Temperatures are below freezing outside, so the thought of getting out of of my warm bed this morning for a breakfast of cold grapefruit was not appealing. Instead, I broiled the grapefruit. Yes, it sounds strange, but it was delicious.
It started with a grapefruit sliced in half.
But I needed to place the grapefruit in a pan that was safe for broiling. See this glass pan? Continue Reading →
Ramsey and I tore through the first two seasons (and Christmas special) of Downton Abbey last week. If you haven’t been sucked in by Netflix or your local PBS station yet, it follows the lives of a British aristocratic family and their servants during everyone’s favorite early-twentieth century events (sinking of the Titanic, World War I, the Troubles, etc). It’s full of family drama, squabbling over inheritances, conniving footmen, and a whole lot of tea. Tea is consumed least three times in every episode, and depending on the time of day, it’s enjoyed with an array of beautiful sandwiches and pastries.
Few of us have time to prepare a spread of sandwiches, scones, and clotted cream to enjoy with an afternoon mug of tea, so my go-to accompaniment is a buttery, crunchy cookie. That’s why I immediately flagged this recipe from The Kitchn. Butter, rosemary, and sugar? Perfect.
I followed the exact recipe from The Kitchn and had great results, but I wanted to try making a chocolate version. Truth: I liked the original, non-chocolate version more than the chocolate version I created. It didn’t let the rosemary flavor come through as much as I like. But! If you’re in the mood for a chocolate shortbread, give it a try. Continue Reading →
I’m going to keep this quick because Thursdays are a time for quick dinners. You’re coming up against Friday deadlines for project at work. You’re gearing up for a busy three-day weekend. Perhaps you’re taking a Thursday evening class in something that is both awesome and useless in your day-to-day existence. You don’t have time to make an elaborate dinner, but you’re fighting the temptation of takeout.
Enter the steak salad. In just twenty minutes, you have a satisfying meal that only takes five steps to make. Also, you may already have 75% of the ingredients in your cupboard or fridge. 
Continue Reading →
I usually make it through the winter cold and flu season unscathed, but last Friday I was struck down by the worst sore throat of my life. It burned and I could barely swallow. There was a stretch during the night when I was certain my throat would close and I wouldn’t see Saturday dawn over Park Slope, but I powered through. Morning brought some relief and a breakfast of blood orange sorbet, a pint of which had been hiding behind Tupperware containers of squash soup in the freezer.
As I sprawled on the couch and watched back-to-back episodes of Sherlock on Netflix streaming—spoon in one hand, sorbet in the other—I wondered how I could make my very own blood orange sorbet or similar frozen treat. It couldn’t be that difficult. A little fruit juice, sugar, and time seemed like the three main components, and I had plenty of all three.
I looked through my cookbooks and searched the web for a guide, but I encountered a roadblock with almost every recipe I found: I don’t own an ice cream maker. With limited cupboard space, how many apartment dwellers have room for one? (Sure, I have a waffle maker and salad spinner, but I count those among my practical kitchen tools.) The recipes that didn’t call for an ice cream maker instructed me to stir the sorbet every thirty minutes or so to make sure it didn’t freeze solid. All warned of large ice crystals forming if I didn’t get it right, and none of them promised the smooth, airy results I’d get if I’d just sacrifice some additional shelf space.
So rather than seek out a way to create a smooth sorbet, I went in the opposite direction. I decided to make a granita, which is a semi-frozen dessert that’s akin to a chunky Italian ice. I just needed to combine juice, simple syrup, and a splash of liquor to keep it from freezing all the way. A quick stir with a fork every half hour would create the texture I needed, and if I forgot a stirring appointment, it wouldn’t doom the whole dessert.
Once I recovered from my sickness, I went to the store and picked up a whole bunch of blood oranges to juice. I also wanted to give the granita a little bite, so I bought ginger root to infuse into the simple syrup.
I may have taken too many blood orange glamor shots. For example, here are some oranges sitting in a chair: Continue Reading →
Fiore is my favorite Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, and on a cold Saturday evening before a birthday party in Williamsburg, Ramsey and I stopped in for dinner. It was part of our regular rotation of weekend meal locations when we lived in Greenpoint two years ago, so it was nice to sit down at the same small table by the wall and be served by the same charismatic thirty-something hipster man with arms like a punk rock drummer and tattoos to match.
After we sat down, Charismatic Waiter complimented my dress and launched into the specials of the day. I picked the capellini special with pesto, butternut squash, and prosciutto because those flavors are great on their own, but when combined, I imagined they’d create a Voltron of deliciousness. And boy, did they. The chunks of prosciutto were just the right level of salty and fatty, the butternut squash sweet and tender, and the whole thing was covered with a fresh basil pesto with parmesan.
I tried to recreate the dish in my kitchen last night and it was a success overall. The only issue was that I bought prosciutto pre-cut into tiny cubes, while the original dish had larger chunks. If you decide to try this recipe, I recommended buying a small piece of prosciutto and cutting it yourself at home. If you’re a vegetarian or don’t feel like dealing with meat, you can make the dish with just squash and it’ll still be good.
First, peel and dice half of a butternut squash into into 1″ by 1/4″ chunks.
Next, heat a little olive oil in a pan and cook the squash for about eight minutes, or until tender.
My New Year’s Eve plans were dashed by sickness, so I spent the night on the couch in my pajamas with a pint of mango sorbet. It gave me some time to reflect on the resolutions I made for 2011 and make some new ones for 2012.
2011 Resolution Review
1. Finish planning the wedding and maintain my sanity. Done. Sanity mostly intact.
2. Stick to a strict budget to save for aforementioned wedding. No credit card debt. Ha! Oh, this did not work out. I’m not deep in debt, but there is some. I should be able to dig myself out by mid-2012.
3. Related to three: Cook four nights a week. Bring lunch at least four days a week. I cooked dinner often, but I rarely brought my lunch to work. I kept it up for a few weeks in January of last year, but eventually fell back into my sandwich or fancy salad bar routine. Just laziness.
4. Post on Apartment Dining at least twice a week. Nope. Not even close.
5. Read fifty books. Also not accomplished. I read more in 2011 than I did in 2010, but not enough to meet my goal.
6. Learn how to draw. I took a drawing class and learned the fundamentals, so I think I can mark this as accomplished. Still need a lot more practice.
7. As finances allow, attend more cultural events in New York. Saving for the wedding didn’t allow for too many outings, but the places I did go were great. A few museum trips, some readings, a few shows, etc.
8. Document more. The next year is going to be fun, stressful, crazed, and momentous. I did not document as much as I should have. Let’s mark this as not accomplished.
9. Maintain a work/life balance. Work in the evenings when it’s needed, but devote more time to creative pursuits. Nope. Definitely not. The first six months of the year were focused on wedding planning and the last six months of the year were most intense months of my working life.
Lesson learned: Don’t make too many resolutions for the year that you’re getting married, other than successfully planning said wedding.
Resolutions for 2012
1. Take at least two trips that require plane travel.
2. Take one photo per day, every day. (Yes, I know I tried and failed at this in 2010, but I just got a fancy new camera. It will hopefully serve as a motivator.)
3. Read three books a month. (I know this isn’t ambitious, but between various blogs and my New Yorker subscription, there’s way too much reading material out there.)
4. Bring lunch to work at least three days a week.
5. Take three cooking classes, preferably a knife skills class, chocolate class (need to hone those tempering skills), and a general cooking techniques class.
6. Stick to a regular posting schedule on Apartment Dining. (Let’s shoot for three times a week to start.)
7. Work out three times a week.
8. Rebuild my savings account.
9. Regain work/life balance. For real this time.
10. Take time to paint or draw something at least once a week.
Are you frazzled from the holiday season yet? You’re probably in a better place than I am. I’ve struck most of the to-dos off my list, but I still need to finish my Christmas shopping, buy a whole lot of candy packaging, and make twelve batches of sea salt caramels and marshmallows to share with family when I head upstate. I considered taking a vacation day to wrap candy this week, but things are way too busy at work. Also, the thought of using a vacation day to sit at my kitchen table and twist wax paper around caramels bordered on crazy, so I’ll just stay up until the extra late on Thursday night to wrap and watch Elf on a loop on TBS. Sleep deprivation, sugar, and Buddy the Elf are a recipe for victory.
When Christmas morning finally arrives, all I’ll want to do is collapse, but what better way is there to collapse than onto a couch with a sticky bun in hand? Even better, a sticky bun that’s easy to make and includes the flavors of the season, like citrus, cranberries, brown sugar, and lots (and lots) of butter. If you defrost your puff pastry overnight, this whole recipe should take ten minutes to put together, not counting the baking time.
It starts with mixing up some butter with brown sugar and orange zest.
Then, melt some non-zest-infused-butter, brush it on the puff pastry, and top with all sorts of delicious things.
Next, roll it up and slice it up. Continue Reading →
We have entered soup season. It runs from December to late March —not quite coinciding with winter — and overlaps most of hot tea season, which, as we all know, runs from November until the rainy end of April. Once the sun comes out, so do the ice cubes.
Soup season is a time to slow down and gather your friends, because really, are you going to eat an entire pot of soup alone? You could freeze it for later, but it’s not as fun. One of my favorite soup memories is a miso and tempura party at my friend Allie’s house in late high school (or was it early college?). We got together in her kitchen one afternoon and chopped up mountains of vegetables, mixed up tempura batter, and took turns tossing carrots and mushrooms into a hot wok. Sarah kept an eye on the oil temperature and cooled the tempura batter with ice cubes while someone prepped a big pot of miso soup on the stove. Teamwork.
I didn’t have any extra sets of hands when I made a quick pot of miso soup last weekend, but I did share it with Ramsey when it was done. 
Before I share the recipe though, let me fess up to something: Continue Reading →
I’m back in Brooklyn after a weekend in the Baltimore suburbs with Ramsey and his family. We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner, watched terrible movies (Vampire’s Kiss starring Nicholas Cage) and charming ones (The Muppets), and walked around a massive outlet mall where a Medieval Times “castle” is just a few stores away from a Cinnabon. The internet also taught us a trick for opening a wine bottle without a corkscrew, which Ramsey put to use a few minutes before Thanksgiving dinner:
It felt good to wake up at home this morning, a familiar light fixture above my head and the Brooklyn streets still quiet outside. A perfect time to fill the apartment with the smells of baking and warm spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, and a dash of ground ginger. A perfect time for coffee cake with streusel.
I adapted a Martha Stewart recipe to fit the contents of my refrigerator and available baking pans. Continue Reading →
Ramsey and I are sharing the holidays for the first time this year. We’re braving Penn Station on Thanksgiving morning and taking a train to his brother’s place in the Baltimore suburbs. The cooking will be well underway by the time we arrive, so we’re in charge of bringing wine.
If you’re cooking this week and looking for inspiration, I’ve pulled a few Thanksgiving-friendly recipes from my archives. The Kitchn has also been posting great collections of links to recipes around the web.
Side Dishes
Giblet Gravy (the infamous Mangan family recipe)
Cranberry Apple Relish
Smashed Vanilla Sweet Potatoes
Dessert
Fresh Pumpkin Pie
Apple Cranberry Pie
Friday Breakfast
Cranberry Apricot Muffins
Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Golden Raisins
