Torrance Bakery Chocolate Chews

My girlfriend from the South Bay introduced me to these amazing treats. I didn't believe that they could be THAT good. I was hooked at first bite. They aren't like your traditional cookies-they're a cross between a cookie and a meringue. There's no flour involved. Just a whole lot of powdered sugar instead. The outside of the cookie is light and crispy and the inside of the cookie is chewy and gooey. It has a rich chocolate flavor. I found this recipe from losangelestimes.com. They're able to get recipes that an average joe just can't. My gain!

When you bake them, use a small ice cream scooper so the sizes of the cookies are consistent, but then use a knife or a small off set spatula to flatten them out a bit. If you don't flatten them out they taste like they're almost raw on the inside-although it still tastes good, but just not how I like them or how the bakery makes them.

Torrance Bakery Chocolate Chewies

Active Work Time: 30 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

Rather than cracking a number of eggs, you can buy cartons of liquid egg whites at supermarkets.

1 cup egg whites

1 3/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 pound walnut or pecan pieces

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix together the egg whites, cocoa, salt and sugar on medium speed until the batter is stiff and all ingredients are well incorporated, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the walnuts or pecans by hand.

Place the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet; work in batches. Bake until the cookies are a bit shiny and slightly cracked, 10 minutes. They will look underdone but do not overbake.

48 cookies. Each cookie: 125 calories; 34 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 1.67 grams fiber.

Chicken Pot Pie

Due to the cold weather-it was time to pull out the chicken pot pie recipe. We've all been a little under the weather so nothing like a little pot pie to warm us up. This is a super simple dish to make-it just requires a little chopping and if you've got the time to make the crust really nice then not only does it taste good, but it will be pretty look at. I, on the other hand, did not have the time to make the crust pretty as you can see. I had to throw on the crust because my little one has been recovering from his cold which means I had to cook while I held him simultaneously. The great thing about this is that once it's all chopped, you just combine the chicken and veggies and let it boil for 15 minutes. The sauce requires you to stir consistently, but it takes no more than a few minutes.

*I added onions to the vegetable mixture as well as to the sauce just because I like the flavor. I also used low sodium chicken broth so I needed to add a little more salt at the end to taste. I used Trader Joes pastry crust which is a little on the sweet side, but the contrast of savory and sweet was really good. I put them in small ramekins which was perfect for my LO, but my husband and I ended up having 2 each! The recipe calls for you to make sure you seal the edges of the pastry crust, but I didn't and I didn't have too much spillage. I placed the ramekins on a sheet pan to catch whatever spilled over. I halphazardly placed my crust on top and left some spaces open for the steam to be released. Cook time for the small ramekins was 30 minutes.

The best part about this was that my son ate every part of it-carrots, celery, peas and chicken! I couldn't NOT share this recipe. It's really pretty darn good.

Ingredients

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Banana pancakes

I've been on a banana craze lately. I buy bananas just to wait for them to be too ripe to eat just so I can use them to bake something. This morning I made banana pancakes. They are from the allrecipes.com website and they had a ton of great reviews so it didn't seem like I could go wrong. I usually make mini pancakes just because that's what size is good for my son. As you can see it made a ton of mini pancakes. I added walnuts to mine just to give a little more texture-about 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. A great weekend breakfast!

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Directions

Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.

Granola

I've been wanting to make my own granola for quite some time. I see people do it all the time. I watched an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and this one place made granola pancakes and it sounded so good, so I finally pulled out this recipe and set off to the market. I realized that you can put whatever you want in your granola. It's really up to you. I think it's the honey blend that's important. That's the part that is key to making the type of granola you like. This makes TONS of granola. I almost don't even know what to do with it! My son actually loves eating the granola nuggets-and I don't feel so bad because it's got good stuff in it.

We've been eating it as a snack, topping our yogurt with it and making granola pancakes with it which are amazing. I HIGHLY recommend mixing it with your pancake mix. It gives it such a nice texture.

I used the granola from allrecipes.com, but I modified it to my own liking. Here is my modified version:

Ingredients

8 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups flax seed meal
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Optional ingredients: oat bran, sunflower seeds, cranberries, raisins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.
Combine the oats, wheat germ, coconut, flax seed meal, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly and not too thick on the baking sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 30-49 minutes. Stir once halfway through.


Truly an amazing recipe for a classic homemade granola!

Tender Greens

My dear friends A+L+B took me to try Tender Greens this week. There are a few other locations on the Westside and Hollywood, but I've never been. It just opened here in Pasadena on Friday and I wonder where it's been my whole life. I didn't know what to expect-the name in itself does not make the place sound appetizing in the least. Tender Greens gets most of their ingredients from Scarborough Farms in Oxnard and small local farms. Most of their food is organic. I'm not one of those "everything must be organic" type of people. I'm actually turned off by places that are strictly organic-it doesn't sound like it would taste good, but this place is amazing. If you're skeptical like I was, this place is the place to change your views of that! Pasadena isn't really known for any really good restaurants, but this is a new favorite of mine.

They have perfectly roasted vegetables, fresh salads, soups, fried chicken, mashed potatoes..it suits all different palates. And their desserts are supposedly really good too. I only had their chocolate pot de creme sprinkled with sea salt, which was fairly good. I had their tuna nicoise salad, tomato soup, and fingerling potatoes with parmesan cheese. Everything was delicious. Their salad wasn't overdressed, their tomato soup was made with fresh tomatoes and their potatoes weren't overdone or dry.

The service was amazing as well...I hope it stays that way-I know new places tend to have great service at the beginning and then taper off once the novelty of it has worn off.
I've been thinking of this place since I've gone...I think I'll go again tonight and take my husband. You must go!

621 East Colorado Avenue
Pasadena CA, 91101

Tel: 626 405-1511
Fax: 626 405-1508

Hours:
Sunday-Thursday: 11:30am-9:00pm
Friday-Saturday: 11:30am-10:00pm

Converse Slips

We couldn't help but to get these. They are the cutest things I've seen. The best part is that there are no laces to fuss with. The back of the shoe pulls back and all you have to do is slip your foot in. It comes in a few colors. I've seen red and blue, and pink and black. I can't wait to put them on the LO.

Gyoza

One of my most favorite foods in the world is gyoza. I could eat 30 of them on my own. Gyoza means dumplings in Japanese. There are a million different ingredients you can put inside and my mom will tell you that she NEVER puts garlic in hers, but to each their own. In this gyoza I used ground pork, water chestnuts, cabbage, dried shiitake, nira (garlic chives), ginger, salt and a little bit of sesame oil.

I didn't really measure the ingredients so I can give you approximate amounts... I used a package of ground pork, 3 inches of ginger-skin removed, 1/4 head of a cabbage, a can of water chestnuts, 8 or so dried shiitake (soak in water for 10 minutes and then chop finely) I chopped the nira into tiny pieces (If you can't find nira, you can use one clove of garlic finely chopped) I add about a teaspoon of salt and a few drops of sesame oil.

I chop all of the ingredients and mix together.

Then the fun part. Filling and folding. I remember watching my mom fill and fold each gyoza thinking about how daunting it was. Boring. I tried to avoid her when it was gyoza night because guaranteed she would ask for help. I hated this part of the process, but somewhere along the way this became somewhat therapeutic to me. Now I could sit for hours on end filling and folding them. I got the hang of pleating the tops of the gyoza. You could definitely just wet the wrapper and not do a fancy pleat, but it's a nice detail to add and at every Japanese restaurant you'll find it done this way.

You can fry them, steam them, put them in soup...it's endless. My favorite way is to fry them in a pan with a little bit of oil until you get a crispy bottom, then add a few tablespoons of water to the pan, cover it with the lid and let the rest of it steam.

The Japanese way to eat these is to dip it in a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil. It's definitely worth the time!