Eatin' Good: Around Town

Being in the Hampton's for work for the entire month has it's perks. Probably the best one in my mind, is that I am surrounded by delicious cuisine. Here's a look at what I've been eating around town since I arrived:

Some coffee spots:
Jack's in Amagansett, has fabulous coffee, if you are anywhere near the east end of long island, you need to make a pit stop... or there's there Manhattan location too.

Some good lunch spots in Sag Harbor...
Provisions is a health food store with a pretty great cafe counter. The food is made fresh to order, and they have smoothies, fresh juices, coffees and teas as well..





The Dock House is another good spot, for a quick lunch or dinner. Last year I had a lobster roll there, and this year I had some fired clam strips and waffle fries. They have a host of great fresh seafood, being right on the dock in the harbor where the boats arrive probably doesn't hurt that.

Some Dinner spots I've enjoyed all over...
La Superica is a Mexican place in the downtown Sag Harbor area, I had there fajitas, and there guacamole. They had good food, but were a bit overpriced. They also had a good bar scene.
Bay Burger, on the Sag Harbor/Bridgehampton tpk is fabulous! They bake their own buns, and grind their own beef. The patty was cooked to perfection, the toppings were fresh and delish, and the bun was the perfect holder of all that goodness. They also have a few local beers on tap, along with milkshakes, and tater tots, who doesn't love a place where they can order Tots?!
The Sloppy Tuna is the restaurant that Patrick and I went to in Montauk when he was out. The food was superb! We had the scallop app, and He had the Lobster Roll Entre, while I had the Tuna special, I don't know what was in the dish, but oh my goodness it was a flavorful explosion! It had a good atmosphere too. But there dessert menu was lacking, if ya ask me..

Some Night Spots:
Other than the grabbing a beer at the Mexican restaurant, the only place I've gone out to since I've arrived is The Surf Lodge. It is supposedly The spot. It was extremely crowded, but it did have a funky vibe and awesome interior design, including these very fun hanging chairs! Patrick and I went there after dinner, had one drink, walked around, and then left.

Eatin' Good: At Home

We have had a few good meals since we arrived... most of them cooked or at least prepped by yours truly.

In the first week we had a flank steak marinated in soy sauce and e.v.o.o., which was super yummy, we grilled it for about 6 minutes per side, making the ends of the steak well done, and the inside med. rare. Something for everyone. Served it up with some grilled corn on the cob and some roasted beets...Yum!

The following night, with the leftovers, I made a little chop salad, and added the corn (taken off the cob), and the flank steak re-heated and cubed. The salad also had plump grape tomatoes, diced red onion, fresh green beans, and a sprinkle of feta. Drizzled that with some oil and balsalmic and it made a lovely salad!

We've had plenty of white fish while we've been here. For that, I've basically been tossing it on the grill with a drizzle of olive oil and S & P. Then when its served up, squeezing some fresh lemon juice over the top. It's simple and delicious. I've also done the fish broiled on high with a drizzle of e.v.o.o., S & P, and Old Bay seasoning... and that is also quite yummy! I'm not the biggest fan of reheated fish, so I don't have any day 2 suggestions for ya there, but if you've got any for me, feel free to share!

For a meatless option, I cooked up some macaroni noodles, and pan fried some grape tomatoes, and yellow zucchini from the farm stand with crumbled tofu. You could do this with pasta sauce to, but we didn't have any on hand and I love squashing the little tomatoes! Drain the pasta and pour in some oil and salt, then toss it with the veg mixture, and season to taste. This is also good with mushrooms, and onions. Reheat the leftovers a couple days later for a yummy hot lunch.


That's what I have for you for some good eats. We have been grilling up all kinds of burgers, and dogs too.. and thankfully the kids pallets have enjoyed most of what's been served. (And when they don't, they get PB&J.)

Tonight I'm grilling some chicken, marinated in a teriyaki sauce! Should be good with some green beans and maybe some quinoa.

So, what are you cooking? Happy Eats.

SoTW

This week's snack is hummus, with chips, carrot sticks, and cucumber spears for dipping.


Hummus is a good source of protein, it is made from chick peas and oil, plus whatever you want to flavor it with. You can buy it or easily make it by pureeing the above ingredients with things like roasted garlic, roasted veggies, cilantro and citrus, sun dried tomatoes, etc.

You can dip all kinds of things in it. I love cucumber spears, they are crisp and refreshing. Carrots are crunchy. Pita chips, torn up pita bread, are great, or you can spread it on a nice piece of sourdough.

This week's snack gives you a good bump of energy to get you through the afternoon, and a good way to get in a veggie or two! Enjoy this refreshing summery delight!

Happy Snacking :)

Snack of the week

Finally a new snack post!

What do you do when your fruit reaches that point just past ripeness, when it's just a little too mushy to eat, but you don't want to through it out because produce is expensive? Cube it up, and toss it into the blender with some ice.. voila! Fruit Smoothie:


This smoothie contains strawberries, a banana(I know, I don't like bananas themselves, but they are okay for certain purposes like a smoothie), pineapple, and ice. You are getting some of your fruits knocked out for the day, and enjoying a filling and nutritiously refreshing afternoon treat!

Enjoy!

Tasty Breakfast

How about some blueberry pancakes? I've never been a big fan of pancakes, I'm more for french toast or waffles, but I bought some pancake mix and added the necessary ingredients, plus blueberries. Cooked them up, then topped them with real maple syrup. Yum.


*And someone gave me a tip that pancakes freeze well, and then you can toast them just like ego's.. so I ate two, and froze the rest. Easy breakfast for later on. Great start to the day!

Hey, Good Lookin..

Whatcha got cookin?

The other night for dinner I made this awesome Tortellini with Pesto dish. I am a fan of making multiple dinners out of one main ingredient, so that I get more bang for my buck. So this weeks main ingredient is a rotisserie chicken.

For this dish I took some of the chicken and grilled it in a frying pan with some halved grape tomatoes, and pine nuts, while boiling water for the tortellini in another pot. I also decided to make homemade pesto, now I've never done it before, but it always looks so easy on the Food Network. So I tossed some basil in the blender with one clove of garlic, a palmful of pine nuts, and enough oil to keep it all moving. I used a drizzle of olive oil for flavor, and then just vegetable oil. It turned out really deliciously if I do say so myself, and it was just about as easy as it looks!

So after everything in the frying pan becomes hot, and the tortellini is cooked and drained, combine it all together in the one pot and toss it together with the pesto until it is all spread around. It is very delicious, and makes a lot of food. There are plenty of leftovers that are good right out of the fridge, or reheated.



Enjoy!

Last night for dinner

I made pizza! Thanks to the pizza stone, and the rest of the kit I won in a contest miss Channon held a while back.

It was fun to make, and very tasty to eat! We topped it with fresh basil, mushrooms, red onions, and red bell peppers. We used 2 cheese blends, one of them was my soy cheese blend that Trader Joe's Carries, and the other included Fontina, Parmesan, Provolone, and Asiago. It all came together very well, and like I said, it was very good.


Much better than ordering it, in cost, fun, and taste!

Happy Thanksgiving

So we do the "what are we thankful for" thing more than once a year..but today is a special day that everyone around the country gathers with their friends and family to be thankful together.

This year I am not spending Thanksgiving with my family, but I am spending it with some friends..and it was very difficult deciding where to go because I had offers all up and down the east coast! I am certainly thankful for having friends and family that care so much about me :-)

You may have noticed I've been posting only about food this week..well that is because growing up, my mom constantly had us in the kitchen watching her cook and helping where we could.. this was to make sure that not only would we be able to help her out while living there but also that we'd be able to cook for ourselves when we didn't live there. When it came to Thanksgiving she would have us do anything we were capable of helping with..."someday you'll have to do a Thanksgiving all by yourself."

Well today is not quite there yet...but I am bringing a mashed potato cauliflower topped with broiled cheesy goodness, and butternut squash soup. In fact I should get started now..

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Mexican Night

I am a huge fan of Mexican Food, and my favorite Mexican Restaurant in CT closed in July :( So I have been trying to make a few dishes of my own to get my Mexican fix.

One of my favorites is enchiladas, so I made Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. Yum! This is more of a weekend meal for me, because I like to let the chicken to cook with the enchilada sauce, and then sit on low for a while to get really saucy and deliciously absorbed with the flavor. Then I roll my tortillas with the chichen, some rice, beans, and cheese.. Just because I like mine to be a bit more filling than your average Enchilada. Sometimes I like to saute bell peppers and onions and put those in it too, but then it is more like a pre-assembled fajita! Either way, then top them with more enchilada sauce, and cheese, and pop them in the oven.... very delicious!

Not Your Traditional Eggplant Parm

This is my spin on Eggplant Parmesan...

These are all very simple ingredients to make it an easy dinner after a day of work. The Eggplant was purchased from Trader Joe's in the freezer section.. It is pre breaded eggplant cutlets. You can bake them fry them or microwave them. I baked them to get the crispiness, and the best flavor. Then I boiled water with a touch of olive oil and a sprinkle of herbs de Provence to cook my pasta in.
After the pasta and the eggplant were cooked, I put the pasta on the plate, covered it with store bought vodka sauce (that I heated briefly on the stove), then topped that with the Eggplant, and a sprinkling of grated soy cheese (a Cheddar, Mozzarella blend), and stuck it under the broiler for just long enough to melt the cheese.

It was very good! I love dinners like this because I can make just enough for dinner one night, and lunch the following day.

mmmMonday

Another Croc Pot Recipe that I have found to be very good, is one that I got off of Food Network's website. It is supposed to be slowly cooked in a pot on the stove for 2 hours.. but I just do it in the croc pot... who has 2 hours to cook something like that! I just tossed all the ingredients into the crock pot and several hours later, when I'm home from work... I can eat!

It is White Bean and Turkey Chili.. (I looked for the recipe on their website, but couldn't find it..)
Basically you brown ground turkey with onions, bell pepper, and pablano pepper first, to infuse the turkey with those flavors. Then you add it to the crock pot with 2 cans of cannelini beans, and a can of any other white bean you like. Pour in one box of low sodium chicken broth, and stir it all together... then I leave it to cook on low all day. When you get home stir in one can of chick peas, and let it cook for about 15 minutes longer... add salt and pepper to taste.

It is very good.. you can add more or less spicy peppers to intensify the heat level you are looking for... and the recipe says to add a bit of lime juice when serving.

Very quick, easy, delicious meal!

Triple "P"

Last Friday night I hosted a ladies night at my place, and the theme was "Triple 'P'"


The first stands for Pink:

Everyone had to wear pink in honor of national breast cancer awareness month. Then I made every talk about self checks and visiting the doctor and all that jazz. And just in case someone wasn't wearing pink, I have Breast Cancer bandaides that I handed out when everyone arrived, so they had a pink ribbon on whether they liked it or not! Other than just wearing pink, I also made adult flavored pink ice pops! They were very good, and they hold well as long as you don't use too much alcohol... luckily for me, mine have fill lines on them!


The Second stands for Pizza:

We made our very own pizzas! I like to say that it was from scratch, but really I just purchased pre-made dough from Trader Joes, along with the sauce, and cheese. I didn't get any toppings just because I didn't want things to get too complex, so I let everyone know in advance it was cheese pizza unless they wanted to bring something to add to it for themselves... nobody brought any additional toppings. I realized after we were ready to start making them that I didn't have a rolling pin, so we used an empty wine bottle! It actually worked very well, not to mention it was pretty hysterical, to use a floured up wine bottle to roll out our dough. Surprisingly enough we didn't do half bad! and it tasted like real pizza!


The Third was for Play:
I wanted to have a ladies game night for a while, and because of Chan's contest, I had an excuse to not only have my ladies game night, but to incorporate her themes of pizza and pink for breast cancer awareness. Then I figured that sense every thing else started with P I would make it Play instead of Game. So we played a few games and had our pizza and ice pops, and it was a very fun night!

What's for dinner?

Well, I have been planning to do some sort of crock pot dinner for a while now, so I finally decided to stop planning and actually do it!

What did I make in my beautiful crock pot? Why Beef and Barley Stew... And it turned out very well! It does make a lot of servings for just one person, but I don't have to do anything really, just a bit of prep work, and then serving it out at dinner time. And now I have some frozen meals, as well as a few lunches or dinners in the fridge. Which is great for when I have limited time!

I have a really good recipe for White Bean Turkey Chili too, which I will make soon, but what are your favorite crock pot dishes? I need more ides for this cool cooker!


Happy Dining :)

Taste Test....

So, Little Ann really likes steak when her parents make it... but not when I've tried to make it... hmm.
Anyway, I thought I'd make meatloaf and instead of having it in a loaf, putting it into cup cakes... and calling it Steak Cupcakes (in an effort to get them to try it).

I served them with french fries and peas, and told them that if they wanted dessert later they had to try two bites...

that is the general rule for them... at least while I'm in charge. So they both tried two teeny tiny little bitty nibbles, and decided they didn't like them.... Little Ann ate French Fries, Peas, and Rice Crispies for dinner, and Little Dan had Peas, Yogurt, Apple, and Peanut Butter.

At least they tried! On the menu this week is all stuff that I know they like: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, and peas; Roasted Chicken with Apples; Homemade Chicken Fingers, with Green Beans and Rice Pilaf; Friday is a free night where they can choose something frozen for me to make....and last night we had Pasta, Apple, and Garlic Bread...pretty good week of dinners.

Now I'm off to the grocery store so we will have all the right ingredients!

Tasty!

Another new addition to the "The Littles will Eat it" list:



Chicken Parmesan, served with Green Beans. Both thought it was simply delicious! G & S even wanted to try some... though the baby was in the mood for something else so they had something different :)


I must admit, I'm loving cooking almost every night, and experimenting with things to see what the kids will eat. Its fun! And makes it easier for me to plan a menu when I have more choices for dinners.

More Menu Efforts

I have been continuing to make a menu every week, and execute it with the hopes of getting the kids to try new foods. So far it has been working out pretty well.

Last week we had Tuna Casserole on Monday (both Littles ate a bite or two, and then picked out the pasta and peas to eat).


Tuesday we had Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and Peas (it has been a hit both times we've had it, and I think it will become a regular on our menu!).

Wednesday we enjoyed some steamed Chicken, With Rice Pilaf, and Green Beans (Little Ann loved it all, Little Dan has decided to call Green beens Grass, and other than that, he ate and loved it all...this might always have to be on the menu!).


Thursday was Little Ann's birthday, so they enjoyed dinner out at her favorite restaurant, and Friday, we had pizza and brownies with the neighbors to celebrate her birthday again! All in all a pretty good week. Hopefully this week's menu will go over well with the Littles too.

Stir Fryday

Get it? Stir Fryday, like Friday... tee hee! Okay you get it.


So I have been trying to be better about trying to find meals that the kids will actually eat, that are healthy, and that I can eat too, that way I'm not preparing several meals every night.

In the past week I have made Pork Chops with mashed potatoes and peas (Little Ann like the whole meal! Little Dan liked the peas, and I ended up making him Chicken Nuggets instead). Then I tried to do Roasted Chicken with pasta and apples (They both liked it all)!! Next up was Stir Fry with steak instead of chicken (Little Ann liked the steak, but didn't want too much of it, and she also loved the rice. Little Dan liked the rice and not so much the steak, I gave him so of the left over chicken from the previous day. They both liked the shredded carrots in the stir fry veggies).

So what I'm wondering is if everyone can remember what their favorite meal was when they were kids, and let me know. I have got to get these guys to eat more of a healthful variety of food, or I'm going to go crazy!! Let me know if any of you have any ideas for me. Thanks!

Art

...ichokes

I made some steamed artichokes the other day, and not only do they taste good, but they are quite apealing to the eye too. So I snapped a few shots, and then used my computer to make them look like more artsy artichokes.






I am definitely lone of those people that truly enjoys food! I love everything about it. When I eat I like to not only have something that tastes good, but also something that looks appealing to eat, and that is why I love taking pictures of my food.

Rotten Bananas

OK.. not quite, but they were certainly getting there! What do you do with a gross banana? Well all the people that I know, would say... banana bread! However I've never made banana bread, and although I like cooking..I'm no baker!

Oh well, I'll give it a shot. So I went on over to the Food Network and found myself a recipe..
As I'm making it, I used 1/2 a cup of sugar and we had no more sugar, splenda, anything! and I needed another 1/2 cup. So of course I borrowed some from our friendly neighbors! :) And then popped it in the oven, and an hour later...

Voila! Banana Bread!


It was quite delicious if I do say so myself!

The Devil

Have you ever met the devil?

I have... he lives at my house. He is very mean and pops up unexpectedly just when you least expect him! He is nasty! And I want him to leave. He comes in the form of sugar!

That little devil is everywhere! He is in our food, drinks and he has convinced even The Littles to love him! And now he is working on me. I will be doing homework, minding my own business, and all of a sudden I need a sugary snack. Or first thing in the morning when I'm pouring a cup of joe, all of a sudden I must add in some sweet cream. I'm tellin ya, that little devil is here... and hopefully not to stay!

But I've got a plan to get him out: today while grocery shopping, I was reading all of the labels (do you know how long it takes to grocery shop when you have to find the sugar content in everything? I have decided that since the kiddos have their snacks that they are used to, and they know they only get one sugary snack per day, I will continue getting their fruit snacks, however, I have yet to find something that I can enjoy for snacky food, that isn't loaded with sugar or ridiculously high in calories.... is that so much to ask?!
Anyhow that is the struggle that I am having right now, so I am trying to switch from all the oh-so-delicious coffee mate creamers to plain Soy Creamer for my coffee, and then go from there. I'm still trying to convince that little devil that just because Little Dan needs my help opening his fruit snacks, doesn't mean that he needs my help eating them!

I heard that if you can cut out sugar for something like 3 days (personally I think it'd need to be gone for at least a week) then the sugar will be out of your system and you will no longer crave it... I'm going to give it a shot, but I think that if I see it, I will want it...

So here's to giving that little sugary devil the boot!