Breakfast before Brunch

Babies don’t sleep late on weekends. If I had to wait for my friends to wake up for brunch before I ate on Saturday mornings, I would be one grumpy, hungry girl. To solve the ‘problem,’ Ryan and I have gotten into the habit of making breakfast first thing in the morning as an appetizer of sorts to a later brunch with friends. Usually it’s Trader Joes pancake batter that does the trick, but occasionally I feel guilty and try to make a healthier version (See earlier post on pumpkin pancakes.)

A few weeks ago I opted for whole-wheat oatmeal pancakes. It’s a bit of extra work but if you start at 6 a.m., you’ll have plenty of time!

Soak ¾ cup quick-cooking oats in ¾ cup buttermilk while you prepare everything else (about 10 minutes). Whisk together ¾ cup whole-wheat flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Stir in a lightly beaten egg, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, a little over ¾ cup buttermilk and the now soggy oat mixture. Cook like you would regular pancakes. Eat. And wait another 6 hours for brunch.

Best Chicken Ever

I have been making this recipe for years and I never get sick of it nor fail to be amazed at how quick, easy and healthy it is. Most of my friends – at least those who eat our feathered friends – have had this dish at one point or another at my house. I experiment with other chicken recipes all the time but always come back to this one.

I follow the recipe below pretty religiously but as always, I double the spices. I also use boneless chicken breasts so watch the cooking time more closely. All you have to do is mix together the olive oil, pressed garlic, paprika, cumin and red pepper and then stir a bit of it into Greek yogurt and set aside. Toss the rest of the spiced-oil mixture with cilantro, cherry tomatoes and garbanzo beans. Pour it over the chicken and throw it in the oven. Serve over rice with the yogurt mixture.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2008/05/roast_chicken_breasts_with_garbanzo_beans_tomatoes_and_paprika

Short Changed by Short Ribs

The short ribs at Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena, California are worth the trip to the West Coast. However, despite the wildly publicized recipe, it’s not worth recreating these ribs at home on the east coast. A few weeks ago, however, I tried.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/TRA-VIGNE-RESTAURANT-BRAISED-BEEF-SHORT-RIBS-50013778

Ryan and I set out early in the morning one Saturday to buy four pounds of meat so we would have time to brine the ribs all day long. About $45 later, the short ribs were out on our fire escape swimming in brown sugar, salt, water and juniper berries. Later that afternoon we browned the ribs and then added the red wine, sherry vinegar and vegetables. We tucked the covered pot deep into the oven so the ribs could simmer slowly, melting off the layers of fat and leaving only the tender meat. About 4 hours later we pulled them out and served them with polenta and green beans. Simple enough.

Up until this point, I was excited about the recipe. However, when I looked down at the meat left on the ribs after hours of slow cooking and then looked up at Ryan, Theo and a very hungry post-bike ride Alberto, I quickly realized we would all be sucking on the bare bones in no time.

The ribs were great…tender, flavorful and gorgeous to look at. But they were tiny, expensive and took hours of preparation. I suppose doubling the recipe wouldn’t have added any preparation or cooking time, but it would have really emptied my wallet. If I want my wallet emptied, I think I’ll just fly to California and order the short ribs at Tra Vigne.

Cooking Away the Post Mexico Blues

After 10 days in Mexico, we returned to NYC earlier this week to freezing sleet. I quickly retreated to my recent memories of lounging on the beach and eating seafood for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with cold micheladas and tequila…for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Last night I couldn’t bring the sun back, but I could at least cook up some saltwater delicacies. I opted for scallops with spinach and lemon risotto since I didn’t want to compete with the tasty fish, shrimp and octopus ceviche we had grown accustomed to.

I used the lemon risotto recipe from Bon Appetit but I skipped the extra butter and parsley at the end. It also made enough for six so next time I would half the recipe.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Risotto-106451

For the scallops and spinach, I followed this recipe from the Unemployed Chef. I liked their hint about not moving the scallops around in the pan so that they get that nice carmelized color.

http://theunemployedcook.blogspot.com/2006/03/seared-scallops-over-wilted-spinach.html

After finishing our meal, we didn’t plunge into the ocean and nap under a palm tree. Instead we had ice cream and watched The Wire. In other words, time to go back to Mexico.

Tackling Gnocchi

During one of my precious nights out a few weeks ago, I had the Gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce at Malatesta in the West Village. I rarely order gnocchi as they are often defrosted lumps of goo, but I needed something to soak up the wine in anticipation of an early morning baby wake up. Surprisingly, they were amazing and reminded me that gnocchi can be spectacular when done right.

Coincidently, Rupal called me a few days later and suggested we try making gnocchi in my little kitchen that night. She was inspired by the recipe in this article:

http://thedailycure.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/gnocchi/

She brought over some fresh eggs from an urban farming project she visited earlier in the day and after picking up some flour and potatoes, we were ready to go. There was something deeply satisfying about really making a meal from scratch. We riced the potatoes (more physically demanding than expected), kneaded the dough, rolled it out into little gnocchi snakes, and then cut them into little pillows. We laughed at the fact that we had bought six potatoes since we ended up with enough dough to feed 30 people. (See previous entry about being measurement challenged.)

The gnocchi weren’t perfect. I would add a bit more flour next time. But as we surveyed the mess of raw ingredients around us, we both felt ridiculously proud of our truly homemade meal and ourselves.

Measurement Challenged

I have no sense of distance, size, weight or anything else that requires estimating with numbers. To the amusement of Ryan, I’m constantly underestimating how many people live in NYC, how long the bike ride was or how heavy Xavier is. My obsession with frequent flyer miles has helped a bit with getting a sense of distance but other than that, I’m pretty useless. Not surprisingly then, when a carrot cake recipe calls for two cups of chopped carrots, I have no idea if that is ten carrots or three. (For the record it’s closer to 3.) To make a long story short, after making carrot cake for Valentines Day, I had more than a few leftover carrots.

I already wrote about carrot soup so I was hesitant to include this recipe but it’s awesome. And this is coming from somebody who hates cooked carrots. It’s called Moroccan Carrot Soup and I followed it almost exactly except I used ground cumin instead of toasted cumin seeds and I substituted nutmeg and cinnamon for the all spice.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Carrot-Soup-357911

I still have left over carrots.

Valentine's Day Without Chocolate

Normally when I want to make a ridiculously indulgent dessert, I can only think chocolate. (See previous post titled Sour Cream-Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Frosting and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze to get an idea.) Lately, however, chocolate has lost some of its allure because I eat it everyday.

Since I have been on maternity leave, I make a daily trek to Chelsea Market to buy fresh produce, grab a cup of 9th Street Espresso or pick up some local, sustainable, organic (read overpriced) meat at the butcher. I convince myself I need spinach, caffeine or sausage but in reality I walk the two blocks west to grab a free sample at Kitchen Witch brownies. Kitchen Witch is generous with their samples, a marketing ploy I can only assume they use to get people hooked on their brownies. Unfortunately for Kitchen Witch Co., it simply satisfies my chocolate cravings and sets me free to explore other desserts such as Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.

I followed the recipe below with only a few small exceptions. Instead of grating the carrots, I just threw them in the food processor and used some of the carrot gratings as sprinkles. Add the powdered sugar to the icing slowly and taste it (good excuse!) as you go along to make sure it’s not too sweet.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/carrot-cake-with-maple-cream-cheese-frosting/