What I will say is THANK YOU. These two blog awards are really great – first was the Blogging with a Purpose award we received from a kick-ass blogger, Farida of Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook. Who else is showcasing Azeri cooking on the web? The other award was from Nuria from Spanish Recipes, who I’d be open to a house switch with but I don’t know if she’d like me raising her kid/kids. I also am not sure if she’d really love moving from a nice place in Barcelona to a closet in Brooklyn. Nuria gave us the Arte y Pico award. This Award is given to blogs that are thought to have an outstanding design, creativity and content and that enriches the community… hmmmm, not too sure if we’re enriching the community but I’m proud that someone thinks we’re creative! So with that, I really thank you both. Really I do.

I’m kind of automatically giving these awards right on back to the bloggers that gave them to me. There are ‘rules’ to each of these awards – you are supposed to give it back to five different bloggers. But, as I was doing my blog hunt today, checking out blogs I visit often and others I don’t visit as much as I’d like, I noticed something… many food blogs have received one or two of the awards we received. I know it’s nice to receive two of the same awards, but this time I’m going to create my own rules. I’m giving these awards right back to Nuria and Farida, but I’m also going to give each of these awards to two blogging bitches who are crass and bring out my inner truck-driver as well as another blogger I’m psyched to have recently been acquainted with. Without further fucking a’do (as they would probably write), I’d like to offer the following awards to the following bloggers:

The Arte y Pico award for great design and creativity goes first to Michelle at Thursday Night Smackdown. She’s bitchy, she’s tough and she cooks delicious meals with zero pretentiousness. She’s classy in my book!

I’d also love to give this award to Claudia at Cook Eat FRET. She writes comments in haiku and is an east coast mama originally from NYC and she cooks really, really, really well. I absolutely love this blog, so, if you haven’t already, check her out!

Here you go, ladies:

And next, I’d love to award the Blogging with a Purpose award to Heather at Gild the Voodoolily. In my mind, she is blogging with a purpose – maybe she can let us all know what she thinks her purpose is? I know it’s to compensate for her white trash roots but what else, Heather? Is it to cure world hunger? To pay for some new boobs? Whatever it is, I don’t care… she always makes me laugh and that’s a good enough purpose for me.

Here’s your award, Heather:

I love visiting these ladies’ blogs because they remind me that life doesn’t need to be all peaches, roses and unicorns. Sometimes it can be cynical and hilarious with some curse words thrown in. Ladies, no need to accept these awards but I’d like you to know that I appreciate you (tear!).

Ever since we bought our Kitchen Aid Mixer (kneel down, bow your head in a moment of silence, please), I have only used it for one thing – making pasta. I am not a baker. I can not even pretend to be one. In fact, the other day, I thought I’d be cute and also use up some rotting fruit by making a Strawberry Cake. A-hole me left out one itty bitty part of the recipe. It was such a small part of the recipe I must’ve just skipped over it!! Butter, check. Milk, check. Sugar, check. Eggs… got it. Oven, on. After an hour of cooking, I realized my attempt to be a cute wifey failed. So I forgot the freaking baking powder!!! SUE ME. And here’s another ‘baker insiders tip” – no matter how long you cook a cake made without baking powder, it will never rise, cook properly or look/taste normal. I took a picture of the pitiful thing, but I’m too embarrassed to post it.

But I digress… I’m better at cooking. I’m better at not really having to measure things exactly. I’m better at making pasta with my Kitchen-Aid Mixer. I was craving a stuffed pasta. We had some watercress and I figured, why not stuff my rav’s with that? For the sauce I was reminiscing about the first course we had at our Italian wedding last June – it was a radicchio-stuffed pasta with a radicchio sauce. Radicchio overload? I think not. Some people are not fans of this Italian purple leaf vegetable, similar to how some just can’t stand the bitterness of broccoli di rape. Radicchio has a strong flavor and you know instantly when it’s been mixed in with other greens. It is also known as chicory and has a bit of a bitter taste. But what I love about radicchio is that it tastes delicious chopped raw, grilled with some olive oil and sprinkled with salt and a squeeze of lemon, or cooked in a sauce. Originally from the Veneto region, radicchio actually has many different looks and each type is named for the area of Italy it comes from. The version I used, and the one most common in the U.S. is radicchio di Chioggia, a town outside of Venice.

This dish worked really well together. The pepperiness of the watercress and the mellowed bitterness of the radicchio was balanced out perfectly by the creamy ricotta and, of course, the butter. For a quicker version, feel free to use wonton wrappers if you can’t make your own ravioli, but once you try making homemade pasta, you’ll realize how easy it really is!

As I was writing this post I came across a fun blog with tasty recipes called Proud Italian Cook, by linking from another favorite Greek-cuisine and beyond blog of mine, Kalofagas. Proud Italian Cook and Finding La Dolce Vita, Festa Italiana another great blog with beautiful Italian recipes and pictures, are teaming up for an event called . I thought, what a great way to spread the love and also meet some new peeps out there in food blog world, so I’m entering this recipe for the event.

WATERCRESS AND RICOTTA RAVIOLI WITH A RADICCHIO BUTTER SAUCE (Serves 4 as a Main, 6 as a Starter)

Ingredients for the Ravioli (I always use Lidia Bastianich’s Poor Man’s Pasta recipe – makes 1 pound of pasta, but I only used about 3/4 of the pound for this recipe):

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons water

Other Ingredients for the Ravioli:

• 8 oz. (1 cup) of whole milk ricotta, drained
• 1/2 shallot, minced (may substitute with 1/4 onion, minced)
• 1 clove garlic, minced finely
• 1 bunch of watercress, chopped
• 1/2 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Ingredients For the Sauce:

• 3/4 stick of unsalted butter
• 1/3 head of radicchio, sliced in 1/2-inch ribbons
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced (may substitue 1/2 onion, thinly sliced)
• salt and pepper
• more Parmigiano Reggiano, grated for garnish

How to Make the Ravioli’s:

1. BY HAND: Sift the flour to aerate it into a big mixing bowl. In separate bowl, beat eggs and add the oil and water to the bowl. Make a well in the middle of your flour and pour your wet ingredients into the well. Slowly incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry with a fork until it’s mixed. Knead into the bowl to completely incorporate it together then put dough onto floured board and knead for few minutes (2 – 3). Add more flour or water if it’s too wet or too dry. When it’s a good consistency and has been kneaded, allow to rest for a bit.
2. USING FOOD PROCESSOR: Use regular, large blade. Put flour in and pulse a few times to aerate. In separate bowl, beat eggs and add the oil and water to the bowl. With machine running, add your wet ingredients and run for 30 seconds. Dough will form quickly. Scrape sides of food processor if necessary. Turn dough onto floured board and knead for few minutes (1-2). Add more flour or water if it’s too wet or too dry. When it’s a good consistency and has been kneaded properly, allow to rest for a bit.
3. HOW TO ROLL OUT: Slice a 2-inch piece of your dough to roll out. Roll your dough out using a rolling pin (hope you have some muscles!) or using a pasta machine. I never let it go thinner than the 5th or 6th setting on my machine (Kitchen Aid). Put each strip you roll out on a floured surface, not touching each other. Put a floured kitchen towel on top before adding more pasta strips down on top of the others.
4. HOW TO SHAPE, STUFF AND SEAL: Depending on the shape you want will depend on how you stuff and cut your pasta. Here are a few easy ways to cut some ravioli:
   1. For circular ravioli, you can use a glass or a ravioli stamp and ‘cut’ the pasta the shape/size as the glass (I often use a glass with a 3 to 6 inch diameter depending on how big you want your ravioli). Put a bit of stuffing in the middle of the circle and wet all the side of the pasta with a bit of water. Top with another circle of pasta and squeeze all around to seal it. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the ravioli and lay on a floured baking sheet. Do not allowing each rav to touch the other made ravioli’s while they wait to be cooked.
   2. You can also put a bit of stuffing towards the bottom of the strip of pasta, then fold the end of pasta over (the way I did in this recipe), seal with a bit of water and cut around so it is more of a square shape, but the stuffing is at the bottom of one part of the pasta. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the ravioli and lay on a floured baking sheet. Do not allowing each rav to touch the other made ravioli’s while they wait to be cooked. THEY SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:

   

   3. Without cutting the sheets of pasta you roll, figure out how big you want your ravioli’s and put a bit of stuffing on the long pasta strip every 3 to 6 inches (again, depending on how big you want your ravioli). You will moisten the area of pasta around each bit of stuffing with some water and then lay another rolled out strip directly on top of the bottom one. Using your fingers, squeeze the top strip on to the bottom moistened strip around each bit of stuffing. Once it is sealed, use a pasta/ravioli cutter or just a regular old knife and cut your pasta from the big, long strip. This will give you square-shaped ravioli (unless you’re creative and cut it differently!). Squeeze around the sides again to make sure it’s sealed. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the ravioli and lay on a floured baking sheet. Do not allowing each rav to touch the other made ravioli’s while they wait to be cooked. AFTER THEY ARE CUT, THEY WILL LOOK LIKE THIS:

   

How to Make the Stuffing:

1. Saute your shallot, garlic and watercress in some olive oil on medium until soft. This should take about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and put in a bowl. Allow to cool for a couple minutes.
2. To the bowl w/ your shallot, garlic and watercress, add the ricotta, the cheese and salt and pepper. Stir until well combined. You’re done and ready to stuff your ravioli (see above). You may have some left over, or you can use it up by making more pasta!

How to Make the Radicchio Butter Sauce:

1. Boil some salted water for your ravioli’s.



2. Saute the shallot in a pat of butter for a few moments till soft.
3. On medium to low heat, add the rest of your butter. Allow to melt, but do not allow to color. While butter is melting, add your ravioli to the boiling water. They will be cooked in about 1 to 2 minutes and will float to the top when ready.
4. Once butter is melted, add your radicchio ribbons and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook only for a minute. You do not want them to completely melt, but to wilt so you can still get the strong flavor of it.
5. Add your cooked ravioli to the sauce and toss. When butter sauce has covered each ravioli, plate a few on your plate, spoon on some extra butter sauce with some wilted radicchio and sprinkle parmigiano on top. Enjoy!

SEE SOME OF OUR OTHER PASTA RECIPES:

• GNOCCHI DI PATATE WITH A BROWN BUTTER, SAGE, BREADCRUMB SAUCE
• FETTUCCINE FRA’DIAVOLO WITH CRAB AND SHRIMP
• CREAMY LEMON PASTA
• PASTA (PERCIATELLI/BUCATINI OR SPAGHETTI) AL’AMATRICIANA (ROMAN CLASSIC PASTA DISH)
• PASTA WITH LEEKS, ASPARAGUS, MUSHROOMS AND GRUYERE, TOPPED WITH A FRIED EGG
• ORECCHIETTE WITH SAUSAGE AND KALE
• PASTA WITH LEFTOVER VEG IN A CREAMY WINE SAUCE
• PASTA (BUCATINI) WITH PISTACHIO SAUCE
• PASTA WITH TUNA (Pasta Con Tonno)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our 3 weeks in Italy last summer. Maybe it’s the pick-me-up you need to? Oh, and I need to give a huge “shout out” to my blog-o-sphere friend Sarah from The Real Potato who has been kind enough to answer some of my annoying WordPress questions when we were having some difficulties getting our new URL up and running… THANK YOU! Also, below the pics I have answered an older Meme I was tagged for by the awesome and lovely Nuria at Spanish Recipes.

***MEME – Some Answers from Amy (Jonny’s Not Gonna Play This Time)**

Time to play now:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was drinking cheap beer and wine 6 days a week and getting sad that I was graduating college soon and being forced into “the real world”. I opted instead to skip that for a few years in exchange for 2 years playing in the snow in Breckenridge, Colorado.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
I was a stressed out, grumpy graduate student – finishing my thesis, working 3 days a week for free (internship) and planning my Tuscan wedding from a small apartment in Brooklyn. I wouldn’t have been doing meme tags, let’s just say that. I barely saw my husband!!

Five snacks you enjoy

1. Hummus and pita chips
2. french fries (I can’t enjoy them as much as I’d LOVE to)
3. Butter Snaps (Pretzels)
4. Bites of Leftovers
5. Anything dipped in cream cheese or peanut butter

5 Things you would do if you were a millionaire

1. Buy an apartment in my neighborhood in Brooklyn where’s we’ve been living for 4 years but will never be able to afford.
2. Buy a place in Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Bologna, Paris and London. (I think I need more money already!)
3. Buy a leg of Jamon Iberico for my kitchen in each apartment.
4. Travel and not worry about having to take off work – wait, I won’t have to work! YAY!
5. Volunteer in all different capacities all over the world.

5 bad habits

1. I bite my nails.
2. I don’t have any nails left (and never have) so I bit skin (please don’t stop reading my food blog b/c you know this… PLEASE!!!)
3. I throw my clothes on the floor still and then pick them all up and put them away on the weekend. My husband hates this.
4. I lick bowls and plates clean – sometimes even when no one is looking in certain restaurants.
5. I burp, loudly. This is something I’ve been very proud of since being a little girl but now I only save them for special people. ***should I be ashamed? am I loosing readers?

5 things you like doing

1. Anything outdoors – I love to hike, bike and especially do anything at the beach.
2. COOKING, EATING, DRINKING, DRINKING… duh.
3. Helping others – Which I’m finally doing for a living.
4. Exploring – I could be traveling to anohter country, another state or just another neighborhood in Brooklyn. I’ve always been very curious.
5. Seeing live music – I used to follow bands up until recently. NO I was not a groupie.

5 things I would never wear again

1. Lee Press-On nails. Oh, wait, I just wore them for my wedding, but NEVER again.
2. Acid-Washed anything.
3. Bangs/Fringe cut by my mother – looks like she cut it with a knife and a fork and this lasted till I was 11!
4. A training bra. If you met me, you’d know why this is impossible.
5. Iridescent Lipstick. (**Can you tell I’m a child of the 80′s?)

5 favorite toys

1. My Le Cruset that was too expensive for me to purchase myself – it was a wedding gift.
2. My food processor, Kitchen Aid bad-ass mixer w/ pasta attachment.
3. This blog. Ok, that doesn’t count… my i-pod.
4. My camera (same, Nuria!)
5. My frequent flier miles – I need to travel again soon!

That was actually quite fun!! THANKS NURIA FOR ASKING ME TO PLAY!

Ahhh, jerk chicken. One of my favorite dishes. It’s spicy, kind of sweet and when made well should almost melt in your mouth. On a cold winters night, there’s nothing that can snap you out of a cold-weather-depression than cooking up something from the Islands.

Jerk was used as a way to preserve and cook meat and was originally only made with pork. Interestingly, I found that the work “jerk” comes from a Spanish word called “charqui” which means dried meat. This is how we coined the term “jerky” for that awesome, chewy and salty dried meat we can pick up in 711′s or other corner stores or truck stops. Another possible meaning of the word stems from what happens to the meat when you prepare and cook it – you poke it/or jerk it to produce a hole in order to fill it with the spice mixture (which I didn’t do). I also read that it could come from the reaction your body has as you eat the spicy meat – your body jerks. How about the way you cook it – you ‘jerk’ the meat off the coals. Whatever the derivation all I know is that it’s absolutely delicious! What’s even cooler is that jerk pork’s origins can be traced all the way back to 1655 during the pre-slavery days of West African hunters (the Cormantees) through a group of Jamaican slaves (Maroons) that escaped from the British during the invasion of that year. The Maroons supposedly developed and perfected the jerk as a way to preserve the meat while they lived in the mountains fighting the British troops.

Nowadays, various jerk recipes are passed down from Jamaican family to Jamaican family, but each recipe always includes allspice, hot chilies, salt and various spices and herbs. Traditionally it should be grilled slowly over a wood fire made of pimento (allspice) wood, just to infuse the flavor even deeper into the meat, and continuously basted with the marinade. Because it’s winter in NYC and we will be purchasing a new grill this summer, I enjoy oven-cooking my jerk. If you stick on the broiler for a bit at the end, you can get a bit of crisp on the skin. WHOOOO HOOOOOO… absolutely fabulous! Give it a try yourself – it’s easy. Make it along with a some rice & pea and fried green plantains for the perfect balance of salty and sweet. The crunch of the tostones (SEE BELOW FOR A PICTORIAL “HOW TO”) make the dish. Our friend, Bren, has a great piece on all the different ways you can cook plantains

Also, we’d like to thank our friend, Pixie, who gave our recipe a whirl and had a taste of the Islands in the UK one night. THANK YOU!!

JERK CHICKEN WITH RICE & PEA AND TOSTONES (FRIED PLANTAINS) (SERVES 2-3)

For the chicken and marinade:

• 2 breasts of chicken, skin on
• 2 legs of chicken, skin on
• 2 tbsp. allspice
• 1 tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon hot paprika
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper (or other spicy hot pepper)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of cilantro (you can substitute 1 teaspoon coriander seed)
• juice of 1 lime
• splash of orange juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 scallions
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• pinch of salt and pepper

What to do:

1. If you are using allspice berries/seeds and whole cinnamon sticks, grind the spices down with a spice grinder. Then blend all the ingredients together in a blender until smooth (or smooth enough – you’ll have a bit of chunks of garlic and hot pepper). I used the olive oil to make it a wet rub. If you feel like you need more or less, adjust so it’s a thick paste.
2. Slab this on your chicken (remember to get under the skin if you can!). Wear some gloves if you have ‘em… this marinade contains hot pepper. Allow this to marinate for an hour at least, if you have the time. If you can marinate overnight, even better.
3. Cook your chicken pieces at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until juices run clear. For the last minute, put on the broiler and allow some of the skin to crisp up a bit. Don’t let the marinade burn!

RICE AND PEA

What to do:

• 1 cup white rice
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 scallion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional – I really love garlic)
• chicken stock

What to do:

1. Saute your onions and garlic over medium heat for a few minutes (keep em a bit crunchy). Add your rice, the garlic powder, scallions and beans. Add the rice and stir all together.
2. Pour enough chicken stock over your rice that it comes up the width of 2 fingers above the level of the uncooked rice (make the peace sign, put your 2 fingers together, turn your 2 fingers clock wise 90 degrees – that’s how you measure – I’M TELLING YOU – IT WORKS EVERY TIME PERFECTLY). Bring to the boil and allow to cook down until it reaches the level of the rice. When the chicken stock has reached the level of the rice, stir ONCE, turn your heat to low and cover. Cook on low for 20 minutes.
3. After 20 minutes your rice will be perfect, give it a stir and enjoy.

****Traditionally, Jamaican rice & pea should be made with coconut milk. Just replace the chicken stock with 1 can of coconut milk plus enough water so that the total amount of liquid follows the “2 finger rule” (see above).

TOSTONES (FRIED GREEN PLANTAINS)

Ingredients:

• 2 Green Plantains
• veggie oil
• salt

What to do:

1. Heat your veggie oil – you want enough to almost cover the plantains.
2. Peel plantains and cut into slices, about 1 inch thick.
3. Fry your cut plantains once for about 2-3 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
4. Smash with a mallet and then fry again for another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Drain and season with some salt.

+ + + + + + =

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• Fabada: A Mortal and Corporal Sin – But Worth It
  
• Free Lunch for Inner-City Kids – If It’s Free Does It Have To Be Crap?
• Pork Roll and Scrapple – The Dirty Culinary Pride of South Jersey/Philly
• WHOLE FISH BAKED IN SALT WITH OKRA FRITTERS
• PERFECT BROCCOLI DI RAPE/RAPINI
• TORTILLA ESPANOLA (Spanish Potato Omelet)
• SHREDDED CHICKEN SOPES WITH TOMATILLO AVOCADO SAUCE

All kiding aside, THANK YOU for this. It’s cool to feel a part of this food blog world… it’s not as giant as you think it is! – Amy and Jonny

THE RULES:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are my 7 random facts:

1. I named my first dog, a giant male German Shepherd, Buttercup (RIP) cause I was 4 and I thought the name was ‘pretty’. The poor emasculated dog had to carry that albatross for all his 18 years, enduring ridicule from all my male friends.
2. Me and my family went on a cruise when I was 22 and snuck on to booze cruise when we docked in Jamaica. I got trashed on what tasted like fruit juice and entered a dance contest with 4 other ‘contestants’. I lost to a 75 year old woman wearing a ‘stars and stripes’ bikini. All photos of that day have been destroyed.
3. I met my British husband in a bar in London and convinced him somehow I was worth him moving to America for.
4. I actually didn’t notice my British husband the night we met because I actually was scoping out his friend (who subsequently was an usher in our wedding).
5. I used to work in Marketing for the 2 biggest outdoors men’s magazine for hunting and fishing and had to work at an event called the ‘S.H.O.T. Show’ in Vegas every year. And I hate guns, but like to eat animals and fish – I think that’s how I convinced myself that I kind of liked my job.
6. I got so sick of my job working for a hunting and fishing magazine in corporate NYC a few years ago that I went to graduate school to become a school counselor. 3 long, expensive years later I’m finally getting a paycheck again and loving my job (and cursing our mayor Bloomberg for cutting $200,000 from all the school budgets – forcing all our after-school programs to crumble).
7. I’ve bit my nails my whole life and used $3 press-on nails at my wedding this past June. The next day people said they found nails in random places – the bathroom sink, on the floor, on their table.

I guess I have to tag some peeps (sorry if you hate these things, too or have already done this), but if anything visit these great blogs!:

• Tamarind and Thyme (Great blog w/ awesome recipes, travel stuff and UK restaurant reviews)
• Kate in the Kitchen (on board with WANF from the beginning… THANK YOU!)
• Melonfish (diverse and delicious-looking blog)
• Nirmala’s Cooking Corner (lovely food blog I was just introduced to)
• I Pray to Gouda (fun girl doing her thing… simple, nice recipes, plus she reminds me and looks like a good friend of mine)
• Chez LouLou (This site makes you long to be in France… the cheese, the food, the landscape, this blog has it all!)