February 27, 2012 · 3:55 pm

Summertime in Astoria

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the lack of sub-zero temperatures this winter and although a little snow would have been nice, an extra windy day this weekend sent any leftover, “I want snow,” feelings running for the hills. I’m so ready to put on jeans without tights and leave the house without gloves, I want 100 degrees and I want it NOW.

I apologize for that outburst. I understand that I cannot reasonably expect that level of heat in this part of the country during this time of the year. Until I come fully into my powers, at which time I will be able to control the weather, I will stick to the things I can control: my kitchen. For a summery Sunday supper, I decided that I would channel the flavors of the Mediterranean.

I started by making this chopped salad of red and green bell peppers, red onion, tomato, cucumber, and feta cheese. The dressing is a lemon and mint vinaigrette.

Then I marinated the chicken in olive oil, garlic, ginger, olives, juice and zest of 2 limes, cumin, salt and pepper. Then cover it and into the fridge for 3 hours.

I assembled these skewers with the chicken, peppers and onions. Then into a hot pan!

Once the chicken has some color, put them into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

I also served the skewers and salad with pita and a dipping sauce made of red peppers, scallions and greek yogurt.

And since it was Sunday, here is a refreshing citrusy cocktail made with vodka, tequila, lemonade, OJ and lime juice.

Well, I suppose this is the best I can do until May, good thing my super keeps the heat on 80 all year round 🙂

What is your favorite summertime dish?

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February 23, 2012 · 4:05 pm

Mac & Cheese: A Love Story

Once upon a time, during a stroll in the East Village, we happened upon a lovely little pub advertising $3 draft beers. I happen to be a big fan of $3 draft beers, so we decided to sit for a spell. The locally brewed ale was refreshing, but I had the pangs of hunger sneaking up on me. To my delight, I saw the menu boasted mac and cheese, then to my absolute enchantment, I saw the menu offered something else: chili mac and cheese. Something I’ve never had before, I enjoyed this dish so much that I had to attempt my own version.

I started by making the chili, then while it was simmering, I began with the mac and cheese.

<– Here is everything I used to make the cheese sauce.

I did not make the pasta from scratch (maybe some day soon) I used big shells from a box.

First I put the pasta into a pot of salty boiling water (this recipe calls for a 1/2 pound). The shells take 14 minutes, so that gave me plenty of time to make the sauce. First I mixed 3 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons of flour. I whisked this all together, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. Then I added half a onion, chopped, 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, 3 cups of milk, a dash of paprika and cayenne and salt and pepper. Then I let this simmer for about 10 minutes. Don’t forget the pasta!

After ten minutes, I added in 8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese. It melts fast and then in with the pasta! Once the pasta is all cheesy, pour it into the casserole dish (ours is foil cause we’re classy) and put 4 more ounces of cheese on top (just get a 12 ounce bag and do 2/3 and 1/3). I added a little spicy monterey jack too, but that’s up to you.

Then into a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until its nice and bubbly. A little scoop of this… a little scoop of that…and they lived happily ever after.

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February 20, 2012 · 4:29 pm

Bleu Cheese Buffalo Chicken x 2

Last night I was on my own for dinner so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to cook a two-fer. I think you know where I’m going here… It’s a meal that you can cook for dinner and then eat again the next day for lunch!

Mix the crumbled cheese with the bread crumbs.

Add a little extra sauce and some olive oil or butter.

What I really wanted was chicken wings, but what I had was a chicken breast. I also had buffalo sauce and salad so I decided to pick up some bleu cheese crumbles and do a spin off of this garlic cheddar chicken recipe I saw. The recipe calls for you to dip the breast in oil, and then roll in breadcrumbs and cheddar before baking. Instead, I decided to marinate the chicken in the buffalo sauce and then roll it in bleu cheese and breadcrumbs to bake.

Then bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

I also crumbled up some bleu cheese in my salad and in the dipping sauce for a decadently cheesy dinner! It was tender and spicy and I had the perfect amount left over for a sandwich today. What more could you want?

Served with salad and bleu cheese dipping sauce!


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February 17, 2012 · 12:36 pm

Check out Ramblings of an Old Man!

Brunch in Blue Eye via My Fajah and Mary!!

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February 14, 2012 · 3:04 pm

My Heart Belongs to Chicken Tikka Masala

Do you have a restaurant you order from all the time? So much so that you make jokes about keeping them in business? I’m not saying they’re good jokes, but these sorts of jokes are made. I make them with regard to Seva Indian Restaurant in Astoria. It is, quite simply, the most delicious Indian food I’ve ever had and they have such a good delivery special that I’d be understating it to say that we order from there every week. It’s almost the only place we ever order from because it’s… that… good.

Mulligatawny: A tasty lentil soup that makes me melt.

Last weekend we were both in Queens for the day so we decided to go to Seva for lunch, something we’ve never done. We’ve in fact only been inside Seva once for dinner with some friends. Another thing we’ve never done is order something new, but today was the day. You see, Seva also boasts a lunch special with a soup and an entrée for 8 bucks. Their mulligatawny soup is heavenly, so we both started with that. Typically we go halfsies on one entrée, but on this day we decided to get two. One regular Chiken Tikka Masala (which, in the interest of full disclosure, is a dish invented by the British) and a new Chicken Vindaloo. The waiter asked if we were sure because the Chicken Vindaloo is very hot. Laughing smugly, as we eat a lot of spicy food, we assured him we’d be fine.

"Vindaloo" must be Hindi for "burn your freaking tongue off"

Luckily the naan bread will always calm the heat.

It's so good, I forgot to take a photo until this moment 🙂

Wrong! The “fiery” Chicken Vindaloo is pure torture! Nothing but heat in my mouth, I had two bites and was finished. Luckily we still had our old trusty Tikka Masala, which is just delightful. If you think you can handle the heat, I recommend the Vindaloo, but if not I still urge you to try Seva for delivery or for dine-in. I truly cannot recommend any restaurant more than I recommend Seva. It is my absolute, hands down, favorite place to eat. What’s yours?

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February 8, 2012 · 4:19 pm

Giants V. Patriots: The Sequel

In all the post Super Bowl excitement, I have allowed my blog to go un-updated. For this I apologize, but if you’re a football fan, you can understand how the few days after a Super Bowl win can feel like vacation. No, this won’t be a blog about the Giants beating the Pats… again. When you’re on the winning side of things, bragging isn’t so attractive, is it?

So, despite my living partner having a truly metaphysical connection to the fate of the New York Giants, and despite a loss for them being a bigger loss for him, we live in NY so he wanted to have a party! BUT since he had to work until 5 on Sunday, guess who has two thumbs and got volunteered to host a party? This girl! Luckily I have an intense love for hosting and feeding people (I’m a product of my raisin’). And when a good friend volunteered to help by making wings (which were amazing by the way), I was thrilled to get to focus my energy on a new recipe: chili.

I found a recipe online, but I couldn’t help but tweaking it. My trick? Just leave it on the stove all day… how could it not taste good?

1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 yellow onion, 3 stalks celery, 2 jalapeños

1 22oz can crushed tomatoes, 1 6oz can tomato paste, 1 7oz can chipotles in adobo sauce, 3 cans beans (black, kidney and pinto)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started by chopping all the veggies, then sautéed them in olive oil for 5-10 minutes, then added the tomatoes, tomato paste, chipotles, the beans and all the spices. I made two versions, one with beef and the other without (it’s easy enough to do and you never know who isn’t eating meat this week).

After a brief freakout followed by some swift action, I was back on track!

Here’s where innovation played a big role. Our cooking pots are somewhat limited, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me! Into the skillet with you, Mr. Chili! Don’t be afraid to improvise!

Spice-wise I basically added everything in my cabinet: Salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and worcestershire sauce.

Then you gotta let it simmer covered. The recipe I found said two hours... I left it on for more like five. Top Chef says the longer, the better.

I won’t lie, this was time consuming, but it’s the sort of thing you can make and eat for weeks (a lot of people even freeze it for months). We ran out before the game was over, much to my chagrin, as I’m always afraid we don’t buy enough food while partner is always worried about having too much. On this occasion, we were much more popular than we had anticipated. Bully for us 🙂

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January 31, 2012 · 9:56 am

Terrific Lady Day, Part Deux

After a lovely girls night replete with piano bars, late night pizza, flirtinis and even later night bacon, how are two ladies expected to spend the morning? With brunch of course! My friend is lucky enough to live directly upstairs from a precious french bistro called Brasserie Julien and wouldn’t ya know it? They serve brunch! We began our meal with bread, duh. And also with two new friends: Mary and Mary 🙂

My new friend Mary... she's tasty.

And my new friend, Melanie.. she's busy

Now I’m no bloody mary connoisseur, as a matter of fact, I’ve only recently taken a liking to them. With that said, this one is probably the best I’ve ever had. It’s tasty and spicy and somehow gives the impression of nutrients, which I desperately needed this particular morning. Speaking of nutrients, here comes our food!

My omelet: chicken, asparagus, goat cheese

Mel's crepe: eggs, chicken, mozzarella

Served with homemade potato chips, salad and fruit all of which make me warm and mushy inside (perhaps the bloody mary helped). The restaurant was beautiful and the service was attentive without feeling rushed — the French have really got that on lock down.
Brasserie Julien also has live jazz music on the weekends and Sunday and Monday are Ladies nights! I heartily recommend it it for brunch and am looking forward to coming here for dinner. Stay tuned.

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January 27, 2012 · 5:40 pm

Gazpacho playa!

Picture this: We’re in Spain; we’re dying to try some authentic Spanish food; and we’re broke. We have spent the last four days traveling in the craziest circumstances (you can see the whole trip here) and now all we want is to have a modest picnic lunch. We buy a cheap bottle of red wine (still delicious because we’re in Spain), some manchego cheese and some bread. This meal still doesn’t seem complete. Walking a few more steps we see a sign at a café, “Gazpacho para llevar” (“to go,” cost: 3 euro). Sold!

We spend the next few hours underneath the Arc De Triomf (did you know there was one in Barcelona too? We didn’t.) We enjoyed wine and cheese along with what became our new obsession: gazpacho.

Back in the US I tried (and failed miserably) to recreate the flavors we had so enjoyed in Barcelona. Then one day, while visiting Boston, a Spanish friend of ours picked up a bunch of tomatoes at the farmer’s market and announced he would be making gazpacho tonight and would we like to join him? Heck yes, we would. The taste? The same. The process? Mine at last!

Thanks to a super special holiday gift of a food processor, I decided it was finally time to make it myself! Below is the method I used:

4 tomatoes, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 red onion, 1 cucumber, 2 cloves of garlic, the juice of 1 lemon

Chop it all up, then blend it, adding a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puree the mixture until it's smoot

 

Strain carefully and patiently

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it must be strained! Don’t pout, it’s worth it. You can even strain in twice if you like it to be super smooth. We like a little texture, so once is plenty for us! Afterward let it chill overnight for maximum flavor!

The next day we decided to turn this gazpacho into our very own walk down the Spanish lane:

I got some Spanish wine down at the local shop.

And we indulged ourselves happily.

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January 26, 2012 · 1:24 pm

Terrific Lady Day!

It’s Restaurant Week again in NYC which means it’s time to TREAT YO SELF. And since, like Tom and Donna, I am a relaxation professional, I knew exactly which sense to satisfy: taste.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve developed a small obsession with sushi. This mixed with the fact that I still miss the taste of Pisco Sours made Sushi Samba the perfect location for me and my new lady friend’s Terrific Lady Day!

Sushi Samba is a celebration of three cultures: Peruvian, Brazilian and Japanese, so sayeth our overly caffeinated and wide-eyed server. But let me start at the beginning:

We met early for happy hour and girl talk and then sat down in a beautiful dining room with a presentation kitchen in the center.

Edamame and a couple of fancy cocktails. Mine's tequila, cause I'm from Texas.

Because we started our Fantastic Lady Day with happy hour Piscos and began our meal with these lovely beverages, I forgot to take photos of our appetizers. My bizzle. I’ll do my best to paint you a word picture:

Mine was queso fresco and rice croquettes, which were crunchy, warm, gooey and yumsies sauce. My lovely date is of the french persuasion, so she opted for the plum sake foie gras, which was served cold with some greens. Both were beautiful plates of food. We decided to go halfsies on the apps, and while the foie was pretty good, the croquettes really did it for me.

Main Courses:

This is the sushi assortment along with a latin-fusion tempura roll. Nummy!

This is the seared striped bass with squid ink risotto. Clearly my date was more adventurous than I.

Dessert Courses:

This is a ginger and brazil nut crumble with ice cream. Delish!

This was a tres leches cake... also quite delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too shabby an evening for two ladies on the town! Restaurant Week, you have my heart ❤

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January 25, 2012 · 12:36 pm

Talking to Girls about Duran Duran

If you’ve ever heard a song and been so sure that the universe brought it to your ears at that exact moment in your life to teach you something about living, then Talking To Girls About Duran Duran is for you.
I received it last year as a birthday gift, which made my reading of it both personal and a shared experience, as the best always are. At times I had to force myself into another task just so I could savor the beautifully touching epic that is Rob Sheffield’s life.
His exquisite storytelling abilities and what must be an innate sensitivity make me feel like I know him. In what can only be called his love letter to the music who made him who he is, Sheffield takes the reader out of the fast paced 2012 and into the simpler 1980s, the decade in which he came of age.
Being a nineties kid myself, I had feared some of the references would be lost on me. But thanks to my family, I was instilled with a strong sense of nostalgia very early in life. I was watching Saved by the Bell when I should have been watching Animaniacs and Boy Meets World when it ought to have been Lizzie McGuire.
The countless memories drudged up by this book brought many smiles to my face, but it was the humanity Sheffield displayed that brought tears to my eyes. His writing truly captured the open heart of someone just setting out in life. He was 13 in 1980, so that decade truly defined the teenager he was and the man he became.
It’s really difficult to articulate how much this book meant to me or how it affected my very soul. I recommend it to anyone who ever heard a song and knew, just knew, it was written for them. I feel like this book was written for me. I hope you feel that way too.

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