Lo Mein Primavera

I cannot wait for the sun to come out!!! Due to the nasty weather this week the pool at the country club has closed, therefore I can't work the pool grille. Thankfully this weekend looks promising!

It was actually nice to have today off though because we made the transition from the beach house to our regular house for the rest of the week. I was able to help my mom pack up and get home early to do a little shopping and prepare dinner.

I recently bought the new Good Housekeeping magazine. It was cool to read because I was a part of a few aspects of this issue (although I worked more on the October and November issue). The first week of my internship I went to Grenwich Village for a photo shoot for the dishes featured in this issue. I stayed for the shoots of these 2 one-dish dinners:

It's so cool to see the final photos in the magazine after seeing the amount of work that goes into choosing the perfect shot.

I was browsing through the recipes and decided to make the Lo Mein Primavera for my mom and I. I tried to follow the recipe almost exactly, but of course I added a few simple changes. Here's the recipe with my changes:

1 pkg. extra-firm tofu
9 oz eziekiel fettucini (or any whole grain fettucini/linguine)
2 T. coconut oil
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, cut into half-moons
2 carrots, grated
1 bunch baby spinach
1/4 cup bragg's amino acids
1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
chopped cilantro for serving

1. Cut in large chunks. Place on a paper towel lined plate and place another layer of paper towel on top. Place a heavy pot on top to press the tofu of excess liquid. Set aside while prepping the rest of the ingredients.
2. Cook the fettucini in salted boiling water until al dente. Rinse and set aside.
3. In a 12-inch non-stick skillet heat 1 T. oil on medium for a minute. Add the tofu in a single layer and cook about 10 minutes, until browned, turning once. Transfer to a plate.
4. In sames killet heat remaining T. of oil on medium. Add celery, pepper, and garlic. Cook a few minutes, unti ltender. Add zucchini and cook a couple more minutes, until tender, stirring.
5. Add carrots, soy sauce, and spinach. Cook until the spinach has wilted and everything is cooked through. Toss with the pasta, tofu, and garnish with chopped cilantro. For extra heat add some cayenne pepper!

This was a delicious healthy meal! I'm so glad we have enough leftovers to enjoy this meal again tomorrrow for dinner! Way to go Good Housekeeping :)

Sun Sun Go Away Come Again Another Day.....

I know, I know.. Where have I been??? This is the longest time I have ever gone without blogging. But, hey.. I've been busy!!!!! As you all know, I have been job searching ever since my internship has ended at Good Housekeeping. I have had no luck until a couple of weeks ago. All of a sudden I received a bunch of calls in the course of 3 days. I scheduled interviews for basically whatever I could get and figured I'd see if any of the places seemed like a good fit for me.

I narrowed my potential career choice down to two... Di bruno brothers in Philadelphia and Battleground Country Club in Manalapan, NJ (only 20 min from my house). Both jobs were extremely different, but I trusted my gut feeling and went with the job in New Jersey. I felt really at ease with the employees of the company and felt that it was a place that I could really build my career. Di Bruno Bros may have been an interesting job, but I realized I may not be quite ready to make the big move out to Philadelphia.

Well, I started my new job as the pool grille cook and supervisor a couple of weeks ago. It was challenging at first to learn the ropes, but I quickly felt at home. It's not quite as glamorous as my internship at Good Housekeeping or any job I dreamed of having in food styling/food media, but I feel confident that I'm still doing what I love and I'm with a really good company that will treat me well. After labor day I'll move on to the country club restaurant and train to be a manager. I have always wanted to be a restaurant manager and feel that I will be really successful at this position given my customer service background (thank you, Nordstrom!) and culinary background. I'll keep y'all updated on how everything turns out!

Anyways, today was my day off and was a rainy and dreary day. Normally, I would be bummed out because that means I'm stuck inside and can't go to the beach or pool. However, today I was actually excited for the crappy weather because all I wanted to do was relax and watch sappy Lifetime movies with my mom. Sooooo..that's exactly what we did. Large mugs of tea were made as we cuddled with our puppies in front of the TV. Around 3:00, we started on dinner... yup, 3:00. What better thing to make on a rainy Sunday than homemade pasta?! This has to be my favorite thing to make (and eat!).

We started out by making the pasta dough:
-1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
-1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
-1/2 tsp. salt
-4 eggs
-1 T. olive oil
-3 T. warm water

Combine the flours and salt. Form a well and add the eggs, olive oil, and water. Whisk and incorporate. Knead the dough until smooth (5-10 min-- upper body workout number 1). Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about 30 min.

While we were cooking, we snacked on some heirloom cherry tomatoes from the Asbury Park farmer's market. They were sooo sweet.. we ate them like candy:

Next, we took our large bunch of roma tomatoes (also from the farmer's market) and concasse'd them (aka blanched). To make tomato concasse, simply core the tomatoes and mark an "x" on the other end of the tomato with a pairing knife. Plunge them in boiling water for a mere 10 seconds and them immediately shock them in ice water. Peel off the skins and remove the seeds. My mom and I started removing the seeds and realized that these small roma tomatoes didn't have that many seeds, so we decided to save some time and skip this step. I simply roughly chopped the peeled tomatoes and set them aside for our sauce.

The other prime ingredient that we needed for our sauce was fresh basil. My mom and I skipped out to our garden (I kid you not) and picked a large bunch.

Yes, our garden consists of a large pot of basil on our condo balcony....

Did I mention we have a wine garden too? We apparantly grow empty wine bottles...

Finally it was time to make some PASTA!

Last week my mom and I bought this crafty pasta machine from William Sonoma. We chose to make bucatini (well... I chose to make bucatini). What is bucatini? It's a thick hollow spaghetti..my most favoooorite type of pasta! Well, let me tell you.. I got some workout making this pasta. This machine is not electronic and quite hard to use. In fact, my mom and I are considering returning it after all of the work it required (especially cleaning). We noticed as we were making hte pasta that it was all sticking together, despite the large amount of flour we were constantly sprinkling on it. We just prayed that it would all separate once it dried out a bit and was cooked.

I also browned some hot italian sausages to go with our pasta meal.
Unpictured was a fresh salad that we enjoyed with the rest of those cherry heirloom tomatoes, craisins, and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Ohhh, but how can I forget the sauce?! The best part of the meal!!!!!!!! It was so simple, yet sooo good. Usually I am not this simle, and when it comes to making a pot of sauce, my mom and I add tons of ingredients. However, this was a simple farmer's market sauce and contained only the simplest, fresh ingredients.

I started out by heating extra virgin olive oil in a large saute pan. I added about 5 small cloves of garlic (minced) and sauteed for 30 seconds, until fragrent (DON'T BURN THE GARLIC!) Next, I added those delicious peeled and chopped tomatoes. Seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper and let the mixture simmer for an hour or 2. At the very end I added in torn basil from the "garden".
Oh so fresh and yummy! I'm sure you want to see a final picture of my plate with the pasta, sauce, cheese, and basil.............

Ummm.. well... I was hungry.. and um well.. I forgot to take a picture. I'M SORRY. I promise you, it was a beautiful plate that was devoured in minutes. My mom and I literally sat at the table after everyone was done and licked our plates...and everyone else's plates...and all of the pots. Ha, you think I'm joking...

Father's Day Menu

I apologize for being MIA for a while! Life has been crazy busy and the commute to my internship was completely wearing me out. So, a brief update: I finished up my internship at Good Housekeeping yesterday! It was truly an amazing experience and I am so lucky to have been exposed to so many aspects of the industry. Luckily, there were plenty of television shoots while I was there that I was able to be a part of. I prepped shoots for Emeril and Guy Fieri, along with a show called "Food-ogrophy" on the Cooking Channel. I loved every minute of it!

I was extremely sad to leave! Unfortunatley there aren't any positions available at the moment, so I am now on the job search! (Wish me luck!!)

Last Sunday my mom and I organized a casual Father's Day dinner for my family. My uncle was in town from Cali, so he came along with my other uncle and aunt, 3 cousins, and grandparents.

I made sandwiches for lunch to bring on the beach with us. While on the beach, we sipped on some Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling.. so light and refreshing!

I headed back to the condo early to prep dinner and appetizers. Our appetizers were pretty basic and included gourmet cheeses, crackers, hummus, etc. I wanted to make a little something special and prepared Giada's Deviled Eggs with Crab. It was delicious! I made a few minor changes: I added in the yolks of 3 eggs to the filling and ended up filling 8 eggs instead of 6. I also sprinkled the tops with paprika (afterwards I realized old bay seasoning would have been nice!):
We had a nice spread for dinner that was not too gourmet (my family enjoys comfort food!) but still incredible. I made an Asian barbecue chicken from Food and Wine magazine. I made this earlier in the afternoon and heated it up later. I made the mistake of coating it in the toasted sesame seeds too early because when I heated it up, the sesame seeds weren't as crunchy and toasty. Woops...next time I'll make sure to coat them with the seeds a la minute!
Since these had a distinct Asian flavor and were a little spicy, I made a few extra chicken drumsticks with Emeril's barbecue sauce.
We also made a double batch of Giada's Sausage, Peppers, and Onions. We served this with toasted Italian rolls, and pasta tossed with olive oil.
My mom also made a tray of homemade mac & cheese (a healthier version that included whole wheat panko and fresh sliced tomatoes!). I think the adults liked this more than the kids! We also had a tossed salad with toasted pine nuts, craisins, croutons, heirloom cherry tomatoes, and raspberry vinaigrette.

The night ended with my mom's famous Strawberry Roll and my grandpa's favorite cake.

Sunday Night Catch Up!

I've been super busy during the week and haven't had much time to update y'all on some of the latest things I've cooked! Well, I'm back on this Sunday evening to play a little "catch up" and fill you in on some good eats!

I made a couple of meals this week to send off to my grandparents. It's nice to know that they have some healthy home cooked meals that can last them through the week. I started off by making a Good Housekeeping recipe for "Crustless Tomato Ricotta Pie". I had to prep this recipe for a TV shoot earlier in the week and was dying to make it myself. It is so fresh and light--the perfect warm summer lunch.

I was at first unsure whether I could post this recipe-- I always have to be careful because some of the recipes I'm exposed to are not yet published and released to the public. However, I double-checked that this recipe was already posted on the Good Housekeeping website. This is a recipe you all have to try. It is great for entertaining--super easy and very beautiful & impressive to serve!
Ingredients:
1 15-oz container part-skim ricotta
4 large eggs
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 coarse ground pepper
1/4 cup 1% milk (I used skim--what I had on hand)
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 lb. ripe tomatoes (preferably heirloom or the freshest available), thin sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a non-stick 9 inch skillet with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, pecorino, salt, and pepper.
3. Whisk together cornstarch and milk until combined. Add to the ricotta mixture.
4. Stir in basil and mint. Pour mixture into the skillet and scatter the top with tomato slices.
5. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until set.

As this would be a nice light lunch, I also wanted to make them a hearty dinner. My mom gave me a recipe out of a weightwatcher cook book to make, but I made several changes to make it a bit more tasty, but still healthy.

Pasta with chicken sausage, bell pepper, and swiss chard:

Ingredients:
1/2 lb pasta
1 T. olive oil
3/4 lb Italian poultry sausage, removed from casings
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch swiss chard, cut in bite-sized peices
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/3 cup vegetable stock
salt & pepper
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning blend
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
pecorino romano cheese, for serving

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil.
2. Add the onions, peppers, and sausage, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon. Cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add swiss chard slowly, adding more when it begins to wilt. Add the stock and tomatoes. Cover and simmer until the chard is fully cooked (about 10 minutes). Sesason with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
4. In the meantime, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, SALTED water until al dente (I cooked it a bit longer because my grandpa likes pasta well-done). Add the cooked pasta to the sausage and swiss chard mixture.
5. Finish with torn basil leaves and freshly grated cheese. Mangia!

Off to another week at the externship! It's going to be another crazy week of T.V. shoots and final recipe testing for the October issue!

Lesson 76: Puff Pastry

I remember when I first went to visit ICE back in September with my mom. We were given a tour and looked in on a class that was making an apple tart with puff pastry. The adviser giving us the tour told us they were using puff pastry that they made the day before. I was amazed that they made their own puff pastry and remember thinking "I can't wait for that to be me!" .. Well, today was the day that I finally learned how to make puff pastry.

Four hours later... I must admit that I would rather buy a frozen package at the grocery store. It was a lot of hard labor and repetitive steps. It seemed like we worked so hard today with very little pay off (since we didn't make anything out of the pastry).. so maybe it'll all seem worth it tomorrow when we actually produce something.

Chef Chad was sick today so we had a substitute chef :( We started out by making a dough (similar to the pate sucree from last week). While the dough rested in the fridge, we started pounding out butter (to soften it while keeping it cold). The amount of noise in the kitchen was deafening as we all pounded the rolling pins as hard as we could against the butter. It was a good way to get out any anger or stress!

Clearly I didn't have any anger or stress today because I was smiling :)

Here's the 2 pounds of butter pounded out into an even square:

We worked in teams of 2 to work on the first large batch of puff pastry. We rolled out our dough into sort of a diamond shape. We placed the butter square in the middle and folded the dough over it like a package:
Next, we rolled and rolled and rolled until it was a large, thin rectangle. We folded the dough like a book and continued to roll and roll to form another large, thin rectangle (this is what forms all of the layers of dough and butter). After folding the dough again, we let the puff pastry rest in the fridge. Later on, we rolled and folded another 2 times.

Each student also made their own puff pastry (just a smaller version). So I had to bang on some more butter and roll and fold dough a million times....

Here was my final puff pastry nice and folded:

Well, lets hope that's the last time I have to make puff pastry.. it was definitely a process. I am curious to see how it tastes in the various recipes tomorrow (both sweet and savory).

On another note, I cooked a delicious dinner this weekend! I had a special guest over for dinner on Sunday night (who I really wanted to impress). I finally got a chance to make homemade pasta at home, since I have been dying to make it since making it in class. I made a few slight changes and added half whole wheat flour to the mix. I hand cut the pasta into a thick fettuccini/pappardalle.

I made a hearty meat sauce to go along with the pasta. I used Anne Burrel's recipe for pasta bolognese. I would say I followed the recipe exactly, but let's be serious, when do I ever do that? I substituted a mix of ground angus beef and ground veal for the meat. I also made some other slight changes along the way with different spices and added half beef stock instead of just water.

I started out by pureeing mirepoix and garlic and browning it in a large saute pan:
After adding the beef and tomato paste, I added in my uncles' homemade merlot. I measured out the 3 cups that the recipe called for and noticed a drop left in the bottle. I looked at my mom and she just said "go for it"! Sooooo I did..

After about 4 hours of simmering, the meat sauce was beautifully thick and rich:

I forgot to take a picture of the final pasta dish, but I took a pic of the leftovers this morning. The sauce looks thicker because it was sitting in the fridge overnight..

I came home from school and found my dad enjoying the leftovers.. He loved it! Hopefully my guest on Sunday did too :)

Lesson 69: Asian Noodles

I am a bit behind on my posts because I forgot my camera in school on Thursday. So let me back-track a bit and tell y'all about Asian Noodle Day!! Thursday was a super long, hectic day since I headed to the city a little bit earlier than usual for an interview. I had a nice little adventure in NY with my awful sense of direction. I made it to my interview and back downtown to school with several blisters on my feet (lesson of the day: don't wear heels when you have to walk around the city).

I definitely worked up an appetite for lots of noodles! I'm so glad I got a picture of all of the dishes presented on the table at the end of class. It's seriously SO much food! All of the dishes that I tell you about are multiplied by 3, since each group makes the same recipes.

My group split up the seven recipes of the day and got cooking! I made the Vietnamese Rice Noodle Bun Salad with Beef. I have never made a Vietnamese dish before, so it was really interesting working with different ingredients and plating a gorgeous meal.

I started out by making the marinade for the beef. I caramelized sugar (by simply boiling it until it turns golden). I added in sesame oil, fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass, and salt. After trimming and slicing the flank steak, I let it sit in the marinade until it was time to grill.

In the meantime, I prepared the salad. I used dried rice stick noodles. Most of the dishes today involved a type of dried rice noodle, which is very different from the noodles we're used to cooking. Instead of just cooking them in boiling water, we had to soak them in warm water until they softened just a bit. Then, I plunged my rice stick noodles in boiling water for only 10 seconds. I also julienned carrots and blanched them, and thinly sliced a Euro cucumber. I made a Vietnamese Dressing by boiling a little bit of water with rice vinegar and palm sugar. I added in shredded carrots, thinly sliced bird's eye chiles (very spicy!), crushed garlic, lime juice, and fish sauce. The dressing was spicy, sour, and sweet.. definitely an interesting taste!

After the meat was grilled, I began plating this large and impressive noodle salad. I garnished the whole thing with a lot of fresh herbs (cilantro and mint), peanuts, and limes:

Jessica made this very traditional Pad Thai recipe. She also used rice noodles and stir fried shrimp, chicken, egg, and a variety of herbs and spices.

Kim made the cold noodle recipes, including this Japanese Cold Soba Noodle with Dipping Sauce: (the little green leaf is actually wasabi paste!)

And this Japanese Udon with White Miso Sauce:
The Pan-Fried Chinese Egg Noodles with Beef & Broccoli (that Al made) was especially interesting because the noodles were formed into an 8-inch disk-shape and pan-fried until they were crispy.


Kim also made this Chinese Chengdu Noodle dish: (made with egg noodles, bean sprouts, and a ginger- peanut dressing)


Nora made this Thai Shrimp with Bean Thread Noodles:

Mi made an extra special Korean noodle dish from her home country:


Yet again, we grabbed our chopsticks and dug in!

I'll be back later today to post on yesterday's class (dumplings!) and wine class. I tried some really amazing Italian wines!

Lesson 64: Bring your momma to school day

I woke up this morning and peeked out my window to see huge snowflakes coming down and coating my backyard. I thought that school would definitely be closed, but as the morning went on and the snow kept falling, school was still running on schedule. My dad offered to drive me to the train station so that I wouldn't have to dig out my car when I get back from the city. Then, my mom surprised me by asking if it would be a good day for her to come to class with me to observe! I have been dying to have my mom see me in action in the kitchen, so I was very excited. Today was the perfect day for her to come since we were making homemade mozzarella and recipes from the Campagnia region of Italy (where my mom's father is from). My mom inspired me to start cooking and has taught me the basics of cooking and baking, so it was a special treat for me to have her with me today.

I am so excited that I made homemade mozzerella today! It was such a fun, easy process.. my mom and I are going to try and get cheese curd so we can make it at home. There is nothing better than making your own cheese and eating it right away while its warm, gooey, and so fresh.

Each group started out by crumbling about 6 pounds of cheese curd (this was a lot of curd):

Then, we poured hot water (180 degrees) over the cheese curd and let it sit for a few minutes:

We each put on 3 layers of gloves so that the hot water wouldn't burn our hands as we stretched out the curds to form the cheese:

We let it sit for a while longer and formed small balls of cheese. After this, it was ready to eat!

We snacked on some with fresh basil and then made "Mozzarella in Carrozza", a fried mozzarella cheese sandwhich:

My mom helped me with these plating designs!

I also made a fantastic potato dish, "Gatto di Patate". I mixed together cooked potatoes, parmesan, soppressata, egg, half & half, mascarpone, and smoked mozzarella. I layered it in small aluminum cups with some of our fresh mozzerella. I topped each "potato cup" with some more fresh mozz and breadcrumbs. They baked in the oven until they were nice and brown. Unfortunately, mine didn't unmold too nicely for some reason. This is a picture of the other group's plate that was more worthy of a picture than my own:

Other dishes of the day included Agnello Cacio e Uova: Lamb stew with eggs and pecorino:

Perciatelli con Salsa di Pomodoro e Ricotta: A hollow spaghetti with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, pepperoncino, and ricotta. This pasta was so fresh and so creamy from the ricotta. Delicioso!

Pesce all'Acqua Pazza: Sea Bass poached in white wine, garlic, tomatoes, parsley and pepperoncino:

Rigatoni con Cavoifiore: pasta with cauliflower, pancetta, breadcrumbs, and pecorino. This was my favorite dish of the day. I loved the salty flavor of the pancetta, the crunch of the breadcrumbs, and the nuttiness of the pecorino.
The extra potato skins from our potato molds got put to good use. Nora made these tasty stuffed potato skins out of some of the extra ingredients we had on hand. She's so good at utilizing all of the food we have available to us!
I had a lovely day with my mom and was so happy she was able to see what I do every day! Like I said, she has inspired me so much and she is the main reason why I am here today. She supports everything that I do and is the most caring and loving person. I strive to be the amazing woman that she is. Thanks, mom for making today special.

Lesson 63: Chicken Livers!

Have I mentioned how much I love Italian cuisine??? I don't want this week to end! I've eaten more this week at school than any other week and have truly enjoyed everything!

Today's recipes were from the Central Region of Italy. I immediately got to work preparing a batch of pasta dough for our group. Once that was out of the way, I made a very interesting first-course. Honestly, the two recipes I worked on today were the ones I liked the least when reviewing the recipes before class. But, I went into class today feeling very laid back and ready to attack whatever is thrown at me. I didn't request to work on any specific recipes, so I got the last two that the other group members didn't want to work on: chicken liver crostini and artichokes with peas and prosciutto (artichokes are really good, but a pain to trim!) I saw this is a fun an unique challenge. I was going to make chicken livers and make it delicious!

Not only did this crostini have livers in it, but I hated just about every other ingredient that went in it, including anchovies and capers...ugh. I began by sauteing some chopped onions. I added the livers to the pan and got a nice sear on them. Next, I added some white wine and let it reduce out. I then added tomato paste, chicken stock, finely chopped anchovies and capers, and fresh thyme. I let the mixture simmer for a while and pureed it into a smooth, pasty sauce.

The brown mixture didn't look too appealing, but I grabbed a spoon and winced while I tried a bite. It was not bad! I spread some on crostini and added sauteed mushrooms to some of them:

The mushrooms really balanced out the "liver" flavor of the crostini and I actually loved it! Don't get me wrong, I would not go grab a bowl of chicken liver puree and slurp it down, but I did enjoy 2 of these little crostini! I can now add chicken livers to the list of foods I have tried since entering culinary school!

I was able to serve my crostini right away as an antipasto. After cleaning up a bit, I got right to work on my next dish: Carciofi coi Piselli. Like I said, artichokes are a pain in the butt to trim. I'm happy I got some practice on them though just in case I have to prepare them for my final exam! After you trim artichokes it is key to get them right into some acid water so that they don't turn brown! I prepared the artichokes by sauteing them in olive oil with some onions, prosciutto, peas and chicken stock. This was a very nice side-dish!

Other dishes of the day included Triglie All'Anconetana: Red mullet marinated in lemon juice, garlic, and rosemary, then coated in breadcrumbs and wrapped with prosciutto before baked:

Tagliatelle con Ragu Bolognese: This ragu was insanely good! I also love thick cut fresh pasta. We hand cut this pasta by rolling up the sheets of pasta dough and cutting about 1/2 inch strips.

Ribollita: A hearty bean and vegetable soup served with garlic tuscan bread. YUM (A perfect rainy day dish)

Arista di Maiale con Rosemarino: A loin of pork rubbed with rosemary and garlic and roasted in the oven with white wine.

Yet another delicious day. I felt uncomfortably full on my train ride home and had really bad aches in my back.. I have to work on my posture.. or get a massage.

Ummmm more SNOW in the forecast?!?!?!?! You have GOT to be kidding me!