Reason For Not Eating Out #60: Solving the Puzzle of ‘What If You Don’t Have An Amazing Protein?’

We live in blessed times. I mean, seasonally. It’s late-spring, and we have things popping out of plants that are incredible and edible (and not edible, but fragrantly incredible, like wild lilacs, too). I recently had the plum privilege of being a judge for a cookoff held by GrowNYC, where I got to observe the making of, taste the outcome of, and help decide the winner of two very excellent dishes prepared by local restaurant chefs. Held in partnership with … Read More

Soft-Scrambled Eggs and Spinach on Toast

Soft-scrambled eggs are my new butter. They’re my new ricotta. They’re my new avocado smeared onto toast, so in fashion today. How exactly do you soft-scramble eggs to a creamy, curd-like consistency? Softly. And slowly. It’s about as easy said as it is done.

Pizza Frittata

It’s a mashup that keeps to the same cuisine: pizza, and a flattish beaten-egg dish topped with anything you like (frittata). Who didn’t try to forge pizza with a toaster oven and whathaveyou at home when growing up? English muffins and French bread are a favorite pizza pasttime. I remember spooning stuff from a jar of “pizza sauce” onto halved bagels and English muffins for these after-school snack purposes growing up. Looking back, I’m not sure why the sauce should have … Read More

Green Curry Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

I wonder why egg salad hasn’t had a dramatic revival in recent years. With the re-embrace of eggs from a health perspective (not to mention its being an eggcelent protein for economy’s sake), it seems eggs can do no harm poached, fried, or hard-boiled on even the finest restaurant plates. But egg salad? Perhaps the pale-yellow deli standard could use a little perk.

Shakshouka, On A Boat

They say shakshouka, a common Israeli breakfast dish, is difficult or taxing to make, or that canned tomatoes are the best option to create a thick and savory sauce. But it was the first thing I could think of to whip up when I could find little else but ripe tomatoes and fresh eggs in the icebox one morning last week. I don’t mean that in a nostalgic way, using the word, “icebox” — for the past couple weeks, I’ve … Read More

Deviled Eggs with Pickled Swiss Chard Stems

It’s that time of year again — deviled eggs weather is back. Picnics, now, are even plausible and get ready for lots of backyard barbecue smoke. Not that winter is terribly inappropriate for making one of my favorite (read: Cheap! Easy! Quick!) party snacks. But sometime hovering around Easter, when there’s not much else to play with other than chives, just seems more fit. Let the Devil in.

Wild Mushroom Quiche with Pecorino & Lemon Zest

If it weren’t so easy to make an entire one, I might succumb to ordering a slice of savory quiche at a bakery or for brunch. But it is, and no matter if you incorporate the most luxurious ingredients or leftovers in its airy, yellow mass, definitely more economical than the options above. It’s one of my favorite ways to add class to eggs.

Rainbow Chard on Toast, Two Ways

I often shop with my eyes rather than my head when it comes to local food at the Greenmarket. This leads to a fun culinary game later of what to do with strawberries, fiddleheads, and a rainbow trout, for instance. Not the most practical method, I’ll admit, but I’ll stand by it just for the unexpected little solutions to those puzzles like this. Plowing through a bustling Saturday market at Grand Army Plaza, my eyes settled on some of the … Read More

Flowering Broccoli & Stale Bread Frittata

Two ingredients thought to be past their prime — the broccoli plant, once it’s gone to flower, and bread, a few days since baking — revitalized. I do love using up food scraps. This recipe came after a few rounds of making really good bread pudding. Could anyone have conceived of a better way to use stale bread than that? I wondered. Then I began to think of French toast, and how custardy and warm the centers of those thick … Read More

Pickled Pepper, Anchovy & Egg Sandwich on Rye

posted in: Recipes, Seafood | 7

I love sandwiches. But I can’t remember the last time I made one with slices of cold meat. I suppose it’s partially reactionary, as I was sent to school with turkey breast, salami or ham tucked between two slices of bread each day growing up. Now it’s the fixins’ I care about most. The more, the merrier. And open-face means there’s no chance the sandwich will get smushed by an apple.

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