2,000,000 Cribs Recall

Sorry, I was wrong about the number of cribs involved in the last recall. It's actually over a two million cribs, all with drop-sides. I now have the right link...

Another massive recall, this time with Stork Craft cribs.
I've included one picture, but there are several models included so be sure to check out the information on this.

The cribs were sold in the usual places - Walmart, Amazon.com, Babies r Us, Costco, J.C Penney, Kmart.

You can find information here.

Baby Back Ribs with Mac and Cheese and Brussels Sprouts

Yesterday I decided that I had better go buy my turkey if I still plan on hosting Thanksgiving dinner here at my apartment. I didn't want to get stuck with a 20 pounder just because I didn't think ahead.

And I was also really busy editing so I didn't have a good plan for dinner. So, I decided to go get my turkey at Costco. That way I could also pick up a rack of baby back ribs that they have all prepared and ready to go. We've had them before and they are delicious.

Costco did not disappoint. I was able to get my 8 pound organic turkey and for $19 I picked up 2.5 pounds of ribs - a full rack. For sides, I decided we needed some mac and cheese so I made one of those Annie's Homegrown Organic mac and cheese boxes I had in my cabinet. I also decided to make those brussels sprouts that have been sitting in my refrigerator. Last week, my friend Kita wrote a blog post about her reintroduction to brussel sprouts after being served some at a dinner party. As a former brussel sprouts hater, she was converted and posted brussels sprouts cooking tips on her site.

This is how I like to make them.

Brussels Sprouts
1/2 pound (maybe? enough for 2 people) brussels sprouts
1 or 2 strips of bacon (I like a maple flavored kind for this)
salt and pepper

Clean and trim you brussels sprouts. Place them in a container with a lid - I use BPA free Rubbermaid ones - add a little bit of water, cover and cook in the microwave for 2 minutes.

In the meantime, cut the bacon strips into small pieces. Put in a frying pan and cook until the fat has emulsified and the bacon begins to brown.

Add the steamed brussels sprouts to the frying pan with the bacon. Cook until the brussels sprouts start to brown. Add salt and pepper to taste.

So super easy and really delicious. And good for you, too! Well, except for the cooking in bacon fat part.

Precious

This past Sunday Damien and I did our little movie swap. Damien went to the movies first, then I met him at the food court of the Aventura mall to hand off Baz so that I could go see the same film.

We decided on seeing Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire, an intense, sad story of an obese teenage girl from Harlem who deals with lots of abuse and little opportunity to escape it. It is filled with really terrific performances. But, most of all, it is refreshing to see a story about someone other than middle class white boys coming of age. I certainly wouldn't go see this if you were in the mood for some sort of "pick me up", but I do think that it was a well done movie that offers a unique, if not incredibly uncomfortable, perspective of characters and situations we'd rather believe don't exist.

The only thing that really bothered me was the number of small children in the audience. Don't get me wrong, this was a powerful movie with an important, positive message. But, not for 6 or 7 year olds. This is a movie about a young girl who has been repeatedly raped by her father (she has two children with him.) In the film, the mother is physically and emotionally abusive, calling her all sort of horrible names and at one point tries to drop a television on her. I guess it's one thing if you are going to have some pretty hardcore discussions after seeing the movie, but I don't really think that was on the agenda after our Sunday matinee. And honestly, is it even in any way appropriate to have a discussion about incest with a 6 or 7 year old?

So, I do recommend going to see this movie. But, the kids should probably sit this one out.

Enchiladas Once Again

Since I messed up last night. Tonight, I just went with something I know tastes great and that Damien loves - Mollie's MacDonald's Chicken Enchiladas. And they did not disappoint.

Thanks again for the wonderful recipe, Kita.

Tomorrow night, we have company. Damien's colleague from the Times is coming so I need to come up with something good. And something that doesn't take too much time since I am still slaving away on my freakin' video.

Any ideas? I'm thinking Shrimp Creole -- looks fancy and I can make it ahead of time (and add the shrimp right before serving.)

Quinoa and Apples with Curry

Oh my goodness, I totally screwed up last night.

See, I have never made quinoa before. But I've ordered it at restaurants and loved it. So, when I saw a bag of it at Publix a couple of weeks ago, I bought it. But, it's taken me a while to actually try it. It's actually pretty easy to make -- just like rice. You boil 2 cups of water, then add the quinoa and cook for about 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy.

I was in the mood for Balthazar's Mustard-encrusted Salmon and thought it would make a great side dish. I looked up a few recipes online and discovered this one from Martha Stewart . But, her recipe looked like it was a cold dish. I wanted it to be hot, so I cooked the apples and shallots in a little bit of butter before I added them to the quinoa.

But, I totally messed up. I don't know what I was thinking -- probably something along the lines of "I hope Baz doesn't choke on his toast while I am turned the other way cooking and man, I should be editing right now" -- but when I went to put my spices back in the cabinet this morning, I discovered what went wrong. I used coriander instead of curry. No wonder my quinoa tasted so different than what I expected. No wonder it sorta sucked.

I figured I'd give you the recipe anyway. Like I said, Martha makes this as a cold salad dish. I think it would be good hot too.

Quinoa and Apples with Curry (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 cup quinoa
1 tablespoon butter
1 small apple, diced
1 small shallot, diced
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon curry powder (not coriander)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons dried currants
a few fresh mint leaves, coursely chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Put the almonds in a single layer on a small cookie sheet and toast in the over for about 8 minutes.

Boil two cups of water. Add the quinoa and return to a boil. Cover, lower the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.

While the quinoa cooks, melt the butter in a small saute pan. Add the shallots and apples and saute until just soft. Set aside.

Make the dressing by combining the honey, curry powder, salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir until it emulsifies.

When the curry is done, add the apples and shallots and mix well. Drizzle the dressing into the quinoa and mix well. Then add the currants and mint and mix well.

I hope it's good. I wouldn't know.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I was craving chicken noodle soup yesterday so I decided to make use of some of the delicious chicken stock I had in the freezer to make some. It's a little time consuming but fairly easy to do. I started with a recipe from Emeril Lagasse and made adjustments from there.

Then today, I pureed a bit of it to give to Baz. I'm Cuban. We puree a lot. I actually turned out really well and Baz seemed to enjoy it even though he much prefers foods he can pick up and feed himself these days.

Anyway, here is my recipe. For the chicken stock I used this recipe from a couple of weeks back.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (Inspired by Emeril Lagasse's recipe)
3 pound whole chicken
4 cups chicken stock
8 cups water
2 stalks of celery, chopped into large chunks
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 onions, chopped into large chunks
4 sprigs of thyme
6 sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
10 button mushrooms, cut into six pieces
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 onions, diced
1/4 cup white wine
salt and pepper
1/4 pound egg noodles

Put the chicken in a large pot and cover with chicken stock and water. Add the large chunks of vegetables and the thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour.

Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to cool enough so you can handle it. Pour the liquid through a very fine strainer or a strainer lined with cheesecloth. Set the broth aside.

Remove all of the skin and bones from the chicken. Shred the meat into small pieces.

In a large pot heat up the olive oil. Add the butter and melt. Add the mushrooms and saute until brown. Add the diced carrots, celery and onions and saute until soft and brown bits begin to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add the wine and use the liquid to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pot. Cook for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol evaporate. Add the shredded chicken. Add the reserved broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste which could require quite a bit.

Bring the soup to a boil. Add the egg noodles and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the noodles reach their to desired tenderness.

Voila! It's pretty good stuff and just what the doctor ordered if you are feeling a little under the weather. And it was good left over, too. And pureed like what I did for Baz.

Norman Rockwell and Au Pied de Cochon

Last Thursday, Damien and I had a rare night out together -- sans baby -- to attend the opening of the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art. Let me start by saying how impressed I was with the museum. Aside from the wonderful Norman Rockwell exhibit, they also have a more modern stuff upstairs featuring some Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and other contemporary artists. The space is really nice with lots of different types of rooms. If you are in the area, I definitely recommend checking the place out. It's very easy to see everything and the quality of the work was top-notch.

The Norman Rockwell exhibit is running through February 7th, 2010. All of the paintings are drawn from the Norman Rockwell exhibit in Massachusetts and what I liked most about it is seeing the evolution of his work. It was inspiring to see how much he honed his craft through the years and how he really started to layer is work with different themes and meanings.

It was a great date night!

Friday was another doozy of working my butt off, so Damien made dinner that night and he did a spectacular job. He made delicious pork chops that he served with some Zatarain's red beans and rice and some broccoli. Nice job!

Then on Saturday we spent a big part of the day shooting additional footage for my video. At the end of the day we found ourselves in South Beach so we stopped in at Au Pied De Cochon, a newly opened French restaurant to see what it was like since we've heard good things. It's open 24 hours a day apparently, and at 6pm, when we were there, it was pretty empty. So we decided to brave a visit with our sleeply little Baz in tow. They had a high chair for him and beautiful raw bar set up near our table so Baz behaved wonderfully -- minus a couple of loud screeches at certain points.

Wish I could say I was as happy with the food. I mean, maybe I was expecting too much, but when I saw that the steak frites would cost at least $41 (for the New York Strip) I decided to just get a hamburger. I know, I know. Ordering a hamburger at a French restaurant. But, I don't know when I order a burger to Balthazar in New York, it's delicious. They serve it on a great bun and it's expertly prepared. I guess I was thinking it would be the same here. Besides it was $25. It had to be pretty good.

I ordered the burger medium but when it came it was very rare -- and not that snobby, but "we're a fancy french restaurant and this is what we call medium" rare. It was really, really rare. So, I had no choice but to asked that they take it back. Well, in the kitchen they simply scrapped off the condiments I had put on it and charred the outside to get it to the usual medium pink inside. Not for nothing, but for $25 bucks, you'd think they would have asked if I wanted a new burger entirely so that the outside didn't taste like a burned mess. But, no, I just ate the freakin' thing. And it was on a plain old sesame seed bun like I could find at Publix. No fancy brioche bun like I had imagined.

Damien ordered the veal cheeks and they were tasty and fine. And the French onion soup au grain I had as an appetizer and the salad Damien ordered were fine too. But, the burger really got to me.

The next day, Damien and I left Baz with his grandparents for a couple of hours so I could shoot some of the last few shots for this video. And to make up for our overly expensive hamburger annoyance the night before, we stopped at Joe's Stone Crab take-away store and had ourselves some stone crabs and a lobster roll. Now we were talking.