Gorilla Cheese

Food trucks have recently deemed the front of my office building a good place to park, which means temptation is now ever-present.  I had resisted for quite some time, which was easy since I typically bring my lunch to work.  On Thursday, however, I just didn't have time to make my turkey and cheese sandwich.  Sure, I could do the right thing and get a healthy salad or the cheap thing and go down to my building's cafeteria but if anyone tries to tell me that's better than going to a grilled cheese truck, I will laugh in their face.

The Gorilla Cheese Truck makes all kinds of grilled cheese - something for every kind of cheese lover.  I was having a tough time deciding between the #5 and the #8 so I asked the guy in the truck window for a little advice.  He said the smoked gouda with bbq pulled pork and caramelized onions is the best thing they make so there was my decision.  I ordered it as a $10 combo, which comes with tots and a drink.  I actually made mine a $13 combo by adding bacon and cheese whiz to my tots because once you know that's an option, there's no turning back.  

The bread on the grilled cheese got a perfect, buttery, crisp crust.  The sandwich was dang good, but there was more pork than cheese.  Perfect ratio if you're calling it a pork sandwich, but can that qualify as a grilled cheese?  The tots were great, but the whiz and bacon may have put me over the edge.  Next time I'll just add one of their $.50 dipping sauces instead so I'm not full til next Thursday.  I'm glad I got to try Gorilla Cheese while it's still National Grilled Cheese Month.  Celebrating a holiday - any holiday, apparently - makes me feel all patriotic.   

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Snacks

My Mom and Bubba call those peanut butter filled pretzels crack.  They're obsessed.  Well, I found a recipe on Pinterest that takes their favorite snack to a new level.  Make a little sandwich with pretzel thins and peanut butter, then dunk half of it in melted dark chocolate.  Sprinkle a little sea salt on if that's your thing and then put them on some wax paper in the freezer to set up.  You're left with a great salty sweet treat.

But I ask you, why use peanut butter when you could use sunflower butter?  The only problem with sunflower butter is that it's a little runnier and therefore harder to work with in this type of situation.  But it just tastes so good.  Peanut or sunflower - whatever kind of butter you use, this is a great dessert to snack on or pre-assemble for parties.

These look prettier once plated...

3 on Thursday

I'm still feeling unsettled by the bombings in Boston.  I can't make heads or tails of such an attack so I've stopped trying and instead have just been thankful that all my loved ones are safe and sound.

Now that it's spring, Smorgasburg is back - this time with a brand new location.  While the food fair used to just be on Saturdays in Williamsburg, it's now also on Sundays in Dumbo.  This means you can get there by walking the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge.  We took the ferry back for different but equally impressive views of the city. 

After years of saying I wanted to go, I finally saw The Dan Band live.  I wish people rocked out a little more, but it was still great to see them do their hilarious, f-bomb infused brand of comedy. 

I can't really afford to go to a steakhouse on the reg so I decided to have steak night at home more often.  Even if it's not filet mignon, a cheap cut of steak cooked on the grill will satisfy my craving.  Serving it alongside typical steakhouse sides like homemade creamed spinach and rich mac and cheese makes me feel like a big deal Wall Street Banker.  It's important to make yourself feel like you live in the lap of luxury...even when you actually live in a tiny 450 square foot apartment.  Sorry for the less than gorgeous pic - trust that it still tasted delicious.

Bite Size Kitchen

When I hit up Smorgasburg for the first [but obviously not the last] time this season, I was determined to try at least one thing I had not eaten there before.  The winner was Bite Size Kitchen, a catering company that specializes in Asian inspired apps.  On their Smorgasburg menu were four different types of steamed buns.  Though I was tempted by that naughty siren, pork belly, I decided to go with the duck.  It was so tender that it became one with the soft bun.  But then those sesame seeds, fried garlic, and shallots jump out with a little texture because nobody likes a one-note bun.

  

Jacob's Pickles

When the sign outside a restaurant reads "Beer.  Biscuits.  Pickles." I need no further description to know it's a place I need to try.  Jacob's Pickles on the Upper West Side has all my Southern favorites like fried green tomatoes and collard greens, much of the menu infused with briny goodness, including the drinks.  I don't stray too far from my simple Jack and Diet too often, so the fact that I mulled over my beverage decision for a while is an indication that they have a pretty good bar menu.  I almost skipped the alcohol altogether when I saw their list of homemade lemonade, sweet tea, and root bear on tap.  But then I remembered it was a Saturday night and decided not to be lame. I went with the Kentucky Porch Sipper, bourbon with muddled lemon/lime/orange and house apple bitters.  It was sweet but not overwhelmingly so.  It made me long for my porch at home that overlooks the marsh.

For the food it's no surprise we started with an assortment of pickles, my favorite of which was the spicy green beans.  There were several smaller items I wanted to try so we went the sharing route and ordered one entree and several sides/apps.  Chicken and waffles is probably the most popular Southern dish to emulate right now so I was happy to see a new riff off it: pancakes.  That's right, we had chicken and pancakes.  The pancakes were sweet and the chicken was spicy (with Chick-fil-A style breading - gah) and the bacon sprinkled all over the plate was nice and salty.  Yum.  It didn't even need any sort of syrup or honey.  For the smaller plates we ordered fried green tomatoes that had grits in the breading, a great touch but the tomatoes should have been cut a little thicker to compete.  The collards were mixed with their pickled carrots to add the vinegar flavor I'm used to adding myself at the table.  Finally, the side of mac and cheese was massive and easily could have been an entree itself.  It was made with sharp white cheddar and was super creamy and delicious.

Southern food is not usually thought of as romantic but with the low lighting, this place is a great date night spot.  One of my favorite moments of the evening was trying to figure out if the couple next to us was on their first or second date.  Good for them.  If someone brought me there on a first date, I'm pretty sure there would be a date #2.

Pimento Cheese Pie

Last week was Masters Week - a holiday for us Georgia folks.  My Daddy was there over the weekend and although he is an avid golf fan, I know one of his favorite parts of the Masters is the pimento cheese sandwiches.  The Masters may be an exclusive sporting event, but once inside (if you're lucky enough), none of the food or drink costs more than $3.  To honor the great food tradition of the Masters, I decided to make some of my [self appointed] famous pimento cheese.

Since I've blogged about pimento cheese sandwiches before, I needed to do something a little different to merit a post.  Tomato pie is a Southern thing and I recently read that people have been making it topped with pimento cheese, also a Southern thing.  I suppose that makes this pie doubly Southern.  Southern squared, perhaps.

I drew water out of thick, firm beefsteak tomato slices by sprinkling with water and letting them sit out for about 10 minutes.  Once they were ready, I got to layering.  I covered the bottom of pre-baked pie shell with slices of prosciutto.  I put the tomatoes in next, cutting some in half in order to make sure every bite got a piece of 'mater.  Finally, I put my own pimento cheese on top.  Sorry, but you ain't getting that recipe; it's top secret.  I baked the whole thing at 350 for about 15 minutes, just long enough for the prosciutto to crisp a bit and for the cheese to melt but not so long that the tomatoes got soggy.

True, the green jacket is the Masters' most coveted souvenir, but a good pimento cheese dish is a not so distant second.  This is a great new way to use pimento cheese and a nice dish to bring to brunch.

3 on Thursday

Who's ready for the weekend?  ME.  It took far too long, but Spring has finally sprung and I can't wait to enjoy it.

I'm all about using social media appropriately.  Cole Haan has developed a great tumblr tracking Subway Style.  This links to their current branding with their logo in MTA-style lettering and their recent campaign around the NYC subway system.  Instead of just showing pictures of their own products, they focus on general NYC fashion, which is an entity unto itself, and encourage engagement with a "This or That" voting series.  They show that they "get" New York fashionistas - and that does way more for brand loyalty than any product shot.

I recently took a cooking class with co-workers in an amazing loft space.  At Miette Culinary Studio, Chef Paul Vandewoude assesses your skill level and tailors how much you do accordingly.  He was great about explaining why he took certain approaches and I walked away having learned a lot - but I would expect nothing less from a man who was the head chef at someplace like Tartine.  I also walked away full.  We started with a salad topped with wine poached pears and blue cheese, then moved on to perfectly cooked chicken with fresh tomato sauce over cauliflower almond puree, and finished off the meal with molten financiers and fresh vanilla ice cream.  There was a sommelier on site to pair everything with wine, but we also drank the whole time we cooked (which always makes the kitchen more of a playground).  The prices are actually quite reasonable so this is not a bad idea for an excursion with friends or a cute anniversary gift.

I'm not sure why, but today I just really felt like a New Yorker.  I was hyper aware of the fact that I was doing a NYC-style commute - much different from the car-bound commutes of other cities.  Maybe it's the change of the seasons (finally!) that makes everything more vivid and alive - every breeze that passes through my hair tingles.  Whatever it is, I feel like a city gal today and there are few things more quintessentially New York than the "we are here to serve you" coffee cup.