Fuh Breahfist.

I’m good to go.

[Photo Credit: My Recipes]

This Italian breakfast dish is similar to a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll. But oh, so much better. And it’s good anytime, not just in the morning.

Anyone been to the New Amsterdam Market? I haven’t but just read about it at a cool food blog, La Buena Vida. Looks like it’s worth the trip.

It’s Your Density

I was born in New York. I grew up outside the city. Since I moved back over a decade ago, I’ve lived in four different neighborhoods around Manhattan. So naturally when I think of great bagels, I think of … New Jersey.

This is an opinion I usually keep to myself. But I think most bagels in New York aren’t anything special. Going on reputation alone, you’d think you could get a good bagel, like a good slice, just about anywhere in New York. Ever since the puff-pastry style bagel overwhelmed the marketplace, it’s been difficult to enjoy a dense, crunchy, chewy bagel in the city.

If I had to sacrifce either the thin, crunchy exterior or the dense, chewy center, I’d lose the crunch. Where I grew un in Bergen County New Jersey, you can still get both.

Maybe that’s part of the problem. In New York, the bagel is such a menu-icon, every place has got to offer you a bagel. From diners to delis. So that eats away business from the bagel-specific shops. There’s not one within walking distance of my current apartment.

I thought Tal Bagels on 86th street did an OK job of keeping their bagels de-flated, and I liked that they answered “no” if you asked them to toast it. At least eight years ago they answered that way. Now they probably serve you a bagel that looks like a beach ball and will gladly slide it on a belt toaster for you.

Pass the peas pasta (like they used to say).

Smitten Kitchen wins, and so do we.

The butterscotch pudding at Community Food and Juice is yummy but rich.  I could not eat the entire thing by myself. Better of sharing it with a friend or two.

Fresh direct from Vermont, my Ma is making strawberry rhubarb jam.

The emmis according to chef Sara Jenkins:

I’m perturbed that people have gotten so turned around that they think restaurant food is the best food, and that today’s modern, self -aware “foodie” thinks that the highest level of cooking is to cook restaurant-style food in the home. Even in the finest restaurants, restaurant food, while delicious and deserving of its place as entertainment and theater, is really not the best food at all. It’s over-sauced and over-salted and over-rich, because the only thing restaurant chefs have to worry about is that the food tastes exquisite on the table. They don’t have to worry about whether you should eat less salt and fat or eat more vegetables or if you are consuming trans fats or saturated fat or petroleum. Even very good restaurants buy industrial commodity chicken and veal bones for their stock, and bulk up the plate with cheap commodity vegetables. What you pay for in most restaurants is for the transformation from ordinary into good or exquisite. And one of the ways that food is transformed is through copious amounts of butter, salt, and stocks.

If you really want to put great food on the table day in and day out, restaurants are not really what you want to emulate. What you need is a few techniques and a few standards and eventually you will have the ability to improvise and adapt. Learn a couple of recipes well and then build on them. I’m a huge fan of broiling a fish filet or even a fish steak. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s healthy, and you can change it endlessly depending on what you season it with. I like to have a couple of different dried grains and beans in my pantry, because you can cook up lentils so quickly and mix them with olive oil and herbs, and have a simple and quick dish anyone can make in 20 minutes. I keep a couple of great cast-iron pans, and because they hold and transmit heat so well I can pan-sear things as diverse as shrimp, chicken breast, or lamb steaks. On weekends I am more likely to make a slightly more complicated braise or stew that can get extended later in the week with some beans or grains.

I control the amount of salt and fat that goes into my cooking, and know that I have bought high-quality ingredients I want to put into my body. Best of all, because I’m cooking for two or three or at most for 10, I control what I cook so much better than in my restaurant kitchen. As proud as I am of the food I put out professionally, I know the best food of mine you can ever eat is what I serve you at my home table.

Right on, sister. I like to eat out but I need to cook at home. I get happy thinking about what to cook. And I enjoy shopping, preparing the meal, serving it, and, of course, eating. I can’t imagine life without cooking.

I went back to L’Artusi last night. Just as good as the first time, still slammin’.

Yes, please.

Smitten Kitchen wins again.

A nice idea for lunch, eh?

[Photo found through the Tumblr grapevine]

A movie and a meal over at Food 52.

I made Rick Bayless’ Habanero Hot Sauce yesterday.

It turned out a vibrant orange and is tasty but damn it kicks like a mule.

[Photo Credit: wind_of_change]

Simplicity Rules. Oh, hell yes it does. Smitten Kitchen wins again (and so do we).

Food 52 offers up some no-cook recipes for the summer.

I like this one for a light lunch.

These look mad tasty, too:

Shaved Ice or Icy? Which one of these?

Now a melon is something I want to like more than I actually do. I used to dislike them but I can’t say that is true anymore. And yeah, have had it with cured ham and that’s a winning combination. But I never crave a melon. Watermelon, sure, but a regular old melon? Nah. It’s just…”eh,” for me.

That said, this picture makes me want to like ’em.

Dig this spring loveliness from the indispensable Food 52.

Saveur takes a look at the best dried pepper flakes.

Smitten Kitchen crushes purple potatoes and I feel hungry.