eat make read

I am so super duper excited about the renegade craft fair! It makes it’s annual appearance an McCarren Park in Williamsburg this Saturday & Sunday, June 14 & 15 11am to 7pm. There’s always tons of fun and inspiring items to browse and buy.

Don’t miss it!

We visited a new restaurant for dinner last weekend, Moto, in Williamsburg. It’s housed in a funny non-assuming building that’s shaped like a triangle. The interior is filled with vintage signs and fixtures that make an already cozy space feel even cozier, in a good way.

We started out with a beer at the bar while we waited for our friends. They have a short but nice selection of beers as well as wines. Once we were seated we decided to share some fondue… hot cheese, toasted bread, so delicious. For dinner I chose pork spare ribs with mashed potatoes and greens. Aaron went for the mussels in a garlic cream sauce. Both meals were really good. My ribs had nice flavor, although it was a little awkward trying to eat them with a fork and knife. I managed though and it was worth the extra work. Aaron’s mussels were nice and hearty, both meals left us with happy, full stomachs.

Unfortunately, we were too full to go for dessert, but the menu looked awesome. It included a cinnamon sugar donut and that’s all I remember… I’ll be sure to save some room for it next time we visit.

So I mentioned yesterday that there was one recipe that made me have the urge to turn on the stove in 90 degree heat last weekend. That recipe was for Asian Pork and Mushroom Burger Wraps that I found in bon appetit’s burger round-up. I have to admit, it’s not something that I would usually go for (mushrooms?!), but I think the heat was getting to me and all that fresh goodness sounded really refreshing.

The recipe calls for lots of asian staples like sesame oil, rice vinegar and hot chili sauce; things that would be kind of a hassle to go out and get, but somehow I had just about every ingredient in my cupboard. I split the recipe in half and still made 8 smallish burgers, so it’s definitely a great recipe for freezing some of it. The prep work wasn’t too bad, you can even make the burgers up to 6 hours ahead of time. Once I had everything ready, I let Aaron tend the stove while I whipped up the dipping sauce. About 10 minutes later, we had a delicious and refreshing dinner waiting to be devoured. And oh did we. The burgers were spectacular! I really enjoyed the lettuce as a bun thing, and the dipping sauce really enhanced the flavor of the burger.

I’m glad I got a little ambitious and tried something out of the ordinary. It was totally worth it! You can find the recipe in this month’s issue of bon appetit. I would type it for you, but I’m a little lazy right now and it’s a little long.

Yum yum yum. It’s hard to pass by cupcakes as lovely as these made by Kumquat Cupcakery, but then when I saw the flavors, well, I was sold. We tried the Coffee Caramel & Bourbon and the Chocolate Peanut Butter. Would you like to take a minute and contemplate the goodness? Both flavors were as good as the name implies, but the peanut butter one was super spectacular.

Kumquat Cupcakery sells bite size cupcakes at the Brooklyn Flea, Artists & Fleas Market in Williamsburg as well as custom orders. Don’t walk by without trying one…

I picked up a few of my favorite magazines, bon appetit and gourmet at the magazine store last week and when I came home I had a martha magazine waiting for me too. That left me with plenty to drool over this weekend.

All of them had me super excited about getting the grill ready… and even though it was hotter than hot, one recipe sounded delicious enough to turn on the stove. I’ll be posting that later this week.

They all also had lots of great recipes for summer berries that has me super excited. How beautiful is that photograph of the popsicles from martha? I think I’ll be trying those out this summer.

Sweet Jesus was it hot this weekend or what? It was hard to stay cool, so turning on the stove/oven wasn’t high on my list. I picked up some more strawberries this weekend and started thinking about new things to make. As I was complaining to Aaron that I didn’t want to use the oven he came up with a great suggestion, stuffed strawberries! It sounded perfect to me, so I started collecting my ingredients.

I picked up some salvatore ricotta and fresh mint leaves and got to work. This is a super simple recipe and the result is awesome. The combination of the sweet strawberry with the cool cheese and mint was just what I needed on a hot day.

Try it out!

ricotta & mint stuffed strawberries

1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
5 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 pint strawberries

1
in a small bowl, combine ricotta and mint leaves.
2
cut the stems out of the straberries, leaving a hole in the center of the berry.
3
spoon the cheese into the hole in the strawberry and repeat until ingredients are gone. chill until ready to serve.

Today’s happy hour is kind of special… it’s my first improvisation! On my way home from work last night I realized I hadn’t prepared a happy hour post, so I thought about things I had around the house. For fruit I had strawberry syrup, booze I had some vodka, to jazz it up I had a mint plant that I have not killed yet and to top it off, some club soda from my ginger ale experiments. And that’s how a strawberry mint dream was born.

The result is pretty dang tasty. It’s definitely a one drink only kind of drink because the strawberry syrup makes it a bit sweet. But I could see this being served in the backyard (if I had one) on a hot summer day. Yum!

Have a great weekend! Cheers!

After I made the strawberry jam I still had lots of strawberries leftover. So I searched a little bit to find another recipe to use up the rest. I found this one for strawberry milkshakes and I was sold, because who doesn’t love a good milkshake?

This recipe was actually a little more work than any milkshake I’ve ever made, but I was up for it. I first made a strawberry syrup on the stovetop, which is pretty close to a simple syrup. I let that chill in the fridge for a while and then when I was ready to make my shake, I just added it to a little milk and ice cream in the blender and in seconds I had myself a delicious shake. I ended up using vanilla ice cream because I really wanted to savor the flavor of my strawberries without adding other flavors. The result was delicious… how could it not be? I even have some strawberry syrup leftover so I can enjoy another. Woohoo!

Green beans were one of the only vegetables I would eat growing up, sad, I know. They’re still my favorite vegetable, so when I saw this recipe for haricot verts I couldn’t resist making them. Of course I messed up and bought green onions instead of shallots, but I didn’t think it was a big whoop, so I went ahead and made them anyway.

There’s something so pretty about fresh vegetables. It makes me really happy to see the vibrant colors next to one another. Once I’d prepped and admired them, I tossed the beans in boiling water. I’ve had a little trouble in the past getting my green beans the perfect amount of done, usually they’re either too done or not done enough; so I was happy to see the recipe gave a very precise cook time of 3.5 minutes. The result was delicious! I really liked the little pizazz that the lemon added and the butter and onions gave them a little extra umph. I’ll definitely be using this recipe again.