“Doggy Bag” Chicken Soup

If you ask the Frenchman, he’ll tell you I only ever order one dish when we go out to dinner: chicken. This isn’t true of course, but I will admit that chicken is my backup dish, my reliable mainstay amongst the flotsam and jetsam of an uninspiring menu. (It doesn’t hurt that chicken dishes typically arrive with some kind of saucy vegetable and potato arrangement, but that is neither here nor there.)

Last week we had friends visiting from France, and so I used the opportunity to knock a restaurant or two off my Must Try list. (It’s a long list, alas.) One evening, we dined in a restaurant where every hostess was certainly a model. I’d read an article about the owner; he raised chickens (well, not he, but people he employed) on a devastatingly bucolic farm somewhere upstate in order to supply the restaurant with high-quality poultry. This kind of information is like catnip to me; of course, I had to try it. Read more »

Maple Turkey and Duck Bacon Club

Every Sunday, I try to visit the small, varied and excellent green market in Carroll Park. It’s an easy bike ride from my apartment, and I get to sort through purple lettuces and spicy links of chorizo and dirt-flecked mushrooms. Then I pedal home and make lunch. It is my very favorite weekend activity.

This past week, I found some slender cherry blossom branches. All the buds were closed at first, but almost as soon as I put them in water, they started blooming. Now my apartment is full of little pink flowers. Despite the cold snap in New York this week, it is spring in my apartment. Read more »

Maple Ice Cream with Tipsy Raisins and Candied Cashews

Holy batman, this is delicious ice cream. I mean, seriously, criminally tasty. I am not trying to toot my own horn here, but I really need you to know—this one’s a keeper.

I am the first to admit that my previous ice cream attempts may have left something to be desired. I know that the heavy pounding of cinnamon, star anise and cardamom I gave my chocolate and spice was not, perhaps, the best. It’s all right. And let’s not dwell on my celery endeavor, which while it fulfilled Food52’s contest requirements, has also made it so I cannot stand the taste or smell of celery.

This though, this is a whole different situation. Read more »

Nut Butter and Jelly: Dinner and Dessert

Here is a secret, a weird, weird secret: even as a kid, I never liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It’s true. Are you shocked? Don’t get me wrong, I get it: salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth. It all makes sense. But for some reason, I’ve always preferred my peanut butter and jelly separate.

Even despite my anti-penchant for this combination, the following two recipes have been in the works for a while, for completely ingredient driven reasons. Number one: Marcona almonds. Oh, tiny treasures from Spain! Marcona almonds are smaller, softer and creamier than the California variety, and like all good Spanish things, they usually come wrapped in the warm embrace of sea salt and olive oil.

Next, I had some wild blueberry preserves to consider. At Christmas, when the Frenchman and I were in the Pyrenees, I insisted on bringing back at least two jars. (Don’t worry; I know how obnoxious that sounds.) Read more »

Shrimp Tacos

The impetus for these tacos was pretty simple: although it’s been dreary, dreary winter in New York for months now, the last few days have been glorious. Like, leave-your-coat-at-home-and-run-though-the-streets-with-your-arms-in-the-air glorious.

So when it came time to make dinner, I wanted to build upon the theme. I don’t have a hammock in my living room (not yet, at least), but I figured this was the next best thing. Well, this and the Coronas I served them with. Feel free to pretend you are grilling the shrimp on an actual barbeque, instead of on the little grill pan you bought from Ikea. Read more »

Kitchen Sink Salad

I’m sure this has happened to you: staring into the depths of your fridge one afternoon, you start to notice leftover tidbits hiding in every corner. All manner of fruit, vegetable, cheese and nut in minute quantities, long overlooked, and frankly, a little sad. When this happens, I know it’s time to throw everything—everything but the kitchen sink—into a bowl, and call it lunch.

At the moment this means a half bag of baby potatoes starting to grow eyelets, and a few handfuls of arugula beginning to wither in the crisper. It means the few remaining morsels of cheese I bought for another purpose, and then abandoned in the fridge. It is the tablespoon or so of pine nuts I toasted too many of, for a soup I also made too much of. But alas, you cannot add soup to a salad…. Read more »

Sardine Pizza

This pizza is for a winter weeknight when you want something tasty and substantial, but you do not feel like venturing out for too many ingredients. I typically have most of the ingredients on hand, or if not, some version of them: various nubs of leftover cheese, wilting greens and herbs, some form of leftover potato or onion, etc.

I should say that, although it feels like cheating to me, I do not make my own pizza crust for this recipe. Because this is a “make the night of, with as little fuss as possible” kind of recipe, I use either pizza dough purchased from my local Neapolitan joint, Sottocasa, or I buy naan from the supermarket. To make things even easier, you can also make most of the elements of this pizza ahead of time.

This pizza was my first go-around with a pizza stone, and here is what I learned: If you toss flour onto a stone surface that has spent an hour in a 500 degree oven, it is going to burn. Really, really fast. Then you will be forced to run around your apartment like a headless chicken, opening windows and turning on vents. It’s not a pretty picture. My suggestion, therefore, is to simply make sure the bottom of the pizza dough is well floured before you put it in the oven. Read more »

Crab Cakes with Fennel, Scallions and Green Apple

Life lesson: when making a mayonnaise or aioli, it is advisable to find yourself an able-bodied Frenchman. Because here is the thing—you really have to beat the bejesus out of that thing. Your arm should hurt when you are done. Further advice: it is not sagacious to ask your Frenchman to make said aioli when he is trying to get ready for work in the morning, although if you ask very sweetly, he will probably do it for you anyway.

I have been meaning to make crab cakes for a while, mainly because previously mentioned Frenchman adores them, and because I spotted some lump crabmeat at the fishmonger the other day. (It really doesn’t take much.) Before you get yourself into a tizzy, let me concede up front that these are not “traditional” crab cakes. I added a couple extra ingredients I thought would complement the taste of crab, without overwhelming it. Read more »