Shavuot - I want to convert

Thanks to TK I have learned about a holiday on the Jewish calendar, Shavuot. To celebrate this holiday, you eat cheesecake. OH MY!!!! Why haven't I heard of this holiday until now? And where can I sign up!

Why eat dairy? According to Wikipedia, this is why:

Dairy foods such as cheesecake, mushroom-filled blintzes and cheese-filled blintzes are traditionally served on Shavuot. One explanation for the consumption of dairy foods on this holiday is that the Israelites had not yet received the Torah, with its laws of shechita (ritual slaughtering of animals). As the food they had prepared beforehand was not in accordance with these laws, they opted to eat simple dairy meals to honor the holiday. Some say it harks back to King Solomon's portrayal of the Torah as "honey and milk are under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11).

TK was sweet enough to bring me a piece from her celebration with a chocolate cookie crust. Creamy, rich and delicious!!!! What a way to kick off a three day weekend!

Golden Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives - It's Real Simple!

I knew that this week was going to be a busy one. That being said, I spent my Sunday preparing some healthy quick meals for the week. For an easy, low-cal meal I decided to try one that recently caught my eye in Real Simple magazine called Golden Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives.

1 cup long-grain rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thirds
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large yellow or other kind of onion, thinly sliced
1 cup large pimiento-stuffed olives, quartered
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
3/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

If using, cook the rice according to the package directions.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate. Add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly soft, 5 minutes. Add the olives, garlic, and tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. Return the chicken to the skillet, add the wine, and bring to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has slightly thickened, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the parsley. Divide the chicken among individual plates and spoon the sauce over the top. Serve with the rice.
Makes 4 servings.

This "sauce" would also work very well over a firm white fish, shrimp, pasta or even some lean pork. A nice little trick to have these pantry ingredients on hand to liven up what would otherwise be an everyday boring meal.

I substituted olive oil Pam for the oil to shave off a few calories and used a sweeter Italian white that I had on hand versus the suggested Sauvignon Blanc. I was surprised how tasty this dish was and how the salt of the olives was a perfect complement to the sweet of the onions (I used yellow) and tomatoes. I continually seasoned the dish throughout the cooking process as well, which is my usual method but otherwise pretty much stuck to what is written above.

This dish came out so well; that I offered some to Piggytails for lunch. When something is this good; it is hard to keep to yourself!

Don't you wish you sat near me at work?

Frutti di Mare with Donatella

I finally found an opportunity to try out my Donatella tomato sauce. My preparation was super easy and the result was well beyond my expectations.

I started by defrosting a frozen seafood blend of scallops, shrimp and calamari from Trader Joe's. After a brief saute in a pan with some minced garlic, I added the jar of Donatella arrabbiata sauce along with a bit of chicken stock. A generous squirt of tomato paste, salt, pepper, garlic powder and some crushed red pepper and I was done. Convenience food at its very best!

In hindsight, some squid ink pasta would have made this dish absolutely incredible, but I made do with the whole wheat pasta I had on hand. When the water boiled, I turned off the heat from the sauce so as not to overcook the seafood and let the flavors meld. When the pasta was al dente, I added a heaping portion of freshly chopped parsley to the sauce and gently mixed in the pasta.

Even though it is made from San Marzano tomatoes, I was surprised at how fresh and tasty the Donatella sauce was. I am not a big proponent of jarred sauces simply because I prefer to make sauces from scratch but if you are pressed for time or don't consider yourself much of a cook, you can't really go wrong with this product. Would I bear standing in line at Whole Foods? Probably not but if you are already there bearing the annoying crowds, it certainly wouldn't hurt to stock up and have a jar in your pantry. Am I becoming a Donatella fan?

This dish came out so well that I invited Thighs (the gal formerly known as RFW) over for dinner last night. A fellow frutti di mare aficionado often quoted for saying "I feel like seafood", I knew she's appreciate my latest culinary splendor.

I served the pasta which we delicately reheated on the stove top with a salad of baby arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. What a great Monday night treat!

A great meal shared with a great friend - is there anything better than that?!?!

The Egyptian Bagel Taste Test: The Grand Finale

In an effort to clean out my freezer and to celebrate "killing it" in a 10K road race on Saturday, I decided to try the final bagel from Jared's Bagels, my friend's bagel company in Cairo.

I wasn't quite sure I even had a bagel left, but sure enough, there it was wrapped in foil and a ziploc baggie in my freezer. I decided to defrost it in the microwave for 45 seconds and if it looked decent, give it a spin in the toaster.

The multi-grain made it through and after it toasted it looked as fresh as when Sarita gave me a bunch to try at home. I spread butter on one half, peanut butter on the other and settled in for my morning carb-fest.

The bagels from Jared's are certainly more dense than anything you would find here. The toasted sesame seeds and I believe a touch of honey made this bagel more satisfying than the airy dough-fest you find at your local deli.

I'm sure it's the water and I'm pretty sure a hard core bagel fan might disagree with my review but my friend surely has a hit on her hands with this business.

Maybe I'm biased and maybe she'll just have to ship me a few dozen so I can be sure!

A New York Classic!

Saturday night, Bomber and I went to a bar party on Houston Street. As our cab pulled up to White Rabbit, I realized that we were just steps away from one of my all time favorite places, Katz's Deli.

Yes, I know it's uber-famous, touristy, and in countless movies and television shows but I love it! Blame it on The Sopranos a few week's back where Tony calls Hesh and Hesh is sitting in Katz's having a sandwich, but I've certainly had pastrami on the brain for awhile now. And low and behold, I find myself a few doors down from the meat mecca.


And being quite the lightweight, after a ginger martini, three Stoli O and sodas and one Stella Artois for good measure, I was quite tipsy and ready to get my pastrami on!

As we waited for our turn, I noticed our server got a steaming new piece of pastrami for the gentlemen in front of us! Sweet!!!! I tried to snap a photo or two without him noticing, but not much gets past these meat carving masters not to mention that at this point my motor control was a bit off kilter so I wasn't so stealth with the camera. And when we received our obligatory plate of pastrami pieces, the last thing I wanted to do was take some pictures.

But I digress... Bomber scooted over one counter to grab a knish for us to share and I hungrily watched our pastrami sandwich get freshly sliced and our rye bread slathered with spicy brown mustard.

I can only imagine the stupid drunken look of pure delight on my face and when the gentleman asked if we wanted some pickles, I could only muster a grunt and an affirmative nod of my head.

But back to the meat - the peppery black outer coating gives perfect spice to the pink tenderness of the pastrami. The meat simply melts in your mouth and the kick of the mustard your palate gets on the backside is pure heaven!

Add some fresh green tart pickles, a doughy potato knish and a diet Dr. Brown's creme soda and I'm more than ready for Sunday's hangover.

Bring it!

D is for Doughnut

Friday was E-Go's last day in the office for awhile. She is off on maternity leave and while I will miss her terribly, I am so excited for her!

In our morning meeting, Apropos brought in two boxes of doughnuts from the Doughnut Plant on the Lower East Side to celebrate. Shockingly, I've always had the willpower to pass on a doughnut; but I have heard and read so much about these doughnuts that I just had to have a taste!

Talk about living up to the hype! Apropos brought six varieties and I chose a quarter of the plain vanilla glazed and a nutty-glazed one. The plain glazed was sweet and the doughnut was light and airy which was surprising given how monstrous in size it was! I was expecting a more dense doughnut but I was pleasantly mistaken. The other nutty version had a tunnel of fresh sweet jelly on the inside. Wow!

It is nice when a place "lives up to the hype" and I was highly recommend any doughnut fiends to pass by your local Krispy Kreme and check out the Doughnut Plant instead!

As I was overcome by my sugar coma approximately half and hour later, I couldn't help but think of how much my Grandmother would have loved these doughnuts. My Grandma would wake up at the crack of dawn and walk to the local grocery store to get her daily box of doughnuts despite having severely impaired vision. Nothing was keeping her from getting her doughnut on! And I can certainly relate to that! Perhaps it's genetic?