Walking the Streets of NYC

Yesterday, I went to NYC. I actually had to go up to Columbia University. Originally, I was going to take the subway up. But I got to NYC aroudn lunchtime and I hadn't eaten at Shake Shack in awhile, so I decided to go to the mid-town location. It was so crowded, I decided to walk up to the UWS location. From there i just continued my walk to 118th street. It was kind of fun. I did stop into Magnolia Cupcake, but it was so disorganzied (they have stations instead of just a line). So while the cupcake station was really busy you had employees just milling around. I just wanted one cupcake. I left and went to Alice's Teacup and got a slice of cake instead. I like the idea of Banana cake, I just wish it were lighter, less dense. I wonder, though, if that's possible. I've never really had a light banana cake before. Any suggestions or ideas?

Snow Day....Sort Of

Well, it was my normal day off, but with all the snow, I hibernated at home. I made some Channa Punjabi (which I hadn't made in awhile). It's a nice chickpea and zucchini stew with Indian spices. I like it, and it is easy to make.

My big baking project was Walnut Cookie sandwiches with "peanutella" spread. I started by making my own nutella -- with peanuts and walnuts. It was surprisingly easy to make. And it tasted great!



I used 2 cups of roasted peanuts (I bought them raw and roasted them myself -- with some walnuts thrown in) that I put in the food processor and blended until it started to look like peanut butter. Then I added a cup of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder and 3/4 tsp of vanilla. I blended it some more and streamed in some grapeseed oil (it's what I had, the original recipe called form vegetable oil or a nut oil) and continued blending it until it looked like nutella.

Then I made the cookies. New recipe -- instead of pecans I used walnuts because my Mom gave me a pound of walnuts. I think the only thing I would try differently is to cut down on the sugar -- the cookie was a little too sweet. The other thing I might try is chilling the dough for longer than 15 minutes. Still, I think all in all it came turned out well.



I'm going to bring them into work tomorrow and hopefully get some feedback on how I can improved the recipe.

The Farmer's Market in Winter

I like that the Farmer's Market is open during the winter, but I admit I don't get as much veg as I do in the summer. My staples are always there. Eggs, mushrooms, cheese and bacon (sometimes). Today, I picked up some spinach, clams and a spaghetti squash. I think I'm going to make a spinach, mushroom, and ricotta cheese frittata tonight. Tomorrow, I'll go for the squash.

For lunch today, I made did linguine with clams. It was the first time I've ever cooked clams. It was fun. I made a light a sauce with white wine, olive oil, garlic, and parsley and basil from my herb box. The clams were tasty. I think I'll have to buy more things from the fish guy at the farmer's market. The last time I picked up some perch. Despite having taken a class on how to cook fish, I didn't to a really good job with my perch. Something to work on.

Resolution 2011!

Well, my resolution for 2010 did not happen, but I've got a couple for 2011! One is a running/race related resolution. The other is to be more creative this year. Actually take a writing class or an art class. Basically do something fun like that. The other is to get moving on my NYC plan. Enough talk, this is the year for action!