OTHER USE OF A GADGET

Ever buy a gadget and realize your kitchen is getting filled to the brim with assorted gadgets that are too specific that you do not know when else you would use it for its intention?

I recently got an egg slicer after one of my friends realized I always cut my hard boiled eggs with my sharp #kyocera #knife.  But of course I could not slice them quick enough and uniformly as a gadget would.  So one of them decided to give me one. I refused to buy it before for the same reason that I would have another gadget in my kitchen to keep.

Now that I have my new egg slicer, I recently saw a strawberry slicer in the internet being promoted.  Today, I decided to use my egg slicer to slice my strawberries and it worked!  Now I am ready to decorate uniformly sliced strawberries on top of desserts or as a garnish.

One gadget with 2 purposes.  Maybe there are more?

A QUICK FIX

Ever dream of having a dish or dessert one day but you either (1) have to fly to the country where they make it, (2) look for a restaurant who may serve it near you, or (3) make it yourself.

In this case, I opted for (3) make it myself.  However, I don’t have time.  So, I got the idea of making a deconstructed version which I would like to share with you. 

INGREDIENTS:

Meringue

Heavy cream

Mascarpone

Sugar (optional)

Ice cream

Fruits

You can whip the whip cream or like I did, just poured it over washed strawberries.

Crumble the meringue on top.  The more the better but it’s up to you.

Scoop vanilla ice cream on top.  And serve or eat it.

ANOTHER WAY:

Mix your mascarpone with whiped or not, cream; and mix equal portion of the cream and mascarpone.

TO SERVE:

Crumble the meringue in an empty serving bowl.  Then add your strawberries.  Scoop your ice cream on top.

Crumble more meringue on top.  And out a strawberry on top; then serve.

BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTY

it was a special dinner celebrating a family visiting from half way around the other side of the world and my birthday.  As usual, and being from New York City, I decided to select dishes that look artful and delicious plus balance the menu between seafood, vegetables and meat.

I made this beet-herring-egg-layered salad which I created molded in a cake pan.

GUACAMOLE TWIST

I had left over crispy nitrite free bacon.  It was almost lunch time and I was hungry again.  So I decided to make a guacamole and crumbled the bacon into pieces into the mixture.

Ingredients for 1 serving:

1 avocado

4TB minced onion

6-7 grape size tomatoes  (squeeze off juice) or equivalent 

2-3TB minced cilantro 

2 squeeze fresh key lime juice (or regular lime equivalent) 

Season with salt

2 pieces of fried bacon torn to pieces or crumbled

Serve on toasted country or sour dough style bread or sea salt Lime Tortilla chips

#hors-d’oeuvres #lunch #healthy #breakfast #avocado #spread

PARTY SPREAD

This spread was dedicated to my son and his family who were visiting me to celebrate my birthday.  As he has not been back for about 2 years, I decided to celebrate both my birthday and their visit with a splurge of home-cooking plus some things I bought to help me make the spread.

The latest take I have is a dish I have had at a restaurant which I have my take on creating my own recipe which I think was very similar.  But instead of making individual servings using several molds, I decided to make it using a cake pan.

I line the cake pan in the bottom and sides with parchment paper or wax paper so when I unmold the misfire, I would get a perfect mold of the layers of beets, herring and eggs.

FOODYHOLIC'S Choice: LEFT OVER CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY

FOODYHOLIC'S Choice: LEFT OVER CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY



http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/new-york

LEFT OVER CHOCOLATE EASTER BUNNY

It’s almost a year since I had this imported dark chocolate Easter bunny sitting in my pantry all cracked up.  What to do!

For the next few days, I would take a big chunk of this almost year old Easter Bunny Chocolate and defrost it in my microwave until it looks like a puddle of thick shiny dipping chocolate.  I toasted a slice of filone bread from #Sullivanbread - my favorite bread source, crisp and dark outside and loosely aired textured firm white bread in the inside. 

I use the defrost cycle for about a minute to melt the chocolate soft enough to become my chocolate dip.

Next best thing to having churros.

Sullivan Bread

http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/new-york