Quarter-Life Coaching: Caitlyn's Midwestern Fiesta

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 working in an orphanage in Tanzania. She may not have been entertaining in the traditional sense, as I was in the luxury of my parents’ dining room, but she was saving children, and that’s pretty great.

Though our apartment is a far cry from the hut she became accustomed to, I’d like to think that the big kids constantly coming in and out have helped in some way ease her transition back to the modern world. As we’ve both become more comfortable in our new digs—I’ve learned how to re-embrace the Solo cup and cope with not having a dining room table, and Caitlyn has stopped trying to lure children back to our apartment from the Foundling Hospital across the street—we’ve found that there are more and more hungry mouths coming through our door in need of a meal, and perhaps a little nourishment for the soul.

Caitlyn has always been a pro at the latter. I often fall asleep to the hours of good advice and comforting chatter that seeps through our thin, pre-war walls. And sometimes, when I too am in need of some quarter-life coddling, I crawl under her outrageously comfortable comforter, and let her remind me that I’m not crazy when it comes to most of the chaos in my life, but that my nightmares about radio-active vegetables are probably not normal.

When manning the kitchen on her own, Caitlyn often reaches into her arsenal of Midwestern comfort foods, many of which are tried and true dishes from her sister’s kitchen in Indiana, and are designed to be healthy, yet feed a small land-locked fleet. I'm occasionally skeptical of such culinary tastes, but I always enjoy Caitlyn’s concoctions, and I marvel at her ability to man a crowd, even in high heels and without a handmade Tanzanian baby Bjorn.

But for her friend Alyssa’s surprise birthday dinner, she asked me to suggest an easy, inexpensive meal that would feed and fill a crowd of not-so-Midwestern chicks. Since it was around Cinco de Mayo, I decided to stay close to Caitlyn and Alyssa’s roots by going Mexican by way of Motown. I wrote down a modified recipe, adding a little cumin, oregano, and corn kernels, and Caitlyn took it from there, transforming my mother’s classic shepherd’s pie into a fiesta casserole spicy enough for any New York city senorita, healthy enough for the chic urbanite, and comforting enough to bring the warmth back West where it was born.

From our kitchen, orphan-free, but full of Midwestern love, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Caitlyn, basting herself with margarita

Mexican Shepherd’s Pie
Serves 10-12

This recipe takes all the classic components of my mother's shepherd's pie (a favorite dish of mine) and gives it a Mexican kick. To offer the ladies some comfort for their waistlines, I suggested Caitlyn use ground turkey as the base, and stock to thin the potatoes instead of cream--both tricks that my mother uses in her version since she doesn't drink milk and my dad is finicky about red meat.

Ingredients

For the potato topping:

4lb large russet potatoes (about 10, one per person), peeled and cut into quarters
1-2 cups Stock or Half and Half (to thin mash)
1 tbsp salt (to taste)

For the meat mixture:

31/2 lb ground turkey, chicken, or beef
2 medium yellow onions
2 carrots, peeled and cubed (fine dice)
4 cloves garlic, pushed through a press
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp flour
1-2 cups chicken stock
1 ½ cups frozen corn
2 15oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 cup Monterey jack cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the quartered potatoes and cook until a knife easily slips in and out, but does not cause them to fall apart. Drain or remove with a slotted spoon. Press through a mouli or ricer. Thin the potatoes with stock or half and half, whipping them until smooth and your desired thickness. Taste for seasoning, and set aside.

In the meantime, in a large skillet, sauté the onion and carrot in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until soft. Scrape the vegetables to the sides of the pan, turn the flame to medium-high heat, and toss in the meat. Brown in the center, breaking apart with your spatula as it cooks. Once sufficiently browned, mix together with the veggies. Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, and cayenne. Sauté for a minute or two for the heat to awaken the spices, then add the tomatoes and the corn. Cook until the corn is completely defrosted and the tomatoes and their juices have reduced significantly, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add a heaping tablespoon of flour and stir to coat. Cook for an additional minute before adding a cup of stock. Bring the mixture to boil and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the liquids have reduced by half and the sauce has thickened (during this time, add in any additional stock as necessary. You want the sauce just a little thinner than when you finally cut the pie open.)


Put the meat mixture in the bottom of a casserole and cover with the potatoes. Dot the top with melted butter or olive oil, and put the dish into a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until beginning to brown on top. Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese. Return to the oven, turn the heat up to broil, and cook for an additional few minutes to brown the top.

Serve with a side salad, chips, and salsa!

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Recipe Flash: Espresso Biscotti

Espresso-Chocolate Biscotti

Makes about 20 cookies

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.

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

1/2 cup chocolate chips (mini if you have them)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the flour with the salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.

Stir together the butter with the sugar. Add the egg, then the espresso powder (in water), and beat to combine it all. Add the flour mixture to make a thick dough. Then, stir in the chocolate chips. Knead the whole thing together a couple times on the counter.

Form into a log, about 10-12" long, 2-3" wide, and about 1" high. Bake for 25 minutes, until firm on top, then remove from the oven and cool sllightly, until you can touch the log easily.

Using a spatula, put the whole log onto a cutting board. Cut thin slices on the diagonal, about 1/3" each, then spread them back on the baking sheet. Bake for another 20-30 minutes, flipping the biscotti once halfway through. Cool completely.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

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Cooking For One: "Soup Is What You Make Yourself"

DISH: Green Potato Leek Soup

TYPE: Quintessential Cooking for One

MAIN INGREDIENT: Potato, leek

"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 the library and not at a cooking school or food-oriented venue, the topics and audience questions ran the gamut from food ignorance to food arrogance. Some of the advice seemed directed at the experienced cook, and some seemed meant for the wealthy one. But when one girl stood up and asked, "Well how do I start cooking at home?" and Rocco answered "just make soup: soup is what you make yourself," I knew the evening had taken a turn for the practical. We've featured soup many times on this blog - admittedly over the course of a cold winter and wet spring - and it really is an amazing go-to for the resourceful cook. Soup takes random ingredients and makes them homey and satisfying, but it can also take carefully picked, gourmet ingredients and turn them into an intentional, refined dish.

After the panel had answered all the audience's questions, I went home, my mind racing about what it meant to cook at home for oneself and for friends, in this day and age. It was about 10:30pm when I finally made it off the subway and through the door. I had taken advantage of free cheese and crackers at the talk, so I wasn't hungry in spite of my impulse to cook. Thus, I did what any mature, home-cooking individual would think to do: I made soup. I tried the soup as I went along (Rocco also said that tasting while you stir is the hallmark of an excellent cook), but in the end I stowed it in containers that served me well for lunch and dinners throughout the week.

From my kitchen, where soup is the answer whether or not famous chefs ask the question, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

(front) the potato milk mixture; (back) the greens cooking in broth

Green Potato Leek Soup

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

4 teaspoons olive oil
1 small potato (about 7 ounces)

1 tablespoon chives
1/2 onion, diced

3 leeks, white and light green parts, washed well and sliced
2 1/2 - 3 cups vegetable broth*
handful of greens—collards or kale, preferably
6 walnut halves
1 cup milk

3/4 teaspoon salt

Note: to make the vegetable broth, just simmer the dark green parts of the leeks with a couple carrots, half an onion, some celery if you have it, and a garlic clove or two in 3-4 cups of water for about 30 minutes. Otherwise, use water or a watered-down purchased broth whose flavor you know you like.

Toast the walnuts in a dry pan or in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until fragrant. Set aside.

Warm 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a small pan. Add the onions and the leeks and cook over medium heat until they've collapsed, about 10 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, scrape from the pan and set aside.

Warm the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil and add the potatoes. Cook until they've browned on all sides, then add the chives and another 1/4 teaspoon salt. Slowly, stir in the milk, and cook, letting it thicken, for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a blender or mini food processor, process the walnuts with the greens (you might want to tear up the leaves a bit before adding). Add up to a cup of stock or water to help smooth.

In a medium pot, mix together the pureed green-walnut mixture, the remaining stock, and the sauteed leeks and onions. Bring to a simmer and boil, uncovered, until slightly reduced. Stir in the potato-milk mixture and warm, stirring constantly so the milk doesn't curdle. Grind in some pepper and add the remaining salt. Like many soups, this one tastes best reheated the following day.

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Recipe Flash: Carrot-Cabbage Pancake

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 the texture of a potato pancake either, this healthy veggie alternative tasted excellent with the addition of a little herbed sour cream.

Ingredients

For the pancake:

about 1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups shredded carrot (about 1 large carrot)
1 cup shredded green cabbage
2 eggs
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt

For the herbed sour cream:

1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped (or any herb you have on hand)
1/2 - 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt

In a small non-stick pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over a medium flame. Sauté the carrot and cabbage until tender and beginning to caramelize (about 4 minutes). Allow to cool for a minute.

In the meantime, in a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, red pepper, and tarragon. Add the carrot-cabbage mixture once it’s cooled a bit (so the eggs don't curdle) and fold into the egg mixture.

Turn the burner back up to medium high, and add any additional olive oil as needed. Return the mixture to the pan in one even layer and pan fry until the pancake is crispy on the bottom. Flip using a large spatula, and repeat.

Serve immediately with a dollop of plain or herbed sour cream.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

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Working With What You Have: Rice Pudding Cereal

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 free. After that, I looked up recipes for Indian rice pudding and found that they were completely different from what my mother always made. Good old American rice pudding, baked or stovetop, also uses a different method. They all start from raw rice, which cooks in milk for a long time, and, as a result, turns into a pudding.

We began with leftover cooked rice (from a takeout container or otherwise), which is maybe why we called it "pudding cereal" and not just pudding. The rice would have dried out in the fridge and was ready, like stale bread for French toast, to absorb the egg, milk, and flavorings we added. I am sure the starch in the rice plays a role in thickening the pudding, but the egg does too, and together they make the dish ready in less than twenty minutes. I think when I made the Indian rice pudding, the recipe demanded I stand over the stove for something like 2 hours. This is not that.

Though you can throw in raisins or cinnamon, or any other kind of oatmeal-type add-ins, I like this best plain, or, if not exactly plain, topped with a lot of plain white sugar. In fact, I usually go easy on the sugar in the actual pudding just so I can load it on on top. And then I don't mix it in, at least not for a while, eating spoonfuls while the sugar is still crunchy and then stirring it all together at last once the sugar has completely melted.

All that being said, this particular rendition of rice pudding cereal had a baklava-like Greek twist: I topped it with honey and a couple chopped walnuts. Good, if not as good as the sugar-topped original, but still worth slaving over the stove first thing in the morning for. 

From my small, breakfast-centric kitchen to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Honeyed Rice Pudding Cereal With Walnuts

Serves 3

Ingredients
1 cup cooked rice, at least 1 day old
1 egg
2 1/2 cups milk
pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts

Mix the rice with the egg in a small saucepan. Add the milk and pinch of salt and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Once it's bubbling gently, you have two options: keep the heat on medium or medium high and stir contantly until the pudding is thickened, 5-10 minutes, or lower the heat to low and stir occasionally until thickened 15-20 minutes. Stir in a tablespoon or two of honey, then pour the rest on top. Sprinkle with walnuts and serve. Can also be eaten cold.

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Big Girls, Test Kitchen: Focaccia

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 the Institute of Culinary Education. In different courses, I made Indian flatbread and perfect vinaigrettes; my sister learned to roll sushi and stir her way to faultless risotto. Once, my mom and I took a focaccia course together. The only slight annoyance about making focaccia - waiting for it to rise - didn't affect us, since as soon as we'd covered one bowl, we would start on another recipe in order to get the most out of the class. We brought home a lot of bread that day, in various thicknesses and sizes, and all with different toppings. Through the years, we've made focaccia regularly, to accompany light dinners, as the crust for homemade pizza, or as an appetizer with tomato or olive oil to dip it in.

One of the most unusual toppings we plastered the focaccia with that first day, in class, were potatoes. I think we sprinkled rosemary, cheese, and onions on the potatoes, but I couldn't quite remember. When I googled "potato focaccia," all I found were breads with potato in the dough, and nothing gave me instructions how to use the potatoes on top. I wound up layering thinly sliced potato over a coating of pesto. And because I was making the focaccia as a food gift for some carnivores who'd done me a favor, I split the dough, put some in a round pan, and added slices of chicken sausage to crisp on top.

Taking the first bite of the potato one didn't exactly bring back that moment in the class, especially since I had a sinkful of dirty dishes, and at the Institute of Culinary Education, full-time cooking students disappear your used bowls as soon as you've scraped out the last bit of dough. But I felt pretty good about the skills I'd acquired there so long ago and about the current toying around I was doing, good enough to assure you that this focaccia is not very hard and really must be made.

From my kitchen, where warm bread trumps all,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Potato-Pesto Focaccia
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.

Ingredients
1 package yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (at the right temp, if you run water on your wrist, you shouldn't be able to feel it)
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan and brushing the top
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon salt

2 small potatoes (any kind), thinly sliced
1/4 cup pesto
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 chicken (or regular) sausage, thinly sliced
handful cherry tomatoes, halved

Mix together the water with the yeast and sugar. Let it sit until it bubbles, about 5 minutes. Add the olive oil. and whisk.

In a large bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until well combined. Stir an additional minute or two.

Transfer to a clean, well oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1-1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450°. Spread about 1/2 of the dough in a greased 9 x 13" brownie pan and the rest in a round 8" cake pan. Cover each and allow to rise again, about 20-30 minutes. Spread the rectangular focaccia with pesto, then layer with potato slices and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with cheese and coarse salt.

Push sausage slices and cherry tomato halves into the round focaccia, then brush with olive oil and sprinkle with more salt.

Bake for 12-20 minutes, until the breads have risen and browned, and the crusts are very crispy. If necessary, cut into the center to make sure the dough is all cooked - these are not like chocolate chip cookies and aren't really good underbaked.

Serve warm (amazing) in slices or wedges, or at room temperature.

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Cooking For Others: Baked Pasta Bash

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 leading up to April 17th, our friends have been conditioned to expect nothing less than the best weekend ever. Though 24 is no major milestone—Matt can still legally drive, drink, buy porno, and enjoy some of these things in tandem—it served as an excuse this year for our few friends who’ve yet to move to New York to come to the big city and gear up for the celebration.

To give you some background: Matt’s mother Julie is what you might call a planner. And those of us involved for the four years of successful birthday blowouts during college think she’s pretty awesome at it. Every April, Julie and Peter, Matt’s cheery British stepdad, would summon the troops to their house for a day of bocce, softball, and frisbee on their sprawling, duck-poop covered lawn, followed by a night of board games, Beirut, and expertly mixed cosmopolitans.

Though Julie usually passed out by 11pm (about an hour after I would be discovered comatose on the couch snoring), Peter—who is known for answering any wayward question with the response "well, I’m a longboard man myself"—kept the taboo buzzer blaring long into the night.

Over time, the birthday festivities grew more and more epic: the number of different types of beers doubled along with the air mattresses strewn across the two bedroom house. Every year, we knew the answers to more and more of the Cranium cards, and to counteract our growing knowledge of random facts, Julie’s cosmopolitans grew stronger and stronger too. By junior year, there was an inflatable bounce house in the backyard and a full fledged Easter egg hunt in the surrounding grass.

But carnival games aside, for me by far the best part of Matt’s birthdays was the food. Julie ensured that the tables were always spread with everything under the sun—from chili to gourmet roast chicken to the butteriest butternut squash soup I’ve ever tasted. One year, we were lucky enough to be joined by Brain, a cater waiter who grilled a mean chicken skewer and really knew his way around the makeshift wiffleball field.

So when the old crew decided to come together for the first time since college, Caitlyn and I thought the only thing fit for the big 24th was to attempt to bring the fun to our small New York City apartment, even without the oversized lawns or waiters to help hit homeruns.

I did my part to load the countertops with assorted baked pastas inspired by Matt’s favorite restaurant in Providence, Al Forno; the boys did their job to lick them clean; and Caitlyn transformed our dining room table, which has lacked chairs since we moved, into a Beirut arena which the two of us would later dominate. And though there were no mixings for her famous cosmopolitans, Julie and Peter were there to keep tradition alive, leaving the fuss over this year’s birthday bash to us, but making the fun mandatory.

From my kitchen, where the promise of baked pasta, lawn games, and Matt brings friends back together, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

the birthday boy, eating slowly, loving life

**Recipes**

Al Forno Conchiglie with Five Cheeses
Makes 6 servings

This recipe was adapted from Cucina Simpatica: Robust Trattoria Cooking by the owners of our favorite Providence restaurant, Al Forno. The dish is still the subject of many a dinner table discussion, as somehow any other baked pasta that involves cream and cheese tends to pale in comparison.

Ingredients

1 lb conchiglie rigate (shells)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
¼ lb shredded mozzarella
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano (reserve some for garnish)
½ cup fontina cheese, coarsely grated
¼ cup crumbled gorgonzola (I used a little less)
2 tbsp ricotta cheese
½ tsp salt
6 basil leaves, chopped
¼ cup very thinly sliced (length wise) scallion (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt well, and cook the pasta for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Meanwhile, combine cream, tomatoes, cheeses, salt, and basil in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the pasta and toss to coat.

Spread pasta mixture evenly in a casserole or baking dish. Bake uncovered for 7 to 10 minutes, until the top is browned and the bottom layer of pasta is tender.

Sprinkle with scallions and remaining pecorino and serve immediately.

Penne Gratin with Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms
Makes 6 servings
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 al dente -it should have a definite bite to it. Drain and allow to cool on a baking or casserole dish.

In the meantime, cook the sausage in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Using your spatula, break up the pieces of meat as much as you can until fully browned. Transfer to the baking dish.

Using the fat left in the pan, sauté the fennel until translucent. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook until golden brown. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional two minutes. Cover the mixture with the heavy cream and simmer over high heat until reduced by half, about four minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Toss the pasta and sausage together with the cream mixture, pecorino, and 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese. Distribute evenly in the baking dish and cover with the remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered until golden brown on the top, about 5 to 7 minutes.

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 avocado indeed makes the world go round.

Ingredients

20 oz romaine lettuce (6 hearts, or two pre-washed bags)
½ medium avocado
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp basil, chopped
2-3 scallions, chopped
½ - ¾ cup olive oil
½ tsp salt (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine. Stream in the olive oil gradually and blend until the mixture becomes light and frothy. Taste for seasoning. Toss with the crispy romaine and serve as a light accent to the baked pasta dishes.

Caitlyn's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing
Makes 15 cupcakes

I’ve made Ina Garten’s (aka the Barefoot Contessa) Chocolate Ganache Cake for several birthdays and it’s always a big hit. Unfortunately, Matt isn’t a fan of full-sized cakes, but he seems to enjoy their less intimidating cup-sized variety. Instead of using the ganache icing from the original recipe, I went with a peanut butter topping, as I’ve had the pleasure of watching the birthday boy consume an entire jar in one sitting during regular hours of the afternoon, and after eating a regular meal prior. As fate would have it, Ina has a recipe for peanut butter icing too - and let me tell you, it’s to die for. The mix and match was a hit, and though I would not let him eat the pint of leftover icing in front of his guests, Matt was one happy birthday boy.

Ingredients

¼ lb unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 (16 oz) can Hershey’s chocolate syrup
1 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of brewed coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor and tone down the sweetness

For the Icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I went the Skippy route)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
¾ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with paper liners.

Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat. Mix in the chocolate syrup, vanilla, and brewed coffee. Add in the flour slowly and beat until just combined (over-beating will make the cake/cupcakes too tough).

Divide batter among cupcake pans (abut 3/4 of the way full should do the trick) and bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick/knife comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes, then remove form the pan and cool completely before frosting

For the frosting, mix confectioners’ sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl, until creamy. Add in cream and beat until the mixture is light and smooth.

Frost each cupcake with peanut butter frosting and enjoy! (You can also garnish with sprinkles or chopped peanuts, if you’re feeling saucy)

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Recipe Flash: Orzo Ratatouille

Baked Orzo Ratatouille
Makes 6 servings

Last night Cara came over for a casual hang-sesh to talk life, love, and all things Big Girls, Small Kitchens. As she drafted a thank you email to our new friends at SHINE, I whipped up this simple orzo dish. I bought the eggplant, squash, and zucchini—a total of $3.08 from the overpriced gourmet foods shop around the corner -on my way home, tossed together the rest from my pantry and fridge, and in less than 30 minutes (pardon me, Rachel Ray), this impromptu ratatouille baked pasta was piping hot on the table, ready to serve six hungry mouths.

Unfortunately, Cara and I had both not-so-accidentally spoiled our appetite with a cup of Pinkberry on the way back to my apartment, and we barely made a dent. So for lack of an official lunchbox, I'll now have tupperware containers full of healthy leftovers for the week to come.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 squash, quartered and sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 15oz can diced tomatoes (I like to use fire-roasted for extra flavor)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 lb orzo
½ cup grated parmesan
½ cup grated fontina cheese
salt to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook the orzo according to the package directions until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid, drain, and set aside.

In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the eggplant and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant has begun to soften, about five minutes. Toss in the zucchini and the squash and cook for another 3 minutes until tender. Add the garlic, tomatoes and all their juices, balsamic, red pepper, and salt to taste. Turn the heat down to medium-low and allow to reduce for a minute or two until some of the tomatoes’ acidity has softened, and the overall flavor of the sauce is to your liking.

Stir in the cooked orzo and the cooking liquid until everything is well incorporated. Preheat the broiler, smooth the surface of the orzo mixture, and cover evenly with the cheeses. Place the skillet in the oven for five minutes or so until the cheese has melted and begun to brown.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

a feast fit for, well, Cara.

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Cooking For One: A Happy, Healthy Lunch

guess who gave me this well-rounded lunchbox? a: my mom

DISH: Spring Tonic Salad, Nearly Sugarless Carrot Cake
MAIN INGREDIENT: Bulgur Wheat, Spring Vegetables
TYPE: Lunch-able
BUY: Gourmet Getaway Lunch Tote

When I came down with my umpteenth cold of the season, I figured I had to get serious about the nutrition content of what I put in my body. Though the subway I ride and the insulated row of cubicles I work in each day definitely do their part to infuse my weakening immune system with New York City's germs, sometimes I wonder if my junk food cravings—and my inability not to satisfy them—might also be what keeps putting me in sickness's way.

It disturbs me only slightly to notice that this is an observation my own mother might have made. Though she is no homeopath like Phoebe's mom, she definitely preached moderation—some vegetables, some sunshine, some exercise, a bunch of sleep—and truth be told, she was probably right. Truth also be told, I get these things more sparingly than moderately.

Anyway, for whatever reason, lunch is my craving-est meal: it's like when 1pm arrives, I just know I need something sustaining to make it through the rest of the day, physically and mentally, or I'm simply going to crack, run screaming down the hallway, and hurl myself into the nearest bakery. Bad news for moderation.

To address my health needs both micro (lunchtime cravings) and macro (susceptibility to all manner of colds), I decided last night to make this simple, healthful salad and to tote it in for lunch all week. It contains only whole ingredients—nothing processed here—as well as veggies from early spring's yield, which I hear possess tonic-like properties that allow them to suction all the bad stuff out of your system, like green tea and other miraculous antioxidants.

Or something.

To make this meal resemble a classic lunchbox, I needed something to round out the salad. But going along with my healthy-ish theme, I figured I'd opt out of packing cookies or chips and instead add a portioned slice of the date-sweetened carrot cake I'd made from 101 Cookbooks, which dispels the cravings yet fails to put me in an afternoon sugar stupor.

From my kitchen, where the health claims may be bogus but the food is still good,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Spring Tonic Salad
Serves 3

The beauty of bulgur wheat is that it cooks off the heat, just in a covered container with boiling water, reducing overall pot use and kitchen temperature.

The asparagus I had bought ranged in fatness from thread-like to pretty substantial, so I prepared them in two different ways. I cut the thick ones into pennies and the skinny ones into matchsticks, which made the salad look pretty and have a nice variation in texture. This salad would be good with some crumbled feta or goat cheese, or even diced hard-boiled egg.

Ingredients
1/2 cup bulgur wheat
1 cup boiling water
1/4 -1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 bunch asparagus
2 medium radishes, cut in half and then sliced thinly
3 tablespoons sniped chives
1/4 cup walnuts
juice of half a lemon

Put the bulgur and water in a heat-proof bowl. Cover and set aside 20-25 minutes until the bulgur has plumped. If there's any water left, carefully drain it. Toss with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

While the bulgur is soaking, preheat the oven to 350°F. Toss the asparagus with the remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil and roast in the oven for about 15 minutes, until softened and browned. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Cut the asparagus into bite-sized pieces—whatever shape seems appropriate for your veggies.

On a baking sheet in the heated oven, toast the walnuts for 5-10 minutes, being careful not to burn. (I always set a timer so they don't suffer the cauliflower's fate.) Remove and chop coarsely.

In a large bowl, toss the bulgur with the vegetables, chives, and walnuts. Squeeze the lemon and toss again. If you're serving to friends, garnish with extra chives and nuts, and serve over lettuce on a platter.

Nearly Sugarless Carrot Cake
Makes 1 loaf cake

This recipe is adapted from 101 Cookbooks. Fearless Heidi used only dates to sweeten her cake (plus some maple syrup in the icing), but I chickened out and threw a couple tablespoons of syrup in the cake, too.

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
½ cup oil
¼ cup maple syrup
1/2 cup dried dates, seeded and finely chopped into a paste
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used nonfat)
2 eggs, lightly whisked

3 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon oil
4 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a loaf pan well.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the walnuts and set aside.

Chop the dates finely. Add them to a blender or food processor with the applesauce, 1/3 of the carrots, and the syrup. Blend until the dates are pulverized and mixed with the applesauce, then add the oil and blend until emulsified. Add the eggs and blend a moment more. Add the remainder of the carrots, but don’t blend them (you can mix them carefully with a spatula.)

Pour the mixture from the blender over the dry ingredients and fold together gently, just until most of the flour is incorporated. Pour into the prepared pan and bake about 50-60 minutes.

For the frosting, beat all the ingredients together until fluffy. Frost the cake when it’s cool.

Store in the refrigerator.

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From My Mother's Kitchen: Sarah's Salmon

DISH: Seared Salmon with Green Sauce
TYPE: Simple, Fresh Ingredients
MAIN INGREDIENT: Salmon, Fresh Herbs, Olive Oil

Even the Quarter-Life Cook must admit that some things will never taste quite as good from her kitchen as they do from the outside world. Though I don’t support the establishment, my French Fries will never compare to the treatment of the double deep fryers at McDonald’s; after intensive shucking lessons, I somehow still think I would prefer an oyster from the Pearl Oyster Bar over my own; even if I had the famous secret recipe and my own brick oven, I would still haul my butt out to Brooklyn for a slice of Grimaldi’s pizza; and, in this case, though I have all the tools at hand and have been given the not-so-secret recipes, I opt for my mother’s fish in her kitchen over my own.

Since I’ve already featured her garlic soup, semi-sweet potato mash, and overcome my own fear of the ghastly green goop she keeps in the refrigerator, my father and I were hard pressed to land on one recipe that could be considered my mother’s quintessential dish. She just has a way with fish, he said. And remembering my first botched attempt at seared salmon in high school (with my mother on the phone dictating the steps), I had to agree.

To describe her cuisine: in short, it's what’s to be expected from a practiced homeopath whose supermarket spoils when I was growing up were large in part from the health food store, her habits years ahead of the time. Simple. Local. Organic. Now with a Whole Foods and a weekly farmer’s market just a stone’s throw from my apartment, these are tenets I can feasibly live by in my quarter-life. And though fresh fish and fresh herbs, which go bad in a matter of days, are not the most budget-friendly or convenient, I’ll find myself craving the seafood of my childhood and splurge every once in a while on some tilapia and a basket full of herbs. But even in these quarter-life efforts, no matter how I do it—roast, poach, or pan-sear--my fish tastes good, but never as good as my mother’s.

Part of these memories come from my childhood summers at my grandparent’s house on Martha’s Vineyard. There, the seafood is bought fresh from the fish monger at Edgartown Seafood, and the herbs are harvested daily from the garden at Morning Glory Farm. Not even the mayo my mother uses for shrimp salad comes from a jar. When my dad would inevitably invite ten people over for dinner against her will, her classic solution for a quick meal for ten was a huge fillet of salmon baked to perfection in the oven and slathered with herb butter upon its trip to the table.

But the memory that strikes me most from my childhood is the green sauce. It combines the two main staples of my mother’s cooking—fresh herbs and mayonnaise—which in her eyes can be added separately to anything and everything, and together, make the world a better place to eat in.

To satisfy some preemptive cravings before visiting my parents for Mother’s Day—I just got my wisdom teeth out, and am thereby limited to green goop this weekend—I decided to make another attempt at my mother’s seared salmon with green sauce. With two varieties of fresh herbs instead of four, my version didn’t quite have the heavenly fresh punch as the one I’ve come to know and love on Martha’s Vineyard. But somehow, together as one on my plate, the memories they evoked were fresh enough to get me through this next month until summer, when I will be back at my mother’s table. Because somehow, even though my version of salmon with green sauce was good, fish is something that will always taste better from my mother’s kitchen.

From my mother’s kitchen, wishing a happy mother's day to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

In my mother's kitchen: a beautiful seared piece of salmon

**Recipes**

Seared Salmon with Green Sauce
Makes 2 servings

Though my mother primarily made salmon, her searing technique is good for any type of fish with the skin on. Similarly, the green sauce can be adapted to include a variety of different herbs. See notes below for which combinations work best. And finally, I also recommend experimenting with the different ways to eat the dish itself. The green sauce thinned out makes an excellent dressing for a mixed greens salad with the seared salmon on top, and also mixed together, can make a great mayonnaise base for herbed salmon salad, which is what I had for lunch the following day.

Ingredients

2 salmon filets
½ lemon, juiced
salt

For the Green Sauce:

about 2/3 cup herbs (I used 3 tbsp chives, 2 tbsp tarragon, 1 tbsp parsley)
1 tsp lemon thyme (optional)
1 egg yolk
¾ cup olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste

TIP: If you're serving more than 6 people, start the mayo recipe with 2 egg yolks. Use organic because there's less likelihood of salmonella with free-range chickens.

Wash the filets and pat dry with towels. In a cast-iron skillet, heat a few tablespoons of butter until it has stopped foaming and is turning brown, or heat enough olive oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan until it is smoking a little. To test the oil, flick it with a little bit of water. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough. Put the filet flesh side down in the hot oil/butter.

When you can see the fish is cooked (opaque) about halfway up and the flesh side has a brownish crust, turn the heat down and flip the fish.

When the filet looks nearly cooked through, spoon some of the lemon juice over the filet. When the bottom is fully cooked, set aside. Salt.

For the Sauce:

Follow a standard recipe for making mayo from scratch: basically, whisk an egg yolk in a bowl until it turns from bright to paler yellow which means it's ready to accept oil. Add the Dijon mustard, then whisk in oil (I alternate olive with something milder like sunflower oil) drop by drop. After it's clear that the mayo is amalgamating successfully and not separating, you can increase the oil from drops to a thin stream, always whisking like crazy. One egg yolk should accept up to 3/4 cup of oil. Then add the vinegar and lemon juice (in Spain they use lime) for acidity, then salt and white pepper to taste.

Whisk in the herbs and serve along side the fish in heaping spoonfuls.

NOTE: For the herb combination, use either chopped basil or tarragon or (mildest) snipped dill. I wouldn't combine any of these. I like tarragon. Other herbs for the background: snipped chives, minced parsley, a little fresh thyme. If you use mint, do it very sparing so it's just a hint. All told it should be about 2/3 cup of herbs.

next day herbed salmon salad over greens

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Potluck Parties: Mag Club Cinco De Mayo

Kate's delicious nacho-inspired dish

EVENT: Mag Club May, Cinco de Mayo
VENUE: Leora’s Apartment, Chelsea
PARTY SIZE: 8
TYPE: Potluck
MENU: Cilantro Slaw (Phoebe); Chipotle-Pineapple Glazed Tofu, Grilled Pineapple, Guacamole, Bean Dip (Leora); Shrimp Tostadas (Sarah); Butternut Squash Nacho Casserole (Kate); Green Rice, Chocolate-Bottomed Blondies, Mexican Chocolate Cookies (Cara); Sangria (Jordana); Various Whole Foods concoctions and Mexican Cheer (Julie and Alana)

Tuesday, the 5th of May, didn’t really feel like a holiday, or like a day in springtime at all: the skies were dark, the sidewalks cold and rainy, and the mood so overcast we felt almost as somber as the would-be revelers of Mexico City stuck at home in fear of swine flu. Though corporate emails, newspaper headlines and magazine covers alike reminded us that human contact was probably a bad idea, it seemed only natural to embrace the viral doom and gloom, stir-up some homemade margheritas (or sangria), and gather around for some Mag Club May dish at Leora’s apartment, where there is a year-round supply of Purell and not a pig product in sight.

The spread managed to be far more festive than the weather dictated—though with Leora’s five dishes, there seemed to remain very little counter space for the rest of our contributions. Mag Club ESP at work, the homemade spread was as cohesive as ever, covering all the necessary categories and courses, despite the fact that no one dared to bring swine-filled enchiladas inspired by a horror-inducing piece in Time.

After we caught up on the new and old men in our lives, Cara, the only suck-up to bring an article this week, began a discussion on the fragrances that remind men of pumpkin pie—based on her article from Cosmopolitan (inherited, NOT purchased), which contested that a combination of pie and lavender is in fact the key to pheromone attraction. As some of us contemplated buying pumpkin pie bubble bath and lavender perfume, she explained how the Venn diagram on the page, an overlapping gradient of light and dark browns, inspired her two-tone blondies. We gave her Mag Club brownie points for making a little sense out of complete nonsense, and, by extension, a very delicious treat from leftover cookies and a pantry devoid of sugar.

The conversation eventually turned from insipid magazines to Kate’s impending birthday activities, and, finally, to Leora’s apartment’s decorative Judaica and the various rhinestone animals and frilly pillows she would have to dispose of when she moved in with her boyfriend at the end of the summer. At once, we opened our eyes to the room around us, and collectively teased her about the statuettes, chamsas, and Jewish-themed rubber duckies—a rarified assortment of tchotchkes—she had been able to accumulate in the two short years of quarter-life existence in the apartment.

The Jewish excess of our lovely hostess met by the Cinco de Mayo-themed excess of her additions to the meal created the perfect backdrop for this month’s meeting, even if, like most of our articles and dishes, they made very little sense together.

From Leora’s kitchen, where chipotles, tofu, and Star of David napkins are a logical combo, to yours,

Phoebe and Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Recipes**

Cilantro Slaw
Makes 4-6 servings (about 1 ½ quarts)

Ingredients

2 limes, juiced
½ lemon, juiced
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, pushed through a press
5 pickled jalapeños slices (canned), minced
½ tsp chili powder
Dash cayenne (to taste)
½ tbsp salt (to taste)
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup cilantro, chopped
½ head Napa cabbage, thinly shredded or sliced

Combine first 8 ingredients in a large salad bowl. Gradually whisk in the olive oil until all elements are combined. Toss together with the cabbage and the cilantro.

Serve along side any Mexican-themed entrée as a side salad, topping, or garnish. This dish works especially well atop fish tacos.

Chipotle-Pineapple Glazed Tofu
Makes 4 servings

Leora recommended a great veggie website which inspired her recipe (http://www.veggiemealplans.com/), but admitted that the overall result was pale in comparison to Cara’s new favorite tofu which she recreated last week.

Ingredients

For the Glaze:
1/3 cup pineapple juice

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons minced chipotle with adabo sauce
1 clove minced garlic
pinch of salt--or if your Phoebe more! Because we know she loves salt!

For the Tofu:
1 package firm tofu sliced into 1 inch cubes and well blotted with paper towels

In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze. Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over a medium flame, and cook the tofu, stirring occasionally, until browned. Pour the glaze mixture over tofu and allow it to thicken.

Serve on a platter with Grilled Pineapple (recipe below) for garnish, or as a tasty side.

Grilled Pineapple
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 medium pineapple, cored, trimmed, and sliced

Heat a grill pan over a medium-high flame until hot. Do not add any oil, the natural juice from the pineapple will keep it from sticking. Grill until both sides are browned and the pineapple is really juicy looking!

Shrimp Tostadas
Makes about 12

Ingredients

1 cup guacamole (Sarah used this recipe)
12 peeled de-veined shrimp with tails removed
3 large corn tortillas, cut into 4
Pico de gallo (optional)
Heat a grill pan over medium-high flame. Season the shrimp and toss together with 1 tablespoon of olive oil so they don’t stick. Grill the shrimp on both sides until nicely charred.

On a sheet pan, arrange the tortilla slices. Place under the broiler for 5 minutes until hot and a bit crispy. Add a dollop of guacamole, one grilled shrimp, and a dash of salsa or pico de gallo for color to each, and serve!

Butternut Squash Nacho Casserole
Makes 6 appetizer servings

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, cubed
1 tomato, diced
¼ onion, diced
1 can of pinto beans, drained
1 pound of shredded cheddar
1 bag of tortilla chips
Cilantro for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cook butternut squash in microwave for ten minutes. After the butternut squash is cooked, mix together with the tomato, onion, beans, and ½ the cheese. In a medium casserole dish, spread 3/4 of the butternut squash mixture, follow by a layer of chips. Top with the remaining mixture, the remaining chips, and the rest of the cheese.

Place the dish in the oven and cook for fifteen minutes. Garnish with cilantro on top after the cheese is melted and the nacho casserole is crispy!

Sangria
Makes 1 pitcher

This sangria marks an epic mag club first: Jordana actually making something. As is rumored to be the case with the few other dishes she’s made in her small kitchen, Jor’s sangria turned out perfect: flavorful, fresh, and, thanks to a joint decision by Jor and Phoebe (who despises the fruit), orange-free.

Ingredients

1 bottle of red wine
2/3 cup of "fresh" orange juice
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of lime juice
2 apples, sliced
Orange slices (optional)
Ice

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to chill in the refrigerator or serve over ice.

Chocolate-Bottomed Blondies
Makes 20

Ingredients

1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs*
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Note: I used some of the Mexican-spiced chocolate cookies I had made over the weekend, but you can use store-bought plain chocolate wafers. Either way, pulse them in a blender or food processor to create coarse crumbs.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9x9" square pan. Combine the chocolate cookie crumbs with the cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Press this mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the softened butter with the brown sugar until fluffy. Add the syrup, eggs, and vanilla, and beat to combine (mixture may look somewhat curdled). Add the flour mixture, stir just to combine, then pour over the prepared pan with the chocolate cookie crust.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top has firmed. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out and cool completely before cutting into 20 squares.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 24

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
extra sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine the dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar, then add the egg. Mix in the dry ingredients until the dough sticks together (it will be somewhat firm).

Pour about 1/3 cup sugar onto a shallow plate. Gather heaping tablespoons of the dough into balls and roll them to coat in the sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and back for 10-12 minutes, until the tops have cracked. Serve warm, cool, or crumbled into bits and baked at the bottom of a blondie.

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Recipe Flash: Stewed Greens with White Beans

Stewed Greens with White Beans
Serves 6

I keep coming back to this dish as a favorite standby. Though I'll forget all about it for a while, the moment I happen to have the ingredients on hand I'll put it together, and the first taste of garlicky goodness will make me want to eat it for a week straight (which, with the amount I made, is what I'll be doing). If you cut the greens pretty small, this makes a great topping for a bruschetta. And, if you're not a bean person, feel free to leave them out. The plain stewed greens are good on their own.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of cayenne
2 large bunches hearty greens: kale, collards, broccoli rabe
1 can white beans
1/2 lemon

Warm the oil in a large cast iron pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and fry, stirring occasionally, until the slices are golden all over. Add the salt and cayenne and turn up the heat to to medium-high, then add in all the greens. You may need to do this in more than one batch, putting in more greens as the previous batch wilts, so you don't overcrowd the pan. Add 1/4-1/2 cup of water or broth to keep the greens from sticking.

Cook for about 15-25 minutes, until the greens are melt-in-your mouth (if you're using chard or spinach, you probably only need to cook for 5-10 minutes). Drain the beans and add them, squeeze the lemon over the top, and heat through.

Serve over pasta, with bread, or plain.

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Cooking For Others: One-Eyed Potatoes

EVENT: Saturday Brunch
VENUE: Cara's Apartment, Park Slope
SIZE: 3
MENU: Hash-Brown One-Eyes with Homemade Ketchup and Pesto Sour Cream; Roasted Baby Carrots; Wake-Up Cocoa Quick Bread

Ah, that moment of recognition when you discover that someone else eats the same favorite food combination as you. It's instantly bond forming and can solve all kinds of mysteries. For example: in 1998's The Parent Trap, how would the American Lindsay Lohan have known that the British Lindsay Lohan was her identical twin separated at birth if they didn't both crave Oreos dunked in peanut butter?

Here's how this relates to the brunch I made for Roshni and Chris a couple weekends ago:

Growing up, we sometimes ate One Eyes for breakfast. You know, you'd cut out a hole in a piece of bread, crack an egg in its center, and fry the the whole thing til the egg was cooked and the toast crispy. Kind of brilliant, and, I thought, unique. Not so. Apparently, it just ran under a horde of other aliases: Egg In The Hole In The Bread. Hole-y Toast. Egg In The Hole. Bird's Nest. Toad In The Hole. Abundant and literal, and I'm sure there are more.

By whatever name, the brilliance is in the simplicity. One Eyes take two things you'd normally eat at the same time on breakfast or brunch plates and marry them together as one. I was thinking about the other objects on that breakfast plate and it occured to me you could perform the same marriage on eggs and hash browns. For lack of a better suggestion, I'm calling them Hash-Brown One-Eyes (and taking suggestions on the name).

Because I was cooking for guests and wanted to be able to entertain them with my full attention and presence, everything had to be ready at once—my kitchen is really only big enough for one if you want to be able to, say, open the oven or get something from the fridge, and it's not open, like Phoebe's, so if I'm in there, my back is to my company. So I figured I'd bake the Hash Brown One Eyes, which meant I needed the Hash Brown part to be sturdy enough to withstand a hole being cut out of their center, some time in the oven and some handling with my spatula. To be sure they'd sruvive, as well as taste good, I wound up going with my mom's Hanukkah-style potato pancakes. I fried them just a bit in advance, then reheated them with an eye in the center.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Hash Brown One Eyes
Serves 3

You can fry the hash browns about an hour before, since you have to bake them to cook the egg anyway.

Ingredients

2 baking potatoes
1 small onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons flour
oil for frying
3 eggs

Grate the potates and the onion. Don't do this much before frying, as the potatoes will brown. Add the salt and flour, then beat in the egg.

In a frying pan, add oil to about 1/2 inch deep. Heat over medium heat until a shred of potato dropped in sizzles immediately. Gather one third of the potato mixture into a ball, squeeze out some of the liquid, and add to the frying pan. Flatten with a spatula, and cook on each side about 6-7 minutes until nicely browned. Remove to a paper towel to drain and repeat twice more.

About 30 minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 400°F. Arrange the pancakes on an oiled baking sheet, and do your best to smoosh a well down in the center of each. Carefully crack an egg into this recession and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the white is set and the yolk is as set as you like. Serve with ketchup and, in the spirit of Hanukkah, pesto sour cream (just mix a couple tablespoons of pesto with about 1/2 cup of sour cream or creme fraiche).

Wake-up Cocoa Quick Bread
Makes 1 loaf

This loaf cake/bread is firmer and less rich than the muffin-like loaf cakes that are often served at breakfast and brunch—inspired by the flavorful French pain d'epice rather than a dense banana or applesauce bread. As a result, you can eat more of it.

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder*
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk

NOTE: if you don't have espresso powder, you can substitute 1/2 cup of very strong brewed coffee for 1/2 cup of the milk to achieve the same mocha effect.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan and set it aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine the butter with the sugar and espresso powder. Add the egg, beating to distribute evenly, then pour in the milk. Using as few strokes as possible, stir in the dry ingredients.

Transfer to the loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top is dry and slightly cracked. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack and cool further before slicing.

Roasted Carrots
Serves 4

Roshni hates most vegetables, but I thought maybe she'd like carrots. Turns out I was wrong, but Chris and I still ate this simple brunch accompaniment.

Ingredients

1 bag baby carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Combine the carrots and oil together on a baking sheet. Bake, tossing occasionally, for 30-40 minutes, until the carrots are browned. Sprinkle with salt and serve, hot or room temp.

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Potluck Parties: High School Musical 4

bizarre shrine to Jennie, our host, complete with food and photos

EVENT: High School Reunion, Jessy's 24th Birthday
VENUE: Jennie's Parents' Apartment, Upper West Side
PARTY SIZE: 10
TYPE: Potluck
MENU: Jessy's Babaganoush; Smokey Spinach Quesadillas (P); Jennie's Fish Tacos with all the Fixings; Mocha Cake (C); Sarah's Blondies

This potluck party was a long time ago—Jessy's going on 25 by now—but it feels fitting to have this post so fixated on the past. High school, too, was a long time ago, but far be it from us not to think about it pretty much every day.

Having grown up in New York, we're lucky to be able to have impromptu reunions with nearly all of our close high school friends. With the exception of one who thought she'd escape by fleeing to Africa, everyone has gravitated back here after college. To make sure we see each other regularly, we try to host monthly potlucks, and were planning one for March anyway when we realized our date coincided with Jessy's birthday week. Back in the day we would have plastered Jessy's locker with colorful birthday cards filled with long sappy notes to our BFFAEUDDUP. Our affections now slightly more restrained, with fewer acronyms, and exclamation points limited to recaps of our cooking adventures, we added cake to the menu and candles to the shopping list and were good to go.

The cake itself dates back to the early 80s, before the QLCs were even a thought, and traverses the elementary school years, when Jessy herself may even have sampled an M&M-covered version at Cara's childhood birthday parties. To create some suspense for the epic story behind this confection, which we'll post evenutally, we're focusing instead on the meal's main event: Jennie's fish tacos.

Jennie graduated culinary school last fall and now works as a professional chef at an Upper West Side restaurant we can't afford to go to. For the potluck, she made us fish tacos with all the fixings, allowing the rest of us to bring quick complements—dishes from quesadillas to cheese platters to fruit spreads to the aforementioned cake—in order to hold up our ends of the bring-your-own bargain, while Chef Jennie's artful buffet stole the show.

As we finished up our third and fourth tacos, reminisced about birthday cakes past, and dug up embarrassing memories to go with the birthday fare, Jennie migrated from the kitchen to the Wii, her second love, to begin a dessert activity: Karaoke. Though her sense of pitch only marginally exceeds her sense of smell (non-existent), Jessy managed to ring home the grand finale of our high school musical, adding the ever necessary regressive behavior, age-defying nerdiness, and immediate embarrassment that was a staple of our high school interactions and have now found a place in our quarter-life kitchens beyond.

From our kitchens, where posts may linger without getting stale, to yours,

Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Recipes**

Fish Tacos
Serves 4

This is Jennie's recipe. However, having eaten our fill of this and other of Jennie's delicious creations, we vouch for it completely.

Ingredients

2 lb. flaky white fish (such as orata, tilapia, mahi mahi)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
3 limes
1 1/2 tbsp. your favorite hot sauce (I like Sriracha)
Almost 1/4 cup of canola or vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Condiments

For the Crema:

1 small container sour cream
1 lime, juiced and zest half
Handful of cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper

1/2 shredded white cabbage

For the Salsa:

4-5 tomatoes, seeded
1 red onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic. minced
1 bell pepper (any color), finely diced (same size as onion)
About 2-3 tbsp. cider vinegar
Regular and a good extra virgin olive oil to taste
1/2 jalapeno (with or without seeds depending on how spicy you want it)
2 large handfuls cilantro
Favorite hot sauce to taste
Pinch of sugar

Make the crema and the salsa at least a few hours before you eat so all of the flavors can become happy together. To make the crema, mix all of the ingredients and cover and refrigerate.

To seed the tomatoes for the salsa simply cut the tomato in half and squeeze out the juice and seeds. The juice tends to be a bit acidic and the seeds are bitter (doesn't make a yummy salsa). The amount of sugar you need varies because it depends on how ripe and sweet your tomatoes are. If it's tomato season I would say that you do not need any sugar. But if they're beefsteak tomatoes from your super market, you definitely need sugar.

Marinade the fish in garlic, lime juice, hot sauce, oil, and salt and pepper for about 30 minutes before you start cooking. While it's marinating heat up your grill. If you don't have a grill (indoor or outdoor) you can broil the fish or pan sear.

While the fish is marinating shred your cabbage and set aside. Now all of your condiments are done and ready to go. All you need to do is cook the fish.

If you have a grill pan, make sure it is extremely hot before cooking fish. Even though the marinade has salt and pepper in it, once the fish is on the pan I would season again. Cook on one side for about 3 minutes and flip and cook for another 3 minutes. Make sure you've got good grill marks (flavor). When you turn the fish the first time, baste it with left over marinade.
Once fish is cooked and has cooled down slightly, flak the fish with your fingers or a fork.

Heat up tortillas in oven or microwave and eat!

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