Baked Alaska!

In case you didn't know, although I'd be amazed if you didn't, I am going to Alaska. Very soon.  I've been talking about it, thinking about it, planning it, obsessing over it, boring everyone to death about it since September.  Now that the trip is finally within reach I decided to celebrate with some baked Alaska, in cupcake form!!

Step 1 is to bake a cake.  I chose to just make a box mix chocolate cake. Easy peasy.  Try not to fill the cupcakes up too high to have room for the ice cream.  Or of you do fill them up too high, mush them down like I did. Either way it works!  I made 12 cupcakes, the rest of the batter I used to make a round cake.  This round cake was dubbed "hand cake" so you can eat it with your bare hands while standing at the counter.

But I digress.  After the cake has cooled and the ice cream has softened (both can happen at the same time, hooray!) plop a little scoop of ice cream on your cupcakes.  I used strawberry ice cream and a cookie scoop to portion it into the cupcakes and smushed it down to make a flat layer. This goes into the freezer to harden.

The final layer is the meringue, 2 eggs whites, some sugar, some vanilla.  Some recipes call for cream of tartar, but I didn't find it integral.

This went into a 450 degree oven for about 3 minutes and came out like this....

And now for the final unveiling....

Ta-da!!  The ice cream on the perimeter gets a bit melty, but the center stays nice and cold.

Baked Alaska cupcakes were a delicious and dazzling way to get myself pumped up for my cruise.

Off to Alaska! See you all when I get back!

Wonder what I'll be eating.....

Hummus 5 Layer Dip

This dip is really simple and really delicious.  The best part about it: no cooking of any kind., just some chopping which I actually love doing.

Below you can see the ingredients.  This is the order I layered the dip: hummus, cucumber, tomato (used one), olives, dill, feta, more dill to make it look pretty.

Everything gets diced up and layered in a dish.  I used a pie plate and it worked perfectly.

I served it up with pita chips.  I will certainly make this again and you should to at your next gathering.

Stuffed Eggplant

I can't believe I went a whole week without blogging, sorry guys!  I have at last made something that I deemed blog-worthy.

Eggplant stuffed with couscous, tomatoes, and feta.

I used a melon baller to scoop out most of the insides of the eggplant.  The scooped out halves went into the oven for about 15 minutes to soften up.

The eggplant innards got sauteed with tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil.

I cooked up some plain couscous to mix in with the vegetables.

Once the eggplants were stuffed I cooked them for 15 more minutes with feta cheese on top.

MmmmMmmm. Simple, easy, fast, just the way I like it.

Ravioli with Fontina Walnut Sauce

This recipe is from the glorious days when I had a free subscription to Real Simple.  You can see the recipe on their website here.  I always start out by saying I followed this recipe exactly exceeeeeeeeppppttt...... so of course the same goes for this recipe.  I used scallions instead of chives, I had them leftover from my rice salad (have you still not made it!? what are you waiting for!?).

The ingredient line up.  I might have snuck in a bit of extra fontina and mascarpone, but no one was watching.

To go alongside I made Giada's herb focaccia bread.  It's incredibly simple, just add plain selter, let rise, bake.  I could not believe how delicious this was.

I'm heading to Target asap to get more boxes of this gem and you should too.  Dazzle guests with homemade focaccia, do it!

This is not a light meal by any means, but it sure is tasty, and easy too!

Lemon Herb Rice Salad

I'm sure that title has you intrigued.  Intrigued probably isn't the right word.  Maybe you are thinking gross or  huh? or how is this bad for me? But I assure you this is the best side dish you will eat this month.

What's it got in it?  Cucumbers, scallions, carrots, red onion, cilantro, and PEANUTS! Amaaaazing!

The recipe can be found here, they call for a few more herbs that I didn't have on hand and watercress that I couldn't be bothered with.

I used Basmati rice, I'm sure you can use whatever rice you have on hand.

I served the rice with alongside a spinach feta turkey burger.  I'll let you know I intentionally didn't eat my entire burger so I had room for more rice salad.  I know it sounds weird, but trust me.  Get yourself of rice salad, you can thank me later.

PS They call for 2 cups of rice.  I took this to mean 2 cups of uncooked rice which is a serious pot of rice.  I suggest you dial it back a bit if you decide to make this recipe.

New York City Walkabout

Sorry I haven't cooked anything in a while, I promise the second half of my vacation will be spent in front of the stove.

Here's what I have been up to...

On Tuesday I went on an incredible adventure around New York City.  We started down in Battery Park.

After a depressing stroll over to the World Trade Center site, we took a serious walk, 2 miles, to The Meatball Shop.  I got a spicy pork hero with pesto sauce.

 Chris got 3 sliders: classic with tomato sauce, pork with mushroom, and jerk chicken with pesto.  We were both very pleased with our choices.  I highly recommend this joint. Hop to it.

Next we headed over to the Highline which is a lovely park/walkway made from old elevated railroad tracks.  If you haven't been, I recommend it.  It was my favorite part of this adventure.

We hopped off the Highline at 23rd street where we stumbled upon the Doughnut Plant. I got a coconut cream which was unbelievably delicious.  Chris got banana pecan which I refused to taste despite his comment that you really can't taste the banana in it.

Our final foodie stop was Eataly.  Here you can purchase mushrooms for $250 a pound, pig shaped cheese, and balsamic vinegar that is so expensive they keep it locked behind glass.  I'd love to check out their roof-top bar some day.

All in all we walked from Battery Park to 53rd Street which is about 10 miles.  When we got home I was exhausted, full, and definitely had no desire to cook a damn thing.

Homemade Gnocchi with Preserved Lemons and Chicken

I'm sure that title makes you think two things:

1. Homemade gnocchi? KTC first it's homemade mozzarella, now gnocchi! You are simply amazing.

2. Preserved lemons? What the heck are those?

The preserved lemons were given to us as a Christmas gift.  This is a recipe for how they are made, but you can purchase them at some swanky food store, I'm sure.  They are pretty much just pickled lemons.  And I will tell you they are quite delicious.

First let's get into the creation of the gnocchi.  We baked the potatoes, well microwaved them because we were impatient.  Then we peeled them and grated them with cheese grater.  The grated potatoes get mixed with egg, flour, and salt.

Then you roll it out into logs, cut into 1 inch pieces, and roll over a fork to give it lines.

Ta, da! about 100 hand rolled gnocchi!

These babies cook up in about a minute or 2. We then added chicken that we sauteed with preserved lemons, olive oil, and a myriad of seasonings.

And that was my amazing Saturday night.  Holler.