Pork Tinga

Michael and I are already discussing when we're going to make this again!  SOOOOO GOOD!

We're not really into the celebrity chef scene (i.e., we've never watched an episode of Top Chef) but we have been to Rick Bayless' restaurant in Chicaco XOCO (and loved it!) so his recipe in Food & Wine did not dissapoint.

This is a good Sunday night meal because it takes a little bit of prep/cooking time, but you also get quick and easy leftovers on Monday and Tuesday!

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 pounds trimmed boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3 bay leaves
3/4 pound red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large fresh chorizo, casing removed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
One 28-ounce can peeled Italian tomatoes, chopped and drained
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, seeded and minced, plus 4 teaspoons sauce
Salt and sugar, for seasoning

In a large saucepan, simmer the pork, marjoram, thyme and bay leaves in 4 cups of salted water, partially covered, until the meat is tender, 45 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pork to a plate; let cool slightly, then tear it into smaller pieces. Skim the fat from the pork broth; reserve 1 1/2 cups.

In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the potatoes until just tender, about 8 minutes. Drain well.

In a medium, deep skillet, heat the oil. Add the chorizo and stir over moderately low heat, breaking it up, until cooked through, 10 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the pork and onion to the skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until well-browned, 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and chorizo and cook for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, chipotle, adobo sauce and the 1 1/2 cups of pork broth; simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and a pinch of sugar and serve.

SERVE WITH Flour tortillas, sliced avocado, red onion and queso fresco.

Escarole-Stuffed Seared Trout

Michael's Valentine's Day present was to introduce me to another delicious mid-week meal! 

This seared trout recipe in Food & Wine took about 30 minutes, which was perfect with the Trader Joe's mushroom risotto that also took about 30 minutes on the stove top!
Actually, his REAL Valentine's Day present was just to take an evening off work to have a nice dinner with me.  Poor Michael is working nights and weekends to meet a tight deadline the first week of March so I'm trying to get accustomed to doing my own thing again... at least for a couple more weeks.

Hope everyone had a special and romantic Valentine's Day!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup packed chopped escarole
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus lemon wedges, for serving
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 whole 12-ounce trout, cleaned
Cornmeal, for sprinkling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a bowl, toss the escarole with the shallot, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Stuff the trout cavities with the escarole and close with skewers. Season the fish with salt and pepper and sprinkle with cornmeal.

In a cast-iron skillet, heat 1/8 inch of oil. Add the trout and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until the skin is crisp and the fish is just cooked within, 8 minutes. Transfer the trout to a plate. Wipe out the skillet.

Melt the butter in the skillet. Add the trout; turn to coat. Remove from the heat and let stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Transfer the trout to plates; serve with lemon wedges.

Mini Black-Bottom Cheesecakes with Jam

Dinner parties are the best excuses to try new dessert recipes... and it's even more rewarding when you find a new, easy favorite!

This recipe was very specific about using foil liners.  Well, we only had 6 foil liners in the pantry and I forgot to pick some more up at the store and we stayed later than we expected at a Marti Gras party last night and couldn't get to the store... so all the excuses aside, I decided to wing it and use half foil liners and half regular paper liners.

I carefully sprayed the foil liners before I delicately inserted them into the muffin pan... and I didn't do anything but unwrap the paper liners since I was secretly hoping that they would come out messy and I'd have to eat the "mistakes" after the dinner party.

To my surprise, the un-sprayed paper liners came off rather easily and were totally presentable!  The ridges were a little more pronounced on the foil liners, but in a pinch, paper liners would work great.

Another note: Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers are delicious!  I found them at Rodman's in DC but I don't think I've ever seen them at a big-name supermarket before... so if you can't find any, just use Oreos and scrape out the filling.

Sorry for the long intro.  Here's the recipe from Food & Wine:

INGREDIENTS
Vegetable oil spray
24 plain chocolate wafer cookies, preferably Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup fromage blanc (6 ounces), at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves, warmed

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with foil baking cups and spray the cups with vegetable oil spray. In a food processor, crush the chocolate wafer cookies. Add the butter and process until fine crumbs form. Spoon the chocolate cookie crumbs into the prepared baking cups and press with the bottom of a glass to compact. Bake for 5 minutes, or until almost set. Leave the oven on.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the fromage blanc, then add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Pour the cheesecake batter into the baking cups, filling them three-quarters full.

Bake the cheesecakes for 15 minutes, or until slightly jiggly in the center. Remove from the oven and spread 1 teaspoon of the warmed raspberry preserves on top of each cheesecake. Transfer the muffin tin to the freezer and chill the cheesecakes until set, about 15 minutes.

Remove the cheesecakes from the pan and peel off the foil baking cups. Transfer the cheesecakes to a platter and serve.

MAKE AHEAD The mini black-bottom cheesecakes can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

NOTES Instead of Formage Blanc Crème fraîche, goat cheese, lebneh or quark.

First Loaves of Bread!

Once upon a time, (nearly 2 years ago) I tried making bread from scratch and failed.  But I'm not a quitter!  Michael and I can't go into Whole Foods without leaving with a loaf of bread - especially when you catch them fresh out of oven... mmmm - and I finally found a recipe that worked!

If you're a bread-a-holic, you need this cookbook: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Dad and mom Merschat got it for me at Christmas and I've been in a carb coma ever since!

Check out that crust!

Look at those air bubbles!

It's so delicious... we're having it with Russian Cabbage Soup tonight!

And read this article to get some good background information on what ingredients are best, what tools you need, and the master recipe.  (It's long but not hard... I promise!)

INGREDIENTS
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1⁄2 tbsp granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1⁄2 tbsp coarse kosher or sea salt
6 1⁄2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel

1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded container (not airtight — use container with gasket or lift a corner). Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it up, then leveling the top of the measuring cup with a knife; don’t pat down. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist. If hand-mixing becomes too difficult, use very wet hands to press it together. Don’t knead! This step is done in a matter of minutes, and yields a wet dough loose enough to conform to the container.

4. Cover loosely. Do not use screw-topped jars, which could explode from trapped gases. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately two hours, depending on temperature. Longer rising times, up to about five hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room-temperature dough. We recommend refrigerating the dough at least three hours before shaping a loaf. And relax! You don’t need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as in traditional recipes.

5. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides,” rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom is a collection of four bunched ends. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it doesn’t need to be incorporated. The bottom of the loaf will flatten out during resting and baking.

6. Place the ball on the pizza peel. Let it rest uncovered for about 40 minutes. Depending on the dough’s age, you may see little rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking.

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on another shelf.

8. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing, serrated knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1⁄4-inch-deep cross, scallop or tick-tack-toe pattern into the top. (This helps the bread expand during baking.)

9. With a forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about a cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch. With wet dough, there’s little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack, for best flavor, texture and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Refrigerate the remaining dough in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next two weeks: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the two-week period. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them. The dough can also be frozen in 1-pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.

Makes 4 1-pound loaves

Roast Salmon with Whole-Grain-Mustard Crust

Here's another quick, healthy and easy mid-week meal courtesy of Food & Wine!

If it was summer, we'd have all the ingredients at home... but our chives are dormant for the winter so we had to buy them this time.

The recipe suggests to serve with brussels sprout leaves sautéed with diced chorizo.   We already had broccoli and baked potato in the house and so we'll try the chorizo next time.  It still turned out pretty good though...

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup whole-grain mustard
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced chives
Four 8-ounce skin-on wild salmon fillets
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400° and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a small bowl, stir together the mustard, olive oil and chives.

Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper and place them skin side down on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the mustard mixture over the tops of the fillets. Roast the fish for 6 minutes.

Preheat the broiler. Broil the salmon 6 inches from the heat for about 4 minutes, until the mustard crust is browned and the salmon is almost cooked through. Using a spatula, carefully slide the salmon fillets off their skins and transfer to plates; leave the skin on, if desired. Serve immediately.

Pasta with Roasted Squash, Sausage and Pecans

Today in the Safeway parking lot armed with this month's Food & Wine in hand, we picked this recipe because we had already had oodles of butternut squash and sage at home.  Thank goodness we did!  It was delicious, easy, and made lots of leftovers for the week.

I do need to disclose that we forgot to pick up pecans so we used cashews instead (yum) and we also picked up some delicious parmesan from Eataly in NYC (highly recommended) last weekend so we used that instead of asiago.

OH!  And we had asparagus on the side and paired it with Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere 2010.  Perfecto!

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 pounds butternut squash—peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon chopped sage, plus 20 whole leaves
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 pound fusilli or other curly pasta
1/4 cup freshly grated aged Asiago cheese, plus more for serving

Preheat the oven to 400°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, drizzle the squash with 2 tablespoons of oil and toss. Arrange in an even layer and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bake for about 30 minutes, until just tender. Add the chopped sage and toss.

Meanwhile, put the pecans in a pie plate and bake for about 4 minutes, until toasted.

In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the whole sage leaves and cook over moderate heat, turning once, until crisp, 2 minutes. Transfer the leaves to a plate and pour the butter into a bowl. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the sausage to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, breaking up the sausage, until no pink remains, 7 minutes.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the sausage and melted butter and gradually stir in the cooking water over moderate heat. Gently fold in the squash, pecans and the 1/4 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Scatter the sage on top and serve with more cheese.

M+M and K+L Take New York

We're wrapping up a fantastic (but chilly) weekend in NYC with our good friends Kevin and Laurie from Chicago.

The Maurizio Cattelan exhibit at the Guggenheim was really impressive, the Staten Island ferry was fun (and free!), and the vegan and/or organic restaurants were so delicious!

We miss our friends already but here are some of our favorite photos.

Uncle Mike (1942-2012)

This was the sky on the beltway last Friday as Michael and I drove to BWI to catch our flight to Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, this last-minute trip was to say goodbye to Uncle Mike.

Here's daddy listening to Uncle Mike at my cousin Kristen's wedding in 2009.  He always put a smile on your face with his stories (or by accessorizing with a decorative bow around his neck).

Uncle Mike was the oldest of the Farrell boys... you can tell that they had a lot of fun together.

Above is a picture of all the Farrell siblings at our wedding and below is one of my favorite moments of our wedding.  Uncle Mike pulled Michael aside and gave him a little talk about how he needed to take care of me and what a lucky man he was.

The service for Uncle Mike was probably more elaborate than he would have liked, but I thought it was simple, loving and beautifully adorned with lots flowers sent by friends and family that miss him terribly.  

The world has lost an amazing spirit but I know he's happy up in heaven with my Aunt Judy and cousin Michelle and making pineapple upside down cakes in an old cast iron skillet (like he used to make for me when I would come to visit).  We miss you, Uncle Mike.

Crispy Chicken Thighs with Golden Raisin Compote

Michael has made this dish several times in the last year, but I've either forgotten to get a photo or it just turned out ugly.  So I'm just using the beautiful photo from Food & Wine because my poor photography skills should not keep you from trying this recipe.

We made it when we were in NC for Christmas and everyone loved it!  Farro is cooked similarly to rice and I've added a simple farro recipe at the bottom of this post.  This recipe had definitely made farro one of our new favorite grains.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 ounces butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice (1 cup)
1 large shallot, minced
1/2 Granny Smith apple—peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/4 cups golden raisins (1/2 pound)
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons chopped thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 6 ounce bone-in chicken thighs

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a skillet, melt the butter. Add the squash, cover and cook over moderate heat until almost tender, 3 minutes. Add the shallot and cook for 1 minute. Add the apple, cinnamon and cayenne and cook for 1 minute. Add the raisins, wine, honey and thyme and cook until the wine is almost evaporated. Season with salt and pepper.

In an ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the skillet, skin side down. Cook over high heat until the skin is crisp, 5 minutes. Turn the chicken, transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for 6 minutes, until cooked through; serve with the compote.

Serve with buttered farro with chives.

COOKING FARRO
2 cups (12 ounces) whole-grain farro
4 quarts of boiling salted water

Rinse farro in a strainer under cold running water. Have the salted water boiling in a 6-quart pot. Drop in the farro, stir and get water to a steady, lively simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook 30 to 45 minutes, or until tender. Drain the farro in a sieve. Eat hot or at room temperature, seasoning to taste.

Yield: Makes 4 to 5 cups

Merry Merschat Christmas

We're packing up and getting ready to leave the beautiful mountains of North Carolina and back up to the hustle and bustle of DC. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Here's some images of our tree, our Charlie Brown tree, and other random Christmas photos at the house.

Quinoa Salad with Orange-Cumin Vinaigrette

We had some vegan and vegetarians at the Cookie Swap so Michael searched Vegetarian Times for a winter vegan recipe.  I got several compliments from non-vegans/vegetarians that wanted the recipe so here it is!  Healthy and delicious quinoa... always a hit.

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup dried apricots, diced into small pieces
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 shallot, finely chopped (2 Tbs.)
2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
2 Tbs. chopped fresh mint
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 oranges, peels sliced off and sections cut out

Toast almonds 4 to 5 minutes in dry skillet or toaster oven, or until pale brown and fragrant, stirring often.

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add quinoa and salt, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes, or until tender and almost all water is absorbed. Drain, then transfer to large bowl. Toss with apricots and raisins.

Whisk together orange juice, shallot, parsley, cilantro, mint, orange zest, cumin, and coriander. Whisk in oil. Pour dressing over quinoa, and toss to coat. Garnish with orange slices and toasted almonds.

Cookie Swap 2011

Another successful cookies swap has come and gone... and I am just waking up from my cookie coma from eating too many carbs!

Vicky and I had such a fun time hosting our 6th annual cookie swap and we had a delicious and diverse range of cookies this year!  Everyone did such a wonderful job and we had a great time catching up with old and new friends.  Check out the recipes on our Cookie Swap Recipe Blog at bakedfortheholidays.blogspot.com!



As you can see, we had some of our favorite buffet items out to share: red pepper hummus, crostini with prosciutto, goat cheese and fig jam, truffle tremor cheese, lox and cream cheese crostini, fruit salad, and a new vegan dish that got a lot of compliments: Quinoa Salad with Orange-Cumin Vinaigrette!  As requested, we'll post that recipe soon.  Martha also brought over a delicious vegan corn and bean salad (I still need to ask her for the recipe!)

Love all the great food and good friends that make the holidays so wonderful!

How to Buy a Present for an Architect

Michael's boss just sent me this link and I thought it was hilarious... and eerily true in most cases!  I hope all of you that have had the pleasure of purchasing a gift for Michael will find this as amusing as I did.

Asheville

Michael and I frequently discuss how lucky we are to go "home" to two of the most beautiful places in the country: Northern California and Western North Carolina.

It's a North Carolina Christmas this year and, coincidentally, I just read two things today that reminded me of where we'll be spending the holidays... in the mountains, cozied up by the fire, and spending time with friends and family.

I just saw on Facebook that Good Morning America selected Asheville as one of its most beautiful place in America (in addition to Point Reyes).

Then I opened up my email and American Life in Poetry featured a beautiful poem about the Blue Ridge (even though she refers to the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge, the imagery she describes reminds me of NC).

American Life in Poetry: Column 351
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

In many of those Japanese paintings with Mt. Fuji in the background, we find tiny figures moving along under the immensity of the landscape. Here’s an American version of a scene like that, by Stanley Plumly of Maryland, one of our country’s most accomplished poets.

Off A Side Road Near Staunton

Some nothing afternoon, no one anywhere,
an early autumn stillness in the air,
the kind of empty day you fill by taking in
the full size of the valley and its layers leading
slowly to the Blue Ridge, the quality of country,
if you stand here long enough, you could stay
for, step into, the way a landscape, even on a wall,
pulls you in, one field at a time, pasture and fall
meadow, high above the harvest, perfect
to the tree line, then spirit clouds and intermittent
sunlit smoky rain riding the tops of the mountains,
though you could walk until it’s dark and not reach those rains—
you could walk the rest of the day into the picture
and not know why, at any given moment, you’re there.

Re-Post: Vegetarian Lasagna

Here's another re-post from our old me.com blog that Apple is ditching soon. This lasagna recipe is a regular in our winter menu and works perfectly with leftover spaghetti sauce.

BECHAMEL INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk, heated
1 garlic clove, smashed
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

LASAGNA INGREDIENTS
A bottle of your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce
Any vegetables you want (we like mushrooms, sauteed onions, zucchini, celery, you get the idea)
12 long ruffle-edged dried lasagna noodles (we use no-boil)
5 ounces (1 3/4 cups) finely grated Parmigiana-Reggiano (Remember, you can always add more cheese... we do)

Make béchamel:
Heat butter in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat until melted, then add flour and cook roux over low heat, whisking, 3 minutes. Add hot milk in a fast stream, whisking vigorously, and whisk in garlic and salt. Bring to a boil, whisking. Reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 10 minutes, then remove garlic and add pepper.

Make sauce:
Saute your mushrooms, onions, garlic, zucchini, etc. in a heavy pan (we use our 12-inch cast iron skillet) and then add your favorite pasta sauce. Heat it up so it’s bubbling a little.

Assemble and bake lasagna:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.

If not using no-boil noodles, cook lasagna noodles in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water 8 minutes (noodles will not be cooked through), then drain and transfer to a bowl of cold water.

If using no-boil noodles, just follow instructions on the package and be sure to spread filling all the way to the edge of the noodles so the ends don’t dry out.

Spread 1 cup béchamel on bottom of a buttered 13- by 9-inch baking dish, reserving remainder for last layer. Drain 3 lasagna noodles in 1 layer on a kitchen towel and arrange over béchamel in baking dish. Spread pasta in dish evenly with one third of tomato sauce and sprinkle with 1/3 cup cheese. Repeat layering of pasta, mushroom tomato sauce, and cheese twice, then cover with last 3 lasagna noodles. Spread remaining béchamel on top and sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese.

Bake, uncovered, until lasagna is bubbling and top is browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Let stand at room temperature at least 15 minutes before cutting.

mmmmm.....

Betterave Rotie Au Fromage De Chevre

This recipe is one of our all-time favorites and definitely a crowd pleaser at dinner parties.  This is one of many recipes that we love in Cooking in Provence and the perfect recipe to use up my autumn arugula!

Roasted Beetroot with Fresh Goats' Cheese

INGREDIENTS
2 large cooked beetroot (you can also find pre-cooked beets at Trader Joe's that work great)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp walnut oil
7 oz. fresh goats' cheese
1 bunch arugula (or rocket salad)
3.5 oz. sun-dried tomatoes (we use the ones in a jar)
3.5 oz. olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut beets into wedges and lay flat on a casserole dish.  Season them with salt and pepper and pour oil over the beets.  Roast the beets for 15 minutes on each side.

Chop goats' cheese into chunks and julienne sun-dried tomatoes if not yet sliced.

Sprinkle cheese, arugula and sun-dried tomatoes over the warm beet wedges.  Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, add more freshly ground black pepper, toss, serve, and ENJOY!

NYC Pre-Christmas Trip: Day 3

We're currently on the train coming home. Of course we pick the seats right behind the screaming child but otherwise, it's been a smooth ride.

We finished off our weekend exploring the southern portion of Central Park. Then shared some delicious macaroons from the newly opened Luradee location on the East side.

A sweet ending to our short, mini-vacation.

NYC Pre-Christmas Trip: Day 2

What a gorgeous day to be in the city! Sunny, 60's, and full of holiday spirit.

We explored Brooklyn, got a lot of exercise by walking everywhere, and had a delicious belated birthday dinner for Michael at Fishtail by David Burke.

It's sad to think we have to leave tomorrow...