A Catch Up Post (Sunday, August, 2010)

After going on vacation in June and moving an hour north of New York City while renovating our apartment, we've been a bit distracted lately.  Here's a little catch up post of food we've been cooking for the past month.

Great Pickles

Ground beef with Turkish seasonings on skewers

Kimchi hotdogs

Endive with fig, goat cheese and pecans with a reduced balsamic sauce

Vietnamese summer rolls

Lamb Chops from our CSA

Thomas Keller's Fried Chicken

Swiss chard

Tamales: pork and mushroom

Homemade chocolate cake with homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream for Ethan's birthday

Jasper White's Lobster Corn Chowder

Third day in Florence (Thursday June 10, 2010)

We continued our gelato taste-tour with a couple of cones for Gelateria de Neri, which was around the corner from our apartment. It was excellent! The gelateria is run by the same folks who own Vivoli--the place I used to go to when I lived in Florence.

We had doner kebabs for a late lunch.

For dinner we met up with my Florentine friends Ilaria and Maurizio at a nice little restaurant in their neighborhood. We started the meal with prosecco. Janet and I shared a fungi pasta.

Followed by beef that was slowly simmered in wine & black peppercorns.

For dessert we split a slice of millefoglie cake. Yum!

The Discovery of Spaghetti with Clams (Monday, June 7, 2010)

Breakfast at the hotel.  We stayed at the Ai Du Principi hotel and I was really happy with it.  The rooms were nice and the hotel, was perfectly located just far enough away from the crowds.  If we go to Venice again, I'd probably stay here again.

We decided to go to Murano (glass) and Burano (lace) instead of spending another day in Venice.  Yesterday was a bit too crowded, hot and humid, so taking a day trip to Murano and Burano was a good decision.  For lunch, we ate at one of Rick Steve's recommendations and is where I ate the most amazing spaghetti with clams.  I never order this in the states b/c I never know if I'm getting canned clams or not, but this was truly amazing! We shared the first dish of different types of seafood and for the second course, Ethan ordered a pasta with tomato sauce. 

After lunch, we went to a glass making factory to watch them blow glass into vases.  

We walked around a bit then caught the vaporetto to Burano. Burano really stood out from Venice and Murano because of all colorful buildings.  

In Burano, we stopped to enjoy some wine and an appetizer.

This photo looks pretty gross, but it cracks me up. 

My lunch was so good Ethan and I ordered it again for dinner in Venice.  It tasted better in Murano, but still really good. Dinner was at Al Giardinetto da Severino.  

Tiramisu

Dinner at Broeding in Munich (Friday June 4, 2010)

Janet and I have lot's of catching up on our meals during our trip to Europe! For our second breakfast in Munich, our friend Pyul took us to Victorian House where we had scones, jam, and clotted cream. Yum!

A bit later in the day we stopped at a lovely beer garden for a pick-me-up beer. The pretzels were fine, but not nearly as good as the ones we had the night before.

After fortifying us with beer, Pyul took us to get currywurst. Her favorite currywurst place wasn't open, but this restaurant's offerings were fine by me!  The dish consists of chopped up frankfurters, fries, curry ketchup, a sprinkling of curry powder. We ordered another plate of it after finishing this one.

We stopped for a coffee and a sweet. I had some marzipan cookies and we each had a little white chocolate confection topped with candied rose petals.

And for dinner we had an amazing meal at Broeding. There's a nice write-up about the restaurant in the New York Times. There is a single choice each night, so whatever the chef is serving is what one orders (with an option of adding a cheese course).

Couscous salad with fish

Scallops with wonderfully buttery kohlrabi and an arugula salad 

Soup with sliced speck

Janet liked the tuna, even though she usually isn't a fan. 

Super-tasty lamb with white asparagus.

It was asparagus season in Bavaria and we saw huge mounds of it being sold on the street:

Back to the meal at Broeding:

Can't remember what this was, but it was sweet and came with melon. On the melon was strands of what looked like saffron, but I think it must've been something else because there wasn't a saffron taste.

Mascarpone mousse

I also had the cheese course... Whereas the preceding meal was amazing, the cheese was unremarkable. It was a slice of reasonably decent brie--I had been hoping for the cheese to be a revelation rather than something I can get at most American supermarkets.

Piper's Kilt (Monday, May 24, 2010)

We ate bacon cheeseburger's for dinner tonight.  For dessert we picked up ice cream from the neighborhood bodega.  I picked up my favorite Ben & Jerry's AmeriCone Dream and Ethan tried a new Haagan Daz flavor, Bananas Foster.

Sea Scallop Salad (Saturday, May 22, 2010)

We started off the evening with appetizers of cheese, bread, hummus, tzatziki, cherries, and olives - what a beautiful variety of food.  The bread was from Atwater's in Belvedere Square near Mary Lou's (Ethan's mom and my mother-in-law).

For dinner we had a seared sea scallop salad with bacon, avocado, cherry tomatoes and a mustard vinaigrette.

For dessert we had fresh coconut.  I saw some fresh coconut in the grocery store months ago and we thought it would be fun to drink the juice au naturel.  Little did I know that it's a complete pain to break the coconut apart without making a complete mess.  This time, Ethan bought a green coconut, thinking it would be easier to drink, but it was just as difficult.  The coconut milk was really good and sweet but who actually wants to go through all the trouble for a few sips of juice?  If it takes, a hammer, screw driver, AND a knife to eat dessert, it's just not worth it...for me. 

For more dessert, Mary Lou picked up some mini cupcakes that were so good and pretty too!  The flavors included coconut and lemon. 

Pork Tenderloin & Banana Pudding (Saturday May 16, 2010)

We had a few friends over for dinner and Janet made a feast!

She made some crab mushroom appetizers. They were good, but not exactly what she had in mind. Janet wanted to recreate a mushroom dish that Maro, our sister-in-law, made--but it turns out we had the wrong recipe.

We have decided to try to buy all our meats from local farmers. This is the first dish we've made using meat from Lewis-Waite Farm (which we get through our Community Supported Agriculture group).

Janet marinated a pork tenderloin using Ina Garten's recipe. It was so good!

I made some mashed potatoes and asparagus (which Janet picked up at our farmers' market) to go along with the pork.

Janet also made the most amazing banana pudding using the recipe from the Magnolia Bakery. She reduced the cream from 3 cups to 2, but I couldn't tell the difference from the original. It is so delicious!

Pumpkin jook and homemade kimchi (Tuesday May 11, 2010)

Yesterday we made pak chok kimchi. The recipe said that it is meant to be eaten right away, but it was a bit too bitter, so we decided to stick it in a jar and let it ferment a bit.

I added a bit of Thai fish sauce and let it sit out overnight before sticking it in the fridge.

That was enough to get rid of the bitterness and soften it. It tastes like kimchi!  This the first batch I've made (aside from an unfortunate oi [cucumber] kimchi).

The recipe for the kimchi called for much more grated pumpkin than could be possibly correct. So I saved the extra pumpkin and made some pumpkin jook (porridge).

We had it with some gochujong potatoes, leftover skate salad, and fried rice.

And strawberry rhubarb cobbler for dessert.