• 2-11 Big Bear Short Skis
  • 2-11 Big Bear ducks
  • 2-11 Big Bear Minstral
  • 2-11 Big Bear Mountain
  • 2-11 Big Bear Sunset
  • 2-11 Jennie and Cor Big Bear

Happy Monday everyone! Just a few highlights from our weekend trip to Big Bear. It’s hard to believe this much snow can exist only a couple hours outside of Los Angeles! Jennie opted for short skis and stayed on the slopes for about 8 hours on Saturday, while I held down the fort back at the house. Saturday night we stayed in and enjoyed some relaxation time with our group of 12 friends, and even had time to visit the ducks by Big Bear lake before heading out of town on Sunday. It’s back to work for all of us on Monday, but we sure had a fantastic weekend!


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We’ve all been there. You’re halfway through a recipe and realize it calls for something you don’t keep on hand – like buttermilk. Who has that lying around? Or maybe it includes something you don’t enjoy, but you need a close approximation so the recipe still works.

This happens all the time. So often, in fact, that we have a few go-to ingredient substitutions that we find ourselves using over and over.

Garlic, My Soul | Ingredient Subs

1. Swap yogurt for sour cream. For use in recipes, plain yogurt will do. But if you’re looking for something to dollop on top of nachos, go for greek yogurt to mimic that tangy flavor.

2. Making chili but you’re out of chili powder? We’d recommend cumin, especially since ground cumin is one of the common ingredients in most chili powder blends. We’d also recommend a little cayenne pepper to add a little spice. We’d probably swap 1 tbsp cumin and 1 tsp of cayenne for 1 tbsp of chili powder.

3. Maybe we’re the only ones who are more likely to have kale in the fridge than lettuce, but we’ve learned to adapt. These days, we usually make salads and sandwiches with leafy kale as our go to green!

4. We have some cilantro haters in our midst. Jennie, I’m looking at you. So a cilantro substitution is a must for us. Flat leaf Italian parsley mimics the fresh, crisp taste without the dreaded soapy flavor.

5. This one’s a no brainer. No sugar in the house? Try honey, apple sauce, or even maple syrup!

6. I just can’t stand dill. When a recipe calls for dill, I don’t even think twice before substituting thyme. It has the same lightness of flavor and it compliments many of the same foods, especially seafood and chicken. Sometimes, if a recipe calls for a stronger dill flavor, I’ll bring in the big guns and swap it for rosemary instead. Fresh herbs are easily interchangeable, so just do what you feel!

7. Swap avocado or hummus for mayonnaise. Good sandwiches need something spreadable and oily to hold everything together, but not everyone loves the taste or calorie count of good old fashioned mayo. Avocado and hummus both make great substitutes!

Garlic, My Soul | avocado

8. Make your own buttermilk. You can fake it by adding a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of regular milk. I honestly can’t remember the last time we bought real buttermilk for a recipe.

9. Smoked turkey kielbasa or chicken sausage instead of pork sausage links. Nothing against pork sausage, but we usually turn to these turkey or chicken varieties when we want to keep our meals a little leaner. It’s what we used on our apple and turkey sausage whole wheat pizza recipe!

Garlic, My Soul | kielbasa apple pizzaWhat kinds of ingredients do you use as substitutes?


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In keeping with our hearts theme, we’d like to suggest another fun Valentine’s Day idea, especially if – like most people – you don’t have an entire free day to make a heart cake.

Garlic, My Soul | Hearts for BreakfastAll you need is a heart cookie cutter, some strawberries, and a dynamite pancake recipe. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

First, whip up these amazing ricotta pancakes.

Ingredients:
1 cup white wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup ricotta
½ cup milk (have another cup on hand in case your batter is too thick)
2 tbsp butter
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil (to coat your pan or griddle)

Directions:
1. whisk flour, baking powder, salt, sugar.
2. whisk together ricotta, butter, egg in separate dish
3. Add wet to dry
4. Adjust milk to reach the right consistency
5. make pancakes
6. serve with maple syrup and strawberries

Garlic, My Soul | Hearts for BreakfastNow you have two options. You can make regular pancakes and cut hearts out of them, and it will look fantastic. That’s how we made the miniature heart in the above photo.

But if you’re feeling adventurous, you can set your heart-shaped cookie cutter directly on the griddle and pour the batter into it. Oil the cookie cutter well enough and it should slide right off when it’s time to flip the pancake. The key here is a very oily cookie cutter and a thin batter! Once we got the hang of it, we had so much fun making hearts and other shapes!

Garlic, My Soul | Hearts for BreakfastM is for Mary, photographer extraordinaire!

Garlic, My Soul | Hearts for BreakfastThese were so easy and fun. Perfect for a Valentine’s breakfast, if you ask us!


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It’s February, which means we made this fabulous heart cake in what has become a Valentine’s Day tradition here at GMS. Last year, Rebecca provided a detailed tutorial explaining how it’s done, but we thought you might like a condensed version of her instructions, in case you want to try it yourself!

Update 2/11/2014: Be sure to check out this year’s heart cake after you read the tutorial!

Garlic My Soul | Make Your Own Heart Cake

phase 1: baking the cakes
You will need 4 round layers of dense white cake, and one red velvet (or any other colored) sheet cake. The white cake is your outer layer and the red cake is your heart filling. Feel free to use your own recipes, but make sure your outer layer white cake is very dense! It will need to hold its shape even when you carve out most of the middle.

White Cake Recipe
note: the recipe below has been doubled to yield four 9-inch cakes

5 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cup (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups sugar
8 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.
3. In a new bowl, cream the butter and sugar, adding the sugar a half cup at a time.
4. Add eggs one at a time
5. Add the vanilla and milk.
6. Add flour slowly and mix until just incorporated.
7. Grease and flour four 9-inch round cake pans
8. Bake at 350 for 20 – 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Red Cake Recipe
For your heart filling, we have adapted a recipe from Magnolia Bakery, but this one is really up to you. If you’re going for a deep red color, this is a great recipe and it makes a nice large cake. However, if you’d like to make your heart pink or yellow or aquamarine, then you might consider a different recipe. One that doesn’t involve cocoa powder.
If you do decide to make another type of cake, consider doubling the recipe so it will bake in a 13×9 inch pan. You will need a LOT of cake filling.

3 1/3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
eggs, at room temperature
egg yolks, at room temperature
6 tablespoons red food coloring (use liquid food coloring, do not use gel)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Measure and sift your flour in a separate bowl
3. In a new bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a mixer
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined
5. In a new bowl, mix the cocoa powder, vanilla, and red food coloring
6. Add the cocoa mixture to your eggs, butter and sugar. Adjust the color at this point, adding red food coloring if necessary.
7. Mix buttermilk and salt together, then add to the red mixture.
8. Add your flour slowly and beat until combined
9. In a separate bowl, pre-mix your apple cider vinegar and baking soda, then add it your batter and mix everything together.
10. Pour into a greased and wax paper-lined 13×9 inch pan, bake for 30 – 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Garlic My Soul | Make Your Own Heart Cake

 phase 2: prep the cakes for assembly

1. Level your white cakes.
2. In case you ignored me the first time, seriously, level your cakes.
3. Stack your cakes two by two, with frosting between the rounds.
4. Freeze the cakes for one hour
5. While the white cakes are in the freezer, use two forks to break up the red cake, discarding any brown parts, so you’re left with a big pile of red, fluffy cake insides.
6. The red cake should be moist. If you find that it’s too dry and crumbly, mix with some frosting.

phase 3: assembly

1. Remove your white cakes from the freezer.

2. Cut two identical circles out of wax paper, and center them on the top of your two round cake halves. Use toothpicks, a knife, and a steady hand to trace the circle onto your cake.

3. On the cake stack that will become the bottom half of your heart cake, carve a 3-dimensional V into your cake, sloping inward from the edges of the circle you traced.

4. On the cake stack that will become the top half of your heart cake, carve out the top of your heart. It should slope slightly outward from the edges of your circle, then slope back in and come back up to a point in the center. Imagine a sideways 3, or a rounded M.
note: an ice cream scoop can be useful for carving the rounded edges of the heart!

5. Carefully fill the white cakes with your red cake stuffing, packing it down as you go.

6. Put both halves of the cake back in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up. Don’t lose track of which half is the top and which is the bottom!

7. After 30 minutes, flip your top cake and stack it on top of your bottom cake so that the circles line up.

8. Frost your cake. When you cut into it, there will be a heart in the center!

Be sure to check out I Am Baker and her heart cake. She deserves credit as our inspiration for this crazy project!

Garlic My Soul | Make Your Own Heart Cake

Check back here on Valentine’s Day to see more photos of our heart cake featured in a lovely photo shoot by Mary Costa with handmade crafts by StudioDIY!!


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February is a month for a little extra sweetness! With Valentine’s Day approaching, I wanted to go somewhere special for a treat. Clad in sparking gold decor and surrounded by treats aplenty, Bottega Louie in Downtown LA was the perfect spot.
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
A group of us LA bloggers met here for a classy Sunday brunch – at least half of the table ordered this incredible Smoked Salmon Benedict on potato pancakes. I was especially happy because they made a perfectly hard poached egg, per my request (runny eggs = my nemesis).
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
Bottega Louie’s is renown for their macarons! And can we talk about that light??
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
I was a bit full post-brunch, so I decided to get some sweets to go from their patisserie. There were so many choices…
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
Ultimately, I couldn’t resist the allure of the macaron. Confession – before I moved to LA, I only knew about Italian coconut macaroons…ohhh did the discovery of these beautiful French cookies change my life.
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
So. Pretty.
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
Garlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega LouieGarlic My Soul | Sweet & Caffeinated | Bottega Louie
I sampled all of these flavors (you know, for scientific research purposes), and my favorites were pistachio and strawberry. What are your favorite macaron flavors?


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