Brooklyn Food Friends

...and we're back!

2007-05-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

by caitlin

i'm officially back as a bff with all my other bffs (which fortunately includes most of my friends. we're all pretty into food and only a couple people don't live in brooklyn. sorry, hoboken residents). i've been gone too long to tennessee and north carolina.

today was my first real day back and tyler and i walked with devon down to the blue sky bakery in park slope where she's hopefully going to be working this summer. they have totally delicious muffins.. i think the one i got was a raspberry pineapple but i could hardly eat half of it because we had also just got sandwiches for from farmer in the deli. also, after months of teasing them, i finally ate a "la yogurt" at pat and todd's house this morning. it was guava-flavored, of the sabor latino line, and i have to say, it was quite good. i just think the name is hilarious. la yogurt.

i intended to dedicate an entire post to the food we ate in tennessee, but its just going to get rolled into this one. i know, lay-ZAY. we were there a week ago, but in between then and now i was staying at my parents house getting my wisdom teeth out and was asleep on the couch all week. so much for vacation.

so joan's aunts have a cabin in gatlinburg tennessee and she and laura and devon and i drove down there to spend a few days as a little graduation vacation. i'd never been there, the home of dollywood, and was expecting a quiet little secluded mountain cabin. we got that, but to reach it we had to drive through this weird vegas-y strip of "attractions:" ripley's believe it or not, miniture golf, magic shows, music shows, every chain restaurant known to man. yuck. we were glad to arrive at the cabin after our 12 hour drive to cook our first meal of tortolini with pesto and sundried tomatoes, with a mixed green salad and honey mustard dressing.

in the morning, after some bird-watching on the deck, joan and i decided to make breakfast for everyone, which consisted of eggs scrambled with garlic and herb cheese, carmelized onions and sundried tomatoes. we also had delicious bread to toast along with it.

that night, after antique shopping down in the town, we tried out the grill.

i had brought tomatillos and pineapple and jalapeno to make a grilled green salsa. it turned out pretty well. luckily our group was 87% vegetarian (devon's math) and we also grilled veg burgers with the works and had orange slices in our blue moon belgian white beers.

it was a joyful feast.

the next morning we tried out one of the many pancake houses spread throughout the towns. i think the pictures from that are on joan's camera because i don't have any. it was a pretty good example of southern dining establishments: big food, big people, smoking section. totally outrageous to four little girls from brooklyn. we all got stacks pancakes filled with various fruits, smothered in whipped cream and butter, syrup on the side of course. i also got syrup on my i heart holland bag because i set it in a puddle on the floor. boo.

after looking around at all the tennessee mountain craftpeople, we went back to cook feast number two: macaroni and cheese with tomatoes, black bean burgers, salad, and "guacamole" (the avocados we brought were so hard and i didn't have the foresight to ripen them in a paper bag, so i just tried chopping them up really finely and mixing everything up together. the results were okay..). this was our last night so we were trying to eat as much as we could. we burned the burger buns on the grill and the ketchup bottle broke so we could only salvage a little, but it was a delicious collabo dinner anyway.

we decided to spend our last day in dollywood, after a breakfast (at shoney's!) of grilled cheese. the food, like everything else at dollywood, was great. unfortunately, no photos exist of the 'maters and 'taters we ate (skillet-cooked potatoes, peppers and onions topped with "cheese" and fried green tomatoes dipped in ranch dressing). totally delicious. on our way out of the park, we got kettle corn and candy.

i drove us out of tennessee to my parents' house in charlotte. my mom had seemingly been cooking all night waiting for us, and we found a feast of cavatelli pasta and broccoli (also known in my family as "broccoli and bombs"), eggplant baked with cheese and tomato, caeser salad, olives stuffed with feta cheese and bruscetta. for dessert she made little strawberry shortcakes!

that fanatastic meal transported us to bed. after the girls left in the next few days, i got surgery and ate nothing but applesauce. sorry i don't have pictures of that.

BFF V2.0

2007-05-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

by tyler
So I’ve really neglected this blog over the past few weeks. However, now I’m finally done with school and own my very own camera so I have no excuse.

Today, Devon and I thought it would be nice to take a walk and get a bite to eat for lunch. We walked down to Park Slope but nothing really jumped out on us. From there we hiked over to Smith Street and found our way to Café LULUc.

The best thing about eating out with a companion is the ability to split plates of food. This way, you aren’t forced to choose only one dish, but two. We thought we would split two sandwiches—the pressed vegetable with roasted portobello, eggplant, onions, zucchini, red peppers with basil pesto and goat cheese on ciabatta bread, and the LULUc cheese steak with onions and provolone one a sourdough baguette. I had had the vegetable sandwich the first time I ate at LULUc and loved it and Devon’s love for goat cheese made it a sure pick. We went with the cheese steak sandwich because it was called the LULUc and any sandwich bearing the restaurants name must be something special.

The vegetable sandwich was really great… again. There were so many roasted veggies piled on top of each other with a slathering of pesto and a healthy topping of goat cheese. The ciabatta was warm and crunchy. The cheese steak was served with a grilled hanger steak on a warm, crusty baguette. The grease from the onions and steak soaked in he bread to make it extra tasty (it’s a cheese steak!) We had also ordered a side of French fries with a side of mayonnaise. Unfortunately, the mayonnaise never arrived. However, the fries were perfectly crunchy.

From there, we walked down to Dean for dessert at One Girl Cookies. There we ordered 2 Juliet’s, 2 Lucia’s and 1 whoopee pie. The Juliet was a hazelnut cookie with chocolate ganache. Dev and I both felt the cookie was too floury and there wasn’t enough ganache. The Lucia was shortbread with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate. These were quite delightful. However, the star of the afternoon was the Whoopee Pie. The cakes were a lovely orange colored spice cake which was crusty on the outside and moist on the inside. The filling was a perfectly stiffened whipped cream.

To say the least, this outing was a wonderful way to bring in the summer and restart BFF.

survey schmurvey

2007-04-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

by caitlin

its survey time. its really in the thick of it now: we've got two days to finish and hang all of our stuff. am i ready? not in the least? have i been doing everything humanly possible to prepare for it? no. i've pretty much been not thinking about all that i have to do and sort of pretending that i don't have a lot to do. so, procrastinating=cooking.

yesterday morning i made semi-successful cranberry muffins. i didn't have regular flour so i used pastry flour, and i didn't have milk so i used buttermilk. they were.. okay. i can't wait until i have the time to just bake muffins every morning and perfect everything about them.

and last night i made a creamy asparagus soup and grilled cheeses with provolone, tomato and pesto for me, devon and aleks. the soup was not as good as the sandwiches, being just a little bland. the sandwiches were really delicious though. i tried to take photos of the food but devon's camera battery was dead. oh well.

in the summer, pretty much everyday is a food party. so close......

hey, we're okay. probably.

2007-04-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

by caitlin

tonight when i was walking home, even though it was cold and kind of rainy, it really felt like spring for some reason. it was a nice feeling after the horrendous week i've just had. i'll skip all the tear-drenched details. sometimes anxiety and depression over graduating from college can really get you down. weird.

i decided to kind of take the night off from school work since i've been going so out of my mind. i bought a bottle of wine and some gingery thai noodles on the way home, even though i'm kind of broke these days. whenever i cook with ginger, i never get the desired effect... the spiciness either cooks out entirely or is way too overpowering. a difficult balance to strive for.

i've actually been pretty absent from the kitchen (and the internet) as a result of all this school stress. the (sort of) good news is that my food project is finally, actually, on its way to being something, with 2 weeks left in the semester. i did want to mention, since i told him i would, and i don't think he will, tyler's breakfast experiment from sunday. it wasn't the most exciting thing, but it was really a nice little moment in the middle of my ridiculous week. we were out of milk and it was totally pouring (this was in the midst of the dreaded nor'easter) but i did have some buttermilk from when i tried to make biscuits. luckily it keeps for a long time. we thought buttermilk pancakes would be a good start to a dreary day, and tyler embellished them with oats and pumpkin. we don't have any pictures, but they tasted pretty delicious.

that's pretty much it, i'm going to go back to listening to the rushmore soundtrack and eating ginger.

cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!

2007-04-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

by tylerEver have one of those days where you can’t get anything done? Yeah, I’m having one of those days. I think its because I didn’t shower this morning and my hair is really greasy and icky feeling. So after 2 hours of doing nothing at work I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the cupcakes Devon and I made almost 2 weeks ago for Arone’s surprise birthday party. Hopefully by the end of this post I can feel somewhat accomplished.

So the Friday before last (the day we ate the cherry, almond, coconut pancakes for breakfast), Devon and I set out to make the best, non-dairy cupcakes anyone has every tasted. Well, to be honest, I had no intention of making them completely dairy free—butter and milk would be used when necessary, but there would be no buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Instead, I had planned on using tofu cream cheese for the frosting base.

I pulled 2 cupcake recipes from the cupcake bakeshop blog. The first was cherry chocolate cupcakes with a fennel tofu cream cheese frosting. I had wanted to do another herb/spice cupcake but I was told it might be too much. Instead I went for simple—vanilla cupcakes with vanilla tofu cream cheese frosting.

Making the actual cupcakes was rather anticlimactic. I strayed from the cherry chocolate cupcake recipe when it called for dried cherries to soak in brandy over night. Not having any brandy around, I soaked them in warm water with a splash of orange and vanilla extract. Everything else went as planed. The cupcakes formed nice domes and the cake was moist and… cakey?

After Devon and I finished baking all the cupcakes and cleaned up, we went out to get some things done. If I recall, we split a pancetta sandwich and green salad and took advantage of the lovely spring day by eating outside. From there I purchased a pastry bag and tips and (get ready) a butter bell at the Cooks Companion on Atlantic Avenue.

I came home to start on the frosting. Devon was out enjoying the day so I was on my own for this one. I made the vanilla tofu cream cheese frosting first. I decided I would scale down the amount of frosting as I had a hunch I wouldn’t need the whole amount. Since the ingredients were somewhat predictable, I figured the amount of sugar was based on sweetness and texture. I stared whipping the tofu cream cheese and adding the powdered sugar when everything when crazy. Before I knew it, my house and self was covered in sugar. It was everywhere. Meanwhile, I couldn’t get the frosting to thicken. I was getting nervous that the frosting would become too sweet so I said it was done. I scooped it all out into its own bowl and started on the fennel frosting.

The same issue arose with the fennel cream cheese and I began to panic. I started icing the cupcakes and saw the frosting as more of a glaze. To humor myself, I packed some vanilla frosting into my new pastry bag to see what would happen. As the frosting left the bag, it quickly lost its shape and melted into the existing frosting. I had to accept the fact that these cupcakes were not going to be the beautiful centerpiece I had hoped

Well, we brought 36 cupcakes to the party and they were gone within the first fifteen minuets. Everyone said they were really great. I never had one myself as I was too sugared out from testing the cupcakes and frostings throughout the day. As for the pastry bag, I think I’ll stick to a buttercream frosting next time.

sometimes you just want to listen to the rolling stones and make beautiful things

2007-04-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

by caitlin

i don't have much to say, but i just want to keep in good habits with my posting. plus maybe i am procrastinating on doing homework just a little. i made muffins the other day (sunday) and they came out really well! they were lighter than my last batch (i guess i am getting the hang of mixing it until just moist) and i used cranberries instead of apples. i was worried that they'd be too tart, but i didn't want to add sugar because i really haven't been into sweeties lately, but they were pretty great! i brought them to my meeting, but my client had just recently switched to a low-carbon diet, so she didn't have any. also, my professor kept saying he was going to have one, but he didn't either. oh well, aleks and i enjoyed them.

in other news, my food/cooking senior project is finally getting somewhere. check out this box design!

even though this looks nothing like the real thing, you get the idea. i can't wait until i finish all the little pieces. i have to build a model of the kiosk. just so you know, i have no idea how to do that. we'll seeeeeee...

also, i just would like to take a moment to promote this woman's art, which i am so into right now. i think i've been dreaming of a life where i can just make beautiful things all day long and sell them to people who love them. i guess it doesn't matter if you refuse to get a del.icio.us because you can just post links on your blog. hah! okay, i'm going to delve into the food proj.

The Perfect Combination: Almonds, Cherries and Coconut

2007-04-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

by tyler (all pictures taken by devon)

For the past two years, I’ve been making my own energy food for when I’m cycling. They’re pretty much just high calorie granola bars, but boy are they good. Whenever I bring a batch to the track in the summer, they’re usually gone before the first race is over. Everyone eats them up and asks for the recipe (something I’m not good at giving—not because I want to keep it secrete, but because I hate writing out the recipe on the spot).

Anyways, being a master of the granola bar (if I do say so myself), I have never made plain ol’ granola…that is until this week. My mom had given me an article from her local paper about making granola quite some time ago but when it came home with me, it lost itself in a stack of papers. However, recently I pulled it out and gave the recipe a gander. I had most of the ingredients: oats, wheat germ, brown sugar, oil, salt and I talked about my shopping trip for the remaining few items in my last post (mainly the maple syrup).

In the article they list a few extra ingredients to add for different flavors (nothing any semi-creative type wouldn’t think of on his or her own with some time). Devon thought it would be great to add cherries and almonds, so we did (I also added some coconut—hence the title). The first batch was made sticking strictly to the recipe. After I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool, I noticed it lacked nice, crisp clumps. Crisp yes, but clumps no. I was slightly bothered by this since the lack of clumps meant it would have to be eaten in a bowl instead of hand-to-mouth. Nonetheless, the taste was really great. I made it Sunday afternoon and the entire quart was gone by Tuesday. This meant I would have to make another quart to get me though the week.

For the second quart, I used the same recipe, only I used half the amount of maple syrup and used the same amount of molasses. I thought this might make it stick better and perhaps make it even crunchier. When I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool, I noticed my hypothesis was correct. The great thing was the molasses didn’t affect the taste at all. This morning, after my bike ride, I stopped by the Green Market at Prospect Park and bough some Ronnybrook Farms yogurt and an apple pocket. When I got home, Devon and I topped the yogurt with some of the granola and it was fantastic. I can’t wait for summer when we can eat the same thing, only with summer berries.

Perhaps some of the reason why there is still granola left over is because yesterday morning Devon and I made pancakes. Now let me say something (I may have said this before, but let me say it again) I love rustic, heavy pancakes. If I’m in the mood for a light, golden griddlecake, I’ll go to Mike’s Diner. Sticking with the theme of cherries, almonds and coconut, I added all three to the pancakes. I usually use a ratio of 1:2 cream and milk but I’ve been trying to lay off the cream these days. However, everything else stayed the same—oats, oat bran, bread flour, eggs, milk and a little oil. (Jared once made me waffles with coconut oil and they were amazing, I really wish I had some to use with these pancakes). Oh, in memory of the granola, I threw some wheat germ in the batter for good measure.

The batter was a bit lighter than I would have liked. I think it was the lack of cream. With the pancakes cooked up and Dev armed with her coffee, we were set for a day of cupcake making. To Be Continues…

My Current Dilemma

2007-03-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

by tyler

I had big plans for the kitchen yesterday. I was going to make some granola for the week and try my hand at making homemade pita bread (both will get their own posts soon). So yesterday morning I rode my bike down to the coop to buy everything I didn’t have in my pantry: cherries, almonds, coconut, maple syrup, as well as a few other staples to get me through the week: eggs, milk, bread, spinach… you know… the staples.

So, after I came home and put everything in its appropriate place, I set out to start making granola. Well, I forgot the maple syrup (this wouldn’t have been a problem if Devon didn’t finish the last bottle of syrup in her coffee the other day). Since I couldn’t make granola, I thought I could get a start on the pita bread. However, when I started for the flour, I realized I had used the last of it when I made pancakes days before. This meant that I lacked the ingredients for the granola and pita bread—how frustrating.

I didn’t have enough cash on me to go back to the coop, so I submitted to the idea of shopping at the local Associated market. Its not that I’m against shopping outside the coop, rather I can’t afford the price of organic products at retail prices. At Associated I bought 2 yellow onions, a bag of flour and maple syrup. The only option I had for both the flour and onions were non-organic. I bought Gold brand flour rather than Pillsbury. As I was standing in front of the maple syrup, I was confronted with an array of choices… organic/ non-organic, grade A/ grade B, Vermont/ Canada and real or artificial. Did I want to pay 10 dollars for an 8-ounce bottle of Vermont organic maple syrup? Of course I want to, however, I just don’t have enough money for that. Well, I did anyway.

When I got back home, I was able to make my cherry-almond granola completely organic, however, the pita bread would not be. This was the first time I really had some anxiety about not buying organic. While the bread dough was rising, I took a look around my kitchen to assess what was on the shelves. The only non-organic products were fish sauce, wheat germ, and red curry sauce. My chocolate, tea, grains, spices… all organic. My eggs, cage free, organic; milk and cream, grass fed organic; and my butter… this is the real dilemma.

So I just switched butter. I had been buying Organic Valley butter for quite a while now. However, when I was at the coop a couple weeks ago, I noticed Kate’s Homemade Butter. Instead of buying Organic Valley, I went with Kate's. However, Kate’s is not organic. Sure they don’t use artificial growth hormones, yet their cows are not on a grass fed diet nor are they fed organic grain. I thought it would be nice to support a small, butter-specific company from Maine rather than support a rather large, prospering, widely available farmer coop. So that is my question, while I think both are worth supporting, which should get my dollar? For now, I think I’ll continue supporting Kate’s—the consumer in me is really drawn to the packaging.

Side note: I hope I don’t sounds like an elitist by “bragging” about my need to buy organic. It’s just that I feel that small farms and independent food producers need as much help as they can get, and I want my dollar to be used wisely.

b to the FAST

2007-03-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

by caitlin

this morning i was in the mood to do muffins, but i didn't have all the ingredients at hand (i used all the eggs yesterday in a really good onion-pecan-thyme scramble. it was worth it, eggs are pretty much my fave) so i decided to go for cheese grits. i don't make this very often because it's very filling, but it's so delicious and easy.. a good way to spice up the basics, as devon observed. you just cut up 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and saute those in some oil before adding 1/2 cup of grits and 2 cups of water and cooking that as you normally would. once it's done, stir in about 1 cup of cheese and some salt and pepper. creamiest, cheesiest grits ever..

i think ideally you would serve these over some wilted greens, but i didn't have any (the closest thing i had was frozen greenbeans, which aren't quite the same thing), so pat and i enjoyed them with coffee.

cute. last night we all went to katie's birthday at the katie-amanda-crystal apt for dancing and fun. instead of having one cake, they made tons of little cupcakes: chocolate, vanilla and marblized, with assorted icings (chocolate peanut butter, chocolate with candy, coconut strawberry..). i thought it was such a fun idea(at least until people started throwing them)! if i ever rise to the high ranks of martha stewart, i'm totally selling them that idea.

also, here's one of the only food photos i took while we were away. incidentally it's also of a big breakfast my mom made on saturday morning. asparagus eggs, bagels, fruit, veg sausages and gallons of fresh coffee. freak yeah, i love breakfasts so much! i'm really glad that i decided to start liking eggs two summers ago, it was one of the best things i've ever done.

btw, i just bought the new ted leo album and i've been having a pretty good time with it.

long time coming

2007-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

by caitlin

it's been a while since i've written on here.. i had big plans to write about everything i ate while i was away for spring break but unfortunately those plans fell short. we did have a really nice time visiting pat's family in connecticut and my family in north carolina. we went up to asheville one day and ate at a really wonderful vegetarian restaurant that i've been to before. if you're ever in the area, i highly recommend it. otherwise, we had a great time at allison's beautiful wedding and now we're back.

so the other day, tyler and i were having a little discussion about whether or not soup is appropriate after the first day of spring. i say, there are so many beautiful, delicate springtime vegetables that make delightfully light soups, either for a main dish, or not. also, if your worry is more about temperature.. well, at least here, in the northeast united states, spring is usually chilly and rainy, with some pretty days sprinkled throughout. a couple summers ago, i don't think it even got warm until july.

anyway, we were both pretty set on our individual arguments, so i googled spring soups just to spite him, and i found this recipe that i decided to make last night. i changed it a little (added a potato, some garlic, left out the astragalus, and used leeks instead of shallots because i'm really into them right now), and i always forget how quick and easy soup is to make!

in fact, i think the worst part of making soup (at least in my case) is whenever you taste it as you're cooking.. you burn your mouth. maybe i should just be a little more patient. in the end, it was really good, and definitely appropriate for the drizzly spring evening.. i added some more chopped ginger, toasted cashews, and cheddar cheese to the bowls.

jen and pat came over to enjoy the feast. tyler and devon missed out because they wanted to be fancy and go out for brooklyn restaurant week. boo.

i even tried my hand at baking again (i don't know what's getting in to me..) with some buttermilk biscuits! they came out alright, i think they could have been more buttery and a lot lighter. then again, tyler's really into dense baked goods, so i don't know..

Too much fennel?

2007-03-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

So here is a picture of the oatmeal currant cookies with fennel (whats a food blog without pictures?). I think i might have overdone the fennel.

The Microwave Has Left The Building

2007-03-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

by tyler

I always think about how wonderful it would be to have every grain in your kitchen, in bulk, waiting for you for when you need it. Spelt or millet, its there (and so would be the quinoa flour). How great it would be to look into your recipe index, pull something out of the blue, and only need to go to the market for fresh produce and cheese. I imagine my home will be something like that one day. For the time being, I usually have to go to the market for just about everything (I usually have enough flour to get the job done but that’s all I can count on).

Overall, this past month has been pretty high stress—worrying about my teacher certification tests, my thesis, bike racing, Spanish, ComD research, and where I’ll end up teaching (or if I’ll end up teaching) next year. So today I decided that after I finished my Spanish midterm (something I was not excited about), I would take the day off. That means no Art of the Book. So, I went home and worked on my thesis for a while (not really work) and watched West Side Story (amazing!). After I ate some chili and leftover white bread (from the cucumber sandwiches) for dinner, I thought I would spend the rest of the night reading The Road (book club meets this Sunday). However, I had a bit too much energy so I had to think of something to do. Well duh, I’ll bake something. That idea hit me at about 8:30. Now remember folks, I’m usually in bed by 9:30-10 and asleep soon after, so this is a little crazy for me. At first I thought I would use that package of dry yeast in my baking box, but who has time for that, even on the weekends? (Megan, don’t answer that). I didn’t think there was much I would be able to make with what I had (see above). Then it hit me…oatmeal cookies.

So I decided oatmeal cookies would be perfect for tonight. I always have plenty of oats, enough flour for any last minute project and ample butter (always organic, unsalted). It so happened I had enough brown sugar and everything else to accomplish this mission. Wait… hold the phone… not enough raisins. What is a boy to do? Well, improvise. I’m sure many of you (how many people read this thing?) have heard me talk about (and maybe even tried) my scone experiments. Well, if you haven’t, as a constant, I only make currant scones. I figure how can you know if the basic scone recipe is a success if one day you make currant scones and the next day you’re making cheddar cheese and mushroom scones? Point being, I had plenty of currants in the house. So I made oatmeal current cookies with fennel seeds.

I pulled down my nice, new, nickel Kitchen Aid stand mixer and got to work. Up until now, I had kept my stand mixer on top of my microwave, which is on top of my refrigerator. And like my scone recipes, you have probably heard me talk about how I want to get rid of my microwave (as I do my television). I mean I only used it for melting butter and bringing cream cheese to room temperature. Well, I did it. I took it down and put it by my door for starters and currently it’s sitting in the outside hall waiting to be brought downstairs. So I cleaned the refrigerator and realized how much more room I have. I feel like my kitchen is now 10% more efficient. I was able to move the slow cooker onto the fridge and use that room for other dried goods.

Now back to the cookies. So I had made cucumber sandwiches for Pats opening Monday night and used one of my cookie sheets to bring them over. Well, I didn’t take it home. So, I’m stuck with one 13x9 cookie sheet to bake these bad boys. That means batches of 6 at a time. Oh well, I just put the second-to-last batch in… in a half hour they should all be done.

Anyways, I just ate one and they’re pretty tasty. The cookie is dense like an oatmeal cookie should be while the currants are a bit sweeter than a raisin would be, and the fennel seeds bring that nice… um… fennel flavor? They’re good, okay? Its just too bad no one can join me in eating them.

I plan on bringing them into work tomorrow so I’ll post pictures then, I promise.

the only real meal i ate today was scrambled eggs and homefries at martino's

2007-03-06T18:39:00.000-08:00

the opening yesterday was a great success for all involved, i think. there was a really big crowd to see all of pat's wonderful drawings, installations and videos. the food that i slaved over for hours the night before was really good and disappeared too quickly for most of our friends to try any. i'm sure there will be more opportunities in the future..

i made the pastry dough for the artichoke parmesan turnovers myself, despite my fear of baking. it was great! i used tyler's pastry blender and sieve, since i don't have my own. i was afraid they were going to be too onion-y, but i guess that flavor cooked out in the oven and they were instead infused with a really delightful lemon taste. my experimental leek-asparagus-gruyere mini quiches came out really well, too! i don't have a mini-muffin tin, so i just filled regular cups halfway. tyler's delicious cucumber tea sandwiches arrived just in time to be snatched up immediately by everyone near the table. for more photos of the event itself, check the fbook.

actually, devon cooked a really wonderful dinner for tyler and me the night before the show. she made a spinach salad with goat cheese, candied pecans and dried cherries, brown rice (on which we put butter, in memory of our childhoods), and really delicious baked tofu.

in contrast, today we shared four pieces of valentine's chocolate. after i bit into the first one and saw that it was orange-flavored, i gave it to her. we just kept biting off little bites of the already bite-sized pieces and passing them back and forth and giggling. it was kind of okay.

i've been thinking about food all day for my project but i haven't done any work at all for it. some days you're just so unproductive. i bought some star-gazer lillies and they're making this apartment smell really wonderful, even as our steamheat leaks all over the damn floor and i have to clean it up every couple hours. bleh.

Y'all ready for th(es)is?!

2007-03-03T08:54:00.000-08:00

by caitlin

i think jen was the one to say that originally, but i also think its one of the funniest things i've heard in a while.

so let's talk about finger foods (btw, i really really hate that term, along with fingerling potatoes, it just makes me imagine biting somone's finger. gross). i've been thinking about mini-crustless-quiches, maybe with gruyere and asparagus or something, which i think would just be so delicious and easy. i also found a recipe for artichoke parmesan turnovers, but i'm worried there might be too much baking and work involved if i do both of those things. not that i'm afraid of either one (baking or intensity of labor) but i actually have no time to do this.

i'm going to connecticut tonight with pat to stay with his family and see his sister molly's play. we probably won't get back until 9 or 10 on sunday night, and i have class on monday from 12:30 to 3:30. i can't skip it because our prof wasn't there last week and next week is spring break. pat's show is at 6:00. who knows what is going to happen.

also, yesterday i ate a really delicious banana cranberry muffin from joe's coffee by my work. it was a little too sweet for my liking, so i guess i'll have to make my own attempt at it. so far today i've just had coffee. the day is so full of possibilities!

Quite possibly the best 24 hours of 2007 (“He looks like Tom Cruise”)

2007-03-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

by Tyler.

So these past 24 hours have been spent eating great food and in wonderful company.

Dinner last night: Café Steinhof with Dev. We split a red cabbage salad with ham and Brie, chicken paprika for Devon and bread dumplings with mushroom fricassee for myself.

This morning: a wonderful country kitchen breakfast: Dutch pancake, apple chicken sausage and an omelet with Gloucester cheese.

A walk to Sahadi’s with Dev to look at the glorious olive bar and cheese… oh, and to buy hummus and a tomato-feta and eggplant-roasted pepper pastry (the tomato-feta was mind blowing). While looking at cheese, a worker told Dev that I looked like Tom Cruise (I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad).

From Sahadi’s, we found Marquet Patisserie and indulged in a white mousse cake, brownie and chocolate chip cookie (while it was all delicious, I wish we walked the extra few blocks to find Sweet Melissa). We ate our treats in a park on Smith Street and watch the kids play on the lovely springlike day.

We walked back through Park Slope where were stopped in Gorilla to get some tea. We sipped our tea until we arrived at the Laurelton.

Now I’m watching my friend Robb’s daughter, Agatha while finishing my beef nagikmaki, miso soup and Kiwi roll from Oshima.

AND

2007-02-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-02-28T20:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-02-27T19:02:00.002-08:00

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

2007-02-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

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.