Southern Baked Beans

 Baked beans, potato salad and barbecue are a big part of summer. I love baked beans and my mother makes some of the best baked beans ever. I have adapted her recipe by adding a few of my own personal touches. These are great with barbecue and a great side to have with a burger hot off the grill:-) 

I have tried making baked beans with all sorts of variations and although traditional baked beans are made with navy beans, my mother has always used Van de Camps pork and beans in the can along with fresh bell pepper, onion and embellishments that make them quite tasty. The prep is easy and after 45 minutes to an hour, you have a great side dish:-)

Maple glazed Bacon with smoked paprika is used as a garnish and a topping

I use a baking dish most of the time, but a cast iron skillet is a great way to cook these. If these bacon slices look small it's because they were so good, I ate half of them. Don't judge.

Ingredients

2 slices Bacon

1/2 onion chopped

1/2 cup chopped Bell Pepper

2 15 ounce cans  Pork and Beans

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Fry bacon in large frying pan until partially cooked. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Add onion and peppers and saute until onions are translucent. About 2 minutes. Add pork and beans, brown sugar, barbecue sauce, mustard and Worcestershire Sauce.

Pour beans into a greased casserole dish. Mix syrup, paprika and cayenne together in a small bowl. Place baked beans in oven for 20 minutes. Brush Bacon with maple mixture. Lay on top of beans for last 25 minutes of cooking. This is done when the beans are nice and bubbly and the bacon is cooked all the way through. This makes 10 servings and can the recipe can be doubled.

Bon Appetit!

Loaded Potato Springrolls

I am a potato lover and I can never get enough of them.  When I go to a steakhouse I love to get a loaded baked potato overflowing with sour cream and chives. Can you imagine that in a spring roll? These potato spring rolls capture the great flavor of a baked potato with all the fixings and the addition of the spring roll wrapper turns them into a fun appetizer. These spring rolls make an amazing side with steak or your choice of meat, or if you are vegetarian, just add a nice green salad.

This is a very versatile recipe and a great blueprint for you to add other delicious ingredients. You can bake these or you can deep fry them and I guarantee that they are delicious both ways. What makes them really pop with flavor is a simple dipping sauce with sour cream and a hint of horseradish. If you like a little more spice, add a bit of wasabi powder or more cayenne.

 Start with a pound of  potatoes peeled and cut into large chunks

After they are fork tender mash and add the seasonings (complete instructions are  at end of post)

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons potato to each spring roll wrapper

rolling the spring rolls is easy once you get started

And what you end up with is these tasty little morsels

Ingredients

1 Pound Potatoes peeled into large chunks

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 package spring roll or egg roll wrappers

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

1/4 teaspoon red pepper

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

1/2 cup chopped green onion

Directions:

Place potatoes in saucepan or pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes until fork tender. Drain water and mash with a fork or potato masher. Add heavy cream and mix until smooth. Add butter, salt, chopped chives and cheddar cheese. 

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons potato to each spring roll wrapper. Use water to seal spring rolls after they have been wrapped.

Baking Instructions

Preheat oven to 400. Generously spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Spray the spring rolls with cooking spray and bake for 20-25 minutes. turn over halfway through cooking.

Frying Instructions

In a frying pan, add enough oil to cover the bottom 3-4 inches of the pan. Heat oil to 350 degrees. Cook in small batches for 1-2 minutes per side,or until light golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

When the spring rolls are done. Garnish them by sprinkling the chopped green onion over them.

For Sour Cream Horseradish Dipping Sauce

In a small bowl combine sour cream, vinegar, mustard, pepper and horseradish

Try these the next time you have steak. Seriously. Together they are perfection. Not a meat eater? No problem. These are good with just about anything. Just get them in your mouth...

Bon Appetit!

Kind of Blue

 Happy Tuesday! Kind of Blue is the name of a song by Miles Davis that I love. I thought it was the perfect title for this blog post since I am wearing  a vibrant blue skirt. This is truly starting off to be a great summer. I went to a party and reconnected with some old friends and I am looking forward to celebrating my birthday next Monday. 

I am just happy to be here to celebrate another birthday and living life more abundantly. It bothers me when people refer to the day they were born as just another day. It is never just another day. The day you came to be should be celebrated and you have to cherish each birthday that you are here. Right? So I am looking forward to some fun celebrations and of course I will share some of them with you:-) 

How do you feel about birthdays? Do you have any special birthday traditions?

 Black motorcycle jacket: boutique, White t-shirt: H&M, Blue Maxi Skirt: Windsor, Boots: Pour La Victoire, clutch purse: EBay

I have loved oversize hoops ever since I was in high school. Hoop earrings never go out of style and even if they did, I would probably wear them anyway

One of my favorite pairs of boots. Edgy, unique and comfortable

 

 Do I look mean?

 Its a new dawn, a new day and i am walking into it...

Watermelon Strawberry Lemonade

 The warm months are always more enjoyable with a thirst quenching drink. This watermelon strawberry lemonade combines the best of both worlds. The juicy refreshing taste of fresh watermelon and the tangy thirst quenching taste of lemons balanced with the sweetness of strawberries and melon. 

Absolutely delicious on a hot day. You can adjust if too sweet by adding more lemon or water and for a touch of fizz, 7-up or sprite are perfect. If you are after an adult libation, a shot of vodka does the trick perfectly.

Ingredients 

4 cups cubed watermelon

1 cup fresh strawberries sliced in half

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup lime juice 

4 cups water

Directions

Place the watermelon and berries in blender. Blend until smooth. Strain through a fine sieve. Bring sugar and 1/2 cup water to boil in medium saucepan until sugar is completely dissolved about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly and then in a pitcher, pour the sugar water, remaining 3 1/2 cups water, lemon juice, lime juice, and watermelon berry mixture. Stir until well blended.

Adjust drink by adding more lemon and water as needed or your choice of 7up or sprite.

Cheers!

Pizzeria Mozza (LV's LA)

I don't really need an excuse to try great pizza, especially when the restaurant is owned by Mario Batali,  Nancy Silverton, and John Bastianich. But my excuse for indulging in some great wood fired pizza is my six year old son.  He loves pizza. I mean he could seriously eat it every day and never get tired of it. 

So I told him that if we are going to be regular consumers of pizza, he might as well become a pizza connoisseur and experience what an amazing pizza is supposed to taste like, so we plan to explore the best of the best pizza in Los Angeles. Pizzeria Mozza was the first on our hit list of must try pizza joints in the City of Angels.

Pizzeria Mozza is located in the heart of Hollywood on Melrose and Highland

This wall of herbs caught my attention

The ambiance is chic and casual

It is very loud, crowded and energetic. The seating is a little cramped, so it is very likely you can hear conversations at the next table. Did I mention that it is really loud?

We munched on these crunchy breadsticks while I perused the menu

We started with some fresh bread and olive oil. It was quite tasty and my little guy loved it. I always enjoy having delicious freshly baked bread at restaurants. This was so good I was tempted to get some to take home. Low carb eating be damned.

So delicious

The crust and sauce was unbelievable.  Crackling puffy edges slightly charred from the wood burning oven. This Margherita pizza was my son's favorite.

This sausage and fennel  pizza was very robust in flavor with a generous topping of fennel and red onion to balance the sausage.

This was one of my favorites. Pineapple and Speck, which is a thin Italian Ham. This has paper thin slices of fresh pineapple, speck and Jalapeno. I loved the sweet hint of pineapple and that heat from the Jalapeno. Great Flavor combo.

Our pizza spread! Would you believe there was more that could not fit on the table? We love food.

Delicious Coke, but this is not just any Coke. This is Mexican Coca Cola. Their is a huge difference in the taste because Mexican Coke has pure cane sugar and not the high fructose corn syrup that is in most American sodas.

I have never had Jalapeno Peppers on pizza, but it was such a great contrast to the sweet Pineapple

This simple Margherita Pizza was full of great flavor.

This strawberry Gelato pie was tasty, but I was disappointed because I had a hankering for the Meyers Lemon Gelato pie my foodie friends have raved about and they did not have it. It's a seasonal item and I am sure it is amazing.

 Great ambiance and perfect for my little foodie in training:-)  I could not convince him to try the dessert, so I had to eat them both

 The Butterscotch Budino is the signature dessert and I am sure it probably has 5 million calories. It was rich, sweet, and had a nice layer of Fleur de Sel on top. The Pine Nut and Rosemary cookies on the side were the perfect complement.  I could not finish it, but blame it on the pizza.

The left over pizza went home with us and it was great as a midnight snack. I really wanted to be greedy and finish all of it at the restaurant, but as good as it was, I just couldn't. 

The prices are a  little more than most of us are used to paying for pizza, but I thought it was well worth it for the quality of the dining experience we had and the artisan quality of the pizza. You should check it out if you haven't already and be sure to make reservations to avoid a long wait.

Pizzeria Mozza

641 North HighlandAve

Hollywood, CA 90036

323-297-0101

Pizzeria Mozza

800 West Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

949-945-1126