carbo-loading

It all started as a joke. I had been giving Judd a hard time about his eating habits -- he considers pizza a breakfast food and popcorn a dessert -- when he pointed out that I consume grams upon grams of unnatural white powdered sugar substitute per day. He had a good point - there's nothing healthy about sweetening your drinks with the contents of a yellow, baby blue, or pink paper packet. But even though I know it's probably not good for me, I can't seem to cut it out of my diet completely. So, I thought up a challenge: I would give up my beloved Splenda if Judd would run a 10k.

Fast-forward a few months. Judd had not spent more than 20 minutes on the treadmill, and I was still recklessly stirring who knows what into my daily cups of coffee. Somewhere along the way though, I decided I myself could use a fitness challenge. A goal to set with literal milestones to work toward. So in January, I signed myself up for the Scotland 10k and started running in Central Park on the weekends. And this morning I did it! (If you squint, you can see me in that photo wearing a blue shirt and navy shorts, just behind that orange pole.) I ran a full loop, 6.2 miles, around the park with 10,000 other runners, most of whom finished long before I did. I never expected to win today's race, but I must admit that I was pretty humbled by the number of runners either twice my age, twice my size, or with half as many legs that jogged right past me. (I did actually pass one blind guy around mile 4.)

Even though I'm hardly a high-octane running machine, I still needed fuel to get out there and go, even when I was only jogging one or two miles. Which brings me to the best part of jogging: carbo-loading! Sure I often eat (not to mention drink) tons of carbs on an average weekend night. But I've really enjoyed having an excuse to indulge in potato, rice, and flour based entrees lately and have also been expanding my own pasta repertoire at home. Here's a recipe worth sharing for a vegetarian rotini with lentils that I made last weekend courtesy of Lidia Bastianich - super easy and delicious!

1 cup small green lentils

1/3 cup diced carrot (~1 medium carrot)

1/3 cup diced celery (~1.5 stalks)

2 bay leaves

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

28-oz crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1-lb rotini or other pasta

8-10 large basil leaves, shredded

1 cup freshly grated pecorino cheese

1. Rinse the lentils and put them in a saucepan with the diced carrot and celery, bay leaves, and 3 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, and adjust the heat to maintain a gentle, steady simmer. Cook until the lentils are just tender, about 25 minutes (or longer, depending on the size).

2. When the lentils are almost cooked, pour the olive oil into a large skillet and set it over medium-high heat. Scatter in the garlic slices and cook for a minute or two, until sizzling and starting to color; sprinkle the crushed red pepper and toast as the garlic sizzles. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Bring the tomato sauce to a boil and simmer for five minutes until starting to thicken.

3. When the lentils are tender remove the bay leaves and pour the lentils and any remaining liquid into the pot with the tomatoes. Season with salt, add shredded basil, stir everything together, and heat the sauce to a bubbling simmer. Cook for an additional 25 minutes until the lentils are quite tender and the sauce has thickened to a consistency you like for pasta.

4. In the meantime, cook the rotini in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the al dente noodles right into the simmering tomato sauce. Cook an additional minute or two and turn off the heat. Stir in grated cheese and drizzle with a little olive oil before serving.

a gigante pot of Greek beans

I was feeling adventurous the other day and decided to try my hand at gigantes, the giant white beans often featured in Greek cooking. I believe gigante means "giant" in Greek and these creamy beans really are enormous - each one is roughly the size of a quarter. A quick search on epicurious yielded a recently published recipe for gigante beans from one of my favorite chefs, Michael Symon.

I went to law school in Cleveland and spent three happy years living amongst laid-back and good-natured midwesterners. Cleveland is actually a great town for foodies -- it is home to a surprising number of excellent restaurants and specialty markets and there's never any traffic or need to make a dinner reservation more than a few days in advance. And, for the most part, it's less expensive to eat out there in than in New York, which was friendly to my graduate student budget.

During my third year of law school, I read "The Soul of a Chef," by Michael Ruhlman, a journalist and Cleveland native. The book, which I recommend despite its slow beginning, profiles two very different up-and-coming chefs, Michael Symon and Thomas Keller (the famed chef behind the French Laundry in Napa and now Per Se and Bouchon Bakery in New York). At the time, Michael Symon was an ingenue on the national culinary scene, though he had a successful restaurant, Lolita, on Cleveland's trendy west side (trendy for Cleveland, at least). Since the publication of Rhulman's book, Michael Symon has opened Lola, a second much bigger restaurant in Downtown Cleveland, won a coveted James Beard award, and least interestingly, joined the Food Network's roster of American Iron Chefs. But he was so lovable as a struggling young chef bringing his passion to a random neighborhood of a dying rust belt city, that I won't hold that against him.

But I digress -- pent up blogging energy. The bottom line is I was excited to make Michael Symon's version of gigantes only to discover that I could not actually find the dry beans. Anywhere. I went to Fairway, Citarella, and Whole Foods and none of them carried gigante beans. One of those new helpful women in red aprons at Fairway suggested I try Kalustyan's on Lexington Avenue and 28th Street.

Kalustyan's is the most magical specialty foods store I have ever been in. They have row upon row upon row of exotic ingredients. I would not have been at all surprised to see a cape-clad Harry Potter shopping in there for rare ingredients for a new spell recipe. Since I don't really like candy and never did, the "like a kid in a candy store" has never really applied to me, but that's how I felt as I roamed the aisles of imported beans, grains, nuts, herbs, spices, and spreads. You must check it out. I found a 2lb bag of gigante beans in no time at all and was on my way home to get started. 24 hours later, I had 3 quarts of really tasty beans.

And without further ado, here's the recipe for an enormous pot of greek beans:

1 pound dried gigante beans

1/4 cup olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 28-ounce can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup ouzo (Greek anise-flavored liqueur)

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup fresh chopped dill

1. Place beans in a large bowl and cover with water by three inches. Let soak overnight then drain and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and garlic and saute until onions are golden brown, 7-10 minutes. Add beans, broth, water, chopped tomatoes with juice, vinegar, ouzo, oregano, and crushed pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender 2-3 hours.

3. If necessary, uncover and cook beans until tomato mixture thickens and liquid is slightly reduced, an additional 10-15 minutes. Stir in chopped dill and season beans with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

We've been eating a lot of beans at our house this past week. They're good plain, with a salad, along side a sliver of spanikopita, and over couscous.

If you don't feel like making gigantes yourself but you'd like to eat some, I suggest stopping by Anthi's Greek Food, a delicious and inexpensive takeout place on Amsterdam Avenue between 89th and 90th. I have picked up gigantes, spanikopita, and tzatziki there several times lately and it's all been great.

Twice as nice

Yesterday was a special day for me and Judd: it marked two years since we tied the knot, threw a big party, and headed off to Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast for twelve glorious days of Atkins-defying bliss.

After an underwhelming an overpriced anniversary dinner at Minetta Tavern last year, I decided not to take any chances this year and booked us a table at Del Posto, the feather in the Bastianich-Batali-Bastianich cap. And it was sensational.

On Saturday night, we headed down to the corner of 16th Street and Tenth Avenue to meet our friends Manny and Deana for an over-the-top dinner courtesy of Del Posto's celebrated executive chef, Mark Ladner. We spent four hours savoring their five-course tasting menu along with some excellent 2008 Bastianich "super white" wine. The menu was a mix of both traditional Italian-American favorites (e.g., a small cup of stracciatella soup, garganelli with veal ragu, marinated clams with fried artichokes, grilled pork) and more contemporary offerings (e.g., a spicy shellfish stew with diver scallop carpaccio, super-creamy parmesan cheese risotto drizzled with 25 year-old balsamic vinegar, stuffed pig's trotter with lentils). And even more incredible than the food was the service -- I felt like a princess as soon as they gave me and Deana a special little footstool for our purses. Our dinner at Del Posto was one of the best meals of my life -- and certainly one of the most expensive! - but it was worth every penny.

Last night (our actual anniversary), I decided to keep with the Bastianich theme and tried a recipe that I'd seen Lidia Bastianich make on her terrific public television show, Lidia's Italy, a few weeks ago: pasta with baked cherry tomatoes (pasta con pomodori al forno).

It was really delicious and very easy to make. Here's the recipe:

3 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus one tablespoon

1/3 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta water

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 lb penne (or rigatoni, or spaghetti)

10 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

~20 basil leaves, torn, chopped or shredded

1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

4 ounces ricotta cheese (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Toss the tomato halves in a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, bread crumbs, pepper flakes, and salt. Pour the tomatoes onto a cookie sheet and spread them apart in a single layer. Bake until the tomatoes are shriveled and lightly caramelized (but not dried out), about 25-35 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with salted water and heat to a rolling boil. When the tomatoes are nearly done, drop the pasta into the boiling water, stir, and return the water to a boil.

4. As soon as the pasta is cooking, pour the remaining olive oil into a heavy-bottomed skillet, set it over medium-high heat, and scatter the sliced garlic. Cook for a minute or two, until the garlic is sizzling and lightly colored, then ladle in about 2 cups of the pasta cooking water, and bring to a vigorous boil, stirring up the garlic. Let half the water evaporate, then lower the heat and keep the sauce barely simmering.

5. Remove the tomatoes from the oven when done.

6. When the pasta is al dente (about 2 minutes before the suggested cooking time on the box), lift it from the water, drain it for a moment, and drop it into the skillet with the garlic. Toss pasta with the sauce, cooking for an additional minute - 90 seconds.

7. Turn off the heat, slide in the baked tomato halves, and shredded basil leaves. Stir will until the pasta is evenly dressed and the tomatoes are well-distributed. Sprinkle on the grated cheese and toss once more.

8. Serve immediately with a dollop of ricotta cheese.

Risotto caprese

I love risotto and I also love caprese salad. Last weekend I combined them: risotto with cherry tomatoes, torn basil leaves, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Here's the recipe:

7-8 cups simmering chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (1/2 a small onion)

2 cups short grain rice (arborio or carnaroli)

1 cup dry white wine

3/4 lb fresh lightly salted mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes

1/4 grated parmesan cheese

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup shredded basil leaves

salt and freshly ground pepper

1. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir until each grain is well-coated with oil and translucent with a white dot in the center, about 3 minutes. Add the wine and stir until completely absorbed.

2. Add the simmering broth one ladleful at a time, stirring frequently after each addition. Wait until the stock is almost completely absorbed (but the rice is never dry on top) before adding the next ladleful. Reserve 1/4 cup broth to add at the end.

3. When the rice is tender to the bite but slightly firm in the center and looks creamy, after about 20 minutes, turn off the heat and stir in the reserved broth, the mozzarella cubes, grated parmesan, tomato halves, and basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

L.A. story

Two weeks ago, I finally made it out to Los Angeles to visit my friend, former roommate, and fellow food enthusiast, Anastasia, who led me on an excellent culinary tour of some of LA's best eateries.

On my first night in town, Stash took me to Little Dom's in Los Feliz, one of her favorite neighborhood spots. I had two glasses of Verdicchio from their cute wine list (it's divided into three sections: "tried and true," "your new best friend," and "go out on a limb"), some particularly memorable fried rice balls filled with melted mozzarella cheese, and a big bowl of spicy cappellini with oven roasted tomatoes and crushed red pepper. A low-key and reasonably priced Italian dinner at Little Dom's was the perfect antidote to the weariness brought on by a long and frustrating day of air travel.

In my opinion, no trip to the west coast would be complete without a big plate of tacos, so for lunch on Sunday, Stash brought me to Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock. It was a gorgeous day and we were lucky to snag two seats on their patio where we snacked on warm homemade tortilla chips and salsa as our tacos were prepared. We each had three of their delicious soft tacos: carnitas (shredded pork shoulder), carne asada (grilled steak), and corn truffle for me, and carnitas, calabacitas (zucchini, corn, and cotija cheese), and tiger shrimp in citrus-chipotle-garlic sauce. I would like to eat some more of their tacos right now!

Stash's lovely parents invited us over for a family dinner at their house on Sunday night where her mom, Christina, made one of my favorite indulgences of all time: a puff-pastry wrapped baked brie. We went over to their house extra-early so I could watch how she makes it. First, she thaws two sheets of frozen puff pastry, then she coats a wheel of brie (tied with camembert for my favorite cheese) with an entire round of garlic and herb boursin (another one of my favorites). The boursin-slathered brie then gets wrapped up, not once, but twice, in a sheet of buttery puff pastry before heading into the oven for 35-40 minutes. The resulting oozing brie is perfect with sliced baguette and crisp raisin flat breads.

On Monday, Stash brought me to Wurstküche, a Belgian sausage and fries place downtown. They offer approximately 2 dozen homemade sausage varieties, ranging from "classics," like spicy Italian, "gourmet" like mango jalapeno, and "exotics" like alligator, pork and andouille sausage, all served on fresh-baked rolls with your choice of caramelized onions, sauerkraut, and sweet or spicy peppers. I was not feeling particularly adventurous and selected a bratwurst with caramelized onions. I enjoyed it very much, but the real highlight of our lunch was the large order of double-dipped fries with a white truffle oil glaze. They were hands-down the best fries I have ever had. Ever! And I've had a LOT of fries.

This very rich lunch was followed by a very rich dinner at Lucques, a French-American restaurant on Melrose Avenue (not to be confused with Melrose Place) in West Hollywood. The restaurant's head chef, Suzzanne Goin, was named one of Food & Wine Magazine's top new chefs in 1999, and Lucques was awarded first place on LA Magazine's top 75 restaurants in 2008. To start, Stash and I shared a wild mushroom lasagna with butternut squash, asiago cheese, and wilted kale. As we finished this decadent lasagna, we realized we were sitting next to several members of the cast of "Dallas," including Larry Hagman and Linda Gray. My first official LA celebrity sightings! (Not quite as exciting as Julia Roberts or George Clooney, but still cool.) I went on to order braised beef short ribs with sauteed greens, cippolini onions, and horseradish cream - excellent; Stash had slow-roasted lamb sirloin with parsnip puree, and balsamic-glazed Brussels sprouts. We finished our meal with a stand-out vanilla panna cotta.

I spent my last full day in Los Angeles hanging out on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, before rejoining Stash's family for cheese enchiladas and very strong margaritas at La Cabañita in Glendale - just the right ending to my much too short trip.

60+ degree weather in February, delicious Mexican food around every corner, and being within a 10-mile radius of some of my favorite people (not including Larry Hagman) - enough to make a life-long New Yorker seriously reconsider my east-coast-superiority complex.

Restaurant review: Zum Stammtisch

I love German food. Yes, it's heavy and rich and you don't feel good after you've eaten it, but it's in my DNA. My mother's father grew up in Germany and didn't move to America until the early 1940's, when he was nearly 30 years old. He and my grandmother owned a small hotel in Kingston, New York for many years where they also ran a successful German restaurant, the Dutch Rathskeller. When they would come into Manhattan to visit us when we were little, we usually had dinner at one of the German restaurants that used to line East 86th Street, including Cafe Geiger and the Ideal. (Sadly, all that remains of that formerly German neighborhood are the butcher shop Schaller & Weber, purveyor of excellent sausages, and the Heidelberg, an extremely kitschy restaurant where the ceilings are covered in plastic grape vines, the waiters wear sexy lederhosen, and the bar is full of rowdy Upper East Siders drinking way too much schnapps.)

I also love dining adventures in the other boroughs, and had been very excited to try Zum Stammtisch in Glendale, Queens. My mother was actually the first person to tell me about Zum Stammtisch. It has been in business since 1972 and she had been there a few times back in the 70's. (Unclear how my mother can remember the name and location of a place where she ate dinner 30 years ago, but not where she parked her car this morning.) Then I saw it featured on a recent episode of the Food Network show, "Best Thing I Ever Ate." Zum Stammtisch's jagerschnitzel (fried pork cutlet with mushroom gravy) was the response given by one of the Food Network's pundits when asked what she'd eat for her last meal on earth. Can you give a stronger compliment than that!?

Since a cold snowy night is one of the only kinds of night when eating a gravy-laden fried pork cutlet would feel comforting instead of terrible, last month, the snowiest January in NYC history, felt like the right time to head out to Queens.

Glendale is about 30 minutes from the Upper West Side by car and we didn't have much trouble parking near the restaurant. I had made a reservation day-of, but I don't think you need one. Especially if you don't mind having a stein of beer or two at the bar. The interior of Zum Stammtisch is like a time capsule of Queens circa 1970 something with lots of outdated Bavarian touches. We were seated in the back dining room which was quite cozy and less hectic than the main dining room, just off the bar. Our wooden table was decorated in some pretty cheesy place mats with a faux pine sprig centerpiece. My mother's pinot grigio arrived in one of the most unusual wine glasses I've ever seen and the beer I ordered came in a giant ceramic stein. No matter as I was really just interested in the food.

There were not too many tempting selections among Zum Stammtisch's appetizers as I do not care for smoked or pickled fish, raw or pickled beef, snails, caviar, or headcheese. So I shared a cup of tasty goulash with my sister, which I would have guessed was Hungarian not German. My mother chose pickled herring in cream sauce and Judd ordered the smoked brook trout with creamed horseradish. Both claimed those starters looked better than then they looked.

When it came to selecting an entree, there were so many things that looked good! We decided to each order something different so there could be plenty of tasting and sharing. I went with the grilled knackwurst (like oversized hot dogs) with potato salad and red cabbage. Hot dog perfection!

My sister ordered the celebrated jagerschnitzel, which came with hashed browns and more red cabbage. Not only was it really delicious, but the portion was enormous - there was not one but TWO enormous fried pork cutlets smothered in a mushroomy gravy. I ate one of them for lunch the next day.

Judd ordered a prime rib special. Have you ever seen a bigger prime rib!? It looked like something Fred Flinstone would eaten. I don't actually love prime rib, but it was surprisingly good.

Finally, my mom ordered Sauerbraten (pot roast with potato dumplings). The dumplings were disappointingly dense and flavorless, but the stewed beef was good enough.

As I waddled back to my mom's car, I decided that Food Network star may have had it wrong - Zum Stammtisch might not be a choice for your last meal on earth as much as it may signal the end of your life. The amount of fat and cholesterol in half of what I ate might be enough to snuff out even the healthiest of hearts. But you would die smiling.

**

Details:

69-46 Myrtle Avenue

Glendale (Queens), New York

(718) 386-3014

Bavarian feast for four: $180

Celebrity diners

I was having dinner a few weeks ago at Morandi, Keith McNally's take on rustic Italian food in the West Village, when in walked John Slattery and his wife, Talia Balsam, better known to most as Roger Sterling and his fictional ex-wife, Mona. I am a huge Mad Men fan and quite excited to have an unexpected dinner date with the Sterlings.

Not only was my brush with celebrity diners exciting, but it was also quite rare -- despite the frequency with which I go out to eat and my New York City location, I almost never see famous people at restaurants (spotting one on the street is far more common). Which got me thinking about where else I *have* seen one dining a nearby table. Here's what I came up with:

Hillary Swank and an unidentifiable man sitting in a back corner table at I Trulli;

John Corzine, Natalie Morales, and Bobby Flay (not together) at Fresco by Scotto;

Mayor Bloomberg with his lady friend and another couple at Maialino;

New York Senator Chuck Schumer at Tamarind (my favorite Indian restaurant);

Angela Lansbury at Telepan;

Keri Russell (from Felicity) at the Red Cat; and

Bernadette Peters (does she count?) at Eleven Madison Park.

Judd saw Joan Allen at the Hillstone on 27th and Park last summer and my sister recently saw Alec Baldwin, Lucy Liu AND the Edge at Del Posto.

Where have you spotted a celebrity?