At least that's what we commonly call them here in L.A. But they are also known as Russian tea cakes, snowballs, sand tarts, almond melt-aways...but who really cares. Let's just call them delicious, a nice addition to your holiday cookie lineup. Here's your recipe:
--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch
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Elsewhere in the country, it's frosty and freezing. After all, it's December.
But in L.A.? We're still reaching for our sunscreen and enjoying freshly grown Gaviota strawberries, above, courtesy of Harry's Berries in Oxnard.
Admittedly, strawberries are unusual this time of year. Just chalk it up to one more reason we put up with the traffic to live here. Check out this photo gallery of the luscious fruits and vegetables on sale recently at the Hollywood farmer's market.
If you're lucky, you can also find them at your local market.
If you live in L.A., that is.
--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch
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Walnuts seem easy to overlook — how special can a nut be? — but every fall I look forward to the new crop of walnuts.
Get them now, before the holidays, when the meat is sweet and slightly creamy and they haven't had a chance to develop any rancidity.
The shells will be fragile enough to crack with your hands.
— Russ Parsons
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(Lew Robertson / Getty Images)
Love great sausage? Then this week's story, "The case for homemade sausage," might just leave you rolling up your sleeves, ready to try your hand at making your own.
Of course, for the first-timer, the act of sausage making can seem a bit confusing -- if not downright daunting. So we've included a step-by-step photo gallery illustrating the process from start to finish.
It may take a little time to get the feel for the whole process, but sausage-making can be a fun -- and tasty -- activity. Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly in their book "Bruce Aidells' Complete Sausage Book" recommend inviting friends over to help out: "Sausage-making has always been a communal activity, and making sausages together, frying up samples, and tasting, can double the fun and halve the work."
Have fun, and happy sausage-making!
-- Noelle Carter
Photo by Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
San José, the capital of Costa Rica, caters to a bustling tourist industry. Foreign visitors enjoy its lush green mountains and forests, which are ideal for taking canopy tours and volcano hikes and seeing exotic wildlife. It's also one of the cheapest cities in the world -- here's a photo gallery look at some other budget destinations.
Looking for something a little more upscale? Well, it will cost you. Here's a look at the world's most expensive cities.
Photo: A busy Saturday afternoon at the Mercado Central, San Jose. Credit: Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times
According to Viji Anton Shook of Rancho Palos Verdes, Stella! in New Orleans makes the most divine Sazerac with Cognac and Absinthe. So Viji wrote to Culinary SOS for help:
The drink is smooth with honey overtones making it a perfect elixir for a hot summer night. I would love to recreate a bit of New Orleans here in LA. Would you be able to get the recipe? Thank you.
Actually Viji, thank YOU. We love it when Times Test Kitchen Manager Noelle Carter has an excuse to test a cocktail recipe. Here's your recipe. Cheers!
And here's a look at other recipe requests we've recently answered.
--Rene Lynch
Photo credit: Ken Kwok / Los Angeles Times
Fresh herbs are essential to Vietnamese cuisine. Their flavors and perfumes enliven countless foods. Pinched off their stems and/or chopped, raw leaves are tucked into rice paper rolls, dropped into hot soups, mixed into cool salads, stir-fried with noodles, and wrapped up with grilled morsels in lettuce. Vietnamese people enjoy large quantities of fresh herbs. In fact, herbs are collectively known as rau thom, which literally means "fragrant vegetable." Read more here, plus, your photo gallery guide to herbs commonly used in Vietnamese cooking. -- Andrea Nguyen Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times At this time of year, like many cooks, I’m obsessed with fresh herbs. But you can keep your Genovese basil, French tarragon and Italian parsley. For me, the magic is in the leafy aromatics of the Vietnamese table — red perilla, garlic chives and rice paddy herb, to name just a few. I grow the herbs in my garden as well as purchase them by the bunch at farmers markets and Asian markets to ensure that I savor as much as I can during their peak hot-weather season.
This week's home of the week is a lovingly restored 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival in San Clemente. The kitchen is cozy -- and awfully cute. Check out the rest of the home -- with its Mission-style arched double doors, Moorish-style wood-burning fireplace and a stunning staircase tower with circular wrought-iron chandelier -- here.
-- Rene Lynch
Photo: George Briggs
Join us on Twitter @LATimesFood
We've written extensively about them, and now we've got the photos!
Sudsy or savory? Booze or barbecue? Drunk and bloated or just plain bloated? It was a weekend of competing food festivals: the Los Angeles Barbeque Festival (held Saturday and Sunday in Santa Monica) and Craft Beer Fest L.A. (held Sunday at the Echoplex).
-- Elina Shatkin
Photo credits: Left: Josh Reiss / For The Times. Right: Rob Takata / For The Times.
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