Category Archives: Entrees

Valley Moments: Exploration – Naan Pizza Picnic in the Catskills of Upstate New York

Hey it’s been awhile! Due to covid I haven’t really been doing a lot of International travel but admire those who push through the regulations to make it happen. I feel like I’m too spontaneous to deal with the changes. Anyway, I’ve taken an interest in car camping and domestic travel to fulfill that need, last winter I bought a small trailer that I’m converting into a camper – for example. In the mean time I’ve been working on making my sedan more camper friendly, I got a car air mattress that actually works pretty well. I’ve designed a kitchen setup for the sedan that I’ve been dying to try that won’t break the bank. Regardless, I did my first over nighter last weekend in Catskills park in Upstate New York in a pull off. No one bothered me but I’m pretty sure there was someone who shown their lights through the car!

Thankfully with the car air mattress it fits in the back of the seat, so it was actually pretty stealth. Unfortunately after only four hours of sleep (which is actually a minimum for me), I woke up to rain at 1 am at night. It was pretty quiet and the rain came down hard. I made the executive decision to leave for home and good thing I did as it continued to rain throughout the morning. I wasn’t prepared for car camping as initially I wanted to do a wild tent camp from iOverlander coordinates but could NOT find two spots I had picked out in the Catskills! Dinner went swimmingly well, I had my famous naan pizza. I pre-made the dough and brought peppers, onions and garlic. Before dinner, I cleaned out the car and moved whatever was left over from my move to the trunk and blew up the air mattress. I was definitely under prepared as I didn’t bring a pillow and no heavy blanket, but still got some sleep.

I think my next trip might be local or to Westport, CT for some mussel and clam foraging! Whatever comes first, with these gas prices these days it makes it even more difficult to do domestic travel so I’m sticking to super local destinations for now. Check out my YouTube video of my adventure below:

Lifestyle: Recipe – Mexican Street Corn and Homemade Tortillas

Seems like it’s been awhile since I posted a recipe! Sorry about that! I have gotten a lot of new cooking inspiration  lately and been indulging in that. My parents gifted me the Ninja Foodi 4-in-1 Grill for Christmas so I’ve been enjoying grilled food in my apartment! Once I have a worthy recipe to post I will. I’ve mostly been enjoying burgers and salmon. Today I have a meal combo I couldn’t resist posting about. I adapted thestayathomechef’s Mexican Street Corn soup, thickened it up and put it on homemade tortillas!

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 small white onion chopped
  • 1 jalapeno minced
  • 5 cloves garlic crushed
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 6 cups frozen corn kernels
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream half and half, or milk
  • 1 cup freshly chopped cilantro

Toppings:

  • 1/2 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
  • 1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese
  • 1 jalapeno sliced

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add in the onions and minced jalapeno and sauté for about 5 minutes, then stir in garlic and cook an additional 1 minute.
  • Stir in the flour, cumin, and chili powder and cook 1-2 minutes. Whisk in the chicken stock until smooth and bring to a boil. Add in the corn, sugar, and salt. Once it returns to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.
  • Stir in cream and cilantro. Serve topped with crumbled bacon, cotija, and jalapeno slices.

Nutrition

Calories: 687kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 51g | Saturated Fat: 26g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 1797mg | Potassium: 590mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 1585IU | Vitamin C: 11.7mg | Calcium: 133mg | Iron: 2.3mg