surprise! quiche


 I ended up leaving some eggs out so I decided they needed to all be cooked right away... surprise! quiche.

I use Mdme. Fromage's recipe from epicurious, but I use all cream and a bunch more cheese.... also no crust!

This one had cubed ham and sauteed zucchini inside along with a bunch of extra sharp cheddar.


tons of thai iced tea



I love Thai iced tea. I hate paying 3-4 bucks for a lil thing of Thai iced tea.

Solution?

Make it yourself.

Thai tea leaves
Sugar
Water
Cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg.

I used  over a cup of loose Thai tea leaves and a bunch of sugar with about 10 cups of water.

First let the water boil then add the tea leaves, spices and sugar to simmer for at least 20 minutes.

Let it sit off the heat for 30 mins. 

Strain into a heat proof container ( I used flour sack cloth to strain through a colander into a bowl).

Let it cool to room temperature then place in a pitcher.

Serve over ice with half and half, cream or evaporated milk. 

You can also make it less sweet initially and then use condensed milk. 


crab rangoon makes me cranky


I realize this is Americanized Chinese cuisine and I'm completely ok with that. What I'm not ok with is how annoying these things are to make.

I didn't have a chance to go down to Chinatown for real (and cheaper) wonton wrappers so I had to use the oddly shaped Quasimodo-esque Nasoya ones.

So they're not perfectly square and they're squishy and just generally make me want to punch imaginary babies.

I persevere and get them folded up all nice and tight then begin to fry.

If you leave them one second too long one part of the rangoon is going to spurt hot cheese mixture all over your frying oil.

They still came out great but anything cream cheese filled is going on my "make rarely" list.


Crab Rangoon
1 package wonton wrappers
1 package imitation crab meat
2 stalks scallion
3 cloves fresh garlic
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 package cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste
water
oil for frying

I ended up putting everything in the blender to make a smooth paste. I chopped the scallions before adding them.

Place less than a teaspoon of filling inside each wonton wrapper and wet around the filling.

Fold the sides together (not the corners) so it looks kind of like a 4 pointed star.

Heat up the oil and pray none of them break when they fry.

Here are a few links on how to fold/make em:
http://www.starportfoods.com/Crab_Rangoons.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms6f_CBrZOI

nectar diner, an appetizing brunch

So my boyfriend's cousin was in town and she and her best friend went to the Met.

While they waited on a very long, rainy Sunday line we went to Nectar for brunch.

I love this little diner and its offerings even though I never managed to go there when I went to high school in the area.

For brunch I had two appetizers:

 fava skordalia with pita



and grilled octopus with roasted red pepper and fennel orzo.


pretty good for diner fare, eh?

Speaking of the Met and the Line that deserves its own capitalization: this is what it looked like that afternoon:


The line for the Alexander McQueen exhibit was 1.5 hours by the time we finished brunch. Luckily, cousin and bff had already made it in with only a 20 minute wait.