Thursday Night Smackdown: Gusta el arco iris!

Bomboleo!

This week, from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen: Pasilla Chile-Black Bean Casserole (aka budan de pasilla) with Jicama and Cucumber Salad. Rick Bayless may have taken a wrong turn on the journey to celebrity chef-dom when he lent his name to both Applebee’s* and a line of frozen pizzas**, but his cookbooks are wonderfully educational and full of great flavor. I’d been considered one of his moles, but I’m irresistibly drawn to lasanga-like layered dishes; pasilla is also a common base chile for mole, so it seemed like the best of both worlds.

* Rule # 4 to becoming a celebrity chef: Whatever Tyler Florence does, do the opposite.

** The fact that the pizzas are sold at Whole Foods does not in any way mitigate their troublesome existence.

Buttercream Quickie

I did not leave my cake out in the rain.

Last night I baked a dark chocolate-espresso layer cake for a co-worker’s 80th (!) birthday party today.  She’s a completely amazing – she still rides her bike around New York City, and is constantly flying around the world speaking at fancy-pants conferences – so she gets a completely amazing cake.   We tried to surreptitiously find out what her favorite flavors are, but she immediately saw through our pathetic ruse (did I mention she’s a genius?) and cornered me in the office kitchenette to announce that her favorite flavors are coffee, chocolate and lemon, and that she would be bringing something lemon-flavored herself.  I like her non-nonsense demeanor and the fact that she looks adorable in a bike helmet, so I made her a dark chocolate-espresso cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry preserves.

Channeling Rachael Ray: Savory Bread Pudding with Faux-mesco

None of these ingredients is in the Faux-Romesco sauce. Did I just blow your fucking mind?!?

I’ve always been attracted to mixes of sweet and savory, both combinations of the two or flipping recipes around – making sweet versions of things that are usually savory, and vice-versa. Not everything lends itself to this treatment – there have been some attempts whose names shall not be mentioned – but it can be a great way to get yourself out of a cooking rut. One of my all-time favorite flips is savory bread pudding.

Restaurant Re-creations: The Ugly American

We built this sandwich on rock and roll.

Downtown Jersey City used to have a little restaurant called Melt whose specialty was grilled cheese sandwiches;  it may not surprise you that grilled cheese is one of my favorite things.  Unfortunately, it was only around for about a year before it fell victim to urban neighborhood mid-gentrification roulette:  which cutesy niche shop will close next, and which will make it? Stay tuned!

It’s Pudding Time, Children

Saturday night’s all right for pudding.

Keeping this site going has really been a culinary boon for me – I’m cooking more than ever, am constantly inspired by the amazing creations of fellow bloggers, and can more easily justify astronomical grocery bills. One downside, though, is that I rarely make anything sweet anymore. After all, there are only two of us and we’ve been pretty full of filet mignon stuffed with cheese or lard-fried chicken. (We eat vegetables too. Sometimes.) (No, really, we do. After we deep-fry them.) (And wrap them in bacon.)

That’s just how I (blog) roll.

Part of what motivated me to finally start a blog, along with sheer love of food and the need to find an outlet for my writing, was the desire to be part of the online foodie community.*  It’s been great to be a part of Leftover Queen’s Foodie Blogroll, and just today I found and joined the Great Cooks blogroll over at Simple Daily Recipes: it’s smaller, but it’s spunky. I’m not sure that I qualify as a “great cook”, but I love scrolling through the lists and finding blogs from all over the world that I might never have seen otherwise; the more the merrier I say!

*Okay, I was also secretly hoping that it would turn me into Clothilde.

Valentine’s Day Smackdown: Who’s your Fry Daddy?

Once, twice, three times fried chicken.

A total coincidence, Valentine’s Day and the Thursday Night Smackdown are one and the same this week. It’s my beloved’s turn to pick the meal this week; he has a strong sense of sentimentality, so naturally he’s chosen a playful, romantic meal filled with luscious flavors, rich textures, and aphrodisiac ingredients: Fried chicken, green beans and sweet potato casserole.

Don’t worry, I know how lucky I am. Hands off, ladies.