Archive for May 2009

The Birthday Girl, heapin’ a helping, making eyes at a cowboy.

EVENT: Alyssa’s Surprise Birthday Fiesta
VENUE: Phoebe and Caitlyn’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 12
TYPE: Weekend Festive Dinner
MENU: Chips and Salsa, Mexican Shepherd’s Pie, Spinach and Avocado Salad with Cilantro-Citrus Vinaigrette, Assorted Brownies and Cupcakes, Margarita

While I spent 9 post-college months attempting to cohabit with my parents, all the while venturing down the dark path of corporate America, my roommate-to-be Caitlyn was…

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When I started messing around with biscotti recipes, I was struck by how straightfoward and sturdy they were, compared with other cookies. As some kind of unintentional test, perhaps, I served them alongside classic chocolate chip cookies, like the ones in the foreground of the picture above. But whereas in good old fashioned drop cookies, the soft chips disappear into the soft dough, here the melty chips make for an unusual contrast with the crisp of the espresso background. Good dipped in coffee, hot chocolate, and even tea.

From my…

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DISH: Green Potato Leek Soup
TYPE: Quintessential Cooking for One
MAIN INGREDIENT: Greens, Potatoes, Leeks

“Soup!” Rocco kept saying into the mic: “Just make soup.”

This call to soup took place early last week on stage in a large room at the main branch of the New York Public Library. Phoebe and I were in the audience, watching a panel of food people at the library’s special event. Amanda Hesser was moderating, and Julie Powell, Marion Nestle, and the above-quoted Rocco DiSpirito chatted about what it meant to cook at home.
Since we were at

…

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Carrot-Cabbage Pancake with Herbed Sour Cream
Makes 1 serving

I seem to always have part of a head of cabbage and a few carrots lying around these days. They’re perfect for pantry cooking since they can keep in the fridge for weeks at a time, but aren’t really something I would readily toss into an omelet or frittata when cooking for one. But by mixing pre-cooked cabbage and carrots and uncooked egg together and then pan-frying it like a pancake, you get an egg-based dish that’s crispier than a frittata, and less egg-y than an omelet. Though not quite…

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DISH: Honeyed Rice Pudding Cereal with Walnuts
TYPE: Breakfast
MAIN INGREDIENT: Leftover Rice

Next to fried noodles and hot raisin bread, rice pudding cereal was my favorite breakfast growing up. It was my only experience of rice pudding for a long time, perhaps until I was introduced, in middle school, to cardamom-flavored kheer at Mughlai, the best Indian restaurant ever. We used to go there in big groups and order so much off the menu that the waiters would wind up giving us dessert for…

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I whine about the hassles of living in New York a lot. I hate the crowded 4 train, how everything costs a fortune, and finding cabs downtown on weekend nights. What I fail to mention, when I’m whining, are New York’s redeeming qualities, like the resources I sometimes forget about. I don’t think there are that many other cities (or least there weren’t about a decade ago), where you could find amateur and even kid-oriented cooking classes at a professional institution. In New York, you can.

When I was a teenager, I’d occasionally take a day-long class at…

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Sausage-Tomato Focaccia
Makes 1 large and 1 small focaccia

This is not an exact science. Depending on the way you measure flour and the humidy of the day, you’ll need to add slightly more flour to make the dough workable. But since you don’t knead focaccia at all, it’s okay for the dough to be kind of sticky. Read the original post here.

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EVENT: Matt’s Birthday Bash
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 20
TYPE: Festive Weekend Fete
MENU: Al Forno Five Cheese Pasta; Penne Gratin with Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms; Romaine Salad with Green Goddess Dressing; Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing (Caitlyn)

Unlike some of my friends, Caitlyn’s boyfriend Matt is the last person you would ever think to make a fuss over his birthday. But regardless of whether he willingly submits to the planning frenzy that inevitably ensues in the days…

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Crispy Romaine Salad with Green Goddess Dressing
Makes 10 servings

I had been craving this dressing for weeks, and just as I seemed to put my finger on what fresh herbs I would need to incorporate,Orangette answered my call by way of her monthly editorial in Bon Appetit magazine. Though I did not follow her recipe in full—mainly leaving out anchovies and some of the additional herbs I didn’t have on hand for the pasta—I wouldn’t have identified the creaminess in most of my favorite green goddess dressings as coming from actual avocado. Now I am convinced that…

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Penne Gratin with Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms
Makes 6 servings

Read the original post here.

Ingredients
1 lb dried penne rigate
½ lb hot Italian sausage, casings removed
½ lb sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 lb fennel, stalk and leaves removed, sliced
10 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese
12 oz shredded mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until very…

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