I MET THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA TODAY!

Hello All, 


  I am still getting the hang of this blogging thing - so excuse me for cramming alot into this post - but the past few days have been pretty busy food/fun wise!


My Top 5 (from the last 4 days):


#1 Meeting Ina Garten (AKA The Barefoot Contessa)

I got her new cookbook, "How Easy Is That"  autographed!  It was all surreal - she really is my cooking icon and I would want nothing more than to be invited to her house for dinner!!!  My sister and I waited in line for about one hour (in crazy New York wind) which I though was pretty reasonable!  The Sur La Table staff was so wonderful and passed out hot chocolate and cookies that were made using the Barefoot Contessa Mixes!

We even spotted Ina's friend who often stops by for dinner - check out the tall guy in the back!

#2 Vegan Brunch at V-Note 

My sister found a great coupon on the Living Social site for 50% of a new vegan restaurant!  So we went there for Sunday brunch!  It was so delicious and I was excited because they had a sampler platter which included a little bit of everything -

- Vegan French Toast

- Tofu Scramble

- Tempeh Bacon 

The tofu scramble was out of this world!  I don't know how they got it so creamy and fluffy! The tempeh bacon was also fun to try - it had a hashbrown texture (thanks to my sis for that description) and was really good dipped in syrup - which is my favorite way to eat bacon!  Because we had such a good deal - I was even able to splurge and order a juice (with only veggies - since I hate to drink my calories/points!)

#3 Serbian Zito

Zito is Serbian dessert that most non-Serbs will encounter if they visit a Serbian household during the holidays, as it is used to "welcome" a guest into the house.  My Serbian has been missing his Serbian cooking so he decided to whip some up this Sunday.  

Zito is usually made with wheat (what type I am not sure...) but we had farro on hand so that is what we used. 

It is then mixed with sugar and ground walnuts.  Sometimes the wheat itself is ground, but sometimes if it left whole.  

I was told that the walnuts could not be processed in the food processor but had to be "grated" - enter our first Kitchen Aid attachment!

This thing can grate, ground, slice, and shred - its really amazing and did the job well!

Since I am in LOVE with pumpkin right now - I made Pumpkin Spice Zito instead of the traditional Serbian variety.  I added: 

 1/3 cup pumpkin

2 tbsp Trader Joe's pumpkin butter

 cinnamon

nutmeg

1/2 cup farro

 2 tbsp ground walnuts

It was DELISH!

#4 Peanut Butter Banana Bread 

Saturday night I fired up the oven to bake Peanut Butter Banana Bread from Cooking Light magazine.  I substituted egg whites for the eggs and greek yogurt for the regular yogurt because that is what I had on hand - and it turned out beautifully!  However, it is

4 POINTS for 1/16th of the loaf!!!!!! I thought this was supposed to be a "light" recipe! :(  Therefore, I had one slice while it was warm and let the boyfriend finish the rest off over the week for breakfast and snacks.  

This is a shot of the bread looking out onto the building next to us - I love the brick in NYC!

#5 Oatmeal Breakfasts!

I have been taking a nod from Kath and putting all sorts of toppings on my oatmeal!  This week was a crumbled Pomegranate- Cranberry Fiber Cake from Trader Joe's (only 1 point!) and some pomegranate seeds!

Love, Allison