GASTRONORMOUS

I am not going to be home for Thanksgiving (In fact, by the time you read this, I will hopefully be basking in the sun on a Mexican beach! yea!), but that hasn’t kept me from thinking about great recipes, tips, and tools to help you out on the best Thursday of the year.

Crate & Barrel is having a great Thanksgiving sale. Along with some things that are reduced in price for a reason, such as maple leaf garlands, a turkey dish (See left. Kitschy, yes, but still wrong.), or copper pumpkins, are some awesome on-sale items, like a turkey brining kit, and even the pan to cook the turkey in. Plus, there is a baster/injector that looks and sounds exactly like the baster/injector I mentioned last week, but it comes in a cool green color, and now at C&B, is it only $4.95! Holy smokes, get over there!

Wonder what the differences between kosher, free-range, and organic turkeys are? And what is all the hub-bub about Heritage turkeys?  The Kitchn has a demystifying article on the topic. The also have a great list of a ton of yummy-looking stuffing (my favorite part of the meal) options! They have also compiled a ton of recipes for appetizers (my second-favorite part of the meal)! I can’t wait to make the cheddar olives! A friend of mine made these for a party, and I couldn’t get enough of them! The Kitchn actually has a lot of great Thanksgiving tips and recipes, so really, if you are hosting a Thanksgiving meal, it would be a crime not to use their website as a resource.

If you are of the vegetarian persuasion, you should check out 101 Cookbooks special Thanksgiving post. Roasted pumpkin salad, golden-crusted brussell sprouts (forget green beans, I love brussels sprouts at a holiday table!), kale and olive oil mashed poatoes, and the unusual yeast-raised cornbread all look exceptional.

Gourmet also has a helpful page of menus for a vegetarian Thanksgiving.  I don’t mean to bombard you with vegetarian options, but come on, if you aren’t one yourself, you know there is going to be at least one sitting at your Thanksgiving table, eyes shifting accusingly between the golden bird and you. You might as well try to conciliate them with a mushroom and farro pie.

Back to meat and their products, the NY Times Dining Section has a useful story on how to do turkey gravy the right way.

Well, a friend or two may or may not be popping in over the next week, but I will be back on Monday, December 1 (Really? December already?), to regale you with tale of food and fun in Mexico!

Daniel Meyer (not THE Danny Meyer?) at Bitten, extols the virtues of stale bread. No, really.

Forget those high-fructose corn syrup-laden* oatmeal bars from the market, why not make Chocolate & Zucchini’s couldn’t-be-easier banana, oat, chocolate breakfast bars! Yum.

Just last Saturday, The Hubs and I went to the Farmer’s market, where I spied some quince, and wondered aloud, “What do you do with quince?” According to David Lebovitz, they are great poached.

Grub Street lets you know where to eat out on Thanksgiving in the case turkey is not your thing.

In the case you are actually cooking (turkey or not), mustard-roasted potatoes look like they would make a great side dish! (via Smitten Kitchen)

*Despite what the corn-industry commercials say, it is bad for you.

Hey folks, sorry for a lack of posts lately, which is due to lack of time and maybe lack of inspiration, though not lack of fodder. It is also partly due to the fact that I received a spiffy new camera as a birthday gift form the Hub, but have not yet read the instructions, and my attempts at creating fab food photos on my last night out was instead a fantastic failure!

That night out, by the way, was a meal at L’Asso, a brick oven pizza place, which serves pizza according to the rules of the DOC. L’asso has been one of my favorite pizza places in the city over the years. But last Friday it all just seemed a little mediocre (though maybe my pizza-loving taste buds were spoiled by the truly exceptional pizza I had at the Atlantic Antic).

We ordered an old standby of an appetizer, the fresh mozzarella and pistachios. Sounds weird, but in the past it has been delicious. It looked the same, with an entire ball of mozzarella, sectioned like an orange and scattered with roasted pistachios and drizzled with reduced balsamic, but just was just not as tasty as it has been in the past. We couldn’t put our finger on what was wrong, but it just wasn’t as milky, salty, fresh, and savory as usual.

We ordered one of the tartufo pizzas, with mascarpone, portobello mushrooms, truffle oil, and gorgonzola, and the Pizza Roma, which is topped with walnut pesto, mozzarella, rosemary, and walnuts. The former was really good, with just the right amount of truffle oil, which can be overwhelming if used in abundance, a chewy crust, and the right proportion of toppings. The Roma, however, bombed. It didn’t have a lot of flavor, except for the burnt flavor of the walnuts. It was a musty-tasting waste of good pizza dough.

All in all, this visit was a great disappointment, especially as we have had so many excellent meals there in the past. I wouldn’t say I won’t go there again, but it will be a while.

photo via lassonyc.com

L’Asso
192 Mott Street (at Kenmare)
212-219-2353

The night before L’Asso, I celebrated my birthday with The Hubs and some friends at Clover Club on Smith Street. I had been to this place before, too, but unlike L’Asso, this did not disappoint. I encouraged my friends to eat beforehand because the drinks here are expensive, and I didn’t want the bill to be too big. Well, I guess everyone was running as late as I was, because we all showed up hungry for food, as well as expertly mixed libations.

We ordered too many drinks to name them all, but they were all delicious (and I guess they had better be at prices approaching $15 a pop). I especially recommend the Bermuda Swizzle, which has a spicy, very unusual flavor, provided by exotic ingredients such as Velvet Falernum, which I had never heard of before visiting Clover Club, had you? Many of the cocktails utilize unusual ingredients, or sometimes ordinary ingredients are mixed in unusual ways, as with the El Diablo, which is silver tequila (check!), mixed with lemon (okay.), ginger (ginger?), and cassis (say what!?). But they all work.

We sampled a number of their small-plates style dishes, from the oyster po-boy, to the deviled eggs, to the pigs in a blanket (that’s what I said!), all were delicious. The stand out for me, though, was the beet crostini. I have seen this dish on many a small-plates Italian menu, but this was by far the best I have ever had. It started with a base of good, crusty, toasted bread brushed with a bit of olive oil, then topped with a thin schmear of goat cheese, a pile of brunoise‘d (thanks, Top Chef!) beets, thyme, and a dash of honey. I think that it was the ingenious inclusion of honey that pushed this dish over the top. We actually asked for a second order after the polished off the first—ok, and I ate most of it, but still, the fact is a testament to the scrumptiousness of the plate.

The service at Clover Club is friendly and attentive, and not at all snobby as they seem to be at many old-timey, club-chaired, serious-cocktail-lover cocktail lounges. The atmosphere is quite cozy, despite the soaring ceilings, with wood paneling, plush furniture, and even a little fireplace in the back. By the way, if you are over the age of 30, and/or not on the make, try to get a table in the back room, which is much quieter and more civilized. I whole-heartedly recommend Clover Club, especially for a special occassion, or when you are feeling swanky. It ain’t cheap, but it is a delightful experience all-around.

photo via metromix new york

Clover Club
210 Smith St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-855-7939

There was a story in the NY Times this week about the guy who makes the possibly-best-pizza-I-have-ever-had. Nice to know the story of the genius behind the port-o-oven.

I ate at Noodle Pudding once. I expected great things. I was underwhelmed. After reading this post by Mark Bittman, though, I think I need to give it another try. I mean, orichette with broccoli rabe and croutons, come on!, that sounds awesome. But of course, he injects his food writing with so much character and atmosphere, he could write about eating cheese whiz from a can and make me crave it.

Food Mayhem made maple-pecan sticky buns for the comfort-food-themed election party. Lord, they look amazing. I wish she had come to my election night party. Like, seriously, that would have been cool.

The Kitchn addresses the eternally important Thanksgiving meal question: How do you keep the mashed potatoes warm?

As I mentioned the other day, the all-American menu for Election night consisted of: baked beans, corn casserole, a salad, and apple pie. As you can tell from the pictures, this isn’t the most attractive meal you have ever seen, but it was darned tasty.

Since I had to accomplish the both baked beans, salad, and pie after work (plus, the Predicate was bringing the corn casserole, which would need to get heated up in the oven), I jumped into action immediately after coming home from work.

I started with the pie as I wanted to give that as much time as possible to set after baking, as per the instruction which stated it needed to sit at room temperature for 3-4 hours before eating. Luckily, because of the apple peeling-coring-slicing machine I have, I was able to prepare a pie’s worth of apples in less than 10 minutes (aftermath, left), which was awesome. I pretty much followed the apple pie recipe from The Joy of Cooking, except added more cinnamon and less sugar than that recipe calls for. Also, I, gulp, used Pillsbury ready-made pie dough. I just didn’t have the time to make and roll out my own. To mix things up a bit, I shredded some sharp cheddar cheese and pressed it into the bottom crust of my pie. (If you have never had sharp cheddar cheese on a slice of apple pie, you haven’t lived! Truly!). After getting that into the oven, I started on my baked beans.

I once made baked beans, years ago, for my friend Eddie, and literally every single time I have seen him since then he has mentioned them–such was their deliciousness. Unforunately, I have no idea what I did with the recipe, so I had to find a new one for my Election Night Party. After looking at Epicurious, I decided upon the Hot and Smoky Baked Beans recipe. My friend KK once told me that the key to successfully use Epicurious recipes is to read the reviews, which often offer tips for revision. I find that to be consistently true, so when I noticed that many reviews for this recipe said the beans weren’t saucy enough, I decided to increase the sauce-to-beans ratio. The recipe really couldn’t be easier, and it was totally delicious. The only thing I would do differently next time (and there will be a next time!), is I would not use the Great Northern beans the recipe calls for. I thought they were too big and tough-skinned for the recipe. I think next time I would use smaller Navy beans, which are more traditional for baked beans, anyway.

We ended up not having a liberal-loving arugula salad, but just a simple mixed greens salad as that was what was available at the store. The Predicate’s corn casserole was amazing. This is an extremely unhealthy dish, and not something you want to eat all the time, but it is so good. It is sort of like a hot dog in that you can only truly enjoy it if you are ignorant to what goes into it. But if you really must know, here is a recipe for it. Sounds gross, but it is magic. The apple pie look beautiful (see below), but ended up having a bit of a funny taste to it, caused, I think, by one of the apples (I used several types) that tasted a little funny–no fault of the recipe, which worked really well.Over all, the patriotic meal was tasty, especially paired with the dry Lambrusco (ok, not American at all!) that we popped to celebrate our candidate’s victory.

…and I’m feeling good! (paraphrasing Nina Simone, not Michael Buble, thanks.)

I know you don’t come to this blog for political opinion, so I will keep this short.

I am just so happy about the choice Americans made yesterday. Maybe I am still riding high on the euphoria created by cheering with thousands of my Ft. Greene neighbors, who spontaneously gathered on the streets to celebrate after Obama won the election, but I feel as if we are embarking on a new, brilliant, era in this nation; one marked by unity, respect, and hard work toward the fulfillment of a 232-year old promise. I might sound corny, but my feelings can’t be more deeply felt. This a great day; one that is, I hope, a harbinger of many more great days to come.

Photo from eyemaze photography.

Happy Election Day, everyone. I hope you all voted (or will vote) today! I voted this morning, and was late for work, by the way, because I waited in line for two hours to vote. But it was my honor and privilege! The room was abuzz with excitement—and not a little agitation that there was only one voting booth per district, but mostly excitement.

Tonight we are having a couple friends over and will celebrate with an all-American menu of baked beans, corn casserole (made by the Midwestern Predicate), arugula salad (we are arugula-loving liberals, after all), and of course, homemade apple pie (made easy by the apple peeling-coring-slicing gizmo my aunt got me as an engagement gift)!

I am excited about the baked beans recipe. It is from Epicurious and has great reviews. I love the, well, not really American addition of chipotle. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Now go vote!

Please welcome Dion Benetatos to Gastronormous! Dion was born and bred in New York City, and sojourned in Atlanta and Athens (Greece, not Georgia!) before returning here to live in Manhattan’s Union Square area. His Mediterranean lineage pretty much dictates that food and wine be an important part of his life, but he has taken things to the next level by enrolling in sommelier training. I am very excited that Dion will be contributing wine reviews to Gastronormous. I know you will enjoy his reviews, which I will post on Fridays, just in time for your weekend wine-buying. Cheers!

On Saturday we drove down to Sleepy Hollow and Tarry Town, leaf-peeping along the way–the views were beautiful despite the rain. We stopped for lunch in Tarrytown at Lefteris Gyro, right on the corner of Main St. and Route 9. We warmed ourselves up with some delicious soup and other comfort foods before heading over to Union Church of Pocantico Hills, a tiny church that unexpectedly features some amazing stained glass windows by Marc Chagall and a mod Rose window by Miro.  Later we headed over to the the Rockefeller Estate for a tour, which was terrific, and not just because our guide looked, sounded, and acted exactly like James Lipton. The resemblance was eerie. Well, actually more funny than eerie, but in any case it definitely added to the experience.

We then drove back up to Beacon to change clothes before heading farther upstate to New Paltz, where we had a really delicious meal at Beso. The restaurant came highly recommended by several people, so expectations were high, and it did not disappoint.

We arrived at precisely the time of our reservation at this duplex restaurant and were seated promptly. Their wine list was varied in region and price, with bottles ranging from $20 to $100. We ordered a bottle of the Earthworks Shiraz from Barossa, Australia. It was an ok bottle of wine. At first sip I liked it, but after a while I began to detect some unpleasant bitterness on the finish. But, it was one of the cheaper bottles at $27, so I shan’t have expected vini-perfection.

We started with an unusual take on the caramelized onion tart. The quite shallow puff-pastry shell was chock full of flavor: a layer of caramelized onions and beets, all topped with a brown and bubbling later of goat cheese. The beets added even more sweetness to that established by the caramelized onions. All this sweetness was well balanced by the buttery pastry, tart goat cheese, salty kalamata olives, and a reduced balsamic plate-garnish. I could overlook the overdressed greens that accompanied it, because the tart was spectacular.

This fantastic app was followed by a porcini-crusted filet minon special served with fried potatoes and asparagus. Pops-in-law pronounced it fantastic; perfectly medium-rare and flavorful. Moms-in-law didn’t have a huge appetite, so she went for butternut squash soup and a salad. The butternut squash soup was subtly scented with curry and tasted mellow and savory, not too sweet as many similar soups skew. I had the vegetarian shepherd’s pie, which was so much surprisingly better than its mashed potato-spinach-roasted-vegetables parts. It was by far the best entree I have had in months. So delicious. The Hubs had the artic char with brussel sprouts and roasted potatoes dressed in a dijon sauce, and it was excellent–perfectly cooked and perfectly dressed.

For dessert we all shared an apple bread pudding. It was very fall-appropriate and actually almost, to me, tasted more pumpkin-y than apple-y, which was odd but not objectionable. It was served with a scoop of delicious homemade cinnamon ice cream. It was so yummy that we ate a bunch of it before thinking taking the picture you see below.

Overall, it was a great meal with fine service, and if you ever find yourself leaf peeping in the Hudson Valley, I insist, you must stop at Beso.

I have been lax in posting not for lack of fodder, but because my life is suddenly very busy. Please check in again later today or tomorrow! Thanks for your patience.