Rustic Breakfast

Hi everyone,

I had to stop myself from hipster trolling and adding "artisanal" into the title of this post. Everything in NYC these days is "artisanal," which really just means "someone made this" in 99% of the word's occurrences. Whether the following breakfast dish is artisanal or not, I'll leave to your judgment. My job here is to focus on the food, and hopefully make you want to try it out for yourself. It's really hard and takes a lot of practice (HAH).

It's been a long time since I talked about breakfast on my blog, but given that I'm a hungry morning person who needs a good breakfast, I think it's about time. I will say though, that as much as I love breakfast and eating in the morning, it's less for me about the breakfast foods than the fact that I can eat as soon as I wake up. When I was little and growing up with an amazing Puerto Rican mom who made amazing Puerto Rican food, my favorite breakfast was often last night's leftovers: pork chops, arroz y habichuelas, spicy spaghetti with Italian sausage, and more. So today's breakfast meal is not for the faint of gut. It's hearty, filling, and will definitely stick to your ribs in a very non-Chobani-and-granola kind of way. And it couldn't be more delicious. So behold, breakfast bread bowls:

A savory, cheesey, meaty, bready, delicious combination. What more do you need? THIS is the breakfast of champions! It's been over a year since I these, and I can't believe I've withheld them from y'all for so long! This is a great thing to make if you're having people overnight, or for a brunch gathering. You can prep several of the ingredients ahead of time so that you can just assemble in the morning--like a choose-your-own-adventure.

My college roommate and fellow eating enthusiast made this when we were going through the crazy week that was graduation. The dining halls were closed, and we decided to treat ourselves, so to speak. And what better way than this breakfast? (It was too early for wine.)

So, we took the T down to to the local Shaw's and picked up a few things the night before. You can use whatever you'd like in these bread bowls that you think will go well with bread and cheese and egg. So, EVERYTHING.

We chose:

2 small soup bowl bread rolls (they're roughly 6" in diameter)
Any green herb like basil or parsley for freshness
Eggs
Onions (any)
Parmesan cheese
Mushrooms

Being broke soon-to-be-graduates, we decided to skip tomatoes, though I would absolutely do some sliced cherry tomatoes if I did this again. She had frozen Italian meatballs in the freezer, so we decided to use those up, too. However, next time I make these I'm totally going to my local meat shop to get some handmade spicy Italian sausage. Yum!

39th & 9th

The actual making of these bowls takes a little bit of forethought, which naturally we thought about right before making. Recommended order is below:

1. Preheat your oven to 350° before you start.  
2. Cook up your onions, mushrooms, and meat (together in a pan is fine). Leave the mushrooms meat just cooked through so that they won't overcook in the oven.
3. Slice the tops off your bread bowls about 3/4 of the way up, then carve out with a spoon. The spare bread could make good croutons or be used in a bread pudding. Just don't carve too much bread, otherwise you won't have much to absorb the amazing mix of juices that will come out when baking.
4. Spread olive oil, salt, and pepper around the inside of the bread bowl.
5.  Assemble your bread bowl as a mix, not as layers. You don't want all the meat at the bottom, or all the onions at the top. Similarly, sprinkle cheese throughout.
6. Finish with a raw egg--it'll bake in the oven. Put it on top so that you can watch it to avoid overcooking.

  

Excavated bread

 This is generally how your bowl should look once it's assembled and ready for baking:

Then bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the egg is set up and your cheese has melted. As mentioned above, if you want to speed the prep, cook your onions, mushrooms, and meat the night before. That way, you can just assemble in the morning.

Et voilà! You have a tasty, tasty breakfast bread bowl! When we ate it, not only were we in food comas immediately after, but we at some point stopped eating the fillings and just started tearing into the bread bowl that had been soaked with all the delicious flavors of our fillings. Mmm-mmm-mmm. Happy eating!

 

Ambiguously artisanal, definitely delicious

DIY: Nook Cover Closure

Hi everyone,

Today I'm going to show a little Do It Yourself project I did on my new Nook Color cover/case to let me keep it closed. You can replicate it on a Kindle case, or even an iPad case, depending on the design.

 It's a lovely leather case by Jonathan Adler for Barnes & Noble, but it had one problem: it had no closure. Now this probably isn't a big deal, except for the fact that I kept having visions of freak in-purse accidents happening--a pen slips in between the cover and the screen, I drop my bag, and crack! Or, the gum works its way free of the Orbit paper container and the New York heat melts it onto my screen...disaster. Plus the case was overpriced in the first place (as all these fancy cases are) and I just couldn't believe it didn't come with a buckle or something! So, not about to return the totally cute case, I thought up an incredibly cheap and simple solution that doesn't damage the leather at all.

This is the case originally, first the outside and second the inside:

Pictures courtesy of Barnes and Noble website. No clue what those white porcelain things with the eyes are in the background. Fish?

Emma is one of the worst literary heroines of all time. She's completely unlikable. Eugh!

The tools I used were a hodgepodge borrowed from my mom's sewing desk. Thanks, Mom!

Don't worry, guys, I know not everyone has a curved needle or a seam ripper (far right), but most people have some combination of an X-acto knife/paring knife + small scissors/screw driver + needle. 

The last thing I took was a stretchy closure from one of my dad's file folders that was laying around. It probably costs 50 cents at CVS. This black elastic thing here:

Step #1: Draw a dot in pen about midway down the inner cover, as close to the seam as possible so as to let the cover close fully once the metal anchor of the elastic band is in place.

Step #2: Poke X-acto knife or paring knife through hole; twist to enlarge the hole. Then, if you have a needle that gets wider from point to end, poke that through to try to get the hole bigger. The idea is to be able to fit a loop of the elastic into the smallest hole possible to keep it as secure as possible.

Step #3: Twist the scissors (keeping the blades closed as in photo) or small screwdriver through hole, wiggling back and forth to enlarge a bit further. Do size checks by trying to fit the loop in periodically (from beneath the flap--you want the metal anchor to be hidden). When it seems plausible, then you go to Step #4.

Step #4: Hello, welcome to Step #4. Here, we poke the elastic with a needle--NOTE we do not THREAD the needle, we poke the elastic through with a needle (I used the curved one), like this:

Step #5: Work the needle through the hole, and once the elastic begins to show through on the outside, pull it through while pushing the needle. 

Step #6: Pull through all the way until the metal anchor is flush with the flap! Pat yourself on the back, you're done!

This is what it will look like on the outside, closed two different ways:

Oooooooh!

Aaaahhhh!

And there you have it! A great, super cheap fix up for an otherwise great Nook case. I was really happy with this project!

Bonus/DIY #2: I also came up with an idea for that empty "This Nook belongs to:" spot.  I'll be taking a rectangular piece of paper, folding it in half width-wise. On the outer flap, decorate it with something cool, maybe some abstract scrolling intaglio I used to doodle compulsively in high school, or a mini collage of flowers from a magazine. On the inside, my actual contact information. This way, no subway creeper can lean over and memorize/copy down my information without me knowing, and I get to personalize my Nook even more! I'll post up a picture when I actually do it. For now--I'm lazy, bahah.

Happy Reading!

Shinies! (aka Christmas Gifts Part I)

Shinies. Coveted, beautiful, sparkly things that girls love. With Christmas (the Holidays if you prefer) coming up, I'll definitely be talking about lots of different gift ideas, including nice homemade ideas. However, for this post I'm going to stick to gold jewelry.

Gold made a resurgence in popularity a few years ago and shows no signs of going away, much to my delight. I used to wear a lot of silver, but I've been very into gold since late high school and I'm on my second, shiny gold MK watch.

BCBG is doing a spectacular job of refined and affordable gold jewelry right now. They have some really nice dainty pieces as well, continuing the trend of minimalist statement necklaces and accessories. For this post, I'm just going to highlight BCBG, but stay tuned for different options soon. 

For now, though, SHINIES!

Heart Charm Necklace - $34.00

This delicate heart charm necklace is sweet without being twee and the clasp detail adds interest to an ordinary necklace clasp. The size lets it be very versatile because it won't take over an outfit, but the fact that it sits slightly off-center adds intrigue to what could be a very ordinary necklace:

 

Puzzle Piece Earrings - $16.00

These earrings are a fun, quirky design that's just abstract enough to pass as modern and artsy.  I'm also curious about what they'd look like if you wore them vertically instead of horizontally.

 

 Ninja-Star Ring Set - $28.00

I really like this ring set because first, it's three gifts in one! Second, three metals together make for a cool effect in a stacked ring set. I actually have a similar one that I wear but instead of ninja-stars it is small flowers.  Third, ninja-stars. Who doesn't like them? These have a nice feminine hint to them with what looks to me like a burnished copper on the far right ring for a softer look and slightly rounded points on the stars. Fourth, the rings are adjustable to any finger which makes them a foolproof gift!

 

 

Enamel Bow Ring - $18.00

This ring is very feminine (it is a bow, after all) and I like the mix of white and gold, as well as the elevation of the bow that you can see in the second picture. Simple and cute!

 

 

"The Moon and Back" Bangle - $34.00

This bangle is rose gold, which normally I don't like but it's such a simple piece that I think it would easily add a touch of class to any look. It also has an adjustable lobster clasp so it will fit most anyone. The best part about this bangle is the inscription on the inside that is engraved (in capital letters), "I love you to the moon and back." The inscription makes it a romantic present that is private at the same time. If you're interested in a gift of two bangles, BCBG also sells a similar bangle in gold that says (also in caps), "Fill every moment with love."

 

So these are my picks for presents out of BCBG's "Gold Crush" feature. My personal favorites (that is, the ones I could most see myself wearing) are probably the necklace, this bangle above, and the ninja-star ring set.  If you're interested in seeing more from BCBG's "Gold Crush" (which I really recommend checking out), including a really cool snake head belt, check it out here.

Happy shopping!