FNSC: Spitzer's Corner

This Friday we hit up Spitzer's Corner, a gastropub with 40 beers on tap! Good beers too. But the beer was honestly outclassed by the food. Definitely recommended for a Friday evening outing.



We had six dishes (descriptions and prices from the online menu):

Pork Fat Edamame (cayenne pepper, sea salt) 5
These were good but not as amazing as we’d expected.  The pods sopped up some of the tasty flavor of the pork fat so they got a lot tastier of you shelled them in the bowl and then coated them in the sauce. 

Heirloom Tomato Salad (organic tomatoes, yellow watermelon, basil seeds, parmesan crisp, drizzled w/ evo and balsamic vinegar) 11
You really can’t go wrong with a heirloom tomato salad.  The watermelon was an interesting addition and the parmesan crisp (although not original) was a good addition too. 

Pork Rillettes (pork shoulder confit, duck fat and herbs, served with toasted country bread) 9
Now that I’m home in front of a computer I can look up what “rillettes” means, but I have to admit that I was surprised that this was a cold spread.  Pâté I’m familiar with, and this was like that, but it was only ok. 

Seafood Sausage (chunks of lobster, scallop, shrimp, monkfish, white wine-butter sauce, chili oil) 11
This was a surpisingly complex and rich seafood sausage.  I hadn't wanted to order it because I thought it would be disappointing but the flavors came together in such a satisfying way that it barely needed the sauce. 

Truffle Mac and Cheese (parmegiano reggiano, white cheddar, fontina, truffles, panko, rosemary and thyme) 11

Yum!  I’m a mac and cheese fan, and this was pretty fantastic.  Truffle mac and cheese has become popular these days, but this was a particularly well done version.  Some places go overboard on the truffles or truffle oil, but the potent mushrooms were a delicious and subtle complement to the cheddar (good work on the white cheddar) and herbs.

Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon (organic fish, caper-crusted, broiled tomato, crispy artichoke, grilled meyer lemon) 19
I’ll admit that I wasn’t in favor or ordering this dish either, but hands down this was the best dish of the night.  Most people don’t know what to do with capers, but this is a really fantastic use.  Capers are mouthpuckeringly salty, but still tasty and green and they lend a perfect briney accent to the salmon in this dish.  The crispy artichoke was delicious!  So crispy and light that you could barely tell that it had been a vegetable, but bursting with flavor and texture.  I thought this would just be the token fish dish on the menu, including a trendy cedar plank, but I was wrong.  Even the fancy lemon was the perfect way to add further flavor to the tender moist fish and compliment the capers.

Knitting Mochimochi signing at LBYS

Sometimes it is good to have simple plans.  Today I wanted to just have a laid back evening after work  My plan went like this:
Step 1: Walk to the Shake Shack and procure a delicious treat.
Step 2: Walk to the Knitting Mochimochi book signing at the LBYS.
Step 3: Go home and walk dogs.

When I found myself still sitting at my desk at work at nearly 6pm I almost gave up and just went home, but I was lured down to Madison Square Park by the though of a cool, tasty concrete.  I'm glad I didn't go home because it turned out to be a fantastic evening.  First I got a hopscotch concrete from the Shake Shake.  Then I made my way to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio and as tasty as the concrete was, I had an even better time at the Knitting Mochimochi event.

There were many things that added up to a great event.  For starters all of the wonderful creations from the book were on display to see and touch.  Even better, Anna Hrachovec was really, really nice and fun to talk to, and I got to chat with her about about how she comes up with her original and creative patterns.  I bought two copies of Anna's beautiful new book and managed restrain myself from pouring over them long enough to ask her to sign them.

To top things all off I entered the raffle and I actually won!  I never win raffles.  Ever.  I never even get junk when my company gives away stuff vendors foist off on us.  But if there was ever a time for me to win a raffle I'm really glad that it was this one.  The prize was a copy of all the patterns from the Mochimochi Land store!  Isn't that fantabulous?!?!  I'm soo excited!!  I hardly know where to even begin....

Oh, and I took a second to grab a pair of sock blockers for the socks I've been working on, but I'm not sure I'll be working on socks again for a little while.

Kit Kat Challenge

Olivia and I took the KitKat Challenge last night. Matty told me that there is a difference between American and Canadian KitKats, and it turns out that KitKat is made by Hershey in the US and by Nestle everywhere else.  So while I was in Canada I brought back regular KitKat and a KitKat Chunky to compare with the American variety.

Of course for the Challenge to be valid it has to be a blind taste test. I administered to Olivia and she administered to me. I correctly guessed which was which and Olivia had them backward, but we both liked the Canadian one best. (Olivia liked the Canadian one, but thought it was the American one, if that helps)

The two things that everyone seems to agree on is that the chocolate in the Canadian variety is less sweet than the American variety and that the wavers have a completely different texture. I think the American version is crunchier and I like the less crunch Canadian one more, but it's all personal preference.  But we both liked the Chunky better than the other two.  All KitKats should be Chunky KitKats.

Cherry Pie Redux

As previously mentioned Todd has a thing for sour cherry pie.  After the pie we made for July 4th Todd wanted to make another, but when we looked sour cherries up we learned that they have a very short season and we didn't think we'd be able to find any.  However we got to our local Stop n Shop and found a tower of quarts of sour cherries.  As you can tell we came home with just about all of them.

We had our work cut out for us getting them all pitted, but it was worth it.

The reappearance of the cherries was also another opportunity to practice the whole wheat pastry flour and butter pie crust.

Look at what a lovely golden brown color we managed this time.

This time we tried a slightly different configuration of circles as an upper pie crust, but we're still perfecting our technique.

As part of the finished dish we had the pie with good old vanilla Häagen-Dazs ice cream and a sour beer.

Fig Tart

This weekend Sofia came over for a BBQ, beer and baking adventure. We'd already made plans for brewing ginger peach beer, making chicken and ribs in the smoker, and baking sour cherry pie and Sofia added fig tart to the list.  The idea came from a foodie blog that she came across and it was a tasty addition to the menu. 

As per usual we used whole wheat pastry flour for the pie crust and sliced and arranged the figs as instructed. 

The tart baked up nicely with the figs softening and the frangipane bubbling up in the fragrant nutty crust.

As a finishing touch we served the tart with goat cheese. The addition of the cheese really made the dish with the richness of the cheese complimenting the sweetness of the figs.

FNSC: The Meatball Shop

FNSC:  The Friday Night Supper Club. Olivia, Sofia and Todd have the ball rolling, but we're open to new members. This week's adventure was the The Meatball Shop, a restaurant that does one thing and does it well. You can get individual meatballs, sliders, meatballs on a sandwich, and a mashup of a meatball and other ingredients (recommended). Everything we had but the sangria was excellent and I would try it again.  The special meatball of the day was a cheeseburger meatball, with ground beef, cheddar cheese, and bacon. It was good, but the classic beef and spicy pork were both spectacular.  We unfortunately forgot to take pictures, so the menu will have to suffice.

• Sangria (not great)
• Special meatball (cheeseburger)
• Spicy pork meatball in tomato sauce
• Classic beef meatball in spicy meat sauce
• Daily special swiss chard salad
• Daily special risotto with peas and mushrooms
• Dessert:
•   Cappuccino ice cream with a chocolate chip cookie
•   Coconut ice cream with macaroon cookie
  

Renata's Bridal Shower

This weekend Todd's mom hosted an bridal shower for Renata thrown by Aubrey and Heather. It was a picnic lunch and pool party themed event.

One of the neatest parts of the shower was the cake. The cake was an edible diorama complete with fish pond with a tiny live fish and jordan almond path.

Since Whitney was the most recent bride she had the fun job of assembling a hat for Renata from the bows and ribbons and a paper plate. I got to make the hat for Whitney at her shower and it was ridiculously fun.

And of course the guest of honor got to open her lovely casual dining set that came wrapped in excessive amounts of paper and bubble wrap. It was lots of fun to be able to throw a surprise shower for Renata and it really was a surprise for Renata so that made it even better.

We met Zoe!

We had to put all the other hoofs next to Zoe to give a sense of proportion. 
The big one is for Maggie, the two medium ones are for Buddy and Dakota, and
the other little one is for Bella.  

Whitney and Evan just adopted the most adorable puppy!  Zoe is a labrador-boxer mix with a spunky personality, boundless energy, and the cutest face.  We got to meet Zoe over the weekend and we knew we were going to meet her so we brought her and the other dogs in the family some of the tasty hoofers our dogs have been enjoying lately. When they picked up Zoe she smelled a little so she put up with two baths with no problem, and then spend the day meeting new people and swimming in the pool.

Vote for Buddy and Dakota!

Last year the NEPR Calendar turned out to be a very successful fund raiser so NEPR decided to do it again for 2011! 

To support NEPR's 2011 Calendar we submitted these four pictures to the contest.  If you'd like to help us support NEPR and see Buddy and/or Dakota in this year's calendar vote for them at NEPR's online store.  (Clicking on each of the pictures below will take you straight there.)

Dakota and Buddy enjoy a snowy day at Hudson Park.

Buddy and Dakota getting covered in a dusting of snowflakes in the backyard.

Dakota focuses on getting every lick of a special treat.

A freshly groomed Dakota relaxes in the spruced up back yard
(next to the grill where tasty treats sometimes come from).

All net proceeds from the submission of pictures, voting, sponsorships and sale of the calendars will directly help NEPR's efforts to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home Great Pyrenees throughout the Northeast!

The house gets a facelift

Our house had a problem.

The facade started to peel away from the concrete.

So we tore it all down! Well, we hired someone to tear it all down.  And Val's crew were fast and efficient.  They had all the old brick off in one day and were already starting on the wire mesh.

Within a few days we had window sills and door sills and a fresh coat of stucco.

One more coat and it started looking like a finished product.

And we're done!

Kimchee Tasting

According to Kadeem Oh (kimchee sensei extraordinaire) we were to leave our kimchee sitting out for a day and then refrigerate.  So we did just that then had a tasting.  We came home from the kimchee class with a free sample of regular cabbage kimchee and we wanted to compare our kimchee to a professionally prepared sample so we also purchased some Mama Oh! bok choy kimchee.

Our big jar of napa cabbage kimchee dwarfed the two little jars but it was fun to set them all out on the table together.
The red cabbage kimchee was pretty good.  It was like a cross between kimchee and sauerkraut.  I liked it more than Todd because I really like plain old sauerkraut more than Todd to begin with.  As a matter of fact I like most sour or pickled things.
The bok choy kimchee was the best.  The green leaves add a really good flavor to the rich spice of the pepper sauce and the little bundles made perfect mouth sized bites.
Our kimchee was pretty good but not quite fermented enough so it came back out of the fridge for a little more time.

We made Kimchee!

The happy cooks with kimchee master Kheedim Oh

Tonight we went to a truly fantastic class at The Brooklyn Kitchen where we learned how to make kimchee! Recently we've become a little obsessed with Korean BBQ and I'm quite capable of accidentally eating a whole jar of kimchee by myself. So when Sofia suggested a kimchee class we jumped at the opportunity. 

Taught by Kheedim Oh of Mama O’s Premium Kimchee, the class was a fun and laid back atmosphere where everyone participated in the hands-on conversion of 40 lbs of napa cabbage into 20 gallon-sized jars of tasty, take-home, hand-made Korean goodness.

A Baby Sour Beer

Now that our Rodenbach clone has been maturing for four months we have another twelve months to wait before it is really ready to drink. So in the meantime we decided to make a simpler sour beer.  On a trip to Corrado's Home Beer and Winemaking Center we saw a kit for a kriek (cherry) beer.

Brand new Better Bottle! And a brand new can!

Shake, shake, shake. It settled more than Todd liked.

Soon to be tasty. End super easy to make when it's from a can.

 

July 4

Wow. There are a lot of food-based posts on this blog. And here's another!

For the July 4th holiday we ended up having a lovely time at home.  After thoroughly cleaning the house we took the pets for a celebratory trip to the vet (celebratory for us, not them), then rewarded them for excellent behavior at the vet's office by a romp at the park with their canine play group. Then we staggered home to start cooking.

Our menu included some BBQ in the smoker, kale, corn fritters and cherry pie with buttermilk ice cream.

Smart Kitty

I have to admit that Ginger is quite a smart kitty, but she almost got her head stuck in this small treat bag in her enthusiasm to get at the Greenies.

Sour Cherry Pie

It was so nice to have a pie of lovely whole cherries!

Notice the baked outer edge of the crust that was prebaked to avoid the soggy crust often found in fruit pies.

Ta da!

Sour cherries are one of Todd's favorite things. On a whim last year I made a pie from cherries from the farmer's market.  Without a cherry pitter I spent an afternoon in front of the TV cutting the pits out with knife and ended up with pink fingers.  I briefly looked for a reasonably priced pitter and then cherry season was over.

This year I saw an article in the NY Times about twice baked sour cherry pie and I was inspired to make one.  Since I'd never managed to buy a cherry pitter and I didn't want pink fingers and whole cherries look better I got creative.  Thinking about the mechanism I realized that a cherry pitter is just something that holds the cherry in place and then pokes the pit out.  So I came up with a chopstick and the handle of a measuring cup and presto!  Turns out you barely need the measuring cup handle - you can just hold the cherry and use the chopstick to push the pit through the hole left by the cherry stem.

Aside from being a recipe for sour cherry pie, this recipe has a great crust.  The crust is baked before you fill it so it is flaky and tasty.  For the crust we used rendered lard from Flying Pigs Farm and whole wheat pastry flour from Bob's Red Mill.  Previously I'd tried the pie crusts from Flying Pigs Farm and they were delicious.  Unfortunately when I stopped by this time they were all sold out so I got rendered lard instead.  Conveniently the sour cherry pie article in the NY Times that inspired this dish also included a pie crust recipe.  The texture of the pie crust was delicious but a little soft, I think because the ratios of lard to flour were a little off because we used lard and whole wheat pastry flour.  We'll maybe use a little less lard next time but I'm tempted to do a twice baked pie crust all the time now.  Maybe I'll combine the twice baked method with the wisdom gathered from this delicious pie experiment.