Xmas Food

Xmas dinner: Ham with orange sauce and homemade sweet potato gratin. Curtis made dinner. He's so good. :)

Baked brie with cranberry sauce.

I've never had baked brie before. I've had brie about 45784597845266 times, but having it baked was kind of incredible. Makes me wonder why I waited so long to try it.

Ok, this is stupid easy to make. Just buy pastry dough in the frozen food section of your grocery store. Lay one sheet out (thawed) onto a floured surface. Take a wheel of brie and cut the top rind off. Scoop spoonfuls of cranberry sauce on top of the brie and wrap it up like a gift. Brush with an egg wash and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. You will punch yourself-- it's THAT good.

Got this recipe off the pastry dough box. (The box comes with 2 sheets of dough so I figured I'd use both). Just lay it out and wash with egg then in small bowl put 1/4 c of Parmesan and 1/2 c Monterrey Jack and 1/8 tsp garlic powder. Mix together and spread evenly onto dough. Then take a pack of frozen spinach. Thaw it and rinse it and evenly sprinkle spinach onto dough. Roll that bad boy up and slice. Makes about 8 pinwheels. Holla!

Blizzard walks

This is us in the subway on our way home from Brooklyn. We had dinner with our friends then had to walk home during a blizzard. I was trying to portray annoyance in my face. Can you see it? (Thanks for the photo Heidi - I so took this from your blog!)

All of us looking so sweet - except Curtis. He looks like he wants to kill someone. All we were missing was Todd and Robin!

Test shot...not sure what we were laughing at. We were laughing a lot last night about several ridiculous things so it was hard to keep track...

AHH! SNOW!!!!

B + H

I had the best grilled cheese ever at B + H the other day. It was a rainy Sunday and Crystal (my house guest for the weekend had just left). We walked over to A and 8th and into this tiny little crowded diner. Warning: If you are claustrophobic or expect amazing service, you won't like this place. We sat at the diner bar and ordered a grilled cheese with tomato soup. The cook didn't speak English very well. He served us Omelets with potato. I looked at him and said, "THIS is grilled cheese?" And he apologized and took it away and remade our order. Typically, I would feel bad if this happened in another restaurant - but he was spastic and I didn't stutter. It was clearly his fault. Anyways - once we got our sandwich it was heavenly. The grilled buttery challah bread was light and airy. The tomato and melted cheese was divine. And the tomato soup was like something the Fashion Soup lady would make - amazing. Next time I may order it and pick it up. Eating in this place leaves something less to be desired.

Time to hibernate...

Girls by the Xmas tree. SO cute!

Mark holding Lin's purple and pink flowers.

This looks like eggs, but it's not. It's a little rice cake called Puto and it has a spot of cheese.

Porl Guisado. Kinda my new favorite!

Chop Suey. Yum!

Pansit. Oh hells yeah! I love me some Pansit and it's been ages since I've had some good authentic style Pansit!

Dessert Number 5646512354897. Actually this cake was so good. It was coffee flavored and spongy. I could eat it like it was air.

I told Curtis he looked really sweet with the girls. They were drawing pictures together. He said, "Don't get any ideas". hahaha

Eating Palitow (a sticky rice cake - like a dessert).

Eating Buko Pandan. (Think of it as a sweet soup made with coconut meat that looks like noodles and two kinds of green jelly - one made with seaweed.) It was dessert #2.

Mark with his daughter.

Boys.

Out for the count.

I love friends that love food.

Me and Missy at Morimoto's. Dinner was amazing. We split 3 appetizers to start: ROCK SHRIMP TEMPURA SPICY KOCHUJAN AIOLI, 10 HOUR PORK KAKUNI BRAISED PORK BELLY WITH HOT RICE PORRIDGE and CARPACCIO KOBE BEEF- THINLY SLICED WITH YUZU SOY, HOT OIL AND MITSUBA LEAF. Sorry for all the caps, I copied this right off the website. The pork belly was insane and the carpaccio was the best I've EVER had.

For dinner I had: DUCK DUCK DUCK MADRAS ROASTED DUCK BREAST, CONFIT RISOTTO, DUCK EGG, MANDARIN OOLONG REDUCTION. Missy had this crazy seafood dish with citrus butter. It came in a Moroccan clay pot. I think it was new because I can't find it on the menu online. Matt had: SUGI-ITA SALMON JAPANESE CEDAR WRAPPED ORGANIC SALMON, MAPLE SHIITAKE BROTH, ORGANIC EGG, YAMAIMO.

We shared a dessert that wasn't online either. It was this tiny chocolate mouse cake with ganache and sea salt. I could only do one bite because I was soooo full.

Happy couple outside the restaurant.

Me and my BFF.

Thanksgiving

My friends watching football on T Day.

The turkey fryer that we got we couldn't use because the propane tank didn't fit. Super annoying. We had to scramble and put the bird in the oven.

Tomato, watermelon and basil skewers.

The turkey was finally ready around 7 pm. 2 hours later than we anticipated on eating. Luckily, we had the appetizers and Eric's Butternut Squash soup with fried sage to tie us over until then.

I sliced and diced that bird.

Everyone stuffed in my apt and stuffing their faces. Everyone made such amazing food. The sweet potato casserole was outta control and the brusselsprout and cauliflower gratin was my fave! No wait - the mac and cheese was my fave. Ah! It was all sooo good!

Justine in a carb coma. Curtis likes this.

The whole group.

Me Puede Dar esa un botella de vino roja, por favor...

Chicken FAH-JI-TAHS.
Trader Joes is awesome 1 3/4 c is only 90 calories...pshhh....what?
Fat-free sour cream and refried pinto beans on a whole wheat tortilla.
Stupid easy.
Dinner in under 10 minutes.

Going green?
Asparagus, edamame, spinach with a little yellow onion.
Amazing with salt, pepper and extra-virgin olive oil.
I needed a cleansing dinner. (After Eric's birthday that is...)









Chicken salad.
Not too exciting but I took a picture anyway.

Smells good? Whatcha makin'?

Homemade chicken and dumplings!
Here's how:
2 pieces of boneless chicken breasts

1 to 2 cans of cream of chicken (use with water)

1 can mixed veggies
2 cups bisquick
2/3 cup of milk

Cut up boneless chicken into pieces. Boil until tender. Add cream of chicken and vegetables.Bring broth to a bubbling boil. Mix Bisquick according to directions on box.Drop by spoonfuls into boiling broth.
Cook for 10 mins. Let simmer about 20 mins.Optional Additions: Garlic powder and pepper to taste.


Red Lobster ain't got nothing on me!
I combined Bisquick with cheddar, milk, garlic, salt and pepper.
I kind of added too much milk, which made these biscuits kinda huge.
Almost pancake looking...

See?
Whoa!
This biscuit is delicious...
but kinda ridiculous!


Asparagus. Yum!
Roasted in the oven with garlic, olive oil, and yellow onion.

Halloween Night: PreGame!

Edward Scissorhands. Before we left the house.

Edward Scissorhands watching tv with Nathan.

Halloween lasagna. Part skim ricotta with Parmesan and mozzarella and egg. Beat it.

Ground lamb. Italian sauce. Green squash.

I forgot to take a picture until after we devoured almost half of it. Yummy!

I won't stop. Can't stop.

Confetti potatoes roasted with white wine, garlic, red onion, olive oil and rosemary. It's easy to make just buy purple potatoes, red ones and yellow ones. Dice. Mix all the ingredients and bake in the oven. Viola. Hearty side dish. Or a very light supper.

This doesn't look that appealing but it was awesome. Super thin sliced pork. (About 2 ounces) Sauteed with salt and pepper and a dash of soy (you know I love me some soy sauce). Then I served brussel sprouts with apple. It was awesome. Got the recipe from Cooking Light magazine. You cut brussel sprouts into quarters, dice up an apple and mix with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, fresh chopped thyme, salt and pepper.

Occasion? Just a night in from the rain.

This is kind of hard to see but my grandma sent me this cute book to record my favorite wines.

This is a close up of page one. You can record the vintage, who it was bottled by, where you bought it, the cost, the type, the appearance, the nose, taste, balance and the occasion served. I was going to save this book and only put "special occasion wine" in here but then I thought against that. I want to record my favorites as well.

This page lets you record any special notes and gives you a spot to put the label. Pretty cool, eh?

This is what we were drinking. I first discovered this wine at this little French wine store called Wine Therapy in Soho. (Close to my old hood). It's been a favorite ever since.

Dinner: French bread pizza with spicy chicken and light Ceasar salad.