Eatin' Good in the Hood

Eatin' Good in a Brand New Hood!

2012-01-23T18:05:00.008-05:00

As most of you know my husband, Ron, has been working and living in New York more than he's been in Philly for the past couple of years. It's been a bummer for a lot of reasons:

1. being apart 5 days a week stinks

2. staying in short term sublets with strangers stinks for him and for visitors (i.e. ME)

3. constantly searching for a new place to live stinks

4. not having your own kitchen means you eat out all the time which is bad for the wallet and the waistline - which, you guessed it, stinks!

So...we bit the bullet and signed a year lease for an amazing apartment in Brooklyn - and it's kind of in the hood so we feel right at home! We're renting our place in Philly for now but I'll be back there soon for work so Ron and I really trying to enjoy this rare time we have of actually living together in a new place.

We've been here just over a month and there are tons of places in the neighborhood I want to visit but we've been adhering to our new year's resolutions and eating healthy and easing up on the booze (boring!). Which also means I've been cooking things like split pea soup and beans and greens, things I've written about one million times! Hence my severe lack of blogs.

I did make this killer Eggplant and Chicken Green Curry the other night:

First I salted a medium cut up eggplant and let it sit in a colander for a bit. Then I sauteed a small onion with some ginger and garlic then added a can of light coconut milk and a couple tablespoons of green curry paste. I added about a cup and a half of leftover roasted chicken and let it all simmer together. Separately I sauteed a half of a green pepper and a half of a red pepper with another small onion and the eggplant. When the veggies started to get a little color but still had bite I added them to the chicken with a few splashes of chicken stock. I also threw in come bamboo shoots and water chestnuts and a touch of brown sugar - I like my curry a little bit sweet! Right before it hit the plate I added chopped cilantro and green onions. I served it all over a smashed sweet potato.

Delicious. I'm gonna go eat leftovers.

PS - Ron hates that I haven't been blogging so he's agreed to a guest blog. Keep an eye out for his David Chang inspired entry soon.

Squash Blossoms!

2011-10-10T12:22:00.002-04:00

This weekend I went apple and pumpkin picking with some friends and the pumpkin patch was full of squash blossoms! I stuffed my purse full of them. Shhh....

I ended up stuffing them with a combo of queso fresco, cream cheese, cilantro, a bit of a spicy pepper that I roasted, chili powder and cumin. I splashed in some milk to bring it all together then put the mixture in a baggie with the corner cut off and stuffed the blossoms. Make sure you can twist the blossom at the end - don't overstuff!

The batter was tempura-ish. An egg, a cup of flour, some salt and a little less than a cup of seltzer. I made mine in a bowl that was sitting in an ice bath because I read that the batter is supposed to be really cold.

I dipped all the blossoms in the batter and fried then in 350 degree oil until they started to crisp up then placed them in a warm oven while I cooked the next batch.

I also made a cilantro dipping sauce - lots of chopped cilantro, chopped chives, plain Greek yogurt, a bit of mayo, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lime.

Dinner was completed with grilled veggies (great with the cilantro sauce!) and leftover tortilla soup. Delicious!

Tofu & Green Beans

2011-08-10T09:41:00.000-04:00

This is one of those meals that can come together in like 15 minutes. It's great for times like when you take the chicken you were planning on having for dinner out of the fridge and it smells like a weird combo of blue cheese and trash even though you just bought it the day before. That happens to everyone right?

Well it's for times like these that I always keep tofu in the fridge and on this day I totally won because I had a bag of green beans from the farm stand in the fridge, too. I crumbled tofu and dry fried it - once it was starting to get brown I added a combo of soy, hoisin, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic and a little veggie stock. Once almost all the liquid was absorbed I mixed the tofu with steamed green beans. I sauteed some shallot until they were on the verge of burning - that's how I like them! I topped the green beans and tofu with the shallots and chopped roasted peanuts and BOOM - dinner!

Local Potato, Corn, and Tomato Salad

2011-08-07T21:13:00.001-04:00

Itty bitty fingerling potatoes from the Sunday farmer's market at Dickinson Park, heirloom tomatoes from the same market and our backyard, and corn, long hots and Hidden Hills Dairy feta from our CSA make one very local, very delicious salad.

Roast and peel the skin off of a long hot, cut the corn off the cob and sautee the in olive oil, steam the potatoes, let everything cool before tossing with the chopped tomatoes, feta, chives (home grown!), a little red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Chow down.

Tomatoes + Homemade Bread = Perfect

2011-08-03T19:47:00.003-04:00

I didn't always love tomatoes - in fact they were one of the few foods that I didn't like. But over the past few years I've smartened up and this time of year I can't get enough.

Tomatoes with cream cheese on toast? Okay! Pico De Gallo on just about everything? Yup. Perfect little heirlooms cut up with salt and pepper...for breakfast? Definitely.

Or how about this? BLT's on homemade no-knead bread. This might just be the perfect food.

This bread, slightly stale, tossed in olive oil and toasted up makes an awesome panzanella. Just one more way to use up all those tomatoes!

Garbanzos con Morcilla

2011-07-31T15:11:00.005-04:00

Garbanzos con Morcilla sounds prettier than chickpeas with blood sausage, right? I wrote about this delicious dish that Ron and I had in Barcelona a couple of years ago. When I was eating it I had no idea it had blood sausage in it - but turns out that's probably the ingredient that makes it so delicious.

Sometime on lazy Sundays we like to experiment with some more time consuming dishes or with some ingredients we don't normally use. I had pulled out a Barcelona cookbook that our friends bought us when we got engaged and it had me craving those chickpeas! After finding this recipe, tracking down blood sausage at Cousins Supermarket in North Philly and throwing together a batch of no knead bread we were well on our way to this at-home version of that awesome Bar Pinotxo meal.

Not too shabby right?

The recipe was definitely close to what we remembered but looking back at pictures today I think we could have used half the amount of blood sausage.

Along with the chick peas we had a homemade baguette that we topped with olive oil, white anchovies, olives and spicy little red peppers. Oh, and a bottle of prosecco - you can't have a spanish meal without a bottle of prosecco!

University City Dining Days + Why Philly is Awesome!

2011-07-17T15:36:00.007-04:00

The folks at Philly Homegrown were kind enough to invite me to dinner last week. Philly Homegrown is an initiative of GPTMC. They have some pretty great goals like getting more consumers to buy local and promoting the folks creating all this amazing local food - from farmers, brewers, cheese makers, and bakers to the chefs that are serving local foods in their restaurants. Check out their website: food.visitphilly.com.

We had a quick visit to Clark Park Farmer’s Market and then a delicious dinner at Rx in University City. Rx is one the many restaurants participating in University City's dining days that are dedicated to using fresh, local ingredients. Have you heard of Dining Days? It's like Center City Restaurant week but with $15, $25, and $30 price options - see more info on that here. It's a real bargain and it only goes through July 28th - so get to it!

My Rx dinner was great - I had a delicious salad with spicy pecans and local apples:

Trout with black eyed peas and green beans:

and rice pudding (I tried all the desserts and they were great - chocolate bread pudding? chai creme brulee? fried apple pie? Yes, please).

I'm going to try to make it back out to Dining Days this week for 3 dishes at Biba for $15 - bargain, right?

This was my first visit to Clark Park Farmer's market - I've been meaning to go for months and can't wait to check it out again on a Saturday. It was chock-full of local fruits, veggies, meat, dairy and baked goods. Ever had ice cold goat's milk? No? You should try it - it's seriously delicious.

We also had the opportunity to chat with folks from The Food Trust. They're an awesome organization in Philadelphia that is working hard to make sure everyone has access to healthy food. They're in schools teaching healthy eating habits, starting farmers markets in every part of the city, working with corner stores to help them stock healthy foods and so much more. They're pretty amazing.

Thanks, Philly Homegrown, for a lovely, informative evening!

Zucchini Salad

2011-07-12T21:13:00.001-04:00

This recipe had been all over the blogs and when my friend Mark made it a few weeks ago I knew it'd become a no-cook standby.

Zucchini thinly sliced on the mandoline, lemon juice, olive oil, pine nuts, parm (grate it on your cheese grater not your microplane - way better), salt and lots of fresh ground pepper.

Yum.

Sweet Potato Pancake with Arugula Salad

2011-07-11T21:23:00.001-04:00

Please forgive my iPhone photo! I don't have my camera handy but I wanted to share this easy dish.

I grated a sweet potato and cooked it in a pan coated with nonstick spray until brown on both sides - it wasn't crispy, just cooked through. I topped it with an Arugula salad that was simply dressed with lemon juice, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. A touch of blue cheese and almonds made this simple salad pretty darn tasty.

Greens, Greens, and more Greens

2011-06-26T12:40:00.001-04:00

Our CSA is pretty heavy on the greens and that's a good thing because I love greens! I'll happily incorporate them into my breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here's an easy, healthy, green-y breakfast:

I sauteed some swiss chard in a little olive oil with some garlic, red pepper flakes, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a splash of water. Once the greens were wilted I added some white beans and halved cherry tomatoes until they were heated through. I topped it with (surprise!) a sunny side up egg!

Like I said, I had this for breakfast but I've also had versions of this for lunch and dinner.

P.S. I think that "put an egg on it" is the culinary equivalent of "put a bird on it" - just sayin'.

Picnicking

2011-06-19T12:03:00.001-04:00

A couple of weekends ago Ron and I picnicked in Redhook Brooklyn. We originally planned to picnic in Prospect Park but decided to venture a little further from Ron's apartment. We had homemade hummus, roasted vegetables with feta and shrimp salad with artichokes, olives, parsley, cherry tomatoes and lemon. Oh and little cans of Sofia champagne :)

But really we should have brought NOTHING because the Redhook ballfields are home to a ton of great food trucks. See evidence here. Everything looked and smelled great, we'll be back soon empty handed to snack on things like empanadas and pupusas.

Breaking the Fast with Zucchini Pancakes!

2011-06-12T11:12:00.005-04:00

I'm off the juice! The 4 day Catalyst Juice Cleanse that is. I feel a little lighter, a little "cleaner" and a lot relieved that it's over. This cleanse was relatively easy - you just pick up the juices (6 a day) and drink up. I was never hungry but I did have a dull lack-of-caffeine headache for the first 2 days. The only real problem with doing a cleanse is that it's BORING, especially for people who love to cook, eat, and drink, like me! I did this Wednesday through Saturday and yesterday there was a BLOCK PARTY on my block and I had to stay inside like a hermit so not to be tempted by the booze and grub. It was a real bummer. But I'd certainly recommend a juice cleanse especially if you're finding yourself stuffing your face with too much bad-for-you food and drink.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year I did the Master Cleanse - you know, that nothing but maple syrup, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper for 10 days diet? There are additional unpleasantries that I'll omit because people come here to read about food not um...poop. Anyway...the Master Cleanse is something I refuse to believe is healthy although it helped me lose about 10lbs (about 7 of them stayed off) and really set my eating habits back on track. Not because I thought I did something really healthy for my body but because I kept telling myself things like "You just didn't eat a thing for 10 days, don't screw up the results with those french fries!". The juice cleanse it WAY easier and more pleasant - I didn't love any of the juices (there is even a lemon juice, agave, cayenne one that gave me pretty scary Master Cleanse flashbacks!) but I didn't hate them either.

Now lets talk about my first solid meal in 4 days, okay?

We're doing the Greensgrow CSA again this year and I think it's started stronger than ever. Last week we got zucchini and since I didn't eat for 4 days this week I wanted to use them up today before they went bad. Zucchini and summer squash tend to get stock piled in my fridge around this time each year so I'm always searching for new recipes. This is an Ina Garten Zucchini Pancake recipe. They came together really quickly which is good because frankly, I was hungry.

I halved the recipe - 1 grated zucchini, 1 egg, 3 Tbs flour (I used whole wheat), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 Tbs grated onion, salt & pepper.

I like to use my potato ricer to squeeze liquid out of anything that needs to be squeezed! It's the best way to dry shredded potatoes for hash browns.

I used a little spring release scoop to make all of the pancakes the same size. I'm sort of crazy about things being even - if you've ever seen me pour a glass of wine you'll know what I'm talking about! Instead of frying these in lots of oil I used nonstick olive oil spray. Flip them when the top started to bubble, just like regular pancakes.

I topped them with sour cream and halved cherry tomatoes that I had tossed with salt, pepper and a touch of red wine vinegar.

Ooh and I had coffee, too. It was delicious.

Weekly Detox

2011-05-01T20:28:00.003-04:00

While Ron's away working in NYC I tend to eat super healthy during the week - heavy on the fruits and vegetables and light on the meat. I eat this way during the week for lots of reasons: it's good for me, it's easy, it's cheap BUT most of all it's because my weekends tend to filled with things like this:

Our weekends in NY are indulgent to say the least - Ron has a roommate so sitting around the house and making meals at home always seems a little awkward so we eat out...ALOT at places like Eataly (aka heaven) where the above picture was taken and great little joints in Ron's Park Slop neighborhood like Miriam for brunch and Palo Santo for dinner.

So come Monday mornings I generally feel like a little detox in necessary. I lean on meals like this one:

Tons of roasted vegetables (in this case mushrooms, onions, carrots, broccoli AND red cabbage!) with some chick peas, feta and toasted pita on the side. Roasting enough vegetables for five meals is just as easy as roasting enough for one and lately I've been making a giant tray of them and eating them all week. Plain greek yogurt with fruit and whole grain cereal for breakfast and meals like this for lunch and dinner so far have kept me fitting in my pants while allowing me to still be a giant pig on the weekends (see proof of piggy-ness here).

Pig!

2011-04-25T19:44:00.004-04:00

This is a very belated post! As some of you probably already know Ron and I go to a lot of Phillies games and we take a lot of pride in out tailgates. Our friends go all out - tents, tables, grills, games, beer, wine, booze and lots and lots of grub. We generally stick to the Holiday Inn parking lot but large scale tailgates call for a spot at FDR park and this April 2nd tailgate was a big one with one VERY special guest. The boys get props for coming up with the brilliant idea to invite this guy:

Yummy. I mean look how happy he made everyone!

Apparently pork make boys happy and, I gotta be honest, the girls were pretty happy too. How could you not be when there were fixin's for pork three ways?

With garlicly broccoli rabe and sharp provolone or vinegary BBQ sauce and creamy slaw:

Or in taco form with pineapple salsa, queso fresco and chipotle sour cream:

Yup - we take tailgating pretty seriously. I also made sweet potato salad and cookies but who cares about that when there's an entire pig and all it's crunchy skin to eat?

Need to blog...

2011-03-26T09:00:00.003-04:00

I've been busy, I know it's an excuse I use constantly and I really wish I was better at keeping this blog up...but I'm not. Work and life tend to get in my way. It's not that I haven't been cooking or baking it's just that I've been working weird hours and when I cook I really just want to eat, not take a picture, not write a blog, just eat.

BUT the good news is that we just signed up for Greensgrow again which means soon we'll have local produce galore and I'll try to blog more. My current gig will be done in 7 weeks or so then I'll be back on the job hunt. If the hunt is unsuccessful chances are you'll see a lot more blogs! Especially since my husband took another job in NYC - when he's not around I have a lot more free time (read: it's sort of lonely).

Just for kicks I'll leave you with this little gem:

THAT readers is a jello shot bar from my buddy Carla's bachelorette party. This bachelorette party started with pole dancing, it was a week ago and I'm just now getting the full movement back in both of my arms. I have a new respect for strippers. Anyway...these jello shot lead to a ridiculously fun night. But these aren't just any jello shots - these are classy jello shots. Most recipes are from this blog. I recommend you make a couple, slurp a couple then go dancing.

My New Mandoline Trick!

2011-01-15T10:41:00.002-05:00

Mandolines are scary, right? I pretty much told my mother she's not allowed to buy one, far too risky. I was at the point where I'd lost too many thumb chunks to even bring the thing out of my cabinet anymore. When I watch "Iron Chef" and see them slice things lengthwise so their palm is so close to the blade I cringe just imagining what a hand would look like without a palm.

Then I read about this little trick:

(Um...please ignore the mess in the kitchen, this is generally what it looks like pre-dinner party!)

Brilliant right? You might lose a little fabric from your oven mitt but you'll keep all of your fingers and your palm! I can't remember where I read this but Oven-Mitt-as-Hand-Guard Inventor if you're out there - thank you!

Here's a closer look:

Now just toss those carrots with a bit of honey, butter, salt and pepper and saute until they're just tender and starting to get golden then add a handful of chopped parsley - so good and really pretty.

Did everyone know about this trick already and I'm the only idiot left without fingerprints? Hope not.

Seafood Feast!

2010-12-28T17:34:00.005-05:00

One of the few culinary tradition we have in our family is a seafood feast the night of Christmas Eve. I'm not Italian, I'm Polish but I tend to refer to this meal as "Seven Fishes" because it's a more familiar term than our Polish "Wigilia". It's basically a meatless meal that consists of 12 dishes. My mom and grandparents had a smorgasbord that included some less desirable things like eel and herring. Growing up we always had stuffed shrimp, stuffed flounder, fried scallops, twice baked potatoes and a couple of vegetables (we didn't really follow that 12 dish thing!).

I wanted to have an early "Wigilia" with my Philly friends this year and for an added challenge decided to make seven different fishes. It was a bit of a cultural combo - we had everything from vegetarian gulumpkis to calamari in red sauce over linguini! Here's the menu:

Not bad right? I've admitted this before - when I'm entertaining I STINK at taking pictures. Luckily Ron was around to snap a few of the appetizers.

Deviled Eggs with Crab:

Stuffed Clams:

Flatbread with Anchovies, Olives, Tomatoes & Caramelized Onions:

And this delicious Salmon Rillette:

We changed this recipe a touch by using Ron's home smoked salmon in the spread and lined the bowl that we were using as a mold with store bought smoked salmon.

Then I stopped taking pictures - you'll just have to believe me that the rest was delicious! I'll be posted a recipe for veggie gulumpki soon - it was a crowd favorite.

Best Bay Scallops Ever & A Dinner Party

2010-12-10T18:47:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned before that I'm from the North Fork of Long Island and that means that I'm occasionally blessed with awesome seafood. Remember this clammy feast? A few weekends ago my parents were in town and they brought me some peconic bay scallops that were so fresh and sweet that I couldn't stop popping raw ones in my mouth. I normally only get to eat them once a year - Christmas Eve when we deep fry them (yeah - yum) so this was a really special treat!

We had a few friends over for a dinner party - 8 people altogether including me and Ron and my parents. I wanted to make something that didn't require any last minute cooking - the star (besides the scallops - I'll tell you about those in a second) was a giant pork roast that I slow cooked in lots of white wine and herbs until it was fall apart tender.

While that cooked away in the oven I prepared the rest of the meal. Side dishes included white beans and greens:

I made these with dried beans, someone please tell me how to make them taste as good as the ones out of the can. They're always half undercooked, half overcooked. In spite of that these still game out pretty tasty. Amazing what salt, pepper, lots of tomato paste and a couple ladles of that pork cooking liquid will do!

I also made my absolute favorite salad - mixed greens with roasted butternut squash, paper thin red onions, goat cheese, pepitas and a maple vinaigrette. So good.

Oh, what's that in the bottom left you ask? That's the scallop dish I made - did you think I was gonna leave you hanging? Talk about how awesome it was and then not give you the recipe? Don't you worry. First thing you should know is that it's a Ina Garten recipe so you know it's gonna be awesome and second, just listen to the name "bay scallop gratin". GRATIN - I'm in. You puree delicious thing like butter and garlic and parsley and lemon juice all together and smear them on top of scallops that have been splashed with white wine (I didn't have the pernod that the recipe called for) and top them with panko bread crumbs (the recipe called for mixing them into the butter mixture, I thought that was weird so I threw them on top) and bake. What comes out of the oven is a dish that people will RAVE about. Take a look:

Oops! I almost forgot the last ingredient that puts this over the top - prosciutto! See it under the bread crumbs mixed in with the butter? Yup, PROSCIUTTO mixed with BUTTER.

And of course there was dessert - but that's for next time. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion!

Brined Chicken

2010-12-06T16:54:00.003-05:00

I used a recipe similar to this Mark Rhulman brined chicken recipe from this fantastic charcuterie book to make the most delicious and good-looking chicken I've ever made. Although there is one thing that really, really stinks about it - I'll never be able to make a un-brined chicken again. It's not that it's difficult to brine a chicken, throw the ingredients in a pot and simmer until everything is dissolved and let cool before dunking in your whole chicken or start with a small amount of water and simmer the ingredients and add a ton ice like they do in the recipe linked above.

See, easy right? It's just that it requires a bit of planning - you have to know the night before that you're having chicken for dinner the next day, no grabbing one on your way home from work. But luckily I have a feeling that planning ahead to have chicken for dinner won't be an issue when the results look like this:

And even better than the look of the chicken was the taste. Soaking in the salty/sweet/herby water leaves the meat seasoned all the way through. It's a taste I could never achieve just by seasoning the outside. Oh and if you have time after you pull the chicken out of the brine leave it uncovered in your fridge to really let the chicken skin dry out - then you'll have crispy chicken skin, what's better than that?

Whoopie!

2010-12-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese frosting - need I say more?

I followed this recipe from Bon Appetit for the cake part, using the pumpkin flesh I talked about in my last blog instead of canned pumkin. The only other change was that I didn't grease my parchment and the bottoms got a little golden and didn't stick - I'd definitely go parchment-less.

The filling is a standard cream cheese frosting recipe from Martha Stewart.

Bake the cookies, make the filling, stuff, taste test, feed to friends.

Pumpkin Season!

2010-10-26T13:30:00.004-04:00

Oh hey there - remember me? I went and got a job that left me too busy to post on my blog. Sorry about that. Good news though - the gig is over. Bad news? I'm once again be on the job search.

Anyway...since my last post the weather has gotten chillier, the leaves have turned color, and it's officially become the holiday season. Which means pumpkins! We got giant pumpkins from our CSA. The kind that I'm afraid to cut into for fear that I'll slip and lose a finger. I mean look at these things:

That green one - it's still sitting in the window. I'll get to him soon enough. The crooked neck pumpkin seemed a bit easier to tackle! I (carefully) cut off the crooked neck, sliced all the pieces in half and scooped out the all the guts and the seeds.

I roasted the pieces flesh side down in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until you could easily pierce the flesh with a knife and looks like this:

Then since I didn't really have something to do with all this pumpkin I decided to freeze it by the cup in plastic bags. Then...when my next recipe (hint it included cream cheese frosting) calls for pumpkin I can just grab a bag from the freezer.

And in the mean time there are roasted squash seeds to munch on! I roast them with salt, pepper and olive oil along side the squash until they're golden brown.

Caramelized Leek Scramble - Our New Favorite Breakfast!

2010-08-03T15:38:00.001-04:00

We have a new favorite breakfast. It take about 20 minutes to make and 30 seconds to eat and it's a little fancy and a lot delicious.

I LOVE caramelized onions and if those onions are in leek form? Oh man, I would happily eat an entire bowl of them with a spoon.

For this dish I chopped up the whites of two small leeks and put them in a bowl of water to rinse off the grit. I sauteed the leeks in a bit of butter with a salt and pepper until they turned soft and sweet. Whisk 3 eggs with about a tablespoon of sour cream, salt, pepper and the sauteed leeks.

Put a couple pieces of your favorite bread in the toaster - we used rye. Slowly scramble the eggs until they are just cooked. Butter your toast, top with the scrambled eggs and a little bit of shredded parmesan cheese.

After I took this picture and we were several bites into breakfast Ron said "No cheese this time?". I practically sprinted to the fridge to grab the block of parmesan - it puts this simple breakfast over the top.

Surprise Party Birthday Cakes!

2010-07-28T11:43:00.004-04:00

Store bought cake generally doesn't interest me - the frosting is always too sweet and the cake is always too dense. At a party it's the thing I skip so I can eat more potato chips. But homemade cake? That, I'll take a slice of. Even when the mix is out of a box and the frosting is out of a can it's somehow so much better.

But if you're going homemade you might as well make it from scratch and you might as well make it interesting. As you can tell by previous posts, I prefer things like pink lady cake, carrot cake, and root beer cake. Why go plain old vanilla and chocolate when you can add things like root beer and cream cheese frosting?

Our friend Mark just turned 30 and his girlfriend, Jackie, was throwing him a surprise birthday bash. I was asked make cake! I ended up making two - first was the root beer cake then in a last minute holy-crap-this-isn't-enough-cake panic I made a peach cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting (I know, yum!). I doubled the root beer cake recipe to make a two layer 9x13 cake and turned the peach cupcake recipe into a 9 inch 2 layer cake. I had white peaches, regular peaches and nectarines on hand from the CSA so I used a combo of all of them in the batter.

Here's the before:

Here's the after:

Mark was VERY surprised, everyone liked the cakes and I only had one mini-meltdown so I consider this a successful baking venture!

Eggplant "Caviar" and Tuna Tonnata

2010-07-21T18:27:00.005-04:00

When Ron and I were in Paris we ate at an amazing restaurant called Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.

It was one our favorite meals in Paris, the food and service were both completely unpretentious - something we didn't always find while dining in Paris! See Dave Lebovitz write up about it here. Ron started with an aubergine "caviar" dish - probably because he thought it was going to have actual caviar in it. When the dish arrived, there was no caviar but neither of us were disappointed! It was served in a cute glass jar and had layers of eggplant and great olive oil packed tuna - served with french baguette, this starter was simple and perfect. I've been meaning to try to replicate it forever!

We got our first eggplant at the CSA this week and I immediately thought of this dish. I ended up combining an Eggplant Caviar recipe from Food and Wine magazine with a Tuna Tonnato with Eggplant salad from Gourmet magazine.

Split and roast the eggplant until it's deflating in the oven. Mix the scooped out eggplant with sauteed, finely diced, red pepper, onion and garlic, chopped parsley and lemon juice.

I pureed one can of water packed tuna with some mayo, olive oil, capers, anchovies and more lemon juice - then I mixed the pureed tuna with a can of drained olive oil packed tuna. I really liked the puree and it would be even better if I was more generous with the olive oil!

Tuna + eggplant + cherry tomatoes:

With a good sprinkle of kosher salt equals something very delicious!

Here I spread it on a wasa cracker but a good whole grain baguette would have put this over the top.

Vegan Enchiladas

2010-07-08T13:55:00.007-04:00

My friend Mike is dating a vegan and asked me to prepare a dish that she could actually eat for a get together last week. Like I've mentioned many times before on this blog, I don't eat a ton of meat and I think I could pretty easily go vegetarian. But vegan? That's a lot more difficult and I imagine that at a party there's often not a whole lot a vegan (in a circle of non-vegan friends) can actually eat. I really wanted to make something tasty and I eat enough vegetables, fruits and grains to know that it's possible.

My first thought was a grain salad with chunks of marinated roasted tofu and lots of veggies but I imagine that vegetarians and vegans get sick of salads! My next thought was Mexican food - probably because it's been so hot that I've been stuffing leftovers into corn tortillas and calling it dinner for days now. I make a good enchilada and I've got no problems leaving off the cheese. Inspired by this recipe I decided on a combo of sweet potatoes, red potatoes and kale for the stuffing.

I boiled the potatoes and added the kale for the last few minutes. I diced the potatoes and chopped the kale and added everything to a pot where I had started sauteing some thinly sliced onion. Next addition? Lots of flavor. I think potatoes need a lot of salt so I added a good bit of that along with chile powder, cumin, dried oregano, adobo from a can of chipotles, red wine vinegar and enough veggie stock to bring it all together.

For the sauce I stuck to my go to enchilada sauce from Last Night's Dinner.

I microwave my tortillas before I dip them in the enchilada sauce to keep them pliable - a lot of recipes call for frying the first but this method always works for me and I save myself a few calories! Ladle some sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 pan, dip, stuff, roll, repeat, layering the enchiladas tightly next to each other.

Top with a bit more sauce. Bake at 375 covered for about 35 minutes then uncovered for another 10, until the edges start to get brown.

I didn't take a photo of the finished product - oops. These were good, not great - and adding sour cream and queso fresco really made them better, although not vegan! But I'm sure guacamole and vegan sour cream would be great. Luckily, everyone made a vegan dish (including a polenta pizza with vegan sausage crumbles - something like this, that was really tasty) so no one went hungry. The leftover filling made great veggie tacos.

French-ish Salad

2010-06-28T20:43:00.007-04:00

Ron introduced me to this salad a long time ago. REALLY! Ron introduced me to a SALAD. It's a salad he'd eaten in France and it was topped with both meat and cheese - now do you believe me? This is a lighter version - although a few pieces of prosciutto and a side of buttered baguette wouldn't hurt this!

Mixed greens, steamed potatoes, green beans, not-so-hard boiled eggs (all from the CSA), grape tomatoes, a bit of blue cheese and a simple vinaigrette made from course grain mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper.

The different textures and temperatures of this salad are what make it so great. Warm potatoes, creamy cheese and egg yolks, sweet tomatoes and cool crisp green beans all tied together with a slightly tangy dressing. Ooh - know what else would make this good? Foie gras - remember this?

Asparagus, Spring Onion and Barley Salad

2010-06-26T18:25:00.001-04:00

Our CSA has been giving us a ton of asparagus and spring onions. For this salad I grilled the asparagus and onions - putting the spring onion greens on the top rack and the onion bulbs and asparagus on the bottom.

I made a simple vinaigrette with lemon juice, whole grain mustard, olive oil, a touch of maple syrup, salt and pepper - the veggies got chopped up and tossed with the vinaigrette and some cooked barley.

These are the kind of meals that are perfect for the hot weather - nothing heavy, nothing hot. Next time I make this I'll add a some cheese (crumbly goat cheese, maybe?) and toasted nuts.

Too hot to cook! Shrimp with Arugula, Pea Pesto

2010-06-22T19:19:00.002-04:00

When the weather is sweaty and your AC is in the basement turning on the oven is not an option. Grilled shrimp, grilled polenta and a no-cook pea and arugula puree seemed like the perfect dinner to not heat up my kitchen and use the quickly wilting spicy greens in my fridge!

Before I get into the how-to let me tell you that, yes, I understand that what looks like pureed green mush might not appeal to everyone. But this isn't mush - the spicy arugula, sweet peas, and walnuts when properly seasoned with a good pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper and whirled in the food processor with a drizzle of olive oil turn into something YUMMY.

The shrimp was simply grilled with salt and pepper. I made the polenta last night and spread it on a small pan to chill so I could grill it today. If your shrimp and peas are defrosted this meal could come together in 20 minutes flat.

Strawberry Rhubarb Gin Fizz

2010-06-19T14:01:00.001-04:00

I know, I don't need to write any fluff. You just want to know how to make this right?

Well here it is:

1. Go in your fridge and take out your shriveling strawberries and you limp rhubarb.

2. Hull the berries, chop the rhubarb and throw in a pot with a touch of sugar and a bit of water (these are precise measurements - I hope you're taking notes)

3. Simmer, simmer, simmer until everything is super soft

4. Smash, smash, smash

5. Push through sieve (you could probably skip 4 and 5 and just throw everything in a blender!)

6. Chill

7. Put ice cubes, gin, a teaspoon of sugar (depending on how sweet you made your puree you could leave this out) and lime juice in a shaker.

8. Shake, shake, shake

9. Poor into a glass, top with club soda.

10. Enjoy

This would probably be extra tasty with the addition of some herbs like mint or basil. If I had some ginger I would have simmered it with the strawberries and rhubarb and pulled it out before I started smashing and sieve-ing. It certainly doesn't NEED anything else though - it's pretty delicious as-is.

PS - Don't feel like simmering and and smashing and waiting for the whole thing to get cold? I don't blame you. Instead skip the rhubarb, take a few of those strawberries and muddle them with a tsp of sugar and some lime, shake with ice and gin, pour into a glass, top with soda and drink up. Mmm.

Use-Up-Your-CSA-Veggies Pizza

2010-06-16T20:06:00.004-04:00

Our CSA has been pretty good this year and I've been making a lot of use-it-before-it-goes-bad meals! So far I haven't really minded, it helps to have what's in your fridge dictate what I make for dinner. Less decisions and with so many vegetables I'm eating close to no meat which I really like.

I love the idea of using whole wheat dough for my homemade pizzas but it generally leads to soggy pizza that gets stuck to pan. So this time around I rolled the dough out into 8 pretty thin rounds, put them on a nonstick sheet pan sprayed with nonstick spray (just to make sure!), drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and baked them at 450 until they were just light brown. Now I have 8 dough rounds in the fridge ready for fixins.

For dinner tonight I had zucchini, mushrooms and a bit of swiss chard to use up. I sauteed the veggies in a bit of olive oil with salt, pepper and a pinch of crushed red pepper. I topped of one of my precooked doughs with canned crushed tomatoes, the veggie mixture and a bit of ricotta. The pizza went in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400. Then...I took a picture with my iphone. Boo.

I know, it's hideous. But I decided I need to blog more and I already have two blogs waiting to be posted because the pictures are sitting on my phone because my card reader is MIA. So, I bit the bullet and posted this awful photo.

But it tasted great! And after I ate half of this way too slowly I popped the other (now cold) half in the toaster oven* to reheat and the crust got even crunchier! Can't wait to have more for lunch tomorrow.

*I just made a correction on here that tells me no one reads my blog - at least no one that likes me. If I ever write "I popped the over half in the toaster over" again - someone please tell me.

Potato Chips AND Runny Eggs - Uh Oh

2010-06-10T13:16:00.003-04:00

I don't normally do this...I stumbled upon this recipe via tastespotting and looked to awesome to keep to myself. I haven't tried this recipe. Truth be told, I'm scared. I'm scared that this dish, being the combination of two of my very favorite foods, would mean the end of single digit pant sizes forever. I'm scared that after trying this recipe I will no longer be satisfied by accompanying my eggs with healthy things like a few slices of tomato or whole grain bread.

Please go see this FRIED EGGS ON POTATO CHIPS recipe over at Monica Bhide's "A Spice of Life" - just go, there's no way in the world it's not going to be awesome. I already know I love chilaquiles, the mexican version of chips + eggs. Now this? Oh man.

Maybe I'll make this recipe this weekend and update this post with a picture? It's not like I need to fit into a wedding dress anymore. Watch out Ron - slippery slope, here I come.

My New Favorite Drink

2010-06-07T18:47:00.003-04:00

Chelada - Ice, lime, beer, salt rim. That's all, easy right? I tried the Michelada and was grossed out, but the plain old Chelada now that's one refreshing cocktail.

I drank more than a few in Mexico.

One Chelada:

Two Chelada:

Now I need to go buy Margarita salt so I can drink them on hot days while sitting on our stoop. I have no doubt that they're just as delicious in Philly as they are in Tulum.

El Tacoqueto

2010-06-03T19:00:00.003-04:00

Our buddies Carla and Gerry had been to Tulum before and we took a lot of their suggestions including where to stay and where to eat. Carla let me know that the food in Tulum Pueblo was a good bit cheaper and really good. When we were driving through town Ron spotted El Tacoqueto and after we ate their we realized that this was the place that Carla and Gerry had raved about - and rightfully so. Looking back on C&G's photos - we actually have embarrassingly similar photos of ourselves inside! Good find guys, very good find!

Ordering goes like this - walk up to the window to the kitchen and the women open the pots of what they made that day and you pick what you want. They don't speak any english (a very good sign to us - yay, not a tourist trap!) luckily, our knowledge of the spanish language pretty much includes only food items. We can read a menu with hardly any problems - but street signs? Not so much.

Generally if I hear the word "mole" I'm in! So we went for the chicken mole served with rice (note my spanish dictionary in the background!):

And the abondigas (meatballs) in a spicy tomato sauce served with black beans and rice:

Ron also ordered a melon Agua Fresca - fresh melon, water (bottled of course, stay FAR away from the tap water!) and sugar blended and strained into this massive glass:

This was probably one of our best meals and definitely one of the cheapest - I think we payed around $10 for everything! When we were waiting for our check a man who must have been one of the owners came over to talk to us - since our spanish was limited he was more like talking at us as we played the role of stupid americans. He asked where we were from, we told him and he jumped up to grab a magazine that they'd been featured in. A little magazine called Food & Wine! What a good place to stumble upon, huh? I'd agree with Food & Wine - it's definitely a "spectacular hole-in-the-wall".

Eggplant Parm - lightened.

2010-05-30T13:56:00.006-04:00

I just stumbled upon a recipe I had made a while back and it reminded me that soon we'll be getting boat loads of eggplant from greensgrow CSA. Last year we made supped up tomato mozzarella salads and we're definitely going to make them again this summer - but we'll also be making this eggplant parm rolls - it's a perfect dish to make on a Sunday and bring to lunch all week long. The recipe is from Bon Appetit and it's a bit time consuming but makes a ton and it's way better for you than the standard fried eggplant parm - especially when you sub in some part skim ingredients.

First you slice and salt the eggplant, put it into colanders until the water beads on top of it - rinse and dry the eggplant then broil it for about 3-4 minutes per side until it starts to brown. While the eggplant cools make the stuffing - blanched, chopped greens (recipes calls for swiss chard, I think I used kale), egg, parmesan, mint and pepper. Pour tomato sauce on the bottom of a greased pan then start stuffing!

Once all the eggplant is stuffed top the eggplant with more sauce and mozzarella.

Bake at 350 covered for about 40 minutes then uncover and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the top start to brown. Then eat, and eat, and eat.

Greensgrow CSA!

2010-05-26T12:01:00.004-04:00

So...our CSA starts tomorrow. This year we're splitting a full share with a couple of friends so we'll get fresh, local goodies every week. I'm hoping to share a lot of it on my blog! Although it's too late to sign up for the CSA you should still visit Greensgrow for local fruits, veggies, and dairy. They also have tons of great plants.

I mean you're not going to find carrots like this at the grocery store:

Should I blur this photo?

Mexican Honeymoon

2010-05-25T13:55:00.003-04:00

Wedding planning is exhausting! The day after the wedding we had an early brunch with our out-of-town guests then went home to "pack". Packing turned into hours of napping, all the wedding craziness finally caught up with us - this might have been my best nap ever.

Anyway - the next day we were up bright and early for a flight to Cancun followed by an hour and a half drive to Tulum, Mexico. We stayed at Hotel Nueva Vida de Rimero - the hotel consists of 20 cabanas, ours was just steps of the beach. Check out this view:

Not awful, right? Our first day there we did as close to nothing as possible - more napping and a low key dinner across the street at the hotel's restaurant.

Continental breakfast was included with the room. I'm not talking make your own waffles and boxes of cereal, this was sliced fresh fruit (pineapple, watermelon, banana, the good stuff!), yummy toasted bread with jam, strong coffee, and fresh squeezed orange juice. You could have it delivered to your cabana for a next-to-nothing charge or dine at the restaurant. But...for our first morning in Tulum we wanted something a bit more hearty and we definitely wanted it delivered! We went with Chilaquiles and Huevos Rancheros (two of my favorite foods!). Yum.

This is a great way to start a vacation!

The Wedding!

2010-05-19T10:37:00.005-04:00

I'm officially Mrs. Eatin' Good in the Hood! Doesn't is seem like yesterday that this happened? Or is that because it's only a couple of blog posts ago? Well...sorry about that. The wedding planning was a bit time consuming. But, I'm happy to say that all of the work that went into the big day was totally worth it and I don't think there is a thing I would have done differently!

I know what you want to hear about...the food! Well, my caterer, Day by Day, and my catering manager, Stephen, where incredible. We wanted to serve the food that we like to eat so we went really simple and really flavorful - not quite your typical wedding food but simple and delicious enough to satisfy all of our guests. Here's the menu:

Hors D'oeuvres

Antipasto display that as I type this I realize I never saw (we were out taking photos!)

Pulled chicken sliders with pepper slaw

Assorted flat breads

Mini crab cakes with chipotle mayo

Asian duck salad in endive

Salad

Mixed greens with strawberries, goat cheese, almonds and balsamic vinaigrette

Entree Options

Bass with bean mash and sauteed baby vegetables

Skirt steak with israeli couscous salad and sauteed baby vegetables

Vegetarian Phyllo wrapped roasted vegetables with goat cheese, couscous salad and baby veg

Dessert

Banana cake with vanilla buttercream and caramel drizzle (bottom layer)

Lemon cake with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream (top two layers)

Whipped Bakery made the cake and it was REALLY tasty!

AND - lots of homemade cookies! I made a ton of cookie dough, rolled it into balls, froze it, then handed it out to some fabulous friends that were willing to bake them for me and bring them to the wedding. My mom and mother-in-law also made some and brought those along. I printed my own stickers and put them on a bunch of little brown bags for people to take as favors but I think a lot of them got eaten early! They went VERY quick - I loved this personal touch. Hopefully there is a photo of the display around somewhere. Anyone??

I didn't take my own photos of the food - I was a little busy doing the whole getting married thing! So...I "borrowed" some photos from friends. Thanks Re and Rochelle!

More photos to come AND the honeymoon! We went to Tulum, Mexico and had some incredible meals. But now I'm off to city hall and get the official marriage license - woohoo!

CASTING RESTAURANTS FOR A PILOT!

2010-03-31T10:34:00.002-04:00

Hi All - I'm sure you're thinking "really? She hasn't posted in months and this is what she's giving us". Well, in short, yes. I need some help readers!

I'm working on a new project for a national Cable channel. We're searching for some restaurants that could use a pick me up, restaurants that are in danger of closing and are willing to throw some of their old menu, decor and theme out the window and start fresh in hopes of getting back on the path to success. The more willing to change, the better!

The restaurant owners and staff will be taking the advice of a celebrity chef and his or her team. Mom and Pop, family run restaurants would be best but at this point I'll look at anything! The owners and management team have to have big personalities.

Know any restaurants that might fit the bill somewhere between Boston and DC? Email me at casting.restaurants (at) gmail (dot) com. Fellow bloggers feel free to repost!

I'll post food soon! I got a new laptop so I'm back up and running. My only excuse now is that I have that whole wedding thing happening in (gulp) less than 6 weeks!

Balsamic Braised Chicken Thighs

2010-02-01T16:30:00.001-05:00

This may not be pretty but it's sooo good and so easy. A while back Ron and I went out to dinner with my mom and Ron ordered...chicken. Gasp! We're not chicken orderers because we make it at home and it's easy and it's good and, well, it's just chicken. But this chicken was different...Mr. Martino's had a chicken special that was just about as far from a crappy boneless skinless chicken breast as you could get. This was a chicken leg slowly braised in balsamic and it fell right off the bone - I'm sure that whatever was on the side was great but I can't remember anything other than the chicken. I've been meaning to make a homemade version of this forever but was reminded of it when a friends told me about a vinegar braised chicken entree she had at Supper.

I seared boneless skinless chicken thighs that I'd seasoned with salt and pepper in olive oil, pulled the chicken out and sauteed some sliced onions and chopped garlic in the fat that was left in the pan. Once the onions were soft I added about 1/4-1/3 cup of balsamic to deglaze the pan. Once all of the brown bits were up from the bottom I added the chicken back in the pan along with a cup or so of chicken stock - I covered the pan and let the chicken simmer on low for 20 minutes on each side. Meanwhile I cooked gigante beans in some of the liquid that the chicken was simmering in, when the bean were heated through I added some chopped kale just until it was wilted. When the chicken was finished I pulled it out and reduced the sauce, it was sweet and syrupy and the chicken pulled apart - no knife required. This dish also made for awesome leftovers.

Brooklyn BBQ

2010-01-25T23:14:00.004-05:00

Ron and I have been taking advantage of the short time he's living in NYC by spending about every other weekend there - I still make him come home to Philly the other weekends! A couple of weeks ago we wanted to get out of Manhattan and do a Brooklyn bar crawl. One of Ron's coworkers gave him a list of places for us to check and at the top of that list was Fette Sau (that's German for fat pig). We got to Brooklyn a bit before they opened so we had a beer and a pickle plate at Spuyten Duyvil, an awesome little bar right across the street.

So back to Fette Sau - this is serious BBQ, beer, and whisky. The menu is a constantly rotating array of smoked meat and awesome sides. Ron went to the bar to order a couple of beers while I waiting on line to order our meat by the pound. We went for 1/2lb brisket, 1/2lb pork shoulder, brussels, broccoli salad and baked beans. You pay for everything then find a seat, we were there early so we didn't have any problems but soon after we sat down the line was out the door.

There are a few different options for BBQ sauce - some sweet, some hot, some mustardy...all good. The meat was a little bit sweet, just smokey enough and perfectly fall apart-y (that's a word, right?). Mmm.

We washed it all down with a couple of Blue Point Oatmeal Stouts and had a hearty base to continue on our bar crawl!

We have to stop meeting this way...

2010-01-14T21:36:00.003-05:00

You know - this awkward "Oh hey, long time no see" thing. I make lame excuses why I haven't been around and you obviously don't buy them. Well sorry about that, I'll try not to be such a bad blogger!

I could keep make excuses...the holidays or wedding planning but really I just haven't been cooking all that much. Ron's been working in New York during the weeks and when it's just me I'm sticking with the basics. I'm also on the I-just-stuffed-my-face-for-an-entire-holiday-season-and-I-have-to-wear-a-wedding-dress-soon diet (you know the one!) which doesn't really lead to drool worthy meals. I've been eating well, don't get me wrong, just not a lot of new recipes. I currently have a Whole Foods rotisserie chicken addiction. I eat the dark meat for dinner the first couple of nights then turn the white meat into salads, soups or stews that I take for lunch all week. I even make stock out of the carcass - lots of bang for my buck!

Stick with me people...life's about to slow down a bit and I'll post some healthy recipes soon! But to hold you over how about a crappy picture of not healthy spicy caramel popcorn?

Another fantastic recipe from smitten kitchen. I used the entire amount of popcorn kernels but only made half the caramel, I also went heavy on the salt and light on the cayenne, I though it was perfect. This is really easy and super delicious, we made for our New Years Eve party and it went quick!

Why France is Awesome

2009-11-27T18:15:00.001-05:00

Overall I had a better time in Barcelona than I did in France - the atmosphere and the people were more my speed in Spain BUT what's great about France? This:

The French are not afraid of butter, cream, foie gras, confit, or, well, pretty much any kind of fat. Indulging is acceptable and maybe even expected - but all in moderation. (Can I put indulge and moderation in the same sentence? Hmm...)

We stumbled upon a great little restaurant, it wasn't quite dinner time so we went for something light. By "light" I mean not a full meal NOT low fat! Ron got an awesome charcuterie plate with butter, cornichon, pearl onions and baguette and I got a salad. Yes, just a salad. A salad of perfectly blanched haricot vert, steamed fresh artichokes a lemony vinaigrette and topped with um, foie gras. I know, I know...it hardly counts as a salad - but that's what the menu said so I'm sticking to it.

*Sorry about the blurry photo!

We wanted to come back for dinner but every time we walked by it was far too packed. Everything we saw coming out of the kitchen looked really good and very French.

I've been holding out...

2009-11-22T17:18:00.003-05:00

I haven't told you anything about the Paris half of our Europe trip...well, except for this little piece of information. The trip seems like forever ago but that doesn't mean I should just keep all the deliciousness to myself!

I'll admit that while in Paris I overdosed on foie gras, pâté, and the ingredient that perfumes the streets of Paris, BUTTER. Thanks to Dave Lebovitz and his blog we had a great list of Paris restaurants we wanted to visit - we were able to get to a couple of them and they were both delicious.

First up? Buckwheat crepes from Breizh Cafe - Ron had ham, mushrooms, over easy eggs and cheese and I went with ham, artichokes, eggs and cheese.

The eggs could have been a bit runnier but other than that these crepes were pretty perfect - the folded over corners were crispy and buttery. Brunch was completed with a bottle of sparkling hard cider, not a bad way to start our stay in Paris.

PS - want some delicious crepes in Philly? If you haven't been to Beau Monde you're missing out. These crepes are seriously delicious - please go and order the savory crepe with smoked trout.

Nourishing Neighbors

2009-10-21T14:37:00.002-04:00

I love food and very often eat far more than my share. But, I know that I'm lucky and that not everyone living in my hood has the same privilege. Approximately 333,000 households in our area cut or skipped meals in the past year because they do not have enough money to buy groceries. Food kitchens and pantries in our areas are having to turn people away or reduce the amount given to each family.

In celebration of World Food Day (10/16), Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger launched “Nourishing Neighbors”.

Here's the gist - The Nourishing Neighbors program is a food drive that's happening right now through November 7 sponsored by Stroehmann, Giant Food stores, and Acme Markets. The goal is to raise and donate over $100,000 to the Hunger Coalition through Hunger Relief drives, Food Stamp enrollment events, and a purchase program. For every loaf of Stroehmann’s Dutch Country or Stroehmann’s King bread sold at Acme and Giant, 10 cents will be donated to the effort.

I mean come on guys, the Phils are doing awesome and what goes better with baseball than hot dogs? And hot dogs require hot dog rolls, right? Preferably potato rolls. You know who makes potato rolls? Stroehmann's. Go buy some hot dog holders and boom - done, you just donated to Nourishing Neighbors. Now you can feel a little bit less guilty about that hot dog and all the beer you washed it down with.

So...buy some bread or attend a local food drive and help nourish your neighbors! Check out the hunger coalition's website for more info on the program, foods drive dates and locations.

Homemade Ricotta & Beet Toasts

2009-10-13T19:57:00.004-04:00

A small break from my Europe posts...

I've been intrigued by homemade ricotta since I spotted in on the blogs over a year ago. When I got an invite for a BYO appetizer birthday party/girls night a few weeks ago I knew I wanted to give it a try. I got the whole milk and beets in our CSA and used this David Lebovitz recipe that I found on Simple Recipes to make the ricotta. The recipe is easy - all you need is milk, yogurt, vinegar and salt. Boil it all together for a couple minutes then strain through a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth.

For these apps I toasted up some slices of wheat baguette and roasted some beets in tin foil with olive oil, salt and pepper then sliced them thin on the mandoline. I layered the toasts with the beets, ricotta (that I seasoned with a little salt and lemon juice), chopped pistachios and drizzled them all with honey.

Unfortunately we left for our vacation before I got to use all of the leftover ricotta - but I REALLY wanted to use it in one of my favorite pasta dishes.

Cinc Sentits

2009-10-06T20:00:00.002-04:00

We had planned one fancy night out in Barcelona. I had read lots of good things about a restaurant called Cinc Sentits and it's tasting menu so I made a reservation before we left via email. The owners are a Catalan-Canadian brother sister team who grew up in Canada but spent a fair amount of time in the Catalonia visiting family. The brother, Jordi Artal, who has no formal culinary training, runs the kitchen while his sister, Amelia, runs the front of the house. Every course of the 8 course tasting menu was fun and playful and super delicious.

First up, some nibbles. Peppery almonds, pimento stuffed green olives and fig and anchovy pastries. Yum. Oh did I mention the wine tasting? We went with the all Spanish wine menu and they were all incredible. I must say though, like at Per Se, I got a little backlogged with my wine. But, no worries, I was able to pull through!

The next tasty bite we poured down our gullets before I thought to take a photo! It was a shot layered with crunchy rock salt, warm maple syrup, chilled cream and cava sabayon. Swig the whole thing in one sip and it's salty, sweet, warm and cool. I read that the locals don't really get maple syrup - "Juice that's squeezed from a tree - huh?". Funny, right?

Remember Pan con Tomate? Well this is their version. Tomato sorbet on top of itty bitty pieces of fresh tomato, crunchy croutons, a thin slice of a local version of salami and garlic foam.

I ate more than my share of foie gras on this trip and this was the start of it. Foie gras with balsamic-glazed leeks, a burnt-sugar shell, and chives. Heaven.

Next up, red snapper and fresh vegetables cooked in a clear bag that was cut open at the table so we could get a good whiff. Really simple and fresh. But...I don't get a clear bag that doesn't melt in the oven. I imagine it's sort of like those ones that my mom cooks a turkey in. Anyway...

Next course was a twist on surf and turf. One perfectly cooked langoustine on top of lentils cooked with pork belly and parsley foam.

Ahhh - 36 hour braised oxtail with parsnip puree, beets and carrot foam.

The cheese course was a local, raw goats milk cheese with a basil marinated cherry tomato and arugala.

We had THREE little desserts. First, chamomile ice cream, pistachios, picstachio cake and peaches.

Second 67% cocoa mousse, with olive oil, salt, and macadamia nut. Olive oil and salt with chocolate? Seriously good.

And third...well, right about now my notes get hard to read, it was a lot of wine! But I wrote down that this was violet jam and cream, chocolate peanut brittle and honey almond cake.

So, in conclusion, if you go to Barcelona you should eat here. Seriously - make a reservation.

Boqueria Part 2: Pinoxto

2009-10-04T11:07:00.002-04:00

Every morning that Ron and I were in Barcelona the Boqueria was our first stop. While we wandered around looking for a spot to eat breakfast Ron had a fresh squeezed orange juice and I had a giant wedge of watermelon.

Our first breakfast at the market was at a little booth run by a couple of fiery older Spanish ladies - we each had a cafe con leche (why can't I find coffee like this in Philly? It's so delicious) I had a lomo bocadilla (sandwich) and Ron had a spinach tortilla (like a frittata).

What's that with Ron's tortilla you ask? It's pan con tomate and you see it everywhere. Bread rubbed with a halved tomato, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. It comes as a side with breakfast, you get slices of it with a plate of ham or anchovies, all the baguettes that make those perfect little sandwiches are rubbed with tomato. And...it's perfect. I think I found my new go-to condiment.

We also had an incredible market meal at Pinoxto - the amazing and occasionally celebrity chef studded tapas bar (I've heard rumors of Eric Ripert!) in the market and home to the best chickpeas I've ever eaten. I'd read rave reviews about this place and the first couple of days we were in the market it was packed! But for some reason on our last day in Barcelona there were two open bar stools and Ron was quick to grab them. We sat in between an old Spanish man eating tripe stew and an American tourist who'd been there every day of her trip!

The guy in the bowtie? That's Juanito Bayen - the over 70 year old, too cute, owner of Pinotxo.

We ordered cafe con leche and a plate of chickpeas (per the friendly guy behind the bar's suggestion), sausage and some more pan con tomate. Apparently the thing to do is just ask "What's good today?" and trust that what you'll get will be really, really, good.

It sounds so simple and, really, it was but it was amazing. I searched for a recipe for those chickpeas and I think the secret ingredient might be blood sausage! I never would have guessed. They had pine nuts, balsamic, delicious olive oil and the perfect amount of salt sprinkled on top. I'll be attempting to replicate this dish soon maybe following this recipe, Pinoxto's Chickpeas, although neither of us remember raisins. But if this recipe is even close to what we ate I'll be making a batch of these weekly all Fall and Winter!

My only regret was not eating breakfast here every day.

Barcelona & it's Boqueria

2009-10-02T22:19:00.001-04:00

I'm obsessed with Barcelona - it's this crazy and awesome combination of a big city and a beach town and you see it in the fashion, architecture and definitely the food.

I'm convinced that there is no better way to eat than tapas style. A couple montaditos, a cava (or two) and you're on your way to the next place to have some langostines and an Estrella, then on to the next place to have a plate of hams with some tomato rubbed bread and a glass of red wine, then on to...you get the idea, right?

But - before we get into the specifics of what and where we ate. Let me tell you about where the chefs go to get their ingredients and where we found ourselves every morning in search of hangover cures and caffeine boosts. La Boqueria.

The market is full of incredibly fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, legumes, dried fruits, candy and a handful of little tapas joints.

It's also full of tourists but make our way past the crowds at the front entrance and you'll have more room to see, smell and TASTE the goods.

Next up - the meals we had in the Boqueria and my possibly unhealthy bocadillo obsession.

Sandwich Smash '09

2009-10-02T09:53:00.002-04:00

I'm super excited to be attending Sandwich Smash this Sunday, October 4th. The event was created by the Jeff Vogel and Ben Kessler from Unbreaded, the Best of Philly Food Blog 2009. Chefs from Zahav, Paesano’s, Parc, Rick’s Steaks, and Bebe’s Barbecue will be creating their signature sandwiches on stage while chatting with Esquire Food Editor, Ryan D’Agostino. Guests will enjoy a meal that includes all five sandwiches, drinks from Anheuser-Busch, snacks from Herr’s and dessert from Capogiro. Oh AND it's a fundraiser for Philabundance!

Sandwiches, beer, snacks & gelato all for a good cause? I'm so in and you should be too - go buy your tickets!

Check out the little write up I got over at Unbreaded about the sandwich party that Gerry and Carla threw a little while back, pretty cool. High five Philly bloggers!

PS: The I'm-gonna-married-sometime-soon-and-have-to-wear-a-dress diet starts right after I eat these five sandwiches. I'm going out with a bang.

I'm Back!

2009-09-29T08:30:00.004-04:00

Oh, you didn't know I was away? I was! Ron and I were in Barcelona and Paris - the sights, the food, and the drinks were all so fabulous that I don't know where to start. But I'll be posting A LOT very soon.

This was our first real, not work related vacation and there was plenty of reason for bubbly. That's cava in Spain:

And champagne in France:

Ooh what's that on my finger? Ron asked me to marry him and I said "Oui!"

Crabfest 09!

2009-09-17T13:50:00.001-04:00

Our buddies MB and Otis put on quite the Crabfest! Otis and Mike drove down to Maryland the morning of the party to pick up these guys:

Steamed crabs and Jersey fresh corn on the cob (thanks Mark!) were the stars of the show. Messy and delicious!

There were some great sides too - couscous salad with veggies by MB, an awesome potato salad with buttermilk dressing by Rita, jersey peaches, and fried plantains with dipping sauce. I didn't snap a picture of Katie's butter cake but, as you'd guess with a name like that, it was really good pretty darn rich.

Potato, Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad

2009-09-15T13:41:00.003-04:00

On our way back from the shore a couple of weeks ago we stopped at a farmers market and bought all of the ingredients for this salad - except for the basil that we grew in our backyard.

Boiled potatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, blanched corn, thinly sliced onions and basil were tossed with a dressing of lemon, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper.

When ingredient are this fresh then don't need a fussy dressing - super simple is the way to go.

Philly Sandwich Party

2009-09-10T13:24:00.000-04:00

As you might know from reading this blog our friends LOVE a theme party. This one is at the top of the list! Our friends Carla and Gerry were threw a goodbye party for a couple of their friends with a Philly Sandwich party.

That's Carla in the picture - the brains behind this delicious party.

Philly has some really awesome sandwiches - some more well known then others. Ron and I brought Nick's Roast Beef sandwiches and gravy fries with long hots and horse radish on the side, of course.

Some of the others included cheesesteaks from Cosmi's, Randazzo's & The Artful Dodger, Roast pork from Tony Lukes, Chicken Milanese from Little Italy, and a few others I can't remember!

We're now one step closer to our goal of having a "This is why your fat" party.

Sea Bass with Garlic Scape Pesto

2009-09-05T12:24:00.003-04:00

I know, I know - garlic scapes? Their season came and went a long time ago. My computer has been a little under the weather and I'm obviously VERY behind on my blogging. But this was so tasty I felt I had to share! The sea bass was seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper - I put it under the broiler flesh side up for a couple minutes then I flipped it over and broiled it until the skin was crispy and the fish was cooked through.

The pesto was garlic scapes, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon and parmesan cheese all blended up in the blender. The lentils were cooked in salted water while I sauteed onions and garlic, when the lentils were done I mixed them with the onions and garlic and added a little white wine and dijon mustard.

You should make this - just replace the garlic scape pesto with maybe some green pea pesto or broccoli rabe pesto. Yum.

Raw Tuna, Grapefruit & Avocado Salad

2009-08-02T14:53:00.001-04:00

Have you seen Mark Bittman's 101 salads article? It definitely inspired me to create something different from our norm. We eat a lot of vegetables but not a whole lot of salads but it's the perfect time of the year for them. This one was a combo of a few that I saw in Bittman's article.

I mixed raw ahi tuna, jicama, napa cabbage, grapefruit and avocado with a little bit of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a squeeze of grapefruit and red pepper flake.

This came together really quickly, was super fresh and, best of all, didn't require any heat. I meant to add chopped salted peanuts on top but I forgot - I'll definitely top my next bowl with them!

Striped Bass, Beans and Greens

2009-07-29T21:11:00.004-04:00

This was a quick and easy weeknight meal.

Ron sauteed some purple spring onion from Greensgrow and added cannellini beans, salt, and pepper. I sauteed the kale (also from Greensgrow) in olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flake, and some red wine vinegar just until it was tender but still bright green. Ron seasoned the bass with olive oil, salt and pepper and threw it on the grill. I topped mine with a few cherry tomatoes from our tomato plant.

That's it! Quick, easy and super good for you.

Birthday Cake!

2009-07-26T20:48:00.005-04:00

I'm always looking for a good reason to practice my baking because having giant cakes and whole batches of cookies in the house when it's just me and Ron can be dangerous! But special occasions like birthdays are the perfect excuse. When we got invited to a friends birthday BBQ this weekend I immediately volunteered to make a cake. I've been wanting to make this Pink Lady Cake since I saw it on Smitten Kitchen. I'm not a huge cake fan but this batter has a whole cup and a half of pureed strawberries in it - taking it from ordinary to perfectly summery. I even decorated it a little bit without making a gigantic mess!

Deb suggests adding some dye to make the cake pinker, I didn't mind the not-so-pink color because the strawberry flavor was so great. But if you're going for super pink, by all means add a few drops of food coloring.

The birthday girl really liked it and so did everyone else - this recipe is a keeper! Here are the remains:

Bring this cake to your next birthday party but be warned - this makes A LOT of batter. Like, cake batter spilling over the top of your mixer a lot. You might even curse a little bit and throw the parchment paper on the floor in a mini-fit. Not that I did that, but I just wanted to warn you that it's a definite possibility. I want to try adding a different fruit puree next time - maybe blueberries? Would that make it a Blue Lady Cake?

Froggy Chicken

2009-07-23T21:54:00.001-04:00

We recently stumbled on a new way to make chicken on the grill. I think it's technical name is Leaping Frog Chicken but we've been calling it "Froggy Chicken" for short. We got the step by step instructions from Last Night's Dinner.

Ron used a chicken we had from our CSA share a few weeks ago to make this guy:

But...he didn't take a picture of the finished product. Oops. Believe me it looks like a frog - a delicious, evenly cooked, giant frog. Make your next grilled chicken a froggy chicken.

**UPDATE: Here's a picture of the finished product!

CSA week #4

2009-07-20T21:36:00.007-04:00

This week was the best yet! Yum...corn season.

Basil - Greensgrow Farms and Spring Thyme Herbs, PA
Peaches - Fifer Orchards, Wyoming DE
Blueberries - Hasmmonton, NJ
Romaine Lettuce - Flaim Farms, Vineland, NJ
Cucumbers - Lancaster County, PA
Corn - Gaventa Farms, Logan Township, NJ
Red Scallions - Landisdale Farms, Jonestown, PA
Onion Rolls - South Philadelphia, PA
Cheese - Mozzarella Balls - South Philadelphia, PA
Dairy Option - 1 dozen Free-Range Eggs
Meat Shares - Angus Burgers - Buck Run Farm, Chester County, PA

Ron made blueberry ice cream, we had lots of cucumber salad and those peaches were so good in my morning yogurt.

We used the mozzarella and basil in this salad:

Eggplant dredged in egg then bread crumbs and baked for 40 minutes at 350 until it's crunchy (or...fry it!). Layer the eggplant with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and sprinkle with balsamic and basil. We've made this twice recently - one time with the addition of grilled zucchini. It's a nice twist on the regular tomato mozzarella salad - not that there is anything wrong with a plain old tomato mozzarella salad!

A Very Belated 4th of July!

2009-07-16T21:01:00.003-04:00

I've been neglecting my blog again. Sorry! I've been meaning to write about our 4th of July tailgate since, like, July 5th. Like last year, we had a huge tailgate party at the Phillies game with way too much food and plenty to drink.

There was the normal cast of characters - hot dogs, burgers, sausage, beans (made by Mike), potato salad and pasta salad. A few not so normal additions - bean dip and layered taco dip (made by MB), stromboli (from Gary), and rice krispy treat (by Katie).

I made peanut butter cookies and oatmeal, cherry, pecan, white chocolate cookies. I must say the oatmeal ones were a big hit - I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and used a cup of dried cherries, a cup of pecans and 12 oz of white chocolate chunks. These are a new favorite!

My friend Andrea made this Texas Sheet Cake. I've never heard of Texas Sheet Cake before this one but it was chocolaty, nutty, 3 sticks of buttery goodness. Yum.

Andrea also brought popcorn - it ended up being thrown by the handful at Bert! None of it really ended up in his mouth, it was really windy! Hmm...I wonder how all that popcorn ended up in my car?

Good times, good times.

CSA week #3

2009-06-25T10:35:00.001-04:00

I know I JUST posted about CSA #2 but that's because I'm horribly behind on my blog. I mean I catered a dinner for 5 last week and I didn't even post about it - sometimes I really stink at this! Anyway, for Greensgrow CSA #3 we got these goods:

Cherries - Lancaster County, PA
Baby Spinach - Graiff Farms, Newfield, NJ (Actually Ron picked this one up and I don't remember seeing spinach in our bag of booty - hmm?)
Kale - Flaim Farms, Vineland, NJ
Zucchini - Lancaster County, PA
Carrots - Flaim Farms, Vineland, NJ
Turnips - Lancaster County, PA
Cheese - Telford Tomme - Hendricks Farms, Lancaster, PA
Dairy Option - choose one: 1 dozen Free-Range Eggs, 2 Pequea Valley Yogurts, 1/2 Gallon Hormone-free Milk, or 1/2 lb. Amish-style Butter (we got milk this time around)
Meat Shares - Fennel OR Rosemary Sausage - Meadow Run Farms, Lititz, PA

We grilled up some of the zucchini as a side with bison burgers that I had in the freezer left over from CSA #1.

I roasted the carrot and turnips in some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them on top of some lentils. I cook the lentils in salty water until they're tender then toss them with a simple white wine mustard sauce. Make the sauce by just sauteing some minced onion and garlic, splashing in some white wine and adding a tablespoon or so of dijon mustard. To top it off I added an over easy egg.

The cherries were a little bit soft when we got them. I'm not a big fan of just eating them straight up when they're soft so I pitted them (a pain in the butt without a pitter!) and made them into this sorbet:

I pureed the cherries (I used the cherries from the CSA and a bag of frozen ones I had sitting in my freezer) with the juice of a lime and about 3 tablespoons of sugar. The mixture went into my ice cream maker with a tablespoon or so of vodka to keep it from freezing too hard. I love sorbet in the summer - when your fruit is at the peak of freshness you hardly have to add any sugar at all so its boot camp friendly!

I have lots of vegetables starting to wilt in my fridge so I have to finish up these CSA goodies soon! I think I see zucchini bread in my future...

Block Party!

2009-06-25T09:00:00.002-04:00

We had a pretty kick ass block part last weekend. Our block was under construction all last summer so this is our first block party in a couple of years and I forgot how great they are. It's a good time to get to know new neighbors and get reacquainted with the old ones - mostly by playing corn hole, washers and drinking games!

We did the standard hots dogs and burgers. Ron grilled a whole chicken that was SO good and I made some veggie burgers and lots of side salads and desserts.

Mediterranean Eggplant & Barley Salad:

Sweet Potato Salad - inspired by this Emeril recipe but I added lots of roasted Anaheim and red peppers:

Spicy Radicchio Slaw with Apples & Pecans - such a nice change from regular slaw, this was really tasty! I used low fat mayo because that's what I always have on hand. Some how I forgot to take a picture, oops.

Now for the not so healthy (boot campers look away!)

Dark chocolate and cherry oatmeal cookies (Joy uses white chocolate in hers - I'll try that next!) and the standard chocolate pecan cookies:

Root beer float cake:

And I must mention these little gems on the blue plate - coconut macaroons made by my friend Jackson. Yum.

A great time was had by all and we had the headaches the next day to prove it!

Eatin' Healthy (and still good!) in the Hood & CSA #2

2009-06-23T10:10:00.011-04:00

I generally eat pretty healthy but I don't really blog about our quick weeknight meals because, well, we eat them too quickly to take photos! But...I recently joined Fusion Gym in Philly and their 10 week boot camp (NBC is highlighting some people in my class - check it out here). I want to be able to share some of my healthier recipes with my fellow boot campers so I'm really going to try to post more of our healthy weeknight meals. I also made a goal to bring lunch to work at least 4 times a week - so maybe I'll post some lunches too!

I'm behind on posting about my CSA - we've gotten three and each one has been a little better then the one before. This is what we got for our second CSA:

Strawberries - Fifer Orchards, Wyoming, DE

Asparagus - Fifer Orchards, Wyoming, DE

Snow Peas - Lancaster County, PA

Arugula - Graiff Farms, Vineland, NJ

Beets - Flaim Farms, Vineland, NJ

Cheese - Cowtipper, Calkins Creamery, PA

Dairy Option - choose one: 1 dozen Free-Range Eggs, 2 Pequea Valley Yogurts, 1/2 Gallon Hormone-free Milk, or 1/2 lb. Amish-style Butter (we got yogurts, I still haven't eaten them!)

Meat Shares - Whole Chicken - Griggstown Quail Farm, NJ (still in my freezer!)

We ate the strawberries right away - they were super tasty, just like the ones in our first pick up. The asparagus was grilled to go with a weeknight meal. Ron made this snow pea and shrimp stir fry with brown rice that was really quick, easy and healthy - it's going to become a regular meal for us!

I used the arugula in this:

SO good and super easy. For two servings I just sauteed two big handfuls of arugula in some olive oil and garlic then added about 1/2cup of part skim ricotta and about a 1/2cup of chopped tomatoes (I used canned), salt, pepper and some red chili flakes. Meanwhile cook about 4-5oz of whole wheat linguine. When the pasta is finished toss it with the sauce - if the sauce is a little dry just add a bit of the pasta water. We threw in some grilled chicken because we had it on hand. I've made this with spinach too, but really any green would work.

Per Se!

2009-06-11T20:27:00.003-04:00

Okay I know you've all been anxiously awaiting this post. Per Se was the most amazing dining experience ever - everyone who loves food should go. The service was perfect, attentive and knowledgeable and not at all stuffy. Their attention to detail was incredible - I mean my purse got it's own little fancy stool next to my chair! Over the course of dinner Ron mentioned is was my birthday and a little while later the waiter asked "Sara with an A or and H"? - I replied "An A" not really thinking anything of it. As we walked out (three hours after we arrived!) the hostess handed us printed menu and when we got home and looked at it we saw that printed on the menu was "Happy Birthday Sara". I mean really? How crazy is that?

We did the wine tasting in addition to the tasting menu and the wine was perfectly paired with every dish. And the food? Every single bite was perfect and I don't really know why. Why is that piece of white asparagus the best asparagus I've ever eaten? I mean it's asparagus, what could they possibly do to make it taste so good? The bread they brought to the table was the best bread ever with the best butter ever.

Here's what we had:

In addition to the nine courses the meal starts with two amuse-bouche - little marble size gougeres filled with warm cheese and a little salmon tartare and creme fraiche cornets. To finish the meal we had one of each of the desserts on the menu and they brought the French Laundry signature dessert of coffee and donuts - coffee ice cream with whipped cream (and a candle!) and two little cinnamon sugar donuts because it was my birthday. Then just when we thought we were finished they brought all these chocolates, truffles, chocolate covered peanuts, caramels and all kinds of goodies. They boxed up the candies we couldn't finish and gave us some other wrapped up snacks to take home and we went back to our hotel - perfectly full, a little bit buzzed and very, very happy.

My Birthday Present!

2009-06-05T10:07:00.002-04:00

Ron got us reservations at Per Se! Yes, yes, Thomas Keller's Per Se! This year it's ranked 6th on the list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants and was the highest placed US entry. It even beat French Laundry which was number 1 in 2004.

I'm going to try to take pictures and I'll report back soon. Happy Birthday to me!

Greensgrow CSA - week 1

2009-05-31T10:51:00.002-04:00

We had our first CSA pick up last week and so far so good. It wasn't a ton of food but it's early in the season so we'll see what happens as the weeks go by.

This is what we got and where it's from:

Strawberries - Fifer Orchards, Wyoming, DE

Asparagus - Fifer Orchards, Wyoming, DE

Boston Lettuce - Flaim Farms, Vineland, NJ

Spring Onions - Lancaster County, PA

Mushrooms - Bo-ka Specialties, Kennett Square, PA

Cilantro - Greensgrow Farms, Philadelphia

Olive Oil Buns - Tony Rolls, Philadelphia

Cheese - XX Sharp Cheddar, Le Rayesville Cheese Factory, Le Rayesville, PA

1 dozen Free-Range Eggs

Ground Bison - Backyard Bison, Bucks County, PA

We had really tasty bison burgers with cheddar cheese, boston lettuce, and tomatoes on olive oil buns. I grilled the spring onions and asparagus for a barley salad with a lemony vinagrette and goat cheese (SO good). I need to use up those mushrooms & the rest of that lettuce asap - I'm thinking a mushroom barley risotto might be in the works soon. I'm determined not to waste a bit of this stuff!

Memorial Day/Birthday BBQ!

2009-05-30T16:32:00.002-04:00

I already told you about the Bacon Explosion we had last weekend at my friend Mike's birthday BBQ but that's not the only thing we ate!

Ron made chicken wings and I made ribs. The ribs were so easy - I just covered the ribs with salt, pepper and BBQ rub and put them in the oven covered with foil for 3 hours at 300 degrees. At the party I covered them with BBQ sauce and put them on the grill to reheat. The birthday boy enjoyed them!

I also made a few new salads - the crowd favorite was this beet and barley salad. I cut up and roasted three beets and added them to the cooked barley but I didn't love the texture. I suggest roasting the beets whole wrapped in foil and dicing them after they're cooked. I added feta cheese, diced red onion, sliced scallions, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to the salad. I can't wait to make this again with extra beets!

I wanted to do a new potato salad so I tossed the potatoes with spinach and basil pesto and peas - like the pasta, pesto and peas salad I always make but, duh, with potatoes instead of pasta. I also made an israeli couscous salad with grilled asparagus, red and green peppers, red onion, and scallion. I had zucchini on the grill too but I forgot about them and they were far to charred to serve! Oops. The vinaigrette was lemon juice, olive oil, honey, mustard, salt and pepper.

I also made my favorite chocolate chip cookies with pecans and since Mike, like me, is a peanut butter junkie I made these really, really good peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They got a little crumbly in the bags but no one seemed to mind!

I told the lovely Marybeth about Mike's love of peanut butter so she made these butterscotch, peanut butter rice krispy treats. Oh man, yum!

That's a tomato pie box next to the rice krispy treats - a couple of our friends brought these and they were a great addition to the party. Friends also brought fresh fruit salad, homemade salsa and guac and lots of beer! I ate way too much, drank some beers, got a little sun, and got to see lots of good friends - now that's what I'd call a successful party. Thanks for coming guys!

Bacon Explosion

2009-05-28T15:16:00.004-04:00

Yup that's right, bacon explosion. A little while back Ron and I saw this meaty creation in the New York Times labeled as a "blog sensation". I think Ron's been looking for an excuse to make it ever since. One of my very best friends, Mike, was celebrating his birthday (I won't tell you how old but it's certainly a milestone b-day) and we were throwing a little birthday/memorial day BBQ for him down at FDR park. Yay - an excuse for a 4 pound pork loaf! Here's the gist:

Weave together a pound of bacon, top with 2lbs of hot sausage, top that with a pound of chopped fried bacon. Top the fried bacon with BBQ sauce, roll up the sausage around the bacon then roll that up in the bacon weave.

Once you've got the weave rolled up sprinkle it with BBQ seasoning then put it on the smoker. Smoke your bacon explosion for 2 1/2 hours until it looks really dark brown, almost burnt. Ron cooked this the day before the BBQ - when it was finished smoking he let it cool then wrapped it in tin foil and put it in the fridge. The next day he took the foil off and slowly reheated it on the grill at the party. He sliced it up and served it on hamburger rolls with BBQ sauce.

I'll admit that I only had one bite, I feared that my arteries would instantly close. But, that one bite was smokey and spicy and, of course, meaty! It was definitely a hit with all of our friends - just look at all everyone taking pictures and video taping the much anticipated slicing of the bacon explosion!

More about the less heart attack inducing dishes I made for the BBQ soon!

Potato Salad with Red Pepper-Smoked Paprika Mayo

2009-05-22T20:04:00.002-04:00

I like almost all forms of potato salad, the exception being those bad deli case ones that always seem oddly sweet. I generally make an old school creamy version with mayo, hard boiled eggs, celery, grated onion, and a touch of mustard and vinegar. Ron's sister recently made a kick ass german potato salad with lots of vinegar and bacon (not "kiss ass" like I originally posted - Ron you're supposed to be my proof reader!) .

Bobby Flay's red pepper and paprika version is one of my new favorites. It's very Bobby Flay isn't it? The recipe says to grill the potatoes after you boil them but both times I've made this I've been a bit rushed so I've skipped that step and just used plain old boiled potatoes. I do plan on doing it Bobby's way soon though!

It's so easy - no chopping or grating or hard boiling eggs! You just throw the ingredient in the blender, whir it up and toss the sauce with boiled potatoes (I used red potatoes this time). I like to top mine with some scallions for color. Definitely a nice change from the standard potato salad.

Huevos Rancheros

2009-05-20T18:25:00.001-04:00

This is probably my favorite breakfast. If I'm out to brunch and it's on the menu it's hard for me to order anything else, well, unless there's eggs benedict - then its a toss up! I make a quick and easy version of huevos rancheros at home.

I brush a corn tortilla with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt then toast it in the toaster oven until its crispy. I make my "refried" beans buy heating up a can of drained and rinsed pinto beans with some chicken stock and diced tomatoes (this time I used the kind with green chiles) then mashing them up with salt, pepper and cumin. The tortilla is topped with the beans, one or two over easy eggs, some more of the diced tomatoes with chiles and chopped lettuce. Sour cream would have put these over the top but I didn't have any in the fridge!

This past weekend I had brunch with a good friend at The Tortilla Press in Collingswood, NJ. They have a $5 menu from 11am - 12pm that they call an "early bird" menu. I don't think I've ever gotten an early bird anything on a weekend! The menu is pretty great and I ordered, you guessed it, huevos rancheros. My friend and I both ordered off the $5 menu (she had a quiche that came with fruit salad, my huevos came with rice and beans) and had bottomless cups of coffee and our bill was $16. They weren't the best huevos rancheros I've had but I think that huevos rancheros are sort of like pizza - when it's great, it's REALLY great and when it's bad, well, it's still pretty good. I'll be back to The Tortilla Press to try their dinner menu. If you're into the meat free thing like I sometimes am May 19th and 20th they're doing a 4 course vegetarian meal for $30 and the menu looks great.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

2009-05-17T14:37:00.005-04:00

I love rhubarb, as a kid we'd eat the super sour stalks dipped in a shot glass full of sugar. The rhubarb and strawberry combo is a pretty perfect. This crumble was my contribution to the dinner we made for Ron's family for mothers day.

I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen - I guess the addition of baking soda is supposed to bulk up the topping and make it more like a crisp but I'm not sure it worked. I can't imagine that has anything to do with the fact that I lost the lid to my baking soda and it's sitting in my cabinet wide open - oops.

The filling was just strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch.

The topping of brown sugar, sugar, butter, flour and baking soda turned crispy and golden brown in the oven.

This was tasty and perfectly tart and sweet but I think I'm a crisp kind of girl. I like some oats in my topping.

Oh - and speaking of strawberries check this out!

Our strawberry plant has a few perfectly ripe strawberries on it. They're tiny but really sweet - and better than anything we could buy at the store because we grew them ourselves!

Chicken Empanadas

2009-05-13T19:13:00.001-04:00

Ron's cousins Cinco De Mayo party last week was a perfect excuse for me to make these empanadas I saw on Smitten Kitchen a while ago. I followed the recipe for the dough and decided to wing it with the filling.

For the filling I combined two shredded chicken breast (leftover from a roasted chicken the night before), a large red onion that I caramelized, 6 or so finely chopped green olives, a finely chopped chipotle, garlic, paprika, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and a splash of the liquid from a jar of pickled jalepenos and a bit of tabasco to add the little bit of hear it was missing. Whew - in other words I added just about anything with in an arms reach!

I stuffed the empanadas, brushed them with egg wash and put them in the oven - 25 minutes later they came out crispy and golden brown.

I generally have dough anxiety but this was really easy and came out perfect. The final product went pretty quickly at the party - that's always a good sign!

Looks good huh? I only used about half of the dough and I'm looking forward to making big empanadas stuffed with Ron's homemade chicken sausage, veggies and cheese for a dinner this week.

Tomato Festival!

2009-05-10T14:00:00.001-04:00

While in Florida last weekend the fam and I went to a tomato festival near my sister's house. It was pretty small with lots of vendors selling stuff I wasn't all that interested in but the food was pretty darn tasty.

With the $5 cost of admission you got one of these huge tomato plants!

Unfortunately I don't think they'd make it past airport security so instead we scored three for my sister's house.

Another freebie - perfectly ripe sliced tomatoes. Yum.

Ron sampled some mullet stew from the mullet shack.

And we had the best fried green tomatoes ever. Check out these batter fried beauties.

With ranch of course - it is the south!

We had a great weekend and it's nice to see that my sister and her family are settling into their new digs. I think my sister's tomato fest purchase says it all.

She's officially a country girl!

Red Neck Livin'

2009-05-07T19:46:00.003-04:00

My big sister lives a life that's slightly different from mine. She lives in Florida in what I'd call, um, how do you say it nicely? The sticks? We went for a visit this past weekend to meet my new niece and celebrate my nephews birthday and it was pretty awesome. There was fishing and shooting and little butt cracks - all things you expect to see in the south!

Oh there was also wrestling in the parking lot of a local bar, that was awesome. Ron couldn't get enough! He's since dug up an old fishing rod, bought a tackle box and tackle to fill it and has been fishing twice - once at FDR park and once in South Jersey! I don't really get the point of fishing if you can't eat what you catch, but it looks like its Ron's new hobby.

I don't think I stopped eating the entire weekend we were in Florida. My sister's a good cook and she made way too much food for my nephews birthday party! We ate meatballs, kielbasa, stuffed shells, spinach lasagna and all kinds of salads for days. I'm not complaining, these were the kind of leftovers that just get better after a few days in the fridge!

But, the best part of the long weekend wasn't the food - it was hanging out with two of the cutest kids you'll ever meet.

Seriously can you handle it? Cute overload right?

My parents were also down for the weekend and my mom (who I've recently gotten addicted to tastespotting) made these cookie dough tree pops with my nephew.

We had tree pops, cake and homemade ice cream sandwiches for dessert - a delicious sugar overload.

We also went to a pretty cool tomato festival - more about that soon!

Homemade Oreos

2009-04-26T16:42:00.002-04:00

I need to get these out of my house, they're far too good to eat just one or...five. The cookies and the filling both come from Smitten Kitchen. I made brownie roll out cookies that were delicious on their own but lacked pizzazz so I decided to make them into oreos by filling them with the cream that Deb used for her homemade oreos.

I'm off to feed them to the kids playing outside!

No Knead Rye Bread

2009-04-21T11:47:00.004-04:00

So I'm probably the last food blogger out there to finally try no knead bread. I got Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as a Christmas gift and this is the first time I've put it to use. What have I been waiting for!? This is seriously good stuff and it's so easy.

Now I'll have to make bread all the time. So much for that low carb diet.

Now that's better: Moroccan STEW

2009-04-19T17:48:00.003-04:00

Remember yesterday when I told you about that Moroccan chicken and lentil salad? Well I was sort of luke warm on it and I regretted not just making that Moroccan stew from Gourmet magazine. So today I heated up about a 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and a cup of chicken stock and threw in that "salad" I made yesterday. And voila! Moroccan chicken and lentil STEW, now that's more like it.

Moroccan Chicken and Lentil Salad

2009-04-18T12:54:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to make this Moroccan Stew with Quinoa since I saw the recipe on Gourmet magazine's website a couple weeks ago. I had some cooked chicken thighs in the fridge so I decided to make a chicken and lentil salad with lots of the same flavors.

Shredded chicken thighs, french lentils, roasted carrots and onions, green olives, chives, garlic, lemon juice and a bunch of spices: paprika, cinnamon, cumin, ground ginger, chili flake, salt and pepper. This was good but not the best salad I've made - I'm sure the warm stew is great and I still plan on making it soon, maybe a veggie version.

It's also possible that I can't really enjoy this salad because I'm just too stuffed from eating this delicious beast of a breakfast sandwich:

Tony Luke's broccoli rabe, egg and cheese topped off with lots of hot sauce. Oh my, this is good stuff. Tony Luke's - they're more than just cheese steaks!

Balsamic Glazed Tofu

2009-04-13T20:15:00.002-04:00

After the excessive amounts of pork I ate yesterday I was in need of a light, meat free dinner. I decided on balsamic glazed tofu with white beans and kale.

I used the dry fry method for cooking the tofu then deglazed the pan with a mixture of balsamic, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. For the beans and greens I cooked some red onion in a pan then added a big bunch of kale, salt, pepper and some of the balsamic mixture. After the kale cooked down for a few minutes I added the white beans just until they were heated through. I tend to use tofu only in asian dishes, this was a nice change.

An Easter Feast

2009-04-12T20:54:00.002-04:00

I'm stuffed. Holidays at Ron's parents house usually involve a lot of food. Today we had this feast for lunch and dinner:

Ron made a really tasty ham that didn't make it to the photo (with this Simply Recipe glaze) and the kielbasa with sauerkraut.

The stars of the buffet where Ron's Mom's pineapple stuffing, it's SO good with the ham and Ron's sister's german potato salad. Warm potatoes with mustard and vinegar and lots of bacon:

How could that be bad? Oh I made those deviled eggs too - Ron picked up the jumbo eggs by mistake and EVERY one had a double yolk. You can see the two yolk holes if you look closely at the picture. Weird right? And they were even the free range organic kind - not like they added some crazy chicken twin making hormone.

I made a couple of desserts, the first was an attempt at a lemon tart that tasted really good but didn't firm up right. As we drove over to New Jersey the strawberries started to fall into the lemon curd and shift to one side or another depending on which way the car was turning. I kept having to spin it around in my lap to keep it looking even.

I got the recipe for the tart and curd from Half Baked. I don't think I whipped the curd long enough in the double boiler. This was great when I got home and threw it in a bowl, crushed up the crust and ate the whole thing with a spoon, it didn't look quite as pretty as when I started but it sure was yummy.

My second dessert was more successful, a really really great carrot cake from Smitten Kitchen:

Ron's mom wouldn't let us leave without lots of leftovers, so we'll be eating Easter ham and carrot cakes for days. Bummer, huh?

Black Bean and Roasted Vegetable Quinoa

2009-04-04T14:16:00.003-04:00

Everyone knows about quinoa by now right? It's definitely a super food - it has twice the protein of a regular cereal grain and less carbs, it's loaded with fiber AND it's a complete protein. It also takes less time to cook then rice or barley, you can throw it into boiling water for about 20 minutes and drain it like you would pasta. For this dish I was inspired by this greek style quinoa salad that my mom made and raved about. I didn't have chickpeas or feta on hand but I did have black beans and queso fresco so I decided to put a mexican spin on it.

I made a light vinaigrette with lime juice, olive oil, a drizzle of honey, some chili powder, salt and pepper. I roasted a red pepper, an anaheim pepper and sliced red onions in the oven until the peppers were charred and the onion was soft. Remove the skin from the peppers and chop them up. Toss the vinaigrette, quinoa, roasted peppers and onion, some chopped scallions and crumbled queso fresco together. I topped mine with some pepitas. This is a perfect salad to make on a Sunday and bring for lunch all week long.

Next I'm going to try quinoa for breakfast - something like this 101 Cookbooks Recipe.

Grapefruit Madeleines

2009-03-23T22:46:00.003-04:00

So I learned a lot over the last week - mostly that I really want to continue going on one well planned shopping trip a week. I really think we could spend about $60 a week and eat well especially when we can use the things in our well stocked pantry and freezer. I didn't think about how little trash we'd make while eating this way - we had SO little waste, I guess that was an added bonus. Like I said earlier in the week I think we bought too many vegetables and not enough grains - we could have used some quinoa, lentils and/or cornmeal. We'd shop a little different if we did this again, but overall I'd call the experiment a success.

Other news, I just got an email saying I got into the Greensgrow Farm Summer CSA. I'm so excited about the box of goodies I'll be getting every other week. What a fun way to experiment with new foods. It starts in May so I'll be keeping you posted on that when summer comes around. I also learned over the past week that posting a couple of times a week really doesn't take that much time! I'm hoping to blog more steadily from now on, although I make no promises!

Here are those grapefruit glazed madeleines I told you about yesterday.

Again, I just followed this D ave Lebovitz recipe for lemon madeleines and replaced the lemon with grapefruit. Listen to his directions about chilling everything and you'll have nice poofy madeleines!

Days 5, 6, 7 & a Few Confessions....

2009-03-22T11:04:00.004-04:00

As this week went on we ate a lot more of the same. Oatmeal, leftover soups and braised vegetables. We had a minor set back on Friday when I pulled the much anticipated sardines out of the freezer and after they had some time to defrost realized that they had gone bad, I think they had been previously frozen. So there went our protein for one night, I threw together something by shredding up the last of the chicken and it was ok, but far from great.

Here's the rest of our week, you'll probably yawn at this because it looks a lot like the beginning of our week!

Friday

Breakfast:

Sara - oatmeal, banana, coffee

Ron - mushroom frittata

Lunch:

Sara - more braised veggies with white beans
Ron - I think he skipped lunch, dinner was early

Dinner:

Roasted cauliflower puree with brussel sprouts and shredded chipotle chicken. The puree was the best part of this meal.

Confession:

Friday I had a cocktail party to attend and I can't NOT bring something, it's just not in me. I made some grapefruit glazed madeleines using the zest and juice of the grapefruit we bought this week and some ingredients from my fridge and pantry. I didn't buy anything extra from the grocery store. I don't know maybe these cost $1.50 in ingredients from my cabinet? I ate food at the party too but only a few things and, as I keep saying, I think free food is fine!

The madeleines were awesome I followed this Dave Lebovitz recipe for lemon glazed madeleines, the only changes I made were (duh) using grapefruit instead of lemon and using just grapefruit juice, no water, in the glaze. Chilling the dough and mold is key, they're so much puffier and prettier then the last ones I made.

I also ate three graham crackers out of the cabinet - two of them topped with peanut butter...oops.

Late night:

The several drinks I had at the party led to Ron and I finishing the bag of oatmeal cookies we've been munching on all week.

Saturday

Brunch/Lunch (we woke up late, see Friday Confession above):

Sara - Oatmeal and coffee

Ron - Chicken and barley soup

Confession:

Okay so this was the week's big cheat...you see we have a loved one in the hospital and we brought sandwiches over to the hospital for everyone who's visiting to snack on. Ron isn't so great at visualizing how much will feed how many. He got way too much and even after people grabbed some to take home there were still leftovers and they were going to go to waste. So...I ate a turkey hoagie for dinner. That's right, hoagies for dinner, oh, and some potato chips. This was the ONLY meal that we really failed on. Well, sort of, see Sunday confessions below.

Sunday

Breakfast:

Sara - Oatmeal, an apple, and coffee

Lunch:

Sara - Split pea soup (it's still really good) and kale chips

These kale chips are all over the blogs and I've been wanting to try them, they're good and crunchy but they still taste like kale! Fortunately, I like kale :)

Dinner:

Sara - Barley and cauliflower puree with the last of the braised veggies

Confessions:

I know what you're asking, what the heck happened to Ron? Well, he's working in DC for the next couple of days so that means that he's not eating out of our fridge for the last day of our Cheap Eats week. But, he'll be reimbursed for his meals! So free is okay right?

Well that's the gist of the week - I'll be back tomorrow to let you know what we did well and what we did not so well and what we plan to get out of all of this. Thanks to everyone that followed this week!

Four days in and going strong!

2009-03-19T16:42:00.004-04:00

Here are our meals for the day again - are you sick of this yet? I hope not!

Breakfast:

Sara - you guessed it! Oatmeal, a banana and coffee

Ron - another quarter of that 4 egg mushroom fritatta

Lunch:

Sara - Leftover braised cabbage over white beans, seriously good. Orangette managed to take a beautiful photo of this cabbage but mine never come out looking like something I'd actually want to eat. You'll just have to take my word for it. This might look burnt but really the crispy parts are the BEST parts.

Ron - Well, um, he spent some time with his family today and raided their corned beef and cabbage leftovers. But it was free! So that's okay right?

Dinner:

Sara & Ron - Chicken & Barley soup.

This is a pretty basic chicken soup. Carrots, celery, parsnip, some of our homemade chicken stock, leftover shredded chicken breast and some barley. We folded in some shredded mustard greens right before serving. Yes, I know I didn't buy that parsnip with my $50 but it was sitting at the bottom of the crisper and letting it go to waste seemed silly, add a quarter to our tab! It's a dreary and chilly in Philly today so this warm soup was the perfect dinner.

Cheap Eats: Day Three

2009-03-18T19:05:00.007-04:00

Day three eats...

Breakfast:

Sara - Oatmeal with an apple and coffee (sound familiar?)

Ron - A quarter of a 4 egg mushroom frittata

Lunch:

Sara - Leftover kale and white beans from last night's dinner with a fried egg and an oatmeal cookie

Ron - Leftover chicken, split pea soup and brussels sprouts

Dinner:

Sara & Ron - Butternut squash barley risotto & some braised cabbage

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet. I learned about barley risotto from Mark Bitman's Food Matters and I've made it with asparagus, mushrooms and now butternut squash.

I peeled and cubed the half of my butternut squash that was leftover after making butternut squash chips yesterday. Toss the squash in some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until soft. Sautee half of diced onion in some olive oil, when its soft add 1/2 cup of pearled barley, season with salt, pepper and sage (it's the only thing that grows on my windowsill). After about a minute start adding warm chicken stock (from the chicken we made on Monday) a cup or so at a time - like you would a regular risotto. I pureed half of the squash and added that into the mixture while continuing to add stock. The whole process takes a bit longer then regular risotto but it gets so creamy and good and it's much better for you than regular rice! I topped it with the seeds that I scooped out of the squash and toasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper - they added a nice salty crunch.

Cheap Eats: Day Two

2009-03-17T14:31:00.008-04:00

Well first I'll tell you that I'm frustrated with my memory card reader because I went to download photos for today's blog and they disappeared! I don't know what happened but I can't find them and we've eaten everything (except for the cookies I'm about to tell you about!) so I can't even take new pictures. Bummer.

But on a good note we've been eating really well!

We did realize that we had nothing sweet to eat so I used some ingredients in my cabinets to make oatmeal cookies - here's the break down of the ingredients and their rough costs for the amount we used:

Butter - $.65

Flour - $.25

Raisins - $.65

Brown sugar - $.35

Total = $1.90

We also used an egg and oats but they were bought with our $50 this week. There's also a small amount of salt, baking soda, and cinnamon so lets say these two dozen cookies cost us $2.50 (I think that's actually an overestimate). The recipe is from Smitte n Kitchen and they are really, really good!

Here's what we ate for the rest of the day...

Breakfast:

Sara - Big bowl of oatmeal made with 1/2 an apple and coffee

Ron - grapefruit

Lunch:

Sara - Split pea soup again, it's even better on day two, and some baked butternut squash chips. I cut mine too thin but they were still good - crunchy, salty, just a little bit sweet.

Ron - White beans with chipotles, roasted brussel sprouts, and some split pea soup

Dinner:

Sara & Ron - Trout with kale with white beans. Ron made the trout by brushing it with olive oil, seasoning it with salt and pepper and roasting the whole thing in a 400 degree oven for about 18 minutes. I made the kale like I always do with onions and garlic and a splash of red wine vinegar then added some of the white beans that Ron cooked last night.

So yesterday's total was $44.69 - add todays cookies and another diet coke and we're up to $47.49. We better eat those cookies all week long to make that $2.50 worth it!

Oh the pictures of the butternut squash chips and the trout were so great - sorry again. My blog will hopefully be more visual tomorrow!

Eating Cheap Day One: What We Bought & What We Ate

2009-03-16T22:30:00.000-04:00

Today we shopped for our cheap eats. Here's the break down of what we got...

A TON of fruits and vegetables for $16.90. Seriously look at all of this! Brussels, mustard greens, kale, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, grapefruits, butternut squash, a potato, carrot and onions. I ♥ Iovine Brothers Produce:

A chicken for $6.48, a whole trout for $5.24 and 6 sardines for $1.52 (seriously!):

And a few things from the grocery store - milk, eggs, split peas, giant white beans, barley, chipotles (splurge!), oats, and celery that we forgot to get at the terminal for $12.55:

Total for shopping today $42.69:

In additional to this stuff I bought 3 bananas, 3 apples and a cabbage for $1.70 on Saturday and I'll be eating them this week so that bring the total up to $44.39 (that cabbage was $.09/lb - $.22 for a whole cabbage thanks to a St Patty's day sale). We also have a case of diet coke in the fridge, I know, I know, it's a weakness! I bought it on sale last week for $2.50, that's $.30 a can, Ron drank one so now we're at $44.69. That leaves us just over $5 for anything that we forgot and the use of things in our cabinets. This might be harder than I thought...

This is what we ate today:

Breakfast - I had a banana, oatmeal and coffee (Ron's mom brought us a bag of coffee a couple weeks ago so I'm not including it in our costs - nothing wrong with accepting gifts right?). Ron skipped breakfast.

Lunch - Split pea soup:

A couple of diced onions, carrots, celery stalks, a potato and a bag of split peas were covered in homemade chicken stock (I had a quart in the freezer that I used but I replaced it with a quart that we made tonight). I added salt, pepper and let it simmer for about 30-40 minutes until everything was soft. I'll be eating this all week!

Dinner - Roast chicken and turnip greens:

We ate one whole leg and both wings, that leaves two breasts and another leg for meals later in the week. The turnip greens were sauteed with some onion, salt, pepper and a splash of red wine vinegar.

In addition to what we ate today we also cooked the dried white beans and made stock from the roasted chicken carcass for use later in the week. Did I mention that I'm working from home for the next couple of weeks? There is no doubt that this will make this project easier - I can work while stock is simmering away on the stove or while I'm braising vegetables in the oven. Eating this way is going to require a fair amount of our time planning, prepping and cooking. Luckily Ron and I really enjoy being in the kitchen so cooking is never a chore for us.

One day down, six to go!

Polish Goodness

2009-03-16T18:03:00.004-04:00

I just found out about this Edible World event a few days ago from the folks over at First Person Arts. As a good Polish girl I felt obligated to share. It sounds yummy! I mean really, who doesn't like a good pierogie? There are so many cool food events here in Philly and I really need to start going to more of them!

Eating Cheap

2009-03-15T17:54:00.005-04:00

So I'm pretty lucky. The failing economy hasn't really hit me - I still have a job, I still have my house, my boyfriend still has his job. But I do work in television and it's FAR from a stable career. I'm done with my current job in less then a month so I'm probably looking at another stint of unemployment unless, of course, my show gets picked up right away or I'm able to quickly find something new. But I'll still have a mortgage to pay and I'll still have to eat! I'm fairly frugal in general but I've been thinking about ways to cut back on my spending. That got me thinking - how little could Ron and I spend on food for the week? We cook at home a lot and we've been better about bringing our own lunches to work but those silly things like coffee and a mid afternoon snack can add up.

When I first started this blog I read about this $25 a week challenge - an Illinois food bank was challenging people to feed themselves on just $25 a week, that's just $3.50 a day. A quick google search said that Philly get's a little more, about $35 a week, $5 a day. Still incredibly low especially for living in a big city but I'm going to try to stick with $25, $50 for the two of us. We're starting tomorrow and I'm going to assume we have nothing in our cabinets except for salt, pepper and olive oil.

I'm hoping this exercise will make us better meal planners and keep us away from those last minute Whole Foods trips that always end up being so pricey. We'll go to Reading Terminal in the morning and stock up on vegetables from Iovines, we'll probably get eggs, a whole chicken that will turn into multiple meals and an inexpensive piece of fish (have I raved about sardines on this blog yet? Oh the fresh ones are SUPER cheap and SO good!). Then to our regular grocery store for dried beans, lentils, barley, oats probably some canned tomatoes and maybe some yogurt.

I'm determined to do this week as healthy as possible. So many of the inexpensive things in the grocery store are just empty calories - I mean something like 7% of the nations calorie intake is from SODA. Gross. Again, I seem like I'm lecturing but I'm not and I'm far from eating the way I want to and believe me I don't always practice what I preach! I love junk food, I love it and I'll continue to eat it but I just want to eat significantly less of it. I think it's important that people who want to eat healthy know that they can do it without spending a ton of money, you always hear people saying that eating healthy is so expensive but I really don't think it has to be. People tend to have a warped idea of what "healthy" is - if the label say "low fat" but there are 12 ingredients listed that you can't pronounce not only is it probably not healthy, it's probably a stretch to call it food.

I'll keep you posted on how our week is going! As a reward for listening to my rant I'll tell you how to make this tasty soup:

It's spicy cabbage ($.09/lb by the way), chicken sausage (made from scratch by Ron) and tomato soup and it's tasty! I cooked about a half a pound of sausage in a pot, when it was cooked through I drained it and set it aside. Then I sauteed a chopped onion & some garlic, added a quarter of a big cabbage shredded and some white wine. Season with salt and pepper and let the wine cook out. Add the chicken sausage back to the pot and pour in a couple cups of chicken stock, a 14oz can of crushed tomatoes and some spices - I used red pepper flakes, chili powder, cumin and paprika. I had some white beans in the fridge so I added those too. Let it simmer for 20 minutes and enjoy! I might have gone a little heavy on the red pepper flakes because my face is still hot and I've been done with my bowl for at least 30 minutes.

Cauliflower and Poblano Soup

2009-03-08T20:40:00.001-04:00

When I saw the pictures of Roasted Cauliflower and Charred Poblano Soup that Maya over at My Feasts posted on her blog I knew I had to try it! I love roasted cauliflower and smoky spicy poblanos but had never thought of combining them until I found this recipe that Maya posted from Bobby Flay's The Mesa Grill Cookbook.

The recipe called for cream but I didn't add any, it was really creamy without it. I didn't have any goat cheese to top mine with (although that sounds delicious!) so I went for sour cream and pepitas. The pepitas added a nice crunch and the sour cream was a great contrast to the spicy poblanos.

Going Easy on the Meat

2009-03-06T19:11:00.006-05:00

I'm going to start this blog by saying that I'm not lecturing - I'm just writing about a new style of eating that interests me. I'm certainly not a vegetarian, I mean I just posted about a chili cook off!

But, since reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma I've decided to become more conscious of where my food is coming from. I don't want to buy my meat at my local grocery store anymore but grass fed beef and free range organic chickens can be pricey.

This is where the brilliant Mark Bittman and his book Food Matters comes in. His solution? Duh, eat less meat. This way you can afford to buy those more expensive but humanely raised cuts of meat and you can feel less guilty when you do buy meat that isn't quite organic because you're eating so much less of it. Mark Bittman's way of eating just makes so much sense. I've realized that I certainly don't need to eat meat before dinner and a lot of the time I don't need to eat meat at all. Meat should be a treat NOT the main component of every meal. Oh and whole grains and legumes are a must. Read both of these books - you'll learn SO much. Or, you know, don't. I'm not telling you what to do.

Does this all sound awful to you? Are you wondering what the hell I'm eating? Well look at these pictures and follow the links to a few good recipes and maybe you'll come around. These are a few of the meals I've enjoyed recently. It's quite obvious that I think everything is better topped with a runny fried egg.

This is spaghetti squash topped with kale and a fried egg.

Super simple! For the spaghetti squash just split it lengthwise, scoop out the fibers and seeds, pierce the skin with a fork, drizzle the flesh with olive oil and cook, flesh down, in a 350 degree preheated over for about an hour. Toss the seeds in olive oil, salt and pepper and toast those along side - they're a nice added crunch on top.

I always prepare kale the same way. Saute some onions in a bit of evoo until they're really soft and sweet then add the clean, chopped kale - mine always has some water left on it from washing it and it's the perfect amount to steam it a bit when you put the lid on. Steam the kale for a few minutes, if it needs more water then add it! Once it's cooked down a little add some red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flake - don't cook it too much, it should be bright green. Serve with a runny fried egg and the toasted spaghetti squash seeds.

Next - French lentils with broccoli rabe:

The lentils were cooked in some stock with a bay leaf, salt and pepper then finished with some red wine. The broccoli rabe was steamed for a couple minutes then sauteed in olive oil and balsamic.

Braised cabbage over red lentils, again, topped with an egg:

I found this recipe on Orangette a few weeks ago and I've made it three (four?) times already and will continue to make it until we get a full week of temperatures over 60. Braised cabbage is the perfect cold weather food. I did make two small changes to the recipe - adding leeks, they get carmelized an sweet after the two hours in the oven, and decreasing the amount of oil from 1/4 cup to just a tablespoon or two.

Leftovers for breakfast:

Leftover kale with leftover lentils topped with a fried egg and hot sauce. Oh man. Yum.

So these are a couple weeks worth of photos. I really don't top EVERYTHING with an egg. That braised cabbage, eggless, on top of some quinoa? So good. And kale, eggless, on top of some french lentils with a good shake of hot sauce? Seriously delicious.

Chili Cook-Off!

2009-03-01T23:29:00.005-05:00

Yesterday Ron and I hosted a Chili Cook-Off. This was serious stuff - there were official judges and strict rules and regulations! Check out the score cards we had made up:

Ron got so many printed that we'll probably be using these 2009 score cards through Chili Cook-Off 2012.

We had 10 entries and they were all so different. There was pork chili, beef chili, chicken chili and turkey chili! Verde, mole, with beans, without beans, there was even hominy and couscous. This was TOUGH competition.

Here are the fixin's: fresh jalapeno, pickled jalapeno, avocado, onion, queso fresco, cheddar and sour cream (not pictured). We also had tortilla chips, corn bread mini muffins, bread and crackers. Oh and dessert - I made chocolate chip cookies, Ron's mom made lime bars, and my friend Manon made butterscotch and chocolate chip bars.

Thanks Ron Sr, T and Mike for judging. It was a difficult job.

Gary won 3rd place and a box of cottonelle wipes (Ron thought of that one :)). Andrea and Dan won 2nd place and a Phillies prize pack including some Phillies Mardi Gras beads that we got in New Orleans last week. And the big winner was Ron's sister Amy - she won first place and a $50 Jose Garces gift card.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone that competed!

Gumbo and Oysters and Po' Boys oh my!

2009-02-27T00:04:00.001-05:00

Ron was working in New Orleans last week and I decided to take advantage and go down to meet him. After I booked my flight I realized that it was Mardi Gras time! Oh what was I getting myself into? I figured I'd have to have a hurricane and I'd have to collect some beads. I mean I've never been to New Orleans before and it was Mardi Gras - I couldn't NOT. But, what I was most excited about was, naturally, the food!

Like these crawfish:

Although I'll admit that it wasn't the food that led to this:

Did I mention that hurricane? What about the hand grenade? Let me tell you, getting these beads would have been far easier without the knee length jacket and scarf!

Ron also had a gig a few months ago in New Orleans and I swear after he came home we ate nothing but po' boys , red beans and rice and gumbo for about a week. Obviously, the food had quite an effect on him. I've been meaning to blog about our first gumbo attempt for weeks now. But the problem is that we're missing the money shot - that's right, no final product. I know, I know, but look how cute the pictures are?

This was Ron's process: Open wine, prep ingredients (he likes to put things in separate little containers, quite opposite of the mess that I make!), stir roux until you're too afraid that it's going to burn to last another second, all the while sipping wine:

Add the trinity (you know what it is, you've seen Emeril), then the other ingredients (we did sausage, crab and shrimp but next time we'll go with the more budget friendly sausage and chicken), then seafood stock and let it simmer. By the time you've waited for the roux to get dark and for all the ingredients to cook you'll have finished your wine and you'll be too hungry to take any more pictures. So...sorry about that.

Anyway, this was good, but the gumbo we had in New Orleans - that was GREAT. But, hey, we're new to this roux/gumbo thing and next time it'll be better. I'll keep you updated on our gumbo making progress!

Duck, Duck...

2009-01-21T21:36:00.003-05:00

Goose! Ron and I got our hands on 4 goose breasts from one of my mom's coworkers who shot them himself (thanks Rudy!). They've been sitting in the freezer for a little while now because I had no idea what to do with them. They're skinless so I worried they would dry out - especially after I asked one of the chefs that I work what'd he do with them and he replied "throw them in the trash". Well you know what? He was wrong...oh so wrong.

I started by splitting one breast and rubbing both halves with olive oil and seasoning them with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.

Next I started a side of lentils with mushrooms and turnip greens (inspired by this recipe over at Cooking Books - luckily there are leftovers that I can top with a poached egg!). I put some french lentils in boiling water with a bay leaf, salt, pepper and a couple of crushed garlic cloves. They took about a half an hour. While they were boiling I sauteed some garlic and mushrooms, after a few minutes I added a quarter cup or so of red wine. Once the wine boiled out I added some turnip greens, balsamic vinegar and seasoned to taste. While the greens wilted I started the duck.

I cooked the goose 4 minutes per side. When it had just about 30 seconds left in the pan I added about a quarter cup balsamic. The vinegar quickly got syrupy and sweet, I coated the goose in it and then took it out to rest before slicing it on a bias.

I tossed the cooked lentils into the pan with the greens and mushrooms and served up this:

Oh it was good. The goose was perfectly cooked and the lentils were really good. I'm looking forward to using the other three breasts in my freezer! Goose prosciutto perhaps?

Orange Madeleines

2009-01-10T15:28:00.005-05:00

I'm searching for recipes with orange in them. My sister sent Ron really great florida oranges for Christmas and we've eaten a bunch but still have a few hanging out in the fridge and they're not going to last much longer. I'd hate to waste them! This madeleine recipe uses the orange zest in the batter and the juice in the glaze. I found this recipe over at the Technicolor Kitchen - it calls for poppy seeds which I didn't have but I'm sure would be delicious.

You start by making the super simple batter, letting it sit for 30 minutes in the fridge then pouring a heaping tablespoon into each mold of your madeleine pan. My pan is from Fante's in the Italian Market, a really fabulous kitchen supply store. It's so packed with great stuff, I could wander around there for hours. You can order off their website too so check it out.

After you pour the batter, put the pan in a preheated 400° oven for 8-10 minutes. When madeleines are golden and poofed up take them out and let the them cool on a wire rack. They should look like this:

Make the glaze using confectioners sugar, fresh orange juice and a bit of the zest. Dip the cooled madeleines in the glaze and let them cool before storing or...eat them immediately! These little cakes are going to be really good with coffee in the morning.

Check out my new red apron! Well, it's new to me but definitely far from brand new. My mother found four of them in my Babcia's house (that's grandma for all you non-polish people out there) in four different colors and gave them to my sister and I for christmas (my mom and aunt got the other two). They're homemade and very vintagey cool - the only problem is that I'm afraid to wear it because I don't want to get it dirty! Sort of defeats the purpose of an apron, huh?

Butternut Squash, Red Wine and Onion Panade

2009-01-07T19:45:00.004-05:00

I've been meaning to blog about this recipe for forever. I made it when my mother was visiting from Long Island. I'd had all of the ingredients and needed something to do while I was waiting for her to get in! My mom and I couldn't stop picking at it and I brought it for lunch all week long, every time I finished a serving it made me a little bit sad. That means it's really good! Butternut squash isn't quite as easy to find in the store as it was a few months ago - but if you find one, make this immediately.

The only true definition of "panade" that I can find is this:

panada; panade

1. A thick paste made by mixing bread crumbs, flour, rice, etc. with water, milk, stock, butter or sometimes egg yolks. It's used to bind meatballs, fish cakes, forcemeats and quenelles. 2. A sweet or savory soup made with bread crumbs and various other ingredients. It may be strained before serving.

BUT all the recipes I found involve day old bread, broth, cheese and vegetables. Now doesn't that sounds better than something that binds forcemeat (eww)? Molly from Orangette (read her blog - it's seriously awesome) calls her Chard, Onion and Gruyere Panade (next on my panades to make list) a "velvety, voluptuous casserole with a base of soggy bread and stewed onions". I much prefer this definition because that is exactly what this is:

Another recipe that I don't really understand. Why is this soggy bread good? What doesn't it make me gag like a soggy sandwich would? Oh it doesn't, it doesn't at all.

I got this recipe from another inspiring food blog The Wednesday Chef. Tons of stewed onions, red wine, really good day old bread, chicken stock, thyme, parm and gruyere - how could that be bad? Cheesy, winy, carby goodness.

"Can I help you little lady?"

2008-12-29T12:56:00.003-05:00

I spent Christmas in Florida this year at my sister's house with my whole family including my too cute nephew. It was really nice to be with family but I must say the 80 degree "winter" was pretty weird.

My nephew loves to help my sister cook. Whenever she's in the kitchen he comes in to ask her "Can I help you little lady?" - a pretty funny thing for a 2 1/2 year old to say to his mother!

Here we are making donuts.

You'd think me sticking my tongue out would mean that I'm really concentrating but apparently that wasn't the case. I completely misread the recipe and added twice the amount of butter - I had to throw this batch out (while my nephew wasn't looking) and make a new one! They were a big hit.

Here he is after helping my mom make some jello coolwhip concoction. I think this photo was followed by him saying something like "Sasa stop taking pictures I trying to eat" - I got a lot of that. But with my new Nikon D40 (thanks Ron!) I couldn't help myself!

Oh the cuteness!

French Onion soup...

2008-11-11T14:09:00.004-05:00

I don't know why French onion soup is so good. It doesn't need those gobs of mediocre cheese and bread that you get in some restaurants, it's delicious all on its own. It's just onions and broth and in this case a fair amount a of booze and for some reason when you cook it super slow it turns into a yummy sweet, savory, rich soup. Oh I love it, the french are smart aren't they?

I made this by caramelizing a leek, a huge red onion, a huge yellow onion and a medium yellow onion. I cut all the onions in half then into 1/4 inch half moons, once they were cut up it was probably around 8-10 cups of onions. Throw them in a pot with a couple tablespoons of butter, a little olive oil and a bay leaf and let them get caramelizy and light brown. Don't rush this! It'll take about 30-40 minutes. I started with the lid on and took it off about half way through.

Now for the booze! Add 3/4 cup brandy and let the alcohol cook off, then add a cup and a half of white wine and let the alcohol cook off again. How will you know when the alcohol has cooked off? When you can put your face over it and it no longer smells like a St Patricks day party or the Mummers parade you're good to go. Add 4 cups of beef broth and 2-4 cups of chicken broth - until you think it's the right onion to broth ratio! Cook for another 10 minutes or so and there you have it.

I don't have crocks so I couldn't top the soup with bread and cheese and throw the whole thing in the broiler. I bet you that if I did have crocks I'd be tempted to grab the little handles with my bare hands, like I do with every other oven safe dish with a handle, so it's probably safer this way. Just throw a few slices of baguette topped with a tablespoon or so of really good shredded Gruyere in the broiler for a minute or two and throw them on top of the bowl of soup. And yes, I said a tablespoon, you don't need to top this with a half cup of cheese because the soup is great all by itself.

We had this for dinner last night with a salad of mixed green, boiled potatoes, blanched green beans, prosciutto, a soft boiled egg (by mistake but now I won't eat this salad any other way!), and a mustardy vinaigrette. Very french, super simple and oh so good. So good that I think I'll be having the same thing for dinner tonight!

Stuff it - Pork remix

2008-11-08T16:31:00.003-05:00

Remember the pork shoulder from earlier in the week? Ron just remixed it into yummy stuffed poblanos. He shredded up the pork and mixed it with rice and a sauce he made with sauteed onions and garlic, chipotle, cumin and tomato sauce. The mixture was stuffed in some poblanos and topped with jack cheese. The stuffed poblanos, extra sauce and cheese went into a baking dish and into the oven for 45 minutes and they came out SO GOOD. We had some rice with beans and corn on the side.

Awesome use of leftovers!

Leek Confit and Herbed Goat Cheese Toasts

2008-11-07T16:36:00.005-05:00

I'm about to give you the greatest recipe ever. Next time you're asked to bring an appetizer to someone's home bring this (but not if I'm going to be there because chances are I'll be bringing it!). Herbed goat cheese is a super yummy, versatile and easy to make spread. I originally followed this recipe by Giada De Laurentiis but by now I've made it so many times I just wing it!

All you need are equal parts goat cheese and cream cheese (I use neufchatel because it's what I have in the house) a squeeze of lemon, some lemon zest, salt, pepper and finely chopped herbs (whatever you have on hand - I used sage and rosemary today because they're growing in my kitchen). Let the cheeses come to room temperature and mix everything together - add a little milk or cream or even water by the teaspoon to thin out the mixture and make it spreadable. That's it! Easy right?

Spread this on some baguette slices that you've toasted in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper. You can top the spread with whatever tickles your fancy. A few of my favorites are chopped green and black olives, diced apples mixed with a little lemon juice and honey, diced roasted beets and now leek confit! I bet roasted butternut squash and caramelized onions would be awesome on this.

I saw this leek confit recipe in Bon Appetit last month and new that I had to serve it with these goat cheese toasts! Just slice up a couple of leeks and rinse them in a sink full of water to get out all of the grit. Put them in a pot with a couple tablespoons of butter a little salt and water. Put the lid on and let them slowly caramelize for 25 minutes or so - stirring every once in a while to make sure they don't stick. I LOVE caramelized onions so of course I love this too, they're buttery and sweet and go with the tangy goat cheese really well.

Don't they look rustic and yummy? Oh they are, they certainly are.