Foodie

Review : Chicago Curry House

2010-03-19T14:48:00.004-04:00

While we were in Chicago for the International Home and Housewares show, we decided to hit up the Chicago Curry House, located in Chicago's South Loop.

Chicago Curry House serves authentic Indian and Nepalese cuisine. I've had some Indian inspired dishes before, but this was my first experience with real authentic Indian food. Their food is naturally low fat, packed full of flavor, and they have a lot of vegetarian-friendly dishes.

We decided to start off with two appetizers; Cheese Pakora and Aloo Chat. Cheese Pakora is a home-made cheese marinated in a mix of spices and dipped in a garbanzo batter, then deep fried. I didn't really care much for this. The cheese was dense and had a higher water content and reminded me of a dense tofu. It wasn't a very flavorful cheese either.

Aloo Chat is cubed boiled potatoes, mixed with minced onions, cucumbers, cilantro, green chilies, and chat masala. Chat masala typically consists of amchoor (dried mango powder), cumin, coriander, dried ginger, salt, pepper, and other Indian spices. It has both a sweet and spicy flavor. It was REALLY spicy. It was a little too spicy for me and I was only able to take a few bites. I was very intrigued by all of the flavors I was encountering up to this point. Everything was so different from what I normally eat and played up all of the senses of the tongue.

For dinner I ordered Shrimp Madras. It was shrimp cooked in a mildly spicy gravy and coconut. It came served in a little personal chaffing dish. I'm not quite sure the actual name for this contraption, but it was really neat.

I also ordered some Garlic Naan with my meal. You can't eat Indian without having Naan, it's just too good.

I really enjoyed my meal. The shrimp were huge and very well prepared. One of my favorite flavor combinations is coconut and curry. This had such a slight coconut taste that it read as a very light sweetness. It was the first thing you tasted before the fire of the "mild" gravy set it. This dish was a bit too spicy for my taste buds. I had to constantly stop and try to put the fire out of my mouth. It was very good, but could've used a bit less heat.

I had to take a picture of my friend's Tandoori Lamb Tikka. It was so beautiful when it came out. A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. Chicago Curry House has an entire tandoori section on their menu. Looking good!

I would very much like to visit here again to expand on and learn about this cuisine. The menu is very expansive, so I would never get bored. The prices are fair for the area too. If you're near South Loop I would definitely recommend it!

I give Chicago Curry House 3.5 stars, out of 5!

★★★½

Starstruck (Again)!

2010-03-19T10:10:00.010-04:00

This year's International Home and Housewares show in Chicago had a dynamite schedule of chefs at the KitchenAid Goho Kitchen Theater. I went with the intention of being able to see three of my favorites do a cooking demo; Cat Cora, Mario Batali, and Todd English. Little did I know is that I would actually get to MEET all of these chefs, and see Guy Fieri as a surprise guest! Sometimes my life is pretty incredible.
We arrived in time to see Cat Cora talk about her book "Cooking from the Hip". The thesis of this book is about always being prepared to throw anything together at any time that is fabulous and fresh.

Cat Cora and Suvir Saran.

Cat also was doing a book signing that day, and the first 100 book were free! A friend saved me a place in line so I could gets shots of her demo while the line grew longer. Afterwards, I joined my friend in line and got to meet Cat and get a signed copy of "Cooking from the Hip"!

Me with Cat Cora.

I've read through half of this book. Which is odd for me. I'm not the type to sit down and read through a cookbook. Usually, I'll flip through the pages waiting for a recipe to jump out at me, but this one I'm actually reading every little thing. It sounds so amazing, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes. Stay tuned for some recipes from her book.

Right after Cat Cora was finished, Mario Batali was scheduled. I was on a high from meeting Cat, and greatly anticipating seeing Mario. I was disappointed to see that he was not doing a book signing, so I thought there was no way I'd get his autograph for my Food Network Collection. Abruptly, on of my friends who happened to be working the Goho kitchen that day, ran up to me and said "Come ON!" and grabbed me by the hand. I grabbed my camera and was quickly whisked back stage. There he was. I was floored. I was going to get to meet Mario Batali. The whole thing was very fast, and it felt much like an out-of-body experience. I'm pretty sure I made an idiot of myself, but Mario was genuine and friendly. He even had an orange sharpie to match his Crocs!

Some coworkers of mine with Mario Batali.

After meeting him, I was shaking and light headed, but managed to get back to my seat in time for him to present. He demonstrated a pasta dish and a pizza, both of which smelled and looked delicious. He recommended some quality, genuine Italian ingredients. I fully believe that a final dish is only as good as the quality of ingredients that go into it. Mario is a great presenter and such an eloquent speaker.

Mario with his finished Pizza.

At the end of his presentation SURPRISE!!! Guy Fieri comes out for an unexpected appearance. I knew he would be there for the Ergo Chef booth kicking off a new knife line, but I had only a glimmer of hope to see him. And then there he was!

The crowd was going WILD!

After all of that excitement, I thought the day could not possible get any better. The icing on the cake: Todd English. Todd's presentation was about his new Juicer and how it could be used in cooking.

I snapped a few pictures of him and then queued up to get his book too. Again, this was unplanned and a great opportunity.

He was SO personable when signing books. He had a personal conversation with each person. It was great! He was signing his book, "The Olives Dessert Table".

I have only but glimpsed through this book, but it seems pretty amazing! I can't wait to try some of these delectables. Stay tuned for some killer dessert recipes from him.

It was a dynamite day full of wonderful, unexpected surprises!

Review : The Cygnus 27

2010-02-23T18:48:00.010-05:00

Any excuse for me to try a new fine dining restaurant is always exciting. So the Sous Chef and I decided to have our Valentine's Dinner at The Cygnus 27, which is located in the Amway Grand Plaza hotel in Grand Rapids. Because he actually had to work on Valentine's, and a holiday is never a good day to try a new dining experience, we went the following weekend.

One of the main draws of The Cygnus is that it's on the 27th floor of the hotel, one of the highest floors in the city. The views are fantastic, and even a bit disorientating. It's such a unique view of a city that I'm very familiar with. Just about every seat in the house has a nice view with dinner.
I loved the atmosphere of the restaurant as well. It's very hip and chic. It still retains an upscale flair, but is easily a hot spot for dinner and drinks with friends.

Another thing I like about this restaurant, is it's utilization of OpenTable.com. I love how easy this website is to use, and I wish more restaurants in the West Michigan area would use it. It's a serious draw for people who love to dine.

We made our reservations on OpenTable.com for 9:00pm. (The only reservation left for that Saturday.) We didn't mind the late hour because we could take our time getting ready and enjoying the rest of our Saturday without having to rush to dinner.

We got there a bit early, and enjoyed views from the lounge area while we waited for our table. We didn't have to wait long, and we were soon seated. We dove into the menu excitedly discussing what we would order. I'm always challenged by all the things I want to order and try vs. how much I can actually eat. I fill up very quickly on a small amount of food, so I always am very careful not to eat much before dining out at places like this.

We ordered drinks, which were very well mixed, and placed an order for our appetizer. We decided to go with the Raclette Cheese II. It was Leelanau Cheese Company Raclette in an herb batter and slowly fried, served with remoulade sauce. And it was divine.

You can never go wrong with fried cheese. Raclette is a semi-firm, salted cow's milk cheese. It was very savory. The herb batter was crispy, flavorful, and was not greasy at all. The remoulade (similar to tartar sauce) was freshly made and very tasty. It had thinly slice pieces of dilled green beans and other spices that complemented the cheese perfectly.

Because I knew that I could not eat an entire salad with all of the other food I was expecting to order, we decided to split the grilled romaine salad. So here was my half:

The grilled romaine salad featured dried heirloom tomatoes, poppy seed crusted goat cheese, yogurt-chive dressing, and balsamic vinaigrette. It was a perfect balance of fresh flavors. It made me miss summer. Grilling the romaine released it's oils and flavors in a way I have never tasted. The dried heirloom tomato was a treat in itself; reduced and concentrated flavor in a wafer slice. The goat cheese was creamy and rich, and was a perfect complement to the romaine and vinaigrette. It was a generous slice, and it would have been nice to have some bread or crackers to eat the remainder with.

That was one odd thing about our dining experience. We never got any bread. We had bread plates and butter knives, but never bread. Other tables got bread. Why not us? Was it because we ordered an appetizer and a salad? Or was it merely an oversight? It was not enough to ruin our delightful evening, but it was puzzling.

They did serve us a nice intermezzo of fried polenta in a mushroom sauce. I was so excited to try it I didn't take a photo! It was a very good texture and the mushroom sauce was very buttery and yummy.

On to the entree! I ordered the Balinese Duck. It was duck breast rubbed with a mixture of macademia nuts, tumeric, and cilantro served with a root vegetable mash and fruit salsa.

The last time I had duck, it was at Bistro on the Boulevard. I had gotten the duck confit, so it wasn't very fatty since the fat was melted. This time, it was roasted, so there was quite a bit of fat under the skin and a fatty texture in the meat. It was done to an exquisite temperature, and beautiful color, but a little fattier than I like in my meat. The root vegetable mash was slightly sweet and very full of flavor. I could've eaten all of it if I wasn't so full. The fruit salsa had sweet and savory elements as well. Pineapple and garlic is a good combination.

For dessert we ordered "Lava". It was a fudge cake wrapped in phyllo and topped with melting whipped cream that spilled over the sides like lava. The whole thing was topped with 18K gold leaf.

Sorry, these pictures are so orange because of the low lighting in the restaurant. This dessert was really good, but had perhaps a bit too much phyllo dough layers. It was fun to tear apart and to eat the gold leaf. By this time we were pleasantly full and getting sleepy.

Out came our check for the evening with a lovely surprise: chocolate fondue. Perfect squares of moist pound cake and fresh strawberries. The chocolate was a high quality dark chocolate that was so perfect, I used the bare toothpick to scoop chocolate directly into my mouth (classy, I know).

All in all, we had a wonderful evening together. I would definitely recommend The Cygnus 27 to friends, and eat there again. I give this chic restaurant 4.5 stars, out of 5!

★★★★½

Chocolate Crepes with Raspberries

2010-02-18T16:00:00.007-05:00

I decided to try something different this Valentine's Day and made a chocolate crepe breakfast for the Sous Chef. I had seen the recipe featured on BrightIdeas.com. I used the recipe posted on there as a jumping off point.

For the Crepes:

1½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt
2¼ cups lowfat milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vegetable oil as needed

1. Combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
2. In another bowl, 2 cups of milk, butter, eggs and vanilla until blended.
3. Combine butter and flour mixtures, whisking until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Cook crepes: Before cooking, whisk remaining ¼ cup of milk into crepe batter. Lightly brush skillet with oil and heat over medium high heat. Once pan is hot, remove from heat, pour in ¼ -cup of batter and swirl pan around allowing batter to evenly coat bottom. Return pan to heat and cook for 40 seconds. Flip crepe over and continue to cook an additional 20 seconds. Repeat process with remaining batter, stacking crepes. Set aside.

NOTE: This recipe makes A LOT of crepes! Probably enough for four or more people, so cut accordingly. Also, stacking your crepes in a 150ºF oven will keep them nice and fresh until you're ready to garnish and serve.

So I was getting excited as I assembled the crepe batter into bowls, loving the person who wrote the recipe for separating their wet and dry ingredients. I put it in the refrigerator to chill out for an hour and then started getting everything else ready.

When I was finally ready to actually start cooking the crepes, it was then I had a "what did I get myself into?" moment. I'm NOT experienced with crepes. I know the theory, but don't have the practice. My girlfriends and I had a crepe party last summer and I learned quickly that I am not good with crepes. Those devilishly sticky disks of goodness are hard to flip. But then I took a deep breath and decided there's no hurt in trying.

The key to crepe making is getting your pan heated through. Then you drop the batter in and take the pan off the heat and swirl the batter around the edges, coating the bottom of the pan. (As demonstrated by my friend Nicole below.)

Crepes are supposed to be thin, so a little bit of batter is the way to go. By the time you evenly coat the bottom of the pan with the batter, it should already be mostly cooked. Set it back on the burner for a few seconds until the top is almost a matte finish. Then the hard part...the flip. These thin little guys are amazingly sticky. I had the best luck propping the edges up with a rubber scraper, and then tilting the pan while getting my spatula under the crepe. This is the part that will take the most practice. After a few clumps of crepe disasters, I finally got the hang of it down.

For the filling:

2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
1½ cups raspberries
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup toasted almonds
Zest on orange

1. Combine ricotta cheese with raspberries, sugar and orange zest.
2. Spread crepes with filling to within ½-inch of the edge. Fold crepes into quarters and place two on each serving plate.

Here is where I got off the recipe train. I should have gotten off the track all together. I did not use almonds or orange zest. I did use the ricotta. Right out of the refrigerator. These little crepes are no where near thick enough to heat up that ricotta, so if you don't like eating cold crepes, use room-temperature ricotta. It was not very appetizing. (You can also use frozen raspberries, just make sure they're thawed.)
I personally feel like ricotta is not the right filling choice here. A cream cheese- or yogurt-based filling would be much better served with the raspberries and orange zest. I don't really care for ricotta, but even the Sous Chef agreed that it wasn't quite the right combo. Bleh!

Chocolate sauce:

½ cup chopped Dove Dark Chocolate
¼ cup lowfat milk
½ cup raspberries
1/3 cup Raspberry Almond M&M’S® Brand Premium Chocolate Candies

1. Before serving, melt chocolate and milk together.
2. Drizzle sauce over crepes, garnish with raspberries and Raspberry Almond M&M’S Premiums.

I departed from this recipe a bit too. I used chocolate chips instead of Dove, because they are just as good for this application in my opinion, and I didn't want richness overkill. I also did not us any M&Ms. The idea of hard shell candy on smooth melty chocolate crepes did not appeal to me, although I'm sure they taste yummy by themselves.

All in all I have to say this recipe is definitely good for the crepes. They are chocolaty, and maybe a bit rich. Definitely filling. As for the filling, make your own! Come up with new creative applications for these. They would probably be fantastic with bananas in the middle. I think they were good for a special V-Day breakfast, and with a few slight modifications, they are something I'll make again.

Black Squid Ink Pasta with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

2009-12-20T17:45:00.010-05:00

First off, I must apologize for my absence. Things have gotten quite crazy lately. I tried to blog a few times, but either the dish wasn't worthy, or the photos didn't turn out well. So here I am, a few months late.

One tool in the kitchen that I absolutely love, without a doubt, is the KitchenAid Stand Mixer. My boyfriend and personal sous chef has had one for a while, and I've spoiled him with a plethora of attachments. However, I was recently blessed with a mixer of my own! I can't tell you how ecstatic I am. Stay tuned for more posts on why I think these things truly are a necessity.
One of my all time favorite attachment genres for the stand mixer are the various pasta attachments. I never knew how good fresh pasta tasted in comparison to dried pasta until I bought the sous chef an assortment of cutters and the roller. Our favorite is home made semolina spaghetti and a meat sauce, but I wanted to kick it up a notch and experiment.
The sous chef has an awesome book called The Pasta Bible. It's an amazing book that has everything you've ever wanted to know about pasta. It has gorgeous photos, and wonderful illustrations and some really great recipes.

It truly is an inspiration when dealing with pasta. There is one spread in particular that is one of my favorites. It shows all sorts of different pastas; flavors and colors both. I was quite intrigued the first time I saw the black pasta dough. It said it was colored by squid ink, which the book claims is purely for color and is virtually tasteless. I've seen the idea incorporated many time into dishes created by Food Network's Iron Chefs. I had to get my hands on some. You can find squid ink at many fish markets, and in the foreign foods aisle of most supermarkets. A jar of it was donated to my cause quite generously by a friend.

Upon first opening of the jar I was quite surprised at the smell. It smelled like fish... and not fresh fish. I thought to myself that there was no way that this stuff could be virtually tasteless. No way, not smelling like that. I dipped my finger in and decided to taste it. It was surprisingly good, but NOT tasteless. It tasted similar to black caviar. I thought the saltiness would actually work well in pasta, but everything I read said the same thing... tasteless. We'll have to see about that.
You can make fresh pasta without any special tools, but using the stand mixer makes it SO much easier. It does all the kneading, flattening, and cutting in no time flat. I would recommend trying fresh pasta to anyone who loves to eat it. One downside to the squid ink pasta is that it is messy. Good news is that it doesn't stain most surfaces. Watch for fabric though!

The stand mixer allows you roll out thin sheets...

and cut into a variety of noodles...

Fresh pasta boils to fluffy al dente in about seven minutes. It floats to the surface, so you have to agitate it often to ensure even cooking. After I boiled the squid ink fettuccine, I tossed it with roasted red bell peppers.

You can roast your own red bell peppers by putting them on a burner, grill, or under a broiler until the skin is black and blistered. Remove the skins by placing the roasted bells into a paper bag and shaking vigorously. Rinse the remaining residue and then remove the seeds and cut into strips. OR you could buy them jarred like I do. Red bell peppers where I live are usually pretty pricey, so it's not much more to buy them roasted in the jar. I like this option because then I always have some on hand to pop into my favorite dishes. We roast our own occasionally in the summer on the grill, but I do enjoy the convenience of jarred once in a while.
After tossing the red bells and pasta together, I plated and topped with the Gorgonzola cream sauce. Here's where I made a small mistake. The Gorgonzola cream sauce recipe I chose was not the type you would normally put on pasta, but more a finishing sauce that you would drizzle over beef tenderloin. What did that mean? This sauce was absolutely delicious, but really rich. We liberally spooned on the sauce and coated all the noodles and dug right in. However halfway through the dish, it became too heavy, and too much. It still would have been a good pairing if we had used less sauce. You need the break of plain pasta in there to mix it up.

The sauce was great, and I'll use it again, but next time I make it for pasta, I'll use a recipe that has chicken stock in it and that starts by making a roux (a balance of fat and flour that acts as a thickening agent). And the noodles? Virtually the same taste as regular pasta. The texture seemed a little different, but the squid ink pasta is an egg noodle base, and we usually do a semolina pasta.
Next time you're feeling a little adventurous, try making your own pasta! It's fun and the results are amazing.

Squid Ink Pasta
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 1/2 cup*
4 extra large eggs
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1 ounce squid ink, available in speciality food shops

Make a mound of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs, oil and squid ink. Using a fork, beat together the eggs, oil and squid ink and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well.

As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape. Do not worry that this initial phase looks messy. The dough will come together when 1/2 of the flour is incorporated.

Start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands primarily.

Once you have a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over crusty bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes, the dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Note: do not skip the kneading or resting portion of this recipe, they are essential for a light pasta.

*I used the stand mixer to do my mixing and kneading with it's specialized dough hook. To do this in a stand mixer, add only half the flour to start, then add more as appropriate to get the right texture.

Gorgonzola Cream Sauce (Remember, this is more of a finishing version)
4 cups heavy cream
3 to 4 ounces crumbly Gorgonzola (not creamy or "dolce")
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Bring the heavy cream to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, then continue to boil rapidly for 45 to 50 minutes, until thickened like a white sauce, stirring occasionally.

Off the heat, add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Whisk rapidly until the cheeses melt and serve warm. If you must reheat, warm the sauce over low heat until melted, then whisk vigorously until the sauce comes together.

I also added sauteed mushrooms for mine and they were heavenly.

Bon Appetit!

Atlanta Restaurant Reviews

2009-09-11T15:22:00.021-04:00

So I had an excellent time in Atlanta, GA with my best friend Marci. And even though food wasn't the reason for the trip, we certainly made it a large piece of the pie. Marci was fabulous and sent me tons of links to local restaurants before I came so we could peruse menus and make plans. She stepped up and made decisions when I simply could not decide. We had a great time and packed a lot in just a few days. So without further stalling, I'll go right into it.

The Shed at Glenwood

The Shed at Glenwood was the very first place we went. We went for brunch, and I was starving when we arrived after an early morning flight. We kicked it right off by ordering drinks made with watermelon and champagne. What a heavenly combination.

I loved the fizzy watermelon foam on the top. The perfect drink for brunch! The brunch menu looked mouthwatering and I had a hard time deciding, but finally settled for the Chilled Beef Tenderloin Sandwich. Beef tenderloin is my absolute favorite cut of beef. (Who doesn't love tenderloin?) Having it thin sliced, chilled, and stacked high on this sandwich was the perfect way to enjoy it for brunch.

The lovely creation was served with a side of perfectly done fries, but forgive me, they aren't in the shot. See the pepper on top? It was grown in their own garden. It packed very little heat, but a lot of flavor. I'd like to know where they get their olives as well. So crunchy and delectable.
For dessert we ordered the peanut butter bars.

So rich and chocolaty in their creamy layers. They were a perfect blend of salty, sweet, and rich nutty flavors. And look at that presentation! Gorgeous. I love the layers and the way they are spaced on the plate.
The Shed has such a friendly and inviting atmosphere, with the food of a fine casual dining restaurant. It was a great experience and I can't wait to go back and try the dinner menu!

ONE. Midtown Kitchen

For dinner that night, we got dolled up and head to ONE. Midtown Kitchen. ONE is a part of the Concentrics Restaurant Family. All of the restaurant sound AMAZING and if I lived in the area, I would review one every week.

Marci and I went a little wild when we ordered and we ordered a bunch of things to try. It was so hard to choose, I think it took us 20 minutes to nail down a game plan. I wish I could remember the name of the martini I ordered. It had something to with grapefruit and champagne and was simply divine.

We ended up choosing to go with, in no particular order, a cheese plate, a fig salad, pasta with Parmesan cream sauce, and a wood-fired pizza with peaches, prosciutto, ricotta, and balsamic. I must say the cheese plate was amazing. One of the best cheese plates ever. The first was Cypress Grove Midnight Moon from Holland which was paired with a balsamic reduction. Here is the description from the website "Aged six months or more, this pale, ivory cheese is firm, dense and smooth with the slight graininess of a long-aged cheese. The flavor is nutty and brown-buttery, with prominent caramel notes. The wheel is finished in a beautiful black wax. Made in Europe exclusively for Cypress Grove Chevre". It tasted similar to a smoked gouda. The second was the best blue cheese I have ever tasted. I can still taste it now and I would love to buy some. It was Point Reyes Blue from California, and they paired it with some sort of crunchy pecans with cinnamon. The flavor was strong, but not overpowering and had a depth that took over your senses. I couldn't stay away from it. The third was Sweet Grass Dairy Green Hill paired with a cherry jam. It's a pasteurized, soft-ripened, cow’s milk cheese that was similar to brie. An excellent balance between the Midnight Moon and Blue. I absolutely adored this course.

The fig salad brought a new concept to my palate. I had realized as I stuck the first fig in my mouth that this was my very first time trying fresh figs. Before I had tried them dried, and it lended no hint as to the breadth of flavor and texture there was hidden in fresh figs. Figs are very popular at the moment, and now I can see why. They seem like the perfect thing to grace a salad with goat cheese crumbles. I'll definitely have to experiment with figs in the near future.

The Parmesan cream sauce on the pasta was so creamy and well put together. They completed the dish with bacon crumbles and it was a nice contrast to the cool freshness of the fig salad. I really enjoyed this dish.

The pizza, in it's own right, was really really good, but ended up being shorted by our other selections. It was our least favorite of the night, but I feel that by itself was a wonderful creation. The peaches were fresh and amazing and played well with the balsamic. My only complaint may be that there was a little too much prosciutto (if there is such a thing!). But I feel that is something purely personal as I tend not to like meat on my pizzas.

We chose brandy-soaked blueberry cheesecake for dessert, and I must say I loved the blueberries. The cheesecake was traditional, and I am not a fan of the traditional cheesecake texture, but the flavor was delicious.

Overall ONE. Midtown Kitchen seemed like a really chic place to go and have dinner with friends or enjoy a night out. I love the warehouse feel. I would definitely recommend it!

The Sundial Restaurant, Bar, and View

After dinner at ONE. Midtown Kitchen, Marci took me to where her fiance, Steve, popped the question. The whole thing went down one romantic evening at The Sundial Restaurant. We decided to hit up the bar for some after dinner drinks and to enjoy the view. The Sundial is one of those rotating restaurants, which I've never been to before. It was amazing. We watched the city go by as we sipped cocktails. (Very pricey cocktails, but I guess we were paying for the view too!) I'd love to bring my boyfriend here at some point for a romantic dinner out. Below is a picture of the fireworks at the stadium.

The Elevation Chophouse

Marci was such a doll and picked The Elevation Chophouse and Skybar for brunch the next morning because she knew I was gaga over aviation. This restaurant happily sits next to the runways at the Cobb County Airport - Mc Collum Field (KRYY for all of those aviation nuts out there); and with floor to ceiling windows gives great views of the little airports happenings. While you dine you can watch Cessnas and private jets take off and land, and even helicopters come and go. It was such an enjoyable meal.

A helicopter taxiing.

I started it off with a blueberry-thyme lemonade. So perfect for the hot GA weather.

After stuffing ourselves the night before, I decided to go with a breakfast flare and ordered the Brioche French Toast.

It was served with a blueberry-caramel sauce that was sooo amazing. The waitress also brought me their rum-raisin syrup and maple syrup. I normally do not like syrups, but these were sooo good. (Which goes to show you that generic brand syrup really isn't all there is). The toast was so light and fluffy and the bacon perfectly cooked. I can't wait to go back here and watch the planes again. I would truly be a regular stop of mine if I lived in the ATL area.

I can't believe all of the places we didn't get to try and how wonderful everything was. It was truly a great time and an awesome culinary tour. Thanks, Marci, for carting me around with my big camera to all those eateries!

The Foodie is Traveling! Atlanta, GA!

2009-09-03T11:50:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I'll be heading down to Atlanta, GA this weekend to visit one of my BFFs, and that means I'm exploring a new region of cuisine. So how about it? Anywhere I HAVE to try? Leave me a comment if you have something you want to see blogged about, right here on f00die blogspot!

Epicurean Classic 2009

2009-08-31T15:21:00.007-04:00

Well, it was a loooong weekend as I was at the Epicurean Classic all three days! It was an amazing event despite the unseasonably cold weather.

Friday, August 28
I decided to kick off the weekend by attending the Great Lakes BBQ Dinner on the bluff of Saint Joseph, MI. The event featured five chefs: Mary Sue Milliken, Carlyn Berghoff, Eve Aronoff, Jennifer Blakeslee and Ted Reader. I must say, the food was delicious and the wine tasting options extensive. The event was held in the main tasting tent with a gorgeous KitchenAid kitchen display overlooking the festivities. It was so much fun interacting with the product and dreaming about an all stainless KitchenAid kitchen!

It was KitchenAid's 90th Anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, they created a gorgeous anniversary edition standmixer. It's candy-apple red with a glass bowl and simply beautiful!

The first thing I tried was pulled pork and coleslaw in a sugar cone. It was ice cream cones filled with BBQ Pulled Pork mixed with Fois Gras, Jack Daniels and Cider Vinegar topped with a shot and a beer coleslaw. What a nice presentation. The pork was very tender and delicious. There was also a creamed spinach that I had to get seconds of. I'm not a huge spinach fan, but this was so savory and creamy.

The next dish I tried was a sort of fish taco. A small tortilla round, shredded lettuce, black cod, a decadent grapefruit salsa, and some cilantro. The fish was simply perfection in the way it was prepared and I loved the grapefruit salsa...however... I had forgotten that I don't care for cod, so I tried to not let that cloud my judgment. Overall it was a very tasty combination.

After a few more wine trials, I decided to call it a night and prepare for a full day on Saturday.

Saturday, August 29

The first cooking demonstration we made it to on Saturday was Anna Thomas : Soup and Accessories. She made two delicious soups and then showed different ways of dressing them up for serving.

In the photo above you will see that she has three bowls of greens. She was making "Green Soup". She used chard, cilantro, and curly kale. She put these in a pot and boiled them down with vegetable broth, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, and a potato. The potato added just the right amount of body and substance, she said. She used an immersion blender (provided by KitchenAid!) when it was all simmered together to get it blended into soup. The photo below shows the different ways she dressed it. Homemade croutons, olive oil, goat cheese...yum! The yellow soup was a ginger squash soup I believe, which I didn't get a chance to see her make. She made her own savory chili paste and placed that in the middle of one. It was a bit chilly outside and this demo was very inspirational and made me look forward to soup season!

After that, my mouth was watering, so we headed to the tasting tent. I must say there were more wines to sample than you could ever dream of! I tried to try things I had never heard of so I wasn't overwhelmed by the selection.

One of the first food stations we tried was one of my favorites. It was hosted by Collins Caviar and they were serving Bloody Mary Gazpacho with Caviar Peppar (golden whitefish caviar cured with fresh jalapeno, serrano, and habanero peppers and accented with Absolut Peppar Vodka). It was heavenly. The spice of the bloody mary-ness in the gazpacho was brilliant with the chill air. The spear of celery cooled of the tongue, and the caviar added dimension and brilliance. Not too spicy at all!

I had to taste each of their caviars multiple times, because they were soooo good! The yellow one is Caviar Citron (whitefish caviar with lemon, lime, and grapefruit combined with Absolut Citrus Vodka). One would think from the description that this would be a sour and sweet caviar, but the flavors were so subtle that the caviar was the most prominent flavor; it was really well done. You got a lingering sweetness on your tongue before the flood of salty, savory goodness. I need to buy some caviar pronto. The black one is Paddlefish caviar. This caviar had a rich and complex flavor. Black/grey caviars are some of my favorites! The green one was – wait for it – Wasabi Tobikko! I HAD to try this brilliant green caviar. The first bite was brilliantly balanced between the savory caviar and the tang of wasabi. My second bite was not so balanced and the wasabi was definitely prominent. Not being a big fan of straight wasabi, I think this would be a great garnish to some california rolls or some such.

One of our next stops was to Patricia's Chocolate's booth. To say these chocolates were amazing is an understatement. Patricia hand-crafts these beauties from the freshest ingredients. My favorites were the lavendar and mandarin ginger. I wish I had tried them all! They were very complex and kept hitting different parts of your palate long after your first bite. Delish!

Our next stop was Zingerman's booth. Zingermans is a conglomerate of small food-related companies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and boy did they have the best candy bars! They were very tasty and tasted hand-made.

And, of course, there was some local love for Bit o' Swiss Bakery (of whom I've written of before). They were serving these very delicious chocolate mousse cups that were just beautiful.

After glutting ourselves on caviar, wine, and chocolate, we headed over and caught the end of Jennifer McLagen : Beyond Bread and Butter. I fell in love with this chef immediately. Her love and use of butter had me mesmerized.

As you can see, she's not a very big person at all, and yet she preaches a very good message. Eating fat doesn't make you fat. It's all about the kinds of fats you are eating as well as everything is fine in moderation. If you eat low-fat or no-fat foods, there are a lot of chemicals to enhance flavor, and the food doesn't satisfy you. If you eat two slices of pork belly, then you are more satisfied longer, and you won't be snacking between meals, so in the end you'll take in less calories and healthier fats. She also had some other good points about grass fed beef vs. corn fed and how our bodies absorb omega-3's vs. omega-6's. I'll spare you the long lecture. It basically gets down to the thick of it: The more processed and engineered a food is, the worse it is for you. We need to get back to basics and as close to nature as we can to nourish ourselves and enjoy food to it's fullest. And I completely agree with her.

She has a great cookbook out that I would love to have:

I was going to buy it at the bookstore at epicurean and get it signed, but I ran out of time. So if anyone is looking to get the foodie a gift, this would make a great one :).
For the rest of the event, we lovingly called her "the fat lady".

After drooling about butter, we headed over to Andy Pforzheimer : All About Tapas: The Simpler the Better. Andy owns a six-chain tapas restaurant. These two were fun to watch!

They talk about how tapas aren't a food-style, they're an act. It's like glorified snacking. In the photo above they made these amazingly simple tapas that I was lucky enough to try. They took a course bread and grilled it with olive oil and got it firmed up. Then they cut a head of raw garlic in half and rubbed it with olive oil into the bread. After that they took a thick walled softer tomato, similar to a roma, and rubbed that into the bread. A dash of salt, and viola! Soooo good! (I'm not even joking!) I actually had to go home and make some. I never would've thought of rubbing raw garlic into bread, but it's the best because you get a little bite and the garlic flavor. They went on to make other really simple bites of food that had my mouth watering.

That was the end of the demonstrations, so we headed home to warm up before the grand reception that night. I'm super sorry to say that I left my camera in the car accidentally and didn't notice until I went to photograph our first bite of food. :( There were plenty of bites to try, and again, plenty of wines to enjoy. I tried sake for the first time (hmmmm) and also a chocolate-cherry vodka from traverse city that would be heavenly in hot chocolate. One of my favorite things, however, was chocolate tea. (I know, right?) Angela Macke, founder of Light of Day Organics was there with a plethora of her teas. I had tried an earl gray earlier in the day that was so light and fragrant. That night she was serving her cacao-mint tea. Every ingredient in the loose tea is grown on the farm, except one, which is imported. When you smell it, it smells like decadent chocolate. When you try it, the chocolate is in the background, and the tea is light and fresh with other complex flavors. The mint doesn't come until afterward and is very subtle. I fell in love with this tea and cannot wait to order some. She said her inspiration for such a tea was thin mint girlscout cookies. All I can say, is that this is the best tea I have ever tasted.

Sunday, August 30
No camera today either, as I was volunteering at the registration tent. The weather was a bit dismal, but there were still people hankering for some more tastings and demos. I slipped into Jennifer McLagen's demo that day entitled, Bones, Fat, and Beyond: What Everyone Should and Will Be Eating. She spoke more about eating natural fats and then proceeded to demonstrate two recipes. The first was bone marrow. This was very interesting to me, as I can't wait to try some. She made some sort of bone marrow taco with it, but mentioned some other wonderful serving suggestions. It can be spread on bread and eaten (which is the way I want to try first), it can be ground up with steak to make burgers, or ground into sausage, or it could be spread on a steak while it cooks so it seeps into the meat and adds that extra dimension. All of which, sound devilishly delicious. So stick around, because you may see some bone marrow coming up.
Her second recipe was beef heart. Beef heart. A whole one. As big as my face. Now, I'm a hardcore foodie, and I love trying new things...but I have a problem trying things that still resemble their biological functions. As she held it up I could name the arteries coming out of the top and each chamber, but I could not fathom putting it in my mouth. The aorta was so large, it kinda grossed me out a bit. So I watched her dissect it and watched how she cleaned it. She cubed it and marinaded it, and then placed it on the grill. By that time it looked like venison, or maybe even liver, so it was more manageable to picture eating. Would I buy a beef heart? Maybe. Would I be able to clean it and eat it? Only if it cooked for a long enough time that I didn't connect the organ with the end result. At the end of the demo, she let us try the heart. And I did. Her marinade was to die for, and the meat was more tender than I would have thought. Really, not that bad. Do I want to try it in the near future? Probably not. Would I order it in a restaurant? Sure.

If you're still reading by this time, I'm really impressed. I hope you enjoyed the peek into the Epicurean Classic. Can't wait to see what next year's brings!

Epicurean Sneak Peek

2009-08-28T10:51:00.000-04:00

Epicurean Classic Weekend!

2009-08-28T08:46:00.007-04:00

The Epicurean Classic is starting today in Saint Joseph, MI! I'll be there with my trusty camera capturing the culinary goodness. I'll also be volunteering at the registration table on Sunday, so feel free to stop by and say hi! Hope to see you there! (And here's hoping the weather holds!)

Review : The Cheesecake Factory

2009-08-10T14:26:00.003-04:00

Where do I even begin with this oh-so-popular restaurant?
My first dining experience at the Cheesecake Factory was somewhere around 2003 in Chicago, Illinois, and I was just blown away by the architecture. The outrageous curves of the art nouveau architecture really sets the mood. And you want selection? There's two pages of just appetizers. TWO pages! Just check out all the mouthwatering selections online if you have a moment. I haven't even tried a tenth of their menu, and yet it remains one of my favorite places to eat. 98% of all the trips I take to chicago must include The Cheesecake Factory somewhere. Go for the cheesecake, stay for the food, never a disappointment!
This past weekend I was visiting Chi-town for an interesting exhibit on a popular wizard at the Museum of Science and Industry when the opportunity presented itself to dine at TCF. When we arrived at the restaurant we were greeted by air conditioning (which was gladly welcomed due to the heat index being over 100º that day) and a mere 15 minute wait for a table. I was ecstatic at the wait time because I've always had to wait over an hour.
I sat oogling at all the goodies on their extensive multi-paged menu and already knew that whatever I ordered must be a small enough portion to be able to enjoy a big piece of cheesecake at the end. After contemplating and not being able to decide, I chose to go with two appetizers, one to share and one for my entree.

Our pre-dinner appetizer was the fried mac and cheese. These delectable little devils were definitely not low-fat or low-cal but they were very high-delish. The menu did not give out the secret to what ingredients were inside their crispy shells, but my guess is some sort of mellow goat's cheese, a little cheddar, and mini penne pasta. They were served on a creamy marninara sauce that was a perfect pairing for such a thing. I could've easily made these my meal.

For my entree I got the Crispy Crab Wontons, which are similar to crab rangoons. I have gotten these before and loved them. This time the recipe was slightly different and they weren't as I expected, but still tasty nonetheless. I wish I would have ordered a small plate, but that just means I get to go back and try some more! I was glad I went with another appetizer when I saw my dinner mates' plates. The portions at this place are HUGE!
My baby-cakes ordered a Kobe beef burger (U.S. Kobe). It was our first experience with Kobe beef and I do say the meat was very tender and the burger had quite the charbroiled flavor to it. If you are unfamiliar with Kobe beef, check out this article. I find the entire practice quite fasinating. U.S. Kobe beef uses the same cow breed, but they are cross bred with Angus cows to meet demand, and fed less expensive feed. I would love to try authentic Japanese Kobe beef sometime. We saw it on the menu of a restaurant in Las Vegas, $93.00 for a 6 oz portion!
For dessert I ordered my favorite (so-far): Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Now I'm not the biggest fan of cheesecake...but I LOVE Cheesecake factory cheesecake. It's so creamy and rich. When I received my cheesecake slice I dove right in and then realized I hadn't taken a picture yet. I was so excited to try it I forgot to shoot it! So here is a shot of an already-well-enjoyed cheesecake!

I can't wait to go back and try more. I give this multi-faceted restaurant 5 stars out of 5!
★★★★★

Review : Tosi's Restaurant

2009-07-13T18:12:00.001-04:00

One of the best restaurants in the little town of Saint Joseph is Tosi's Restuarant. Located on a woodsy road and right next to Bit of Swiss Bakery. What does that mean? Every meal is served with fresh baked bread from right next door, either with olive oil and fresh-grated Parmesan or butter, and the dessert plate always offers something different and delicious.
Tosi's is almost like having four restaurants in one. There are separate dining areas once inside that each feel like a separate venue. My favorite is a smaller area that feels like a cafe in Florence, with an entire wall painted and lit with tiny LED lights that make you feel like you are dining overlooking the city. They also have an expansive veranda to dine on, as well as an herb garden in back.

The Florentine room also has an authentic brick oven, where you can watch them prepare your wood-fired pizza. (I recommend the Goat Cheese Pizza with red and yellow peppers, caramelized onions and fontina. Yum!) They make the crust pretty thin, and then it's delivered to you bubbled and crispy with the flavor from the wood-burning fire.

Along with an ever-changing array of breads and desserts, Tosi's also brings in seasonal favorites, like battered squash blossoms and fresh fish specials. They also have over 150 wines and their martinis and bellinis are oh-so-delicious. So if you are ever in the area and want to dine somewhere a little nicer, head to Tosi's and enjoy the experience!

I give Tosi's a 4 Star rating, out of 5... and I can't wait to go back!
★★★★

Epicurean Classic

2009-07-06T14:27:00.003-04:00

I must say that I'm super excited that the Epicurean Classic has moved to my town of Saint Joseph, Michigan. It will surely be an event to remember and is gaining steam in the foodie community. Watch out Food and Wine Festival. I can't wait to attend this great event, sponsored by my favorite brand, KitchenAid!

Strawberries! (and Kahlua dip)

2009-06-26T18:16:00.008-04:00

It's one of my favorite times of the season here in Michigan; strawberry time. When I was growing up, we would always go picking in our worst jeans. Kneeling down between the long rows of bushes, picking for hours and hours, and eating so many we thought we would burst. They were always sweet and full of flavor. I haven't been picking in quite some time. I always seem to miss them. They come and go so quickly, by the time I hear they are ready, they've already gone. Over the years I've gotten lazy, and have been buying the on sale boxes at the supermarket that have been shipped from California and Florida. I became accustomed to their too-green texture, dull flavor, and lackluster juiciness. Mash them up with sugar to bring out the flavor; let them sit in the refrigerator so the juices can mingle. I've taken them for granted and forgotten what a real strawberry tastes like. Until yesterday.

I was being entertained by some friends and grabbed a few strawberries from the spread of delicious goodies set out. I took one bite, and that was all it took for me to fall in love with fresh strawberries all over again. They were very dark red, very plump, and so juicy I feared they would drip after I bit into them. I had to get my hands on more of these. They came from a small roadside stand that is actually owned by the parents of one of my coworkers. I stopped there after work today to grab some of those gorgeous berries before they were gone. One thing I love about living in Michigan's southwestern coast is the variety of small farms we have in the area. There's roadside stands for every season. On the drive home I kept slipping my hand into the bag and stealing berries. I contemplated what to do with them. These berries were just too perfect to mash up like we normally do and eat on shortcake, pancakes, or right out of the bowl. They were simply perfect by themselves. I think the generous rainfall we have gotten must have aided in their amazingly juicy sweetness. A cool summer treat would be a bowl of these next to some chilled Kahlua Dip. Heaven.

Kahlua Dip

Ingredients:

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, soft
1 c. non-dairy whipped cream
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. kahlua

Directions:

In a medium size bowl mix cream cheese and whipped cream until smooth. Add brown sugar and Kahlua. Blend until brown sugar is melted. Add sour cream, beat until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate before serving. The longer it sets the better it gets. Serves 35 people.

And they aren't kidding. It does serve 35 people. I usually cut this recipe in half (at least) for small gatherings. I also use fat free cream cheese and cool whip to lighten it up. This dip is truly heaven on fruit. (It's also good on a spoon.)
These strawberries are so juicy, they would be good muddled in a drink. Perhaps some lemon vodka, lemonade, and a splash of sprite? What ways do you like to use strawberries?

Star Struck

2009-06-16T08:50:00.007-04:00

So earlier this year, I may have had something to do with the designing of a K/BIS invite for Jenn-Air. It was targeted for the press and invited them to learn about Jenn-Air's revolutionary new products with keynote speaker, author, and food network star, Ted Allen.
During the course of the design, it had to go through Ted for approval and I was impressed when I learned that he personally was going to be looking at it. I was over the top excited when I knew he was going to be looking at something I designed. I was hoping I could get the invite signed when it went to production, but it fell through the cracks.
Chrissy to the rescue. Chrissy, a thoughtful coworker of mine, wrote to Ted and asked if he would be willing to sign it. His assistant responded and the two arrange mail drops. After a long wait... it arrived yesterday. To my complete, utter, surprise! I am SO ecstatic!!!

In March, I attended the International Home and Housewares show in Chicago, where I had the pleasure of meeting Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto! It was so surreal. (The year before I got to watch Alton Brown do a demo, but was unable to score an autograph. Paula Deen was there too!) It sure has been a food network filled year!

Getting his autograph and trying to stop my hands from shaking!

Review : Six.One.Six

2009-05-20T14:06:00.013-04:00

Ok, so I've been wanting to try Six.One.Six ever since it opened in the brand new J.W. Marriot in downtown, Grand Rapids. The hotel sits on the river, next to the Amway Grand Plaza, and probably giving the Amway Grand a run for her money with it's trendy, upbeat atmosphere. The hotel is shaped like an eye, two rounded sides, pointed on the ends. The rooms are gorgeous with modern amenities and SteelCase furniture (only Grand Rapid's best). I can't wait for my turn to stay there and take in breathtaking views of the city I was raised in.

What a perfect time to try this restaurant. We went to celebrate my 25th birthday. (That number is still surreal to me). We met some friends for drinks first at the B.O.B. then proceeded to dinner with just the two of us. It was fairly dark in the dining room, so forgive the orange-tinted photography.

The first thing that caught my eye was their Cheese Menu. Anyone who knows me, knows that I could live on bread, wine, cheese, and fruit. One thing I loved about the cheese menu was the fact that they featured local cheese makers, as well as international varieties. Also, the cheese could be served with wine flights, and I was delighted to see wines I had never heard of before, such as the Malbec or the Macon Prisse. Because my dashing dinner partner is not one for strong cheeses like the buttermilk blue, we ordered a three cheese flight with wine. We opted for the Dancing Goat Creamery Chevré with a Pinot Grigio, the Beemster Aged Goat with the Macon Prisse, and the Taleggio with the Malbec. When the flight arrived, I immediatly made the decision to come back just for the cheese. My senses were seduced by each flavor and each pairing. The Chevré and Pinot were paired with strawberry preserves, the Aged Goat and Macon Prisse was paired with a citrus-blossom honey, and the Taleggio and Malbec were paired with an aged balsamic. I don't know who they have working for them as their wine master, but the pairings could not have been more precise or delicious. I'm not a fan of the drier varieties of wines, but I could drink these wines in this pairing state all night. Each pairing accented and complimented each other in perfect harmony.

I chose to go with the carrot ginger soup as my petite plate, and the dancing goat creamery agnolotti for my entree. My dinner partner chose the charred asparagus salad and the pan roasted halibut. I was a little wary about the soup, not being a fan of cooked carrots, but the joining of ginger and orange crème fraîche made me curious. I was not disappointed, the flavor was excellent. I was only slightly bothered by the texture, but again, I'm picky on textures. I also rather enjoyed the manchengo (sheep's milk cheese) on the charred asparagus salad.
The flavors of the agnolotti were very complex. (The waiter had to explain which group of pasta agnolotti belonged to, they are small raviolis, in this case, stuffed with goat cheese.) I did cheat a little and look up fiddleheads before we went to the restaurant though. I never knew that the curled up baby ferns my dad and I used to eat in the woods had a culinary function. These 'fiddleheads' were a bit more mature than the ones we used to eating, but they added quite the nice bit of fresh crunch to the dish. The leek and Parmesan broth was a nice mellow flavor to counteract the bite of the goat cheese.
I took just a bite of the pan seared halibut, but I can tell you it had a nice, blackened outside and the inside was juicy and delicious. The grapefruite beurre blanc (white butter) was an excellent flavor pairing, and not too overpowering.
They were quite busy while we were there, and we were sat inbetween a small (10 people or so) wedding party and a larger birthday party. The waiter apologized for the louder than usual din and explained that it wasn't usually so. He also offered us dessert on the house, which we accepted eagerly. We chose the custard dream, a compilation of yuzu panna cotta, matcha green tea créme brûlée, and toasted coconut pot de créme. Wow. It was amazing. My least favorite, yet still delicious was the pot de créme, and only because of it's more custard-like nature. It was the least dense of the three, yet still smooth. The coconut was not too overpowering, since my dinner partner enjoyed it and doesn't care much for coconut. The green-tea créme brûlée was refreshingly different from the standard fair, but my abosulte favorite was the yuzu panna cotta. Yuzu is a japanese citrus fruit that tasted similar to lemon. It was so dense and creamy and the finishing tang of yuzu was unbelievable. They even topped it with sugard yuzu peel. Yum!
This dining experience is one that I will not soon forget. I can't wait to go back for seconds!

I'm giving this restaurant five stars, out of five!
★★★★★

Review : Bistro on the Boulevard

2009-05-17T22:50:00.005-04:00

Chrissy, a good friend of mine won a gift certificate to Bistro on the Boulevard, and was kind enough to treat me and two other friends to a wonderful dinner to celebrate our birthdays. The Bistro is located inside the Boulevard Inn, a hotel overlooking Lake Michigan in Saint Joseph, Michigan. Inside is comfortable and spacious with stunning lake views, and they also have a covered deck for dining in the summer months.
To be honest, I have been to the Bistro twice before and was never impressed with the food nor the service. However, I believe this was due to the fact that I went on half-off martini nights, which were packed full of people and ordered off the bar menu. Not exactly the best conditions to spawn an excellent experience. Nonetheless, a restaurant should shine in it's busiest moments.
We made reservations, although not necessary at the time we got there, and were seated next to a window with a great view of the lake.
We started off with some bellinis and appetizers of frizzled onions and beets tempura. Fried onions are always good, but I was weary of the beets. They're not my favorite vegetable, but I decided to give them a try anyway. It was an excellent blend of sweet from the beet, and salty from the tempura and were quite enjoyable.
For my main entree I decided to take a leap and try the duck confit.

Confit is a french word, and is one of the oldest ways utilized to preserve food. Meats confit are usually salted with herbs and then slow cooked in their own rendered fats. Sounds unappealing, I know, but the actual meat you get is not that fatty and falls off the bone with tenderness. I normally don't eat the skin of poultry, but I gave in with this dish and had a little. It was so crispy and perfectly seasoned. The meat was tender and juicy in every bite, and very flavorful. I can't wait to go back and have some more and I've been craving it ever since. The duck was served with garlic parsley potatoes that were sliced so thin they had a delightful crunch. I couldn't get enough of their flavor.

For dessert we ordered a Butterscotch and Gingersnap Parfait and Chocolate Packets. The butterscotch parfait consisted of butterscotch pudding layered with ground gingersnap biscuit. The mix of soft and creamy with the crunch of gingersnap was enticing. The chocolate packets were more my favorite, though they could work on the name. They were phyllo dough turnovers filled with bittersweet chocolate and topped with caramel sauce and homemade icecream. The bittersweet chocolate wasn't very sweet at all, and was a perfect pairing with the icecream. It had a bold chocolate kick and a wonderful phyllo crunch.

Overall this experience was very fulfilling. If you are going to the Bistro for the culinary selections, I recommend steering clear of the bar menu and going for a full menu instead. The food was well prepared and nicely presented. Our service was pretty good as well this time around.
Due to inconsistancies on quality from previous visits to this one, I give this delightful local restaurant 4 stars, out of 5.
★★★★

Haha... Rap Chop

2009-05-11T09:00:00.004-04:00

Ok, so a friend showed me this video on you-tube where someone mixed the Magic Chop commercial into a rap and I thought I'd share it because it's really funny in my opinion.

I don't own a Magic Chop, but I do own a Pampered Chef Food Chopper, which is built exactly the same. What I love about this little gadget? It makes chopping a breeze, especially when there are a lot of things to chop. I use it mostly for onions, because I'm really sensitive to amino acid sulfoxides (the gas that gets released when you break the cell membranes of onions). I find it very helpful when making soups and needing to chop onions, celery, carrots, and herbs. My only complaint would be that it doesn't do a very pretty fine chop with vegetables, so if you're going for presentation, you may want to do it by hand.

Edible Flowers - A Great Way to Dress it Up

2009-05-01T09:37:00.004-04:00

We've all seen it before, a flower on your plate as a fancy garnish. But do we ever think about actually eating flowers? My friend Nicole's birthday is coming up and I drew her name in our office birthday pool for a treat to bring in. I thought about all these extravagant things I could do, but in the end, I really wanted to make her a cake with Fluffy White Frosting. I was thinking of doing a lemon curd in the middle of white cake and adding lemon zest to the frosting, but Nicole chose chocolate, which I was craving anyway. I used *gasp* cake mix and just added some chocolate chips for and extra pop of chocolate. I almost added chocolate syrup, but decided to keep my cravings out of Nicole's birthday cake.
I'm not quite sure when it hit me. I guess I was pondering how to decorate the thing. I've never been good with piping, and I really wanted something springy. Since I couldn't make frosting flowers, and I'm not quite sure fluffy white would've held the heavier flower frosting, I came to the conclusion to use real flowers. I didn't want flowers you would have to eat around and pick off, so I decided to research edible flowers.
I was surprised to find that many well known breeds of flowers are actually edible. I found this great website that lists some edible flowers as well as their flavors and what they are paired best with. I don't know much about flower breeds, but I knew I wanted some spring-like colors like purples, blues, and yellows. I was at a loss on where to find such things in a small town like mine. Then a friend called me and told me that a local nursery just got some pansies in, and pansies are indeed on the list. Perfect! I stopped by the nursery and found many of the varieties listed on the site. I decided to go with violas, which are like miniature pansies, because they came in many colors in one pack. (And I didn't need an entire flat).

These beautiful little miniature flowers made my presentations beautiful, and they did all the work. It really was a nice and easy way to decorate a cake. Violas really have no flavor, and are mostly for looks. Another application I saw that was beautiful was flowered water. The wedding shower hostess used a large glass pitcher that had a tap at the bottom and she floated violas and violets in the water and it was beautiful and appetizing.

Stay tuned, I'd like to try my hand at sugared violets in the near future.

The yellow and purple one is my favorite!

Salmon in a Pouch

2009-04-20T16:21:00.005-04:00

I received some gorgeous fresh-caught Coho Salmon from my friend Christina. Caught right here in Lake Michigan and filleted by the best fish monger, Lou. :) I've been wanting to try a pouch dinner for some time, so what a perfect opportunity.
Cooking in a pouch or packet allows food to retain it's moisture, as you are essentially steaming it in the oven. You can use aluminum foil, but I didn't want it to transfer too much heat in this dish. Wax paper would transfer wax to your food, so I used parchment paper for this application. I completely made up what would go in this dish, but that's the beauty of this method of cooking. Just about anything goes. I recommend watching Alton Brown's Good Eats episode on cooking in pouches. He gives a lot of good guidelines on what flavors work together.
I had bought some asparagus to go with our meal, so this is what I used for my base, but you can use any vegetables you like such as carrots, snow peas, zucchini, squash, etc. You could also use noodles or rice as a base, but must add enough liquid to efficiently cook them. I also decided to use mushrooms since they would absorb a lot of the flavors being released in the bag. For aromatics I used garlic and onion, and salt and pepper for seasonings. I also used lemon and orange slices to flavor the fish. I could have used one more herb for depth. Maybe corriander next time.

After gathering my ingredients, it was time to prepare the parchment paper. Tear off a large enough piece that could hold your dish when folded in half. Then fold it in half lengthwise and cut a large paper heart shape. (This will aid in your folding later).

After I had my parchment ready, I started building. I prepped the asparagus by breaking off the bottoms. I just snap them at their natural weak point and this will ensure none of the flossy tough stuff will get stuck in your teeth later. Some say this is a waste of asparagus. The bottoms don't really hold that much flavor, but you could always peel them to save the entire stalk. I layed down the asparagus on the bottom of the parchment (enough for one serving; I'm making single serving packs, but you can also do a whole side/fish, but the method varies slightly). I placed pats of butter on top of that, topped with mushrooms, then seasoned with salt and pepper.

After that, I layed my salmon fillet on top. (Mine were 6-8 oz fillets). I liberally seasoned with salt and pepper, then added the garlic and the onions. A few slices of citrus on top of everything, and my pouch was ready to close.

To close the pouch, fold the other edge over the food, and begin at the center of the heart. Fold over the parchment and crease. Then start halfway through that crease and make your next fold. Continue folding around the heart shaped edge, always going halfway up the previous crease to ensure sealing. If you have problems getting your edges to cooperate, you can always use a stapler to help. When you get to the bottom, just fold it up to seal. (I stapled).

Place your pouch(es) on baking sheet and bake in a 425º Oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove and open a corner of your biggest fillet to check for doneness. My 6-8 oz. fillets needed about 20 minutes total. The wonders of this process? The juices stay locked in, so no fear of dry flaky fish.

Viola! Quick easy dinner, in easy-t0-customize single servings. As you can see, mine turned out really juicy. I think my citrus was sliced a bit too thick. Next time I'm doing only a few thin slices of lemon and more seasoning.

The next pouch dinner I'll make will be with ramen and shrimp. Can't wait!
Do you make pouch dinners? What would you put in yours?

Review : Soē Cafe

2009-04-06T16:48:00.008-04:00

This past weekend, we took a little drive down the coast to Sawyer Michigan for date night. A nonchalant gem lays hidden there : Soē Cafe. I first heard of it from a friend who gave it high recommendation. I'll try any restaurant once! We went there this summer for the first time and dined on their deck next to their herb garden. The food was delicious. So we decided to eat there for our date night. It was early Sunday evening, so there weren't many patrons and we were seated right away. It was the perfect warming atmosphere after running in from the rainy night. We were seated at a four top on the edge of the main dining room. One side was lined with benches that were upholstered in fine fabric with throw pillows that made it more homey. This restaurant seemed like it belonged in a cute dining district in New York City, not buried in Sawyer. But that's just fine with me; I'm coming to enjoy the small town eateries off the beaten path.
We both ordered off of their special menu for the night. ($10 entrees that seemed divine.) I ordered the Artichoke Chicken Pesto and he ordered the Blackened Salmon with rice and veggies. After receiving a quite well-mixed pear martini, we received warm fresh-baked wheat bread, and homemade honey butter. I sat back to relax and enjoy the warm bread. The quiet music drifting through the dining room were classics like Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra. It set the mood perfectly.

Before the entrees we decided to try the Wasabi Crab Cakes. One thing I love about this place is that they take a common food like crab cakes and put a unique twist to it. The all-claw crab meat was mixed with roasted red peppers, green onions, and other aromatics, then served with a wasabi-cajun sauce that gave it just the right amount of kick.

In a few minutes we were served the soup du jour. It was chicken spätzle. I had never had spätzle, nor heard of it. I quickly used my iphone and their free wifi to do a little research. Spätzle are a type of egg noodle / small dumpling that is often served in Germany and surrounding countries. It varies in shape and size, but ours were small and round. The sound was to die for. Made fresh, no doubt, and had the perfect balance of fresh herbs, spices, and large pieces of juicy white meat chicken. The spätzle added a nice body to it, and I found the texture more pleasing that I would have thought. Doug compared it to leaving oyster crackers in the bottom of the bowl until they got soggy. Not a very appetizing thought, but these did add to the complexity of the soup. Very tasty. A perfect, warm, stick-to-your-ribs soup that complemented the cold rainy night.

Next, the pasta. They used radiatori and coated it with the artichoke pesto and tossed with tender, juicy chicken that had a nice season on the outside. They also had quartered artichoke hearts to vary the texture. The first burst of flavor is the robust artichoke, but then mellows with a traditional pesto aftertaste. The chicken added a creaminess to the palate as a whole. There was enough differences in taste and texture, that it never got overwhelming as too much of one flavor. It was very well balanced.

Doug's blackened salmon was absolutely delicious. The spices used to blacken were pepper-based and gave a kick to the smoothe, velvet fish. The vegetables were perfectly steamed, and the rice was a good way to tie it all together. (That's all I can write here because he liked it so much, I only got one bite :) )

I thoroughly enjoyed our evening. I love the atmosphere of the entire place and would like to return soon. The only downer on the evening was that we had to wait a while for our check. Our server was a bit inatentive, but to her credit, she was training someone. It didn't spoil the experience as I was well relaxed and in no rush.

I give this hidden treasure 4 stars out of 5!
★★★★

Quick and Easy! Parmesan Cous-Cous with Garlic-Lime Shrimp

2009-04-01T12:23:00.006-04:00

I discovered cous-cous not too long ago while trying to eat healthier. (For a foodie, you can imagine how hard it is not to stick everything in my mouth.)
Cous-Cous (pronounced koose-koose) consists of small grains of pasta that is cooked and served like rice. It is a staple in many cuisines throughout the world. It is light and fluffy in texture, and easy to combine with many spices. It has become more and more popular in the US. I found Near East Cous Cous and fell in love. Sure, you could take plain cous cous and mix in your own brand of spices, but these are so quick and easy, it's a perfect meal for someone like me. (As much as I love working with food, I don't enjoy cooking elaborately for myself, so quick and simple is good.) These little guys plump up and are ready to eat in 5 minutes. The whole box has 6 grams of fat when prepared, and it's enough for two adult entree-sized portions. I prepare it without the added butter or oil, and it's just as delicious.
My favorite two flavors are Parmesan and Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil. For this "recipe" I used Parmesan. It's got a nice cheesiness to it that pairs nicely with the shrimp.

Parmesan Cous-Cous with Garlic-Lime Shrimp
1 Box of Near East Parmesan Cous-Cous
Frozen Cooked Shrimp (salad size is nice, but I've gone up to cocktail 26-30 count)

Prepare cous-cous according to packaging. While you're waiting for those delicious yummy kernels of pasta to puff up to perfection, thaw your shrimp under luke-warm water. (Since this isn't a cocktail, we don't need to use cold water. However, using scalding hot water could cook your shrimp further) Once the shrimp is thawed, remove the tails (if any) and place in a prep bowl. Drizzle with lime juice (you could also do a marinade before hand) and sprinkle with garlic salt. Toss to coat.
Fluff your cous-cous with a fork and incorporate shrimp. Enjoy!

Shrimp are a good source of protein and low in fat, so this is a wonderful, quick, low fat meal to enjoy. You could also make it as a kicked-up side dish.

How about you? Do you like cous-cous and how do you prepare them?

Beef Up Your Saturday Morning Pancakes

2009-03-18T16:11:00.005-04:00

I was instantly puzzled in the store when my boyfriend stopped and raved about Aunt Jemima's Buckwheat Pancake mix. He droned on and on in excitement about how he used to eat them as a kid and he thought they stopped making the mix. I humored his excitement while he put the box in his cart. "I'll have to make you some real pancakes," he said. I wrinkled my nose. I didn't want to try them... they looked all dark and heavy in the picture. I voiced my concerns. "You don't eat them straight up". I still didn't want to try them, but I was a bit curious.

The morning came when he decided to make them. Fine, I'll try them. I took a bite. They weren't heavy, they had substance, but they were still light and not chewy. There was a bit of sweet nuttiness to them, and the color was alluring. Wow, these were actually really good. And healthy. I can't wait to try them with blueberries in them. It seems like it would be a match made in Heaven.

Doug's Buckwheat Pancake Mix:
1 Box Aunt Jemima's Buckwheat Pancake Mix
1 Box Aunt Jemima's Original Pancake Mix

Follow the directions on the box for the amount of pancakes you desire. Mix half Buckwheat and half Original to equal your desired amount. Add milk to desired consistency.

I'm not a big syrup fan, so I chose to smother mine in fresh strawberries mashed with sugar and chilled in the refrigerator for at least a half an hour. The sugar mingles with the strawberries and enhances their flavor. Yum! Try these on your next pancake morning.

A Tale of Two Frostings

2009-03-17T15:10:00.004-04:00

It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...

Kidding! (I've never actually read that book either). Well, I intended for this post to be about cocoa powder, but I'll save that for another time. For in attempting to make chocolate cake from scratch, I stumbled upon a childhood favorite of mine. The idea was planted in my head from my friend, Malissa. In her latest blog, she mentioned Fluffy White Frosting. Oooh, Fluffy White! How you've slipped off my food radar these past years. In vain I searched for the recipe for one of my childhood favorites. You see, it was my dad's favorite frosting, so just about every year on his birthday, we would have a cake loaded with billowing mounds of fluffy white frosting. When I couldn't find the recipe, I panicked. So many online to choose from...all with conflicting ingredients, and all with conflicting results. Mo was kind enough to send me her recipe. There are two ways to accomplish the end result of fluffy pillows of sugary sweetness. The following recipes show both ways, but they can be interchanged with each other.

Fluffy White Frosting (courtesy of Malissa)
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

In a saucepan combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar. Cook and stir till bubbly and sugar dissolves. In a small mixer bowl combine egg whites and vanilla. Add sugar mixture very slowly (and I do mean slowly; we need to temper the eggs, not scramble them) to egg whites, beating constantly with an electric mixer on high speed for about 7 minutes or till stiff peaks form. Pick a bowl that will be big enough to handle the frosting when the eggs fluff up. It will quadruple in size. If you are running out of room, no worries, just transfer into a bigger bown and keep beating.

Stiff peaks is the key word here. VERY STIFF peaks mind you. When I was about 10 or 11, I wanted to make the annual fluffy white for my dad's birthday cake. I was proud of myself for being able to use my mom's double boiler (used in the upcoming recipe). I beat the mixture and didn't really understand what stiff peaks meant. I spread it on the cake and put the cake on the counter in the corner to await dessert time. In a few hours, when dinner was over, we pulled the cake out to eat it. In my dismay, all of the frosting had melted off the cake and settled on the edges. I didn't beat the eggs enough for the proteins to break and reform new bonds. It simply just fell apart.

After topping my made-from-scratch chocolate cupcakes with the mixture, I dug in. The frosting was very, very good. And yet, it tasted like marshmallow....exactly like marshmallow. It wasn't the fluffy white from my childhood. It was stickier and a bit sweeter, but still very delicious. A little put out I put the remainder in container and took it to my mom's house and made them all taste it. "It's not the same!" I declared. We all agreed, it was different, but not as good. And that's when I pulled out the 1969 Betty Crocker's Cookbook to look for the frosting of my younger days. This recipe is no longer published in Betty Crocker's books, and probably for good food-police reasons. Somehow tempering eggs gets everyone scared in this day and age. But trust me, that bowl got HOT. Betty Crocker does make "Fluffy White" in a can, but I'm not even going to try it, for it's probably not the same.
I sifted through the yellowing pages until I found what I was looking for:

Double Boiler (7-Minute) Frosting
(so Betty didn't even call it fluffy white...hmmmm)
2 Egg Whites
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 Cup Water
1 tsp Vanilla (some cooks say to use clear, but regular doesn't tint the frosting too much)
(so far, the only difference is the water and sugar content)

Combine egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and water in top of double boiler. (If you don't have a double boiler, no worries. A stainless steel bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water will do the same thing. Just make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water, and that it's big enough to handle the volume. This will quadruple in size when beating.) Beat on high speed for 1 minute with electric mixer. Place over boiling water (water should not touch bottom of pan); beat on high speed 7 minutes. Remove pan from boiling water and add vanilla. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. (It took me a lot longer than 2 minutes, but my hand mixer isn't that powerful)

Viola! Fluffy white (or 7-minute) frosting from my childhood. Even though it has the basic same ingredients, it doesn't have as sticky of a texture, and doesn't taste like marshmallow as much. It seems lighter some how. The best part about this frosting: it forms a delicious crust on it when left out for a while. Yum!

Not only are these frostings good on cake, they would be excellent in graham cracker sandwiches, or maybe even a fruit dip for your favorite melons and strawberries. Also a dollop in some hot chocolate or an Irish coffee would be heaven. :)

Fulfill that craving for spring with this Parsley Pesto

2009-03-09T15:42:00.005-04:00

First off, I apologize for my absence. I had some medical issues in the last few weeks that took up most of my energy. I'll make it up with an exceptionally tasty recipe.
A magazine that I absolutely love is Everyday Food. Not only is it filled with loads of inspirational ingredients and mouth-watering recipes, they really have an upper hand with food photography and layout. Their March 2009 Issue focused on one my favorite foods: Pasta. One recipe in particular caught my eye:

Fettuccine with Parsley Pesto

Coarse salt and ground pepper
3/4 pound fettuccine
2 cups packed fresh parsley
1/4 cup walnuts, plus more chopped for serving
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
5 ounces baby spinach

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain pasta, and return to pot.

2. In a food processor, puree parsley, walnuts, Parmesan, garlic, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water until a paste forms. With machine running, add oil in a thin stream; process until very smooth, about 1 minute. Season pesto with salt and pepper.

3. To pasta in pot, add pesto, 1/4 cup pasta water, and spinach; toss to combine. Thin with pasta water as needed. Serve sprinkled with walnuts and Parmesan.

Notes:
The walnuts in the pesto add body and depth to the flavor, but you could also use cashews, peanuts, or any other nut favorite. Stay away from pre-salted nuts as this may lead to undesired results. Sprinkling the walnuts on top of the pasta when done added a pop of texture and crunch to keep your mouth happy.

I cut the baby spinach into ribbons by rolling several leaves together and then slicing. This made them more manageable to eat rather than leaving them whole, and added pretty streaks of greenery in the dish.

A food processor is almost a must for this recipe. The parsley leaves are so lightweight that they don't like to go near the blades of my magic bullet. (I have yet to get myself a KitchenAid Food Processor.) I bought one for my boyfriend, Doug last year and they are absolutely amazing. But that's another blog entry ;)

The parsley had a little bite to it, but a fresh finish which made the range of flavors expansive for so few ingredients.

I added more garlic than the recipe called for. Looking back I would've gone with 3-4 cloves total. But I LOVE garlic.

My final pesto turned out a bit bland, so I underestimated my salt and pepper a bit. Be sure to taste your pesto and remember that it will be cut with water when tossed with the pasta, so over seasoning a bit wouldn't be so bad.

When I heated up some leftovers, the parsley had lost it's bite and smelling it cook in the microwave again made me think that a quarter of a sweet onion added to the pesto would be a nice addition.

All in all I really enjoyed this recipe. It was such a nice twist on a classic pesto and really does taste like spring. This dish would be a nice compliment to a sun-warmed deck and a large pitcher of iced lemonade.

Ultimate Recipe Showdown

2009-02-22T17:15:00.006-05:00

One of the Food Network shows that has caught my eye recently is The Ultimate Recipe Showdown. In this show, three average schmoes compete in a given category with their own recipes from home. The first show I caught was the comfort foods challenge. The winner of the challenge, Rick Massa, made a cheese lover's 5 cheese mac and cheese that had me wanting to lick my tv screen. The plus to this show: the winners of each challenge had their recipe adapted and put on the T.G.I. Friday's menu. Since there isn't a Fridays in the town I live in, I had to wait until I made a trip to Grand Rapids for the weekend to try the melty, cheesy goodness. And that's just what I ordered. It came at a bargain price of $5.99. They altered his recipe by using penne pasta instead of cellantini, and topping the dish with a sliced, grilled chicken breast.

I must say that the cheese sauce was delightful, and the chicken breast was juicy and tender and seasoned to perfection. I could definitely taste the potential of the ingredients in this dish. However, it was a busy friday night at the restaurant, and the penne definitely tasted like it had been sitting around for a while. It had a nice gluey texture. (Err not-so-nice.) I almost ordered it without bacon, trying to be healthy, but I wanted to see what it brought to the dish. It gave a certain depth and smokiness that couldn't be completed by the cheeses. I certainly have hope for making the actual recipe at home.

Cheese Lover's 5 Cheese Mac and Cheese (Cheesy, isn't it?) :

Kosher salt
1 (16-ounce) package macaroni (cellentani or other curly noodle)
1/4 pound bacon, diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more to butter baking dish
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 1/2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated fontina
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
3/4 cup grated Gruyere
3/4 cup grated white Cheddar (Australian)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain.

In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot, saute the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve. Saute the onion in the bacon drippings until soft. Add the 5 tablespoons butter to the onion mixture and melt the butter stirring with a wooden spoon.

Using a whisk, add the flour, and stir constantly until well mixed with the fat making a roux. Whisk in the mustard. Gradually add the milk and cream whisking constantly.

Add the thyme, bay leaf, and salt. Let come to a simmer and stir frequently for 15 minutes.

Strain the hot milk mixture into a metal bowl and discard the solids. Working quickly, mix in 1 cup fontina, blue cheese, 1/2 cup Gruyere, 1/2 cup white Cheddar, 1/2 cup Parmesan, the reserved bacon, and parsley. Continue to stir until all cheese is melted.

Add the cooked noodles to the cheese mixture to coat. Add the noodle mixture to the prepared baking dish. Mix the remaining cheese and bread crumbs together and sprinkle on top of the noodles. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbling and golden brown. Remove from oven when done and rest for 5 minutes.

I can't wait to try this recipe. If you make it, be sure to comment here on how you liked it, and any other suggestions that may be helpful.

Review : Max Brenner

2009-02-19T14:15:00.011-05:00

I think the art of chocolate is something that has been diluted over the years. It has been deduced, especially in America, to things like powdered drinks and fat-free syrups. We may go through most of our childhoods only tasting chocolate flavored things, but never getting to enjoy the real seduction of chocolate. I'm not saying that special reserve 90% cacao is the only answer, but some percentage of cocoa beans is encouraged.
Chocolate, by far, is one of my favorite foods. In fact, I crave it. It is my brand of heroine. I must keep some in the house at all times or I go nuts when the craving it. When visiting friends in NYC, they suggested we go to eat at Max Brenner. I had first heard of Max Brenner on Food Network, but it had since moved to a twinging in the back of my brain. I tried to describe a place to them, a place of chocolate that I wanted to try, but it wasn't until we were seated and I saw the menu that I realize this was the place I had dreamed of trying. And I was in heaven. The place was packed, but we didn't have to wait long for a table on the overflowing sidewalk outside. The sun was just setting behind the large buildings surrounding us, and I began to get chilled, so I ordered some drinking chocolate. To call this 'hot chocolate' would be completely incorrect. This was how chocolate was meant to be drank.

Served in a loveable "hug mug", this tasty concoction of melted chocolate and cream was what I had been missing out on. They sell these wonderful demitasses in the shop inside the restaurant, and for a reasonable price. I immediatly wanted to buy two, but I didn't want to risk airline travel with them, and the sell them online! I have yet to purchase a set, but it is definitely on my wishlist.
While oohing and aahing over the hot, dense, creamy chocolate I was devouring, we enjoyed a Mediterranean sampler appetizer to delay the gratification that only another chocolate treat would bring. This delightful adjournment consisted of fresh warm pita bread, hummus with olive oil, babaganush (MXC fans, unite!), spanish eggplant dip, and greek stuffed grape leaves. My mind was whirling from the chocolate-induced endorphines while I ate, and everything was delicious. I had never had babaganush before, but at the time, it just seemed like another tasty hummus alternative.
And then it happened.... we ordered dessert. So much to choose from and only one chance to try. I splurged for the Banana Hazlenut Cream Crepe, because if it's one thing I like with my chocolate, it's bananas. And then the server brought out more silverware for our desserts, and it included a rubber scraper. That's when I knew...

That I was not going to be disappointed. My mind raced as I tried to imagine what type of chocolaty goodness would necessitate a rubber scraper. Our desserts arrived and I instantly wondered if I should've skipped the appetizer.

For there, in the halogen glow of the street lights, Chocolate Heaven was set before me. In all of its glory it contained fresh bananas and melted chocolate chunks in a light french crepe, drizzled with chocolate sauce and topped with crunchy candied hazlnut bits. Accompanying the center of my universe was vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries, blueberries, and even more liquid chocolate to drizzle as I pleased.

I regreat to inform those of you who have endured my droning on about chocolate to get to this point that I was unable to finish the entire crepe. None of my partners in chocolate crime that night could either. The center of the crepe was pure, unaldulterated melted chocolate of the finest variety I have tasted in a long, long time. After setting down my fork for the last time in frustration for not being able to finish my bliss, I sat back and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath to remember that moment. Full of chocolate happiness.

Besides the great food, and wonderful service, Max Brenner is an artist's dream. They sell their menus because they truly are works of art. If you appreciate a nice layout, some good illustration, and mouth watering photography, be sure to check out their website for some inspiring eye candy. (And check out their online shop for real candy.)

The only negative: Max Brenner only has two locations in the US, and they're both in New York City. So for now we'll have to make special trips and lust over the chocolate possibilities. Here's hoping they expand a bit.

I give this wonderful restaurant 5 stars, out of 5
★★★★★

Special thanks to Malissa and Chris...for giving me wonderful culinary experiences while staying with them in NYC.

Turkey Pastrami

2009-02-17T19:29:00.001-05:00

Pastrami is a meat I never really paid much attention to before... until now. Pastrami is usually made from beef brisket, salted and then partially dried. It is then rubbed with spices and smoked to perfection. Slices from your local deli may be a little costly, but well worth it.
While waiting on a very busy saturday at the deli counter of my local supermarket, I had my heart set on some thinly sliced roast beef, or plain ole smoked ham. My ears perked up when the lady in front of me ordered turkey pastrami for $3.99/lb. I watched the deli worker carve thin slices of the heavily spiced meat and my mouth watered. Turkey pastrami? For that price? Ok, I'll give it a whirl. And whirl me it did. Not only is turkey leaner and more healthy than beef for those of us striving to be healthier, it also comes at a nicer price.
I couldn't wait for a sandwhich, as soon as it came out of the grocery bag, I popped a slice into my mouth. Wow. This is turkey? For real? Not that it would pass for beef, but the smoky flavor and the cracked pepper, allspice, and mustard seed were enough to put away the last little voice in my head that was screaming, "but turkey's bland!". I was in love. The smokiness gives the turkey a likeness to ham in color and texture, as well as a touch of hammy tasty goodness. So far I've only piled this meat high on a sandwhich of cheese, tomato, and light mayo; and popped a slice in my mouth now and then when perusing what's in the refrigerator. Other than sandwhiches of endless varieties, or an adventurous pizza topping, I'm not sure what else I would do with it. What about you? Do you like pastrami?