Not Your Typical Dorm Food

 Dorm food isn;t always the best. It's Ramen soup for dinner followed by whatever candy the nearby vending machine  for dessert. Yet imagine if food cooked in limited spaces with limited resources could actually taste as good as a meal from GrubHub and Uber Eats.I'ts easy to do and even a student who's more of a whiz with STEM can create a tasty meal.

New contributor and photographer Sharon Atti has compiled some tasty recipes from chefs for today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Breakfast is one of the most important meals in a college kid's life. Take a student's favorite - overnight oats and matcha latte and combine them with high powered and densely nutrient  ingredients. Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali -Irish activist gave this recipe .in it she adds chia seeds which are great for building young bones and makes for good heart health. Maple syrup is added instead of sugar .It's topped with Greek yogurt and fruit the last can be bought at local farmer's markets. (these are usually located near campuses) The oats are not cooked, just mixed and stored in the fridge. It can last for up to five days,.Yes, there is ramen thanks t another Food section contributor and chef, Eric KIm. This one ,however, uses spaghetti. creamy peanut butter , butter and Parmesan.. The pasta is cooked and a quick sauce of the oth ingredients is made using some for the pasta water. It's a different spin on a dorm classic.

Hardier dishes and even a dessert round out the rest of the recipes. Ms. Fahr also gives a tasty and energy boosting chickpea spinach salad with curry yogurt dressing. The dressing is  not processed but fresh. Ms Fahr adds curry powder and Dijon mustard for flavor and color to a mix of olive oil, mayo vinegar and yogurt.Finely chopped scallions and parsley are added. This is finely blended and dressed over  two cans of mashed chickpeas and spinach. (you can leave the chickpeas as , if you want more texture). drizzle with olive oil before serving.eric Kim also gives a tuna mayo rice bowl. It just takes leftover rice (or a packet of Lidl's easily microwaveable rice) a can of tuna and mayo. THe mayo and tuna are blended with soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. Its'a great way for a dormie to get protein and flavor. what about dessert? Kids love a good dessert. Ali Slagle provides a three recipe mug cake.All it takes is Nutella, one large egg and baking powder. Microwave in a mug for  forty to sixty seconds until the edges a re set and the middle is gooey. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Dorm food doesn' have to be just ramen and candy bars.It can be tasty salads and warm desserts, tuna bowls and oatmeal breakfasts. It can be good food ,made quickly,.

A Fun, Summer Birthday

 How do you celebrate a summer birthday? There's humidity and high temps to deal with. Forget about baking a cake. You can still have fun in a very cool way.

A cool way to celebrate is to look to Northern Italy. Piedmonte, wich is graced with cooling Alpine breezes is big on salads. A Piedmontese potato salad is filling on its own or as a side. It's taking small, boiled potato, cornichons or gherkins  and tomatoes mixed with with a dressing made with red wine vinegar oil, and Dijon mustard. Another great meal is peperoni Al acciuga or peppers with anchovies. These are pure heaven on earth with grilled and charred green peppers dressed with an richly anchovy dressing.salsa Verde,  a ground parsley pesto can be added on top but the sweet peppers married with the anchovies braininess are ideal alone. Anchovies are also a main ingredient in the wintry dish bagna calda. They create a rich sauce  blended with olive oil, butter and garlic. Savoy cabbage is dipped into it along with filet mignon. yet it can be made with red leaf lettuce for a lighter summer birthday treat. Just as the main summer meal in Torino is lush, so are the desserts.The area is known for hazelnuts so a homemade hazelnut cake is the perfect end. It can be dusted with coca powder for a Nutella vibe. fresh fruit with Prosecco is also a nice birthday dessert.

On the other side of the Alps there is German food namely the intensely flavored Swabian cuisine. A really fun birthday lunch or dinner I grilled bratwurst, Make sure the skin is crispy so that every bite is filled with flavor. Serve it with Swabishe kartoffel salat. What makes it tastier than just regular Potato salad is the addition of beef or chicken broth , The potatoes -usually the deep yellow Yukon gold is left to marinate in the broth that's also mixed with  minced onion, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.Another dish that would be perfect with grilled bratwurst is spaetzles salad.Spaetzle is good on it;s own or served hot mixed with great beans but it's also excellent in a salad. This type of pasta is mixed with sun dried tomatoes, , zucchini, peppers and greens.  You could also fry up priest pockets or maultaschen filled with meat and spinach. These are fried  for extra crispiness.Dress it with a simple vinaigrette or pesto Most rich Swabian cakes are usually made for the Christmas holidays. A summer birthday calls for a fruit laden cake. There can be pum tort currant cake and apple cake. Serve these with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Birthday's don;t have to be the usual summer fare of hamburgers or ribs. Vary the menu. Try a Piedmontese or Swabian dish for something more delicious and fun.

New York Croissants Guide

 Manhattan and its' sister boroughs will be the hot spot of many a vacationer this summer. Yes people come for the city's thin crust, tomato and mozzarella rich pizza yet there's another treat to consider. The city makes a good croissant and variations of it. The question is where to go for bite of flaky ,buttery goodness.

New contributor and food critic Mahira River gave the most comprehensive guide to finding this French class in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. A croissant crawl is a worthy side trip to any Manhattan visitor. There are so many bakeries that produce good ones.The best bakeries are int he trendiest neighborhoods like SoHo and Chelsea. Visit the alf Bakery in the Chelsea Market. The baker Amadou Ly creates a twice baked croissant that's more like a cookie. He adds bittersweet chocolate and almonds for a crunchy bite.Check out another Chelsea classic Le Bergamot, known for their luscious cakes also has a melt in your  mouth croissant that breaks off in feathery shards  when bitten. Chelsea also has Tall Poppy that has a mouthwatering cruffin -a croissant and muffins hybrid,It also has a thick dab of chive cream cheese in the middle for a a different kind of lunch.No Ho (North of Houston street) has trendy restaurants and shops but it also has Lafayette Grand Cagfe & Bakery . The pastry chef there creates a croissant with a flavor between toasted bread and tangy butter.It i beautiful to look at too.It is deeply bronzed with a layering that looks like grained wood.

The boroughs have all sorts of neat eateries and shops. These are worth visiting as well as their bakeries creating croissants. park Slope is as trendy as New York City  neighborhoods go. stop in and see Miolin. Chef Claudio Miolin has elevated the chocolate croissant by adding cocoa to the dough and filling the middle with silky dollops of Nutella. Brooklyn Heights, long know for excellent eateries and luxury brownstones has L"Appartement 4 F. Owners Gautier and Ashley Coiffard even created a croissant cereal made up of tiny crescents. Yet their fan base is all for their regular sized ones, with their sweetly buttery and a tad salty flavor. Astoria may be known for souvlaki and gyros but surprisingly  there are some good bakeries to find melt in your mouth croissants. Bench Flour Bakers gives just plain croissants - nothing filled with almond or croissant. These are just perfect with coffee.There is also someday Bakery which features the black tahini croissant.It's stuffed with a nutty tahini frangipane and twice baked with a cap of black sesame brittle. someday's also has savory croissants that would make for a perfect lunch. There's also Gowanus Runner & Stone that bake their croissants with New York State grown and milled flours ,

Visit New York for the croissants.There's a wide variety of them to choose from. enjoy a a buttery bite with an iced coffee for the ultimate city experience.

Food Is For Everyone

 It doesn't matter who you love as long as you can produce a good  product. This also applies to anything in the food business.If it's tasty and makes cooking an prep time a breeze, then what matters is the integrity, love and spirit that goes into it.

One company is Diaspora, a spice company. The spices are all grown sustainably and they're a must for any home chef into cooking and baking. There are varieties of different masalas that add depth and layers to curries and roasted veggies.Try Nik's achari masala, or turmeric for a golden dish or even a chai. Keep in mind that the spices are top quality so that means a higher price that the spices you'd buy at your local grocery store.A tin of hot cocoa will coast twenty-five dollars while cinnamon is twelve dollars for a small tin. They do offer  the sometimes hard to find jaggery, the brown gritty sugar used in Indian baking and cooking. Hot sauce is a must for summer barbecues. Pick up a bottle of Shaquanda's Hot Pepper sauce created by drag queen and entrepreneur Andre Springer. This is a mix of fresh hot Chile peppers, ginger, onions and turmeric. adding more kick are mustard and apple cider.It would be perfect for  a zingy barbecue shrimp or chicken. There are also other hot sauces such a as west Indian curry  - a zippy ginger sauce with the fiery heat of Scotch bonnet and Oomami a fancier layered sauce made from caramelized onions, habanero peppers and balsamic vinegar.

A good bean can elevate any dish, from soup to chili. Try Rancho Gordo ones. They may be a bit more expensive but they are flavorful and perfect for any dish.Add their Santa MAria Pinquinot bean to chilis; for a thick, beefy flavor that will make the traditional dish stand out.Rancho Gordo also has both black and white garbanzo beans . The black ones have an earthworm nuttier flavor than their white counterparts and would make for an interesting chickpea salad or a hummus rich with flavor. The last can easily be made with just the beans olive oil and a bit of tahini for an interesting appetizer. The company also sells split peas perfect for soups and black eyed peas , ideal for a richly flavored Hopping John. For another legume there is the peanut butter company Peanut Butter & Company. The store has everything ,from peanut powder for making shakes to peanut butter (as well as maple almond butter cookies) Their peanut butters have not only the usual smooth and crunchy types to choose from but also peanut butters blended with chocolate, honey and cinnamon for a different spin. They also offer their version of Nutella, both light and dark chocolate as well as almonds butters.

It doesn't matter who you love.It matters what you love if you're a foodie. Celebrate all sorts of love and people with these brands, full of their own love and goodness.

Halloween Leftover Fun

This is the day and night when homes will be bulging with Halloween candy , whether gotten on neighborhood runs or left over at home. There's usually a lot to take in and eat. Sometimes all those extra goodies can still be around til the candy canes and holiday fudge appears. What to do with these leftovers? Repurpose! They can add some fun to any dessert or snack.

Chocolate based treats can be used in everything from cookies to icing to ice cream. If you have left over Hershey's Kisses or the bite size Reese's Peanut Butter cups, then make those peanut blossom cookies. This is a great way of getting rid of them and they make a fun treat with warm milk or hot tea on a cold day. Reese's pieces can be repurposed as chips in the famed treats with their name. This is a chocolate cookie studded with the bits. Remember, these can also be put into homemade brownies for a fun surprise. The popular Mounds Bar can also be used as a cookie ingredient,The dough, however isn;t the typical cookie one, but rather a stickier, more brownie like one, that has melted chococlate chips in it. Other candies that go well in a cookie are KitKats and Almond Joys. Forget Whoppers, those malted milk balls, The malted milk centers dry out and  turns to a  cement texture which  makes for a dangerous kind of snack.Another idea is chopping up the chocolates and adding them to either chocolate or vanilla ice cream for fun add ins. They can also be used for toppings too, especially if you're thinking about making an ice cream pie . Fold into cream cheese icing for a neat addition to any cupcake or cake frosting.

The chopped candies also can be used in salty snacks too. Try doing a popcorn crunch using them and freshly popped kernels. It's then laying both on a foil covered baking sheet and pouring melted chocolate bark over them.Let harden for ten minutes and then break into bite size pieces. Pretzels can be subbed in along with potato chips or Cheerios. These can also be made into balls with the addition of melted caramels and marshmallows  Famed Momofuku Milk Bar bakery pastry chef, Christina Tosi, creates a heavenly mix of leftover goodies , butter,milk powder and pretzels. It;s first mixing brown and white sugar and then melting the butter in a large bowl (use a microwave for this). These are combined along with the milk powder and broken pretzels. Spread this mixure on a lined baking sheet for twenty minutes at  This is then baked for about twenty minutes in a preheated 275 degree F oven. Afterwards, let cool and break into pieces. Toss them with whatever chopped candy you have and serve. Another idea is adding the pieces to Nutella or Hershey's chocolate spread and spreading on croissants for a fun snack. The candy can also be added to smooth peanut butter and served on bread or Hawaiian rolls for a sweet nosh.

Bowls of leftover candy? More like the ingredients of fun snacks. Repurpose those Halloween treats into new and fun treats for the whole family!

Prayers to those who suffered in the Manhattan Halloween attack today

Voici Des Francais

The French have the best of everything, food , wine and fashion. We see their lives as the greatest, filled with croissants and champagne, Jean-Paul Gautier and the House of Chanel. Yet there's another side of France that also exists - and a new book chronicles this.It's an eye opener for those who love Gallic ideas and l'alimentaire.

 Olivier Magny , a wine expert, entrepreneur and author has just written a  sharply witty guide to understanding all things Gallic, WTF - What The French (New American Library Publishers 2016) opens up a world of life in the City of Light and the Country of Fine Dining Monsiuer Magny has written about every aspect of life, from phrases such as ca va (used a lot) to the French's blase attitude to nudity and cigarettes.Of course some of the most insightful observations come from the chapters highlighting food and wine.The chapter on supermarkets was both eye opening and interesting.I didn't know that the French frequented supermarkets as often as us Yanks do. Most travel articles show endless miles of open air markets called les marches, however it's the big box supermarkets that garner much of a French home chef's business. They do have a wine aisle which is unheard of here in the States  (American grocery stores that do sell wines  usually locate them in a small corner that has its' own entry and exit) along with a generous cheese aisle.Unlike the States where grocery shopping is usually fun, the French see it through a dark lens, There's some guilt in going to a store that exploits farmers along with eating up the smaller, more charming food shops. The last still exists, thankfully and there are still butchers, along with patisseries  and bread bakers.

M. Magny also delves into the french passion for yogurt (!) and Nutella.It comes as another surprise that the country who  gave the world creme fraiche is so hung up on yogurt. It usually us Americans who have cups and popsicles of the stuff in our fridges and freezers.It's caught on there, probably  thanks to Danone, the parent  company of Dannon Yogurt. All fridges have a cup or two. The French have high standards for it, and French yogurt can be seen as healthy or as a dessert - that's how good it is.They even add powdered sugar to the plain one or yaourt nature , mostly to end a meal. The second obsession is Nutella. Anyone born in the mid Seventies and up grew up on the chocolate hazelnut blend.It's put on everything, from croissants to crepes to bread. The passion does ebb as they get older and then it's something to try on holiday. .The French still have their passion for bread, especially the baguette. There's also chapters on fast and slow foods McDonald's is big  but so are kabob shops and boulangeries have expanded their menus to include sandwiches and lunch menus. The country still has a big restaurant culture but there's also a need to eat at home too. Home chefs do;t make fancy meals,preferring salad, pasta or even yogurt. The more elaborate meals are saved for Sundays and family gatherings.

WTF What The French is a fun romp through French life and culture.Olivier Magny has captured his people's quirks and love of food and wine. It's the perfect gift for the Francophile foodie! Vraiment!

The Perfect Chocolate Babka

Babka has always been the domain  of bubbies and Jewish bakeries. That's all changing  thanks to a new generation of hip home bakers discovering it. The recipe has been somewhat tweaked but the end result is the same. Chewy buttery sweet slices that always satisfy,

Melissa  Clark wrote about it in yesterday's New York Times  A Good Appetite column along with a scrumptious recipe. Babkas are experiencing a kind of renaissance right now. The trendy Sadelle's Bakery in Manhattan's Soho offers one studded with homemade chocolate cookies while competitor Breads Bakery stuffs theirs with Nutella. Other bakeries such as Bklyn Larder fills theirs with a rich ganache and Baz Bagel turns theirs into the ultimate comfort food - babka bread pudding. The cake becomes even more decadent in the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolonghi and Sami Tamimi.It's renamed the chocolate krantz cake and is loaded with pecans. This has spawned a variety of variations. such as one filled with chocolate and raspberry jam and another soaked in honey syrup. New York's Lower East Side Russ & Daughters, originally a fish and savory shop, uses and bakes the original recipe . Theirs, according to fourth generation owner Joshua Ross Tupper advises babka is a nice balance of not too sweet cake and rich chocolate filling,It's also one the of the few traditional babkas sold and it's shipped all over the country. Ms. Clark is the rebel baker, using a rich chocolate butter cream filling in hers.

Home bakers be warned. Babka requires time and some expertise.It is working with yeast which can be tricky and time consuming. One can take all day or even longer (!) to make due to refrigerating the dough between steps. Doing this  does make it easier to manipulate  and a longer proofing period does give it a richer, more complex taste.It is easier to freeze than other breads so home chefs can make two loaves, one for now, the other for later. It is a rich buttery dough with a recipe requiring ten tablespoons of butter. and four large eggs.. The dough is transferred to buttered bowls which add to the flavor  as it bounces in and out of the fridge/Ms Clark's frosting filling also has a stick of unsalted butter along with 3/4 of a cup of heavy cream.If this isn't enough , there is over the top cocoa streusel topping. This is more butter (but only four and a half tablespoons this time) blended with cocoa , sugar and flour, It creates giant , luscious crumbs mixed in with dark chocolate chips. Home bakers can top their babkas with brown sugar streusel on top. The same goes for the filling.any sweet goo,according to Ms. Clark is acceptable. Try, jam, dulce de leche, Nutella or hot fudge sauce.

Chocolate babka is making a big comeback. Make it to enjoy its' lush buttery chocolate flavor.It may be intense to make but a dream to eat.