Tag Archives: food

April 5, 2012 · 11:11 am

Ginger-Infused Black Bean Soup

I was eager to make a soup last weekend both because I hadn’t done it before and also because I wanted to have soup around for the week. Since we had all the necessary elements for quesadillas in the house, I decided a spicy black bean soup would be a nice accompaniment.

I began by sautéing 3 jalapeños with garlic and onions.

Then I added one can of black beans and some ginger.

Don’t care much for ginger? Leave it out! We had some leftover from another dish and I didn’t want to waste it so I threw it in. It adds a different flavor and additional spice, but it’s definitely not necessary.

Next I added 3 cups of vegetable broth, but you can use whatever kind you like.

Then I let it simmer covered for an hour and half, then uncovered for one hour.

You can let it simmer covered for the full 2 1/2-3 hours if you prefer a thiner soup. We wanted a thick, hearty black bean soup so we let it reduce down uncovered, but that’s up to you!

Get butter down in a hot skillet, then add cheese and chicken (or veggies).

Let it brown to your preferred level of crunch, then cut into quarters.

This was a completely ‘leftover’ quesadilla. We had leftover buffalo chicken from a dish earlier in the week and leftover cheese from the Enchilada Casserole. It made for a spicy and delicious quesadilla!

Brush the chips with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and into a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until crisp.

We didn’t have any tortilla chips left but we did have a few leftover corn tortillas, so we continued with the frugal theme of this supper and made our own! Super easy.

Served here with a tasty IPA and guacamole of course! (Click for recipe)

The soup turned out spicy and gingery. My housemate dubbed it “ginger-infused black bean soup,” which I was able to enjoy all week long! Mission accomplished.

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Tagged as black bean, black bean soup, cookingf, food, guacamole, lea craft spencer, lea spencer, leftovers, mexican food, quesadilla, recipe, tortilla chips

March 1, 2012 · 2:50 pm

Fancy Food on the Cheap

For dinner last night, I continued with the Mediterranean theme for the sake of both my tastebuds and my pocketbook. Our market has chicken breasts two to a package and I used one for the skewers on Sunday so that left me with a second one, which I cut in half long-wise to make two portions, which I then stuffed with spinach and feta cheese. Serving this with the leftover chopped salad, also from Sunday, I’d say it’s one of the least expensive dinners I’ve made (and one of the fanciest)!

This entire process took less than an hour (including cooking time) and it’s a lovely and frugal way to serve yourself or guests!

I started by sautéing the spinach in olive oil, garlic and ginger until its wilted.

Then, after cutting the chicken and spreading a bit of olive paste on it, I mixed the spinach with the feta cheese and loaded up the breasts.

Then I wrapped-eems up and pinned them with a toothpick, rolled them in breadcrumbs and poured over 1/2 cup of butter. Then into the oven at 350 for 30 minutes!

Once it's brown and crispy (and the juices run clear!) just add some salad and enjoy!

Stuffing chicken is something I thought was super hard and is, in fact, super easy. What’s more is you can stuff chicken with anything! You want spicy? Stuff with beans and jalapeños. You want fresh? Stuff with veggies and some citrus. Such a versatile recipe, make your own version and let me know what you come up with!

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Tagged as cheap, chicken, cooking, dinner, easy, food, frugal, garlic, ginger, greek, Mediterranean, recipe, spinach, stuffed chicken

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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Tagged as chili, chili mac and cheese, cooking, draft beer, food, home, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese, recipe, restuarant

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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Tagged as astoria, chicken tikka masala, chicken vindaloo, curry, food, indian, indian food, mulligatawny, naan, nyc, queens, rice, seva indian restaurant

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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Tagged as beef, chili, cooking, food, giants, ny giants, recipes, super bowl, tailgate, veggie

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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Tagged as bloody mary, brasserie julien, brunch, crepe, cuisine, food, french, fruit, homemade chips, jazz, ladies night, nyc, omelet

January 24, 2012 · 2:50 pm

Healthy Tex Mex!

No, this isn’t a list of oxymorons, this is the response to my latest very specific craving. I was dying for something in the Mexican category that wasn’t overly fried or cheesed. I had chicken, I had beans, I had avocados.

My mission was clear.

Click for refried black beans recipe!

Spice rub includes: cayenne, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper

First I got the beans going, which takes some time, but I think it’s worth it. Then I rubbed my boneless, skinless chicken breast with lime juice and coated it in the spice rub pictured above.

Make sure that skillet's hot with butter and oil! You only need a minute or two on each side.

Then into the oven on a bed of limes at 350 for 30 minutes (can cover chicken with limes too!)

While the chicken’s in the oven, I threw together some guacamole and a quick pico of tomatoes, onion and red bell pepper. I figured everything was spicy enough to do without fresh jalapeños on top.

Presentation makes regular food feel fancy!

Hiding food under food... very very sneaky.

There you have it! Lime chili chicken on a bed of refried beans with guacamole and pico de gallo!

Finished off here a little bit of sharp cheese and some tortilla strips!

I recommend enjoying with a Modelo Especial, but that's up to you :-

Mission accomplished. POP POP.
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Tagged as beer, black beans, chicken, chili, cooking, food, guacamole, lime, mexican, modelo, pico de gallo, recipe, tex-mex, texas

November 30, 2011 · 12:52 pm

Nothing in the house to eat?

Time to get creative!!

Someone decided to go play poker last night and since it was raining, I decided to stay in. There was only one little problem… we hadn’t hardly any food in the house! I was encouraged to look around the house for leftovers and come up with something great, “You can blog about it!” he assured me.

Challenge accepted.

The contents of my refrigerator were looking rather bleak, but I managed to rummage up the following:

I found four slices of turkey bacon, a small hunk of leftover brie, half a tomato and half an avocado. Thank goodness we always have bread.

I also had one russet potato, which I sliced thin, drenched in butter and baked at 475 degrees for 20 minutes (stirring halfway through).

It doesn’t look like much, but I had a vision… a vision of a world in which I would create the most delicious sandwich. I don’t know everything about sandwiches, but I know a thing or two about delicious and it begins with butter.

After frying the bacon, I assembled the sandwich with the sliced brie, tomatoes and avocado. Then I filled the skillet with butter and fried that baby up!

After sprinkling the chips with salt and pepper, adding a little side salad, in this end this was my creation. It was a cheesy, crunchy cool mouthful of yum.

Remember to keep a close eye on the potato chips (they burn super easily!) and nights like this are yet another reason to always have salad in the fridge.

POP POP!

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Tagged as avocado, cooking, food, poker, potato chips, rain, recipe, refrigerator, salad, sandwich, tomato, turkey bacon

November 11, 2011 · 5:19 pm

Who says you can’t cook for one?

Since someone had to work late, I was on my own for dinner last night. Sure, I could have just picked up a slice of pizza (that’s what he would have done). But I thought, “No. What an excellent opportunity to treat myself… to a steak.” So that’s what I did. And since I’m not made of money, I took myself down to the store and picked up a piece of tenderloin and a potato (I had cheese, milk, butter and veggies). And this is what I did…