Potluck Parties: Mag Club January

EVENT: Mag Club January

VENUE: Michelle's Apartment, West Village
PARTY SIZE: 8 in the room, 1 via skype
TYPE: Semi-Virtual Potluck

MENU: Lentil Chili (Cara); Cous Cous Salad (Phoebe); Jor's Specialty Beans; Salad with Quinoa, Roasted Chickpeas, Pine Nuts, and Parm (Leora); Veggies (Calia); Zucchini Casserole (Sarah); Green Vegetable Quiche (Michelle); Keste Pizza (Julie); Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies (Kate)

It's been a while since we've written about Mag Club. December's edition was canceled because of holiday party season, and we decided that the celebration at Kate's parents' apartment would take the place of our potluck. November's club we documented in separate posts--I made this soba noodle salad, and Phoebe made these to-die-for sundried tomato paninis. (By the way, you don't want to know how long it took us to remember what we'd made sooo many months ago.)

So, it was with much glee and a videochat date (Alana, one of our members, moved to Portland, Oregon in the interim), that we came together at Michelle's. We fought for a minute over who would get to sit in the awesome chair Michelle had designed and built last summer in Copenhagen, but then we settled down to gossip, food, and online magazine articles. As our potlucks seems always to have an unplanned theme, this meeting will go down in history as the Mag Club of the bean. It had to do, in part, with Calia's contagious enthusiasm for beans, which she's only made part of her diet since Alana's lentil salad contribution over the summer. But it was pure coincidence that I brought lentil chili made from the contents of my pantry, while Jordana made the simple bean dish she used to eat most nights when she studied abroad in Florence her sophomore year in college. And though Leora has a reputation for overloading her salads with ingredients, we had no way of predicting that one of those many toppings would be roasted chickpeas.

The icing on the cake, by the way, was Kate's banana chocolate chip cookies. Even after sevaral slices of pizza, lots of beans, and a heaping helping of Sarah and Michelle's casserole/quiches respectively, I found room in my stomach for four whole cookies. Oops.

From my kitchen, filled with lentils, white beans, and chickpeas, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Lentil Chili

Makes about 5 cups

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 jalepenos, cut into slivers (I removed the seeds from one but left the others in)
1 small carrot, diced
4 oz white mushrooms, cut in half and then sliced
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup black lentils
1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup bulgur wheat

avocado, cheddar, and/or sour cream for serving

Saute the onions in the olive oil for a minute or two over medium heat. Add the garlic, jalepenos, carrot, and mushrooms, and cook until all the vegetables are soft. Add the spices and the salt, stirring to toast for about a minute. Throw in both kinds of lentils, then pour in water (or vegetable broth) to cover, about 2-3 cups. Bring to a boil.

Lower the heat and let the chili simmer for 20 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes, the quinoa, and another cup or so of water if necessary bring to a boil, then cover and simmer again for 10-15 minutes. At this point, the lentils should be more or less soft.
Add the bulgur and a little more water if the chili seems dry, cover once more, and cook for about 10 more minutes. Let the chili rest for a few minutes on the stove, then taste it for salt and spice.

Jor's Specialty Beans

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 can of white cannellini beans
1 can of corn
about 10 - 15 chopped cherry tomatoes
5 - 6 chopped cloves of fresh garlic
a little bit of olive oil

OK, so pretty much, in a sauce pan - put some olive oil - then add the garlic until golden brown
once garlic is golden brown add the beans - make sure to drain the liquid (from both the beans and corn before adding to the pan).

Watch and smile as the beans start to sizzle and then add the corn.

Toss around the garlic, beans, corn in the saucepan until crispy - then add the tomatoes.

That's pretty much it - you might also want to add some salt, or if you're feeling very adventurous, you could smash the beans and corn - that tastes yummy too!

Then EAT and enjoy!

Zucchini Casserole

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup bisquick
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup fresh dill

1/2 cup fresh parsley

8 ounces white mushrooms (optional)

2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2)

2 cups sliced summer squash (about 2)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cut half of the Parm into small chunks. Grate the remaining half. Set both aside.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add the bisquick, the olive oil, and the onion.

Put the mushrooms--if you're using them--in the food processor with the dill and the parsley. Process until finely diced.

Add the diced dill, parsley, and mushrooms to the mixing bowl with the chunks of parmesan. Stir in the zucchini.

Transfer all to GREASED Pyrex baking dish and top with the grated Parmesan. Bake for one hour, until browned.

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Recipe Flash: Oatmeal Cookies

WINTER MENU: Merguez Sausage with French Lentils; Stewed Greens and White Beans

Day 2 of the BGSK book-writing retreat, Phoebe and I had yet to indulge in dessert, and we started to jones for some sugar. Our grand, efficient, and economical supermarket sweep made no allowance for extras like chocolate and ice cream. And my mom's house contained little more than a freezer-burned piece of dark chocolate. It was Phoebe who, after our first of two carbonara meals, asked: is there anything sweet? The next afternoon, following our beans, greens, and toast lunch, I quickly obliged her, using a frozen half stick of salted butter--not even the butter in the house was sweet!--to make satisfying oatmeal cranberry cookies.

When you're making cookies for two, you can forsake all the electric tools. There's just so little dough, it's really not necessary. The biggest pain, though, when making cookies with less than a stick of butter is that you need less than a whole egg. If it seems absurd to you to split eggs, you can quadruple the recipe below. But if you, like us, prefer to make sure that your cookie jar is always half empty (and not from eating), make this small-yield recipe. Of course if you're eating as much carbonara as we were that week, you can also throw the remaining egg into the next day's sauce. I've been making half batches for a long time, and I always seem to find a use for leftover egg.

You'll also note that there's no cinnamon in this recipe. We were out at my mom's house, but I truthfully think there's something kind of modern and refreshing about cinnamon-less oatmeal cookies.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies For 2

Makes 12 cookies

You can substitute unsalted butter and a pinch of salt for the salted butter.

Ingredients

1/2 stick salted butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 egg
1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment.

Mix the softened butter with the sugar with a wooden spoon. You want it all very well combined, but don't worry if it doesn't exactly "cream." Add in the partial egg and stir to combine. Sprinkle the flour and the baking soda over the butter mixture and fold a few times. Add the oatmeal and the cranberries, and stir just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Form evenly into twelve balls. Bake for 6-8 minutes until the cookies are spread and just firm. Leave them on the cookie sheet for about 15 minutes, then remove to a plate.

Other great additions to oatmeal cookies:

chocolate chips

1/4 cup of raisins & 1/4 cup of chopped pecans

1/4 cup dried cherries & 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots & 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystalized ginger

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Big Girls, Test Kitchen: All-Day Breakfast Quesadillas

DISH: Breakfast Quesadillas with Cilantro Chimichuri and Chipotle Crema; Scrambled Egg Quesadillas with Caramelized Onion and Mushrooms
TYPE: Weekend-ish one-on-one brunch
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Egg, Tortilla, Cheese
OTHER BGSK QUESADILLAS: Cilantro Succotash; Curried Sweet Potato; Roasted Butternut Squash and Leek; Spinach Pie

Leftover tortillas present a huge issue for me. Even though they can last weeks without going stale, I seem destined to eat, in record time, any that grace the shelves of my fridge. This is partly due to the cheese and egg that sit on the shelf nearby, and when I'm in possession of tortillas the thought of late-night egg and cheese quesadillas is constantly on my mind. And yes, I mean quesadillas, plural.

It doesn't matter how much I've eaten for dinner, or how much I've had to drink afterward. With the promise of those tortillas in the fridge, I come home on weekends at 1, 2, or 3 in the morning, fry up some eggs, stuff them inside the crisped shell, and wait for the cheese to envelop the egg and seal the whole perfect package together. After nights like these, I find myself on the couch in the morning beside an empty plate covered in greasy fingerprints. In the trash: the empty plastic tortilla packaging.

I've cooked fancier versions of these bad boys for company, especially ones cut into smaller triangles for cocktail parties, but it's the eggy ones I make for myself that are ultimately the most satisfying. But, since I clearly cannot control myself around them, when I recently came into a package of tortillas I was determined to use them up in a civilized way, with egg, cheese--and someone else on the other side of the table.

To use up the first few rounds, I lured Essie down to my apartment from the Upper West Side for quesadillas made fancy with chimichurri and chipotle crema. It was a Friday afternoon, but since we both don't have 9-to-5 day jobs, it might as well have been the weekend. We devoured our quesadillas while catching up on the latest in boyfriends, friends, and potential 9-to-5 jobs.

On Saturday, Will, the object of the above boyfriend conversation woke me begging for a breakfast quesadilla. I wasn't in the mood for food yet, since my stomach was still a bit full from the previous night's steak dinner, and my head hurt a little from the wine. His craving might have come from the Cilantro Succotash Quesadillas we'd recently posted on the blog--a dish made for the first time months before Will was in the picture. But it also might have come from me bragging about the feast I'd made Essie the day before, which I'd told him about via email while he was eating mediocre pizza at the office. Mainly, the factor that motivated me to get out of bed was knowing that if I didn't get rid of the two remaining tortillas in my fridge right then and there, Will might not be there later that night to stop me from eating both of them by myself. So I got up, tossed together some eggs with the leftover mushrooms from the night before, and got to work caramelizing onions.

When we finished eating, I was ready to go back to sleep on the couch, though contrary to my former quesadilla behavior it was 2pm, not 2am. Fortunately, as I mentally prepared to get up, Will came over and collected my greasy plate, took it to the sink, and did the dishes.

Unfortunately, I have been craving quesadillas ever since.

From my kitchen, where cheese and tortillas are my bread and butter, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Breakfast Quesadillas with Cilantro Chimichurri and Chipotle Crema
Makes 2 servings

Traditional chimichurri uses parsley and is thinned with a combination of oil and water. For a tortilla-friendly version, I’ve recommended that you only puree until it reaches a paste, not a creamy condiment. To use for other purposes (or to drizzle on top of the finished quesadilla), continue adding oil and/or water until the mixture thins.

Ingredients
3 eggs
¼ tsp salt
pinch cayenne
2 8-inch tortillas
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

For the chimichurri:

1 cup cilantro leaves
1 small garlic clove
½ lime, juiced
1 tsp white wine vinegar
olive oil
salt

For the crema:

3 tbsp sour cream
1 small canend chipotle chili, minced
½ tsp adobo sauce from the can
pinch of salt
hit of lime juice

Combine the ingredients for the crema in a small bowl, set aside. This can be done days in advance.

In a mini food processor, pulse the cilantro, garlic, lime juice, and vinegar until roughly chopped. Add the olive oil in a steam until the mixture becomes a finely chopped paste (probably a little less than ¼ cup), but not too thin. Taste for seasoning and add salt accordingly. This can be stored in the fridge for a day or so.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the salt and cayenne.

On a cutting board arrange the tortillas side by side. Slather the chimichurri on each round, just enough to cover them with herbs but not make them soggy (you may have leftovers). Divide a 1/2 cup of cheese between the two tortillas.

In a small non-stick sauté pan, scramble the eggs over low heat until just coming together (they should still be rather wet). Spread the eggs between the two tortillas, cover with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese, and fold them in half, pressing down so they are glued together.

Clean out the pan and return it to the stove over high heat. Get the pan hot, then toast the tortillas (one at a time depending on the size of your pan) on both sides, until dark and crispy with cheese oozing out the sides.

Serve immediately with a generous dollop of chipotle crema and some extra cilantro leaves for garnish.

Scrambled Egg Quesadillas with Caramelized Onion and Mushrooms
Makes 2 servings

This quesadilla is basically a pared-down version of the breakfast quesadilla above. You can use whatever veggie leftovers you have on hand. I always have an onion lying around, and it is easy enough to caramelize it while arranging the other ingredients.

Ingredients
½ onion, caramelized (see here for technique)
1 cup chopped cremini or white button mushrooms
1 garlic clove, minced
pinch cumin
pinch chili powder
pinch cayenne
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, chopped
2 8-inch tortillas
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

In a small non-stick sauté pan, caramelize the onions over medium-low heat in a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir occasionally until the onions are fully browned and soft, about 15 to 20 minutes (more if you are using a whole onion). Set aside.

Add the mushroom to the pan with a little additional oil and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add the onions back to the pan, add the spices, and season with salt and pepper. Cook for two more minutes, allowing the flavors to combine.

In the meantime, arrange the tortillas side-by-side on a cutting board. Divide half the cheese between the two rounds.

Add the eggs to the pan and toss until just combined—they should be very moist.

Spread the egg-onion mixture over the two tortillas in one layer. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and fold in half, pressing down so the sides adhere.

Clean out the pan and return it to the stove over high heat. Toast the tortillas (one at a time depending on the size of your pan) on both sides, until dark and crispy with cheese oozing out the sides.

Serve immediately, with whatever condiments (hot sauce, sour cream) you enjoy.

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Cooking For Others: Jill's Dinner Party

EVENT: A Semi-Grown-up Dinner Party
VENUE: Jill's Apartment, Gramercy
PARTY SIZE: 7
TYPE: Formal-ish Weeknight Sit-Down Dinner
MENU: Olives; Open-Faced Spinach Pie Bites; Dried Fruit Salad with Cara-Cara Orange Vinaigrette; Savory Beef Stew; Orzo with Parsley Butter; Crusty Bread; Lemon Tart with Cream

Jill's been trying to move out of her current apartment, and though she doesn't yet have an expiration date on the place, she decided that, unsure of how long she'd be there, she should mark her someday-soon departure with a dinner party of close friends. Though the apartment is a studio, the bed is hidden, unlike in mine, and it's a really nice place to entertain. When you walk in, you immediately see the glass dining room table, which easily seats six, and then to your left the redone kitchen, whose tiny appliances make the counter space seem large to someone like me.

Jill, who very much likes to menu plan, spent a long time going over ideas with me. Every time we'd decide on something, it would get swept away by some new idea. The most notable almost-menu was braised short ribs over polenta, which I'd chosen, only to find out, by frantic text message from Jill, that one of the guests had served just that at her wedding, two weeks before.

In all, the party was meant to be one step more refined than what we normally do: you know, two sets of plates, platters appropriate to the size of the dish, actual wine glasses, a centerpiece. Jill and her friends are two or three years older than me, and though at dinner the talk was reliably girly, they are at a slightly different life stage than us. Many are married and engaged, living with boyfriends, at more advanced stages of their careers or educations, owners of apartments. I was trying to pick a menu that would go with all this, but at the same time I didn't want it to be in a different league altogether than what I'd make for my own party. Maybe just more chairs involved and fewer paper plates.

Besides the panicked short rib message, the best of the copious texting re: dinner party was initiated by me. I had just picked out my meat at Whole Foods, and I was standing in the condiments aisle wondering if I'd bought too much beef. I overheard another shopper pick up a bottle of balsamic vinegar and say something like "That costs a lot of money." So I wrote:

Cara: I'm getting lots of money

Cara: I mean beef
jill:What
jill:Haha
Cara: Typo
Cara: Oops
Cara: Anyway, better a little too much, right?
jill:Yup
jill:Def
jill:My high school friends are eaters!
jill: They don't say just a little
jill:Like me ;)
Cara: Hahaha
jill: Also I'm sorry you aren't getting lots of money
jill:And really just beef

The beef stew, which I made in abundance a day ahead, was bursting with flavor, and the high school "eater" friends ate plenty of it. The open-faced spinach pies were flakey and fragrant.

Jenny, a BGSK reader through and through, poses with an open-faced spinach pie

The lemon tart was the only near disaster, the lemon curd not quite filling the tart shell. But Jill and I spread a layer of whipped cream over the top, and the resulting pie was brilliant, the cream cutting through the tartness of the citrus. My personal favorite from the evening happened to be the salad, and I've made it several times since then. There's something simultaneously homey and celebratory about the confetti-ed dried fruit and nuts that sprinkle the lettuce, and the sweet vinaigrette that ties everything together.

From my kitchen, where I buy lots of beef with lots of (Jill's) money, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Open-Faced Spinach Pie Bites

Makes 30, serves 15 as an appetizer

Ingredients
2 sheets puff pastry dough
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion
2 small shallots
4 cloves garlic, in shards
pinch red pepper flakes, oregano, thyme
salt
3 oz fresh spinach
half bunch swiss chard
1 tablespoon Greek yogurt (2% or whole)
1 egg white
1/3 cup grated gruyere
2 tablespoons grated parm

Cut the dough into 2-inch rounds.

Saute the onion, shallot, garlic in olive oil over very low heat until soft. Add the spices and a large pinch of salt. Add the spinach and chard, stir to mix, then cover to wilt for a few minutes. Uncover, stir again, tasting the greens for salt and texture. Let cool completely.

When ready to make, preheat the oven to 400°F. Stir in the yogurt, egg white, and gruyere. Place the rounds on a baking sheet. Arrange about a tablespoon of spinach mixture in the center of each. Top with parm. Bake for about 10 minutes, turning on the broiler at the very end if the cheese on top hasn’t browned. Cool for a minute or two before serving.

Dried Fruit Salad with Cara-Cara Orange Vinaigrette

Serves 7-8

I was inspired to make this salad by the creative and beautiful cookbook called How To Roast a Lamb, written by Michael Psalkis who owns Anthos and Kefi, restaurants in New York. Though I didn't follow his recipe in the end, what I found inspiring was the quantity of dried fruit he adds to his salad. In the past, I'd add one kind--raisins or apricots--but for this salad I put in the dried fruit contents of both Jill's and my pantries. You, too, can add the dried fruits you own and/or prefer. If you can't find Cara Cara Oranges (I have an affinity for them), substitute regular juice oranges.

Ingredients

For the salad:

2 heads fresh green or red lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into large bite-sized pieces

1/3 cup pecans, toasted

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

about 12 plump dried apricots, cut into slivers

1/4 cup raisins

1/3 cup dried cherries

1/4 cup pickled shallots (from 1 medium shallot)

For the Cara Cara Vinaigrette:

1 shallot, coarsely chopped

1 large clove garlic, coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons mustard

1/3 cup freshly squeezed juice from a Cara Cara Orange

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup canola coil

salt and pepper

Layer the lettuce and the dried fruit in a large salad bowl, tossing to combine.

To make the dressing: put the shallot, garlic, and a pinch of salt in a mini food processor and process to turn into a paste. Add the mustard, vinegar, juice, and honey, and process until smooth. If you have an opening in the top, add the oils slowly though it. If not, add tablespoons of oil in between pulsing. Taste the dressing and add any more salt if needed. You can also add a bit more honey if you like.

Dress the salad, tossing with your hands to distribute the dressing evenly. Top with the pickled shallots and serve.

Savory Beef Stew

The beef stew was a variation on my new favorite recipe. I added some extra veggies, namely mushrooms and leeks, put in two anchovies with the tomato paste, and used red wine vinegar in addition to red wine. You'll need about 4 lbs of stewing beef to feed 7 women, and I basically quardrupled the recipe I've linked to.

Lemon Tart with Cream

Makes 1 tart, serves 8

Adapted from Alice Medrich, Pure Dessert. I modified this recipe in two ways, one intentional, one not so. I added brown sugar to the crust to give it some extra umph because I think the slight caramel flavor works well with the lemon. As for the unintentional modification: when I went to fill the tart at Jill's, I found the lemon filling didn't spread all the way around. I topped it with the cream to repair the tart's looks, and then it turned out we liked it better that way--it gave much needed sweetness to the puckery lemon curd.

Ingredients

For the crust:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoons salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

For the filling and cream:

Grated zest of half a washed lemon

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the crust ingredients and stir to distribute evenly. Press into a 9 1/2" fluted tart pan. Make sure to distribute evenly, especially along the sides.

Bake for 20 minutes until firm and a deep golden brown. Set aside.

To make the filling, combine the lemon zest, juice, sugar, and butter in a small sturdy saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Meanwhile, beat the egg and egg yolk in a small heatproof bowl. Carefully ladle a little of the hot mixture over the eggs, stirring constantly. Then scrape it all back into the saucepan and stir constantly until the curd has thickened.

Pour the curd into the crust then return the tart to the oven for about 5 minutes. Remove, cool to room temperature, then spread the cream evenly across. Serve small wedges.

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Baking For Others: Cupid Is a Sweet-Toothed Democrat

EVENT: Cupid Is A Democrat, Think Blue's Valentine's Day Party

TYPE: Gift Bag Delicacy

GOODIE: Butterscotch Cookies with Toasted Pecans, aka Yes, Pecan! Cookies

ThinkBlue, a fund- and awareness-raising organization for young democrats, throws good parties. There was the rowdy one last Election Day and the celebratory one last Inauguration Day. Then, with midterm elections two years off and the organization's leader gone off to Washington, we had to wait until now for the next fete. And, where before we were guests, at today's event, we're guests AND gift bag contributors.

Shamelessly, we ripped off Ben & Jerry's name for our cookies--though the flavor combo is our very own. (Runners-up were "Al Gore's Compost Cookie" and Elephant Animal Crackers.) If you attended the event, see below to recreate what you just tasted. Otherwise, you'll have to take our word for their yumminess until you make these babies yourself.

From our kitchen, where Cupid is a sweet-toothed Democrat, to yours,

Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Giveaway**

In honor of the big old day of love, we had a heart-shaped pan giveaway, and asked you to tell us what your ideal Valentine's Day Meal would be--that is, what you'd most like to have cooked for you. We had such fun reading all of your responses, and you can be sure that many of your ideas won't go untested in the weeks to come. Lucky Leaf was generous enough to offer not 5, but 10 pans for our commenters. The randomly selected winners are:

Lisa
Mer
Frooz
Colleen
Maddy
Kaitlyn
Annika
Diana
Courtney
Stephanie

If your name is listed, please get in touch with us at biggirlssmallkitchen [at] gmail [dot] com and let us know the best address to send your pan to!!

For those of you not selected, please come back again--there will be plenty more giveaways on the horizon!

**Recipe**

Yes, Pecan! Cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

If you can't find butterscotch extract, add 1/2 cup butterscotch chips. If you do this, reduce the chopped pecans from 1 1/4 to 1 cup.

Ingredients

2 cups (8 oz) raw pecans

2 sticks butter

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon butterscotch extract

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

2 cups + 3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

rounded 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread the pecan halves on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, checking every minute or so after 5 minutes have passed. You want the nuts to be fragrant and sweet but not burnt. Set aside to cool. You can do this step in advance.

Put 3/4 cup pecans into a food processor. Pulse on and off until the pecans are just ground--you don't want to turn them into a paste. On a cutting board, chop the remaining nuts into small pieces. Put the nuts in a small bowl and add the flour, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir to combine and set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy. Add the egg, beat until combined and even fluffier, then mix in the extracts and espresso powder.

Pour the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and mix just until all the flour is incorporated.

Mix together the additional sugar and salt on a shallow plate. Form the dough into balls the size of a 3-D silver dollar. Coat them with the sugar and salt by rolling them through it. Place the balls on a baking sheet a few inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the bottoms are golden and the tops are just barely firm. Remove and let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before gently removing to racks or plates to cool completely.

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Recipe Flash: Couscous Salad

VEGAN DINNER MENU: Chickpea Burgers; Cumin-Roasted Cauliflower; Carrot Raisin Cookies

A few weeks ago, I escaped the city with a few friends for a weekend of skiing in Vermont. Thursday night, I made this Moroccan Chicken Stew, and to it, in addition to the golden raisins that were already part of the recipe, I added toasted slivered almonds. Since both ingredients were to be added towards the end of the cooking process, I decided to keep them separate for the trip, housed inside little plastic bags. On Saturday night, when it came time to reheat the stew and throw together a couscous, I realized I had packed too many of these add-ins, and decided to toss them in with the couscous after it finished fluffing. The combination made for a very flavorful, texturally satisfying couscous, one that almost didn't need the stew topping at all.

That Monday night, still sore from skiing, I realized almost too late that we had Mag Club. Remembering the couscous from the weekend, I tore through my pantry, threw the grains into a pot of boiling water, toasted up some almonds, garnished with a little leftover cilantro, and jetted to the party. For the first time ever, I was early to Mag Club. And I pretended the couscous was what I had envisioned making all along.

Aside from the fresh cilantro, this salad can be made almost entirely from your pantry, and in less than 15 minutes time, which makes it the perfect dish for any last minute potluck goers.

From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Lemon Couscous Salad With Cilantro, Raisins, & Almonds
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
10oz whole wheat couscous (or plain)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 tbsp shallot, minced
1/4 cup carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced

In a small stock pot or Dutch oven, combine the stock, olive oil, salt, cumin, tumeric, and cayenne. Bring the mixture just barely to a boil, stir in the couscous, cover, and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff up the grains with a fork. Cover and let stand for another few minutes while you prepare the mix-ins.

In the meantime, place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes so the raisins get rehydrated and plump.

In a small non-stick pan, toast the almonds over medium heat. Keep an eye on these so they don't burn--this will only take 3 minutes or so.

In a medium salad bowl, toss the couscous with the remaining ingredients. Drain the raisins and add them to the bowl, along with the toasted nuts. Taste for seasoning and serve.



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Cooking For One: Rice Bowl with Peanut Sauce

DISH: Rice Bowl with Peanut Sauce
TYPE: Day-Before-Vacation Lunch

MAIN INGREDIENTS: Rice, Coconut Milk, Peanut Butter

Though this lunch isn't anything that out of the ordinary, I like it because it was made out of truly the barest fridge I've ever laid eyes on. It made me glad for the miscellany of my possessions that I normally curse myself for, all those jars and bottles that clutter my life and that, more often than not, have approximately one teaspoon remaining of their original contents. It made me glad that I hadn't thrown away the last 1/3 cup of a can of coconut milk I'd been using in curries and to flavor white rice. It made me remember why I own things like fish sauce, even though it sometimes tips out of my pantry and spills on my hand, and why I keep a large bag of roasted peanuts (leftover from who knows what meal) stashed on a shelf in my freezer.

I was going away for a long weekend. It was freezing out, of course, and I didn't want to go outside, nor did I really want to purchase new food, since I'd be leaving. Turning, as I often do, to the contents of my fridge, I set out to make lunch.

I saw the remaining bit of coconut milk I had used for making some coconut pancakes. I had transferred the last half cup to my smallest Tupperware--the thought of tossing it seemed to bewilder and depress me, and I immediately knew I'd add it to my lunch. I also had some rice from takeout earlier in the week, and my peanut butter jar was just about half full. Where some might have seen garbage, I guess I saw promise.

I sautéed garlic and a sad, old piece of ginger. I added the coconut milk, peanut butter, chili garlic pastas, lime, fish sauce, sriracha, and soy sauce. I let this all boil and reduce as I defrosted frozen spinach, julienned my last carrot, and chopped up a few roasted peanuts I’d been keeping in my freezer. Finally, I pulled out some rice leftover from takeout and arranged the vegetables on top. I poured the warm peanut sauce and sprinkled the peanuts. Dousing it all with a final squeeze of lime, I sat down to my rice bowl lunch, a meal salvaged from the sad remnants of my fridge. I was satisfied like a depression-era penny pincher. I had made something worthwhile from the scraps at the bottom of the can.

From my kitchen, where I'm making the most of my peanut butter, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Peanut Rice Bowl for One

Serves 1

Ingredients
¾ cup cooked rice
½ cup spinach
1 carrot, julienned
1 hardboiled egg or other protein source (optional)

about 1/4 cup coconut-peanut sauce (recipe follows)
srircha
lime
peanuts
scallions

Warm the rice if it's leftover. Arrange it in a bowl and top with the spinach, carrot, and any other proteins or veggies you’d like to eat. Spoon the sauce over your rice bowl and sprinkle with a teaspoon or two of peanuts. Garnish with more srircha, lime, and scallions if you have them.

Peanut Sauce
Makes about 1/2 cup

Ingredients
½ teaspoon oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons ginger, minced
½ teaspoon chili-garlic paste
1 cup low-fat coconut milk
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter, preferably unsweetened
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
juice of half a lime

Warm the oil in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Sautee the garlic and ginger until golden, 3 minutes. Add the chili-garlic paste, distributing it well, then add the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, raising the heat slightly. Add in the peanut butter; you may need to use a fork to break it up and help dissolve it into the coconut milk, then add the sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and fish sauce. Simmer for about 5 minutes to let the flavors meld. Squeeze in the lime, then taste and add salt or more soy sauce, fish sauce, lime, sriracha, or sugar to taste.

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Cooking For Others: A Perfect Pairing

Larner Vineyard Syrah grapes ready to harvest (Phoebe's ready to work).

EVENT: Celebrating Santa Barbara Syrah
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: A Pair
TYPE: Cozy (Romantic) Dinner
MENU: Broiled Flank Steak with Sautéed Wild Mushrooms and Chive-Parsley Butter; Balsamic Roasted Cipollini Onions
WINE: Jaffurs 2007 Larner Vineyard Syrah

Back in October, I paid a visit to the other coast, spending a leisurely week in LA. After a few days, despite the incredible respite of my accommodations, the smog, the Uggs, and the botox, started to get to me. So I decided to leave L.A. and venture up to Santa Barbara to visit an old, and very missed friend.

Joanie and I got to know each other over countless plates of panini while studying abroad in Rome, and I knew she would be the perfect person to show me the food and drink of the town (emphasis on the latter). As soon as I arrived, she whisked me off to Santa Barbara Winery, where she is the director of marketing and national sales (basically, a pretty big deal). As we walked around the stainless steel vats, she taught me most of what I know today about the wine process, and let me taste the Chardonnay in its various stages. She pointed out how the young wine was sweet and aerated and how the finished bottle had developed bright, balanced, and fruity notes. When we finished, it was only 11am.

Now that I had been briefly educated and integrated into SB culture (wine for breakfast), Joanie took me to get my hands dirty at Jaffurs Wine Cellars, where we were going to harvest syrah grapes from Larner Vineyard for their 2009 vintage. I was excited to get started. But before we did, the plastic table from the tasting room was carried outside, and we sat down with the Jaffurs family to eat turkey club sandwiches and wash them down with more bottles of wine.

Manning the "push down," like Lucy, but more civilized

By the time my assembly line duties called, I was ready to curl up on top of the mounds of grapes and take a mid-afternoon Dionysian nap. Instead, Joanie handed me a beer (beer?) and told me to take my place on the conveyor belt to begin sorting. Maybe I was a factory worker in another life, but I really loved this task. It was like a computer game—picking through healthy grapes as they came pouring down the shoot, throwing twigs, leaves, and bugs to the wayside. When I explained my joy to Matt, he told me this was nothing. Apparently, I might not have dug the sorting process so much on a day that featured a more harrowing batch of grapes, one containing branches, snakes, and way bigger bugs.

sorting...Carl Jaffurs looking on approvingly

It was an incredibly satisfying day of manual labor, among even more satisfying company. Everyone I met infected me with their passion for wine, teaching me the different nuances of its creation and making me enjoy glasses of it from 10am til dinnertime. Joanie and I were lucky to each receive a bottle of the 2007 vintage in return for our services, and we cracked hers open at dinner (after a pit stop at another tasting).

I certainly don’t pretend to be any sort of authority on pairings, or wine in general. So I trusted Joanie’s judgment when it came to the menu at Le Petit Valentine, where we ate. She ordered us creamy mushroom bruschetta to start, then a juicy beef fillet on top of rich mashed potatoes to follow. I didn’t want to stray far from her original pairing when it finally came time for me to enjoy my bottle of Jaffurs Syrah back East in the comfort of my own kitchen. I did still change around a few components, letting the mushrooms become a bed for my flank steak and adding a little Syrah to the marinade and the sauce. The end result was delicious alongside the wine, but more importantly, the meal was nearly as romantic as the original dinner with my dear friend Joanie, who later tucked me under the covers in her bed, as there was no way I was driving back to LA until morning.

steak, matched with wine

Speaking of romance, men seem to like steak sort of a lot. And the one in my life seemed to enjoy this particular steak dinner--albeit on a night less assuming than Valentine’s Day--quite a bit. Should you be part of a perfect human pairing, you might make this perfect dinner tomorrow for your better half. A home cooked meal is surely a more original gift than a dozen roses, and definitely less awkward than a chocolate bas-relief of your lover’s face.

Enjoy it with a bottle of full-bodied Syrah, though you might want to leave it to your local wine shop to help you find the perfect pairing.

From my kitchen, where I play matchmaker, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipe**

Broiled Flank Steak with Sautéed Wild Mushrooms and Chive-Parley Butter
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients

For the marinade:

3 tbsp red wine
2 tbsp lemon juice (half a lemon)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

1lb flank steak
1 tbsp chive-parsley butter

For the mushrooms:

2 shallots, sliced
1lb mushrooms (cremini and portabello), roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup syrah, or other full bodied red wine
Reserved marinade (see above for recipe)
2 tbsp herb butter (see below for recipes), or use regular
¼ cup chopped parsley

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a large Ziploc bag and shake around so they are well mixed. Add the steak and fully cover and submerge in the marinade. Lay flat and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 1 day.

Preheat the broiler, and place the oven rack as close to the heat as possible.

In large skillet, sauté the shallots in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove the steak from the marinade (reserve this for later) and pat it dry with paper towels. Season well with salt on both sides. Place the steak on a sheet pan or in an oven-proof skillet, and broil in the oven, 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Remove to a cutting board and top with a pat of the chive-parsley butter. Cover the steak with foil (tent it over the top) and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.

In the meantime, add the wine, reserved marinade, and butter to the mushroom mixture and continue to cook over medium heat. Taste for seasoning. When ready to serve, stir in the chopped parsley.

When rested, slice the steak against the grain. Arrange the slices over a spoonful of mushrooms, and slather a piece of toasted country white bread with the remaining chive-parsley butter. Serve with a class of full-bodied Syrah.

Chive-Parsley Butter

Ingredients
4 tbsp room temperature butter (1/2 stick)
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
pinch salt

In a small bowl, cream the butter along with the herbs. Add a pinch of salt, and taste for seasoning. For a firmer texture, refrigerate.


Balsamic Roasted Cipollini Onions
Makes 2-4 servings

Ingredients
1lb cipollini onions, skins removed*
½ tsp dried thyme (1 tsp fresh)
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

*NOTE: Blanching the onions makes the skins come off much easier on these little guys. I just boiled some water in my kettle and poured it over the onions in my ceramic mixing bowl and took them out a few minutes later when they were cool enough to touch.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the thyme, sugar, salt, oil, and vinegar. Add the onions and toss to combine. In a medium baking dish or Dutch oven, arrange the onions in one layer. Cover with foil or a lid and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Uncover and roast for an additional 20 minutes, until the onions are caramelized and fully tender.

Serve alongside steak, or any other delicious meat.

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Working With What You Have: Cooking Together

DISH: Egg Pasta with Shrimp, Saffron, and Peas
TYPE: Cozy Dinner For 2
MAIN INGREDIENTS: Shrimp, Noodles

Alex and I don’t eat dinner together that much because of busy schedules and whatnot, but we have gotten into a nice rhythm when we do. Though I most often do the cooking, he takes part in the meal planning and ingredient acquisition. Sometimes, as I mentioned in my post on Chana Bateta, he’ll actually give me a food related gift: a new set of spices, in that case, or some good quality olive oil, in others, but in the end he's not a guest, obligated to bring a bottle of wine. Our dinners are shared events. Alex does actually cook, for himself many nights--or for me, most recently, a wonderful Greek roast chicken with potatoes. In the end, cooking together is prevented by the fact that that my kitchen is literally big enough only for one.

Sometimes, when we'll be eating together and I’m unsure of what I’m craving, I look to Alex for the inspiration that my fridge and pantry doesn't seem to be giving me. I'll give him a rundown of ingredients on g-chat, and then he'll offer up a suggestion. Fortunately, what he wants often satisfies me too; that he likes potatoes, beans, quinoa, and other simple preparations makes it easy to cook for him without going out to shop. Though he's perhaps less meat-centric than many men, he can be just as veggie averse.

For example, once when I’d made an enormous pot of borrachos from Last Night’s Dinner’s recipe on Food52 (see above), I carried two servings of it over to his apartment in tupperware. Then we made the accompanying cornbread out of his pantry’s ingredients—only I brought the egg, as he had run out. We had warm cornbread and warmed borrachos, and it was delicious, very much a joint effort. What’s more, two people can fit in his kitchen, so while I measured and mixed, he poured the beans into a pot with some extra water and heated them through.

One Friday night, Alex had a long day of work. I’d had a long day of writing and mozzeralla sandwich eating, and I had no clue what I wanted to eat, nor was I all that hungry. He called from Grand Central before he got on the train to give me the items in his fridge: spinach, about to go bad, he reported, and frozen shrimp. Excellent.

I took stock of my own kitchen. I had 5 egg yolks sitting in the fridge from making several batches of brutti ma buoni earlier in the week, and so while he was on the subway, I made fresh pasta, figuring shrimp and spinach couldn't not go with it. When he arrived, I noticed immediately that the frozen shrimp he had brought, while of an excellent size, were neither cleaned nor deveined. We stood side by side in my kitchen—the only way you can stand in it—and peeled and cleaned them. In fact, the shells wound up enhancing the dish, since they became part of a saffron-enriched stock that flavored it.

Dinners like this are not quite as eventful as when Alex purposefully tries to make cooking competition-like. To the contrary, they are organic and in a way mundane, a "working with what you have" with two fridges, two stomachs, and two sets of tastebuds.

From my kitchen, where cooking together makes the meal taste better, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Egg Pasta with Saffron, Shrimp, and Peas
Serves 2

You can use pre-shelled, pre-cleaned shrimp. Then, substitute pasta water for the quick shrimp broth (you'll have to make the pasta slightly earlier than otherwise, but it's no big deal, since it reheats in the sauce anyway).

Ingredients
1 pound medium shrimp, shell on
¼ teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
pinch red pepper flakes
¼ cup white wine
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup frozen peas
1 bag fresh baby spinach
juice from 1 lemon
2 teaspoons butter (optional)

1 batch fresh egg pasta, below, or purchased fresh fettucine

Peel the shrimp. Combine the shrimp shells and 1 cup of water in a small stockpot. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for about 10-15 minutes, while you do the other prep work. Strain, discarding the shells, and stir in the saffron until it dissolves. Set aside.

Bring a pot of very salted water to the boil for the pasta.

In a large pan, saute the garlic and shallots over low heat until just golden. Add the red pepper flakes a minute or two in. Add the wine and salt, turning the heat up slightly. Let the wine cook nearly off, then add the shrimp-saffron stock you’ve just made. Bring to a boil, then throw in the peas and the shrimp. Stir to mix everything together, then cook for about 30 seconds. Finally, add the spinach (this will fill up the pot), and toss everything together. Lower the heat and cover the pot for 1-2 minutes until the spinach is wilted and the shrimp is cooked through. Taste for salt and add any more as needed

Make the pasta about when you add the shrimp and peas—fresh pasta only needs a minute or two to cook. Drain, reserving a little bit of water in case the sauce seems dry.

Stir the pasta into the pot of shrimp and vegetables, and toss to distribute all the ingredients. Stir in the butter, if using, then serve immediately in big bowls sprinkled with a few extra red pepper flakes.
Egg Pasta

Serves 4

Using the food processor is a less authentic way than most of making pasta. But it keeps your hands a bit cleaner, and if you give the dough a couple extra minutes to rest, it's just as pliable as dough made by hand.

Ingredients

5 egg yolks

1-4 tablespoons water

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the flour, egg yolks, and 1 tablespoon water in a food processor. Pulse to combine. If the dough comes together into a ball, then just pulse a few more times and remove. If not, add the water slowly until it does. Then scoop the dough together and knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. When it's done, the dough should be smooth and just barely sticky. Wrap in plastic and set aside for an hour.

Cut into four pieces. Roll each until it's thin enough that you can see your hand through a sheet held up to the light. Fold into thirds, then use a sharp knife to cute strips of desired thickness. Unfold each strip and lay out on a cornmeal-covered cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap as you repeat with the remaining three pieces of dough. You can refrigerate leftoevers for a day or two, or freeze for several months.

Cook in lots of boiling salted water for about 2-3 minutes.

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Recipe Flash: Gingerbread Cookies & V-Day Giveaway!

EVENT: Valentine's Day Tins of Treats

TYPE: Sweets for the Sweet

OTHER SWEETS OF LOVE: Brown Sugar Shortbread; Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies; The Best Brownies; Madeleines; Lotus Blondies; Mexican Wedding Cakes; Raspberry Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream; Pound Cake Baked in a Heart-Shaped Pan

We're not totally in love with Valentine's Day. Too many Feb 14ths spent single, and too many spent on lackluster dates (even with people we liked) dictated by crowded restaurants with rip-off prix fixes have made haters out of us. What I thought would be my best Valentine's Day ever came sophomore year of college when I begged my then-boyfriend to buy me the biggest box of chocolate candy from L.A. Burdick. It took me about a month to get through the box, no matter how hard I attacked, and I gained 5 pounds in the process. Sweet.

Still, we're not cynical, and since we love sugar, we love occasions when you get to eat more of it. No matter what you're planning for Sunday, take a couple minutes out of your weekend to mix up a batch of something. If the people in your life like raw cookie dough better than baked, oblige and give them that.

gingersnap dough: one of the best out there

Otherwise, bake your cookies or cakes. Put them in a tin and give to someone you like. Even if that someone is you.

From my kitchen, where sweets are for the sweet, to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

In honor of the big old day of love, we're also giving away five heart-shaped pans, so you can bake cakes in addition to cookies and show how much you really care. We have to thank Lucky Leaf for sponsoring this giveaway--they make pie fillings, and they're also sponsoring a baking contest of their own in which you could win a thousand bucks.

To win, tell us what your ideal Valentine's Day Meal would be--that is, what you'd most like to have cooked for you. (To get you started, Phoebe would pick a cozy seafood stew like a cioppino or a bouillabaisse--something hearty but not too heavy, something that doesn't preclude some serious cuddling afterward. Cara wants Momofuku at home--ginger scallion noodles, pork bo ssam. She also wants to spend the afternoon making dumplings together, then eating them.)

Leave a comment below and let us know how to contact you (in the comments or by email) should you be chosen as a winner.

The 5 lucky bakers will be announced next week!

**Recipe**

Double Ginger Snaps
makes about 40 cookies

This recipe was made for Alex by his oldest friend, Emily, when he was home over Christmas. He duly brought the recipe back for me, which led me to discover how delicious these are.

The decorative sugars--clear, gold, and silver (not pictured)--were given to me for Christmas by my one true Valentine: my mother. They're great fun to use.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg, plus 1 egg white
3/4 cup (4.5 ounces) crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 cup coarse sugar

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Mix together the oil, brown sugar, and molasses in a large bowl. Add the egg and beat to combine. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet, then fold in until just absorbed. Stir in the crystallized ginger.

Put the egg white in a bowl. Spread the coarse sugar on a plate. Roll 1-inch balls of the dough, lightly brush them with egg white, then roll them in the sugar. Put the balls on the pan, about an inch or two apart, and press down to flatten just slightly.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are crackled. Cool on the pans for a few minutes, then remove to a plate.

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Quarter-Life Coaching: Sarah & Evan's Perfect Crab Cakes

EVENT: Sarah & Evan Give BGSK a Lesson in Crab Cakes

VENUE: Sarah's Apartment, Lower East Side

PARTY SIZE: 4

MENU: Perfect Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Corn-Pepper Relish; Lobster Rolls on Brioche; Squash Slivers with Truffle Salt and Lemon; Coronas; Mark Bittman's Tofu Chocolate Pudding (chili powder omitted)

The first meal I ate with Sarah and Evan as an almost-couple was at Spitzer's Corner, after we'd all been to hear Colson Whitehead read from Sag Harbor at McNally Jackson. When Evan was down for sharing the mac & cheese with Sarah, me, and Sarah's friend Casey, Casey and I looked at each other: we knew he was a good egg.

Though Phoebe and I would prefer to take full credit for Sarah's ascent into cooking, we know we can't. But then again, if we have to share responsibility with anyone, we're fine with that "anyone" being Evan. The two of them cook together quite often, a habit cemented during a recent trip to Florida and a night spent cooking Middleastern food with one of Evan's chef-y friends. Then, on an evening just before New Year's, for which Sarah and I were co-hosting a party, I ran into a mutual friend who told me Sarah and Evan had declined to go out, instead staying at home to test out crab cakes for New Year's Eve. This made me very happy, and I repeated to myself, then to Phoebe, that Evan was awesome. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Sarah, a stylist and co-author of the adorable fashion, art, and lifestyle blog The Gamine, has impeccable taste.

I don't know if I'm right to do so, but I'd also like to consider Sarah's cooking through the lens of one infamous email chain entitled "Dinner" and begun on August 19th, 2008. Jocelyn had written a note to our big group of girls from high school about getting together. Phoebe, in true BGSK fashion, suggested a potluck dinner at her place, which went over well, but it was her next email that caused real controversy. This was before we knew about the Potluck ESP Phenomenon, and she tried to assign dishes for everyone to bring, since, she wrote: "there always is too much food and not enough wine."

After committing a number of us to meat/veggies/carb/dessert contributions, she wrote: "Wine: Sarah (sorry, I love you), Sam, Jessy, Jocelyn, Sami, Jor." The wine bringers took their assignment personally, in spite of my attempt to call them "highly cultured oenophiles," and all hell almost broke loose until it was averted by us gathering at Phoebe's for a dinner abundant in both food and wine, and so abundant in cake that leftovers of it were put--and remain--in Phoebe's freezer.

But maybe Sarah took it all as a challenge, and after that, she seemed to get really into baking, bringing delicious, buttery sweets to most of our get-togethers even when Memorial Day was approaching and I begged her not to. Baking, like any other gateway drug, paved the way for slippage into more intense use--and soon Sarah was sauteing and roasting and making pizzas and casseroles.


It was the New Year's Eve crab cakes, in the end, that stood out to us, and that made us invite ourselves over to be fed by Sarah and Evan once more. In these heady pre-Valentine's Day days, we wanted to feature them on the blog not just as a cute couple, but as a couple who have really embraced cooking and entertaining in the same way we have: as something fun and productive to do, and as the best possible way of spending time with one another.

coffee table dining--the only way we like to eat

From Evan & Sarah's kitchen, where we are lucky enough to eat crab cakes followed by lobster rolls, to yours,

Cara and Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

**Recipe**

Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Corn-Pepper Relish

Makes about 16 mini crab cakes

Evan and Sarah are in the midst of a love affair with their Cuisinart food processor, which Evan received for Hanukah. They used it to perfect the texture of these crab cakes, which are not diluted with very many breadcrumbs. Instead, some of the crab meat is shredded quite finely, which helps the cakes stay together and remain as crabby as possible.

Ingredients
1lb jumbo lump crab meat
1 egg, beaten
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 dash Tabasco sauce
½ lemon, juiced
½ cup finely crushed saltines (in a food processor)

Roughly chop the crab meat. Reserve half in a medium mixing bowl. In a small food processor, pulse the other half of the crab meat until it becomes shredded. Remove half of that meat and add it to the mixing bowl. With the remaining ¼, pulse again until the meat is very finely shredded and almost a paste. This will act as a binder for the cakes.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, mayo, mustard, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and lemon juice. Add this to the crab mixture and toss gently with your hands until combined.

Add some of the crushed saltines slowly and gently mix until it begins to come together. You may not need all of the saltines, so test out the crab cakes for texture as you go.

Form the crab mixture into small, 1-inch cakes. Coat a large skillet with oil, and fry the cakes over medium-high heat until brown and crispy. Serve alongside chipotle mayo and corn-pepper relish (recipes follow).

Chipotle Mayo

Ingredients
½ cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
1 tbsp adobo sauce (from the can)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced

Puree the ingredients in a small food processor. This can be done up to a week in advance and kept refrigerated. Place in a small bowl or ramekin for dipping.

Corn & Pepper Relish

Ingredients
2 cups corn kernels
2 cups diced peppers (green, red, or orange)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
chili powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients for the relish in a small mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lobster Salad on Toasted Challah Rolls
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 lb lobster meat
2 tsp chopped scallion (green parts only)
½ tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp chopped chives
1 ½ stalks celery, chopped
2 tsp minced shallots
½ cup mayonnaise
1 ½ lemons, juiced
2 challah rolls, toasted (brioche would work as well)

Roughly chop the lobster meat into bite-sized pieces. Reserve half in a medium mixing bowl. In a small food processor, pulse the other half of the lobster meat until it becomes shredded. Remove half of the meat and add it to the mixing bowl. With the remaining ¼, pulse again until the meat is very finely shredded and almost a paste. This will act as a binder for the salad.

Add the scallion, tarragon, chives, celery, and shallots to the lobster mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise and lemon juice. Using your hands, toss the lobster mixture together with some of the mayo mixture (best done with two sets of hands on deck). Add as much of the mayo as you like until you reach your desired consistency—Sarah and Evan prefer it to be just lightly dressed. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Top each roll with a large spoonful of lobster salad and serve.

Cara's dessert bowl. Licked clean.

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Potluck Parties: Superbowl Sunday

baked pasta, a game changer

EVENT: Super Bowl Sunday
VENUE: Adam’s Parents' Apartment, Upper East Side
PARTY SIZE: 20-25
TYPE: Casual Buffet
MENU: Shirley’s Cannelloni; Guacamole and Chips; Honey Mustard Chicken Strips; Bowls of Candy; Brownies

The Super Bowl is one of my favorite eating events of the year. I’m not sure why, since you’d think the football-watching part would kind of balance things out to result in a pretty mediocre day for me. But the prospect of wings and dip and pizza in alternating bites always gets me pretty excited.

Two Super Bowls ago, just weeks after moving into my new apartment, I got food poisoning and spent the day watching Lost episodes on my computer and trying not to think about food. It was miserable. Last year, to make up for all the calories not gained the year before, I went crazy. Luckily, I had the perfect venue at which to do so. My friend Adam, who also functions as my full-time quarter-life camp counselor, had us over to his parents' apartment for the festivities. The Nelson Family Super Bowl Party has apparently been a tradition since 1972, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the event was opened to members of the female gender.

Still, the most revered figure in the family’s Super Bowl traditions is Adam’s mother, Shirley, whose cannelloni alone made me wish I could watch football everyday at the Nelsons'. While it's not necessarily what you should eat every day, Shirley’s baked pasta is everything you could want while watching football and so much more: cheesy, creamy, fatty, and filling. Last year, I filled up a little too early on guacamole, but this year, I'll know better. I’m saving myself for the cannelloni.

From my kitchen, where I’m cheering for Peyton and pasta, to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

If you aren’t lucky enough to be adopted by someone else’s mother, here are a few recipe ideas to feed the kids at your table:


1st Quarter
Guacamole
Mexican Dip
Onion Dip
Panko-Crusted Spinach Dip
Spicy Chipotle Hummus


2nd Quarter
Black Bean Cakes
Pigs in a Blanket
Cilantro Succotash Quesadillas
Mini Meatball Subs


3rd Quarter
Autumn Brisket & Pumpkin Chili
Smoky Chipotle Vegetarian Chili
Chicken-Chard Enchiladas
Butternut Squash Nacho Casserole
Man Burgers
Mexican Shepherd's Pie
Mustardy Turkey Meatloaf
Macaroni and Cheese
Penne Gratin with Sausage, Fennel and Mushrooms
Meghan's Turkey Lasagna
Cilantro Slaw


4th Quarter

M&M Blondies
Brownies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Bark with Pretzels and Toffee

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