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New Year’s Eve Menu

December 31, 2011 by Jenny

We’re staying in this New Year’s Eve and celebrating with a cozy, tasty steakhouse dinner. Last year we went to Bryant & Cooper and I have to say, I was unimpressed. It was fun getting out but my filet was not so great. Ruth’s Chris never disappoints so if you’re craving steak and don’t feel like cooking, head there.

I don’t know why cooking a steak always intimidated me but when I watched Ina Garten make filet mignon I saw how quick and easy it really is. Go to the butcher for your meat and you’ll see that it’s just as good as what you order at a steakhouse (and a lot less expensive). An 8oz filet in a restaurant can easily cost $30 and up. Our two steaks from my favorite butcher cost about $25.

I follow this recipe for preparing the steaks with a few adjustments. The recipe calls for fleur de sel (a type of salt) but I just use kosher salt. I also use about half the salt and pepper it calls for because otherwise it is WAY too overpowering. I don’t have a seasoned cast iron skillet so I use a Le Creuset enameled cast iron pan instead.

To go with our steaks I’m making twice baked potatoes and creamed spinach. For dessert, I’m following the recommendation of A Cup of Jo and I picked up Trader Joe’s Chocolate Lava Cakes. If they’re as good as they are fattening, we’re in for a delicious evening.

Happy New Year, friends and family!

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Be a Good Holiday Guest

December 19, 2011 by Jenny

If you’re lucky enough to not be the host for the upcoming holidays, do your host a favor and bring a thoughtful gift!

If you can bake, try Martha Stewart’s lime meltaways. I blogged about them here.

 

The Barefoot Contessa’s Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake is really impressive and not too challenging. Food Network has the mini-cakes version that appeared on her show, but the whole cake, which is made in a bundt pan, is found in Barefoot Contessa Parties.

If you’re not really a baker but you can turn on an oven and you own a spoon and an 8×8 pan, you can make some jazzed up brownies. Start with a box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownies and get cracking.  Peppermint Brownies are perfect for the holidays and a cinch to make. Pour half the prepared batter in the pan, layer six large peppermint patties across the pan (or a bunch of smaller ones) and cover with the remaining batter.

Nothing goes better with brownies than peanut butter so microwave a few tablespoons of peanut butter for 15-30 seconds to soften it, pour three stripes across the batter and run a knife perpendicular to the peanut butter to swirl it through. Wowee zowee.

If you know your hosts are wine drinkers, choose a bottle for them to enjoy when they’re not crazed with guests. And please, step away from the white zinfandel! If you’re a wine novice, ask the salesperson for a suggestion and don’t be afraid to communicate your budget (even if it’s $10), there are a lot of good choices at every price.

Of course there are many great websites with beautiful gifts. Check out Terrain, Wisteria, Beekman 1802, and for gorgeous personalized photo gifts that are surprisingly well-priced, you can’t beat Pinhole Press. I bought a ton of gifts there this year.

Happy Holidays!!

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Baby Splurges

December 18, 2011 by Jenny

People often complain, “Babies are expensive!”  but I haven’t found that to be the case…yet. I foresee having school-age and (eek!) college-age children much more expensive. For now, I’ve saved money by purchasing diapers online through Amazon Mom, breastfeeding, making baby food, and having very generous friends and family who seriously hooked me up at my baby shower.

I also love a bargain. Carter’s sends me coupons pretty much every day and I have taken advantage of double-stamp Tuesdays for a few $10 certificates. Etsy is a wonderful spot for handmade clothes and toys but the prices aren’t always the cheapest. Still, I’d rather spend an extra few dollars and support an individual than buy another mass-produced, Made in China item at Buy Buy Baby.

Now that the holidays are around the corner HERE, advertisements for beautiful baby goodies abound. Some items make zero sense to me.

This is a baby sweater from J.Crew. It’s $125. And it’s cashmere. I think I find the material more offensive than the price. I don’t know if you know this about babies, but they spit up and drool about a gallon a day. They also have this cool trick where they poop up their backs (or is that just Nolan?). For fear of handing over my paycheck to the dry cleaner, I have had to temporarily “retire” all my wool sweaters so I certainly am not putting one on my baby. But then I try to imagine myself rich. Would it be normal to send my infant’s clothes to the dry cleaner? Would it bother me when my son poop-sploded up his back and into the fine Italian cashmere fibers of this sweater?

And then there is this layette set from Mabo.

It’s $62 which I KNOW is silly. But did you see that little knot hat? And the cute little butt?

It’s details like that that make me want to do crazy things! Like buy baby clothes for $62!

And did I mention they come in stripes?

Etsy is highly addicting (and overwhelming) and I have purchased a few cute mini-splurges for Nolan on there. This flag banner from Sweetbug Studio hangs above Nolan’s crib.

This owl hat from Jojos “Boo”tique is ridiculously cute. It was made to order so it took about a month to receive but it was worth the wait.

With the weather (finally) getting cold, the fleece-y booties from Bison Booties I bought are coming in handy. The seller carries booties in a ton of really adorable fabrics. They arrived pretty quickly so they make a great gift!

We bought this picture to hang in Nolan’s room. I love the old-fashioned style taxi. It reminds me of old New York movies like An Affair to Remember.

Little Alouette makes wooden teethers that are eco and baby friendly. Yes to fewer plastic toys! Fingers crossed Nolan doesn’t read my blog because he has two of these in his stocking.

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Dunkin’ Donuts Rant

November 30, 2011 by Jenny

I have a deep love for Starbucks, and for coffee in general. When friends and family balk at the price of a Starbucks drink, I point out that the extra dollar is worth my low blood pressure, because when I visit Dunkin’ Donuts, I am inevitably frustrated and disappointed.

The routine is always the same. I walk up to the counter and state my order: “Medium decaf vanilla with milk.” The cashier repeats it back to me (usually correctly) and then immediately pours coffee out of the regular coffeepot. “Excuse me, is that decaf?” I ask. “Oh you want decaf?” the cashier responds, surprised. This happens no less than half the time. For this reason, I cannot order from the drive-thru because I can’t actually watch the person pour the coffee. I haven’t had caffeine (other than in chocolate) in over a year so you can imagine what would happen if I downed 16 oz. of regular coffee. On the off-chance that I’m given decaf, I’m almost certainly guaranteed to not get the vanilla I asked for (as was the case this week).

A few months ago I threw caution to the wind and went to the drive-thru because I had Nolan in the car and it was a million degrees out. Before I was even handed the coffee, I could see the mound of sugar resting at the bottom of the cup. “Um, that looks like it has sugar in it and I asked for just milk.” The cashier frowned and looked at the cup and then tried handing it to me, “Just try it! You’ll like it!” They remade my coffee when I refused, but forgot the vanilla. No surprise there.

What is surprising is that this happens at every DD. It’s not like there’s one bad location by me and I should just try another. Am I really asking for that much???

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Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

November 22, 2011 by Jenny

Need some last-minute inspiration for Thanksgiving menu ideas? Here is what I’m making:

Roast Turkey - Barefoot Contessa’s hands-off approach to turkey hasn’t failed  me yet. No brining. No basting. Moist and delicious. Her recipe is for a 12 lb. turkey; I adjust accordingly for my 20 lb. bird. I make this gravy (minus the business with the giblets) and it’s easy breezy.

Mashed Potatoes - Again, love Barefoot Contessa’s. I don’t bother with putting them through a food mill, however. I gently mash them by hand and then use a stand mixer. The thing with mashed potatoes is that they have to be made last-minute. Last year I attempted a baked version from The Pioneer Woman and I have to say, it just wasn’t the same. To give yourself a little extra time, you can keep mashed potatoes warm for a while in a bowl over a pot of simmering water.

Carrots – I’m trying these for the first time this year because they look easy and I’m interested to see how the chili powder and the pumpkin pie spice come together.

Cranberry Sauce – Pioneer Woman’s is sweet and a touch tart. I’ve tried other ones that are too citrusy or too lumpy but this is just right. I like mine a little smoother so I put half the cooked batch in the food processor and pulse two or three times to break up the cranberries.

String Beans – I don’t really know what I’m doing here. Probably blanching them, and then sauteeing with butter and shallots.

Sweet Potato Casserole - I’ve made a half-dozen different versions and loved and them all but I think I’m sticking with the copycat recipe for the Ruth’s Chris Sweet Potato Casserole. It’s dessert on the dinner table.

For appetizers I’m doing the basics, cheese and crackers, hummus and veggies, and spinach dip in a bread bowl.

I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday that everyone celebrates. It’s food and it’s family and it’s the intro to Christmas and the holiday season. What I DON’T love is that tons of stores are opening on Thanksgiving. I have plenty to say about the hypocrisy of people cutting time short with their families to go buy gifts for…their families. And what about all the poor people who have to work these stores?? Ugh, that’s a post for another day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving 2009

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Holiday Cooking Part 1 – S’mores-to-Go

November 20, 2011 by Jenny

Oh, hello there. I didn’t see you. I was busy gazing at these babies.

 

These are the perfect holiday party treat. They are easy to make and even easier to eat. My friends Matt and Shara (holla!) brought these to our 3rd Annual Fakesgiving and they were the hit of the party. I made them for a party last week and it took every ounce of will power in me to only eat one before heading out.

The recipe comes from The Pampered Chef and can be found here, but here is a screen shot:

I opted to cut off the screen shot before the nutrition facts because really, who needs nutrition facts on a dessert?

I don’t have too much to add (for once). The only change I made was that I bought Ghirardelli chocolate bars instead of the Hershey-type bar I was supposed to buy. As a result, I had to cut each Ghirardelli square into quarters which took all of thirty seconds.

I find it pretty funny how far The Pampered Chef will go to try to sell you stuff. For instance, the recipe tells you to use their Professional Shears dipped in cold water to cut the marshmallows. Ok… or you could use a knife? Maybe?

I don’t have a Mini Tart Shaper (the shame!) so I used the end of a citrus reamer to press down the bottoms. You could also use a thumb.

Make sure you really spray/grease the heck out of the muffin pan or these suckers aren’t coming out. Mmmm – don’t they look great? How could they possibly get better?

Oh right, by dipping the tops in chocolate.

The recipe makes 24 but they go fast so you may want to play it safe and double it!

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Grandma Chic

November 18, 2011 by Jenny

I’ve worn glasses for the past fourteen years (when did that happen??). I started out just wearing them to see the chalkboard in high school, then for movies, then for driving, then the computer screen, and so on and so on. A few years ago I got lazy and pretty much stopped wearing them unless I was driving.  At some point last year I realized that I was magnifying my computer screen to embarassing proportions and that I couldn’t identify who was waving at me from down the hall until he or she was right in front of me. Pregnancy made these problems worse (who knew that pregnancy can affect your vision?) and when I went to the eye doctor a few months ago, he confirmed that my vision was a lot worse than it was just a year ago.

I like my glasses, that’s not the problem, I just hate taking them on and off all day. I have the bad habit of pushing them to the top of my head but that stretches out the frames and pulls my hair. That’s where the glasses chain comes in! So far, everyone I have mentioned this to has balked and called me a grandma, but I think there are some cute options out there.

Like this one I found on Etsy:

This one, also being sold on Etsy, has a delicate jewelry-like feel:

Are there cute options that you’ve seen? I think they’re grandma-chic! Consider all the other grandmotherly accessories we embrace: cardigans, brooches and pins, tissues up your sleeve … oh wait, that’s just me.

Keep your eyes peeled for a fabulous glasses chain and let me know what you find!

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Friendly Cynicism

November 16, 2011 by Jenny

My piece about handling well-intentioned cynical comments is up over at Long Island Parent Source today! Check it out and leave a comment!

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Fairway Fail

November 16, 2011 by Jenny

I tried to go to the new Fairway Market in Douglaston today and could barely get in to the parking lot. You would have thought Justin Bieber was there bagging groceries while Lady Gaga worked the cash register.

I promptly headed over to Whole Foods and felt a pang of guilt like I had cheated on it. I don’t know why I love nice supermarkets so much, but I do and I’m not apologizing for it! Do you have a favorite? Are you willing to spend a little more for grocery store ambiance?

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Gifts for all “Occasions”

November 15, 2011 by Jenny

While stopped at a light in Hempstead, I noticed this store and its window display. My very limited knowledge of Spanish helped me figure out that the sign advertises gifts for all occasions.

If all of your occasions involve accepting money for sex, then yes, I guess the sign is correct.

Too mean?

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