revuesday - Orchard St. Taqueria

With the growing population of taquerias and Mexican food dives, the Lower East Side is beginning to look like Southern California... not that I've been to SoCal, but it's just on top of Mexico so I imagine there are a lot of taco stands and Mexican eateries.  But seriously, there are new spots opening so frequently that there seems to be a taco joint on every corner.  With this many options it can be tough to choose where to eat lunch and make sure you get something tasty.  I've hit up a few of the more established spots like San Loco or El Sombrero but was eager to try something new.  And since my lunch dates were Alex, Kevin and Aunt Patty, I knew I had my chance since they love Mexican grub!

We headed straight up Orchard Street to the relatively new Orchard Street Taqueria since the threat of epic rain storms scared the heck out of me and my broken leg.  If you can look beyond the kind of goofy rock & roll decor and the Saturday Night Fever screenings, the tight restaurant and wrapping bar are a great place for an inexpensive meal or a few cocktails and a bite with friends.  I don't remember who got what, I just know that I took bites of everything and it was all delicious.  The steak in the bistec quesadilla was lean and tender and though the chicken flautas were a bit dry, they were perfect when topped with the spicy guacamole.  I'm not normally a fan of saucy enchiladas, but the red sauce had a touch of mole that contrasted so nicely with the creaminess of the cheese that I might actually order these on my own.  The carnitas tostada was so loaded with flavorful shredded pork that I almost wasn't able to eat the barbacoa taco that I had my heart set on.  But I suffered through my full belly, thank goodness because the gamey chunks of juicy lamb topped with spicy salsa and queso fresco was my favorite part of the meal.  Washed down with a sweet and tart hibiscus tea, the mixed Mexican meal  left me feeling so satisfied that I had to pass up a dessert order of flan which is rare for me since I lovelovelove flan!

But fear not my little sweet tooths, I still got my dessert.  After crutching along for a few blocks and chatting with the boys about their new school year I felt that I had burned enough calories and made room in my belly for a little sugar.  And since it was revealed to me that the dudes had never enjoyed a doughnut from the Doughnut Plant, I knew exactly where we needed to go!  Classic glazed for the guys, carrot cake for Aunt Patty and pistachio for yours truly.  They were immediately sold on the awesomeness of that Lower East Side fried dough and finished the sticky sweet rings before we made it back to the apartment - which we entered just as the rain started coming down.

doughnut converts

All in all, it was a perfect pre-stormy weather meal with some of my favorite people.  I will definitely head back to the Taqueria for drinks and food once my leg is healed for a little foodie fiesta!  And I might just head over for a doughnut right now.

squash the casbah

I love squashes.  Really really love squashes.  And not just Summer squashes, but their warmer sweeter Autumn relatives too.  I'm pretty sure my love of the many colorful, tasty varieties led to a few squash overdoses last fall.  But these year I'm determined to mix it up a little and not just load them up with butter and brown sugar (although that's extremely delicious and I'll be eating a lot of that as well.)  In order to help my brain get crackin on some new squash recipes, I turned to the one lady I knew would be able to help out - Martha Stewart.  My gal Martha has an entire slideshow on her website all about squashes and pumpkins!

While perusing her simple and inventive recipes, I came across these Moroccan style stuffed acorn squashes and decided that they were right up my alley.  But since I haven't been cooking lately I wanted to make it easy on myself by cheating and using the jar of already prepared Moroccan spices that I have at home.  Unfortunately, when my mom and I swung by my apartment to pick up some things before heading off to New Jersey we grabbed everything but the spices.  And since the internet back in KP is extraordinarily slow, I had to utilize my creative genius to create my own version of the recipe.  No worries though because it was a complete success!  I originally planned on serving it up as a vegetarian meal but since my dad would be dining with us, I had to make it a little meaty if I wanted to convince him to taste it (he's a little hesitant about foreign spices.)  Once he saw it though, he decided to try it and guess what... he totally loved it!  I'm determined to take him out to try Indian food next.  Oh yeah, Aunt Donna really enjoyed it, too!  It's healthy, hearty and wonderfully seasonal; a perfect main course or feast-worthy side dish.

moroccan stuffed squash
ingredients
2 acorn squash
1 box couscous
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of saffron threads
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp coriander
fresh ground salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tsp fresh ground cinnamon
fresh ground nutmeg to taste
1 lb ground lamb
directions
1. Preheat oven to 350.  Halve squash and scoop out all the innards.  Bake squash for about 45 minutes or until nearly tender, flipping them halfway through.  When ready, cut out the majority of the squash out of the shell but leaving some for looks and setting the shells aside.  From what's been removed, cut into small chunks and toss into a bowl.
2. Prepare couscous according to box directions with saffron and olive oil.  Toss spices together in a small dish.  In a hot skillet, brown the lamb with half of the spice mixture.  When lamb and couscous are ready, toss with squash pieces and remaining spices and some of the lamb drippings.
3. Spoon the mix into the squash halves and bake for about 15 minutes on a baking sheet with a shallow amount of water.  Serve and enjoy.

You'll probably have a good amount of stuffing leftover, we did at least.  So what to do with all that leftover goodness?  We put it into portabella mushroom caps and enjoyed another stuffed veggie but it would also be tasty on a bed of fresh spinach or just on it's own.  Have any other ideas?  I'd love to hear what everyone else would do with seasonally spiced stuffing so share your ideas gang!

a different kind of forty

The third night of my birthday week brought me up to the East Village to meet up with my gal, Meg.  Knowing that we both dig on traditional, hearty American cuisine, I gave her a list of four restaurants worthy of our visit and had her choose just one and that one was... Back Forty.  Prior to this evening I hadn't eaten at Back Forty, but I had read good things and, as usual, was eager to check out a new spot that might be tasty.  So off I hobbled and thank goodness I did because this place was wonderful.  Good call, Meg!

nothing beats warm bread and fresh butter

Since it was a perfectly lovely and brisk Autumn evening, we opted to sit in the super cute and surprisingly big backyard.  Lit with strands of small bulbs and soundtracked by the noises of 12th Street, the backyard is definitely someplace I'd love to go back to with a big group of pals and order too many bottles of wine because it was just perfectly lovely.  It's the kind of environment that makes you feel like you're in your own backyard, cozy, comfy and welcoming.  We started off with the bread plate - yeah I said bread plate.  Two slices of wonderfully moist cornbread and a warm and crusty loaf of peasant bread were served alongside three spreads - a lemon tarragon yogurt, andouille sausage butter, and spiced butter.  I love butter and these were some damn good butters.  I love when an everyday ingredient is made extra special with the addition of an extra ingredient and even though I find butter to be absolutely perfect just the way it is, a little flavor boost can be a wonderful little surprise.

Somehow after all that bread we were still able to eat our entrees.  For Meg, the grass fed burger topped with smokey bacon, cheddar cheese and house made pickles alongside crispy rosemary and sea salt french fries. It was perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked and something about that bacon was extra amazeballs!  I went with the harvest-y and unusual sounding pasta dish, a plate of al dente pappardelle in a saffron cauliflower puree topped with toasted hazelnuts and golden raisins.  I know it sounds a little wacky but it tasted a lot yummy, trust me!  It was a perfectly warm and cozy kind of meal and the little bursts of sweetness or toasty goodness along with the variety of textures was so unique and enjoyable that I found my plate empty before I knew it.

But my plate didn't stay empty for long because dessert and coffee were served up quickly enough.  With all these sweets and desserts I've been eating lately I'm amazed that I've been able to crutch myself around town but at least tonight I had an excuse, and that excuse was birthday doughnuts!  Y'all know I can't say no to a doughnut and since it's my birthday week I should be able to eat all the damn doughnuts my aging heart desires.  Though the dessert menu included amazing looking treats like apple pie a la mode and a root beer float, we stuck with the simplicity of coffee and warm, homemade glazed doughnuts*.  Simple and delicious just like the rest of the meal.  If you enjoy a sustainable, farm to table cuisine in a warm and homey environment, you'll totally dig on Back Forty and you can't count yourself one of my guests when I put together that backyard party that I plan on having there sometime soon.  It really was a lovely and tasty meal (and totally reasonably priced too, which is super awesome for this out of work gal!)  And many thanks to Meg for taking a chance on a new restaurant with me and for helping me celebrate my birthday week, xoxo!

birthday doughnuts!

* Speaking of doughnuts, did anyone catch Mark Israel on Top Chef Just Desserts the other night?  I don't normally watch, mostly because I don't have cable, but since I'm blessed with over 300 channels these days, I've found myself wasting a lot of time watching all of those reality competition shows.  The cooking ones are my fave, obviously.  Well the most recent episode of Just Desserts featured the founder of the Doughnut Plant and a Quickfire challenge that involved making doughnuts!  It was great and it got me thinking of what flavor my dream doughnut would be - probably something nutty, or a spicy Mexican chocolate, or maybe something subtly savory.... even after that excellent meal the thought of doughnuts makes my stomach call out for more.

escape from new york

A lovely long weekend is upon us and I plan on taking total advantage of it!  I suppose all of my weekends are long these days as I don't really have much to do or anywhere to go, but I'll pretend that this is special and that, along with the rest of the country, I get to enjoy an extra, blissful day off.  Since I've been crashing at the LES loft I haven't been able to do much cooking or baking - though the pad comes complete with cable and a working elevator, it is unfortunately sans working oven.  I thought about heading back to Brooklyn and throwing a dinner party with my much missed friends and an insane amount of food but since they all seem to have fled the county of Kings for exotic locations like Canada, Upstate, and Austin, Texas, I'd just end up eating all that food on my own.  So instead, I too have decided to flee the city streets for a more rustic locale and will be returning to the olde homestead in South Brunswick.  There, I will fatten up my family for the coming winter months with a special Autumnal menu that I have crafted and plan on preparing over the next few days.  I hope everyone enjoys what looks to be a fabulously fall-like weekend and looks forward to hearing all about these new culinary creations I'm working on.  Want a sneak peak?  Here you go:

* tiny, mini, adorable personal cran-apple pies
* moroccan acorn squash cous cous
* ginger snap cookies
* pantry cookies a la Kate's challenge
* roast chicken
* cornbread stuffing
* brussel sprout hash
* something cider-y

And if I have time, maybe a hobble along the canal and a stop in Princeton to meet up with some old friends.  Princeton is so beautiful this time of year; well, always, but especially in the Fall.  But before I bust outta here, I'm off to a belated birthday / catch-up supper with Meg at Back Forty.  I hope everyone's weekend is as yummy as mine!

worth the wait & well-deserved

I love pancakes.  I think that pancakes are breakfast magic, warm and comforting early in the morning and filling enough to get you through the entire day.  Now, not to toot my own horn, but I firmly believe that I make the best pancakes in the world.  Using a very basic recipe that I jazz up with fresh spices and other warm and enticing flavors, I have developed my own personal secret recipe.  Since this recipe is so secret and special, I don't make my pancakes too often; in fact, my pancakes have to be earned.  There are more than a few ways that this breakfast treat can be earned, but it doesn't happen too often.  And since I don't make pancakes for other people very frequently, I don't get to eat pancakes all that often either because if I made myself pancakes every time I wanted them or felt I deserved them I'd probably be as big as a house... a literal international house of pancakes, perhaps? haha I set myself up for that.

But since today is the second day of my birthday week and I survived my first of many strenuous physical therapy sessions, I felt that it was definitely a pancakes kind of day even if it wasn't the morning anymore.  Everyone knows that breakfast is better when served in the afternoon anyway, that's why brunch is so awesome!  But since I'm not staying at my own apartment where I have all my pancake making supplies and instead staying on the Lower East Side where the so-called "best pancakes in NYC" are served, I thought I'd find give someone else's pancakes a shot this time around.  So I hobbled on over to the Clinton Street Baking Company, a mythical restaurant that I've never been able to eat at because their weekend brunch lines loop around the corner and can last upwards of two hours.  I am not a patient gal when it comes to boozy breakfasts so I've always thought 'pshaw, there are plenty of other great brunch spots down here' and I end up ordering eggs benedict someplace else.  Well today is a Thursday and it was the afternoon so I figured it would be the perfect time to grab a table without the wait.  I was wrong.  Apparently the food here is so phenomenal that even a solo diner like myself who shows up on a lazy Thursday afternoon in Autumn has to wait for 20 minutes.  But since these days I got loads of spare time, I waited and waited and chatted with a surgeon who happened to also be waiting and he told me to make sure I move my ankle around as much as I can so that it's not too stiff when I can walk on it again but all that's besides the point.  The restaurant is much smaller than I expected making it kind of a cozy spot and bustling diner combo joint.

Thinking that I already knew exactly what I wanted to order, I kind of scoffed at the menu; until I took a few glances around and saw the plates in front of all the other patrons.  I suddenly had to decide between three different types of pancakes (Wild Maine Blueberry, Banana Walnut, and Chocolate Chunk) and two kinds of bacon (Sugar Cured or Double Smoked.)  How was I to decide?!  I decided to just go with whatever order came out of my mouth first when the waitress came by and ended up with this amazing meal -

a perfect birthday breakfast...
even if it isn't my birthday anymore.  and it's not breakfast time.

And I nearly devoured every last bite of my blueberry pancakes with warm maple butter, double smoked bacon, fresh squeezed oj and Earl Gray tea.  It was amazeballs.  Certainly worth the 20 minute wait I had to endure but also worth all the hype and the various awards bestowed upon the pancakes and the restaurant.  Unlike most dense and heavy pancakes, these were light and cakey with an airiness that lasted from fork to bite to belly.  And they weren't too jam packed with blueberries so no bite was ever sticky or bitter from burnt fruit juices.  In fact, every bite had the perfect amount of semi-sweetness, just a little kiss of sugar and natural fruitiness.  Normally I'm not too fond of maple syrup because I find too sappy and sweet, but the ratio of syrup and melted butter was so perfect that I sopped up every last drop.  It was like gourmet Mrs. Butterworth!  The bacon was perfectly crisped and piled high.  The tea was just the right temperature and orange juice was so fresh and pulpy that I felt like I was biting into wedges.  It was the perfect meal for my brisk Autumn afternoon!

But my pancakes are still better.  Clinton Street Baking Company can take the title of the best pancakes in Manhattan, but I've at least got Brooklyn!  If I can make it through the throngs of brunchers, I'll definitely come back... maybe they should just hire the bouncer from IHOP to help them out when it starts getting too busy.  Or me because this gal will work for pancakes... at least that way I'll know I earned them!