Wow! Free Range Chicken Poop Lip Balm!

Look at what I found at RiteAid! It doesn't really have poop in it. Dang! But it probably should. Chicken poop on my lips. Ew, gross.

Olive Biscuit

I saw this cookie recipe here once and always wanted to try it out. It has the perfect combo of salty and sweet. Its a seemingly odd combo at first but it is really such a perfect combination of flavors. In the realm of chocolate covered pretzels. If you like that, then I think you'll like this.
And of course, I can't ever help changing the recipe because I have a disorder.
So I crushed up some rosemary in some sea salt and sprinkled the infused rosemary salt on top. I also added a sprinkle of rosemary in the batter as well.

Never Gonna Buy Pizza Again!

Ok. So it looks like there is a huge salad on TOP of my pizza but I'm telling you, that's what makes it! Jaime Oliver style mixed green salad (with basil) dressed in lemon juice and olive oil atop a pizza is truly 'GENIUS'!

Mermaid Parade/Geisha Parade

The Geisha Parade was yesterday at Coney Island....oops! I meant, the Mermaid Parade. This is the first time I've been to one of these at Coney Island. It was fun but why does someone always have to come up with the bright idea to use part of someone's culture to 'dress up' for a celebration. Like, 'Hey, honey, let's be indian for our wedding' when they're not. Or let's be geisha mermaids. Greeeeaaaat Idea! In any case, there were some fun ones, like Cracked Out Super Heros was cool. And so were all the umbrella jelly fish. I probably should have taken more pictures of those things. Dang!
So Sherri was cooling off by the palm tree kiddy area listening to a message my phone accidently left for her. I think she heard bag noises and didn't know who called so she called back and left a message, it was to my phone. Stop calling Sherri's phone, Ginny's phone. It's really not cool!

Martha Inspired

A dish inspired by one of Martha Stewart's recipes from her Everyday Food book. The chicken I made up is roasted with balsamic, garlic, and onions.

Mabo Tofu From Scratch

When a Jack Russell and Mini Schnauzer Mate

You get Snack. Henry and Gigi's blond haired son. Charlie and I went to Baltimore to visit his brother last month and we finally got to see Henry and Gigi's boy for the first time in over a year! He was so slobbery and cute.

Head On Shrimp-Apply Directly to Your Mouth

Shrimp with anchovy butter on herbed toast.
Recipe:
Dozen shrimp with head on
1 stick of butter
1 tsp olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 fillets of anchovy
Bread, sliced, and toasted with whatever herbs you like
1/2 scallion for garnish

Deshell and devein shrimp. Keep the heads on or if they fall off while cleaning, it's ok. Toast your slices of bread.
Melt butter with olive oil in saucepan, add minced up anchovies. Once incorporated, add shrimp and sautee for about 5 mins or until cooked. At this point, you can remove and discard the heads and arrange your shrimp on your bread, drizzle the remainder of the sauce over the bread. OR you can keep the heads on and consume their delicious little shrimp souls through their heads.Yum!

Hardcore Beggin'

Henry was begging so hard for some ginger to fall off the cutting board while I was chopping that he didn't realize when a piece of ginger actually did. Hm, I guess he'll just have to keep on beggin'.

A Refreshing Salad For These Dog Days

A cool meal of quinoa for this humid weather. Quinoa is also cool because it might be one of the first crops NASA will use for their Controlled Ecological Life Support System someday. Why? Because it's considered a complete food. It's a seed that's related to leafy greens, like swiss chard containing a balanced set of essential amino acids, is a good source of dietary fiber, and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. But I like it mostly because it's dang tasty.

Recipe:
1 1/3 cups quinoa*

Vinegrette:
Zest from 1 lemon, plus the juice
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 cup green grapes, halved
1/3 cup of dried cranberries
2 cups cucumbers
2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 cup chopped mint
2 scallions

* Rinse quinoa under cold running water and drain. Bring 2 cups water to a boil. Stir quinoa and a pinch of salt into water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until quinoa is tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Uncover and let cool.

For the vinaigrette, whisk vinegar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Slowly add the olive oil, whisking well. Add the quinoa and toss with two forks to combine.

Add chicken (skip the chicken if you're vegetarian), grapes, cranberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint and scallions. Toss well, taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lemon juice if desired. Serve cold.

Shopping at Brighton Beach

I went to brighton beach on saturday to take in some sun and afterwards stopped off to do some shopping along brighton beach avenue. There are tons of Russian fruit shops, dried fruit stores, and pastry places. Their famous and huge M & I International market is always a place I like to hit before heading home. They have so many different kinds of sausage, meats, seafood, desserts, pickles, cheeses, breads, a large buffet area in the back and a dessert cafe upstairs.
I ended up getting some sausage there but I got this bunch of fresh garlic at a fruit market where I was convinced they massaged each individual fruit and sang it lullabies before closing time. Everything was pristine, fresh, and perfectly placed...which is why everything was about 75¢ more at this place than the other fruit markets I passed on the way back to the train. Doh! Live and learn.

I Discovered Pastry Flour!

I made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler yesterday with pastry flour and it was the best cobbler I ever made. And I realized that rhubarb isn't as sour as I anticipated. AND it's expensive to buy yourself some tart celery. I made it even tastier by adding some cinnamon dulce de leche ice cream.
Pastry flour is a low protein/low gluten flour which is good for making pie crusts, muffins, cookies and biscuits.
I'll post my recipe soon.

Rockin' Out at Arlene's Grocery

I played You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse on drums at Arlene's Grocery. The video looks choppy on my end, not sure why or how to fix. Anyway, you can still sorta see me doing my thing. O yeah, I'm over on the right side of the screen.

New Toy!

This is what my new toy created. This sweet machine is called the Atlas Pasta Machine 180. I got the hang of it after a couple tries but I'm still trying to perfect the pasta recipe part. Why don't they have semolina flour at regular supermarkets?! I used a recipe that called for unbleached flour and eggs (see previous post below) and the pasta tastes more like egg noodles than pasta... which is fine for me. I'll just make some lo mein or something. In any case, I think it still makes a good pasta once you add the sauce, and herbs, etc. When I perfect this recipe, I'll post it. In the meantime, go get yourself a pasta machine!

A Yoga Bag for Sherri

It was Sherri's birthday last month and I had to make a yoga bag for her because I thought she did yoga regularly too, like Elana does. After I handed it to her, she told me she didn't really go to yoga that often. Yikes! My bad. But she said, the cute bag would help motivate her to go more often. Otherwise, I guess she could always use it for laundry or something.