If Only Thanksgiving Could be Year-Round...

Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday. I love the food and wine of course, but I also love having a special time to relax with friends or family and enjoy each others' company. This year I spent the holiday with friends in their new family home. Here are some pictures...

I hope your Thanksgiving was as lovely as mine. Enjoy!

A Fall Saturday in New York...

I recently got a new camera and what better way to make use of it than to bring it along with me on a beautiful fall day. So here is a day of a foodie in New York...

Brunch at Five Points

Walking around the Union Square farmers' market

Enjoying the fresh, locally grown food

Enjoy!

Homemade Vegetable (and Fruit) Wash

Lately I have become more and more paranoid about the pesticides that are inevitably on the vegi’s and fruit we buy at the market. Of course you don’t have this problem with organic produce, but most of us can’t afford to buy all organic food nor can we find everything we need in the organic section of the market. But fear not my readers, I have found a homemade vegetable wash that should do the trick pretty easily and leave you feeling good about the produce that you are eating.

I know that you can buy vegetable washes at the market, but these are usually overpriced and really no more effective than a homemade wash. In my search for a recipe, I found that you can either choose to make a solution that you spray onto your produce, or you can make a wash that you soak them in. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that a spray is all that effective. Sure, may be on nice smooth vegi’s and fruits like tomatoes and apples; but what about our other favorite, more complicated items like broccoli or herbs? How can a spray reach all the crevices and surface areas? Therefore, readers, I dare not lead you astray and will only focus on the wash that you can soak your beloved produce in and feel confident that all parts have been treated properly.

This solution is made of vinegar and salt—cheap ingredients and items you always have on-hand. These ingredients (combined with water) help remove the wax from your produce, neutralize the pesticides, and kill any bacteria that may exist. Furthermore, they will do all of this while not leaving a taste behind. Now when I come home from the market, I immediately make up this wash, soak my produce, and within minutes have worry-free vegi’s and fruit waiting for me to enjoy.

So here is the recipe:

• ¼ cup vinegar
• 2 tbsp salt
• water

1. Rinse your produce under running water and set aside.
2. Mix the vinegar and salt in a large bowl or clean sink until the salt dissolves (adding a little warm water will help the salt dissolve faster).
3. Add water to fill the bowl or sink (if the sink is large, you may want to only fill it a few inches high with water or double the vinegar and salt portions).
4. Submerge the produce in the solution and let sit for 15 minutes. Remove and rinse with clean water.

Enjoy!

Irving Farm Coffee Company

My latest purchase that I am excited about is my freshly ground coffee beans from Irving Farm Coffee Company. This farm is located in the Hudson Valley (north of New York City) in the foothill mountains of the Catskills and the Berkshire mountains. No, no…they do not grow the beans there, but they do roast them. They have a great selection of all types of coffees with descriptions that make you crave your next caffeine fix.

I usually just stop by one of their cafes for a cup of freshly brewed coffee. I find that their coffee encompasses such a great full-bodied richness without the bitterness that you sometimes find. Today, however, I was ready for the next step in purchasing my own beans for personal brewing in my beloved French press (um…I keep this at work and while others are serving themselves that god-awful “work coffee” in the pantry, I am diligently brewing my own sumptuous coffee—sign #127 that I am a foodie).

I chose one of Irving Farm’s flavored coffees—Sinful Delight. This coffee is flavored with chocolate, hazelnut and caramel. Pretty much, it is desert in a mug. Their selection, however, is primarily non-flavored coffees and does include some organic blends for all you purists out there.
Irving Farm Coffee Company has cafés at the following locations:

71 Irving Place Coffee & Tea Bar
71 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003
212.995.5252

Irving Farm Coffee Company
56 7th Avenue
New York, NY
10011
212.475.5200

Irving Farm Coffee House
44 Main Street
Millerton, NY 12546
518.789.2020

Don’t live in New York? You can also order Irving Farm’s coffee via their website.

Enjoy!

Meeting Rachael Ray

I love New York. Only here (well, and may be LA) can you have a friend casually call you up to see if you want to join him for Rachael Ray’s 1st Anniversary Party for her magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray. The huge fan that I am, I excitedly accepted!

Y’all may recall from my interview for Myself magazine in Germany that the Food Network played an instrumental role in my cooking, particularly Rachael Ray. Up until a couple years ago, I really knew nothing about cooking and was actually quite frightened of it. I began watching the Food Network and discovered the bright-eyed Rachael Ray. I originally began watching her just because I loved her personality and just wanted to hang out with her, but soon I also saw that she made everything look so easy and the fear of cooking slowly faded away. With time I became an avid cook and now even write a food blog! So you can understand why I was so excited to go to her party!

As you can imagine, she had a swarm of people following her through out the night so it never occurred to me to go up to her. However, towards the end of the evening the crowd was lightening up around her and my friend Erik convinced me to say hello. Now, living in New York we see celebrities all the time so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. However, as I stood there waiting to get her attention my nerves were growing exponentially per minute!

Finally she turned towards me and in my dorky, quivering voice I said that I wanted to introduce myself to her and then went on to explain the influence she had in my cooking. I then added that I now write a food blog, and with this she got so excited—genuinely excited. In fact, she asked for a pen and wrote down the address! Of course my nerves were still going strong so I unfortunately missed half of what she said, but I was really impressed by how nice and sincere she was. I found that in person she is just like how she is on TV.

A lot of the people at the event were also commenting on how amazing it was that she was actually talking to everyone who approached her through out the evening. Apparently at these types of events when a celebrity is being featured, the celebrity keeps a “wall” up between themselves and the guests. I was certainly impressed.

So that was the highlight of my week!

A Spanish Wedding

My last post about Spain…so sad, but at least it is a good one!

The purpose of my trip to Barcelona was to attend my close friends’, Matt and Raquel, wedding (Matt actually spells his name with one "t", but I think that looks funny so I stick with two). Matt and Raquel live in London, but Raquel’s dad’s side of the family is from Spain (her mom’s side of the family is from Scotland—where she grew-up).

The wedding took place about 30 miles up the coast from Barcelona at a villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. As you can imagine, attending this affair was such a treat. Aside from the fact that it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever attended (except, of course, if I attended your wedding then this was the second most beautiful wedding I have gone to!), the food was absolutely wonderful. I also appreciated seeing how the cuisine is incorporated into Spanish weddings.

The ceremony took place in the late afternoon under a canopy of trees overlooking the sea. Following the ceremony, we were then lead to the patio outside the villa for cocktails and tapas. As you can imagine, the tapas was absolutely wonderful. For starters, check out this leg of meat:

How cool is this? This is Serrano ham, which is very similar to Prosciutto in that they are both dry-cured hams (basically Serrano is Spain's version of this Italian ham).

Served near the ham was tomato bread. This is a very common way of serving bread in Spain. The Spaniards take raw garlic and rub it against the bread’s surface to pull out the oils. They then follow the garlic with tomato, which they also rub into the bread. The final product is somewhat similar to brochette but with only the essence of the tomato and garlic. Quite lovely.

I also treated myself to a nice, large plate of other items:

Beginning at the top:

• That is a slice of Manchego cheese, which is a semi-firm sheep's milk cheese made in the La Mancha region in Spain. Its taste is slightly salty and creamy.
• To the right of that is a slice of bread with tomato and garlic, as described above.
  The next item is very fresh smoked salmon—so good!
• The next item is a mussel salad. You may recall from my earlier Barcelona posts that this region is well-known for its seafood. This salad was one of my favorite of the tapas dishes as it was very fresh.
• Next to the mussels are shrimp that have been broiled with seasonings. Shrimp is often common at weddings, but the seasonings used with the shrimp made these especially stand out.
• In the center of my dish is a slice of brie cheese topped with quince jelly, which Raquel explains is commonly served with cheese in Spain. Quince is a fruit that is related to apples and pears. In its raw form it is too hard and sour to eat, but in its cooked form it can be used in jellies and preserves.
• Above my dish is a bowl of Marcona almonds, which are unique to Spain.

Wow, now these are great cocktail dishes—and you know what? There were actually a lot more tapas dishes than these, but this was all I could fit onto my plate!

After a couple hours of enjoying the gorgeous views and the fabulous tapas and drinks, we then headed into the reception hall for dinner. Our courses and wine pairings were as follows:

Warm bite of shrimps and prawns with caramelized onion and black olive paste
White Wine Penedes Vina Sol de Torres

Beef loin in its own juice with Mascarpone cheese and pine nuts ball garnish
Red Wine Rioja Marques de Caceres Crianza

Apple with lemon sorbet
Cava Brut Reserva Oro de Cavas Hill

Wedding cake
Cava Brut Reserva Oro de Cavas Hill

Petit fours (served with coffee, a selection of liqueurs, and—I kid you not—cigarette packs)

Between each course, the Spaniards (followed by non-Spaniards) would take their napkins and swing them above their heads to welcome the next dish. How exciting is it to be around people who celebrate food so much?!

When it was time for the wedding cake to be brought out, the lights were turned off and the music went crazy. The cake was then wheeled out covered with firecracker sparklers. It was quite the scene and totally different from how we present the cake in the States!

Matt and Raquel—thank you for letting me post about the food at your beautiful wedding! I do not usually like to post about meals that I am being treated to for I do not want the hosts to feel self conscience about my presence. However, it is rare that I have the opportunity to attend a foreign wedding and I wanted to share my experience.

So I hope you enjoyed my Spanish series of posts! I had a fabulous time in Barcelona, and definitely recommend it as a destination.

La Boqueria market – Barcelona, Spain

Now most people who visit Barcelona probably make their first stop Park Guell, or one of Gaudi’s other numerous creations in this great city. Me? My first stop was La Boqueria, a fabulous food market located right off of Las Ramblas.

La Boqueria, officially named Mercat Sant Josep, is a bustling market that has been in existence since the early 1800’s. This extremely colorful spot is filled with fruits, vegetables, assorted nuts, dairy products, meats, and seafood. There are also a few places within the market where you can grab a bite to eat.

I just loved this place. In fact, I re-visited it three times! It possesses such a great energy with all the locals and tourists meandering around it and making their orders. I also saw a lot of new fruits that I had never seen before. So I loved walking around and exploring this market. I definitely recommend stopping by here if you are ever in Barcelona.

Here are some pictures:

Easter Bunny Gifts

So, did the Easter Bunny visit you this morning? He visited me! What I love about this special rabbit is that he keeps in tune with what I want to find in my Easter basket each year. This year, he recognized that I now I crave kitchen gadgets so today the Easter Bunny brought me an oven thermometer and meat thermometer. So exciting, right?!

The oven thermometer is made by Taylor and clips securely onto my oven’s rack. Did you know that most ovens are not actually accurate in temperature? I do not bake that often, but when I do, I want to feel confident that the oven’s temperature is correct. Especially since my oven is by no means anything to brag about!

My new meat thermometer is also made by Taylor. It is so cool! Tonight I baked pork tenderloin and it was perfectly cooked to an internal temperature of 170 degrees. No more guessing if the meat is done. No more pulling the meat out of the oven, cutting it, and then determining if it should go back in. I also love my new thermometer because the dial shows the points of beef cooked rare, medium, and well done. This is all so very exciting—thank you, Mr. Easter Bunny!

An Interview with Me

A couple months ago Sebastian Dickhaut (a German cookbook author living in Munich, Germany) contacted me to see if he could ask me some questions for an article he was writing about the Food Network here in the States. He had read in my Introduction that the Food Network has played a large role in my development as a cook, so it was a perfect match for the interview. After doing a little research to make sure this Sebastian was not a stalker, I gladly accepted!

The article he wrote is appearing in Conde Nast’s magazine, Myself. Unfortunately, Myself magazine is only in Germany, but those of you who can read German and live in the area can find the article in the May issue. As Sebastian explains, Myself is a mixture between Glamour and Vogue (which are two other Conde Nast magazines).

Since most of you will not be able to read the article, I thought you might be interested in reading some of Sebastian’s questions to me and my answers. So here are a few (slightly edited):

How (and why) did you come to FNW? And what hooked you to it for the long run?

I fell into watching the Food Network about a year and a half ago. The Food Network is considered a cable channel, and although I do not have cable, somehow the Food Network miraculously appears on my TV! (This may have something to do with the fact that I sort of steal my TV reception via a cable I found coming into my apartment). Anyway, excited to have this random cable channel appear on my TV, I had to watch it and I instantly got hooked!

I grew up with a mother who is very into food. Trying out restaurants has always been a very big deal with my family, so I grew up in an environment where I was able to try out lots of types of food and learn about them. We have dined at restaurants all over the Eastern part of the states that range from very high-end to little shacks on the side of the road. My mom was very good with teaching me about the quality of food and not being fooled by a fancy atmosphere.

My mother also tried teaching me to cook, but I had absolutely no interest when growing up. Therefore, when I moved into the “real world,” I all of a sudden became really scared of cooking since I had NO idea what I was doing. It just seemed so intimidating! A friend and I started cooking together every Sunday night to get ourselves more comfortable with recipes, but even then I was still terrified—mentally I could not get myself comfortable with cooking.

When I started watching the Food Network, I was hooked on Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals. Rachel Ray, who I believe may be the Food Network’s most popular TV show host, is probably in her early thirties. I instantly liked her as a person—she was someone I would be friends with so I enjoyed just watching her do her thing and listening to what she had to say. Rachel Ray has a great way of making everything look easy, and taking the scare out of the kitchen.

After becoming a fan of Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals, I began watching many of the Food Network’s other shows as well. I became a regular watcher of Paula’s Home Cooking with Paula Dean, Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis, and Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten. By watching these shows in a non-intimidating environment I was able to see that I could do what they were doing. I was also beginning to learn how to think about cooking because the cooks/hosts shared information as they cooked. So I was hooked and have not stopped watching since!

What influence had and has FNW on your cooking?

I pick-up a lot of ideas from watching the Food Network. I am not one who writes down the recipes and actually tries them out. Instead I enjoy seeing the ideas that the cooks have and taking what I like from them to create my own. I also learn lots of great techniques from the shows, which in turn help me feel more comfortable trying them out myself—like working with filo dough, for example.

Anything you would still like to see at FNW?

Me! My dream job is hosting my own show. I think they could use a magazine-like show with a young, sassy host like me. It would be much like my food blog including easy gourmet dishes to make, lessons about various types of foods, creative ideas/suggestions when hosting dinner parties, cool restaurants to try out, etc. Other than that, nothing else jumps out at me as a need for the Food Network.


That is it for questions and answers for now—I don’t want to bore yall! I will probably post more of the interview later.

Storing Parsley

Are you wondering, “Kristin, why are you photographing boring, old parsley?” Aside from the fact that I think parsley is so underrated (flat leaf parsley, that is), I have been trying to figure out the best way to store this versatile herb.

As y’all may recall from earlier posts, I am a big advocate of using fresh herbs in lieu of the dried kind. They provide a much better flavor and instantly make dishes taste and look better. However, I will not deny that they are more of a nuisance to store. How frustrating is it to bring home fresh herbs, and when you reach for them a few days later, that are wilted or dried out?

With this frustration, I am trying to figure out the best way to store herbs to maximize their life in my refrigerator. Rachael Ray always says to store herbs wrapped in a moist paper towel in a zip-lock bag. Although this method works for some of my herbs with tougher leaves (such as rosemary), my parsley leaves were just getting gross!

So I finally found how to best store my parsley that allows the leaves to breathe yet not dry out. I placed them in a tall glass of water, which I then placed in the refrigerator. See the picture above? That is my parsley after sitting in my refrigerator for two weeks! Unbelievable! I did pick out some yellow leaves before taking the photo, but as you can see, overall the parsley is doing quite well.

This method of storing will also work with other similar herbs such as cilantro and watercress. Also, you might be surprised to see how fast your parsley “drinks” the water so check it every few days to see if you need to add more water. Do not add more than 2-3 inches of water because if the water reaches the leaves, this will just cause them to go bad. Lastly, use a tall glass which will help keep the parsley from tilting (if it tilts too much, the glass will tip over!).

Here’s to long lasting parsley!

Union Square Farmers Market

Sorry for not posting in a few days. I have been home sick with some sort of virus topped off with a ear and throat infection. Fun, right? But I do owe y'all a post so I am posting pictures of the Union Square Farmers' Market here in New York City, which I took when I was shopping there last Saturday.

I LOVE this market and do want to spend more time talking about it in a later post. Until then, enjoy the pictures!