Dinner with Murrow Ladies

A few months ago, one of my friends from High School, Nneka, hit me up on facebook. I cant recall her specific wording but to paraphrase, her comment went something like this: “I will travel to Queens if you cook for me”. And really, the Italian in me cannot say no to anyone when it comes to food… not that i wanted to say no… but when i accepted the offer- publicly- i immediately started something.

Pretty soon, Jessica (hey gurl), was in on it and then Megan… plus a few boys that tried to crash the girls day. We set a date and then i immediately began menu planning.

Ulitmately, i decided on chicken as the protein. Nneka, doesnt eat pork. Megan, only eats Chicken or Shrimp. And when Fresh Direct had a sale on whole free range chickens, i decided whole chicken indeed.

To start, i made (for the very first time ever) roasted red pepper hummus. The recipe, which i cannot share at the moment, is a part of a beta ipad cookbook application that a fellow foodie asked me to test for her. What I can do (now that i know how to make hummus) is recreate my own version of this delicious spread.

I paired it with some kettle chips. I really didnt think the ladies were going to like this but sure enough, one of them went home with a nice container full of homemade hummus. So, yay for my first time!

To go with the chicken, i decided to make a spinach artichoke penne and cheese.

Here is my thick and creamy bechamel sauce! yums!

Poured it all over some al dente penne and gave it a healthy sprinkling of mozzarella cheese.

I roasted two small chickens. One was rubbed with Garlic, onion, salt, and pepper while the other was rubbed down with Emeril Essence. I roasted them at 450 for 30 minutes then brought the temp down to 350 to bake for one hour. When it was done (160*), i let it rest before carving.

It was delicious! And i used the pan drippings to make an amazing chicken gravy…although the chicken did not need it.

Nneka preparing to server herself.

the goods. We also had some asparagus that i cooked in butter and salt.

the spread. Looking at this photo i think to myself “why didnt i make any bread?”

the answer: I wasnt being awesome.

Note to self: Be Awesome- EVERY DAY.

Meg and Jess ate, and ate well. Here they sit digesting and talking…. about life. and boys. and then they found out they live a block away from eachother.

see how food brings people together?

Nice!

So once the ladies had made a little more room in their tummies i brought out dessert…

Rich homemade vanilla ice cream….

with some Pure Dark Chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies…

for Homemade chip ‘wiches.

i think i did a pretty good job… the ladies went home that night and fell into glorious food comas.

Leftover Ice Cream

What does a girl do when she has a handful of marshmallows, brownies crumbles, and a pint of heavy cream just hanging out in the kitchen?

Think think think….

Especially since her appetite has pretty much been nonexistent for the last 10 days?

Ice Cream.

But not just ice cream…. Ice Cream with leftovers.

Almonds. Brownie Crumbles. Marshmallows. Vanilla ice cream.

Using my $5 find at a garage sale, i dusted off my Big Chill Ice cream maker and prepped my tried and true vanilla ice cream recipe:

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

2 tsp vanilla

Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and frothy. Combine with heavy Cream, milk and vanilla and pour into ice cream maker. Turn the ice cream maker on and churn for 30 – 40 minutes.

I had a little spillage….35 minutes later, i added about 1/2 cup brownie crumbles, palmful of almonds, and several homemade marshmallows.

I folded all the ingredients into the freshly made ice cream

Placed it in a giant freezer-safe container….

added more almonds…

And for good measure, i placed plastic wrap on top of the ice cream to prevent freezer burn.

This ice cream recipe is simple. Easy. NO COOKING required and i swear when i serve it- people say it tastes like haagendaz vanilla ice cream. 🙂

what would you put in your ice cream? if its vanilla- i say anything goes!

Mo and Mom time

MMM. Ya’ll love ya some pot pie. I was intrigued by a few of your comments. Julie and Naomi would like a sweet pot pie… ice cream and oreos? MMM. That would sure be interesting. And a new comment this morning totally blew my mind from We Are Not Martha: Lobster Pot Pie! I have totally had a lobster pot pie at the Kitchen Roscoe in Chi-town! To make that, Id use the same crust, mixed veggies and potatoes with the addition of cream of shrimp and chunks of lobster tail! yuuum!
I usually visit mom and dad on the weekends. Now that its summer mom and dad go to the pool and I stay in the AC because i melt in the sun. On one particular day mom and i, both stressed from the purgatory they call WORK, decided to meet up somewhere in between my office and hers for some STRONG Sangria… and some eats too.
Sazon. Not to be confused with Sofrito, this is the smaller more convenient upscale Puerto Rican spot. And they serve….you guessed it! PUERTO RICAN FOOD! The interior is gorgeous, The waiters are chivalrous and flirty and I am THIRSTY. At $12 a glass, their red sangria is more of a cocktail of everything they got plus a little sweet wine. I saw things like Grenadine, Triple Sec and even a splash of lime on the list of ingredients. So delicious you’ll want to chug it- but don’t! Even the seasoned Happy Hour Vets will feel the effects of this baby. But being that mom and I had a bad day we greedily “SIPPED”.

Ivan, our waitor brought out some pressed bread with a garlicky white bean puree. I slathered it all over my bread. and devoured. Mom likes her bread plain so i got to be greedy with the spread. And then we started to have a girly chat. When i pulled out my camera mom suggested we take a few camera phone clicks and post them on Facebook. my mommy is so pretty.

I, never wanting to be ordinary, take the opportunity to be silly, again.

We were hungry, but not starving and opted to order an appetizer, an entre and a side dish to pick and choose from. Sazon isnt cheap but you definitely get what you pay for.

We started with 2 mini chicken empanadas. These babies were STUFFED with seasoned chicken and probably were the equivalent of a regualar empanada they were so packed! and boy were they deeelish! (i could go for one right now)

Mom got a side of white rice with black beans…

and because of the size of this mammoth, i ordered the pernil to share with momma. Cant understand how big it is?

THIS BIG. delicious. by the time mom and i were done there was shredded pork everywhere… we were stuffed… and managed to down another sangria. Wasnt too bad. But when we parted ways to go to our respective boroughs, the humidity met with my blood alcohol level and sweat started to pour out of me like a faucet. It was disgusting. I was still melting on my airconditioned train ride home. GROSS.

WHen i got home I got a text from Patty who asked what i was doing that night… and becuase I was so hot I answered “Making Ice Cream”.

Bless her heart, she immediately wrote back: “Excellent. tell me what you need and I will bring it over”

And thats how my drunk ass got started making ice cream

I beat some eggs and sugar together and tossed them into my ice cream maker with some heavy cream and skim milk. I set it to churn for 30 mins

at 25 mins I threw in some crushed oreos.

And then me, patti, and my new friend Nicole had a movie night with ice cream.

Whats your idea of the perfect eve with the girls/mom?

Cure for Boredom

… do you have one?
What do you do when you are bored at work? I upload pics and write about them. Or I read some of my favorite blogs.
Okay, so a few nights ago, I made ice cream and made a few notes as to how I would change it. I did and it came out great. Its a cookies and cream ice cream and i was attempting to take a shot before I served Henry some but while I was taking the camera out there were two spoonfuls missing.
And as I was going to yell at him I couldn’t stop laughing because he looked at me like he was going to be in trouble (which he WAS) but he had ice cream on his lip. Why do men eat so messy?\
Any who, back to the present.
This is my last Pluot which I have learned is a cross between a Plum and an Apricot. These babies are expensive but really tasty. I better place another produce order on fresh direct to hope they give me another pluot freebie!

A while back, Sarah hooked me up with some steel cut oats. I love steel cut oats because they are the mac daddy of hot cereals. They are super filling and I can crave them breakfast lunch or dinner! I started to prepare a bowl for overnight oats (as an experiment) and in the morning I decided to add a banana.

This banana is 5 days old and was sitting nicely in the Green Bags!

This was before I nuked the oats.

This was after i nuked them with cinnamon and brown sugar. They came out creamy and slightly sweet. I can have a bucket of this for breakfast. So glad I had a chance to make breakfast because these days I have been too lazy to make real food.

So with your recommendations last week, I went to stock up on some of your favorites. And you guys did not disappoint! Thanks so much to all who recommended their faves! I picked up the fettuccine alfredo (hooray for sales!) and decided that this one looked promising.

I made a side of spinach to eat on the side…

But decided to mix it in – for volume. I am so glad I did too! It was a great addition. It thinned out the sauce which can be a little salty for me and inspired me to add veggies to more of my frozen lunches.

At dinner time, I still had a pound of beef to cook and I really couldn’t be creative. I figured chili was the easiest thing.

Diced some onions.

Cried a bit. Damn onions. Then sauteed them.

I added the ground beef and cooked it up a bit. Started to add spices and nearly freaked out when i realized I didn’t have any more chili powder.

NOOOOOOO!

so i B-S’ed this recipe. I added whatever I could think of including a shit load of Franks Red Hot. I also added some black beans and beer. I let it simmer for 30 mins. and also kicked myself for tossing the ancho chillies that were in the freezer that I was NEVER GOING TO USE. they would have went really well with this chili.

The BS method worked well. It was a different tasting chili but it was still delicious! it had more of a fiery taste than a smoky one but Henry and I love spicy so really this chili that I thought was a fail turned out to be a win.

I think I am done with the ground beef for a while though. I have some ground veal. Any suggestions for that?

Food Snob Gets Gadget-y

When I first flew the coop (mom and dads house) into my new “crib” in the Q-boro, I took a visit to my cuzo’s house in Delaware to go garage sale-ing. Its something quite exhausting but can save you quite a bit of money! My cousin, while driving around during the week will notice signs of the sale and make a note of which part of town to hit up. When I went, we were up at 6 am and out the door by 7. You gotta get there early to get all the GOOD STUFF! I think we did 12 Garage sales that day. I was armed with $40 and cleaned up quite a bit!
The first thing I saw that was not on my list was this baby:
THE BIG CHILL. The Blue Sticker on this barely used machine read $5. wha? $5? Sold. It even came with the instructions! I want to tell you that I went home and tinkered with it right away and that I was a successful ice cream maker…
but Exactly ONE YEAR Later, i took it off the cabinet it had been collecting dust on and I decided to try it. (Not to mention the nudging from CG and LK) Once I realized i had all the pieces to the ice cream maker I picked out the easiest recipe.

EASY VANILLA ICE CREAM: because it was definitely easy. Then I thought… this might be too easy.

So i added chopped cherries and shaved dark chocolate for a nice chocolate chip cherry vanilla ice cream (kind of like Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia- my FAV)

I poured all my lovely ingredients into the Big Chill and turned it on. I let it churn for 30 mins.

Look at the transformation! Isn’t that AMAZING??

And this thick and lovely delight was the finished product. It had the consistency of soft serve… so I served myself a fresh cup and then stored the rest.

The next day, My now solid frozen dessert tasted a bit..icy. It was still yummy flavor wise but texture wise it was all wrong. I figured it was because I tried to make this low fat by using skim milk and cream. Last night I tried a new recipe (because despite icy texture Henry pretty much polished this tub off) and had an ice cream success by using a little more cream than fat free milk and I will post pics later of my very successful, cream, and fatty cookies and cream ice cream!