cmcinnyc's Profile

Ooo that fat asparagus looks good! Sunday brunch will be a goat cheese-tomato-asparagus frittata. I will absolutely be making the taco salad featured on this site. I'm planning to jar some of it in hopes I can stretch the life of the leftovers. I already made the cilantro dressing and drizzled it on sweet potatoes and black beans last night. That stuff is good.

My mom got the Betty Crocker cookbook at her wedding shower, and one summer day she, my sister-in-law, and I sat on the deck with our beers and combed through it wondering if there was anything in there we'd even consider eating anymore.

Conclusion: classic cake recipes are awesome. Simple, to the point, basic flavors. You want to make a plain old yellow cake? Betty Crocker has got you covered. Most of the basic cookies and puddings were good recipes, too. Outside of the dessert chapter, we gave it a pass. Worst chapter: SALADS.

Polenta cake is awesome! Even Martha Stewart has a recipe for that (with white wine, olive oil, and orange juice). The only thing that doesn't go with grits is preciousness.

All of these flavors, with the exception of dessert, taste good with beer. Dessert tastes best with coffee. Wine is not the only beverage. It is one of my favorites, yes. But I don't sweat a problem wine pairing, I just drink something else.

Have you discussed a re-do with your landlord? I agree with all: for a hundred bucks, forget about it. You will end up with something worse. You landlord might be open to a renovation. I once lived in a cruddy tenement whose landlord was generally willing to negotiate paying for all or part of a fix-up if it made the apartment more rentable in future. (Then again, I've had landlords that wouldn't even have the conversation.) You don't mention it, but if you haven't spoken to them yet, Do!

I have baked sweet potatoes in the slow cooker, too--and I've learned to LINE the cooker with foil because if any sweet potato liquid bubbles out it is like burnt sugar--a mess. So I'm guessing that slow-cooking a regular potato without foil could lead to burnt skin and unpleasantness--but maybe if you line the cooker with foil and just set the clean, DRY, pricked potatoes inside? I think that could work.

...sigh...ALL my DIY projects are disaster stories. I don't do things myself (except cook--I can cook). I buy things. And I hire people.

Fried avocado TACOS!!?!!??!? I'm so happy knowing this exists.

You became a New Yorker the second you started to have apartment trouble. Welcome. There is a reason Apartment Therapy started HERE.

(The truck will arrive. You'll get settled in. You will become oblivious to the subway vibrations. You will find a Chinese delivery place you really like. It will all work out.)

I always have a pitcher of (plain) water in the fridge, but in summer I like to have mugicha and my daughter always wants a pitcher of smoothies in there. I might buy one of these because I need another pitcher ANYWAY and why not get one that invites me to fill it with cucumbers or lemons or a bag of mugicha?