I have been a bad little blogger. I feel I need to redeem myself by writing about all of the fabulous little gems I have found over the last few months.
First is Adriana's www.adrianasonthehill.com Adriana's is a little sandwich shop on the hill. It has very minimal hours (10:30 AM-3 PM M-SAT) and from what I can tell is ALWAYS crowded. That being said, it is crowded for a reason. They have fantastic sandwiches, fresh salads with homemade dressing and what looks to be pretty great pizza, pasta, soup, etc. The thing I like most, is you can get almost of all of their sandwiches as a half and that, coupled with a small side salad (spend the $1.75 and upgrade your side salad to the Adriana's salad), makes for a pretty delightful lunch. I also fancy myself a bit of a meatball connoisseur. Adrian's meatball sandwich is perfect (although it could be a little hotter temp wise sometimes). The bread is chewy and of course Italian. The meatballs seem to be mix of pork and beef-maybe a smidge of veal. The meatballs aren't really in ball, more like a oval, which makes them easier to eat in the sandwich and are slathered in just the right amount of homemade red sauce. They are then covered in provel and mozzarella. Really a super meatball sandwich. I wouldn't rate it number one, but it is definitely top five in STL.
Second is Franco http://eatatfranco.com/ Franco is an odd little place. Odd because of its location. If you are at the front of the farmers market (I consider the front the part on broadway), Franco is down the alley on the north side. It is in the kind of location where you second guess parking your car on the street. I took the chance and was pleased. This was a great experience for two main reasons.
1. The food was great. Their fare is considered french and there are number of french inspired items on the menu (escargot, cassoulet, etc). I had an appetizer of sweet breads (they are my weakness). They were lightly fried and placed on a bed of puff pastry and root veggies. It was a really great twist on what normally is just a pile of sweet breads on a plate (I am fine with this too). For my main I had the mussels and frites. The frites were hot and pefectly salty. The mussels were great although served with a tomato sauce, vs the typically white wine garlic, which I would have preferred.
2. The bartender/manager were very attentive and by attentive I mean gave me free drinks. One of the many benefits to dining alone as a woman is often times, you end up with free things. Free appetizer, a surprise amuse bouche, but my favorite is always the free drinks. Not only did I get a free glass of wine but also a free appertif called Dumante Verdenoce, which is a Italian, Pistachio liquor. It smells like maraschino cherries, is viscous and quite nice. I obtained this freebie by simply asking what it was (a good ploy). Overall it was a great experience. The space is beautiful-think industrial comfy, if that is such a thing. A great place to take a date.
Third is the new Local Harvest Cafe Downtown http://localharvestcafe.com/downtown/ I have been looking for a good breakfast place for a while. Breakfast is my fav meal and STL seems to be lacking in good breakfast places (although I am proud of the number of brunches popping up as of late). The Local Harvest downtown is at 9th & Locus and is in a re-purposed post office. They did a great job in keeping the vintage details and so the space is beautiful. The menu is really interesting. The thing I like about Local Harvest is that they have a number of options for both carnivores, vegetarians and vegans. Although I clearly love my meat, I love trying vegan and veggie food, especially when I know it will be good. The coffee was good and hot. They had three special boozy breakfast cocktails, including a Bloody Mary made with gin. I opted for a the "Huevos Montulenos fresh corn cakes, two sunny side up
eggs, beans, chili sauce, pico de gallo, house made queso fresco, fried
banana, and flour tortillas." They had me at fried banana. It was fresh, filling and flavorful.
I will try to be more diligent in my blogging moving forward. My next blog will highlight my recent trip to Chicago and all of the delightful finds.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Saturday = Productive
I was very productive this Saturday. This pleased me as I have not been very productive as of late. These are the tasks I accomplished:
1. Grocery Shopping-
I was having friends over for a dinner party Saturday night, so I needed to shop for that as well as for food for the week. I absolutely LOVE grocery shopping, so this was a welcome part of my Saturday.
2. Kenrick's-
If you have never been to www.kenricks.com Kenrick's meat market you are missing out. It is a combination old fashioned butcher shop, deli and BBQ joint all rolled into one. They have tons of deli options, about 10 different kinds of bratwurst, fresh meat and CHEAP filets wrapped in bacon. I got some deli meat for the week, some filets and some chicken. Oh and some meat sticks. I can never say no to meat sticks. SCORE.
3. Lowe's-
I planned on putting some shelves up today and I KNOW I had purchased brackets for them before, but had apparently misplaced them. I ran to Lowe's to buy more and also bought some lightbulbs and a cool nightlight which is LED with dusk/dawn functionality (who knew nightlights got so fancy)
4. Bookshelves-
I have this large area in our upstairs hallway that was made for book shelves. I have lived in this house for just over 2 1/2 years now, and I have never gotten around to putting shelves up. I finally motivated myself to do it this Saturday and am very pleased with the results. I still have some work to do (obviously), but putting up the trim to finish this off should be an easy task. I am pretty proud of myself.
5. Schlafly-
After all of the activity, I was rather hungry, I went to Schlafly (www.schlafly.com/)to watch the Olympics and have a sandwich and a beer. I love Schlafly. They have great food for a brewery, it is clean, comfy and you have about 10-12 craft beer options. I settled in and ordered their AIPA, which is yummy. Slightly bitter, hoppy, fully bodied and delightful. Pretty high alcohol content, so I stuck to one. I ordered the prime rib sandwich, which is shaved prime rib, cheese and pickled curry onions on a roll. This used to be MUCH better than it is now simply due to the bread. They moved to this god awful cibatta nonsense that falls apart. Stay away or ask for a different roll. We also got the blue cheese and bacon mussels. The mussels at Schlafly seem expensive (think $17 for an order) but you get enough for a small family. I would stick with the Thai ones or the old standard wine/butter/shallot ones as you couldn't even taste the bacon or the blue cheese. They were still yummy.
6. Cooking-
As I mentioned earlier, I was having friends over that evening for dinner party-so I had a lot of cooking/preparation to do. I love to cook, so this was hardly a chore. The menu consisted of:
Caprese Salad
Tomato and Basil Bruschetta
Thai Lettuce Wraps
Blue Cheese, Green Onion and Tomato Pasta
I think out of all of this, the lettuce wraps were probably my favorite. Everything else I make quite often, so there was really no challenge. The lettuce wraps turned out super yummy (recipe below)
Thai Lettuce Wraps:
1 lb ground turkey or ground pork
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin
1 cup shredded cabbage and carrot coleslaw mix (coleslaw mix without dressing) or the broccoli slaw you can find at Trader Joe's or Schnucks (I used that)
3 green onions, sliced at an angle
1/2 cup plum sauce (you have to find good stuff-at an global grocery like the one in Kirkwood or Jay's on Grand)
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon fish sauce (you might need more than this-so I would add the 1 tablespoon and taste-if it doesn't taste thai enough-add additional slowly)
Enough butter lettuce or bibb lettuce leaves for the 1lb of pork/turkey
1/2 cucumber, seeded and chopped
Juice of 1 lime
For the ginger, garlic, red pepper-I just used a food processor and pulsed until it was finely chopped.
Directions: 1 Heat a large non stick skillet over high until hot. 2 Cook until meat is done stirring constantly. 3 Toss in the ginger, garlic, bell pepper, cabbage/carrot mix and green onions. 4 Stir-fry another two minutes. 5 Add the plum sauce and toss for one minute, then add the basil. 6 Drizzle in fish sauce and turn to coat evenly. 7 Pour into a bowl. Add lime juice and stir to coat 8 Place small heaps of mixture onto a 1 or 2 leaf thick piece of lettuce. 9 Sprinkle cucumber over it and fold to eat like a taco.
Everyone was bringing an appetizer, wine or beer as well.
7. Dinner Party-
Everyone came over between 7:30 and 8 (except one couple who shall remain nameless-haha) They really can't help it because they have kids and such, but I like to give them a hard time regardless. We drank wine, ate food, sang songs, watched baseball and had a genuine blast. You know your party was a success when your kitchen looks like the picture on the right the next morning (and the fact you didn't want to clean it up the night before!).
Overall an amazing Saturday!
1. Grocery Shopping-
I was having friends over for a dinner party Saturday night, so I needed to shop for that as well as for food for the week. I absolutely LOVE grocery shopping, so this was a welcome part of my Saturday.
2. Kenrick's-
If you have never been to www.kenricks.com Kenrick's meat market you are missing out. It is a combination old fashioned butcher shop, deli and BBQ joint all rolled into one. They have tons of deli options, about 10 different kinds of bratwurst, fresh meat and CHEAP filets wrapped in bacon. I got some deli meat for the week, some filets and some chicken. Oh and some meat sticks. I can never say no to meat sticks. SCORE.
3. Lowe's-
 |
| My bookshelf handy work |
4. Bookshelves-
I have this large area in our upstairs hallway that was made for book shelves. I have lived in this house for just over 2 1/2 years now, and I have never gotten around to putting shelves up. I finally motivated myself to do it this Saturday and am very pleased with the results. I still have some work to do (obviously), but putting up the trim to finish this off should be an easy task. I am pretty proud of myself.
 |
| Schlafly AIPA |
After all of the activity, I was rather hungry, I went to Schlafly (www.schlafly.com/)to watch the Olympics and have a sandwich and a beer. I love Schlafly. They have great food for a brewery, it is clean, comfy and you have about 10-12 craft beer options. I settled in and ordered their AIPA, which is yummy. Slightly bitter, hoppy, fully bodied and delightful. Pretty high alcohol content, so I stuck to one. I ordered the prime rib sandwich, which is shaved prime rib, cheese and pickled curry onions on a roll. This used to be MUCH better than it is now simply due to the bread. They moved to this god awful cibatta nonsense that falls apart. Stay away or ask for a different roll. We also got the blue cheese and bacon mussels. The mussels at Schlafly seem expensive (think $17 for an order) but you get enough for a small family. I would stick with the Thai ones or the old standard wine/butter/shallot ones as you couldn't even taste the bacon or the blue cheese. They were still yummy.
6. Cooking-
As I mentioned earlier, I was having friends over that evening for dinner party-so I had a lot of cooking/preparation to do. I love to cook, so this was hardly a chore. The menu consisted of:
Caprese Salad
Tomato and Basil Bruschetta
Thai Lettuce Wraps
Blue Cheese, Green Onion and Tomato Pasta
I think out of all of this, the lettuce wraps were probably my favorite. Everything else I make quite often, so there was really no challenge. The lettuce wraps turned out super yummy (recipe below)
Thai Lettuce Wraps:
1 lb ground turkey or ground pork
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin
1 cup shredded cabbage and carrot coleslaw mix (coleslaw mix without dressing) or the broccoli slaw you can find at Trader Joe's or Schnucks (I used that)
3 green onions, sliced at an angle
1/2 cup plum sauce (you have to find good stuff-at an global grocery like the one in Kirkwood or Jay's on Grand)
2 cups fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon fish sauce (you might need more than this-so I would add the 1 tablespoon and taste-if it doesn't taste thai enough-add additional slowly)
Enough butter lettuce or bibb lettuce leaves for the 1lb of pork/turkey
1/2 cucumber, seeded and chopped
Juice of 1 lime
For the ginger, garlic, red pepper-I just used a food processor and pulsed until it was finely chopped.
Directions: 1 Heat a large non stick skillet over high until hot. 2 Cook until meat is done stirring constantly. 3 Toss in the ginger, garlic, bell pepper, cabbage/carrot mix and green onions. 4 Stir-fry another two minutes. 5 Add the plum sauce and toss for one minute, then add the basil. 6 Drizzle in fish sauce and turn to coat evenly. 7 Pour into a bowl. Add lime juice and stir to coat 8 Place small heaps of mixture onto a 1 or 2 leaf thick piece of lettuce. 9 Sprinkle cucumber over it and fold to eat like a taco.
 |
| My kitchen post apocalypse |
Everyone was bringing an appetizer, wine or beer as well.
7. Dinner Party-
Everyone came over between 7:30 and 8 (except one couple who shall remain nameless-haha) They really can't help it because they have kids and such, but I like to give them a hard time regardless. We drank wine, ate food, sang songs, watched baseball and had a genuine blast. You know your party was a success when your kitchen looks like the picture on the right the next morning (and the fact you didn't want to clean it up the night before!).
Overall an amazing Saturday!
Thursday=Almost Friday
Thursday was delightful. Work went as well as it possibly could (despite a 6 AM conf call). I got a pedicure. I ate at a great little pizza place and went to the botanical garden. This is what most men would probably call a 'chick' evening. I am comfortable with that.
Starting with the pedicure, my friend Amber and I went to a little place, called Beautiful Nails on Big Bend. They do a fine job. Not the best pedicure you will ever get, but a mani/pedi is about $30-not bad. My feet look beautiful. I then convinced Amber to give Katie's Pizzeria www.katiespizzeria.com on Clayton road another shot. She had a bad pizza experience there consisting of too much salt and goat cheese. I love Katie's. It is kind of a shabby sheek place with a bunch of mismatched tables and chairs, a bar made out of wood floors and super modern light fixtures. We sat down in the back of the restaurant and proceeded to peruse the menu.
After about two seconds the waitress came over to take our drink order. She also explained that you can get ANY pizza as a 1/2 and any salad without seafood as a half too. What does this mean? Amber and I could order one pizza and she could get whatever pizza combo she wanted on her half and I could get whatever I wanted on my half. This is absolutely delightful as Katie's isn't one of those places that you go in and order pepperoni and mushrooms on your pizza. They have amazing things like pancetta and apple or squash blossom and goat cheese. We looked over the salads and they have delightful options, such as a fried artichoke salad. The one that made us both drool was the Watermelon with Shaved Ricotta, pine nuts and balsamic dressing. We ended up ordering the Watermelon salad to share and a pizza that was half Apple and Pancetta (for Amber) and half Burrata (yes I am obsessed), arugula and cherry tomatoes.
We got our salad very quickly and proceeded to devour it. It probably sounded like a porn movie over by our table with all of the moans from how good it was. I should note that although this photo looks dark and slightly blurry a lot of effort went into this shot. I have the wood-burning Iphone (3Gs) with no flash and 4mps so Amber held her fancy Iphone above the salad with the flashlight app to illuminate the salad, while I took the picture. Note, the picture below was taken with her phone and sent to me.
We then received our pizza, which we both found equally delightful. I have had the pancetta pizza before and it is amazing-that perfect sweet/salty thing. My side was fresh and salad like and the sauce was slightly spicing, offering an amazing contrast to the smooth burrata.
We had a bit of a time constraint as we were heading to the botanical garden for their lantern festival and had to meet people by 7, so we rushed out of Katie's immediately following dinner. We made it to the botanical garden quickly and parked in our secret spot so as to avoid traffic jams (it is a mob scene in the evening for the lantern festival). After meeting Amber's friends we went out into the garden to enjoy the lanterns. As I stated, it was busy and VERY crowded-think Six Flags crowded. It was still very enjoyable. The lanterns are beautiful at night. I think just having the pleasure of walking around the garden in the evening and enjoying the ambiance is well worth the $15 price tag. Overall a delightful evening. Not to mention it is almost FRIDAY!!
Starting with the pedicure, my friend Amber and I went to a little place, called Beautiful Nails on Big Bend. They do a fine job. Not the best pedicure you will ever get, but a mani/pedi is about $30-not bad. My feet look beautiful. I then convinced Amber to give Katie's Pizzeria www.katiespizzeria.com on Clayton road another shot. She had a bad pizza experience there consisting of too much salt and goat cheese. I love Katie's. It is kind of a shabby sheek place with a bunch of mismatched tables and chairs, a bar made out of wood floors and super modern light fixtures. We sat down in the back of the restaurant and proceeded to peruse the menu.
After about two seconds the waitress came over to take our drink order. She also explained that you can get ANY pizza as a 1/2 and any salad without seafood as a half too. What does this mean? Amber and I could order one pizza and she could get whatever pizza combo she wanted on her half and I could get whatever I wanted on my half. This is absolutely delightful as Katie's isn't one of those places that you go in and order pepperoni and mushrooms on your pizza. They have amazing things like pancetta and apple or squash blossom and goat cheese. We looked over the salads and they have delightful options, such as a fried artichoke salad. The one that made us both drool was the Watermelon with Shaved Ricotta, pine nuts and balsamic dressing. We ended up ordering the Watermelon salad to share and a pizza that was half Apple and Pancetta (for Amber) and half Burrata (yes I am obsessed), arugula and cherry tomatoes.
 |
| Watermelon Salad-Katie's Pizzeria |
We got our salad very quickly and proceeded to devour it. It probably sounded like a porn movie over by our table with all of the moans from how good it was. I should note that although this photo looks dark and slightly blurry a lot of effort went into this shot. I have the wood-burning Iphone (3Gs) with no flash and 4mps so Amber held her fancy Iphone above the salad with the flashlight app to illuminate the salad, while I took the picture. Note, the picture below was taken with her phone and sent to me.
We then received our pizza, which we both found equally delightful. I have had the pancetta pizza before and it is amazing-that perfect sweet/salty thing. My side was fresh and salad like and the sauce was slightly spicing, offering an amazing contrast to the smooth burrata.
 |
| Lantern Festival-MBG |
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Weekend = Delightful
I went to visit my sister in Atlanta
this weekend. I love visiting her and Atlanta is a great town, but I would
never want to live there. It is just too sprawling. Regardless, I
had a delightful time. Love you sis!
Some of the highlights:
1. We had pedicures at this
AMAZING place where you sat in a big puffy leather chair that reclined (no
awful kneading chair). You kind of lay there suspended. I almost
dozed off. To increase the pleasure of the experience, my sis had a coupon,
so the pedicure was a mere $23. SCORE
2. We went to possibly my
favorite Italian restaurant on earth. It is wonderful. I rarely
find a restaurant that never disappoints me (I have high standards). I
have been there three times now and it is delightful every time. Its name
is La Tavola http://www.latavolatrattoria.com/ and is in the Highlands
neighborhood of Atlanta. The Highlands would translate to the CWE in St.
Louis terms. We were able to get a reservation at 9:30 PM (the place is
always packed). We sat outside on their amazing deck, surrounded by
fresh, growing basil in the planters. Normally when here, I order the
specials. They are fresh and fabulous. My sis loves the bruschetta,
so we opted for the appetizer special of fresh burrata with cucumbers, basil
and chili oil, and the bruschetta. The burrata appetizer was amazing
although the chili oil was a little overwhelming. This was literally a
dish of cheese, cucumber, basil and oil. Easy to replicate at home.
If I were going to make it at home, I would include all of the ingredients
except the chili oil and instead I would either take a little cayenne, mix it
with olive oil and dress the plate with that (so you can control the heat) or
take some sliced calabrese peppers and place those on the plate and drizzle the
plate in olive oil, that way if you want heat, you can eat the pepper, if you
don't, you don't :) You can get fresh burrata at DiGregorio's market, the
Wine & Cheese place and the Wine Merchant. Not sure about Whole
Foods, but I imagine it is worth a try. I typed up the recipe for this salad at
the bottom of the blog, in case you want to replicate.
The bruschetta was amazing Italian
bread rubbed with garlic and olive oil, grilled and topped with a spread of
salt and peppered ricotta and dressed with arugula and cherry tomatoes.
Very fresh and great. For dinner I ordered the special of pasta with a
veal ragu. It was amazing. So simple. The veal was fresh and
tender. I could advise on how to mimic the dish, but I need to do a
little recon. Stay tuned. My sister had a half order of the risotto
which she devoured and loved. I didn't finish my pasta, so I took it
home, to be consumed later in the weekend.
3. We went shopping. I
love shopping in Atlanta and with the sister. They have a lot of great
boutiques and an amazing high end thrift store. We only shopped one day,
so by the time we hit all of the stores, I looked at my sister and just said,
"Uncle.". Unfortunately, the shopping kind of sucked this time
and I only ended up with two shirts and some perfume. I did find a
delightful necklace with a bird on it that I expect to receive for my
birthday. :)
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| Menu at "The Nook" in Atlanta |
4. They know how to fry things
in Atlanta and be obnoxiously unhealthy. Take for example, this cute
little bar my sister and I went to for a drink (it was after the 'Uncle'
comment. I needed beer and a chair). The place is called the Nook (
www.thenookatlanta.com/) and is a very short walk from my
sister's apartment. We arrived and I wasn't hungry, but they had tater
tots covered in BBQ Pork and Cheese sauce. How could one possibly pass
that up? So I ordered them. They weren't quite as good as they sound,
mostly because the tots were frozen and when you slather them in cheese sauce
and bbq they become soggy. I kept perusing the menu for other oddities.
They were voted best burger in ATL last year. I wondered what delightful,
grass fed, cow heaven they might have, only to find that the best burger was
best because it was stuffed with fried bacon mac & cheese. Huh?
They also had a burger stuffed with shrimp and grits. This sounded
nauseating to me, but was definitely worth filing in the archives.
There were many other enjoyable
parts of the trip and I found out my sister is now drinking dirty martinis,
which pleased me immensely. I look forward to going back.
Simple Burrata Salad
8 oz Fresh Burrata
Kosher Salt
3-4 medium to large fresh basil
leaves
Good Olive Oil-4 tablespoons
1/4 of a Large Cucumber peeled
Small pinch of Cayenne Pepper or 1
Calabrese pepper in olive oil
On a plate, place the fresh burrata
broken into small chunks (a little bigger than bite size)
Take the cucumber, cut it in half
length wise and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon discarding the seeds
Then cut each half into 1/2 half
moons. Place cucumber in a one to one ratio with the cheese chunks.
Salt the cheese and cucumber to
taste with the kosher salt
If using the Cayenne, take the olive
oil and place it in a small bowl add the small pinch of Cayenne (by small pinch
I mean barely a dusting) and wisk together using a fork. Drizzle this
mixture over the cheese and Cucumber.
If using the pepper, slice the
pepper into 1/8 thick disks and place with the cucumber and cheese. Drizzle the
non-cayenne'd olive oil over the cucumber, cheese and pepper.
After the olive oil take the basil
leaves and tear them into 2-3 pieces per leaf. Drop on top of the cheese
and cucumber.
Serve immediately.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Random thoughts
I wanted to just write some random things down, that I wanted to share, but didn't on their own merit a full blog.
1. I went to the farmers market (Tower Grove again) on Saturday and encountered a delightful popsicle stand. They have a number of odd flavors (Avocado for example). I settled on a peach and jalapeno popsicle. It was delightful. It was fresh peach puree with no flavor really of jalapeno, just the heat. I imagine they put a halved jalapeno in with the peach puree while it was being cooked to instill the flavor and then strained them out.
2. I went to Riverbend (www.riverbendbar.com/) with my friend Lindsay for dinner last night. If you have never been to Riverbend, it is this AMAZING creole restaurant in this odd little area on the south side of the brewery. We shared three things since she had never been there. The Doc Sewall Oysters-think oysters covered in garlic breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese baked in the oven, the Red Beans and Rice with smoked sausage (which they only have on Mon) and their Roast Beef Po-Boy, Dressed (this means with lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickles-but we got it sans the pickle) and swiss cheese.
The oysters were super yummy. Not exactly a light appetizer and it is pretty decent portion, so if you aren't super hungry and want to eat a sandwich or entree, I would skip them. The Red Beans and Rice never disappoint. I do think they toned down the spice a bit as of late, which is sad, because they were yummy. The Roast Beef Po-Boy, I could rub all over my body (if you don't know me very well, this means I love it). It is super drippy, you need about 10 napkins, the bread is crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle, the beef is tender and the sauce is AMAZING. Enough said.
3. It is Tuesday-mission bratwurst accomplished. I realize this photo makes the brat look somewhat phallic. I am comfortable with that. It is mighty tasty.
1. I went to the farmers market (Tower Grove again) on Saturday and encountered a delightful popsicle stand. They have a number of odd flavors (Avocado for example). I settled on a peach and jalapeno popsicle. It was delightful. It was fresh peach puree with no flavor really of jalapeno, just the heat. I imagine they put a halved jalapeno in with the peach puree while it was being cooked to instill the flavor and then strained them out.
2. I went to Riverbend (www.riverbendbar.com/) with my friend Lindsay for dinner last night. If you have never been to Riverbend, it is this AMAZING creole restaurant in this odd little area on the south side of the brewery. We shared three things since she had never been there. The Doc Sewall Oysters-think oysters covered in garlic breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese baked in the oven, the Red Beans and Rice with smoked sausage (which they only have on Mon) and their Roast Beef Po-Boy, Dressed (this means with lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickles-but we got it sans the pickle) and swiss cheese.
The oysters were super yummy. Not exactly a light appetizer and it is pretty decent portion, so if you aren't super hungry and want to eat a sandwich or entree, I would skip them. The Red Beans and Rice never disappoint. I do think they toned down the spice a bit as of late, which is sad, because they were yummy. The Roast Beef Po-Boy, I could rub all over my body (if you don't know me very well, this means I love it). It is super drippy, you need about 10 napkins, the bread is crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle, the beef is tender and the sauce is AMAZING. Enough said.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saturday = Debauchery
Saturday is one of my favorite days of the year. Sassy and Tony's Fourth of July party. Yes, the Fourth has passed, but what is wrong with celebrating our independence a few days late? I am comfortable with it. I had a lot of cooking to do in preparation for this celebration, so I got up early (8 am on a Saturday). I had two tasks, one is to make enough mac and cheese for ALOT of children and two to make guacamole. I love both of these foods, so I sincerely enjoy making them. I started by cooking the bacon for the guac (yes, I put bacon in the guac).
My favorite way to make bacon is to cook it in the oven. If you have never done this, you should because it takes all of the dirty work out of cooking bacon, plus the bacon cooks super evenly. Simply lay your bacon out on a cookie sheet (I place a sheet of aluminum foil on the cookie sheet prior to adding the bacon for easy clean-up). Set the oven to 375 degrees and once the oven has reached temperature, place your bacon in, set the alarm for 17 mins approx (check it around 15 depending on how crispy you like your bacon). Simple and easy. Make sure to remove the bacon from the sheet after you get it out of the oven and place the bacon on a paper towel. If you forget this step, the bacon will stick to the cookie sheet/aluminum foil and you will be bitter and angry.
I then started the water for the Mac and Cheese. My recipe for Mac & Cheese isn't healthy, but it is pretty darn good and pretty easy.
Liz's Mac & Cheese:
Ingredients
1 Box of Macaroni
2 8oz bags of finely shredded cheese-1 Sharp Cheddar and 1 Colby & Jack Mixed
1 small box of Velvetta-1/2 of the box cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 stick of salted butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (freshly ground if available)
Salt to taste
5 tablespoons flour
4 cups of milk
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take a large pot and fill with water. Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling add the 2 teaspoons of salt and add the box of macaroni. Cook about 9 mins (look at the instructions on the box and cook to the lowest range-if it says 9-11 mins, cook until 9). Drain the pasta. Now, using the same pan as you used for your macaroni, put on low/medium (the butter shouldn't sizzle, it should melt nicely). Once the butter is melted, using a whisk, add the flour. This will look odd. It will clump up. This is fine. Cook the clumpy mix for 1-2 mins. You are cooking out the flour taste as an fyi. Then, slowly whisk in the milk. If the mixture is thick after adding all of the milk, then add more milk. Your goal is a mixture that is thin. Then add the mustard, garlic powder and cayenne. Cook this for about 2 mins. Then add the Velveeta, stirring constantly until the Velveeta is melted. Then add, slowly, 3/4s of the bag of sharp cheddar, the entire back of the colby jack and the Parmesan. Taste the mixture at this point and decided if you want to add salt or not. Also add the ground pepper at this point. Then stir in the cooked macaroni. You can eat it at this point. (ie if you have a screaming kid who wants to eat). You can then turn off the oven. If you are making this for yourself , take a large glass pan and pour in the macaroni mixture. Top with the remaining cheddar cheese.
( If you like crispy toppings, you can also take a half stick of butter, melt it. Add 1/4 of Parmesan and 1 cup of panko breadcrumbs or 1 cup of crushed lays plain potato chips. Mix together and place on top with the cheddar.)
Place the pan in the oven for 15 mins, then turn on the broiler and broil until the top is a nice golden brown. Pull out of the oven, let it cool and enjoy. This will hold in the refrigerator for about a week.
Now, on to the guac. I feel I have put enough recipes and advice in this blog, so I will keep the recipe for another time, but just know, it is avocados, white onion, chipotle peppers, lime juice and bacon. Use your imagination for now.
Once this one was done, I headed over to T& S's at 1. There were a lot of people there and a ton of food. It was also 105 degrees outside, so sitting in their pool was all I did, with short breaks for eating and getting myself another cocktail.
I hung out with great friends, got into some dunking contests with some of my favorite kids on the planet and proceeded to stay in the pool way too long. I ended up staying in so long, and becoming so water logged that I scratched the surface of my fingers off by holding onto the side of the pool deck. Top notch. FYI, hurt fingertips are not cool. Pretty much everything you do causes pain.
Fingers aside, the evening was absolutely fabulous and T & S threw another amazing get together.
My favorite way to make bacon is to cook it in the oven. If you have never done this, you should because it takes all of the dirty work out of cooking bacon, plus the bacon cooks super evenly. Simply lay your bacon out on a cookie sheet (I place a sheet of aluminum foil on the cookie sheet prior to adding the bacon for easy clean-up). Set the oven to 375 degrees and once the oven has reached temperature, place your bacon in, set the alarm for 17 mins approx (check it around 15 depending on how crispy you like your bacon). Simple and easy. Make sure to remove the bacon from the sheet after you get it out of the oven and place the bacon on a paper towel. If you forget this step, the bacon will stick to the cookie sheet/aluminum foil and you will be bitter and angry.
I then started the water for the Mac and Cheese. My recipe for Mac & Cheese isn't healthy, but it is pretty darn good and pretty easy.
Liz's Mac & Cheese:
Ingredients
1 Box of Macaroni
2 8oz bags of finely shredded cheese-1 Sharp Cheddar and 1 Colby & Jack Mixed
1 small box of Velvetta-1/2 of the box cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 stick of salted butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (freshly ground if available)
Salt to taste
5 tablespoons flour
4 cups of milk
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take a large pot and fill with water. Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling add the 2 teaspoons of salt and add the box of macaroni. Cook about 9 mins (look at the instructions on the box and cook to the lowest range-if it says 9-11 mins, cook until 9). Drain the pasta. Now, using the same pan as you used for your macaroni, put on low/medium (the butter shouldn't sizzle, it should melt nicely). Once the butter is melted, using a whisk, add the flour. This will look odd. It will clump up. This is fine. Cook the clumpy mix for 1-2 mins. You are cooking out the flour taste as an fyi. Then, slowly whisk in the milk. If the mixture is thick after adding all of the milk, then add more milk. Your goal is a mixture that is thin. Then add the mustard, garlic powder and cayenne. Cook this for about 2 mins. Then add the Velveeta, stirring constantly until the Velveeta is melted. Then add, slowly, 3/4s of the bag of sharp cheddar, the entire back of the colby jack and the Parmesan. Taste the mixture at this point and decided if you want to add salt or not. Also add the ground pepper at this point. Then stir in the cooked macaroni. You can eat it at this point. (ie if you have a screaming kid who wants to eat). You can then turn off the oven. If you are making this for yourself , take a large glass pan and pour in the macaroni mixture. Top with the remaining cheddar cheese.
( If you like crispy toppings, you can also take a half stick of butter, melt it. Add 1/4 of Parmesan and 1 cup of panko breadcrumbs or 1 cup of crushed lays plain potato chips. Mix together and place on top with the cheddar.)
Place the pan in the oven for 15 mins, then turn on the broiler and broil until the top is a nice golden brown. Pull out of the oven, let it cool and enjoy. This will hold in the refrigerator for about a week.
Now, on to the guac. I feel I have put enough recipes and advice in this blog, so I will keep the recipe for another time, but just know, it is avocados, white onion, chipotle peppers, lime juice and bacon. Use your imagination for now.
 |
| My injured fingers |
I hung out with great friends, got into some dunking contests with some of my favorite kids on the planet and proceeded to stay in the pool way too long. I ended up staying in so long, and becoming so water logged that I scratched the surface of my fingers off by holding onto the side of the pool deck. Top notch. FYI, hurt fingertips are not cool. Pretty much everything you do causes pain.
Fingers aside, the evening was absolutely fabulous and T & S threw another amazing get together.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Friday = Gluttony
 |
| The Panino Fresco minus olive salad at Blue's City Deli |
Regardless, I started the morning with a work out. I then proceeded to start my working day, which consists of creating and disseminating any number of mindless excel spreadsheets. Around 10:30 AM, I started to feel like I was starving. As such, I started to think about what fabulous food creation or deli/restaurant I could partake of for lunch. I set my sights on Blue's City Deli (http://www.bluescitydeli.com/).
I love Blue's City, not just because I can walk there in about 2 mins from my house, but because they have FABULOUS fresh sandwiches, it is pretty inexpensive (think under $6 for most sandwiches) and the owner, Vinny, couldn't be a nicer guy. The sandwich I was craving is called the Panino Fresco which they describe as:
"Fresh Mozzarella, Provolone, our Homemade Olive Salad.(may contain small olive pits)
Dressed with Tomato, Onion and Italian Vinegar Oil, on a toasted muffelata"
I get my sans the olive salad, because, despite my love for olives, I find it to be a bit much. The photo above is the sandwich. Note the MOUND of mozzarella. I usually find my self tearing out about 3/4s of the mozzarella on the sandwich to get my perfect provolone to tomato to mozzarella ratio. Pair that with an iced tea and some Zapp's Voodoo potato chips and it was a mighty nice lunch.
After lunch I resume the work day. I am excited for the workday to end because I am going with some friends to one of my favorite haunts, Fast Eddie's (http://www.fasteddiesbonair.com/fr_home.cfm) I don't go here very often, because Alton, IL is kind of a trek from St. Louis, however; I look forward to every trip I take there. Fast Eddie's is a low key, often crowded place with a lively atmosphere (think your favorite local bar with live music on a MUCH larger scale). The thing I love most about it, is of course, THE FOOD.
First, they have all you can eat popcorn. I know this is a ploy to get patrons to drink more beer. I am fine with this.
Second, they have AMAZING peel and eat shrimp with a spicy (horseradish) and fresh cocktail sauce. Third, they have meat on a stick. Enough said.
We left later than planned due to a 'work crisis' which means a last minute spreadsheet needs to be created or the world will end. We arrived there around 6:30 PM. It was of course crazy busy, but we were lucky to immediately find a four top. We proceeded to gorge ourselves on popcorn. Our friends have never been there as they are new to the LOU, so we promptly bought some shrimp. I was pleased to see that they enjoyed the shrimp as much as I do, which of course validates my position as goddess of food. We then ate pork kabobs, the Big Elwood (steak and green peppers), chicken wings and fries. Just a light healthy meal. It was seriously yummy. I now have my Fast Eddie's fix for the next few months. We then decided to do a nightcap at the Grizzly Bear (www.greatgrizzlybearsoulard.com. The GB is a great place. It looks like a hole from the outside, and kind of also once you are inside, but they have an amazing patio outback where they show Cards games from a projector onto a big screen. Plus the outside is secluded and pretty quiet. You almost don't feel like you are in the city. It was hotter than Hades outside, we hung out inside.
After a couple beers, I felt like punishing the group by taking them to sing karaoke. Our karaoke locale of choice is The Filling Station in Benton Park (1924 Pestalozzi Street St. Louis, MO 63118) It is for two main reasons, one, the people watching is AMAZING and two, we can walk home. The only downside to the place is you can still smoke inside. That wouldn't be so bad, except the majority of the people there do smoke and smoke A LOT. Regardless, we endure. After embarrassing myself considerably, we left and Iwent home for the evening. It was a fabulous evening.
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