Tofu & Kale & Beets Oh My!

Recently have become obsessed with Kale. After spending Mardi Gras cocktail time talking about kale chips, I felt I ought to pay proper respect to this delicious and nutritious leafy green. Twice this week already, I’ve used it in a sort of veggie stir fry. Although I failed to document Wednesday night’s dinner, here is a recipe for the second one I made last night.

Tofu Beet and Kale Veggie Fry

• 1 container of extra firm tofu

• 1 can of sliced or diced beets (reserve roughly 3 tablespoons of beet juice)

• 3-5 stalks of kale

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• sea salt

• dash of cayenne pepper

Drain and press water out of tofu and cube into thumb sized pieces. In a pan, heat olive oil and add a dash of salt, then add tofu and allow to brown. When tofu has browned, add reserved amount of beet juice to allow to simmer. Add the beets, sauteing and stirring every few minutes. Last add the kale for the last minute or 2. It should go dark green and wilt slightly. Add a dash more salt and olive oil while still in the pan and then toss and serve.

This super easy to make dish should honestly take you all of 10 mins to start and have ready to eat. Even fasteri if you already have everything cut up and ready to go! I’ve found the best way for me to drain tofu is line a bowl with paper towels and place tofu in bowl, covering with paper towels. Then put another bowl on top and give a slight press down. Allow to drain for at least 5 mins.

Let me know what you think. I am saving kale chips for this weekend’s cooking experiments list (when I find a chance to breathe) but would be open to any other recommendations you all have for playing around with kale!

The Smile – SoHo

This little lady comes from the sleek restaurant called The Smile. I have a list of lattes in New York that I want to try and for Valentine’s Day I told Eric that I only wanted to go have a nice latte. After our Donut Plant stop, we made our way to Bond Street in the East Village. The beauty of this latte made me sit in awe for the first few minutes. the creamy frothiness on top reminded me of the Gimme! coffee latte I experienced last Sunday night. The smoothness and lack of a bitter after taste definitely makes this latte rank high up on my list of memorable caffeine experiences.The foaminess was dreamy and the atmosphere and mood of the restaurant was latte drinking perfection. Located downstairs off Bond street, this restaurant is small and has the feel of an English pub with heavy curtains at the front of the entrance. Sitting on bar stools, we waited for our egg sandwich and also ended up with a scrambled egg plate. Eric was in love with the egg sandwich from first bite. With the gouda cheese and grilled onions, it was hard to not want to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Also in speaking of memorable, while at The Smile, the lovely Jessica Alba walked in. Sadly to say, it wasn’t even me who noticed her, but Eric. She was very lovely and seemed to be having a wonderful time with the group of friends she was with in the back. I’ve been told that The Smile is the place to go for celebrity watching, especially with New York Fashion week last week.

Donut Plant – The Chelsea Hotel

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day! Eric and I made a small day of it, as my work was closed Mon and Tues, we figured we would take a day to explore and do some of the ‘touristy’ things that usually are swamping the city during the weekend. After Monday’s lovely walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and meandering around DUMBO in admiration of all the lovely converted factories, we decided to take Tuesday a bit slower. With my current donut faze, I was excited when Eric suggested we hit up the famous Donut Plant in Chelsea. The wait in line was worth it, even with the small disappointment on my face when I found out they were out of the salted caramel cake donut I’d had my heart set on.

I had no problem though choosing my donuts from the rest of their selection though. I decided on a triple chocolate cake donut ( I personally prefer cake donuts to yest donuts) and a Valentine’s Day special Passion fruit yeast donut in the shape of a heart. Eric’s oddly shaped square donut was a yeast filled with vanilla and blackberry jam. Even for being a sweet donut, Eric enjoyed his, with more Blackberry jam than vanilla. It looked highly appetizing, but I had my eyes on the prize donuts of my own. The passion fruit donut was quite tart. Sweet frosting and glaze over it was a little bit outdone by the tartness, which I absolutely loved though. A little disappointed with the satisfying carb feeling that comes from cake donuts with this yeast donut though. The black out chocolate cake donut was a bit more to my liking. A chocolate cake donut, with chocolate frosting, chocolate cookie crumbs on top, and a bit of chocolate pudding on the inside, it was chocolate overload. I loved the cakiness but the pudding/filling was a bit too much for me. I’ve found as I’m getting older that I prefer more caramel things rather than chocolate. (My mother would have a fit if she knew this!) Overall it’s a great experience and with a constantly changing line up of donut choices, I’m going to have to make my way back to the Donut Plant, just so I can try every single donut and make sure that I’ve really got an unbiased opinion!

Your Beauty Shines Through Like A Diamond In The Rough

I think we can all get over the ‘engagement ring’ part of this gorgeous piece of jewelry, and just admire it’s beauty and how much I want it!

Anna Sheffield Hazeline Black Diamond, $5,000, available at Anna Sheffield

Baking Experiments: Mixed Berry Muffins

I’ve been trying a bit more lately to spend time in the kitchen and stop spending as much money ordering in or buying food I can easily make myself. In this attempt, I’m trying to spend my Sunday’s baking muffins to take to work during the week. I’ve started my first attempts with these lovely mixed berry muffins. A simple recipe is all I need to be able to easily substitute fruit and other ingredients depending on my mood. This recipe was adapted from the Basic Muffin Recipe on Food

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 egg , beaten

• 1 cup milk

• ¼ cup vegetable oil

I added roughly 2 cups of frozen berries to these muffins. There was a lot of berries in them but I love it and it allows me to decrease the amount of sugar.

What do you think? Have you got any muffin recipes you always turn to? Any suggestions for new ingredients to play around with?

Blue Bottle Coffee – Williamsburg

After work was canceled due to massive flooding (I honestly thought I was on the Titanic), Eric and I decided to make a day out of adventuring around NYC and just taking a gander at the places you don’t usually take the time to hit up. We took a stroll along the Brooklyn Bridge, wandered around DUMBO for a bit, hit up Jaques Torres for a Wicked (spicy) hot chocolate, that wasn’t very spicy, and then made our way back to Williamsburg for some more meandering.

Finally got over to Blue Bottle Coffee Co. in Williamsburg after listening to everyone talk about it for months on end and let me just say that it is an experience. The pour over coffee method is something I’ve been following for about the last 3 months and have been curious about it. The theory behind it is that by brewing each cup slowly and individually, you create a stronger more even cup of coffee. And let me just say, this cup of coffee is one hell of an individual. Eric put it perfectly: “This is the scotch of coffee.”So strong, it took me almost 30 min to finish a single cup.

Granted, I try and get a latte from every coffee shop I go to, since I’m in search of the perfect latte, but after the whole pour over method and wanting to really put this method to the test, I settled on just a regular coffee. But we also did order a latte for Eric and I took quite a few sips of it. In comparison to the strength and bitterness of the coffee, this latte went down pretty smoothly. I was a little disappointed with the lack of milky creaminess, especially after having my first latte in forever at Gimme! coffee last night. Did need to sweeten it with some sugar, especially after having my pour over coffee without sugar.

The Great Flat White

Doesn’t this look fantastic? I’m currently under the weather and have been warned you shouldn’t drink caffeine when sick. Even just a day without it and I’m looking longingly at my coffee mugs in the kitchen cabinet, just screaming to be used (in their little coffee mug voices, of course).

Have read several articles recently and they all seem to be growing in frequency. They’re talking about the new coffee rave in the US called ‘the flat white’. I’ve heard about it for a couple years from my friend Rochelle in New Zealand. Cafe Grumpy in NYC also makes their own flat white. In fact, it seems I hear about more and more places making them with great finesse. Although I’m your usual latte girl, I am curious to finally try one. I know I probably should have tried one as soon as I found a place that makes them, but I love the frothy-ness of the latte that the flat white seems to reject. A double shot with less milkiness than a latte might actually be the jolt I need in the mornings. So this weekend, as part of my rehaul of this blog to do more reviews, I’m heading back to Cafe Grumpy to do a flat white review. And who knows, maybe when I get to DUB bakery in Brooklyn, I also check out their flat white making skills.

Until then, enjoy this delicious picture. And what are some of your caffeine choices? Do you like the frothiness of the latte or cappuccino? or find solace in your morning drip coffee?

image via NYMag

Monday Caffeine Fix

image via casiaj

Handbag Giveaway from Sara Zucker

A sucker for any giveaway (pretty much), I was super excited to see Sara Zucker’s giveaway on her blog at sarazucker.com

She’s giving away a the vince camuto bag sponsored by handbags.com. What’s not to love?

Jerusalem Artichoke With Ketchup: Tasting Table Winter Collection

Tasting Table has quite an amazing selection of recipes to choose from and this month, they sent out to their readers a Tasting Table Winter Cookbook. A collection of recipes from famous chefs from all over the U.S. as soon as I opened the PDF, I was overwhelmed with the site of such amazing dinner prospects. I was immediately drawn to this recipe for Jerusalem Artichokes with ketchup. Seems easy enough right? Well, lets just say they didn’t come out at pretty as those pictured about…

Pick up a copy of this amazing cookbook PDF here Tasting Table Winter Collection