It’s almost impossible to find delicious chilaquiles in this town, unless you are making them at home.  I am a chilaquiles lover and I’m always ready with fork in hand to eat a good batch.  Sometimes I don’t feel like cooking but still want to satisfy my Mexican breakfast craving with chilaquiles, well my prayers have been answered in spades. La Casita Mexicana makes the most delicious chilaquiles I have ever tasted in my life.   They offer a variety of different preparations/sauces to choose from.  Everything from a spicy red chile to roasted green chile to a smokey mole sauce.  I settled on ordering the “divorciados” half green chile and half red chile.  Perfectly crunchy corn tortilla pieces emerged in a bath of two chiles then covered in crumbled queso fresco, red onion, and cilantro.  A wall of sour cream divorces the two.  These heavenly chilaquiles are accompanied by a homemade corn tortilla quesadilla, and a mound of creamy refried pinto beans topped with a roasted chile de arbol.  The deliciousness didn’t stop there.  I enjoyed the finest cup of cafe de olla spiced with cinnamon sweetened with piloncillo and swirled with cream.  We finished our breakfast perfection with a cactus tuna (prickly pear) flan topped with a gorgeous pomegranate sauce.  It was exactly like flan should be dense and similar to custard with a sweetness unlike anything I have ever tried.

I’m thrilled when I say La Casita Mexicana makes the BEST Mexican breakfast in Los Angeles.  Not to mention they have a million write ups from respected publications hailing them for their dinner menu, but we’re talking breakfast right now. 🙂  Plain and simple: I advise you to visit as soon as possible.  Here are a few photos from an unforgettable breakfast.

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

La Casita Mexicana

4030 East Gage Ave.

Bell, CA 90201

323. 773.1898

A good friend of mine asked me for a dessert recipe that not only taste good, but is simple to prepare and appealing to the eye.  I immediately thought of an up-side down cake.  I happened to have a tribe of pluots hanging out in my kitchen fruit bowl, and a box of cake mix in the pantry.  I thought to myself  “why wouldn’t those little pluots make for spectacular cake?”  They did.  I incorporated blueberries in the mix for an added “OH MY WORD”, and the results left me ecstatic.  Ended up making this cake two days in a row, because I couldn’t keep it around long enough to photograph.  Enjoy!

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Ingredients for blueberry pluot up-side down cake:

1 – box yellow cake mix (I use Betty Crocker)

1 1/4 – cups water

1/3 – cup vegetable oil

3 – eggs

1 1/2 – cups blueberries

6 – tablespoons butter

1 – cup brown sugar

4 to 5 – large pluot (each pluot cut into 4 parts, then each part sliced into 3 pieces)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a mixer add cake mix, water, vegetable oil, and eggs. Mix until combined for 2 minutes. Then add 1 cup of blueberries. Set to the side.

In a small saucepan over a medium flame add butter and allow to melt. Once melted mix in brown sugar. Mix well for 1 minute. Then pour into a 13 x 9 metal pan.

Now neatly place your pluots in a row on top of melted brown sugar mixture. Then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Next pour cake batter over top of fruit.

Place in the oven and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the tester toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Once the cake comes out of the oven let it sit in the pan for 2 minutes, then turn pan up-side down onto a big platter and remove pan. PRESTO! Up-side down BLUEBERRY PLUOT cake…. YUMMERS.

Snackas of the day: Raspberry Macaroons from Canter’s Delicatessen on Fairfax.  Their macaroon is unlike any other in the city.  The base is made of a soft sugar cookie then an almond paste is piped on top and a jewel of raspberry preserves sits dazzling in the middle.  When you bite the cookie it is soft on the bottom but has a crunch up top and a spread of raspberry that will please your tastebuds.  So delicious.  I don’t drive down Fairfax unless I am prepared to stop and buy my treasured raspberry macaroons, otherwise it’s too tempting.  Lucky for me, I bought a box full yesterday.

Photos taken by: Nicole Presley

Canter’s Raspberry Macaroon is one of my top 5 absolute favorite cookies in Los Angeles.

So many reasons to love the movie Saturday Night Fever.  First and foremost it arguably has one of the best soundtracks of all time attached to it.  Yes,  the Bee-Gee’s are genius in my world.  A very young John Travolta played Tony Manero so well strutting down the street or getting down on the dance floor.  I love that SNF caught the heart of the 70’s on celluloid to be treasured forever.  The White Castle burger scene stuck with me, being a west coast girl, I had never seen a slider before.  I remember thinking  a tiny burger was the cutest thing.  The first chance I got to travel east I tried a white castle burger.  That was years ago and at that time sliders were not readily available here in California.  At first bite I became a fan of the size. Fast forward to 2011 and you can pick up sliders anywhere and everywhere.  I like it.  I just wish more places would make them with turkey.  Since they don’t I make them at home, and my entire family loves them.  Here’s my recipe.  Enjoy.

All photos taken by: Nicole Presley and Mando Lopez

Ingredients for turkey sliders:

2.5 – pounds ground turkey

1 – egg

2 – teaspoons black pepper

2 – teaspoons Lawry’s seasoning salt

5 to 6  – big squirts of worcestershire sauce

1/2 – teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 – tablespoon minced  fresh garlic

1 – teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1/3 – cup chopped green onion

1 – cup chopped portabello mushroom (small pieces)

1/4 – cup chopped fresh basil

1/3 – cup bread crumbs

In a big mixing bowl combine  all ingredients together and mix with hands to ensure all ingredients come together.

Then take a small handful or a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture into your hand and roll into a ball. Then smash down to form your patty. It should be no bigger then the palm of your hand.

On a wax paper surface lay your patty down and get to work on the next one…. Should make about 24 – 26 patties.

Now how you decide to cook these patties is entirely up to you.  If you throw them in a frying pan add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fry on each side for 7 minutes.

If you make them on the bar-b-que (this is the way I usually prepare my turkey sliders), grill them on each side for 7 to 10 minutes or until cooked all the way through.

Top with  a slice of sharp cheddar cheese when the patty is still cooking on the grill or in the pan to melt.  Then take a bolillo bread (I’m a true latina eating my burger on a bolillo… I know) and cut in half to make two separate buns. Slice them across the middle then spread with your favorite condiments and fillings. I use mayonnaise, mustard, a dill pickle stacker, a piece of green leafy lettuce, grilled onions, and a nice slice of tomato. HEAVENLY!