Roofies

It was a perfect summer day, so Siri (of Ringo, Have A Banana) and I celebrated it on my roof by making salads and drinking an entire bottle of wine to ourselves. Afterward, we were determined to watch the Royal Tenenbaums for some reason...I can't really quite remember why, though. Either way, the dream remains unrealized and we've now retired to the couch to eat ice cream and watch Seinfield. Ain't nothing wrong with second-bests. It was a lovely evening.

Sum-Sum-Sum I Sum(mer)- I Let Go

I'm not normally a big maker of salads. Big time lover of them, yes, but not a big-time maker. Although I've always silently acknowledged this fact about myself, I've done little to try and understand it. See also: any other single characteristic I've ever exhibited in my entire life. Woe is me, though, the onset of my first humidity-happy, East Coast summer has been very convincing in favor of salads. The idea of anything but the lightest and coolest of cuisines is difficult to stomach--waka waka waka.

Salads are excellent dumping grounds for leftovers, cravings, and all kinds of seasonal goodies. Anything that happens to strike my fancy at the grocery store can easily be negotiated into a salad by weeks end, a quality that I'm particularly fond of in a dish due to my bad habit of wandering into corner stores and emerging hours later the proud parent of 8 pounds of strange vegetables. Also, keeping myself in supply of fresh spinach and mesclun mix is as easy as 1-2-walk to the corner store and buy a container for only two dollars-3. The rest is a revolving door of ingredients and fly-by-night fancies. This tempeh and avocado concoction was dreamt up as I scavenged my recently cleaned (i.e. everything thrown away) fridge for a satisfying lunch. It's definitely light, but full of good proteins and veggies for a filling and utterly delightful dish.

You Will Need:
8 oz. tempeh
1/4 an avocado
1/2 med. sized tomato, diced
1/4 cup chickpeas
1/2 cup sliced carrots
Handful of sliced almonds.
Spinach
A few tbls. of vinegar

To Make:

Tempeh preparation takes longest, so best to do it first. Dice up the tempeh into 3/4 inch cubes and lay them out on a baking sheet. No oil or prep is necessary. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (or somewhere in the vicinity), and slide the baking sheet in. Check in on them periodically, turning to make sure all sides turn golden. Once they are crispy and brownish, they're ready to go.
Rinse your spinach and toss it with the chickpeas, diced tomato, carrots, and almonds. Place this part in a bowl and lay some avocado slices over it. When the tempeh is done, throw that on top and drizzle vinegar to taste over the whole she-bang. I say this every time but: delicious!

Summer's First Sound!

The first time I ever came to New York, my friend Julia and I survived exclusively on two dollar slices of cheese pizza selected at random from various sidewalk cafes. It was the dead of winter, fresh snow shivering in the still air, and I remember being particularly grateful for each still-steaming, gratuitously layered slice of genuine Big Apple 'za. I was then unacquainted with East Coast weather beyond the novelty of a Christmas spent in Ohio with my extended family, and I thought that pizza must be the pinnacle of all NYC cold-weather-food staples. Short of heavy drinking, it was second to none in terms of combining comfort and satisfaction with warmth.

I certainly wasn't giving summer a second thought at the time, let alone the idea that I might be a bona-fide resident of NYC by the time the season rolled through again, so I was pleasantly surprised by my recent discovery that pizza transcends seasonal parameters and is actually the perfect food all year round. It was a revelation sparked first by a decadent pie-on-the-promenade in Brooklyn Heights (see above), and then fully solidified by a hasty grease-fest on the LIRR coming home from Long Beach yesterday afternoon. After gorging at the latter, we all laid back, hands comfortably resting on newly-inflated belly's, to satisfactorily contemplate the greenery idling by our windows.

If I thought that pizza was good when it was cold out, it was only because I was utterly clueless to the delight of pizza when it is quite literally BOILING out. As far as slices go, I'll admit that the Long Island wedge was a simpleton...bubbly cheese crested with grease and ringed with a slim, attractively golden crust, but of a quality smartly bolstered by its consumption on such a perfectly hot summer day. It became the perfect accessory to my already overblown sense of adolescence. (A sense wrought upon me by the coming of every June, let me remind you, an academic hangover of sorts from my still habitual expectation of summer vacation.) It's just so easy to pretend I'm still a kid on a summer day when I'm toting around a massive hunk of dripping, cheesy pizza. Sigh! If only Miss Julia could see me now...

craving

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a few gestation periods shy of being a full-on pregnant woman. My cravings for certain foods are so strange, sudden, and intense that the only possible explanation must be preggers. Sorry, Mom & Dad! But the Cheese Must Be HAD!

Enjoy Every Sandwich!

I am partial to a good tuna sandwich. But sucks to my as-mar, my definition of good tuna never seems to coincide with the vision of mayonnaise and limp meat that makes up deli-counter tuna. If I want a good tuna sandwich, I gotta make it myself. I will, too! In the morning/before work/in my underwear...my favored method, as has been previously discussed. To make your own version of the beast pictured at left, I have included the recipe below as exactly as I can recall it from its spontaneous concoction in my mid-morning kitchen. Of course, if you're also of the crowd that dislikes mayo-drenched tuna, this recipe is applicable to all kinds of exhilarating situations!

You Will Need:
1/2 can of tuna
2 Slices Rye Bread
Handful of Pea Shoots, coarsely chopped
A Few Slices Tomato
A Few Slices Onion
A Few Slices Cucumber
Lemon Juice, Black Pepper, Ginger Powder (to taste)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. mustard

To Make:

Mix the tuna and the tbsp of olive oil in a small bowl, well enough so that the tuna is coated and cohesive. Then mix in a dash of lemon juice, black pepper, and ginger powder.Only the faintest touch of the ginger is necessary, mind you. It's mostly the lemon juice and black pepper that will make good company for the tuna taste. Stir everything up nice, then smash it down onto one slice of mustard-slathered rye bread. Pile your tomato, cucumber, and onion on top of the meat. Then comes the finishing touch: a pile of chopped pea shoots. Smash the other piece of rye bread down over the whole she-bang and immediately transfer the finished product to some kind of holding cell (plastic lunch bag, tin foil--whatever is your preferred method of food transportation). Viola! LUNCH!

for the love of burgers

Well, after twelve long years of abstinence, and a level of what some could even have called 'self control' (my least exhibited quality in cases ranging from most to all), I have begun eating hamburgers again. And HOW I have begun eating hamburgers again! I am in carnivorous heaven. I forgot all about them--the chin-dripping juice, the sumptuous flavor, the complete satisfaction--it's been a whirlwind tour of Burger NYC ever since. Thankfully, many of my friends have been very accommodating of my mission to reconquer the humble beef patty. They have allowed me to haul them around to each and every last den of city-based, meaty fame without complaint or question. I am keenly aware that the trade-off for these outings would be much more satisfying for them if I spent less time cramming my face with oozy, juicy burger and more time talking to them and/or even looking at them. But I can't help it! I'm rolling with king Burger now.

Pictured above is the notorious West Village burger joint Corner Bistro, shown in accompaniment is Nani (as tiger).

Expect more burger reports to follow. Huzzah huzzah!

Know Your Chickpea

This recipe was inspired by the fact that I recently unearthed three jars of tumeric in my cupboard without the slightest clue as to a.) how they got there or b.) what they were for. I'm also obsessed with chickpeas, and have been tossing sauteed and browned versions of them into just about every single dish I've made over the last few weeks. Yesterday I didn't feel like getting out of bed or moving at all, so I warmed up this little dish and crawled back in with it to self-contentedly eat and continue watching old movies. As is per my standard, it is quick to make/easy as pie and ever-so-tasty.

You Will Need:
1 can Of Stewed Tomatoes
1 cup of Chickpeas
1 medium sized Onion
2-3 cloves of Garlic
1 tbls. tumeric
1 med. sized Zucchini
2 tbls. olive oil
Salt+Pepper to taste

To Make:
Using a medium sized pan, warm the two tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once it's a-sizzlin' toss in the cup of chickpeas in along with a good dose of salt and pepper. Let the chickpeas hiss and pop for four to five minutes in the oil, until they are nice and toasty brown around the edges. Then toss in the onion, garlic, and tumeric, mixing everything together thoroughly so it is all coated with oil and letting it cook down for another three to four minutes. Next toss in the zucc's. I used both yellow and green in my recipe, to aesthetically counteract what would eventually be the overwhelming red glop of the stewed tomatoes. Cover the pan and let the concoction cook down for another few minutes, stirring occassionally and adding more salt+pepper as you see fit. Now it's time for the tomatoes! Add the can slowly, mixing it in with the vegetables and onion so that everything is coated. Put the heat on low, cover the pan again, and let the dish simmer until the zucc's have cooked all the way through. Then remove from heat and serve (over grains: brown rice or red quinoa goes best!)