A Little Pick-Me-Up

Monday is here, and with it comes sticky-hot weather and the prospect of a long, stressful work week ahead. For those of you who need a little pick-me-up, I thought I’d share my photos from Brooklyn Bastille Day.

In honor of French Freedom, Smith Street turned into the Champs Elysees yesterday. There was Lillet, Pentaque and Nutella crepes. My favorite bakery, One Girl Cookies supplied chocolate Whoopie pies and vanilla cupcakes. I couldn’t be in Paris for the real Bastille Day (which was last Tuesday), but this was the next best thing.




Me and my giant bottle of Ricard.


The Lillet watering hole.


Let the Pentaque tournament begin! I loved the player wearing the red bandanna. Tres chic.


Nothing sweeter than a Nutella crepe.


One of my favorite things! A One Girl Cookies chocolate whoopie pie.


Gorgeous cupcakes from One Girl Cookies.


Meeting this little guy was the perfect end to the day.

Feels Like Home

I suffer from Sunday night blues. There’s nothing more depressing than the end of a weekend – especially a beautiful summer weekend. Sometimes the blues start the moment I wake up on Sunday morning, when I realize there are only 12 more usable hours of the weekend left (six, depending on how late I’ve been out the night before). Luckily, there are several remedies for the end of the weekend blues. I can’t avoid Monday morning, but I find brunches, walks, yoga and movies to be highly curative pastimes. You know what else is? A great dinner. If you’re like me, Sunday night dinners remind you of big family meals, when everybody gets together. Sunday night dinners are fun and easy, as if you’re telling the weekend, “We ain’t through yet.” There are no rules to the Sunday night dinner, but I’d like to institute one guideline: the food should complement the company, not the other way around. In other words, it should not be a stressful activity for the cook.



Sunday night dinners have always been my dad’s thing. He plans them for days, and gets to the supermarket as soon as it opens Sunday morning. He’ll usually make something simple, like steak with spinach and baked potatoes, or barbecued chicken with fresh corn. My dad cooked Sunday night dinners for as long as I can remember. When I was in elementary school, his weeknight dinners usually consisted of peanut butter and Ritz crackers, with a Mallomar cookie for dessert. Dad got home long after we had eaten dinner and gotten ready for bed (though we always waited up for him). I think his initial love of the Sunday night meal came from that day being the one day during the week when it was guaranteed we’d eat dinner as a family. And now that he has plenty of time to cook, I still know how much he savors a meal with all of us. What I love even more than my dad’s cooking is that he knows who he’s cooking for. My mom, brothers and I never needed anything fussy. We were just happy to have our dad at the table. But at the same time, his food was – and is – consistently great. It’s perfect in its simplicity, flavorful but never overpowering. Full of life but not overbearing, just like him.



And that’s what I love about this dish. It’s the kind of dinner you’d want to have on a Sunday night, and in fact I’ve only ever made it on that day of the week. It’s true comfort food: hearty, warm and delicious. Maybe that’s just my mentality about pasta in general, but something about this dish keeps me coming back for more. Served with a good glass of wine and some nice company (be it a boyfriend, a best friend or anyone you love) it just makes Monday more bearable. No matter how far away you are from your family, this dinner feels like home.



Cavatelli with Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
Adapted from French Women Don’t Get Fat

Ingredients
1 box Cavatelli or other small pasta, such as Orecchiete
1/2 lb spicy sausage, removed from casings
1 lb broccoli rabe (be sure to trim the edges generously)
2 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 to 2 C tomato sauce
1/3 C Pecorino Romano Cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
Sprinkling of red pepper flakes
Chopped fresh parsley

Fill a large pot with water, and salt generously. Bring to a boil and cook pasta (about 8 minutes). Add broccoli rabe to cooking pasta and let everything boil for another three minutes. Drain, and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet and add onions and garlic. Simmer until the onions and garlic are softened and browned, about five minutes. Add sausage, and, breaking into bits with a wooden spoon, cook completely – about five to eight minutes. When sausage is cooked, add the pasta and broccoli rabe to the skillet. Stir to combine (you really want the pasta to soak up all the pan juices). Add tomato sauce and heat through, about 2-4 minutes. Garnish with the cheese, red pepper flakes and Parsley, and serve.

This meal feeds about 4 people, but Dave and I love making it for just the two of us and saving the leftovers. I reheated it last night and added some fresh chopped tomatoes and a bit of Feta cheese.

No Fear

Growing up, my best friend Karen and I loved brownies. We played this game where we would try to convince our moms to make us some by saying the other wanted a brownie. Juvenile? Yes (what can I say? We were 8!). Fool proof? Absolutely. My mother always gave in and made us brownies from Duncan Hines mixes - which I don’t begrudge her for. Those mixes are pretty damn good.

You learn by example, and because my mom favored Duncan Hines mixes for baked goods, so did I. As far as brownies went, I found that a box of brown ingredients, an egg and some vegetable oil yielded gooey, perfectly chocolate squares every time.



Yet something about the mass market brownie always struck me as a little, I don’t know...artificial. The brownies tasted the same every time, with no real texture or sense of homemade-ness (they were never chocolatey enough, either). I didn't dare to make them any other way, though, because when you rely on mixes for most of your life, baking simple things like cakes, brownies and biscuits from scratch seems downright terrifying. But that was the old me. The new me has no fear of measuring flour, salt and sugar.




Enter The Moosewood Cookbook, a delightful collection of handwritten, oh-so-simple and tasty vegetarian recipes. It's an invaluable resource for people like me, who just want to cook great food. Though I plan on cooking may way through the book, I have to say the dessert section looks to die for. I’m particularly obsessed with this fudge brownie recipe. The ingredients on their own make for one spectacular brownie, while the addition of fun things like pecans (for crunch) and coffee (for flavor). Remember people, no fear.

Pecan Fudge Brownies
Adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients
1/2 lb (two sticks) butter, softened (don’t melt it)
4 oz of unsweetened chocolate. I like Ghirardelli. One baking bar is 4 oz.
1 3/4 c packed light brown OR granulated sugar
1 c flour (3/4 c for fudgier brownies)
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 C chopped pecans
2 Tbs strong black coffee

Optional additions: chopped walnuts, 1 tsp fresh orange or lemon zest, 1/2 tsp allspice or cinnamon, one mashed over-ripe banana.





Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Melt the chocolate in a double broiler. If you’re like me and don’t have one, place broken pieces of chocolate in a Pyrex bowl, and put over a saucepan of boiling water. Don’t fill saucepan to the top with water, as it will burn the chocolate. The steam – not the water – will melt the chocolate.
Set chocolate aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter with 1 3/4 cups (packed) light brown or granulated sugar. Add eggs on low speed, one at a time. Add 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract. Beat in the melted, cooled chocolate and 1 cup flour. Stir in pecans and coffee until just blended.

Spread batter into baking pan, and bake 20-30 minutes. I found that it’s easiest to cut brownies right after you take them out of the oven. Just wear your mits! After cutting, let brownies cool completely before removing from the pan.

Here To Stay

I’ve made a resolution. From now on, when it gets hot outside – I mean unbearably, sticky, I-need-three-air-conditioners-in-my-living-room hot – I will make soup. Sounds counterproductive, I know, but I’m talking about chilled soup. It’s the easiest, most delicious way to beat the heat. I especially love this chilled tomato basil soup I concocted in my blender. It’s short on ingredients and prep time, but long on flavor and sustenance.

I don’t know about you, but I have an aversion to the oven during the summer. I need to avoid any and all things that make my apartment more stifling. I usually make sandwiches and salads and rely on other people to make my food (Bless you, delivery men of Brooklyn). But there’s something to this whole chilled soup idea. It’s healthy, fresh and satisfying. I think I’ve got a winner with this particular chilled soup. Is there anything better in the summer than tomatoes and basil? I don’t think so. I may even try chilled fruit soups, which were pretty popular back in the day but seem to have fallen out of favor in recent decades. I guess they went out with Jackie O. and dumbwaiters. In any case, this soup is here to stay.

I’m never starving when it’s really hot out, so I consider this a fantastic lunch. When I’m hungrier, I’d serve this as a first course at a barbecue or picnic. Oh, and the addition of Greek yogurt at the end packs a decadent punch. Feel free to omit it if you want, but I love the slightly creamy texture it adds.

Chilled Tomato Basil Soup

This is a very loose recipe, open for interpretation. If you’ve got a blender and some vegetables, you’ve got yourself some chilled soup.

Ingredients
4 Vine-ripened tomatoes, quartered
1/4 of a small onion (don’t worry about chopping, as it will all get blended later)
3 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar
2 C chopped fresh basil, plus more for garnish
Dollop of Greek yogurt

Put tomatoes, onion, olive oil and 2 Tbs of vinegar in blender. I found that it’s best to pulse all the ingredients, rather than blend at a high speed. Otherwise, the soup turns into a pink mush. Yuck. When blended, run ingredients through a sieve to get rid of tomato skins. They don’t particularly bother me, so I skipped this part. Pour soup into a large plastic container, and stir in Greek yogurt. Chill for up to eight hours. Serve with fresh basil on top.