Hot Dogs & Hamburgers

It's Memorial Day weekend. The official start of summer.

To celebrate - I ate this for lunch.




Yeah I know I said the eggs made me sick for breakfast. No one ever said I made any sense. :)


Dinner was at the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Astoria. They serve a mean Pinot Grigio. Rumor has it the beer isn't bad either. ;)







Mmmmm. Hamburger.



There was plenty of food and fun. Even if I kept losing at UNO. :(





My night ended with a severe case of the hiccups. I also found this morning that someone commandeered my camera. I should post their goofy pictures to punish them. :)

Today I am heading to Yankee Stadium. The sky looks ominious. Pray for sunshine for me please?? We have insanely good seats today and I want to enjoy them!

I'll be back with more at some point this weekend for sure. Enjoy the holiday!!!

Rustico Cooking NYC

So at long last - let me tell you about our cooking class at Rustico.

I loved it. I can't wait to go back.

Here is our table.



And a table full of aprons.




They had our names on them!


We started with appetizers and wine. These were little pockets of sausage.



Plus crostini with arugula spread and little quiche type cubes.





I know. Krissy, can you be a tad more specific??

Our first course was pasta with roasted tomatoes and arugula.



Their preparation called for a 450 degree oven. Toss the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, parsley, s&p and red pepper flakes. Roast for 25 min. The sauce was finished with fresh ricotta and some shaved ricotta salata.

We made pasta from scratch, just semolina, water and a little salt.















The finished product.





The chicken was pre-browned and then topped with sage, provolone and proscuitto. The sauce was butter, garlic, shallots, rosemary (and I didn't hate it!) parsley, marsala wine, chicken or beef broth (we used beef), s&p







Served with roasted asparagus and mushroom risotto on the side.



The risotto was made with roasted mushrooms, set in a 425 degree oven with olive oil, salt and pepper for 30 min.

The rice was Carnaroli. Toasted w/2 tbsp of butter and onion (for about 5 min) add the rice and toss for 3 min. Deglaze with wine and cook another minute.



Then it was adding stock (we used mushroom stock) 1 cup at a times stirring until evaporated and repeat - about 18 more min. Add more butter, cream, parmigiano and the roasted mushrooms.

I really liked it.

I didn't have much of a hand in the dessert - except the whipped cream but I'm told the secret was eggs and butter.




The final product was insanely good.



And best of all, we didn't have to do the dishes. :)

Night and Day

Last night - as I might have mentioned - I was pretty cranky. But I'm happy to report that a conversation, a good dinner and some reality TV snapped me out of it.

Mostly. I'd still like to not have to work today. :)

At Buckram Stables near my parents they make the most delicious turkey burger. It's marinated in soy, topped with onions and mozzarella. It's one of my favorite things ever.

What I had for dinner last night wasn't the same but it was close.



I marinated the burger in soy sauce and garlic. Served w/onion, baby lettuce and cheddar on a toasted sandwich thin. With a baked potato, light sour cream and steamed broccoli on the side.

This morning I've already done all my laundry. I was going to make a scrambled egg wrap but the omlette came out so well I decided to skip it. This is ham, cheddar, minced onion and parsley.



Looks good right? Bad news. Eggs stil don't like me. :(

I'm diligently working on the Rustico post - complete with pictures. I'll tell you all about the following:

Homemade Cavatelli w/Roasted Grape Tomatoes and Arugula
Chicken Scalloppine with Proscuitto and Provolone w/Marsala Glaze
Roasted Aspargus with Parmigiano
Risotto wth Roasted Wild Mushrooms (which I totally ate and I dislike mushrooms for the most part)

and finally...

Molten Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sauce and Vanilla Scented Whipped Cream

Be back with more in a bit.

Happy Friday!!

Two things

Another super busy day. I CANNOT WAIT till tomorrow when I will be working from home, doing laundry, getting ready for the weekend.

I was at the office at 8:45 for a meeting where the big boss bought me this bagel.



Then I went to the hotel where my meeting is, ran back to the office for labels, went back and helped with registration, then came back to the office at 1:30.

Worked, worked worked. Had a 2 PM conference call. Had an Emergency Drill - for like super scary things like bomb threats and explosions, had a 2:30 meeting with my manager.

Ate this sandwich.



Honey turkey, cheddar, baby lettuce, onion, hummus and honey mustard.

Got the keyboard on my work laptop replaced. I can now type one O at a time and also can see all the letters on my keyboard. Half of them were worn off.

Cancelled a wine order, reinstated a wine order, sent rooming lists to hotel.

I'm super cranky. I have another headache (a trend this week). I am now going home, getting into PJs, making myself a turkey burger, watching So You Think You Can Dance and then the Real Housewives, going to bed.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about my cooking class. I PROMISE.

Yeah I know I'm full of promises lately - but this time I MEAN IT. :)

Thank you for your patience.

See you in a bit.

Best Laid Plans

I had these grand plans for when I got home. I'd go for a walk, make some dinner and do a recap of my cooking class last night.

Two out of three ain't bad.

The pictures from last night you see are loaded on my work laptop which is tucked in my desk drawer, locked away till tomorrow.

So that's when you'll learn about the mushroom risotto and chicken w/marsala sauce and pasta we made from scratch.

Tonight you'll learn that I ate lunch at 4 PM. It was ham and swiss w/honey mustard. I didn't take a picture I ate it so fast. I also had half a chocolate chip cookie and 2 mini chocolate biscotti at my pre-conference meeting for my event tomorrow. I pounded out a bunch of work and then headed home ~2 miles walking - give or take.

Got home and changed and then took a 3 mile walk by the river. Back at home again I made some dinner.

I cooked up some quinoa in chicken broth with a squeeze of tomato paste, garlic powder and crushed red pepper.

I sauteed some chicken with onion, garlic, asparagus, red bell pepper and zucchini. I deglazed with a bit more chicken broth and white wine.



I added fresh parsley, basil, romano and ricotta cheese at the very end.



Delish.

And now a shower and good thoughts for my sister and her friends who did a 5k (or so she attempted) in this crazy heat today.

You're all better than me!

I promise a more exciting day of posts tomorrow.

The AC's on and I have a shower calling my name.

Have a great night!

SO. BUSY.

I have 5 seconds to breathe and I'm mad because I have so much to tell/show you.

It'll have to wait till much later.

I'll leave you with this beauty - which was dessert last night.



I whipped that cream myself by hand. :)

Have some salad

Lunch today was on the light side. Earlier this morning I baked a few chicken tenders in a bit of Ken's Light Northern Italian with Basil & Romano.



Added it to some organic baby lettuce, sweet red bell pepper, onion and cheddar cheese.

I also ate 2 dark Dove eggs - unpictured.

Full Rustico recap later!

Fun and Excitement

Last night before bed I had a sweet snack. I was at the end of my Midnight Moo so I poured milk into the bottle and it worked like a charm. Plus a Peppermint Pattie. :)



For me, the key to good chocolate milk is an ice cold glass. I always keep one in the freezer expressly for this purpose.

Some people keep beer mugs in the freezer, I keep milk glasses. Typical.

Today is not your typical day however.

First - I ate this for breakfast.



hummus and cheddar on half a whole wheat wrap

I know. Branching out ever so slightly. Will wonders never cease?

Next - dinner tonight will be at Rustico. We're (my department at work) going there as a teambuilding event. It should be fun. I'm excited to see what we'll be making. A few years ago I went here to do a site inspection for an event I was planning. After hearing about what they do there I thought about taking a few classes there but never did. Now I guess I have my chance!

They also offer culinary tours. I would absolutely LOVE to go to Tuscany and Umbria and cook for a week. It would be heaven.

That's all I have to report till lunch. I'll see you then.

Food Writing 101

So. I had my first class tonight and I'm really going to love it I think. It's already been great to get an idea of other people's experiences with food and their writing styles. I think I'm going to learn a lot.

Please bear with me, I might experiment with different styles and such here too. I'm really hopeful I'll get better at this writing thing - so any feedback you might want to share would be greatly appreciated.

I had brought a peanut butter sandwich with me tonight but I didn't end up eating it. A late afternoon snack of pretzels and hummus proved enough to tide me over.

I got home and wanted something quick, easy, and low fat. So I ended up with steamed chicken goyza, edamame and broccoli with a sprinkle of garlic, teriyaki and sweet chili sauce.



Back in the office tomorrow so I'll see you then.

Sleep well!

I love goat cheese

It's one of those things Jen tells me I am a tad too obsessed with but I do love it.

As a souvenier of my travels this weekend I was able to bring these beauties home with me, roasted red pepper and goat cheese ravioli.



I made a quick sauce of butter and olive oil, onions and sweet bell peppers with some parsley and more cheese sprinkled on top.

It was really, really, really good.

This morning was a EM w/PB for breakfast and a sandwich on a little olive oil and sea salt baguette for lunch.



Nothing fancy, just ham and swiss with honey mustard.

I have my first food writing class tonight which is tres exciting. Wish me luck!!

See you later!

Weekend Wrap-up

I spent the weekend away from NYC in various locales in NJ and PA.

It was lovely.

I ate a half of this sandwich for 'breakfast' on the bus. Ham and Swiss w/honey mustard.




We went to lunch at sandbar in New Hope, PA.



I had the Grilled Chicken A la Cubana

Marinated chicken breast in “Mojo”, Jack cheese, Apple wood smoked bacon, lettuce tomato, Avocado Spread

I ate about 3/4 and left some of the fries. Twas delicious.




He had Pan con Lechon “Roasted Pork Sandwich"

Slow roasted pork shoulder shredded & served with roasted garlic mayo, Swiss cheese, thinly sliced onion on pressed Cuban bread



Then I made shirmp and asparagus with garlic and oil for dinner. There was a mishap with the bit of crushed red pepper I meant to add. Even with rinsing it off - it was still a tad too hot. But still tasty, so I'm told. :)



Breakfast today became lunch at the Morristown Deli. I caved and ordered a burger. Same deal - ate a little more than half, passed on most of the chips.



I am a sucker for authentic Coca Cola glasses.



I was headachy earlier and I'm not sure the burger was the smartest choice because it didn't sit quite right.

Oh that's right. Gallbladder. Out three weeks ago. I remember now.

Thanks to someone who was willing to carry 4 12 packs of Diet Coke into my apartment, I now have a fridge full of yummy groceries. :)

I'm not sure what dinner will be tonight but I'll keep you posted.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!