I don’t want to make any sweeping generalizations or anything, but I think I’ve found the most popular cookie recipe. I’ve made these Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt a handful of times in the past few months and every time I bring them into work, they’re polished off in no time at all. Co-workers travel far and wide (at least as far and as wide as you can get with 3 floors) to get their hands on these tasty treats.
Much like Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope (and the rest of the world, I think), I love breakfast food. How could anyone not like breakfast food? There’s something for everyone. You can have savory eggs, sweet pancakes, or even healthful oats. You can have meat almost anyway you want it – smoky, chewy, crispy, juicy. In some places, you can even get all of these things together at once, for one low price. What do I miss most about my time in Tennessee, you ask? Was it the beautiful landscape of the Cumberland Plateau or the southern hospitality I encountered everywhere I went? No. Those are wonderful and everything, but damn do I miss the All-Star Breakfast at Waffle House. If you don’t order two eggs, grits or hashbrowns, your choice of breakfast meat, toast, a waffle, and a coffee for somewhere in the range of $6-$8, you’re doing it wrong. While this dish isn’t quite as hedonistic as all that, it’s a pretty satisfying brunch to get down with this weekend.
Over a few pinches of wine and our PBR Steamed Mussels, my friends and I began an informal yet helpful sort of focus group re: A Pinch of This. I had noticed how many leftover mussels there would be (note: a pound and a half of mussels plus hearty bread feeds three twenty-five year old gals no problem…you probably don’t need to cook four pounds of mussels) and began planning what to do with the leftovers. From that little discussion came the idea to post about what I make with my leftovers.
One of my favorite dishes to order in a restaurant is moules frites. Succulent little mussels in a delicious broth with really great fries and bread to sop up the sauce – heavenly. It’s a simple dish, but one I don’t often make at home. With the exception of shrimp, seafood is something I don’t really mess with. There’s the potential of sandy bites and fishy flavors. But what I’ve been realizing is that cooking is something I work at constantly, bit by bit (or should I say bite by bite?) and I look for challenges with each recipe I tackle. So why shy away from making one of my favorite bistro dishes due to some silly fear of failure? That’s why I made a big ole batch of mussels for my friends on Sunday night.
I’ve been in a funk lately. Maybe it’s the transition from two and half weeks off to a full week at the office. Maybe it’s the uncomfortably low temperatures that January brings. Or maybe it’s the fact that everything I’ve tried to blog in the past week has been unsatisfactory. Who knows? All I know is that 2015 has been off to a weird, cold start and I needed something to snap me out of it. That something came in the form of a luscious, creamy Vermont Cheddar Soup.
Not quite a year ago, a friend and I stumbled into a small, romantically lit French-inspired eatery in the West Village for a quick bite before heading around the corner to see a play. The only thing I remember about the play is that it was too long. What I do remember about that night is the tartine I ordered at Buvette – the well-known gastrotheque that I had only just come across.
A Pinch of This 