It’s so fun when you taste food combinations that you never really considered putting together. I had this dessert at a tapas restaurant a long time ago (so long that I’m not sure where I was when I tasted it – I think it was Dali in Cambridge, MA) and when my boyfriend made it when we first started dating, I was reminded that it’s worth bringing to the table. I made it as a backup dessert for my tapas party, just in case the cheesecake flan went horribly wrong.
I just started a new job and I’m thrilled to not be working downtown for the first time in almost four years! For a long time I had been dreaming of the day that I would not have to brave the crappy commute, the depressing streets surrounding the stock exchange, and most of all, the lack of decent lunch options. In fact, I ate at the same soup counter day after day, and I only got one type of soup – the three lentil chili. you’d think I’d be sick of it after four years, but I found myself missing it yesterday, and decided to whip up some chili of my own.
My second favorite thing about serving tapas to guests is that many of the most crowd-pleasing recipes are rediculously simple, to the point that the guest “ooooh and ahhhh” to work ratio is so vastly spread it feels like you are cheating. Here there are three recipes that use as few as two ingredients and involve just a few minutes of prep time each. (Photoshop credit to Brian for the lovely composite above)
The arrival of my November 10th installment of NY Magazine elicited squeals of delight from yours truly – a whole spread of holiday foods featuring local ingredients (and the farmers who grow them!) written by a few of my favorite chefs. Given that I’ve been in a soup-y mood lately and that I love love love fennel, deciding to dive in with Dan Barber’s recipe for a fennel soup was a no-brainer (stay tuned for other gems, including Ed Brown’s Roasted Oysters with Leeks & Bacon – drool).
