Diet? What diet?

With many of my days taken up with personal assistant work, I find that I have little time to experiment in my own kitchen. For meals at home, I've been concentrating on big-batch, easy-to-reheat stuff, like burrito mixings and big pots of chili.

But today I had some free time, and it was raining outside. So with no regards to the upcoming beach season, I decided to make something scrumptiously rich and decadent: chocolate cheesecake squares.

To start, I make a crust. I smooshed one package of graham crackers into
crumbs in a bowl. This gave me enough to cover the bottom of an 8x8
pan. Conversely, you can also smoosh the crackers in a plastic bag. I just
like saying the word 'smoooooosh'.

Lots o crumbs! To this, I added about... 3 tablespoons of melted butter.

I carefully pressed the crumb and butter mixture into the 8x8 pan, which I
had previously lined with foil. This will (hopefully) make the whole thing
easier to extract later. Then I popped the crust into a 350 degree oven for
about 10 minutes to set up a little.

While the crust is par-baking, I made my filling. 1 block of softened cream
cheese, 1 egg, 1 tbsp of flour, 1/2 tbsp of vanilla, and half a cup of
confectioner's sugar is beaten into submission via a hand mixer.

After about 4 or 5 minutes, the mixture is well blended. I reserved a
tablespoon or two of the powdered sugar; I wanted to taste the filling
first to see how sweet it was. In the end, I used just under the half cup...
maybe about 7 tablespoons.

The pan is taken from the oven, and the filling is oh-so-carefully spread
on top. Kind of a delicate procedure, as the graham crumbs were still
slightly loose. Then back into the oven it goes, for about 30-40 minutes.

Side note here. I used a random recipe I found online, but also realized that I could have made this a no-bake treat. The simple mix of cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla makes an AWESOME cream cheese filling in its own right. I could have made a graham cracker (or Oreo!) base in a parfait cup, and topped it with the non-egged-up filling. Yummmm. I guess I know what I'm making next time!

Near the end of the baking time, I placed 5 ounces of chocolate to melt
in a double boiler with 1 1/2 tbsp of butter. Yeah, what diet indeed.

Melty chocolate goodness. This step can be done (in 10 second spurts)
in the microwave too. 

I forgot to grab a pic of the pan pre-chocolating. Post-bake, the cream
cheese filling didn't look too different. It seemed to have puffed up a little
bit, that's about it. I took it out of my oven in about 35 minutes, when the
sides were ever-so-slightly darker. 

Then comes the most difficult part... waiting for it to cool. I popped it in the fridge after a while, for about 2 hours. This setting time makes the end result easier to cut into.

Ahh, eating time at last! The graham crust didn't hold together completely;
I suspect that more butter could have solved that problem.

The layers were also really lopsided; I didn't spread them very evenly.
But the classic combination of graham crackers, cream cheese, and
chocolate is delicious no matter how it's combined.

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

On a cool Spring evening, there is no better activity than participating in the ultimate American past-time: baseball. A generous friend gave me some tickets for tonight's Mets game, and so I took Jon and another friend to watch.

Despite a forecast for possible rain and thunder, it ended up a beautiful evening with temperatures in the mid-60s and not a cloud in the sky.

The new-ish CitiField!

We had seats 27 rows from the field, in prime foul ball territory past 3rd base. Images of being beaned in the head by a line drive while eating a hot dog danced in my head. One foul ball did indeed make it very close to us, landing about 10 rows in front. A brief but enthusiastic tussle ensued as fans dived madly for the ball. Jon and I wisely did not join the fray (though he was disappointed when the t-shirt guns didn't come our way later).

Yuens at a baseball game!

A very relaxing, and very fun way to spend an evening!

Amusement Park for Adults

There is a place here in New York that evokes memories of being at Disney World as a kid. Large crowds? Check. Long lines? Check. Colorful objects everywhere that makes you want to whirl around and try to see everything at once? Check.

The only difference is that this is a store, and instead of Mickey Mouse, you are surrounded by food. Lots and lots of food. I am referring to Eataly, a huge 50,000 sq ft store catering to all things Italian located in the Flatiron district.

The store is actually quite overwhelming when you first walk in. It's a combination of grocery/restaurants, and it takes a little while to get a hold of where everything is. There are officially 6 or 7 separate dining entities at Eataly (one for seafood, veggies, pasta/pizza, salumeri, one high-end place, and a rooftop bar), as well as a coffee bar and gelato counter. All of these eateries are dotted around the open space, with dried imported goods and fresh produce set up on the sides. To add to the confusion, there is a fresh seafood counter, a butcher, a cheese counter (where they also make fresh mozzarella), a bakery (yes, they bake their own bread too!), aaaaaaand a fresh pasta counter.

So much to see and eat!!! And yes, they hand out maps at the entrance.

When I used to work in the neighborhood, I would duck in at lunchtime to buy some bread and prosciutto as a snack. But until yesterday, I had never tried dining at one of the sit-down spots. With the busy lunch service, a friend and I decided to just eat wherever the wait was shortest. Unsurprisingly, that was at the vegetarian place. Meatless doesn't necessarily mean boring though; the menu looked delicious and it certainly didn't disappoint!

We started off with the fried artichoke appetizer. The artichoke had a
scrumptious flavor, smooth from the artichoke heart yet slightly crispy.
The accompanying tomato compote added a sweet saltiness.

Creamy polenta with spring vegetables, and a parmesan 'cracker'. The
veggies included roasted asparagus, carrots, fiddleheads, and radishes.
Really rich-tasting dish, yet not heavy at all. The vegetables were
amazing; the fiddleheads were crunchy, and the cooked radishes
imparted a slight sweetness.

Crostini, topped with pickled onions, roasted red pepper & capers,
and grilled asparagus. Everything tasted really bright and fresh. A
smear of ricotta cheese at the bottom helped to meld all the components
together into a cohesive bite.

More cooking

Wow, I am tired. Having worked in an office for over a decade, I am well aware of the exhaustion that happens when you've been mind-numbingly working in front of a computer for 10 hours nonstop. But this is different. I was on my feet for 6 hours straight today running errands and oh boy, do they hurt. Remind me again why I'm doing this now, instead of when I was young and spry?

I successfully framed and hung some artwork today, but neglected to take pictures. So here are photos of food again! Today's menu of three items:

'Greek' salad with chicken. Client is still going non-dairy, so I sadly
could not put any feta cheese in this. So it's just tomatoes, cucumber,
onions, and kalamata olives in a bright lemony balsamic dressing.

Turkey chili. The turkey turned out well; I pan fried it first, and it had
a toothsome bounce. Kidney beans, fire roasted diced tomatoes,
onions, corn, and some diced green chiles round out the dish. I love
how chili tastes better after a day or two in the fridge, so this is perfect.

Shrimp stir fry with quinoa. Maybe it's the Chinese in me, but it's hard
for me to fathom a meal without a starch. So since the client isn't
eating rice, I made some quinoa to mix in. It looks a little funny, but
tastes pretty good; the quinoa has an appealing firm bite to it.

Of course, as I shopped at Whole Foods today, a lady was passing out samples of locally-produced, nitrate-free bacon. It was so tasty that it made me sad to not be able to cook with it. Booo.