Throwdown in Columbus

So, after flying around the country pretty frequently for work over the last two years I finally saw someone interesting in the airport! I had just passed through security at the Port Columbus, OH airport and was walking towards my gate when I passed someone familiar talking on his cell phone. I definitely did a double take - "Wait, was that...it couldn't be, could it? It is!"

And the mystery guest is...

BOBBY FLAY!!!

Ok, so I am a huge nerd, but I thought it was totally awesome. If he hadn't been on the phone I probably would have tried to get a picture with him or something.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool!

Dude, what was Bobby Flay doing in Ohio?? Also, he's skinnier in person.

A Last Minute Tomato Pie

I had come across this recipe a few weeks ago and knew right away that I would have to make it. After all - it combines two of my absolute favorite things - Pie and Tomatoes! I mean, really, how can you go wrong? Well, I think the answer is "You Can't!" Carolyn made her own version of this recipe on Monday , but since I missed out on the good eats (very tasty I heard) I decided to make it tonight with Randi prior to my volleyball game. I don't have the exact recipe that Carolyn used - but I know cottage cheese was involved somehow...

This recipe comes from Superspark, a fellow food blogger. I did not use her recipe for pie crust, because it required milk and I only have Vanilla Soy Milk currently in mi casa (and I kinda wanted to use some lard...) I picked a recipe for "Flaky Pie Crust" from epicurious.com that turned out pretty well. I have to say though, as much as I love love love pie, I never really got the hang of making crust. I think that pre-made pie crust is blasphemous, but that hasn't stopped me from using it in the past. You'd think that some one with such a serious love for pie (a food that screams crust) would know how to make it pretty well!

The main problem that we encountered tonight was a lack of time. The crust should have chilled for a good 30 minutes, but I only gave it umm...5 minutes...oops. Also, I rushed the baking some. Either way, it turned out GREAT! It was everything I could have hoped for. Its so simple and tasty, you'd be a fool not to try it (even if you use the store bought crust).

Tomato Pie
courtesy of Superspark

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp torn basil leaves
1 1/2 grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
Uncooked 2-layer pie crust (click here for recipe)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 and lightly grease a 9″ pie pan.

2. Place about half of the dough on a floured board and roll to fit pie pan. Cover dough with tomato slices. Sprinkle basil over tomatoes. Top with half of cheese, and coat thinly with mayo. Add remaining cheese. Roll remaining dough thinly enough to fit over the top of pie and pinch closed.

3. Bake approximately 20-25 minutes until brown on top.

This meal was truly phenomenal! The tomatoes were so juicy and delicious and combined with the flaky crust and cheesy cheese....mmmmm...

Personal Pizza

While Georgia, Carolyn and John were off foraying at the XPN festival this weekend, and Andy at home in Georgia, I spent the weekend at my parents' house in Jersey. My mother knows how to make some spectacularly delicious foods - I've never tasted anything like her homemade chicken soup and her veal marsala is tops - but in the last 5 years she's all but stopped cooking.... and my parents ALWAYS go out to dinner on the weekends anyway. I know this sounds like a complaint, but its not. If my parents instilled one thing in me it was a love of spending money on good food and going home for the weekend means free delicious dinners out. Rock.

Anywho - we spent all of Saturday in Atlantic City at the Borgata, which has some great restaurants. We tried for some last minute reservations, but to no avail. Luckily Wolfgang Puck's place has "front restaurant seating" known as the "Tavern," which lighter, cheaper fare. The Tavern menu includes the personal gourmet pizzas that are a part of Puck's trademark. And although I was initally going to go for some awesome looking gnocchi dish, I caved at the though of the prosciutto pizza with goat cheese or the smoked salmon with cream fraise and black caviar. My mom also tried a pizza and got a wild mushroom and ricotta one. I ended up going with the prosciutto, mostly because of the goat cheese, but the salmon one was a tad overpriced for me.

I had a great tuna tartar appetizer, and I'm not really a tuna fan. But the pizza WAS CRAP. Way too much cheese (the goat was on top of the mozzarella) and BORING flavors. I couldn't believe it. Not to mention it was kinda heavy, not at all light like I wanted it to be. I tried my mother's also - the mushrooms were oily and outweighed the flavor of the ricotta. I was totally disappointed. Especially at $15 a pop.. which would be fine if it tasted good. BOOOOOO on you Wolfgang Puck.

For much more excellent, and cheap, gourmet pizza, I recommend Jules Pizza in Doylestown. They've got you beat Puck, take a seat.

Help! Theres Half an Eggplant in My Fridge!!

I'm sure we've all been there...there it is, sitting quietly in the corner of the fridge - the uncooked, cut in half vegetable. It stares up at you forlornly in its Ziploc bag shouting "Eat me! Please, for the love of cooking, put me in something!" And, if you are like me (hopefully you are not), half of the time I forget that said veggie is in the fridge until weeks later, when its moldy/shrivelled self is haphazardly thrown in the trash.

Well, NOT THIS TIME!!! As much as I would like to say that I have become a more environmentally concerned sort (which I sort of am anyhow) - this is not the true reason for my recent scavenging in the cabinets. The truth is folks - I have a small problem. No worries, it is not a "see you after your 9 month stint in jail" problem. Not even something too serious. The problem is...wait for it...I have too much shit I want to buy. These next few months are going to require a lot of money (and that's not even including the new mountain bike I want). A trip to Turkey/Greece, snowboarding season and various other items are going to give my wallet a serious squeeze.

So, when I am sitting there, deciding what I want to eat, a little voice in the back of my head says "eat something you have - SAVE MONEY!" So, without further ado, I will discuss what I made last night and give a few comments on such.

With half of an eggplant in the fridge, the first thing that popped into my head was to saute it and add it to a tomato sauce. I got the following ingredients at Whole Foods (don't cringe - they have some cheap stuff there too):

Organic 365 Tomato Sauce with Basil - $2.49
365 Extra Firm Tofu - $0.99

I also picked up a chunk of their cornbread for about $3.50 cause its yummy :) I usually stray far away from store bought tomato sauce, preferring to make my own - but I think when you are making more of a veggie stew its OK.

Basically, we just browned the tofu (cut up into chunks first) and sauteed it with the eggplant. When eggplant is slightly mushy, add it to the sauce. Carolyn also had some basil in her garden which was contributed. We ate this sauce over spinach nuggets (strange but very tasty) and shaved some mozzarella over top. However, this sauce can easily be served over pasta (obviously). I think a quick pasta sauce with fresh veggies is one of the easiest and cheapest things to do with veggies. Best part - I am sitting here eating leftovers of leftovers right now!

Don't let those unused veggies go to waste again!

Shrimp and Asparagus and Feta, Oh My!

I have usuals in my cooking repertoire, as we all do, and something my boyfriend always asks for is what he calls "shrimp pasta," which is like my non-alcoholic take on shrimp scampi. I usually use spinach as well to add in some green and counter my guilt over the amount of butter in the dish, but I had been hearing about how asparagus was in season and when I got the grocery store it was actually on sale. I still lack pictures, I'm sorry to say, but I'm hoping the awesome power of shrimp, asparagus and feta will lure you in ;) I make this for two, but it leaves left overs, so you can adjust as you wish.

Shrimp Pasta with Asparagus and Feta

1 lb shrimp (I use peeled and deveined cause I'm lazy)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbs butter
1 bundle asparagus (it was a little less than a pound)
Splash of olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper


Put a splash of olive oil into a large sauce pan, mince up some garlic and let cook for about 2 minutes on low to medium heat - till garlic starts to smell fragrant but before it browns. In the meantime, put water up to boil. At a rolling boil, add pasta of your choice (I mostly use spaghetti, but I went with some cool-looking pasta called Rombi.

Cut off the hard ends of the asparagus and throw away. Cut the spears in half and put into the pan with garlic. Cook, stiring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes. Add shrimp and half tbs of butter. Cook till shrimp are pink and add some salt and pepper. When shrimp are done, add lemon juice, taste - and if needed add other half tbs of butter. Toss with pasta in bowl (or pan if you're me), add some crumbled feta and stir to let feta melt in a bit. Serve!

Yum, totally excellent. Not the MOST healthy of dishes, but not bad either ;)

Pre-Vacation "Moussaka"

I just read a very interesting article in the New York Times titled "Mom Puts Family on Her Mealplan" by Leslie Kaufman. Seriously, you should read it. But to give you a brief synopsis - it is her take on being a mother and cooking for your children. With the 'modern woman' often having to juggle between work and household demands, it is often easy to find a "simple" solution for dinner versus cooking a real meal for your family. Leslie decided early on in motherhood that although she may be able to delegate other tasks to non-immediate family members, she would remain the primary nutritionist. (She also gives very useful tips if you are in that "cook for children" stage of your life - I am not)

This article really got me thinking about my upbringing. I joke that my mother has hippy roots (which she does), but I think she also really understood the importance of nutrition and had a real love for food. Its funny how when you grow up experiencing things as a part of everyday life you do not stop and think that what might be considered "normal" to you may be the farthest thing from normal in another persons life.

Examples: We never ate fastfood, never drank soda, ate home cooked meals at least 6 nights out of the week, "mixes" were like a foreign language, my mom had her own garden and frequently preserved various jams and pickles and she also made home made bread to the delight of me and my sisters.

However, after learning more about my friends and their childhoods (not bad, just different), I realized that things I took for granted were not things that "normal" children experienced.

THANKS MOM!!!

But I digress. This recipe was something that my mom made often. It is really stuffed eggplant, but she always called it Moussaka. Although, it does have the same basic ingredients as Moussaka, it is definitely different. One major discrepancy is its lack of bechemel sauce. Either way, it is very tasty and a great recipe to have in repertoire (its also pretty healthy). I made a few minor changes to my mom's recipe, but the basics are the same:

Stuffed Eggplant
serves 4

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
4 servings cooked rice
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
feta cheese
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 pound ground meat (I used lean turkey)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Drizzle olive oil in a large saute pan. Add garlic to pan and cook for a few minutes over medium heat. Add ground meat and break up into smaller pieces. Salt and pepper.

3) Half eggplants lengthwise and scoop out insides. Put the skins on a greased cookie sheet. Roughly chop eggplant.

3) When meat is cooked, drain fat from pan and add the chopped eggplant and mushrooms. Salt and pepper. Add rice and mix together. I also added a shake or two of creole seasoning.

4) Spoon cooked mixture into eggplant shells and top with tomato sauce and crumbled feta. Warning: This will not look very appetizing at this point, no worries though.

5) Cook for about an hour.

This was a perfect pre-vacation dinner. It turned out very well and the feta really added an extra layer of flavor. I really like this meal because it contains all food groups in a convenient eggplant shell package :) We ate up and then hit the road.

Presto Pasta Night - A Quick Meal

I don't know about you guys - but I'm HOT! And sick and tired of 100 degree days (I even broke down and bought an AC for my office). Anything over 85 is too toasty for me. I guess I'm just kind of a baby and definitely a Yankee at heart. I could never, ever, ever live anywhere south of Delaware. Well, I know this is a slight ramble, but there is a point...I swear! The point is that it has been too hot to think about cooking. Sheesh, keep me out of the kitchen. For dinner on Monday, I made myself a PB&J - no cooking there. So, that is my plea for forgiveness in lack of blogging, although, I have a good meal planned for Friday - so keep on the lookout. Unfortunately, the heat has been hampering my activity schedule as well. Days were we would normally go climbing we sit around and discuss the pros and cons of doing stuff vs. swimming vs. doing nothing. Nothing wins too often :(

Today we actually were able to drag ourselves to the gym for a brief (40 minute) climbing session, but decided that eating would be a priority, meaning we would eat before climbing (we usually climb first, eat second). It was John's cooking night tonight and he had gotten an idea from a guy from work. It is a very simple dish, but was very yummy. I have also submitted this recipe to Presto Pasta Night put on by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. This is what John made:

Quick Linguine with Chicken
serves 4

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 lb linguine
1 pint heavy cream
Bottle Italian salad dressing
S&P

Directions:

1) Marinate chicken breasts in half of the bottle of Italian dressing for at least 10 minutes. Put water on to boil.

2) Grill chicken breasts. Pour cream and second half of Italian dressing into small saucepan and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper.

3) Cook pasta and mix in tomatoes and splash of olive oil.

4) Slice chicken diagonally and place over pasta, pour cream sauce over top.

This dish was very simple and really good. The cream sauce doesn't overwhelm the pasta or chicken, which was key. Normally, I do not really enjoy cream sauces over pasta, because I feel they are too rich. This dish was not heavy and a perfect summer meal. It was quick to make and didn't require too much slaving over a hot stove. I think this is one of the best things about grilling - it gets you out of the hot kitchen when that is the LAST place you want to be.

We served this with some steamed zucchini, but you could easily grill some veggies or add some to the sauce. Carolyn and I both wanted John to throw in some basil, but as it was his meal, he got the ultimate veto.

Hope you guys are staying cool!!

Monthly Mingle - Gingersnap Ice Cream

Thank you to everyone who voted in the "Ice Cream Poll" - which was 23 people, so ROCK ON! After a slow beginning, Gingersnap pulled through to victory, claiming 38% of the vote. This excited me greatly, because I was secretly (and not so secretly) hoping that it would win. In addition, Randi and I experimented with Peppermint White Tea with Honey ice cream. Hey, we were in Whole Foods and decided that it needed to be made! In an effort to post the truly superior ice cream of the two, we had a small Fourth of July / BBQ / Ice Cream Tasting party this afternoon. Although, both were good - the vote unanimously went to Gingersnap as the winner.

This is a very exciting time for me, as a food blogger - because I am submitting this recipe to July's "Monthly Mingle" produced by Meeta at What's For Lunch, Honey? Again, thank you to all who voted and helped make this a reality...wink wink. But, seriously, thanks Randi, you are the awesomest ever.

Anyway, on to the main dish - ICE CREAM!

I love gingersnaps, which was a main reason that I was pulling for this flavor (don't worry though, only voted once - and we will make Cinnamon-Clove in due time). A good gingersnap will have a sturdy crunch, a sweet taste and a nice gingery bite at the end. I was hoping to bring all of these elements out in the ice cream and I think I succeeded quite well. This recipe was taken from an article titled "Ice Dreams, Crystallized" from the New York Times Dining & Wine Section from 2005.

Gingersnap Ice Cream
Courtesy of: New York Times Dining & Wine
yields 1 quart

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
2 ounces ginger, peeled and grated
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 cup whole milk
1½ ounces gingersnap cookies (about 8 cookies), coarsely crushed

Tip: On scales at the grocery store, there will be an ounces measurement, if you do not have a food scale at home, weigh it at the store!

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk cream with ginger and salt. When it just begins to steam, after about 6 minutes (about 150 degrees on a candy thermometer), turn off flame and allow to stand 3 minutes. Pour cream through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher, pressing ginger to extract as much liquid as possible.

2. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks with sugar until they become milky yellow in color, about 1½ minutes. While continuing to whisk, slowly add ginger-flavored cream in a thin stream.

3. Fill bottom half of a double boiler with an inch or two of water, and bring to a boil. Pour custard into top half of double boiler (I used my mixing bowl over a sauce pan), and stir until thickened slightly, 6 to 8 minutes (about 150 degrees). Let cool for about 10 minutes; then whisk milk into custard. Pour into a covered container, and refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

4. Churn custard in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Fold in crushed gingersnap pieces, until thoroughly combined. Pack ice cream into a vessel with a tight-fitting lid, and place in freezer to harden for 2 hours. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving.

This ice cream was delicious. It turned out exactly the way I wanted. This was also the first time that I made ice cream at home. I will definitely be experimenting with many more flavors this summer - hopefully I will not gain too much weight in the process. If you would like the recipe for the other one we made, leave a comment. Also, please let me know what you think!

Falafel for the Third

Guest Blog by Carolyn


Last night we celebrated the fact that it was a Tuesday and we didn't have to go to work the next day. We have the mid-week Fourth to thank for that. Anyway, Tuesday is climbing night and we had a couple non-regulars joining us for climbing and some delicious falafel afterwards. I developed my love for falafel when I was living in Denmark. Yes, I know that falafel isn't a Danish food. But when you are paying 42 kroner (7 dollars) for a beer on a student's budget, you quickly discover that the scattered Turkish Shwarma Houses are your best bet for cheap tasty food.

Sean's Falafel and Cucumber Sauce

adapted from allrecipes.com

Original recipe yield:
6 servings

Ingredients:

2 (15 ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 cup fresh parsley
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons salt
1 dash pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups dry bread crumbs
oil for frying
2 (6 ounce) containers plain yogurt
1 cucumber - peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
fresh dill weed
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Directions:

1) In a large bowl mash chickpeas until thick and pasty; don't use a blender, as the consistency will be too thin. In a blender, process celery, parsley, cilantro, and garlic until smooth. Stir into mashed chickpeas.

2) In a small bowl combine egg, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon juice and baking powder. Stir into chickpea mixture along with olive oil. Slowly add bread crumbs until mixture is not sticky but will hold together; add more or less bread crumbs, as needed. Form 12 balls and then flatten into patties.

3) Heat 1 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry patties in hot oil until brown on both sides.

4) In a small bowl combine yogurt, cucumber, dill, salt, pepper and mayonnaise. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

5) Serve with chopped tomato and lettuce on flatbread or pita.

I made the patties and the yogurt sauce before climbing and placed them in the refrigerator. Everyone was starving by the time we got back, so it was nice to toss the falafel in the frying pan, grab a beer, and eat. John has a fierce hate of onions so I substituted the onions with celery. I think it turned out really well. The celery added a little bit of crunch without overpowering all the flavor from the fresh herbs. Cilantro was not originally part of the recipe, but it was growing like crazy in my garden and I couldn't think of a good reason not to throw it in.

Georgia swore that my falafel was better than any she had eaten at any Shwarma House. Luke also approved and it is always hard to read what John is thinking. But by the end of the evening, the falafel was gone, and we found out everything you ever needed to know about potato guns. All in all, a quality way to spend the Third of July.