The Meadow in NYC's West Village

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.

Welcome to Part 5 of Food. Travel. Memory. Whenever I travel it’s the food memories that stick out: the Peking duck I enjoy whenever I visit my BFF in Washington, D.C., the all-truffle Valentine’s dinner in Assisi, being wined + dined in Costa Rica with new friends, the fish tacos in Belize…the list goes on.

So I’ve asked others their favorite food/travel memories.

To read Part 1 click here
Here for Part 2.
Here for Part 3.
Here for Part 4.

Enjoy this unique (and tasty) memory—and be sure to share yours in the comments below or over on The Busy Hedonist Facebook Page.—Tracey Ceurvels

Stormy + her grandmother

My grandmother, a school teacher and unrepentant wanderer, had offered to take me with her on a tour of Eastern Europe in the days when the Wall still stood. When we weren’t getting lost in the streets of Prague, taking in views of the Danube, crossing through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin, or listening to legends of Krakowvian dragons and the spirits of the salt mines, we drove and we ate. Some food was as good as what I described above, but we also had our share of continental hotel breakfasts.

Each morning after eating, my grandmother would wrap extra food, in cloth napkins no less, from the buffet and put it in her purse. A snack for later, she said. I was embarrassed by this – as only an adolescent can be – until, one afternoon, I noticed a man pick something up off a ledge where my grandmother had been, shyly glance our way, and sit down to hungrily consume its contents. Pleasure, hunger, indulgence, need, and most importantly, compassion; this trip was my introduction to the world and all of the complex and sad and wonderful things that it comprises. This is also burned into my memory, but left a legacy of action that drives the work I do today.
Stormy Sweitzer, Maoomba.com—Real food for active lives

Interested in creating your own food/travel memories? Join me for Fly Away Travel Writing Class. Doors open May 7th.

Enjoy this guest post by Amy Thomas, author of the recently-published book: Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate).

Trying to pick the best sweets in New York City no easy task. For me, it depends on so many things such as the neighborhood I’m in, the time of day, the season, my mood, and if I’m wearing an elastic waistband. But, it’s a fun and important exercise to conduct every few months as there are constantly new introductions around town. As of late, here are my Top 10 sweets (in no particular order).—Amy Thomas

Photo courtesy of Levain Bakery

Patisserie Claude

3. The chocolate bread pudding from Dessert Truck. I am a sucker for bread pudding and this version is warm and spongy with a beautiful molten middle that’s topped with crème anglaise.

The chocolate Elvis from The Spot.

Photo courtesy of City Bakery.

6 Macarons from Bosie Tea Parlor. The pastry chef, Damien Herggott, worked at Pierre Hermé for four years and with every bite of one of his delicate, double-decker treats, you know it’s the real deal.

Creme brûlée from Kee's Chocolates

8. The chocolate blackout cake doughnut from Doughnut Plant. Yes, it’s as dense and naughty as its name implies.

9 Tarte Tatin at Buvette. This lovely French-Italian bar in the West Village does everything right, and the tarte tatin, a French classic, is no exception. The contrast of the sweet caramely apples and refined crème anglaise is pitch-perfect.

Photo courtesy of DKA.

Learn more about Amy Thomas’s sweet tooth (and the fun she had living in Paris) in my Q&A on The Gourmet Food Blog at Dean & Deluca or visit her site, Sweet Freak.

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.

Welcome to Part 4 of Food. Travel. Memory. Whenever I travel it’s the food memories that stick out: the Peking duck I enjoy whenever I visit my BFF in Washington, D.C., the all-truffle Valentine’s dinner in Assisi, being wined + dined in Costa Rica with new friends, the fish tacos in Belize…the list goes on.

So I’ve asked others their favorite food/travel memories.

To read Part 1 click here
Here for Part 2.
Here for Part 3.

Enjoy these unique (and tasty) memories—and be sure to share yours in the comments below or over on The Busy Hedonist Facebook Page.—Tracey Ceurvels

Photo courtesy of Patricia Scarpin.

One of my favorites is meeting a group of NASA scientists in very southern Chile, and hanging out with them for a few days drinking orange soda mixed with beer while they talked about their satellite-picture-taking sojourns over Antarctica! I really wish I had taken them up on their invitation to meet them in Greenland the next year.
Amy Scott of Nomadtopia

Photo courtesy of My Recipes

Interested in creating your own food/travel memories? Join me for Fly Away Travel Writing Class. Doors open May 7th.

Bon Voyage!