You win some, you lose some.

Finished an otherwise excellent dinner tonight with a scoop of bacon ice cream with the Jocy & the Luis. Let's just say: some things are better off without a liberal dose of bacon grease. Many hours later and my gut is still feeling it.
Tapalaya verdict: Stick with the pulled pork and the steak specials and steer clear of any dairy/pork combos.

NY OH YEAH

Went to New York last month and am just now getting pics off my camera. Woo hoo. All in all, I can say my trip focused primarily on food, shopping and museums. Kind of in that order. Oh, and staying warm I guess, but that's kind of boring.
Anyway, we ate lots, including some fantastic indian food, lots of pizza (of course), tapas and much more, but I know you've been DYING to hear what the food highlights were for me so here you go, my fellow eaters!

1. CUPCAKES
Totally addicted. Who knew portable cake would entice me so?
Magnolia: my first. YUMMY
Mystery place: EVEN BETTER. I don't know where it was from, but someone gave it to me so I ate it.
Butter Lane: THE BEST. I haz banana bread, pb frosting and some marshmallows on top.

from bakingupchaos.blogspot.com

from myowncrappycamera.com

2. Some little banh mi place.
Kicked Best Baguette in the butt. Could have used a little more jalepeño, but everything else (bread, meat, lemongrass) was much fresher, generous and more fragrant. I have no idea what the place was called, but Felicia made me screen shoot our location on the map, so maybe you could get all jiggy and LOCATE.

you are here

3. CHICAGO DOGS
Not actually in NY, but seriously; feel like I've been missing out all my life on something so beautiful and amazing. We ate one on our layover (guess where!) and I had to go back for a second. TRUE STORY: I brought it back to my seat, unwrapped it & started cooing at it. The lady sitting next to me turned around and gasped aloud in wonder. Then she tried to show me her pb cookie but I was totally NOT impressed. Anyway, these "chicago dogs" have tomato, cucumbers, dill pickles, relish, pickled peppers, celery salt and god know what else. Crispy, fresh, tangy. I WANT ONE NOW. I tried to find one in p-town (Michael's) and it was pretty good (not the same.) But Michael's has some other amazing things, but I guess that's a different post.

i wanna move in with you, chicago dog

4. PIO PIO
Peruvian roasted chicken with some AWESOME green sauce. James ate too much of it though and I got pissed.

from www.piopionyc.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Most duckie: Chef Ho's Peking Duck: Chinese duck that they slice up and serve to you in crepe/pancakes type things. Very interesting, but I don't know if I'm that into duck.

Most noodley: Naruto Ramen: Yummy miso noodle bowl with lots of corn.

Seattle Hamburger Project: Skillet Street Food

The traveling Skillet van was on my hamburger list, probably due to this little creation: Bacon Jam.

I bought Noël one of these to help her with her waffle quest, and was a little disappointed to find out it wasn't an actual jam with a gelatin base, but more of a relish, made with onions, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar.

But it was still pretty good on crackers and Noël's Christmas waffles, so I needed to find a time to get to the van. The problem was, that it travels around and usually in the Seattle area, not the Eastside, although I heard rumors that they came out to Microsoft some days. So to find them, I signed up for their facebook page, so I would get their locations before they went out, so I could plan around it.

Then one day in the Month of February, they posted they would be out in Woodinville for a wine tasting, so we organized a trip. After driving around Woodinville on some strange GPS generated wild goose chase, we found it and saw the line:

I hate lines. The hamburger better be good, to be worth standing in line with so many snobby rich eastside wine tasters. Over an hour in line, we finally got our order in.


I ordered the hamburger with some chipotle mac & cheese, and Natalie got the Vietnamese sandwich with fries. And I ordered us both the drink of the day with was cucumber, citrus, mint and Fresca all together. It sounded interesting.
It was a pretty good meal, you can see the photos below. The hamburger tasted like a homemade one, the patty was very good, with some blue cheese, arugula and the jam. And a really nice bun. Natalie's sandwich was good, and the mac and cheese as just a little spicy, to make it interesting. The drinks, tasted like ground up cucumber. It was good insomuch that cucumber is good, but the other ingredients didn't seem to do much.
Overall it was good, but worth that wait? I don't really think so. Order some of their jam online, and make your own hamburger at home without the wait....but then the prep time is longer than the wait...so who knows. It is quite the pickle.

Like spotting Bigfoot

One of the few known photos of food created by Natalie. This is stir fry.

Last post today, I swear!

Last Saturday I made my first loaf of bread! Not earth shattering, complicated, or even wheat, but still, my first attempt. The important thing is, it was good! Very encouraging. I did use some quick rise recipe, which involved the bread rising just for a couple of hours in its pan. Which was perfect as I had a lot of Fable to play and couldn't really take a lot of breaks just for some silly bread.

THIS IS THE ONLY CHRISTMAS PIC I HAVE

Ok now, fast forward a few months. Christmastime! Tara and I once again indulged in eggnog for about 3 days straight until Mama refused to get us more eggs. Well, I guess there is some debate as to whether it was really eggnog or not, as we like to add a banana into the mix and some people are in hot opposition (HATERZ) but whatevs. Anyway, we wanted to get creative with our last batch, and so what you see here is the fruit of our hard labor. Egg meringue nog! We whipped up egg whites and then folded the rest of the ingredients in after. Here it is pictured, floating on a brandy shot. YUM! James declined a full serving, Memo was polite and drank some and Mama proclaimed it was the most disgusting idea ever. Way to kill our creativity, Mama! This reminds me of the horse drawing all over again.

That's what I call a sandwich

Oh boy, it's been a while, huh? Well, I've been caching up some food EXCITEMENT so prepare to be EXCITED! Last summer (I know, I know, almost a year ago) James and I finally made it to Kenny & Zuke's, a sandwich place we had been hearing about for ever. This is James holding the Mushugeletta, or something crazy like that. It basically involves every kind of meat in copious amounts.
I had a delicious something or other, I don't remember what. I was too amused watching James try and fit that bad boy in his mouth. HA!

Brussels Sprout Slaw with Maple-Glazed Pecans

I have never eaten cold Brussels sprouts on purpose, so this recipe from the November 2009 Bon Appétit intrigued me. The salad's garnish, glazed pecans, is made with real maple syrup. I bought my syrup while on a road trip to Vermont, but you can probably find it cheaper at Food 4 Less or Costco.


The Brussels sprouts (perhaps this is as good a time as any to insert a caveat about the spelling of Brussels sprouts ... because they are named for the city, Brussels must be capitalized) are cooked in salted water until crisp-tender and still bright green, about 5 minutes. Then drain them and rinse with cold water. Chop the sprouts well and add the dressing. Chill in the fridge until ready to eat. At the last minute before serving add the pecans.




Pecan instructions:
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk 1/4 C. maple syrup and 1/2 tsp salt in small bowl. Add 1 cup nuts and stir them to coat well. Bake them in a single layer on a small rimmed sheet for about 5 minutes, then stir. Continue to bake until the nuts are toasted and the glaze is bubbling, about 6 more minutes. Transfer the nuts to another sheet that has oil or non-stick spray on it. Separate the nuts.
Dressing:
Whisk together:
1/4 C Dijon mustard
2 TB apple cider vinegar
2 TB fresh lemon juice
1 TB sugar
1/4 C oil
Add salt and pepper to taste

Put 'em on the glass, part 2

Thought of all the peep addicts out there when I saw this:


Sacred heart of Jesus made out of Peeps. Click on that image too see it close up, and get more details here:
Bad Art Museum

Soda

Found these at my QFC and they were amazing! Just tried the orange cream and the vanilla cream, they they were great!
Crater Lake Soda