Sunday, November 25, 2007
Beer and Deer BBQ
Posted on 4:19 PM by Unknown
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanks and giving
Posted on 9:10 PM by Unknown
Appetizers:
Cheese and crackers
Chopped raw cauliflower, broccoli, and peppers
Homemade pita chips
Homemade hummus and cumin carrot dip
Dinner:
Roasted beets with toasted walnuts and goat cheese
Butternut squash, carrot, parsnip, and three bean casserole
Cranberry chutney
Smashed potatoes with roasted garlic and scallions
Garlicky sauteed kale
Rosemary and sage biscuits
Cornbread stuffing
Turkey and gravy
Dessert:
Carrot cake
Pumpkin bread
Apple pie
Brandied cranberry and white chocolate cookies
Drinks:
Local beer, wine, and bourbon (such as Hudson's Baby Bourbon) of course!
So, see you at my house in a year?
PS. Here are two things I have to be thankful for this week:
1. Jesse cooked moules frites and potato leek soup and cinnamon oats for breakfast when I was sick this week, and taking a sick day actually helped me rest and get better! It's Jesse's own fault that he is not getting full write-ups on his meals because, as he said, "Do we have to photograph everything we eat?"
2. I enjoyed a rare opportunity to hear the Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the best orchestras in the world, perform live at a venue in Washington Heights for free. They delivered a brilliant, on-point performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, one of my favorite 20th century pieces, while hundreds of New York City public school students danced, ran, creeped. and stomped about the stage like primitive humans. It was truly amazing to hear this piece live as a full ballet, that I had studied so much in college, and nice to actually feel connected to the music that goes on thanks to all my hard work, which happens pretty infrequently, sadly. Thank you BPhil.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Brooklyn Bike Tour II: Destination Red Hook
Posted on 3:35 PM by Unknown
We continued our ride all the way to Red Hook. We're not Red Hook newbies, as we drive there frequently to shop at Fairway (best grocery store EVER), but this was our first time biking there. We rode to the waterfront on Van Dyke street and stumbled across this little park.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Brooklyn Bike Tour
Posted on 7:30 PM by Unknown
I love oysters, but haven't been able to indulge as much since oyster prices went up. Hence only five oysters as an appetizer below, but delicious they were. Slurp!
Since I'd been munching all day, I split one entree with my dinner partner, and we chose the half chicken with collard greens. It was the most delicious, meaty chicken I've had in a while, and the collard greens were as good as ... greens are. I could say more, but by that point in the night I was sufficiently liquored up that I don't remember much more than the dark, warm, ambiance of the restaurant and warm fuzzy glow in my stomach from the food.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Dinner Party
Posted on 7:09 PM by Unknown
Kale and white bean crostini on homemade bread with grated piave cheese
Butternut squash tortellini with sage brown buttered sauce
Chocolate chip apple cake
A bit ambitious, but I had time to kill.
Part 1: Crostini
The night before I made the bread. It took longer than it was supposed to, and then after all that effort, it came out no good. While baking, it sunk into a dense rectangular block. A rectangular block that I was ashamed to photograph and that didn't taste great because I included buckwheat groats. The recipe said I could! But I should have known. Considering that I don't like the smell of buckwheat groats...its horrible smell was overpowering and affected the taste of the bread. Jesse liked it, but he seems to like anything. I almost went out and bought a baguette, but decided it would be passable, especially with a topping to mask the smell.
I also made the crostini topping the night before - I sauteed 2 cloves garlic, half a bunch of kale, and half a can of white beans, salt and peper to taste, then pureed it and put it in the refrigerator to store it.
To assemble the appetizer, I toasted half slices of bread with the kale and bean puree spread on top to warm both a the same time. Then I grated piave cheese over top - a mild cow cheese a bit more tasty than parmesan. Personally, I don't think I like kale enough for it to be a delicious crostini topping...it tastes too healthy!
The night before, I also roasted the butternut squash - I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, drizzled it with olive oil, and then placed it scooped side down on a baking pan to roast for approximately 45 minutes at 450. When it was soft and mushy, I scooped out all the flesh into a large bowl. Then I added a tsp or so each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and pepper and mashed it all together, and also stored it in the refrigerator.
Originally, I had hoped to make butternut squash ravioli myself from scratch. However, Jesse warned me not to make the pasta as he thought we should stick with the pros and buy pasta sheets from Raffetto's in the West Village. However, it turns out they don't sell pasta sheets for ravioli making, just their own ravioli fully made. So the Italian man sold Jesse spinach (hence the green color!) pasta for tortellini making with some vague directions on how to shape the tortellini. From the picture, you can see it looks nothing like tortellini. It was really hard to fold it up small like real tortellini, so Jesse took it upon himself to fold it into giant pockets with loose flaps.
Just before dinner, I took the butterut squash out of the fridge, and Jesse as my sous chef helped me plop little teaspoons of the squash filling into giant pasta messes. I boiled them in two batches of about three minutes each because they wouldn't all fit in our biggest pot.
Meanwhile I made the sauce. I sauteed 2 cloves garlic and a diced shallot in olive oil. Then I added half a stick of butter and 2 tsp of dried sage, as well as some rosemary, salt, and pepper. I was scared of too much butter, but realized it wasn't enough for sauce, so I added another half stick or more of butter and let it heat and brown a little. When the pasta was done, I strained it and then plated it, pouring the sage brown buttered sauce over each plate with some grated parmesan. We ended up with about 6 servings of giant tortellini, so there is still some in the fridge.
Part 3: Cake
For dessert, I made a moist chocolate chip apple cake. I would have used applesauce instead of all that milk, but someone ate all my extra apples, even though I bought them from the farmers market especially for this dessert. :-(
Cream 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter. Beat in 2 eggs one by one. Combine with 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp lemon juice, as well as 3/4 cup milk. Add 1 cup white flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Stir it all together. Add one package of chocolate chips. Dice one apple and throw that in. Stir it all together again. Grease a 9-inch round pan. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes until golden brown. Sprinkle confectioners sugar over the top. Eat for dessert that night, and another huge hunk for breakfast the next morning.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Halloween Treats
Posted on 10:56 AM by Unknown
Last weekend, I hosted a Halloween party at my apartment, complete with decorations, costumes, and season treats.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl8EM26PsKPlyvaYf3v6Z39a_Hw5L_KeWBokBkXDJcmi93Ks83hUTRYPXrYYoIPyv5Mxn3fZ7KI5wojieUF5pkSsnsAJLIoBa6q6QY9F1oS0bxa-FhEZCOEwHh6ASwRVHH74pF_gReGPit/s200/P1000970.JPG)
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
I gave Jesse the task of carving the pumpkin, and when I returned, I was pleasantly surprised by his unique and well-carved interpretation. "It's a girl?" I said. "Of course it's a girl, it has a girl shape!" he responded. Okay then, if you say so.
I took the innards out of the pumpkin. The stringy guts weren't worth saving, as it was a surprisingly small amount for such a large pumpkin. But I did use the seeds to make toasted pumpkin seeds, a la Simple Recipes - with a couple modifications. First of all, I added paprika because I love to add that spice to all most every dish I make. I am never sure just how much taste paprika really adds, but the color seems to give food a psychological kick for me at least.
Also, the recipe above only requires 20 minutes in the oven. Some of my seeds were done at that time, but I had to let others sit in the oven until 50 minutes or so, and they still weren't deliciously crunchy but overly tough and chewy. Who knows, maybe due to my shitty apartment oven?
Chocolate Covered Apple Chunks
Next up, I made chocolate covered apple chunks. I thought about making caramel apples, but last time I tried to make caramel (over popcorn) it didn't come out right at all, so I decided to stick with coating the apples in chocolate because it is so much easier to do - just melt chocolate! I saw something similar on Iron Chef, where they created a trio of mini caramel covered and chocolate covered apples on sticks using an ice cream scoop to scoop out round pieces of apple.
So that was my inspiration. But I don't have an ice cream scoop and I don't have toothpicks, so I just left them as jagged apple pieces to melt in your hand. They turned out fine, but weren't a very exciting snack. I think taste-wise, caramel goes better with apples than chocolate does.
Bring a couple inches of water in a saucepan to boil, then lower to simmer. Place a metal bowl over the saucepan as a double boiler. Empty a bag of chocolate chips (milk, dark, semi-sweet, whatever you prefer) into the bowl and stir continuously until melted.
Meanwhile, chop 3 apples into 2-inch pieces. Once the chocolate is melted, Slowly stir in the apples with a metal spoon making sure the apple pieces are coated evenly.
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lay the apple pieces evenly on the foil, without letting them touch (if they touch, they will stick together). Place sheet in the refrigerator for at least one hour (can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge) to allow chocolate to set. Remove from fridge shortly before serving.
Carrot Cupcakes
As you may have figured out by now, I like to make cupcakes and muffins for parties rather than full-sized cake because 1. they take less time to bake and thus use less energy 2. they are already in personal-sized portions with no cake cutting involved 3. they are easy to eat with your hands.
I also made carrot cupcakes for theparty, modeled after Straight From the Farm's carrot cake. Here is my version of it, modified to include less oil and eggs, replacing that with more apple sauce, honey, and milk. She used pear sauce, but luckily I had made apple sauce from local apples a week or two ago and was saving it for a random baking adventure, so the apple sauce ended up in this and didn't go to waste. Just for the record, the carrots, apples, eggs, and honey in this were all local.
I liked this recipe. It is a nice change from most carrot cake recipes, which gain moistness from pineapple, which is definitely not local. I would consider them muffins without frosting and cupcakes with frosting. I also ventured away from typical carrot cake frosting to do a plain vanilla cream icing because I don't like cream cheese icing. I have never believed that cream cheese should have a place in baking, whether it be cheesecake or frosting. The photo shows both chocolate and vanilla frosted cupcakes. What happened was, I had lots of chocolate at the bottom of the bowl after making my chocolate covered apples, so I scraped up the extra chocolate and just spread it over the top of cupcakes. But there wasn't enough chocolate for all the cupcakes so I ended up having to make vanilla frosting too. Next time I would just stick to vanilla frosting for these as chocolate kind of masks the actual taste of the cupcake.
They would have tasted awesome if I hadn't overcooked them. They came out dark on the bottom, slightly tough, with a slight burned taste, but still relatively yummy. Next time the only change I would make would maybe be to add more flour and one more egg so as to have more batter and bigger cupcakes - as you can see in the photo above, they are somewhat small.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup apple sauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy milk
3 cups grated carrots (about 3 average sized carrots)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp milk
1 cup confectioners sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare two muffin tins with a good coat of nonstick baking spray. Set out the ingredients for the icing so they come to room temperature.
Sift together the flour, spices and baking powder and soda and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, apple sauce, sugar, honey, and milk until everything is well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Do not over mix! Add the carrots and walnuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake on the center oven rack for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to check on them so they don't overcook! Test with a skewer inserted into the center to see if it comes out clean. When the skewer is clean, remove cup cakes from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
While the cake is cooling, make the icing by combining the buter, vanilla, and milk. Add half the confectioners’ sugar and stir slowly to start and then beat well to get rid of lumps. Taste the icing to determine if it’s sweet enough for you. If not, add more sugar until you’ve reached your desired sweetness. When cake is completely cooled, spread icing over top. Makes 24 cupcakes.
The Roommate's Goods
My roommate Gina also contributed to the party goods. She made sugar cookies, and I topped them off with icing left over from my cupcakes:
Gina also made a pumpkin pie, following her boyfriend's mother's pie crust recipe - coming out much better this time than her first attempt at pie crust - and a Paula Deen pie filling complete with cream cheese. Paula Deen, butter lover, scares me as a rule, but this pie tasted pretty good.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHPF9U5OCRMlYGP7L1x7AJjDwZx6C5FuW1s9ZSOcJsLkOqYYkkQ_hRwwrBtoT9_FnO_UlegH0Rw_cLaqLM-SCm_GAd7lxPyzay5Omgx1lDlxbePl4SWnDVpYda3F1XS6B0mESWtCfPh-x/s400/P1000972.JPG)
Unrelated: Bread
Finally, I have embarked on the quest to bake my own bread instead of shelling out $4-$5 for great farmers market bread. This is my second loaf and hey it looks like the real thing! My first loaf was all whole wheat, but was flat on top and dense, probably because I didn't let it rise long enough. For my second loaf, below, I followed the recipe for Basic Hearth Bread in The Bread Bible. With all the rising involved, I started at 7:30pm after work and didn't get to taste a finished slice until 1:15 am. Yikes! This was good, but much whiter than I would like. Next time I think I'll go for 3/4 whole wheat and 1/4 white flour, and let the sponge ferment in the fridge overnight. The great thing is, I have so many chances to improve at this if I keep making a new loaf of bread every week. I won't be sharing a recipe on here till I come up with my perfect bread. This week's bread was good, but not perfect.
Which brings me to an issue about this blog. As you may tell, I haven't been posting everything I've been cooking. As a perfectionist, I feel insecure about posting not only my failures but also meals that are just okay. I aspire to greatness and that means you'll just have to put up with sporadic posts, waiting for the best.
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
I gave Jesse the task of carving the pumpkin, and when I returned, I was pleasantly surprised by his unique and well-carved interpretation. "It's a girl?" I said. "Of course it's a girl, it has a girl shape!" he responded. Okay then, if you say so.
Also, the recipe above only requires 20 minutes in the oven. Some of my seeds were done at that time, but I had to let others sit in the oven until 50 minutes or so, and they still weren't deliciously crunchy but overly tough and chewy. Who knows, maybe due to my shitty apartment oven?
Chocolate Covered Apple Chunks
So that was my inspiration. But I don't have an ice cream scoop and I don't have toothpicks, so I just left them as jagged apple pieces to melt in your hand. They turned out fine, but weren't a very exciting snack. I think taste-wise, caramel goes better with apples than chocolate does.
Bring a couple inches of water in a saucepan to boil, then lower to simmer. Place a metal bowl over the saucepan as a double boiler. Empty a bag of chocolate chips (milk, dark, semi-sweet, whatever you prefer) into the bowl and stir continuously until melted.
Meanwhile, chop 3 apples into 2-inch pieces. Once the chocolate is melted, Slowly stir in the apples with a metal spoon making sure the apple pieces are coated evenly.
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lay the apple pieces evenly on the foil, without letting them touch (if they touch, they will stick together). Place sheet in the refrigerator for at least one hour (can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge) to allow chocolate to set. Remove from fridge shortly before serving.
Carrot Cupcakes
I also made carrot cupcakes for theparty, modeled after Straight From the Farm's carrot cake. Here is my version of it, modified to include less oil and eggs, replacing that with more apple sauce, honey, and milk. She used pear sauce, but luckily I had made apple sauce from local apples a week or two ago and was saving it for a random baking adventure, so the apple sauce ended up in this and didn't go to waste. Just for the record, the carrots, apples, eggs, and honey in this were all local.
I liked this recipe. It is a nice change from most carrot cake recipes, which gain moistness from pineapple, which is definitely not local. I would consider them muffins without frosting and cupcakes with frosting. I also ventured away from typical carrot cake frosting to do a plain vanilla cream icing because I don't like cream cheese icing. I have never believed that cream cheese should have a place in baking, whether it be cheesecake or frosting. The photo shows both chocolate and vanilla frosted cupcakes. What happened was, I had lots of chocolate at the bottom of the bowl after making my chocolate covered apples, so I scraped up the extra chocolate and just spread it over the top of cupcakes. But there wasn't enough chocolate for all the cupcakes so I ended up having to make vanilla frosting too. Next time I would just stick to vanilla frosting for these as chocolate kind of masks the actual taste of the cupcake.
They would have tasted awesome if I hadn't overcooked them. They came out dark on the bottom, slightly tough, with a slight burned taste, but still relatively yummy. Next time the only change I would make would maybe be to add more flour and one more egg so as to have more batter and bigger cupcakes - as you can see in the photo above, they are somewhat small.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup apple sauce
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy milk
3 cups grated carrots (about 3 average sized carrots)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Frosting
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp milk
1 cup confectioners sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare two muffin tins with a good coat of nonstick baking spray. Set out the ingredients for the icing so they come to room temperature.
Sift together the flour, spices and baking powder and soda and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, apple sauce, sugar, honey, and milk until everything is well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Do not over mix! Add the carrots and walnuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins and bake on the center oven rack for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to check on them so they don't overcook! Test with a skewer inserted into the center to see if it comes out clean. When the skewer is clean, remove cup cakes from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
While the cake is cooling, make the icing by combining the buter, vanilla, and milk. Add half the confectioners’ sugar and stir slowly to start and then beat well to get rid of lumps. Taste the icing to determine if it’s sweet enough for you. If not, add more sugar until you’ve reached your desired sweetness. When cake is completely cooled, spread icing over top. Makes 24 cupcakes.
The Roommate's Goods
My roommate Gina also contributed to the party goods. She made sugar cookies, and I topped them off with icing left over from my cupcakes:
Unrelated: Bread
Which brings me to an issue about this blog. As you may tell, I haven't been posting everything I've been cooking. As a perfectionist, I feel insecure about posting not only my failures but also meals that are just okay. I aspire to greatness and that means you'll just have to put up with sporadic posts, waiting for the best.
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