French Onion Soup

Soup season is here! This is a recipe I have tinkered with for awhile and think this is super easy and flavorful!

All you need is:
a stick of butter
4 or 5 Vidalia onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
some thyme
1 cup of red wine
3 tablespoons of flour
1.5 to 2 quarts of beef broth
Gruyere cheese
bread

First melt the butter. Then add chopped up onions, diced garlic, bay leaves, sprinkle some thyme with salt and pepper. Let caramelize for about 30 minutes.

Add one cup of red wine (wine you would drink) and boil for about 10 minutes until it is reduced. Remove bay leaves.

Then add 3 tablespoons of flour and stir (turn down the heat so it won't burn) so the onions dry up a little bit.

Lastly add 1.5 to 2 quarts of beef broth, I like Pacific beef broth, and let is simmer for 40 or so minutes, until it is the flavor and thickness you like!

Broil some cheese on some bread, place it on top of the soup, and add some shredded cheese into the soup! Sprinkle French's Original Onions on top!

 Melt butter, add sliced up onions, chopped up garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Add salt and pepper.

Cook until caramelized - it should take around 30 minutes. Don't let them burn!

Add one cup of red wine and boil until the onions become dry - maybe 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves.

Add 3 tablespoons of flour and stir to dry the onions a bit.

Simmer for around 40 minutes

Broil some bread with cheese on it to top and add some grated cheese to the soup. Top with French's onions.

Chicken and Gnocchi

This is kind of a twist on chicken pot pie and chicken and dumplings. I posted it on Instagram and it seemed like a lot of you wanted the recipe. Plus it's SUPER easy. It takes about 25 minutes.

First, cook one medium chicken breast in the oven - then shred it with two forks. Or use leftover rotisserie chicken.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of butter
some garlic minced, I used half a clove
3 small carrots, peeled and cut up
3 celery stalks, cut up
Peas
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup of milk
*I also used a few splashes of heavy cream!
Salt/Pepper to taste
Shredded Chicken.
Fresh made gnocchi (that I bought at Whole Foods)

Here is the thing about this recipe, you can sub whatever veggies you really want. I didn't use onion, but you can. I didn't use potatoes, since I used gnocchi) but you could. I didn't use corn but you can - really make it whatever you like.

First in a small sauce pan saute all your veggies in the butter. Saute them until they are as tender as YOU like them. I like veggies a little more al dente so I did about SEVEN minutes on medium high heat, while stirring.

Second add your flour and stir to coat quickly - do not let the flour burn. Start to boil some water if you are going to add gnocchi

Third add the chicken broth, milk, cream if you have it, and salt and pepper. Turn the heat down and let it simmer, it will thicken pretty quickly. Fourth add the chicken.

Now you can add your gnocchi. And you are done! Add more salt and pepper as needed.

Delicious.

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

Mother’s Day is the hardest day of the year for me. It’s the biggest reminder of how desperately I wish you were here. I miss you every day but I guess today is different because I get to glimpse purposefully inside so many other daughters being with their moms and I don’t get to do that anymore.

I remember so vividly the gift I gave you on your last Mother’s Day—it was a picture of me as a kid, maybe 3, in a bathing suit and laughing by our pool. I was so happy in the photo, that was why I picked it—just a kid being happy, not a kid being sick. And on the photo in black sharpie I wrote I love you. You kept it on your nightstand.

I wish I had gotten to know you as an adult. I wish we had been able to grow together as I became me. I’m a different person than when you died. Your death made me a different person—kind, generous, more selfless and less selfish. It also made me more timid and more fearful. It changed completely who I was. I wish I were this person when you were alive. I was in my early 20’s, self-absorbed, and maybe even bitter because of my illness. I’m sure I didn’t listen to anything you said or treat you the best. I’m sure I said things I didn’t mean. I'm sorry. But no matter what I couldn’t function normally without you—you were my first call of the day and my last call of the night and several calls in between. And I still can’t functional normally without you. So much so that I mostly stopped talking on the phone after you died. I can’t stand that the other person on the end of the line is never going to be you again. I still scroll through the last text messages you sent me—the last communication we ever had over technology.  

I can’t believe the things I’m experiencing without you. It hurts my heart that I went to South Africa without you. Or that I spent the day on the Shark Tank set without you, because Robert would have loved you. As everyone did. He would have made a deal with you for something! You were dynamic, intoxicating, strong, powerful, smart and beautiful. You never took no for an answer and you were easy to admire. You lit up any room you were in. You were everything I hoped I would turn out to be.

Saying that I miss you just doesn’t seem right because it is so much more than that. I feel so incomplete without you. My heartbreaks for the things I never saw you accomplish, I’m always thinking how food has taken off so much now and you would be running circles around todays best restaurateurs.

Since I was little our thing always was saying to one another "I love you to the moon and back". And mom today I love you to heaven and back. 

 

Texas - Food & Faith

I have been pretty quiet here on the blog. It might be the battle with constant infections or just laziness. Either way I am sorry! I wanted to bring you guys a travel blog with plenty of food. I had the opportunity to bring an important friend of mine to see Joel Osteen (a favorite of hers) which was an all around amazing experience! We got to sneak in great food too on our weekend away! It was my first time in Texas and boy was it hot there...But great!

 Vic & Anthon'y Steakhouse

Best Lump Crab Cake Ever

What an amazing steak!

Duck Fat Potatoes

Creamed Corn

The most amazing bread pudding ever.

Lunch by the pool

 REEF

Roasted Corn Ravioli

Another crab cake!

Sea Scallops

Fried Mac + Cheese

Pistachio Cake

Peach Cobbler

I love room service

A private tour. Us on the Lakewood stage!

Lobster tail bigger than my fist!

Joel was so nice!

Joel from 1st Row

 The Hay Merchant

PB&J chicken wings

Great burger

Fried French Toast

Steamed pork buns

pigs & pinot

A few years ago, my friend Judy, brought me to the town of Healdsburg, CA when we were out visiting her family in San Francisco. I've always loved Napa, which surely stems from my mom's love of Napa. But Healdsburg is a hidden gem of wine country (although maybe not for too much longer as they were just named the No 2 small town to visit in Smithsonian Magazine). It's a small walking town filled with great food and wine but with an undertone of community that I find magnetic. The people are friendly, and the dogs are happy. The food is vibrant. The wine is some of the best. Everyone seems to be trying to make everything there enjoyable.

When I was there with Judy and her family, we stayed at the Hotel Healdsburg and ate at Charlie Palmer’s restaurant – Dry Creek Kitchen. I remember like it was yesterday how creamy the risotto was. I talked about it for weeks—it had an egg in it too. It was a dining experience to remember. When I got back home I did what any person obsessed with food does, I googled Charlie. I had seen him on TV before but I didn’t know that much about him. His food provoked me to want to know more. When researching I read about an event he puts on every year called Pigs & Pinot. Just from the name it sounded wonderful. The few years that followed I was too sick and waiting for new lungs to try and attend this event. But as soon as I got my second lungs and was able to travel I knew one of the first things I needed to do! The first year tickets went on sale, I couldn’t believe it, but the event sold out before I hit purchase! I ended up spending a week in Healdsburg in December for my 30^th birthday, that held me over, but I knew when Pigs & Pinot came around the following year I was not missing out! And thankfully I didn’t. 

We arrived on Friday night at The Healdsburg Hotel. And a few hours later we were engorging ourselves with everything pork. Each bite of pork (I think there were 60 participants) that entered my mouth was heaven. I didn’t even care about the pinot—food supersedes everything to me. I wanted nothing to distract my taste buds!

 

The next day we attended The Ultimate Pinot Smackdown where 16 wines and 4 sommeliers competed for the winning title of best pinot. This was an amazing concept (think basketball and the sweet 16) and event.  Each sommelier stood up and defended the wines they chose against each other. It was brilliant. And so much fun! In the end Soliste, which was fantastic, ending up winning. 

Our last event was A Gala Dinner in Dry Creek Kitchen with five courses, each accompanied by different two wines. My favorite course—Macaroni alla Norcini with pork sausage, black truffle, and parmigiano made by Frank Crispo of Crispo in New York was literally some of the best pasta I’ve ever tasted my entire life. This was a pretty fancy event, so I didn't break out the IPhone to snap any pictures. Regretfully!

We stayed an extra day just so we could enjoy dinner at Chalkboard—one of my favorite restaurants of all time. They make a pork belly biscuit that is not of this world! They are based on small bites, so you can have the chance to taste a lot. The food is incredible while the atmosphere is just easy and simple. My favorite.     

 

 

I can't wait to return next year!