eat me drink me

Corny Squash Soup With Kale Chips

It’s squash and corn season at the farm, and in the last CSA batch I got a three lovely looking acorn and butternut squashes, a couple ears of sweet corn, and a bunch of kale.  As the temperature drops, nothing sounded finer then a rich bowl of soup. So, I combined these three things to make a sweet, salty, and savory brew perfect for the fall.

Ingredients:

• Bundle of kale
• 2 ears of corn Squash: 4 small acorn or 2 small acorn and a butternut, or 2 butternut
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• Dash of cinnamon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil
• Butter or bacon fat
• Greek yogurt (optional)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Peel the corn, wash the kale, and cut the squash in half and de-seed.
Spread a thin layer of olive oil on the flesh of the squash and lightly pepper and salt.
Place in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the flesh yields easily to a fork.

Chop kale into to big chunks, toss with olive oil and sea salt.
Layer kale onto baking sheet; try not to overlap the leaves.
When squash is done place kale in the oven for 15 minutes, then flip over for another 15 minutes.

Scoop squash out of skin and chop up.
Dice onion and brown in soup pot with bacon fat, butter or olive oil.
Once onions are browned, add stock.
Bring to rolling boil.
Add squash to pot.
Simmer for about 15 minutes, then take an immersion blender and puree. You can also do this (carefully) in a blender or food processor.
Add spices to puréed soup.*

Slice the fresh corn off the cob and put kernels in the soup.
Let simmer for about 20 minutes.
Serve with crumpled kale chips on top and optional, a scoop of plain Greek-style yogurt.

*if soup seems thin, make a roux and add to pot.

A couple years ago I stumbled on this recipe for “False Mahshi: Layered Swiss Chard, Beets, Rice, and Beef” in the New York Times.  In an article about the Iraqi New Year, Joan Nathan had included this recipe, adapted from Esperanza Basson.  Well, even that seemed a bit labor intensive so I cut it down into a super simple, healthy, and yummy version.

› Continue reading

Welcome to the 3^rd Annual NY Beer Craft Week. As you’ve probably guessed, this seven-day festival focuses on beer, those glorious, malty, hoppy, fizzy concoctions from small breweries all over the country. › Continue reading

Recently there has been an influx of Concord grapes in the market.  For two weeks in a row I have gotten them in my CSA and at first, had no idea what to do with them.  I didn’t want to make jam and they were too difficult to eat on their own, but something about the flavor cried out “baked goods!”  So, I made a pie, two actually.  The one your see here is the red Concord grape, lemon, and apple pie, and I also whipped up a white Concord grape, lemon, pear pie.  The former was way sweeter, but both hit the spot.  I especially like the buttery crumble crust, it really soaks up the sweetness of the fruit.

› Continue reading

If someone makes me a bacon suit, I will love you forever. Or, if you don’t want to break out your needle and thread, how about these other porcine themed vestments?

Bacon Slip-On Shoes

Bacon Makes Everything Better T-shirt

Bacon Tie

Bacon Belt

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Scarf

And for you vegetarians out there, let us not forget the watermelon shoes (still on my wish list).

It’s been a busy couple months of eating it up for the New York Press, especially in Brooklyn with one trek all the way up to 112th Street in Harlem. Here are the latest and greatest published reviews I have done.

Hot Bird in Fort Greene

“Hot Bird is owned by Frank Moe, the proprietor of Rope, Fort Greene’s popular art-student filled bar. Though Rope never hooked me in, Hot Bird is a different story. The bar gets its name from the famous chicken place that used to shell out roasted birds and ribs until it closed in the early 1990s, and while the restaurant doesn’t remain, the bright yellow signs that still deck a few building walls off of Vanderbilt and Atlantic avenues have become iconic ads. One, which towers over the bar’s spacious front yard, only enhances the new bar’s appeal.” (read the rest here)

› Continue reading

I haven’t seen Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World yet, but it’s definitely on my list.  In preparation for the movie, my roommate and I started reading the comics and were pleasantly surprised by how good they are, and how much food makes the scene.  Scott and Ramona eat noodles together, the band meets up at a diner called Sneaky Dee’s, there are burgers after the beach, breakfasts of eggs and bacon, and a drunken tequila night.  I can’t wait to see how the movie compares, or, like many campy action films,  if they neglect the most basic need, eating. › Continue reading

Fresh Green Chilies at the Hatch Valley Chile Festival

Ever since I left Denver, Colorado in August 2002 and made my way to Brooklyn, there is only one thing I really missed: green chilies.  Sorry East coasters, you don’t know what I am talking about unless you happened to spend some time in the Southwest and indulged in the these delicious, hot, and meaty green peppers.  This love and constant craving finally drove me to hit up the Hatch Valley Chile Festival in the tiny town of Hatch, New Mexico this year.  › Continue reading

It’s a sad day when pizza disappoints, review of Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint:

“New York feels so saturated with Neapolitan-style pizza restaurants that you can barely throw a wad of dough without hitting a wood-fired pie in any neighborhood. Greenpoint is just the latest area to embrace the trend with Paulie Gee’s, which opened mid-March in the old Paloma space. Run by its namesake, Paul Gianonne, this rustic restaurant is nestled in the hippest part of the neighborhood near staples like The Pencil Factory and The Black Rabbit, and, from the look of the crowd gathered on a recent weekday night, this joint is gearing up to become a permanent fixture.” – New York Press

› Continue reading

To kick off my attempt to be better at blogging (ha!) I thought I would share a little juicy tidbit about Tillie’s, my old place of employment.  According to a piece from New York Magazine’s Daily Intel, Russian spies were using the Fort Greene coffee shop to do devious spy like things such as: sipping black coffee, wearing berets, gossiping, and passing state secrets.  The Wall Street Journal reported:

“The U.S. and Russia have sent spies to each other’s countries for decades, even in the 20 years since the Cold War ended. Still, the latest allegations come at a time when relations between the U.S. and Russia have been warming….They used coffee shops, bookstores and street corners to contact handlers, according to the FBI.”

› Continue reading