Kate F____, Girl Reporter

The sense of smell is so amazing and strange. I’m sitting in a chilly corporate apartment in midtown Manhattan, facing a bare wall and an aggressively contemporary lamp. But a foot and a half to my left is half a brioche, left over from breakfast, and every so often a whiff of it hits me. The smell makes me feel like I’m in France, with the crazy host family I stayed with when I was 13. I can see the heavily padded silk walls of the living room, and the corner you turned to go into the bright, narrow kitchen of their townhouse. I need to figure out what it is in certain pastries, combined with butter, than smells like France.

I’m in NYC for a while, and hopefully will be able to cook soon–our accommodations do have a kitchen and internet access!

Meanwhile here are some before and not-quite-after pictures of the apartment. I haven’t even started to hang art, really arrange the furniture, etc. I’m struggling with how to balance out all of Ben’s very traditional furniture, along with the formal and traditional style of the apartment, with my more transitional style. I’m thinking once I get to lighting fixtures and rugs I will go sleek.

Click for the Flickr set!

This article in the NYTimes Style section today made me very sad for my beloved Brooklyn Neighborhood, which was rapidly gentrifying when I left last August. Apparently the ball really got rolling, though, and there’s now a Starbucks on Smith Street and Lucky Jeans where one of my favorite bars used to be. RIP, Vegas, home of free pizza on Sundays and a mediocre-but-usually-available pool table.

(Photos from the NYTimes)

So far we’ve only eaten in the dining room a few times: With Ben’s mom and brother, a couple dinners for just the two of us… But the house is at least semi-unpacked now, and last night we had our friend Kabir and his girlfriend Nicole over for a casual dinner while Nicole is in town for a visit.

First of all, take a look at my workspace, the only “counter” in the kitchen.

I should have put my hand in there for scale; it’s a little butcher block from Ikea. Better than nothing, but not a ton of prep space! Luckily since it’s summer I kept everything very simple and didn’t need too much room to work. I continue to be very underwhelmed with the “Whole Foods” (formerly a Bread & Circus, and definitely not 100% up to the standards of the bigger WF I’ve shopped at) near our apartment. The produce is a very mixed bag–yesterday there were no salad greens that looked usable, and this in July! There were some good-looking peas, though, and I picked up a carton of what looked like lovely heirloom cherry tomatoes, all different colors. That got me excited about another tomato salad, this time very colorful and lush-looking.

Sigh.

I got the tomatoes home and all the non-traditional varieties were hard as rocks, and bitter. They looked amazing, though:

I got them into a dressing of oil and sherry vinegar, with plenty of salt and pepper, as soon as I could, hoping they’d soften up a bit with help. (They did, but only a bit.)

Next I cut up another ball of local mozzarella and marinated that in olive oil, salt, pepper, and basil. When it was time to serve the first course, I dished out a pile of each, which looks nice enough in photos but wasn’t great in person. Next time I wouldn’t do this unless I could get my hands on bocconcini, which would have mixed in better with the tomatoes. I think serving it on some greens would have helped hold everything in place, too.

For a main course I made my standby oven fries again, this time in the extremely high-heat environment of the new-old oven. (Its dial goes up to 600 DEGREES!). They cooked fast and souffled a bit; Julia Child would be proud. The key to getting them not to stick seems to be placing the fries skin-down on the tray the whole time. I did them at 425 or so (though I can’t find my oven thermometer so who knows…) and they browned and crisped nicely. I also made my mom’s peas with shallots, which was really easy and delicious. I posted her method a few posts down, but basically I minced a shallot, cooked it in olive oil very slowly so it was nice and sweet, and then stirred in barely-cooked fresh peas and added salt and pepper. (I like beans and peas just a couple shades off of raw, so they’re really crispy.) I served those at room temperature, and I could probably eat a whole bowl of them by myself. Happily I’d bought a huge bag of them so we have leftovers for tonight!

Sirloin was on sale at WF and I let it rest for a while with garlic and pepper, then took off the garlic and salted it before Ben grilled it. Very tasty, though next time I think I’ll marinate it?

For dessert I grilled a peach and a nectarine. Super easy, though they stuck a bit–I just cut them in half, placed them cut-side down on a medium-high grill, cooked for a while, flipped, cooked a while longer, and served them with ice cream. Incredibly juicy and so simple.

P.S. Notice how much better the lighting is in the new kitchen?? There is double-bulb fixture overhead (with no shade, yikes), another bare bulb over the sink, and Ben brought in an old desk lamp to put on top of the fridge for warmer lighting. It looks awful in person but at least I can get it plenty bright for photos!

P.P.S. Sweet Germi over at the Domino Blogs posted a couple photos of the monstrous and hilarious ivy that lives outside our building. If you have any gardening questions you should hit her with them–she’s so helpful and responsive, and her blog is always fun.

I don’t know why I grabbed an avocado at Whole Foods last week–I like them fine, but the slidey texture annoys me in sandwiches. For some reason, though, I saw the bin, and the stickers that said “Ripe Now!” and immediately headed for the bakery to pick up a bagel, plotting an avocado sandwich for lunch the next day.

I ended up eating half the next day and half the day after–this was quite rich! On day one I toasted half the bagel, mushed the avocado a little bit with a fork, squeezed lime juice on it, piled the pieces on the bagel as neatly as I could, and added salt and pepper. It was messy but good. I wanted the lime more thoroughly mixed in, though.

On day two, I took the fork mashing much more seriously, getting the avocado to the texture of guacamole while it was still in its shell. I mixed more lime in this time, and mixed the salt in as well.

This spread very nicely onto the bagel and was considerably easier to eat. And now I’m craving it again!

The other summer bounty I am enjoying right now: Plums, put in the fridge once they’re almost too ripe so they are nice and cold.

Plums in the icebox…How very William Carlos Williams…

Yesterday I managed to get the oven turned on! This is big news and a big relief. There is actually an active oven pilot light, I found out when I took apart the bottom of the oven. It just doesn’t do anything unless you turn the oven dial to 400 or so, get it lit, THEN turn it down. Of course!

Last night we spent the evening wandering the aisles of the Container Store rather despairingly, and brought home a large number of items aimed at imposing order on the pantry. The kitchen doesn’t have a single cupboard or counter–not one–but there is a lovely butler’s pantry and a regular pantry right off the kitchen. I had heaved everything out of boxes and onto the shelves, and it looked pretty awful. I also had no way to organize all the sort of gadgets you’d normally keep in a drawer, like peelers and graters and measuring cups, since I don’t have any drawers.

Here are the results:

Before:

After:

I promise the difference is more striking in person.

Another view, since I’m pleased with my creativity in….shelf organizer selection:

Before:

After:

Note the in/out box trays used for gadgets in the lower left. It’s hard to see the desk-top cd box holding various boxes (brown sugar, corn starch). I’m very pleased with the different extra shelf thingies we got–smaller ones for the top shelf (there is a lot of space above the top built-in shelf; I may eventually put in another shelf or two for long-term storage) and a big one to use on the floor under the bottom shelf. I also used a big one on the lowest shelf, which is quite large. And the cleverest gadget I found was the thing that clips onto a shelf above it and gives you a place for sheet pans or other flat wide things. At last, I won’t have to unload every single other pan I own to get to the quarter sheet.

In case you think I’ve stopped cooking….you’re almost right. Hmm. I did make a nice pasta dish the other night, and Ben’s family was in town this weekend so we had a barbecue. I made caprese for that, look!

Mediocre tomatoes, sadly–I was hoping they’d be good but they let me down. That’s a BIG letdown, since caprese is only worth it with great tomatoes and great cheese. Luckily the mozzarella, a Vermont-made one, was extremely tasty.

I drizzled it with a dressing I made very quickly by pureeing a bunch of basil with olive oil, salt, and a dab of balsamic vinegar.

I want to try again with awesome heirloom tomatoes!

Coming soon: A whole slide show of house before and afters! Also a very tasty lunch.

*Sigh*

Until a few days ago I had the cord for my camera handy. Now that I’m dying to upload a ton of photos of the apartment and a couple things I’ve made lately, it is nowhere to be found. I will update once I find it!

In the interest of posting something about food, one more meal from the visit with my parents last month!

The last night before my mom and dad left, we made another real B_______-style dinner, grilled pepper-steaks with potato salad and green beans. Tom made this warm potato salad from Chocolate and Zucchini, though we improvised a bit with which vinegars we used, pancetta instead of ham, etc. There are hazelnuts in the salad, which adds great crunch and unexpected flavor. I’m suddenly a fan of this type of warm potato salad–I don’t like american-style ones, they’re too gloppy for me (though my aunt Chris made a great one for the graduation party, which I will be trying soon!). But this is mayo-free and perfect with summer grilled dinners.

mmm.

Mom made a favorite green bean recipe, which I’m trying to get and will edit into the post later. She sautéed shallots and…mixed them with barely-steamed beans. I’m sure there’s more to it but I wasn’t focused! *** See below for Mom’s bean tips*** We also caramelized onions for the steaks. Delicious!

***Edited to add green bean tips from Mom:
“You’ve got the green beans; it was just shallot & beans. The only difference is I am boiling not steaming the beans these days.

I heat a large pot of water to boiling. Salt it heavily so it tastes salty. Add beans and cook until barely done – or the way you like them. If you are going to shock them, take them out the way you like them. If you aren’t going to shock them, take them out sooner because they will keep cooking. Drain and dry; I lay mine out on a kitchen towel while I sautée the shallots. Slowly sautée 1 shallot per pound of beans (that’s a WAG because shallots are all different sizes) in a T or two of olive oil. They’ll burn if you hurry them and you’ve got to taste them to know when they are really done. When they are done, add your dry beans and toss to reheat to room temp. Salt & pepper to taste. You can substitute garlic for shallots but it’s not as subtle.

Here’s my current take on beans. I toss the great beans from the Farmers Market with a little Agrumato Lemon oil (worth every penny) and some slivers of preserved lemon and lots of salt. I cannot stop eating these beans. Of course I am spoiled by having both Agrumato oil and preserved lemon but you can add some lemon zest instead.”

Thanks Mom!!

Well, we moved. And now it looks like this:

Actually that was on Thursday, and things are slightly better now, but the painter hadn’t finished when we arrived, so we have everything piled in the middle of the living and dining rooms. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to, say, unpack a few pots and pans. We’ve been eating a lot of bread (with peanut butter or butter and honey), but last night Ben grilled sausages (the ones from Whole Foods aren’t as great as the Coop ones, we’ll need to find a new supplier) and corn. The corn was delicious, incredibly sweet and a little smokey.

Peel back the husk and remove the silk.

Spread the ears with butter and pulls the husks back up.

Grill…until done. Sorry, this seems really imprecise and recipes online didn’t help. The first time I did this, with Tom and friends, we undercooked it. This time I had Ben cook it with the sausages for about the same amount of time.

Yum. And I had it with a glass of Lambic!