Snack Mountain Blog

So I signed up for this 12-week Food Preservation class organized by Food Forward and last night was the first class! I am so excited to learn new techniques to use in my kitchen!! I’m especially excited to learn about the safety techniques because I worry about sharing my home-made Sauerkraut with others. So, last night we canned Tangerines in a variety of different sugar-based liquids! I made a new friend Amanda who is a photographer that shares my love for combining food and art! Hooray!

Next week in class we will get to taste all the different varieties!

For a large part of the class the teacher, Ernest Miller, lectured about food preservation safety and the new LA Cottage Food Law! A few interesting tidbits we learned included the importance of hand-washing in hot water! At NOMA 70 people got sick because they didn’t have hot water for employees to wash their hands! Also! McDonald’s Hamburgers won’t go bad if you leave them out of the fridge because they are cooked until they become dehydrated! I had no idea Mickey D’s was so progressive and interested in food preservation!! Hahaha!

Speaking of Master Food Preservers, I had the good fortune of going to a Seder at Jessica from SQIRL‘s house on Monday. Of course, I love my family’s seder back in NYC but this Seder blew my mind. So many nice people and amazing food of course! My contribution included roasted carrots with cumin and fresh thyme and a “Magically Moist Almond Cake” from Bob’s of Redmill flour that I drizzled with melted chocolate.

It was a pretty big hit along with this unsuspecting item I picked up at Whole Foods! Who knew gluten-free matzo tastes better than regular matzo!?!?!

This weekend my big brother is coming to town for his bachelor’s party so I’m sure I will have lots of fun adventures to share with you soon!

So I couldn’t get enough Colby Posters! We went back for the Black Light Closing Party!!

This Yale Poster was hilarious. It looks like 90% of the posters people designed in school and it was GLOWING!!!

We only stayed at the closing party for about 15 minutes because then we went to see Saul Bass’ only feature film “Phase IV” at LACMA. It was so weird! I enjoyed the psychedelic scenes but found the screenplay/story to be lacking. And then! On Saturday we went to see Bladerunner at the Million Dollar Theatre downtown! It was great to see it on the big screen in the historic space!

I was lucky enough to snag one of Alia Penner‘s amazing posters for the event! I am a huge fan of her work! I saw the posters on Instagram earlier in the week and was psyched that they were selling them!

Finally, not sci-fi related, I ate at SQIRL with my friend Cori this morning and her adorable baby Alastair. I just love his face in this photo! I feel like his thought bubble would say “Mom, is that all we ordered?!?!?!”

Sorry for the rushed post! I’m off to a Passover seder right now! Hallah!!!! (More like Gluten-Free Matzah!!)

I can’t tell you how heartbroken I was to learn that Colby Poster Printing closed. I had been wanting to make a sign with them for so long! I don’t understand why they didn’t just sell the business. I bet there are hundreds of people that would be willing to take it over (potentially myself included). Sigh. Well, as a moratorium you can go see this amazing exhibition at For Your Art gallery. Check out the vine I made! My heart swoons for wood type!! I just can’t get enough of it!! The show closes Saturday and I heard that there is a black light closing party on Friday night!!! I wish there was a way to buy all of the posters! They had a few for sale at the front but I’d surely love to get this one:

I’ve been having a problem with people blocking my driveway so I was planning to make a sign to post on my garage door. After stopping by the exhibition today, I realized I should make a sign inspired by Colby! Here’s the first sketch I just made. I want to add a cartoon/icon version of my Scion XB in there and maybe another “friend” of some kind.

I’ve also started up a new batch of Sauerkraut using this fancy contraption I bought from Cultures for Health. It already spilled out the release top and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to happen. I also forgot that making kraut makes your house stinky. I keep thinking, “but I just took the trash out!!!”

Speaking of sauerkraut, I’ll be at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market this Sunday again helping my friend Uri sell his awesome Brassica and Brine Sauerkraut and Kombucha! Come and get some!!! Cheers!

It’s been a great eating week here at Snack Mountain (as it should be!) I cooked a lot and ate at some amazing new spots! I don’t even remember which day I made this salad above but I have a few things to say about it. First, hazelnuts make a great addition to salads. Secondly, I am now obsessed with radishes. I never used to like them and now I can’t get enough. Finally, I am going to share with you my secret ingredient for making quick amazing salads at home! I use incredibly flavor-packed aged white balsamic vinegar that I order online from this store in Berkeley called Amphora Nueva. My personal favorite is the Cranberry Pear but I also love the Oregano. They are only 18 bucks for 750ml! There are stores that sell the same product in LA but for 3 or 4 times as much! The shipping costs are definitely worth the order! I also order their house blend olive oil sometimes which is only 12 bucks for 750ml. I wasn’t planning on ranting on salad dressings but in general I highly recommend using REAL olive oil and by that I mean anything that you buy at the farmer’s market. For more information check out this book. Most store bought olive oil ain’t real!!!

Well! Moving on! I hosted an excellent dinner party where I made Vegetarian Pozole! I didn’t have time to source dried hominy but using canned still came out pretty good! Here’s a spread of the fixings with broccoli!

And here’s a shot of a bowlful with fun House Industries type that I placed with their new fun iPhone app!

Then on Friday, we went to the new restaurant Hinoki and The Bird in Century City and it blew my mind!!! Their signature black cod dish was outstanding and they have the best Kale salad I’ve had (and I eat a lot of Kale Salad!) The salad had three kinds of kale: crispy, raw and blanched with a light flavorful dressing plus almonds and few slices of cheese. The cod is served with a smoking piece of cedar on top and was served with super-umami hen of the woods mushrooms and pistachios!! (Please pardon the flash in the image below)…

And the desserts! OMG OMG OMG! They have this black sesame creation that I can’t even describe but you just have to go and try it! We were lucky enough to be seated right next to the window into the kitchen and got to watch them make the beautiful desserts. We didn’t order this chocolate dessert but I love how they made it look like windy tree branches!

Then, of course, the next day we went to SQIRL because we are addicted and just can’t get enough. I got a big container filled with hazelnut butter that will last me about a week (if I am lucky)…

And their broccoli is so amazingly delicious!

On Saturday night, we went to see my friends Gluekit’s show at the Scion Gallery on Melrose (yes, I drove their in my Scion XB!) The show had all of their new products they are making including books, skateboards, records and pillows!

They are the coolest and I’m so inspired by how prolific they are! They just keep making stuff all the time! It was so great to catch up with Kathleen!

I actually just googled Gluekit and it’s super funny because the first image that comes up is this illustration they did for New York Magazine with me in it is! Hahahahaha. I’m famous! Look at me in my sunglasses!!!

Finally, I have some exciting news in my freelance world. I just signed a contract to be the Creative Director of Next City which is an online magazine about Urban Planning. I redesigned their logo back December, and have been doing illustrations for them too. Right now, I am re-designing their website right now so stay tuned for the launch! Cheers!

P.s. I’ve decided that I am gonna start posting recipes on here in both text and PDF format so get psyched!!

Hello peoples!  Here’s a lil preview of some ideas I’ve got cooking upstairs at #kombuchacity which is what I’ve nicknamed my apartment! There’s gonna be lots more where this came from! Kombucha is gonna be running from the tap! I’m not even joking! You just wait and see what’s gonna happen! Have I stoked your tastebuds yet????

I know it’s only March but the LA farmer’s markets have been super good to me lately. Especially all the different greens and baby lettuces. People always ask me if I miss NYC and my answer is almost always no. One huge reason is that you can’t get produce like this over there! I just love my “california cuisine” and I can’t stop cooking!  Check out these purple mustard greens that made me goofy!

I made a delicious mustard green soup with thyme and potatoes that was both spicy and refreshing! I also roasted up some usual veggies and made some lentils while working on tons of different freelance projects at home this week!

Despite my gluten-intolerance issues from last weekend, I have eaten at SQIRL about 3 more times and enjoyed some gluten-free goodness. Haha. It’s so addictive. Here’s that rice dish you must go experience!

In other news, I went to a Gem and Crystal show up in Ventura last weekend and got a new friend for my collection! It’s the gold Pyrite on the right!

This past Friday, we went to the new Ooga Booga store in Boyle Heights where they screened this bizarre Snoopy movie that I can’t exactly recommend but I do recommend the clip of these hobo Snoopy lookalikes jamming out in the dessert!

The Laura Owens paintings on view at Ooga Booga are unbelievable and worth checking out ASAP! They are huge and look totally different up close and far away. You gotta go!

Finally, when I suffering from my gluten-intollerance I snapped a shot of this old-school Snack Mountain plush pizza doll from around 2005. I made a whole pie and gave away the slices as gifts but kept this sad one one for myself. I think I’m going to start a new column on the blog where I share old-school creations like this one! Stay tuned!

So much to share with you today! I’ve been cooking up my usual bounty and fun friends keep “jumping” into my dishes! What can I say? I’m trying to find a way to photograph my food that blends my quirky characters with the healthy food I love to cook! Here’s another shot!

I got this plate yesterday at a garage sale and it makes me want to get into the houseware design business. I’m so addicted to buying housewares, maybe one day I’ll make em!

Speaking of amazing plates and amazing food, I finally ate at my friend Jessica’s Sqirl Cafe that is blowing up in LA right now!

I think its among the best food I’ve ever had. You just have to go! The egg/rice dish is perfection. We had to try some toast (hazelnut butter with blueberry taragon jam) for dessert but I have to admit I am suffering some serious gluten-intollerance right now. My sinuses and legs are throbbing!!! No more bread for me for awhile! I guess I’ll be sticking to my fave gluten-free bread with avocado, olive oil, cumin and sea salt for now.

In other news, last night I went to First Fridays to see The Babies and check out the Natural History Museum. First of all, I didn’t think there was another place in LA that could rival my love for the Huntington, but the NHM did just that! The dioramas were amazing and lively!

I love the baby!!! Can I please take him home? Speaking of things I wanted to take home! They had an entire wing devoted to CRYSTALS!!! If I shared all the photos I took, we’d be here all day so I will share only one! But let me just say, they were the craziest looking crystals I’ve ever seen and you must go check them out. I can’t even imagine what one of Tej’s Kundalini classes would be like in there! We’d all probably time travel or something! Hahaha.

There were also these amazing characters carved out of rocks and shells!

And then!! Upstairs in the bird room there was this hilarious exhibit that was clearly made in the 1980s about how “Birds Influence Our Lives.” If it was up to date, there would surely be a monitor playing Portlandia’s “Put A Bird On It” sketch. Hahahaha.

They had these amazing owl hand towels and an amazing bird pitcher. It was almost painful not to be able to buy them. They really should sell everything in the display at the gift store. C’mon, I used to be a buyer for a museum and I know this stuff would sell!!!

Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of The Babies rocking out. If you haven’t listened to them yet, I highly recommend it. Cheers!