L.A. (part two)

For the rest of our time in L.A., we had lunch at Lucques, which was amazing.  It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Olives & Almonds:


Menu:

Butterscotch Budino & L.A. (part one)

My sister made this delicious butterscotch budino a couple weeks ago for Sunday night family dinner.  I flew in from S.F. that night, and so didn't help at all, but it was so good I thought I should post it anyway.  It's a pretty famous recipe, from Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery and Mozza fame, and it made the blog rounds a couple of years ago.  I think you can stumble upon the recipe relatively easily via google, but I linked to the James Beard Foundation version, because of anyone I think you can trust them to get it right.

Megan's version:


It's made up of a butterscotch pudding, then a salted caramel layer, and finally whipped cream on top.  Actually, I take that back, I did help!  After dinner I helped make the salted caramel and the whipped cream.  I just didn't help with the pudding.  Also, Megan skipped the rosemary-pine nut cookies, in order to make it more manageable, and while we didn't miss them that night, Megs and I had them when we went to Pizzeria Mozza in L.A., and they were delicious.

Travels: Turkey

I went to Turkey in early November with my best friend from grade school (and frequent travel partner-in-crime) to visit one of our friends who has been living in Istanbul for about a year and a half. I could only make it over for about a week, but we had a really great time. We had one major sight-seeing day, hitting the Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace & Harem, Spice Market, and Istiklal Caddesi.

{In front of the Hagia Sofia}

{Spice Market Teas}

{Spice Market Spices}

Of course, I was most interested in the food. We ate so well while we were there. One of my favorite parts was the availability of pomegranate. On almost every street corner you could buy a cup of fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice (or orange or grapefruit or any combination thereof) for only a few dollars.

There are also tons of baked potato street carts all over, called Kumpir, that you can get with tons of toppings. I think we chose just about everything to be put on our Kumpir.

{Pomegranates, Oranges, & Apples}

{Kumpir, aka Baked Potato, with all the fixings}

All too soon my trip came to an end, and I jumped back on a plane to head home.

{Flight Home}

I took all photos, save the first one, taken by my best friend.