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 Happy Autumn! Let's make something Summery!
These shrimp tacos* are super simple, combining bright flavors with a kick of heat. I found the original recipe here on Design*Sponge, one of my favorite blogs, and simplified for the sake of time/impatience. For instance, I used store-bought corn tortillas, modified the blackened seasoning, and swapped grilled peaches for the spiced peach jam. If I may say so, it's still tasty as hell. Recipe after the jump... *Yes, I eat sea creatures on occasion  While the UWS is for eating and sleeping, Varick Street is for working and food trucks. Tons of food trucks. This one happens to purvey gourmet ice cream sandwiches. Beautiful. Coolhaus serves up wildly creative create-your-own cookie/ice cream flavor combos for $6 a pop. Yes, it’s a bit steep, but this thing is a freakin’ meal replacement. It’s also fantastically indulgent in both calorie count and imagination. You could pair 2 lemon rosemary cookies with a heaping scoop of earl grey ice cream. Or if you require meat at all times, try some brown butter candied bacon ice cream on a brioche cookie. Yes, you heard me. There’s a meat lover ice cream sandwich. Go ahead and eat the wrapper while you’re at it (seriously… it’s edible!). After deep introspection and deliberation, I finally went for the balsamic fig & mascarpone ice cream sandwiched between two potato chip/Skor toffee bar cookies. It was ridiculous. The salty-sweet balsamic reduction was perfectly swirled into the ultra-rich mascarpone ice cream, dotted with chewy fig chunks. The cookie had a great crunch and stood up like a pro to the fast-melting ice cream in the city heat. Check out Coolhaus’s site for their full menu and next location to get in on this crazy deliciousness. Welcome to Mobile Mondays: a new feature showcasing the very best of what I've shoved in my face throughout the week when I've forgotten my fancy camera. Basically: low quality photos of high quality grub. And this week, I've been particularly pescetarian... 1. The Taco Truck - Check site for locations 2. Malaysia Grill - 224 W. 104 St (btwn Bway & Amsterdam) 3. Caliu Tapas - 557 Hudson St (btwn W.11th & Perry St) 4. Sunrise Mart - 494 Broome St (Broome & West Bway) 5. Pasticceria Rocco - 243 Bleecker St (btwn Carmine St & Leroy St)  So, I graduated from college, found a job, bought new shoes, and am now considered, at least on my tax forms, “independent”. Hooray! I am not, however, independent of delicious sandwiches. This soybean is still savvy and I’m not about to drop $20 on a cheese panini every lunch hour. I’ve seen it done. With that, it’s been (ironically) a grade school flashback as I reenter the habit of packing my lunch for work. This sandwich was created after peering into my fridge only to find a granny smith apple and half an avocado. I realized I liked eating both these things. I also found Dijon mustard and clover honey. Mustard + honey = honey mustard. I liked this too. Reasoning: If I like all these things separately, I’ll probably like them all at once. I crammed my ingredients together between two slices of bread and stepped back to admire my creation. Alas: the green apple avocado sandwich was born. It really is a fantastic sandwich, not only in taste but texture. The crisp, tart apple complements the buttery avocado, all with a little hot, sweet kick from the honey mustard. It's also good for you, and therefore a very responsible and adult-like thing to eat. High five. You’ll need: - ½ large ripe avocado, mushed up - ½ green apple, thinly sliced - honey mustard - bread Also, because I am now an inventor of sandwiches, here are some acceptable variations: green apple + avocado + sharp cheddar + wasabi mustard green apple + avocado + cucumber + radish + hummus green apple + avocado + red pepper + chèvre  I wish I could say I’m the type who bounces out of bed at 5 AM every morning, giddily skips to the kitchen and prepares a three-course breakfast complete with proper tea, fresh-cut hydrangeas and The New York Times.
Try instead: limbs flying everywhere as I grab my bag, throw on heels, reach (sometimes unsuccessfully) for a Luna bar or green apple and sprint out the door. However…HOWEVER! This oatmeal is something worth waking up early for. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d type that sentence. This stuff tastes like straight up banana bread. Not to mention, it keeps you full all morning and is super good for you. The recipe was inspired by Hungry Girl’s “Growing Oatmeal”. Apparently when you cook 1 serving (1/2 cup) of oatmeal with twice the amount of liquid and for twice as long, you wind up with practically three times the amount of food without adding any calories. I sincerely hope I just blew your mind. Might as well make it taste like banana bread, too!... (recipe after jump)  A few stormy nights ago (there have been quite a few lately), Adam and I decided we would order in some pizza. Now as a couple living in New York City, we rarely associate “delivery” with “pizza”. Greek, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese… if it’s within a ~20 block radius, it’s ours. So when I suggested the novel concept of actually having a large pizza in a box delivered directly to our apartment, we were excited.
We were especially psyched because we realized that one of our favorite pizza-by-the-slice shops, Two Boots, delivers to our ‘hood. Founded by two indie filmmakers who love Italian and Creole food, this shop combines the two flavors to make awesome pizzas. Oh and Louisiana is shaped like a boot, Italy is shaped like a boot. Two Boots. There ya go...  I’m not a picky eater.
Yes, I do realize I'm vegetarian. And while the glaring fact is that I don’t eat meat, I pride myself in finding pretty creative ways to not eat like a rabbit. Poring over recipes, fusing unexpected flavors, sampling foreign cuisine: these are things that excite me. Open-mindedness has led me to fantastic discoveries, not only in the realm of food, but every aspect of life. That being said, I f*king hate Brussels sprouts. Yes, it’s true. I recall the first time I sampled Brussels sprouts, as I’m sure many do. It’s one of those things a person tends to recall, like a failed test or painfully awkward encounter. It went like so: I was seven. It was blanched and topped with swiss cheese. It didn’t stay down very long. Fast-forward fourteen years: A windy December night, I took refuge in the toasty, dim candlelight of Poco, a little Spanish Tapas bar in the East Village. Drinks in hand, my friends and I scanned the menu for comfort food, a thing with which the restaurant is familiar. Their lobster mac n’ cheese and mushroom truffle croquettes came highly recommended. However, comfort wasn’t served that night in the suspected incarnation of starch and gooey cheese, topped with more starch and a generous sprinkling of cheese. Incredibly, it arrived in a dish of warm caramelized Brussels sprouts tossed with chili, mint and lemon…  I’ve been spending some serious face time at the new Trader Joe’s on 72nd. In short, this place is magic. Luna Bars for 99¢…boxes of veggie burgers for $2…madness, I tell you! So when I came across notoriously expensive frozen mango chunks for a mere $2, I had to grab a few bags.
This recipe was born from the notion that certain things just have to taste great together. Frozen mango blended with banana and cinnamon makes for a super creamy, exotic tasting treat. It also has a ton of vitamins to kick-start your day. In the words of Ina Garten, “How bad could that be?”...  Hello! Yes, I’ve been MIA for about three months, which is pretty much the death sentence for blog readership. However, I am back and ready for action, so no need to call the Blogosphere Social Services. They’re real. They’re out there. Moving on… within these past three months, I’ve surprised everyone (mostly myself) by sticking to my New Year’s Resolution of working out, eating healthfully, and developing the bulging muscles I’ve always desired. Okay, perhaps that last part isn’t true in any sense. I am puny. But what is true is that I purchased a Pilates mat last night and it is currently accompanying 40% of the surface area in my apartment… perhaps it’s a good thing I can’t avoid it.
So, for my first returning recipe, I have undertaken the ultimate challenge to turn a Giada dish healthy. That woman loves the cheese. She also must love the Pilates mat because I don’t know where she puts it all. This is the ultimate comfort recipe, tweaked to pump up the nutrients and slash the fat and calorie count. This, of course, does not apply to me because I pretty much consumed the entire thing. It’s ridiculously tasty. The New Year’s resolution is a work in progress, my friends… |  CategoriesAll ContactDrop me a line at: savvysoybean@gmail.com |
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