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Author Archives: Brie Schwartz

Food Blog of the Week: Chef and Steward

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Chef and Steward

Name: Kari & Chef Lij Heron
Blog: Chef and Steward

Location: Dubai

What’s your favorite recipe from your blog
We love all our recipes for different reasons, but the one that holds the most sentimental value to both of us is our Jamaican Oxtail Stew. It’s Lij’s favorite homemade dish and when I cooked it for him the first time, it was love at first bite. Whenever I cook it at home, he falls in love all over again.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day, what would it be?
I would say eggs. We have quite a few egg dishes because eggs are the perfect food in terms of macronutrient balance. On top of that, they are cheap and easily accessible and can be used in both sweet and savory applications for breakfast, lunch and dinner and for all courses. No kitchen, either at home or professional, is complete without the incredible, edible egg.

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Carnival Cocktails

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Carnival Cocktail

Photo: Gourmet.com

I’ve never celebrated Mardi Gras in style. Once, I feebly attempted to get into the Fat Tuesday spirit by stumbling into Bourbon Street, a restaurant near Times Square, and ordering a Hurricane along with every other tourist in Manhattan. It was about as inauthentic an experience as I could have had. Last February, the fine folks at Southern Comfort sent me a massive (and sticky) King Cake, along with a boa (which still lives in my desk drawer). I was getting closer. This year, I’ll be at a production of Richard 111. Again, not especially festive, but before I go, I’ll be pre-gaming with a signature (yet, lesser known than the Sazerac, pictured above) Carnival drink, the Vieux Carré. I believe Shakespeare would have wanted it that way.

This drink, named for the French Quarter in New Orleans, was created by Walter Bergeron, a bartender at the Monteleone Hotel in the 1930’s, which was incidentally the first revolving bar in New Orleans (danger!).

To make it, fill an old-fashioned glass with ice, along with 1 ounce rye, 1 ounce Cognac, 1 ounce sweet vermouth, and ½ ounce of Benedictine, along with a dash of Peychaud’s bitters. Stir them up, garnish with a lemon twist, and let the Mardi Gras madness begin.

Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Food Blog of the Week: The Duo Dishes

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
The Duo Dishes

Name: Chrystal Baker and Amir Thomas
Blog: The Duo Dishes

Location: Los Angeles

What is your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Chrystal: I can be a lazy cook, and it’s very easy for me to do meatless dishes that will last for a couple of days. One of my favorites is a roasted butternut squash and red onion couscous. I’ll toss the squash and onion with olive oil and different ground spices (cumin, cinnamon, chili powder, paprika, and ginger), and then roast them until soft. Stir them into cooked couscous with flaked, toasted almonds and lots of parsley and cilantro for a really filling meal.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day, what would it be?
Amir: At the moment, I’m pretty wild about cinnamon. I love the bump of flavor it adds to just about any sweet treat or even cup of coffee, and all it takes is a dash or two! Recently, we’ve been exploring cinnamon in savory dishes by mixing it into spice rubs for pork or lamb, or adding a sprinkle over poultry. I am, however, equally infatuated with fennel. Fennel seed, fennel pollen, the bulb, and even the fronds, adds a blast of unbelievable flavor to any savory dish. I love it raw, sauteed, braised, or simply roasted. It can be beautifully incorporated into just about any recipe, and it’s amazing by itself.

Chrystal: Sweet potatoes. They are my favorite vegetable. They’re great roasted, fried, or pickled. You can use them in pies, cakes, cupcakes, tarts, salads, soups, stews, and cocktails! There are a thousand ways to integrate sweet potatoes into a dish, and lucky for me, I’d only have to come up with 365.

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Intoxicate your Valentine

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Rose Kiss

Photo: Courvoisier

Valentine’s Day is my favorite fake holiday, stemming from kindergarten when even Jared Levine, the class heartthrob, had to give me a doily-covered cardboard. Beyond the bliss of teacher enforced equality, Valentine’s Day holds true significance for me because it’s when I drank my first cocktail (if you’d consider a cranberry-Popov a cocktail). No, I wasn’t pouring my post-break-up tears into a Solo cup, if that’s what you’re thinking. It was a tumbler.

Since that landmark occasion, I have celebrated every Valentine’s Day like most romantics do: by drinking. Whether you’re toasting your best “Gal-entines” or sharing a solo evening with your own Jared Levine, the “Rosé Kiss” created by Moses Laboy of NYC’s Red Rooster, makes a sweet start to your night of swooning.

To create it at home, muddle pineapple (canned is fine) and mint in a cocktail shaker. Then, add 2 parts Courvoisier Rosé, ½ part French dry vermouth, ½ part fresh lime juice, 3 splashes of bitters and ¼ part simple syrup (or less if you don’t want to be cursing Cupid’s hangover). Shake well and pour into a rocks glass. Garnish with a fresh pineapple chunk and gaze longingly.

Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Food Blog of the Week: D’s Kitchen

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
D's Kitchen

Name: Dalia Dogmoch Soubra
Blog: D’s Kitchen

Location: Dubai

What is your favorite recipe from your blog?
Do I have to choose just one? I adore the simple Spaghetti al limone, the perfect Blueberry Crumble Muffins and most recently the amazing Stuffed Turkey I made. I combined the traditional American turkey with a date stuffing, which is an ingredient used in abundance in this part of the world.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day, what would it be?
Butter, butter, and more butter. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up in Paris. The French use and abuse butter and it’s never been a problem for them. Somehow everywhere else in the world people have become overly conscious of eating and cooking with it, which is a shame. Everything tastes better with butter!

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
That is such a tough question! I have several restaurants splattered across the planet that I go nuts for. So let me list a few places which are amongst the ones I love most: L’ami Louis in Paris, Supper in New York (East Village), Yauatcha in London, Mayas In Beirut, and Peppercrab in Dubai.

Who would you love to have over for dinner?
Jamie Oliver, Hugh Grant or Sean Connery. I have a thing for the British it seems.

Posted in From the Food Blogs | Tagged , , , |

A Chocolate Manhattan for Two

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Ultimate Chocolate Manhattan Cocktail

Photo: Peter Field Peck

I tend to avoid any activity that’s catered to couples, including (but not limited to) spa services for two, sharing food, and anything in the skating, blading, or go-carting department. Keeping that in mind, when I agreed to go to a “Valentine’s Day Cooking Experience” sponsored by Godiva Spirits, I was a bit hesitant. However, given that it is the month of Amor, I figured at the very least, my fiancée would learn how to put a nice sear on a sirloin (he did), and best case scenario, I’d meet some couples with a good sense of irony.

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Food Blog of the Week: What’s For Lunch Honey?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
What's For Lunch Honey?

Name: Meeta K. Wolff
Blog: What’s For Lunch Honey?

Location: Weimar, Germany

What is your favorite recipe from your blog?
Too many … but it would have to be my mum’s creamy back lentils and definitely the ossobuco with prunes, apricots and saffron

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day, what would it be?
Saffron!

Is there an ingredient you used to hate but now you love?
Well I wouldn’t say I hated it, but I was never too keen on goose. Now I like it, especially when my mother-in-law makes it for Christmas Day lunch!

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Bulgur or quinoa risotto with a lot of seasonal roasted veggies, garlic and herbs. Comfort always!

Posted in From the Food Blogs | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Mocktails Packed with Vitamin C

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
lemonade

Photo: Gourmet

It seems everyone is some variation of ill around here, and as much as I swear by a nice hot toddy to make you tipsy enough to forget your sore throat, if you’re actually fevered, it’s probably best to abstain from alcohol (though I seldom take my own advice). If you’re among us sicklings, then the idea of consuming liquor makes your stomach turn.

For those of us who still have birthday dinners we have to attend, even though we desperately want to be on the couch, catching up on Oscar contenders (okay, the “Kardashians”), and non-negotiable out-of-town guests to entertain, I give you a roundup of my three favorite Vitamin C laden mocktails. They’ll put you in the festive spirit, even if you’re snotty.

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Food Blog of the Week: Kitchen Butterfly

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Kitchen Butterfly

Name: Ozoz Sokoh
Blog: Kitchen Butterfly

Location: Nigeria

What is your favorite recipe from your blog?
Tarte de Pommes et sucre, a thin-crusted apple pie inspired by an autumn trip to Paris, when the skies were orange and the streets were lined with maple leaves, lovers arms entwined, and delightful pastries. The result: caramelized apple slices on a bed of pastry cream and apple curd!

What is the first meal you ever cooked?
I can’t remember what I first cooked, but one of my most memorable recipes is cooking up a tomato salsa in 1999, inspired by a store-bought jar of Dorito salsa. I read off the ingredients and made up my own version, which garnishes tortillas and sandwiches to this day.

Is there an ingredient you used to hate but now you love?
Celery. I’m nowhere near being in love with it, but I am working on it. Apparently it tastes great with ketchup, according to my 8-year-old.

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Pancakes, without a doubt – they are my backup plan for everything from unexpected guests, to really hungry children (of which I am blessed with three). I almost always have a bowl of homemade batter in the fridge. Accompaniments always include fruit, some dairy (yogurt, whipped cream) and syrups from maple to chocolate. Occasionally, I’ll have lemon and sugar, or bacon and sausages

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What Your Drink Reveals to Your Date

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Old Fashioned

Photo: Gourmet

There’s been a deluge of less than scientific findings about what your cocktail of choice says about you, including David Wondrich’s rather fine write-up. This intel is especially important when you’re on a first date, since all it takes is one curious order at the bar to make your courtesan question you.

My 60-year-old mother recently joined the online dating scene. Her go-to is a vodka martini (which she pronounces vodk-er), straight up, and she asks the bartender to just wave the vermouth over the glass. She likes to pantomime this motion. I think her choice implies that she’s a sophisticate who likes to get buzzed efficiently. Perhaps too efficiently.

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Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Food Blog of the Week: Anja’s Food 4 Thought

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Anja's Food 4 Thought

Name: Anja Schwerin
Blog: Anja’s Food 4 Thought

Location: Dubai

What is the first meal you ever cooked?
Probably an attempt on pasta and tomato sauce while I was still at University. The dish that triggered my love for cooking was creamed soup. It was a true revelation to me that vegetables and stock just have to be puréed to make a delicious meal.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day for a year, what food would it be?
I am crazy about nuts. They are such a versatile food that can be used for anything from starters to main dishes to desserts.

What is your favorite recipe from your blog?
I love my Rosewater-Scented Pistachio Cake. It looks and tastes absolutely divine, and it’s inspired by Middle Eastern flavors.

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
I love quick curries. I love making chicken or fish curries in less than half an hour.

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Get your own Golden Globe

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Golden Globes

Photo: CN Digital Studio

I take the road to the Oscars quite seriously, and the Golden Globes, airing this Sunday, truly kicks off the journey (unless you count the Critics’ Choice Awards but that’s far less fun to drink during). If you’re having people over to cheer on your favorite actors (and/or critique their fashion statements), then you’ll want to have a surplus of offerings. Cocktails make any awards show more palatable (yes, even for the men out there).

This year, I’ll be serving a Golden Globe, literally. Fill a spherical ice cube mold (intended for Scotch) with grapefruit juice. When it freezes, place it in a low ball glass containing gin, and a splash of dry vermouth. The juice ball will melt gradually into the drink, infusing your cocktail with a subtle fruit flavor. You can use any other mixer you like, but in honor of the occasion, I went for something that was gilded. If you don’t have the ball mold available, you can try regular ice cubes, but they melt faster and dilute the drink. You may need the potency.

Happy awards seasons!

Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Food Blog of the Week: Like a Strawberry Milk

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Like a Strawberry Milk

Name: Fanny Zanotti
Blog: Like a Strawberry Milk

Location: London

What is the first meal you ever cooked?
I like to think of it as a Sunday tradition: breakfast in bed for my parents. It usually involved piping hot filter coffee with a nuage de lait (a cloud of milk) for my dad. Toast, colored to various degrees from white to burnt-black. Jams. And at times, a few pancakes, of the flat crepe-kind.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day for a year, what food it be?
Vanilla.

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
I love Koya in London for its udons, and almost always have the tempura atsu-atsu, with extra wakame, of course!

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Mushroom risotto. Twenty minutes from start to finish. And plenty of leftovers for the next – and most of the time, slightly hungover – day.

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The Green Tea Retox

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
green tea martini

Photo: Gourmet

By now you’ve probably had your fill of unsolicited advice on how to safely purge eight pounds of Christmas cookies and gelt before the weekend. I’m boycotting dieting this year in hopes that the sizable addition to my midsection spills over into tankini season. However, if you’re planning to start fresh (I’m jealous) and shed the lingering inches that 2011 left behind, then the first thing to go is probably your favorite cocktail. While I can’t save you the basic 100 or so empty calories packed into an ounce of spirits, I can spare you the mixer bloat (say no to tonic!).

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Food Blog of the Week: Art and Lemons

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Brie Schwartz
Art and Lemons

Name: Nikki Gardner
Blog: Art and Lemons

Location: Williamsburg, Massachusetts

What is your all-time favorite recipe from your blog?
Honestly, it’s always the next one I have to write. Like the Clementine Syrup I made recently with Maple Walnut Wafers.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day for a year, what food it be?
Lemons (which has everything to do with my Lemonhead candy fix as a kid).

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
Hen of the Wood in Waterbury, Vermont. The restaurant is housed in an old grist mill. It’s billed as fine dining but it doesn’t seem pretentious in any way. They serve local seasonal fare. I had an incredible goat’s milk gnocchi with sauteed chanterelles, sweet corn, and zucchini for dinner followed by a cheese sampler and a few bites of a ginger peach crisp there last summer. Each bite was like a bright 4th of July sparkler.

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
Pasta with butter, garlic, shredded kale, Parmesan cheese, and topped with a fried egg.

Posted in From the Food Blogs | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Gimlets to the Rescue

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Brie Schwartz
gimlet

Photo: Gourmet.com

I tiptoed off the tarmac after my flight to a Floridian family vacation with some minor trepidation. I was leaving NYC during the booziest season and while I was headed to warmer climates, I’d grown accustomed to the warmth of my nightly cocktail constitutional. I was concerned that my fiancé’s family would catch the warning signs of withdrawal. Luckily, all of my fears vanished when my mother-in-law–to-be routed us from the airport to the local supermarket to buy Rose’s lime juice and cheese. She’s a gimlet gal, I learned. I was home.

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Five Celebratory Cocktails

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Brie Schwartz

Celebratory Cocktails

Nothing quite says “convivial” more than the sound of a champagne cork being popped, especially in a bustling room, and even better if it’s in your honor. In that night of a thousand bubbles, everything feels special (and blurry). Whether you’re swirling Spanish Cava, pouring Prosecco, savoring sparkling Shiraz, German Sekt, or the French stuff, any bit of fizz marks a celebration, or at least gives you an excuse to have one. Here’s a round-up of my top five favorite champagne cocktails, all with a stiff kick.

What do you drink when a toast is in order?

Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Food Blog of the Week: Bev Cooks

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Brie Schwartz
Bev Cooks

Name: Bev Weidner
Blog: Bev Cooks

Location: Kansas City

What is your all-time favorite recipe from your blog?
My most recent favorite has to be this baked polenta pie. My mouth still can’t process what happened as I was inhaling it. It was that good. I also love pizza so much it hurts, so this roasted butternut squash and kale pizza, has to be mentioned too.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day for a year, what food it be?
Would you consider tacos an ingredient? I’m about to.

What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
My favorite restaurant in KC is this little Italian cozy joint called Bella Napoli. And I order….the pizza. BIG SURPRISE. But man, it’s got roasted tomatoes, Italian sausage and it brings me to my knees.

What’s your go-to quick and easy dinner?
My go-to dish is pasta. A very simple, rustic linguine with olive oil, sauteed garlic, fresh basil and Parmesan. I’m starving now.

Posted in From the Food Blogs | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Not Your Mother’s Hot Cocoa

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Brie Schwartz
hot chocolate

Photo: L.A. Burdick

After a demanding afternoon of searching for thoughtful Christmas presents for every member of my extended family (and ending up with scarves), I was in dire need of a hot chocolate break. Serendipitously, an L.A. Burdick outpost was on route, so I stopped in for a rich dark cup, which was beautifully blended with Macallan 12 (a household favorite). I had department stores to tackle, after all.

Typically, when I’m concocting my own boozy hot cocoa, I tend to use lower quality liquor, but this was a special occasion (I was stressed). At L.A. Burdick, they mix 6 to 8 tablespoons of their shaved chocolate with 3 quarters to 1 cup of scalding hot milk and a half ounce of Scotch. If you’re making yours at home, you can sub in whatever bittersweet (60 percent cacao) or semisweet chocolate you prefer and add a good deal more alcohol. Depending on your mood, Cointreau, vanilla vodka, peppermint schnapps, Baileys, and of course any flavor of Kahlua will transform your hot chocolate to the next level of bliss. Gourmet’s Grasshopper Hot Chocolate, which uses crème de menthe, is a nice cooling option. Personally, I prefer the warming elements of a brandy or whiskey to top off my drink (they play better with chocolate than vodka or liqueurs) but no matter the spirit, this winter staple will ward off any shopping-induced temper tantrums.

What do you spike your hot chocolate with?

Posted in Cocktails, Wine & Beer | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Food Blog of the Week: Sips and Spoonfuls

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Brie Schwartz
Sips and Spoonfuls

Name: Sukaina Rajabali
Blog: Sips and Spoonfuls

Location: Dubai

What is your all-time favorite recipe from your blog?
My favorite recipe from the blog has to be the Fluffiest Pancakes Ever. It is a staple on our breakfast table every weekend and I love the versatility of the recipe. I can add different fruits, nuts, chocolate and it still comes out perfect each time- fluffy, airy and dreamy. Almost like eating clouds!

What is the first meal you ever cooked?
If dessert can be classified as a meal, then it would be a chocolate cake. It was an easy One Bowl Chocolate Cake which to date is the oldest recipe in my cookbook. I was probably 13 or 14 at the time and living in Tanzania where my Mom’s kitchen didn’t even have a mixer. So this cake was the perfect start to my culinary journey.

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