Buns In The Oven

One night in college I decided to stay in.

It was a Saturday night. We all had plans and at the very last, possible moment, I decided against it.

I sat in my apartment - most likely watching either Moulin Rouge or Titanic (or both) - and drank my wine as I listened to the partiers carry on outside.

Around 11:45 I sat straight up, paused whatever movie was on, and had the absolutely brilliant idea to try my hand at baking bread.

Not pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Or banana bread. Ohhhh no, I was ready to get my hands dirty in the big leagues. I wanted a full, crusty, steaming hot, loaf of scrumptious bread to top with all sorts of wonderful goodies.

I found a recipe online and had a crack at it. It turned out fantastic! My friends rolled in a few hours later and, as most who have indulged a bit too much on a night out are prone to do, they gobbled up every last crumb of that perfect bread.

That was four years ago, and I hadn't attempted to make bread again (even though I always knew I could) until the other day.

This is a French bread recipe from Le Creuset that I tweaked a bit because I'm too impatient to wait the required amount of raising/baking/etc time. It turned out absolutely delightful. To start, you'll need a big Le Creuset french oven...If it's not Le Creuset it will probably still do, just keep an eye on the heat and baking time.

Don't forget the lid!

This bread takes all of four ingredients - easypeezy!

3 cups unbleached white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon of yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water

Get out a mixing bowl and combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the warm water slowly.

It will start to get a bit strenuous but hey, it's a workout!

Keep going until the water is entirely mixed in and you're left with a sticky ball of bread dough.

Now, wrap the bowl up in plastic wrap, cover with a towel, and leave for as long as you can keep your mind off of fresh, warm, buttery, salty bread covered in jam....

Not long, I presume.

The recipe calls for 2-4 hours of rest. Others say overnight. I had to dash out to work the next day so mine sat unattended for about 12 hours. When you come back, your dough will have doubled in size (hopefully) and you should see more than a few sticky pockets in the mixture.

Preheat your oven to 450 F. Pop your Le Creuset in and let it warm up with the oven.

You're gonna transfer that sticky baby out of the bowl now so make sure you've got a ton of flour down to keep it from dirtying your counter.

Get the whole lump covered in flour and mold it into a ball.

Or a heart, if you'd rather! ;)

Take your toasty Le Creuset out of the oven (with mitts!!!!!!) and coat with butter, flour, or non-stick cooking spray.

Lump your dough ball into the pot and cover all over with olive oil. This will make sure your bread is a lovely brown color.

Next, you'll want to make some cuts into the top of the bread. This is called 'scoring' and allows the bread to expand while baking. You can get into some pretty detailed technicalities about which way to score, how deep to score, etc....but in this case, just make whatever cuts you like. I opted for an X straight in the middle.

Ready to bake! Clamp your lid on top of the pot, throw it in the oven and let it bake untouched for about 30 minutes.

When you take it out, it will look a bit like this.

Pop that baby back in without the lid for another 10-15 minutes and.................

Does that look like a dream or what?!

The dreamiest, crunchiest loaf of bread you could imagine.

Ready to smother in goodies and eat with a very big smile on your face because you, my friend, are a bread baker!

Fleeting Lunch with a Flight Attendant

Monday evening, while I was snuggled into my couch watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns, my phone buzzed.

I had received an Instagram Direct.

I've only ever received THREE Instagram Directs in my life and all three have been from equally surprising (but nonetheless welcome) visitors.

My flight attendant friend, Taylor, had fallen out of the sky and into Manhattan and was wondering if I fancied a night on the town.

There are few things that can successfully pull me away from an Everybody Loves Raymond binge and Taylor is not one of them (sorry T) - so I declined politely (I was already in my pajamas, after all) and suggested lunch the next day before she took off instead.

Having never seen Lincoln Center, she heartily agreed and we ended the Insta-back-and-forth with plans to meet at the office around 1:30.

As jaw-droppingly stunning as Lincoln Center is, it's a real buzzkill to find a decent lunch. Everything is sit-down, high-priced, much-fancier-than-me tourist traps. A wonderful fit for a fancy dinner before a fancy night at the Opera, but not as welcoming for a girl on a budget with a quick lunch break.

Luckily for me, there's a cute little cafe called Indie right around the corner. It's located inside the Film Society of Lincoln Center which is just a quick skip from my office desk.

I've been a huge fan of their coffee and iced lattes since I started this job, but I only just realized that they are well known as a wine bar as well! Top on an excellent selection of the 4 staple S's - Soup, Salads, Sandwiches & Sides - Indie seems like a much more desirable lunch destination than the bigwigs across the plaza.

Unfortunately, my colleagues were right around the corner and Taylor can't drink for 12 hours before a flight as part of her work stipulations so we shook our heads sadly no to the giant wine glasses beckoning to us with open arms.

We took a seat at the bar before diving into a bit of catch up as we waited for our plates to arrive.

I met Taylor this past summer at a concert at the beach club on Governor's Island. She is a flight attendant for Emirates Airline and lives in Dubai. Could you have any cooler of a job??! She travels the world and keeps her friends-in-far-off-places up to date through her impressive instagram. In town for just one night, she was heading off to Milan after dinner and I'm so thrilled that I could grab her for lunch.

We both opted for the 1/2 salad, 1/2 sandwich option.

I went with the Italian Salad and the Hummus and Avocado Sandwich.

The salad was good. The sandwich was meh. I've heard it's an extremely popular option but I wasn't sold. Avocado and Hummus can't make up the entire body of a sandwich. They're too soft together. You need something to form the base and then have the soft, mushy stuff on top. I'm also not the biggest fan of sprouts but I was giving it all a try because the cafe is called INDIE, okay? I was trying to play it cool.

Taylor went with the Greenmarket Chopped Salad and the Apricot Jam & Camambert Baguette.

I forgot to taste any of it since our conversation carried through the entire sit-down but it looked delicious. You can never go wrong with a good cheese, as I'm prone to say.

We licked our plates clean and headed back into the sunlight. I will most definitely be returning to Indie to try some different food and taste the wines. It seems like the perfect place for a low-key yet wonderfully wine-induced romantic date. But for now, it was the perfect pit stop for two friends having a bite before parting ways. Arrivederci Taylor! Enjoy Milan!

Birthday

My first week at Penn State, I met the girl living across the hall from me. She was loud and funny...a lot like me ;) . And she was from just a little bit north of my hometown. The second month in we came to an incredible realization - MISSY AND I WERE BIRTHDAY TWINS.
The rest was fate.

We've had some pretty memorable (or not) birthdays and this year was no exception.

After a full day of work on Saturday we headed down to Houston Hall for some more birthday debauchery.

A night filled with friends, family...all the best people in our lives gathered in one (very crowded) room. The pictures aren't quite as in focus as last year's but it was a wonderful evening with wonderful people and I was a happy, happy girl.

The next morning was not as fun filled and beautimous. But the great thing about NYC in the year 2014 is that the apartments are pretty much size of closets which means that the Seamless delivery boy can pretty much ensure that a large pizza and mozzarella sticks will be delivered within a 5 foot radius of your bed. Every. Time.

Ready to be shared by two very hungry, recovering babels.

How Now Brown Cow Tao DownTown

While birthday celebrations have certainly been (and continue to be) in order, we've had other things to celebrate too!

TT got some fantastic news at work a few weeks ago and I just couldn't be prouder of my babel. I've been meaning to take him somewhere special to celebrate but I've been super busy at my new job.

Before I knew it, my birthday had crept up on us and TT was trying to plan dinner to celebrate ME when I hadn't even celebrated HIM yet!!

Tao Downtown has been at the top of both of our "Must-Try" lists so we decided to pop in for a dual celebration Monday night.

Tao's original haunt, Tao Uptown, is up on 58th Street. You'll find it smooshed to the walls with the usual corporate crowd, men in suits, women in blazers, along with some A-listers and your fashionistas.

But the Tao Downtown spot gives the nightcrawelers and the trendies below 42nd Street another place to see and be seen.

You descend into the basement of the Chelsea Maritime Hotel and walk through a series of dark red hallways before opening into the most cavernous underground restaurant you could never have imagined would exist in lower Manhattan.

Would you have EVER seen this coming? I sure didn't.

The descending staircase has small lounge-like table setups where you can actually sit and enjoy a meal while looking out over the rest of the restaurant!

Unfortunately, I thought it was just an extension of the bar and didn't find out food was served on the stairs until much later in the meal. We descended into the main dining room and scooted into a table at the feet of a giant 24-armed Buddha.

Tao is known for two things - dim sum and giant Buddhas. I guarantee if you type #Tao in the search engine of Instagram, you'll see picture after picture of the enormous sitting Buddha at the front of the Tao Uptown dining room.

Tao Downtown's Buddha is not quite as spectacular in size or features but what did make it terribly interesting was the light. The shimmering light shining on the Buddha  was constantly changing and therefore changing the colors and outward appearance of the giant statue.

 

It was a different Buddha every time we turned around!

Enough of the ambiance....let's have a look at the menu.

We started with drinks!

A Thai Basil Smash for the boy, and a Lychee martini for me.

The Smash had Stoli Citrus, Thai basil, and mandarin orange. I'm a huge fan of Thai basil in drinks. It adds such a kick. I always opt for it. The orange was a little too thick, making it pretty difficult to sip the drink with the straw. Not a bad taste but would be better if it the liquid were a bit thinner.

The Lychee martini was FABULOUS. Sweet but not too sweet. I could certainly see a few too many of those leading to a pretty fun night out. As you sip, the lychee at the bottom of the glass slowly begins to peer out from the liquid. Its own little iceberg just waiting to be eaten.

Since it was a double celebration, we really decided to go all out in the food department. Deciding what to order took a bit of work...

...Luckily my side of the table was a little more fun.

Look back at it, AMIRIGHT?

We started with Crispy Rice Tuna and Lobster Wontons.

The Crispy Rice Tuna was such an interesting dish. Served with spicy mayo and kobayaki sauce, the chewy stickiness of the rice is complemented by the fresh tuna on top. The pieces were bite size and the portion was perfect for sharing! Presentation was pretty lovely as well.

I had read about the Lobster Wontons on a number of yelp reviews and blogs mentioning Tao. They are served in a shiitake ginger broth that is no joke. Warm, chewy, salty. Perfectly seasoned and wonderfully drenched in that soupy deliciousness.

As we were fighting over who could use the giant spoon to slurp up the rest of the broth, our Beef Mongolian and Hong Kong Fried Noodles arrived.

Giant pieces of filet mignon cut up and tossed in a tomato-based semi-spicy sauce with snow peas and shimeji mushrooms. The beef quite literally melted in your mouth but I just couldn't bring myself to openly praise the sauce. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but you could taste the tomato paste and it was strange to see that used so heavily in an Asian dish. I know they call it Asian Fusion but some things, in my opinion, are better left un-fused.

The Hong Kong Fried Noodles were served in an enormous portion. We took almost half home which served as a yummy lunch at my desk the next day in the office. Cooked with chicken, egg, mixed vegetables, and roast pork, it was much like fried rice....just with noodles. I was hoping for a little bit of a different flavor from regular old fried rice but they used the skinny noodles which I loved. It was a solid dish that I would absolutely order again.

To spice things up a little and to check out the skills of the sushi chefs at Tao, we ordered the Chef Yoshi roll on the side.

Tuna, salmon, curry mayo, sweet wasabi. 

Hate to say it but I wasn't a fan of this at all. The fish itself was fantastic but the melded flavors, especially the two sauces served on top, made for a strange taste. It was well made but I think next time I might stick to the dim sum dishes.

We ate until we were utterly stuffed then sat back and enjoyed the company and the wonderful ambiance.

I was surprised with a giant fortune cookie just oozing vanilla and chocolate cream. Happy birthday to me!

We left very happy babels.