Special Holiday Treat - Life of Bougie!

To all my readers from Lori A. Calbert aka Alexis I. Dragon:

I am also an author.  So if you like my blog, you will definitely like my book series - Life of Bougie+ is available as an ebook through Barnes and Noble online services.  The first book is Bougie+ in New York and the second book is Bougie in Korea by Alexis I. Dragon (my writing name).  It's easiest if you have a Nook.  Please check it out.  They are funny novels about a famous New York City gossip columnist named Tina West.  She is sharing how she became famous and all of the adventures she has had in between, including her dealings with celebrities.  If you love New York or want to know more about it, read book 1. Book 2 is about Tina West's adventures in South Korea+.  She went there because she was involved in a scandal with a celebrity in New York, so she had to get away until all the fuss went away.  She discovered a beautiful country.  In this book, I have also given you a guide to Korea that you could use if you want to travel there.  If you have questions about the books, please ask them on my blog or you can email me at loricalbert@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Lori A. Calbert

Apple Pie Cider

I am not a beer drinker.  But many, many, many years ago, when I was in London, England, I was introduced to something that I could enjoy in a pub, hard apple cider. I have tried many hard ciders since that time.  It is harder to find cider in America, even here in New York City.  Well, the other day at a restaurant named Elizabeth's on the Upper West Side, I found a magical cider. It is Mckenzie's Hard Cider Hard Pressed Seasonal Reserve.  It tastes like apple pie!  I couldn't believe it!  As soon as I took a sip, I tasted sweet apples, cinnamon, and some other seasonal spices.  Now, I don't know what they put in it, but that's what it tasted like to me. I didn't want any dessert after drinking it. I would love to try it again.  I guess I (and you) better hurry if it's seasonal. :-)

Berry Delight Dessert - Quick and Easy!

This dessert+ is something I like to do instead of ice cream.  It's quick and easy and a great way to enjoy berries. 

I take a cup of strawberries, blueberries, and/or raspberries and mix them together.  In a large mug or glass, I  take a half cup of amaretto coffee flavoring (any brand will do of that liquid coffee flavoring you find in the dairy section) and mix it with half a cup of whipping cream (not whipped).  I pour the berries on top of the cream mixture.  The sweetness and flavor of the amaretto and the berries is magical.  The cream begins to thicken as you eat, so you have a yogurt texture in the dessert. It leaves me feeling refreshed, but  still able to enjoy the decadence I associate with ice cream.

MY FAVORITE SANDWICH

This sandwich+ is something I have made at one of my favorite counter-style neighborhood restaurants called G's Coffee Shop on 207th Street and Cooper Avenue.  It's not a fancy place, but a comfort food place.  I told them to make this sandwich and they used to freak-out when I added my toppings.

Take a toasted roll.  Top it with two, over medium eggs.  Then add three slices or more of bacon.  Top that with two or more slices of swiss cheese.  Then top the swiss with 4 slices of avocado. 

I top the whole thing with two sauces:  hot sauce and my version of vinagrette.  I mix equal amounts of red wine vinegar and olive oil with a little bit of sugar, so it's tangy and sweet.  When you bite into the sandwich, the over medium eggs ooze with golden goodness.  Then put both sauces on top, hot sauce and then vinagrette. The sauces really make the sandwich POP! Spicy, gooey, tangy,  and sweet! Super Yum!

Quick and Unique Salad Dressing - Add Babaganoush!

I always look for intriguing dressings that I can use in multiple ways.  Today, I am sharing my recipe for a tahini-soy sauce dressing.

Take a cup of olive oil.  Mix in three tablespoons tahini, three tablespoons of soy sauce (preferably tamari instead of regular soy sauce) and juice from a lemon.  Mix thoroughly.  You can add salt if you like and you can add more of each ingredient depending upon your taste.

Serve with salad or over chicken.  I like to make a chicken flatbread sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, feta, and onion.  Then I top the whole thing with the tahini dressing. Perfecto!

You can use it as a dip with toasted pita chips or vegetables.  If you really want to get creative, add a few tablespoons of babaganoush to the dressing.  I love all those flavors!

HOLIDAY TREATS - POUND CAKE AND FRUIT DESSERT

I love quick desserts that are decadent.  If you have pound cake, you have at least two quick desserts.  First, you cut pound cake into 1/2 inch thick slices and set to the side.

DESSERT ONE

Next, the filling:  Take 2 cups (or more) of any kind of berries you want - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and mix them in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  Mix well and you will see the juice emerge from the berries. 

Then take two cups of whipping cream and 4 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar and use a mixer to combine the two.  When the cream is nice and fluffy, stop mixing or you may make butter. (Ha! Ha1)

Now, it's time to combine the ingredients.  Place a slice of pound cake on a plate.  Then take some of the juice from the berries and put it over the surface of the cake. This juice infuses the pound cake with tantalizing berry flavor. Then take about 3 tablespoons of whipped cream and spread over the cake.  Then add the same amount of berries and spread them over the whipped cream and add another layer of whipped cream.  Top with another slice of cake and repeat the process, but do not put another slice of cake on top, unless you want more than two layers of cake. Top the last coating of berries with whipped cream.

DESSERT TWO

You can take this dessert and turn it into a parfait. The only difference is that you will have to cube the pound cake and use multiple cubes for each layer depending upon the glass or container you are using.  Make the first layer the whipped cream and then layer in the cake.  Do the same process as the first cake dessert, alternating berries, cream and cake.  Again, the whipped cream should be the top layer, but you can sprinkle a few berries on top for decoration.

P.S. - You can use other cake, biscuits, or cupcakes, too, instead of pound cake.

Holiday Dips - Artichokes and Sundried Tomatoes

I love simple dips that combine crowd pleasing, easy to find ingredients. Today, I have a delicious topping/dip that will be accessible to everyone.

You need the following ingredients:

Equal parts sundried tomatoes and artichoke palms (both from brands of jars submerged in oil)

3 cloves of garlic

1 cup (or to taste) of olive oil

Take a food processor and finely process the sundried tomatoes. It doesn't matter how much you use, as long as you have an equal amount of artichoke palms.  So, 1 cup sundried tomatoes and 1 cup artichoke palms.  It's important that they are in from jars that stored them in oil to enhance the flavor.  If not, just add enough olive oil to taste.

After processing the sundried tomatoes into a paste, add the artichoke palms and just pulse them into a small chop.  You want the slight texture of the artichokes.

Then add the olive oil (about a cup for every two cups of the artichoke/sundried tomato mixture, but remember it depends on the consistency you want - dip or topper?More oil for a dip to make it smoother and more spreadable) with the garlic.  Be sure that the garlic is well ground at least to a minced level, unless you like bigger, but still tiny, chunks, which I do! 

Remove from the processor into a bowl and stir to be sure that everything is mixed nicely.  Serve with a crostini, over pasta or rice, cheese toast/grilled cheese, mix with goat cheese or blend with feta, or whatever you think would be fantasticly delicious!

Spunto is Magnifico!

I know that New York is the capital of pizza, but all pizza is not created equal. Some people love huge, thick crusts.  I do not.  I feel the toppings get lost in all of the bread.  So, I was so thankful when I discovered a wonderful pizza place in the village called Spunto.  I first went there a year ago and I am a frequent customer. 

Spunto makes thin, gourmet quality pizza.  At first, I was skeptical because the pizza was so thin.  I thought to myself, "This is not going to be filling!" But it was!  The ingredients are top notch and rich.  I always get the meat lovers pizza with pepperoni and sausage.  It is scrumptious!  I get a caesar salad which has the creamiest, most satisfyingly fantastical taste.  I even put some of the dressing on my pizza.  (I am a sauce queen!)  I see many people ordering the mushroom pizza, too.  There are many non-vegetarian and vegetarian selections, so there is something for everyone.

The thin crust allows you to really taste and revel in the toppings.  It's so simple and so wonderous, you'll wonder why you ever ate any other pizza. Spunto is located at 65 Carmine Street, @ 7 th Avenue South.

Kitchenette is the Bomb!

Kitchenette is one of the best restaurants in the city.  Although it is a Columbia student hangout in between 122nd and 123rd Street on Amsterdam, there are plenty of business people and everyone in between to make it a diverse crowd on many levels.

The food is great!  The savory and the sweet are worth the trip.  I love two things the best:  The hamburgers and the strawberry shortcake.  I get the hamburger with sharp white cheddar cheese and the sun-dried tomato pesto.  You must have it with the pesto and if you're feeling even more decadent, order the bacon buttermilk dressing, which is sort of a ranch dressing.  The beefy, cheesified goop fest pairs well with the sweet and a little bit tart sun-dried tomato sauce.  Every friend that I have brought there to eat it has raved at robust deliciousness.  They go back on their own because the experience stays with them.

I also love the strawberry shortcake.  This is not the light, small and hollow shortcake cup that you find in the stores.   I was told that it is the real deal:  shortcake.  Then it is filled and topped with a very vanilla whipped cream substance and topped with strawberries.  The cake is dense and hearty.  This is not a little nibble, it's a stomach full.  Sometimes I just come for that dessert and nothing else because it's a lot to eat.  I think the only thing they should add is an allover drizzle of hot fudge. (P.S. - I was told by Doug, one of the managers, that they do have a decadent chocolate sauce that's made from chocolate chips.  He told me this after I finished the cake.  Next time!)

Vogue Party Treats - Kenneth Cole

On October 4, I had the pleasure to attend a Vogue+ Party at Kenneth Cole's store at Grand Central. It is a very beautiful store, industrially designed.  I like attending these Vogue+ parties for many reasons:  1)  There are many interesting people who attend them, 2) There is a lot of champagne, and 3)  I love to get treat ideas from the many small snacks they serve.  

On this occasion, the snacks I enjoyed were the crabcakes and the grilled cheese sandwiches.  The crabcakes were the tiny, amazing bites of Maryland style crabcakes:  sweet and tangy.  The other delicious treat was the grilled cheese sandwich.  I could not get anyone to tell me exactly what was in them, but I could put in a pretty good guess.  The cheese tasted like a creamy sharp cheddar and it was paired with a smooth, melt in your mouth ham (did I detect a bit of dijon mustard?).  The (white) bread was perfectly crisped with buttery undertones. Crunch, crunch! Yum!  People were waiting with baited breath to get a taste of those sandwiches.  There was always a rush when a new tray arrived.  All of the dishes worked well with the champagne!  (Seriously, what doesn't? :-))

The affair included a photo booth for people to take pictures of themselves.  I took advantage and had several made.  Then the application allowed you to send it to your email.  At the end of the night, everyone was given a Kenneth Cole (recycled material?) tote with a Vogue magazine inside.  It was a pretty great night!

The Lasagna Ristorante - Fantastico!

A friend of mine named Cindy told me about a fantastic restaurant named Lasagna Ristorante+.  It is located on 20th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City.  I wanted to go to another one of my favorite hangouts, Rafaella's on 21st and 9th Avenue, but she swore that I would like this one.

So, we went.  It was very lovely.  It had multiple tables with white linen table cloths and nice silverware.  It could have been a bit snobby, but it wasn't.  In fact, our waiter, JP, said that they try to keep it very down-to-earth at this restaurant.  The vibe was very casual and friendly. 

We started with a delicious spinach salad topped with cranberries and mandarin oranges.  I like garlic, so I created my famous garlic infused olive oil.  First, you take 3 tablespoons of minced garlic and pour a teaspoon of salt over it.  The salt gives flavor and helps you to crush the garlic.  Then pour enough olive oil over the garlic to cover it and mix.  Pour sparingly over the greens, bread, pasta, or anything you like.  It depends on how much garlic you like.  I love it.

The menu was filled with different Italian options, but we came for the lasagna and that's what I am concentrating on.  We could have gone conventional with the lasagna+, like ordering sausage and onion.  In fact my friend, who is basically a vegetarian, decided to get the plain cheese lasagna, which was delicious.  However, I wanted some thing different. So, I ordered the seafood lasagna with fra diavolo sauce.  It was spicy and filled with chunky shrimp and appetizing scallops.  My friend liked the fra diavolo sauce so much that she asked them if next time, she could have the cheese lasagna with that sauce instead. 

It's a great place for meat lovers and vegetarians.  I really loved the garlic bread they served.  I have never seen a place supply unlimited garlic bread.  The food was so good that my friend and I scarfed down the food at such an alarming rate that I think we scared the waiter.

He was kind enough to let me order a special drink.  I like to create my own concoctions with various juices. (I'll discuss this in another blog.)

Muscato and Jay Z

I met rapper and business man extraordinare Jay-Z+!  I went to PJ's Warehouse in Inwood (Manhattan) looking for a delicious moscato wine.  Moscato+ D'Asti is a great dessert wine (I use it for any meal that suits my fancy!).  It tastes like champagne mixed with a combination of apricot and peach juices. I love it and it's great for brunch. Obviously, there are different brands and you have to try them to find one of your liking. 

So, I was picking out a wine and I found the one I was looking for.  There was a tasting section of a new product.  The woman who was doing the tasting quietly said, "Jay-Z is here."  I thought to myself that she must be imagining this situation.  However, a few minutes later, he appeared.  He was wearing a jean jacket and pants and his trademarked nonchalant look. He was with a few people, but it wasn't a huge entourage and I didn't see Beyonce.  Maybe she was in his car which looked like a black Mercedes Maybach (top of the line).

 I introduced myself to him when he popped up behind me to take a picture with whom I believe was a vendor of one of the products.  I gave him my card which supplied him with my aliases in the entertainment world (Alexis I. Dragon - Writer of Life of Bougie, Life of Bougie 2 (amazon.com) and Alexis Time- singer/songwriter of Bounce Hard Dance (#1 in the biggest download market in the world - South America) and Big Time People (amazon.com).

He was very kind and took my card.  I paid for my products and left. 

Macaroni and Cheese Tip:

I love macaroni+ and cheese+!  My mother makes the best of this dish, so I decided to make it with my sister because we wanted to help my mother and learn how to do it in our homes.  My mother has a special ingredient that really works well to melt the cheese better and with less calories.  Instead of using cream and eggs (I still use a little butter), I use evaporated milk.  My mother has always used it in different dishes.  So, I told my sister that we should use it with a variety of cheeses to create the macaroni sauce:  extra sharp cheddar, monterey jack, and garlic cheese.  We used two cans of evaporated milk because we were making a big batch of macaroni.  It melted superbly.  In fact, my niece, Alex, called with a macaroni and cheese emergency.  She liked the dish we made and she tried it, but she didn't use the evaporated milk.  I gave her the same tip and told her to do it again.  She called me back later and thanked me excitedly because it came out perfectly.

The Introduction

The Introduction

This blog is for anyone who loves gourmet food. You don't have to be a culinary expert, just someone who enjoys food that is high quality or above the norm. The place that for me opened me up to new and different foods as a young New Yorker was and is Zabars. It is a food lover's dreamland! It is especially wonderful if you love cheese, which I do. So my first entry is a cheese called a French Port Salut. I love this cheese. It's creamy like a brie or camembert, but it tastes quite different. It's tangy and smooth. It's more accessible in taste than the aforementioned cheeses and is great on a crostini, as well as a Ritz cracker. It matches nicely with a salami or any similar meat. It's like butter! Obviously, it should be served at room temperature. The softer, the better because your taste buds can really envelope the subtle and scrumptious taste. I like it with on a crostini that's been toasted with olive oil and garlic paste. Try it today!