As I was reading the Dining Section in the NY Times yesterday I can across this article that I just had to share:
My Big Italian Dream Party
a) How amazing does Umbria sound? Who wouldn't want to stay in some big, beautiful farmhouse with your nearest and dearest group of people and I almost fell over when I saw the price for a week - it's actually pretty affordable when you break it down per person. This is so going on the bucket list.
b) As you probably already know, I'm somewhat obsessed with all things entertaining and especially theme parties. I loved everything about this woman's party: the menu and how they divided cooking duties up among everyone, the long table for 30 outside (I have a very big thing for long farm tables), and even the little American twists thrown in. I'm not really a believer of signs but I as I was reading the article I kept thinking to myself "hello, this is your Italian tapas party in front of you". So I might not be jumping on a plane to Umbria anytime soon but wherever you are, as long as you are surrounded by great food, fun people and 2 cases of wine is definitely going to work in your favor, you are bound to have a fabulous time.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Italian Tapas
By reading this blog, you will know that I've had Italian tapas on the brain for the past few weeks ever since my fabulous dining experience at Melograno in Philadelphia. I've been meaning to start trying out different recipes and even threw it out there for the all of the general public to read that I was going to have this theme party based on the above mentioned theme. It's been somewhat hectic lately and I have my 4th annual Palm Sunday brunch to plan first but in the near future once full blown Spring hits there is going to be a Friday night or another perfect day that's going to scream outdoor entertaining and Italian tapas and there will be no where else I would rather be then on my deck with a glass of wine, a fun array of apps and an entourage of friends. It's also one of these things that if I keep talking about it, I stay committed to the cause and there's no way that I'm letting this one slip away to the business of schedules and life. This past Saturday night, I has the opportunity to start practicing with a small dinner party that I was having which included a one dish main course, therefore leading way to a little bit more substantial first course.
We started off with cheese and prosciutto stuffed peppers. You know those little colorful peppers you always see in the produce section that look super fun but you aren't always sure what to do with them? Well my friend Deanna had the answer and passed along this great recipe to me that I knew I just had to make and is a keeper for the recipe box. One of my stand by rules when entertaining is that I like to have a majority of the cooking done by the time my guests arrive because I don't want to be chained to the stove while everyone else is off in the living room having a good time and this recipe allows you to look like you have it all together. These little peppers can easily be made ahead of time and popped into the oven shortly before the door bell rings as well as can be adapted if you are missing an ingredient or two. (For example: I left out the mozzarella in mine knowing that I had another appetizer that include it as a main ingredient).
We started off with cheese and prosciutto stuffed peppers. You know those little colorful peppers you always see in the produce section that look super fun but you aren't always sure what to do with them? Well my friend Deanna had the answer and passed along this great recipe to me that I knew I just had to make and is a keeper for the recipe box. One of my stand by rules when entertaining is that I like to have a majority of the cooking done by the time my guests arrive because I don't want to be chained to the stove while everyone else is off in the living room having a good time and this recipe allows you to look like you have it all together. These little peppers can easily be made ahead of time and popped into the oven shortly before the door bell rings as well as can be adapted if you are missing an ingredient or two. (For example: I left out the mozzarella in mine knowing that I had another appetizer that include it as a main ingredient).
Cheese and Prosciutto Stuffed Sweet Peppers
Prep - Preheat oven to 350 degrees; Grease a square glass baking dish with olive oil
Ingredients:
-Multi-colored sweet peppers, ¼ side removed to form a bowl or “boat;” seeds and membrane removed.
-1 small container or 1 cup of ricotta cheese (part skim)
6 small fresh mozzarella balls – drained on paper-towels and roughly chopped
1/4 cup (small handful) grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 pound of thin sliced Parma prosciutto – Roughly chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs (eye ball this because you are just sprinkle some over the top of the peppers)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions:
Position the peppers in the glass baking dish, cut side up. Cover with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Increase oven temp to 425 degrees.
In a small bowl, stir to combine ricotta cheese, chopped mozzarella balls, Parmesan cheese, basil, prosciutto and garlic powder. Season with salt and pepper.
Generously stuff each pepper with the cheese mixture. Sprinkle the breadcrumb over the cheese of each pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Bake in a 425 degree oven, uncovered, for 15-25 minutes, or until the breadcrumb starts to brown and the cheese is bubbly. The peppers will begin to char around the edges.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the peppers can cool and the cheese can firm.
The second appetizer I made was mozzarella in carrozza based on Lidia Bastianich's recipe linked here. I'm never one to turn down a piece of fried cheese and liked how at Melograno it was made between two slices of bread and was excited to try it out at home. Another recipe that can easily be made ahead and then kept warm in the oven because I don't know about you but hot oil and a dredging station in the kitchen isn't exactly something I dream about when thinking of ways to entertain guests. Melograno's version was served with an artichoke mostarda that I actually decided to serve in my salad instead so I took inspiration from Pasta Cosi in Branford and made my own lemon caper radicchio sauce to serve on top of it and it was the right amount of sauce and flavor that didn't make the mozzarella heavy likes red sauce tends to do with the dish. The lemon sauce is very similar to a sauce I serve with chicken but would also work well with shrimp or pasta as well.
Lemon Caper Radicchio Sauce
Ingredients:
-4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, divided
-1 tablespoon or 3 cloves of garlic minced
-generous pinch of red pepper flakes
-1/2 cup of limoncello*
-1/2 cup of radicchio, finely chopped
-2-3 tablespoons of capers
-2 tablespoons of freshly chopped parsley
-salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a small frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of butter until melted. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until soft 2-3 minutes. Add radicchio to pan and cook for another few minutes until wilted. Deglaze pan with limoncello and cook until alcohol cooks off and sauce reduced a little bit, 5-6 minutes. Add capers and let simmer until sauce has a nice thick consistency. Finish the sauce off with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and season with salt and pepper. Once sauce is off the heat, add parsley right before serving.
*Note: I discovered I loved cooking with limoncello kind of by accident. One day I didn't feel like opening a bottle of wine for probably a recipe that called for all of a quarter of a cup but knew that I had a bottle of limoncello in the freezer so I figured "why not, lets try it" and it gave the dish this really nice subtle sweetness and it killed two birds with one stone with not having to add lemon juice separately. If you don't have what seems like an endless supply of limoncello in your house like we do, you can easily substitute 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice and 1/4 cup white wine in place.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Changing up the rotation...
The weeknight meal rotation is a battle that every cook goes through on a pretty regular basis. It's always "how do I keep weeknight meals interesting and exciting without falling into the rut of eating the same thing all the time?" We've all been there; you work a full day, run errands, squeeze in a workout and by the time you finally get home there is barely enough energy left to sit and eat a meal let alone stand in front of the stove before you collapse into bed for the night. This isn't some closeted issue that only some of us go through, everyone at some point is going to suffer symptoms of the weeknight dinner burnout. Rachael Ray became a millionaire because she came up with the "30 minute meal" concept. Real Simple magazine would go out of print if they didn't get to dedicate so many articles about saving the sanity of the weeknight dinner cook. This is why there are so many crappy prepared foods in the supermarket that have a boatload of issues attached to them but people crack under the pressure and get sucked in. It's hard for everyone whether you are a gourmet cook or someone who doesn't know the difference between a knife and spoon. So what do you do so that Tuesday's dinner doesn't send you completely over the edge where you want to take a hiatus from the kitchen? (Because don't forget, after that you still have 2-3 more meals to come up with in a given week). Well you get help and guidance from anything that will make it easier and grab tips from anywhere you can. I have the "revelation moments" all the time where after I read something or did something for the first time and thought "why didn't I ever think of this before?". I remember the first time I ever marinated meat in a large plastic ziploc bag and thought "this is mind blowing how easy the prep and clean up is and it feels like you are gaining back minutes of your life". The great thing about tips like those is that they continue to be there and something is always going to come along and improve your cooking abilities, it's a pay it forward cycle.
This week I added some new recipes to my weeknight meal rotation and they were really good that I just had to pass them along. So good that I'm borderline disappointed that I just had them for the first time now but they are here to stay. Tuesday night I was in the mood for Mexican but wasn't feeling the usual route of tacos or quesadillas that we normally have in our house. I came across a recipe for Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa and just subbed out the chicken for shrimp knowing that I wanted to have chicken another way the next day. It was an easy meal to prepare, involved having to buy limited things at the grocery store and just felt fun to eat once it was presented in the bowl (almost like a fun burrito bowl at a restaurant). You can either make the meal with a rotisserie chicken like the recipes calls for which if you haven't done it before stop wasting time and go out and buy one today. It's like the fabulous girl's version of fast food and for $6 it will be worth every minute you save in not having to roast your own chicken. With the shrimp, I made a simple marinate of olive oil, garlic, lime juice and zest and some chili powder that I mixed all together before brushing it on the shrimp as it was in the grill pan cooking for all of 5 minutes (another huge asset to a successful weeknight meal and grill pans are pretty inexpensive to buy). I'm not a huge fan of plain rice so I added a little bit of cilantro, lime juice and zest as I finished it off to give it a little excitement. If we ate a lot of rice in our house, I would totally subscribe to the time saving tip of making a big batch of it at the beginning of the week and just using it as a foundation for other recipes so I wasn't waiting to boil rice every night when I could be doing other things.
Last night I tried another new recipe this one being buttermilk roast chicken from Smitten Kitchen food blog. If you are not familiar with Smitten Kitchen, it is a very popular food blog based out of a tiny kitchen in New York City where the blogger does a lot of new takes for comfort food. This was actually the first recipe I ever made from the blog but her latest post of the fried egg and friscee sandwiches with bacon isn't going to be far behind. I always use a lot of buttermilk to bake with but the recipes usually only call for a cup or 2 therefore leaving the rest of the carton to go bad in the fridge before it gets pitched a week later. Well not anymore! What an amazing way to dress up a run-of-the mill chicken dish. The chicken came out so tender with great flavors and was a cinch to put together. The key to success is letting the chicken marinate as long as possible and making the marinade took all of 10 minutes to put together before everything got tossed into a ziploc (remember my favorite tip I mentioned above) and I was on my way out the door. Chicken only takes 30-40 minutes to bake in the oven which is totally doable for any weeknight and do not skip the step about lining the dish with foil because why wouldn't you want to make clean up easier? I think this would be a great dish to experiment with different spices depending what you were in the mood for and I served it up along side some simple roasted butternut squash and parchment baked asparagus. I'm telling you and maybe I'm being a smidge dramatic but one bite and it's life altering. I honestly can't wait to make it again.
Obviously it's been an exciting food week in my kitchen but here's one more to leave you with. I stole this off of one of my friend's pinterest boards (the highly addicting online pin boards) but these dried strawberries that I made today were AMAZING! They are like the adult version of fruit snacks and are super guilt free except that you can eat entire batch pretty quickly.
This week I added some new recipes to my weeknight meal rotation and they were really good that I just had to pass them along. So good that I'm borderline disappointed that I just had them for the first time now but they are here to stay. Tuesday night I was in the mood for Mexican but wasn't feeling the usual route of tacos or quesadillas that we normally have in our house. I came across a recipe for Black Beans and Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa and just subbed out the chicken for shrimp knowing that I wanted to have chicken another way the next day. It was an easy meal to prepare, involved having to buy limited things at the grocery store and just felt fun to eat once it was presented in the bowl (almost like a fun burrito bowl at a restaurant). You can either make the meal with a rotisserie chicken like the recipes calls for which if you haven't done it before stop wasting time and go out and buy one today. It's like the fabulous girl's version of fast food and for $6 it will be worth every minute you save in not having to roast your own chicken. With the shrimp, I made a simple marinate of olive oil, garlic, lime juice and zest and some chili powder that I mixed all together before brushing it on the shrimp as it was in the grill pan cooking for all of 5 minutes (another huge asset to a successful weeknight meal and grill pans are pretty inexpensive to buy). I'm not a huge fan of plain rice so I added a little bit of cilantro, lime juice and zest as I finished it off to give it a little excitement. If we ate a lot of rice in our house, I would totally subscribe to the time saving tip of making a big batch of it at the beginning of the week and just using it as a foundation for other recipes so I wasn't waiting to boil rice every night when I could be doing other things.
Last night I tried another new recipe this one being buttermilk roast chicken from Smitten Kitchen food blog. If you are not familiar with Smitten Kitchen, it is a very popular food blog based out of a tiny kitchen in New York City where the blogger does a lot of new takes for comfort food. This was actually the first recipe I ever made from the blog but her latest post of the fried egg and friscee sandwiches with bacon isn't going to be far behind. I always use a lot of buttermilk to bake with but the recipes usually only call for a cup or 2 therefore leaving the rest of the carton to go bad in the fridge before it gets pitched a week later. Well not anymore! What an amazing way to dress up a run-of-the mill chicken dish. The chicken came out so tender with great flavors and was a cinch to put together. The key to success is letting the chicken marinate as long as possible and making the marinade took all of 10 minutes to put together before everything got tossed into a ziploc (remember my favorite tip I mentioned above) and I was on my way out the door. Chicken only takes 30-40 minutes to bake in the oven which is totally doable for any weeknight and do not skip the step about lining the dish with foil because why wouldn't you want to make clean up easier? I think this would be a great dish to experiment with different spices depending what you were in the mood for and I served it up along side some simple roasted butternut squash and parchment baked asparagus. I'm telling you and maybe I'm being a smidge dramatic but one bite and it's life altering. I honestly can't wait to make it again.
 |
| just mix your marinade right in the bag and eliminate another bowl to wash |
 |
| About to hit the oven. Don't forget to line your baking dish. |
Obviously it's been an exciting food week in my kitchen but here's one more to leave you with. I stole this off of one of my friend's pinterest boards (the highly addicting online pin boards) but these dried strawberries that I made today were AMAZING! They are like the adult version of fruit snacks and are super guilt free except that you can eat entire batch pretty quickly.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wishful Thinking
I like the rest of Connecticut got very caught up on the idea that Spring was here this week with that tease of 50 degree weather and quite ideal outdoor running conditions that came along with it. I even went so far as to break out my Spring cooking binder to see what was in store for the season and came across one of my favorite cakes that I just had to make (and it also helped that I had all the ingredients at home). I had tulips on the brain, and had all these lovely thoughts of rhubarb, asparagus and everything else that reminds me so much of Spring. Well not so fast as Mother Nature reminded us this morning, all of those things are just wishful thinking now with the dumping of snow we woke up to quite surprisingly. After I got over the initial shock of having to clean my car off and break out the winter coats once again I thought to myself, "maybe Winter has a few more good weeks in it. Maybe I'm not so ready to abandon my dutch oven and those nice braised meals just yet. How can we almost be 2 months into 2012 already when it fills like I was making waffles and bacon on New Year's Day about 30 seconds ago?" Every once and a while you need a little reminder that life shouldn't fly by in a New York minute. That you can't jump to the future when the present isn't finished. That sometimes you need to slow down, look around and appreciate things for what they are - the reality that a little snow isn't so bad after all especially when you live in New England in February where you get to experience 4 seasons a year. Just when you try to get ahead of yourself something will always bring you back to where you are supposed to be and that's what Mother Nature did today and maybe we need to have more moments like that every once and awhile in our lives.
But in the meantime, you can make the lemon cornmeal cake that I baked this week and a slice will get you a little closer to Spring. The beauty about this cake is that it's quite simple for that it doesn't require you to pull out a mixer, a majority of the ingredients you will have at home, and it can be made and baked in under an hour which is a beautiful thing when you don't want to spend all day in your kitchen. I've never made the blueberry sauce that the recipe includes to go along with it because I usually like to serve the cake for breakfast or brunch and why complicate things further in the morning when they really don't have to be. The cake's flavors stand alone nicely without it.
One last note: The cake is usually made in a round cake pan but I wanted to try out a new mini bundt pan that I just gotten recently. Either pan works well and you can also make them in a muffin pan if you are looking for smaller, individual sized cakes.
But in the meantime, you can make the lemon cornmeal cake that I baked this week and a slice will get you a little closer to Spring. The beauty about this cake is that it's quite simple for that it doesn't require you to pull out a mixer, a majority of the ingredients you will have at home, and it can be made and baked in under an hour which is a beautiful thing when you don't want to spend all day in your kitchen. I've never made the blueberry sauce that the recipe includes to go along with it because I usually like to serve the cake for breakfast or brunch and why complicate things further in the morning when they really don't have to be. The cake's flavors stand alone nicely without it.
One last note: The cake is usually made in a round cake pan but I wanted to try out a new mini bundt pan that I just gotten recently. Either pan works well and you can also make them in a muffin pan if you are looking for smaller, individual sized cakes.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
In search of the red golden chicken ticket...
I'm a girl who thrives off of a good food adventure quite frequently in my life. I'm not afraid to try new things, don't back down very often from a cooking challenge and send me on a search for some obscure product and I will be the one going to 18 different stores or basically the ends of the earth until I find it. I'm not going to skip making a recipe just because it wants you to "ignite cognac or something else that will have you breaking out in panic-inducing sweats" and I do just as well eating grilled lobsters on the side of the road as I do at some fine "fancy shamcy" dining establishment with Michelin stars. It's a mix of having a great passion for all things food and drink, a little bit of OCD and a deep streak of competitiveness running through my blood where once I hear about something new and exciting it's inevitable that I'm going to want to be in on the action.
2 weeks ago in the NY Times Dining Section, Pete Wells wrote an article about a place in Philadelphia called Federal Donut and as soon as I read the piece I knew that we had to go there on our upcoming trip that was fast approaching. I was enamored about pretty much everything about this place and thought what a genius idea it was to put together doughnuts and fried chicken. Once I read that people were standing in line for these culinary delights at 7am and there was a ticket system that they cooked up in order to hand out the chicken it became a non-negotiable that we were going at some point over the weekend so I could see for myself what the hype was all about. So at 8am on Sunday morning Aaron, Andrew and I arose from our slumbers much earlier then we would have deemed necessary on a ordinary weekend day, threw on the closest matching clothes that would make us presentable in public and headed over to Federal Donut. I have to say I was ever so slightly disappointed to come across the place with no line or massive crowd of people outside but it was quite cold and as someone pointed out "people in Philadelphia don't make huge efforts to get up early" so I'm wasn't going to complain that I didn't have to wait outside in the windy weather before I had pumped an adequate amount of coffee into my system.
When you first walk in you will discover that the restaurant isn't very big. I think there are all of 3 or 4 stools at the counter and then a small waiting area for the doughnuts. It's very "no muss -no fuss" and what's neat is that you can see the doughnuts being made in front of you by a contraption called the "donut robot". There are 2 routes you can go with the doughnuts: there are either the hot varieties that are made on the spot and the fancy ones that are made beforehand and are just waiting for you to consume. Obviously we didn't come this far to have 1 doughnut so we opted for the sample pack instead to have the full maximum experience. With a fresh cup of coffee we first dove into the hot doughnuts that come rolled in either: appollonia (cocoa powder and orange blossoms with a hint of black pepper), Indian cinnamon or vanilla lavender. They were light, they were warm and afterwards you literally wanted to lick your fingers of anything left over because the spices were such a great flavor combination that at first you wouldn't expect to be so good but they were the right balance on the piping hot doughnut. As we were waiting for the doughnuts to be ready we started chatting with some of the workers who informed us that even though there isn't a line around the block they still run out everyday especially of the fancy ones and someone starts making doughnuts between midnight and 4am to have them ready to go when they open at 7am. From the website there was a little bit of confusion around when the chicken started to come out but we were assured it would be out before the original 5pm call time and from there we knew we would be making an encore appearance for fried chicken. As for the fancy doughnuts they always have 6 different varieties ranging from pina colada to raspberry balsamic. After pretty much sampling all of them, they definitely had a lot going on and some were better then others for example the caramel banana was my favorite. But I have to say I think in my future treks there I would just go straight for the hot ones because there really isn't anything like a warm doughnut in your hands. I've also learned from experience that the hot ones reheat quite well by giving them a quick 15 second blast in the microwave and it's like they are fresh from the counter all over again.
A 2 hour nap, several doughnuts later and right before we left Philadelphia we figured "why not go back one more time to try this fried chicken that has gotten such rave reviews" and thank God we did because I can truly say that my life is better that I have now ate this chicken. I would even go as far to say it might just be the best thing that I have ate this year (it's tied right up there with the mushroom bread pudding at Melograno). Since they now make more chicken to keep up with the demand the tickets didn't come out when we were there but the actual chicken was enough of a prize. The chicken is fried and then topped with different seasoning combinations and it comes in either half or whole portions. Since this was only a snack we opted to split a half sized order of the buttermilk ranch variety amongst the 3 of us which yielded 4 pieces and came along with a small container of Japanese pickles and a warm honey glazed doughnut. The chicken was moist but had a nice crispy coating with just the right amount of seasoning for it to really shine through without taking over the overall taste of the meat and it wasn't greasy at all. I don't know what they do to the pickles but I could have ate containers of them. They were a bright green color, sliced thin and with a nice pickled flavor that almost gave them a sweetness edge to them. The doughnut rounded everything out nicely and was a good play on what a savory doughnut might be...it was like a better piece of cornbread. The entire experience lived up to all of my expectations and I can't wait to have an opportunity to head back to Philly again soon for another round of fried, fresh delicious-ness!
Here is the link to the NY Times article about Federal Donut so you can become obsessed with the concept as well. The picture slide show that accompanies the article tells a very good story as well.
2 weeks ago in the NY Times Dining Section, Pete Wells wrote an article about a place in Philadelphia called Federal Donut and as soon as I read the piece I knew that we had to go there on our upcoming trip that was fast approaching. I was enamored about pretty much everything about this place and thought what a genius idea it was to put together doughnuts and fried chicken. Once I read that people were standing in line for these culinary delights at 7am and there was a ticket system that they cooked up in order to hand out the chicken it became a non-negotiable that we were going at some point over the weekend so I could see for myself what the hype was all about. So at 8am on Sunday morning Aaron, Andrew and I arose from our slumbers much earlier then we would have deemed necessary on a ordinary weekend day, threw on the closest matching clothes that would make us presentable in public and headed over to Federal Donut. I have to say I was ever so slightly disappointed to come across the place with no line or massive crowd of people outside but it was quite cold and as someone pointed out "people in Philadelphia don't make huge efforts to get up early" so I'm wasn't going to complain that I didn't have to wait outside in the windy weather before I had pumped an adequate amount of coffee into my system.
When you first walk in you will discover that the restaurant isn't very big. I think there are all of 3 or 4 stools at the counter and then a small waiting area for the doughnuts. It's very "no muss -no fuss" and what's neat is that you can see the doughnuts being made in front of you by a contraption called the "donut robot". There are 2 routes you can go with the doughnuts: there are either the hot varieties that are made on the spot and the fancy ones that are made beforehand and are just waiting for you to consume. Obviously we didn't come this far to have 1 doughnut so we opted for the sample pack instead to have the full maximum experience. With a fresh cup of coffee we first dove into the hot doughnuts that come rolled in either: appollonia (cocoa powder and orange blossoms with a hint of black pepper), Indian cinnamon or vanilla lavender. They were light, they were warm and afterwards you literally wanted to lick your fingers of anything left over because the spices were such a great flavor combination that at first you wouldn't expect to be so good but they were the right balance on the piping hot doughnut. As we were waiting for the doughnuts to be ready we started chatting with some of the workers who informed us that even though there isn't a line around the block they still run out everyday especially of the fancy ones and someone starts making doughnuts between midnight and 4am to have them ready to go when they open at 7am. From the website there was a little bit of confusion around when the chicken started to come out but we were assured it would be out before the original 5pm call time and from there we knew we would be making an encore appearance for fried chicken. As for the fancy doughnuts they always have 6 different varieties ranging from pina colada to raspberry balsamic. After pretty much sampling all of them, they definitely had a lot going on and some were better then others for example the caramel banana was my favorite. But I have to say I think in my future treks there I would just go straight for the hot ones because there really isn't anything like a warm doughnut in your hands. I've also learned from experience that the hot ones reheat quite well by giving them a quick 15 second blast in the microwave and it's like they are fresh from the counter all over again.
A 2 hour nap, several doughnuts later and right before we left Philadelphia we figured "why not go back one more time to try this fried chicken that has gotten such rave reviews" and thank God we did because I can truly say that my life is better that I have now ate this chicken. I would even go as far to say it might just be the best thing that I have ate this year (it's tied right up there with the mushroom bread pudding at Melograno). Since they now make more chicken to keep up with the demand the tickets didn't come out when we were there but the actual chicken was enough of a prize. The chicken is fried and then topped with different seasoning combinations and it comes in either half or whole portions. Since this was only a snack we opted to split a half sized order of the buttermilk ranch variety amongst the 3 of us which yielded 4 pieces and came along with a small container of Japanese pickles and a warm honey glazed doughnut. The chicken was moist but had a nice crispy coating with just the right amount of seasoning for it to really shine through without taking over the overall taste of the meat and it wasn't greasy at all. I don't know what they do to the pickles but I could have ate containers of them. They were a bright green color, sliced thin and with a nice pickled flavor that almost gave them a sweetness edge to them. The doughnut rounded everything out nicely and was a good play on what a savory doughnut might be...it was like a better piece of cornbread. The entire experience lived up to all of my expectations and I can't wait to have an opportunity to head back to Philly again soon for another round of fried, fresh delicious-ness!
Here is the link to the NY Times article about Federal Donut so you can become obsessed with the concept as well. The picture slide show that accompanies the article tells a very good story as well.
Monday, February 13, 2012
"Thank you for reminding me why I love this city so much..."
This past weekend, my brother and I decided it was time to get out of Connecticut for a few days and go visit our cousin Aaron in Philadelphia or "Bro-Love" as I affectionately like to refer to it. I have somewhat of a long-illustrious history with the city having spent 4 years at St. Joe's which lays on the outskirts of town and now have had the opportunity to enjoy it as a sophisticated (most of the time) adult on the many occasions that we have gone to see Aaron who is the person I literally share a brain with. The thing that is so great about Philly is that it is truly a food city that has so many great restaurants and food establishments and the nice part about it is that it still has that urban appeal of a large city but also gives you a little bit of that close neighborhood vibe that you would never find in say New York. It's also a beautiful thing when your host to the city, being in my case Aaron enjoys going out to eat as much as I do and loves a good life-changing culinary experience so I have been beyond spoiled with how we eat whenever I come down.
Throughout the weekend, one of the big topics of conversation was about Craig Laban's (Philadelphia restaurant critic) new ranking of Philadelphia restaurants that ran in the Inquirer the previous weekend. Instead of stars, restaurants received bells and the last time restaurants were ranked in such a big way it was 5 years ago so obviously this was a huge deal. To make matters even more interesting, the story had somewhat of a scandal behind it being as Craig took old favorites and perennial powerhouses such as Le Bec Fin from 4 to 2 bells and basically rewrote the sought after restaurant list in the city. Out of the 5 restaurants that received 4 bells, I've been to 2 of them: Zahav and Bibou which were both amazing and I have Zahav to thank for reinventing the way I consume hummus (hello, warm Israeli version). So that now leaves 3 more to put on the foodie bucket list and considering one is a one table restaurant that allows you to have an intimate dinner party with a year waiting list I might have to steal the concept and make it my own. But in honor of Craig Laban's "Guide to Philadelphia Dining" and in trying to come up with the best way to describe our weekend, here is the rundown of where we ate and what we did in Philly:
Friday Night:
-After a quick cocktail at home we headed out to Kanela, a Greek-Cypriot BYOB Bistro. One of the amazing things about restaurants in Philly is that many of them are BYOB so it gives you the opportunity to pair up some great wines you have at home and it keeps the cost of the meal down because isn't that what always brings the bill up? We split 3 appetizers of lamb sausage, fried calamari and filled flat bread before I enjoyed a flattened baby roast chicken that had great flavors. Loved all of the spiced Greek Yogurt condiments and can not wait to start experimenting with at home versions of the sauces.
-Dessert at Capogiro Gelato. Phenomenal gelato and they always have the most creative flavors. This time it was my favorite of fior de latte (aka: latte foam) and candied chestnuts. They don't advertise it but the hidden secret to perfection here is a shot of fresh whipped cream on top and it just takes it to another level. I'm not afraid to admit that I once frequented Capogiro twice in one day which just shows how good it is and by no means am I one of those people that is obsessed with ice cream.
-Ended the night with the "alcoholic version of Hansel and Gretel" stopping at 3 bars on the way back to Aaron's house before we called it a night. Key to success was a steady diet of red wine and that nice base of food that we laid earlier.
Saturday:
-We can refer to this as the European themed day of the trip. Slept in, consumed coffee and then headed off to a nice little French luncheonette in Aaron's neighborhood. Enjoyed bowls of tomato bisque and quiche as we got the day started.
-Saw the "Van Gogh Up Close" exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I love Van Gogh paintings to begin with but it was really impactful to see so many of them in one place at a given time grouped together by themes. I thought the museum did a good job in pushing the audio headsets on you before you entered into the exhibit and I was glad they did. It was a great way to follow along, actually stop and look at a painting for a given amount of time and learn the background of the artist as he was producing a given work of art. Exhibit runs through May and can't wait to have the opportunity to one day hang a print of the almond blossoms somewhere.
-Started happy hour off at Twenty Manning. We actually had my "day after graduation/Mother's Day brunch" there and ever since I have always loved the collection of restaurants that the group owns being the sucker for nostalgia that I am. Their place across the street, Audrey Claire is truly what I would want to model a restaurant off of if I ever owned one because it's simple, small, warm and served great food. They have now opened another space called "COOK" which is a cooking studio where they offer classes by all of these Philadelphia famous chefs. Once the right class comes along I can't wait to go back down and enjoy an evening there.
-Since we had late dinner reservations, we headed over to Monk's Cafe which is a Belgian beer bar or basically what we can constitute as my brother Andrew's adult version of Disney World. Andrew was in heaven pouring over their beer bible/menu and set us up with some great varieties. Don't ask me what I drank but it was good and gives you a new appreciation for beer. Paired with baskets of Pomme Frites it was a great bridge to the rest of the evening's activities.
-After a quick power nap, we had dinner at Melegrano, an Italian Trattoria. Another BYOB place where we drank bottles of Nebbiolo and a "Super Tuscan" and the food was so good I'm still thinking about everything we ate two days later and how I can replicate the appetizers at home. We started off with mozzarella in carrozza (cheese fried between 2 slices of bread) that was accompanied with an artichoke mostarda (like a sweet mustardy relish) that tasted as if it had a fried dough crust from the St. Mary's festival. There were also small meatballs in a light Gorgonzola fondue and a wild mushroom bread pudding that I'm not going to stop obsessing over until I get the recipe. Like I don't think I can tell you how badly I now want to have an Italian Tapas party with all small plates like this so now that I've put it out there, it has to happen! I enjoyed a bowl of pumpkin ravioli as my main course, Andrew had a bowl of wild boar bolognese that after one bite informed me that "we need to eat more wild boar in our lives" and Aaron had a chicken cutlet dish that was layered with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto that would have only been made better if the cutlet was from Mattei's because then it would have been mind blowing.
Sunday Morning:
-If Saturday could have been themed as "European" then Sunday followed through with an "All-American" vibe. Stop 1 at 8am (which was way too early for any of us to be fully functioning) was to Federal Donut for what has become the new rage in Philly dining. There is actually going to be a whole post on Federal tomorrow so I just need to let the anticipation build inside of you for a little longer before you can find out about the phenomenal experience that it was for me and what I would almost say is worth a 3 hour drive or a weekend in Philly for.
-Went back to the house, fell back into bed for another 2 hours and decided eventually that it was time to get up. Knew that no weekend in Philly is complete without consuming a cheese steak so we headed over to Jim's on South Street for the "Breakfast of Champions". If you've been to Philly before and ordered cheese steaks you know that there's somewhat of an art to ordering but Andrew and Aaron's went the cheese whiz (people swear by it because it melts the best), pepper and onion route while I had mine with the classic standby of American cheese "with".
-A quick stop at the Bella Vista Beer Distributor so Andrew could bring home some treasures that they don't import into Connecticut. The best way to describe this place is that it basically is like a costco of beer because all they sell is cases. We let Andrew roam the aisles with all his joy and glory as I discovered a treasure of my own: Mexican imported orange fanta soda that will be saved for a special occasion.
-Stop 2 at Federal Donuts. More to come but I can say is that it reaffirmed my faith and pleasure in this place even more.
Overall it was a fabulous, jam packed, stomach filled weekend that I will be working out for a week to recover from but worth every ounce that I might have gained from it. We all really needed this weekend to relax, to break away from the routine that you tend to get stuck in during the winter months and as we leaving Aaron professed to us the words "Thank you for reminding my why I love this city so much" which summed up the weekend so perfectly. I can't wait to have for my next jaunt down in a few months which I have a feeling will be sooner rather then later now that I'm probably going to have to run food tours to the Philadelphia for all of my Connecticut friends. Stay tuned and stay hungry for the Federal Donut recap which is coming up soon...
Throughout the weekend, one of the big topics of conversation was about Craig Laban's (Philadelphia restaurant critic) new ranking of Philadelphia restaurants that ran in the Inquirer the previous weekend. Instead of stars, restaurants received bells and the last time restaurants were ranked in such a big way it was 5 years ago so obviously this was a huge deal. To make matters even more interesting, the story had somewhat of a scandal behind it being as Craig took old favorites and perennial powerhouses such as Le Bec Fin from 4 to 2 bells and basically rewrote the sought after restaurant list in the city. Out of the 5 restaurants that received 4 bells, I've been to 2 of them: Zahav and Bibou which were both amazing and I have Zahav to thank for reinventing the way I consume hummus (hello, warm Israeli version). So that now leaves 3 more to put on the foodie bucket list and considering one is a one table restaurant that allows you to have an intimate dinner party with a year waiting list I might have to steal the concept and make it my own. But in honor of Craig Laban's "Guide to Philadelphia Dining" and in trying to come up with the best way to describe our weekend, here is the rundown of where we ate and what we did in Philly:
Friday Night:
-After a quick cocktail at home we headed out to Kanela, a Greek-Cypriot BYOB Bistro. One of the amazing things about restaurants in Philly is that many of them are BYOB so it gives you the opportunity to pair up some great wines you have at home and it keeps the cost of the meal down because isn't that what always brings the bill up? We split 3 appetizers of lamb sausage, fried calamari and filled flat bread before I enjoyed a flattened baby roast chicken that had great flavors. Loved all of the spiced Greek Yogurt condiments and can not wait to start experimenting with at home versions of the sauces.
-Dessert at Capogiro Gelato. Phenomenal gelato and they always have the most creative flavors. This time it was my favorite of fior de latte (aka: latte foam) and candied chestnuts. They don't advertise it but the hidden secret to perfection here is a shot of fresh whipped cream on top and it just takes it to another level. I'm not afraid to admit that I once frequented Capogiro twice in one day which just shows how good it is and by no means am I one of those people that is obsessed with ice cream.
-Ended the night with the "alcoholic version of Hansel and Gretel" stopping at 3 bars on the way back to Aaron's house before we called it a night. Key to success was a steady diet of red wine and that nice base of food that we laid earlier.
Saturday:
-We can refer to this as the European themed day of the trip. Slept in, consumed coffee and then headed off to a nice little French luncheonette in Aaron's neighborhood. Enjoyed bowls of tomato bisque and quiche as we got the day started.
-Saw the "Van Gogh Up Close" exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I love Van Gogh paintings to begin with but it was really impactful to see so many of them in one place at a given time grouped together by themes. I thought the museum did a good job in pushing the audio headsets on you before you entered into the exhibit and I was glad they did. It was a great way to follow along, actually stop and look at a painting for a given amount of time and learn the background of the artist as he was producing a given work of art. Exhibit runs through May and can't wait to have the opportunity to one day hang a print of the almond blossoms somewhere.
-Started happy hour off at Twenty Manning. We actually had my "day after graduation/Mother's Day brunch" there and ever since I have always loved the collection of restaurants that the group owns being the sucker for nostalgia that I am. Their place across the street, Audrey Claire is truly what I would want to model a restaurant off of if I ever owned one because it's simple, small, warm and served great food. They have now opened another space called "COOK" which is a cooking studio where they offer classes by all of these Philadelphia famous chefs. Once the right class comes along I can't wait to go back down and enjoy an evening there.
-Since we had late dinner reservations, we headed over to Monk's Cafe which is a Belgian beer bar or basically what we can constitute as my brother Andrew's adult version of Disney World. Andrew was in heaven pouring over their beer bible/menu and set us up with some great varieties. Don't ask me what I drank but it was good and gives you a new appreciation for beer. Paired with baskets of Pomme Frites it was a great bridge to the rest of the evening's activities.
-After a quick power nap, we had dinner at Melegrano, an Italian Trattoria. Another BYOB place where we drank bottles of Nebbiolo and a "Super Tuscan" and the food was so good I'm still thinking about everything we ate two days later and how I can replicate the appetizers at home. We started off with mozzarella in carrozza (cheese fried between 2 slices of bread) that was accompanied with an artichoke mostarda (like a sweet mustardy relish) that tasted as if it had a fried dough crust from the St. Mary's festival. There were also small meatballs in a light Gorgonzola fondue and a wild mushroom bread pudding that I'm not going to stop obsessing over until I get the recipe. Like I don't think I can tell you how badly I now want to have an Italian Tapas party with all small plates like this so now that I've put it out there, it has to happen! I enjoyed a bowl of pumpkin ravioli as my main course, Andrew had a bowl of wild boar bolognese that after one bite informed me that "we need to eat more wild boar in our lives" and Aaron had a chicken cutlet dish that was layered with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto that would have only been made better if the cutlet was from Mattei's because then it would have been mind blowing.
Sunday Morning:
-If Saturday could have been themed as "European" then Sunday followed through with an "All-American" vibe. Stop 1 at 8am (which was way too early for any of us to be fully functioning) was to Federal Donut for what has become the new rage in Philly dining. There is actually going to be a whole post on Federal tomorrow so I just need to let the anticipation build inside of you for a little longer before you can find out about the phenomenal experience that it was for me and what I would almost say is worth a 3 hour drive or a weekend in Philly for.
-Went back to the house, fell back into bed for another 2 hours and decided eventually that it was time to get up. Knew that no weekend in Philly is complete without consuming a cheese steak so we headed over to Jim's on South Street for the "Breakfast of Champions". If you've been to Philly before and ordered cheese steaks you know that there's somewhat of an art to ordering but Andrew and Aaron's went the cheese whiz (people swear by it because it melts the best), pepper and onion route while I had mine with the classic standby of American cheese "with".
-A quick stop at the Bella Vista Beer Distributor so Andrew could bring home some treasures that they don't import into Connecticut. The best way to describe this place is that it basically is like a costco of beer because all they sell is cases. We let Andrew roam the aisles with all his joy and glory as I discovered a treasure of my own: Mexican imported orange fanta soda that will be saved for a special occasion.
-Stop 2 at Federal Donuts. More to come but I can say is that it reaffirmed my faith and pleasure in this place even more.
Overall it was a fabulous, jam packed, stomach filled weekend that I will be working out for a week to recover from but worth every ounce that I might have gained from it. We all really needed this weekend to relax, to break away from the routine that you tend to get stuck in during the winter months and as we leaving Aaron professed to us the words "Thank you for reminding my why I love this city so much" which summed up the weekend so perfectly. I can't wait to have for my next jaunt down in a few months which I have a feeling will be sooner rather then later now that I'm probably going to have to run food tours to the Philadelphia for all of my Connecticut friends. Stay tuned and stay hungry for the Federal Donut recap which is coming up soon...
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
How do you know?
It's a new month and I figured it was the right moment to check back in and give you an update to my job search situation. Well I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone who've ever looked for a job before but for those that haven't let me give you a little insight...it's hell and it sucks. On the surface, I can tell you that I'm fine and I'm attempting to enjoy my sabbatical since these moments don't exactly happen all that often and who doesn't like the opportunity to be home, relax, and have the time to cook great meals and go for runs in 50 degree weather. But if you know anything about me, you know that I'm a girl who likes to have a plan, who isn't patient at all and can even be described as one of those "Type A control freaks" (yes I'm trying to be the most honest version of myself). So needless to say the time off hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies and it's hard because honestly I couldn't tell you what I actually wanted to do for a job or career. I keep thinking, that if I actually knew what I wanted to do or be then it would have hit me by now. That it would be all I could think about, it's all that I would want to do and would be so blatant that it would pretty much smack me in the face but no such luck. You spend all of this time thinking to yourself and self-reflecting about what you want to do because you basically have the opportunity to do anything or everything but you just keep coming up blank. It's hard not to know where you are going or what you are working for and frankly it's scary as anything to try to begin again. You go online and spend all this time searching for jobs on websites and you apply for things that you think will be great and then you a) never hear anything because half of America is looking for a job or b) you're lucky enough to go on interviews but they turn into major busts. You learn that half of the job postings online are for something completely different from what they sound like and that maybe you made too much money in New York City (even though at the time and in the thick of it you felt pretty underpaid for all that you did) that a new job isn't going to be able to go near that. Don't get me wrong, I'm more then frustrated and done on the whole process but I'm starting to get amused by everything because what more can you do but laugh at it all?
So how do you know what you're supposed to do in life or when the right job comes along? It's not like some set of directions or life plan is going to arrive at your doorstep one day (even though I sure of hell would love some kind of manual right about now). Sometimes as independent as you think you might be, you want nothing more then for someone to tell you what you should be doing or to push you in the right direction that they can see but you just can't yet. It feels like you will go through layers and layers of crap and seriously question all of decisions before you finally get to the right moment. And I guess you will know when it's right like you do when you're buying a melon. It's just going to be instinctual and from the gut and you're just going to know because all of a sudden it will all make sense and you couldn't think of it to be any other way. I keep thinking about the fact that Kathryn Stockett, the bestselling author of "The Help" got over 60 rejections before she was able to publish her book which ended up selling over 5 million copies and becoming an award winning movie. I guess you just have to be glad that she didn't give up around rejection 15 or 34 or even 59 for that matter. I guess you just have to keep going as much as it hurts, as crappy as it feels and as much as you just want to throw in the towel and be done with it all because eventually things will turn in the right direction and you'll be on your way to the next great thing just waiting to unfold in front of you.
So how do you know what you're supposed to do in life or when the right job comes along? It's not like some set of directions or life plan is going to arrive at your doorstep one day (even though I sure of hell would love some kind of manual right about now). Sometimes as independent as you think you might be, you want nothing more then for someone to tell you what you should be doing or to push you in the right direction that they can see but you just can't yet. It feels like you will go through layers and layers of crap and seriously question all of decisions before you finally get to the right moment. And I guess you will know when it's right like you do when you're buying a melon. It's just going to be instinctual and from the gut and you're just going to know because all of a sudden it will all make sense and you couldn't think of it to be any other way. I keep thinking about the fact that Kathryn Stockett, the bestselling author of "The Help" got over 60 rejections before she was able to publish her book which ended up selling over 5 million copies and becoming an award winning movie. I guess you just have to be glad that she didn't give up around rejection 15 or 34 or even 59 for that matter. I guess you just have to keep going as much as it hurts, as crappy as it feels and as much as you just want to throw in the towel and be done with it all because eventually things will turn in the right direction and you'll be on your way to the next great thing just waiting to unfold in front of you.
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