A Scary Good Halloween Barbecue

 Just because It''s Halloween doesn't mean you can;t cook out. A f barbecue under a full moon is always can be both delicious and exciting. You can have the foods of summer but with a fall twist.

Hamburgers and hot dogs figure at any barbecue. You can easily have beef, Impossible or turkey  burgers. Throw in some scary spice with a dash of Szechuan pepper or paprika. If this is too much add it to ketchup to be put on later. Cut out eye triangles and jagged smile on cheddar cheese slices and pt them on hot burgers. They'll melt into jack  o'lanterns. Hot dogs get the fright treatment too. Carve out fingernail indentations and wrinkles so they look like the real deal. Add some barbecue sauce  or ketchup. for more .Ribs too can get the Halloween treatment. Use  pork ribs because they resemble the human kind the most.After they're cooked place them them on platter much like human ribs. Have at plastic skull at the top while grilled sausages can be coming out of the bottom of the ribs like intestines. You could also grill the sausages and arrange them like intestines. Use a layer of barbecue sauces t give them a bloody look to ramp up the ick factor. 

Cook out sides can get the fall treatment too. Potato salad can be given snap with a crisp apple cubed into it this adds an unexpected jolt of sweet ness to it. You could also create a bowl of apple salad that has another fruit of the season in it - cranberries. This is taking cut apples and dried cranberries and mixing them with chopped celery , mayo and pecans or walnuts. A sprtixx of lemon juice is added for some brightness and tanginess.  This can be made with Greek yogurt for a lighter, healthier version.Pears are also big right now and you can pair chopped ones with Bleu cheese for a sophisticated side.Fennell is also added as are walnuts.The dressing can be a balsamic vinaigrette or even just a simple one made with white wine vinegar. If it's really cold outside and you want to warm up your guests you could serve up cups of hot pumpkin soup. This is an easy make that involves unsweetened pumpkin puree., sauteed chopped onion, chicken broth and cream. The onions are sauteed first  in a mix of butter and olive oil in a large souppot then the pumpkin is added . When these are thoroughly mixed  add a cup of chicken broth , and a quarter cup of whole cream. SImmer , adding salt and pepper. This  can be served with rice blended in a long with butter. It's the perfect chill chaser for a cold night.

A Halloween Barbecue may sound like a scary idea but it's well worth it. Create a fun night outdoors with good food. Everyone will enjoy this celebration to fall.

Favorite Birthday Food

 Everyone always has to have a special meal on his or her birthday. It could be a juicy diner hamburger with a large size of fries and onion rings. It could be a bowl of spaghetti, graced with garlic bread. These are the foods that help make the day even more special.

What is your favorite birthday meal? Mine used to be risotto Milanese , the creamy saffron drenched rice dish from Milan. Now it's spaghetti with sauce although I wouldn't;t say no to shrimp cocktail and clam chowder.

What dish  makes your special day sing? Let us know.

The Dream F A Restaurant

 Everyone who loves cooking and baking has , at one time or another, dreamed of opening a restaurant or bakery. It should be simple, right, Finda space, create a menu, get good suppliers and cook or bake. However sometimes the dream can border on nightmare. There's a lot that goes into opening the perfect eatery.

Regular contributor Priya Krishna wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. She interviewed and followed newly minted restauranteur Mohleena Khan, at the age of tihrty-five was ready to jump into an entirely new business. The brutal truth is opening anything in New York City is a pretty big risk.There are astronomical rents, stiff competition and city bureaucracy.However this has not deterred the 4557 future eatery owners applying for permits in Manhattan. However most were filed by celebrity chefs and very rich future owners.Ms. Khan is undeterred too. She may not be a cook but she is bright and organized, pluses for running any business. Luckily her friend Aleks Jeune can cook and knows something about food running the Brooklyn coffee shop Chez Alek. The food will be her native  Indian because Brooklyn has so few Indian restaurants in the middle space between take out and find dining. The borough's casual restaurants are also hard to get into . This should make it interesting to prospective  investors

Is it , though? The two friends can put up around thirty thousand of their own money and raise one hundred thousand from a combination of family and friends. Unfortunately the response is tepid. Many friends are buying houses or having children . Money for them is spent on these. MOuleena's father Pradip gives  fifteen grand while her sister ,Alisha, who gives ten grand. Some friends chip in with amounts ranging from two to ten thousand .  Mouleena and Aleks put in an extra fifty-nine thousand on their credit cards. The next step is finding an affordable rental. They pick one on Nostarnd Avenue. It;s in ahistorical district so there will be papers to fil out. Then there are the other papers from the health inspection  to liquor license.After these are acquired it's time for renovations. Luckily Mouleena's husbands have some experience with construction and Aleks ; husband chips in to help too. Both build a birh wood bar. The women re picking out fabrics for decor. It's looking good until it isn't. They want it open by Jume first .  It will take a while. It does finally gel with them making such fusion dishes as a breakfast plate with Masala eggs and tots along with phuchka, spicy potato balls in a semolina crust.

Yes it's  hard opening and maintaining a restaurant. However if that's a dream go for it. It's worth every penny.

Midnight Pasta Dinnertime Fun

Midnight pasta has a glamorous appeal. It's original name pasta mezzanotte implies a quick dinner after a wild night out. Imagine people coming back all dressed up to make a good plate of whatever. Yet I reality it's just means a dish thrown together with whatever can be found in the pantry. This makes for a good week night supper.

Regular contributor Melissa Clark explored this in her  A Good Appetite column in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Another name for midnight pasta might be pantry pasta because the ingredients are what's ever left in the pantry.  Think canned fish like anchovies or tuna, along with pickled peppers, capers , canned beans and of course tomato paste. Add spices like fennel seeds , top with cheese like grated Parmesan. Use lemons for a fresher ,  different spin. Ms Clark also likes to scatter a frilly green like parsley on top or leftover celery leaves  chopped up. A  few fresh picked and chiffonaded basil leaves can also be used for a good dose for color and flavor. She gives three recipes , one that includes the unexpected miso along with beans. Beans such as cannellini and chickpeas bring about protein and create a silky creaminess when broken down with the olive oil. As for pasta, any kind will do . It always pays to have a box of any kind in the house.

The three recipes  given are perfect for weekdays and weekends. There is pasta with white beans, olives  and fennel. Here she uses short chunky pasta like fusilli cavatappe, campenlli or shells.  They're better for the sauce to cling to. A can of drained cannellini beans makes up the sauce's base while crushed red pepper and fennel add mellowness and zing at the same time. Pitted green olives give  the sauce tang and brininess.  For  sauce , reminiscent of bright days by the seashore there is the pasta with lemon,capers and anchovies, This is a sauce for long pasta like bucatini and spaghetti. A lemon sliced into thin half moons gives the sauce its' sunniness  while anchovies bring about an earthy saltiness . The same goes for the two tablespoons that are also added. A tablespoon of butter gives it creaminess. A different spin is long pasta like spaghetti or fettuccine with miso, Parmesan and pickled peppers. Miso and soy sauce are added to a mix of melted butter , garlic and black pepper. Parmesan and pickled peppers along with the pasta are added and mixed together last. A pinch of salt can be added if the sauce isn't briny or salt enough.

Midnight pasta is a great and fun way to make sauce. Don;t serve it at midnight though. It's the perfect meal for weekdays and weekend suppers.

Celebrating STC's Birthday

 Today is Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's birthday, the amazing author of Kubla Khan and Frost At Midnight. He would have loved a cream tea, complete with scones and jams along with a good joint of lamb. 
There is cake

He may have enjoyed chocolate which was just coming into recipes at the time. Carrot cake?

Possibly. Carrot cake is a spice cake, a sweet Coleridge certainly would have enjoyed during his life time. He may have been put off with the creamy cheese frosting since most spice cakes of his time were soaked in Madeira.  Still he would have enjoyed these.

Celebrate this great poet today with a slice of cake or scones laden with clotted cream. ENjoy his rich  array of poems and critiques. Enjoy his birthday.

Tying A DInner Party Together

 One of the biggest problems for any dinner party is coordinating the courses . What is the perfect side for roast Cornish hens? Is a cheesecake appropriate for finishing a paella? In other words what works with what/ It is hard to figure out.

Usually a dish's ethnic origins can lead to what the side dishes and dessert will be. A pork shoulder with apples and onions on the side is basically Germanic in background. Think about serving sauerkraut or sauteed cabbage with bacon on the side. Spaetzles are a must if there's gravy.  Dessert could be a lush Black Forest Cake, rich with cherries and kirschwasser (a cherry liqueur ) or a creamy Bienenstich a 'bee sting " cake consisting of two layers of sweet year dough , pastry cream or whipped cream and a topping of whipped cream studded with almond slivers (hence the cake's name . The almonds are said to resemble stingers) Cassoulet or even duck a'orange are perfect dinner party main courses .It 's only right to have French sides. For cassoulet which is a rich stew consisting of pork, sausage and duck, it's just better to have an unassuming green salad with a plain vinaigrette and slices of warm, crusty French bread. What works as a dessert? Anything with an acidic tang such as a lemon sorbet or a lemon tart. You could also have the light  but chocolate-y pots du creme or creme brulee.

Flavor intense dishes such as paella are usually stand alone dishes. You could start it off with gazpacho shots for guests or shot glasses of just plain gazpacho, the chilled vegetable based soup. Also a simple salad works well along with slices of toasted baguette or Italian bread. As for dessert anything lemony as an antidote to they heavily saffron spiced rice and meats. Another option is the Spanish version of creme brulee cream catalana, . This is slightly different than its' French cousin because it has cinnamon added to the sugar on top. A fun dinner party meal is chili. There is nothing like a bowl of it. Of course the perfect side is a homemade cornbread. This can be baked plain or studded with chopped jalapenos. Serving it with nacho chips is also a fun and tasty way of enjoying the chili. Dessert after this can go two ways, You can have bowls of a light fruit sorbet such as lemon or strawberry or something rich and decadent like a molten chocolate lava cake served with a scoop of cinnamon flecked ice cream. A plate of Mexican wedding cookies would be a great touch too.

It is hard coordinating a dinner party menu. Yet remember where the dish came from and then go with it form there. Have sides and a dessert that represent the main dish's country of origin. It'll prove to be a more unified dinner party.

Almond Mayo ?? A Nutty Idea But Yes

 Since its' inception in 1802 mayonnaise has always been made with eggs. Yet as the world embraces more vegan options may recipes are not leaning toward the plant and nut based. There's a new one out , based entirely on almonds. Is this a nutty idea? Yes but the almonds produce a smooth silky condiment better than the egg  rich original.

I discovered this new Mayo when look for a vegetarian option. I really love it .It was the perfect sauce for the ImpossibleBurger.

Fresh Vintage  Farms produces it and it's made with one hundred per cent pure almond oil.The Central Valley, California based company also makes and sell almond and walnut oils for salads and frying. Third generation almond farmers Tommy and Tara Tickenoff came up with this healthy  choice of a Mayo  everyone will love 

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Their idea has paid off. I love it on tomato sandwiches. The almond mayo has the same eggy taste as the traditional ones but there's also a silkiness  in texturet o it too. I can't wait to use it in potato salads along with making homemade French dressing too. Best of all there isn't a heaviness to it. It is very light.

Fresh Vintage Farms has given the world a very good vegan option. Try their almond oil based Mayo for all sorts of salads and sandwiches. It is both good for you and good tasting.