Queso Fresco

I love cheese. Eaten alone or melted on top of things, cheese makes everything taste better. Two summers ago I worked at La Porta dei Parchi, a agro-tourism farm in Abruzzo, Italy where I learned how to make artisanal sheep cheese and I haven't been the same since. Namely because my clothes still smell like smoked mozzarella, but also because I have become obsessed with fresh, handmade cheeses.

For Christmas this year I got a DIY cheese making kit from Urban Cheesecraft and now I can make ricotta and mozzarella in my tiny kitchen. The kit comes with cheese salt, a candy thermometer, cheese cloth, citric acid and vegetarian rennet tablets. Making ricotta with this kit is really easy, all you have to do is mix a gallon of whole milk with citric acid and cheese salt and then heat the mixture up to 185-195 degrees. Make sure to stir constantly, or else the curds will be scorched by the bottom of the pan. After the desired temperature is reached, and the curds have separated from the whey, let it sit for ten minutes and then strain through the cheese cloth.

Last night I made this ricotta to go on top of a ragu sauce...you know, just to give it a light finish.

These are a few of my favorite things

My mom and I went to Chinatown the other day and found this Hibiscus flower tea in an apothecary shop on Grand St. It's beautiful, delicious and not that expensive...I'm also convinced that it has magical Eastern healing properties.

To me, love me

Valentine's day is a strange holiday. I don't really care about it enough to go on a tirade about the over commercialization of holidays or the soulless nature of advertising. Instead, I like to think of Valentine's Day as an excuse to make delicious treats for people that you love.

This was supposed to be a chocolate mousse for my roomates, but of course I was playing Apples to Apples while I was making it and didn't whip the egg whites enough. The result was a cross between a mousse and a pudding, or what my roomates affectionately dubbed a "moudding".

So here is my delicious moudding recipe:

4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

2 tablespoons espresso

1 cup cold heavy cream

3 large eggs, separated

1 tablespoon sugar

Whip the cream(with an electric mixer, who do you think you are Julia Child?) to soft peaks, then refrigerate.

Combine the chocolate, butter, and espresso in the top of a double boiler over hot water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool

Once the melted chocolate has cooled slightly, whip the egg whites in a medium bowl until they are foamy and beginning to hold a shape(this is where I messed up, really whip the whites, it takes awhile but gives the mousse its firmness). Sprinkle in the sugar and beat until soft peaks form.

Stir in the yolks to chocolate then add about one-third of the whipped cream. Fold in half the whites just until incorporated, then fold in the remaining whites, and finally the remaining whipped cream.

*Lots of mousse recipes recommend refrigerating it for 8 hours, but I think that if you can wait 8 hours clearly you don't like chocolate that much. Refrigerate it for awhile and then go ahead, its moudding, enjoy!

Cookie Monster

YUM! you are going to read this recipe because anything that starts with this much butter is guaranteed to be delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 3/4 Cups Flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 12 tbsps unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp table salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• A lot of chocolate(I like chocolate chunks best because they don't melt all the way and add another texture to the cookie)

• 

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix flour and baking soda in a bowl
• Heat butter in a skillet constantly stirring. After the butter melts you will feel compelled to take it off the flame, resist this urge, the browned butter is what gives these cookies depth. After awhile, the butter will turn brown, frothy and begin to emanate a nutty, molasses smell- now its done.
• Add sugar, salt and vanilla to butter. Don't forget the salt! I'm not the biggest fan of salty-sweet combo but salt is really essential in chocolate chip cookies.
• Add egg and egg yolk, stir, let sit for a bit and then stir some more
• Stir in the flour
• Add chocolate chunks, really as much as you want, go crazy

Recipe adapted from the Klutzy Chef who adapted it from the New York Times Test Kitchen who adapted it from Jacques Torres(the chocolate master)

Pizza! Pizza!

One of our apartment's longest traditions is our end of the month pizza party. Some of you might be wondering why anyone living in New York, where delicious pizza is on every corner, would want to make their own. But, at the end of long month when no one wants to go grocery shopping and everyone has random vegetables or bits of cheese leftover, we throw it all together on a slab of dough and enjoy delicious, fresh pizza.

Dough

1 1/2 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Sugar

2/3 Cups warm Water

1 Yeast packet

Preheat oven to 425. Mix flour, salt, sugar, yeast together in a large bowl. Add water and form into a ball. Cover bowl, and let the dough rise for 15 minutes. Put some olive oil on your hands and beginning in the center stretch dough to fit pan.*

Feeling lazy?? Lots of pizza places will sell you their dough for very little of your dough, just ask!

Toppings

Spinach

Mushrooms

Onions

Tomato sauce

Mozzarella Cheese(for this pizza I used homemade cheese!)

This is one of my friends' favorite pizzas, but you can throw almost anything on them(except for pineapples and ham because Hawaiian pizzas are gross). Cook for about 17 minutes, until cheese is melty and the crust is crusty.

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

What is better than pumpkin waffles on a cold morning? Waking up to the sweet and spicy smell of these waffles almost makes me forget that I live in the shaft of an apartment building that is prone to drafts and gets very little light. After much experimentation and even more eating I have found that Trader Joe's pumpkin spice mix is the best, but if you want to make them from scratch go talk to Martha Stewart (seriously, she has a pretty good pumpkin pancake recipe).

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

These heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market are so delicious plain, that I didn't really want to do much to them. Bruschetta is a really simple way to bring out the tomatoes best flavors.

Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta

A few tomatoes (one of every color)

3 Cloves Garlic

Fresh Basil Leaves

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Black Pepper to Taste

1 Baguette

Instead of toasting the sliced bread, I like to put it in a frying pan with some olive oil, that way it gets really crispy, but doesn't dry out. Mix tomatoes, minced garlic, basil and olive oil. Season to Taste. Spoon tomato mixture over toasted bread and enjoy!