Tag Archives: Food Network

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

My Food Network Magazine arrived just in time this year — just in time for me to put some of their recipes from the December/Holiday issue to test over Thanksgiving. Next weekend I am attending a friend’s annual cookie exchange party and it’s always fun because I get to: stuff my face with cookies, have about a week’s worth of cookies in my kitchen (which usually lasts me the weekend), and I pick up on some great baking inspiration — and lets admit it, I need as much baking advice & tips as I can get! We all know, I am a cook — not a brilliant baker.

My sister can agree with me on that, that I am not the best baker. One holiday she asked me to help her bake dozens of cookies to put together some holiday cookie tins for her boyfriend’s family (they are now her inlaws). Well, in a nutshell, I accidentally flung several egg whites across her kitchen — causing a major mess on her walls. Then, I, um, probably was the one that accidentally, um, put in double the amount of baking soda into her chocolate chip cookie recipe.

So what, that’s the past. And now, I am at least much more aware of my baking actions.

Below is my favorite cookie recipe that I tested out this weekend from FNM’s brilliant “Cookie Countdown” spread. I have to say they were a hit at my friend Jesse’s Thanksgiving lunch, they were adored by my father who is a more “traditional oatmeal cookie type of man”, and my mother put in a special request that I bake her more before heading off to work again tomorrow.

So here they are — FNM’s Oatmeal Lace Cookies. Try not to eat the batter, it’s pretty darn tasty and you probably won’t be able to stop gobbling up all of the buttery batter; but I promise the baked cookies will be just as fabulous!

Nom, nom! Enjoy! And, Happy Holidays!


The Recipe for Oatmeal Lace Cookies:
Ingredients:
1 Stick Unsalted Butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon beaten egg white
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions:
1. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter with the sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and the sugar is almost dissolved, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the oats, flour, vanilla and salt. Let cool 10 minutes, then stir in the egg white.
3. drop 6 rounded tablespoonfuls of the batter onto each prepared baking sheet, about 3 1/2 inches apart. Spread each mound into a 3-inch circle. Bake, switching the position of the pans halfway through, until golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets until firm, about 3 minutes, then carefully remove using a thin metal spatula and transfer to a rack to cool completely.
4. Put the chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring, until melted. Drizzle on the cookies and let set, about 30 minutes.

(note: this isn’t my own personal recipe, it’s taken word-for-word from FNM. And, I highly recommend trying this recipe, it’s brilliant and is perfect for Holiday cookie parties, and just plain ol’ every day cookie eating!)

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.

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been on one heck of a Ree Drummond kick lately! This chef is a fairly new addition to the Food Network channel and I am loving her show every Saturday morning. There’s something about homemade food, cooked in the middle of nowhere, that’s whipped up on a ranch filled with cowboys. Anything that’s homemade, homestyle, and baked with love I’m sure tastes fantastic.

The other week I made Ree’s Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas — and since then I have managed to pass this recipe along to all of my coworkers and a number of friends. All have cooked-up the recipe and they loved it!

I was totally infatuated with Ree’s episode the other week where she baked Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here’s what I loved about it: she adds an ingredient that I never knew could be added to a cookie recipe — malted milk, while the cookies bake they end up spreading out and baking flat because of this special ingredient, and you have the choice of making the cookie crunchy or chewy. Since I prefer my cookies to be crunchy, yet so many prefer them to be chewy, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and make half the batch my preferred way and the other half the way my friends would enjoy it.

Since I recently got a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, I knew baking these cookies would be easy. But, I realized quickly that I owned only a few ingredients. Since I now have a mixer, I knew it was time for me to buy basic ingredients — like flour, sugar, etc. So off to the store I went.

When I got home from Trader Joe’s I put all of the ingredients I would need on the counter. They include: unsalted butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda, baking soda, salt, malted milk powder, and milk chocolate chips. (And just like Ree, I figured I would take a photo for you.)

While the oven preheated to 375 degrees, I added the room temperature unsalted butter to the mixer, gave it a bit of a stir and combined it with 3/4 cups brown sugar and 3/4 cups sugar. Once the three ingredients were mixed together and became fluffy in consistency I added the 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the mixture. With the mixer still on, I added 1/2 cup malted milk powder. While the ingredients were mixing, I sifted together the following: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 1 1/4 teaspoon salt. With the KitchenAid mixer on low, I added the ingredients to the bowl. Once all of the ingredients were combined, the chocolate chips were gently stirred in. By this time the oven was preheated and ready to go!

I placed small scoops of the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. Plenty of space between the cookies was needed since the cookies become flat when they bake and they end up taking double the space on the sheet compared to the stereotypical chocolate chip cookie. I baked for 12 minutes for my crispy cookies and 10 minutes for my chewy cookies.

I couldn’t get over how easy it was to make cookies from scratch! Well, it was easy after I lugged home all of the heavy ingredients from the grocery store.

For the rest of the weekend I couldn’t stop indulging in the cookies I had made. I loved that my crispy cookies were crispy on the outside but still had a soft chewy texture on the inside.

There’s nothing like baking home made chocolate chip cookies and making your entire apartment building hallway smell like cookie dough. I’m sure I made my neighbors very jealous!

Paula Deen’s Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis

Paula Deen in a kitchen

(Photo Credit: zimbio.com)


Alright everyone, shall we address the elephant in the room? Last week, Paula Deen announced that she has type 2 diabetes, and a few days after the announcement she admitted to knowing about her diagnosis for the past 3 years! Within that time she had published her cookbook, Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible — which was also voted as the “worst culinary offerings of 2011 by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.” (according to People magazine.)

While I can’t help feel bad for someone who is diagnosed with something that can ultimately be fatal, I’m also frustrated over the fact that she doesn’t plan to change her cooking style. I also can’t seem to grasp the concept of deep-frying a lasagna (which is one of her most popular recipes). A lasagna is fantastic all on it’s own, why would you want to kill the dish (and possibly yourself) by deep-frying it?! What are the stats on this dish, you are probably wondering… For one serving it is 670 calories with 47.5 grams of fat. Ouch, I think my heart just got all clogged up just by reading that.

I’m all for comfort food, in moderation of course and at appropriate times. But more than anything, I am all about taking care of myself. I may love a creamy mac and cheese side dish every once in a while from my favorite restaurant, but I’m also working out multiple times a week to stay healthy… and more importantly I am making healthy daily decisions in regard to my diet.

While watching Paula Deen on TV, viewers might not realize that she’s technically cooking those unhealthy dishes for only 30 days of filming. Whether or not her unhealthy eating habits are a daily routine or only 30 days out of the year — people don’t know! So several folks out there are probably thinking that her doughnut hamburgers are okay to eat as a meal whenever they want! Disgusting!

I have such a hard time watching people constantly stuff their face with unhealthy food. Why don’t you just spike your sweet tea with arsenic and speed up the death process a little faster?

And, on top of the Type 2 Diabetes drama, Paula is also a smoker and she has yet to give that nasty habit up — smoking when you have this disease can actually be fatal and cause heart attacks and strokes! If you have a stroke Paula, I doubt you can be a host on a cooking show.

I’m not an avid Paula Deen watcher, but I know so many people love her dearly — which is why I hope she can make some drastic changes in her private life and on TV. It would be great for the 23 million people across the U.S that have type 2 diabetes to see a cooking legend change her life and diet. Paula, that’s 23 million people, in case you didn’t see that number the first time — that’s a lot of people (and a business woman should know, a fantastic business opportunity as well!). People seem upset that she’s making money off of being a spokes person for Victoza (diabetes medicine), but if she tries to help people with a new cooking style I have no clue how anyone could be angry at her. I’d applaud her if she made some big changes!

I want to know… what are ya’lls thoughts on this current event?

2012 Food Trends

I recently read over a USA Today article that talks about food trends for 2012 — I actually wasn’t at all that surprised about the selection that was made. For anyone who is living in a city and you’re surrounded by food trends whether you want to be or not, you know what the newest fads are.

It wasn’t all that long ago that cupcakes captivated our attention… Cupcake bakeries were opening on every other corner like Starbuck’s cafes. From Baked By Melissa here in New York City as well as Magnolia Bakery and of course Billy’s — to Georgetown Cupcakes in Washington, D.C., people were seeing these mini-cakes every where! Even Sex and the City (the episodes, not the movie) had Carrie and Mirada chatting outside of Magnolia Bakery in the New York City’s hip and trendy West Village neighborhood.

Then came the popsicle shops and stands. And this food fad came at the most perfect time — right at the start of an insanely hot and almost unbearable summer in 2010. But who wants popsicles in the middle of winter? Plus, you can’t box up a half dozen pops to take into the office for a co-worker’s birthday. So, popsicles had a shorter life-span than cupcakes. And even though everyone will love cupcakes for generations to come, the popularity of going out with a friend for just a cupcake won’t last too much longer. Actually, it’s not even on the radar for popularity any more. And these things are not only costing your wallet a good chunk of money, but they are insanely fattening. I do admire the idea that the cupcake shop Baked By Melissa has. They make insanely small, bite-sized cupcakes. I actually was at an event recently and these little cupcakes graced our tables for dessert — if a large cupcake came my way, I doubt I would have eaten it. Cupcakes actually get pretty messy, they get all over the place, they crumble after you take a bite, and there is not lady-like way to dig into a cupcake the size of your fist. So these petite-chic treats were the perfect touch to the dessert table.

The Meadow in the West Village in NYC

The Meadow in the West Village in New York City

So, a new food trend according to USA Today is salt. Yes, salt. I’ve been chatting on and on for a year now about my favorite salt shop in the West Village called The Meadow. I love that an entire shop is dedicated to selling only the finest salts from all around the world. Not only are they beautifully colored, they also provide your food with an outrageous amount of flavor! Whether you are sprinkling a bit of salt into a dish, or actually cooking your food on a block of pink Himalayan salt, you are guaranteed to love whatever food it is you are making. Even a new hidden gem in the Chelsea Market called the Filling Station is selling a nice selection of salts — but in all honest, head to The Meadow for a wider range of this seasoning.

a shop for salts

Salts from around the world in The Meadow in NYC

Food trucks are another food trend for 2012, but I had thought that these mobile “restaurants” were already winning over people’s attention? The Food Network has already had 2 seasons of The Great Food Truck Race (and I’ll admit, I’m hooked). Maybe food trucks have won over the hearts of city dwellers but now they are off to captivate the rest of America’s suburban inhabitants. We will see.

What other trends are there? “Drugstores as food stores,” is one of them. Well, duh. CVS has all of a sudden added grocery-like items to their store, as well as Duane Reade in NYC… and would anyone ever consider Walmart as a semi-drugstore as well as Target? Because for so long these two stores didn’t exactly have the “mega store” label. Americans just love that one-stop-shop sort of store where they can purchase everything at once. So, naturally brands like Target and Walmart are going to have to make this possible.

Other trends include: Mindful Snacks, Pickles, Butcher Shops, DYI Food, Gluten-Free Food (even if you don’t have a gluten allergy), Seaweed (for lunch!), Quick Response codes on food packaging, Artisan Chocolate, and finally — Korean food.

What other possible food trends are there going to be? I’d love to hear what everyone out there is thinking because you just never seem to know these days where and when a new trend is going to launch.

Grapes & Asparagus in a Pasta With Cream Sauce

I have to admit, the inspiration behind making this dish has to do with one of my favorite restaurants — Paprika. During my first summer in New York City I used to walk to Paprika once a week for dinner. It’s such an affordable restaurant and the food is not only so tasty but the portions are fantastic! Well, I used to order a fettuccini pasta in a cream sauce with shrimp, asparagus, and grapes. Such an odd combination, right? Grapes? What’s up with that? Let me tell you something about the grapes in a dish like this… I always feel like a rich, thick, cream sauce makes me feel thirsty — well, the grapes change all of that. The sweet burst of a juicy red grape is exactly what everyone needs after eating a pasta with alfredo sauce dish.

Since that summer, Paprika has changed their menu a few times and they unfortunately took my favorite dish off the menu. (You can only imagine my reaction towards the waitress when I found this out.) So I decided to recreate the dish myself.

One major difference is I decided to leave out the shrimp. I hardly ate the shrimp anyways on the Paprika dish, I more so liked the flavor the shrimp gave the pasta, but it was pretty much a cocktail shrimp and I hate the texture of that type of shrimp.

First things first, you need a cream sauce. I originally took a Food Network alfredo sauce recipe and I eventually altered the recipe to the way I preferred to make it. But start with this recipe and go from there:

    1 pint heavy cream
    1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
    1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
    Freshly cracked black pepper
    To prepare alfredo sauce: Heat heavy cream over low-medium heat in a deep saute pan. Add butter and whisk gently to melt. Sprinkle in cheese and stir to incorporate. Season with freshly cracked black pepper. In a large stockpot, cook pasta in plenty of boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Quickly drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan, gently toss the noodles to coat in the alfredo. Transfer pasta to a warm serving bowl. Serve immediately.

While I make the sauce, I boil my water to make the pasta. I prefer angel hair pasta but fettuccini works as well. Once the pasta is cooked I drain it. I slice up some asparagus and either steam cook them in a Ziploc steam bag or I quickly cook them in a small pan. Then I add the asparagus to the cooked sauce and I add red grapes. Once I stir the items together I add the pasta and toss the pasta in the sauce, asparagus, and grapes. I serve immediately.

Over all it’s a very quick meal to prepare. Here is a list of the following things you need to serve one person:

    3 Large Asparagus
    8-10 Purple Grapes
    Angel Hair Pasta (or Fettuccini)
    Whipping Cream
    Butter
    Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
    Black Pepper

In total, I probably spent about 20 minutes making dinner. But it only took me about 5 minutes to inhale.

The grapes are an interesting addition to a pasta dish, but give it a shot and tell me what you think. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

Manhattan’s Red Hook Lobster Pound Truck

food_truck

The Red Hook Lobster Pound truck -- whips together a refreshing and tasty lobster roll all over Manhattan.

This week was the start of the Food Network channel’s Great Food Truck Race — my favorite cooking show. This is the second season and last August I had an incredible hunch on which truck would be the winner. In case you don’t remember, the Nom Nom Vietnamese sandwich truck rocked the entire season with intense wins and won several competitions with their savvy marketing skills. It was a true slap in the face when they came in first place 5 weeks in a row and then was the loser during the final round against Grill ‘Em All (the burger truck that I was rooting for — who wouldn’t want the team who makes burgers between two grilled cheeses to win?).
To go along with the launch of the Great Food Truck season 2 this week, I wanted to share with you some amazing food that I recently had from a truck that was parked outside of my office one afternoon.
I spotted the Red Hook Lobster Pound truck from my office window and I bolted downstairs and ordered a Maine Lobster Roll with salt and vinegar chips. The $16 a roll pricing was brutal but every bite was fresh, juicy, light, and decadent all at the same time. The roll was perfectly buttered with a light crispy texture that complimented the creamy topping paired with the seasoned lobster. Besides the price, the only other part that I hated was that I was still hungry after I ate my lobster roll, I could have eaten four of rolls without any hesitation.
Even though it’s rather pricey and I was still hungry afterwards, I would definitely recommend checking out this mobile vehicle’s lobster creations … there’s nothing like a Lobster roll to quench your taste buds on a summer day!