Flourless & Frozen

You know you’ve had a tough day when you’re forced to eat desserts all day.

 puddings- rice, tapioca, fruit, chocolate 

We had the “Flourless and Frozen” class today- never has a title been simultaneously nondescript yet appropriately named. We spent the entire day making flourless and frozen desserts. Yes, life has been harder.

 vegan sorbets & ice creams

 fruit compotes to top our “frozens”

We had an extremely busy month, which is why I’ve been quiet. School has been flying by and I can’t believe I’m already past the midpoint. Look out for more pictures and recipes!

Review: Carmela Ice Cream

screenshot links directly to website

Artisan Creamery
2495 E Washington Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91104
626.797.1405

Carmela Review Summary:

Taste: Delicious! The hand crafted ice cream is made in small batches with herbs, spices, fruits and flowers. It’s smooth, creamy and definitely worth my 20 mile drive.

Cost: Scoops $3.50 for 1/$4.50 for 2/$5.50 for 3 & various take out container sizes

Recommendation: Must try! This is the best ice cream I’ve had in Los Angeles. My favorites are Mint Cacao Nib and Salted Caramel.

I brought two flavors home-mint cacao nib & guinness.

Signature Flavors

Salted Caramel
Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean
Dark Chocolate Cacao Nib
Strawberry Buttermilk
Lavender Honey
Mint Cacao Nib
Lemon Basil Sorbet
Spiced Strawberry Sorbet
Cucumber Sorbet

18 Year Balsamic-Beyond the Olive & The Market

Walking into The Market

A few days ago I introduced The Market at Santa Monica Place. Everything sounded so good on the website; I was excited to see what those gourmet vendors had to offer.

The Market is located in a strange place. It’s on the food court level of Santa Monica Place (an outdoor mall). When you arrive on the third floor, you find restaurants, an indoor food court and another indoor area for The Market. (There are too many choices! It unnecessarily caters to everyone. Because of this, business was not good for anyone.)

Walking into The Market, on the right, you’ll find an area where they feature different local vendors on a rotating basis. This week they had jams and spreads, middle eastern desserts and olive oils and vinegars.

From the permanent vendors, I had a $3.00 cookie from The Cookie Guru. It was fresh out of the oven and delicious, but too expensive. THREE DOLLARS! I also tried N’ice Cream’s Mango Lemon and Chocolate flavors. If I were to go for artisan ice cream, I’d rather have Carmela’s.

What I did enjoy was the aged balsamic from Beyond the Olive. It has a thick syrupy consistency with a sweet finish. It works well with salads, breads and desserts.

18 year balsamic vinegar

I bought the 375ml bottle for $20 and you can bring the bottle back for refills at a discounted price.

18 year balsamic with toasted bread & arugula

Though I enjoyed visiting The Market, I’m not sure how often I would visit. I wish they had more variety and incorporated the farmer’s market in that space.