inspiration

well, laura's guest blog managed to both cure me of my writer's block as well as tempt me to venture into the world of sushi. it really does feel great to be blogging again, plus, i'd hate for anyone to think that i'm not on top of the latest food trends.

like laura, i went straight to the experts and decided to order in from friend house. unfortunately, as a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, i found my menu options quite limited. then i stumbled across a dish called asparagus rolls. i thought this would be a great way to sneak in a serving of veggies inside of some warm doughy carbtastic goodness. i got my tub of butter and spreading knife ready and waited for the delivery man to arrive.



well, you can imagine my surprise when a bunch of actual mini asparagus stalks showed up wrapped in rice and some sort of mystery black stuff. what kind of a roll was this?? where was the bread? luckily though, they had provided me with plenty of soy sauce to cover up the flavor of those pesky vegetables. also, based on laura's experience with the boat, i was worried that someone would come back to my apartment to collect the plastic container my "rolls" were served in, so i quickly hid it in a safe place as soon as i was finished.

the verdict: be sure to ask many questions when ordering from a sushi restaurant as their menus are obviously quite misleading. still i suppose, it's a trend that everyone should try at least once.

message to farmers: NIMBY!

nowadays there's one more thing to add to the list of power plants, trash dumps, and prisons that elicit the cry of "not in my backyard!": farmers. it's bad enough that i've had to put up with a slew of dirty hippy farmers invading union square three times a week under the family friendly guise of the greenmarket. but since moving, i'm now expected to tolerate this neighborhood nuisance just one mere block from my apartment every single sunday.

ladies and gentleman, these farmers have no business in tompkins square park. this is historically a place for drug dealers, homeless people, and riots. not small business owners peddling organic and affordable produce. i decided to pay them a visit last sunday and one vendor even had the nerve to sell me eight ripe and delicious plums for only three dollars.

look, all i'm saying is, we didn't suffer through an industrial revolution just so we could abandon factory farming. do we really want our future generations knowing where their food actually comes from?? i admit, there's probably no stopping those those liberal pinko nutjobs from advocating fair and healthy options for our planet, our workers, and our bodies. but at least let them do it out on some commune or kibbutz somewhere - not in the middle of my urban metropolis.

if you, like me, want to boycott these farmers' markets altogether, i suggest using local harvest to plug in your zip code and find the locations nearest you. this tool for avoiding local family farmers is certainly invaluable.

still don't believe what a crisis this really is?? just check out what happens to the poor twinkie (at a farmers' market!) in this video and learn more about the left wing attempts to undermine the farm bill here.

you hear that farmers? it's on!!

bean harmony

sorry for the lack of updates this past week, but i've been busy checking in on my competition. you may not have realized it, but i'm actually not the only food blogger on the interweb. keeping tabs on what everyone else is up to helps me keep my little mental kitchen to do (and not to do) list fresh.

one great source of inspiration is the cook and author of the smitten kitchen. she and i have so much in common it's downright scary. for starters we're both from new york and we're both named deb(bie). and then of course there's the obvious - that we're both amazingly talented behind the camera and in the kitchen... and not to mention witty as fuck.



i figured it was about time i share one of her recipes (along with some much needed improvements) with all of you. deb certainly had the right idea but it just lacked that special something. luckily i've come along and tweaked the recipe to perfection.

mixed bean salad with tomato and lemon (by smitten kitchen)

• 2 medium tomatoes 1
  
• ½ pound yellow wax beans, ends trimmed and beans halved crosswise 2
  
• ½ pound haricot vert, or slim green beans, ends trimmed and beans halved crosswise 3
  
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil 4
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced 5
  
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• glug of white wine 6
  
• salt and pepper 7
  
• juice of one lemon 8

1 substituted half a can of whole peeled stewed tomatoes
2 omitted
3 substituted one can of cut green beans
4 omitted
5 substituted jarred minced garlic in olive oil
6 substituted red wine
7 omitted
8 used only half a lemon



microwave green beans for two minutes and set aside. heat garlic and red pepper in a large pan. add tomatoes and simmer for a couple minutes. add a splash of red wine and continue to simmer. lower heat and toss in green beans, coating evenly with tomato and garlic. squeeze the juice of half a lemon over everything and serve.



as you can see there was none of that slotted spoon, ice bath, or colander nonsense that deb seemed so fond of. and yet the end result is still a perfectly light summery meal. nice try deb, but next time you might want to check with the expert first.

all cooked out

yesterday's 12 blog entries in 12 hours have left me physically and emotionally drained. it truly is exhausting maintaining my top notch standards in the kitchen. i really want to share some new and amazing recipes with all of you, but i'm afraid i'm stuck in leftover hell right now.



not to mention the current state of my dirty dishes.

but never fear, as always i have a backup plan, and will review for you my dinner from a few nights ago.

maoz in union square is one of only two locations in the the US for this vegetarian falafel chain. the sign said "hungry?" and amazingly enough, i was! i knew that if this place specialized both in fine cuisine *and* mind reading then they really must mean business.




the best part of this meal was the fact that they only prepared my food to a certain extent, after which point they deferred to my superior culinary technique. it was like experiencing the joys of cooking and eating out all rolled into one! i ordered a junior maoz royale (small falafel with eggplant and hummus) on whole wheat pita. at the salad bar i really let my talent shine and added tomato, lightly fried cauliflower & broccoli, and tabbouleh with both tahini and garlic sauce.



all the other patrons in the restaurant couldn't stop staring at my clearly superior falafel. of course, that may have also had something to do with the fact that the entire place is about the size of my bathroom and they simply had nowhere else to look. though i think it's quite obvious which of those two explanations makes the most sense.

cooking with friends

my friend karolyn invited me over to help her cook dinner last night.



it was a good thing i got there when i did, because she was attempting to prepare ratatouille on the floor!

i swooped in to save the meal and make the quinoa.

red quinoa

• one box of ancient harvest inca red quinoa
• one pot of water

open box of quinoa (be sure to open plastic bag inside of box as well). pour entire box into pot of water. boil for approximately 15 minutes or until karolyn pays attention and turns off the flame.



i know some of you were a little intimidated by the stove top usage in the hard boiled egg recipe, so you might want to check out this tutorial here. in fact it might be best to do several practice runs before actually making any real food.

while i did all the hard work, karolyn busied herself with useless endeavors like building towers of ratatouille and quinoa out of recycled cans.



unfortunately, the hard, sad reality of gravity soon set in. amazingly enough though, this dish tastes identical in both a vertical and horizontal position.



for dessert we had cupcakes from sugar sweet sunshine provided by ian, another dinner guest. it's a good thing that he and i were there to save this meal from being a total and utter disaster. however, i did learn that it's difficult to photograph cupcakes while intoxicated.

it's so good to know that my friends can really count on me to help them eat well!!*

*though i must admit part of me secretly isn't sure just how grateful they are, seeing as how they repaid me by forcing me to play a five hour game of pirates which nobody actually won...