Breakfast, as we all know, is the most important meal of the day.  I rarely miss breakfast.  When I do, I just don’t function properly.  The mass food market has plenty of sugar laden offerings with cereal, granola bars, breakfast cookies (huh?), toaster pastries and frozen waffles.

You don’t have to go there.  Way too many ingredients on the back of those boxes.  And, few of them have the protein your body needs to kick start your brain for a day of, well, whatever you have to do.

Eggs are great for a quick breakfast.  Poking around in the fridge can yield some interesting partners.  Recently, I found a log of goat cheese that my daughter, who obsesses over goat cheese, asked me to buy when she was home on spring break, but never ate it.  The expiration date was nearing so I pulled it from the bottom of the cheese drawer and crumbled some into an omelet along with a few herbs that were left over from the night before.  Behold, a goat cheese and herb omelet.  It sounds like it would take forever, but it takes just a few minutes to produce a healthy high protein breakfast.

Be creative, leftover taco filling with salsa and sour cream is kind of like huevos rancheros without the beans, use up leftover veggies, and if you have chili in the fridge, which goes great with eggs and a few shreds of cheddar.

Another of my favorite breakfast meals is Greek yogurt with fresh fruit and granola.  This variety of yogurt packs a protein wallop and the fiber in the fruit and granola keep you full well into the lunch hour.  Plus, you get points for a really healthy breakfast.

Goat Cheese Omelet

2 eggs

2 tsp cream or 1/2 & 1/2

Salt and pepper to taste

1 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

fresh herbs (dill, parsley and scallions are what I used)

tsp. butter

Heat a non-stick pan on med high.  Beat the eggs with the cream or half and half, add salt and pepper. Gently mix in herbs

Spray the pan with cooking spray and drop in the butter.  Swirl around the pan until it’s melted and has coated the pan.

Add egg/herb mix and swirl around.  As the edges begin to cook, lower to medium and start lifting and edge and tilting the pan so the uncooked egg runs under.  Continue doing this until most of the egg is cooked.  Add the goat cheese, gently fold over and remove from the heat.  If you like a bit of browning on your omelet, you can cook a bit longer.

Slide onto a plate and garnish with fresh fruit.

Greek Yogurt with Fresh Fruit and Granola

1 cup fresh Greek Yogurt, Fage 0% will keep down the calories

1/2 cup mixed berries

1/2 cup granola or Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal

1 packet of Truvia Sweetener or tsp. sugar

Put the yogurt in a bowl and mix in the Truvia or sugar.  Add berries and granola.

Spring is the really the best time to buy asparagus.  The price comes down and you might even find some locally grown.  My husband and I have agreed not to buy it unless it’s less than $1.99/pound. But the bigger questions is, to peel or not to peel?

My mother, from whom I learned all things culinary, would say, “peel”.  And frankly, it is the best method.  Merely rinsing asparagus will not clean the grit out of the little leaves, which kind of look like thorns, that are along the stem.  When you peel just below the bud, the real beauty of the veggie comes through with a gorgeous bright green stem after cooking, and it makes a beautiful presentation.

The wost thing you can do to asparagus is over cook them.  This week we peeled and roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper and they were marvelous.  The herald of spring has arrived, peel, eat and be happy.

Roasted Asparagus

1 lb. Asparagus

2 TB.  Good Olive oil

Kosher salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Snap off the ends of the asparagus stalks, breaking where they naturally want to, usually about an inch or so from the bottom.  Rinse well and peel stem to within an inch or so of the bud.  Rinse again and place on sheet pan.

Drizzle with olive oil and evenly distribute with your hands.  Sprinkle with the salt and pepper to taste.

Place in oven.  Occasionally, roll asparagus around to cook evenly.  Depending on the thickness of the stalks, they should be ready in about 12-15 minutes.

Grilled Asparagus

Using the same ingredients as above, lay the asparagus across the grill with a hot fire and, using tongs, roll them around over the flame for about 5 minutes until they are nicely browned.  Move to a cooler spot on the grill and cook for another 10 or 12 minutes until they are crisp tender.

I think that most people think that having great meals in NYC would be really pricey, right?  Well, you just have to know where to go.  Yesterday, I entertained a client at La Giara, a little Italian restaurant at “toid and toity-toid”, or 3rd Ave and 33rd St.  For lunch, $14.95 prix fixe, appetizer and entree.  What?  Yup, and it’s not a “small plate”, which I think is a restaurant’s way of getting you to like a small amount of overpriced food.

No, La Giara serves up great Italian food.  We enjoyed two very fresh salads, one with crisply fried artichokes and paper thin slices of Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of dried ricotta.  Absolutely yummy!  The artichokes were definitely the star.  The other salad, while not innovative, was well executed, Roasted Beets with Gorgonzola.  Perfectly dressed, not too tart with just enough of the cheese.

My dining partner and I both chose the Braised short ribs and fried polenta entree.  The beef was tender and complex cooked to perfection and served with little squares of polenta fried to a divine crispiness.  Our companion enjoyed a plate of Rigatoni that she said was heavenly, and based on the aroma, I would have to agree.

After work, I met some family for dinner waaayyy downtown in the Financial district.  I suggested we dine at Les Halles on John St.  Where can you get Steak Frites for $19.05?  Or hangar steak with a blue cheese sauce, salad and frites for $20?  Les Halles.  Great French Brasserie with all the boisterous noise of a Paris hang out, the food is good, the bread is crusty and reminicsent of my many trips to France and the price is easy on the wallet.  No $35 entrees, everything is around $20-$25 or less.  Every other week there is a $20.11 menu from a different region of France and on Monday’s, wine is half price.

Both are a no-brainer.

It has been a while since I’ve last posted, so here’s a quick update.  We had some great crab cakes a few weeks ago.  I used a really simple recipe, loosely based on Paula Deen’s.  Just a few ingredients to keep the crab together, these were delicious.  I whipped up a quick lemon-garlic aoli which complemented the crab perfectly. 

Sometimes the most simple things can be so yummy.  Organic salad greens, salt, pepper, freshly squeezed lemon juice and olive oil.  Toss together and plate with anything. 

Also pictured in the previous post, roasted veggies with fennel.  I used parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, sweet onions, turnips and fennel.  I roasted in a hot oven for about an hour with salt, pepper, a little dried thyme and olive oil.  You can use whatever veggies you like.  I love the textures of these veggies together, and the sweetness of the onion pulls everything together.  Enjoy!

1# fresh lump crabmeat, picked of shells

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 small shallot, minced

3 scallions, white part only, sliced thinly

10 Ritz crackers crushed to crumbs

1 tsp. dijon mustard

juice of 1 lemon

dash cayenne

1 TB minced fresh parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together, being careful not to break up the crab too much.  Shape into 6 cakes, chill for 30 minutes.

Melt 1 TB butter in skillet, dust the crabcakes with a little flour and sautee until brown.  Flip, sprinkle with a little more flour and continue cooking until brown.  Remove from pan and keep warm.

Lemon Garlic Aoli

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 TB capers

dash hot sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 minced garlic clove

Chop up the capers a little, mix all ingredients together, season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with crabcakes.

Just had a Gordon Ramsay kitchen nightmares experience! I needed a quick, close restaurant before my flight home. Half a block from my last appointment was the Bull & Bear, billed as an upscale sports bar with a twist. I hadn’t eaten since 6 AM and it was approaching 2. Simple order, French onion soup with a truffle crouton and gruyere cheese, Caesar salad with grilled shrimp. Why do restaurants serve brown lettuce, would the chef want to eat that? My guess is no. The shrimp were on the down-side of fresh, with a very slight ammonia taste, slight enough that I ate them anyway because I was ravenous. The soup looked like heaven, bubbly cheese but domestic Swiss, not the stronger, nutty flavor of gruyere as promised. And, can you guess, no truffle crouton! Oh how shocking! What I can say is that I enjoyed a crisp “14 Hands” Chardonnay and good tap water. The Jazz food court at O’Hare would probably have better.

I have not been cooking very much due to my work schedule, but made some, as my daughter would say, Bangin’ chili with my husband Michael yesterday.  He’s a great chopper and “Sweater” of onions and peppers, which brings them to a yummy caramelized state.  I handle the spice and we developed a respectable southwest style chili with black beans, corn and Chipotle peppers.  After all, what’s a Superbowl without chili?

From homemade stock to Aunt Susie’s Matzo Ball soup.  Probably the most comforting food ever, especially on these frosty snowy days that we’ve been having.  The texture of the Matzo balls was spot on, thanks to my sister in law’s hand written, smeared and stained recipe she gave me over 20 years ago.  It is one of my favorite soups.  Making it with homemade stock intensifies the flavors.  If you are following my blog, you’ll recall the Poulet Roti I made last Sunday. Initially, I was complaining about the $14 oven stuffer roaster thinking it was a lot for a chicken. But, one Sunday dinner, three sandwiches, a batch of stock and pot of soup later, I can’t complain. I will say, however, the yellow skin of this Perdue bird was less than appetizing. I think I need to find organic, local chicken that looks like a natural chicken.

The start of something beautiful.  There is something about a snow storm that makes me want to have chicken stock bubbling on the stove.

Made a batch of bread, went to church, prepped Julia’s Poulet Roti, mashed potatoes and some veggies for dinner, then heading to work. I’m really looking forward to coming home to the comfort food aromas of fresh baked bread and roasting chicken. Perfect for these frigid temps outside.  The Poulet Roti is just getting started, hubby will finish with basting between downs…

I LOVE restaurant week.  I caught it in October in LA and had clients to dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s London in West Hollywood.  Expense accounts are not what they used to be so this would have been out of the question without the Prix Fixe of restaurant week.  The food was amazing, and you can’t be the cost.  Next week is restaurant week in NYC.  We are taking clients to Asia de Cuba for $24.07 per person.  Update to follow. http://www.nycgo.com/restaurantweek/