Sprout & Pea

Last week­end was really lovely — my mom was in town! I dragged her all over Brook­lyn by foot and by ferry and as per usual we spent most of our time eat­ing. Sat­ur­day night, my cousin joined us for din­ner at a deli­cious restau­rant in Brook­lyn Heights called Colonie. I love restau­rants that are con­ducive to shar­ing and Colonie’s menu is tai­lored for just that. We ordered far too many dishes, but we devoured them all. One of the stand­out plates on our table was a roasted car­rot salad with sun­flower sprouts. This was my first intro­duc­tion to these slightly sweet, watery lit­tle greens and I loved them. I adore a dish with sim­ple ingre­di­ents that bal­ance together per­fectly and that’s what hap­pened when I put a lit­tle bit of each ingre­di­ent on my fork. When I came across sun­flower sprouts at the mar­ket this week, I decided to try to recre­ate this dish. Read more:

This is a very belated hol­i­day post, but it’s a recipe that can be made year round! Last year, a Christ­mas Eve tra­di­tion began. As I and two of my won­der­ful friends are often the only folks left in Brook­lyn on this Hol­i­day, we’ve begun spend­ing the whole week­end together. Con­ve­niently, they hap­pen to live next door. Last Christ­mas Eve, we went to the movies and spent the late part of the evening get­ting the royal treat­ment in an empty bar around the cor­ner. The night was cozy and per­fect. Read more:

Admit­tedly, I made this recipe quite a few weeks ago. I took a lit­tle break from the ol’ blog to travel to a place that I am now very much in love with, Italy. More on the mag­i­cal city of Rome and a beau­ti­ful island called Ponza in a post to fol­low. Before head­ing over to Europe, I received my next CSA box from Lan­caster and amongst a box of beau­ti­ful greens and veg­gies all famil­iar to me, were a bunch of gar­lic scapes. I love this CSA for the new plants that it con­sis­tently intro­duces me to. Read more:

The weather has been all over the place lately and with that, so have my eat­ing habits. It seems that this warm one day, freez­ing the next pat­tern also seems to send me into a pat­tern of home-​​cooked healthy meal one day, mac and cheese at my favorite local spot the next. On one such recent warm day, my body had had enough of eat­ing out, so when I awoke to the sun shin­ing, I imme­di­ately jumped from my bed and headed to the mar­ket for some break­fast inspi­ra­tion. Low and behold I cam across a veg­etable that I have been itch­ing to play with. Read more:

 You know those days where every­thing in your tiny lit­tle world seems to stand still for just long enough to take it all in? Those days where you just feel grate­ful for it all? Sat­ur­day was one of those days for me, and it was a sim­ple day too. I woke up, met my cousin for brunch and we enjoyed some deli­cious poached eggs with herbs and cheese out­side on a rare 60 degree day in Brook­lyn. We caught up, walked around, did a lit­tle shop­ping, and explored neigh­bor­hoods by foot. On our walk, I received a phone call from one of my most favorite peo­ple– just to say hello and that he was think­ing of me as he biked around where the wind took him on this unbe­liev­ably beau­ti­ful day. Read more:

There’s no telling what is in store for 2012 and frankly I find that excit­ing. I do know that my last days of 2011 and first days of the new year were spent in sun­shine with loved ones and good food, and if that’s any indi­ca­tion for the direc­tion this year is headed, I’ll take it. I flew down to Miami to ring in the new year with my best friend Farah, her new hubby and their gor­geous new house. When Farah started talk­ing about menu plan­ning, I imme­di­ately took the reins and tossed out dishes that I was itch­ing to con­tribute. She wanted to make an orzo pasta salad and I took that as an oppor­tu­nity to give myself a lit­tle cre­ative chal­lenge. Read more: