(Successful) Food Experiment: Peanut Butter & Banana on Pumpernickel & Rye

It's rainy today. I don't mean just rainy I mean like, the Hollywood version of a rainy day.  It's dark - so dark I need to have lamps on in every room - and there's a delightful pitter-pattering outside that's providing a nice soundtrack to my work.

One thing that I can't avoid on a day like today is a desire for warm and hearty food.  Mid-morning, I got it in my head that I should make a warm grilled sandwich.  It was too early for grilled cheese; I wanted something sweet.  And so my mind immediately turned to one of my old favorites: grilled peanut butter and banana.

I discovered grilled peanut butter and banana sometime in high school.  There's a cool little restaurant in a town near my house that makes it.  It quickly became a staple in my life  - a warm cozy blanket I rely on three times a year or so to deliver a delicious serving of satisfying comfort.  Usually, I make it like a grilled cheese - white bread, butter, peanut butter, and bananas.  But today I didn't have any white bread. Once I get an idea in my head though, I have to go for it, so instead of giving up the dream of this sandwich, I decided to experiment with what I did have: marble bread - rye and pumpernickel.

This was actually quite delicious.  The flavors of the rye and pumpernickel actually undercut the sweetness of the banana and peanut butter in a way that was rather perfect.  I'd definitely suggest trying this, regardless of whether you have some white bread in the house!  This really added new depth to an old classic.  And it somehow felt a little more "grown up", too.

Instructions for this sandwich are below.

You will need: 

-  Two slices of rye/pumpernickel marble bread

-  1 banana (less ripe can be better so it's not too sweet)

-  2 tbs of peanut butter

-  A tiny bit of butter

-  A frying pan

Heat your frying pan to medium.  Don't go any higher - it may cook faster, but slow and steady wins the race here.  

Put your butter in the frying pan and melt it.  While that's melting, assemble your sandwich by putting the peanut butter on the bread and cutting the banana into "chips".  Put the banana chips in the peanut butter and put the other slice of bread on top.

Throw your sandwich into the butter and let it grill slowly.  It should take about three minutes on each side.  There's nothing to really cook here - it's all about the bread toasting and the peanut butter melting. 

Enjoy! I like to eat the leftover banana chips that didn't fit into the sandwich on the side.  A nice cold glass of milk is also a nice accompaniment. 

What's your favorite rainy day food? 

❤Lauren

Penne a la Vodka Receipe

So, years ago, when Garret and I first moved to Brooklyn, we lived in a "small town" within Brooklyn called Bay Ridge.  Brooklyn has many neighborhoods within it, and Bay Ridge has a very tucked away feeling.  It has streets with brownstones and avenues with shops, restaurant, bakeries, and meat markets.  It also has parks and baseball fields and rows of normal houses with yards.  It really does feel like a secret little small town within the greater space of Brooklyn.  And parts of it - certain streets, corners, and shops - almost feel frozen in time.  I'd go for walks in the morning there and at certain points within my walk, I could have been 2010 me, or I easily could have instead been a much more stylish 1960's version of myself, headed to my job at Sterling Cooper.

[P.S. I am obsessed with Peggy Olsen (the character) and she (the character) is from Bay Ridge!]

Anyway, on the corner near our house was this very frozen-in-time catering place:

This picture is weird because I did Google Street View to find it
and then took a screen cap. HEY, technology!

I have no idea what the story is with it (but trust me, I made up plenty).  Nobody ever went in and nobody ever came out.  There were usually garbage bags out front as pictured above.  Most of the time, it just sat there and let my imagination run wild, inventing all sorts of [creepy] scenarios for what could be going on inside.  But sometimes - like, three times a year - the most delicious smells would emanate from this place.

One crisp fall day I could smell penne a la vodka being cooked.  I'd never actually eaten penne a la vodka, but I'd seen/smelled it plenty and I knew it was delicious.  So I became obsessed with eating it and looked up a recipe and made it.

Delicious.

I made that recipe for a while, but this was years ago and I lost track of it.  The last few times I've wanted to make it I've spent fifteen minutes or so scouring the internet for the recipe, and I haven't been able to find it.  So, I've come up with my own version, which I thought I'd share!

Penne a la Vodka Recipe

You will need: 
-  2 cans of crushed tomatoes
-  1 can of tomato paste
-  1 can of tomato sauce
-  1 vidalia (sweet) onion
-  5 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced (pressed gives you more flavor!)
-  salt and pepper to taste
-  5 or 6 fresh basil leaves
-  3 oz of vodka
-  3/4 a cup of heavy cream
-  1/2 a stick of butter (oh, by the way - this sauce isn't exactly healthy)
-  1 box of Penne

Here's What to Do: 

I should say that this recipe takes a while: 3-4 hours from start to finish.  So it's not great for a weeknight dinner, but it is perfect for one of those cold winter days when you just want to stay in the house and be embraced by delicious smells.

So, first slice your onion so that you have a lot of thin onion rings.  Throw a bit of olive oil in a pan and cook the onions over medium/medium-low head (depending on your stove).  Cook them for about ten minutes, until they begin to become translucent.

Add your garlic to the pan and cook it for a minute or so, until the scent of the garlic is released into the air.  Turn the heat down to low.

Now add your tomato products - two cans of crushed tomatoes, one can of tomato paste, and one can of tomato sauce.  Stir it all up and let the mixture get warm.

When your sauce is reaching the "warm" point, rip up your basil leaves and stir them into the pot.  Use salt and pepper to season the sauce now, too.

Now you're going to simmer the sauce for a long time.  Like, three hours.  Stir it every thirty minutes or so and if it's starting to bubble, turn it lower.  For me, the last hour is usually spent cooking on the lowest setting possible.

Once the sauce has been cooking for three hours, you have about an hour to go.  Now is the time to stir your vodka in so that it has time to cook off.

Let the sauce with the vodka cook for 45 minutes.  Next you're going to cube your butter and throw that in, stirring it up.  The sauce will get a shimmer to it once the butter is added.

Once the butter is stirred in, it's time to add your cream.  Stir it in - this is what gives the sauce its signature orangeish pink look.

While that's cooking together (twelve minutes or so) cook up your pasta according to the package directions.

Enjoy!

Ripped up basil in the sauce.

How To Make One Glass of Lemonade

Sometimes, there is nothing better than a glass of fresh lemonade.  Particularly on an afternoon when I'm feeling kind of sluggish, pure citrus like lemon is refreshing and rejuvenating.  Usually I'll rely on a slice or two of lemon in a glass of water, but every now and then I want to go all the way with a tall glass of lemonade.

Of course, making a whole pitcher is time consuming and I don't always want that much.  Until recently, my solution was to make one glass using the powdered stuff.  Then I started experimenting and found out using one lemon, some sugar, and some water, I can actually make delicious fresh-squeezed lemonade one glass at a time!

To make one glass of lemonade you will need: 

1 Lemon

4 ounces of water

2 tablespoons of sugar (to taste)

Ice cubes

What to do: 

It's simple!  Squeeze your lemon into a glass.  I have a great citrus juicer that I found a thrift store, but you could do it by hand or use another tool too.  You'll end up with about 1/8 a cup of juice. 

Add water to the juice.  You're only filling your glass about halfway with water - 4 oz or so.  I use warm water for this part so that my sugar will dissolve better.

Add the sugar to the lemon/water mixture.  I use two tablespoons of sugar. It's a lot, but I very rarely drink sweet drinks, so I don't mind.  You may want more or less depending on how sour you like your lemonade. 

Stir away!  Next, add ice until the cup is full. 

Enjoy!

P.S.: For a particularly refreshing twist, rip up some basil leaves and throw them in the lemonade. Delicious! 

❤Lauren