When I first received The Little Paris Kitchen in the mail, I spent a good hour just sitting on the couch and flipping through the pages. All those photos of bistros, Parisian markets, dinner parties on adorable little balconies...it all sounds so cliché, but I thisclose to booking a plane ticket to Paris. (That's the power of photography!)
And then there are the recipes: very simple, nonfussy French comfort food, pretty much food I crave everyday.
Over the weekend I made the lemon and lavender chicken, a nice twist on the simple roast chicken. What could be more spring-like than lavender? If I can't jet off to Paris and drive down to the lavender fields of Provence, at the very least I can roast some chicken.
Ovenly is one of those bakeries I wish I had in my own neighborhood. Sure, you can find Ovenly cookies and snacks at gourmet shops and cafés around the city, but there's something about making the trip all the way to Greenpoint's waterfront that makes those sweets you bring back extra special. (And the bakery has a great back story: the founders are two friends who met at a food-focused book club.)
The salted chocolate chip cookies and salted peanut butter cookies get the most props from media and fans, and they are justifiably daydream-worthy. But my favorite, surprisingly, was a small gluten-free pistachio agave cookie that was just packed with nutty goodness. I need this recipe. Though I may have to sit patiently and wait for their cookbook to come out.
It's barely spring and I'm already daydreaming about a summer of lobster and fried clam rolls. The past winter, as with most winters, shellfish-eating got pushed aside in favor of soups, casseroles, and hearty meaty braises. But now that it's warmer, this New England-bred gal has been seriously hankering for some fresh seafood.
While in Greenpoint today, I walked right by Lobster Joint, near the top end of Manhattan Ave, and did a double take. I had been planning on going to a cafe and getting something more economical and mundane for lunch, like a sandwich, but the big "open" on the glass door told me I really didn't want just any sandwich. I wanted one filled to the brim with lobster meat. And fortunately, here they also served lobster rolls Connecticut-style, warm with melted butter, instead of just Maine-style with mayo and celery. (My beloved Red Hook Lobster Pound may be the only other spot in NY that makes it both ways.)
What do you do with a big bag of blood oranges hauled back from the market?
The choices are endless. With their sweet flavor with hints of berries and cherries, blood oranges naturally lend themselves to sweet and savory recipes. I could make a pound cake or muffins or a salad or sauce for chicken. But there's something to be said for just squeezing the heck out of them for a tall glass of juice. Or any refreshing drink.
Van Horn Sandwich Shop, just a short subway ride away from me, is a great spot to grab lunch to break up the monotony of working from home. And, as I found out today, their Sweet PLT is quite the sandwich.
For anyone who loves stuffing potato chips into their subs and sandwiches: Van Horn turns your guilty pleasure into a legitimate meal. PLT stands for sweet potatoes, lettuce, and tomatoes. Crunchy smoked sweet potato chips stand in for bacon. With a good amount of aioli is smeared on the bread, this sandwich is pure comfort food remixed.
I first tried macarons from Vendôme Patisserie last spring. My friend Barb and I were meeting up with her husband Max after a morning at Dekalb Market, and he had somehow taken a very long detour somewhere in Boerum Hill. When he finally showed up, it turned out he had stumbled into a macaron shop and had spent some time carefully picking out a sampling to try.
Macarons? Well okay, that's easily forgivable. We got some coffee, found some benches in a community garden nearby, sliced up each macaron with a little plastic knife, and savored every bite.. So. Worth. The Wait.
"Good dark chocolate has bitter and acidic elements, as does good bread. In the kitchen, they are drawn to each other. They also couldn't be easier to combine, especially in this recipe, where the four ingredients — bread, chocolate, olive oil, and salt — are left in their raw state, with just a dash of heat to encourage them to mingle." - Amanda Hesser, The Essential New York Times Cookbook.
I had been wanting to try this recipe for ages but kept putting it off. It seemed a bit too decadent to make for breakfast. And too austere for a dessert after a big home-cooked meal. And whenever I buy a baguette, I usually just polish it off with way too much cheese.
Then curiosity got the better of me. I mean, they're just so simple. In the recipe's headnotes in The Essential New York Times Cookbook, Amanda Hesser recalls eating these toasts at a tapas bar in Barcelona, "warmed until the chocolate was as soft as cream." They're also similar to an old-fashioned way for making pain au chocolate in France, just tucking a bar of chocolate into a baguette.
A few months ago, I found myself OD-ing on reading restaurant reviews, and becoming so paralyzed with indecision, that I gave up choosing new restaurants altogether. I'd leave the decision up to my dining companion(s), who were surely less cursed with the paradox of choice than I was. Or I'd just visit the same favorite restaurants over and over again.
When my friend Ami suggested this week that we try out Krescendo in Boerum Hill, I agreed in a second. I didn't know much about it, except it recently received a great review from Pete Wells in the NY Times and slightly less enthusiastic reviews on Yelp. Which is more than fine with me.