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.