Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifle

I am HOME for fall break. Ugh. It feels so good to b back. After two midterm–packed weeks I am ready to do nothing but sleep, play with my pups *Tazz and Lola*, play with my sister and brother, and play in my kitchen. My kitchen at school is great, but there's nothing like my kitchen at home sweet home. It's light, airy, spacious, and holds the memories of both great success and yes, even failures, of my cooking extravaganzas. On the train home from school, I brainstormed a long list of things to make. I'm all about seasonal flavors and pumpkin was on my mind, so I guess you could say it became the theme for the weekend. Today we start with a Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifle, a super simple, no bake dessert, that alternates layers of silky pumpkin mousse, fluffy whipped cream, and crumbly ginger snap cookies. Ya it tastes AH-mazing, but it also looks incred too. When we were little and we brought home art projects my dad would always say, "Did you buy that at a store!!??" Obviously it would make me beam and made me feel like I was the next Picasso. Well, when I finished making these and took a look, I felt like asking myself the same question, because they really look professional. This is the perfect fall party dessert because everyone gets their own portion and we all know no one actually likes to share unless forced. SO if your planning that Thanksgiving menu, make room for these.

 Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifles, serves 4-6 *adapted from My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

about 30 Gingersnap cookies, I used Newman's
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
12 oz. whipped topping, like cool whip, or make your own whipped cream

wine glasses or champagne stems for assembly

Recipe: Put the cookies in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush into crumbs. They don't have to be very fine, a little chunky is okay. Set aside
In a large bowl fitted with an electric mixer beat the cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, sugar, and spices. Beat until well combined, smooth, and creamy. Use a rubber spatula to fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping. Mix in gently until no white streaks remain. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Assembly: Spoon 1 tbs of the cookies crumbs into the bottom of each glass. Pipe or spoon a layer of pumpkin filling onto the crus, followed by a layer of the whipped topping. Repeat layers until you've reached the top of the glass. Finish with a layer of whipped cream and top if cookie crumbs. Serve or chill in fridge until ready to serve.

 my kind of cocktail

 pumpkin perfection

 ginger snap crumbzzz

 just a bite of all dem layers

 and repeat

peter peter...4get peter, hungree hungree pumpkin eater

xoox

hungreergirl

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I think vegetables are extremely cool. Grown straight out of the earth, vegetables, while they may seem simple, are more complex then any piece of meat. Every pork chop is a pork chop. Every steak is a steak. But each vegetable is entirely its own individual. Have you ever seen two identical carrots? Have you ever tasted two beets that have the exact same level of sweetness? I like vegetables because besides their unique individuality, they are totally fun to manipulate. One type of vegetable can be prepared in utterly countless ways; roasted, toasted, puréed, soups, gratins, sauces, or raw. Endless. Everyone has a favorite vegetable. Personally, I have a lot of favorites, and they change depending on my mood. One staple on my list: the brussel sprout. While I like them any way, my favorite is halved and simply roasted with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder and olive oil. The outside leaves get crispy, but the inside is buttery and tenderly soft. The beauty is in the simplicity of the preparation, and the natural sweetness of the brussel itself. Don’t ya  just love love?  

 Simple Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

4 cups brussel sprouts

olive oil

salt

pepper

garlic powder

Recipe: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Halve the brussel sprouts and put them in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle the brussels with a little olive oil (about 1 tbs, a generous dash), a generous amount of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Toss to coat. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil. Lay the brussels on the sheet making sure none overlap. Bake for 35-40 minutes, shaking the sheet after 20 minutes to ensure browning on both sides. Remove from oven and season with additional salt to taste.

 wow

 just a bowl o brussels

 crisp city bitch

 holla fo a dollah$$$

from Brussells, with love

xoxo

hungreegirl.

NYC Wine and Food Festival

I'm just gonna go ahead and say that this past weekend was one of the best and yummiest weekends in my life. For those of you not familiar with the New York City Wine and Food Festival, NYCWFF, let me explain. Its a weekend full of culinary events hosted by the Food Network and Food and Wine Magazine to benefit Food Bank for NYC and Share our Strength. 100% of the proceeds go to the organizations, so while you eat and drink yourself into oblivion, you're actually helping to end hunger. Well, I've been a dream attendee of this event for a long long time and for my birthday this year, I got tickets to two events: the Grand Tasting and the Sandwich Showdown. The Grand Tasting was on Saturday, Oct 13th, and took place at Pier 57 on the Westside Highway. It was basically an enormous warehouse where you could watch some of your fave Food Network stars do demos, taste food from top NYC restaurants, and sip endless samples of Southern Wine and Spirits of NYC Portfolio. So ya, my idea of heaven if you didn't get the gist. It was unbelievable. As soon as I arrived I ran to the demo stage to watch Paula Deen. I swear we are blood related because she's the only person out there who appreciates butter as much as I do. After Paula I went full fledge tasting. The warehouse was divided in half vertically, and each half had two sides of long tables lining the entire building. These tables are filled with booths by different restaurants and different types of wine or liquor. You get in line (or shove in if your me) and have a field day. My favorite thing I tasted was the Lamb Rib from China Grill. It fell off the bone, was tender beyond belief, and melted in my mouth.

I also loved the Citrus Seafood Salad from Marble Lane, a bed of mixed greens with chickpeas topped with grilled calamari and a citrus dressing. I ate so many of these that when I saw the chef the next day at the sandwich event, he recognized me...lol.

The food ranged from coconut milk shrimp ceviche:

to Richard Blais's nitrogen gelled meatballs...hi Blais

 Check out all these pix. I died.
A beet Raviloi with Poppy Seeds

 A Tempura Tuna Roll with Mango Salsa

 Meat Man

 fresh cut and lovely

 Tuna on fried Seaweed Crackers

 have a sip

After I tasted absolutely everything in the hall, I knew it was time to sit down. I snuck into the third row of the demo stages and watched Andrew Zimmerman grill heart and make a shaved steak salad out of it with a mustard vinaigrette that looked divine. I sat and listened to Robert Irvine explain the magic of caul fat. I watched Rachel Ray shave fresh white truffles into a buttery porcini risotto. I watched, I absorbed, I tried to recover from the food coma and the fantastical atmosphere that overwhelmed me.

DAY 2: Sandwich Tasting.
On Sunday, I returned to the big NYC, but this time accompanied by my Mom and Dad. We are all devout sandwich lovers, and appreciate crazy combos between two slices of actually anything.

The Sandwich Showdown, hosted by Jeff Mauro the "Sandwich King," was an event in which 15 restaurants/sandwich shops presented a signature sandwich to the guests. You'd taste them all, vote for one, and a winner would be picked. Sounds like the perfect way to spend a Sunday, right? When we walked in the building for the showdown, we all went silent. I was lost in a whirlwind of smoked pork aromas, jazz music, and bunches of tables with enticingly tasty signs. Before I knew what was going on I spotted my mom with like four sandwiches per hand. "What are you DOING? SLOW DOWN" I told her. "Sorry I just got so excited!" her response. We worked our way through all 15 sandwiches, tried some two or three times, and sipped some cold Blue Moon to wash away each one in order to properly prepare a clean pallet for the next. Let me just describe some of these babies for you. A spice rubbed pork belly with cucumber, cilantro, carrots, and insane sauce on a fluffy bun by Nam Pang.

 HOLE-ee smokes. This was in my top 3.

 Sandwiches can b sweet too! Snickerdoodle cookies sandwiching pumpkin and blackberry vanilla ice creams.

A lam'bretta of spiced coconut lamb curry with pickled carrots and daikons, cilantro, cucumbers, and chili mayo on a baguette and a side green papaya salad to cool you down.

A thick cut simple pastrami sandwich on rye. Classic NYC...and I love it.

 A mixture of ham, salami, mozzarella, pickled cauliflower and olive salad, on sourdough with an insane side of butternut squash chips. These were chips purely made of squash, and we were addicted. Especially my Mom, who ended up being friends with the man because she asked for so many extra chips.

Smoked pork and brisket sandwiches galore.

A lobster roll with fresh chunks of claw, no mayo to be found, and a drizzle of melted butter on a toasted buttery bun by Luke's Lobster.

Toasted tuscan bread with porchetta, pickles, provolone, and spicy calabrese bomb sauce and a side bean salad.

A classic Philly Cheesteak with spicy pickles and hot peppers from Philly Tavern. REPPIN

A simple prosciuotto and cheese on a baguette with a fennel citrus salad.

The winner was Marble Lane's kobe beef, mushrooms, and gooey cheese sandwich, and for good reason. It was pure bliss; intensely rich and meaty with a buttery toasted bread that literally blew the roof off the building it was so good.

Have you ever seen two happier people?

As you probably guessed, I had the best time. I'm also still perpetually full. DO you know what it feels like to eat 15+ sandwiches? Well besides being beyond filling, its amazing, and I highly recommend it. Especially when they're filled with pork belly and kobe beef. SO, until next year, this will have to hold me and you through. All else there is to say is that one day, I will have my own event and you will all come and be there and eat 15 of my sandwiches, watch my demo, or eat my glazed lamb ribs.

stay hungree

xoxo

hungreegirl. 

Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty
Price: $$
Forks: 8.5

108 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA

I don't know about you, but I'm all about the spice. While I can't handle the spiciest ass–kicking hot stuff in the world, I definitely appreciate my food with a potent kick. Han Dynasty takes my mentality to a whole new level, ten levels in fact, as they are serving up dishes with ten different heat ratings, ranging from 1–10, in an attempt to knock you off yo feet. Let me just say, they succeed. I was brought to Han Dynasty for my brother Jake's surprise birthday party, because Chinese is his fave food ever.

Since we were over eight people, we went with the tasting menu, which takes you through the different levels of sauces and gives you a great tasting of almost the whole menu. Let's begin. Brace yourself, it;s about to get spicy.
Our meal kicked off with the Spicy Crispy Cucumbers, cold cukes served in a sweet and *certaintly* spicey dressing. The cold crunch paired with the heat of the spices made for a deceitfully divine bite. They were addicting as you'd keep eating more to cool yourself down because they were cold, but then you'd get a kick in the head from the heat reminding you how spicay they were. Awesome. I love food that messes with your mind.

Next came the Dan Dan and Sesame noodles. The Dan Dan's were warm and served in a spicy chili sauce. Think less-greasy lomaine with a punch. The cold Sesame noodles were a nice contrast and I ate them in rotation to cool my trembling tongue down. They were filled with scallions and a sweet sesame flavor, imparting welcome nutty hints with each bite.

Then came the Dumplings and Wontons in chili oil. I think they were stuffed with some kind of pork and shrimp mixture and while their sauce was quite oily, they were fantastic. The dough encompassing the filling was light and had a melt-in-your-mouth velvet texture that stole the show.

We were fed some vegetables before our inundation of meats occurred. The String Beans with Minced pork had killah texture; crinkled and tender yet still maintaining a bite. Minced pork scattered through the dish added a porky bite that while taking the fresh springyness out of the green vegetables, turend it into something totally new and smokey. We were popping these in our mouths like popcorn.

The Bok Choy with Black Mushrooms was eh. Too saucy 4 me with no real distinct flavor. Just tasted like sauce. I'll pass.

Now its time to get meaty. Like real meaty. First came the Chicken cooked in the Long Hot Pepper Style, with a sauce rating of 3. It had a touch of heat that came off as more of a tang, and the brown sauce coating it all was intensely rich like a hoisin, but lighter overall.

The Three Cup Chicken was sickeningly good. It was sweet and had a carmelized coating that was both crunchy and softly tender. Its that dish that you always eat too much of because you keep wanting the flavor to stay with you after you finish eating it. Ya its heavy, but ya you can deal.This with some white rice was pure perfection.

LETS GET REAL SPICY. They next brough out the Dry Pot Style Chicken, rated a solid 10 on their scale, aka the hottest of the hot. It came served in a sizzling mini wok and cooked in a spicy hot pot sauce with black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, and Sichuan peppercorns. So if you avoided the red then you could handle it. If you ate the red, say a prayer, look to God, and find some water/milk/sugar immedieatley. Despite it's heat, it still had a strong flavor. The heat wasn't so spicy that it was unnecessary; it truly added depth.

Then we were told we were taking it down a notch, with the Dry Pepper Style Chicken, rated an 8. It was triple flash fried with long hot and dry chili peppers. It looked like it was coated in red sprinkles. But those red sprinkles were chilis. All I have to say is that I think the system is messed up. After I handled the 10 I though an 8 would be cake. SURPRIZE. No. This is the deadliest of the dead. It's hot in a way I've never felt before. Your lips will tingle, your tongue will tremble, you will form beads of sweat on your forehead/other places. And the worst part is, you'll like it, want more of it, and become trapped in this sick cycle of devestatingly hot yet enamored passion of eating.

After came the Pork Belly in the Double Cooked Style, a 4 rating, with leeks, hot peppers, fermented black beans and chili oil. Pork Belly is one of God's gifts to humans. This dish was thin slices of pork belly in a simple sauce that let the true star, the pork, shine. Its basically bacon chinese style, and I love it.

Ya there were some more but I think you guys get the idea. To be honest, I don't LOVE Chinese Food *don't hit me*. Han Dynasty, however, kind of changed my mind. Usually I find Chinese too saucy and unnecessarily greasy, which at Han, wasn't the case. Other places Chinese food tastes like Chinese food, I can't distinguish anything and can barely identify if I'm eating sesame chicken or beef and broccoli because their so saucy/oily. At Han, every spice had a reason for being there. Besides being seasoned excellently, the ingredients and build of the dish were actually good. If you don't got the basics, you got nothing. Han's got the basics, the heat, and then some. Go, bring a lot of peeps and do the tasting menu and see if YOU can handle the spice.

hip hip, HAN!

xoxo

hungreegirl.