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My Birthday Dinner- Home Cooked by Mike

29 Oct

I’m still catching up on posts from far too long ago.  I cannot believe that it has already been more than 2 months since this meal.  So today I wanted to show off the incredible dinner that Mike made me for my birthday.

He started with a duo of scallops.  One was wrapped in bacon and the other was with avocado.

And the bacon was CRISPY.  Just the way I like it. 🙂  Both were great.

For the main course, Mike made pork with a mushroom wine sauce and our new classic brussels sprouts with pancetta.

The pork was delicious.

And the brussels sprouts were as delicious as ever.

I thought he had already outdone himself, and then he uncovered this beauty!

Graham cracker crust, whipped cream, strawberries, and graham cracker crumbs.

DELICIOUS!!!

Thanks again, Mike.  You are a fantastic boyfriend and a fantastic chef!

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Proud to “Blog with Substance”

28 Oct

I was honored when Amy (from Amy Shops the Web) gave me “A Blog With Substance” award.  I think it’s a fantastic way to honor the incredible blogging that goes on around the web.  I’m sure there are a lot of bloggers just like me who do this entirely for fun, but secretly wish for a bit of notoriety for all the hard work.  Then there are those very popular and “famous” bloggers that we love and inspire us to keep on blogging. And who better to judge bloggers than fellow bloggers?

As for Amy, she started a blog to get her thoughts out there and found herself blogging about a few passions.  As time went on, she realized that the passion she could really sink her teeth into best was fashion.  And I am sure glad she did! I also had the opportunity to guest blog for Amy while she was finding her direction.  

As a relative newbie to online shopping, Amy has given me advice and suggested sales to check out that have been invaluable.  I always know when ideeli or gilt has Badgley Mischka on sale and Amy is the entire reason that I love the site modcloth.com.  Her intro to other shopping sites has also given me the opportunity to find a 2 hour special for pampering at a spa for $99 and some awesome wine glasses that are a hit at every dinner party.  Not only is she savvy about the space, she has great taste.  It’s an honor to be nominated by Amy.  

This award has 3 great rules:

1) Thank the person who gave me the award:
It appears that everyone who writes this award doesn’t want to be thanked in return, including Amy.  I think thanking people for the things they do, big or small, is incredibly important.  So Miss Amy… I will not ignore this rule.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!  

2) Sum up my blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five words:
Fun. Honest. Informational. Me. Nommy! 🙂 

 
3) Pass it on to 5 other blogs that I feel have real substance:

Stuff I Ate: Lori is the best foodie friend one could ask for.  Not only is she a great cook with fantastic recipes that make me want to run out to try them RIGHT NOW, but she is a fantastic Nomming partner who fully embraces the concept of sharing to enhance enjoyment! We have fully enjoyed our journey through food together and I always look forward to reading her latest posts (and to our next meal together!)  She inspires me every day.

Feisty Foodie:  Even though I do not know Yvo personally, I would be completely remiss to not nominate her for this award.  She has inspired me as a successful food blogger and I am so impressed (ok… and maybe a little jealous) by the fact that she quit her 9-5 to go back to school to do this food thing full time.  I first found her through Lori, and then I was hooked when I realized she was a fellow Mets fan.  One of my all-time favorite posting events she did was her exploration of Banh Mi around the city that she titled “On a Banh Mi Bender.”  

WinedAndDined:  Continuing on the awesome food bloggers that I don’t know personally, I have to give it up to Wined and Dined.  They curate some of the best food deals and events around the city and I have explored quite a few fun opportunities because of their advice.  It is so hard to find this information scattered across the web, so I never miss a posting where they put it all in one place and make some recommendations.  They also have aggregated their posts into great topics including NYC Happy Hour Deals, Free Food, and a place to get your own personal recommendation.  They get it.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman: Ree is a new find of mine who I only started reading after I saw her speak about food blogging at the LA Times Food Festival.  Her personality was both charismatic and humble and I just found myself immediately drawn in by her blog.   Her lifestyle could not be more different than my city living.  She lives on a ranch with her husband (who she calls Marlboro Man) and children.  She writes about food, but also about home schooling her kids, vocabulary lessons, photography, and her life on the ranch.  I love her photos and she really does a beautiful job of photographing every step of her recipes.  She inspires me to take better, more intimate photos of my cooking.  She wrote about what she has learned from blogging and seriously has more followers than most national website.  She’s kind of my blog hero.

Single Infertile Female: My final nomination goes to someone who has absolutely nothing to do with food (shocking I know!)  To go even farther removed from my life, SIF moved to Alaska to settle down after partying it up in San Diego for a number of years.  Her life plan flew off course when she found out she had an insanely aggressive form of endometriosis and set upon a quest to become a mom, even if a man was not even on the horizon.  I am inspired by her bravery.  Not only for posting to the entire (judgmental) world about becoming a single mom through IVF (it still upsets me that these are both such controversial topics), but also for going through one round of IVF that didn’t work and picking herself up by her bootstraps to try again.  She is painfully and hysterically honest.  I enjoy reading her entries and I can’t help but root for her.  I hope this next round works, but even if it doesn’t, I can tell just by reading SIF that she will be okay… and be an inspiration moving forward.  

Thanks again to Amy.  This was fun!

And, as always, Happy Nomming!

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Eggplant Parm

13 Oct

I was hearing this kitchen “fact” about how it’s important to brine eggplant before cooking it.  Some say it brings out the flavor, some say it removes the bitterness, some say it makes them sweat less (so they are less watery and… have less BO… I guess), and some say they just do it because it’s what their mama taught them.

Well… my mama taught me nothing about eggplant.  So one night we decided “what the hell!” and we salted our eggplant for an hour before making it.  Honestly… I have NO idea if it made a difference.  But it tasted great so I’m going to give it a thumbs up until I can give it a head to head.

This recipe came from The Food Network.

After salting and rinsing, we then coated it in an egg and milk bath and then in a mixture of breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.  We then quickly browned them in a pan.

Next we stacked up layers of slices with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella in a greased oven dish.

And baked it to ooey-gooey browned perfection.

I then realized that we had no tomato sauce for the pasta.  What to do?  Why not just make one?  So I set about my new “make my own sauce” recipe where i basically throw tomatoes and spices into a pot, cook it down, mash it up, and then puree it a bit with the hand mixer.  Works like a charm.

And tastes great too!

I think this was my favorite eggplant parm we’ve made.  The added seasoning to the breadcrumbs just made it that much better… and who knows? Maybe the salting isn’t a myth!

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