Jennifer Behm
Courtesy Jen Behm
Season 2 MasterChef winner Jennifer Behm is a food lover, owner of Pink Martini Catering, a soon to be wife, an adventurer – and this summer a food blogger for PEOPLE.com.
Last week was exciting! After catering four events and taking meetings with some networks, I missed my flight to L.A.
Did you know they cancel your entire flight if you miss your outbound? Yep, I was at Philly International with no ticket, but thanks to the amazing services of Lerone I was able to secure a seat to L.A.
Why was I heading to L.A.? WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING! Okay, so I had not lost the 30 lbs. that I wanted to, but my friend Mike had a great suggestion: Spend all morning in horizontal stripes and then go try on dresses. I never laughed so hard!
My sister from another mother, Tracy (who also was on MasterChef with me), is one of my fearless bridesmaids and she was going to be there along with my mom and dad.
I flew in early to have meetings and they flew in the day before. After being rerouted due to dust storms, and then sitting on the tarmac for three hours, they arrived in L.A. starved. So what does a daughter who loves food do? We went to eat on Sunset at 1 a.m.!
Off to Aroma! If you have never been there, this place is sick. Enjoying the awesome California weather, we sat outside next to the heat lamps.
After perusing through the novel (a.k.a. menu) I settled on an extra dirty martini … or sanity drink. LOL. Then a smorgasbord of food. Dad opted for a rib-eye – nothing like a medium rare rib-eye at 2 a.m. to hit the spot! Like father, like daughter: medium rare is the only way to order a steak. Mom was going full monty with four different types of club sandwiches! I quickly snagged a bit of the bacon turkey club with my favorite ingredient: avocado.
I love making a quick guacamole with my homemade tortilla chips. Check out the end of my blog entry for the recipe.
After a quick bite, we were off to our killer hotel for some well needed rest. Looking forward to a yummy breakfast on the roof with my parents!
And for lunch: challenging my parents’ palettes. Ceviche time! Off to one of my favorite food trucks for $2.50 tasty ceviche. Mom and Dad were not so adventurous. That’s okay, more for me!
So finally, for the real reason I was in L.A: to film TLC’s Brides of Beverly Hills with the Renée Strauss! First dress: gorgeous. Second: nice. Third: oh poop, I was so sweaty that it got stuck! Yep, four women pulling to get it off. Wow, I really needed to lose those 30 lbs. I laughed so hard! At one point, Renée yelled, “Get the scissors!” With my butt pressed against the mirror and all of us giggling like school girls, it took one last tug and voila. FREE!
We went back to the first dress and glitzed it up with a veil and blusher. It was the one! When I saw my dad tear up in his best cowboy hat and my mom was speechless, I knew it would bring my fiancé to his knees!
Now to lose those pesky 30 lbs. (But who trusts a skinny chef?)
10-Minute Guacamole
Mix the following ingredients together:
1. 3 ripe avocados (if still hard, put them in a brown paper bag to speed ripening) then use a fork to smash2. Juice of 1 lime3. ¼ cup finely diced red onion4. 4 tbsp chopped cilantro5. 1 plum tomato (I use these because they are sweeter)6. 1 clove of minced garlic7. 4 splashes of Tabasco8. ½ a jalapeno, diced9. Drizzle of olive oil10. Optional: If I want it creamy I add Creme Fraiche.
Enjoy!
Catch me every Friday on PEOPLE.com to see what crazy food and adventures I have to stimulate all of your senses!