Catch up!

Ronnie looking crazy!


Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Glaze, asparagus and mashed sweet potatoes.


The rack right out of the oven!


Tuna steaks with Wasabi Cream and Soy Ginger Carrots


Roasted pork loin stuffed with fennel, pears and herbs with Brussels Sprouts with bacon.


Roasted baby pepper stuffed with herbed goat cheese.

So obviously Ronnie and I have been really busy lately! We've got recipes to come but for now, just enjoy these lush photos from the last 2 months of the food we've been cooking.

You should be jealous of my dinner

Back from the nearly dead after five weeks of intensive classwork, I finally get to cook again! Last night, we went back to basics for an MCQ pre-practice dinner of pan seared scallops over wilted salad with dijon balsamic vinaigrette. Simple, summer, delicious.

Thanks god I'm back!

Sticky Fingers Indeed

Before

After

Every time I come down here, I insist on going to the relatively local BBQ joint, Sticky Fingers. It's great, they smoke the meat and the sauces are pretty amazing. This time we got take out and it went fast!

Dad's Classic Pancake Breakfast

My Dad makes pancakes every Sunday. EVERY Sunday. Today though he moved it because tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we are having a huge midday meal. I love my Dad's pancakes.

Inspired to mine the archives

“Because cooks love the social aspect of food, cooking for one is intrinsically interesting. A good meal is like a present, and it can feel goofy, at best, to give yourself a present. On the other hand, there is something life affirming in taking the trouble to feed yourself well, or even decently. Cooking for yourself allows you to be strange or decadent or both. The chances of liking what you make are high, but if it winds up being disgusting, you can always throw it away and order a pizza; no one else will know. In the end, the experimentation, the impulsiveness, and the invention that such conditions allow for will probably make you a better cook.”

— Jenni Ferrari-Adler (Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant)

via hungryghoast via bunkercomplex

The above has inspired me to mine through the archives to find dinners I made solo:
Parmesan and Basil Scones
Autumn Curry
Zucchini Bread
Boneless T-bone Steak
Zucchini Fitters with Dill Yogurt Sauce and Star Anise Apple Cherry Chutney
Spice Marinated Lamb with Cherry Shallot Compote

Comforting Continued - Bourbon Pecan Pie

It's still cold out. Ronnie and I are still kind of nursing ourselves back to some kind of health, emotional and physical, what ever. What better way to do that than to whip up a pie that has three or four of my favorite things:
1. Pecans!
2. Bourbon
3. Dark Chocolate
4. Butter
With the added bonus, it's PIE!

So we spent this Saturday after class napping and baking and feeling self indulgent.

Bourbon Pecan Pie - HungryGhoast told me that this is also called a Derby Pie. He had a hand in suggesting the chocolate addition.

Bourbon Pecan Pie

for the crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-6 tablespoons ice water

for the filling
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped Pecans
3 generous shots bourbon
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
3 egss
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate (you can add more for more chocolately goodness)

Soak the nuts in the bourbon for several hours. I put mine in and then went for a 3 hour nap. Then made the crust, which needs to be refrigerated for an hour, while I watched Dollhouse. So, I'd say mine were soaking in the sauce for 4.5 hours.

Make the crust. I tell you how here.

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Combine all the ingredients, except the nuts and chocolate. Beat well. Add the nuts and chocolate. Pour into the shell. Bake for an hour. Don't over bake. It will continue to cook and set when you take it out of the oven. Mine was undulating, popping and hissing like a cat in tub of water.

Also, this pie is delicious and very addicting. In fact, it was my breakfast.

Another added bonus, here is Ronnie yesterday, enjoying her favorite treat of lettuce. I know, she's a weird cat. She takes after her mother.

Unexplained absence

Now that the major step of studying for and taking the GAMT has been accomplished, I will be back with a backlog of pictures, recipes and reviews! Burgers with David, a return visit to Le Sirene to celebrate and upcoming baking experiments! I am still here, slaving in the kitchen for you! Expect more frequent updates and even more frequent libations!

"Four legs is just Greedy"

A moment away from food and a focus on our house mascot, the three legged wonder cat Ronnie-chan Murderball. An integral part of the dining experience at 312 Square Feet is the inevitable ceding of your lap to the Chan. She is the friendliest and most co-dependent cat that I have ever known. What would coming home be if she were not there waiting for me at the door and meowing to me all about her day, which must be very exciting for all of the racket that she makes. What would be sleeping if not for her furry forays over me to window sill or being wakened by her vigorous cleaning of my head.

So I want to bring focus to a woman who I met at Amber's picnic and whose dog suffered from cancer and is now a tripod too. Sonia and Lulu run a blog and sell merchandise to raise money to help out animals whose vet bills begin to exceed the means of their owners. Visit I heart Tripods to read all about the saga of Lulu's battle with cancer and purchase super cute Tee's and totes including this awesome cat Tee.


Ronnie lost her leg on the mean streets of Chicago. She had been a stray cat who picked the right home. In my apartment in Chicago we had a stoop that was gated and we lived on the second floor. One morning as my roommate was leaving for work with her bike, this gray streak ran past her and up our stairs to the landing outside our apartment door. Even then, Ronnie was a super friendly fur ball. Purring and jumping up to be pet, while holding up her front right paw. We noticed right away that she was seriously injured, but we couldn't let her into our apartment because we already had two other cats and couldn't risk their health.

We both called in sick from work and put the then nameless kitty into a carrier and hauled her off to the first vet that would take us. Lucky for us we took her to Higgins Animal Clinic on Belmont. They x-rayed her and bandaged up her foot and told us that she was indeed a girl, very underweight but thankfully with not feline leukemia or other contagious diseases. The bad news was that we had to get the leg amputated as soon as possible. It was gangrenous and was threatening Ronnie's life.

But we just couldn't afford the surgery. We took Ronnie home with the bandaged foot and tried to figure out what we could do. We had about a week to come up with the $1300 that it was going to cost. At the time, I was barely making $10K and my roommate was working at Planned Parenthood, not glamorous or high paying positions. We tried to apply for aid, but we didn't qualify. I guess you have to be broker than living under the poverty line to get help for your animals.

Just in time! The vet at Higgins called us and told us that because we couldn't get all that together that they had a new vet coming in who needed to practice surgery. They would do the surgery after hours and at cost for us. Ronnie was going to be saved!

She had her paw removed and in the course of the surgery they found that she was pregnant with a small litter! They were miss carried because of all of the stress on her poor body, but we had to have the surgery to save her. She was so small and this cat slept and slept and slept. But she is the best cat! I am so lucky to have her.

So go buy a T-Shirt and help out other tripods!

An Idea of What I am Working with

I wanted to post a few pictures of my working and dining area so that you know that I am not exaggerating when I say that my place is pretty small. I have some very clever methods of dealing with the space! I put my dish rack over the the stove top. I have a lot of clever shelving and I am lucky that my kitchen is separate from the main living area. Most studios in this city have the kitchen right there.

For Christmas this year, I was privileged to receive a wonderful table that folds up to hide four chairs. I have it set up to deat two most of the time, as in the photo, but I have extended to seat 6 people!





And of course, here is the three legged mascot of 312 square feet, Ronnie-chan. She loves to eat lettuce and will get right up on the trash bin when I am making salads begging for a piece of lettuce to munch on.

Back Story

I live in a small studio apartment in lower Manhattan, Chinatown to be exact, hence the name of this blog. I live in 312 square feet with a cat. And I love to cook, bake and entertain. I've decided, with much prodding from my boyfriend and with inspiration from Cafe Drake to under take a blog posting my experiments, escapades, failures and success and how I did it all in such a tiny space.

One of the biggest success was hosting an international dinner party for visiting Fulbright Students and friends. 6 people and a huge pot of Tuscan Fish Stew!