happy hour: peachy keen

Last weekend I teamed up with my friends Lisa and Caroline of num num chronicles and Corey Chow of Per Se to create some tasty cocktails for a secret supper club. I based both my drinks on what’s in season at the market and with a little tinkering around in the kitchen I came up with two drinks that fit the bill. This one, the peachy keen, has a base of peach purée and bourbon. It tastes a little like heaven.

Cheers! To the end of a long week and the start to a relaxing weekend. Oh, and if you’re in the New York area and are interested in attending the next supper club, head on over to num num chronicles to get on their mailing list and to see a sneak peak at our first trial run.

Peachy Keen
makes 1 cocktail

1.5 oz bourbon
1 oz peach purée*
1 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
3-4 basil leaves, plus more for garnish
ice
1
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and give it a good shake for at least 10 seconds. You want to make sure that the basil leaves get banged up and crushed into the juice.
2
Strain into a glass and garnish with a basil leaf.
3
Drink up and enjoy.

*To make peach purée, simply remove the skin from peaches and toss in a blender. Purée until smooth. Mixture will be a bit thick.

Filed under happy hour by kelly. August 27th, 2010 . 5 Comments

happy hour: watermelon mojito

It’s a watermelon kind of Friday. To me, watermelon signals a laid back, relaxed style and that’s what I’m looking for. Paired with some mint from my friend’s garden, I’m good to go. To be honest, if you give me some candied peanuts from earlier this week and one of these puppies, I might just be in heaven.

In the meantime, I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

watermelon mojito
makes 1 cocktail

1 1/2 oz watermelon juice*
1/2 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz light rum
5-6 mint leaves + more for garnish

1
Muddle the mint leaves and lime juice in the bottom of a cocktail shaker.
2
Add the simple syrup, watermelon juice and rum, along with a few cubes of ice. Shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds.
3
Strain into rocks glass. Garnish with mint leaves.
4
Relax…Cheers!

*to make watermelon juice, combine 1 1/2 cups watermelon chunks, juice of half a lemon and 1 Tablespoon simple syrup in a blender and purée.

Filed under happy hour by kelly. August 20th, 2010 . 8 Comments

carmelized peanuts & macadamia nuts

If you’ve ever been to New York, you’ve surely walked by the nuts4nuts street vendors and been lured by their delicious smelling peanuts or almonds. If you actually have the guts to buy them from the creepy guy behind the cart, you’re almost certainly going to be let down. Well my friends, have I got a recipe for you, one that most definitely will not let you down. These carmelized peanuts are possibly the most delicious snack ever.

Not only do they taste amazing, but it only requires a few ingredients that you probably have in your cupboard right now, peanuts (or a different type of nut if you’re daring), sugar, water, salt and cinnamon. The one thing that threw me a little bit was the amount of time they took. I expected them to be quick, around ten minutes, but mine took more like twenty to twenty five minutes. Plus the steps are a little bit scary because crazy things happen in the pan, but lucky for you I documented them.

Continue reading »

Filed under eat and snacks by kelly. August 18th, 2010 . 18 Comments

market week: thank you!


eatmakeread


awfully big adventure


Valerie from City|Life|Eats


bentobird

Well market week is over and I’d like to thank everyone who participated, commented and just watched. The week turned out to be a crazy week at work for me (of course, the one week I wanted to get home earlyish is the one week I have to work late every night), so I was a little bummed that I didn’t have more time to devote to taking better photos or making more interesting things. However, I think that allowed me to take a step back and realize that every night can’t be an extravaganza (it rarely is, believe me) and that’s ok.

In addition to the time, I feel so lucky that I have such an abundance of good, fresh food at my local market. While I didn’t use all of the food I bought at the market for meals last week, what didn’t get used is working itself into meals this week.

Thanks again!

Sunday: Burgers with caramelized onions, confetti corn and salad
Monday: Corn & zucchini cakes with fresh salsa + berry ice cream
Tuesday: Mushroom & eggplant tacos
Wednesday: Beef tacos
Thursday: Bruschetta

Filed under events and market week by kelly. August 17th, 2010 . 0 Comments

30/30: picnic in central park

As the summer is coming to a close, I’ve been trying to check off more of my 30/30 items. This weekend I checked off a pretty dreamy one, a picnic in central park.

The city’s been closing down a few avenues to traffic on Sundays in August, which means bikes and pedestrians have free rein of the streets. Riding my bike in traffic is not one of my strong suites, so I jumped at the chance ride over the Brooklyn Bridge and all the way to central park car-free. Once we got to the park we spread out our blanket and snacked on fruit, cheese and bread from the market. As if that’s not cool enough, we decided to take advantage of the lovely day and rowed a boat in the pond. It was like taking a vacation in my own city… I love it!

I’m over half way there… fingers crossed I can accomplish all of my goals before the big day! Look for a market week round up in the next day or two.

Filed under 30/30 list and events by kelly. August 16th, 2010 . 13 Comments

market week: bruschetta

Most weeks, by the time Thursday rolls around I’m ready to not cook. If we don’t go out to eat, I like to whip up something simple and perhaps a little indulgent. That’s where this bruschetta-type plate comes in. I simply pick up a fresh baguette, come home, slice it up and place a bunch of slices on a plate. Next I take out my oh-so-delicious ricotta from Salvatore and either use it as is or mix in a little lemon zest, or in this week’s case, some fresh basil, then place it on the bread. Lastly I either slice or chop up a few tomatoes to put on top of the cheese. I’ll often sprinkle a bit of sea salt over top, just for some extra pizazz. It’s simple and incredibly delicious.

Filed under dinner and eat and events and market week and snacks by kelly. August 13th, 2010 . 0 Comments

market week: tacos take two

I was debating a few things regarding this post. First, should I make dinner? As nine o’clock rolled past and I was still at work, ordering dinner sounded pretty nice. But then, funny as it sounds, the thought of trying to decide what to order, then having it delivered just sounded like too much work. So once I got home I looked in the fridge and considered my options; or more importantly “what requires the least amount of work?”.

Tacos. More often than not, when I don’t have time or just don’t want to use my brain, I reach for tortillas, find something to put inside them (beef, chicken or some kind of veggies) and call it dinner. Plus, because I almost always have salsa on hand, I just add a few spoonfuls to the pan while the filling is cooking and I have automatic seasoning.

Which brings me back to my internal debate… I just posted tacos last night. But I realized, this is reality. Every dinner can’t be glamorous, but every dinner can be good. And they can be easy. And fresh. And that’s what made me post my totally boring dinner. It took me about ten minutes from idea to table, which is way quicker than any take out. I love tacos.

Filed under events and market week by kelly. August 12th, 2010 . 3 Comments

market week: mushroom + eggplant tacos

Ok, this might be the ugliest meal of all (or at least I hope so). Looks are deceiving though. The tortillas are handmade with blue corn (purchased from the market*), hence their color. For the insides I simply sauteed some portobello mushrooms and eggplant, along with some tomatoes and peppers. I used some of the fresh salsa I mentioned yesterday to bring in a some juiciness. To add a little pizazzz, I actually used a dollop of ricotta cheese and sprinkled some cilantro over top. Not the best meal ever, but certainly not bad.

Editor’s Note: I didn’t make the tortillas, I bought them at the market. They are handmade, just not by me.

Filed under dinner and eat and events and market week by kelly. August 11th, 2010 . 3 Comments

market week: summer berry ice cream

I couldn’t get too far without whipping up some kind of dessert, my sweet tooth just won’t allow it. I can across this recipe for summer berry ice cream last week and it sounded pretty dang perfect. I love summer berries and I love to bake with them, but when summer brings as many heat waves as we’ve had this year, ice cream starts to sound like a genius idea. And so, a summer berry ice cream was made.

Continue reading »

Filed under eat and events and market week and sweets by kelly. August 10th, 2010 . 5 Comments

market week: corn and zucchini cakes with fresh salsa

Day two brings more deliciousness. After being wowed by yesterday’s corn confetti I saved the leftovers and decided to incorporate them into some lively zucchini cakes. As I mentioned earlier, vegetables are still a bit of a challenge for me, but I’ve found a few ways that I can get a whole bunch of ingredients and still really like it. One is salsa. I mean, who doesn’t like salsa?

The second veggie bonanza comes in the form of cakes, like corn cakes or in this case corn and zucchini cakes. I had about a cup of the corn leftover from yesterday which was sprinkled with peppers and onion. In addition to that I shredded a zucchini, then squeezed as much liquid out of that I could get. Who knew zucchini has so much water in it?! In order to bind it I used some of my half white flour and eggs from the market. Pretty soon I had an ugly batter in front of me, a batter that may not look so hot but I had faith that it would be tasty. Continue reading »

Filed under dinner and eat and events and market week by kelly. August 10th, 2010 . 6 Comments