Salt.

Savory Eats & Big Apple Bites

Salt...something that I sprinkle on my food far too frequently.

Smoked Paprika Sea Salt, Truffle Sea Salt, Smoked Alderwood Sea Salt, Hickory Sea Salt...

If it's salty, I love it - salted caramel, salted kettle corn, extra-salty soft pretzels, salty pickles, dark chocolate with sea salt. I could go on forever. So when my friend Aleksa took me to The Filling Station on Saturday, I died and went to heaven. The Filling Station is a unique shop in Chelsea Market that specializes in infused oils, vinegars, and rare salts.

Yes...those labels say bacon, espresso, and white truffle salt.

I splurged and went for an $11.00 jar of the white truffle salt. It was worth every penny. I left the store eating white truffle salt straight out of the palm of my hand. You could sprinkle this little jar of heaven on plain spaghetti with olive oil and it will taste immaculate.

Luckily, my mom has a great recipe to make Citrus Salt so I can avoid spending my life savings at The Filling Station.

It is great sprinkled on vegetables or a salad (or on the rim of a margarita??)

Ingredients:

• Flaky sea salt (ie. Maldon Sea Salt Flakes)
• Fresh lemon, lime, orange, or grapefruit zest (or whatever flavor you want!)

Recipe:

-Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.

-Combine the sea salt and citrus zest in a bowl and mix well...for every 1/2 cup of sea salt there should be 1 tablespoon of zest. Make sure you really work the zest and salt together to avoid clumps of zest.

-Spread across a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake the salt for 70 minutes (until the citrus is fully dried out).

-Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

-Then, if you want your salt a bit more fine, you can pulse the salt a few times in a food processor.

-Store in an air-tight jar for a few months and ENJOY!

It can be gifted in cute jars too!

BYOB Sushi: A Twentysomething's Dream

Big Apple Bites

NaNa Sushi. I knew I would write about this restaurant sooner or later. No, it is not on any sort of Zagat or foodies restaurant list, but it has made it's way into my heart for many reasons:

1. It's BYOB (bring your own ANYTHING...wine, beer, liquor...)

2. It's BYOB

3. If you don't bring your own alcohol, the cocktails are $6.

4. The prices are SO reasonable...

5. AND, the sushi will exceed your expectations. From my experience, the fish is fresh and the extensive selection of sushi rolls is delicious.

6. There is a "Sex in the Lobby" roll on their menu...and I've ordered it.

7. It's in my neighborhood and there is always a fun crowd eating there.

8. It's BYOB

A restaurant front I am too familiar with.

It is a favorite among my friends before going out on the weekends and is centrally located between 34th and 35th St on 3rd Avenue. In case you forget to bring your own booze, there is a liquor store across the street...how convenient!

Cheap and easy restaurant with good quality sushi? Go to NaNa.

Zucchini Faux-ghetti

Savory Eats

I made the zucchini "faux-ghetti" (previous post) again with my amazing spiral slicer, but altered it a little bit. I added some angel hair spaghetti to the zucchini to make the dish heartier.

Half zucchini, half angel hair spaghetti!

It was delicious, healthy, filling, and easy! I've made it about five times in the last two weeks.

First, I whipped out the vegetable spiral slicer...

Spiral-sliced the zucchini.

Spiral-sliced the yellow squash.

Stick this raw zucchini "faux-ghetti" in the microwave for a little less than a minute just to soften it up. Then season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Now, put a lil' zucchini "faux-ghetti" and a lil' angel hair in a bowl...add some sauce...and voila!

Gramercy Park Hotel: Brunch on the Terrace

Big Apple Bites

My experience at the Gramercy Park Hotel felt like Christmas morning. My mom was in town and the Gramercy Park Hotel Terrace had been highly recommended for brunch. Little did I know that upon entering the hotel I would be greeted by a gigantic Damien Hirst piece from his butterfly collection. Being that I was an art history minor at Georgetown (and in love with all of Damien Hirst's work), this was the highlight of my experience.

Damien Hirst

Posterity-The Holy Place

Another notable piece in the lobby...

Dan Colen

(untitled)

...this is made of chewing gum!

After ogling at the butterfly piece, we made our way up to the terrace. Stepping out of the elevator, I felt like I was walking into a modern art museum. It was heaven...

Andy Warhol

Sylvester Stallone, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Henry Geldzahler

Damien Hirst

Beautiful Sick and Jealous of What You've Got

...of the spin art collection

Damien Hirst

Oral Cancer, Light Micrograph

Onto the food (which was good, but out-shined by the art)...The menu was small, but decadent. To start, we all split the Bread Pudding French Toast topped with berries and sweet cream. The waitress described the dish as, "french toast made from an assortment of fresh baked pastries in our kitchen." TO DIE FOR...

Mmmmmm.

I ordered...

Soft Baked Eggs

with squash, tarragon, and goat cheese

Kait ordered...

Two Eggs Skillet

with crispy potatoes, bacon, and toast

Mom and Anja ordered smoked salmon on an everything bagel with cream cheese, capers, and onions (simple but still delicious).

The food was good, the art was great. A definite recommendation for art lovers and foodies!

Home Sweet Home

City Style

Home decorating and interior design is tricky. You could have an incredible fashion sense and still have a poor vision for interior design. When it comes to decorating, I know what I like, but it's hard for me to put the whole vision together. In 6 months, I move back to Georgetown for medical school. I want to furnish my dream apartment and any design expertise would be appreciated (wink wink Susan). These are a few of my favorite things...

For my wall...

DIY wall collage.

Mosaic skateboards. Amazing.

To sit on...

Love leopard.

...and Aztec prints.

Decorative pillows I love...

More leopard.

Ikat.

Missoni patterned pillows.

For the bedroom...

Need. This. Rug.

And this one.

The perfect headboard.

...and a cute place to store my shoes!

White & Dark Chocolate Heart Brownies

Sweet Treats

My latest cooking obsession (besides my new KitchenAid and Cuisinart) is Smitten Kitchen blog. I just love all of her recipes. Last night I tackled some incredibly delicious and cute Smitten Kitchen brownies. I couldn't believe how perfect they came out...

White and Dark Chocolate Heart Brownies

They remind me of New York's famous black and white cookies...but in brownie form.

Not only do these brownies look absolutely adorable with the heart cutouts, but they taste scrumptious and homemade.

Ingredients:

*you will need a 1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter*

White Chocolate Brownies

• 4 ounces of *high-quality white chocolate (ie. Ghirardelli white chocolate bar)

*VERY important to use good chocolate. According to Smitten Kitchen, cheaper "white chocolate baking chips" melt into yellow-oiled chunk...ew!

• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Dark Chocolate Brownies

• 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate (ie. Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate bar)
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Recipe:

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8-inch or 7x11-inch baking pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter.

-Now, here's the interesting part. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a simmer. Place a large bowl on the pot...

Like so.

Smash the chocolate bar to pieces.

Melt the white chopped white chocolate and one stick of butter in the bowl. Stir to prevent burning.

Whisk in the sugar.

Whisk in the eggs (one at a time), flour, and salt. Then add the vanilla. Stir until just combined.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

-Repeat these steps for the chocolate version...

-But...bake the chocolate brownies for 25-30 minutes!

-Place the baked brownies in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will make the "cookie-cutting" much cleaner and easier.

Measure and cut the brownies.

Yum.

Cookie-cut the centers out of the brownies.

Put the dark chocolate centers into the white chocolate brownies.

And the white chocolate centers into the dark chocolate brownies.