Only now without water wings

As my 33rd birthday looms on the very near horizon, I look back and think of how much has gone on in my life; the things that I've accomplished (and failed); how I've matured and grown.

In a recent trip back to Maynard, Eric, my parents and I went through some old photo albums from junior high, high school and college (inspired by my friend Mary showing me her high-school homecoming dance picture...an image I was definitely not prepared to see).

We laughed at the horrible clothes (lots of neon in 7th grade followed by pegged pants in high school), the asymetrical hairstyle of 8th grade (fortunately, I think all evidence of the 6th grade perm days has been destroyed), and the old friends that have miraculously re-entered my life through the magic of Facebook.

As we parsed through these old photos, I kept thinking about how much I've changed over the years.

Then I see pictures like these, and realize that for better or for worse, I am exactly the same now as I was back then.

Aimee circa 1996

Aimee circa 1980

Cooking like it's 1999

Ten years ago, I was a wee little assistant media planner in the big NYC world of advertising, living Three's Company-style in Hoboken with a college roommate and a high school friend (only Eddie didn't have to pretend he was gay and our landlord, sadly, wasn't Mr. Furley). Given that I made more money scooping ice cream in high school at Erikson's than I did as an entry-level advertising agency employee, my fellow assistant planners and I would intentionally work late so that we could order a pizza for dinner that would be lunch for the next few days.

However, one of my favorite perks of media planning was the "comp-ed" magazine subscriptions. Part of my job was to go through magazines to check for my clients' ads and their competitors. My two main accounts were Reynolds Wrap and Wild Turkey, a combination that led to an interesting selection of magazines at my desk - from Good Housekeeping and Food & Wine to This Old House and Playboy (which always disappeared from my cube regardless of how well hidden). The print sales reps were always signing me up for their publications (I drew the line with the Penthouse rep).

I plowed my way through countless food-related and female-focused magazines: Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Saveur, Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Women's Day, Martha Stewart Living, Fitness, Health...if it had recipes, I inevitably read it. Needless to say, my love of epicurean magazines, bourbon, and aluminum foil can be traced back to this job.

When my personal magazine collection expanded to the point of being a fire hazard, I finally started to clip recipes and the occasional article. There was one article in particular from a 1999 copy of Esquire that I kept: an interview with Mario Batali (pre-super chefdom, back when he was just Molto Mario and his only restaurants were Babbo and Po) written by Ted Allen (yep...former Queer Eye, Top Chef judge and current Chopped host).

In the article, Mario gives ten pieces of advice "for a guy in the kitchen." And while I'm not male, I remember being struck by his advice back before I was really a cook. It wasn't exactly groundbreaking information, but it was definitely innovative thinking for a 22 year-old in the very early stages of finding her place in the culinary world.

So I filed the article away into my giant recipe binder and as I re-read it over a decade later, I am impressed by how relevant and commonplace Mario's advice is today. To paraphrase Mario and Ted:

1. Salt: "Things like salt aren't just salt." Use really good sea salt rather than Morton's because it's much more complex. When you cook simply with minimal ingredients and "can upgrade at any level," that imperceptible flavor starts to shine through.


2. Extra virgin olive oil: Buy two different types of extra virgin olive oil - a commercial label for cooking everything and "an expensive, single-estate produced oil from Tuscany" to drizzle on food right before serving.


3. Immersion blender: Use this underrated kitchen tool to quickly and easily make an emulsified vinaigrette or sauce with vegetables.


4. Equipment: All you need is a chef's knife, a paring knife, a fish knife, four or five pans (including two sauté pans, a pasta pot and a few saucepans) and simple white plates.


5. Shopping: Cook seasonally. Shop first to "figure out what's the best stuff and then consider your menu."


6. Cheese: Instead of serving dessert, think of serving a cheese course with three perfectly aged cheeses: a "squishy, stinky one, a hard one like the veritable king of cheese, parmigiano reggiano" and an aged goat or sheep's milk cheese.


7. Aperitivi: Impress your friends by pureeing seasonal fruit and mix with white vermouth for homemade aperitifs. And, as long as everyone is drinking, make sure to have a drink, too.


8. Meats: Always marinate your meat, even if it's in plain oil. Add a little yogurt or "something with a little acidophilus" to really boost flavor and help tenderize the meat.


9. Wine: "Most people serve their white wines too cold and their red wines too warm." Instead of a wine cellar or an expensive wine cooler, just use a small dorm room fridge set at 60 degrees to store your whites. Put your reds in there the morning of the day you're going to drink them and ice down the whites ten minutes before serving.


10. Mise en place: Prep as much as possible before you actually start to cook. That way, you can get your friends into the kitche to entertain. And serve family-style: "Don't try to make restaurant food at home. Make home food at home."

This article was hugely influential - it became the foundation of my cooking and its advice still holds true for any cook today. And those free magazines helped pave the way in my culinary path. Unfortunately, I now have to pay for my subscriptions to Food & Wine, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living, and Saveur. But I still draw the line at Penthouse.

Cookie conspiracy

Over the past few years, I’ve had to face the fact that I am slowly becoming a crusty old man. I’m turning into one of those “Oh things were so much better back in my day” people. But, I realize that things probably weren't really better then; more likely my tastes have changed and it's just nostalgia making me feel that way.

However, I recently learned that this is not always the case.

One thing we can rely on every year are Girl Scout Cookies. When I was in elementary school, Thin Mints were my first crush. As I got older, I flirted with Trefoils and Do-Si-Dos; but in high school, I eventually fell in love with Samoas. Caramel, chocolate, and toasted coconut. Crunchy, chewy and sweet. A thin slice of heaven in cookie form.

Since then, there’s always been a parent in my office selling Girl Scout cookies every year. And I always order a box of Samoas. A few years ago, I noticed that they changed the name to Caramel deLites. I assumed that someone decided “Samoas” was politically incorrect (not really sure how...but figured someone somewhere was offended). But the Caramel deLites never tasted quite as good as I remembered from sixteen years ago. I attributed this to my taste maturing; like when I was a kid and couldn’t get enough of Fun Dip, but had some a few weeks ago and immediately spit it out.

However, my co-worker John informed me that he, in fact, received a true box of Samoas…not just the lame substitution of Caramel deLites. Evidently, the Girl Scout organization relies on different bakeries for their cookies and one supplier has the rights to the "Samoas" name. So while some people receive Samoas while others receive Caramel deLites, I just thought the cookies were different in name only. Until yesterday.

Photos by my co-worker, Mike McLean

From the box alone, the Samoas have a better quality image and simply look more appealing (the Caramel deLites remind me of the Keebler cookies that I used to eat as a kid). Interestingly, there are more Caramel deLites per box. However, in looking at the actual cookie, the Samoas look much richer with darker chocolate (always a plus in my book) while the Caramel deLites are pale and anemic looking.


Finally, we tasted the two cookies. The Samoas have a prominent toasted coconut flavor that is lacking in the Caramel deLites. It was the taste that I remembered from all those years ago.

And now, I feel so vindicated that things were - at least once - better back in the day. And from now on, I will seek out the true Samoas...never settle! Never compromise!

A culinary cliché

It started with a trip to DUMBO (for non-NYCers, this is an area in Brooklyn nicknamed because it is “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”). Eric and I went to the Brooklyn Flea Pop-up Market (clearly the least cool people there) and sampled brownies, chocolate, pickles, and cheese. We progressed to the Jacques Torres factory for a spicy hot chocolate.

We then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and meandered up to the Lower East Side.

Eric making the scary face.

We stopped by the Doughnut Plant for a blackout doughnut and a meyer lemon doughnut. We also grabbed some bialys from Kossar’s next door.

We rested over a pint of Smithwicks at Slainté. Finally, we dined on sweetbreads, shrimp toasts, deviled eggs (actually, only Eric ate those), octopus (amazingly tender) and escarole with merguez at Prune.

It was a total NYC cliché of a day. But that didn’t make it any less delicious.

The remains of the day: a blondie, 60% chocolate disks, chocolate malt balls, spicy McClure's pickles (amazing on burgers), stinky cheese from Vermont and garlic and onion bialys.

All that and a jar of pickles

Epic.

That's the best word I can come up with to describe the lunch I had a Momofuku Ko last week. Twenty-two courses in three and a half hours.

While randomly checking the Ko reservation system, I saw the elusive green check mark and grabbed it, before realizing that it was on Friday and Eric was in Florida. So I dragged my friend Jason to join me in this experience. Little did we realize what we were in for (despite Eric and I eating there for dinner once before).

So here we go...from start to finish:

• Fried prawn head
• Pommes soufflé with caviar
• Veal tongue with a romaine cream and pickled cucumber
• Oyster with caviar and lime
• Kampachi with flaked sea salt and daikon radish
• Long Island fluke with an aged chili paste, soy ginger shallots and blood orange
• Sweet Maine shrimp with avocado and seeds from a cypress broom tree
• Nantucket scallops marinated in meyer lemon with freeze dried soy sauce, watermelon radish, shiso and meyer lemon zest
• Sea urchin with yuba (soymilk skin) and puffed black rice
• Stewed octopus, fried buckwheat cake, sea beans, meyer lemon and paprika aioli
• Puffed egg with a Benton's bacon broth, Tennessee winter truffles, hazlenut oil and chives
• Braised snails, brussel sprouts, Fuji apple, chestnut dumplings and sage sour cream
• Bagel with bacon cream cheese
• Diver scallop with razor clams, smoked grapes, lily bulbs, green tea broth and black onion seeds
• Pork risotto with black Tuscan kale, maitake mushrooms, guanciale (pork jowl), pickled mustard seed and an incredibly rich pork jus
• Frozen shaved fois gras with lychee, riesling gelee and pine nut brittle
• Sweetbreads on an almond butter, terrine of confit potatoes and black trumpet mushrooms
• Sous vide lamb chop with sheep's milk ricotta and a roasted onion stuffed with braised lamb ribs, ras-el-hanout and breadcrumbs
• Raw sheep's milk cheese and Humbolt Fog goat cheese with smoked grapefruit, red onion marmalade, and pork fat brioche
• Apple cider sorbet with ginger graham cracker ganache and toasted marshmallow
• Parsnip ice cream with chocolate fudge, hazelnut nougat and grapefruit threads

All in all, an amazing meal. It was such a production that by the time we were savoring the sweetbreads, we were already reminiscing about the fluke.

At the end, the chef de cuisine came by with a jar of housemade pickled vegetables as a "Congratulations for making it through" takeaway.

And to top off an already great day, I saw Joe Ades' daughter in Union Square while walking to the subway. She's taken up her father's spot selling vegetable peelers. So I finally bought one.

Free reign

So Eric is on his annual fishing trip in the Florida Keys with his father and brother for the week. And while I miss him and am more than a little jealous that he’s enjoying 80 degrees and sunshine while NYC is dealing with snow and sub-20 degree weather, I’ve had free reign in the kitchen. It's my chance to cook all of the things that Eric hates.


Last night's dinner was Indian-spiced beluga lentils with marinated roasted beets and red onion, goat cheese and arugula topped with a mini pappadam (actually, Eric would like the lentils and arugula, but he really despises beets).

Since yesterday was so cold and crummy, it was the perfect night to make peanut butter cookies and dark chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. It's been a while since I brought baked good into my office and I've been feeling a little neglectful toward my co-workers.

And finally, my dinner tonight was this French Onion Israeli Couscous – a recipe from my FCI classmate Michele. The only onions Eric normally eats are in fried ring form. But, after trying this recipe, even he may change his opinion.

Press-Off 2009

I have an embarrassing secret. And it’s not that I don’t know how to ride a bike (at this point, that doesn't even embarrass me anymore).

No…my secret is much worse than that: I love to watch food-related infomercials. This infatuation started back in middle school – before Food Network existed (even back then I loved food programming). I find the terrible acting, the general cheesiness of the product and the inevitably horrible-looking food oddly engaging. The Ronco Rotisserie Cooker? Check. The Food Dehydrator? You bet. The skillet steamer with the Dave Coulier-wannabe host? Absolutely. The Magic Bullet? One of my favorites.

Once in a great while, an infomercial product will make “the leap” into the mainstream. A prime example of this rare occurrence is the Foreman grill. I first saw George pitching this product in high school and after I graduated from college, every single male I knew owned one. And, in full disclosure, I have a Foodsaver vacuum sealer in my kitchen (Buy in bulk and save money! Great for camping!).

Then there’s the sandwich press.

In middle school, back before everyone owned expensive gourmet Panini makers, there was the humble sandwich press. In this infomercial, the host would put all sorts of ingredients between two slices of bread. Stuffed grilled cheese, cooked apples for “turnovers” and most memorably, leftover spaghetti with sauce. At the time, I was a little horrified by that last one, but I secretly wanted this machine.

So, needless to say, I was thrilled when my co-workers recently approached me to be the Tom Colicchio to their “Sandwich Press-Off” contest. The Sales Planner team in my office has an old school sandwich press like the one from the infomercial and can often be found warming their sandwiches in the kitchen, much to the envy of others eating their generic Midtown deli salads at lunch.

As a “qualified” co-worker, I was asked to judge the Press-Off on both originality and overall taste (although I grabbed my colleague to help as I was not entirely confident in my palate being the sole decision-maker). I forewarned the team of my aversion to mayonnaise and bananas, but promised that I would eat any sandwich that was made regardless of ingredients. Fortunately for me, most heeded my warning. Ironically, however, the winning sandwich for overall taste had a lemon-garlic aioli. And I even enjoyed the peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and banana sandwich that was presented.

Over the course of the Press-Off, I tasted seven savory and three sweet sandwiches (of which one consisted of two brownies with a chocolate chip cookie in the middle…and despite already eating the equivalent of three and a half sandwiches, I polished this one off). All of the sandwiches were tasty, each one bringing something unique and interesting to the sandwich press experience – ‘wichcraft could definitely take a few lessons from this team (like the turkey, cheese, pesto, avocado and tomato sandwich). Two people used marinated artichokes which added a great unexpected flavor and is an ingredient that I will definitely be including in future sandwiches.

Parts of the sandwiches we tasted. I saved a small piece of each sandwich for the final evaluation after I tried each sandwich.

The winner for originality was a sandwich pressed with Indian-spiced potatoes. After all, carbs stuffed with more carbs? Sign me up! It was like a crusty bread samosa. The only thing that could have made this even better would’ve been some chutney for a little more kick. Another favorite was the prosciutto, brie, walnut, and fig jam sandwich on buttery whole grain bread (I could see this sandwich in Gourmet magazine).

The overall winner was a rich and tangy fresh mozzarella, tomato, marinated artichoke sandwich with the aforementioned homemade lemon-garlic aioli. Yep…I ate mayonnaise…and enjoyed it. I know, I know. I'm shocked, too. I just chalk it up to the magic of the sandwich press.