Weekend in Photos – Home Improvements and My First Rack of Lamb

the view from our “garden” room.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I hang out at home a lot for a New Yorker. There are a variety of reasons for this but mainly the reality is that most of my money goes towards rent and my school debt (God help me) so there’s not a whole lot left over to play with. Especially when play in New York costs $12 – $15 a cocktail and $30 an entree (Ouch. Always, OUCH). And while our rent is higher than others, our apartment is also bigger. In fact, by New York standards it’s pretty palatial which has a lot to do with why I’m so happy to hang out there. There’s a garden, an actual kitchen with real counter space, a fairly sizable living room, and a claw foot tub. And cocktails! Why would I ever leave? So I pretty much don’t.

Basically, if you want to see me, then find a kick ass cheap happy hour to meet up post work. Otherwise, I’m that annoying person who always just tells my friends to come over to my apartment.

All that being said – the apartment needs a lot of work. So weekends lately have been all about home improvements. This weekend, was the back room. Or as I like to call it – the garden room. It was an addition to the original apartment and faces the garden/backyard, with no one sharing any walls, so it’s unbelievably quiet and peaceful. For the past six months it’s been used as storage but we decided it was finally time to turn it into a livable space. So we painted:

Before…

And AFTER!

Not too shabby, huh? We decided on yellow as that room catches a lot of great light during the day and yellow is in general a pretty pleasing color to people. The room is very much a work in progress but painting it transformed it so we’re really happy. Next up – getting curtains, replacing a very modern desk with a more rustic looking one, getting better bedding, hanging some photos, getting a lamp or two, and on and on. So basically, if ever there’s a doubt for what to get me for Christmas, birthdays, etc – get me a gift certificate to Pottery Barn.

This weekend we also attempted our first rack of lamb roast which turned out pretty well.

our first lamb roast

The fixings for the crust – shallots, bread crumbs, etc

finished lamb with crust. Always fun to take something so pretty out of the oven

paired with Erik’s mashed potatoes and buttered haricot verts…DELISH

The lamb came out on the rare side of the spectrum but better too rare than overcooked. Lamb is tricky and if you cook it past medium rare it’s pretty much ruined (in my opinion) so I was glad we remained cautious.  I definitely want to try again to get it just right but, for our first try, I’d say it was a pretty good roast dinner all around.

This coming weekend there will be no new roast as Sunday will be spent all day at the Great Googa Mooga Festival in Brooklyn! Should be a super fun day outside eating the best NYC has to offer. I can’t wait. But there’s no way (and no reason) to cook after that kinda day.

Knowing me, there will be a lot of picture taking so I’ll post pics of all the food, vendors, Brooklynites, and all around good fun. My personal goal is to find as many French vendors as possible so I can write an article about it. And so I can eat all the French food…I’m so predictable. Wish me luck!

The Topic is NEGLECT – I’m Sorry Blog, Truly Sorry

My poor neglected little blog. I have no excuses. I’m just a bad blog parent. Totally neglectful because I’m just so “busy”. Shame. On. Me.

So what’s been going on? Well I have another article up on My French life that you can find HERE. This has been my favorite assignment to date. Here’s hoping there are more French product launches that involve five course sit down meals…a girl can dream.

Also, VERY IMPORTANT – we’re looking for more New York Francophile writers for My French Life! If you’re interested please leave a comment or send me a message on twitter and I will get back to you asap with details on how to start writing for My French Life. If you’re not in NYC but are a Francophile in another city and interested in writing for them, you can also still apply! Just let me know where you’re from and I will put you in touch with the right person.

In other news that I should have already shared if I were a good blogger, we cooked up a storm for Easter Sunday and it was DELICIOUS. I came up with a pretty kick ass bruschetta for the dinner and I have since made it for my dear friend’s birthday party at our place this past weekend, so I will post the recipe here soon. Let’s just say for now that garlic butter makes everything taste better. ALWAYS.

On the recipe front – I’m looking for a kick ass macaroni salad recipe as well as a super amazing potato salad recipe. If you have favorites please send them my way!

Also important news – I am buying a roasting pan this weekend! Let the Sunday roasts begin! Now all I need to do is learn how to make a roast – up to my own personal standards which are very HIGH. It’s times like these that I wish I’d paid more attention to what my father was doing in the kitchen. His roast beef and prime rib are to this day the best I’ve ever had. And that’s not love for my father talking. That’s just plain and simple fact. They were AMAZING. And now I am kicking myself for not taking notes. Oh well, hopefully I will find a base guide for how to make roasts in line with what I remember and then tweak it till I get it right. We might have to start having friends over for dinner on a weekly basis so I can keep experimenting.

In other news, I will be going to Niagara on the Lake for my cousin’s wedding at the end of May and am really looking forward to it. I’m also going to be writing an article about Niagara on the Lake and all the fun things to see and do there so that should make the trip all the more interesting. Hopefully I’ll fit some rest and relaxation in there somewhere. Although, what’s more relaxing than a wine tour – right?

So here’s to being a better blogger in the midst of all this chaos…at least I’m not bored I guess.

Friday Favorites!

My newest and latest article for Ma Vie Francaise has been posted – check it out here.

I took an amazing Macaron making class at Mille Feuille bakery last week for my article on Macaron Day. My two part article on Macaron Day is here and here. If you’re in NYC please visit Mille Feuille bakery and have one of their amazing macarons! Or take the class – you won’t be disappointed! Here are a few pics from the super fun class:

making macarons – vanilla, pistachio, and chocolate

beautiful and ready for the ganache filling!

Beautiful macarons made by MOI! And yes I got to take ALL of those home. Amazing

My latest article for Used York City is also up (see how busy I’ve been) and you can find it here.

It was brought to my attention that you can buy hand crafted furniture made out of whiskey and wine barrels. And now I’m obsessed with something I can’t afford – AGAIN.

In honor of Mad Men coming back I give you this list – Betty is  a crazy bitch but that’s what makes her fun to watch.

So there you have it. Also – whew! I’ve got another article to finish today, one to start on Monday, and a show to see tonight to review for an article I’m writing this weekend. And of course there’s the full time job on top of all this. It’s no wonder my poor blog is suffering.

On the cooking agenda this weekend – my second attempt at the olive oil cake that I somehow messed up last time and a new recipe by Jacques Pepin!

And sleep – glorious, glorious sleep.

Bon week-end!

Friday Favorites!

Monday was President’s Day! Personal favorite because it meant I got the day off work. Also, thank you to ALL the Presidents. Even the ones I couldn’t stand.

CAMUS Cognac – on Tuesday evening I went to an event organized by CAMUS Cognac for an article I’m writing for My French Life and it was pretty amazing. Like five course sit down dinner with wine and cognac pairings amazing. I’ll link the article here when it’s finished but for now all I can say is they are awesome and they fed me and didn’t ask me to pay. FRIENDS FOR LIFE.

I’m starting another writing gig for Used York City, a great online travel magazine focused on New York and all it has to offer locals and travelers alike. I’m very excited to start writing about more great New York finds and branch out of my French focused research. I’ll be linking any new articles I write for Used York City here so keep an eye out! For now, definitely check out the website and if you have any suggestions on what you want to read more about in their content please let me me know!

In the world of news - IMPORTANT 

And in other important news - The worst show ever created is back – but now D list celebrities are participating. If things have gotten this bad in your “career” it’s time to just stop trying to be on TV. No really – STOP.

Bon week-end everyone!

Friday Favorites!

I have been a bad blogger this week. No Music Monday because it was a three day weekend and I was lazy and no posts at all this week for no reason except I had very little of interest to report. But at least there’s Friday Favorites! Here you go:

If you’re interested in cooking in Paris here’s a great interview in the NYT with David Lebovitz

If you’re interested in my latest article with Ma Vie Francaise  - here it is!

Soooo – THIS is happening. I have so many adolescent feelings about this that I don’t even know where to start.

This article in the New York Times about what middle class really is in Manhattan is excellent – and disturbingly true. If ever my friends or family wonder why I never have any money and/or savings this article will explain why. It will also be what I refer to when Erik and I eventually move out of NYC because we just can’t take it anymore.

The same week temperatures plummeted here in NYC – our firepit arrived! I will post a photo soon but it is a beautiful addition to our backyard. Also – now we HAVE to have a s’mores party! Who’s coming?

Friday TV favorite shout out  - Scandal. If you’re not watching it you should be. I almost didn’t watch it. In fact, I started the first season kinda pissed at myself for watching it. It wasn’t very good, the camera work and direction gave me a headache, and it basically turned into background noise every Thursday night while I did something else in my apartment. But then it got better, and then it got REALLY good. And now it’s like stupidly good. Seriously, the chemistry between Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn is pretty hot and now I kinda have a little crush on Tony Goldwyn, which I never thought would happen given his not so sexy portrayal of Carl in Ghost (bleh). But now he’s playing the President and he’s all powerful and I’m basically predictable.

Glen Hansard – Why do I sometimes forget how brilliant a musician he is? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! Serious Friday Favorite people – buy all his music. Right now.

Mad Men finally has a premiere date – FINALLY. Time to break out the cocktail recipes. I think this season I should challenge myself to a new fancy cocktail every week for new episodes. Send me your favorite cocktail recipes!

And there you have it – bon week end everyone!

Sea Bass Soaked in Butter w/Ratatouille and Haricots Verts – Your Typical Saturday in Brooklyn

Photo from usnews.com

The other weekend, one in which Erik and I were actually off at the same time (shocking) we decided to commit to cooking something new. A whole dinner of new things in fact. Because, why not? It seems that now that there are two of us in the kitchen cooking we might actually be able to produce some pretty stellar meals. And I have to say, this first attempt, was pretty fucking delicious.

I was aiming for a healthy yet delicious meal so we decided to make sea bass, ratatouille with goat cheese, and haricots verts with pine nuts and red peppers. Sounds good no? AND healthy! Well it was…until Erik did this to the fish (thank you Erik):

That’s butter. All of it. OMG.

He smothered it – in butter (and herbs). Best. Idea. Ever. And no longer healthy. Woo hoo!

I meanwhile manned the veggies for the evening and kept them healthy according to plan. First the haricots verts:

haricots verts prep – simple and easy

Finished haricots verts with pine nuts and red peppers

This dish was surprisingly delicious and a really great compliment to the fish in all its buttery goodness.

Then of course there was the ratatouille in all its glory:

ratatouille prep!

all those veggies make for the most amazing smell in the kitchen.

This dish was really easy to make and extremely tasty. Adding the crumbled goat cheese on top when plated gave it the extra kick to make it a bit more exciting than stewed veggies, but even on its own it would be delish.

And of course, there’s the finished dinner. I didn’t take a picture of the table in all its glory but here is my plate of glorious food:

Almost everything on that plate is a vegetable! And then there’s the butter soaked fish but whatever…

We were extremely pleased with how this meal turned out and I am quite keen to make it all again. Pairing fish with ratatouille is a sure fire way to keep things healthy AND tasty so now all I have to do is attempt to curb Erik’s fish to butter ratio and it might actually be able to live among our healthier meal options.

If you’re interested here are the recipes for the side dishes.

Sauteed Haricots Verts with Red Peppers and Pine Nuts

• 1 1/2 pounds haricots verts (or other slender green beans), trimmed

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium-size red bell peppers, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch dice (2 cups)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

Cook haricots verts in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water to cool quickly and drain again.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add peppers; sauté until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add butter to same skillet; melt. Add garlic; sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add haricots verts. Sauté until heated through, about 5 minutes. Mix in nuts; season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl.

Ratatouille with Goat Cheese

1. 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2. 1 pound eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
3. 5 large garlic cloves, minced
4. Salt and freshly ground black pepper
5. 1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
6. 1 yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch dice
7. 1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
8. 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
9. 2 pounds tomatoes, cored and finely chopped
10. 1 cup loosely packed shredded basil leaves
11. 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
12. 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
13. 1/2 cup crumbled aged goat cheese

1. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole or Dutch oven, heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil until shimmering. Add the eggplant and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add one-third of the garlic, season with salt and black pepper and cook for 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the eggplant to a plate.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the casserole along with the zucchini and yellow squash and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Add another one-third of the garlic, season with salt and black pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the vegetables to the eggplant.
3. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the casserole, along with the onion and bell pepper. Cook over moderate heat until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the remaining garlic, season with salt and black pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, two-thirds of the basil and the reserved vegetables and cook over moderate heat until the tomatoes have broken down and the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the remaining basil along with the lemon zest and juice. Transfer to bowls and sprinkle with the goat cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

If you want the recipe for the fish it’s simple  - slather butter on fish, sear in pan. Ta da!

More big dinners like this to come FOR SURE. Erik is focused on mastering a fried chicken dinner (God help me and the workouts that will follow) while I am still very much focused on mastering a roast. Between the two of us there should be some pretty fun and delicious dinner parties on the horizon!

Friday Favorites!

I can’t think favorite things and not think Sound of Music – I mean, come on.

To further attempt to blog more and keep things varied around here, I give you a new weekly post – Friday Favorites. This will be a weekly list of my favorite things from the week and can be anything and everything, from actual news to personal news, from things that made me laugh, to random things that I just feel the need to share.  So away we go…

Friday Favorites!

In favorite random news of the week – Gerard Depardieu offered post of Cultural Minister of Siberia. I am at a loss for words…no, no I’m not, here’s  a word – seriously?! This is a man who drunkenly urinated in the cabin of a plane. IN. THE. CABIN. That’s who you want as your cultural representative? Well, okay then.

Oscar nominations! IMPORTANT – Bradley Cooper (swoon) is nominated and that’s ALL I CARE ABOUT.

Red Gravy Brooklyn Heights – the newest must try on my list of places to eat. Not necessarily because the menu looks delish (it does) but because it’s around the corner from my apartment and I am lazy.

THIS COMMERCIAL –  Oh Stephen…Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. Just go back to playing the fifth Beatle. You were really good at that. In fact, you should just be him ALL THE TIME.

Restaurant Week!! Also known as the only time of year I can afford to pay for a meal at expensive restaurants by myself.

Random apartment news – we’re buying a fire pit for the backyard! No joke. This whole winter thing is really annoying when you have a backyard you want to use. Solution? FIRE PIT! Who wants to come over?

The MOST important news of the week 

Bon weekend!

2013 Cooking Bucket List

I’m stealing someone else’s blog. Blatantly. With no shame.

But we’re friends so it’s okay. Right? Right?….

My friend Katie recently posted her cooking bucket list for 2013 on her blog (look a link – so it’s not really stealing!) and I am going to copy her and do the same. It’s a good way to remind myself what I’m trying to accomplish beyond the basic principle of do not order take out unless extremely fatigued and/or sick and perhaps near death.

So here it is, my cooking bucket list for 2013:

1. Master a roast (or two) – every single dish that I miss of my Dad’s cooking involves an incredibly well cooked piece of meat – namely his prime rib and roast beef. He didn’t cook them as often as other things and I was always thrilled when they showed up at the dinner table. Had I been smarter I would have watched him/paid attention to how something so stupidly delicious came to be, but of course, I was completely unaware of how good I had it. LE SIGH. So now it’s up to me to recreate from memory, with the help of varying recipes I find that resemble what I remember of his classic French cooking. By the end of the 2013, I want to be able to cook a prime rib and roast beef as seemingly effortlessly as my father. Standard go to recipes that once you do them enough it’s like second nature and they always taste delicious. First step, I have to buy a roaster…pretty important first step I’d say. Also, I need to expect to fail quite a few times before getting it even remotely close to being right. I might not get it right until Christmas of next year, but I’m okay with that and I think I’m up for the challenge!

2. Experiment with Spanish cooking – namely with paella, Chicken with Piquillos, and bocadillos. It’s so easy for me to only focus on French cooking since it’s where my heart lives but I love Spanish cooking too. Love it. And, given that my many summers in France were near the basque region I actually realize now that there was a profound Spanish influence to the food we ate growing up because of where my grandparents lived in France. So it’s time to try my hand at something different, but still wonderfully familiar. And of course, it’s important to note that there’s a GREAT Spanish shop and restaurant in Soho that I used to frequent when I worked down there called Despana and it has every Spanish ingredient one could possibly need to give the dish you’re making real authentic flavor. And, I feel like, since it’s there I should take advantage of it, right? It’s also an excuse to go by and get a bocadillo. Because – Oh. My.God.

3. Create a signature fish dish or two – I LOVE fish. Love it to the point of I could eat it almost every night and not tire of it at all, and the side benefit is that a fish based diet can be really healthy. So the goal is to create and/or find one or two fish dishes that I can make my own and keep on hand as go to weekly recipes. I’ve experimented quite a bit with fish this year but no recipe I’ve found has stood the test of time in my kitchen. The only thing I make with any kind of consistency is my couscous salad with scallops (skinny bitch FAVE) and I need more than that. I should have a standard three fish dishes to pull from at least.

4. Create/find and master a handful of super healthy but still super tasty dinner recipes – this is a big challenge. I love butter. Like a lot. Like if I worked on a farm and had a choice of jobs I’d probably make the butter. Because, it’s BUTTER. It brings nothing but joy people (okay – AND cellulite). This, of course, causes some problems in the “healthy” department. And while I refuse to give up my profound butter beliefs (PROFOUND), it would be wise to have three to four healthy weekly options to balance out the nights when I a melt a pound of butter all over whatever protein I’ve chosen for the evening. So this is the year of a healthy balance. One night quinoa and veggies, one night a stick of butter. Totally logical, no?

5.To learn how to make the five mother sauces – basic and super important to one’s cooking skills are the five mother sauces. From these all great things in the sauce family can be made, and by this time next year I want to have made and mastered all five. This is a big goal as it will be very easy for me to just make them once, pat myself on the back, and claim mission accomplished – when really – first efforts don’t count. It’s the continued effort and the ease that comes after making them MANY MANY times. But I think I can do it. And I’m hoping that writing it down as a cooking goal this year will hold me accountable in actually mastering these sauces.

So there you have it. If I was as ambitious as my friend Katie I would also list my fitness goals for 2013 but they can really be summed up with gurlllll don’t get fat and bitch put down that cheese. So as long as I stick with those I should do okay.

Here’s hoping!

Amelie Wine Bar – A NYC French Gem

photo courtesy of yelp

My latest article for Ma Vie Francaise/My French Life is up! The focus this month is my favorite wine bar (on both coasts) Amelie. It’s my go to end of week place for happy hour drinks with my dearest friends and a MUST visit for any francophile, French expat, or happy hour loving person in NYC.

To read the full article, click here.

Merci!

The One, the Only, the Dutch Oven

I caved.

I bought a Le Creuset dutch oven. Cherry Red. On sale. I was hoping to hold out till Christmas, hoping some generous soul (aka Santa) would gift me with one for the holidays. But I couldn’t wait. I had to have it. And it finally arrived last week. All perfect and new, ready to take on my kitchen.

Look how pretty it is:

Cherry Red and BEAUTIFUL

It’s only a 2 quart oven so it’s really only good for making meals for one or two people but that’s all I need right now. There’s no way I could afford a 4 or 5 qt oven, even on sale, so this was the best, and quite frankly the only, choice for me right now. I’ll just have to adjust the recipes and there are worse problems to have, right? For instance, not having a dutch oven at all…which was seriously affecting my ability to make some really delicious meals.

So now I really have no excuses. I have gifted myself a pretty serious cooking tool. One extremely well equipped to make delicious but still healthy meals. Last night I made Armangac Chicken (except I used Cognac) and it was delicious. A little too stew like for my taste if I’m being 100% honest, but the flavors were absolutely wonderful and it couldn’t have been healthier…well actually it could have been. Had I followed it exactly. You see the recipe didn’t call for any butter and I disagreed. I disagreed valiantly. Like accusing the cookbook directly out loud in my kitchen as if it fucked up and had to now explain itself to me for its massive error. No butter in  a French recipe? What?! So in my defiance I put butter in the pot. just a little. A few simple slivers really. Just to add some roundness to the overall flavor. And it was delicious.

The recipe is as simple as it gets (God bless French home cooking) but I of course had to cut the recipe way down. Since my dutch oven is a baby dutch oven I didn’t use a whole chicken, just two drumsticks. I cut everything in half in terms of the other ingredients and then I only cooked it for 40 minutes and it turned out lovely. Here’s the actual recipe for 4:

M. Jacques’s Armagnac Chicken

Serves 4.

From “Around My French Table,” by Dorie Greenspan.

This recipe, une petite merveille (a little marvel), as the French would say, was given to me years ago by Jacques Drouot, the maître d’hôtel at the famous Le Dôme brasserie in Paris and an inspired home cook. I’ve been making it regularly ever since. It’s one of those remarkable dishes that is comforting, yet more sophisticated than you’d expect (or really have any right to demand, given the basic ingredients and even more basic cooking method).

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

8 small thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and halved lengthwise

3 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced

2 carrots, trimmed, peeled and thickly sliced on the diagonal

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 thyme sprig

1 rosemary sprig

1 bay leaf

1 chicken, about 3½ pounds, preferably organic, trussed (or wings turned under and feet tied together with kitchen string), at room temperature

½ cup Armagnac (Cognac or other brandy)

1 cup water.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You’ll need a heavy casserole with a tight-fitting cover, one large enough to hold the chicken snugly but still leave room for the vegetables. (I use an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven.)

Put the casserole over medium heat and pour in the oil. When it’s warm, toss in the vegetables and turn them around in the oil for a minute or two until they glisten; season with salt and white pepper. Stir in the herbs and push everything toward the sides of the pot to make way for the chicken. Rub the chicken all over with salt and white pepper, nestle it in the pot, and pour the Armagnac around it. Leave the pot on the heat for a minute to warm the Armagnac, then cover it tightly — if your lid is shaky, cover the pot with a piece of aluminum foil and then put the cover in place.

Slide the casserole into the oven and let the chicken roast undisturbed for 60 minutes.

Transfer the pot to the stove, and carefully remove the lid and the foil, if you used it — make sure to open the lid away from you, because there will be a lot of steam. After admiring the beautifully browned chicken, very carefully transfer it to a warm platter or, better yet, a bowl; cover loosely with a foil tent.

Using a spoon, skim off the fat that will have risen to the top of the cooking liquid and discard it; pick out the bay leaf and discard it too. Turn the heat to medium, stir the vegetables gently to dislodge any that might have stuck to the bottom of the pot, and add the water, stirring to blend it with the pan juices. Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens ever so slightly, then taste for salt and pepper.

Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables and sauce.

Serving

You can bring the chicken to the table whole, surrounded by the vegetables, and carve it in public, or you can do what I do, which is to cut the chicken into quarters in the kitchen, then separate the wings from the breasts and the thighs from the legs. I arrange the pieces in a large shallow serving bowl, spoon the vegetables into the center, moisten everything with a little of the sauce and then pour the remainder of the elixir into a sauce boat to pass at the table.

I sadly do not have photos of the finished meal as my phone/camera died and I was not about to wait to eat so I could take a picture. Just imagine beautifully browned boozy chicken and you get the perfect picture.

Next on my list for the dutch oven – chicken basquaise! And of course, if you have any great one pot recipes that I could try with my new toy please let me know!