UPDATE: I am becoming a blogging machine, so I will also be reporting on Thursday afternoons for you.
CT has been traveling a lot lately for work. During one of her visits back to the city, we were able to go out for dinner. I suggested we use one of my BlackBoard Eats coupons, since we were so happy with previous experiences with them. Veloce Pizzeria’s 30% off coupon was expiring the next day, so we decided to check it out. I heard mixed reviews about the pizza, so I was keen to try it out myself.

The first thing I noticed when we sat down was a picture of Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve on the ledge above the table. I found this quite odd in a funny way.

CT chose the wine. The Nero D’Avola 2008. She chose it from the description of full, rose petals, blackberries and earth. It was a good choice and complemented the food nicely.

We weren’t sure if we should order 1 or 2 pizzas since they are 12 inch Sicilian, so we decided to get a couple appetizers and share 1 pizza.

The first choice was no choice at all, Fried Porchetta Meatballs. How could we not order those? They were deep fried and had a ton of flavor. It was topped with parsley and onion which cut the richness of the porchetta nicely. The restaurant was pretty dark, so it was hard to get a good pic of this.

innards

We also got the Ricotta di Palo- fresh cows’ milk, cracked black pepper, toasted bread. There was a ton of ricotta piled up on the crostini. It was so creamy and refreshing. A great dish.

As if that wasn’t enough to start with, I decided we should get a salad. I gotta get my vitamins somehow. We went with the arugula with parmigiano-reggiano, olive oil, and lemon. We received a huge pile of arugula. It was very lightly dressed. The best part was that we got some ruffage out of the meal, so that’s not saying much about this salad.

For pizza, we went with white clam. It had garlic, oregano, and parmigiano-reggiano along with the clams. I wanted to see how it compared to the clam pizza we got at ABC Kitchen a couple months ago. Veloce’s pizzas are not typical NY pizza. They are square and very thin crust with hardly any outer crust. It was a very tasty pizza, but I barely noticed the clams. I couldn’t tell if they chopped up canned or fresh clams. If I am paying $22 for a pizza(before discount), I want to see whole clams.

Some upskirt action for you.

It was a good dinner and nice to see CT in between her travels. Would I return without a discount? Probably not.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blackboard Eats, TT

… Oh, who am I fooling?  I dumped cocoa in there like it was going out of style!  And if cocoa is really going out of fashion in your part of the world, please tell me so I don’t ever have to visit such a godless place!  Also, please tell me why we use phrases like that?  Why would someone want to do more of something that’s about to go out of style?

Ahem.

As I was saying, I was aiming for a deep red, fine-crumbed vanilla cake with just a “hint” of chocolate, and cream cheese frosting that was creamy, tangy, and rich.

Main ingredients for red velvet cupcakes.  The bottle of red food coloring got cut off on the left, but rest assured, it’s there!

For this recipe, I broke out the fancy cocoa I buy specifically for red velvet cakes (I pay about $8 for this 8-oz container).  I love its deep chocolate flavor AND it’s by E. Guittard, whose products I just love.  It is a can full of WIN!

And just so you can see the difference between the Guittard Cocoa Rouge and Hershey’s Natural Unsweetened Cocoa:

E. Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge on the left; Hershey’s Cocoa on the right.

See how the Guittard is darker in color?  That’s the result of the Dutch processing where alkaline is added to the cocoa, creating that super-deep chocolate flavor I so adore.  I have to be honest: I don’t reach for the Hershey’s often.  It’s not a bad product at all, but I don’t use it unless I happen to be out of Valrhona or Guittard.   I’m not too much of a snob to not buy Hershey’s Dutch-processed cocoa, which I’ll get the next time I see it, but yeah, I’m a cocoa snob. 

One of my peeves about cake baking is when the recipe calls for softened butter.  In the winter, which is when I do a lot of my baking, butter never softens as quickly as I want (because I’m a self-entitled instant gratification brat) and usually takes a couple of hours.  I baked these cupcakes on a steamy day and the butter softened before I could gather all my ingredients together.   I actually had to put it back into the fridge so it wouldn’t melt into a pool!

Is there a sight more beautiful to behold than that of butter and sugar being beaten into a fluffy cloud of … er, sugar and butter?

Just as I did with my Devil’s Food Cupcakes and other cocoa-y goods, I bloomed the cocoa in a tablespoon of boiling water before mixing in the red food coloring to make a paste, then added the paste to the butter and sugar mixture:

Red velvet cake batter all ready to go!

The original recipe called for adding shredded coconut and chopped pecans into the frosting, but it means you can’t pipe the frosting out of a decorating bag, so I opted to leave it out and garnished the cupcakes with them instead.  You don’t have to pipe if you don’t want to, but just be aware that the lumpiness of frosting with coconut and pecans in it will be more likely to tear the cake up.

Yes, I know, one of the cupcakes is missing a pecan.

Inside the cupcake

This was a pretty darn good cupcake, if I do say so myself.  I brought half the batch in to the office where I intern, and one of the professors said it was sinful.  He really seemed to like the frosting and joked, “You could put this frosting on galoshes and I’d eat it!”  (I hope I got that quote right!)  Totally made my day!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring (I used a brand called Spectrum because it doesn’t have that strange bitter aftertaste other food colorings impart)
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Icing:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 (1-pound) box confectioners’ sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup whole pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with baking liners.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Portion batter evenly into muffin tin. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Icing:

Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add marshmallows and sugar and blend.  Put into piping bag fitted with plain or star tip, and pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.  Top with coconut and nuts if desired.

EDIT:  This recipe can be converted to make a three-layer cake.  Grease and flour three 8″ round cake pans, pour in equal amounts of batter in each, and bake, staggered so that the pans are not directly over each other or touching.  Bake for 20-25 minutes (switching the pans around halfway through baking time) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before inverting it onto a cooling rack.  Let it cool completely before frosting.

© The Blind Baker NYC for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cupcakes, red velvet

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Essentially, one purchases a ’share’ in a local farm – much like the stock market, one then has a vested interest in seeing the farm succeed.  Dividends/pay outs come in the form of produce – vegetables and sometimes fruit.  Different farms do things differently; my farm happens to be also organic, and I pick up my box each week – Tuesdays for me – from a local location.  Join me on this journey – my inaugural season with a CSA – as I explore the various vegetables I receive and what I can do with them to turn them into delicious happiness…
For more information on CSAs, click here.  To find a CSA local to you, you can click here or for one in NYC, visit JustFood.org.  I found mine by typing “Forest Hills CSA” into Google – my neighborhood name + the word CSA, and I’m sure that would work for you as well.  Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labors… har, har. 

Yes, my dears, I joined the CSA again this year!  There was no way I would miss this for the world; the fresh veggies, the reasonable pricing schedule (with 1/2 a share, it comes out to about $10 a week for local & organic produce), which is completely reasonable, cheap even.  I have a few photos of items, though most things I’ve been making magic soup with (even in this horrid weather) or roasting (again, even in this horrid weather – toaster oven, and stay out of the kitchen while it’s going on so I don’t roast myself as well) – many of these goodies then became bento-staples.  (Enter the giveaway while you’re over there, why don’t you?)

In this instance, I actually remembered to take a picture of the “cream of fennel” soup I made.  Simple (and no leeks, which a lot of recipes seemed to call for):

1. Sautee thinly sliced fennel and thinly sliced onion together in butter. 
2. Cook until very, very soft, but do not brown. 
3. Toss a tablespoon or two of flour on top and stir to incorporate/coat, allowing flour to cook a bit. 
4. Add cream or milk slowly, then let come to a small bubble (VERY small bubble) and thicken a bit.
5. Using an immersion blender (or you can use a regular blender if that’s what you have, but be careful!), blend until smooth.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste; serve.

I added the fronds on top just to look fancy but I didn’t eat them.  You can also serve this cold if you like! 

This next one I’ve been posting on Facebook repeatedly as I tweak the recipe to fit what’s in my fridge.  It’s perfect for the hot weather.  You must have seen it on my Facebook because you’re a fan of the Feisty Foodie, right?  Right?  Well, why not?  Anyway, the first time I posted it here and the second time I posted it here… but here are my final tweaks, I think, unless I make it one more time:

poached/cooked/cooled/shredded chicken breast (one) (you can use whatever chicken you like, or even the meat from a rotisserie chicken you picked up! just make the meat bite sized, or shredded so that it’s close in size/shape to the cabbage)
shredded green cabbage, half a head to a head depending on size (you can even buy a bag of this already shredded at Trader Joe’s)
shredded carrots (hey if you’re already at Trader Joe’s, just pick those up while you’re there, it’s next to the cabbage)
shredded radicchio for color and bitterness
dill and/or celery seed
thinly sliced onion
sesame seeds

Really, you can play around with the veggies to find a combo you like – the carrots add a nice sweetness, so when I didn’t use them, I found myself adding a little sugar to my vinaigrette to cut the tartness a little bit. 

Vinaigrette:

juice of a lemon, lime, both, either, or
salt
pepper
dash of sesame oil (do NOT substitute all of your oil and only use sesame oil; sesame oil is VERY strong)
extra virgin olive oil

Whisk to incorporate.  Honey or sugar can be used (sparingly) to cut the tartness if it’s too tart for you.  Taste it, make it what you like!  Have fun with it!

I love making quick and fast salads like so, without mayo (which can be heavy, cloying, or just icky in this horrible heat NYC is encountering currently).  How do you make yours?  What do you put in it?  Share in the comments your quick-fast-easy meals for weekday nights that are too hot to cook! 

Happy eating!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: salad, soup/stew

CT made dishes her Mother makes, so nothing like we would get at a restaurant.

The first dish was Keema with Aloo. It was ground beef with potatoes and spices. CT hadn’t made it in a while, so she wasn’t overly happy with the result. I thought it was good and balanced well with some of the stronger flavored dishes.

Her other dish was Shrimp with Mustard Seed Curry and Yogurt. CT went overboard with the amount of shrimp she bought, but I’m not complaining. It was super tasty. I will have to get her to make this again, soon!

JC made Mapo Tofu with Pork. This was my first time having this. It was by far the star of the night. Everyone loved this dish. Tons of salty, porky, goodness in this. The tofu made this healthy, or at least that’s what I tell myself.

JC also made a shrimp dish, Shrimp with Celery in Oyster Sauce. This was also really good. JC left the celery al dente so it still had a nice crunch to it. Quite different from the shrimp, CT made, but just as good.

I think I ended up getting seconds and thirds. Everything was delicious. As if that wasn’t enough, JC also made dessert, Almond Jelly with Fruit Cocktail. It was simple yet exactly what was needed. A good end to the meal.

I wish Wan all the best in London. I hope she enjoyed this dinner as much as I did.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: TT

Oh my goodness, what’s this?…

Yes, I’ve been woefully neglectful of my bento duties.  I pack lunch for school, but mostly just take something quick (a sandwich, cut up fruit), and rarely take pictures.  The above is one from May that I took a picture but never posted… hummus, baby carrots, turkey and mustard on whole grain, with clementine sections to help prevent the sandwich from moving around, all packed in a Ziploc container I bought for $3.49/2.  The box is a little big for regular meals, but with sandwiches or salads, it’s perfectly fine.  (The big compartment is 650ml, then 175ml, then 100ml, total 925ml… kinda big for me.) 

CSA goodies galore!  Roasted broccoli & cippolini onion hiding underneath, roasted beets, chicken cole slaw (recipe to come), hard boiled egg, and jarred peaches. 

Showing my Mets pride!  Someone gifted me a Mets ProToast toaster, which brands the team logo into bread as it toasts it.  So here’s my Mets sandwich with honey roasted turkey, sliced asiago, and dijonnaise; mozzarella sticks; chocolate covered biscuits; roasted beets; chicken cole slaw; roasted broccoli & garlic. 

The day of the All Star Game (go National League!), showing my pride even more!  Probably should have drawn a #5 on that with ketchup or mustard or something, but oh well!  Pretty much the same as yesterday’s, with the addition of a second cheese stick – this one monterey jack. 

And what’s this?  It’s a GIVEAWAY!!!  I received a review copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box (associate link) by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa – and of the handful of bento books I’ve read, this is heads above the rest.  It doesn’t hurt that I love Crystal’s blog, Adventures in Bento-Making, but really, this book actually teaches you how to make the bentos it shows.  Plus I can see Crystal’s wackiness peeking out here and there in the tone of the book.  LOVE the photos on every page.  This is a GREAT book for those who are interested in charaben or decoben – it explains things thoroughly and easily enough for anyone to be able to follow along, even those completely new to bento, along with sections on the equipment/tools necessary to make things.  AWESOME book. 

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is comment below with why you bento (or why you want to start) by midnight EST on August 1.  Easy-peasy!  On August 2nd, I’ll run the numbers on Random.org and see who wins their very own copy of Yum Yum Bento Box! 

Good luck and happy bento!!!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Feisty Bento, giveaway