This week, our Bad Economy Brunch (which now has it’s own official Facebook group, courtesy of Liz) was at Southport Grocery and Cafe, a place I’ve had on my list for a while now. It was everything I expected and more. Although my bottomless-diet-coke habit didn’t exactly fly there: I ordered the waiter-recommended, albeit odd-sounding, Brisket & Gravy—biscuits and gravy with tender smokey brisket and fried eggs. The brisket was house-smoked, the biscuit homemade and the eggs fried to perfection. Believe me, the photos do not do this dish justice. Melissa and Liz got the other recommendation—a breakfast-style bruschetta topped with scrambled eggs, smoked chicken sausage, queso fresco, tomatoes, onions…
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Yummy links 8/28
A fig-tastic post on figs from Local Lemons The weirdest use of a coffee maker I’ve ever seen at Life Hacker A TV dinner you may actually want to eat at CupcakesOMG! Amuse Biatch makes a hilarious Top Chef Google discovery Naughty Haribo sweets in the UK Ribs and baked beans from The Pioneer Woman
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Purple Tomatillo Salsa
I put my purple tomatillos to use and made some salsa. Purple Tomatillo Salsa You’ll need: 10-12 purple tomatillos 1 jalapeno 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper 4-5 cloves garlic 1/2 chopped white or yellow onion 3 tablespoons cilantro a squeeze of lime First, husk and roast your tomatillos and jalapeno under a broiler until your pan starts to look like a gruesome crime scene. Exhibit A: And Exhibit B: See what I mean? Poor little tomatillos. Then throw all your ingredients into a blender, food processor, or, my personal recommendation, a Magic Bullet. No, I didn’t actually buy it. I stole it from my parents’ house. Something…
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Herb Gnocchi with Lemon Thyme Chicken
I have yet to make fresh pasta, for lack of this KitchenAid Mixer pasta attachment, but I thought I’d try making some gnocchi. My Essential Pasta Cookbook has the basic gnocchi recipe, and I made a few adjustments. Herb Gnocchi with Pesto Parmesan Sauce You’ll need: 2 large potatoes (about 1 lb)—use old potatoes—supposedly these are more starchy and make for better gnocchi. I let mine sit for about 4 days. about a cup of flour 3 tablespoons chives 3 tablespoons basil teaspoon of salt 1 egg yolk Pesto Sauce 2-3 tablespoons pesto 1-2 tablespoons melted butter 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese fresh ground pepper First, cook your potatoes (I…
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Rainy Green City Market
I went to the Green City Market today, despite the rain, and I almost paid for it with MY LIFE. OK, I’m being a little dramatic, but seriously, drivers must not think people ride bikes in the rain, because I was almost doored and run over on the way there. And the offenders were completely oblivious. In the end, the beautiful fresh produce was worth my wet and perilous journey. You know those people that buy crazy, weird toys and electronics that they don’t know how to use? I’m like that with ingredients. Anyone have any recipe ideas that involve squash blossoms and purple tomatillos? This sounds like a job…
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To good to be TRU?
A free dinner at TRU? Really?! I am so there. Thanks Visa Signature and FoodBuzz! And thanks Dave for snagging me an invite. On Monday night, I was lucky enough to enjoy a five-course dinner in a private room at TRU, with 20 other food bloggers and FoodBuzz employees—everyone as unabashed as myself about whipping out a camera at the dinner table. The whole scene was awesomely geeky, with the conversation focused almost entirely on restaurants, celebrity chefs and food blogging anecdotes. We “Mmmm”ed, “Ahhhh”ed and snapped away with each new dish. The wine flowed liberally. Oh, did I mention this was free?? Talk about foodie heaven. First came the amuse…
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Another classy coffee-table book to add to your collection
Many of you have probably seen the blog This Is Why You’re Fat. Well, get ready, because like so many humorous blogs that came before it, a book version is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The first 50 pre-orders get a free EKG test. Well, not really, but if you eat the food shown in the book you may need one. Who am I kidding. This blog is called Better With BUTTER. Bring on the bacon grease.
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This bread is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S
Sometimes we buy bananas to let them sit on top of the fridge over-ripening. Because then we get to make banana bread! I adapted this recipe from Elise’s banana bread recipe at Simply Recipes. Here are the poor over-ripe bananas. You know they’re ready when the entire stem breaks off when you pluck them from the fridge/fruit bowl/counter top: I decided to try something new with this batch: Spiced Banana Bread You’ll need: 4 medium-sized ripe bananas 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 1/2 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking soda dash of salt 1/3 cup melted butter 1/2 teaspoon allspice 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon almond…
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Challah Tuna Melt
This is the great jewish deli tuna melt that I’ve never had. Let’s get right into the good stuff. Challah Tuna Melt You’ll need: challah bread one can of tuna 1/4 cup mayo 1/8 cup chopped celery 1 tablespoon chopped chives fresh ground pepper cheddar/american/colby jack cheese First, mix your tuna. Butter one side of each slice of challah. Place a generous heap of tuna on your challah along with one or two slices of cheese. Grill, covered, in a skillet on medium heat–about two minutes on each side.
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Girls’ night in
On Friday night we had an amazing girls’ night in at Maria’s that involved caramelized onion dip, an avocado and cilantro salad, DIY pizzas, Pear Bellinis, Andre Extra Dry, an incredible desert concoction of german poundcake, Cherry Garcia yogurt and Vosges Dark Chocolate Goji bar, and last but certainly not least, Jack Frost II: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman. Talk about a winning combination. Unfortunately, the lighting was too low, so pictures are limited, although I plan to recreate the carmelized onion dip ASAP. Here for now, is the super-easy bellini recipe: You’ll need: 3 pears, skinned and chopped juice of 1/2 lemon 1/4 cup apple juice OR pear sauce…