Wafels and Pies

I've been wanting to try Wafels & Dinges for the longest time - not only does it have a cool name, is sold out of a food truck, it has also been said to be quite delicious. My friend promised me he would take me one day via Twitter (source of all things true), and the Waffletruck concurred it was a good idea. I had been waiting for that day...which finally came last Monday!

Speaking of things good and delicious, at the last place that I worked, I saw a sign for Pie Face opening soon. It's an Australian chain which I had read about earlier because there was a day that they were giving out free pies...but alas they were too far away from where I worked :( BUT THEY STILL HAVE NOT OPENED THERE!!! I did run into one while walking down through Times Square one night (**cringes at thought of crowds in Times Square**), but we did not have time to wait on line that night [insert another sad face here]. 

Last Monday though, the universe decided to give me an evening of epic food adventuring, and not only did we make it to the Wafel truck, we also had time to pick up some pies from Pie Face on the way home.

I decided to go with the classic "Throwdown" at the Wafels & Dinges truck with spekuloos (like peanut butter and Nutella had a baby with extra spices) and whipped cream. I am actually getting hungry just writing about it right now...

The Wafel "Throwdown"

Then at Pie Face (do you hear the angels singing right now?), I decided to go with the Minced Beef & Tomato pie...STACKED!!! What does it mean to get your pie stacked you ask? It means that the pie of your choice is topped with mashed potatoes, gravy & mashed peas. How could I not get my pie stacked?!?! And the woman was so excited that I chose to do so too...she did a sort of "I get to make a stacked pie" dance. I'm all for dancing, so it was all good. I almost started dancing down the streets myself, but had to stop lest I spilled or mussed up my pie at all.

The wait was worth it for all of the above. I can't wait until the next time I come across the wafel truck or the next time I drag someone to Pie Face with me :)

Pie Face!!!!!

Eating Devouring my pie on the train - classy as always

Anita Raid Your Kitchen

I have recently, and by recently I mean last night, come up with an idea for a new YouTube series. "Anita Raid Your Kitchen." Get it? Anita...I need to...ok, I'm over it (but not really)...

Apparently I love to take over my friends kitchens and figure out how to make something based on what they have - it's like an adventure! It's not my kitchen, so I don't know what is there that I can use. Come to think of it...kind of sounds like how the show "Chopped" works - except I don't make things half as amazing as what they do on the show. Then again, I'm not a professionally trained chef...I just like to eat a lot.

So last night just hanging out at my friend's house for girl's night in and the natives started getting restless...so we started investigating the fridge and freezer...when I saw the pesto sauce and frozen shrimp and vegetables, I got kind of excited and asked if I could take over. Luckily, my friends are rather laid back about this sort of thing and said they enjoy being cooked for? I suppose that is why the restaurant business is still booming. 

Alex, whom I have done this to earlier last year and featured in a Carbonara post was present as well and fully supportive of my kitchen nazi-ness and took my criticism well when I got a little bit aggressive about the frozen bacon.

Here's how it went down:

Found: Frozen Shrimp, Frozen Bacon, Frozen Peas, Frozen Corn, Frozen Broccoli, Whole Wheat Pasta, Pesto

I gave her the task of cutting off slices of the very frozen bacon...check out those guns!!!

Getting a bit territorial/aggressive about the bacon

Sautee-ing everything together - look at how colorful it is!

Dinner, is served.

Banana Crepe Cake X 2

When I see bananas getting overly ripe, I used to make banana bread. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with crepe cakes ever since seeing Smitten Kitchen's post on banana crepe cake w/ butterscotch walnut topping.  I have made it once before following her directions exactly and it came out pretty well, but the filling was a little heavy and too cream cheese-y for my taste. So I started looking into seeing if I could find an alternative using something closer to what Lady M Bakery uses.

And here is why I love Smitten Kitchen - she had that too! "Gateau de crepe" was her post. Please note the use of the brulee torch, which cemented even more my desire to own a brulee kit (will be one of the first things on my wedding registry when that day comes...many many years from now). 

I ended up making the banana crepe cakes twice this week. Actually the first time was Monday morning (I had off from work - Happy Rosh Hashanah!!!), and I had been debating between the crepe cake versus banana bread due to time restraints because my cousins were visiting and leaving later that morning and I wanted to make them an awesome breakfast after the Pesto Potato Pizza & Skillet Lasagna Dinner the night before. 

But then I could only find 2 bananas, which wasn't enough for the banana bread (I was going to make banana bread ice cream sandwiches w/ pistachio ice cream), so I guess my decision was made for me. Then the filling called for 6 egg yolks, so I used the rest of the egg whites plus 2 more eggs to scramble together with the leftover peppers and cucumbers from dinner the night before. 

Afterwards, I did end up finding another banana in the fridge, so I blended together batter to make later during the week. Helped that I had leftover filling anyway. This happened around midnight tuesday night - very therapeutic I might add. Helps to have the batter all ready and I found the rhythm of just flipping crepes to be very calming after a long day.

Egg whites & Milk w/ Vanilla (I didn't have any vanilla beans on hand)

Custard on the stovetop

Filling/Custard coming together

Crepes on the pan

Melted chocolate to cover some coffee beans

The leaning tower of crepe cake

A lot less prep is needed when everything is already made

Some beautious crepes =)

Whole crepe cake

View of the layers

Potato Pesto Pizza & Tzatziki Sauce

Last night, in celebration of some cousins visiting and just because I selfishly wanted to try some new recipes, as below. The driving recipe being the Potato Pesto Pizza for which I saw in an email from Tablespoon a  week or so ago. And since I was making the main course for dinner, I might as well plan the whole thing - 'tis the only logical thing to do.

A few weeks ago, I had finally started compiling a Google Document of sites and recipes that I wanted to try. This was definitely something I should have done a long time ago but for some reason never bothered to start...oh well, better late than never! Looking through what I had already added to the list, I figured a Tzatziki Sauce from FoodRepublic would be easy enough to throw together with some raw veggies as I already had enough carbs with the pizza. Then I really wanted to try making Lasagna cupcakes, but had to accept the fact that it just wouldn't be time efficient nor did I have access to wonton wrappers for the shells and didn't have time to experiment with using lasagna noodles instead...but since I had said lasagna noodles and ground beef and tomatoes, I figured I'd make some skillet lasagna instead. Sadly, this was actually the thought process that I had going back and forth in my head for hours during work and even as I was running around the supermarket on my way home.

Was a bit panicked when I first got home, thinking everyone else was surely as hungry as I was and rushing around the kitchen like a chicken without its head. Finally I settled down a bit and figured I would calm down a bit after finishing at least one thing - Tzatziki Sauce it was!

Dicing Cucumbers

Beautiful Peppers

Greek Yogurt mixed w/ the cucumbers, chopped dill, olive oil & lemon juice

Plated Veggies

Next I rolled out the dough (the last of the dough pre-made from my last pizza adventures), and baked it in the oven while I prepared the toppings. Sad to say, I had used a pesto mix b/c I didn't have time to try to chip up fresh basil and pine nuts, but for the purposes of this pizza, I think there was enough going on to let that one slide...During this time I also started on cooking the lasagna noodles. For once, probably because I was in such a rush and I've made it before, I didn't document any of the lasagna process! Tres sad, I know. Hopefully the potato pesto pizza will make up for it in all its glory - 

Slicing Red Potatoes

Peeled Onions

Sliced Onions - some for pizza, some for the lasagna

Crust w/ Layer of Pesto

Layer of Mozzarella 

All toppings added

Out of the oven =)