and so it begins

um...
ok.
yay! now that thanksgiving, i mean halloween, i mean columbus day has passed, christmas is right around the corner!
oy.

i love the holidays. i do--it's all about family and loved ones and food and celebration, but come on people--let's not get carried away.

let's just take it one day at a time.

every day is getting a little bit colder and a little bit shorter. i discovered this weekend that the delicious honeydew melon and raspberries i had been relishing each week had suddenly lost their sweetness. sign of the times, i guess.

solstice is upon is.  the lightness of the summer and early autumn has passed and the darkness of the heavy winter months has been begun to settle. i have been craving whole grains and dark vegetables to warm my belly and last night i made a little of both.

as a kid i used to hate brussel sprouts. i found their flavor offensively bitter and resented their flowery orbed layers. had i not been so quick to give up meat, i probably would have referred to them pejoratively as the "anti-meatball;" small, well-contained, but unlike a meatball, completely lacking in depth and savoriness.  now that i have matured and developed a taste for all things earth-grown, i recently discovered that not only do i find brussel sprouts really delicious, i also think they are sort of comforting in a winter vegetable kind of way. funny how our palates can change so drastically over the years.

i decided to cook up some brussel sprouts along side a butternut squash risotto with shitake mushrooms. the risotto was really good, but it wasn't quite how i envisioned it. i imagined fresh creamy chunks of butternut squash contrasting crunchy pumpkin seeds. after picking up the risotto and mushrooms, i got home only to discover the butternut squash chunks i had in the fridge had gone bad and i was unsuccessful in finding the pumpkin seeds on such short notice. the brussel sprouts however were just right. usually i cook them in a pan with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper, garlic, and lemon. instead i decided to roast them and add pomegranate seeds with a bit of heat to give them some extra winter warmth. this dish is coincidentally red and green, so if you're already really excited about christmas, you can start thinking about adding this to your menu as a festive side.

ROASTED BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH CHIPOTLE POMEGRANATE SEEDS

preheat the oven to 400f
make a sauce of 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar, 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp miso, 2 tbsp brown mustard (mix well)
spray a baking sheet so it's well coated and spread out 2 cups of brussel sprouts
spray the brussel sprouts until they are well coated
sprinkle sea salt and pepper evenly  over the brussel spouts
with a spoon, drizzle the sauce evenly over the brussel sprouts
roast for 30-40 mins (until they are charred but not burnt)
transfer the brussel sprouts into a bowl and squeeze the juice of one lemon and mix
in a separate bowl mix  add 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds and 1/2 tbsp of ground chipotle
add to the brussel sprouts and mix
(feeds 4 as a side)


* BONUS ROUND! ROASTED SWEET POTATO "FRIES"

these are not fries because they are not fried. but guess what? they taste like they are!

i made them a few nights ago and they're just so good and easy to make i had to tell you.

i used the pre-sliced sweet potato spears from trader joe's because they're so convenient. if you can't get to a trader joes, you can just slice up a sweet potato into thin spears, and that will work just as well.

preheat the oven to 425f

use 1 bag of trader joe's sliced sweet potato, or 1 1/2 cups of sweet potato sliced into small spears

coat a baking sheet until it is well coated

lay the potato spears out evenly on the baking sheet

sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, & fresh rosemary

* sprinkle a little nutritional yeast and cumin over the potatoes (optional)

roast for approx. an hour or until "fries" are crispy (but not burnt)

eat up (you may not want to share. i didn't)

the good, the bad, and the vegan

you know how sometimes you're in a club in times square and a midget in a zombie mask is leading you from the coffin you were just in to the entrance of hell? no? oh, ha ha. musta have been a dream.

wait a minute....that was no dream and i woke up with the headache to prove it.

do you like haunted houses? well, if you like yours with a side of absinthe and a g-string then you'll probably want to go check out this place before nov 1st.

last night i visited club purgatorio, which was scenic designed by the company i work for. i definitely made the mistake of thinking halloween and burlesque go better with jagermeister, so if you think having fun should be a painful experience, then yeah, this place is for you.

if you prefer not to abuse yourself but instead treat yourself to the most delicious vegan ice-cream in the world, may i recommend lula's sweet apothecary which is quite literally the sweetest little ice cream parlor i ever did see. they are a tiny little shop with a lot of personality. there are great vintage posters on the walls, excellent music playing, and they will make you a non-dairy egg cream (no egg, no cream) with an old-fashioned seltzer bottle! (they also have gluten-free cones and tons of gf options!) their inventive ice "cream" flavors are the best part. made with either a soy or a nut base, my favorites have been their soft-serve cake batter, peanut butter & jelly, and the elvis, which was a mind-blowing combo of fried bananas, peanut butter, jelly, & chocolate covered soy bacon! crazy, i know, but don't knock it till you try it--it was outta this world. tonight i did a half maple & waffles, and half drumstick, which was like a deconstructed version of one of those frozen treats you get in the ice cream bin at deli's. it was a lovely little medley of flavor, and after a few bites of creamy sweetness, last night in hell seemed like a bad dream that had finally faded away.

i can't quit you, pumpkin OR how to have pumpkin pie for dinner and dessert

i know, i know. another entry about pumpkin?

i have an addiction and it's going really well.

you're probably thinking, do you eat anything that doesn't have pumpkin in it?

not if i can help it.

pretty soon it's going to get really cold and all of a sudden all the fuss over squash will be over and our stores will be stocked with fruit cakes and hams and loaf-like things, so let's just enjoy it while we can, ok?

i wanted to eat a lot of pumpkin pie the other night but i didn't feel like making a crust, so instead i made a crustless pumpkin pie and it was great. it was just like eating a pie made entirely of the filling, and that's the best part. then i thought, this would also taste really good as a savory dish if i added some veggies and didn't sweeten it. sort of like a quiche meets a fritatta meets a pumpkin pie and they all live happily ever after....in my belly. i don't know what you would call it--maybe a pumptatta, or a frumpkin, or a pumpiche, or a puichetatta. hmmm...i think i'll just call it dinner.

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

1 can (12 oz) regular or fat-free evaporated milk

3 egg whites

1/2 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp vegetable broth

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup sweet potato chopped in very small cubes

1/2 cup shitake mushrooms (or crimini) chopped up

1/4 leeks chopped up

1/4 cup garlic chopped up

1 tbsp fresh rosemary in small pieces

1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (optional)

preheat oven to 350F

combine all ingredients in a blender except vegetables, rosemary, garlic & cheese

blend until smooth

pour blended mixture into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except cheese.

use a spoon to mix all ingredients

pour into a greased pie pan

bake for 20 minutes then add cheese to the top

bake for another 40 minutes or until firm

cool for at least one hour

i had some leftover mix so i poured it into a muffin mold.

pretty cute.

if you want to make the sweet version and have that for dessert, it's the same recipe but add:

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

and NO veggies, cheese, savory spices, rosemary or vegetable broth. ( duh.)

you could also sprinkle some brown sugar on top or a little crushed granola if you wanted some texture.

i also want to point out that the savory version of this dish is really healthy and light, so it would be nice with a salad or some greens. you can feel free to add different veggies and mix it up. the possibilities are endless with a pumtattiche!

you can but you can't

you grow up somewhere. you don't really have much to compare it to but you're pretty sure there's better places out there. you live down the street from a strip mall and you yearn for something more. you dine at a local chinese restaurant, frequent the salad bar at the wendy's where all the ladies know your name but still you crave more exotic flavors. your father listens to impassioned broadway musicals on his car tape deck and you start to dream big. at the age of 11 you hire your sister to act in a one woman production of les miserables that you intend to direct. within minutes of the first rehearsal you fire her and replace her with yourself.

you visit new york on a family vacation and experience yellow taxis, neon lights, stage doors, the smell of burning meat on the street and bodegas..oh heaven is a bodega with its all-night hours and endless possibilities of snacks. you are in love.

meanwhile you live in cleveland, ohio and return to the midwest with its oversized supermarkets and feathered bangs with a whetted taste for eastern celerity and infinite contingency.

this past weekend i visited louisville, kentucky and i couldn't shake this nagging feeling everywhere i went. i felt it when i walked down the depressed streets of the downtown area that had been hard-hit by the recession. i sensed it as i came upon dried acres of corn fields just over the border of indiana, and i was overwhelmed by it on the somewhat artsy bardstown rd that had its fair-share of music stores and head shops but was peppered with fast food restaurants too. that feeling was nostalgia. here i am, 29 years old. i have lived in new york city for 7 years and spent 4 years before that in ny state. i am, i think, a new yorker. i know the subways like the back of my hand. i can tell you where to get good sushi in any neighborhood. i am easily provoked but not easily deterred. i am assertive (but not aggressive) i am artistic (but not crazy) i am health conscious (but not a hippie) i am hip (but not a hipster) i am political (but not fanatical) i am sympathetic (but not naive). i have all the characteristics of what i truly have become; a young woman living in new york city trying to maintain her artistic integrity while attempting to survive the crushing financial demands of living here. it is tough and it will wear you down like nobody's business. maybe that is why the few moments i had in kentucky were incredibly sentimental and filled me with a renewed sense of self. cause you know what? you can take the girl out of the midwest, but she's always gonna remember where she came from.

so, let's talk 'tucky.

i don't have many pictures except for the day we visited huber's orchard & winery. i went with the purpose of visiting my boyfriend, mark, who is in an excellent production of a midsummer night's dream at the actors theatre of louisville. he had two shows on sat & sun so we didn't get to do much until his day off on monday. that day we headed over the river with a few of his cast mates to starlight, indiana (if that's not the coolest name for a town, i don't what is) to go pick some apples and pumpkins.

we went for apples first, and although it is fun to get lost in a labyrinth of apple trees, it was a little late in the season to score. most of the trees were pretty picked over and the ones still hanging were in sad shape. we did see a lot of pretty lady bugs like this one:

the pumpkins were a similar story. all the perfectly round and gleaming orange pumpkins were displayed at the entrance of the orchard where you could pick one out a bin and bring it home, but if you wanted to go to the patch and get your hands dirty, you were going to leave with a whole different kind of squash. we passed these beauties on our tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. little did we know what was in store...

the patch, like the orchard was a little...picked over.

mark and his friend, andrew, had an immediate affinity for these imperfect creatures and took pride in choosing the wartiest most discolored ones they could find. judging by their standards, they both took home very fine specimen indeed.

next we visited the winery where they specialized in homemade fruit wines like spiced apple, strawberry and peach. we all went gaga for the blackberry wine, but that's probably because they gave us chocolate with it. of all the wines my favorite was the traminette, which was similar to a riesling but not as syrupy and very light. you can get 8 tastings there for $8, which is a pretty great deal. here's a pic of mark and i (and andrew in the background) enjoying our wine

nothing quite goes with wine like cheese, and huber's just happens to have a cheese shop next door to the winery! how serendipitous! we devoured this smoked swiss stick. everyone commented that it tasted like beef jerky. i've never had beef jerky, so i just thought it tasted like delicious.

back at the farm we attempted to balance these turban pumpkins (that's really what they are called)!

mark was definitely better at it than i was. we headed back to louisville quite pleased with our outing, but not without sampling some peanut butter fudge and grabbing a loaf of jalepeno cheese bread that ended up being delicious with eggs the next morning.

i could tell you more, like the four variety pancake breakfast i had cooked that morning or the memorable dinner we had at ramsi's on bardstown rd that night (if you go there do yourself a favor and order the roasted garlic and goat cheese with grilled bread appetizer), but then it would sound like all i did was eat. ha ha ha...woops. ahh...vacation.

just a few things before i go

this blog is a baby blog. it's still just a little infantile version of what it will grow up to be. it still has indistinguishable features, awkward balancing, and plenty of baby fat. when it grows up it will be  steady with a clear voice and much better pictures. oh, the pictures! they are driving me crazy. i need a better camera. need. if my blog was in first grade it would have big pink awkward glasses (like i did), a retainer (thankfully i didn't) and an arm cast (did) because the pictures just aren't perfect and serene like the other kids blogs. grr...but we all know the thing about the awkward kids right? they blossom into swans or something..or they just stay awkward.

so please, just wait and see.

in the meantime, i wanted to mention a few things that are making me happy right now:

THE MIDWEST sort of. i'll explain:

firstly, i am happy about sufjan stevens who is from detroit, michigan.

i had the great pleasure of seeing sufjan in concert on tuesday night, and it was an amazing experience. sufjan, who is honey-voiced and soft-eyed on stage, is best know for quiet, intimate melodies that are both poetically spiritual and heartbreakingly tender. he is an accomplished musician who played several different instruments over the course of the night (including guitar, banjo, and piano) as well as an amazing composer who was at times accompanied by several harmonies and a variety of wind, percussion, and string instruments. he was able to seamlessly transition from a haunting solo song at the piano to an explosive cacophany of music featuring a 10-piece band creating a dissonant wall of sound that would suddenly retract into the purest of melodies. i have been in awe of sufjan's talents ever since i heard his album, greetings from michigan, which features nostalgic renderings of his birth place. he is also well known for the equally cogent illinoise, another midwest state-themed concept album. so thanks midwest for making sufjan.

i am happy right now about louisville, kentucky, because that's where i am headed in the morning. my sweetie is in a production of a midsummer night's dream  at the actors theatre of louisville, and i am very much looking forward to seeing him and exploring a new place.

i am also happy about the midwest because i grew up there-in shaker heights, oh to be exact, and i think it was a pretty cool place to spend the better part of my formative years.

CHILDREN'S MOVIES

children's movies have been ruling the silver screen lately. i'm still reeling from up, salivating at the previews for where the wild things are, and gushing over how much i loved cloudy with a chance of meatballs. seriously, the term "children's movie" is no longer a pejorative way to describe a film because the folks who make these flicks are smart-- they have figured out how to make movies that are poignant,  entertaining, and bitingly funny. they often contain the perfect mix of humor and tenderness that anyone can appreciate. i also want to point out that when i saw cloudy.., i LOVED the previews. no tedious action flicks, no cheesy horror films, just cool interesting creative films like the fantastic mr. fox directed by wes anderson! watch the trailer here.

HATS, SCARVES, & GLOVES

i know, winter can be so long and cold and dark, but i must admit that there's nothing like breaking out those cozy scarves and hats after they've spent a summer hibernating in the closet. and what could be more romantic looking than this ensemble from anthropologie?

mmm..so cozy.

i'll be back in a few days with news from kentucky!

pumpkin time

i love the fall. i know i've said it before, but i'll say it again--i love the colors of the leaves, the crisp air, the dry smoky smell of fireplace, but the thing i love most of all are pumpkins. only once a year do they appear so ubiquitously, and that time is now. as if overnight, pumpkins have taken over. they are lining the stoops of brownstones, overflowing outside of bodegas, starring on menus all over town and are even the latte flavor du jour. i say, bring it on. pumpkin is fall's quarterback and suddenly i'm a cheerleader. so, i bought myself a nice looking sugar pumpkin at trader joe's a few days ago and finally dug in tonight.

i decided to make soup so i cut my pumpkin into approx. 2-inch pieces and put them in the oven to roast for about 25 minutes. in the meantime, i decided to cook up some pepitas with the bounty of seeds i had just inherited. that turned out to be an excellent idea. i threw the seeds into a pan that i had very lightly greased with olive oil spray ( i like the trader joe's or spectrum brand) i added sea salt, dried rosemary and a pinch of cayenne. i turned up the burner to medium high and watched the pepitas toast until they were nicely browned and crisp. they turned out so well that i had to seriously restrain myself from eating them all. they're crispy, salty, savory--just like a really good potato chip, but much better for you. yum!

i love pumpkin soup so much that i briefly contemplated naming this blog after it, but my dog's name is also pumpkin, so i realized that might be confusing for people who know that about me. i bought a pomegranate a few days ago and thought the crunchiness of the seeds might be a really nice contrast to the velvety soup. indeed.

POMEGRANATE PUMPKIN SOUP

1 small/medium sugar pumpkin

2/3 cup vegetable broth

2 tbsp fresh ginger sliced into small pieces

2 tbsps unsweetened apple sauce ( natural cinnamon flavor is recommended)

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp agave or maple syrup or brown sugar

1 pinch of cayenne (optional)

2 tbsp plain or vanilla greek yogurt

1 pomegranate

preheat oven to 425 degrees. cut the pumpkin into 2" pieces and roast for approx. 25 minutes, or until soft. when ready, add to 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth. add ginger, spices and 1/3 of the pomegranate's seeds and let simmer for 10 minutes. transfer soup to a food processor and add apple sauce, yogurt and sweetener (you may have to do this in batches). after the soup is blended, add the rest of the pomegranate seeds and stir.

atlantic antic

i'm not going to say too much about the atlantic antic, except that it is the best street fair ever. it is seemingly never-ending, there is music the whole way, there is great shopping, and every type of food in the world is represented (a lot of it fried). here are a few pictures of things i ate and things i didn't eat, but wanted to. guess which ones are the fried oreos.

chelsea market

i am stuffed. this weekend was foodtastical. i ate so well i felt like i was famous, or royalty, or even a socialite who's famous for being royalty. it was great, and pretty cheap. how did this happen? well friends, it started with a little adventure known as chelsea market.


on saturday afternoon my friend, flora, and i were wandering the west side and decided to pop into the market and have a look. she'd never been in and i'd only been there once, but they were closing the last time and i didn't get to see much. it turned out to be a food lovers paradise. this is no secret, and believe me, i feel pretty silly being a new yorker of 8 yrs and not catching on until now.  we wandered through aisles of exotic spices, homemade jams, and stinky cheeses. we oohed and ahhed over squid ink pasta, whole black truffles & jars of pears in brandy. we made mental notes of what we wanted to come back and buy once we had acquired small fortunes and promised ourselves that day would come.

at this point we had been in the italian grocery, buon italia (did i mention whole truffles?) and in chelsea market baskets (wonderful chocolates, spices, & gifts). we headed down to the seafood market, and that's where things really started cooking. or in this case, stayed raw. the lobster place is a spacious and inviting market with every kind of seafood imaginable. the selection is outstanding and i don't know if you will find fresher fish in new york. we lamented that we weren't going straight home so we couldn't pick anything up for later, but then we found the oyster bar. flora and i have a history of eating oysters together, and we do it well. the lobster place had about 8 or 9  east & west coast varieties, each for about $1.50. we couldn't resist getting 2 of each and some sashimi from the sushi station. the guys who worked there quickly shucked our oysters and plated them on ice with lemon and tobasco. we suddenly had an impromptu oyster and sashimi feast for about $20 each. score.

everything was delicious. i don't think i've had better salmon, and the yellowtail (which was snow white) was unbelievably creamy. the oysters were salty, sweet, nutty, briny, and creamy. we felt like we had won the (raw fish) lottery!

once we had devoured our seafood, we headed into chelsea wine vault. here's a confession: i know a bit about wine, but sometimes i will try something just because i really like the label. after looking around for a bit, we agreed that the best labels were coming out of washington state. it was like each bottle was cooler than the next; the designs were bold, modern, understated, and a little bit punk rock. this turned out to not be a coincidence. we soon learned all of the wines we were admiring came from the same maker--charles smith. this guy is not messing around. i read on his website he used to manage rock bands in scandinavia before he started making wine, so yeah, he's a bad-ass. they are really reasonably priced and getting a lot of attention. i've had his kung fu riesling before, and it's everything a riesling should be: sweet but not too sweet, crisp, fruity and refreshing. his wines are like that kid in school that's so cool you kind of want to hate him, but he's so nice you end up becoming best friends and getting into a whole bunch of new music as a result. you know what i'm talking about, right? sure you do.

and then we noticed these guys:

i'm not much of a whiskey drinker, but these bottles were hot. and totally cute. i won't ever be able to take a sip of whiskey and not grimace a little, but these made me wish i could i hang out in a dark  bar all night long discussing jazz and alfred hitchcock films while the well-suspendered* bartender gives me refills of hudson whiskey. however, we got busted once again for lusting after booze because it was pretty. fortunately, the employees of the store were really nice and we learned that hudson whiskey actually comes from tuthill spirits, which is the first whiskey distillery in new york since prohibition. woah! and they produce the first 100% corn whiskey in all of the usa. the only other whiskey of its kind is made in ireland. we were so enthralled by our lesson that we were given a tasting! like i said, whiskey's not my drink, but i still felt pretty cool getting invited to the secret tasting room. oh yeah,-- the tasting room also had cupcakes.

*(not a word until now)

for the love of artichokes

if you were a vegetable what kind would you be? a carrot-- sharp, a little sweet, and kinda no nonsense? or maybe a mushroom-- earthy, versatile, possibly exotic? what about an artichoke-- prickly and sharp on the outside but soft and amazingly appealing on the inside? hmm.... i don't wanna be a vegetable, i just wanna eat them. especially the artichoke!

ever since i was a kid i have had a love affair with artichokes. my mom would serve them on special occasions, or maybe they just felt like special occasions because they were being served. i relished pulling off each leaf one by one and and sucking off the meaty flesh. i worked meticulously until i got to the fuzzy core (my mom would generously and patiently remove this part for me) and then i would take the heart and let it luxuriously bathe in my bowl of warm margarine (because it was the 80's) and lemon juice that my mom had prepared. in the meantime i would eat whatever else comprised our dinner until i felt that the artichoke has been sufficiently soaked and that i had waited long enough and shouldn't resist any longer.  the artichoke is a wonder; just the act of eating it is process but once your work on the leaves is finished, you will be well rewarded. the heart is pure decadence, but it is completely healthy. it is full of vitamins, high in fiber, low in fat and calories and an excellent source of anti-oxidants. okay, i'm gushing now, but guess what...i think it may be perfect.

here's the thing-sometimes i want artichokes but i don't want to wait. i want to add them quickly to a pasta or a salad without cooking them or going through the full deconstruction process. canned artichokes are a good solution, but let's face it--they lose a lot of flavor hanging out in those aluminum cans of water for so long. well, i think i may have the perfect solution. yesterday i picked up 2 bags of these in whole foods, and now i am officially obsessed. apparently monterey farms is down the block from the artichoke capital of the world, so they know what they're doing. they come in 4 flavors and i have tried two--the grilled and the buffalo. the  grilled was earthy, a little smoky and perfectly charred. the buffalo was intense; garlicky and a little spicy. i can't think of anything i'd like more that a warm bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, a little olive oil, and some of these guys. i'll confess that i've eaten them three times today; i scrambled some of the buffalo ones with eggs this morning then threw the rest into my salad at lunch. for dinner i stir-fried some of the grilled ones with some kale, seitan, mushrooms, &  tomatoes and they were delicious. sadly, this means i have almost depleted my meager reserve, so i'll have to stock up next time i'm at whole foods. until then, happy artichoke dreams to me.

* the above photo of the artichokes is not mine. the link to it on flickr is here. i do not own a polaroid camera, but if you are ever inclined to give me one as a gift, i would encourage you to do so, as it will be greatly appreciated.