eat me drink me

Creamy Carrot Fennel Soup

- serves 3-4 -

While wandering the aisle of my grocery store, I noticed the big pile of fennel between the beets and the lettuce. Now, where had I read about fennel…that’s right, everywhere. I plucked a bunch and put it in my basket, only to forget about it for almost a week.

Oops, well it hadn’t gone bad, but I still wasn’t sure what to do with it. So I thought soup. Soup is the answer to all questionable vegetables. Surfing the web for some decent recipes that wouldn’t take me leaving the comfort of my warm home, I decided to start combining ingredients and techniques. The result was a deliciously creamy orange soup, that coincidentally, didn’t have a drop of dairy in it. It’s also super easy, I spent maybe an hour, but half the time was just simmering it while I read email.

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb, sliced thin (yields about 2 cups)
2 cups sliced carrots
1 small onion chopped fine
1 fist sized potato cut in small pieces (Yukon gold works well)
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock or broth
Black pepper and salt to taste

Procedure

1. Heat oil in large pan and put in all the vegetables.

2. Sautee them until soft (though the potato doesn’t have to be cooked as much).

3. Add stock and simmer for about 20 minutes or until everything is breakable by a fork.

4. Let cool before transferring into a blender (may take more then one batch).

5. Blend till everything is pureed and put into clean pot, reheating and adding salt and pepper to taste.

Quiche is one of the easiest dishes to make (and I cheat by using premade crusts, though making crust isn’t too hard).

I made two today, one turkey bacon, onion, and chedder; and the other with romano, zuccinni, and a sprinkling of turkey bacon and onion.

You can pretty much put anything in a quiche.  For these, I beat 8 eggs with 1/2 cup of milk, a tablespoon of brown mustard, and dash of Tabasco.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the ingredients, first cook the bacon.  Use the same pan and cook onions and zuccinni.

In the pie shell, cover bottom with one of each cheese.  For the chedder, layer most of the onions on the cheese.  Next put 4 stripes of bacon over onions and pour egg mixture.

On the romano one, place slices of zuccinni over cheese and add the remaining onions and bacon.  Cover with the rest of the egg mixture.

Put both quiches in the oven and cook about 20 minutes, or until crust is brown and no liquid can be seen on top of pie.

The other day, after noticing a couple sad looking potatoes in my fridge, I decided to use up some of the food stuffs in my fridge.  Here comes the home fries!

 Ingredients:
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks.
1 cup chopped kale
3 cloves garlic minced
1 small to medium yellow squash or zucchini sliced in half moons or chopped in small chunks
1 small onion chopped
1/2 avocado (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce

Procedure:
1. Boil potatoes about 10 minutes (not too soft).
2. Drain potatoes and add to skillet with oil. Add salt and pepper and stir.
3. Pan fry until sides are brown and slightly crusted.
4. Add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is almost translucent.
5. Add squash, kale and remaining spices.
6. Cook until vegetables are to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Dish up and garnish with sliced avocado. You can also add salsa or eggs.

Good for any meal of the day (especially a late night drunken snack).

*ehh ehh

*akek akek

Yes, I am coughing, which is not helping my horridly sore throat.  So tonight, thanks to my lovely roommate and her bottle of Johnny Walker Red Lable, am going to try and make myself better!

This photo holds the key…

A lot of honey, maybe 2 tablespoons worth

About a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

Fill glass with boiling water, but leave two inches of room at the top

Stir well

Pour in a shot of whiskey and take your poor self to the couch to watch a movie!

That’s what being sick is all about.

Meet the Osage Orange, just don’t eat it.  This little buddy has been known to repel cockroaches!  Found for $2 each in the Union Square Green market, maybe we should get a bunch and distribute them to my favorite dive bars and diners.  God only knows they could use it.

I

Ok, I know this is one of those shots everyone has in the deep of a Saturday night.  Though it’s named because drinking a Kamikaze can be suicide, this is a fun shot — and now I can make it!  Nobody complained with I lined the bar with eight shot glasses and experimented on them.  The first one came out with way to much triple sec, so I cut down the second time.  By the third try my patrons agreed it was good.

The recipe for four shots:

3  parts vodka (any is good)

1 part triple sec

dash of Rose’s lime (or fresh if you feel up to it)

pour over ice and shake, then strain into glasses!

Bottoms up!

(no picture this time because I forgot my camera)

Yes, I said “Bitch” wine — and it’s damn good!

Last night I ducked into Eight Mile Creek, a little Australian restaurant in SoHo, to watch the debate. A cute place, classic looking with a full, posh bar, I felt comfortable there especially when I noticed one of the wine bottle labels appeared to say “Bitch” in black, flowery script.

“Hey,” I asked Andy the bartender, “Does that say Bitch?”

He smiled sheepishly and said it was a nice Grenache, and naturally, it came from Australia.

Sold!  I paid my $9 for a glass and indulged in the mild honey and raspberry-strawberry scent.  My first sip went down smoothly, as the wine was medium-sweet.  The rest of the glass went down quickly and I ordered another (was it the tastiness of the wine or the pain of watching McCain?).

The Bitch hails from 40- to 60-year-old vines grown in the Ebenezer sub-region of the Barossa, in South Australia.  Chris Ringland and Lisa Wetherell of Ringland Vintners make it.  I wasn’t able to find a place that carries it to buy, but Eight Mile Creek (240 Mulberry between Prince and Spring Streets) they certainly have it by the glass.

While I wasn’t particularly fond of the antics of the debate, Bitch made it all worth while.

 In lieu of Sarah Palin’s performance during Thursday’s debate, I thought I would make a shot that hit close to home–and by home, I mean Alaska.

The Alaska Pipeline is:

1/2 Canadian whiskey

1/2 Amaretto

Poured into a mixer with ice, shaken and strained into the shot glass(es).

Most of the people thought it was a little sweet, but I was serving them to a gaggle of Sunday afternoon bar flies.  It’s a good girly drink with a mild bite.

For something a little more manly, try portioning it 1/3 Amaretto to 2/3 whiskey.

Enjoy!

Back to my homepage

I have started poaching eggs.  After three meals of super runny, super solid and completely separated, I finally found the perfect balance.  Mmmm…take two of those and put them over a melody of black wild rice, a small chopped tomato and a third a cup of 505’s green chili and — Presto! Breakfast is served.  You can also add a couple slices of rye toast to soak up the egg yoke.  I used rye from the Chelsea Bakery and it was perfect.

The 2008 James Beard Foundation awards took place this past weekend. A shout out to some of the journalists in the winners circle:

Newspaper feature writing without recipes: David Leite for The New York Times, “In a ‘64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date With a Clam”

Newspaper feature writing with recipes: Katy McLaughlin for The Wall Street Journal, “A New Taste Sensation”

Magazine feature writing about a restaurant or chef: Howie Kahn for GQ, “The Wandering Chef”

Magazine feature writing with recipe: Betty Fussell for Saveur, “American Prime”

Magazine feature writing without recipe: Manny Howard for New York Magazine, “My Empire of Dirt”

Writing on spirits, wine or beer: David Darlington for Wine & Spirits Magazine, “Postmodern Deliciousness: The World According to Clark Smith” 

For a complete list of winners check out the website by clicking here!