Main Street Sweets-Tarrytown

What do my husband, daughter and I all like –Ice cream.  We like regular ice cream, frozen yogurt and gelato. So when we discovered a small, mom and pop looking ice cream parlor in Tarrytown, NY we became fast friends.  So to date, we have been there two times in the last month.   We shared it to a bunch of people as well. We tried to take my mom’s family there but they were too full from dinner.  We decided not to as well.  If we hadn’t it would have been number three for us.

So why do we like this place:

small mom and pop feel

on a historic street with some restaurants

there was always a line

all of the ice cream is made in house

cash business–will mitigate our visits

 

cozy parlor shop

all the shame dim lights, the white lights are in the ice cream case

some fun stuff like apple cider donuts, and apple dumplings (great for the fall season)

you can walk down to the water front and observe the luxurious residences

also close to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, so you can walk off your sugar

Will we make it three?  Winter will be here soon or rather the cooler days. Have no fear though, we can eat the  ice cream inside our car or in the ice cream parlor.

Main Street Sweets -Tarrytown NY

Three cheers for cream!!!

 

Christmas ole school style

Okay so I was reading a children’s book about Christmas in the Bastianich household. (Yes that Bastianich!). I also had spoken to someone a while back  about creating my own family traditions. 

The book mentioned some cool things that might bring the fun and togetherness back into Christmas.

1) house should smell of nutmeg, cinnamon, baking bread and baking cookies,  apple cider 

2) tree can be decorated with the following: small cookies, hard candy with bright wrappers, small fruit, small handmade ornaments

3) Minimal presents
If you have any old traditions, home in and share.  “Sharing is caring.”

The Frozen Debate

Frozen food, frozen meals hmmmm

So the last time I ate frozen meals en masse was when I first moved into my new place with my now husband.  We thought we were busy so we found (at that time) that it would be easier to just buy frozen foods and then heat up at work.  We did that for a little then I think we fell out of that habit quickly .

Since then the only frozen things I buy are some frozen vegetables-corn, spinach and string beans.  That is only done now to appease my daughter as she will eat most things with corn and I used frozen string beans in a stew for an event. Spinach gets used randomly and little amounts, so am always storing some.

The question or the place of contention and tension is buying  most of the veggies frozen, regularly.  So I was at Costco and I needed vegetables.  I did not plan to buy vegetables there as I knew I could always get it cheaper at the local market.  I still took a look, namely at the broccoli as I like that and my daughter eats it.  So lets say the Costco brand was a good price,  should I abandon the broccoli and other veggies at the market and always buy frozen.  Of course not all vegetables are available and not all can be frozen. However, I could buy some bulk vegetable items that will not go bad quickly.

At the supermarket if you see a deal you stock up.  It’s a little different at the market (fruits and vegetables) as you can only buy what you will use right away.  So I am thinking,  if I see a deal on veggies I would like to be able to buy some extras for a few weeks down the line.  Hence the  Costco equation.

I would like to meet someone who has lived on frozen veggies.

The other question is frozen meals, which I started out discussing. I will continue in a new blog called frozen two (not from store kitchen.)

Till then get your Di’ Giorno on!!!

Recipe Testing-A reflection

So life happens.  I was on this wave of making desserts or rather testing out new dessert recipes. Even that is wrong. I was trying recipes to see how to make them and what they tasted like if new to me.

So what draws me to a recipe, well a few things.  It may be something I saw, or some ingredient that is completely new or that I tasted at some point in my life or something I saw on a food or travel show.  It must be uncommon at least to the masses here. It might also be some process that seems challenging to me that I wish to conquer.

What am I learning–massive patience.  I received a French cook book a few years back when I was just getting into food or cooking really.  One of my parents gave me a fancy pancy book and I have made only one recipe from it since and I only read through it a couple of times just to explore the ingredients etc. What was a massive turnoff was the length of the recipes.  One whole page of micro print is a lot and then two pages of both ingredients and instruction just really put me off.  At that point I thought that I would never master this as it would take too long to create a dish and is that really worth my time.  First there is the imitation, which is trying the recipe, then there is the “becoming rote” in making the recipe and then I guess tailoring but who wants to really tailor a classic dish.  I am just poised to get the dish correct and for it to be palatable. To this day there are a few things I do not touch really-Fish, Steaks and French Food.  I just followed a recipe for Beef Bourguignon and it came out pretty decent, after almost burning it.

So I have been noting recipes and I came upon a few that were pager turners. I am no more tolerant of long recipes and complicated processes as in the early days.  I am just jumping in and kind of just doing it–little hesitation, because I can talk myself out of anything and at this point, it is important that I try to do something that puts me at the helm.  Its hard to keep the faith or keep on the road when you cannot see far down the road.

I am reading a recipe for Gyeondan/Rice Cake Balls

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gyungdan

and I have to go back and note all the apparatus and mise en place (preparing all ingredients prior to starting) I will need-a bunch of bowls, a few pots, a grinder, and a strainer.  In my local dialect we say “it come like a project.”  The thing has turned into a project.  So each time I do one of these long, sometimes complicated, and confusing, as well as all encompassing recipes it is like a project.  Who says that I am not learning and achieving!

Until next time,

signed, Project Manager

 

did we eat too much

Korean food

So at a Korean restaurant recently we had two entrees. I got the stir fried chicken with rice and my husband got one of the bowls (vegetable and meat) and it came with a tofu soup.  We tried our best to finish all, not sure why, but none the less we did not take anything home. In the beginning they served 2 mini fried fish, kimchi, cucumbers, and a few other dishes (all very small).  So we cleaned that up and then proceeded to eat our meals.  When I looked over at some tables I saw that they just had a small soup and the “appetizers.”  A women and daughter ordered skewers and did not even finish, nor did they take it home.   The woman was uber slim.  Could that be why or are they (Koreans) just not the take your food home kind or eat all kind!  I did see a family of 6 including 2 kids have food wrapped up. I did not see what it was so couldn’t tell if it was just extra food or the kids’ portions.  Oh by the way-there was a play room, equipped with cctv.  That is where some of the kids were.  How nice!!

This was over six weeks ago.  Fast forward to three weekends ago.  We went to a local Korean restaurant and we ordered the soup with noodles and beef bowls. We finished it.  Most people finished their meals I think.  I am starting to feel better.   I guess I just felt that the meal at the first reastaurant was a lot.
Okay,  I rambled on with guilt for long enough.

By the way Korean Food is great!

BCD Restaurant in Bayside Queens

-good food

-cool music

-question of the day “what is that in the bowl” (prior to this I thought that it was rice in some kind of clear broth)

answer: it is rice in tea–

–my husband joked that maybe we are supposed to wash our hands in it or something

—I used the extra rice for my meal–rice tea my behind!

 

This place had a play room with a CCTV screen so you could see your restless kids.

They thought that my husband was Japanese (he had shades on and had a close cut hairstyle and was in a shirt and tie )–he made the joke that maybe he should always wear his shades.

It was a Tuesday night and the original plan was go to Flushing, Queens and eat.  Then we thought “but why so far “, we had little Korea a little bit closer, about 15 minutes from our home.  We also threw that reasoning out the door and drove across the bridge for dinner in the Korean area of Queens (Northern Blvd).

I would recommend this place. We were stuffed and all the dishes had flavor with some packing spice and heat.  There is currently a Kimchi craze going on at the moment. (outside of this choice to eat Korean food)  I had some on the first go at dinner and almost choked.  I had kimchi previously but thought maybe I missed something the first time. I can do without it.  I mentioned to my husband that it needs to be eaten with a lot of rice.

 

BCD on Northern Blvd @ 220 street.

Try it.  You might like it!

Hot and Spicy is in!!!

BCD Tofu Restaurant Bayside, Queens