Cafe Pizzaria

Well I haven't updated in a while, oops. So how about some pizza? Cafe Pizzaria is definitely a Bloomington institution. It's been around forever. In fact, they claim to be Bloomington's first Pizzeria. You can certainly feel it in the restaurant. It's dark and worn inside, but in a cozy kind of way, with lots of private booths. Unlike most of the Bloomington population, I really didn't start eating at Cafe Pizzaria until rather recently (when I was little my family's traditional pizza place was Mother Bear's Pizza.) Actually, I don't think I ever ate there at all until college. Now I probably have lunch there every other month or so.

Fettuccine with Peas and Prosciutto

I made this pasta for the first time over a year ago with my friend Katy. We were planning her wedding and all of the sudden it was 7 pm and we were starving. I remember we were so indecisive, we spent at least half an hour trying to decide whether to go out to eat or make something at home. Finally we settled on this recipe out of the Everyday Food cookbook, mostly because Katy already had a pound of fettuccine and I had frozen peas.

It's pretty darn tasty. And it only takes around twenty minutes start to finish. Prep the garlic, lemon, prosciutto while your pasta water heats up, then start cooking the garlic when you drop the pasta. Totally easy. The lemon adds a brightness that really makes the dish. Going back through the recipes I've blogged, pretty much all of them feature lemons. When I was little I ate lemons as if they were oranges. So I guess it isn't surprising that so many of my favorite recipes include them.

NYC Food Round Up : Part 3

On Saturday Katy and I headed straight for Chinatown after a quick coffee stop at Starbucks. We wandered around for a while, buying Asian candy and miscellaneous little dishes and souvenirs. And then we headed for Prosperity Dumpling.

NYC Food Round Up : Part 2

So on Wednesday and Thursday we tried out Shake Shack, Veselka and Momofuku Milk Bar. They were mostly winners so we were psyched for Friday!

We started our morning at The Breslin, the super hip April Bloomfield restaurant in the Ace Hotel. As you can probably tell from the following photos, it was quite dark inside the restaurant. It was full of dark wood and antlers, basically like a hipster version of an English Pub. Katy and I were surrounded by hungover industry types who were slightly annoying, but the food more than made up for it. And the coffee was good!

NYC Food Round Up : Part 1

How about some food porn? My bff Katy and I took a lovely trip to New York City at the end of April. We ate some pretty awesome food, mostly recommended by NYC bloggers, and had a ton of fun at museums, shows, etc. It was pretty fantastic!

We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in Chelsea which is just a short walk to Madison Square Garden. AKA home of the Shake Shack! Our flight got in on Wednesday around 2, we settled into the hotel around 3, and were out and about and hungry by 4. Since it was so early, there wasn't much of a line at Shake Shack. It was pretty chilly, but we decided to go for some custard anyway. Good call on our part!

White Bean and Pesto Soup

Ever since I got my super cute mini food processor for Christmas I've been dying to make some pesto. Of course, winter isn't exactly the best time for basil so pesto got put in the back burner until yesterday. Bloomingfoods had some lovely living basil plants so I scooped one up, went straight home, and tried out this soup.

Roots

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote about an actual restaurant. The truth is I eat out for lunch most days and luckily there are TONS of options within walking distance of work. Roots is a staple in my lunch rotation. Originally Roots was marketed as the only vegetarian restaurant in Bloomington. Central to the menu were dishes featuring tofu, tempeh, and seitan. I remember ordering the Grilled Veggie Pita soon after the restaurant opened and not being too impressed with it. More recently, Roots added Thai specialties to their menu and I think that's where the restaurant really shines.

Momofuku Crack Pie

This pie is ridiculous, to make and to eat. It's basically a bunch of butter, sugar, and eggs baked up into a delicious gooey sugary mess of a pie. My friend Katy and I made the pie for an Oscar Party last weekend. We're planning a trip to NYC in April and Momofuku Milk Bar (pork buns! cereal milk soft serve!) is most definitely on our list of must-eats. Apparently a whole pie at Milk Bar is $44 :O so, one less thing to try when we get there.

Crispy Brown Butter Pecan Cookies

I love the idea of brown butter. I mean, what's better than plain ol' butter? Butter with extra delicious flavor! These cookies are all about the butter. They're rich and crunchy, and just as decadent as chocolate. The pecans are the perfect complement to the brown butter, adding a really nice extra texture. All that butter makes these cookies quite crispy. They're not soft at all in the middle. In most cases I prefer a cookie with a soft middle and browned edges but for these it just worked. I'm sure if you really want them a bit less crunchy they could be pulled from the oven a little early.

Pear Custard Pie

Don't let the "Pie" in the title scare you. This recipe is basically just a clafoutis, it's crustless, and it's so easy. Seriously, you just peel and slice some pears then blend up a super simple batter and bake until the pie is golden brown. I think it's simple enough for a weeknight dessert, but also elegant enough for a small dinner party.

The flavors are subtle but delicious, with just enough sugar to be sweet, but not overly saccharine. The custard gets nicely creamy and a bit eggy between the pear slices. While the sugar and flour bake up a little crunchy/caramelized around the rim. But the touch of vanilla and delicate floral taste of the pears are really what makes the dessert so lovely. Oh and the smell from the oven as this bakes is amazing.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

Back in August I wrote about Topo Gigio and the amazing seafood pasta my sister ordered. That pasta had fantastic calamari and mussels and scallops but what made it really delicious was the sauce. It had the most perfect tomato flavor with minimal chunks and an underlying richness. I dreamed of that pasta for months. Then, in November, I found myself devouring months and months of posts from Orangette. When I came across Molly's blog on tomato sauce I thought, 'I can do that.' So I did. And with my first taste it was like 'that's it!' It's probably not exactly like the sauce from Topo Gigio, but it's close enough for me.

Almond Coconut Macaroons

Oh man are these delicious. And so freakin' easy. And easy, as you might have noticed, is quite important to me. Back in my undergraduate days my bff/roommate, Katy, and I would buy bags of Archway coconut macaroons from Marsh and eat one after another while watching Law & Order repeats in the middle of the afternoon. Those were pretty good, but this recipe blows them out of the water. They get gorgeously golden brown and crispy around the edges but stay moist and soft on the inside. Even my dad liked them and he doesn't even eat coconut. If only I'd known macaroons were so simple, I would have been making them for years!

Farmhouse Butternut Squash Soup

Gourmet is gone, which makes me sad even though I've only recently begun reading old copies. Checking out random issues from the library, along with issues of Bon Apetit. To be honest I find the writing and recipes in Gourmet so much more inviting and fun to read. As for Bon Apetit, I don't really care for the format and, especially, the food photography. But what can you do?