Good Eats Review: Earl's Beer & Cheese

As I have mentioned previously you will be hearing a lot about TimeOut NY's 50 best cheap eats in NYC list. A little while ago my friend Audrey and I discussed compiling different New York City best of "cheap eats" lists  into one document and combing through them to create a master list of the restaurants we really want to try, sort of like a cheap eats bucket list. I compiled the TimeOut NY's list with Eater's cheap eats nyc map, The Infatuation's cheap eats recommendations,  a great website I highly recommend checking out and started by a fellow Ithaca grad :), GrubHub's 101 Best (New) Cheap Eats, Ranked and Refinery 29's article "When it Comes to Cheap Eats, NYC is King" into one google doc that I shared with Audrey.

We decided that Earl's Beer & Cheese, located on the upper east side would be the first place we would check off our bucket list. The restaurant is tiny and very easy to miss because of the subtle signage. Even though the space is small it's very cozy and definitely a nice suitable option for dinner with friends.  Earl's Beer & Cheese is extremely casual and laid back. You order your drinks and food at the bar, find a place to sit and the food is brought out to you. Audrey and I both got a Sixpoint brewery beer, we each got an order of Mac & Cheese and shared an Earl's taco, everything was absolute perfection! The Mac & Cheese was made with rigatoni, creamy goat cheese and rosemary. The goat cheese coated the rigatoni perfectly and created a mac & cheese that was rich, but not overly cheesy. I was most excited to try the Earl's Taco, which was a scallion pancake shell, with pulled pork, cheese, cabbage and garnished with cilantro and a slice of lime. I thought this was such a clever idea. scallion pancakes and pulled pork are two of my all time favorite foods so to me combining them together was genius.

Overall, we had a lovely evening and I would definitely recommend Earl's Bar & Cheese to anyone looking for craft beer and bar menu with unique twists on everyone's favorite comfort foods such as: Grilled Cheese, Mac & Cheese and even tomato soup. We were so full we didn't have room for dessert, but I would definitely want to go back to try there bread pudding. On our way out Audrey pointed out another cocktail lounge right next door, which she said she thinks is owned  by the same people, so that's definitely something else I would like to go back and check out.

I was so enamored by the scallion pancake pulled pork taco that I wanted to figure out a way to recreate it in my own kitchen. Luckily, it was very easy to pull off because Trader Joe's has all the necessary ingredients: scallion pancakes, pulled pork, Mexican cheese, slice of lime, cilantro and I altered mine and added guacamole. Once you have all the ingredients the taco is super easy to make. I heated the pulled pork in the microwave and sautéed the frozen scallion pancake in a pan with a little bit of vegetable oil for 4 minutes (2 minutes on each side). Once the scallion pancake was cooked I added the rest of the ingredients, pulled pork, cheese, cilantro, lime slice and guacamole on top. An easy, but super impressive appetizer or main course. This would also be a fun appetizer to serve when entertaining.

New Year's Goals....

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and got to ring in 2015 with friends and family. In the days leading up to new year's eve I was reflecting on my goals for the upcoming year and here are my new year's goals:

1) Eat Healthier- I'm going to make a commitment to eating healthy 80% of the time and then I will allow myself to eat whatever I want 20% of the time. To me eating healthy means reducing my carb intake and incorporating more vegetables into my diet. One of the ways I plan on achieving this goal by replacing pasta or rice with spaghetti squash and quinoa. This isn't to say I will never eat rice or pasta again I just want to eat pasta and brown rice once a week instead of two or three times a week. I also plan on sometimes not having any grain with my dinner and instead having meat or seafood with a bigger portion of vegetables and a bowl of soup. Another way I plan on incorporating more vegetables into my diet is by cooking a vegetarian entrée for dinner once a week. Stay tuned for a lot of healthy recipes coming your way!

 2) Focus More Time and Energy On This Blog- I want to make a commitment to posting on this blog regularly. I'm hoping as time goes on and I start blogging more frequently my picture taking, cooking and writing skills will improve. If you have any tips or suggestions please feel free to write in the comment section below or email me at: megan.wormser@gmail.com. I have also decided to take this blog onto social media and created a twitter account and instagram account. You can find @megan_PGE on Twitter and MegansPartiesGoodEats on Instagram.  You can also follow my personal Pinterest boards for tons of party decor and recipe ideas.  I'm going to try to be very active on twitter and instagram so definitely make sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram  and Pinterest to get a more in-depth look into my culinary journey and party ideas.

Some other goals I have for this blog include: eventually posting interviews with chefs from restaurants around the country (remember I mentioned that on this blog post), incorporating videos into the blog and I would love to eventually host lectures and demos with top food bloggers, dessert table stylists, party planners and well-known chefs. I'm anxious to see which of my lofty ambitions I'm able to achieve in 2015!

I thought I would end this blog post with a healthy recipe since I'm sure a lot of you are like me and want to make a commitment to eat healthier in this upcoming year.

Pan Seared Salmon with Kale and Apple Salad

Recipe & Picture Courtesy of: Food Network website

For more healthy recipe suggestions check out this Healthy Weeknight Dinners article from the Food Network website, Bon Appetit magazine's fifth annual Food Lover's Cleanse and Self.com's article Prep Once, Eat Healthy All Week.  What are some of your goals for 2015? share with me in the comment section below!

December Good Eats Round-Up

Today I thought I would share with you some of the bakeries, sandwich shops and food trucks I tried in NYC during the past month. I hope you enjoy going on this culinary journey with me! If you have been to any of the places mentioned and have additional comments or recommendations to make please let me know via the comments section below.

1) Num Pang Sandwich Shop

I discovered Num Pang Sandwich shop through TimeOut New York's 50 Best Cheap Eats In NYC 2014 list. I will be referencing this list and other "best of NYC cheap eats" lists a lot in the upcoming weeks and months so stay tuned! Num Pang Sandwich Shop is a chain with 6 locations throughout NYC. I went on a beautiful friday I had off of work. I had been shopping in SoHo and walked to the Union Square location. As described in the TimeOut NYC review, all of the locations have awesome graffiti on the wall, which I definitely appreciated. The menu is all sandwiches made on bread that is baked fresh daily. The menu is quite eclectic and extremely unique. Some options include:  Hoisin Meatballs, Five Spice Glazed Pork Belly, Ginger Barbecue Brisket and Roasted Cauliflower. All of the sandwiches are served with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro and chili mayo. I decided to go with the roasted cauliflower, which had a delicious Chinese and Thai eggplant spread. The sandwich bread was absolutely delicious and the combination of the Chinese and Thai eggplant spread with the cilantro and chili mayo gave the cauliflower a much appreciated flavor boost. Overall, I enjoyed the sandwich and look forward to going back and trying one of the meat options. According to my friend Audrey Num Pang has a "Sandwich Happy Hour" on certain week day afternoon/early evenings so that is definitely something to check out if you are looking for a late lunch or quick bite after work.

2) Levain Bakery

  Photo Courtesy of: 1000 Things NYC

Photo Courtesy Of:  WestSideRag 

                                                        Back in November I was invited to a breakfast pre-game the morning of a big collage football game at a college acquaintance's apartment. Anyone who went to college in the central new york area will probably be familiar with the Cortaca Jug, which is the football game I'm referring to. When I was talking to the host of the party she asked where I lived and when I told her where I live on the Upper West Side she asked if I had tried Levain Bakery and said they have the best chocolate chip cookies in NYC. Since she has a pastry arts degree I knew she would not make that statement lightly and that I would have to check Levain Bakery out for myself immediately. I went around 6:00 PM on a random sunday night and there was line out the door to get into the bakery so I immediately knew I was in for something special. I waited around 12 minutes and eventually made my way into the tiny storefront location on West 74th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Levain Bakery serves a variety of different baked goods  such as cookies, which include: chocolate chip walnut (the most popular), Oatmeal Raisin and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip. They also serve a variety of different fresh baked breads, coffee cakes, sticky buns, etc. I bought the chocolate chip walnut and dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies for my roommate and I to share. The dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie was good, but the chocolate chip walnut cookie is really the star of show and is what really draws the big crowds to Levain Bakery. The cookie is light and airy and the choclately cookie goodness melts right in your mouth and will leave you craving more. 

3) Wafels & Dinges

I took the above photograph

Photo Courtesy of: Tracy In Polaroids

  Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard of Wafels & Dinges one of the most popular gourmet food trucks in NYC with trucks stationed throughout the city. I first heard of Wafels & Dinges back in 2011 when I would feature different desserts for a weekly blog post for my previous company's blog. I shared the blog post with a PR rep for the company and they wrote back saying that I spelt the name wrong, oops! I was super embarrassed and corrected the mistake immediately. Anyways, the first time I actually tried Wafels and Dinges was this past summer when I took Sidewalks of New York's Food Truck Tour.  The wafel was delicious with spekuloos spread and tons of whipped cream on top, what could be better! My first Wafels & Dinges experience left me craving more so when I discovered the Wafels & Dinges cart across from Lincoln Center, which is close to my apartment I was very excited and anxiously anticipated my next wafel.  A few weeks ago I had a random monday off of work and was feeling kind of sad since I had long weekend and nothing particularly exciting to do so I decided to cheer myself up by having Wafels & Dinges for breakfast, which I highly encourage everyone to do if you are having a bad day.  I decided to get the liege wafel with dulce de leche sauce and whipped cream. Wafels & Dinges is notorious for there spekuloos spread so if it's your first time I definitely recommend it. While I was sitting at a table near by on a beautiful day,  my bad mood was instantly lifted. The wafels are delicious and how can you go wrong with dulce de leche sauce and tons of whipped cream? 

I hope you enjoyed my december good eats choices and who knows, this could possibly become a monthly installment so stay tuned in January :)

Book Review: Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels by Heather Shouse

Now that I have decided to incorporate recipes and restaurant reviews into this blog I am also going to be sharing with you some of my favorite cookbooks/ food related books. For the first installment of   Megan's Parties & Good Eats Book Reviews I have decided to feature Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels by Heather Shouse. I got this book a few years ago for my dad for father's day and I had looked through the photos and quickly read through it, but it wasn't until I was home for Thanksgiving that I really thoroughly read through the book. I absolutely loved the premise of the book, trying different food trucks across the country and interviewing the owners to get their stories and some of their recipes. Basically the author of this book Heather Shouse got to live out one of my biggest dreams.

I would love to be hired as a freelance writer for a magazine and try restaurants (possibly the best "cheap eats", but I would be open to other ideas as well) in different cities across the county, interview the chef's and share their stories. So if there are any magazine editors out there who are reading this blog, let me know and email megan.wormser@gmail! I would love to make my dream of traveling to different cities across the country and then eventually globally eating food and interviewing chefs a reality, but in the mean time I will settle for trying different best of New York City "cheap eats" and sharing my reviews on this blog,  stay tuned for a lot of restaurant  reviews coming your way! 

Now enough about me and more about the fabulous book I'm discussing today. As I mentioned I absolutely loved the premise of the book and thought the author did a great job describing the food truck owners in such detail that you could picture the person and felt as if they were a close personal friend or family. I also loved how each person started their trucks under different circumstances, but the unifying thing that tied them all together was their passion for their truck. A lot of the food trucks had times of struggle and most are not earning a high income, but their enthusiasm and passion for their truck and the food they cook is contagious. All of the food truck owners profiled in the book are great examples of taking the road less traveled and sometimes having to risk everything for passion  and personal fulfillment. It takes a lot of guts to not take a corporate job with a steady paycheck and instead follow your passion and start a business such as a food truck and I have great admiration and respect for everyone featured in the book that took the risk to follow their passion. In conclusion, this book really struck a cord with me and was very inspirational. I hope you will all check it out. You can buy it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

New Year's Eve Party Ideas...

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas. I know I certainly enjoyed spending the day relaxing with my family. Now that Christmas is officially over I thought I would share some ideas for the next thing on everyone's mind: New Year's Eve. I have included some great New Year's Eve party ideas.  While I was perusing pinterest for New Year's Eve party themes I saw a lot of gold and black and also different ways to incorporate clocks into the party decor. Gold and black is one of my absolute favorite color combinations so I have included a lot of gold glitter and black party ideas. Enjoy!

I love the gold glitter tablecloths and candles. This could work well for a bar area or dessert table as well.

Photo courtesy of: homedit.com

Very festive New Year's Eve bar cart. I love the pop, fizz, clink balloons and festive white and gold bow. 

Photo Courtesy of: Forrent

Such cute gold and silver glitter photo booth props. I also really like the black Happy New Year tag tied with the gold ribbon.

Photo courtesy of: Livinglocurto 

More gold and black decor. I just can't get enough of it!

Photo Courtesy of: the sweetest occasion 

Coconut Vanilla Bellini- Bellini's are a great New Year's Eve cocktail option. You get the sparkling wine (prosecco) combined with fruit juice, a delicious combination if you ask me.

Photo & recipe courtesy of: threadsence

Cute clock cupcake toppers. Easily can use store bought cupcakes and use gold cupcake wrapped with the clock toppers.

Photo courtesy of: nobiggie.net

Clever table set up idea. silver charger 8x10 paper clock and clear glass plate on the top.

Photo courtesy of: ciaonewportbeach

Champagne Chantilly Shooters- Look delicious and I love the black straws with gold stars. 

Photo  courtesy of: sprinkle bakes

Another cute cupcake idea! New Year's ball cupcake toppers.

photo courtesy of: Buzzfeed

I have a slight obsession with s'mores, you can read this previous blog post for evidence, so i'm a big fan of tying s'mores into the New Year's Eve theme by sprinkling the marshmallows with some gold sanding sugar. 

Photo Courtesy of: thecakeblog

Let's Talk About Pie....

After all of my holiday related blog posts I thought it was time to move onto something new so this blog post is going to be all about pies. I know, kind of random, but I figured what the heck pie is always delicious and relevant. 

Last week I was all about pies. I had a potluck holiday lunch at work so I decided to bring a  chocolate chip pecan pie. I used the Karo syrup pecan pie recipe, which can be found here.  I altered the recipe slightly by adding a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. I'm a big fan of short cuts so I love pre-made frozen pie crusts. All you have to do is prepare your filling ingredients, pour into the pre-made pie crust, bake and voilà you have a beautiful pie. Since the frozen pie crusts come in packages of two and I still had leftover karo syrup I decided to try another pie recipe from the karo syrup website. I made the brownie pecan pie for my cookie decorating and hot chocolate bar party.   See, I told you I would discuss that pie in a future blog post! Both pies turned out great and received rave reviews. 

Pecan pie with chocolate chips

Brownie Pecan pie 

I thought I would also share some pie recipes using keebler's graham cracker crusts, which are another great easy pie crust option.

Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Recipe

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Ice Cream Pie

Five Minute White Chocolate Hazelnut Pie

Another way to  incorporate pies when entertaining is to serve mini pies and create a "pie bar". Below I have included pictures of some examples. Trader Joe's sells a mini pie medley which is a great option if you want to have a "pie bar" at your next party. 

Photo Courtesy of: Weddingomania

Photo Courtesy of: myinspiredwedding

Holiday Party Decor Ideas

Yesterday I posted some menu ideas for upcoming holiday parties so today I thought I would share some more holiday party decor ideas.

I love the winter greenery against the brown wood table. I also like the idea of putting candles in empty wine bottles, which is a nice way to use items you already own as part of the party decor.  

Black and gold is one of my favorite  color combinations so I am big fan of this table setting. I also love how the gold ornaments were incorporated into the table setting. I also really like how the sprig of rosemary pops against the black ribbon on the white napkin. 

Photo Courtesy of: Elements of Style 

I love the gold confetti placemats and the gold candles look really nice against the winter greenery. I also really like the gold sparkle place cards.

Photo Courtesy of: Hostess With The Mostess

Nice rustic table table setting.  I love color combination of brown from the wood, white and the pop of green from the winter greenery. 

Photo Courtesy of: Jenny Collier

I really like the mini rosemary wreaths on the napkins. I also like the use of a simple white table cloth and gold sparkle runner. I always am a fan of using a white tablecloth and then having a dramatic table runner. 

Photo courtesy of: Celebrations

Pretty dessert table, which goes nicely with some of the more rustic and earthy table settings I showcased above

Photo Courtesy of: The cake blog

 Beautiful dessert table. I love the backdrop. I also really like the touches of red sparkle. If you look back to my first blog post you will see I tried to copy to the red glitter christmas tree idea and I have always loved the peppermint topiaries, they add a nice touch to your party and are not a difficult craft project. 

Photo courtesy of: Pizzazerie

Another example of mini wreaths, but this time they are on glass milk jars. I'm completely obsessed with this idea!!

Photo courtesy of: Swanky-chic-fete

Where to buy some of the items:

Gold polka dot place cards: Elements of Style

Black & White striped coasters: Zazzle

Gold confetti polka dot placements: carolandcompany.com

Glass milk bottles: Michaels