1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
¼ cup olive oil
2 tbsp. butter
6 cloves of garlic, minced
½ cup grated pecorino romano cheese
½ cup Progresso seasoned breadcrumbs
red pepper flakes (add according to your spice level)
salt + pepper to taste
½ cup reserved pasta water
Thanksgiving is enough work. All of the cleaning, the prep work, the cooking, the carving, the serving, the packing of leftovers, the turkey hangover. I find that I tend to neglect my table each Thanksgiving with all of that work, so this year, I have vowed to make that extra effort without adding any real additional work. Enter Glassybaby. Gorgeous in full-spectrum color, these hand-blown votives would light up any holiday table. I like how easy they are, while still impressing. I picture them lined up down a long table, lit up with candles–all in one colorway or perhaps in groups of colors (neutrals or browns or bolds) or maybe even one of each. They could also be filled with single stems of dahlias. Even on their own, their cheerful presence will certainly bring any holiday good cheer. Glassybaby Shop online: http://www.glassybaby.com/home.aspx NYC boutique: 555 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 917-546-6850
When you love to cook like I do, you’re always cooking–always making something. It’s not in my wiring to simply put a frozen pizza in the oven, bake it, slice it, and eat it. Without fail, I find myself doctoring something up no matter what. So maybe that would mean I would add another kind of cheese to the frozen pizza or caramelize some onions to go on a frozen veggie burger. I just can’t help myself. When I find myself alone for a day or evening, and don’t want to swim in leftovers, I like to come up with new recipes just for me–just for one serving. Here you have a new kind of recipe I’d like to start sharing with you–Table for 1. Now these recipes could easily be doubled for 2 or quadrupled for 4, but I like to think we should all embrace our solitude and evenings/days by ourselves sometimes–enjoy the treat of eating by yourself. And you can watch any TV you like while doing so. Strawberry Poppy Salad Ingredients …
Surely just a turkey sandwich could be replicable, right? Try your best to copy the ingredients, get the good stuff, and voila–you’ll be a copy cat in no time. What I discovered in this exercise, and I should have known better after gobbling them up 3 different times, is that when it comes to Torrisi Italian Specialities, it’s never JUST a turkey sandwich. Or JUST chicken parm. Or JUST anything. It’s simple, yes. Ingredient lists are likely short in this operation, but I think it’s the details and intangibles that might make this sandwich so good–the TLC in the technique–maybe it’s just that euphoria you get because “someone else made it for you.” All of that being said, my copy was very good. If you can’t get to Torrisi to try their turkey sandwich, by all means, make this at home. But if you can get there, please do. And do so soon. It’s espcially good timing as they’ve just opened a new spot next door, appropriately called PARM. Parm’s menu looks AH-mazing. You can …
Torrisi Italian Specialties, located in Nolita (North of Little Italy) in Manhattan and owned by Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, has quickly become a cult favorite. Dozens of people, tourists and locals, are lined up at all time around lunchtime and dinnertime each day to get a look, feel, and bite of some of the finest Italian-American soul food in New York. The shelves inside are lined with many of the grocery staples used in their house recipes, including Progresso seasoned breadcrumbs, breadsticks from Parisi Bakery, plastic Polly-O ricotta containers, and Stella D’Oro cookies. Rock and classic soul and blues music flows through the air. The cooks and cashier wear little white paper hats as they work an amazingly teeny kitchen, prepping and assembling to order. All against the backdrop of old-school deli menus hung on white subway tile. You can’t help but notice all of these things as you’re surely waiting in line, salivating, jealous as you watch others sitting at the hard-to-snag tables grinning as their orders freshly arrive. But you find joy …
Over three years ago, my friend Marlo Scott opened a cupcake, beer, and wine bar in NYC’s West Village, Sweet Revenge. Marlo and her team have been baking gorgeous, sophisticated, and utterly delicious cupcakes with such flavors as Crimson & Cream, Pure, Dirty, and artisinal goodies like Very Strawberry, Fleur de Sel, and Bird of Paradise for some very happy customers. Many things make Marlo’s cupcakes exceptional–my favorites are in the details: high-quality butter, Mexican vanilla, brown parchment paper wrappers. For this post, I chose to highlight the other yummy offerings from Sweet Revenge, specifically her new breakfast menu. Here again I was blown away by the details: waffles RED VELVET style, an egg sandwich with SUN DRIED TOMATO PESTO, and the flakiest, buttery-est crust on a PUMPKIN quiche. Yum. Go to Sweet Revenue for a beer and cupcake, but come back for the breakfast. Sweet Revenge 62 Carmine Street New York, NY 10014 Phone (212) 242-2240 http://www.sweetrevengenyc.com/
