Showing posts with label brunch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brunch. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

jamie oliver's sweet pea fish pie

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i know i know, the name makes it sound pretty darn nasty, like something that should come from a prison cafeteria or something (but not big red's, or course! who else is excited for season 2 of orange is the new black !?)

honestly though, this stuff hit... the... spot... we invited friends over to try this out with us on sunday.  although a little hesitant, they agreed, and agreed to bringing over delicious boozy drinks (to wash it down if it was terrible, i suppose)

jamie oliver posts daily recipes on his facebook page , first thing in the morning (for us eastern-standard-timers), and for a moment just about every morning, i wonder why i packed a salad for lunch.  this was the first time we tried a recipe of his, and it looks like we shall be making many more!

sweet pea fish pie is sort of like a creamy fish version of shepherd's pie, or you could think of it as a fish version of pot pie without the crusts.  we used salmon and mahi mahi for the fish, and eye-balled most of the big ingredients (more carrots are good for you anyways!) although the dish is a lot of mush, it pairs well with some thinly sliced, toasted sourdough bread very well (and a sous vide poached egg, we're fancy over here).  when you top of the meal with a pitcher of champagne/vodka/sorbet, it's a solid boozy brunch at home.

i can envision so many variations to this meal that would make it equally as tasty:
  1. use chicken or turkey instead of fish.
  2. make it vegetarian-friendly by using mushrooms instead of fish.
  3. toss the potatoes and peas for biscuits on top!
  4. add more spinach (it seems like a lot, but seriously it wilts down to nothing)
  5. use kale instead of spinach for some added texture
  6. skip the potatoes, skip mashing the peas, toss the peas in the creamy mixture, and add pasta!
the recipe shows you such a great technique for making a creamy stew-like mixture that you could do almost any variation that sounds good to you.

any way we can add fish to our diet is a good thing.  high five to jamie oliver for giving us another great recipe to add to the list!

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(it's obviously not pretty, but trust me one this one, it tastes amazing)

click here to find the recipe for sweet pea fish pie, and go make it! it's a prefect recipe for a sunny sunday, and makes great leftovers too ;)

cheers!
jenn

Friday, May 31, 2013

newbies in nyc

how do you entertain visitors in NYC who don't want to site-see, don't want to see museums, and don't want to walk a ton?

you do like the locals, and eat and drink yourself silly through the weekend!
....and insist they at LEAST go up in the empire state building (with prepaid tickets of course, less, line-waiting) and force them to put on their walking shoes (unless you want to use your entire vacation budget on taxis, you have to walk at least a few miles blocks to get anywhere).

i mean hey, i don't really want to see the statue of liberty AHHHGAIN, and in this food mecca, who wouldn't want to eat and drink all day?  besides the fact that i think i was in a food coma for the rest of the week, it was a pretty darn good weekend... you know, one of those ones where you forget to take your good camera with you because you go to restaurants so small there's only seating for 22 and bars are so rowdy the drinks are always 2-for-1 and the bartender brings them to your table 20 beers at a time (in 2 hands, no tray needed, 10 beers a hand, no big deal).

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(ok ok, so they DID want to see times square... but afterward, they agreed with me: it's fun for about 5 minutes, then you wanna get the heck outta there but there's so many people you're stuck for a good half hour)

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when my dad and his wife tina came into town a few weekends ago for the first time, we were on the go non-stop (well, except for the day the weather decided to drop a few 20 degrees and pour down rain  with insane wind)

we found out that skinner's loft in our neighborhood has a rockin' steak
(good lord it was good, tasted like summer)

i finally found a time at the frying pan when it WASN'T jam-packed
(turns out you have to get there before everyone ELSE gets off of work.  i mean, a bar on a boat really IS the prefect happy hour spot, isn't it?)

we got lucky at yunnan kitchen and walked right in to a table at 7pm on a friday night
(was it just me, or did that tingly-spicy fried chicken get even spicier?!)

we brunched and lunched at westville
(ahhh that dill dressing is to die for)

...and LITM
(hellllooo boozy watermelonade)

we had our fix of light and dark beer at mcsorley's
(those were the only two options. tina was not amused, but the rest of us could have stayed there all day :P)

....got some more at our favorite weeknight happy hour spot, phebe's
(too bad it wasn't a weeknight and they didn't have 10-cent wings)

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...and of course it wouldn't be a weekend at OUR house if we mr p cooked dinner for the guests.  this time it was pork loin, red cabbage slaw, salad with our version of westville's dill dressing, and bread with a sampling of our many infused oils and vinegars :)

next time they come we'll have to spend a day at the beach, because that was an exhausting 4-day weekend!!

cheers.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Sunday, December 9, 2012

great friends

2012-12-09-1

you know you have great friends when they all stand outside in the cold rain for 30 minutes for a cramped table for 10 (8 friends, 10 total including myself and mr p) for brunch in manhattan at a place that probably seats 25... it helps if the place has great food, but i'm gonna say it's because they really like us ;)

....just a snippet of a very exhausting, but very fun weekend with lots of great friends!

cheers!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Sunday (extra)-Funday


Dear Bonbon
You treated us so well at our brunch date with my mom in Cleveland.  Your modern, slightly stretched ideas of bubble and squeak and corned beef hash left us confused when they were brought to the table, thinking we had the wrong meals, however were pleasantly surprised as we dove in, practically licking our plates when we were finished.

Dear Mama P,
Thank you for making some of my favorite Vietnamese foods for when my mom came to meet you for the first time.  Nobody could get enough of the fresh summer rolls and banh seo (well, until we literally couldn't fit any more food in our tummies!)  

Dear Cleveland, 
Thanks for opening our eyes to your hidden treasures, your subtle comforts, your new motives for urban revival, and, of course, your wonderful people.

Labor Day weekend , please come around again quickly!

Cheers.

Monday, August 27, 2012

sunday funday.











- brunch a few blocks from home at marco and pepe

- ginger ice cream cone from torico
(a nice chat with our friend the owner while she was making homemade waffle cones resulted in a still-warm, hot off the press waffle cone... the kind that's still a bit chewy because it's still piping hot kind. heavenly.)

- and a bike ride around liberty state park
(wait, bikes? yes, bikes. we got bikes! more on that later)

- and a bbq courtesy of our friends at NYC-JC Guest Suites  at one of their hotel/rental locations at 70 greene street  in paulus hook. you should check them out! they have great offers for apartment style hotels close to the PATH trains!
(no pictures of the actual scene to share, only 1 from the quick afterparty... blogger fail)

how was your weekend?
the weather here was PERFECT .
if only it was that way all summer...

cheers!

Monday, July 9, 2012

best of both worlds

mr p and i have been on the go... NON... STOP.

for two people who truly enjoy sitting at home watching movies, playing video games, playing on the computer, and all other non-active activities, being busy all the time is getting tiring!!

i guess that's what happens when we have so many friends and family away from us...

last weekend was supposed to be our "free" weekend between going to DC and virginia, but when mr p's best friend says "come visit me, mike and dana are having a pool party" we couldn't pass it up!

luckily we are practically telepathic and decided that a date night in on friday and kick(butt)boxing must happen before going.



we headed out saturday afternoon for philly, and by the time we got in the pool, lemme tell you... we... were... READY! it was 105 degrees outside.  on days like that you feel like a bum if you are cooped up inside, but just sit in misery outside... unless you have a POOL!!


(pit stop at the local beer-wine-liquor megastore)


a pool with beer pong rafts, too? even better!

thanks, mike and dana for hosting :D

mr p has TOLD me he plays this game, but i didn't realize how INTENSE it was until then...

after a long night in the pool... we caught some Z's, woke up to play some fruit ninja on the xbox kinect (so awesome!), grabbed dim sum in philly's chinatown, discovered the awesomeness of five below , planned our future home in west elm , had our first shake shack experience IN PHILLY (wtf were we thinking?? why haven't we been to the one in NYC yet!?!?)  and explored the beautiful city (since it was only in the 90's and not over 100)














so... it was the best of both worlds:
date night in.
HARDCORE workout saturday morning.
visit to the beer store
saw AWESOME friends
who hosted an AWESOME pool party
ate dim sum
and many many more.

truly the best of both worlds :D

next up: virginia!!
hopefully the weekend will be even more relaxing with plans for a day at the beach in the works :D 

now... if i could only get through this monday! the thought of having tapas for ladies night tonight is making me lose my focus...

cheers!