Apartment Dining

I had an intense smoked meat sandwich today from a new Brooklyn delicatessen called Mile End. The options for the sandwich are not a choice of meat varieties but a choice of fat level: lean, medium, or fatty. It was a delicious, heart-stopping, and slightly overpriced meal that drove me to finally join the gym this evening. And yet, I don’t regret my lunch choice because I’ve been enjoying lighter vegetarian meals the rest of the week.

A prime example is the butternut squash pasta I made on Sunday. It was easy to make and it used almost five ingredients, but a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese put it over the top. I’m placing it under my “Five Ingredients” category anyway because the amount of cheese is minimal enough to count as a seasoning. » Read the rest of this entry «

After a month of limited cooking, it felt good to make my shopping list, grab my reusable canvas bags like a true Park Sloper, and head out to the market for the ingredients for a mushroom ragu. My first recipe of 2010 is not a complicated one, but it is a satisfying, simple dish that reheats well the next day. It can also be doubled (or tripled) to serve as a layer in a vegetarian lasagna.

Before I get to the recipe though, I want to do a quick follow-up on my New Years resolutions. I admit I have not brought my lunch to work this week and I have not written in my journal since Monday. However, I’ve made dinner four nights and I made an appointment to have my wisdom teeth removed. (Can you hear the joy in my prose?) If you have any suggestions for good post-wisdom tooth removal recipes, I’d love to hear them. Now, on to the recipe. » Read the rest of this entry «

Today was my last hurrah for getting takeout for lunch at work, and I went out in style. I had split pea soup and a chunk of baguette from Almondine in DUMBO, followed by two macarons (pistachio and raspberry, respectively). I saved the raspberry macaron for a late afternoon proofreading session and the sugar rush powered me through the rest of the workday.

My new strategy is bringing in leftovers from dinner throughout the week for my lunches, as long as they are conducive to microwave heating. It will motivate me to cook more and save some extra cash to the tune of $50 a week. I’m two weeks away from a nice massage, five weeks from a new winter coat, and thirty-four weeks away from a MacBook Pro.

I started tonight with roasted eggplant and tomato penne that cost me about $5 to make and will last me for three days for lunch and dinner, with a few supplemental items. » Read the rest of this entry «

It’s the end of the week. If you’re like me, you feel like collapsing on the couch, but as you walk through the door of your apartment, you realize you still have to make dinner. The fridge and cupboard are nearly bare, save for a few canned goods and leftover ingredients from meals earlier in the week. Where do you turn? Why, to the culinary namesake of the women employed in the world’s oldest profession of course: pasta puttanesca, or “whore’s pasta.” Legend has it that prostitutes would make this dish because it was fast, easy, and didn’t require fresh produce as they didn’t have time to run out to the market a daily basis.

While the name may not sound appetizing, this simple combination of onion, tomato, capers, and olives really is good, especially with a few slices fresh bread. Recipe after the jump. » Read the rest of this entry «

I admit it: I have not been spending a lot of time in the kitchen over the past few weeks. Trips up north and many visitors in town have led to nights away from my stove, and when I do cook, it’s using simple, tested recipes from the past. This will be rectified after Independence Day weekend, but in the meantime, I wanted to share my stand-by recipe for basil and chive pesto. Summer is not the best time to simmer tomatoes for a pasta sauce and this pesto is a great alternative, requiring just fresh ingredients and a food processor or other blending device.

Basil and Chive Pesto
-1 cup tightly packed basil leaves
-1/4 cup chopped chives
-2 peeled garlic cloves
-1/3 cup walnuts
-1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
-1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil, depending on your taste
-Salt and pepper to taste

1) Add basil, chives, garlic, and walnuts to the food processor and pulse a few times to roughly chop. Add olive oil and pulse 3-4 more times. Add Parmesan cheese, pulse until blended, and then add more olive oil if necessary.

2) Taste and add a dash of salt and pepper if desired. Serve on pasta or use as a in place of marinara sauce on homemade pizza.

Summer is my least favorite season in terms of weather. It hasn’t always been this way, but now that I live in New York, I dread temperatures over 80° and high humidity more than anything winter could throw at me. I could blame my long walk to the subway (20 minutes) or delicate ancestry (Irish), but either way, I become a wilted, cranky mess if I’m outside for too long in the heat. I know this makes me a total wimp and you’re free to insert any phrases involving heat or kitchens here.

I will admit summer isn’t all bad though. It means there’s an abundance of fabulous items at the farmer’s market and on days when the heat and humidity are tolerable, it can be…well…pleasant. Another perk is summer squash: zucchini, yellow summer squash, pattypan, etc. They’re wonderful grilled and roasted, but I love to cook them with pasta and top with a bit of grated Parmesan. Here’s the easy (and cheap!) recipe. » Read the rest of this entry «

When the mood for gnocchi struck earlier this week, I decided to forgo the traditional gnocchi recipe I made before and picked up two sweet potatoes. I am a big fan of pasta dishes with just a hint of sweetness, which I think goes back to my childhood dinners at Little Venice where they add applesauce and sugar to their tomato sauce and cover the dining room walls with old oil paintings. The sugar and paintings are in no way connected, but imagine eating slightly sweet manicotti in a large wood paneled room with antique shop portraits staring down at you. A true Binghamton dining experience.

Although sweet potatoes are relatives of your standard russet potato, their flesh doesn’t behave quite the same way when cooking. Because of this I went on a hunt for a good sweet potato gnocchi recipe to guide the way. » Read the rest of this entry «

Ramsey and I have been trying to keep our weekly grocery bills under fifty dollars without sacrificing too much flavor and variety in our weeknight meals. A well stocked pantry of dry goods, new cooking methods, and planning weekly menus are three great techniques to achieve this, but sometimes you just stumble upon a combination of cheap, (mostly) fresh ingredients that create a great dish.

A prime example of this took place this evening when I made a simple dinner of spinach fettuccine with peas. While it sounds boring, the addition of onion, lemon zest, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese resulted in an expensive-tasting meal for four that cost $5.68. » Read the rest of this entry «

There are two basil plants thriving on the mantle in my bedroom. I picked them up at the farmer’s market in February and they have not only been a great help to my recipes, but my wallet as well. Rather than spending two dollars for a small box of fresh basil leaves at the supermarket, I just walk ten feet, cut a few leaves off of the plants, and I’m ready to go.

The plants recently reached a stage of being weighed down by the amount of leaves that have sprouted. For the good of the plants and my dinner plans, I decided to have a basil harvest this week. It started with a simple Tomato and Basil Pasta. » Read the rest of this entry «

Remember the classic children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, about a town where food falls from the sky for each meal? I found out recently that they’re turning it into a computer animated movie. Although the creators of “Clone High” have written and directed it, I highly doubt it will satisfy a generation for whom the book carries such strong feelings of nostalgia. I don’t know about you, but for me the book inspired many crayon drawings of houses and trees covered in a variety of foodstuffs. (I also understand they’re aiming for the twelve and under set rather than the jaded twenty-somethings in my peer group. The studios are betting we’ll all just go see the film version of Where the Wild Things Are, drawn in by a Dave Eggers screenplay, Spike Jonze’s direction, and a trailer that includes an Arcade Fire song. They’re betting right in my case, but such is life [link probably NSFW].)

Looking up information on a movie about meatballs falling from the sky naturally led me making meatballs in my kitchen. I’ve made meatballs only once before and while they turned out okay, they were far from great. After seeing a number of recipes around the web that combined ground beef with a number of other meats, I decided to try mixing ground beef and pork to create a more flavorful meatball. An additional twist was my use of whole wheat breadcrumbs instead of the traditional Italian breadcrumbs, which I believe added a very subtle nutty and sweet flavor. The recipe and more photos after the jump. Warning to vegetarian/vegan readers: raw meat photos ahead. » Read the rest of this entry «