Life in the Big City

Today I'm starting a new feature that I hope you'll enjoy.  I always try to take you behind the scenes of how our recipes and cocktails were inspired and you've seen plenty of cameos by our furry sous chef.  But, as I'm going about my days, I always have my camera and always have the urge to bring you all along with me.  The big city, for us, is New York, specifically Manhattan.  It's a small island that's also the financial and cultural capital of the world.  The most visited, most filmed, most crowded, most populated, most crazy place on earth.  I was raised here. I hope you'll like sharing a bit more of our lives.  Weekly?  Monthly?  Don't know yet.  Life happens...  Enjoy!

We're really enjoying spring and every day, when I take Hadley for a walk, I admire the flowers and trees.  Even in the city, New Yorkers do what they can to bring a little nature into our lives.  Sometimes the beds of tulips are so stunning that it's so tempting to pick them and put them in a vase at home.  I would never do that, of course.  Last Sunday, Brian and I were coming back from the park with the dog and we saw a couple of teenaged girls holding tulips they'd obviously picked.  It made us both so mad to see that.

My recent chocolate chip obsession doesn't seem to be letting up.  Even though I just made chocolate chip bread, I saw this chocolate chip crumb cake and those chips starting calling to me again.  Not to mention that I have a complete love affair with crumb toppings.  Oh, boy...

I also seem to be attracted to lemon desserts lately and I keep pinning all kinds of lemon breads.  For some reason, this one keeps drawing my eye but I want to experiment with lemon breads that have ricotta in the dough or cornmeal in the dough.  And I'll probably throw some blueberries in there because blueberries and lemon just belong together.  So little time, so many lemon breads...

Speaking of recent food obsessions (I'm on a roll lately), I've recently discovered a deep love of spaghetti squash.  I don't really think it looks or tastes anything at all like spaghetti but it does taste really good.  I've been eating a LOT of spaghetti squash lately.

Sunday trips to the park have included a few too many of these lately.  We share it but, even so...

One more week until Memorial Day weekend!  That's our official kick off to summer weekends out on Long Island.  We need to stock up at Cosco, drag out the patio furniture, clean the grill and fire up the blender for frozen cocktails.  MD weekend is the start of my happy time!

Mr. Hungry Couple and the furry sous chef are...um...busy?  So long till next time!

The French Cosmo

A few weeks ago, when Brian and I had dinner at the Central Park Boathouse, we got to enjoy a couple of their delicious specialty cocktails.  I opted for the mango mojito and Brian was drawn to the French cosmopolitan.  He and I both like traditional cosmos although they're a bit on the strong side for me.

The Boathouse makes their cosmo with citrus vodka, although adding lime is the more traditional method.  The French part comes from the addition of St. Germain.  And since we're huge St. Germain lovers, how could we resist this.  The drink that we were served was such a beautiful, bright color and had a nice elderflower fragrance.  Back home, we recreated the drink and added it to our repertoire.  Cheers!






Per Serving:
1 1/2 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Cranberry juice
1 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. Triple sec
1 Teaspoon lime juice
1 Teaspoon maraschino cherry juice (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and shake well.  Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garish with several maraschino cherries and a wedge of lime, if desired.

Creamy Lemon Dill Dressing From a Barking Dog

A couple of blocks from our apartment is a fun little cafe called The Barking Dog.  Somewhere between a diner and a cafe, they have good burgers, amazing beer battered onion rings, comfy Yankee pot roast and the best Cobb salad we've ever had.  It's huge, with lots of grilled chicken, bacon, blue cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts and a whole sliced avocado.  I usually share one with Brian as a starter but I'm perfectly fine with skipping the entree and just eating this salad as my meal.  That's assuming, of course, that I can have extra dressing because I really, really love this dressing.  Really.

Ever since the first time I tasted it, I've wanted to learn how to make it.  Of course I inquired but, Barking Dog is a mini chain and I was told the dressing comes in already made and nobody knows exactly how.  Hmm.  It's creamy, lemony and has a lot of dill.  That much is evident but exactly what and how much I needed to figure out.  I think, at this point, I have spent more time trying to crack this particular recipe than any other I've ever tackled.  In the process, I've made lots of tasty dressings but they weren't the Barking Dog dressing.  I even enlisted the help of a chef friend and brought her a sample of the restaurant's dressing to see if she could discern what was in it.  She did help me to realize there was far more sweetness than I had realized but there was still a lot of experimenting to do.

So, did I finally crack the code?  I would have to say, more or less.  It's not exactly exact but it's the closest I've ever come and...it's a really good dressing.  Using the full fat ingredients brings it closer to the original but nowadays I usually make it with low fat products since I've been eating a whole lot of it.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
1/4 Cup mayonnaise
1/4 Cup milk
1 Tablespoon sour cream
2 Teaspoons lemon juice
1 Teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Salt & pepper to taste

Add all the ingredients to a bowl, whisk together and season to taste.  You can leave it thicker by reducing the amount of milk to make a great dip for carrots and broccoli.  Thin it out with more milk for a wonderful salad dressing.  Makes approximately 4 generous servings.

Chocolate Chip Bread

Do you ever find that you get into food moods?  Every once in a while I definitely do and, lately, I've been in the mood for chocolate chips.  Snacking on them, baking with them, etc.  What's odd is that there is usually a bag of them in my freezer but it's only Brian that snacks on them.  Most of the time I'm content to let them be but, these days, they seem to be calling to me.

So I decided to bake a dessert that had chocolate chips inside as well as sprinkled over the top for a little extra "something."  Quick breads are so easy to put together and it was the perfect vehicle for the double hit of chocolate chips that I envisioned.  The result was so moist, with just the right amount of chocolate, and the topping I had in mind came out exactly as planned.  I also really wanted a chocolate chip that I loved eating on its own and for me that means milk chocolate.  I prefer the chips made by Guittard because they're larger than average and have a more natural taste but that's personal taste, of course.  Whatever your chip of choice, this recipe is definitely going into my 'make again soon' pile.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Stick unsalted butter
1 Cup sugar plus 1 tablespoon
1 Egg
1 Cup milk
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup chocolate chips plus 2 tablespoons

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, cup of sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk into the batter just until combined.  Fold in the cup of chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan.  Combine the extra tablespoon of sugar and the extra 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips and sprinkle over the top of the batter.  Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 50 - 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Makes approximately 10 servings.

Quinoa & Chickpea Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing

Lately I seem to be a little obsessed with quinoa.  I know it's trendy now but I wasn't such a fan the first time I tried it a couple of years ago.  Somehow it grew on me, though, and now I'm constantly thinking up new ways to prepare it.  I'll be considering making a salad or a pilaf or some other traditional dish and I'll think to myself - hey, why don't I put some quinoa in there? Oh, well.  Considering how healthy quinoa is, I'm far better off with it than, say, my cheesecake obsession.

Last week I made a batch of tahini sauce, one of my absolute most favorite savory foods.  I like it with lots of lemon and garlic and, ideally, I would just have a big bowl of it and lots of pita bread to scoop it up.  Hmm...not such a good idea, maybe?  I also love dipping cucumber slices into it which is healthier but hardly a meal.  So I decided to add some chickpeas to the cucumbers and tahini and it tasted really good.  And then my quinoa obsessed brain thought - I wonder if quinoa would taste good with this?  Why, yes, yes it does!

Since the chickpeas and tahini are middle eastern flavors, I added some cilantro.  Yes, we think of it as a Mexican herb but it's actually quite common in middle eastern cuisine as well.  But parsley or even chives would be fine as well.  Brian would probably see this as a fine lunch salad but, when I'm on my own for dinner, a big bowl of this suits me just fine.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
Salad:
1/2 Cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
1 Seedless cucumber, diced
1/2 Cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro

Dressing:
2 Tablespoons sesame paste
3 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Make the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking until thoroughly combined.  Cook the quinoa and allow to cool slightly before adding the chickpeas, cucumber, cilantro and dressing.  Serve at room temperature.  Makes 2 servings.

This recipe is being shared at The Weekend Potluck , Walking on Sunshine, FoodieFriendsFriday, Thursday's Treasures

Very Berry Streusel Bundt #BundtAMonth

As I think most of you know, I participate in a monthly bundt baking group, and every month we're challenged to use a different theme or ingredient by our group founders, Anuradha of Baker Street and Lora of Cake Duchess.  May's theme was berries and I knew immediately that I would use my two favorites - blueberries and strawberries.

Now that the weather is finally warming up, we're seeing some beautiful fruit at the market and I knew they would make a moist cake.  But I also wanted something a bit more special.  If you're a regular reader than you know that I love me some streusel.  But it's hard to get a good crumb topping on a bundt cake because bundts, essentially, bake upside down.  So, if I can't have the crumb on top, I'll just having it running through the cake.  The result was a very tender cake with sweet fruit in every bite and a tasty surprise when you bit into the streusel.  Brian definitely listed this as one of his favorites so far.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
Cake:
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Cup sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup sour cream
1 Cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 Cup Blueberries

Streusel Topping:
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
1/4 Cup light brown sugar
1/4 Cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Dash of cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan.  To make the streusel, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.  Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork until clumps form.  Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the batter.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  When that has been creamed, add in the sour cream and lemon zest and beat until combined.  Working in batches, add in the flour mixture until everything is combined.  Gently fold in the berries.

To assemble the cake, pour half the batter into the pan, spoon in the streusel and finish with the remaining batter.  Bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool thoroughly before turning it out of the pan and dust the top with powdered sugar.  Makes approximately 10 servings.

This recipe is being shared at The Weekend Potluck , Walking on Sunshine, FoodieFriendsFriday, Thursday's Treasures

Want to join us and be part of Bundt-a-Month?
- Use berries to bake us a bundt for May and post it before May 31, 2013
- Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title
- Add your entry to the linky tool below
- Link back to our announcement posts
- Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BundtaMonth where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes.  Or head over to - our Pinterest board at https://pinterest.com/bakerstreet/bundtamonth/ for inspiration.
- Link to BundtaMonth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BundtaMonth
- Link to BundtaMonth on Pinterest at https://pinterest.com/bakerstreet/bundtamonth/

Please visit the other participating bloggers to see their amazing berry bundt creations:

• Blueberry Banana Bundt by Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen
• Blueberry Buttermilk Cake by Lora at Cake Duchess
• Blueberry Coconut Bundt by Jennie at The Messy Baker Blog
• Blueberry Cream Cheese Bundt Cake by Anuradha at Baker Street
• Blueberry Orange Baby Bundts by Anne at From My Sweet Heart
• Lemon Berry Bundt Cake by Heather at Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks
• Lemon Berry Bundt by Holly at A Baker’s House
• Lemon Raspberry Bundlets by Kate at Food Babbles
• Lemon Rhubarb Bundt Cake with Blueberries by Laura at The Spiced Life
• Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Bundt Cake by Karen at In the Kitchen With KP
• Orange Blueberry Yogurt Bundt Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Raspberry Wine Chocolate Bundt Cake by Paula at Vintage Kitchen
• Strawberry and Orange Bundt Cake by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom
• Strawberry Sweetheart by Kim at Ninja Baking
• Very Berry Streusel Bundt by Anita at Hungry Couple

Individual Chocolate Pudding Cheesecake Parfaits

What do you do when you see a recipe for a dessert that you absolutely, positively want to eat but you know that, if you make it, you will end up finishing the whole big pan, mostly by yourself?  Well, first you try to forget about it but that doesn't seem to work so good.  Then you wonder if you can invite half a dozen friends over for a coffee and dessert party but it's so hard getting people together on short notice...like...in about an hour?

Next you think about which of your neighbors you will unload the rest of the pan on... assuming you will actually give it up.  Lastly, you begin to rationalize the number of calories in the pan and the number of days it will take you to eat it all while knowing full well that you are lying to yourself because you will eat it all in less than half that time.  Back to trying to forget about it.  Sigh...

Since none of those things actually worked for me and I had to improvise another method.  I've seen so many variations of this dessert labeled 'better than sex' cake or 'sex in a pan' cake, etc.  They all seem to be some combination of cookies, no bake cheesecake and pudding.  So I decided to both skinny up the recipe and portion it down to individual servings in little jars.  Single, delicious, delectable, spoon licking, jar licking, bowl scraping little individual servings.  That method worked good.  Well, except for the part where I wanted to make it all over again the next day.  Still trying to work out that kink.  Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 Butter cookies
1/4 Cup low fat cream cheese
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/4 Cup light or fat free prepared whipped topping
1 Tablespoon low fat milk
2 Tablespoons chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons sugar free chocolate pudding

Place the cookies in a plastic bag and crush them by using a rolling pin or even a soup can.  Spoon half the cookie crumbs into the bottom of an 8 oz. jar.

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, milk and whipped topping in a bowl and beat until thoroughly combined.  Spoon half the cheese mixture onto the cookie crumbs in the jar.  Sprinkle a tablespoon of the chocolate chips on top.

Spoon the chocolate pudding on top of the chips, top with the remaining cookie crumbs followed by the remaining cream cheese mixture.  Finish with the remaining chocolate chips and refrigerate for about half an hour.  This makes one, heavenly, serving but you can easily portion up the ingredients to make more jars.

This recipe is being shared at The Weekend Potluck , Walking on Sunshine, FoodieFriendsFriday, Thursday's Treasures

Cinco De Mayo Round Up

With Cinco de Mayo being celebrated this coming Sunday, I'm definitely planning on making a whole lot of Mexican food this weekend.  And while my days of clubbing and pounding down tequila shots may be over, Brian and I can still knock back some holiday appropriate cocktails to go with that food.  Enjoy!

  

Click on the links below to see some of my Mexican inspired recipes and have a great holiday!

Tropical Fiesta Cocktail

Mexican Corn Salad

Cheesy Beef Tortilla Cups

Frozen Watermelon Margarita

Guacamole

Blue Margarita

Torta De Cielo (Mexican Almond Cake)

The Month in Review - April 2013

I'm used to seeing an absolute riot of flowers and blooming trees in April but this year New York was pretty dry and much too cold.  I don't remember ever waiting this long and this longingly for spring to arrive.  But now that April is over, we're at last being treated to tulips and cherry blossoms.  We've started to spend more Sundays in the park and are beginning to think less about soup and more about salads and sweet fruit.

We did do quite a bit of cooking and cocktail mixing this month.  We played with some fun new OXO tools, mixed it up with the bundt bakers, celebrated our furry sous chef's birthday and took some friends out for an amazing dinner in Central Park.  We've also booked our summer vacation (so excited!) and are starting to think about the grilling and chilling that will begin next month.  But, before we get too excited about the future, let's take a quick look back at the past month.  As always, click on the links below the photos to get the recipes.  Enjoy!

Lemon Cherry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

Double Chocolate Cake with Cherry Cheesecake Swirl

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Tart

Cheddar Apple Pie Grilled Cheese

Lime in the Coconut Martini

Creamy and Light Cauliflower Sauce

Happy Birthday, Hadley!

Creamy White Bean Soup

Mango Madness Martini

Crispy Cheesy Buttermilk Chicken

Light Spinach Lasagna with Cauliflower Sauce

Tropical Fiesta Cocktail for Cinco de Mayo

Dinner in the Park  -  The Loeb Boathouse

Dinner in Central Park - The Loeb Boathouse, New York, NY

East 72nd and Park Drive North, New York, NY 212-517-2233, www.thecentralparkboathouse.com

A business associate of Brian's was in town for the weekend with his wife and we took them out for a lovely dinner at the Boathouse.  Whenever we entertain, Brian always leaves it to me to choose a place that out-of-towners would like and that would show off our city.  Since we're in Manhattan, there's no shortage of impressive places but I like to feature the quieter, less touristy aspects of this city.

A lifetime of living in Manhattan has not lessened my love and appreciation of Central Park.  Sitting on 843 acres of prime Manhattan real estate, it's the most visited and most filmed urban park in the country but it's also a peaceful oasis for us big city dwellers.  Rowing, skating, bicycling, horseback riding...the park offers all that plus an outdoor theater, concerts, a zoo and lots of bird watching.  And, of course, lots of people watching from the numerous benches and grassy areas.  Brian and I particularly love to sit by the model boat pond and watch them being raced.

You won't go hungry or thirsty in the park.  Apart from the numerous refreshment cart vendors, there are also several casual cafes, concession stands and, until recently, two elegant restaurants.  Although the famous Tavern on the Green is currently closed due to a managerial flux, the Loeb Boathouse is bustling with lunch and dinner patrons.  Located at the northeastern tip of the lake, it offers waterfront fine dining with a seasonal menu.

We booked our table for 6:00 pm so that we could enjoy some late day sunlight over the lake before dusk settled over the park.  We scored a table by the sliding windows and watched the last of the row boaters enjoying a beautiful spring day while we sipped selections from their wonderful specialty cocktail menu.

This restaurant is definitely pricy and the portions are a bit small.  But, the food was delicious and the atmosphere delightful.  There's an easy elegance about the place that makes you feel comfortable despite the elegant surroundings.  The service was friendly and attentive and, although the dining room was packed, we were not rushed out.  We lingered over coffee and dessert before strolling out through the now quiet and peaceful park.

Mango Mojito

Boathouse Salad with red oak lettuce, herbs and smoked almonds in a Cabernet vinaigrette.

Heirloom tomato salad with English cucumber, kalamata olives, red onion and imported feta cheese

Seared sea scallops with parsley salsa and cherry tomatoes

Roasted Amish chicken with wild rice, charred corn, lingonberries and chicken jus

Roasted Colorado rack of lamb with potato croquette

Halibut with roasted white asparagus

Sour Cream Cheesecake