Headed Down South...

Well, I've kind of been keeping a secret for the past few months. But now, the cat's truly out of the bag, so I can fill you all in! On account of my dad's work, my parents are relocating from Boston to Alpharetta, Georgia! My dad's been down south since January, and my mom has been splitting her time between Massachusetts and Georgia. However, they move into their new house at the end of this month!

Since it's my spring break, I figured I would fly out to spend a few days with my parents in their current digs in Alpharetta, and to see what the town's all about. I flew out on a red-eye on Friday night, and landed in Atlanta ready to boogie. Dad picked me up from the airport, and we spent a quiet morning at home with mum. Then, off we went for a busy afternoon!

We started off by walking the Big Creek Greenway. The Greenway is a trail system through the towns of Alpharetta and Roswell, meandering about eight miles through the woods along Big Creek. Apparently, we went at a pretty quiet time--however, we still saw tons of walkers, joggers, rollerskaters, and bikers traveling both ways on the trail. We only walked a few miles, but took our time enjoying the beautiful weather.

After our walk, we headed into downtown Roswell and parked along Canton Street. Downtown is a short, bustling bit of the street, packed with restaurants and little shops.

We poked around in stores like The Chandlery and The Painted Monkey, pictured above. While we didn't leave with anything, it was fun to explore some of the different things they had to offer!

We then headed across the street to Roswell Provisions, where we poked around the deli (so much cheese) and decided on a little afternoon treat! It's not a vacation without a mid-afternoon afternoon ice cream, let's be honest. My parents each got Moose Tracks, which was apparently good, but could have benefitted from more chocolate and peanut butter. I ate the coconut ice cream, which I really enjoyed. I love coconut, so this was an unexpected surprise. It was creamy, sweet, and perfectly coconut-y.

After our ice cream, we drove back home and I promptly took a nap on the couch, then groaningly rose to do some laundry, then headed off to dinner. My parents have sampled many of the local restaurants, and decided on Spice, a tapas-style restaurant. To take advantage of the nice weather and to escape the too-loud live music, we enjoyed our meal outdoors.

We started by splitting the spinach salad, which featured sun-dried tomatoes, onion, crumbled walnuts, and blue cheese. The bacon was omitted for obvious reasons, and it was dressed with a lemony vinaigrette. It was pretty darn nice! Nothing too special, but executed well. There was a minor debate over whether the nuts were bacon or not, but they turned out to just be nuts.

My parents then ate the blackened tilapia fish tacos, which were quite good, but could have done with more fish and slightly less seasoning. They both agreed that they enjoyed the tacos, which is sometimes a rare thing.

They then had the mussels fra diavalo, which were mussels in a spicy pomodoro sauce served with toasted focaccia. I nibbled on some of the focaccia, which was buttery and awesome, but mom and dad said that the mussels were somewhat drowning in the sauce.

Finally, finally, the grilled vegetable flatbread came out of the kitchen. Crispy flatbread topped with zucchini, onions, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, tomatoes, and goat cheese, this was exactly what I wanted. It just worked really well and all of the vegetables held their own flavor-wise.

And in a surprising move, we ordered dessert! We generally don't order dessert at restaurants, but we were told that the tiramisu was the kitchen's specialty... sadly, it wasn't that good. It could have done with less cream, more liqueur, and more powder atop.

We rolled on home and I immediately fell asleep, exhausted after a long day.

On Sunday, eleven hours later (yikes), I woke up to pouring rain outside of the window. We spent the morning inside watching a few Premier League matches and doing various work, and then mum and I did a spot of grocery shopping at the local Publix. I almost had a bit of a freak-out because I couldn't find any hummus in the whole store, but at the last minute, we found some tucked away in a small display. Phew, am I right?

Later in the afternoon, we went to see The Monuments Men. It's a movie based on the true groups of art historians and scholars rushing to save stolen European artwork during WWII and the fall of Nazi Germany. While it may have been a bit lacking in terms of historical accuracy, it was certainly a fun watch! I would definitely recommend it--there's some serious acting talent represented and the true story it's based on is absolutely fascinating.

We're cooking dinner on Monday to avoid the St. Patrick's Day crowds, so we ate out at PURE tacqueria following the movie. It's this cool little converted gas station, and it now has five locations throughout Atlanta. Ours is the original though!

We were greeted with some really dang salty chips. Nevertheless, we inhaled the first basket and were immediately given a second basket without question... unnecessary, but the second batch were fresh, hot, and less salty, so they were a lot better.

I thought I ordered one of the specials, the vegetable quesadilla, but I'm pretty sure this was the vegetable enchilada. I didn't realize it wasn't what I had ordered until about halfway through, but I had thought about the enchilada anyways, so whatever. It was filled with cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and onions, and had a pretty serious kick to it! The corn salsa atop was also a nice touch. It wasn't what I had wanted, but I'm glad I got it!

Mum ordered the chicken burrito, which was easily larger than her head. It came with black beans and rice on the side, and the (apparently tasty) burrito was topped with green sauce, onions, lettuce, guacamole, and cheese. She said the guacamole was nothing special, but she did get the uneaten half of the burrito wrapped up for lunch tomorrow, so I'm assuming she liked it quite a lot!

Last but not least, my dad ordered the fish tacos. I'm not sure he thought it would be a DIY operation, but he said they were alright. He didn't like the tortillas, since they allegedly tasted "like cardboard" and had a bit of a strange texture, but the fish and vegetables were nice.

A huge part of the charm of PURE was definitely the atmosphere. It has a funky, almost Los Angeles vibe to it, and the restaurant proudly proclaims their reliance on sustainable and organic ingredients. The restaurant felt like it could have been in Venice, not the South!

So that's a little summary of the weekend! I'm here through Wednesday morning, so expect a few more posts from the south detailing our various shenanigans. I'm making dinner tomorrow, and on Tuesday my mom and I are exploring Atlanta itself, so stay tuned!

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Laguna Beach

In what's becoming a President's Day tradition, my roommates and I got away from school for the long weekend. J's grandmother lives in a beautiful house in Laguna Beach, so we headed down on Friday afternoon with a quick pit stop at In-N-Out. Tradition, right?

In the true spirit of Valentine's Day (or Galentine's Day), we headed out for a romantic dinner (ha) at Gelson's. We picked some stuff up at the deli, then headed back to eat and watch the sunset.

Embarrassingly enough, after dinner, I fell asleep on the couch right as the Olympics started, and only roused myself to wash my face and slip into bed properly for the night.

The next morning dawned bright and early, so we nabbed ourselves a spot on Aliso Beach right at the crack of 11:30 am. Since I don't really do sunbathing, I went for a jog in the sand while J and N soaked up the rays.

When I re-joined my friends, I did some thrilling assigned reading on the kuru disease in Papua New Guinea and eventually burrowed under a towel because I thought I was burning. Why I live in Southern California sometimes escapes me, I will say.

We spent the afternoon doing a spot of shopping downtown, I got in a spot of reading, the usual. I read Sun Tzu's The Art of War and got through about 75% of Dale Carnegie's influential How to Win Friends and Influence People. Don't worry, I'm still working through it before I go to bed every night!

For dinner, we drove to downtown Laguna to eat dinner at El Ranchito, a Mexican restaurant. We waited for our table outside... gotta love Southern California in February!

After a twenty minute wait, we were seated and greeted with some fresh tortilla chips. Don't mind if I do!

Naturally, we ordered some guacamole to share. It was great--very simple with huge chunks of avocado. It was a huge bowl, came with extra chips, and we devoured the lot before our entrees came!

J ordered the Baja Bowl with sautéed vegetables. She thought the portion was perfect and that the vegetables were "very nicely sautéed". She says she would definitely order it again! She had no complaints about it.

N ordered the same Baja Bowl, but with Carne Asada instead of vegetables. While she did really enjoy it, she thought it was too salty. Logical reasoning led to the thought that it may have been the steak that made it that way--while I think she enjoyed it, the bowl was not finished. Interpret that as you may!

I ordered the veggie fajitas. Just as J vocalized about her vegetables, I thought mine were sautéed wonderfully. The marinade was truly excellent. Unfortunately, El Ranchito cooks their rice in chicken broth, so I went without. The black beans were fine, and the (not pictured) tortillas were pretty good. A very solid dish!

Before heading home, we stopped for a coffee at Koffee Klatch.

We all got various lattes--I ordered a Chai Tea latte, N a regular latte, and J a raspberry Chai Tea latte. While my and J's lattes were truly excellent, N's was a bit too sweet. However, it was good enough that we went back on Monday!

Similarly to Friday night, we watched the Olympics before crashing embarrassingly early. Hey, it was a vacation!

Now Sunday, J and I actually got up sort of early. We headed to the Dana Hills high school track for a bit of a run. After we drove home in the sunshine, we got ready with N, and then the three of us took J's grandmother out for lunch at Taco Surf. It's her favorite restaurant, so we treated her as a "thanks for letting three college students take over your home for the weekend" sort of thing.

Like all of the best restaurants, we were greeted with food before we even ordered. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of ordering the guacamole. It was really not that good. It tasted sweet somehow, and not like avocado. The guac had a runny, strange consistency... not ideal. It didn't even look good on camera.

Luckily, before we knew it, our food arrived. J ordered the veggie tacos, which were apparently a perfect amount of food, and very tasty.

Grams got the huge chile relleno, which she apparently gets every time she visits Taco Surf. She loves it! The inside was absolutely stuffed with cheese. I debated ordering this, I will say, and I'm kind of craving a chile relleno now. Next time!

I decided on the very colorful and delicious taco salad with sautéed vegetables in the absence of meat, with balsamic dressing on the side. I only used a tiny splash of the dressing, since the vegetables had a marinade that permeated the rest of the salad. Let me tell you, the salad was awesome. I couldn't finish it--so many vegetables, textures, tastes... I would definitely order it again.

N ordered the three tacos, one each of Baja fish, regular fish, and carnitas. While they were all allegedly good, the carnitas were apparently amazing. The carnitas are a specialty of Taco Surf, according to J and her grandmother, and N thinks deservedly so!

Happily full, we dropped Grams off at home before heading to Fashion Island for an afternoon of shopping. We stopped at Whole Foods deli to grab dinner, then went back home to begrudgingly do some homework.

As the sun set, we had an impromptu photo shoot, as well as a proper shoot for J's fashion blog.

What a wonderful place to rest for a weekend. I woke up during the night and saw the moon reflecting beautifully off the ocean. I swear this isn't real life.

On Monday, after I took a brief trot around the neighborhood, we packed up the car, grabbed coffee at Koffee Klatch, and headed back to Los Angeles.

In somewhat related news, this exact weekend and posting date marks the first birthday of a Chef in College. I've hit over six thousand page views in the past year, and it's amazing to think that there are so many people besides my parents who care about my life.

To everyone who has read a post, liked, commented, followed one of my recipes... thank you for your support. What started as a simple way to keep track of what I do and what I make has turned into something so much more.

This weekend was a magical way to celebrate my plunge into the blogging world. I'm so grateful for it all.

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Chimichurri Burrito Bowl

It's probably lucky that I have to ride my bike for a solid five minutes and across a few pesky traffic lights to get to Chipotle. I'm minorly obsessed with simple, Mexican-style food at reasonable prices, but the trek is sometimes a little too much for a straightforward and easy meal.

Thankfully for my wallet and waistline, I simply don't have enough time to head over to the Chipotle down the street. However, since I've been craving some burrito bowl action, I decided to take matters into my own hands--with a DIY burrito bowl.

For a few weeks, I've contemplated exactly how I'd attack it. There's the obvious cilantro lime rice, the black beans, the lettuce, and the avocado, but what else? I floundered for a few weeks, ignoring the obvious and basic salsas, until a friend sent me this link to an Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta recipe. And then, that was that. The very next day, this creation was made: the Chimichurri Burrito Bowl. Armed with my roommate D's fancy camera, I set out to share this creation with the world... but mostly with my stomach.

For those of you who have yet to experience the deliciously amazing world of chimichurri, let me give you a brief rundown. It's an Argentinian sauce used for flavoring foods, similar to salsa. Straightforward, right? Nobody knows exactly where the name comes from, but everyone thinks that the British bastardized some Spanish words to create the name. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Now that you know, it's time to get cookin'.

You will need:
 -1 cup of dry black beans
 -1 cup of dry white rice
 -2 tbsp + 1 tbsp of lemon juice
 -2 tbsp red wine vinegar
 -3 cloves of garlic, minced
 -1/2 tsp salt
 -1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
 -1/2 tsp dried oregano
 -1/4 tsp ground black pepper
 -1/4 cup of olive oil
 -1/2 cup + 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
 -1/4 cup of chopped parsley
 -1/2 avocado
 -2 handfuls of lettuce

If you're smarter than me, you'll get your beans cooking as soon as possible, or you will buy them pre-cooked. I thought I'd be thrifty and buy the dry beans, so I had to go through the process of rinsing, soaking, rinsing again, then cooking. If you do this, just follow the instructions on the bag and account for time. Mine took about an hour and a half to two hours, so plan accordingly.

You'll start by roughly chopping your parsley and 1/4 cup of cilantro for the chimichurri. You want the chimichurri to sit for an hour or two to let the flavors truly mingle. While this may seem a bit unnecessary, it's completely worth it.

Very simply, you'll whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, oregano, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic in a bowl. I used a big bowl because the bowls in our kitchen come in two sizes: tiny or huge, and I thought huge would be tidier than tiny. That's decent logic, right?

Next, whisk in the olive oil gradually. Pour in a little bit at a time, whisk it all around, then pour some more. It should take at least a full two minutes.

Once that's all incorporated, stir in the parsley and your 1/4 cup of oregano. Mix it all together really well, then pop it into the fridge until it's time to assemble the meal. Isn't that easy now?

Once your beans have about thirty minutes left of cooking time, you can get started on your rice. Bring 1 and 3/4 cups of water and 1 tbsp of lemon juice to a boil, then add a cup of dry rice. Follow the directions on your bag, but it'll probably tell you to simmer, covered, for about twenty minutes. Once it's cooked, uncover it, and stir in your remaining 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro. The heat from the rice will wilt it a little, but the cilantro will release its delicious flavors even more.

Now, it's assembly time. See, wasn't that fast?

Throw two healthy handfuls of lettuce into a bowl. I used another gigantic bowl, just so I could mix around all the ingredients once I started consuming my meal. On top of the lettuce, place about 1/2 cup of cooked rice. Marvel at how awesome it already looks.

On top of the rice, add about 1/2 cup of cooked and (mostly) drained black beans. Keeping a little bit of the juice adds a nice depth, I think, to the acidity and kick of the chimichurri.

Now, spread a heaping spoonful of chimichurri atop your creation. Don't worry about mixing it all together just yet, since you'll plonk half a sliced avocado on top of it all. Sprinkle with black pepper and you're set!

Of course, burrito bowls are meant to be enjoyed all cut up and mixed together! The chimichurri acts as a really delicious and acidic dressing for all the ingredients, and the avocado lends a creaminess to the dish. Add that to the clean crispness of the lettuce, the starchiness of the rice, and the protein of the beans, and you've got one heck of a meal.

Once I had taken a few bites and realized I hit a home run with this recipe, I went straight across the hall to make my friends try it and tell me what they thought. Two brief quotes: "Yum. Literally the only word I can use for this. Yum." and "This is definitely the best thing you've ever made that I've eaten".

What definitely tied the burrito bowl together was the chimichurri. Without it, the bowl would have been a dry, sad excuse for a pseudo-Mexican meal. The sauce elevated it to an awesome level, part salad dressing and part salsa. It does have a bit of a kick, but I can easily imagine it in a grilled cheese sandwich, or taking the place of pesto in a pasta dish.

Naturally, my burrito bowl was consumed tidily and gracefully (ha) right before hockey practice. I had just enough time to finish eating and put away the leftover beans and rice for another burrito bowl... which, let's face it, will probably happen tomorrow. Just pop the beans and rice in the microwave for twenty or thirty seconds to warm them up and you're back in business.

All in all, a delicious, straightforward, and cost-effective meal that will definitely provide plenty of leftovers for the week's remaining lunches and dinners.

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