supper time

Recently I spent a weekend in New York City with my two beautiful cousins for a "cousins weekend"! NYC is the place where I was born and has a special place in my heart. My cousin Shalimar is living there for an internship and my other cousin Sigrid needed a get away after ending a 10 year relationship so some family, fun and good food was in order! What better place to put all the pieces together then get The City.

Party and shopping I left up to my cousins to dictate and recommend but, for food I had one place that is a MUST! Introduced to me by my friend Jenifer who is an ex NY'er is Supper a lower east side charm, cash only, no reservation Italian joint with healthy helpings of Italian Classics and rotating daily specials that you will plan your week around to make sure you satisfy the craving.

So the super star of this place is the Spaghetti al LIMONE! This dish is worth the wait, ATM withdrawal and taxi fare people, seriously its that amazing. Make sure you share this place with a group of buddies or a hot date or whatever because its sure to impress. Other note worthy dishes are the pear and gorgonzola ravioli and priest strangler pasta ....everything is great but, those are just highlights. Dessert get the Hazelnut Panna Cotta...they drizzle this delicate delight with chocolate sauce...whenever something gets a drench of chocolate it cant be bad!

So if your in NYC anytime in the near future please remember Supper at Supper time.

www.supperrestaurant.com

mmmm mom's yummy pasta

Mom's yummy pasta is truly one of those recipes that has to do with the term "soul food" made with some healthy ingredients, lots of love and a little bit of soul. My mom always made enough for second helpings and there were usually no left overs. Either way its delicious and great to make for casual dinner parties or family dinners.

Shop List...

1 bunch of broccoli

2-3 zucchini

1 bunch of asparagus

2-3 garlic cloves

4 chicken & sun-dried tomatoes sausages (remove from casings)

1 handful worth of sun-dried tomatoes (kind packed in olive oil)

1 box of pasta (bow tie, penne, farfalle are suggested)

salt

pepper

extra virgin olive oil

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Steps...

1. In a large pan douse the bottom with EVOO (Rachael Ray's obvious abbreviation for extra virgin olive oil) and smush up the garlic and on low heat heat up for about 5 minutes.

2. Add the sausages sans casings and start breaking them up in the pan with a wooden spoon or whatever spoon or fork you want to use. Let this go on for about 10-15 minutes. You want to be sure that the sausage is all broken up into bits and pieces and slightly browned.

3. Time to add all the lovely veggies and sun-dried tomatoes, mix them around and dash on some salt, pepper and if you want spice some red pepper flakes...add another whirl of olive oil and a handful of freshly grated parm baby! Cook this for about 10 minutes you want all the veggies to cook but, still be a bit crunchy and crispy.

4. Pasta should be boiling away now...As soon as its al dente drain and add pasta to the pan of veggies and sausage...toss it all around so the flavors cling to the pasta and add another healthy helping of fresh parmesan cheese.

5. This step is optional but, highly recommended for maximum yumminess! Heat your oven to 400 bake put the pasta in a baking dish and on the top layer throw down some more parm!!! Bake for 10 minutes till the top is a little crispy and cheese has melted.

DIG IN!

eet smakelijk

hurrah for syrah

Today, I would like to tell you about this fantabulous vino I found by accident while aimlessly grazing the isles of Fresh Market some weeks back. It must have been a Friday because it was like a happy hour in the wine section with free "tastings"?! I also think I was shopping for a girls night dindin at my house and had to pick up a few not so expensive wines so that I wouldn't dip into my husbands wine stash and accidentally down a 200 dollar bottle without even knowing the difference.

Obviously I am not a wine connoisseur of any sort but, I know the difference between good and bad wine.

Echeverria a 2006 Syrah from Colchagua Valley a Chilean wine is the feature of the day! It goes for around 12 bucks a bottle and ever since buying a single bottle I have tried for weeks to get another to share this delightful surprise with my hubby or friends and its always been sold out, so it cant be all that bad?!

www.echewine.com

Cheers!

xoRae

a frustrated foodie

sugarlame a restaurant review

I wasn't sure how to approach my first restaurant review since its not all positive but, thought thats what I am here for to let you know first hand how and what to watch out for so you don't make the same mistakes or recommend and then get yelled at?!

Sugarcane Raw Bar and Grill was last Fridays pick for new restaurant of the week trial. Some friends and I by mistake have created a weekend ritual of choosing a new restaurant in town and trying it out. Some good some not so good. Lets start then by a little background...SugarCane is a new venture by the people who brought us Sushi Samba its located in the heart of midtown in the lower level of one of the residential buildings. Decor is New Yorky with tropical accents, high ceilings and an inside/outside bar. The restaurant is larger then imagined but, still has a warm feeling and there is outdoor seating.

So for the overall experience...to start they lost my reservation, then we waited for 1 hour and 1/2 to be seated granted we were with about 12 people but, regardless at least a manager could have recognized the doozy and comped a round of drinks or bottle of wine or dessert for that matter. Can I just make a general recommendation...do NOT go with a large group of people to eat Tapas/Sushi especially if you are starvin like marvin, I would say tops 4 people to a tapas plan. We ordered practically the entire menu twice over and were still hungry and the check was pretty pricey. Actually, I think most of us could agree we woke up around 3am rummaging through our fridges for a snack to get us through the night!

Highlights of the night would be the goat cheese croquettes, sliders, veal meatballs, yellowtail crudo, night crab roll and crispy tuna roll were pretty good. Dessert must be mentioned because the torrejas was incredible. Service was good considering it was a large group that was as hungry as a pack of hyenas. The crowd was decent which created a good vibe.

Overall, it was ok. I would not go back but, if you want to try for yourself I suggest eat something before you go or go in a small group if its for dinner. Oh! double check your reservations.

www.sugarcanerawbargrill.com

xoRae

a frustrated foodie

million dollar classic recipe

Everyone I repeat EVERYONE must know how to make this 1 recipe and really if its the only 1 you ever know your good to go. Chicken Soup my friends...I know this might be boring to you but, you know that saying your mom used to tell you "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" well...its your way to his/her heart for sure if you don't screw it up and perhaps your mother-in-laws. So, like I said this is the million dollar recipe and easy believe it or not. Im not an exact person in the kitchen when cooking dinner the thought of measuring cups and spoons makes my eye twitch. Here it goes my version of chicken soup...my hubby approves so it must be pretty good he is a tough cookie.

Shop List...

1 whole large chicken (ask them to cut it up into pieces you don't want to do this yourself because no joke its not pleasant)

1/2 white onion

8 carrots

4 sticks of celery

3 ears of corn

1 lemon

1 handful of cilantro

2 bay leaves

2 cubes of chicken bouillon

1/2 box of mini farfalle or whatever pasta you prefer

some salt

some pepper

some all purpose seasoning

water from your faucet

Please don't feel overwhelmed its not difficult I promise and totally worth it!

Steps...

1. Grab a big pot and throw in the chicken, 1/2 onion, 2 carrot whole, 2 stick of celery whole, 1/2 a lemon, 2 bay leaves, 2 chicken bouillon, 1/2 of the cilantro, some salt, some pepper and some all purpose seasoning and fill the pot with enough water to cover the chicken...Cook for 35-40 minutes on a simmer with a lid on the pot.

2. In the downtime while this is cooking away...dice the remaining veggies (carrots & celery) and cut the corn into rounds.

3. When this has cooked for the suggest amount of time...leave the broth simmering and take out chicken and all the veggies that were bathing in there. The original veggies that were just removed can be tossed out. Remove the meat from the chicken cut it up how you like and put it back in the broth along with the veggies you diced and sliced...Squeeze some lemon juice from the other half of the lemon and the other 1/2 of the cilantro in the broth and add some more salt and pepper if you'd like...let simmer for 10 minutes. (Note after taking out the chicken from the broth you may want to add 2 or 3 cups more of water to the broth because the pasta will absorb lots of it...)

4. Ok now for the pasta! Plunge 1/2 a box into the soup cover the pot and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes stir it around every now and then.

5. Waaa-Laaa your chicken soup is ready to eat.

Eet Smakelijk! (thats Dutch for Bon Appetit, just FYI)

xoRae

a frustrated foodie

bahamamama

So good news! For those of you who are familiar with the Bahamian locals favorite Bahama Bread you no longer have to smuggle it back to Miami from a Bimini Bay weekend run. For those of you who don't know what Bahama Bread is its like a little taste of heaven...its bread obviously hence the name but, with a sweetness that is unmistakable. If we had to compare here then lets just say its along the lines of a pannetone and challah. Yumminess all the way to the last slice.

The genius behind mastering the recipe of this incredible bread is Lissette she is the creator of Bahama Bread Company. Lissette grew up vacationing with family and friends to and from the Bahamas. For your info the first thing you do after or sometimes maybe before going through customs is locating one of these loaves of love. It is not as easy as you may think because with the laid back pace (thats being kind) of this sunny paradiso is its not always available and maybe 5-10 loaves will be baked fresh daily. These sell like hot cakes as you can imagine. So to our lucky surprise Lissette has them ready locally for you when you call and she can deliver right to your door step in an adorable basket, now thats service!

Regular loaf of Bahama bread will run 7 bucks and a MUST try is the Coconut version which is above and beyond amazing for around 8 bucks its all yours. Note she has some sand dollar inspired chocolate or coconute cookies that are worth the try as well. Oopsy, almost forgot she does gift baskets too that start at 45 bucks cool and a super duper gifty. Now, thats not all folks it gets better...you don't have to feel guilty about this purchase because a portion of the proceeds goes back to a charity organization called Island Relief! AMAZING.

Just some ideas of what to do besides toasting and smothering butter on some thick slices of this ridiculously good bread...french toast it, breakfast sandwich it, grill cheese it, crouton it, pizza it or just let your imagination run wild however you choose to do it up its freakin awesome.

I apologize to getting a bit carried away...this post just got me hungry...ek!

www.bahamabread.com

xoRae

a frustrated foodie

purpose

The purpose of this blog is to communicate all the lovely, glorious, fantastic reasons, places, people, recipes and more about food. If you have not already noticed meals bring family & friends together creating and celebrating moments in your life, usually accompanied by a good glass of wine. Now, when cooking knowing an easy delish recipe is helpful. When going out avoiding bad service, crumby food and a bad crowd would be a dream. Finding the best and most interesting new products on the market would be pretty cool. If this sounds good to you then your reading the right blog.

As for me...your probably thinking well what does she know and why should we read this blog?! Well, for starters I will tell you what I am not...not a chef (of the professional capacity), not a restauranteur, not a food writer or critic (until now). So with that being said what I can bring to the table and the reason for this is because I do LOVE yummy foods, I do enjoy trying new restaurants, I do experiment in the kitchen and entertaining. It makes me happy to connect people and help tell the world about good people doing good things!

So...enough about the purpose of this blog hopefully it won't be lame and you will all agree with me that Miami (to start) is not the culinary epicenter of the universe but, by eating my way through the city by consuming loads of calories and enduring disappointments there are also gems of deliciousness that are worth recommendation!

xoRae

a frustrated foodie