Poll of the Week - 11.29.2010

Well it’s been another unexpected break since I last posted, and I owe you guys tons of posts and then some. I’m getting my act together, though, and in the meantime – here’s a new “Poll of the Week”!

Between getting ready for Thanksgiving and getting ready for the Christmas season, I’ve spent a lot of time in the grocery store this past week. I love walking through grocery stores, looking at all of the fresh produce and soaking up holiday cheer. But the best days of all are when you stumble across Free Sample Day! I love when this happens, the whole store becomes one giant string of “free sample” serving stations - and it’s always on a day when I’m starving. It doesn’t get much better than showing up hungry to a store full of food and getting to graze your way through for free – especially in the days leading up to big food holidays, like Thanksgiving!

For this week’s “Poll of the Week”, Little Scarlet wants to know, when you’re lucky enough to show up on Free Sample Day, what’s your favorite kind of sample?

Poll of the Week - 11.01.2010

I was picking up some last minute Halloween candy at CVS this weekend and couldn’t find any candy corn. I was scouring the shelves looking for this all-important staple, when I found myself face-to-face with a bag of red-and-green peanut M&Ms. I took another look, and sure enough – the rest of the candy aisle was all Christmas candy!! Now, I love Christmas more than any sane people should (it’s a family trait), but I very firmly believe that no store should stock Halloween and Christmas goodies at the same time.

And so I stood there with witches and jack o’lanterns to my left and snow angels and Christmas trees to my right, when I realized I was standing right where Thanksgiving is (sandwiched in between two highly over-commercialized holidays). And then it hit me – Thanksgiving’s only a few weeks away!!

Always the last Thursday of November, Thanksgiving comes a little earlier some years than it does others. This year, people all over the country will sit down to offer thanks on *November 25*. Thanks for friends, thanks for family, thanks for hearth and home – and thanks for food. After all, we can’t survive without it!

But for most of those people, giving thanks for food goes far beyond merely appreciating sustenance – we give thanks for stuffing and pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, turkey and wine. And we thank the people who took the time and the care to arrange such wonderful menus to enjoy with their families.

So this week’s “Poll of the Week” asks, have you started planning your Thanksgiving menu yet?

Poll of the Week - 10.25.2010

Happy Halloween!!

I’ll give you all a break from hearing about Oregon for the time being (although it was amazing - look out later this week for coverage!), and move on to one of my favorite things about fall: Halloween! Here’s a little something to help get you all in the mood…

Now that you’re all excited for this Sunday’s spookiness, it’s time for the “Poll of the Week”!

Halloween is this Sunday, so now is the time to carve those pumpkins and stock up on candy for trick-or-treaters. But in case you’ve overdone it on candy leading up to Halloween (hey, it happens to the best of us), there are a lot of ways to celebrate Halloween that don’t come dipped in chocolate. Here are some ideas from Little Scarlet for ways to celebrate Halloween without in addition to candy – which is your favorite?

Poll of the Week - 10.18.2010

Still in Oregon and having a wonderful time! We arrived in Portland last week, drove down the coast, and are now in the wine country on our way to the Columbia River Gorge.

Leading up to this trip, all I kept hearing about was how amazing the food is in Oregon, and you know what? They’re absolutely right! Here are some of the food experiences Little Scarlet’s had so far – which one sounds best to you?


That’s it for posts this week, check back again next Monday for another poll and a quick culinary recap of our tour through Oregon!

Poll of the Week - 10.11.2010

It’s that time of year again! I haven’t been on vacation in almost a year, but the stars have finally aligned and it’s time for a much needed break. But where am I going? Here’s a hint for you…

Still can’t guess? How about now?

Well, in case you didn’t recognize that beautiful coastline or Mount Hood, Little Scarlet’s off to Oregon!

Oregon’s a food lover’s dream destination with so many wonderful foods, cheeses, and wines grown right in the state. For the next week, I’ll be cruising along the coast, touring the wineries of Willamette Valley, and spending some time relaxing in the mountains. If you have any recommendations, send them my way!

Check back for Little Scarlet’s favorite places when I come back, and until then, here’s the Poll of the Week! Oregon is well known for a wide variety of local foods – which of the following is your favorite?

Poll of the Week - 10.04.2010

Oktoberfest came to a close this past weekend, and if you’re unwilling to let go of that celebratory brand of German rowdiness, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just gather up a group of friends, grill up some wurst (Little Scarlet’s partial to knackwurst, bratwurst, & weisswurst), and toss it all back with a few pints of beer!

How did you celebrate Oktoberfest this year? This week’s “Poll of the Week” asks what’s your favorite part of this annual Bavarian blowout?

Poll of the Week - 9.27.2010

The Vendys happened this weekend, and it was the perfect day for it. Warm and sunny, everyone in high spirits, great music, and food – such amazing food from all the vendors! Our coverage will be going up in the next day or so, but to get everyone in the mood, here’s the “Poll of the Week”!

Street vendors are an integral part of any true city’s landscape, and New York’s vendors have really stepped up their game from the fleets of carts hawking dirty-water dogs and rock-hard pretzels to tourists. This week’s “Poll of the Week” asks which of the following foods would you be most excited to get from a street vendor?

Poll of the Week - 9.20.2010

The New Amsterdam Market is back this fall (post to come soon, get excited!) and tucked in among the carrots, turnips, shallots, and apples are the season’s first pumpkins! There’s something so quintessentially autumnal about pumpkins, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Thanksgiving table or Halloween haunted house unadorned by an assortment of these golden-hued squashes.

Being surrounded by these bright orange orbs has made me what to pillage every farmers market and grocery store in Manhattan and make as many pumpkin dishes as possible. Pumpkin pie? Oh yes. Pumpkin soup with cider cream? How much more autumn could you cram in a bowl? Pumpkin enchiladas? Well, I’ve never made them before, but I’m feeling inspired!

If you’re more of a traditionalist, though, pumpkins are such a versatile vegetable that there’s really no shortage of great ideas. This week’s “Poll of the Week” wants to know what’s your favorite way to eat pumpkin?

Poll of the Week - 8.30.2010

Little Scarlet’s in Montréal! Home to hockey, Mounties, and Celine Dion, I’m in Canada on a business trip, which is very exciting – but unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding internet access. This means that I’m going to have to keep this “Poll of the Week” short and sweet, and that you’ll be hearing a lot from me once I come back next week!

Now, most of you probably don’t know this, but along with a habit of saying “tom-ah-to”, Little Scarlet inherited Canadian citizenship – and proud of it! So as I return to the not-exactly-motherland, this week’s “Poll of the Week” is staying on topic with a Canada-themed question: when you think of Canada, what’s the first food (or food product) that comes to mind?

Poll of the Week - 8.30.2010

Poll of the week will go up this afternoon - check back soon!

Poll of the Week - 8.22.2010

Labor Day is coming up before you know it, with only two weekends left to escape to the beach or your backyard before summer ends and you’re in back-to-school mode. Even though “summer work hours” will end in the next week or so, there’s still a few more weeks of summer before fall technically arrives on September 22.

This week’s “Poll of the Week” wants to know, of all of summer’s wonderful foods, what do you feel you still haven’t had enough of?

Poll of the Week - 8.16.2010

As long as people have been making and eating meals, they’ve been enjoying what comes after: desserts. Always a popular menu item, desserts in New York have been elevated above the main course through the advent of Serendipity’s frozen hot chocolate, Magnolia’s cupcakes, and Momofuku Milk Bar’s “crack pie” and “compost cookie”. In a world where dessert and pastry chefs like Pichet Ong (The Sweet Spot), Karen DeMasco (Locanda Verde), Christina Tosi (Momofuku Milk Bar), and Jacques Torres (Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven) are household names, desserts are no longer relegated to the back of the display counter!

Whether you’re obsessed with Pinkberry’s frozen yoghurt, have had heated debates about where the best cupcakes come from (Butter Lane, all the way!), or can recite Jerry Seinfeld’s ode to the black & white, New York’s desserts are well ingrained in America’s sweet-tooth.  This week’s “Poll of the Week” wants to know, what’s your favorite New York dessert?

Poll of the Week - 8.09.2010

It’s kind of a sorry statement when the temperature dips down to the upper-80s and you’re like yes, it feels so cool outside! But that’s what happened in New York this weekend, and us city dwellers who weren’t able to escape to the beach or a suburban friend’s pool flocked to the shady parts of Central Park to enjoy those beautiful, sunny days.

Between the guitar-strummers, proud new parents, radical exercisers, and croquet players, there’s a lot of great people-watching to do there. But long hours outside in the sun can make you pretty hungry, and no one wants to give up that perfectly chosen plot of grass… so naturally, the only way to keep your spot and stay satiated is with a picnic!

This week’s “Poll of the Week” asks, when you pack up goodies for a picnic in the park, what’s your ultimate must-have item?



P.S. I know I’ve been super M.I.A. lately, but not to worry - this week Little Scarlet is back and posting much more than before!!

Poll of the Week - 8.02.2010

With the popularity of television shows like “Jersey Shore” (I hear a new season premiered recently…), it would seem that New Jersey’s greatest claim to fame is… Seaside Heights?? As a proud Garden State native, I just can’t let that one slide, I’m sorry: New Jersey has beautiful landscapes, a rich colonial history, and Long Beach Island is a lovely shore to visit! But one of New Jersey’s greatest institutions can be found scattered in amongst the winding highways and sprawling farms, and that’s New Jersey’s diners.

True, diners are obviously a popular road-side attraction all over the country, there’s even a Food Network show entirely devoted to them – but they are quite literally everywhere in New Jersey. Although it hardly seems possible, every once in a while I meet someone who’s never heard of a diner before (shocking all by itself!) – and maybe it’s because of New York’s proximity to New Jersey, but I’m even more amazed to hear people frequently respond, “Oh yeah, it’s a Jersey thing.” I’m not sure how accurate that statement is, but you know what? I’ll take that shout-out and run with it, thank you very much!

This week’s “Poll of the Week” is in honor of the great American diner – what’s your favorite traditional diner food?


Also, if there’s a diner food you love that isn’t listed above, write in to Little Scarlet with a Comment and tell us about your favorite!

Poll of the Week - 7.26.2010

Whether your summer refuge is the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore, the only relief from the dog days of summer is a trip to the beach!

And what would a beach getaway be without lounge chairs, tall drinks, and lobster?

The sweet, pink meat from a lobster’s claws and tail is just as wonderful dunked in butter as it is in a creamy bisque or slipped into soft ravioli pillows. But even if you’re not able to indulge in a summer-time, beach-side lobster extravaganza, there are still plenty of ways to get your fill of the ocean’s greatest crustacean!

In this week’s “Poll of the Week”, Little Scarlet wants to know what’s your favorite lobster dish?

Poll of the Week - 7.19.2010

So in my excitement over this week’s giveaway (click here!! enter as many times as you can!! contest ends Friday!!), I completely forgot about the “Poll of the Week”. I hope you all won’t hold it against me…

In other news, I went to my first Major League Baseball game this weekend and watched the New York Yankees play the Tampa Bay Rays. It was a good time, but I was really impressed by the food that was available. Baseball stadiums are starting to go way beyond the standard order of “dog and a beer” – if Field of Dreams were made today, Ray Kinsella and Terence Mann would have to be a lot more specific during that Fenway Park “go the distance” scene! Yankee Stadium, for example, has a lot more to eat besides the old-school fan favorites, with offerings like Cuban sandwiches, garlic french fries, bottles of Magic Hat #9 and Hefeweizen on draft. It was a gorgeous day on Sunday, albeit a little too warm for me, but with all the great eating, it was a pretty nice way to spend a lazy afternoon!

If you think back to the baseball games of your childhood, what’s the treat that comes to mind? This week, Little Scarlet wants to know what’s your favorite ballgame food?

Poll of the Week - 7.12.2010

Spain has given the world many wonderful things. Sangria, flamenco dancing, Raphael Nadal… and now the 2010 World Cup Champions! The final match between Spain and the Netherlands culminated in a 1-0 victory for Spain, with the game’s only goal scored with 1 minute left in overtime.

Sadly, the Netherlands never had a chance, as Paul the Psychic Octopus had already predicted Spain would win.

In honor of Spain’s skilled footballers, in this week’s “Poll of the Week”, Little Scarlet wants to know what’s your favorite Spanish food?

Moving Woes and a *new* Poll of the Week!

I’m so sorry for the unexplained hiatus this past week! We moved to a new apartment last Monday, so all Little Scarlet activity came to a grinding halt. Ideally, I would have laid out all of these wonderful posts in advance and been marvelously organized… but my living room still has boxes in it and my refrigerator is completely empty except for condiments, beer, and some leftover takeout. So we’re getting back on track starting now! I will buy groceries this week, I will break in my new kitchen, and I will be posting on a regular basis again – I promise.

So, without any more excuses, it’s time for this week’s (belated) “Poll of the Week”!

New York’s in the grips of a vicious heat wave (which makes moving even more fun…) and all I can think of are ways to cool down. Whether you’re in a sweltering city or a comfy country home, when hot weather strikes, what do you wish for most?

Poll of the Week - 6.21.2010

So something funky was happening with my polls last week, but Google seems to have fixed the problem, so let’s make up for it this week with tons of votes!

I’ve been experimenting with different breakfast ideas over the last few weeks, and the best way to escape boredom seems to be with oatmeal. If you’re not a fan of oatmeal (amazingly, some people just don’t like it!), that might sound kind of weird – I mean, what’s to like about a bowl full of gray, lumpy stuff? But oatmeal has a great chewy texture and you can dress it up with just about anything: add a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and Grade A maple syrup, and you’ve basically got a bowl of Cocoa Puffs! Add some Craisins and chopped walnuts, and you’ve just graduated to a very adult breakfast cereal. Or you can add just milk or cream, with a sprinkling of brown sugar on top, and pretend you’re having porridge with Mary and Dickon in The Secret Garden.

This week’s “Poll of the Week” asks, what’s your favorite way to eat oatmeal?

Poll of the Week - 6.14.2010

Whether you buy your fish from your local fishmonger or prefer to go out and have your favorite restaurant handle all the dirty work, whole fish are an impressive (and surprisingly simple!) way to serve fish. They can be prepared any number of ways: roasted or steamed, stuffed with shrimp and crab or doused in lemon and butter, or even baked in a thick, sea salt crust.

Preparing fish whole works well with lots of different kinds of fish, so this week’s “Poll of the Week” asks what’s your favorite fish to eat whole?


If you have a favorite way to cook whole fish (or any secret tips), share it in the Comments section!