Turkey Chili

Believe it or not, but I had never made chili.  There are two main reasons I never tried:

1.  I've never really liked chili.  I'm a big fan of the chili toppings (sour cream, cheese, fritos...) but the chili itself...meh.  I'm not big on beans and that seemed to be a major component so I'd just rather not.
2. Everybody seems to have their own version of how to make chili and I didn't really know where to start.

But then it hit me: if everybody has their own version, I could have my own version and do whatever I wanted with it.  That means I don't have to have beans in there if I didn't want them.  Out they went!  My father says that if chili doesn't have beans then it's not really chili.  Well, if bean-free chili is wrong, I don't want to be right.  The rest of the chili came together with no real recipe, and I was thrilled with the results.  I browned ground turkey with onions and then threw the mixture in the crock pot.  Into the slow cooker I added a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes and 2 small cans of tomato juice.  Then I added one diced jalapeno and some spices (garlic powder, chile powder, paprika, and cumin).  I have no idea what quantities I was using for the spices...I just kinda dumped them in.  The chili cooked away for 4 hours on high and when it came out it was perfect.  And, since I used turkey, pretty dang healthy.  I topped it with sour cream and cheese.  Duh.  Fresh herbs like parsley or cilantro would be great.  Scallions would also be a nice addition.  But I didn't have any of that.  I was more focused on getting the bare minimum ingredients from the grocery store.  But all that taught me was that, when it comes to chili, the bare minimum is still delicious.  I wasn't making cornbread (there's that bare minimum mentality for ya), but there were corn muffins by the register at the grocery store.  It's basically the exact same thing and made for the perfect side dish.

Spinach Artichoke Soup with Ravioli

I have consistently posted on this blog every weekday for a while now which means if I'm slacking I must be reeeeeally busy.  That's why when I had almost all of Sunday free, I thought the best thing I could do for myself was to cook up something yummy so I would have a fresh post on Monday.  I spent Saturday locked indoors afraid of the snow that didn't let up all day.  After weather like that, there's only one thing to cook: soup.

I found this recipe and couldn't find a single thing wrong with it.  The only change I made to it was using small half moon mushroom ravioli instead of cheese tortellini.  The soup is already so cheesy that I figured I would be fine not using cheese tortellini and I was right - just use your fave stuffed pasta and you'll be fine.

This soup is creamy goodness.  It's like the spinach artichoke heart dip you love ordering at your favorite chain restaurant but when you're there, you feel obligated to eat it with chips or bread.  Here, you're free to shovel it into your mouth with a large spoon just like you always wanted.  The only way this recipe could be easier is if it came already cooked and you just microwaved it.

And it's cozy.  This is fireplace food.  I only wish I could have been eating it on Saturday while I watched the snow fall.  But that would have required me to leave the house in that gross weather and there was absolutely no way that was happening.

Split Pea Soup

It may sound shocking, but I had never tried split pea soup until last night.  My mother loves the stuff, but I always associate it with institutional cafeteria slop and would never let the spoon touch my lips.  Last night, however, I found a new appreciation for the soup after trying Matt's version.

For Jen's big 30th birthday Mark and Allison gave her and Matt an evening of dinner, drinks, and a movie at Brooklyn's hip Nitehawk Cinema.  However, with a baby in the mix, the only way they can enjoy date night is if they have someone to watch Avery.  My services as babysitter were the perfect contribution for poor me who can hardly afford a real gift and helped bring the whole present together.

I don't know how I wound up with a gift on Jen's birthday, but I arrived to find a huge pot of split pea soup, courtesy of Matt.  This looked nothing like the pureed green slop of cafeteria days.  The split peas reminded me of lentils and were mashed, not blended, alongside all sorts of goodies like carrots, sweet potatoes, and ham hock.  This was easily one of the most filling soups I've ever had.  I would even go as far as to call it a stew.  I can also say it restored my faith in split pea soup.  I'll still probably steer clear of it in cafeterias, but I will no longer immediately turn my nose up at it.

Inspiration Station: "Sixteen Candles"

It's a new year and I'm starting a new series on this blog called "Inspiration Station".  Basically, once a month (at minimum), I'll take a movie and show you how it influences me in two ways.  First I'll cook a recipe that relates in some way to the film (aka: "The Dish") and then I'll show you a bunch of non-food items (aka: "The Doodads") that are inspired by the flick.

First up is "Sixteen Candles".  Of all the "day in the life" high school movies that inevitably end in a major party, this is one of my absolute faves.  It makes you think that anything can happen and keeps every girl hoping that one day the sea of cars will part and you will be looking straight into the eyes of the dreamiest guy in school who is leaning against an equally dreamy car.

1. The Dish: Samantha (Molly Ringwald) makes her mom pack carrots in her lunch every day because she thinks they'll help increase her bust.  As a painfully flat-chested high schooler myself, this piece of the movie and the burning desire to transition from girl to woman always stuck with me.  Since carrot was the most stand-out ingredient in the film, I decided to make a carrot ginger soup and found one on epicurious.com that looked both simple and flavorful (well, technically, I combined the best parts of two recipes).  I hauled out my soup pot and started sauteing onions in butter.  After a few minutes, I added garlic and ginger and let it go a few more minutes before I added chopped carrots, tomato, and lemon zest.  Once all the main ingredients were in the pot, I added chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  At that point, everything was properly cooked so I just blended it until smooth, adding in extra chicken stock until it was the right consistency.  I topped it with a dollop of sour cream and sliced almonds (pine nuts would have been better, but I had almonds on hand).  Ginger is usually spicy, but when combined with the sweet carrots and onions it just makes the soup a little zestier.  It's thick and rich without any cream, making it completely healthy.  If you want to be super good, use fat free greek yogurt instead of sour cream for that velvety tang.
2. The Doodads: 

• There's a lot of headgear action in this movie so it seemed only fitting to include bracelets made out of the brackets and bands from braces.  Love this idea from Braced-lets, especially with the $5 price tag.  They remind me of how much fun I used to have picking out my colors each month.
• A big portion of the movie revolves around the high school dance and nobody does a high school party frock better than Betsey Johnson.  Her funky dresses have a little 80s flair and are just as rad as the movie.
• Though I'm not sure why they sat on the table when there were six perfectly good chairs available, the last scene of the movie where they kiss over the cake is adorable.  Next time you're decorating a birthday cake, try some of these DIY glitter candles that I found on a blog.
• I don't think I would ever be able to live down the embarrassment of a dork showing my panties to a bathroom of fellow nerds, but if it ever happened to me, I hope he would be showing these that I found at H&M.  A bra and panty set will only set you back about $20 and they are super cute.

Winter Wild Mushroom Soup

Monday was not my most glorious day at work, and when I got home I was anxious to the max.  Since a meal can not be made out of Ben and Jerry's alone (though I tried, believe me, and creme brulee was my poison of choice), I decided to do a little cooking.  I made a sandwich out of rotisserie chicken, white cheddar, and avocado - good, but it wasn't until I started to cook a new recipe that I began to calm down.  There's something about taking all the ingredients out of the fridge, chopping, and stirring that finally allows my mind to wander past the stresses of the day.  And believe me, there were plenty of stresses.

Monday's recipe was wild mushroom soup.  Over the weekend, I found a wild mushroom mix at Whole Foods that included cremini, shitake, and oyster mushrooms.  I sauteed them with shallots and butter and then added in what Whole Foods called the "Holiday Mix" of herbs.  This fresh spice pack was a melange of rosemary, sage, and thyme and smelled so wonderful.  I think I really started to calm down once the smell of those herbs began wafting through my apartment.  Next I added chicken stock and simmered for about 15 minutes, until it was time to add some cream, sherry, salt, and pepper.  Since i didn't add any flour and my ratio of mushrooms to base was slightly off, I pureed the mushrooms a little bit with a stick blender to thicken the soup.  I think I actually prefer the texture of the half pureed, half sliced mushrooms.

This soup was surprisingly easy to make, especially with the help of the fresh but prepackaged herb mix.  It was an incredibly satisfying without being heavy and the flavor was all pine needles and spruce trees.  Basically, it tasted like the forrest in the best Winter way.  It was the perfect cure for my severe case of the Mondays.

Six Course Tour de Force

I wanted to do something special for Matt and Karina to celebrate their recent engagement so I decided to prepare dinner for them.  An engagement is a pretty big deal so I decided to pull out all the stops for our intimate dinner party.  I planned a six course dinner and somehow managed to time each course perfectly (someone up there was looking out for me).  

The people at Eataly should love me because I bought all of the ingredients for dinner there.  It all started because I knew I wanted some of their fresh pasta and the menu just grew from there.  Most of the dishes I made were simple (after all, I had to prepare the whole meal in only about an hour and a half on a Friday after work), but I made sure to use all high quality, fresh ingredients.  When you're working with great products, sometimes simple is best to let the ingredients shine.  After the dinner and two bottles of wine, I think Matt and Karina enjoyed themselves and hope it showed them how happy we all are for them.

Table setting - yes, those are menus tucked into everyone's napkin

Close up of the menu

Seared shrimp bruschetta with avocado, grapefruit, and pistachios

Heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella, and prosciutto - this is one of Karina's favorite things so it had to make the cut.  I sprinkled coarse salt over the top and I think it made all the difference - it brought out the sweetness of the tomatoes.

Chilled corn veloute with crab and Asian chile oil - this was probably my favorite dish of the night and actually the easiest to make.  After boiling fresh corn, remove the kernels from the cob and mix with milk (1 cup for 3 cobs).  Puree and then strain through a fine mesh sieve.  The result is a thin thin soup.  Of course you could thicken this right up with yogurt or cream, but I like leaving it like this.  Why?  Because it looks so good when you serve it by pouring it tableside over the mound of crab (I mixed mine with chives) in each bowl.  Drizzle with the chile oil for a little heat and voila - a fancy dish worthy of any restaurant.

Course number four was an intermezzo.  I'm not sure if I have ever been at an event where an intermezzo was served but my Mommy always told me it is what they do at only the fanciest of dinner parties.  Those fancy people always do wacky things like serve a sweet sorbet in the middle of the meal instead of the end and give it a fancy Italian name.  I like a little wacky so I decided to adopt the tradition and served two flavors, white peach and fig.

The entree was pork tenderloin, roasted with garlic and sage.  I served this alongside roasted asparagus with truffle oil and pea ravioli with cremini mushrooms, brown butter, pine nuts, and fresh pecorino romano.

When it came to dessert, I had a little problem.  We all know I don't bake, but for once I didn't want to pick up something store-bought.  If I was going to make a six course dinner, then I was going to make a six course dinner, so I went through my cookbooks until I found something easy that I could still pass off as something I prepared.  I took amaretti cookies (and the ones I found were nice and light - not dense like biscotti) and topped them with fresh ricotta that I mixed with confectioner's sugar and lemon zest.  After five courses, it was nice to have something light to end the meal, and since I let the ricotta chill in the fridge for two hours during the meal, the lemon really infused the cheese by the time we were ready to eat.

Zucchini Two Ways

Last night was all about zucchini.  I had found a recipe for zucchini soup that looked promising so I headed to Fairway on my lazy Sunday to pick up the ingredients.  I assumed I would end up with some extra zucchini so I picked up a few additional ingredients to try out a fun zucchini appetizer.

The soup was easy to make: I sauteed shallots and zucchini in a soup pot until tender and then simmered in stock and water with dill and parsley.  I pureed it and stuck it in the fridge to start chilling while I set to work on the appetizer.  I took the extra zucchini and sliced it thin on a mandolin.  I then seasoned it slightly and roasted it in the oven for about 20 minutes.  While it was getting nice and pliable in the oven, I mixed together goat cheese, lemon zest, and basil.  I spread the goat cheese filling on each zucchini strip and rolled them up into cute little pinwheels.  It hit me that these little scrolls are great at room temperature and the filling can be made in advance so they would be perfect for bringing to a party.  I'll remember that one for later.  By the time I was done with my appetizer, my soup had chilled so I removed it from the fridge and stirred in some salt, pepper, and greek yogurt.

I am surprised that I was satisfied with an all vegetarian dinner like this, but after spending the whole weekend eating takeout and beer, lighter fare was exactly what I wanted.  Also, since it's Labor Day weekend and Summer is officially coming to a close, I wanted to take advantage of all the herbs that really make Summer cooking special.

Pork and Peach Perfection

Andrew had a conflict last night and I have one next week, which means our True Blood dinners had to be put on hold.  While I have no idea how I am going to call on the strength to keep myself from watching for two weeks, it will all be worth it when we do a marathon meal two weeks from now.  Even though I wasn't going to be at Andrew's, I didn't want to waste the opportunity to enjoy a homemade Sunday supper so I headed to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for two new recipes.

The first recipe was not of my own design.  When I saw both "simple" and "summer" in the recipe title for this squash soup, I was hooked.  Summer should be simple - that's why everybody loves the season.  I sauteed onion and garlic in a soup pot, added yellow squash and let it go until it was all soft.  I then added vegetable broth, cumin, and curry powder and let it simmer.  When it all looked to be warm and cooked through, I pureed it with an immersion blender.  It was delicious, but I have to admit the flavors were a little more Autumn-y.  I should have put some fresh herbs or something as a garnish because the picture doesn't look very impressive, but the taste was good and that's all that matters.  I'll make it again, but I'll wait til it gets a little cooler outside.

The next recipe was all mine.  It's nothing super special - only a few simple ingredients - but it was a solid sandwich.  I brushed a pork tenderloin with a mustard and brown sugar mixture and baked.  I sliced it up and wrapped in a tortilla with nectarine slices and blue cheese.  Actually, the cheese was called gorganbert - a mix of gorganzola and camembert that I found at Trader Joes.  It was cheap, creamy, and delicious.  This was a great sandwich.  Think about it: you know pork and peaches is a good combo and blue cheese usually works with stone fruit.  By the transitive property of cooking, this recipe was bound to be good.  If I could do anything differently, I would perhaps press the sandwich, but I was too hungry and excited to try my recipe that I didn't want to wait.  I would also like to try making this with pulled pork to see how the texture changes the dish.  I'll let you know how those alternate versions work (if they're worth talking about), but in the meantime, I recommend trying the recipe as-is.

Ramen and Radishes

I'm kinda into ramen lately, much like the general NYC population.  When I heard there is a place that can stand up to Ippudo or Totto Ramen, I made a point to seek it out on my day off.  I admit, choosing Thursday, the hottest day of the week, to eat piping hot soup in a non-air conditioned room was not the best idea.  I say room because the restaurant only seats about 10 people with the kitchen in the center.

It may not sound like a good idea, but the food made up for it.  The menu is small.  You basically choose between ramen A, B, or C - the difference being the broth.  I added a radish salad because I love radishes and don't see them on a menu all that often.  It wasn't so much a salad as it was an overwhelmingly large stack of chopped radishes with a sesame dressing.  It was good, but I had to leave room for the main event.  I didn't understand why there was no section on the menu for add-ins, but once I saw my bowl arrive, I got it.  It had everything I could have wanted, including half an egg and bamboo shoots.  The pork was super tender and the broth had an incredibly intense flavor.  For $10.50 a bowl, this may not only be some of the best ramen, it's also some of the cheapest.

Bite Me

I was taking Thursday off work before the long 4th of July weekend so I convinced Sasha to get a mani/pedi with me.  Since we were getting our nails done in her 'hood, I put Sasha in charge of picking a casual eatery.  As we entered Bite, I realized I had walked by this hole in the wall plenty of times but thought nothing of it.  It doesn't look like much, and I never would have guessed these soups, salads, and sandwiches incorporate some of the freshest ingredients around.

Sasha got a gazpacho that looked wonderful and came with a huge hunk of Balthazar bread.  I couldn't decide what I wanted so I did a half-and-half soup/sandwich combo.  The spicy black bean soup was good, though I usually like my black bean soup thicker, more like a stew.  The sandwich was wonderful.  I plan to go back to Bite and get the full version.  The Middle Eastern Mushroom sandwich was filled with mushrooms, hummus, goat cheese, and veggies falling out of crusty bread.  Don't be fooled by the Shake Shack style logo that identifies this as a plain coke and sandwich place.  Everything on the menu has a bit of a Middle Eastern flair, making it anything but plain.  Even the breakfast sandwiches are special.

Cool as a Cucumber

When I finally got the chance to cook this week, I wanted to make something to remind me of the warm weather we should be experiencing.  Unfortunately, it's been cool and rainy lately so I needed to create springtime in my kitchen.

For the main course, I made the sorts of things that are easy to throw together quickly: meatloaf and cous cous.  Don't laugh, but I love meat loaf and I don't really get why so many people hate on it.  I made both of the items more interesting by changing up the ingredients so I would wind up with more/different flavor without spending any additional time on the meal.  For the meatloaf, I used lamb instead of beef, added goat cheese to the mix, and topped with a mediterranean red pepper spread instead of the usual ketchup/brown sugar.  Simple swaps, but I wound up with a completely new dish.  For the cous cous, I tossed in dried cranberries and pine nuts just as it finished cooking.  I'm not usually a fan of fruit mixed in with the savory items, but I'm really starting to warm to it - this, in particular, was very good.

The appetizer is where I was really going for the Springtime vibe.  Knowing I wanted to make this appetizer is the reason I went to the grocery store in the first place.  The rest of the meal, though good, was just filler.  I know that's how people usually think about cucumber - as filler, a mere flavorless crunch on top of their salad or in their sushi.  I, on the other hand, happen to love cucumber.  Is refreshing a flavor?  Because cucumber just screams refreshing.  I put a bunch of cucumber in a blender with a little avocado and greek yogurt and pureed til smooth.  The pastel green looked gorgeous and calming against the white bowl.  I garnished with very thinly sliced radishes and a few shrimp.  This is a great way to start any Spring/Summer meal and can be made in less than the time it takes waiting for the main course to finish cooking.

Blais of Glory

So for the last two weeks, I thought I was going home to the Top Chef Allstars finale and for the last two weeks, I have been wrong.  Normally, I hate being wrong; but in this case, I am happy to extend the life of one of my favorite shows.  Finally, it was finale time last night and I was happy to see Richard Blais - my favorite from day one - win.  How could he not?  On a drool-worthy scorecard, he consistently pulled A+ grades.  Plus he lives in Atlanta (where he puts out amazing food at Flip), and I am proud a Georgian took home the title.

Both Mike and Richard put out elegant dishes that showed a level of restraint on their parts.  Richard, known for his amorous relationship with liquid nitrogen, contained some of his craziness and let it seep out only in the most appropriate of places.  The best example: his amuse bouche (which was not required and created just for the hell of it).  I would like to live inside Richard’s notebook for a little while because it seems to house some of the most interesting ideas.  Richard decided to name his “dream restaurant” Tongue and Cheek.  Here’s why he’s a genius:  Even the name itself is tongue and cheek since tongue and cheek are both food items.  He used the name to imply that food should be whimsy and carried that theme throughout his dishes, most perfectly with the amuse: an oyster with pearls (the pearls being lemon horseradish ice cream).  Mike’s fish and pepperoni sauce looked great but overall, it had to be Richard.   

I can’t watch a show like that without making some good food of my own, so I tried out a few new recipes last night.  I was inspired by the creamy artichoke soup I had in Boston, so I decided to attempt one.  Mine was not as velvety as the one at Upstairs on the Square, but I was too lazy to strain it and re-blend – this is a weeknight meal after all, so I got it as smooth as I could with an emersion blender, decided it was a rustic soup, and called it a day.  I topped the soup with truffle oil and pesto croutons which gave it tons of flavor.  It definitely seemed like it took a while to make but I managed to cook the whole thing while browning my sausage, which brings me to dish number two.

I browned up some sweet Italian sausage and served it atop a bed of garlic kale.  This was my first time cooking kale so I made my life a bit easier by buying the pre-cut and washed kale and just dumping it in the sauté pan.  It took longer than I expected to wilt down, but I was happy with the finished product and the fact that I just blasted myself with a ton of healthy antioxidents.  Did you know kale is the new wonder-veggie?  For a side dish, I made an orzo salad with radish, basil, green onion, pine nuts, a vinaigrette, and a little goat cheese.  The goat cheese was actually unnecessary but I had a little lying in the fridge and figured I would use it up.  I may not have made fois gras ice cream like Richard, but I think my dinner was pretty solid. 

Spicy Soupy

In case you didn't all get the memo, it's FREEZING.  I think today has a high of 18.  It wasn't much warmer over the weekend, which meant it was soup time.  I needed something hot hot hot - in temperature and spice.  Although I am not well versed in Thai cooking, I found a super easy recipe for spicy thai chicken soup, so I decided to try it out.  So easy and so tasty!  I threw chicken stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, sriracha, ginger, chicken (I just used a rotisserie chicken to make it reeeeally easy), and shitake mushrooms into a pot and simmered until it was warmed through.  At the last minute I tossed in some of those glassy rice noodles.  Since everything was already cooked, it took no time to make, but it still tasted like a composed dish.  It did the job - it warmed me up and for a split second, I forgot how cold it was outside.

Keeping the Resolutions in Check

One of my new years resolutions was to try at least one new restaurant and one new recipe each week.  I haven't gotten to the restaurant yet this week, but I anticipate I'll cross that off when I arrive in New Orleans in TWO DAYS.  The recipe, however, I took care of tonight.  I'm trying to eat up most of the food in my fridge before leaving for Greg and Susan's wedding in two days so I started dinner by throwing something together.  It started out as breakfast for dinner and then it grew...

I made a scramble with spicy sausage, bell pepper, and avocado and served it next to an english muffin (sorry that the picture is not properly oriented...I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to rotate it).  Though I've never made this particular combo before, I don't consider it a new recipe since I often throw scrambles together - this one was delicious, nonetheless.  The new recipe was dish #2: pumpkin and goat cheese soup.  It was smooth, creamy, and fantastically fall.  I will divulge the super simple recipe here:

1. Saute chopped onion in soup pot
2. Add 4 cups chicken broth and 1 can pumpkin
3. Stir in 4 oz goat cheese
4. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg
5. Crumble pita chips on top

The best part is that I got to use my new, favorite kitchen tool, the immersion blender - I confess, buying this gadget was one of my proudest shopping moments.  I only had a small taste (don't forget the scramble) and reserved the rest for lunch tomorrow and my freezer for a rainy day.  Week one of my New Years resolutions is off to a good start!

The Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Meal

When Mark and Allison moved back to Savannah, they decided to take on Thanksgiving as their holiday.  It made sense: no more arguing over where to go and no more hurt feelings when one family gets picked over the other.  Everybody comes together in one place and it is a beautiful thing.  However, with combined families comes combined traditions.  Two families worth of food traditions is just too much to fit on any Thanksgiving table so a few things had to fall by the wayside.

My family always had a fried turkey and a ham, but when we combined the fam, we wound up with a regular turkey, a fried turkey, and a ham and we decided that was a little too much meat.  (No way was I going to give up my fried bird and Allison is partial to her Dad's brined gobbler that he makes particularly well.)  So, Porky got the old heave-ho.  Our new tradition has become a smaller pre-Thanksgiving dinner where the honey baked ham gets center stage and it was goooood.

In addition to the ham (which I am still eating in sandwich form with good Swiss cheese), we ate Allison's trial batch of stuffing (a good indication that today's real thing will be great), some broccoli, and soup (my contribution to the meal).  I found a soup recipe in the most unlikely of places: In Style magazine.  A fashion mag is the last place I would think to look for recipes, but there it was: a rich cauliflower soup right next to all the super skinny models.  The soup (cauliflower, bacon, onion, celery, garlic, and broth - all pureed) was smokey and autumny but the best part was the garnish of crisp bacon and a drizzle of truffle oil.  It was easy and definitely helped give Pre-Thanksgiving (which I am deeming a holiday all its own) a wow factor (thank you, truffle oil). 

The dessert also contributed to the "wow" portion of the evening.  As I may have mentioned, I am not much of a baker.  Thankfully, the same can not be said about my Mommy who churns out scrumdilliumptious baked goods all the time.  Her chocolate cake with fudgy glaze topped off the meal perfectly.

The whole meal was good prep for the eating orgy we about to embark on a little later today.  I'm already loosening my belt. 

F.M.Ltrain

What a great Sunday.  The weather was perfect.  Just cool and breezy enough for boots but warm enough for a light top - no jacket required.  After lazying around in bed, I got up, picked up a copy of the Sunday Times and went to my favorite local coffee house, Orchard House for a cup of java.  If you live in the lower 60s/upper 50s and like coffee, this is a great spot.  Plenty of tables, good music, and neighborhood folk who also find it to be a great place to read a book or do work.  Oh, and the coffee is really good, too.

From there, I headed to the subway to meet some work buds for brunch at Brother Jimmy's.  On my way, I made a nice discovery: Financier Patisserie is opening a branch right next to the subway and perilously close to my apartment.  It will be so nice dangerous finally having a bakery in the neighborhood.

After a delicious BLT made with fried green tomatoes, a side of collards, and a bloody mary, I made my way to Matt and Jen's.  Usually, this wouldn't be a big deal.  Since I was leaving from Union Square, their Williamsburg apartment should just be a hop, skip, and jump away.  Unfortunately, the MTA thinks it's ok to shut down the L train for the entire weekend essentially marooning all Williamsburgians.  Did you know the MTA spent all this money to change all train station signage displaying the train lines F M L (in that order) because they realized people would make the connection to the now infamous website?  Maybe they could have saved that money and when construction was needed, there would have been alternate routes to get to Brooklyn from Manhattan.  Once I couldn't take the L train, FML took on a whole new meaning.

It took just over an hour to get there, but the meal that awaited me made it worth it.  Matt made white chicken chili with broth from scratch.  It was delicious.  What goes better with soup than sandwiches?  Nothing, so as a side dish we ate ooey gooey grilled cheese made with white cheddar, gruyere (or maybe gouda...I can't remember much other than the fact that it was buttery, crispy, comforting, and the 2nd cheese started with a "g"), and tomato.  It was such a satisfying fall meal, and I must give Matt major props for being a stand-up hubby.  The boy can cook and then even cleaned the kitchen.  I need to find one of them.  I didn't think boys like that existed.  Either he's truly a great guy or Jen has some serious dirt on him that merits blackmail.  I've known Matt for about 8 years...so I'm gonna go with the blackmail theory.  For dessert, we took turns dipping our spoons into a pint of white peach and ginger Ciao Bella sorbet.  By the time I left, Lola the crazy puggle even decided to calm down slightly.

The best part of this Sunday?  It's like a Saturday because my office is closed tomorrow for Columbus Day!