Tag Archives: chicken

A Classic Country-Style Dinner

There’s something about the foods that I get to eat when I go home. Leaving a city and going to the country-side, it doesn’t just mean you can go pick corn yourself from the farm down the road, but it also means… MORE COUNTER SPACE! After living in a city with practically no apartment/living space and then returning home to a house with a kitchen practically the size of your first apartment — you know you’re going to have a field day cooking! I sure have.

Within the past few days, I have made multiple batches of cookies, specifically homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, loads of homemade popcorn spiced up with either truffle salt or dry ranch dip (try it, it’s fabulous!), homemade pizza (a Rasi family specialty), and tonight was one of my favorites… I made an outstanding lemon, garlic chicken with creamed corn. Not only was this recipe a cinch, it also involved very few ingredients that are also basic and easy to find in any grocery store!

Pulled directly from the one, the only, Food Network Magazine, the directions are made by professionals and need no alterations, I promise you! The simplicity of the creamed corn recipe will have me making it many more times even when I am cooking other dishes that may not be chicken. Take a look at the recipe for the chicken and the corn. The only addition I would make is to add more salt and pepper at the end once the corn has been cooked. It will add the perfect seasoning to the plate. Also, I paired this dish with a full-bodied red wine. Try it, you’ll be happy!

I laughed while making this because my mother was with me and said, “how long do you think this will take to cook?” I told her the directions said about 40 minutes total. She laughed and said that that is never the case and it always ends up taking longer. Everyone knows that I am a true believer and supporter in the entire Food Network brand, yes it’s because I am a fan… But it’s also because I actually have experience working in the FNM offices and I know that everyone there does everything to make the recipe the best it can ever be! So, follow directions to the T. And if you find something you’d prefer to change, do it the second time you make the dish! The chefs writing these recipes have experience — they are not college graduates that cooked up Ramen noodles one too many times… They are trained culinary experts that want everyone to say “YUM” when they take a bite out of their own personal culinary creation.

The Central Park Boathouse

It’s such a tourist hot-spot — The Central Park Boathouse. Of course I have wandered up through the park with out-of-town guests, but I have never had the time to sit down for a meal in the Boathouse — that was, until this weekend.

So many movies have shot several scenes outside of the Boat House, like Made of Honor, and of course 27 Dresses starring Katherine Heigl. Actually Katherine Heigl’s character in 27 Dresses, Jane, dreams about having her reception at the Boathouse and instead her little sister rips her dream from her and declares that she will be taking that location for her wedding… Nice sister, right? (Above is a photo of a scene from 27 Dresses, where Katherine Heigl and her co-star Edward Burns are taste-testing food for the upcoming wedding!)

But I wasn’t going to the Boat House for a wedding, rather it was for a simple Saturday afternoon lunch. My boyfriend and I thought we would finally head up to the Boathouse for brunch, but we were in for a big surprise when we ran into a few obstacles along the way to Central Park.

This past Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and both of us completely forgot how crazy the city was bound to be. So when our cab driver dropped us off at 72nd and Madison, rather than 72nd and 5th ave, we knew we were going to have an issue getting over to the park. 5th Avenue runs along side the east side of Central Park and you have to cross the avenue in order to get into the park. Once you cross 5th ave at 72nd street you can wander down a hill and run into the Conservatory Water aka the place where all the children take their wooden boats to let loose into the man-made pond. On Saturday, a gigantic hose was actually filling the Conservatory Water back up (I guess they drain it in the winter time). Then, in order to get to the Boathouse you need to keep to the left of the boat pond and head up a small hill. Once you’re at the top of that small hill you will find a much large pond where the Boathouse sits at the end of it.

Well, my boyfriend and I walked from Madison to 5th Avenue (only one avenue of a walk) but we quickly saw a swarm of people all crowded around the street. We completely forgot about the St. Patrick’s Day Parade that goes the whole way up 5th avenue. (I found that strange, in my opinion the parade was traveling backwards up 5th avenue instead of down.) We had to wait for at least 20 minutes until the police gave us the O.K to cross the street into Central Park. And once we were in the park we were surrounded by tourists and B&T (bridge and tunnel) folks who were visiting the city for St. Patrick’s Day. The upsetting part about it was there were drunk people every where! From teenagers to parents escorting their kids — you could smell the booze on everyone. I truly felt bad for the NYPD who had to work on Saturday.

My boyfriend and I were shocked when we found out we only had to wait 30 minutes for our table at the Boat House. And my boyfriend who is always read to eat a meal insisted that we head to the Wafels and Dinges food truck that was parked not too far away. My boyfriend is so funny when it comes to food, some times I feel like I have to eat much faster than I typically would in order to get a sampling of food because he eats so fast if I don’t act quickly I could miss out on some great food. (I guess that’s how girls who grew up with brothers feel. Am I right?)

Immediately after he finished his waffle our table buzzer went off and we were seated. It was so difficult to decide what we should order — so many plates sounded delicious! We ultimately settled for lunch rather than brunch since it was already 3 p.m. So, we ordered: Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes with marinated cucumbers and served with a caper remoulade, Boathouse Grilled Chicken Paillard served with heirloom tomatoes, roasted beats, English cucumber, and Bermuda onion lemon dijon vinaigrette, and finally a special consisting of scallops served with truffled mashed potatoes.

boathouse food in central park

The crab cake came out first and in my opinion it was the perfect dish we could have ordered to start our meal. We nearly had a Battle of the Forks when it came to digging into this crab cake — and the caper remoulade added a creamy texture to the moist crab cake and the flavor of the remoulade brought out all of the divine tastes of the crab. It was a perfect portion size too for two people — although it wouldn’t hurt to have ordered one for each of us!

food at the boathouse in central park

Next up were our entrees — even though we always share whatever we end up ordering, my boyfriend’s plate choice was the chicken and mine was the scallops. I was shocked when my dish was placed in front of me because the way the plate was described led me to believe that I would receive only a few small scallops. While the scallops were very small, the plate was filled with them! I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was so much food in my order! Perfectly sauteed and distributed over the truffled mashed potatoes, the scallops were able to soak in some extra truffle flavors and the mashed potatoes were also the perfect compliment.

boathouse food

The chicken my boyfriend ordered was unbelievable. Perfectly cooked, the meat was moist and full of surprising flavors. You could tell that the chef either spent a lot of time putting such fantastic flavors into the meat, or he just has the perfect marinade to wow those who order it. The taste of the chicken was very sophisticated, and the addition to the candied apples on top was the perfect way to sneak in some sweet flavors to the dish.

Overall, we were so happy we were able to finally get up to the Central Park Boathouse for lunch, and on such a beautiful day too. The Boathouse restaurant is the perfect place to compromise for people who want something touristy, while someone else may want to visit classic New York and sample fantastic food. Who knew you could do both at the same time!

Mushroom & Spinach Quesadillas

I love quesadillas — typically once a week or so I will chop up some veggies, cook them in a pan, add some seasonings and make them into a quick homemade quesadilla. Of course I add cheese and sometimes chicken to the mix. Quesadillas are a fast and easy way to make something full of flavor and the best part is you can also use up the rest of your veggies before things go bad.

Instead of using quesadilla cooking as a way to get rid of veggies, I cooked up more of a gourmet version of the dish for me and my friend Kelly this weekend. Inspired by Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman, I used her recipe as a base and altered the amount of ingredients to cater to me. For one thing, I like to use very little butter in my cooking — don’t get me wrong, butter is incredible and it tastes great, but I prefer to make some healthier choices when it comes to cooking. Although when I made Ree’s Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas I used less butter than what her recipe called for when cooking the mushrooms and instead of using butter when cooking the spinach, I swapped the ingredient with olive oil.

So here’s how I made this delectable plate:

Ingredients: butter, white mushrooms sliced, wine (for cooking), salt, pepper, baby spinach, flour tortillas, fontina cheese, and goat cheese.

ree drummond quesadilla recipe

I started by cooking my sliced white mushrooms — I put in a skillet 1.5-2 tablespoons of butter and once the butter melted I added my mushrooms (I sliced about 7 large white mushrooms — they weren’t exceptionally large, but I grabbed the bigger option at the grocery store). I cooked these mushrooms for about 3 minutes and then added 1.5 tablespoons of red wine. Note: Ree’s recipe calls for sherry but I didn’t have this ingredient in my kitchen. So instead of going to the store and spending more money, I substituted the sherry for wine and it turned out fabulous! After I added the wine I seasoned the mushrooms with a bit of salt and fresh ground pepper, I let the mushrooms cook for another 6-7 minutes and then I removed the mushrooms from the skillet once the wine completely evaporated. I placed the mushrooms on a plate and then used the same skillet to cook my spinach in. This time, instead of adding butter I used a couple tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of red wine to cook the spinach in — I only let the spinach cook for a couple of minutes and then removed the spinach from the skillet and placed it on another plate. At this point I have two ingredients (mushrooms and spinach) and they are both cooling on a plate. Then, I used my stove top griddle to finish off the quesadillas. I used a small amount of butter to butter the surface of the grill side of the griddle (this helped give those gorgeous looking grill marks on the flour tortillas). Then I placed a flour tortilla on the grill, followed by a very light layer of freshly grated fontina cheese, then I put a small amount of spinach over top of the cheese, then the mushrooms. I let this cook for a few minutes on medium heat (until the tortillas had those perfect grill marks on them and the cheese melted). At the same time I put another tortilla on the griddle and put some goat cheese crumbled on top. Goat cheese is so potent, I prefer to use small amounts of this type of cheese so those eating the dish aren’t too overwhelmed by the flavor. Once both tortillas had the grill marks on them, I placed the goat cheese tortilla on top of the other half, removed them from the griddle, sliced and then served.

spinach and mushroom quesadilla by ree drummond

The tortillas came out perfectly crispy and I was so proud of the end result. Using wine rather than sherry was the perfect call, and the mushrooms and spinach combined together was perfection. I am also excited to say that I know a very tasty dish to cook up for vegetarian friends! (Sorry to all the vegans out there, I just don’t know how to cook anything without a little bit of cheese!)

There were a few pieces left over, so I wrapped them up in Saran Wrap and ate them the next day. The left overs held up beautifully and the tortillas were still crispy even after I reheated them!

Ali Baba Turkish Cuisine

On Friday, my boyfriend and I saw Mission Impossible 4 and went out to dinner at a restaurant extremely close to his apartment. First of all, the movie was fantastic! Full of entertaining, suspenseful moments the movie definitely had me on the edge of my seat. The theater was also packed! not a single seat was available, and we were in the gigantic IMAX room too!

Before the movie, we went to a Turkish restaurant called Ali Baba, located on 34th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. We started the meal off with the Mixed Appetizer, including lebni, humus, eggplant salad, ispanak eggplant with sauce and pilaki. These dips were perfect! And they serve a fantastic warm fluffy bread to go with everything. If you don’t like dill, then I would probably stay away from a few of the dips on this plate. Growing up my Syrian grandmother used to make all of this stuff… and my mom to this day makes a fantastic humus. But I have to say, Ali Baba chefs do it all pretty darn well!

When taking a look at the menu and trying to decide what to order, I noticed they had Lahmacun listed under the entrees. Growing up I hated this dish, but as my taste buds grew I began to love it! Lahmacun is a “turkish styled pizza, flat break dough topped with ground lamb and chopped garden vegetables.” This can be made many ways — some people who cook this might not have green veggies on it, rather they might use finely chopped peppers and onion.

But I skipped the Lahmacun since I have had it so many times. I went for something basic and simple: the Tavuk Kebab (Chicken Kevab), a plate made of “tender chunks of chicken marinated with the chef’s own blend of herbs and spices.”

I have never eaten chicken so tender, so moist, and so flavorful in my entire life. I joke with my friends that if you order chicken, especially in a New York City restaurant, that you truly are a boring, non-adventurous person, or simply a person who can’t make up their mind so they settle with the most boring thing you can order — chicken. And on Friday night that is exactly what happened to me, I couldn’t make up my mind and I settled for the kebabs because my boyfriend raved about them. I sure am happy I chose these chicken kebabs because they really were the best! I also got a side of of a dill lebni — a dill yogurt sort of dip to put over top of my chicken. Even though the chicken was already marinated in a ton of spices and herbs, this dip/sauce made it even better! It was a refreshing amount of dill, nothing too overwhelming, it was just enough to compliment the chicken. (My boyfriend ordered a steak plate with mushrooms, see photo below.)

I can’t wait to take my parents to this restaurant the next time they come into the city. I know they will enjoy it — and for my dad, it will be a flashback to childhood and all of the foods that were cooked for him as a kid!