Happy  Wednesday, Noshers! Today I’m excited to share a recipe for an old reliable (and personal favorite) ice cream flavor – vanilla bean.  You may have read about my previous ice cream experiments with David Lebovitz’s recipes for roasted banana ice cream and basil ice cream – delish! While I absolutely loved these two flavors (especially the basil, YUM), vanilla bean is perfect standby ice cream to go with everything – whether it’s apple pie, hot fudge sundaes, or my personal favorite of just digging in with a spoon. There were a few recipes for vanilla ice cream in my go-to book ..read more

Although So Kong Dong isn’t in NYC, I make a visit to my hometown at least once a month to devour its unparalleled tofu.  Its phone number is programmed into my phone.  I’ve brought carry-out back to NYC at the request of desperate friends.  Hey, if Anthony Bourdain visited this place on his No Reservations: New Jersey episode, it’s gotta be pretty good, right? A high school friend first introduced me to Korean tofu, aka sundubu jjigae, more than 10 years ago.  I admit, back then I was not as adventurous with my food as I am now.  It took a little convincing for me t ..read more

I’d like to think that I jumped on the salted caramel train before it became wildly popular (Even Starbucks now has a salted caramel hot chocolate).  Whether this is the case or not, I’m not actually sure.  However, when offered the opportunity to create a recipe using Nature’s Pride bread through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate salted caramel.  The top 6 tastemakers get to demonstrate their recipes at this year’s Foodbuzz Festival – how sweet is that?? (Har har). Incorporating a basic bread pudding base, this reci ..read more

Happy Birthday, Big Apple Nosh! Well, more or less.  I technically started this site in June of last year, but I’m totally counting the launch of this shiny new look (thank you Joy of HowJoyful DesignStudio, you’re awesome!) as the Big Apple Blogaversary!  Please be patient as I transition everything over from blogger to wordpress (woohoo!) as it will take a while. But in the mean time let’s take a little walk through NoshGirl time, shall we? In the past year: 1. I wrote 180 blog posts (Wow, I’ve come half circle! 180 degrees, get it? Yep, that’s me – corny.) 2. I met some interesti ..read more

Confession time – while I eat pretty much anything now, I definitely had my particular food preferences right up until I went to college. No raw fish (including oysters, which are now my FAVE), blue cheese of any kind, spicy food – man, I was missing out! All of these things are on my very extensive list of favorite foods now, along with another later-in-life favorite: caviar.  I had my first try of caviar during NYC Restaurant Week at The Russian Tea Room, and I was hooked.  The fresh, briny taste that reminds me of the sea, the “pop” texture – caviar is known as a luxury, but such ..read more

Happy day-before-Thanksgiving!  I know I’m not alone in saying that Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite holidays of the year.  My extended family gets together for an eat-stravaganza that includes a turkey (of course), a whole roast suckling pig, ham, sides of all sorts, and a dessert buffet. I hadn’t been able to attend for the past few years because I was in Missouri, but now I am back in NYC! And I can’t wait!! Every year, one of the most requested recipes is the salted caramel pie – in fact, it is one of the most visited pages on the Big Apple Nosh blog! And with good re ..read more

Happy Wednesday, Noshers!!  Why is it happy? Well, for me, today is my FRIDAY!  Is today your Friday as well?   Today I’m providing a recipe round-up of some of the scrumptious things I’ll be making in preparation for Thanksgiving.  I haven’t tackled a turkey yet – after all, sides and dessert are my favorite parts of the meal!  So I’ll be making these things: First, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade wouldn’t be complete without some piping hot cinnamon rolls – heavy on the cream cheese frosting, please!! Then, I’ll be making one of my faaavorite sides – is ..read more

As I had previously mentioned, I’m currently in the final round of the Marx Foods Ridiculously Delicious Challenge.  For the finals, we have to use the super-secret ingredient provided by Marx Foods to create a ridiculously delicious recipe! I’m so excited that the secret ingredient is fresh wasabi (I wrote about its unique properties ) and had such a tough time narrowing down my options to just one recipe. So I didn’t… Now I realize that Marx Foods isn’t looking for recipeS, just one recipe (no “s”) – so I am officially submitting one.  But I absolutely love the “Iron Chef” feel of ..read more

Note: Only 2 days left to enter my Le Creuset Valentine’s Day giveaway! What are you waiting for? Who doesn’t like a good bacon weave? Happy FRIDAY, Noshers!  Wow.  Are you guys excited for the Super Bowl?  I admit I’m not the biggest sports person (those that know me would say that’s a HUGE understatement), but if there’s anything I like it’s the excuse to make tons of food.  All right, we’re having a teeny tiny party (read – 2 people, 1 dog) but making way too much food runs in my family – just ask my Mom.  I figure if there’s once a year when I can make lots ..read more

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: (recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything) 1.5 lbs broccoli raab, t ..read more