AND

by caitlin

i forgot to mention the project i'm working on regarding processed foods vs whole foods; about how americans don't cook as much anymore and how unhealthy they are as a result of it. i think i'm going to end up trying to present cooking as a convenience, which is really interesting, and i'm pretty excited about it. i think tyler's pretty much at one end of the spectrum as far as cooking goes, preparing almost all of his own meals from scratch. i'm somewhere in the middle, though close to his side: i cook pretty frequently but i do rely on some prepared foods, like frozen stir-fry vegetables from trader joe's. i'm excited to see how this project turns out, especially in the context of this blog, but for now here's some links my profs sent that i thought might be interesting:

http://www.springwise.com/retail/popup_groceries_1/
http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/POPUP_RETAIL.htm
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/the_future_of_semi_cooking/
http://www.kitabienmanger.com/
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/

we're a part of the world, you guys!!

by caitlin

the internet can be so overwhelming! especially sometimes when you listen to electronic-y music and you just feel like.. whoa.. technology and science are everywhere, flying around my head. okay. so that's why its taken a little while to get started for me. somehow i have all of these emails piled up in my inbox and homework to do and i even have a cooking obligation to attend to for monday afternoon. i might need to enlist some help for that one.

so i intended my first post to be about the arancini (mozzerella stuffed rice balls) i made the other night, but its been 3 days since then.. i don't know if that still counts, but they were pretty delicious. the recipe called for brown rice, so we could be healthy, but i was really hungry when i was cooking so i just used white rice to be quicker (although apparently there is now quick cooking brown rice, which is really exciting!). joan came over and i made some whole wheat pasta, too, with a tomato alfredo sauce (not homemade, unfortunately).


devon was also taking pictures of me in the kitchen that night for prattonia. here's me enjoying a beverage while preparing the dinner. i'm just going to say it: i like beer. everyone knows it.

so anyway, that was sunday, i think, and i haven't had much time for cooking since then. today the only thing i cooked was instant grits in the morning and some coffee.. i was at my internship for most of the day so the only thing i ate was some amy's no chicken noodle soup from brooklyn's natural. but after my plant morphology class (in which i drew orchids!) i enjoyed a true myrtle avenue tradition, eating lo mein from kum kau and drinking 40 oz of the champagne of beers (from a pom glass, like a lady) while watching america's next top model with aleks and devon. everyone has guilty pleasures, get over it.

also, pat wants me to make some food for his opening on monday, and i haven't really thought about it at all, i may have to wait until next time, but if anyone has any suggestions for easy hors douvres to feed a crowd, let me know. i just have so many things i want to say to everyone!

i'm thinking: "something in the deli isle makes you cry, of course i put my arm around you and i walk you outside, through the sliding doors, why would i mind?" its nice to like things. these days it feels like everyone's finding just what they need.

France knows their bread… and more importantly… their toast.

By Tyler

So I’ve been nominated to break the ice and write the real first post. I would have done this months ago, but I don’t own a camera—I mean, what’s a food blog if you don’t have pictures? Well, I still don’t have a camera so you’ll just have to wait until I make this again and have a camera to take pictures (I’m thinking no later than Friday).

So. Yesterday I tromped two blocks through the snow to Choice Market to get Devon and I lunch while we slaved away at Imaging. We split a mozzarella sandwich and a cup of cream of red pepper soup. Like always, I picked up a sweet treat for after lunch—yesterday it was a brownie—good and simple. While our lunch was being placed into a plain brown bag (I always wonder what one must do to get one of those fancy bags that says “Choice Market” and has handles), I had the nice barista add a lovely, rustic French loaf to the order. I figured it would go well with dinner tonight (or rather, dinner would go well with this beautiful load of bread).

While I was walking back through the snow being careful not to slip and ruin our lunch, I thought tomorrow (now today) would be a great day for French toast. So lets jump ahead to last night where things get interesting. (Oh, the lunch was wonderful)

I grew up in a house where mom made us three kids French toast using sliced bread and egg wash. It wasn’t until a year ago maybe when I discovered it could be so much more (Mom, I know you’re reading this…. I loved your French toast, I just desire a little more from my French toast these days). After eating half the loaf with my plain but great spaghetti and tomato sauce dinner (organic whole wheat pasta with organic tomato sauce of course), I cut up the rest of the bread to let it soak overnight. The bread was very crusty so I thought it would take a little time to soak. I placed 3, ¾ inch slices of bread in my Le Creuset baking dish and mixed the liquid together.

There are certain things I won’t use a recipe for. I guess I can add French toast to that list now. I figured it would be really hard to botch French toast, so why not be creative? I mixed 2 eggs (cage free, organic) with some milk and cream (grass fed, organic). I didn’t measure, but there was more cream than milk and the milk/cream mixture was more liquid than the egg—maybe a 2:1 ratio? To that, I added some almond extract (vanilla seemed too obvious) and cinnamon. Into the Le Creuset the egg mixture went and into the refrigerator that went until the morning.

I woke up this morning at 6:30am (I set my alarm, but forgot I had set it for 5:30am so I could wake up on Saturday for my dreaded teacher certification tests). Okay, so I would have been up by 6:45 anyways—I’m a morning person. I fired up my cast iron skillet and melted some butter. Once hot, I put 2 of the 3 pieces on the skillet and let them cook. Meanwhile, I took some almonds and dried cranberries out of the cabinet. I toasted the almonds in a pan and added a bit of maple syrup. After about 4 minuets, I flipped the toast and was quite excited about what I saw (sorry, no picture). After about 16 minutes, all three pieces were cooked and ready to go. With a touch of butter on each slice, I drizzled the warm syrup with almonds over the top and sprinkled some dried cranberries over the plate. I poured a cup of organic Earl Grey tea my sister sent me from her trip to Portland, Oregon, sat down, listened to NPR, and enjoyed my breakfast.

By 7:00 my tummy was satisfied, my sink had dirty dishes and I was ready for a full day of work at Imaging. Now what to do for 2 hours before we open? Oh yeah, work on my thesis.

A little something about the people at BFF

Tyler may have the smallest kitchen in all of New York City, but that doesn’t stop him from his weekly baking experiments or making a proper breakfast every morning. However, it does prevent him from owning a waffle iron. Tyler uses too much butter and heavy cream and eats much, too much chocolate.

Caitlin likes taking her time in cooking family meals for all her friends. Her kitchen is a little bigger than Tyler's, allowing plenty of room for her collection of Vegetarian Times and Living. She's been a vegetarian since always, and she's very recently discovered baking (muffins!) but mostly she just likes wearing her red and white ruffley apron.

Both Cait and Tyler are strong supporters of whole, organic foods and small farming.