gordon Ramsey's THE LONDON in West Hollywood is pretty yummy!

Everything is a "THING"

2010-03-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

"Everything is a THING" these days.

These are code words between my husband and me, usually accompanied by rolling eyes and always referencing something that has been distorted by being turned into an over-thought, over-elaborated and certainly overpriced Big Damn Deal.

For example, bike riding used to be simple: you parked your bike by leaning it against the wall in your garage, you dressed in comfy clothes and took a spin. But these days - well, have you SEEN these guys with the space suits with matching goggles and blinking lights?

And how about all these TV cooking shows which have somehow convinced my cooking students that buying out William Sonoma is what makes for "Good Cooking."

Or how about how about grocery stores, where to pick up a few things quickly is history. Hell, by the time i'm actually IN the store I can't even remember why.

And cupcakes - what's THAT about? Today a cupcake that tastes like cardboard with half a ton of icing costs FIVE BUCKS and you have to stand in line put up with snotty service because cupcakes, my dear, are the "big thing." A CUPCAKE? Really? No.

You get it. Now roll your eyes....

2010-03-08T08:03:00.001-08:00

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My Favorite Baked Goods in LA!

2010-02-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

(Be careful - not all places bake all items!)*

1 Best morning baked goods: PATTICAKES in Altadena
(their nectarine tart muffins are bliss!)
2 Pies by PIE AND BURGER in Pasadena
(try the rhubarb!)
3 Cupcakes: AUNTIE EM's in Eagle Rock
(love the coconut!)
4 Italian bread and rolls: ROMA ITALIAN DELI on Lake Ave in Pasadena
5 Almond Biscotti: FEDERICO'S ITALIAN BAKERY on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena
6 French bread: LA BREA BAKERY
('nuff said!)
7 Rye bread: CANTER'S FAIRFAX RESTAURANT on Fairfax
8 Cookies: DIAMOND BAKERY (in Artesia, Montery Park, El Monte)
9 Coconut Cake: WHOLE FOODS ARROYO
10 Cake with fruit: PHOENIX BAKERY in Chinatown
11 Walnut bread: PAIN QUOTIDIAN - Everywhere!
12 Croissants: NICOLES in South Pasadena
(frozen ones, you bake them back at home - awesome, and your house will smell great!)
13 Special occasion cakes: right back to PATTICAKES in Altadena

Oh and sorry guys - the best macaroons are STILL from LADUREE in Paris !!!!
Check out their website: http://www.laduree.fr/

*well, except for a few exceptions

It's NOT the "Stuff"

2010-01-31T08:18:00.000-08:00

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In the back of our Ford Explorer (taking up every bit of the storage area!) now sits a grand collection, every Gourmet magazine printed from 1975 to the last issue, a lovely gift from Fran, a great broad who is downsizing.

It makes me reflect on “stuff.” “It’s not the money, it's the STUFF!” is my favorite line from the movie, THE JERK. For me, “stuff” is all about culinaria: bowls, copper, linens. You know how some women are into shoes? Well for me it's dishes: old, new, chipped, mismatched, Limoges - it's all good. Ironically, I am a klutz. (No, really - in the middle of a room with no rug or even furniture, I’ll trip.) I go through more glassware in a year than Walmart. Mostly I’ll shrug and say (as the Buddhists do) that “the glass (bowl, vase, you name it) is already broken” even as I am paying for it at Macy’s.

But sometimes, when it is something of sentimental value, I’ll grieve anyway. Recently I broke a large decorative platter I had schlepped back from Italy. We were so broke on that trip, and this was my one souvenir. I’ve cheered myself with the thoughts of how much good use I really had from that platter, and how happy it made me to see it filled with something tasty that my family dined on.

My mother and her mom kept the good dishes captive, shut away, to be used “someday” “for company” - but they seldom were. I wonder how much ends up at resale stores, still packed carefully in yellowed newspaper, never even having been at the family table. My grandmother’s Waterford stood waiting, never to be used. If the Buddhists are right and my Italian platter was already broken at the moment I first laid eyes on it, then, dammit, let's USE it and make some memories with the stuff!

This past November as I set the table I felt a twinge for the loss of ten charming Thanksgiving country-style plates I had broken several years ago by walking into an open cabinet door. I sigh more deeply, however, when I remember that I broke them on the very last Thanksgiving I shared with my old best friend, Danny. That was a loss no piece of pottery can compare to.

In the long run - it's not the money OR the stuff. It's the memories, and the laughs, isn't it? And boy, how I am going to remember Fran’s generosity for the gift of all those Gourmet magazines. Right after we find a place to put them.

BLOG

2010-01-05T04:14:00.001-08:00

Q: How did I spend my holiday vacation?
A: On the Mediterranean, with Clifford A Wright.

Well, in all fairness, I was really curled up with his book, THE MEDITERRANEAN FEAST. What a work of culinary art! My God, if I started last year and wrote until I dropped dead, I could not write such book. It has everything you want in a book: drama (how about those Crusades!?), happiness (just reading about cannolis is erotic.) There was a staggering number of facts I did not know, from the culinary gifts of the Arabs to the very foods we eat today. The book is also a cornucopia of horror stories: aside from hoardes of nutty royals and emirs, it chronicles plagues, famines - and even nuns .

And it has wonderful recipes galore!!! My head spins with the number I tagged to try later. Aside from being a gentleman, Clifford is a machine.

I can't wait until Thursday night at the Pasadena Library to bow to this amazing cooker and scholar.

Until then I'll be reading "THE LOST RAVIOLI RECIPES OF HOBOKEN: A Search for Food and Family" (more about that wonderful book next time) - but I'll be dreaming of harissa! (That reminds me - when I talk to Clifford, I will ask him if he ever met anyone who really likes cassoulet.)

I wish you good friends, good deeds and good cooking!

2010-01-05T03:48:00.001-08:00

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Pie pie me oh my

2009-11-16T09:12:00.001-08:00

Screw cheesecake think
Pie. I mean even before George and the boys were ditching the Brits pie was the dessert on these here shores.
Speaking of Shores my grandmother shore made the best apple pie ever.I never eat it any where else cause I just know...,flat crust, apples swimming in goo sand the whole sweeter than a snicker bar.
Fall makes me long for just one more lesson in her kitchen in Bellows Falls Vt. Do not go all currier and Ives on me her.She lived in a big old house but upstairs with a beat up kitchen that always smelled of fresh baked donnuts an of course pie.
It was the same year Elvis died that I saw her last . Crippled with Arthritus her hands bent like claws and with only one or two fingers still work correct she began. I tried so hard not
To get all sappy as I watched and listened perhaps I knew it was the one and only cooking lesson she would give me. She was a swell old board who had seven kids years apart saw her family loose it's wealth in the depression . I only know this from old pictures she only spoke of the present except when she spoke of having four sons at war at the same time . I
Have one son now and I can bear it. I can not even imagine living that fear for years. '"I pomised god she said if my boys came home I would never ask for anything again ever" and they all came home. I am sure she kept that promise too.
Well she made those pies hands

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Pie

2009-11-16T08:51:00.001-08:00

Forget cheesecake think pie. I mean since Washington and the guys
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Best breakfast in Pasadena t

2009-11-07T03:55:00.001-08:00

You order the goat cheese and arugula salad e a softboiled egg toss together gently and yum

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Simple

2009-10-21T03:54:00.001-07:00

the more i cook the more I believe simple is best . I mean by that
leaving it alone Iwhat is better than a great piece of fresh fruit
Do we really need to have a perfect French fry with truffle oil or a
juicy shrimp coated in coconut
Or fragile salad greens drenched in a dressing
Made from fake herbs and mystery oils. How about a great tasting
cookie that is not the size of your head and filled with waxy chips.
Al piece of chicken that has taste without every spice inthe
cupboard on it ? A pork rib that melts in your mouth with taste not
some kind of "special" sauce . Pasta ! Oh my god it's gone extreme
Mrs Turi my Italian niegbo in Pittsburgh would shriek to see the junk
stuffed in Ravioli out there. Enhance what is ready delicious. Enough
whinning I am going to enhance a good olive by surroundingu it with
some hgood gin

Ple

Fw: Bodacious Chocolate

2009-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Bodacious sauce or best hot chocolate ever in five minutes flat AND NO MICROWAVE
Pour one half a cup milk , any kind you like in large saucepan (It makes whisking easier)
Heat until it just begins to start to boil
Remove pan from heat
Add one cup of chocolate chips, bits or nips to make sauce .( I love it on pretzels,you?)
Or for hot drink one half as many pieces but same amount of milk ( It makes a great dessert serve in espresso cups with a small fresh tangerine on the side)
scatter chocolate in the milk pan as evenly as possible
Count to ten,french is always fun.
whisk slowly but firmly until smooth
Sauce can be stored in a mason style jar
to reheat or mix just put jar minus the lid in warm to hot water
Eat, Drink and be horny because life is what goes by while we are busy making plans
Deb

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2009-10-15T06:33:00.001-07:00

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Fries

2009-10-13T06:52:00.001-07:00

Iam not a fan of the brothers Smith eatiers as a rule I find them a bit too west side for my taste usually.Recently, however I have found myself in not just one but two of their establishments. What can I tell you my mom loves liver And Smitty's is the only place in town that serves it
So walker and all she and i went for lunch. We found it busy but still friendly none of that eyerolling what are you crazy atitude here. our waiter a charming fellow who was also tending bar treated my elderly mom like a queen.the din in the place was awful .my trout mushy. But the service and the llook of satisfaction on her dear old face was even worth valet parking for.
The second Smith was the newly opened cheval blanc right where Delacy's had been,being a French foodie I could not resist with no reservation and dressed for the gym were seated quicly .they really do hire lovely people
The menu was a bistro lovers treat The mussels tiny but yummy .steak and fries perfect.IWas delighted to see that the chef from the old Parisian is cooking there. But you know guys give the decorating a rest it looks like a resaurant decorated as a showcase house
Take a look at Beniot or chef constants bistros in Paris for airy charm and comfort. I think you have a winner and Pasadena has a bistro. It's nice to have one dish and some wine and not feel like you should have
a whole meal everytime
But I do miss the crepe vine with it's easy chic

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Fall Food

2009-10-06T13:10:00.001-07:00

Fall , I awoke today with thoughts of fall it was cooler , gets dark earlier, who was the idiot who thought we had to fall back anyway.
Fall, I thought of Katharine at the Crepe Vine , which closed this year and hoped that she has fallen some where soft and wonderful .
Fall out of love with West LA . I used to live there in the seventies , before service of any kind disappeared into the maze of endless specials and food that is over worked to resemble fluffy piles of color. where mom and pop places service was and the foods delicious as well as interesting. In the few blocks around my tiny house one could have true Italian, sushi, Chinese and even a great martini and an honest to gosh hot turkey sandwich at Picks.
Fall not into being an old grump about change. ( I am working on this one)
Fall foods are a delight. My thoughts toy with just how to add mushrooms . onions and pumpkin in everything. I am going to make soup . Right after I wipe up a last gasp heirloom tomato salad topped with a gooey cheese.
Fall into the Chili pot too. I am dying to try the Jack Daniels cookbook recipe for Chili . I will share it with you if it turns out.
Fall into the arms of someone you love.
See ya I am falling into my latte, pumpkin of course.

2009-10-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

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2009-09-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

As some someone who likes good food and I surely do. I miss the local family restaurants. No matter where I have lived in LA I could find a few. Here in Pasadena there are still some surviving but they seem to be a dying out. The Crepe Vine closed and took with it the only true french bistro cuisine here . Along with Katherine , the owner who greeted you and found usspace graciously even on New Years Eve once .

Recently , while doing errands near Glendora in an area I do not know well I had to decide which chain to go with for a bite between meetings . I soon realized I was in suburban American hell for as far as I could see chains , franchises and fast foods were all that was offered. Sadly, you could be anywhere in America. Bad enough when you do a road trip your stuck with junk as far as the highway will take you but in your home town things should be different, better. It never fails to amaze me that here in CA with the most gorgeous fruits and veggies anywhere you will still find canned crap instead of fresh and pre made goop even on strawberry pie . I will not even mention salads with pale green lettuce , one cherry tomato tossed with a tidal wave of ahhh.... dressing. How about a burger that tastes more like meat paste than meat and vegetables are generally frozen. Heck , how about anything freshly baked and just out of a tub of frozen pre mixed, pre fab, junk.

Thankfully , my local place of choice still works. My old comfy go to place is Green Street Restaurant. In fact I have lived here long enough to remember when it was on Green St. Back when legend has it , siblings fresh out of college decided to open a place with home style foods. The lines were around the block then and still are but even in their slicker digs off Lake. My experience over the last twenty years has been the same. A lovely person greets you, she asks you where you would like to sit. Seats you where you prefer for me its the corner banquette and hands you a clean crisp menu, not the book you get in most places today. A waiter , usually in my case one I have known forever or some nice new one comes quietly up and takes your drink order and then your food order. One look at the sparkling clean glasses and the smart set up and you know your going to be treated right. Food is always tasty , spiced correctly just like home food. Most places now days do what I have come to call hotel food , bland for fear of what? I am betting no one really ever tastes the food in the kitchens there anyway. I usually order a side salad the legendary and comforting in is goodness Diane Salad. Just who Diane is I have never bothered to ask but I have figured out that the dressing contains orange juice and a ton of pepper . Who cares it is always cold and crisp and tossed just right . The sandwiches are the closest to a home made one anywhere. Don't you hate the ones that look all slick and perfect ? A sandwich should have a certain homeyness to it not all streamlined measured with the stuffing sliced so paper thin that you forget half way in whether it is ham or turkey. Green St. entrees are varied and interesting. I am a big fan of the quesedilla and in point of fact have never had a better one in any Mexican Restaurant anywhere even Mexico.

Soups are just like mom or in my case grandma used to make . Desserts are home style with good ice creams. You can even get a cookie with your coffee , good coffee. Plus a wine list that is so trustworthy I order what ever they recommend.

. I could go on here about the veggie dishes but I just so you think I think everything perfect, I am tired of their zucchini bread not that is not delicious it is but I have eaten it for twenty years . Time for a french roll or some focacia.

Good CA produce in foods cooked perfect and served with out the noise , music or fa la la la of others venues that serve lunch in our LA. My favorite part is that no matter where I travel to dine. I can always count on this family owned business to be consistently comfortable, warm and delicious. when I return or when you just want to lunch with a friend or business associate. Recently , I took my friend from Beverly Hills there , she hates anything east of La Cienega thinks of Pasadena as food slumming and damn near made a waiter cry at the Raymond last year she asked so many questions about butter. Even she could not find fault with Green St.'s brown rice and veggies although she drew the line at having any sugar in her dessert she proceeded to eat most of mine. Ohe she hated the parking lot , really !!!!

In this time of trends and cheap foods being palmed off as good and sometimes even god help us healthy , restaurants whose claim to fame are bad foods but giant portions. When a menu can offer with a straight face everything the from sushi to souffles? Green Street is the closest thing you can get to Mom and Pop heaven. As we watch that kind of dining experience getting trashed faster than usual in these economic times I say to you . "Go out and support your favorite small , mom and pop, local eatery a or tomorrow you may have to eat at a garden or a bees or a factory or day of the week. Well you know what I mean.

See ya

2009-09-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

My food thoughts lately have been about wedding receptions and Morocco. Morocco because it is our next class at Old Town and weddings because two of our friends are getting hitched.
Planning a wedding .....can you feel the tension building in your shoulders.
I as usual have tons of advice and opinion. The one thing I am sure of is that weddings should reflect the likes and dislikes of the couple and not anyone else. In the end they are the es that matter. All of us have been to weddings where the groom looks likes he is being held hostage and the bride does not even resemble the woman you know and love.
Many of us have suffered with rubber chicken , table mates whose conversation is over in ten minutes and cake ( you know cost a fortune) that tastes so sweet that after one bite you are looking for a napkin to hide it under.
A few years ago I went to a lovely formal affair in NYC with four star foods and wines. However, the guests were young college grads who just wanted to party. Guests who pushed the fancy food aside and made off for the hotel bar . Another wedding where a martini bar was open so long while dinner was set up that all five hundred guests got toasted . Not surprisingly my wedding was my favorite, simply because it was just what we wanted live music, french food and dancing.
It worries me to have my young friends out there with everyone giving them advice and projecting their own fantasies on them. Heck, even I added my two cents too. Plus so many people wanting to sell them stuff, two hundred bucks for dinner really!?
However, having said all that I believe in weddings they are one of the few times that we celebrate full out in our society and hell knows we need a good party now a days.
I also believe that a wedding is a true rite of passage. A passage where you can loose your
way for sure.

Thoughts on food.

2009-09-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on food.....
Talking food is making friends. Just yesterday while having a snack in Beverly Hills the waiter and I , he was from New Orleans bonded over our grandmothers recipes for pie. This happens whenever folks hear that I teach home cooking. Suddenly, we are mates with a common passion.Wonderful people have come to me via food.

My working class Pittsburgh family never laughed or argued anywhere as much as at the dinner table. College friends gathered in my first horrible apartment to eat piles of spaghetti. In later years my co workers in the Odyssey theatre would gather for pot luck thanks giving dinners. In fact the most I have ever laughed was when with my friends and I attempted to make a Snackin Cake stoned out of our minds. All these years later and just last night at we toasted with our friends their son and his lady who had just been engaged over a meal in the moonlight.

However it was five woman and one man who made me the cook I am today for bad or worse.

Mrs. Turi an Italian woman from my Pittsburgh childhood who taught me that the world

of good food extended beyond the local supermarket.

Rusty Flinton, who suggested that I not confuse not knowing how to cook with being a liberated woman.

Sadelle Bernstien who encouraged me to go " french " with Julia Child.

My Grandmothers, Shore and Kent who cooked more meals in their lives than I ever will. I respect them more than any star chef. Point of fact is that no one makes pies as good as they.

Everyday cookIng is hard work and requires more creativity than putting together one menu every few months not too mention you have no sous chef or dishwasher.

Oh and the guy that would be my husband who had to eat all my successes and my flops and still does with grace and Mylanta !

Welcome to Deborah Dishes

2009-08-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome! I have just started my first blog to complement my cooking school: The Old Town Cooking School!

Thanks for your visit and I'll see you soon!
Deb