Chef Jose Andres has stated that the future of cooking is in fruits and vegetables (and that meat is boring).  While we'll never be vegetarians (giving up foie gras, steak, and pork belly is just too hard for us), we are trying to lighten up and eat more vegetables.  For the past year, we've enjoyed Meatless Mondays - but with the start of Lent (Mar 9), I decided to up the ante and cook exclusively vegetarian (and a few seafood) dishes for the entire 40 days.

So far I've enjoyed the challenge, but have found that for me, it's easier to conceive a dish with meat. Meat naturally has umami flavor in it so I'm aware that I need to replace that flavor (so far mushrooms have been our staple and luckily my husband loves all varieties of mushrooms!)  Another challenge I'm facing is that it's still really cold here in NYC and the availability of local fruits and vegetables is scarce (compared to the summertime when I feel it's so much easier to for us to increase our vegetable and fruit intake because they're so fresh and abundant during the warmer months).  We regularly eat salads with our meal - but for the main entree, I find that I'm oftentimes using canned or frozen vegetables.  This Chickpea "Burger" recipe is one of those recipes.

 Have you been enjoying our week of giveaways for Christine's Virtual Baby Shower?  (There's still time to enter our other giveaways here and here).  Our final giveaway is a good one - the Beco Baby Carrier ($129 retail value).  This baby carrier would be a great gift for any mom or mommy-to-be.  More information on the baby carrier plus how to enter after the jump!

Our giveaway week continues with your chance to win a Baby Food Mill for you or any new mama/mommy-to-be you know!  I'm not a mom, but I have plenty of baby showers baby birthday parties to attend and this Baby Food Mill would be a great gift.  I'm running this giveaway together with Diana from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.  Since she has first-hand experience with this product, I'll let her explain why she loves the Baby Food Mill. (More information on how you can enter this giveaway after the jump!)

Blue skies, bright sunshine, and free macarons - for me, there was no better way to tour the city than by enjoying my own macaron crawl courtesy of Macaron Day NYC 2011.  Macaron Day (or Le Jour du Macaron) was started six years ago in Paris by la Maison Pierre Hermé in association with the Relais Desserts.  People received complimentary macarons and were encouraged to donate to the specified charity.  Here in NYC, Macaron Day was started last year by Chef Francois Payard to coincide with the French event.  This year, there are 16 participating bakeries (with 12 in Manhattan), with many donating a percentage of the day's macaron sales to City Harvest.

Last year, I dragged my husband around to try macarons from 7 participating bakeries.  This year, I wanted to try some new locations in the city.  I was on my own for most of the trip as my husband declined to accompany me on my madwoman macaron tour of 10 bakeries.  Armed with a bottle of water, my Metrocard, and a couple of reusable shopping bags (for the boxes of macarons I was planning on buying!), I trekked around the city to try  these delicate pastries.

For the first few days this week, you may have noticed that my blog was pretty quiet.  We had been watching the events in Japan and our mood was sombre.  The stories of the people affected touched us deeply and we wanted to do all we could to help.  The easiest way for us to help was by donating money to the American Red Cross (you can click on the ad on the right that will take you to the Red Cross donation page.  Also, if you have a website or blog and would like to donate ad space to the Red Cross, click here).

Since we like to dine out, we also compiled a list of restaurants who are offering to donate proceeds or a portion of sales to Japan relief organizations:   

Be still my beating heart...I'm so excited! This Sunday (March 20, 2011) is Macaron Day NYC 2011!  What is Mac Day? If you saw my whirlwind macaron tour of NYC post featuring last year's 1st annual Macaron Day NYC, you know that it's a day full of sugar and fun. Inspired by the Jour du Macaron in Paris, Macaron Day NYC features 16 bakeries offering a free macaron to customers who mention Macaron Day NYC.  At many of the participating bakeries, a portion of Sunday's macaron sales will be donated to City Harvest.  This year, I'm going to try as many as I can (and will likely buy a few too for charity).  And with all of these sugary treats, I'll definitely be bringing a bottle of water with me! (list of participating bakeries after the jump)

Since my husband is half-Irish, I've been trying to come up with ideas to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with him.  Last year, I made him an Irish Bacon with Cabbage dish followed by a Guinness Ice Cream Float.  For his birthday, I had baked him Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes - which I thought would also be a great St. Paddy's Day treat.  I'm still indecisive (and would welcome any ideas!), but I know whatever I make, they'll be nicely decorated with these St. Patrick's Day party circles I designed (that are free to you to use too!):

Some of the most hard to find beers are made by Brasserie Cantillon, a Belgian brewery.  So when Daniel Boulud's DBGB announced that they were featuring these beers at one of their Beer Tasting Tuesday events, I knew I had to attend.  These rare beers were paired with a selection of cheeses from Saxelby Cheesemongers, with the event hosted by Hayley Jensen (Beer Sommelier for DBGB) and Anne Saxelby (Owner and Cheesemonger of Saxelby Cheesemongers). 

Out of all the Cantillon beers tasted (photo, above), the Gueuze was my favorite.  It had great carbonation and a tart, acidic bite.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed the Rosé De Gambrinus.  I don't usually like fruit lambic beers (though my wife is a big fan) because they're usually too sweet.  However, the Rosé was not as sweet as I anticipated, and had a pleasant sourness/mouth puckering style.

Happy Friday everyone!  With the weekend finally here, it's the perfect time to treat ourselves to a drink. I love my sweet treats and chocolate is no exception.  So a couple of chocolate cocktails sounded like the perfect way to end a meal and to start the weekend! The first drink (Chambord French Kiss) is like a dessert and will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth, while the second drink (Tuaca Hot Chocolate) is less sweet, but more chocolatey (due to the chocolate syrup in it).  Cheers to a sweet and spicy weekend everyone!