FoodMuse

Um... That would mean I'd have to really clean it first. Since you asked, I have lots of hot sauces and condiments and all the goodies I got at a recent Brooklyn Food Swap. I get together with a group of like minded urban domestics and we swap our homemade goods. Here's an excerpt from a recent blog post I wrote about it: I went to the BKFoodSwappers food swap in Brooklyn last night and made out like a bandit. If you aren't familiar with the idea of food swapping, basically you bring some homemade food item and barter it for something tasty someone else made. We had a fantastic crowd of about 30 foodies. I brought mango habanero hot sauce, papaya habanero ketchup, quick refrigerator pickles and an apple butter spiked with a tiny amount of habanero. If you want to find out what I got out of the swap click here. Now is a very very good time to be interested in food in New York.

'A Day in the Life' blogs are just as good as any!! Looking forward to your next meals. Thanks Ambra, I now have some Cornish Hens that I've never cooked before and parsnips to make something interesting. In the meantime here are some Masala Eggs I cooked for breakfast over the weekend I thought you guys might be interested in. This is based on a Nigella Lawson recipe. I told you I like to keep foods spicy! This will wake you up. 2 eggs 1/4 tsp cumin, coriander, turmeric powder sprinkle of salt 1/4 tsp, maybe more of Sambal Oelek fresh cilantro, 1 or 2 minced tablespoons 1 tablespoon green onion Whisk it up with a fork and cook in a little nonstick pan. I cooked it in gee, but butter works too. I like eggs a little undercooked, but you could cook it up as scrambled eggs. Masala eggs by gpiper, on Flickr Cooked masala eggs by gpiper, on Flickr

Hello there, I'm looking for advice on how to cook 2 two lb Cornish Hens I have resting the fridge now. I've never cooked them before so any advice is welcome. I love crispy skin, but I also like a sweet glaze, honey, maple syrup or hoisin. Can I have both? I was invited to blog for eGullet for the week over here and I'd like to cook to impress. Visit me there and let me know what you think. I thought little hens would be quite photogenic. I'm also looking for advice on condiments and good side dishes pairings. I have lemons, habaneros, carrot, celery and parsnips in the fridge. I also have bacon. Bacon wrapped maybe? For fresh herbs I have mint and cilantro. There is another Cornish Hen thread, but it's focus is on timing and temp. not so much recipes. Thoughts, tips, ideas? What makes them different from my usual roast chicken? Is it just the size? Any diff in flavor or texture? Thank you, Grace

@Pam I am a fan of leftovers for brekkie. Quinoa is perfect with whatever else I can scrounge up. Thanks Shelby! I'm now wishing I'd hadn't impulsively agreed to be the guest blogger this week. Mostly because I want to wow you guys, and have taken my time planning out a week. Vanity rears it's ungly head. I guess I'm mostly showing you what I cook during most weeks. Last night's chicken dinner is a great example of an easy weekday meal. We eat lots of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs. White chicken meat is not allowed in the house, it just won't get eaten. It just has zero flavor. I snuck some into a stew once and Charles(my guy)picked it out. This recipe might sound boring, but I promise you it is delicious. Very, very juicy and the topping is a good as it looks in the photo above. It develops a sort of Ritz cracker flavor. Ingredients 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs 2-3 Tablespoons each of mayo and dijon 1 1 minced green onion 1 tsp garlic, minced Kosher salt and pepper 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs 3 tablespoons melted butter seasoned salt Preheat oven to 350 Mix up the mayo, dijon, onion and garlic. S+P Chicken. Smear this all over the chicken and push a good teaspoon or so under the skin(key). Mix bread crumbs with the butter, a pinch of seasoned salt and pepper. Separate this mixture into 4 section in the mixing bowl and pat them on top of each piece of chicken. Move rack in the oven to the lower part so that your topping doesn't become too dark. Bake on a shallow sheet pan until internal temp registers 165 or juices run clear, about 45 minutes. Let them rest a few minutes before serving. I had this with broccoli with garlic butter and leftover quinoa and the Thai slaw.

Best simple chicken dinner. Recipes to follow Chicken dinner by gpiper, on Flickr

I'm sure she'll be happy to share. Here's my snack/supper. Celery with a cream cheese dip with minced green onion, red pepper, and a little seasoned salt to taste. I have no idea what dinner will be. In New York people eat dinner at 8. It's not just the name of a movie. Flavored cream cheese dip with celery by gpiper, on Flickr

Great question. I don't have a specific cuisine. I like the sharpness of jalapeno in my salsa, smoky chipotle in a beefy chili and the floral heat of habanero hot sauce with extremely ripe(completely black is key) fried plantains. I think my favorite dish lately is plantains with my Papaya Habanero Ketchup. Those links above are to the recipes on my blog. The ketchup is so easy to make and I keep that rather mild and up the anti with my Mango Habanero Hot Sauce(also homemade). That's based on Chef Chris Schlesinger's Inner Beauty HotSauce that he stopped producing years ago, but that peopled are still jonesing for. There are lots of threads on eGullet about this hotsauce. Mine is good, but it still isn't the real thing. I can't believe how much I miss that hotsauce.

I wanted to pull this great point out. Dressings are a great place to figure out these sorts of balances, because you can usually and endlessly adjust with a pinch of this or a dash of that. David Thompson talks about that in his classic Thai Food, and emphasizes tasting as you add each ingredient. Another cookbook I need! I love James Oseland's Cradle of Flavor for inspiration, but haven't made any recipe straight from the book. Yet. He tells wonderful stories among the authentic recipes. I actually had a meeting with James to do a video with my web video company and although he was really kind I just got so, so nervous. It was ridiculous. I have had meetings and interviewed famous people and this guy had me completely losing my cool and blushing. Ughh. So unprofessional.

Yes, I should have done that. Next time.

Good idea. I forgot to say I sprinkled the slaw with sunflower seeds this morning.

That. Sounds. Good! I've never fried a whole fish and I can get them at my local fish monger. I'm lucky to have a great local monger just 3 blocks away. We eat fish once a week. Usually fatty wild salmon or blue fish.

No, all the cooking falls on me, which is more than fine. When I moved in with him I had to have the gas turned on for the stove to work. It had been off for 8 YEARS. No oven, no top burners, no toaster oven. He just ordered food and reheated delivery with his microwave.. for 8 years. I may have improved his quality of life. Fish Fillets and Scallops Salt and Pepper. Dregdged in cornstarch, I normally use flour but I read a Vietnamese recipe online that did it this way and thought I'd try it out. I quickly cooked the scallops in a little veg oil in a non stick pan, but fried the fish in about an inch of oil. Fish & scallops by gpiper, on Flickr I also made a quick quinoa side dish. You have to rinse the quinoa first. I prefer it to couscous. We aren't big rice fans. 1 cup quinoa, 1 tbsp butter, 2 cups of chicken broth Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Takes about 10-15 min. The dish by gpiper, on Flickr That unappealing smear on the plate is a delicious Date Tamerind sauce made by a friend. Altogether this was a delicous meal! Here's breakfast. Cold quinoa, leftover slaw topped with an egg. I think I did a little better with the photography here. Quinoa, Vietnamese slaw and Egg by gpiper, on Flickr

Slaw by gpiper, on Flickr Here is the slaw I made. More photos and recipes to come. Grace

The slaw tastes great and is in the fridge. The recipe is below, but for now let's just talk about my burning nose. I minced a serrano pepper for the slaw, washed my hands well and despite a great handwashing must have touched my nose with some hot oils on it. On to the recipe. Vietnamese style slaw To save time for dinner I used a prepackaged coleslaw mix. You can leave out the fresh sliced red pepper, but do not leave out the onion. First I mixed up and let sit for about 1/2 hour to marinate: Juice of 1 lime 1 serrano pepper, seeded and minced 1/2 red onion, halved and thinly sliced 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar 2 Tablespoons Fish sauce 1 1/2 Tablespoon Sugar Let that sit for at least 1/2 hour. Then add: 1 1/2 cup slaw mix or sliced cabbage 1 shredded carrot 1/2 thinly sliced red pepper This slaw can sit for quite awhile, even overnight, but the vegetables give off alot of liquid you might want to drain off. BUT save that liquid, I think it would make a great marinade for chicken. Not sure about that idea of a marinade that's just a theory. Now taste for the sweet, sour, salty balance adding more sugar, lime juice or fish sauce as needed. I think this is a skill that takes practice, figuring out how to balance flavors. It will probably need a little more fish sauce or sugar. Go very, very slowly when adding them it. Keep tasting. Just before serving stir in 1/4 cup fresh mint 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, make sure to include minced stems

Yes Heidih, Thanks for commenting. I've always been obsessed with food. I read cookbooks the way some women read romance novels. I was the awkward fat girl in middle school who baked cookies when she got home from school and made my own peanut butter. I read the ingredients on the jar, put peanuts, sugar, salt and oil in a plastic grocery bag and smashed it on my basement floor with a hammer. It was pretty good. I'm old enough that I was a kid before the era of markets grinding fresh peanut butter. I grew up on Jiffy. @nakji I've been lucky enough to grow up in the Boston area, live in Los Angeles and now live in New York, so what you say is true I have such a diversity of ingredients around me. Money is tight, so no I don't eat out often. Lucky I love to cook. I have my Vietnamese inspired slaw in the fridge, now I need to get onto making my dipping sauce for fried snapper. Take care friends, Grace .

Hello everyone, eGullet was nice enough to invite me to write a food blog chronicling what I've made or eaten out for one week. I'm so excited about it! Thanks guys. About me: I dream about food, I wake thinking what's for dinner and I'm so excited to share it with you. I'm part of the food world in New York. By that, I just mean that I'm so fortunate enough to be invited to great events where I get to eat great food. I'm also a nerd and a part of the technology world. I produce, edit and sometimes host food related web videos and I'm also a part of the tech world. I'm launching a website called Please, Pass the Gravy. www.pleasepassthegravy.com We let you create a menu, invite friends and then collaborate on that menu. Never host another potluck with 8 pasta salads. You could use it now, but we're alpha launch, it works but it's ugly. It's my ugly baby. So, if you use it be kind and message me if you have improvement ideas. I thought it would be ok to write about it here because it is food related. I live in Brooklyn with a lovely guy who likes to eat and a small corgi mix dog. I cook pretty much every night and do a nice brunch on the weekend. I am not a crazy dog lady, but I do admit to cooking food for the dog. I have an excuse, beyond doting, he had seizures that have stopped since not feeding him dog food. Foods I cook: Spicy foods! If you look at my blog I have a simple papaya ketchup with habanero that is pretty darn good. I love great cheese. This may be the week for Beer Cheese Soup. I try to limit carbs, though I do cheat. In any given week C. and I probably eat cauliflower, broccoli and green beans as a side. Tonight's dinner will be Vietnamese inspired. We'll see how it goes. I'll post about it as soon as I can. Any requests? Questions? I'd love to hear from you. -Grace

This is a great thread. Basically we're creating a bug-out bag for cooking. LOL. Incidentally here's mine that I threw together after 9/11. I volunteered to cook for the boyfriends aunt last Thanksgiving. After asking about what her kitchen was like I was nervous. I had to fly there so was limited in what I could bring. I brought: Salt, pepper, spices and my knife I really wished I had brought my cutting board. She had an odd giant concave wooden board that I had to flip over and use the underside. I second the silicone spatula, nonstick fry pan and a microplane.

Apples are in the slowcooker on high with very little sugar (these were very sweet macintosh) and a sprinkling of allspice,cinnamonand clove. @andiesenji I'll take your advice and add a little habanero halfway through cooking then taste later. @Chris Agreed. We shall see.

I'm going to a Brooklyn Food Swap this week. Deets: "Guests bring: 1. Larder goods you made (those jams, pickles, kimchi, preserves, butters, chutneys you’ve compulsively canned over the summer) 2. A homemade (i.e. wrapped) food unit for trade (think a bag of crackers, batch of outta-this-world cookies, a loaf of bread, dried foods, ummm…whatevs, just so long as you made it) " I'm bringing 1 jar of my pickles and 2 jars of Papaya Habanero ketchup. I'd like to make an Apple Butter in my slowcooker, but was thinking I might put in a 1 or 2 of my leftover hanbaneros. Madness? or Genius? I would like to bring something that makes people extra motivated to swap with me. Apple butter is kind of boring, wanting to step it up my game. Also, I don't have an Apple Butter recipe yet. Been googling it, but don't have much confidence in any Apple Butter crockpot recipes I've see so far. Anyone have apple butter experience? Grace

This has me laughing outloud!!

Fantastic responses here! @CaliPoutine Who the heck doesn't like maple syrup? I have a good friend who also has tomato issues. Raw will not abide. Salsa or cooked is fine! Maybe there's something about the acid. @therippa I'm with your GF, I hate Creme Brulee. I don't know why. I love creamy things. I like caremel. There's no accounting for it. @Alex No to oysters, but yes to okra? Odd @mkayahara You can totally sneak pumpkin into lots of things. @Snadra Sounds like you were trying to be sneaky like me. LOL @percival Whoa that is a long list. Good luck with that. I don't think I could be with someone who wouldn't eat garlic and onion. Out of time, but you all have wonderful stories. Please keep them coming. -Grace

I was thinking today about my father who would go all squeamish at the site of butter and would say he never ate it in any form. My mother of course cooked and baked with butter and had to sometimes hide it from him. Anyone else do this? When I first started dating my partner he said he wouldn't eat mushrooms. I thought it was the squeaky texture so made a duxelles of some great portobello shrooms and snuck it on his plate. He loathed it. We are now a mushroom free zone. I recently met someone who I think explained it best. She said mushroom taste like dirt. I guess I like dirt. Maybe it's genetic, similar to folks who think cilantro taste like soap? Anyone deal with partners food idiosyncrasies?

Hi Heidih Too late. I pulled out the 3 ham hocks and tossed in the bones. Now, a few hours later (I think this soup is best after sitting around for awhile) that smoked ham added more flavor than the hocks did.

@judiu I have the soup in the pot as we speak. The ham hocks were cheapo supermarket type. Total weight of 2 lb. They don't seem all that smoky Lovely boyfriend just called and says as he bought ham from our local fancy cheese and charcuterie the shop owner asked if he'd like to buy the bone from an apple wood smoked ham. Hooray!!!!! So, that will go in the pot as soon as he comes home. He says there is some ham still attached.

Gorgeous! Lucky you. This would be amazing with crispy duck breasts. Mix it with a little vinegar first. Grace