My kids are definitely too old for trick-or-treating but they still get into the festivities. Emily is a nerd, Jessica was a tiger last night and going as a bloody chef tonight, Josh is...I'm not sure but he is certainly having fun. I particularly like the paper bag hat.
The village tonight in NYC should be insane. We are hunkering down as the kids come in and out.
The name alone, pumpkin orange cornmeal cake, just screamed out at me for Halloween. My friend turned me on to a new baking blog, Lisi's Luscious Desserts. This particular one sounded delicious....and it is.
Butter a 9 inch bundt pant. I'm a big fan of the bundt cake. Make sure you really butter/spray it down.
Separate the 2 eggs, leave the whites in a separate bowl.
Beat together the butter and sugar about 3-4 minutes, light and fluffy. Add the egg and then the 2 yolks, one at a time. Beat well after each egg. Scrape down and add the pumpkin puree and beat again.
I sifted the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Add this mixture, mix in 1/3 at a time until completely incorporated.
Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. You can do it by hand but I'd use a hand held beater which is beyond easier.
Add the egg whites to the cake mixture and mix together until you can't see the egg whites. Do this by hand and just gently continue to flip the mixture.
Pour into the bundt pan ( sort of thick ) and bake for about 40 minutes or until done.
Separately mix together the syrup, heat up until sugar dissolves.
When the cake is done, let cool only about 10 minutes ( didn't wait long enough as you can see from the picture because bits of the cake stuck), flip onto a serving place and then pour or use a brush to coat the cake in the syrup.
Tasty!
All the foodies were in the house at the Breslin today for lunch. April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman's newest venture, The Breslin, in the new Ace Hotel. No reservations available except for a party of 12 where you can be treated to the options of a whole roasted lamb or pig. Sounds like my kind of place.
The room is the similar vibe to the Pig, feels like an old English pub, kitchen on view in the back. The menu, also Pig like, very heavy and definitely has the head to tail element. As one of my lunch partners pointed out, the menu teeters on the edge of the cliff as in how many people eat like this. Based on the success of the Pig, many.
The menu has a handful of bar options. We ordered the pork scratchings that come in a clear plastic baggie and marked with a label and the date. The bar options are available in the hotel rooms. Clever. Also, good to grab on the run. The scratchings were salty, crunchy and tasty. A little bit like a pork rind potato chip.
2 of us started out with the onion/bone marrow soup with a Parmesan cheese over the top. Basically onion soup Bloomfield style. Rich, rich, rich. A tad on the salty side but loads of flavor, almost too much. Light handed is not the word to describe the Breslin or the Pig or for that matter The John Dory (RIP). Personally, it works for me. A hearty wonderland.
For the main courses, we all tried something different. One of us went with the cod ( I think it was cod ) terrine. Not what he was expecting. It was tasty but cold fish mixed with a sauce and sauteed greens around the side wasn't his thing. Wouldn't be my first choice.
The lamb burger covered with feta cheese is truly fantastic. This comes with bit fat fries in a cup lined with paper and a small cup of hummus on the side. Nice presentation on the wooden board. The burger is full of flavor but not overwhelming, juicy and the feta kicks it up to another level. Excellent. Picture is not great but trust me on this, the burger is a winner.
I had to, I went with the beef tongue. Honestly, fantastic. Perfectly cooked, melts in the mouth in a baguette and chopped horseradish on top. On the side came with a small bowl of lentil soup. The soup is super rich, a tad fatty and not sure you need that on the side, a bit of greens would have been nice.
Side dish was the pumpkin. Pumpkin is so big everywhere especially Australia and England not so much here. Too bad. Medium thick sliced pumpkin roasted with a mild spicy sauce covered with roasted pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds. Really nice side.
On the way out talked to a few people. One guy was eating the mixture of 5 different meat terrines with different sauces. Looked beautiful and he gave it a thumbs up. Everyone around the place was looking quite happy.
Personally, I'm racing back for the lamb burger very very soon.
I saw these cupcakes in the October Bon Appetit and got excited. Looking at the pictures in the mag and mine, it is apparent that a food style has serious tricks. Regardless, I used to make all this kind of stuff when the kids were younger. Josh and Emily got into the decorating and of course eating when they saw what I was doing. So, at the end of the day, isn't everyone young at heart for cupcake decorating?
Preheat the oven to 350.
Mix together in a large bowl the flour, light brown sugar and spices. I used a whisk to really mix it up.
In another bowl, whisk the egg and add the puree pumpkin, oil, sour cream and vanilla. Combine the dry with the wet.
Spoon the batter into the muffin liners almost to the top. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until done. Cool.
In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until completely combined. Then add in one cup of powdered sugar, beat and then another cup of powdered sugar, beat. Now mix the food coloring in (in a small bowl make sure the food colorings are already mixed together to make sure it is orange.).
Decorate the cupcakes...have fun! The festivities have begun.
Last night Fred and I had the pleasure of having dinner with 3 food market influencers. Ben Leventhal ( snarky blogger, friend and new NBC man about town), Kate Krader ( Restaurant editor Food and Wine ) and Dana Cowin (Editor-in-Chief Food and Wine). Needless to say, I was thrilled to have break bread with Kate and Dana and always with Ben.
We started off at a party for the new chef a the Four Seasons. Personally, not my thing but it was fun to go since I haven't been there in literally 25 years for a meal. Perhaps I should return with the new chef.
For dinner, we were completely following their lead, after all, who wouldn't? We went to Ardesia which is a wine bar that opened about 2 weeks ago on 52nd between 10/11th Ave. Not a location I generally frequent. Ardesia is a nice mix of fabrications that create an edgy hip feel. A large chalkboard wall with the specials on one end of the restaurant. The bar has two tiers. On the upper level a banquet wraps around the perimeter with small tables that move. Very comfy. Below is the bar, where you walk in with airy wooden stools which continue to high tables for drinking and dining.
The person behind Ardesia is Mandy Oser who comes out of Le Bernadin. Super nice and thrilled to see us there. The chef is Amorette Causus who was at El Quinto Pino. The wine list, of course is extensive. Lots of interesting beers too. I always love a wine bar. They have been huge in London for years and years and have never really become a trend in NYC.
The food, which is small bar portions, was really delicious. Some more than others, of course. We started with a whipped goat ricotta over a toasty crostini. Simple with just a slight flavor. Next round was a course of salads. Small cubed red beets mixed with tiny shaved pieces of ricotta salata, some chopped greens and a sherry vinaigrette. Tasty, classic. My absolute favorite which I'd love the recipe for is the fresh bean salad. Yellow wax, haricot vert beans and roma beans mixed together with thin crispy shallots over the top and a lime mint vinaigrette. There was an Asian bend to that salad. Full of taste and with a kick. We ended up ordering another round.
I might have hit the pork wall belly wall. It might be time for restaurants to come up with something else. Although the crispy pork belly bites served over a cubed apple salad was good, I'm over it. The salt cod cakes with a caper remoulade over the top was a nice light touch. Think crab cakes.
The two dishes that were heavier was the Duck Banh Mi sandwich which is hitting the streets of NYC these days. House cured duck with a spicy duck pate, pickled veggies between a long soft bun. Yum. The other a Germany sausage which was boiled ( I would have preferred to have it pan fried ) served along a soft pretzel that again was so good we ordered more pretzels. Good side of a zingy mustard.
Hit of the evening was dessert. 3 house made ice cream sandwiches filled with Donnybrook Farms ice cream. Hazelnut, pistachio and vanilla. They were wrapped up in wax paper and the flavors written on top. We just cut them up and shared. Old school. Perfect consistency and temperature. The hazelnut was the best with the tiny nuts that crunched in your mouth.
Keeping Ardesia in mind for post-theater or pre-theater or if I do happen to be in the neighborhood. A couple of new apartments in the area that will certainly enjoy their new addition to the neighborhood.
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I read this today on Ricky's blog. I love it. I happen to agree with Jeremy at the end, breakfast is the new lunch.
GUIDE TO NEW YORK POWER MEALS
Just had this explained by a good friend / media scene veteran….
Dinner means you really want a relationship, a deal or both.
Lunch means you’d like to get to know someone to see if you want a relationship, a deal or both.
Breakfast means you’ve got a current deal to discuss (if you already have a relationship) or you’re willing to consider a relationship with someone new, but that person isn’t especially important.
Drinks are for friends or business people who have become friends.
Coffee is not even on the spectrum.
Update: Jeremy weighs in and says “Disagree. Breakfast is the new lunch.
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I am a big believer in supporting non-profits that affect children. The theory that if we can make an impact when they are young, the opportunities are endless. MOUSE has been something I have been involved with now for over 11 years. I am actually chairing the next big campaign and am thrilled to be part of it. The impact MOUSE has made has been truly far and wide. Fred is now involved with Donors Choose which helps teachers make an impact in their classroom, in essence also helping kids.
Art Works is an organization that a good friend has been involved with for many years and asked me if we would be on the benefit committee. I hesitated because I am positive that our names mean anything but he pushed and so I said yes. We went to the event last year and I really love what this organization does.
Art Works Foundation provides children (and young adults) who are suffering from chronic and life-threatening illnesses access to creative programs which help in the healing and communication process for all of those involved. So when your healthy kids to go school and have art class or put on a play, this program takes the same ideas into hospitals to help the kids share in their artistic accomplishments and feel good about themselves. Pretty simple. These kids might not make it to adulthood but it gives them and their families and opportunity to use art to express themselves.
So, we gave and we are going. If you are interested, please come or please give. It is an organization doing work for something that you never think about until someone in your community or home gets a life-threatening illness. I hope we are making an impact for those kids and families by supporting Art Works Foundation.
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I am trying to keep in mind a few things about the Starry Messenger which I saw with my friend last night at the Acorn Theater the last production from The New Group.
First, I was really looking forward to this play. The cast line-up was terrific. Matthew Broderick who has spent a fair amount of his career on and off Broadway, a seasoned actor. Catalina Moreno who was in Maria Full of Grace in which she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance, also Kieran Culkin who I saw a few years ago in subUrbia and he was fantastic. Those are a few of the highlights from the cast although there are certainly others.
When we got to the theater, they couldn't find our tickets. Good thing my friend brought along our receipt because she signed us up to do the series of plays through the New Group together this year. That has yet to happen to me in all the years that I have gone to the theater that the tickets were not there. Once we sat down, somebody else had tickets for the same exact seats. It ended up that ours were issued for the wrong date which was clearly the mistake of the theater because ours said that they were for the Friday after Thanksgiving which in no way would have been a date that we had picked. Someone entered November instead of October. Whatever, we got a different set of seats. Both of us had tried to figure out the length of the play. For some reason, not sure why, it is always difficult to figure out how long a performance is going to last. Serious searching on the Internet does not always work. As far as I am concerned, the length of the play should be the first thing highlighted before the name of the production and the cast. So, we both thought the play was 1 1/2 hours.
The play begins with an addendum from the director. They are still working with the lines so some of the actors are still learning them. One actor is brand new since he was replaced a few days ago and he will be playing his part with a script in hand. Granted the production had not had the premier yet but I have seen many plays prior to the premier and all of this was a new experience for me. There were a handful of times that Broderick would stop and say "line" and then the director would feed it to him.
The play began. Certainly a work in progress. I found the writing to be like talking to a boring acquaintance at a party. The lines were just not that interesting, a few laughs here and there. I guess the whole premise is about a variety of different people living as small parts of the entire solar system all connected to the teacher of Astronomy ( Broderick ). I could be so off here so keep that in mind too.
After an hour and half, the play ended but it really didn't end, it was just an intermission so we had it wrong. We had dinner reservations at Esca in 15 minutes, which by the way was absolutely fantastic last night, so we both decided to leave since the play was basically bad. We asked the usher on the way out, how long does the play last to and she said, they are trying to get it down but it is basically a 3 hour play? 3 hours! Plays of 3 hours are Pulitzer Prize winners and productions of the past that have been continued to be produced through decades continually making an impact and are always praised. Not this play.
Bottom line, hope the next production is better than this one. Not sure I am interested in sitting through a play while a playwright attempts to make life bigger than need be. Oh, and btw, I didn't link to the New Group site because when I did it said it contained malicious software that could fuck up my computer. So, if you really want to see Starry Messenger, you will have to find it yourself.
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The Rat that Got Away is a memoir by Allen Jones. Jones grew up in the Bronx, in the Patterson projects, during the 50's and into the 70's. His story is extraordinary as he is the rat that got away.
What is inspiring about this story is Jones transparent voice about the realities of living in the Bronx during these times. I have read so many books on this particular subject, inner cities that pull you in. A social problem of drugs, oppression and lack of hope that has been repeating itself for decades.
The Patterson projects were originally supposed to be havens for middle class families. As time went on, due to what was happening in the world (JFK being shot, MLK, etc), the economies for black men became more and more difficult. Kids that were living with even solid families who wanted to support their children as all parents do were losing their kids to the streets. The pull of drugs, money, power. Jones who was an incredible basketball player found himself living 2 lives. One life, the one that was dealing heroin stayed swept under the carpet until he was arrested and found himself at Rikers Island.
He got a second chance because the judge released him to his parents to try and straighten his life out. He soon realized that the key was getting out. Jones found a way to get himself a scholarship to a private HS school in Connecticut which led to college and eventually to playing ball in Europe.
If Jones had even a little more guidance (as you read the book you realize although his parents wanted to do right by him, they really let him figure out his own way) he probably would have ending up playing at better schools and eventually for the NBA but bottom line is, he got out and still lives in Europe and is a productive human being with 2 kids. That is beyond commendable. He is fully aware that many of his peers who he grew up in the projects never got out dying young through violence and drugs.
I am a liberal out of the womb but there is something to said, as Jones said, if more kids found themselves pulled out of inner cities, put in a private schools where teachers actually cared about them, we'd find less young black men in prison. I believe charter schools are attempting to do that but they are still sitting down the street from areas that pull you in regardless of your intellect. It gets harder and harder when you become a teenager and are dealing with the peer pressure.
A wonderful book, really interesting life. Mark Naison who wrote the book with Jones, wrote his own memoir of growing up in those times called White Boy: A Memoir which I am going to pick up. The Rat that Got Away is a book about hope and should be read by everyone particularly those who are working with families in inner cities to try and figure out how we stop the endless cycle of drugs and despair in our country.
Jones is a role model to kids in these communities but unfortunately these role models leave in order to find their own sanity and success. They never come back because if they came back, they'd never get out. That is what Jones figured out. He had to get out or he would find himself in the exact same situation as his peers, dead or in jail.
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Cristina Alger: The Darlings: A Novel
i LOVED this book. First time novelist. Well written. She does a great job of describing each character. The story is loosely based on a Madoff type character. Total NY story. Page turner. She knows her town and these people. Really LOVED this book.
Stephen King: 11/22/63: A Novel
This is my first King book. He is an incredible story teller. Quite a book, very creative, interesting idea and story. It is so long. 850 pages. I get why he is one of the best selling authors
Whitney L. Johnson: Dare, Dream, Do: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream
I was so graciously asked to write a blurb for this book. It doesn't come out until May when I will write a post but for the time being you can pre-order.
Here is my blurb;
Every woman, regardless of age or profession, should read this book.
Through stories of real women, their dreams and their struggles, Johnson's
book has created an instant community. What's more, she has opened the door
for women to empower themselves to dare, dream and do.
Russell Banks: Lost Memory of Skin: A Novel
An interesting novel about the underground topic of child molesters. Banks takes on a disturbing topic as he weaves a variety of strange characters into the fold. Maybe I wanted some kind of closure from the book. The book is a big idea which really navigates a slice of America. Really well written but not so sure I'd recommend it. I stuck with the book but I didn't love it.
Susan Weissman: Feeding Eden: The Trials and Triumphs of a Food Allergy Family
The name of the book says it all. Every parent and every teacher should read this book.
Tom Perrotta: The Leftovers
I have read a few of Perrotta's books. He is an incredible writer but I always feel so unfulfilled when his books end. This concept of this book is that one day random people disappear and the world changes. The book focuses on one particular community and a few families. At the beginning I was wowed by the premise of the book but as always his books begin to ramble and the end was so bad it was if he couldn't figure out how to finish it. Literally the last paragraph made me say to myself, "seriously"?
Alice Hoffman: The Dovekeepers: A Novel
I wanted to finish it, I really did. But half way in I moved on. Really beautiful book. A story of four women who lived on Masada who are thrown together through fate as they tend to the doves. Wonderful history and interesting paths of each character. Just super dense. I hope to return to finishing it. After all...it is on my kindle.
Deborah Copaken Kogan: Between Here and April
This book tracks a terrible tragedy of a mother who took her life and her childrens in the 70s. I was interested in it because it happened where I grew up. Unfortunately the book bounces all over the place and only focuses on the authors own issues that she believes to be connected to this but in essence it is a serious reach and rambling.
W. Bruce Cameron: A Dog's Purpose
It took me a while to get into this but a very clever book. Life through a dogs eyes. Really well done.
Kyung-Sook Shin: Please Look After Mom
International best seller. Not only a peak into a past generation of Korean life but a disturbing look at alzheimers. Sticks with you.
Kathleen Flinn: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks
Flinn writes about how she transformed 9 people to love cooking, understand food and what they are eating and basically changed their lives. Good book.
Julie Salamon: Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein
What a fascinating life. I actually liked the last 25% of the book the best. A woman of the generation that was told she could have it all and with all her success she still felt unaccomplished. A worthy read.
Michael Ondaatje: The Cat's Table
A beautiful memoir of Ondaatjes solo journey from Sri Lanka to London as a young boy of 11 to return to his mother who had been residing there for 3/4 years. Those 3 weeks made quite an impact on his life as he threads those stories back to his life as an adult.
Jeffrey Eugenides: The Marriage Plot: A Novel
loved this book. brilliantly written, great character development, literature references abound, questioning of religion, depression issues, post college angst. loved loved.
Julie Otsuka: The Buddha in the Attic
I read Otsuka's first book, When the Emperor Was Divine and really enjoyed it. Her writing is very distinct and her prose is written in a way that is different, imaginative and interesting. The book is a bit of an extension of the first book. The topic is on America's stained past during the war, in our own country, when we locked up all the Japanese people living here because of pure fear of nothing. Otsuka's book gives the read insight into how the Japanese lived prior to that time and really what wonderful immigrants they were and are. Opens up a chapter of American history that we should all be very disturbed by.
