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Saturday Afternoon in the Park…

You know the World’s Fair Grounds that you see when you’re driving on the Grand Central Parkway and the LIE?

Well, that’s where we live: Forest Hills, Queens. Our local park is Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which is huge and includes a museum, a zoo, a botanical gardens, the USTA Tennis Center, Shea Stadium, a public theatre, the 1964 World’s Fairgrounds, a pool, a ice skating rink, numerous fields, the New York Hall of Science, and a sailing school.

We packed a picnic and rode our bikes over to the park and picked a great plot of grass to feast.

We made:

Egg salad:

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped. The best way is to put the eggs in a pot with cold water, and bring to a boil, uncovered. When the water comes to a boil, cover the pot and turn off the heat. 9 minutes later, the eggs are perfectly hard-boiled.

Diced gherkins, chopped scallions, 1 finely diced carrot, chopped dill and chopped parsley, 1 T whole grain mustard, 1 T mayo, salt, pepper.

Quick Pickled Radishes:

Bring to a boil: enough water to cover the radishes with equal amounts (in this case about 2-3 T) salt and sugar dried tarragon, diced lemon rind, and mustard seed. After it boils, and the salt and sugar is dissolved, pour the liquid over sliced radishes in a glass container–Ball jars or Working Glasses. The pickles can be kept in the pickling liquid until eaten. This method can be used for pickling most root vegetables (carrots, daikon, beets…)

Roasted Potatoes:

Toss potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400F oven until cooked (between 30-40 minutes, depending on size…)

Olives:

My favorite are the cracked green Sicilians from Fairway (marinated with jalepeno peppers).

Cheese:

Kasseri: A Greek cheese that we got at fairwary… Delicious!

Strawberries and Whipped Cream:

To finish it off, strawberries with freshly whipped cream (whipped with sugar and a little vanilla).

I never really make pilafs, but…

I wanted to give it a shot. I had leftover quinoa and a bunch of vegetables and some boneless skinless chicken breasts that I wanted to use… It ended up delicious–this is what I did.

I put a diced onion, carrot and a few cloves of garlic in a pyrex.

Then I added the cooked quinoa, green beans, frozen chopped spinach, frozen bell peppers (Trader Joe’s really has great frozen veggies!) I added some homemade curry powder (from a Mark Bittman recipe) and some ancho chili powder, olive oil, salt, and a cup of vegetable stock. It cooked, covered, for about 25 minutes on 350.

Then I nestled the chicken, which had been grilled first (just so the outside was marked) into the mixture and cooked for another 20-25 minutes.

It ended up really juicy, spicy, healthy, tasty…and is definitely a keeper. I look forward to trying it with tempeh too…

Clean food night

We try to eat macro once a week…Tonight was it…

Quinoa, roast beets and steamed broccoli, carrots, red onion and tofu. The sauce was also really simple…Black bean paste, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Weekly mise en place.

One great way to ensure that you’re not in the kitchen all week is to make a few large portions of something that will last. I usually do this on Sunday night but I had a wedding last night (a GREAT wedding!) so I did it tonight. I made gazpacho and tabbouleh salad.

Gazpacho:

First I peeled 5 large tomatoes. To accomplish this, you must core the stem end and make an X on the other end. Then place the tomatoes in boiling water for about 15-20 seconds, then transfer directly into an ice bath. The boiling water expands the tomato and then the ice water quickly contracts it, so the skin remains loose enough to easily peel off.

Then, I seeded the tomatoes and chopped them in the Cuisinart with 1/4 red onion, 1 small clove garlic and peeled cucumber, olive oil and some sherry vinegar.

The complete gazpacho looks better in real life. But anyway, it tastes good.

I was inspired to make tabbouleh when I saw it on sale for something absurd, like $4.99 for a small container. It was super easy to make, and I got a very large bag of bulgur wheat for $3.49 (which will probably make 20 servings or more!)

It is really easy to make, and there is no real cooking (Sam would be sent home if this was a Top Chef challenge).

Tabbouleh:

First soak the bulgur for about 30 minutes in boiling water, then drain any water remaining. Then add chopped/seeded tomato, chopped cucumber, chopped parsley (LOTS), olive oil/lemon juice, salt/pepper. Mint is traditionally added too, but I didn’t have any. Oh well. Still good.

Tomorrow’s lunch:

gazpacho, tabbouleh, and a sandwich (on fresh bread), Roast beef for Matthew,  fakin’ bacon for me (–which is actually much better, and much less frankenfood than it sounds…its just strips of seasoned , marinated tempeh.)

Dinner, Monday

Sometimes when we’re busy cooking for the week, we make something super easy for dinner, which is what we did tonight. As easy as it is, it is actually one of our favorites, and one of the cheapest.

Stuffed baked potato… With: Chopped avocado tossed with lime, salt, and chopped red onion; Cannellini beans (left over from today’s salad) tossed with ancho chili powder; Salsa; Grated cheddar cheese.

Basically, YUM!

Monday, Lunch

One way we save lots-o-money is by bringing our lunch to work every day. In NYC, even a cheap lunch is around $10. We’ve figured out that our lunches usually cost around $3, so we save around $35 EACH a week.

Most of the time, we pack up our lunch the night before so it is all ready to go in the AM. I usually pack a few small portions of different foods, so we can eat throughout the day. We each have lunch boxes too, which is cute.

Today we had chicken/potato leftovers, a simple tomato/bean salad, stawberries/blueberries and yogurt, and an apple. The bigger containers are Matthew’s. Mine are the smaller ones. I’m pretty picky about Tupperware, and I happen to LOVE these containers.

Tomato/bean salad

halved grape tomatoes
canned (rinsed) cannellini beans
chopped parsley
chopped scallion
feta cheese
red wine vinegar/olive oil/salt/pepper

Oh yeah, breakfast was toast with cream cheese.

Sunday on the Fairway

Fairway is hands down the greatest grocery store around. There are 4 in the New York area… 2 in manhattan, 1 in Red Hook Brooklyn, and one in Plainview. We’ve been making the trip out to Plainview once every couple of weeks, and while there’s no bulk section, it delivers in every other department.

Here’s what we got:

• Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit – 2 64 oz. cartons
• Stonyfield Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt – 32 oz.
• Green Mountain Gringo Salsa – Medium
• Canola Oil – 32 oz.
• Organic extra large eggs



• Unbleached Bread Flour
• Bob’s Bulgur soft wheat
• seedless watermelon
• 2 lbs. Santo Domingo Coffee
• 1 lb. Salvadore Estate Peaberry Coffee
• Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Bulgarian Feta Cheese



• Kasseri basdra katerini (cheese)
• Sicilian Green Olives
• Parmesan Cheese
• Cornichon (gherkins)
• Russet Potatoes
• Italian Parsley



• Beets
• Carrots – 2lbs
• Peppermill Turkey
• Fairway Roast Beef (the best!)
• Fakin Bacon
• Green Leaf Lettuce
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Kosher Boneless Chicken Breast
• Yellow Peaches
• Small (tiny!) white potatoes
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Garlic
• Red Onions
• Limes
• String Beans
• Radishes
• Shitake Mushrooms
• Hot House Cucumber
• Bag of Onion

Total price…………………………………………..$150.60

Now the challenge is on! Make it last!

The Quickest, Easiest Bread (Allow 24 hours)

This is hands down the easiest and best bread to make. And when I say hands down, I mean it… there is NO KNEADING INVOLVED. You won’t believe that you actually made it yourself, it tastes like it came from a fancy french bakery… and it really couldn’t be any easier. You just need some time. This recipe came from Jim Lahey of Sullivan bakery by way of Mark Bittman by way of the New York Times. Its a real gem.

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Bread Flour
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Cups Water

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast and salt until well combined. Add the water and mix with your hand just for a few seconds until all the flour is incorporated. The mixture will be quite sticky and shaggy. That’s normal.

Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and leave it for 15-20 hours. When ready it will be dotted with air bubbles and will have risen considerably.

Dump the dough out onto a well floured surface and fold it on itself a couple of times.

Let it rest for 10 minutes. Next, flour your hands and the dough (with just enough flour to allow you to handle the dough) and shape it into a ball. The dough will be very sticky and not so easy to handle. Don’t worry if its not pretty, it’ll all work out, trust me.

Now place the dough on a kitchen towel that’s dusted with yellow cornmeal, dust the top of the dough with more yellow cornmeal, and cover with another kitchen towel.

Let it rise for 2 hours, or until it doubles in size. It’s done when a pressed finger depression doesn’t quickly bounce back.

1/2 hour before the dough is ready, preheat an oven to 500 degrees, and place a Cast Iron pot with a lid into the oven.

After the oven has preheated, slide your hands under the kitchen towel and toss the dough in, seem side up (again don’t worry if its not pretty), and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

Take the lid off and bake another 15-30 minutes or until there’s a nice golden crust.

Turn out onto a cooling rack, and ta dah!

Easy huh?

Shabbat Shalom.

After a long week, Matthew and I like to stay in on Friday nights, regroup, reconnect and relax. Some of our best meals have been cooked on Friday nights. An old standby is roasted chicken. People are always asking me, “How do you roast chicken?”. Its actually quite simple, and it lends itself to a whole range of different spice combinations.

I usually buy a small chicken, 3-4 pounds. After rinsing it in cold water, and patting it dry, I place it in a large Le Creuset roaster, on top of sliced onions and surround with cut potatoes and garlic. I put olive oil on the chicken, followed by salt, pepper and paprika. Sometimes I use curry powder. Sometimes I used dried herbs like thyme or herbes de provence.

Then, the chicken goes into a 400F oven for about 1 hour. Occasionally I baste the bird, but it’s not that necessary. It is really fool-proof. When it comes out, it’s perfectly golden..

.

Sometimes I serve it as is, but this time I cut it into 6 pieces and placed them back in the roaster, on top of the potatoes, for another 10 minutes.

The chicken was served with the roasted potatoes and a light cucumber salad (dill, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper).