A Warm Welcome

We’re all about healthy eating here at the office, but it usually requires little more effort than just filling a plate with the delicious food Chef Jane has prepped for us. This week, though, we decided to challenge ourselves and head to Brooklyn Kitchen for a cooking class. From the “What’s that oven thing for?” types — ahem, you know who you are — to those of us who are actually pretty proficient in the kitchen, our BK outing was sure to be an adventure … if only because it was some people’s first time on the L-train.

The class turned out to be a smashing success. Our teacher, Kat Randazzo (an experienced restaurant chef-turned-Mom/personal chef/teacher), was super-fun to work with, and made the class totally accessible for all of us. So of course, we couldn’t keep her awesome insights to ourselves. Check out some of our favorite general cooking tips followed by a kick-a$ recipe for gnocchi (on a bed of greens, to keep it healthy!).

Chef Kat’s Tips and Pointers:

1. When sauteeing or pan-frying, place the meat into the pan presentation-side-down, so that it gets the prettiest, brown sear on the side you’ll see when it’s served.
2. Let pieces of meat warm to room temperature before sticking them in the oven. They’ll caramelize nicely on the outside and cook more evenly that way.
3. Cook a whole chicken in the oven with its legs toward the back. That’s where the heat comes from and the legs take the longest to cook.

Black Pepper Gnocchi with Butter Wilted Greens

Ingredients:
2 large Russett potatoes
2 egg yolks
1 cup flour
Salt & pepper
4 tbsp. butter
8 oz. arugula
4 oz. Pecorino cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Coat the potatoes in salt (this helps draw moisture out of the potato for a better texture in the final gnocchi) and bake.
2. Peel the potatoes while still hot and mash them with a fork or potato ricer. (Eat the potato skins, they’re so good!)
3. Add the egg yolks and work into the potatoes with the fork. Knead in a cup of flour until just combined (it may take 1 ½ cups, but add only a cup at first). Season with salt and a liberal amount of pepper.
4. Divide the dough into four parts on a lightly floured workspace. Roll each piece into a snake-like log the diameter of a nickel, then use a knife or bench scraper to cut the log into ½-inch pieces.
5. Use a fork to gently roll ridges into each gnocchi then transfer to a lightly floured cookie sheet.
6. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the gnocchi to the water in four batches. They’re done when they float to the top — this should take no more than a couple minutes. Scoop out each gnocchi when it floats.
7. When all gnocchi are cooked, melt the butter in a large sautee pan. Add the gnocchi and toss until lightly browned. Add the arugula and more salt to taste, and toss until just wilted.
8. Transfer to a serving dish and top with grated Pecorino. Enjoy!

p.s. If you like this recipe, check out Brooklyn Kitchen’s blog for more seasonal recipes.

That whole “work hard, play hard” philosophy? Yup, that’s pretty much our mantra around here. Three times a year we take the Noom equivalent of a big, crazy family vacation. Past trips have included the Hamptons, the Delaware shore, and the Poconos. Our latest trip was to Hunter Mountain, right here in New York.

When it comes time for an off-site, we all pack up our gear, bring our significant others, and take a really fun, restorative vacation. And then, while we’re still out of the office, we use the change of scenery to get the creative juices flowing. These massive brainstorm sessions are probably not the easiest way to come up with ideas, but we think they’re definitely the best for us. We’re a bottom-up organization, meaning the management team is really just here to take orders from the brilliant engineers, marketers, and designers we hire. But when there isn’t a top dog making all the big decisions, it can be a challenge to get everyone pulling in the same direction. That’s where off-sites come in.

There are a few key goals at an off-site:

• Team building. We have a great team dynamic and genuinely like each other, but that can be easy to forget when we’re in the office dealing with the daily challenges and struggles of building something awesome. At an off-site we’re reminded how much we actually enjoy each other’s company. And we get to practice working as a team — especially those team members who may not usually interact on the same projects. Plus, the team-building breaks down the communication barriers that may stand in the way of these next two goals.
• Information dispersal. Every employee contributes to the company’s big decisions, and in order to make educated choices, we all need access to the same information. It levels the playing field (nope, the founders don’t get to keep any secrets) and provides context.
• Brainstorming. There are two facets to this one: what we want to accomplish (which we decide as a team) and how we want to get it done (which we brainstorm in small groups). This is the heart and soul of the off-site and we spend some serious time on it.

But why leave the office? Well, for starters, it’s so stinkin’ fun! But more importantly, being away from the office allows us to be creative, rather than reactive. No nagging emails, no metaphorical fires to put out (no literal ones so far, either — we consider that a win), no daily grind. Just the team and our mission. Believe it or not, it’s that big-picture-mission-stuff that ends up being more exhausting than the skiing and snowboarding.

After the whirlwind week that is an off-site, we all come back seriously stoked to get back to work (yeah, seriously). The offsite is a cultural punctuation mark for Noom — it’s an inflection point that helps us realign and get back to work, moving in the same direction together with a healthy, fresh perspective towards our work and each other. Emotionally, the offsite is the kick-off event that starts the next phase of cool stuff we work on.

To get people brainstorming, you must first have good food. We eat together!

Then it’s time to get thinking.

Lots of thinking.

Plenty of notes.

Sometimes things get a little weird.

And we get a little excited.

But we do get along.

And come to some conclusions.

In the end, there’s always harmony.