Meatloaf Monday

You know all those "Meatless Monday" posts around the internet today? Well, for the meat lovers out there feeling neglected, here's a special treat: meatloaf! Meatloaf?? Yes, the unassuming loaf of meat. Elicitor of many an upturned nose from child and adult alike. Not especially photogenic or abundant in plate appeal, meatloaf can get a bad rap. Here to turn that frown upside down is this recipe (which-surprise!-includes veggies hidden inside) adapted from here. Without further ado… Meatfull Monday!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef 

1 zucchini, diced

4 oz. button mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 yellow onion, diced

2 tablespoons dried basil

2 tablespoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Note, the original recipe calls for zucchini and mushrooms, but I went with broccoli and carrots instead. Be adventurous with your veggie mix-ins!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Simmer onion and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Once the onions begin to become translucent, add vegetables and cover to let steam. Once vegetables are fully softened, add in parsley, basil, garlic powder and salt and pepper. Mix well and remove from stove to cool. Next is my favorite part: combine the cooled vegetable mixture with your raw ground beef in a bowl and squish it all together with your hands. This will feel a lot like massaging a brain (so I imagine). Line a bread pan in parchment paper and place brain--I mean, meat mixture into pan and press in firmly. Bake for about 50-55 minutes.

Before you go assuming this is now a weekly anti-vegetarian series, fear not. I don't love beef that much.

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

The prospect of making this cake intimidated the heck out of me. As still somewhat of a novice baker, I've yet to attempt anything "flourless" in the kitchen. The thought of missing so crucial an ingredient (even gluten free recipes call for some form of flour) gives me the heebee jeebees. So, what's a fearful baker who's conveniently home for the holidays to do? Call in the big guns: DAD. You might notice much older (and wrinklier?) hands in some of the pics; wouldn't want you thinking those were mine. To be perfectly honest, my dad baked this entire cake. I just supervised and annoyingly peeked over his shoulder the whole time snapping away. Does that make me a bad blogger? If so, what a delicious cheat and done only with the best of intentions. If you like chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, this cake is for you. Who needs flour?

We worked from an old, dusty recipe torn from the pages of a nondescript newspaper circa 1992, so I can't properly credit the original source, but a similar recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

1 lb bittersweet chocolate or four 4 oz. bars (we used Ghirardelli's bars here)
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/4 cup hazelnut liqueur (or coffee, almond, chocolate)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. In a saucepan, simmer the bittersweet chocolate (broken up into pieces), butter, and the coffee liqueur. When the mixture is fully melted & smooth, stir in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool. While that's cooling, beat your eggs for several minutes until they're fluffy (don't worry if this takes a bit longer than you expect) and add the sugar. Combine chocolate mixture with the eggs/sugar and blend. Pour batter into pan and bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out virtually clean. Let cool in the pan, then loosen springform and remove. When the cake is fully cooled (we allowed it to sit overnight), dig out your sifter and sprinkle powdered sugar over the top. In a pinch, use a sieve for this step (amateur hour in this house!) and feel free to throw in a paper cutout of your favorite holiday shape to form the "blank space" in the center. We went with the obvious--a tree! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

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Banana Chips

I made these banana chips weeks ago, deep in the black hole of my extended blog "vacation" from July-November, so they never made it on here. Today's the day! Apologies to those of you frantically searching for holiday recipes for the 5,378 parties you'll be attending/hosting over the next two weeks...banana chips are probably not the answer. But these little guys are delicious & super easy to make. With only two ingredients (who am I kidding this isn't even a real recipe): Bananas. Coconut Oil. Boom. Your non-festive holiday party snack ready to go.

Ingredients:

Three large bananas
Coconut Oil (or any kind of oil)

Directions:

Slice the bananas very thin, coat in oil, and spread evenly across a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Sprinkle with salt. Bake at 250° for about 2 hours, turning after 90 minutes. Let cool. The longer they cool, the crispier they become. If eaten right away (which I usually do), you'll have chewier "chips." Either consistency is equally yummy.

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Jennifer's Way Gluten-Free Bakery

I know I know, "gluten-free" is all the rage these days and only seems to grow trendier by the day with every celebrity endorsement (ahem, Gwyneth Paltrow). But with my recent diagnosis of Celiac disease,  I've struggled to adopt the gluten-free way of life, oftentimes feeling reluctant to embrace the trend and espouse its virtues a la the Gwyneths of the world. In large part because...I miss gluten foods. A lot. Pizza, cake, bread, cookies, the list could go on. I've had some luck in finding decently tasty gluten-free alternatives, or attempting a recreation in the kitchen, but it's hit or miss. Plus, the gluten-free versions never quite taste the same. So when I heard about Jennifer's Way Bakery, newly opened by actress Jennifer Esposito here in NYC, my hopes were low and doubts high.

Oh me of little faith. Skepticism quickly dissolved into elation at first blueberry muffin-filled bite. I mean, just look at this beauty...

When it comes to gluten-free baked goods, I find that most are either super bland & tasteless or chock full of sugar to over-compensate the lack of wheat flour. Happily, this time, with bases like almond flour and quinoa flour + whole natural ingredients, neither was the case!

Jennifer herself manned the cash register the day I visited (photo proof below!) and she personally bakes a good portion of their treats.

Plus, all items are organic/non-GMO and free of soy, dairy and refined sugar. Though your taste buds wouldn't know it. Everything I tried could stand on its own in a taste-off against a regular bakery any day. With gluten-free alternatives this sweet, I just might come around to the Gwyneth way of life. But with a lot less designer duds & quirkily named children.

P.S. for those of you outside NY, the bakery does ship their flour/pancake mixes and a few other items nationwide (through the website here) so go on--treat yoself!

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Googa Mooga

A few weekends ago, Kevin and I and our friend Peter traipsed out to Brooklyn in the drizzling rain to The Great Googa Mooga. Despite its vaguely google-ish sounding name, Googa Mooga is actually a food festival in Prospect Park that takes place over three days with 85 restaurant and food vendors, 100 wine/beer sellers and live music performances. In their own words, an amusement park of food, drink and music.

We headed out for the day on Saturday, and despite the rain joining in for the festivities, didn't let that stop us from stuffing ourselves silly.

Walking into the festival is a bit daunting. With an overwhelming amount of food stands lined up end to end, each filling your nose with a thousand different mouthwatering wafts of deliciousness, it's difficult to know where to start. Considering my compatriots were two "growing" boys, we inevitably made a beeline for the BBQ/pork/meat area, clearly marked by a massive smoke-spewing cast iron pig appropriately named Hamageddon.

Peter and Kevin kicked things off with marbled rye cheddarwurst & carmelized onion sandwiches from Pork Slope, while my nose led me to Fatty 'Cue's barbeque pulled pork.

Don't let the pulled pork's unimpressive looks deceive you, my nose did not lead me astray! The boys also scarfed down smoked bacon spicy-slaw sandwiches, which made the briefest of appearances next to my pulled pork below, but that's all I could manage to snap before every last crumb disappeared.

Having thoroughly gorged ourselves on enough pig-related food to last a lifetime (gross), next it was on to fried chicken from Blue Ribbon. Kevin was the least excited for this leg of the eating journey.

As you can see in the next sequence of photos, the fried chicken literally stunned them into belly-contented silence. No actual words were spoken. Only grunts of approval and continuous munching.

During the fried chicken bonanza, a little stand by the name of Free Bread called out to me. A simple warm & gooey toasted PB&J? Yes, please!

Several napkins and finger licks later, we waddled over to the main stage as the band Matt & Kim came on. If you've ever seen Matt & Kim live (my first time!), then you know, they put on a party not just a show.

Launching into their set, the crowd immediately went wild, jumping and cheering, and before we knew it someone pitched themselves up into the hands of the crowd and the throng turned into a mosh pit. I've never "moshed" before in my life (too afraid of getting dropped and trampled!) and wasn't about to start now, so instead of sharing some thrilling action shot of me being whisked along over the heads of the throbbing crowd, I'll share these strangers doing it instead.

Even Kim got out there!

As the concert wound down, and the moshers dispersed, our uncomfortably full bellies slash food comas set in. But seeing as how we were in Brooklyn, at the equivalent of foodie heaven, fresh off an indie darlings Matt & Kim concert, I couldn't resist giving my best shot at blending in with the hipster locals before heading home. How'd I do?

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V & LB in NYC

Two of my bestest college buddies, Laura and Vanessa (Vanessa of Wear Flats to Dinner!), came into town yesterday for the weekend. Unsurprisingly, we really hit the ground running upon their arrival. Within the first five minutes, we'd established who was who in the inevitable episode of 'Girls' the weekend was sure to become (me: Shoshanna. sigh.) and discussed at length Kristin's odd habit of storing nail polish in the refrigerator. Didn't you read this fun fact in a fashion magazine at age five too?! 

After much oh-my-gosh-we-are-reunited freak outs, it was off to dinner at Italian hot spot Forcella. Their claim-to-fame is a pizza with deep-fried dough. I know what you're thinking. Off-putting. But accept the sheer popularity of everything being turned into a fried version of itself these days, and you will realize the utter genius and deliciousness that is fried pizza dough.

After devouring every last crumb Forcella had to offer, it was of course time for dessert. Or two desserts, but who's counting? We stopped first at Butter Lane for cupcakes and then right next door for ice cream. But I only documented the Butter Lane excursion, so the second dessert doesn't actually count due to lack of incriminating evidence to prove we were even there. Who said anything about two desserts again? 

 

With sugar highs firmly in place, our only recourse was to dance it out so to Grey Lady we went.

Honestly, I am still just so gosh-darn excited to be reunited together in the N.Y.C., that there are really no words to accurately explain said excitement (shout out to key missing members Lisa and Alix!)... so instead I'll just let the photos speak for themselves. Or in some cases *ahem Laura* sign for themselves...

I'll leave you with a nice little sequence demonstrating Laura signing for us the song that's playing over the speakers.

We all took it very seriously. Especially Kristin.

Here's to more adventures today!
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Christmas Came Early

It's here! It's here!

My wonderful, fantastic, loving mother bought me this Vitamix food processor as an early Christmas gift a couple weeks ago when we were all in Philadelphia. I have been waiting patiently for its arrival ever since, imagining all the delicious smoothies, spreads, sauces, and batters to concoct, and today was the day! Wasting no time at all, I pulled it right out of the box and whipped up some very Fall-appropriate pumpkin/raisin muffins right then and there. Thanks Mom!!

The Vitamix don't mess around!

Pumpkin/Raisin Muffins

Up Close & Personal

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