Alli makes a pie

Alli sent me this picture from her travels this summer:


And I said "I want one, please." So when she came to visit, she made me one. She's not big with the recipe following and she's not sitting here right now, but I'll do my best to remember all the steps.

First, blitz one bag of Newman's chocolate cookies in the food processor.


You could use Oreos, or chocolate wafers or whatever. I'm pretty sure Alli picked Newman's because she's so healthy. But they were good.

Melt about half a stick of butter, mix it with the crumbs and pat it into a pie pan.


Aren't Alli's nails cool? She's so funny. Anyways, bake the pie crust for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

In my amazing stand mixer (you could just use a spoon - or a hand mixer), Alli mixed 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, one 8 oz package of cream cheese, half a stick of melted butter and 1 tsp of vanilla (I think).


She also whipped up a pint of cream.


Then she folded it into the peanut butter mixture.


She's a happy kid.


Then she poured the peanut butter mixture into the pie crust and we chilled it for a while.


Now it's pie!!!!!!


Doesn't it look good? All creamy and amazing and not too sweet - but you could amp up the sugar if you wanted. Chocolate and Peanut Butter = everybody wins.

Montauk!

I love my parents. A lot. They are great parents and they took me, my sister, Zack and my uncle Steven to a beach house this past week. It was relaxing, warm, and fun.


The one teeny tiny complaint I might possibly have about going on vacation with my parents? They are really healthy eaters (which, you know, is great. And admirable. But not always the tastiest). For several days, I cooked vegetables. And more vegetables. And they tasted pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. But at some point, a girl's gotta sneak off for some homemade ice cream.


John's is a classic beach-y drive in, complete with burgers and shirtless dudes at the counter.


My sister, the all-american outdoors-y type, ordered a strawberry milkshake with homemade ice cream.


I have severe food envy, so I ordered the same thing.


The shakes were cold, creamy and fruity. Alli and I both loved this quick break of sugar and fat. Don't tell my parents!!!! (Sorry guys, you know I love you. Vegetables are great)

It's the most wonderful time of the year

No, not Xmas time. It's Alli visits Lena in NYC time!!! Every August my sister comes to New York to shop (I mean visit me) and we always have a really good time (see us eat knishes! Or cook eggplant!). Sometimes we try on matching dresses.


And sometimes, we eat ice cream.


The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck is a legendary New York City truck. It travels around the city serving crazy cones like the Bea Arthur or the Salty Pimp. It's not very old, but I've read about it several times this year and this seemed like a great time to try it out.


We both ordered the Salty Pimp - vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche and sea salt, dipped in chocolate.


Holy Moley, it was good. There is almost nothing I love more than sweets with salt. The caramel sauce mixed with the chocolate and salty goodness? I'd eat this every day. But then I'd get fat, so I'll just stick with sometimes. Here it is all eaten down.


And then Alli got some awesome new glasses and ate ice cream and all was right with the world.

Chocolate. Enough said.

It's a snow day here in New York (which means nothing except that you're out 100 bucks if you're an hourly worker for NYC public schools, like me). So I'm taking the time before my audition at 2pm (which was NOT canceled - thank god I get to trek all the way down to Chelsea in the snow) to tell you about the amazing Portland Chocolate Fest, which I went to with my sister and my mom when I was in (guess where?) Portland.

Here we are at the World Forestry Center. I just love giant trains, don't you?

The Chocolate Festival spanned three giant rooms. The lines were very very long.


Each room had table after table of vendors giving away free tastes and selling their wares. Here's some great examples of chocolate-y amazingness.


One of the things I loved about the festival was the inventive use of ingredients pared with chocolate. A really popular one was bacon (remember how I said Portland loved bacon? Still true).


The maple bacon fudge from the Oregon Zoo Fudge Company was delicious. I brought some back for Zack. They had some other great flavors as well - chocolate raspberry, mint, all your basics.


Bacon kept popping up everywhere.



Another weird ingredient pairing? Blue cheese!


I love mixing chocolate and cheese together. I have the palate of a crazy pregnant woman (does this mean if I ever become pregnant, I'll start craving "normal" things like boxed mac and cheese or tuna fish? Just musing....).


The blue cheese/chocolate combo totally worked for me. It was sharp and creamy and sweet. Love it.

There were also wine tastings and beer tastings (if you were over 21). I saw local chocolate beer on display, so the good wife in me said I had to try some (for Zack, you know. I'm a giver. Drinking beer by myself in Oregon.....that's so wifely).


My sister and my mom were both disturbed by this.


But I liked it. Beer? Good. Chocolate? Good. I was a happy camper.

Alli was a big fan of Brownies from Heaven -giant brownie truffles. Do you see the one cut in half on the left side?


That was the size of a baseball. They had different flavors (coffee, raspberry, etc). I bought one for Alli to take home. She said she'd share it with me (but she totally lied).

We all left with gift bags, full stomachs and smiles (and Alli got a balloon hat as well - I'm not sure why, but she sure liked it).



That's it for Portland, folks! Back to my Astoria kitchen.

Things are very progressive in Portland

So one of the great things about my trip to Portland (besides visiting my sister and mom) was seeing my Titi Esa! Titi Esa is my godmother, but because of various circumstances, I hadn't seen her since I was 14 years old. Her name is Teresa, but I couldn't say that as a child, so my mom had me call her "Titi Esa" (Titi means "aunt" in Spanish). We had all sorts of great trips in New York when I was younger, so it was great to see her again!

My mom had told her about my blog, so I think she'd been reading it a bit. She and her sister had the idea to have a "progressive" dinner party (which is not a liberal minded party, but one where you have each course at a different house!). It sounded like fun to me. Titi Esa and her sister live next door to each other and my mom and I were staying just a few minutes away. I picked dessert as my course, not wanting to have to bother trying to make anything vegetarian. My mom kept saying, "we could just get some fruit and cheese or something," to which I said "Mom! They read my blog! I have to cook something!" Plus, I love to cook. Well, you know.

I decided to make Chocolate Pots (one of the first fancy desserts I ever tried to make). The first time I made it, I didn't really know what I was doing and ended up with bits of scrambled egg in my dessert. But I've made it several times since then and now I know how to avoid that.

Also, I didn't have any of my cookbooks. Or my computer. Or the Internet. So, this was not the time to try something new.

These are a snap to make! All you need is time.

2 cups heavy cream
3/4 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, at room temperature, coarsely chopped (you can always use Ghiradelli bittersweet chips - I love those)
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons dark rum (or whatever liquor you have hanging about - Bailey's would be good. I tend to use whiskey because I love it)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream until bubbles appear around the edge. Keep watching - my mom looked away for a second and totally missed it.


Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate and let stand for 1 minute, then stir until smooth.


Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl.


Then whisk in 1/2 cup of the hot chocolate cream. This is called "tempering" the yolks. It makes it so that your eggs won't scramble in your dessert. It's very important. Don't skip this step! I'm sorry I don't have any useful pictures of it. I've only got two hands, you know.

Scrape this mixture into the saucepan and whisk constantly until smooth. Stir in the booze and butter.


Pour the custard into eight 1/2-cup ramekins or espresso cups and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours



The beer isn't ours. I swear.

I topped it with whipped cream (whip your own cream - please. It's so much better) and shaved bits of chocolate. I used a vegetable peeler. My mom thought I was nuts when I asked for it.


They were so good! I'm pretty sure everyone liked them. To end this post (but not my segment on Portland), here's a picture of my sister doing her "model" face.


More soon....

Tacos and hippies and Alli, oh my!

I love Mexican food. I could eat it every single day and be happy (and fat). Growing up on the West Coast, there was no shortage of amazing choices, but here in New York City, it is harder to find (not impossible, by any means). So when I read an article on Serious Eats, I told my sister (Alli) right away "we're going here." "Ok, cool," she said "the food is good, but the portions are small." This did not deter me - in fact, I thought - great, built in restraint so that I don't overindulge on tacos. And off we went to Por Que No? Taqueria.


It had a nice funky interior that my dad (who had previously been to this place) called "hippie Mexican." I thought that was pretty apt.


We started with some freshly made guacamole and chips.


They had several kinds of house-made salsa, ranging from mild to spicy. I thought the spicy had a nice kick, but my mom and sister made faces and loud exclamations to the contrary (wimps).

My sister, a vegetarian since birth, ordered the rice and beans bowl. It was more interesting than the name let on.


Mexican rice, pinto beans, salsa, cheese and guacamole all mixed together and were served with 3 fresh tortillas. Yum!

I had tacos - one pescado (fish - which I never dare to order on the East Coast, but here in Oregon seemed like the fish would be good) and carnitas (shredded pork - always one of my favorites).


They were a little fancy for my taste (I tend to like my tacos unadorned), but all the flavors worked well together. I especially liked the pineapple with the fish.

Overall, it was a happy experience. Look at my sister smile!


She's so adorable. I want to visit her again and eat more tacos.

More Portland soon!

The west coast beckoned.....

So I didn't blog for a week. But I have a good excuse! I went off to Portland (Oregon, not Maine) to visit my sister at Lewis and Clark college. My mom came along as well and we all had a great time. I'm starting us off slow, but know that this trip ends at a Chocolate Festival. Rock it.

First stop on the Portland tour: Voodoo Doughnut!

This place came highly recommended by my good friend and former roommate Josh. His exact words: OH! Voodoo Donut!!! (he spelled it wrong. But I still love him) And so off we went.

There were literally a tower of doughnuts to choose from.


What I love the most about Portland is the hippie greenie crunchy vibe mixed in with tons and tons of bacon. Seriously. There was bacon everywhere we went. You'll see as we go on. But here?


Yeah, that's bacon ON A DOUGHNUT. Awesome. I totally ate it. My mom and sister tried not to vomit. I'm sure my dad is horrified. But it was amazing. Salty and sweet, with maple frosting.....gotta love it.

Don't worry, if you're not bacon friendly, there are plenty of choices.


Note the vegan options! Those crazy Oregonians. Also note the spirited names of doughnuts such as Cock N' Balls, Tex-ass and Old Dirty Bastard.

It was a nice start to the trip. Here we are, smiling and happy.


More Portland to come!