Today’s the last day to enter the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookie Giveaway! What are you waiting for?

Happy Friday, Noshers!  I will be working tomorrow, so please share your weekend plans in the comments so I can live vicariously through them!

Today’s Fun Fact pertains to my favorite food of all time – CHEESE!

Cheese is the world’s oldest man-made food.

Praise be to the person who created the first manifestations of the luscious food!

What is your favorite type of cheese?

Happy THURSDAY, Noshers!  Are you having a happy day? If not so much, it will be happier now because I am giving away COOKIES!!!

In my last blog post, I waxed poetic on the lovely cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar that I lovingly stole won from my cousins at our annual Pirate’s Booty game.  I just love cookies, y’all.  Momofuku cookies, in particular.  So when I was approached to partner with American Express to give away “The Perfect 10 Kookie,” created by Momofuku Milk pastry Chef Christina Tosi – I knew I had to say yes!

“The Perfect 10 Kookie” is the creation of Christina and her long-time friend, model Karlie Kloss.  Made with healthy, all-natural ingredients, these Kookies are dairy-free, gluten-free and sweetened with agave.  Now, fellow Noshers – you know me – I love dairy and all things sweet and fatty (true story).  But I was pleasantly surprised when I tried these Kookies and they were moist, deliciously chewy, and hearty without being super-sweet (I’m guessing the fact that Christina had a hand in the recipe-creation certainly helped).  I’d be lying if I said there weren’t now four cookies left in my tin where there were previously six.

Not only are these Perfect 10 Kookies good and good for you, but for NYC-ers who purchase them at Momofuku Milk Bar, 30% of proceeds go to FEED, the organization that provides school meals to children around the world.  In fact, each Kookie sold provides 10 school meals to hungry children! Pretty amazing, huh?

And where does American Express come in?  Well, first of all, I have a personal affinity for AmEx – they really are my card of choice (Starwood card FTW, and no they didn’t pay me to say that).  But Chef Christina is part of an ambassador program at AmEx that celebrates cardmembers – using her card, she has grown Momofuku Milk Bar to five bakeries and a commissary in just 4 years!  As part of its “Make My Day” program (#AmexMakeMyDay), AmEx is providing the support and “oomph” to make  Chef Christina’s “Perfect 10 Kookie” initiative a reality.

But don’t just take my word for it – I am giving away FIVE “Perfect 10 Kookie” Prize Packs of 2 tins each (that’s 12 ginormo cookies, y’all) to FIVE lucky winners!  For your chance to win, enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.  This 52 second video provides a tutorial on how to enter a giveaway for Rafflecopter newbies! There are 9 methods of entry, with the first method (commenting on this blog post to answer the question asked) being mandatory and the rest just extra gravy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: Prize packs can only be shipped to US addresses.  So if you are looking to enter, make sure you have a US shipping address we can send your Kookies to!

And if you aren’t one of the lucky five, below is the recipe to try your hand at the Perfect 10 Kookie yourself! But really, I’d rather just win

Good luck!

This past holiday season, I participated in my cousins’ annual “Pirate’s Booty” game – a secret Santa gift exchange with stealing.  My cousins and I really get into this game, and I’d be lying if I said that strategy, planning and strategic partnerships didn’t play a key factor in securing the choice gifts.  Despite having a bum number this year (3! out of 20+!), I somehow walked away with one of the best gifts.  This may or may not have been because I hid my gift under the table after unwrapping it and my cousins may or may not have forgotten that my gift was a steal option.  ANYHOO, their loss is my gain, and my gain was 6 cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar and a bottle of cereal milk mix! Yum!

I had previously written about the Momofuku franchise when I visited má pêche a few years ago… (more…)

Happy Friday, Noshers!  Oh man, another crazy week! I’m sure looking forward to the long weekend and catching up with some friends and on rest!  Today’s fun fact is a useful tip that you can use in the kitchen:

Image via Pinterest

Separate the yolk from an egg using simple science – suction! All you need is a disposable water bottle.  Squeeze the water bottle and hold it over the yolk (touching the yolk).  Release the pressure from the bottle and suction will pull the egg up into the bottle.  Squeeze the water bottle again (over a separate bowl or plate) to release the yolk.

I usually use the “egg shell transfer” method, but the water bottle method is super easy and fun!

How do you usually separate eggs?

Happy Valentine’s Day, Noshers!  Any special plans for today?  I will be working just like any other Thursday – life goes on!  But I just wanted to share this super simple and delicious recipe for chocolate bread pudding that I tried from the King’s Hawaiian website.  If you’re at your wit’s end looking for a last-minute way to impress your honey, this go-to recipe will win him or her over!  I cut the recipe from the website in half – making 3 individual servings.  Hmmm, you, your sweetheart…and a friend? Or all three for you? I won’t judge!

You will need:

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Last week, I had the opportunity to try the fourth vendor at Smorgasburg at  Whole Foods‘ Bowery location – and I was SUPER excited about this one because it featured one of my favorite snack foods – onigiri, or Japanese rice ball!   Growing up, my mom would use this special rice-shaper mold to make onigiri for me (even though we are Chinese and not Japanese), and each would have a little surprise stuffing inside such as tuna, seaweed, or chicken.  When I visited Tokyo this past year, I had at least one onigiri a day.  I may or may not have bought my own mold/stamp set to make panda-shaped onigiri.  This love is real, people. So I was really curious to see what this month’s vendor, Rice & Miso Everyday, had to offer!

The first thing I noticed was that the menu offered onigiri of both the grilled and traditional variety:

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Happy Tuesday, Noshers!  With Valentine’s Day just 2 days away, I’m guessing some of you may have lovely plans set for this Thursday.  I’m also guessing there may be a few of you for which a slight sense of panic may now be emerging – uhhh, plans for Valentine’s Day? Oops.  Well, have no fear – in today’s post I will be sharing some delicious and simple Valentine’s Day suggestions that will work even for the procrastinators among us (I’m not naming names…).

When the good peeps at Whole Foods Market asked if I’d be interested in checking out some of their Valentine’s Day offerings, I jumped at the chance.  I work with Whole Foods regularly and am always impressed by their high-quality products.  I also love their partnership with Smorgasburg at their Bowery location – yum!

To start…

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Happy Monday, Noshers! Hope you had a wonderful weekend and weren’t too buried by the blizzard.  I had a wonderful walk through Central Park to see all the lovely snow, caught up on some work, and prepared some exciting blog posts for this week. Today I’d like to share a recipe that I put together for a Walkers Shortbread Recipe Challenge.  I first had Walkers Shortbread 25-years ago and have been a fan of the rich, buttery cookie ever since. So I was super excited to experiment with the product in a baked creation!

For the challenge, I decided to try my take on banoffee pie – which I thought especially appropriate since 1. a friend had told me about it recently, 2. I never had the pleasure of trying it, and 3. I will be going to London for the first time next month and maybe I’ll get to try it there!  I added a hint of hazelnut flavor, which goes so well with bananas, and a lovely shortbread crust. The result – deliciousness!

You will need:

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Happy Friday, Noshers!  Wow, it sure is a blizzard out there! (Literally!).  I was going to go to the Cheers to Chocolate show this weekend, but I just received notice that it has been cancelled . Sad!  Instead I’ll be spending some time catching up on sleep, time with friends and perhaps doing some baking!

As a New Yorker, I’m especially fond of today’s Fun Fact:

Tomorrow is National Bagel & Lox Day!

 YUM!  I love an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, lox, red onions and capers.  (And a breath mint afterward, haha).

Are you a lox fan? What’s your favorite type of bagel?

Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled

Oooh, how romantical! Or something.

Happy Thursday, Noshers!  Do you ever feel like you’re running on a hamster wheel and getting nowhere fast? Well, it’s definitely been one of those crazy weeks for me!  I’m definitely looking forward to the weekend, when I can catch up on some much-needed sleep and recharge.  And what better way to recharge than attend a chocolate paaaaartayy?

Yes, I’ll be attending the Cheers to Chocolate festival this Saturday as press! (Be sure to follow me on instagram or twitter to get the live play-by-play!).  Along with an eating buddy, I will be stuffing myself full of chocolate bark, ganache, chocolate-covered bacon (my FAVE), chocolate popcorn, chocolate bananas, chocolate drinks and much more. You drooling yet?

But wait, you don’t just want pictures of the chocolate but you want to actually EAT the chocolate? Well, come join me then!  The BAN blog has got the hook-up – use code: bigapple50 to get for 50% off your ticket!! You can purchase your ticket here. You’re welcome

Hope to see you there!

Cheers to Chocolate
Saturday, February 9th
12-6:30 pm
Location: Hudson Terrace
621 West 46th Street (btw 11th/12th Avenue)