It’s Tuesday night and in San Diego that means two things, Tacos and Margaritas. ‘Taco Tuesday’ is a great excuse for meeting friends for happy hour and devouring a couple of tacos and a margaritas or two before heading home for an early night. Of course with $2 margaritas and Mexican beers to be found all over town it does not always happen. My favorite tacos are fish tacos which San Diego is famous for. With their origins across the border in Ensenada and probably a few other Baja fishing towns many a hungry surfer including San Diego’s fish taco king Ralph Rubio have brought them back here. Tradtionally the fish is battered and fried and served up in a warm corn tortilla with cabbage slaw and some of that tangy white sauce or you will find the lighter version with grilled fish. Fried or grilled they all taste pretty good to me!

At home  fish tacos are a favorite to cook on the grill, they are quick, simple, will feed the masses and are pretty healthy provided they are not followed by too many of the afore mentioned margaritas. If it is a spur of the moment thing, the frozen line caught mahi mahi from Trader Joe’s is perfect for grilling, marinated in some lime and spices and wrapped in a warm tortilla with jicama slaw, perfect! So if your looking for a light and healthy Mexican inspired dinner tonight, you can’t go wrong with a grilled fish taco. Watch the video recipe here and if you need a margarita with a bite, try this blood orange and jalapeno margarita from Santa Monica’s Border Grill. Still need some more Mexican inspiration? Try some of the other Mexican recipes guacamole, poblano quesadilla, ono ceviche, chicken chilaquiles or pajas cookie.

Last week was my birthday and to celebrate my 28 years I meet up with some friends at Lei Lounge in San Diego. As the name suggests they do use leis to decorate the restaurant but thet also have a beautiful and unexpected outdoor patio which is furnished with fun Cabanas, beds and firepits for you to lay beside. My friends arrived one by one straight from work and held up in traffic. I sipped on the great cocktails there to pass the time. There signature drink menu features over 28 different cocktails and lets just say I tried a few. Some of my favorites were the pomegranate martini, simple,sweet, you can’t go wrong, the Hawaiian mojito, along with the expected lime and mint was hibiscus juice and a splash of Champagne and the Georgeous Geisha a mix of strawberry liquer and lychee juice, topped with Champagne. All signature drinks were half price during happy hour and their collins cocktails, the lemongrass and aloe vera were half price all night on Wednesday night, the night we were there.
I did also sample the food, Lei Lounge offers a large menu of small plates, perfect for sharing. We tried the the hummus plate, the spring roll sampler and mahi mahi among others. It all tasted good but it was the cocktails that I remember…or not as the night progressed. Overall it was a really fun night but when your surrounded by great friends on your birthday how could you go wrong?

So finally the day has come, www.inyourkitchen.com is live! An idea over dinner with a friend just over a year ago has materialized and inyourkitchen.com is launched.

There are over 100 videos of top chefs, wine makers and food purveyors filmed on location in their kitchens, vineyards, stores and warehouses.
So far we have filmed in San Diego and Napa Valley but we are already planning our next locations. If you have any ideas for our next shoot or know a really great chef or food fanatic that should be featured on the site just let me know. Don’t forget that you can become a member and share your own food videos with other members.

This month we have partnered with Parade magazine to bring you Parade In Your Kitchen. You will find all the recipes featured in Parade magazine’s ‘What America Eats’ issue on the Parade In Your Kitchen pages and videos to accompany each recipe. This month features some great guilt free desserts. I’ve tried them all, they tasted great and I have to say there were no feelings of guilt after!

We hope that www.inyourkitchen.com will be a fun, interactive and entertaining way to cook,

Enjoy!

Diane

Hi and welcome to the In Your Kitchen website!

“Eating well and having the opportunity to enjoy preparing the food we eat is something which we hope to bring to a wide audience with www.inyourkitchen.com.”

Come share our passion for food and eating through an hd video experience.

Diane Stopford

This week has been really crazy. I returned from last week’s shoot in LA and a quick weekend in Vancouver (great food) and went straight into planning our Parade Inyourkitchen.com shoot on Thursday. You may have noticed that Inyourkitchen.com features Parade Magazine and Parade.com’s ‘What America Eats’ Issues and produces the recipe videos to accompany them.
On Thursday we had Fran Carpentier , Senior Editor at Parade Magazine fly out us here in San Diego to film the outdoor grilling recipe videos for their May 18th issue.
Although it turned out to be a very long day we had great fun at the shoot. Fran was life and soul of the party and kept everyone entertained. We filmed in the beautiful backyard of Marsha and Howie Berkson the owners of Anthology Restaurant (if you love great food and music at a stunning location you should check it out). I also have to thank everyone at Macy’s Home for supplying us with everything that you would need for a summer outdoor grilling party. All table scapes from the shoot are available at macys.com. So after all that it’s now time for a week of editing and recipe writing. Look out for our new summer grilling videos next Sunday.