Bacon and Eggs with Kale

Here's a way to make kale unhealthy. By cooking everything in bacon grease, we can infuse rich salty goodness into our eggs and kale, making them a little less boring for the weekend. Trust me, I don't eat like this every day. For the past two weeks, I've been saying NO to wheat, dairy and sugar on weekdays and have shed a few pounds just in time for the Thanksgiving binge. Aside from that, I just feel energized and healthy. You'll be seeing some of my wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free recipes as soon as I stop being so busy ("busy" meaning that I spent all last weekend reading Gone Girl in time to see it in the theater this weekend).

Sweet Ham and Gouda Crepes

Crepes are my kryptonite. I make homemade crepes once every 4 or 5 months, always on a weekend. And I eat those crepes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For breakfast, I’ll top a stack of crepes with fresh strawberries or bananas and a hefty pour of maple syrup. For lunch and dinner, I’ll use crepes as a blanket in which to wrap savory things. For dessert, I’ll have crepes with maple syrup again, or Nutella if it’s on hand. 

 

Thai-ish Turkey Mushroom Lettuce Wraps

You’re growing tired of the taste of pasta and pizza.  You need something fresh, something to awaken your taste buds, and something that doesn’t have carbs.  It’s summer after all and you wanna shed those winter pounds.  Enter the lettuce wrap.  I crave the flavors of soy sauce, rice vinegar, cilantro and sriracha all thrown together inside a crunchy iceberg shell.  Lean ground turkey adds protein.  Mushrooms add some umami.  This is your new after-work, warm weather dinner. Who knew Monday nights could be so exciting...

Chorizo and Pepperoncini Sandwich

This sandwich may look easy to throw together, but it's a combo you might not have thought of before. It's inspired by a sandwich I had a few times at Forager's City Grocer in Dumbo, Brooklyn made with spicy soppressata instead of chorizo. The first occasion on which I ate one was last summer while driving, sans napkins, hoping I wouldn't end up with bright orange soppressata drippings on my jeans. The next occasion was much more pleasant as I shared the sandwich with Alan on a picnic table by the water on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade after a bike ride.

Pappardelle with Bolognese Sauce

On Valentine’s Day, Alan and I decided to stay cozy at home and make some homemade pasta and bolognese sauce.  How romantic-o. Plus, I’d been craving a hearty meat sauce all week.  As the sauce simmered away, we cranked homemade pasta dough through the pasta maker he gave me for Christmas.  The dish turned out really good and we were so stuffed, we could barely move.  

Turkey and White Bean Chili

I have a confession to make.  I don’t really follow recipes accurately.  I get so anxious to start cooking that I forget to set up my mis en place, meaning I don’t prep all the ingredients I need so that they’re within reach.  This leads to overheated oil in the pan, oddly shaped vegetable pieces, burnt rice, undercooked onions, over-seasoned food and missing ingredients.  I think my hastiness stems from my over-excitement at finally finding some time to cook the dish I’ve been thinking about all week.  What you see here is my third attempt at Martha Stewart’s Turkey and White Bean Chili.  

Chicken Teriyaki with Sesame Seed Broccoli and Sticky Rice

I needed chicken thigh filets, but my neighborhood market only had bone-in chicken thighs attached to legs.  “I can just separate and de-bone them,” were my last words before I was elbow deep in stuff that I never knew existed inside a chicken part.  After an hour, I had finally hacked off enough meat to work with but had burned my sushi rice to a crisp in the process. When I opened the lid of the garbage pail (which was also serving as a food photography station) to throw out the crusty remains, it pushed the diffuser umbrella into a bottle of tequila on the window sill that flew toward the kitchen floor.

Beef Stew

Every year around this time, when the air is as sharp and cold as a chef’s knife against my cheeks, I extract a wrinkled and worn beef stew recipe from my fat manilla recipe folder.  Friends come from as far as Bushwick and even Grammercy to get a taste of hot stew and to share in my love of beef...beef that falls apart like a contestant on The Bachelor.  Last Saturday, I chopped, peeled, stirred and cursed all day in preparation for the night’s shindig, my 4th Annual Beef Stew Dinner, which also included homemade pickles in three colors of the rainbow, an asparagus salad that will make you Tweet, a batch of homemade baked ricotta cheese and a stack of shiny, cracked brownie cookies. 

Baked Cannelini Beans with Sage and Proscuitto

A wise person once said that the path to success is paved with failure.  Well, the proof is in the pudding or shall I say, the baked cannelini beans.  Earlier this week I tried to be a culinary wizard by inventing a “lazy man’s” pork bun.  I steamed Pilsbury Buttermilk Biscuits and made a quick pulled pork by boiling pork loin in chicken stock and Hoisin sauce.  There are so many things wrong with this picture.  First of all, I committed a cardinal sin by not browning my pork before boiling it.  Second of all, Hoisin sauce smells horrendous when boiled for an hour.  And third of all, pork loin is the worst cut of pork to make pulled pork with.  The result of this sorcery was rubbery dog food in a trans fat bun.  That didn’t stop me from eating two of them, because I’m hungry like that, but I had a mild panic attack over what my experimental buns might have done to my insides. 

Roasted Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches with Apple Fennel Slaw

An addiction to pork is a serious matter.  Sufferers live for their next hit of pork in any style they can get it.  My name is Dorie and I’m a porkaholic.  (Un)fortunately Brooklyn happens to be a mecca for pork lovers.  My neighborhood BBQ spot, The Smoke Joint, offers piles of juicy pulled pork with sweet, creamy coleslaw and pickles.  The Meatball Shop on Bedford Avenue serves up spicy pork meatballs with a selection of sauces and sandwich styles which you choose by placing checkmarks on their wipe-off menus.  David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar provides my pork bun fix with mounds of high-flavor shredded pork enclosed in hot steamed buns showered with thinly sliced cucumbers and made spicy with an optional squirt of Siracha sauce.  I can’t forget the pulled pork and cheese stuffed quesadilla at Calexico in Greenpoint dressed with their aptly named “chipotle crack sauce”.  Needless to say, I will probably never leave Brooklyn.

Roasted Rosemary Chicken and Root Vegetables

Fall has crept in.  The chillier air has allowed this Brooklyn-ite to fire up her stove without the fear of heating the apartment to an unbearable temperature.  Summer was a whirlwind of weddings, road trips, flights and outdoor drinking sessions.  Getting back to the kitchen, back to a domestic pace has been a nice change from all the buzzing around.  Now I can resume my weekly trips to the farmers market, trips which I unfortunately passed up during those months where produce was at its sexiest; plump red tomatoes, berries and stone fruit.  Well, There is just as much beauty in the root vegetable.  Dimmer colors for a dimmer season.  I won’t enjoy emerging from my office at 6pm to pitch black darkness, but shorter days just come with the territory.  Tis the season for coming home, slipping on fuzzy socks and roasting up some chicken and vegetables that will last a few meals.  I hope you enjoy this Fall staple of mine.

Poached Egg with Crispy Prosciutto

I’m intimidated by a package of bacon.  There are too many strips of it (which I know I’ll be eating all by myself), it leaves a big pan of oil that I never know how to discard correctly (my boyfriend used to pour his bacon drippings in the potted plants outside) and it showers the entire kitchen in a greasy mist (stove, counters, walls, shirt, everywhere).

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast

Is chicken boring the crap out of you?  I see chicken as a blank slate, desperately in need of a pulling, a shredding, a pounding, a battering, a sear, a roast or a glaze.  Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast is worth the time, effort and the use of two heat sources (stove top and oven).  You’ll end up with a crisp cheesy crust on the outside and juicy meat on the inside.  Serve with a fresh crunchy salad and you’re good to go.

Fennel and Arugula Salad with Pan Seared Chicken Sausage

I can’t get enough greens.  I’m a salad addict.  This is my all time favorite salad to make at home in the warmer months.  I can eat it every single evening for 3 months straight and have done so repeatedly over the past 4 years.  Recently I added shallots to my recipe which elevated the flavor to crazy new heights.  You can leave out the shallots; heck you can even leave out most of the olive oil if you’re watching your fats and it’ll still be the most refreshing summer salad to pair with grilled proteins and a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio!  

 

Simple Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is one of my favorite things in the world.  It takes many hours to get it to fall apart, but when it does, it’s well worth the wait! Use pulled pork for tacos, sandwiches or by itself and topped with barbeque sauce, hot sauce, tomato sauce, guacamole, etc.  Pork shoulder is the best cut of meat to make pulled pork with, but often it’s hard to find a small portion of pork shoulder.  My local market has a butchering section where I was able to get about a 2 pound portion which is perfect for about 2-4 servings depending on how it’s served.  If you buy a whole shoulder, you’ll have to cook it for many more hours (6-8!) and you’ll have to invite all your friends over to help eat it, so try to find a butcher who can give you a small cut.