Olive Oil Gelato with Cinnamon

I recently discovered Fairway's high end gelato line that they created in partnership with High Road.  The flavors are unique and the texture is rich and silky.  Though at $5.99 for a pint, it is pricier than most Fairway products, it is still less expensive than many of the other small batch ice cream brands out there.

If you want to wow your friends with an unexpected sweet treat, sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the extra virgin olive oil flavor.  One scoop is the perfect end to a meal.

Fruit and Yogurt Dip

When it came to cooking for my last book club meeting, I just wasn't havin it.  Oddly enough, I wasn't even that busy; I just didn't want to tie myself down to preparing a specific travel-well recipe for a group.  My solution was to open up one of my "easy" cookbooks.  Every recipe in this cookbook is easy, but at the beginning of each section, they give a list of extra easy "recipes".  These are the ones that basically require zero effort but can sneakily make your meal more impressive.  It was here that I found fruit with yogurt dip.

All you do is add honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon to vanilla yogurt.  Stir it together and serve with fruit (I used pineapple and cantaloupe).  I used the 0% Tahitian vanilla Greek yogurt from Trader Joes so not only was this dip good, it was healthy.  And it was good.  One of the girls said it tasted "just like fall," which is a yay! for me (pat on the back) but a wah :( for the reminder that cold weather is approaching.  Fruit plates, like crudité platters, are the go-to buffet staple when you want to add something healthy to your spread.  But plain fruit plates are boring.  Adding this yogurt is not.

The picture is capital T terrible because there were no lights on the roof where we were holding book club.  Sorry bout that.

before mixing in the honey

Breads Bakery

I was very strategic with my run recently.  I planned it so that I would finish at Breads Bakery just in time for breakfast/brunch.  After running the 1.7 miles there, I felt confident I had earned my meal.  In fact, I felt confident I had earned three meals because I purchased a leek quiche (seemed breakfast-y), a tuna sandwich, and a bureka (how could I not?!  They're hard to find in NYC!).  

Everything was great and nothing was too dense.  Like perfect French pastry...except it's made by an Israeli.  I would NEVER normally order a tuna sandwich.  I'm scared of them unless I make it myself.  This time, however, the cashier recommended it highly and I was in the mood to go wherever the wind took me.  I'm glad I listened.  The tuna was less of a salad, more just tuna on bread (that's a good thing in my book) with tomato, sliced hard boiled egg, lettuce, and cucumber.  Not only do I now trust their tuna sandwich, I think it's better than mine.

OddFellows Ice Cream

Happy 4th of July!  This holiday is all about being outside in the heat of summer.  Rather than sit in the air conditioning, I like to cool down with some frozen treats.  If you're the same, you should check out my new favorite scoop shop, OddFellows.  Their first shop opened a year ago in Williamsburg and was written up in the city's best dining blogs even during New York's coldest months for their amazing flavors that often incorporate unexpected ingredients like miso or pink peppercorn.

I never made it to Williamsburg last summer and deeply regretted it.  Thankfully, in the year I wasted they opened a second location in my home borough of Manhattan - and on the east side, no less!  My Mom and I had spent all morning walking and were working up a sweat so we stopped in before heading to a movie on Saturday.  It's a small place that brackets the new school flavors with an old time soda pop shop feel.

My Mom was going to order the s'mores but one taste test of the buttermilk blueberry honey and her mind was set.  I had a taste and even though the blueberries were mixed into the ice cream, they still tasted fresh picked - even popped in your mouth like blueberries are should.  I went with the Thai ice cream, which infuses Thai tea into the base.  Though it had a deep burnt orange color, it was very light, probably why I gravitated towards even though I am [typically] a sorbet lover.  I added a drizzle of salted caramel sauce to mine because whenever salted caramel is on a menu I MUST have it.

Now that I've had my first ice cream cone of the season, it finally feels like summer.

Victory Garden

Sometimes you taste something that doesn't belong...but you like it anyway.  That's what happened to me when I tried the frozen yogurt at Victory Garden.  It's fro yo that's made with goat milk.  The inevitable first question is whether or not it tastes like goat cheese.  It actually does.  It has all the tang of goat cheese that kind of makes the sides of your tongue curly upwards like the whale in Free Willy, but it's sweet.  

Using goat milk supposedly makes this yogurt a little healthier.  And as is bound to happen when someone waves the healthy wand over something that's supposed to be bad for you, something has to give.  For me, that something was the toppings, which seemed a little off the deep end - vegan fudge is an option, you know?  The goat milk flavor is unique enough that it doesn't need much.  Maybe a little granola or something non-vegan and you're all set.

Dominique Ansel Bakery - Part II

I try to refrain from blogging about the same place twice, but when I can't stop thinking about a restaurant you deserve to hear me sing its praises. Dominique Ansel Bakery is my favorite bakery in the City, maybe even my favorite bakery of all the bakeries there ever were. This is huge considering how obsessed I've been with Milk Bar over the years. I still love Milk Bar and see it as a close second, but Monsieur Ansel has secured a special place in my heart.

I would like to do anything as well as Dominique Ansel does pastry. The magic soufflé is the perfect example.  I don't know a ton about baking, but I do know that soufflés have a reputation for being temperamental and difficult to pull off.  You have to time and measure everything just so if you don't want the whole thing to collapse.  Somehow, Ansel manages to do this with the soufflé INSIDE another cake.  How the soufflé retains it's light texture all while an entire second cake has to bake around it, I have no idea.  I've decided Dominque Ansel has voodoo powers and that's the end of the story.

The soufflé part of the magic soufflé is chocolate grand marnier flavored and is encased in an orange blossom brioche.  I'm not big on orange desserts but the flavor is not overpowering and it's not too sweet, which is good because I have a theory that super sweet desserts are trying to compensate for something.  I ate the whole thing in the street like an animal and feel no shame.

Boozy Cherries Over Cheese

Two things were standing in the way of dessert at last week's dinner party: 1) I'm not big on baking and 2) I was low on time.  Thankfully, I remembered something Murray's Cheese posted on their tumblr a while back.  As I just mentioned, I didn't have a ton of time on my hands so I couldn't soak the cherries in booze myself.  I lucked out and found some in the store, but I recognize they're not readily available.  I did some research and learned they're actually very easy to make, the just take time.  Take fresh cherries and pit them.  This is what takes time.  A cherry pitter is a handy doodad so I would recommend picking one up from a kitchen store before starting this project.  It will still take a while to pit them all, but this will at least seriously reduce the labor.  Once they're pitted, put them in a jar along with the alcohol of your choice.  Brandy seems to be pretty popular.  Some people toss them with sugar before jarring and soaking them, but that's your choice.  Then just store in a cool place for a couple days.  It seems like they can last a very long time so it seems worth it to put in the effort to pit them to have these around for the subsequent months.

Boozy cherries would be great over ice cream or in a fresh Manhattan cocktail.  I went with Murray's suggestion and poured them over a triple crème and served it with fresh baguette slices.  I'm sure chocoholics will doubt that cheese can be a dessert, but when it's done like this...oh baby.

Fro-Yo Dots

This was a Pinterest project.  It was one of the earlier things that popped up on the site and looked too easy to actually work, which is why I've taken so long to try it.  Turns out, it works and couldn't be easier.  Just take your favorite flavor of Greek yogurt, put it in a ghetto pastry bag (a ziplock with the corner snipped off) and plop out little discs of yogurt onto a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Stick them in the freezer til they're solid and then just pop them off the paper so you can store them in a ziplock.  We are just loving ziplock baggies in this post, aren't we?

I used the blood orange Chobani, but any flavor would work here.  Get creative by using plain yogurt and adding cinnamon and honey or pink lemonade powder.  The end result can be kinda similar to Dippin Dots if you make them small enough and eat them with a spoon.  And we all know Dippin Dots is the ice cream of the future.

Great dessert.  Great to snack on.  Just...great.

Maison Keyser

Maison Keyser is a Parisian bakery that's gone global.  The contents of the case are exactly like what you would expect from a traditional French patisserie.  I had to get a tarte because that's my favorite and while in France I attempted to try every variety my local patisserie had to offer, which meant I ate about 30 tartes over the course of three months.  This time, I went with the pear and chocolate one because it's not as common here in the US but it should be.  Though I don't usually like crispies, they were used sparingly in this case so I thought they actually added something in the way of texture vs. getting in the way of the decadent chocolate and juicy pear.  I also got an eclair because I was so intrigued that it was yuzu flavored.  The Japanese citrus is not typical for French pastries but it was bright (not how I would usually describe an eclaire) and more my style than the regular chocolate and cream version.

It could be my imagination but it seems like lots of French bakeries have been popping up lately.  Not opposed.

Cones

Our seafood supper was just light enough for us to reserve room for either another drink or dessert.  Usually I go for the drink but it was a hot day and ice cream just sounded so perfect.  We happened to be right by Karina's favorite ice cream parlor, Cones, so we walked right in.  Karina was dead set on getting the corn.  I don't usually like to order the same thing as anyone else so I was going to get one of the many other available flavors.  Just to satisfy my curiosity, however, I asked for a taste test of the corn before moving on to my own flavor.  Nope, that was it.  No moving on.  I was getting the corn.  They sprinkle it with cinnamon and it makes all the difference.  The tiny bits of corn give it just a bit of texture and it's just...delicious.  I mean, it kinda changed my life.

Lulu's

Lulu's Chocolate Bar is a great downtown Savannah spot that always gathers a line.  For good reason.  The desserts are fabulous and going out for sweets and cocktails is a great way to end the night when you're not quite ready to go home but don't want to really go out.  My parents and I shared the pineapple upside down cake, the chocolate peanut butter pie, and the salted caramel cashew tart (my fave, by far).

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...

Yonanas

Last night during our weekly TV night, Brutus' sister Kim whipped out her new toy to prepare a special treat for us.  With Yonanas, you just peel and freeze overripe bananas and then put them through this magical machine to make ice cream.  That's it.  No cream, sugar, or any other ingredients...that is if you like it simple.  You still won't use cream or sugar, but you can always add other fruits, nuts, or chocolate to give your Yonanas some extra character.  Kim made us strawberry banana Yonanas and I couldn't believe how much flavor came out of 2 ingredients.  At only $40, this is cheaper than a regular ice cream maker and as long as you remember to stick the bananas in the freezer 24 hours in advance, it takes no time to churn out tons of ice cream for a party...or just for yourself when the mood strikes.

Dominique Ansel Bakery

I hate when it takes me longer than anticipated to cross a restaurant off my list, especially when the restaurant proves to be just as wonderful as I had hoped.  The pastries at Dominique Ansel Bakery look too beautiful to eat, but that would be a shame because they are some of the best baked goods I've ever had.  You know those pictures of Paris windows filled with delicate pastries?  I'm pretty sure those pictures are why people think living in France is so glorious.  American bakeries never make pastries that look or taste like that unless, of course, you have a French baker come to New York and take matters into his own hands.  

Each item in the case looked perfectly crafted.  Karina and I allowed ourselves to try three desserts and even though that sounds like a lot, it was an incredibly tough decision because they all looked so mouthwatering.  Karina's favorite dessert is the eclair so that was choice number one.  In addition to the chocolate icing, the pastry was filled with chocolate cream and topped with a long rectangle of chocolate.  Unlike Karina, eclairs are not my favorite, yet I may have eaten more than she did.  My complaint is usually the cream filling - I don't like whippy icing/filling, but this was a little thicker and in perfect proportion to the pastry encasing it that it basically changed my outlook on eclairs.  After having read about it a few months ago, my choice was the Paris-New York.  I've never had the original Paris-Brest for comparison, but Ansel's take made with caramel, chocolate, and peanuts was the perfect salty/sweet dessert.  For our third choice we wanted something fruity that wasn't anchored in pastry for a little variety.  Karina and I both like macarons so we went with something meringue-based.  The banana passion fruit pavlova sandwiched flambeed bananas with coconut lime cream between two passion fruit meringues.  

I absolutely could not pick a favorite, they were all so different and all so good.  Dominique Ansel Bakery is now tied with Momofuku Milk Bar as my favorite bakery.  Not for nothing, they have a great garden so you can let these desserts melt in your mouth while you're sitting next to a fireplace or underneath strung lights because these creations are meant to be savored.

Dark pink heart shaped macarons in preparation for Valentines Day

La Maison du Macaron

La Maison du Macaron has a ton of great flavors and an adorable cafe to boot.  After walking past plenty of times, I was finally in a position where I wasn't already overstuffed from a meal and was on my way home (since they can't stay un-refrigerated for long).  These macarons easily rank within my top three...dare I say even better than that?  The meringue was light but still just crisp enough and the fillings were inventive.  I ordered six for $15 that included apricot champagne, jack daniels honey, rose passionfruit, violet medeira, one with pear, and mango.  All were absolutely wonderful.

3 on Thursday

I've been eating more chocolate than usual.  I'm a sucker for the extra dark kind (I feel like that's the start of one of those "I like my chocolate like I like my men" jokes) and have found some great chocolatiers lately.  With that, I bring you the 3 on Thursday: Chocolate Edition.

While home for Thanksgiving, I found a new store on Broughton Street, our main downtown thoroughfare.  Chocolate by Adam Turoni produces the most delicate chocolate truffles.  I had a cognac fig one and a habanero caramel sea salt one.  Both were perfect.  At $2.50 for each tiny chocolate, it's not something you can get often, but it's wonderful for when you want to treat yourself.  A store like this will depend entirely on Savannah's tourist population so I figure it could be tough to keep afloat, but I really hope it makes it because Savannah could use something fancy like this.

If you don't feel like going high end with the chocolate shop mentioned above, look no further than Trader Joe's.  Anywhere else, a dark chocolate bar filled with caramel and sea salt would set you back about $4.  Here, however, it's about $1.87.  And not for nothing, the packaging is great.  I also fell in love with one of their seasonal treats dark chocolate covered marshmallows with caramel.  

Lauri showed up to my housewarming with a box of truffles from The Chocolate Room, a shop in her new Brooklyn neighborhood.   In terms of price, this one falls somewhere between Adam Turoni and Trader Joe.  With flavors like lemon verbena ganache, they've got the right tastes and based on their website, they have the right atmosphere, too.  It seems they have a nice lil cafe along with a whole slew of cakes and other desserts to satisfy any chocolate craving.  I'm a little upset to have learned about this place only to realize it's a little deep into Brooklyn for this Manhattan girl.  Oh well, a little subway ride never hurt anyone...

2 Ingredient Cake

I'll attribute my sudden desire to bake a cake to some sort of nesting syndrome related to moving into a new apartment.  Typically, all those precise measurements trip me up so when I saw this too-good-to-be-true trick on Pinterest, I had to give it a try.  With Matt and Karina coming over for a wedding/birthday celebration last week, I had my excuse to make it.

Mix together one box of angel food cake mix (dry) and one 20- or 22-oz can of fruit pie filling (I went with blueberry).  That's it!  Bake it in a 9x13 pan at 350 for 30-40 minutes and it will puff up (it's sticky so I recommend a disposable pan).  I recommend topping it with fresh raspberries and caramel sauce or powdered sugar.  It tasted like a gooey, sweet, blueberry muffin.  This is FOOLPROOF.

3 on Thursday

It's finally arrived: my three weeks of crazy begins tomorrow with Steph's wedding weekend.  Did I get everything done with my apartment before leaving town?  Of course not.  Does that stress me out?  Yes, yes it does.  Instead of freaking, I just keep telling myself it will all get done on the week nights between now and October 11th (my ultimate deadline).  In the meantime, I'm keeping my sanity by focusing on the little things that brought me joy this week:

I have decided to grow some of my layers out and my hair is finally getting to a point where I can do fun things with it, like piling it all on the top of my head in a messy bun.  Life is way easier without all the stray pieces falling out.  The next goal is to master the curling iron.

After dinner the other night I couldn't decide if I wanted oreos or fleur de sel caramels so, like any normal person, I decided to have both.  While sitting in front of the TV it dawned on me that I should combine both desserts instead of eating them in sequence.  I sandwiched the soft caramel between the oreos and enjoyed a slam dunk of a dessert.  Try it for yourself and be amazed.

I got my first shellac manicure on Sunday.  I never really understood what was so great about the shellac/gel manicures.  True, they're guaranteed to last at least 14 days, but they're expensive ($30-$50), so I would rather just paint my own nails for about 1/8 the cost.  I only went because a couple friends wanted some girl time and Rebekah had found a coupon for $19.  At that price, I figured it was worth a shot, especially because I had a wedding and trip to DC lined up for the two week time period following the mani.  I don't want to say I'm hooked because at full price, I just can't afford it.  I will, however, say that I'm no longer opposed to it.  These things are indestructible!  I've been banging them all over the place and they haven't come close to getting chipped.  I don't see the need to get one of these fancy manicures on a regular basis, but before a big event it's my new must.  It's worth the cost just so you don't even have to think about messing up your nails right before all those close up pics of you holding your bridesmaid bouquet.  Though I can't compare it to any other place, I recommend Karen's Nails on Lex between 61st and 62nd.  The prices are good, they have a large selection, and Michael, the adorable gay Asian (gaysian?) man who rushes to help you with your selection is an absolute genius with the colors.  I told him I needed something conservative because I was going to a wedding and he mixed up three colors (including a very slight sparkle) to create the perfect shade.    

Banana Bites

Lindsay and I had planned an evening in to drink wine and watch Modern Family (she needed to catch up on last season's finale before this week's season premiere).  I knew there wouldn't be much time to cook a full dinner, but we didn't want to settle for takeout and Linds needed to use up some veggies before they went bad.  We made a no-lettuce salad with all the produce in Lindsay's fridge (cucumber, bell pepper, shaved carrot, greek olives, mushrooms, pecorino romano, grape tomatoes, and cajun chicken cutlets that I grabbed from the prepared section of whole foods).  There were so many fresh and flavorful ingredients that we dressed the salad simply with oil and balsamic.  It was simple, healthy, and incredibly fulfilling.

Wait a minute - why am I even telling you about this salad?!  Sure, it was fine enough, but a little on the boring side.  And you don't come to this blog for boring.  Don't worry, things got interesting for dessert when we made the opposite of boring: banana bites.  Fresh Direct had sent Linds a bunch of extra bananas and she needed to get rid of them before they spoiled.  If you ask my Mom what she would do in this situation, she would scream "banana bread" (or maybe "chocolate chip banana bread"), but that requires baking so the option was off the table for me.  Instead, we made an easier and healthier treat: frozen chocolate covered bananas.  

It takes no time to melt chocolate chips in a double broiler (use dark chocolate to keep it healthy).  Once it's melted, simply dip 1/2"-3/4" slices of banana in the chocolate and put it on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet to set.  I wanted to top the bites with sprinkles or coconut for color and contrast but couldn't find any at the store.  Instead, we crushed up Oreos for a makeshift topping that didn't look as fun as sprinkles but tasted much better.  By the time we were done eating supper, the banana bites were ready to come out of the freezer.  The bananas take on the texture of really firm ice cream without all the pesky calories.  They may not be terrible for you, but they certainly taste decadent.  They're also perfect for parties thanks to the quick prep time and pop-ability.  By pop-ability I'm referring to the ease with which you can just pop these suckers in your mouth.  It's an important factor to consider.

Kyotofu

Saturday was nice and humid so we sat under umbrellas at a Mexican restaurant, eating tortilla chips and cooling ourselves with frozen drinks for several hours.  Margaritas can be nice and refreshing, but after a while we wanted something cool, sweet, and non-alcoholic so we headed to Kyotofu.  When I think of desserts, Asian cuisine absolutely never comes to mind so I was intrigued by an entire dessert bar and bakery devoted to Asian sweets.  I honestly did not think there were enough Japanese desserts to sustain an entire menu.

Pretty much all the desserts incorporate tofu and you would be surprised at how versatile the soy curd can be.  We were just doing take-out so our options were limited.  After viewing the full menu, I deem a second trip is in order so I can try some of the more intricate desserts and even some of the savory items like the chilled edamame soup.  The to-go menu was smaller but still offered enough variety for me to try several items.  I tried the vanilla sweet tofu with black sugar syrup and a mini macha green tea cupcake.  The cupcake was more like a muffin and by that I mean no icing and not overly sweet (the cake wasn't overly dense, either).  Considering I don't like icing or overly sweet desserts, this was right up my alley.  This and the chocolate souffle cupcake earned Kyotofu NY Mag's honor of Best Cupcake in 2007.  It may be healthier, but it's also just plain good.  The tofu was silky, not spongy, and the black sugar provides the sweetness.  It is almost like a far less intense honey broth.  Since it's not cavity sweet, it felt ok to indulge in the middle of the day.

If you're dealing with some dietary restrictions, this is a great place to keep in mind.  Many desserts (most, perhaps) are gluten free and some are vegan, too.  If you're looking for a very traditional dessert, Kyotofu probably won't satisfy you; however, they do have a nice selection of funkier sweets that will work for you whether you're craving chocolate or yuzu.