fall | Elena the Epicurean

Pita Pizza with Butternut Squash, Kale, Feta, and Walnuts

Contrary to popular belief, pizza can be healthy. A whole wheat crust, olive oil, a little cheese, tons of veggies, and maybe some lean meat, and you’re set. It also doesn’t have to be difficult to make it yourself at home. In fact, you don’t even have to make the dough yourself. You can use [...]

Homemade Holiday Trail Mix

I love playing around with ingredients which I consider to be like a blank canvas. You can make them sweet, savory, or both, add things to them, give them a theme, and just generally use your imagination. Popcorn is definitely one of those foods. I also happen to be really into popcorn lately, ever since [...]

Guest Recipe: Pomegranate Panna Cotta Cheesecake

As I mentioned in the About Me page, I spent half of last summer traveling around Italy and had the time of my life. I took a fascinating class on on ancient Roman cuisine, met new people, saw new places, and of course…ate. I’ve never experienced so much pleasure and enjoyment out of food, wine, [...]

A day of Thanksgiving leftovers, Part II – Turkey Tortellini Soup

Soup is a great way to use up whatever may be sitting around in your fridge and is about to go bad, or in this case…Thanksgiving leftovers. Bethenny Frankel, one of my favorite chefs and quite possibly my idol, calls soup “nature’s perfect food”, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s easy, nutritious, filling, comforting, and [...]

A day of Thanksgiving leftovers, Part I – Pumpkin Apple Pie Oatmeal

Transforming leftovers into something new is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays. If you don’t do this, you’re likely to get sick of all of it, but if you do, you’re eating the same food, but it’s different food. Amazing, right? It’s also easy and quick, since most of your ingredients [...]

Sweet Potato with Turkey, Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Spices

My favorite fall food has got to be sweet potatoes. It’s a food that manages to be sweet and savory at the same time. Extremely versatile. Vibrant color. And, the word is definitely out about how healthy they are. However, baking them in the oven can take a long, long time, and microwaving them all [...]

Fall Pasta Dish: Penne with Ground Turkey, Mushrooms, White Beans, Spinach, and Dried Cranberries

Whenever I’m low on food, pasta is always my go-to dish. I can always manage to just look in my fridge and pantry, pull out any viable pasta toss-ins, improvise a sauce, and voilà. Tonight was one of those nights. I had some ground turkey in my fridge because hey, it’s the holidays. I then [...]

Baking with BLing

As I mentioned on my About Me page, I’m involved with a club at UCLA dedicated to the study of linguistics called the Society of Bruin Linguists, or “BLing” for short. We’re having a bake sale tomorrow, and rather than just sell the usual brownies and cookies, we decided to make some very festive, autumnal [...]

Hey there! I’m Elena, a 22-year-old UCLA alum living in Los Angeles. I am totally obsessed with cooking, baking, and anything food and wine related. I grew up in beautiful Sonoma County in Northern California, where some of the best food and wine on this planet can be enjoyed. I love cooking to this day because I find it extremely therapeutic, relaxing, distracting, and rewarding. Eating is something that we do three times a day, every day, so the possibilities and opportunities are endless. Read more...