How do you measure a year?

In food, but of course. Since this is my first attempt at blogging, we'll just go by how much food played a role in my 22nd birthday weekend. Here goes:

My aunt took me out on Friday evening to the new Dos Caminos on 50th street and third avenue. This is our special celebration restaurant because, one-it's pretty expensive, and two-when we go, we eat everything (so once or twice a year is better for the hips). Besides their world renown (my world at least) fresh guac that is made on the spot, this was a dessert that will have me coming back for more:



This double Oaxacan chocolate mousse cake was topped with two pieces of Oaxacan white chocolate. The ice cream is rose petal flavored. Did I know what a rose petal tasted like? Not really...but this was an incredible and very different variety of ice cream I totally enjoyed.

The rest of the weekend was kicked off with your less than traditional birthday cake, made of jello and wax bottle candy "candles". Thank you to my wonderful pal, Kaitlin for this beautiful and delish work of art!:



Saturday evening, after a fun night out in the east village, we stopped by Chickpea on St. Marks Place. This is a fav quick snack place of mine in the city because there are many vegetarian options and their food is so delish. They are open uber late too! I think on weekends until about 5 am!!! Anywhere I can get hummus this good at about 330 am is def on my list :)

This is the hummus plate which I shared with some friends. Beautiful presentation and great great flavor. Really cheap too, for all those on a budget. I think 4 of my friends late night snacked at Chickpea for under $15 total! Here's the hummus plate!:



After hanging out in the east village, my lovely roommate, Cara, gave me my birthday presents!! She knit me a beautiful ear warmer, got me some cool socks, bought me grapefruit vinegar (can you tell she knows me well?) and made me these DELISH vegan tiramisu cupcakes:



At the present moment, those are the only cupcakes that were left, but I assure you, she made me more than two delicious morsels of goodness. I brought them to my Oscar/birthday bash (please see next paragraph) and they were a huge hit! Vegan tiramisu is one of my favorite foods! Thank you Cara for making my birthday that much tastier!

One more cupcake shout out. Thank you Brittany for making the delish cupcakes on Friday night! I wish I could have featured them on the blog, but they were gone in milliseconds!

Onto OSCAR SUNDAY, which coincidently this year fell on my birthday. I know! Two of my favorite holidays rolled into one! We celebrated by having an oscar/birthday bash at my friend's apartment. Here is what we conjured up:





A wonderful goat cheese, baby greens and apple salad topped with raspberry dressing and some really good cheese with blueberries in it (top) and this week's recipe of the week! (bottom)

Recipe of the week #2:
Low Fat Veggie Ravioli Lasagna

(Thanks to www.foodtv.com and 30 Minute Meals (holla RR) for the base of this recipe!)

1 bag of frozen spinach
1/4 cup of butter
4 tbsp flour
1 qt of skim milk
Nutmeg, Salt and Pepper- to taste
3 cups part skim ricotta cheese
2 tbsp lemon zest
4 cloves of garlic
4 packages of low fat four cheese ravioli
1 can of artichoke hearts
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

(Since everything in this dish is precooked, only the broiler will be needed..so preheat it to the broiler setting on your stove)

Defrost the spinach as per the package. Set aside. Open the artichoke heart can and set that aside as well.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and whisk in flour. Let cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in milk and bring sauce to a bubble. Lower the heat down as the sauce begins to thicken. Season the sauce with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce is heating, in a separate bowl, combine the ricotta, lemon zest, garlic and salt/pepper.

Cook the ravioli as per the package.

Drain the ravioli. Using an appropriate baking pan, pour enough white sauce into the pan to coat the bottom. Layer with ravioli, spinach, artichoke hearts, ricotta mixture, sauce, REPEAT. Ravioli, spinach, artichoke hearts, ricotta mixture, sauce, REPEAT. (sing it to yourself!) End the layering with ravioli and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top (to make a crust in the broiler). Put the pan into the broiler for 5 minutes or until you see the cheese getting brown and bubbly and VIOLA!



yummy ravioli lasagna, in, what took us about 45 minutes. This delish and not too fattening recipe was very easy to make and was loved by the Oscar party. One thing I can note, is that fresh ravioli packages can be a bit pricey. The reason the recipe calls for ravioli is to avoid the hassle of obtaining 4 types of cheese to layer in, but if you want to try something new, try this with a different type of pasta and just include some more cheese.

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday weekend. Thank you fellow foodies for joining me on my journey. Until next food endeavor, have a great week!

xo
J