Saturday, February 27, 2010

Brooklyn Baby Photographer

A little preview of the baby shoot I did last weekend for an adorable little one in Brooklyn. A reminder, if you're on facebook, you should probably click that little box over in the corner, I love getting new fans! :-)

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Soup

This was another tasty vegetarian recipe from the Moosewood Collection, Simple Suppers for the Weeknight Table. It came together really easily and was delicious and flavorful. This soup smelled great cooking, and made for a surprisingly filling dinner with some buttered garlic bread and a green salad.

Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Soup
Moosewood Restaurant

Ingredients:
1.5 C chopped onion
Olive Oil
1.5 TBS grated peeled ginger root
1.5 TBS curry powder
Sea Salt to taste
1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3-4 C stock (Chicken or Veggie)
1 small head of cauliflower, chopped into small pieces
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
Cilantro for garnish

Saute chopped onion in a deep soup pot with olive oil until tender. Add the ginger, curry powder and salt and cook a few more minutes, stirring continuously. Add the chickpeas and broth and bring to a boil. Add the cauliflower and tomatoes. Cover and simmer over medium low heat 7-10 minutes (I might have gone about 15) or until cauliflower is tender. Blend about 3/4 of the soup with an immersion blender. Garnish with cilantro.

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Monday, February 22, 2010

The easiest tasty dinner ever!

I love fancy food as much as the next foodie. I enjoy cooking from scratch and savoring the results of my labors in the kitchen. However, sometimes, simple is good. And for a weeknight after a long day, simple is great! Especially when simple is really, really tasty!

I saw this recipe on the blog Cheap, Healthy, Good this morning and suddenly had the hugest craving for it. I knew this would be dinner tonight. It did not disappoint. YUM!

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Tin Foil Mexican Chicken
Adapted from Cheap, Healthy, Good


Multiply accordingly per how many chicken breasts you need to prepare.

1 chicken breast, seasoned with garlic salt and a few grinds of black pepper
1/3 C canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 C sweet corn
1/3 C chunky salsa
A bit of grated cheese and fresh cilantro

Season your chicken breasts. Please in a large square of tin foil. spoon the beans, corn and salsa on top. Fold up the edges and roll down the top, but leave a little space for steam to escape. Place on a baking sheet in a 450 degree oven. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Open the foil and sprinkle with a bit of cheese, then bake 5 minutes or so more.

Serve over a bed of quinoa or rice with fresh cilantro and perhaps a dollop of sour cream.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Sausage and Lentil Soup

I saw this soup on my google reader a few days ago and knew it sounded like the perfect winter soup. I was right! This soup was delicious!

Perfect for a blizzarding snow day.

Sausage and Lentil Soup
Inspired by For the Love of Cooking

Ingredients:
* 1 yellow onion, diced
* A bit of olive oil
* 3 carrots, diced
* 1 potato, diced
* 4 cloves of garlic, minced
* 1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
* 1/2 pound of chicken sausage, casing removed
* Sea salt to taste
* 1/2 tsp dried basil
* 1/4 tsp dried oregano
* Pinch of crushed red pepper
* 1/4 tsp dried thyme
* 1/4 crushed bay leaf
* Chicken or veggie broth
* 1.5 cups of dried lentils

Saute your onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil with the sausage in a large pot. When the sausage is almost cooked, add the carrots and cook a few more minutes. Add the potato, diced tomatoes and lentils and spices, and add broth/stock until well covered. Stir occasionally and simmer covered a good hour or two. Add stock as necessary as the lentils cook and things get thick. Once you've simmered a good while, give things a quick spin with the immersion blender, and you're done!

Enjoy!

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Snow Day!!

I couldn't believe it when at 1 in the afternoon yesterday I heard that the Mayor was canceling all NYC public schools. Being from Minnesota, the thought of canceling school before the snow has even hit just seemed absurd. We got an email from work telling us the number to call in case of severe weather the following morning, just in case.

"No way," I thought. Well, I woke up this morning to snow falling, perhaps an inch or two on the ground, but the news networks were going crazy with BLIZZARD! SNOMAGGEDON! So, I figured, well, I might as well call work just in case. I promptly jumped up and down and danced around the bedroom! SNOWDAYSNOWDAYSNOWDAY!!! I have no idea how it happened, but all of our NYC clinics were closed! HURRAY!

I must say, I was a little surprised, the snow didn't pick up until around 1pm this afternoon, for a Midwestern girl like myself, I'd say it was a pretty normal snowstorm. But, I'll take what I can get!

In any case, I've been enjoying my random day off and went out earlier today before the snow picked up and took some photos around the neighborhood.

Enjoy and Happy Snowday!

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The little park on the corner.

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View from our rooftop. Normally you can see Manhattan, but for today, just lots of snow!

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Every single little kid in our neighborhood was getting hauled around on a sled!

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Our street. Our apartment is the second "balcony" up in the second set of fire escapes.

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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Tunisian Potato Omelet

I am somewhat of a library fiend. I love getting my books for free and not having to keep them around to pack in boxes when we move. (Hint, hint to husband with books overflowing upon books... :-) ) Upon moving to New York and taking the subway everywhere, I also now read a TON.

For some bizarre reason I never realized that I could get cookbooks from the library. Having recently discovered this moving to our new neighborhood, I couldn't be more excited to try all kinds of fun new recipes. I enjoy finding recipes online, but something about paging through a cookbook is much more fun. The only problem is many of my own cookbooks are well loved (re: splattered with sauce), so I just have to be sure to be more careful with the library versions. (Maybe I do need one of these crazy things from our old wedding registry...)

Anyhow, in my quest to cook more vegetarian, (mostly as a money saving venture in keeping CAFO meat out of our kitchen, I still love a good Medium Rare steak, don't get me wrong), I've come across the Moosewood series, and am having a good time perusing their tasty recipes.

The following is from their Simple Suppers book, and it was delicious. I didn't have much in the kitchen but eggs and potatoes, and this made for a fantastic filling meal both Alex and I loved. It is very similar to Tortilla Espanola, a dish both of us had regularly on our adventures in Spain.

Please note that I didn't have ground caraway in my kitchen at the time, so I left it out. I'm not quite sure how this would taste with it, as I have no idea what caraway is like.

Moosewood Restaurant
Simple Suppers For the Weeknight Table

Spicy Tomato Sauce
1 TBS Olive Oil
4 Garlic Cloves, minced
.5 - 1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground caraway (We didn't have this, so I left it out)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes

Omelet
2 TBS olive oil
1.5 cups diced onions
2 tsp ground caraway
2 tsp ground coriander
2 cups diced potatoes
6 eggs
1/4 Cup plus 2 TBS of water
1/3 - 1/2 C grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese

For the Sauce:
Saute your garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, add the tomatoes and spices and simmer on low, stirring occasionally while you cook the omelet. Be careful you don’t overcook it, if it gets to be more then 10 or 15 minutes, just turn off the heat and leave the sauce covered.

For the omelet:
Saute your onions in oil in a large skillet for a few minutes until tender. Add potatoes and spices and cook 3-5 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, scramble 6 eggs with 2 TBS water. Add your eggs to the pan and mix carefully to distribute evenly. Once the eggs begin to set, loosen it from the sides of the pan and tilt the skillet so the uncooked eggs flow underneath and around and begin to cook as well. Once the omelet firms up, sprinkle the top with cheese, cover, and cook a few more minutes until the cheese is melted. Cut into slices and serve topped with sauce.


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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Apple Porkchops

I had purchased some pork chops from the local butcher last weekend and decided to make another tasty winter apple meal.

I couldn't really decide on a recipe, but wanted something with a fall/winter feel, so came up with combining two recipes, one from Martha and one from Rachel Ray.

I really enjoyed this, though Alex preferred just the Pork Chops without the apple topping.

The chops were made with this Maple Glazed Pork Chop recipe. Then topped with apples and caramelized shallots. (I actually subbed a red onion because I realized too late we were fresh out of shallots.)

For the apples and shallots:
Adapted From Martha Stewart

For two chops:

1 smallish to medium red onion, chopped
A few pinches of brown sugar
A good TBS of butter
1 good size granny smith or other tart apple, chopped
1/4 dry white wine

Toss your chopped onion in the skillet with butter. Melting the butter and saute the onions. Add a bit of brown sugar to help sweeten the deal. Let everything simmer, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the apples, saute until tender. Add the wine, stir, and cook, over low heat, covered until the liquid is cooked off.

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