A Breakfast of Champions

According to David himself, this is how breakfast should be done!!  If it were up to him, he would have bacon incorporated into breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  Somehow, I don't think that would be an acceptable diet as far as health goes, but as far as taste goes, it certainly would be satisfying!  Here we see my brother's breakfast of scrambled egg whites, hash brown potatoes, and a side of bacon.  This meal was courtesy of Amity Diner on the Upper East Side in NYC.  Since David has been sick, they have become a regular phone call for delivery service as well as a regular stop-in.  At this point, the waiters know him by name.  It is always so nice to eat there and see how an old fashion diner is run - true appreciation for their customers!  Plus, the food is great and they treat my brother well! (which really is all that matters)

Happy 16th Birthday David!!

Happy Birthday to my best friend and incredible brother, David!  January 17th marked his 16th Birthday and I could not have been more proud to come home from Michigan for the weekend to spend it with him.  As a surprise, I booked a flight home on the 17th.  He had no idea that I was even considering coming home for the weekend, so you can only imagine how surprised he was to find me sitting in the apartment (well actually I jumped out at him) when he arrived home from his birthday dinner with my parents.

Of course, after we had a huge hug and he calmed down from the excitement of me being home, we planned a few birthday dinners for the weekend.  First on our list was the new restaurant The General.  All I can say is WOW!  All four of us loved our dinner there on Friday night.  They brought us tons of free dishes and desserts...all of which we devoured.

Saturday night we went to Marc Forgione, a tried and true favorite for the Asch family.  As usual, I ordered the chili lobster - one of my favorite dishes ever.  As shown in the photo, we had a wide variety of options on the table (and each one was more delicious than the next).

I am so happy that I was able to be home to celebrate such a special milestone in David's life.  Despite still being in chemotherapy treatment, he has such a positive outlook on life.  He inspires me every day to become a better person and appreciate everything that is good in my life.

Basket full of goodies!

Baking, baking, baking is all I've been doing for the past 24 hours! (and hand-dipping goodies in chocolate too).  Tomorrow night at 6 pm is the Grande Finale of Man/Woman of the Year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I was asked by a friend that is involved with the event to make a basket of desserts and yummy goodies to be part of the raffle for the night.  She thought that given the intent of my blog and my goals (to help raise money for leukemia research), it would be a great opportunity for me to give back to a cause that is so dear to my heart as well as get the world about my blog, and hopefully new charity - in the future, out there to a greater public group.  This is the final product!  I think that it came out beautifully.  Its hard to see everything that is inside due to the glare on the wrapping, but here is a list of everything! 

Six hand-dipped chocolate covered Oreos

Ten hand-dipped chocolate covered graham crackers

Tin full of hand-dipped chocolate covered pretzels

Box full of brownies

Box full of chocolate chip cookies

Two bags of chocolate cookies with Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

Bag and tin full of Reese’s Peanut Butter Blossoms – peanut butter cookies with Reese’s baked on top

Bag of “funfetti cookies” – sugar cookies with sprinkles

Four individually wrapped chocolate chip cookies filled with Oreo inside

Bag of white chocolate filled peanut butter blossoms

Bag of assorted cookies

Should anyone want to purchase a basket like this, please contact me.  All proceeds will be donated to leukemia research! 

  

David Loves Dessert!

Last night I arrived home at nearly 9 o'clock after working all day taking photos at Smithtown Hunt Horse Show.  Although I was not very hungry, the rest of my family has waiting to have dinner with me when I got home.  We were out the door and headed to dinner basically the second that I got home.  We went to our neighborhood italian restaurant, Due.  I have basically grown up going there since before I could walk or talk and since David has gotten sick, it has become even more of a frequent venue for family dinners and outings.  David ordered penne with pesto sauce, one of his favorite pasta sauces at Due.  Despite not being hungry enough to finish his pasta, he ordered dessert...tiramisu!  It is one of their best desserts and is homemade in the restaurant.  Here is a photo so you can see how delicious it looks!

I think that I am going to try to recreate this delicious dessert of lady finger cookies, whipped cream, coffee, chocolate sauce, and cocoa.  We'll see if David thinks it tastes as good!

A Home Cooked Meal - Summer Style: Grilled Shrimp Skewers over Salad

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we had a very heavy dinner at Babbo (which was incredible and totally worth eating every last bite of).  I figured that as a late birthday gift, I would make dinner for the family rather than let her cook for us.  Because we ate so much last night, including 3 different pasta dishes, prosciutto, grilled bread with olive oil and chickpeas - all followed by our individual main courses, I wanted to make sure that dinner tonight was on the lighter side.  In order to suit this desire, I decided to make shrimp skewers and salad.  I think the dish turned out to be delicious.  Everyone seemed to enjoy!

Here's the recipe for the shrimp skewers:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons bottled hot sauce (this does not make them very spicy at all...if you want a kick, I recommend adding some chili flakes)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 30 raw shrimp, peeled and deveined 

Directions:

1. If you are using wooden skewers, make sure to soak them for at least 20 - 30 minutes so that they do not burn.  Place them in a shallow container and make sure they are completely covered in water.  Let them sit until you are ready to cook the shrimp.
2. Whisk together all components of the marinade.
3. Pat dry the shrimp with a paper towel.
4. Pour the marinade into a ziplock bag and place all of the shrimp in the bag as well.  Massage the bag making sure that each shrimp is covered with marinade.  Place the bag in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. 
5. Take the shrimp out of the fridge and begin threading them onto the skewers that have been soaking for a while now.  
6. Place the skewers onto an already pre-heated grill and cook for 1.5 - 2 minutes on each side.   

And the salad dressing:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup canola oil

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients into a blender except the oils and mix until everything is combined.
2.  With the blender on, slowly add in each of the oils.  Blend until well mixed. 

Here is the finished product!

And we can't forget David's favorite part of any meal...the dessert!  The perfect dessert after such a light and delicious meal is some fruit and a good old fashioned Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookie!

S'mores galore!

Last night David and I were in the mood for something sweet - so we decided what could be better than some indoor s'mores!  I just arrived home from Israel on Monday morning and brought with me special Israeli chocolate, so we used that instead of a traditional hershey's bar.  They turned out to be absolutely delicious and we avoided all potential dangers of making s'mores inside at your kitchen table (although my dad was extremely nervous that we were going to screw up and somehow light the table cloth on fire).  We used a small s'more making kit that we had which gave us the flame.  We roasted the marshmallows until they were crispy outside and warm and gooey inside and then placed them in a graham cracker sandwich with a few squares of the chocolate that I brought home with me from Israel.  Here are a couple of photos from our adventurous night!

First Sale Was A Success!

Today I had my first sale at the Rice Farms Horse Show at Yaphank...and it was a big success!  Everything that I baked yesterday was sold and at the end of the day only a few cookie crumbs were left in my boxes!  Thank you so much to everyone that bought and supported my cause.  Because you guys, I will be donating $164 to the Leukemia & Lymphoma society.  Hopefully, I will be able to start the process of becoming an official non-profit charity on my own so that I will be able to run larger events and people will be able to donate to my cause as a real charity, but for now I am thrilled with the success of this first sale and I am excited to make this donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I am looking forward to many more sales in the future!  Here are some of the things that I had for sale today:

Delicious (and oversized) brownies

Frosting Filled Funfetti Cookie Sandwiches

Strawberry Banana and Chocolate Banana Cupcakes!

Brownies, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and all sorts of Funfetti Cookies all packed up and ready to sell! 

We also had ice cream cone cupcakes courtesy of Aleesha Melwani.  Thank you so much to everyone that helped support me today!  It is very much appreciated and you should know that both your efforts and your donations are going to help an incredibly important cause.