All Hallows Eve

How often are you looking for a gateway to food adventure? Specialty food is a click away but thats not why I am here. I am here because today is Halloween and Halloween in NYC is a big deal and when I say "big deal" I mean BIG DEAL.

We have some pretty creative people living here and the Halloween Parade is the go to event of the night.

Get your self loaded up with a nice brunch from Mogador Cafe and make sure you have a lovely brunch partner. My partner was the charming Victoria K from Mission: Food. I still look like I havent left the night before and I feel that way too - I went to sleep when the sun came up and I was late to meet for our "noon-ish" date.

Mint tea - simple, sublime, perfect.

We both had Haloumi eggs while Mona had the Moroccan eggs - hers came with hummus- oh did I forget to mention that Mona came along - yup - we had Banana but no Pup. Lovely visit, lovely brunch and a perfect day for a parade. Have a safe and happy Halloween.

whoops! Contest has moved.

Ok the Caption Contest has moved - you can find it HERE. Remember its FREE and its 10 pounds of new zealand, grass-fed, free-range, black angus burgers delivered to your door.....sorry, you will need to supply the buns!

Remember this guy? Those of you that have submitted I am forwarding your entries unless you want to submit again - remember you can enter as often as you want. Please dont leave any submissions here (you can but there might be lag time and confusion making sure you get entered - so to be certain follow the link and leave them there) Sorry about all the confusion and GOOD LUCK!

I've been Dublin as myself

Breakfast at Tiffany's, and "I hope she remembers I am bringing people with me" - ever had that happen, you thought one thing and something else entirely happened? Not me. Its ALL premeditated, from the first dot to the last T- I got my bases covered. I will spell it out over and over again, I am like that. Call it ADD but I call it .......whatever. This is English Breakfast without the beans.

Culinary Smackdown -Battle Chile

When Rebecka at At Home With Rebecka announced that Chile was going to be the main ingredient I almost could not believe what I was reading. I put chile in just about everything so how was I going to narrow it down to just one dish? The answer to that was simple: I wasnt going to.

Should I start with dessert? Why not.

This is a three layer panna cotta with Tahitian vanilla beans and cream layer, mulato chiles and chocolate layer, and a blueberry layer with coconut whipped cream. If you cant do what you want then what can you do?

Rather than dig through my archives to show you each and every time I have used chile I opted for three simple go-to dishes that I made this week. Lets start with huevos rancheros. A simple egg dish with refried beans and red chile enchilada sauce with a nice warm and slightly crispy flour tortilla.

Tamales have got to be one of my comfort foods to beat all comfort foods. Tamales were typically reserved for around the holidays when I was growing up so not only are they comforting they were also special. This is a mixed bag of chile flavors as its a green chile and cheese tamale with a nice tasty, spicy chile sauce that is loaded with the flavors of sunshine.

One of the things I dont make too often are taquitos or flautas - growing up these rolled and crispy fried goodies known by many as flautas but known by me as taquitos were always a real treat. Why I dont make make them is a big mystery to me, they are easy and quick and loaded with goodness. These are potato, onion, garlic and cilantro taquitos with two sauces.

There is one sauce that is a tomatillo, serrano chile fresh green sauce and the other is an anaheim, big jim and mulato cooked red sauce. The taquitos are served with mexican crema, avocado and the two sauces.

This is spicy......

But this is HOT! There you have it. A little chile sampler and my entry for Culinary Smackdown: Battle Chile.

hot for trotters

Hey there lovely people in bloglandia you might have wondered what happened to me - well the answer is absolutely nothing. Yup, nothing. After I was eliminated a little too soon from the Project Food Blog contest all the air was sucked out of my sails but I have huffed and I have puffed and I have managed to get those sails sailing again. I have reflected enough and dwelled a plenty and I have been eating things you dont even want to know about. (vegans and vegetarians if the first picture didnt warn you enough I am here to warn you now, back out slowly this post is not for you).

Mondongo is a version of one of my favorite dishes and that is menudo and posole. Posole you know, hominy corn and pigs feet and once you add some tripe it magically becomes menudo. Mondongo is pigs feet or cows feet and tripe and various tropical tubers in a thick and rich broth that I like to have with a side of white rice. (check the wiki link to see all of its variants because just like posole and menudo everybody makes mondongo different- there is no right or wrong way).

Mondongo is also this dance mix if you google it and randomly click things called mondongo.

This link will take you to a recipe and you can make your own and when you are done your bowl will look like this if you did it right. Me, I get mine at any of a number of fantastic restaurants around NYC that serve this up daily. My tart is up for votes here if you still want to vote on something. Voting ends midnight of the 22nd.

Tart is not a 4 letter word.

This post is also up for votes at The Blogger Mushroom Recipe Challenge. I could use your vote!

Tart is not a 4 letter word made the Foodbuzz Top 9 today 10/17/2010! The Foodbuzz Top 9 is a photo-driven collection of top-buzzed posts within the Foodbuzz community. Congratulations and thanks for being a part of Foodbuzz!

Check it out here: http://www.foodbuzz.com/top9 and be sure to let your friends know.

No one around today can probably remember when "tart" was a dirty word. The "sweet" tart as in a dessert came to English from the French around the 1200's - the adjective "tart" meaning sharp or piquant originated from Old English "teart" meaning pain or suffering. The sweet and tart as in the pejorative as applied to prostitutes, promiscuous women and occasionally men was a sweet word as it was used in a positive and affectionate way around the 1800's - it took pejorative connotations not long after but I am not talking about any of these I am referring to a pastry shell with shallow sides and no top crust with any of a variety of fillings.

I am talking about a tomato tart. I made this as a first course for my luxury dinner party and it was so good I will have to make it again, not because I want to but because my guests have asked me to.

When I got the sample packs of mushrooms in the mail from MarxFoods there was little doubt in my mind that I was going to use them in a tart. In fact I knew I was going to use them in a tart before I got the mushrooms, thats how excited I was to make this recipe. Whoops did I say recipe, I meant to say "before I put this together" because if I say recipe then I need to post one.

Here is how you do it - get some dried mushrooms and soak them in hot water, follow the instructions on the package of filo sheets, form into the shape you want, add goat cheese and chopped up reconstituted mushrooms, put on some slices of grape tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil and bake till golden - couldnt be easier. Serve with some Proseco or a Chenin Blanc and you are there. This is my submission for the dried mushroom recipe challenge sponsored by MarxFoods.

We are in the final hours of voting on PFB 2010 Challenge #3 you can vote here if you havent yet - I do appreciate it.

Time to vote on Challenge #3

You can read all about my luxury dinner party and then please vote for me HERE.

I AM the party - Challenge #3 Luxury Dinner

First and foremost I want to sincerely thank everyone who voted for me, Challenge #2 is now a fading memory and Challenges #'s 3 -4 - 5 are looming on the horizon and I am more than energized to take them on. We are now on to Challenge #3, Luxury Dinner Party, welcome to my party. PARTAY LuXURIaMo - is what this challenge should have been called, an ancient holiday that you have to remember - kind of good time. Why - because as I was going around collecting the ingredients for this challenge I began to realize the importance of it all. Lavish dinner parties dont simply fall from the sky they need prep time and not only that they need table cloths.

Simple, casual and elegant was my goal for this dinner party. If I were to tell you how to do this yourself so to make it as easy and painless as possible then the very first step is to write your menu. If you want to make your dinner party even more painless for yourself just have me do it for you. Seriously though, having the menu in place causes everything else to fall right in line. I tweaked my menu a bit here and there so it is a little different than the one I posted a couple days ago but its basic foundation stayed the same.

Once you have your menu you need to be extra certain that you have ironed out all the kinks and while you are at it be sure to iron the napkins and the table cloth. If there is an item on your menu that you think might give you trouble then you need to make sure you have tested it in advance to insure an easy evening.

I made one of everything the day before to get a feel for the timing and the presentation. I knew how I wanted it to look but I had to see it to make sure, no room for surprises when you want to sit and enjoy time with your guests.

It is always nice to have friends over to share in the good times, it is even more fun when it is simple, casual and elegant, formalities without the formalities.

The appetizers were light enough to be light but flavorful enough to wake things up a bit.

Cooking with color will always make your guests happy and excited, when it looks good you can guarantee that it is going to taste good, lets not forget that we also eat with our eyes.

My dinner party was a hit. I had invited guests that were not familiar with my food, sure they had seen it on my blog but they had not had a chance to taste it and to put it simply - I have new fans. A candlelight dinner with good food, good wine and good friends is a luxury I would repeat over and over again.

Can I tell you, how much the menu was loved by me and my guests, they were all looking over it as each course was presented - everyone was involved, it was too cute listening to them describe the nuances of each dish as they compared it to my menu. I could not have expected a better experience. Along with all the other holidays we have in this world I think I am going to make PARTAY LuXURIaMo an annual event.

Dessert anyone?

Voting begins at 6:00 AM Pacific October 4 and goes until 6:00 PM Pacific October 7 - remember we are working together on this.

Voting is open please vote HERE