Whenever I’m in Chinatown, I have grab a bunch of garlic chives now and ask questions later approach. The question is usually what am I going to do with all of these garlic chives? You can get a quite a decent sized bunch for just a buck. I snap them up because I can’t buy them in my neighborhood. My last bunch made it into at least two dishes recently, Garlic Chive & Chinese Mushroom Potatoes and a dish I’m calling Garlic Chive Garlic Chard.
The words “empty cream puff shells” almost sound sad and lonely, but not when they’re the centerpiece of a Make Your Own Profiterole Bar! They become catalysts for excitement and “profiterole-abilities” when paired with ice cream and whipped cream for filling and chocolate sauce, raspberry sauce, and caramel sauce for drizzling and all sorts of sprinkles, nuts, candies, etc. for dazzling.
Monday, I was back at Santina, a restaurant in the meat packing district that I’d been to this past February. I’ve been obsessed with one of their dishes, the cecina, since my first visit. It’s rare that I visit the same restaurant twice in a short time since I have restaurant ADHD. I want to eat at pretty, shiny new restaurants all the time. But my cecina obsession trumps my ADHD and I had a good blogger friend in from DC who wanted to try it. It hits many marks. It’s unusual. It’s easy to make. It’s gluten free. It’s vegan. It’s cheap to make. It’s fun to eat. It can be eaten alone or with a myriad of toppings or even a salad on top.
We had some hot dog onions when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the onions you get from a New York City dirty “dawg” cart, these days, literally pale by comparison. II made a recipe for NYC Style Smoked Paprika Hot Dog Onions that not only brings back memories from my Big Apple childhood, but surpasses them with the addition of smoked paprika. We were lucky to have plain paprika on our spice rack when I was a kid. It had one purpose, sprinkling on deviled eggs to make them look fancy.
I first had a version of this Endive Salad with Apples, Blue Cheese and Candied Hazelnuts at the Dominion Square Tavern, in Montreal, on Boxing Day. On their menu, it’s called a “Witlof and Blue Cheese Salad” since witlof is the English word for endive. When I tasted it, I thought, “I must make this!” and never did. I tasted it again in the summer of 2014 and finally made it for a French themed dinner party in October.
When life gives you lemons make lemonade or divine Coconut Lemon Curd Shortbread Cookies.
Life has been giving me lemons every morning for months. I get up and the first thing I have is twelve ounces of warm water with lemon and honey. [Cue my mom’s voice.] “It’s good for you”, followed with a litany of reasons why “THEY,” say I should drink it. I’m not going into that here because Google.
I don’t like it. I hated it when it was just lemon and water. Lately, it’s semi-improved by the addition of raw, local honey (“THEY” said the honey was good too). It certainly had not grown on me.
I hate “THEM”. Why can’t “THEY” just mind their own business?
There’s something about a toffee. I think it’s the dame of the candy world. Sexy, snappy and buttery with a nice, little bite. I could see a gorgeous gal named Toffee rushing into a third rate detective’s office in a 1950’s B movie, breathless and scared saying, “You gotta help me.” He melts at the sight of her and does her bidding.
When you make Salted Chocolate Cappuccino Buttercrunch Toffee you will not need help eating it. People will offer and if you’re nice you may give them a little. I hide mine.
I’m a chunky soup girl so this healthy, easy-to-make, inexpensive, delicious, vegan soup made with dal—a puree of split yellow peas as the base, but loaded with chunks of vegetables is the perfect winter warmer.
Flaxseeds are a superfood dating back to Babylonian times. According to WedMD: “Some call it one of the most powerful plant foods on the planet. There’s some evidence it may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. That’s quite a tall order for a tiny seed that’s been around for centuries.” And to think I just liked the way these crackers looked and crunched!
Every year, along with Hanukkah, come the latke battles. I sit on the sidelines and watch my social media feed fill up with “How To Make The Perfect Latke” controversy.
The titles could read:
I grabbed my spatula and my frying pan and got into the fight.