Easy Scallop Spaghetti

I love going to Cor J in Hampton Bays for seafood. It's the best. Big variety and reasonably priced. This time I went looking for Peconic bay scallops, but unfortunately they didn't have any that day. I got sea scallops instead. I wanted to do a simple pasta and found this recipe online that sounded perfect. It was really simple, fresh, and light.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6-10 sea scallops

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 lb spaghetti

olive oil

butter

handful parsley, cleaned, dried, and chopped

white wine

Farmers Market Eggs

I wanted to try cooking with farmer's market eggs. I usually just buy regular grocery store eggs, but had read that for plain eggs, the farmer's market ones do taste better and more "eggy." I didn't notice too much of a difference, but these were definitely very tasty, so I'll condone it.

The General Greene

Last weekend it was 50 and sunny, so Jamie and I hopped on Citi Bikes and biked over to Fort Greene to meet friends for brunch. We went to The General Greene. We sat right down, it was nice and sunny inside, and the food was tasty. The grits with the steak and eggs was my favorite, and I love any egg dish that comes with salad (this did). I'd never been to Fort Greene - now I want to bike back over and try some more spots. So cute. 

Salt-Crusted Baked Potato with Garlic Whipped Cream Yogurt

I was planning for steak for dinner and hadn't had a baked potato in a while. I wanted to see if there was something I could do to jazz it up. I saw a recipe for a salt crusted baked potato which sounded easy and great, and also saw one for a whipped cream-Greek yogurt mix. I thought that would be great on the potato, but wanted to take it a step further and add some garlic. (Garlic and yogurt go so well together - tzatzizki.) I didn't want it to be as sharp of a garlic taste as tzatziki, so I steeped the cream with garlic. Wow! New favorite condiment. It's light and creamy and has a really sweet, garlicky flavor. Perfect baked potato topper.

Pickled Grapes

I saw this recipe in my Pickles Pigs & Whiskey cookbook and wanted to try it. I recommend halving or quartering this recipe unless you really want a lot of grapes. They're gingery, a little spicy, and have a nice crunch. I want to try them with something rich. They'd could work with cheese, too.

Ingredients:
6 cups grapes, red and green
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
2 tbsp mustard seeds, toasted
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
7 whole cloves
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp ginger, peeled and sliced
2 jalapenos, one thinly sliced the other minced, with seeds

Nutella Ice Cream

I wanted to make banana ice cream, but the grocery store had no ripe bananas. I made a quick decision to grab nutella and just add it to a basic ice cream recipe, and add some hazelnuts. It's so rich and creamy, and who doesn't love nutella?

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

2 cups heavy cream

8 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup nutella

1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts

Directions:

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until a little bit frothy.

Garden - Week 1, March 15

It's time to start the garden! Can you believe it? It has been such a long, cold winter, but there are some things you can plant as soon as the ground can be worked, and if you have raised garden beds, the ground can probably be worked now.

Coffee Cake

My brother in law Austen got me a great baking cookbook for Christmas last year and over the weekend I decided to make coffee cake. Yum! While it was baking, the whole house smelled like a cinnamon-filled bakery. I brought it into work and it was quickly eaten. Such a treat in the morning. The cardamom was a really nice subtle spice.

Ingredients:

For Streusel

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

3 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

For the Cake

2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sour cream

Mudslides

I can't wait to have people over for dinner so we can serve these as dessert. So decadent and tasty! You can use different types of ice cream. Works really well with cookies and cream, or, in this case, with vanilla ice cream and oreos.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 shots dark rum

1 shot kahlua

3 oreos, and one for garnish

2 cups vanilla ice cream

splash of milk

some chocolate (I used a few pieces of Mast Brothers dark chocolate)

pinch of salt

Whipped cream

Directions:

Put rum, kahlua, 3 oreos, ice cream, milk, salt, and chocolate in a blender and pulse until smooth with a few little chunks. Pour into glasses, top with whipped cream. Break the oreo in half and put half on top of each. That's it!

Easy Oven Tomato Sauce

Oh wow. This is a game changing pasta sauce. It was so tangy and bright and rich, and the best part, EASY. So easy. You just throw it all in a baking dish and put it in the oven. I was inspired by this recipe, but tweaked it a little to give it a little of a puttanesca feel. We finished dinner in record time. Yum! It would also be great for a big group. Lasagna has that great smell and flavor of slightly burnt tomato sauce from the bits that stick to the pan and brown up - this has it too and it's delicious. Your kitchen/house/apartment will smell like heaven.

Baby Bok Choy with Chili Garlic Sauce

I had a comment from Deanna saying she was looking for a good baby bok choy recipe. I grabbed some good looking baby bok choy from the grocery and browsed some recipes. We were having dumplings, so I wanted to go with a sort of Chinese flavor. I thought it was really tasty. I think the most important part is not overcooking it. Deanna, hope you like it!!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 heads baby bok choy

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp minced ginger

1 small scallion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp corn starch

1 tsp water

1/2 tsp chili garlic paste

salt

drizzle of sesame oil

Brooklyn Buschenschank

On a cold, windy Saturday, Jamie and I wandered into Brooklyn Buschenschank (my dad had read about it a few months earlier and thought we should try it). It was super cozy with a fire going and had a great German beer list.

The pretzel and mustard was sooo tasty, and the currywurst was great. 

Jamie above the BQE on our walk

Design

I decided to change the blog around a little bit design-wise. It's still sort of a work in progress, but I'd love to hear what you think. Is anyone a pro at blogger?

Ricotta Cavatelli with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

We had ricotta cavatelli with broccoli rabe and sausage at Battersby and it was amazing, so I was inspired to try it myself. Since most normal/sane people don't make their own cavatelli, I'd suggest looking for this frozen at an Italian specialty store. (If anyone does want to learn to make homemade ricotta cavatelli, let me know and I'll put that up!) It's a great winter meal.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/2 lb fresh ricotta cavatelli

2 links sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced