Hello Everybody! We want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. :) This year, unlike previous years, we are celebrating this holiday a day earlier together with friends, and with family on Thanksgiving day. Our menu consists of the following:

  • 1. Turkey in Apple Cider brine with stuffing and gravy
  • 2. Mac and Cheese
  • 3. Green Bean Casserole
  • 4. Garlic Mashed Potatoes
  • 5. Yams with marshmallow
  • 6. Creamed Corn
  • 7. Stuffed Mushrooms
  • 8. Sweet Potato Pie
  • 9. cranberry sauce

Do you like our menu? Most everything is done…turkey is in the oven….and now, we have some downtime to share one of our favorite side dish recipes: Garlic Mashed Potatoes! This is K’s recipe and it never gets old. So flavorful and creamy smooth. We made this the other day for a potluck we attended, and it was a hit as usual. Enjoy, guys!

What You Need:

  • 6-8 peeled Russet Potatoes
  • Garlic bulb
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter/margerine
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream

What to Do:

1. First, preheat the oven to 350. Then halve the bulb of garlic. Place a piece of foil in an oven proof bowl and place the garlic bulb in it. If you want your mashed potato with a lot of garlic, use both bulb halves. If not, stick with just one. Drizzle some olive oil onto the garlic and sprinkle a pinch of black pepper and salt. Then tightly wrap the foil.

The oven safe bowl serves as a safety measure just in case any olive oil leak out of the foil. Place the bowl in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes.

In the meantime, place the potatoes in a large pot with salted water. Make sure all of the potato is enclosed in water. Boil for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are very soft. Test by sticking in a fork or chopstick into the potato. If it goes easily in, it is ready. Once the potatoes are ready, drain most of the water out (we like to keep about 1/2 cup of water in the pot) and mash!

Once it is throughly mashed, put in the stick of butter (we know, it is a lot, but it tastes so good!) in the mixture and let the butter just melt. Stir with a spoon to incorporate the mixture.

While the butter is melting, in a shallow pan, pour in the cream and heat to simmer. The purpose of heating the cream before putting it in the potatoes is to prevent the potato from becoming gummy/gooey.

Once the cream is simmering, pour the cream into the potato mixture and stir. Stir well!

Once that is mixed, the garlic should be ready! Carefully remove the garlic with a tiny spoon/chopstick. It should easily pop out.

Add in the garlic to the mashed potatoes and mix. You might have some left over olive oil in the foil. Pour that in as well. Garnish with parsley if you want. Enjoy!

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Over the weekend, K and I made the decision to support our local farmers and participate in the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box program. This is a really cool program where for just $15.00 a week, we get a box full of organic produce directly from the local farmers in the Los Angeles community. This is what our box looked like:

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Here is another picture:

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The box was full of wonderful goodies–a lot of which we never cooked with before. Very exciting!!! :)

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised to see the box contained several types of kale in it. Immediately, we decided to recreate one of our favorite kale dishes–Kale with Peanut Sauce. This is a popular side dish served at our local macrobiotic restaurant, M Chaya. We love the slight chewiness of the kale with the creamy and spicy peanut sauce. It is sooo delicious! :) Of course, you are not limited to just kale–spinach, swiss chard, collard greens, green beans, and galore!

Here is our own rendition of this tasty dish:

What you Need:

  • kale (3-4 bunches to make a good size portion)
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (any kind)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon of ponzu sauce (soy sauce with citric flavor..may substitute with regular soy and vinegar)
  • 2 teaspoons Japanese red pepper flakes (substitute with cayenne)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of diced ginger
  • 2 cloves of diced garlic

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What to Do:

First, boil water in a deep pot and season with salt. While the water is heating up, clean the kale and de-stem the kale.

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Once the water is boiling, boil the kale for about a couple minutes. Have a pot with cold water handy. Remove the kale and put it into the pot with cold water. The purpose of this is to shock the veggie–stop the cooking and preserve the color. Next, squeeze the water out of the kale and transfer it to a mixing bowl. The kale will look weird–all clumped up. That is ok. Just ‘declump’ it with your fingers.

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Ok, now it’s time to make the sauce. In a blender/food processor, blend the garlic and ginger together. Then add in the peanut butter, ponzu, honey, spice, and blend. Taste the sauce. We want a creamy, not too thick consistency, so add in a couple spoonfuls of water to thin it out, if it’s too thick.

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Ok! Now, all we need to do is mix the sauce into the kale. :)

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We drizzled on some more sauce for looks. You can also top it off with some chopped peanuts for extra bang!.

ENJOY!!!!

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Here is a tasty first: Pasta! We have pasta frequently at home because it is easy to make in bulk. :) This is a pasta dish that we are currently obsessed over: puttanesca! We first had it at a tiny Italian restaurant at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. We had it again at a lovely place during a trip to Santa Barbara….and had it again in restaurants in LA…and again at home….and again at home…and, oh you get the idea! We are puttanesca crazy. Why? It is full of our favorite things: olives, tomato, anchovies, garlic, capers, and spicy heat! :) :) This dish is definitely not a boring one for sure! Surprisingly, it is not too difficult to make as well! Yay! Let’s get started!

*NOTE: We made this dish for dinner, and the pictures came out very yellow and dark under our crappy kitchen lights. We tried to brighten it up a little, but it didn’t come out all too pretty. Our sincere apologies!

What You Need:

  • Box of pasta (any kind will do)
  • 28 oz can of whole tomato
  • ~20 pitted olives (we used mostly kalamata olives)
  • 4-5 filets of canned anchovy
  • 1 tbsp of red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 cup capers
  • white wine (just a ’splash’)
  • olive oil
  • 3 garlic-sliced
  • dry oregano
  • salt and pepper
  • parmesan cheese
  • optional: fresh basil

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What to Do:

First, slice the olives in half, length wide. Next, in a large pot, heat up about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Saute in the garlic slices. Then, add in the pepper flakes.

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Then, add in the anchovies, capers, and olives and saute.

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Next, add in splash of wine and deglaze the pot.

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Then, stir in the can of tomatoes. Add about 1/2 a tablespoon of oregano.   Try to break up the tomatoes with a spoon. Bring to boil and simmer.

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While the sauce is simmering, boil the pasta in salted water. Once the pasta is done, add it to the pot of sauce and stir!. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with basil and parmesan cheese. You’re done! Easy, eh? :)

Enjoy!

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