Coffee Granita

This is just the kind of simple refreshing dessert August calls for.  Don't be afraid of whatever "granita" is, this is an awesome homemade Italian ice/slushee.  It's the best darn iced coffee you'll ever have.

Coffee Granita
Adapted from Ina Garten

Ingredients
2 cups hot coffee
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream

1. In a 13x9 in pan, mix coffee, sugar, vanilla, and Bailey's.  Freeze for 1 hour.  Rake the mixture with a large fork, I used a spaghetti serving spoon.  Place pan back in the freezer and repeat the process again every 30-45 minutes, 2 or 3 more times .  You don't want the mixture to turn into a solid block of ice, thus the raking.

Ina served her granita with some whipped cream, I found that unnecessary.  You can be the judge of that indulgence.

Everything I Ate For My 30th Birthday

On Wednesday I turned 30.  I'm really not too torn up about it though because 30 is going to be a pretty incredible year for me, buying a home and getting married!

I celebrated my birthday the only way I know how....lots of FOOD!

To begin with I had an apple fritter at Dean and Deluca that basically blew my mind.  I could have had nothing else the whole day and still been in a happy place from this fritter.  It's totally packed with nutrients because it has apples in it and they cancel out all the sugar and deep-fried bad stuff.

For lunch I dined at the famed Ippudo. I had the akamaru modern which is described as "a more bold, modern translation of the original pork broth; thin noodles topped with Ippudo's secret "umami dama" miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage mushrooms, scallions, and fragrant garlic oil."  It most definitely lived up to all the hype I had been hearing.  And I surprised even myself with my chopstick noodle skills!

After a total mind-blowing Aladdin experience, we got dinner and craft beers at Tink's.  This little lower east side restaurant serves comfort food style tapas.  It was pretty damn incredible for my introduction to the world of tapas, as nontraditional as it may have been.

We had the chocolate pig sliders with cabbage slaw.  These might have been the winner of the evening: braised pork butt, chocolate mole sauce, brioche bun, cabbage slaw.

These are the pretzel crusted chicken fingers served with a chipotle honey dipping sauce and cornichons. Loved them.

This won the most challenging to eat award, making it no less delicious I assure you.  "A lotta buratta"  consisted of buratta, sliced baguettes, tapenade, chili honey oil, balsamic vinegar, and sliced tomato.

I think this was my favorite of the night. The naan pizza was topped with goat cheese, red wine braised figs, bacon and arugula.  Surprise, it was fantastic!

To top the night off right I had my long standing birthday cake flavor: strawberry shortcake.  We went to this little Asian bakery, Panya, and you guessed it...it was delicious!

So there you have it folks, my 30th birthday food fest.  I hope you were able to live vicariously through me a bit here.  If you weren't then I highly recommend you eat at each and every one of these restaurants I visited.

P.S. Did anyone know they sell 32oz beers in Penn Station, and they have 20 different kinds!  That was the real finale of the evening and it was a welcome surprise.

Espresso Fudge

I can't say I'm usually a fudge lover, but this recipe made me reconsider.  I used this Sandra Lee recipe for espresso toffee fudge, I just didn't use the toffee.

Below is the ingredient line-up, minus the entire stick of butter.

The part of the recipe where you boil the butter, sugar, evaporated milk, and espresso powder for 10 minutes was a wild ride.  I do really love having to stir something for an excess of time, but a giant pot of boiling sugar, that was terrifying!  Luckily there were no injuries.

I didn't have toffee chips, they don't seem to be available at smaller supermarkets, so I used mini-chocolate chips and some festive sprinkles.

As I eat the last piece tonight I am both saddened that it has to end and delighted that I got the last one.

It's Ice Pop Season!

This idea came to me in a dream: coffee, mocha powder, cinnamon dolce, ice pop mold.

It seemed like a magical idea and I have been meaning to break out the ice pop mold and so it was created!

 And I must say I really made my dream come true.

What else could be frozen into an ice pop....hmmmmmmm......

Raspberry Coffee Muffins

I received a cupcake-a-day calendar for Christmas. I am 193 days behind the 8 ball on these recipes so I figured now is as good a time as any to get started.

I made these raspberry coffee muffins for my boy's first day of school. I must say I was a little nervous about how they would come out considering the recipe listed an ingredient and then never told me what to do with said ingredient. It also claimed to make a dozen muffins, I ended up making 24 and a giant ramekin heart. I'm not quite sure what kind of gigantore muffin tins cupcake-a-day author is using, but clearly ours were not the same size. Needless to say I think I can safely claim they were a success.


And of course, an innards shot: