welcome weekend...

Things I've got lined up this weekend:  cocktail party at a friend's apartment; baking triple chocolate pecan cookies; dinner at Alta with some girl friends; part two of my knitting class at Lion Brand Yarn ...and I'll throw some running in there somewhere!

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

dinner party to ring in 2011

To ring in 2011 I hosted my first dinner party for some friends at my apartment.  For those of you who follow my blog, you may notice the menu looks a little familiar!  To decorate my little kitchen table I bought a scarf that I could use as a tablecloth and arranged a bouquet of new years horns to add a festive touch.

hors d'oeuvres:
holiday goat cheese log w rosemary flatbreads
gruyere puffs
mexican dip (brought by my friend Meredith)

main course:
chive popovers
roast beef tenderloin with merlot and shallots
spinach gratin (brought by the lovely Christina)

dessert:
caramel topped semolina cake (from Around My French Table, which I got for Christmas from my sister!)
assorted christmas cookies

**please excuse my dessert picture.  By the time dessert rolled around I had had one too many glasses of champagne and taking pictures of the table slipped my mind (gasp!).  Above is a picture I'd taken earlier on my phone!

As always, I've linked all the recipes I could find online, but if you'd like a recipe that I haven't posted just ask!

aureole

Last week I went to Charlie Palmer's restaurant, Aureole, for dinner.  This restaurant is seriously amazing and I would say one of the better meals I've had.  Surprisingly it is located right in the heart of times square, although unlike it's neighbors Aureole's clientele is not made up of hoards of tourists!  If you sit by 6 pm (yes, I know how early that is), there is a pre-theater 3 course menu....which is precisely what we did.

To start we all ordered the Spicy Crab Soup, served with tuscan kale, slow roasted cherry tomatoes, pickled jalapenos and pearl pasta.

For my main course, I had Flank Steak served with creamed spinach (which was by far the best I have ever had), maitake mushrooms, cauliflower and sauce robert.

One of my dining companions ordered the Organic Scottish Salmon served with horseradish potato gnocchi (so interesting and tasty), mustard greens, gala apples and red beets.

Finally, for dessert we had Coconut Panna Cotta with lime, rum scented pineapple and macadamia....think a deconstructed pina colada!

Warm Chocolate Gingerbread with spiced cranberry chutney and clotted cream.

And as if that weren't enough deliciousness for one evening, we were given an extra special treat of three churros with chocolate sauce for dipping to finish off this wonderful meal!

happy new year

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for reading my blog and wish all my readers a very happy, healthy and safe new years eve! 

To say goodbye to 2010, I am throwing my first dinner party for some friends at my apartment this evening.  How are you ringing in 2011?

great holiday cookies

Last weekend, my friend Christina and I went to a class at the Institute of Culinary Education called Great Holiday Cookies.  The class had about 16 students at various levels of baking.  We received a packet of 23 Nick Malgeri recipes (split into six categories:  rolled cookies, bar cookies, drop cookies, piped cookies, refrigerator cookies, and sandwich cookies), split into groups of two and got to baking.  Christina and I chose to make hazelnut butterscotch sandwiches and pinwheels.

At the end of the class all of the groups shared their cookies, so Christina and I both walked away with about 15 different types of cookies!

Christina and I taking a break from baking!

Gail Simmons went to ICE!

As always, if you would like a recipe I reference in my blog that I don't list please contact me directly and I would be happy to share!

christmas dinner menu

hors d'oeuvres:
holiday goat cheese log
eggplant and sausage tartlets
gruyere puffs

main course:
butternut squash soup
roast beef tenderloin with merlot and shallots
chive popovers
brussels sprouts with marjoram and pine nuts
maple glazed yams with pecan topping
broccoli casserole

recipes from sweet stuff by karen barker

dessert:
peppermint pattie cake
peppermint stick ice cream
assorted christmas cookies

**I tried to link all recipes I could find online.  If you'd like a recipe of anything above, as always please contact me directly!

Banana Bread

Christmas morning my family likes to have a bread ready for breakfast, so that we have something delicious but that we don't have to make that morning.  Usually we have a Cranberry Nut Bread, but this year I decided to mix it up with a Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

As my mom put it, this is Banana Bread for people who don't even like Banana Bread that much - so good and very easy (and this bread freezes very well!).  Make sure not to fill the pan over 3/4 of the way full!

**Hint:  if you have a ripe bananas laying around your kitchen, pop them in the freezer until you are ready to bake your banana bread.  Just take them out about an hour before you are ready to bake.