Shoes From The Eyes of My Blackberry.

Everyone is doing their Fall Fashion posts this week which I lurve. I can't justify doing it on a food blog (and we all saw what happened last time I tried to take an outfit shot of myself), so I figured I'd show off some of my favorite shoes. I PROMISE this is my last collage. OK I don't promise, but it's my last one today. Unless you want a kitten collage and if you do I can make like 15. Onwards...

Top Row: leopard oxfords; urban outfitters, riding boots; doc marten, ankle booties; minnetonka

2nd Row: old toms, new toms (silver sparkle), platform oxfords; castaner, floral boots; doc marten

3rd Row: camel oxfords; urban outfitters, high tops; converse, royal blue flats; aldo

4th Row: repeat offender (sorry, i wasn't paying attention), lace up boots; joie, knee high mocs; minnetonka

Last Row: striped tennies; urban outfitters, color block oxfords; urban outfitters, wool cordones; toms. 

I've learned something about myself from this: I really like shoes with laces.

Food Through The Eyes Of My Blackberry.

Top Row: First night cooking in my new kitchen, corn salad, cream puffs, farmers market findings, banana bread, Miami Vice from Mondrian West Hollywood.

2nd Row: Pinkberry smoothie (AMAZING), mini red velvet cupcake, smore roasting with natalie, spice cupcakes, my 25lb bird strapped into my passenger seat for the ride home, dessert with amanda

3rd row: wine with friends, yogurt stop in west hollywood, prep for seared pork chops, andy's bruschetta, wiener mobile (TOTALLY FOOD RELATED), The Dude sandwich at honey hole in seattle (send me one, pls!)

4th row: First attempt at fallafel, po dog in seattle, champagne and strawberries from zoe and my romantical getaway, bbq rib prep, wine and cake- typical basket contents when i go to trader joes, sushi success

5th row: Candy shop in dani's town, giant bag of fruit from a street vendor, fruit and cheese plate at andy and j's, carrot cake in my lap, leftover apple pie, leftover cheesecake.

Last row: FAVORITE WINE (Francis Coppola 2007 Zin), donuts, latte in seattle, popsicle prep, clam chowder in seattle, bok choy prep.

I take more pictures of my cats and food/food related items with my phone than I do anything else. #sad

SUSHI!!! *Image heavy, obvi!*

Clearly. this was  REALLY exciting thing for me. Sushi is pretty intimidating and I always thought I would F it up. It's really more about patience than talent, quite frankly. My dearest Lauren (she started a blog last month and will be updating it more so click on her name to check it out!) took a class on Friday and passed her knowledge down to me. Now. I'm not going to do a recipe or tutorial because I was strictly learning the ways of the sushi last night, but I figured I'd share a few pictures and fill all of you in that sushi making is seriously not as hard as it seems. You nee to make sure you have the proper rice, sushi grade fish and good soy/seaweed paper. You'd be surprised how much better yours tastes than if you go out. I'm never going to a sushi place again! That's a lie. I totally will, but now I know that making it isn't that hard. Enough with the chit chat and onto the good stuff!

Fun fact! Most wasabi you get in resaurants is actually horseradish. Real wasabi costs about $100 a pound because it's hard to grow. Get the powder from your local Japanese market and mix it with water to get close to the real thing.

Ever wonder why sushi chefs keep a giant bowl of water next to their station? Because of the way the rice is cooked, their hands will stick to it and ruin the roll unless they're wet.

My turn to try, yahoo! An inside out roll even, how fancy!

I literally jumped around laughing when I did it right. Like a little girl with Bieber Fever. Yeah, I said it. It was a proud moment.

OH YEAH.

It wouldn't be  a No Thank You Bite post if I didn't post a picture of my feet. I was feeling very lumberjack chic. Don't be jealous of my $10 flannel I got in the boys section of Target. Ok, be jealous, it was an amazing find.

Gingersnaps Cherries and Cheesecake Oh My!

I purchased a springform pan 6 months ago in hopes it would inspire me to dive into the cheesecake making process. Well, considering the first time I made a cheesecake was yesterday....it's clear that buying kitchen tools to inspire me just doesn't work. I was reading November's Real Simple when I landed on a cheesecake recipe I just couldn't resist. After getting a ticket from a BIKE COP (I know, right?) I was off to get my supplies.

Gingersnap Cherry Cheesecake
(from Real Simple)

Ingredients

3 cups ground gingersnap cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups sour cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup cherry preserves

So as I'm perusing the aisles of my local Trader Joes (and by the way, if you live in Los Feliz I'm sure you share my pain of this TJ's. The parking lot alone is a hot mess). The only ginger cookies I could find were these:

I felt almost inhumane crushing the poor little ginger kitties, but the show must go on. Since I don't have a food processor I had to get the job done the old fashioned way. With  a meat hammer, a plastic bag and a towel. And by the way, it's a great stress reliever.

In a large mixing bowl combine crushed cookies and melted butter. Press the mixture onto the bottom and 2" up the side of the spring form pan.



Using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, eggs (beating them in one at a time) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. After it's mostly smooth, mix in 1/2 cup of the sour cream.

Make sure to let the cream cheese soften up a bit prior to mixing it, I took mine straight outta the fridge and it was STUBBORN!

Pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake (at 350 degrees) until set - (40-45 minutes).

While it's baking, combine remaining sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Spread over top of cheesecake *while it's still hot!* And bake until set. An additional 5 or so minutes. Let the cheesecake cool off a bit, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Before removing the springform from the base, be sure to run a knife around the edges. Guess who DIDN'T do that?! ME! So my edges were a bit rough.

Layer cherry preserves (or even raspberry or blueberry would have been delish) over top of cake. I got the Trader Joe's brand and it was super good, and I normally don't do major grocery shopping there.

And there you have it! Impress your friends with this puppy. It's amazing. I may or may not have had 2 pieces last night,. Yum!

I know I usually post pictures of my kitchen footwear, but I figured you guys could get green with envy with THIS gem:

YES that is a Pat Benatar 1982 Get Nervous Tour concert tee. YES it's my most prized possesion and YES whenever I wear it random people start singing Pat Benatar songs to me. Last time I wore it the clerk ringing me up at Vons greeted me with "Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history....".  I love this shirt.

"Regular" Blog Withdrawls?

I had a regular blog for a long time, but I rarely updated it and felt that no one gave a crap what I was up to. I had like 3 followers, all of which, were my friends. Still feeling the need to have an outlet I started No Thank You Bite and have had so much fun with it. Every so often though, I'll feel the need to have another outlet that's not friends (love ya!), food or family. Today is one of those days. I promised myself I wouldn't unleash my personal life onto this blog with the exception of key points (like my job and stuffs). So without doing just that, I figured I'd post the video to my current favorite song by my namesake...except she spells her name without an H....tsk tsk. I feel like I identify completely to it at the moment. But don't be diggin' too deep my friends, it's not about anyone imparticular.

Confessions Of A Foodie Blogger

I WISH I could say I cooked every night. Really, I do. But when you work as much as I do, sometimes cooking dinner just sounds terrible. (I know, I'm sorry). Last night my friend Lauren and I (you'll hear about her on this blog a ton) were going to have wine and make these delicious sounding brie and turkey sammies..when we both got home from our respective jobs in the fashion mecca that is Los Angeles, we decided it just wasn't gonna happen. What did we do? Ordered Thai!

There's a delicious little hole in the wall down the street from our apartments (she just so happens to be my next door neighbor, makes late night chats so much easier!) that is cheap and delivers within 20 minutes. Oh, Mae Ploy, how I love you.

Yes, that's 2 bottles of wine. Yes, we each keep one to ourselves. What? When you work a 10 hour day you should be allowed a little tasty treat.

What did we order, you ask? Shrimp pad thai, fried wontons (I gave up on caring about calories at this point) and chicken satae.

If you look verrrrrrry closely, you'll see a black kitty tryin' to snag himself a little chicken.



(No, we were not drinking whisky, that's a part of my amazing vintage coffee table)

So here's to good food, even better wine and the best of friends.

OH and over the knee boots.



And yes, my legs basically glow in the dark at this point.
Oh and if we wanna get crazy with outfit details:
Boots: Stuart Weitzman
Socks: Target
Dress: Gypsy 05
Jacket: Current/Elliott.

<3

NOT About Food?!

I'm stepping out of my kitchen for a moment to quickly note today's ensemble. You know those days when you feel especially awesome about what you chose to wear? That was today for me. I've been all into Seattle grunge lately....maybe because I miss my Seattle girls so much?

Boots: Doc Martens

Socks: Target

Dress: Forever 21

Sweater: Helmut Lang

Nail polish: Essie

I won't normally do posts like this, but I have gotten a lot of new readers recently (hi!) and thought you could see a little more of me. There's really nothing fashion related in this blog, BUT my career is in the fashion industry, so it's a big part of me. 

PS: Sorry the photos totally suck, it's hard taking pictures of yourself with no tripod.

Peanut, Peanut Butter...No Jelly!

(If I lose followers because of my lame titles I won't be surprised.) Did you know that you can make fudge without chocolate? Well, my friends, you can. And I did. With peanut butter!
Let me tell you....this is the easiest recipe ever.

Ingredients:

1 lb (yes you read that right) powdered sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon honey

Melt butter, vanilla and peanut butter over the stove on medium heat. Be careful to not heat too quickly or it WILL burn. Oh, and guess what I did? While I was spooning the PB into the pan I missed and got peanut butter ALLLLLLL Over the stove, the burner, and the sides of the pot. Typical me, always makin' a mess.

(My peanut butter mishap would explain how it got all the way to the top of my pan)

The mixture should look pretty soupy. Now, adding honey is optional, but since I lost the peanut butter battle to the stove, I wanted to add something to make sure I didn't lose flavor since I didn't have any more PB.

Reduce heat to low and mix in powdered sugar. There's no way possible to get it to blend perfectly smooth so don't even try it, ladies (and maybe a few gents). It will have the consistency of chunky peanut butter. kinda.

Line a 8x8 baking dish with parchment or wax paper. Spoon mixture into pan. (here I am again, making a mess)



Cover fudge with another piece of parchment paper and chill until completely cooled. About 3 hours. Cut into desired sizes and here you have it! Chocolate-less fudge! It's so delicious, and not too rich.

I think I want to make a giant fudge assortment for office gifts for the holidays. Thoughts? Concerns?

PS: Curtis wanted to say hey.



Salad, Anyone?

The same night as the donut making magic, Lauren whipped up the most delicious dinner salad. My eyes are seriously larger than my stomach, so whenever I'm offered a salad as an entree I think I'll still be hungry after. I never am. I insist on thinking I need to eat like a football player, I must get that from my Dad. Anywho, this salad, as usual, totally filled me up and and was gorgeous to look at. Such a great option if you're having some girlfriends over for dinner. It's light enough to be served as an appetizer or along with your dinner as well.

You'll need:

Mixed greens
Salmon - pre cooked and thinly slived
1 avacado
1 lemon
1 tomato
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1 basil bunch for garnish

Helpful hint: Keeping your fresh herbs in a jar with a bit of water prolongs their shelf life! Use things like recycled glass candle holders.

Dressing:

(she kinda made this up as she went along so I'll do my best to remember)

1 bunch of basil
1 bunch of parsley
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup cannellini (white) beans
Salt & pepper to taste

She basically dumped it all into a food processor, add or take away olive oil for desired consistency.

Toss dressing with mixed greens in large bowl.

Slice tomatoes and avacado (don't dice them).



Arrange salad on large dinnder plate, topping it with the sliced salmon last.

Garnish salad with desired amount of basil and chopped almonds. Squeeze juice of lemon over top each salad, and you have yourself a beautiful AND delicious salad!



PS: Toast pita and dip it in the dressing for a pre-dinner snack! Yum!

Dunkin My Donuts.

I'm normally not the hugest donut fan. I feel like a lot of times they're too sweet or too sugary. I know I know, donuts are SUPPOSED to be sweet, but sometimes they're just too much. I found this recipe and decided that maybe these would be the perfect morning treat. My friend Lauren and I had a little cooking party in her kitchen last night and created the most amazing dinner salad (post for that coming later!) and these little gems.

Rich Refrigerator Donuts
(recipe courtesy of Sunset Magazine)

1 package active dry yeast
3 1/4 cups flour. Plus more for rolling and shaping.
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten.
1/3 cup butter, at room temperature.
Vegetable oil for frying.

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water.

                                

Add 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar and salt. Beat for 2 minutes with a wooden spoon.

It's OK if the dough so far isn't perfectly smooth. Let's be real, it's pretty much impossible to get everything perfectly blended, especially with a wooden spoon.

Add egg and butter and gradually mix in remaining flour by hand until batter is smooth. NOW, I dumped all the flour in at once, because I tend to lose track of how much I put in if I am gradual with adding things in. They turned out fine!

Yes, that's red food coloring still on my nail bed from my red velvet party the night before. It wanted to hang out a little bit longer. Also, how stinkin' cute is my nail polish? It's Essie, given to me by one of my favorites, Zoe!

After you've blended the dough just as well as you darn well can, cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to over night. It should look a little something like this.

When dough is good and cold, roll it out onto a well floured board. Now. You can use a cookie cutter to make full size donuts, but we went with donut holes. Why you ask? Well, we discussed the (very important) issue at length and decided that donuts can be a big commitment, and sometimes you just want a little taste! Holes it is.

Roll the holes into bite size balls, and remember, they grow when they're being fried so don't make them TOO big.

Heat about a cup of vegetable oil in a deep dish frying pan, or in our case, a wok! Who says those are only good for making stir fry? PS - Ikea has them for $4. FOUR DOLLARS. I love that place.

I suggest tossing one in first to test the oil. The recipe says one minute on each side, but we found they cooked a little faster than that so just be sure to keep an eye on them. The recipe also says to roll them in plain ol sugar straight from the pan but we decided to give it a little kick and do sugar AND cinnamon. Fancy!

Get your little station ready, fully equipped with a paper towel lined plate or rack for drying/cooling.

Use tongs to flip your holes. A spatula or spoon will cause oil to go flying, and no one likes a little oil splash. Yes, thats cinnamon sugar on our tongs. We were short a pair and a little sugar in the oil never hurt anyone!



You guys, seriously, this recipe is so darn easy/fun and most likely you already have the ingredients in your pantry. It was probably more fun because we polished off a bottle of wine!

It ends up yielding about 2 dozen donut holes depending on how large you make them. I took the left overs to work with me to win over my co-workers (Just kidding guys!) and they were a big hit.

You should all be proud of me. I didn't get flour all over myself like I normally do. See?

PS - My amazing friend Danielle made me a blog button that you'll see to the right of this post. I am not so HTML savvy and she whipped that beauty up in no time! Love her. Anywho, feel free to grab the link and post it to your blog. If you have one too, I would love to put it on here! Let's all be blogging friends! <3