If you’ve been following along on the BAN blog for a while now, you’ll know that I’ve come a long way as far as veggies are concerned.  No longer apprehensive of the leafy greens (and with ready access to a lovely farmer’s market), I will willingly try a multitude of veggie dishes.  So when I saw this recipe for broccoli raab with sausage and grapes in one of my cookbooks, I knew I had to give it a try.  Sausage? Yes. Grapes? Yes.  Greens?….ok, fine. You can come to the party too.

You will need:

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Hello, chilly Noshers!  Well, I assume you’re chilly because there’s a deep freeze going on right now! This week has just been layers and layers and bundling up for me, brrrrr!  Are you in a warmer weather area or similarly freezing? Please share in the comments!

Today’s Fun Fact is meat-tastic:

My amazingly luxurious bacon lunch at Fatty ‘Cue.

January is National Meat Month.

Alright, no excuses – eat up!

What’s your favorite meat dish or product? I can’t name just one!

Happy weekend!

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I prepare Brussels sprouts on a fairly regular basis.  I can’t believe that just a mere 2 years ago I was supremely skeptical of these mini cabbage-like veggies, but now they are one of my faves!  They are a fall/winter staple at my local farmer’s market, and I always enjoy digging through the crates to find the most pristine ones.

I usually roast them in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper.  Sometimes I add a honey and soy sauce glaze.  But recently, I found this recipe from Food52 for fried sprouts with honey and sriracha – yum!  The sweetness of the honey and the spicy kick of the sriracha is simply amazing.  I modify the recipe a bit – for example, I don’t deep fry the sprouts so as to make this dish a little healthier.  And let’s face it, deep frying is messy.  The recipe calls for a pound of sprouts, and I really have no idea how many I use.  I don’t exactly measure out the honey and sriracha.  I also leave out the lime juice because I didn’t have any. Oops. ANYHOO, these were deeeelicious!  Try them for yourself and let me know what you think!

You will need:

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Happy FRIDAY, Noshers!  It’s almost weekend time!  Any fun plans? If the weather agrees, I’ll be going for a run in my brand new, neon yellow running shoes.  The excitement is real, people!  By the way, today is the last day to enter my giveaway of a year’s supply of Scope Dual-Blast Mouthwash – if you’re the winner, you can eat savory, pungent foods with abandon! Mmmmm…

Today’s Fun Fact is delicious, as usual:

Some scrumptiously AMAZING Peking Duck I had while in Beijing!

Today is National Peking Duck Day.

I must admit, after having Peking duck in Beijing (3 times in 3 days!), I’m a bit spoiled.  I don’t think US Peking duck will be the same!

Have you had Peking duck before?

Image courtesy of Scope

TGI(almost)F, Noshers!  I’m excited to brighten up your Thursday was a fun giveaway!  Today I’m going to let you in on a little secret – I LOVE hosting giveaways on the BAN blog! Ok, I guess that’s not a huge secret, but you maynwonder how I decide which products to feature in my giveaways.  Sometimes I approach companies that produce products or food that I love to see if they’d be interested in partnering.  Other times, companies approach me.  Whichever the case, when I consider a product for a giveaway on the blog, I ask two questions:

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Happy Tuesday, Noshers!  I don’t know about you, but this unseasonably warm weather in NYC has been truly amazing.  Well, the dreariness and rain isn’t awesome, but I certainly don’t mind the temperatures. Reminds me of one of my favorite “warm weather” foods – barbecue!  So, I was super excited when I was invited to check out the third vendor at Smorgasburg at  Whole Foods‘ Bowery location – Mighty Quinn’s Barbecue.  During my one trip to Smorgasburg, I was actually super keen to try Mighty Quinn’s, but the line was ridiculously long.  Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long at Whole Foods and got to try some Mighty Quinn’s for myself!

The menu was short and simple, perfect for Ms. Indecisive over here:

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Happy Friday, Noshers!  This week was super busy (I almost feel like a broken record saying that), but as my first week back at work I appreciated that!  I will be meeting a friend for brunch and attending a chamber music concert this weekend – fun!  What are your weekend plans?

Today’s fun fact features one of my favorite breakfast options:

I devoured this Dulce de Leche Cheesecake oatmeal from  Oatmeals

January is National Oatmeal Month

Yum – I love oatmeal, especially the steel-cut variety!

Are you an oatmeal fan? What are your favorite add-ins?

Do you ever get really excited about a particular ingredient or recipe only to find the end result a little….off?  I can’t be the only one here.  I recently had that very experience with this lovely purple cauliflower I picked up from the farmer’s market.   Isn’t it gorgeous?

I decided to make a creamy cauliflower soup, and was really looking forward a gorgeous, lavender-hued soup to savor!  I followed a pretty standard “non-recipe” recipe that can be used for any cream soup:

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Happy 2013, Noshers!  Did ya miss me?

This past holiday season I had a great time hanging out with my nephew and niece (who in my wholly unbiased opinion are the cutest ever)!  My nephew, who is 4 years old, is a huge Angry Birds fan – so as a little Christmas day surprise I made him some Angry Birds cupcakes!  Using this Nerdy Nummies video tutorial, I had a really fun time making them.  What do you think?

Did you make any holiday treats? Please leave a comment and share what you made – I’d love to hear all about it!