Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so what better a time for some romance? That brings us to Romancing the Bean in Burbank, CA!
Romancing the Bean had been highly recommended to me by two friends with excellent taste – and they did not lead my astray! It was the perfect lunchtime pitstop when I was in the Valley last week. I was immediately impressed by the scope of the crowd and the extensive menu.
Let’s just talk about this smoked turkey sandwich on wheat bread. Aged cheddar, arugula and cilantro mayo…incredible.
The atmosphere is rustic yet chic, and this vanilla latte is honestly one of the very best I’ve had in LA.
Be sure to check out Romancing the Bean’s extensive sandwich and salad menu here…so many choices!
I can’t wait to come here again soon. It’s definitely going to become one of my regular spots!

Ahh, February. The month of groundhogs, presidents, the Superbowl, and (most importantly) love! We celebrate all kinds of love here at Garlic, My Soul. For example, my intense love of cake. Specifically, the glorious ombre heart cake that we crafted last year, though I really don’t discriminate when it comes to baked goods. If you’re like me, and can’t say no to a slice of the real thing but are trying to stay healthy, use our February desktop calendar as your sweet treat instead. It will even help you stay organized! Real cake would never do that for you. Calendar cake loves you more.

Click on the photo below and it’ll automatically start downloading – then make it your desktop background.

Hello everyone, and greeting from London!

You know how when you have an open jar of Nutella in the house, all self-control goes out the window? You can’t help but have a little taste every time you see that open jar. Just me? I don’t believe you! In any case, I have finally found a solution to this extremely dangerous problem. The solution is, bake the entire jar into a cake! Yes you read that right, and no, I’m not kidding. The recipe calls for it, and boy is it worth it! This cake lasted about 1 minute before it was completely devoured when I brought it into work. I have to thank Nigella again for this recipe. It’s January, it’s cold, so why not warm up with some baking!

Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 40 minutes
Oven temperature: 350 degrees
Yields: One delicious cake

Ingredients for the cake:
6 large eggs, separated into egg whites and egg yolks
A pinch of salt
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 13oz jar of Nutella (minus the spoonful you are obviously going to need while baking this cake)
1 tablespoon Frangelico or other rum
½ cup ground roasted hazelnuts
4 oz dark chocolate

Ingredients for the frosting:
½ cup ground roasted hazelnuts
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Frangelico or other rum
5 oz dark chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch round spring form.
2. With a hand mixer, or some really strong arm muscles, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy and almost stiff.
3. In another bowl, mix the butter, Nutella, Frangelico, and egg yolks together. Combine slowly with the egg whites. Add the ground hazelnuts and pour into the spring form.
4. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. While the cake cools, make the frosting. In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate, then add the cream and Frangelico. Heat and whisk until the mixture is thick enough to ice the cake, without sliding down the sides. If it’s to thin, add a little bit of powdered sugar to thicken it up.
6. Spread the rest of the ground hazelnuts on top of the frosted cake and sit back and watch how quickly it disappears!

What is your guilty pleasure food? How are you keeping warm through this cold winter season?

Say Stuffed Spaghetti Squash five times fast, you guys. With your mouth full, of course. We remember when Melissa made this back in 2011, and we remember how delicious it was…but our pictures, not so appetizing. Plus, we really wanted an excuse to make homemade bacon bits. So we set out to remake one of our old recipes and to remind you just how easy and filling and tasty this recipe is.

When making spaghetti squash, you bake the squash first, then you scrap the insides to remove the “spaghetti” – stringy pieces of crunch squash that will become the flavor of whatever you mix them with. Please exercise caution when cutting your squash open – cut off the top and bottom first before splitting lengthwise.

The full recipe in all it’s glory is here. We suggest you do yourself a favor and revisit this delicious recipe ASAP. Tell us what else you’d add into this recipe to make you family love it – maybe cauliflower, or sundried tomatoes, or a little pesto?

Every winter, as soon as I get the slightest bit chilly, I decide that it’s time to make a cassoulet. There is something comforting about it that always brings me warmth and happiness. This year we swapped in a few new flavors and tweaked our favorite cassoulet recipe just enough to liven it up and bring out some new flavors.

Any cassoulet should include cannellini beans (or great northern beans in a pinch), thyme, and either duck or pork. The other details are up to you. We opted for sweet potatoes, leeks, and canned crushed tomatoes this time.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

1 lb spicy italian pork sausage
3 cans cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 sweet potatoes, chopped
1 can crushed tomatoes
4-5 leeks, sliced
32 oz chicken broth
½ cup white wine
5-6 springs fresh thyme
1 cup bread crumbs
3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp butter, melted
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Cook pork sausage in dutch oven until browned, set aside to drain on paper towels.
2. Using grease from sausage or a small amount of olive oil, saute leeks for 2-3 minutes until they soften.
3. Add sweet potatoes, beans, sausage, tomatoes, chicken broth, white wine and thyme and bring all to low boil.
4. Cover and reduce heat to low, simmer for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees while the cassoulet simmers, and mix bread crumbs, parsley and melted butter.
6. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture on top of cassoulet, and bake for 15 minutes on 400 until the crumb topping begin to brown and bubble.

Go on and give this one a try. Guaranteed to chase your winter blues away and leave you with a very satisfied tummy!