Bread

Yesterday, we came home to a miserably hot apartment. We hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping and had no food at home. We decided to head out and try Bread, a place that had been recommended to us.

We ordered Greek Olive Tapenade Tartines for our first course. The presentation was unimpressive, but the olive tapenade was tasty. I've decided that I like tapenade a bit chunkier. I think I would pass on this the next time around and save space for some of the other amazing dishes.

Next we tried the Smoked Salmon Carpaccio. I often don't liked smoked foods especially anything with a fake smoke taste. In this dish, the smokey salmon flavor was delicious because it paired nicely with the peppery arugula, the bite of the radishes, and the lemon dressing. We both greatly enjoyed the dish.


Last but not least we tried the Meat Balls served with potatoes and peas. Ahh. They were good! The only critique would be that they were really hot and probably better enjoyed on a cold winter day, but that's our fault. The tomato sauce had a great rich, meaty taste. I only wish we had more bread to sop up every bit of it.

Back Home

We got back into New York City late last night, and arrived home to an empty fridge. We had friends pick-up our farm share last Saturday. We offered them the week's food in exchange for a photo. Here's the photo:


They report that they are enjoying the vegetables and they made the salad with mixed greens, beets, fennel (bulb and leaves) and carrots (tops and all).

Tomorrow will bring more tales of cooking and eating...

Juicing and Grilling

Each morning during our visit to Phoenix, my father has been making us fresh squeezed orange juice. What a delicious treat! My parents have an orange tree, so it's very local. When I was growing up we had two orange trees and two grapefruit trees, and one of our "jobs" was to help pick the fruit and squeeze them. We drank a lot of juice and also froze it in ice cube trays for later.


Yesterday morning we had a friend over for bagels with cream cheese, salmon, white fish, lettuce, onion and tomato. This is one of those easy meals that's more about the shopping and a little presentation than actual cooking. The guys headed over to an excellent NY style deli, Scott's Generations, to pick-up the fixings. My husband did a beautiful job plating everything up.


After a busy day out and about visiting friends and sight seeing, we had my grandmother and uncle over for a BBQ. It was a hot job, but the results were great. Grilled asparagus, summer squash, zucchini and sirloin with baked potatoes, it's a classic family combination. It was our last dinner in Phoenix on this trip, and a fitting way to be sent off.

A Day of Eating

We always seem to eat a lot when we are visiting family and friends. There are restaurants we want to try, old favorites to revisit, and lots of people to eat with. Yesterday we started out with some homemade egg and chorizo burritos. The chorizo came from a Phoenix institution called Schreiner's Fine Sausage. They have traditional German sausages in addition to sausage inspired by Portugal, Spain, England and Mexico. Everything is homemade and delicious. We sauteed the chorizo until it was cooked through and added scrambled eggs. Cooked it until the eggs were dry and wrapped up the mixture in a tortilla. It's a breakfast treat that's quick and easy to prepare.

For dinner we headed over to a new restaurant, Hula's Modern Tiki, to meet friends. They had a wide selection of offerings that included lots of fish, burgers and Polynesian inspired plates. I had their fish tacos with a tiki twist and my husband had Duke's Luau Pork Plate. Both of our meals had their coleslaw (mine was in the tacos and his as a side), and it was great. It started with a typical coleslaw recipe, but added ginger. I plan on recreating it at home.


After spending an evening visiting with friends, we stopped for ice cream at Mary Coyle's on the way home. This is another Phoenix institution, and I have great memories of going there after choir concerts and dance performances while I was growing up. All the girls would pile in one booth and our parents would be in a booth a few spots away. We loved getting to feel grown-up with a booth of our own and the old-fashioned ice cream parlor feel. Today I love the delicious ice cream and the good memories associated with the place. The ice cream is all made on site, and is rich, creamy and not too sweet (the menu brags that it has 16% butterfat content). My husband and I each got our favorite flavors, peanut butter crunch and peppermint chip. Lots of places only make peppermint chip at Christmas time, but Mary Coyle's serves it year round, and it is the perfect way to finish a hot Phoenix summer day.

Matt's Big Breakfast

Can you tell where we are? We arrived in Phoenix, AZ late Thursday night. Yesterday, we woke up bright and early (because we are still on east coast time), and headed over to my favorite breakfast place, Matt's Big Breakfast. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the place is tiny! They have tables to seat about 20 and then counters that seat 10 more. They serve simple food with high quality ingredients, and they do it really well. I wanted to make sure we got there Friday morning because on the weekend there is usually 1.5 hour wait to get in. We got there at 8:00 on Friday and waited 20 minutes - not too bad.


My husband got the breakfast sandwich with thick-cut peppery bacon, grilled onions and scrambled eggs on a lightly toasted challah roll. I had a taste and it was delicious. We split a side order of hash browns because they are a must! They are cooked in butter and have the perfect crunchy crust with a nice soft inside.


I usually order the special when we to to Matt's because it generally includes eggs with some type of green chilies and chorizo. This is just the type of breakfast an Arizona girl living in NYC craves. But yesterday's special was less alluring to me, a Denver omelet made from eggs, ham and green pepper. So I finally took advantage of the opportunity to try their famous waffles. They make the batter in small batches all morning because they actually use beaten egg whites to create light, fluffy waffles. My father and I both had them, and they didn't disappoint. They were served with real butter and maples syrup and the delicious thick-cut bacon.

The next time you are in Phoenix it is worth a trip downtown to get breakfast at Matt's.

Creamed Lambsquarters

I got home last night and realized we didn't have much food in the house [Gasp]! We managed to eat all of our vegetables except for some amaranth, salad greens and lambsquarters. I planned on making us salad for lunches today, so the only thing left to prepare were the lambsquarters. What, you might ask, are lambsquarters? It is a wild green (pictured above) that we got from the CSA share a couple of weeks ago. I learned that it is similar to spinach and immediately wanted to try it creamed. We debated what should accompany our creamed lambsquarters and decided to pick up some sandwiches from Acquedolci. Everything was delicious. We used our non-homogenized milk from Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, but cream would make it even richer.



Creamed Lambsquarters
2 T butter
2 shallots, chopped
1 bunch lambsquarters (or spinach)
1/4 cup whole milk (or cream)
1 dash of nutmeg

Melt the butter and add the shallots. Cook until soft. Wash the lambsquarters and roughly chop. Add to the pan and cook until tender. Add the milk or cream and cook until the milk has reduced. Sprinkle a bit of nutmeg over the top before serving.

Lentils and Rice

We continue on our quest to eat up all of the CSA vegetables before we leave town tomorrow night. This quest led to a strange combination of dishes for dinner last night. Each one was very good in its own right, but they were a bit odd together. We started with hummus with turnips and radishes (a recipe to follow in another post). I quickly baked some kale "chips," and immediately regretted turning the oven on. We rounded out the night with some kale with bacon and lentils and rice. The kale with bacon was delicious, but my husband aptly observed that it tasted like a BBQ dish. It would pair really well with some grilled meat, potato salad, etc. The lentil recipe was adapted from our Indian food store's recipe. It was also very good and would go nicely with a salad and some simple vegetables. Here are the recipes:

Lentils and Rice
1 small red onion, chopped
handful of garlic scapes, finely chopped
2 t ginger, chopped
4 T butter or oil
1/2 t garam masala
1/2 t cumin seed
1/2 t turmeric (I used fresh, but powdered will work too)
1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, minced
1 C rice and lentil mixture
4 C water
1 pinch salt

Saute onion, scapes and ginger in butter or oil until soft. Add the garam masala, cumin seed, turmeric and jalapeno and cook for a couple of more minutes. Add the rice and lentil mixture and water and cook over medium heat until tender (about 25-30minutes). Serve with cilantro and green onion or leftover chutney.

Kale with Bacon
5 slices bacon
1 bunch of kale, torn into pieces
2 T balsamic vinegar

Cook the bacon until starting to brown. Remove from the heat and cut into bite size pieces. Pour off any excess fat. Return the bacon pieces to the pan and add the kale. Once the kale is tender, add the balsamic vinegar and cook just a couple extra minutes.