Posts from the ‘Features, Articles and Recipes’ Category

Oct 6

My Neighborhood

There are no recipes in this post, I have been very busy the last few weeks planning our annual block party. I live in Brooklyn, NY and my neighborhood has a very tight knit community, we have a block association and I am President of mine. We hold our block party every year in early October, this year it was yesterday Oct. 5th. It’s quite a process, I have to apply to the city for a permit for a street fair, we close the street to traffic all day and everyone has a great time, the children ride their bicycles, skateboards and scooters without fear of cars, we have a blow up ride, face painting, balloon sculpture, food, vendors and music. It takes a lot of planning to put this together, no small feat and with my little block party committee we work hard for weeks to get this whole event planned. We grill hamburgers and hot dogs and sell them with all proceeds going to benefit our block association, there are bake sales, stoop sales and all of our neighbors come together to talk and play and just generally have a good time. I didn’t get any photo’s of the food, it was fast and furious, but it was good we had thick juicy hamburgers on brioche rolls with lettuce and tomato and lots of condiments and add on’s, cheese and bacon. I was so busy grilling I didn’t have time to snap any photo’s we also had baked tilapia on a roll.

I just want to share some photo’s of yesterdays event, I’m exhausted but had a great time. I was the designated grill master, making the hamburgers, hot dogs etc… and was busy all day long. The weather was warm and sunny and a fun day was had by all.

Blow up ride

My block setting up

More set up

Live jazz

starting to get crowded

Adorable budding musician

Oct 3

72 Comments

A “Divine” Chocolate Giveaway And A DIVINE Triple Chocolate Cake

Divine Chocolate

I planned on two posts this was going to be the second, the first is a recipe I am developing using Divine Chocolate, well this will be first because I have had some setbacks and the recipe didn’t turn out so it’s back to the drawing board. Stay tuned for another totally DIVINE recipe. The chocolate is fantastic and so is the company, owned and operated by the farmers it is truly a cooperative venture that is a recipe for success. A Fair Trade product of outstanding quality you don’t get better than that.

Who doesn’t love chocolate, well I am sure there are a few that don’t and then there are those poor souls that are allergic. But for the rest of us and speaking for myself there is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t at least have a bite of chocolate. Since I discovered just how wonderful Divine Chocolate is, it’s always in my pantry and is now my go to chocolate for baking and eating, I have partnered with the very lovely people at Divine for a fantastic giveaway, I know you will love this chocolate as much as I do and you will really love this Bakers collection. Open to US residents only I am so sorry my friends abroad!! Just leave a comment here and I will use random.org to pick 3 lucky winners on October 14, see below for directions on how to enter. Good luck everyone!!

Divine Chocolate Giveaway 3 lucky winners!!

Divine Chocolate, the premium chocolate brand and Fair Trade social enterprise co-owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana, is giving away ***THREE*** Divine Bakers’ Collection Gift Sets so you can Make Something Divine. Each gift collection contains two 70% Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bars, one 38% Milk Chocolate Baking Bar and a 4.5 tin of unsweetened Cocoa Powder.

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is:

Follow @bklynpuggal on Twitter and Tweet:
- I’d love to win a Divine Chocolate Gift Set #DivineInNYC

Like Divine Chocolate USA on Facebook (www.facebook.com/divinechocolateUSA) and leave the comment:
- I’d love to win a Divine Chocolate Gift Set. Sent by apuginthekitchen #DivineInNYC

Follow @DivineChocUSA on Twitter and Tweet:
- I’d love to win a Divine Chocolate Gift Set. Sent by bklynpuggal#DivineInNYC

Good Luck! Winners will be selected at random and notified by [Oct. 14, 2013]. Divine Chocolate is responsible for delivery of the Gift Sets. This giveaway is open to US residents only.

Triple Chocolate cake

I couldn’t resist, since I am working with all of this fabulous Divine Chocolate I had to resurrect my favorite chocolate cake. For this cake you are using 3 types of chocolate , Divine unsweetened cocoa powder in the cake, Divine white chocolate in the Mousse and Divine Milk Chocolate for the ganache, Irresistible!!

White Chocolate Mousse

2 tsp powdered gelatin
6 ounces Divine white chocolate chopped
1 1/4 cup heavy cream

Dissolve gelatin in 2 tbs of cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes. Place chocolate in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Prepare an ice bath. Place 1/2 cup heavy cream in small saucepan, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the gelatin and stir to dissolve. Pour into food processor with chocolate while the motor is running, process until smooth.

Place in ice bath until mixture is thick and falls from a spoon in ribbons.

Whip remaining heavy cream and gently fold into cooled chocolate mixture. Place in airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cups Divine unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable oil (If you want to substitute melted butter for the oil its fine)
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature and lightly beaten
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee (Optional but recommended)
soft butter and flour to prep baking pans or you can use cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9″ round baking pans, butter the bottom add a parchment round then butter bottom and sides and flour the pan or you can use cocoa powder instead of flour.

In large mixing bowl add your dry ingredients, flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder and whisk to combine. Now add the wet ingredients milk, oil,eggs and vanilla do not add the boiling water yet. With hand held mixer beat for 2 minutes. Now add the boiling water with optional espresso powder, beat just until combined. Pour into your prepared pans (the batter is quite thin) and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cakes sit in pans for 10 minutes then invert onto cake rack to cool.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

8 oz Divine milk chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

Chop chocolate into very small pieces and place in medium size mixing bowl, bring cream to a boil and pour over chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes, stir until smooth and shiny. Cover and refrigerate until it’s spreadable (approximately 1 1/2-2 hours)

Assembling:

Place one cake layer on serving plate, spoon the mousse on and spread, you may not need to use all of the mousse it will be very thick I used about half, place other layer on top, pour and spread the ganache on the cake. Refrigerate if not serving immediately. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving if it was refrigerated.

Sep 11

66 Comments

12 Years Ago Today….

It seems like a lifetime, yet also like it was yesterday that the attack on the US happened on Sept. 11, 2001. Still to this day I cannot watch anything about it without crying, after 12 years the wound is still fresh. The new tower is almost complete, there is a museum and memorial on the sacred site and it’s good to see life breathed into a spot that remained empty for so long. Every year I watch the reading of the names dutifully, I feel I must. I don’t know why but I do. I can see the tribute in lights from my house which is just across the river from the site and I sit on my stoop thinking about that day.

Life goes on, but on this day I think it’s important to remember, remember those lives that were so senselessly lost, remember what we were doing at that very minute that it happened, be thankful that we are here to remember and be thankful. There is a lot that we take for granted.

A friend sent me a link to this video, It’s about the great boat lift that happened on Sept. 11. I had never seen it before and it’s amazing. Narrated by Tom Hanks it gives some insight into how difficult it was to get off the island that day and what people did to help.

Lest we forget.

Tribute in Lights from google pictures

Aug 30

59 Comments

August Bakin Friends

I just started participating in a great and very fun endeavor called Bakin Friends. A group of cooks are given an ingredient and are paired with another cook who participates, we make something that uses the ingredient and send it to each other, kind of a Food Pen Pal of sorts. I was paired with Jeanette from Houston, Texas and the ingredient was pretzels. I sent Jeannette some cookies, everything I wanted to send sounded great until I thought about how hot it is in Texas and the thought of chocolate melting while waiting to be delivered didn’t sound appealing. So I decided to do cookies and also went out on a limb and did some white chocolate covered pretzels. I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe and went a little wacky, adding crushed pretzels and chopped snickers, I also threw in some nice dark chocolate. I think they turned out pretty nicely and I got a lovely note from Jeanette saying that she really liked them.

pretzel,snickers Cookies

White Chocolate Pretzels

Packaged and ready for their trip to Texas

Now that is what I sent, here is what I received from Alex, totally delicious blondies that had pretzels and peanut M&M’s in them. They were moist and delicious and I loved them. Thank you so much Alex for baking those fantastic blondies, along with the super cute Kitty card and hand written recipe. I really enjoyed them as did a few of my close friends.

Blondies

If you are interested in participating in Bakin Friends click on the link above that will take you to Stephanie’s site for more information. It’s fun and a great way to meet other bloggers and taste their delicious baked goods. You can send an email to stephanie; stephsbitebybite@gmail.com with Bakin Friends in the subject line and let her know you would like to participate. On the 6th of every month you will be paired with another cook/baker and you will find out what the secret ingredient is. Your packages should be mailed by the 16th of the month. It’s a lot of fun to participate!

Bakin Friends

Aug 29

39 Comments

Awards And Thank You and An Apology!

I want to thank Effie from Food Daydreaming for awarding to me the Sunshine award. I so appreciate it.

Sunshine Award

I also want to thank Fae from the lovely blog Fae’s Twist and Tango for the Very Inspiring Bloggers Award.

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I have said this before but truly mean it when I express how appreciative I am. It doesn’t matter how many awards you receive each one is important because you are being recognized by your piers, fellow bloggers, food lovers. cooks, chefs and that is what is important.

I may not be able to pass it on, answer questions etc.. just being honest. This is where the apology comes in. Things are very busy with work and caring for my aging pugs. It’s like I have 2 full time jobs. I try desperately to keep up with all of the blogs I love and gain inspiration from, I try to post on my blog but sometimes I fall short on both counts. I would like to nominate everyone for an award, if you are reading this you are sunshine and inspiring and I look forward to seeing all the wonderful recipes and adventures of my blogging friends.

I highly recommend clicking on the links to the above mentioned blogs, they are both wonderful and you will love them. Here is one of Effie’s recipe’s on Food Daydreaming that I have to try. it sounds too good Fried Goat Cheese and Fig salad With Raspberry Balsamic Glaze. How about dessert, these delectable Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta Tartlets or Summer Vegetarian Lasagne Jamie Style

Fae from Fae’s Twist & Tango her blog is like the UN of food blogs, it’s wonderful. Iranian (Persian) food or Japanese Food each post takes you on a journey and is a wonderful learning experience. You not only learn the recipe but a little of the history and cultural significance of the the food. How about Rack of Lamb Coated With Herbed Breadcrumb and Cheeses or Dashi And Miso Soup or my favorite Persian stew Khoresht Bademjan

Aug 17

78 Comments

What I’ve Been Up To

Things have been very busy lately, with work and cooking related things that I am working on and I haven’t really been posting as much as I would like to. This week has been a whirlwind, so I thought it would be nice to post something about what I’ve been up to. It started last Saturday when I met a dear friend and fellow blogger from DC, Emily here in Brooklyn, we had fun going to the farmers market and flea. Sunday I had the potluck which was so much fun, lots of great food and friends.

I work in real estate and it’s crazy and incredibly trying times in the NYC/Brooklyn market. There is a serious lack of housing stock and more people who want to buy than product available which makes for a very challenging market. So I have been really busy trying to find homes for the many people looking, Not fun.

I am also sure you have seen in several posts that I am involved with the startup company, Mealku, a food cooperative matching hungry eaters with eager cooks who prepare the food and it’s delivered by bicycle or skateboard (really, the delivery person came to pick up from me yesterday on a skateboard) amazing. Mealku asked me to cater an event for 40 people, breakfast foods to be ready this last Tuesday morning, very early 6:30 AM. I was up for the challenge so of course I said yes, I would do it. I made muffins, scones, banana bread, apricot/pistachio loaf and a seasonal fruit salad.

Packaged for Mealku event

Mealku event

I made a small batch of tomato balsamic jam with some of the heirloom tomatoes I got at the farmers market.

Tomato Balsamic Jam

I had leftover peaches and assorted plums so I made a galette

Mixed stone fruit galette

Yesterday I had a Mealku request for my Meatballs and Sauce, so I made it, slowly simmering the sauce and meatballs pretty much all day. Posted this a while back https://apuginthekitchen.com/2012/03/02/meatballs-and-tomato-sauce/

Meatballs

Aug 12

69 Comments

When Cooks Get Together-An End Of Summer Potluck Part II

The spread

Yesterday some wonderful cooks all converged at my home in Brooklyn for a Potluck. What made this so wonderful, besides the food, was that everyone is an accomplished cook and we all met initially on food websites (food52) through our blogs and also through Mealku my newest and most exciting food activity.

My friend Cristina and I worked together to organize the potluck, it’s not the first and certainly won’t be the last. Our little group (that is growing) is amazing. We have a scientist, a locavore, an artist, all women of different and very interesting backgrounds that all have one thing in common, we love to cook and we LOVE food. If it were not for the food websites like food52 none of us would have met most likely, and that in and of itself is amazing.

A potluck is a wonderful thing, everyone brings a dish of their choosing (usually more than one dish) and the selection of foods is as varied as the group of cooks and many of the dishes reflect the cooks ethnic background.

It was a a fantastic day, beautiful weather and the selection of food was beautiful as well as totally delicious. From Indian Khaman to a sweet potato and goat cheese salad to pulled pork sliders to chicken leg confit and many more. Then there was the dessert table:

Blueberry Pie photo by Cristina

Marcona Almond Cake photo by Cristina

Aleksandra’s chocolate bites photo by Cristina

Banana fudge ice cream by Cristina (photo too)

We are already planning our next potluck (actually 2 more in the works, we all plan on going on a tour of Long Island Wineries concentrating on the South Fork, we hope to rent a vacation house for a few days, visit the wineries and cook together, doesn’t that sound like fun?

The second potluck party is exciting also, Karen who is with Mealku offered us the use of their beautiful space in Tribeca to host a tasting, that sounds incredible also!!!

I made Panzanella and promised to post the recipe so here it is, please note I am not giving amounts because you don’t have to be exact, it’s a salad, but here is the list of ingredients:

Garden fresh tomatoes (assorted heirloom)

Cucumber (I used kirby)

flat leaf parsley

scallions

fresh basil (I used 8 leaves)

bufala mozzerella

salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and good olive oil

Ciabatta bread (preferably day old)

olive oil

garlic

Parmigiano reggiano

Make bread cubes

Cut ciabatta in half, slice garlic and place in mortar, add a little sea salt and crush the garlic. Scrape into a bowl and add some olive oil. Let sit for at least 15 minutes. Brush the garlic infused olive oil on the bread, cut into cubes and grate some parmigiana on the bread place in a pre heated 350 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes or until bread is crisp and toasted. Remove and let cool.

The Salad

Chop the tomatoes and add to a large bowl, add chopped cucumbers, sliced scallions, chopped parsley and torn basil. Season with salt and pepper and splash on some red wine vinegar and a good glugg of olive oil. Let sit for about 30 minutes so the tomatoes yield their juices. Add the mozzarella and bread cubes before serving, toss together.

Aug 12

35 Comments

Wine Pairing For Grilled Shrimp

Just a quick note this morning, Julian who pens the fantastic Vino in Love wine blog asked me to collaborate with him on a food/wine pairing. It’s summer and perfect for white wine and fish. I prepared two dishes one is my shrimp scampi that I prepared on the grill. I always have a hard time picking just the right wine to go with a meal, there is a real science to it and this is why I rely on the experts like Julian to help me make just the right choice. I love following the various wine blogs and learn so much from each. Here is a link to Julian’s post. Thank you Julian as always I enjoyed our collaborations and learn so much from you. Salud!!

http://vinoinlove.com/food-wine-pairing-grilled-shrimp/

Shrimp Scampi

Aug 10

41 Comments

Summer Potluck And Farmers Market Inspiration- Part I

What better way to celebrate summer than a get together with friends and fellow cooks, enjoying each others company and eating great food. My friend Cristina and I decided to throw an end of summer potluck inviting cooks that we know from blogs, Food52 and Mealku. Everyone will converge on my house on a lovely, warm Sunday afternoon. Cristina and I began preparing for this weeks ago, sending out invites and planning what we will prepare. What do a bunch of cooks do when they get together, well, the answer is pretty simple, we talk about food and eat.

Summer produce is at it’s peak and I had no idea what to make as my contribution, I decided to visit the farmers market in Fort Greene for inspiration. I wanted to make something fresh and seasonal and after seeing the beautiful tomatoes at the market I decided to make Panzanella, it’s one of my favorite salads and with the very tasty produce I knew if would be delicious. Today was extra special, I had great company at the Market, my friend and fellow cook extraordinaire Emily (Em-i-lis) and her husband Tom were here visiting from DC so we met up in my hood, Brooklyn. We did some shopping at the farmers market and then went to the Brooklyn Flea making our way through the different food stands,

Heirloom tomatoes

I am cooking for a Mealku event on Tuesday and needed inspiration for a fruit salad, look at these beautiful plums!!

Gorgeous plums

Beauties

Kale Anyone?

The Brooklyn Flea is a neighborhood institution, every Saturday from April – November they take over the athletic field of a local high school. There you will find just about anything you want from antiques to arepas. We ate, and ate well.

Tom’s porchetta

Em’s grilled cheese

Stay tuned for part II the potluck party! Today was fun and so good to finally meet Emily, I have to mention that she is a wonderful jam maker and she brought me a container of her fabulous plum basil jam. It’s extraordinary, have had it before and she knows its my favorite, thanks Em!!

Jul 24

50 Comments

Kreative Bloggers Award

Kreative Bloggers

I want to thank Cupcake Artist for nominating me for this wonderful award. I truly appreciate it. I am sorry this is a little late being posted, I have been crazy busy with work and have had very little time to post anything, but I did want to acknowledge this and let her know how thankful I am and truly appreciative. Please visit her blog, you will find amazing and delicious recipes and she is so talented at decorating. Her tiramisu cake has me drooling.Scroll down to see those that I nominated, and if you see your blog you are officially notified that you have been nominated for an award. I apply no pressure to follow the rules but it is fun to do so, I know I always like to know more about the talent behind these great blogs. I named 7 blogs as the rule states but there are hundreds that I love and follow so you are all wonderful and very talented and creative or should I say Kreativ!!!

THE RULES

1 Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2 Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back.
3 Share 7 random interesting things about yourself.
4 Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers for the award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.
5 Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.

RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME

1. I never know what to say when asked to talk about myself

2. I have two pugs, my household consists of 1 human (me) and my furry buddies

3. I rarely cook for myself unless I am going to post something here or enter a contest

4. Favorite movie EVER, Rosemary’s Baby (Horror is my favorite genre)

5. Favorite TV show- Dexter (so sad this is the last season)

6. I am not what could be classified as an “adventurous eater” no, intestines, brains, eyeballs etc… although I do love escargot!!

7. Favorite food, eggs benedict ( I could eat it every day)

Blogs I love and nominate:

1. Salted plates

2. Cottage Grove House

3. Foxes Loves Lemons