can't wait to get back

to cooking dinner. crazy to some, but in an effort to eat more healthy and to save more money (remember, the impending move to LA), i want to cook at home more. and i've been so busy its been near impossible. i might end up being the type of person who cooks big on the weekend and freezes for throughout the week. we'll see. its something i am really looking forward to. i also cant wait to dive into moving prep and yes, i will do this 2+ months in advance, b.c thats the type of person i am. crazy. i mean, organized. crazy organized.

lets get rich...

not much food lately. i've been living away from home for the last few weeks. the ol' bf was in town and is allergic to cats, so we couldn't stay in my home...but, come saturday...greenmarket, here i freaking come. 

also, just heard this on pandora. ingrid michaelson, you and i. its beautiful, see:

Don't you worry there my honey | We might not have any money | But we've got our love to pay the bills

Maybe I think you're cute and funny | Maybe I wanna do what bunnies do with you if you know what I mean

Oh lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France | Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance | Lets get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants | From way up there, you and I, you and I

Well you might be a bit confused | And you might be a little bit bruised | But baby how we spoon like no one else | So I will help you read those books | If you will soothe my worried looks | And we will put the lonesome on the shelf

Lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France | Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance | Lets get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants | From way up there, you and I, you and I

Lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France | Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance | Lets get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants | From way up there, you and I, you and I

everyone i love loves italian food. this makes me happy.

this includes me. (right? cause i gotta show myself some love.) i'm not joking...when i have a choice of what i want to eat out, i choose italian. when i have to plan a meal, i always seem to lean towards italian. when my boyfriend and i want to spend a special evening out by ourselves, we go italian. i read books that focus on italian food. (ps. do yourself a favor and read HEAT by bill buford. ... its great) when i watch a cooking show, i love watching people make italian food. whats something i want to perfect making at home? pasta. and a ragu. man.

...friday night we (rory, his sisters, bro-in-law and a friend) went here: luzzo's. its a great little brick oven pizza place in the east village. its so good. then saturday i threw an amazing surprise party for rory...it was AWESOME. he had no idea and Mike Meyers was at the bar...i love dive bars in NYC. then on Sun, we went to the Meatball Shop in the LES. Also wonderful. I had spicy pork meatballs on risotto - yums. and then, tonight, i have a date with the love of my life and we're going to Barolo for restaurant week...sigh. i could die in italian food.

i dont make pretty desserts, i make yummy ones.

but first: 
i can't help it. i love eggs. for awhile i was careful not to eat them all the time b.c there were the reports that you shouldn't eat too many eggs for fear of high cholesterol. then i was told that that could be ignored...i'm still careful, i don't eat them every meal or everyday for that matter, but there's at least 3 meals a week that use eggs as a center piece. thursday i went to the store and wanted greens, black beans and poached eggs. so i got turnip greens, cut out the stems and chopped them. threw some oil and garlic into a pan. once hot, i threw in the turnip greens. after the greens wilted i threw in a can of black beans and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. i let it all meld together then poached two eggs, threw the beans and greens into bowl, put the eggs on top and salted and peppered it. yum. turnip greens are bitter people. bitter. they need lots of salt. probs more than i put on them....

now...the the main attraction of this post...a spanish custard berry tart. we had a cast dinner party/line thru (we have a show tonight and we didnt have rehearsal all week so we needed to make sure we remembered our lines!) and we decided to have a spanish themed dinner. we had home made paella and i made a tart. man was it good but man was it ugly. i dont think i let the puff pastry thaw enough and i, for sure, should have pulled the pastry up and over the edge of the spring form. had i done that i would have been able to attach the lattice puff pastry pieces to the other pastry. what happened was the lattice pieces fell into the berry topping and sort of sank into the tart.  i also took the tart out maybe 10 min early - it could have cooked a little longer to make the pastry a little more puffy...make sense?  it was really good, you should try it. (ps. it weighs like 5 pounds...cra-zy)

Berry Topping
(recipe adapted from about.com)

• 2 pints blueberries
• 1/2 pint blackberries
• 1/2 cup raw sugar

rinse fruit and remove stems. put fruit in a medium saucepan and pour sugar over.  heat to medium-high and stir to mix the sugar in with the fruit.  let berries release their juices (oh the sweet nectar found inside a piece of fruit...) stir often so that the mix doesnt burn.  reduce heat and simmer until the juice thickens and fruit cooks.  this took maybe 15/20 min. you can really use whatever berries you want, just make sure you have at least 2 - 3 cups.)

spanish custard and berry filled tart
(again adapted from about.com)

• 2 cups berry filling (recipe above is proper amount)
• butter to coat the pan
• 2 sheets puff pastry (1 pkg 17 oz puff pastry)
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch (i really wanted to substitute this...but i didnt)
• 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 2 egg whites

prepare the berry filling - set aside to let cool to room temp before adding it to the tart.

remove the puff pastry and allow to thaw (10/15 min). using your hands (i love getting messy when i bake/cook) coat 8-in spring form with the butter. i bet you could just use a tall pie dish too - it just has to be at least 2 inches deep. line the cake with the puff pastry, trimming the edges to fit the pan and pressing the pastry into the corners and prick the bottom w. a fork. (this is where i urge u to make sure that the pastry reaches up and over the edges of the pan).


set pan aside and second sheet of pastry until ready to cut. you are going to make a lattice top bu cutting strips 1/1 1/2 inches thick. later of course.
measure and sift flour and cornstarch to use later.
heat over to 360F (160C)
while the oven was heating, prepare the custard. pour all but 1/4 cup of the milk into a medium-size heavy bottom pan and add the cinnamon stick. bring milk just to the boiling point then remove from heat and set aside.
in a large mixing bow, beat the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns light yellow and has a smooth texture. add flour  and corn starch to the eggs and beat with a hand mixer on medium/high. add the 1/4 cup o f milk and continue to mix until smooth and creamy. 
remove the cinnamon stick from the milk. while stirring constantly, pour about one third of the warm milk into the egg mixture. once milk has mixed throughly with the eggs, slowly pour in the rest of the milk, while stirring constantly.  transfer the mixture into a large sauce pan and heat on medium, stirring continuously. bring to a boil and allow to boil for just 30 seconds, then remove from the heat immediately and pour into the spring form pan with the puff pastry crust.

NOTE: if lumps begin to form in the custard while heating, us a hand mixer on a low speed to break up the lumps. (i had to do this almost immediately but it makes it hard to realize the boiling, so pay attention!)


pour the berry topping over the custard filling and spread evenly. cut the other pastry sheet into strips about 1 inch thick and as wide as the springform and lay them across the top in a lattice pattern - or whatever you think that looks like. beat the egg whites in a small bowl. brush them over the crust.
place in hot oven in the middle rack. bake for 30 - 35 min. remove and allow to cool for at least 20 min before serving. if tart will not be eaten w. in 2 hours, refrigerate. bring to room temp. before serving.
it was fun to make this tart - it take a bit or time and focus...and if your tart turns out looking like mine (man i wish i could show it to you - it was u-g-l-y and had NO alibi) just say to yourself: i don't make pretty desserts, i make yummy ones. at the end of the day, its the taste that matters.


xo  

opening night cookies!!

cookies. what better than chocolate chip cookies on opening night. everyone gets their own little bunch. i havent started baking yet and the current brain debate is: make them a 'normal' cookie shape OR make like chocolate chip cookie bars. sounds sort of incredible...i decided to try this out with molasses instead of granulated sugar (mainly cause i have a lot of molasses that is just sitting in the pantry but also, b.c it reduces the sweetness factor).  with a little research on that handy-dandy-world-wide-web, i learned that you a) should not replace more than half the sugar content in a recipe w. molasses, b) you have to add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every cup of molasses you add to the recipe, c) you use 1 1/3 cup molasses for every cup of sugar (*note: i replaced the granulated sugar b.c thats the more processed of the two sugars - brown and granulated) and d) reduce the liquid in the recipe by 5 tablespoons. (there's no liquid in the recipe so...i'm ignoring that step.) Ali (from Gimme Some Oven) suggests cooling the dough for 20/30 min to make sure your cookies dont go flat. on it!

i also have an affinity to dark chocolate and when you're making gifts for people...why not splurge a little. at whole foods i found sirius chocolate. its pure icelandic chocolate. i purchased 14.1 oz of their 70% extra bitter (damn...) i also borrowed this picture from someones website b.c i couldn't make sense of the actual companies website. doesnt this look amazing? Found here.

the packaging is even awesome.

so...i am taking my first batch out and they fell and look like chocolate on chocolate cookies...verdict will be the taste - i guess. verdict: they taste like molasses cookies w. a hint (slight) of chocolate. SO - if you dont like molasses cookies, don't make them my way. :)

Dad’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Gimme Some Oven)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp. butter, slightly softened
• 1 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips (mini, regular, or chocolate chunks!)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they look cakey.

heat

tonight (today, yesterday, this week) was one of those hot, sticky, gross new york nights. we're talking really, really hot and sweaty. i had rehearsal at the old stone house in a very hot, humid room...regardless it was a fun rehearsal and we had two audience members who stuck through the heat. 

what was great about tonight, not counting the cab we had to take because the subway shut down unexpectedly (im not being insincere) was the way everyone on my walk home was reacting to the heat. sure, fire hydrants gushing water is such a waste but when there are adults and teenagers running through it b.c thats the only way they can get cool. or there's a couple who while riding their bikes took a turn they weren't expecting and were now soaked and giggling. or every window is open and people are leaning out with fans in their hands hoping to catch a cool breeze from anywhere. there's something magical about that. there's something about it that says, only in new york. 

thanks heat. i hear you're back for another doozie tomorrow.

book of liz opens next weekend!

Yay! my show opens next weekend - if you are around....or in the 'hood....you should come!

The Book of Liz

by The Talent Family, Amy Sedaris  & David Sedaris
Directed by David A. Miller
Stage Managed by Nicholas Chacon

Piper Theatre Productions

John P. McEneny, Artistic Director

Saturday, July 10 at 8:30 pm
Sunday, July 11 at 8:30 pm
Saturday, July 17 at 8:30 pm
Sunday, July 18 at 8:30 pm
Saturday, July 24 at 8:30 pm
Sunday, July 25 at 8:30 pm

All performances are free and OUTDOORS at

The Old Stone House, Park Slope, Brooklyn

Subway: F/G/R to 4th Ave & 9th St or R to Union