Did you know that Trader Joe’s sells macarons? I was browsing in the Brooklyn Trader Joe’s last Friday and saw them. They come in a twelve back – 6 vanilla and 6 chocolate:
They come frozen, so you just defrost them for about an hour and they should be good to eat. I served them on Saturday and they were delicious – The filling was a little pudding-like and sweet, but the textures were exactly like other macarons I’ve had in the city and Paris. The macarons are a lot cheaper than ones you’d find in other stores around here – I think the 12 pack cost $4. I haven’t seen these in the Manhattan location, but the Brooklyn store is definitely worth a trip (even if you’re not getting macarons) – I seriously was so excited to be in the Trader Joe’s that I called David to tell him how awesome it was!
Over the weekend, I had some friends over for a casual get together and dinner party. I tried some recipes from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook (the fried chicken and the apple fritters) – both were incredibly delicious and will be posted/written about eventually. Before I write about the dinner party, I wanted to share a drink that my friends Elliott and Amanda came up with. Elliott is a big fan of Coke floats and I happened to have all of the ingredients, so we decided to make them. Even though I don’t usually drink Coke, this was a really delicious drink, especially with a hint of espresso alcohol that I also had on hand!
Coke Float
Ingredients
1 20 oz bottle of Coke (you can also use Vanilla coke for some extra flavor)
1 large scoop of vanilla ice cream (Ariel brought us Breyer’s and it was SUPER delicious)
1 shot of Three Olives Espresso Vodka (this was generously given to me by Three Olives)
Ice (very optional, especially with the ice cream)
As you can see from the picture above, we poured some generous shots of espresso vodka. The vodka has a little caffeine in it, which is exactly what we needed because we played a very long game of Ticket to Ride that kept us up until 2:30am!
Next, add your big scoop of ice cream:
Finally, add your coke:
You can also make sprite floats, grape soda floats, orange soda floats…the possibilities are really endless! I think an orange soda float would taste really good (like a creamsicle!) Are coke floats popular in NYC? I’ve only had root beer floats before today, but Elliott really raved about Coke floats so maybe they’re more common that I thought. Try making a Coke float and let me know what kind of alcohol you add to yours!
Before the holidays, I was sent a package of Hint Water. David and I absolutely LOVE the water; it has a slightly sweet flavor but has absolutely NO sugar. We love the blackberry, mango grapefruit, and watermelon. In fact, David and I got into an argument at JFK on Christmas Day because he was about to throw away our Hint water so we could get through security! I ended up chugging it before getting on the flight to North Carolina and running to our gate so we wouldn’t miss our flight, but it was worth it because I really could not waste a drop of our blackberry Hint water!
I love drinking Hint water straight, but I also made a smoothie with it and it tasted really great as well.
Blackberry, Mango, and Blueberry Hint Smoothie
1/4 cup mango
1/4 cup blackberry
1/4 cup blueberries
1 bottle blackberry Hint water
1/4 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
Ice (optional)
Vodka or tequila (very optional)
Place everything but the ice into a blender:
If you don’t have a blender, you can use a fork to mash up the ingredients. Blend until smooth and serve over ice.
If you want something a little less frothy and chunky, you can strain the drink before serving. It’s really good when you add a little vodka to it.
Do you like Hint water? What are your favorite flavors?
Full disclosure: Hint water was provided and consumed for this review. It was delicious and I continue to get Hint water even though it’s not free!
I used to live around the corner from Maffei, but never visited because every time I walked by after work, the place was empty; however, every time I walked by late at night, the place was PACKED. I figured that their pizza wasn’t very good, but read on Seriouseats.com that their grandma slices were amazing. I am a HUGE fan of grandma slices, so I packed up my camera and headed to 6th and 22nd.
The pizzeria is very small – ideal for takeout or grabbing one slice and eating it solo along the windows (besides the four or five bar stools lining the walls, there is no where else to sit). The pizzas are pre-made and displayed for your viewing pleasure:
Aside from pizza, they also sell calzones, salads, and some kind of seafood assortment that looked slightly appetizing. I went with a grandma slice:
I requested the corner slice because 1. it looked the biggest and I was hungry and 2. I like double crusts. The slice went into their oven and 5 minutes later, it was completely gone. I love grandma slices because they’re simple and remind me of the pizza I used to eat when I was a kid; I was a SUPER picky eater and if we ever got pizza, I refused to eat any topping besides cheese. The crust was crispy, the cheese was very salty, and there were small chunks of tomatoes in the sauce – just enough to make me want another slice.
Lou, on the other hand, ordered THIS:
A large slice of eggplant parmesan pizza. First of all, when I see pizzerias displaying huge slices of pizza with every topping on it, it REALLY grosses me out. I mean, pizza is supposed to be bread, tomato, cheese, and maybe some pepperoni, mushrooms, and peppers. It’s not supposed to be a separate MEAL on a piece of bread with tomato and cheese. Doesn’t that just seem wrong to you? Well, Lou’s pizza went into the oven and 5 minutes later, it was still not hot. Back into the oven for another 3 minutes and it was lukewarm, but we gave up on it because it was so incredibly bad. I’m not a huge fan of eggplant parmesan to begin with, but this pizza was an all around failure. Lou blames it on not being able to pick until the last minute and eggplant on a pizza threw him off.
Go to Maffei for their grandma slices and single slices (some have pepperoni, sausage, peppers, etc), but definitely skip the gimicky slices of pizza.
My mom purchased me a soymilk maker for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it! It makes delicious soymilk, cashew milk, rice milk, ANY kind of milk, really. There’s very little work involved; all you have to do is soak the nut/grain/bean you want to drink the night before and the soymilk maker takes care of the rest! Here’s my video explaining the process:
You can also make tofu from the soymilk ingredients (I haven’t tried it yet, but I will soon) and the possibilities with bean/nut combinations are really endless. The brand I’m using is Soyapower Plus, which is on the more expensive side (about $199.95) but it’s more convenient than other versions I’ve used.
Below is my favorite type of milk recipe: cashews with cinnamon and a little sugar in the raw. I hope you try it at home – it tastes just like horchata!!
Cashew Milk with Cinnamon
1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight
6 cups water
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon sugar (you can add more if you’d like)
Soak the cashews in water overnight (at least 8 hours). In the morning, wash off the cashews and place them in the Soyapower Plus. After the cashews have been ground, sift the cashew milk from the nuts (known as okara) and add cinnamon and sugar. You can save the extras to add to meatballs, meatloaf, dumpling stuffing, or for facial products!
