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Tursgiving 2014

24 Nov

We have had the pleasure of making some great foodie friends, and one of our favorites was a former coworker of Mike’s who started a Supper Club when they were working together.  We all get along very well, and bond over our fondness for food.  In the past few years, we have done many a dinner at a brand new restaurant opening together and have hosted many a dinner party with Mike’s friend (who also happens to be Mike) as executive chef.  It never disappoints.

Last year around Thanksgiving, our friendship was just forming but Mike invited us to Tursgiving, his annual Friend Thanksgiving dinner where he cooks for about 100 people (though there are only about 20 of us).

This year, we walked in to find hand-made gifts from our host: a wooden appetizer board with a wine glass holder, and a wine glass.

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And each was personalized for us.

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They worked incredibly well to be able to maintain eating and drinking at the same time (two things that should never be separated).

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Here is our host, Mike, showing off his handiwork (both the board and the food).

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Last year we didn’t know what we were in for, but this year we came prepared with empty stomachs.

The first thing out of the oven were these macaroni and cheese bites made by one of the guests.  They were a great way to star the meal.

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We also enjoyed mini wienies in crescent rolls.

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And my favorite part of the meal, short ribs on pita crisps with fontina cheese and pickled red onions.

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These were absolutely gourmet and could be served in one of the finest restaurants in NYC tomorrow. (They were also enjoyed by a fellow food blogger we befriended at Tursgiving, Maggy, who wrote about them with a recipe here)

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And don’t forget about the big platter of shrimp cocktail.

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And the stuffed mushroom caps.

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After all the nibbles, introductions, and friend-making, it was time to sit down to Part 1 of the main event.

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This was the Italian part of the meal, which started with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella with a basil vinaigrette.

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And then the homemade lasagna and meat balls.  This was second only to the short rib bites.  These were both awesome and bursting with flavor.  Mike really knows how to make Italian food.

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And as if that wasn’t enough food yet, it was on to the full Thanksgiving feast, including a 26 pound turkey that was herbed and covered in bacon for a full roast.

Here is the bird pre-cook wrapped in bacon.

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And here is the bird ready to be carved.

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Our carver went at the bird and we all looked on.

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Then there was a (really delicious) string bean casserole.

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Stuffing.

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Creamed spinach.

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Mashed potatoes.

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Brown sugar and butter roasted sweet potatoes (so good!)

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But by this time, my stomach had no more room. So I literally had one single bite of everything.  This was the most pitiful plate, but it was the best I could do.

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We had to leave before dessert, sadly, due to a family obligation, but we did get a homemade panna cotta with berry coulis (which was awesome) and I stole some of my contribution to the party: Grandma’s Meringue Chocolate Chip Kisses. (still one of my all-time favorites)

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I am still blown away that Mike prepares such a huge, extensive, and delicious meal for all of his friends.  We had a great time, with great food, and met some new great friends.  What an awesome day.  Can’t wait for next year!

Mike has graciously offered to share his recipes for his awesome turkey (which is based on his Grandmother’s recipe but with a twist) and the meatballs.  Turkey in this post. Meatballs in the post tomorrow.

Tursgiving 2014: Mike's Turkey

Ingredients

  • 24 lb Turkey
  • salt / pepper
  • 2 sprig rosemary,
  • 2 stems of sage,
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tbsp thyme leaves
  • 3 carrots
  • 3 celery stalks
  • 2 onions
  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 leek stalks
  • 1 large seedless orange
  • 6 tbsp butter separated
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup stock
  • 1 pack of bacon

Instructions

    Day before...
  1. Take the turkey the night before roasting and with 4 tbsp of butter and the parsley and thyme salt and pepper and stuff in between the skin and flesh of the breast meat
  2. Lather the rest of the mixture on top of the bird and cover it all with the bacon (layer strips, intersecting and woven if possible)
  3. Cover and let sit in fridge over night
  4. Morning of...
  5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  6. Salt and Pepper the inside of the bird and stuff with some of each of the vegetables and the rosemary and sage... whatever doesn't fit throw into the roasting pan along with your liquids
  7. Cover with aluminum foil and cook bird for an hour
  8. Then uncover and baste then cook for another hour until bacon cooks
  9. Baste every half hour
  10. After an hour (hour 2 of cooking) take the bacon off and leave it in the pan and try and stuff some into the cavity of the bird.
  11. Cook for another 2 hours and keep basting every half hour
  12. When 4 hours is up, take the juices out of the pan with your baster and remove the turkey from the oven
  13. Quickly cover with aluminum foil and place on the counter on top of a towel and cover with heavy towels so the turkey slowly cooks for the rest of the day until you are ready to carve it (do all of this swiftly as to not let too much heat escape)
  14. Tips:
  15. I like to put the bird in the oven at 730 so it's out by 1130 then carve by 5... it gives you the whole day to have the oven on for your sides or lasagna or whatever dessert you may want!
  16. When you uncover to carve take the juices and throw them into your stock pot so you have a flavorful broth to make your gravy
  17. After bird is carved throw some of your gravy onto the bird and serve!
http://nycnomnom.com/2014/11/24/tursgiving-2014/

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

 

 

 

New York Taste Event 2014: Thanks NY Mag!

17 Nov

My job has a lot of perks.  Because we work with a lot of magazines and websites, we get to take advantage of some of their more exclusive events.  Usually the events are more like big parties, which are fun but not really my thing.  But when New York Magazine (which also happens to be the only magazine I read as a consumer, every issue) invited me to their annual TASTE event, I was thrilled.  They even let me take a Plus One, so I had to invite fellow food lover and blogger, That Lori, of Stuff I Ate, to join me.

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I’ve always wanted to go to TASTE, seeing as though it features a taste from some of the best restaurants in NYC, including some of our favorites, all’onda, Barbutobetony, Butter, Gramercy Tavern, and NoMad.

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The event was in a space called The Waterfront Building on 11th Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets.  It was built in 1891 as the Terminal Stores building and it looked (and looks) like a medieval fortress.  Rail lines ran right into the building from the Hudson river docks and when it was built, it was the only building with direct access to the river, the road, and the rail.

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It was a great space for this event; long and narrow with enough room to get around (though when the masses came in, we were certainly tripping over each other (and the poorly placed floor lights).   Though it certainly felt crowded at times, we never waited more than a few minutes for any food (though by the final hour, most were out of food… not that we could eat any more at that time anyway though!)

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As we walked through the event, I kept noticing that they had great music on. I was actually surprised when we got to the end and it was a live band.  They sounded like a recording.  Great band.

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But now onto the food!  I was impressed to see many of the celebrity chefs working their booths, including Alex Guarnaschelli at Butter and Dale Talde at Talde.

One of my favorite celebrity chefs, Jonathan Waxman, was behind his Barbuto table.  As soon as I lifted my duck liver pâté crostini with apples and saba up to take a picture, Chef Waxman immediately laughed at me and said I was being cute by taking a detailed picture.  I blushfully told him how much I loved his chicken at Barbuto and he told me that he hopes I loved his duck liver even more.  I’m not star struck by many people, but for some reason, Chef Waxman turned me into a giggling little girl.

And yes, his duck liver was superb (though blurry in this picture, seeing as though I was giggling…)

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Here were some of my favorite bites of the evening:

Truffled hummus from Claudette.  I would never have thought to bump up hummus by adding truffle, but this was spot on.  From now on, if I want to make my hummus a more elegant meal, I will be adding truffle salt.

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And while we’re on the topic of truffles, Toloache was serving a beautiful slice of raw tuna with quinoa, avocado aioli, and fresh slices of truffles. It also had a spicy sauce on top which they (kindly) left off of mine.  This was so fresh and just popped with flavor.

 

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The Writing Room was serving a chicken liver mousse with green apples.  The mousse was so fresh and the apples were a great foil for the richness.  A very enjoyable bite.

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Sadly, there was so much food that by the end, I just couldn’t fit another bite.  But I just loved the look of these lettuce cups with egg from Tao.

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But my favorite bite of the evening was squash with pistachio and truffle from Piora.  It was so good, that Piora jumped right to the top of my list for next restaurant I want to try.

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My favorite dessert was the chocolate lollipops from Wallsé. They were so rich and had such amazing flavor.  I went back for one more at the end of the night, but no surprise, there were none left.

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I loved this event and even if I don’t get the opportunity to go as a guest next year, I think it will be worth it to pay for it and bring Mike.  It was an absolutely delicious and fun evening.

Thanks again, New York Magazine!

 

Ragú National Pasta Day event

17 Oct

Happy National Pasta Day!

Now this is a day I can get behind.

This past week, Ragú was kind enough to extend an offer for me to come to a cooking event in honor of National Pasta Day.

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We went to a lovely cooking space, My Cooking Party Loft

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There was a twist, however, as all the recipes we would be cooking were IMPASTAS. (AKA… dishes made WITHOUT pasta and using veggies in their place).

First dish we were learning was a (super simple) cauliflower “mac” and cheese.

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We also learned about spaghetti squash with Chunky Tomato, Garlic, and Onion Ragú and veggies.

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And eggplant “lasagna” made with the classic sauce.

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First we had a quick demo of how to cut onions and garlic before learning how to prep the dishes by our enthusiastic and knowledgeable Chef Joanne Kohlhepp.

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Then we were to find our assigned partner and start to cook!  Making our own spin on the dishes.

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We each received a tray of some items that were precooked and the ingredients we would need, making it nice and easy.

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Then a table of ingredients to choose from to bump up our recipes and make them our own.DSCF3549

Of course, my selected addition to our dish was MEAT.  We grabbed some Pat LaFrieda ground beef and browned it up with onions, then added it to our eggplant lasagna.

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And the photographer even got an action shot as I layered and sauced.

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We also made the cauliflower “mac” and chee.  This was so easy.  Parboiled cauliflower, cheese sauce, topped with breadcrumbs toasted in butter.  We followed the recipe for this one and really enjoyed.

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I was partnered up with the lovely Pam from Triple Threat Mommy and Food Editor of The Shopping Mama.

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We had a great time preparing our dishes together, though you will notice that I have a homemade name tag below.  Why? You might ask… Well… smart me accidentally put the baking dish on top of my original name tag and I guess it stuck. So a few minutes later when we smelled something burning. Someone luckily checked on our dish and found my little name tag, hanging from the bottom of the casserole dish, about to go on fire.  Go me.

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All the bloggers did a great job at preparing our various dishes.DSCF3562

And we proudly gathered around our creations…

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Before sitting down to devour our meals together.

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It was a great event and the food really came out delicious.  We all enjoyed our meals and left very full.  I was impressed at how easy these recipes were (though having some things prepped and someone to clean everything up sure was nice) and all of these could be a very healthy, gluten-less weekday meal.  And I hardly missed the pasta!  (I really didn’t miss it too much… but come on… I LOVE pasta)

Ragú will be holding a Twitter Party later today if you want to join in on the fun and have a chance to win some prizes:

When: Friday, October 17, 2014 at 1PM EST
Where: #NationalPastaDay on Twitter

Follow: @Crowdtappers & @RaguSauce
Prizes: $725 in Visa gift cards
Questions: Ask @Crowdtappers

 Thanks, Ragú, for the invite!  While this was a sponsored event, all opinions are solely my own.