Grain Bowl Obsession: Dream Bowl
Not sure what prompted me a few weeks ago to stop by Food on Pico. Maybe it’s just that there was a parking spot. I was running errands during my lunch break and saw a parking spot right in front so I decided to run in and grab something to go so I could take […]
Mendl’s Courtesan Au Chocolat Experiment
The Grand Budapest Hotel is certainly on the list as a favorite Wes Anderson film (up there with Fantastic Mr. Fox,The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom). There are just too many great ones to choose a real favorite. Anyhow, I have been obsessed with the Courtesan Au Chocolate pastry from the film’s bakery Mendl’s […]
KCRW Pie Contest
I love pie. Especially the filling. I do love crust but only when it’s really good. Making pie crust on the other hand is a whole other story. It’s the Holy Grail for me. I took the Professional Baking course at the New School of Cooking in Culver City just for the pie crust part. […]
Apple Thing & National Medjool Date Day
Who knew? Of course the King of Fruit should have it’s own day. Feb 4th. Get ready! It’s going to be HUGE! I love love medjool dates. There’s nothing like a big fat fresh one! Luckily, I live close to the Date Capital of the World in Coachella Valley. There a many date […]
Vegetarian Paella
Angel requested Paella for her birthday because she’s never had it. So she threw it out there for someone to make it for her birthday. I grabbed it because I’ve never made it and if someone else was going to make it I’m sure it would have meat in it. So I selfishly […]
Walter Mitty Clementine Cake
Ok so I work for the studio that made The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. So right upfront you’d think I’d be biased towards the film. Well working for Fox has nothing to do with it. I really love every second and every frame of this movie. To quote Sophia Grace, it is SOOOO […]
T-Giving Stuffing Waffles
I know this is late but I’ve been a little tied up. Went to Meg and Lynnie’s for Thanksgiving. Paula was coordinating the menu so I told her I could do some veggie things as per usual. So I made what I normally make in this situation Tiny Furkey Legs with stuffing, […]
Spaghetti Giganti
I bought the Spaghetti Giganti to use as strings for the Guitar Cake. Turns out dental floss worked better as strings. The pasta was definitely LONG enough…I mean it’s 37 inches long! Yes, that’s right, more than 3 times longer than regular spaghetti. I can’t even fit it into my cabinets. Too long. So it’s […]
Guitar Cake
Meg and Diane decided to have a surprise birthday party for Paula. Meg got her a really fancy Epiphone Les Paul electric guitar as a gift. Wow. Others got together and got Paula an amp. Wow again! Meg and Diane asked if I could make a guitar cake for the party. […]
Marshmallows!
Ms. Stewart introduced me to these about 10 years ago and I’ve made these every winter since. They’re pretty easy to make but you have to be very careful with the hot syrup. They are great in hot chocolate especially if you use a bittersweet chocolate. The bitter chocolate with the sweet marshmallow is a […]
San Marzano
I got some fresh San Marzano tomatoes from the Santa Monica Farmers Market yesterday. They’re so rare to find! Normally there’s tons of heirloom tomatoes, which of course I got but the San Marzano’s just rarely make an appearance. They’re plum tomatoes which are considered the best sauce tomatoes and the only tomatoes that can […]
Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake
So I was at Whole Foods and right as I walked in there were stacks and stacks of organic blueberries on sale. Large cartons of them. So, naturally, I swooped in the got a bunch. “I can always freeze them”, I said to myself. Of course the whole time I shopped I was trying to […]
Broccoli Sub
Yep broccoli. It’s soooo good. I heard about it on Cooking channel. They did a show on great sandwiches and went to No. 7 Sub in NYC. A hipster dufusy place at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan. SO when I went to NYC last month for a couple of days and had to go there. The place […]
BlueBerry Breakfast Bars
MMMMMM. Blueberries are IN SEASON. There were some beautiful specimens at the farmer’s market. I went to the Beverly Hills one this past weekend because there was a Piesta going on. I mean really? I’m so THERE. Except I was totally moving slow and I didnt get there until the very very end. So I […]
Molecular
I wanted to make these for Easter but didn’t get around to it. I had this image in my mind to make a cupcake that looked just like a deviled egg. I have an egg shaped cupcake pan and have made them before but my twist was to a spherification technique for the “yolk”. I […]
Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
These are goooood. Really good. Very similar to the recipe in my book Sweet Things but in muffin form and a couple of small changes. I added espresso powder and took out the poppy seeds (although they would work in this recipe). I also added some bran flakes to give them a little more density. […]
Sweet Things (Enhanced)
Shortly after Sweet Things was published in the iBookstore I decided to make an enhanced version and add video. I was inspired by my camera, the Canon 5D Mark II, since it makes beautiful videos. Of course I had to make the plain old Kindle version first. Once that was tackled I started working on […]
800 Degrees
I’ve been watching the old Daphne’s Greek Food space for a while. It was transforming but into what? 800 Degrees Pizza? Sounds cool but will it be good? Finally there were clues. I saw this post of LA Eater and this one at LA Times and got excited. I’ve never been to Umami burger but […]
Lemon Bars
Janet grows Meyer lemons in her backyard. I developed this recipe after she gave me 30 lemons from her tree. At first glance, these lemon bars seem complicated but they are really easy to make. I use homegrown Meyer lemons but this recipe will work with other lemons too. Here’s the ecipe for easy to […]
Holiday
Ahhh, so nice to have a week and half off to just chillllllllll. I took a day off from work just to be at home and chill. So nice. The next day I took a Virgin America flight to Dulles to visit the fam. Love Virgin America. The plane isnt huge, the seats are white, […]
Beach Relief
It’s so nice to live in California. We do have seasons. They’re just milder. Like leaves on the all of the trees are all colorful now and will eventually fall off. Plus it’s a bit chilly and we get to wear jackets. It gets down to the 40’s at night and was 65 today! Today […]
Sweet Things
My personal collection of recipes, stories and photographs. Available at Blurb, Apple iBookstore, Amazon Kindle store Sweet Things (softcover) by Cathy Merenda | Make Your Own Book
Kindle Kindle Kindle!
I finally got my book Sweet Things on Amazon Kindle! Dang, it was easier than I thought but it took a while to get there. So in June I put my book on iPad as discussed here. In September it was featured in the cooking section! It took a long time to figure out how […]
Fig Cake
So I’m back from my trip. Before I can settle down and get back to work I had to bake something. Went to the farmer’s market today and the Figs were outrageous. So beautiful! Peaches too. And tomatoes. And avocados. I can’t believe how lucky we are here in California to have such a bounty […]
