Weekend Bits

I flew into JFK this morning from Hawaii, and I'm already missing the perfect weather and ample yoga time. I have to say, though, as much of a paradise as home (Hawaii) is, home (NYC) felt pretty good when my taxi pulled into Manhattan after an excruciating run of bumper to bumper traffic and I was finally face to face with the prospect of seeing Suz Monster, my boyfriend, friends, and coworkers again, and catching up on various projects. Vacation is fantastic, but it's especially great when you realize that there are more than a few elements of your real life that are equally as exciting. My last few days in Hawaii were monopolized by lots of beach time, reading, yoga, wandering around my mom's green garden (she could make a tree grow out of ash, I swear), and visiting the grounds of my old alma mater, Punahou. xo

The chapel at Punahou School. It's built on the loveliest lily pond.

Sunsets like this make me think that God may actually exist.

Magic orchids. My mother says that they've been like this for over two months now.

Another plant in my mother's garden.

Landing at JFK during sunrise.

The face I got to come home to.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Is there anyone out there who didn't love Reese's Pieces peanut butter cups as a kid? No? Didn't think so. It's an irrefutable fact that the combination of sweet chocolate and creamy peanut butter is one that is nearly impossible to beat. But in recent years I've grown to shy away from typical drugstore candy, preferring to get my sugar fixes from good quality chocolate, freshly baked sweets, and homemade ice cream. I mean, if my diet's going down, it might as well be with the good stuff, right? If I ever really dieted, that is. Anyway. My point is is that as much as I love peanut butter and chocolate together, I can't really justify eating Reese's Pieces to myself anymore--it's got loads of weird, chemical-sounding ingredients that I can't pronounce, and to be honest, it really doesn't taste all that great to me anymore.

Enter, this vegan, all-natural, homemade version, made with Earth Balance butter, soy milk, carob chips, and organic crunchy peanut butter. Not only does it taste better by leaps and bounds (I promise), it's also almost guilt-free. Confession: the recipe called for maple sugar, but I couldn't find any so I just used good, old-fashioned Domino granulated sugar. If you're of the school that vegan food can't taste good, make these immediately. You'll see. xo

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
From The Kind Life with Alicia Silverstone
Ingredients:
1⁄2 cup Earth Balance butter
3⁄4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
3⁄4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1⁄4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener (I used regular sugar and it was fine)
1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips
1⁄4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk
1⁄4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts 

Directions:
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

They are great soft, but even better a little firmer!

Favorite Things

As I head towards the end of my week in sunny, tranquil Hawaii, and face the trip back to New York in all it's winterized glory, I'm suddenly thinking about all the things I want to cozy up to once I'm back. My red plaid Pendleton blanket, a denim shirt I just ordered, and of course, my kitchen and all it's satisfying accoutrements.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to reuniting with.

1. Sir Kensington Ketchup

2. Etoile Isabel Marant denim patchwork shirt

3. Lawyer pencils

4. The best mortar and pestle

5. Olive wood cutting boards made by one dude in Tuscany

6. My cozy plaid Pendleton blanket

+ more favorite things

NatureMade Multi For Her

These American Lives

The search for Pappy Van Winkle

Someone's the night before

Hot crab dip recipe from Felicia Gray, age 12

The Secret History

Shanna Murray's St. Valentine's Day cards

Spornette porcupine brushes

Proper Texas Nachos

If by now, you haven't caved just a little to Superbowl mania, then you're either the most apathetic non-sports-fan alive, or you've got an iron will when it comes to outside influence. I'm not going to sit here and claim that I'm really into sports or that I completely understand what goes on on that big green football field that is omnipresent on my boyfriend's flatscreen every Sunday, but I do know that the Superbowl is a big deal. And I know that the Patriots (the team Tom Brady/aka Gisele's hubby plays for) are playing the Giants (aka the team I'm supposed to be rooting for). And more importantly, I also know that I like party food. And that football party food, specifically, is a really darn good excuse to make tons of mac and cheese, pimento cheese, nachos, and all sorts of other foods that involve cheese, and not feel guilty about "forgetting" to include any sort of healthy green vegetable at all.

So if you're in my position, and relishing in thoughts of what you'll whip up come game day, here's a stellar option for you: proper Texas nachos. I've never been a fan of nachos, mainly because my only experience with them has been at the movies with all that alarmingly orange, melted, artificial cheese or at the Orange Julius counter at the mall when I was an unknowing pre-teen (same scary orange stuff). No wonder that I shudder at the word "nacho" now that I'm a fully formed adult with a distaste for fake foods that taste suspiciously like plastic. But apparently, I'd never had a real nacho. At least according to Lisa Fain, author of The Homesick Texan. Her description of the recipe was so tantalizing--real Cheddar melted on homemade tortilla chips, all baked with a single, mouth-puckering pickled jalapeno slice on top--that I had to give it a go. And I'm so glad I did. Real nachos aren't the gooey mess of clumped together chips, glued into one terrifying entity by a neon orange, unidentifiable substance. Proper nachos are neat, orderly, elegant even. They're single entities that you can lay out on a tray and watch disappear in a matter of seconds. In other words, they're the perfect football food. So go ahead and add these to your menu--you'll be glad you did. xo

Proper Texas Nachos
Ingredients:
6 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups of grated Longhorn cheddar cheese
24 pickled jalapeno slices
Peanut oil
Salt 

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the tortillas into quarters. Pour enough oil in an iron skillet to come up 1/2 inch up the sides and heat to 350 degrees. In batches, fry the quartered tortillas for 1 to 2 minutes on each side (until golden brown) and then remove. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Once chips have been made, sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon of cheddar cheese and top with 1 pickled jalapeno. Bake in oven for five minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serve with guacamole, sour cream and/or salsa. Makes 24 nachos.
 
Note: If you don't feel like making your own chips (though you should as they taste better) tortilla chips from a bag work, too.

Aloha!

So I've landed in Hawaii for a much-needed stretch of sunning, lazing around, eating, cooking, reading, and not much else. I figured this would be exactly the thing to get me motivated to face a rapidly encroaching New York fashion week. Plus, my family was about to disown me if I didn't get a visit in soon, so.....here I am. I arrived late Friday night, and since then, I've spent 10+ hours on the beach, finished The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides, eaten my body's weight in food (home-cooked and from favorite old local restaurants), taken a yoga class that just about did me in completely, and completed 4-mile sunrise runs every morning (thanks to my good friend, jet lag). I swear, if I just up and moved here, I'd probably add 15 years onto my life. Alas, I'm in love with New York. Maybe in another lifetime. xo

Finally, finally finished it. Hated it at first, but by the end, I was hooked.

Best sunscreen ever--it's for the face but I slather it on everywhere.

Waimalu Chop Suey--a total hole-in-the-wall Chinese place that has the best food.

Random sidewalk art outside of Ala Moana beach park.

Red Salsa

If there's one Mexican appetizer I adore, it has to be a good, fiery, lively bowl of red salsa. It's got the heat that guacamole--as much as I love the stuff--just can't offer, and you can eat gobs of it with little to no guilt, depending on how many tortilla chips you consume in the process. And unlike guacamole, it won't go brown on you the minute you turn your back; instead, it keeps nicely in the fridge for a full week's worth of snacking. It's kind of the hero of apps that way.

However, that watered-down, often-tasteless gunk you get in jars at the supermarket won't cut it with me. And it shouldn't with you either, especially considering how easy it is to whip up a homemade batch using just a few ingredients and a couple of whizzes in the blender. This version, made for another football Sunday last weekend, uses canned San Marzano tomatoes, a few jalapeno peppers, some chile powder, and a good handful of cilantro leaves, but feel free to play with the ingredient types and amounts to make it your own. Delicious. Recipe down below. xo

Red Salsa
Ingredients:
1 28 oz. can of tomatoes
1 cup of cilantro leaves
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 tablespoon chile powder (add more to taste, if you like)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup pickled jalapenos
Salt to taste
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Directions:
Put all the ingredients in a blender and pulse until smooth. Taste it, and see if it needs any more spices.

Makes about 4 cups. Will keep in fridge for one week.

Pan-Fried Mochi

You may be wondering why I would publish a recipe for such an odd-looking dish, obviously meant for vegans and the health-obsessed, when I so clearly don't belong to either group. Don't get me wrong, I do try to balance my diet with a good mix of guilty indulgences and healthier fare, but I don't put a ton of thought or planning into it. I just eat what my body is telling me it feels like eating--and it rarely steers me wrong (well, not for too long anyway).

But back to this recipe. Yes, it's healthy. Yes, it's a smart carb choice. Yes, it's a whole grain and wheat free. It's all of that and even more. It's delicious. Mochi is a traditional Japanese food that plays a part in a large number of dishes in Japan, and I can see why. Cut up and pan-fried like this, it transforms into gooey, sticky pieces with a satisfyingly crisp exterior. It's good for both sweet cravings and salty ones. If you want it strictly savory, simply leave out the drizzle of brown rice syrup at the end. This stuff is great for a midday snack that won't leave you with that imminent sugar crash, and it's good for breakfast too. In fact, it's what I had for breakfast this very morning--and I feel great. xo

Pan-Fried Mochi
Adapted from The Kind Life, by Alicia Silverstone
Ingredients:
1-2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 package unflavored mochi, cut into 1"x 2" rectangles
Soy sauce
Brown rice syrup (about 1 tablespoon per serving)

Directions:
Heat the oil in a cast-iron or stainless steel frying pan over medium heat. Place the mochi pieces into the pan, making sure they don't touch. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook for exactly 4 minutes. Flip the mochi, add about 2 drops of soy sauce to each piece, cover, and let cook for another 4 minutes. The mochi should begin to get gooey and puff up a little. It will be deliciously crisp on the outside and sticky on the inside. Don't be alarmed if they morph into funny shapes--that happens sometimes.

Transfer the mochi to serving plates and drizzle with rice syrup. Yum.