A Very Buzzfeed Friendsgiving

Friendsgiving: The celebration of Thanksgiving dinner with your friends. This usually occurs on the Wednesday before or the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, since Thanksgiving is usually reserved for family gatherings.

Our gathering did not follow the rules that Buzzfeed has compiled - I would say we definitely had a much less stressful one!

So my friend and I decided to do a roast chicken - Thomas Keller style as taken from the Buzzfeed Roast Chicken Tournament. 

However, and I did not share this thought with aforementioned friend, that morning, when I looked more closely at the recipe, I realized that all the recipe really was...was throwing a chicken in a pan with some salt, pepper and herbs and roasting it in the oven for a bit. So I figured I could improvise a little bit Why not add some extra veggies here and there...and *gasp* add some butter (though the recipe said only add butter MAYBE at the end) under the skin in the BEGINNING!!! 

It didn't seem like a big deal until we were running into the host's apartment slightly late and a bit disheveled, and when she saw me start with the thyme butter, she started yelling "THE RECIPE SAYS NO BUTTER!" as I'm yelling back "IT'S OK I PROMISE!" to which she responds "THAT IS NOT THE THOMAS KELLER WAY" and I yell "HE'S JUST ROASTING A CHICKEN! I'M GOING TO MAKE IT MORE INTERESTING!!!" at which point she begins to tear up (though this might have been on account of the onions that she was chopping at the time) , and responds "THOMAS KELLER WOULD NOT APPRECIATE YOU SAYING THAT!!!" 

Finally I'm done and throw the chicken in the oven to stop all the LOUD NOISES!!!

Picture proof:

From my magical backpack

Brought all my knives! Well...except for the bread knife

Getting ready to butter the chicken under its skin

Jen crying while cutting veggies onions....

Work in Progress...

Right before entering the oven (stop yelling at me now Jen! Please!

I PROMISED YOU IT WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL! (And delicious!)

Ahhhh, Friendsgiving :)

Whew! Now that that's done...let's rewind to how we even got everything there. Being football Sunday, where else do people hang out but at bars watching the game and drinking beer? Problem was, my apartment is all the way over in one direction, and the bar and ultimate dinner destination were over on the opposite side. Being as I had all the ingredients...I had to figure out the optimal plan to get the chicken, veggies, cast iron skillet, knives & vegetable peeler over to my final destination AND try to catch part of the games (gotta see if I have any chance in moving out of last place in our fantasy league!). I had the chicken and the skillet in the fridge before, so I was really hoping they would keep each other cool in my backpack with all the other supplies as I made the trek crosstown. 

Girl walks into a bar...with a really heavy and lethal backpack. And Backpack Chicken was born.

Empire State Building was purple that night

Lobster Pizza

It's Monday night, and there's a container of lobster meat in the fridge. A shelf below that, there's some Fairway pre-made pizza dough. What to do what to do...MAKE LOBSTER PIZZA!!! Duh.

But wait, what is lobster pizza? I didn't know, but was eager to find out/make it up. Thanks to the magic of Google, I found that I was not the first to make lobster pizza, and took bits and pieces from a few of the recipes that I found based on the ingredients that I had.

Oil the pizza pan with some salt & pepper

Attempt to roll out the dough on the pan (not the best idea) - spread butter all around and sprinkle with garlic powder

Top with Parmesan & mozzarella cheese, diced tomatoes, shallots, lobster pieces & black pepper

Then add MOAR CHEESE!!! Cheddar cheese and green scallions

After about 20 min of baking at 400 degrees - looking good!

After an additional 10 minutes...

ZOMG

Perfection on a Monday night

What better way to spend a Monday night but with some surprisingly awesome pizza and a glass (or maybe all the glasses) of wine?

The Dumpling Path

Tonight marked my second dumpling night in exactly a week, but unlike last time (post to come), I had leftover filling this time to "deal with."

I've had this idea in my head to make beef, tomato & egg dumplings for some time now, so after a trip to Flushing for a haircut, I also picked up everything I would need to make an Asian culinary feast.

Since I used store bought dumpling skins, it becomes all about the filling.

It started with some eggs, a hot pan, and oil.

The beginning

And then it took off from there - see below the process in picture collage form:

Starting from the top left, after the eggs were scrambled, I let them sit in the bowl to cool while getting started with the rest of the ingredients.

And by get started, I mean throw the following ingredients into a bowl and mix them all together: ground beef, scallions, raw egg, sesame oil, diced tomatoes, salt & pepper to taste. Add in the scrambled eggs, and we're ready to assemble the dumplings.

Once assembled, steam them in the pan, and voila! Dinner is served - with enough leftover to pack up for tomorrow's lunch! Problem was though (and really, it turned out to be the best kind of problem), I didn't end up using all of the filling with the dumpling skins that I had. Sooooo, I decided to stuff some Asian eggplants that I had also bought.

I chopped up the eggplants into segments so they would be easier to scoop out, rather than struggle trying to keep it all in one piece. Cut those segments in half, and then used a paring knife to take out the meat in the middle. Stuffed the scooped out pieces with the beef filling from the dumplings, and put them in a foil lined pan for baking. Drizzled everything with some sesame oil (my love) and soy sauce. Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for...actually I'm not really sure - maybe about half an hour covered, and then 10 min uncovered.

 

So now one may ask - what did you do with the meat of the eggplant segments??? A simple saute with some of my favorite flavors.

A few of my favorite things

First saute some garlic, scallions & shallots in a mix of vegetable and sesame oils. Your kitchen will smell something amazing. Throw in the eggplant pieces and season with soy sauce and maybe ground pepper to taste. Let everything sizzle for a little bit, then add some water and cover on medium/low heat. Once it starts boiling and most of the water has evaporated, uncover and turn up the heat. Then add some chili oil if you want (I did want), and some green scallions for the finishing touch!

 

To boot, after all of this, I was brought home some awesome grapefruit yogurt bubble tea from Kung Fu Tea! Life is good =)

Lazy Sunday

While I was out and about today, last Sunday was a perfect lazy Sunday, where I did nothing but lounge around the apartment, watch Netflix and make some easy brunch and dinner.

When I finally rolled out of bed and made my way to the kitchen, I decided to finally use up the egg whites leftover from making ice cream at my last dinner party (post to follow...eventually). I feel like I'm always looking for easy recipes that use up leftover egg whites since egg yolks always seem to be the more favored child.

So I felt like I found the perfect use for it with this mini egg white frittatas recipe - where I don't need to keep track of exactly how many eggs whites I actually have, and the other ingredients can be manipulated to anything I want them to be! This time I used spinach, red onions and cheddar cheese.

The various stages of frittata (counter clockwise from top left): pre-baked, baking, post-bake

Brunch is served!

Maybe the most productive thing that I did all day after eating was start posting on this blog again - with the stuffed baguette post, which I also ate the rest of along with the frittatas.

Then all of a sudden, my stomach was telling me that it was dinner time!

Seriously one of the best things that I have discovered this year other than the fact that Fairway Markets opened up another store closer to home, was that said Fairway Market also sells pizza dough! So I threw together some of the things we had in the fridge for Sunday pizza night - spinach, red onion, button mushrooms, tomato & mozzarella cheese on top of garlic & herb pizza dough.

The ingredients

Layers

Final Product

All in all, one of the best Sundays that I have had - I think this is me finally learning how to relax properly! And it is AWESOME.

Steak & Rice

In an effort to improve my ability for cooking meats, and in celebration of my recently acquired electric skillet, I picked up a cut of meat at the market and a head of broccoli and got to work!

I had this amazing broccoli rice at a Brazilian restaurant months ago, and I believe it was mostly finely chopped broccoli, garlic and rice with olive oil. So I sauteed some garlic with chopped broccoli (below) in olive oil before adding the cooked rice.

In the meantime, I had the meat marinating in soy sauce, sesame oil and a little bit of sugar and dried rosemary. Set the skillet to 400 degrees, put the steak on for a few minutes on each side just so it was browned on the outside...

 ...and medium rare on the inside! I erred on the side of being more rare b/c then when reheated for lunch, it wouldn't get too overcooked. One must think ahead about such things!

"Take This Baguette & Stuff It"

I'm baaack! And super excited about my latest culinary adventure!

On Friday I received a daily email from Tasting Table with the subject "Take This Baguette and Stuff It." Due to my love for breads and just carbs in general, I was intrigued. Upon opening the email, I see marinated mushroom, Gruyere cheese & thyme stuffing??? AND I have almost all the ingredients? Must. Make.This.Bread.

So I picked up some mushrooms on my way home (I used button mushrooms instead of cremini), and began the marinating process in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.

Next day after a run up the Hudson River Path with my running buddy, and brunch (because we earned it!), I came back to make the dough. I have never truly had great success with getting pizza dough to rise properly, so I was super excited to find the difference in dough size an hour later:

After rolling it out and dividing the dough in two, it was time to add the stuffing. Layered out the mushroom and grated Gruyere, then sprinkled it with dried thyme leaves (I opted for dry because it's always so difficult to buy just enough fresh herbs for what is needed without having a bunch left over that end up going to waste). Rolled it all up, and left it to rise again for another hour.

10 minutes in the oven covered in foil, and then another 15 uncovered...and voila! I MADE STUFFED BREAD! And it was golden and beautiful and yummy! I could barely contain myself when I pulled it out of the oven =)

This opens the door for so many more opportunities!!! Can't wait to try pizza dough using bread flour and trying to make different breads (totally geeking out about this right now)!

What Makes a Chowder a Chowder?

Potatoes.

Just kidding. That was what someone told me when I was telling them about this awesome Potato Chowder recipe I tried the other week.

The definition that Wikipedia gives is not as definitive. Regardless, my love of potatoes and chowder (um, fatchowder?!), remains the same.

There's a place near me that has an awesome Potato, Cheddar & Jalapeno chowder, which my friend assigned for me to recreate somehow. After a quick Google search, this recipe from a blog called Evil Shenanigans looked promising.

With the leftover potatoes from Thanksgiving (I bought 5 lbs with this in mind), and some substitutions here and there, this is what happened:

POTATOES!!!

I didn't take out bacon from the freezer ahead of time, so I had to do without this time (I know, shame on me). I also didn't have seasoned diced tomatoes from a can, but had a box of yellow cherry tomatoes, and used poblano peppers instead of jalapeno peppers. Instead of cheddar cheese, I used shredded monterey jack cheese and added corn. I also didn't have sour cream to garnish when serving (seriously, how did I even make this soup???), but at least I did have green onions!

Next time, there will be bacon, more red tomatoes, cheddar cheese and the potatoes will be boiled longer for a different textured soup. The corn stays.

From left counter clockwise: boiling potatoes & sauteing everything else; cheese & peppers;  chowder is served!; peeled potatoes