Leena Eats, Gourmet Communication ... Food, Travel, Gastronomy

My beef and lamb chipotle chili

I love making chili. It was the first recipe I really conquored, really understood inside and out. This meant I could experiment with the ingredients and cooking methods without messing up the final result. This meant I was a culinary goddess. A HOT culinary goddess.

Read the rest of this entry »

This chicken is basted with my tears from my failed moved. Thanks, Bekins!

Oh, I loves me some incompetent people. Don’t you? We knew the move had gone too smooth up to that point. We had made a cross-country road trip (with my cat!!) from Chicago to San Francisco with pretty much no issues. We caught up with a slew of good friends, and were able to drive through some gorgeous freaking areas in the great US of A. We had paid a highly reputable moving company, Bekins, a crap ton of money to move our life to San Fran for us. Everything was going swimmingly. Then the driver Bekins hired to bring my life to me got a divorce, and his wife put a hold on his cdl license, making it illegal for him to drive, making it the first of THREE delays on my shipment. That is when the metaphorical crap hit the fan and Leena had to cut a bitch…with her words. Read the rest of this entry »

The remains of a most delicious Thai shrimp curry.

I know, I know. I am just as bummed about the death of Michael Jackson as all of you are. The media is already commenting on how much money he left, the custody of his children, but I believe there are more pressing matters at hand. Like wtf ever happened to Bubbles the Chimp?! Who gets custody of that little bundle of diaper-wearing, banana-eating joy? It is almost too much to take. So what better way to drown my celebrity death sorrows than a spicy curry dish? I really wish I would have taken a proper photo of this curry, because hot damn if it isn’t the best new dish I’ve made in my kitchen in a year. A gigantic, cruise-ship sized thank you goes out to my two gastro gal pals, Jackie (who created the recipe) and Cari (who posted about it on her blog so I could steal the recipe!). The ingredients require a bit of searching on your part, especially if you don’t live near a decent Asian store, but it is totally worth the trouble to create this spicy, sweet, sour dish of happiness. And no, this is not an Indian curry, but a Thai curry. Same general region of the world, different type of brown people, completely different dish. And if you wear a white glove while making it, MJ will be smiling down upon you. Be sure to ask him wtf he did with Bubbles. Read the rest of this entry »

***NOTE-This is a repost so I can share with you some of my favorite holiday sweet recipes. Enjoy!***

Much like my language after a few beers, these caramels are a bit salty.

I love salty and sweet things. Cheese and caramel popcorn. Chocolate and pretzels. Me after a few drinks. And of course, caramel and salt, the latest food combination that is sweeping the nation. I tried making salted caramels before using this recipe from Ina Garten on Food Network, and I ended up with a caramel sauce, not a proper chewy candy. This is partly the recipe’s fault because the ratios were a bit off. Okay, so TECHNICALLY I don’t have a candy thermometer, and TECHNICALLY you need one to make candy like chewy caramels. But TECHNICALLY, you can kiss my ass because I know that (at least when it comes to caramels), you can use the cold water test and be just as successful with your candy making. And isn’t it to so very old school to do that? To cook by sight instead of by technology? I won’t always have a thermometer on me, but I will always have my brain…unless the cyborg aliens with cowboy hats take it. Then, I’m just plain old fashioned screwed. Read the rest of this entry »

Mah five spice cranberry upside down cake–the bitchin’ new dessert on my kick-ass Thanksgiving menu this year.

Hey there! It is the day before Thanksgiving–what the hell are you gonna make for dessert? OTHER than the traditional pumpkin pie? And don’t even tell me you aren’t making pumpkin pie–you omit this from any of my family menus and it is grounds for cutting someone. This week here at Leena Eats is Thanksgiving week, and we’re rocking it out with the cranberry all week long, so you’re in luck. If you are in the mood for something light and refreshing, possibly a palate cleanser, check out my kick-ass cranberry sorbet with ginger and orange from Monday. If sweet and gooey is what you are after, my cranberry, apple and pear five spice crisp from Tuesday is right up your alley, especially if you rock it out with some vanilla bean ice cream (use Haagen Daas–I won’t tell). But if you want something in between, a bit sweet and a bit tart, check out my five spice cranberry upside cake, inspired by a recipe in my Chez Panisse Fruits cookbook and from this post on The Joy of Baking. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi. I’m a cranberry. Please eat me for Thanksgiving. Or, you know, urinary tract infections.

Welcome to Thanksgiving Week here at Leena Eats, where we are celebrating an American ingredient and my bitch, the cranberry. Yesterday we started off with my favorite Thanksgiving palate cleanser, a cranberry sorbet with ginger. Today I want to skip straight ahead to my favorite course and Oprah’s, dessert. Cranberry is a great fruit to use if you have non-sweet lovers coming, because it provides a nice, tart accent to any dish. Today’s recipe: cranberry, apple and pear five spice crisp. Holla. Read the rest of this entry »

My cranberry ginger sorbet. Photos by Liz Wilson.

Ah, Thanksgiving. The FOOD holiday. I freaking love this holiday, but have never really had the chance to host my own holiday meal. This year, as my husband and I are new residents of California, and are far from family and too poor to travel, we are finally claiming Thanksgiving as a holiday of our own. Friends from around the state will be joining us as Amanda from What We’re Eating and I bust out the best Fancy Pants Thanksgiving Meal we can…in a ghetto McGuyver-style, of course, because my movers have yet to deliver my life to me, which includes 30 kitchen appliances near and dear to my heart. And my ten inch Wustoff. Sit and spin, Bekins. So in honor of my first Thanksgiving, I wanted to celebrate one of my favorite holiday ingredients, and a very American one at that: the cranberry. It’s tart, it’s sassy, and if you play your cards right, this bitch will make you damn happy. Today’s Recipe: My kick-ass Cranberry sorbet with ginger and orange. Read the rest of this entry »