Downtown Pittsburgh: a walk

Sometimes, we just like to take a walk to Downtown Pittsburgh.  It's not quite as bustling as other downtown areas, mainly because it's not so residential yet.  There are plenty of businesses there, but after 6 pm, most of it (apart from the cultural district) has packed up for the day.  If you're willing to put on your walking shoes, though, there are rich rewards.  Downtown is home to some stunning architecture, some great restaurants, and some beautiful views.  Here are some of my recent photos there:

On the Roberto Clemente bridge, looking at downtown Pittsburgh

Roberto Clemente Bridge

 Some of these are from a local art project wherein artists take over empty storefronts and turn them into exhibits.  This one, Fraley's Robot Repair (UPDATE!  There's a website, where you can look at better pictures and even buy t-shirts!), is an absolute favorite of mine and my husband's.  The artist changes things around every few days, too, so you're never looking at the same scene twice.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass building

Buhl building

I like this cluster of oldies-but-goodies

Another picturesque cluster of buildings

I wonder what the building originally advertized.

One of the great things about Pittsburgh is the juxtaposition of the old, beautiful architecture with the more modern skyscrapers.

More robot repair...

 The gorgeous old clock at Macy's never fails to captivate me:

PPG building again - so neat!

Recipe Review - Quiche

Having spent a year studying in France as a kid, I developed a lasting and satisfying relationship with... quiche.  I never made it in my home until recently, and I always wondered what the secret was to the especially wonderful quiches I occasionally came across - you know the ones.  They melt in your mouth.  I found this recipe, as I so often do, over on Martha Stewart's page.  It's by a guest chef, and she absolutely nails this quiche.  My only modification is that I add 6 slices of bacon (which we did not quite cook long enough this time), with the fattiest bits discarded (because who wants the wiggly bits in their quiche??).

 We used fresh thyme from our kitchen window herb garden - not having a real back yard (it's more of a large patio with no actual grass anywhere), we just have a little pot out back with thyme, cilantro, dill and basil, our most commonly-needed fresh herbs.

 I used some gorgeous local farm eggs, purchased through Penn's Corner, our local farm alliance.  We love everything we've gotten from them!

The final product was a wonderful, melt-in-your-mouth quiche.  We did cheat and use store-bought crust.  Honestly, the crust is a problem for me.  I am far too lazy to premake my own crusts to have at the ready for dishes like this.  But the store-bought is *so* gross.  Not to mention packed with trans-fats.  So, since I'm making the dish again tomorrow in anticipation of some guests arriving Friday, I'm going to attempt to make it without any crust at all.  It dramatically reduces the calories, and while I do prefer a nice crust on a quiche, I will survive without it this time around.  In the meantime, does anyone have a delicious yet super easy flaky crust recipe??

Oh, and the secret to the magical quiche texture?  Creme fraiche.  I trolled at least 3 different stores to find it, but I suspect my DC and New England-based friends and family will have an easier time of it.  Anyway, it's so worth it.  The creme fraiche really works wonders.  And it's even great as leftovers.

Approximate calories per 1/8 of quiche serving size (rounded to nearest 5):

With crust AND bacon: 400 calories per serving
With crust, no bacon: 375 calories per serving
Without crust, with bacon: 290 calories
Without crust or bacon: 265 calories.

Project: Baby Blanket

Months ago, with a brand new nephew and another niece or nephew (we didn't know at the time) on the way, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to make them some baby blankets.  Unfortunately, they were not ready on time for Christmas, but they were ready on time for the baby shower for our second new nephew (he was born just the other day, so we know now - it's a boy!).

I totally cheated on the quilt aspect of this.  Instead of actually quilting the layers together, I used strategically placed buttons and sewed them through all three layers, hiding the thread ends inside the quilt.  The major downside of this is that I'm not sure how they'll hold up being machine washed.  Here's hoping they stay in one piece.

I also made a little name patch for one, and for the other, because we didn't know the gender, I just embroidered a little heart instead of a name.  The really special thing about this one was that, though you may not be able to tell from the picture, the fabric I used to make the patch was the white-on-white polka dot fabric I also used in the wedding quilt we made for my sister- and brother-in-law when they got married.  I have saved the scraps from that quilt and will continue to use them in little projects for them over the years.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the entire quilt - the most I got was the half-folded shots.  Also, the light in our dining room is terrible, so some of the pictures give it a weird look.  The fabrics I used were pastel orange and green.  The fun thing is, these little nephews now have nearly-identical (apart from the name patch and the individual buttons) baby quilts!

Special thanks to my husband for cutting out all the fabric for the second quilt and for running up to JoAnn to pick up more bias tape when I ran out.  I would have been so screwed for time on this!

Because I made up the pattern myself (leave me a message if you'd like a copy of the pattern!), I was a little disorganized when it came to shopping for materials.  The great news was that I got some glorious batting (Warm & Natural) at JoAnn for half price, so definitely use a coupon or wait for a sale so you can get the really scrumptious batting.  It was delightful to work with and was warm without being too puffy.  I ended up using about twice as much yellow as green, but that was by design, as the store had less green in stock the day I bought fabric.  I am totally blanking on how much fabric I used, especially because I changed the size of the quilt at the last minute to make it a bit smaller.  My original pattern that I designed called for something like 45" x 60", which I quickly realized was totally absurd for an infant.  In terms of other materials, I needed 2 spools of pastel yellow thread, a skein of embroidery floss for the patches, like a gazillion (ok, 4-5) packs of coordinating double-fold bias tape and a small jar of white buttons.

In the end, because it's not a precise pattern and you kind of have to adapt it to your purposes, I'd budget 10-15 hours of work for each quilt (much more if you're going to make one for grown-ups, due to the extra fabric-cutting and button-sewing!).  The bulk of that time was, for me, spent cutting fabric out and doing those damn buttons!  They look super cute, but I nearly drove myself crazy getting them securely sewed on!  I was literally embroidering the heart patch on the way to New Jersey for the baby shower.  Totally worth it, though.

They made a great gift and were very well received by both my sisters-in-law.  I hope that many family babies will get to sleep under these quilts over the years!

Apple Pie - recipe review

Just a very quick post on my all time favorite apple pie recipe - the one I begged my mother to make as a child, and the one that's better than all the others I've ever had.  I always assumed it was some magical family secret that would someday be passed along to me.  Well, I suppose it has been passed along to me, in the form of "it's just the recipe from the Joy of Cooking - follow it to the letter!"  By the way, it's also important to use the right apples - my favorite combination with this one is Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Gala.  I ended up with that once because it was slim pickings at the grocery store, and it turned out extremely well!

Seriously?  The Joy of Cooking??  How embarrassing that my obviously unrefined taste buds prefer this to any of the many fancier apple pies I've come across!  And yet, this recipe holds up.  It is delicious.  Months ago, when I made it for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, I brought the leftovers to my coworkers.  My favorite of the compliments I received was "you can come live at my house and make me this pie every day." 

I always do this pie now with a lattice crust, because I just think it makes a prettier pie, and because I think it's easier than preserving the integrity of a giant piece of pie crust on the top.  Plus, since everyone thinks it's ten times harder than it actually is, it wins you lots of points.

Please do give this recipe a shot - if you're an apple pie fan, it's the best!

Sidebar:  I use the Joy of Cooking for a lot of recipes, along with Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and a whole lot of Martha Stewart's recipes.

I'm kind of a moron in that, by the time I got married, I could make an excellent potatoes au gratin dish (thanks, Martha Stewart!), but I had to look up how to hard boil an egg (Mark Bittman, you totally saved my butt!).  I feel like the combination of the three sources I have cited here works very well to help fill in the holes in my culinary knowledge while giving me more advanced stuff to try out as well.

Review: Pho Van and WFH Oriental Food Market

My husband and I recently decided to take a second trip to Pho Van, a small Vietnamese restaurant in Pittsburgh's ever-wonderful Strip District, which is packed with grocery stores, restaurants and the public market - that's a post for another day.  We had been to Pho Van before and loved it, especially the apple chicken salad, which I failed to photograph AGAIN this time, because it was just too delicious to stop and take pictures.  Once again, we had a fabulous meal.  The apple chicken salad alone is worth the trip, but the crispy rolls are also a great appetizer.  As for main courses, I got the pho, with rare eye round, and it was fantastic.  My husband had the grilled pork and totally loved it.

On the way back to our car, we passed by WFH Oriental Food Market, also on Penn Ave.  It's got lots of great things at great prices, but unfortunately does not live up to the awesome Lotus Foods down the street.  Having been to Lotus even more recently, I can tell you that Lotus has a much wider range of products, better selection, and a much more pleasant store - Lotus has a larger store, enabling them to space the aisles better.  WFH Oriental Food Market, though very claustrophobic, is still worth a visit.  We picked up a lot of produce on that visit, including some that's pictured here.  Best of all was the GIANT cabbage that we couldn't resist - seriously, how is a cabbage that huge?  And, last but not least, the green tea ice cream we picked up did not last long in our house - yum!  I would say that, when I plan ahead, I just head straight to Lotus and skip WFH - Lotus has the same things and more, plus the better overall experience.

Maine Visit, Part 2 - reviews and general awesome

 Some of these are just images, and some I'll discuss a bit more.

 To start off with, one of the reasons I love Maine is because I love love LOVE my mother's style.  Just look at her living room:

 How could you not love that living room?  The rest of it is just as beautiful.  My mother has some of the most fabulous taste I have ever come across.  I'd love to post some more, but she also values her privacy, so I have a feeling I should get her permission before I do that.  :)

We got to head to another of my absolute favorites on this trip, Stone's Cafe.  We have always just called it Stone's, and it is one of my favorite diners ever.  I had the eggs benedict, which were totally tasty.  Everyone was very happy with their order, as is always the case when I go there.  I am getting so hungry just thinking of it that I have to move on...

A quick example of why I love Mainers, spotted in the Trader Joe's parking lot:

We got some tasty treats from Rosemont, which is a fantastic market with several locations in Southern Maine.  Everything they carry seems to be pretty excellent, and my particular weaknesses are their cheeses, cured meats and breads.  Admittedly, those are my particular weaknesses in most places, but few can satisfy like Rosemont.

We even got to check out some old pictures on the slide projector - including my absolute favorite baby picture of me, making a ghastly little face:

It's funnier in person - somehow, the photo of the projection is not the finest quality image (who knew??  haha)

And of course, I have to include some love for La Petite Jacqueline, my favorite restaurant in Portland.  Their onion soup, their steak frites, their roasted chicken, even their basic green salad - everything I have tasted there is marvelous.  So many French restaurants get pretentious and awful.  It drives me nuts, because I've lived in France, and outside of the snootier Paris establishments, French restaurants are just, well, restaurants.  No need for putting on airs.  La Petite Jacqueline seems to have captured the most wonderful things about French restaurants and cooking, and so this restaurant is really like a love note to France.  With mouth-wateringly good food.  Of which I took some truly awful photos:

I console myself with the knowledge that even the most gorgeous of photos would not do this food justice.

Ooooh, and I almost forgot - the cocktails.  Oh, the cocktails.  I need to figure out when I can get back there...