Tag: food blog

The Ultimate Sacrilege – My Week in Bastardized Food

It’s been quite a week, and it’s only Tuesday.  Once again, I overindulged in a bit too much vino this weekend and thus have sworn off even a glass of wine with dinner this week (unheard of, I know…) in order to look super-svelte for my birthday next week.  As a testament to just how much I overindulged, I left my purse at my friend’s house on Friday night – like who the f*ck leaves behind their entire purse?  We did however make an amazing fondue though… so I guess it was worth it.

The next day, in an Uber back to my friend’s house to retrieve my purse, the car I was in got into an accident with a motorcycle.  I decided to take an Uber pool, and when the car pulled over in Bushwick to let out the backseat passenger, she opened her door to the right side of the street and into an on-coming motorcyclist who was stupidly passing on the right.  He slammed head-on into the back door of the vehicle with his motorcycle, which than fell over onto two parked cars.  Lovely.  Thankfully no one was hurt, however, the passenger who opened her door peaced-out to wherever she was going, and I had to stay and wait for the cops since I was a witness.  The motorcyclist was also making me nervous as he kept screaming obscenities at the poor driver, even though it wasn’t the driver’s fault – it was his.  He said terrible things like “go back to your country” and “you don’t even speak English – stop talking to me.”  The driver was super apologetic and thankful that I waited around for the police with him and gave them the correct version of the story.  I assured the driver it wasn’t a problem and I was happy I could help him out – it did add another hour and a half onto what should have been a 15 minute trip one way, but whatever.  It’s amazing no one was injured, and I can’t complain because the driver was nice enough to give me a ride the rest of the way to my friend’s after the cops left, off the clock.

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Saturday night, I had another friend over for shrimp tacos – I was feeling very inspired by an amazing taco dip my cousin made at his super bowl party: sour cream and cream cheese mixed with a packet of taco seasoning, layered with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and chopped avocado. I topped it off with some home made guacamole and about a bottle of wine …. kill me.
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Sunday morning, after a second night of indulgence, I decided to make pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean stew), which I have been meaning to make for the last two weeks… it was pretty tasty and enough to feed an army, as per usual.

I’m still not sure what I am doing for my bday – it’s up in the air between going away for a night or going out and partying here in NYC.  Either way, I hope this cold I’m coming down with doesn’t stick around. I am starting to feel like shit ….

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Tonight’s dinner – tagliatelle with salmon and spinach in a cream sauce (this is the ultimate sacrilege for Italians – combining fish or seafood with heavy cream and Parmesano).  It was delightful and got the seal of approval from the Italian boyfriend

Tonight I made the scrumptious pasta pictured above – I wouldn’t consider it an Italian dish by any means, but it was f*cking delicious.  I am feeling too lazy to write out the recipe… but I’ll do it for you anyhow, because I love you.

TAGLIATELLE CON SALMONE E SPINACI 

INGREDIENTS: 

  • 1 large fillet of fresh Salmon, de-boned, de-skinned, and cut or torn into small pieces
  • 1 ripe lemon (you’ll use both the juice, and the zest (aka the grated skin))
  • 1 package fresh spinach (**do NOT use frozen)
  • 1/2 stick butter
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 4 cloves of garlic (minced finely)
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesano
  • 1 package of tagliatelle egg noodles (if you can’t find tagliatelle, another egg noodle will do – but regular pasta is too heavy for this dish)
  • 1/2 tsp. ground (or freshly grated) nutmeg
  • salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Skin and de-bone the salmon fillet, tear or cut the salmon into small, bite-size pieces and set aside.

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2. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter together over low heat.

3. Mince the garlic and add into sauce pan, stirring over low heat (as always – do NOT burn the garlic!).

4. Add in the entire bag or package of fresh spinach and stir, coating with melted butter and oil.

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5. Add in the heavy cream and stir over low heat until spinach is completely wilted.

6. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil (for the pasta).

7. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper, as well as the grated Parmesan cheese to the spinach/cream sauce mixture and stir until mixed.

8. Add in the salmon and reduce to lowest heat (the salmon wont take much to cook through) – remove from heat once salmon has cooked through.

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9. Once the pot of water has come to a boil, follow pasta instructions and cook tagliatelle to al dente texture.

10. Drain pasta and add back to large pot; squeeze the juice from 1/2 of the lemon and grate in about 2 tsp. worth of zest from the lemon’s skin into the pasta and stir.

11. Finally, you will combine the contents of the saucepan (cream sauce containing the salmon and spinach) into the pasta and stir together:

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Serve hot and with a garnish of a bit more lemon zest on top, if desired

This is definitely a meal that will please anyone – despite being made with heavy cream, the fact that it is made with fish and also that the pasta is an egg-noodle helps keep it from being too heavy – in fact it tastes rather light.

Now that it’s back to being freezing cold and snowy/slushy outside, I am really craving some quality soups again (when am I not craving soup – let’s be honest). I wanted to cook homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese tonight – a classic, childhood ‘feel-good’ meal.  Maybe tomorrow night.  I may even go all in and bake my own bread if I don’t have to work late.  I also have some dried split peas I’m itching to make into soup… nothing beats a good split pea soup!

 

Soup For the Soul – New Year’s Introspection and Borscht

Another year has come and gone, and we are back to the boring, dismal, no-holiday-having month that is January. I don’t mind winter – I honestly love winter, as long as there is snow and not the dreary, depressing rain that is falling today. Today’s nasty rain is especially devastating, since most of the pretty Christmas lights have been taken down and everyone has kicked their poor tree to the curb. If snow was falling, I don’t think the city would feel so drab right now. NYC currently feels like a hole I can’t escape from – but we’ll leave that topic for another day.

  • I’m obsessed with Christmas lights and Christmas trees… my aunt and uncle’s tree is always one of my faves because they use those old fashioned bubbler lights

I always get sad when both Christmas and NYE are over…. people return to their foul, sour-faced, pretentious city-dweller dispositions instead of the fake, cheerful ones they assume during the holidays – smiling and wishing everyone well with a smile on their face. Now it’s back to avoiding eye contact and looking miserable with a sour face on the subway. If I ruled the world, every day would be Christmas! I kid, I kid…

Me and my “son,” Mr. Peeper (aka Peeps). We both love Christmas, cheese, and rolling around on the shag carpet

Now that the holidays are officially over, it is time to start planning something to look forward to again and working towards my New Year’s goals (hence me sitting here working on this blog). I am trying to invest more time into writing again, whether it’s about food, short-stories, or just general, self-centered thoughts. The older I have become, the harder it is to find enough time in the day for all the things I not only have to do, but want to do. Work, and commuting to and from work, takes up such a large portion of each day, week, month, and year, that I now truly understand why it is important to love the work you do…. If I can’t make a full time living doing what I want to do at this point in my life, I can at least devote as much time as possible to work towards those goals.

Between work, general household upkeep, maintaining my cat, maintaining relationships, cooking/cleaning, errands, and self-care, it sometimes seems like one more chore to make myself sit in front of my computer at night and write. Although, once I do sit down and start writing, it is never a chore; quite the opposite. Writing is like cooking is for me – pleasurable, relaxing, and often times hard to put a cap on it once I start.

Since we are in the throes of winter (despite the lack of snow thanks to global warming), my next few blogs will focus on comfort food and soups. Honestly though, I’m not sure who I’m trying to kid… pretty much everything I cook seems to constitute as comfort food, given that it’s usually laden with cheese, wine soaked, or carb heavy. Comfort food and comfort soup is the way to go when the weather is cold.

I had never made borscht before, but I had a craving for beets (I’ve always love beets and I always will…) and also for a thick, pureed soup, so it was only natural that borscht was on the menu! Since one of my other New Year’s goals is to completely cut out meat from my diet, I made a vegetarian borscht using vegetable stock in place of beef stock, and obviously did not put any beef in the soup.

  • The finished product: Thick as hell, topped with a dollop of sour cream and fresh dill

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 fresh, large beets (or 5-6 smaller ones) (**beets should be cleaned, skinned/peeled, and cubed)
  • 2 medium-sized carrots (chopped)
  • 1/2 of a large white onion (finely chopped)
  • 4 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
  • 2 stalks of celery
  • 1 large potato (Idaho or russet)
  • 1 cup thinly chopped cabbage
  • 2 bay leaves (dried are fine)
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil and/or butter
  • 4 cups (one 32 oz. carton) of vegetable stock
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 TBS white vinegar
  • 1 tsp celery salt
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • sour cream*to garnish
  • fresh dill *to garnish
  • YOU WILL NEED A BLENDER OR IMMERSION BLENDER!!!!

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Prep the veggies – the beets should be washed, peeled (using a regular carrot/apple peeler), and cut into cube size chunks; carrots should be chopped, onion finely chopped, garlic finely minced, potato chopped into cubes, celery chopped, and cabbage thinly sliced and set aside (this will go in to cook when everything else has been blended)
  2. In a large pot, heat olive oil and/or butter (I prefer a combination of the two for added richness) over low heat, add in the onions stirring occasionally and cooking over low-heat until translucent and yellow.
  3. Add in the garlic and bay leaves and continue to cook over low heat for another minute or two. DO NOT BURN GARLIC.
  4. Add in all of the other veggies, APART FROM THE CABBAGE (beets, carrots, celery, and potato), and then add in entire container of stock.
  5. Increase heat to medium temperature so that the contents of the pot comes to a low boil. Continue to cook over medium heat for about 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check to see that vegetables are thoroughly cooked (soft) by poking with a fork. I suggest testing the beets and potatoes this way, since they will be the last to finish cooking.
  6. REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES BEFORE BLENDING!
  7. Using an immersion blender or a ladle to move soup into an actual blender, blend around 3/4 of the contents of the pot of soup. This creates a rich, thick puree, but also leaves some chunks of veggies for texture and aesthetic.
  8. Continue to keep soup over medium heat once fully blended, add in the cabbage, smoked paprika, celery salt, pinch of cayenne, and regular salt/black pepper to suit your tastes (**the smoked paprika gives it a richer, smokier flavor and complements the earthiness of the beets!)
  9. Once the cabbage is cooked through, add in the vinegar and stir
  10. Serve hot, with a generous dollop of sour cream in the middle of the bowl (it takes it to another level that is orgasmic to the taste buds), and some fresh dill.

I also served some potato and cheese pierogies on the side to make it a heartier meal!!!! Very Eastern European…. but hey – when you’re just a boring, fourth-generation American, you’re allowed to pick and choose which 25% of your ethnic background you occasionally want to play up… on this day we went with the polski :p

Such a beautiful color – just be careful you don’t wear white while cooking 😉 Beets are also really good for you – not that I actually give a f*ck, but they’re loaded with fiber and vitamin C

There are so many other soup recipes I plan to share in the upcoming weeks; everything from my mom’s seafood chowder, to a thick-ass split pea soup, to a Tuscan bread soup called Ribollita. I just fucking love soup – I could probably live on a diet of soups, chowders, and stews!