Food n Love

"Good food ends with good talk." -Geoffrey Neighbor

Tag Archives: #foodie


by Leave a comment

Easy As Apple Pie

IMG_3712So for anyone who thinks grandma made fancy lattice pie crust simply because she wanted to serve her family fancy looking dessert, you’re wrong. The truth is grandma was just a really good problem solver. Now why would I say these things? Well here’s the backstory…..

Normally when I’m in the mood to bake a pie I cheat. I will mix together a delicious homemade pie filling & cover it up with ready made pie crust. It’s always a easy fix for my pie craving life moments. Buttttttt since Marlee was going to be joining me in the kitchen for this particular baking adventure, I thought it would be more fun to give the homemade Betty Crocker pie dough version a whirl.

We were off to a bit of a rough start when part way through mixing the dough I looked at him & said “hmmm I’m not sure this is enough to make both a bottom & top crust. It looks more like it’s only enough to make one.” He concurred. When I referenced the cookbook, I realized in fact it wasn’t enough. I had been following the one crust recipe instead of the two crust doubled version further down the page. Of course this meant pulling all the ingredients back out of the cupboards, remeasuring & remixing a second batch of dough.

Two balls of dough later & the filling made, it was time to roll out the dough to cover the bottom of the pie plate. As it turns out rolling pie crust into a evenly thin, perfectly round shape large enough to cover a pie plate takes a special talent. It didn’t take long to discover that for some reason the dough we’d made wasn’t going to cooperate enough to be rolled out into two large circles. Or maybe we just lacked talent. No problem, always prepared I had a backup plan. While Marlee kept working on rolling I went to the fridge to get a box of ready made crust. My idea was to use the not so pretty looking crust we’d made for the bottom part of the pie & the ready made to cover the top. But nope, the backup plan wasn’t meant to be. Wouldn’t you know when I opened the box, I discovered green & black spots speckling the dough. Disgusted (because I had just bought the box 2 weeks prior & there was no good reason for it to be bad) I chucked the box & it’s contents into the garbage. A little discouraged I stared at the less than perfect flour covered mess on the counter trying to think of how to save this pie. That’s when I thought of grandma. “Yes!!! I know how this is going to work!” I said confidently as I picked up the rolling pin. In return for my enthusiasm I got one of those skeptical man “if she says so, but this woman is a little crazy” looks. Yup, I sure said so because about 10 minutes later it looked as though grandma had stepped into the kitchen & fixed things up all fancy. And wouldn’t you know it ended up being the best tasting pie crust I’ve ever eaten. Of course after all that work that crust wouldn’t have dared to bake anything less than delish! Oh & the apple filling was pretty darn yummy too!

IMG_3719


by Leave a comment

Opps I Spilled It Again

IMG_1699

Anyone who really knows me, yet still agrees to meet up with me for a bite to eat, really loves me. Why? Well because I’m a disaster when it comes to food. Like the time my when my parents took me out my senior year in college to a classy high end restaurant for a pre-graduation celebration. That particular evening out I accidentally upset the decadent perfectly arranged silver polished dessert tray leaving all of the cake frostings smudged. I still remember my father shaking his head over that one. Or another time, just a month ago when one would think I would be older & wiser about making a mess, but I accidentally sloshed my Starbucks hot chocolate across the front of my new mint green blouse just prior to heading over to a friend’s engagement party. Of course no one bothered to mention this eye sore which means I was walking around the entire evening blissfully ignorant of the stain in the center of my chest. I mean who actually bothers to walk around looking down at their shirt front? Someone could have said something….. Imagine my chagrin & displeasure when I arrived home & took off my blouse to discover the hot chocolate stain, which thank God, did wash out – yay!

 

IMG_9796

 

All this to tell what brings me to the point of this whole story. Kate. Now Kate is one of the most beautiful souls I know, a true friend who proved her friendship once again when we met up for lunch the other Saturday. Originally the plan was to go to Alice’s Tea Cup on East 64th Street & enjoy a nice afternoon tea, sandwiches & scones. Clearly neither of us thought our plan through because it was a beautiful warm & sunny Saturday which meant every New Yorker who had spring fever was out & about with about half of the city’s population deciding they wanted to visit Alice’s too. Since my stomach was practically eating itself with hunger, a two hour wait for a table was totally unacceptable. We ended up walking down to Mon Petit Cafe at East 62nd. Even though the cafe was buzzing, we were quickly seated at a table with a pastel colored flower arrangement decorating it next to a fresh white lace curtain.

Part way through our girl talk, the inevitable happened. Yup. I made a mess. A leaf of salad decided to be rebellious & fall off my fork & land salad dressing side down on my shirt leaving three small, yet noticeable oily green smudges. About 10 minutes later I heard Kate say “uh oh” as she sadly looked down at her pretty white with black polkadot blouse.

“Now we really are friends,” she laughed as she dabbed at the tiny Beef Bourguignon stains speckling it.

“Awww thanks Kate. Only a true friend would stain her shirt so I wouldn’t feel bad about my shirt.” I winked. We laugh, but I feel sorry about her lovely blouse. However, in the grand scheme of life, food stains are minor & a good friend & conversation over a yummy brunch is really what matters! That & of course a post lunch girl’s window shopping adventure through Bloomingdale’s shoe department.

IMG_9791


by Leave a comment

Going Bananas

 

Ummm……..why are there three bananas still on my kitchen counter?

Here’s the back story.

So my friend was coming over for dinner & I needed to whip up a quick dessert that would go with mac & cheese & a variety of vegetable side dishes.  I didn’t want to bake a pie since I’d just made a peach one that the night before for a couple of friends & I wasn’t in the mood to make anything in the form of cake.  Then a light bulb went off in my brain.  Banana pudding!  Quick, easy & tasty!  Why not?  On my way home from work, I stopped off at the store & picked up a box of Vanilla Wafers & 3 bananas.

Home in my kitchen I excitedly broke out a sauce pan as I prepared to stir up a coconut pudding spiked with rum.  In my imagination the coconut & rum flavors would mix well with the wafers & bananas.  The rum smelled absolutely delicious as it steamed up from the bubbling coconut pudding.  Once the pudding thickened, it was time to start layering the ingredients.  Wafers, spiked pudding, wafers, more pudding, crumbled wafers & for presentation a dusting of powdered chocolate to top it all off.  Desert assembly complete, off to the fridge it went to chill.  Now normally I don’t snack on what I’m cooking, but the rum infused pudding smelled so divine I couldn’t resist licking the spoon.  Of course it tasted as wonderful as it smelled.

About an hour later as I was slicing up an eggplant to pair with the mac & cheese my eye caught something bright & yellow colored sitting on the other countertop.   Ummm…….why are there three bananas still on my kitchen counter?????

When I told my dinner guest the story later that evening, he spent about 5 minutes doubled over laughing.  He then decided he would rather have a left over slice of pie from the night before instead of banana pudding sans bananas.  I sure couldn’t blame him.  A person can’t love the idea of banana pudding if it’s missing bananas 🙂

 

 


by Leave a comment

Missing My Grandmother’s Cooking

Right about now I really miss my grandmother’s cooking.  The last meal she cooked for the family was Thanksgiving dinner & let me tell you, for a 95 year old woman, she threw down in that kitchen!!!  Maybe she somehow knew it would be our last family meal with her, maybe she didn’t, either way, she went all out for us.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

You would think that she would want help from the family with all the different types of dishes she whipped up, but if you stepped into HER kitchen you’d better beware of banging pots & flying silverware.  She did everything at twice the cooking speed of a normal person & she didn’t want anyone messing up her flow or getting in her way in that tiny, hot, bungalow farmhouse kitchen.  She might let one of us stir the gravy to keep it from getting lumpy, but otherwise we were expected to just “sit pretty” at the kitchen table & talk with her to keep her company while delicious smells bubbled out of various sized pots on her gas stove top.

Baba was of the generation where everything she prepared was generously seasoned with butter, salt & love for her family.  It didn’t matter if it was breakfast, lunch or dinner – she mixed all three staple ingredients together into the perfect combination of wonderfulness every single time!  This past Thanksgiving she served up turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed squash, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms with garlic & onions, green beans, two types of salads plus a lettuce salad, homemade bread, pumpkin pie & coffee……

 

My very favorite, favorite, favorite memory about Baba’s cooking is her coffee.  No one in the world can serve coffee like hers (not even the Dominicans & I dream about the Cafe con Leche I drank in Santo Domingo just about every other night).  She made it in this ancient dented percolator with an egg & of course she would toss a little butter, salt & love into the pot for good measure.  She would then bring the coffee to a scalding boil before pouring it into olive green ‘50‘s style coffee mugs.  Even better than the coffee were all the times when I would sit at the table & talk with her while slowly sipping my drink – to avoid burning my tongue & to enjoy the salty, butter flavors.  If it was just the two of us, I’d ask her all sorts of questions like how did she meet my grandfather or did she like being married or what did she do when she was my age?  The one thing that I always had to beware of was leaving my coffee cup unguarded on her kitchen table.  When I did our conversation would turn into a little something like this:

Me:  Baba, where’s my coffee?

Baba:  I thought you were done with it.

Me:  No! I was still drinking it.

Baba:  Well it was cold & you left it on the table.

Me:  But you know I drink my coffee slowly, it’s so good, I savor it to make it last.

Baba:  I’m not so sure you like it, if you did you’d drink it more quickly.  I can’t believe you like cold coffee.

Me:  I love your coffee both hot & cold.  I wish you’d stop dumping my coffee out.

Baba:  Do you want another cup?

Me: Yes please, thank you.

 

For sure, right about now I really miss my grandmother’s cooking & I could totally go for a cup of her coffee!!!  Treasure the moments & savor the food while they are around, because it can all disappear in a flash.

Coffee & Conversation With My Cousin & Baba

Coffee & Conversation With My Cousin & Baba

Coffee & Conversation with my cousin & Baba

 


by Leave a comment

Eat – Walk – Talk

Anyone who has ever visited me will tell you our city adventures consist of two things.  One – lots of walking.  Two – all that walking leads to a meal or at least something tasty to snack on.  Now you would think when my 77 year old father, stiff with arthritis, limped his way off the bus at Port Authority on a Friday evening for a weekend visit, that I would modify the usual routine.  But alas, it was my father’s fate to move his aching hips around NYC while eating delectable meals in between sight seeing.

Since we were practically right there, we started his weekend off with a quick spin through Times Square.  Well, technically we moved as quickly as one can through a mob of gawking tourists packed like sardines on a tiny radius of cement.  From there we hopped onto the R train & headed down to SoHo.  Now my father couldn’t have cared less about seeing the stores in SoHo, but he was hungry & there is this yummy place in that neighborhood called Spring Street Natural.  It serves food that tastes too good to be healthy, but believe it or not it is.  They advertise as being “Gluten-free friendly, Vegan friendly & kid friendly” not to mention they served me up a spiced cajun snapper fish that I’m still dreaming about at night!  Dad & I split a bottle of organic ginger soda & chowed down.  Of course because the food was yum, we talked.

The next morning we were up early, walked a ways to the train station & took the Q line into downtown Brooklyn where we did more walking.  Now I don’t eat red meat that often, but I do have a thing for a slightly salty Shake Shack burger on one of their fresh tasty buns every now & then.  So after a meeting at my church we headed there to get take out.  It was a 10 minute walk from Shake Shack to the Brooklyn Promenade, but by this point my father had accepted the fact that he was expected to move it, move it around town.  He finally stopped asking how many more blocks to our destination.  And because the burgers & fries were good, we did some more leisurely talking on a park bench.

 

Another walk & another train ride took us to MOMA.  Since looking at art made us thirsty, I decided dad needed to experience the papaya juice at Papaya King near West 4th.

Sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park while listening to jazz & doing more talking worked up our appetites.  The only logical thing to do of course was eat dinner at a nearby restaurant called Cuba.  It also happens to be my favorite restaurant in the whole city.  I’ve taken everyone from family to dates to my girls to this spot simply because every meal I’ve ever had there has been way too good.  Plus what’s not to like about listening to happy Spanish music while you eat?  Yup, you guessed it.  The rice & beans that accompanied my fish dinner were out of this world.  Naturally, dad & I kept our conversation going.

 

You would think we’d be finished pigging out after dinner, but nope.  On our walk up University Place to Union Square, the Italian ice cream spot we strolled past pretty much dragged us kicking & screaming inside & forced us to buy ice cream cones.

Now what kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t make my father walk to get a slice of NYC pizza before driving him back to Port Authority & sending him home to my mother?  Not a very good one.  By lunch time on Sunday, dad had walked his hip joints so much they’d loosened up & he hustled to get that pizza like he was 20 years young.

When I think back on his visit a year later, it wasn’t the sights or food that made our time together so much fun.  It was all the talking we did.  Now if I’m a grown woman & I love spending time talking with my father, how much more do children & teenagers need fathers who they can talk to?  It sure is hard to beat a good conversation & a father’s love.  Good times 🙂

 

 


by Leave a comment

Peanut Butter Cookie Love

By passion I’m a photographer, by diploma a teacher & for the past year because of a built up pressure of ideas swirling around in my heart bursting to be set free, a writer.  How did I end up creating a blog about food & love?  Well that’s another story for another day.

As you know love knows no bounds, it’s limitless.  You could compare it to the stomach of my dog Julio – bottomless.  Now being your typical black lab, Julio has an endless appetite for the zest of life & all things food.  As a photographer I believe a picture is worth 1,000 words ->

As you can see, Julio obviously feels a deep love & trained restraint when it comes to the kitchen.  This is particularly true when his keen sense of doggy smell detects a whiff of drool inspiring, chop smacking, crumbly peanut butter flavored yumminess!

Yup!  He really, Really, REALLY loves my baking!

Despite what Julio’s taste buds think, there’s nothing extra special about my peanut butter cookies.  My recipe comes straight from my mother’s old Betty Crocker Cookbook.  The only difference between Betty & myself is the type of sugar I use.  Instead of refined white granulated sugar (yuck, not in my body) I mix sparkly brown crystals of sugar in the raw into the dough.  As a result the cookies come out extra sweet with the illusion of being “healthy”.

Betty Crocker’s Peanut Butter Cookies AKA Julio’s Love Cookies

1/2 cup shortening (half butter, softened)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar (or sugar in the raw)

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mix thoroughly shortening, peanut butter, granulated sugar (or sugar in the raw), brown sugar & egg.  Blend in flour, soda, baking powder & salt.  Cover & chill.

Heat oven to 375 F.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Place 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet.  With fork dipped in flour, flatten in crisscross patterns to 2 inches.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not hard.

*makes about 3 dozen cookies


by Leave a comment

Breakfast at Beth’s

I have this fantasy.  I’m a chic modern version of June Clever & I’m wearing an apron over a cute outfit that is accented with a pair of sexy heels & a black pearl necklace.  (Stop laughing, I can hear you!  The key word is “fantasy”.)  So, I’m in the kitchen cooking a huge breakfast over one of those stainless steal gas stoves – you know, the kind professional chefs use – for my family or any friends who have happened to drop by for the morning.  Of course I’m not slaving away all by myself because my hot, fabulous husband who knows I’m the best wife ever is working right along beside me to make this meal happen.  There’s only one problem with this fantasy. I don’t know how to make breakfast.  Yes, that’s right, I’ve never cooked a full traditional breakfast.  I’ve prepared at least a dozen dinner parties for a dozen people, but never one complete homemade breakfast for even one person.

I decided to solve this problem by inviting one of my favorite people over for a breakfast cooking experiment last week.  I was really excited about it!  Learn how to do something new while doing something nice to show my friend my appreciation for our friendship.  Seemed like a great deal to me.  Hmmm…..what to make?  French toast, turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, strawberries & juice.  It seemed pretty straight forward & easy.  That is until I went to actually prepare breakfast.  Then I realized I was missing a skillet.  What to do now?  I decided the best way around this technical difficulty was to cook the items in stages.  So I pulled out my one frying pan & started to fry up the turkey bacon.  Now I’d never made turkey bacon before & the last time I fried pork bacon was about 10 years back.  I got a little nervous when I discovered  it wasn’t crisping like I imagined it should.  My solution this time was to text my best friend (who happens to be a fantastic cook) & she told me to make sure I cooked it well enough to avoid giving my friend salmonella.  Salmonella???  Good grief, poisoning him was NOT what I had in mind.  I spent the next 20 minutes of my life making sure that bacon was well fried!

By the time my breakfast company arrived, the bacon was done & I was ready to tackle the eggs & French toast.  As you might remember I only own one frying pan & both items needed to be served piping hot.  Time to get creative & make do with what I had.  After beating up 4 eggs with butter, salt, pepper & a dash of Italian seasonings I dumped the mixture into the non-stick bottom pot from my double boiler.  It was around this time my guest politely asked if I knew what I was doing.  Nope, I sure didn’t know what I was doing, but I had ideas!

It had been about 3 years since I’d last made French toast.  That time I had burned it pretty badly because of all the cinnamon I’d dumped into the batter.  Lesson learned.  This time when I prepared it I left the cinnamon out & just mixed 4 eggs, vanilla almond milk, vanilla extract & a drop of coconut extract.  However, it’s practically a sin to not have cinnamon with one’s French toast so I got creative again.  I sifted a mixture of powdered sugar & cinnamon over each piece of toast once it had been toasted to crispy, buttery perfection using Olivio.  (Olivio is a butter spread made with sweet cream, canola oil, olive oil & flaxseed oil & in my humble opinion the combination of oils brings out the flavor of foods in a nice smooth way.  Plus it’s suppose to be healthier than straight up butter.)

Success!!!  My cooking was loved  🙂 The only thing left was one strawberry…..and then that was history too.

 

I also learned two very important things.  One, I NEED a skillet asap.  Two, if I hadn’t tried out my breakfast fantasy on one person, I wouldn’t know I needed a skillet & therefore my future self would be very unprepared when I tried to cook breakfast for my future family without one.  Whew, future crisis averted!