Wine + Cheese + Chocolate

Switzerland

Spain

England

Oregon

France
I could not stop eating the Persillé de Malzieu,
which is the blue cheese on the left.

Kenny and I spent New Year's Eve with friends (check out the pictures, here), at a wine + cheese + chocolate party, where each couple was assigned a country (or state, in the case of California, Oregon and New York) and asked to bring two bottles of wine, a hunk of cheese and some chocolate from that country, or state. (Kenny and I had Argentina.) In addition to eating like half of the Persillé de Malzieu myself, I also spent a considerable part of New Year's Eve eating some Argentine lemon honey spread on Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is a delicious combination...mmm. Salty cheese + sweet honey. It's a good thing I signed up for a yearlong membership at New York Sports Club, this afternoon.

Happy 2007 everyone!

Breakfast Lunch Tea

Today at dimsum, Susanna brought me an extra copy of Breakfast Lunch Tea that she had — which was extremely thoughtful. I put this cookbook on my Amazon wishlist after reading about it on Chocolate & Zucchini, where Clotide had referenced it in an entry regarding green bean and almond soup (yum!), here.

The book itself features 100 recipes from Rose Carrarini’s Rose Bakery in Paris

...if you are going to Paris, stop by for breakast or lunch: 46 rue des Martyrs, 75009 Paris, tel 01 42 82 12 80

such as: Honey Granola or Maple Syrup Scones for breakfast; Green Bean and Almond Soup or Mushroom Chive Tart for lunch, and Apple and Blackberry Crumble for tea. I have already started to read it, and there are so many things I want to make in it, and I am not even onto lunch, yet!

Destination: Jackson Heights, Queens

A sign to Jamaica.

A man wearing a chicken outfit.

A roof alarm sign, to warn thieves.

A living room set wrapped in Saran Wrap.

A sourpuss Donald Duck.

And apparently, I am not the only person who wants to spend time in Jackson Heights, Queens. Check out this article by Seth Kugel in the NY Times this weekend, on the multitude of food options in Jackson Height, Queens.

Which reminds me, by the way, I had the most amazing cream puff-y thing from Nitins Panderia on Roosevelt Avenue — it was slicked with dulce de leche on top and the inside had reagular custard and a dulce de leche flavored custard, as well. I have honestly never tasted anything so delicious in my entire life. I kept telling myself, "You absolutely can not finish this thing, you are going to gain like five pounds alone from this one cookie-thing." And yet, I not only finished it, I licked my fingers, too. I was also dying to buy a giant ear of corn on a stick, sold from a street vendor — but I was too embarrassed to buy it and then walk down the street eating a giant corn.

On my third day of vacation I saw...

A plumbing truck on the FDR.

A very rosy firehouse.

A sign advertising water via its chemical composition.

The doors to heaven. Just joking.

Staten Island. Or on the way to Staten Island, at least.

Popcorn in the ferry's snack bar.

A sign that said "Had gone back and forth."

Blueberry pancakes + no heat = Good morning!

This morning, I decided that I ought to make some blueberry pancakes. Being that we had no heat or hot water, I thought that turning on the stove and the oven might warm things up a bit. I pulled out my trusty How to Cook Everything and opted for the Light and Fluffy Pancakes. This involved three bowls: one to beat the egg yolks with the milk, one to mix the dry stuff in, and the one attached to the Kitchen-Aid where I had to whip the egg whites to get them Light and Fluffy. However, dirty dishes and no hot water aside — the pancakes were totally worth it and extrememly delicious eaten with some apricot-raspberry-peach jam. Mmmm.

Death by Gummi Bears

As the left over latkes were warming in the oven for dinner, I was feeling a bit let down, like just maybe there was nothing stellarly happy about today. You know, maybe it just was a boring day of vacation. And then I thought, "Wow...since it's been a holiday, I have not read my favorite blogs for like, days!" And of course, I am never let down by my favorite bloggers. Specifically, on Cupcake's blog, she posted a entry about Daniela Edburg's series of photographs titled, "Drop Dead Gorgeous." You can check out the series, here. My favorite is the one above, nicely titled, "Death by Gummi Bears." Since there was once a point in time when I am pretty certain I got about half of my daily caloric intake from Haribo Bears, being attacked and consumed by gummi bears might have been something that could have potentially happened to me — in my nightmares, of course.

On my first day of vacation I saw...

A very artistic holiday greeting in response to the Atlantic Yards Project.

A very courteous note posted at the bodega.

An appealing linoleum floor.

Some pretty flowers on Walker Street in Chinatown.

A sign welcoming me home to Brooklyn as I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Behind the scenes...

Meet the chefs.

Half cooked.

All crispy.

Eating — and cooking — with friends.

Asparagus tart, tomatoes stuffed with pesto,
red pepper + red lentil paté with crackers.

Clickwise from left: Spanish torilla with chorizo, baguette, Mrs. Eng's ketchup shrimp, smashed mint + green peas for topping baguette, New York cheddar with granny smith apples, cave aged gruyére with qunice paste, more granny smith apples, Coach Farms goat cheese, Caschel Blue cheese, Jasper Hill Farms Constant Bliss cheese.

Tomato and fontina galette, latkes with creme frache and two type of roe.

Double chocolate cookies with fleur de sel, icebox sugar cookies rolled in gold sanding sugar and (hidden) mint chocolate shortbread.

Cooking together for our annual Christmas party with our neighbors, Kate and Doug, was the best part of Christmas — other than the gift giving part, and the having people over part. And I think that Kenny would agree. There were limited melt-down moments of me turning into a grouchy ogre because we ran out of time before the guest arrived. In fact, both Kenny and I were showered AND dressed before even the neighbors — who live in our house — arrived. This was a first. And it was more than being relieved that we did not melt down and snap each others heads off this Christmas. It was more about the fact that it was just fun to cook together with another couple. There was such a sense of "this is what the holidays are all about..." as we all stood around eating blueberry coffee cake and hollowing out cherry tomatoes together in our kitchen, and as we fried about 2 million latkes together over Kate's stove.

I hope that everyone had a happy holiday.

'Twas the night before Christmas

This is Emily — first opening her new Dora dishset,
and then holding it above her head like a trophy.

Hey, Neighbors!

I spent this afternoon, upstairs, cooking with our neighbors, Kate and Doug. After the Giants lost, Kenny came up too, and we all chopped onions, and other stuff, together, in preparation for eating lots of food on Christmas Day. There was only one small debacle: Kate and I could not figure out how the lentils for the red lentil pate were going to soften up, since they were really hard. I thought that the 8 hour lounging time in the fridge would cause them to soften through osmosis or something. Turns out I missed the crucial part where you COOK the lentils. Oh, gee. I read this part just as Kate poured the lentils into the food processor on top of the cream cheese and butter mixture. Doug thoughtfully picked out the chunks of cream cheese-y lentils, and after a quick rinse, we were back on track. Since we had to mash the puree through a seive anyway, the raw lentils that we left in were, hopefully, strained out.

This is the stuff that tv sitcoms are made off — scenarios where the whole house is friends with one another and you hang out in your neighbor's house cooking, or borrow a dish of olives during a party because you are feeling a little snackish. I feel like we are so lucky to have such cool neighbors, that are now our friends!

Place of the Day: the Drugstore

Tonight on our way to Christmas Eve, we stopped at a CVS Drugstore in Flushing, Queens. I was completely enraptured by the thoroughness of CVS' new way finding signage, and walked around the entire store looking at all of the things I might want to buy, now that I know where they are located within the store. Tape, Socks + Tights, Cold Beverages, Snacks, Tampons. The entire store was neatly labeled and color coded — although I was at a loss to understand what the different colors represented, since Acne Medication and Pantyhouse were the same color.

Sock Dogs are the perfect pets

I went to brunch at Elizabeth's house today (where the strata was delicious!!) and Melissa showed us the sock dog puppets she made for her nieces and nephews to give to them on Christmas. The puppets are sock replicas of Enzo and Mika — Melissa's pet greyhounds. Honestly, she did the most amazing job crafting the puppets...the noses are made from the insides of socks, the ears are old tee shirts lined with pink felt, and the mouths were incredibley detailed — down to including the tonsils!