NYC - Food Edition

I’m back!! Back from the magical land of pizza and cupcakes – because that’s pretty much all I ate in New York City. I wouldn’t even know where to begin describing my adventure – nor would words do it any justice – so for now, please enjoy a small sampling of some of the delicious things I consumed while in the Big Apple. I’ll have a more extensive entry up later this week, with reviews of all the shows I saw…because next to eating, all I wanted to do was cram in as many Broadway shows as I could.


New York pizza is unlike any pizza I’ve ever had in my life. It’s huge, the crust is super thin and they have the craziest and biggest selections of flavors. I loved it so much. I ate pizza almost every day…sometimes twice a day.


Of course I had to have a New York hot dog…this one was from the take-out window of The Boathouse in Central Park. I wanted to eat in the actual restaurant, but we just didn’t have enough time…the hot dog, however, was pretty standard, but it was somehow more magical considering I was eating in Central Park.


NYC is pretty much the land of cupcakes. Every corner has a bakery and generally, that bakery has cupcakes.


Of course, I HAD to go to Magnolia Bakery – I’d only been fantasizing about it since I first fell in love with cupcakes. However, the cupcakes unfortunately really weren’t much to write home about…they were good, but there was nothing really distinct about them. I had the vanilla and red velvet, and while the red velvet was pretty good, the vanilla was very disappointing. It was too sweet (which is rare for me) and not very vanilla-y (if that makes any sense).


I accidently stumbled upon Crumbs bakery a few days after I went to Magnolia and I have to admit that their vanilla cupcake was superior to Magnolia’s, in both size and taste. However, it did taste a bit like a boxed cake mix…but at least a good one!


One of the places that was a must-see for me was the Chelsea Market. I went a little crazy buying all these unique spices and salts…but what really made an impression on me was the actual grocery market they had there. The herbs were INSANE! Look at that rosemary! Everything was so big and fresh, I wish I could do my grocery shopping there all the time…


I had the best veggie burger of my life in NYC. Hands down. There really is nothing more to say.



One of the places we were recommended to go by our frequent NYC-travelling Italian friends was Tony Di Napoli’s. And it was amazing. All the portions were family-sized so they fed 2-3 people and you therefore had to share (why aren’t more restaurants like this?) and the food was just beyond delicious. I wanted to take a bath in the chicken marsala sauce. That’s how good it was.




We went out one night to a restaurant called Swing 46, which was on this street of restaurants all with prix-fixe menus. I had the tomato and mozzarella salad, roast chicken entrée and chocolate brownie for dessert and although all 3 sound pretty basic…they were all incredible. Especially that brownie. It literally melted in my mouth and was by far the best brownie I’d ever had in my life.


Went to a crepe joint one night after the theatre and they had the cutest names for all their crepes. I had the “Joie de Vivre” – a PB&J crepe. Needless to say, it was excellent.


Obligatory New York cosmo – and it was fabulous!

Blog Hiatus - Goodbye Edmonton, Hello NYC!

Hey dudes, just letting you know that I'm going on a temporary blog hiatus. I'm heading to New York City tomorrow for an entire week and I'm planning to be too busy with shopping, shows and food to blog. However, I will be back next weekend with a post dedicated to everything I've devoured in the Big Apple - so stay tuned!

P.S. If anyone has any suggestions on places to go - let me know!! I have some stuff planned out but I've never been there before so if you have and know of someplace great, send it my way :)

Photo Curtesy of Eleni's New York

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Marshmallow Squares

So, when my dear friend Tim very kindly offered to de-virus my computer, I asked what kind of compensation he would like – hopefully in the form of a baked good. He specifically requested “those peanut butter marshmallow squares” and I immediately began my research to find a good recipe, as I had never made them before.

Turns out, there are about a bagillion recipes for these squares on the internet and they’re almost all exactly the same. So it was pretty easy.

Oh, and the recipe is ridiculously easy too. No wonder these are so popular – with only 4 ingredients and no baking required, they’re pretty much the easiest dessert in the world to make.

And I’ve now rekindled a love for butterscotch that I didn’t even know I had.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Butterscotch Marshmallow Squares

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 bag (300 g) of butterscotch chips
1 bag (250-300 g) of mini rainbow marshmallows*

*Don’t use white marshmallows. Apparently the rainbow fruity marshmallows make a difference (as opposed to regular white marshmallows). Don’t ask me why.

Directions:

Melt together the butter, peanut butter, and butterscotch chips on low heat until it’s all melted and mixed, stirring constantly. Let the mixture cool for a little while so the marshmallows don’t melt.



Stir in mini marshmallows. Pour mixture into a greased 11"x13" pan.

Refrigerate for a few hours. Cut into small squares and serve.

"And perhaps a sticky bun...or 4..."

Once again, I went on a bit of a blog hiatus. I blame my show. It was a blast, but it left me with very little time to blog. I did bake a lot though. Mainly props for my show…and I figured I might as well share some of them with you, in case you ever have to play a hungry little girl in a Sondheim musical one day.

One of the specific sweets I needed to eat in the show was a “sticky bun”. Well, actually 4 of them…every night…however, they couldn’t actually be all that sticky as I had to be able to swallow them and sing and not get it all over my costume. So, I altered these buns to make them not so sticky…however, I made these twice last week and the second time I doubled the batch so I could have some for my cast and I sticky-ed them up with some cream cheese icing goodness. And they were divine.

I know there are a lot of cinnamon bun recipes floating around out there, and I’ve tried a handful…but these are my new favorite. They bake up beautifully and taste divine. So go make some sticky buns! And eat at least 4…

Cinnamon Buns
(Recipe adapted from Allrecipes Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns)
I find that these are better if you roll the dough thinner and maybe up the filling a bit…this recipe is a great starter, but you can definitely improvise with these in terms of what you want to put in them.

Ingredients:

Dough
1 tsp white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter and salt; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 1 1/2 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.



Once risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18x14 inch rectangle (the thinner you can roll the dough though, the better - these dimensions are simply a guideline). Brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered; mix brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough.



Starting at long side, tightly roll up, pinching seam to seal. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. With serrated knife, cut into 15 (or more) pieces; place cut side down, into a buttered pan (I like to use circular foil pans that look like Chinese food take-out pans…they work pretty perfect for these). Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in volume. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then invert onto serving platter.

Finally, frost these babies up with some cream cheese icing and you’re good to go!

Quick and Easy Quiche

When I think of quiche, I would hardly think to describe it as “quick and easy”. Mainly because the only times that I’ve ever made quiche, it’s taken me most of the day. I make the crust from scratch and use a million ingredients that need to be prepared different ways and end up with a final product somewhere around the mid-afternoon and a sink full of more dirty dishes than should be necessary.

Hence why I don’t make quiche very often.

However, today Matt and I had the day off so in addition to sleeping in and lazing around the house all day, I wanted to make something nice for breakfast. Pancakes were out of the question (for obvious reasons) and I didn’t have bread to make French toast. I wanted something a little fancier than plain old scrambled/fried/poached eggs and when I absent-mindedly suggested quiche, Matt got very excited. Not wanting to disappoint him, I quickly searched for a “quick and easy quiche recipe”.

Apparently, they aren’t as rare as I thought…

I had lots of broccoli and a fair variety of different cheeses in my fridge so I figured broccoli cheese was the way to go.

As for the crust…I rarely buy frozen pie crust and my usual pie crust is a bit of a lengthy process so I found a quick 4-ingredient quiche crust, however I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how it turned out. The flavor and texture of it was fine however it stuck pretty badly to the bottom of the pie plate so it’s probably best to just use your favorite pie crust recipe or a frozen crust instead.

But enough yacking, on to the recipe!

Broccoli and Cheese Quiche
(Recipe adapted from Cajun Chef Ryan’s recipe)
I still can’t get over how well this quiche turned out. It’s amazingly delicious and now one of my new staples. Plus, Matt almost ate the entire thing himself…and he’s a tough critic.

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie shell
6 large eggs, cracked (I only had 5 eggs and it still turned out fine)
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or any combination of cheeses you want)
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed and cooled
salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder, to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Using a fork, prick the shell dough a few times to prevent air bubbles from forming. Brown the pie shell in the oven for about 10 minutes.

While the pie shell crust is browning, beat the eggs then add the milk and about half of the cheese in a medium bowl.


Fold in the broccoli florets and then add the spices to the egg mixture.

When the pie shell has browned, removed from the oven. Pour the egg, cheese and broccoli filling into the browned pie shell and then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.


Return the filled pie shell to the oven. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the quiche is puffed up and set. (You may want to put it on a cookies sheet as it apparently prevents burning. I didn’t however, and it was fine.)


Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then slice into portions.

Theatre!

So, I have a recipe post all ready to go but my image editor is being weird and I can’t edit the pictures right now…so I figured I would instead do a post about theatre – the other love of my life (besides baking…and Matt).

For any of my readers who live in Edmonton and don’t have me on Facebook, I have a show opening next week! I’m playing Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, playing April 27-30 at the Timms Centre (corner of 87 Ave and 112 Street on the U of A campus). Tickets and more info are available through Tix on the Square.

My brother is also in a show opening tonight and running through to April 30th as well. It’s called BoyGroove (the revival of the original Chris Craddock show) and it’s playing at the Catalyst Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd.). Tickets are also available through Tix on the Square.

We both did a little press this week for the shows, so here is my interview with Global TV this morning.


And Eric and the boys are on the cover of See magazine!

So, if you’re hanging around Edmonton and looking for some good theatre to see, you should check out Into the Woods and BoyGroove!!

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. I’ve been searching for YEARS for a recipe like this. YEARS, I tell you. They are perfect in every way. Flat and crispy on the outside and buttery and chewy on the inside.

However, I know everyone’s different…and some people like big, fluffy cookies. But not me. To me, these are perfection.

Matt even likes these cookies. So much, that when I told him yesterday that I was thinking of making them again, he came home from work all excited, only to give me the biggest, saddest face when he realized that I hadn’t gotten around to making them yet.

And he doesn’t even like dessert!

I made them today though…and he’s proceeded to eat close to half the batch. Yeah. They’re that good.

So, if you’re going to make anything on this blog, make these cookies. They are perfect. There is really nothing more to say.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1½ tsp salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugars until it’s the texture of cornmeal. Add eggs and vanilla and then mix until combined.


In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in three batches. Add chocolate chips last and mix briefly.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.