Magic Stick Pesto

Of all the kitchen appliances stuffed into my mini-kitchen, each one has a special place in my heart and in my overflowing cabinets. But today's post is dedicated to one very special appliance which I call the Magic Stick.

If you've never owned an immersion blender, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But if you have, I bet you'll be calling yours the magic stick too...because this little electric wand has tricks to make treats like you've never seen. It can turn lumpy potatoes into a silky smooth mashed, it's a souper way to puree soups and, in the case of last night, make a presto pesto.

So I came home last night and had a serving of delish fresh pasta from Eataly left in my fridge....unfortunately, I did not have any sauce leftover. I quickly surveyed the contents of the fridge (which are quite dismal) and noticed I had half a bag of arugula that looked like my best bet. I quickly whipped out the magic stick and turned that half a bag of arugula into a delicious arugula pesto. I loosely followed a pesto recipe and created my own masterpiece (that's the magic of the stick)-- here's how I did it.

Arugula Pesto

Ingredients:
- 2 cups arugula
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup of freshly shaved parmesan
- 3 tablespoons toasted pinenuts
- 2 pinches of salt
- 1 pinch of pepper

Throw all ingredients in the mini chopper attachment to the magic stick and press GO until its chopped into a creamy greeny pesto! Yum.

PS- You can also make this with a mini or full sized food processor (it's just a lot bigger mess to clean up).

Love Muffins

Happy Valentine's Day! For the LOVEliest day of the year, I whipped up some banana chocolate chip muffins. Here's my recipe below, sure to please any sweetheart with a sweet-tooth.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (or Bread)

Makes about 20 Muffins or 1 Loaf

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon into paper lined muffins tins (or greased loaf pan). Bake at 350° for about 25 mins or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (Bake for about 1 hour if making a loaf) Cool 10 minutes in tins on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Celebrity Status

So this morning I went back to the Martha Stewart show...unfortunately this time I was a second class citizen/audience member rather than guest/winning chef. Not as fun, but still quite a lovely way to break up the monotony of a rainy Tuesday. And, unlike those audience members who came to my show who were probably disappointed by the lack of celebrities, I was pleased to see both Emeril and Russel Simmons on the set this morning! Woo hoo.

You can check out the turkey recipe that Emeril and Martha made here. And I must admit it looked quite delish and simple too, none of this crazy intensive brining. Even more tastey than that, though, was that we all got a 6 piece Emeril bakeware collection to take home! Man am I thankful that I live near Martha's studios!

Fall Family Feast

Erin and I hosted family dinner last night and it was one fab fall feast. We had homemade hummus, curried butternut squash soup, balsamic brussel sprouts and lemon herb roast chickens. Wow was it delish. As usual, my favorite part of dinner was desert...I experimented with a new recipe as I'm searching for a new desert to add to the Thanksgiving spread in a couple weeks.

Let me tell you I hit the jackpot with this one: Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Icing

Now I know I am a pretty avid baker but usually it takes many tries to find recipes worth repeating. This one is AMAZING- this is a perfect perfect substitute (or accompaniment) to Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. It is quick and easy and the cake is moist and reaches that perfect combo of sweet and spicy pumpkin. The recipe for cake is here, and icing is here (I recommend doubling the frosting because this is just not enough for one cake). Enjoy! I am most definitely bringing this one home for Thanksgiving....Man, am I thankful for MarthaStewart.com

Supper Bowl

I convinced Adam to host the super/supper bowl party provided that Gleason and I cater/decorate. Sold.

Erin (aka the young barefoot contessa) went to TOWN and made homemade pulled pork sliders, mac and cheese, 7 layer dip and calzones. I mean, she prepared enough cheese and pork products to kill someone. My favorite were the sliders:

They were delicious and, well, devoured. I am not even going to include a recipe since Erin started on the pork preparation on Saturday night and it involved at least 10 spices and 7 hours of cooking. You could smell it in the lobby of our building all day. (PS: did I mention Erin moved into a one bedroom downstairs a couple weeks ago? UM, HEAVEN!)

Clearly I was not up for competing on the main course, but I was put on D&D duty: desert and decor. I stole a decor idea from Martha and using a green table cloth and colored electrical tape made this field/tablecloth.

For desert I finally found some oval pans at my favorite neighborhood shop (the 23rd street 99 cent store), made the football brownie (center). In honor of my favorite peanut-butter loving foreigner, I also made some peanut butter-chocolate oatmeal squares. They were covered in a layer of chocolate (clearly I needed a brown colored desert), and I put peanut butter in a ziplock to make an ad-hoc pastry bag to pipe the lines. Here's the peanut butter football:

Aside from the food, I paid a lot of attention to the commercials, cause, well, nbd but I was involved in making one of them. Everyone bet on the football scores... and several friends bet on the quarter I would fall asleep on the couch.

(3rd quarter)

Orla's Banoffee Pie

One of the best things about working at a Global company is visitors!! We have a lovely visitor in our group this quarter, from London, Orla. She had her first peanut butter sandwich at work last week and is now eating at least one a day (a girl after my own heart). Over lunch she mentioned her favorite desert: banoffee pie. I have no idea why I've never had this/heard of it before, but we made it Wednesday night. And it will not be the last time.

We found the recipe for this graham cracker-toffee-banana goodness from Paula Deen (sure sign that it will be delish/clog your arteries).

It's quite simple really-- you just mash the gram crackers in a plastic bag with a '"tea towel" around it:
Then you mix the grahams with plenty of butter and press them in a pie dish. Pop it in the oven for 6 minutes and voila!
Then on to the caramel: we modified the recipe slightly-- rather than this whole "poaching pan" business to caramelize the condensed milk, we just heated it in a small pot on medium heat for about 12 minutes, stirring continuously. (Tip from Orla's banoffee-master British friend)
When it's nice and sticky-icky (with some brown spots) you take the condensed milk-turned-caramel off the stove and put it into a bowl...
and then spread it on the crust!
Throw it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. While it's chilling, you slice the bananas, and whip the cream:
After that, you just layer on the sliced bananas, whipped cream and some chocolate chunks or shavings (we did one pie of each) on top. So it looks like this:
Yummmmm? YES. Here's Orla smiling with her beloved pie!

Tom Ka Moko-gai Soup

I'm in Molokai for another day, and highlights of the stay (aside from the beaches and sun) have been eating local. For Christmas we slaughtered a lamb (and by "we" I mean, I stayed as far away as possible until the lamb was cooked).

We also decided to repeat last years Tom Ka (molok)gai Soup. The special Molokai part is that we make the coconut milk from scratch. This is quite a process, starting with using a machete to cut the coconuts out of a tree, peeling them, draining their water, baking them, cracking them, shelling them, and finally grinding them in a food processor until they become milk. Here's a pic of the assembly line, from my dad opening them with a machete, Rebecca peeling, and Sarah hammering holes to drain the water:

A true recipe involves using a cheese cloth to drain the coconut shreds from the milk, however, we went without, which results in a slightly more crunchy soup, which turns out to be quite tasty. A labourous process, but completely worth it!

Home, cooking

I've been in my apartment for nearly 3 months, but until last week haven't used the kitchen for more than storing alcohol and cooking the occasional late night quesadilla or scrambled eggs. Sad, I know, but when you work 7 blocks away and they serve free food (that's much better than I'll ever be able to cook), its hard to justify going home and slaving over the stove to prepare dinner for 1. Wah wah. But in a recent effort to make NYC my real home, I've decided to host "guest chefs" at 415 w.24th. (If Martha does it, why can't I?). I decided I'll keep track of the recipes and guests on the blog.

On Tuesday I hosted an "Adam Sandwich" and peep show (it's not what you think) where Ballew and Gee set off smoke alarms cooking up flank steak fajitas (prounced Fa-GIGHT-as), and spent most of the evening watching one of my neighbors do her laundry in her underwear. Note to self: get curtains.

And then there was Erin who officially stole my Mini-Martha title when she cooked one of the most gourmet home cooked meals I've ever had: seared scallops and asparagus.
Good luck recreating it, but if you want to try here's the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 lb sea scallops
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/2 cup shallots
• 1 large clove garlic
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 fresh lemon
• flour
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

1. pat scallops dry. season with salt and pepper and coat with flour, shaking off excess.
2. melt 2 tablespoons butter in a pan over medium heat. add scallops to pan and brown on both sides.
3. add remaining two tablespoons of butter to pan, along with garlic, shallots, parsley and white wine. simmer until slightly reduced.
4. squeeze juice from lemon over the top of the scallops right before serving.

serves: 2