Have you ever had that feeling that various parts of your life have intersected perfectly?

A few days ago I experienced this.

Years ago, when I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I used to sit in the front row of the Brattle Street movie theatre with my then boyfriend watching movies and munching on popcorn.

A few nights ago I sat in the back row of the same theatre with a friend who’s a movie producer, along with his friends and family, to watch the premier of Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself. I couldn’t help but look at the front row and think back to the past, back to my younger self who had so many dreams involving books and movies and other big things.

As I was watching the movie (to read about the amazing man that is George Plimpton, click here), I was so taken by George Plimpton…his absolute gusto for life. George, who founded the literary magazine The Paris Review, was larger than life and followed—and lived—his dreams.

My dreams from back then may have changed a bit, but they still exist—and new ones have formed.

What is life if we can’t dream big?

I remember the old boyfriend with whom I watched hundreds of movies, made me stationery that said (pretentiously), “cineaste,” because I had this idea in my head that I wanted to be involved in movies.

It was an interesting juxtaposition to see my old dreamy self in the front row and my current (still dreaming) self in the back row with people who love (and make movies) and thinking of my current dreams—plus my best creation thus far: the little pumpkin I had four years ago.

So how does all this lead to lemon chicken + mashed potatoes? Earlier that day, I’d cooked lunch for my family and while at the movie I realized so many dreams have come true, that various parts of my life are intersecting the way I’d dreamt they would. And I have faith the new ones will, too.

Lemon chicken
Serves 8-10
This recipe is from The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman, founder and editor of Cookstr.com. I met Katie recently at a cooking demo with chef Marco Canora, (which I’ll be writing about soon). Katie’s book, The Mom 100 Cookbook, is filled with tons of family-friendly recipes. Since I was out of town for the weekend, I figured I’d make this chicken recipe for my parents, sister and our kids. Katie had adapted the recipe from Rao’s, which is an old-school Italian restaurant up in Harlem. Apparently it’s one of the most popular dishes there, and now it’s going to be popular in my kitchen, too.

Oh, and be sure to pour some lemon sauce over the mashed potatoes. You’ll thank me later!

1 cup of fresh lemon juice (from 4 to 6 lemons)
2/3 cup of olive oil 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons of finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon of dried oregano or thyme
Coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 bone-in chicken breast halves with skin (2-2 1/2 pounds)
6 bone-in chicken thighs with skin (2 1/2 – 3 pounds)
1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley (optional)

Preheat the broiler with the rack placed about 8 inches away from the heat source.

Put the lemon juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano or thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a container with a lid and shake well to blend.

PLace the chicken pieces skin side down on a rimmed baking sheet and salt them lightly. Broil for 15 minutes. Turn the pieces, lightly salt them, and broil them until the skin is crisp and golden brown and the juices run clear when the pieces are pierced with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes longer.

Remove the chicken from the broiler, leaving the broiler on. Cut the breast and thighs in half, if necessary (I’d bought them already cut). Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of fat.

Shake the lemon sauce again and pour it over the chicken. Turn the pieces over so they are evenly coated with the sauce, making sure all of the pieces end up skin side down.

Broil the chicken until it has browned a bit more, another 2 minutes, then turn the pieces skin side up and broil them until the skin is browned a bit more, about 3 minutes longer. Remove the chicken from the baking sheet, and if you’re using parsley, stir it in the sauce still in the baking sheet. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Mashed potatoes
I make mashed potatoes by taste and I suggest you do the same. For our Sunday lunch, I peeled (thank you to my sister) and boiled about 12 potatoes. Once I drained those, I added 2 sticks of butter, about 1/2 cup of milk (and a bit more as I mashed them). I mashed the potatoes using my sister’s old-fashioned masher. The result was lumpy potatoes, just the way we like them.

This is the story of a girl who loves cake + the Statue of Liberty, a girl who also loves to paint, play games, put puzzles together and who loves the whale at the Museum of Natural History, the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park and running around the Egyptian wing at the Met. Since she was about two, S has waved to the statue whenever she sees her and often pretends to have “a torch, a book and a crown.”

For her 4th birthday on Monday, we took her to see Lady Liberty, playing tourists in our own city. The wind was furious that day, but we were determined and didn’t care much that we got splashed with water. On the way over we met a lovely woman who arrived in Ellis Island from Germany in 1928 and who worked in the Empire State building until 1945. Her 90-year old husband (they’ve been married 67 years!) sat quietly next to her while we chatted.

At precisely 10:59, the moment S was born in 2008, the ferry approached land, and S and I kissed.

We walked around Lady Liberty’s perimeter and tried taking many photos but the winds were mighty that day. Thankfully, we captured a few moments of our time there.

On the ferry ride back we met a lovely English woman who now lives in Switzerland, along with her daughter, an engineer. They were happy we shared our Carr’s “biscuits” with them.

It can be fun playing tourist in your own city.

Sipping chai tea—like mother, like daughter

Little S sipped chai tea with milk and honey. Along with my cup of tea, I devoured a sea salt caramel chocolate scone.

The next day I baked a cake for S’s birthday party at nursery school.

The whir of butter and sugar mixing together is a sweet site.

I made buttercream frosting using the requested color (I want blue! Choosing a “blue” that resembled the color of the Statue of Liberty was not planned, but perhaps an unconscious choice.), with non-toxic icing color I picked up at one of my favorite stores: New York City Cake & Baking Supplies.

The edible gold dust looks nice on teal. S agreed.

S, the now 4-year old girl who loves cake and the Statue of Liberty, made a wish and blew out the candles.

Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
by Jennifer Appel + Alyssa Torey

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups of sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Make the cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and lightly flour three 9 X 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flours and add it in four parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla. Divide batter among cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester inserted comes out clean. Cool cakes in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire racks.

Traditional Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients
1 cup of unsalted butter, very soft
8 cups of confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Make the icing
Place butter in large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of sugar and then the milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing is thick consistency. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. Icing can be chilled in airtight container up to three days but use at room temperature.

Add a dash of nigella seeds to sweet potato chickpea dip

Admit, we all like to snack. My husband, especially so. He loves potato chips, tortilla chips, cookies and chocolates (well I like some of those things, too, though not on his frequency). Fortunately for him he has a speedy metabolism.

To counteract his snacks that sit around the house, I find myself nibbling on salads, hard-boiled eggs and raw vegetables. And because I work at home, I tend to nibble quite a bit instead of stopping to make myself lunch.(Bad, I know.)

But it’s winter and I remember an acupuncturist I knew long ago said not to eat raw vegetables and salads during the winter but to eat more root vegetables.

So I asked acupuncture goddess Jill Blakeway of Yinova Center, who is an absolute dear, the reason for this. (If you live in New York and need an acupuncturist, she’s the one to visit!)

Jill said that “Root veggies draw their energy from the earth and so are considered particularly nourishing and warming in the winter while salad veggies are cooling and draw their energy from the sun making them more suited to the summer.”

During these cold months instead of nibbling on raw vegetables, or worse, junk food like chips, I sometimes make this sweet potato/chickpea dip that I adapted from a recipe I saw in Oprah Magazine a while ago. I even make my own pita bread.

I’ve come to believe that homemade snacks are the best and if my refrigerator is stocked with a few great dips, I’m ready for a day of hunkering and writing.

What’s your favorite homemade snack food? Share it with us on Facebook.

Sweet potato and chickpea dip

Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a dash more for drizzling
fresh ground pepper, to taste
nigella seeds, to taste (optional)

Make the dip
Preheat oven to 425°. Prick sweet potato several times with a fork. Place on a cookie sheet and roast until flesh is tender, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Combine chickpeas, garlic, cayenne pepper and salt in large bowl. Mix with an immersion blender until smooth. Scoop out sweet potato flesh, and add, mixing for another minute. Slowly add olive oil and mix until combined.

Transfer to a serving bowl. Grind pepper over dip and drizzle with extra olive oil. Sprinkle with nigella seeds (optional).

And if you’d like to make your own flatbread (I highly suggest it; you’ll never buy store-bought again!) you can read this rather old article with flatbread flatbread recipe in Dean & Deluca.

Serve with whipped cream (homemade of course) or ice cream

If you’re looking for a new way to cook with apples, why not try a French version that was created by mistake.

Here’s an excerpt from my post on Dean & Deluca’s Gourmet Food Blog:

My first job was at a 4-star French restaurant in Boston and one of my most vivid memories of working at Maison Robert was the tarte tatin that sat in full view of all the diners, enticing anyone who walked by to order it for dessert. It was kept warm on some sort of hot plate, waiting to be topped with chantilly cream.

Click here to read more about Tarte Tatin and for the recipe on The Gourmet Food Blog at Dean & Deluca.

This recipe appeared over at Dean & Deluca but I want to share the vinaigrette recipe with you because I love how it turned out: tangy, sweet and garlic-y.

You can certainly make the salad I created for Dean & Deluca or better yet, serve the dressing simply over your favorite greens with dinner tonight.

Although this stew contains cod, it’s actually hearty with the addition of potatoes and chickpeas. I spiced it up with some cayenne pepper. I actually added more than the recipe requires, and you can do the same if you like it hot + spicy. One thing I love about stews is that you can add other things you like, i.e. sometimes I make this with shrimp and sometimes with clams (or both!). Use your imagination…at least that’s how I roll in the kitchen.

I love egg rolls. Okay, they’re fried and all but that’s okay once in a while. And I’m always a sucker for unique ingredients like galangal, which is in the ginger family and often used in Southeast Asian dishes.

These egg rolls are served at Spice Market, which is still going strong in the Meatpacking District. Read about Spice Market’s Chef Anthony Ricco in my Q&A with him in Haute Living.

Enjoy!

Ingredients
½ tbsp. garlic, minced

4 oz. butter, cut into 1” cubes

1 lb oyster mushroom, stemmed, sliced ½” thick

¾ lbs. shitake mushroom, stemmed, sliced ½” thick

¼ green thai chili, minced
Salt to taste

1½ Tbsp. lemon zest

1 Tbsp.young ginger, peeled

1 Tbsp. chervil, picked and freshly chopped

1 pack spring roll wrappers

Make the filling
Add butter and garlic in a sauté pan and cook over medium high heat, stirring until butter is foamy and garlic is fragrant. Add mushrooms and chili, sprinkle with the salt and stir well. Cook, covered over medium heat until mushrooms have released their juice and are soft and glazed. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Spread into a pan and cool in the freezer, mixing well every 10 minutes until very cold. Put 3 Tbs of mix into wrappers and brush well with egg yolk.

Galangal Emulsion

Ingredients
1 oz. galangal, peeled and chopped

3 Tbs lime juice 

3 Tbs rice vinegar 

6 Tbs tarragon, picked

1 egg yolk 

4 oz. grape seed oil
Salt, to taste

Make the emulsion
In the blender purée galangal with lime juice, vinegar and salt until smooth. Cool over ice. Return to blender add egg yolks and drizzle in oil to emulsify, then add tarragon and puree until smooth and green. Pass through a sieve or mesh, pushing for total extraction.

To serve
8 pc Mushroom rolls

8 pc Boston lettuce cups

4 oz Galangal emulsion

Directions
Fry as needed in a 375-400 degree fryer until golden brown. Remove with slotted spoon. Blot well on paper towels and season with salt and white pepper. Put 2 rolls and 2 Boston lettuce cups per plate, divide galangal among four sauce cups and serve.

I love Thai food, and while I used to order in a lot, I tend not to anymore. (I just can’t seem to find a great place in my new neighborhood.) And for some reason I thought it was daunting to make curry at home. But actually it’s very easy.

This is a versatile dish, because you can choose whatever vegetables and protein you like (or make it vegetarian). I made my curry with 2 chicken breasts, and about 4-5 cups total of fresh sliced carrots, cut green beans, sliced red peppers, sliced onion, quartered potatoes and chopped broccoli. And I used these two products from Thai Kitchen, which made things super easy. (I haven’t attempted to make own curry paste yet.)

In a skillet, saute the chicken and vegetables in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then simmer in 1 can of coconut milk and 3 tablespoons of the curry paste for about 10 minutes. (I also added in one of my favorite herbs: 1/4 cup of kaffir lime.) Serve with your favorite rice (my daughter loves jasmine, so that’s what we serve).

It’s a super easy dinner if your’e a busy mom and/or busy business owner and don’t have a lot of time to cook at the end of the day.

Enjoy!

If you’re looking for a quick but healthy snack to eat while you’re busy working, running around and/or taking care of your family, consider quinoa. Known as the “mother” of all grains, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is actually not a grain at all, but a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale. But because of its texture, it’s eaten like a grain. And it’s packed with nutrients perfect for a quick snack.

Quinoa is:
• A complete protein, which means that it includes all 9 amino acids
• A great source of magnesium and riboflavin, both of which help fight headaches and aid in cardiovascular health
• Rich in fiber, which offers protection against breast cancer
• Rich in powerful phytonutrients that aid in overall health
• Full of manganese and copper, both of which are antioxidants

The health benefits of quinoa are amazing, especially for women. And another plus is how easy and versatile it is.

Make a big batch at the beginning of the week and then add to it for a quick snack or lunch that will keep you full and energized.

You can buy it in bulk from Amazon. Click on the photo.