33andorragif

Hiiiii. Can we talk parties and cake? Of course! When you have a fresh-out-of-the-oven, steaming spiced pear cake (bread), it’s like a must. Two weeks ago I was given the opportunity to attend an AMAZING dinner with Spice Islands® Trading Company at the NYC Wine and Food Festival. The dinner was hosted by Dana Cowin, the editor of Food and Wine (um, hellllllo dream job) and filled with food from chefs Andrew Zimmern, John Besh, Jose Garces and Daniel Boulud (< major crush). Spice Islands Trading Company stocked the kitchen for the chefs and they created the most flavorful, unique meal experience. The food was… insane. Guys, it was so, so good. The wine was plentiful and even the passed appetizers were over the top and just plain excellent. And it wasn’t one of those situations where there was SO much food that you couldn’t enjoy it all – it was somehow perfectly portioned and timed so that we wanted to devour every single bite. Is that best? (Or the worst? Ha.) Let me give you a run...

I’m so thankful for the day that I decided to make focaccia bread. Yesssss. I am so serious. Focaccia bread at home? HELLO. I am in love with it. In fact, as I write this, I have decided that I have to go make this recipe again, right this second. Immediately. Give me a salad and focaccia and that’s all I need for my meal. WEIRD RIGHT. This is the most festive bread! We have fresh cranberries that are slightly sweetened and the creamiest brie cheese that melts into the bread and creates some golden bubbles. Rosemary too, because of the festive-ness of course. Just wait until the next three weeks. I went a little hog wild with the rosemary this year. How can you not in December? It makes all of your food look like Christmas and who doesn’t want to eat Christmas!? The best focaccia bread around me is at DeLallo’s and it’s just… so… soft and olive oil-y and salty. The texture and flavor and overall experience is so incredible that after eating a warm piece this past summer, I was adamant ...

Otherwise known as: how to eat all the hummus. If eating an entire hummus platter is wrong, then I certainly don’t want to be right. I mean, we can make this hummus platter at home and it’s not awful. Creamy bean dips that are a vehicle for bread and crispy chips? This, in fact, sounds wonderful. So here’s the deal. This restaurant that we love has a hummus platter as an appetizer. And it’s really so simple. I mean, the platter itself is packed and loaded and huge and something I would absolutely order as a meal. But it’s made up of simple, relatable, classic, delish flavors – nothing is weird or wild and it’s all just so insanely GOOD. We order it as a snack when we’re there and we end up devouring it. They serve the hummus in big scoops with both fluffy pita and pita-like crackers. There is a wonderful couscous salad that Eddie and I basically fight over. Plump olives. Roasted red peppers. Bits of feta. I’m craving it just by description. Now I’ve wanted to make a version at home for...

You are looking at one major flavor bomb. Some days I love a super simple, satisfying and incredible bowl of give-me-that-right-now over top of vegetables. Oh what the heck – that’s all the days. Minus the vegetable part. The excellent news is that today is also that day so I’m telling you all about it. Want to know something crazy? I’ve never really cared for rosemary. Never ever. Then last year, I grew it so I sort of got into it. It really is true that when you grow your own food (err… herbs), you want to eat it more. This is my plan for Max and why I love to have him help me in the kitchen so much. I’m trying to embrace the mess. It’s difficult! And messy. And fun. After last summer though, my newfound rosemary love took a backseat and I sort of reverted to my old self. When picking out herbs to plant earlier this spring, I grabbed a rosemary seedling because I found that I was actually MISSING the flavor. Super unlike me. And then! It was fate. I’ve been ooogling over a certain re...

PIN IT! PIN IT! PIN IT! I follow a lot of the  fluffy  and typical cute animal Twitter/Facebook accounts. I love stuff like this. I also get in a good half cry about every other day when I see a photo or video of an animal being reunited with a sibling or its favourite human, or stories of an abandoned/mistreated animal finally finding peaceful refuge. Frequent contact with any number of species helps you understand some of the more important tenets of humanity, I think. When we adopted our little gal Cleo through a local rescue organization, we were able to do some digging into her past through some Facebook posts and timeline updates. A local had found her and her siblings as pups in a drainage pipe beside a busy highway in the middle of a thunderstorm. From there, they spent some time at that family’s home regaining their strength and getting healthy again. A volunteer then drove them all the way to Ontario from Louisiana to be placed in temporary foster...

All Barbeque all the time. That’s what I am into right now. Oh, but also salads. Sooooo, how do you make those two both show up on the same plate? A grilled Salad. I know you have seen me grilling romaine before like in this  Grilled Romaine and Corn Salad with Pickled Cherries and shallots  and this  Grilled Romaine, Prawn, avocado and Nectarine Salad .  It adds a little smokiness that is OUT of this world if you are a salad lover! So this time I went all in on the grill. Like everything in the salad is grilled. Romaine hearts , red onion, avocado and EVEN bacon!!! Last week I saw my friend Tracy grilling bacon. I thought it sounded brilliant. I loathe the smell of bacon in the house. Well it’s cool right before you eat it, but when it is still lingering for days afterwards it really is not cool at all. SO the idea of being able to cook bacon outside on the grill was very exciting to me. The only thing more exciting was the actual taste of the grilled bacon. WO...

I’m being a total cheater today. I knoooow that I just shared a super decadent and indulgent breakfast/breakfast for dinner recipe earlier this week, but I’m too excited about these cheater croissants to let them go one day longer. If you ever treat yourself to an almond croissant and a latte… well. Let me tell you. WE CAN MAKE THEM AT HOME IN UNDER AN HOUR! Sure, they aren’t huge and flakey with billions of layers, but they are still smaller and almost as flakey with a lot of layers. And a lot of flavor. Because we add extra butter. And coffee. On the side! Of course. I’m having (another?) major puff pastry moment. GOSH. Why is this stuff so good? Yes, I know that I can make it at home, but I don’t have the patience. So quickie, faux croissants with puff pastry? I’m down. That one time I made croissants – it was practically a two day process. And then I had to take all the croissants to my parents’ house because I could.not.stop.eating.them. Like, at all. Homemade croissants are a hug...