Gawker is doing a mitzvah by posting this, hysterical.

http://gawker.com/5622666/top-chef-mush-for-brains-mush-for-dinner

If you watch Top Chef AND you are Jewish then the last paragraph of this brilliant Top Chef Recap, brought to us by Gawker.com, will make you laugh out loud.

If do don't do both but either watch Top Chef or are Jewish the last sentence will at least make you chuckle.

Dayeinu!

Cheesy Tomato-y Pie

This summer I have become addicted to tomatoes. I don't mean the fancy rainbow colored heirlooms that create mass hysteria at the Greenmarket and are featured in New York Magazine. I'm into big, red, New Jersey grown Beefsteak tomatoes.

Sliced thick, sprinkled with salt and placed atop a buttered English Muffin, delicious. They are awesome roughly cut and tossed with a little lemon juice and pepper. And now I have found they are phenomenal baked into a pie.

It's an idea that has been rolling around in my head for a few weeks now. Take pie crust, fill with sliced tomatoes, bake, eat. I googled tomato pie and found that it is something Southerners are quite proud of. Theirs however is usually made with green tomatoes and served for dessert.

I could make a tomato tart or quiche but I was set on a pie, pure and simple. Divine inspiration struck when I realized I could use cheese in between the layers of tomato and thus my tomato pie was born:

Lauren's Cheesy Tomato-y Pie

1-box Pillsbury pie crust (it comes in a red box in the freezer section)

1/2 lb Goat Cheese; herbed is fine if you prefer. 

3 Large Ripe Beefsteak Tomatoes; 4 if they are small

Salt

Pepper

Pam spray or butter

Place a sheet tray in center rack of oven and preheat to 375 degrees. The preheated tray in the oven will help the bottom crust bake evenly, like a pizza stone. Take pie crust out of the refrigerator and thaw for 20-30 minutes. Drape dough over oiled (Pam or butter) pie pan and push into bottom and then against the sides of the pan. If dough breaks, push back together gently with fingers. If it hangs over the edges simply take a small knife and trim off, free-form. Place pie crust into oven for 8 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

While crust bakes slice your tomatoes and place in a colander to drain. Sprinkle with salt, which will help the tomatoes dispose of excess moisture. Cut goat cheese into thin rounds.

When pie crust is completely cooled place 1/2 goat cheese rounds in the bottom of the pan overlapping the edges slightly. Layer tomato slices once again making sure that the tomatoes overlap slightly. Cover with more cheese and them top with a layer of tomato. You may have some tomato/cheese left over. That's fine. Save for a salad the next day.

Cover pie with tin foil, poke holes into the foil with a fork or knife and place back into the oven for an additional 8 minutes. The foil will prevent the crust from burning and the tomatoes from browning.

Remove from oven. Cool and enjoy!

I recommend pairing your tomato pie with a lightly dressed salad and crisp white wine that is not too acidic, maybe a Spanish Albarino or Muscadet-your favorite sparkling white would be lovely too. We had ours with a Moroccan Red (pictured below) which stood up nicely, it had an alluringly exotic orange peel finish to it. Although we had this as a light summer supper it would make a beautiful luncheon or brunch item.

Moroccan Red Wine From Le Petite Cave on Maiden Lane

Dim sum, and dumplings and chilies, oh my!

Absolutely no cooking was done in the Bloomberg Durkin household yesterday. After an aggravating morning spent helping a neighbor film something for her website (don't ask and don't be nice to strange neighbors) I went to Chinatown, for lunch, with my friend Z.

With a bottle of wine in hand, we made ourselves comfortable amidst the fish tanks at Oriental Garden. We longed to order one of the feisty fish; imagining them taking it directly from the tank, banging it on the floor, and plopping it right onto our table, awesome. But instead we opted for some Dim Sum. A dozen steamed buns and a ton of dumplings later we waddled out and back to the Financial District, stopping for some bubble tea and iced coffee on the way.

For dinner with friends, Mr. D and I put on our oxygen masks for the trek up to Lexington between 103 and 104 to dine at El Paso. Despite the high altitude the food was delicious. My chile rellenos, pictured below, was the most refined version of the dish I had ever seen. The rice and beans that I took in a doggy bag to go, along with very pliable corn tortillas, will make a great lunch.

Tonight will definitely be a cooking night. Only one recipe in three meals since starting this blog, not a great statistic. I have meetings and interviews (and a manicure) this afternoon and the hubby I'm sure will work late. I hope I can get something reasonable onto the table...

Fried Flower Dinner Flops

Fried Squash Blossoms Stuffed With Lynhaven Farm's Fresh Ricotta
Pesto Tortelloni

How many people have a deep fryer? How many decide to use it at 9pm on a Monday night? It is not a good idea. I planned to cook dinner early. Mr. D said he would be home 630-7pm latest home, yeah right. 

On Saturday we had gone to the Union Square Greenmarket and picked up a box of beautiful squash blossoms and creamy Lynhaven Farms fresh goat's milk ricotta. But Saturday night we had dinner with my parents, and Sunday flew by. Through our blackberry calendars we scheduled to use up our bounty today.

But of course he worked late and  I wasn't feeling well and dinner was a disaster. It could have been delicious! We made our own ricotta mixture, simply seasoning it with lots of black pepper and salt. A spoonful was stuffed in each blossom. We coated them in our seltzer and flour mixture (a riff on tempura) and Mr. D took the reigns at the deep fryer. 

We fried at 375 for at least 2-3 minutes, as opposed to the recommended 1-2 but they were soggy and leaden with oil, oy vey. A not very successful for dinner for what I hope to be a very successful blog.

Attached is the recipe that I worked off of. I didn't follow it directly, my mistake, but I'm sure if you try it word for word at home it will work out great.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Squash-Blossoms-Stuffed-with-Ricotta-354966

My First Post...Barf!

Of course on the first evening that I have committed to posting on this blog, I am sick.
Not sick like flu sick, nor do I have a summer cold, that would be too easy. I think I have food poisoning.

How did this happen? It happened from eating cold leftover Smoke Berkshire Pork.
The dish was delicious the first time around on Saturday. It was ordered at Gotham Bar and Grill, at a fabulous dinner with my family. Four family members got the steak (the bone marrow custard rocked my socks), my wise younger brother ordered the duck (not spicy curry the waitress pointed out, but layered beautiful aromatic curry), and I (perhaps in a quest to be different?) ordered the Smoked Berkshire Pork.

But I digress. I am writing this blog to help out the every-women. The ones who are young, and struggling to lead a "normal" life and eat a "normal" meal in the cutthroat jungle known as Manhattan. I write for the women who rolls her eyes when a housewife from Nebraska asks her if living in New York "really is like Sex and the City". I write for the women who cringes when someone gets on the elevator at the 12th floor...and gets off at the 15th.

On this note I pledge to:
*Cook meals as often as possible. For my husband, for myself, for a dinner party, etc.
*Take you where I go to get my ingredients and inspiration, be it the Union Square Greenmarket for heirloom tomatoes or Whole Foods for prepared gnocchi.
*Tell you truthfully and honestly my mistakes and mess-ups in the kitchen, so they are not repeated.
*Provide you with the recipes to do this yourselves.

Together we can put dinner on the table AND be chic, savvy New Yorkers, without breaking a sweat.
I am so excited!