Springtime Martini

The start of spring is an occasion well worth celebrating with a cocktail. Of course, I tend to think that the arrival of Friday is to be equally celebrated but that is not the point. The point is that spring arrived this week and did so in an appropriate fashion. It's been sunny with temperatures in the 60's and 70's all week. The trees will be blooming soon as will the tulips that are traditionally planted all over the city. I love when colorful tulips fall over the sides of a vase...

Healthy Asparagus Spiral Puffs

Happy first day of spring! Yesterday was the official end of my least favorite season and this morning is to be sunny and 65 degrees in New York. My pup and I will be strolling around for a long time today, soaking up the spring. To be truthful, the northeast has enjoyed a very mild winter this year (the second mildest in history according to the news reports) and we escaped the majority of the deep freeze, snow and slush that normally blankets us for a few months. But psychologically, I still knew it was winter but now it is spring! OK, I'll shut up about that now.

Bailey's Banana Colada

For the past few months my bestie has been going on and on about some cocktail that she and her hubs had on their way to Montauk last summer. Finally, as we all gathered last weekend for some food and merriment, we decided to try to recreate it. We didn't have a recipe but we did have a blender and all the likely suspects for ingredients. The problem was that as we kept tweaking and pouring and tasting, we kinda lost track of what we'd added. So by the time we thought we had it right, we were all too drunk to remember the ingredients. Haha...what a bunch of wacky kids we are...except for the fact that we're all over 40!

Simple and Sweet Soda Bread

A number of years ago I had the pleasure of working with a few Irish clients and, consequently, found myself frequently dining at Irish restaurants. There was plenty on the menus to suit my taste but the soda bread was never particularly interesting to me. Last year, however, an Irish colleague brought a soda bread into the office and I was fortunate enough to get a small piece before it was set upon and devoured as if by a pack of ravenous wolves. The bread was actually made by a friend of hers and it was unlike any I'd had before.

Heavenly Cheesecake Brownies

On Saturday, Brian and I were invited to a friend's house for dinner. When I asked her a few days prior what she'd like us to bring she said she'd appreciate dessert, maybe brownies or cheesecake which are her two favorites. And so I thought to myself that I would bring cheesecake brownies and thus combine the best of both. I've never made them myself and I wasn't particularly in the mood to bake so I intended to buy them from a bakery. There's one near us that usually has delicious cheesecake brownies but this time they did not. I headed to another nearby bakery that had them but theirs looked stale and dry. Sigh. I guess I'm baking cheesecake brownies.

I am Bubbly and Full of Sunshine!

That, at least, is the opinion of Chock Chip Uru, the resident kitchen diva over at Go Bake Yourself, who has given me the Sunshine Award. If, for any reason, you have not already visited this lovely Australian girl's blog than get over there at once. I would, however, advise you to lose some weight first because you will want to eat everything in sight!

Beef Casserole with Cheesy Cornbread Topping

I was going to call this recipe a chili but I didn't want to start a debate on what does or does not constitute authentic chili. So I figured that if I called it a casserole, all it constituted was dinner :)

Peace, Happiness & Pinterest

I've been having fun with Pinterest, adding my pins and looking at other people's inspirations to fuel my own. It's certainly making me focus on what I really care about. I like a lot of things but only a few conjure strong emotions and while it would be fun to be able to buy all those lovely things on my wish list, that won't bring inner peace or happiness. So here, then, are a few things that make me feel peaceful and happy.

Yummy Guacamole

Since this past week featured both National Margarita Day and National Tortilla Chip Day, it seemed appropriate to have Mexican food over the weekend. The most appropriate way to have it, of course, would be to go to a good Mexican restaurant and have it prepared by people who know how to cook Mexican food. That just seemed too easy, though.

Pot Roast a la Giada

I frequently have The Food Network on in the background when I'm puttering around the house and every once in a while I see something inspiring. One day Giada De Laurentis' show Giada at Home was on and I watched her take a roast out of the oven that looked so tender and succulent that I had to go to the show's website and look up the recipe immediately. And I knew what I was cooking for the weekend!

Valentine's Recap and the Fate of a Bear

I am very fortunate to have love in my life and Brian and I took the time on Valentine's Day to present each other with a few gestures of our affection. I cooked up a feast, he turned up the romance.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

Happy Valentine's Day! To round out my other romantic culinary creations is this ooey, gooey chocolate dessert. Lava cakes have been around for a while but they remain popular because they're both delicious and quite easy to make.

Savory Valentine's Heart Crackers

Did I say savory? For Valentine's Day? Yup, because man cannot live on chocolate alone. Women can, of course, but I find that men need something crunchy, too!

I've Been Liebster'ed!

I was so very pleased when I checked my email and found a message from the lovely Ingrid at The Cozy Apron. She said I deserved the Liebster Award because I have a darling blog. Well, she herself has an even more darling blog and you should go check it out immediately!

Creamy Dreamy Chocolate Martini

Those of you that follow this blog should know that I can't let a holiday pass without creating an appropriate drink! For this past new year's eve I made an Ultimate Chocolate Martini for Brian because he doesn't like champagne. But surely Valentine's Day is the perfect holiday for a chocolate cocktail. So, I decided to kick up the chocolate flavor even further for the occasion. Adding a bit of chocolate ice cream makes for a truly decadent experience.

Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Scones

What to make for a romantic breakfast on Valentine's Day? Brian's not a big breakfast eater so he's not interested in the full breakfast-in-bed tray of morning fare. But he does love my scones with a big pot of morning coffee.

A Cocktail Story Part 3 - The King of Cocktails

We conclude our three part cocktail series with the king of all cocktails, shaken, not stirred, the classic martini.

According to the IBA (International Bartenders Association) the martini is found in literature as early as the 1860's but gained popularity during prohibition, ironically enough. There are numerous recipes for the ratio of gin to vermouth but IBA specifies approximately 2oz. of gin or vodka to every 1/2 oz. of vermouth with either an olive or a twist of lemon. A dry martini has less vermouth and a wet martini has more.

A Cocktail Story Part 2 - Rims, Mixes and Garnishes

A lot of the fun of having cocktails out, apart from the social atmosphere, is watching bartenders perform their magic tricks. But for all the elaborate liqueurs, tinctures and slight of hand that comes with professionally made cocktails, you can still create impressive drinks at home with only a handful of ingredients and a few easy tricks. Just mix a simple recipe with a great garnish and a fun rim and raise your glass for a toast. Cheers!

A Cocktail Story Part 1 - The Basics of the Bar

There are some great reasons to make cocktails at home. It's much less expensive, we can customize the strength and sweetness to our taste and, of course, it makes us very popular with friends!

Hearty Yet Healthy Beef Stroganoff

When the holidays are over and it's just cold and dreary and bleak (can you tell we don't like winter?), how nice it is to come home to a hot bowl of comforting food.  Soups and stews, abandoned in the warm months, now seem the ideal foods.  One version of these one-pot delights is the Stroganoff.  Normally made with rich cream, this lighter version is still wonderful but a little easier on the arteries.

Sunday Lunch at Mediterranean Grill

160-24 Willets Point Boulevard, Queens, NY 11357, 718-281-4210

Last Sunday, Brian and I drove to his mother's house in Queens to take her out to lunch.  There aren't a lot of options near her home but she'd found this place a few months back.  We hadn't made reservations so, given that Sunday post-church lunch places tend to be crowded, we were prepared for a wait.  But, we walked into an almost empty restaurant.  Hmm...

Smokey Mashed White and Sweet Potatoes

Mashed potatoes, again? Sure, we all love them. Especially when they're laden with lots of artery blocking butter and cream. Or, my personal favorite, gobs of yummy gravy. But still, they can get kind of boring. How about sprucing them up once in a while by pairing them with their sweet and nutritious cousins?

New Year's Musings and a Brisket

The Hungry (and Happy) Couple

As we get ready to welcome 2012, I'm in the kitchen cooking, my little furry sous chef by my side. Brian and I will ring in the new year at home, feasting on an elaborate meal, hoisting a few cocktails and snuggling together with our pup as we watch the Times Square ball drop on TV. Those may not be the most exciting sounding plans in the world but it's exactly where I want to be.

The Ultimate Chocolate Martini

Brian's not much of a champagne drinker so, with New Year's Eve coming, I wanted to make a festive cocktail that didn't rely on the bubbly. A chocolate martini seemed a good choice and I asked him to bring home a bottle of Godiva chocolate liqueur. He bought what I asked for but, as I was mixing the drink, he expressed doubt that it would be good.

Creamy Layered Pumpkin Pie in a Jar

I love the Christmas music that's playing all around and every time I hear The Carpenter's "Home for the Holidays" with the line about heading for some homemade pumpkin pie, it makes me want some. Ironically, neither of us are big fans of traditional pumpkin pie but this year I've been experimenting more with pumpkin and decided to see if I could come up with a pie we liked. I realized I don't care for the usual homogeneous flavor and that gave me the idea to deconstruct it. How did it turn out? Let me tell you, this is the most amazing dessert we never knew how much we wanted!

Glazed Ginger Scones

The flavor of gingerbread is, of course, a holiday staple. Traditionally made with molasses, gingerbread cakes are dark but this easy scone recipe lightens up the taste. With plenty of flavorful ginger and a bit of spice, a batch of these freshly baked scones won't be around for long!

Butternut Squash Pasta Bake

This tastes so completely, wonderfully, amazingly good! After we'd polished off  the Thanksgiving leftovers and every last shred of turkey was gone, I still had a bit of butternut squash left in the veggie crisper. I'd already maple glazed it and served it up in a delicious salad so I needed another idea.

A Tired Cook with a Sweet Tooth...in a Jar

It was near the end of my first week at a new job and I was exhausted. It's so stressful to be the new kid, even when you're senior, and by now I had a headache, a backache and I seemed to have pulled something in my knee. I was a train wreck pushing a cart down the aisle of the supermarket to buy some staples and decide what to eat for dinner - grilled cheese and canned soup, as it turned out. But I also felt like something baked and sweet and I was too tired to walk to the bakery.

Roasted Maple Glazed Carrots

I'm usually a raw carrot muncher but I tend to like serving them as a cooked side veggie when I have company for dinner. I find that their naturally sweet, mild flavor means that even non-veggie fans will usually eat them. I typically steam them and serve with a little butter or olive oil and some chopped fresh dill.

Croton Colonial Diner

221 South Riverside Avenue, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520, 914-271-8868

How do you review a restaurant that you visit once a year, on the exact same date?  Let us explain.  A number of years ago on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, with holiday company gone, Brian and I decided on an impromptu outing. We drove up one side of the Hudson River Valley, crossed over the Bear Mountain bridge and followed the river back down through all the towns along the valley. The day was dreary and cold but Christmas music was playing on the radio and we held hands in the car throughout much of the drive. After many hours, hungry and in desperate need of a restroom, we stumbled on this diner in Croton.

Maple Glazed Butternut Squash

If you're not a fan of the ubiquitous Thanksgiving marshmallow and yam casserole or if you're just looking for a simpler way to add that expected sweet side dish, then try this simple and delicious recipe. This is our house standard side dish next to the mash and gravy and the only one that never has any leftovers! Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Salad

The first time I tasted this salad was at one of our favorite restaurants and, quite frankly, the combination didn't sound like it would work. But we'd never had a dish there that we didn't like so it was worth the experiment... a delicious experiment, as it turned out! I've ordered that salad several times since then and learned to make it on my own with some personal variations. Enjoy!

Goat Cheese and Herb - A Tart Goes Light

The desire to order a rich delectable goat cheese tart as an appetizer in a restaurant is usually tempered by the rueful realization that we can no longer have dessert. But a little experimentation on a lazy Sunday afternoon produced this far lighter version that keeps the mouth watering flavor while removing some of the fat, calories and cholesterol.

Sweet Potatoes, Stuffed and Loaded

I hadn't thought much about sweet potatoes all summer but the combination of cooler weather, and a colleague's semi- obsession with them, influenced me to pick up a couple of plump ones in the market. The colleague in question had stuffed hers with broccoli, which sounded good, and fat free cottage cheese, which sounded less appealing. But I was certainly inspired to stuff! I chose spinach instead of broccoli because of the creamier texture. Cheese, of course, although I went with cheddar. And I did keep it low fat because there's no sense in ruining the nutritional powerhouse of the mighty sweet potato with gobs of cholesterol.

Risotto Tart Revisited

Last night I was really in the mood for my risotto tart so I began assembling the ingredients and reached for my spring-form pan. But then I saw my newest kitchen additions - two mini spring-forms - that had looked so adorable, and irresistible, on the shelves at Sur La Table. When I bought them I envisioned making mini cakes but have actually found a number of other uses.

Happy Halloween from the Furry Sous Chef

Sous chef Hadley swapped her chef hat for something more holiday appropriate to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween!

The Rummy Pumpkin

This close to Halloween, we've all seen our share of pumpkin cocktails, typically made with vodka. So...a rum based pumpkin cocktail you say? Oh, hell yes, we say! This drink is divine and will make you forget all other versions of pumpkin cocktails.

Pumpkin Shaped Mini Chocolate Pumpkin Cakes

Which came first, the pumpkin or the pan? Well, truthfully, the pan. I saw this Wilton Dimensions mini pumpkin pan, and with my pumpkin obsession, knew I had to have it. Once I had it, though, I had to decide what type of cakes to bake in it.

Chocolate Pumpkin-tini

If you've ever tried the combination of chocolate and pumpkin then you know that they go beautifully together! But why restrict that yummy flavor to baked goods? As tasty as a pumpkin martini is, the chocolate version is simply scrumptious. It's creamy and decadent tasting with just enough pumpkin and chocolate flavors so that you taste both but neither overwhelms you. Serve it to holiday guests on chilly fall evenings... or just make one for yourself after a long day of work. Cheers!

Pumpkin Scones

I love how these pumpkin shaped scones turned out. But... truthfully, that wasn't exactly what I set out to do. Over the weekend I'd planned to bake a batch of pumpkin flavored scones - just basic scones with a little glaze on top. But somehow the dough was just too loose and there was no way to pat it out and shape it.

Autumn Delights!

Apple picking at Harvest Moon Farms

We took advantage of a lovely Columbus Day weekend to take a drive upstate, watch the leaves turn and visit Harvest Moon Farms in North Salem for some apple picking, pumpkin picking, the smell of cider doughnuts and delighting in the season. With baskets of apples and pumpkins now on hand, we re-visited our favorite old and new recipes. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Creamy Banana Daiquiri

When I was growing up, my favorite flavor was banana and I still do love it. But, as an adult, why not give it a little kick? Frozen banana daiquiris are fine but usually too sweet and too light on alcohol so it's like drinking a milkshake.

Healthy Batter "Fried" Broccoli

I love fried zucchini (what's not to love?) and am constantly being tempted by recipes that promise the same taste from an oven rather than a deep fryer. I try and try these recipes but the result is always soggy. Each time I vow to give up on the idea but then I find myself staring at a recipe's photo that looks so...so...crispy and I fall for it again.

Spinach and White Bean Tart

So there I was with a day off on a rainy Friday... Brian at work...  me snuggled in bed with my furry sous chef... watching an Animal Cops marathon on TV... watching people starving their horses and abusing their puppies while I'm hugging the stuffing out of my own pup. I gotta stop watching this because it's making me so mad.

Grace's Trattoria

201 East 71st Street, New York, NY 10021, 212-452-2323 www.gracestrattoria.net

We've shopped at Grace's Market for years but only recently stopped in to the trattoria for Sunday brunch.  The menu is fairly extensive and features far more than standard brunch fare.

Creamy Pumpkin Martini

I'll pause a moment to mourn the official passing of summer on this, the first day of fall. In reality, we pretty much say goodbye to summer after Labor Day and the past week or so has brought some delightfully autumnal weather to New York. Summer may be my favorite season but fall comes a close second and the appearance of pumpkins in the market makes me happy.

The Goddess Goes Light

Green Goddess salad dressing is an old classic recipe, thick and creamy and reminiscent of the great salads you'd get at a steakhouse. Most of the time, I'd be just as happy to skip the steak in favor of a giant portion of salad with extra creamy dressing and thick buttery bread.

The (Belated) Hurricane...... aka The Natural Disaster Cocktail

As you may have heard, New York, usually blissfully free of natural disaster (unless you count political scandals) recently got a double whammy. We were treated to a little earthquake mid-week and then spent the weekend in a hurricane.

Noah's Restaurant

136 Front Street, Greenport, NY 11944, 631-477-6720 www.chefnoahschwartz.com

After strolling around the town of Greenport for a few hours on a lovely warm day, we came to Noah's Restaurant. Hungry, we quickly scanned the menu outside and saw lots of tasty sounding offerings plus the outdoor seating looked quite inviting.  An excellent waiter appeared immediately, showed us to a comfortable table and brought a big carafe of cool water.

Greenport on the North Fork

We spent one of the last warm days of summer strolling around the town of Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island.

The area is known for it's many wineries, farm stands and delightful little towns.  At it's tip is Orient Point where you can catch the ferry to New England.

Frozen Key Lime Daiquiri

We left for our Labor Day weekend getaway thinking we'd be drinking our beloved frozen peach daiquiris. But, we still had a full bottle of Midori on hand and were still freshly enamored with our recent key lime martini recipe, so we were in the mood to experiment. It took a few tries to come up with this delicious and cool blend of lime and melon but the result was well worth it. Cheers!