City Girl Cafe - Inman Square

I've had this place on my 'to-go' list for a while now and finally made it there at the end of July with my friend to kick off her post-bar celebratory weekend! We both really liked it here - cute atmosphere, local feel, great food, unique menu options, and on top of all that, great prices! They offer brunch, lunch and dinner - so I hope to be heading back soon to try more of their dishes out!

City Girl Caffe
204 Hampshire St (Inman Square), Cambridge

Perfect Summer Salad with Chickpea Burgers!

When my friend and I decided to cook dinner in one night a few weeks ago we decided on trying out a recipe for chickpea burgers. I thought a little summer salad would be a good side, so I came up with this mixture of ingredients to highlight some of the fresh basil from my porch! It was a great refreshing salad to put together but it's best served soon after you make it - so don't make too far in advance.

Tomato Basil Corn Salad
1/2 TB white wine vinegar
1 TB olive oil
salt and pepper
1 ear of corn (cut off, not cooked)
2-3 tomatoes
1/2 tsp chopped garlic
2 TB green pepper, chopped
lots of fresh basil!

Get out of your Salad rut!

Sometimes salads can get boring if you make the same kind over and over again - so I decided to try out a couple new ideas that I've seen at restaurants a couple times. Once is a nice filling salad and the other is a bit lighter, but both are perfect for a dinner party first course when you're trying to impress!

Roasted Pear and Goat Cheese Salad

Pears (halved)

Goat Cheese

Lemon Juice

Toasted Walnuts

Greens (Butter Lettuce mix)

Apple Juice (baste the pears)

Brown Sugar

Red Onion

Dried Cranberries

Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles!

With a summer work party on the horizon and a busy few days before, I knew I needed to make something that would last for a few days since I couldn't bake the night before. Cookies are great in this sort of situation because you can make the batter and freeze that, or you can even make the cookies and freeze them as soon as they cool - that way they're perfectly fresh when you bring them to your party a few days later! Rather than the traditional chocolate chip I was thinking that a cinnamon chocolate chip cookie would taste good and found the idea for this chocolate chip snickerdoodle! If I may say so myself, I think they came out great - lots of compliments from coworkers and they weren't too time consuming, which is always a plus.

Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 stick butter, room temp
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup sugar and 3 tsp cinnamon to roll in

Let's Talk About Food Festival @ MOS

More than a month ago I stopped by this great event organized by the Museum of Science as a part of their Let's Talk About Food Series. A big shout out goes out to Lisa and her team from the MOS - as it turns out, the team I used to intern with at the MOS was running the event. Their goal was to bring together people to celebrate food, health, cooking and science - all along the Cambridge Parkway and the Charles. I planned to just swing by and look around, but ended up staying for a good four hours. Due to the rainy day the turnout wasn't great - but it meant that I got great front row seats and lots of face time with exhibitors. They had a big tent set up with the main stage - where various local celebrity chefs presented different dishes and sessions, in addition to a long line of exhibitors running all along the Charles. The Museum of Science was also marketing their new exhibit - Around the World in 80 Diets, which I'm hoping to check out next.

I arrived just in time to see Jody Adams (of Rialto in Cambridge) present her session on cooking with lobster - and the program listed a special guest, who turned out to be Deval Patrick! I was a big fan of Adams on Masterchef on Bravo, so this was so fun for me to watch. She talked about her new restaurant coming - called Trade (at Atlantic and Congress in South Boston), and the importance of cooking within the season. They introduced Governor Patrick as a secret foodie who likes to be the cook at home for his family. Just like me, he talked about going to farmers market, seeing what looks good and then cooking what he finds! He even joked that he often catches his State Troopers on his security team watching the Food Network. They showed us how to split a lobster for their recipe - a Lobster Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette. The vinaigrette sounded delicious - with tarragon, lemon and orange zest, olive oil, dijon mustard, vinegar, grilled corn, scallion.