Damn I'm Good...Especially when I rip off Epicurious

I love the Epicurious site. It is a quick easy way to get some great menu ideas. I also love berries and live for summer when I can overinduldge on strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. I even go through a bit of berry-itis when the season's over and my fruit choices seem to dwindle.

So when I saw a recipe for Mixed Green Salad with Strawberry Dressing and since there was a "special" on strawberries at Manhattan Fruit and Vegetable Exchange I thought what a perfect way to put those berries to good use?

The dressing: I am not one to make my own viniagrettes. This is one area where I can tend to be a bit lazy; sticking with the tried and true olive oil and balsamic vinegar combo. I simply put about 1/3 cup of strawberries in a food processor, then whisked that into some olive oil, balsamic, a tablespoon of sugar and some pepper to taste. It came out surprisingly well and better than anything I could find on the supermarket shelf. Maybe I need to be a little more proactive in my dressing choices.

I decided to "show off" my dressing with some sliced strawberries, crumbled feta, toasted walnuts and a few ribbons of freshly chopped basil. The basil provided a nice herby kick to the otherwise sweet salad ingredients. The saltiness of the feta provided a fantastic salty balance to the overall sweet undertones of the plate.

This has been a side salad for my ground chicken and feta burgers (made with a generous helping of thyme and pepper) but on Tuesday I added some sliced skirt steak which was marinated overnight in balsamic, garlic and rosemary. WOW! I think there's a new item in the lunch rotation.

Brunch with Apples

On Sunday, Apples and I did brunch at Prune. I've heard so much about Prune's brunch that I had to check it out for myself and Apples was game to wait it out since the tiny restaurant doesn't take reservations and can get pretty packed so we figured why not?

We were seated in about 45 minutes which isn't too bad for 11am on a Sunday. Our server was friendly and we never felt rushed, even as the line of would be diners continued to grow outside.

Having waited for a bit, we were pretty ravenous by the time we sat down and promptly ordered; starting with a tiny pot of their strong well-roasted coffee.

Apples ordered the Classic Eggs Benedict: poached eggs on English muffins with Hollandaise sauce, Canadian bacon and potatoes rosti and I chose the Spicy Stewed Chickpeas: butter-crumbed eggs, olive butter with condiments. We ordered these two items under the condition that we split them (evenly) since neither of us could decide what to get.

Apple's potatoes were so crispy that they were a bit tough to cut; but we both enjoyed the crunchy potatoes immensely! I love them like this! And the Eggs Benedict were simple without an overpowering amount of sauce and a perfectly cooked egg perched atop the bacon and muffin.

The chickpeas came with a small plate of "condiments" including a spicy tomato paste that really kicked up the heat of the dish. I wasn't sure what butter-crumbed eggs were going to look like; but the light coating of buttery crumbs kept the outside crisp and the middle soft. Unique and delicious!

Apples is "eating for two" and I often "eat for two" so we ordered some sides to round out our brunch fare; bacon and merveilles. The bacon was cooked just the way I like it; not so crispy that it crumbles on you but still a nice crunch around the edges. The merveilles were basically little beignets-meets-doughnuts-meets-scones and had a nice lemony kick to them. They were also dusted with powdered sugar and with a nice addition of sea salt which was a pleasant surprise; although the consistency inside the little loaves were a bit more dry than I was hoping for.

Overall, a great meal. Would I wait over an hour for it? Probably not, but if you can catch it right, you really can't go wrong.