Dear Snow Day......

Dear Snow Day,

Nothing makes me happier than to see you when I get back from a vacation and am not ready to return to work. You are all things beautiful and I appreciate you more and more every year. I will take the wet pants and slow taxis any day just to see you. I'll take the chapped lips, runny noses and cold feet. But most of all, Snow Day, I'll take the schnitzel.

Oh the schnitzel, my new favorite dish. I could write poems about schnitzel. I could eat every day, all day.

We He started by lining up bowls of flour, eggs and bread crumbs mixed with any of your favorite spices:

As you can see, we decided to have some peas on the side.

Pound the chicken so it's flat and just dip the chicken on down the line. Now, Snow Day, you know that my lack of cooking skills has become somewhat of a barrier in my relationship, but you will be happy to know, the Israeli actually let me help with this part. It was a Snow Day Miracle!

And you are ready to fry some chicken!

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry chicken in hot oil on both sides for 1-2 minutes per side or until golden brown.

And viola! It's all yours! You might want to add some roasted vegetables and some mashed potatoes to balance out the golden fried goodness...

So Snow Day, thank you for the day off, the beautiful white (now black) powder on the sidewalk, and, of course, the schnitzel. Nothing could make for a better day...

Love Always,
Abby

Utah Part II

Being in Utah was a breath of fresh air......both literally and figuratively. Between the altitude, lack of smog and cold, crisp air, my nasal passages were free as a bird. The people (Utahians??) are so unbelievably gracious and accommodating, I was almost embarrassed for them. Being from New York, coupled with being Jewish and from New York, when people are that nice, I think they want something from me. So despite the constant feeling that I owe somebody something, things in Utah were looking good.

Now after a long morning of falling on my head.....

I worked up quite a large appetite. Now I tend to stay away from mass produced food served buffet style as they usually consist of soggy croutons, chewy meat and used band aids, however, I have give Deer Valley Lodge some props. The salad was fresh, crispy and plentiful while the chili con carne was rich, savory and flavorful (I just made myself hungry). Now the Israeli opted to have the massive baked potato lathered in beef stew which was heavy and delicious, however, his digestive system gave out and suffered with heart burn for the rest of the trip. It was either that or the spicy chicken wings, the buffalo burger, 4 twix bars, eggs, bacon, etc...but that's just a guess.

It was the exact hearty meal I needed to continue falling skiing down the mountain. If anyone has a good recipe, please be sure to send it to me.

Utah Part 1

So I've never been much of skier. There were some issues back in ski-wee school and let's just say I was not asked back to class the next day. I dabbled in it here and there since but never really got into it. So when the Israeli asked if I would like to take an impromptutu vacation to Utah, I said, "uh......ok". So off to Utah we went, only after maxing out my credit cards on totally unnecessary ski gear.

Our first meal was amazing and nutritious (can you sense the sarcasm?). The wonderful airline that will remain unnamed (DELTA) not only took off two hours late, but ran out of food. RAN OUT OF FOOD! Not that I was looking forward to the miniature sized, overly processed cheese sandwich, but listen, when hunger calls, I answer and my stomach was being neglected. So upon arriving, we suckered the hotel concierge into opening the snack bar up for us at 2am and got some, well, snacks?

More to come of our Utah adventure.......

Christmas Meatballs

Aaaaaah.......Christmas. What an amazing time to live in new York. I love the sound of homeless Santa bells in the morning, the site of reindeer antlers on grown men and, of course, the below freezing temperatures that deliver the wonderful electric shock through my body as I try to open my door. Given that I'm Jewish, I don't even slightly benefit from all of this holiday cheer which makes everything oh so much better.

Anyhoo, what I do love is a good party. And everyone knows, holiday parties are awesome. There is bound to be some poor guy who went a little heavy on the wine spritzers and profoundly embarrasses himself amongst 100 of his closest strangers. I love that guy.......I am that guy. So, when the Israeli told me about a friends party in Brooklyn that he has every year for about 50 people, I was happy to oblige.

So this apartment was in the Carol Gardens section of Brooklyn, which I've always loved. An uber friendly chick graciously welcomed us into his home and given that I hadn't eaten since that morning, I headed straight for the food. Immediately I spotted the caviar sprinked over shrimp salad covered in dill on a water cracker. I fell in love. I could have eaten them all but I decided to be somewhat polite. I am a lady you know......that just cracked me up. Then I tried the smoked fish, the white fish, the dates and bacon, the spinach/ artichoke dip......the array of food was astounding and I was loving every minute. For fear that I was hogging all of the delicacies, I decided to take a break and have some glug-the spiced Swedish wine. That was a mistake. You see, when you have 50 people in your apartment, things tend to get a bit toasty. So when having a spiced alcoholic beverage at say 100 degrees, things start to get interesting. You see, part of my charm is my intolerance to extremes of temperature. Being too hot or too cold is akin to Chinese water torture. So I started to burn up.......like, I was sure I was going to pass out face first in the gingerbread cookies. So, let's just say my night of eating was pretty much over.

However, the main dish was yet to come and I had to try. The Swedish meatballs......the host graciously stayed up until the wee hours of morning hand rolling 300 meatballs for his guests to indulge on.

What a guy.....and the love showed. The balls were excellent and went quickly. The Israeli had about 16 and I only had 1, given my current state of hyperthermia. All was great in Carol Gardens.

And then.....I met him....

His name is Teddy. And were in love.

Pasta, Fish and some Black Swan

So The Israeli and I decide to see Black Swan --WARNING! WARNING! GO FOR TEQUILA SHOTS AFTER THE MOVIE OR RISK HAVING PERSISTENT NIGHT TERRORS-- Friday night and of course, I will need a nice, hearty meal to get me through those 2 hours. As always, my job is to bring the wine, his job to prepare a delectable 4 course menu in under 2 hours. I think that's fair, right? So off to whole foods he went to satisfy my every need......ok, maybe not EVERY need, but this is not that kind of blog.

So here's the menu:

A beautiful fresh linguine with just a touch of squeezed tomato, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. A nice arugula salad, an assortment of delicious cheeses and a touch of olive oil.

Now for the fish..I am linking to this recipe because it neither mine nor the Israeli's and I prefer to give credit where credit is due.

The issue was getting that fish out of the salt cast. It took some manipulation, but we were able to release this creature from its salty death. This was a 2.5 pound red snapper. There was more meat in there then the gym on Wall Street at 6pm.

All in all is was a great meal. Not his finest, but, like my blogging skills, its a work in progress.

Afternoon Delight

So I have been meaning to start this blog for a few weeks now but my laziness combined with my borderline alcoholism work has made it difficult. However, my surprise iPad has made blogging a subway activity which is much more convenient for my daily habits routine.

So my boyfriend-who I will further refer to as "the Israeli" (original-no....accurate- aaaabsolutely) decided to host a beautiful brunch this past Saturday. He happens to be an excellent chef which is both attractive and practical, given my lack of cooking skills coupled with my need to eat at least once an hour. The only problem is that all of his friends continually speak Hebrew and I, the little American, do not. This makes brunch with them equivalent to dining with Ewoks, although not as cute. The good news is that all it takes is a good meal and some decent wine to make me happy, so all was well.

To start of we had Sabich. For those of you readers who are not adept in Israeli food, let me explain:
Sabich is an Iraqi dish which Israeli's like to feast on some Saturday mornings. It must include eggplant, hard boiled egg, potatoes, parsley, tahini and pita bread to "wipe" it up with.

We decided to take the more healthy approach and instead of frying the eggplant, we cooked it in the oven.

WARNING!!! DEPENDING ON THE SENSITIVITY OF YOUR FIRE ALARM, YOU WILL BE ANNOYED BY THE CONSTANT RINGING.

The carbon monoxide alarm was going off as well, but, hey, I'm still here.....

Then scrape out the eggplant, add some olive oil and salt and voila! Behold the golden eggplant!

On separate dishes, so everyone can add their desired amounts, put the hard-boiled eggs (cooked for at least 8 hours), the tahini (preferably Lebanese), roasted potatoes, parsley, some salt and pepper and the deliciousness is all yours....
Easy enough
Drooling yet? If not, let me proceed. Next we had Shakshuka, which if you live in NYC then you probably have had:

Fry up some garlic (about 8 cloves), add some oil, 2 tablespoons of sweet paprika and cook until golden.

These are the times when I wish our technology was sophisticated enough for you to smell the aromas wafting through the apartment because, if you could, I guarantee you would be licking your computer screen right about now.

Add about 6 tomatoes, either from a can or fresh and cook for 20 minutes. Next you can add jalapenos to your desired spiciness, add a half cup of oil, some black pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

When adding the eggs, only use half of them with the whites still attached. The egg whites can absorb the flavor of the sauce and, well, that's the best part so just don't do it. And here you are......

So beautiful......
To add to this meal, we prepared mimosas- which are as necessary as milk in you cereal in a proper brunch and a bottle of amazing wine, that I accidentally opened and was later reprimanded for. (Seriously people, if you don’t want me to drink something, then you must hide it, otherwise it’s going right down the gullet).

And that was my beautiful Saturday afternoon which I ended with a long nap. Now that I am sufficiently sweating through my winter coat on the subway and the guy next to me has begun picking his nose with a pen cap, this post is officially over until my next meal…..in approximately 5 minutes.