All posts by Stephanie

bikes

Happy Bike Month!

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When Jeremy and I got engaged three years ago, my grandfather gave us some money as a present, and we bought bikes. It was a present that will last forever – not the bikes themselves (I already sold mine and upgraded), but a new hobby that we could share, that would keep us active and healthy together. It was also a fitting gift from my grandfather, who was always very active.

Of course I rode a bike when I was young (loved the paths in the Loantaka Reservation), but it seems different when you’re an adult and have so much to think about, so much to do. Maybe you never forget how to ride a bike, but you may forget how to let it have a place in your life.

My Bike

Last year, I started commuting to work on my bike. I’ll admit that I’m still a wimp and let RIPTA do the driving  in rainy and cold weather, but even commuting about 30% of the time has made such a positive impact on my life. I get to see my neighborhood through the seasons, breathe some fresh air, get exercise, and never have to gas up! My commute is about 4.5 miles each way. Usually, I’m so excited to get on my bike that I’m at work at least a half hour early, and I’m awake enough  that I’m not aching for coffee. Did I mention that my travel time is much shorter than the bus and often faster than driving (especially at rush hour)?

May is National Bike Month, so I thought I’d write this little tribute to getting back on two wheels. If you’d like to try biking to work, Providence Bike to Work day is on Friday…

baking, cooks, vegetables

Slice it Up: Zucchini Tart

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A few years ago, when we first joined a CSA, we were swimming in zucchini. Taking my inspiration from vegetable quiches I had been making earlier in the season, I topped a savory custard with thinly sliced zucchini and yellow squash.

Another Zucchini Tart shot

The result was a hit – it kept well in the fridge, tasted good warm or at room temperature, and was perfect for picnics and polo matches.

Zucchini Tart

Here’s my basic recipe. I’m sure you can imagine many variations. I just use what’s in the fridge – I’ve tried it with many cheeses, herbs, etc. and it’s very adaptable.

Recipe: Zucchini Tart

Ingredients

  • your favorite savory crust recipe (I usually use Martha Stewart’s pate brisee – but there’s always Jiffy in a box)
  • 2 medium zucchini
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup gruyere or similar cheese, shredded
  • 1 c. cream or milk
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp. chopped tarragon
  • Salt and white pepper

Instructions

  1. In a springform tart pan, prepare crust and pre-bake as directed. Set aside to cool.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375.
  3. Cut the round end off the zucchini and slice 1/8 in. thick – much easier with a mandoline!
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with a fork. Whisk in milk.
  5. Season the egg mixture with some salt, white pepper, garlic, and tarragon.
  6. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the crust.
  7. Gently pour the egg mixture over the cheese into the crust.
  8. Now the fun part: starting around the egde, lay down the zucchini slices one by one, overlapping the edges. Instead of trying to spiral the slices, I find it easier to start with one big circle, then make a smaller circle inside it, and so on. It may look messy at first, but don’t worry, it’ll be fine in the end!
  9. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until set. Wiggle it or gently poke a zucchini slice to test.
  10. Allow to cool, slice, and serve.

P.S. When I saw the Slice it Up recipe contest from OXO, I knew I had to enter. I love my OXO tools – for this recipe I’d use my mandoline (actually, I think my parents bought it for my husband, but I’ve taken it over), and my cheese grater.  I’m also totally enamored with my OXO vegetable peeler. I’m not just saying this for a contest, I really do love these tools!

eats, illinois, travels

Chicago Day 1

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It was a foggy but unusually warm weekend in Chicago.

Chicago

Our flight landed early in the morning; a quick train ride later, we were downtown and walking to XOCO for the perfect rainy day breakfast – amazing drinking chocolate and churros. I had the Aztec (fresh-ground chocolate + water + chile + allspice) while J had the Champurrado, a rich and thick chocolate thickened with corn flour.

Churros at XOCO Cocoa at XOCO

We walked around for hours. Soaked with rain, we decided to stop in to Berghoff’s for a warming lunch before the Art Institute.

Chicken Spaetzle Soup Berghoff Beer Sampler

At the Art Institute, we were lucky to catch a free talk on Joseph Cornell (the museum has quite a few of his famous boxes). Among other sights, I loved the surrealist art in the Bergman collection, the Claude Cahun photos, and the Thorne miniature rooms. What a great museum.

We ended the day with my first real Chicago pizza – Lou Malnati’s. It was as good as I hoped (or better).

Pizza at Lou Malnati's

travels

How to Research Your Travel Destination

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I’m so behind on posts – I haven’t even finished telling you about my exciting adventures in Las Vegas – but I wanted to quickly share a tip for finding places to hit while traveling. Of course there are review sites like Yelp, plenty of periodicals, and even just a virtual walk down the street with Google Maps’ street view. But sometimes I want more personal advice.

I follow a lot of blogs on Google Reader and have many well-traveled friends who post photos on Flickr. When I’m getting ready to travel, I like to  search those two sites to see whether my friends (real or virtual) have visited my destination. Here’s how I do it:

Flickr:
If you don’t use Flickr, you can simply head over to flickr.com and search for your destination (maybe add a keyword – like ‘food’ or ‘park’). But if you do use Flickr, and want to search your contacts’ photos, click ‘More Search Types’ after you type into the search box on the top right and choose ‘Your Contact’s Photos.’


Google Reader:
If you’re not familiar with Google Reader, it’s a RSS reader – a tool that allows you to follow blogs (the benefit: no need to visit each blog to look for updates). Simply search at the top and your  results will show you whether that search term was used in any of the blogs you follow. Sometimes, it’ll be a surprise to see which of your friends have visited your destination.

What about you?
How do you research the places you’re going to visit?

eats, rhode island

German Food & Beverage Tasting

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Last weekend we attended the “Taste of Germany” food tasting / art show at the German American Cultural Society of Rhode Island.  The GACS, which is in a residential neighborhood in Pawtucket, has a picturesque mirrored ballroom perfect for special events.  (I’ll let you in on a secret – their cozy basement bar, the Ratskeller, is open on Friday nights from 7pm and is a great place for shockingly affordable German food and draft beers. The selection varies, but some of the beers I’ve had on draft include Kulmbacher Pils, Franziskaner Hefe-weisse, Spaten Lager, Aventinus Dunkel, to name a few.)

This was the first time they’ve held a tasting, and it was a huge hit, so hopefully it’ll happen again next year. I really appreciated the choice of uncommon and interesting foods.  The dishes represented 16 different regions of Germany.

I brought my camera and snapped photos of my favorites:

Eier in grüne soße (eggs in green sauce) from Hesse. The green sauce is bursting with fresh herbs.
Eier in grüne soße

Harzer Kase mit Musik – this marinated cheese is an acquired taste (one that I’ve acquired and my husband hasn’t). It’s really strong and pungent. Some people say the “music” that accompany the cheese comes a bit later, if you know what I mean (I hope you didn’t think my blog was too classy for fart jokes!)
Harzer Käse mit Musik

Bread soup – doesn’t sound like anything special, but it was absolutely delicious!
Bread Soup

Some of the other dishes included three other soups (potato/shrimp, white bean, green bean), potato salad, pretzels with obatzda (a cheese spread- also a favorite of mine), Spreewald style sweet pickles, herring dip, quark spread with pumpernickel, plum cake (my contribution), and stollen.  A large beer and wine selection accompanied all of this food – we had a couple of German beers on draft and toasted with a glass of Heinz Eifel Eiswein.

You can view the rest of my photos from the tasting on Flickr.

arizona, drinks, eats

Kon Tiki, Tucson

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When we were in Tucson I dragged (I am not exaggerating) my husband and parents to Kon Tiki, an untouched 1963 tiki bar. We weren’t even in the mood for a drink, and man were those drinks strong! But I wanted to bask in the Polynesian surroundings and leave with a tiki mug. This one was especially cute.

Mai Tai
Photo by Jeremy May

Its current content, also a perfect Arizona souvenir, is equally likely to put some hair – ahem, spines – on your chest.

Kon Tiki Cactus

 

arizona, eats

Sonoran Hot Dogs in Tucson

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I’ve been to Tucson, Arizona probably twenty times, but only had my first Sonoran hot dog this year. And then I had another.

The Sonoran style hot dog is wrapped in bacon, placed in a soft and sweet Mexican bolillo roll, and topped with chopped tomatoes, onions, pinto beans, shredded cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and sometimes jalapeno sauce.  The roll is not cut all the way to the ends, and the hot dog is small enough to fit entirely inside, making a perfect container for the numerous toppings.

Our first was from El Guero Canelo, which started out in 1993 as a hot dog cart. Their building reminded us of an airplane hangar – spacious, lots of metal, very clean. We loved the fixings buffet, which featured giant grilled spring onions and grilled hot peppers, jalapenos maybe, that had our mouths on fire.

Sonoran Hot Dogs
Photo by Jeremy May

Our second was from BK Carne Asada & Hot Dogs. It was a nice day so we took advantage of their outdoor seating.  Our order came with grilled peppers on the side. They also had a fixings bar which had an interesting roasted pepper salsa.

Sonoran Hot Dogs
Photo by Jeremy May

We washed down each of these hot dogs with horchata, which J cleverly noted is the Arizona equivalent of the classic Rhode Island gaggers / coffee milk combination.

Which was better? It was a close call! I very slightly favored the BK dog because the bun was sweeter and softer, and the dog was grilled perfectly – maybe it’s the mesquite they use. But I preferred the fixings and horchata at El Guero Canelo, and my dining companions preferred their hot dog. I recommend trying both and deciding for yourself.

arizona, eats

El Tovar at the Grand Canyon

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We started our Arizona trip with an excursion to the Grand Canyon. Originally we were going to visit for an evening and morning, but a flight cancellation meant we only had the morning to see the park.

So imagine our disappointment when we woke up, walked to the rim, and saw this – as captured by my phone:

What the Grand Canyon looked like

I especially felt bad for Jeremy, who hadn’t been before (I’d been about 20 years ago).

We made the best of the situation and had a leisurely breakfast at the El Tovar Hotel. I definitely recommend a breakfast there – the menu is great and surprisingly affordable for the quality. Apparently if you go on a clear day, they have quite a view. Given the conditions, we warmed up by the fireplace instead of requesting a window seat.

Sonoran Style Eggs

Jeremy had the Sonoran Style Eggs, described on the menu as “Served in a Tortilla bowl with Two Eggs any style, Chorizo, Natural Chicken, Black Beans, Roasted Peppers, Jack Cheese, Ranchero Sauce, Salsa, Sour Cream, Breakfast Potatoes and Flour Tortilla.” I’m glad it was big enough to steal a few bites for myself. I had the Wild Mushroom, Fresh Spinach and Smoked Gouda omelet, which was also delicious. The staff was friendly and super attentive – I don’t think I’ve ever had my coffee refilled so many times in one breakfast.

When we finished breakfast, the clouds had started to clear, leaving us with a dramatic snowy view.

Grand Canyon

breakfast, cooks

Chicken and Waffles

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Last March we stayed at the Venetian in Las Vegas and enjoyed two amazing brunches at Bouchon. One morning, Jeremy ordered the Chicken and Waffles, described on the menu as “roasted chicken, bacon and chive waffle, Tahitian vanilla bean butter, sauce chasseur.” We couldn’t stop talking about it, and after a Google search, I see we’re not alone.

Today I made us Bouchon-inspired chicken and waffles for brunch.  This Chicken and Waffles recipe from The Cookworks was a good basis, but I made a few changes.

For the waffles, I added minced chives and three slices of finely diced crispy bacon to the batter (also, I substituted milk with a squeeze of lemon juice for the buttermilk, simply because I didn’t have any).  Instead of skin-on chicken breast, I used moderately sized leg quarters. Last, I omitted the dijon cream sauce and instead emulated Bouchon’s menu with vanilla butter and something like a sauce Chausseur (I didn’t go crazy with ingredients here – I essentially made a gravy from rich chicken stock with some shallots and wine).

Dreaming of Bouchon

I’d rather eat the Bouchon version, but when I’m over 2000 miles away, this is a pretty good brunch. Next time I make it, I’ll omit the sugar in the waffle recipe. The Bouchon version uses sourdough, so maybe I’ll try a yeast dough as a base…well, before “next time” we have to eat our way through the 10 leftover waffles in the freezer. Not that I’m complaining.

buys

Grocery Shopping on a Budget

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I’m lucky to live two miles from a Price Rite. Price Rite is so magically inexpensive, I always feel like I’m going overboard and the bill is rarely over $20.  To keep prices down, the store has simple shelving, limited brands, no free grocery bags (I prefer to bring reusable bags anyway).

Here’s what I bought today, which combined with our pantry and freezer, will be the basis of many meals for two:

  • 2 large heads romaine lettuce
  • 1 large bunch broccoli rabe
  • 4 cubanel peppers
  • 2 jalapenos
  • 6 limes
  • 1 lb dried great northern beans
  • 1 lb dried chick peas
  • 1 lb dried black beans
  • 1 lb white rice
  • 1 package 6″ flour tortillas
  • 1 package 8″ flour tortillas

and the total was… $14.86

What are your favorite places to shop when you’re on a budget?