I have cravings and no, I'm not pregnant.

I have only had a true Philly cheese steak once while in Philly from Tony Luke's on 18th St near Samson.

One word- AMAZING.

I now have this ongoing dialogue with my husband:

Me: Hey Hun, guess what I'm Craving?
Brandon: Let me Guess?? Philly Cheese Steak or a Cupcake?
Me: Philly Cheese Steak
Brandon: BIG Surprise...

Besides me craving Philly Cheese Steaks, I crave cupcakes so he had a 50/50 chance of guessing correctly.

So I finally made my first Philly Cheese Steak the other night (hence the above photo). I MUST say, it was DELICIOUS!! I truly think the key here is the cheese, we used white american cheese and it sealed it for me. Plus for the sauteed onions I added lil' bit of everything (salt, pepper, honey wheat beer, ketchup, paprika and chili powder)

At the end of day what makes me happy is a Philly cheese steak.

photo credit: Jenny Gerena

Finally! A crisp chocolate chip cookie.

As of recent I have become quite the chef. My husband can attest to this because four years ago he married me sans cooking skills. I have an excuse though, well maybe not an excuse but the following is what I tell people when they find out about my new love of cooking - I grew up in a household where my mom cooked and baked magnificently! (seriously she did, being non biased here.) As I started to engross myself further and further into baking land I realized I can bake from scratch the yummiest- I mean the yummiest Apple Cake you will ever taste. But you know what would be my kryptonite every time breaking me down short of tears? Chocolate Chip Cookies!!! You would think- Come on, Chocolate Chip Cookies? Seriously? But Yes! Every time I would bake them they would come out like puffed up airball doughballs with chocolate specs... the sadness.

To remedy this problem I started looking online at recipes (allrecipes, epicurious), blogs (smittenkitchen) and asking co-workers seeing if i could pin-point the exact ingredient or action that I was missing. Nothing. So then I just started avoiding making cookies and I would seriously fast-forward to scenes in my head of my soon to be child asking me to bake chocolate chip cookies for his or her class. Panic would set in.

So time and recipes go by and I finally make the grand purchase of them all- The Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (Ahhhh-imagine the heavens opening up and angels singing.)

And yes that's right you guessed it folks, the recipe to christen the mixer were chocolate chip cookies. So while I waited and stared at the oven while they baked, providing updates to my husband I started to see a glimmer of hope. Once the timer went off, to my surprise and delight as I pulled the tray out of the oven I saw perfectly crisped non-puffy chocolate chip cookies!! Oh the JOY!

And that's where the story ends... a wonderful crispy chocolate chip cookie ending. Its the simple things in life that make me happy.

photo credit: Jenny Gerena

Marshmallow Sweet Potato Goodness

This past Thanksgiving I was put in charge of bringing a few dishes- one being the sweet potatoes. This was my first time making them and it came out quite yummy!

Ingredients:

• 6 Sweet Potatoes
  
• 1/4 Cup (1/2 Stick) Butter or Margarine, melted
  
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
  
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  
• 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
  
• 1/4 Light Brown Sugar
  
• 3 Cups Jet-Puffed Mini Marshmallows (apprx 3/4 of the bag)
  

Directions:

• Peel, halve and boil sweet potatoes for 20 Minutes
• Place sweet potatoes, and all ingredients minus the brown sugar and marshmallows in a mixing bowl
• Blend with a mixer for a few minutes till most lumps are out
• Slighlty grease your baking dish
• Place potato mixture into dish, sprinkle lightly the light brown sugar on top then layer the mini marshmallows on top
• Bake 15 to 20 min or until sweet potato mixture is heated through and marshmallows are lightly browned

Serve and see the smiles appear once they see those yummy mini marshmallows lighty toasted.

photo credit: Jenny Gerena

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 package slim chicken breasts
  
• 6 oz of Chicken Broth
• 1/2 Cup Diced White Onion
• 1/2 Cup Corn Kernels (I use all frozen veggies)
• 1/2 Cup Diced Carrots
• 1/2 Cup Peas
• Pepper- to your liking
• 1 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 1/4 Cup and 2 Tablespoons Milk
• Thyme- to your liking
• Fresh Parsley** using Fresh Parsley makes all the difference, use when you can
• A package of Pilsbury's Dough Pie Crusts (can be frozen and comes 2 per box)

Pre- Heat Oven 400 degrees

Cook Time 20 Min.

Directions:

• Cut up chicken to cube-like pieces, simmer in chicken broth for 8-10 Minutes
• Separate the chicken from the broth in two separate bowls, let cool for a few minutes
• In the meantime, saute all the veggies, onions, parsley with vegetable oil- season with salt and pepper to your liking. (I love pepper so I add a generous amount)
• While you have an eye on the veggies sauteing, take the chicken that's been cooling and start to shred (pull apart) the meat. Once meat is shredded the veggies should be done, combine both the chicken and veggies in one bowl, place to the side
• Heat butter, once foaming, add flour, whisk in broth, milk and thyme. This is the making of a Rue (white filling for the pot pie)
• Once sauce thickens, combine all ingredients into a bowl so that all ingredients are well blended

Plating:

• I make individual pot pies, one roll of pie crust makes two pot pies (all depends on size of dish)
• I cut the un-cooked crust in half; take the one half and place a portion in the bottom of the dish, place a generous amount of filling into dish and cover with remaining pie crust.
• Repeat with the remaining filling/crusts. Bake till golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy!

Feedly, Feedly, Feedly

I heart feedly- you know why?? Because it places all my favorite sites onto one thread (dashboard) and lets me jump back and forth to different categories all with the same look and feel.


(Thanks Big B for sharing with me!!)


I personalized my dashboard to showcase: design, cooking and celebrities!

I've already taken advantage of the multitude of recipes.


(photo courtesy of david lebovitz)

Bella the Midnight Meower!!

Bella the Cat likes to meow at night and turn into our personal alarm clock in the am- oddly always at 7am!

So I did some research on why our wonderful kitty Bella meows in the night and try's to wake us up in the am. Its because she wants to PLAY!!! Since almost all cats are nocturnal its obvious why they are up and about ready to go while we are off in la-la land. What it comes down to is training her to become less playful at night (good luck!). They suggest at least an hour or so before we head to bed to wake her up and play for about an hour to tire her out. After a few days of this routine we hopefully will notice she's sleeping more through the night.

You see something new everyday in the city

So one would think that you've pretty much seen close to everything that is creative, corky, weird and ecentric while being in NYC. However today while walking towards work on Wall St. I get passed by a man rocking out to his ipod and shaving. I have to admit it put a smile on my face, so to the man that was rocking out and shaving today, thank you for giving me a good laugh this morning!