Birthday Celebration

My mother-in-law has a passion for tomatoes.   She is stick thin and likes food, but is lucky enough to be someone who is not the least bit food-focused.  She enjoys it and a a plesure to cook for, but planning meals is sometimes tricky.  She is not a big meat eater, and her husband, loves meat and is particular about trying new things.  That said, last night's meal to celebrate her birthday was focused on tomatoes.  I was buying dinner for spud the the local gourmet grocery on Friday and saw the most beautiful gourmet tomatoes you ever saw.  Green and Yellow and Orange.  When you cut up the green heirloom tomatoes they were the most beautiful swirl of green and red.   I thought what better thing to make someone who loves tomatoes than a tomato salad?  It was a simple dish, of these georgeous tomatoes with salt, pepper and olive oil. Delicious.
So that was my side dish.

I have blogged about my homemade pasta, but one of the other things I first learned from my mother early on was the art of homemade pizza.   It has taken years of work and gone though many iterations, but I finally found the solution.   A good crust recipe is the start but it's all in the pan.   Good crust recipes I have found are Wolfgang Puck and also the mystery writer Patricia Cornwell.  Particia Cornwell writes alot about food and cooking  around her otherwise somewhat greusome medical examiner mysteries.  She compliled everything she wrote about into a cookbook - Food to Die for - and has many nice recipes.  Pizza is one of her specialies.   So last night I used her crust recipe ( secret is in the honey) and then added olive oil,  prosciutto di parma, a blend of good mozzerella cheeses from my Lisa's deli, caramelized garlic onions and fresh plum tomato.  The Calphlon baking pan makes the crust perfect somehow.  And I found this out by accident when I left my pizza pan at a friends for a year, and needed a substitute pan.   The pizza gets crisp and holds its shape.

I started the meal with baked stuffed tomatoes.  Large beefsteak tomatoes, stuffed with breadcrumbs. olive oil parmesan and basil.  Baked until browned, they just melt in your mouth.

We finished the meal with chocolate pots ( so easy!) and ricotta creme. 
It felt great too cook again, and now I have to go to the task of finishing to clean.

More on my superbowl gathering tonight!

Blog Update

 I have been away from my blog for quite a while.  To any of you who read and know me, you undestand why.  If by some chance I am blessed enough to have anyone read this who doesn't know me personally,  I need to explain.   My sweetheart, Coco was quite ill for sometime, and actually began to decline right around the time I began this blog, although I didn't know it at the time, or at least was in denial about it. He got progressively worse through Thanksgiving, and even though I cooked a full meal and for 8 people for the holiday, my heart just wasn't in the blog to update you.  Coco entered the hospital on December 1 and passed away on January 8.   I haven't cooked much since, and have actually lost 20 pounds through the ordeal because my focus left food.   Amazingly,  food still played  a role through the process.  Friends delivered meals.  Friends and family cooked for Spud and I.  Never did we eat so much chicken! People shopped for us.  Coco only seemed to have the will to eat and we brought him as many of his favorites as we could.  We kept his Christmas Eve traditional meal of crab legs, we brought him Booberry and chocolate ice cream and iced coffee.  Spud and I went out with friends for New Years Eve for Sushi.  Human nature is to feed people through tough times.  I guess it is the one thing we feel we can control.  Foodwas delivered to my home in droves in the days following.  I fed the homeless of hoboken for 2 days and am still eating our way through the freezer full.  

Admittedly , I am having a problem with food now.  Food was a commonality for Coco and me.  It was him I cooked for. We loved to eat out together.  I cook becuase I love it, but also for my ego.  I know I do it well  and like to have it appreciated.  As much as Spud loves food,  his taste is not as discriminating, or maybe too much so, and he is my biggest crtic.   Either way it isn't the same.   I know that whatever people are in my life as I move foward, I need them to appreciate food and help me find the joy in it again.

As I return to this blog, like my life right now, I cannot predict what it will be like, but hopefully those reading this will follow the joruney with me and see where this experiment if self exploration continues to take me.   I have re-entered the kitchen a few times this month and returned to the grocery store yesterday with only Spud, and no other friends or family, and even paid the grocery bill myself for the first time.  I held my head high and got through it like nothing had changed. 

I miss Coco with all my heart, but I am also eager to move along and get back to life, to move on and continue to make him proud of me for being strong especially on the days it is so hard, like today.  

As I write this morning I am remincisent of the Sunday morning in August that I began this blog, which I think is what made me log in to begin with - a lazy Sunday that I am procrastinating the tasks and events at hand.  It is hard to believe that it was almost 6 months ago.   It seems like a blink in so many ways yet everything has changed.  Hopefully food will remain the joyful comforting constant that it has always been for me and I can find others to be proud of me for my passion.

This blog remains dedicated to Coco, who will be forever with me everytime I run out of something in the kitchen mid-recipe.

Self Discovery

I have learned one thing over the last few weeks, and that it that I am definately blogging to cook not cooking to blog.   As I stated at the beginning of this project, I am not a writer.   I enjoy writing if I am bestowed the time to to do this , but with no time or real motivation it's much harder than I expected.  I have been cooking through my absence from blogging however.  The food part is the passion, so I haven't given up on that.  My intent was to sit here on day an catch up on everything I have cooked in the last few weeks, but that would only be hum drum for you to read if it's posted that way.  So that said , here I go on today's food and hopefully I will catch up along the way.

Today the freezer yielded some fresh Chorizo and I planned this meal out with my colleagues this afternoon.  I decided to give a twist to a Garlicky Bean Burrito recipe from Everyday magazine.  I started by cooking the crumbled chorizo and garlic in olive oil, and then I added the white beans and chicken broth and cooked until the means were mashed and heated through.  This filling then gets added to either flour or corn tortillas and then lay the rolls in a baking dish, pour a bottle of Salsa verde over the top and then top with your favorite mexican or spanish cheese ( tonight I used cheddar, but pepper jack or manchego would be great!)

My office is having a family game tonight tomorrow and I decided to make some desserts tonight.  I went back to my baking bible - The Great American Bake Sale.   I made the Great American Brownie, which is pretty much a basic classic brownie, pretty similar to the Katharine Hepburn Brownie I have previously made.  I also baked another favorite, Toffee Turtle Bars, as I know my friend Papo is a caramel fan .  I changed up this recipe and left out the nuts, and the chocolate topping, and I made more caramel for the topping.  Instead of toffee bars, they turned out like yummy chewy carmel bars.  Hopefully everyone will enjoy and a fun time will be had by all!

In the meantime, if anyone who wants to pay me to write about food so I can find more time to do this, feel free to let me know and help me get discovered!  I am thinking I might love test kitchen work.

Saturday Night Sushi Tour

    Tomorrow is Spud's 11th Birthday!  Some months ago as we were wandering Chelsea Market he overheard someone giving a tour of the market.  We asked about that tour and upon inquiring we found out about a sushi "tour".  http://www.foodsofny.com/artofsushi.php   Spud wanted to do this desperately and I gave him the choice to this instead of a birthday party, and he jumped all over it.  I was thrilled to not have to give a kid party.  This tour was actaully a sit down tasting dinner at Ariyoshi Japanese Restaurant, located at 810 Broadway (between 10th and 11th Streets), New York, NY.
    It was a multi-course dinner done in two parts. The first part was a Japanese Tapas tasting. The second half was a sushi tasting. Sadly I forgot to take the menu, so heere is my best description of what we were served.

PART ONE
Course one: ( Served with Ichiban beer)
Fried chicken in Ponzi Sauce
Asparagus wrapped in Bacon in Ponzi Sauce
Seared Beef in Ponzi Sauce
Salmon & Yam wrapped in radish
Grilled Freshwater Eel

This portion of the meal focused on Ponzi sauces and the key ingredients and how different they can be just by changing the proportions of the ingredients. 

Course two:
Miso Soup with Crab Yam dumpling

This was like Japanese Matzo Ball Soup, with a delicious rich miso broth, and a very tasty light dumpling

Course three:
Grilled Tofu served with 2 different kinds of miso sauces

This also focused on Miso and how many differnt types and flavors they can be. This didn't make me a lover of tofu still, but the miso sauces are so very good, and very different from each other.

PART TWO - Served with 2 sakes - One was sweet and served cold, the second was drier and served warm
Course four
Sashimi tasting: Red Snapper, Horse Mackerel, Yellow Tail

Course five
Sushi Rice, Salmon, Fluke and Eel Sushi

Course six
Blue Fin Toro Scallion Maki

The sushi courses focused on quality of sushi rice, chopstick etiquette, Real vs. fake Wasabi, and fresh vs. frozen fish. (it is illegal in the U.S. to serve fish that has not been frozen), and Nori ( the seaweed that wraps the rolls)

Course seven
Dessert which consisted of Green tea infused rice dish, made into something like large tapioca pearls. 

This was a very different flavor, but nice and light and a very nice green tea flavor.

I highly recommend this dinner as a great introduction to Japanese cooking, and some insigh to the culture as well.  Our host/guide for the evening was highly knowledgeable and very personable to be around, and the food was wonderful. Spud had a wonderful time and ate every last bite!

Momufuku Ssam Bar

   Wednesday evening I abandoned Coco and Spud to join my friend Carmy for dinner in nyc at the Momufuku Ssam Bar.  A facebook friend had recently posted how much she enjoyed this restaurant, so I used this evening out and as excuse to try it.  The restaurant is located at  207 2nd Ave. nyc 10003 corner of 13th St and 2nd Ave. It is a small restaurant with a long counter where you sit on wood backless stools opposite your guest.  You get pretty packed in next to your neighbors.  If you like to listen to other people's conversations, this is the place to do so.  Our fellow dinner companions got quite an earful of my life that evening!  This is not a comfy cozy place, but it is well worth the food! They leave piles of napkins on the table and chopsticks standing up in holders.  Think cross between a bar, restaurant, and a malt shop!
It was a perfect selection for sharing and sharing we did. Our menu was as follows:

steamed pork buns – hoisin, cucumbers, scallions
( a yummy update on the chinese classic)
cracked jonah crab claws – harissa mayo 
(seved cold on ice, and they were perfect)
bev eggleston's pork shoulder steak – japanese eggplant, hericot vert, watercress
( an interesting cut and innovative way to serve pork)
long island crescent duck – lobster mushroom, daikon, orange
(cripsy and delicious, with a lovely side of duck confit along side the sliced duck)
pb&j – concord grape, peanut butter nougat, ritz craker
( tasted just like a PB&J sandwich, but with a twist - more to come on this)

We had a nice bottle of Pinot Noir with it anad it was a lovely meal!  the PB&J was amazing and watch for a blog soon to come where I will tell you about my attempt to recreate it!

Another find we came across was Wine Wednesday's at Metrazur on the balcony at Grand Central. On Wine Wednesday we got a bottle of wine for $15! It was a Merlot, and I couldn't tell you what it was, but for $15 in Manhattan, who cares?  We sat right at the railing overlooking the clock in Grand Central, and it is just a great place to people watch.  When you have an evening out like this with your best friend, it doesn't get much better!

2 Meals from Last Week

So I have gotten a little lazy about blogging - I apologize to my public! :) Last week I managed to squeek out 2 nights of meals.  


      Monday I made Chicken Divan, page 358.  It calls for Broccoli, but as that is my least favorite veggie, I made the dish with string beans.  It is an incredibly rich meal, but the sherry flavor added to the cream sauce just make Divan, divine. ( I know - so bad, but it had to be said).  This meal is rich enough and the vegetable is included, so this meal stands alone just fine. I good glass of white wine would be a lovely accompaniment however.


    Tuesday night I prepared the Veal Marsala, page 457.  This is a nice easy dish for a week night, and could easily be included into a busy schedule normal routine.  It goes nicely over noodles, and can be served nicely with any green vegetable.  I served it with some spinach on the side. 


   Speaking of easy weeknight meals, as I was catching up on my Gourmet magazines, (RIP) I saw an ad for the NEW Gourmet cookbook.  Ruth came up with another 1200 recipes for the more modern cook.  I guess they realized that the cookbook I am working from, although amazing, doesn't always fit into the lives of us working busy wives and mothers.  I have to, of course, own this new book, so I warn now, this blog could change into the Garden State NEW Gourmet cookbook venture!  We will have to see. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!  Ruth also recently began a PBS show called Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to catch it yet,  I noticed 2 of her first guests were Dianne Weist and Tom Skeritt.  If anyone has seeen it yet, please comment in! 

Self Invented Chorizo Recipe

Coco has been home and not feeling so well.  Today he took out some fresh Chorizo I had bought, and the recipes I was saving it for needed ingredients I didn't have, so I made up my own recipe as follows:

Plain White Spanish Rice - Cooked according to package directions.
2 tablespoons Olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1 Onion finely chopped
3 links Fresh Chorizo
1/2 bottle or can of beer
1 can Red Beans drained and rinsed
1 can Black beans drained and rinsed
1 Can Diced Fired Roasted tomatoes, drained
Salt, Pepper, Smoked Paprika, Chili Powder, and Cayenne Pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until soft and onion has sweetened.  Cut off sausage casing and crumble chorizo into the pan and cook until browned.  When well cooked, Pour 1/2 bottle of beer over and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. ( Be sure to unwind and drink the other half while you cook) Add the beans and tomatoes, use seasonings to taste and heat until very hot.  Serve in pasta bowls over the Cooked white rice.