Howlin' Ray's.

Being a huge follower of the Food Network, recently I've been seeing a lot of craze over Nashville style hot chicken and I started to wonder what it was. Is it like chicken buffalo sauce? How spicy is it? What makes it special to Tennessee? Apparently, it's a type of chicken different than any type of chicken I've ever had. It's a type of fried chicken that is marinated in a water based blend of spicy seasoning, floured, and fried. It is finally sauced with a paste that is spiced with cayenne pepper. It is usually served on bread as a sandwich, but can also be eaten on its own. And pickles are the perfect thing to combine the flavor of the chicken with. It has been served in Nashville for generations since the 1930s and has recently been gaining more popularity.

A lot of the notoriety of hot chicken came from a restaurant in Nashville called Hattie B's Hot Chicken, and seeing as though I'm not going there any time soon, I made it my mission to find a hot chicken spot in LA. Even KFC has introduced a hot chicken special, but I knew I could get more authentic than that.

That's when I found Howlin' Ray's in LA's Chinatown. Howlin' Ray's is owned and operated by a husband and wife team, Johnny and Amanda, who are passionate about getting the best blend of spices to make top tier hot chicken. When I went to the restaurant, Amanda was there taking customer orders and Johnny was in the kitchen leading a team of chefs to make the chicken. I really enjoyed that they were a part of my experience, it made it seem more personal and authentic.

Howlin' Ray's has 6 different types of sauces for the chicken, each at a different level of spiciness. I'm usually a person who can handle her spicy foods, but when I asked Amanda which sauce she would recommend to me, she said to go with the Medium sauce. I was worried it wouldn't be that spicy, but let me tell you guys, my mouth was on fire eating it! In a totally good way. I ordered the sandwich, which had the chicken, slaw, comeback sauce, and pickles. The comeback sauce was another great accompaniment to the chicken and I used it to dip my crinkle cut fries in too. It didn't hurt also that they kept giving me as many pickle chips as I wanted.

It was to die for! The chicken was perfectly crispy, the slaw gave it the perfect element of crunch, and the sauce and pickles just brought it all home. The portions are also really large. I feel really bad about this, but I couldn't finish my sandwich. Sometimes I sit and think about the parts I left and hate myself for not finishing it haha.

The line can get pretty long at Howlin' Ray's, even on a weekday, which is when I went. I waited in line for about 30 minutes, but I've heard this is actually a short time. So if you're going to give it a try, try to go before or after the lunch rush. It's totally worth any wait you have though!

Throwing a Fab Dinner Party.

Last weekend, I decided to throw a dinner party for my girlfriends at my house. I've watch tons and tons of Barefoot Contessa episodes...enough that I've learned a few tips and created some of my own for creating the perfect dinner party. I really love cooking and I love entertaining, so this was a fun experience for me. Here's what it takes to throw a great dinner party...

Table Setting:

Use a fun tablecloth and pair with napkins in a similar a color palette. The color blue is psychologically an appetite opener, so its helpful to use. Serving food in white serving dishes are classy and a good way to make your food the star of the table rather than a fancy plate.

Flowers are a great centerpiece to bring the table together. It's great to use bright colored flowers that pop in contrast with the tablecloth, napkins, and plates. Make sure the flowers aren't too tall. I like to test this by sitting in front of the flowers and making sure the flowers are not in my field of vision when I look across the table.

Candles are also a great addition to your table. Make sure, again that they are not too tall. Most importantly, make sure they are NOT scented! You don't want a candle scent to overpower the smell of your delicious food.

I used a blue color palette and added a pop of color with bright yellow sunflowers. 

Drinks:

I like to have both red and white wine available for my guests. Have enough bottles for the amount of guests you will have...about 1 bottle per 4 people.

I also have some hard liquor and a couple juices or sodas to mix it with.

Finally, I fill a pitcher with water and add some lemons to place on the table.

Toasting to my girls. 

Dinner:

Start with a good appetizers. Depending on the amount of guests, have a couple of options. Since I only had 3 guests, I made a cheese plate. I placed brie, gouda, and gruyere cheese on lemon leaves and added some toasted french bread with red grapes and almonds.

Everyone's tastes are different, but what I like to do is have 5 parts to a meal:

1. Start with a salad with a light dressing. 
2. I like to include some type of bread like rolls or garlic bread. 
3. Then for the main course, I like to make 1 protein dish like marinated chicken, steak, or fish. 
4. Then I have 1 carbohydrate side dish like mashed potatoes or a simple pasta. 
5. Then I have a MUST of a vegetable(s) like brussel sprouts or broccolini. 

For my dinner party, I began with a light Greek salad with lemon and olive oil and made some garlic Parmesan bread. I made grilled chicken marinated in lemon, garlic, rosemary, sage, and olive oil. I paired it with roasted rosemary potatoes and roasted asparagus.

Dessert:

When the meal is done, I like to serve dessert with tea and coffee.

I like to have fresh fruit as a dessert option for those who prefer healthy alternatives.

Desserts are what guests bring as a gift to a dinner party most of the time, so serving their gifted dessert is a must.

Depending on the amount of work you do to prepare for dinner, I like to keep this part light and simple. I cheat and just arrange store bought cookies or buy a pie or cake. If the rest of the dinner I make is easy and less time consuming, I'll try to bake a dessert.

And that's it! A fun and easy way to entertain and throw a great dinner party. Getting compliments about it all is the best part ;)

Health Conscious Recipes.

Summer is here already! And I have been super behind in getting bikini body ready. But its never too late to start a living a healthier lifestyle with a better diet and exercise.

For someone like me who thrives on deadlines and itemized lists of tasks, I really like to do 30 day challenges, whether its an ab challenge, squat challenge, or arms challenge. I find that they really work if you commit to it.

Eating healthy is a bit more difficult for people because there are A LOT of temptations everywhere. I started cooking up some recipes that are tasty and good for you in order to help me get into shape, and believe me...these aren't your average bland, cardboard tasting meals!

Breakfast
So I started my day with a yogurt granola breakfast.

I use Greek yogurt, honey to sweeten the yogurt a bit, granola with pecans and pralines from Trader Joe's, and fresh strawberries and blueberries. You can easily change up the fruit in it and sweeten it with a little vanilla extract instead of honey.

Lunch
For lunch, I made myself some fish tacos with some fresh toppings.

I used breaded cod fish, which is about 50 calories per piece. After heating that up, I place it onto a corn tortilla and then begin my toppings. First is my special guacamole...


I mash together avocados, tomatoes, and cilantro and season it with salt and pepper. To add a tanginess, I add lemon and mix it all together.

Guacamole ingredients.

Next, instead of using sour cream which is loaded with tons of fat and calories, I use Greek yogurt again and mix it with some chili powder. Lastly, I top it off with fresh corn and romaine lettuce. I also squirt some lime juice on there too. Honestly, so good!

Around 4pm I start getting hungry again and I almost always crave chips. But those aren't very bikini body friendly, duh. So I made kale chips! Don't knock it til you try it...as an avid fan of sour cream and cheddar Ruffles chips, I was surprisingly satisfied with the taste of the kale chips instead of regular potato chips.

They come out super crispy and yummy.

To make the kale chips...

Ingredients:

• 1 head of kale washed and thoroughly dried
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
2. Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1.5 inch pieces. 
3. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with olive oil and salt. The kale shrinks when its baking so don't use a lot of salt, otherwise its going to be too salty!
4. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes.

Dinner

Finally for dinner, I made garlic rosemary chicken. I made this for my whole family, but obviously to eat healthier, I just ate the chicken breast, not the dark meat. 

To make the marinade:

Mix 3 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, 2 garlic cloves minced, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 lemon zested and juiced, salt and pepper. Pour the mixture on top of the chicken and let it marinate for 3 hours or overnight. You can cook the chicken is a skillet or bake it, but since the weather has been so nice lately I grilled the chicken outside.

Pair it with some arugula with dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper...perfect!

These are just a few health conscious recipes, but I'm definitely trying to create some more to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Happy eating!