Cooking Without a Recipe

This post, much to my Uncle Dan’s dismay, lacks a recipe. The title alone is probably enough to cause anxiety.

I’ve never really been one to follow recipes. I have lots of cookbooks, pin numerous recipes on Pinterest and always make grocery lists with the intent of cooking a full recipe. Somehow I get started and substitutions start happening and before I know it, nothing is similar to where I started.

I lived for a summer in college for a month without measuring cups. Normal people just wouldn’t bake for that month. I decided to make cookies and instead googled “how to judge tablespoons in your palm.” It worked.

Whenever we cook on the weekends, Jon mistakenly asks to see the recipe so that he can help out. Recipe? What recipe?

On this very night, I set out to make cornbread. We have a group through church that meets every Wednesday night and one of the girls was bringing chili so it fit perfectly! I picked up the milk and eggs on the way home from work and for once actually was determined to follow a complete recipe. Until I realized that I was running out of cornmeal. Slightly crucial for the whole “corn bread” thing to happen. I googled a bit only to find answers like “can’t make corn bread without corn meal” or “doesn’t work.” Undeterred, I was determined to make this cornbread.

I noticed a container of grits and decided that seemed close enough to corn for me. So 1/2 cup of grits and the remaining 1/2 cup of corn meal later, I had corn bread!

The picture isn’t that great but it tasted just fine! So lesson learned.. if you have no corn meal just use grits instead! It adds some crunch but tasted just fine.

The problem with me submitting things in a recipe and it coming out fine is that it just furthers my desire to follow actual rules. I’ve always heard that you’re supposed to use exact measurements in baking but eye-balling seems to be good enough for me. Whoops. Maybe someday I’ll stop breaking the rules.

Once & Other Weekend Activities

This past weekend was absolutely jam packed.

Friday morning started super early with Creative Mornings. It’s the monthly design talk that I go to that’s usually held in Brooklyn right across from work. This month it was held in the NY Public Library in Bryant Park. Great way to kick off the day even though it means the alarm is set for hours earlier than usual!

After work I had plans to go to Draft & Draw with a coworker and his girlfriend. The event is put on by a guy I know from church and this is the 2nd time they’ve held it. It’s exactly what it sounds like – drinking and drawing! You show up, eat pizza, drink beer, hear from a speaker and then get to spend the rest of the time doodling on the tables.

My doodling kind of got out of hand.

The table at the end of the night:

Saturday morning, Jon and I had bagels for breakfast followed by a walk through Prospect Park. It had rained a bit and warmed up a ton so the snow was all super melty. It was nice except for the large streams that had grown on all of the pathways. Made it hard to walk in places that we’re dirty and muddy.

At one point I stopped and looked around at just how ridiculous the scene was. Here we were just a few miles away from Times Square and unless you previously knew that, you’d have no idea! Completely surrounded by trees, snow and nature.

It was actually warm enough this weekend to sit down on a bench and not freeze to death which was welcomed after all of this snow and cold that we’ve been having!

On the way back from the park we stopped in a new coffee shop called Cafe Martin, recommended by Jon’s roommate. The owner of the place is pretty friendly and quirky, definitely feels like a neighborhood coffeeshop. Walked down to the Whole Foods afterwards to pick up a few things – and to, ya know, rack up more miles walking.

We headed back to get all cleaned up and dressed up for the night ahead! Original plans were to make dinner but quickly decided that going out sounded way faster and easier. Settled on Flipsters when Jon expressed an interest in “I just want a burger and fries.” It had actually been on my list for a while to try so I was happy to go – did feel a bit silly being all dressed up and eating burgers though. The veggie burger was amazing. None of that frozen nonsense. It actually ranked up there on one of the best ones that I’ve had!

Made our way into midtown with a brief stop and walk around 30 Rock Plaza and the ice skating rink before (shoving) our way into Times Square. Always a happy reminder why I don’t want to live there! So. Many. People. With fanny packs, taking pictures, looking up, etc. I can’t believe how few times I actually find myself in Manhattan. Probably best for anxiety sake.

The reason we were there was to see Once!!!

Grandpa and Frances had so generously given us tickets for Christmas to see it – thank you! At the time February felt incredibly far away but I can’t believe how fast January and February went. Yikes. We, appropriately, spent the week leading up to the show listening to the soundtrack and were both super pumped to finally get to see it.

Outside the theater there were people talking about Stars Hollow and Gilmore Girls so I knew it was my kind of crowd.

Walking into the theater, we noticed a bunch of people forming a line to get on stage. Turns out they have a bar before the show ON stage! The actors/actresses get on stage before it even starts to play music in a really informal manner. The whole show takes place in an Irish pub so it’s quite fitting and sets the scene. Unfortunately we were the last people in line to NOT be let on stage 😦 Bummer.

Unlike most shows, there is no dramatic curtain opening or anything – they just go right from having people on stage to the start of the show.

During intermission I noticed that there were people going back on stage so we headed down to try it again. We were number 4 and 5 back in line when they said only 4 more people allowed then it’s closed. But luckily the guy was very nice and let both of us up so we got to go on stage!

It’s hard to sum up in words but the show was fantastic! Nothing over the top overly romantic and broadway about it. It just felt very real and unique. All of the scene changes were very inventive. The background really never moved, they would just use boxes of light as “rooms” and had people playing music to distract from scene changes with people going on/off stage.

Overall, fantastic and highly recommended! We both loved it.

After the show we headed down the street to Junior’s for some cheesecake! I got the most ginormous piece of carrot cake cheesecake. It was amazing and the leftovers were even more delicious. The thing was seriously the size of my head. When the waiter put them down he gave us the wrong cheesecakes but Jon was in the bathroom so I quick swapped them. I looked to the left and noticed a table giggling at me – I think they thought I was stealing his cheesecake while he was away 🙂

Sunday was a bit different in that church was moved to night time so suddenly we had a full free morning before Jon left for work. Spent time reading the paper, attempting and failing at the crossword and cooking! We made omelettes with mozzarella and arugula, roasted some fingerling & sweet potatoes, and made cinnamon rolls (out of a can – we cheated. sorry). It was kind of a breakfast morphed into lunch thing.

In the afternoon I took care of some laundry – no laundry guy though, I missed him. I originally got an invite to Eric’s movie premiere showing in Jersey City so I was all ready to go to that around 5 except in a last minute check to the invite I realized it’s NEXT month not February. Whoops. Good thing I checked! So instead I headed to the 5pm service at church. It was held in this really old, neat Baptist church with comfy pews and everything (not recommended for evening services). Afterwards I went to dinner with two friends at a local Vietnamese place.

So… definitely a very, very packed and fun weekend!

Monday Eats

Different kind of Monday. We moved into a new office space at work today! It wasn’t quite done this morning so I worked from the comfort of my couch. Somehow I’m infinitely more focused and productive if I start working right away. Made an extra delicious breakfast while I worked. Oatmeal with anything and everything I could find in it!

The new office space is just one floor down from where we are currently but somehow the views seem to be even better. Brooklyn Bridge in one window, Manhattan Bridge in the other and a clear view of World Trade. Kinda crazy.

Dinner was Spicy Thai Curry Noodle Soup. It turned out quite well. Tasted even more delicious than it looked and was just what I’ve been craving for weeks now. I mostly followed the recipe – didn’t blend the ingredients (because I don’t have a food processor) and did vegetable broth instead of chicken.

My bowl of noodles didn’t quite live up to the photo on the blog where I found it.. but not too shabby for a Monday night and no food styling! The hardest part always seems to be having the right ingredients on hand and actually starting to cook. After that it’s easy & delicious.

Snowy Saturday Brunch

Jon surprised me with pretty flowers (and ice cream!) on Friday after he got back from his bike ride! We didn’t have any super big plans for the weekend but it was nice to get the bonus day to spend time together. It really made it feel so much longer. We don’t ever seem to need any big weekend plans as we always manage to fill it with lots of adventures.

Friday night dinner was stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta with tomatoes & basil and two types of cheese. Ate while watching the first episode of Season 2 of House of Cards (holy cow..).

Saturday brunch seems to be our cooking forte.

We never have solid dinner plans but breakfast… always first to be decided. This week was omelettes filled with shitake mushrooms, arugula and smoked gouda. We were supposed to make cinnamon rolls but that turned into Jon grabbed a chocolate almond croissant & an apple turnover from the French bakery down the street. No complaints here 🙂 Also roasted some fingerling potatoes with rosemary and olive oil. And, of course, no NYC brunch is complete without mimosas!

We got to spend time cooking while watching the snow start to fall outside. We’ve gotten SO much so far this year.

Thankful to be dating a photographer who doesn’t think I’m nuts when I want to style the food a bit and snap some pictures.

After all of the cooking (and dishwashing which seems to take up 25% of our weekend) we ventured out into the snow. See what I mean by a lot?! The difference with snow in NYC is that there is no place for it to go so sidewalks are getting narrower and narrower and cars often have no hope of getting out without a massive shoveling job.

A walk through Prospect Park in the snow is always a must. The snow in parts was up past my boots (to be fair, we hardly walked on pathways at all). It was actually shockingly warm out, I had way too many clothes on.

I was feeling toasty warm until a snowball fight broke out. Jon wasn’t pleased with the snowman sized snowball I was creating and proceeded to get me covered in snow instead.

We wandered our way through the neighborhood at ended up at Roots Cafe. At that point we were both completely covered in snow & probably looked ridiculous. The owner (who we came to realize goes to our church) was stepping out just as we were walking and she kept laughing at us 🙂 Warmed up with a hot cup of coffee!

Had plans to walk all the way to Whole Foods to grab the cinnamon rolls for Sunday but walking back from the cafe quickly decided that more time outside was a bad plan. Here we are super snow covered:

Dinner was more bruschetta, cheese and the remaining stuffed mushrooms. Not great planning on our part, we were starving afterwards. Whoops.

Watched a great movie on Netflix called Populaire. It’s another foreign (French) film – “In this romantic comedy set in the 1950s, a smooth-talking insurance agent is so impressed with his secretary’s skills that he encourages her to enter speed-typing competitions. He also invites her to live in his mansion, and romance slowly blooms.” It sounds kind of ridiculous but we both ended up really loving it!

Post-movie there was some minor apartment redecorating (of Jon’s apartment). Moved a few things around in the living room and cleaned a bunch. Somehow failed to get an “after” shot but it’s looking all cleaned up now and the table is conveniently closer to the window for better food lighting 😉 Priorities!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This year I participated in something called the Handmade Valentine’s Exchange. You get pared up with 9 other people and make 9 cards for them which means you get 9 cards in return! Casey and I got together for 4+ hours a week or so back and worked hard on all of the cards. Lots of fun and a good excuse to cut out hundreds of hearts! I’m still waiting for some of those cards to come in so it’ll be a nice surprise over the next week or so.

Our office is in the middle of some big changes this weekend which means that most of us are working from home today! Spending the day curled up under a blanket working on various projects. It’s so nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while. Working home on Friday also means that I see Jon! He came by this morning and worked along side me – he’s working on some online development courses.

Since we knew that we were all going to be out of the office today, the baking committee at work planned a pre-Valentine’s day breakfast for everyone in the office. In the front pictured are bagel croissiants called red velvet cragels.

The commute in yesterday was interesting. Super snowy! It snowed 10+ inches yesterday and when I left for work it looked like this:

Getting off the train near work, I was crossing the street and watched a woman fall on top of her kid who she was carrying over a snow bank. Another guy and I picked them up and they seemed to be okay but it was very, very icy and snowy at that point. Very hard to see even a few feet ahead.

Another morning where Manhattan disappears.

Yesterday also happened to be a very special person’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! As a birthday present, they got 20+ inches of snow. Pretty crazy! Wish I could have been there to celebrate & help shovel. Hope you get your birthday bagel this weekend 🙂

3 Trains and a Bus

Kicked off the weekend with a trip up to Queens to see two of our friends perform at the Waltz Astoria. We’ve been up there 3 or 4 times now for their shows – always a great time! It’s a super small venue packed with people we know and  a fantastically friendly owner. If you’re interested in checking out the music online, the band is Jeffrey Allen.

Saturday morning Jon was meeting up with a friend from RIT so I headed to Naidre’s cafe to get a breakfast burrito, hang out for a bit and read the paper. Finished up there and grabbed a sunflower cookie from a new bakery that opened up, Buttermilk Bakery. Holy cow it was amazing.

The cookie was a good choice because the “quick trip to Manhattan” soon turned into an hour long ordeal.

I got on the right train and set to work finishing my crossword puzzle. I knew my destination was quite a few stops a way so it’s generally okay to zone out for a bit and not listen to the stops. All of a sudden we were stopped in a station that was clearly not on the usual path and everyone on the train was talking and confused. Turns out they had rerouted us but didn’t bother to mention anything. So I was stuck in this random station going absolutely no where close to where I needed to be. They handed everyone vouchers to get on a shuttle bus down the block. So we all trudged upstairs and down the street to wait to be herded onto the shuttle bus like cattle. The woman next to me was clearly less than pleased and she wanted everyone to know it. Packed on the bus, we made our way to yet another subway station a little ways away. Got there and found out that a weird train was running on the line but I voted to get on it anyway. Eventually made it to Manhattan and transferred to yet another train before getting to Union Square. Three trains and a bus later.

So now how badly do you want to move to NYC? 🙂

I was ultimately headed to Union Square to meet up with Jon when he was done with lunch. I had some time to kill so I wandered into a few stores and ended up at Strand, the most fantastic 4 floor book store that is PACKED with books. So much fun just to aimlessly browse around.

Saturday night was cooking! We made sweet potato hummus and some other appetizer-y things for dinner. Had plans to eat while watching the Olympic’s replays but the internet unexpectedly went out for a few hours so that killed that plan quickly. Watched a movie and chatted instead while enjoying some brownies (which Jon is currently obsessed with).

Sunday morning we had an early breakfast date at a bagel shop nearby. We only really have Friday night through Sunday early afternoon for dates during the week so we really have to pack in a week’s worth of chatting and dates. Church was followed by lunch with two friends at a local diner before Jon had to head off to work.

Sunday night was, as you may have guessed, laundry! The usual laundry guy was there which always makes the trips back and forth and 4 flights of stairs worth it.

Dinner was a quick snacky dinner as I was full from back to back breakfasts in the morning 🙂 Sweet potato hummus, regular hummus, brie, oranges, watermelon radish (my new favorite) and crackers! Dinner is always fancier from a cutting board.

Capped off the night with a 2 hour  call with these crazies 🙂 Remy and Kristin are roommates in Chicago and it’s always great to catch up with them. Facetime makes it feel like they’re right in the room!

And an update: If you recall in last week’s post, I talked about visiting these super cool old trolley’s down in Red Hook. Just read on the news yesterday that they’re no longer there! Someone apparently came one day this week and loaded them up on huge trucks and drove them off to some undisclosed location. Sad 😦

Down By The Docks

Another weekend has come and gone and the list of places to go and see in NYC never seems to get any shorter.

I’m a huge fan of starting off Saturdays with a home-cooked breakfast. Last weekend was pancakes, oranges and “choose your own meat like thing” (veggie sausage for me, bacon for him).

Brunch places have nothing on us.

Finished up a few crossword puzzle answers before heading out the door to catch a bus to Red Hook. It’s a neighborhood not easily serviced by the subway so the easiest way is to hop on a bus and enjoy traveling above ground for once.

In Red Hook there are some fantastic views of the water, city and the statue of liberty! It was the first “warm” day in quite some time. I think it hit 40 degrees! That felt pretty much like summer so we were happy to be walking around and outside.

It’s a very industrial neighborhood as IKEA is there, boat docks, warehouses, etc. Makes for lots of interesting architecture. They are turning one of the piers into a park of some sort with displays and information posted around so that’ll be interesting to check out in a few months.

On the rear side of the Fairway (a giant grocery store) there are all of these old train cars to peek into. Pretty neat!

After a brief shopping trip to Fairway (one in which we had to promise ourselves not to buy the whole store), we headed to a nearby bakery for some whoopie pies! Jon’s from PA so it only makes sense to go try them out. Super tasty looking baked goods and a cute shop tucked in the neighborhood – would definitely be worth a trip back!

Once we were sufficiently hopped up on sugar, we headed back home to start preparing dinner. Jon was going to be working the Super Bowl so we went with a football party inspired dinner menu to make up for him missing it.

Three types of cheese, guac & chips, kale/arugula salad for appetizers. Then while watching a movie we got some veggie lentil chili on the stove to simmer away. It turned out super well – ate leftovers for lunch for the beginning of the week, I’d definitely make it again!