Res-o-puh-leese

In Which I get an Email From a Reader...

2010-09-01T19:28:00.006-04:00

Oh. Hello there. Did you know that people actually read this blog? It's true! And one of them emailed me and asked if one of her bloggers could do a guest post about food! And I was like, "Really?" And she was like, "Yeah!" And I was like, you know I haven't updated in about three months after the job/wedding monster nom-nom-nom'd my life out of existence? And she was like, "It's cool!" And then she sent me a post one of her bloggers wrote about cheap food for recent college grads. And I was like, I'm not a recent college grad, but I am cheap, and I do like to eat. And thus a wonderful partnership was born.

And you, dear other reader(s), are the happy beneficiary. And so, for your reading/eating pleasure: Three Cheap and Easy Recipes for Recent College Grads, by Obreanna McReynolds.

Three Cheap and Easy Recipes for Recent College Grads

Graduating from college means adjusting to a number of life changes¬¬—finding a job, a first apartment, a new routine. It also means the end of the dining hall meals that make undergrad cuisine simple and affordable, if not always gourmet. Budgeting for the real world is hard enough, but add to that challenge considerations like taste, nutrition, and ease of preparation, and post-graduate cooking starts to seem as daunting as the job hunt. Luckily, with a bit of planning, even the most inexperienced college grad can conquer the kitchen with these three easy, cheap, and delicious recipes.

Last-Minute Lasagna (Carrots ‘N’ Cake)

This quick and easy lasagna uses pantry staples in an innovative way. It serves 6, so prepare one on Sunday for easy and packable lunches throughout the workweek. Or impress guests with this fun twist on a classic recipe!

Active time: 15 minutes

Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:
- 1 24 oz. jar of tomato sauce
- 2 18-20 oz. boxes of frozen ravioli, flavor of your choice
- 1 10 oz. bag of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1 8-oz. bag of shredded mozzarella
- ½ cup of grated Parmesan

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375° F. While oven preheats, defrost spinach in microwave according to package directions.
2. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9x13in. baking dish. Cover with a single layer of ravioli. Top with half of the spinach, half of the mozzarella, and 1/3 cup of tomato sauce.
3. Repeat with another layer of ravioli, the remaining spinach and mozzarella, and half of the remaining sauce.
4. Top with a final layer of ravioli, as well as the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
5. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese bubbles, 5-10 minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

Tuna, Chickpea & Pesto Salad (Real Simple)

It may sound gourmet, but this simple salad actually consists mainly of store-bought ingredients. This nutrient-packed meal is ready in a matter of minutes—its really just a matter of assembly!

Active time: 15 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
- 1 15.5 oz. can of chickpeas, roughly chopped
- 1 6 oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained and thinly sliced
- 12 black olives, pitted, roughly chopped
- 1 stalk celery, sliced thickly
- 2 6 oz. can tuna, drained
- 3 Tbs. store-bought pesto
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. pepper
- 3 sprigs fresh basil (optional)

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. To serve, garnish with basil if desired.

Makes 3 servings.

Omelet Muffins (Quirky Cookery)

These aren’t your typical “muffins,” although they can certainly be eaten for a quick and filling breakfast (or lunch, dinner, or snack). Use your favorite ingredients, leftovers, or whatever you have on hand, to customize this protein-packed egg dish—the variations are endless!

Active time: 10 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
- 12 eggs
- 2-4 Tbs. milk
- 1½-2 cups of filling (meats and/or vegetables of your choice – try sausage, ham, onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms…)
- 1½-2 cups of cheese of your choice
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Chop fillings and place a pinch of each, including the cheese, into the bottom of each muffin cup.
3. Beat milk, eggs, and salt and pepper, in a large bowl. Pour egg mixture into each cup, level with the pan edge.
4. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until muffins puff up and brown around the edges. Cool before removing from muffin tin.

Makes 12 muffins.

Obreanna McReynolds is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online degrees for Guide to Online Schools.

2010-06-16T21:49:00.003-04:00

It's Not Like After the Risotto...

Let's be honest here: I do not like risotto. I can't actually remember the first time I came to this conclusion, but I do know I came into risotto with an open mind, hoping--nay, expecting--that it would taste good. And ever since then, every time I've tried risotto, I've been disappointed. To me, it tastes like rice that's been cooked with too much water, leaving it bland and mushy and sticky. It tastes like something that you cook to give a baby or someone who doesn't have teeth. It's just gross.

So I was shocked and surprised to try my future-mom-in-law's risotto over the weekend and discover that not only did I love it, I went for seconds, asked for the recipe, and made it for myself immediately after arriving home.

This stuff...is sublime. It's also not really risotto--it is orzo, cooked in vegetable broth, with a little mixed-in garlic and onions. Topped off with a handful of parsley and a dash of parmesan, and it is melt-in-your-mouth delicious, knee-weakening delicious, Seinfeld-moan-inducing delicious. It is taking all my willpower right now not to burst into the kitchen and polish off the extra portion I made for tomorrow night. Must...resist...deliciousness....

What makes it taste so good? How should I know! My mother-in-law got the recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (my no-holds-barred favorite cookbook) and passed it along to me. It was cheap and simple to make and made my kitchen smell like magic. I paired it with an herb crusted roasted salmon that looked straight out of a Dean & Deluca catalogue, and a chilled glass of sweet, fruity rosé, courtesy my home-brewing coworker. It was awesome, all of it.

Here's the risotto recipe. In a few days, if I haven't--ahem--forgotten my blog again, I'll post the recipe for the herb salmon, which also was quite good, although could have been better (I went with fresh parsley, but forgot to stock up on other fresh herbs, so had to resort to dried rosemary and thyme). Cook some risotto and bask in the glory of deliciousness.

ORZO RISOTTO
INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced
4 cloves, garlic, minced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups orzo
1/4 cup parmesan cheeses
1/2 cup minced parsley
*For smaller portions, substitute 1 cup orzo and 2 cups broth

DIRECTIONS
Saute onion and garlic in oil.
In separate pan, heat stock to boiling.
Add orzo to onions, stir, then add to boiling stock.
Cook covered over medium low heat, stirring every few minutes til liquid is absorbed and pasta tender (about 15 min)
Can add up to 1/2 cup more broth if needed.
Stir in cheese and parsley.

2010-05-31T17:59:00.005-04:00

Take Me Out To the Cupcakes

Mmmm cupcakes...

I like making/eating/decorating cupcakes. But what I really like, truly, is designing cupcakes--coming up with a unique blend of flavors and techniques that make the cupcake less a cupcake and more an experience. Witness: shotglass cupcakes, delicious in their own right, amazing because they are cupcakes hollowed out and filled with booze.

So I jumped at the opportunity again to create some unique cupcakes for the third annual Cupcake Project/Scoopalicious Ice Cream Cupcake Contest!

My little beauties (bum ba bum...)

Pretzel Cupcakes with Sour Frozen Yogurt!

I am so excited for these--they are absolutely amazing! Google tells me they are the first pretzel cupcakes of their kind, which was fun, and I made my first foray into homemade frozen yogurt, with delicious results. I started with a very sweet and buttery pretzel recipe, which I invented by blending recipes for pretzels, butter cake, and sweet rolls. Dipping the unbaked pretzels in baking soda gave them their characteristic pretzelly flavor, and a crisp crust of salt added the right flavor. To offset the saltyness and butteryness of the pretzel, I used a recipe for a tangy, smooth frozen yogurt, which provided the perfect clean contrast to the flavorful pretzel. Amazingness, indeed. And because cupcakes should have frosting of some kind, I topped the whole thing with a very thin, very sweet sugary glaze (another frosting I considered was a lemony or strawberry topping. But, I don't like fruit in desserts, and these are my cupcakes, so straightforward sugar was all I needed).

The results were terrific--even more delicious than I was hoping--and got raves from my guinea pig tester. And because for some reason I was feeling the whole summer/baseball/soft pretzel vibe (and because I am a diehard, 24-years-and-counting Yankees fan), I gave them a baseball name: Take Me Out to the Cupcake.

On to the tips and tricks
Make sure the cupcakes are cool before putting on the ice cream--you want them just warm enough to still have that rich, bready taste, but not too warm so they melt the ice cream. I made my frozen yogurt without an ice cream machine, and it turned out pretty well, if a little gloopy. To give my fro-yo the characteristic Pinkberry swirl, I stuck it inside my Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro. This thing is awesome, and I was stoked for the opportunity to use it. Dave was stoked for other reasons...

I should also note, he was an excellent helper, hardly batting an eye when I told him I wanted to take fancy pictures. "With props!" So I pulled out my beloved old-school Yankees gear and my little plastic Yankees cap and set about taking fancy food pictures. It did not go well.

And so my career as a food stylist ends not with a bang, but with a t-shirt covered in fro-yo.

PRETZEL CUPCAKES*
INGREDIENTS
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and butter.
Add in yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until browned.

*Adapted from AllRecipes

FROZEN SOUR YOGURT
INGREDIENTS
3 cups plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla until the sugar is dissolved
Freeze in a large, shallow container for one hour
Whisk until all the ice crystals are broken up, refreeze
Repeat freezing and mixing for 4-6 hours, or until it's reached desired texture

SIMPLE SUGAR GLAZE
INGREDIENTS
2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1 tablespoon honey
vanilla extract (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Blend all ingredients together

2010-05-28T09:28:00.004-04:00

Rumors of My Blogging Demise Have Been Greatly Exagerated

Hello everyone out there in Internet land!

Yes, I am still alive, and yes, I am still eating (although I seem to increasingly be falling on the dual crutches of homemade pizza and nutmeg roast chicken. mmmm....). Life, travel, and work having sapped nearly all my creative energy, I've mostly been spending my dinner times eating as fast as possible (mac n cheese may or may not have featured prominently). And while this solitary foray back into the blogging world may not be a sign of things to come (check back in around December), it's at least fun to cook delicious food and then write about it for an audience of my peers and/or future in-laws (hi guys!).

And what could rouse me from blogging silence? Nothing other than a cupcake and a contest.

I'm a big fan of the Cupcake Project, Stef's imaginative, novel cupcake blog, wherein she combines unusual ingredients with delicious cupcakey results (when she was preggars she made pickles and ice cream cupcakes, which supposedly were amazing. Not being pregnant, or liking pickles, I wouldn't know). Last year, for the second year, she teamed up with the folks at ice cream blog Scoopalicious to hold an ice cream cupcake contest. I entered my chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream cupcakes and won a wonderful bread dough. And while winning was exciting, I was more thrilled to experiment with ever new and unusual cuppycakes (I tried smores cupcakes and fried ice cream before settling on the peanut butter ones).

When this year's contest rolled around, with the grand prize of an ice cream maker, I knew I had to bring it.

Bring. It.

So, for the past few weeks I've been brainstorming, trying out new recipes, experimenting. I have finally settled on my final recipe/concoction, and let me tell you, I am excited. Really. Really. Excited. As soon as I come home tonight I plan to whip up the little beauties and feed them to my roomies/fiance. Can't wait. Hopefully, if I don't get sidetracked by tomorrow's Yankees game or the wedding we're going to on Sunday, I should have the next post up, wherein I detail the whole cupcake experience, within a day or two.

Check back soooon!

2010-02-02T22:39:00.010-05:00

GET LOST (cookies)!!!!

Ok, so, did you all just watch that? Yeah, awesome. Even more awesome than a Lost season premiere? Cookies based on a Lost season premiere. I had tentative plans to go a Lost party tonight and offered to bake some cookies, and while the party plans didn't quite work out, I still decided to make me some geeky fandom cookies. Enjoy (after the jump)!

The doctor says "Eat your cookies!"

Time travel bunny rabbits!

These were a pain and a half to make (which is why I only focused in on one: the Orchid)

I tried to go for terrifying, but they sort of just look like sleepy polar bears...

Vincent! How is that dog still alive? Who knows!

Claire with baby Aaron
(my roommate ate the first baby Aaron because she thought I was baking extra cookie dough)

Locke. The bald head made him so easy to make. I coulda done a baker's dozen

Sawyer, in an extremely masculine mint-green shirt

Jin and Sun, together, where they belong

Hugo cookie. I didn't even know he'd be wearing a big red shirt tonight!

Richard and Miles. Notice Richard's copious eyeliner

Cookie Kate with frosting freckles!

I tried to give Sayid little frosting handcuffs, but just didn't work out

Ilana. Does anyone really know who this person even is?
Whatever, she is now a cookie.

The whole gang!

2009-12-28T11:49:00.003-05:00

Happy Moanday: Blogging Because I Lost My Voice!

Hello friends, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwazy Kwanza, Tip-Top Tet, and solemn and dignified Ramadan.*

I am blogging in my bathroom and slippers, Planet Earth playing on the tube behind me (I'm learning about the importance of grass!), a cuppa tea at my side because, after almost a year of steadfast healthiness, I've finally been felled by the cold that savaged its way through my family this holiday season (at least, unlike my brother, I am not heading to China today, a country whose motto is "If you threaten us we will detain you." Have fun in that Chinese prison, brother).

I've just finished hour 11 of feverish, coughing sleep, and now I'm trying consciousness (hooray!) and waiting for Dave to come home so he can heat up the won-ton soup in my fridge (toooo acheeeey to mooooove...). We were supposed to go to Shake Shack tonight with friends, celebrating me and Dave being in the same city, but it is looking more like Boo-Hoo Flu Soup with Tina Fey (on Dvd! Because Dave got 30 Rock Season 1! Totally faked you out, huh?.)

Also pause this post because LIONS ARE TAKING DOWN A FULL-GROWN ELEPHANT!!! And isn't nature cool? Ok, post back on.

So I am sick and not feeling good and another nap seems to be in my very near future, but (obligatory cooking news!) I got lots of fun cooking stuff from Santa, et al! My mom got me a set of ramekins (so I can try again to make Cheryl's amazing molten cake), little cake tins that make mini three-tiered cakes, a new silicone pastry brush, and ONE HUNDRED COOKIE CUTTERS!!! They are awesome and my friends and family will be so fat(ter) soon. My brother got me an aMAzing pastry decorator that is a triumph of usability and design, and Dave's mom sent me Julie and Julia on DVD. One of my friends from high school almost got me a recipe book, choosing instead to go with a heating pad (she is a good friend, and I wish I had that heating pad now instead of leaving it at my parents' house). I was surprised that everyone thought I was such a foodie until my brother was like, "Um, don't you have a food blog or something?" Oh right.

Well, I am back to feeling like I want to guzzle cough medicine, curl up under my new Snuggie, and let David Attenborough's smooth narration lull me gently to sleep. Here is an oldie but a goodie to keep you all in fighting mode: my Boo-Hoo Flu Soup, which Dave says should be on the cover of any (non-existent) cookbook I publish.

BOO HOO FLU SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
1 large potato
1/2 chicken breast
1 can Campbell's condensed chicken broth
8-10 baby carrots
thin egg noodles
1/2 tablespoon rosemary
1/2 tablespoon thyme
1/2 tablespoon tarragon
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
Coffee filter and needle and thread (for bouquet garni)
Pepper
Salt

DIRECTIONS:
Add 1 can water to condensed chicken broth and set to boil in a pot
Cut chicken into very small pieces--no bigger than a dime
Cut carrots (coins not spears)
Peel and dice potato
Add chicken, carrots, and potato to broth, boil and reduce to simmer
Make a bouquet garni: fill coffee filter with rosemary, thyme, tarragon, and garlic; pull ends together and secure with thread
Add bouquet garni to broth
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes
Add about 1 cup of egg noodles to broth, cook for 4-5 minutes
Remove from heat, let cool briefly, and serve, seasoned with pepper and salt to taste

*Krusty the Clown, American comedian and entertainer, 1989?-

2009-12-15T16:14:00.000-05:00

Booze-Free Bourbon Chicken

Oh, what panacea of earthly hunger is the mall food court. The malls in my area being too strip-y (it is New Jersey, after all) or fancy (you could never call it Short Hills Mall) for food courts, I really first discovered them in college, when I hopped the Wave to the Cambridgeside Galleria. There I spent many happy lunches among cheap Indian food, glistening pretzels, barrels of bright and beautiful sherbet, and, of course, free samples. I like free samples, even though I am aware that they are mini food traps, designed to lure you in with one bite, so that the tiny chocolate-chip-studded bite from Mrs. Fields eventually morphs into an $8.99 "chocolate deluxe" cookie monster. Still, free food=good deal.

Usually I am shameless about free samples (there is a cheese shop in Cambridge Dave refuses to enter with me), and I rarely end up buying what's offered, but a few weeks ago I fell head over heels for a sticky, sweetish, deliciously fattening and flavorful morsel--bourbon chicken.

Bourbon chicken is what you would get if Chinese food and Southern food exploded together. It is rich and tangy, completely coated with a sweet, dark glaze. Although the name suggests otherwise, there's no bourbon in it (at least not the recipe I use), making it safe to feed to infants and recovering alcoholics alike (what do people who can't drink do when confronted with vodka sauce? or beer-battered chicken? or chicken marseilles? hmm...). I found this recipe online, and the delicious result, simple ingredients, and no-fuss directions make it a keeper in my (recipe) book. I served it over white rice, Uncle-Ben-style since I don't have a rice cooker. Still good.

BOURBON CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS
chicken thigh and leg meat, cut into bite-size pieces
1-2 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce

DIRECTIONS
Heat oil in a large skillet.
Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned.
Remove chicken.
Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium
Heat until well mixed and dissolved.
Add chicken and bring to a hard boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Serve over hot rice

2009-12-08T21:53:00.004-05:00

Anti-Vampire Food, or Twihard with a Vengeance*: Lemon Alioli Sauce

Discovering a food in a restaurant that I love and crave for is a wonderful and terrible experience. Wonderful, because eating food that's so good that I fantasize about it more than my fiance (sorry puppy) is nothing less than a gift. Terrible because I don't live in that restaurant and/or can't visit regularly and/or am too poor to subsist solely on my ideal meal.

Occasionally, for foods that truly capture my heart, I will try to recreate them at home. Sometimes this turns out wonderfully, like the shrimp ravioli in tomato veloute sauce (adapted from a lobster crepe I had at Basso 56), sometimes terribly, like my desperate imitation of Border's sublime pastelitos, about which no more should be said. Every now and then, though, I'll skip the hard work and simply ask for the recipe, which is precisely what I did for Iron Hill Brewery's distinctive and flavorful sweet potato fry sauces.

Generally when it comes to my s.p.f.'s (woah! I just got that!), I stick to ketchup, tried and true. A few weeks ago, though, Dave and I visited his home town and got some lunch with his (and my) dear friend, Chris, at the Iron Hill Brewery. The fries were on the menu and I pounced, but when they arrived I was surprised to find that rather than ketchup, they were surrounded by three bowls of different sauces: a spicey, liquidy lime; a smooth and sweet vanilla; and a lemony, creamy garlic. Although I leaned more towards the vanilla and garlic, all three nestled in the hearts of my tastebuds (weird mental image), and on our next visit to Dave's home I lobbied, successfully, for a repeat visit to Iron Hill.

Since I am shy when it comes to those things, I asked Chris (a studying doctor and future McDreamy) to charm the waitress into getting me the recipes. "It'll be my Christmas present!" I said, and he replied with the kind of look that said "Was I going to get you a Christmas present?" Chris prevailed, of course, and our waitress returned with all three recipes, plus their technique for making the fries, written out on a little piece of paper. I was grateful until I realized the recipes were for restaurant-sized portions (seriously, one called for a *gallon* of mayo). Luckily, I remembered my grade-school proportions equations (one of the few forms of math I use on a regular basis), and managed to reduce the recipes to human size.

This weekend I tackled the easiest, the lemon alioli sauce. Alioli, which basically means "more garlic than you can safely ingest," is one of my favorite sauces, being a garlic-phile, but this one added the sharp tang of lemon with a little extra bite of paprika. It was easy, cheap, and turned out exactly like I remembered, earning it the seal of approval. Plus, it required roasted garlic, which is absolutely heavenly to make.

I paired the sauce with some fries and a nice piece of salmon, but I could see it working well thrown over some pasta or tossed in a salad. The only problem was my unfortunate blender failed to adequately chop up the garlic slices, so I had little chunks floating around, but it was still good. Plus it repels vampires! Hooray!

LEMON ALIOLI SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
dash paprika
4 1/2 tbsp mayo
3 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3 1/2 tsp roasted garlic puree
3 1/2 tsp minced garlic

Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor

To make roasted garlic:
Cut off the tips of the garlic cloves while still keeping them in the head (see image)
Place on tin foil and coat with olive oil
Roast at 400 degrees for 40 minutes

*Against my better judgment, I did read Twilight. For those of you who haven't read it, let me sum it up here: "I'm so awkward! Who's that gorgeous guy? He's a vampire! And god-like in his beauty! But I love him! Because he's perfect! He loves me! Wow I'm lucky! Oh no evil vampire, ok, he's dead. I want to be a vampire!" Fin. (I hope I don't get mowed down by 800 tweens in "Team Edward" tshirts for this...)

2009-12-07T21:25:00.005-05:00

Happy Moanday: Cookies for Happiness!

I am slowly bringing myself back into the realm of the cooking, tentatively trying out new dishes that have (so far) filled me with glee (like the show! go buy the soundtrack! it is like concentrated joy!). At the moment, Neiman Marcus cookies are turning golden brown in my oven, a last-minute baking decision after my roommate came home with unfortunate work news. "Cookies solve everything!" I said, although she might have appreciated some job leads more...

In any case, I am baking cookies and relaxing after a long day of work, counting down the days until Dave and I leave for our mid-winter adventure, wherein we plan to visit (in 10 days) Boston*, Martha's Vineyard, Philadelphia, Washington DC/Baltimore, southern Jersey. Somehow we will relax (?). At least we are sequestering ourselves in my parents' MV beach house, where, car-less and somewhat heatless, we plan to spend long, windy, rainy days curled up in front of the fireplace, popping popcorn and drinking hot cocoa.

Oh my gosh I just took a break to get the cookies out of the oven and lordy they are amazing and Belinda Carlisle was wrong heaven is not a place on earth it is a cookie and I am eating it ooooohhhhhh....... that's good.

Ok then! Cookie eaten and grease all over my keyboard (sorry Mom and Dad, I know you lease these laptops but I'm only human). I am back to hoping I'll update this blogorrino semi-regularly, but the unhealthy amount of satisfaction I am reaping from doing two "Happy Moanday"s in a row probably means I will end up resting on my laurels. Well, we can dream.

Since everyone needs a little cookie happiness, here is the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe (I substituted cocoa powder for espresso powder and am ecstatically happy about it). Btdubs, the story referred to in the introduction, about which NM says (nose in the air) "we won't perpetuate...here," refers to an alleged incident wherein a woman requested to buy the recipe and was charged "two-fifty," not realizing the witty attendant meant $250. Supposedly a myth, but I'm suspicious of anyone who sells a $25,000 cupcake car.

NEIMAN MARCUS COOKIE
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softenened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)
Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.
In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.
Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

*Yes, I will be going to the Border Cafe and no, I will not be leaving.

2009-12-01T19:28:00.004-05:00

Happy Ruesday: Guilty of Non-Blogging

Hello, dear readers. Yes, almost a month has passed by since my last post. Sorry folks. Remember when I last wrote? What I said about more posts? More pictures? More laughs (and tears)?

Empty, empty promises...

Sorry about that!

Since the past three months I've been mulling over various blog posts, only to stumble home lazy and tired, muttering an incomprehensible "Lata..." as I click off to Gawker and watch endless reruns of Seinfeld on TBS.com (did you know they no longer air them on Fox?! I mean, the Office is nice and all, but where're my random reflections on the eccentricities of daily life?). Anyway.

Let's just say I'll commit myself to a semi-random, mostly-infrequent schedule of blog postings. You know. Just to keep you on your toes. And it's worked! Since my blog-hiatus I've added two new followers, garnered a comment or two, a friendly email, and not one but TWO real companies offering me real products to share with my real readers (hello, future in-laws!)!!! That last part is not even a joke, as I have corporate sponsorship, sort of. Look for glowingly bloated reviews of famous food/drink/appliances!

Since it's been ages since I last posted a recipe, I will leave you with my new favorite, shockingly easy iced tea that is refreshing, delicious, and about as literal as you can get (let the cop out start now?). This comes from my future mother-in-law, who actually managed to ingrain it into my "lez heat up a frozen pizza" fiance, who taught it to me in about 25 seconds.

EASY AND LITERAL ICED TEA
INGREDIENTS
2 bags black tea
water
glass jar with a closeable lid

DIRECTIONS
Boil water in a pot
Pour water into jar
Add tea bags
Seal up and place in fridge until cool
Remove tea bags and enjoy

2009-11-02T19:44:00.004-05:00

Welcome Back, Blogger

Hello food fans! It has been a long, cold, dreary time without you... A time filled with ramen noodles (15 cents a package!), dried-out steaks (au vin), and hamburgers, hamburgers, hamburgers (no shake shack attack). As Dave pointed out, I posted all but once in October and my previous posts were uncomfortably close to that xkcd comic. But, I am back, with a vengeance (and an appetite!).

As I reheated my second bowl of ramen noodles last night, I pondered the meaning of food blogging. Was it to record my recipes? Share them with my devoted reader(s)? Gain a small but rabid group of followers a la Joss Whedon (BTVS 4eva)? No! It was for my own selfish gain, to explore and try out new recipes so that my poor, wasted body might wring out a few new nutrients from the exotic foods I'd sample (like lettuce!). In the past few weeks, as I returned again and again to grilled cheese sandwiches and sweet potato fries (my conquered foe), I realized that my semi-quasi-maybe healthy diet was nose-diving into a pile of cheese and sugar (mmm...). With that in mind, I'll be focusing on more health-conscious fare ("more" meaning "any"). But we can't all rely on tomatoes and sprouts to get us through the day, so more cakes, I say! Truffles, cookies, cuppacakes! I can dream...

I've also taken my first shaky but exciting steps into the world of bridal registry, by which I mean, the world of working kitchen appliances. I have some bold ideas (all white china! no lemon zesters!) and I also found THE BEST THING EVER!!! during my last trip to BBB (that's Bed, Bath, and Beyond to you) that is deserving of a blog post all on its own. So, an exciting November, yes? Yes.

2009-10-12T17:17:00.004-04:00

*

Happy Moanday: Banner Back, Blogger Back!

Hello reader(s)! I have returned and brought my sneaky banner with me. Sadly, I'm still on a "blog light" menu, as my adjustment to new hours is causing me to mostly fall back on hamburgers and sweet potato fries (still delicious!). Last weekend I did make some Toniatti sauce, though, and tried out my brand-new pasta press (a gift from Dave's mom). The ensuing lasagna was delicious, although perhaps not fatteningly cheesy enough. Mostly I'm subsisting on Fresca (it's caffeine/sugar/carb free!) and candy corn (none of the above), wondering idly when December will roll around and with it my mini-vacation (staycation with the fiance woohoo!).

How is this little blog doing? I have ideas for posts rolling around in my yet-unfrazzled brain, and, energy-willing, will post those ideas into reality some time soonish. Frankly I should be happy I'm eating something other than Spaghetti-Os (oh I just remembered I have some in my cabinet! I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!!!). I did come up with a lovely addition to a typical pan-fried burger: a dash of balsamic vinegar (I like Trader Joe's) into the ground beef gives the burger a delightfully tangy and fragrant taste. I loved it, and now I wish I had more to eat.

Ok, Res-o-puh-leesers, fingers crossed that the next time two weeks goes by sans posts, it is because I am lounging around in some exotic locale getting engaged (oh! did that already!).

*seriously? When I first made all the little months pictures for my blog, I apparently neglected to make October (wtf?). I guess I thought I wouldn't last that long...

2009-09-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Moanday: Tired Bloggers, Tired Blogs

Wondering what blog you have arrived at? Yes, it is still Res-o-puh-leese, but my banner has disappeared like it was the leaning tower of Pisa in an episode of Carmen Sandiego (I have have a lot of PBS nostalgia lately...). Unfortunately, the website that hosted the banner and several other images is still offline, meaning the problem will not just fix itself, as I'd been hoping, but must be fixed by me. Le sigh.

I will get around to fixing it, hypothetically, as soon as I will my tired little fingers to tap-tap-tap out the correct code and find another website to host the gargantuan files (still possible: clicking the area where the banner was to get to the main page. hooray for shoddy coding!). Add it to the list of To Dos, which has grown to include rearranging my bedroom, getting a new TV(?), and replacing my sweet little sort-of dying plants, which my landlords unceremoniously threw away without my knowledge over the weekend (wtf?). Also on the list: eating, sleeping(?), basic personal hygiene (impressed coworker: "Wow! Make up! You look so different!" unimpressed me: "Thank...you..?").

But, while I mull over abandoning my messy apartment and the stresses of New York for the relative happiness of a life of a trapeze artist, the world still turns. Yes, it is still fall. I like fall. I like the clothes I wear (layers of browns and golds, bright cheerful blues and reds), the fresh air, the clear skies, the inviting, snappy chill. Last week I enjoyed Indian food and warm soups, and it seems some repeat performances are in order. I'm going to drag out How to Cook Everything, my favorite cookbook (from Mark Bittman), to see what the scribe himself has to say about soup (good. warm. liquidy.). I am thinking some kind of chicken-mushroom broth, maybe with some beans, fresh bread, happiness. Oh fall, when I wish I were a little mushroom, swimming joyfully in sweet steamy broth! (is this sleepiness, hunger, chilliness, or growing hysteria talking? who knows?! Soup!)

2009-09-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Blerg!

My little blog is missing all its fancy-pants images because the website hosting the images is currently down. Will it go back up? Will I lose all my handiwork? Will I have to fix it myself? Will I remember how to do it?!?! All valid questions. Instead of answering them, let's just ponder quietly to ourselves...

2009-09-23T20:57:00.005-04:00

Chicken that Warms You to the Korma

Mmmm, Indian food (or let's be specific, folks: South Asian cuisine). I love it so although Dave likes to point out that I don't love it so much as I love chicken tikka masala, naan, paneer pakoras, and sweet lassi. I love these things so much that I order them each and every time we go out to an Indian restaurant, snarling over the bowls that, ostensibly, are meant for sharing ("But you can have some of mine if you let me have some of yours!" yeah no). It's not that I'm against other kinds of South Asian food, it's just that, once I've found something that makes me happy, why would I ever stray (I'm talking about food here, but I guess I am also 23 and happily engaged... hi kiddo).

Annnnnyway... My food boundaries are being continually expanded thanks to the ever-interesting/challenging/exciting/delicious Taste & Create. This month, I was lucky enough to be paired up with Shaista, whose cute, peppy blog, Mixcalculations, came from her forays into cooking with just the ingredients sitting in her kitchen cabinets. I am always impressed by people who can look at a random assorted pile of cans and spices and whip up magic, but I added "intimidated" to "impressed" when I saw that Shaista cooks amazing, authentic South Asian food. I let my mind boggle for about 5 seconds, and then I stumbled upon her recipe for chicken korma, a meal that Dave has often ordered but I, starry-eyed from some CTM, never ordered.

So, ok, I will start this recipe description by saying that I probably made it completely and utterly wrong. It was delicious fo' sho, but something tells me that an actual Indian/Pakistani person would probably politely ask me from what region comes this interesting soup? There were a few problems from the get go: I was sleepy and stressed out (if not making korma I think I would probably be rolling in grilled cheese) and missing many of the essential ingredients that, presumably, make it taste the way it should. Still, what I lacked in ingredients I made up in enthusiasm (that still makes food taste good, right?), and my slightly lopsidely flavored meal was still good enough that I could foresee trying again and, with a little more effort and better-stocked spice rack, serving up somethin delish.

I'm posting Shaista's original recipe, because the janky thing I came up with would probably make sweet little Pakistani granmums roll over in their graves.

CHICKEN KORMA
INGREDIENTS
1/2lb chicken
3/4 cup oil
2 medium onions (sliced)
1 cup yogurt
2 bay leaves
6 cloves
5-6 green cardamoms
8-10 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon black cumin seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tablespoons ginger/garlic paste
3 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat oil in a pan, fry onion till golden brown.
Take out onion with a slotted spoon and grind or mix with yogurt and keep aside
In the same pan add bay leaves, cloves, black peppercorns, black cumin, cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms and fry for a minute.
Add chicken pieces and ginger/garlic paste and fry till chicken turns colour.
Then add coriander powder, salt, red chilli powder, garam masala and saute for 5 minutes.
Add half cup water and cover, when chicken till done.
Now add onion+yogurt paste and stir, turn off flame after 10 minutes.
Serve hot with rice or naan.

2009-09-22T16:20:00.005-04:00

Happy Ruesday: Another One!

Sigh. Dear readers, it is just too crazy (what is? life! that's what... also, me...). A new job promotion and new hours and New York craziness (see that transition? yeah.) mean I am collapsing every day after work. My stress levels, previously floating around "yo lez chill," have now shot up into ALL CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS EXTREMENESS!!!1!! So rather than coming home, lovingly opening my cookbooks, and pondering on what culinary excusion I will happily embark, I have been turning steadfastly and devoutly to that kitchen krutch, comfort food. Granted, the tomato-basil soup I made last night (paired with a grilled cheese sandwich) was delicious to the max. Still, it was a little too old man and/or young child for me to enjoy fully.

It's fall! That means chilly air, floating leaves, and, most importantly, soups, stews, and chilis. I loooove fall and winter food--hot cocoa, thick chowders, everything drenched in warm sauces. I think I must always be reeeeally cold, because even on hot, sultry nights, I'm like "Can I get a lasagna here?" I've already indulged in the aforementioned tomato-basil (made my apartment smell like heaven and/or Cosi), but later this week I'm planning on pulling out a new Indian food recipe that (I hope) will expand both my repertoire and taste buds. In the meantime, my shortish blahg update will have to suffice, as I thank my lucky stars that this is better than being unemployed (right? right?!?!?).

2009-09-16T00:00:00.001-04:00

Coq-of-the-Walk au Vin

As promised, I've started searching for simple, delicious, healthy (ish?) recipes that can be made in a flash but still impress. Bitten by Mark Bittman has been my foodie bible of choice, as the numerous oil splatters and flour-encrusted pages can attest. Last night I tried out his recipe for coq au vin, a traditional French recipe of chicken in a red wine sauce. I adapted it slightly to meet my picky taste buds / sparse grocery / forgetful shopping list, and the result was fantastic: a deep, fragrant, heady wine sauce paired with my favorite musty mushrooms coating an otherwise basic and delicious chicken breast. It was quick (made the whole thing in about half an hour), cheap (costing about 20 cents worth of mushrooms, $1.50 worth of chicken, and $2 worth of wine), and looked and tasted like I knew what I was doing (maybe?).

I'd decided a few days ago to try coq au vin for a few reasons. Chicken is one of my favorite meals, being usually healthier and cheaper than other meats/poultry, but my standard chicken recipes have been starting to bore me. Lately, to my surprise, I've started to love mushrooms. I just can't get enough of the deep, earthy flavor or the smooth, pleasant texture. And wine in meals? Sign me up.

I started with Bittman's recipe but pared down several of his ingredients and edited to a single serving. Coq au vin is traditionally made in a large Dutch oven with a full chicken (cut up into parts), several different herbs, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, but I wanted something smaller and more streamlined. I just cooked a chicken breast, left out the onions (not a fan), and forgot about the tomatoes (still don't have a stocked-up can pantry). Bittman also recommended two kinds of mushroom--porcini and white button--and despite searching my neighborhood (even the high-priced yuppie mart!), I could only find button. In the end, the meal only needed a quick dash of sea salt to liven things up a little, but it was just so good on its own I completely forgot about the little pot of rice pilaf I'd made as a side.

All in all, I am very pleased with the result, and very pleased to have found another quick recipe to throw into my weekly repertoire. Plus, I still have lots of leftover mushrooms, to be pan-fried with steak or tossed into salads. Hallelujah.

COQ AU VIN
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
flour for dredging
1 chicken breast, trimmed of fat
2 tablespoons butter
4-5 white button mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1 tablespoon parsley, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 bay leaf
1/2-3/4 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat
Dredge chicken in flour
When oil is hot, cook chicken until both sides are golden brown
Remove chicken from heat
Add butter
After butter has melted, add mushrooms, cooking both sides for about 5 minutes
Add parsley, garlic, bay leaf, and wine
Lower heat and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, turning chicken every five minutes
If sauce is too thick, add a little wine or water; if it's too thin, raise heat to high and cook
Remove chicken from heat, pour mushroom and wine sauce on top, and serve

2009-09-14T00:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Moanday: Good Morning!

If I am unusually chipper today, it's because I am finally sloughing off my terrible working hours in favor of ones that more closely resemble an actual "normal" workday. How terrible, and how normal? I am happily jumping from the mind-numbing, insomia-inducing, social-life-killing 3am to 11am shift to the perkier, more pleasant, and saner 7am to 3:30pm shift. I consider it the best of both worlds: the easy pace of the morning, the pre-rush hour emptiness of the trains, the early evenings, as well as the joy of waking up after sunrise, getting to actually speak with my roommates for more than 3 minutes each week, and not falling asleep at 9:30 on the weekends (good thing Dave is a homebody). So what does that mean? Hopefully, more energy for food, eating, and blogging about food and eating hooray!

I am still searching for the perfect mix of healthy, simple, delicious, and more and more I find myself relying on Bitten, the truly extraordinary cookbook from NYTimes food editor, Mark Bitman. It is just amazingly simple, clean, interesting food, the basics cooked in a way that balances between approachable and complex, familiar and exotic. Rather than branch out into wildly unusual food, Bitman appreciates the satisfaction of a good meal made well, with easy-to-find ingredients assembled so their natural flavor shines through. It's just sweet simplicity, something I can appreciate when it's 2 hours before bedtime and I haven't even gone grocery shopping yet (my friendly neighborhood grocery store is used to seeing me pad around in pajama bottoms to buy the one stick of butter or tiny bottle of spice that my dinner that night absolutely needs). The book is so easy to read and enjoyably precise that I could peruse it like a novel and I would read it before bedtime every night if it didn't make me so hungry and itching for coq au vin.

Aside from Bitten, I'm interested in visiting some local farmers' markets to check out their wares. My disdain for vegetables is not helped much by the wimpy varieties on display at my corner grocery (bitter tomatoes, plasticized corn, mealy potatoes). When I go visit my parents, the Garden State amply provides, and I happily load up on tomato salads and fresh corn (oh the sweet loveliness of a straight-from-the-stalk ear of golden-white Jersey corn!). Although I doubt being able to get the same flavor-bursting fruits and veggies here that I enjoy in New Jersey--and for-get New Jersey prices--I'm interested to sample the last of the summer bounty and the first of the fall.

What else is new? Dave is in Chicago, happily living the proto-yuppie lifestyle, and we're embarking on the strange and interesting experience of plane-based long-distance relationships (he also bought me a Snuggie! It is awesome, natch). Also, I am a (future?) auntie, after Dave's brother and sister-in-law had their little peanut, Adam Joseph (Dave and I have begun to aptly call him "Squishy."). I cannot wait until he's old enough to eat chocolate chip cookies. Anything else? I am starting up a newwww blog, regarding my emotions-wrought journey into the world of wedding planning. Details to arrive soon. That's it--have a good week, eat your veggies, and bake some cookies!

2009-09-10T00:00:00.005-04:00

Superfudge

Aside from the good company, lovely weather, relaxation, and delicious food, one of my favorite things about visiting Dave's shore house (and family) is the totally beautiful and amazing kitchen. Generally, I am a spectator / passive eater, but I like taking advantage of the solid equipment and Dave's parents' cooking intuitions whenever possible. Since both of his parents handle the entre portions of the meals with confidence and a fistful of Parmesan (I am marrying an Italian, afterall), my cooking forays have been happily limited to drinks and desserts. Some went well (I will be making daisy cupcakes with my future niece/nephew, before happily handing him/her off to the parents), some were suspicious (that margarita cupcake recipe could have used a few going-overs). One, however, stood out so much that even despite its high sugar content (or because of it), it was completely gone by noon the next day and led his sister to send desperate Facebook messages asking for the recipe (social networking at its best). One word: fudge.

Ooooh, fudge. I can still remember the first time I ever ate fudge, at my first "cool kids" middle school party (there were boys! lights were dim! we played "light as a feather, stiff as a board!"). One of the girls brought a plateful of homemade chocolate fudge and, mistaking them first for dried-out brownies, I casually took a bite. Oh dear. You all know the sensation: the sweet, soft, pliant feel of the fudge being crushed slowly in your mouth, the teeth-achingly sweet flood of chocolate, sugar, and butter. Although my memories of the party don't extend much beyond the dessert table (I think it was my audition to be cast in the popular clique, but my focus on the fudge probably indicates how well I did...), the sweet, sweet moment of my first taste of fudge is something I hold dear.

Usually I get my fudge from trusted sources, like Murdick's in Martha's Vineyard (true story: mid-argument with my parents about who was paying for my wedding, my dad pulled out a box from Murdick's from their recent trip to Martha's Vineyard. Without even finishing my sentence, I pounced, stuffed a corner piece into my mouth, and domestic harmony was restored. We still never resolved the wedding thing, though). Last month, however, I was paired with Min from the Bad Girl's Kitchen for the monthly Taste and Create event. Although some miscommunication eventually had me paired with Alisa from One Frugal Foodie (check out my take on her delicious cookies here), I had already discovered and fallen in love with Min's recipe for homemade fudge. A shore weekend coming up, I figured I would have all the help (and willing eaters) necessary to make the fudge a success. And it was!

Everyone helped out in a way: Dave's parents pointed out the right equipment, his sister assembled the ingredients, her boyfriend diligently measured, Dave's brother took the photos, and his sister-in-law (currently gestating a new family member) ate for two. Dave also helped(?) by licking the extra-hot stirring spoon (how does he even have tastebuds anymore?). The recipe called for milk chocolate chips, but the local grocery was out, so we went with Hershey's bars instead. Best. Idea. Ever. It was like eating gently melted Hershey's bars, and sent everyone hopping off the walls with happiness. If I were going to remake the recipe (which, let's be honest, is a given), I might swap in a higher-quality chocolate bar, something like a nice Lindt, which is creamier and less acidic than Hershey's. Still, the fudge was simple, quick to make, and delicious, hitting what is in my opinion the perfect trifecta for a successful recipe. Check it out below and avoid the Facebook messages!

MILK CHOCOLATE FUDGE
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups Milk Chocolate Morsels
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with foil.
Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Stir in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract.
Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted.
Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.
Lift from pan; remove foil.
Cut into 48 pieces.

2009-09-08T00:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Ruesday(?): Labor No Labor Day

Hello reader(s)! I have had the nutsiest week, wherein my attempts to eat healthily did mostly crash and burn (I did eat a very nice balsamic-chicken salad, and another lemon-wine-chicken salad, but followed them up with pizza...). Work exploding like it sometimes does, I was lucky enough to get home at a reasonable (for me) hour, exercise, nap, and get in my daily Sims fix (my girl had twins last night! ...ok fine...) without worrying about food and/or writing about food. I did break down a chicken, though, and that was fun, if a little bloody and slippery...

So, what is the what-all this week? I'm in week 2 of no fiance, but getting excited for my first trip to Chicago on the weekend (Dear Southwest Airlines: How you doing? We will become good friends. Love, you know who). Dave and I have tentatively decided to nix the open bar at the wedding in favor of wine, beer (list by Steve), and a signature cocktail which we'll design, meaning if we get sloshed this weekend trying out various mixed drinks we aren't just drinking, we are researching (oh how I wish I could just plan the fun parts of the wedding, trying on dresses, auditioning hair and makeup people, sampling gourmet food and--heavens--cake. And yet, venues to be booked, churches to consider, guest lists to trim...).

Yesterday, a headache and slight chill left me wanting something easy and warming, so I broke out the giant frying pan for some lovely and delicious chili (it's getting to be that time of the year!). I'm starting to figure out now that spicy food gives me stomachaches the next morning, something to consider as I'm spooning that next amazing bite of firey-sweet chili (chicken tika masala, spiced fish, etc etc). Is this normal? I'd like to think I'm not stripping off my stomach lining, but somehow I never consider the ramifications when it's 5:30 and I'm hungry and that spicey food is just callin' my name...

So chili is likely for tonight, and damn the rumbly in my tumbly. For the rest of the week, I might tone things down with some fish or shrimp or salad, courtesy the ever-burgeoning farmers' markets of which New York is so fond. Then Friday I flit-fly off to Chicago to see Daaaave hooray!! Where will we go? What will we eat?? Who knows! But I am excited (as uus).

2009-08-31T00:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Keepin' Cool

Well, my wish was finally granted. Going to bed last night I felt a chill, gathered up my quilt, and huddled under the blankets. Sleepy and content, it took me a minute to discover what had actually happened: I was cold. Cold! In my apartment! In my poorly-ventilated, air-conditionerless, boxy, barren apartment! It was, oh, fantastic.

So, I am dreamily wafting through this week, cheered by the slight crisp in the air and dismayed that I have just managed to move my winter clothes out of my closet and into storage.

After this past weekend, though, and all the many weekends this summer filled with pizza, ice cream, cookies, hamburgers, soda, etc etc, I am craving plain, simple food that fills me up without filling me out. Although most people seem to gain weight in the winter time, I tend to switch things up (like a bear!), piling on the pounds in the summer to last me through a cold, dark winter. Of course, now that I am engaged and every personal trainer in the tri-state area is sniffing me out to remind me that no, in fact you cannot get married unless you go through something called "Bridal Body Boot-Camp Bonanza," the realization that there is more of me to love is even more distressing. So! With Dave rolling, rolling, rolling on a multi-hour drive to Chicago (tell them about the time you ran out of gas in the middle of the intersection...), I am looking forward to lighter meals.

Yes, I think I will put away the baking and deliciously cheesy, saucy, buttery dishes that I so love (at least most of the time), and focus more on salads, simple chickens, whole grains, and sugar-free alternatives (my big vice: amazingly sweet and tart fruit juices. mmm baby). Although I am mostly against going on diets, since I find them depressing and degrading (I spent one terrible month trying to follow a diet in Us Weekly that completely eliminated dairy, spices, and most carbs. Oooh I still shudder), I like finding meals that are healthy and delicious, relying more on blends of spices and subtle balances of natural flavors than addititives like butter, sugar, or cream. Plus, I am delighted to discover a slew of farmers' markets in the area, which hopefully will lead to better and fresher vegetables than I usually am subjected to (my little market is far, far, far away from organic yuppie-dom).

For tonight I am thinking of starting out simple: balsamic chicken salad with a sprinkle of walnuts and blue cheese, paired with a white wine. Not sure what I'll end up with for the rest of the week, but I did pull out my copy of Mark Bitman's Bitten, and the recipes there seemed to sing they were so amazing. So perhaps I'll work my way through that?

2009-08-25T00:00:00.002-04:00

La Cocina Espanol: Pollo al Ajillo

One of the best meals we cooked in Spain was, coincidentally, also the first. It was also not made by me. Our first night in our casita in the mountains, I was feeling woozy and headachey and tired, so Dave told me to take a shower, have a cup of tea, and relax while he cooked dinner. Did I mention I am thrilled to marry this guy? Although Dave does not usually flex his culinary muscles (sometimes he cooks for me for my birthday, and that is very nice), he usually does a good job, diligently following directions and sampling to his heart's content (which means a LOT. seriously. the guy will eat anything in any state of preparedness).

Dave made me garlic chicken, another typical dish in Spain, and as soon as it hit the table my wooziness went away, to be replaced with wild, ravenous hunger. And it was soooo delicious. I love garlic and generally feel that anything can be made better with a crushed clove or two, but this was inspired: coated with a fine mix of oil and garlic, lightly salted, it was simplicity at its best, a clean, strong-tasting, utterly delicious meal. I loved how the garlic was able to shine through, balanced by a restrained sprinkling of salt. Cooking the chicken--which was also much better than what you'd find in the U.S.--released its juices, which mixed and mingled with the garlic and oil. The resulting chicken was evenly coated with the delicious mixture, more a sauce than a flavoring. It was amazing.

Eating the chicken, Dave and I both marveled how delicious it was, but also how incredibly simple. In fact, Penelope Casas said when she asked the chef at one of her daughter's favorite restaurants for the recipe, he wrote back, essentially "Cut up a chicken, pan fry in oil and garlic, sprinkle with salt, serve."

Although the chicken is perfect for a simple meal (I could see these going fast at a picnic or tucked into a sandwich), it's a little too bare-bones for anything very fancy. In Spain, we had just the chicken, since Dave was so focused on the one meal he forgot the potatoes we also meant to eat, and it was good if bordering on bland. A few days ago, we recreated the meal, this time adding patatas bravas, the Spanish version of French fries which we downed at most tapas bars. Although our chicken dried out a little more than we wanted (poor timing--save the chicken, which cooks up in less than 10 minutes--for the end), it still paired wonderfully with the potatoes and the spicy, tangy patatas bravas sauce.

POLLO AL AJILLO
INGREDIENTS
2 chicken breasts, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
7-10 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat oil over medium heat in a large pan
Add chicken and cook until no longer pink
Add garlic and lower heat
Cook chicken until golden on both sides
Remove from pan and sprinkle with salt

Image from mundorecetas.net

2009-08-24T00:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Moanday: Beat the Heat

It's the last week in August and you know what that means: all the mid-winter's longings for warm breezes and sultry nights have collapsed in the reality of choking humidity and heat rash. After spending another night tossing and turning between my two dueling fans, cursing my landlords for maintaining that air conditioning is "not essential," I'm done with summer--done! Bring on September and fall, cool breezes, turning leaves, candy corn in Rite Aide (actually I think they start putting that out in May).

Yes, soon I will trade light fish and chicken meals (paired with some ice-cold lemonade) for hearty stews and chilis, warm dinners with thick rolls, hot chocolate on the weekends... sounds lovely, right?

Not that I'm upset with summer, but really. Last weekend Dave and I went down to the beach again (we managed to beat the traffic both ways, which was really quite impressive). We went out for seafood and I had lobster, something I rarely order in restaurants because they usually ask for your 401k to pay for it (admittedly, would not take much of a hit). It was delicious, if a bit tougher and less elegant than the way I usually eat it (nestled on a bed of fetticine alfredo oh heaven). Our beach plans were put on hold by Hurricane Bill, but we had a lovely visit from some old friends and I got to tell the engagement story again (I started noticing a lot of people saying things like "Now I need the real story from you," probably because when they'd ask Dave how the proposal went he'd say "Success!"). Saturday night was another epic mini-golf battle between Dave and Chris (they talked it up for about the past 6 months), where we were plagued by gnats and fake fog. We skipped ice cream at one of Avalon's many eateries for margaritas in pajamas, watched some ESPN (I was outnumbered), and went to bed.

And now, I am gearing up for Dave's last week on the east coast and the last week of summer (although my schedule will change, like, not at all). Dave will be spending three and a half days with me this week, a lovely change from the 48 hours in which we usually cram our relationship face time, and then we head beachward again for a "meet the in-laws" weekend with our parents.

For this week, I'm spoiled with visits from Dave and, hopefully, meet-ups with some college/high school friends before they head off to their respective universities. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'm thinking of switching to a healthier diet, something more plant and less starch-based (that roaring cheer in the distance is from my parents). That will probably have to wait a little while, though, because Dave and I are getting lunch together today, and then Evie is coming to Astoria, and then Dave and I are having a Central Park Shake Shack picnic on Wednesday (oooh so excited!), and I also just bought another 3lb tub of sherbet, and really my bursting fat cells should just rejoice.

Besides, it is easy to feel like I've just run a marathon when I'm sprawled out on my bed, panting and sweating half my body weight simply from walking up the stairs. Summer! Like an exercise in itself!

2009-08-20T00:00:00.002-04:00

Flat Earth Cookies: Good for You and Good for Eating!

I'm taking a break from my Spain-related posts to bring you...cookies!

For my second experience with the fun, exciting, foodie-crazed Taste and Create (created by Min to foster recipe exchanges amongst food bloggers), I was paired with Alisa's very good blog, One Frugal Foodie. Admittedly, trolling her smart and informative blog, I was a little concerned over what I could make. Alisa very wisely goes for foods that are healthy and good for you--full of fiber, whole grains, veggies, and fruits--in other words, foods that my family has been (unsuccessfully) trying to get me to eat since I was off the bottle (baby bottle. not, like, tequila bottle...). Although I'm not a health food person (as is plainly obvious visiting my page for oh 15 seconds), I enjoy finding foods that I can enjoy guilt-free, substituting them in for the cookies and cupcakes that regularly march through my life. So I was delighted to find a recipe for dairy, butter, and egg-free cookies that featured my all-time favorite cookie pairing: chocolate and oats.

It was years before I ate a proper oatmeal cookie, partly because they are almost always studded with raisins, and one of my biggest pet peeves is fruit inside my food (Dave has learned the best way to keep me from eating his breakfast is to order a cinnamon-raisin bagel, the scamp.). Finally, I approached a plate of cookies one day, wearily wondering if, again, those were raisins in those cookies, only to discover, to my great pleasure, they were in fact chocolate chips! Suddenly, I was in heaven, a best-of-both worlds discovery that brought the hearty crunch and rich texture of oatmeal cookies with the sharp sugary burst of chocolate chip. From then on I searched out my holy grail, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, only to have my hopes crushed by-ugh-raisins. I always knew I could make my own, just substitute chocolate chips for raisins, but I didn't have an excuse (or justification to make 48 cookies for myself) until finding Alisa's recipe.

I was pleased to discover the recipe, although requiring me to get special ingredients (it calls for applesauce, flax meal, and oats), was extremely simple; no mashing in butter, no tentative adding of flour. Unfortunately, I did run into a few mishaps, but luckily they had little or no effect on the overall taste. First, I discovered that, indeed, 90-degree weather reaches your kitchen cabinets, where it will melt your chocolate chips into a gooey mess. Although I was initially concerned, it turned out to be a non-issue: the chocolate blended smoothly into the cookies, creating a uniformly chocolate cookie that was totally delish. My second problem was rather than cook into sturdy, round little cookies, they collapsed and swelled until they completely covered the cookie sheet like one giant mass. This also had an easy solution for the next time I made the cookies--add a little more flour to stabilize it into more of a dough than a mix (mine was a little runny, but kept its shape well when I dropped it onto the sheet so I thought I was home clear). And again, no real effect on the final product; they were cooked through, crispy but not burnt (just the way I like em), and instead of cookies I served them as bars, no fuss no muss.

I was so so pleased with the final result (I christened them Flat Earth cookies, thanks to their terrain-like texture and, you know, flatness). They were crunchy and sugary, rich with chocolate but also hearty, thanks to the oats and flax meal. Also, knowing exactly how much (or little) sugar was in them, I was able to enjoy them the way all cookies deserve: feet up, smiling, cookie crumbs falling all over my face. They're the perfect after-work snack or post-workout pick-me-up, a healthy, delicious sugar rush :)

FLAT EARTH COOKIES
INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Brown Sugar, Packed
1/4 Cup Grapeseed, Canola, or Vegetable Oil
1/4 Cup Water or Milk Alternative of choice (plain or vanilla)
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1/4 Cup Flax Meal
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 Cup White or Brown Rice Flour (add more to make mix more doughy)
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Oat Flour*
2 Cups Rolled Oats, Quinoa, or Rice Flakes
1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350ºF (180°C, or gas mark 4).
With a mixer or by hand, cream together the brown sugar, oil, water or milk alternative, applesauce, flax, and vanilla until smooth.
Add the remaining ingredients except for the oats and chocolate chips, and mix until dough is well combined. Add the oats and mix again until all ingredients are combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Use a small ice cream/cookie scoop or drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto the baking sheet. Flatten slightly.
Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned and semi-soft to the touch in the middle. Let cookies sit for a few minutes before removing from baking sheet. Remove from baking sheet to a flat surface (like a large plate) or wire rack to cool completely before enjoying.

* To make oat flour (gluten-free or regular), place some oats in your spice grinder and whiz for about 30 seconds, or until they are pulverized into a flour.

2009-08-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

La Cocina Espanol: A Brief History of Paella

My favorite line in Penelope Casa's The Food and Wines of Spain (aka my and Dave's foodie bible while traveling) is a quote from a Spanish food critic in response to canned paella:

"Canned paella?! How can you can paella? It's like trying to can the sun...or poetry!"

Spaniards take their paella seriously, and reading Casa's book, I learned to take it seriously, too. The paella rules? ONLY to be eaten where you can see the ocean, ONLY in Valencia--Spanish rice country, and ONLY with fish and seafood that was swimming about 30 seconds prior to dropping in the pan. She also strongly encouraged readers to seek out paella made directly on the fishing boats where the fish are caught, a process that places so much emphasis on freshness that even sitting in a restaurant is too far away and paella purists must instead gather on the beach like waiting seagulls. However even she contended that this was maybe going a little too far.

Paella was born in Valencia, where the ubiquitous rice paddies dot an otherwise arid region. Named for the Catalan word for pan, paella is seasoned with saffron, a spice found in many Spanish dishes due to the Moorish influence in the country. Although I was most anxious to try seafood paella, the dish's popularity throughout Spain means there are myriad varieties, from Valenican paella, which is made with rice, beans, green vegetables, and meat, to paella flavored with chicken or lobster. A sign of a good paella is that it's served directly in the pan in which it was cooked, rather than scooped up from a communal pot. The paella should be crispy on the bottom, and warm throughout, cooked together with the rice and meat or seafood to allow the flavors to properly mix.

The first time I went to Spain, when I was 16 (I think? oh memory), my family and I ate paella at an outdoor restaurant in Madrid. It was not pleasant. Although you can smoke pretty much anywhere anytime in Europe, outdoor eating tends to attract the greatest plumes of smoke, and I was unfortunately sitting behind a woman who courteously blew her smoke away from her tablemates and onto my face. After I convulsively hacked away, she eventually realized what was happening, apologized, and stopped, but my first memories of paella are mostly clouded (heh) by that unfortunate experience. Later, I would learn that in breaking all the paella rules, the giant pan my family dug into with gusto was, in all likelihood, subpar. I think I probably ordered chicken anyway.

So when Dave and I arrived in Spain, I vowed to make amends and give paella another try. Valencia was on our list of places to visit, but at the last minute we decided to veer off for a day trip to France (we ended up driving for many, many hours, seeing a castle, and spending a night in a very hot and very cheap hotel). Although I was disappointed I couldn't sample (and steal) some of the long-grained Spanish rice Casa rhapsodized in her book, my dreams of eating paella cerca del mar were revived our last few nights in Spain, when we visited the city of Tarragona.

Tarragona, a Catalan city built by the Romans, sits on the Mediterranean a few hours north of Valencia. Although it lacks Valencia's famous rice paddies, it's full of wonderful seafood places, which means paella is almost a requisite for most restaurants. We visited one our first night there, where Dave finally got his pulpo (octopus. I know.) and I dug into a plateful of paella. My first impressions were not so great. It tasted mushier than I'd thought it would, with the rice thicker and more like risotto. The restaurant also skimped on the seafood, decorating the dish with lovely--and empty--cockle shells. I took that to mean I could do better, and so I don't hold the world of paella responsible for my two less than pleasant meals.

Still, even through the paltry seafood and the sticky rice, I could taste faint glimmers of loveliness. The rice, flavored with saffron, had brief moments where it was comfortingly warm and fragrant, filling without being weighty. Paired with fresh, fresh seafood--rich, sweet, faintly alive seafood--I saw how the dish could really taste. If anything, my disappointing meal has left me even hungrier for real paella, a shame since Casa is unsurprisingly disdainful of American mock-ups. Such is the price of perfection!

2009-08-18T00:00:00.001-04:00

La Cocina Espanol: Entrecot con Queso Cabrales

One of the last meals Dave and I put together ourselves (well, I put it together, but Dave helped in other ways about which I'll elaborate later) was steak in a blue cheese sauce made from the local pungent, delicious cheese: queso cabrales. I have always had a special fondness for blue cheese, which is a cheese you can't mess around with, and the queso cabrales variety did not disappoint. Made from cow's milk mixed with sheep and goat's milk, it is a true regional speciality (only cheese made from herds in Asturias--the region where we were staying--wrapped in leaves and aged in mountain caves, can be called queso cabrales). That meant one very good thing and one very bad thing, namely, (the good) that the cheese we had was so delicious and unique that it was truly an amazing experience to eat and (the bad) it is utterly, ridiculously impossible to find and enjoy anywhere else.*

We first sampled the cheese in a restaurant in Potes, the largest town near our house. I'd been looking forward to sampling local cheese for days (we passed a queseria--a cheese shop--and I almost yanked the wheel out of Dave's hands to stop there) and was delighted to find the restaurant offered a cheese plate as a tapa. When we finally got the platter, overflowing with about 8 different varieties (cue glazed eyes, watering mouth, romantic music), we wished there was some kind of guide to show what we were eating, since the cheeses were so distinct and delicious we were curious as to know what they all were. The queso cabrales, though, was immediately distinguishable, being the only blue cheese on the platter. We both sampled some, loading a little on a piece of bread, taking a tentative bite, and sitting back in our chairs like we'd been punched in the face. Queso cabrales is strong, especially in comparison to the mild goat and sheep's cheese that also scattered the plate. The sharp pungency of blue cheese was especially evident here, where each tiny bite released a cloud of distinct aroma. Dave decided that it was a little too strong for him (he favored a smoother goat cheese along with a block of apple honey jelly), but I was intrigued.

Thumbing through our Spanish foods cookbook, I found a recipe for steak and queso cabrales that I knew we had to try. I love love love steak paired with fine cheese (I still idly dream of a filet mignon topped with gouda that Jenna and Steve served at their rehearsal dinner...)--the charred and smoky meat is enriched by the salty fattiness or sharp flavors of the cheese. While Dave campaigned for seafood--for some reason he really wanted some octopus--I argued that we were far from the ocean, in cow country, with access to a delicious cheese we couldn't find anywhere else in the world. Defeated yet hungry, he agreed.

The steak was to be pan-fried and drenched in a sauce made from lemon juice, white wine, paprika, and melted queso cabrales. Ok, this sounds pretty easy and, in fact, it probably could have been. The only problem was that the recipe called for a very small amount of white wine, leaving me and Dave with most of the bottle, plus the entire bottle of red we'd bought for the meal. Since we were leaving the next day and facing the prospect of downing a bottle of wine each, we hit it early, hoping to get rid of the white before dinner and leaving the red for a leisurely meal. To summarize, 2 bottles of wine + 2 Americanos + 2 empty stomachs + 1 long day filled with hiking in the sun + hot pots and pans = not a good idea. We are lucky we didn't burn down the house, let alone end up with a halfway edible meal. I think the real problem was, without any measuring spoons, I was left to guess some sort of workable ratio for the liquids to cheese, which left the sauce far too liquidy for my tastes. Also, my normal methods for pan frying steak--stick it in a warm oven first for 2-3 minutes--were thrown off without an oven, and I had to resort to the messy and smoky method of turn up the heat and get out the kitchen.

While the end result in Spain tasted ok, I knew with closer attention to the ratios I could end up with something creamy and delicious. Yesterday, I visited the supermarket to see what kind of queso cabrales substitute I could come up with. I went with a basic crumbled blue cheese, which came nowhere near close the sharpness of queso cabrales, but at least still preserved the musty, distinct odor of blue cheese. Carefully measured and melted, the sauce came out so so good: thick and creamy, tangy and full. The meal also benefited from my vastly improved methods for pan-frying steak (I used low heat, a thick steak, and a very good pan). The steak in of itself was delicious--lightly seared edges giving way to a tender and buttery center--but coated with a layer of the cheese sauce became something entirely unique, if not quite the epicurean delight of the real thing.

ENTRECOT CON QUESO CABRALES
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 pound queso cabrales or crumbled blue cheese
4 teaspoons white wine
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
dash paprika
dash pepper
steak, at least 1 inch thick
clarified butter for frying

DIRECTIONS:
About an hour before cooking, season sides of steak with salt and paper, cover in paper towels, and sit out at room temperature
In a double boiler, melt the cheese and add the white wine, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, and pepper.
Stir constantly until all the cheese is melted and the sauce is creamy
Place steak into oven and turn heat on to about 200 degrees
3-4 minutes later, remove steak from oven and place on a heavy-duty, buttered frying pan over medium heat
Cook untouched for about 4 minutes
Flip and cook for another 4 minutes, then another 90 seconds on each side
Remove steak from heat, drizzle with cheese sauce, and serve

*As with most things, thanks to the magic of the Internets you can order queso cabrales online. It is, wait for it, $137 for 6 pounds at Gourmet Food Ideas. Dave and I got a pound in Asturias for about 6 euro.

2009-08-17T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Moanday: Is it Friday Yet?

Ever have those weeks where you wake up and it's Monday morning and the very first thing you think of is how long it is until the weekend again? Yeah, me too.

After a relaxing weekend with friends and (future) family, I had a long and exhausting trip home, which has left me worn-out and low-down for the start of an unfortunately very busy work week. Maybe it's allergies? End of summer blues? Post-vacation let down?

Anyway.

I did at least have a nice weekend with Dave's family, where we made delicious fudge (about which more will be posted later). And despite post-vacation let down, there are still a slew of Spanish recipes hiding out in my computer, just waiting to be blogged about. And I've been partnered with Alisa of One Frugal Foodie for this month's Taste and Create session, so be on the lookout for some frugal food!

Plans are to recreate this week's La Cocina Espanol recipe, entrecot con queso cabrales, with American ingredients, partly because it's delicious and partly because I forgot to take photos the first time around (I also came up with a new theory regarding pan-frying steak that I want to try out). And I want to try something refreshing and delicious, like maybe a chilled soup or ice-cold fish dish, seeing as it is humid as Hades in my apartment (only in New York City is air conditioning considered "non-essential"). So here's hoping some delicious meals this week will save me from exhausted, worn-out, depressing drudgery, woohoo!

(or I might just go home and eat ice cream all week, counting down the seconds until the weekend...)

2009-08-12T00:00:00.003-04:00

La Cocina Espanol: A Brief History Of Sidra

Although my year+ of working at a pub taught me to appreciate beer in ways no college-kid kegger could, it's still not the first thing I reach for at a bar. I'm not quite the girly-girl smackin' on her Smirnoff Raspberry or downing appletinis (unless I'm at a Scrubs theme party), but I might lean towards a white wine if it's a nicer place or maybe a Sam Summer if we're in Boston.

So I was intrigued when we got to Basque country and Dave started talking about sidra, a hard cider native to the region. I like American hard cider (I favor Original Sin), but I was completely blown away by sidra and could have happily smuggled bottles and bottles of the stuff through customs had I not been scared by Rebecca's story of her own attempts to transport beer (smashed bottles, alcoholic luggage, angry fellow passengers). It was less sweet than American hard cider, but tangier, fresher, and more bitingly alcoholic--I could have had it breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and probably would have, too, as the siderias where it's served were open all day.

My love for sidra is so profound that I was not even terribly embarassed by my and Dave's sidra faux pas the first time we drank it. We had arrived in San Sebastian, a coastal town not far from Bilboa, and exhausted and hungry, asked the hotel to direct us to the closest bar. Muching on pinchos (sandwiches), we asked the bartender for a bottle of sidra. He obligingly got one from the fridge, uncorked it, and stuffed a small green spout in the mouth. Dave immediately removed the spout, poured our drinks, and we clinked glasses and enjoyed. It tasted good--refreshingly appley if a little flat--and we finished the bottle, paid our check, and headed back to the hotel, not even questioning what that little spout was for.

Days later, we discovered our error: sidra, as enjoyed in Basque country, is poured into a glass held about 3 feet away from the bottle. Once it splashes in the glass (if you're good enough to actually aim it into the glass), it releases tiny bubbles that churn the cider, unleashing a flood of rich, unique taste. The difference between our quietly poured glasses and the fizzing, splashing, correctly-poured sidra was like the difference between flat Coke and regular--no comparison, it was just so much better. The bubbling added a rich texture and complexity of flavor, allowing the odor of fresh apples to better reach your nose. While sidra on its own is pretty good, fizzy, bubbly, messy sidra is utterly amazing.

Like any good regional drink, the amount of care and thought put into crafting, pouring, and enjoying sidra was amazing. In Asturias, we came across strange contraptions with shelves and hoses mounted to the walls of bars. Asking for a glass of sidra, we saw the thing in action: a machine designed to fizz up the drink and drop it into the glass without making a giant mess. Because the truth is, sidra is messy to drink. The precision needed to pour it into a glass is ridiculous (for days I thought it couldn't be that hard, until Dave allowed me to try it a few times. About three drops landed in the glass), and even pros concede a few splashes will hit the floor. If it wasn't so delicious, I would have even wondered whether the pour from above thing was just a ruse made up by enterprising siderias that wanted to sell more bottles--afterall, you lose at least a glass of the stuff through pouring.

Because sidra is made only in special farm/restaurants called sagardotegi, it's not sold in the U.S. or even in most parts of Spain. Bottled, it can last about a year, but since it must stay cool, it's almost exclusively drunk in northern Spain (some Basque restuarants will serve sidra, though, like one we found in Tarragona). Still, if you do make it up to the northern regions of Spain, sidra will almost certainly be the most popular drink available, bubbling and fizzing its way into your heart.

2009-08-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

La Cocina Espanol: Tortilla de Patatas

When Dave and I finally arrived at our lovely little casita de madera in Villaverde, a town of approximately 20 people near los Picos de Europa national park, I was pleasantly pleased to discover we had a well-stocked little kitchen. No oven or fancy cookware, but a nice supply of the basics: two electric burners, wide sink, array of pots and pans, tiny fridge--perfect for our 5-day stay. For the whole trip, I'd been anxiously looking forward to getting out there to cook, but when game time rolled around, I totally dropped the ball, spending our first night sprawled out on the bed, headachey and carsick from several hours of driving on winding mountain roads (Dave eventually learned to be a mountain-driving pro, but that first day... phew...). Luckily, my funny honey put together a delicious, fantastic meal (chicken in alioli, or garlic, sauce) that left both of us impressed, but rather than starting the Spanish food posts with that, I'm going with the quintessential Spanish meal, and the first Spanish food I cooked: the humble yet delicious potato omelet.

The potato omelet, or tortilla de Espana, is a large, fluffy, and potato-stuffed, resembling more quiche than American omelet, which is thin and flat in comparison. It also has little to do with the American tortilla, a flatbread made from corn or wheat. You can get a tortilla de patatas in any bar in Spain, usually for lunch or dinner (breakfast in Spain consisting of little more than tea or coffee with a croissant or hot chocolate with churros), but it's not too difficult to make (unless you are una Americana trying it for the first time).

As usual, I followed the directions in Penelope Casas' The Food and Wines of Spain, which Dave and I pored over for the extent of the trip (she will get her own post in due time). Since the instructions were, essentially, slice and fry potatoes, beat eggs, fry and flip, I figured we would be on easy street (I was also hampered by not having a referential photograph). My tortilla de Espana turned out a little thin, a little crumbly, but quite delicious, with the sweetly charred potato bits setting off the simplicity of the eggs. In truth, it looked like any typical American potato omelet rather than the thicker, cakier version in Spain. Since I only discovered this upon my return to the homeland, and it tasted good anyway, Dave and I feasted, pleasantly naive.

Upon further research, I would suggest beating the eggs until they are very, very fluffy and doubling the number you think you would want (Dave and I went with four eggs, but should have either used a smaller pan or gone with 6-8). This will help the eggs rise a few inches and the potatoes to set evenly. Also, when cooking the potatoes, try to think of it as boiling in oil, rather than frying. The potatoes should be soft and loose, not cooked together (frequent stirring helps). I heavily garlicked my oil, since I love garlic, and omitted the onions, since I don't love onions. Flipping the tortilla also seems to be one of those things you need practice (and courage) to do correctly (and even then you might run into some trouble. See Child, Julia).

TORTILLA DE ESPANA
INGREDIENTS:
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 gloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
1-2 large potatoes, washed, peeled, and sliced
8 large eggs
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat until rippling
Add garlic, periodically crushing with a large spoon
When garlic is very lightly browned, remove and throw away
Add potatoes, stirring frequently until they are soft and thoroughly cooked
Remove potatoes and pour out oil (it can be saved and reused if you like)
Beat eggs until light and fluffy (a small amount of milk can be added, if desired)
Add potatoes to egg mixture and cook over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes
Using a plate or wide spatula (or your own wits), flip tortilla and cook the other side
When thoroughly cooked, flip again; both sides should be well-browned
Remove from pan and season with salt and pepper

2009-08-10T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Moanday: No, Now I'll Talk About Spain

Phew. Lo siento, kiddies. For some reason I thought I would actually have the gumption to write many, many Spain posts while still unpacking my luggage, announcing my engagement to the world, and filling in for someone at work. Well, optimism always was my best quality...

Yes, rather than lovingly recounting my favorite Spanish gastronomic memories, I spent my week picking over my smelly and wrinkly clothes (I'll clean it up soon, I promise), spending long hours at work, and replying back to well-wishing friends and family. Thankfully, this week should be much, much easier, starting off and finishing up with visits from my lovely fiance. I actually already have two Spanish posts in the tube, just waiting for the finishing touches (and pictures, recipes) before I post them, so stay tuned (browsed?)!

Dave and I just got back from Boston, where we celebrated our engagement with some friends and family and were treated to free ice cream, beers, and various other delicious things. We also visited the Border Cafe (!!!) and I sunk into a happy stupor of chimichurri steak and pastelitos (better even than I remembered...). Some day, oh some day I will recreate those recipes... The next day we swam a little in Walden Pond before getting some pizza (meat lover's) and ice cream (vanilla with cookies + chocolate with caramel). I stuffed myself with both, unawares that we were later heading out for beers and BBQ with Dave's soccer friends (hi Nate! I told you I would mention you here!). I went with a few sliders, which even then had me so full I could have rolled out of the bar. We topped off our weekend of delicious/unhealthy eating with a visit to Kimball's! I had a hot dog and some seriously delicious waffle fries (we spent a good 10 minutes discussing how they get their distinctive shape) before the requisite ice cream (I wisely eschewed the hot fudge, whipped cream sundae for a simpler cookie dough cone with sprinkles). And now I am fat, happy, and ready to eat things not deep fried and/or made of pure sugar.

This week, I'm hoping to get back into cooking new things and eating well (last week's meals--chicken tikka masala and lemon salmon with fetticine alfredo were delish but predictable), as well as getting my rear in gear and attending to the various tasks and errands I should have done last week (also: plan a wedding). I may try the chicken in white sauce recipe on the frying pan, which may or may not be successful, and a nice, light salad or pasta dish.

2009-08-06T00:00:00.001-04:00

I'm Getting a Fancy New Dishwasher!

By which I mean, I am engaged! Yes, dear readers, my sweet kiddo finally popped the question while we were hiking in the mountains in Spain, in a lovely field of wildflowers that would not look out of place in a Disney movie. I am absolutely thrilled, and not just because I will no longer be cooking for one, will get to sample wedding cakes, and will have someone to wash my dishes.

Unfortunately the married life will be far off, as Dave is Chicago-bound for school and I am in New York clinging to the last media job left in the world. Still, I'm pleased with my bling and Dave and I have spent the last two weeks raising the roof calling each other "fianceeeh, hooooh, heeeey, hoooh!"

So what does this mean for the blog? Nothing! It is just a bit of good news I wanted to share with my small (but loyal?) band of readers (hello!). To celebrate, please enjoy this riDICulous wedding cake from Charm City Cakes, which is amazing and gorgeous and so far out of my budget it has actually sprouted wings and flown off, like a lovely, custard-filled dream...

2009-08-03T17:27:00.004-04:00

Happy Moanday: Back from Spain!

Well! It has been a fantastic, wonderful, relaxing, exciting two weeks, but I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that I am home in the states again after a whirlwind trip in Spain. It was absolutely wonderful, and I diligently photoed and noted and sampled foods from Barcelona to Bilboa and back again. I am still dreaming of spicy chorizo, pungent queso cabrales, crunchy-sweet crema Catalana, and tangy sidra, and my disappointment that I can't get these things in the U.S. (especially the sidra. That stuff--bubbly hard cider from Basque country--is awesome) is only slightly tempered by the multitude of posts I'm expecting to cull from this trip. I have many, many recipes to share, foods to feature, and delicious/humorous foodie experiences to relate, and expect Res-o-puh-leese--Espanol-style to kick in starting tomorrow.

For the most part, I have to say I completely fell in love with Spanish food, as I'd hoped and expected. Although I often stuck to the Spanish PB&J equivalent of jamon y queso bocadillos (ham and cheese sandwiches), I ventured out to try a variety of new foods (the weirdest stuff I would encourage Dave to get so as I could limit my venturing to a small sampling, see: monkfish in Tarragona). Most everything I tried was absolutely amazing--a blend of flavors and textures unlike anything in the U.S.--and even Dave's and my fledgling attempts at Spanish cooking were pulled off mostly without a hitch (and with lots and lots of Spanish wine).

Of course, I returned to my little apartment awash in humidity and smelly clothes, dreaming of the crisp cool mountain air in Asturias (far from Astoria), and wondering what I would eat after two weeks without American food. My rumbling tummy had all day been asking for one thing and one thing only, something which I saw Spaniards try and epically fail to replicate: my sweet and hearty chicken tikka masala.

I'll get some Spanish-related posts up soon, but until then, buen provecho y me gusta volver al blog!

2009-07-14T00:00:00.001-04:00

Breakfast Pizza

A few weeks ago, I tried making homemade pizza--dough, sauces, toppings--and was generally pleased with the results. Yes, the dough took 24 hours to rise and came out a little thick and chewy and yes the sauce was sort of uninspired and rather dull, but for a first attempt, things could have certainly gone worse. Still, generally pleased is not good enough for me, especially when it comes to pizza. I wanted better--crispier, sweeter, more thickly cheesy. I had to try again. I knew exactly what I wanted: thin crust with a sweeter-than-usual tomato sauce. I already had the perfect toppings in mind (more on that later), and it wouldn't hurt either if I didn't have to prepare everything a day earlier. Hopeful and hungry, I started my search.

First, the sauce. To me, the sauce on a pizza is one of the most crucially important factors. The toppings get all the attention and the crust is what defines the pizza, but the sauce is so individual and unique and defines the flavor in an important way (don't believe me? Try eating pizza in any elementary school cafeteria. Most places get the crust and cheese fine, but sandwich between them brown, crusty, dried-out tomato sauce. Oh yum.). While I'm sure it's all about preference, my favorite pizza sauce (other than the kind we make our pizzas with at home) is thin but not watery and sweet in a fresh, not cloying, way. It should be fragrant and complex without overpowering any of the other parts of the pizza, and finally, it should cook well, remaining fresh, red, and moist despite a jaunt in a 500-degree oven.

With a little Google-searching, I found the perfect recipe: Iron Mike's Sweet Tomato Pizza Sauce. Mike, who based his own recipe after a much-beloved sauce at a much-beloved Cincinnati restaurant, used honey and brown sugar to sweeten up this basic sauce (this time I had honey but no brown sugar. I substituted raw cane sugar), and the results were great. Maybe not as jaw-droppingly vibrant as my favorites (even Mike admits his disappointment when he compares it to the pizza place's), but certainly sweet, certainly easy, and--with 2-3 pizzas' worth of leftovers sitting in my fridge--certainly making a comeback to my dinner table in the future.

Next step was the crust, and here I really lucked out. I am a fan of super-thin, super-crispy pizza crust (not quite cracker texture, but close). My last dough was chewy and thick, not terrible once I addressed the chewy part but still, you know, not what I wanted. I stumbled across Robbie's Recipes, which featured various pizza-Italian food doughs (also had calzone dough, which I found intriguing). A glance at the thin-crust recipe had me skeptical--there was absolutely no rising time for the dough. Not even a "let it sit for 10 minutes." Nothing. Never, in my year of baking breads and doughs and pastas, have I ever come across a dough that needed no rising. In fact, everything I've read has been in favor of more rising, a process that allows the glutens in the bread to relax and soften and reveals more of the bread's flavors. Robbie answered that question in a footnote: baking the dough immediately makes it thin crust, letting it rise will make it thicker. I love the idea of making pizza and eating it less than an hour later. I had to try. And good thing I did--it was so amazingly good. It cooked up perfectly, smooth and crisp and golden brown and oh oh oh so delicious. I will only ever use this recipe (add me to Robbie's long list of admirers).

Finally, the toppings. Ages ago I fell in love with a pizza topped with a fried egg. It was so fantastically good and I loved it so much that one time, in the midst of a blizzard, I was struck with such a crazing for it that I walked 40 minutes there and back, in the snow and sleet, to get a pie (even the guys working there were like "That's commitment." They even gave me a free Coke because they felt bad they weren't delivering!). Since I always wanted to try it at home, and I had some leftover bacon, I concocted a breakfast pizza: diced egg-white omelet with fried bacon, topped with mozzarella and parmesan. I was nervous, especially when my roommate accepted my offer of a slice (I don't generally like to try out my weird experiments on unsuspecting innocents, but she was eating her own dinner so I figured couldn't be terrible if she had to throw it away). Surprisingly, it turned out great! The sulphurous taste of the eggs was nicely complimented by the cheese, and the sweetness of the sauce turned out to balance the bacon quite well.

So, the second time around, my pizza-making skillz have vastly improved (that or my Google-searching skillz)! Still must work on flipping the dough into the air...

SWEET TOMATO SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cloves fresh minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
fresh ground pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat
Carefully add the Tomato Puree--it will splatter
Add everything else and simmer uncovered on low, stirring frequently, for 30-60 minutes, until desired consistency

check out the THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH recipe at Robbie's website!

2009-07-13T00:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: I Viajar to Espana!

Well, the countdown has finally begun in earnest! In less than a week, I will be wandering around sunny Barcelona with my puppy, looking terribly American and forgetting my 8 years of Spanish classes (lo siento, Hermana Josefine!). It is exciting and wonderful and I am so thrilled that I'm half-worried I'll be completely worn out by Sunday, like a little kid who stays awake the week before her birthday and ends up sleeping through the whole thing. Dave has been happily tromping along on the Camino, not getting trampled by bulls in Pamplona, and product-testing my blog with European browsers (hi kiddo!).

Our plan is a few days in Barcelona and San Sebastien and a few days in the mountains, in a tiny 300-person village. Since I am a bit anxious about what we're going to be eating, I've starting reading Penelope Casa's The Foods and Wines of Spain, which presents a whole number of Spanish recipes, from tapas to sopas to carne (appetizers, soups, meats). My plan is to also find a Spanish grandma and ask her what we should eat (taking copious notes/pictures, of course), and with any luck be adopted and stuffed fully.

What I think is a little strange is how excited I am to eat. This is incredible to me, since a lot of my trips to foreign countries have been filled with anxiety over not having access to Cheerios or Mac n Cheese. While there are still some places on the planet where I think I would get skinny quick (ever tried 100-year-old egg?), I'm finally shaking free of my picky eating habits and feeling more willing to embrace the unusual (of course, I'm also traveling to a country where bacon is an art form, cheese is a part of every meal, and veggies are almost unheard of). I'm excited to go shopping and hopefully learn culinary skills from the people we meet and sample regional fare. My dream: fresh paella when we visit Tarragona on the Mediterranean, goat cheese from the goats wandering in the mountains, olive oil from the arid eastern coast... How much of this can I fit in my suitcase?

So while I dream of delicious food and steadily check off everything I need, I still need to feed myself! I'm not traveling this weekend (unless, you know, you count going to Spain), so I should be busily cooking. I may test out some of my Spanish recipes, but I'm thinking I might hold off until I can get my hands on the real thing. My throat has been bothering me for a few days, so I may put together my Boo-Hoo Flu Soup, or something equally soothing. My mom told me about a recipe that sounds lovely and delicious--a mousse made with Cool Whip and strawberry yogurt--and so I might also keep this week to simple and delicious. Of course, I looooved my pizza from last week (it gets a post soon!), and if my brother stops by this weekend, I may make it for us.

The blog will likely be on hiatus until I return in August, as presumably I will be spending Internet cafe time telling friends and family I am alive and well, rather than updating Res-o-puh-leese. So, dear readers, enjoy this week and I will Happy Moanday up a storm in a few weeks!

2009-07-08T00:00:00.007-04:00

Real Green Shoots: A Disappointing Bounty

*When I planted my little garden, lo those many weeks ago, I had visions of overflowing baskets full of leafy basil, hearty thyme, and delicate rosemary, the theme song to Green Acres playing full blast in my head.

And yet, after the wettest June in a century, interspersed with hot, dry weekends when I was far from my little garden, my plants remain sunburnt and stringy, and the theme song is less Green Acres than the Opening Song to The Secret Garden musical (you know, where all the characters get cholera and die). It doesn't help, of course, that I also came across Martha Martha Martha (perfection thy name is Stewart) glowing over the Edible Herb Garden she developed for the New York Botanical Garden (it is full of baby bunnies and "many fragrant herbs and plants." Le sigh).

How did it come to this? Can my garden be salvaged? Should I dig everything up, plant some pumpkins, and never look back? Come, dear readers, on a photographic tour of my little slice of paradise.

My depressingly stringy thyme.
Let us remember that the thyme was planted April 29,
more than 10 weeks ago (average planting-to-harvest time? 6 weeks)

I think this is something that someone who doesn't know
much about plants would say is sage.
Again, that's just a guess.

These are my cosmos. They are far and away doing the best,
which is fantastic because there's nothing like cosmo salad

Marigolds, I think.
Really everything just looks sort of green and stubby

Except for these zinnias, which are brown and stubby.

I'm curious to see what happens to these sweet peas.
The package said they are "prolific growers."
I think mine have achievement anxiety.

This planter makes me sad.
It was full of cheerfully-growing herbs before 40 days of rain washed them out.
By the time I got back after a particularly rainy weekend,
My little plants looked like kelp, gently swaying in the waves.
Only the cosmos (I planted them twice) survived.

Troopers.

These lush beauties are truly the only thing to thrive.
About two weeks ago they were covered in gorgeous purple flowers,
and the little buds already growing promise more.
The catch?
No one planted them. My former roommates left the planter on the balcony two years ago
and haven't watered or tended to it in a year.
Sigh.

*More than two posts in one week?! Quell surprise.

2009-07-07T00:00:00.001-04:00

Mellow-Yellow Chicken

I have to say, I don't really cook chicken too often. Other than the white sauce-covered bbq chicken or panko-crusted chicken fingers, chicken isn't usually something I think of with much interest. Part of that is, I think, because chicken is not usually very aspirational. My first tentative forays into cooking started with chicken, from the butter-drenched fried chicken I'd make for my family in high school, to the burnt-to-a-crisp, heavily seasoned chicken Dave and I made together when experiencing cooking for ourselves for the first time. It's not like there's anything wrong with chicken, but it can get boring, and, to me, falls in the same category as potatoes as something without very strong flavor that can be a vehicle for whatever spices or sauces you throw on it.

So when I do happen to stumble across a new pan-fried chicken recipe, I generally email it to myself and then promptly forget it, until it's 5:30 and I'm starving and bored and still need to go shopping and hel-lo chicken! Like last night!

I found this lemon-saffron-green bean salad-chicken recipe online at the Food Network, and the different mix of spices (as well as the quick prep and easy clean up) made it a good candidate for a late Monday night dinner. Because I am me, I swapped out the green bean salad part (I had some half-hearted idea to eat an actual salad, but lost interest in the face of battle), and my lack of honey and mint meant it had a little less flavor than I would have liked. But, it was moist, interesting, and had a nice mix of spices (mellow yellow from the saffron, lemon). A keeper, in my opinion.

This was one of the easiest (cheapest) grocery trips; all I needed was a lemon and some chicken, since I had all the other ingredients at home (except I forgot the honey, which I could have sworn I had a lot of...). Things started out simply enough: I boiled a lightly-pierced lemon (smelled wooonderful) and marinated my chicken. With 50 minutes until the lemon would be ready, I showered, cleaned my room, and watched some Family Guy, pleased, as I always am when this happens, that I wasn't being lazy--I was cooking!

Next, I pan-fried the chicken, during which GIANT FLAMES shot out of the pan. This was my very first grease fire, and I did ok! No burnt chicken, I just plopped the lid on top of the pan, turned on the oven, and hoped my roommate didn't notice. I de-pulped the lemon and diced the lemon peel, then put the chicken on a plate and coated with lemon juice. I sprinkled on the diced peel, a little sugar (to substitute the honey), and some salt, then settled in to eat.

It wasn't bad! The lemon peel, which I was a little weirded out to eat at first, was actually pretty good--light and springy (best to dice as small as possible, around the size of red pepper flakes). The sugar didn't add much, mostly I think because I was afraid to add too much, but I bet the honey would taste fantastic. All in all, it was cheap, easy, reasonably good for you, and still pretty tasty.

LEMON-SAFFRON CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS
1 lemon, preferably unwaxed
1 1/4 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste, divided
Pinch saffron
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 pound skinless boneless chicken breast, pounded to 1/2-inch thick
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon honey
Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Prick the lemon in 3 or 4 places with a fork and place in a small pot with 1 teaspoon of salt and cover with water.
Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 50 minutes or until the lemon is very tender.
In the meantime, mix the saffron, mint, garlic, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a small bowl.
Pour the marinade into a sealable plastic bag, add the chicken and let it marinate while you prepare the other ingredients.
Preheat a large skillet or grill pan, coated with olive oil.
Cook the chicken for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.
Cut into bite-sized chunks.
Slice the ends off of the lemon and slice it in half lengthwise.
Scoop out the pulp.
Dice the peel into very small pieces.
In a large bowl, combine the chicken, lemon, and thyme.
In a small bowl combine the rest of the lemon juice and the honey, whisk in the remainder of the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Pour the dressing over the chicken and serve.

2009-07-06T00:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Bon Voyage, Puppy

Well, Dave is currently slipping into extra-large hiking boots and starting two weeks of blisters and sunburn as he treks the Camino in Spain. I am bummed to go two weeks without chats (literal, electronic), but excited for the next part of his Spain trip, in which he rides a bus to Barcelona and picks me up at the airport (!!!). But, more on that later.

I am sleepy as usual from a busy weekend as usual. We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Philly (eating the most amazing tapas with Steve and Jenna) and at the shore, where Dave's mom made the chicken in white sauce that I blogged about a few days ago. No Fourth of July-themed food, I am both saddened (I love those little red-white-blue cupcakes) and pleased (red-white-blue veggie plate gets an eyeroll) to say. Some day, oh some day I will have a nice, big, light-filled kitchen and a beautiful top-o-the-line grill and then, dear readers, I will bbq up a storm...

This week I am hoping to finally get back on a normal (this is a relative term) schedule. With no boyfriend to distract me with heart-aching hour-long phone calls (or YouTube videos of Neil Patrick Harris singing "Les Mis") and coworkers back from vacation, I am hoping to have some time for cooking good summer food. On Friday I head out again (shocking, I know. My roommates are like, "Who are you again?"), this time to my cousin's baby shower in Maryland (or Virginia. Or D.C.? Whatevs, I'm not driving). My mom and aunt are making the dessert, which is something like strawberry mousse with mint, so pictures and recipes and mousse-smeared keyboards look likely to be in my future.

As for groceries this week, I still need to check what I got goin' on in the fridge. I seem to remember, last week, splurging on lots of food that I didn't really need and just assuming I'd deal with it later. It being later, it's probably time to take a look at things. I'm thinking homemade pizza (I may make the dough or go cheapie and buy--I mean test--a premade one). I'm also continually thinking about one of the tapas dishes we had--baked goat cheese with honey and toasted pine nuts--and it seems not unreasonable to assume I'll try my hand at whipping it up.

Also, for the first time eva, I'm getting the strong desire to try out some cookbooks. On the list, Mark Bittman's classic How to Cook Everything and a good, lightweight Spanish foods cookbook to take to Spain (Dave and I will be sequestered in a tiny cabin in a remote mountain town, so I am anxious/curious/excited to see what we'll be eating). Also catching my eye is The Polymer Clay Cookbook, which features tiny food-themed jewelry made from clay. Me and Sculpey go way way back, and I bet this book is cute and jealousy/hunger-inducing.

2009-06-30T00:00:00.004-04:00

Shrimp Ravioli in Tomato Veloute Sauce

You know my frequent, hand-wringing column, "Foodie Dreams, Kitchen Nightmares"? You know, those moments when I have a hankering for something delicious, visualize it in my mind, can almost taste the blend of flavors, and then just completely crash and burn in the execution? As terrible as those moments are--the blackened pots and pans, the empty stomach, roommates curiously wondering what insanity has posessed me--when the opposite happens, when I create something beautiful and delicious and fantastic, it can be simply bliss.

Witness my dinner last night: a sweet, creamy tomato sauce enveloping fresh-made ravioli stuffed with sauteed shrimp and ricotta. Granted, it wasn't perfect--my sauce was lumpy, my ravioli sprung a leak--but in taste and execution I was remarkably pleased. Although the dish was an adaptation of something I had in a restaurant (Basso56's lobster crepes in a tomato-chive veloute), without a recipe and only a dim idea of what I'd need I came up with something quite delicious and rather simple (took about an hour in total to make).

Let me walk you through the process.

Like I said before, I was blown away by the rich flavor of my dinner at Basso several weeks ago and dreamed about recreating it (the restaurant itself being too fancy and far away for a mid-week pop-in). Luckily, since it has a menu online, I could see the basic ingredients and structure. This was helpful, but brought up a few problems: 1) where could I buy lobster?, 2) how do I make crepes?, and 3) what the f is "veloute sauce"?

My little neighborhood does not stock lobster, for whatever reason, so I skipped that ingredient and went instead for shrimp, which I tend to swap in for lobster in various recipes. I've been wanting to make crepes for ages, but without a reason--or 15 people to help me eat the leftovers--the dream has mostly died. Instead of crepes I decided to go with ravioli, since I could easily get wonton wrappers and got the added bonus of stuffing myself with ricotta and parmesan (I bought 4 different kinds of cheeses yesterday... it was nuts...).

Finally I confronted the riddle of veloute sauce. A Google search told me it was defined as one of the four "mother sauces" by chef Antonin Careme in the 19th century (which, hello, told me nothing). A little more research and I discovered that despite the French (Dave was like "What are you making?!"), veloute sauce is quite simple, being mostly flour, butter, and light stock (such as chicken, veal, or fish). I knew I wanted tomato veloute (also called Aurora sauce, which really sounds quite lovely), so I also picked up some plain canned tomato sauce and, just in case, a 1/2 pint of cream.

With a little help from the Reluctant Gourmet, I prepared the veloute sauce by browning the butter and flour and slowly adding the chicken stock (I am not ballers enough to make my own stock, although I want to try. Sigh. Someday...). It got lumpy, which was a problem, and the next time I think I would strain before adding the tomato sauce. Pour in a little sauce, taste, pour in a little more, taste, and finally I figured that since cream makes everything better, it probably couldn't hurt to add a little of that, either. The result was astounding: almost sweet in its smoothness, it was creamy and flavorful, and thick without being heavy. I looooved this sauce and would happily drown every meal in it, but paired with my ravioli, it was truly sublime.

Because I wanted a clean feel to the shrimp, I just sauteed them in a little butter without any seasoning (a white wine reduction also could have worked well). As soon as they were pink, I removed them from the pan and cut them into tiny pieces. Mixed with a little ricotta, parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg, the ravioi filling was meaty and spicy and cheesy in all the right measures (also, can I get a what what for ricotta? I love this stuff, and love how a simple spoonful is so magically cool and light). I wrapped everything in jumbo wonton wrappers, dropped it in boiling water, removed, and enjoyed. It was just so so so good. A Kitchen Dream, for sure.

This recipe makes 3-4 jumbo ravioli, enough for one big or two smallish servings.

SHRIMP RAVIOLI IN VELOUTE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS:
1 dozen medium-sized shrimp
1 cup ricotta
1 tablespoon grated parmesan
2 teaspoons pepper
2 teaspoons nutmeg
6-8 large wonton or eggroll wrappers
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cup light stock (chicken, veal, or fish)
1 cup tomato sauce (unseasoned)
2 tablespoons cream
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium saucepan, set the stock to simmer
In a larger saucepan, simmer 2 tablespoons melted butter over medium heat, taking care not to burn it
Add 3 tablespoons flour and lower heat
Mix butter and flour until well toasted
Slowly add light stock and stir well
Simmer for 10-15 minutes (a skin may appear on the sauce. Either skim off or mix in)
Add 1 cup tomato sauce and stir well
Add 2 tablespoons cream and stir well
Let sauce simmer, covered, over very low heat
Peel and devein shrimp and sautee in remaining butter over medium-low heat
When pink, remove from heat and chop finely
Set a large pot of water to boil
Add ricotta, pepper, and nutmeg to shrimp, stirring well
Wet one side of a single wonton wrapper and lay on top of another
Place a spoonful of the shrimp-ricotta mixture in the center.
Using a brush or your finger, wet down the edges of the wrapper and fold over both wrappers (so you have an extra-thick ravioli)
Crimp the folded edges with a fork
Drop ravioli in boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes
Repeat until mixture is finished, pour sauce over ravioli, and top with grated parmesan

2009-06-29T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Moanday: Busy Busy!

Well I have been scrimping on the posts, thanks to the summer uptick of work dropping onto my little lap, and sleep/food/rest deprivation has been putting a damper on updating the blog. And this week is no exception! With the holiday this weekend and people out on vacation, I've been takin' care of business, but I'm tired.

Part of that is from the cah-razy weekend I just had, where Dave and I ping-ponged between New York and New Jersey and back again. We visited my company picnic, gourging ourselves on free food and drinks (it was fun! We shot arrows and Dave beat someone in foosball and practiced surfing). I tried something quite delicious: Jamaican coco bread. It was so lovely, like eating a warm pillow made out of bread, and I think I'm going to try to replicate this week.

We (I) also went to a baby shower, thrown by Dave's sister-in-law's family. They are Italians and know how to cook and so I parked myself by the appetizers and didn't look back. Eventually, stuffed with delicious food and cake (luckily Jenna didn't go with a baby-shaped cake), we headed to Steve's house to watch soccer (the less said, the better). I fell asleep immediately and stayed that way until an unhappy Dave dragged me to the car and home. I got home so sleepy, warm, and lazy that I skipped dinner for a bowl of sherbet, turned on my fan, and fell asleep.

And now? I am ex-haus-ted, but still have to feed myself! It's a short week this week, and Dave will be coming to see me Wednesday, so I might do something light today and tomorrow, then something nice and hearty Wednesday night. Coco bread is a strong possibility (maybe with some soup?), and I've been hankering for some homemade ravioli for a couple weeks now. And, of course, it's the Fourth of July this weekend! Bring on the rocket ice pops, red-white-and-blue pie, and potato salad. I'll be at the shore with Dave's family, trying to avoid a sunburn and not be so completely stuffed with delicious food that I can't roll over (not like that's happened before...).

Plus, the sun is out! Hooray!

2009-06-23T18:39:00.011-04:00

The Incompetent Chef: Sweet Potato Duel

DING DING!! DING DING!!! LAAAAADIES and GENtlemen! Welcome to the main event! The rumble you've aaaaall been waiting for!

In this corner.... the challenger, standing 5'3", 1 year of cooking experience and not a single grease fire.... Kendall "the Krusher"!!!!

Aaaand in this corner.... the undefeated champion, standing 4", a member of the convolvulacaeae family.... sweet "not so sweet" potato!!!

Yes folks, I am getting back on that sweet orange horse and trying my hand, once again, at sweet potato fries (those of you new to my long travails trying to make these can get caught up here). This recipe is courtesy Divya of Dil Se, which I'm trying out (aside from the fact that it is awesome) as a part of the Taste and Create blogger series, wherein bloggers share and blog about other people's recipes (Divya made my soft pretzels). To capture every exciting moment, I live blogged! Let's get in on the action, shall we?

6:40 - oven turns on, but I'm not sweating
6:43 - how are you supposed to know when the sweet potato is clean?
6:45 - this peeler is so unappealing (hahahahahaha)
6:48 - this is where I always get confused: how thick the fries? 3/4 inches? ooooh I am nervous
6:50 - sweet potatoes cut, my abs not so much
6:54 - interrupted shortly when my roommate came home, bringing me a copy of Lizzie's new book! sweet potatoes lie unnoticed
6:59 - in oven! moment of truth...
7:03 - mmmm goat cheese....
7:08 - is that smoke I smell? already?
7:13 - smoke smell getting stronger...
7:20 - time to flip!
7:22 - they don't look too terrible! Of course, they still have another 15-20 minutes to cook.
7:35 - ok. Phew. Taking them out of the oven...
7:40 - looking good, looking good... First taste... Ooh! Delicious! Hooray!
7:41 - roommate gives thumbs up. I feel vindicated. I have tamed the orange beast.

WINNER! THHHHE KRRRRRUSHERRR!

2009-06-23T00:00:00.003-04:00

Chicken's Got the White Stuff

Since summer is the indisputable time of the barbecue and since I don't have a barbecue and since Dave and his roommates were throwing a barbecue party, I leaped at the chance to try out one of my many filed-away recipes. While Dave was up to his wrists in hamburger meat (I think he put rosemary in there--it was so so good) and Kevin charred up some hot dogs and Rita deep-fried wings, I prepped a very delicious white sauce chicken recipe I found on The New York Times.

The recipe, from a Bitten column, was a two-parter: a brine in which to soak the chicken before grilling, and a white sauce for covering and dipping the chicken after grilling. Brining poultry is all the rage around Thanksgiving, but I am not such a foodie to take over a meal like that for my family, so I let my curiosity fall by the wayside until this past weekend. I always liked the idea of brining, which helps meat retain moisture and tenderness as it's grilled (what's the difference between marinating and brining? nooo idea, but one definitely sounds cooler). This recipe called for a brine soak for an hour, not a problem as it gave me full run of the kitchen before anyone else.

I prepped the sauce at that time too, and it was incredibly simple and cheap to make (everything all together, all the ingredients + 8 breasts of chicken, was about $25). With the chicken soaking and the sauce cooling in the fridge, my role was mostly done. An hour later, I popped out to the grill, had Dave toss everything on, and then sat back. After everything had cooked, it got cut in half, soaked in sauce, and set out for hungry people to devour.

And devour they did! I was really quite pleased with the final result. The chicken was incredibly succulent and tender, and even the leftover chicken several hours old had a sweet moistness that tasted fresh off the grill. The sauce really added the magic, though. Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q white Sauce, it was peppery without being overpowering, smooth without being thick and creamy. It didn't quite coat the chicken and usually left you with a puddle of sauce on your plate, the better the excuse to go back for more. I also ended up dipping my burger in the sauce and the taste was truly cinematic--fiery and tangy mixing beautifully with the robust deep flavor of the hamburger.

I was pleased with the end result and the speed with which people returned to the chicken plate and kept hearing people ask "Oooh, this is so good--what's on it?" I was crowing over my fine culinary skills when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked what was in the sauce.

"It's a mystery!" I said, smiling.

"Didn't you just say it was a New York Times recipe, from Bitten?"

"Um... It's a mystery!" I chirped.

He did not look impressed, and I thought maybe he had a food allergy (right?) and so explained what was it was made from. Mystery destroyed, still delicious.

APPLE CHICKEN BRINE
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup apple juice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium bowl, combine the brine ingredients and mix well.
Add the chicken breasts, making sure they are completely covered.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Remove the chicken breasts from the brine and wipe off the excess salt.
Preheat an outdoor grill to 400 degrees.
Place the chicken breasts on the grate directly over the heat and grill for 5 to 6 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
The internal temperature of the chicken breasts should be 160 degrees.
Submerge each chicken breast into a bowl of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q White Sauce.
Remove from the sauce and serve.

BIG BOB GIBSON BAR-B-Q WHITE SAUCE
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and blend well.
Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

The picture is from Bitten, as people ate mine so fast I couldn't take any pictures! It did look remarkably similar, though

2009-06-22T00:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Moanday: Rain, Rain Go Away

Are you there, sun? It's me, Kendall. I know it's been a long time since we've hung out, what with my early work hours and all, but please don't take it personally. Where you been at? Maybe let's hang some time and grab a sno-cone?

So it has been raining continuously and New York and everything in it has finally floated off into the sea, woohoo. My hair is in a constant state of "frizz" and my Google calendar weather outlook is a steady block of "rainy, cloudy, cold." Hello summer?

I spent the weekend in Boston again, saying a final farewell to Cambridge and all my favorite places and people. I had my last meal at Border, where I almost cried I was so happy. Oh! The piping-hot nachos, the sweet bite of the margarita, the tender pastelitos, the smooth and subtle chimichurri steak... I savored each and every bite, knowing it would be maybe months (!!!) until I could try it again.

Dave and I managed to get to Walden Pond for a--very fast, very cold--swim before we headed to his house for a very wonderful barbecue. His roomies bought a big, beautiful, grown-up grill which they christened with a healthy mix of burgers, hot dogs, and chicken. I tried a quite fantastic chicken recipe--to be revealed tomorrow--and made my funnel cake, to great acclaim. People ate and chatted and drank beers and chatted and eventually we all ended up in the living room, playing Guitar Hero in between shots of tequila (which really does a number on dexterity!). The best part was that the party started about 5pm, meaning we were all conked out at the (in my opinion) reasonable hour of 11:30.

The next day we lolled around the house, got breakfast at Hi Rise, and then walked down to the square for my train. I had a final goodbye cupcake from Sweet (dark chocolate, vanilla bean buttercream, oh heaven), and then hopped off to South Station for my last-ever bus ride home to New York (one thing I'm not going to miss).

All in all it was a lovely weekend, to be followed up by a busy week and then another, busier weekend!

On Saturday my company is having its giant corporate picnic, by which time hopefully New York will have lost its unfortunate resemblance to Atlantis. If Dave and I emerge from our likely food coma (we have yet to learn to pace ourselves at that thing), we'll be going down to his parents' house for a baby shower (me) and car pickup (him).

This means I'm staying in New York and can I get a good dinner! (what what!) It has been ages since I've properly cooked something, as empty Mac n Cheese boxes litter my kitchen. My stomach is in "woah girl" mood, meaning I want something warm and comforting (a Toniatti-sauce + meatball sub sounds about right) but it's also nearing 100% humidity, meaning I want something cool and light (chilled shrimp in a light butter sauce?). I may try to recreate a quite fantastic meal that I had a few weeks ago, which consisted of a lobster-filled crepe in a creamy tomato sauce, or I may get home and, exhausted, fall back on a bowl of chili (not literally).

I've also been paired up with Divya, of the very lovely Dil-Se, for this month's Taste-and-Create event, wherein bloggers make recipes from each other's blogs and then post about it. I love Divya's blog--which leans slightly towards authentic Indian recipes--and was having a hard time deciding what to make until I saw her post on sweet potato fries. Oh yes. Them again. Maybe third (fourth, eighth...) time's the charm?

So, maybe crepes, maybe shrimp, maybe chili, and definitely sweet potato fries; Dave on the weekend, baby shower, company party, and sunshine?

2009-06-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

Spotlight On: Fine Lines

Those of you who are roughly between the ages of 20-30 and female and were the type of lonely child who dreamed about life on the frontier or tundra or shipwrecked beach more than whatever inane boy band on the cover of Bop!, those of you out there would be glad to learn about the healthy mix of nostalgia and faux-paintings of sad/exasperated/lovestruck teenagers that is "Fine Lines," Jezebel's back-from-hiatus column devoted to all things Young Adult.*

Written by Jezebel contributor Lizzie Skurnick (also, "Lizzie Skurnick"? Most adorable name ever. Whenever I read the column I imagine a smiley 80's style 12-year-old with big crimped hair, crushed neon socks in high tops, and a thousand bracelets), the column focuses on a different YA book a week (past selections include: The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Jacob Have I Loved, and Homecoming). Lizzie breaks it down for the readers, usually in the kind of breathless excitement reserved for such things that you are unabashedly passionate about. And, between plot summaries and thoughtful character musings, Lizzie helpfully points out the details that make a book leap off the page and stick in your mind (stomach?).

Some might argue books like the Little House series and Julie of the Wolves would have been insti-classics regardless of the lavish descriptions of mud-packing and igloo-making, to which I say it is precisely this level of detail that, for me, tattoos these books on my heart. If you don't get hungry reading how Miyax, aka Julie, a 13-year-old who has run away on the Alaskan tundra, makes owlet stew, as "she sliced her birds into delicate strips and simmered them slowly and not too long. ... Then she drank the rich juices and popped the tender meat in her mouth," well, I just don't even want to know what kind of person that makes you.

These are the kind of books that make me imagine, seriously, where I can get a pig's tail and how to get it on a stick and roast it slowly while fighting over it with my (older, prettier--oh jealousy!) sister, a la Little House in the Big Woods. While in school we focused on plot development (the rise, the climax, the falling action), truly these were the things that made the books seem real to me (and is it any surprise that there is a whole collection of Little House-inspired cookbooks? I would do anything for one of Ma's homecooked Johnny Cakes on a cold winter morning).

Without getting too B.A. in Literature on you (finally found a use for it!), the food scenes often comprised pivotal moments in the characters' lives:
--Miyax uses the traditional Eskimo skills her father taught her to find and prepare food on the tundra, skills that, she later finds out, he has come to reject by the end of the book
--Sarah (of A Little Princess), reduced to poverty and hunger, uses the money she finds on the street to buy beautiful, sugary hot-cross buns and chooses instead to give them to a starving girl, thus learning an important lesson in charity, selflessness, and survival
--And Mary's (The Secret Garden) development as a person is handily charted by the growth of an appetite and her ability to appreciate healthy hunger and good, rich British porridge

I've listed the most foodie Fine Lines columns below, but they're all worth a read. And! If you do like them, Lizzie is currently penning a book based on the column, and you can sign up on a list to be alerted when the book is available. Until then, check out the column, set your tastebuds to "salivate" and lose yourself in the gluttonous magic of literature.

A Little Princess: Reversal of Four Buns
Julie of the Wolves: The Call of the Wild
The Secret Garden: Still No Idea What A Missel Thrush Is
Little House in the Big Woods: "I Play With A Pig Bladder Like It's A Balloon"

*At the risk of fueling gender stereotypes, I presume my male readers' knowledge of such golden stuff is woefully inadequate. It's not too late! I encourage you to raid your sisters' reading shelves, as the lessons gleamed from such strong women as Harriet the Spy and Dicey Tillerman would make anyone a better person.

2009-06-15T00:00:00.003-04:00

Happy Moanday: Buh-Bye Boston

Well, it's finally come to this: after four years of living in Boston and 1 year of vicarious living in Boston (and at least 18 round trips on the bus), Dave and I will spend our last weekend in Boston together with at least one of us qualifying as a resident. I'm sure I'll return to see big brother and friends, and I will always carry the small hope that I'll return to Cambridge one day (maybe to live in a cute little 200-year-old house with a little fence and pretty roses in front and a dog! maybe?). Still, it's a little bumming (good-bye Border, Herrell's, Charles River picnics, Walden Pond bike rides, sunbathing on the quad, and ooohing and aaahing over cute Cambridge houses), so Dave and I have been steadily working through our favorite Boston things.

Last weekend we did something few Bostonians would ever admit to: we took a Duck Tour. The Duck Tours are usually supremely ridiculed for blocking traffic and annoying pedestrians by shouting things at them (Dave once got heckled for trying to parallel park a suburban on a narrow, 300-year-old street. Sadly, he had a New Jersey license plate, which might as well have been a target). But, I thought they might be fun and they got good reviews at Yelp, so we meandered over to the Science Museum and bought some tickets. We were unfortunately saddled with one of the very few tour guides who decided to give a rudimentary history of Boston (by contrast, the next tour was headed by a 6'3" man in a leopard-print Viking costume). 80 minutes later we were bored, tired, and filled with more contempt for the Duck Tours.

After that we stopped by the Gay Pride Parade with Rita, Kevin, and Eileen where we feasted on funnel cake (nowhere near as good as mine) and crowd-watched (crowd-watching at a Gay Pride Parade is really quite wonderful). From there it was only a short walk to the New England Aquarium. We got there in time for the penguin feeding and the turtle/shark feeding (turtles and sharks, not turtles to sharks). Then we had a romantic dinner at the Daily Catch (in true Daily Catch fashion we were wedged between two other couples). We both had their famous black pasta which we both inhaled like it was sweet, sweet oxygen. We headed back to the square for a movie, stopping at Herrell's for some ice cream on the way (burnt sugar and butter with hot fudge, Oreos, and whipped cream).

The next day was mostly culinarily-uninspired, except that we finally, finally(!), dropped by Sweet, the new cupcake shop in the square. I got one of their red velvet cupcakes, which was just be-yond delicious and so, so beautiful. The red was like the brightest, boldest red I'd ever seen in a cupcake (most red velvets are darker and/or slightly brownish). I wonder how they got it so blindingly red. Maybe they added coloring to a white cake, rather than a yellow cake... In any case, I wish I'd had my camera to take a picture (brand new lovely camera was, unfortunately, left behind at Governor's Island. Sigh.), although it's doubtful I would have put off eating it long enough for a picture.

Our last weekend is pretty much unscheduled, except for a trip to Walden Pond and maybe a visit to Top of the Hub for dessert one night. It will be sad to say good-bye to Boston and all the wonderful adventures (and wonderful meals) we've had there. Still, as Dave likes to say, we'll soon be lucky enough to meet another big, beautiful city: Chicago!

All that is to say: I have no idea what I'll be cooking this week! Steaks, maybe, or crepes, or possibly some soup. (or Boston Baked Beans? Boston Creme Pie? New England Clam Chowda?)

2009-06-10T18:00:00.004-04:00

A Brief History Of: Sherbet (not sherbert)

While ice cream will always melt my heart (get it?), my absolute favorite cold-dessert delight is sherbet.* Specifically, rainbow sherbet, in a sugar cone, topped with rainbow sprinkles. I'm not sure what it is about this that so completely enthralls me, but I can't get enough of it--simple, sweet, colorful, and refreshing. Exactly what I want to eat on a hot summer night, or afternoon, or morning. Or, you know, right now.

When I was a kid, my mom would buy a giant plastic container full of sherbet, which I would steadily work through during the entire summer. A few days ago it dawned on me that I am, technically-speaking, an "adult" with actual purchasing power (hello consumer stimulus!) and that I too could buy myself a huge tub of sherbert (not too much power needed--the whole thing cost about $3.99). And when I say "huge," "giant," I am not kidding: the container is the size of a large dinner plate and about 6 inches deep. It is currently living in my freezer, where it is like a hulking, intimidating Russia surrounded by cowering Hawaiis of Haggen-Das.

Sherbet is not to be confused with sorbet, at least in my opinion (we'll win over those pesky FDA snobs some day...). The main difference is milk fat content. Both are made with water, sugar, and fruit juice or puree, but sherbet is also mixed with dairy products, having milkfat of less than 3%. While the Food and Drug Administration maintains that sorbet and sherbet are essentially the same things (a tricky distinction for interstate food laws--no joke), if you've ever sat in a restaurant or at an ice cream truck and wondered what was the difference, there you go.

The origins of sherbet stretch all the way back to Roman days, when cah-razy emperor Nero decided to serve some delicious cool dessert for a banquet. He had his genial slaves carry buckets of snow from the mountains, then doused the ice in honey and wine (this is the same guy who danced while Rome burned. Foodies are so weird). According to Encarta (and isn't that a blast from the Windows 95 past. Remember "MindMaze"? That game rocked. But I digress...), "sherbet" has origins in an Arabic word, sarbat (also the origin of the word "syrup"), and was originally a popular Middle Eastern drink. It eventually worked its way through Persian and Turkish route before ending up in Europe (English: sherbet, French: sorbet, Italian: sorbetto).

Legend has it that sherbet made the jump from drink to frozen concoction when a glass of the stuff was accidentally chilled. In America, ice cream goes back to at least the 1700s, with Dolly Madison introducing the dessert to the White House in 1812. One of the first recorded recipes for sherbet in America dates back to 1905, when Mrs. E.H. Williams submitted her cranberry sherbet recipe to the Los Angeles Times. According to Wikipedia, rainbow sherbet (my fave) was invented by Emanuel Goren in the late 1950's, while he worked at Sealtest Dairies in Philadelphia. Goren developed and popularized the three-nozzle system that gave rainbow sherbet its characteristic marbleized color and flavor.

Now, sherbet is an American staple, sold in ice cream parlors and hot sidewalks around the country. Its bright colors and creamy texture make it perfect for popsicles or recreating charming children's characters in an alarming fashion.

*Sherbet is commonly misspelled with an extra "r," as "sherbeRt," possibly because, when translating "sorbet" to English, Americans were more comfortable pronouncing words ending in -bert (Herbert, Robert, Albert...) than -bet (....). This note is not meant to be condescending because I, obviously, also misspelled it until caught by spellcheck. Stupid American English.

2009-06-09T17:00:00.003-04:00

Mamma Mia Pizzeria

Pizza, pizza, pizza. What's left to be said about this delicious, ubiquitous food? Found across the country, in hundreds of varieties, pizza has the kind of universal appeal that makes it a favorite of picky kids, quick eaters, craving students, and high-brow chefs.

I love pizza, as probably most people on this planet do, and probably eat it once a week (if I'm being honest). I love the giant, cheap slices that can be found on almost every block in New York City and the fancy, exotic concoctions favored by Cantabs. Growing up in New Jersey, I experienced pizza with cheese so thick and ropey that you could eat a whole slice with a string of cheese still connected to the box. I'm more partial to thin crust--crispy and light--but I could also appreciate the Chicago version, with a deep, pillowy crust giving way to a frantic mix of cheese, toppings and sauce, so dense you could eat it with a spoon.

One of the best things about pizza, in my opinion, is their incredible versatility. I am not usually an adventurous eater, but I love the absurd and creative pizzas. In my pizza-eating tenure, I've come across (and enjoyed) pizzas topped with macaroni and cheese, fried egg, blue cheese (not all those at once), and something called the "meat lover's pie" which featured sausage, bacon, ground beef, steak, pepperoni, and a death wish (it was so, so, so ridiculously good).

While I am always up for dropping by a pizza place for a slice (I like to determine the closest place to get a pie whenever I arrive somewhere new), I've also had a long and happy history with making my own. My family are regular customers at a local bakery that sells "pizza setups"--pre-baked pizza crust, sauce, cheese, and a variety of toppings. From preschool, I can remember the anticipation of a Verilli's pizza: the trip to the bakery, where I'd usually get a free cookie; waiting impatiently for the oven to heat up; stealing handfuls of the fresh cheese. When we finally pulled it from the oven, you had to eat it with a fork and knife it was so hot and fresh (newbies would regularly burn their mouths).

I still make a Verilli's pizza whenever I go home, but living without it, I'm slowly learning to adapt. Being fond of baking in general, I liked the idea of baking my own dough and choosing my own toppings, so I attempted to make my own pizza dough, to be accessorized with a variety of delicious toppings.

One of the things I hate most about a recipe is setting down to prepare it and then reading something like "Cover with a towel and let sit for 12-24 hours." I've mentioned before about how I prepare and eat my dinners based off how I feel that day; making something a day in advance can be a dicy proposition, as I'm left with something I feel only lukewarm about. But! I resolved to keep the pizza oven burning in my heart and whipped up the dough one Sunday night.

Making it wasn't too different from my other baking experiences--with naan and dinner rolls--except this time I used my fancy mixer to do the grunt work. The recipe (from The New York Times) called for 4-6 minutes of continuous mixing, and when I finally pulled it from the mixing bowl it was so lovely, soft and stretchy, that I wanted to shape it into a bed and snuggle into it. But instead I formed it into a bowl, covered with a towel, and let it sit.

Actually making the pizza was incredibly easy, as it just required that I stretch out the dough (I bought a new pizza pan, with little holes in the bottom to give it a spotted crunchiness. It was good) and cover with whatever toppings I wanted. For my first pizza, I went with a classic Margarita: tomato sauce, fresh mozzerrella, and fresh basil. It was pretty good, and looked pretty enough to paint a pickcha of. The only problem was the pizza dough was still a little chewy on the inside when I pulled it from the oven. I fixed it with the next pizza (the dough makes enough for one big one or two medium-sized ones), crisping it in the oven for 5 minutes before adding any toppings. I tried one of The New York Times' Recipes for Health: an arugula, goat cheese, walnut-topped pie (I swapped out the mushrooms). It was so so good and practically screamed "I will make you feel better about yourself." I ate it, and I did.

PIZZA DOUGH
INGREDIENTS
3 cups flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

DIRECTIONS
The morning or the day before cooking, prepare the dough.
Combine the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Stir in 1 1/2 cups cold water and olive oil until a rough dough forms.
Set the bowl on the mixer and, using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 1 minute.
Increase the speed to high and beat for 4 to 6 minutes, until it becomes a wet and vaguely menacing mass. (If it forms into a ball, lower the mixer speed to medium-high. If not, stop the mixer to scrape down the sides once.)
Scrape and pour the dough onto a heavily floured work surface.
Keeping your fingers, the countertop and the dough well floured, fold one dough end over the other so that half the floured underside covers the rest of the dough.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces.
Shape each piece into a smooth ball.
Place each ball on a well-oiled plate, generously dust with flour and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
Let the dough rise until it is at least doubled in size, about 3 hours.
Punch the dough balls down, shape into rounds and place each in a quart-size freezer bag.
Refrigerate dough between 1 and 24 hours.

MARGARITA PIZZA
INGREDIENTS
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 ball fresh mozerrella, sliced thin
15-20 leaves fresh basil
1 teaspoon fresh pepper
2 teaspoons oregano
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Roll out the pizza, using your fingers and the heels of your hands, onto a pizza pan
Lightly brush with olive oil
Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the crust is very lightly golden and stiff to the touch
Cover with tomato sauce, mozerrella, and basil
Sprinkle with pepper and oregano
Cook for 15-20 minutes or until mozerrella is melted
Remove and let cool before serving

WALNUT-ARUGULA-GOAT CHEESE PIZZA
INGREDIENTS
1/2 recipe whole wheat pizza dough
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed, cleaned and sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
4 ounces goat cheese
4 walnuts, shelled and chopped
About 1 heaped cup arugula leaves
1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon walnut oil

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone inside, if available.
Roll out the dough to fit a 12- to 14-inch pizza pan.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy skillet, and add the mushrooms.
Cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender and moist, four to five minutes.
Season with salt and pepper, and remove from the heat.
Crumble the goat cheese into a bowl, add the walnuts and lightly toss together.
Brush the dough with 2 teaspoons of the remaining olive oil, and top with the mushrooms.
Sprinkle on the thyme, and place in the oven.
Bake 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, sprinkle the goat cheese and walnuts over the crust, and return to the oven for five to 10 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese has softened.
Remove from the heat.
Toss the arugula with the remaining teaspoon of olive oil, the balsamic vinegar and the walnut oil.
Scatter it over the pizza, and serve.

2009-06-08T18:24:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Hunger Pains

Another weekend, another weekend of delicious food. Dave, Steve, and Jenna were all in New York this weekend, which gave me an excuse to go out to eat (which I do, like, nevah). On Saturday, Dave and I had a picnic on Governor's Island, and then all four of us met up for pre-dinner drinks at Grey Dog Coffee in Union Square. After that, we had dinner at Basso56 (recommended by Rebecca), which was just so fantastically delicious we all left round and happy. I had smoked buffalo cheese and lobster-filled crepes in a creamy tomato sauce (just typing that is making me salivate) and finished things off with some tri-colore gelato. So amazing.

On Sunday, Dave and Steve ran off to watch soccer while Jenna and I went flea marketing (I bought a cat-shaped salt shaker, in a bid to start off a collection of spice rack chotchkeys). With no reservations for brunch, we decided to just wander around until we found some place good, and I told Jenna my tricks for picking out restaurants: stay away from tourist-heavy areas (like Times Square), avoid places with lots of families (who care more about convenience than quality), and look for places populated with cops, businesspeople, or people sitting by themselves with the newspaper. Jenna pointed out a little cafe-bakery near the market and, as soon as we saw three people buried in the Sunday Times, we knew we were at the right place. It was charming and cutely decorated, and the tattooed hipster working the counter fried us up some waffles in minutes. We were about to leave when Jenna passed their impressive display of cupcakes, and, deciding that it was fate, we bought two.

Little did I know that my funny honey would surprise me later with a huge Oreo cupcake from Crumbs--it is a pleasant day indeed that involves two serendipitous cupcakes. Dave and I came home from Manhattan to make some salmon and salad (I used my favorite balsamic-honey-orange glaze recipe), and I collapsed in a happy food-wine-cupcake coma. It was really very nice.

But! Now I'm back to reality, and the reality of cooking for myself. I'm feeling something big and filling, after my disappointing foray into chilled melon soup. Chicken tikka masala sounds pretty good, or possibly fancy mac n cheese. I'm also experimenting with grilling on the pan and in the broiler, to, I believe, good effect. Last week I made hamburgers and fries that were simple, delicious, and much healthier than anything you'd get at Burger King. This week I'm headed back to Bostontown, where Dave and I are planning a touristy weekend full of all the fun Boston things we don't usually get to do (duck tour, aquarium, Daily Catch)--should be fun!

2009-06-04T18:21:00.024-04:00

Counter Intelligence: Tugs at the Apronstrings

Tuesday's unappealing experience of having chunks of melon thrown all over me made me realize that what I really need (aside from better cooking skillz) is an apron. Chefs and aprons go together like spaghetti and meatballs, but I'm usually not a fan of them until I discover dried splatters of food on my upper arms the morning after I've cooked a meal. At the pub where I worked as a short-order cook, we had to wear giant polyester chef's coats, which look lovely and stylish on 6'2" male chefs and laughable on 5'3" tiny women. Usually the girls would snarl over the single bib apron available, but otherwise we were stuck with hot, scratchy, decidedly un-streamlined size XL coats (you could fit your legs comfortably in the armholes. I mean, I assume...).

Although I suppose I could splurge on a beautiful, breathable, size-and-gender-appropriate chef's coat, I'm more fascinated by the wide world of aprons.

The thing that struck me most, as I searched the Internet tubes for pictures of aprons, is how lovely and beautiful most of them are. Far from "Kiss the Cook" iterations, aprons--especially old-style--are sweet, gauzy, and charming, looking more like dresses or boldly-patterned skirts than kitchen style. This can be challenging to pull off if you don't like to cook in solid-colored A-line dresses (and heels), but from an aesthetic standpoint, they are certainly nice to look at.

I think, as sweet as they are, aprons get a bad rap in that, for centuries, they were considered de rigueur apparel for women, as, aside from makin' the babies, the main job of women was to cook (in the 1800s, women were more likely to wear an apron than a pair of underwear. Oh history...). The very existence of the charming little number known as a "hostess apron" is proof that, for women of the much-maligned and -revered 1950s, yes, you could throw a rollicking good party, but you were still at work, sweeping in and out of the kitchen in your delicate little lace apron. Aprons are also just about the polar opposite of chef's coats. The coats are all about square shoulders, rolled up sleeves, wide torsos. They are big and blank, worn primarily for the purpose of keeping boiling oil and sticky flour off the chef's arms and clothes. By contrast, floaty aprons the size of cocktail napkins could barely withstand a gentle hand-wiping, let alone a sauce-covered meatball heading straight for your chest (it could happen).

So, being a woman (last time I checked), rhapsodizing over beruffled, embroidered, bow-covered aprons can feel a little like betraying the feminist heroes of yore, who saw aprons as yet another symbol of female disenfranchisement ("Burn Those Aprons" had less of a ring to it). Still, I can appreciate the resurging popularity of cute, kitschy, tongue-in-cheek aprons as an attempt to poke fun at and circumvent their relationship with female service (is it too obvious that I once took a class on women, gender, and sexuality? No? Ok cool). More than anything, I'm fascinated that they are so pretty and delicate, when most serious cooking is hard, dirty, sweaty work. It can be a little disconcerting to have this ideal of the perfect cook who doesn't spill a drop on her silk-and-satin apron, but I appreciate the attempt to make cooking a little prettier, a little more fun, and a little more of an occasion to dress up.

Ok, musings aside, I like aprons to be both pretty and hardy, preferably patterned so as not to show splatters too often (pristine white chef coats are for people with very good washing machines). And since my normal cooking attire (and living attire) is a pair of jeans matched with a solid t-shirt (and sneakers! shoes--with good arch support and the ability to withstand heavy and hot things--are veeeery important for cooking), I also like aprons to not be so over-the-top girly to look too fancy by comparison. Here are some of my favorites, from spunky to sweet, from delicate to dishwasher (wearer) safe.

I don't have a dog but once upon a time I walked a dumb little Scotty dog named Buster
He was just as cute and jumpy as this little scamp

I like how this apron sort of straddles the line between ugly and interesting

Sooo pretty. I love the unusual polka dots

This sweet little apron is made for a toddler (squee!)
If I had a little girl (or, let's be serious, also a boy), I would totally send her to Pre-K in this

Gentle pink, delicate bow: puts me in mind of summer breezes and strawberries

Love love love this--the star pattern of the apron, the splashy atomic vintage print
A-dorable

This is one of those beautiful historical things that I would never ever actually cook in

I wish I had this little tongue-in-cheek number when I was a waitress

Pockets include "tips," "complaints," "compliments," and "suggestions"

From Fendi. Haute couture, hot apron

Possibly my favorite. I would wear this out as a skirt

Roses, frills, ribbons--check, check, check!

2009-06-03T00:00:00.009-04:00

Recipes Regurgitated: Cooled Response to Chilled Melon Soup

Deciding what I want to eat every day usually starts with figuring out how I feel. Am I a little chilly, stuffy, under the weather, bored, ambitious? I think food should do more than just fill your stomach--it should meet other needs as well, so that if you're feeling cold and a little sad (midwinter blues), the warmth and comfort of a giant bowl of chili is perfect, or, if you're feeling energetic and ambitious, a complex recipe like chicken tikka masala is a good meal to reward your efforts. And since yesterday was hot and muggy, thunderstorms booming in the distance, all I wanted was something sweet and refreshing.

Years ago I'd tried and enjoyed a chilled melon soup that tasted both amazingly fresh and deliciously cool. With a hint of sweetness, it was a smooth soup that tasted almost a little sherbet-y, but with more sustenance. A Google search brought up a couple recipes, and I settled on one from the Food Network's Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh. My spirits high, my mouth parched, my tastebuds curious as to what cantaloupe would taste like, I embarked on my quest for fruity-cool soup. By the end of the night, my sink, blend, and clothes were a mess and I was thanking my lucky stars that I had some leftover rice and chicken in the fridge.

But enough of my endless patter (right?), let's break this thang down. Recipes get 1 to 5 surprised saltshakers () based on the following 5 categories:
Shopping ease -- which includes convenience of finding items and cost
Preparation -- for it to be a regular weekday recipe, it should require no more than half an hour of actual work. Also did the preparation require special tools? How many knives did I go through? Big clean-up afterward?
Recipe readability -- The New York Times is notorious for dropping made-up words like "balouquet" into a recipe as though they expect me to know what it means. I hate this in life, but I hate it even more when I need to understand something so I don't accidentally poison myself. Did I have to wikipedia the recipe? That is bad.
Health Factor -- while most people might disagree, I really am trying to get into this "good for you" thing. Could I brag to my mom about this recipe? Would I be forced to lie when I go home?
Taste -- arguably the most important aspect of a recipe, how'd it turn out? Did it make my tastebuds rejoice? Did I make happy moaning noises that made my roommate uncomfortable? Did I dream about it? Were the dreams scary? All things to consider.
Now, let's get on to the evaluations! (full recipe printed below)

CHILLED MELON SOUP
Food Network says: for a "semi-formal celebration..."
I say: ...of your terrible taste in soup

Shopping Ease -- exceptionally easy. I had everything at home except for the yogurt and the cantaloupe (also the optional spring of mint). Altogether, the ingredients cost about $2--hard to beat. The only problem is that I spent about 5 minutes staring at the cantaloupes, trying to figure out if they were ripe while that bit from Jerry Seinfeld about bowling melons played in my head.

Preparation -- this probably should have been easy, but I had a ridiculously hard time with it. Basically the recipe just asks you to cut up the cantaloupe and mix it and the other ingredients in with a food processor. I first used my blender, which did nada, and then brought out my top-of-the-line mixer. That sent melon juice and chunks of melon all over my kitchen, and I had to wrap the whole thing in seran wrap to keep everything inside (I was flicking off melon chunks from my clothes and arms all night). Granted, with better equipment things probably would have gone smoother, but I've never had a messier experience.

Recipe Readability -- fine enough, although the recipe didn't specify that I should have cut off the green parts of the cantaloupe and only used the orange parts (is that common knowledge? Am I revealing my surprising lack of cantaloupe knowledge?). The result was I ended up with mostly-mashed melons with little floating green chunks. Looovely.

Health Factor -- absurdly high, which is maybe also why I thought it tasted terrible (more on that, later). While the Food Network didn't have any details on this recipe, a health food website listed a similar recipe (all the same basic ingredients) having 106 calories per serving. Since it's pretty much just cantaloupe, with a dash of honey and yogurt, it's unsurprising that it is super good for you

Taste -- no. No. No. So bad. I am a picky eater, of course, and am not a huge fan of cantaloupe in general, but this was just terrible. I doubt I made the recipe wrong, and unless my cantaloupe was particularly terrible, I can't imagine mine was very far off from what the recipe intended. Where I was imagining something smooth and sweet, the soup was actually unappealingly thick, and so overwhelmingly cantaloupe-flavored that it was almost bitter. The recipe also called for dashes of nutmeg and cayenne pepper, which I would do away with next time. I'm fond of nutmeg in heavier dishes--like lasagna or thick winter egg nogs--not sweet and light fruit-based soup. And the cayenne pepper was disastrously terrible, adding an awful flavor. I tried, truly, to eat as much as I could but only got about 2 spoonfuls before I dumped the whole thing down the sink (Even the sink was like "Oohh, this is bad.").
(no shakers)

Final tally: 16/25
Strong showings from the health and shopping categories aren't enough to pull this sucker from the "no good" pile. While my search for a melon-based soup isn't over (maybe I'll try some sherbet in the next one?), this recipe is done-zo.

CHILLED MELON SOUP
INGREDIENTS
1 cantaloupe, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Generous pinch cayenne
Fresh mint, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Put half of the cantaloupe into a blender along with the yogurt and blend until smooth.
Add the remaining cantaloupe and blend again until smooth.
Pour into a large mixing bowl.
Add the orange juice, honey, nutmeg, salt and cayenne and blend until well mixed.
Pour into a soup tureen and chill at least 1 hour before serving.
Garnish with fresh mint sprigs before setting out.

2009-06-02T23:00:00.000-04:00

Celebrate 100 Posts by Voting for Meeee!

Wow! 100 posts! The time does seem to have flown by! From my first post on a full Indian dinner to today's frosting-cover post, it has been a pleasure to write (mostly) and design (mostly) this lovely little blog. Here's hoping to many, many more posts!

And what better way to celebrate this milestone than with a little shameless self-promotion? My Couch Peanut cupcakes are up against many other delectable ice cream cupcakes in the Cupcake Project / Scoopalicious' 2nd Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Contest. While Stef, Bethany, and Tina are busy trying to decide the winner (a job I am not envious for), the contest is open for anyone and everyone to vote for their favorites, and of course I'd appreciate your vote! Remember, a vote for Couch Peanut cupcakes is a vote for peanut butter chocolate ice cream goodness!

Of course, there are also a lot of a-ma-zing cupcakes out there that deserve a look-over (and drool-over), so check it out! Vote here: voting ends June 7, and winners to be announced next week.

2009-06-02T00:00:00.002-04:00

!Feliz Dos de Juno!

Oh I knew I would get that joke in there somewhere...

While this year I actually did eat something pseudo Mexican (Tex-Mex to be fair) on Cinco de Mayo, there are also plenty days left, in my opinion, in which to enjoy churros, margaritas, and burritos. Besides which, I stumbled upon a recipe so cheap, simple, and delicious, that I had to share it.

A few days ago, I indulged in some chimichurri steak with saffron rice, which was as delicious as I could have planned. But I wanted something a little more festive and out of the ordinary and while the half-gallon of margarita mix cooling in my fridge did, truthfully, seem promising, I decided to see how hard it would be to make my own tortilla chips.

I am not a chip person in general (except I recently discovered PopChips. These are great. They will change your life), but I usually like tortilla chips, granted they're pretty fresh and not overly salty. Tostitos do not really do it for me--being fairly stale-tasting and loading on salt--although every once in a while my dad would microwave a bowl of them while we watched TV on the weekends, and that was nice. Since my parents also decided the pillar of salt in each bag was not worth it anymore, they've switched to fancy-pants organic yellow corn tortilla chips, which are nice. The best--of course--are from Border, where they arrive at the table in steady intervals, hot and crispy from the fryer.

After a quick Google search--my favorite method for tracking down recipes--I discovered that most tortilla recipes are ridiculously simple, requiring only some corn tortillas, hot oil, and salt. Since I am a hot fryer pro, regularly whipping up funnel cake and paneer pakoras, I wasn't at all daunted, and tried them out for myself. They were So. Great. I really could not have been more pleased. After slicing the tortillas into normal chip sizes, I dropped them in the hot oil, flipped them, took them out, tossed them with some salt, and enjoyed. They emerged cripsy and deliciously thick--almost a little like a pita chip. Paired with a margarita (I am lameface and just buy mix) or my chimichurri steak, they are South of the Border-delicious.

TORTILLA CHIPS
INGREDIENTS
1-2 dozen corn tortillas (about 6" in diameter)
low-fat canola oil for frying
sea salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
Fill a pot or pan with canola oil (1 1/2" to 2" deep) and set heat to medium
Cut the tortillas into triangles
After the oil has heated up for about 5 minutes, drop 1 tortilla triangle into the oil
When it starts to turn golden, turn and remove
Add the rest of the chips 3-4 at a time, turning when they become golden
Toss chips with sea salt and serve hot

2009-06-01T00:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Summer Luvin!

After taking some (planned. sorta.) time off from the blog, I am back with a vengence (and more recipes!). I'm staying in New York this whole week, something which has not happened since the weekend of April 24. That means I can strive for bigger and better recipes without worrying that the leftovers will sit, sad and lonely, in my fridge for many days (like the panko-crusted chicken from Memorial Day and half of my homemade walnut-arugula pizza).

This week things are finally starting to resemble summer, with blue skies and fair breezes. Summers have, traditionally, been rough times for me, eating-wise. The summer after sophomore year was my first time cooking for myself for an extended period of time, and it did not go well. For some reason the dorm in which I was staying had barred the kitchen to any summer residents. A friend living in the same dorm bought a hot plate, over which we boiled water for our spaghetti, but that was the extent of my cooking. I mostly lived off bags of popcorn, Easy Mac, ramen, and cereal, with occassional trips to the vending machines. I probably would have gotten incredibly fat if not for the fact that I was so poor even ramen stretched my budget.

The next summer was a little better, since I also spent a good amount of time in Dave's new apartment. Our dinners usually were some variation of chicken and pasta (spaghetti and lemon chicken, chicken parm, ziti and peppercorn chicken), which is just about one step up from cereal and Easy Mac. That summer I also lived in New York, wherein I first began to try out some different recipes, thanks to Google (searched for "budget cheap easy recipe"). That's where I made my first quiche and attempted my mom's lemon shrimp recipe. It was fun, although I often fell back on the pizza crutch (also a factor: the Dunkin Donuts across the street. I breathed lemonade coolatas).

Last summer I settled into a routine, tried out some new things in earnest, and began to actually think of myself as someone who could cook. While once cooking seemed to me an endless depressing drudgery of recipes to research, ingredients to buy, and meals to prepare, I now look forward to all these things, excited when I actually produce something flavorful. My substantially larger salary as well makes it easier to splurge on an $8 roll of goat cheese, without then having to forgo some essential (milk? who needs milk?).

And this summer, with a full year of cooking under my (longer) belt, I'm excited to branch out even more, especially since the quest to find more recipes for the blog has me searching for ever-more entertaining meals.

Enough conjecture, what's on the menu? I'm looking for something light, slightly sweet, and delicious. Maybe my wonderful glazed salmon, or possibly some other kind of shrimp (why does fish always seem so light?). Summer means veggies, salads, berries, cool meals without a lot of cooking. Once I had a very delicious, very refreshing chilled melon soup. And light, thin breads like crepes and paninis. Hmmm.... I'll have to think about this...

2009-05-26T19:02:00.006-04:00

Couch Peanut Cupcakes: Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Ice Cream

Is there a single better phrase in the world than "chocolate peanut butter ice cream cupcakes"? This weekend had me (and my lucky taste-testers) in a dreamlike swirl of experimental frostings, mixed toppings, and flavorful cakes. After several days of testing and weeks (yeah, seriously, weeks) of planning, I finally produced a batch of mouth-watering cupcakes. How? Why? And can you have some? All questions to be answered...

I am a faithful reader of Stef's Cupcake Project ever since I stumbled upon it many months ago while looking for a reliable recipe for naan. That, plus her very good advice when crafting my shotglass cupcakes, had me hooked, and so when I saw a post on her blog about an ice cream cupcake contest (co-sponsored with Scoopalicious), I was immediately intrigued. I love baking, but more than that I love a challenge and trying out new techniques and novel ideas. I went right to the drawing board and started dreaming up cupcakes.

Technically, the cupcakes I finally settled on were my third attempt, after two other potential cupcake creations fell by the wayside. They will get a Foodie Dreams, Kitchen Nightmare post in due time.

Just as I was wondering what else to try, I started talking with one of my coworkers, Rebecca, about my weekend plans. I mentioned the cupcakes and my various attempts and ideas, and she said that she often made ice cream cakes. One of her favorites was a peanut butter chocolate fudge cake with layers of ice cream. That was all she had to say before I was off in cupcake dreamland, already envisioning a dream cupcake. I el-oh-vee-ee peanut butter and chocolate, and I was dumbfounded that I hadn't thought of pairing them, cupcake form, sooner. I started researching different frostings and cakes before I settled on the final form: a peanut butter cupcake inside a crushed-Oreo cookie crust, covered in peanut butter frosting and topped with a scoop of ice cream and Reese's pieces. It was a triumph of peanut-chocolatey-creamy madness, and a completely amazing blend of flavors and textures.

I started with the cake, which was pretty easy. Using a box of vanilla cake as my base, I mixed in a scoop of peanut butter (about a cup, although I was only using 1/3 of the boxed batter). It was amazingly smooth and baked up perfectly and pleasantly round.

Once they had cooled, I melted some chocolate using a double-boiler and dipped the sides and bottom of the cupcakes in the chocolate. I had already crushed some Oreos (removing the filling first), and rolled the cupcakes in the Oreos, giving them a cookie crust (note: no paper liners for these cupcakes). I mixed up some peanut butter frosting--basically peanut butter, butter, and sugar--and scooped out a place for the ice cream. I frosted the whole thing, "caulking" the hole for the ice cream a la my shotglass cupcakes, and stuck them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. While they were freezing, I scooped ice cream into small balls and rolled them in the crushed Oreos. Once the cupcakes were cold enough, I topped them with the ice cream and quickly frosted them (it's best to take them out of the freezer and frost them one at a time), finally decorating them with some Reese's pieces.

After all the work and all the waiting, finally, my testers and I could enjoy the cupcakes of my labor. How did they taste? Oh-so-amazing. I was very, very pleased with the final result. All the flavors balanced and enhanced each other very nicely, while the combination of textures--the crunchy Oreo crust, the smooth peanut butter cake, the cold ice cream, and the sweet frosting--gave it a wonderful feel. I was very happy especially with the peanut butter parts--the cake and the frosting. I would completely make both of them again, although possibly not together. The cake was nutty without being over-powering, while the frosting tasted like the smoothest, sweetest peanut butter on the planet. Plus, I got a new toy, a pastry bag with different applicators, and had loads of fun trying it out. Secretly (or not so), I dream of being a professional cake-maker, and I can imagine myself piping and swirling for many happy hours.

All in all, I declare the peanut butter chocolate ice cream cupcakes a success! (as though, if you mixed all those things together in any way, shape, or form, they wouldn't be a success)

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER ICE CREAM CUPCAKES
INGREDIENTS
1 box vanilla cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
3 eggs
3 cups extra creamy peanut butter
1 dozen Oreo cookies
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup softened butter
4 cups confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons milk
vanilla, chocolate, or peanut butter ice cream
Reese's pieces

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix cake mix (note: before opening the bag, roll it between your hands to break up any clumps) with oil, water, and eggs
Add 3 cups peanut butter and mix until smooth and even
Fill a muffin pan 2/3 with batter (do not use paper liners)
Bake for 17-20 minutes or until the cupcake is round and smooth
Let cool and remove from pan
Remove vanilla filling from Oreos with a knife and place cookies inside a heavy-duty freezer bag
Crush using a rolling pin until fine
Using a double boiler (or a metal bowl on top of a pot of boiling water), melt chocolate chips
Dip sides of the cupcakes in the chocolate, then in the Oreo cookies
Scoop out a hole in the top of the cupcake, where the ice cream will sit
Prepare the frosting: mix butter, peanut butter, sugar and milk until smooth; it should be even-colored and hold its shape
Cover the entire top of the cupcake with frosting and freeze for about 10 minutes
Scoop out ice cream (about a walnut-sized amount) and roll in the Oreos
Top the cupcake with the ice cream and quickly frost, using a pastry bag instead of a knife
Decorate, as desired, with Reese's pieces

2009-05-25T11:20:00.004-04:00

Happy Moanday: Memorial Day in Boston!

I am writing from sunny Boston, sitting on Dave's bed and dreaming about the cupcakes we (I) made last night. They were soooo good and will be posted soon (tomorrow). Dave is running around cleaning his room while I blog and upload photos from our very lovely weekend. And it was lovely! We had a picnic on the porch on Friday night (takeout from Border, of course) and on Saturday we went to Kimball's--a little farm in Concord with mini golf and pitch n putt and bumper boats and obscenely large sundaes. It was wonderful and, high on sugar, we ran over to Fenway to watch the Mets crush the Red Sox in the last inning (we went with Nate--hi Nate!--which was good because Dave doesn't like being distracted watching baseball and I could usually care less and so Nate and I just chatted for a few hours). We spent yesterday lazing around the house, making cupcakes, and now I'm all packed, ready to grab a quick bite to eat and then hop hop onto the bus!

This upcoming week I'll only be in New York for three nights, since Dave and I are shore-bound Friday afternoon. Depending on the weather and my mood, I'm probably going to get something light and summery--like salmon or a fresh salad--and maybe try out a few recipes. I am dismayed to learn that I can't even grill on my little balcony outside my apartment, since you need to be at least 10 feet from the building. Boo. A whole book's worth of grilling recipes sent to the trash can... But! I might try to see if there are any ways to get around grilling, so get ready for a summer of trying out the broiler and fiddling with the stove top. True, it will lack the smokey flavor and chummy atmosphere of grilling, but hopefully the spirit will remain in tact.

And now, on to New York!

2009-05-24T00:00:00.001-04:00

Guest Blogger: UnKegging the Truth

While my boyfriend might be the erstwhile Smoothie King, his brother Steve has long had a sudsier love (other than Jenna, obvs, and baby Toniatti!). Steve knows more about beer than almost anyone I know, and for a short while I worked in a pub that routinely ran "Beer School" just to educate people on beer essentials. Since the pub required me to have a working knowledge of beer/condescension for Heinekin Light, I admit I probably know more about beer than the average 23-year-old none-drinking girl, and what I discovered, to my surprise, is that beer is very easy to make yourself. In fact, last year, my college dorm went on a field trip to the Sam Adams brewery in Boston and got a tour from founder and all-around awesome person Jim Koch (being an alum of our house). He walked us through the basics of brewing, and then admitted it was so easy he regularly whipped up batches with his elementary-school-aged sons ("for show and tell," he said).

Although I doubt Steve will be teaching his unborn kid how to brew any time soon (although he is now trying to determine, based on how hard the baby kicks, his/her soccer potential), he has kindly acquiesed to my many requests and written a guest blogging column, homebrew-style. And with that, I'll leave it to Steve!

I like to think that I have a deep, profound respect for beer. I can wax poetic about a Hefeweizen in July and get downright rhapsodical about a Maarzen lager in October. I’ll store Belgian Dubbels and Triples in the cellar and chill a Stout and a Wheat Ale in the fridge. I try to maintain a decent variety because, like dinner, who knows what you’ll be in the mood for that night?

I love how beer can be as diverse as its cultural origin, with each region of the world developing a style of brew reflective of its people and climate. I love tracing a beer’s historical evolution, seeing an English Pale Ale morph into an India Pale Ale after being loaded with hops to preserve the brew for a long, colonial sea journey. And I love beer’s ubiquitous role in history, with the local alehouse or tavern providing the setting for the exchange of new political views and ideas, and the beverage, presumably, providing the liquid courage to instigate these radical changes.

Beer has been the glue of civilization for thousands of years. Or, if you subscribe to certain paleontologists, an important reason for civilization, when nomadic hunters developed agriculture as a means to generate a stable supply of wheat and grain for fermentation. As societies, cities, and towns emerged, the local brewery was right next door to the local bakery and butcher shop. Beer became as important to a community’s identity and daily life as any other product. Produce locally, distribute locally, consume fresh. That was the way beer, and all food for that matter, was and still should be.

So what better way to channel your primordial brewer and go local than to brew up a batch yourself?

Brewing at its most basic level is simple. Beer has four main ingredients: water, grain, hops, and yeast. The first ingredient is readily available. With the help of your local homebrew store or a myriad of websites, you can obtain the other three with relative ease. What makes each type of beer unique is how much of and what types of grain, hops, and yeast you decide to use, plus any creative adjunct ingredients you toss in. Water, making up 95% of beer, does play an important role in the end result, and commercial breweries will pay close attention to the mineral content and taste of their water. However, for our purposes, if you have a kitchen sink and are OK with drinking out of the tap, brew away.

The brewing process itself is not that different from cooking up any other type of food. Once you have all your ingredients ready, you’ll spend an hour or so boiling them on your kitchen stove, adding different ingredients at different times, and finally cooling it down and sealing it up for a couple weeks to facilitate fermentation (though few other foods become alcoholic). However, there are some specialized pieces of equipment required. To get your personal brewery up and running, you’ll need to invest in some food-grade plastic buckets, plastic pipes and tubing, bottle cappers, etc. I don’t want to go into too much detail on specifics, as people debate the virtues of various pieces of equipment with near-religious fervor and do so freely on other blogs and websites. A comprehensive, economical way for first-timers to get all the basic requirements they’ll need is to go with a kit. I don’t mean Mr. Beer, which is basically “just add water” ale, though I’ve actually heard it’s not that bad. But it’s not real brewing. A kit will give you everything you’ll need to brew from scratch for about $120, and after several batches, it will pay for itself in liquor store savings. Incidentally, when I first started homebrewing, I foolishly bought each piece of equipment separately, purchasing a new carboy fermenter and wort chiller with each batch. I don’t regret it; chalk it up to beginner’s enthusiasm. Besides, that $18 bottle of beer tasted so much better (to me).

While it’s not a complicated process, homebrewing can be a labor of love. It can take up several hours of multiple weekends and requires weeks of patience to find out if your project was ultimately a success. You should plan on spending one afternoon preparing and boiling your batch, and, after about a week of fermenting, another afternoon bottling your beer. That’s why one important ingredient in the brewing process is having like-minded enthusiasts to help. I have a few homebrewing friends from college who help with the brewing and bottling, and more importantly, help make room in the fridge by consuming earlier batches.

As soon as your brew kit arrives, you’re ready to go. The beauty of homebrewing is your freedom to create your own unique beer, personalized specifically for your tastes. There are countless books and websites that can provide you with recipes, all you need to decide is what to add. Like peaches? You can make peach beer. Like chocolate? Go ahead, add chocolate. Like hot peppers, carrots, oysters, pumpkins, or bananas? I probably wouldn’t add them all together in one batch, but there are certainly recipes for each of those.

Last November, I decided to make an apple ale. It seemed like a good fall beer, something I had never done before, and my wife had been asking me to brew a batch with apples for a while. Having a spouse who tolerates homebrewing is a very fortunate thing, let alone one who makes special requests. It was the least I could do. The beer turned out pretty well, semi-sweet and refreshing with a slightly sour apple bite. A keeper in my opinion.

APPLE iBREW*
INGREDIENTS:
2 3.3lb Cans of Light Malt Extract
Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast
0.5lb Roasted Barley
Hops: 1oz. Hallertau, 0.5oz Saaz, and 1oz Liberty
4 large cans of frozen concentrate apple juice (no extra sugar added)
1 tsp of Irish Moss
¾ cup priming sugar (you can use confectionary sugar)
Makes 5 gallons (standard homebrew batch. 48 bottles – this is also why it’s good to have homebrewing, or at least beer-drinking, friends)

DIRECTIONS
Start by heating 2.5 gallons of water to approx. 180 F. Steep the roasted malt in a cooking-specific mesh bag** for 30 minutes (this will contribute to the beer’s color and texture). Remove the bag and bring water to a boil. Stir in both cans of malt extract. Be sure to stir constantly for 5 minutes after adding until extract dissolves (the extract is like molasses and will burn to the bottom of the pot without stirring).

The hops add flavor to the beer and their bitterness balances out the malt’s sweetness. They come in several varieties, with each having its own distinct flavor and different kinds of hops working better with certain styles of beer. The hops come processed in several forms, but I prefer hop pellets (they look like rabbit food). I find they are easiest to work with. Once you have brought the wort (the actual name for the sugar water you are boiling) to a boil, you will add different types/amounts of hops at different times during the hour long boil. I put the hop pellets in little cheese bag containers, which look like socks, and just toss them in.

60 minutes (left in boil) add 1oz. Hallertau
5 minutes (left in boil) add 0.5oz. Saaz

At 15 mins left in the boil, add 1 tsp of Irish Moss. This will add clarity to your beer by helping unwanted particles settle to the bottom of your fermenter**.

After 60 mins, remove the wort from the stove and rapidly cool the beer. The easiest way to do this is fill a sink with ice and put the pot on top. It’s important to chill the wort quickly, as hot, freestanding wort will attract atmospheric bacteria which could funk your beer. Plus, the temperature needs to be 70 F - 80 F before adding your yeast.

Pour your chilled wort into your pre-sterilzed*** primary fermentation bucket**. Add another 2.5 gallons of cold water (I put tap water right into my boiling pot I just used to keep things sterile). Add your yeast, add 1oz. of Liberty hops to dry hop (in that sock/cheese bag), and add 4 cans of apple concentrate. Seal it up with the CO2-releasing lid** and let sit for about 5 days.

After primary fermentation, you’ll use your siphon, transfer bucket, and bottling spout to transfer the beer to the sterilized bottles for final conditioning. Boil 2 cups of water, add ¾ cups of priming sugar until it dissolves, and add sugar water to the transfer bucket before bottling. Boil bottle caps to sterilize before capping.

Bottle-condition the beer for two weeks. After conditioning, put several beers in the fridge, call friends, enjoy.

*most likely a copyright infringement, or at least already the name of an iPhone app, but Kendall made the fake ad and beer label
**likely included in your brewing kit
***Homebrewing is a very inexact, free-range process, except for one important point. Anything that touches your wort after the boil must be almost operating room sterile. Nothing is more frustrating the buying all ingredients and going through the whole brewing process, only to find out 2-3 weeks later that unwanted bacteria had funked out your beer because your bucket or bottles weren’t clean. I usually fill my fermenting bucket all the way with cold water, dump in all other equipment, and add a few glugs of bleach. About three tbsp’s should do it. Rinse everything off and you should be good to go. It’s safe – I haven’t gone blind from the bleach. If you prefer, you can get other kinds of cleaners at homebrew shops or websites.

2009-05-23T00:00:00.002-04:00

The Parent Trap: Gam's Tea Cookies

Every Christmas my family throws a party, sort of a welcome home for me, my brother, and our friends. And one of the things my, my brother, and our friends look forward to (besides the good company) are the bazillion cookies my mom whips up. While I feel like most of these cookies will eventually work their way into the blog in some shape or form (oh just wait until I unleash the wonder that is my mom's English toffee), the first post goes to my grandmother's delicate little tea cookies.

I don't think my grandma cooked much, but every Christmas we would get a little tin in the mail filled to the brim with cookies. When I was younger I was more partial to her sugar cookies, cut out into Santas, angels, and Christmas trees and decorated with multicolored sugar crystals and those little edible metal balls. The tea cookies, tucked underneath, generally went to my parents, but now that I'm older (wiser?), I've come to appreciate their wafer-thin layers stacked between powdery sugar. Sweet without being overbearing, they are delicious enough to eat 5 at a time, and perfect to nibble on with a cup of tea (shockingly, I skew more towards the former).

The cookies are exceptionally easy to make, being essentially sugar cookies covered in powdered sugar. When my mom and grandma make them, they chill the batter overnight. Although this is more because of the convenience of prepping batter before you bake, it also produces a more uniform and smoother cookie. To cut them out, use a glass, not a cookie cutter. The wider lip of the glass will give the cookie a rounder edge, rather than the sharper and more distinct edge you'd get from using a cookie cutter. It's a small detail, but makes a difference (at least, to me). Also, if you brush it with beaten egg, it will give the surface of the cookie a shinier finish. I like my cookies matte and so I usually leave the egg out (it also picks up more sugar that way).

A note about butter: butter is very, very important to good cookies. It must be soft, but not liquidy (tried to make cookies one time with completely melted butter. No good. Repeat: nooo gooood). The best thing to do is take the butter out of the fridge either the day before or in the morning and just let it sit on the countertop, covered (it won't go bad, promise). If you forget and your butter is icy solid from sitting in a freezer, stick it into the microwave for 5-7 seconds 2-3 times (check between each time). The butter should feel soft, but if you see any yellow liquid, remove it from the microwave immediately. Drain the liquid and mash the butter (it will still likely be pretty hard).

GAM'S TEA COOKIES
INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 egg
2 tablespoons vanilla
finely chopped nuts (optional, almonds work well)

DIRECTIONS
Sift together flour, salt, and sugar
Mix in butter until smooth
Beat the egg and add vanilla, and nuts, if using
Pour in liquid ingredients, blend well
Form into a ball and chill overnight, wrapped in plastic
Heat oven to 400 degrees
Roll out 1/3 dough to 1/8 inch thick
Cut into small disks using a glass
Place on ungreased baking sheets
Brush with egg (optional)
Bake for 5-7 minutes
While still hot, roll both sides in confectioners' sugar

2009-05-22T00:00:00.001-04:00

Spotlight On: Served

Once upon a time, before I became what some people would call "gainfully employed," I worked as a waitress. I wasn't sure what to think about it, because I'm not exaaactly a people person, I'm not toootally graceful, and I'd been cautioned against it by friends who complained loudly and often about sore feet, abusive customers, and irate managers. But, despite my initial misgivings, surprisingly, delightfully, I loved it. I'm not sure what was so fun about it. Partly, I think, it had to do with working in a college pub right around its much-anticipated debut, but I was also pleasantly pleased to discover that I really enjoyed talking with customers, giving great service, and forming bonds with my other servers, the kitchen staff, and the bartenders (I eventually got some experience with all three). While I love my job and realize that my parents would moider me if I went back to waitressing (an occupation in which I could repay my college bill in, likely, 15 years), I often rhapsodize about my time in the restaurant biz and miss it with astonishing ferocity (some day I will have to devote a whole post to the lessons I learned there).

Perhaps for this reason I am completely hooked on "Served," a weekly column by food writer and waitress Hannah Howard. When most waiters write--especially if they live in New York--they tend to focus on the juicy gossip: the celebrity sitings, the incompetent rookies, the drunks and bad tippers. While there's a time and a place for the juicy stuff (I had flashes of empathy while reading Steve Dublanica's Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip), part of what's so appealing about Hannah's column is her earnest and straightforward assessment of her waiting life.

She deals with all the normal things, the weird customers (like the the guy who asked to take her picture and mentioned he had an apartment above her restaurant and she should check it out), the awkward tip moment (I too have experienced the heartbreaking wonder of whether my customers had purposely tipped me 2%), and the requirement to be friendly and chipper despite throbbing feet and general abuse. But she also muses on her future in the business, whether she should take the financial risks of running her own place and how the industry is weathering the current economic crisis. In a world where most people rarely think about their servers, except in terms of how fast they refill water glasses, she offers a refreshing point of view on the complex life of a waiter.

In her most recent post, one of the commenters said "I like your stories. I like that things just happen without a neat little resolution. Kinda like life," and it's true! While other bloggers try to punch up their lives with gratuitous Sex and the City-style confessions (see: 95% of women's "lifestyle" blogs), Served takes a more thoughtful, diary-like perspective. I think it works. The content is so interesting--to me, a former waitress, anyway--that she doesn't really need to lay on the intrigue.

Now that New York restaurants are reeling from the financial collapse, which effectively emptied the pockets of some of their best and most lucrative customers, it's interesting to see how a young waitress with aspirations of staying in the industry navigates this new landscape. Hannah, a brand-new college graduate, is, like many college graduates, still looking for a job, hopefully as a waitress. Even if she's forced to find something else, I've got to think, as I reminisce about fantastic tips and my hilarious fellow servers, that she'll come to find once a waitress, always a waitress.

Some posts to check out:
New York Is Not the Only Place for a Restaurant -- Hannah travels to her parents' house in the country, sees pretty restaurants
The Ballsy Waitress -- what to do when a table leaves a suspiciously low tip
Recession Waitressing -- how the recession is affecting waitressing
The Perfect Waiter -- tips learned from waiting tables
Front of the House vs. Back of the House -- the positives and negatives of working the tables or the kitchen

2009-05-21T00:00:00.002-04:00

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Oh sports. I am not really big into them. Whenever I have participated in sports, they've usually been of the not-so competitive/not so complex variety (archery, running swimming...). My boyfriend has slowly but steadily been introducing me to different sports, to the point where I can now watch a soccer game or a Penn State football game with actual, genuine interest, but his efforts to inspire me to fill out an NCAA bracket (one year I had UPenn taking it all) or submit to the mind-numbing boredom that is golf on TV on a beautiful Saturday mostly fall by the wayside.

The one exception to this, though, is baseball. Oh how I love baseball. Being a northern New Jersey resident, I am a Yankees fan, holding my head up through accusations of evil empires and inflated salaries (although I agree some of the things they do are ridiculous. See: $80 tablespoon of dirt). I even held it strong through four years of living in Boston, two of which were marred by Sox World Series wins (sigh).

Yes, I do love me some baseball, and I would happily shell out my carefully-budgeted money to regularly go to Yankees games if it didn't mean I'd have to mortgage my first child. However, Dave managed to get tickets for an upcoming game between the Red Sox and the Mets (I know, I know. Who to root for? I'm thinking Mets, if only because a Red Sox loss is better for the Yankees), and we'll be happily heading out (with Nate as our third wheel) this Saturday.

In celebration of the game and being well into the summer baseball season (is there truly anything lovelier than a small-town baseball game played late afternoon, warm and lazy?), here are recipes for some of my favorite baseball foods: Cracker Jacks, soft pretzels (recipe from allrecipes), and lemonade slushies.

CRACKER JACKS
INGREDIENTS
1 cup popcorn kernels (mushroom)*
canola oil
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cold water
1-2 cups roasted peanuts (not salted)

DIRECTIONS
In a large, deep pot, coat the bottom with oil
Place three corn kernels in the oil and heat the pot to medium-high, covered
When all three kernels have popped, pour in remaining kernels and cover pot
As kernels pop, don't stir the pot--unpopped kernels will fall to the bottom
When you can count to five between pops, turn off heat
Place a large saucepan on high
Add butter, water, and sugar
Stir constantly until it becomes a light caramel color (similar to a brown paper bag)
Carefully pour caramel onto a lightly greased pan
While the caramel is still hot, add the popcorn and nuts
Using a spatula, roll popcorn and nuts evenly in caramel
Let cool (you can refrigerate) and break apart

*There are two kinds of popping corn: mushroom and butterfly. Mushroom is bigger and rounder and will take the caramel coating better

SOFT PRETZELS
INGREDIENTS
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until foamy
In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt
Add sugar and yeast mixture
Knead until smooth, about 7 minutes
Lightly oil a large bowl and put the dough in the bowl, turning so completely covered in oil
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled
Preheat oven 450 degrees
Divide dough into 12 pieces and roll each out into a long rope
Form into pretzel shape
Dissolve baking soda in hot water and dip pretzels into mixture
Bake on a greased baking sheet for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown

LEMONADE SLUSHIES
INGREDIENTS
1 cup lemon juice or the juice from 6 lemons
6 cups water
1 cup sugar
12 ice cubes

DIRECTIONS
Mix water, lemon juice, and sugar
Stir until sugar is completely dissolved
Add ice cubes and blend well
Pour lemonade into an uncovered, plastic container and freeze for 2-3 hours, stirring every half hour until well frozen, but not solid
Serve in a tall glass with seltzer water or topped with whipped cream

2009-05-20T00:00:00.003-04:00

Spice of Life: Real Green Shoots

There is something very magical about taking a little seed, sticking it into some dirt, sprinkling a little water on top, and watching a tiny green plant emerge. I like knowing that the things that impressed me in kindergarten still impress me today (like caterpillars turning into butterflies! Man! How do they do that?!), and growing a little garden is no exception.

In truth, I do not much have a green thumb. Once, when I was little, I grew a bunch of multi-colored Cosmos which I loved and protected and visited every day after school. When most of them were eaten by some deer (that perenial northern NJ garden pest), I vowed revenge with the tenacity of the Bride in Kill Bill (Vol 1 and 2). I distinctly remember drawing a picture in pencil of a hunter's gun bearing down upon the deer and hanging it over my Cosmos, which must have alarmed my parents but gave me a certain kind of satisfaction.

In college I had some little plants that I'd buy in September for their bright and beautiful colors, only to have them die by November. The one exception was my cactus, Buddy, which lived for three years through Cambridge winters and moving summers (including a three-month stay accidentally locked in a box in my brother's spare bedroom). Buddy was a trooper, and I loved it dearly (some day the world will know Dave's quite terrific story-telling skills, including the sad and dreamy story of Buddy's past). Eventually, though, Buddy succumbed to some kind of cactus rot and went out with the trash one terrible day.

I'm getting back on that green horse, though, with my own little herb garden. Several weeks ago, I posted about my first gardening attempts, and now, I'm happy to report, they have all popped out of the ground (some, unfortunately, also seem to have gone back in). I still need to get off my butt and plant my other seeds (there is a giant bag of dirt I'm sure my roommates--new and old--don't appreciate), but here are some pictures of the garden!

2009-05-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

Cheap Eats: Muffins

I have a love-hate relationship with muffins. While they can often be sweet, fragrant, moist, and filling, too often they are dry, sticky, crumbly, and so cloying they taste like cake (which, while not completely terrible, is maybe not what I want to eat at 8am). For this reason, I rarely buy muffins (also, in the great morning-breakfast-war between muffins and bagels, my allegiance falls on the holey side). If I do have muffins, I make them myself, the old fashioned way, by scratch, if you know what I mean. I'm of course a fan of my mom's fantastic spiced muffins, but for the humbler (and more budget conscious) out there, there is little better than the sweet, simple, and absurdly inexpensive Jiffy.

I've already mentioned my love affair with Jiffy in a previous post, but it is really so great that it deserves its own mention. I started making Jiffy muffins in high school, where I always had a bowl of batter cooling in the fridge, or a tuperware full of muffins, ready to be grabbed on my way to school. I went with the plain corn muffin box, which was easily dressed up with different ingredients or spices. I loved the versatility of the muffins and the sweet, homey way they came in their own tiny box, wrapped in paper.

It was always nice to make up a batch, stirring in different ingredients and pulling them from the oven hot, golden, and delicious. They made great breakfasts, especially when I'd pop them in the countertop oven to freshen them up. The top would be crispy and sweet, while the bottom pillowy and hot, ready to sop up melting butter. Sigh.

I tried some crazy mixes with the muffins, throwing in my spice cabinet and seeing what came out. One time, my family was heading out early in the morning for a plane trip and the night before I made different muffins for each member of the family. I had my Dutch coccoa with burnt sugar, cinnamon brown sugar, blueberry with raspberry jelly, and chocolate chip walnut. They were all so fantastically amazing, and my sleep-deprived family was amazed at my baking prowess.

But perhaps the most notable thing about Jiffy is the price. With virtually no advertising and, the 1970's-era box graphics seem to imply, no marketing, they pass the savings onto a muffin-starved public. An 8-oz box of Jiffy corn muffins (my fav) costs a whopping 79 cents. 79 cents! Do you know what you can buy for 79 cents? Maybe a packet of pretzels in a very old vending machine. Maybe some penny candy. Maybe a pen? (a really cheap pen) It is crazy how cheap this is, especially considering a muffin at Starbucks, aside from being loaded with sugar and calories, can be sold for more than $4. That would buy you about 30 muffins, Jiffy style (minus the cost of the milk and eggs). I say with savings that nuts you should splurge on extras, like candied ginger to sprinkle on top of the muffin.

I leave you with the recipe for my coccoa and sugar muffins, which are so amazing I could eat them morning noon and night. They have the same chocolate fix for people who like chocolate muffins, but avoid the cakey sweetness that plagues so many choco muffins. The coccoa will taste slightly bitter and not too strong (for a more chocolatey kick, substitute chocolate milk powdered mix), but the flavor melds beautifully with the sweet sugar crust. Top with a sweet jam or eat plain.

COCCOA AND BURNT SUGAR MUFFINS
INGREDIENTS
1 box Jiffy 8oz corn muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup coccoa powder
1/2 cup sugar crystals (Sugar in the Raw works well)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Blend the mix, egg, milk, and coccoa powder--batter shouldn't be too dark brown
Once mixed, let sit for about 4 minutes
Fill muffin tin about 2/3 the way with batter
Cover each muffin with a layer of sugar crystals
Bake for 15-20 minutes

2009-05-18T10:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Out and About

Phew! I am tiiired (again!). I had a busy busy weekend, which seems likely to be followed by a busy busy week. Dave and I went to my parents' house this weekend (Dave surprised me by coming a day early!), where we sampled local Northern New Jersey fare (Frank's pizza) and enjoyed my mom's cooking (surf n turf Friday, lobster linguine Saturday). We had a very lovely time, and I even took Dave to shoot my old bow (I am an erstwhile archery champ), where he only broke one arrow. On Sunday, we headed back into the city for the AIDS walk, stopping about half a mile before the finish line because we were passing by Shake Shack and we were hungry. We finally made it home, only to completely collapse in a post- Shake Shack/6.2 mile walk/good weekend exhaustion.

As for posts comin' up, I am still working on a schedule that will have me posting regularly. Weekends, which I typically spend on a bus and Internet-less, can be hard, and I'm envisioning planning several days ahead... I am very, very late in posting Steve's wonderful account of homebrewing, partially because I plan to put it up on a Sunday, when it's hard for me to get Internet, and partially because I'm still working on a nice new graphic to go along with it. This Sunday, I promise, Steve!

This week in food my grocery list might be conveniently short, as I'm planning on getting goodbye dinners with friends. Evie is off to wherever good little law students head off to for the summer, while my two lovely roommates are moving out for good (I hope the new roommates like cupcakes!). I'm off to Boston for the long weekend, where Dave and I are planning to start the first leg of our "So Long, Boston" tour. On the books: a Saturday night Sox game (with Nate!), a visit to Kimball's Farm (with ice cream!), and a trip to the aquarium (with...fish?). I'm also going to finally whip up some cupcakes, which I plan to enter into The Cupcake Project/Scoopalicious's Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Contest. Last weekend, I tested one potential idea. It did not go great and Dave ate the mistakes. But! This is why you test these things, right? I am still tweaking recipes and mixes, but I'm hopeful that it will turn out all right and my new lovely camera will do wonders to showcase the results.

For eating!:
It is still freezing like no one's busnatch here, meaning I want something hot and delicious. Maybe some soup? Paired with a sandwich? And/or salad?
Or I might go big or go home, whip up some Toniatti sauce, and do a meatball sub or lasagna (still have lots of leftover won-ton wrappers from ravioli-making). Mmmm...Toniatti sauce...

2009-05-15T03:58:00.004-04:00

A Brief History Of: Uh Oh Spaghetti Os!

It's always nice when the food you eat inspires poetry:
Oh, dear humble SpaghettiO,
Your round delight, the straight-line's foe,
Your sauce, your cheese, your hearty glow,
The truth--it's true!--I love you so.*

Yes, the SpaghettiO, because who said spaghetti had to come in a straight line? I am usually wary of food that comes in a can, but I happily make an exception for SpaghettiOs, which are the reason I learned how to use the electric can opener when still in the second grade. Little round circles of pasta (three sizes!), suspended in a cheesy tomato sauce, always emerged hot and delicious from the microwave. I probably loved SpaghettiOs a little too early for a little too long (I don't have any in my pantry right now, but that's because the grocery was only selling Spiderman-shaped SpaghettiOs...), but for good reason! They are simple, delicious, and--years of Franco-American brainwashing tells me--healthy!

No, but really, let's take a walk down memory lane.

SpaghettiOs' origins, like those of all Great American Heros, are shrouded in mystery. Were they the 1884 creation of an Italian-American family named Kirby (suspicious: Kirby does not sound Italian) or a product of the 1960s, when Franco-American decided to release the ringed pasta? I don't know, and Google is presenting differing histories... (what are they trying to cover up???)

Here's what we do know: SpaghettiOs were first made under the auspices of Franco-American, bought by Campbell's in 1915. The little Os are a mixture of different pastas, anelli, anellini, and occhi di pernice if you believe Wikipedia, or, according to the Franco-American Kidz Fun Facts website, ditali, ditalini, tubetti, and tubetini. SpaghettiOs come in 4 different varieties: plain, meatballs, franks, and extra calcium (whatever that means), although--Fun Fact!--the meatball version actually has no meat in it, as anyone who has ever eaten the meatball version could tell you.

When they were released in 1965, they were branded as the solution to the perenial problem of cheerful babies dumping bowls of spaghetti on their heads. Franco-American said the little Os were easier and less messy to eat, and sold their point by advertising on napkins. But they really shot to popularity when teed idol Jimmie Rodgers (not this Jimmy Rodgers) recorded the now-famous "Uh Oh SpaghettiOs!" song. Dear reader, the lyrics:
The neat round spaghetti you eat with a spoon,
Uh Oh, spaghetti os.

Starting in 1980, SpaghettiOs teamed up with animation studios to feature cartoon-shaped pasta, including Garfield (who probably would have preferred being turned into lasagna), Gargoyles (who remembers them?), and Waldo (rebranded as WaldO, natch). Since then, I've seen just about every kiddie cartoon get the SpaghettiO treatment, something I'm not too happy about. Not only is it distressingly hard to discern the difference between Dora the Explorer and Ren & Stimpy SpaghettiOs, but there was always something off about the cross-hatched taste of those weird little shapes.

This is the part of the post where I usually write about a personal recipe I use incorporating the briefly-historicized food, but the only recipe I generally follow when making SpaghettiOs is open can, dump into bowl, add heat, enjoy. Luckily, thanks to the magic of the Internets, I discovered an article by Trent Sandusky called "X-TREME Spaghetti-Os: Enhance Your Canned Pasta (and Your Life!)". Trent, who writes "I started out small: green peppers, diced onions, chocolate chips. The chocolate chips were a bad idea, but progress never comes without a price," seems to be a chef/blogger after my own heart. Branding himself an Expert-O!, he presents 5 SpaghettiO-centered recipes with the kind of cheerful abandon for clashing tastes and affronted sensibilities that I strive for in my own recipes. I like the SpaghettiO pizza (although Trent appears to like it too much) and adapted the recipe for actual human consumption.

SPAGHETTIO PIZZA
INGREDIENTS
1 pizza crust, either fresh or frozen (be sure to defrost)
1 can plain or meatball SpaghettiOs
1 1/2 cup shredded mozzerella

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Spread unheated SpaghettiOs onto pizza crust
Sprinkle evenly with mozzerella
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until mozzerella is completely melted

*Shocking that I don't get paid to write this blog, eh?

2009-05-13T17:01:00.001-04:00

Four Months and One Day!

I don't know how I missed this, but happy four months! Yes, I will almost need two hands to talk about how long I have been idling posting my thoughts about steak, cupcakes, and pasta (and not a single salad in the whole blog! Amazing!).

Let's recap:
This month was big for me, having finally worked out (some) of the many bugs that routinely plague the blog and posted the new layout. Luckily, Blogger hasn't yet quite exploded with the various little tweaks and features I've changed to the standard Blogger templates, but I guess the year is still young? Still working on a few things, and no doubt I will soon want to give the look another overhaul, but for now I am happily tossing away my CSS books.

The blog is getting onto a lovely little schedule now, and I've been dutifully planning out my week of posts. Some are limited by time/money/expense/people, but with some forethought, I should be able to show off some new fancy features. The plan is a new post every day, which may be somewhat difficult (I do have an actual paying job, people), but what's life without challenges?

I also finally got myself a new camera (yet to make its fancy-feature debut) and have a guest blogger lined up for the weekend! (PS If you're interested in taking a guest-blogging spin and/or writing a/some features, let me know! It has to be about food. Mostly.)

As for the months ahead:
Look for more updates on features!
I will be constructing a mini photo studio for prettier pictures!
More foodie cartoons!
Plus! a T-Shirt giveaway is in the works!

Here's hoping the next four months will have twice as many posts with half the bugs, and the cupcakes will outweigh the salads by 10 to one!

2009-05-12T12:00:00.006-04:00

Sweet Potato Sweet Ravioli

I'm not sure where my love affair with sweet potatoes started. I like to think it was Thanksgiving last year, when my mom served us light, pulpy, syrupy potatoes, drenched in butter. Or maybe the first time I tried sweet potato fries and was blown away by how smooth and delicious they were. Or maybe even the time(s) I tried to make my own sweet potato fries and was shot down, which only added to the mystique of the humble yam.

In any case, I love a good sweet potato, whether fried, stewed, mashed, or eaten raw (ok, not raw. Even I have limits). So I was delighted when, months ago, I discovered a recipe (from Cooking Light) that combined my deep passion for pasta with my blossoming affinity for sweet potatoes. Like most recipes, it resided in the limbo of my Gmail account for a few solid weeks until, last night, I gave it a try. Hello, loveliness.

First, a word about homemade ravioli: it is so, so good and so, so easy. My mom somewhere found a recipe for homemade ravioli and made the mistake of making it for me one night. I was hooked. In a bad way. For at least two solid years whenever my mom asked me what I wanted to eat the answer was, again and again, "Homemade ravioli." And while it is very easy to make, it's not exactly conducive to family dinners, since you can really only make 3-4 raviolis at a time. My mom made them for me on special occassions, or when my dad and brother were out and she could sit me at the little island in our kitchen, dropping fresh ravioli straight from the pot onto my plate. I loved it.

The recipe, as I said, is simple: take wonton wrappers (found, usually, in the produce section of a grocery store); drop a mixture of egg, ricotta, Parmesan, basil, and oregano; brush edges with egg white; fold; cook in boiling water for two minutes. And that's it! There is a little bit of a learning curve--you should double up the wrappers the first few times, as it takes some practice to pull the raviolis out without breaking them--but mostly they are quick and easy, taking all of 10 minutes to make and 10 seconds to eat.

If you want something a bit more substantive, complex, and awe-inspiring, making your own pasta dough adds a lovely flavor. These can be tricky, as you have to be careful to evenly distribute the dough around the filling so that it's neither stretched too thin over the filling nor bunched too thick around the edges, but the pasta itself is just so delicious--fresh and filling. The wonton wrappers work great, too, and add a uniformity that's difficult to replicate if you don't make pasta dough often, but I always recommend trying it at least once.

The sweet potato raviolis were essentially the same as my mom's homemade versions, with some mashed potatoes and spices replacing the ricotta mix. The recipe also came with instructions for a lemon-sage-butter sauce, which was delicious if a little thin (I think I would try reducing it a little more, or maybe adding some olive oil for stability). All in all, though, it was a crowd-pleaser (1 is a crowd, right?) and a fine addition to my sweet potato/pasta repertoire.

The recipe calls for baking the potatoes for 40-50 minutes, something I would maybe have the time or patience for during the weekend, but not so much on a weeknight when I started cooking dinner less than half an hour before my regular bedtime. To bypass this, I microwaved the potatoes, wrapped in plastic, for 6 minutes, one at a time (to do multiple potatoes, microwave for 5 minutes per potato). Maybe not the best method if you were making something with a persnicketty recipe, but worked perfectly fine for me.

SWEET POTATO RAVIOLI
INGREDIENTS
2 sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
24 wonton wrappers
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Wash and thoroughly dry potatoes.
Wrap in plastic and microwave, one at a time, for about 6 minutes.
Let cool, then peel potatoes and mash.
Mix together mashed potatoes, cheese, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Working with a couple wrappers at a time, scoop about 1 tablespoon potato mixture into center of each.
Lightly brush edges of dough with egg white - bring 2 opposite corners to center.
Press edges together to seal, forming a triangle.
Repeat procedure with remaining wonton wrappers, potato filling and egg white.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil - add a third of the ravioli and cook until done, about 2 minutes.
Carefully remove ravioli and keep warm - repeat procedure with remaining ravioli.
In a small skillet, add butter and melt over medium-high.
Add chopped sage to pan - cook until butter is lightly browned, about 1 to 3 minutes.
Stir in juice, salt and pepper.
Drizzle butter mixture over ravioli.
Garnish with sage sprigs, if desired.

2009-05-11T10:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Moanday: Chilly and Sleepy

Oh Monday. Oh Moanday. Today was one of those days where I woke up already tired and cold and hungry and wishing it were the afternoon or weekend. Part of that is because Mondays are always a little tough (my whole team at work gets progressively more cheerful as the week goes on, meaning although by Friday we are cracking jokes and sharing brownies, on Monday we are like individual little thunder clouds), and part of that is because I rolled into my apartment late last night after a 6-hour bus ride. It was too late and I was too tired to make any dinner (I ended up eating a two-inch block of cheddar cheese. I know...).

Other than that, though--things are great! I spent the weekend in Boston, eating too much and lazing around with Dave, which was nice. As usual, come Saturday night, when we'd planned on making cupcakes (by "we" I mean "me"), we were full and exhausted and decided to call it a night (I wanted to wake up early and make them Sunday, but Dave, my taste-tester, vetoed). Speaking of cupcakes, though, I did manage to visit the new cupcake shop in Harvard Square, which is exactly where a cupcake shop needs to be (overstressed students in need of a sugar binge? Please. People were freebasing frosting in there). Although I didn't get one, I was impressed with the sweet little dollops of frosting, the cheerful and minimalistic decor, and the vibrant reds of their red velvet cupcakes (Dave had to drag me out).

I also finally, finally! got myself a new camera, a purchase at least a year in the making. It is a terrific little Canon point-and-shoot and takes beeeautiful photos of food (I tested it out at the Indian place where we had lunch and was oohing and aahing over the bright, pure colors and perfect little details). I am hoping, finally, to be able to take pictures of my dinner where the meats don't look tired and sad. Oh dreams.

As for this week: it is figid and unpleasant in New York, where hot and humid rainy weather has been traded for clear and cold. I am shivering and wishing for something warm and lovely, which is making me think sweet potatoes. Although they are more appropros for fall, they are warm and comforting and I've been craving them for a week. I have an idea for a goat-cheese topped sweet potato fritter and also have a months-old recipe I've been wanting to try for homemade sweet potato ravioli (I may mix it up with some regular ravioli as well).

Plans are to head home to New Jersey this weekend, meaning I'll just need one more meal. I may unfreeze the tomato soup in my freezer, paired with my famous grilled cheese, or get something simple like panko-fried chicken or lime shrimp. We shall see...

Image of Sleepy Chilly Ice Bat, which I never heard of before until I Google Image searched "sleepy chilly"

2009-05-09T12:32:00.011-04:00

The Restaurantour: The Daily Catch

In Boston, there is a great, lovely aquarium right on the harbor. Inside, there is a penguin exhibit and a giant cylindrical tank where sharks and rays glide around and tiny little seahorses bob. There is almost always a line to get in, but even if you can't make it inside you can always walk by their outdoor exhibit of harbor seals, where you can watch them swim back and forth and learn all their names (I am particularly fond of Smoke). I don't go as often as I like, it being expensive and usually crowded on weekends, but a few years ago Dave, his sister, and I made the trip. We watched the penguins' feeding time and the shark's feeding time, learned about local shoreline birds, and held starfish in the touch tank. When we finally left and decided to get some dinner, we all sort of thought for a second where we should go before Dave said, "You know? I kind of have a craving for fish."

And as soon as he said it, we had to agree. Despite the bad lesson that we left with (fish are food, not friends?), I'm grateful for that excursion for introducing me to the best fish restaurant in the world--the absolutely incomparable Daily Catch.

I wish I could say I discovered the Daily Catch, but with many of my favorite Boston restaurants (oh how I still dream of Marche, Kebab n Kurry, and so many others...), I was tipped off by my brother, a Bostonian 7 years and running. I called and asked him for a good fish restaurant near the aquarium and he immediately had the answer. Just a few short blocks away, in Boston's famed North End, we found the tiny little restaurant, huddled between Italian sports bars and across the street from Mike's Pastries, one of the favorite places to pick up overpriced gelato and cannolis.

From outside, it doesn't look like much. Most of the tiny restaurant (I'd estimate it's maybe 15'-20' wide) is taken up by the stove, grill, and chef's area, giving you the feeling that you're sitting inside someone's kitchen. The fact that the restaurant is family run as well, with nieces and siblings stopping by to wait tables or just chat, only emphasizes this, as does the extremely limited seating (no reservations, and if you're seated at the window, you're likely to feel the hungry eyes of waiting diners on the sidewalk outside). The food, fish and seafood so fresh it was swimming in the harbor that morning, is absolutely fantastic. From your seat, you can watch the chef prepare your food and see the flames shoot up as it hits the grill.

No menus in this Sicilian restaurant. Instead, you order off a nearby chalkboard--not a problem as the place is so small it's always easy to read (also easy to read: the many, many reminders that the place only takes cash, no credit card. A nearby Bank of America ATM probably has a lot to thank them for). Most of the food is pan-fried or broiled and served directly in the pans in which they were cooked, meaning you don't lose a single bite of flavor or texture. My favorite is the pan-fried salmon, usually a special and not on the main menu, which comes drenched in butter and breadcrumbs. The best thing on the menu, however, and a unique dish to the restaurant, is their black pasta. Spaghetti pasta made with tinta de calamari comes out, yes, black. Although unusual-looking, it is perhaps the best pasta ever--high praise from a pastaphile like myself. The long, round, fat strands are silky and thick--you can literally taste the fresh flour and eggs and the homemade effort.

Although the Daily Catch is pricey (Appetizers: $3-$10 per person, Entres: $18-$23, with the show-stopping Lobster Fra Diavolo at $69 for two), it's worth every penny and could easily be worth more. If you want more of the standard amenities for your buck, the little North End eatery has a more upscale cousin on Boston's Harborwalk, where an expanded menu and wine list, as well as a larger setting (it also takes reservations) make a dressier setting.
Still, I am partial to the cramped and cozy space in the North End, where you can watch ancient Italian men debate the latest soccer match and chat with your chef about the best kinds of fish. Of course, if you really wanted to learn more about your dinner, the aquarium is still just minutes away.

2009-05-07T17:33:00.008-04:00

Counter Intelligence: Tea for Two

One of the things that makes me most feel like a grown up is my deep affinity for a nice cup of tea.

It started in college, when I would routinely work in my dorm's dining hall late at night. The very lovely Cabot Dining Hall staff members (who truly deserve a post all in their own), usually left out cookies, cakes, bagels, and toast for hungry students to munch on through the night (Brain Break! so good). Along with that, they'd usually keep the soda running and, if you had been around long enough, you knew how easy it was to turn on the hot coccoa machine and the juice fountain. They also, though, left out dozens of mugs and kept the coffee and hot water dispensers turned on.

I think I probably started drinking tea mostly because the water was very, very hot, and I was very, very cold, and when you're working your way through 300 pages of reading a night, sometimes you just need something to do, even if it's just routinely making undrunk cups of tea. But! Eventually I did start drinking them, and stumbled upon how truly lovely it is to sit with a cup of tea on a rainy day.

My various favorite blends and flavors have changed throughout the years. Like so many people, I was for a time lured by the rich, fragrant sweetness of chai tea (the very first time I ever had it was 2001, when my brother and I did our Christmas shopping at Borders. The sweet smell of chai tea wafted throughout the whole building, until finally we walked up the cafe area and said "We want two cups of whatever is making this place smell so amazing." Immediately sold.).

I do still hold a special fondness for chai--a box of the stuff is sitting in my cabinet now--but since then I've pared down my tastes. My favorite right now is basic black tea (generally Bigelow's English Teatime) with a tablespoon of honey and a splash of skim milk. I leave the tea bag in the cup to steep, so that it gets stronger and stronger. Even if I forget to drink all of it before it stays hot, the cold tea is strong and flavorful, crisp and refreshing.

While I drink tea every single morning (I am not a "coffee" person, but I do have a pretentious NPR-style disdain for coffee drinkers), I actually don't own anything to make tea for myself (aside from a big pot, but where's the charm in that?). No kettles, teapots, or strainers, and even the mugs at home are loners from my roommates. Not for lack of desire though, I love teapots (check out my little URL icon)--the cheerful colors, the bright little whistle, the endearing song (you know the one!). My dearth of mugs, though, just seems to indicate that I haven't had too many life experiences (it seems like they all come with mugs. Witness my parents' collection of more than 2 dozen of mugs from countless grateful students and corporate events).

Yes, I love tea and teapots and mugs and I would happily build my own lovely collection, but I am picky and discerning in my choices. For mugs, they have to be large, plain, not too heavy, and not have a cover. Ceramic, not plastic, and hopefully matching (I get that I'm crossing the line from cute to neurotic. I guess we all have our pitfalls?). I like teapots in either bright bold colors with a classic Mrs. Potts shape (did you ever wonder where Mr. Potts was and whether all the teacups were her kids or just Chip?) or the vintage wide-bottomed and flat copper kettles. Oh, or! The teapot in the background of the Flight of the Conchords openning montage (watch it here! Then watch "Carol Brown" and also, if you have time, the original live version of "The Humans are Dead." Ok. Back to teapots). It is an adorable squat little thing in a sunny yellow and if I stumbled upon it in a hipsterish street fair in Brooklyn I would love it with all my tea-filled heart.

But, since I'm still waiting for that special teapot to sweep me off my feet (I am leaning towards this one, but I don't know, something just doesn't seem right), here are some of the more beautiful tea-related things I've discovered. I fear that soon enough my online tea shopping will turn to musings on grills and ice cream makers, while I curse my apartment for its lack of air conditioning, but while New York stays dreary, rainy, and cold, I'll keep dreaming of tea time.

These are flowering tea blossoms, and they are impossibly lovely
Hand-sewn tea leaves expand and bloom when dropped into hot water
You can watch a beautiful, mesmerizing video of them here

The nice thing about the blooming tea blossoms is they're served in clear teapots
I would worry that these glass pots would get too hot, but they do look very pretty

Why yes, that is a teapot in the shape of a giant lime robot.
Notice the bolt of electricity which forms the handle?
Want.

Unsurprisingly, given my last post on crockery, Urban Outfitters has some sweet, simple mugs
These are technically capuccino mugs, but they are so bright, bold, and cheerful

A kama sutra teapot.
Works out kinda amazingly well, given the Twister-limbs

This is Crispus Attucks' teapot.
I saw it in real life a few years ago when I took a class on New England artifacts
My professor, who discovered the teapot and put it on the cover of her book, was like
"We just thought it looked cute, and then we actually realized what it was."
It is cute, and tiny.

It's a Wallace teapot! And he's holding a cuppa tea!
*Head splode with happiness*

More Urban mugs. They didn't have K. They never have K...

I'll leave you with a video of one of the best tea songs out there, sung by, natch, Julie Andrews.
When I was a little duckling dreaming of being Shirley Temple I used to tap dance to this (and sometimes still do!)

2009-05-06T12:00:00.015-04:00

Give Me Some Comfort (Food): Brownie Points

Oh brownies. In the grand scheme of life, there is almost nothing more tempting or more wonderful than freshly-baked, slightly gooey brownies. In high school, I used to make brownies almost every weekend, when Jeremy would come over and my mom would pop a batch in the oven. We'd turn on a movie and dredge our brownies in ice cream and chocolate syrup, secure in our teenager metabolisms (youth! so innocent...).

Good brownies--moist, springy, chocolatey and fudgy--are just utterly fantastic. Slathered with some chocolate frosting or left unadorned, their tissue-thin surfaces shiny and delicate, they are instant crowd-pleasers. But by that same token, bad brownies--thick, heavy, and dry--are one of the most unfortunate things ever. The disappointment in seeing a big, beautiful brownie, taking a bite, and discovering that it is dry, chalkly, or--ugh--filled with nuts (or fruit!) is quite unlike anything else.

Of course, sometimes the best brownies are the ones that never make it to the pan. I think my weekly brownie-trips with Jeremy were subtle attempts to sneak spoonfuls of brownie batter, which I would happily eat for the rest of my short, fat life if it didn't make me sick so quickly. With the richness of the egg and flour and the pure chocolate essence of a melted Hershey's bar, brownie batter is frightfully addictive (and unlike Dave, who will even eat chunks of unkneaded bread dough, I don't usually sample my food before it's completely prepared, less because of possible fears of salmonella and more because I am a stickler for instructions. Brownie batter in oven, not stomach!). One memorable night, though, when I was still in college, Kevin and I found a box of brownie mix and although we managed to track down eggs and oil (from the friendly Cabot dining hall staff!), we didn't have access to an oven. Unperturbed, we worked our way through most of the whole bowl, while our respective significant others looked on in disgust (and jealousy?).

My favorite brownie recipe is one that's almost as old as I am (I brought these suckers in kindergarten, to great acclaim). Made with regular brownie mix, scoops of batter are dropped in paper-lined cupcake tins and topped with a tiny Reese's peanut butter cup. The batter puffs up around the peanut butter cup, forming a little round pillow. The chocolate of the peanut butter cup doesn't quite melt, while the peanut butter emerges hot and gooey. They are just so, so good. I'm not sure if my mom invented these or if she got the recipe from somewhere else (which I'm more inclined to believe. My mom is more the recipe follower than inventor), but last year I started baking them again, encouraged by my boyfriend's oven and hungry roommates. The roomies, who are environmental grad students and also geology nerds, said the brownies looked like a certain kind of volcano and christened them Caldera Brownies.

CALDERA BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS
1 box of brownie mix (usually needs oil, water, and an egg)
1 bag of miniature Reese's peanut butter cups
Paper cupcake liners

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Prepare the brownie mix according to the instructions on the box
Unwrap about 2 dozen peanut butter cups
Line a cupcake tin with the paper liners
Using an ice cream scoop, fill the liners with batter--about 2/3 full
Gently press a peanut butter cup into the center of the brownie batter until the top of the batter is even with the top of the peanut butter cup
Bake for 17-20 minutes
Let cool 5-10 minutes and serve warm

2009-05-05T05:06:00.012-04:00

Potahto Tomahto

It's always a little dicey when it's late, I'm hungry and tired, and I decide to try out a new recipe. Sometimes it turns out just lovely, and I go to sleep with a full stomach and a new go-to recipe, and sometimes I wind up with something charred, soggy, tasteless, and/or disgusting. Last night, after I'd been working on this new recipe for 45 minutes and realized I was still at the "prepping my ingredients" phase, I got worried. I was making a potato and tomato gratin that would have to eventually cook for an hour and a half, meaning I'd be pulling it out of the oven at 7 o'clock, a whole hour after I usually try to go to sleep (I work mornings). If it was a disaster, I didn't even have a box of Mac n Cheese around that I could toss into a pot. My apprehension growing, I followed the recipe, stuck it in the oven, and left to shower and catch up on Lost (Ben! Did you see him read "Little Boy Blue" on Jimmy Fallon? Wonder what's it like to be so naturally frightening?).

And finally, I pulled it out of the oven, nervous and hungry. Would it be delicious? Mediocre? Cringe-inducing?

I took my first bite and was immediately relieved: delish.

I found this recipe online at O Pistachio, where I was sold pretty much completely by the picture (posted here). Gorgeous golden crispy potatoes, bright beautiful tomatoes, delicate crinkled thyme--it looked amazing (more reason for me to get my butt in gear and get a nice new camera). Philomena, who blogged about this potato, tomato, garlic gratin, said she got the recipe from Patricia Wells's introduction to the cooking of French chef Joel Robuchon, Simply French. I made a few tiny adjustments, since I don't like onions and I wanted a smaller portion (I am not 6 to 8 people). The result was amazing: the sweetness of the tomato sauce nicely highlighted the potatoes, which ranged from crispy and flavorful to moist, hot, and rich. I also love garlic, which only added to the drool-worthiness (my mouth is seriously watering right now).

You can get the original gratin recipe here, but I've posted the one I used below. The original calls for 5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, cored, and diced, and Philomena suggests slitting the skin of the tomatoes, boiling them for one minute, and then dredging them in cold water, which will help remove the skins. This is what took me forever, as I had to wait for the water to boil, then peel the tomatoes, then core, then dice. I only used 2 tomatoes, but only ended up using one, after I was worried about so much time I was spending on getting the ingredients going. For authenticity, I would recommend going through the motions, but for speed, I'm going with canned diced tomatoes (already peeled, cored, seeded, and diced).

POTATO, TOMATO, AND GARLIC GRATIN
INGREDIENTS
2 tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and diced (or 1/2 to 1 can diced)
2 large potatoes, about 1lb or a little less
4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, snipped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C.
In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over a high heat.
When hot, add the garlic and cook until just tender, 1 or 2 minutes. Be careful not to let the garlic burn, or it will taste bitter in the final dish.
Add the tomatoes and cook until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Add the sugar, and season, and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.
Taste for seasoning.
Meanwhile, prepare the potatoes: peel, wash, and cut the potatoes into very thin slices.
Wash again and dry thoroughly.
In a small bowl, set aside about one quarter of the potatoes, which will be used as the topping.
Rub the bottom of an oval baking dish with the garlic and 1 tablespoon of the butter.
In a large bowl, combine the remaining potatoes with the sauce and toss carefully to blend. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon.
Add enough chicken stock to cover.
In a medium-size bowl, combine the reserved topping potatoes, the remaining 1 tablespoon butter, and the parsley.
Toss to coat evenly.
Beginning at one end of the dish, place the buttered potatoes, one by one, in slightly overlapping rows on top of the tomato-covered potatoes, until the entire dish is covered with an even potato layer.
Sprinkle with the thyme.
Place the dish in the centre of the oven and bake until the potatoes are soft, most of the liquid has been absorbed, and the top is golden, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Serve immediately.