Barefoot Contessa's Tomato Sandwich

Ina Garten's recipes are usually chock full of butter, oil and sugar. The dishes are also usually too fancy and time consuming for me (who has time to make a crab salad or angel food cake from scratch?) But I do love watching her show, if only to watch her waddle around her massive kitchen or hop into her shiny Mercedes for a quick trip to a gourmet grocery store before swinging by the beach for a fun-filled clam dig. Ugh. Bitch.

But she did make a tomato sandwich on one episode that looked simple and delicious. You're probably thinking...hmm...a few pieces of bland tomato between two slices of soggy tomato juice soaked bread...doesn't sound appealing to me. I was skeptical too, but it turned out really well. It's the garlic and basil in the mayo spread that makes the sandwich tasty. So, if it's a hot summer day and you want a light and refreshing sandwich, this is a good bet. I recommend using a firmer bread such as whole wheat or sourdough. The tomato juice will soak through white bread very quickly, and i hate soggy sandwiches! It's the worst.

To make the spread:


a few scoops of mayo
2 teaspoon of lemon juice
minced garlic (1 clove)
handful of chopped basil
pinch of salt








Spread the garlic basil mayo on the the bread, add the tomatoes and you're done. I bet this spread would go really well with some sliced turkey and avocado.

Anyway Cafe

I am seriously behind on my posts, I still haven't put up the pictures from Good and Spoleto! So before Kashmira's housewarming this past Saturday, Amar and I went to the East Village to grab some dinner. On our way to Soba Ya, we spotted a cute restaurant with some outdoor seating on 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue called Anyway Cafe. The menu sounded pretty good and the words "crepe" and "cream sauce" lured us away from the noodle restaurant. So Anyway Cafe serves a odd combination of French and Russian food and has an impressive list of infused vodkas. The decor is...actually I'm not really sure because it was so dark in the restaurant that I couldn't see much of anything.

I ordered the Wild Mushroom Pelmeni - Pelmeni is the Russian version of Italian ravioli. The raviolis came in a runny, dark sauce (call the Anyway Special Sauce). It had a sour cabbage flavor, but with a hint of tangy sweetness as well. The Pelmeni lacked flavor, the ravioli skins were extremely slimey and slid down the back of my throat. The dish came out lukewarm, so I had to ask for the dish to be reheated. A cold dish REALLY kills the dining experience.

Amar got the Chicken Crepe w/ a light herb sauce, which was decent...at least better than mine. The crepes were a bit too soggy and spongy, so by the time I managed to coax a piece of crepe onto my fork, it looked like a sad, wet noodle. The chicken tasted fine, although not particularly fresh or tender.

Overall, it was a pretty below average meal. I would go back to try the vodka martinis, which sounded pretty tasty.