Posts Tagged ‘rustic canyon restaurant’

Skin Cancer Queen

Sunday, March 31st, 2013

IMG_1006

I didn’t elect myself to be the poster person for skin cancer but that is who I am.  It’s not a title I’m proud of, though I do share that challenged DNA with my brother.  It’s our fate.   Let me warn you ahead of time that I might get way too graphic here, so stop reading if you can’t stomach it.

At just 29 years old, living in New York, I felt a zit on the back of my neck.  When it didn’t seem to go away for months and months, I went to a family friend and doctor in Beverly Hills, a plastic surgeon I had once worked for and asked him to shoot it up with whatever it is that makes pimples disappear.  He took one look at the back of my neck and said skin cancer.  I emphatically told him it couldn’t be, that it definitely wasn’t and that he should get that needle out and just make it go away.  Reluctantly, he did but not without a lecture on my family history.  Being a family friend for years, he had removed many skin cancers from both of my afflicted, white, sensitive-skinned parents.  And now, my brother was starting to deal with basal cell skin cancer.  “Not me!!!  Just shoot that mother-fucker of a zit up and I’ll be fine.”  And yes, those were my exact words.

Some months passed and now it looked really freaky, though I couldn’t see the back of my neck, I could tell by feeling that it wasn’t right.  My fault for not listening.  I went back to the doctor, Kurt Wagner, and he did a biopsy.  After he called me with the report, I went in for my first of many years of surgeries to remove a lifetime of sun damage. (more…)

Amuse Bouche

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Tonight I really amused my bouche.  And, I hope I amused my husbands and even Domy’s bouche.  And yes I do love that it all sounds very naughty.  I’m glad to say it’s really G-rated, is French and literally means it entertains the mouth.  It is a small appetizer served at some great restaurants. When I am served an Amuse Bouche in a restaurant, I often get very greedy and ask for more.  Maybe it’s greedy AND rude, I’m never sure.  And yet, I still do it.  Just did it the other night at Fraiche in Santa Monica when they gave me one small bite of the best caesar salad I’ve ever had.  Ten of those amuse bouches could have made a nice little meal for me.

The appetizer I made for tonight was crostini served with an olive tapenade and burrata cheese.  How simple it is to make and how impressive it is to serve.

my amuse bouche

I totally copied from one of these restaurants, both served a version of this dish.  It was either Delfina Restaurant on 18’th street in the Mission district of San Francisco or Rustic Canyon Restaurant on Wilshire in Santa Monica, California.

Burrata cheese and olive Tapenade Crostini recipe

Cut slices of your favorite french bread

drizzle with olive oil and fresh garlic

toast lightly in oven, I do 400 degrees and turn it over after a few minutes, two minutes on each side is good

sorry but I buy my olive tapenade from a local gourmet market but I’m sure you can chop a bunch of black olives to make your own

I get Burrata cheese from the same market, Burrata, Italian meaning is buttered, it’s really mozzarella and cream so you can just use a very good mozzarella

put the olive tapenade on the crostini first and then burrata and blow everyone away