Tilapia Fish Tacos

Fresh Direct was having a sale on tilapia and suggested making fish tacos for dinner.  We are very open to suggestion, so... we did.  And they were yummy!

To make the tilapia, we followed a Food Network recipe for baking it.  We used Old Bay seasoning rather than salt and pepper, but followed the recipe closely other than that.  After the requisite 12 minutes in the oven, the filets didn't seem cooked all the way through.  So we quickly flashed them on a pan until even the thickest parts were nicely flaky (about a minute per side).  End result:  moist and aromatically scrumptious.

To amp up the whole "fish taco" theme, we made a quick guac by mixing peach & mango salsa with ripe avocado and a splash of lime juice and salt.  We baked some kale crisps to add crunch, threw in some shredded cheese and fresh cilantro for zing, and toasted corn tortillas to house the whole kit and kaboodle. 

 Yummers!  Thanks for the idea, Fresh Direct!

Brunch with the Bhaura Ladies

How lucky are we that Jaz and Baby Bhaura will be staying in NYC for spell?!?!  We couldn't wait to see them for our first brunch playdate.  We headed to midtown for some hugs and some grub at Whym.

None of us had ever been to Whym before, but it seemed pretty popular on Yelp for weekend brunches.  The space is great (very light, airy, hip), and the staff were all very welcoming/accommodating to a group with a stroller.

The food was what you'd expect for brunch.  Jaz tried the grits and eggs with sausage, a dish which people raved about online, and said it was quite tasty but the grits were overwhelmingly filling.  

DJ opted for fried chicken sliders, and was a bit disappointed by the meat-to-bun ratio.  He knew the sliders would be small, but at least hoped that they'd pile on a decent amount of chicken.  He wound up with more bites of bread than anything else.

And Mel tried the kale Caesar salad with salmon.  The salmon was cooked perfectly, but calling it a "kale salad" was a bit misleading.  There was one delightfully crunchy piece of kale beneath the salmon, but the rest of the salad was a mix of other greens as well.  She was hoping for a full super-food kale experience.  Ah well.

Overall, Whym is a good spot if you're in the midtown area and hankering for a meal with nice ambience.  But we don't think we'll go out of our way to return.  We will, however, go out of our way to spend tons of time with Jaz and Baby Bhaura before they return to London.  Hooray for playdates!

Cafe D'Alsace with the Frenchie

We've had Cafe D'Alsace on our radar for quite some time, and finally got a chance to try it out with Carole.  She has gotten take-out from there several times and said it was quite good, so we were psyched to check it out ourselves.

The decor is an effort to make you feel like you're in a French bistro - very quaint.

After noshing on some tasty fresh bread, we started in by sharing sips of the green pea soup from DJ's prix fixe.  The croutons in the center were delectable with a hint of garlic, and the soup itself had notes of bacon but the focus definitely remained on the crisp flavor of fresh green peas.  Fabulous!

Then DJ went with the mushroom ravioli (yummers!)...

Mel got the duck (prepared medium rare) and Carole got the chicken.  The duck and chicken plates were nearly identical in terms of side dishes, and both were prepared perfectly.  (Pictured below is the duck.)

Then, thanks to DJ's prix fixe, we got to sample the peach tart with vanilla ice cream.  A pure delight.  The pastry crust was beautifully flaky, the peach was clearly fresh not canned, and the ice cream was an ultimate creamy French vanilla.  

By the end of the meal, we were regretting that we hadn't tried Cafe D'Alsace sooner so we could have been going more often!  We'll definitely be back for some soul-warming food on the approaching cold winter nights.

Baked Oatmeal in the Slow Cooker

We've been trying to find an alternative to buying fiber bars from the health food store.  (Yes - we eat fiber bars, and no - we're not ashamed to admit it.  Fiber's a very important part of daily nutrition, and the average American diet does not include enough of it.)  The good bars are expensive, and the cheap ones are sugary.  Our friend Nilda swears by the baked oatmeal she makes in her slow cooker, so we decided to try the recipe she posted on her blog and include flax seeds.

As Nilda says in her entry, this recipe couldn't be simpler.  Mixing everything together probably took about 10 minutes tops.  Then we greased the sides of the Crock Pot with melted butter (since we don't have cooking spray), and spread the mix along the bottom.  

Once again accounting for our slow cooker's strength, we set the time for 1.5 hours rather than 2 and then kept a close eye to make sure it didn't burn.  Lo and behold, after about an hour and 15 minutes, the sides became a very dark brown and the center firmed up so we knew it was done.

And the end result?  DELICIOUS!!!  Can't wait to bring pieces of this to work in the morning.  And since we included flax seeds, we're hoping this will be a nice healthy alternative to the store-bought fiber bars.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Mole

One day out of the blue, DJ remembered a time we had attempted making Mexican mole sauce (thick, chocolatey and spicy) at home.  We couldn't find a blog entry about it with the original recipe we tried, and realized that it was definitely time to try it again.  So a quick Google search led us to a Martha Stewart recipe.  All her legal issues aside, her recipes are usually pretty easy to follow with ingredients you can actually find at a grocery store.  Let the adventure begin!

You combine all the ingredients  (we couldn't find dried ancho chiles, so we used 1 fresh poblano pepper instead)...

and blend until fully saucy. 

 

Then you pour the sauce over the chicken in the slow-cooker, and let the slow-cooker do its slow cooking for about 4 hours.  Having been around the block a few times with our Crock Pot by now, we knew to deduct the cooking time to account for its strength.  So after about 2.5 hours we took one piece of chicken out to check for pinkness, and it was perfectly cooked through and still juicy.  Hooray for not leaving it in too long and drying it out!

One reviewer on the recipe page did mention that it needed a bit more salt.  So once everything was cooked, we added salt to taste.  After a few dashes of the shaker, the deep mole flavor definitely came out a lot more.  So we also recommend adding salt to your liking.
 

 

Served with sauteed spaghetti squash and swiss chard, this mole chicken knocked our socks off.  We weren't sure if substituting the fresh poblano for the dried chile would make a huge difference, but the sauce had the perfect amount of heat and a hint of the chocolatey flavor that makes mole special.  The mole we've had at restaurants is usually a bit darker, so we think next time we might add a bit more chocolate.  But no matter what, we will definitely be making this again!

Bison - It's What's For Dinner

You read the title of this post correctly.  We did indeed say "Bison" - not "Beef."  Fresh Direct had a pop-up window heralding bison meat, and we were intrigued.  Upon further research, we learned that bison is leaner and higher in iron than other meats.  The National Bison Association also makes sure the animals are handled as little as possible, and they oppose the use of any chemicals.  A lot of restaurants even offer bison burgers now.  

 (from 3rd Avenue Ale House)

Needless to say, we were convinced and added a pack of it to our cart - ready for a cooking adventure!

We really like the way DJ's mom prepares beef tibs, so we figured we'd try her recipe with the bison.  First we let the meat marinate in a dark beer (Leffe Brown) for 2 nights.  Then we followed the beef tibs recipe:

1.  sautee garlic and onion until caramelized

2.  remove onions from heat

3.  add sprigs of rosemary and the meat to the pan and sautee until water dissipates

We paired our bison with roasted sweet potato discs and sauteed swiss chard, and prepared to have our minds blown by this miracle meat.

Annnnnnnd.... it was a bit tough.  :-/  Wahhh.  

On a positive note, we could definitely detect the flavor of the beer, so we learned that Leffe Brown is awesome for marination.  But we realized that perhaps since bison is so lean and cooks so quickly, it might not be best to prepare it exactly like fattier cuts of beef.  Oops.  So yes - we haven't given up on bison.  We think it sounds great on paper.  We just need to be careful to find recipes that suit its nature. 

"I am NOT a cow.  Don't cook me like one."

Spaghetti Squash - Two Ways

A friend posted a picture of her dinner on Facebook that looked healthy and delectable.  The caption read: "spaghetti squash with tomato and mozzarella."  We thought that was a clever nickname she gave the dish because she topped the squash like pasta.  But lo and behold, there is such a thing as spaghetti squash!  It got its name because, rather than mushing like a potato, the squash (when roasted) actually flakes away from its skin in strands that look just like spaghetti!

Inspired by the name, we decide to jazz it up by stuffing the roasted squash halves with a mixture of ricotta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, a bit of tomato paste and Italian seasoning.  Sprinkled with a bit of mozarella cheese on top, it made a tasty vegetarian meal.  

 And if we hadn't told you otherwise, wouldn't you think this is spaghetti?!

The end result was tasty, but we realized that the strands of squash deeper below the stuffing didn't have much sauce or filling to go with them.  So with the other spaghetti squash we bought, we made a casserole.  We roasted the squash halves, and then pulled all the strands away from the skin.  We then treated the strands like pasta and mixed them with a cheese sauce (almond milk, shredded cheese, ricotta cheese, and seasoning mixed together over heat until properly saucy).  Spread throughout a baking dish, sprinkled with a topping of mozzarella cheese, and baked 'till bubbly -- it's like a mac and cheese remix!  :)

Before

After

Football Sunday: 3rd Avenue Ale House

Are you ready for some FOOTBAAAAAAAAALLLLLL?!!!??!?!?!?!?!?!

We are!  And to kick off football season, we headed to one of our favorite local haunts: 3rd Avenue Ale House.  We're surprised to realize that this place hasn't made it on the blog yet.  We wind up going there often to grab a drink with co-workers.  But usually the focus is on the beer, not the food.  So perhaps that's why we haven't done a write up yet.  That said, we love this place!  They have a vast selection of beers, and the food is perfect pub fare. 

It can't be football without wings, so we got an order of their hottest ones (yummy!).  Mel paired hers with a 3rd Avenue Ale Salad (super tasty!), 

 

and DJ got an order of the Crawfish Hush Puppies (delicious, and they did not scrimp on the crawfish).

Perhaps what we loved most about this place is that they play every game, yet it's not as crowded and rowdy as a sports bar.  You really can sit, relax and enjoy without being jostled or screamed around every 5 seconds.  Cheers to that!  This place is definitely a neighborhood gem.

Brunch at Ofrenda

The few times we've been to Mercadito, we noticed another Mexican restaurant across the street - Ofrenda.  According to reviews online, they offer some of the best Mexican cuisine in the city.  So on a lazy Saturday we decided to check them out. 

The decor is very quaint, and the staff very welcoming.  We started with an order of guac, which quickly rose in the ranks to one of our top 3 favorite! 

Then we both couldn't resist trying the chilaquiles to broaden our comparison to our room service addiction at Le Blanc in Cancun.  :)  Since it was brunch, the chilaquiles came with eggs and an option to add steak.  Mel went with just the eggs; DJ splurged on the steak.

 

Overall, we liked the flavor but we enjoyed El Paso's version of the dish more for a few reasons. 

1.  The salsa verde was tasty, but was missing that extra kick of smokey spice.

2.  The eggs didn't pair as well with the tortilla casserole as other proteins like chicken or fish.

3.  The serving size was overwhelmingly huge.  Mel only ate about a fourth of hers, DJ just a bit more than that, and we felt stuffed for the rest of the day.

Don't get us wrong!  We enjoyed the vibe of Ofrenda a lot.  The guac was truly top notch, and the margarita just the right amount of fiesty.  They have a much larger seating area than Mercadito, AND a daily happy hour which will suit us well when with a group of friends.  Next time we go, we'll just try other main courses. :)

Chillin' in Grand Cayman

To celebrate the end of summer, we headed to Grand Cayman for a long weekend.  

It was a very low-key trip meant for relaxation, so we didn't set out for any huge foodie finds.  Most days we would split a sandwich at the pool bar.

But the hotel lobby had a lovely magazine filled with the scoop on the amazing culinary delights the island has to offer.

So we did motivate to try two places.  Blue Cilantro received rave reviews because of their famed chef, so we checked it out one rainy evening.  We didn't bring cameras, but the food and atmosphere were every bit worth the walk down the road.

Lucky for us, the other restaurant we wanted to try was part of our hotel!  Hemingways is known for its great cuisine and live music on weekends.  So we got a seat right by the band and enjoyed the island sounds while watching the lightning of a thunderstorm over the ocean.  Ultimate relaxation!

 lobster salad

calamari

jerk mahi mahi

almond crusted red snapper

sticky toffee pudding 

(a favorite dessert on the island)

 Cheers to an island good time!