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/

The Return of the Dinner Party

Having an infant around has changed a lot of things in my life including when I sleep, how high my heels are, and the apps on my iphone. For me, however, one of the biggest adjustments was the sudden absence of friends crowded around my coffee table for weekly dinner parties. Over the past few months my early bedtime and exhaustion have made it impossible to muster up the enthusiasm to poke around recipe websites let alone get my act together enough to chop garlic and shallots.

Surprisingly, I have missed these evenings and the satisfaction that comes with a well-prepared meal far more than crazy late nights out in the east village. (Give me a few weeks for the latter!) Thankfully, last night – 3 months to the day from when this whole journey started – I broke the trend of dining on frozen tamales before diving deliriously into bed.

To celebrate the occasion, Ian and PWT came over at 6 pm. (I still knew I would be diving deliriously into bed before 10). Ryan and I picked a recipe that was new and challenging but not too complicated in case at least three of our four hands were tied up bouncing the bambino.

The recipe is called Chicken in Almond Sauce on Epicurious and it goes something like this:

1. Grind one cup of almonds in a food processor until coarse but not pasty.
2. Mix with 2 teaspoons oregano, 1 teaspoon cinnamon or a cinnamon stick, and 4 bay leaves or some juniper berries. Toast mixture in a large skillet until almonds are golden. Remove and set aside.
3. Add a few tbsp of oil to the same pan and sear 6 chicken breast halves (2 lbs). Remove and set aside.
4. Again, using the same pan (my dishwasher is small), fry up 3-5 slices of bacon until crispy. Add two chopped onions and 6 cloves of garlic. Sautee until soft. Add almond mixture and 2 cups of chicken broth. Stir for one minute scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan.
5. Add chicken back to the skillet and simmer for 5 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve with rice, bulgur wheat, or some other grain and some simple greens.
7. Jump into bed.

Moose Memory Cookies

One of the last trips that Ryan and I took before Xavier was born was to Stockholm where I bought a moose cookie cutter in anticipation of my annual Christmas cookie bake off with my godmother. During the first few weeks following Xavier’s birth, I clung to the memories of Sweden as a way to remind myself that my world wasn’t going to revolve around a nursing pillow forever.

Xavier is ten weeks old today and while I’m still not out exploring the streets of northern Europe, I venture beyond the confines of our tiny apartment at least once a day regardless of the January winds. Over Christmas I trudged through two feet of snow to spend a few peaceful hours (alone!) with my godmother baking cookies using our favorite recipe from a 2003 Bon Appetit. We have caught up every year over cookie dough since I was old enough to hold a cookie cutter. This year among the familiar lopsided Santas and angels with missing wings of years past was the moose.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2003/12/christmas_cutouts_with_vanilla_icing

Digging into the Freezer

Since the arrival of Xavier two weeks ago, our microwave has probably gotten more use than it ever has. Ryan has been a bit more ambitious than I have and presented me with Chicken Parmesan the other night as I lay comatose on the couch. But for the most part, we have eaten our fair share of frozen Trader Joes tamales while trying not to drop the steaming bites onto Xavier’s head. We have also dug even deeper into the freezer and pulled out a few dishes I had stashed away in the last months of pregnancy in anticipation of Chelsea take out overload. A few nights ago we defrosted one of my favorite soups that I’ll be making many times this winter. It only has four ingredients – pumpkin or butternut squash, coconut milk, Thai chili paste and butter – but it’s incredibly satisfying...as is getting your two week old to pose in soup pot.

Try it out:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001525.html

Pumpkin Pancakes

Every few months I refer back to a NYT article I mentioned a few months ago called “The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.” I’m not entirely sure why I’m so obsessed with it. I think it makes me feel better when I can check off a few items on the list, feel good about my nutritional habits and then go back to eating ice cream and fantasizing about beer.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/

Anyways, I can never check off ‘canned pumpkin’ because it is just not something I cook with unless I’m making pie at Thanksgiving. I assume I'm not alone here. However, the article says it’s very high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A so when I saw it featured in one of Trader Joe’s nauseatingly cute but apparently effective fall displays, I grabbed a few cans. From there it was a short journey to pumpkin pancakes.

Mix together 1 1/4 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt and about 2 teaspoons of any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ground clove, and/or ground ginger depending on what you have. In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/3 cups milk, 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin, 4 egg yolks, 1/2 stick of melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Mix the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients. Finally, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer (or if you live in NYC sized apartment with your whisk) until they are firm or your hand is tired. Fold into the batter. Cook them up like normal pancakes and serve with maple syrup, a bit of butter and a sprinkling of good salt.

The Office Potluck

I work with people from all over Latin America and the Caribbean. My immediate cubicle neighbors come from St. Lucia and Guyana but this office has strong representation from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Ecuador…and Brooklyn. You would be hard pressed to find a Subway sandwich or a deli bought cup of soup in our lunch room. At around 1:30 every day, the line starts to form as my colleagues wait to warm up their elaborate leftovers. There is always a bit of sharing that takes place in the kitchen – half an avocado up for grabs, homemade salad dressing passed around and shared hot sauce for the rice and beans days. For the most part however, we all settle down to our own lunches after a quick “buen provecho.” That is of course unless it’s the much anticipated once a year International Planned Parenthood Potluck.

Some offices do fancy holiday parties at midtown hotels with bacon wrapped scallops and mini puff pastries filled with brie. We do a potluck. Today that meant a spread that included roasted pernil, arroz con pollo, shrimp fried rice, roti, guacamole, empanadas, curried chicken, fried plantains and more. The dessert table continued the global taste bud extravaganza with torta de batata, flan and organic chocolate chip cookies. ( I did say Brooklyn after all.) Even with just a small taste of everyone’s dish, it’s impossible not to overdo it. Luckily I was able to skip one dish this year. The auditors who happen to be in the office today brought Cinnabons.

Oven Baked Polenta Surprise

Like 99% of all New Yorkers, every day I walk by a corner pizza shop on the way from the subway to my apartment. Regardless of how questionable the establishment is, it’s always tempting to stop in for a slice whether it’s 3 pm or 3 am. On particularly grey, rainy days like yesterday, my cravings for gooey cheese go through the roof. However, on the rare occasion that I do get a slice, I’m often disappointed. The cheese is tasteless, the sprinkled parmesan resembles sand and worst of all, I wake up the next morning with no leftovers. (For anybody that knows me well, I have contemplated calling in sick rather than showing up at work with no lunch.)

This is where Baked Polenta Surprise comes in. It satisfies the exact same craving but it’s tastier and gives me lunch for a few days. I never used to make polenta because like risotto and McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, you have to stir it for way too long. But recently I discovered “An Elegant Gruel: Polenta” on New York Times’ Recipes for Health and now polenta is a fixture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/health/nutrition/08recipehealth.html

All you do is mix one cup of corn meal with 4 cups of water and a bit of salt and throw it in the oven at 350. Fifty minutes later you have a nice, firm polenta to form the base for whatever you want to throw on top (i.e. the substitute for the pizza crust).

From here you can use your imagination. I like to cook up fresh tomatoes, garlic and spinach, layer it on the polenta, cover with cheese and bake for a few more minutes. Mushrooms and gorgonzola are a good topping too. I can imagine that sausage, tomatoes and basil would be delicious. Ham and pineapple? Not so much.