Long overdue apartment warming

We had our apartment warming a few weeks ago. For the most part I was unambitious, preferring to buy snacks from Trader Joe's (which, by the way, was a great way for me to taste some products that I've wanted to try out, specifically their Pita Puffs). I had promised to make some pao de queijo, which I did and they were, again, delicious. Von and I also attempted to make boozy watermelon using Absolut's Wild Tea vodka. Kinda didn't work out too well so I don't think I'll be revisiting that anytime soon. I also had five or six over ripe bananas which turned into banana bread using Flour Bakery's recipe (don't judge the hole in the middle...I was taste testing)...

...which I then cut up to make chocolate and pistachio-covered banana bread bites! Much more party friendly. 

But the star of the party were the watermelon jello shots. Not my idea. I saw it on thekitchn.com a few days prior and thought it was the cutest idea ever. I ran around New York trying to find powdered jello since I my usual stops (TJ's and Whole Foods) and apparently bodegas and Duane Reade don't carry it. I didn't want to go out of my way to a "regular" grocery store but I succumbed and went to Food Emporium by work. Task #1 completed.

Task #2 was juicing limes and removing all the insides which made my hands raw. I really need to buy some disposable gloves for times like that. And for chopping jalapenos. By the way, removing the insides of the limes wasn't as easy as it sounds - you have to carefully run a pairing knife between the pulp and the pith. I had some trouble because my limes were super thin-skinned. But, I prevailed.

Task #3 was choosing the right alcohol. I went with cachaca but I don't think I'd do that again. Maybe rum next time. And don't believe the 1-to-1 water-to-alcohol ratio. I'd cut down on the alcohol a bit and do 5-to-3 (ie 1.25 cups water and 0.75 cups alcohol). It'll taste better.

So after I set the halved-out lime rinds into mini-muffin tins, poured in the liquid, let it set overnight, quartered the resulting "jello cups" and sprinkled mini chocolate chips over them (don't try to shove them into the jello, it doesn't work), the result:

A little too bitter for me from the cachaca but the chocolate chips evened that out ok. Super cute, aren't they?

ABC Kitchen - my favorite spot-of-the-moment

I'm a little bit late on the bandwagon for this one, but ABC Kitchen is now one of my favorite restaurants in NYC (ok maybe my ENTRY is late - I went for the first time back in the Spring). You see, I never know when JP gets out of work so I've started making reservations at restaurants several weeks in advance just in case he's free in the evening (or weekend for that matter). I'd canceled and rescheduled reservations numerous times already (Dell'Anima, Untitled at the Whitney) but this was one reservation I was not going to let go of, even if it meant going without him. Granted the restaurant has been getting a ton of buzz for a while now but I booked before it won the James Beard for Best New Restaurant earlier this year, and now it'll probably be even more difficult (I am still bitter about how I kept nagging him to go to Locanda Verde with me until one day early in their existence, NYTimes did a review and I still haven't gone there for dinner). On the plus side, ABC Kitchen has a fairly spacious bar area for walk-ins and some seating at the cafe in the back, where the same menu is served.

We went on a Sunday night. I went again the following Tuesday for lunch. That's how good it was. Since then, we've had brunch there twice. Their cocktails are bright and fresh. Their veggies are ridiculously delicious, especially the beets which I got twice, as well as the roasted carrot and avocado salad. For me the dinner was more memorable than the lunch but that's because the pasta I had at lunch (bowties with kasha and veal meatballs, below) didn't impress me much. 

What did impress me was the other pasta we had - cavateppi with spring peas, guanciale and parmesan. I gave half of a half of a half sized portion (...you following that? we got the smaller portion, which they split into two, and I gave him half of mine) since he didn't want to touch the beets after having a tiny bite. But I didn't care, more for me!

This is just really good, simple market-based cooking done well, with very reasonable portions (perhaps one of a handful of times when I didn't feel like I was pregnant with a food baby after dinner). Oh, and their cream-filled doughnuts with a rich dark chocolate sauce aren't too bad either. More dinners and brunches here await!

Juveniles

I like wine bars. I like wine bars a lot. There's something about the ability to get a glass (or bottle) or wine and have a few appetizers / snacks thats just so appealing. In New York I use to go to Las Ramblas with JP (although we tended to drink 2 pitchers of sangria and get 5 - 6 tapas and make an entire dinner out of it...). I wanted to go to Le Garde Robe but when I got there it was closed. So I wandered over to Juveniles, my second time there. It's a wine bar that specializes in Australian wines (although the owner is Scottish I think?). So between having 3 different wines (not that I remember what they were but they were a white, a rose and a red from Lebanon), I got this:

I hadn't eaten all day so I was starving. This was a "crostini" with a jambon cru (cured ham), tomato (underneath the ham) and a garlicky-Parmesan-I-don't-know-what-that-green-stuff-is-but-its-damn-good pesto-type sauce on a baguette. Totally hit the spot.