Just recently, I moved.  I'm in the same borough but my wonderful roommate has left the state.  I miss her.  In this urban jungle it's tough to find a great roommate and God knows I had one.  When you get one this good, you're over the moon and grateful you've been so blessed.  So, this post is for my former roommate who wanted this recipe weeks ago but, can now have it on her new adventure.  There won't be any artsy stuff on this post because this is just for Vanessa.  :-)

For a little backstory, when I first moved back a major natural disaster happened and I went to help out.  While I was helping with the relief effort, I stayed with some lovely friends and one Sunday evening we had a curry chicken pot-pie for dinner.  Now, I was told the recipe was from Trader Joe's cookbook?  I never knew there was such a thing.
For beginners, I had never made a chicken pot-pie before.  This is by far the easiest and most delicious chicken pot-pie you will ever encounter! 

Now here is the original recipe:
Trader Joe's Curry Chicken Pot Pie

But here is what I make,
Anna's version of TJ's Curry Chicken Pot Pie:
2 bags of TJ's Organic Foursome Vegetables
1 bottle TJ's Thai Yellow Curry Sauce
1 bag of TJ's Just Chicken
2 tbsp All-Purpose Flour
2 rolls of pre-made pie crust

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2.Defrost the chicken but don't let it cook.  The chicken is pre-cooked and you don't want it to get tough.
3. In a large bowl mix the veggies, chicken, curry sauce and flour together
4. Prepare a dutch oven by spraying non-stick cooking spray to the bottom and sides of the dish.  Then line the bottom with one roll of the pie crust.
5. Pour the veggie mixture into the prepared dish on top of the pie crust.
6. Top the pie with the remaining roll of pie crust and puncture vent holes in the top
7. Bake the pot pie for 35-40 minutes, then let stand for 10 minutes, if you can wait that long.

If I'm honest, I have burned my mouth on this pot pie a few times.  It smells great and I was hungry and impatient.
You'll notice the differences, like there are no onions in my recipe.  Again, I'm not a big fan.  I might add a bit of chopped garlic to it next time.  Garlic I am a fan of!  You can play around with the measurements to make it as big or as small as you like.  When I make this it's usually for no less than four people so, my recipe makes a lot and my dutch oven is a good size.  People like seconds so don't skimp!  It's a bad idea, dude!  I promise you'll regret it if you skimp.
Don't be daunted!  This is a great recipe and everyone will think your a freaking genius and it's the easiest thing ever!

Enjoy!
Ebony



Not only is Gotham the, "City that Never Sleeps" it's also the "Artists Mecca".  We come from our little towns in the middle of nowhere or lands where we grow up feeling that we don't speak the language to find our voices here.  So, needless to say, a majority of my friends are artists and I love that!  Why, because I'm one and they get me. Well, as much as one can get me, I'm definitely a different breed but, who doesn't feel that way?
So, about a week after my last blog post a dear friend of mine had a birthday.  She's an Actress going to auditions at the crack of dawn, waiting in line to not even get seen, callbacks, more auditions... etc. You know the deal.  So, because last year we were both preoccupied with trying to move here to the Big City during her last birthday; I had been holding on to this recipe for all that time, chomping at the bit to make it for her.  Her favorite cake is spice cake and I'd wanted to make this recipe ever since I'd seen it in a 2007 October issue of Family Circle that my Mother had sent me back then.  So, when I met Jennie, which is now two years ago, I decided this was the person I would make it for.
I was excited about this cake because I LOVE THE FALL!  I love the colors, the cool weather, sweatshirts, warm blankets, hot tea and all of the flavors fall bring with it.  Saying that, I feel that spice cake is one of the quintessential fall desserts.  It has a nutty yet warming quality about it and a beautiful coloring that is perfect for the season!

As usual, I've changed up a few of the ingredients but, it's pretty much the same.  I'll post a link to the original recipe but, post my ingredients here on the blog. 

Chocolate-Glazed Spice Cake


Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 c. solid vegetable shortening

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp all-spice
1 tsp ginger

1 c. packed dark-brown sugar
3/4 c maple syrup
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c.  Vanilla Rice Milk

Filling:
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4c. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. Vanilla Rice Milk
3 c. confectioner's sugar


  
Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 c. heavy cream
 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips








The explicit instructions to putting this cake together are listed here:
Chocolate-Glazed Maple Spice Cake
I didn't top the cake with walnuts because Jennie doesn't like nuts much and I'm not a big fan of walnuts myself. So, instead I put flowers on top and I think it's quite pretty.
I want to give you an explanation for why I changed certain things in the recipe and be upfront about how it turned out and what I would do differently.  I'm no professional and I like to be forthcoming about what the real journey was from start to finish.

Things I would not worry about, do differently or do again:
1.  I would have put a layer of bread on top of each cake layer as it cooled.  I wasn't happy with the moistness of my cake, I felt it was a bit dry.  A slice of bread on top is supposed to help keep the moisture in.
2. The cake looked much bigger in the original picture and I worried it was too small.  Don't be fooled.  Jennie had about 20 or so people at her party.  Everyone had a piece and there were leftovers to boot!
3. I added milk to the filling so that it would be a bit looser and easier to spread.  This idea worked well.
Some goals I have are to find a good substitute for shortening, butter and heavy cream.  Any suggestions?  Please post a comment if you know good alternatives to this and I will try them and post my adventures on this blog!


Of course the entire point of making the cake was to see this happen with it! ;-)


I hope you try this cake during the Autumn season and it warms your soul!

Ebony
So, at the last minute my friend and I nixed our plans to form some type of labor day girls adventure.  She was going to Coney Island while I was going to a friend of a friend's picnic in Central Park.  As if I had all the time in the world I waited until the night before the picnic to choose a dish to make to share.  Of course I went to my trusty Pinterest boards to look for inspiration.  While I was there I found a picture of a delicious bruschetta type dish.  Crusty bread, thinly sliced lengthwise with a creamy herb spread.  For the toppings there were heirloom cherry tomatoes, avocados and red onions.  I clicked on the link and much to my chagrin I got the deadly error message.  "The page you have requested no longer exists".  So after screaming, "Noooooooo!" and shaking my fist into the air in pain and a vow for retribution, I scoured the boards to find the source of the link.  I found the source, but it was a dead end.
I decided that I wasn't going to back down but win! I said to myself, " I'll do what I've done before....figure it out."  Well, thankfully I did and I'm giving you my recipe for this vine-ripened tomato and avocado tart.  I'm not a huge fan of onions.  I never use them as toppings unless caramelized.  So, you'll see those missing from my recipe.
This tart is super pretty and delish.  I can't wait to make it again when the heirloom tomatoes start appearing.  Fall will be here any minute and I can't wait to share my thoughts on the arts in Fall 2013 and plenty of fall inspired recipes!  Whoohoo!
In the meantime enjoy our last bits of summer.  This dish worked because it was fast and easy and since everyone at the picnic had decided to bring desserts, everyone was grateful for the savory dish and devoured it quickly.  Happy eaters make me a happy cook! :-)  Sorry for the lack of "Arts" on this post but I figured that the pretty tart could suffice this one time as our artistic piece.  If the tart doesn't suffice for you, would it help if I said that some of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers were there?  They were, but they didn't sing for us.  They were friends of the friend and just hung out.  Enjoy!

Procrastinator's Veggie Tart
Ingredients:
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations® refrigerated seamless dough sheet
3-4 vine tomatoes
2 avocados
1 pkg herb goat cheese
1 8oz container of low-fat cream cheese
Italian Herb Seasoning
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Juice from half of a lemon

Directions:
1.Spray baking sheet with non-stick olive oil cooking spray.  Then roll out the entire sheet of Pillsbury® dough onto the baking sheet.  Put the 2 tbsps of olive oil on the dough and spread it all over the dough, whilst shifting the dough so that it covers the entire surface of the baking sheet.  Make sure you have no holes in your dough when you do this. There may be thin spots like in mine. Just try to be gentle or use edges of the crust to fill in holes.

2. Next bake your crust at 350 degrees for 10-12minutes.

3. While your crust is baking whip together the goat cheese and cream cheese into a smooth consistency.  Sprinkle more Italian Herb Seasoning into this mix.  Also, slice your tomatoes and avocados into thin layers.

4. After your cheese mixture is whipped into a smooth and manageable consistency spread it onto your warm, but not hot, crust.  The warm crust makes the cheese that much easier to spread evenly.

5. Lay your avocados on top of the crust, then lay your tomatoes on top of the avocados. Sprinkle tart with Sea Salt and Ground Pepper to taste.  Then squeeze the juice from half a lemon all over the tart focusing on the bits of avocado that still peek through.

*Tip - I had squeezed some lemon juice on my avocados to stop them from browning before I laid them on my crust.  This is an important step to keep your tart pretty and tasty.

When all is said and done, Voila!



Now, you have a beautiful, delicious and healthy Procrastinator's Veggie Tart to share with friends at a picnic or dinner party.  Break a leg!

Ebony








It Is Too Hot for This!

So,  last night I was at a picnic that my Bible study group was in charge of hosting.  I first decided to make a salad and changed my mind on what I would make about four times.  It was between a California Chipotle Chopped Salad from Fitness Magazine or a Chickpea and Heirloom Tomato Salad.  I finally decided on the California Chipotle Chopped Salad without the Chipotle.  Not because I dislike Chipotle, on the contrary, I love it.  It was more out of necessity because I didn't have any. 
I am going to provide a link to the original recipe if you prefer it to my rendition.













Here is my version of the recipe:
Sassy California Chopped Salad:
1 avocado
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 can black beans
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 head butter lettuce
1 head red lettuce

Dressing:
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsps olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp chili powder
Juice of 1.5 limes
2 tbsps agave nectar

Step 1: Cook the quinoa in chicken, vegetable or whatever broth you so choose.  I through in a bouillon cube with my water and cooked the quinoa in that.  Then I placed it in the refrigerator to cool down while I made the rest of my salad.  Why put the quinoa in the refrigerator you ask?  Well, I'd prefer no to wilt my entire salad before it gets to the party.  Plus, it is just to hot for a warm salad right now!  Bleck!

Step 2:
I put all of the dressing ingredients together in the food processor, turned it on, done.

Step 3: Chop the lettuces and throw them in a bowl with the tomatoes, cooked quinoa, black beans rinsed out of the can into your salad.  I chopped the avocado in its skin and scooped out into a bowl and poured lime juice on it to stop the browning process.  I then tossed it in the juice and later dumped it into the rest of the salad.

Step 3:
Pour the dressing over your salad mixture and toss while you pour to evenly distribute throughout your salad.  I would put a bit less dressing than I did this time but I was in a hurry with no time to dig for a container to store the rest of the dressing.

One of the biggest changes in this recipe was my not cooking the black beans.  I didn't cook them because it's too hot for cooked beans and I wanted a refreshing salad in this almost 100 degree weather.  It was hot enough cooking the quinoa and you MUST cook quinoa.  I don't know about you but I refuse to eat that grain raw!  Love it, but, not enough to eat it uncooked.

How does this tie into the arts, since that is what my blog is all about?  Well, I'm going to get a bit personal here.  See, I've been in an ebb NOT a flow season for quite a while.  These last few months have been some of the most difficult for me.  Lately so much so that I go back and forth about giving up on my dreams.  I feel old and stupid for still having them and nothing ever happening or not having the money to make them come true.  So, last night the Pastor of the church asked me, "What do you do?"  He's smart because he asked this question in two parts.  Most of us here in New York have a job that pays the bills and one that is a passion and for most of us pays nothing so far.  Among other things, I want to be a writer, so he introduced me to one.  It was the boost of support I needed in this dark time and I am very grateful to him for it.  The conversation with this man was educational and put a needed fire in my belly that gets blown out from time  to time.  So, friends, keep doing what you love, or start doing it.  Life is definitely too short to hate what you do every day, no matter how much money you make.

Peace!
-E



I watch the Tony Awards every single year without fail.  Even when critics pan them, I love them! Just click on Neil Patrick Harris' face to see the opening number. :-)
 
 Being that I am a true nerd not only do I watch the Tony Awards but I go to the red carpet and throw a Tony Awards viewing party whenever possible.  To date, my favorite year was 2011 when I sat with my theater kids and watched the Tony Awards while we noshed on pizza, ice cream and movie candy that were props for a show we were doing.  We only needed the boxes so we had to eat ALL of the candy, right?
This year, I decided to step up my culinary stylings a bit from frozen pizza and movie candy.
When you are having a party with a group of people, a good host takes each persons palette into consideration.  This is not to say that you can't get one out of their comfort zone every once in a while but, you need to be considerate, this is a mistake I have made before.
Luckily, my guests and roommates are not picky eaters.  In fact, my roommates have broad palettes and love spices, as do I.  We also like heat but two of my guests did not like heat and one is not one for a lot of spices.  Though saying that, I still decided to make a thai inspired chicken. The difference here is that the flavors were all flavors I new she could handle and nothing was over-powering.
Because I knew that my roommate was making bruschetta and purchasing dips from a local Israeli store; I decided against making a salad to go with the meal because people would be very full.  So, in the end I made Cilantro Lime Rice from Nikki in the Kitchen's Blog which is based off of Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice.

This particular picture is from Nikki's blog where you can go for the recipe: http://nikkisfixins.blogspot.com/2012/01/cilantro-lime-rice.html

When I made her rice, I took her suggestion of making it a bit healthier and I used Brown Jasmine Rice instead.  I cannot tell you how WONDERFUL the smell is once you mix all of the beautiful flavors of the lime, fresh cilantro, and garlic together into the rice.
During this process I was teaching my second roommate, who is new to cooking, how to make it and she said, "So, we have to wait until tonight to eat this?" Since we were going to the red carpet at Radio City Music Hall it gave the rice time to sit in these wonderful flavors and it tasted even better once we returned.  When you first mix them all together and taste it, you can literally taste every single flavor.  It really was remarkable to me.

But the "piece de resistance" came from Alexa over at the "Artsy-Foodie" Blog.  Alexa was kind enough to allow me to talk about her chicken recipe here on my new blog.  Here is a link to the original recipe: http://www.artsy-foodie.com/2008/09/wonderful-tasting-chicken-breast-recipe.html

Instead of using chicken breasts I decided to use a whole roasting chicken.  Why?  I knew it would last much longer and it gave folks the opportunity to control their portions a bit better.  Not one bite was wasted!  I must confess, this was my first experience roasting a whole chicken so I am grateful that it came out beautifully! 

For the whole roasting chicken I used dried Cilantro and increased the recipe measurements exponentially:
Cilantro Thai Chicken
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried cilantro 
 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
I marinated the chicken overnight and then baked the 4lb chicken at 350F for 3 hours on Sunday.  After it was cooked I turned off the oven and let it sit inside of the oven and rest.

Alexa uses fresh cilantro which I will probably do next time also but, I have to say the taste was delicious in spite of using dried herbs.  I basted the chicken pretty frequently for the last hour and a half and it was juicy, fall of the bone tender and flavorful.  Thank you Alexa for your genius recipe!
My friends loved it and I had a lot less of the chicken for leftovers than I anticipated.  Not too shabby, huh?
Now on to the Tony Awards 2013 red carpet and viewing party!!
I am lucky enough to live in New York City.  I LOVE this place!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to a majority of the shows nominated this year but, I do my homework.  So, as we stood among the masses, gawking at the famous and Broadway famous I commented on who was who, what play or musical they were involved with, etc.  I'm so loud that I had a little bit of a following and one guy said, "You have to say the names in German so we know what you mean too!"  It was too much fun!  There are really wonderful people here in New York!
But these...these pictures are my favorite moments from that night, apart from sitting with friends.
         This is Cicely Tyson.  If you don't know her, IMDB her and go see any one of her movies.  You won't be disappointed.  My Mother did not raise a fool so, I've grown up watching her films.  All night I kept saying to anyone and everyone who would listen, "I just want to see Cicely!  If I can just see Cicely we can go home!  I just want to see Cicely, she's the only famous person I care about!"  So, as the line dies down and we contemplate leaving, a limo pulls up.  No one comes out for a while.  Then the young black man in the picture standing next to her comes out street side.  You see a ton of people standing on the opposite side of the limo and everyone is deadly quiet except me who yells, "I bet it's Cicely!!  I know it is!! It's her!"  Well finally the person steps out but they are so tiny that you can't see them, not even the top of their head.  Finally the limo pulls away and I yelled, "Cicely!!!!  Cicely!!!!" as loud as humanly possible.  She turned, smiled, waived and my life was made.
  Now I just have to get over to the Stephen Sondheim Theater to see her in "The Trip to Bountiful" for which she won a Tony Award that night!  Of course, everyone has said that her performance is one that should not be missed.  So, head on over to the site: http://thetriptobountifulbroadway.com/#sthash.AXwkTUGg.dpbs  buy a ticket and support my girl in her play.  It'll change your life, I promise.