For Lenny

Lenny asked if I was going to blog about our dinner tonight, so I will oblige him: Michael, Lenny, Jill and I went to Bonfire on Austin Street tonight. We braved the snow and Queens Boulevard on foot.

The appetizers at Bonfire are always good. Not sure about main courses, because we don't usually order them. We had: Goat cheese tapas, Mediterranean mix, nachos grande, stuffed portobello mushroom and medium hot chicken wings. They were all really good.

Michael and Lenny shared the barbecued brisket sliders afterwards, and they were good as well.

No complaints. But after 10 drinks at our table, what's to complain about?

A Quickie

Tonight's dinner was Pork Shepherd's style. Boneless pork loin cut into chunks, marinated in garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil, then browned, then roasted. Onions cut into slices sauteed in olive oil went on top of the pork. Rice and salad on the side.

Jesse has his Senior Trip tomorrow to Pinegrove Ranch upstate. I hope they go in all this snow and I hope he has fun!
I am not cooking this weekend!

Stay Warm! Stay Inside. Drink Wine!

xo

HOMEMADE lasagna !!!

My lasagna is always "homemade". I boil the macaroni, make the meat sauce, etc....However, this time I actually MADE THE PASTA. I used flour and eggs and olive oil and salt and kneaded and kneaded and kneaded until I had REAL pasta dough!

I cut the ball in 4 pieces then ran each piece through the hand cranked pasta machine (that you can't wash with water..hmmm..just wipe off..still trying to get it clean enough for me). I started on the thickest setting, then gradually went thinner. Then I put the sheets of pasta in boiling water for 3 minutes and began layering my lasagna. Michael took a photo of the lasagna.

It was a new experience and very cool and I am not afraid to make pasta anymore :)

Last night was beef in wine. A rib eye roast marinated in an entire bottle of Chianti Classico (I nearly cried pouring the whole bottle over a piece of meat) with onion, carrot, celery and garlic. It sat overnight in the fridge, I browned it in my favorite pot (a Le Creuset that Denise gave me). Meanwhile, I boiled the wine sauce (with veggies removed) until it was halved, poured that over the meat, let it cook to 140 degrees (rare). I deglazed the sauce, added rosemary and potato starch (as THE BOOK told me to) but not too much. And Voila, rare rib eye roast beef with Chianti sauce. Not bad cooking expeditions this week.

Tomorrow, Michael and I will be in the Atlantic Beach traffic court (I got a ticket for No Standing when Michael was flying a kite on the beach a few weeks ago, and I WAS SITTING IN THE CAR). The guy didn't see me, said I should have had the radio on (as if it were my fault he couldn't see me sitting in the front seat with my face in the sun!) Anyhoo, that means no cooking Wednesday night, but Thursday is Pork Shepherd's style. We'll see how that goes.

Keep dry :)

Sad Weekend :(

We spent the weekend doing "funeral" things and that was sad. A necessary part of life, but no fun for anyone.

We did have GREAT pizza Saturday night, however. Michael and I went to the Creutz', spent really fun time with them and Leslie and Isabelle too.

The GREAT pizza was from Emilio's in Commack. Their plain pie is some of the best pizza I've ever had, and their Grandma pie is totally awesome.


It was a wonderful way to end a sad few days and look forward to a new week.

Recipes coming up are: Spaghetti Amatriciana; Pork roast-Shepherd's style, Beef in wine and maybe I will try my hand at homemade pasta too :)

xo and keep warm!

Belated Valentine's Day

Tuesday night was our belated Valentine's Day dinner with Denise and Joe and Penny and Joe. Going out on Valentine's Day is a nightmare no one wanted to endure. We went to FINO in Bayside. Tapas, wine, and good conversation with good friends.

The food was really good. Scallops with mushroom risotto was the best (in my opinion), garlic shrimp, salad, carmelized onion soup, grilled baby octopus, rigatoni with chicken and skirt steak (I may have left something out) were all good. The sea bass left much to be desired and the lemon and chocolate desserts were nothing to talk about.

They also did not have the wine I was looking for. It must be me! Maybe I should BYOB and pay the corkage.......

Tonight I made chicken marsala (Emeril's recipe). It was a big hit with Michael and Jesse (I know it's crazy that I taste the sauce, but won't eat the chicken-maybe not so crazy for me.....). Michael took a picture for my blog, click the image for a larger photo.

Tomorrow is grilled steak with horseradish sauce (made from scratch from the root itself).

The weekend looks bleak food-wise. One of my best friend's dad just passed away, so I will be with her and food will not be on my mind. However, I found myself making escarole and white beans today. One of my absolute favorite foods, and as it turns out, one of Barbara's dads favorites too.

xo,
Jan

The Weekend

Friday night was Pizza Night. Michael brought home a pie and salad from Dani's (our VERY favorite pizza in Queens).

Saturday we went to My Moon again with Dina and Dmitry. It was just as good as last time. And they had NO TURKISH WINE, just as last time. Very odd for a Turkish influenced restaurant... In any case, their Turkish coffee is good (we did not have dessert last time) and the flan was good as well. Next time we'll have to try their baklava. Appetizers were just as good and the main courses were also (I did not order one, nor did I have soup). Maybe I was saving myself for Jill and Lenny's later.

Where we went about 10pm for drinks with a bunch of Forest Hills friends. Didn't make it to our apartment (5 floors up) 'till after 1am.

Sunday was Valentine's Day and yes we went to Fairway in Red Hook. It is the quintessential market in the city! However, before food shopping we ate breakfast (brunch) at EGG in Williamsburg. I had the Eggs Rothko (with kale and tomato on the side) VERY YUMMY! And Michael had Chorizo and Eggs (maybe he'll try something else next time), but he didn't complain :)

Jesse is on vacation (again) for 1 week. This time it's Mid Winter Recess, so I may not be cooking as much this coming week, but that always leaves room for experimentation, as I just purchased a hand cranked past machine ($39 at Bed, Bath and Beyond)...Will keep you informed on the progress of home made pasta!

Tomorrow night we are going back to FINO (http://www.finowinetapas.com/) in Bayside where we have been before with Kim and Andy and George and Joanne. This time we are going with Denise and Joe and Penny and Joe. It is a great place with an extensive wine list, wonderful tapas and good service. Full review later in the week.

Have fun in the snow that's coming, again :)

First Time Polenta

There's a first time for everything and last night was my first time making polenta. Michael has mentioned his curiosity with polenta at various times over the years and eventually I get around to everything, so last night was Polenta Night.

The recipe came from THE BOOK, of course, and as usual I played with it based on my culinary Americanism (or vice versa), however, it was a success.

Lenny liked it too. The Wisners get to be guinea pigs when I cook, hopefully, that turns out well for them :)

To the polenta I added parm-regg and hot Italian sausage, then baked it. The recipe says to bake "until golden brown" no time is given, mind you. Took about 45 minutes.

Tonight is pizza (I am not cooking and I LOVE pizza). Tomorrow is My Moon in Williamsburg with Dina and Dmitry. Sunday is Valentine's Day and anyone who knows me will not be surprised to hear that Michael and I are going to my favorite store FAIRWAY (in Red Hook) to go food shopping :).

Before that, however, we are checking out EGG (http://www.pigandegg.com/) in Williamsburg for breakfast.

Details to follow.....

Have a lovely Friday!

Matteos, Dee's and Theater Cafe

All in one weekend (and don't forget aged. on Friday).

I was obviously busy this weekend. aged. on Friday with Barbara, Matteos on Saturday(in Bellmore) with our very good friends Steve and Lori and their girls (Michelle and Alyssa) for Steve's 49th birthday! I venture to state that all the Matteos on Long Island are the same-food wise-so I guess you could go to one and feel as if you've been to all. The appetizers are great: baked clams (not as good as Don Peppe's on Lefferts, but nobodies are), fried calamari was super tender. Chopped salad was a bit weak (iceberg lettuce you know) and too many onions, and the artichoke was under cooked (we sent it back for more heat) and/or not ripe. The wine is $10 a glass for junk (that was totally unexpected), but the linguini with white clam sauce is nearly heaven.

We had 3 desserts and sang happy birthday to Steve. It was a great evening with friends!

But it wasn't over yet....afterwards Michael and I went to the Bad Moon Saloon in Merrick to see Todd Wolfe play. He's a great blues guitarist (from Forest Hills). Several friends were already there and we had a good time!

Sunday night (no-we didn't watch the Super bowl) we headed out to try Nick's Bistro on Metropolitan Avenue. We'd heard conflicting reviews and figured we'd try it ourselves, but they were having a private party and even though the kitchen was open, we decided this was not the night to check it out. We went to Dee's instead. Always a favorite with great service and brick oven pizza-I had olive delight and Michael had the lamb burger special with tzatziki and grilled veggies.

After dinner we met our very good friends Jill and Lenny for a drink at Theatre Cafe and then went to see The Blind Side movie (it was a well acted feel-good film) we all liked it and left happy (even better when the manager gave me a 4 ticket movie card to come back another time, because the screen was acting funky)!

It's Monday, back to cooking this week: Balsamic turkey burgers; chicken with rice and sausage with polenta.

Have a lovely week!

(aged).

Spur of the moment, my friend Barbara and I went to (aged). for dinner last night. A steak house, you ask? Well, I'd been there before with Denise for lunch so I knew they had a varied menu. Why I ordered the same for dinner as I had for lunch I don't know, however, it wasn't great.

The French onion soup was a BOWL OF SALT. Not so unusual for me to eat, as I love salt and it is a food group in my home, but......this was overdoing it even for my taste buds. Next I had Caesar salad, which is almost always fake in restaurants these days and last night was no exception, but it was palatable (I'm not sure that's a positive review of food).

Barbara ordered the (aged). sampler plate appetizer as her main course. The tuna was good, the crab cakes were good, the chicken was flavorful-Cajun-but dry and chewy, the steak tidbits were tough, but the mushroom bruschetta was good.

One the positive side, the walnut raisin roll in the bread basket was really good, the wine was decent but you don't the vintage or vineyard. They offer types of wine by the glass with no discerning factors (Cabernet or Merlot or Shiraz...).

The service was pretty good, which is a great improvement, as all the reviews of this restaurant when they originally opened were negative concerning the service. Last night even the manager, in his suit, was clearing plates.

As I mentioned, they do have a varied menu, including pasta, chicken, fish, etc. so non-steak eaters may enjoy as well.

Of course, the main event was sharing friendship and conversation so it doesn't really matter where we were or what we ate.

I would go back and order something different from their Entree menu, but probably not for a while. My fingers need to lose their swelling from all that salt :)

The Madness (as Joe says).

I was waxing philosophical this morning and my thought was: Is this blog about food and restaurants really important in the scheme of things? Not to sound maudlin, but if the world were to end (just an expression) would these words mean anything to anyone?

On the other hand (as tevye says) if the world continues on forever and ever, it's really nice to hear about food and restaurants and friends and good times.

Former or latter?

My choice is the latter and I'm sticking with it...and going with it!

Hope you join me :)

xo