Category: food

bit like a dream

Hey y’all! I just got back from my 6-day jaunt to NYC last night, and it was SUPER AWESOME. I had so much fun, walked allllll around and ate everything in sight. At some points it felt like I would never want to eat again, but we all know how that goes. I’m gonna have to split up my adventure into a few blog posts with lots of photos!

Today: Thursday and Friday.

Left Toronto mid-morning and got to NY Penn Station around 1:30. First thing to do? Eat, of course (pretty much why I went to NYC). We hit up No.7 Sub while still dragging around luggage since it’s near the station! I had General Tso’s Tofu and my companion had the Eggplant Parm. DELICIOUS!

Dropped off stuff at the hotel and went a’walking. The hotel was really well situated on E. Houston, right on the subway and really accessible for walking to different neighbourhoods. Spent some time at the MOMA design store and Sur La Table, just randomly poking around in Soho and Nolita. One cool place I stumbled upon was Kiosk, a really interesting sorta random stuff store up a mysterious staircase. One of the things I really loved about this trip to NYC was seeing really cool design stuff and the love of good design in general.

Had delicious Motorino pizza for dinner then just kept walking the evening away! I think we had Pinkberry on St Marks Pl for dessert.

Seriously the pizza is so good. I went twice in 5 days.

Friday morning breakfast was coffee and beautiful pastries at Ceci-Cela on Spring. I’d say it was the best croissant I’ve had outside France.

Walked walked walked and ended up on the High Line, an elevated railroad track that’s been converted to a beautiful urban park.

There’s a nice sitting area with basically a viewing platform over traffic with a great view.

Ended up at the craziness (and deliciousness) that is Eataly for lunch – took a little while to figure out what was going on. It was super crowded! It’s basically a large marketplace with different areas for different foods (like meats, cheeses, baked goods, pasta) and sit-down eating areas. Lunch at La Verdure (Eataly’s vegetarian/vegetable focused restaurant area) was amazing.

Roasted peppers stuffed with perfect risotto.

One of many cheese cases.

Took the subway across to Brooklyn and wandered for awhile, and ended up spending a few nice relaxing hours chilling with beer at Bierkraft in Park Slope – great beers on tap and tons in bottles too, and there’s a nice communal seating area for drinking your purchased beer!

Chilly stroll along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at sunset, then we waited outside in the FREEZING COLD (seriously the entire trip was freezing) for 40 minutes to have pizza at Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Walked back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge – the view was lovely at night, but again, super cold!

And then upon getting out of the subway at Spring St, we found a lovely tiny chocolate shop with a comfy couch that had chocolate cake, hot chocolate and lovely tea. Ahh, perfect.

March 30, 2011
summertime eats

Well, I’m knitting lots, but it isn’t very exciting to look at – mostly working on my cabled scarf (so close to the end!) and I’ve restarted that little shrug too. Really I’m just itching to cast on for some new fall sweater projects, but I really need to get a few things done first!

So today I have a little bit of food to share, instead.

I brought home rather a LOT of pickling cucumbers from the produce stores near my work yesterday, and today set about making some refrigerator pickles. No water processing required, no fear of bad canning, and they stay so very crispy, which I love!

I made one huge vat of cucumber garlic dills – it’s 1.8L/2qt! The slightly smaller jar in the back is beans, done up with basically the same spices and brine. They were yellow, green, and purple to start with, but unfortunately now they’re all kind of greeny grey. Oh well, they’ll still taste awesome.

Super Easy Garlic Dills

Veggies:
Whatever you like. I did sliced kirby cucumbers and trimmed green beans, I’m sure this would be great with carrots, cauliflower, radishes, whatever! I’m not sure how many cucumbers I used – probably about 10 small ones for the 1.8L jar.

Brine:
4 cups / 1L water
4 cups / 1L white vinegar
6tbsp pickling salt

Seasonings:
garlic, peeled
dill seed
red pepper flakes
black peppercorns
celery seed
fresh dill

Mix together water, vinegar and salt in a largeish pot and heat on the stove to a simmer. While it’s heating, prep your veggies and add seasonings to your jars.

For the 1.8L jar of cucumbers, I used: 4 cloves garlic, 4 tsp dill seed, a dash each of celery seed and red pepper flakes, 3 stalks fresh dill and a few whole black peppercorns.

Pack the veggies tightly into the jars leaving some room at the top (1/2″-1″, not as important as when processing because we’re just sticking these in the fridge). Slowly add brine to cover. Let the jars cool on the counter, then stick them in the fridge. That’s it! They’ll begin to taste pickled after just a few hours, but it’s best to wait at least a few days.

Wow, that’s a giant jar of pickles!

I also managed to find Ontario strawberries at the big chain supermarket, which I was pretty surprised by – I picked up three containers and made jam with half (I might get more tomorrow or soon and make more or ice cream!). I prefer freezer jam because it uses much less sugar, and has that just-picked-fruit taste that you just don’t get with cooked jam.

I just followed the recipe on the gelling agent packet and it came out perfectly. I’ll definitely have to make at least 1 more batch of freezer jam soon, maybe wild blueberry!

What are you doing with this summer’s awesome produce?

July 24, 2010
the post-christmas feeling

Ultimate Caramel Cornwas made and eaten. I used peanuts and a few hazelnuts, and white and semisweet chocolate. This was the first time I popped corn on the stove in oil and I’ll definitely do it again! Satisfying and crazy. And yummy.

My sister’s Harry Potter scarf (Prisoner of Azkaban style) was finished on time, which was Wednesday night – I washed it around midnight that night, and it was dry the morning of Christmas Eve. I put the fringe on then packed it right up to take to my parents’ house!

I used Cascade Venezia Worsted, a great blend of merino and silk, 3 skeins plus the fringe’s worth from a fourth skein. The gold stripes are Misti Alpaca Worsted. It isn’t accurate or anything, but I think it went over well.

I hope your holidays were wonderful!

December 27, 2009