Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups!

I tried my first recipe from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet today: chocolate peanut butter cups!  I bought all the ingredients yesterday.  I needed to make a run (okay, walk) to Target to buy paper liners for the muffin tray, so I did that during my "lunch hour" today.

Before cooking dinner, I measured out all the ingredients, mixed 'em and melted 'em.  My hands were pretty shaky when I was spooning in the peanut butter mixture and the chocolate topping, so they didn't turn out as beautifully as I would have liked (the pictured one is the "best looking" one)... After two hours of cooling in the fridge, I tried my first homemade peanut butter cup.  They are really tasty!  The vegan chocolate chips are quite sweet, so I may try a different kind next time, and when I make them again, I'll use unsalted peanut butter (which is what the recipe called for, heh).   Oh, this was a vegan recipe, but my graham crackers had some organic honey in them.  Oh well.  I haven't quite given up honey yet.  And I'm not exactly a vegan.  Just flirting!  :)

I'll have that with brown rice, please.

I've had brown rice at Chinese restaurants, but I've never cooked brown rice myself... that is, until today!  I bought a small bag of brown rice at the grocery.  The other day, I searched for tips on how to make it on the stove, and the advice worked!

Here's what I did:

• Boil 4 cups of water.
• Prepare 1 cup of rice by giving it the good old pre-cooking swirl-and-clean in a bowl of water.
• Boil the rice for 30 minutes in the pot, uncovered.  Stir occasionally.
• Drain the water from the pot, and let the rice steam in the covered pot for 10 minutes.

Excellent!  My spinach/carrots/mushroom/garlic with soy sauce and red pepper flakes tastes delicious with my brown rice.

Leftovers with almond milk and cinnamon tomorrow.  

A Look Back and a Look Forward

In 2003, I created a spreadsheet list of 100 Life Goals that I wanted to achieve.  I even created a companion scrapbook to document my accomplishments.  Some LGs were easier to complete than others.  For example, on July 26, 2003, I bought Michelle Branch's independently released CD Broken Bracelet.  (How was that a Life Goal, dear 19-year-old self?  Oh well, I'll take it!)  Others took some patience and creativity: On January 25, 2004, I met Josh Groban.

Seven years later, I've accomplished 47 of the original 100 Life Goals, and it's time to give them an update.  Why?  I haven't looked at this list in a couple years, and I mean it.  Today, I finally logged that I visited Italy and Vatican City, and that took place in September 2008.  (Hmm... the Italian vacation theme in my blog continues!)

Now that I've had time off, I am going to create new Life Goals to bring the list back up to 100.  Should be fun and rewarding.  I'll have to check in with the list more often now.

First Time at Chelsea Market

While it may seem like this blog is turning into a food blog, I assure you that that's not completely the case.  :)  After filing my taxes and taking care of some nuts & bolts, I left my apartment this evening and made my way downtown.  Destination: Chelsea Market.  Well, I should say that I was thoroughly engrossed with reading The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone that I missed my stop at 14th Street and got off at the stop after it: West 4th.  I had walked here earlier this week, and the walk wasn't too bad to get to Ninth Avenue and 15th Street.

Chelsea Market is an indoor market comprised of several different shops -- bakeries, eateries, a gelato stand, and more.  Despite my reading material, I couldn't resist getting a baked good at Amy's Bread.  Seeing the bakery, I realized I had been here before, but not inside the market.  A few years ago, when Jason was visiting for Thanksgiving, actually, Camille, Yale, JR, other peeps, and I went to a bar (or two? I can't remember), and then we stopped by the baking area of Amy's Bread, not typically open to consumers.  We got to try some samples, including this bread with chocolate, which I loved but haven't had since.  Well, they didn't have it tonight, but I asked for something with chocolate, and among my three choices, I chose pain au chocolat -- a chocolate croissant.  It wasn't until after I chose it that I realized I unconsciously must have been still channeling my Italian vacation with Mom and Dad.  At the rest stop stations (forgot the name of them), Dad discovered pain au chocolat.  Mmmm.  The Amy's Bread version, I have to say, wasn't quite as good as it is in Italy, but I am biased.  :)  I did feel guilty about having butter and sugar.  Oh well... I am "flirting," as Alicia has called it in her book, with a kinder way of eating (no meat and no dairy, instead plant-based foods and grains), and am bound to have my slips.  I just started reading the book on Sunday.

I think I will be able to make up for it.  As I ate my treat at a table, I kept watching people enter the Manhattan Fruit Exchange.  No, it doesn't just have fruits in it!  Because of the foot traffic, I decided to check it out.  The store is chilled inside, to keep everything fresh, and there were fresh fruits, dried fruits, fresh vegatables of all kinds, lots of grains, spices, ingredients for antipasti, and more.  Lots of food that I bet can be found in The Kind Diet's recipes.  And it felt like a place I could definitely see myself buying produce from again.  I bought peaches, lemons, mushrooms, baby carrots, tamari (soy sauce), falafel mix (I love me some falafel, but I've never made it!), dried strawberries, and raw almonds.  I stopped myself from buying a few things that I was curious about but had no idea how to cook.  I want to read the recipe section first so I don't end up with buyer's remorse.  Tomorrow is an experimental cooking day with the veggies and falafel mix.  I have leftover brown rice from takeout, but I'll have to look into getting some and cooking it myself moving forward.  My current "spice rack" consists of garlic salt, Italian Mrs. Dash, pepper, sea salt, and red pepper flakes.  We'll see what happens!  Maybe this is a food blog now.  Haha.

Numero 28

Perhaps I should have placed my camera in my purse today... I returned to SoHo to find the Roman-style pizza I mentioned previously.  The A train runs express, so I got off at Canal Street and walked north to Spring Street, but not up Sixth Avenue like I did before.  So when I turned right on Spring Street and kept walking several blocks, I didn't see the pizzeria.  So I had to turn around and eventually found Numero 28 (that's "ventotto" in Italian).  The older gentleman behind the counter was very friendly.  As soon as I laid my eyes on the potato pizza, nothing else mattered.  There was no sign in front of it, so I asked the man behind the counter to make sure it was the potato and then I ordered a slice.  He whipped out a neat little measurement tool that evenly divided the rectangular pizza into a few rows and then began cutting.  He explained that he wanted to make sure everyone got equal slices.  I told him that I'd been to Italy and that they just began cutting randomly.  (But in Italy, they sold the slices by weight, so it didn't really matter how pieces were cut.)  He gave a little laugh and then put my slice in the oven briefly to warm it back up and give it a nice crispness.

It didn't take very long at all, and I sat by the window to watch people walk by and stop to look in -- like I did a few weeks ago.  And it even got a little busy.  Two women after me each ordered a slice, and another guy ordered something too.

The man behind the counter spoke in Italian to his friend.  I didn't understand anything, but it felt a little like Rome while I was eating.

Ah, yes, the pizza!  The slice was big!  It covered my paper plate.  The potatoes were thinly sliced and covered the entire rectangle.  The pizza dough is thicker than New York style for sure, but I don't know how it compares to Sicilian style pizza.  It was nice and crispy with just the right amount of chewiness.  I remember the potato pizza in Rome had chunks of flavorful potato.  Numero 28 had a subtler flavor for their potatoes, but I still found it as a whole to be delicious.  No red tomato sauce.  Just potato, mozzarella, herbs, and maybe a little olive oil.  And not at all greasy!  Mmmmm, mmmm.  When I finished and got up to leave, the man who helped me took my plate and asked me if I enjoyed it.  I said yes and that I would definitely be back!

I felt energized after eating that potato pizza and ended up walking all the way to Times Square in the lovely sunshine!  Well, okay, 40th Street, but then had to walk underground to get the A train, so it was practically Times Square.

I would have to agree with Yelp.com

This week, I tried two cheap eateries based on my cravings and reviews on Yelp.com.  I'm not actually a member and I can't remember how I first came across the website, but I visit Yelp.com from time to time to read reviews about businesses, mainly food establishments.

After having banh mi twice last month, I was craving the sandwich.  At first, I was going to try Baoguette on St. Marks Place*, but after reading reviews that referred to Banh Mi Saigon in Chinatown, I decided to try it out.  I've actually walked by this place several times, as it's on Mott Street.  Just as people said, the establishment is a jewelry store in the front, and the food service is in the back.  The Yelpers didn't lie when they said there's really no clear line.  After being unsure at first, I finally made eye contact with the man taking orders and requested #1, the pork sandwich.  He asked if I wanted it spicy.  I said, "Not spicy!"  He told me my order number, and I only had to wait a few minutes, and he just motioned me to come forward when it was ready instead of calling my number.  For $3.75, the sandwich was very satisfying -- I actually couldn't finish both halves.  The bread was tasty and just the right amount of chewy.  The fillings were delicious.  Would I get it again?  Most likely yes, but not all the time.  Essentially you buy the sandwiches there, but there are no tables and chairs -- just benches for waiting for your order.

Last month I had dinner with Alexa in Soho.  Before we met up, I wandered around the area because I arrived a little early.  I came across this pizza place selling Roman-style pizza.  I stopped to look inside the windows and made a promise to myself that I'd return.  When I was with Rome with Mom and Dad, we tried pizza in a couple different places.  I can still remember how much I loved the rectangular piece of pizza with delicious, delicious potatoes as the topping.  Yes, potatoes!  Well, I haven't made good on my promise yet, mainly because I forgot the name of the place and haven't been able to find it online.  I plan to just wander around Soho again one of these days and I'm sure I'll find it.

In my quest for cheap eats, today I decided to try 2 Bros Pizza on St. Marks Place.  Yelpers said the best thing about it was that it's a $1 per slice, but there's not much more to it.  I was really hungry by the time I walked to St. Marks Place from Seventh Avenue and 12th Street, where I got off the 1 train.  Once again, the Yelpers didn't lie.  It was okay but nothing special.  But yay for only spending $1.  Would I get 2 Bros Pizza again?  Eh, not the plain.  I would want to try the mushroom slice, which is $1.50.

*Is it "St. Marks Place" with or without an apostrophe?  I've seen it without in many places, but I'm always tempted to put an apostrophe there.  Sigh.