Little Miss Party Planner

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Apple Strudel with Aunt D

My Aunt D is in town and we've been cooking up a storm.  She whipped up some apple strudel one of my favorite things to have along side a hot cup of lemon tea after dinner.  It's a family recipe that my Boobie (Grandmother) made up and passed down to all of us.  It's one of the few I'll forward on from her collection because she's a bit sensitive to sharing recipes so do me a favor…keep it on the down low.

Recipe makes 2 strudels ~

Ingredients:
* 2 cups flour scant
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 packages vanilla sugar (don't believe you can buy this in the states…Aunt D brings me a dozen packages every time she comes to NYC)
* 1/2 cup oil
* 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all together with hands and place on floured board.  Knead more flour into make a dough.  Divide and cut in half.  Roll out.

* palmful of breadcrumbs

* 8 apples shredded and squeeze almost all of the juice out (Aunt D likes to use Granny Smith but she says the BEST apples for strudel are spies) - each strudel requires 4 apples

* 4 packages vanilla sugar (2 per strudel)

* Strawberry jam (with seeds)

* 1/2 package chopped walnuts

* Corn oil

Schmear oil on dough and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.  Place the apples on top of the dough and sprinkle with 2 packages of vanilla sugar.  Dot with jam and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Roll carefully and tight (the dough is very delicate) and place on an oil greased baking sheet.  

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes…and voila!

Now be careful…because it's not the prettiest looking dessert but boy is it ever addicting.  I've had to look into a strudel rehab since I've eaten almost two full strudels by myself.  That's right, I'm a piglet.  Enjoy!

Rouge Tomato in Central Park

At dinner last night our friends were telling us about a restaurant that they love in Midtown called Rouge Tomato.  They were joking with us about it because they know I do not like to travel above 23rd street but they insisted on my going there because they love the food so much.  I told them I'd give it a shot…
Little did I know they had a food cart outside of the Central Park zoo which is where I took my LM today. I was pretty psyched since we didn't have lunch plans and it was incredibly convenient.  So after a couple of hours watching the sea lions, penguins and a giant polar bear swim in what looked like very refreshing water while the LM and I sweat our butts off…we hit up the cart.  There were only a couple of things on the menu but I was highly impressed.  For 15 bucks I got the lunch box special:  sandwich, soup and a juice.  I chose the BLT (which in addition to the standard ingredients included an avocado paste that was beyond to die for, arugala and red onions all on multigrain bread), chilled corn and jalepeno soup and the mint lime/lemonade.  LM and I took our lunch bag and went over to a shaded area on the grass back in the park to enjoy our afternoon meal.

Well firstly, I couldn't get the soup outta my kid's lap.  He devoured it.  It was the perfect texture, silky smooth and had a slight kick to it though the heat was balanced out really nicely with the creamy and cool flavoring of the corn.  Outstanding.

The sandwich was also fantastic.  Though the bacon was crazy salty (a bit too much for my liking) I still scarfed it down in only a few minutes.  And the juice was the perfect compliment to both dishes and most refreshing on such a scorching day.
I do also have to point out that they are a member of the Green Restaurant Association which I really love.  From their Media kit:
Rouge Tomato sets a new standard for environmentally conscious, aesthetically inspired, nutritionally optimal cuisine.  
Our commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly practices is evident in every aspect of our restaurant, from the culinary to the operational to the structural.
I will absolutely be making a point of visiting this restaurant now that I have had a taste from their food cart…and I cannot wait to see what's in store…

Rouge Tomato
60th Street between Fifth and Madison
646-237-8977

Fedora in the west village

Last night my husband and I had dinner out with our friends at Fedora.  Same guys who own the Little Owl, Joseph Leonard and Jeffrey's grocery run this place.  You have to call day of at 11am to get a reservation.  I literally stood by my phone waiting for the clock to strike 11 and I hit the dial buttons as fast as humanly possible.  I got through and got the reservation.  I couldn't have been more excited.  Isn't it funny how the harder it is to get the reservation, the more desirable the restaurant is to go to?  Pretty genius…keep this in mind if you're thinking of opening up shop one day.  ha.
  It was dark and cozy and the food was fabulous.  I loved every bite.  I started with an egg in a hole and then moved on to the fried chicken.  But it wasn't like normal fried chicken it was delish really well seasoned and breaded.  I'm not quite sure how to explain it to you but it was really juicy and tasty and I highly recommend this dish if you're not on a diet.
  We ended the meal with the Madelines and ice cream sammies.  Both fab.  Not to mention Oliver Platt was sitting a few seats away from us…and I think he's hilarious always and especially in the currently airing Big C on Showtime.  This place gets two greasy chicken fried thumbs up from LMF.
*photo above taken from NYMAG.

Fedora
Frnt A, 239 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10014
(646) 449-9336

Fourth of July: BBQ & Buds

I had entered to win a party sponsored by Budweiser through a site called Houseparty.com.  I got chosen as a host!  The people at House Party sent me a box filled of goodies including 3 t-shirts, an apron, frisbees, Budweiser cups, Budweiser BBQ sauce, beer cozies, $10 Visa card towards Budweiser beer, $30 rebate on Budweiser beer and lots of coupons.  So we celebrated the fourth of July long weekend with BBQ, Buds and good friends.
The menu was derived as follows...
Theme:  Fourth of July
Colors:
Cherry red
Cobalt blue
Shimmering white
Tin silver

Tableware:
Bamboo plates
Stripe linens
Galvanized pails
Mason jars

Nibbles:
Onion dip with Ruffle chips
Mango salsa with Tostitos scoops
White bean dip with paprika pita chips
Crudites and ranch dip

Menu:
Pigs in a blanket with horseradish mustard
Budweiser BBQ glazed chicken wings (smoked on the big green egg)
Hamburger sliders
Summer orzo salad
Mini corn on the cobs

Dessert table:
Watermelon fruit salad
Fourth of July strawberries
Canada day marshmallows
Chocolate stars
Mini cherry pies (by First prize pies)

Drink:  Organic lemonade with mint and sliced lemons to garnish

 

Cooking with Aunt D

So my Aunt D is one of the coolest ladies around town…the town of Vaughan, Ontario Canada that is.  She hosted a dinner for the fam this weekend including my mom and Boobie (aka Grandmother) who just raved about the spread she put out.  On her delectable menu...
BBQ Mexican sweet and spicy ribs

Grilled shrimp scampi

Red Chinese chicken

Rotini with ricotta, spinach, golden raisins & pine nuts

Feta & watermelon salad with fresh basil (Love the star shaped watermelons!!)

Mango crab salad in spring roll cups

Potato salad (ala Boobie F.)

Blue & red fresh berries + peach crumble

Um…yum!  So jealous I wasn't there.

A little bit of peanut butter chocolate crescent roll heaven

By now you may have heard of this site called Pinterest.  My sister introduced it to me and I am fully addicted.  My Aunt said it best tonight "I'm going to have to go to Pinterest rehab".  It's such a fantastic site where you can browse photos that people have uploaded and you can "pin" them into your own boards which allows you to organize your images however you'd like and keep everything on file online.  Very cool and a great way to get inspiration for parties, ideas for recipes, style, kids, etc.
So as I was browsing last week I came across a picture of Pillsbury dough crescent rolls spread with peanut butter and it immediately caught my interest since I'm a huge fan of both…
When you click on a picture on Pinterest you can find the website that the picture came from.  This picture was from a site called For the Love of Cooking.  Such an adorable site!  With great recipes.  I was so excited to try this recipe since it's beyond easy and I had all ingredients on hand I whipped it up for breakfast the next morning.
First, you preheat the oven to 375.  I then took a tube of crescent rolls and laid out the triangles on a non stick baking sheet.  I slathered each with creamy peanut butter, sprinkled with some milk chocolate chips and rolled up as you normally would.  I cooked for 11 minutes and they came out golden and oozing with gooey deliciousness!  Now…just think what else I could stuff into these flakey treats?!  I'll have to get creative and keep you all posted on the results.