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Don't read this. I am an evil old man..
When exactly do you add the vanilla in this recipe? Or am I just going blind...??? After creaming the butter and sugar, I assume... Also, why not just use cake flour instead of mixing in cornstarch??
Dinner Tonight: Avocado and Sprout Club Sandwich
The great vegetarian sandwich, wonderfully balanced flavors and textures: good multigrain bread, cucumber, sharp cheddar cheese, tasty sliced tomatoes. Mayo (Hellman's or homemade). Salt and pepper. OK to add sprouts, but lettuce doesn't really work here. I'm sure bacon would taste good in it, but would make it a whole different thing...
Grilling: Middle Eastern Grilled Cheese
What if you don't have a grill??
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Gus and Gabriel Gastropub: The Greek Coffee Shop (Diner) of Our Dreams?
Posted by Ed Levine, July 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM
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What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Ben and Jerry's Karamel Sutra -- amazing dark chocolate ice cream on one side, very subtle caramel ice cream on the other, and a core of divine gooey caramel stuff. Perfect mixture of tastes.
On the other hand, worth going to Emack and Bolio on 78th and Amsterdam for Cosmic Crunch -- vanilla, I think, with chocolate chunks and pieces of ice cream cone, and maybe some kind of nut -- can't remember, but it's great -- especially with their sublime hot fudge sauce...
Don't read this. I am an evil old man..
When exactly do you add the vanilla in this recipe? Or am I just going blind...??? After creaming the butter and sugar, I assume... Also, why not just use cake flour instead of mixing in cornstarch??
Dinner Tonight: Avocado and Sprout Club Sandwich
The great vegetarian sandwich, wonderfully balanced flavors and textures: good multigrain bread, cucumber, sharp cheddar cheese, tasty sliced tomatoes. Mayo (Hellman's or homemade). Salt and pepper. OK to add sprouts, but lettuce doesn't really work here. I'm sure bacon would taste good in it, but would make it a whole different thing...
Grilling: Middle Eastern Grilled Cheese
What if you don't have a grill??
Biscuit Basics
I hate recipes that assume that I have a food processor. I have no room for one on the counter in my NY kitchen, and if I store one away, I will never use it. It would be nice to offer advice to those of us who still use a pastry blender or our hands...
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
HOw about whitefish salad? Zabar's is terrific. If you are having a more serious meal, east coast fish is the way to go -- from Citarella's.
I always have to order...
Chocolate Souffle -- ever since my father took me to an elegant lunch at New York's Cafe Nicholson some forty years ago, to console me when a boy I had a huge crush on left for his home in England without even saying goodbye.
It was a special order, and the most exotic and delicious dessert I had ever eaten. I still love it, preferably with a tiny scoop of excellent vanilla bean ice cream melting into the middle. Besides, it makes me think of my father and the extravagant gesture that meant so much to a sad girl.
(On the other hand, that lunch certainly stoked my burgeoning love of expensive and fattening food as comfort -- something I could certainly do without!)
Dinner Tonight: Curried Squash and Apple Soup
I recently discovered, to my delight, that by far the easiest way to cook a winter squash was to stick a knife into it a few times then put it in the microwave on high for 7-10 minutes, until it's tender inside (stick another thin blade in). When you open it up, the seeds scoop out easily, and you are ready to roll. I did with with a buttercup squash the other day (looks like a small, dark green pumpkin), mashed it with butter and salt and a little brown sugar, and it was the best squash I've ever eaten!
Turf War: Boston's Best Ice Cream
Again, what about Emack and Bolio's? Available in NY on Amsterdam bet. 78th and 79th. Great hot fudge sauce too (although the VERY best is at a restaurant, not an ice cream place -- Popover's on 87th and Amsterdam)
I'm so old that I remember (food style)...
When I was little we spent long, hot summers in the country (upstate NY near the Conn border). My mother, who was English (a war bride) loved new vegetables, especially "baby" ones, and got us all excited about tiny carrots, etc. Most people thought this was weird. At farm stands, she would beg local farmers for tiny potatoes -- the kind that now sell for five bucks a pint. They would shake their heads at this crazy lady and go out back to get little potatoes from a barrel where they had thrown them -- intended as dinner for the pigs!
Guide to the Best Madeleines in New York City
Yes I looked up this recipe too -- I assume it means 1 1/2 cups of sugar. But what about the "lemony" flavor you keep on mentioning, Kathy. It comes from oranges??
Sugar Rush: Pistachio Apricot Tart from Bouchon Bakery
Their Bouchons, fat little chocolate cylinders with a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar, may be the best way I've found of soothing a dessert craving with something small and not wildly caloric. They are dense and cakey and not overly sweet, and you think they are going to taste like a tiny brownie, but somehow they don't. Eat them in small bites, and you'll feel happily satisfied. They don't even cost very much!
Cook the Book: Joyce Carol's Black and Blue Pie
Blackberry and apple pie is a winning combo too. My English mother used to make what she called blackberry and apple tart -- what would to us be a deep dish pie. She just dumped blackberries and sliced apples together in a deep pie dish, sprinkled lots of sugar on them, and maybe a little lemon juice. Then she put a thick buttery crust on top and baked it. Never thickened the filling, but served the ambrosial result with heavy cream. Really delicious. I do it with demerara sugar. Yum.
What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Silver Moon's Praline Irish Creme .... out of this world and favorite sorbet is Silver Moon's Mango Mimosa, so delicious.
What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Maple Walnut ice cream from Christinas in Boston. Blood Orange sorbet from Ciao Bella.
What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Ditto on the pp who mentioned Publix ice cream. It's awesome! I recently made butterscotch ice cream. In fact. I'm going to finish it off RIGHT NOW.
What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Homemade strawberry ice-cream-although I recently made a great coconut ice-cream http://chocolateandcroissants.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html#5812076674809242402
What's Your Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
On second thought I wonder why you "need to convince my spouse that "fancy" flavored ice cream." Let your spouse stick to the basics. Nothing wrong with that.
Biscuit Basics
I got this from watching A.B. on 'Good Eats'. When cutting the butter, put it in the freezer for 10-15 min. then use the coarse side of your cheese grader to get proper size chunks. I have yet to ever made biscuits, but
I am a big fan and will try this recipe soon (while my wife is at work and
freeze some).
Turf War: Boston's Best Ice Cream
Christina's is the best hands down. Everything is fresh and mind-blowingly delicious. Concord grape sorbet (available every fall for about 12 days) is superb. Christina's burnt sugar is the definition of "grown-up food." When I was recovering from a broken ankle, a take-out pint worked better than any of my meds. I went in there a few weeks ago hankering for a root beer float, but no-go. They don't sell root beer. Herrell's on Dunster St in Harvard Sq makes a great root beer float and now and then they have a flavor called "butter and sugar." Don't ask. Just eat it.
I'm so old that I remember (food style)...
I remember my Aunt Margie cooking authentic rouladen beef rolls, tied German-neatly with strings; she called them pigs in a blanket and taught me to make them when I was a teenager.
For dessert she made sheets of big, I mean big, puffy fresh oven-baked custard -filled German creampuffs. For the ever-present cookie jar, there were always thin gingerbread cookies and the slenderest imaginable lemon sugar cookies, melt- in -your- mouth delicious. How I miss that woman~ I also remember foods we ate that my mom called depression food. Cheap, but filling concoctions which every so often I still cling to as comfort food. One really unhealthy one may bring a memory to some of you "ration-card" war babies (like me). In place of cake or bakery goods, after dinner or at breakfast, we were allowed real butter spread ona slice of bread with a light sprinkle of sugar. My granma would ask, "a bit of sugar bread for you, dearie?" Mmmm...We loved it then, along with milk in our tea, the taste of pure butter was a luxury to savor, and milk added to tea was for "special" occasions only. That was during the war, mid forties, at the time when even little tots joined in to help to smash the aluminum cans flat, recycling for the war effort. Another comfort food "penny saver" was Muellers elbow macaroni, cooked a bit "al dente", slathered with Campbell's tomato soup straight out of the can and heated with a smidge of milk, but served with a dollop of that precious rationed butter, salt and pepper. To this day I consider that a treat when I feel a bit low. Crazy connections foods make to the psyche! Please share other "hard times" foods that you may remember, especially from "ration" days of the forties.
Dinner Tonight: Avocado and Sprout Club Sandwich
@PeachyPear: your "go to" sandwich sounds delicious! YUM - I have to try that as well as the sandwich listed above.
Biscuit Basics
I made these for Thanksgiving and they were such a hit! Seriously, the best I've ever made and the compliments did not stop coming. And they rose really high, it was quite impressive.
For the person who was wondering about freezing/refrigerating, I par-baked mine and they came out great. I baked them just until they started to get a tiny bit of color on top, cooled them completely, then froze them. I thawed them in the fridge overnight, then baked them the rest of the way minutes before dinner. They were perfect!
Grilling: Middle Eastern Grilled Cheese
OMG how did I miss this? I love, love, love grilled cheese and I'm always looking for ways to spice it up but I've never even heard of Armenian string cheese. I'll have to find it.
Grilling: Middle Eastern Grilled Cheese
@adbw83: You can make this in a pan, panini press, or any other way you would normally cook a grilled cheese. This went on my grill primarily because it was already heated to cook something else, otherwise it probably would have been cooked in a pan.
Biscuit Basics
I make biscuits for a living. It's my life! Literally! Freezing biscuits after they've been cut is fine. Letting them thaw or putting them straight into the oven frozen are both perfectly fine & viable options. I don't suggest refrigerating the dough after you make it because the results will not be the same. You biscuits will lack lift, texture, & taste. & we want these beautiful babies to taste good, right?!
Cutting biscuits into squares does eliminate scraps. They're also easier to make into biscuit sandwiches that way!
To learn more about biscuits, look at this post: http://niksnacks.blogspot.com/2008/07/biscuit-baker-memory-stick-maker.html
Biscuit Basics
I've always wondered: is it absolutely necessary to cut out round biscuits with a cutter? Could you not obtain the same results just cutting the dough into squares? That way you don't waste any dough or get those few tough biscuits because of the re-rolled scraps. Thanks!
I always have to order...
for me its all about sweetbreads.sorry, but true..
Biscuit Basics
I recently started making biscuits from a recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" book. His (and now my) favorite recipe uses plain yogurt instead of milk or butter milk. I have found that the natural sugars in the yogurt and the tartness really make great bicuits.
Biscuit Basics
adbw83: This can absolutely be done by hand, though I would literally do it by hand, rather than with a pastry blender, which I find to be better for pie crusts and such where you want to leave chunks of butter than for biscuits, where you largely want the fat to be finely distributed throughout the flour.
If you are not familiar with cutting butter into flour by hand, I find that it helps to take a few extra precautions: have all the ingredients, even the dry ones, well chilled; run your hands under cold water for a bit and dry them thoroughly before setting about the task at hand; and cut butter and cream cheese into fairly small pieces before starting - this will make the work of cutting them into the dry ingredients much more efficient.
Now, add the butter pieces to the dry ingredients. Then, working quickly with your fingertips, mush the butter into the flour in ever smaller pieces, breaking up larger clumps as you go. Once most of the big chunks are gone, you can rub the mixture lightly between your palms to break down any remaining big stragglers and to acheive a "coarse meal" or "fine couscous" texture.
Add the cream cheese and cut it into the dry ingredients in a similar fashion, but don't blend it in too finely or rub it between your palms. You want the cheese well-distributed, but there should still be a few little pea-sized chunks here and there.
From here, you can just pick up and follow the recipe at step 5.
This biscuit recipe is certainly not difficult to manage solely by hand, but I do so prize the efficiency of my food processor for such jobs.
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
Barney Greengrass (Amsterdam & 86th St) has the best chopped liver as well as lots of smoked fish and the best baka in NYC
the East Village Meat Market (139 2nd Ave) has terrific smoked meats & sausages
Venerios (342 East 11th Street) for Italian sweet treats
Old Town Bar (45 E 18St)
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
i'd go to katz's
pastrami and a hot dog
then stop by russ & daughters for fishage
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
easy- get some good bagels (ess, etc.) or some delicious Kosar Bialies. walk over to russ and daughters and get some salty lox, whitefish salad, sturgeon, trout roe, caviar cream cheese, and dine on the bench outside russ. then drive to brooklyn and go to Difara and get a real NY pie (be sure to try both the square pies and the regular pies). enjoy
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
I grew up in California and now living in New Jersey I can say that a good neighborhood deli is something any Californian should be blessed with. The delis I went to back in CA are nothing compared the ones out here. Don't stress over pizza, LA pizza is solid.
I always have to order...
Mushroom Barley soup
Vegetable/Mushroom risotto
Roasted brussels sprouts
Affogatto.
Things to eat in NYC that you can't find in California
Depends on where in California they are from, Northern CA offerings (total foodies) and Southern CA offerings (much more diet orientated) are vastly different. Great deli sandwiches, bagels, and black and white cookies (and pizza) are known for being NY staples, you probably can't go wrong there.
I always have to order...
Red Velvet Cake...That is truly my kryptonite. I usually like to watch what I eat and workout a lot but if I see this puppy anywhere I know I am about to consume some extra calories.
I always have to order...
crab rangoon
organic beer
wine from interesting places (lebanon for example)
natural (no hormones/antibiotics EVER) beef
local/ in season stone fruits
Recent Posts
Recent Favorites
Gus and Gabriel Gastropub: The Greek Coffee Shop (Diner) of Our Dreams?
Posted by Ed Levine, July 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Polls
adbw83 hasn't answered any polls yet.
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adbw83 hasn't taken any quizzes yet.
Ben and Jerry's Karamel Sutra -- amazing dark chocolate ice cream on one side, very subtle caramel ice cream on the other, and a core of divine gooey caramel stuff. Perfect mixture of tastes.
On the other hand, worth going to Emack and Bolio on 78th and Amsterdam for Cosmic Crunch -- vanilla, I think, with chocolate chunks and pieces of ice cream cone, and maybe some kind of nut -- can't remember, but it's great -- especially with their sublime hot fudge sauce...