This is a vegan carrot cake cupcake from the DC bakery Sticky Fingers, located in the Columbia Heights area. Vegan, of course, means that there were no eggs or butter involved in the creation of this cupcake. That said, this still tasted deliciously decadent. I’m guessing that the frosting was a cream cheese-style topping. Presumably, they had to use something other than cream cheese, since that is obviously not vegan. Honestly, I don’t care what they used, it was delicious.

Pumpkin Soup (easier than pie) with inspiration from Barbara Kingsolver

Buy small local sugar pumpkin. Cut out top and save. Carve out inside (remove seeds and pulp).

Fill with stock and 2 tablespoons of butter. Add dash of salt & pepper. Replace top.

Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.

Remove from oven. Scrape down sides, being careful to not scrape too close to edge. Add 2 tablespoons milk (if you have it) and squirt of honey.

Blend with handheld blender (this is key). Add dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Serve!

This past weekend, I was driving East on the Mass Pike when I spotted one of those signs for a farmer’s market at the rest area.

“Damn,” I thought, “it’s after 5:30, they’ll be closed!” But I decided just driving through the rest area couldn’t hurt.

Thank goodness I did! Though they were packing up, the farmer’s market still had lots of produce. I bought a quart of blueberries, about a pound of green beans, an eggplant, an Asian eggplant, a bunch of beets, a bunch of carrots, and a cucumber. The total was $14.10. Such a bargin for so much organic produce! I was so overjoyed with the fact that I’d made it in time, I gave the farmer $15 and told her I didn’t need change. She looked surprised, then grateful. (And then she told me to take another cucumber!)

We devoured the blueberries en route. I thought we’d munch on the green beans, but I never want them quite as much as I think I do. I think I confuse them in my head with snap and snow peas. I’ll make those with garlic and lemon sometime this week. The beets and carrots will get shredded and make a nice salad.

Tonight, though, I tackled the eggplants and the cucumbers: I sliced the cucumbers, salted and peppered them, and tossed them in some vinegar and olive oil with some freeze dried dill.

And then, whoops, I ate them all. SO TASTY!

For the eggplant, I braved the summer heat and warmed up the oven. I sliced them up, laid them on a cookie sheet, coated them in olive oil, sprinkled on kosher salt, pepper, and dried rosemary.

(Now, in retrospect, I can see that I need a pastry brush, since I definitely used too much olive oil. But if there’s one thing I hate, it’s chewy eggplant, so I erred on the side of caution.)

I stuck the eggplant in the oven on the top rack uncovered at about 350ish (my oven is old and I don’t think that it gets up to its temperature sometimes), waited about 10 minutes until everything was crispy and delicious. Then I put them in a bowl, got a fork, and devoured them all. The regular eggplant got softer than the Asian eggplant, but really, they were all SO TASTY!

(Now, in retrospect, I really should have blotted them with a paper towel. But man, they were so perfectly charred and the greatest combination of crispy and velvety that I couldn’t resist. But really, could they have been any worse for me than fries? I doubt it. Somehow organic eggplant plus olive oil can’t be as bad as partially hydrogenated oil-coated potatoes.)

Plus, while the eggplant was cooking and while I prepped the cucumbers, I marinated and then roasted some chicken for lunch this week. With fresh basil from my little basil plant, hooray!

Lately in the evenings I just want something simple and fresh:

• Fage Greek Yogurt (drizzled with local honey)
• Fresh Herb Salad (with lemon/mustard dressing)
• Watermelon a la Rum (what? a girl can’t have a little rum drizzled over her fruit?)

It’s not a bad life, really.

Made an easy summer dinner tonight:

Cucumber Salad: One cucumber, sliced thinly. Dressed with a light vinegar (I used rice and cider), salt & pepper, dill, a dash of olive oil, and about a tablespoon of sugar. Delish.

Broiled shrimp: One pound cooked shrimp at $4.99/pound. Tossed with Old Bay Seasoning, paprika, dill, olive oil, and salt & pepper. Let it sit for a few minutes while I let the oven get to broil. Put it all in a shallow baking dish, broiled for about 10 minutes (until starting to char at the edges). This actually wound up being too much for me with everything else, but if I’d had fewer other things, it would’ve been fine. As it was, I have some for lunch tomorrow.

I also cut a few pieces of quality bread and spread them with butter. Then I cut up a quarter of a watermelon. About half went for tomorrow’s lunch. But the other half was quickly gobbled up. Watermelon is so delicious!

Yay for summer!

ps. For the curious, tomorrow’s lunch will be: Watermelon, shrimp, bread, and maybe some boiled corn on the cob.

I was walking home from work today when I saw the Grillo’s Pickle cart that is often outside the T at Park Street. I’ve walked past it many times, but this time I stopped. For a dollar, I purchased two spears, handed to me wrapped in aluminum foil.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they were fresh, crunchy, and light. Very flavorful but not too sour. Delicious! I can’t wait to hit that cart up on a really hot summer day. Who needs ice cream!?

For a more in-depth review, see this post over at Pickle Freak.

This weekend in NYC, I was made part of a fierce and heated debate: Which is the better low-cal, yogurt-flavored, of-vaguely-Asian-origin frozen yogurt? Started in 2005, Pink Berry had the first-in-market advantage in the states, and quickly became the stuff of celebrities and obsessions. Red Mango, on the other hand, was founded in 2002, came late to the scene in the United States, and seems relegated to second-class status.

Both are yogurt-flavored frozen yogurt, served with mostly fresh fruit toppings and other not-so-sweet toppings (Captain Crunch is available, but heath bar is not). The styles of each store are a similar style—clean, hip, and happy. Each has its converts and its faithful contingents who swear, “It’s so much better than [other brand].”

Add me to that list. After a weekend in the city, I can now be counted among the Red Mango enthusiasts. While so much is similar between the two franchises, there’s one thing that’s quite different; the taste. Red Mango’s servings do a better job of capturing that tangy sour-sweetness of real yogurt, meaning that the fruit it’s so often served with works to (I love it with mangos) complement it instead of serving as a distraction.

I went back for seconds in the same evening, just because it was so delicious. Thank you to Claire and Kyra for the introduction to my new favorite obsession.

I was reading a blog post by Casual Kitchen about how breakfast cereal is so overpriced and how no one should buy it, and I commented that my solution to this is to buy oatmeal, which I can make so easily in the rice cooker. Surprisingly, everyone wanted to know how to make it. It’s so easy, folks!

Oatmeal in the Rice Cooker

1 cup regular Quaker Oats oatmeal (neither instant nor slow-cook)

2 cups water

Instructions: Combine in rice cooker. Hit “cook.” Wait about twenty minutes. If you want to spice it up, add raisins to cooking process (or afterwards, if you don’t like ‘em plumpy), and serve with honey or maple syrup. I like to put soy milk on mine instead of milk. Yum!

I recently returned from a trip to Europe with my family that included a stopover in Sevilla, Spain. It was wonderful—not just because Sevilla is a particularly gorgeous and exciting city, but also because Sevillanos know how to live! Sangria with lunch (maybe gazpacho or salmorejo), followed by a siesta, then tapas (potentially with more sangria), followed by a late dinner (and the chance for more sangria!), which can then be followed by a leisurely walk around the beautiful city at night. Need to get lots of sleep? No problem! It’s entirely ok to sleep in a bit until it’s time for churros y chocolate with your coffee the next morning.

There is so much to talk about with regard to Sevilla that I’m going to have to break it down into parts, but, as always, there will be lots of discussion about food! Lately, I’ve been thinking about having a Sangria & Spring party to try and conjure up some of the warmth that Sevilla had. I think I’ll serve the following:

• Sangria (obviously!)
• Salmorejo (this is slightly thicker than gazpacho and perfect for dipping bread into)
• Guacamole & Chips (ok, they didn’t have this in Sevilla, but I love it too much to exclude)
• Salad (my style, not the “vegetables-and-lettuce-on-a-plate” style they serve in Sevilla)
• Olives (another Sevillian staple)
• Paella (so yummy!)

Salmorejo I can figure out by tasting as I go, my little brother is a guacamole expert, and salad and olives are a no brainer, but I’m a little concerned about the sangria and paella. I like my sangria to be sweetened with something other than sugar. My mother prefers Manischewitz, but I worry that might be too sweet. Anyone have any ideas on good combinations?

Sangria aside, I’m way more concerned about making paella. I don’t have the paellera required to make it, and I’m not sure I’m ready to invest in one just for this occasion. (Plus, I have a strict policy that all kitchen items must be multi-purpose—What else can I use a paellera for besides paella? And even if I did want one, where could I get it?) Does anyone have any good tips for first-time paella makers? Or good leads on buying discount-yet-quality saffron?

I remember reading about the miracle fruit last year in the New York Times. The story captivated me immediately—a small fruit that, when chewed and swished around the mouth, confuses taste buds into thinking that bitter and sour things are sweet.

Today, I read another story about it, this time on CNN.com: Lemons taste like lemonade! Hot sauce tastes like honey! Goat cheese tastes like cheese cake!

Aside from the fact that I love food, I absolutely love the idea of trying weird things. In the New York Times story, they talk about people just going crazy with wanting to try things out before the berry’s effects wore off (it lasts about 30-90 minutes):

…guests became “literally like wild animals, tearing apart everything on the table.” “It was like no holds barred in terms of what people would try to eat, so they opened my fridge and started downing Tabasco and maple syrup,” he said.

So, I’m of course DYING to try this thing! Does anyone know of any tastings in the Boston area? Kyra, do you think that your next Dinner Club could revolve around this? I would totally make the schlep down from Boston!

Everyone enjoys a little stalking, right? So when I saw on Facebook that my NYC-based friend Kyra (of the dating blog Gotard City) had posted pictures of a Bacon Dinner Club, I immediately demanded the story. So here goes the first ever Stalking Sarah guest post! Thanks, Kyra!

A little over a year ago, my friends and I decided to start a Dinner Club based on our mutual love of the Food Network, cooking, and most importantly, eating. We choose a new theme or key ingredient (basil, citrus, the color white, tapas,  desserts, etc) and we get together once a month to cook and eat together. It’s usually an all-day affair.

Dinner Club’s important to me for a number of reasons: It’s an opportunity to make socially acceptable bad decisions in the form of food. I like to eat. I love to eat. Tasting delicious food is one of the best pleasures in life. It’s fun to see all my friends together. We get to play board games and catch up. I get to play hostess and show off all my materialistic crap that I’ve acquired from Crate & Barrel. And, I get to learn more about cooking and try new foods.

A few years ago, I started dating someone named Movies. After a while, he got to be a part of Dinner Club, too. None of my friends were particularly amazed by him, but none of them really disliked him either. And at the end of the day, though, I’m the Kim Jong Il of Dinner Club, so if I wanted my boyfriend there, he was gonna be included.

Unfortunately, Movies’ picky eating habits had never been squashed by his parents, so he often violated the “try new foods” mandate of dinner club. On numerous occasions, he’d make a passing comment about not wanting to try someone’s dish. Whenever we circulated the tentative menu before the actual Dinner Club date, Movies would send a note reminding us that he didn’t like certain foods.

The biggest point of contention among us Dinner Clubbers was bacon. All of us, except for Movies, LOVED bacon in all of its iterations. He couldn’t stand it and made sure we knew at every possible moment (even though he eats pork in other forms, just not the sweet goodness that is bacon).

After about two years of dating, Movies and I broke up. Although he stayed a part of Dinner Club, I stopped helping facilitate social interactions at the dinner table. He was on his own. Of course, my friends (being MY friends), also sided with me when we broke up, so while no one was ever rude to his face, no one really felt comfortable with his continued presence post-break-up.

Then came the NY Times article on the Bacon Explosion. It was fate. We had to try our hand at a bevy of bacon dishes. The only thing standing in our way from a love fest with bacon was Movies. I kicked him out of Dinner Club. Harsh times, I know. But, don’t ask me to choose between you and bacon, because you will always lose. We promptly decided that our next theme would be Bacon. Although The Bacon Explosion had inspired us to greatness, we were not man enough to handle that much meat in our mouths. We instead decided to just focus on a series of dishes, broken up into courses.

We started with the following:

Appetizers:
Giant Cheese Ball with Nuts and Bacon and All That Kinda Love (This was literally a ball full of love. It had Craisins, turkey bacon (it crumbles easier), pecans, cream cheese, just… so much love in it. Major points for presentation, too, because Caroline had managed to expertly mold that sucker into a perfectly shaped ball.)

Mozzarella & Bacon-topped Ritz Crackers

Warm Bacon, Cheddar, and Sour Cream Dip

First Courses:
Cheddar, Potato & Leek Soup with Bacon (If you try this, make the soup the night before or early the morning-of because the flavors only get better.)

Goat Cheese, Spinach, & Bacon Salad (A word of warning: if you’re looking for fancy cheeses, Queens is not the borough that will have them. Buy that goat cheese in Manhattan or NJ because it ain’t coming from the Bravo in Elmhurst.)

Main Courses:
Chili Powder Pasta with Bacon (Spicy good but the chili ALMOST overpowered the bacon flavor!)

Bacon & Cheese Cornbread (Incredibly moist! Btdubs, sometimes, it’s okay to cheat Sandra Lee style and use the cornbread mix. Making it from scratch can produce very mixed results.)

Crustless Caramelized Onions, Spinach, Swiss, & Bacon Quiche (Quiche is awesome because you can literally throw just about any ingredient into that baby and it will still taste oh so good.)

Pork Bacon-Wrapped Beef Hot Dogs (This was the closest dish we had to the Bacon Explosion. Served two ways: The first way you added scallions, mustard, and pineapple. The second was with BBQ sauce and cole slaw. The cole slaw wasn’t very mayo-y and def helped cut through some of that greasey meat with its crunchtasticness.)

Dessert:

After an hour break, we were ready to tackle dessert:

Pina Coladas with Candied Bacon Crumbles (Candied bacon is easy! We did it by coating bacon slices in brown sugar then baking them up in a hot oven. Be sure to keep an eye on them and turn them periodically so all sides get toasty love!).

Brown Sugar & Bacon Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip & Candied Bacon Bits Cookies (One of our members has an ice-cream maker and never fails to come up with amazing ways to incorporate our key ingredient into ice cream. The bacon fat (in my opinion) made the ice cream that much richer, smoother. For the cookies, just find a great Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe as your base and just throw in those candied bacon suckers. The bacon won’t permeate the entire cookie’s flavor, but you’ll get little surprises with each bite!)

Advice & Caution for your own Dinner Club: BACON event.

1. Not everyone needs to buy their own bacon. Seriously. Share them packages of meat, otherwise you’ll end up with 8 different half-opened packages of bacon slices.

2. Bacon is not just a breakfast food. It can apparently taste delicious in sweet and savory dishes, as well as beverages.

3. When pouring bacon grease out of the pan, run very hot water in the sink to help facilitate it going down easy (assuming that you’re not going to save and store the fat for later use).

4. You may have to empty the pan of the grease multiple times when cooking bacon in mass quantities. Otherwise, the bacon doesn’t cook, it just simmers in its fatty juices, which is as bad as it sounds.

5. Your kitchen will have a sheen of grease for the week afterwards even after you clean it.

6. Your heart might stop.

7. Have lots and lots of water nearby while you’re eating.

8. Serving the meal in courses will help your stomach to handle all that meat.

9. Prepare a spot on the floor for each person to lay down and attempt to digest post-meal.

10. Get ready for the best tasting meat that your mouth has never known.

Have tried 51%! There are very few things in this world I wouldn’t try… but cigars and whole insects are two of them. I made my favorite things green.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

…is in Provincetown, Massachusetts at Bayside Betsy’s.

I have had a lot of clam chowder in my life, but this is the absolute best. A bowl is $6.95 and worth every penny.

The chowder doesn’t skimp on the clams, has plenty of potatoes, and does its artery-clogging job by tasting heavily of cream and bacon.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m a big believer in having a drink when necessary. However, I also recognize that not everyone is able or willing to drink alcoholic drinks all the time. But whenever I’m at a party and I see someone drinking just a coke or sticking to water, it makes me sad. Why? Because it sucks being the one without an exciting drink.

So if you’re making sangria—or my favorite drink from 2008, Gordon’s Cup—for your next party, do your non-alcohol-consuming guests a favor and make them something pretty and exciting, too! Absolut has some great suggestions and recipes for different drinks for those abstaining—check out the Basil & Apple one (pictured above), it looks so yummy!

Granted, they’re doing it so that you’ll remember them when you go to make your next batch of gimlets and martinis, but I’m ok with that.

Yes, I’ll admit it. I grew up in New Jersey. Why the shame, you ask? Because there is typically a gritty pride assigned to those of us raised in the state often referred to as “the armpit of America.” But I don’t get to take part in that. Because I grew up in Princeton.

Princeton is a little enclave of anti-Jersey. Everything is beautiful and clean. Instead of malls and mega stores, there is a carefully manicured downtown, full of locally owned stores and products that cater to the kind of clientele that would think twice before going grocery shopping in their gym clothes. Spillover of students, faculty, and staff from Princeton University means that most of downtown is brushed with a sheen of academic snobbery and Ivy League pride. Here and there, you can find pockets of alternative life, in the famed-yet-still-grubby Princeton Record Exchange, for instance, or the on-the-verge-of-another-health-code-violation-but-still-irresistible Hoagie Haven, but generally most stores and eateries in Princeton are picture-perfect.

And while yes, it is a rather bougie place, with its oh-so-trendy-yet-earthy local microroaster/cafe Small World Coffee, its new versus traditional ice cream cafes, and its hip-and-tasty brewery, at least you have the chance to eat well. And eat well I did. On weekend mornings, while average New Jerseyans might have whipped up some pancakes, my European-transplant father would often go out and pick up something from our nearby bougie food store. Baguettes, croissants, bread—we had a love of European carbohydrates in my family, and Princeton was always there for us.

So was it a surprise when I read on Serious Eats that the best croissants were in Princeton? Mais, non! But I was surprised at the store commended for its flaky, buttery, crafts of perfection—The Little Chef. A tiny store that only arrived after I’d moved away, they apparently make the absolute best croissants ever. Not just in Princeton, but apparently in all of New Jersey. In fact, they’re apparently so good that they beat out all the best croissants in The City. (Apparently, they may be America’s Best Croissants, but honestly? Once you’ve beat out The City, nothing else matters.)

Perhaps it’s time to visit the old chomping grounds again.