Hot Chocolate and S'mores

While waiting for my sister to come home, I was flipping through our Joy the Baker cookbook. After drooling, ooh-ing and aah-ing over all the photos, I decided I wanted to make hot chocolate from the Joy the Baker cookbook once she got back, while we watched our DVR'ed episodes of Gossip Girl. Well, Joy the Baker, thanks for making such a delish hot chocolate recipe, I can never go back to Swiss Miss!

Thanksgiving Ideas

My second favorite holiday of all time is approaching! I have not quite put together my Thanksgiving menu yet, but it will include one pie, a few sides, and of course, a turkey. And some wine or champagne. Or both! To inspire you with some ideas, I have put together some ideas I have / will be making for sure. My older Thanksgiving posts may have some ideas for you too (just search "Thanksgiving" in the search bar).

My Beloved Kale Chips

Since November is unofficially VS Fashion Show prep month/tribute to flat abs here at Hom Nom, I am continuing on my quest to find healthier recipes. How could I forget my favorite thing in the entire world? Kale chips! I am in love with kale chips. I eat them as a side for dinner every night when I am at home.

I am gas-less in my apartment for the next two weeks, so I won't be able to bake anything for the time being. But, I am looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving and eating them to my heart's content.

Spinach and Beet Smoothies

Another breakfast smoothie to start your day right! And, it doesn't taste gross, I promise! Dessert Fest 2012 wrecked havoc on my tribute to the VS Fashion show/flat abs month, but it was well worth it. This week, I'm trying to get back on track to chock full of veggies and fruits prior to Thanksgiving. We all know I have no self control around delicious home cooked food, but my parents have a juicer so I am hoping to try out a few juice recipe while I am there. 

Salted Caramel Pie

This one is a winner!

For Dessert Fest 2012, I was in a salted caramel mood. I wanted to make a pie, and after browsing around a bit, I found this salted caramel pie. Ice cream, check. Cookies, check. Pie? Next up!

Almond Date Truffles

It is that time of year again! Time for Dessert Fest 2012! 6 chefs, 5 types of ice cream, 17 types of dessert. So much sugar. This is quite possibly my favorite event of the year!

Here are some highlights from this year:

{Dessert Fest Eve, baking away}

{Taste testing ice cream} 

{Assembling pumpkin trifle}

{Paul making some caramelized bacon}

The Dessert Fest team has decided to make this year's fete a fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy relief, given that our community is still being impacted by the storm. We are supporting the Salvation Army with its relief efforts, and if you would like to make a difference, please click on our giving page here.

Post-Sandy Sandwiches and Cocktails

Well, I have my power back, but, I am still without heat, hot water, and gas. Since I could not really cook anything, Mai & Paul invited me over for dinner. They warned that they had to throw out all their food too, given the 5-day outage. I suggested something simple. Grilled cheese? Done.

After oooh-ing and aah-ing at the newest addition to Mai and Paul's family, a sweet, baby blue colored Le Crueset, we got to work at prepping. Paul ran out to get cheese.  We were dreaming of gruyere or emmentaler, but, the cheese section at Fine Fare was thread bare. Of course, the only thing New Yorkers want to eat after not having power for 5 days are fine cheeses and charcuterie. Of course. (Ok, to be fair, I'm sure that Fine Fare had to throw away a lot of cheese because of the power outage, and just didn't get a new shipment in yet).

{No fine fare for us! Photo Credit: Paul}

{Grapefruits ready to go!}

{A perfect pour}

{Keeping it classy with grown up martini glasses}

{I should never be left in charge of the cheese}

We devoured our grilled cheese sandwiches in the blink of an eye. And yes, that is in fact a yellow fever certificate in the background. You know, usual dinner conversation. We had a side of some roasted cauliflower as well, but I was too distracted by all the cheese to photograph it. I've had roasted cauliflower all week, yay!

Ok, I know this strays from my November is tribute to flat abs posts, but really, who doesn't love melted cheese and toasted bread on a cold winter-ish night? 

Open Faced Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, a Hom Nom/Mai/Paul original recipe

Serves 3

Ingredients

• A loaf of bread of your choice (I picked multigrain)
• Melt-y cheeses, could include any or all of the following: gruyere, swiss, cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, mozzarella, brie, etc. We picked up one block of extra sharp cheddar, one block of normal  cheddar and one block of mozzarella
• Red Onions, sliced into rings
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Olive oil and/or butter
• Garlic

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Set up one baking sheet with a silpat or aluminum foil. 

Mince the garlic. In a small pan, melt the butter and sautee the garlic (not too much or they will become bitter). Once those are done browning, turn the heat off (safety first!), remove, reserve. Heat up the pan again and brown your red onions. Remove from heat and reserve. 

Slice up your cheeses and tomatoes, and keep aside. 

In another small pan, butter the bread and begin to toast it to your linking. Remove from the pan, and place on the baking sheet. Drizzle the garlic/olive oil mixture on top. Top each slice of bread with some cheese (mix and match if you want to! we combined both cheddars together, and kept the mozzarella separate), the red onions, and the tomatoes on top. Bake in your oven for about 10 minutes (note: Mai's oven is really fierce - you may need more or less time so just check in on them.). Remove from oven, and cool slightly before eating. Best served with a Salty Dog cocktail (scroll down for the recipe)!

Salty Dog, recipe from Mai

Makes 6 cocktails (or, 2 rounds of cocktails for 3 people)

Ingredients

• Juice from 4 grapefruit (that should get you about 2 ounces of fresh juice per serving)
• 1/2 of a lemon, quartered for juicing
• 6-12 ounces of Vodka (essentially, you want 2 ounces of vodka per drink)
• Lemon peel for garnish

Mixologist Mai says "cooling the cocktail glasses first is always a classy move". So, stick your cocktail glasses in the freezer to chill while you prep everything else for your beverage.

Squeeze your grapefruit into a bowl or large measuring cup (i.e. a pyrex). Fill your cocktail shaker with ice. Pour the grapefruit juice into your cocktail shaker and shake, shake, shake.

Remove your cocktail glasses from the fridge and place a small sliver of the lemon rind in each glass. Using your juice squeezer thing, squeeze some lemon juice into each glass. Pour in the mixture from the cocktail shaker. Then proceed to get tipsy on Sunday night while eating grilled cheese sandwiches, repeating as often as necessary. 

Driving Up The 101

*Cue Phantom Planet Song*

Time for a trip to San Francisco! I was born in San Jose and my cousins, aunts and uncles still live there, so I went to visit for the weekend.

Kale Smoothies

The Victoria Secret Fashion Show is less than a month away. In honor of my absolute favorite fashion show of all time, I have decided that I will include more ab-friendly recipes on here. I am not a nutrionist by any stretch of the imagination, but I can venture a guess that eating more nutrient packed foods is probably better for your abs than say, my usual salted caramel ice cream and medium rare burgers.

I am currently not doing a very good job of maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, so I have googled ways to incorporate as many veggies into one meal as possible.  Ah-ha! Smoothies! I have started swapping in these kale smoothies in place of my usual oatmeal for breakfast. I get an extra serving or two of veggies and fruits in the morning even before I've checked my email and updated my instagram feed! Yay!