Posts Tagged ‘pantry staples’

Catering Calls

Filed Under: Life, Workon April 26th, 2010

Over the last week or so I’ve been catering for friends, and friends of friends. With my tiny Soho apt filled to the brim with food, and my refrigerator stuffed beyond its max, my weekend was beyond hectic.

That being said, here are tidbits about the prep I did for the event, which was a friend’s sister’s bachelorette party. Follow? The party was small but we tried to create a spread that was full of different tastes and flavors. Something that looked like a lot of food, without actually costing hundreds of dollars. I hope I succeeded … post to come …

The humorous part in all this is that my refrigerator is hardly bigger than the college dorm size. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration but generally speaking it is NOT very big. Having to house all that food for a few days was quite a squeeze.

The food in my reusable Whole Foods bag (go green!) is for the event and all the extras were our apartment’s personal stock. I have a lot for a girl living in New York on limited means. For most people who live in New York and work long hours like I do, little cooking is done, but that’s quite the opposite of me. I feel like every time I go to the grocery store it’s an opportunity to build on my pantry …

I’m never a “buy and use all at once” kind of person, like fashion, you have to build your wardrobe … or in this case refrigerator. Here are some staples I always have:

1. Champagne: You never know when there’s cause for celebration, or a date, or a dinner party, or life.

2. Mustard: Nothing adds more flavor with less calories. Can be used for dressings, marinades, sandwiches, spreads, you name it.

3. Rotisserie Chicken: I think this is one of the supermarket’s greatest contributions to the working-cook. Fresh, delicious, pre-made, and takes half the work out of almost any meal you want to create in minutes for chicken alone, to pasta, to sandwiches, to tacos. And for under $10 (sometimes even $6) how can someone NOT have one in the refrigerator at all times?

4. Stock: Whether it be chicken, beef, or vegetable although it’s easy to make (wait for my freezer shot later) it’s always good to have stock on hand to make a quick soup, pasta, or stew. Indispensable at all times.

5. Roasted Red Peppers: I love these little things. Get them packed in water, not oil, and save your waistline. Add them to salads, meat dishes, pizzas, and pastas. I don’t think I could live without them.

So here’s a little insight to my catering space issues and my personal refrigerator staples, remember building a perfect meal is like accessorizing an outfit, you have to build a stock to choose from.

Tags: catering, pantry staples
Posted in Life, Work | 5 Comments »

A Question of Money

Filed Under: Food, Life, New York Cityon January 5th, 2010

It’s impossible to get into trouble in NYC when you don’t have any money. I’m talking about the good kind of “trouble” … eating out, gallivanting into the wee hours of the morning, celebrity posse members, VIP tickets, etc.

I’m sure you can find all sorts of bad trouble without money, because you don’t have money … but as I’ve said, I’m a good girl (most of the time).

I always swore that I’d be the type of girl who chose food over cloths. Aged balsamic vinegar over manicures, and good red wine over two buck chuck. And I am … although my resolve is loosening a tad. After spending 8+ hours a day in a kitchen wearing chef whites, all I want is nice blow dry, a Vogue, and a glass of (good) wine.

I can’t help it, I want it all! I want the stocked pantry with real vanilla beans, Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs, fleur de sel, AND the nights on the town, fabulous dinners at openings, and cab rides now and then.

Where does it give?!

Well for one thing, cooking for one isn’t very fun, so when I’m at home, I keep it simple. The goal is one new recipe a week, which is easy. Expensive, but easy. Any person (notice I’m not saying “chef”) on the Food Network who says you can cook a meal for four under $10 can bite me. You can’t.

Yes, if you have ingredients in your pantry already, you might be able to cook for under $20. Under $10, in New York? You gotta be kidding me. Especially if you’re trying to eat REAL food. Near impossible, but hey, I’m just telling you a pepper grinder alone in a grocery store runs you about $6, and that’s not even an ingredient included in most recipes, it’s expected!

What you can do for under $10 a day is pick your battles. It’s just like holiday eating … you can have your gourmet cheese, but you can’t take a cab. You can get your nails done, but don’t go out to dinner. As I said, pick your battles.

I’ve comprised a list of the easiest ways to enjoy the city’s best food without breaking the bank, enjoy!

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

1. Eat out at the “hot spot” restaurants either for lunch or right before the dinner rush. The lunch menu offers less expensive items that typically are on their dinner menu. If you eat late in the afternoon, there’s no crowd, you can linger, and might even be given something “on the house!”

2. Stick with the appetizers. The good thing about appetizers is that they usually include starches and proteins in an assortment of cooking methods, so you can satisfy any mood or craving. They’re smaller, better priced, and usually best demonstrate the chef’s creativity.

3. Drink (tap) water. I know it sucks. But trust me, two glasses of wine and you won’t care what you’re ordering, or realize that you’re already about $30 in the hole. If you want to drink, go to happy hours, they have drink specials at happy hours.

4. This holds true with salads, desserts, coffee, and tea. This part kills me, because I love having salads out, and following a good meal with coffee and dessert. $12 for a salad? Desserts, same deal. $4 for coffee and tea? Tea is a tea-bag with water … really $4?

5. Sit at the bar. Bar menus offer “bar snacks” which usually are even smaller portions of appetizers already on the menu. Here you can eat AND drink, since most of your money can be spent on booze.

6. Gourmet trucks are a great way to have a quick and cheap bite without emptying your wallet. No tips necessary!

7. Go to a grocery store with a list. Don’t shop without one, or you’ll walk away with things you don’t need or want.

8. Frequent the farmers markets, at the same time, and to the same vendors. They’ll start to recognize you and give samples and insights to food finds.

9. Become friends with people who like to eat out, cook in, and drink well. People who work in the business tend to know loop holes, befriend them. Usually they’ll be up for searching for well-worth-it foods at a great cost.

10. Never EVER pass up a free drink for a handsome (or ugly, sorry, I mean I am poor) man, skip work paid cocktail hours, free appetizers, gallery openings, catered events, hand outs, whatever. You never know where the next big thing will come from right?

Tags: celebrity sighting, eating on a budget, Fleur De Sel, gourmet trucks, Holiday Eating, pantry staples
Posted in Food, Life, New York City | 9 Comments »

Modern Pantry Staples

Filed Under: Food, Lifeon October 12th, 2009

4 PM Saturday Afternoon, College Football Tailgate, approximately 5 beers deep

Corinne: It’s not like I can have an “H2H” at a football game …

Me: What’s an “H2H”?

Corinne: “Heart to Heart,” duh didn’t you go to college??

Me: Umm, not really …

Drunk giggles.

This conversation might not make any sense to you but, in many ways I failed college. Not literally, but metaphorically. I wasn’t really good at being a “college” student.

The notion of doing a keg stand while your dress flies around your ears in a frat basement never really struck my fancy, and staying up until 4 am is a rare thing for me, not a Tuesday night occurrence. On top of that, I was really bad at picking creative (aka slutty) theme-party costumes.

It took me YEARS to figure out and accept that it was okay to feel this way about “the best four years of your life,” and once I did, I finally learned to embrace the parts I liked about school. And school embraced me. Ironic.

Sorority Sisters at Homecoming

This weekend I returned for homecoming. I put my old-lady-ness aside and embraced college the best I knew how. Despite my grandest efforts to fully emerge, inevitably parts of my true-self shone through – as they rightfully should have! On this particular weekend it was my inability to “sleep in.”

I’m a morning person. ALWAYS have been. Doesn’t mean I can’t stay out with the best of them but no matter WHAT, I will always be up by 8 – 7:30 actually – always. It’s probably a 95% certainty. And everyone knows it.

Everyone knowing your an early riser doesn’t mean everyone loves that your an early riser. Suffice to say, staying quiet while 5 other girls sleep in a hotel room after being out until 5 AM is hard.

So I got to thinking … thinking in fact about this post …

While lying in bed I pondered what dry food entities should be in the modern “foodie” pantry. I tried to create a list that would modernize the former staples of canned veggies and exotic oils. I think I came up with a pretty good set of what a new-age cook would find useful, healthy, flavorful and enjoyable. And who said being full of ideas at an early time was a bad idea?!

Colleen’s Neo-Classic Pantry Staples

1. Spanish Piquillo Peppers instead of the standard roasted red peppers. This littler red peppers are the Spanish counterpart to their American cousin. More flavorful and can enhance both in a spicy and sweet way. Sold almost everywhere jarred peppers are.

2. Panko Breadcrumbs instead of Italian Breadcrumbs. These breadcrumbs are not only crunchy, bigger, and more flavorful but stick better to almost any type of veggie or meat AND fry up crispier. Their neutral flavor can also compliment almost any cuisine.

3. White Beans instead of Chickpeas. Chickpeas made a comeback when hummus became popular and easily jarred (duh), but these beans work the same way. A white bean dip is just as easy, and different. Top these beans on salads, dips, and in soups!

4. Almond Butter instead of Peanut Butter. Filled with more “good” fat than the peanuts, almonds not only have great nutritional value but wonderful taste. High end grocery stores now offer grind-it-yourself appliances for customers to use to grind their own. Spread onto a cracker with a roasted pepper jelly, yum!

5. Capers instead of olives. Few people realize how many dishes capers help enhance. This Mediterranean staple enhances salad dressings, seafood, and just about anything, acting a salty rustic bite.

6. Really good Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead of ANYTYPE of store bought marinade or dressing. STOP wasting your money, the basis of many good dressings and marinades is simple EVOO. USE IT, IT’S EASIER!

7. Fleur de Sel instead of Kosher Table Salt. I PROMISE you if you start using this salt to garnish and top almost anything you eat it will change your perception on not only that food but salt itself. This French sea salt is life-altering.

Salt enhances "sweet" flavors

8. Real Vanilla Beans instead of Vanilla Extract. Yes it’s more expensive and NO don’t use it to make Toll House cookies but if you use it wisely and carefully these beans can be reused and reused … and then ground up and put in graduated sugar to make vanilla sugar!

9. Tomato Paste in a tube instead of Tomato Paste in a jar! Haven’t you ever opened a jar of tomato paste and used a smidgen and had to throw the rest away? Yep, sure, do. DON’T anymore – here’s the solution!

10. New-age grains such as couscous, barely, quinoa instead of instant rice. Healthier and now easier to get, throw that rice away and try something new.

All of these staples go well with your normal basics of salt, pepper, vinegars, oils, veggies etc. They’re simple NEW suggestions to create new and healthy options. DIG IN!

So all-in-all a successful early morning …

Tags: pantry staples
Posted in Food, Life | 3 Comments »