Bad Boy!!

The VMAs and life kicked my ass all weekend and I didn't have time to update my lil blog. I'm a bad boy and I promise to do better.

In the meantime, here's a cute picture of the boys watching their dad on the VMA Pre-Show last night. They loved the show and concur with the world that Kanye West is also a very bad boy and should get either the squirt gun or the newspaper treatment.

Le Pamplemousse!

As you can imagine, I read a lot of food magazines. I get lots of recipe ideas and I love reading about new products and gadgets. One of my favorites is Bon Appetit. I read it from cover to cover. In the new issue, they give out the Bon Appetit Awards and have featured a Hot 10 consisting of "people, companies, and products setting new standards of culinary excellence in food, drinks, travel, and design." It's a great list and you can check it out here.

I bring this list up because one of our favorite liqueurs is featured on it!

Here's the glowing praise Bon Appetit gives this lovely concoction:

St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur (Robert Cooper, creator), for giving innovative artisanal "flower power" to the home bar. Our hearts leapt at the sight of the bottle alone—individually numbered and faceted with alluring Art Deco lines—but it's the straw-colored liqueur with a bouquet oflychee and pear that made us forget the remainder of the liquor cabinet's contents. Created by Robert Cooper, a third-generation distiller, St-Germain is as freshly floral as only a liqueur made from handpicked wild elderflower blossoms can be. And while this artisanal elixir has us longing for crisp afternoons at a bistro in Paris, a bottle at home means one needn't bother with a barkeep to shake up a drink that tastes as rare as the first days of spring.

If you are unfamiliar with St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur I urge you to pick up a bottle or, at the very least, hit a bar and ask for a cocktail with it. The St-Germain website has a great recipe page (and the site's design is sublime). Go here to see that.

Here's my favorite use, however. It's a perfect drink that we've adapted from one featured on the menu at Marseille in midtown NYC. It's delicious if not just a tad, well, gay. It's got pink grapefruit and elderflower in it, hello!

Le Pamplemousse

3 parts chilled vodka
(we use Ketel One but for extra fruitiness use Absolut Ruby Red)
1 part St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
2 parts fresh squeezed pink grapefruit juice
splash of Campari

shake in martini shaker with ice, strain and serve up, with a salted rim

A New Recurring Feature: Grrr!

This is my first post in a new recurring series called "Grrr!"

Duncan makes this noise when he wants me to play ball. Finn makes it when he wants me to get off the computer and pay attention to him. I make this noise when I'm served something awful, when something in my kitchen gets broken or lost, when produce is not up to par, or when I fail miserably at making a dish.

The two biggest culinary "Grrr's" in my memory involve the serving of a mostly raw turkey at a small Thanksgiving I was hosting in Brooklyn about 8 years ago and the all-to-hasty pouring of my lemon custard filling into a still-to-warm pie crust last Thanksgiving that resulted basically in lemon soup in a bread bowl. They'll be many more "Grrr's" featured here for sure. I've had some great successes in the kitchen but I've also been known to really screw stuff up. I had a really big "Grrr" yesterday involving the tomato on a very ordinary ham & cheddar sandwich. Look:

grrr! tomato core! grrr!

TRAVESTY!! GRRR!! All it takes to make sure something like this never happens is 3 flippin' seconds and $1.49.

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/red-handle-tomato-corer/628950.html

Not in the Kitchen Tonight!

Too much good TV on to stand over the stove this evening!! I'm a huge fan of So You Think You Can Dance, Glee AND Top Chef... all of which are ON TONIGHT! I could almost implode. So here's the mise en place for my dinner:

I love the Natural Jif, it's so creamy and great. And, although I do love concord grape jelly, tonight I went with some French Cherry Preserves. So good! My Davey prefers PB&H though. (H = honey!)

Puff Piece

Are you a fan of frozen puff pastry? If you're not, I think you should reconsider. If you've never used it, then get thee to the market! I consider myself a decent baker. Not good, mind you, just decent. I can, thanks to my pop, Jack, finally make a homemade pie crust worthy of the Thanksgiving table. Dave and I make several kinds of great cookies. I can bake a cake, a loaf of bread and cinnamon rolls, too. However, I am self-actualized enough to know that I'm just not able (read: patient enough) to make croissants or puff pastry. Thus, my love for frozen puff pastry abounds!

It's perfect and delicious. My favorite use is as the top to a chicken pot pie. You'll be seeing some of the many sized chicken pies we make at my house once the weather cools down a bit. We also love to use the pastry sheets to make pockets filled with delicious and sometimes unexpected flavors. For last week's labor day picnic we wanted to take something sweet, easy to transport, and easy to eat. So here's what we did:

That up there is thawed puff pastry as the base (cut into strips), filled with two slices of crisp Granny Smith apple, a half dollar-sized piece of triple cream cheese (we used St. Andre), and smeared with fig jam that had been cooked with a splash of cognac. Just egg wash the edges, fold over, and fork closed the three seams. Add another coating of egg wash on top then bake until golden. That, my friends, is a seriously hot pocket!

Uncooperative

Just my luck. Finley is not a fan of the video camera.

Taking Stock...

My life and meals go much better if I just take a few (actually, about 4) hours on a day when I know I'm going to be home to make a great big pot of homemade chicken stock. There are a thousand recipes for the "best chicken stock" on the internet and it really couldn't be easier. I have a great recipe and some helpful pictures that I'm going to post for you very soon.

Anyway, tonight's dinner (which the dogs loooooved, btw) was so good and so easy. It took roughly half an hour to make but I was doing eight other things at the same time. I freeze my chicken stock in quart containers, I've found that size works best. Lately I've been reusing these great containers my favorite ramen soup comes in from a big deli in Times Square. They literally pour boiling hot ramen soup into these containers so they're very thick and very sturdy. I couldn't live with myself if I sent one of these things to a landfill. Here's a couple filled with frozen stock in my freezer:

Back to tonight's dinner. We threw 3 chicken breasts in the oven (coated with kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and olive oil) to roast for about a half hour. I'd planned early and moved two containers of stock from the freezer to the fridge this morning to thaw. I cut up 4 big carrots, 4 stalks of celery and one medium onion. The stock and all vegetables went into a pot and were brought to a boil. I boiled everything for about 10 minutes so the carrots would be cooked. (You may need to add a couple of cups of water if you want your soup, you know, soupier. We like it full of noodles!) Add about half or 3/4 of a package of egg noodles to the boiling stock. By the time they cook, your chicken should be done in the oven. Pull that out, and cut into chunks using tongs and a knife since they'll be hot. Stir the chicken in. (Make sure to add the chicken juices left in the roasting pan to the soup! Deglaze that pan with a little of your broth if necessary... that's ALL FLAVOR!) Let simmer for a few minutes to meld all the ingredients. Do a final seasoning of salt or pepper if you like. Eat.

You now have a meal that tastes like it took most of the day... but it totally didn't.

Possible Atomic Slushy Palace?

My commute from my home in Westchester to my job in Manhattan ranges from 41 minutes to just over an hour, depending on what train I manage to hop on. Sometimes it sucks, I have to admit. But often the ride home is kinda cool. I get to unwind by watching the Hudson River go by. I can still work on my Blackberry if necessary. I can read or write or text with friends. Oh and often I get to enjoy one of these:

They're ice cold, aren't very pricey and they sell them all over the train station. Now, I used to purchase my bright blue beauty at a little mini-deli in Grand Central Terminal. I used to pass it everyday. The fella that worked there was very nice and, because he knew everyone was trying to both buy something and make their train, he was very speedy at his job. Ring! Change! Bag! Gone! It was awesome. Sigh. I'm sad to say, that mini-deli is no more.... BUT... this is:

I have no idea what The Beverage Bar will be. It may be the same deli/store just updated and rebranded... but I hope it's much more. When I first saw that the deli had closed and this "coming soon" message, I immediately pictured one of the potent slushy storefronts that line Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I pictured triple stacked Slurpee-type dispensers with amazing flavors like banana daiquiri, strawberry margarita, and hurricane. Now, if what I've conjured up in my mind is true then I'm going to have to take a different route through Grand Central. Even though the large hurricane one I had at my fraternity's formal in Nawlins many years ago made me projectile vomit bright red crawfish etouffee all over my rented tuxedo shoes, I still love those things.

Actually, let's just hope it's not an atomic slushy palace and that it's just a place to buy a quick beer or wine spritzer on your way home. I think that would be best.

Uninterested

I tried to talk to Finn and Duncan this morning about what we should have for dinner tonight. They were uninterested... they are not morning dogs.

Roasted Garlic & Vegetable Pasta Salad

Pasta salad, frankly, is usually pretty boring. Nothing about this one is, though. However, I must warn you that you will stink to high heaven after you eat it... but it's sooo worth it. Here's why:

Hopefully you can find whole peeled garlic in your grocery store. If you've got to peel all of that AND eat it you're really gonna stink. If there was ever a dish for a single person this is surely it. You'll need about 6 oz. of peeled garlic. Coat it very lightly with olive oil and a little salt. You're going to roast this in the same 350 degree oven as you do the vegetables.

Select the vegetables that make you happy. We used 2 yellow squash, 2 zucchinis, 2 baby eggplants, 2 red bell peppers and a carton of grape tomatoes. Toss with a coating of olive oil, kosher salt, fresh black pepper and, this is important, fresh oregano. I've also used onions, mushrooms, carrots and other tasty veggies in this... they all work.

I use a big roasting pan for the vegetables and a smaller dish for the garlic. Don't roast them together though. That garlic is going to go into your blender or food processor to make the dressing and you don't want to fish those little suckers out of the bigger pan. Roast everything for about 30-45 minutes at 350. Make sure to check on the garlic every 15 to 20 minutes. You want it golden and soft, like butter. You want your vegetables clearly cooked but still with a bit of bite to them so they don't fall apart as you toss. For the dressing, put all your gorgeous garlic in your blender or processor along with the juice of 1 lemon and start with about 2 Tablespoons of good, fruity olive oil. Pulse and more olive oil until you have a nice pasty dressing. Depending on how many vegetables and you pasta choice, you may not use all the dressing. Add half then taste. Add more if you like. I had a little left.

Prepare your pasta as directed. We used a whole wheat rigatoni. Because I cut the vegetables in relatively large chunks, I want a pasta that's similar in size. If you like your veggies a little smaller, go for a mini penne or even an orzo. Toss everything together, then sprinkle in some shredded Parmesan cheese. Serve at room temperature. You're gonna love the dish and hate your breath.

mint, anyone?

Happy Labor Day!

Hope you're having a great weekend and holiday. As a last little salute to summer, I'm going to curl up with this baby watermelon. Good times.

Buttermilk! Fried! Chicken!

I love fried chicken. I do not love the gargantuan mess I make when preparing it. There's flour & grease everywhere! But I can't go to a picnic and not take it, just can't do it. The recipe is very simple.

I marinate the chicken parts in buttermilk seasoned with salt, fresh cracked pepper and a bit of cayenne for about an hour. After that, it's dredged in flour seasoned with salt, fresh cracked pepper and, yep, a bit of cayenne. Some people use Old Bay or other seasonings in their dredging flour... I say go for it. My mother dips her chicken in an egg mixture before the chicken, which is also quite tasty. I only fry chicken in a cast iron skillet, it's the only way to go. About 4 or 5 minutes on each side... then I stick it in my oven at 350 for a bit, til I'm sure it's completely done. Nothing ruins a picnic like salmonella.

This little fella didn't make it to the picnic:

(one for the chef!)

We spread out on a blanket near the shore of the mighty Hudson. It was truly a gorgeous day. The river, the wine, the friends and the food... all delightful.

Chicken good!

Lil Finn and Duncan stayed home today, but we did have one doggy friend... below is Zeke! Oh, we ate a lot more than just chicken today, some really great stuff that I'm going to tell you about a little later...

I live for Sundays...

and here's why:

(put syrup here!)

We Got the Beet!

Earlier this evening, in a fit of wild stupidity, I decided to see if I was still allergic to beets... while sitting in a restaurant with my husband. I was just so sick of seeing delicious beet salads on menus and not being able to eat them. I decided to throw caution to the wind and challenge my decades-long beet allergy by forking a gorgeously roasted golden beet (enrobed in herbed goat cheese!) and putting it in my mouth.

The next couple of moments for me were so exciting. For the first time in over 30 years, I tasted a beet again... and instantly remembered how much I absolutely love them. Dave spent his next moments both devouring his golden beet & goat cheese salad and watching my face... just in case.



I'm fully aware of the fact that although this one bite of roasted golden beet didn't send me to the ER, that eating a conventional RED beet may. I know I've drank a Bloody Mary made with spicy V8 juice (which totally has beet juice in it) recently so I'm hopeful that I'm free not to fear all beets soon. I will tread lightly, however. I'm not going to take any borscht baths anytime soon, but a freakin' salad every now and again would be delightful. Cross your fingers!

A Bit of a Pickle

I know how to do lots of stuff in the kitchen. But there are definitely many more things that I still need to learn. Today I'm going to pickle something... other than my liver. I've never done it before but I'm up to the task. You'll hear all about it later. I've got so much work to do.

I'm doing the standard cucumbers, of course. Additionally, as I was researching the art of pickling, I ran across a recipe for pickled Brussels sprouts (on www.seriouseats.com), so I'm going to tackle those, too. Just for fun.

(give me strength...)

update: What a freakin' mess! And, ouch, boiling water is HOT! Other than that, all went well. I can't eat the Brussels sprouts for two weeks, but the bread and butter ones will be great in just a couple of days!! Yay!

Pomegranate + Black Pepper = WTF?

Wait, what? Sure, everyone seems to be wrapped up in the pomegranate right now. You can't swing a canvas grocery bag without hitting 8 different pomegranate juice flavor varietals (pom + blueberry, pom + mango, etc.) in the grocery store or sit at any metropolitan bar and not see it in a margarita or cocktail. And, yes, most all of us either grab the pepper shaker on the table or crack fresh black pepper on our food everyday. Individually, these two ingredients are no big deal. Now, I'm a pretty creative and adventurous cook, but the marriage of pomegranates and pepper mills never crossed my mind. Until today...

While strolling through the Beacon Natural Market, just looking around, like I loooove to do, we happened upon these:

I was intrigued to say the least. Dave and I read the labels, looked at each other, then looked back at the bottles. I believe he said something like, "Knock yourself out!" A few minutes later when I actually tasted this stuff that's very nearly what I did... and I mean that in a VERY GOOD WAY.

Once I'd read the flavor combinations again, I quickly decided this was the best choice for me:

I think I noticed a slight roll of the eye as my husband forked over the $2.79 for this enigmatic concoction. I'm sure he was envisioning this bottle in the garbage can 99.975% full. Truth be told, that thought was swirling around in my noggin as well. Here's how the next couple of moments went:

It smelled very sweet as I brought it up to my mouth. The first moment on the tongue is bright and fruity. It was quite chilled so also quite refreshing on this warm and sunny day. Then it happened...

Near the back of the palette and top of the throat, the capsaicin started coming to life. Please don't let the face I'm making in the photo above scare you from trying this stuff. It's surprising, more than a little exciting, and, frankly, the most fun I've had drinking something not whiskey in a long time! Now that I'd tasted it and knew exactly what dance this beverage was going to do in my mouth, I took another swig, a bigger swig. No big deal, right?

There's was just no way to play it cool! Even though it will likely always make my face contort and my brow sweat, I love this stuff. I can't wait to try the other two flavors. I'm going to ask the gourmet market in my town to start stocking it, stat. I'm already envisioning the killer cocktail I'm going to make with the pomegranate one. That + Absolut Peppar, superchilled & shaken, up, in a salt & pepper rimmed martini glass, on a cold day. Whoa! Yeah!

The label lists the "Health Benefits of Capsaicin." Apparently it boosts the metabolism, it relieves congestion, and it strengthens immunity. (The label also notes that these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, FYI.) The label also says capsaicin elevates mood. (I should note that this last statement is actually an understatement.) If you see it on the shelf, try it. And then tell me about it! More info here: Prometheus Springs.

Fetch: Beacon and Beyond!

As mentioned in my previous post, we had a great time today in Beacon, NY. We've been there a couple of times but never really relaxed into the day and just looked at everything. It was a gorgeous day today, a wonderful last gasp of summer. We were on foot most of the day and my bald lil' head is a tad pink! (Would you just LOOK at the perfect blue sky in the background of the Beacon clock photo? PERFECT!)

I had so many mini-adventures today, many of them deserve their own post. Over the next couple of days I'll be bringing you those. You can look forward to a great review of the Beacon Barkery, which features all natural gourmet food, treats and accessories for dogs (and cats). We got Duncan and Finn several presents there. More on those later.

You'll also hear the exciting story of how a very fancy piece of Hudson Beach Glass became my new salt well! If you think you could be excited about a new salt well, well then this blog is definitely for you (and we could likely be best friends).

After we'd seen the best of Beacon, I gently nudged my husband to drive down the road to Woodbury Commons, the premium outlets in Central Valley, NY. One of my favorite places on this planet is located there... the Williams-Sonoma Marketplace!!

(Yes, that's a toothpick. I'm still very much an Oklahoma boy at times...)

The fine folks at the Williams-Sonoma Marketplace were having a barnburner of a sale. Most things were at least 25% off, but many were a full 50% off. We also found a Italian, small batch, 100% Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a whopping 75% off! Also scored 8 adorable mini-trifle dishes that will definitely be used at our next dinner party. Dave and I are triflin' fools! I'll make sure to feature my favorite blackberry one here in the near future. Got some prep bowls with the best tight fitting lids at the Crate & Barrel outlet (and a new door mat for the front porch, too).

Buying things for my kitchen makes me a very happy boy... evidenced below by my grin as we drove home with all our booty (btw, those aren't the only bags, the trunk was FULL).

Oh, this was the gorgeous sky near the Bear Mountain Bridge as we drove home. Ain't life grand? It sure was today.

Gorgeous Day

The hubby and I had an amazing day traipsing through the Hudson Valley! Great shopping in Beacon, then I got completely spoiled at the Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel outlets!

Lots of fun pictures, products and purchases to come!

Hope you're enjoying the beginnings of Labor Day Weekend!

Fetch: Grand Central Market

Some people hate to shop. I am not some people. Even though I have no problem searching stores for clothes, shoes, tennis racquets or Charlie Brown memorabilia... what I really love to shop for is groceries, foods, sundries, cheese. I like to go up and down every aisle and often spend inordinate amounts of time in produce sections. Before the expansive Whole Foods and Trader Joe's began popping up all over Manhattan, most grocery stores were cramped and had very little choice. Not that fun, really. When we finally moved out of the big apple a couple of years ago, I was so thrilled to walk the wide aisles of Westchester County's numerous gigantic grocery stores. And, whoa boy, when I take a rare trip back home to Oklahoma... they're mostly Wal-Mart Superstores, but a grocery store there literally takes up hectares. It can be an all day affair for me.

Now, that move to Westchester I mentioned made it necessary for me to take a commuter train into the city to my office. Because my Metro North train often arrived every morning on the same track, there was a long time, perhaps a year even, that I never wandered around Grand Central Terminal. I just got off the train and headed for the first exit out. I had a very specific route and it didn't cover much ground in GCT at all. Then one day, one glorious day, my train arrived on a track on the near opposite of the one I was accustomed to and I discovered the Grand Central Market. I stood at the door, mouth agape.

The fact that I had been in the same building as this heavenly place twice a day without darkening it's door nearly brought tears to my eyes. I'm serious about food shopping. Serious. This place had my name written all over it. Have a gander at some of my favorite parts:



This is just a taste of what you can find there. I'm going to be profiling some of the fine purveyors here so you haven't heard the last of the Grand Central Market.

The boys react!

Needless to say, the boys are very happy to be involved.

Blech.

In a somewhat bizarre twist of fate, just as my blog about dogs and food gets started, I actually ended up eating dogfood today.

Lil Finny was having some tummy troubles last weekend and his vet put him on a new diet for a bit. He usually eats dry kibble that I doctor up with chicken broth or beef stock or the water tuna is packed in. Now, however, he's eating the delightful stuff pictured here. It's mostly rice and turkey and pork liver. While I like rice, turkey and pork, in this form is it quite unappealing.

So, this morning I took a spoon and scooped some of this stuff out for my little guy. It's kinda sticky and gloopy so I had to use my finger to slide it off the spoon. And then, I quite absentmindedly decided to clean the dogfood off my finger by putting said finger in my mouth.

This is not a mistake I'll make again.