Restaurant Review: Takara

Over the years, Takara, in Elm Grove, has become our favorite sushi restaurant. I can't even remember how we discovered it, but I'm glad we did. They've got great sushi at great prices (lots of rolls are about half off Sunday-Tuesday) and it's a cute, cozy place.

Last week, I met some former coworkers there for dinner, and it was great as usual. Jeanne and I split an appetizer and sushi rolls. For an appetizer, we had the shumai, or steamed shrimp dumpling. It was tasty and just the right amount of food for an appetizer.

For rolls, we had two types of rolls found under "Chef's special roll." One was called Beauty and the Beast: spicy tuna topped with tuna, salmon, yellowtail and avocado (the row of rolls in the middle). Unfortunately, I can't find the other one on the online menu, but I know it had spicy lobster in it. They were both really tasty and different than other sushi rolls I've had.

Janice, opted for non-sushi menu items: a house salad with the house dressing and the vegetable tempura appetizer. Everything looked great (gotta love anything with a tempura batter!) and Janice said it was tasty.

Overall, it was a great eating experience, as usual, at Takara. The service can sometimes be a bit slow, but I always know I'm in for great food, so it makes waiting that much easier.

Cooking Demonstration Recap

As many of you know by now (through Facebook, Twitter or word of mouth), I participated in a cooking demonstration last week. The demo took place during the Milwaukee NARI Home Improvement Show at State Fair Park. It was really fun, although I was incredibly nervous leading up to it.

Let me back up a bit. Last summer, I got an e-mail from the editor of M magazine, asking if I wanted to be profiled in an upcoming article on local bloggers. Of course, I said yes! Please! After the issue came out, someone from Ron Sonntag PR contacted me and said he had an opportunity I might be interested in. Turns out, Ron Sonntag PR helps organize the homeshow, and, in particular, the cooking demos. So, I was chosen as one of the cooks (along with a chef from Saz's, Princess Di's former chef and a former Hell's Kitchen contestant).

I put off thinking about the demo for quite some time. Then, before I knew it, it was the end of January and I had to figure out what the heck I was going to make! Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult to figure it out. I knew I wanted to make something I created on my own--I didn't want to just follow someone else's recipe. And I figured that meant making Mexican, as it's something I love and something I am very comfortable making.

So I decided to make veggie and bean burritos, guacamole and pan-fried tortilla chips. Nate was my right-hand man, up on stage with me and helping through the whole process. It was much appreciated, and allowed me the opportunity to tell some stories and jokes.

We had a lot of fun. As I said, I was pretty nervous going into it, but lucky for me (I guess you could say that!) I had a really busy week at work and didn't have much time to dwell on it.

Thanks to my friend Lisa for taking some pictures during the whole thing (I hear there is a video of me making guacamole, too! If it works, I'll post it to the blog). And thanks to other friends and family for coming out to watch: my parents, friend Leah, and mother in law and step-father in law. Thank you so much everyone--it means a lot!

Here is what we made for the demo and the recipes we used. Nate and I did a test run about two weeks before the actual event, so that's where the food pictures came from. Unfortunately, there wasn't an oven to use to bake the burritos during the demo, so we had to take them home and bake them (no big deal, though!).

Gucamole (serves 4)

• 1 1/2 avocados (reserve the other half for burritos)
• 2 tbs. red onion, chopped
• 1 tbs. prepared red salsa
• 1/4 teas. lemon juice
• 1 teas. mayonnaise
• 1/4 teas. each garlic powder, cumin, coriander and chili powder
• 1/8 teas. garlic salt, salt and pepper

Cut open avocado and remove pit. Scoop out fruit in a medium bowl and mash with a spoon, fork or potato masher. Add the rest of ingredients and mix well. It tastes better if it sits for a little bit (half hour to an hour) in or out of the fridge.

Pan-fried Tortilla Chips (serves 4)

• 4 small tortillas
• cooking spray
• 1/4 teas. each garlic powder, garlic salt and ground black pepper
• 1/8 teas. each salt and chili powder (both optional)

Stack the tortillas on a cutting board, and with a sharp knife, cut tortillas into 8 wedges, making a total of 32 wedges. In a small bowl, mix spices.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, and heat the skillet on medium-high heat. Place the tortillas on the hot skillet and coat with additional cooking spray, then flip tortillas a few times to coat. Sprinkle with spice mix, then flip the tortilla wedges a few times to coat with spice mix. Cook the tortillas on one side for 3-4 minutes (until the bottom is crispy) and then turn each tortilla over, using tongs. Let tortillas cook for another 3-4 minutes (until the chips are crispy and have browned edges). (It's best to cook the tortillas in one thing layer (not piled up) if possible.)

Let cool for 1-2 minutes and serve with guacamole.

Veggie and Bean Burritos (serves 4 (but they're huge!))

• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup orange, red or yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, chopped (optional)
• 1 can black beans (reserve 1/4 cup liquid), rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, rinsed
• 1/4 prepared red salsa plus more for burrito topping
• 1/2 teas. (or more or less to taste) each cumin, coriander, garlic powder and dried cilantro
• 1/2 teas. chili powder (optional)
• 1/4 teas. (or more or less to taste) each ground black pepper and garlic salt
• 1/4 teas. cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 and 2/3 cups shredded pepper Jack cheese (or any other cheese or combination of cheeses)
• 4 large tortillas
• cooking spray
• 1/2 an avocado, sliced (leftover from guacamole)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add chopped peppers and onions, and cook about 7 minutes, with cover on, until tender. Add beans, salsa and spices. Bring to a boil and simmer, with cover on, for 10 minutes.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Using a slotted spoon, scoop a 1/4 cup of bean mixture into a tortilla. Top with 1/3 cup shredded cheese. Tuck tortilla into burrito shape--fold in sides first, then top and bottom, making sure to keep sides tucked in tight. Repeat process with the three remaining tortillas. Spread a dollop of salsa on top of each burrito and use the remaining 1/3 cup shredded cheese on top of 4 burritos.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn broiler on for another 5. Top with avocado slices.

Super Bowl Eats: French Dips & Crispy Footballs

If you didn't know, the Super Bowl was this past Sunday and the Green Bay Packers won! Having the Packers in the Super Bowl was cause for a small celebration, so we invited my parents over, as well as our friend Craig and Margo.

Everyone provided great food--Margo and Craig brought little smokies two ways: in a tasty and slightly spicy sauce in the crockpot, as well as rolled in cresent dough and baked for a few minutes. My parents brought spinach dip, a beer cheese dip and one of my favorites, sesame potatoes (hashbrowns baked in sour cream, cream cheese and other deliciousness!).

For our part, Nate and I made crockpot French dip sandwiches. and I attempted to make mini Rice Krispy footballs (more about that later).

I had never made French dip sandwiches before, and franky, I'm not sure I've ever ordered one. But a few weeks ago, my coworker Val was talking about a tasty and easy crockpot recipe she had. I thought it would be perfect for a Packers gathering.

Here is the recipe I used, from Our Best Bites food blog. We followed it pretty closely, with a few additions:

-We used a 3 lb. rump roast, since we knew we were cooking for six people.

-We used just one cup of water and then a bottle of Nate's homebrew to give it some more flavor.

-For additional toppings, we sliced and sauteed onions, mushrooms and green pepper.

-Next time, I wouldn't add so much water. I'd pour the beer in, and if the meat is uncovered at all, I'd put some water in just to cover or mostly cover the meat.

We served the sandwiches (we topped them with provolone cheese) on fairly large, crusty sub rolls from Peter Sciortinos Bakery, and, of course, with a side of the au jus and my mom's potatoes. Yum!

Years ago, for a Super Bowl party, I had made Rice Krispy treats in the shape of footballs. I remember those being good, but not quite as flavorful as what I was looking for (and I couldn't find that recipe!). So I did some Googling and came across this recipe from About.com Cooking for Kids (should be easy enough, right?).

I had a helluva time making these things, and even vowed never to make Rice Krispy treats again (we'll see what happens!). They tasted really good, so that was good. But it was a mess trying to get the mixture out of the bowl when I was done and on to the wax paper. I formed the first few footballs fairly easily, but as the mixture started to harden, it was almost impossible--plus my hands were continously covered with the mixture.

So, I attempted to just stuff the mixture in a pie plate (why a pie plate, I don't know--I was desperate!). Then, I thought, well, maybe from the pie plate I could make football-type shapes by taking a chunk and shaping them. That worked ... OK. Some looked better than others. I was so frustrated by this point, that I didn't want to make any icing for lacing, but then as I looked at the treats some more, they looked really ridiculous without the lacing (not going to lie--they looked like turds!).

So I made some homemade icing, and, of course, I ran out of powered sugar! Nate was out and about later on and he picked up some more for me, so I could finally put the laces on them. Like I said they tasted pretty good (they had Nutella in them, after all!), but getting to that point was a bit of a mess! (And it looks like I didn't take a picture of the final product. Oops!)

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Last Friday, we had a hankerin' for pizza (really, though, when don't we have a hankerin' for pizza?!). I wanted to try a topping flavor we'd never had before, and for whatever reason--even though I'm not a fan of chicken wings--a buffalo chicken pizza came to mind. Nate loves wings, so I knew he'd be all for it.

I really just made up the pizza as I went, which was kind of fun. You can add or take away whatever ingredients you want or don't want, but I wouldn't recommend piling on too many toppings. The only thing I would change about making this next time is that I would use a thicker crust or maybe a premade crust (like a Boboli). I love thin crust pizza, but with such a buttery sauce, it got a little messy and a bit soggy.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

-1 bag of premade pizza dough (it's easiest to work with when it's room temperature)

-3 tbs. Frank's Red Hot sauce

-2 tbs. Cholula hot sauce

-3 tbs. butter

-about 2 tbs. ranch dressing

-about 1/2 cup red onion, chopped

-1 chicken breast

-about 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

-salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

In a small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in both Frank's Red Hot and Cholula and stir to combine.

Cut the chicken in about 1-inch pieces and coat with some salt, pepper and garlic powder in a skillet.. Pour in hot sauce and butter mixture. Cook chicken on medium-high until no longer pink (about 7 minutes), chopping it as it cooks to make smaller pieces. Set aside once cooked.

Spray a small skillet with cooking spray, and cook onions on medium-high until tender.

Roll out dough on a floured surface. My crust never ends up being in a perfect circle, but I figure that's OK--it all tastes the same! Place dough on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Prick a few times with a fork. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for about 5 minutes (you'll just want to cook the crust a bit so it's not so soggy).

Take dough out of the oven and leave on the baking sheet. Coat crust with ranch dressing, then top with chicken mixture and red onions. Cover with shredded cheese.

Bake in the oven, again at 350, for about 10 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. Turn on the broiler for a few minutes if desired.

The taste of the pizza was really, really, good--it was good leftover the next day, too. Next time, in addition to the thicker crust, I would maybe leave out the ranch. While I love ranch, and I know ranch/bleu cheese is a vital part of chicken wings, you couldn't really taste it, as the butter and hot sauce taste really over powered everything. I had my pizza with some celery sticks, to keep with the buffalo wing theme!

Wild Rice Meatloaf with Cheese Sauce

Over the weekend, we were at my parents' house, and my mom gave me a huge bag of wild rice. Every time my dad goes up north on business, he brings back wild rice, so they have three or four big bags of it!

This bag also came with a little recipe booklet, and while all of the recipes looked good, one stuck out--Wild Rice Meatloaf with Cheese Sauce. I'm not quite sure why, because growing up, I hated meatloaf (just ask my mom!). But I wanted to try it, and this recipe was different than any I had ever seen.

For starters, the recipe called for 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice, which you had to cook before it went in the meatloaf. So for 1/2 cup wild rice, bring 1.5 cups water to a boil, add wild rice and return to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer, covered for 50-60 minutes (50 minutes was perfect for me). You could easily make this the night before and just keep it in the fridge until needed.

For the meatloaf:

-the cooked wild rice (comes to about 2 cups cooked)

-1 lb. ground beef

-3 eggs beaten

-2 ribs celery, chopped

-1 medium onion, chopped

-3/4 cup chopped fresh mushrooms

-1 tsp. salt

-1/4 teas. pepper

-I also added about 1/4 teas. garlic powder

Combine beef with the eggs, wild rice, celery, onion, mushrooms, salt and pepper. Pat into a 9x3x5 loaf/bread pan, coated with cooking spray, and bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

When there is about 5-7 minutes left on the meatloaf, make the cheese sauce:

-2 tsp. butter

-2 tsp. flour

-1 cup milk

-1 cup grated cheddar cheese

In a saucepan, melt butter. With a whisk, mix in flour. When mixed, pour in milk and add cheese, constantly whisking to melt cheese and thicken.

When the meatloaf is done, take out of the pan (flip over on to a plate or tray).

Pour cheese sauce over the meatloaf. Slice and serve. We got five servings out of ours.

We served the meatloaf with frozen peas--this is exactly the type of meal my mom made when I was growing up!

2011 MKE Chili Bowl

Last Sunday, Nate and I and our friends Amanda and John headed to the 2011 Milwaukee Chili Bowl, an annual event held the Sunday before the Super Bowl. This was our third chili bowl, and I blogged about it last year. It's a fun event, and gives you the opportunity to try new and unique chilis from restaurants you might not otherwise try or have been wanting to try for a while.

This year's event was again held at the Harley-Davidson Museum. About 25 local restaurants participated in the event. There were four chili-type categories: traditional, vegetarian, unique and spicy. The event was fun and filling as usual, but no one chili really stands out as something I'd like to have again and again.

Some thoughts about the event ...

I'd like to go through and rate each chili like I did last year, but for one, I lost the sheet that held all my notes and two, it could very well be information overload! So here's the lowdown on our favorites and least favorites:

Least favorites:

-Traditional chili from Madam Belle's Saloon: Unfortunately, this chili had no flavor--it really just tasted like ground meat with a bit of tomato flavor.

-Unique chili from Iron Horse Hotel: This chili included chocolate, venison and blueberries. It was unique all right, but the flavor just didn't work for us. I think it was too much.

Good but not quite our favorites:

-The Fast Foodie's Indian curry chili (with and without chicken) was fantastic, but really didn't taste anything like chili. It was more just a curry soup. (I would definitely have it again!)

-Chili Lili's Cuban was pretty tasty and definitely different. It was the last chili we tasted, however, and by then, I had had way too much. We should have had this one closer to the beginning!

-Irene's Catering's vegetarian was good--it was your typical chunky vegetable chili with lots of good flavor.

-Il Mito's turkey, lamb and pork smoked chili. This unique version was really tasty, and there was a long line for it, so we knew it had to be good.

The two that really stuck out:

-Bunker's vegetarian chili was really quite good--it had tofu and lots of veggies with a great sauce/broth served over a little bun.

-Mulligan's vegetarian chili was the one I voted for as my favorite. It was a roasted poblano pepper and corn chili with lots of vegetables. It's the one I could definitely eat over and over and over ...

Overall, it was a fun event, as usual. The one complaint I have is that the event is growing so much, that it seems to be growing out of the space it's been in the last two year. The room at the Harley Museum is nice, but it's too small and the crowds just don't flow. It'd be nice for the event to be in a bigger space next year, if possible.

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash

When I first flipped through the January/February issue of Cooking Light, the recipe for Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash really stuck out. We had a few butternut squashes to use, and this looked like a good way to use them.

A tagine is traditionally a Moroccan dish, named for the pot in which it is cooked. Tagines are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures resulting in tender meat and aromatic vegetables and sauce.

The recipe was really easy and pretty quick. The hardest part is peeling and cutting the butternut squash. We followed the recipe exactly except that we used veggie brother rather than chicken broth (just because it's what we had). I didn't use fresh cilantro, either--I didn't want to buy a huge bunch of it for only 1/4 cup. The recipe says it's four servings, but it turned into 5 for us (it's usually the other way around! We usually eat a four-serving meal in one sitting!). The squash cooked a lot faster than I thought it would--within 10 minutes the squash was pretty soft and after the 15 minutes, the squash was kind of mushy. But it was still very tasty!

We also made the scallion couscous that was at the end of the recipe. Here's what we did for that:

Bring 3/4 cup fat-free lower-sodium chicken (we used veggie) broth and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Gradually stir in 1 cup uncooked couscous. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork. Stir in 1/3 cup chopped green onions. (I love couscous--it's so easy, quick and good for you.)