Last year, I discovered two great Kosher vegetarian falafel places – Soom-Soom (two locations:East 56th and West 72nd Streets in NYC), and Amba, in Montclair Village, Oakland. Both joints served up delicious falafel and superb hummus at great prices. About four months ago, Soom-Soom announced that it was dropping its vegetarian vibe, and putting chicken … Continue reading Farewell, Vegetarian Falafel
When looking for a side dish that isn’t too plain but is loved by most people, sesame noodles is a great option. There are so many optional ingredients and flavors in this dish that almost everyone has a different recipe, and it is hard to really screw it up. In most pasta dishes, the type … Continue reading Sesame Noodles: Quick and Simple
It seems as though the television landscape has become increasingly cynical, or at least as far as Washington is concerned. Idealistic shows like The West Wing have been replaced with jaded programming that seeks to paint Capitol Hill in either darker, more sinister colors – as in House of Cards – or lighter, absurd tones, like in Veep.
During a recent visit to New Orleans, I fell in love with the famous Cafe Du Monde and their amazing Beignets (Pronounced: “Ben-Yays”). While you can actually make them from scratch pretty easily, they sell a mix that I used to cut down the prep time. Continue reading “Beignets – New Orleans Pillow Shaped Donuts”
As a dedicated reader may have noticed, Ben is a rather prolific carnivore. In fact, in the words of one critic, he is our generation’s Mark Bittman. I tend to lean a bit more vegetarian, and so I often try to replicate recipes like Ben’s, but with vegetable substitutes.
What is better than chocolate? Covering other things in chocolate! I can’t believe that I have not tried to do this before, it was so easy to make.
For this recipe I actually used milk chocolate because, well I wanted to. I don’t always have to have a reason for the things I do, experimentation is one of my favorite parts of cooking! Actually, most recipe’s recommend sticking with semi sweet chocolate because milk chocolate has the tendency to completely overpower anything that you dip in it. I found this to be true, so give it a shot and let me know how it goes. Continue reading “Chocolate Covered Deliciousness”
There’s a certain time in winter when I start to crave a good Barbecue. This overwhelmed me tonight, so I pulled out my grill pan and made this super simple, juicy grilled chicken. There were no marinades, sauces, or complicated procedures, just chicken breast and some spices. It is hard to believe that this dish is healthy because of how amazing it tastes!
It’s truly a shame that grilled chicken has such a bad reputation because when made right, it rocks. Problem is, people are so afraid of under-cooking it that that beat it to death and dry it out by overcooking it. Follow the steps below to avoid this shameful situation. Continue reading “Simple Grilled Chicken (in a grill pan!)”
Android OEMs seem bent on making the most bizarre, alienating commercials they can manage. Samsung was the first offender – immediately below – but LG now seems to have taken the cake with its latest bit of insanity.
While traditional scrambled eggs was the first food that I could ever say I “cooked”, I’ve been recently trying some interesting variations. This Lifehacker post talks of two different ways to cook, a different version of scrambled eggs that is creamy, fluffy, and easily spreadable on toast. The Gordon Ramsay method, just requires a regular pot and involves constantly stirring the eggs while over extremely low heat. I’ve tried this method before but it is quite a bit of work and it is easy to overcook the eggs. Today I tried the double-boiler method, and even though it was slow, it resulted in those incredible looking (and tasting!) eggs that you can see above. Continue reading “Creamy, Slow-Scrambled Eggs (in a double-boiler)”
Last week, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on some Grow and Behold beef bacon. Oh it was so good that David wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole! I first used it to make bacon and eggs (see the picture below) which were great but a bit too greasy. Next time I have to use the technique (shown here) of using paper towel to absorb the extra fat in the pan. After my bacon introduction, I went for Chef John’s amazing looking and purposefully misspelled Cajun Chicken Ragu. It has quite a few steps, but nothing particularly difficult, and it was absolutely fabulous! The Cajun spices made this a spicy dish, but in a flavorful and balanced way. Continue reading “Cajun Chicken Ragout (with beef bacon bits!)”
Silicon Spatula 