Beat it
We’re always curious as to what goes on behind the scenes of a restaurant’s kitchen; how the food is made, the sexism in the kitchen, the different stations, the burns, blah, blah, blah. Currently, I’m (Caroline speaking) reading Dalia Jurgensen’s memoir “Spiced,” so I may be a little more interested than normal. I personally like being behind the stove, cooking away, concentrating on the meal and not the service aspect, that’s the fun part for me. So when Tasting Table tweeted about Shuna Fish Lydon’s (the pastry chef at Peels) Gooey Butter Cake it led me to her fun and informational blog, Eggbeater. Wanna know about opening a restaurant? becoming a chef? how to interview for a restaurant job? She’s got the post and the information not to mention the experience (Bouchon, French Laundry, do you need more?). Have a look, if you’ve ever been curious about the restaurant life.
it’s cookie time!
It’s true, Girl Scout cookie time is officially over. Major sad face! Even when Girl Scout Season (i know, i know, its Girl Scout Cookie season but its like hunting those girls down just to get those cookies) comes around, I’ve got my eagle eye out for the khaki and green but alas they were hard to find here in New York City. Luckily, there are some highly innovative bakers out there that have created homemade recipes of delightful thin mints, do-si-dos, and the melt in your mouth samoas! Thanks to Baking Bites, we can enjoy the pleasures of Girl Scout Cookies whenever we want!
Some tips before you venture into making these delicious Samoas, these little suckers are time consuming so plan on spending a couple hours making these cookies. It may be key to get good quality caramels like the recipe calls for, instead we used cheap-os which we think might have made them less stickier. Its important to have sticky caramel-y, coconut toppings so that it sticks to the butter cookies.
Continue reading it’s cookie time!…
Let them eat pancakes!
February can get a little dreary what with the seemingly endless frigid days, but there is one wonderful silver lining that makes us appreciate these wintry weeks so much more: it’s national pancake month! Not that you needed an excuse to heat up the griddle and stock up on syrup, but now you have one so get to whisking. We decided to celebrate by trying out a recipe from one of our fave cookbook writers: Heidi Swanson. We usually make her lemon-poppy seed pancakes (which are absolutely delectable) but we decided to go with her berry-mascarpone version and they were just the ticket. The mascarpone gives them a wonderfully creamy texture and sure, blackberries are totally not in season, but a little bit of summer produce is like a party in your mouth when the snow is piled high outside so we decided they were worth it. Topped with vanilla bean maple syrup that Caroline picked up in Vermont a couple weeks ago and paired with slow-cooked scrambled eggs sprinkled with sea salt and pepper, well, it was a brunch match made in heaven.
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Special Guest Food Adventure: Jenna & Jillian at One Girl Cookies
This post is going to include so many things we love (sweets, friends, beautiful window displays), it’s hard to know where to begin! I guess we should start with the window, cause that’s what inspired this special guest food adventure in the first place. Our dear friend Jenna Hein (amazing calligrapher) and our new friend and neighbor Jillian Clark (perhaps you know her from 100 Layer Cake?) teamed up to create a really lovely window treatment for One Girl Cookies in Carroll Gardens. We decided we should grab the two of them and head over to this cozy little bakery to admire their collaboration in person, eat some sweets, and catch up.
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Eat Your Heart Out: Heart Sandwich Cookies
Looking for a V-day treat? Look no further. We’d probably eat anything that was slapped together with Nutella, but these heart-shaped cookies have the added bonus of being especially tasty AND adorable. We put them on our “to-bake” list the minute we saw them in Everyday Food. As long as you have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, they’re pretty easy to make. Just don’t save ‘em till the last minute (we learned from experience!), the dough has to chill for two hours before you can roll it out. The cookies have a not-too-sweet taste (the 1/3 cup whole wheat flour is a nice touch) and the course salt in the dough makes that layer of chocolate-hazelnut spread taste even better (who knew that was possible?). As usual, Martha’s come through with a winner. These are way too good to be relegated to Valentine’s fare. Heart-shaped or not, we’re making these puppies are gonna perennial. Continue reading Eat Your Heart Out: Heart Sandwich Cookies…
Happy, Joy Part Deux: Food and Drinks
And so now we get to the good part: Happy Hour’s food and the drinks, what we made and how we made it. The key word was “easy” because we were having this little shindig on a work night and had about 2-3 hours to prep before our guests arrived. We chose three appetizers–Pancetta Crisps with Pear and Goat Cheese, Portable Caprese, and Kors d’Oeuvres Spinach and Artichoke dip with crackers. All very delicious and deceptively simple. Our three drink options included Cherry-Lime Rickeys, Root ‘n Gingers, and Ginger, Cranberry, Apple Punch.
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happy happy joy joy
We love good company and along with the good company, we like a good drink. And what better way to get a group of great ladies together to eat, drink, and be merry, than a little “Happy Hour” at our house?
Let me just give you a bit of history about how we gathered these lovely ladies. One of the things about living in New York is that you realize it’s a small, small world. One person knows someone who another person knows who knows you, which is how we came up with the idea of “Ladies who Brunch.” Lisa and I love brunch and if we could have every meal be brunch we would. We also realized we knew a lot of amazing, ambitious, creative, rad ladies who all knew each other peripherally, so we decided to have a little gathering to bring them all together. And voîla! “Ladies who Brunch!” was born. As much as we love brunch, however, we decided to shake things up and nothing does that quite like a stiff cocktail or ten. Hence the launch of Happy Hour.
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Got Milk?: Momofuku Milk Bar
The New York Times’ T Magazine just gave Christina Tosi, the pastry chef behind the Momofuku Empire, a hallowed spot on their Nifty 50 list of America’s up-and-coming talent, so what better time for us to spotlight her stomping grounds? If you’ve heard anything about Momofuku Milk Bar, it probably included the words “crack” and “pie.” It seems to be what the east village bakery (and Tosi herself) is known for. But the day we decided to check it out, we just weren’t in a pie-eating mood (trust me, it’s rare). But even without the pie, the sweet shack’s options are pretty varied, from soft serve and flavored milk to cookies and cake. And the flavors are anything but ordinary.
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toot toot!
And, we’re officially tweeting! Find us over on Twitter!
oh johnny!
When I moved to New York nearly three years ago, Babycakes bakery was one of the first spots Caroline took me to (kindred spirit, obvz!) and it was pretty much love at first bite. So of course I was THRILLED when owner Erin McKenna’s cookbook came out, packed with recipes for all the goodies they sell. The banana chocolate chip bread was one of the first things I made and it was such a hit with my mouth, I’ve had trouble getting past it to sample anything else. But I recently tried my hand at her recipe for Johnnycakes and while they’re not epic like the bread, and my version didn’t look anything like the photo in the book, they can hold their own with my tastebuds. I’d never had a johnnycake before so I’m not sure what the original is supposed to taste like, but these vegan, gluten-free puppies came out somewhere between cornbread and scones, making them perfect breakfast bites. Erin recommends topping them with agave nectar which is quite tasty, but honey and maple syrup work just as well.