Apartment Dining

I spent Christmas in Binghamton this year and took a few photos during my visits to the homes of relatives and friends. I forgot to grab my camera during our actual meals, but did manage to take a few photos of desserts and snacks. As a disclaimer, I should mention I cooked/baked/prepared nothing pictured here, but it was all delicious. More shots after the jump. » Read the rest of this entry «

I spent Thanksgiving at my mother’s house upstate in Lake George. Her house is surrounded by snow-covered mountains and evergreen trees (as you can see in the post below), making it a perfect escape from the city. I am also envious of her large kitchen with countertop space to spare and a window overlooking a forest above the sink. Photos of Thanksgiving preparations and giblet gravy after the jump. » Read the rest of this entry «

I’m taking a short break from peeling potatoes, simmering cranberries, and sneaking bites of roast chestnut stuffing from the stove here in the Adirondack Mountains. It looks like this outside:
 

Thanksgiving recap will come later.

I think that I’m a healthy eater. I enjoy organic produce, meals with little dairy and low on bad fats, very few processed foods, and I can count the number of times I’ve consumed fast food in the past year on one hand (usually french fries at a rest stop on I-87 where my food options were limited). I’m not bringing this up to make myself sound like a food snob, rather, I’m trying to balance out the Thanksgiving food tradition I’m about to discuss: Mangan Family-Style Turkey Giblet Gravy. (Vegetarian readers may want to bail before the jump.) » Read the rest of this entry «

Last spring, I decided to take pictures of my dinners for a month, give or take a few days that I forgot to take a picture until after I finished eating. I decided to continue the experiment in real time by creating an Apartment Dining Twitter feed devoted to every meal, dessert, and snack I consume. I’m really interested to see what this snapshot looks like, and while I considered just doing it in a journal, I decided that since I have this blog, why not update a Twitter account by phone a few times a day?

You can find the latest update from the feed in the top right corner of the sidebar, but if you’re on Twitter (or even if you’re not), you can follow me here.

If you’re looking for a way to organize a small apartment kitchen, you only need to glance out your window for inspiration. It’s easy to draw parallels between limited kitchen space and the limited amount of land within New York City’s borders that’s available for development. The solution New York (and all other urban centers) found was going vertical, so why not apply that to the kitchen?   » Read the rest of this entry «

Attention Brooklynites: On Sunday, October 19th, Enid’s will be holding their 6th Annual Apple Pie Bake-Off. Anyone can enter and all pies are due at by 6PM. Full details can be found on the Greenpointers blog.

I may enter, depending on how a test pie goes this weekend. I think I need a rolling pin.

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.

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 «