NYC and Poughkeepsie Mini-Vacation: The Tasty Tidbits

First food truck experience in Brooklyn

 No cooking of note this week, but I did head up to NJ and NY for the weekend to see friends.  On Thursday night, I got into New Jersey and went with my degree-receiving friend for dinner at a nearby Polish restaurant.  Not wanting to miss out on any authentic Polish tastes for my first fully Polish dining experience, my friend and I split potato pancakes as an appetizers (I ate one, he ate three.  I'm 5' 3", he's 6' 5"), and I ordered the Warsaw sampler which came with a cabbage sausage stew (great savory depth but naturally heavy), a cabbage roll (okay), and a diverse and hearty variety of pierogies (not surprisingly, I liked the traditional mashed potato ones and sauerkraut ones best).  I ate roughly half of the feast and left the rest for my friend to have as leftovers.  So filling, but it's Polish food, so there you go.

The telecommunications grad and I headed into The City the next morning on a NJ Transit bus (fast, efficient, and close by).  Not knowing NYC too well, I played it DC cool and followed my friend through the streets and the subway.  Taking the Metro every day to work, I'm pretty hip to the beat when it comes to public transit.  I'm also always eyeing up different systems.  The first train that we took was made mad modern and charted each stop to the end of the line.  The train that we transferred to way of the older ilk and contained a highly flammable passenger.  The big guy with his greasy hair, tattered clothes, and strange shoes (my friend's observation) stood idly for a stop or so.  However, as the train jostled its way through the city, a straight-arrow twenty-something Asian guy teetered slightly and his work bag brushed the greasy giant who grunted and then spat...yes SPAT on the poor clean-cut Asian guy.  Dapper Asian got off at the next stop and so did we.  Metro manners for the win.

Super pure, rich, and decadent ice cream from ice cream truck above

Drinking from a fancy schancy beer glass

Post-Graduation luncheon, we went to Federal Hall, walked, drank some beer with my friend's cousin the bartender, walked, ate some high-end ice cream and drank some more beer in Brooklyn in apparently perfectly-designed beer glasses.  I did not realize their uniqueness, but my beer drinking buddies educated me to their wisdom.  After a final stop at Alligator Lounge for complimentary pizza (for serious) with more beer, we took the final bus back to New Jersey super super late and crashed. 

Green curry at Thai House...not spicy enough

Double chocolate cheesecake from the Palace Diner.  The cheesecake outshined the chocolate.

My best friend's peanut butter cup pie.  She didn't share ) :

According to some, Saturday May 21st was Rapture Day.  Some drank in anticipation, but I just wanted to tour Top Cottage before the World's end.  While mosquitoes ravaged my right arm during the talk, I accomplished my goal.  In the spirit of FDR, we ate at Soul Dog in Poughkeepsie for lunch.  After some vegging and talking, we ate at the Thai restaurant occupying ELRO's old tea room.  My best friend raved about their food, I thought it was aaight but I enjoyed the company.
  

The amuse bouche at CRAVE. Watermelon, feta, and basil oil.



Surprisingly, no Rapture on Saturday (its messenger got the date wrong by five months), so I continued to play with my best friend on Sunday.  YAY!! We did the Walkway Over the Hudson twice, caught up with Team Wagner (J-rad, Lisa, Kaylee, twins and all), and coffeed *smile*.  That night we glammed it up and walked about a millimeter from my friend's place to CRAVE.  Since it opened, we've made it a  Rhino Poughkeepsie trip tradition.  The service is always phenomenally great and I've never had a bad meal there, but I always rued not ordering the duck.  This time I ordered the duck with swiss chard and a polenta cake.  AMAZING MEAL with the perfect wine and company.  I could not ask for a better day with my best friend.

In the morning, we practiced another tradition, breakfast at the Palace Diner, before I headed back to DC.  In contrast to the awesome service the night before, our waitress lagged.  Twenty-five minutes to get a doggie bag and the check before 8:30, huh?  They still made me some tasty pancakes and sausage which kept the Rhino satisfied throughout her trip back to Union Station and then some.

After such a fun and activity-filled weekend, I am currently in NY food and friend withdrawal.  I'll have to come back up to New York for the real Rapture in October.

A Fiesta for Diane and Willoughby

Last Monday, to celebrate my two co-workers receiving Master's degrees (one in library science and one in public administration), the Rhino created a fiesta!! For the main course, I baked up chicken enchiladas verde replete with homemade tomatillo salsa.  This wasn't my first foray with enchiladas verde, but I must admit that homemade salsa makes ALL the difference.  I found it really easy to make lots of delicious salsa too.  I simply husked lots of tomatillos, cut up some onions, garlic, and jalapenos, roasted them all, and then I blended all of it up with a few more choice ingredients in my food processor.  So tasty.  I gotta make that salsa more often.  I'm sure the blend of organic and garlic-lime rotisserie chicken and freshly grated monterey jack cheese helped those enchiladas too.

I also made some strong white wine sangria ala Guy Fieri with blackberries and mango (fyi- Trader Joe's frozen mango is AWESOME) which probably needed a bigger pitcher and more soda as well as an overly soaked tres leches cake....Note to self- read the full recipe first...especially if it requires overnight refridgeration.  Along with guests' contributions of delectable guacamole, rice, bean salad, and a much more balanced sangria, the MND became a feast indeed complete with great friends, conversation, and food.  Congratulations, Diane and Katie!! I am motivated by both of you to continue towards my own eventual degree.

Celebrate and Bake

Is there such a thing as too many chips?



All set for the oven



Between several co-workers finishing their classes last week (some for good, others like me for now) and a couple birthdays to boot, there seemed to be a lot to celebrate last week.  So, after finishing up my final projects, I broke loose by doing one of my favorite things..BAKING.  I did not have any super fancy or exciting ingredients lying around, but I did have some Smucker's Natural Super Crunchy Peanut Butter (natural peanut butter is so much better than processed) in pantry as well as a all sorts of Ghiradelli chocolate chips, a half-used bag of peanut butter chips, and some random mini M&Ms (so fun)....All perfect ingredients to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars (except I did not use any whole-wheat flour in my bars).  I love me a good cookie bar because it's soft like a good cookie should be without the hassle of baking batches and batches of cookies all day in the oven.  I spent very little time putting together and baking my bars and got scads of peanut butter and chocolate joy in return.  The bars tasted like a peanut butter,honey, and chocolate sandwich without the bread and bursting with chippy goodness, and the recipe made so much that I did not feel guilty at all setting aside a couple wedges for myself and a fellow Maryland cookie lover.

Pure chippy delicousness

Everyone at work praised the cookie bars' tastiness (though many now I think I'm peanut butter-crazed), and I loved finally having the time to catch up with my kitchen after a semester of separation.  Dear oven, let's not grow apart again.

Brunch and Baubles

Apologies for this belated post. As in the past, grad school readjusted my priorities for a month or so, but now I'm back (for at least a little bit) and foodier than ever!






Back in April, the Rhino received a curious invitation to a brunch potluck/jewelry party get-together at her ever-"amb"iable Centreville friend's place. Generally Rhino is not big on these promotional parties. However, despite her pseudonym, the Rhino doesn't own many "rhine"stones (though she could use some), she couldn't resist the good company, and she NEVER turns down an invitation to make delectable brunch food. For the brunch, she concocted a sinfully sweet overnight bananas fosters french toast and a super easy grapefruit salad with honey mint dressing courtesy of Bobby Flay.










At the gathering, I mingled with friends, tried on some bling, and even ordered a few trinkets. What a lovely, sparkly Sunday!!