Steak with Scalloped Potatoes

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The other day my husband asked me, "How many apartments do you think we have seen since moving to New York City?" The answer is somewhere between several and A LOT. When we moved here two years ago, we sublet an apartment off craigslist that had beautiful photos. We were told it was furnished with cable TV, internet, and a fully stocked kitchen. It sounded great! When we arrived, we found a mattress on the floor, a TV without cable (which means we only got NY1), no internet, a bathtub coated in mildew, and a kitchen that was far from fully stocked. Although, it was so dirty that I didn't want to do any cooking in there anyways. Luckily we had only rented it for five days, and after seeing it we were bound and determined to have a new apartment at the end of that five days.

We looked at several apartments in Cobble Hill, several in Chinatown, several in the Lower East side, and finally ended up just North of Little Italy in Manhattan. Last year, we thought about buying an apartment and we looked at a bunch of places. We ended up deciding against buying a place. Once our lease was coming due, we thought about renting a bigger apartment. We looked in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but our landlord decreased our rent and then nowhere else could compete. This year we have looked at apartments in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, and the time for a decision is almost here. We love our little apartment in NoLIta (North of Little Italy), but it is really small and we would love to have more space. We will let you know what we decide.


The other night we had steak, scalloped potatoes and salad for dinner. It was our totally local dinner. The steak was amazing. My husband declared that it was the best steak he had ever eaten. It was a local, grass fed rib steak and it had a great beefy flavor. We don't have a grill, so we just cook steak in a cast iron pan on the stove top. Warm up the pan, add a drizzle of oil, and add the steak that has been generously sprinkled with salt and pepper. We cooked it for 5 minutes per side, but cook yours until it's to your liking. We had a simple salad with greens and cherry tomatoes from our farm share and our house vinaigrette. Here is the recipe for our take on scalloped potatoes:

Scalloped Potatoes
2 leeks, whites finely sliced and rinsed
2 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
1 T oil
2 T butter
salt and pepper

Heat up a large skillet, add some oil and add the potatoes and leeks. Add a quarter cup of water and cover. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and let the rest of the water evaporate. Remove from the heat and add the butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

I used cultured butter and Himalayan sea salt. The butter had a delicious rich flavor. I used Himalayan sea salt because it is full of beneficial nutrients. They are both new splurges.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Works-For-Me Wednesday and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

New Profile Picture

I'm thinking of using a new profile picture. I have used different photos of meals we have made, but I want to use something more consistent. I figure the most appropriate thing to use is a picture of our kitchen. That is where all the magic happens, and I think our Manhattan kitchen might be of interest to people.

The entertaining thing is that our kitchen is really small, but it's not even THAT bad by Manhattan standards. We looked at apartments that were so small they didn't have ovens, or only had an under-the-counter fridge. When we walked in and looked around them, it would take me a minute to realize what was missing. I told the real estate agent I required an oven and a larger fridge. She seemed a bit surprised. Apparently a lot of people really don't cook.


What do you think? Now that I'm looking at it, I'm thinking I should clean off the fridge and straighten out (or remove) the basket of our picnic supplies. In case any of you were dreaming of living in Manhattan, or looking back with longing of past days in NYC, I'm providing you with a little taste of reality. We bought that island and pot rack. Can you imagine preparing a meal without it? There is almost no other counter space! The stove is a challenge because we can't fit more than one large pot at a time, but we make it work.

All in all we love our tiny apartment and kitchen. It has helped us whittle our belongings down to the truly essential (and we both have parents that are generous with garage/barn/attic storage space for things we want to keep for the long term). We love our location and are willing to sacrifice some space for all our area has to offer.

This post is part of Twister Tuesday at GNOWFGLINS.

This post is a part of Top 10 Tuesdays at Oh Amanda.

Angelo's of Mulberry Street

We live very close to Little Italy in New York City. Little Italy is a busy, touristy area with hawkers out in front of the restaurants pressuring passersby to eat dinner in their establishment. Most of the places are almost interchangeable because they all have menus serving the same Italian-American classics. We have eaten at a couple of places when we have family in town, but we are never sure where to go because they all blur together. Once we tried asking an old-timer from the neighborhood which restaurants were the best and he refused to answer the question. We asked which ones to avoid, and he replied, "I don't know you. I don't know who you know." He went on to explain that there are a lot of "wise guys" in Little Italy and he didn't want it getting around that he was suggesting one restaurant or bad mouthing another. I think of the mob as a thing of the past; something that died away in the 1960s or 70s. Is it still around today? I don't know, but it was fascinating to hear the old-timer's concerns. Just in case, I'm not going to say anything negative, but I will give a recommendation.



Last night we got home from work, and the apartment was hot as Hades. Neither one of us could imagine cooking, so we decided to go out. A friend of ours has been harassing us to try Angelo's and last night we acquiesced and gave it a try. We ended up sitting in a funny little room in the back, it was a little tight, but it was fine. The service was impeccable and the food was even better. I wish I had photos of our meal, but we were sans camera last night and the cell phone pictures just didn't do the food justice (the phone cameras don't do well in low light).

We started with Carpaccio Veneziana which included thin slices of raw fillet of beef served on a bed of arugula dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, capers and generous curls of Parmesan cheese. The combination of peppery arugula, the tangy capers and the pungent flavor of the cheese with the paper thin slices of tender beef was amazing. We chose Rigatoni Del Montannaro for our pasta course. This dish is a Wednesday night special and was described as rigatoni with sausage and wild mushrooms in a special sauce. The waiter came out with two large bowls for us; it was hard to believe that this was a single serving split in half. Ahh, heaven in a bowl. It turns out that the special sauce included tomatoes, cream and cognac. It reminded me of a really good vodka sauce. Delicious! For the meat course we chose the Scaloppine di Vitello Caprese. The thin slices of veal sauteed with asparagus, zucchini and artichoke hearts were lovely and fresh. I was stuffed by this point, and it was a hard for our taste buds to appreciate the delicate flavor after the big showy flavor of the tomato cream sauce with sausage and wild mushrooms. I could only eat three bites of the meat course and then I had to take the rest home. I packed up the leftovers over lettuce for today's lunch and it was fabulous. I ate it cold and the artichoke flavor really came through.

Angelo's gets an A. It's a great place to go for a treat.

Beans and Greens

Last night I arrived home to find my husband putting the finishing touches on dinner. I'm always starving by the time I get home from work, so this was a wonderful surprise. We had planned on having beans and greens with sausage, but we didn't have all of the traditional ingredients on hand. He made some substitutions that worked out really well.


The traditional beans and greens are usually a mixture of greens, garlic, white beans and chicken stock. Here is the City Share version, it happens to be vegan (in case that is of interest to you):

City Share Beans and Greens (vegan)
1 -2 bunches of greens
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/4 c. water
1 t. miso
1 t. Dijon mustard
1 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans

Soak and rinse the greens. Remove any tough stems. Saute greens until tender. Push to the side of the pan, and add water, miso and mustard to the other side. Stir the sauce together until combined. Add beans and cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

We topped this with sausage and caramelized onions to make it a meal (and no longer vegan). The sausage came from Alleva Dairy. We are lucky to have this old school Italian market close by. It feels like it hasn't changed in 50 years (in a good way) and the staff is really helpful. It's a great place to pick up all sorts of Italian specialties including sausage.

Happy eating!

House Vinaigrette

I've just recently started reading blogs (I'm a bit of a Luddite). I never got into them before because I thought it was mostly people putting lots of personal details out to the world. I didn't feel the need to read other people's diaries, and so I stayed away. Recently this changed when I started reading food blogs. There I found some information that I could use. I decided that I could feel comfortable sharing what I ate for dinner, and City Share was born.

The one dangerous thing about these food blogs is that they seem to feature A LOT of desserts. Desserts with gooey, tempting photos. I can almost feel myself going into sugar coma just reading them. I try to keep the baking to a minimum. Or when I do bake, the goods need to be whisked away to work, someone else's house, or a party so that I don't eat a half a pan of brownies or a pie in one evening. Because of this, we will be focusing not on desserts, but meals.


Last night's dinner was a salad with a side of steamed asparagus. The asparagus was just steamed and served plain. Why mess with a good thing? The salad featured greens and radishes from our share, napa cabbage, carrots, bits of mozzarella, pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and sautéed chicken breast. I think the salad dressing is key, and luckily my husband makes the best salad dressing! We occasionally buy a bottle of dressing to make life easier, but it always disappoints. This is our go to recipe, and we decided to call it our House Vinaigrette. He never really measures, but here's a best guess of the proportions:

House Vinaigrette
Juice of half a lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
Splash of cider vinegar (approx. 1T)
1/4 t fresh ground pepper
1 t Dijon mustard
2 T olive oil

After mincing the garlic, drag the side of the knife over the garlic to crush the garlic and release the juices. This step of smearing the garlic is the key to the whole dressing. Combine ingredients.

Happy Eating!

Day Off

Yesterday we didn't prepare anything from our CSA share. We had family in town and ended up eating out for all of our meals. However, the meals out and about are worthy of mention.

The first stop was brunch at Public. We have walked by there plenty of times, and I have even read the menu on several occasions, but I was never really tempted to stop. For some reason, we popped in yesterday on a whim and it exceeded our expectations. It was delicious!


I ordered the Crispy pork belly with poached eggs, potato hash, buttered spinach, roasted tomatoes and a harissa hollandaise. The sauce was amazing, and at some point I will try to recreate it.


My husband was much more sensible and got the Salad of herby lentils, green beans, avocado, toasted pecans & baby gem with pomegranate molasses and avocado oil vinaigrette. (The descriptions are just too good. I had to quote them.) I guess my palate is unsophisticated because the dressing just tasted like balsamic vinaigrette. Luckily, this will make it much easier to recreate.

For dinner, we met up with family for Vietnamese food at Bao Noodles. I was too embarrassed to take photos, so you'll just have to trust me that the grapefruit salad and Bún ga nuong (grilled chicken vermicelli) were the perfect meal for the end of a hot, humid weekend. After dinner we strolled through Stuyvesant and Union Squares, and arrived at Crumbs. I never really succumbed to the cupcake craze- I didn't have the budget or extra inches in my waistband- so the selection was a little overwhelming to me. After much deliberation, I decided on the red velvet cupcake. I actually found it disappointing. I was looking forward to some rich cream cheese frosting, but instead it was slathered with a disappointing sugary butter cream. This really worked out well because now I'm not dying for a repeat visit.

Tomorrow we return to the tale of our CSA share.

Dinosaur's Mean Greens

I couldn't wait to start digging into our share last night. I decided to cook up the braising greens based on a recipe from Dinosaur Bar B Que. If you have never been to Dinosaur Bar B Que, it is worth the trip. It started in Syracuse, and now has a location in NYC at 125th St (right across from the Fairway). Friends from Texas even think the brisket is good, and it's hard for a Texan to admit that New York State BBQ is even edible.

So I started with the Dinosaur recipe for "Mean Money Greens Revisited," and made a couple of tweaks based on what we had available. This is what I ended up with:



Dinosaur Inspired Greens
1/2 pound braising greens (use up to 1 pound)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
4 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or honey)

Wash the greens well. Drop the greens into a couple of inches of boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Coarsely chop. Pour the olive oil into a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the peppers and onions. Once they're soft, add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Dump in the greens and give them a stir. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, the vinegar, Tabasco, and maple syrup. Stir a couple of more times, and it's ready to serve.

Ours ended up heavy on the peppers and onions because we only had a little over a half pound of greens, but it was really tasty and we got a rainbow of vegetables right in one dish. All of the veggies were still firm. If you prefer a more traditional texture, just keep on cooking them until they are to your liking before adding all of the seasonings.



Even though the greens were good enough to eat by themselves, we decided to add a couple of other things to our meal. We started with a salad of mixed greens with a bit of red onion and some yogurt dressing leftover from some Pakistani takeout (from Lahore Diner - delicious!), and the rest of the menu included some blackened salmon and lemon, garlic quinoa. Doesn't it look delicious on our gorgeous mustard yellow plates?

Looking forward to the next delicious meal.

First Day

This morning kind of felt like the first day of school because it felt like a new beginning, and I was excited to head off and get our first share, meet the farmers and the other members. Of course just like the first day of school, I started having some second thoughts as the time got closer. We had originally wanted to join a different CSA because it had a pick-up during the week, it was a bit closer to our apartment, cheaper and offered an affordable fruit option. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we procrastinated signing-up and missed the deadline. During lunch I started lamenting that maybe we had missed out on the better option.

When we arrived at our pick-up point, I saw that all of my fears were unnecessary. They had several giant ice chests with labels on the side letting us know the contents and the quantity to take. We got about half a pound of two different salad green mixes, braising greens, asparagus, beets, radishes and broccoli raab.



I'm ecstatic with the selection, especially considering that this is only the first week. This is probably more food than we got during the height of our CSA two summers ago.

Looking forward to some delicious meals.

Anticipation

We are looking forward to getting our first CSA share of the season tomorrow. The members of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) pay for a share of the farm's vegetables at the beginning of the season. We joined a CSA two summers ago and we were really disappointed with the amount of food we received. We would head to the Farmers' Market each week to supplement our vegetables and found that it would have been cheaper to just buy each week at the market. Of course we joined the CSA to support the farmers and have a culinary adventure, but it would have been nice if it felt like a good value too.

We took a break from CSA life last summer, and now we are ready to venture out and try again. We have joined the Foodstocking CSA. We thought we'd blog our way through the summer to hold ourselves accountable and share our ideas on using up massive amounts of kale and other veggies. But who knows, maybe there will not be massive amounts of anything... please join us on our adventure.