Vacation

Hi Loyal Reader (that means you, Jill), Rocketdog and I are both going to be away for about a week, attending a family wedding and then spending some time at the family abode in the countryside (aka - the parental units home in NC). Don't worry, we are taking Mr. Moc with us. In any case, no blogging from Mocmoc for about a week and probably no blogging from Rocketdog for a few weeks. I promise to have plenty to blog about after I get back. In any case, I leave you with this picture of some random couple I saw on Manhattan Beach when I was in town earlier this month. I like the colors of the umbrella against the blue color of the sky. --MM

Salmon of Salmon 'n' Slaw Fame

Here's the salmon, RocketDog! Since you couldn't see the salmon due to the excess of veggies from July 25th's post of Salmon 'n' Slaw, I posted this picture of the salmon for you. See the crispy skin on top? --MM

Italiano

It's Italian night at the Moc household. Whole wheat penne pasta with andouille sausage and grilled onions and orange bell peppers with a spicy tomato sauce. We also had caprese salad - made of fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese with a light dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. --MM

Salmon 'n' Slaw

Another at home creation...part of my "Bring RD to Cleveland" campaign. Grilled wild atlantic salmon with crispy skin (we could have made salmon skin handrolls with this crispy skin) and an asian veggie cole slaw (made with red cabbage, carrots and snow peas). --MM

Sampling at Costco

I know, this picture doesn't look great. In fact, the dish itself doesn't look great but it didn't taste as bad as it looks. We were at Costco when we sampled this whole wheat ravioli stuffed with basil, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. I made a vodka marinara sauce and shaved some parmigiano-reggiano cheese to top the ravioli. I think next time, I'll just make a simple meat sauce to top the ravioli. --MM

Salad

Taking the leftover rotisserie chicken from the previous night's chicken quesadilla, I made a chicken and potato with watercress salad. Nice and simple with a light mustard vinaigrette dressing. This salad is one of my favorite things to make in the summer. --MM

Tex Mex?

Since Rocketdog has been complaining about my lack of blogging and in anticipation of my vacation next week, I thought I'd upload a few extra posts. Giving the BBQ a break, I made some turkey chili (actually I made this a while back and froze a meal-sized portion in the freezer) and chicken quesadilla w/avocado for dinner. YuMMy. --MM

Chick - On!

Like I said we were on a BBQing kick last week. The chicken was marinated in a basil dressing and grilled until just tender and flavorful. I made a simple salad and some grilled zucchini and squash to accompany the chicken. --MM

Pork 'n' Tomatoes

Continuing with the BBQ theme, pictured here is grilled pork tenderloin topped with a lemon-fennel sauce, tomatoes stuffed with arborio rice and salad. The tenderloin was brined in a bath of salt/sugar water and herbs for a few hours before grilling. I think it turned out pretty well - the pork was very tender and moist. --MM

Steak 'n' Potatoes

Now that it's summer, Mr. Moc and I trying to BBQ as much as possible. At the same time, I've been trying to cut back on rice and pasta and eat more veggies. Mr. Moc grilled up a couple of steaks which were seasoned with a rub he made. I made up a batch of warm potato salad and a simple salad of mixed greens, cucumbers and grap tomatoes. --MM

taco smell

In honor of Kirk and her last day at the Bobcats, I had Taco Bell for lunch. Well, ok the other day at work my coworker was eating it so I sorta started to crave it. I got a chicken stuffed burrito and crunchy taco supreme. Yes, I know I have been eating a lot of crap lately but thats because there is nothing to eat in my apt. I need to go to the grocery store, but since I am doing so much travelling I am afraid to go to the store, cause I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it. But I plan on going to the store later today to get some fruit and veggies. Much needed.

New Fave

We crossed another restaurant on our list last week...Parallax. Crossed off only because we've been wanting to go there for a while and finally went for dinner but not crossed off for good. I'd definitely like to go back to Parallax. In fact, it just might be one of my favorite restaurants in town.

That night for dinner, we started off with an appetizer of mussels in a saffron tomato cream broth, the lobster special roll and yellowtail sushi. The sushi at Parallax has passed my test - I didn't get sick! Up til this point, I've gotten sick after eating sushi in any Cleveland restaurant. This is another reason why I like Parallax.

For our main courses, Mr. Moc and I both had fish. Mr. Moc had grilled halibut with a mango salsa (bottom picture) while I had the monk fish (aka - poor man's lobster) with artichoke risotto. YuM! --MM

double D's

One thing i miss since I moved back to the west coast is Dunkin Donuts - affectionately known as DD. Its huge in Boston so I have fond summer memories of it. In Boston I swear they give directions based on DD's. Instead of streets people in Boston use landmarks, so it goes something like this "So..when you see tha thihd dunkin donuts ya wanna turn right and then when ya see that fohth dunkin donuts on the left make anotha right." HAHAHA. A couple years ago they brought it down to Charlotte. But nope, not in Cali. Anyways, so I requested that I go to DD while I was in NY. There's one there on every corner too. So I got my favorite a Boston Kreme and then accompanied it with an iced coffee. Sorry the picture is so ghetto, my Boston Kreme got smushed in my bag cause I was riding around in the subway.
--RD

Tommy's

I need to blog more often as I take pictures of food and then later when I blog, I forget what we ate. Mr. Moc and I tried out a new restaurant in Coventry Village suggested by "Blue Eyes". I had the tuna fish w/hummus pita sandwich while Mr. Moc lunched on some kind of meat-lover's sandwich. --MM

NY the big pizza, er apple

I went to NY this past weekend for a wedding of my college roommate. (Actually her wedding was in NJ but I flew into NY to hang out for a couple days.) Anyways, the first night we went to this place called the Beer Garden in astoria, its one of the few beer gardens left in NY. It was cool - there were picnic benches under the rare NY sky. There was beer and lots of bratwurst and burgers.

Anyways, the second day I had lunch with "cookie". We got some NY style pizza and went to Bryant Park in the city to eat since it was "nice" outside. We also got Beard Papa's - creme puffs that are this new phenomenon i guess they are from Japan. Here are pictures from that meal....

--RD

Gloria! Gloria!

Rocketdog took me to Gloria's - this little Mexican/El Salvadorean restaurant on Venice near the studio. It was probably one of the best meals I had while in town. We ate so much that Rocketdog and I had MAJOR food coma - I think I was seriously going to pop!

Rocketdog ordered the fish tacos w/rice and beans (bottom picture - yes, the fish tacos are buried under the tomatoes and cabbage) and I ordered the plato tipico (typical plate) which came with pupusas (similar to quesadillas), stewed pork (which was fork tender), frito yucca (fried root similar to potato) and lots of rice and beans. Of course, we had to get an order of guacamole to share. Before our plates arrived, we stuffed ourselves with lots of hot, delicious chips and salsa! :) --MM

Teatime

Rocketdog and I needed to get a snack so we had afternoon tea at Jin Patisserie in Venice. The vanilla tea we had was lovely but I didn't really care for the sandwiches, scones, pastries that came with the tea. It seemed like everything had orange zest in it. Oh well, at least I can say I tried it. --MM

bi bim bap diddy

When MM and Mr Moc were in town we went to go eat korean food one night. This was before the pop-ping-su pictured below. I ordered bi bim bap. yum, i was so full though i couldn't finish it so i let MM have a go at it after. of course i ate all the meat out of before i handed it over. bwahhahaha. we also had mandu (dumplings), korean bbq, and mr moc got spicy tofu stew. It was a feast! and then of course afterwards we had shaved ice (pop ping su). yes, this is what happnes when MM is in town - we dine!

Pink's

Not the best picture but sure was pretty yummy! Mr. Moc had the polish sausage (far left) while I had a regular hotdog with lots of sauerkraut (far right)...Yum! We shared an order of chili cheese fries. Probably the most unhealthy meal I've eaten all year! --MM

Pot Bing Su, again.

See a theme yet? This is the coffee flavored pot bing su from Ice Kiss in Koreatown. The concept of it sounded good - coffee ice cream, espresso, etc but it just didn't hit the spot like the original "Ice Kiss". Trust me, just get the "Ice Kiss" if you get pot bing su from Ice Kiss. --MM

sleep meal

Last night roomie, mr. clean and roomie's lil sister and I went to go try UGO, this italian restaurant a couple blocks from our apartment. I ordered gnocchi with bolgnese sauce. It was delicious. But I knew it would be one of those meals that would give me food coma, so after dinner I ordered a cappucino. Of course it was accompanied by tiramisu. Needless to say, my plan worked. I was neither super sleepy or super hyper and was able to fall asleep quite quickly (of course after I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls in bed). Here is a picture of my gnocchi.

Shinsengumi, again.

Back in LA, our first stop was for some japanese ramen at Shinsengumi in Redondo Beach. Rocketdog picked us up from the airport and we headed straight to the restaurant. :) Pictured here is Rocketdog's bowl of ramen - she orders it exactly the way I do...with spinach and corn! --MM