What a Maroon!
Last night my good friend, Bryan, and another of his friends took me to Maroon's. They have amazing food! We started with fried green tomatoes, mango shrimp and hush puppies. Then we shared some jerk chicken, beans and rice and fried plantains. It was amazing.
The servers were great and there were rose petals scattered around the entire restaurant. I felt very seduced.

Goodies!!!

Apparently they don't have good Chinese food in California, because I have never had totally awesome things like soup dumplings and pork shoulder at a Chinese restaurant.
Last Friday we all went to a restaurant in Chinatown called Goodies, and it was fantastic.
From there we went to Jeollado, a sushi restaurant with the biggest private karaoke room in the world in the back. Needless to say, we totally rocked.

Yep, that's my boss.

Last night a couple of people from work and I went to Katz's Deli. I had a pastrami sandwich, and it was the best pastrami of my life. I think I'm still full.
They give you two slices of pastrami to munch on while you wait for your sandwich, which is awesome. For a $14 those two extra slices make the whole thing worth it. Actually, it was worth it.
They give you a ticket when you walk in, and if you loose that ticket they charge you $50 when you leave. It's pretty imperative to hold onto that ticket. At first I was pretty sure they were kidding about the ticket thing, but my new friends confirmed that they were indeed not kidding.

Daisy May's BBQ

The end of my first week at Magnolia ended with the most awesome dinner ever. We went to Daisy May's BBQ and all shared a whole pig, not to mention ribs, coleslaw, texas toast...pretty much every fixin' you can imagine. There is really no better way to bond with a ton of people you have just met then carving into a whole pig together.

Here is an awesome article about Daisy May's from the NY Times.

It was fantastic. Now I can cross eating a whole pig off of things that I need to do before I die. That just leaves seeing Paris, getting arrested, and buying my dad a Mustang Cobra.

From Daisy May's we went to the Me' Bar. There we were just hanging out when I looked up to realize that we were practically at the base of the Empire State Building. Man, sometimes that thing can really sneak up on you. It was one of the most beautiful views ever.

A man in the subway gave me an interesting compliment yesterday...at least I think it was a compliment. He said, "Girl, you look like the tallest Charlie's Angel."
Well, since I'm not blond and my mouth doesn't take up my whole face, I can only assume that he doesn't mean the new Charlie's Angels. He must mean the old ones, which would make me Kate Jackson. Hmmm, I don't think I look that much like Kate Jackson. Maybe he just means that I look like I kick a lot of ass.

Attention ladies and gentlemen : Kitchen Shenanigans is being repurposed. For the next few weeks I will document my transition into becoming a New Yorker.
I don't have any pictures yet, but never fear, soon I will.

I work in the Radio Wave building on 27th Street. It's in an area that is basically the Santee Alley of New York. In this little area you can find any designer knock-offs you could ever want, not to mention big hoop earrings with your name written in cursive through the middle. It's some hot stuff, and by hot I mean probably stolen.

There is a Starbucks across the street, which makes me feel like I'm back home in LA, but I long for a Dunkin Donuts in walking distance. Yesterday they had free iced coffee day and I missed it. I haven't found the one closest to me yet, but I will, oh yes, I will.

The people I work with are awesome. Yesterday they took me to opening day at Shake Shack. It was pretty fantastic. I did have to ask what a concrete was. Apparently it's just a really thick shake. Oh, the things we don't have on the West Coast.

Last night Rachel and I went to dinner at Boca Chica. It was delicious.

I really love it here. I love the subway, I love the weather, I love it!!!!!!

Al, get up, it's time to go to Vegas!!!!!!!

Clearly, I'm going to have to beat you awake! Here, have some coffee.

Let's rock and roll!Ah, we have finally arrived.
Yeah!!!!!!! (just so you know, that's a plastic palm tree in my hair...just in case you thought it was something weird)

Google

I found this picture, which I had meant for a post about Google's Christmas party.
Needless to say it's not quite as fresh in my mind as it was right after this picture was taken, but people from Google are a little too happy.

I did find one subversive member of the Google clan, who told me that working at Google was like living at home with your parents.
When he would try to leave for lunch they would say, "Where are you going? Surely you aren't going to lunch. We made you a nice healthy lunch right here."
When he would leave to go have drinks after work they would say, "Surely you aren't going out for drinks, we have drinks in the conference room every Thursday. There's no need to go out."

I was struck with a strange mixture of disgust and envy that I still haven't reconciled.
It seemed a little cult-ish, but in a good way. The way that Scientology was oddly attractive to me before Tom Cruise started jumping off couches.

A smart person would have though twice before eating the cookie, but I didn't.

It's been a long time, PBMax

Do you remember PBMax bars?

Al and I remember them well, and we have talked about them several times. I loved them, and I'm pretty sure they loved me too. Then mysteriously, in the late 90's they stopped making them. Children wept. Well, I wept.
Last Friday when Al and I were just sitting home watching TV he suddenly says, "Man, I want to make our own PBMax bars."
Needless to say, shenanigans ensued....delicious shenanigans.
After some disagreements on what was actually in a PBMax bar (see commercial) we were off. They said "whole grain cookie" but we improvised with a buttery wafer cookie.
Then Al piped the peanut putter on top:
Then we froze the cookies and peanut butter for about 1/2 an hour. Then we put them on a metal rack and poured the chocolate over the top.
They were delicious.

Chris liked them too.

Feeding the seals
When Al and I first started dating we knew that eventually both of us wanted to live on the East Coast. I told him that there are a few things that he has to do before he leaves California, or his stay here will be incomplete.
Since I was in NY last week interviewing for jobs, I though we better hurry up and cross some more of those things off the list.
One important one was feeding the seals in Morro Bay, so Saturday morning we woke up early and got to driving. It's almost 4 hours away, but totally worth it.
Don't eat the fish. That's gross.

Pumpkin Pasta
See, I had high hopes of making Pumpkin Ravioli, but then I realized that I needed other tools and I was feeling really lazy, so I mixed the cooked pumpkin along with some spinach and cheese into pasta. I have to say, not nearly as good.
I'm going to add this to my list of less-than-brilliant ideas.

Later I frosted this cake to look like an American Flag, but then I forgot to take a picture of it.
Here is a picture of Karen dressed like an American Flag.
I hope that helps.

I only like brownies if they are chewy and fudgey, or in the movie Willow...but you brownie, you will not do!
I would post the recipe for these brownies, but then it would perpetuate a world of cakey brownies, and I can't let that happen.

Okay, so I know that this blog is/was supposed to be about food...but here is the thing, in support of the cause (and the cause being good food) I am determined to move to New York.
I am in the city for a week to look for a job.
Right now I am held up in the Aroma Espresso Bar. I already had one large latte, but I fear that I will need one or two more before I go outside and brave the 17 degree temperature again.
17 degrees? Whoever heard of such a thing? Not me.
I'm pretty busy with interviews and whatnot, but I am making time to fit in all the good food that I possibly can.
Yesterday I went to a restaurant called A7. I had the eggs benedict with red pepper sauce instead of hollandaise (I'm just going to go ahead and spell that however I want). It was delish.
Al made me informally promise to not have pizza without him, or if I had it, to at least not enjoy it without him. I'm not sure how the whole "not enjoying it" thing would work out. Maybe I'll have to make a mental note to say "yuck" after every bite.

Overconfident...
I'm going to admit that sometimes I become overconfident in the kitchen. I think that I can do no wrong just because it's been a couple of weeks since I set off the smoke alarm or made a batch of inedible cookies...and then the universe has to remind me that I am not infallible, and that yes, even I make mistakes.
So it was this evening when I decided to make potato leak soup without any sort of recipe or guidelines. It seemed simple enough, but what I ended up with was more gerber baby food than anything. It doesn't even taste that good.
Damn me for buying the 10 lb. sack of potatoes at Costco. Why do I think I will ever use them all? What's wrong with me?
Shenanigans.

This picture has nothing to do with my botched soup. It's from Muscle Beach in Venice. It relates not at all to the topic of this post, unless the bodybuilders are laughing at me for cooking without a recipe.
They probably are.
Stupid bodybuilders.

New Year's Eve

Al got me this wonderful cookbook for Christmas. We used it to cook an awesome meal for New Year's Eve. That's right, I said "we," as in Al was instrumental in the cooking of this meal. We made pork roasted in a cherry tomato sause, baked parmesan risotto, broccoli and spinach with mustard and lemon sauce, and proscuitto melts. For desert we made pecan pie and chocolate pudding pie. It was delish.

Proscuitto Melts
12 slices goat's cheese
3 teaspoons thyme leaves
6 slices proscuitto, halved
12 thick baguette slices
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 355. Sprinkle the goat's cheese with the thyme. Wrap a piece of proscuitto around each slice of goat's cheese and place on a slice of baguette. Place on a baking tray and brush with olive oil. Cook for 10-12 mins or until the goat's cheese has melted and the baguette is crisp.

Al is in the club

Before yesterday, Al didn't know that the best Mexican food in California...okay, in LA (admittedly San Diego has much better Mexican food than LA, which geographically makes sense) was found on trucks.
Oh, taco truck...why are you so good?
No one there spoke english. We weren't toally sure what we were ordering, but we were sure it was the best thing ever.

The main rules is that you have to eat them in the car...which is great because the tortillas don't get soggy, and you can always go back to the truck for seconds.

I love you taco truck.

Yeah, that's a knife in my hand. And I'm not afraid to use it either....to make the most wonderful appetizer in the world, and quite possibly the most ghetto one too. Ham and cream cheese roll-ups.
Yeap, one slice of ham lunchmeat, cream cheese, and green onion. I ate so many on Christmas day that I'm not sure when cream cheese will sound good again.
Okay, it already sounds good again.

This is me the last time I didn't worry about gaining weight during the holidays.

Full Fridge, Happy Heart.
There is this strange phenomenon that runs in my family. I was fairly sure that it was genetic, until I realized my sister-in-law does it too. I like to call it "full refrigerator syndrome." Everyone in my family is completely convinced that if the fridge isn't stuffed full of food, then you are out of food, and therefore you are clearly going to starve. We're not happy unless there is something we can't see rotting in the back.
Well, after weeks of working overtime and getting down to a carton of soymilk and a jar of mustard, I was convinced that I was shaming my family. Yesterday I finally went grocery shopping, and alas, the fridge is full again. I feel a strange sense of peace knowing that it's so full I could loose something in there...the way it was meant to be.