Apartment Dining

I picked up a pound of Rose Finn Apple Fingerling Potatoes at the farmers’ market this weekend. These fast-roasting potatoes are often more moist and flavorful than the standard Russet baking potatoes, making them an easy side dish. Here’s a quick recipe:

Oven Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
-1 pound fingerling potatoes, rinsed and dried
-Olive oil
-3 cloves minced garlic
-2 tsp dried rosemary
-Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 500°

2. Place potatoes on in a square baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Toss until all potatoes are fully coated and then add rosemary, garlic, salt, and fresh ground pepper. Toss again.

3. Roast until tender, approx. 20 minutes.

I recently listened to a Radiolab podcast during which Robert Krulwich interviewed Brian Greene, a physics and mathematics professor and director of the Institute of Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics at Columbia University, about his theory that there are an infinite number of universes. He describes the universes as being like the air bubbles in a piece of swiss cheese, however the cheesy space between the infinite number of bubbles is expanding so quickly that it’s impossible to traverse. There’s also a big point about how because there’s a finite number of ways molecules can be arranged, there is an infinite number of universes exactly like ours, therefore exact copies of each and every one of us out there, but I digress.

The swiss cheese in this simile could easily be replaced with a blueberry muffin, as I often feel like the cakey space between the deep purple pockets of blueberries goes on far too long. My answer to this dilemma is a recipe for Extreme Blueberry Muffins: where extreme meets blueberry. It’s a recipe for those who love muffins, but use them as a vehicle for fruit.

This recipe is adapted from one by Alton Brown that uses no butter, but does use yogurt. The result is a very light muffin that has just the right amount of sweetness. I should also note that it’s not the most beautiful muffin, but it tastes great.
» Read the rest of this entry «

As described in my last post, in an effort to cut down on costs and eat healthier, I’ve decided to start bringing my breakfast and lunch to work. On average, I spend about $17 a day on food which includes a pastry and juice for breakfast, and a salad or sandwich for lunch. That’s $85 a week that could be spent on something else, over $4,000 a year. Those sounds like the statistics people rattle off at smokers to try and get them to quit, but this is an addiction I think I can break in just two steps:

1. Bake breakfast in advance.
Week One: Blueberry muffins
I’ll outline the full recipe for these in a later post, but blueberry muffins are easy to bake, pack, and eat on the fly in between morning meetings. They took only thirty-five minutes of my Sunday morning to make and the only ingredients I had to run out for were blueberries and yogurt. If you want to make a large batch of muffins to last you a while, you can actually freeze them once they are completely cooled. Just wrap them in foil and place them in freezer bags for up to 3 months.
Cost: $14

2. Prepare lunch the night before
Week One: Salad and fruit
I already have a sizable chunk of farmer’s cheese in my fridge, so as I was putting together my shopping list this morning, I thought a week of salads and fruit for dessert would be cost effective. I picked up a few heads of romaine, sprouts, a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette, a red pepper, grapes, and a stack of Gladware containers.
Cost: $16

Overall at-work food cost for the week: $30
That’s a savings of $55, so if I keep this up, I could buy a Macbook Air in 32 weeks using just the cash saved by brown bagging it.

I am going to miss the pastry counter at Dean and Deluca though.

Like most people working in offices in Manhattan, I spend a significant amount of money every week on lunches and the occasional breakfast pastry. I stand in winding lines at Dean and Deluca or Olive’s or some other sandwich/salad/soup operation for selections involving rosemary focaccia or creamy goat cheese prepared by someone else.

This weekend, I’m vowing to develop a plan to save money on lunch and repurpose the time I normally spend waiting in line on something more interesting and productive. This will involve a weekly plan of preparing lunches at home and perhaps a large bag of muesli. Full details to come on Sunday.

One of the dishes I made with the heirloom tomatoes this weekend was a roasted tomato pasta. Whenever you don’t want to spend a lot of energy on a pasta dish, but want to keep it classy (aka, not just pouring the usual sauce from a jar over some spaghetti), roasted tomatoes are a great option. There’s a depth of flavor that you don’t get when adding sliced, raw tomatoes, and it puts any jar sauces to shame. Also, the whole dish reheats well, hence the photo above. Here’s the recipe:
» Read the rest of this entry «

Tzatziki, the delicious yogurt sauce that accompanies falafel, gyros, and countless lamb dishes, is one of my favorite things to make. It’s simple to whip up and while I don’t recommend it eating it by the spoonful, I have been known to do so. It requires just eight ingredients to make, and with the growing availability of Greek yogurt, it takes just minutes to prepare. If only plain yogurt can be found at your local grocery store, it’s best to wrap the yogurt in cheese cloth and strain over a bowl for two hours to get the thick, rich consistency tzatziki requires. You should be able to track it down though, particularly the brand above (Fage). I’ve found it in Brooklyn and in the wilds of Upstate New York.

Here’s my basic tzatziki recipe, but you can play with the amounts to suit your own taste.
» Read the rest of this entry «

I’m sad to say the first time I had a true heirloom tomato was only a month ago. I’d been hearing all of the buzz about them, but it wasn’t until my birthday dinner at Dressler that I finally had a chance to try a stack of heirloom slices with my halibut entree. So, is the hype true? Do heirloom tomatoes really put their standard supermarket brethren to shame? I say absolutely. Not only do they have a superior taste and texture, they look fabulous, with a variety of colors ranging from green with zebra-like stripes to deep purple.

There are hundreds of varieties, but they can all be defined by a few key factors: they aren’t genetically modified in any way, no hybrids, they are the result of open-pollination (natural pollination), and the seeds have been passed down for decades, some saying at least 50 years, while some define heirlooms at 100 years.

I picked up a pint of small heirlooms last weekend at the Union Square Greenmarket from Tim Stark’s stand, however the photos above are from this week’s late day remains from another stand. Recipe-wise, they can be used in all of the ways your standard tomato can, but I think any recipe that overpowers their unique flavors is kind of a waste. I like chopping them into 1/2″ by 1/2″ cubes, tossing with a bit of olive oil and small bits of basil, sprinkling with a pinch of salt, and serving alongside any meat or veggie entree that could use a kick of acidity.
» Read the rest of this entry «

I realize having my first two food posts be about barbecue and mac & cheese seems to set a tone of unhealthy eating, but I promise these moments of caloric indulgence are not as often as they appear. I have my share of sensible salads from Olive’s for lunch and home-cooked meals throughout the week. However, this past Saturday, it was time to load up on delicious barbecue at the hippest barbecue spot in the city: Fette Sau.
» Read the rest of this entry «

I have a fairly set schedule every Sunday. I wake up, make my shopping list for the week, and once my boyfriend wakes up, we head to the grocery store. The afternoon is usually wasted by walking around Brooklyn with an iced coffee or lounging around the apartment, so what better time to get a cooking jump start on the week and save some prep time after a workday.

The plan-ahead meal this week was 21st Century Mac & Cheese from The Splendid Table cookbook, How to Eat Supper. It’s a great mix of the comforting favorite from childhood days, while the addition of Gruyere and chopped onion add a new twist. With just 20 minutes of prep time on a lazy afternoon, I was able to come home and throw it in the oven after a very long Monday. Thirty minutes later, a classic is ready to serve.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Most apartment dwellers lack the spacious kitchens, ample outlets for appliances, and time that make the techniques and recipes outlined in so many cookbooks seem easy. I’m not a food expert, but I am a food enthusiast that’s faced with the common challenge of wanting to make delicious meals with just 4 sq.ft. of counter space, two working burners, and an eight hour work day. Apartment Dining is my new ongoing project to document my kitchen successes and failures, and to document the path of my culinary exploration that living in New York City allows.