Rainbow Carrot Salad

pickled & sweet

It’s finally here! GoogaMooga weekend! For those of you who are either not obsessed with food-centric events or don’t live in New York, GoogaMooga is a giant food and music festival in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Kramer and I went last year and had an amazing time. A lot of people said that they had a terrible time – there were crowds, food ran out, it was hard to get beer and wine, etc. but to those people I say, duh! It was a free festival in Brooklyn. Over 1,500 people were there each day. Of course there were lines! Of course there was no cell phone reception! Kramer and I, being the nerds that we are, got there right when the gates opened, got out beer tickets, ate the food we wanted, then just hung out on the lawn and relaxed in the sunshine. I had a duck confit hot dog with black garlic, my first taste of Mile End Deli’s smoked meat sandwich (which consequently started my love affair with the restaurant), and more. I was in total heaven. This year, I’m looking forward to Toro’s (all the way from Boston) braised rabbit and snail paella and I’m definitely getting something sweet from Big Gay Ice Cream. Anyone else headed over that way this weekend? Kramer and I will be there on Saturday and I’m just counting the minutes!

Kramer and I walked all around last weekend in search of Steve Burns’ awesome house – we just needed to see its beauty in real life.As far as what’s going on this week, well, not too much, which is good. I’ve actually recently started a feeble attempt at running. I ran two miles on three days this week. I don’t know if it’s necessarily getting easier yet, but I do love being outside in the nice weather and exploring my neighborhood more than I have in the past couple of years. I’m obviously very slow, but it’s all about just working on it and not giving up, right? Right now, the first mile is great. I feel excellent and think to myself, “I could do this all day!” Then, around mile one and a half, I fall right off. At this point, I’m thinking to myself, “Oh sweet lord, just keep moving your feet.” One foot goes in front of the other until finally I’m home and I collapse on the cold stone floor of my apartment’s kitchen. Maybe sometime soon I’ll be able to do three miles, but for now, I’m just going to work on not feeling like I am going to die after two. My whole family runs or used to run, but I never really got into that. I rowed crew in high school, and we did have to run during training, but I was also 16 or 17 at the time, where nothing can stop you and physical activity is no big deal. Now, I sit on my ass all day in front of a computer, so running is a serious challenge. Hopefully I can keep it up this summer and maybe I’ll even go from pasty white skin to slightly beige skin. A girl can dream!

As we head into the summer months, things are going to get real, people. Cooking is not fun in the summer, especially if you live in a place like New York where air conditioning barely works, if you’re lucky enough to have a unit at all, and everyone is packed into close, sweaty quarters. Kramer and I eat a lot of raw vegetables and fish when it’s hot outside, as I can’t be bothered to even turn on the stove for a few minutes to boil water. I was wandering around the farmer’s market one day before work and happened upon these beautiful rainbow colored carrots. I had to get them and do something to showcase their different levels of sweetness, along with their refreshing crunch. As it happened, the day I made this salad was warmer than usual (we’ve been having a lot of strangely warm days followed by chilly, breezy days lately) and I didn’t feel like cooking the carrots, plus I was afraid that their color would fade when put to heat. Therefore, into a red wine vinegar, sugar, and spring garlic mixture they went. Add a little freshly ground black pepper and lemon zest, and you’ve got yourself a lovely summer salad, that’s almost pickled but not quite. I liked to eat this nice and cold out of the refrigerator, but it’s perfect for a room temperature picnic side dish, too. You obviously don’t need different colored carrots for this, but if you can find them, they really do pop and make your plate look alive with purples, oranges, and yellows.

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Summer Sangria

with grilled citrus

Kramer had a fantastic birthday weekend, or at least I hope that he did! We celebrated a bit each day, which he absolutely deserves after completing his first full year of grad school. His last day of class was yesterday. Congratulations, Kramer! I’m so proud of him for working so hard during the day, studying at night, getting up and doing it all over again each day. I certainly couldn’t do it and I am in awe of his will power and determination. In light of that, I decided we really needed to do it right this year. On Friday night, we went to Burnside with a bunch of friends to have some drinks and stay out what ended up being a little too late, but it was my husband’s birthday party and we do what we do when we do what we do. I even brought over 100 cookies to the bar, and I think they were received well. I brought a box for the bartenders, because they are awesome, then enough to feed the entire bar. They were gone by the end of the night, and there’s nothing a baker likes to see more than all of her treats completely disappear.

Off topic yet still important – I met Jeremy Allen White last week after the Salamander Sauce party.

On Saturday, we dragged ourselves out of bed to meet with Kramer’s dad, his girlfriend, Jill, and Rachel for brunch at Roberta’s before driving up to New Rochelle to see his aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother. Kramer’s aunt always makes us a big, special dinner whenever we make it up there. This time was no different. We had bread, cheese, caprese salad, spinach dip and crudites, Caesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs, sweet sausage, and garlic bread, followed by two different kinds of cake, cake pops, and my favorite, Girl Scout cookies (which I have certainly not had enough of this year). And that doesn’t even include the freely flowing wine and beer. Needless to say, we had a fabulous time. We were tuckered out and in bed by 10:30, where Kramer and I proceeded to sleep without waking up once until 8:30 in the morning. We definitely needed the sleep. On Sunday, Kramer’s dad generously treated us to yet another delicious meal at Craftbar – I think it was probably one of my favorite restaurant meals ever. Get ready for this. We started with fried artichokes, soft-boiled egg salad bruschetta with white anchovies, bread and cheese, and my favorite, duck hearts with dumplings and a fried egg. I’m drooling just thinking about it. Then we got to the main courses. I had halibut with pickled ramps, morels mushrooms, and the most pillowy, soft, incredibly gnocchi of my life. Kramer had veal breast with roasted ramps, potato puree, and wonderfully crispy sweetbreads. I had to finish the meal with an almond semifreddo, and then I immediately fell into a food coma (which was remedied with a quick drink at Raines Law Room with Morgan).

You probably feel full even just reading about all of that incredible food, but you have to do it right when family is in town, there’s a birthday to celebrate, and Kramer’s sister is graduating from Pratt. Speaking of Kramer’s sister, she certainly loves herself a glass of red wine, so when I made this sangria, I had to invite her over for a glass or two. I actually made this because I did a photoshoot for McCormick Spices, and this was one of their recipes. I would never have thought to grill fruit before adding it to sangria, but it added a real depth of flavor to the red wine, as well as making for some lovely garnishes. A lot of people will add Sprite or something similar to their sangria, but I really prefer ginger ale. You can really even use diet and not notice a difference, which can help cut back on the sugar and make you feel a little less guilty about indulging in a cocktail or two mid-afternoon. Or is that just me? Whatever, this is a judgement-free zone. Hopefully it will warm up a bit more in NYC so that I can sit out in the sunshine with a big, cold glass of this grilled fruit sangria.

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Honey & Pear Muffins

regular or miniature

I’m feeling a bit better today. Thankfully I have a quiet week this week, so there’s nothing I have to necessarily be in tip-top shape for after getting home from work, whereas last week I was pretty busy and definitely didn’t get enough sleep. Let’s keep it that way this week, shall we? The temptation to go out and meet friends at bars is most certainly there, but I think I can avoid that until Friday, where we’re having a bit of a party for Kramer’s 26th birthday. I can’t believe that he is going to be 26. What an old man. This means that we have known each other for almost 10 years. I remember when he had mutton chops and braces. Ah, those were the days. I am going to down a million gallons of vitamin C and as much other medicine as I can get my hands on, because I have to get well and make lots and lots of cookies for the occasion. We’re going to go to our favorite bar, play shuffleboard, drink beers, and oh, will we laugh. Well, that’s what we’ll be doing if Plan A fails. I can’t tell you a single thing about Plan A.

Me doing a little chop-chop at DISH last week. Photos by Jesse Chan-Norris.

Kramer wasn’t able to attend my demo last week because of class, but his last one is next Monday and then he’ll have a few weeks off before he starts summer session. I don’t know how he does it. Kramer is getting his master’s at NYU right now, but as we are, unfortunately, not billionaires, he has to work while he does it. There are days where he leaves the house at 8 AM and doesn’t get home until 9:30 or 10 PM. It’s hard sometimes when we are barely able to see one another, but it’s at least good to know that he is some kind of anomaly and he actually really likes school (or so he says). Kramer is one of those weirdos who honestly enjoyed group projects in college. He is a great leader and incredibly organized, with the added bonus of studying something that he has a genuine interest in and wants to do for the rest of his life. It’s inspiring to wake up to someone like that each morning, even if he’s got to be gone a lot. I’m excited to celebrate his birthday on Friday – he deserves a party in his honor after all of his hard work.

“Yadda yadda yadda, another muffin recipe,” is what I’m sure you are thinking. I’m quite sure that you are wrong. When I was rifling through my cupboards, trying to figure out what to bake, Kramer said, “Make muffins. Everyone loves muffins.” It’s true. Everyone does love muffins. But for some reason, I don’t make them all that often. I guess I prefer cookies. What a surprise. My lovely friends Amanda and Matt were kind enough to bring me a big bottle of honey from Nevis earlier this year, which is probably some of the best honey I’ve ever had. I never splurge on honey because I’m usually too broke from splurging on something at some restaurant, but I’d buy another bottle of this stuff. It’s incredibly thick, nutty, and perfectly sweet, which makes it excellent for baking. I made honey shortbread cookies with half of it, and I finally finished up my precious bottle by making these muffins. You don’t need any sweetener other than a big, heaping cup of honey, and you can use any fruit you’d like, but I loved pears in these. They’re soft and sweet and work well even if they’re a little bruised, like mine were. I always find that whenever I buy pears, they are rock hard, so I leave them in a paper bag on my counter and never fail to absolutely forget about them until they are almost like mush. Well, one man’s mush is another man’s muffins. These make an excellent handheld breakfast or treats to bring into the office, which is what I did (and they were immediately devoured). Don’t deprive yourself of muffins, as I often do, and whip up a batch this weekend!

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Crispy Duck Breast with Ramp Chimichurri

and roasted vegetables

I think that I am making myself physically ill through a combination of not enough sleep and stress. I don’t necessarily have anything to be stressed out about. I’m a very lucky, privileged, middle class white woman, so yeah, I’m far from being in any kind of situation that warrants sympathy. I can afford to buy all of the ingredients I want to cook with and go out to eat at my favorite restaurants, I can go out for drinks without worrying about my account balance, I can buy a new piece of clothing here and there, save up and go on fun vacations…all of it. But at the end of the day, I still feel this crippling anxiety about absolutely nothing. I think it’s just the way things are now. There’s pressure to do well, look good, work hard, maintain some sort of social life, and try to do all of the other little things that you need to do in order to keep on going, like, you know, laundry and regular showers. I guess I feel like I’m not doing everything that I can and I worry about disappointing people or things that shouldn’t make me crazy but they do, like not taking beautiful enough photos for this little blog. Thankfully my husband is incredibly patient and understanding. There are days where I pile too much on for myself, like this past Sunday where I shot three or four recipes for the site, cleaned, worked on the website, met friends for dinner, and before all of that, I tried to teach myself how to shuck a clam by watching YouTube videos for 5 minutes and getting incredibly frustrated when I wasn’t immediately fantastic at it, all while knowing that I was starting to get sick but wanting to push myself anyway. It’s so dumb, isn’t it? I feel like I am living in this world where I believe that I don’t have enough time and it’s just not true. I need to work on that. I need to prioritize and know my limits. I didn’t post yesterday to just give myself a break, especially considering I have yet another upper respiratory infection. SIGH. Sometimes I tell myself that it’s a New York thing and we just love to be miserable out here, but of course, that’s not true and I’m sure you can tell me all about it. Anyway, I’m figuring it out.

My sister-in-law Rachel and our delicious oyster n’ uni spread on Thursday night.So, confessions aside, my demo at the Housing Works Bookstore last week went really well, all things considered. I was incredibly nervous and even though it was probably only 50 degrees that day, I was definitely sweating bullets. I just don’t do well when I have lots and lots of time to think about how poorly I could potentially do something. Some of my awesome friends showed up to watch me be a huge dork, and I got to meet a lot of great new people too, including some Crepes of Wrath readers who truly made my day. Thank you guys so much for coming! It really helped me get over my fears knowing that people came to support me. Anyway, I made my handmade pesto on stage in front of real living humans! Go me. All of the pesto got eaten and I went for a drink afterward to celebrate. Thank you to Spirited Brooklyn and Large Hearted Boy from DISH for having me and I hope to come back soon!

I talked about spring garlic last week, and now I will regale you with the wonders of spring ramps. I love to use ramps in sauces, dressings, and spreads, because you really get the full flavor of the ramps, and you can add it to a number of different dishes instead of just eating it one way. Last year I did ramp pesto, which I put on everything from salads to sandwiches, so I wanted to go the other way this year and do a chimichurri. A chimichurri is almost like an Argentinian pesto, if you think about it. It’s got lightly sautéed ramps, raw garlic, and olive oil, but it has a smoother texture than pesto and is used as more of a sauce than as an accompaniment. Chimichurri is excellent on burgers or steaks, but I had some beautiful duck breasts, so I used those. I got my cast iron pan incredibly hot, salted the breasts, then threw ‘em in the pan for 6-7 minutes until the skin was a deep, golden brown. I then finished the duck off in the oven with my sweet soy butternut squash and spread some of the chimichurri on top. The dish came together so well and I was really happy with the result! I added some ginger and rice wine vinegar to the chimichurri for a more Asian twist, because when I think duck I always crave Asian flavors along with it. We had a bit of leftover duck and plenty of extra chimichurri, so the next few days we were happy to have duck salads with ramp chimichurri vinaigrette on top; it’s really the dish that keeps on giving! Don’t be afraid of duck – it will take you 10 minutes to make and you get to keep all of that incredibly duck fat to cook potatoes or Brussels sprouts in later, and go out and find some ramps! You may have to search a bit, but they’re only around for a few weeks a year and isn’t it fun to try something new?

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Spring Garlic Fried Eggs

in browned butter

First and foremost, don’t forget that if you’re in New York tonight, come down to the Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe in SoHo to see me do a cooking demo and talk about blogging! Not that I’m necessarily an authority on the subject, but hey, you’ll get to see me stutter a little bit and be really nervous and maybe even accidentally cut myself with my knife as I try to explain what it is I’m doing. It’s fun for the whole family! The event is called Dish and in addition to my bumbling appearance, you’ll get to see expert mixologist Max Messier, Lucy Knisley, author/illustrator of the new food-centric graphic novel, RELISH, My Life in the Kitchen, alongside Helen Rosner, online editor of Saveur Magazine, followed by Janine Kalesis, food stylist for the Today Show, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and Food Network. Plus, if you make a donation (the suggestion is $5, but even $1 helps), it will go to help both ending AIDS and putting a stop to homelessness. There’s nothing wrong with that. In any case, I’m making pesto toasts so just come and have a taste. I made it all just for you beautiful, beautiful people. I’d love the chance to meet anyone who reads this blog and meet other bloggers in the city. I’m sure we’ll all end up going out for a cocktail or three afterward, so don’t be shy. The event will be held at 126 Crosby Street at 7 PM.

An amazing sign on the goal wall at my gym.So, aside from all that, I’ve been taking it easy since my wild romp of a weekend. On Monday night I went to dinner at Ootoya with a friend of a friend (who I shall henceforth refer to as my friend, as I think that we got along swimmingly). Our meal was incredible. We had salted mackerel sushi, grilled beef marinated with shio koji, salmon don with both sashimi and roe, and a new favorite of mine, tororo soba, which are cold soba noodles served with grated Japanese yam and raw egg yolk. When you eat the cold soba, you mix the egg yolk, yam, and maybe a little soy sauce together, then dip and eat. Everything was delicious, especially with a nice glass of sake to wash it all down, and I was beyond stuffed by the end of dinner. Then, yesterday, apparently feeling incredibly social, I went and had lunch with Sylvie from Roaming Taste. It was great to talk shop – photography, food blogging, food in general, travel, etc. She’s been everywhere! We had a tasty cheese plate at Beecher’s near my office, alongside refreshing rosemary lemonade and a citrus salad with feta. I may have had one too may crackers topped with creamy goat cheese and raspberry chocolate spread (be still my beating heart), but it was worth it waddling back to the office fat and happy. Hopefully NYC will be seeing more of Sylvie, soon!

While I did enjoy the cheese we munched away on at Beecher’s, the fresh baby lettuces and spring fruits in my salad were equally enjoyable. Now that I work near Union Square, I am able to briskly walk through the Greenmarket on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. It’s really, really hard not to buy my weight in fresh produce, but I do treat myself to things here and there on my way into the office. I can’t shop after work, because by then, all of the good stuff is gone! Last week, I grabbed a big bunch of lovely spring garlic and stuffed it in the fridge at work, apologizing when need be for the pungent (or let’s say aromatic, shall we?) smell. Spring garlic is sort of a cross between a big scallion and a regular bulb of garlic. It’s small, delicate, and absolutely delicious. I will eat it raw, which Kramer finds extremely odd, so last weekend I decided I’d actually go ahead and cook it in something. Obviously eggs are the first thing that pop into my head when thinking about cooking anything at all, and I wanted to show off the pretty purple and green stalks, which goes perfectly with yellow yolks, don’t you think? Simply brown some butter, saute your spring garlic, crack your eggs, and eat with some crusty bread or, day I say it, bacon. It’s officially spring here in the city, and I’m going to take full advantage of that before it’s hot, humid summertime.

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Sweet Soy Butternut Squash

with hot chili oil

Hello ladies and gentlegerms. I hope that everyone had a great weekend because mine was pretty epic. I definitely indulged a bit more than I’d usually allow myself, but it’s okay every so often, isn’t it? Don’t answer that. Anyway, we got things going a little early on Thursday night with Mexican food and margaritas, accompanied by plenty of guacamole. I would have been plenty happy with just that, but we were able to score a reservation at The Smile, thanks to our friends Matt and Amanda. I had wanted to check it out for a while, but I had always wandered into Mile End for a smoked meat sandwich before I could sit down at a table with a tablecloth for dinner. The meal was fantastic. We had minted snap peas, marinated goat cheese, beet cured salmon with ricotta, fresh dill and rye, mussels in a lemongrass and coconut milk broth, Moroccan meatballs, and cous-cous with raisins and pistachios. I’m still thinking about that beet cured salmon. Next time I go to The Smile, I am just going to order three of them and stuff myself silly. We had great cocktails, too – they made a mean old fashioned and a lovely mezcal cocktail that was just the right amount of smoke. We finished the meal with coffees (I had some excellent espresso) and rhubarb-strawberry pie with fresh whipped cream. Not too bad for a Friday night dinner, is it? Amanda even got me a copy of Modern Mediterranean, which is the cookbook by The Smile’s chef Melia Marden. I am going to have to borrow their grill later this summer to make the crispy little grilled sardines that are featured in the book, among other things. Getting a new cookbook is always so exciting – there are so many possibilities, I love reading about the inspiration behind various dishes, and, of course, I tend to lose myself in the beautiful photos. I’m getting to the point where I need to figure out where to put the rest of my cookbooks, as my shelves are overflowing at the moment, but that’s not stopping me from acquiring more. My dad’s coworker even sent me three Chinese cookbooks that you can’t get in the United States – I can’t wait to break those in, either.

Tom’s baby mask is the creepiest and coolest thing ever.On Saturday, we slept in a bit, got dressed, then headed out to brunch in Long Island City at The Ale Wife with a bunch of friends for brunch. The deal at this place is that for $25, you get an entree and unlimited drinks from 12-3 PM. Well, we were sold! I ordered a big, delicious Irish breakfast, complete with beans, tomatoes, blood pudding, fried eggs, and sausage, then proceeded to drink my $25 worth of draft beers and prosecco. It was just what the doctor ordered. We were even able to sit out on the deck in the sunshine on a beautiful 70-degree day – it really doesn’t get better than that. We headed back to our friend Valerie and Tom’s apartment after brunch to enjoy their roof, play some card games, and sip on some margaritas. We stayed outside until the sun went down and it got chilly, then wandered down to the water for Maryland-style crabs and peel-and-eat shrimp at The Waterfront Crab House, which is one of our favorite restaurants despite its old school appearance. The staff is a little gruff and nobody is trying to add any flair or style to the food’s presentation, but that doesn’t matter because the crabs are plentiful and tasty, the shrimp is spicy and juicy, and there are always big baskets of garlic bread to go around.

By the time we got home on Saturday night, we were absolutely exhausted, but in the best way possible. On Sunday, we slept and slept, watched some movies, napped, and ordered in Indian food for dinner because I couldn’t even be bothered to toil away in the kitchen. We’ve all had those days. It was nice to just relax on the couch and do nothing (except, of course, update the blog and prepare for my demo on Wednesday). Last Sunday, though, I cooked a big meal for dinner (the rest of which is to come), which included this sweet soy butternut squash. Whenever I make butternut squash (which is often when it’s in season), I feel like I always do it the same way – olive oil, herbs, maybe a bit of pepper flakes. I figured that squash is on its way out until we find ourselves in September or October again, so I wanted to do something different. Kecap manis is one of my favorite ingredients; it’s a thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce that tastes good on just about anything. I like to put it on my eggs, but if that’s not your thing, it’s fantastic when paired with tender butternut squash. I used a dash of sesame oil and some hot chili oil for a punch of flavor, all of which is an unexpected take on my favorite kind of squash. You can use sweet potatoes or acorn squash or anything that’s similar to butternut, but we all know that butternut’s the best, isn’t it? Break outside of your roasted veggie shell with a sweet soy sauce mixture that pairs well with whatever you’re having for dinner that night.

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Cookies & Cream Muffins

with Momofuku Milk Crumbs

I hope that you guys all watched my new Sichuan Wonton video that I made with Diana from Appetite for China! I had such a fun time making it and have been dreaming of those wontons ever since, so do yourself a favor and check it out. I’ve even see a few people post about making them already, and to them I say, congratulations! I know you ate well that day. To the rest of you, don’t miss out! Wontons are way easier to make than I had originally anticipated, and after a few minutes, I felt like I could fold 100 of them without any problems. I know you’ll feel the same way. Anyway, aside from my excitement over how cool our new video is (and what a great job Kramer did editing it all by himself – what a trooper), I’ve been insanely busy. I feel like by the time I get up, get dressed, go to work, come home, (sometimes) go to the gym, take a shower, make and eat dinner, and work on editing some photos or some other thing that needs to be done for this blog, I have about 30 to 60 minutes to just relax before heading to bed and doing the whole thing over again. I know I talk about my schedule a lot, but obviously it’s pretty much all that I think about, given all I do is think about what I have time for, how I’m going to accomplish this or do that, or how one decision is going to affect the rest of what I do on a day-to-day basis.

Watching the farmer’s market set up in Union Square before work.

I bring this up because I have yet again decided to push what I am capable of doing to the limit, and this time it involves my mortal enemy: public speaking. I’ve done a few cooking demonstrations, competitions, and whatnot, but this is going to be me, all alone, speaking and doing a light demo in front of people…which I have never really done without other people up there with me. It’s for a series called Dish, and it takes place on May 1st at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Soho. I hope that if any of you happen to be in New York during that time, or even better, actually live in the city, that you’ll stop by, watch me talk about blogging and the like, and say hello! If anything, I’m making a dish, so you’ll get to try a little bite of what I’ve got to offer. It’ll be worth your time! Plus, all donations from the event go to benefit Housing Works’ programs to assist men, women, and children living with or affected by homelessness and HIV/AIDS. The suggested donation is $5, but even just coming to support the cause is helpful!

As I said, I am always busy and never have a free moment. I do it to myself. For example, I took a Momofuku baking class about a month ago with my friend Emily, and it was a ton of fun. We made milk crumbs, cake crumbs, watched Christina Tosi herself bake and frost a cake, and made blueberry cream cookies to take home. It was informative and I really learned a lot, plus, there was free beer! Who doesn’t love an ice cold beer, especially when there are free buckets of it? We took our crumbs home, and as suggested, I froze mine to bake with later. I finally got around to pulling them out of the freezer a few weeks ago, and figured that they were begging to be used in a cookies and cream type concoction. The muffins themselves are wonderfully chocolatey, as they use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate, the white chocolate is creamy and smooth, while the star of the show, the Milk Crumbs, are crunchy and honestly, taste just like milk. These are your childhood wrapped up in breakfast form. Enjoy these muffins with a big iced coffee and you’ll be in nostalgia mode for the rest of your day.

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Sichuan Wontons

with a video tutorial

I met Diana of Appetite for China at a networking event for BlogHer a few months ago. These events are always a little awkward, especially for me because I get a little quiet at these kinds of things when I don’t know anybody. Kramer thankfully went with me, and he is much better at talking and meeting people than I am. We ended up sitting next to Diana, and seeing as how there weren’t that many food bloggers there, we, of course, hit it off right away. Kramer and I loved her blog and were really impressed with her awesome new cookbook, The Chinese Takeout Cookbook, which has tons of easy to make at home Chinese recipes. Diana also teaches cooking classes all over the city, so if you have the opportunity, go take one! Anyway, since our resolution for 2013 was to make more videos for this blog, I thought it might be fun to team up with another blogger to do a video together. Who better to start with than Diana? We reached out to her and hoped she would say yes, and thankfully, she did! Diana was great to work with and I had never made wontons before, so I was just excited to get to learn a new culinary skill. She had Kramer and me wrapping wontons like pros in no time at all, and if our uncoordinated asses can do it, then you can, too! These wontons were incredibly delicious – after shooting the video, we polished off almost all of them in no time at all.

The pork filling for these wontons is simple, straightforward, and just really, really good. You only need a few ingredients that you just mix together and add to the wonton wrappers. The key to making these is to be sure not to overfill as you go, which is easy to do after you know how tasty the filling is. There are a few ways to fold the wontons, but my favorite way was the “boat” method, as shown in the video. They are so tiny and cute, and once you master the technique, you’re going to want to stand in your kitchen and fold wontons all day, or at least that’s how I felt. It’s fun to try something new, especially when you get some one on one instruction from someone who really knows what they’re doing. Diana is actually doing a class on wontons and dumplings soon, on May 9th, so get out of the house and go take the class if you can! You know that you want to become masters like Kramer and I did.

Now, while the filling is tasty, the sauce is the shining star of this dish. If you like spicy, then Sichuan pepper is for you. Believe it or not, the peppercorns were illegal in the United States until 2005, as they can sometimes carry a bacteria that kills citrus plants, although they were never actually dangerous for human consumption. Thankfully, the dark ages are over and you can find Sichuan pepper in most grocery stores or any specialty market. The pepper is incredibly spicy, but you can adjust the heat level to your liking, so just add a small amount for a bit of a peppery zing, or a lot of lip-numbing goodness. If you know me, then you can imagine that I go for the lip-numbing amount of Sichuan pepper. The sauce has some sugar in it for sweetness, which helps to offset some of the heat, and who doesn’t love a sweet and spicy combination? While the sauce is great for the wontons, you can add it to noodles or vegetables or whatever else you like. Make these for your friends and family; you’ll love watching the look on their face as they enjoy traditional Chinese fare in the comfort of your own home. Anyway, I hope that you like the video! Check out Diana’s blog, make some wontons, and eat!

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Mushroom Meatloaf

with a sun-dried tomato glaze

Good morning, world. I had a pretty busy weekend, and while the downside of that is it makes the time absolutely fly by, it’s nice to have something to do other than hang out on the couch. Not that I don’t love laying around on the couch. It is one of my top five favorite activities, like drinking beer, eating pizza, Internetting and watching Lost, which, coincidentally, can all be done from the comfort of my couch. It’s funny how that works out, isn’t it? On Friday night, Kramer and I went out and had a few beers with Morgan before going to see his improv team perform. Kramer and I had pizza from Forcella beforehand…I love brick oven pizza, but it never delivers well. It always gets kind of soft in the middle. Not that I had any trouble demolishing my couple of slices, which were topped with some nice mozzarella, olives, and mushrooms. On Saturday, Kramer and I slept in a bit, ordered bagels and lox, then I did a bit of recipe testing for Sir Kensington’s, which is honestly a pretty great brand if you can find it around you. We met up with Kramer’s sister, Rachel, and her fiance, Eric, at Fatty ‘Cue for dinner to celebrate her birthday later on in the evening, and sweet jebus, it was good. We had pig’s ear with uni, tobiko, and avocado, fried chicken baos, curried peas, mustard greens with brisket, brisket baos with chili jam, and red curry duck. It was a delicious feast, which included excellent cocktails and finished with s’mores pie and key lime pie. If you ever find yourself near the Brooklyn location, do yourself a favor and check it out. We hit up Dram for a fancy cocktail afterward (including the best Penicillin I’ve ever had), then headed to our usual weekend haunt, Burnside, to finish out the night. I won’t lie…I was hurting a bit in the morning. However, like the trooper that I am, I got up and spent the entire day shooting photos for Kensington’s while poor Kramer got up even earlier (7 AM on a Sunday!) to go to a class. After both of our long days, we stayed in, ordered Indian food, and…you guessed it: watched Lost.

Rachel and me.It was a lot of fun to do the photoshoot for Kensington’s. It was my first time really doing serious promotional photography for a brand, so I was excited about the opportunity. It was really interesting to have a new perspective on how to shoot food, too. Usually, I worry about just making something look beautiful. It’s not an easy task, but it’s straightforward. When shooting for something specific, though, you have to think about not only taking mouth-watering photos of food, but also be sure to get the product’s label in the shot in a way that make sense, in addition to being sure to make the actual product pop in relation to the food that you’ve created to pair with it. I am so used to doing things the same way over and over again in my own kitchen, so it helped me gain some new perspectives and experience working in a team of people instead of just solo or with Kramer, who is basically like an extension of my own brain, anyway. I can’t wait to share the photos with you, and hopefully you may even see them when you’re out and about on your own, too.

One of the recipes that I created on Sunday was a meatloaf recipe, but it’s nothing quite like this. Veal and pork make for the best meatloaves, in my opinion. Beef is all well and good, but the flavors of these other two meats are much more savory, almost buttery, compared to beef alone. As always, though, you can use whatever you prefer; the important part of this are the mushrooms. I made mussels with mushroom broth a week or so ago, and on that same day, I made this meatloaf to portion up and have as lunches throughout the week. I soaked dried mushrooms in water, then used that water in both the meatloaf and the glaze. This is an important step that adds tons of rich, mushroom flavor to the meatloaf. I can’t recommend this method enough, but you can definitely just use regular mushrooms if you don’t have dried mushrooms on hand. I pureed sun-dried tomatoes, more mushrooms, and some peppers together for a glaze, then brushed it on top, which caramelizes as it cooks and takes on a slightly sweet and spicy flavor that really livens up the meatloaf. Meatloaf is one of my favorite comfort foods. It has a pretty unappetizing name, but once you make it and have a bite, it’ll bring back great food memories and make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Eat it alone, with vegetables, a salad, or, best of all, between two slices of good bread for the best sandwich ever.

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Strawberry Banana Bread

with a tender crumb and crunchy crust

I love my new office because it’s located in a great neighborhood in the city. I’m right near Union Square, the Flatiron, and Gramercy. Of course that means that there is good food all over the place, but more importantly, it’s a fantastic walking neighborhood. This is the first place I’ve worked where I didn’t have to request permission to go out to lunch (usually I just ate at my desk and didn’t leave), so I’m loving the opportunity to be able to get outside for even just 20 minutes, especially when it’s nice outside…and even when it’s not. On my first day, my new boss even took the time to come to my desk around lunch and say that I should really leave, that it’s good to get out of the office, etc. I was surprised and couldn’t believe that she was encouraging me to go outside of the office for a break. I’m realizing how important it is to step away from your desk for a bit, now that I actually have the option. At my last company, I once asked my two bosses if I could go out to lunch with my husband for an hour on a slow day. I was told that I could go, but the next day I got called into each office separately to be reprimanded for it. Now, granted, it was a job in finance, and like so many jobs in that industry in New York, lunches were paid for by the company. It was great to be able to order food from anywhere I could possibly want, but I soon came to understand how a big plate of sushi or fancy pizza is not worth being shackled to a cubicle. Some people like it, though, so you know, whatever floats your boat.

It’s interesting to see how different companies operate in that sense. What’s okay, what’s not okay, how people interact with management, how important it is to stay late and be the last one there so that you look like you’re working the hardest…I think that is becoming the norm everywhere. I know from experience and from stories of friends that New Yorkers certainly have grueling work weeks, especially in finance. Now that I work for a website on the operations side of things, my quality of life has improved greatly, even in the two weeks that I’ve been here so far, but that’s not the same for everyone else and it’s sad to see. I know some people love their work and couldn’t imagine being in the office less than 80 hours a week, and if that’s the case, that’s great! I’m really lucky in that I feel like I’ve finally found a company where I feel like I belong. People have a similar sense of humor, and that’s probably due to the youth of the place. As you would imagine, a website has a younger staff that a financial firm would have, and I’m loving it. Ideas move fast and there’s no politics. It’s refreshing.

So, in the spirit of new things, how about a new take on banana bread? I know that the good old strawberry and banana combination is nothing new, but I rarely see the two mixed together in a bread. Believe me, I’ve done every variation of banan bread humanly possible, and when I see those ripening bananas on my counter, I honestly try to think of something different to do with them, but they usually get thrown away because really, how much banana bread can you eat? Well, with the addition of strawberries, I’ll tell you: quite a lot. The bread itself is moist and tender, thanks to the water and sugar content from both the bananas and the strawberries, while the crust is nicely caramelized and just slightly crispy, the way I like my quick breads to be. There’s nothing fancy about this; just put it all together, bake, cool, and slice. I sliced this into individual portions and kept it in the fridge for a week, nibbling on it here and having it for breakfast there. If you make it, I can’t even begin to tell you how good a slice of the stuff is with some creamy peanut butter spread on top. It makes for quite the indulgent Friday morning breakfast, and hey, it’s Friday, so I think you deserve to indulge!

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pickled & sweet

with grilled citrus

regular or miniature

and roasted vegetables

in browned butter

with hot chili oil

with Momofuku Milk Crumbs

with a video tutorial

with a sun-dried tomato glaze

with a tender crumb and crunchy crust