Eataly and Gato

On last year visit we only walked, we walked so much that we could't walk anymore.

I wasn't ready for NYC public transit...Maybe it is because the first time I took the subway I was 21 and let's face it NY subway had a really bad reputation!
You took the subway only if you really needed or if you wanted to die.....

Anyways this year I decide to grow a pair and master the NYC public transit. The minute we arrived
at Laguardia I asked where I could buy a transit card and off we went!

Armed with our cards, we took the bus and the subway everywhere! If you go get a subway map!

It is so useful!

I had made reservation to Gato Bobby Flay's Mediterranean restaurant in the Village and on the way there we wanted to stop at Eataly Mario Batali's and Lidia Bastianich mega Italian food emporium.

Before going to NYC I asked my BF where he wanted to go. I then make a list and then plan the transit.

yeah I am crazy like that!

Italy did not disappoint! It is huge, there is so much stuff you don't know where to look and there is tons of produce I have never seen in my grocery store (Shishito peppers anyone?).

I didn't take as many pics as I wanted because there was a lot of people as well!

Eataly is a destination for tourists, a mega food emporium for neighborhood folks, a huge food court and a restaurant too!

Did I mention you can take classes there too?

 Walls of cheese people!

 Cheeses you never imagined existed!

 Those are actual wheels of Parmegianno Regianno

not styrofoam mock ups!

  More cheese!

We bought some Italian chocolates that were delicious and 

24 months aged Prosciutto and some weird paper thin cracker that Dad would've loved.

Dad was a huge weird cracker lover!

so we spent less than $20 and were happy. The Prosciutto was melt in our

mouths good ($6)

Then we hopped on the bus for our 6:15 pm reservation at Gato.

We met a fantastic little oldish lady who had lived all her life in NYC.

She heard us talking and told us to stick with her because she was getting off at the same stop.

along the way she pointed buildings where famous people live (Mario Batali we know where you live..... )

and assorted landmarks....

On to Gato.

of course we expected great things since Bobby Flay beats nearly everyone on Beat Bobby Flay....

Now I think this show is rigged!

The place looks great. It is in an old factory.

You can't take pictures because it is too dark. the lady next to me had her phone out with the light on to look at the menu.

we repeatedly tried to take pictures but it looked like crap!

We took 3 bar side amuse bouche (a better term than appetizers because of their micro size)

Seared ahi tuna, eggplant and manchego and pork belly .

Tuna good, eggplant amazing I could eat that every day, pork belly beautifully cooked but 

with a weird sauce.

for our mains we ordered lemon and clam risotto.

it was way too salty, not enough lemon rind or white wine and parsley would have 

been nice for freshness.

we skipped dessert because at $14 a pop we were afraid to be disappointed.

I think Bobby is in love with chili oil because there was some in every dish we ordered.

yes it was thrilling to be in a celebrity chef restaurant but for the price we need actual magic not 

someone going through the motions.....

since I loved the eggplant and manchego dish I looked it up on the internet and there's a version of it

on Food Network by Bobby Flay!

I did toy with the idea of visiting a Mario Batali or Lidia Bastianich restaurant in future

visits but after reading the reviews....I will abstain

The lesson learned here? When you are too famous and too big you can"t quality check the way 

you should!

Thank you all for reading through this looooong post with nearly no pics!

See you soon!

The glory of potted cheese

I believe I blogged about this before...once or twice!

But making a jar of it filled me with joy!

For me this is free cheese...yesssss!

On Monday morning I decided it was time for a freezer clean up. I threw out a bunch of mystery zipper bags and pieces of stale bread. I fished out broad beans, smoked salmon and shrimp to make a nice freezer supper and I spotted my freezer plastic container labeled Potted Cheese....It was full

Time for POTTED CHEESE!

This recipe is from England. You take all the bits of cheese lying around in your fridge...I know some of you will go : Whhaaattt? we never have any bits of cheese lying around!

Well I beg to differ. You know that dried piece of cheddar you are about to throw out? Put it in a labelled freezer container, and keep adding over time.

Once the pot is full, you can defrost it or leave it until you crave something different!

I usually cut the cheese a bit before freezing.

This time I had cheddar, gouda, havarti and mozzarella .

I put the cheese in the food processor (as you can see in the picture, my vintage 1989 Cuisinart)

I added seasoned salt, paprika and marsala wine

I believe you can add about any spice or dried herb.

It is great with white wine too. Beer could be nice....

after whizzing to a smooth consistency, I put it in a 2 cups (500 ml)

Mason jar or 2 smaller ones.

Wait a couple of weeks for the flavors to blend and serve as a spread or on toast or crackers!

It will keep for several months in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Thrifty Goodness

One of my fave grocery store is the kookiest or one of the kookiest in Montreal.

My Dad calls it the dirty grocery, I've called it many names....but in fact it has no real official name outside. The sign says 'épicerie' or grocery store.

I know its real name but cannot say it....It is one of Montreal's best kept secret!

If you can get past the smell (Dried salted cod), the chaos and the noise....you will be rewarded with thrifty goodness.

The produce can be fabulous, or past its prime and sometimes they don't have red bell peppers....

I go there with a list, but rarely buy all that is written on it. Because you never know what deals you will find!

Here is some of the goodies i got today.

The Cracker Barrel cheese was $1.99 for 250g (about 8 ounces)

That is a DYNAMITE deal!

The cheese expires in 16 days....

The butternut squash was a dollar a pound, so it came to $1.06 

And the Oka cheese , was $1.49 for 100g (3.5 ounces)

The company introduced the sliced version of this iconic Quebec

cheese maybe a year ago. I saw it first at my local Maxi & Cie

(Canada's Superstore) and it was $6.99 for a big package, don't know the weight

but this cut of cheese has been MIA ever since.

It smells of feet and is amazing on toast!

  I also bought an eggplant ($1.11), 3 zucchinis ($1.07) and a

red pepper for .57cents

With the veggies I made a pig pot of ratatouille.

Eggplant,zucchinis,onion,garlic,red pepper and tomatoes....LOVE!

I also add basil, S&P and some Johnny's seasoned salt

It will be sooo good with Italian sausages

Twitter Beware

I read my twitter feed a couple of times a day to keep up to date, read witty tweets and get new recipes.

On Sunday afternoon I spotted this recipe .

Avocado, eggs and bacon .

I said to Dan, I need to try this for breakfast tomorrow!!! It looks delicious...avocado good, cheese good, egg good, bacon good.

Since the recipe called for cooked bacon, i fried up some bacon and pulled out an avocado from the fridge.

Yesterday morning, I pre-heated the oven and started wrestling with the avocados. The recipes asks us to put the avocado halves on top of a muffin tin otherwise the eggs will spill...

Well GOOD LUCK with that! I tried and next thing I know the hole I made is not big enough and the white spilled on the counter and in the muffin tin....Finally I balanced the halves on milk glass cups in tin foil plates.

I was really excited to try this, the cheese was golden, the bacon looked crunchy....

And then I took a spoonful and scooped out some and ate it.

OMG WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??? IT TASTES OF DIRT!!!

I couldn't believe what was happening...the warm avocado tastes like crap...okay dirt

It was a bit better with cheese and bacon but a total fail overall.

Don't people test recipes anymore?

And to think of all those people who loved it on Twitter and Pinterest!

Sorry but from now on no warm avocado for me

(Just the thought of it makes me gag...)

Cheesy Goodness (in PYREX)

Once in a while a recipe catches my eye and the other when Dan dumped a little booklet on the dining room table with the words : Hey I found those recipes, you might like them....

Those were Easter type recipes and we don't do Easter (we celebrate the holiday, we pray and we usually eat some ham but that is about it)  .

The recipe that really caught my eye was the Cheesy Baked Quinoa.

Here goes

3 tbsp butter divided 
8 cups baby spinach,kale or augula leaves (I used about half a bunch of kale and after I threw in some thawed frozen squeezed dry spinach)
1 leek white part only finely chopped (used an onion here)
1 1/2 cups whole grain quinoa insed and drained.
2 1/2 cups educed sodium chicken broth,divided
1/2 cup 36% whipping cream
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 cups grated medium old cheddar cheese (I used Kraft Cracker Barrel orange medium old cheddar because I want FLAVOUR not just gooyee cheese)

Preheat oven to 350F (180 C)

Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large ovenproof skillet over medium heat. add kale or spinach and saute 2 tp 3 minutes or until just wilted, transfer to a boel and set aside.
Add remaining butter and leek or onion and saute for 4 o 5 minutes until golden.
Stir in quinoa until well coated. Aad 2 cups chicken broth. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until most of the fluid is absorbed. This took me more like 15 ish 20 minutes.
Whisk remaining both with cream, mustard and pepper. Stir in quinoa mixture along with reserved kale or spinach and 1 cup cheese. Pour in Pyrex dish if desired.
Smooth top.
Bake, uncovered for  15 minutes and sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake another 15 minutes until bubbly.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.

                                It made quite a lot and was delicious! No, really...
                                it was even good room temp!

                                I will freeze this dish for another day....

                                Oh and the bonus is it is gluten free.
                               I serve it with leftove fish but they mention it would be great with chicken or ham

                              Enjoy!

Yummy in my Tummy!

I subscribe to Kraft's What's Cooking magazine and generally I don't really like their recipes even if I know they are crowd favorites.

TOO MUCH CHEESE! TOO MUCH PROCESSED FOOD!

 But I have to admit that in their quest to make us buy their products they come up with pretty interesting recipes.

Like this one

Make-ahead pumpkin french toast

Of course i had to bend the recipe to my specs! First, I didn't have any canned pumpkin in the house, nor cream cheese...but I think it would've been overkill

My bread was pre-sliced and way to thin so I didn't soak it overnight,I made the liquid part the night before with  3 eggs, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 TBSP of sugar, a good glug of maple syrup, some vanilla and pumpkin pie spice.

Which I did not have, but I was so sure I had some from my last trip to Maine. Well anyways....I made my own! I had the ingredients, so no money spent there.

I dipped the bread maybe 45 minutes before then browned it in a pan.

Here's the link for the recipe  Pumpkin pie spice

Here's the result

I made enough that we were able to bring some the next day for breakfast!

                                 So good!