Food Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

Animal in Los Angeles

August 25, 2015 by Mariah 14 Comments

Animal was what P & I based our little weekend jaunt to LA around (more on that next week). Animal shows up on a ton of lists for best of this or that, and well it seemed right up our alley. I’m so happy we got to give it a try. It was so good in fact, that T and I drove up the next week, for a night in LA and dinner at Animal. The food was that good. The menu is mostly meat (hence the name), and made up of mostly small dishes, at fairly reasonable prices. The food was very good, though I give the service and atmosphere a meh. It’s loud, and the waitstaff seems rushed. No cocktails only wines and bottle beer. It doesn’t really have the stay, relax feeling about it at all. The wine menu is all French wine, no California offerings, which is a bit disappointed since they boast sourcing local. Let’s get down to the food shall we…

Tongue Pastrami (ordered both trips). It was a twist on a Ruben with horseradish mousse, sweet pickles, apple butter, and rye croutons. This was both T’s and P’s favorite dish. I enjoyed it for sure, but my favorite was….

Leg of Rabbit with a Lemon Gravy. OMG the gravy was SO SO good, very different than anything I’ve ever had before.

Sautéed Foie Gras with a Biscuit and Gravy. There is nothing about this dish that doesn’t call my name 🙂 Yum!!

Veil Brain!! This was the most unique and out there dish that I tried. Neither T or I had tried brain before. It was actually quite good. I just try not to think about it too much 🙂 It was seasoned well and the texture was not off putting.

Chicken Liver Pate! I loved this dish, it was simple but really really good. The pate was so velvety.

Bone Marrow (ordered both trips). In general if bone marrow is on the menu, I order it. This was one of the best bone marrows I’ve had.

Sweetbreads. I enjoyed this dish, the components all went well together for a cohesive dish. The onion on top was so mild, I had a hard time telling it was onion.

Uni with Fried Cheese and Cucumber. This dish was VILE. I honestly think that the uni had turned, it was not good.

Save room for dessert, both were excellent!

Mango & Passion Fruit Cheesecake. This was amazing, again simple but really well executed.

Bacon Chocolate Bar with Salt & Pepper Ice Cream. Oh so good, I loved the salt and pepper ice cream. It was TASTY and unique.

Sorry about the picture quality but it is VERY dimly lit. The food really impressed us at Animal, P says it’s in his top 5 eating experiences. It was certainly up there, but it lacks a certain feel and atmosphere to crack my top 5, plus the uni dish on the second trip was SO bad. I only made our reservations about a week in advance both times, and didn’t have an issue. You do have to call for reservations, no online option. I’m super glad we got to try it and I got to share the experience with T too. P’s already asking when he gets to go back 🙂

Kitchen Confessions Vol. 3

November 12, 2014 by Mariah 15 Comments

I’m a fairly adventurous eater and will try most new things, but I have to draw the line at bugs. I saw this article, about cricket flour and thought no, no, no. The article makes some interesting points, but I just can’t. I have a similar aversion to eel. Would you try a cricket flour bar?

I love, love, love cheese. I almost always add extra cheese when I make a dish with cheese in the ingredients. If some cheese makes it good, more cheese will make it better 🙂 Words to live by friends, words to live by.

I really dislike recipes when the main part of the “recipe” is a box mix…not a real recipe. As a side note, this use to not bother me but now drives me crazy.

I basically just buy apples so I can dip them in peanut butter. I have a peanut butter problem. I will also sometimes just eat a spoon of peanut butter straight, but the apple seems a more dignified way of enjoying it.

I go through periods of time where I eat certain dish all the time (like oatmeal or tuna salad) and then I’m not interested in having it again for another 3-4 months. It is weird. It tends to be more breakfast or lunch items than dinner items, but that may be because we rarely have the same dinner items. I can’t eat the same things all the time, I need variety!

I haven’t had cereal in at least a year. I’ve had granola & yogurt but eating straight up cereal with milk has not happened in ages. A huge reason is that we try to cut out processed foods in our home meals, but I think I’m going to need to break down soon and have a cereal night.

I hate the descriptor gelatinous, it just sounds gross. I just can’t.

If you are interested in some of my other food confessions visit Vol. 1 & Vol. 2…it answers some pretty important questions about me, like do I like anchovies or not 🙂

While I don’t do weekly at home meals round-up anymore, I do still pin some of the recipes we try and like on the FOOD board.

May Foodie Pen Pal Reveal

May 30, 2014 by Mariah 20 Comments

I signed up to be a Foodie Pen Pal for the month of May. What is a Foodie Pen Pal? Foodie Pen Pal is organized by Lindsay of the Lean Green Bean. You are paired with someone (a reader or blogger) and you send them a box of goodies and they send you one. As soon as I read the premise I thought it was right up my alley; I love food and I love sharing fun food finds. I decided to participate before it got too hot, as I knew I wanted to send chocolate for one of my items. I love sharing unique finds, the hardest part for me was staying within the $15 budget.

I was paired with a very sweet reader, Sheri from Houston, TX. This was the first time participating for both of us. Neither one of us set very many restrictions; in fact Sheri’s only restriction was she likes chocolate and nuts, but not together…that was an easy one to work with 🙂 I was thrilled when I received Sheri’s box…she was so thoughtful and read my blog to get some ideas; everything in the box was perfect! Her letter even included recommendations on how to use each product!

Sheri recommended several uses for this one, but the one I think I’ll try is her favorite, using it to marinate chicken. Sheri recommended: Putting seasoned chicken in the crock pot, dump in the dip, add a little chicken broth, and let cook all day. Then add corn and black beans and shred the chicken and serve in tortillas. The next day leftovers can be used in a southwestern inspired salad. Yum!!

The funny thing about this is that I almost sent her pepper jelly, I was this close (oh forgot you can’t see…well it was close) 🙂 I’m excited to try the Texas version of pepper jelly. One of Sheri recommendations was to use it as a sauce on meatballs for an appetizer. I have never heard of using pepper jelly that way…what a neat idea. I think I will stick with my favorite use for this jar, pepper jelly over cream cheese.

How perfect is that…I like beer and I like bread and it has all real ingredients, so a complete win, win! Sheri recommended the addition of strawberries that sounds delicious, but I think I will stick with the traditional beer bread.

And finally this and this:

She really nailed my likes. 🙂 A wine glass I can use outdoors, for my favorite summertime activity! The poppers are apparently an office favorite. They were quite good, little crackers with a whole lot of spice. It was more of a building heat than an instant heat, which I like.

If I was a better blogger I would have taken pictures of what I sent Sheri but sadly I’m disorganized and was mailing the box on our way out-of-town for our trip. So, I did not document properly (bad blogger!). I included in my box:

White Whale “Your Older Brother” Cocktail Mix

Farmer’s Daughter Scuppernong Grape Jam

Escazu Goat’s Milk Chocolate Bar

I also included a spice and sauce sample from a couple of NC companies.

If you were choosing one item to send from your home state, what would it be?

The Random Scramble

May 19, 2014 by Mariah 10 Comments

Remember when I use to share my weekly meal plan and then one day just stopped? 🙂 Oh, not really? Well, that is ok. Carrying on and moving forward (wipes tear away), hopefully you HAVE noticed that The School of Life Linkup with Shannon and Miriam has taken over on Sunday. When am I going to stop mentioning this link-up in every post? When you join–there it is, on you to make the madness stop. Joking of course (sort of)…no pressure…there is still time to join this week (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Despite my posting schedule being disrupted (and it not being popular), I’m going to carry on with my meal posting. I’m sharing today but I’m not sure what day of the week I will continue sharing this post on. {Insert dramatic music here and wait at edge of your seat}

These meals were from the week before last; last week we were vacationing most of the week so little meal planning was needed. The one meal we did make was a clean out the fridge scramble. Eggs are such a great way to have a quick dinner with very little planning involved. I hate wasting food and try to throw away as little as possible by planning carefully, knowing our limits (planning a meal with perishable items for everyday of the week will not work for us), eating left-overs for lunch, and doing random dishes from time to time. Enter The Random Scramble:

Step One~ See what you have laying around; some cheese (cheese makes everything better), some veggies and/or meat, salt/pepper, leftover fresh herbs (who ever uses the whole package). You could do a Southwestern twist with salsa, black beans, and peppers or Mediterranean with sun-dried tomatoes, feta, and olives…anything goes. Even cream cheese is nice in a scramble.
Step Two~ Whisk together 8 to 12 eggs depending on hunger level, add milk for a creamier consistency but I like drier eggs so we don’t always add milk (about ¼ cup). Add salt/pepper and herbs.
Step Three~ Cook the meat (if using), remove from pan, allow to cool, and chop into bite sized pieces.
Step Four~ Saute veggies (use a little olive oil or butter); when softened, add egg mixture, and allow to cook 3-4 minutes while stirring (often but not continuously). Once eggs have started firming, add cheese/meat and continue cooking and stirring until eggs are cooked through. BOOM…Dinner is served.

Our random scramble had cheddar cheese, country ham, asparagus, and green onions.

The Rest of the Week:

Creamy Vegan Pasta Salad with Quick-Pickled Chiles: Loved this! We will have this again for sure! I skipped the snap peas and of course used my handy-dandy stick-blender instead of the blender. This did not taste like onions, and I used the good olives from the olive bar, and chopped them up. This is a great recipe for lunch.
Thai Chicken, Zucchini and Tomato Curry: very flavorful. Great dish…winner, winner Thai Chicken Dinner 😉
Lime Shrimp Tacos with Strawberry Salsa: Another winner! I did not use the chipotle sauce for this…I am not buying a whole can of chipotle chiles just for some of the sauce. I used about 2 to 3 tablespoons of Sriracha instead and it turned out great. I would recommend adding some smashed avocado as a taco addition to add a touch of creaminess.
Strawberry Shortcake Protein Overnight Oatmeal: So I finally tried the overnight oatmeal and loved it! Thanks for the great feedback about overnight oats on my “Let’s Talk Breakfast” post. I even got a text from P on how much he loved it and I could tell he was dubious on the whole concept. I loosely followed this recipe, but: did not use protein powder, used vanilla greek yogurt (not plain), added chopped pecans, about a tablespoon of raw sugar (not stevia), and I just made it directly in the individual jars (who wants more dishes to clean). Kathy over at Vodka and Soda shared a yummy sounding chocolate version and Anna from A Dash of Quirky did a post on a cinnamon version.
Savory Green Power Waffle with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Basil, and Ricotta: I completely ignored half of the recipe so take this with a grain of salt 🙂 I did not buy rice or almond flour but did make the quinoa flour. It was ok, but not something I’m trying again. P said he really liked it. I used kale instead of spinach and topped the waffle with a fried egg. It was an interesting concept.

What is your recommended “clean out the fridge” dish?

Also, did you guys hear about this totally awesome new Sunday link-up?

…ok stopping now 😉