On My Table

Beer-y Cupcakes

2012-02-20T20:08:00.001-06:00

Like lots of other people (mostly gals, I'm sure), I'm currently obsessed with Pinterest. My "Yum!" board is definitely the fullest of my boards, and there are TONS of recipes I want to try.

One of the first Pinterest recipes I made was this one for Blue Moon cupcakes, from The Bitchin' Kitchen. The thought of beer inside cupcakes was just too much, so I knew I had to make them and bring them to work for our Thursday afternoon beer club.

I followed the recipe closely, as I usually do for baking, only -- despite the name -- I didn't use Blue Moon beer, but rather Gumball Head from Three Floyds Brewery. I also elected to make mini cupcakes instead of the regular-sized ones, as I knew many people would want to try them.

For the frosting, I followed the original recipe fairly closely, but after reading some comments, I decided to cut the amount of powered sugar in half, from 5 cups to 2.5 cups. It was plenty sweet, and 5 cups would have been way too much.

I had the cupcake testers frost the cakes as they ate them, as I thought the cream cheese frosting would get to soupy if I had frosted them beforehand.

The verdict? Really tasty with just a hint of beer flavor and smell. The orange cream cheese frosting was great, too (I used up the last of it on Nilla Wafers and graham crackers. Yum!).

Mini Corn Dogs

2012-02-20T19:40:00.000-06:00

When we got invited to a Super Bowl party, I knew I wanted to make some fun. Luckily, one of my favorite food blogs, Iowa Girl Eats, had some great party-ready finger food recipes. I was instantly drawn to the mini corn dogs, as I love corn dogs, but don't get to enjoy them that often.

If you like corn dogs, these are a great way to satisfy the craving. They're super easy and make a perfect meal with the leftovers you're bound to have because the recipe makes a ton!

I followed Kristin's recipe exactly, and I opted for her applesauce substitute for butter to make them a teeny bit more healthy.

I also used Lou's Garrett Valley Naturals all-beef franks from Outpost.

To serve them, I put out small bowls of honey mustard and ketchup spiced up with Sriracha.

They were a hit at the party, and Nate and I enjoyed them for additional meals later in the week.

Baked Tofu Stir Fry

2012-01-24T20:42:00.001-06:00

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love a good homemade stir fry. You probably also know I love tofu. And, luckily, Nate is a good sport when it comes to eating tofu. He may not seek it out, but he'll always finish a plateful of tofu veggie stir fry.

We hadn't made stir fry in a long time, so we whipped up some for Sunday night's dinner. I loaded up on some good stir fry veggies at Outpost, getting a big handful of each kind. I also used some veggies we already had on hand: button mushrooms, sugar snap peas, green beans, red onion and red bell pepper.

I chopped up the veggies and stir fried them in the wok in peanut oil and jalapeno grapeseed oil until softened but still crisp.

For the tofu, I did something I've never done before, but have always wanted to try -- rather than pan frying the tofu like I usually do, I marinated it for a while and then baked it. I took a block of extra firm tofu, pressed it between two towels with books to take some of the water out and then cut it into cubes. I mixed up a marinade of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper and Sriracha and poured it over the tofu. I marinated it in the fridge for about an hour and then I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes. Yum! The flavors were fantastic. I'll definitely do it again that way.

For the sauce, I got inspiration from one of my favorite food blogs, Iowa Girl Eats. Searching Kristin's recipes, I found a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. The sauce was simple and delicious, and forced me to buy a jar of chili garlic sauce. Yum!

For the sauce:

3 Tbs chicken broth (I'd usually use veggie broth for a veggie meal, but we just happened to have ice cube-sized amounts of chicken broth)
3 Tbs soy sauce
1.5 Tbs chili garlic sauce
1 Tbs peanut butter
1 Tbs rice vinegar
dash of garlic powder, ground ginger, onion powder
4 shakes of sesame oil

Microwave broth, soy sauce, peanut butter and chili garlic sauce for about 20 seconds. Whisk until peanut butter is smooth, then add in the rest of the ingredients. Whisk to combine.

When the veggies were ready and the tofu done, we mixed everything in the wok and poured the sauce on top and mixed well. I took Kristin's idea here, too, and added an egg, with a few drops of sesame oil, to the stir fry to make it into like a fried rice dish.

It was good, but I have to say, with all those flavors, you really couldn't even taste the egg.

We served the veggies, tofu and sauce on top of steamed brown rice. All in all, it was a great meal, and I would definitely make that sauce again.

Restaurant Review: La Parihuela

2012-01-15T16:10:00.002-06:00

How many people knew there was a Peruvian restaurant in West Allis? I certainly didn't until I saw a Groupon for La Parihuela a few months ago. I knew it was something I would want to try, as I've never had any Peruvian except for a plate of lomo saltado at Antigua about six months ago). So I purchased the $20 option to get one appetizer and two entrees during our visit.

We finally used the Groupon last Friday, just a week before it expired. The small restaurant, located on 90th and National Ave., was packed with people, and I assumed many of them also had Groupons to use up. Luckily, we snagged a booth that wasn't directly near the door, as the restaurant got pretty cold any time the door opened.

We started our meals with the two alcoholic beverages they serve. Nate ordered the beer, Cusqueña, which was a light beer and similar in taste to a Mexican Tecate and with a hint of lime. I had a pisco sour, which the waitress said was the national drink of Peru. It was really good, reminding me of a good margartia that wasn't too syrupy, but it got pretty sweet by the end of it.

For the appetizer, we ordered causa de pollo, which was a yellow potato puree seasoned with yellow chili powder, lime juice and olive oil, and then stuffed with what tasted like chicken salad -- cooked chicken with mayo. The entire dish was cold, which at first seemed odd, but it was really very good. Nate and I agreed it would be a good dish for a hot summer day. (Ugh, sorry for the silly picture -- I can't turn it!)

For meals, Nate ordered the ají de gallina. Translated, it means "chili pepper chicken," and the dish is made with shredded chicken in a creamy (not spicy) sauce, served with chopped pecans, potatoes and rice. It was really good -- the flavors were great and the flavors were fantastic.

I ordered the escabeche de pescado, which was a lightly fried fish under a mound of sauteed onions and served with a half a roasted potato and some white rice. It was good, but the piece of fish was relatively small, and I'm pretty sure the dish didn't come with the sweet potatoes, aji panea chili and red pepper it was supposed to.

The service, unfortunately, wasn't that great, although I suspect it was because they were swamped with Grouponers and didn't plan for it. We weren't in a hurry, so it didn't matter too much, but we saw other tables in which two of the four diners received their meals about 15 minutes before the rest of the party, and a table of two sat at a dirty table, with no menus, for about 20 minutes. I'd definitely go back -- there are lots of things on the menu I'd like to try -- but I wouldn't go while they have a Groupon.

The Soup Cookbook Everyone Should Own

2012-01-15T15:39:00.000-06:00

I bought a copy of the Milwaukee Empty Bowls Cookbook from a friend at the December #MKEfoodies Cookies for Kids event. And I'm so glad I did.

First, proceeds from the $20 cookbook go to Milwaukee Empty Bowls, a nonprofit that "uses art to heighten hunger awareness and raise funds to help food pantries and meal programs in the Milwaukee area." The beautiful bowls are created by local potters, students and artists and are donated to the organization. Each year, on the second Saturday in October, the bowls are available for purchase and are meant to be filled with the wonderful soups available at the event.

Second, the cookbook is filled with wonderful recipes all from local chefs, restaurants and stores. And lucky for me, the book includes one of my favorite soups, which I always make sure I order when I'm at the restaurant.

I chose the chicken tortilla soup from Water Buffalo as my first recipe from the book. When ordered at the restaurant, this soup is always creamy without being rich, with the right amount of tender chunks of chicken and a hint of spice.

The soup was souper (Sorry, had to!) easy to make and tasted pretty close to the real thing. I can't wait to make more from the cookbook!

Water Buffalo's Chicken Tortilla Soup 4-6 servings (We got closer to 4)

6 Tbs (3/4 stick) of butter
1 pound chicken tenderloins, cut in 1-inch pieces (we used a cooked rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teas. ground cumin
1 teas. salt
1/2 teas. pepper
1/4 teas. dried oregano
1/2 teas. cayenne pepper
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup heaving whipping cream (I used 2% milk)
tortilla chips for garnish (we also used avocado and hot sauce for garnish)

In soup pot, melt butter, Add chicken and onion and cook over medium heat until chicken is no longer pink inside, about 5 or 6 minutes.

Add spices, then flour, and mix well. Cook, stirring for about 30 seconds. Stir in stock and bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in cream.

My Blog Promise Part 2

2012-01-15T15:12:00.000-06:00

My new blog promise is that I promise not to make any more promises I'm likely not going to keep.

Remember back on Nov. 1 when I said I would blog twice a week and maybe once on the weekends? Yeah. Since then -- two and a half months ago -- I've blogged three times. So clearly I couldn't keep that promise, and I likely won't be able to keep another one like it.

But I will say that I've gotten the itch to blog again (in part because of some nice compliments and words of encouragement from friends and acquaintances, especially from those at the latest and greatest #MKEfoodies tweet up at Harbor House last week) and will plan on blogging when the mood suits me.

So without further ado, I present two new blog posts -- one from a fantastic new soup cookbook and the other a restaurant review.

Thanks for reading!

Cheesy Meatball Sliders

2011-11-10T11:30:00.000-06:00

Do you like beef? Lots of ooey, gooey cheese? Marinara sauce? Cute slider buns (OK, I might be alone on that one)? If so, then you'll want to make this recipe!

This is another one from Iowa Girl Eats. When I saw it, I knew Nate would love it, and I can't help but love anything stuffed with string cheese. Mmm ...

These sliders were really, really, really (you get the picture!) good. I probably said that a few times as we ate dinner. Nate loved them, too (beef and cheese? I knew it was a winner!).

I followed Kristin's recipe pretty much exactly, except that we halved the recipe so we had 8 meatballs rather than 16 (although, thinking about it now, we should have made more!), and we made up our own Italian seasoning mix -- dried parsley, basil and oregano.

We will definitely be making these again, and we're already brainstorming different varieties. One that we will likely make soon is Greek meatball sliders -- meatballs stuffed with feta and topped with tzatziki, tomatoes and red onions. Yum!

Step Aside, Mashed Potatoes

2011-11-08T20:09:00.002-06:00

There's a new kid in town. New to us, anyway.

I'm talking about root vegetable mash. I've had it a few times before (the side dish they serve at The Eatery stands out as one of the best I've had), but never attempted to make it. Last weekend's pre-Thanksgiving feast with foodie friends turned out to be the perfect opportunity for making it.

I looked up some recipes online, but ultimately just bought whatever root veggies I could find at the farmers market and added anything else that sounded good and made sense.

The recipe was super easy and very delicious -- the worst and most tedious part was peeling and chopping all of the vegetables. Here's what I used and what I did:

3 big sweet potatoes
4 potatoes (Yukon gold, red potatoes -- anything works)
6 medium-sized parsnips
2 celery roots
a small carton of heavy whipping cream
about half a stick of butter, cut into pieces
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut all vegetables into small cubes Fill a pot (I had so many vegetables that I need to big pots) with salted water, place cut vegetables inside and bring to a boil. Simmer (don't turn the stove too low -- you'll wnat some bubbles) for about 20-25 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.

Drain, and place back in pot. Mash vegetables with a masher. Pour in cream and butter, and shakes of garlic, pepper and salt, and beat with an electric mixer. It should be ready to eat then, or, if serving it later, just put back on the stovetop to heat up. This made about 10 servings.

That's all there is to it! I can't wait to try making this again. I think it would be good with any sort of vegetable you can find -- rutabagas, turnips, carrots included. If I made it again, I might tone down the cream (and use skim or 2% milk) and butter. But it's probably tastier the way I made it!

Enchilada Pasta

2011-11-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

I've been slightly obsessed with reading one of my favorite food blogs: Iowa Girl Eats. "Obsessed" might be over doing it. Maybe I should just say I look forward to reading it every day, and always make a point to find it at the end of the day or early the next day.

Anyhoo, I came across this post of hers from the other day about an Enchilada Pasta, and I was immediately drawn to a recipe with Mexican flavors that also feature pasta. Score!

The dish was really pretty good, and it was nice to have everything -- protein, a starch, dairy and veggies -- all right in one dish. If I did it again, I might had some black beans to the mix. All in all, it was really good, although it kind of reminded me of a fancier -- or slightly more complicated -- Hamburger Helper-type meal.

Nate and I worked on this meal together, which meant we kind of made up some parts as we went along -- which included both putting varying amounts of spice in the dish, making it a super spicy meal. Good, but spicy! He may have wiped his brow a few times throughout the meal.

From the start, I decided to change a few things about the recipe. We used ground beef instead of chicken, mostly because we had some in the freezer we needed to use up. Also, we're not sour cream fans, so I subbed plain Greek yogurt, which we always have, for the sour cream.

Here's what we did for our Beefy Enchilada Pasta:

1 lb. ground beef
a pinch of two of habanero powder
1 Tbs.-ish olive oil
2 small red onions, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
15 oz. can red enchilada sauce (I used medium spice level)
A couple (OK, maybe 10) shakes Cholula sauce)
4-oz. can diced green chilies
1/2-ish teas. chili powder
1 teas. cumin
1/4 teas. salt
1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
8.5 oz medium sized pasta (I used whole wheat penne)
Toppings: chopped avocado, tomatoes, green onions and/or sour cream, if desired

Brown beef and onions, mix in habanero powder and any other spices you'd like.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté zucchini and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.

In large skillet, add enchilada sauce, Cholula, green chilies, salt, chili powder and cumin. Stir to combine then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every so often. Add Greek yogurt, cheese and beef to skillet. Mix to combine, warming the skillet if necessary for the cheese to melt.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and mix pasta into cheese, beef and veggie mixtures.

Serve garnished with avocado and tomatoes (and green onions and/or sour cream, if desired).

My Blog Promise

2011-11-01T20:22:00.000-05:00

So ... you could say it's been a while, eh?

This past month and a half has been a bit crazy. I started a new job about two and a half months ago, and while I'm really, really enjoying it, it's busier, faster-paced and has a bigger workload than I was used to. So, I've been coming home quite tired and not really willing to look at a computer screen for any longer.

We have also been lax in cooking interesting and blog-worthy meals. The meals that I've had out, well, frankly, I haven't felt like snapping pictures -- or my battery ran out, which is what happened at ethnic dining night at G. Mirch Masala, a new Pakistani restaurant on the northside (get there -- it's REALLY good!).

Plus, I recently took a girls' trip to Las Vegas, so there was no cooking being done right before the trip or right after. However, I will let you feast your eyes on some of the food we ate while we were there.

But, enough excuses. It makes me sad that I haven't blogged lately, and I've even had a few people ask me about it. So I'm making a promise to you, blog readers, that I will post at least twice a week -- mostly likely Tuesdays and Thursdays, and maybe over the weekend if you're lucky.

So, please keep reading, commenting and trying out the recipes for yourself!

And don't forget the eye candy:

Ricotta gnocchi with fennel sausage sauce at Wolfgang Puck's Bar & Grill at the MGM

The best burger Ann, my friend and travel buddy, has ever had at Wolfgang Puck's (I tried a bite -- it was DARN tasty!)

The LEO omlette (lox, eggs and caramelized onions) and roasted potatoes at Serendipity 3

Ann's breakfast quesadilla

Connect With Me!

2011-09-28T20:54:00.003-05:00

Wanna connect via Facebook and Twitter? "Like" my page on Facebook, and follow @onmytableblog on Twitter! You can always email me, too, at onmytableblog@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!

Green Chile Chili

2011-09-28T20:47:00.001-05:00

There are many things I love about Colorado -- the mountains, the craft breweries, the skiing and hiking, the laid-back lifestyle -- but one of the things I love most is that you can order delicious, homemade green chile chili just about everywhere you go.

Whenever we're in Colorado -- and we're there a fair amount, with Nate being from Colorado and having plenty of family members there -- I'm always sure to order a cup or a bowl. The style I've had in Colorado always has pork in it and is very thick. It's often served over other foods, such as burritos. Yum!

Green chile chili is always something I've wanted to make and for some reason never did. Until now.

With the cool fall temps and changing leaves, I figured now would be a good time to make our first batch of chili of the season. Nate and I both consulted a few different green chile chili recipes for ideas and insight, and then came up with this recipe.

I have no idea how traditional it might be (I have a feeling it's not too traditional at all), but I can tell you this -- it was delicious, and we will definitely be making it again. It had just the right amount of heat for us (it might be a bit much for those who don't like things too spicy) and the pork and Great Northern beans made it very satisfying.

Green Chile Chili

1.25(ish) pounds pork (I can't remember what we used, but shoulder or pork butt would work)
4 Anaheim chiles
1 Poblano pepper
1 banana pepper
2 small red chiles
1/2 jar tomatillo salsa
1 can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/2 teas. ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
flour
olive oil

Cut pork in about 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces (you can cut it after cooking, too, which is sometimes easier). Dredge pork in flour. Heat olive oil -- about a tablespoon -- in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork until browned.

Meanwhile, turn oven broiler on high. Place peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet. broil peppers and chiles, other than the small red ones, until blackened, rotating as needed (I think this took me about 20 minutes total). The small red ones were too small to broil, and ended up crispy. I would just chop those and throw them in with everything else. After the peppers are blackened, place in a plastic bag and seal for about 15 minutes. Peel skin off the peppers, de-seed if desired and chop.

Add pork, peppers and rest of ingredients to a slowcooker. Cook all day on low (you could also do this on the stovetop for a few hours, but I like how flavorful soups/chilis get in the slowcooker). Serve with cornbread, shredded cheddar, tortilla chips or anything else you'd like.

I was so excited to eat this meal that I didn't take a picture of the finished product. But I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like!

Chicken with Beer BBQ Sauce

2011-09-21T20:48:00.000-05:00

This recipe comes from the Cooking With Beer recipe booklet my parents gave Nate a while ago. The recipe -- Pork Chops With Lager-Infused BBQ Sauce -- obviously calls for pork chops, but we had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs we used instead.

The recipe calls for a marinade and then a BBQ sauce to have on the side. Everything was tasty, and I'd definitely make it again. We (well, really, Nate ...) added a little too much beer to the sauce, it was a little more liquidy than it probably should have been. So stick to the measurements!

The recipe also calls for you to grill the chicken, which we did, but you could bake it in the oven just as easily.

For the chicken marinade:

1 cup lager (we used Lakefront Riverwest Stein)
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 Tbs. molasses
1 teas. chili powder
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3/4 teas. salt
1/4 teas. black pepper

Combine all ingredients besides salt and pepper in a resealable storage bag. Refrigerate 2 hours, turning occasionally.

Prepare grill for direct cooking. Remove chicken from marinade and discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Grill over medium-high heat about 7 minutes per side or until cooked through. Serve with BBQ sauce.

For the BBQ sauce:

1/2 cup lager
1/3 cup ketchup
3 Tbs. maple syrup
2 Tbs. finely chopped onion
1 Tbs. molasses
1 Tbs. cider vinegar
1/2 teas. chili powder

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer 10-12 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.

Italian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

2011-09-21T20:26:00.001-05:00

I've wanted to make lettuce wraps for a long time. I always enjoy them when I order them as an appetizer, and they seem easy and healthy. When I saw a recipe for Chicken Lettuce Wraps in the September 2011 Cooking Light -- even though they're Italian-flavored, rather than the typical Asian-flavored -- I thought I'd give it a try.

I made a few adjustments, based on what we had and what I could find:

I ended up cooking the onions a bit with the chicken. I thought the raw onion flavor might be too overpowering.
Instead of green olives (which I love but Nate does not like), I used capers, which we already had.
I couldn't find Bibb lettuce, so I just big leaves of green lettuce.

Unfortunately, this dish didn't turn out well at all (which, if I would have read the comments on the recipe, I would have discovered others didn't care for it either). It really didn't have much flavor, and surprisingly, the lettuce flavor was really overpowering. I think some of it had to do with the fact that the chicken I used -- while it was safe in the freezer -- was fairly old and dry.

I'd love to try making lettuce wraps again, but I think I'll go for the more traditional Asian-flavored ones. Anyone have a good recipe?

Squashy Mac & Cheese

2011-09-11T21:13:00.003-05:00

Upon receiving the September 2011 issue of Cooking Light, I just knew I had to make the cover recipe: Creamy, Light Mac and Cheese (oh, how I love mac and cheese!).

The recipe comes from the magazine's "recipe makeover" section. In this section each month, the Cooking Light staff recreates a classic-but-not-healthy recipe, and cuts down on fat and calories. The classic mac and cheese recipe went from 908 calories and 36 grams of saturated fat in one serving to 390 calories and 6.1 grams of saturated fat.

I really love two things about this recipe: it uses cheese I might not normally use and think of for mac and cheese, and it incorporates butternut squash, which I LOVE.

I followed the recipe very closely, except for a couple of things:

I used vegetable broth, rather than chicken broth (I don't quite understand why vegetarian recipes often call for chicken broth when you can easily use vegetable broth ...).
I found a type of Gruyere to use (Compte) from the West Allis Cheese and Sausage Shoppe at the Milwaukee Public Market, but I couldn't find the other two cheeses the recipe calls for. At the cheese shoppe, I asked what would be comparable to pecorino Romano cheese, and they suggested a type of cheese called lamb chop. We had some shredded Romano cheese that I used in place of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. (I put all the cheeses in the food processor so that I didn't have to grate everything. It worked really well!)

I think the recipe turned out really well, and was filling without being heavy. I would definitely make it again, and might try different cheeses--a smoky Gouda would definitely be tasty.

After reading through some comments people left at the bottom of the recipe page, I might take some advice and eat the mac and cheese without baking it. I think it would be even creamier this way.

Restaurant Review: The Eatery on Farwell

2011-09-11T20:33:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, the #mkefoodies group held at tweetup at The Eatery on Farwell. Nate and I, of course, were in attendance, and we happened to win a $25 gift certificate in the raffle. Score! We finally used it just a few weekends ago. During the tweetup, we sampled tons of food, and all of it was really tasty. So we were definitely looking forward to our meals.

Neither of us were super hungry, so we didn't start out with any appetizers, but our waiter brought out some tasty fresh-baked bread and butter for us to snack on. With that, we ordered some beers. We both tried a unique brew--The Eatery Brew, which is a sampling/combination of whichever six taps the restaurant has at the time. Maybe surprisingly, it was really tasty! We should try it at home sometime ...

The Eatery's menu is super extensive, so it took us a while to decide. For meals, Nate had one of the night's specials: steak with a creamy peppercorn sauce, alongside peapods and mashed potatoes. It was all very tasty, and a perfect amount of food.

I ordered an unusual-sounding dish: pig in a pot. Turns out, as odd as the name might be, it was delicious! Inside an actual terra cotta pot--with a flower on top!--was pork tenderloin with mushrooms, sauce and muenster cheese. I had the same vegetables--pea pods--on the side as well as root veggie mashed which was especially delicious and something I can't wait to try to make at home. Even though Nate had the perfect amount of food, my meal came with a ton of food, so I had some to take home, which was great.

All in all, we had a great experience--great service and good food, and there is plenty more on the menu I'd like to try.

Veggie Tacos

2011-08-27T17:57:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday, I was craving two things: something vegetarian and something Mexican. Veggie tacos sounded like a good idea, so I did some Googling, and came across a recipe from Eat, Live, Run, a blog I've been following for a while now.

This recipe for Vegetable Soft Tacos with Chipotle Sour Cream provided the foundation for our veggie tacos. We didn't quite do everything the recipes calls for, and used some things we already had instead of buying new.

The second half of the ingredients list is where we went in a different direction. We followed the recipe to bake the veggies and beans, and then for toppings, we used used some romaine lettuce and sliced tomatoes we had leftover. We added some avocado slices and some shredded pepper Jack cheese (next time, I'd opt for a salty Mexican cheese--by the time everything was piled on, you couldn't even taste the pepper Jack).

I think next time I'd try the chipotle sauce, but would probably use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, because I always have some on hand and I'm not much of a sour cream person.

Our version of these tacos turned out really good--there was a lot of good flavor, and despite there being no meat or protein, the tacos were really filling. Also, the recipe says it makes 3-4 servings, but our meal provided 5-6 servings!

Beer-Baked French Fries

2011-08-27T17:27:00.005-05:00

As many of you know, Nate is a home brewer. He often tweets (@NathanAlesBrew, if you're interested) about beer trends, new beers and meals involving beer. It was one of these posts that caught my eye.

He posted this recipe for Garlic and Salted Beer-Baked French Fries, and I thought they would pair nicely with some buffalo burgers. The fries were really easy to make. The recipe suggests using New Belgium's Somersault beer, but anything is fine. We used a random bottle we had in the fridge: Scrimshaw, a pilsner, from North Coast Brewing.

The only thing I might do different next time is use garlic powder and/or garlic salt, rather than minced garlic. Many of the bits of garlic fell off the potatoes and burned.

If I remember correctly, we baked our fries for about 40 minutes. Unless they're really thick-cut, I don't think you'd want to bake them for an hour.

Salmon & Peach-Tomato Salsa

2011-08-21T20:23:00.005-05:00

I picked up some wild salmon at Trader Joe's the last time I was there and had been keeping it in the freezer for future use. I remembered this Cooking Light cover recipe for Grilled King Salmon with Tomato-Peach Salsa from the July 2011 issue, and thought it would be a good one to make.

And it turns out it was. Super tasty, easy and healthy. I didn't use mint because I didn't want to buy too much and have it go to waste. Also, we only had two pieces of salmon, which were about 8 oz. each. We made the entire batch of salsa, though, and had it with other leftovers later in the week. Lastly, I didn't use grape tomatoes, but rather just regular, big tomatoes because we already had some. I think they worked fine, they just made the salsa a little more liquidy.

The only thing that didn't work so well with this recipe is that we overcooked the salmon, something we do too often. The grill was too hot, so the salmon was rather dry. But, with a lot of salsa on top, it was hard to tell it was overcooked.

I'd definitely make this recipe again, and I'd use the salsa for just about anything--including to just have with chips!

Vegan Burgers ... With Cheese

2011-08-21T19:38:00.006-05:00

I love any kind of burger--beef, turkey, chicken, pork, black bean, veggie, etc. I often order veggie burgers in restaurants when I know they make them in house (I hate it when a restaurant just serves a warmed up Boca or Moringstar burger. Come on! I can do that at home). So I've eaten a lot of veggie burgers in my day.

I stumbled across these veggie burgers on food blogs I enjoy reading. I'm pretty sure I first saw the blogger from Iowa Girl Eats (I love her blog!) mention she had these burgers from the blog Oh She Glows.

The gal from Oh She Glows blogs only about vegan recipes. She came up with this recipe after experimenting with lots of different ingredients and ways of making them. I thought they sounded interesting, and I convinced Nate to give them a try.

It took a little effort to make--there are lots of little steps and things to prep--but they were definitely worth it. They were so tasty and incredibly healthy. Plus, the recipe makes a lot, so we had (and still have, in the freezer) plenty of leftovers.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but did a few things differently or have some words of advice:

I was skeptical about the "flax eggs" (I didn't think it would actually bind everything together, but it ended up working really well. You could certainly use eggs, too, if you didn't need the burgers to be vegan.

I thought I could find oat flour at Outpost, but I couldn't. I ended up just putting regular oats in the food processor and making the flour that way. It worked great!

Instead of processing my own bread crumbs, I used 1.5 cups of regular bread crumbs mixed with some Panko breadcrumbs.

I highly recommend throwing carrots in the food processor to cut them up--grating carrots is a pain in the butt!

Surprisingly, the burgers formed pretty well. I thought they would fall apart like a lot of veggie/black bean burgers do, but these stayed in tact pretty well.

The recipe author suggests a few ways for cooking the burgers. We ended up pan frying ours, and it worked just fine.

The recipe authors says they make 8 burgers. I think I ended up forming 6 or 7 patties, and I think 8 would have been better. They don't look that big, but, man, are they filling!

Of course, we had to add cheese to our burgers, making them non-vegan burgers, but that's OK. I think they would be just as good without the cheese, too.

They were really, really good. I would definitely make them again.

Nate, Mr. Meat Eater himself, gave them two thumbs up, too!

Tater Tot Casserole

2011-08-21T19:11:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, my friend (and neighbor and former coworker) Jessie gave birth to her adorable baby boy. I thought I'd whip up a casserole for them to keep in the freezer for a night when they were looking for a quick-and-easy home-cooked meal.

I found a recipe for Tater Tot Hot Dish in my Hot Dish Heaven cookbook that I thought Jessie, her husband and two-year-old would enjoy. Upon hearing what I was making, Nate exclaimed, "Aw, you make all the good stuff for everyone else!" (Whatever that means--although it probably means I'll be making it for us sometime in the near future.)

The casserole came together really easily. Jessie and family ate it a few weeks later, and she said it was good. She baked it from frozen for an extra hour, and said the only thing she'd do differently next time is broil it for a few minutes at the end.

Tater Tot Hot Dish

Makes 4 servings

1 lb. regular or lean ground beef or ground turkey

1 onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

2 cups (8 oz.) frozen vegetables, such as peas and carrots or mixed veggies

10-oz. can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup (I used mushroom)

1/2 cup milk

16 oz. frozen package of tater tots (so ... rereading the recipe, I notice it says "1/2 package." I most definitely used the entire package! So use anywhere from half the package to the whole package.)

Heat oven to 350*.

In a large skillet, brown meat and onion lightly. Spread in shallow 10x10 or 9x13 baking dish. Spread veggies over meat, making an even layer. Stir together soup and milk until smooth. Drizzle soup mixture over veggies. Arrange tater tots in a single layer over soup.

Bake 1 hour or until tots are browned.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

2011-08-01T17:30:00.006-05:00

I finally did something I told myself (and Nate) I was going to do a long time ago--make homemade barbecue sauce. And now I'm left wondering why I didn't do it sooner! It's so easy to make, and you can do whatever you want with it, as long as you have a solid base.

I did some online recipe searching, and came across all sorts of sauce varieties. Some were too simple--combine Heinz 57 sauce and one or two spices? Nah, too easy! Others were a little more involved and the recipes suggested the mixture sit for a day or two. I didn't have that kind of time. Then I came across this recipe for Bourbon Whiskey BBQ Sauce. I knew that would be the one.

Sadly, I was mistaken that we had some bourbon sitting around. We didn't, but luckily, we always have at least one bottle of whiskey. I used some Kinnickinnic Whiskey from Great Lakes Distillery.

Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly, except that I added a bit more hot sauce, which, sadly, you couldn't taste at all.

The sauce was really very good. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. I would use this again as a base and experiment with the flavors.

I know for future batches, I'll likely spice it up a bit more and add more liquid smoke. Also, it was a bit sweet for my taste, so I'd probably cut back on the brown sugar.

I think my days of buying barbecue sauce are over!

Pudding Shots

2011-07-19T19:59:00.004-05:00

So the story of pudding shots (think Jell-O shots but made with pudding) goes back to a few weeks ago, when Nate, my parents and I were on a motorcycle trip around southwest Wisconsin. We stopped at a bar in a very tiny town (Gratiot, WI, to be exact) for a drink before heading back to our homebase for the weekend.

We all ordered beers, and in addition to those beers, the bartenders gave us little cups of what looked like frozen yogurt. It turns out, they were pudding shots--little alcoholic desserts made with four simple ingredients: pudding, schnapps or Pucker, milk and Cool Whip.

The ones they gave us first were strawberry or raspberry (really can't remember, and that has nothing to do with drinking) and delicious! I thought they tasted like taffy. We another one--one with a chocolate pudding base, I believe--which was equally good. The bartender kindly shared the recipe, and Nate and I knew we'd be making them someday soon.

That day came last weekend, when Nate and I went to that cookout in which we took the roasted corn salsa. We thought it would be a good opportunity to try making them.

Nate couldn't find Pucker at the liquor store he stopped at, so he got a bottle of watermelon schnapps, which worked out just fine. They're so easy to make--the hardest part is finding appropriate popsicle sticks for them!

Pudding shots

1 cup milk

8 oz. Cool Whip

3/4 cup schnapps or Pucker

1 small package pudding (they told use to use white chocolate, which I couldn't find, so I picked up cheesecake pudding)

Put everything in a large bowl and whisk (don't stir with a spoon!) everything together. The mixture will be chunky at first, but keep whisking--it gets very smooth.

Pour into small plastic or paper cups, place some type of popsicle stick in the center (we used toothpicks and broken plastic spoons) and freeze overnight.

These were also a hit at the cookout, and everyone was talking about the different flavors you could try--chocolate pudding and creme de menthe was a popular idea.

Roasted Corn Salad

2011-07-19T19:40:00.004-05:00

I'm not quite sure how I ended up there, but I can tell you it started while I was perusing the JSOnline's food page. The picture of the black bean tacos/burritos with rice caught my eye, and before I knew it, I was deciding to make the roasted corn salad that's on this page for a cookout last week.

The recipe was really easy, and I followed it exactly--everything sounded good to me! You could do a lot of different things with it--make it more spicy, add some chipotle flavor, use fresh corn rather than frozen--which is nice.

The dressing was nice and light--I'd make that again for regular dinner salads.

It was a hit at the cookout, and tasted great even leftover. I call that a success!

Grilled Quesadillas

2011-07-19T19:08:00.005-05:00

I've been CRAVING quesadillas, so I decided to put them on last week's menu. We thought we'd try something new and a little different, but something that made complete sense--cook them on the grill, rather than in a skillet. It turned out to be a great idea!

While the way we usually make quesadillas is very good, it was fun to try something different. We also used smaller tortillas (I know I once mentioned I'd never buy tortillas again, but I caved and picked up a package of fantastic La Tortilla Factory white corn tortillas at Outpost. When I don't make my own, these are definitely the ones I would buy), a little less cheese and didn't pile tons of ingredients on them.

I'd try to tell you exactly what we used and what we did, but we really kind of made it up as we went. But here is a general idea of how to make grilled quesadillas:

Package of 8 tortillas

1 chicken breast

A couple small sweet peppers, chopped

About 1/4 of a red onion, chopped

Jalapeno(s) to your taste, chopped

Mixture of spices: garlic powder, garlic salt, pepper, salt, coriander, cumin, chili powder, etc.

Shredded cheese

Preheat grill on medium-high heat. Turn to medium-low when ready too cook.

Meanwhile, cook chicken in a skillet on the stove top with peppers and onion until chicken is done and vegetables are tender.

Using a cookie sheet or tray, place four tortillas on the tray. Sprinkle cheese on each tortilla, and top with chicken mixture. Top with more cheese and the other tortilla. This way you'll have the quesadillas ready to place on the grill.

Place on the grill and cook until cheese melts and tortillas are brown and a bit crispy.

Do your best to flip them over and cook until tortilla looks the same.

That's it! It went A LOT quicker doing it this way, and they tasted just as good, if not better. We served ours with some spiced-up black beans and guacamole and chips. Yum!

Restaurant Review: Jalapeno Loco

2011-07-11T20:37:00.004-05:00

Nate's sister and a friend were in town last week and staying at a hotel near the airport. We wanted to meet up for dinner, and I figured this would be a great time to check out a place I've heard only good things about: Jalapeno Loco, right across the street from the airport. Over the years, I've heard many people say how good the food is and how authentic the dishes are. I knew I'd like it.

They of course started us off with some chips and salsa, which were both good. The salsa wasn't as spicy as I would have liked, but it was a good all-around salsa.

For entrees, Nate ordered something we made while we were in Mexico: chiles en nogada. It was really good, but it's hard to follow up when the last time you had it, you were in the local land! It was good though, and I'd order it next time we went. My only complaint was that the sauce wasn't as thick and creamy as it seems it should be.

For my entree, I ordered the Oaxacan mole in a chicken tamale, wrapped in banana leaves. The dish came with two huge tamales and a bowl of black beans. The tamale and mole was delicious. I would definitely want to go back and try one of their other moles. The black beans were just OK--now, I LOVE black beans, but these were pretty plain.

Overall, we had a good experience, and I'd go back. It probably wouldn't be my go-to Mexican restaurant, but I'm always willing to try new-to-me places.

Chipotle Beer-Can Chicken

2011-07-11T18:49:00.004-05:00

We've always wanted to make beer-can chicken, but for some reason never have ... until now. We were going to just pick an ol' can of beer and create a spice rub, but then, coincidentally, my mom gave Nate a small cookbook, Cooking With Beer (a PIL Cookbook), she picked up while checking out groceries. And what do you know, the book contains not one but TWO beer-can chicken recipes.

We decided to go with the Chipotle Spice Rubbed Beer-Can Chicken one because we had everything in-house already. The recipe was super easy, and Nate seemed to have an easy enough time getting the chicken situated on the grill.

2 Tbs. packed light brown sugar

2 teas. smoked paprika

2 teas. ground cumin

1 teas. salt

1 teas. garlic powder

1 teas. chili powder

1/2 teas. ground chipotle powder

1 whole chicken (3.5-4 lbs.)

1 can beer (12 oz.)

(not part of the actual recipe: 1/4 of an onion)

Prepare grill for indirect grilling. Grease grid.

Combine all spices and sugar in a small bowl. Gently loosen skin of chicken over breast, legs and thighs. Rub mixture under and over skin and inside cavity. Discard (or drink!) one fourth of beer or reserve for another use. Hold chicken upright with cavity pointing down; insert beer into cavity. Put onion in neck to seal in juices.

Place chicken on prepared grid, standing upright on can. Spread legs slightly for support. Cover and cook 1.25 hours or until chicken is tender and cooked through.

Lift chicken off beer can using metal tongs. Let rest on cutting board 5 minutes, standing up. Carefully remove beer can and discard. Slice chicken.

The chicken was soooo juicy, it was delicious. The spice rub was great, too, and you could really do anything you want with it.

We served the chicken with a side salad and some pan-fried potatoes. It was a great Fourth of July meal!

Restaurant Review: INdustri Cafe

2011-07-11T18:32:00.004-05:00

Before having dinner there a few weeks ago, I had been to INdustri Cafe twice--once for drinks with friends and another time for an MKE Foodies tweetup, where we sampled a few (too few, in my opinion ...) appetizers. When a Groupon came around for the restaurant a few months ago, I bought once because I knew we wanted to check it out.

We went on a Friday night, the day the Groupon actually expired (I have to watch these things a little more carefully ...). I thought the place might be packed, but it wasn't crowded at all--but on a Friday night in the summer in Milwaukee (and the first Friday of Summerfest), I guess it wasn't too big of a surprise.

Neither of us were starving, so we didn't have an appetizer, but we had already decided we would be ordered dessert. So to start out, we just had some beers--the restaurant has some great local beers on tap, including some from Capital Brewery and Potosi (where, coincidentally, we just were a few weeks ago and where our waiter was from!).

For entrees , Nate decided on the braised angus short ribs served with a golden raisin and wilted rainbow chard Israeli couscous. The meat was incredibly tender and delicious.

For my entree, I went with one of the day's special: a whole fried snapper with a peanut sauce (that was the hook!) and garlic scapes and a side of fried rice. It was my first time eating a whole fish like that (although Nate's ordered it before, and I've had a few bites). I'm not going to lie, it weirded me out a bit, but maaaaaaan was it delicious! We both agreed the flavor would be even better if it hadn't been fried, but nonetheless, it was fantastic. The fried rice was, too. (Sorry for the blurry picture!)

For dessert, we split the whiskey mini apple cobbler with salted caramel gelato. It had the taste and texture of warm granola or oatmeal, but much sweeter. I thought it was delicious while Nate thought it was OK. We agreed on one thing, though--it would have been even better if the apples did not have peel on them.

Overall, we had a great experience--good service, good beer selection and great food--and I know we'll be back.

Tequila-Honey-Pineapple Chicken

2011-06-30T19:34:00.005-05:00

Here's another Cooking Light recipe: Tequila-Glazed Grilled Chicken Thighs. This one was also really good, although we used a completely different type of chicken, which probably gave it a bit of a different flavor.

We decided to use the half a chicken we had in the basement freezer for this rather than buying the chicken thighs the recipe calls for. Nate cut the chicken apart and ended up with chicken breast strips, for a lack of a better term.

We followed the rest of the recipe exactly, even though I knew we'd end up with too much glaze/sauce, which we did. Nate glazed the chicken pretty good, and we used some reserved sauce for dipping.

This was really tasty--it was a great mix of sweet and spice. You could not taste the tequila at all (not sure if that's a good or bad thing!). I thought the sauce would be good in a stir fry, too. I had the two leftover pieces on my lunch salad today, which was also really tasty.

Sloppy Mushroom Joes

2011-06-30T19:15:00.004-05:00

The June 2011 issue of Cooking Light is sure getting a workout! We made two recipes from it this week alone. The biggest reason for turning to Cooking Light this week was that I was making out the shopping list late Sunday afternoon, after our camping trip, and couldn't bear to put too much thought into meal planning this week--the June issue was out, so I went with that.

Lucky for us, the two meals we made were fabulous, and I've been telling lots of people about them. The first was Beef and Mushroom Sloppy Joes. Before I really got into the recipe, I figured they would be mostly beefy sloppy joes, with some mushrooms mixed in (which is just the way I like my sloppy joes). But, as I made the meal, I realized that they were made mostly of cremini mushrooms and just a small amount of beef--but they still taste really beefy.

The recipe was super easy, as it's one of the issues 20-minute-cooking meals. I find these meals always take a bit longer than those 20 minutes, though, when you have to chop vegetables and prepare things (granted, the recipe calls for pre-chopped onion and pre-sliced mushrooms, but those types of foods are often more expensive).

I followed the recipe just about exactly, except I subbed dried oregano for the fresh and added a bit more hot sauce (and, really, I should have added more!). The recipe says this makes four servings, but we got six out of it.

All in all, the sloppy joes were really, really good--Nate (Mr. Steak himself) took a bite before I even picked mine up, and he immediately said, "OH, this is good!" It's the type of meal in which you forget you're not really eating much meat.

Campfire Cooking

2011-06-27T21:11:00.003-05:00

Nate and I went camping with some friends this past weekend. We always split up the cooking duties--one couple takes breakfast and one of the dinners, while the other couple takes lunch and the other dinner. We were in charge of lunch (just sandwiches, chips and salsa, veggies and fruit) and Saturday's dinner. We cook everything right on the campfire grate, so anything we can wrap in heavy duty foil is a good idea.

I found this recipe for Pesto Chicken Packets in my trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook. It looked super easy (easy to prep while sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the woods) and delicious, too. The recipe only requires four things: chicken, tomatoes, zucchini and basil (I made my own pesto).

The chicken was super tasty and, like I thought it would be, easy to make. It took about 20 minutes over a pretty hot fire to cook. I think each packet could have used a bit more pesto (the recipe says it makes four servings; I made six by adding more chicken and a bit more zucchini and tomato).

I think it's a great starter recipe--you could add more vegetables, different vegetables or even put a different sauce on top. We served ours with a rice, black bean and corn salad. It was a hit! (And for the record, Betty Crocker is/was not a real person :)).

Edamame and Steak Salad

2011-06-27T20:49:00.004-05:00

Nate found this recipe for Edamame Salad with Crisp Steak Bits while flipping through the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light (of course he did--it says "steak" so he was drawn to it!). We had been meaning to make it for a few weeks, and finally did so early last week.

The recipe was super easy, quite and delicious. The salad was really refreshing and great one a warm, summer night.

For our first night eating it, we stuck with the recipe exactly as it's stated. The recipe says to cut the steak into "small pieces," and I would recommend doing as we did--cut them into really small bits, so you can get a taste with each bite.

We had it for leftovers a few nights later, and it was still really good--I was a bit worried it would get a little soggy, but it was just fine. We added half a chopped avocado to it when we had it for leftovers.

Potato & Pasta-less Side Salad

2011-06-13T20:57:00.004-05:00

I love potato and pasta salads for cookouts or tailgates, but I was looking forward to trying this Cucumber, Tomato and Feta Salad. I thought it would nice to have something a little lighter.

We went to the Brewers game last Saturday with my parents, and I happened to come across the Epicurious salad recipe on Facebook (I believe it was). I thought it would be great with the chicken sandwiches we made for our dinner.

The recipe was super easy and straightforward. I didn't do anything differently other than halve the recipe, as I wasn't sure it would be too good leftover for too long.

The salad was very good, and I'll definitely be making it again. I threw a can of tuna in the last bit of leftovers for lunch tomorrow--we'll see how that goes, but I'm sure it will be good.

Restaurant Review: Ginza

2011-06-13T20:34:00.003-05:00

I bought a Groupon for Ginza, a new sushi place in Tosa, a few months ago, because I know we always like going out for sushi. We finally decided to use it last Friday when we wanted to go out to dinner but didn't want to go too far from home. I had heard really good things about Ginza, so I was really lookin forward to it.

The restaurant is located in a newish strip mall-type of development on the corner of Center St. and Mayfair Rd. The decor is very modern, but comfortable, too. I really like the place, but I have one small complaint: the music was not very good and kind of distracting. While we were there, it ranged from Linkin Park to something similar to Boyz II Men.

Overall, though, we had a great experience and really enjoyed the food.

We started with the shrimp shumai, which came with a spicy, creamy sauce. It was really good, and the perfect amount for two of us.

We then split three of the rolls:

Alaskan roll: salmon, avocado and cucumber (bottom row of rolls).

Hot maki: shrimp tempura and avocado inside, topped with tuna, jalapeno and a special sauce (middle row).

White swan: spicy yellowtail, tempura flakes, caviar and white tuna (top row).

We agreed our favorite was the hot maki, but really, they were all quite good. We thought the rice was a little stickier or softer than it usually is and usually should be. The flavors of the rolls, however, outweighed the texture of the rice.

One thing I liked about Ginza is that you have a choice between regular soy sauce and lighter-sodium soy sauce. I hadn't seen that at other sushi restaurants. The service was very good, and the server came back often to check on us. The food seemed really reasonable, too--our total bill, before the Groupon, was $45 for the shumai, three rolls and two big Japanese beers. Not bad! I can't wait to go back and try more.

Pork and Mango-Lime Salsa

2011-06-09T20:12:00.005-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I have a huge binder filled with recipes I've cut out from magazines or the back of boxes of food, printed off websites or collected from other sources. One of those recipes was called Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Mango-Lime Salsa. I've had it for years, but never made it. That changed last week when I finally made it.

A Google search for the recipe has led me to believe the recipe originally came from Real Food magazine. It can also be found on Recipe Girl blog.

The recipe was super easy and didn't take much time at all. I couldn't find pork tenderloin at outpost, so I used boneless shoulder instead. The pieces of pork were probably bigger than they would be if I had used tenderloin, but it worked fine and tasted great. The salsa would be good with chips or on tacos, too.

We served the pork with the Spicy Southwestern Tabbouleh I made earlier in the week and corn on the cob.

Spicy Southwestern Tabbouleh

2011-06-09T19:54:00.004-05:00

While flipping through the July 2010 issue of Cooking Light, I found this recipe for Spicy Southwestern Tabbouleh. I thought the dish would work well as a side for a pork dish we would be making later in the week and also as a pre-workout snack (more bulgur!).

The ingredients list is very long--25 things go into it! And it takes a lot of chopping and prep work, but I think it's well worth it. The dish was delicious, and worked well as both a side dish and pre-workout snack.

If one of the ingredients isn't appealing or if you don't have it on hand (I forgot to buy queso fresco, so I used the feta I had), just sub in something else. You can also make it as spicy or not spicy as you want.

I had this in the fridge for about a week, and I would say that's just a little too long--by the end, it was pretty watery, but still pretty tasty.

Downtown Dining Week Review No. 3: Coquette Cafe

2011-06-08T20:41:00.005-05:00

Tonight, I had dinner at Coquette Cafe with my friends Leah and Lisa. We've been talking about going for ages, and we figured it would be a good place to head to for downtown dining. I'm so glad we went--the food was fantastic and a great value. Lisa and I ordered from the $20 downtown dining menu. Leah opted for soup and salad off the regular menu.

I started with the field greens with a Dijon vinaigrette (actually, I really started with a glass of Beaujolais and some of their great French bread and fresh butter. YUM.). It was very simple, but the dressing was fantastic and everything was fresh.

For my main course, I ordered something I've always wanted to try but never had: coq au vin. I don't know why I've never had it before (like when I spent an entire summer in France ...). It was so delicious, with lots of great flavors. The chicken was served on top of some mashed potatoes. I dipped a few pieces of bread in the wine sauce. Delicious! It was a huge portion, too. I had enough leftover to bring an entire chicken breast plus some potato home with.

For dessert, I opted for the meringue snow eggs, mostly because I had had the chocolate mousse during my lunch at Molly Cool's. I expected the meringue to have a bit of a hard outside and a soft inside. These "eggs," however, were very soft--the texture was like a marshmallow. They were light and pretty tasty, although I'm not sure I would seek them out.

For her courses, Lisa ordered the watermelon gazpacho (which I was kind of weirded out by, but it was really good, especially on a super hot day), the coq au vin and the chocolate mousse (which was also really good, and better than the stuff at Molly Cool's).

Leah ordered a cup of the French onion soup (I had a bite of it--and made lots of groaning/yummy sounds afterwards. I would definitely go back for more of that!) and a salad with spinach, bleu cheese, grapes, pears and pecans.

All in all, we had a great experience--great wine, food and service. The only complaint we had, which had nothing to do with the meal, was that the restaurant was really, really warm--the air was definitely not on, nor were there any fans or anything going. But, still, the food outweighs everything!

Downtown Dining Week Review No. 2: Water Buffalo

2011-06-08T20:19:00.005-05:00

On Monday, a small group of ladies from work went to Water Buffalo to celebrate Sandy's birthday. We scored a table on the Riverwalk on a very warm, sunny day. We all ordered from the Downtown Dining menu, which, somewhat surprisingly, didn't include a dessert course.

For the first course, I ordered something I usually get at Water Buffalo--their tortilla soup. It's always tasty, with huge chunks of chicken and a cream base.

For the second course, I ordered the green salad, which had fresh mozzarella in it--a definite plus in my book!

For the third course, I wavered between the two options--the black bean burger (which I've had a few times and always enjoy) and the barbecue pulled pork sandwich. Because I've had the black bean burger before (and because I had one at Cafe Hollander Saturday night), I opted for the pulled pork (I ordered it without bacon, though. I know, I know--who does that sort of thing?!). The sandwich was huge! It included a slice of Swiss cheese and the sauce was on the side. The pork was good--tasty and moist--but not really outstanding or anything spectacular.

The service was good and incredibly quick--we were barely through our soup and salad when the sandwiches came out. Normally, that's a bit annoying, but during a weekday lunch, I'd rather have it that way than waiting a long time.

Overall, it was a good experience. My only complaint, if you could call it that, was that I'd like to see one or two more unique or innovative items on the menu. It'd be nice to be able to try something that maybe isn't on the menu a lot of a spin on an old standby.

Downtown Dining Week Review No. 1: Molly Cool's

2011-06-05T20:30:00.004-05:00

Milwaukee's Downtown Dining Week is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the time to visit places you've never been and to experience great food for a reasonable price. I love checking out new places--and even ones I've been--during this week. While some of the menus can be limited, there always seems to be something for everyone. Lucky for me, too, I work downtown so I can check out a few restaurants for lunches throughout that week.

My first 2011 Downtown Dining experience was last Friday, when my work department went out for a coworker's birthday. The birthday girl picked Molly Cool's on Old World Third Street. Our group had been once before--for a happy hour, with two-for-one drinks and half-priced appetizers--and our experience and food had been good.

Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the same experience we had last Friday. There were some ups and downs to the meal, but the downs are the ones that tend to stick out.

Five out of the six of us in our group opted for the Downtown Dining menu. We all had slightly different combinations, but among the five of us, we sampled everything. Here, in a nutshell, is how my food was:

For the appetizer, I ordered the crab cake, which was really good--not a lot of filler and a great, fresh crab taste with a reddish remoulade sauce. It also came with a small cup of coleslaw which was just OK--nothing special.

For the main course, I ordered the 1/2 a crab wrap with the seafood chowder and sweet Maui-onion potato chips. The wrap was just OK--it wasn't as flavorful as I had hoped and thought it would be. The chowder, however, was good, although I'm not sure what was all in it.

For the dessert course, I ordered the key lime pie, which I was really excited about. Just before bringing dessert, the server informed us that they had run out of key lime pie, which three of us ordered. This kind of surprised me, as we put in our order at about noon (or a bit before) on the second day of Downtown Dining. I can kind of understand if it's near the end of the week, but the second day? So instead I ordered chocolate mousse, which came in a wonton cup on top of whipped cream. The cream was good, the mousse was OK and I didn't care for the wonton cup (too greasy and not much flavor).

Service was fine until we got to the end of the meal and received our bill. Two people in our group ordered entree salads (one ordered the Caesar and the other the mixed greens). Both asked if anything with it (a type of protein) and the server said you can add shrimp, salad or chicken--so one ordered chicken and another salmon. Turns out, there was quite an extra charge for the protein: $5 for chicken and $9 for the salmon, which the server never specified.

I think we all understand extra charges and both the people in my group who had the salads said they understood, but when you order off a fixed price menu, it seems like it should be a given that add-ons like that are included--or at the very least the server should say something, especially if the add-on is almost the same price as the entire meal. Long story short, the manager came out and explained the situation (in a rather terse way) and took a few bucks off the bill. Eh. Personally, I just can't understand how a Caesar salad (no meat) or mixed green salad (no meat) can be offered alongside of a crab wrap and seafood soup or walleye fingers--it just doesn't add up.

All in all, it wasn't the greatest experience, and I can't say I'll rush back any time soon. I'm by no means an expert, but I think restaurants that participate in Downtown Dining Week really need to get these meals right and provide a good experience for guests so that they come back and order off regular menus throughout the rest of the year.

Homemade Pita Bread

2011-06-05T20:13:00.006-05:00

I've been wanting to try making my own pita bread for some time. I find that the options available at the store (no matter a big grocery store, Outpost or our favorite Greek grocery store) are always a little too dry for me and don't taste as good as the fresh stuff you get at local Middle Eastern and Greek restaurants. Plus, I've been seeing lots of blog posts about it (including on my friend Debbie's blog, Le Food Snob), so I knew it was time.

Nate found a pita pocket dough recipe in the Corner Bakery Bread & Dessert Maker Cookbook that came with our Breadman bread machine, which made it easy enough to get started. The recipe was simple enough (and I liked that it included whole wheat flour--I'm not sure all pita pocket recipes do):

Pita Pocket Dough

1 1/3 cups 80* water

8 tsp. olive oil

4 tsp. sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 cups bread flour

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in that order in the bread machine. Set on "dough" cycle (it took my machine about 1 hour and 30 minutes to make the dough).

To bake:
When dough is ready, place on a lightly floured surface. Divide into 10 pieces (we weighed the entire thing and then divided by 10). Shape each piece into a smooth ball.

Place 5 balls on a large baking sheet. Place the remaining 5 balls on another sheet. Let rise about 20 minutes (we were away from the house when the dough was done, so we considered the extra time the dough spent in the bread machine the rising time). With fingertips, flatten each ball into a 6-inch circle.

Bake at 500* for 5 minutes, or until puffed and tops begin to brown (it took us about 8 minutes).

Cut each in half to form 2 pockets (depending on what you're using the pita for, this might not be necessary).

Nate formed five of the pita rounds and I did the other five. For some reason, his were much puffier than mine were00but mine got a little more brown. I'm not sure what that means, but in any event, both version of the pita tasted really, really good. Some of them weren't too easy to spit into pockets (one side always tended to be thinner than the other), but it might take some practice to get it right.

I think it's safe to say that like the corn tortillas we made, I'll never be buying pita again. The pita was great with the baba ghanoush I made as well as as sandwich bread. It was lighter, fresher and a bit chewier (which I like) than the store-bought stuff.

Baba Ghanoush (or Mashed Eggplant Dip)

2011-06-05T19:57:00.003-05:00

I needed some kind of appetizer to take to my parents' house for a Memorial Day/Grandma's birthday cookout. I wanted something light and healthy (and--not going to lie--maybe something that would have enough leftover that I could bring home and eat during the week!), and I found this recipe for baba ghanoush in the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light. I've always wanted to try making baba ghanoush, too, so this worked out perfectly.

Baba ghanoush is an Arab dish made of grilled or roasted eggplant that is mashed and mixed with seasonings. It's often served as a dip with pita bread--which is exactly how I wanted to serve it.

This recipe was super easy (seriously, the hardest part was trying to find the right-sized eggplant!) and straightforward. The only thing I would do differently next time is either omit the mayo (kind of weird, if you ask me) or use plain Greek yogurt instead. The one thing I did differently was that instead of buying cumin seeds, I just used ground cumin. Also, lucky for me, it made a ton, so I was able to bring some home to use on sandwiches and use as a veggie dip.

I served it at my parents' house with homemade pita bread I had made earlier in the day. Yum! I could snack on this stuff every day.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Spaghetti

2011-06-05T19:49:00.004-05:00

I decided to dive into an old Cooking Light to find some dinner recipes. I found this recipe for quick-roasted cherry tomato sauce with spaghetti in the June 2010 issue. It looked tasty, easy and included goat cheese--perfect!

The recipe was really quite easy and tasty. The only thing than threw it off a bit was that we didn't have regular (and whole wheat, which we usually use) spaghetti, but only angel-hair spaghetti. The dish was good, but it was a little noodle heavy, and I think it would have been much better with a thicker, wider noodle. But all in all it was tasty and very fresh. I'd definitely make it again.

Chicken Sliders with Apricot Chutney

2011-06-05T19:36:00.004-05:00

I had high hopes for these chicken sliders and apricot chutney spread from the June 2011 Cooking Light. The recipe sounded great--pulled chicken, sweet but tangy apricot chutney ... but alas, something went wrong and they weren't as good as I had hoped they would be.

I would do a few things different next time than what the recipe calls for, but we also made what I think might have been a few mistakes:

I don't think the apricots we had were ripe enough. The ones we got from Outpost were really pretty small, so I got 5 rather than 3. I thought that might help, but they were pretty tart--so that, along with the cider vinegar and Dijon mustard, made it too pucker-y.

Instead of grilled the chicken as the recipe suggests, we cooked the chicken the way we normally cook chicken when we're going to shred it--in a bit of water to keep it moist. Well, the chicken was moist all right, but it didn't have much flavor (I think the red and black pepper and salt probably washed away).

I didn't make the guacamole with it as the recipe suggests, only because the avocado I had wasn't quite ripe enough. I think this would have really helped the flavor.

If I were to make them again (and I'd try it, but with apricots I know are ripe and sweet), I'd cut down on the vinegar and mustard and definitely not cook them in water. We made ours into just regular sized sandwiches because we already had buns in the freezer.

We had some leftover chicken a few days later, and instead of using the chutney (and by then it had gone bad anyway), we reheated the chicken with barbecue sauce and cheese. Now THAT was good!

Crockpot Curried Vegetables & "Rice"

2011-05-25T18:46:00.006-05:00

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again--I love crockpot recipes, and I especially like making them for Monday night dinner. This way, we usually have plenty of leftovers for lunches and even one dinner throughout the week.

This recipe for Curried Vegetables & Rice (I'll get to the rice part) jumped out at me while flipping through my Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes. I love anything with curry, and I wanted to find a vegetarian recipe.

The recipe was super easy and had lots of great, tasty stuff in it. That being said, there are a few things I would do differently next time.

Curried Vegetables

3 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-in. chunks (3 cups)

4 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-in. slices (2 cups)

1 large red onion, cut into strips (1 cup)

1.25 cups apple juice

2 Tbs. quick-cooking tapioca

2 teas. curry powder

1 teas. grated fresh ginger (I used a little less than a teaspoon of ground ginger)

1/2 teas. salt

1/2 teas. ground cardamom

1 12.3-oz. (or 14 oz., like I used) package extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 3/4-in. cubes

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-in. slices

1 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup golden raisins

chutney (optional) (we used mango chutney)

1 cup rice uncooked

In a crockpot, combine ingredients from potatoes to cardamom.

Cover, cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

Cook rice according to package directions.

If cooking on low, turn to high heat setting. Add tofu, zucchini, peas and raisins to cooker. Cover and cook for 30 minutes more. Serve veggie mix over hot cooked rice and top with chutney.

There are two things I would do differently next time (and I would definitely make it again--it was very tasty and satisfying):

I'd brown the tofu a bit first to create a better texture and seal in some flavors before putting it in the crockpot.

The tofu wasn't as warm as we would have liked--cooking it a bit before would help this, but it would also help to cook everything on high for more like 45-60 minutes.

So, the rice ... Neither of us can make rice all that well on the stovetop, so we invested in a rice cooker a few years ago. It works really well and makes great rice. The problem is, is that Nate is usually the one who cooks it, and he was working late Monday night. So I had to make it. Long story short, the measurements didn't add up and the rice was crunchy and inedible. So instead of rice, we served the curry veggies with rice noodles I cooked. It was OK, but the rice noodle flavor was too overpowering. It would have been better with fewer noodles or just plain with no type of rice/noodle. Tonight's leftovers will be served over couscous, which I think will taste better.

Chipotle-Rubbed Flank Steak

2011-05-25T18:20:00.004-05:00

Nate picked out this recipe for Chipotle-Rubbed Flank Steak in the June issue of Cooking Light. I'm not usually a steak fan, but the chipotle part intrigued me and I knew it wouldn't be a huge slab of steak, so I agreed to it! We also made the side dishes suggested: couscous (just regular couscous made with vegetable broth) and spinach with toasted almonds (recipe below).

The entire meal was very straightforward and easy to make. we followed the recipe fairly closely, but changed a few things:

We couldn't find flank steak at Outpost, so we used something similar (I can't remember what Nate picked out).

I also couldn't find shallots so we just used part of a yellow onion we had.

We used skim rather than 1% just because it's what we buy.

We don't have a broiler pan and, frankly, I think we're both a bit nervous to try broiling anything. So we just cooked the steak in a skillet.

The steak was really good, and the Gorgonzola sauce paired nicely with the chipotle spice.

Here's what you do for the spinach with toasted almonds: Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 6 oz. package baby spinach; saute 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Add 1/8 teas. salt. Sprinkle with 3 Tbs. toasted sliced almonds.

The spinach was really good, and I liked the toasted almonds with it. However, I think I could eat the entire 6 oz. on my own! Spinach shrinks so much, that when it was cooked, there really wasn't a lot there (and it was supposed to be 4 servings!). Nate and I ate it all.

Homemade Dog Treats

2011-05-23T21:37:00.004-05:00

I was all set to bring the three types of human baked goods to the bake sale, when I had the idea to make dog treats, too. I'd been wanting to make them for my dog, April, for a while now, so I figured this was a great time to do it.

A high school friend sent me a recipe she uses for her dog and said the recipe makes a whole bunch and dogs love them. I figured it was worth trying!

Dog Bone Recipe

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup flour

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used just 2 cups cheddar)

1/2 cup wheat germ

2 Tbs. minced garlic

3 eggs

1 stick butter (I used unsalted)

3/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all ingredients together. Roll out the dough. Cut out using any shape cookie cutter or just cut in squares. Lay on greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

They were very easy to make, but incredibly messy and there was no way I could have used a cookie cutter--the dough was way too sticky. I'm not sure if it's the type of molasses I used or what, but I ended up using quite a bit of extra flour. I ended up just cutting them in strips with a pizza cutter and then into small squares after I put them on the baking sheet.

I think they turned out all right, though. April sure loves them! And my friend was right--they definitely make a ton!

Indian-Spiced Rice Treats

2011-05-23T21:30:00.003-05:00

This was the third batch of baked goodies I took to the bake sale.

I've made these once before--for an Indian-themed potluck with the ethnic dining ladies. They're super tasty and put a great spin on the typical rice krispy treat. I found the recipe from Allrecipes.com.

They're pretty straightforward and I followed the reipce exactly.

You could substitute different nuts and fruits if you wanted, but I like this combination.

Coconut Macaroons

2011-05-23T21:18:00.005-05:00

For my second batch of cookies for the bake sale, I wanted to try making coconut macaroons. I've never made them before, but alway enjoyed eating them. I contemplated trying to make French macaroons, which I love, but they seemed a bit more complicated and I wasn't sure I wanted to try a new, slightly more difficult baked good to try to sell to strangers.

After doing some Googling, I found this very simple coconut macaroon recipe on AllRecipes.com. I followed the recipe exactly, and took some of the advice I found in the comments section: let the dough sit in the frige a bit so the cookies are easier to shape. I'm not sure what it's like if you don't chill the dough, but it was easy enough--although a bit messy--to make them into balls for baking.

I doubled the recipe so that I could maximize the amount of cookies I could bring to the bake sale!

These were really easy and really good.

Dark Chocolate Bark

2011-05-23T21:03:00.004-05:00

When I was trying to figure out what I was all going to make for the Cookies for Kids' Cancer bake sale, I found this recipe in my Moosewood Restaurant Cooking For Health book (I've been using it a lot lately!). The recipe sounded delicious and easy enough to make and bag up.

It's a good recipe to tweak as you like it--you can add all different types of nuts and dried fruits. I had forgotten it called for orange peel, so I didn't pick one up and I think the dessert was just fine without it. Additional suggestions call for adding lemon peel instead of orange peel, using different nuts like pistachios or cashews and mixing in ground cinnamon or cayenne. Yum!

Here's what I did:

12 oz. 60-70% cacao dark semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate (I think the chocolate I used was like 67%)

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts and hazelnuts

1/2 cup chopped, dried apricots and cranberries

1/8 teas. coarse salt

Smoothly line a 9x13-inch baking dish with foil.

Heat the chocolate over a double boiler or in an ovenproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and smooth (don't let any water get in!). Stir in half the nuts and all the fruit, and immediately pour into prepared pan.

Spread chocolate mixture evenly. Sprinkle with salt and top with remaining nuts. Press down lightly to set nuts in chocolate.

Stick in fridge for about 30 or until firm and cool (or can let harden at room temps). Break or cut into pieces. Store in covered container at room temps or keep in fridge.

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies!

2011-05-23T20:37:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday, I--along with lots of other Milwaukee foodies, food bloggers, local chefs and people who just wanted to bake some goodies--helped with a bake sale to help raise money for an organization called Cookies For Kids' Cancer. You may remember me blogging about it here. Check out that link for the back story about the organization.

We had a great time with TONS of baked goods (anything you could think of, we had it!), great auction items (I won a huge assortment of Rishi teas) and a great group of people--both volunteers and those who came out to support us (thank you if you're one of them!). All together we raised about $2,100 which will be matched by Glad products. Pretty cool! Check out this link for pictures from the event. Check out some one of my Twitpics from the event here.

I came home with lots of great treats, including bourbon brownies, French macaroons, turtle bars, cupcakes, cookies and dog treats. I contributed four different types of baked goods. Check out each link for photos and recipes:

Chocolate bark.

Indian-spiced rice treats.

Coconut macaroons.

Dog treats.

All in all, it was a great day and great event! If you're interested in contributing to Cookies for Kids Cancer, visit this website. (The box below was almost full to the top with baked goods (thanks to my neighbor, Eileen, too for contributing 8 dozen-some cookies!)!

Pepper-Stuffed Portabellas

2011-05-19T20:42:00.004-05:00

I came across a recipe for Tex-Mex Stuffed Portabellas while flipping through Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health last weekend. The dish sounded delicious and easy enough for a weeknight meal, so we gave it a try.

The dish is supposed to be vegetarian--and it would be excellent as a vegetarian dish--but I had some Mexican-spiced ground turkey to use up, so I threw that on top, too. I made the "filling" for this dish the night before and reheated it, along with the turkey, before stuffing the portabellas before baking. It was a great dish and you can really do a lot of different things with it.

Tex-Mex Stuffed Portabellas (serves 4, but we halved the recipe for just 2 servings)

1.5 cups chopped onions

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 canned chipotle in adobo sauce, minced (I used quite a few (maybe too many?) shakes of our chipotle powder)

1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped (2-2.5 cups)

1 teas. ground corinader

1 teas. ground cumin

1/2 teas. paprika (I used smoked paprika)

1/2 teas. salt

1/4 teas. ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

3 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and finely diced (about 1 cup)

6 oz. Monterey Jack cheese (I used pepperjack), grated (about 2 cups)

4 large portabellas (4-5 in. in diameter)

minced scallions (I skipped this step)

In a skillet on medium-high heat, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil for a couple of minutes. Add the chipotle and bell peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the peppers are tender but still firm. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cilantro and tomatoes and two-thirds of the cheese.

Break off the stems of the portabellas and save them for another use or discard. Rinse the caps (gently, so they don't break--not that I broke one or anything ...), and place smooth side down in a lightly oiled baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Mound each mushroom with about 1 cup of the filling. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Cover the baking dish with the foil folded lengthwise to form a little tent so the foil won't stick to the cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350* for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese browns, 10-15 minutes. Serve topped with scallions.

We served the mushroom caps with the bulgar and butternut squash dish I made earlier in the week. I've determined the bulgar mix is good both cold and warmed up. This was a great meal, and Nate really enjoyed it, too.

Restaurant Review: Antigua

2011-05-19T20:07:00.004-05:00

It had been a while since the ethnic dining group made it out to dinner, so it was nice to get together this week and go to dinner at Antigua in West Allis. I had been to Antigua before, but years ago and I didn't remember much about it, other than it wasn't a Mexican restaurant, but a Latin restaurant.

We had a great experience--and great food--when we were there. The menu contains many tapas you can have for appetizers or order a couple to make up a meal. There is one page dedicated to Mexican food and two types of paella. Another page has different entrees from Latin American countries including Peru, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Spain, as well as Antigua-created dishes.

Rather than the usual chips and salsa, we were treated to a plate for small-bite appetizers: a piece of mango and cheese quesadilla. a lightly fried potato-puff sort of thing and an empanada-style dough pocket with meat (sorry I don't have better descriptions for the appetizers!).

Even though we had those to snack on, we couldn't pass up an order of guacamole. The guacamole was very fresh and flavorful--it had a good, strong lime taste--and it came served with fresh, homemade tortilla chips that reminded me of the ones we had in Mexico.

For meals, the other ladies each ordered a bowl of the caldito xochitl, Mexican "hot flower soup," made with chicken broth, shredded chicken, avocado, onions, tomato, rice, tortilla strips and lime. Sun and Leah had different salads, and Lisa tried one of the tapas, Yolanda empanadas.

I ordered the Peruvian dishes: lomo saltado, which was strips of beef, yellow aji pepper, vegetables and fried potatoes, served over green rice. It was delicious! My only (small) complaint was that it wasn't spicy at all, despite having two peppers next to the dish name on the menu. No worries, though--I added some of the spicy salsa our waitress brought.

We had a great time at Antigua. The service was a bit slow, but it was pretty busy for a Tuesday night, and it was nice catching up, so the time went quickly. On Tuesdays, if you tweet from Antigua you can get a free drink, so I enjoyed a mango margarita with my meal. Not a bad deal! I can't wait to go back and try something else. I'd like to check out their brunch menu sometime, too.

Restaurant Review: Firefly Urban Bar & Grill

2011-05-19T19:48:00.004-05:00

Last Friday, Nate and I went out to dinner at Firefly Urban Bar & Grill in Tosa with our friends Craig and Margo. We've been there a few times before, but hadn't been in quite some time and not since they changed up their menu.

There was a nice crowd in the back part of the restaurant, or the bar area, which I prefer. The two dining rooms at Firefly are very different from one another. The front room is much more formal. It's nice, but it's not so much my style. The back bar area, though, is more lively and has a nice bar-slash-dining room atmosphere.

I knew at least one thing on the menu I wanted to have before we even go there--the crunch salad. This salad is unbelievably good. It's made with bok choy, baby spinach, wasabi peas and a chili buttermilk dressing. Luckily, you can get the salad as a side with any of the sandwiches. So I ordered the microburgers (sliders). There were three microburgers: one had goat cheese and mojo salsa, another had tomato, basil mayo and mozzarella and the other had smoke bacon and white cheddar. The flavors were good, but the burgers were a bit dry, despite asking for them to be cooked to medium.

Nate ordered the firefly burger, which came with pepperjack cheese, bacon, pickled jalapenos, lettuce, tomato, haystack onions and chipotle mayo. Schwoo! He had it with a side of creamy tomato soup. I had a bite of it and it was really tasty. Very filling, too--he couldn't even finish it!

Craig had the all-you-can-eat fish fry (for the record, he didn't even get seconds) which he said was good, and Margo had the chicken torta--pulled chicken, coriander sour cream, cilantro, avocado and pickled onions--as well as the crunch salad, after I told her both were delicious. Both of them seemed to enjoy their meals!

Overall, we had a good experience. They have a great beer list, which of course was great. Service was just a tad slow, but that was OK, as we just chit chatted the whole time.

We talked about saving room for the tableside s'mores, but we ended up going to Cold Spoons for gelato afterward. Yum! (That's a combo of sea salt caramel and blood-orange gelato.)

Bulgar & Butternut Squash Side Dish

2011-05-15T18:09:00.005-05:00

There were a few reasons to make this dish, which is based on a recipe I found in my Moosewood Restaurant Cooking For Health book:

I needed a side dish to go with the Tex-Mex stuffed portabella mushrooms I plan to make for Wednesday's dinner (recipe from this same cookbook).

I needed to use up the rest of the butternut squash I had, after making the chickpea chili.

I needed to come up with a good pre-workout snack that had complex ("good") carbs and other good stuff.

I found a recipe for quinoa and sweet potatoes, and decided to adapt it to what I had--bulgar and butternut squash. Bulgar is a whole grain that has lots of protein and fiber, plus lots of vitamins and minerals.

Bulgar & Butternut Squash

2 cups cooked bulgar

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 cup diced onions

1/2 teas. salt

about 2 cups diced butternut squash

2 cups lightly packed finely chopped fresh spinach

3 Tbs toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 Tbs. minced scallions

1 Tbs. lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, bring water to a boil then add butternut squash. Cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil and cook onions and salt over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes. Turn off heat. Add butternut squash, bulgar and rest of ingredients to pot. Stir to mix. Season as desired.

I've only had a few bites of this so far, but it's really pretty tasty. There's a lot you can do with it--add other foods or take some out. I can't decide yet if it'd be better hot or cold--I think it would work both ways! You could also add some cooked ground chicken, turkey or beef if you wanted to make it a full, well-rounded and healthy meal.

CCC: Crockpot Chickpea Chili

2011-05-15T17:49:00.004-05:00

In the same issue of Cooking Light that I found the shrimp pad Thai, I also found a recipe for Chickpea Chili in the crockpot. I had been looking for a vegetarian meal and something to put in the crockpot for a Monday night meal. Perfect!

The meal took some prep time, so don't think you can just throw a few things in the crockpot, all willy nilly, and be done with it. The recipe calls for dried chickpeas (although I supposed canned would be all right), which you have to let stand in boiling water for 1 hour. There is also a lot of chopping, as the recipe calls for butternut squash, onion and garlic. BUT, it's all worth it. This meal was delicious and hearty. And it makes a ton--we've had six servings of it, plus there are at least two, maybe three more, in the freezer.

We pretty much followed the recipe, but did a few things differently:

Used veggie broth rather than chicken broth to make it fully vegetarian (and, honestly, I had veggie broth on hand!).

I couldn't find golden raisins at Outpost, so we used regular (brown?) raisins.

I didn't have fresh cilantro, but I had had some in the freezer, in ice-cube form, so I defrosted that and used it. I think fresh cilantro would be better, but alas.

The chili was great over the couscous, but I think it would be great just plain, too. The only thing I would do differently next time is make it spicy--the recipe calls for a bit of ground red pepper, but I'd add more or a jalapeno--something. Also, one thing to note--the recipe calls for pimiento-stuffed olives, which I love, but Nate doesn't like. We added them anyway, and he said they tasted just fine.

Shrimp Pad Thai a la Cooking Light

2011-05-15T17:37:00.004-05:00

While flipping through the March 2011 issue of Cooking Light not too long ago, a recipe for Shrimp Pad Thai caught my eye. I love just about any kind of Thai or Thai-inspired dish, and we hadn't made anything with shrimp in a while, so this was great.

The recipe was super easy and didn't take much time. We followed the recipe exactly. I think next time we make it I would do just a few things different:

Add more Sriracha, although it's fine to add to the plate after it's cooked.

Add a bit more shrimp. The recipe only calls for 8 oz., so divided by four servings, that's not too much. We cut up the shrimp, too, for maximum plate coverage! Also, I think tofu would be good in it, too.

I think most pad Thai recipes call for eggs to be mixed in while stir frying the veggies and shrimp, so I'd definitely do that next time.

We served the pad Thai with some baked spring rolls we picked up in the sale bin at Outpost. It was all very tasty!

Vegetarian Lentil Loaf

2011-05-08T16:54:00.004-05:00

I've had a vegetarian cookbook, Quick & Easy Tasty Vegetarian, for a few years now (it was on sale at Border's for $1.99! I couldn't pass it up). I've only made one or two recipes out of it, although everything looks really tasty (well, the name of the cookbook indicates that!). I thought a good vegetarian meal would be good after a somewhat meat-heavy weekend.

I picked the lentil roast, because it looked healthy, easy and was something I could make Sunday afternoon and pop in the oven when I got home Monday night.

Lentil Roast

1 cup red lentils (I used brown (I think that's what they were) lentils, as I had a bunch in the pantry)

2 cups vegetable stock (I used broth)

1 bay leaf (I used 3 because mine are pretty old)

1 Tbs. butter, softened (omit if decide just to use cooking spray)

2 Tbs. dried whole wheat breadcrumbs (I used some random, probably white bread, breadcrumbs I had)

1 cups grated sharp cheddar

1 leek, finely chopped

4.5 oz. button mushrooms, finely chopped

1.5 cups fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs

2 Tbs. chopped parsley

1 Tbs. lemon juice

2 eggs, slightly beaten

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375*. Put lentils, stock/broth and bay leaf in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed and the lentils have softened (this probably took me more like 45 minutes--I'm not sure if it's because I used different lentils or what, but the lentils didn't soak up the broth for quite a while). Discard bay leaf.

Line a 4 oz. loaf pan with baking parchment, grease with butter and sprinkle with dried bread crumbs (I ended up just using cooking spray because the parchment paper wasn't working too well for me).

Stir the cheese, leek, mushrooms, fresh breadcrumbs and parsley into the lentils. Bind the mixture together with the lemon juice and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until golden.

Loosen loaf with a spatula and turn onto warmed serving plate (ours didn't exactly loosen so well and really look like a loaf when we were done. I figured it all tasted the same, though!).

This was really pretty tasty--the browned, crusty parts were my favorite. The recipe doesn't say how many servings this makes, but we turned it into five servings--six or seven would probably be better, though, as all those lentils and breadcrumbs make it really filling! We served the lentil loaf with some peas and leftover zucchini and yellow squash.

Homemade White Corn Tortillas

2011-05-08T16:08:00.008-05:00

After having such delicious, fresh and always homemade tortillas in Mexico, I knew it was only a matter of time before Nate and I would attempt to make them from scratch. Luckily, my parents happened to have a tortilla press they bought at El Rey's years ago that was just collecting dust in their basement.

I had looked up a few tortilla recipes (including one from Pam Mehnert's A Year of Inconvenience blog), and they seemed really easy to make and just included three ingredients: maseca (instant corn masa flour), salt and water.

We ended up following the recipe on the back of the maseca bag, as we wanted to make quite a few tortillas so we could freeze them for future use. Here's how much of everything we used and what we did:

2 cups maseca (we used white corn, but you can buy yellow corn maseca, too)

1.25 cups water

1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all three ingredients. Mix thoroughly for about two minutes, forming soft dough. If dough is too dry, add more water, 1 Tbs. at a time (I think we added 1 or 2 Tbs.).

Divide dough in 16 equal balls (we weighed the entire mound of dough on our food scale and then divided by 16). Cover with a damp cloth to keep dough moist.

Line a tortilla press with two sheets of thick plastic wrap (we took a quart-sized resealable bag and split the seams. This worked very well). Place each ball between the plastic and press down until the tortilla measures 5-6 inches in diameter (this is pretty much the diameter of our tortilla press). Carefully peel off plastic wrap.

Preheat ungreased griddle, skillet or cast iron pan (very important--I don't think the skillet was warm enough for the first few we cooked). Cook tortillas one at a time (well, we ended up cooking two at once in our big skillet--it worked fine), for about 1 minute per side (we generally cooked them until they browned just a bit). Cover tortillas with cloth napkin (or keep in warm oven) to keep them soft and warm.

These were fantastic, and I doubt I'll ever use store-bought tortillas again. The size is great, too--I much prefer having one or two small tortillas or tacos to one giant one. Yeah, it takes more time to make these than going out and buying some from the store. But the process was not complicated and really only took us about half an hour. Now that we at least kind of know what we're doing, I think it will go even faster next time.

Slow-Cooked Pork Carnitas for Tacos

2011-05-08T15:56:00.005-05:00

After I determined I wanted to make homemade tortillas, I needed to figure out what to put inside of them. I'd been thinking about making carnitas for a while, so that's what we went with. I thought a crockpot recipe would be best, as I knew we'd be busy making everything else from scratch and wouldn't be able to devote much of the stove top, or our time, to making the carnitas.

I found this recipe for slow-cooked pork carnitas on Outpost General Manager Pam Mehnert's blog, A Year of Inconvenience (for an entire year, Pam made everything she cooked at home from scratch--pretty crazy AND awesome). I followed the recipe exactly, except for one thing: I substituted chipotle powder for the ancho chile powder, since I had some in the spice cupboard.

The carnitas were great and perfect for our tacos (it doesn't appear that I took a picture of the finished product. Oops!). This would also be a good filling for tamales (another thing we plan to make sooner than later). Nate also put some leftovers on a sandwich. I'd definitely make the recipe again. Next time, though, I think I would bake the pork for a few minutes after taking it out of the crockpot to get that crispness carnitas usually have.

Queso Fresco

2011-05-08T15:41:00.004-05:00

It never really occurred to me to make queso fresco from scratch, until I saw a JSOnline article and recipe for it just a few days before our big Mexican meal. It sounded wonderfully simple, so I figured we should give it a try.

We followed the recipe exactly (I'm guessing it's best to do so!). The whole process really only took 10-15 minutes. We didn't let the mixture strain for too long (maybe 10 minutes?), which we should maybe do next time. I wonder if that would make it a little harder and more crumbly?

The cheese was good, but not quite as good as store bought queso fresco. It wasn't quite as salty, either, which is probably good for me, but doesn't taste quite as good.

I'd definitely make this again, though, and I'd try adding more salt next time and letting it strain for longer.

Salsa Verde

2011-05-08T15:20:00.004-05:00

When we were at our cooking class in Zihuatanejo, Monica, the chef, told us salsa verde is very easy and quick to make. It only contains tomatillos (which stink before you cook them, by the way), onions and garlic.

So last weekend, for our big Mexican meal, I picked up some tomatillos at El Rey's when we stopped for supplies. I loosely followed this recipe from Simply Recipes. Here's what I used and did to make the salsa verde:

Six tomatillos, husks removed

1 jalapeno (seeds and all), cut in chunks

about 2 Tbs. cilantro

1/3 of an onion, cut in chunks

about 4 garlic cloves, cut in half

salt to taste

Place tomatillos in sauce pan, filled with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Put everything in a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

You could just stop right there, but I simmered the salsa for about 10 minutes to kick up the flavor. I realized it needed some more salt as I kept tasting it. I think it's best to salt after you try it so it doesn't turn out to salty.

The salsa was really tasty with tortilla chips and on the tacos, and, like Monica said, really easy to make. We'll definitely be making this again. I'll probably make a bigger batch next time and freeze more of it for future use.

Mexican Food From Scratch

2011-05-08T15:10:00.005-05:00

Since coming home from our fantastic Mexico trip, I've been wanting to make some of the delicious foods we had. We still need to set aside some time to make the chiles rellenos we made in our cooking class, but for last Sunday's dinner we opted for something maybe just a little more simple: carnitas in the crockpot, white corn tortillas, queso fresco and salsa verde.

It definitely takes longer to make tortillas, cheese and salsa from scratch than to buy it premade, of course, but it's SO worth the time and effort. After making the tortillas, I declared I'll never use store-bought tortillas again.

Because there were so many steps for each of these foods, I figured they each deserved their own blog post, complete with lots of pictures. So visit the individual webpages for the carnitas in the crockpot, white corn tortillas, queso fresco and salsa verde.

What Are You Doing May 21?

2011-05-01T17:41:00.004-05:00

If you're around Milwaukee, you should definitely stop by Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery to check out the Cookies for Kids' Cancer bake sale and silent auction. There, local foodies, bloggers, chefs, bakers (really, anyone who wants to help out!) will be there, selling our homemade goods. Additionally, there will be a silent auction going on throughout the afternoon.

Cookies for Kids' Cancer is a nonprofit that two parents started to help raise money for their son's cancer by hosting one huge bake sale. Over the years, more and more bake sales throughout the country (and even in Canada, I believe) have been held by people who want to raise money for kids' cancer effective therapies.

Here are the details for the bake sale that is being held in Milwaukee:

WHEN: 1-4:00 p.m. Saturday, May 21

WHERE: Best Place, 901. W. Juneau Ave.

WHAT: Bake sale with tons of homemade goodies plus a silent auction

RSVP: If you're on Facebook, RSVP here. Or, just feel free to show up!

MORE INFORMATION: Learn more about the organization

Now, just to whet your appetite, here is a sampling of what I'm going to be making for the bake sale:

Dark chocolate bark with nuts (maybe hazelnuts?) and dried fruits (I'm thinking cranberries, apricots and maybe something else?)

Indian-spiced rice treats. I've made these before, and they are SUPER tasty! The recipe calls for cardamon, cashews and golden raisins.

Coconut macroons. I've never made them before, but they're always delicious, and I think they'll go over well.

So what are you waiting for? Sounds like a pretty great event, right? You get to buy home-baked goods from people who really love to cook and bake all the while supporting a great cause. See you there!

Honey-Mustard Glazed Salmon

2011-05-01T17:26:00.004-05:00

We bought some great-looking wild salmon fillets from Outpost when they were on sale a while ago. I've had a hankerin' for salmon lately, so when we decided to make them, I busted out my Betty Crocker Cookbook to find a recipe.

I found a great, super easy one that turned out really well and tasted great (although, as usual, we cooked the salmon a little too long).

Honey-Mustard Glazed Salmon

1 Tb. packed brown sugar

1 Tbs. butter, melted

1 Tbs. soy sauce

1 Tbs. honey

1 Tbs. mustard (we used Dijon)

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 lb. salmon fillet

Mix all ingredients (other than salmon) in a bowl. Place salmon in a baking dish and coat it with marinade. Place in fridge up to an hour (but at least 15 minutes).

The recipe says to broil the fish, but we don't have a broiling pan, so we just baked it. We baked the fish (if I remember correctly--I should have written it down!) at 375* for about 20 minutes. But be sure to check the fish every five minutes or so to make sure you're not overcooking it.

We served the fish with a random package of flavored chickpeas I got at Trader Joe's a while ago (they were pretty good!) and asparagus with our favorite sauce (much like the salmon marinade, we just combined 1 Tbs. honey, 1 Tbs. mustard and 1 Tbs. olive oil. Drizzle over asparagus).

Pasta Puttanesca

2011-05-01T17:09:00.004-05:00

This recipe from the May 2011 Cooking Light for pasta puttanesca (curiously enough, the Italian translation means "whore's style spaghetti." Interesting.) caught my eye as I was flipping through it a while ago. The finished product looked tasted and it seemed very easy to make. I was also intrigued by cooking with anchovies for the first time.

I was right--the recipe was super simple and very tasty. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used shredded, rather than grated, Parmesan cheese. I would definitely make this again. I think I might actually use more anchovies next time, as you really couldn't taste them and the dish wasn't nearly as salty as I thought it would be with the anchovies, olives and capers.

This sauce is also a good base to use for future sauces and to stop buying the jarred/canned sauces. Sauce is so easy to make, and if you start with a plain base you can do anything you want with it!

Bacon-Beer Bread Grilled Cheese--Vote for Me!

2011-04-25T20:23:00.004-05:00

About a week ago, I came across a post on DudeFoods blog (check out his blog--he eats the craziest concoctions and lives to write about them), talking about the ultimate grilled cheese contest. With a $50 Williams-Sonoma gift card and cheese at stake, I knew I--along with Nate's help--had to participate.

We immediately put our heads together to think of a delicious grilled cheese we could enter. We had lot of ideas (one involved a pretzel roll; the other involved some Mexican cheeses), but ultimately we decided on the Bacon-Beer Bread Grilled Cheese we made for dinner Sunday night and submitted to the contest.

Low and behold, our creation is one of nine finalists in the contest! We're alongside some pretty crazy and delicious-looking grilled cheese creations. Even if we don't win, it was really fun coming up with something somewhat crazy (it's not everyday we make bacon-beer bread around here, but it could come to that). But, it would be fun to win, so I ask that you check out what we made and go to DudeFoods' Facebook page, "like" the page and then vote for our creation by "liking" the photo.

Bacon-Beer Bread Grilled Cheese (serves 2)

four slices beer-bacon bread (see recipe below)

sharp cheddar cheese (enough slices to cover one side of the bread)

chipotle cheddar cheese (enough slices to cover one side of the bread)

Bavarian mustard

3 slices cooked cherrywood-smoked bacon

2 eggs, fried

1 large tomato, sliced

butter for outside of sandwich

For each sandwich, take two slices of bread. Spread butter on outer sides of bread and mustard on the inner sides. Top bread with slices of sharp cheddar, followed by the cooked bacon (1.5 slices per sandwich), tomato, 1 fried egg and chipotle cheddar. top with other slice of bread.

Cook in a large skillet over medium heat, until bread is browned and cheese is melted. Put cover on skillet if cheese isn't melting.

The sandwiches were very over-the-top compared to the grilled cheeses we usually make, but they were so tasty, and all the flavors worked really well together. So, if it sounds good to you, too, please go vote for it!

Beer Bacon Bread (12 slices, 1.5 lb. recipe)
Recipe from Betty Crocker's Bread Machine Book

3/4 cup flat beer

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup chopped green onions

2 Tbs. mustard (we used Dijon)

1 Tbs. butter, softened

3 1/4 cups bread flour

1 Tbs. sugar

3/4 teas. salt

1 3/4 teas. bread machine or quick active dry yeast

1/3 cup crumbled cooked bacon (we used cherrywood-smoked bacon)

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except bacon in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Add bacon at the raisin/nut signal.

Select basic/white cycle. Use medium or light crust color. Do not use delay cycles. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack. (We like slicing the cooled bread with an electric knife.)

BBQ Deviled Eggs

2011-04-25T20:02:00.004-05:00

I needed an appetizer to take to my parents' house for a Saturday evening Easter dinner. I knew I wanted to do something with eggs, and coming across these two BBQ Deviled Egg recipes--one from Southern Living and one from Very Culinary blog (thanks @Burp_Blog for the heads up!)--made me make my decision.

I decided to make up my own recipe based on the two I found:

8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

1/4 cup mayo

1 teas. honey mustard

1/8 teas. salt

1/8 teas. hot sauce

a few drops of liquid smoke

1 Tbs. (plus a bit extra) BBQ sauce (I love Saz's BBQ sauce)

2 strips cherrywood-smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled (be sure these are chopped pretty small if you're using a piping bag)

smoked paprika--a few shakes for the mix plus a few shakes for the top of the eggs

about 2 tbs. sliced green onions

Cut the peeled eggs in half and carefully remove the yolks (I also like to slice a bit of the white part off the bottom of the eggs so that they stay put on a plate, but it's not a necessary step). Put the yolks in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients (minus the green onions) and mix well.

Take a Zip-loc bag and fill the bag with the mixture, using a rubber spatula to get all of the mix at the bottom of the bag. Snip a corner of the bag to make a piping bag. Fill the insides of the eggs with the mix. Top with a few shakes of paprika and green onions.

These deviled eggs were really, really good. I would definitely make them again. They were really easy to make (other than peeling the eggs--I have some troubles with that). They were a big with our small group.

"Light" Beer-Cheese Soup

2011-04-21T20:12:00.004-05:00

It doesn't seem like something that has beer and cheese as the primary ingredients in it can be considered light, but this Cooking Light version is a great, light version of the soup. I've never made a non-light beer cheese soup, but I have a feeling many versions include a lot of cheese and heavy cream. This recipe uses 2% milk (which I'm glad I used instead of skim) and only 5 oz. of cheese. Despite the "light" ingredients, the soup had a wonderful, full flavor and was very creamy.

I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used regular sharp cheddar, rather than extra sharp. I think it was fine as it was, but the extra sharp would probably take it to another level.

For the beer, we used one of Nate's homebrews, West River (a play on Lakefront's Riverwest Stein). Even though I used chicken broth, as the recipe calls for, you could easily use vegetable broth and make this vegetarian, instead. Next time I made the croutons, I'll probably add some garlic powder or garlic salt to give them some extra flavor.

I made the soup on a Sunday afternoon, intending to have it for dinner Monday. When I got home from work on Monday, I put the cooked soup in the crockpot and set it to low for about 2.5 hours. It worked well and was ready to go when we were ready to eat.

Making It Up As I Go: Huevos Rancheros

2011-04-21T19:57:00.004-05:00

Two things brought about this huevos rancheros meal on weeknight (yes, night!):

Missing the wonderful food and flavors we had in Mexico.

The need to use up a random assortment of food in the fridge and pantry.

So with tortillas, eggs, salsa and a mix of beans, onions and peppers plus some chickpeas, we made up this version of huevos rancheros.

It was so simple to make, delicious and, fairly, healthy (the huge tortillas and cheese were probably the worst parts). Here's what we did and used:

2 large flour tortillas

4 eggs

1/2 jar salsa

a leftover, already cooked mixture of pinto beans with jalapeno bits, bell pepper and onion, seasoned with garlic powder, chili powder, etc.

about 1/2 cup corn

about 1/2 cup leftover chickpeas

about 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat bean and veggie mix with salsa and corn. Bring to a boil and then simmer.

Make four eggs over easy (so the eggs are set but the yolks are still runny).

Pop the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds on medium heat.

Place the tortillas on a plate and layer with bean and veggie mix. Top shredded cheese and then the eggs. Top with hot sauce.

This meal was so easy and delicious--but it was way too filling with all those beans, eggs and the huge tortilla! I think next time I would cut back on the beans and use smaller tortillas. We served the huevos rancheros with a fruit salad.

Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwiches)

2011-04-21T19:08:00.005-05:00

I've only had banh mi once in my life--a few years ago in New York's Chinatown--but I dare say it was the best sandwich I ever had. I was visiting my cousin, Becky--who now lives in Brooklyn--and we traveled to Chinatown for lunch. I can't remember if I had read about banh mi before or if we just stumbled upon a place. But we ended up at Saigon Vietnamese Sandwich Deli. The place was really small--just enough room to order take out and leave--but it was reasonable and super, super tasty. I still remember what we had: Becky ordered the beef lemongrass, and I had the house special, which I believe had Vietnamese salami on it along with another form of pork. It was amazingly delicious. We both still talk about it to this day.

Anyway, I digress. Despite having been to a number of Vietnamese restaurants in the Milwaukee area, I've never had--or seen on the menu--a banh mi. I know they're out there, and after having a homemade version this weekend, I'll definitely be seeking it out. So when I came across a tweet about a food blogger's version of a banh mi--and after looking at the drool-worthy photos--I knew we would be making banh mi for dinner sooner than later. It seems like a lot goes into the recipe, but it was really very simple.

Ashley, of Not Without Salt, recently posted this recipe for banh mi with pork meatballs (just look at those photos!). I followed the recipe exactly (except I just realized now, reading it over again, I forgot to sprinkle rice wine vinegar on the carrots and radish--oops).

The only thing, is that my meatballs did NOT turn out like hers did. I think the pork I had was really pretty fatty, and browning them in oil on a pan--and adding extra grease--did not help. So, our sandwiches were more like banh mi with ground pork. Nevertheless, the taste was there and was fantastic!

Before:

After:

If I made them again (and I'd like to!) I would do two things differently:

If I used pork again, I'd probably add an egg or something to the meatballs to get them to stick. Or, I'd use ground chicken or turkey, which I think would stay in the meatball shape a little easier.

Instead of buying individuals rolls or buns for the sandwiches, I bought a baguette and cut it into sandwich-sizes. The bread was fantastic (it was from Breadsmith), but because it was crusty and a bit tough to chew, it was an incredibly messy meal. I think I'd get softer rolls next time.

The Sriracha mayo served with it was fantastic, and we dipped some of the sweet potatoes we had on the side in the mayo. The next day, we used the mayo mix for a veggie dip. I think we'll be making the mayo again even sooner!

Pan-Seared Bass "All'amatriciana"

2011-04-13T20:32:00.004-05:00

I put "all'amatriciana" in quotes because it wasn't a true sauce, but was pretty similar. The real sauce uses guanciale (or cured pork jowl), pecorino and tomatoes. The only ingredient out of those three we used was the tomato. We subbed prosciutto for the guanciale and didn't use any cheese (looking back, we really should have used some Parmesan).

But let me back up. We've had some lake bass in the freezer since Nate caught it fishing when we were up north last fall. We came across a recipe in an old Cooking Light that called for (sea) bass and this all'amatriciana sauce.

We made it for dinner Saturday night, and it turned out really well. We made a few adjustments-- mostly we used more than the recipe called for! We also decided the sauce would be really good over noodles, or maybe even polenta.

Here is the recipe. We halved the recipe, since we only had two (big!) pieces of fish, and used a little more proscuitto, onions, crushed red pepper and balsamic vinegar than the recipe called for. But that's OK--everything turned out great!

For sides, we made salads and a box of Near East curry pilaf (good stuff!).

Proscuitto Pizza

2011-04-13T20:10:00.004-05:00

Last Friday, Nate and I were craving pizza, so we picked up some fresh dough and toppings at Outpost. Since it was a decent night, we thought we'd throw it on the grill, our favorite way to make pizza.

For toppings, we had sliced tomatoes, chopped red onion, slices of fresh mozarella and slices of proscuitto. We used some basic marinara sauce as our pizza sauce.

The pizza was really, really good--the proscuitto added some great flavor, and who doesn't love fresh moz? The only thing I would do differently next time is use a lighter, maybe olive oil sauce, rather than a red sauce.

Making Chiles Rellenos in Mexico

2011-04-10T13:52:00.010-05:00

Before our recent Mexican vacation, I had come across some Zihuatanejo cooking school websites, and I knew it would be something Nate and I would love to do. We ended up choosing Patio Mexica, mostly because the owner got back to me sooner than another one did. This one ended up being much cheaper than the other one I was looking at (about $55 compared to $20). And, it turns out, it was only about three blocks from our hotel!

So on the Saturday during our vacation, Nate and I ventured to Patio Mexica (connected to Rufo's Grill, which we had an excellent fish dinner at the night before) to learn how to make chiles rellenos. I had never made them before, but had tasted them and knew it would be a great experience.

The class was pretty full, as it was Monica's last class of the season, before taking a break and going on vacation herself. We made four types of chiles rellenos:

Chiles en nogada: chiles stuffed with beef and pork, plus raisins (or cranberries), apple, pear and walnuts, topped with a sweetened sour cream sauce and some more dried cranberries (or pomegranate seeds). The finished product is supposed to represent the Mexican flag. (I had my first chile en nogada not too long ago at Botanas).

Chile rellenos poblanos: This is probably what you think of when you hear "chiles rellenos." This type is also made with a poblano pepper, and then it's rolled in flour, beaten eggs and fried in hot oil. The ones we made just had wonderful queso fresco inside of them. These were served with a simple yet delicious sauce, made with tomatoes, onions and garlic.

Chile rellenos ancho: These were prepared the same as the ones above, but instead of the fresh poblano, we used dried poblanos, which are called ancho chiles. It gives the chile rellenos a different taste and texture, but it's just as good.

Chile rellenos cuaresmenos: These peppers resemble large jalapeno chiles and they can be stuffed with all sorts of fillings--we used beans, some of the meat from the other chile rellenos and a tuna salad mix. We did not fry them.

The class was pretty hands on, as we were to help roast the poblanos to get the skins off, de-seed the ancho chiles and prepare them for stuffing.

One of the most fun parts was stuffing the poblanos and anchos with the filling, dipping them in the batter and frying them. Nate and I both tried it--it was messy, but fun!

Of course, the very best part of the class was tasting everything when we were done!

We got to try at least bits of each of the chiles rellenos, plus they have us some delicious and refreshing hibiscus flower water and baskets of very fresh tortillas. Everything was absolutely delicious and flavorful.

After lunch, some of us, including Nate, tried making some of those fresh tortillas. It's not as easy as it looks! The first one Nate made was a little too thin, and he had to do it again. But it worked well the second time!

All in all, it was a great time and a great experience. Monica holds Wednesday classes in which she takes the class to the market and then makes a lunch with the fresh products the class picks up. I'd love to do that one next time we're there! :)

Comida Mexicana

2011-04-10T13:24:00.011-05:00

Recently, Nate, my parents and I spent a wonderful week in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. There, we relaxed, spent hours at the beach, drank a lot of Mexican cerveza (plus margaritas, pina coladas ... you get the picture) and, of course, ate lots of wonderful food. Lucky for you, I took tons of food pictures (seriously, by the end of the trip, I was tired of documenting our meals!). (Also, please note, that I didn't actually eat all the meals pictured below, but I did, for the most part, at least have a bite of everyone's meal--it really pays off being a food blogger!) Zihua is a great, mid-sized city with tourist amenities, as well as an authentic town feel and culture. We did not stay at an all-inclusive hotel (I think you'd be hard-pressed to even find one in Zihua), but rather a small, "mom-and-pop" type hotel with just a few rooms and barely a reception desk. Lucky for us, this meant we got to try lots of different restaurants, as well as have some meals in our room, due to having a mini kitchen with a fridge, microwave and toaster. Each morning (other than the two mornings we went out for breakfast), we started with some fruit and often fresh pastries in our hotel rooms. The fruit was outstanding (except for a bad papaya we picked up)--we had lots of bananas, two types of mangoes and a mini watermelon. There was a bakery near us that had outstanding pastries. I'm not sure what they were, but the mini loaves of coconut bread were fantastic. We often at our lunches while lounging at the beach. Because we weren't at a typical resort, and because Zihua has four main beaches, we spent the day or majority of the day at different beaches, at different restaurants. There, for lunches, we had a variety of Mexican food, which usually included seafood. We had ... .... shrimp and fish tacos. .... lots of guacamole, fresh salsa and freshly made tortilla chips. ... one of my favorites, shrimp salad in an avocado half, served on saltine crackers. ... another of my favorites, that I had never had before but I wanted to try down there, chilaquiles. I had these twice--once for lunch (pictured here) and once for breakfast. I preferred the lunch one, I think mostly because of the red sauce. ... black bean and cheese sopes. For dinners, we again had lots of seafood. If you don't like seafood, I have to say it would be hard to eat a lot of different meals in Zihua--it seems to be in everything! For dinners, we had ... ... fish fillets with different sauces (just about every meal we had came with a side of freshly made corn or flour tortillas. I'm not sure I can go back to having the packaged tortillas we have here!). ... octopus with different sauces. ... shrimp in a tasty, spicy chipotle sauce. ... beef, bacon, veggie and pineapple "fajitas," although they were called something different on the menu. ... octopus, fish and shrimp, cooked in a molcajete. ... pozole (one of the things I can't wait to make at home). That's actually just a taste of everything we had in Mexico. I'd love to document it all here, but, sadly, I don't think there is enough room! For more pictures of the food we had, visit On My Table's Facebook page.

Saying Happy Birthday with Yogurt

2011-03-28T21:32:00.004-05:00

(Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos when I was making these cupcakes, so you'll just have to imagine them!) (Also, I wrote this post about two weeks ago ...) I try to take in a birthday treat to work every year (last year I made Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes), mostly because I like cooking and baking. This year, it kind of snuck up on me and it doesn't help that my mind is mentally, already, in Mexico (we leave for vacation on my actual birthday, March 30). That said, I started thinking today that I should take something to work tomorrow. I put out a call on Twitter to see if anyone had any suggestions. Rachel (aka @Magrick) gave me a good idea: she remembered back to our conversation yesterday at Paul and Lori's soup night about us needing to use up all our yogurt before leaving for the week. I did some Googling, and came across this recipe for "Wonderful Yogurt Cake." I knew I didn't want to make an entire cake (plus, I don't have a bundt pan (Gasp! I know ... ), so luckily I came across one of the comments left below the recipe about making cupcakes instead. I was pretty intrigued by the thought of using yogurt in baking, PLUS I was super excited to use some of the yogurt up, so I don't end up having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow. Anyhoo, you can follow along with the actual recipe. Otherwise, here is what I ended up doing. I've never really experimented with baking, so this was kind of fun! Wonderful Yogurt Cupcakes makes 12

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar (I mixed brown and white sugar)

1 teas. vanilla extract

about 1/8 teas. almond extract

1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1/2 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt

2 cups AP flour

1 egg

1 teas. baking soda

1/2 teas. baking powder

jam (I used a three-berry jam)

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin/cupcake tins with nonstick spray.

In a bowl, cream butter, sugar and extracts. Beat in egg until smooth. In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into the sugar mixture, alternating with yogurt.

Scoop half the mixture into the muffin tins. Using a 1/2 teaspoon, drop a dollop of jam on top of each bit of batter. Put the rest of the mixture on top of each cupcake.

Bake for 350 for 30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Using a shaker or sifter, sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Nate and I split one after dinner tonight (I didn't want to take something horrible into work!). They're really quite good--they're not dry at all and the jam gives it a nice kick. They aren't too sweet either, which I really like. I'm sure they'd be good with frosting, but they're just as good with just the powdered sugar.

Beer Tasting in Sheboygan

2011-03-28T20:45:00.006-05:00

Sometime last week, Nate noticed a tweet about an upcoming beer event about an hour north of us, called Sipping on Sheboygan's Shores at Blue Harbor Resort (we really were sipping on the shores!).

We didn't have plans for Saturday afternoon into evening, and because we love beer, we thought it would be a good idea to sign up for it. There wasn't a ton of information for us to read before the event, but we figured it would be a pretty good deal--it was $40 a person or $75 for two, which included beer, wine and food, so we went for it. yes, we drank beer from wine glasses. I liked that the beer didn't get too warm.

The event was a fun time, and we definitely got our money's worth. It's always fun to go and try new beers and even some favorites. Most of the beers were local, while there were a few nationwide distributors there with familiar brews. We each sampled at least one beer from each of the stands. Those breweries included:

Ale Asylum

Capital

Dogfish Head

Grumpy Troll

Hinterland

Leinenkugel

New Belgium

New Glarus

Sprecher

Silver Creek

Some beers were better than others (we tried Young's Double Chocolate Stout mixed with Raspberry Lambic--yuck! I actually had to throw it out. Waaay too sweet).

It was nice that there was food available--always an important thing when you're drinking for three hours in the afternoon. There were a few local restaurants that had food available. One of our favorites were these open-faced Reuben sandwiches and chocolate cupcakes. There was also ravioli, which I thought was weird. It was probably more for the wine drinkers, but it's not the easiest thing to eat when you're sipping. Also, the resort's restaurant had some food available. It, too, wasn't all that easy to eat for a tasting event, but it was good--beer cheese soup, pork tacos, cured meats and pickled vegetables.

All in all, it was a nice event, and I'm glad we made the trip up there. It wasn't too crowded, or it was spread out enough, that made it manageable and enjoyable.

Restaurant Review: Wasabi

2011-03-28T20:15:00.005-05:00

Last week, Nate and I went out for sushi with our friends Craig and Margo. We've been trying to plan a sushi night for months, and it finally worked out last week. We thought we would try something different and go somewhere none of us had been: Wasabi, in Brookfield. I had heard from many people that the food was good and fresh. I was excited to check it out.

Since we were there on a Sunday evening, it wasn't too crowded so we got seated right away. For some reason they sat us at a table that needed clearing and cleaning, but since we preferred a booth over a table, we didn't mind. The place is nice--chic and sophisticated, but not cold.

We started with a bowl of salty edamame--you can't go wrong there. It was good, but a bit overcooked. I had a cup of tea to start with. I think I just ordered "tea," and I'm pretty sure, after some Wikipedia-ing after our dinner, I got a cup of genmaicha, which is green tea with brown rice. It was good, but kind of surprised me at first!

For our main meal, we decided to split four types of rolls (much to Craig's chagrin--he's not much of a sushi fan, but he was a sport and tried everything). Here are the four rolls we had were, and our overall impressions:

Alaskan (below, right): Fresh salmon, crab meat, avocado and lettuce. This was one of our favorites, and it happened to be the most simple and cheapest (by $4!). I don't think I've ever had lettuce in a roll, and it gave it a really nice crunch.

Miller (bottom picture): Tuna, salmon, yellow tail and red snapper, rolled with cucumber sheet and ponzu sauce. The cucumber sheet threw me--I don't think any of us noticed this on the menu. So instead of the roll being wrapped in nori, it was wrapped in cucumber. I really didn't like the cucumber--since it's such a watery vegetable, you couldn't taste the flavors of the fish (and with three types of fish, you should be able to taste the fish).

Crunch (below, middle): Shrimp tempura, cucumber, avocado, crunch powder and BBQ sauce. This one was good, but none of us thought it was great. We all enjoyed eating the bits of "crunch" covered with sweet BBQ sauce that fell off the rolls, though!

Las Vegas (below, left): Salmon and creamy sauce over spicy crab, crunch and avocado. This was the other favorite. The cream sauce was a nice addition and the "crunch" gave it nice texture. While some of them say they are spicy, none of them were at all.

So it sounds like that is a lot of food, but we probably would have been OK ordering one or two more rolls--we all left hungry! (Luckily, Kopp's is pretty close, so we filled up on custard).

Overall, we had a good experience, but I probably wouldn't rush back. I'd try a new place or go back to one of my favorite's, Takara. Our server was neither good nor bad--just kind of "blah."

Irish Cheeseburgers with Whiskey Onions

2011-03-20T12:20:00.005-05:00

I found this recipe for Irish Burgers and Whiskey-Caramelized Onions posted over on our friends' and local food bloggers' site Burp! Where Food Happens blog, and I knew immediately we had to make it sooner than later. I knew Nate would be in with the mere mention of "burger," and not to mention "Irish" and "whiskey."

So we decided to go ahead and make them for dinner Saturday night, which was a nice enough nice that we could bust out the grill for the first time in 2011.

We followed the recipe exactly (much to Nate's dismay, I put the kibosh on adding whiskey to the beef, saying we needed to follow the recipe closely for the first time). Everything was incredibly easy and amazingly delicious. I'm still thinking about those burgers a day later--I'm also relishing in the fact that we're having the other two burgers for Monday night's dinner.

Some plugs for where to purchase some of the items:

I stopped at the Spice House in Wauwatosa to pick up dried juniper berries. When I asked them how to best grind the berries, because I don't have a spice grinder (yet ...), they offered to grind them for me. How nice! I love this place.
My mom and I were running errands Saturday afternoon, so we took a trip to the West Allis Cheese and Sausage Shoppe. I've never been to their location in West Allis (only the stand at the Milwaukee Public Market). what a great place! Plenty of fantastic cheese, meats, beer and local products. I found Dubliner cheese there.

The burgers were fantastic, and as I said to Nate a few times, I would be happy just eating forkfuls of the delicious caramelized onions on their own! When--not if--we make these again, I would do two things differently:

1. I would make the sourdough rye focaccia Paul and Lori made with their burgers. We pulled some plain hamburger buns out of the freezer to have with ours, and they weren't that tasty anymore.

2. I can't believe I'm saying this (I'm not usually a fan of having any sort of rare or medium beef), but I would ask Nate to grill the burgers for a little less, so they're still a bit pink in the middle. I think these might have been cooked just a wee bit too long.

With the burgers, we made asparagus and one of our favorites, sweet potato fries (we seasoned them a bit differently this time--we sprinkled them with chipotle power and smokey paprika. Delicious!).

Crockpot Oatmeal

2011-03-20T12:08:00.004-05:00

I came across this recipe for making oatmeal in the crockpot in a somewhat recent Outpost newsletter. I love oatmeal and eat a lot of it, but I usually stick to the same ol' bowl of oatmeal. I thought this might be a nice change of pace, and the thought of throwing everything in the crockpot Sunday night to have this ready for Monday's breakfast sounded great.

I followed the recipe exactly, except for one thing--I used raisins (since I had them) instead of dried cranberries or dates.

The oatmeal turned out well and the house smelled amazing in the morning. One thing Nate and I both agreed on, though, was that it really didn't taste like oatmeal--you couldn't quite taste the oatmeals and tasted more like raisins and apples than anything else.

If I made it again--and I probably will--I'd definitely use less brown sugar (I usually don't add any sugar to my oatmeal, just a bit of honey and raisins), because it was a little too sweet for me. I'd probably try a different type of dried fruit, too, because I have raisins quite a bit. I think you could do a lot of different things with this recipe to really make it your own.

Restaurant Review: Cosmos Cafe

2011-03-20T11:41:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday, I wanted to use one of my Groupons for lunch somewhere. We decided to go to Cosmos Cafe in Wauwatosa because it was close and we had been there once before, and it was delicious.

We got there about 12:30 and the place was packed--it's not a very big place (there are about six tables and some counter seating), but the line to order at the counter was almost out the door. It's a really cute place with a family-diner atmosphere. The menu isn't extensive, but that's OK--everything they do is really good. Most of the menu items are Greek (Greek salad, gyros, souvlaki, spinach pie), with a few other items thrown in (like cheeseburgers, BLTs, BBQ pork).

We had a great meal and a great time at Cosmos. I ordered the Mediterranean salad, which was a huge plate of mixed greens, onions, feta, Kalamata olives, cucumbers, red and green bell peppers and Greek dressing. It came with a slice of bread that I kept dipping in tzatziki sauce (each table has a squirt bottle of the stuff--I want one!).

Nate ordered the gyro souvlaki--it had two big pieces of seasoned lamb wrapped in a pita with onions, some French fries (!), tzatziki and mustard. He also got a side of the Greek fries, which, of course, I had to help him eat. The fries were super fresh, warm and crisp, with feta crumbled on top (it was only after we finished most of them that I realized I didn't take a picture). These, too, were good dipped in tzatziki.

If you haven't been to Cosmos Cafe yet, and are looking for a cozy place for a great meal, check it out!

Restaurant Review: Quiote

2011-03-14T21:04:00.005-05:00

You may have never heard of Quiote. It hasn't been open too long, and it's kind of tucked away in an unnoticeable spot--it's on Hawley Road and Bluemound Road, down the block from Barbiere's, on Milwaukee's westside. The building has changed hands a couple of times over the last few years, and Quiote opened there in late 2010 (check out a brief article about the restaurant on JSOnline).

I drive past Quiote on my way home from work, and I'm always curious what's going on in the building. My parents had just heard about it, too, so the three of us plus Nate headed there Saturday night.

For starters, it's a really small place--really small. There are only about five tables, and only one fits four people (and we were the only people in there at about 8:30 on a Saturday night). Second, they don't serve alcohol, which could be a deterrent, but I took it as a good opportunity to have a bottle of Jarritos, a Mexican soda. I opted for the pineapple one and Nate got strawberry. Yum!

The food, however, makes up for any lack of space and lack of alcohol. It was outstanding--almost unexpected.

We started with some guacamole (delicious, fresh and nice and chunky) and chips (not homemade--they don't have a fryer--but fresh and tasty) and I ordered a bowl of the tortilla soup for everyone to try. There wasn't much to the soup--just a broth with some chips, cheese and avocado--but it had wonderful flavors.

For meals, my mom ordered the enchiladas with the green tomatillo sauce, and Nate ordered the pollo con mole, with the Coloradito mole sauce. Both were served with the house rice and black beans (I love getting black beans on the side other than refried beans) and both were really good.

My dad and I ordered the same thing, and both of us were trying it for the first time: a hurache. The corn masa tortilla was topped with pork al pastor, salsa, onions, queso fresco, lettuce, tomato and avocado. It almost reminded me of a Mexican pizza. It was delicious! I've never had anything like it, and would gladly try one of the other versions sometime.

Overall, we had a great meal and I can't wait to get back and try more. I highly recommend it--it's a small business I'd like to support and get everyone to try it.

Restaurant Review: Maharaja

2011-03-14T20:34:00.003-05:00

I've been to Maharaja, an Indian restaurant on Milwaukee's eastside a few times now. I'd say it's one of the best Indian restaurants in Milwaukee. The food is always good and fresh, and there's so much to choose from. And you get hot washcloths at the end of your meal!

Last Friday, we were looking for a place to go with our friends Amanda and Jon before seeing a play at the Milwaukee Rep. I had a http://www.restaurant.com/ gift certificate for Maharaja ($25 off!) and they had never been, so we headed there.

As we munched on papadum, we opted to make an easy decision as far as our meal went--we ordered two combination dinners: the "non-vegetable meal for two" and the "vegetable meal for two." Both combinations came with tons of great food:

Non-vegetable meal:

Chicken pakora.
Chicken and mushrooms.
Lamb masala.
Dal makhni.
Basmati rice.
Naan.
Choice of dessert (more on that later!).

Vegetable meal:

Four samosas.
Saag paneer.
Vegetable korma.
Karhi pakora.
Basmati rice.
Naan.
Choice of dessert.

Everything was really, really tasty--and filling! I think my favorites were the dal, saag paneer and vegetable korma. I usually order vegetarian main dishes in Indian restaurants, and I think I really prefer the vegetarian ones. Just a personal preference. And next time I eat there, I'll ask for the meals to be spicy--we asked for medium heat, and there was no spice to it at all.

These two combinations were definitely enough for four people--plus, we each took leftovers home, giving us an additional meal.

For dessert, we each got to choose a dessert, so we opted for four different things and tried them all. We had mango ice cream, kheer, gulab jamun and kulfi. Everything was really tasty and very different from desserts you normally order (be sure to click on the descriptions to see just what I'm talking about).

Overall, our meal was great, but I have to say the service was very slow--the restaurant wasn't too crowded, and our meal took about 1.5 hours. Normally, it wouldn't have been too big of a deal, but we had to get to the theater!

Creamy Curried Pea Soup

2011-03-07T21:15:00.005-06:00

I wanted to make a meatless meal for dinner Monday (ever hear of "Meatless Monday?" If you're on Twitter or Facebook, you may have seen mention of it. Check out this website for more information). So I decided to look through our Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health cookbook, because all the recipes are vegetarian.

When I found this recipe, I knew this is what I would make: Creamy Curried Pea Soup. YUM! who doesn't like curry, peas, neufachetel cheese and more? The soup turned out really well, and it was easy to make, although I had a few issues with it. I'll post the recipe and exact instructions, and then I'll tell you how I made it.

Creamy Curried Pea Soup

2 Tbs. olive oil
1.5 cups chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teas. salt
1 cup chopped carrots
1 Tbs. curry powder (I used hot curry powder)
1/2 teas. ground turmeric
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
3 cups fresh spinach (about 5 oz.)
1/3 cup packed fresh cilantro, large stems removed
1/8 teas. ground black pepper
4 oz. neufchatel cheese

In a soup pot on medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the onions, garlic and salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and turmeric. Add the broth and 1 cup of peas, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until all the vegetables are very soft, about 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the spinach, cilantro, black pepper and neufchatel. In a blender in batches, puree the soup until very smooth. Stir in the remaining cup of peas and add salt to taste. Reheat gently on low heat--don't let boil.

So it sounds really easy, right? And it would have been, but I think I read the directions too many times and confused myself. At first, I thought you were supposed to add all the vegetables except the last cup of peas and puree it then. So I added the vegetables, but then I got confused, and thought no, you add everything but the spinach and then puree. So I used tongs to get most of the spinach out and pureed the soup then. But then I realized the spinach was supposed to be pureed, too! (I think I had been in the kitchen too long at this point!)

Long story short, I don't think it matters too much what veggies you puree or what you leave whole. However ours turned out was really good--great flavors and a bit of heat. I really liked it; Nate said it could use some protein, whether it be chicken, tofu or something like chickpeas. It's not a bad idea, and something I would consider next time. We served the soup with some naan, which really hit the spot.

Crab and Shrimp Étouffée, S'il Vous Plaît!

2011-03-07T20:44:00.005-06:00

In honor of Mardi Gras, I wanted to make a traditional Cajun or New Orelans-style dish. I've never made, or even eaten, etouffee, so I thought this would be a good time to do so.

(Yes, that is a straw in Nate's beer--he needed a way to drink it while cleaning and cutting the shrimp!)

I found a recipe for Crab and Shrimp Etouffee recipe on MyRecipes.com that looked really good. And it ended up tasting even better!

We followed the recipe pretty closely, except for a few changes:

If I would have bought the exact amount of shrimp and crab the recipe calls for, it would have been really expensive (it was fairly expensive as it was!). So I elected to use about 1.65 pounds of fresh, raw shrimp, and a 7.5 oz. (I think that was the size) can of crab meat, because I couldn't find fresh crab (other than crab legs) at Outpost. This turned out to be a perfect amount of seafood for the dish. The shrimp we had were huge, so we cut them into thirds.
Instead of chicken broth, I used veggie broth.
Instead of Creole seasoning, I used Cajun seasoning, just because I had some on hand and hadn't used it yet.

I used 1 teas. of hot sauce (garlic Cholula) instead of 1/2 teas.
We made brown rice with the dish.

The etouffee was really pretty easy to prep and make. The total time wasn't too bad--probably about half an hour--but for Nate to clean and devein the shrimp, it took quite a while.

The dish was awesome, and it was one of the meals that every few minutes I would remark "Man, this is good!" I can't wait to have the leftovers for dinner tomorrow.

Restaurant Review: Sobelman's Tallgrass Grill

2011-03-07T19:06:00.006-06:00

I've been wanting to try Sobelman's Tallgrass Grill for sometime now. I really like that all of the burgers are made from grass-fed, humanely raised beef and that the restaurant uses as many local products as it can. I've had a Groupon for a while, too, and it was set to expire in a few weeks, so Nate and I checked it out Saturday night.

I wanted to enjoy the place, I really did (I like the other Sobelman's burgers, so I had high hopes for the experience and flavors), but unfortunately, neither Nate nor I really enjoyed our burgers. The restaurant itself is nice--it's a really casual, order-at-the-counter kind of place with lots of condiments (including jalapeno ketchup!) on each table, making for easy access. They have a few beers on tap, including a special Sprecher beer brewed for Tallgrass Grill.

I ordered the Fresco Burger, which came with chipotle jack cheese, tomato, avocado and raw red onion. It sounded good when I was contemplating what to get, but the flavors just didn't work. I'm definitely one to order burgers--or any kind of beef, really--well done, but when you have a lean, grass-fed burger, you usually want it a little more on the medium side. These burgers were pretty well done. The flavors of everything else just weren't very good or prominent--the tomato was either not ripe or old, giving it an odd flavor. The cheese didn't have much flavor either, which really surprised me. I like red onion, but this was too much--all I could taste was the onion. The sweet potato fries I elected to get for an extra $1 were good--they tasted fresh and crispy. The bun was also good. They're the same buns they use at the Sobelman's on St. Paul.

Nate ordered the Jalapeno Bacon Cheese Burger, which came with the chipotle jack cheese as well and jalapeno-flavored bacon. He was a bit disappointed in the size of the burgers--they're supposed to be 1/3 pound burgers, but looked more like 1/4 pound burgers. He said the bacon was good, nice and smokey, but there wasn't much on it. He said he could taste the pepper in the cheese, which was good. He had the regular fries with his burger, which were OK, but nothing special. He said the sweet potato frieds were much better.

Overall, we had a bit of a disappointing experience. Like I said, the place is nice, but I wouldn't rush back for a burger. There are much better places in Milwaukee--including the original Sobelman's.

Shepherd's Pie

2011-03-03T18:55:00.003-06:00

For Monday's dinner, I picked a recipe out of the Hot Dish Heaven cookbook I wrote about after Christmas. Lots of the recipes look good, but when I came across the one for Shepherd's Pie, I knew that was the one. I've been craving Shepherd's Pie for a while, now, so this worked out perfectly.

I've always loved Shepherd's Pie--I like that everything you need for dinner is all in one--protein, carbs and veggies. When you make it on your own, too, you can really add what you want and flavor it the way you like it.

This recipe was good--and fairly traditional--but it needed a little something extra. Next time I make it, I think I'll flavor the meat a bit more (more garlic, more Worcestershire sauce, some salt, maybe some spice). It was good, though, and very satisfying on a cold, winter night.

Shepherd's Pie (4 servings)

2 Tbs. oil
1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
1 clove garlic, minced or finely chopped (I used two cloves)
1 lb. regular or lean ground beef
1 large carrot, grated (or a 15-oz. can of sliced carrots or mixed peas and carrots, drained
1 Tbs. fresh thyme leaves or 1 teas. dried thyme
1.5-2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
Few grinds black pepper
I also added 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 cups mashed potatoes (leftover homemade, thawed frozen or prepared instant potatoes) (I made homemade mashed--boil chunks of potatoes for about 20 minutes, then add in milk, butter, garlic, salt and pepper and beat with electric beaters)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add onion and garlic; stir fry until onion is translucent. Add ground beef, breaking it into chunks. Brown beef for a few minutes, then add carrots and thyme. Cook 5 minutes more. Stir in Worcestershire and pepper.

Spoon meat mixture into a 10-inch pie plate or 8-inch round baking dish. Soon mashed potatoes on top of meat mixture, making an even layer. Use the back of a tablespoon to make swirls in the potatoes.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until meat mixture bubbles and potatoes are golden.

This recipe was really easy, and I made everything Sunday afternoon and then just put it all together before baking it on Monday.

We served the pie with my favorite Brussels sprouts. Yum!

Freelance Restaurant Review: Charro

2011-02-27T16:36:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago, I did a freelance assignment for the new Brookfield news website, www.brookfield-wi.patch.com. I dined at Charro, in Brookfield, because of its recently updated menu. Check out my reivew, "Charro Changes Up Choices."