Bucking Convention: Pesto

HAI EVERYONE HAI HAI HAI!

Today I'd like to talk about a food (perhaps more accurately a condiment?) known as pesto. It's an extremely polarizing, if innocuous, little green sauce that people seem to either love or hate. And when people hate it and I try to proclaim its virtues, they always give me this look:

"Ain't no such thing as good pesto."


Well, STANLEY, maybe you've never had good pesto, but I challenge you to try just one more! It's not your usual pesto because it's missing one key ingredient! Aren't you curious about what that is?



"..."

I guess not, because you're Stanley. But please, please just hear me out! This pesto doesn't have any BASIL and goes easy on the oil!



"...huh."

Do I have your attention yet? This pesto substitutes basil with Italian flat leaf parsley and adds oil as-needed! It gives it a strong flavor and lightens it up a lot, which are my two main complaints with pesto: first, it's often bland, second, it's usually just a little basil in a swimming pool of oil. Gross. 

Basil-lovers fear not--I'm not decrying basil as pesto. This version though will please everyone, and it's more cost effective too since it calls for walnuts, not pine nuts, to give it body and balance the parsley. The original recipe did call to toast the walnuts, but I think it hardly makes a difference! 

Parsley Parmesan Pesto

Ingredients:

2 cups very tightly packed leaves of Italian flat leaf parsley
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
1/2-3/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
3-4 large cloves of garlic (to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup of oil, adding more as needed

Put all ingredients except the oil in a food processor with a metal blade and pulse until combined, then add oil in a slow stream. Once combined, dip your spoon in for taste and consistency. Add more oil as needed, balancing with lemon and salt. Serve right away or freeze for up to 3 months. Delicious.

Before oil

After oil and processing. Yes, I love garlic.

What can you make with this yummy, scrumptious, lovely pesto? Here are a couple of ideas:

Shrimp, bell pepper, red onion, pesto pizza (crust from Trader Joe's for $1--about 4-5x what you see here)

Pesto Parmesan bowtie pasta. Mmmm, paaasta.

Unfortunately, I don't have the picture of the pasta I made on New Year's, which included turkey pesto meatballs, but en bref: mix pesto into raw turkey meat, add salt, and mix together with spatula and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 min).

If you give this pesto a try, let me know what you think of it versus regular pesto. I have never tried to make my own basil-based pesto, but I will say that for flavor and consistency I love Classico's pesto:

Surprisingly, made by Heinz.

That's all for now folks. Hopefully I've given you some incentive to try a new form of pesto. Hopefully with Stanley, who is now headed straight home to make this pesto. Happy eating!

Yee-haw.

Will the real spaghetti please stand up (please stand up)?

In the historic words of thought leader Eminem, "I'm BACK na-na-na-na-na-na-NA!"

"Did you miss me? Huh? Huh? HUH?!"

In the months since I last posted, I've celebrated my paper anniversary with New York City, moved apartments, shuffled roommates, been promoted, echoed as a new class graduated from Harvard, visited old friends, made new old friends, redefined my personal relationships, flown home at last, and overhauled my life. Throughout it all, I've cooked, eaten, drank, and lived. I want to share with you a little taste of what I've learned and how it flavors where I'm going.

I've certainly missed blogging, or sharing the food I love to cook with anyone who loves to eat. I've learned some new things since I've been away, and I hope to use them to tempt, beguile, entice, and inspire you to take them as yours and own your kitchen! Or at the very least, a mean enchilada.

What have I been up to--what's in store for you? Well, scroll on down and get excited for the good things to come!

Ok, please don't get this excited. Seriously, I can see you drooling from here.

A sneak peak of the eating which lies ahead:

That was just a small preview. Okay, yep, go ahead now:

EAT ALL THE THINGS!!!!

No judgment this time--I promise! Stay tuned for regular meals and more oddball humor. Happy eating!

What to Eat When You Can't Eat Anything

As some of you know, I had my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the day Sandy swept into town, it was postponed until Friday.

Turns out Vicodin and I are in no way compatible, but I'm getting pretty good at ice packs and sleeping on my back. The thing I'm mostly complaining about, to no end, is not being able to eat. I love to eat. I live to eat. Really, I do. Little makes me happier than sinking my teeth into a burger and fries, slurping my mom's spaghetti, reveling in my dad's smothered pork chops, gobbling up sushi rolls, nomming on naan and curry, or popping popcorn shrimp into my mouth, even chowing down on a Taco Bell Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme!...you get the picture.

So, I'm two days in and really struggling to eat soup, soup, and all things slurpable. Because my mouth is swollen in a weird way I really can't chew without biting myself, I'm struggling not to get bored. In an effort to entertain myself, and you, here are some of the things I've been eating!

1. Yogurt, vanilla
2. Chicken stock, microwaved
3. Black bean soup puree
4. Carrot and ginger soup
5. Butternut squash soup puree
6. Green smoothie Odwalla-esque thing
7. Vanilla icing -- I'm not kidding, just icing by itself...I know, judge me why don't you?!
8. Vanilla ice cream
9. Carnation milk breakfast shakes, French Vanilla flavor
10. Hummus, also by itself
11. Guacamole (but only a little, I'm saving it for the refried beans that will be my lunch tomorrow)
12. Cremita de arroz (Cream of rice)

There was the early, abortive attempt to eat a cheese stick because I succumbed to desperation too early. Yeah, I'm not cut out to be a beaver and chew only with my front teeth.

The best things thus far have been yogurt, the black bean soup puree because it's spicy, the green smoothie because I eat that normally, the breakfast shakes (a surprise winner!), and guacamole (because it's the most flavorful thing I've eaten in two days). The worst thing were soups #4 and #5--not my favorite vegetables to begin with. Cremita de arroz was decent, but considering my mom used to make it for me when I was little, there is just no matching those childhood memories.

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you physically can't chew or really open your mouth, try eating some of these things. You'll find yourself requiring nourishment every 2-3 hours, which is quite difficult, but hey, you'll become a connoisseur of soupy sustenance.

I can't wait to catalog my post-op binge. Get ready for burgers, pasta, ribs, taco bell, fried chicken, and who knows what else! I'm taking suggestions!

Happy eating! 

Fish 'n Potatoes

Hi y'all! As I mentioned in my last post, I could easily be a pescatarian. Well, after saying that I realized that I had no actual fish recipes up on this blog and that I had this meal waiting in the wings. 

It's definitely more traditionally American (or what I perceive to be American!) than what I normally get my eat on with, but it was definitely satisfying. So, without any further ado, here's....

 Scallion-Crusted Scrod with Accordion Potatoes

1 lb scrod* fillets, deboned

3-5 scallions, chopped fine

1-1.5 cup Japanese breadcrumbs or Panko

Lemon, 1 tsp. zest and 1 tbsp. juice

2-3 oz. baby spinach

Olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt

Pepper

*Scrod is baby cod, and since cod is a flaky, dense white fish without a lot of unique flavor, any ol' white fish will do.

Preheat your oven to 375, then dice up your scallions and mince your garlic. Zest your lemon, and then mix these ingredients in with your breadcrumbs. The quantity of breadcrumbs depends on how large your fillets are. Sauté the breadcrumbs, scallions, and garlic all together for ~3 minutes or until breadcrumbs turn golden brown. Take care not to burn them! 

Next you can prep your potatoes. Slice them almost all the way through, ideally 1/8th of an inch apart. I was in a hurry, so as you can see my knife work is pretty ugly. But, I wasn't cooking to impress anyone other than my own stomach, which really doesn't care what food looks like. I will note, however, that the potato will be ready more quickly if the slices are narrower.

Once you've got your incisions, drizzle the potato liberally with ~2 tbsp olive oil and as much salt and pepper as you want. I've put the scallion stems here to try to add a little onion flavor to the potato, which might have worked a little. I'm being honest here, I didn't notice much difference but it made me feel cool and experimental, hahah.

Next, dip your fish in a little olive oil or egg white and cover it in as much breading as will stick.  Place it on a greased baking pan, preferably lined in tin foil to speed up clean up.

Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Throw a bed of spinach down on the plate, reuse that zested lemon for lemon juice to top the fish and dress the spinach, and voila! Your very own fish 'n potatoes meal:

Pair with whatever beverage you'd prefer, but may I suggest Joel Gott sauvignon blanc? For $14.99 a bottle, it's delicious, crisp, and very tasty. Even better, it comes with a screw top so you can save it for another day if you don't drink it all in one sitting...

 Happy eating, so long, and thanks for all the fish!

Shrimp 2 Ways

As the old saying goes...double the shrimp, double the fun!

While that may not be the saying, it's definitely true in my case. I love shrimp. I could seriously be a pescatarian and give up meat if I could have seafood every single day. And that's saying a lot, because I love meat. Maybe it's the Caribbean in me, but seafood just does something special for me.

To keep my diet varied while living on my own in the real world, I like to get frozen, pre-shelled shrimp from Trader Joe's that I can just cook up in a jiffy whenever I want. It doesn't really matter if they are pre-cooked or not since shrimp take so little time to cook.

Now, some people may be sticklers for shrimp with the shells on, and I do understand that. I even made my own shrimp stock at the beginning of the summer under the influence of Chef John Besh's cookbook My New Orleans, which is truly impressive and convinces you that the only way to cook is to spend hours slaving away over a hot stove and make everything from scratch. Oh, and raise a farm in your backyard. Suffice it to say, I never used that stock after I made it and it sat in my freezer for a month. So the net of that experience is that I now simply buy pre-shelled shrimp!

So, on to what I made:

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Linguine...found it on Pinterest!

Celery Shrimp Sauté with Guacamole Toast

So, how to make it? Here we go:

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Linguini

Original recipe found here

1 cup water

1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

6 ounces uncooked linguine (I just substituted pasta)

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms*

1 large red bell pepper, cut into (1/4-inch-thick) slices

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt free Cajun seasoning (I found mine in the bulk spices at my local supermarket)**

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup fat free half-and-half

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Parmesan cheese (my addition)

*Didn't have any mushrooms

**The Cajun spices here must be different, because this came out kind of sweet. I compensated by adding Adobo...awww yeah. 

So from that point on I basically followed the steps of the recipe, which are below:

Combine 1 cup water and broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Break pasta in half; add to pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 8 minutes. Add shrimp to pasta. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until shrimp are done; drain and set aside. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and red pepper to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until moisture evaporates. Add flour, Cajun seasoning, and salt to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Stir in half-and-half; cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add pasta mixture and parsley to pan; toss together with tongs. Add Parmesan cheese!

My main piece of advice for this is to prep (wash, cut, etc.) all the ingredients beforehand because this recipe moves along at a quick clip! Also, as the original recipe notes, the pasta is much better cooked in broth because it absorbs that flavor. I wasn't able to do it because I had leftover plain spaghetti, but I want to try it again. On to recipe number two!

This recipe is something I threw together off-the-cuff, but more or less this is what went down:

Celery Shrimp Sauté with Guacamole Toast

Shrimp, as much as you think you'll eat
1 tbsp. olive oil
Celery, 1 stalk per serving
1/2 a yellow onion
Red pepper flakes
Whole wheat baguette slice, halved
Salt and pepper, to taste
Guacamole

Wash the celery, then halve it lengthwise and chop it; dice up the onion and set aside. Slice the bread in half, toast it, and set it aside. (You can always warm it up later and there's nothing worse than waiting for your bread to toast as your hot food gets cool.) Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat and put the celery and onions in at the same time. Normally I wouldn't advocate that for veggies, but celery is high in fiber and takes a while to cook through, so it's okay to put it in with onions. Be sure to stir periodically to make sure the onions don't burn. At this point, add in red pepper flakes so that they have started releasing their heat before you add the shrimp. Next step is--you guessed it--add the shrimp! Cook for 3-5 minutes, until pink and no longer grey. Add the salt and pepper before you finish the shrimp. Finally, reheat the bread if necessary, slap some guac on there, and eat! Eat, eat, eat!

See, double the shrimp equals double the fun! And definitely double the noms!

Happy eating!

Back in Blog! With Flatbreads...

HELLO! I have been absent. I know! I know, I missed you too. I brought you a present:

I ate both of these in one sitting, alternating between each because they were THAT GOOD.

I figured I'd start off with something easy and cheesy, since I'm easing myself back into being a responsible food lust-provider.

A few months ago I made these on the spur of the moment after deciding I wanted pizza and I wanted it my way (Burger King doesn't make pizza, as far as I know). Having only bread, I decided to make flatbreads instead. I'll start with the top pizza:

Spinach and Mozzarella Marinara Flatbread

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Rustic Italian or French bread (I like Whole Foods' pain de campagne), toasted

Spinach, as much as you want

Marinara (I made mine but from a jar is just fine)

Sliced mozzarella

The second edible is a...

 Mushroom and Green Olive Pesto Flatbread

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2 portabello mushrooms
Rustic Italian or French bread (I like Whole Foods' pain de campagne), toasted
Sliced mozzarella
Green olives stuffed with garlic
Trader Joe's pesto (amazing!)

For each flatbread, I recommend toasting the bread first until it's pretty dark so that it won't buckle and become soggy under the weight of all the sauces and moisture (cheese and mushrooms both release moisture when melted). I also recommend making the marinara a little spicy to balance your generous portions of mozzarella, and even adding some meat into the sauce. Really, you can put anything you want on bread with cheese, it's up to you!

The garlic-stuffed green olives came from my local grocery store. After you toast the bread, just load up each piece with what you want and pop it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted. Don't panic if your cheese doesn't melt right away because mozzarella has a higher melting temperature than something like cheddar. When done, consume immediately!

Returning to the TJ's pesto, briefly. I am a pretty harsh judge of pesto, namely because I was subjected to sub par, greasy, gross pesto for 4 years (here's to you, Harvard). Trader Joe's pesto is well-balanced and flavorful. You can taste the basil AND the garlic, without being overpowered. The oil is perfectly proportioned to the pesto, and if it separates it stirs back together quickly without making me feel queasy about how much oil I'm about to consume. It's also refrigerated and must be refrigerated even before opening, so you know it's fairly fresh. I'm sure Whole Foods' pesto is comparable if there isn't a TJ's near you.

So that's that, happy eating! And look forward to more posts soon =).

Living in Style (in New York): Part I

Hi y'all! I'm back from an unofficial hiatus--what with essays, end of year assignments, and GRADUATION(!?) I decided to write once I was officially settled in New York. What a whirlwind it's been! I start work in a little under two weeks, but until then I've been setting up my apartment and decorating my room.

This will be the first in a two- or three-part series about decorating an apartment on a budget in New York, and the lengths I've gone to in order to have my room perfect. The motto that has served me well when searching for the perfect things to create my perfect room: Have unreasonable expectations and never compromise them. What you want does exist, and you will find it if you work hard enough.

Since I just graduated I'm obviously on a very tight budget, which has led me to decorate and furnish my apartment mostly with things from secondhand stores, Marshall's/TJ Maxx, flea markets, and the fabulous Salvation Army on 46th between 10th and 11th. My two favorite second hand stores are both in Chelsea on W 17th and 7th.

 Angel Street Thrift Shop:

Photo credit to Angel Street Thrift Shop

And Housing Works:

Photo credit to Housing Works

Here are several examples of the awesome things to be found at thrift shops:

From Angel Street Thrift, a Bombay curve dresser in mahogany with original fittings, $250

 

 GORGEOUS art deco wardrobe from the 1920s, found at Angel Street Thrift. It's a blessing I bought my dresser (below) before I saw this, otherwise I instantly would have dropped $450 on it.

This is my dresser. Originally a wood sideboard to keep fine silverware and your best heirloom china set, I have converted it to my dresser.The spice cabinet on top isn't part of it, and while it doesn't look it in this picture, it's actually six feet long. A bargain at $175 from Housing Works.

 This is truly special: a remnant of an old Cathedral pew for $60 at Housing Works. As of Wednesday it was still there! My mom could barely stand leaving it behind, but the shipping price to Texas would be absurd. I'd buy it just because it's awesome, but there is nowhere to put it! Sob...

A pretty hanging lantern for $45 from Angel Street Thrift.

 

 A totally cool chandelier-style lamp for $45 from Angel Street Thrift.

This is $55 at Housing Works and is a nice low bedside table or TV stand. It has sliding drawers inside of it and is in great shape.

Also on that street are a few home design stores like West Elm and Canvas, but I am staying away from stores like that. Instead, I'm hitting up flea markets. So far I've been to two. I really like the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market at W 39th and 9th every Saturday and Sunday:

They take their location in "Hell's Kitchen" very seriously

And the GreenFlea Market on the Upper West Side at 77th and Columbus:

Photo credit to Kid-Friendly Family Vacations

And here are some examples of very cool things found at these fleas, as people in the know call them, hahah:

$45 at the GreenFlea for a mirrored vanity tray (or tea set tray). I want something just like this but longer, since my dresser is so long.

The first furniture piece I bought for my apartment at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market--I bought it on the spot without seeing any other chairs. Very comfy and I haven't seen anything like it since; sometimes you just have to take a chance. It was $85 and a total steal, aided by the fact that my mom reupholstered it for free (best Mom ever!). More on that later.

This is a very cool tin which, once cleaned up, would be a great place to store receipts and important papers on your dresser, vanity, or bedside table. $20 at the GreenFlea Market.

This very unique book stand is from the 1950s or so and was $23 (down from $25--woohooh...) and is PERFECT for my Bible. I found it with my friend Andrea at the GreenFlea Market.

 These are very cute, colorful key/purse/umbrella/etc. holders that are handmade for only $7. I found them at the GreenFlea Market and I think my roommate and I are going to go for the light blue one.

This mirror I haggled down to $100 from $185 but decided to leave it, because even though I need one just like it for my dresser top, I simply didn't love it. Still, it's a really nice, large antique mirror at the GreenFlea Market.

Last but not least, I will share what I've found at the Salvation Army. They have a really wide variety of things, and they have yet to fail me when I go look for furniture. As a side note, always clean whatever you buy secondhand because even if it looks clean, it's secretly filthy and carrying all kinds of fun allergens and germs.

This is the TV stand I ultimately bought, because while there was a nice dark one, this one had fewer scratches and the bonus of glass doors. It was $50, and after some cleaning it looks practically new.

 Case in point: this incredible cast iron and marble lamp that is by far the best bargain I've found--$40 including the original shade (not pictured)!!! This lamp is likely an antique, and it would cost many times that brand new. I LOVE the Salvation Army. you can see by comparing the above picture to the below that it cleaned up nicely with soap, water, a brush, and a dishrag. You'll see the whole lamp when I blog about my room.

Very Classic in style and utterly romantic. The detail on the base (another post to come) is just lovely. 

So those are some examples of what I've found hunting around for Manhattan's buried treasures, and what you can find too with a little elbow grease and determination. More to come later on what I've bought for my room, what it's like to build a pressurized wall, and custom decorating.

Happy decorating!