Loaded Banana Muffins For a Good Cause

Food Blogger Bake Sale

This Saturday is the 3rd annual Food Blogger Bake Sale and I am so excited to be participating for my first time! Each year, Share Our Strength hosts the Great American Bake Sale, among other events, to raise money in an effort to end childhood hunger in America. Their premise is simple: No Child In America Should Go Hungry. The goal is to end childhood hunger by 2015. Take the pledge to end childhood hunger, volunteer at a fundraising event, or go buy stuff from one! Where ever you are in the United States you probably have a bake sale happening in your area this Saturday, April 28th. I will be baking for, and volunteering at, the one in Los Angeles at BLD Restaurant. Click on the Bake Sale icon above, or any link in this post for more information on where you can go obtain some yummy homemade goodies this weekend as well as more ways you can get involved in this great cause. [Read more...]

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School, Second Course

Braised Rabbit Leg with Carrot Pasta - This dish became Easter dinner that year.

Warning: This post is not for the faint of heart or for those that only enjoy viewing photos of live animals.

You see, after learning how to properly use and care for knives in the beginning of culinary school the classes move on to further the knife skills of the students on ingredients other than potatoes. Not only are there many other vegetables, tubers and fruits to slice and dice in all manner of shapes and sizes, there are also the animals! Meats of all kinds are deconstructed with just the sharp knife and whetted appetite of the crazed culinary student who has been waiting weeks, weeks I tell ya, to cut into and cook something other than potatoes and lemons. [Read more...]

Reunited, and It Feels So Good (filet mignon pot pie)

My farmers market is back and I couldn’t be more excited! Living in Southern California I have access to a wide range of local and organic foods year round, which is great, and I can find a close-by farmers market to go to almost any day of the week, year round. Yes I know, it just isn’t fair. My favorite farmers market is walking distance from my home, but it is only open April through October. So for five months out of the year I have to go elsewhere. My farmers market is back! [Read more...]

iPhonetography Friday: Culinary School Beginnings

practicing knife cuts at home

I will be graduating from culinary school in five weeks! Yay! So, for the next five weeks I thought it would be fun to take you through my culinary school career for iPhonetography Fridays. Here are photos from my first class. We didn’t get to actually cook anything until we passed that first class. What we did all day every day was learn all about sanitation, how our taste buds work and are affected by various flavors, we made mayonnaise, and the thing we spent most of our time on was classic knife cuts. [Read more...]

Fruit Wands

I recently had the opportunity to help cater two birthday parties for little girls, and I had so much fun! The first was Fairy-themed, and the other one was Hello Kitty-themed. For the fairy-theme party I was trying to think of little touches to give the whole party a fairy feel. I came across an idea for fruit skewers and thought topping them with a slice of starfruit would be so cute and the perfect finishing touch for a fairy wand. [Read more...]