Tarte d'Alsace

Tarte flambée, an Alsatian specialty that consists of thin dough topped with creme fraiche or cheese, onions and bacon/lardons, holds a special place in our heart. It was one of the most popular dishes at the restaurant where we got engaged, and we get it every time we go there. I saw awhile ago that Trader Joe's had a version of tarte flambée called "Tarte d'Alsace" and definitely wanted to give it a try (once we finally finished all the frozen pizza we already had). I figured it could never live up to a freshly made and freshly baked restaurant version, but hoped it would be good.

Not a specialty of Trader Joe but Maitre Pierre

This Tarte d'Alsace was a variation on the traditional tarte flambée which came with ham and gruyere cheese. Unwrapping the package, it looked fairly similar to the picture on the box except the onions and ham weren't so evenly distributed throughout the pie.

The ham was red, not pink... I don't know why my phone does this in this part of the kitchen

It didn't take long to bake, but unfortunately it got a little stuck to our pan. We managed to save most of it and had a pretty satisfying lunch. The cheese was rich and creamy, the onions had that nice caramelized flavor, and the ham gave it saltiness. It wasn't as crisp or golden, especially on the edges, as it looked in the box photo, but the crust was okay.

One quarter of the pie

Buy Again? Yes, I think we would. It's obviously not as tasty as the fresh ones we can get at the restaurant but it's a lot cheaper ($4.49) and we can keep one in the freezer for when we're craving a bite of tarte flambée. A quick and easy taste of Alsace (and nostalgia).

Baked Langostino Tails with Tomatoes and Feta

We are currently working on cleaning out the refrigerator in preparation for the Christmas holidays, and one thing we needed to use up was the rest of our giant Costco container of expiring crumbled feta cheese. (Haven't made enough omelettes or salads recently, I suppose.) When I read about this Ellie Krieger recipe on the Food Network for baked shrimp with tomatoes and feta, I knew this was the perfect way to finish off the feta cheese. It reminded me of dishes that we had in Athens, so I definitely wanted to give it a try.

Ingredients:

We went shopping that day for shrimp and a second can of diced tomatoes, the only ingredients we didn't already have at home. Unfortunately by the time we got to Trader Joe's late on Sunday afternoon (the absolute worst time to ever go to TJ's), so many of the shelves were empty and the store was almost completely out of shrimp. No cooked shrimp, no raw shrimp, no large shrimp, no small shrimp. The only shrimp were in a seafood combo with calamari and scallops, which wouldn't be a great fit with the rest of the recipe (or prepared shrimp like the firecracker shrimp), so we decided to go with the next best alternative we could find - langostino tails. They weren't cheap, but getting shrimp elsewhere would have been even more expensive. The substitution worked out well.

The ingredients I used for this recipe were:

- olive oil for sauteing ($0.10)

- 1 yellow onion ($0.60)

- 5 garlic cloves ($0.10)

- 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 seasoned & 1 regular ($2.48)

- a few tbsp of dried parsley ($0.25)

- 1 tbsp of dried dill weed ($0.15)

- 12 oz of langostino tails, cooked and peeled ($11.99)

- salt to taste ($0.05)

- ground pepper to taste ($0.05)

- 1 cup of feta cheese ($3)

The total for the recipe was about $19, a lot more expensive than our homemade dinners usually are, but seafood is pricey. It did make enough for two large dinner portions plus leftovers for one meal. Shrimp (from TJ's anyway) would knock a few dollars off that total, as would getting diced tomatoes on sale, but fresh herbs (what the original recipe called for) would increase the price a little.

Process:

My method was a little different from the original recipe since I didn't just pop the skillet into the oven, but I think this worked well.

1.  Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat and add onions. Once onions are softened, add garlic. After about a minute, add both cans of tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until tomato juices thicken (approximately 5 minutes).

2.  Remove skillet from heat. Add parsley, dill, salt, pepper and langostino tails (or shrimp). Mix everything together.

3.  Transfer combined mixture to a baking dish.

4.  Sprinkle feta cheese over the top of the dish.

5.   Bake at 425 degrees until everything is cooked and cheese begins to melt.

It's a pretty easy recipe to follow and shouldn't take too long to prep (just chopping onions and garlic). The recipe gives the cook time as 21 minutes, but it took closer to 45 minutes for me, for whatever reason.

Review:

We ate this dish with a side of potato wedges, and it was a fantastic dinner. We really loved the flavors of this dish as-is, although we were certainly able to think of several enhancements. One would be a couple pinches of red pepper flakes to add a little zing. The dill gave this a really unique flavor and we might try either more dried dill weed or some fresh dill. But that's about all we could come up with. In the comments on the Food Network site, reviewers made all sorts of other adjustments, but what I really loved about this dish was how much it reminded me of real Greek food (unlike this fish A made once before from a Greek cookbook). The flavor combination was spot-on and we enjoyed it so much that, although we would make small adjustments, we would mostly stick with the recipe itself. Really happy with how this turned out.

National Cupcake Day

Last Sunday was National Cupcake Day, but we observed it on Friday instead. When they're giving out free cupcakes over lunch, why not make it a Cupcake Friday?

Just like last year, Cupcake Vineyards gave out free cupcakes (and had wine tastings at various liquor stores) for National Cupcake Day. However, this year I'm not sure if they ran their promotion out of the Sweetery truck again. The cupcakes didn't taste the same as some of the other Sweetery cupcakes I've had. Doesn't mean they can't change their recipe, but this reminded me of those bulk cupcake boxes you can get from Costco. I do still like the Costco mini cupcakes though, and when the icing is a bit chilled (thanks to it being so cold outside), they're even better. We both thought the free cupcakes were good, just nothing really remarkable or special. But free!

I got chocolate cake with vanilla icing. A went earlier in the day and they had red velvet. When it comes to free cupcakes though, I'm not really very picky. Would I have preferred yellow cake with vanilla icing? Sure. But I wasn't going to hold up the line like a woman ahead of me looking and rejecting every single cupcake combination until she found one she liked (no indication of any allergy or other health reason, just personal preference). They're free. Just take what they give you if they don't offer choices!

A surprised me later in the evening with a cupcake from Amy's Bread for dessert! (Funny how we always go to Amy's Bread for sweets, but never really buy bread...)

He knows how much I love cupcakes and especially how much I love sprinkles, so he made sure to get one with as many sprinkles as possible (and the friendly worker was happy to oblige). This surprise made me really happy. The cupcake had just the right amount of sweetness and was soft, fluffy and delicious. And it looked beautiful too! I really don't understand why so many people go to Magnolia for cupcakes when their cupcakes are so overly and cloyingly sweet, and there are so many better options out there.

Amy's Bread was definitely the winner in this cupcake battle, which was no surprise as their cupcakes are always good. Love an excuse to get cupcakes!

Spinach Roll

I'm really glad Pie Face has opened so many outlets in NYC. They may not have the healthiest food, but I think (along with tacos) they're the perfect tasty snack.

And who doesn't love the cute labels?

I remember the first one that opened last year, which was basically a counter and take-out shop. Now they seem to be opening everywhere and the one I visited in Chelsea yesterday had customers relaxing with laptops plugged in, like an Australian coffee shop with pies. I love the vibe. I also have a lot of goodwill for Pie Face, as they are generous with giveaways when they open new stores or have new products, and they did that free monthly pie (pay with a tweet) promotion for almost the entire second half of this year. It's proof that treating your customers well and having promotions every so often really works and encourages them to keep coming back.  

I usually have pies at Pie Face but this time I decided to switch it up and get a roll. They have multiple types of rolls there - sausage, chicken and bacon, etc - and I went with their vegetarian option, the spinach roll, which also had ricotta and feta cheese.

The roll was crispy on the outside and reminded me of spanakopita, the Greek spinach pie, but with less flaky dough. I really love spinach and cheese mixed together in pie form, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I really liked this.

For some reason the combination of yellow table, light and angle kept putting black bars in my photos of the pie interior... this is the best I could get!

We tried a sausage roll at the original Pie Face grand opening. I remember not liking it as much as the Tuck Shop one (a very, very high bar), but after liking the spinach roll this much, perhaps it is time to give the sausage roll another try. I'm glad to see so many Pie Face outlets when I walk around. It means there is always someplace friendly to drop in for a tasty snack!

Phil's Steaks

On this cold and windy day I felt the need to give food trucks some love. After all, they brave this terrible weather to bring us food, and the only way we can show our appreciation is to stuff that food down our hungry gullets. Today's bastion of food truck goodness comes in the form of Phil's Steaks.

M and I had eaten from Phil's once before during a Hell's Kitchen Flea Market stop, but it had been over a year since that day. Since they're awesome and started coming out by my office more, I had to go back. The funny thing about M and me with regards to cheesesteaks is that we went to Philly earlier this year, and we weren't impressed by the offering we had. The place was consistently rated as one of the best from the various food blogs and sites we read so maybe we're just not that into cheesesteaks. The other funny thing about them is that we've found so many "non-traditional" cheesesteaks that we like better. I don't know, maybe we're just anti-Philly.

Anyway, the food itself from Phil's is solid. It's easily the best cheesesteaks I've had here in NYC, and one of the best I've had ever. I will admit, I don't eat many cheesesteaks so please take my hyperbole with a small grain of salt. I ended up getting a 10" shroom steak wit whiz. For those that don't understand, that means I got a 10" cheesesteak with sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions (wit), and cheese whiz (whiz). I probably should have stopped there since the sandwich is actually really big, but I foolishly got a side of fries as well.

Shroom Steak Wit Whiz

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the sandwich is a beast. Normally a 10" sandwich wouldn't be near enough for me for a meal, but I honestly could have eaten just this. It's a stuffed sandwich full of chipped beef, sauteed mushrooms, and sauteed onions. It is insanely dense. The bread that they use is from a famous bakery from Philadelphia called Amoroso's. The bread is really something special. It has some bite to it, but it's also nice and chewy. The beef is always the part of the cheesesteaks I like the least, and I think overall here it's still the case. It's good quality beef, but I sometimes find that since it's so thin, it's sometimes overcooked. The mushrooms and onions add some form of vegetable matter to the sandwich, and I do love sauteed mushrooms and onions. The whiz is a standard when you're ordering a cheesesteak, and it's always tasty.

Giant Bag of Fries

So I was hungry when I went out for lunch, and as noted, I opted to get a side of fries with my gigantic, dense cheesesteak. These fries are really good. They're thick cut which is my favorite style, and their perfectly crisped on the outside while still starchy and soft on the inside. A toss with some salt, and they're done. As good as they are, though, there was no way I was going to finish them. The fries are definitely something that needs to be shared.

Overall, this is still my favorite cheesesteak in NYC. It's probably my favorite cheesesteak overall, but there is some serious competition from a place near Portland that M and I will hopefully write about soon. It's not the cheapest option for lunch depending on what you order, but it's also really good. I highly recommend giving the guys on Phil's Steak truck a try if you come across them.

Turkey Gobbler

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and a lot of those seasonal foods are no longer on the shelves. However my review of the Trader Joe's turkey gobbler wrap is still not posted from when I tried it a month ago, so here it is. I usually delete these seasonal food posts if they don't go up in time, but since I think this sandwich returns annually (and maybe it's still around, I haven't checked recently), I'll keep the review.

I love holiday sandwiches (for example, see here, here, here, here and here), so I definitely wanted to try the turkey gobbler wrap. It consists of roast turkey and stuffing (like many other holiday sandwiches), but also has cranberry cream cheese (which I found really intriguing). All of those items are wrapped up in a flour tortilla with a "festive dipping sauce" (aka gravy) on the side.

The wrap was interesting. The turkey, instead of being thinly sliced like carved turkey or cold cuts, had a consistency closer to grilled chicken and showed up in thick blocks. It wasn't as flavorful as freshly cooked turkey, but it wasn't bad. The stuffing, which is usually my favorite part, didn't have a ton of flavor, and mostly just added a rich creaminess with a little bit of spices. The cranberry cream cheese was also rich and creamy (although points for including actual cranberries and not just making it a cranberry flavored cream cheese spread), which meant that overall this sandwich was a lot creamier and richer than a lot of other holiday sandwiches. The gravy was fine, but nothing special.

I am lukewarm on this sandwich (especially compared to the offerings at Cosi and Pret and others), but it isn't a bad offering (certainly better than what we tried previously at Panera). Would I get it again? I'm undecided, but it was definitely worth a try.

Pinkcard

Have you signed up for pinkcard, the loyalty program at Pinkberry? If not, I highly recommend it.

Even if you don't go to Pinkberry that often, joining the program means a free small yogurt with toppings on your birthday. And since that size yogurt is now running over $6 (with tax) here in NYC, that free treat is definitely worth it.

I used my birthday reward today for a small cookies and cream yogurt with strawberries, mochi and cookies and cream (crumbled oreos) toppings. I loved the cookies and cream yogurt. It tasted exactly like the crumbled cookies but in yogurt form. They really nailed that flavor. I don't know if it's seasonal but it's now one of my favorites. A delightful treat for a winter day!

December Custard Calendar

We have been so delinquent about custard lately. I suppose that's good for our health, but not so good for our posting! We're happy to see frosted holiday cookie on the calendar this month though, and we're hoping that's the same as (or at least close to) Christmas cookie, one of our favorites.

Source

A lot of these flavors are similar to last year's December calendar and we haven't tried them all yet (but if we have, our average score is in parentheses):

Monday - frosted holiday cookie 

(we gave Christmas cookie a 9/10 before but didn't think it tasted like a frosted cookie, so we wonder if this one will be different)

Tuesday - eggnog 

(never reviewed but A liked it and I didn't - same as our feelings about eggnog itself)

Wednesday - sweet potato marshmallow 

(missed this one last year but we recently had a sweet potato marshmallow donut that we liked so maybe this would be good)

Thursday - chocolate pecan pie 

(new to us)

Friday - jelly donut 

(8.75/10 - this one is probably in our top 10 custards)

Saturday - gingerbread 

(5.75/10)

Sunday - candy cane crunch 

(never reviewed but we think we liked it)

Looking forward to frosted holiday cookie!

Breakfast at Newark

We left home at the absurd time of 4:45 am to travel to Newark Airport in time for our morning flight to Portland, Oregon. Since it was so early in the morning, there were few trains running, and our only options were to get to the airport with a little over two hours or barely one hour to spare. We're trying to change our bad habits of getting to the airport late, so we got there really early and decided to have breakfast.

For breakfast at the airport, M would normally go for non-breakfast foods like hot dogs or sandwiches, but this time, she needed something starchy to cushion a painkiller and went for a relatively boring toasted plain bagel with plain Philadelphia cream cheese. Everywhere in our part of Terminal C seemed to offer bagels and cream cheese for the same price, so she went to the one which looked like it had the most patrons and therefore the best turnover.

The bagel was fine but nothing special. There weren't a lot of options for the types of bagels or cream cheese like you would get in a regular bagel shop, but it served its purpose for breakfast.

A went to the best option in our part of Terminal C - Smashburger - to grab breakfast.

All morning A had been smelling and craving bacon, but when it came time for him to order he ended up switching gears and getting a Taylor Ham, egg, and cheese sandwich. The sandwich itself was tasty if a bit heavy. The ham is apparently something special in NJ, but A thought it just tasted like deli ham. The fried egg and cheese were tasty, and the sandwich was really filling. In the end, though, A had buyer's remorse as he still wanted some bacon.

Unfortunately, both our bagel and breakfast sandwich were pretty filling, so we didn't eat the sandwiches we brought from home to eat on our flight and they went to waste. We probably should have just eaten those for our breakfast, but with the smell of ham and bacon pervading the terminal food court area (which was right next to our gate), breakfast foods were on our mind. Next stop: PDX!

The Sophie

I really need to learn to go with my first instinct.

I went to Crave today to use my $5 birthday credit through LevelUp (which came as a complete surprise unlike some of the other loyalty programs I signed up for), and figured I would get my favorite sandwich - the crispy chicken (which I wrote about here). But when I got there, I was so tempted by other combinations and ended up going with "the Sophie" (one of the "customer favorite" combos).

The Sophie consisted of smoked turkey, muenster cheese, avocado, arugula and mayo on toasted sourdough. I swapped out the mayo for brown mustard and got toasted honey wheat instead of sourdough. What interested me most about the sandwich was the avocado, which I thought would be fresh slices of avocado, followed by the muenster cheese, which I've always found adds a unique flavor to turkey sandwiches.

I was a little disappointed (more with myself than with Crave) for my choice of the Sophie, and found myself wishing I had gone with my gut and gotten the crispy chicken instead (or the tuna melt I've gotten before). A few reasons: 

(1) The Sophie was definitely the healthiest sandwich I've gotten at Crave, but it didn't have as much flavor as the others. The ingredients, like every Crave sandwich I've had, were quite good, and the turkey had flavor, but it just didn't match up to the others I've had.

(2) The avocado was that mashed up avocado that is used like a spread instead of slices of avocado, which I wasn't expecting. I think seeing avocado in the ingredient list was the thing that most tempted me away from the crispy chicken, and the spread just couldn't live up to my expectations of fresh avocado slices.

(3) As I ate the sandwich, I realized that I made a terrible choice for other reasons. I used to work a few blocks away from Crave and could go whenever I wanted. This time, I wanted to get something good because I didn't know when my next visit would be. I should have gone with the crispy chicken since I like it so much. Also, it slipped my mind at the moment I ordered that I could make something similar to the Sophie at home! The sinking realization that I had bread, smoked turkey, avocado and mustard at home and that I wasted my discount on the same items hit me as I sat in the atrium eating and I couldn't believe I could be so dumb. I had just been thinking of that combo earlier in the morning when I looked around the apartment, so how could I forget? Something I can't make at home would have been a better choice. The crispy chicken would have fit the bill for that in every single way.

I've learned my lessons (again) - go with my gut and think about what's in the fridge before ordering! In the end, I got a good sandwich for less than $5, which was a pretty good deal since the sandwiches at Crave are now $9+ (I completely forgot how much the price got hiked until I read my original post from last year). But next time I'm getting the crispy chicken.

Thanksgiving Travels

We recently traveled to the Portland area for the Thanksgiving holiday, which was a nice break from the frigid temperatures of the Northeast. For the most part, there was sun, moderate temperatures, and clean Pacific Northwest air.

View of Mount Hood on our drive back from Costco

Our trip also meant that we got to try some new restaurants, which we'll blog about (hopefully sooner rather than later). Unlike a lot of our trip reports, this one will consist of just a few restaurant reviews, since most of the food we consumed was home cooking and holiday food. Hopefully with less posts to write, this will actually be a trip we finish writing about!

Braised Chicken with Celery and Potatoes

A couple of months ago, we bought a giant 10 lb bag of red potatoes from Costco for $8. I thought this would be a good idea. Potatoes are versatile. We could make all sorts of recipes with potatoes. But with so many other options for meals, the supply of potatoes decreased very slowly, and for the past couple of weeks, we've been trying to use them up before they rot and liquify (that may have happened before). As a result, we're really tired of potatoes. But this recipe for braised chicken with celery and potatoes - adapted from this Whole Foods recipe - used them well and it was a good final dish for the giant bag of potatoes (which we are not buying again anytime soon).

Ingredients

One thing that was great about this recipe is that we had most of the ingredients on hand (everything but the plain yogurt). I did make some adjustments - (1) using frozen chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, (2) using all those red potatoes instead of 4 medium new potatoes, (3) using plain regular yogurt instead of Greek yogurt, and (4) adding fried onions - but otherwise the ingredient list is generally the same as the recipe.

Recipe ingredients (other than the chicken)

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($2)

- Salt ($0.05)

- Black pepper ($0.05)

- 1/2 cup flour ($0.30)

- Canola oil ($0.10)

- Celery stalks ($1.10)

- Potatoes ($1.60)

- 1/2 cup white wine ($2)

- 1 can low sodium chicken broth ($0.72)

- 1 tbsp dijon mustard ($0.40)

- 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt ($0.40)

- Fried onions, to garnish ($0.60)

A nice dinner for two for about $9. Not too bad for a dish that includes chicken, lots of celery and potatoes, and wine. [Note that I pulled the wine price out of thin air; it's wine that is leftover from our reception so I have no idea how much it cost this many years later.]

Process

Chicken in progress

I followed the recipe (here) with very little variation, so I won't recite all the steps in detail here. The only changes I made were that (1) I mixed the salt and pepper into the flour mixture instead of doing it as a separate step and (2) I added some water at the same time as the chicken broth to make sure there was enough liquid to cover most of the chicken.

But the short version of the steps are: prep, dredge chicken in flour mixture, brown chicken, cook celery and potatoes, add wine, add broth and mustard, return chicken, bring to boil and then simmer covered for about 20 minutes. The sauce is just the leftover liquid reduced a little, plus yogurt whisked in. It's fairly simple, and it used techniques that I know I can replicate with other ingredients, which was exactly what I was looking for.

Review

The finished dish

We liked this dish. It tasted like simple comfort food, French style. A little rich and creamy, but in a healthy way.

I think next time, since we're not buying the giant bag of potatoes again, this chicken would go well with a vegetable base of celery, carrots, onions and garlic (and maybe one potato for creaminess). I might also use more mustard, salt and pepper. I liked this a lot, especially as healthy comfort food, and would definitely try making this again.

Goodbye Frens

After our pancake treat, we continued our Amsterdam farewell tour with another spot from the day before - Frens Haringhandel. We were so surprised by how much we enjoyed our herring sandwich from the day before and decided to go back for another one.

Another herring topped with pickles and onions on a soft roll was consumed. I didn't like it as much as the day before since it was a little bit fishier, but it was still enjoyable. A thought that the herring was a bit fishier as well. Maybe it was just less fresh? Overall it was still extremely tasty.

We didn't know when we would have a chance to get herring like this again (we hadn't yet learned about the annual new herring festival at the Grand Central Oyster Bar that we've hit up for the past two years), and were happy to have one more herring sandwich to split before leaving the Netherlands. We're still big fans of Frens Haringhandel (and have also seen that spot appear all over TV) and would try to go back on a return trip to Amsterdam.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Another summer flashback! Why do I have so many posts in drafts that were done but never posted? This one is from Monday June 17...

We were out in Queens last weekend (for Cuban WorldEats!) and on our walk back to the train, decided to stop at a grocery store. I figured there would be some things out in Corona that might be cheaper than what we could find in Manhattan, and while there, I spontaneously picked up two poblano peppers. I liked the taste of poblanos, but I had no idea what to do with them. I also didn't know how much they usually cost, but I was pretty sure they had to be cheaper at Bravo than my usual stores. A recent trip to Fairway confirmed my hunch (double the price!) and I was happy I picked up the poblanos while we were out in Queens.

The short and squat stuffed poblano pepper

I was looking for a simple recipe for the poblano peppers and after reading quite a few, the one that stuck with me was one for stuffed poblano peppers on the blog, a couple cooks. I especially liked that it didn't require the skins to be taken off the peppers (and they were indeed soft enough that they didn't need to be). I'm not going to recite the entire recipe here, since I followed the baking option in the recipe almost exactly. (You can find the original recipe here.) I just made less rice since we only had 2 peppers and the recipe was for 4. The salsa I used was a tasty garlic chipotle salsa from Trader Joe's, which added some other flavors.

Ingredients

I forgot to take photos of the poblanos whole (honestly, I also forgot to wash them until after I cut them in my absentminded state), and I forgot to put the salsa in the "group picture" but most of the ingredients are covered in the photos.

Green onions, more ingredients, the bowl ready to mix, poblanos ready to be stuffed

- 2 poblano peppers ($0.79)

- 2/3 cup brown rice ($0.15)

- 1.5 cups salsa ($1.25)

- Can of black beans ($0.89)

- Can of corn ($1.59)

- 3 green onions ($0.20)

- 1 tsp cumin ($0.05)

- 1 tsp chili powder ($0.05)

- 1/2 tsp cayenne ($0.03)

- Salt and pepper ($0.05)

- Shredded Mexican cheese ($0.50)

- Chopped cilantro ($0.10)

The total was about $5.50 for our 2 stuffed poblanos. Not too bad, but not as low as I was hoping. Probably could be cheaper except I could not find an inexpensive can of corn nearby. When did canned corn get so expensive?

Process

Basically all the items get mixed together, stuffed in the peppers and baked. We don't really use our broiler (need to figure out if it works up here) and the baking option was super simple, so we did that.

Poblanos with filling, the mixed filling, poblanos in the oven

As you can see, the pepper halves were not very "bowl shaped" so they could barely keep the filling inside the peppers. They also were not very large. As a result, we had plenty of filling left over after I filled the peppers and stuck them in the oven. Not a problem - rice salad while we waited for the peppers to bake and watched Shark Tank!

Review

This recipe was delicious and really simple. It was probably the quickest prep I did all week, and I love baking because things cook without me having to constantly watch them.

The long and skinny stuffed poblano... the baked cheese crisps from the pan were a nice bonus!

I really liked this recipe. The flavor of the poblanos themselves really came through, even though they weren't that big or fleshy. The filling was tasty - the brown rice was a little nutty, the corn and green onions added a nice crunch, the garlic chipotle salsa was smoky - and the baked cheese was a nice crispy and melty layer on top . We also loved the little cheese "crisps" that we got from all the extra cheese that fell into the baking pan.  I've always liked poblanos but had never made them before, and I think I'll try this again. I just need to get better shaped poblanos!

Blueberry Cookies

Summer flashback! From our massive archive of draft posts... written Wednesday July 17th and for some reason, it languished in drafts until now. Posted as written back in July...

We drove back from Philadelphia (a trip we'll write about shortly, we hope) on Sunday and stopped off in southern Jersey to do some grocery shopping. One thing we needed to stock up on was produce, and we loved the look of the fresh Jersey-grown blueberries that we found at Costco and Wegmans. They were the same price at both places, so we ended up picking up a 2 lb box from Wegmans. I mean, look at them - they're so plump and juicy!

Unfortunately no photo of the box since the raspberries spilled juice all over it and we had to get rid of it

On Monday afternoon, I was snacking on some blueberries when I came across some blog posts about summer berries and desserts. What perfect timing! Inspiration hit and I decided to modify a recipe from Serious Eats for blueberry cookies. Fruit in cookies is delicious, but even more so with fresh sweet blueberries like these!

Here's what I did:

Step 1: Mix 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 3/4 tsp of baking soda, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Step 2:  Mix 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of sugar and 4 oz (8 tbsp) of applesauce until smooth. [I used applesauce instead of using a stick of butter. I also used heaping cups of sugar for each so it was a little bit more than 1/4 cup.]

Step 3:  Mix 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract into the sugar-applesauce bowl.

Step 4: Mix 1 egg (or 1/4 cup of egg substitute) into the bowl with the sugar/applesauce/vanilla. Stir until smooth.

Step 5: Add the combination from the flour bowl into the wet bowl and mix until smooth.

Step 6: Gently fold 1 cup of blueberries into the batter.

Step 7: When the batter is well mixed, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours. [I chilled it for 3 hours.]

Step 8: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and drop the dough onto the sheets in rounded tablespoons. [Mine might have been a little bit bigger than that.]

Step 9: Bake cookies on the upper and middle racks of the oven for 13-15 minutes.

Step 10: Pull the cookies out and let them cool for about 3 minutes.

Step 11: Cool cookies on wire racks.

The blueberry cookies were soft, sweet and delicious. They were more like muffin tops than your usual cookies, but we liked that they were soft and chewy. And after all, isn't the muffin top the best part of the muffin?

You could feel the textural difference from using the applesauce instead of butter, but they were still good. Even better, there was no guilt about eating them because they were fairly healthy and full of good stuff. The recipe made 12 cookies, which lasted us... 2 days. I would love to make these again, but the blueberries were so good that we don't have enough left!

November Custard Calendar

I can't believe it's already November! Near the end of October, it felt like there was still another week left to the month to try the custards, but sadly we had lost track of time and there were only a couple of days. Oh well. Hopefully this month we'll do better. After all, I'm pretty sure we'll be going on Sundays at the very least for our absolute favorite Shake Shack custard - chocolate hazelnut. Just like last year around this time, we're so happy to see that one back! We love gianduja (its old name) so much.

Source

The November line-up:

Monday - Grandma's apple pie (the only real new one for us - wonder if they will mix in pie?)
Tuesday - cranberry almond (6/10 for last year's cranberry almond marzipan, which I assume is the same, but that the name was corrected)
Wednesday - pumpkin pie (8.75/10 with the usual footnote)
Thursday - toffee pear (5.75/10)
Friday - salted caramel (4.75/10)
Saturday - maple gingersnap cheesecake (4/10 for last year's maple cheesecake - did they add a new gingersnap flavor to it this year? we didn't particularly like it last year)
Sunday - chocolate hazelnut (10/10!)

I know where we'll be on Sundays (and probably at least one Monday)!