Their first meeting turned into an interview where Dawn was doing the hiring and Dave was burning a tray of the caramel shortbread Lucia cookies she’d named after her great grandmother.  Luckily for everyone, she hired him anyway. Many trays of perfectly executed Lucia cookies later, they’re happily partnered and married in Brooklyn with their young son Nate and a second location in DUMBO on the way.

Whether it’s family or friends visiting or just anytime brunch on Smith Street, one of my absolute favorite ways to end the weekend is to stop by One Girl for something sweet to take the edge off a Sunday. Still, their best offering has been their classes where everyone gets elbow deep in tarts, cakes, and custard.

Incredibly generous with their time and advice when I started baking and blogging, they’ve also been generous with the recipes they’ve chosen to include in their book - offering up the secrets to their pumpkin whoopie pies and winter spice cookies, what I promise you will be the best apple pie you’ll ever make, and a have-to-try chocolate cake with salty dulce de leche and hazelnut brittle. I also love that they’ve included DIY basics you’ve always wanted to try but were waiting for someone to tell you how, ie. making your own butter.

It was hard to pick one but this week I made their blueberry oat muffins.  Classic and simple, they were fall apart tender with enough oat-crumble crust and berries to make you feel virtuous for baking in first weeks of January. It was a good page to start the year on.

Blueberry Oat Muffins with Crumb Topping
Reprinted with permission from One Girl Cookies: Recipes for Cakes, Cupcakes, Whoopie Pies, and Cookies from Brooklyn’s Beloved Bakery by Dawn Casale and David Crofton.

Crumb Topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup packed light brown sugar
1⁄4 cup rolled oats
1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1⁄4 teaspoon table salt
10 tablespoons (1 1⁄4 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Muffins
2⁄3 cup rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1⁄2 teaspoons table salt
6 tablespoons (3⁄4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1⁄4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line one 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
To prepare the crumb topping, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse 4 or 5 times. Set aside.

To prepare the muffins, process the oats in the clean bowl of the food processor until they are powdery. In a medium bowl, whisk together the ground oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix for 1 minute. Then add the sour cream, honey, and vanilla, and mix for 30 seconds. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture. Mix for 10 seconds. Take the bowl off the mixer and fold in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.

Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, filling them about three-fourths full. Sprinkle the muffins generously with the crumb topping.

Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, for 28 minutes, or until the top of a muffin springs back when lightly pressed. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan, transfer them to a wire rack, and let them cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins

A couple of months ago, I was invited to a dinner at Romera hosted by Manu Muga of Bodegas Muga, a family-owned vineyard. Bodegas Muga has been cultivating varieties of grapes – Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graziano for reds and Viura and Malvasia for whites – on over 620 acres nestled in the Rioja Alta region of Spain for more than 70 years. Though widely distributed, they’re committed to small scale, artisanal production – heavy oak barrels are used throughout the entire process, egg whites are still used for clarification and the egg yolks still go to nearby convents to be turned into sweets.

The tasting menu by Dr. Miguel Sanchez Romera was memorable by design – each course meant to illicit a neurosensory response – a cuisine he developed as a practicing neurologist in Barcelona. It may have been the synapses but the wine, thoughtfully paired with each of the 11 courses, kept things buzzing along nicely. When the infused waters, dried herb mosaics, and chalices laden with Kobe beef had been had, the best pairing came at very end the end when it was just red wine and chocolate – in this case Muga Aro 2006 and house-made bonbons and tablets. A vivid red against the soothing chocolate, if the rest of the meal was a dream, this was the perfect way to be woken up.

Wanting to capture that same feeling, I decided to make truffles to take to a friends house for tapas and picoteo. It had been awhile since I’d attempted them and I’d forgotten how much fun it could be – temperamental but fun. Not stopping there, I also made these chocolate cookies. Resolutions would kick in soon enough but until then there’s a little more wine, a lot of more chocolate, and time to enjoy both.

250 g (about 1 cup or 9 ounces) quinoa, well rinsed in several changes of water until it runs clear
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium white onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 ounces smoked bacon, cubed
5 ounces (about 2 cups) sliced mushrooms (shitake, crimini, or a combination)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup parmesean cheese, grated
1 pinch grated nutmeg
Sea salt and ground white pepper

In a large heavy pot, bring chicken broth to a boil over medium high heat. Add the quinoa and return to a fast simmer until tender, about 12 minutes. Set aside to cool.*

While the quinoa cooks, melt the butter over medium heat, in large heavy skilled. Add the bacon, onions, and garlic. Stirring frequently, sauté until the onions begin to soften but do not brown, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and sauté until they are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the heavy cream, wine, saffron and bring to a simmer.

Set the heavy pot with drained quinoa over medium heat. Add the mushroom mixture to the quinoa and stir until well blended. Stir over medium heat until the quinotto thickens or reaches the desired consistency. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesean and parsley. Serve immediately.

Yields 4 large or 6 side dish servings.

*The original recipe recommends draining the quinoa. I prefer a looser risotto so I let the quinoa cool in the broth and combined it with

A little less dramatic but much more delicious, I was invited to a dinner hosted by Muga Winery (more later) at Romera New York, a relatively new restaurant serving a tasting menu of high-concept neurograstronomic (al?, y?) cuisine fittingly set in the Dream Hotel. Walking past display cases of glass tubes and  beakers, we were presented with 11-courses of essence and flowers. Asked not to take pictures of the the dishes, I wished I had more to show but it was something of a relief to not have the option. My only regret is that I couldn’t take one of chef Dr. Miguel Sanchez Romera when he appeared politely at the very end of the meal. Formerly a neurologist and physician in Barcelona before opening his first restaurant, I know he came out in a standard chef’s whites but in my mind’s eye it was a tell-tale smock/straight jacket. Click here for the perspective of someone who wasn’t seeing things.

A few days later, I headed uptown to see my friend Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte’s new show, Presenting Celia Cruz at Casita Maria. A collection of photographs he and his partner, stylist Tico Torres took during their long collaboration with the singer, it was a reminder of just what a presence she was. Capturing her on stage, offstage and everywhere in between, it was wonderful to just be in a room, surrounded by Celia in all her incarnations. Running through November 22.

Finally, if you liked Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, then you probably related to the main character’s desire to live in the 1920′s. The last couple of weeks, I’ve seen seen two shows set in that period, that resonate so strongly with our present day circumstances, I think we may have already gotten our wish. Hard to describe except to say it’s a Dada painting come to life and set to music, I went to see The Blue Flower at Second Stage after my sister saw it first and couldn’t stop talking about it. Now that I have, I can’t stop thinking about it.  In the same vein, the Brooklyn Museum of Art opened their latest exhibit Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties, featuring work by Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Luigi Lucioni, Gerald Murphy, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joseph Stella to name a few.

Bringing it all to a close, I ended October with a snow day, watching the leaves go white before they’d thought to turn brown. I can only assume someone’s experiment to take over the world through freakish weather events went awry.

I got hooked on it at my cousin Caro’s where we’d have it in the morning over ham and eggs. Since then, Diana Kennedy’s salsa de tomate verde has become my favorite any-night, any-excuse recipe. Made in relatively small batches, it comes together so quickly there’s reason not to always have it on hand. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a croque madame a la Mexicana or croque señorita. Taking the elements of the traditional sandwich, I switched things around until I found a combination I loved – thickly cut wet-cured ham the butcher recommended, fresh ricotta for the béchamel, a steam-fried egg, and of course salsa verde. Instead of the corn tortillas I’ve been hoarding, I used a crusty Pullman loaf – a little less delicate but better to soak up runny yolks. For the eggs I went green, a splurge I allow myself every summer.I haven’t been the only one mixing up my French and my Mexican. Coming to Smith St. though still under construction, Jolie Cantina is adding a French-Mexican menu to the row of almost too cute bars and cafes that line the street. Despite combining my two country-crushes, it didn’t make sense at first until I saw the new graphic they put up – French and Mexican roosters facing off. Now that I’ve been mixing them up on my own, I can’t wait for them to open. In the permanent junior-year abroad that is Brooklyn’s Smith Street, it’ll be another excuse to linger when it’s too early to go all the way home but too late to go anywhere else.

Croque Señorita

I worried it would seem fussy to include recipes for salsa verde and ricotta since both can easily be found pre-made. But then it’s worth it and I am a little fussy. For the salsa verde, tomatillos, cilantro, white onions and serrano peppers have all been coming into the markets so I usually stock up on the weekend. I absolutely hate throwing away food so I get a small sense of satisfaction every time I get to the bottom of a bag of cilantro I feel a little sense of accomplishment.

High-quality ricotta is worth seeking out but it can be a little expensive and doesn’t last very long. Milk, cream and lemons are something I always have on hand, so I’ve gotten used to making a quick batch to use as needed. It really is as simple as heating milk. I usually make the ricotta first then set it to drain while I make the tomatillo sauce.

4 slices white pullman bread, sliced thickly and preferably day old
2-3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons fresh ricotta, homemade or high quality
6-8 ounces thickly sliced wet-cured ham
4 fresh eggs
Salsa de tomate verde (see below)

Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. Butter both sides of each bread slice and toast in the skillet until the edges are brown and crisp. Remove from the skillet and spread a heaping tablespoon of ricotta on each slice and top with a couple of slice of ham. Keep in a warm oven or top with aluminum foil while you fry the eggs.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in the skillet over medium heat. Crack the egg into a small bowl then drop it into the skillet. Repeat with the remaining eggs or cook separately. Cook until the edges of the egg turn white, about 1 minute. Drop one teaspoon of water into the pan for each egg. Cover tightly with a lid and cook over medium-low heat until the yolks are set, about 1-2 more minutes.

Remove from skillet and set over ham. Serve with salsa verde.

Fresh Ricotta
Adapted from  Smitten Kitchen.

2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Line a colander with cheese cloth and set over a large bowl. In a large heavy pot, heat milk over medium heat until it reaches 190 degrees or until bubble just start to appear along the sides. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and salt. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes until the curds and whey begin to separate.

Salsa de Tomate Verde
Barely adapted from The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

1/2 pound tomate verde (sold as tomatillos), husks removed and well rinsed
2-3 serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 heaping tablespoon white onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Place the tomatillos in small saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally so they cook evenly. They should be pale green and tender but still whole, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

While the tomatillos cook, combine the peppers, white onion, garlic and cilantro in blender and pulse until well chopped and combined. Add a little water as needed. Add the tomatillos one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add water if needed to reach the right consistency. Add salt to taste and serve.

A little more exotic than what I’ll find at the Farmer’s market (though they abound in Chinatown), pitayas or dragon fruit got the “it girl” treatment by the New York Times. Café Bustelo is up for most popular now that the family owned company was bought by Smuckers for $360 million. Mexican cuisine of course has always been wildly popular but the prestige is catching up since its designation by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Mexico City’s Pujol made the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Calendelaria, a new taqueria, opened in Paris (allegedly its first though I find it hard to believe), and the number of Latin restaurants in London are rising to keep pace with a growing demographic from South America.

Though school is out, I love flagging how to’s (since by the time I need to look for one it’s too late) and the Kitchn posted a great guide to grilling featuring Lourdes Castro, who’s book Latin Grilling: Recipes to Share, from Patagonian Asado to Yucatecan Barbecue and More   just came out. This month I was contributed my own how-to on Devour the Blog when I made Salvadoran pupusas. I got to duck behind the stand at Soler Pupusas for my lesson and I look forward to seeing them again at their new Smorgasburg location. Finally, in a shark jumping move for magazine coverage of el bulli’s closing, Esquire Spain created a scratch and sniff logo for their Ferran Adrià cover.

Newly in love with my spring cleaned shelves, I decided to make arepas de dominó, stuffed with black beans and cheese, relying mostly on what I had on hand.  With little shopping to do apart from peppers and onions, I had to time to obsess about other things, namely what cheese to add.  Though Mexican queso blanco and some Colombian varieties have become common, Venezuelans always complain about the trouble they have finding cheese north of Miami.  Luis, my new market friend, pointed me towards El Cocotero that sometimes sells the fresh cheese they use in their restaurant.  He recommended queso llanero or guayanés though I was only able to find the latter. The queso quayanés was closer to a fresh mozzarella or burrata than the queso blanco I normally use, not quite melting but pooling into the black beans and worth the trouble of seeking out.

Arepa de Dominó/Arepas with Black Beans and Cheese
Since it opened up around the corner, I’ll use any excuse to visit Union Market.  Bright, always stocked with samples, and piping in the a soundtrack that inspires occasional dancing in the aisles, it’s the breakfast at Tiffany’s of neighborhood grocery stores in that I can’t imagine anything bad happening there.  Already planning on making arepas, this is where I met Luis who apart from the lead on Venezuelan cheese shared a few tips on how he makes arepas for his family, that Venezuelans call frijoles negros caraotas, and that where he’s from in the Eastern part of Venezuela they add a little sugar to the dough.  He also suggested stirring in a little butter or oil to the masa.  Small changes but they were definately the creamiest arepas I’ve made and even puffed up slightly as promised.  The filling can soak through the arepa so I made them larger and thicker than usual.

1 cup masarepa, preferably Harina P.A.N., white or yellow
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ cup hot water
1 tablespoon melted butter or canola oil

1-2 tablespoons canola oil

For filling:
Caraotas negras, prepared (also known as frijoles negros or black turtle beans)
Queso guayanés or fresh mozzarella, cubed

Combine the dry ingredients. Pour water into a medium mixing bowl.  Add cornmeal in a steady stream, whisking constantly to avoid clumps. Stir in the melted butter or oil. Knead until well mixed and set aside to rest, about 5-10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

Divide the dough in quarters and shape each piece into a ball.  Using the bottom of a flat measuring cup or mixing bowl, lightly press down on the dough to form a disc about 1-1 ½” thick.

In a cast iron or heavy skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.  Add the arepas and cook until lightly golden and crisp, about 4-6 minutes on each side.  Transfer to a baking sheet and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until cooked through.  Split open and fill with caraotas negros and cubed cheese.

Makes 4-6 arepas.

Taken from a collection of Puerto Rican recipes my cousin had sent me a couple of months ago, it satisfied both my craving for a wintry stew and a little preview of spring.  Defying my own resolution to stay off the ice and close to home, I ventured out to Essex Market on the lower east side for a few key ingredients, questioning my sanity the entire way there.  I felt justified as soon as I saw the heaping bags of achiote seeds, newly packed white beans and fresh culantro.  Of course, I could have easily substituted cilantro but I wasn’t in a compromising mood.

Having only recently discovered ají dulce, a staple of Puerto Rican sofrito and recaito, and wanted to use it again.   Shaped like habaneros but mild and sweet, I love the fruity quality they add to the usual bell pepper and onion mix.  I only regret not buying more.  After a few online searches, I’ve found that culantro can be processed with a little olive oil then frozen and ají dulce can be seeded, chopped and frozen for later use as well.  I’ll have to test it out to see if the flavor diminishes but at the very least it might tide me over till I can have the real thing.

Habichuelas Blancas Guisadas/White Bean Stew
Adapted from Cocine Conmigo by Dora R. De Romano.  I found contradictory advice on whether or not the beans had to be soaked overnight.  The original recipe didn’t require any soaking at all.  I always prefer dried beans to canned so I wanted to see if these were a viable option for last minute stews.  I didn’t soak them and they cooked only too quickly (less than 45 minutes).  They would have been perfectly tender if I didn’t have to then cook them for an additional 20 or so minutes with the sofrito.  I saved the first batch for for salads and boiled second batch of beans.  This time I watched them closely and took them off the heat just before they’d completely cooked through.

The original recipe called for lard or oil flavored with achtiote or annatto seeds.  I used this fast and simple method for making annatto oil.  Anatto seeds can be found in specialty stores or Latin American markets.  Just as a comparison, next time I’ll extra virgin olive oil the sofrito and add a big pinch of saffron to the stew instead.  Chorizo or linguiça can also be added in place of or addition to the cooking ham.

½ pound habichuelas blancas (also known as judias blancas or navy, great northern, or white kidney beans)
2 tablespoons achiote/annatto oil
3 oz. cooking ham, cubed

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 ajíes dulces, seeded and diced
1 medium onion, diced

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
¼ cup tomato puree
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and mashed to a paste

4 oz. calabaza or butternut squash, cubed
4 leaves culantro (cilantro)
½ tablespoon sea salt

Rinse beans well in cold water.  In a large heavy pot, combine the beans and 1 ½ litres of water.*  Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a gentle simmer and cover.  Cover and cook checking regularly until almost tender but still firm, about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and drain all but 2 cups of the cooking water.

While the beans cook, combine chopped bell pepper, aji dulce, onion, tomatoes in a bowl and mix well.  To make the sofrito, heat annatto oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add ham and saute until lightly browned, about 2-3 minutes.  Add pepper mixture, tomato puree, mashed garlic sautee until peppers are soft, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the sofrito mixture to the beans.  Add the calabaza, culantro and salt and return to a high simmer.  Cover and cook over medium low heat until the beans are completely tender and the calabaza is cooked through, about 20-30 minutes depending on how thick you would like the soup to be.  Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

*The beans should be smooth and firm.  They may shrivel immediately after adding the water but will plump up again after a few minutes of cooking.

1. Mongo (246 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY, 917.671.7696):  I’d been eyeing the antique teapots form the 1920′s to the present ($29-$225) and slanted coffee cups (4oz/$48 set of 4, 8oz/$64 set of 4) on the cast glass cake stand for weeks when I finally went inside.  Stocked like a walk-in curiosity cabinet, the windows are lined with vintage colored glass ($10-32) and it would be easier to list what they don’t carry.

2. Home & Haven (177 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY, 718.875.1775):  Going to Home & Haven is like visiting your well-traveled friend’s, perfectly put together apartment for a dinner party except that you can walk away with the dishes you admired, wrap up the beautiful Moroccan glasses you’d been using, and throw it all into the Day of the Dead mesh shopper bags you wish you’d brought back from Mexico.  Filled with contemporary home and bath items, including the remaining stock of the hard to find Panik Tobin line, I love her variety Provence baskets.  Trimmed with camel hide (starting at $55-$75) and perfect for the market hopping, they let me indulge my favorite weekend activity – pretending I’m actually in Paris.

3. The Invisible Dog (51 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, NY, 347.560.3641):  Just off of Smith, the Invisible Dog follows a pretty typical Brooklyn narrative.  Housed in the converted factory that churned out the eponymous leashes (apparently a hit at at Studio 54) until it was boarded up and abandoned in the 1990s, it was rediscovered by Muriel Guépin and Lucien Zayan and transformed into a gallery/event/studio/retail space.  Never knowing what you’ll find, they had a small but interesting collection for the holidays including New York-themed Brooklyn Rehab tableware ($12-$55), Twist Together Lamp sets installed throughout the space ($120), and invisible dog leases for the inevitable revival ($20).

4.  Rapisarda (177 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY, 718.797.6863): My favorite Christmas present this year came early when my friend gave me a Celia Cruz tote bag from alfalfa-seeds’ Seven Latin Divas collection.  In addition to Celia, the bags feature Carmen Miranda, Maria Félix, Rocio Durcal, Evita Peron, Frida Kahlo, and Selena – all women I aspire to be like depending on the day’s soundtrack.  It’s become my favorite gift to give this year so I was thrilled when Claudia Rapisarda started carrying them in her Court Street store where you can find everything else that makes up a diva.

5.  Enamoo (109 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY, 718.624.0175):  This t-shirt/art/antiques store could be voted most likely to reanimate after dark.  You half expect the toys to start spinning,  etched wine glasses ($19) to sing, and tree-top angel to float away ($57).  If I was looking for a gremlin, I’d start here.

It’s hard to know what to get someone for their wedding, so I was thrilled when my friend Achy invited me to guest blog on her site, CityLife: Adventures, Large and Small, In Urban Living, while she enjoyed her honeymoon offline.  A journalist and writer based in Chicago,  I took advantage of the city crawler theme to finally visit Red Hook’s Mercado.  Click here for the complete post.