Taste As You Go

These days, like so many other people I know, I've been trying to cut back on the extras in order to keep more of my money where it belongs -- in my pocket. For me, extras included enjoying an occasional morning muffin from the deli and buying my lunch rather than bringing in something from home. Last weekend, I decided to put an end to the purchased morning muffin. Instead, I would bake up a batch of muffins at home, freeze them, and pull them out whenever I wanted one.


I've been holding onto this recipe for Strawberry Almond Muffins for a while now. I wasn't satisfied with how they turned out the first time I tried the recipe (they didn't rise as much as I expected and the muffins were too wet on the inside after 20 minutes of baking), so I made some adjustments and tried again. The major adjustment I made was substituting dried strawberries for the fresh strawberries, and that seemed to help a lot. The muffins were delicious and helped me get through a crazy and stressful week at work. I have just enough leftover to enjoy tomorrow with my Sunday morning coffee. They're perfect for breakfast on the go or for a leisurely brunch with family or friends. I hope you enjoy them!


Strawberry Almond Muffins (makes 16)
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large brown eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces strawberry yogurt
2 tablespoons milk
5-ounce package dried strawberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin tin with muffin liners. Toast almonds in a large skillet over medium heat until golden brown. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars with a hand-mixer until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each. In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a third bowl, combine the yogurt, vanilla, and milk.

With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture. Mix until ingredients are just combined. Add 1/3 of the wet ingredients and beat until just smooth. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients in this manner until everything has been combined.

In another bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into the batter. Fold in the strawberries and almonds. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before removing the muffins to cool on a wire rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Food Tip: Before folding the strawberries into the batter, toss them in flour, shaking off any excess. This will help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin tin during baking.

Strawberry Almond Muffins

I admit it. I wasn't born a lover of Brussels sprouts. In fact, my family very rarely had them in the kitchen. My brother would toss some frozen sprouts in to cook with his Maruchan Ramen for a quick meal, but that particular combination never really appealed to anyone else.

It wasn't until last year that I really began to love that little vegetable, when I had the chance to try them on two occasions - at the Thanksgiving food and wine tasting at Bottlerocket Wine & Spirit and then while having dinner with friends after Christmas at Osteria in Philadelphia. Both times, the Brussels sprouts were roasted, and it seems that roasting is the key to making them so delicious.

Since my boyfriend had just given his parents a copy of Marc Vetri's latest cookbook, Il Viaggio di Vetri, he was going to check to see whether the recipe for their sprouts was included. (Vetri is one of the owners of Osteria.) But I couldn't wait that long. I didn't give Stephen much time to secure the recipe before I added Brussels sprouts to my latest grocery order and started thinking about how I wanted to prepare them once they arrived.

The following recipe is what resulted when I combined impatience with Brussels sprouts and bacon. (Who doesn't love bacon?) While my sprouts didn't crisp on the outside as much as the ones at Osteria did and they were as caramelized, they were absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to make them again!!


Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
Printable Recipe

1 pint Brussels sprouts
5 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Wash and dry the Brussels sprouts. Trim off the ends of the sprouts, remove the outer leaves, and then cut them in half. Set aside.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and place the pieces on a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil and butter to the pan. After the butter has melted, add the sprouts and cook for 3 minutes, just until the sprouts have started to brown. Add the bacon back to the pan and toss gently. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Spread the sprouts and bacon out onto a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, or until the sprouts are fork-tender. Remove from the oven and serve.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Jing Fong Restaurant
20 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY
(212) 294-5256

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
65 Bayard Street
New York, NY
(212) 608-4170

Last Sunday, I met up with some friends (Linda and Matt) at Jing Fong Restaurant in New York's Chinatown for dim sum after months of failed attempts at making it happen. I scarcely had time to take off my coat and set my purse on the floor when Matt asked, "Do you like chicken feet?" It was a question I wasn't anticipating. Before I could answer, Linda said, "I won't eat them." After pausing to ponder the question, I finally answered, "I don't think chicken feet should be the first thing I eat on a Sunday morning."

I had never been to Jing Fong before, so I didn't really know what to expect when we rode the escalator from the ground floor to the second floor. When we entered the main room, which was full of large round tables, we were escorted to a table in the back. I had to take a second to take it all in. Organized chaos! Eventually, two other parties of diners joined us at our table to fill up the empty seats. Rather than wait for the servers to push the food carts past our table, Matt grabbed our bill (so it could be stamped) and took the initiative to hunt down some dishes for us.


First up? Some rice noodles stuffed with shrimp (Linda, Matt, correct me if I'm wrong!). So delicious! While Linda and I worked on those, Matt left the table again and came back with more goodies.

Dim Sum and Ice Cream in Chinatown

The folks at Marx Foods are sponsoring another amazing giveaway. The prize this time? A 1/4 pound of Black Italian Winter Truffles!!

Read the giveaway rules here, then click on the button below to enter. All you have to do is comment on the Marx Foods blog by 12PM PST on Monday, January 26th. So, what are you waiting for?? Click and enter!

Good luck!

Marx Foods Truffle Contest

What should we have for dinner?

Michael Pollan opens The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) with this question, a question we've all asked ourselves more times than we can probably count. While the question has remained the same over the centuries, the answers we provide have changed dramatically and may ultimately affect our survival as a species. In choosing what to eat for dinner, we may opt to stop by one of the many fast food restaurants out there to pick up a quick meal. Or we may reach for any number of prepared foods available to us in the frozen food department of our grocery store. We may choose meat that is "grass-fed" or chickens that were raised in "cage-free" environments or produce that's "organic." We may even attempt to hunt and grow our own food, freeing ourselves from a dependency on the industrial food system. Pollan illustrates that answering the question "What should we have for dinner?" should involve more. Stopping to consider exactly how a particular food wound up on our dinner tables will help us all make better informed decisions and will help us understand how what we eat affects our bodies.

Before I read The Omnivore's Dilemma for Book Club this month, I considered grocery shopping one of my favorite things to do. It relaxed me. Yet, I noticed a shift in that love for grocery shopping the first time I stepped into the store after finishing the book. I began to look more closely at the ingredient labels to see how much corn or corn by-products were in the food. I began to question everything that was labeled "organic." I wondered whether the chicken for sale really was "free-range." And it took me fifteen minutes to decide on which milk to buy because I was skeptical of all of the cartons that showed a happy farmer and his cow standing next to a bright red barn. By the time I left the store, my head hurt and I never wanted to shop for food again.

Pollan's book got to me. As a self-proclaimed foodie, I'm constantly thinking about food and cooking. But The Omnivore's Dilemma made me think about (and forced me to become more aware of) what goes into the food I'm putting into my body - from what the animals I consume have eaten to the various ingredients that go into, say, the muffin I ate for breakfast. There are habits I know I'm going to have to break and there are changes I'd that are going to require tweaking my household budget, but I know those changes will be for the better. Those changes will be worth it.

If you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma yet, I highly recommend it. Parts of it are tough to get through, whether because of the heaviness of the subject or the graphic descriptions of certain aspects of the industrial food system we don't normally think about, but give the book a try. You'll definitely learn something!

Reading Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma

Word from Serious Eats: New York says that Dunkin' Donuts will be giving just a little bit back to the people of New York. In order to promote their "You 'Kin Do It" campaign, Dunkin' Donuts representatives will be handing out FREE $2 MetroCards (a $2 card will buy you one free ride) at various subway stations throughout the city:

* Tuesday, January 20 at 14th Street Union Square Station
* Monday, January 26 at Grand Central Station
* Monday, February 2 at Times Square/42nd Street

Just keep in mind that the MetroCards will only be handed out between the hours of 6:30am and 9:30am!

Who says you can't get anything for free in New York?

Free MetroCards Courtesy of Dunkin' Donuts

2 cups orange juice
1 cup water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
3/4 cup Arborio rice
3/4 cup dry white wine
5 fresh sage leaves, julienned
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a medium saucepan, bring orange juice and water to a boil. Reduce the heat and keep the liquid at a low simmer.

In a small Dutch oven, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat with the butter. Continue toasting the rice, stirring constantly, until it is golden brown in color, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine and simmer until the wine has almost evaporated.

Add 1/2 cup of the simmering juice and stir until almost completely absorbed by the rice. Continue cooking the rice, adding the juice 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition of juice to absorb before adding the next. Continue doing this until the rice is tender but still firm to the bite and the mixture is creamy, about 20 minutes total.

Remove from the heat. Gently stir in the sage leaves, salt, and black pepper. Finish with the remaining tablespoon of butter and serve immediately.

Orange Sage Risotto

Bittman Tells Us What's "Out" and "In" for 2009

Mocha Peanut Butter Brownies

NYC Winter 2009 Restaurant Week

2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4-pound piece flank steak
1/2 cup orange juice

Place soy sauce, honey, balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil, and black pepper in a shallow baking dish. Whisk to combine. Add flank steak and turn to coat several times. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

When ready to cook, take the baking dish out of the refrigerator and remove the flank steak from the marinade. Pour the marinade into a small sauce pan and add the orange juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow the mixture to reduce until thick.

Meanwhile, preheat a grill pan over high heat until very hot. Pour in a couple of tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil before adding the steak to the pan. Grill 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Remove the steak and allow to sit on a cutting board for 5 minutes to rest.

Serve with some of the sauce spooned over each slice.

Honey Soy Flank Steak à la Jaden

I spent a good portion of my recent glorious two-week vacation from work making my way through an impressive collection of back issues of several magazines that had been stacking up over the past couple of months. Included in that stack were three issues of Martha Stewart Living. (Sorry, Martha...)

Normally, I don't really pay attention to the magazine ads that closely. But one ad in particular caught my eye and inspired me so much that I knew I wanted to blog about it. If you purchase one of the above-pictured Cook for the Cure® plates by KitchenAid and Villeroy & Boch, KitchenAid will donate $5 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® every time you pass the plate to a friend or family member and register the "pass" online. What a really great way to encourage people to share their culinary creations while donating to a worthy cause!

You can buy a Cook for the Cure® plate at the KitchenAid Online Store by clicking here. Be aware, however, that, due to the immensely overwhelming success of the program, KitchenAid is currently out-of-stock. The website advises you visit the online store again in March to order your plates.

I hope all of you check back with KitchenAid in a couple of months and order your plates if you haven't already done so. This is a unique and touching way to donate to a very important cause. Even if you just spread the word about the Cook for the Cure® program, you'll be helping make a difference!

Pass the Plate and Support Cook for the Cure®

Osteria
640 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 763-0920

I think it's fitting that my first restaurant review of 2009 focuses on a restaurant that's not located in one of the five boroughs of New York. What seemed like a daunting task (making dinner reservations for six people around Christmas time) turned out to be, surprisingly, no big deal. All of the details just magically fell into place, and, before we knew it, Stephen and I were set to have dinner at Osteria in Philadelphia with two of his friends, Rob and Terry, and their respective wives, Pere and Janice.


Stephen and I arrived at the restaurant first. After checking our coats, we walked past the cheese display and headed over to the bar to enjoy a drink while we waited for the rest of our party to show up. When they did, the hostess took our drinks, put them on a lovely silver tray, and instructed us to follow her to our table at the back of the restaurant. Just as we were speculating as to why diners weren't allowed to carry their own drinks to their tables - no drinking and walking allowed? walking and drinking led to spilling? - our hostess accidentally spilled Rob's martini as she was setting it down on the table. We tried to tell her not to worry about the spill, but you could tell she was embarrassed that it happened. Just as quickly as it did, the spill was wiped up and Rob and Pere were given fresh place settings.

Since there were so many delicious-sounding dishes on the menu, we decided to share everything so we could try as many of them as possible.


We were feeling a little adventurous and immediately agreed to try the Polpo Pizza, prepared with octopus, tomato, red chili flakes, and smoked mozzarella ($17). That's right! A pizza topped with crispy octopus tentacles. The bit of heat from the chili flakes and the smokiness of the cheese accentuated the flavor of the octopus nicely.

Dining with New Friends at Osteria

Creamy Crab Meat Salad in Belgian Endive Cups