Off-The-Cuff Dinner.

 Oftentimes when it comes to my Pinterest account, I pin and repin but never revisit, which is the whole point, right?  Well today, I revisited and utilized, and the result was delish!

Few things peak my pallette's interest like caramelized onions and a runny egg yolk, so when I saw a pin of a fried egg that had cooked inside of a ring of spanish onion, I immediately did a mental inventory of my fridge and pulled out a pan.  

I sliced an onion into about 1/2 inch thick rings, and took the outer 3 layers, laying them in a preheated pan with about a half tsp. of olive oil.  I let one side caramelize a bit, and once I flipped them over, I broke the eggs into them.  I had to pull cooked white away from the ring every so often in order to get the raw white to fall in and cook up, but after about 5 minutes they looked good to go.  

Problem:  this is still a little boring.  I turned off the heat and hunted through the depths of my fridge for some other components.  Out came a handful of watercress, half of a tomato, fresh parmesan and an apple cider rosemary vinaigrette I'd made a few days ago.  bed of watercress, some sliced seeded tomato, a drizzle of the dressing and a hefty grating of parmesan over the eggs and I had a healthy off-the-cuff dinner!  

Dapper Hipster.

Is this not the niftiest bike accessory you've ever seen?  It showed up on the home page of etsy one day and I'm pretty sure it was made with me in mind.  I bike past D.O.C. Wine Shop nearly every time I head north, but until now I didn't have a sturdy place to put the bottle if I picked one up.  I used it for the first time this evening and felt very dapper-hipster pedaling home.

My Favorite Kitchen Pieces.

Some can make due beautifully with less equipment in the kitchen, but I like to be prepared, and I like to do it right. Certain pieces of equipment I’ve put into the “Wedding Registry” category and am content going without them until then (read: kitchenaid, vitamix, and most le cruiset pieces).  Others simply felt necessary at the time.  Here are a few of my best buys:

1.)     Juicer.  I picked this one up during a get-healthy moment.  It churns out silky smooth juices like nobody’s business.  I love having it around because not only is it fantastic for making fresh juices for a vitamin packed pick-me-up, cocktail mixer, or for adding to seltzer, but also because I have guilt issues about wasting food, and this gives me ZERO excuse for a fruit, veg. or herb to end up in the garbage.  I just juice it and shoot it.

2.)    Soda Stream.  I drink a ton of seltzer to keep me away from soda.  Since getting this guy my recycling can barely ever gets fed, and if I need a little flavor in it during a particularly persistent soda craving, I end up using something much healthier than the god awful things they put in soda that I won’t pretend to know how to spell.

3.)    Panini Press.  This one has three heat levels, both grill and griddle plates to change out, and can open up flat as a big griddle.  I am a huge fan of the grilled sammy, but as an apartment dweller without outdoor space, it also doubles as a grill for the few-and-far-between times that I cook meat.  It’s not something you may use all the time, but when you do pull it out, you’re really glad you have one.

4.)    Knives.  While I’m dying to get to knife skills class, I’m glad that once I do perfect that craft, I’ll be doing it with the proper equipment. I've begun slowly replacing my junky knives with great quality ones. The difference you will feel between a well crafted, damascus steel blade and a run-of-the-mill blade is jaw-dropping.  Within the first swipe of my Togiharu blade, I knew I was completely in love and an immediate brand loyalist.  I swiftly sliced a giant chunk of my finger off after that, but we made friends again (knife skills class necessity, exhibit a).  It's worth it to have a sharpening stone for this as well.  Watch a couple of youtube videos on how to sharpen knives and you'll be ready to care for them.  

5.)    Knife Block.  Most knife blocks are wooden or bamboo, Global has a stainless and rubber one, but I am smitten with my Schmidt Brothers for West Elm one (I promise this isn’t just shameless self promotion).  I always wondered how much the wooden knife blocks were dulling the blade being slid in and out of there, and what might have crept it’s way into those little crevices over time. Enter the Schmidt Bro’s for West Elm knife block.  It is so sleek, and allows total visibility to eliminate the game of “is this my chefs knife? Nope, serrated. This one? Nope, Narkiri.  This one?  Nope, boning”. Adopting what you often see in professional kitchens, the blade is magnetically held to the inner wall and never touches anything but what you’re prepping. I absolutely love it.

6.)    Rooster.  Allegedly having a rooster in your kitchen brings you good luck, but honestly I just love having him around. I saw this guy and immediately knew he was my kitchen rooster for life, before I even had a kitchen of my own to place him in.  I named him Hemingway, and now he overseas my work, giving me the side-eye when I mess up. 

Whatever and however you like to cook, invest in the tools you use most.  Your dollar will stretch much further with something you'll never have to replace, and you'll be shocked at the quality you're able to turn out with better tools.  

Happy Accidents & Sentimentality Herbs

I think most foodies will admit that they have a sentimentality herb.  It's the herb that harkens childhood memories and reminds them of the good old days.  Mine is rosemary, but the story of why is for another day. Tonight I used it in a quick marinade for a steak I plan to grill up and place atop a salad for Toph and I tomorrow night.  I had some mincings of it left on the cutting board when I went to cut up half an apple to shmear some PB on before dinner (I mean…something healthy HAD to get in there before dinner at Pies n' Thighs).  Anyway, some of the rosemary mincings were picked up by the apple somewhere between cut to shmear to mouth, and holy happy accident Batman, that was AWESOME.  Sweet crunchy apply with smooth creamy PB is rounded out perfectly with the earthy depth of rosemary.  I highly recommend this if you're looking to kick your healthy snack up a notch.  

Oh and that weird double-handle-rolly-knife looking thing is called a mezzaluna.  It's definitely in my top 10 favorite kitchen gadgets, it's perfect for mincing herbs and super fun to use.

Za.

If I'm being honest, as a Jersey gal who now lives in NYC, I never thought I would give a damn about pizza in Chicago.  That all changed, however, when Toph got to making pizza this lollapalooza weekend. On Thursday he made the best home made pizza I've ever had (and let's not forget not only where I grew up, but also that I've been privy to hardcore Italians for a long while who had their own back yard pizza ovens, so I'm really saying something here), with a yet-to-be-named, insanely delicious tomato/onion sauce, fresh mozzarella, arugula and cherry tomato (above).

This launched me on a za kick all weekend , and after a day-drinking fueled pork belly challenge was proposed only for us to discover Whole Foods was sold out of it, our competitive energy catapulted us forward into a pizza challenge.

I talked some seriously intimidation-fueled smack while we gathered our ingredients, even telling him to walk away as I spoke with the produce guy, cheese guy, and meat guy (I wanted to be a real competitor and contender here, dudes).

We got a whole grain dough from the pizza counter to split, put the pizza stone in the oven and cranked it to 450 (you want to heat the stone in the oven to crisp up the crust).  Toph has a $10 from target that works great, I'm holding out for a fancy Williams-Sonoma one because I like to use my employee discount to a point that is borderline offensive (don't act like you wouldn't do that same thing).

Toph landed on his childhood nostalgia flavors of sweet sausage, mixed mushrooms and onion, sautéed them up together and put them over his tomato/onion sauce with a mixture of fresh and grated mozzarella.  I'd tell you more of what he did if I could but I was too busy on my side of apartment kitchen stadium, where this was happening:

As you can see, I went a bit more high brow because I knew it was the only way I could compete with the likes of him. A mixture of fresh and grated mozzarella went down on my dough with crumbled Gorgonzola, a touch of heavy cream, and sliced fresh fig. That went in the oven for 8 minutes (at which point in time I proceeded to sit, like a child, indian style in front of the oven staring at it like it was an episode of Jamie at Home -- see below evidence, courtesy of Toph who thought I was ridiculous). I pulled it out before the last couple of minutes in order to lay a mild prosciutto on it, this allowed that flavor to meld into the others rather than crisp up, which creates a pronounced salty flavor that overwhelms my palette. Once I pulled it out for good I put a healthy dose of arugula, and a drizzle of balsamic glaze and honey to finish.

He complained of his not being salty enough and the dough being undercooked, but as I'm never going to complain about sausage, mushroom and onion combined with cheese and carbs, I was happy with it. Mine, however, was mustered from the most genius depths of the culinary corners of my mind, and managed to have a great balance of salty, sweet, tangy and creamy that I was smitten with.  I suppose he was to because I won the contest. This is likely the first and last time I will reign supreme in apartment kitchen stadium, so best believe I'm taking it to the bank.

More Notes on Cocktails.

I haven’t until recently understood bitters.  In fact, I’ve enjoyed them in the past few months without so much as looking into what exactly they are until this very moment.  They’re alcoholic digestifs flavored with herbal essences.  What I take away from this and my experiences is that they are a cocktails perfume.   

Last week I discovered a small cupboard in the back of my local spirits shop (calling it a liquor store would being doing a great disservice to its atmosphere and sophistication), that placed bottles of bitters in each cubby hole like tiny treasures and keepsakes.  I was enthralled, as girls often are with small, cute things.  I picked them up. I studied them. I read the ingredients.  I marveled at the variety.  Yes, there were your usuals of orange, lime, grape, what-fruit-have-you, but there were also borderline insane ones such as Jamaican Jerk, Thai Chili and Curry.  I immediately wanted to bite off more than I could chew by having my first bitters experiment be with the curry, but Toph talked me off of that ledge and I settled on Lavender. 

My first experiment went surprisingly well.  I mixed 1 tbsp of home-infused rosemary gin, 2 tbsp of Hendricks gin, the juice of half a lemon, agave nectar to taste and a couple dashes of lavender bitters with seltzer and old fashioned ice cubes.  It was delish.  The tartness of the lemon played well off of the smokeyness of the rosemary and floral notes of the gin and lavender bitters, and the agave gave it that sweetness it needed to take the edge off of its savory bass notes. 

Last night I popped into the same shop on my way home from a bike ride, intending to pick up a bottle of white to end my weekend with, but again, found myself at the bitters cupboard, marveling like a small child.  Toph may have stroked my ego too much with his praise on my first bitters experiment, because I walked out not only with the intended bottle of white, but also with Curry and Cardamom bitters to play with.  And thus, my home bar became a much more tempting playground.  Of course, I will keep you all abreast of anything noteworthy I come up with, because if life is too short for boring cocktails, it is immoral to withhold the interesting ones from the public.  Happy mixing, everyone!

Simple Syrup, Complex Cocktail.

Life is far too short for boring cocktails.  I have a fair few mantra’s, but one of the more important one’s that’s cropped up since college is that.  I don’t drink a lot, so when I do, it has to be fantastic (do I sound like the Dos Equis man right now? Good.) I think if I had to choke down one more $12, watered down cranberry vodka or rum and coke with well liquor, I would weep.  Quite simply, I and my pallete are better than that.  We’ve developed taste.  We’re more sophisticated.  More discerning.  Less complacent.  More snobbish in our old age. 

While my neighborhood and the neighborhoods just across the river from me offer up some incredibly creative, inventive, delectible and sinful cocktails that leave me with absolutely no need for the boring mixed drinks, sometimes I’d rather just mix myself up something from my bar at home.  I’ve gone to fairly great lengths to make sure that what I have in stock there is great, but often times, I lack in the mixers department.  Most of the time, I rely on fruit and herbs I have laying around, along with my soda stream and juicer as my mixologist wingmen  This sounds fancy and fussy, but I prefer to make my own flavored seltzers, and I think the result is far more satisfying (and healthy).  Last weekend before we headed out camping, Toph and I packed up some bourbon along with a home made ginger ale I’d made by juicing a ginger root and adding that with agave syrup to seltzer.  It was amazing, spicy, sweet and cut the rough burn of the bourbon just enough for this lass to take a swig without a boozy shiver following in quick succession.  Anyway, my point here is, craft your cocktail, you will thank yourself in the end.  

The fixings

Now, one of the easier ways to add some depth of flavor and personality to your drinks (not to mention making it sound ever-so-impressive when you tell your freinds what is in their cocktail) is by using an infused simple syrup.  Making simple syrup is just that: simple. All it takes is equal parts water and suger, heated over the stove until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture appears clear.  To infuse it, all you need to do is throw whatever you’d like in with the sugar and water while you heat it.  I ran to my local gourmet food store, Marlow & Daughters tonight (with 15 minutes until they closed because, you know, impulse being what it is and all...) and made 5 tonight to keep in the fridge for up to 6 months to jazz up my cocktail musings. I threw vanilla bean in the first, ginger root in the second, orange peel in the third, cinnamon in the fourth, and a mixture of cardamom and ground clove in the fifth.  Now I can sit back for the next 6 months and know that whatever I might feel like making, however basic in combination, will always have the option for an added depth of flavor.  

Bottle it up!

Now that I’ve got that sqaured away, I’m on to discover the wide world of bitters.  First up is lavender, and after that I’ve got my eye on a curry one my local wine shop is stocking (aggressive, but then, so am I).