Cookin' for the A-List - The Gay Gourmet!™

There is nothing more that I love than the Mediterranean! Well, I guess the idea of it seeming that I've only been as far as Torquay, England. But even the idea of it is so lush, wouldn't you agree? Tan men, olives, Olive skin, cheese, rolling pastures, farm boys, bread, the hot guys who make the bread, beaches, hot shirtless, tan men on the beach...you get the idea!

(Side Note: There were many pictures, or so I thought, to go along with this blog but the film, yes film, didnt catch in my Pentax and so pictureless I am. The plights of using an old camera and loading it when slightly intoxicated! womp womp!) 

Anywho, it just so happened that one day via the Twitter this cute, tan boy had a dilemma which was he didn't know what to cook for his man for dinner. There also seemed to be one other small problem which was he didn't seem to be too well versed in the kitch. So, The Gay Gourmet!™ came to the rescue and tweeted a simple, yet unique, pasta recipe inspired by hot tan boys, the recent NYC heat wave and my desire to be in the Mediterranean heat, on a beach, surround by hot tan boys! Plus it's easy to make, decadent in taste/not your ordinary pasta dish (So my tan hottie could impress his dinner guest,) not too heavy and not too bad for you especially if you use whole wheat pasta!

BUT WAIT! before we get to this dish I must tell you that upon doing a bit more investigation about who this boy was and who he was cooking for I came to realize that this was no ordinary couple! The boyfriend in question is a man named TJ Kelly. Hmmm... TJ Kelly? Why do I know that name? OH yes! Logo TV recently had a gay spin off series of the Housewives called the A-List and he was the funny sidekick on the show! In his own words...

TJ Kelly is a supporting cast member on Logo’s popular docu-reality series “The A-List: New York." TJ works at an upscale hair salon on the upper east side. As a professional nail technician, TJ has showcased his talents doing nails for music videos, TV shows such as “America’s Next Top Model” and behind-the-scenes at several Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week shows, including Calvin Klein, Betsey Johnson, Victoria Beckham and Nicole Miller. He also is a contributor to the websites www.OutSpokenNYC.com and  www.NonSociety.com.

Well look at me! I'm advising the boyfriend of someone on the A-list!! I told you I was running up that ladder of success! I actually had the chance to meet TJ and he is super sweet, fun and definitely entertaining! So it definitely was an honor for him & his boyfriend to take my advice! He even went on to say that I revitalized the date night for them!! How fun!!

On to the dish!

I call this dish Spanipastika (that would be Ms. Spanipastika to you) as it's pasta with spinach, feta, olives! The flavor is fierce, salty, decadent and delicious. Be a trailblazer and try adding some roasted cherry tomatoes and some lemon juice/lemon zest for some extra zing.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Ms. Spani-Pastika!






Her Wants...

1/2 box of Whole Wheat Linguine or your fav pasta.

1 carton cherry tomatoes (they sell them in small plastic cartons)

1 bunch fresh spinach (or is using Spinach from a bag about two good handfuls)

3 TBS roughly chopped Kalamata Olives

1 TBS Olive Oil

3 cloves garlic (chopped, mined or grated)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup chicken stock

Feta Cheese ( you decide how much or little you want 'cause it's so good)

Pepper


Her Needs

1. Preheat oven to 375. On an aluminum paper covered baking sheet toss cherry tomatoes in olive oil a pepper and bake till they start to char and have burst. About 30 mins.

2. 10 mins before the cherry tomatoes are done bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta.

3. Add Pasta and cook to al dente (Follow box time instructions.)

4. Drain pasta. In the same, now empty pot, pour chicken stock, lemon juice & garlic and let simmer for about a min.

5. Add pasta back to pot along with spinach & olives and toss for about a min till spinach starts to wilt.

6. Add cherry tomatoes and toss.

7. Serve, garnish with feta cheese and enjoy!!!

It was an honor TJ and I hope this is the beginning of a beeeeeutiful relationship! Kisses!


Deliciously Living,

Michael Muñoz

The Gay Gourmet!™
©2011 Michael Muñoz

I Love NY! - The Gay Gourmet!™

Well it's official folks! I am an equal citizen! As of last night the state of New York declared Gay Marriage legal being the largest state in America to put this into effect. All I can say is that I am more proud to be a born and raised New Yorker than I have ever been!! From the millions of phone calls made, to the money raised, to the thousands of people marching through the streets; our hard work has paid off! We can make a difference and it was proved last night!


With this joyous news on pride weekend I find it more than appropriate to repost my recipe for rainbow cookies!

Yes I know I should have come up with something new and fabulous but between all the work I've been doing and the celebrating coming there has been no time for anything! Plus these cookies are quite fabulous!

On to the cookies!


These cookies are a little time consuming to make but they are SO cute, would be an awesome project to do with your kids or loved ones, and they are super tasty!

Look on!

Step 1.

Cream butter & sugar (Notice lack of KitchenAid), the add egg, vanilla, a orange zest!




Step 2. Mix together flour, baking soda & salt




Step 3. Combine Flour with Wet mixture!





Step 4.
Separate dough into six parts & color (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet)




Step 5. Put into pastry bags and bask in how pretty it is!!





Step 6. Pipe out cookies colors in order to create cute rainbows!




Bake them @ 350 for about 20 mins or until they look unmoist!



Voila!!!! A Gay Cookie have you!



Her Needs...

* 1 Cup of Butter (2 sticks), softened
* 1/2 Cup sugar
* 3/4 Cup Confectioners Sugar
* 2 Egg Yolks
* 1 tsp Vanilla
* Zest of 1 Orange (about a heaping TBS)
* 2 1/4 Cups Flour
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* White Vinegar divided in to 6 portions of 1/4 tsp
* Food Coloring - Red, Blue, Yellow, Green


Her wants...


1. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat 2 sticks butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar until fluffy.

2. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla and orange zest.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt

4. In sections stir dry ingredients into the butter mixture till combined!

5. Separate dough into six parts in six bowls. The color of RED has to have the most dough and purple being the last color in the rainbow has the least. A good way to gauge is use a heaping cup for the red and 1/3 cup for the purple.

6. Once separated mix colors into dough Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple with vinegar. To make colors that aren't in the box follow the directions on back of food coloring box. (Note: The vinegar helps keep the color vibrant so you don't have to use a ton of dye!)

7. Place colored dough into piping bags and pipe out colors in order on greased baking sheets.

8. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until till cookies don't look moist.

9. Take them out of the oven and let cool for 5 mins before transferring to wire racks!





Any left over dough you can use to make fun silver dollar sugar cookies!

A Gayer Cookie you will not find anywhere else! Be Proud my loves! Together , one day, we will live in a world of love!


Deliciously Living

Michael Muñoz
The Gay Gourmet!™

©2011 Michael Muñoz

The Gourmet Fabulous - A Long Overdue Thank You! The Gay Gourmet!™

Due to life being crazy - see previous blog post "Eating My Feelings" - I have, stupidly, let some things fall to the wayside and now I'm playing major catch up! So my first order of business is to discuss Jill Hickey...


Who is Jill Hickey you may ask... well when researching a bio this is all I found..

I would write something clever but my 2 year old son just pulled something down on himself and my 3 older daughters (13,12 & 9) were making up a dance to old Abba tunes and were mid grande jete’ and couldn’t help.

Meanwhile my husband of 16 years is on his Blackberry shouting businessspeak….

So I figure, my job is try and make this chaos sound funny— because it is a blast!

Please join me on Toginet.com radio, find me on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (all under~~~wait for it~~~ NotSoSoccerMom) if you enjoy my musings.

~Jill Hickey


Jill is super! We were connected via twitter through twitter friends and now the love affair has started.

Mom of 4, ZUMBA teacher, wife, internet radio personality and much more, Jill is a renaissance woman if I do say so myself! She oh so graciously invited me for an interview during National Cookie Week, which just so happened to be when we captured Osama, and had so much on her roster that we had to cut the interview short. I was so honored and overjoyed that I got to spend 10 mins with her, I surely didn't mind. Much to my surprise she invited me back for a full hour of co-hosting fun with her!

SAY WHAT?!?!?


Jill is funny, smart and knows how to get down to business with her guests! Speaking of...she's had all sorts of fabulous people from myself (hehehe) to Melissa & Joe Gorga from the Real Housewives of NJ, to survivors of the Joplin tornados, and that's just most recently!

I never got to publicly say thank you for inviting me to co-host and hopefully she will forgive me!

Follow her on twitter @NotSoSoccerMom listen to her show every Tuesday at 1pm on Toginet radio, check out her site www.notsosoccermom.com & send her lots of love from me!!!

You can listen to the day I joined her on the radio here - Fabulous People just search my show date is 5/13/11

And this blog wouldn't be complete without a gourmet fabulous recipe!

Margarita Cheesecake Filled Strawberries!

This is Weight Watchers® friendly recipe inspired by summer, getting skinny, my quest to find foods that taste like they are full fat but not, my alcohol problem (which really isn't a problem - I know De-Nile is not only a river in Egypt!), and fabulous people like Jill!

On to Ms. Rita Fromage

10oz fat free cream cheese (you can use low fat or full fat the WW points just go up accordingly)
.5 shot of good tequila
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1 TBS Lime Juice
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 TBS Lime zest
2 Cartons of Strawberries
graham cracker crumbs

In a large bowl combine all ingredients (except strawberries and graham cracker crumbs) and whisk till combined and smooth.

Refrigerate for 30 mins till "cheesecake" mixture has firmed.

Wash and carefully cut out the centers of your strawberries.

Using a pastry bag or a large Ziplock, fill it with the cheesecake mixture and then cut off the point of the bag so you can start piping the filling into the strawberries

Pipe filling into strawberries and then garnish with a pinch of graham cracker crumbs!

Enjoy, as the entire bowl (if using fat free cream cheese) is only 10 points plus by my deduction! Which means you can eat a bunch of  filled strawberries for practically no points!!

Kisses and Love to my friend Jill! You've changed my life!

Deliciously Living,

Michael Muñoz
The Gay Gourmet!™

©2011 Michael Muñoz

Eating my feelings - The Gay Gourmet!™

The most successful of food bloggers are those that let you glimpse into their lives and tell you how food plays into that. The blogs that I read a full of fun stories about family, children, parties and the like. But how much is that really a glimpse into peoples real lives? I'm not saying that people don't live like that, myself included, but where is the real stuff? The "hot topics" if you will or the real life where people aren't always necessarily happy but through the struggle, however large or small, and with the comfort of friends, family and food they make it through!

Ooo do you feel a serioso tone a'comin'?!?! HA! (Now would be a good time to turn on Jay Brannan - if you don't know who he is press play video below and read on! He's Hot, gay & sets quite a mood!)



Let's refresh! We all know that I'm a Brooklyn, NYC born and bred musical theatre boy who has always had a passion for food, singing, dancing, making sock puppets and I don't own a Kitchen-Aid Mixer. (You'd think by now someone would've sent me one)

Since I've started this food blogging endeavor I've been blessed with the support of a countless number of people whom I know and don't. I have a ton to be thankful for in my social life, my theatre career and my food career. So then what's the problem?

Men...obviously.

From my father, to guy friends who were not what they seemed to be to boyfriends and the like who seem to do me wrong, the list is long but still I manage to be fabulous! But who cares right? I mean there are more fish in the sea, they are a dime a dozen, and there will always be more, right? Sure....

Most recently I've disappeared of the blog chart for a couple weeks as I came down from National Cookie Week, immersed myself in too much awful/mindless work and was taken surprise by a minor bout of sadness due to the end of a complicated relationship that I didn't realize I was very emotionally attached to. SAY WHAT? Basically a break up... whether he realizes that or not. Let the eating/weight gain begin.

Eating My Feelings...

Once upon a time there was a boy who picked me up one Thanksgiving eve a year and a half ago. We dated for a good 6 months before we mutually decided we frustrated each other because we were so different personality wise. I wanted to go out socialize and dance and he wanted to stay in more often than not. Silly, I know. But I need people like I need air and he gets sleepy by 10pm. Not a good match, I agree..or so I thought.

Fast forward through a year of still sleeping together, hanging out, going out...yes going out and mutually prompted! I would say by the time April '11 came around we were everything we should've been/I wanted for us when we started dating. We got each other and were having an amazing time. I mean but we were broken up, no? We went on dates with other guys here or there... but we always came back...but we were broken up...

So then why when I proposed trying again with this strong connection we built over the past year and a half and he said nope, did that unexpectedly hit me like a ton of bricks? Or could it be that words/phrases/labels like breaking up and boyfriends really don't mean anything?





ON TO THE FOOD...FML

I have some pretty amazing friends. They will be there at the drop of a hat and when ish goes down they can certainly help you forget...with the help of a lot of liquor and bad but really good food. I mean from some of NYC's best pizza, to burgers, to the largest Italian meal for 2 at Arturo's that you've ever seen. I quit goin' to the gym and gave in to the fat girl that hides inside me.

But in living and getting over all of this I was thinking, why do the most delicious things have to make us fat?!?! NO FAIR!!

So now that I'm feeling rejuvenated & The Gay Gourmet!™ is getting his groove back; I want to provide you with comfort foods that are delicious without the fat. In other words weight watchers friendly but don't taste it!

One of my favorite things that is a go to of mine when down and out or just letting the fat girl loose are hamburgers! I mean who doesn't love a meaty juicy piece of meat?

Here is a creation that is only 6 PointsPlus™ on the Weight Watchers® richter scale, if I calculated right, and oh so good! Basically it's a really healthy meal that may not come across as such!


Gay Gourmet!™ Burgers with Mango Salsa

2.25 lbs of 75% lean ground beef, pork, veal blend.
2 TBS of garlic puree (or about 1 head chopped/grated)
a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 Egg White
1 TBS Mexican Hot Sauce (I used Valentina Salsa Picante)
Salt & Pepper (about a TBS + each)
Red leaf or Boston bib lettuce instead of a bun.
Blue Cheese & 1 avocado for garnish.





In a large bowl combine all ingredients (except clue cheese & avocado) and mix by hand. Take tennis ball sized portions and form into patties!





Make a small well/indent in the top of the patties. You should end up with 8 (4.5oz) patties. In a hot grill pan greased with some non-stick spray, over medium heat, place patties and cook for about 5 mins each side.






Garnish with...

Mango Salsa

In India Mangos symbolize love & fertility, Buddha was said to have found peace in a mango grove and for centuries mangos have been related to spiritual health! I mean could I have chosen a better food for an achy heart?!?!

5 firm plum tomatoes (de-seeded & cubed)
2 medium sized mangos (cubed)
5 Jalepeños (de-seeded and finely diced)
1 small to medium Red Onion (diced, then washed)
1 TBS Olive Oil
! TBS Lime Juice
zest of one small lime
1 tsp. of Mexican Hot Sauce (I used Valentina Salsa Picante)
Salt & Pepper to taste





In a bowl combine tomatoes, mangos, jalepeños and onion, (You wash the onion after you dice it as it washes off the sulfur that you broke up when you cut it and makes it less pungent), in a bowl and toss. Add Olive Oil, lime juice, zest, hot sauce and S & P. (P.S. Don't add lime juice till ready to serve)





Putting it together...





On a large washed lettuce leaf place burger and take 1/4 of avocado (thinly sliced) and place on top of burger. Then take a heaping tablespoon of the salsa, a very tiny bit of crumbled blue cheese and the other lettuce and place on top of burger! ENJOY!





You can also make this a healthy 10 point dinner by adding my baked sweet potato fries to the side!!


I guess the question it came down to in the end was..

Am I eating my feelings or an I just trying to feed my hunger to be loved?


Either way at least if I keep eating like this that beach bod & the boys will be back in no time!


As for the boy...yea I'm still a little sad but as Bea Arthur so funnily, yet eloquently, put it ...





WHAT?!?! I'm gay and by default I have the right to be over dramatic! :)

C'est La Vie love...

I guess I'll have to be fabulous by myself for now!


Deliciously Living,

Michael Muñoz
The Gay Gourmet!™
Michael Muñoz 2011
Photos by Michael Muñoz and his 35mm Pentax ©2011

Easy Access! - The Gay Gourmet!™

SO... yes there is a lot of catching up to do on this blog of fabulousness but a lot has been happening in my life since National Cookie Week. Some of which shall be shared with all of you fabulous people and some which nobody needs to know! (Don't you get any ideas!)

First things first! We all love easy recipes, easy cooking, easy men, and the like. Well, you now can have easy access to my famous Red Velvet Pancakes!! (Click here if you are not in the know - I'm SO Cool)

I'm sure you all are like... "We already have easy access to the recipe! What more could we need?"



Well, GIRD YOUR LOINS! I know there are those days where the last thing I want to do is cook and I'm sure you all feel the same way sometimes. Especially on the weekends.

SURPRISE!

YOU DON'T HAVE TO COOK ANYMORE!
(Well...Kinda)

Peter's Since 1969, a delectable little soul food restaurant with two locations (one in Brooklyn and one in Hells Kitchen), has now started serving brunch at their Hells Kitchen location. WAIT IT GETS BETTER!

Included on their menu are my Red velvet Pancakes with Vanilla Marscapone! I mean if that isn't a medal of honor I don't know what is!





Also included on the menu are a delicious melange of soul breakfast items! From Brisket hash, to pulled pork over cheese grits right down to my Red Velvet Pancakes! This may be the best brunch in HK and at a great price at that! Top it off with their famous sangria and you'll be stumbling home happy!


Check out the menu! (click to enlarge)





With all of that said go support them as they are supporting this young, gay food blogger! Plus the pancakes are to die for!!



Peter's Since 1969 (Hells Kitchen)
587 9th Avenue New York, NY 10019 -
(212) 868-0600
Open Daily 11am-11pm
Brunch is from 12pm - 4pm Saturday & Sunday



Their BK location is & you can see a vlog that I did with them here - EAT ME OUT!
Peter's Since 1969 (Williamburg)
168 Bedford Ave
(between 7th St & 8th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 388-2811
Mon-Sun 12 pm - 11 pm


Many thanks to Melissa & her husband Arnan for their support, for being fabulous people and making such good food!!

Deliciously Living,

Michael Muñoz
The Gay Gourmet™
©Michael Muñoz 2011
Food photos by John Dolan Photography ©2011