Trifecta Pt. 1 – S’mores French Toast

Whoa. That’s right. The name sorta says it all and I know what you are thinking, “Tate, you di’int? Did you?”

Yes I did.

I take BFD exceptionally serious. Breakfast for dinner is an art in itself. So I was kicking it Monday night something sorta proper. Working on some new tracks and I got the hankering for some grub. Two choices in the kitchen. Fresh Homemade Pesto or French Toast. Easy fucking choice… French Toast, 99 times out of 100. But I was like, “nah, we have to flip this to some next level type of BFD.” Peeked around the kitchen and all of sudden my eyes widened when I gazed clearly upon my ingredients for s’mores. So here you get S’mores-y infused French Toast.

I was a little scared about this one. I thought it was too much craziness. I added some chili pepper to the egg/milk mixture along with a healthy amount of vanilla and cinnamon. I also cubed up the bread at the beginning for a different consistency.

Food + Art = Heaven

I love art and I love food… Sounds like the perfect combination!

Scion presents: PALATE

An Exhibition Curated by Zio Fulcher

May 22 – June 12, 2010

If cooking is an art form, then food is the most common medium of artistic expression in the world. For the exhibition Palate, food takes its rightful place inside the gallery.

Featuring Original Works and Installations By:
Clare Crespo, Jeph Gurecka, Scott Hove, Tamara Kostianovsky, Alan Macdonald, James Reynolds, Martha Rich, and Jeff Vespa
plus the Candy Wrapper Museum, Vintage Cookbook Library and more.

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 | 7-10pm

Complimentary Valet & Open Bar

Scion Installation L.A.
3521 Helms Ave (at National)
Culver City, CA. 90232
Gallery Phone: 310.815.8840

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM & by appointment

She’s the cheese & I’m the macaroni….

So… I have been slacking. Life takes its turns and all that. I have still been getting down. I am also prepping for a trip of a lifetime to take place next week. The excitement and anticipation is seriously retarded.

So I decided to rock this little recipe for Mac ‘n Cheese. Mac ‘n Cheese is seriously one of the most perfect of foods every created. Whoever you are Mr. Macaroni, I tip my hat to you in your honor. On to the goodness. This recipe makes A LOT of food. I ate more than unhealthy portions for 3 days, plus I fed a few friends.

I used Martha‘s recipe and riffed on it as I do most recipes.

Ingredients
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for casserole
6 slices sourdough, some crusts removed, torn into lil pieces
6 cups milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 T Crushed Red Pepper
1/2 C of Pesto Sauce
1 T cayenne pepper
4 oz. Mozzarella
4 oz. Parmesan
2 oz. Asiago
2 oz. Smoked Mozzarella
3 oz. Gruyere
2 oz. Smoked Gouda
1 pound pasta

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
Place the bread in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour the melted butter into the bowl with the bread, and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside.

2. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt the remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat while making into a smiley face for added flavor. When the butter bubbles, add the flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

3. While whisking, slowly pour in the hot milk a little at a time to keep mixture smooth. Mix in pesto. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick, 8 to 12 minutes.

4. Shred and Mix all cheese in a bowl.

5. Remove the pan from heat. Add some salt & black pepper, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper, add 80% of the cheese. Mix until cheese is melty, gooey and oh so good.

6. Cook the macaroni until the outside of pasta is undercooked by 2 or 3 minutes. ADd the macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

6. Pour the mixture into the big pan of bechamel saucec. Sprinkle the remaining cheese mix, and the breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Watch as the dish completely bubbles in cheesy goodness as you take it out of the oven. Game over.

As a bonus and because I didn’t want Mac ‘n Cheese for a 3rd night in a row. I threw it in a pan to warm up with some tomato sauce and VOILA! Insta-amazing pasta goodness…

Felt Ghost Dance Deluxe - A seriously slept on cut from the third Felt record from last year.
The Xx Teardrops – 808 drums + Guitars = Swoon
Mayer Hawthorne Green Eyed Love

Greg Lamarche – Cut To The Chase

Greg Lamarche is hands down one of my favorite artists. He was one of my role models as young Boston Graffiti Writer in the early 90′s. GKA (Graffitily Known As) Sp.One, Greg has one of the most impeccable handstyles known to man. His pension for the classic graffiti letter has been a huge inspiration to me over the years. He also created a little magazine called Skills that was one of the best around through the 90′s.

His new show runs April 9th thru May 2nd at the Show & Tell Gallery in Toronto.

1161 Dundas St. West
Toronto, ON
M6J 1X3

This veteran collagist channels the bold energy of graffiti and his experience of growing up in New York City during the 1980′s to create a unique style of hand cut paper collages. Lamarche’s work incorporates an array of typography to create original artworks that blurs the line between graphic design and fine art. Each piece takes a painstakingly amount of time to create as Lamarche strictly uses reclaimed vintage paper that is often collected years before the final piece is created. The outcome is a dynamic pastiche that features abstracted letterforms, vibrant color, bold wit, and always fresh style. Greg Lamarche was born and raised in Queens and still resides in New York City.

I wish these had some music…

This one is for my mom:

Sunday Night Sessions – Homemade Pasta in a Mushroom Gorgonzola Marsala Sauce

As in most aspects of my life, I bite more than I can chew. So late Sunday when I wanted to get my Homemade Pasta Game on, I should have thought twice. But whatever it turned out scrumptious and shit…

There are two ingredients in pasta: Eggs & Flour. Simple, right???

4 Eggs + 4 Cups of Flour + 1 hour or so of your time =

Marsala Sauce went a lil sumpin like thisssssssss:

Heat a skillet with Olive Oil and about 1lb or so of Mushrooms (I like mushrooms, so the more the merrier- in this case it was cremini, white & porcini) + a lot of minced garlic about 10 mins or so. To move it along you can add a lil white wine.

Once those are nice and cooked down. Add about 1 Cup of Marsala Wine + Cheeses (Mostly Gorgonzola w/some Mozzarella and Parmesan). Add a dollup of sour cream and a lil milk. Let that simmer and cook down for about 7-10 mins. If should give you a rich and creamy consistency.

Fresh pasta only takes about 1 1/2 -2 mins to cook, so don’t overdo it.

Toss pasta + Sauce. Pour wine. Enjoy… Sucka

In honor of the fungus known as mushrooms

(One of fav songs + videos of recent memory)

People Under The Stairs – Trippin at The Disco
Curtis Mayfield – Tripping Out
De La Soul – Ego Trippin’ (pt II)
Funki Porcini – B Monkey

Somebody’s Watchin’ Me – Rockwell VT

I am a little slow on the uptake these days, along with being way too slow on the bloggings. But I had a much needed weekend kicking it with some homies + good food. My homegirl is going thru some shit, so drinks, laughing and friend therapy was well in order. The spot of choice: Rockwell VT in Los Feliz. Rockwell is the reutilization of space behind The Vermont. The Vermont holds a crazy amount of memories as it was one of the first spots in LA I djed way back in the day with the Soul Kitchen crew. We posted up for a few hours, got down a ton of appetizers and drank some well tended drinks. Definitely a relaxing vibe and the tree in the courtyard is the sort of thing that makes me happy (thx for not killing another helpless tree).

Said tree:

Mojito! (handmade- fuck that premix shit):

Cheese plate:

Mushroom Fries:
These were incredible!

Paprika Fries
Paprika is my homeboy…

And sadly not pictured:
Spicy Tuna Tacos (OMF!)
One of the raddest chicks around &
An angel in a blue dress

The Theme for the evening:

Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me original version
Rockwell vs. Mysto & Pizzi – Somebody’s Watching Me Remix

Grilled Cheese on Dubs…

The Los Angeles food truck scene is on fuego. Peep FindLAFoodTrucks.com for a list of over 60 amazing food trucks that bounce around the city feeding the lost angels of Los Angeles. The Kogi Twitter revolution is definitely partly or even wholly responsible and helped launch the food truck evolution and revolution around the country. The new hype in hipstervilles was palpable. And my new personal favorite food truck, The Grilled Cheese Truck stepped up the game to amazing levels and is after my cheesified heart. The sandwich for the night was a Grilled Mac N Cheese with Sliced Tomatoes and a side of Tater Tots. All sorts of goodness happening…

I might just have to adventure to its location tonight to get the Brie & Sliced Pear Grilled Cheese. OMFG.

Follow them on Twitter
Or peep the website www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com

Frank and Jan representing…

The perfect amount of grillin happened on the Mac N Cheese Grilled Cheese

Sporks. Just cause…

Felt Bass For Your Truck

J Dilla Trucks

Atwater knows how to get down… Village Bakery edition

I rep Atwater Village pretty hard. I first moved to Atwater in 2001 and after a long journey around the City of Angels, I moved back last year. It’s a rare neighborhood in every sense of the word. The neighbors are great. Much less pretentious attitudes than Los Feliz, Silverlake or Weho. You can have conversations with your neighbors. Go figure, right?. It’s like a little beach community, minus the beach. Although, we have the LA river. Which is straight out of some armageddon type of movie a la Mad Max.

So here we have one of the new[er] additions to AV. The Village Bakery and Cafe located conveniently at 3119 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles 90039. Their breads are amazing. Their pastries and other goodies are scrumptious and not to be taken lightly… I even heard their pulled pork sanggggwich is unfuckwitable.

Oh My Bread…

Jenny Cakes were coconutty, cherry amazingness

Real flowers!!!

Amazing Art!

I even saw this lil heartbreaker walk in while on her morning stroll. Oh Sloan, you tempt me, but I can resist…

They’re info:

3119 Los Feliz Blvd.
Los Angeles 90039.
Hours are Tues.-Sat. 8am-4pm, Sun. and Mon. 8am-3pm.
323.662.8600
http://www.thevillagebakeryandcafe.com
On Facebook

And of course in honor of the baking going down, here is a mix by one of my favorites dj’s and more importantly, one of my favorite people of all time: Mr. Cosmo Baker

Download his Scumbag Funk Volume 2 Mix Here

Макароны водка кремом + Crookers + Roisin Murphy (!!!)

Vodka + Tomatoes + Cream = Some goodness… One of my favorite pasta sauces of all times. It’s rich with cream but usually balanced with a great tomato sauce and of course the not-so-secret ingredient, vodka. I tend to like my vodka cream sauces with a little spice all up in it. Shout out to my homegirl Jen for dropping the original recipe over that I riffed off.

1 lb of tubular pasta
1/3+ cup generous helping of Grey Goose or Belvie.
3 TB Butter
6+ cloves of garlic
2 large tomatoes beefsteak or 3-4 romas diced
1 large handful of basil diced into smallish bits yo
1 small can of tomato paste
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of milk or soy milk

Cheeses!!!
I used 1/2 cup mozzarella. A small handful of goats milk mozzarella. Small handful of gouda, some havarti and good ole parm. Whatever you got, is good ya heard??? I love all cheeses… Call me cheesy.

Cook pasta. Derrrrr. Set aside

Throw garlic and butter in a decent size frying pan. Saute. Add cream. Make sure it’s all done on low heat. Cream is tempermental when the pan gets too hot.

In a seperate bowl add vodka + tomato paste. Mix til consistent. After cream and garlic and butter are mixed up and sizzling (not too hot) add the Vodka and tomato paste concoction. Mix well and simmer. In a separate frying pan, saute the tomatoes with some olive oil and garlic. Add cheeses to cream sauce. At this point I turn up the heat a lil and start to be more proactive with the stirring so the consistency is right. Once the cheeses are blended it might be a lil thick. Add some milk to lighten it up. Mine was helllllla thick, like whoa.

Add the tomatoes and most of the basil. Also add some salt and pepper. I usually do it a few times during the process. At least pepper.

Once everything is all done toss with the pasta. Add some more basil on top. Pour generous glass of wine or hopefully two and enjoy.

Comes out 3/8 – BUY IT!!!

Butterflies…

This song is on par with any vodka cream sauce. On the real. The Crookers come with it with this bastardized mish mash of styles in this song. It’s a journey. It’s sorta epic. It starts mellow, like it is going into some hard dubsteppy cut and adventures from there. And Roisin Murphy just makes sweet lurv to my ear drums. Listening to this cut just gets me really excited for their record coming out in like 5 days (March 8th).

Crookers (ft. Roisin Murphy) Royal T

Cookin’ Calzones + Crack with Raekwon The Chef

Once upon a time, they used to call me Kenny Calzone. That is irrelevant to this post though and an entirely different blog altogether. Whatever Italian genius decided to add a unique dimension to the pizza should be publicly commended. Maybe even a national holiday should be celebrated. There are certain veggies that work in calzones IMHO. This time around it was a mix of sauteed garlic, mushrooms n’ spinach. Couple these flavor savers with some ricotta, mozzarella, asiago and parmesan cheeses and you have some tummy satisfying goodness.

The soundtrack:

The Wu-Gambino in me was on a Raekwon vibe this night. Rockin out to Cuban Linx II. One of the best records of last year.
Raekwon (ft. Inspectah Deck & RZA) Black Mozart
Raekwon (ft. Method Man & Ghostface) New Wu