After my failed attempt at recreating the finicky momofuku compost cookies, I concluded that it’d be much easier to take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and just add a bunch of your favorite snack foods and candy.

So when I told someone I was doing so, they exclaimed, you’re making garbage cookies!  So apparently it’s like, a thing.  And I’m a little late to the party.

These cookies aren’t too ‘garbage-y’ (er, yum); in addition to chocolate chips, I added peanut butter M&Ms and crushed pretzels.  I was after that sweet-salty combo I love so much.

The cookies baked up perfectly after 12 minutes, and while at first I thought they tasted a little ‘baking soda-y,’ after a few days, that flavor seems to have evened out.  (Tip: if you’re bringing baked goods to someone and think there’s a flaw, don’t point it out before they try them!  Chances are they won’t notice.)

And I followed a tip I never have before- I froze extra portioned out dough!  Now I can have cookies on demand.  My favorite trick being to half cook them and serve them warm with vanilla ice cream.  Yum.

And yet while we’re experiencing a mild fall, there’s a bite to the wind today, my fingerless gloves aren’t cutting it, and my toes are cold in my Chuck Taylors. The signaling of a Maine winter to come is making me feel restless already, pent up, anxious about the winter blahs, and leaving me itching to do something, go somewhere.

Fortunately I’m road tripping it down to Maryland for the holiday in a few weeks, so that small adventure might take the edge off. But I am realizing that for me to survive in Maine, I need to plan a winter beach vacation. Something in March or April to somewhere warm, to see friends I haven’t in a while.

Cooking and baking has always offered solace, but this time I’m not feeling it. I’m feeling a little raw, a little vulnerable, and planning meals isn’t as comforting as it once was. I think I’ll head on over to search for flights…

I’m planning two baking and cooking projects today, so stay tuned for some sweet and salty cookies and some great sides for the upcoming potluck season.

An old friend John used to make (and maybe still does) big batches of food and eat them for every meal.  As you can probably guess, John was a bachelor at the time.  As a happily coupled young twenty-something, I thought this was so strange.

I was enjoying domestic bliss, staying in a friend’s house that had a fully outfitted kitchen (they were real people, when at the time, I was long-term housesitting and/or living on boats).  My then boyfriend and I made elaborate meals in our borrowed house and ate well.

The idea of eating the same thing for several days straight didn’t appeal to me.  I thought it a) really weird to eat spaghetti for breakfast and b) the more obvious one, that you’d get bored during your pasta-a-thon.

But now, I totally get it.

In addition to being really busy lately, I don’t have anyone to cook with anymore.  So the other day, that same then boyfriend suggested I make this “ants in a tree” recipe.  I have no idea what that name references (does it look like ants in a tree to you??).

But this thin pasta (or bean thread noodles) is dotted with clumps of ground pork, spiced with garlic and ginger, and more subtly, soy sauce, Sriracha, sesame oil, and topped with tons of chopped green onions.  Apparently it’s Chinese comfort food, but it makes for a great dinner/breakfast/lunch/lunch/lunch run.

Ants in a Tree
Adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe

1/2 lb angel hair pasta
1 lb. ground pork
1/4 cup soy sauce, plus 2 tablespoons
4 tablespoon grated ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Sriracha or other chili paste
1 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Plenty of chopped green onions
Sesame seeds for garnish

Combine pork, 1/4 cup soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and Sriracha in a bowl.  Mix until completely combined and let rest for 30 minutes.  In the last 10 minutes, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente (about 5 minutes).

While the pasta is boiling, heat a large cast iron skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add vegetable oil and saute pork until done (no pink remaining).  Add the 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and the drained pasta.  Remove from heat and toss until combined.

Serve with additional hot sauce, and garnished with green onions and sesame seeds.

Smorgasberg, an awesome prepared and packaged food market in Williamsburg by the river.

Radegast Hall after shopping on Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg (and the Bedford Cheese Shop).

Food trucks on every corner, this one Mexicue and their short rib taco.

Momofuku saam bar and milk bar (pork buns and compost cookies, finally!).

DeKalb Market with food stalls and tiny boutiques in converted shipping containers.  And yes, that is a chicken and waffle cupcake.  It rocked.

 

The sweet Rose Water Restaurant in Park Slope.

All so awesome and yet so far away.   Actually, my wallet might be OK with that buffer…

Here’s four places with great cocktails that I’m looking forward to revisiting now that the mercury is falling.  Look to Appetite Portland for Dawn’s recommendations of comfort food dishes to pair with your cocktails.

50 Local in Kennebunk recently served me The Remedy: bourbon, lemon, cayenne simple syrup, and a ginger sugared rim.  This drink complements the atmosphere of the bar, being both warming and elegant.

Also try the mushroom tagliatelle while you’re there.  Fresh, fat noodles with a creamy sauce, studded with a variety of mushrooms foraged by the chef is not to be missed.  Reminiscent of a mushroom stroganoff.

The Holier than Thou at Grace: St. Germaine, Grapefruit Juice, Sparkling Wine.  I die every time I taste St. Germaine.  Its floral, slightly herbal notes always are paired with tart juices, sparkling wines, and infused simple syrups or vodka.  And it always works so well. 

Local 188‘s the Beekeeper: Cold River vodka & Honeymaker dry mead, splash of St. Germain is another fantastic combination (although beware the beekeeper- it’s drunk making!).

Zapoteca offers tequila in many forms, from straight up to mixed well with fruit juices and liquors to make tart and sweet margaritas.  Also not to be missed, the warming tequila caramel bread pudding.

So if you haven’t seen much of me lately or finally want to connect, let’s grab a cocktail around town sometime soon.  It’s our consolation prize for not being able to sail, bike, wear bikinis, swim, and grill out.

That’s a $5 spread you see right there (including the happy hour beer).

El Rayo Taqueria has $1 oysters on Mondays, and today they had the Shuck Truck serving Cabin Cove Oysters from the Damariscotta River.

Oysters were briny, served with a salt-cutting red wine migonette.  Sold out fast, but the Shuck Truck will be back.  And hopefully we’ll be seeing all manner of food trucks all over Portland soon anyway.

I needed to look no further than the second cold sandwich to find what I wanted for lunch: a Classic Italian sub with Capacola, pepper ham, Genoa salami, bologna, provolone, pepperoncini, lettuce, tomato, onion, oil and vinegar. 
 
In Maine?!?  An Italian that doesn’t mean ham and cheese on a split top hot dog bun??  I about fell over.  It’s one food item I miss from the mid-Atlantic the most.

Other than the aforementioned weirdly toasted bun, it was pretty good!  But it was probably nostalgia and hunger that carried me more than anything else.

Anyone else eaten here?  It’s kind of strange, right??

The best part about this recipe is that it’s apparently impossible to screw up.  I know, I tried.

Did I mention I have a penchant for not thoroughly reading recipes?  I frequently reference a college boyfriend that made me cry after some harsh words delivered during a botched dinner prep.  What can I say?  Details like how long something takes usually escape me.

I often get all the ingredients (uh, mostly) and then stumble over some detail like, “braise for an hour or until the meat can be easily pulled apart” when I start to prep the recipe.  Minor details that then cause dinner to be served at 9pm or that recipe to be totally shelved until the weekend.  Not a good time to be ‘hangry.’

And while that happened with this recipe, I felt like I could shorten some steps and still get the desired results (maybe I’m missing something out of this world by skipping the hour-long “slow fry” step, but oh well).

So this recipe is adapted from a GQ recipe and meshed with one from Joy the Baker for a weeknight dinner.  Adapted because I think the original is more of a weekend project, when it can have lots of time to slow cook.  But I skipped the “slow fry” step (WTF is that anyway?) and just braised.   The meat still fell apart tender and was friggin’ delicious.  And sinus-clearningly spicy.  Yahoo.

Slow Cooked Salsa Verde Pork Tacos
Adapted from GQ and Joy the Baker

3 lbs. pork butt, trimed of any excess fat and cut into 1-1/2″ cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
3 lbs. tomatillos, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, diced
1 large spicy jalepeno, diced
1 large sweet potato, cubed
cumin
salt and pepper
corn tortillas
cilantro (optional)
lime

Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil and meat.  Brown for about 10 minutes, until you’ve got some nice char on the meat.

Reduce heat to medium, add more olive oil (a few turns around the pan) and then add in onion, garlic, and pepper.  Sautee for a few minutes and then dump in tomatillos.  Add 1/2 cup water.  The meat should be fully submerged; add more water if it’s not.  If you have salsa verde on hand (like I did), add one pint (16 oz) of salsa.

Cover the pot and simmer stew for about an hour, maybe more.  While the meat is cooking, toss the cubed sweet potato with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast at 400*F.  Mine took about 20 minutes; not very long, so keep an eye on them.

Test the meat after about an hour; when it pulls apart easily, it’s done!  Shred with two forks until it’s a nice mush of tasty, spicy, Tex Mexi goodness.  Serve in heated corn tortillas with cubed sweet potatoes, garnished with cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Easily makes 12-15 small tacos.

My recent dinner at Zapoteca, the new, fine dining Mexican restaurant on Fore St., was a mixed bag.  Let’s break it down short and sweet.

Pro: Drinks

Left to right, the blood orange margarita, a regular margarita, and a guava ‘rita.  All tasty, all served from a friendly bartender, and different levels of sweet to suit your tastes.

Con: Noise level

We sat in the dining room back towards the kitchen on a Saturday night at 9pm.  And it was so very loud.  I had trouble hearing my company and the server.

1/3rd Pro: Ceviche trio

The Ceviche Veracruzano, a whitefish marinated in lime juice with jalapenos, olives, tomatoes and avocado was great.  The other two in the trio, a Maine shrimp and a lobster, weren’t anything to write home about.  Neither are a traditional ceviche in that the meat is steamed rather than ‘cooked’ from the acid in the dish (Anestes actually pointed this out to me) and needed salting.

Pro: Guacamole

‘Nuff said.

Pro: Enchiladas

At $17 a dish, the enchiladas drew all of us in for our entrees.  Above is the one I ordered, a Maine crab and chipotle shrimp with a creamy green chile sauce.  The refried black beans were also tasty and the arugula and pickled red onions were a bold garnish.

The Enchilada de Puerco or pork with caramelized onions was pretty spicy; it almost made my sister’s face melt off (or maybe that was all the tequila?), but it had great flavor if you could get past the heat.

Amy’s vegetarian stuffed poblano peppers (stuffed with mushrooms, goat cheese, and pumpkin seeds) was so tasty she reportedly didn’t even miss the meat.

Pro: Mexican Chipotle Chocolate Torta

I am not a big fan of dense chocolate desserts, so when the ladies sprung for this, I didn’t expect to be all that into it.  But the spicy chocolate, topped with candied orange peels and almonds was a surprising flavor combination that really got my attention.

Con that ended up being a pro: Classic Vanilla Flan

Look beautiful, tasted awful.  Such a disappointment, as custard desserts are my favorite.  But when I alerted the server (who was so great throughout the whole meal), he zipped back into the kitchen to try one, quickly seconded my assessment, and removed it from our bill.

Since the enchiladas at Zapoteca are the cheapest entrees (the others being more in the $25-$30 range), I think the role this restaurant will fill best in my dining repertoire is drinks and apps/dessert with friends.  Best to sit at the lively bar and sample the great tequila and drink menu and share some nosh, rather than struggle to be heard in the dining room for a full meal.

And apparently locals felt the same way, since after only a year, we were freed from corporate branding at 37 Exchange Street and instead welcomed into a great bar that focuses on two of my favorite things: beer and tube meat.

So Friday happy hour at the Pig has become a pretty standard way for my friend K. and I to start the evening.  $2.50 Shipyard draughts (they’re probably out of the Summer by now, sad) and a good layer of meat to lay down before your night of drinking.

I am a sucker for a hot dog, especially one for $3.50 on a grilled bun with a side.  The Pig’s other sausage offerings include Sweet and Hot Italian, Keilbasa, and chicken.  Each one comes with enticing toppings and condiments, although I customize my hot dog with a local combo: mayonnaise and relish.

The grilled bun and the hot hot dog warm the mayonnaise a little bit (stay with me) and the relish provides a nice, tangy crunch.  The grilled hot dog is meaty, juicy, and snappy, but not so as to be an impediment to easy eating.  (An aside: someone just told me that a foods’ ease of eating carries as much weight for him as how it tastes.  Mind boggling, but I’m starting to appreciate that.)

The baked beans that came with my dog were a little dry, but that pickle is one of the best I’ve had around.  It’s a la Po’boys and Pickles, a half-sour maybe?  Very tart.

A very critical part of any grilled tube meat is the bun, and the Pig pulls it off well- a buttered and toasted split top bun.  The salty crunch of the bun adds a nice textural element, whereas most soft white rolls simply serve as a vehicle, rather than a player in the overall taste.

On this particular Friday, our Old Port happy hour crawl was cut short by an invite for a sunset sail.  Not a bad way to end a week, I’d say.  And I’ll see you tomorrow, Thirsty Pig!