Snacks in the City...

Well...even though yesterday was SUPPOSE to be a day filled with HOT Apple Cider and various Fall-esq treats....we may have had to improvise a bit due to the last onset of Indian Summer (bleh!)...butttttt there will never be a shortage of GOOD EATS when you plan on having a "Snack your way through the city day" in New York! :) 

You just can NEVER beat New York for ANYTHING...come Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall! :)  You'll always find incredible things to do (and eat!) ANY time of year:) 

Our first stop was one I've had on my mind since I recommended this place to someone last week (hi Sara!:), so I knew we couldn't get too far into our tour without a stop here....

Pommes Frites is an old classic and near & dear to my heart:)  We even made a pit stop here after my bachellorette party...in a YELLOW SCHOOL BUS =Amazing!:)  hahahahahahaha.....

The Belgian frites are fried once and then "shock fried" AGAIN when you place your order...making for a crispy on the outside, soft *and SUPER HOT* on the inside best fry (ahem...FRITE!) you've ever had! :)

And what makes them even MORE wonderful is the list of sauces to choose from!  26 to be exact!....

We decided to go for the Peanut Satay (yummy with a KICK!), Vietnamese Pineapple Mayo, Wild Mushroom (which I obliviously tried and liked, despite my dislike of mushrooms;)....butttttt....the best sauce and STILL the classic....

The Roasted Garlic mayo......ahhhhhh, heaven in a cup, I tell you:)  You just CAN'T beat it;)

Next we took a loooooonnnnnggggg stroll to work off those fries and headed to the Chelsea Market....

Housed in the old Nabisco factory, Chelsea Market is a foodie paradise filled with all sorts of specialty markets, dining locations AND the Food Network headquarters! :)  My Mom & I even took a 3 hour "Tasting Tour" through here once, which we absolutely LOVED!  But today...we did a little tour of our own;)

We made a swing through the Italian market...which was the exact moment I regretted not lugging a cooler with me all day!!  They had soooooooooo much good stuff  (ummmm....ricotta & chocolate???  yep!  They had it!)

They also had pasta the length of my arm....

And all sorts of jams, jellys, spices, flours, seed, nuts and a partridge in a pear tree...

We headed out before I decided to buy out the whole store;)  Although I did walk away with a unique pasta shape (I'll make them soon!) & a bag of roasted chickpeas for Scott:)

I picked up another gift for Scott here:

The Fat Witch bakery is a tiny little store with a row of yummy brownie options:)  This place was PACKED with people, so we just barely were able to grab a few on-the-go brownies and GET out of there;)  hahahahahahaha....

And finally, it was time for some more tastings, so we headed to:

Because, seriously, how could you NOT pick up something from here???  It was just SOO CUTE!

It was TOUGH to whittle down my pick, buttttt I had to go with a classic favorite for me: Vanilla/Coconut! :)  The other gals picked up a tiramisu & a Chocolate Peanut Butter 'cake....

They were good....not the bestest ever, but really-how could a cupcake be bad??  Answer:  It can't:)

After our cakes, we headed out for some more strolling:)  And right around the corner from Chelsea Market, our friend showed us a neat little tucked-away place:  The High Line....

It was literally a park, complete with elaborate gardens, built on top of old train tracks running along the length of the West Side....soooooooo pretty!!  It was a perfectly little peaceful place right  smack in the middle of the city!  This is why I love NY...you never know what your going to find around every corner....or in this case...ABOVE any corner;) 

After that, we strolled on over to Union Square to check out their Green Market briefly...but by then, the sun was starting to get to us a bit:(  3pm turned pretty darn hot in NYC :(....

So we decided to take a subway further down town and landed smack dab in the middle of the Italian food MECCA:  San Gennaro!! :)

The festival stretch on for BLOCKS with all sorts of tempting Italian goodies....

But, for whatever reason, out of all the things to pick: as soon as I saw the mozzarella stuffed arepas, I was SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I <3 Arepas and get them oh-so-very few and far between in life....hahahahahahaha;)  So I thoroughly enjoyed my little sweet corn cake PACKED with stringy mozzarella cheese!  Perfect "one handed fair food" :)

My friends, however, opted for a much more Italian APPROPRIATE dinner of sausage with peepers & onions:)  They were quite tempting, as you smelled the peppers & onions on EVERY. SINGLE. BLOCK!

Andddd.....look who we spotted ALSO enjoying San Gennaro!  None other than Mr. John Mayer;) hahahahahhaha....he was just hangin out in the middle of the street!  Guess he was tempted by the peppers & onions too;) 

And finally.....as if all that arepas, Eleni's & Pomme Frites weren't all delectable enough....I now must share the BEST treat of the ENTIRE DAY!!!!!!!!

I've been DYING to try these since I saw them on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate"....so now I present to you the Infamous Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake from "The Stand"!!  Seriously...this thing is SICK!!!  SICK, I TELL YOU!!!!

It was nothing short of incredibleness stuffed in that mini-milkshake glass!  Every sip was drenched in marshmallowy goodness....but the kicker was that you could ALSO taste the "toast" part of it!  My friend dubbed that it tasted like Christmas + a Campfire!  Whichhhhh...we decided "The Christmas Campfire" sounded like a fabulous title for a "Lifetime" movie:)...

Anyway, I digress....RUN, do not walk, to try this shake if you're in the area!  You will NOT be disappointed!  It really was THAT good...

No, seriously...you will be THIS happy;)

hahahahhahahaa....thought you enjoy that moderately scary, yet terribly blog appropriate picture;) hahahahahahahahhaahah.....

A wonderful day of lots of treats and lots & lots (AND LOTS!) of walking!  We think we probably logged around 5+ miles in all of our wandering around the city....so hopefully that helped 'evened' us out a bit;) hahahhahaha:) 

Hope you liked my little "City Treats: NY" guide.....I shall have ANOTHER one for you tomorrow, as I'm a dueling cities gal this weekend;) 

Enjoy your glorious Saturday, whatever city you may be in!!:)

All-Out Onion Burgers!

Well...I decided to embrace one of our (FINGERS CROSSED) LAST 90 degree days yesterday and went with an all-out summer dinner.  This can turn a frown upside down, no?? :)  (It also helped that it was down right GORGEOUS out by dinnertime....breezy & cool:)

I was inspired by those oh-so-pretty sauteed onions in the balsamic glaze yesterday and decided to make an ALL-OUT ONION BURGER:)  hahahahaha....

I started by sauteing 1 chopped up onion and about 5 or 6 chopped scallions until the onions were soft...

Next, Scott mixed the onions (CAREFUL!!  Those babies are H-O-T!) with the ground turkey along with a little Worcestershire, salt, pepper and a little Liquid SMOKE:)  (told you I'd try to use that more;)  A little time on the grill and we had some loverly onion-studded burgers:)

While the burgers were on the grill, I went to work on MORE onions! :)  I sauteed some 'half-moon' onions for about 10 minutes on low heat.  Thennnnnn...it was time for the secret weapon:  The Brown Sugar! :)  A few tablespoons and these babies turned into chewy, sticky glouriousness:) hahahahaha.... :)

And my last factor in my onion-trifecta:  The lovely TJ's English Cheddar with caramelized onions!  Sigghhhhh...does it get any better than that??...

We loaded up the burgers on more of our Farmer's Market foccacia.....(again, I gutted my bread a bit to make more room for the good stuff;)

A few more minutes in the PRESSSSSS to melt the cheese and we were in business:)

Talk about a flavor POWER HOUSE!  This was a delicious mix of tangy cheddar, salty Worcestershire, smoky...er...smoke;), crunchy (and slightly burnt;) foccacia and LOTS & LOTS of onions!  The onions made the burgers SOOOO moist!  Just DELICIOUS!!!

(and don't be frightened, at the last second I threw some pickles in there for good measure;)  hahahahahaha...I love me some pickles on a burger:)

And as our side:  some simple grilled sweet potatoes.  Sliced up, drizzled with olive oil, salt & pepper and tossed on the grill until fork tender and oh-so-pretty with the grill lines;)...

Well...actually...in this PARTICULAR case, the were grilled until our grill ran out of gas! :) hahahahahaha  Thankfully, everything was already done cooking.  Guess the grill is saying it's official farewell to summer too:) hahahahahhaahhahaha....(I kid, I kid....we'll be grillin till old man winter rears his chilly head:)

Soooooooo...the winners of Round One of "Project Food Buzz" will be announced today at 12pm PDT.  I hope I make it, but if not, I've managed to meet some really nice fellow bloggers this week with some really great blogs!  One of them being Erin at EKat's Kitchen, so I decided to join her Friday Potluck Party!:)  Check it out if you have a chance:

Ok...wellllllll, I should have some VERY interesting things to show you the next couple days:)  I won't be in the kitchen today or tomorrow, buttttttt I'll be visiting a few foodie cities nearby...any guesses????;) 

Stay tuned and have a great weekend!! :)

From Simple to Fabulous:)

So last night we had 4 items in the fridge that we knew we wanted to use for our dinner:

• Pork Chops
• Fresh Rosemary
• Broccoli
• Corn

Simple enough, right???  But I decided to go scouring through a few of my cookbooks to see if I could find anything a little more intriguing.  And after stumbling on one I thought sounded so absurd, I figured I'd try it out and see what happened:)  And what happened was this:

We started with Rosemary Pork Chops in a balsamic glaze....

Scott coated the chops in rosemary, salt & pepper and pan seared them until they were cooked through and removed them from the pan.

In the same pan, I threw in a chopped onion and 3 minced cloves of garlic.  They picked up SUCH a nice color from deglazing the pan....

Next, I added in 3 tablespoons of balsamic & a cup of chicken broth and brought that to a boil, letting it simmer until there was only about a half cup of glaze left to pour over the chops...

I loved that not only were the pork chops coated in a nice glaze BUT they were also mounded with all of the onions and LOTS of garlic....YUM!!!

The broccoli was the true wild card, as the first ingredient in the list called for this:

Yes...that is indeed pan crisped salami strips! :)  hahahahahhahahaah  Weird, I know....but I figured why not give it a try! :)

After you remove the thin sliced crispy salami from the frying pan, you toss in a bunch of chopped broccoli.  Then you let it 'bronze' for a few minutes, before adding in MORE chopped onion & garlic and allowing that to cook for a few.  Finally, you add in about a half a cup of chicken broth and let it all simmer until the broccoli was done.  Once it's cooked, you plate it and top it with the crispy salami... 

I know, I know...it seems a little unnecessary to do to a vegetable BUT the broccoli WAS bursting with flavor!  And we loved the little crispy bites of tang & smoke that the salami lended.  We liked it, and I know Scott wants to have this one more often;) hahahahahhahahahhahaa....

And finally, in an attempt to perk up the late summer crop of veggies, we tried making some Brown Butter & Garlic Corn on the Cob!  In a small pan, I melted a few tablespoons of butter over medium heat and swirled it around until it took on a golden color.  And then I threw in about....hmmmm....5 cloves of crushed garlic;)  Go big or go home, right???

Finally, a little salt, pepper & some fresh chopped parsley and we were good to go;) 

We DID love the garlic butter, especially since the 'browning process' gives it a nice, warm & nutty flavor....butttttttttt it still couldn't salvage the late season corn:(  The garlic butter was the only TRUE flavor....

Oh well...we have 3 more ears and then I think it's going to be "Sayonara, corn!" for the year!!! :(  Wayyyy to short of a season this year!!

So yes, despite needing 87 pots to cook dinner:

It turned out to be intriguing, different and SUPER flavorful!!!!  A definite winner in the end:)

And in other news:  Guess what was waiting on the porch for me when I got home!!

Lovely FALL Flavored K-cups!!!!!  I had an Iced (since it's 90 here today:( Pumpkin Spice coffee this morning...and oh-my-heavens was it GOOD!!!!  I drank it in about 8.2 seconds...it was just SO GOOD and actually SPICY! :)

And just for good measure, we also got some "Midnight Magic" & "German Chocolate Cake" cups....

We're a little leery since neither of us were huge fans of the "Chocolate Glazed Donut" cups...so Scott says if the cake is bad, it spells the end for Chocolate Coffee Cups!  Fingers crossed;)

And here's our nifty little bread drawer/turned K-cup drawer that Scott devised;)  Amazing what a little cardboard can do;)

So, is this change of weather killing anyone else????  Not only am I in a TERRIBLE mood seeing as how it is THE FIRST DAY OF FALL and it is NINETY today, but I have been COMPLETELY exhausted all week:(  I haven't felt this tired in MONTHS!  Fingers crossed I'm just worn out and it's not a cold:(  We have too many fun things planned for this weekend to be taken out by a stupid cold!  Oh well....time for some Green Monsters! ;)

And today is the last day to vote for me in Round 1 of the "Project Foodbuzz!"  Just click on the little heart if you like "My Tasty Journey" :)

Have a good Thursday! :) 

Basil Saves the Day...

Last night's dinner may have made it to the table in absolute RECORD time!  Thankfully we had a SUPER easy dinner planned since I ended up getting home a LOT later than I originally planned (more on that in a bit!) and even more so since I had been dreaming about dinner since...ummm...THREE O'CLOCK! ;)   hahahahahahha!  We had reached in the freezer for the leftover Basil Gnocchi and had them with a Fresh Basil Sauce....

Are you ready for this oh-so-complicated recipe??  Well here goes:  First, heat up a few swirls of olive oil in a pan and then toss in as many cloves of minced garlic as your heart desires;)  We were feelin about 5;)

Next, take some fresh basil and slice it into thin strips....

Add the basil to the garlic oil, along with a little salt, pepper & grated cheese.  Mix, mix, mix...and you. are. DONE! :)  It was almost like a 'deconstructed' pesto...

The sauce came together about as quick as the gnocchi took to cook!  In this case, once the water was boiling, these frozen gnocchi only took about 5 MINUTES!  (unlike when they were freshly made, which took 7).   This dinner managed to be SUPER quick, quite delicious and very fresh tasting thanks to the basil....

Gotta love recipes you can double & freeze for random weeknights like this! :)

Now...getting back to the reason we were happy dinner hit the table in 5 minutes, at the risk of me having a near meltdown;)  Well, it all started with an innocent trip to the library after work to return "The Kite Runner," which I ABSOLUTELY ADORED!  It was the best book I've read in I don't know how long....it was IMPOSSIBLE to put down.  So wonderful...yet, soooooooooooo emotional!  I decided a little more lighthearted was NECESSARY after that gut wrencher, so I decided to pick up this:

Laurie Notaro's books are HILARIOUS, so I'm hoping this one makes up for the fact that as soon as I checked this book out....I went to reach for my keys and realized they were GONE!!!  GONE!  I retraced all of my steps once, twice....FIFTEEN times!  Finally 87 laps and 40 panic-inducing minutes later, the front desk suggested I check with the rather-tucked-away reference desk, who had the keys sitting next to her as soon as I walked up!  I could have kissed her & the keys!!!!!! :)  hahahahahaha...but I composed myself long enough to get the hell home and cook for all of 10 minutes ;)  PHEW...

So yeah...that was my night;)  Hopefully today will be LESS eventful;)  hahahahahaha....Have a good Wednesday:)

Oh...and today is the last day to vote for me for Round 1 of "Project Food Buzz!"  If you like my blog, and have a minutes, please click here:) 

OK!  NOW I'M DONE! :)