Food-themed art for the modern home
I’ve been on a buttermilk kick recently. After developing a serious craving for buttermilk fried chicken a few weeks ago, but wanting to cook at home instead of eating out, I decided to research methods of doing a roasted version instead.
I found recipes in the cookbooks on my shelves (including The Essential New York Times Cookbook and The Complete Southern Cookbook), but ultimately turned back to the web.
Josh Bernstein is a Brooklyn-based writer, specializing in all things beer-related, and the author of Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution. He also leads monthly homebrew tours around Brooklyn and Manhattan. I first heard about them through my friends Barb and Max, who have been on a couple tours through Williamsburg and Park Slope and raved about them. So last Saturday, quite the gorgeous spring day, we went on Josh’s latest tour, this one through Carroll Gardens and Prospect Heights.
Most of the beers we tried were on the lighter side, fitting for spring. I took a handful of photos, but mainly spent the day chatting with the other very friendly people on the tour, sampling the beer, and being bad about jotting down tasting notes of what we were drinking. Which I’m guessing is the point of the tour anyway, to just enjoy being on it.
I’ve made orange bread countless times before but can’t remember coming across a recipe as great as this one, from James Beard’s American Cookery.
First of all, who doesn’t like a bread that perfumes their kitchen with a light citrus scent? Second and more importantly, the texture is pretty incredible, somewhere between sliced sandwich bread and a hearty banana bread. It’s light enough for breakfast yet hearty and sweet and filling enough to go with afternoon coffee or tea.
Park Slope, Restaurants and Cafes
My friends Barb and Max, who moved to New York a few years ago from Los Angeles, often lament that back in L.A. it was hard to find places to dine outside. For a city with almost perfect weather year round, it has surprisingly few restaurants or bars with outdoor seating. So they were happy to find, upon moving here, that New Yorkers are pretty hardcore when it comes to dining al fresco, even in the midst of garbage cans, bus fumes, sirens, and the occasional crazy person.
Fortunately, Park Slope offers much less of a sensory overload than almost anywhere in Manhattan. I walk by Thistle Hill Tavern at least a few times a week and noticed that since Saturday the outdoor tables have been filled, even when it was in the low 50s.
So yesterday, on the last day of winter, which felt like the first day of summer, we took the opportunity to have dinner outside. (In March!) And what better food to have while celebrating the start of outdoor eating season than a nice juicy grassfed burger? The big fat salt and pepper fries don't hurt either, or the happy hour price of $15 for a beer and a burger.
P.S. Thistle Hill also has a beautiful newly renovated bar that seats about 3 times more people than before. After closing down for maybe 3 days to renovate. Everything in New York should get built this quickly.
Thistle Hill Tavern
441 7th Ave. (at 15th St.)
Brooklyn, NY
Neighborhood: Park Slope
(347) 599-1262
Map
Although this drink isn’t made with Irish whiskey or beer, I think it’s pretty fitting for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s green and was possibly created by the Irish in Prohition-era Chicago. But most importantly, it’s very cold, which is fitting for this insanely early spring we’re having.
Many of the quick gin drinks I make at home — such as gin and tonics, gimlets, and gin rickeys — are mixed with lime juice. But I recently bought a bunch of organic lemons and have been looking for ways to incorporate them into cocktails. One easy drink is the Southside, a minimalist cocktail with easy-to-find ingredients: gin, lemon juice, mint, and simple syrup.
“After you have been a very good person for a very long time and are thin as a bean, you may decide to fall briefly into sin. You will want something simple and elegant that cannot be made without butter. There is only one thing that will do: shortbread.” – Laurie Colwin
I have written before about bookmarking pretty much every recipe out of Laurie Colwin’s books. It’s hard not to. She writes about classic, unpretentious comfort food that is old-fashioned in a back-to-basics way yet modern in ease and speediness. Dinners, especially weeknight ones, focus on roasts and braises practically anyone can make. Desserts are equally unfussy.
Well, it's March. Here in New York, after another warm spell, we're back in the midst of chilly temps. It's more Paris chilly than Northeast US frigidness; instead of negative temps giving your face frostbite, the all the cold moisture in the air just seeps into your bones. These past few rainy days, hiding indoors with a good movie or book seems preferable to sloshing through the streets and subways, the latter which in New York becomes totally crippled any time we get more than 1/4 inch of rain.
I've also been dealing with the cold by whipping up some hot drinks. In this case, hot buttered rum. Now, every bar in town seems to serve a mulled wine, hot apple cider, or hot toddy. But in our high-cholesterol-fearing modern age, it seems that nobody wants any butter in their drinks anymore, even as we scarf down pork belly entrees and bacon desserts en masse. What a shame. Because you can actually make this delicious drink with just a scant 1 teaspoon of butter, or less than the amount the average person puts on his morning toast.
Last year I had an amazing cocktail at a restaurant whose name escapes me now. It might have been in Brooklyn. Or Manhattan. All I remembered is that it was one of those places that served amazing, pitch-perfect cocktails.
I ordered one called The Bee’s Knees without knowing the ingredients except gin. I took a sip and immediately asked the bartender what was in it.
“Gin, lemon juice, and honey,” he replied.
And?
