Cheever Sauce

It was dark by 5:30 last night and according to the new notification screen on my iPhone, (time to upgrade to iOS5 people) it’s going to snow tomorrow. Since it looks like we are getting dangerously close to winter, what better way to hold onto these fleeting fall days than to bake a light, delicious, and a little summery? cake. 

Apparently yogurt cakes are a French thing. And we allllll know the only other acceptable alternative to a girl from Connecticut pretending to be a New Yorker, is a CT girl pretending to be a New Yorker pretending to be a Parisian ;) . Yogurt cakes are my kind of thing because they’re one of those rare baking gems that don’t require complicated measuring. The math is based on the volume of your yogurt cups, to which you add an equal amount of sugar, a double amount of flour, a little less than one of oil, two eggs, and some leavener and flavors like a little vanilla, citrus zest, or rum (Thanks Smitten Kitchen for the fun fact). I decided to go the lemon route and top it off with the blueberries and raspberries I had in the fridge. 

The best thing about this cake is it’s flavorful and fluffy yet not too sweet. I also found that the more days that went by, the better it tasted. However it was gone sooner than I hoped since I gave half a way to a friend and the leftovers regrettably served as my breakfast for the next couple days. 

Onward for the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Lime Yogurt Cake with Blackberry Sauce

I finally did it. The Union Square Farmer’s Market and I met last Saturday. My sister and parents came in for the day to check out my other sister’s new apartment, grab some dinner, and drop off my winter coats (got to love NYC’s apartment storage situation). And because New Yorkers for some reason have the need to feel guilty if they don’t go outside on a nice day, we found ourselves walking around my sister’s new neighborhood. So my arrival at the market was more of a let’s wander around USFM because we have nothing else to do before our reservation, and less than an I need to visit the market to pick up fresh produce, cheese, and meats for all my dinners this week and support the local community. Not surprisingly, I fell in love with everything fresh and delicious the market had to offer, but I was lucky enough to stumble across Squash Blossoms!

Squash Blossoms are SO SO DELICIOUS and I was shocked to see them available for sale. Apparently squash blossoms are generally unavailable to all but home gardeners and habitués of farmers markets. Because they parish so fast, few supermarkets bother to keep them in stock.

I had my first stuffed squash blossoms at Aurora Cafe in Williamsburg. I went three years ago specifically for the squash blossoms. They were a featured dish on one of those video restaurant reviews they used to play in the back of the cabs. This restaurant was serving an edible flower, stuffed with creamy mozzarella and goat cheese, lightly fried than drizzled with sweet honey sauce? At first I was like Whhaaaat and then I was like…Waiiiit - driver please head to 70 Grand St…Yes. In Brooklyn. Go. 

So when I saw these squash blossoms not only for sale, but accompanied with a convienent recipe - I knew they were begging to be made. The result? They were the perfect fall midday treat. Light yet decadent. Salty yet savory. Earthy yet milky. 

This recipe can easily be adapted with other types of cheese (I recommend any kind of goat, ricotta, or mozzarella. Also try using tempura batter (flour, egg, and water) rather than the cornmeal for a lighter taste.  

Click here for the recipe adapted from Windfall Farms. 

Figuring out what to make for lunch is…the…worst. Lunch to me is that awkward middle child that isn’t getting enough love because its older and younger siblings are getting all my attention. Living in New York doesn’t make this neglected relationship any easier. Whether you’re a slave to the boardroom, working long hours on Wall Street, or salvaging the days of old Madison Ave, “homemade lunch?” doesn’t fall off the tongue in a 9 to 5 as easily as “take-out?” does. 

I know, I know - what do I know? I might not have experience living a life that entails the jobs above, but I certainly have experience living with people who do (and plus, I would still rather eat a yogurt, crackers, eggs, canned soup..basically anything that’s already in my fridge then whip up a meal in the middle of the day). Despite all this, when in the past I have taken the time to cook lunch, all the magic happens the night before. That’s the key people, because no one is going to prepare themselves lunch in the morning before running out the door - see New Yorker Scramble. Cook ahead and you’ll find a little bit of planning and some Tupperware goes a long way for your waistline and your wallet. 

This dish was another gem from Smitten Kitchen. You could easily serve it with dinner, but this batch went straight to the lunch containers. I was dishing it out generously to my roommate and a friend who were instructed to report back. The findings turned out to be fabulous. This is a perfect salad for this time of year because it utilizes one of the many delicious ways to eat squash. Lentils are very cheap, so the big splurge here is the cheese. The goat cheese is the perfect counterbalance to the spiced squash, and brings all the combined flavors of the salad together when you reheat it the next day. (CheeverSauce note: allow the cheese to generously melt around your veggies and lentils.)

Continue for the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Nothing like a quick lunch post to kickstart the weekend. This recipe came together in the snap of the fingers and is a great vegetable alternative to typical deli meat sandwiches. I also like to classify it in one of those trendy “5 ingredients or less” challenges that seem to cover every cooking magazine these days. 

I love portabella mushrooms. They’re plump, juicy, smooth in texture, and cook up perfectly when roasted with a little bit of olive oil and sea salt in a mere 10-15 minutes.  Add some goat cheese and greens to the mix and you got yourself a class A midday meal. 

Continue for the super easy how to:

Stepping outside the past couple days, I am finally getting those wonderful hints of cool and crisp, yet still wonderfully warm air that NYC fall brings. Everyone around seems to have a little extra pep in their step, because us New Yorkers know that our sweltering concrete heat, and hot, humid subway days are finally behind us. So store away those bathing suits and summer shorts, and bring out your cable knits and cashmere, because I am welcoming fall with wide open arms.

What better way to ring in October then a cozy, hearty, vegetable and bean stew. For those of you who are thinking “gross!” - shame on you - stews are fantastic! And this particular one, topped with a toasted whole grain roll, fresh grated parmesan, and a fried egg, is so delicious you’ll be making a triple recipe and freezing the rest for when gasp!…the snow starts to fall and you’re hibernating in your apartment until late March.

When I first started writing this blog I conducted a bit of research on other popular food blogs. One of my (and more then 10,000 others) favorites is Smitten Kitchen, which is actually run by a fellow New Yorker. So for the next couple posts, get ready for CheeverSauce’s Smitten Kitchen dump - because I cooked up about 3 recipes I bookmarked of hers, and was dying to try this weekend. 

I have to admit I cheated a little on this recipe. I took full advantage of NYC grocery store’s tendencies to have a full display case of pre-chopped vegetables. So this recipe took fraction of the time for me because my carrots, celery, onions, and garlic were all conveniently prepped for me, and all I had to do was throw them into a pot. Hey, when you’re in the center of the produce aisle and on your right side you have perfectly chopped veggies and on your left you have full vegetables that come with a vision of a cutting board, sharp knife, food scraps, extra garbage, too much time, and a future arthritis bill, who could blame me? 

Onward to the recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Chard and White Bean Stew:

WHAT a beauty right? I was casually shopping at this organic grocery store next to my apartment the other day, and when I sauntered over to the produce section to find what local veggies they brought in for the day, to my delight I see….PURPLE VEGETABLES. 

First of all, call me a culinary delinquent but never in my life have I seen purple string beans and purple peppers. And these weren’t produced in some biotech lab in Texas, these were locally farm grown!! I could hardly contain my excitement and knew I immediately had to use these veggies in my next post.

I prepared them in a salad so I could eat them raw and in all their purply glory. The kale looked amazing as well and was eager to make a raw kale salad since I had only been eating the green cooked.  Kale is a “meatier” green when raw, and I love it in salad because I feel it gives it more substance. (P.S. One cup of raw kale offers more than a full day’s recommended value of vitamins A, C and K. It is also a source of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, copper and manganese - aka time to get on the kale bandwagon)  I threw in some yellow cherry tomatoes, (for both taste and aesthetic reasons) toasted some sunflower seeds and made my own sunflower lemon dressing in a mason jar, which topped the salad of perfectly. 

How to make…

Welcome to part 2 of the dinner party I had 3 weeks ago (I’ve got to get better about posting quicker). CheeverSauce Dessert! This dish couldn’t be a more perfect official first dessert post. It’s so easy to make with relatively healthy (for a dessert) ingredients. Crumble/Crisp = oats = no buttery crusts. It’s a great healthy alternative to a mixed fruit pie and packs a nutrition punch with its high levels of antioxidants, vitamin E and C. Another plus? When served in a small mason jar - your proportions are kept in check. 

Nectarine’s will only be available for another two weeks but this recipe would work with any fruit. Will I be apple picking in the fall and doing another variation on the original of all crisps? Yes. But in the meantime enjoy your end of summer/early fall fruits with this delicious sweet ending to any meal. 

Onto the super easy cooking directions. 

Being obsessed with slow cooking meat doesn’t usually make a good fit for a blog that’s supposed to be about whipping up quick recipes in a small kitchen, but I really can’t help myself, especially after I realized how easy and painless the whole process is. At this point, I’m not sure if I am cooking for the taste or to creepily peer over to watch who ever is eating my food…anxiously awaiting their reaction to my slow cooked meat like a 5 year old who just brought their parent’s breakfast in bed and is eagely awaiting to be praised, adored, kissed on the forehead, and looked at like the blessing from God I am. 

Instead the scenario goes like this:

Me: Is it gooooood? So you like it?!

Friend: OMG Ky - so good, thank you so much (normal polite response from a sane person….but doesn’t satisfy me - crazy person) 

Me: But like — soo good right? Like - HOW much do you like it (getting crazier)

Friend: So good Ky. Yummm (getting scared and regretting they came over to eat)

Me: Ugh! I feel like you’re not giving me enough attention about it though.

Friend: Silently groans. My “subtle” way of seeking attention has caused them to lose their appetite. (This last part is actually impossible - my food is just too good)

***Future dinner guests you’ve now been warned. In all seriousness, I cook to please. But you being pleased isn’t satisfying enough, so for future reference, react like Mario Batali himself just served you his finest dish on his finest china. 

I knew I wanted to cook lamb for a while now. Actually, I take that back. I knew I wanted to cook tzatziki sauce for a while since I was given a friend’s mom’s (who is wonderfully Greek) tzatziki sauce. It was love at first bite. 

Any good Greek knows that lamb goes perfect with tzatziki sauce, and I stumbled upon a slow roasted lamb recipe which seemed Greek enough (seeing a theme here?) aka it had large amounts of oregano and lemon juice in it. The original recipe called for a spicy yogurt sauce (which I replaced with tzatziki) and couscous (which I replaced with quinoa). I sided it with an easy Mediterranean vegetable medley. Overall - the meal came out fantastic. The succulent meat blended fabulously with the herb salad, and the tzatziki sauce came out no less than perfect. I topped the veggies with some parmesan cheese, whose sharpness balanced well with the sweet tomatoes, zucchini and strong olives. I will be cooking this for my family’s next Greek Easter as it won’t disappoint.

Onto the recipe adapted from one of Travis Lett’s Restaurant staples 

This week I watched “Food Inc.” Big mistake. Damn you Netflix streaming. Now I slightly hyperventilate while walking down the meat aisle at the supermarket and have obsessively been checking the ingredients in everything in my kitchen. I’ve always been one for eating organic, natural, healthy….but like come on, this movie just makes you want to eat vegetables out of your own garden and juice cleanse on fruit smoothies for the rest of your life. 

While the movie certainly had its effect, I still will not, and don’t ever see myself becoming vegetarian. I’m half Greek after all. Have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? “Whaaatt, you don’t eat meat? That’s okay - I feed you lamb.”  I will however, make sure add more local vegetables to my diet and spend the extra $$$ and splurge on organic meat when I need my fix. 

For this dish I picked up fresh, local New Jersey tomatoes at Gourmet Garage, and red pepper from Canada (I know! so not local. I promise I will start going to the greenmarket every week). This soup was so easy to make and nothing beats fresh vegetable soup. The sharpness from the goat cheese perfectly balanced the sweetness from the roasted red pepper and tomatoes and I mixed some leftover cilantro I had in the fridge with the crabmeat - which gave it a great zing.

Onto the recipe adapted from What’s Gaby Cooking

I’m starting to realize that the more time a dish takes me to make, the longer I take to post about it. It’s like my subconscious can’t handle writing and editing photos around something I already dedicated my night to cooking (and cleaning - the worse) up. Makes you just want to whip this one right up right?! I know, it’s out of character to talk about such things. CheeverSauce is all about the quick! easy! healthy! snap your fingers and your already eating! type meals. Well, everyone has to crawl out of their shell once in a while, which is exactly what I chose to do for this dish. Was it all worth it? Abso-maldita-luty. 

Awhile back, my sister came home with pork shoulder leftovers from a dinner party hosted by her friend Courtney. Pork shoulder? Bleeghh I thought….until I tasted it. It was the most delicious, melt in your mouth, sweet and tender meat I have ever tasted. Since that day I never felt like I could call myself a good cook until I prepared something of that caliber. So last week I invited the photographer I rep and his wife over for dinner, and decided what better way to wow their Mexican food loving palettes, and show off my culinary skills, than prepare homemade carnitas?

Like I mentioned/complained before, the recipe takes some time only in that the meat has to be cooked for about 3 hours. Overall though, the process is pretty easy and straightforward, and once it’s in the oven you don’t really need to attend to it (I know this sounds ridiculous for busy New Yorkers, but I was cooking for my boss! And it’sSO GOOD. Make it on a rainy weekend day when you’re stuck inside). I also made fresh homemade corn tortillas which is a lot easier than it sounds. They’re healthier than flour or store bought tortillas, but you can totally skip that step and buy them pre-made.

I cannot recommend this meal enough. If you love Mexican food and like to indulge here and there on a rich flavor meat…pulled pork tacos is the dish for you. 

Onward for the recipe:

Lately I’ve been trying to take advantage of twitter (a social media outlet I used to roll my eyes at but now obsessively check every 15 min) by following other food bloggers. American’s Test Kitchen tweeted this recipe and I was immediately drawn to the lima beans it called for. Lima beans were like a one time a year treat my Yiayia would make at Christmas (my bet is on she boiled them in butter versus broth). I never really knew where to find them in the grocery store or how to cook them (I tend to steer clear of the frozen vegetable isle). 

But what really grabbed my attention was…ragoût. Ooo I’ve never made a ragoût before. How wonderfully French of me it would be.

Now I made this dinner last week (it’s been a busy week and I’ve been lagging behind in my blogging) when it was raining, and the dish was a perfect, classic, hearty dinner for a rainy day. When roasting a chicken the conventional way, one will season the raw whole chicken or chicken part, and then roast the meat in the oven. This recipe gave me a little quick tip, which I always appreciate, instructing me to brown the bone-in chicken pieces on the skillet before finishing them in the oven. This step is literally genius because not only does the skin get crisp on the stove, it also quicken the time the meat needs to be cooked through in the oven. As it cooks the ragoût simultaneously comes together in the stove. 

The beauty of this dish? After the chopped onions and mushrooms are sautéed with garlic, the sauce comes together with a wine and chicken broth reduction and a finishing toss-in of lima beans and olives. The ragoût and the roast chicken are then reunited on the serving platter.

This dish was amazing - the first night I cooked it my friend Skye inhaled it and the same goes for the next night when Sophie (who gave me the French approval) did the same thing. Literally - didn’t look up from her plate once while she ate. 

Onto the recipe:

Rise and grind! It’s morning in the Big Apple and many of you after hitting the snooze button 15 minutes past your wakeup call, have sleep walked your way to the shower, brushed your teeth, combed your hair (blow dried it if you’ve got meetings, or a cute co-worker) and quickly thrown together an outfit (which probably includes at least one particle of clothing you wore out the night before), and ran out the door just in time to catch the subway. This is was I like to call the New Yorker Scramble…minus the eggs. 

Most people don’t have time for breakfast - I get it, mornings are hard. But Mom wasn’t kidding when she said it is the most important meal of the day. If you skip breakfast you’ll probably end up bingeing on office cake or chinese for lunch. Breakfast = good for your metabolism = good for your waistline. 

Although I’ve tried to up the standards of what meals I decide to blog about, I figured why not indulge you in another one of my breakfast staples - even if everyone already knows how to make oatmeal. 

Yes, I know steal cut oatmeal is best for you (higher protein, fiber, etc, etc.) but I don’t have the patience for it - I don’t even have the patience to cook quick oats in a pan. I recommend using McCain’s Instant Irish Oatmeal. I prepare it with a 1/2 cup of skim milk (water in oatmeal is gross) and microwave it for 1 minutes 30 seconds. I then add chopped walnuts (adds protein), a handful of fresh mixed berries, tiiiiiny bit of real maple syrup, and some cinammon. It’s delicious, takes less then 5 min to make, and even less time to eat. 

So tomorrow morning, hit the snooze button only once and whip together some Morning Oatmeal for yourself. Your body will thank you. 

Click here for more recipes. 

Summer is no time to be sick. Winter? Sure why not - it’s expected with everyone hibernating their germs indoors, almost looking for an excuse to not walk outside in NYC’s icy sidewalks and slushy streets.

Well despite the beautiful weather we’ve been having, and my relatively low contact with people throughout the day (I work at home),  I still find myself feeling under the weather, and usually the only thing I can stomach through days like this is a nice, healthy, soothing, fruit smoothie. 

So if you’re like me, and your body has hit its mid-summer slump, combine in a blender a handful of frozen blueberries (anti-oxidants!), handful of frozen raspberries (or any frozen berry or fruit), 1 cup of non-fat yogurt, some orange juice (Vitamin C!), and a little honey. Put some honey on a teaspoon and to dip in your smoothie as you drink (helps your throat feel better). Or go grab one from the countless smoothie stands lining the streets right now. 

Cheeversauce tip: Drink out of a pretty glass. Aesthetics are everything and always make a difference :)

Click here for more recipes.

The Cheever family took over Drakes Island this weekend - and I say take over because Grandpa Cheever (who lives on Drakes Island in Wells, Maine) currently has: 5 children, 5 daughter/son in-laws, 24 grandchildren, 8 grandchildren in-laws (not sure how else to put it?), 11 great-grandchildren, 1 future grandchild in-law, 2 possible grandchildren in-laws (wink, wink) and two more great grandchildren on the way. So it’s safe to say that when the Cheever family is there, the rest of the island knows it.

We all grew up with summers visiting Grammy and Grandpa on Drakes Island, and even though over the years we have traded sandcastles for beach Bocce (booze included) and cartoons for late night poker games (even more booze included), one tradition that will always last is our Maine lobster dinners. I enjoyed my lobster the good ole’ Cheever way this weekend, but today I whipped up the lobster roll below with a few ingredients I thought would be delicious. The result? So amazing I am convinced I need to set up a West Village lobster roll stand for the rest of the summer. 

So spoil yourself tonight - Maine style- with either of these dishes, because while lobster may not be practical and certainly isn’t cheap (in the mid 19th century, it somehow finagled its way from the plates of peasants and fisherman to the fine china of Boston and New York elite), it is definitely and always will be…delicious. 

To prepare:

In a place like New York City, where everyone is running around, ambitious and determined to get through their busy days, it’s easy to get lost in your own world. Even with over 8 million people surrounding you, more times than not you can feel a little alone. Living in a place like this really taught me to value the one thing no promotion, no job, no guy, no money, no clothes, no nice apartment (although don’t all those things sound nice?) can replace: your friends. 

So! With that CheeverSauce life lesson out of the way, I will continue that when I get together with my friends, the one thing I can usually offer them that they can’t offer me (besides my unmatchable wisdom, wonderful charm, and a sexy shoulder to lean on) is delicious, homemade food. 

The other day I wanted to put a momentary halt to my “I think I make a million dollars a year so I can go out for drinks and food whenever I want to” mentality, so my friends and I decided they would bring some wine over to my apartment and I would whip up some CheeverSauce before we headed out for the night. 

Not in the mood to cook a huge dinner, and feeling the need to get rid of a lot of left over ingredients in my fridge, I decided appetizers were going to be the way to go. So throw a bunch of stuff together, present it all on a serving platter, and wow your friends tonight, because if they’re your besties, they will still love you even when you feed them your leftovers :)

Now for the recipes…