8.31.2005
Zetti's
Attended a meeting in Bflo last evening....food provided by Zetti's...oh my god, to die for. The chicken marsala was fabulous as was the pasta marinara and the eggplant roll ups were magnificent. Alan you are right on. This place is awesome. Highly recommend this spot!!
8.27.2005
Toaster Ovens
I have been using toaster ovens for over 40 years. As a matter of fact it was the toaster I received as a bridal gift. After the family grew I didn't use it for main meals, but it sure produced a wonderful melted cheese on a bagel for an instant snack. Now that I live alone I use it constantly for everything...meatloaf, baked fish, spaghetti parm, and yes, for toast. Apparently they are very sturdy appliances as I have had only three toaster ovens in the past 40 years.
Vicki
Vicki
8.25.2005
"Let them eat cake, chocolate of course"
The title of our November Spree article...what fun we had last night testing and tasting 8, yes, 8 different delectable chocolate cakes from 8 different bakeries... Village Desserts, Dessert Deli, Village Bake Shoppe, Sweet Tooth, Quaker Bonnet, Delish, Carriage Trade Pasteries and Dolci. 15 women and 1 brave man as the tasting testers. This is a tough job, but someone has to do it !!!
Toaster Ovens
This page was sent to you by: megan.toohey@gmail.com.
This is great - I NEVER used my real oven in Brooklyn - opting for the toaster oven
(Grammie Michel's no less) instead. I cooked nachos, shrimp with mozzarella (Atkins)
and gazillions of bagels, english muffins, french bread pizzas in that thing, RIP. I
now have a newer one but don't use it as much since I have a "real" stove/oven.
Anyway, this article is worth posting on the foodie blog, feel free to include this
intro. XO
August 24, 2005
No One Ever Slaved Over a Hot Toaster Oven
By MELISSA CLARK
A CONFESSION: Until recently, tucked between the latest-model ice cream maker and a high-tech juicer, sat the toaster oven I've had since college. A minimalist metal shoe box, it has gotten me through countless bagels and reheated spinach pies over way too many years. But if it hadn't been for a string of 90-plus-degree days with 90 percent humidity, I probably would never have bothered replacing it short of a natural crumby death.
But the weather, coupled with social obligations, made me reconsider this neglected appliance. Unlike a regular oven, a toaster oven doesn't heat up the kitchen. Thus I could do more than just make salad out of the cartloads of vegetables from the farmers' market week after week, and perhaps even attempt a summer fruit pie, without melting into a gelatinous puddle of sweaty misery.
Of course for any of this to be possible, my old college stalwart would have to go. Using it to cook things more involved than English-muffin pizza would require more sophisticated settings than the two it was capable of: barely hot enough to warm a bagel, and too hot to toast without burning the edges.
A little research revealed that toaster oven technology has come a long way since I graduated from college. For one, the capacity has grown. Without commanding that much more counter space, the new models are designed to hold up to six slices of toast or four chops or fish steaks, twice as much as my old one. The settings have gone upmarket, now including an array of different bake, roast, toast, broil and convection options - a whole lot more than my big oven.
These slick new toaster ovens are good-looking, too. The silver DeLonghi I ended up with has the spiffy glamour of a 1960's Aston Martin, albeit shrunken to kid-size proportions.
For me the diminutive size was the best part. Adorable and wee, it filled my childhood Easy-Bake oven void. With epicures for parents, I was encouraged to use the regular stove (under supervision), never "baking" a chocolate cake by the heat of a 100-watt bulb. My new toaster oven, several decades later, makes a good regressive stand-in. Two six-inch cake pans will just fit side by side, so a doll-size chocolate layer cake is definitely in my near future.
More immediately, though, was the dinner I planned. A midweek August meal for four, it needed to be something that was easy to do at the last minute and that took advantage of the season's fresh produce. Because like a regular oven, the toaster oven has precise temperature settings, I had many baking and roasting options. Did I want to roast vegetables like zucchini and eggplant under high heat, or slow-bake delicate items like Swiss chard flans or a batch of buttery shortbread flavored with fresh herbs (verbena, rosemary, lemon-thyme, or lavender)?
After some experimentation and with guidance from the galley proofs of "The Gourmet Toaster Oven," by Lynn Alley (soon to be published by Ten Speed Press), I realized that I could adapt many full-size-oven recipes to the toaster oven. Whole chickens, ducks and large meat roasts, of course, are out. Cut-up chicken parts, however, work nicely. And so do thick-cut chops and steaks, small whole fish and fish fillets. In produce, the key is to use vegetable chunks, not slices.
Given those limitations, I could prepare dinner comfortably for two to four but not really five or six. Or I could make part of a larger dinner in the toaster oven (such as shortbread, a pie, meatloaf or roasted garlic for pasta or roasted figs as part of a salad), and do the rest outside on the grill, on top of the stove, or even easier, via takeout.
After considering my usual roster of chicken, pork, steak and fish for a main course I picked up some veal chops because I wanted something slightly fancier than anyone might expect from a toaster oven. All I did was rub the meat with garlic, chipotle chilies, brown sugar and oil before broiling.
For a starter, the goal was to make something colorful, summery - and ahead of time. A mixed pint of red, yellow and gold cherry tomatoes just fit when they were spread out in the toaster oven baking pan, and I let them simmer slowly in garlic-scented olive oil until they shriveled and practically melted. Once they had cooled, I spooned them over herb-flecked fresh ricotta cheese and served the dish with crusty bread.
I chose zucchini as a side dish, to see if toaster-roasting would be a better option than sautéing, which often turns it mushy, or grilling, which can render it leathery and tough. High-heat roasting brought out the zucchini's sweetness and crisped the edges without drying it out. Chopped fresh mint and a shower of crumbled sheep's-milk feta made a savory and near-instant topping.
Choosing the dessert was tricky for someone as sweet-toothed as I am. There were too many options. I had ripe peaches that needed to be used up, but what to do with them? Cobbler? Pie? Crumble, crisp or a nice juicy tart? In the end, having run out of time, I took the simplest and quickest route, making roasted peaches with brown sugar, cinnamon and some shredded basil. I paired them with a healthy dollop of crème fraîche, but anything rich and creamy like ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream would be equally good.
One downside to the toaster oven is that, to make an entire meal in it, you must cook in batches. So I made sure that all the recipes for my little dinner party - save the veal - could be served warm or at room temperature. I cooked the cherry tomatoes earlier in the day and the zucchini just before my guests arrived. Then I stuck the veal in the oven while we inhaled the tomatoes and ricotta, and roasted the peaches while we ate the veal.
Did any of my guests notice that all the food was cooked in an oven smaller than a breadbox? Yes, and they were duly appreciative of the hot and satisfying meal eaten in my cool and comfortable kitchen. One friend even raised her wine glass in thanks. "To the DeLonghi," she said slyly, "for going beyond the usual toast."
Hear hear!
This is great - I NEVER used my real oven in Brooklyn - opting for the toaster oven
(Grammie Michel's no less) instead. I cooked nachos, shrimp with mozzarella (Atkins)
and gazillions of bagels, english muffins, french bread pizzas in that thing, RIP. I
now have a newer one but don't use it as much since I have a "real" stove/oven.
Anyway, this article is worth posting on the foodie blog, feel free to include this
intro. XO
August 24, 2005
No One Ever Slaved Over a Hot Toaster Oven
By MELISSA CLARK
A CONFESSION: Until recently, tucked between the latest-model ice cream maker and a high-tech juicer, sat the toaster oven I've had since college. A minimalist metal shoe box, it has gotten me through countless bagels and reheated spinach pies over way too many years. But if it hadn't been for a string of 90-plus-degree days with 90 percent humidity, I probably would never have bothered replacing it short of a natural crumby death.
But the weather, coupled with social obligations, made me reconsider this neglected appliance. Unlike a regular oven, a toaster oven doesn't heat up the kitchen. Thus I could do more than just make salad out of the cartloads of vegetables from the farmers' market week after week, and perhaps even attempt a summer fruit pie, without melting into a gelatinous puddle of sweaty misery.
Of course for any of this to be possible, my old college stalwart would have to go. Using it to cook things more involved than English-muffin pizza would require more sophisticated settings than the two it was capable of: barely hot enough to warm a bagel, and too hot to toast without burning the edges.
A little research revealed that toaster oven technology has come a long way since I graduated from college. For one, the capacity has grown. Without commanding that much more counter space, the new models are designed to hold up to six slices of toast or four chops or fish steaks, twice as much as my old one. The settings have gone upmarket, now including an array of different bake, roast, toast, broil and convection options - a whole lot more than my big oven.
These slick new toaster ovens are good-looking, too. The silver DeLonghi I ended up with has the spiffy glamour of a 1960's Aston Martin, albeit shrunken to kid-size proportions.
For me the diminutive size was the best part. Adorable and wee, it filled my childhood Easy-Bake oven void. With epicures for parents, I was encouraged to use the regular stove (under supervision), never "baking" a chocolate cake by the heat of a 100-watt bulb. My new toaster oven, several decades later, makes a good regressive stand-in. Two six-inch cake pans will just fit side by side, so a doll-size chocolate layer cake is definitely in my near future.
More immediately, though, was the dinner I planned. A midweek August meal for four, it needed to be something that was easy to do at the last minute and that took advantage of the season's fresh produce. Because like a regular oven, the toaster oven has precise temperature settings, I had many baking and roasting options. Did I want to roast vegetables like zucchini and eggplant under high heat, or slow-bake delicate items like Swiss chard flans or a batch of buttery shortbread flavored with fresh herbs (verbena, rosemary, lemon-thyme, or lavender)?
After some experimentation and with guidance from the galley proofs of "The Gourmet Toaster Oven," by Lynn Alley (soon to be published by Ten Speed Press), I realized that I could adapt many full-size-oven recipes to the toaster oven. Whole chickens, ducks and large meat roasts, of course, are out. Cut-up chicken parts, however, work nicely. And so do thick-cut chops and steaks, small whole fish and fish fillets. In produce, the key is to use vegetable chunks, not slices.
Given those limitations, I could prepare dinner comfortably for two to four but not really five or six. Or I could make part of a larger dinner in the toaster oven (such as shortbread, a pie, meatloaf or roasted garlic for pasta or roasted figs as part of a salad), and do the rest outside on the grill, on top of the stove, or even easier, via takeout.
After considering my usual roster of chicken, pork, steak and fish for a main course I picked up some veal chops because I wanted something slightly fancier than anyone might expect from a toaster oven. All I did was rub the meat with garlic, chipotle chilies, brown sugar and oil before broiling.
For a starter, the goal was to make something colorful, summery - and ahead of time. A mixed pint of red, yellow and gold cherry tomatoes just fit when they were spread out in the toaster oven baking pan, and I let them simmer slowly in garlic-scented olive oil until they shriveled and practically melted. Once they had cooled, I spooned them over herb-flecked fresh ricotta cheese and served the dish with crusty bread.
I chose zucchini as a side dish, to see if toaster-roasting would be a better option than sautéing, which often turns it mushy, or grilling, which can render it leathery and tough. High-heat roasting brought out the zucchini's sweetness and crisped the edges without drying it out. Chopped fresh mint and a shower of crumbled sheep's-milk feta made a savory and near-instant topping.
Choosing the dessert was tricky for someone as sweet-toothed as I am. There were too many options. I had ripe peaches that needed to be used up, but what to do with them? Cobbler? Pie? Crumble, crisp or a nice juicy tart? In the end, having run out of time, I took the simplest and quickest route, making roasted peaches with brown sugar, cinnamon and some shredded basil. I paired them with a healthy dollop of crème fraîche, but anything rich and creamy like ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream would be equally good.
One downside to the toaster oven is that, to make an entire meal in it, you must cook in batches. So I made sure that all the recipes for my little dinner party - save the veal - could be served warm or at room temperature. I cooked the cherry tomatoes earlier in the day and the zucchini just before my guests arrived. Then I stuck the veal in the oven while we inhaled the tomatoes and ricotta, and roasted the peaches while we ate the veal.
Did any of my guests notice that all the food was cooked in an oven smaller than a breadbox? Yes, and they were duly appreciative of the hot and satisfying meal eaten in my cool and comfortable kitchen. One friend even raised her wine glass in thanks. "To the DeLonghi," she said slyly, "for going beyond the usual toast."
Hear hear!
8.17.2005
A Wedding Menu
A recent wedding in Lewiston, NY, united in marriage, Margaret Williams, a marketing executive and Geoffrey Zakarian, the chef. The reception took place at Margaret's parent's home on Mountain View Drive in Lewiston, with the chef from Mark Hutchinson's "Tempo" presiding over the menu for the 200 plus guests.
Margaret's parents, Francis and Marie Williams, have a grand home and acreage on the escarpment overlooking the Village of Lewiston, with a spectacular view of Lake Ontario and Toronto. Margaret and Jeff included all of their friends from NYC in the wedding celebration and her parents ended up being unable to invite a number of their local friends and neighbors.
Hence, the dinner party my husband Tim and I attended at Tempo in Buffalo this evening. Fran and Marie invited 20 of us to enjoy the wedding menu replicated by the exemplary staff at Tempo. Greeted with a glass of champagne, we were assigned seats and began the first course of Maine lobster salad with local heirloom tomatos, avocado mousse and fragrant yuza vinaigrette. Accompanied by a Santo Margherita Pinot Grigio 2003, this fresh salad hit the culinary spot and represented all that a lightly dressed lobster salad should be.
Our second course, a rack of veal lacquered with herbs and spices was more than phenomonal in its tenderness and taste . Accompanied by a printaniere of summer sqauash and sweet onions, it was a perfect accessory to the first course, offering just enough weight to pleasantly fill us. Le Cupole Rosso Toscana 2002 accessoried the meat with a fragrant and light taste, but none the less, spectacular.
Last, but certainly, not least, our dessert which was created by chef Zakarian owner/chef of Town located in the Chambers Hotel in NYC and the soon to be opened Country in the Omni Hotel at Madison and 29th for his wedding dessert. A crisp cherry peach strudel with aged artisanal gouda and walnuts steeped in Greek honey, accompanied by a delightful and not overly sweet Nivole Michele Chiarlo, it capped off a pefect meal and a perfect evening.
Among friends, we open miked our good wishes to the bride and groom and their families as well as thanking our host and hostess for a lovely replication of a wedding meal. Celebrity chefs in attendance the night of the wedding, July 30, 2005, Portale, Batali and Flay, gave kudos to those in the kitchen. We offer kudos as well.
Margy
Margaret's parents, Francis and Marie Williams, have a grand home and acreage on the escarpment overlooking the Village of Lewiston, with a spectacular view of Lake Ontario and Toronto. Margaret and Jeff included all of their friends from NYC in the wedding celebration and her parents ended up being unable to invite a number of their local friends and neighbors.
Hence, the dinner party my husband Tim and I attended at Tempo in Buffalo this evening. Fran and Marie invited 20 of us to enjoy the wedding menu replicated by the exemplary staff at Tempo. Greeted with a glass of champagne, we were assigned seats and began the first course of Maine lobster salad with local heirloom tomatos, avocado mousse and fragrant yuza vinaigrette. Accompanied by a Santo Margherita Pinot Grigio 2003, this fresh salad hit the culinary spot and represented all that a lightly dressed lobster salad should be.
Our second course, a rack of veal lacquered with herbs and spices was more than phenomonal in its tenderness and taste . Accompanied by a printaniere of summer sqauash and sweet onions, it was a perfect accessory to the first course, offering just enough weight to pleasantly fill us. Le Cupole Rosso Toscana 2002 accessoried the meat with a fragrant and light taste, but none the less, spectacular.
Last, but certainly, not least, our dessert which was created by chef Zakarian owner/chef of Town located in the Chambers Hotel in NYC and the soon to be opened Country in the Omni Hotel at Madison and 29th for his wedding dessert. A crisp cherry peach strudel with aged artisanal gouda and walnuts steeped in Greek honey, accompanied by a delightful and not overly sweet Nivole Michele Chiarlo, it capped off a pefect meal and a perfect evening.
Among friends, we open miked our good wishes to the bride and groom and their families as well as thanking our host and hostess for a lovely replication of a wedding meal. Celebrity chefs in attendance the night of the wedding, July 30, 2005, Portale, Batali and Flay, gave kudos to those in the kitchen. We offer kudos as well.
Margy
8.14.2005
About the Corn
One of the best dishes. It is impossible, unless you just don't like corn, not to want more of this delightful summer treat. Try it, you'll love it.
Vicki
Vicki
My Mother's Corn
Today I will make a very large casserole of what is commonly referred to by me as "My Mother's Corn". I am not certain why everyone loves this dish, but they do...This preparation can make even the toughest old corn at the end of the season taste divine! The concept involves taking either leftover corn on the cob from a few days past or cooking the fresh corn and either way, cutting it off the cob, remembering to scrape the cob wlth your knife to insure that all of the "milk and sugar" is freed from the cob.
The pile of kernels goes into a cast iron skillet along with a big, emphasis on big, glob of butter, lots of salt and pepper and finally enough whole milk to cover. Cook over medium low heat, stirring when the milk bubbles up and forms a slight crust over the corn. Continue cooking until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. Season with hot pepper or whatever herbs appeal. My family prefers it plain. Enjoy...yum, yum.
Margy Toohey
The pile of kernels goes into a cast iron skillet along with a big, emphasis on big, glob of butter, lots of salt and pepper and finally enough whole milk to cover. Cook over medium low heat, stirring when the milk bubbles up and forms a slight crust over the corn. Continue cooking until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. Season with hot pepper or whatever herbs appeal. My family prefers it plain. Enjoy...yum, yum.
Margy Toohey
A Foodie First
We are excited to debut our blog! We are both writers for Buffalo Spree under the name "The Foodies". We love food and we love talking about food, preparing food and dining out. We look forward to sharing our passion about food of all kinds with you and welcome your suggestions, thoughts, and comments about our column and about anything that relates to food.
Vicki Marshall & Margy Toohey
Vicki Marshall & Margy Toohey
