Natas Pastries in Sherman Oaks

 

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Tai’s baked salmon

So far this year, I have to say that my favorite restaurant in L.A. is Natas Pastries, a Portuguese restaurant in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley AKA The Valley–yes, that valley that pop culture associates with so-called Valley Girls some decades ago. Needless to say, I usually do not venture out to the Valley that much, especially with the million distractions where I live right in central L.A. surrounded by the neighborhoods of Downtown AKA DTLA, Koreatown AKA Ktown, Hollywood, Silverlake, and Mid-City. However, as part of my local birthday celebrations (yes, on top of the Vegas shenanigans), Tai surprised me by taking me here one chilly winter Sunday evening via the northbound 101 freeway. After she drove through and past the Hollywood freeway, I felt clueless about where we were going since I have limited knowledge of the territory beyond Universal Studios in North Hollywood. She parked in a residential street and we then walked over a few blocks to Ventura Blvd. and Fulton Ave. in Sherman Oaks. Once we made our way to the entrance of Natas, I became instantly excited since I love Portuguese food! Continue reading Natas Pastries in Sherman Oaks

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Blueberry Pancakes

Guess what?

It’s National Blueberry Pancake day!

I love me some blueberry pancakes. In fact, whenever I eat pancakes, you can bet they’re blueberry. I rarely eat any other flavor of pancake; even the regular ones.

In honor of today, I’m going to share with you my favorite blueberry pancake recipe. This one has a little surprise ingredient that really brightens up the pancake!
Continue reading Blueberry Pancakes

Lemon Lavender Sugar Cookies

Before driving across the country from Atlanta to Los Angeles last summer, Melo and I took a visit to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market to stock up on spices and herbs that would otherwise be too expensive to purchase in California due to the sunshine tax. One of the herbs we purchased was lavender.

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Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles I experimented with the lavender: putting it in french toast, tea, and cookies. Oh. My. The cookies. Definitely the best lavender experiment to date. Continue reading Lemon Lavender Sugar Cookies