Cookin' In: Quinoa and Chocolate

The Alix and Christine show could be quite the hit. That is, if you'd like to watch two ladies drink wine, talk, cook and eat for hours on end. I think I was home by 4:00 am.

We decided to simplify the meal, knowing a complex recipe could really slow our leisurely pace even more. Made a Quinoa salad with fresh corn, black beans, red pepper, lime and cilantro. Quinoa is evidently one of the more perfect foods as far as nutrients and protein go. The Aztecs were cooking it 6000 years ago, yet it's still hard to get in your typical grocery store. If you've never had it, the texture is somewhat grainy, somewhere between rice and cous cous. But it's officially a seed and not a grain.

Along with the quinoa, we made tacos with sauteed portobello and green peppers, fresh homemade salsa, and avocado. Light, spring fare, made to save room for the chocolate course from The Chocolate Room.

I had no idea chocolate, herbs and fruits could live by perfect symbiosis in one little chocolate.

Around midnight we methodically and slowly enjoyed an entire plate of chocolate. To describe it is to be one with the chocolate. Among the sensuous bites: Caramel and lavender in dark chocolate, passion fruit and ginger ganache, coconut truffle in toasted coconut, white chocolate ganache with Grand Marnier, apricot basil ganache in milk chocolate, passion fruit ganache in white chocolate, mint ganache with bitter chocolate pieces, red chile and tangerine ganache, and strawberry, lemon and thyme ganache.

We ate all of the above.

I don't know what I will do while Alix is gone traveling for an entire month. Go to chocolate school, perhaps.

The Chocolate Room
86 5th Ave (between St. Mark's and Warren St)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-783-2900
www.thechocolateroombrooklyn.com

Food of the Rainbow

Broken bones, surgeries and casts do not stop Alix and I from making our famous meals. Although we had a brief hiatus, Alix is recovering nicely and we are back in the saddle. She even has a clever wheelie chair to scoot around the kitchen! On Friday we chilled out with some white wine and caught up on the week before starting that night's dinner: sweet potato and corn chowder, ginger-orange vegetable stir fry, and, of course, a mixed berry tart.

All dishes were low maintenance and all vegan. Bonus: we ate all colors of the rainbow with our whole foods - red pepper, sweet potato, yellow squash, sweet corn, green beans, broccoli, sprouts, and berries. The USDA says its wise to eat a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables for the biggest punch of vitamins and nutrients. Plus, it's aesthetically pleasing.

Alix mixed up a great soy sauce dressing for our stir fry - freshly grated ginger, zested and juiced clementines, fresh chopped garlic, and a splash of vinegar. Add more juice and zest for a citrusy zeal. We tossed the dressing in our vegetables and rice and chowed down, while checking out the seed catalog for Alix's up and coming summer kitchen garden!

Oh, yes, and all evening we enjoyed a terrific, inexpensive Cabernet-Sauvigon from her neighborhood wine store, SIP, and talked until three in the morning about everything from snow days to travel plans to Ishmael. Food with Alix is a fine, fine experience.

SIP Fine Wine
67 5th Ave (and St. Marks Place)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-638-6105
www.sipfinewine.com

www.5aday.gov

Sundays with Lucia

I met Lucia for a sweet Sunday afternoon treat at the Cocoa Bar in Park Slope. We have met there on many occasions, searching for the answers to life and finding...chocolate. I guess that makes sense.

I have already briefly mentioned the wonders of that place, but it deserves another mention. Even the teas are somehow magically infused with chocolate. We both drank Orange Bliss, a black tea with the aroma of chocolate and smooth taste of orange. Lucia made the serendipitously wise selection of the Sweet and Salty Cake, a chocolate layer cake with fluffy chocolate mousse-like icing and a mysteriously good micro-layer of saltiness between the cake and icing. I'm going back for breakfast tomorrow, perhaps for some coffee and truffles. Mmm, if that were only true.

The Cocoa Bar
228 7th Ave (between 3rd and 4th Sts.)
Park Slope
Brooklyn, New York
718-499-4080
www.cocoabarnyc.com

The energy crisis and the love of chocolate

The last supper. At Alix and Colin's amazing three floor abode, that is, before they move in to the next great place (with a backyard! Imagine dinner on the patio, among the plants and lawn furniture!). At least Alix is one friend who isn't leaving the city, or even the neighborhood. She treated me to some of her week's delightful leftovers, with a springy green and fruit salad. We shared a nice bottle of Montepulciano and watched a disturbing documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" According to the doc, we have several guilty parties to blame, including the government, oil industry, car companies, and consumers.

Alix was getting quite steamed as the show went on (I had seen it before), so luckily we had made another famous fruit crisp to cool the tempers. Apple and pear, with a secret weapon in the topping - candied ginger and shredded coconut. It is our dream to make the best fruit tart on the planet. There will surely be some fanfare when that happens.


Our sweet, hot beverage of choice was the "I Like it Spicy" hot chocolate from the Cocoa Bar. If you've ever balked at chilis and cayenne pepper in your hot chocolate, balk no more. This is a thick and frothy chocolate with a hot kick at the back of your throat. Cocoa Bar is a favorite place in the neighborhood that specializes in not only chocolate in all forms - drink, truffle, cake and pie - but also in wine and coffee. The search for happiness is over.

Chocolate sloshing inside, I walked home in the first lovely Brooklyn snowfall of the year!

The Cocoa Bar
228 7th Ave (between 3rd and 4th Sts.)
Park Slope
Brooklyn, New York
718-499-4080
www.cocoabarnyc.com

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Katie's Farewell Stromboli

Why must we say farewell to Katie?? It's horrible to keep saying good-bye to dear friends that have been leaving New York this year, seemingly in droves. And of course, they are some of my greatest food friends. Katie and I have shared much conversation, antipasti and after-work vino at Max Cafe in Morningside Heights and amazing lunchtime sandwiches at at Fresh Cafe (reviews forthcoming!)

The only good thing about friends leaving is that everyone gets together to share talk and eats. For Katie's down south send-off, Trish made some addictively good strombolis. They are very easy to make, and easier to keep eating ... I had one piece too many and definitely felt like a Stromboli during the train ride home.

Trish's Stromboli

What you need:

pre-made dough (Trader Joe's has a great herby one)
Sauce
Cheese
Fillings (we had some veggie and some carnie)

Spread out and flatten dough, arrange sauce, cheese and filling on half the dough, length-wise. Flip other half over the filled side, press and seal. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until golden browned and crispy on top.

My favorite had scallops, zuchinni and sweet peppers. Mmm. As you can see, we ate two entire trays of the delicious stuff.

Although I could have easily rolled tummy-first back to Brooklyn, for dessert I had one of the best cupcakes in the land - buttery soft cake and fluffily pink buttercream frosting. Erin brought a big box from sugar Sweet sunshine, a bakery on the Lower East Side that I cannot wait to visit. Their website alone puts me in a cakey state of mind.

Farewell, Katie...please come back and eat with me soon...

sugar Sweet sunshine
126 Rivington St. (between Essex and Norfolk)
New York, NY
212-995-1960
www.sugarsweetsunshine.com

Australia Day Game Night!

I didn't even know we had an Australia Day to celebrate, but it's a good thing we did. Although the coldest night of the year started with me sitting on Nick's stoop waiting for someone to find me (the double whammy: no phone number and broken door buzzer!) I very quickly got a tummy warming meat pie and some yummy sweets. I also learned a lot about the commonwealth and convicts!

Meat pies, according to Nick (all information here will be according to him!) are quintessentially Australian and consumed often at sporting events - in the American hot dog variety of popularity. They are a little like chicken-pot pie, and should be consumed smothered with tomato sauce or ketchup. Typically they are filled with beef, but he got a variety from the East Village Tuck Shop for us to taste - lamb, chili con carne, and one really curried chicken pie.


Then suddenly, there was a "vanilla slice" in front of me - blobby custard between layers of crispy thin dough and with a sweeeet vanilla glaze on top. Even though the sugar was already making the room spin, I could not resist the ever popular Australian Tim Tam - two layers of chocolate cookie with gooey cream in the middle and glaze all around. There is a special way to eat a Tim Tam, apparently, which involves biting off both ends, dipping it in tea and sucking the cream out. Sounds like a marvelous idea.

After consuming all of the above, along with an Australian Shiraz-Cabernet, champagne and beer, we played a rousing game of Cranium. After all the Australian comestibles, I don't think our craniums were functioning at top form, because it collectively took a while to figure out the rules. Um, I still don't know. A few notable "star performer" charades: Lena's "tongue and groove", Sal's "energizer bunny", and Erin's amazing talent for humming and drawing with her eyes closed!

Hurray for Australia!!

Tuck Shop
68 E 1st St
New York, NY
212-979-5200
www.tuckshopnyc.com

Sunday cous cous and vino

Sometimes simple is the best. Putting a few basic foods together and having a pleasant bowl of something makes me happy. Even better is a simple dish with red wine and good conversation. Especially if you are making important observations about life, you don't want to complicate things more with an elaborate recipe. Carlos came over for a late-ish Sunday night dinner.

Although the tempature was dropping by the second, we walked over to the best wine store in the neighborhood - Slope Cellars. It's worth the chilly walk and open on Sunday until 9:00! All recommendations have been perfect, and all have ranged from $10-12. Maybe $15 if I am feeling extra fancy. This time it was a beaujolais that was smooth, lightly velvety and just...nice. I have no wine description skills yet...

I made the first dish I had ever really learned to cook - White bean, zucchini and tomato over cous cous. So simple in fact that almost all the ingredients are in the title. Except for the most important, ever aromatic, chopped rosemary. One day I will write a nice song about my love for rosemary. It's very strange.

The dish: chop some zucchini, unpeeled, so that the green skin and red tomato create a visual zap in the stewy vegetable melange. Saute in olive oil and while the zuchinni is still crisp, add a can of white beans and a can of diced tomatoes. Then add as much rosemary as your heart desires, cooking until warm and herbed. Oh, and before all that, boil some water, turn off the heat and add cous cous. If you're not talking and talking like I was doing after a glass of wine, the whole thing only takes 15 minutes.

This recipe is from an excellent cookbook called Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin.

Slope Cellars
436 7th Ave, between 14th and 15th Sts
Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
718-368-7307