A Lot of Goodness: July 2012

Pie #4: Key Lime Pie

In 2007, I spent time working in South Florida for 3 months. I used it as an opportunity to test as many Key Lime Pies or any other Key Lime dessert I could find. Obviously, I found plenty as everyone had Key Lime something. I even found a room spray which I still order from a place down in the Keys. But the very first time I had Key Lime pie was back in 2005. A producer I was working with on location in Key Largo told me I had to try the pie from the resort we were staying at. I did and it was love at first bite. I then found out about Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pie in Redhook, Brooklyn and would make trips when I was missing Florida's desserts.

Over the years, my love has stuck and so I decided I'd have to make a pie in honor of Key Limes. My friend Evan came over the other night to fix my TV and as a thank you, I made the pie (he likes Key Lime pie as much as I do it seems). It came out delicious and I am very proud of my work. I hope you take the time out to make it this summer!

Key Lime Pie
From Country Living

Pie Crust:
1/3 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 extra large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp molasses
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Filling:
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice
4 extra large egg yolks
1 tbsp vanilla extract

For crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream sugar, butter, and salt until smooth. Add flour, egg, vanilla, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon and mix well to form a smooth dough. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a circle about 13 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. Line a tart pan with a removable bottom with dough. Trim excess dough. Bake crust until browned, 12 to 15 minutes.

For filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Pour into pie shell and bake until filling sets to consistency of a soft custard, about 15 minutes. Cool pie completely on a wire rack.

The ginger & molasses in the crust push this pie into the "amazing" category. It complements the tartness of the custard filling really well. I recommend two things: serve the pie with whip cream and use Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice. It makes all the difference, if you're not freshly squeezing your own limes that is.

This pie was relatively simple to make. I will say the rolling of the dough was complicated and because it was so hot in my kitchen, it was next to impossible to really roll it out. I ended up putting it in the tart pan and rolling it with my knuckles. It worked. I may double the filling next time I make this so that it goes closer to the top of the pan rim and also you could make mini-pies with the dough you have left over!

Enjoy!

Every Day of Summer Photo Blog: Summer Week 5

Good food, a birthday for a very special person, a sign of desperation, and rain is everything I'll remember about the 5th week of summer!:

Day 29: A Few Raindrops (Among Many): I was home sick this day from work with remnants of a migraine that I got on day 28. I went for acupuncture, then went to my parents house to relax afterwards. Just as I had gotten there, the skies opened and the thunder/lightning/rain that followed were insane. I've been trying to photograph rain for awhile now so this was attempt #48209 to date.

Day 30: Indian Dinner Feast: There are about a handful of people who are willing to eat Indian food with me, Jess being one of them. We met to go to our favorite place in the city, Chennai Garden. We've decided to go there often to enjoy the good food and to do our catch up's. I loooooooooooooooooove Indian food. A visit to a psychic recently revealed that I have past life connections to India. I suspected that as it's really a comfort and go-to type of food for me. I have no problems walking into an Indian restaurant on my own, sitting down, and enjoying a good meal by myself - - I love it that much to eat alone!

Day 31: Silvercup: Each day my 7 train passes Silvercup Studios and I have a pang of jealously towards everyone that works there because it's so close to my house and probably so far from theirs. It'd be amazing to work just 2 stops away from my apartment. But besides the jealously I feel in the morning, at nighttime I always look up as we approach Silvercup because the skyline of the city at sunset is really amazing. Oftentimes the sun is right behind this sign and I've always wanted to capture that. The train goes too fast, so this was all I was able to get.

Day 32: Summer Motto: We visited the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory in Dumbo and while waiting on the line that was about 50 deep, I saw this sign on one of their fridge's and thought it was quite funny. I decided right then and there to make this my motto for summer. I'm not the biggest fan of ice cream, but it's a nice treat on a hot summer day.

Day 33: Celebrating Mom's Birthday: She's a very special person to many people and to me, she's my everything and best friend. We all gathered together to celebrate another year of her life and had many laughs that day. My nephews always get in on the blowing candles part of celebrations and this picture was while we were singing happy birthday.

Day 34: A Sign that I Desperately Need a Pedicure: I know, I know ... it's a ridiculously gross picture to take and then to post, but I was really in shock at how gross I allowed my toes to get! I hadn't even noticed my nails were chipping, but they were using any call for help they could. I'm happy to report, the next day I managed to get to the salon to get my nails the special attention they needed. I decided against documenting the pedicure - though I'm sure everyone would've rather seen that.

Day 35: Coffee Break!: I brought in my old Nespresso machine to work so now we all enjoy some really good coffee or espresso. During a trip to Gristedes, I found anisette toasts, which I fondly remember snacking on as a child. Dunking it in coffee is delicious. So I enjoyed this treat after an especially boring lunch of salad. Unfortunately just one co-worker loves the treats as much as I do so we have an entire box of anisette toasts to get through together. Fine by me!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

...no, not Christmas! It's the Nordstrom Anniversary sale!!!! I usually take a trip to the 'burbs and shop in the store, but this year I just did online shopping. More selection and no annoying sales people trying to get you to buy half the store.

The sale goes through August 5th so get your fix now!

Some of my selections for this sale:

V-Neck Blouse

Plaid Shirt

Eileen Fisher Ponte Knit Pants

Blueberry Pound Cake

It's that time of year again: my mom's birthday and the baking of my blueberry pound cake. The very first time I baked this July on 1998 - the month the recipe was featured in Cooking Light magazine. I was still in high school! The cake is delicious as a breakfast treat or after-meal dessert. I've been making it every year since '98 and never tire of it.

I made the cake again last night since my mom's birthday is today and the two seem to go hand-in-hand at this point. She didn't want any special desserts made for her birthday because she said I'm "always baking" and should take a rest, but I don't think she's realized yet that baking de-stresses me and winds me down from a weeklong bout of stress. I'm sure once I walk into her house later on with it, she'll give that knowing smile that will have an ounce of appreciation that I didn't forget one of her favorite cakes.

Here's the cake after it's settled (there are some cake rack marks on it - it's worth a mention that I do not put the suggested lemon-sugar glaze on the cake. I feel like that makes it a tad bit too sweet):

Blueberry Pound Cake
from Cooking Light
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light butter
1/2 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs
1 large egg white
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 2 tablespoons flour and blueberries in a small bowl, and toss well. Combine remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in blueberry mixture and vanilla; pour cake batter into a 10-inch tube pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl; drizzle over warm cake. Cut with a serrated knife.

Enjoy!

Every Day of Summer Photo Blog: Summer Week 4

When I was younger, the summers seemed to drag at first then speed up once mid-July rolled around. I remember some summers spent at the local day-camp while others involved lots of reading (Charlotte's Web being one of those summer reading books I did when I was 8 or 9). This summer has been in forward speed since the beginning. It's crazy how quickly time flies when every weekend and practically every week night is filled with something. My friend Lorraine told me the other day that I was the busiest "after work activities" person she knew. I hadn't thought about all the things I do after work, but it's true. This summer I seem to be constantly going somewhere, seeing someone, or having to be somewhere. Enjoying life though - - so much better than the alternative!

Hot outside but cold on the inside, falling in love with NY again and again, reading about the pain of losing someone close to you, organization, and a new plant friend - - all memories of this past fourth week of summer.

Day 22: A Book Finished: I bought Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking a couple of months ago. Didion is someone my writing teachers in college would always talk about. Like always. They knew her, they loved her. I, by default, did too. This book was very well written, but it was too heavy for me for right now. It's a book of death/loss/emptiness after losing someone like your husband or child - nothing I can relate to at this point in my life. I completed it and put it back on my shelf. I'm sure at some point in the future, it'll be comforting to reread.

Day 23: Along the Hudson: One thing I hate about offices in the summer is how freezing they are. Will they ever get the temperature to be just perfect? In the meantime, I've resorted to taking walks to warm up. This day, I found myself walking along the Hudson river, then stopping off at a bench where I sat for about 15 minutes and put on some music. It was something very different to do in the middle of the work day and helped escape any of the stresses at work (at least for a little while).

Day 24: Lunch with a One Armed Tim: My co-worker Tim had an injury a few weeks ago that resulted in surgery shortly after. In a 3 week doctored order of R&R, he lasted about a week and a few days before he emailed me asking to meet for lunch. He had a bad case of cabin fever. In exchange, I realized how much I was having Tim withdrawals. He's the person who keeps me laughing at work. I escape to his edit room to vent, joke, tell inappropriate jokes, and laugh. Everyone needs that person and I'm lucky to have that in Tim! I'm looking forward to his return to work next week!

Day 25: Sailing the NY Harbor with a Great View of Lady Liberty: I posted about my sailing trip to conclude my 30th birthday celebration. This photo was of the amazing view we got of the Statue of Liberty. I always think of my mom when I see this amazing statue in the harbor. She immigrated to this country when she was 4 years old and doesn't remember the trip much except for how sick she was. I try to picture seeing this city for the first time and first seeing this amazing lady greeting you. Must've been one memory that so many immigrants have never forgotten.

Day 26: Kitchen Reorganizing: I did a "stay home" all day one day over the weekend and it resulted in going through all my kitchen shelves and organizing/discarding many things. After seeing this brilliant idea on pinterest, I bought some cork contact paper. I added it to the back wall behind my kitchen cart. I often tape recipes to the wall there when I'm baking, so now I can tack them. However, the cork is slightly thicker than paper so there's not much pinning to do. I've decided to get an actual cork board and put it up on the wall.

Day 27: Philharmonic in Central Park: Once again, a free night of classical music. This time I went equipped with wine, cheese, and crackers! It was a very hot evening and the red wine didn't help much (next time it'll need to be chilled white!), but the music was great. So were the fireworks - which you can barely make out in the photo through the trees. It's crazy how many people turn out for these concerts. Because they're free? Probably. But I'd like to think that people genuinely like classical music.

Day 28: A Mushroom Growing in My Plant: I watered my plant this morning to find a mushroom! It looks like a portobello! I didn't pull it out - - I'm curious how tall it'll grow. Will track the progress!

Strawberry Soup

I recently made Strawberry Soup and am now completely obsessed with this delicious summer meal. Well, meal is not really the greatest word - let's say it's an appetizer or a very light dinner. Like very light. But so worth the prep, which really, isn't terribly time consuming. The worst part of this recipe is waiting for the soup to chill. I make mine at night before bed so that it's all ready for lunch the next day. I even bring it to work in one of these and enjoy it as a snack in the afternoon.

I'll be making this again for a BBQ dinner I have coming up in a couple of weekends, as I think it'll definitely be a crowd pleaser.

Here's the recipe, which is good for about 4 people:

Strawberry Soup
2 pints strawberries, de-stemmed and cut into quarters
2 cups plain yogurt
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp ground cardamom

Blend strawberries, yogurt, orange juice, sugar, and cardomom in a blender until well blended. If you want a thicker consistency, add more yogurt.
Chill and serve.

Sailing Adventures!

To complete the celebration of turning 30 this year, I organized a sailing adventure with a few girlfriends. I have been eyeing Manhattan By Sail for a couple of years now so I figured nows as good a time as any to do a sail around the NY Harbor. Now, none of us have ever sailed. And it's worth a mention that 3 out of the 5 of us don't know how to swim (myself included) so while we were a bit hesitant on somehow falling off the sailboat or wondering where we were going to sit, we all did astoundingly well and had a great time. It was completely relaxing and gave us a great view of the Statue of Liberty. I'd recommend it and am eager to go back and do their sunset sail next!

Here are the photos from the sail. The weather started out cloudy, but by the time we were heading back to the marina, the sun was shining and was hot. I'm glad we did the first sail of the day. Also worth mentioning that the crew was great and worked very hard. Our seats gave us a vantage point of watching them as they knotted ropes and moved the sails around - - seemed very complicated from my stand point, though intriguing. Too bad I didn't know how to swim, otherwise I would sign up for sailing lessons!

The sailboat docked at the marina in Battery Park City.

Working the ropes.

Tiffany was terrified that something was going to fall on her head.

Lorraine, Lisa, and Alicia - sailing smiles

Making sure nothing would fall on them.

Sailing towards Lady Liberty

About to move the sails

Lorraine and Lady Liberty

Through the sails

Rope

Working it

Lady Liberty!

Downtown Skyline through the sails

Alicia

Tiffany

Photo courtesy Tiffany - I look like a kid at Disneyland for the first time.

I have to say, this being 30 thing is kinda really awesome and I'm a bit sad that the celebrations have ended. But onward to enjoy my 30th year!

Banana-Walnut Muffins

Bananas are the best because not only are they delicious, you could always use them - even when they are completely soft to the touch type of ripened. I bought some bananas last weekend and didn't eat them all during the week. By Wednesday, they got too soft to eat so I decided to let them ripen all the way so I could bake them over the weekend. Banana pudding or banana muffins was what I kept tossing between. I decided with the muffins - they would be more calorie conscious ... ha.

In making them, I completely forgot to add the 1 egg the recipe calls for, but no biggy, they still came out delicious. The recipe comes from the Williams-Sonoma Muffins book. If you buy just one baking book in your life, let it be this one. All the muffins in this book are spectacular. It's my go-to for muffins.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Banana-Walnut Muffins

from Williams-Sonoma Muffins

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup walnut or canola oil

1 large egg

2-3 very ripe bananas, slightly mashed

3 tbsp buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line with muffin cups, a muffin pan.

Stir together flour, sugar, walnuts, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, mashed bananas, and buttermilk until blended. Add the dry ingredients and beat until evenly combined and creamy.

Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rip of the cup.

Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch - 20-25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve them warm or at room temperature, with butter.

Makes 10 muffins.

Every Day of Summer Photo Blog: Summer Week 3

Another week has flown by - - is it just me or is summer seriously flying? It's the second week of July and I'm already thinking the summer is nearly over! Where is time going? With the 4th of July and the hottest day of summer yet, week 3 turned out to be quite memorable. Here are the photos:

Day 15 - Dad's Birthday: Born on the 4th of July. When I was younger, I genuinely thought the fireworks were for my dad. I thought everyone knew him and was celebrating him. For anyone who knows my dad, he's definitely worth celebrating. He's one of the few kind spirited, down to earth, most fun, and loving people I will ever know. It is impossible to be near him and not have a good laugh. Fireworks don't even begin to really celebrate him, but they're a good start.

Day 16 - A Rare Display of Feathers: My parrot Emi hardly ever will allow me to take photos of him without trying to attack the camera. I think because I was away from him for a few days, he didn't care what I did and was just happy to not be alone. His colors are beyond beautiful - shades of green, tints of gray, bright blues and red make him quite unique. The blue under his wings is hardly seen unless he's spreading his wings like in this picture. Emi turned 12 this year - it's hard to believe he's entering his teens! It felt like only yesterday I was picking him out of a group of baby parrots when he was a mere 3 months old.

Day 17 - How I Roll (A Public Art Project by Paola Pivi): I was exiting the apple store on 59th St and 5th when this plane caught my eye. I crossed the street to check it out and was pretty fascinated at it. It rotates 360 degrees! How interesting/fun/unique!

Day 18 - Hair Maintenance: I didn't start dying my hair until I was 18 and in a way, I regret ever starting because the upkeep is ridiculous. On the hottest day of the summer to date, I trekked into the city to get my roots filled and high and low-lights done to my hair at this place. What I love is that the end product is subtle. So subtle no one even notices - - which I guess is good?

Day 19 - Getting Some Sun: I have a few favorite places in the world. One happens to be conveniently on my apartment couch at about 4:15 in the summer/2:45 in the winter. That's the time when the sun is shining so brightly, I could sit on my couch and get a sunburn on my upper body and face. It's also a good time for my plants. I snapped this photo of a leaf on my elephant ear plant that seemed like it was reaching out to the sun.

Day 20 - Going Express: Express trains fly by local stops so quickly and I've always wanted to capture that. I'm hardly ever prepared, but this night I was as I was fiddling with my phone trying to get my music to play for my train ride home. I snapped an express train flying by. The result was a picture that is a bit eerie - it looks like a see-through train.

Day 21 - Classical Music Night in Central Park - I never take advantage of anything that NYC has to offer, except for this summer. Free concerts? Yes please! My mom and I went to the first free classical music concert of the summer at the bandshell in Central Park on a particularly not too hot summer evening. Lightning bugs buzzed around as we listened to Debussy, one of my favorite composers. The next concert is in two weeks and we'll be sure to bring some dinner and a bottle of vino to enjoy.

Day 21 was really a great end to the 3rd week of summer - NYC is so awesome and I fall in love with it a little more each day. How could I ever leave this place?

Every Day of Summer Photo Blog: Summer Week 2

Another week of summer has passed! Time is flying and the temperatures are rising (ugh high 90's today!). It was a busy week in preparation for the 4th of July, but also a relaxing one with plenty of sleep had - which seems necessary in this heat! Week 3 is hotter, but has been filled with lots of memories already!

Here are days 8 through 14!

Day 8: School's Out for the Summer! I can't help but sing that song, especially on the last day of the NY Public School year. Lots of happy kids getting out of school by 11am and all these yellow school buses are retired for a few months. I always remember the last day of school being a day that was so useless - what was the point of getting ready and going to school for just a couple of hours? But it was still fun in a way because the classrooms were already nearly cleaned out, no more bulletins, nothing on the blackboard - just empty classrooms and everyone laughing/enjoying themselves. Even the kids in class you didn't get along with liked you on the last day, giving a glimmer of hope that maybe come September, everyone would be friends again and forget the teasing that was done all school year.

Day 9: Whistle Warning: There's construction going on for the extension of the 7 line to go to 11th Avenue. I'm excited about this extension since it'll bring me closer to my office building located on 11th Avenue. I hardly ever walk past the work site, but after work this night, I ran an errand to 34th Street and passed this warning sign. I've never heard them blow, thankfully, even being just a few blocks away from it in my office. It'll still be a good year and half until the project is complete.

Day 10: Because Even if it's 90 degrees outside, I still want to burn a candle!: It was hot, but my AC was on, and I wanted to burn a candle. I realized I have so many candles in my apartment. I'm not sure why I'm hoarding them! This one happens to be my favorite though. It's from Fresh. It costs an arm and a leg by candle prices, but burns nicely and will smell up a room even without it burning.

Day 11: Bliss Spa. I met my friend Melissa to celebrate our Gemini birthdays by getting a 105 minutes "blissage" - which is probably the best thing ever. It's worth every penny and is so relaxing. We got it late in the afternoon and I'm glad - I slept so well that night (12 hours!) and felt completely rested.

Day 12: Brownies on Speed. I made these brownies as a "thank you" to my friend Tom who got me sparklers for the annual Buckley 4th of July Festivities. These brownies I saw on pinterest and just had to try them. They were so easy and SO good ... chocolate chip cookie dough, a reese's peanut butter cup, and brownie mix layered on top of each other. I'd like to make everything from scratch, rather than in a box, but this was such an easy and quick dessert!

Day 13: Sparklers! And in exchange for those brownies, I got these boxes of sparklers! We had sparklers every year for the 4th of July when I was growing up. I remember them well into my early teens. My dad would give us all a few after we watched the Macy's Fireworks and we'd stand in front of the house sparkling away. Those are days that have passed now, with neighbors moving away and the neighborhood not being so neighborly anymore. But with my nephews at the age when I remember those sparklers for the first time, I figured it was as good as time as any for these sparklers to come back into our lives!

Day 14: Peter's Birthday. My brother was born in 1976, the bicentennial year. I remember my mom telling the story of how she was in the hospital in labor and the nurses looking out the window watching a couple having sex on the American flag! I find that too funny and think it's awesome to have a story associated with the birth of a child. I don't think there's anything that trumps that for my birth or my other brother's birth, so I guess Peter takes the prize for the most eventful story.

July 4th

July 4th in my household is always busy since my brother's birthday is July 3 and my dad's is July 4. We have plenty of BBQ'ing and cakes to go around. This year was a lot of fun since the break happened in the middle of the work week and was a nice reprieve.

We did Southern Style BBQ for July 4 with my brother making his famous pulled pork, ribs, and mac n' cheese. I made the collard greens and corn bread - both came out amazingly. I foolishly didn't take photos of either. I was so excited at the plate of food in front of me, I didn't even think to take a photo! I'll post recipes for them soon.

In the meantime, some photos are below - we had sparklers this year which was very exciting (thank you TB!):