I hope that everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday.  I know I did!  Michael and I had a delicious dinner though we had way too much food for just two people.  I mostly stuck to a traditional dinner with the classics like my mom’s stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, but I did venture out a little.  Using just a turkey breast and canned chipolte peppers as substitutes, I tried this recipe for Adobo Turkey with Red-Chile Gravy from Gourmet magazine.  This turned out extremely flavorful, but I’ll admit I thought it was too much for Thanksgiving.  It seemed to overpower all the other flavors on our plates.  I’m not sure I would recommend this for a holiday meal, but it would seem fitting for a family dinner any other time of the year.  I also had to make deviled eggs which, are a staple of the holidays in my house.  This time I added a little horseradish to the filling though and it gave the eggs a distinct kick.  And finally I whipped up some homemade whipped cream spiced with vanilla and cinnamon. Mmmm….we stuffed ourselves silly!

Sometimes I procrastinate and today was one of those times.  Remember I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to enter another recipe contest?  Well, I finally entered my recipe this morning with only an hour to go before the deadline!  I’m not going to publish the recipe on here though just because I don’t want to jinx anything, but if you’re interested, give me a shout and I’ll send it to you.

As a treat for her staff, my boss made us Baked French Toast for breakfast yesterday.  (Yes, we all eat breakfast at work.  I guess it’s a New York thing.)  This recipe isn’t my boss’, but it is very close.  Although, she spread the brown sugar and corn syrup mixture on the bottom of her pan before baking and chose to use raisin bread.  Everyone loved it!  This would be an easy recipe to use for a family breakfast during the holidays.  Thanks Jojo!

Last night Michael indulged me by accompanying me to the Twilight premiere.  He graciously sat through the romantic/fantasy movie and for that I’m grateful.  Knowing he would have to sit through a total chick flick, I thought it would be a nice treat if we tried a new restaurant after the show and why not try a place in a different area of Brooklyn. We are so bad about venturing out of our neighborhood on the weekends.  We chose to visit the Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope.

Originally, I had chosen this restaurant for a three-course meal promotion they were having through OpenTable.com.  However, because of the movie, we were about 30 minutes late for our reservation so to save a little face we decided to order off the regular menu.  Luckily the staff was as affable as the menu.

We started with the Frisee Salad with bacon, shitake mushrooms, Yukon gold potatos, and a fried egg.  I normally do not like Frisee, but this combination with the vegetables, the salty bacon, the egg and a slightly citrus dressing was freshing.  It was a good opening.  I was amazed how they were able to bread and fry a whole egg, that alone was a great presentation.

Michael had the beef tenderloin served with blue cheese gnocchi and I had scallops with risotto for our entrees.  Michael’s plate was clean when he was finished so I know his beef was good.  I couldn’t resist trying some of the gnocchi - oh my was it tasty!  My scallops were cooked perfectly - not too done so they were fork tender.   And yes, I made a happy plate as well.

We finshed off the meal with their Chocolate Brioche Pudding.  We could only make it through a couple of bites of this decadent dessert though.  If we had finished, we would have definitely been in a severe sugar coma.

It was a lovely meal to top off a lovely night.  The only dark spot would have been when I thought it would be really cool to order an Old Fashioned as a drink.  I won’t make that mistake again!

This last Wednesday night, Michael announced that his office was throwing a potluck Thanksgiving on Friday and he was to bring the green bean casserole.  Oh, the timeless dish of all holiday meals!  Normally this would have been fine, that is if we lived anywhere in the vicinity of a classic grocery store or Wal-Mart Supercenter.  Last year I went on a hunt for the elusive French Fried Onions before our own Thanksgiving meal and couldn’t find them anywhere in our neighborhood.  I knew that we would have a hard time finding them in such a short window of time and, I was right!  Again, my neighborhood stores did not carry them.  So what did we do? Well, I just made them myself.

Michael was very lucky that I had watched a cooking segment a week earlier where a woman made these French fried rascals for a healthier version of the classic dish.  I bought two yellow onions and thinly sliced them into rings.  Then I coated them with some flour and fried them up.  I was actually pleased that they turned out so well.  Michael’s co-workers seemed to approve as well.  Thankfully though Fresh Direct had these in stock so I’ll be covered for our own dinner.  It’s nice to know though if I ever what some on the spur of the moment, I’ll know what to do.

I had one of the best weekends that I’ve had in quite awhile.  I must confess that Friday was my birthday so in addition to the wonderful birthday wishes and gifts I received, I also had not one, but three wonderful meals at some great restaurants.  Two of which were with my husband, who by the way was such a dear to spend his whole Sunday working on the new site layout.  I guess I was thinking since I’m starting on a new year of life, my blog should reflect the transition as well.  I hope you enjoy!

At work Friday, some of my co-workers took me to lunch at Dos Caminos.  You know how I love Mexican food and this really did hit the spot.  Although, I could have used the rest of the afternoon off to recover from all the guacamole and beef tacos.  Then later that night, Michael and I enjoyed a sumptuous steak at St. Germain, our favorite little French joint in the neighborhood.  And if that wasn’t enough, he took me out again Saturday night to Gino’s, an Italian place also in our neighborhood.  We had wanted to check this place out for some time now and I’m glad we did.  My rigatoni with Italian eggplant and sausage was so good!  I can see why this place always has a crowd waiting to get in.

Of course since it was my birthday weekend, I had to throw in a little shopping too!  Only this time I got to indulge in some food shopping in my neighborhood’s brand new gourmet market.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to have one of these shops close to me.  Robicelli’s is small and charming and just full of goodies.  Plus, they have a small but delicious menu of sandwiches, salads and soups that are available for delivery.  I foresee a lot of my money going to this mom and pop shop which, is just fine with me.  They don’t know it, but I’m going to be stalking their store since it is exactly the type of place I’d like to own one day.

Not to let Sunday go by without any fun, I decided to make Pumpkin Corn Bisque.  I had this soup for the first time last week for lunch and it was so good, I wanted to roll around in it!  After some Google sleuthing, I found a recipe online.  I thought it turned out good, but I didn’t want to roll around in this batch.  It wasn’t as thick as I had hoped it would be and I believe it was because I substituted soy milk for regular milk.  I think the next time I make it, I’ll actually use heavy cream to give it a more velvety texture.

So as you can see, I’ve had a total foodie weekend and I’ve loved it!  Now that I’m completely stuffed, I’m going to enjoy the “new” year and keep on cooking!

New look, same great taste!

Here’s about how a weeknight goes at my house.  Come home, say hello to the hubby, vent about each others day, say hi to the kitties, check email, decide whether or not to go to the gym, then finally get around to making dinner.  And on nights like this, I usually make up concoctions like this one.

I browned some tofu chunks in a little olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper, and splash of balsamic vinegar.  Then I added in a can of drained diced tomatoes and some frozen spinach I thawed and strained.  I also boiled some basmatti rice in chicken broth and right at the end of cooking, I added in a half a teaspoon each of dried basil, oregano, season salt and red pepper flakes.  Throw the seasoned rice into the tofu mixture and this is what you get.  I was happy and pumped to have enough to take for lunch tomorrow.

Ever heard of it?  Well I hadn’t until this last weekend.  Hello? So freakin’ easy I couldn’t believe it!  Of course I gobbled up what I had so no pictures for my post.  However, I discovered this blog - Cooking for Slackers (LOVE the title) - and she’s got a picture and a recipe.  I think I’ll be adding these ingredients to my shopping list this week for some cold weekend when I want to stay home and stuff my face with sweet goodness.

I’ve decided to participate in another recipe contest.  I have no illusions of actually winning one of these, but it helps to give me a challenge.  Something that works my mind and taste buds.  This time I am going for the Food Network Magazine’s Chairman’s Challenge.  It’s like the Iron Chef Challenge, but I only have to make one dish with the secret ingredient.  Maple syrup is the ingredient and my thought, at least for right now, is to use it in a dip.  I may or may not have created a recipe that I like, but I have until the end of November to keep tinkering.