Josh Koury’s Pumpkin Soup

How and where Josh got his inspiration for this pumpkin soup is beyond me. But it tastes fabulous. Surprisingly spicy, warm and filling, I had to drill Josh for this recipe at his Halloween/welcome back dinner party. He says that he just came up with the recipe himself, and I would have never guessed it, perhaps owning to the fact that I've rarely seen him outside of extreme work mode programming films for either the Hamptons International Film Festival, or the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival. It's awesome and humbling to discover that a lot of people like to make up amazing recipes all the time, and they don't have to be all showy and obsessive about it (hmmph).

Desserts: The Sweet Potato Pie Disaster

Everything was going fine and dandy, taking the sweet potato option from the pumpkin pie recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." Until pre-baking the pie crust. I've made my pie crust recipe (seen in Weeknight Apple Maple Walnut Pie) numerous times and never once encountered the dough sinking into the bottom of the pan, the edges repelling from their base. Even when making quiche, I pre-bake the crust a good fifteen minutes or so and never saw anything like this. So I'm concluding that it was the aluminum pie pan, which I was using because I was taking this pie with me to a house party. Those things should be sold with a boldface warning label on them! Does this happen to anyone else? Or only me, when I'm trying to impress my friends by bringing a seasonal dessert to a potluck Halloween party? I was hoping this was going to make up for my not getting dressed up. (Okay, so I had this great idea to dress up as a Red Army Communist China soldier, but I didn't make it to Chinatown to get the cap and stuff in time. Plus, it wouldn't look quite right if I brought a homemade sweet potato pie dressed up like that.)

Pasta with Kale and Chick Peas

Castellane con spinaci e fagioli is what I would have called this recipe if a)I were a real Italian person (I somehow don't feel I have the right to name this dish in Italian since I'm not), and b) I were actually using spinach, which I would have preferred. But even though the spinach scare is officially over, and the washed, bagged leaves are back on the shelves, I'm hesitant to forgive and forget. Castellane con spinaci e coli is not something I want to get too close to.

Eating Dim Sum in Providence, RI

I ate out. But it was in Providence, RI, and I'm quite certain there's no way I'll ever be able to make my own array of bite-size dumplings and other tasty traditional dim sum dishes just for lunch (ever). So I made good use of a family trip to visit my brother in Providence, where he's studying for a PhD.

Braised Chicken with Lemon and Sage

For a twist on roast chicken when I didn't feel like waiting too long, I was going to braise some chicken with wine and parsley. When I came home I found the parsley bunch I had bought about a week ago was so decrepit and limp that I had to toss it. Then I came across a nice jar of dried sage that must belong to my roommate, sniffed it, and decided to pair it with lemon instead.

I Won!

Thanks, Cube-Side, for naming Not Eating Out In New York "Blog of the Week"! And for this nifty crest, which I get to keep on here for a week. Or forever.

DJ O’Connor’s Mom’s Squash Rolls

Thanks DJ, for sharing your mom's recipe for squash rolls. DJ writes in an email that his mom makes these every Thanksgiving: "Oh and they don't really end up tasting like squash, which is a major plus because they're made from freezer squash, which is a cheap replacement for syrup of ipecac if you don't have any handy." Had to look that one up too--syrup of ipecac is a gag-inducing serum. Thanks!

French Dip, You Dip, I Dip

Only until recently, during a trip to California, did I become aware that French Dip wasn't something you dunk potato chips and veggies in, or that it wasn't invented in France. There, it was a sandwich. Here, I decide to make one. The recipe that Ben's mom provided for this was so tasty that I wonder why this side of the country hasn't been so quick to catch on. I can just see the single-serving cups of au jus at Subway if it did.

Weeknight Apple Maple Walnut Pie

A co-worker of mine went apple picking and left me with a bag of crisp, juicy tart ones that seemed just right for baking. If there's any dessert a (American) person should know how to make, it's apple pie, and that's something I've picked up in my days.

Here’s Lookin’ at You Cook: Bob McClure

For my first Here's Lookin' at You Cook profile I had the lucky opportunity of dining with the multi-talented actor, writer, and home chef Bob McClure. You might recognize him from the critically acclaimed online TV show, The Burg, but you might be even more interested in his critically acclaimed family-owned pickle line, McClure's Pickles. The kitchen of the well lived-in Williamsburg apartment that Bob shares with a roommate has all the tell-tale signs of tinkering: food processors and blenders of all shapes and sizes line the back of the counter, a wheatgrass juicer is lodged onto an edge of the kitchen table, and not too far away, a tomato plant and sheet of wheatgrass compete for the sun against the kitchen window. Making a presence on everything from the top of the cabinets, cardboard boxes on the floor, and on top of the microwave are jars of pickles at various stages of sourness. Bob claims he is the first family member to experiment with the 50+ year-old family recipe for spicy garlic dills that his great grandmother instilled. He produces a jar of somewhat discolored, though not uncrisp-looking asparagus with cherry peppers and hairy dill submerged in a yellow-green brine as evidence, not yet mature enough to taste. (A previous experiment was one that Bob was fool enough to try--pickles brined with the smallest and hottest of peppers which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, but that the farmer at the farmer's market laughed when he purchased more than one.) the curious asparagus incident classic spicy garlic wholes with wild dill

Mango Coconut Sticky Rice Dessert Cups

Not only do I not know how to make desserts, but tonight I'm faced with the task of making dessert for a vegan friend of mine, who's having me over for dinner with her boyfriend. I did some brief scouring of vegan dessert recipes online and decided pretty early on that instead of all that substituting eggs and milk business, I was going to make something involving coconut milk, and probably Thai. I'd originally thought of Chinese dim sum coconut pudding, but I couldn't find a recipe for it without gelatin, and we all know that gelatin has horses in it.

Chicken and Asparagus Stir Fry

This stir fry is just a really light, simple dish that you can make with any combination of ingredients.  I would normally use chopped scallions instead of a sliced yellow onion, but I didn't have any left.  The sweetness of the regular onion, though, made up for a dash of sugar in the seasoning I may have added.  I kept the flavors toned down because asparagus has such a fragile, light flavor--it was almost too simple that I'd wished I'd had a fresh chopped chilil to throw in or something, but it was nice to get to taste the asparagus and appreciate its texture, too. 

The Last Barbecue of the Summer

My friends Richard and Sam are my only local friends whose apartment has an actual yard with grass, a pretty spacious one, too. So naturally, they host barbecues all summer long. The last one I went to I was so busy preparing not one but two trays of homemade dumplings--veggie ones and pork--that I ended up getting there late, tired, and in the middle of a hot July, not even hungry. This weekend, I brought to their place the least exotic party food I could think of, and also one of the easiest, deviled eggs.

Deviled Eggs

The name of the dish implies a little heat, so it might be a fun experiment to add some chopped, jarred jalepenos in the stuffing. But for now, here's the recipe that I stick to wholeheartedly, one that never fails.