june is an action-packed month for us, with no more weekend time to ourselves.  a few months ago i planned a DAY date exploring williamsburg and we loved it.  although I wanted to plan another adventure date, this month just wasn't going to give us the chance.  last tuesday i saw sam a.m. cafe's supper club menu posted for thursday (see it on their instagram , twitter , or facebook ), and the lightbulb turned on in my head... supper club it is!



last week's menu included lamb ragu. two of hung's favorite foods in 1 dish: slow-roasted lamb and pasta, so i knew it would be a win.  what i didn't know was how good the REST of the meal was going to be! lamb ragu was just the fourth course of FIVE.  i thought that because there would be 5 courses, the portions would be itsy bitsy.  hung ate a sammich before we left the house, and i had a few bites too.  i could have been rolled out of the place that night i ate so much.  normally i feel zero guilt asking for a box to take food home, but for some reason (i.e. the food was so good) i couldn't leave anything left on the plate.  i even consulted hung to take up the last bites when he knew i looked miserable but still eating.  first world problems? absolutely. 

warning: food porn

i left that house sunday night feeling like i ate an entire cow.  whatever our friend put in that meal made me turn into a total glutton.  however, i would expect no less from an italian serving spaghetti and meatballs. 

although i'll probably never get the exact recipe out of him for the meatballs or sauce, i can give you our favorite dill dressing (see this blog post ), and tell you it was served on a salad with walnuts, grapes, tomatoes, and onions.  i'm convinced that dill and grapes were meant for each other (as crazy that THAT sounds). the garlic bread was toasted with garlicky herbed butter (butter with garlic, parsley, and salt) and topped with shredded mozzarella for the last few minutes of toasting in the oven.

i hope you're not eating a salad right now, because these photos will make you want to trash it and go eat some REAL food. (i say this as i eat just that, a salad... after THAT kind of weekend i'm due for it)

bon appetit!













oh, that lil guy at the end?  that's an itty bitty hindu god carved in a itty bitty tusk.  that museum house is full of little treasures like this... that was the treasure of choice for that evening, haha.

cheers!
jenn

we shall call the summer of 2012 "the summer of balsamic vinegars"


because 'tis the summer of mr p and i acquiring more balsamics at each food event we attended.  recently we discovered that we enjoy either balsamic and olive oil (or even JUST balsamic vinegar!) as salad dressing.  no need to worry about the mustard, the sugar, the salt and pepper, the lemon juice, the garlic.... that's way too complicated (but tastes good too when we have a chance to whip it up)

we first slimmed the recipe down to balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  we quickly realized that balsamic vinegar by itself is ALMOST as satisfying as it is mixed with oil.  on a small salad, it doesn't make a big difference, larger salads need the extra boost of richness from the oil.

so, last night i had a dilemma: which balsamic vinegar to use for dressing on my dinner salad??
(this is why mr p shouldn't leave me by myself!! i fret over the simplest things!)

i realize this is a rather silly situation.  it's a feat for some people just to stock ONE kind of balsamic vinegar in their cupboards.

i've just come to accept that fact that some people buy designer shoes and handbags, while mr p and i buy specialty vinegars, oils, cured meats, and cheeses (at least it's something we BOTH get to enjoy, right? right.)



so... fig .  i chose fig-infused balsamic vinegar.
it was chosen over black walnut, pomegranate, mango, and extra aged.

mr p left me for LA with a fridge full of fruits and veggies, so i suppose i will get to try a salad with each of the rest of the vinegars by the time he gets back... if i can eat a salad that many times in a row and NOT opt for the entire blueberry pie he ALSO left me :P

cheers!

it was a cold and blistery day on those crowded streets of new york.  as the snow began to fall....

whoa wait a second... that's not the picture i wanted to paint!  EVERYDAY of an east coast winter is cold and blistery!!  what does any local do on a day like this? bundle up and get outside!!!  so that's just what we did, and we had a great time!

first stop: brunch!  after getting a late start into the city, we decided to find a place along our way to meeting up with a friend at grand central.  usually this turns into a disaster and we end up settling for pret-a-manger or some other chain (or standard pizza by the slice).  mr P walks past this gem on his way to work everyday, so we decided to stop in! it's called piccolo cafe.

my detox plan gave me pretty limited options, so i settled for a mesclun greens salad with apples, walnuts, and goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette (goat cheese is the bad one, no dairy for me, but i ate it anyways... oops!)  i also got a chamomile tea, and i think i may have fallen in love.  i think i could settle for just smelling it and not actually drinking it.  PLUS it's natually caffeine free!!  (this wasn't the last chamomile tea of the day, just an FYI)

nicole got a latte and mr P ordered a sammich (not sure what was on it, but i surely was jealous watching him eat that sammich with meat and toasted bread...)


and wwwweeeeee're off to see the wizaarrdd!  ...or, to grand central.  but it really was a nice day, despite the bitter cold and skin-stinging wind.

i totally forgot there was THE new apple store at grand central until we walked into the main corridor and saw the big white apple hovering over the east balcony.  i remember when i heard that apple was introducing their largest store in the main room at grand central station, i thought "how tacky, grand central is such a beautiful place with an amazing history.  everything looks original and historic, why taint it with something that's a symbol of today and the future?"

well, i'm here to tell you that it's pretty much as elegant as it can get.  there's no storefront, there are simply tables and stations set up in the east balcony, with pretty white lit-up apple signs here and there (and a bunch of blue shirts, of course).

after embarassing everyone by yelling out "joe!" at the top of my lungs inside the main corridor (come on, it's totally quicker than trying to call him in a place where you get no reception, then try to tell him where we are, when we could see him anyways), we found joe, and continued our stroll through the city.


we passed by rockefeller center and watched the ice skaters, passed by bryant park and watched more ice skaters, and finally decided it was time to eat again, and journeyed down to the lower east side hoping to snag a seat at The Meatball Shop. cheap delicious meatballs served with just sauce, with pasta, or "smashed" into a burger.  sounds delicious, right? well, apparently enough people for a 1-2 HOUR wait at 2pm thought so too.

onto plan B we said!  we took our chances strolling through the lower east side and stumbled upon schiller's liquor bar (definitely more of a restaurant than a bar... at least at 2pm on a saturday).  i had wanted to eat there because i saw it on the movie Morning Glory, but really knew nothing about it.  the inside was decorated with old liquor bottles, and the windows, antique metal seats, and old laquered white tiles sort of made me feel like i was in a locker room from my ancient middle school.  Still it was comforting and cozy and fun to look at everything.  


i ordered "seared salmon" with cauliflower, and out came my very unexpected meal. WELL DONE salmon over chopped cauliflower (maybe you could call it cauliflower stuffing?) in a brown (probably beef) sauce.  though the meal was delicious, it was hardly what i expected when the menu said "seared salmon," and i didn't think i would go against my detox plan by eating beef (in the sauce) and bread (i think, in the stuffing). eating out is so hard!

after meandering our way back to the PATH station, we headed home, picked up some beer and wine along the way, and had a blissful night in instead of spending $$$$$ at the bar. (wait... did we? i think we DID go to the bar.. too much wine i guess :P)

it's weekends like this that i'm happy to have moved to the east coast.  friends in far away places aren't SO far away at just few hours (some just a few minutes) away, and sometimes we just get lucky and they all come to US!

toodles.
j&h

After eating leftovers all week (thanks, Mama Phan!), we were ready to eat something different tonight.  Mr P wanted to make lentil soup, and it took much longer than anticipated, so we ended up eating bigs salads for dinner instead of soup and a small side salad (but yay for delicious lentil soup for tomorrow!!)

We topped red leaf lettuce with grape tomatoes, red onions, pears, grapefruit, walnuts, and a little bit of extra sharp cheddar cheese.  We normally make some version of a typical oil, vinegar, sugar, lemon juice, mustard, etc. vinaigrette, so I wanted to switch it up and go for some {balsamic} vinaigrette!  I never made it before tonight, so I looked to none other than the FoodNetwork.com to find a quick and easy recipe.

Emeril pulled through for us, with a simple vinaigrette with just balsamic vinegar, oil, brown sugar, garlic, salt, and pepper (woooo we had it all and I didn't need to run to the store again to pick up that ONE ingredient that makes the sauce).

We certainly enjoyed the change-up, and hope you do too!  Next time we will add in some apples and blue cheese (and load up on the walnuts!!)


Emeril Legasse's Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette
(find the original recipe here)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter!)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil  (we used a 2:1 olive oil to vinegar ratio instead of his given 3:1 ratio because vinaigrettes always call for too much oil for our tastebuds)

Whisk together all ingredients but the oil.  Slowly add oil while continuing to whisk.  Presto!

Serve over salad of choice (though we highly recommend it has walnuts and some sort of fruit!)

After visiting family in Ohio, we came home with delicious fudge for dessert every night!!  Yum! Thanks, Diann! We love it!

Toodles.
J&H