New Year's Random Bites

Hello and a happy new year!

Hope you are almost recovered from the holidays....we still have Henry's 50th birthday to celebrate this weekend, so we are not over yet.

I am finally 100% recovered from that nasty flu, and maybe next year, I will not be so stubborn and get myself a flu shot.



I always start the year off with lentils for good luck.


I made my usual pot of lentil soup for a prosperous 2015.



Fancy schmancy.

I baked my first loaf of bread this year and used a brotform, also known as a banneton, for the second rise.


It is a ridged basket that comes in all different shapes, used to create beautiful European style loaves with circular designs on top.

Not sure why I had trouble with mine. My dough stuck to the ridges no matter how much flour I used.
Could be because I used Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread recipe.


I won't give up. I'll try again.



For some weird reason, I decided to grill my avocados for a nice change of pace. Hey, it's a new year, try something different. I'm 50.


I have no reason to ever heat an avocado again.

No thanks.

Though they sure look pretty, I will continue eating my morning avocado the normal way, with kosher salt. Period.



My birthday wish came true.

My dear friend Sally baked me that gorgeous Lady Baltimore Cake that I asked for, and it was delicious.


She found rose water and made meringue and it was such a special treat.
Recipe here.


TriBeCa Bites:
If you are visiting Manhattan this holiday season, make sure you eat at Marc Forgione.
It is that good.

Sunday dinner was chicken under a brick for 2, with broccoli rabe and Yukon gold potatoes.


The perfect meal to end 2014 and ring in the new year.

Happy & Healthy.

Comments

Bebe said…
I once made an avocado-crab salad dish that was to be served warm (from the oven). It too ended up seeming like "what's the point?" and that was decades ago, long before I was 50.

Our market had beautiful nice-sized Hass avocados 10/$10 so we are stocked up. As soon as one ripens it gets gently wrapped in enough aluminum foil to cover it. Ever the Virgo I number the avocados as they do into the fridge. First in, first out. A live in Mexican housekeeper taught me the aluminum wrap trick years ago. It works. Half an avocado goes into a little foldover sandwich bag (with its seed in place) and back into the aluminum foil wrap for the next day. It will only get slightly beige on the cut surface.

Thank you for your enjoyable blog...
Happy New Year - and Happy Birthday to Henry. 50 was my favorite age (well, almost) so be prepared to enjoy it.
Bebe said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bebe said…
Excuse additional comment, but what is "chicken under a brick"?

Anonymous said…
You feel about grilled avocado the way I felt about the grilled endive I ordered many moons ago @a Spring Lake restaurant. Unimpressed, shall we say? A few years ago, my stoic, no-nonsense sister got the flu. It knocked her on her a** so hard that it scared her. And me. We are no longer stubborn and both get the shot every fall. I'm older than my husband, too. Happy Birthday Henry!!!
Bebe said…
My husband and I have gotten flu shots every October for years. No ill effects. And one year, when we did get something that might have been flu in March, it was very light. That is part of the conventional wisdom of flu shots - that if it doesn't totally prevent one's getting it, it lightens the case.

We also wash our hands when we have been in public places - grocery stores, places with hand rails, etc. - before eating or preparing food. So simple.
Jessica Weiss said…
Hi Stacey and Henry,
We love your website and have sent it to our friends. Glad you are feeling better and hope you have a happy and healthy new year!
Best wishes, Barry and Jessica Weiss
(Your canyon ranch beach bums)
Stacey Snacks said…
Jessica & Barry!

Happy New Year! So happy to see a comment from you this a.m.!
Looking forward to our next visit to Canyon Ranch, and we can have dinner at Joe's together!

xo Stacey
Stacey, so sorry to hear you had the flu. I don’t know if this will make you fee any better or not, but I got the flu shot and still go the flu! Tamiful helped take the edge off of it but it still kept me in bed four days. The flu shot did not prevent against flu strain B, which was apparently the one that was going around.

Love your website, as you know. Happy and healthy 2015!
Natalia said…
Happy New Year Stacey! I too had a nasty cold and a stomach virus to boot - hence the reason I'm only now getting to your blog.. Glad you are feeling better.

My daughter is a foodie and recently made me grilled avocado with eggs. Didn't do it for me; I actually like the taste of avocado, but the grilled avocado didn't taste like much, so I too will pass on it this year.

We'll definitely check out Marc Forgione.

We were up in the Catskills house for my birthday last week & I have a restaurant which I can recommend to you, if you and Henry are ever in the Woodstock area - the Red Onion! It was really a fantastic place, with a varied farm to table menu, in a nicely decorated former farm house and the host was super nice too!

A Happy upcoming Birthday to Henry! I look forward to your future recipes!
Anonymous said…
Happy New Year and birthday wishes to you and Henry! Thank you for continuing to write your blog; I enjoy every post.
Anna from Cedar Knolls
Anonymous said…
http://freakonomics.com/2015/01/08/why-doesnt-everyone-get-the-flu-vaccine-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/