NC to NYC: Parents Come to Visit!

The weekend after Thanksgiving my parents came to visit me for a few days in the city. I was so grateful that they came up, and I had such a blast showing them some of our favorite spots to go in our new home town.

We started on Saturday morning by going to the World Trade Center memorial, and although it was very cold and kind of a pain to get in to (there was as much security as an airport), it was very moving. The whole memorial is very peaceful and calming, but seeing all of those names around the reflecting pools was very touching.

Next we went to a small Italian restaurant in Little Italy for some seriously delicious, authentic Italian food and wine.

We also took my parents to one of our favorite spots, the Cellar bar at Beecher's cheese shop. They have some of the best mac n cheese, and we love the whole "cave" look of the bar downstairs.

 Dad's "cheesin" at the cheese shop. he he

 Vlady and I

 Dad's self portrait

 Dad told us to pose differently..

My wonderful parents!

Before dinner we stopped by our apartment to show my parents where we live, and when we tried to go up on the roof to show them the amazing view we ended up setting off the alarm. Ooops!

To close out the night we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Flex Mussels, where we had tons of amazing mussels (the Thai is the BEST) and homemade donuts (lemon, strawberry cheesecake, salted caramel and "drunken"). Oh, and Vlady did an oyster shooter.

We spent the next day eating at Spice Market, exploring Chelsea Market and walking the High Line. Since I could not go home for Thanksgiving it was so nice to get some family time in, and to show my parents what NYC is like from our point of view!

Bakery Tour

One day a couple of months ago Vlady and I decided to do a "self-guided bakery tour" around our neighborhood. We researched some of the top rated places within walking distance, and spent the next couple of hours indulging in all sorts of treats.

We started out at Insomnia cookies where I had the s'mores cookie and Vlady had oatmeal raisin, both served warm. Oh my word they were the best cookies ever. Oh, and they deliver until about 3:00am.

 Cookies on display

In between stops we walked through Washington Square Park where we saw some interesting sky writing.

The next stop was Mille-Feuille where we had some amazing macaroons and cheesy bread.

Passion fruit macaroon.. heaven!

We made two other stops that included a french bakery (pain au chocolat and a butter croissant were consumed), and ended at a bakery where I was too stuffed to eat anything. Over all it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the city!

Apple Raspberry Crumble

I originally made this recipe because I just happened to have every ingredient on hand, but after tasting it I think it will be a go-to for years to come! It's a super simple recipe that I got out of the September 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine in their "Mix & Match Crumbles" article.  The article explains how you can pick your nut (walnut, almond, pecan, etc), pick your grain (cornmeal or oats), and pick your filling (apple-raspberry, blueberry, pear-pineapple, etc) and you can mix and match from there.

These days when I'm so busy that I barely have time to cook (sorry boyfriend!) I love to have found another recipe that I can file under the "super fast and super delicious" category in my recipe box. Enjoy!

Apple-Raspberry Crumble

Ingredients

• 3 lbs baking apples (such as Macoun or Cortland), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 cups fresh raspberries
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup almonds, slivered
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 7 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, cold and cut into chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 2-quart shallow baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (or eight 6-ounce ramekins if you want to make individual desserts).

In a large bowl, toss together the apples and raspberries with the granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine oats, 3/4 cup flour, brown sugar and a pinch of salt and whisk. Add the nuts to the bowl. Work in softened butter with your fingers until evenly moistened.

Transfer the apple-raspberry mixture to the prepared dish (or ramekins) and dot with 2 tablespoons of cut-up cold butter. Squeeze handfuls of the crumble mixture and scatter on top of the fruit mixture.

Bake until golden brown and bubbly, 40 to 45 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Top with whipped cream or, as I did, homemade french vanilla ice cream.

*My apologies for no pictures.. I took a bunch but I think they somehow got deleted! I'll post them if they turn up.

Orange You Glad It's October

I have to say that I've never really won anything before, other than the one time that my sister hosted a jewelry party and I won the door prize (and you can bet I was excited about that). So you can imagine that I was very excited when I found out that I had won a pair of tickets to a brunch event through a blog that I read called Ramshackle Glam.

The event was called Orange You Glad It's October, and it was an all you can eat and all you can drink gathering hosted by brunchcritic.com. The idea was to celebrate October, so of course everyone had to wear at least a small bit of orange.

We noshed on items such as biscuits in sausage gravy, frittatas with brussel sprouts, and some seriously yummy yogurt panna cotta with granola. We sipped champagne and chatted with one of the other couples that won tickets to the event. We were even interviewed for the Brunch Critic website, and I may or may not have said the words "smooshey smooshey" while answering a question (hint: I did).

With Virginia, one of the other winners

We had to get a picture of George and his awesome pants

Enjoying the biscuits and gravy

Thank you again to Andrea from Brunch Critic and Jordan from Ramshackle Glam for giving us the tickets, we had a blast in our orange!

NYC Dumpling Festival

Since we moved to the city Vlady and I have tried to take advantage of new and fun things as much as possible. We've gone to free concerts, plays, musicals and festivals and we've tried dozens of new restaurants.  A few weeks ago we found the dumpling festival in Chinatown, so we decided to give it a shot. There were 10 vendors from local restaurants and they were serving everything from sweet dumplings to pierogies. We tried 8 of the 10 different vendors, walked around and watched Polynesian dancers give lessons to the crowd.

We both agreed that our favorite dumpling was one of the asian ones with pork, and our least favorite was the sweet dumpling that surprisingly had the longest line. It was a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday, and I love the fact that I live somewhere that has festivals celebrating things like dumplings!

I need a haircut!

I think it's time for a haircut. It's probably been about 6 months since my last chop, and frankly I'm bored with my hair. I can get it to look good maybe one day a week, but other times it's just so blah. Time for a change.

Usually when I decide to cut my hair I end up chopping off something crazy like 6 inches, I love it for a week, and then I say that I can't wait for it to grow back out again. I've always loved my hair when it's super long, and I've been thinking for a while that I'm going to keep growing it out.. but I've changed my mind.

I'm leaning towards getting a cut that's about shoulder length with long-ish layers. Below are some of my favorite options:

What are your thoughts? Should I go longer with side-swept bangs like the first picture (which is really not too different from what I have now.. just more bangs and a tad shorter)? Or should I go a little shorter with longer bangs like the second two? I'd love people's opinions!

I definitely know that this is NOT what I want:

I'm afraid that if I tell my hairstylist that I want "shoulder length hair with layers" that this is what I'm going to get. So I'm thinking that when I go to the stylist I'll take one "this is what I want" picture and one "if you give me this haircut I will scream and cry and demand you fix it" picture.

Oh and for reference, this is what my hair looks like now:

Like I said, BORING.

Favorite things from this week

Here are a couple of things from this past week that I've really enjoyed.

1) This apple cider:

We picked up some of this delicious stuff last week at the Union Square farmers market, and we've been drinking it non stop ever since. It's from Breezy Hill Orchard and I honestly think that it's the best apple cider I've ever had. Which is why when I went back to the farmers market this weekend I picked up some more!

2) And speaking of the Union Square farmers market, that's my second favorite thing of the week:

The farmer's market in Union Square is quickly becoming one of my favorite things about where we live. It's only 2 blocks away, which makes carrying home arm-fulls of groceries less painful, and I'm told that the market even stays open through the winter months. This past week I picked up the apple cider and then dinner for Sunday night which included: sourdough bread, new potatoes, green beans, mushrooms and some truly delish pheasant sausage that I got on "sale" since it was the last package (I now know why they sold out so quickly, it was so good).  For dinner I roasted the new potatoes with some rosemary, cooked the sausage, then cooked the mushrooms and greenbeans in the same pan to absorb the flavor, threw it all together and voila! I didn't have anything specific in mind when I was shopping on Saturday, I just sort of bought what looked good, and that's what I ended up with: a yummy meal that came entirely from local farms, and involved no recipes. Gotta love it!

3) This girls blog: http://ramshackleglam.com/blog/

I've been really into reading blogs recently, and I've become a huge fan of this girl. She writes about everything from fashion to relationship advice, and she always has some great recipes to share. She even featured one of my recipes on her blog after I sent her the recipe letting her know that it's one of my favorites. 

4) Friends and Football:

On Saturday night we got together at a friends house for a house warming/Michigan football viewing party. Our friends just bought and moved in to their new place, and since they and a lot of our other friends up here are Michigan fans they decided it'd be good to celebrate the house and game by having us all over. The game was a serious nail biter with 3 touchdowns being made in the last 1:20, but victory was had when Michigan beat Notre Dame in the last 28 seconds of the game! But mainly it was just a really, really great time spent with good friends and good football. 

Oh, and I took the copious amounts of leftovers of this dish since there was no way that Vlady and I could have finished it all. It seemed to be a hit! 

5) Lastly, this little nugget:

That's a picture of my niece, Tatum, from when my family went to the beach last weekend. I've been looking at this picture non stop for the past week... she's just so darn cute!

Creamy (low fat!) Mac n Cheese

I like to think that I'm a fairly healthy eater. I now eat fruits and veggies almost every day (almost.. usually at least 6 out of 7 days a week, but I certainly haven't always eaten that healthy ::cough:college:cough::), and I usually eat food as low in calories and fat as possible. Growing up my mother always cooked amazing meals for us, and she also made sure that we ate very healthy... so I come by my eating habits honestly.

But sometimes I cheat (seriously, who doesn't.. you can't eat healthy ALL of the time), and one of my favorite things to "cheat" on is mac n cheese. There's really not much better than a nice bowl of creamy, cheesy, delicious mac n cheese. Mmmmmmmm.

I've never made homemade mac n cheese before (unless you want to count Kraft or Easy Mac), so when I saw a good looking recipe in the latest magazine of Cooking Light I decided to give it a try. The main way that they cut down on calories and fat is by omitting the bechamel sauce and using butternut squash to add creaminess instead. Yummy mac n cheese with "hidden" vegetables? Bonus! This recipe may not exactly compare to the full fat, artery clogging mac n cheese recipes I've had in the past, but for something that's lower in fat I'd say it's a pretty darn good dish.

Another thing to note is that I assembled this the night before (through step 5), and then baked it the next day to serve as a side dish with a meal. Since it's a little time consuming this allowed me to serve it fresh for dinner without having to worry about timing with the other dishes.

Ingredients

• 3 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 [1-pound] squash)
• 1 1/4 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated pecorino Romano cheese
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) finely grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
• 1 pound uncooked cavatappi
• Cooking spray
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 375°.
• 2. Combine squash, broth, milk, and garlic in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer until squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat.
• 3. Place the hot squash mixture in a blender. Add salt, pepper, and Greek yogurt. Remove the center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Place blended squash mixture in a bowl; stir in Gruyère, pecorino Romano, and 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano. Stir until combined.
• 4. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain well. Add pasta to squash mixture, and stir until combined. Spread mixture evenly into a 13 x 9-inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
• 5. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add panko, and cook for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Sprinkle evenly over the hot pasta mixture. Lightly coat topping with cooking spray.
• 6. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle with parsley, and serve 

Hurricane day crepes

What happens when a hurricane rolls into town, shuts down everything, and leaves you with little to do?


Why, you make homemade crepes of course!


Except I didn't have any eggs on hand, and I kind of threw together the filling based off of what I had in the refrigerator at the moment.. but I think these little gems that we had as a midday snack turned out pretty darn good.


Eggless Crepes with Amaretto Ricotta filling 

Ingredients

• Crepes:
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

Filling:

1 15oz container ricotta cheese (fat free, low fat or regular are fine)

1 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons amaretto flavored coffee creamer

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together milk, water, melted butter, and vanilla extract. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk flour mixture into milk mixture until batter is smooth. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
2. Warm a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with a small amount of vegetable oil and pour in about 2 tablespoons of crepe batter. Swirl pan to allow batter to spread out thinly. Cook until edges are crispy and golden, then flip to cook other side until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining batter.
3. To make filling: combine the ricotta cheese and next 3 ingredients in a small bowl, stir together well. Fill each crepe with about 1/4 cup of filling, dust crepes with powdered sugar if desired. 

***Note: I used amaretto coffee creamer because it's what I had on hand, but you could use any flavor you want (french vanilla, hazelnut, or cinnamon would all be good). Or, you could also just replace the creamer with 2 tablespoons of milk to make the filling a little less sweet. 

(Eggless crepe recipe from allrecipes.com) 

Best. Dessert. Ever.

For many years I would order dessert almost every time that I went out to eat, mainly because it was always my favorite part of the meal. But in the last couple of years I've started to only order dessert on occasion, because frankly most restaurants do not have desserts that impress me. You will never see me order a regular piece of chocolate cake, cheesecake, key lime pie, etc. If a restaurant has done a special twist on those popular desserts, then ok maybe I'll try it.. but it's not that likely.

So it's not too often that I find a dessert that I think, "Oh, I HAVE to try that!". That was the case though recently at Otto in Greenwich Village, which is owned by Mario Batali. After a meal that consisted of Lardo (a bit too rich for our taste), fried sardines (meh) and duck and fig pizza (YUM), I was absolutely stuffed to the brim... until I read the dessert menu.

The description went a little something like this: Olive Oil Coppetta: olive oil gelato, passion fruit granita, basil syrup. It all sounded very interesting, but most importantly it had passion fruit, my all time favorite flavor. The dessert that I received also had strawberries on it, so I was curious if that was supposed to be on there or not (since it wasn't in the description), but either way it was fannnnnnntastic.

The gelato was slightly sweet, but mainly tasted of olive oil and was super creamy. The basil syrup was actually a bit salty, which although that was what MADE the dessert so amazing, I still wonder if it was supposed to be that way, or if there was a mix up in the kitchen and it was made with salt instead of sugar. So the combination of the tangy passion fruit granita, the salty basil syrup and the sweet strawberries all on top of the mellow, slightly savory gelato was in one word: perfection.

Since I'm curious as to whether or not the dessert was prepared how it was intended to be (were there really supposed to strawberries, and was the basil syrup supposed to be salty?), and since the dessert was so darn good that at one point I'm pretty sure I told Vlady to stop talking to me while I savored each bite, I'm considering going back asap to order it again.

Actually scratch that, I WILL go back to get it again. It was just that good, and I think it must be done in the name of research. I will report back to let y'all know if it's still the greatest dessert ever. Anyone care to join in on my research? Here's some more inspiration:

Mmmmmmm

Introducing: Tatum

This Sunday, August 21, my baby niece Tatum Skillman will be 1 month old. I can't believe that it's already been a whole month since she was born, and I feel like it was just yesterday that I was getting to hold her in my arms for the very first time.

Tatum is the most beautiful, perfect little girl that I have ever seen, and I instantly fell in love with her the moment that I saw her. I have never been a "baby person", and I still don't consider myself one at all... but things are so much different when it comes to my niece. I feel more love for her than I ever could have imagined, and I can not wait to see how she's going to grow and mature to become her own person.

As her aunt I am looking forward to providing her with love and support throughout her life, through every step. She already has me wrapped around her little finger, and I admit that I will probably give her anything she asks for.. she even has a onesie from me that says, "Auntie Said I Could".

Although I may be far away from her and the rest of my family, I think about her every single day. And thanks to things such as Facebook, text messaging, emails, etc. I know that I can see her at almost any time.  I can't even begin to describe how much I look forward to getting to hold her again, and I often will shed a tear or two when thinking about her because I miss her that much.

My heart is so full, I think it just may burst with love!

So here she is, little miss Tatum, the new love of my life :)