De Nueva

Savory Herb Bread

2011-11-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We hosted a couple friends again this year, though it was a lot tighter fit then in our previous apartment in Bushwick! I made a pretty good spread, including turkey and gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing, some other assorted veggies and a salad, and a pumpkin pie. I think this may be the first year I've managed everything without stressing out and getting everything done at the same time on schedule! So for that, I was proud. 4 times is the charm apparently. And considering the size of my tiny Brooklyn kitchen now, that is no small feat! :-)

In any case, the new thing I added to the menu this year was bread from scratch! I've been wanting to make homemade yeasted bread for awhile now, but have never gotten around to it. I've done pita bread and pizza dough, but not actual loaves of bread. I spotted this recipe in my Cafe Brenda cookbook and it sounded lovely for a Thanksgiving meal, so I went for it. This was probably the last time of the season to get fresh herbs at the farmers market, so it was especially great for that!

Though bread making takes awhile, it's not active cooking for the whole time, mostly you just have to wait for things to rise. So, for a Thanksgiving cooking day, this was perfect to throw together, leave it alone for a few hours, and then pop in the oven.

And, it was DELICIOUS!

Savory Herb Bread
Cafe Brenda Cookbook

Makes two loaves

1.5 Cups warm water
1.5 TBS active dry yeast (about 1.5 packets)
1/4 cup honey
4 - 4.5 cups flour
2 tsp chopped fresh chives
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
up to 2 TBS other chopped herbs such as marjoram, basil, or oregano (or slightly less dried)
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS oil

Add the warm water and yeast to a large bowl and mix together until the yeast dissolves. Add in the honey and stir well. Add in 2 cups of flour and mix together. Set aside the mixture while you chop all the herbs. Then add in herbs, salt and oil and stir. Then add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time. Once the dough has come together, turn onto a floured work surface and knead well for a few minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place for an hour. Punch the dough down and knead a couple times for air bubbles, then separate into two loaves. I did one circle flat loaf and one regular bread loaf, as we only have one rather decrepit loaf pan. (Santa! Hint: we could use a new loaf pan! :-) ) Place the loaves either on a buttered cookie sheet or in a loaf pan. Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. (Note: Our oven runs quite hot, and I peeked in at about 20 minutes and the dough was already starting to brown. I turned the heat down to about 325-300 and it turned out well. So be sure to keep an eye on things once you start to bake.)

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

2011-11-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

So the past two days were pretty grey and drizzly here in the city so I figured it'd be the perfect excuse to make some warm, delicious soup. I positively love soup on a cold day, and this hit the spot. This soup also makes a TON! So, lots of leftovers for lunch! Alex said this is one of his new favorite soups ever. (And since we now both work right next to the most awesome soup place ever, that's a mighty big compliment!)

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup
Cafe Brenda Cookbook

1 large onion, diced
6-7 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup peeled and finely minced ginger root
olive oil
1.5 TBS curry powder
1 chile pepper (or jalapeno) minced
1 cup diced carrots (which I think I forgot, opps!)
1 bell pepper, diced
5 cups (about 3-4) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 14oz can coconut milk
2 cup dried lentils
8 cups veggie stock
juice of 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, minced

Add onion, garlic and ginger to a large pot with a bit of oil. Saute until softened. Add the sweet potato, peppers, carrots, and curry powder. Saute about 5-10 minutes. Add lentils, coconut milk, and stock. Simmer covered about 30-40 minutes until lentils and potatoes are cooked. Add lime juice and cilantro just before serving.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Broccoli, Walnuts and Edamame!

2011-11-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

In need of an easy, healthy, tasty dinner? This totally hit the spot and was great to throw together for a weeknight meal!

Hurray for Moosewood Cookbooks from the library!

Also, I promise hopefully soon once I finally finish plowing through my mountain of photo editing I will have more exciting posts for you besides just recipes!

Pasta with Broccoli and Edamame
Adapted from Moosewood Simple Suppers: Easy Meals for the Weeknight Table

3/4 bag of whole wheat rotini pasta
3 cups-ish broccoli chopped into smaller pieces
1 cup frozen shelled edamame
1 shallot, finely chopped
4-5 cloves, minced
2 tsp mix of dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
olive oil
sea salt
parm or romano cheese for serving

Cook pasta to al dente per package instructions. While the pasta is cooking, add the garlic and shallot to a deep skillet and sautee with olive oil. Add the brocolli and a half cup of water. Cook over high heat for about 2 minutes, then add edamame and herbs and salt to taste. Stir to combine, add a bit more water as needed. Cook about 5-7 minutes until the brocolli is bright green and steamed crisp.

Combine pasta in a serving bowl with veggies, nuts and a few tsp of olive oil. Toss to combine. Serve topped with shredded cheese is desired.

YUM!

(Hopefully my flash will be out of the shop soon and I can take more normal photos again!)

30.

2011-11-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

On this today.

may my mind come alive today
to the invisible geography
that invites me to new frontiers
to break the dead shell of yesterdays
to risk being disturbed and changed

may I have the courage today
to live the life that I would love
to postpone my dream no longer
but do at last what I came here for
and waste my heart on fear no more.

-John O’Donohue

Halong Bay, Vietnam.

Sweet Potato Crockpot Chili!

2011-10-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's starting to get a little cooler in the city these days and apparently we're expecting SNOW tomorrow! It's not even November yet! Anyhow, one of the best parts of a cool evening is a piping hot bowl of soup, better yet when it's been cooking all day in the crockpot! I love coming home to house smelling wonderful and just having to dish it up and enjoy!

I first saw this recipe over on Erin and Ben's cooking blog, We Got Fed. I had been debating between this chili and the veggie chili over on Ezra Pound Cake, but because of the ingredients we had and the appeal of using the crock, this won out!
If you chop all the ingredients the night before and just dump them in in the morning, it's super easy!

Sweet Potato Crockpot Chili
Based on the recipe from We Got Fed

1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1 medium-large sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 bell peppers, 1 red. 1 green. Finely chopped
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2-3/4 cup frozen corn kernals
2 tomatoes, diced
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
3 cups water (We cooked our chili for like 11 hours, so I added more water, if you're only cooking it for 6-8 you can probably add less)
1 - 1.5 tsp chili powder
1 -1.5 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 heaping tsp oregano
dash of parsley
dash of salt
Optional for garnish: Avocado, sour cream, grated cheese, cilantro

Add all the ingredients to the crockpot, cook on low until you return! (At least 6-8 hours, up to however long you'll be gone!)

We served this over rice with some cornbread muffins, avocado and sour cream. YUM!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos!

2011-10-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

So we've been experimenting with various taco recipes lately, most notably the delicious Lentil Tacos over at A Couple Cooks.

In search of something veggie to make for dinner last night, I came across this recipe for Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos on Joy the Baker and was intrigued. It looked pretty simple and we had all the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a go.

YUM! I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out, but they were awesome! And insanely healthy to boot. Excellent. The lime flavor really made the dish, and I didn't realize how many limes were required, it cleaned out my drawer! So make sure you have lots on hand!

I altered the recipe slightly from the original as I can't eat raw onions without getting a stomach ache, but otherwise, followed it for the most part.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos
Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:
2 normal size sweet potatoes (or one ginormous one like we had), chopped into small cubes
olive oil
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 carrot
1 small head of red cabbage
a few TBS of chopped cilantro
4 limes
salt and crushed red pepper flakes
ground cumin
small flour tortillas

Preheat your oven to about 400 degrees. Start with the potatoes, diced into small cubes. Toss in a small bowl with a few tablespoons of olive oil, a bit of salt, and a few good shakes of crushed red pepper flakes (probably about 1/2 - 1 tsp?), and the juice of one lime. Once coated, turn the potatoes onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes until fork tender and slightly browned. Take out and toss about half way through.

Once you get the potatoes started, chop up the cabbage and add to a bowl (the same one you mixed the potatoes in is great). Grate the carrot and add to bowl along with a few TBS of chopped fresh cilantro and salt/red pepper flakes to taste. Toss with the juice of 2 limes and set aside.

Finally, add your chopped onion and garlic to a skillet with a bit of olive oil. Saute until the onions have softened. Add the beans, juice of half or a whole lime (we had half, so that's all I added), and 1 tsp of ground cumin and a bit of salt. Cook another couple minutes over medium heat until warmed through.

Once your potatoes are done, top up your taco with beans, sweet potatoes, and the cabbage slaw with a bit more cilantro and you're good to go!

YUM!

Hot & Sour Stir Fry with Baked Tofu

2011-09-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

So I'm about half-way through reading the book that started this vegetarian kick, The China Study. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend giving it a shot. He has some pretty convincing arguments backed up by a crap-ton of actual scientific research. I'm still a fan of all good things in moderation, and will probably always eat some animal protein, so long as I know where it came from. I mean, I had some pretty awesome bacon chocolate chip (yes, seriously) pancakes this weekend. However, if I can make our kitchen mostly meatless during the week, I'm keen on that idea.

In any case, this stir fry is super delicious, and super quick to whip up. We used fresh green beans from the farmers market which were awesome. I also used to not be much for tofu, however, baking it with the marinade makes it mighty tasty.

Hot & Sour Stir Fry with Baked Tofu
Adapted fromMoosewood Restaurant, Simple Suppers for the Weeknight Table

For the Tofu:
1 package firm tofu (about 16 oz)
1 TBS canola oil
1 TBS sesame oil
3 TBS soy sauce
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grate
1 garlic clove, finely minced

Slice the tofu into thin rectangles and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Whisk the other ingredients together and then brush over the tofu. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Stir Fry:
1/2 pound green beans (use fresh green beans!)
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes as that's what I had)
4 cups grated cabbage
1 grated carrot
1/2 bell pepper sliced thinly
1 TBS grated ginger root
1.5 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Chinese chile paste
1/2 tsp spicy chile sauce
2 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS white vinegar
1 tsp corn starch
canola oil for frying

Have everything prepped and ready to go before you start to stir fry. In a small bowl combine the ginger, sugar, chile sauce and paste, soy sauce and vinegar, then stir in the corn starch and a 1 TBS of water.

Heat a TBS or 2 of oil in a wok over high heat. Through in the cabbage, carrots and green beans. Fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and pepper, stir fry a few more minutes. Pour in the sauce and stir fry another minute or so to coat the veggies.

Serve over rice or noodles. Top with baked tofu.

Enjoy!

Curried Rentil Lentil Burgers

2011-08-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

I picked up a bunch of cookbooks at the library last week to get some new recipe ideas and this was one I knew I wanted to make right off the bat!

These turned out awesome, though were a bit time consuming in the prep. They sort of work better with a fork then on a bun, but taste delicious either way. This also made a TON. (Which worked out for the best as alex ate THREE!)

Curried Red Lentil Burgers with Spicy Mango Slaw
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health

Burgers:

1 Cup dried red lentils
2 Cups water
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt
1 onion, chopped (about 1.5 cups)
3 garlic cloves, minced
a few tbs of olive oil
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced red pepper
1 TBS peeled, grated ginger root
1 TBS curry powder
1.2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups cooked brown rice
3/4 cup finely chopped cashews
juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1. Prepare the rice if you don't have any cooked rice on hand. Usually 1 cup rice to 2 cups water. Boil and simmer covered

2. For the lentils, place in a sauce pan with the water and bring to a boil, stirring often. Add the tumeric and 1/2 tsp salt, reduce heat to low and cover and simmer until the water has been absorbed, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a skillet, add the onion and garlic with a bit of oil and saute until soft. Add the celery, bell peppers, and ginger and saute a few minutes more. Add the curry powder and cinnamon and saute another minute or two. Remove from heat and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the two cups of rice, lentils, nuts, lemon juice and cilantro. Mix with a large spoon.

4. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, use your hands to shape it into burger patties, we got 9 patties! Place them on a lightly oiled parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Spicy Mango Slaw:

1 Mango
1.5 cups grated or shredded green or red cabbage
1 cup grated carrots
1/4 cup mint leaves (I totally forgot to buy mint, so left this out, it was fine)

Dressing:
1/4 cup lime juice (1.5 limes)
2 TBS good maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves
a bit of oil
1 small chile, minced
1 TBS grated peeled ginger root

1. Peel the mango and cut into thin slices. Put in a serving bowl along with the cabbage and carrots.
2. In a small pan saute the garlic, ginger, and chile with a bit of oil until fragrant. About a minute or two.
3. Whisk together the lime juice, salt and syrup. Add the garlic, ginger and chile. Whisk together.
4. Pour over the slaw and combine.

Serve the burgers topped with mango slaw. We served these with a side of baked sweet potato fries as well. YUM! Enjoy!

Roasted Cauliflower Sandwich

2011-08-26T18:27:00.001-07:00

So Alex has been reading this book called The China Study. The book basically preaches the health benefits of vegetarianism, occasionally bordering on veganism. Once I assured that this was still in fact my husband, and while I don't plan on going full on veggie any time soon (let's be serious here), Alex and I agreed it'd be fun to try and eat completely vegetarian for a full week. (Also way cheaper!)

I usually cook 2-3 veggie meals a week, but we both have a tendency to take deli meat sandwiches to work. So we thought it'd be a good experiment in being more creative in lunches as well.

So far this whole week has gone very well!

These sandwiches were dinner tonight and they were SO tasty!

There is a little tiny sandwich shop by where I work that has AMAZING Cambodian sandwiches. If you're ever in Union Square, Num Pang is the place to go! Anyhow, Alex ordered the cauliflower sandwich a few weeks ago and I've been dying to try and make it again.

These turned out SO well and were super easy. So, if you're looking for a tasty new sandwich, give these a try!

Roasted Cauliflower Sandwich:

Ingredients:
Cauliflower
Olive Oil
Salt, Garlic Powder, dash of cayenne
Cucumber
Carrot
Cilantro
French Baguette
Mayo
Sriacha Sauce

Cut up the cauliflower into thin pieces. Toss with olive oil and salt, a bit of garlic powder and a dash of cayenne. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven at about 350 for about 10 minutes.

Slice cucumber into thin rounds.

Grate carrots.

To make the spicy mayo, mix with sriacha sauce to taste. I probably used about 1 tsp sriacha per 2-3 TBS mayo.

Slice the bread and toast lightly if desired, then spread spicy mayo. Layer with roasted cauliflower, carrots, cilantro and sliced cucumber. We also added a bit of Montreal red pepper sauce. :-)

(I clearly was not paying attention to my white balance, opps!)

Enjoy!

Olympic Triathlon Success!

2011-08-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I accomplished one of my goals on my 30x30 list. Finish an Olympic Distance Triathlon! (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run)

I knew I wanted to do something later in the summer so I'd have time to train after the half marathon and to make sure the water would be a little warmer. I ended up at the Park City Team Mossman Tri in Connecticut.

Originally I picked this tri as it was closer and we could probably drive out there the morning of. However, after realizing that they were starting the race at 6:30am (!!!) Alex and I decided to get a hotel in the area the night before, which was actually pretty nice. This worked out especially well as our hotel had a full kitchen, so I could cook and not have to worry about what I was going to find at a restaurant the night before the race.

Race morning ended up being almost comically chaotic as I forgot my ID and had to go back for it, we got sort of lost on the way there as the road was closed, and then I arrived as they were singing the national anthem. Crap. So much for a relaxing start. The original plan was to have Alex drop me off and then he could go back and sleep and have breakfast. However, as we pulled in, they closed the roads and he was stuck for the duration of the race. Thus, as the plan was to go back and get the camera when he returned, the only photos we've got are awesome cell phone pictures. (Neither of us have nifty smart phones, so the quality is especially high. ;-) Oh well. )

Anyhow, the race itself went really well! The swim was my first race in salt water in the Long Island Sound, and though the waves were more then I was used to, it went really quick! The bike was 5 loops of a 5 mile course. It was really scenic along the beach and was, thankfully for me, completely flat! SCORE. The run was also along the bike course, so nice and flat and views of the water. The last bit of the run was pure gumption, but I made it through and ran the entire race finishing with a time of 3 hours 25 minutes. Not super speedy, but perfectly good for me!

Cheers to Triathlons!

Around the World in 80 Dates: Malaysia

2011-08-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Alex and I decided we were due for a fun day in the city (aka Manhattan). We so rarely venture out of Brooklyn on the weekend, but Alex was between classes, and I was magically caught up on photo editing, so we had some amazing free time to take advantage of.

Since we don't have AC in our apartment, summers in NYC can be brutal, thus, we decided the perfect outing for a hot summer day would be the cool confines of one of the fabulous museums Manhattan has to offer. Alex and I usually are not very good museum buddies, as he tends to want to look at EVERYTHING and I usually just glance, but I actually had been wanting to see the natural history museum, since I've never been, so we decided to give it a shot. On the way there, we figured we might as well knock off another country on our list.

The Upper West Side has pretty slim pickings for affordable and meeting our 80 dates criteria, but we eventually found a winner in Penang, a Malaysian place. Since we were there for lunch on a Sunday, it was pretty empty, but the food was super tasty. I had a mango chicken and Alex had the Mee Curry, a traditional curry soup.

The Petronas Towers in KL.

Though Alex and I both ended up in Malaysia for a few days during our honeymoon in 2008, we never had this curry while we were there. I mainly remember being fascinated that everything there was flavored with CORN! Corn in a cup was everywhere, even corn flavored ice cream! Though we only spent a time in the capital of Kuala Lumpur on our visit, I would LOVE to go back and explore the rest of the country side.

The Brooklyn Version!

I googled around for lots of recipes for Mee Curry, but as with the past South African Curry, they called for lots of crazy ingredients... I don't normally stock cubed pig's blood in my cupboards. Apologies. So, I just went for it!

I'm becoming more confident in my ability to make due with what I've got and craft something pretty tasty. This wasn't an exact match to the restaurant, but pretty close! And if all else fails, it was easy and quite delicious!

Mee Curry with Chicken and Vegetables

For the curry paste:
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
3-4 garlic cloves
1 shallot
1/4 - 1/2 jalepeno, seeded
5-8 shishito peppers (These are fun peppers that are sold at our local farmers market)
2 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS fish sauce
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2-3/4 tsp curry powder

For the soup:
half bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 zuchinni, thinly sliced
handful shisito peppers, diced
1/2 package udon noodles
chicken stock, about 2-3 cups
1.5 cups shredded chicken (we had leftovers from a whole roasted chicken, so this worked great!)
1 can coconut milk
salt to taste
bit of oil
1 tsp red curry paste
juice of half a lime

Add all the ingredients for the paste into a food processor and spin until smoothly blended. Add to a large stock pot or wok with a bit of oil. Sautee over high heat a minute or two until sizzling. Add in the curry paste and stir and cook another minute or so. Add in the chicken and vegetables and blend together. Squeeze in the lime juice. Add the can of coconut milk and chicken stock to your desired consistency. Stir and let simmer covered.

While the soup is simmering, drop your udon noodles in boiling water for about 3 minutes until softened. Once the noodles have softened, drain the water and add them to the soup. Let simmer about 5 more minutes. Serve topped with a handful of chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!

Salmon Peanut Sauce Stir Fry

2011-07-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, after seeing the recipe on A Couple Cooks for fresh spring rolls and accompanying peanut sauce, I knew I had dinner made for sure that night. However, after thoroughly enjoying the recipe, I thought I could make even more delicious-ness out of the sauce they came up with.

Thus came the salmon stir fry. You could certainly make this with chicken or steak or shrimp or whatever you please, but it works particularly well with the flavor of salmon. It is also great this time of year when all the veggies are in season. Feel free to mix and match with whatever vegetables your farmer has available!

Ingredients:

For the fish:
A few salmon fillets (we generally buy ours frozen from TJ's)
2-3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
juice of 1 lime, 1/2 a lemon
spices: Moroccan 35 spice, salt, parsley, and a dash of cayenne

For the stir fry:
1 green pepper thinly sliced (or 1/2 green, 1/2 red or yellow if you like things more colorful)
2 carrots grated
1/2 large zucchini, grated
large handful of snap peas, chopped or whole
a small handful of basil
several cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
oil

For the sauce:
1/3 Cup hoisin sauce (I used just slightly less)
2TBS natural peanut butter
1 tsp or so sriacha sauce (pending desired heat)
2 TBS water

Cook the salmon with a bit of oil, garlic. Sprinkle with spices and juice of citrus fruits.

Stir fry the garlic and ginger in oil a minute or two, add the veggies, stir fry over high heat about 2 minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients, blend with a fork, then pour over the veggies and stir fry another minute or two.

Serve salmon over rice and top with veggie stir fry.

Enjoy!

Bermuda!

2011-07-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Bermuda!

Alex and I have been doing LOTS of traveling this summer! After Montreal, we finally did get to use up our free Airtran vouchers and did in fact find somewhere tropical and awesome. After much discussion, we finally settled on Bermuda! We were originally wanting to do the DR or Puerto Rico, but decided against PR because we didn’t have enough time to really get to the parts of the island we’d be interested in and against the DR for basically the same reason and that Airtran only flies into Punta Cana, which is all inclusive resort central, which basically is about the grossest thing possible if you ask me. I’m kind of a travel snob/granola liberal in that I refuse to have anything to do with resort-y type places for a multitude of reasons. (If you’d like to know my reasons, I’m happy to share, but figured I’d leave the politics for another day.)

ANYWAYS, so yes, what we’d read about Bermuda sounded perfect, beautiful beaches, mopeds, and not so much into the huge hotel chains. And really, when else am I going to fly for a weekend to Bermuda unless hubs and I have free airfare? After figuring out we could book the flights we moved onto finding a place to stay, which was supposed to be easy peasy since there were some handy websites that had loads of apartment type rentals for cheap. However, these website are all basically through this company called Bermuda Rentals. Which, though has many cheap, lovely properties, was, in our experience, a freaking nightmare to book. I felt like I was pulling teeth just trying to give them money. I had to follow up SEVERAL times and had to keep calling them (which is annoying because they’re in Canada) instead of email. Finally, after several follow-ups, and a confirmation email that fell through, they emailed to say opps, sorry, even though you've been trying to book for over a MONTH we don't have any thing at all. In fact she said, "it looks like your reservation fell off a cliff." Umm, what? To which I wrote a very strongly worded email response saying, yes, so, that's not going to work for us. I also tweeted to say never EVER book with them.

The best part of all this was that I ended up feeling almost as cool as dooce, in that literally a few hours after I tweeted, I got the fastest response ever from these guys, at like 5am they sent an email saying, just kidding, they would most definitely find us somewhere to stay within our budget. Oh, and could you please update your twitter account to reflect that? Wow. Well then. I guess social media IS effective. I let them know there would be no changing of any statuses until we actually were booked and had gotten there without any hiccups.

The day arrived for our departure and Alex and I headed off to the airport at the ungodly hour of 3:45am. Only to be told once we arrived at La Guardia that our flight was canceled. Come back tomorrow! WHAT?? Seriously people, never fly on Air Tran if you can help it. LAME. We rebooked things so we could come back a day later and made arrangements with work, but still this was ridiculous.

The next day things fortunately went off without a hitch and we finally made it to beautiful Bermuda! The place we were staying also has their own taxi service, so we were even picked right up from the airport.

Our hosts for the weekend, Wade's Garden Inn were amazing in every way. If you head to Bermuda, I highly recommend them. Just book directly through them, not through another agency! They picked us up from the airport, gave us a tour of their little part of the island, took us to the grocery store to pick up food, and were just generally awesome. And their accommodations were spotless and beautiful, and just a walk over the hill or quick trolley ride from Horseshoe Beach!

Wade's Garden Inn

The bay around the corner from our Inn.

Beautiful orchids in our apartment.

The area we were staying in was purposefully away from the hubbub of town, we were going for as relaxing as possible, and that was what we got. We mainly spent our days relaxing at the beach or walking along the railroad trail enjoying the scenery. Since we stayed in an apartment we cooked our meals for breakfast and lunch, and then just went out for dinner, which made things much more affordable. Food is pretty pricey on the island.

We had hoped to rent mopeds, but for this trip, it was just a bit much. Next time for sure!

Horseshoe Beach. Of COURSE the day I brought my point and shoot to the beach I forgot to charge the batteries and it was dead. But, this is the view from the road of the beach we spent our days at. Alex couldn't get over how blue the water was and kept saying, "I can't believe a place like this actually exists!"
The second day we were out was busier then the first, but both were fairly low key. If you walked around to the far edge of the horseshoe, there would be hardly anyone. The first day we walked around the rocks at the end and found ourselves on a practically deserted stretch of sand, it was lovely.

An old railway trail runs up the center of the island, and now makes for a lovely trail for walking.

Lots of pretty flowers abound!

And chickens too!

Gibb's Lighthouse.

View from the trail.

The only photo of the two of us, nice and sunburned! Though much too short of a trip, we had a wonderful time and will hopefully be back someday!

Montreal!

2011-07-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Alex and I had been talking about taking a trip for Memorial Day for awhile, and had actually been hoping to use up our free airtran ticket vouchers to go somewhere awesome and tropical. However, after learning about the annoying-ness of blackout dates, we found out that wasn’t going to happen. Still wanting to go somewhere however, and wanting to make good use of our current location in NY, we decided to head north and make a long weekend roadtrip to Montreal.

Ever since moving here I’ve heard people gush on and on about how awesome Montreal is, so I was super excited to go. We weren’t disappointed. I still can’t believe how much we both loved it, and were thoroughly convinced we could live there someday. NYC is can be so crazy, but Montreal was just so incredibly pleasant. I can’t describe it any better then that. The houses were bright and cute, there was tons of biking, the parks were awesome, and the food was terrific. And, it’s all in French! Despite the fact that it rained practically the whole trip, we had a fantastic time and will surely be back soon!

Alex and I took off early Friday morning and met surprisingly little traffic as we made our way out of the city. The drive itself wasn’t bad at all, about 7 hours I think with a stop for lunch, about equal to driving down to Chi-town from mpls, but WAY better scenery! We drove through the Adirondacks, and they were stunning! Everytime I head upstate, I can’t get over how beautiful this state of NY is, and how very different the rest of it is from the blip on the map that is Manhattan.

We crossed the border without incident, though did think we missed our exit but soon enough righted ourselves and enjoyed the drive into Montreal. The only problem was now it had started to rain, which it did then continue doing for nearly the entire weekend. LAME.

We found our B&B, Le Rayon Vert, and then circled back around the block to find a parking spot. I had been a little worried about parking, but it turned out to be not a problem at all. The owner of the B&B also offered to move her car so we could have a spot right in front, but we ended up just leaving it where it was about 2 blocks away, no worries at all.

The B&B is on the ground floor.

Le Rayon Vert is in the Plateau Mont Royal neighborhood which was SUCH a great place for us to stay. Close to the beautiful parks, restaurants and shops, but on a quiet street so there wasn’t a raging scene under our window at night. It was also beautiful, the breakfasts delicious, and the owner incredibly helpful. If you’re looking for a place to stay in Montreal, I would for sure recommend this place! (And it’s cheap!!)

Our room.

Crazy door.

Cool light fixture with beautiful molding to the ceiling.

When we got there the first late afternoon we relaxed for a bit and then just went out to explore. It was unfortunately drizzly, but we luckily packed umbrellas, so were ok for the most part. Though I think Alex was a bit cold as he didn’t even have anything long sleeve. We mainly wandered into shops on one of the main streets and then found a nice little asian fusion/thai place to grab some dinner. (Food was definitely a little more pricey then I was expecting! Even coming from NYC.)

The next day again was pretty grey, but we set out on a mission to find Alex a new coat (he’d been on the market for a rain jacket anyhow) and bought me a bigger nicer umbrella then the puny one I’d had before. We also decided that this much rain clearly called for us to enjoy the culinary awesome-ness that is Montreal. We would walk and shop a few blocks and then duck into a café for a snack.

The first stop of the day, Swartz’s Deli. Oh my gosh, you guys. This was THE. BEST. SANDWICH. EVER. Seriously, I can not begin to describe the amazingness. If you are in Montreal, go here and eat one. And a pickle too for good measure. YUM.

I love the rooftops!

After another a few blocks, we had clearly walked off our sandwich (I mean we did just split one since it was like 10:30 or 11 in the morning and all) we popped into another little café for some sweets. Also, very delicious.

From there the rain let up a small amount and we decided we would try and walk around Old Montreal a bit and see what we could find.

Old Montreal was so great, cobble stone streets, old Europe feel, and lots of fun art galleries, kind of like soho in NYC, but less crazy.

After we had our fill of old town it was time for the event of the day. Alex really wanted to find a spot to watch the final game of the champions league (soccer) so off we went to find a suitable establishment. After looking into a few places, we settled on an irish pub like place and manage to squeeze ourselves into the very last table in back. While watching the game we perused the menu and found out this place had poutine! The dish I’ve been told I MUST try while in montreal.

MMmmmmm.

Although this poutine wasn’t traditional in that it was drenched in a curry sauce instead of the traditional gravy, it was nonetheless awesome. (I think I may have liked it more because of this, as it made it a little less heavy)

After the poutine and the soccer, we went back to our b&b for a nap and then got ready for dinner. One of the many great things about Montreal is the abundance of byob restaurants, and we made sure to take advantage on at least one evening we went out. The first night for dinner, the rain had let up, so we strolled up an down Duluth Street, a lovely pedestrian street filled with all sorts of restaurants. We finally settled upon a French place that served some the best food I’ve had in a very long time. We had amazing steak tartare, a beautiful salad, and fish to die for. Delicious. Pricey, but with our own wine, much more reasonable.

Day #2 started off overcast, but at least not raining, so we decided to try out the bixi bikes that are seen all over Montreal. Basically, bixi bikes are short term bike rentals that allow you to get pretty much anywhere in the city. So much fun!

We road them up to the huge farmers market in little Italy and it was a great little bike ride! The farmers market had tons of stuff, and lots of venders selling prepared foods as well, so we made sure to get a snack as well.

Unfortunately, after walking around for just a bit, it started to rain again, so we were stuck just hanging out under the tent. Boo. Alex decided he still wanted to ride in the rain so took off back for the B&B while I decided to hop on the subway instead. Which was better as I could then carry all the fun stuff we bought at the market.

Later that day it did finally start to clear up and we were able to go for a run and enjoy the greenery in the park at Mont Royal and go for another evening stroll before dinner.

I love these houses!

One of the other things I noticed while in Montreal was the abundance of crazy street art. Check some of these out!

Sunday evening we headed out to Pinxto, a Basque (Spanish) tapas bar. We ended up getting the tasting menu, so got four tapas each and then an entrée for dinner. The tapas were gorgeous, seriously works of art, and tasted delicious. We didn’t have a reservation, so sat at the bar, but this was still an awesome place for dinner. Afterwards we walked around and picked up an ice cream cone and enjoyed the neighborhoods a bit more.

On Monday, the day we leave of course, was sunny and beautiful! I was SO sad we had to leave as it would have been wonderful to explore the waterfront, or have a picnic or do anything outside without getting rained on. We settled for heading up to top of Mont Royal park to enjoy the view from the Chateau and spend a bit of time being barefoot in the grass before heading back to the freeway.

Downtown Montreal

Olympic park in the distance

Alex played a bit of guitar.

A quick bite before we left.

Yum!

The gas station on the way home... I just had to take a photo. :-)

I mean really?

We will be back Montreal!

Rhubarb Muffins!

2011-06-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite finds in the spring harvest is rhubarb. So many delicious things to bake!

I'd been looking for some new ideas when I saw the post for Rhubarb Streusel Muffins go up on Smitten Kitchen. Done! Alex and I were taking a road trip up to Montreal (photos and trip report still to come, I promise!) and needed some tasty breakfast food for the road, so these seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

I realized once I started that I didn't have the right flour that she called for, but made things with just plain all purpose flour and it worked out perfectly. These are so tasty! We gobbled up the whole pan on the way up and I just made another batch this week!

Enjoy your rhubarb while it's still around!

Rhubarb Muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Streusel
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Muffins
1 large egg
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup diced rhubarb
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 12 muffin cups or use muffin liners.

Make streusel: In a small dish, stir together flours, sugars, spices. Stir in butter until crumbly. Set aside.

Make muffins: Whisk egg in the bottom of a large bowl with both sugars. Whisk in butter, then sour cream. In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder and baking soda and stir them into the sour cream mixture, mixing until just combined and still a bit lumpy. Fold in rhubarb and nuts and roughly 1/3 to half of the streusel mixture. (I made a bit extra streusel and added more in)

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with remaining streusel. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until tops are golden and a tester inserted into the center of muffins comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Around the World in 80 Dates: South Africa

2011-06-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Usually for birthdays Alex and I are big on surprises. We usually pick someplace fun for the other to go out. However, this year, Alex requested something different and wanted to try South African. Mandiba had been recommended to him by one of his co-workers and he asked to give it a try.

This worked out great for knocking off another country from our 80 dates list and gave us an excuse to get out of the neighborhood. (We're notoriously bad for just sticking to our little part of Brooklyn) However, if you're going to pick someplace, Fort Greene is probably my most favorite part of Brooklyn outside of our little slice of Cobble Hill. If we moved anywhere, it'd for sure be here.

Mandiba came highly recommended and didn't disappoint. It was also great that it was a lovely evening and we get to sit outside and enjoy the weather and people watching that makes Fort Greene great.

We started things off with an order of samosas, which were so very tasty! I've tried to make these in the past, and just ended up with heavy doughy lumps, these were flaky and flavorful and delicious.

For dinner I had the Lorenzo Marques Prawns, which were freaking enormous. I don't think I've ever seen shrimp so big! The were butterflied and grilled in a piripiri sauce which was incredibly delicious. They were served with yellow rice, which for me always brings back fond memories of childhood in south florida. :-)

I managed to convince Alex to get the curry. Their curry menu is fun in that you pick your meat (or vegetable) then what kind of curry you'd like. Alex opted for the Duban Bunny Chow style, because really, how can you not get it with a name like that??

After doing some research the bunny chow has a fairly interesting history, dating back to apartheid in South Africa as a way to serve take-out to excluded populations and as a way for migrant workers to carry their meal into the fields.

Basically, bunny chow is a curry served in a hollowed out loaf of bread. It can be served with a variety of meats or veggies, or even seafood as Alex got his at the restaurant.

After enjoying things so much at Mandiba, we decided that the bunny chow would be the best thing to try and cook up at home!

I googled for recipes and consulted my cookbooks, but didn't find all that many different kinds. Most of them also called for spices we didn't have or pricey things I didn't feel up to buying.

So, in the end, I completely made something up. I can't say how authentic this recipe is, but, it is a very tasty curry made with almost all local ingredients served up in a loaf of bread! We both thoroughly enjoyed it and will be making it again for sure!

So, behold, our own special version of Durban Bunny Chow, Brooklyn style.

Vegetarian Durban Bunny Chow:
*The spice amounts listed are all pretty approximate, I sprinkled and added and tasted and added more, so, use your best judgment and feel free to be creative! Remember, you can always add more but you can't take it out! :-)

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion
1 bulb of green garlic or a few cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
olive oil
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped (next time I'd use 3 or 4 to make it a bit saucier)
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
3 smallish red potatoes cubed (probably about 1.5 cups)
3-4 small carrots (about a half - 3/4 cup)
1/2 yellow pepper diced
1/4-1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2-3/4 tsp garam masala
1/2-3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 loaf bread

Add chopped onions, garlic and ginger to a large skillet with oil and saute with cinnamon and tumeric and the cayenne until onions are softened. Add the chopped tomatoes and let simmer until the tomatoes breakdown. Add the potatoes, the carrots, beans, and the rest of the spices along with a bit of water. Stir and cover and let simmer 10-15 minutes so the vegetables can cook. Add the bell pepper, and cook a few minutes more. Stir in cilantro just before serving.

While everything is cooking, slice the bread into quarters or halves, and scoop out the middle.

When the vegetables are cooked, scoop out the curry into your bread bowl and serve!

Enjoy!

An Athletic May!

2011-05-23T12:01:00.001-07:00

Wow! Things have been crazy the past couple months over here in Brooklyn. Not only has the photo business been crazy, (you are following the photo blog right?) but I've been involved in a number of super athletic endeavors through the city. No triathlons for a bit yet, but there's been a storm of running and biking feats!

On the Brooklyn Bridge on the way to the start.

First up, the NYC Bike Tour. My dad suggested this back in February or so, and I emailed my lovely friend Andrea to see if she'd be up for attempting it with me. Nothing crazy, just 42 miles through all 5 boros! :-) She agreed and off we went! Unfortunately I was in a rush to leave that morning and forgot my camera, but luckily Andrea saved the day and remembered hers!

Waiting to get rolling.

The tour was May 1st and both of us were pretty excited! We biked over the Brooklyn Bridge and to the start line in the financial district. Holy cow, SO MANY BIKERS!

The crazy amounts of bikers at the start!

It was bikers basically as far as you could see. We waited quite awhile to actually get started, and it was a bit of stopping and starting, but once we got rolling it was really fun to coast down 6th avenue without any traffic at all!

One of the many unfortunate traffic jams.

However, the ride did end up having a number of bottle necks, Central Park, getting out of the Bronx, into Queens, a bit in Brooklyn, and then a huge massive traffic jam on the BQE. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day, so it could have been MUCH worse, but hopefully next year they'll plan things out a bit better so there aren't the massive back-ups on parts of the course. It was pretty awesome to bike down the FDR and across bridges that aren't normally open to bikes! I got to see many parts of the city I'd never been to before.

Atop the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island.

Biking Across!

After my legs had recovered from the bike, it was on to the running! This past weekend I got to run in the Brooklyn Half Marathon! This race had sold out in about a day, so I was excited to get one of the coveted spots! I also finished with my best time ever, 2:28! Crossing the line just in time to beat my goal of sub 2:30!! (I know that's not super speedy for most of you, but for me, it was pretty awesome.)

It was a beautiful day for a race, and the course was pretty much shaded the whole way through, so it made for a great run.

The best part of this race was the finish, all the runners make their way onto the Coney Island Boardwalk, running past the Wonder Wheel on one side and the ocean on the other before crossing over the finish line.

Alex managed to snap a photo just before the finish!

Hurrah!

Afterwards, Alex and I enjoyed a walk out on the pier to enjoy the view.

Fiddlehead Pasta!

2011-05-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

It officially feels like summer (well almost) here in NYC! All of the vendors are back at the greenmarket and two weeks ago we had our first sightings of ramps and asparagus!

Wednesdays are the best days with the most vendors and the least amount of craziness, so I was excited to see what I would find as I went out for my lunch break. I had heard that strawberries were out, but clearly missed those by a few hours. (Which really is ok as the first day of strawberries are always SUPER expensive, and irresistible.)

What I did find though were fiddleheads! Funnily enough, there were more people taking photos of the pile of them then actually buying them. I don't think too many people actually know what to do with them.

I tried these for the first time last year, and was super excited to see them again. These little guys are SO tasty and are a treat as they're only available a few weeks a year. I thought for a minute and then also grabbed a bunch of fresh green garlic and some turkey sausage from the turkey stand and knew I had a tasty dinner in the making.

Baby green garlic.

This pasta dish was super easy to prepare and the results were delicious! Enjoy the harvest while it lasts!

Fiddlehead Linguine with Turkey Sausage
Serves 2-3

1 pint of fiddleheads
1/2 pound of linguine
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 lb loose mild turkey sausage
1 small bunch green garlic, finely chopped
1-2 large shallots, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
unsalted butter
healthy pinch of truffle salt (or regular sea salt)
1/4 cup (approx) dry white wine

Cook pasta to package directions. Drain and save just a bit of pasta water.

Brown the sausage with onion and 4 cloves minced garlic.

In a large frying pan, add chopped shallots and a pat of butter and sautee until softened. Add in the chopped green garlic and a splash of wine. Add in the fiddleheads, a splash of olive oil, another bit of wine and sautee 1-2 minutes.

The fiddleheads should be bright green, be careful not to overcook them. Add a dash of salt. Add in the sausage, mix well. Add in the cooked pasta and toss with olive oil. Serve topped with fresh grated parmigiana.

ENJOY!

Skillet Lasagna

2011-05-07T19:31:00.001-07:00

Things have gotten pretty crazy around here this spring and I feel bad saying I haven't quite had the time to make anything new or extra exciting in awhile.

However, I saw this post come up in my reader a few days ago for skillet lasagna, and I thought I might just have to make it this weekend. This recipe isn't pretty or fancy, but it's pretty quick, easy, and it turned out super delicious!

I ended up changing the recipe up a bit, but kept the basic concept. I also made the no knead focaccia. Though I think my yeast was too old as it didn't really rise well. Oh well, it was still tasty!

Skillet Lasagna

1 yellow onion, finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil
3 oz of tomato paste
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of red wine
1/2 cup water
Spices (parsley, dried basil, oregano, crushed red pepper about 1 tsp or so each, a little less red pepper, a little more basil)
pinch of salt
1 lb grass fed ground beef
handful of spinach
5 oz ricotta
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/3 to 1/2 cup)
handful of basil
1/2 lb of farfalle pasta

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a large skillet with ground beef. Once the ground beef is browned, drain excess fats. Add tomato paste and wine. Stir and saute a few more minutes.

Add diced tomatoes and spices, salt and water. Bring to a simmer and cover for 7-10 minutes while the pasta is cooked to package directions. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce along with a handful of spinach. Mix until spinach is wilted.

In a small bowl, add ricotta and parmigiano and blend. Drop small spoonfuls of cheese blend into the skillet and then cover with grated cheese. Cover and simmer until cheese is melted, 2-3 minutes. Top with freshly torn basil.

Enjoy!

Around the World in 80 Dates: Uruguay

2011-04-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

For more on the 80 dates challenge, click here.

So two weekends ago was Dine In Brooklyn. It’s kind of like restaurant week, but for fun places in Brooklyn. As soon as I got the email, I knew I wanted to at least go out once, I mean, 3 courses for $25 is a pretty good deal, especially at some of these fancy pants places.

A bunch of the places listed were on our list of places we’ve been wanting to try, however when I saw the little Uruguayan place listed, my curiosity was piqued. I googled it to find to the website, and was immediately entranced, it looked so cute, and apparently the reviews on yelp said it was amazing. I figured we could try a new place, and get something for our 80 dates challenge, double win.

I actually made a reservation, which we very rarely do, and we were off to Tabare on a Friday evening. We ended up driving as the restaurant is in Williamsburg, which, though an area we frequented lots living in Bushwick, it’s now a super pain to get to from Cobble Hill. Alex dropped me off at the door and then went to park, and ended up finding a spot right around the corner, nice.

If you haven’t yet been to Tabare, you must go. It was awesome. It’s a little hole in the wall on an otherwise unremarkable residential street, but once you get inside, it’s beautiful. Candlelit, beautiful wood, gypsy kings/Buena vista social club type music playing at a reasonable volume (seriously, what is with NYC restaurants and their freaking loud music over dinner? I’m looking at YOU Bar Tabac) We were seated promptly and picked out a lovely Uruguayan Tannat for wine and looked over the menu. For special price deals, usually restaurants have a prefixe menu set up, but our server said nope! Just pick one appetizer, one entrée and one dessert from anything on the menu for each of you! Awesome. (Alex seriously felt bad about this, like we were ripping them off or something.)

For an appetizer I had the empanadas and Alex had the Caserola De Pulpo (Octopus casserole). Both were outstanding. When deciding what to make at home, I thought about the Caserola, but then I thought, I have absolutely no idea where one even buys Octopus… For our main course, we both went for steak. Which, as a side note, Tabare is great as they source everything locally and sustainably, and all of their steak is grass fed, hurray!

I had the Churrasco, a ridiculous amount of fantastic steak with chimmichurri sauce and Alex has the Chivto complete. Which, was also ridiculous. (Super good, but SO much food.) Alex put it best when he described this sandwich as “eating an entire farm at once”. Literally, this sandwich included steak, bacon, eggs, cheese and all kinds of vegetables on crusty bread. I was told I couldn’t make this at home, as it was his cholesterol intake fill for the year. :-)

With barely enough room left, we ordered dessert, and again awesome all around. Alex had the flourless chocolate torte, and I went for the Alfajores Rusticos. Flakey cookies with Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Ganache. MMMMM. So much goodness!

The at home version!

Yummy wine from our favorite local shop.

Though I thought of making steak, I realized that all of our worldly meals pretty much have oddly involved red meat thus far, I decided to go for something different. I've always wanted to make empanadas, but never managed to get around to it. I figured this would be the chance. I wanted to make the same kind we had at the restaurant since they were awesome. Thus, I made half chicken and red pepper with onion and half fontina/gruyere with onion. Both turned out great!

I'm so proud to actually have successfully made dough that was flaky and delicious, one: without a mixer of any kind and two: without a rolling pin. (I really should just invest in a rolling pin, but an empty wine bottle did the trick! And I don't have to store it anywhere!)

I used this recipe from epicurious for the empanada dough. This was really easy and worked great.

As I said, I made two types. I didn't really use a recipe, but basically, I fried up some chicken breasts spicing them with Moroccan 35 spice and garlic then shredded the meat. I added this to the empanada along with caramelized onions and garlic with oregano and sauteed red pepper.

For the cheese ones, I grated fontina and gruyere and then added some of the fried onions and garlic.

Once your empanadas are filled, fold them over and crimp the sides. Brush with egg white and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

DELICIOUS!

(Sorry this focused a little too soft, opps!)

I also made the alfajores rusticos for dessert.

These are basically like lemon sugar cookies topped with dulce de leche (kind of like caramel) and chocolate with coconut and walnuts. The cookies in the restaurant were a bit lighter and flakier, but these still worked great and tasted delicious.

I followed Recipe Girl's recipe for alfajores. Then, I discovered after reading the comments that you can make dulce de leche super easy! Step one, buy condensed milk. Step two, boil the can in water for about 1.5-2 hours. Step three, eat! For the ganache, you just boil 1 cup heavy cream then add one cup chocolate. Done. Easy peasy! It sets up better after you leave it in the fridge, but still yummy when it's warm.

Buen Provecho!

Mexican Red Lentil Stew

2011-03-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

A year or so ago I saw this post on my dear friend Kate's blog and I remember thinking, ooh! that looks tasty! I'm going to make that. And I bought a bag of red lentils. I had the greatest of intentions, but never actually followed through.

Fast forward to this year, yesterday to the most gloomy Monday ever and me thinking, I need to make soup. Yummy, hearty, maybe kindy spicy flavorful soup. And then I remembered the red lentils, conveniently stashed in the back of my cupboard and an idea for dinner was born!

I looked over the links to the soup, recipes here and here, and then kinda went from that. And oh man, this stuff was delicious! The most beautiful mix of flavorful but not too spicy but delicious wonderful soup. And, with lentils being a superfood, it's ridiculously healthy as well.

So, make this tonight. It's the perfect cure for winter trying to edge its way back into spring.

Mexican Red Lentil Stew

1 Cup red lentils
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 yellow carrot, finely chopped (regular carrots are fine, they just had pretty yellow ones at the green market)
1/2 bell pepper, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 15 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 limes
handful of cilantro, chopped (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup quinoa
2-3 cups vegetable stock
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp chile powder
3/4 tsp cumin

1. Place the lentils in a medium sauce pan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the lentils sit in the hot water about 20-30 minutes to soften.

2. While the lentils prepare, chop all your vegetables. Place the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in a large stock pot with a bit of olive oil and saute until softened. Add the spices and bell pepper, sautee another minute or two. Add the tomatoes, stock, quinoa and bring to a simmer.

3. Once the lentils have softened up and absorbed most of the water, you can pour off the rest of the water and add them to the soup. Blend together, possibly adding more stock. Simmer covered 20 minutes or so.

4. Stir in the juice of 1.5 limes (or so) and the chopped cilantro. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and another wedge of lime.

Enjoy!

(And yes I like my fresh bread from the baker at the greenmarket, don't judge. :-) )

A little taste of spring...

2011-03-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

I went for a little walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening to try out my new camera and catch a few glimpses of spring. Friday was 70 degrees! I'm not necessarily in a hurry for the heat of summer, but NYC is beautiful in the spring time!

Around the World in 80 Dates: France!

2011-03-13T15:35:00.001-07:00

For more on the 80 Dates Challenge, click here!

This post has been due for awhile, but better late then never!

As a make-up Valentine's Day event, Alex and I decided to head to a local French bistro we've had our eye on for awhile. Jolie is an adorable little restaurant in the neighboring area of Boreum Hill and we've been hoping to find an excuse to hit up their Monday $25 pre fixe dinner. The week after Valentine's was Alex's spring break, so no night class, a perfect night to give it a shot.

One of the many things I love about dining out in NYC is that if you go to a restaurant that serves a certain ethnic or country specific food, the staff is almost certainly going to be of that background as well. Jolie was no different, the host and our server were most certainly French speaking, and even slipped into French several times while presenting our food, which made the experience all the more delightful.

We decided to get the pre fixe special, which for 4 courses for $25 is a steal in this neck of the woods. We also decided to splurge for the wine pairings, because, it was actually cheaper then any of the bottles on the list and would end up being more fun anyhow! (4 different glasses of excellent wine a piece later, this was definitely confirmed. :-) )

Because I’m lame and took forever to write this post and mistakenly thought the menu would be online, I don’t have the exact list of what we ate, but I do remember most of what I had and some of Alex’s…
They included tuna tartare, asparagus soup with crab and almonds, a beautiful scallop salad, and Alex had fish with sunchokes, and I had a delicious hanger steak with potatoes. For dessert we had some sort of awesome chocolate with raspberry sauce along with the most delicious crème brule ever.

We had so much fun dining here, I can assure you we’ll be back for more French goodness, especially when the garden opens in summer!

The At Home Version:
I had an incredible time trying to decide what to make as a. I couldn’t remember exactly what we had, and b. there was SO much good stuff, I was getting overwhelmed. Ultimately I decided to recreate the hanger steak and crème brule.

For the steak I search around and finally came upon this recipe on epicurious. It sounded really good and got good reviews, so I figured I’d go for it.

So much sadness. I was SO excited to make this because I love a good steak and it was going to be fun to have a fancy meal at home. However, this recipe failed me big time. For two reasons. A. The steak I got was much too thick and I should have trimmed it down beforehand, it didn’t cook well at all. B. There was no sauce. I followed the recipe pretty darn closely, but at the end, I just ended up with way too many wine colored shallots, and hardly any sauce at all. And I didn’t even let the stuff boil down that long at all. At the end of it, the steak did taste good, but it wasn’t the meal I was going for.

However, redemption! The crème brule DID turn out excellent. This was super easy and I will be making it again. Horray for delicious dessert! I followed this recipe along with the first commenter’s suggestions.

Indian Spiced Slow Cooker Chicken

2011-03-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

I love when I can use my crockpot. Granted, it requires me to plan a bit ahead, but it's SO nice to come home to a hot meal already prepared! Alex also enjoys the bonus of less dishes for him.

I picked up Sensational Slow Cooker Gourmet by Judith Finlayson at the library a couple weeks ago on a whim just to try and find some new recipes. I have her vegetarian version, and have liked the recipes there, so I thought this one might be good as well. Though I didn't find too many things I liked, I did like the sound of her Indian Spiced Chicken and decided to give it a try last week.

I altered the recipe a bit because a. 3 lbs of chicken is a crap ton for two people ( I still have leftovers only using 2 lbs!) and b. Judith says in her recipes to cook everything first then put it in the crockpot. I find this completely ridiculous. If something is going to cook all day, I do not need to saute the onions first. Don't be silly.

On to the recipe!

Indian Spiced Slow Cooker Chicken
Adapted from Sensational Slow Cooker Gourmet by Judith Finlayson

2lbs chicken (I used chicken breasts)
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp tumeric
olive oil
4 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs ginger grated
1 tbs cumin
2 tsp coriander
salt to taste
1 cup barley
1.5 cup chicken stock
28 oz diced tomatoes
1/2 jalepeno pepper, finely diced
3/4 cup plain yogurt

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and sprinkle with lemon juice and tumeric. Add the rest of your ingredients except the jalepeno and yogurt. Stir around with a wooden spoon to mix everything together. Set the crockpot to low, and come back for dinner in about 6 hours. Before serving, add the pepper and yogurt and mix together and heat for another 10-15 minutes to meld the flavors. Serve with rice and fresh steamed veggies! Enjoy!

Alex and I thought this was good, and it made a TON! The one problem I had was the chicken overcooked and was a bit dry. The recipe calls for 6 hours, which, is annoying as clearly I'm gone at work for longer then that. Ours ended up cooking closer to 8 or 8.5, so I imagine if I only cooked it for 6, it would have been better. I might try this again on a weekend when I have better control of the cooking time. Even still, Alex didn't even notice and thought it was great!

Spicy Black Bean Cakes

2011-03-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

I was looking for something tasty to make for dinner and was paging through my Martha Stewart cookbook and came across the recipe for Spicy Black Bean Cakes. I've made most of this cookbook, and liked everything so far, but hadn't ever made these before. They looked tasty and I had the ingredients in the house, so I went for it.

Martha didn't disappoint, these were easy, fast and delicious. And, super healthy to boot! Score!!

Spicy Black Bean Cakes
Martha Stewart, Great Food Fast

Olive Oil
4 scallions, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, pressed
1-2 jalepenos (I used 1.5, ribbed and seeded) finely chopped
1 TBS cumin
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 sweet potato, peeled and grated (about 2 cups)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Lime Sour Cream
1/2 Cup sour cream
2-3 tsp lime juice
1/4-1/2 of a jalepeno finely chopped

In a small frying pan, saute the scallions, jalepeno, garlic, and cumin with a bit of olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Place in a large bowl. Add the black beans. Mash with a fork, leaving about 1.4 of the beans whole. Fold in the sweet potato, egg and breadcrumbs.

Heat the broiler.

Make the bean mixture into small patties and place on a baking sheet with a bit of olive oil. Place in the broiler for 8 minutes. Flip gently and broil for 2-3 more minutes.

Enjoy topped with lime sour cream!

Tamale Pie!

2011-02-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

So on Friday afternoon I was looking for something delicious to make for dinner that evening and came across this post by the lovely Sonja and Alex of A Couple Cooks. We have tacos fairly often at our house, and maybe one other Mexican dish, but otherwise, despite how much I love it, I don't often make the cuisine.

When I saw the post for Vegetable Tamale Pies, I knew it would be something delicious and decided I had to make some for myself! Now, I don't have fancy individual serving dishes, so I made my in an actual pie dish. Thus my presentation clearly was not as lovely as it could have been, but I will definitely vouch for this being awesome. We ate ours with tortilla chips and a fork with a dollop of sour cream and it was the perfect meal, and had leftovers for lunch the next day!

I've never made polenta before, but it was super easy and I will for sure be making this again!

Tamale Pie
Adapted from A Couple Cooks
1 cup cornmeal for polenta
2 cans black beans
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup salsa
1.5 teaspoons cumin (my cumin is super strong, so I cut back a bit from the original)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/2-3/4 cup grated cheddar
Sour cream to serve

Make the polenta. When it's done, spread a layer evenly in the bottom of your baking dish. Chop the cilantro. Drain the can of diced tomatoes to remove excess liquid. If using canned beans, drain and rinse the beans. In large bowl, coarsely mash the beans with a fork. Add 1 cup corn, tomatoes, bell pepper, salsa, cumin, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon oregano, a bit of salt, and 1/4 cup cilantro. Mix to combine. Spoon the bean mixture on top of the polenta. Top the dish with cheese and remaining cilantro. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees until heated through. Top with sour cream to serve. Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

2011-02-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

We eat a TON of granola at our house. In fact, the checkout guy/girl at T-Joes often comments on how much granola is in our cart. Alex eats a bowl for breakfast every morning, and I have a little tupperware of it with my yogurt for a snack at work during the week.

Pending on where you buy it, granola can get pretty pricey. Trader Joes makes it pretty reasonable, but, I've known for awhile I should probably be investigating making it at home. I've seen tons of recipes online and in blogs, but everything seemed to call for stuff like wheat germ and other stuff I just never have gotten around to buying.

A couple weeks ago I got down to some serious searching in google and found this recipe on Joy the Baker for a Martha Stewart version of Toasted Almond Granola. Good old Martha, she does quality stuff.

This recipe was not only SUPER easy, but called for stuff we actually had on hand. I've since made 3 more batches, and have since made, what Alex and I think at least, is the perfect granola. The best part about granola is that you can totally make up whatever you want and add whatever you like. It's so easy to tinker with and really hard to screw up. I've added in chocolate chips or pecans as well, and both are a fun treat.

Toasted Almond Granola
Adapted from Martha Stewart and Joy the Baker

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered raw almonds (The more flat, blanched kind)
1 cup sliced or chopped almonds (More chunky almond pieces, you can use whole but pieces work better)
A handful of whole almonds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven 325 degrees F. Line one large or two small baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Mix together oats, coconut, cinnamon and nuts.

In a saucepan, melt together butter, oil, honey and brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture begins to boil. Stir continually. As soon as the mixture boils, turn off the heat and add the vanilla extract. Stir. Pour the warm mixture over the oats and almonds and toss together with a wooden spoon, ensuring that all of the oat mixture gets mixed with the sugar syrup.

Spread mixture onto prepared baking sheet(s) and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Enjoy!

Morocco Part II: Chefchaouen

2011-01-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

The blue doors of Chefchaouen.

After Marrakech, we bought train tickets to head north to into the mountains. I have to say, as far as overnight trains go, this one was very comfy.

Alex reading in his bunk.

The train was about 9.5 hours or so to Tangier, and then we got a taxi on to Chefchaouen. We tried to bargain for the taxi, but, as we really had no idea how else to get there, our bargaining power was rather limited. The odd thing about Morocco being that we paid more for a 2 hour taxi ride then staying over night in a hostel.

Once we got in the cab, our driver was super friendly, and the ride, although a little too curvy for my liking, was beautiful, through amazingly green rolling countryside.

Once we arrived in town, we wandered around to find a hotel, which is a little challening in Chef, as it's SUPER hilly. We ended up at a really nice place called Hotel Ouarzazate, which, just like Chefchaouen, was painted entirely in blue.

Alex and I both really loved Chefchaouen, it was just a nice change of pace from the craziness of Marrakech. The city has some tourism, but for the most part, is a pretty sleepy village. The streets are narrow and winding, and generally going uphill as the city is basically built into the mountainside. The most striking feature is the vibrant colors. Everything is awash in blue, from bright royal shades to the most delicate periwinkle. I felt for some reason like I was wandering on a Greek island, but then would look out and see mountain countryside instead of the ocean.

Streets in the village.

Lovely little doors.

Peppers at a street stall.

Tourist shop off the main square.

We spent most of the time just wandering about the city, enjoying good meals, exploring the kasbah in the center of town, and reading on the rooftop of our hotel.

Inside the Kasbah.

View from the tower.

Inside the tower. I love how this image turned out!

We also went for a great hike on our last day, up to a little mosque way above the city. Of course, there was a path leading to it, but Alex and I managed to find the more perilous route of scrambling up the hillside with mountain goats and an abandoned cemetery. I'll let you guess whose idea that was... The view from the top made it worth it though, and it did make for a good adventure.

Alex deciding the best way to climb up the "path" to the mosque.

Enjoying the view.

Crazy tree on the way up.

The mosque at the top!

The view!

Alex and I at the top!

The view on the way down.

As we made our way down, we passed perhaps the oldest blue door of all.

After enjoying our time in Chef, Alex and I headed back to Tangier and then flew to Madrid to spend an evening with our friend Oscar. Fun times had by all.

Morocco: Part I

2011-01-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

I finally finished going through all my photos from our New Year's adventure in Morocco! Hurray! I'll be posting part two later this week, but if you're photo happy and want to see the whole set, you can find them here.

The medina at sunset. (I wish I had a tripod, but not to bad for hand-held!)

This NYE, rather then spend our time in the freezing cold of New York or Minnesota, Alex and I jetted across the Atlantic to meet up with Alex’s brother and fiancé for an adventure in Morocco. Although once we arrived things were great, getting there, at least for me, was a bit of adventure.

You see, I was flying standby, which often, is awesome. However, in the days following the worst blizzard in NYC ever, getting on a flight standby was not happening anytime soon. Thus, desperate times call for desperate measures. In order to meet up with Alex, I ended up taking a 7am bus from NYC to DC, flying from DC to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Madrid, finally then flying from Madrid to Marrakech. Sheesh! A little much, but I was very glad to finally make it!

Although I missed out because of my airline troubles, Alex did get to spend one day in Casablanca enjoying the sites, primarily the Hassan II mosque on the coast, one of the largest in the world.

A few shots from his time in Casa:

On New Year’s Eve, I finally stumbled sleepily into Marrakech, and was so pleased to find it exactly how I remembered from my previous trip with Emily in 2006. A loud, crazy, colorful carnival of every possible stimulus. I was also happy that I still had my bearings and sort of semi knew where I was going. I promptly found our hostel and passed out while I waited for Alex to arrive. For anyone curious, we stayed at Hotel Imouzzer and it was great! 120 Dirham (about $14 a night) and clean and comfortable.

The view from our hotel rooftop terrace at night.

After Alex made it in and we had sufficiently napped enough to be semi conscious, we ventured out to meet Nick and Amber and find ourselves some dinner. I insisted on eating in the food stalls in the center of the medina, remembering awesome food for small prices.

The medina from above with the food stalls getting ready.

For those unfamiliar, the large square in the center of the medina of Marrakech is known as the Djemaa el Fnna. During the day it's filled with cart after cart of orange juice and dried fruit vendors; along with a carnival of snake charmers, drum bands, acrobats, and henna tattoo artists pulling on your sleeve trying to draw a tourist dollar one way or the other. It's an amazing sight, best observed while sipping a mint tea from one of the many rooftop terraces that surround the square.

Tons of delicious fresh squeezed orange juice!

Snake Charmers.

Monkeys!

At night however, things come even more alive. Every evening, hundreds of barbecues and food stands are built from scratch and grills fire up to cook every sort of meat you could want. Sit down on a bench for a plate or just a bite or bowl of delicious harira, the signature Moroccan soup filled with lentils and chickpeas.

At night, even more performers come out and many locals gather in circles to hear story tellers spin their tales. One particularly popular activity involved “fishing” for soda bottles. Something Alex claimed would be too easy, kept him challenged for quite some time.

Fishing during the day.

Keeping Alex entertained at night.

The rest of our time in Marrakech was spent pretty evenly divided between eating tasty food, drinking mint tea, and of course shopping in the souks. The tiny streets that wind a maze through the souks, or market streets, are filled with vendors selling everything under the sun. As you wander the labyrinth you’ll find craftsman stitching leather shoes, men dying huge vats of fabrics, jars of vibrantly colored powders and spices from floor to ceiling, and the scent of freshly carved cedar wafting through the air. When I traveled here before I didn’t have the courage to take any photos, but this time, I did manage to snap a few. All of them from vendors we purchased things from, who then happily granted me permission.

Ok, not all of the vendors, but I couldn't help but take a photo of this plumbers sign!

Mosque entrance in the souks.

We also took an afternoon to wander out to some castle ruins.

Lovely orange trees in the gardens at the ruins.

Storks atop the castle.

Alex, in the prison below ground...:-)

On our last day, Alex and I also walked out to the main mosque right outside the medina and then down to the Majorelle Gardens which offered some fresh air and a little more peace and quiet then can be gotten from the circus inside the city.

Mosque.

Majorelle Gardens:

Up next, Chefchaouen, the beautiful blue city in the mountains!

Curry Noodles with Shrimp and Veggies

2011-01-21T13:17:00.001-08:00

Or, sunshine on a plate. How colorful is this meal?

I saw the recipe for curry spiced noodles come up on Ezra Pound Cake earlier in the week and knew it would be the perfect thing for a dreary winter day. I changed the ingredients a bit, but for the most part followed the recipe.

Curry Spiced Noodles with Vegetables and Shrimp
Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

* 8 ounces dry udon noodles or linguine/spaghetti
* 1/2 lb shrimp cooked with lime juice, garlic, and red pepper flakes
* 4 teaspoons peanut oil
* 2 cups julienne-cut carrot (About 2 carrots)
* 1 red bell pepper sliced thin and diced if you like
* 1 green bell pepper sliced thin and diced if you like
* A handful of shitake mushrooms, sliced thinly. About 1 or 1.5 Cups chopped
* A large handful of snap peas
* 3 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh lemongrass (Use only the lower bulb)
* 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
* 1 tablespoon red curry paste
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 8 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 cup organic vegetable broth
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 teaspoons lower-sodium soy sauce
* 2 green onions, thinly sliced
* 1/3 cup cilantro leaves
* 1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted, unsalted cashews

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Set noodles aside; keep warm.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons peanut oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add carrot; sauté 2 minutes. Add bell peppers; sauté 2 minutes. Remove carrot mixture from pan.

3. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat; swirl to coat. Add mushrooms; sauté for 2 minutes.

4. Add lemongrass, ginger, red curry paste, cumin, turmeric and garlic; cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

5. Add broth, 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, and salt. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes or until slightly thick.

6. Add noodles, carrot mixture, cooked shrimp, and onions; cook for 2 minutes, tossing to combine.

7. Divide noodle mixture evenly among 4 bowls; top with cilantro and cashews.

This was quite delicious, however didn't pack as much curry punch as I was hoping for. I think it really depends on how spicy your paste is. I would definitely make this again, but would add either some spicy peppers, cayenne or pepper flakes to the sauce, or perhaps a bit of sriacha. In any case, it's still super colorful and will definitely brighten any table!

Snow Day!

2010-12-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

I figured out today that I've had more snow days in the past two winters in NYC then in my entire 20 or so years in Minnesota. Not that I'm complaining. :-)

Unless you live under a rock you probably heard about the major thwomping of snow the east coast got yesterday. The airports shut down and the city came to a grinding halt. I ventured out around the neighborhood this afternoon and managed to snap a few shots of the white stuff.

Happy Snow Day!

Our block. My car is the third one back. Bad, but not nearly as bad as this guy...

These bikers also probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon...

Everyone was either walking or skiing down Court street since there weren't any cars going anywhere.

The bus got stuck.

And the ambulance.

More side streets, not plowed yet. They'll be under even more snow once the plow comes by...

This family had the right idea!

Ostrich on Christmas?

2010-12-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

When I found out my in-laws were going to be visiting over the Christmas holiday and were requesting something "non-traditional" for Christmas dinner I had no idea what to make. Traditional, not a problem, I can whip up a turkey dinner in a jiffy. But the request for something more "exotic" threw me for a loop.

Since Alex and I are taking a trip to Morocco over New Years, I decided to peruse the cookbook Alex got me for my birthday, Moroccan Modern.

This cookbook has some really tasty dishes, but also really beautiful food photography (a must for any cookbook!). One of the dishes looked particularly interesting, Ostrich Filets with Triple Mash.

This one piqued my interest for a few reasons, but the main one being that I had seen the ostrich vendor at the farmer's market for months now and had always been curious. The other being that this dish suddenly seemed perfect in that, aside from the sauce, everything was in season and local, score!

On Wednesday I headed out to the greenmarket to pick up supplies and the awesome ostrich guy was super friendly, making sure I knew how to cook things and answering all my questions. I also scored a bonus in that I got beautiful filets for the price of plain steaks since he'd had a restaurant change their order last minute. For those curious, ostrich is a red meat like beef. So I basically got filet mignon.

I ended up changing the recipe a bit to meet what I had in the kitchen and my own tastes, but have to say I was SO proud at how pretty this turned out.

And it was DELICIOUS! It was almost exactly like a fine steak, and the sweet parsnips with the mash and the berry wine sauce went together perfectly. One of the more fine dine dishes I've ever crafted, this was an amazing holiday meal!

Ostrich Filet with Triple Mash and Caramelized Parsnip
Based on Moroccan Modern by Hassan M'Souli

(I made 4 filets, so increased everything slightly. We did have leftover sauce. This recipe is for 2 steaks)

2 Ostrich Filets (Ours were 4 oz, since the meat has no fat, these were plenty big)

Marinade
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp lemon juice
2 TBS olive oil
pinch saffron threads
1 tsp dried thyme

Mix all the ingredients in a shallow baking dish. Add ostrich filets and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Parsnips
2 medium parsnips quartered length-wise. (Peeled and washed)
3 TBS butter
3 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the butter, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and stir gently over medium heat. Once the sugar is dissolved, pour the mixture over the parsnips in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes at 400. Turn every 10 minutes or so to coat in the sugar mixture.

Triple Mash
I made Garlic Mash, Sweet Potato Mash, and Broccoli Mash. The original recipe called for a green mash with frozen peas and artichokes, frozen peas gross me out, I thought Broccoli sounded MUCH better, and it was really good!

Garlic Mash: peel potatoes, boil until soft. Mash with butter, cream, milk, and a few pressed cloves of garlic and salt.

Sweet Potato Mash: The same as above, but minus the garlic and add a few herbs like thyme and a bit of rosemary.

Broccoli Mash: Steam a few florets of broccoli. Once steamed, add a scoop of garlic mash to the broccoli and then blend either with an immersion blender or food processor with a bit of stock and some salt.

Ostrich Filets and Sauce

Sauce
1/2 Cup red wine
1 Cup chicken stock
1/2 Cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 Cup blackberries (the original recipe called for raspberries)
1 TBS butter

Take the filets out of the marinade and set them aside. Pour the rest of the marinade into a sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a sizzle then add the merlot and the stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes until reduced. Lower the heat and add the pomegranate seeds and berries. Cook for 5 minutes and then take off the heat and cool slightly. Process with a blender (I tried a food processor, note: hot liquids in a food processor will explode in your kitchen opps!), I ended up using my immersion blender, until smooth-ish. Drain through a sieve back into a sauce pan. Place over medium heat and add the butter, reduce a further 5 minutes. Cover and keep warm.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan for the filets. Toss them in the pan over high heat and cook only 2-3 minutes a side. Ostrich should be eaten rare to medium rare.

To serve:

Place the filets in the center of the plate. Top with a layer of each mash. Stand parsnips around the side. Finish by pouring the sauce around the filet.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Latkes

2010-12-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

With the coming of Hanukkah there's been lots of latke recipes around the interwebs lately. I've been wanting to make some of my own for awhile, and tonight seemed as good a night as any!

These are from The Cafe Brenda Cookbook, and were super tasty!

Vegetable Latkes
From Cafe Brenda

1 large potato, grated (about 1.5 cups)
3 medium carrots, grated
1 zucchini, grated
3-4 scallions (the recipe calls for a whole bunch, but I cut back)
1 large parsnip
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
pepper to taste
3/4 Cup flour
canola oil for frying

Grate potato and rinse with cold water, squeeze excess juice. (I totally forgot to do this, they worked out fine) Mix all grated veggies, scallions and salt. Separate eggs. Add the 3 yolks, pepper, and flour to the veggie mixture and stir well. Beat egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the batter. Pour batter into 3-4 inch pancakes onto a skillet or griddle and fry in hot oil.

Serve with a nice green salad. I had mine with sour cream, Alex enjoyed his with gujuchang sauce. I think any sort of hot sauce or even soy sauce would be good.

Yum!

Holiday Cards Galore!

2010-11-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

Every year around this time people start thinking about holiday cards. Some people send them out earlier then others, I’m always impressed by those first couple we receive well before the end of December.

I love getting them in the mail, it’s always fun to get something colorful in your box rather then another piece of junk mail or electricity bill. When I saw on Erin’s blog that Shutterfly was doing a promotion for 50 free cards for blogging about them, I knew I had to sign up. Ever since Alex and I started sending cards, we’ve gone through Shutterfly, so I can legitimately say they have good stuff to offer! The cards are super easy to put together, fast to upload photos, and ship nice and quick!

This year they have a great selection of designs to chose from: holiday, Christmas, winter, Hanukkah, whatever suits your fancy. If you’re like us and don’t quite manage to get your cards out by the holidays, they even have New Year’s cards to offer. Looking back at our cards, it seems we have a thing for snowflakes and snowmen.

While I'll keep this year's card a surprise, here are a few of our favorites from year's past...

Happy Holidays!

The Best Pumpkin Pie Ever

2010-11-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

Making a pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving table has been my job for as long as I can remember. It's a tradition I always enjoy and generally has had very tasty results, minus the year I made the pie for my in-laws and forgot to add the sugar. Opps, sorry Chris and Bill... :-(

Growing up I usually followed the recipe on the back of the can of Libby's pumpkin puree. Though I have a distinct memory of my grandmother and Aunt telling me you can be creative with pie recipes! My grandmother was the one who taught me to add molasses or maple syrup and taste as you go with the spices.

When I was working at the MLC, we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for our students each year. One year one of the volunteers also happened to be the head baker at Zelo in downtown Minneapolis. To say she knew her sweets would be an understatement. She graciously offered up her recipe and I haven't looked at the canned recipe since! I've tinkered with this one, and it doesn't get much better then this for a delicious autumn treat!

Last year when I finally started using a real pumpkin, the recipe was complete! I made a homemade crust this year, and it was fabulous!

Most Awesome Pumpkin Pie

2 cups pumpkin puree
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1 2/3 cup milk (I use skim milk)
1/8-1/4 cup maple syrup

If you're starting from a pumpkin: Carefully cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Lightly drizzle the flesh with olive oil. Place cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. When the pumpkin is finished, the flesh should be easily pierced with a fork and the skin should be soft.

Let the pumpkin cool until it's easy to handle. Scoop out the flesh and place in a bowl. Once all the flesh has been removed, you can smooth it out a number of ways, blender, food processor, or immersion blender. I suppose you could hand mash it as well. Once the pumpkin is smooth and pureed, place a few layers of cheesecloth in a colander over a pot. Add the puree on top of the cheese cloth and let it sit covered for a few hours or overnight to drain the excess water. (You could probably use it right away, but your recipe might have a bit extra moisture.)

If you're making your own crust: I used Brown Eyed Baker's method for a butter crust and it was so easy and delicious!

She has directions for making a pie crust both with a food processor and by hand. The recipe calls for basically just butter and flour. So easy! (But rolling pins are helpful.)

For the pie:
Mix all the ingredients together. Pour into a 9 inch pie crust. Bake at 350 until the pie is set, around 40-45 minutes.

Enjoy with a dollop of homemade whip cream. So delicious!

Happy Holidays!

Fun with New Food: Spaghetti Squash

2010-11-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

I had heard of this mysterious vegetable called spaghetti squash but have never actually tried it before. When I saw it pop up at the farmers market last week, I was curious enough to give it a try.

All the recipes I had read seemed to treat it exactly like pasta. I found this a little suspicious. I mean, it was squash right?

However, I forged ahead, and Alex promised to eat whatever I came up with. He's an exceptional husband that way for building confidence in the kitchen. :-)

Spaghetti Squash with the last of Summer Veggies and Shrimp

1 spaghetti squash
1 bell pepper
1 small-medium zucchini
1 small yellow onion
4-6 cloves of garlic
3/4 pint of cherry tomatoes
1 shallot
1/2 lb medium shrimp, tails off
olive oil
1 lime
crushed red pepper
parsley
basil
feta cheese
salt to taste

Hack the squash in half with your biggest knife. Please use caution. Drizzle the flesh of the squash with olive oil then place cut side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

When the squash has a few minutes left in the oven, fry up the shrimp with olive oil, 1 chopped shallot, a few cloves of minced garlic, the juice of one lime and crushed red pepper flakes and parsley. Strain and set aside.

In a large skillet saute the chopped onion and a few garlic cloves with olive oil until the onions are softened. Add chopped bell pepper, zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes. Saute 2-3 minutes, the vegetables should still be nice and crisp. Add the shrimp back in remove from heat and cover until the squash is complete.

When the squash is done you should be able to insert a fork with little resistance. Let it cool a few minutes until it is easier to handle. Once it's cooled slightly, remove the seeds and use a fork to scrape out the insides into a pot or large bowl.

It should come out just like spaghetti! This was one of the coolest things ever!

When all the squash has been removed, add the vegetables and shrimp and toss with a handful of fresh chopped parsley, basil, salt to taste, crumbled feta cheese and a swirl of olive oil.

Delicious!

Alex and I were both amazed and a little weirded out at how tasty this was! We both really enjoyed it. The spaghetti squash really was almost like al dente pasta and is really easy to cook. I am super excited to try more fun recipes with this crazy vegetable!

Harry Potter World!

2010-11-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

So, if you know me, you know I'm kind of a huge Harry Potter nerd. If you know my mom, you know she falls into the same category.

Ever since Universal Studios announced they were creating a Harry Potter World earlier in the year, my mom has been telling me that we're going to go. She kept her word this weekend and the two of us headed down to Orlando for a girls weekend of Potter and Butterbeer. (One of the awesome perks of Delta letting even non-dependent kids fly free!)

Although I got in late Friday because of weird flights (the downside of previously noted perk) we still managed to get up and head to the park just a bit after they opened on Saturday morning.

Now, the original plan was that going in the fall, in a weekend so close to Thanksgiving would lead to fewer crowds. Yes, that was the original plan. Ha! I can't imagine what this place was like when it opened. It was FULL! We didn't get to see everything because some of the shops had an hour wait just to get inside! BOO!

Oh well, we still managed to enjoy ourselves and soak up all the fun magical details.

The park is set up as the village of Hogsmeade leading up to the Hogwarts Castle.

You are greeted as you walk in by a steaming Hogwarts Express.

As you can see, we weren't the only ones here! This place was HUGELY popular.

As you wander through the streets of Hogsmeade, we were delighted to find all our favorite stores, complete with details straight out of the books. I loved the whimsical crooked chimneys and the shop windows displayed everything from extendable ears and puking pastilles to self stirring cauldrons.

Inside Zonko's.

"Please do not walk on the walls."

The Three Broomsticks, where we stopped for lunch and butterbeer.

For future reference, at least in the US, butterbeer is like a really rich cream soda.

We also had Pumpkin Juice, which is kind of like drinking a pumpkin pie, quite yummy!

Inside Honeydukes Sweets Shop.

I brought home a box of these for Alex to try. Watching someone eat Every Flavour Beans, may be the most entertaining thing ever. :-)

One of the places we couldn't get in due to the long lines.

We also didn't get in Ollivanders, however, the Universal crew got confused here, as the wand shop is in Diagon Alley not Hogsmeade!

From Hogsmeade you approach the castle, which really is quite awesome.

There is a ride inside the castle or you can just do a tour, we did both and thoroughly enjoyed it. They did a really great job inside, though it was a little dark for photos and I didn't have a good flash.

The paintings spoke and followed you as you walked by.

The desk in Dumbledores office.

The office with gross point and shoot camera flash.

Bulletin Board in the hall. The picture moved like the Daily Prophet!

The ride in the castle was sort of a combo of motion ride, roller coaster-ish, disney magic ride. It almost actually felt like you were flying on a broomstick around the castle and through the quidditch field. (Side note: one of my co-workers actually spent this weekend at the quidditch world cup, yes, there is one in real life, who would have thought??) The ride was filled with dementors and dragons, and all sorts of fun magic things and left you quite breathless by the end of it! Fun times for sure!

Overall I'd have to say the park did a great job, getting most all the details right and it was great fun to bring the book to life. The only con I would give it is that it's too small! There were so many things they could have added and so many directions they could have taken it, I think we both got to the end and were like, "that's it?" What was there was excellent, but I wish there was more to see. The wizarding world is by far the most popular area of the park, so it seems a little silly they cut things short! Perhaps they have plans for the future to expand?

Thanks mom for a super great time!

Fingerlakes Birthday Weekend!

2010-11-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry I'm a bit behind, but I still wanted to post these photos!

Usually for my birthday Alex plans something as a surprise. I've been dropping hints to Alex since forever that I wanted to go wine tasting, particularly since I heard about the Fingerlakes region in upstate NY. He had been planning on taking me, but when we heard about the rally for sanity going on the same weekend, which he knew I also was interested in, he let me chose where I wanted to go.

I opted for a weekend up north.

Even though I didn't end up being surprised, I was SO excited to go! Wine tasting is one of my most favorite things, and the fingerlakes did not disappoint.

First off, upstate NY is BEAUTIFUL. We drove through beautiful mountain valleys and rolling farmland and even though we missed the peak foliage, it was still breathtaking.

We left Brooklyn on Friday morning and it was a about a 4 hour drive to Ithaca where we stopped for lunch at Moosewood Restaurant, whose cookbooks I've been enjoying for awhile now. From there we headed out around Lake Seneca and found our B&B, The Red Brick Inn, which was about half-way between Lake Seneca and Lake Keuka. The Inn was very nice, and I would recommend it if you're ever looking for a nice affordable place in the area.

We spent the remainder of Friday going for a walk around the farmland, relaxing, and then heading out to dinner in neighboring Watkins Glen which sits right next to Lake Seneca.

Looking back at the town.

On Saturday we enjoyed breakfast at the Inn and then headed out for the wine!

So much fun! The wineries in this region are SO relaxed, there is no snobbery at all. In fact, perhaps one of the highlights was a winery that had a little fun poking fun at those who take their wine a little too seriously.

Yes, their wine was actually quite good! :-)

After going tasting in California and Long Island, I was pleasantly surprised to find the wineries here so affordable! Most of them were either free or $2, and with that came 5-7 tastings and a free wine glass! Many of the vineyards offered delicious cheeses, fresh pesto and crackers, handmade fudge, or other snacks with their samples as well! The priciest vineyard of the day charged a hefty $5. NICE! This fit our student travel budget for sure.

Views from the Glenora vineyard, the oldest in the region. Not too shabby, even if most of the colors on the trees were faded.

Alex and I decided we definitely want to come back in the summer and rent a cabin on the lake.

Even though the trees had lost their leaves, the grape vines were a beautiful shade of gold.

A fantastic time had by all!

Our haul back in Brooklyn!

Around The World in 80 Dates: South Korea and Bibimbap!

2010-11-10T18:37:00.000-08:00

So we haven't been keeping quite as on top of this as we'd hoped, but slow and steady wins the race right? For more on the original challenge, click here.

A few weeks ago Alex and I decided we were going to make Korea our next stop on the adventure. Many people may know that NYC has a fantastic Chinatown. Not as many people are aware there is also a strip around 32nd Street and 6th Ave known as Korea-town. K-town, as it's known around here, is one of the many reasons I love NYC. Wander down one of these blocks, and you may well have wandered into Seoul. All of the restaurants, grocers, businesses, everything is in Korean. It's fantastic.

I'd been there many years ago with my friend Diane, but Alex had never been through, so we decided to hit it up one Friday after work since we're both in Manhattan then. I'd googled for a few reviews, but ultimately we just ended up walking around and finding a place that a. fit our budget, b. looked tasty and pleasantly busy, and c. looked authentic/not completely all tourists.

The place we picked out had the option of entrees downstairs and then Korean BBQ upstairs. Since Alex had never had the BBQ, we went for it. If you've never done Korean BBQ, I highly recommend it!

*I promise to bring my camera next time for the restaurant part!

There is a mini grill in the middle of your table, and then you order a selection of meats to grill yourself table side. You are also served a huge assortment of mini bowls of all kinds of fun vegetables, kimchi, greens, etc. Tons of food and loads of deliciousness.

The at home version!

So the problem came with part two of the challenge. It turns out our tiny apartment kitchen doesn't really come with a ready made grill for BBQ. So, I'm cheating a little, but decided just to make something traditionally Korean rather then imitating the restaurant.

Enter, Bibimbap! First off, if that isn't the most fun food to say, I don't know what is!

Bibimbap was super duper easy, and is seriously my new favorite dish. This was SO good. Make it tonight. The name literally means (according to wikipedia) "mixed rice" and my understanding is you can pretty much toss together whatever you like and it'll work! There's even a comic about how easy it is!

Here is the recipe I came up with after googling around and combining a few:

Bibimbap

Serves two

1/2 pound of grass fed strip steak
Assorted Veggies: Green Pepper, Two Carrots, Zucchini, handful of fresh spinach
2 eggs
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 TBS sesame oil
3 TBS soy sauce
1/2 tsp honey
1.5 tsp brown sugar
fresh ground pepper
red pepper flakes
1 C rice

Gujuchang (Korean red pepper sauce) for serving

Combine the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, sugar, a few grinds of black pepper, and a shake of red pepper flakes in a bowl. Slice the steak thinly and add to the marinade, turn to cover and refrigerate for an hour or two.

As a side note, this steak was AWESOME. It's from a vendor at the farmers market who I've seen lots, but never bought from. I will be getting more for sure. If you don't know why you need grass fed beef, watch Food Inc.

Slice your veggies thinly. I actually used a mandolin to get them into nice shoe strings, which worked really well!

Cook the rice to package directions. Usually 2 cups water, 1 cup rice, boil, turn down the heat and simmer until the water is gone.

In a wok or large skillet heat a few tablespoons of oil. When the pan is nice and hot, toss in the steak. Since it's thinly sliced, you really only need to stir fry it for a couple minutes at most. It should cook really quick.

Some people leave the veggies raw, but I decided to throw them in with the steak to mix in the flavor and cook them for just a bit nice and fast.

While the steak is cooking or as it finishes, drop two eggs in another skillet and cook to over easy.

To serve, traditionally this should be in a big stone bowl. However, in our house, we piled the rice on a plate, topped with the steak and veggie and capped it off with the egg.

Serve with gujucahng sauce, which you can find at a korean grocer or your local Whole Foods. Spicy, but not overly so, it adds a great flavor to the dish.

DELICIOUS!

29.

2010-11-08T12:16:00.001-08:00

That's a pretty big number. Last week I celebrated heading into the last year of my twenties.

In honor of the occasion, and the fact that I love making lists, I decided on a 30x30.

The first 30. I'm always scheming up new things I want to do. Often times when I'm telling Alex about all these cool things, he tells me I need to remember that I have actually already done some pretty fun things. And I shouldn't forget that. I figured this was a pretty good idea to remember, so thought I would start off my quest by listing 30 cool things I've done before turning 30.

The second 30. These are 30 things I hope to accomplish in the next year. Stay tuned, I will plan on a third rendition with the list of 30 post 30 in a year! :-)

30 awesome things DONE. (In no particular order other then my remembering them. Well, some things are probably in order. :-) )

1. Married a most amazing husband.
2. Managed to have a wedding story that involved: sunshine, hail, tornado wall clouds, and double rainbows.
3. Have kept in touch with and can still count many of the girls I was friends with in the 8th grade as some of favorite ladies. For some of you 6th grade! Wow, that's almost 20 years!
4. Lived in Spain
5. Lived in Ecuador
6. Taught English in a tiny indigenous village
7. Went sky-diving
8. Learned Spanish enough to pass for decently fluent-ish.
9. Pedaled furiously by bike to see sunrise over Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
10. Hiked to the top of Macchu Picchu.
11. Cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast on my own, from scratch.
12. Ran a half marathon.
13. Completed 5 triathlons.
14. Started a photography business.
15. Backpacked across Spain, France and Italy solo.
16. Survived a move to one of the craziest cities in the world. And learned to love it.
17. Consumed street food on 6 continents.
18. Completed a fast paced, though complete RTW trip.
19. Spent a night in the Sahara Desert.
20. Walked through the Sistine Chapel and saw Michelangelo's David.
21. Picked out fish fresh off the beach from the Dakar fish market.
22. Rode a motorbike through the Vietnamese country-side. (Rode not Drove, I let Alex do that.)
23. Got a black belt in Taekwondo.
24. Saw monkeys in Tikal.
25. Surfed in Hawaii. (Surfed is a big word here. More like stood up on a board while drifting on a ripple, however, I'm counting it. :-) )
26. Learned and now regularly practice yoga.
27. Snorkeled with sharks in Thailand.
28. Learned how to cook from scratch without a recipe.
29. Went white water rafting.
30. Went wine tasting in France, New Zealand, Hungary, California, and New York.

30 things TO DO before 30:
1. Run a half marathon under 2:30.
2. Finish an olympic distance triathlon.
3. Bake leavened bread.
4. Get a logo designed for my photo business.
5. Take more photography classes/workshops. (At least 2!)
6. Learn web design. (Basic web design)
7. Build my photo business.
8. Bake a pie completely from scratch, crust included.
9. Make apple crisp.
10. Make homemade cheese.
11. Run a 10K in under one hour.
12. Plan a 30th birthday trip extravaganza! (I have many ideas, now to buy the tickets)
13. Stay at a beach house on Long Island.
14. Get new glasses/contacts.
15. Bake something without a recipe.
16. Go fruit picking.
17. Design a better website/blog
18. Learn more about investing, and where my retirement deductions are actually going.
19. Cross country ski.
20. Make a meal from every country I've traveled to.
21. Try a new NY restaurant every month.
22. Make pasta from scratch.
23. Organize my recipe file.
24. Organize my drawers.
25. Rent a cabin on the fingerlakes.
26. Go somewhere awesome with our free AirTran tickets.
27. Have a dinner party. (This may be tricky in our little space...)
28. Get out to shoot more for fun in NYC.
29. Complete more countries for our 80 dates challenge.
30. Find direction. I'm determined to figure this out before next year.

New Photo Blog!

2010-11-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids,

I'm attempting to get a blog started just for the photo business. So, look for any new photo/portrait session posts to be up over there! I'll still be posting fun stuff here, but am giving the photo sessions their own space.

Announcing the De Nueva Photo Blog!

I'm still working on it, but for now, I'm pleased with the progress! Give it a visit, and hopefully more photos will be up soon!

Happy Monday!

Minestrone Soup!

2010-10-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

Alex was feeling a little sickly on Sunday and requested soup for dinner. I gave him a choice between sausage and lentil or a vegetable minestrone, and he opted for the veggie soup. (I think this may be the first time ever he picked the non sausage option. :-) )

I googled around a bit, but couldn’t find a recipe I liked so decided to make something up. Minestrone is basically veggies, beans and pasta in a tomato-y broth right? Close enough.

This turned out REALLY good! YUM. Soothing and filling, and super healthy I might add. Perfect for a chilly evening and sick husband.

Minestrone Soup
1 yellow onion
1 large carrot
1 stalk of celery
4 cloves of garlic
½ can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1/3-1/2 Cup corn kernals
1 box of vegetable broth (about 5 cups)
¼ Cup or so quinoa
About 1 cup of small pasta
Olive oil
Spices: parsley, basil, oregano, Marjoram , sea salt, black pepper, bay leaf

Finely chop all of the raw vegetables and garlic. Saute onions, garlic, carrot, and celery in olive oil in a large pot until the onions soften. Add diced tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and black beans. Stir. Add the veggie broth, quinoa and corn. Add spices, to taste. I ended up with probably 2 TBS of parsley, 1 TBS of Oregano, 1 TBS of basil, 1TSP of marjoram, a few grinds of pepper, salt to taste and a few shakes of crushed bay leaf. Add what looks right and smells good!

Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer about 15-20 minutes. While this is cooking, cook the pasta to package directions. When it’s al dente, strain and add to the soup. Enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture at the table, but this works just as well!

A breath of fresh air.

2010-10-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

I love living in the city. However, one of the great parts of NYC is that on days when you just need a breath of fresh air, a bit of peace and quiet, you can head north for 30 minutes, and find this.

And a little of this as well.

This Sunday was truly a beautiful fall day and just the right amount of chill in the air to make hiking in Harriman State Park the perfect way to spend the afternoon. A great time had by all!

Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

2010-10-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

So I realized it's been WAY too long since I last posted. Opps! I'm not quite sure what happened, but I figured I couldn't leave you hanging too much longer without something new and exciting from the kitchen.

I have been pretty uninspired by the recipes I've been finding in my reader lately, but saw this one on Savory, Spicy Sweet this morning and thought it might be just the thing to get me out of the slump.

I have never actually cooked beets before. In fact, I tried them for the first time ever this summer at Alex's grandmothers. Since they're still in season at the farmers market, I figured today was as good a day as any.

Aside from roasting the beets, this was actually really quick and easy. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but both of us thought this was delicious! Light but filling and the flavors worked great together!

I modified things just a bit for what we had on hand, otherwise, stuck pretty closely to the recipe. I cut the dressing amount in half from the original, and it ended up being perfect for the two of us with just a bit of lentils left over.

Warm Beet and Lentil Salad

For the Dressing:

Sherry Vinaigrette:

*1/8 cup sherry vinegar
*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
*a few dashes of dried thyme
* a dash of sea salt
*1/4 cup olive oil

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl

For the Salad:

* 3 medium beets
* 3/4 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
* 1 carrot, quartered
* 1 stalk celery, quartered
* 4 cups chicken stock (I used 2 C stock 2 C water)
* 1 cup dried French green lentils
* Salt and Pepper
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/4 pound sliced turkey bacon, diced (about 3-4 good sized slices)
(I imagine fancy bacon would be better, but this is what we had)
* 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 small carrot finely diced
* A few shakes of dried thyme
* 2 tsp sherry vinegar
* mixed greens (we had a mixture of lettuce and arugula)
* goat cheese
* French bread, for serving

Begin by roasting the beets.

Preheat oven to 375-400 degrees F.

Take 3 medium beets (red or gold), scrubbed, leaves trimmed, and coat them lightly with olive oil. Wrap them loosely in tin foil and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about an hour until cooked through. Let cool for a few minutes, peel, and then cut into thin slices.

While the beets are roasting, start to cook the lentils. Fill a pot with 4 cups of water or stock and add the carrot, celery, and half an onion. Bring to a boil. Add the lentils and turn down the heat and cover. Cook about 20 minutes until the lentils are tender. Drain well and remove the carrot, celery and onion.

As the lentils cook, Add the bacon to a frying pan and cook until lightly golden brown. Remove the bacon. Add the garlic and carrot and a quarter of chopped onion to the pan and cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the cooked lentils and bacon to the pan and stir to combine. Stir in a bit of thyme and 2 tsp of sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm.

To assemble the salad, place the mixed greens on a plate, top with the lentil mixture, and then add the beets. Top with goat cheese. Drizzle each salad with vinaigrette. Serve with slices of French bread.

Enjoy!

Juviza and Gihuber | Brooklyn Engagement Photographer

2010-09-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

When I'm not taking photos, my day job is managing an Americorps program at a community health center. Juviza was part of the first crew of Americorps I took over when I started. We had a great time taking photos down by the Brooklyn Bridge and I'm so excited to be a part of her wedding in a few short weeks!

Quinoa Stir-Fry

2010-09-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

I don't often cook with tofu. I do however love cooking with quinoa and a good stir fry so when this recipe popped up in my google reader, I thought I'd give it a shot.

The last time I made a stir fry with tofu it failed miserably, but I followed the directions more closely then I usually do with this and it turned out really great! I loved the flavors, subtle sesame oil and just enough ginger. It was also really quick, always appreciated on a weeknight. I would never have thought of quinoa in a stir fry, but it worked really well! Alex said this was just ok, but he had three plates full, so take that as you like. :-)

Stir Fried Quinoa with Vegetables and Tofu
From the New York Times

Ingredients:
1/2 pound extra firm tofu, drained and sliced thinly
2 broccoli crowns, broken into florets
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce (regular or low-sodium)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (may substitute soy sauce)
2 teaspoons dark Asian sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (grated on a microplane)
1 tablespoon minced ginger (grated on a microplane)
2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil
1 medium red bell pepper, cut in thin strips (we used 1 yellow and half a green)
3/4 pound (2 medium) baby bok choy, trimmed, washed and dried, cut in 1-inch lengths
1 bunch scallions, sliced very thin (I used one large scallion sliced thinly)
1.25 Cups quinoa, prepared to package directions

1. Place the tofu slices on paper towels. Place another paper towel on top, and prepare the remaining ingredients.

Cut the tofu slices into 1/2-inch dice. Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of water to a boil, and add the broccoli. Boil one minute, and transfer at once to a bowl of ice water. Drain and dry on paper towels.

2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil. Combine the garlic and ginger in another small bowl. Have all the ingredients within easy reach of your pan.

3. Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or 12-inch steel skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Swirl in a tablespoon of the oil by adding it to the sides of the pan and tilting the pan. Add the tofu. Reduce the heat to medium, and stir-fry one to two minutes until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry for no more than 10 seconds. Add the pepper and bok choy, and stir-fry for one minute. Add the broccoli, and stir-fry for one minute.

4. Swirl in the remaining oil, and add the scallions, quinoa and the soy sauce mixture. Stir-fry, scooping the ingredients up from the bottom of the wok, for about one minute until heated through and fragrant. Serve at once.

Enjoy!

Tomato Almond Pesto Pasta

2010-09-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe pop up in my google reader from Smitten Kitchen the other day, and with the mounds of tomatoes at the market, I figured it would be an easy dinner to try.

It was super easy, though I had to make it in batches due to the size of my mini food processor. We also added in a few handfuls of shrimp to add some protein to the mix and subbed in spaghetti as that's what we had in the house. Yum!

We served it with a nice green salad with some fun rainbow carrots and cherry tomatoes.

Overall, if you're looking for a delicious light pasta dish that's easy for a weeknight, you've found your dinner!

Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]
From Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Gourmet

3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed.

Reason #234

2010-09-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Bread.

One of the things I loved when I lived in Spain was the fresh bread. Every day my host mother would be sure to bring home a fresh loaf of delicious crusty bread to have with our lunch.

New York allows us to have a piece of that, as we often find ourselves shopping for food on a near daily basis. I always am picking something up, and with the market so close to work and the little shops in the neighborhood, we've become accustomed to having lots of stuff fresh!

However, the best part of the market along with the beautiful food are the people that stand behind the produce. I think it's so important to know where your money is going, and in the case of Hot Bread Kitchen, I couldn't be happier with the cause I'm contributing to. On their website, their mission states:

"Hot Bread Kitchen is a non-profit social enterprise that creates better lives for low-income women and their families. We do this by paying women while they learn the skills necessary to launch food businesses and achieve management track positions in food manufacturing.

To help offset the cost of our training and to build esteem in the contribution of immigrants, we sell delicious multi-ethnic breads that are inspired by our bakers and the many countries that they come from. We make it a priority to use local and organic ingredients."

How cool is that? I just got the ciabatta and a few little rolls for today, but I'm excited to try all the fun different kinds as well.

Here's to knowing where your food comes from, and using your dollar to make a difference.

Manhattan by Night.

2010-09-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Chances are if you've come to visit Alex and I since we've moved to the new neighborhood we've taken you for a stroll out to the Brooklyn Promenade. It's one of my favorite parts of where we live and where I regularly head on my running routes.

I've been meaning to get out to capture some night shots of the city for quite awhile and finally managed to get around to it this weekend. I love the promenade at night and am always entranced by the glow of Manhattan in the moonlight. They recently finished some new sections of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, so a lot of the Brooklyn side is now flood-lit at night, so the effect isn't quite as dramatic, but I still think it makes for a lovely view.

Around the World in 80 Dates

2010-08-25T19:44:00.001-07:00

While dining on sushi delivery (one of the wonders of living in Brooklyn) a few weeks ago Alex and I hatched the idea that we needed to try more new restaurants. Oddly, in Minnesota, we hardly ever repeated a place, but in NYC, sometimes the ridiculous number of options just kind of make us lean to the familiar neighborhood places. I mean, when the local pizza joint is good enough for Jay-z and Beyonce, I think that works for me.

Anyhow, it's no secret I'm a travel addict and love exploring new food in new lands. Since I can't always be getting my passport stamped, at least right now, we decided it would be fun to see how many different country cuisines we could sample right in our own backyard, and there's no better place to try then New York!

Thus, the Around the World in 80 Dates challenge was born. The rules are the following:

1. The restaurant must be country specific, no "asian fusion", etc. allowed.
2. At least one of us has to try something we've never heard of before.
3. It has to be a date, no take out. :-)
4. I will attempt to re-create at least one of the new dishes the following week at home.

Our first stop: Lebanon!

Alex: How did we pick Lebanon? Why, what better place to start than with the cradle of civilization itself? Wait, that's Mesopotamia, which technically is in Iraq. Where's Lebanon again? Oh: it's west of Syria and North of Israel. Still confused? If you look at your right hand palm facing up, and that represents the state of Wisconsin, then Lebanon is the equivalent of . . . some other body part. Either way, Lebanon is really more the tricyle or PowerWheels of civilization anyway.

But mostly we started with Lebanon because there is an authentic Lebanese restaurant named Tripoli a few blocks from our apartment that we'd been eying for awhile, so we spontaneously decided (after realizing that we didn't want to walk too far or drive anywhere) that that would be our first stop.

Nicki: Tripoli did not disappoint. Of course, like a moron I didn't have my camera with me for our first adventure, but oh well, I still want to count it! The inside of the restaurant is a little quirky, with kitschy sea murals and is decorated kind of like an old ship. The service was a bit slow but the food was delicious. In the spirit of trying something new and being authentic, we went with the Lebanese Traditional Maza, which then made me extra sad I didn't have a camera. It was quite a sight! The maza is a collection of 20 (!!!) different small plates, similar to Spanish tapas. It covered our entire table! I was pretty sure it would be too much, but then once we dug in it ended up being the perfect amount of food for the two of us, and a super fun dining experience to boot!
We enjoyed all of the plates, with the exception of one, olives. Try as both Alex and I might, neither of us can acquire a taste for them. Sorry mom :-(

For the at home version, I decided on three things, kibbeh, hummus, and tabouli salad. The kibbeh, or , kibbee mishwiye (I found lots of different spellings) was one of the more interesting things we tried, sort of a baked meat pastry. I couldn't find a recipe for exactly what we had tried, but something semi similar.

I apologize, I realize this is not super photogenic. But, it was REALLY tasty!

I used this recipe from All Recipes scaled back for 1 pound of ground meat with a little less salt. We used ground beef from the farmers market rather then ground lamb, as that's what I normally buy and was in the freezer. Otherwise, I followed the recipe, but baked it instead of fried.

I was a little worried about how this would turn out, but was surprisingly pleased! It was really easy and came together quickly, and, tasted really delicious! It wasn't as crispy as what we'd had in the restaurant, but close enough!

For the tabouli salad, I very roughly followed this recipe from Daily Unadventures in cooking, no green pepper and no scallions, but otherwise, more or less tossed the ingriedients together. Super easy, super yummy, and it even kept well for leftovers!

Finally, I whipped up my first ever batch of homemade hummus. Who knew this stuff was so easy?? Awesome, will be making this again. Light and fluffy and all around fantastic.

Lebanon success!

Stay tuned for the next adventure!

Quinoa with a side of Summer

2010-08-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

So many lovely things show up at the farmers market in the summer. One of my most favorite is fresh basil. It sits next to my desk and just smells so delicious all day. I'm always on the lookout for new ways to use it, and pesto is usually a great way to do so.

I saw this recipe on A Crafty Lass a few weeks back a starred it in my google reader. I love cooking with quinoa, and this would be a new way to use pesto along with some summer sweet corn, so I knew it'd be something I'd like to make.

I whipped this it up tonight with a few alterations, and it was delish! Super easy, pretty quick, and we even had leftovers after Alex and I had seconds, score!

Quinoa with Summer Vegetables, Shrimp and Pesto

1 cup dry quinoa, prepared per package directions, (usually 2:1 water to quinoa, boil, simmer covered until water is gone) A little over 2 cups prepared.
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1/3-1/2 lb shrimp
2 small potatoes
cherry tomatoes
1/2 green bell pepper
4 ears sweet corn
olive oil
Seasoning for potatoes... thyme, rosemary, pepper...

Chop potatoes into cubes and place in a skillet with olive oil over medium high heat. Add spices to your liking... I went with Thyme and rosemary. Fry stirring/flipping with a spatula until browned and a bit crispy on the outside, 8-10 minutes or so.

In another skillet saute the shallot, garlic and onion with the shrimp and olive oil until the shrimp is cooked. I added a bit of crushed red pepper for some flavor. Pour off any excess water if your shrimp were frozen. Slice the corn from the cob and add to the shrimp. Add the 1/2 green pepper. Cook for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes and fold in the quinoa.

Pesto:
Fresh Basil
Parmesan Cheese
Garlic
Olive Oil
Walnuts or pine nuts

Spin in a food processor until smooth.

Serve the quinoa mixture on a plate, top with the fried potatoes and then drizzle with pesto.

Enjoy!

Fun with Color!

2010-08-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

So in perusing my google reader yesterday I came across this post on 101 Cookbooks for a golden tomato sauce. As it was a gloomy day outside, I thought having virtual sunshine on a plate sounded like a fabulous idea. Luckily Monday has loads of tomato vendors at the greenmarket, so I decided to see what I could come up with.

In retrospect, I probably should have gone for more yellow then orange-y heirlooms, but these were just so delicious looking, I couldn't help myself. I used the smaller two for the sauce with a bit of the other one that had gotten a little mashed in my bag.

This recipe turned out so simple and easy, and was so delicious. I love having a gourmet feeling on a rainy Monday!

Sunshine Tomato Sauce with Summer Pasta

Two good size golden tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 good size cloves of garlic, finely chopped
a small handful of chopped parsley
1/4 tsp or more to taste crushed red pepper flakes
sea salt to taste
A few good slugs of olive oil

Put your shallot and garlic in a sauce pan with olive oil. Simmer a bit until things start to soften. Add the tomatoes and parsley. Stir in more olive oil and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally as the tomatoes begin to break down. Cover and let simmer 5-10 minutes. Blend to desired smoothness with an immersion blender.

Summer Pasta
1/2 package of pasta of your liking, we used penne
1 summer squash sliced thinly and chopped (we used a lovely asian heirloom version of avocado squash whose name I can't remember from the greenmarket, but zucchini or other summer squash would be fine. )
2 garlic cloves, chopped
olive oil
fresh basil
Prosciutto (I had pancetta in my head, but ended up with prosciutto, and I know you really shouldn't cook it if you're a food purist, but whatever)
Fresh parmigiana for serving.

Cook your pasta to package directions. Drain, set aside. Add your garlic to a pan with olive oil, saute. Add the squash, saute just a few minutes, add prosciutto if you like, though this could certainly just be with vegetables.

Mix the pasta with the veggies with a bit more olive oil so things aren't sticking together. Add torn fresh basil leaves after you take it off the heat. Serve topped with your golden sauce and freshly grated cheese. YUM.

Parents in the City!

2010-08-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago my parents made their way out to the big city for some fun in the big apple!

We had a great time showing off our new neighborhood, Central Park, taking a sunset cruise around the harbor, seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, and enjoying some fabulous eats!

We also went to the Dragon Boat festival in Queens, though not as cool as I'd hoped it would be, there was still some neat stuff.

Dad and I in Central Park.

View from the boat on the sunset cruise.

On Liberty Island.

Ellis Island Exhibit.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Thanks Mom and Dad! We had a great time having you for a visit!!

An active summer!

2010-08-22T13:35:00.001-07:00

This summer has flown by! I can hardly believe it's almost September.

Lots of fun events this summer, but I have to say, I'm pretty proud of all the fitness goals I've achieved! My goal originally was to run another 10K this year and compete in another triathlon over the summer.

After all was said and done, so far this year I've done 2 10k's, a HALF MARATHON!, a sprint triathlon, and today a 5K as part of a 10 mile relay. Woohoo!

Lots of fun, and lots of early mornings, but I made it. I'm hoping to still squeeze in another race or two before the weather turns to snow.

As I never actually blogged about the half, I figured I'd share some photos as well.

Before I started training for the half marathon, I was determinedly NOT a distance runner. I dabbled in 5K's and once a 10K, but was fairly convinced I was just too slow. However, once convinced that doing a half marathon was a good idea, I realized that mostly, I just needed a mental change of heart. Once I quit telling myself that running anything over 3 or 4 miles was really scary, I figured out I could actually do it! I'm still not the fastest girl on the road by any means, but I'm no longer scared of longer distances and can officially tell myself, I am a distance runner!

About a month after coming back to NY after the half, I was up for a sprint triathlon in Harriman State Park, about 30 miles north of the city. It's amazing how much beautiful green wooded scenery can be found so close to the intense urban lifestyle that is Manhattan.

This race involved a 1/2 mile lake swim, a 16 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. The course was beautiful! Although, the bike was the absolute HILLIEST I have ever seen. It was up and down, and up and up. Downhill was clocking well over 30 mph! But then most of it was right back up!

Coming out of the water.

Finishing the run.

We saw at least 10 deer while driving in, an eagle, and apparently one of the swimmers even saw a black bear on the shore of the lake while we were in the water!

I was pleased with my time and am excited to attempt my goal next year of a full Olympic course.

Today was the last race of the summer, the Battle of Brooklyn 10 mile! Since I wasn't quite up for a 10 mile race, and Jackrabbit Sports decided they were going to offer a relay option, I decided that would be much more fun!

Alex, Andrea and I headed out this morning and had a great race! Yay Team Awesome!

Falafal with Tomato Sauce

2010-08-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't cooked anything new in awhile so decided it was time I dove back into my cookbooks. I had a few recipes picked out from my beautiful African cookbook and decided to go with the falafal. I love falafal, but have never made it on my own, so thought this would be an interesting experiment.

I started to mash my chickpeas by hand, but then that was just not working, so I spun them in the food processor instead. Much easier.

I assigned Alex to be my fryer while I worked on the other parts of the meal. However, these didn't hold together for him as well as I'd hoped. The final product ended up being not quite so pretty, but oh well, we aren't going for any presentation contests here.

Despite looking rather un-pretty, these actually tasted delicious, especially with the sauce!

The recipe called for serving these with a tomato sauce, which is listed as "quick tomato sauce", or at least that's what I thought. Boo. Upon actually reading the recipe, it says you have to roast tomatoes in the oven for 40 minutes. That, does not equal quick tomato sauce to me. So, I made up my own sauce, and was flabbergasted that it was actually really good and worked with the falafal! Yay! I am learning something in the kitchen!

The book also said to serve with a cucumber sambal, which, in theory sounded good. However, I added waaay too much mint, and this part, while ok, did not go with the rest. Oh well. 2 out of 3 isn't too bad!

Homemade Falafal
Inspired by The Soul of a New Cuisine

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 handful chopped parsley
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp chili powder
a little less then 1 TBS cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
a few shakes of sea salt
a few grinds of black pepper
1 egg
canola oil for frying

Spin your garbanzo beans in a food processor until mostly smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the onion, parsley, spices, and beaten egg. Stir until blended. Make the batter into little balls or tiny patties. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add your falafal balls and cook until browned on all sides.

Update: This recipe has turned out a lot better if I saute the onion and garlic a bit first with a bit of olive oil until softened. Then add to the mix.

Easy Tomato Sauce
Inspired by Spicy Tomato Sauce served with Tunisian Omelet.

2 large beef steak tomatoes
A few cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
Handful of chopped parsley
1/4 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp (or so) coriander
sea salt
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
A few shakes of dried basil
a few pours of olive oil

This recipe is pretty approximate, but basically, chop your tomatoes, garlic and shallot. Put in a saucepan with olive oil. Simmer with spices stirring occasionally until tomatoes break down. Let simmer covered for 5-10 minutes. Smooth things out with an immersion blender if desired. Enjoy!

Farmers Market Reason #347

2010-07-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Trying new things. One of the highlights of my work week is perusing the green market on my lunch break to see what new fun vegetables I can find to try. Since we’re now in full swing of the summer produce explosion, it’s always an interesting adventure.

Generally speaking, in the past I have hated eggplant. I just am not a fan. To me it always seemed to be a slimey tasteless gross vegetable. However, I saw these adorable eggplants at the market and couldn’t resist. Even if they tasted bad, I still wanted to take a photo!

Aren’t they cute? I love the color and the stripes and the little witches hat top.

The stand I got these from, Boditree Farms, always has the most fun stuff. She specializes in gourmet Asian produce, and her veggies are always the most beautiful to be found, guaranteed. I also picked up some peppers from Laney this week, not green or red or jalapeno, but shishito peppers! Not hot, but flavorful, perfect for me!

I decided I was going to make a vegetable green curry with my haul last night, so chopped everything up, stir fried it up with some garlic and oil and then crafted a green curry using coconut milk, green curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, brown sugar, and garlic, basically following Erin’s idea. We also threw in some shrimp as well. This was delicious! And the eggplant was good too! And so colorful and looked so pretty on the plate! All told it included the Indian Paint Eggplant, Shishito Peppers, Green Pepper, Carrot, Onion, Garlic, Broccoli, Kale, and Zucchini. YUM!

City of Blue Doors

2010-07-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

From Machu Picchu we headed back to Cuzco, with a stop in the Sacred Valley village of Ollantaytambo. Here we stayed in the most adorable little inn, and I really wish we could have had more time! The owner was so sweet and the town was nice and quiet.

Sacred Valley

So many stairs.

We hiked some ruins here, of course!, and then took a little minivan taxi thing back to Cuzco.

Overall I really liked Cuzco quite a bit. The little windy streets reminded lots of Toledo in Spain, and although it was quite touristy, it was definitely charming as well. We ended up eating almost every night at this adorable little Italian place called Vittorio, if you're ever there, you MUST go! Oddly, we ate more Italian food in Peru then we ever eat in New York. Very strange.

Plaza de Armas in Cuzco

Anyway, Cuzco was lots of wandering around, up hills of course. We saw the main ruins on top of the city and also took a bus to the little city of Pisaq. Pisaq was really cute and we had fun perusing the market there, eating delicious empanadas, and hiking up more mountains. (I have made Alex promise that I get to pick the next trip. Which involve approximately ZERO mountains and ZERO ruins. :-) )

Pisaq.

Little Cuzco streets.

Cuzco.

I also had lots of fun taking pictures in Cuzco, and became really intrigued with the doorways, they were all the brightest shade of blue! A little series for your enjoyment.

Finally, this is one of my favorite things we found in Peru. This was painted on a random wall on a back street in Cuzco. The exploitation of indigenous people wearing traditional dress by tourists is absolutely appalling, especially in a place like Cuzco. For this to depict things the other way around I think is absolutely perfect. I wish more people could see and understand what's going on here, and maybe, just maybe have a modicum of respect and think about why they're taking that snapshot in the square of the woman with her llama.

On a more positive note, though I complain about all the hills Alex made me climb up, the trip as a whole was a wonderful experience. The views from the top were also worth the climb, something I have found to be true on every trip I've taken. I feel like we just got to experience a small glimpse of an incredible country in our short 2 weeks. We've both said Peru is a country we would love to return to. It has so much more to offer then just the small tourist trail we hit. Most of all, the Peruvian people made the trip. They were so warm and gracious and went out of their way to help us whenever we asked. Someday soon, we'll be back!

Machu Picchu!

2010-07-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

After Puno, Alex and I grabbed a bus to Cuzco. We opted for the "panoramic" option, which basically meant we were on the top of double decker bus, right in the front. In theory, this was a pretty cool idea. And yes, the scenery was pretty spectacular. However, it also meant we had a front row seat to the daring antics of our driver, which certainly led to us having second thoughts when he would speed around a semi while going around a sharp turn in a cliff side mountain road with no guardrail.. EEK!

View from the bus.

When we arrive in Cuzco, we found a taxi, and headed up the super skinny winding streets to our hostel. It was pretty beautiful, with a view overlooking the city. Alas, we only had this room for one night, but pretty cool nonetheless!

We would be back to Cuzco, but for the time being left the next morning for Aguas Calientes, the town that exists for no other reason then to be a sort of base camp for Machu Picchu. Due to mudslides earlier in the season we had to take a combination of bus and train to get there, but all worked out. I must say Aguas Calientes is a very strange place. It's extremely fake, almost a disney land of sorts for people coming to see Machu Picchu. There are no cars, and just hotels, restaurants, and tourist shops. Kind of icky, but it is in a spectacular setting, surrounded by green mountains and cloud forest. Kind of unfortunate.

Alex and I wandered around a bit when we arrived, bought our tickets for the next day and relaxed. Well, I relaxed. Alex decided it would be a good idea to hike into the woods and climb a broken down rope ladder up a mountain. Luckily, he made it back. :-)

Clearly this was a good idea.

The next day we set our alarms for the bright and cheery hour of 3:45am in order to make it to the bus stop first. (Buses begin departing from Aguas at 5:30am for MP) We'd been told only the first 400 people are allowed to climb Wayna Picchu, the huge mountain behind the ruins, and we wanted to get our shot.

We made it to the bus stop at about 4:20 and were about 20 or 30 back in line. People also hike up in the morning, but we figured we would take the bus to save our legs for the ruins. We waited and waited, and then finally the buses were starting up so we got ready to board. As we approached the front the woman asked for our tickets, and so I gave her our tickets. To the ruins. She again asked for our bus tickets. I looked at Alex who looked back at me. CRAP. We had been sitting there the whole time and had forgotten to buy our tickets!

We left the line and luckily one of the attendants saw our plight and said we could get right back in at the same spot. This was super lucky as the line now stretched all the way up the huge hill of the city. We ran over to the ticket person bought our tickets and ran back. We were knocked decently far back though, so were pretty sure we weren't going to make it and had gotten up early for nothing. Shoot.

The ride up to MP is a pretty motion sickness inducing one, back and forth and back and forth up the switch backs of a huge mountain. We reached the top and the gate just after sunrise. You stand in line once you arrive as the gates don't actually open until 6 or 6:30. As we were standing in line a ticket agent came down to stamp our tickets for admission to Wayna Picchu! We made it, 336 and 337! Hurray!

At opening time we headed inside and straight up hill to get our first glimpse.

From there we hiked down into the ruins to make our way over to Wayna Picchu. I'm really glad we got there as early as we did as the ruins are only quiet in the really early morning before the massive tour group busses arrive. This was one of the only times during the day we had things about to ourselves.

There are llamas roaming the main grounds, and I swear this one was posing for all the cameras!

What we were about to climb. You have to sign in at a gate, for crowd control, and to make sure you come out safely, as you have to sign out as well.

Wayna Picchu is the huge mountain in the back of all the ruin pictures, and it was quite a feat to climb. Old stone steps, a few rope ladders, and scrambling up some rocks. There were definitely a few areas where a fear of heights kicked in for me and I was having no more of that.

However, if you can handle the vertigo/fact that you are multiple hundreds of feet up with no safety net, the view is pretty outstanding. Just watch your step and hang on tight!

View about half way up.

This particular ledge was kinda scary as everyone takes their photo there, but a Spanish family was ahead of us, and taking forever!, and then the dad half slipped as they were backing off, and proceeded to give me a heart attack.

We made it to the top!

View of MP from the top, including the switch backs the buses climb to get to the site.

Ruins with surrounding valley.

We relaxed at the top for a good half hour or so and then made our way back down. There was so much step climbing this day my knees were killing me by midafternoon!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the ruins, we were there probably until about 1:30 or 2pm. I was plenty ruined out by that point, but glad I had gotten to experience everything they had to offer. The site also starts getting really crowded by this time, so it was the perfect time to head back!

Overall I would say of the three major ruins we've been to (Angkor, Tikal, and MP) I still like Angkor Wat the best by far, but Machu Picchu has such a spectacular setting, it's worth going just for that. The mountain surroundings truly are incredible and completely take your breath away!

Lake Titicaca and the Islands

2010-07-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

So, it's taking me forever, but I FINALLY finished going through all my photos today, so I should be able to wrap up the Peru posts soon! Yay!

For any of you who are curious, you can find all of the photos here and here.

Anyhow, from Arequipa, Alex and I took a bus to Puno, the main port city on Lake Titicaca. The bus ride there in itself was an experience. As soon as we boarded, I was a little suspicious of our company, as the bus was clearly not in good repair. We were scheduled to leave at 10:30, but that clearly was not going to happen. Most to my surprise was that the Peruvians on the bus did expect to leave on time and were yelling Vamos! Vamos! to the bus driver trying to get him to leave. Once we finally got moving, we were entertained by a constant barrage of traveling salesmen. These guys basically put on infomercials for everything imaginable, from herbal cures to good parenting books.

Much to our surprise, we actually arrived in Puno basically on schedule, even after a few unscheduled stops. Who knew?

Upon arriving in Puno, we made our way to our hotel and huffed it up the three flights of stairs to our room. Arequipa was a little ways up, but in Puno, at over 3800 meters, you can definitely feel the altitude. I thought Alex was going to have a heart attack after carrying our pack up the steps! Although I felt decently ok, aside from being short of breath, Alex definitely came down with altitude sickness and we spent the next day or so just taking it easy.

Our main goal in Puno was to spend some time on the islands of Lake Titicaca. This was something that wasn't decided upon lightly. In fact, at first we weren't even going to come because we had heard the exploitation of local cultures in the area had reached pretty awful levels. This is something we both feel really strongly about and don't want to take any part in.

However, after doing our research we found that it was possible to visit the islands and still experience all the beauty the lake had to offer without going through a tour agency and contributing directly to the livelihoods of individuals living on the islands. We decided that this option would work out for us and I'm so glad we did, visiting the lake was one of my favorite parts of the trip by far.

Port at Puno.

Looking back at the city.

We ventured our way down to the port in the morning and asked the locals for the boat to Isla Amantani. As there is only one boat that goes there, we figured we'd get the local one. Success! We paid our captain directly, who spoke basic Spanish at best (they speak quechua on the islands) and looked as though he had weathered his fair share of storms on the island, and set sail at 8:30. It was great! We were on board with a few other islanders, one Frenchmen, two French ladies, and a girl from Austria. It was about a 3.5 hour trip to Amantani, but the scenery was beautiful and it was a gorgeous day so no complaints.

Headed out on the lake.

On the way we stopped at the Uros islands, which are the part that have been over touristed, but the section we stopped at was much quieter, and we didn't stay very long. The Uros people are very interesting in that they build their islands and boats completely out of reeds from the lake.

On the Uros islands.

From the lake we could also see the bordering snow capped mountains, which were pretty far away, but still beautiful.

Isla de Amantani

Once we reached the island, we got off the boat and the captain divided us up into groups and told us where we would be spending the night. Alex and I as well as the girl from Austria, Karin, were sent off with the Captains wife. After walking up the rocky beach we headed straight up hill, the wife in her sandals clearly easily out walking all of us huffing and puffing behind her.

Their home was perched overlooking the lake with a little corn and a number of sheep. They had a small guest house attached to their main house where they allow guests to stay. It was nothing fancy, but perfectly quaint for our evenings accommodations.

I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but here's the house from the yard.

Corn in the courtyard.

Sheep!

Also, baby sheep are ADORABLE!

The wife cooked us lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next morning and all were delicious. Vegetable soup, a main dish with squeeky cheese, potatoes and rice and hot tea. For the 25 soles each we paid her, about $8, for 3 meals and accommodations, I'd say it was well worth it! Considering we also felt so much more a part of the culture, if you head to this area, I highly recommend a home stay.

After heading out to explore around the island, we got directions from the Captain and headed up to trek to the top of the island where we heard the sunsets were amazing. His wife led us most of the way, and then we trekked up the rest. It was quite a hike, and FREEZING once the sun went down, but it was certainly beautiful from the top.

A little more to go!

We made it!

Sunset!

After making our way back down after the sunset (much easier, but a little tricky in the dark) we enjoyed dinner and got to bed pretty early. However, we did make sure to step out and see the stars though. Holy moly. I have never seen so many stars and galaxies in my whole entire life! It was breathtaking.

The next day after breakfast we caught the boat and headed back towards Puno. On the way we topped off at the other main island, Taquile, to do some more hiking and enjoy a few more lake views.

On Taquile.

Alex and I just couldn't get over how beautiful the lake was! If we had had more time, I would have certainly stayed longer!

Farm Country!

2010-07-08T19:23:00.001-07:00

This past week Alex and I headed back to the midwest to visit family and friends, and for me to run a little half marathon. Our first stop was Wisconsin to see Alex's extended family. The family on his mom's side still lives in rural farm country and we had a lovely time seeing everyone and enjoying some scenery the complete opposite of our life in crazy New York City.

Moo!

I got to pick fresh raspberries! YUM!

So pretty. There are days, sometimes, when I think about if I could trade big city for green pastures...

Quinoa Shrimp Salad with Lime Ginger Dressing

2010-07-08T18:13:00.001-07:00

I never would have thought with the heat this week that I'd be cooking so many new things. But I've made something new every night so far!

I stumbled upon this recipe in the New York Times. It sounded like it had lots of things both Alex and I like, and also needed minimal actual cooking and sounded nice and light for summer.

It turned out delicious! This is a perfect summer salad, filling, but not heavy, and lots of great flavors.

I basically used the recipe, but added a few things to our liking.

Quinoa Shrimp Salad with Lime Ginger Dressing:

For the dressing:

1 freshly squeezed lime (At least 2TBS)

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, grated on the microplane

Salt to taste

Pinch of cayenne

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1/4 cup canola oil

2 tablespoons milk mixed with a few drops of lemon juice (This was a sub for buttermilk, if you've got buttermilk, go for it!)

For the salad:

1 cup Quinoa uncooked

2 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced thin

1/4 - 1/3 cup chopped sugar snap peas

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 package of shrimp (about 1/2 lb?)

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the lime juice, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, salt, cayenne, sesame oil, canola oil, and buttermilk.

Cook quinoa per package directions (usually one cup water and one cup quinoa, boil, cover and lower heat, simmer until the water is gone). While the quinoa is cooking, cook your shrimp with a few cloves of garlic and olive oil with the juice of half a lime and half a lemon.

When the quinoa and shrimp are finished, combine them in a salad bowl. (Strain the shrimp, but throw in a few of the cloves of garlic.) Combine them with the scallions, cucumber, peas, and cilantro. Toss with the dressing and divide among salad plates. Top with crumbled feta if you like.

Enjoy!

What to eat when it's a million degrees...

2010-07-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

And your apartment has no A/C.

With the temperatures soaring over 100 degrees today I was not about to make anything hot for dinner tonight, or even think about turning on the stove.

I was craving Sahadi's hummus and something cool and refreshing and decided to combine the two. I was originally going to go for a sort of pico de gallo, but saw a mango at the little grocer next to Sahadis, and that sealed the deal.

Mango Salsa Hummus with Fresh Feta Pita Pizza

Mango Salsa:
A couple handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes
A few sprigs of cilantro
One scallion chopped
One large clove of garlic
Half a jalapeno, seeded
A small quarter of white onion
One half a green pepper
One mango, peeled
A dash of sea salt
Juice of one lime

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until desired smoothness.

Spread hummus on a pita, spoon salsa over the top, cover with chopped tomatoes and crumbled feta.

Enjoy!

(This is only a half size because I had already eaten a whole one!)

Arequipa!

2010-06-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

From Lima, Alex and I headed to Arequipa. We had considered taking the bus, but then when we found out it would be like a 26 hour ride or something horrendous, we looked into plane tickets. The newly launched Peruvian Airlines had a special and ended up being pretty affordable, and on this trip we were willing to pay a bit more for a 40 minute flight over a 20 hour bus ride.

Arequipa was a really nice town, it had a more colonial feel and was certainly a bit more geared to tourists then Lima was. We spent our time here just taking it easy, enjoying a meal on the beautiful Plaza de Armas, and investing in some alpaca sweaters. We had come to find out we didn't really pack appropriately for the season and nights were getting VERY chilly. The sweaters came in very handy, especially in the next town of Puno.

Catedral in the Plaza de Armas.

Arequipa was our first stop into the mountains and just starting to hit some altitude. We also broke out of the Lima grey and had some actual sunshine!

The first day we hiked out of the center of town, (seriously, we hiked everyday for the next two weeks!), and up to what was supposed to be a pretty lookout. However, when we arrived, it was sadly under construction. Lame. It still had some nice views, however, lots of them were interrupted with silly dump trucks.

We decided that this was too cute of a street not to wander down, and were happily surprised to come upon a great little outdoor cafe were we could stop for an afternoon snack and a pitcher of lemonade.

Walking down into the cafe garden.

Not a bad view with lunch!

Later that day we spent a couple hours exploring the monastery in town. It's huge and is almost like it's own little enclosed city. Alex and I split up while walking around, and he found some great stuff that I didn't see, but again, the small camera was still on the wrong setting. :-(. So some of these files are too small, but I still really like a number of the shots he got! These are few from both of us.

After the monastery, we mainly just did a lot of relaxing, a little shopping and wandering around. The one strange thing that happened was on our second night there, I was sleeping and Alex was up reading. Suddenly, I was woken up by what I thought was a huge truck rumbling by outside our hostel, however, Alex swears it was a brief earthquake! I'm still not sure, but I will say we never saw any trucks big enough on the little street we were on to rumble the hotel... We never did find out, but still a little extra added excitement!

Summer Stir Fry

2010-06-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

I generally enjoy reading the Pioneer Woman's blog, but often times her recipes are a bit too heavy for me. However, early in the week she posted a delicious looking summer stir fry, and I knew it would hit the spot for a warm summer evening.

I added a few different things like yellow summer squash and basil and chives, and took out the butter, but mostly followed her recipe. We served ours over whole wheat couscous and it made for a great light a refreshing meal! It came together really quickly and was super tasty for dinner and for lunch the next day!

So colorful!

Lima!

2010-06-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

I promised I would get around to photos eventually! My plan is to blog about our trip city by city, this way I can keep things from getting too long, and make it easier for everyone.

Our first stop in Peru was Lima. We arrived in the early afternoon and breezed through customs and headed out to find our taxi, which was supposedly arranged by our hostel. No such luck. Shoot! After debating a bit, we decided to find another taxi and prepared to haggle. However, much to our surprise, this wasn't really necessary. The driver basically gave us the price we requested on the first try. We later found out this was pretty typical. We bargained some, but never anything over the top.

As we made our way through the country, it was clear that the tourism industry has been pretty devastated by the mud slides that occurred earlier in the year. People seemed to be happy for any business that showed up. Despite it being high season, we were often some of the only people staying in any given hostel. I chatted with the incredibly sweet woman who owned the inn we stayed at in the Sacred Valley and she told me this time last year they had 25-30 guests per night, on this evening, it was just Alex and I.

In any case, back to Lima. Our taxi driver was incredibly helpful, also a character trait we came to find across Peru. Our hotel was a bit hard to find at first as it's on a random side street and many of the hotels in Lima don't have signs out front because of weird tax laws. But, we found it, and it turned out great. If you're ever in Lima, the Inka Frog is a fabulous place!

We spent our first day catching up on sleep and just leisurely exploring. We were staying in the nice suburb of Miraflores, and found it really pleasant to walk around. We stumbled upon a few art exhibits, had churros with chocolate and just enjoyed the afternoon. The only problem was the gray! The skies of Lima are apparently just solid gray for 8 months of the year. I couldn't deal with that long term, but for a few days, we survived.

On the second day we went for a run along the seaside cliffs of Miraflores, which has been landscaped into a beautiful boardwalk/park of sorts. Along part the walk is El Parque del Amor, (Park of Love), reminding both Alex and I lots of Paqrue Guiell in Barcelona with all of the mosaic tile work benches.

Center piece of the park.

Cliffs of Miraflores

After our run we caught a taxi to Central Lima, which is more of the old historic center.

Plaza de Armas in Central Lima

Catedral de Lima

Other church in Lima

After wandering a bit, we stumbled upon one of the old colonial houses. We thought it was a museum, but found out it had been converted to offices and a few people still lived there. The caretaker gave us a tour and even took us up the roof, which was actually fairly interesting.

Courtyard of colonial house.

Rooftop

The other side of the rooftop... apparently a number of families still live in these houses, which are fairly dilapidated. The caretaker said there was a lot of problems and crime with so many people living in such close quarters in poor conditions.

After a long afternoon of sight seeing we decided to cap off the afternoon with our first pisco sours.

These are basically the official cocktail of Peru and are awesome. I highly recommend them!

That night we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner, as Lima is apparently the gastronomic capital of South America, or so says our guidebook. As it was nearly our anniversary and Alex's birthday, we figured it was worth it! I didn't take any photos of the food, but it was fantastic, one of the best meals I've had in a very, very long time. Scallops, on the shell!, in a lime butter sauce, ceviche, and other fresh seafood, with wine, and pisco sours, delivered (and insisted upon) to us by the restaurant owner. Delicious.

Our last day in Lima Alex wanted to make an attempt to hit Pachacamac, ruins a little ways out from the city center. Getting there was an adventure in itself as we decided to take the city buses, which are sort of like mini vans that get packed to the gills. We had to take two different buses, making the transfer under a freeway overpass. Clearly there was no chaos involved whatsoever... I must say though, these are the kind of adventures I enjoy, and are even possible because we speak Spanish, I don't think I'd attempt something quite like this in other countries.

I didn't bring my SLR out to the ruins, so we just had the point and shoot that I got basically for this trip. Unfortunately I'm an idiot and didn't realize I had the camera set on the wrong setting, so the first few times we used it in Lima and then in Arequipa the pictures were taken on a super small file setting. :-( I'm SO annoyed with myself, Alex took some really nice shots, and I'm not sure we'll be able to enlarge them at all. Boo. Oh well.

Anyhow, we eventually made it to Pachacamac, after missing our first bus transfer and heading pretty far out into the slums surrounding Lima, opps. Luckily, the bus door guy noticed the gringos sitting on the bus, clearly we were not in the right place, and directed us back the other way.

Pachacamac is in a pretty desolate area in the desert. The temples are actually still being excavated, so mostly what you see is lots of sand.

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Alex inspecting the map.

After climbing to the top... the first of many.

The neighboring village ends fairly abruptly into the desert.

Up next, Arequipa!

Adventures in Gluten Free Baking

2010-06-21T19:33:00.001-07:00

Part of the joys of having a car in New York City is that you have to move it every few days for street sweeping. (Which I think is HUGE scam by the city, but that's another thing entirely) Anyhow, as we were going to Peru for a couple weeks, we needed to find someone who could help us out moving the car around every few days. This happens to be more difficult then one might think for Alex and I as my car is a stick shift, and silly Americans don't tend to know how to drive it. I posted a plea on facebook hoping that I could find someone who would be able and willing, and luckily my old co-worker Shawn said he would help us out!

I had offered the driver tasty home baked treats as a reward. However, Shawn was on a strict gluten free diet, doctors orders. I'm not normally a fan of the gluten free craze, but I figured I would make an exception just this once. :-)

After scouring the internet for recipes, I came up with two that sounded tasty, Alton Brown's Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chip and the Gluten Free Goddess Dark Chocolate Brownie.

Both of these recipes required that I buy a bunch of crazy flours and new ingridients, xanthan gum one of the stranger in my opinion. However, much to my enormous surprise, they worked out!

I have to say, if you fall into the category of wanting to attempt to bake gluten free, both of these recipes were really good and got rave reviews!

I will likely stick to my normal flour baking, but, if you're feeling adventurous, give them a try!

(The cookies did expand quite a bit and were a bit tricky to get off the sheet at first)

Mixed Grains and Veggies!

2010-06-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week my lovely friend Andrea sent me a tasty looking recipe involving farro, lemon and dill. It looked like a great dish that would be light and easy, perfect for a warm summer night.

I went out on my lunch break and picked up my veggies at the farmers market and headed into Whole Foods to try and find some farro. Much to my dismay, the little tiny package was $10! That's a little too rich for me. I hung my head and left disappointed, figuring I'd have to come up with something else to make. However, much to my happy surprise, walking back through the green market I found out farro was actually half the price for much more at the awesome Cayuga Pure Organics stand and I snagged some after all.

My tub of farro, a tasty, slightly nutty grain.

I used Andrea's recipe as a basic guide and then went from there. It was delicious and made for a great dinner and lunch the next day! The fresh dill really makes the dish and I can imagine so many different variations of this! We will certainly be making more dishes with farro!

Mixed Grains with Veggies and Feta:

3/4 C Farro
1/2 C Quinoa
1 Zucchini
1 Onion
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 C or so chopped sugar snap peas
1/2 C or a little more chopped carrot
1/4 C chopped fresh dill
1/8 C chopped fresh chives
Juice of one lemon
crumbled feta

(The vegetable measurements are just a guess, you could certainly add more, I really didn't measure mine)

In a medium sauce pan bring 1.5 Cups of water to boil, add farro. Reduce heat and cover. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20-30 minutes until the water has been absorbed. Bring one cup of water to boil with the quinoa, cover, reduce heat and simmer until the water is absorbed, about 10 minutes or so.

In a deep skillet saute your onion, carrots and garlic with a bit of olive oil until the onions are well softened. Add your zucchini and snap peas and cook a bit more. Once everything is done to your liking, add in the quinoa and farro and mix everything together. Add the juice of your lemon and then stir in the dill and chives. Serve topped with crumbled feta.

Happy Birthday Alex!

2010-06-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today was Alex's 30th birthday, and in honor of the occasion he requested a cheesecake when I asked what I should bake. He just wanted something simple, no crazy flavored kinds. I had found a recipe online that I was going to use, but then upon paging through my Cafe Brenda cookbook, I found one that sounded even better, and pretty healthy as far as cheesecake goes!

Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberry Glaze
Cafe Brenda Cookbook

Crust:
2 packages (not 2 boxes) graham crackers
6 TBS butter, melted
1/4 C Honey (I actually forgot this and didn't realize until too late, shoot)
1/2 C ground pecans

Crush the graham crackers into fine crumbs. A food processor works great. Add pecans, butter and honey, and mix well. Press the crust into the bottom and sides of a lightly greased springform pan. Pre-bake crust for 5 minutes at 375 degrees.

Cheesecake:
16 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 C maple syrup or honey (I did half and half)
1 C sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 TBS cornstarch
1 TBS lemon zest

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add honey or maple syrup and beat until well combined. Add sour cream, vanilla, and egg. Blend together. Spring cornstarch on mixture and beat it in with lemon zest. Pour the batter over the crust and bake at 375 for 25 - 30 minutes or until set. The center may jiggle a little at first, but will set as it cools. ... (I had issues with this. I'm not sure if my oven is wonky or what. I baked my cheesecake for 35 minutes and it jiggled a bit in the middle, but I thought it would be ok. Not so much. Our final product is a bit gooey. I would recommend baking until you're sure the middle is pretty well cooked. )

Fresh Strawberry Glaze:

1 pint Strawberries
1/2 TBS cornstarch
1/4 C cold water
1/4 C honey

Clean and hull the strawberries, set a few aside to decorate the cake. Puree the rest to get 1 C of strawberry puree. Dissolve the cornstarch in water. In a sauce pan, combine the strawberry and honey. Bring to a boil. Slowly stir in the cornstarch and water, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

Decorate the top of the cheesecake with a few strawberries. Pour the glaze over the top while everything is still warm. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 to 3 hours.

I was curious how this was going to turn out since it has no refined sugar, it's just sweetened with honey and maple syrup. Aside from the fact that it wasn't as firm as I would have liked, which was totally my fault, it was delicious. Not too heavy and great with the strawberries on top!

Yum!

Garlic Scapes!

2010-06-12T17:17:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts of the farmers market is getting to try new fun veggies. I remember garlic scapes from last year, but never got around to trying them before. This year I made sure to scoop some up right away.

These curly cues are packed with delicious flavor and make a pretty tasty meal. They are actually the tops from the garlic bulbs you probably have in your kitchen.

I decided on making garlic scape pesto pasta with shrimp and some other local veggies.

To make the pesto, I chopped up the scapes into smaller pieces and dumped them in a food processor with walnuts, Parmesan, and olive oil and then blended until smooth. It wasn't ever as smooth as normal basil pesto, but close enough.

Before I added the pesto, I sauteed the shrimp with a cut up scape, some actual garlic, some lemon and lime juice and a bit of white wine and butter. Then added my veggies, cooked pasta and mixed everything up with the pesto. This was very, very garlicy, so proceed with caution if you're not a garlic lover, but overall a tasty dish! Good with extra cheese on top for sure!

Peru Sneak Peek...

2010-06-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

So, I have about 1300 pictures to go through, not even counting the ones Alex took. But I figured I couldn't leave you all hanging for that long. So, in the meantime, here are a few images from our recent trip, I hope you enjoy! More to come with stories soon!

Tennessee Engagement Photography: Missy and Jake!

2010-05-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Missy was one of my good girlfriends in college, so I was thrilled to hear about her engagement and super excited she asked me to do her photography!

Although we were supposed to do the engagements in Nashville, the massive flooding you may have heard about nixed that idea pretty quick. We ended up doing the shoot in the town of Clarksville where Missy and her lovely fiance are now living.

We had a great time, and certainly had an adventure finding some locations to shoot, but the pictures turned out great!

Congratulations Missy and Jake, I'm so excited for your wedding next year!

Reason #732

2010-05-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

Why I love the farmer's market.

The season's first juicy tomatoes and fiddleheads!

I'd heard of fiddleheads, but hadn't ever seen them before, much less tried them. When they showed up at the market, I figured I had to give them a shot. They'd been pretty expensive until recently, when the maple syrup guys from Vermont, of all vendors, had them cheap, I got a nice little bag for a $1.25.

We had them roasted with olive oil and a bit of sea salt. Then tossed with pasta with other fresh sauteed veggies and local turkey sausage. They tasted a bit like asparagus, and were mighty tasty.

Here's to new delicious local food!

Brooklyn Maternity Photography

2010-05-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

I volunteer regularly for an organization called the International Rescue Committee. When I found out the volunteer coordinator of the program was expecting, I couldn't help but ask if she was thinking about getting photos done.

I was super excited to have the chance to work with Alexis and her lovely husband along with their awesome bulldog, Oats, last weekend. Alexis may be the sweetest girl ever, and I had so much fun doing this shoot. Normally I'm not a huge fan of editing, but I just had to smile when I was going through these photos! Hurray for beautiful bellies!

Best wishes with your new little one guys, I hope you enjoy the images!

This photo absolutely cracks me up. I love the look on the dog's face with the two of them looking at each other.

Tasty Croquettes

2010-05-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

When perusing recipes I know there are some key words that generally tend to interest my husband. I could literally make anything utilizing chipotle mayo, mesquite, aioli, and a few others, and he'll be game. Now, mind you he couldn't actually tell you what mesquite tastes like, but will order it any time it's on a menu. Guaranteed. Peanut sauce tends to be one of those items. Thus, when I saw the title of Tempeh-Potato Croquettes with Spicy Peanut Sambal, I thought I might have a winner.

The last time I made croquettes it was from the Cafe Brenda cookbook, and these also hail from the same. I have never cooked with tempeh before, nor have I ever made a sambal, but it didn't look too complicated, so I went for it.

I wasn't sure how hard it would be to find the tempeh, but it was right at Trader Joe's this afternoon, so I figured I had to give it a shot. For those who don't know, tempeh is a super veggie food of sorts, made from soy beans, brown rice, barely and millet. It has tons of protein among other good stuff. I was a little scared when I opened the package, it doesn't look very appetizing, but I figured it was worth a shot.

As a side note, I love how ridiculously hippy the packaging is. I think they know who they're marketing too. However, I recommend giving this stuff a try, as far as protein bang for buck, you can't really get better then this. It was about $1.69 or so, for 20 grams of protein per serving.

Not looking too appetizing right out of the package...

After frying with some garlic and spices.

Carrots and scallions in the pan.

Sizzling in the skillet, starting to look a bit tastier.

Tempeh Potato Croquettes with Spicy Peanut Sambal
Adapted from the Cafe Brenda Cookbook

Spicy Peanut Sambal
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded (The recipe calls for two green chilies, I only added one)
4 garlic cloves
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 TBS soy sauce
juice of one lime
3 TBS raisins
1 TBS honey

Put all ingredients in a food processor and grind into a chunky paste.

Croquettes
6 medium to small potatoes (2 cups mashed) (I used baby red potatoes, skin on)
oil for frying
1 8 oz tempeh cake
1.5 TBS minced garlic
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp dried cumin
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup minced scallion
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten
2 TBS chopped parsley

Boil potatoes until tender, drain and mash. Set aside.

Heat a couple TBS of oil in a skillet. Cut the tempeh cake into 4 pieces. Saute over medium heat a few minutes until golden brown. Turn the tempeh and add garlic, coriander, and cumin. You may need to add a bit more oil. Keep stirring and saute for a few more minutes. Transfer the mixtue to a large mixing bowl. When it's cool, crumble the tempeh. Your hands and fingers work just fine for this.

Heat a bit more oil and saute carrots and scallions for 1-2 minutes.

Combine 2 cups mashed potatoes, tempeh, and veggies. Add salt and pepper, egg, and parsley. Stir well until smooth and blended.

Form into patties about 3 inches in size. Saute in vegetable oil until golden brown on both sides. Serve with spicy peanut sambal.

YUM!

These were absolutely delicious and very filling!! Both Alex and I loved them. The peanut sambal alone is worth making these for! We served them with brown rice and fresh, local roasted asparagus. A beautiful healthy, (and bargain priced!) dinner enjoyed by all! I will for sure be making these again.

Super Awesome Spring Dessert

2010-04-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

When Alex and I go out to eat, we generally split dessert. I'm not usually one to finish anything too sweet on my own. However, there is a bar in Williamsburg that serves the MOST amazing apple crisp ever. It's huge, and I eat the whole thing, all by myself.

This dessert is on that level. I had a hard time not eating the entire pan when it came out of the oven. Later this week I picked up some ice cream to finish off the rest, and it was super delicious.

If you have any rhubarb in the house, make this crisp tonight. It's easy, and pretty quick, and your tummy will thank you.

I started with this recipe online, but cut things back just a bit.

Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients:

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups sliced rhubarb
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: Mix the brown sugar, flour, oats, butter, and cinnamon until crumbly. Grease the bottom of a square or round cake pan. Press half the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Cover with chopped rhubarb. Mix water and granulated sugar, vanilla, and corn starch in a sauce pan over medium heat until mostly clear. Pour the mixture over the rhubarb. Crumble the remaining brown sugar mixture over the top.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Brooklyn Engagement Photography

2010-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I met Serena and Sean at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for their engagement session. These two are from Taiwan and are getting married this summer in Central Park before going back to Asia for a big celebration.

I had a ball working with both of them and am super excited for their wedding! Here a few photos from our afternoon. Enjoy!

After the gardens, we also headed down by the Brooklyn bridge for a few shots.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

2010-04-26T18:10:00.001-07:00

I still had a few bunches of asparagus left after my field day at the farmers market and a rainy Sunday evening called for soup.

This soup came together super quickly and was delicious, perfect for a weeknight meal.

Creamy Asparagus Soup
Adapted from Martha Stewart, Great Food Fast

3 TBS butter
1 1/2 cups chopped shallots
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 TBS flour
2 bundles of asparagus (about 2 - 2.5 lbs) , chopped into large pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream
sea salt to taste
juice of half a lemon
4 cups water
2 cups broth or stock

In a large soup pot, melt butter and saute shallots with thyme until soft. Add the flour and stir until blended. Add asparagus and water and chicken or veggie stock and bring to a boil. Season with generously with salt to taste. Cover, and simmer until asparagus is bright green, 2-4 minutes. Puree the soup in batches or in the pot with an immersion blender. Add cream and lemon juice. Serve immediately.

The Spring Harvest Explosion!

2010-04-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

I seriously can not tell you how excited I've been for the green market to get going this spring season. It's seems like forever we've just had apples, apples, potatoes, and onions. And the onions are really starting to even look a little sad.

However, as the city has started blooming on every corner, I've been getting my hopes up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that something new and green would pop up.

Last week I got my first strike with ramps. Now, I really had no idea what ramps were, only that there was literally a line to get them. I figured I might as well give them a shot.

It turns out, ramps are wild leeks, supposedly similar in flavor to onions and garlic. Hearing this made me very excited to try them. I got myself some pasta, some hot house tomatoes just for the occasion, and some of the seasons first spinach as well as some chicken sausage.

I cooked my ramps with a few leaves of spinach just a bit with garlic in some olive oil until wilted, and tossed them with the tomatoes, and then the sausage with more olive oil and pasta.

I'll be honest, it was just not what I'd hoped. The ramps were fine, but not all that flavorful. I ended up wishing I had added more garlic or onions or peppers. Oh well, for next time.

However, this Wednesday, I got my real spring harvest wish. The market literally tripled in size! Almost everyone has come back! I filled my bag with beautiful green asparagus, rhubarb, arugula, radishes, baby greens, and burpless cucumber. Yes, it's really called burpless cucumber.

Sold by my most favorite tomato lady from Jersey, who I would say has the most beautiful produce in Union Square, she assured me I would never go back to regular cucumbers again. (If you google burpless cucumbers, the first thing that comes up is a study, which discusses the cucumbers, and judges' burp resistance, which I found highly amusing.) They were in fact delicious with a delicate flavor you just don't find in a grocery store cucumber.

I tossed the asparagus with olive oil, sea salt, and a bit of black pepper and roasted them in the oven at 350 for about 5-7 minutes.

In celebration, I also decided to spring for scallops from Blue Moon Fisheries, and they were excellent! I sauteed them in butter with shallots, garlic and a bit of lemon juice.

I also cooked rhubarb for the first time! I don't know if I've ever had it before, but have heard delicious things about it! I emailed my fabulous mother in law for recipe suggestions, and ended up with the following for a rhubarb nut bread among others. I halved this to only make one loaf, but it turned out great! Thanks Chris!

Rhubarb Nut Bread
Courtesy of the Trapp Family! (Alex's Grandmother)

1 1/2 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. canola oil (or similar)
1 egg
1 c. sour milk (add a tablespoon of vinegar to the cup of regular milk)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. diced fresh rhubarb
1/2 c. nuts
Topping: 1/2 c. sugar 1 tablespoon butter

Stir ingredients together in order given (except Topping). Pour into 2 well-greased and floured loaf pans in equal amounts. Mix sugar and butter together and strew over each as "Topping". Bake 325 degrees about 40 minutes. Do not overbake.

Cheers To Spring!

Happy Hanami!

2010-04-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hanami is the Japanese cultural tradition enjoying and viewing the cherry blossom season.

I managed to get out to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for the start of Hanami on Sunday, and it was a beautiful afternoon. The official cherry blossom festival, Sakura Matsuri, isn't until the first of May, and many of the trees aren't in bloom yet, but there were still lots of beautiful flowers to be enjoyed.

A Whirlwind of Flavor!

2010-04-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

That's how Alex described this dish, "a whirlwind of flavor". I figured that was about as good a description as I was going to get. This dish was colorful and a bit spicy, filling but light, and perfect for a warm spring day.

I was inspired by the Sesame Noodles with Baby Greens and Peanut-Ginger Dressing I found on Ezra Pound Cake. I basically followed that recipe, but also took some from a very similar recipe in my Cafe Brenda Cookbook.

Sesame Noodles with Spicy Peanut Ginger Dressing and Garlic Citrus Shrimp:
Based on Ezra Pound Cake

Ingredients:

* 8 ounces whole wheat spaghetti
* 1-2 tablespoon dark sesame oil
* Peanut-Ginger Dressing
* chopped fresh chives
* 1 cucumber chopped or sliced into half-rounds
* mixed baby greens
* 3-4 small carrots, julienned
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped into long strips
* 1 cup snap peas, chopped
* 1 package (we used a half, but could have used more) medium or large shrimp
* 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
* juice of 1/2 lime and lemon
* red pepper flakes
* olive oil
* chopped peanuts

Dressing:
* 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (Natural Style, unsalted)
* 1/4 to 1/3 C (approx) orange juice
* Juice of 1 lime
* 1 TBS Honey
* 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
* 2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 2 tablespoons peeled, grated fresh ginger
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* A little less then 1/4 cup canola oil

For Salad:

1. Cook your noodles to package directions, set aside.
2. Chop, mince, and otherwise dice your veggies. Put in a large salad bowl.
3. Add the noodles to the veggies and toss with a couple TBS of sesame oil
4. Cook your shrimp with a bit of olive oil and minced garlic, add juice from lemon and lime, and sprinkle with about 1/2 to 1 tsp of red pepper flakes or to taste, continue cooking until heated through.

For Dressing:
Whisk together all ingredients, except the oil. Once everything is whisked together, slowly add the oil until combined smoothly.

To Serve:

Pile a base of mixed greens on a plate, cover with noodles, add shrimp, then drizzle with the peanut dressing and top with a garnish of chopped peanuts. Enjoy!