happy hump day!  i don’t know how the weather is in your neck of the woods but la has been having some gnarly heat waves.  as a kid, whenever the weather was like this, my mom and grammy would have a few different salads on deck at all times: tuna, chicken, potato and pasta.  the one that was always the most refreshing to me was the pasta salad because it was light and veggie packed.  an added bonus is that because it does not have meat or mayo, it holds for quite some time in the fridge if you pack it in an air tight container (up to a week).

 

i have found that during quarantine, i am often on back to back video conference calls and need something quick to munch on for lunch.  i want to be sure i am not making unhealthy choices on the regular i.e. reverting to my teen years and throwing a hot pocket in the microwave.  this pasta salad is the perfect solution and once you make it, you are set for lunch for quite some time.  it is also a great dish to take to parties/picnics/bbqs.  as i got older, i made some modifications to the original recipe.  here are the ingredients to make the pasta salad (in either two medium size bowls or one gigantic bowl).

 

ingredients:

• two boxes of your favorite type of pasta (i typically use rigatoni, bowtie or penne for my pasta salad – this time, i used rigatoni)
• sliver of butter
• garlic salt
• 3 cucumbers
• 20 cherry tomatoes
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• 5 serrano peppers
• 1/2 of a red onion
• 2 teaspoons of minced garlic
• bottle of your favorite italian dressing (i used the 15 oz. bottle of wishbone)
• small bottle of mccormick’s perfect pinch salad supreme seasoning (2.62 ounces)
• 2 cups of quattro formaggio from trader joe’s (blend of parmesan, asiago, mild provolone and fontina) – *if you do not go to trader joe’s, 2 cups of just asiago or parmesan will do
• kosher salt (to taste – i gravitate towards salty/savory so this is something i do however, you may think it is seasoned enough without it)
• black pepper (to taste)

 

quick notes: you can leave out the cheese if you have dairy issues without compromising the dish + you can add chicken if you feel like a meal is incomplete without meat (my mom will occasionally shred the rotisserie chicken from costco and toss it in)

 

 

now for the recipe.  it is incredibly simple and that is one of the many things i love about it.

 

1. put a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil
2. add a sliver of butter and some garlic salt to the boiling water
3. throw in your two boxes of pasta
4. while that is cooking, chop up all of your veggies to your preferred size (cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, serranos and onion)
5. once the pasta is cooked, strain it
6. pour the pasta into an extra large bowl where you have room to mix everything
7. add in all of the chopped veggies, the bottle of italian dressing, a bottle of salad supreme seasoning, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper
8. mix well
9. store in airtight containers (if not serving immediately)
10. refrigerate

 

 

it is the perfect dish for warm weather.  i hope you all enjoy it!

 

xoxo,

k. tap

 

happy sunday!  i hope wherever you are reading this from had weather as beautiful as it was here in south pasadena today.  while i was only outside for a moment to deliver a couple of items to a neighbor, i enjoyed the natural light that streamed into my apartment.  it made for better photos for what i baked today – lemon bars!

 

both my mom and godmother have lemon trees in their backyards.  it is almost like the trees take turns alternating which one is going to bountiful year to year.  this year, my godmother’s tree is overflowing with ultra juicy lemons.  i love that they are slightly sweet.  they are great additions to water, vodka or to throw down my garbage disposal.  when cooking, i squeeze them over salads and seafood often.  but with so many extra, i decided it would be awesome to try my hand at lemon bars.

 

 

 

 

this was my first time making lemon bars unassisted and i made multiple modifications to various recipes that i found so when i list the ingredients, i will indicate changes i made. the lemon bars are baked in very separate steps so i will list the ingredients that way as well.

 

ingredients for part one:

• 1 cup of softened salted butter (i used salted sweet cream)
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 cups of all purpose flour

 

ingredients for part two:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 1/4 of all purpose flour
• 2 lemons, juiced (i used two very large lemons that likely had the juice from four normal sized lemons so if you are like me and like these to have a lot of lemon flavor, use more than two if they are not as large and juicy)

 

ingredients for part three:

• as much powdered sugar as your heart desires

 

let’s get started!

1. preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. mix/blend (i mixed by hand) the ingredients from part one (softened butter, 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar).  press into the bottom of an ungreased 13×9 inch pan. ***i realized my 13×9 pan was beat up pretty badly and lined it with aluminum foil – this caused the corner lemon bars to stick a bit which resulted in me ordering this pan from amazon for my next set of lemon bars.  thankfully, the taste was not compromised!
3. bake for 17 to 22 minutes (i did 20) – the color should be a golden brown
4. whisk 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of flour.  then, whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.  once all together, pour over the baked crust
5. bake for 20 more minutes, then sit on the counter to cool.  as they cool, they will firm up a bit
6. cut into squares and plate them
7. if you wish, dust them with powdered sugar – i certainly did!

 

when it comes to baking, the simpler the better (in my opinion).  i would say this is even more crucial while quarantined so you are not having to run out to the market repeatedly.  this recipe was easy enough for me to do the entire thing from start to finish while on a facetime call with anj.

 

they were sweet with the perfect amount of tang (thanks to those lemons) and the texture was to die for.  i would absolutely make them again and cannot wait for my new pan to arrive.  i know it will make the plating process even easier.  i am a sucker for good presentation so this will be a game changer.

 

if you make them, please let me know how they turn out!

 

xoxo,

k. tap

if you have been on social media at all during quarantine, you have probably noticed people baking all types of things from muffins to pies to garlic bread to banana bread.  there were plenty of recipes i was interested in trying many of them but realized there were so many recipes that required all types of things i would not typically have in my pantry or refrigerator.  that was when my search began.

 

i searched high and low for the most basic banana bread recipe – both so i would not have to make additional trips to the store for ingredients and so i could share the recipe with my students if it turned out well.

 

it definitely did!

 

 

eating on a dime had so many banana bread/muffin recipes to choose from.  i realized that i had enough ingredients to make two loaves.  however, i chose to bake one loaf at a time so i could taste loaf one (in the event something needed to be tweaked) before baking loaf two.  it turns out that the recipe did not need to be tweaked at all in terms of ingredients but i did adjust the amount of time recommended for baking from the original recipe.  the amount of time recommended was not enough for my particular oven but more on that in a moment.

 

here are the ingredients you need for a single loaf:

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas (i used 3 large ripe bananas)
• 1/3 cup of melted butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup of sugar (you can add brown sugar if you prefer – i did not because i was too afraid to risk altering it)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of flour

 

now, for the directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. spray a 5×9 loaf pan with cooking spray
3. peel and mash the bananas in a large bowl (if they are frozen, be sure to let them thaw first)
4. once the bananas are mashed, add in the melted butter, egg, sugar, vanilla and salt – be sure to stir this well
5. add in the baking soda and flour and stir well (fyi, i simply mixed everything by hand)
6. pour ingredients into coated pan and bake
7. bake for one hour (insert toothpick in the center of the loaf at the 50 minute mark to be see if it comes out clean and go from there – each of my loaves took roughly 72-75 minutes to bake so it is obviously based on your oven)
8. after removing from oven, let cool on rack before removing from pan

 

 

in addition to how easy this was to make, i loved that it was sweet enough to cure a sweet tooth but not overly sweet so if you wanted to have a slice or two with coffee or tea in the morning for breakfast, you absolutely could.  even on day three, this banana bread is the gift that keeps on giving.  it has not dried out one bit!  for those of you who love the sweet and savory combo, slather on a bit of butter and thank me later.

 

if you try out this recipe, please let me know how you like it!

 

xoxo,

k. tap

 

 

 

pasadena is full of little gems. one of my favorites is the langham. it is a great hotel (especially for weddings and events), the perfect place for a stiff drink during happy hour after work and has an afternoon tea that is on another level.

one of the best things about being back in la is having (almost) weekly dates with gracelyn aka gremlyn aka g. scu brought us together but our families being in la brought us back and we are closer than ever. we have a few places we tend to gravitate towards for our dates – one of them being my living room sofa and another being the breakfast nook in her kitchen. g told me she did not want me to get her a gift for her birthday. this was pretty hard for me to agree to both because of how much i love birthdays and because of how above and beyond she went for my 30th. we started the celebrations a full month before my actual birthday. that being said, i just couldn’t stand the thought of not doing something to celebrate her.

we were sitting at a coffee bean (me with coffee and her with tea) and it dawned on me – i could take her out to an afternoon tea at the langham. i don’t know anyone who loves tea as much as she does, it is the perfect place to spend quality time with someone you love and just has this amazing ambiance. i asked if she had ever been and when she said no, i was thrilled. i reserved a table for the two of us about six weeks out. a credit card is required to hold the reservation but there is no deposit needed. if you like to rack up points on open table like i do, book there!

this past saturday couldn’t come soon enough. we were greeted by a friendly valet staff and were told that instead of $16, our reservation cut the price down to $8. by the time we left, we had been there for four hours so definitely a great bang for your buck while also having your mind at ease knowing your car is in good hands.

when we walked into the lobby of the hotel, it was just overflowing with orchids. and as we walked through the garden to the tea room, it was like entering another world. the attention to detail; the harpist playing softly in the background; the perfectly placed tea sets. it was picturesque.

we had the afternoon tea with wedgewood which included a pot of tea for each of us, finger sandwiches (with everything from jerk shrimp to asian pear), warm scones and an array of french pastries and specialty sweets. everything was stellar from start to finish. and because it was impossible to finish all of it, they boxed it up for us to take home.

without a doubt, g and i will be back again. it is the perfect way to spend an afternoon with your favorite girl(s). what made it even more special was being able to celebrate an extraordinary woman who consistently goes out of her way to make me feel loved and appreciated. what makes me love g even more is her ability to hold space for me even during times that might be tough for her as well. my relationship with her is one of the most reciprocal ones i have and those are hard to come by. i don’t take it for granted.

happy birthday, g. thank you for allowing me to celebrate you for once. and more importantly, thank you for choosing to have me in your orbit. it really is a blessing. i love you endlessly. cheers to 30.

xoxo,

k. tap