The King is dead. Long live the King!

While we were in NYC I spent two lovely weeks working at a magazine downtown. It was a great return to my old life, and I had a fantastic time with the staff there. The second week, my editor came in on Monday or Tuesday looking very pleased with himself, and revealed that he had acquired a limited edition Reese’s Peanut Butter and Banana Creme Cup, released in honor of the 30th anniversary of Elvis’s death. He’d decided to wait until Thursday, the actual anniversary, to hold a ceremonial tasting.

Which we did.

(Note: I loathe banana flavored things, and pretty much hate real bananas.)

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We very cautiously cut one of the cups into quadrants. (David had tried to get more so everyone could “enjoy” their own cup, but the bodega ran out. Limited edition, see.) The “banana cream” (shudder) was clearly visible and very solid. At least there wasn’t an ooze factor.

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It smelled strongly of banana, fairly realistically, but the flavor wasn’t as pungent. I choked it down very bravely, and even managed to wait about a minute before grabbing for the seltzer I had prudently set nearby. Maybe a non-banana-hater could weigh in more fairly, but this got a solid “Not as horrific as I expected, which isn’t saying much,” from me.

Luckily we had taken a field trip to ‘Wichcraft for lunch (oh my god, so good), and I had saved a diminutive creamwich (chocolate & chocolate; the best were the peanut butter ones) for just this situation. Mmmm. Much better.

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Oh, and by the way: We didn’t win an Elvis Tribute Car, whatever that means.
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Teaser

I have to upload tons of photos and write up tons of dinners, but here’s a teaser to hold you until I’m back in Boston tomorrow. (Red-eye tonight, and I have a middle seat. PLEASE DEAR GOD let me get another seat on this supposedly-packed flight.

Anyway.

One of the many things we ate last night:

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Yes, that is a fig wrapped in prosciutto and grilled. Yep. Is that food porn or what??

Birthday treats

For my birthday, we had a delicious dinner at Alma in Brooklyn, with fantastic mexican food and margaritas and the best view of the city. I had little tamales that were *excellent* and now I’m inspired to try to make some at home.

The day after my birthday we had drinks with a bunch of friends, organized by the lovely Bridget. And the *next* night there was a games night at her house, and Brooke brought the most amazing cake (for both me and Ben, technically)! Last year she and Bridget made homemade Hostess cupcakes (I love Hostess cupcakes; they are a major guilty pleasure, though I can’t remember the last time I ate any):
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Which I heartily enjoyed (I think I’m making the exact same face as in the photo on the “About Kate” page, from when I was about 3):
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This year Brooke swept into Bridget’s house bearing a HUGE home made Hostess cake! Amazing, check it out (with Brooke’s hand for scale):
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And then she festooned it with the prettiest candles. One more shot for good measure!
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I am a lucky girl!

Foiled by Technology

Weird. I typed an entry, already titled the same, hit Publish, and it vanished. Several minutes before I tried to comment on a friend’s blog, hit publish, my comment vanished, I tried again, same thing. Either I should shut up because the universe wants me quiet, or there will be lots of duplicate posts appearing sometime soon. [Actually, I’m now trying to post this the next morning, because I couldn’t for the life of me get anything post last night.]

ANYWAY, I have lots of things I want to post–my birthday cake, baked by Brookie, for one. But I can’t get the 1-bar wireless in the corporate apartment to let me upload photos. Soon.

Also, STAY TUNED. I am taking an impromptu trip to a secret location, to be disclosed soon. There will be much, much making and consuming of delicious food, and the digital macro on my new camera will be put to the test!!
Aren’t you excited?

Birthday Spaghetti

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately–I have barely been cooking and have been working full-time while we’re in NYC.

Ben requested spaghetti and meatballs for his birthday, which he shares with Harry Potter and my late grandmother at the end of July. (Mine is the 1st of August, so we always end up with more of a joint celebration!) I have never made meatballs but was game to try, despite the limitations of the Shiny-but-Squeezed kitchen in our corporate apartment:

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Actually it’s not that bad, though I’m not used to the flat-top electric stove (the pots slide when you stir! agh!) and the ventilation is terrible. It has about three feet of counter, which is three feet more than we have in Cambridge. The big downer is the glass cutting board, which makes horrible “I am killing your knife” sounds with every chop, and which sports a pebbly surface that makes it nearly impossible to chop things like parsley without just denting the leaves instead of cutting through them.

Anyway.

Mom sent me the Cook’s Illustrated recipe, which calls for white bread soaked in buttermilk. Mmmm, squishy.

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I used a 1/3 pork, 2/3 beef mixture, with the bread, garlic, parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper. (Maybe I’m forgetting something?) I had heard so many dire warnings of meatballs that masquerade as musket balls that I was terrified of over-handling the mixture, and instead under-handled it.

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I shaped the meatballs with such a gentle hand that when I put the first batch in the oil to fry and then tried to turn them, they gave way and crumbled. I actually preferred them this way, since I like meat sauce better than meatballs, but still: This was not a proper meatball.

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(Excuse the dark and horrible photos. I got a new camera for my birthday and the amazing digital macro is about to revolutionize the photos here. Meanwhile I’m still using up photos from my old camera.)

I re-packed the next batch, making sure they were much tighter. I browned them very dark because I like a crispy outside:

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Those held together much better, though they were still very delicate and tender.

The sauce in the CI recipe is really simple—a can of crushed tomato, basil, garlic, a little oil. It came together in about 20 minutes including cooking. I reheated the meatballs in the sauce while the pasta cooked, and ta-da! all done!

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For dessert I skipped cake because Ben is more of an ice cream guy. I bought some dark chocolate cookies and coffee Häagen-Dazs, and made a big ice cream sandwich!

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Happy birthday, honey!

Barb’s quick pickles

Here’s a quick recipe that we used to make at home all the time. Our very dear family friend Barb taught my mom to make instant pickles with rice vinegar. All you do is peel and slice your cucumber, pour rice vinegar over it, add a liberal amount of black pepper, and let them sit for 30 minutes or so.

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A note: They turned out really strong this time. Next time I might cut the vinegar with a little water if I want to eat them plain. But on sandwiches/burgers they tasted great! I really love pickles and am thinking of experimenting with real dill pickles. But maybe I’m better off just buying a jar of Claussens and calling it a day?

Proustian moment

The sense of smell is so amazing and strange. I’m sitting in a chilly corporate apartment in midtown Manhattan, facing a bare wall and an aggressively contemporary lamp. But a foot and a half to my left is half a brioche, left over from breakfast, and every so often a whiff of it hits me. The smell makes me feel like I’m in France, with the crazy host family I stayed with when I was 13. I can see the heavily padded silk walls of the living room, and the corner you turned to go into the bright, narrow kitchen of their townhouse. I need to figure out what it is in certain pastries, combined with butter, that smells like France.

On the road

I’m in NYC for a while, and hopefully will be able to cook soon–our accommodations do have a kitchen and internet access!

Meanwhile here are some before and not-quite-after pictures of the apartment. I haven’t even started to hang art, really arrange the furniture, etc. I’m struggling with how to balance out all of Ben’s very traditional furniture, along with the formal and traditional style of the apartment, with my more transitional style. I’m thinking once I get to lighting fixtures and rugs I will go sleek.

rmClick for the Flickr set!

The bell tolls for Boerum Hill

This article in the NYTimes Style section today made me very sad for my beloved Brooklyn Neighborhood, which was rapidly gentrifying when I left last August. Apparently the ball really got rolling, though, and there’s now a Starbucks on Smith Street and Lucky Jeans where one of my favorite bars used to be. RIP, Vegas, home of free pizza on Sundays and a mediocre-but-usually-available pool table.

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(Photos from the NYTimes)

Breaking in the dining room

So far we’ve only eaten in the dining room a few times: With Ben’s mom and brother, a couple dinners for just the two of us… But the house is at least semi-unpacked now, and last night we had our friend Kabir and his girlfriend Nicole over for a casual dinner while Nicole is in town for a visit.

First of all, take a look at my workspace, the only “counter” in the kitchen.

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I should have put my hand in there for scale; it’s a little butcher block from Ikea. Better than nothing, but not a ton of prep space! Luckily since it’s summer I kept everything very simple and didn’t need too much room to work. I continue to be very underwhelmed with the “Whole Foods” (formerly a Bread & Circus, and definitely not 100% up to the standards of the bigger WF I’ve shopped at) near our apartment. The produce is a very mixed bag–yesterday there were no salad greens that looked usable, and this in July! There were some good-looking peas, though, and I picked up a carton of what looked like lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes, all different colors. That got me excited about another tomato salad, this time very colorful and lush-looking.

Sigh.

I got the tomatoes home and all the non-traditional varieties were hard as rocks, and bitter. They looked amazing, though:

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I got them into a dressing of oil and sherry vinegar, with plenty of salt and pepper, as soon as I could, hoping they’d soften up a bit with help. (They did, but only a bit.)

Next I cut up another ball of local mozzarella and marinated that in olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil. When it was time to serve the first course, I dished out a pile of each, which looks nice enough in photos but wasn’t great in person. Next time I wouldn’t do this unless I could get my hands on bocconcini, which would have mixed in better with the tomatoes. I think serving it on some greens would have helped hold everything in place, too.

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For a main course I made my standby oven fries again, this time in the extremely high-heat environment of the new-old oven. (Its dial goes up to 600 DEGREES!). They cooked fast and souffled a bit; Julia Child would be proud. The key to getting them not to stick seems to be placing the fries skin-down on the tray the whole time. I did them at 425 or so (though I can’t find my oven thermometer so who knows…) and they browned and crisped nicely. I also made my mom’s peas with shallots, which was really easy and delicious. I posted her method a few posts down, but basically I minced a shallot, cooked it in olive oil very slowly so it was nice and sweet, and then stirred in barely-cooked fresh peas and added salt and pepper. (I like beans and peas just a couple shades off of raw, so they’re really crispy.) I served those at room temperature, and I could probably eat a whole bowl of them by myself. Happily I’d bought a huge bag of them so we have leftovers for tonight!

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Sirloin was on sale at WF and I let it rest for a while with garlic and pepper, then took off the garlic and salted it before Ben grilled it. Very tasty, though next time I think I’ll marinate it?

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For dessert I grilled a peach and a nectarine. Super easy, though they stuck a bit–I just cut them in half, placed them cut-side down on a medium-high grill, cooked for a while, flipped, cooked a while longer, and served them with ice cream. Incredibly juicy and so simple.

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P.S. Notice how much better the lighting is in the new kitchen?? There is double-bulb fixture overhead (with no shade, yikes), another bare bulb over the sink, and Ben brought in an old desk lamp to put on top of the fridge for warmer lighting. It looks awful in person but at least I can get it plenty bright for photos!

P.P.S. Sweet Germi over at the Domino Blogs posted a couple photos of the monstrous and hilarious ivy that lives outside our building. If you have any gardening questions you should hit her with them–she’s so helpful and responsive, and her blog is always fun.

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