Diving Into a Pool of Sprinkles: A Visit to the Museum of Ice Cream

 

On our way to the Museum of Ice Cream in New York, my friend Jamie was reiterating how lucky we were to get tickets. "It's like the new Hamilton," she joked. "Hottest ticket in town." For someone who missed the boat on seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda live on stage in 18th century garb and continues to enter the Broadway show's daily lottery much to no avail, I couldn't help but flash a wide grin at the thought of getting to do something that was so coveted.  

The museum is a temporary experience in the Meatpacking District, a pop-up shop of sorts that runs until August 31. The $18 tickets apparently sold out in five days -- all 30,000 of them. Thanks to my eagle eyes on Facebook trending topics, we snagged ours the first day. 

A Trip to the TABASCO Factory!

There are some things I would never put together. For example, me and running--that's a no. Also, jalapenos and ice cream. ??? But I had the latter during a recent trip to the TABASCO Factory in Avery Island, Louisiana, and I was surprised how yummy it was!

For just a dollar toll to get onto the island, you can try it for yourself and also see how the hot sauce is made. During our tour, we got to see the factory where the world-famous bottles were being filled, capped, labeled and checked for quality. The shipment we were watching was going to France (au revoir, little bottles!)

Remember those wine barrels we saw in Bordeaux that were used for a couple of years and then sold to whiskey producers? Well, there's a chance they could be used for making TABASCO, too. After the Jack Daniels team is done with their barrels, they're sold to this factory and are used to age a mash of pickled peppers and salt.

Pinterest Test Kitchen: Halloween Party Food Edition

If you're anything like me, you've got a Pinterest board full of cute little holiday-specific appetizers but when it comes down to making them, you'd rather just buy chips and dip and be done with it. Well, it was my turn to host wine club this weekend, and I decided I needed to get my act together and try these cute recipes out. Of course, Pinterest has some wins but it also has some misses as we all know. With my fingers crossed, I tried these recipes out so that you don't have to (or maybe you want to! Some were really easy and fun). Reviews, below -- pictures, above. Enjoy!

1. Candy Corn & White Chocolate Softbatch Cookies 
Difficulty -- Hard
Outcome -- Tasted fine, but they weren't pretty.

When I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I was like, "This is gonna be awesome!" I've never thought about putting candy corn in cookies, so already this blogger was a genius. I followed the directions to the T -- one thing she stresses is that you have to make sure the candy corn is covered by dough when you put it on the baking sheet, otherwise it'll ooze while in the oven. I thought I did that, but when I took it out, it looked like orange, yellow, and white blood was coming out of my precious cookies. I guess that makes it spooky though... I just cut around the gross parts, and the girls seemed to love the cookies. So there's that!

The First Rule of Wine Club Is...

Way back when the book club met for the first time to discuss The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, only one person finished the book. The next month was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. A few more people finished it, but it still wasn't getting the momentum it needed.

My friend Rosa wanted the book club to work, but she says she forgot that we were all young 20-somethings and no one seemed to have the time to read a whole novel in a month. She was inspired by our other friend Ashley who was part of a group of girls who switched books out for bottles met every month to learn about vino. Rosa was like, "Hey! We could do that. We all love wine anyway."

"Yes!" everyone screamed. And that's how this tradition started.

So, to make sure my headline isn't deceiving, I'll finish the sentence: The first rule of wine club is... to start a book club and then get rid of the book part of it. (Of course, if you do switch book club to wine club and have a juicy novel you think would be fun to discuss one month, you can do a pairing theme around it.)

A Definitive Ranking of the Gelato I Had in Italy

We just got back from our anniversary trip, the one you guys helped us plan. I can't thank you enough for choosing Italy! It was perfect--our best trip in Europe this year! I'll do a bigger recap post next week, but in the meantime here's a little (literal?) taste of what we did: GELATO! After our first meal in Venice, we grabbed gelato and decided that we should taste all the flavors over the course of the trip. We ended up with a grand total of 14, and by the last day, I had fulfilled my gelato quota for the year. But every bite was oh-so-good. Here's how each one ranked in my book:

1. Mint Chocolate - First one in Italy, it's obviously going to be my favorite.

That's pure happiness right there.

 2. Tiramisu - One of my favorite Italian desserts made into gelato? Yes, please!

3. Coffee - Did I mention this year I finally started drinking coffee? And now, I'm getting desserts made out of it! Seriously, you wouldn't even recognize me anymore...

4. Pistachio - This one was a little grainier than the others, but I loved it! Reminded me of a grittier version of my favorite childhood pudding.

5. Triple Chocolate - Chocolate times three?!? Yum!


6. Caramel - Sometimes I think caramel is too sweet, but this was smooth and rich.

5 Things I Learned About Cooking From Our Neighbors

Samosa time!

While Christopher and I have had some amazing experiences living abroad this year, one of the things we're going to cherish forever is our friendship with our neighbors Aleks and Greg. I seriously can't imagine this year without them.

We've had a lot of fun moments together, most of them involve cooking at each others' apartments (well, cooking at ours usually involves borrowing most of their kitchen gadgets and bringing their dining room table into our place, so we've kind of stopped doing that and just go over to theirs' most of the time...)

Our latest dinner party started around 2pm and lasted until midnight--it was pretty epic. Chef Greg taught us how to make spring rolls and samosas. I was going to dedicate this blog to the recipes for those dishes, but I figured I'd go deeper and talk about what I learned about cooking from the two of them. (If you really want the recipes, email me!)

A Traditional Christmas Dinner... England-Style!

Our lovely neighbors did it again--another amazing meal from Chef Greg and hostess Aleks. The four of us celebrated the holidays a little early this year, and Greg whipped up a traditional English Christmas dinner this past weekend. It was delicious and really fun!

What It's Like to Attend a High Table Dinner in Oxford

This was definitely an experience of a lifetime! Christopher's boss invited us to a High Table dinner at Trinity College. I'd heard about these events from a few people I'd spoken with: "Oh, it's a must if you can go to one." So, I was obviously excited when I heard we had the opportunity to attend.

What it is: a very old tradition that takes place at some prestigious universities (including Oxford and Cambridge) where students and fellows of the college eat a fancy dinner together. The fellows and their guests (that's us!) sit at a high table--literally, it's raised on a platform--while the students sit at large family-style tables perpendicular to the High Table. (Think Hogwarts' Great Hall.) Everyone dresses formally and the fellows wear their academic robes.

Standing in front of a portrait of the founder of Trinity College.

The dinner begins after those at the High Table walk in. A loud bang happens and all the students stand up immediately. A prayer is said in Latin and then the food and drinks start coming out.

Thanksgiving in Oxford

When we were gearing up to move to Oxford, I had a timeline in my head of when I'd start getting homesick. It was right around Thanksgiving. I imagined sitting in my apartment eating something not usually found on the Thanksgiving table like steak and ale pie instead of turkey, and FaceTiming with everyone back at home wishing I was there to clink my glass with them in person. But the day has finally come and so far, so good!

We actually hosted our first Thanksgiving on Saturday. Our sweet neighbors Aleks and Greg embraced the tradition with us and I think it will be one of our most memorable days this year. It was quite a process getting everything we needed for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Oxford. I had to make a few trips to different grocery stores and place an online order to ensure we could get everything. And we still had to improvise on some things (Stove-Top is not a staple in the UK apparently….)

Even though we were in another country, we managed to keep most of the tradition associated with Thanksgiving:

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- I found last year's entire episode on YouTube so I played it while we prepared the food that morning.

Turkey -- I don't remember turkeys being this inexpensive in America. Most of the ones I found here were around £40 ($63) but I managed to find a small frozen turkey for £12 ($19) that was the perfect size for four of us. Christopher did an excellent job roasting it!

Sides -- I had to buy imported French's onions to make the green bean casserole, but I'm happy to say it turned out exactly how it does back home. The stuffing was a little harder. We used actual bread mixed with seasoning but it turned out pretty good. We also made sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and those delicious Red Lobster biscuits.

Pumpkin Pie -- We gave Greg and Aleks Christopher's mom's recipe and they made the most beautiful one complete with homemade whipped cream (because Cool Whip doesn't exist here.)

The Coolest Thing We Did In Barcelona

I first heard about EatWith while interviewing a travel blogger for a freelance story I was working on (it'll be published soon--I'll share when it is!). The concept's so cool--it's like an Airbnb for meals--so I decided to try it out on our trip to Barcelona. Basically, you go to the site, enter the name of the city you're traveling to, and you'll find a list of locals offering to cook for you in their home. The fee is small compared to the experience you get. There are even some listings that feature meals with Michelin starred chefs for less than $100.

One of the highest rated hosts in Barcelona was Marta, who runs a very famous paella cooking class out of her apartment. We decided to opt for that one and are so happy we did (although I'm sure the others would have been great too!)

I was kind of nervous right before we arrived--going to a stranger's house can be a little creepy, but the guy who told me about this ensured it would be safe and said to just embrace it. At the elevator, we met a friendly-looking girl our age who asked if we were going to the class too. And when we arrived, we discovered a whole group of travelers around our age getting to know each other on the terrace.

There was a couple from California who brought their adorable 6-month old girl. I loved their spirit and attitude. It's like, "yeah, we just had a baby but that won't stop us from having fun." I've got to remember that down the road…. Then there was another couple from the States who knew each other through their brother and sister who had just gotten married. Three people were on solo trips. How awesome to go on an adventure by yourself?! And one guy brought his parents. We'll get back to him in a second….

Marta began the class by telling us a little about herself. She's originally from Barcelona and moved to San Francisco to teach and ended up loving it so much she stayed there for 20 years. When she moved back to Barcelona, she was teaching a vegetarian cooking class when someone asked her if she could teach them how to make paella, thus launching her career as the queen of paella, Spain's national dish.  The one we were making that day was composed of rice, vegetables, broth, meat and seafood (so a little bit of everything, really….)

Then, she gave us all a task. I cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces, and Christopher cut the cuttlefish (which is a big deal because he's not a big fish fan--although, we're definitely changing that one cooking class at a time.)

Weekend Adventures: Battle of the Top Chefs

The idea was to create a Chopped or Cutthroat Kitchen type of cooking challenge where we'd give the boys certain ingredients and a time limit to cook a fun dish, but it ultimately just turned into an amazing double date with two main courses and a lot of wine…

On Saturday, Christopher and I had a dinner party with our next door neighbors Greg and Aleks. I've been hearing how Greg is a master in the kitchen, and I am obviously a pretty big fan of C's cooking, so Aleks and I thought it'd be fun to have the guys go head-to-head in a cook-off, but there's a reason we're not producers for the Food Network. It just turned into a make-what-you-want main with no time limit kind of night, and really, it was perfect!

Christopher made his signature dish gnocchi with sundried tomato pesto while Greg wowed us with a homemade Indian-style butter chicken. OMG. They were both so delicious. Although, the guys didn't really understand our instructions on making it a tasting-sized portion, so everyone was more than stuffed at the end of the night.

Tastes Like Home: In-N-Out Burger Copycat Recipe

They say you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, and I think that statement can definitely be applied to culinary treats that remind you of home. Last week I kicked off my Tastes Like Home series with a copycat recipe from my favorite NYC sub shop, Jersey Mikes. And in the comments, I got challenged by my sister who lives in Los Angeles to make an In-N-Out burger in my Oxford kitchen. This is one of my favorite burgers in America, so naturally I accepted.

What's in the original (full recipe found at yourhomebasedmom.com):

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 large onions finely chopped
salt, pepper
1/4 C mayo
2 Tbsp ketchup
1 Tbsp sweet pickle relish
1/2 tsp white vinegar
2 lbs. ground chuck (60%)
4 hamburger buns pickles
1 C shredded iceberg lettuce
4-8 slices of tomato
8 slices of American cheese

What I found at the British grocery store instead:

• Pickle relish doesn't exist here. It's my new favorite game to ask the grocery store employees where items are because I'm guaranteed at least one "what is that?" a visit. The poor stock boy spent five minutes looking around for this and researching it on the computer before telling me they didn't have it.
• American cheese obviously doesn't exist here either. So I just used cheddar and it worked out just fine.

Step 1: Caramelize onions

Step 2: Make the secret sauce by mixing mayo, ketchup, vinegar, and relish (if you're lucky enough to have that).

The picture of the sauce didn't come out, so instead, check out these cute dancing ketchup bottles.

Tastes Like Home! Recreating a Fast Food Favorite

They say food reminds you of home, so in between all the bangers and mash and cottage pies we've been consuming, I've been trying to incorporate our favorite meals from home into the rotation each week (ie., my Ritz Cracker Chicken challenge...)

On Monday, I got an insane craving for Jersey Mike's--a chain sub shop that we used to go probably once a week because it was next door to my apartment in Manhattan. I'm a creature of habit and always ordered the same thing: the Original Italian, Mike's Way (their version of the "special sauce," served with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, olive oil blend, red wine vinegar, and spices.) So, I decided to re-create it--it's just a sub after all... it can't be that hard.

Newsflash: it's actually not that hard--if you're in America. But I soon discovered even the most simple ingredients were hard to come by in England.

What's in the original:

What I found at the grocery store:

• Provolone doesn't exist here. Basically the only deli cheese here is Mild, Medium, and Strong English Cheddar. We decided to try the medium. 
• I gave up on prosciuttini and cappacuolo. They looked at me funny when I asked for cilantro last week so I didn't want to make an even bigger fool out of myself this time.
• Pepperoni also doesn't exist here either. It's called salami. How was I supposed to get salami and pepperoni if they were the same thing? So I got salami and chorizo, crossing my fingers it wouldn't be weird.

Step 1: Chop up red onion and lettuce

The Award For Best Aisle in a British Supermarket Goes To...

Take note, Mom. No need to put any of these items in a care package. We're covered!

4 Unexpected Setbacks Cooking an American Dinner in England

We are finally settled in our apartment, which to me, calls for a celebration. Back home, my favorite dinner to cook (because it's so easy) and Christopher's favorite to eat (because it's so yummy) is Ritz Cracker Chicken--a recipe my college roommate and I used to make in our apartment senior year.

For such a simple dish, I had some unexpected hiccups while preparing it in our new galley kitchen (which may or may not have been the inspiration for the tile mosaics in the NYC subway stations.)

Here are the challenges I faced (PS- the recipe is at the bottom of this post--make it! I promise you'll love it!)

1. Everything is smaller here. Check out this teeny weeny little parmesan cheese container I got (the biggest one I could find) compared to a measuring cup. Granted, we had used a little of the cheese the night before, but the amount left over didn't even equal half a cup. #fail

2.  Just because it's a brand-name doesn't mean it's exactly like the kind back at home. The recipe calls for a sleeve of Ritz Crackers, but guess what, they don't come in sleeves here! And upon a traditional taste test of the first cracker, I noticed they're less salty, so it makes the overall recipe taste a little different. And again with the itty-bitty-ness...

3. The temperature conversion is still confusing. My oven only goes to 250 but I have to remember it's celsius over fahrenheit. I found this neat app called Units Plus (it's free!) which converts everything from temp to length to currency--a must for anyone living or traveling abroad. It will help prevent this: