Tomato Soup

Redeemed by Raisin Walnut Bread

Previously, I posted about my dislike for Seven Stars Bakery challah. I made a mere mention that I like their brownies, but I wanted to give Seven Stars a little more credit, especially after I tasted their raisin walnut bread.

My mom picked me up a loaf when she was visiting and walking around my neighborhood, and after eating some of the bread with havarti cheese, mixed greens, and apricot jam (the perfect sandwich) when it was fresh, I put it in the freezer.

But this weekend, I brought it out, toasted it, and put some peanut butter on it:

And I decided that I wanted to rave about how delicious it is. There are great big chunks of raisin and nuts embedded into perfectly soft dough and surrounded by a thick, crunchy crust.

It froze wonderfully and was the perfect compliment to my favorite guilty pleasure: Skippy's Peanut Butter. 

A Juicy Burger

I like to substitute ground turkey wherever ground meat is suggested in a recipe. Especially when it comes to burgers. There are instances where all white turkey works- like in a quinoa casserole, stuffed peppers, sloppy joes...But white meat is much more expensive, and much less flavorful than dark meat- making it the perfect burger meat. It is juicier and tastes more like the real beefy thing.

It even kinda looks like a real burger!

This turkey burger is the best turkey burger I have ever had. Better than any restaurant or frozen variety! My recipe makes two half-pound juicy burgers:

1 pound dark ground turkey meat

3 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Mash the garlic cloves with some salt, working them into a paste with the back of a wide knife. Then throw the garlic and all the rest of the ingredients into a bowl and mix. Then throw the meat into the bowl and work the sauce into the turkey with your hands. Form into two patties, and grill.

It is very, very simple. I serve my turkey burgers on a sprouted grain bun with some cheese and either caramelized onions or thick slices of red onion.

Pancakes!

I have fond memories of pancakes from my childhood. My friend Brynn's family always used to make our names out of pancakes, and at sleepovers the smell of pancakes in the kitchen always got me and my friends up and out of our sleeping bags. My friend Rachel's mom would always lay out every kind of topping imagined so we could have the most unhealthy breakfast possible. I always liked chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter, jelly, chocolate sauce, and extra chocolate chips on top. My mom probably didn't like when I came home after that sleepover. I'm sure I was bouncing off the walls.

Well, now that I am a grown-up, I can make my own pancakes. And, while it was hard for me to resist spelling out mine and Andy's name with the batter, I managed to make the more sophisticated circle:

I added some spices to the pancakes to liven them up a bit, like cinnamon and nutmeg, and sprinkled them with pecans for crunch and presentation. It really is so easy to make your own pancakes. I can see now why people are so against mixes. It is just as easy and way more satisfying to mix up the batch from scratch.

These pancakes were so tasty and thick and fluffy. I only made it through three of my four-stack of pancakes because they were so filling. I think next time I am going to make them a little thinner, but other than that, these pancakes were perfect!

Via Elisa

There is a pasta shop in Atlanta, Georgia called Via Elisa. She makes some amazing fresh pasta- like her Ricotta Lemon Zest ravioli. The first time I had that ravioli, I swear I swooned.

So, my lovely mom, when she made her trip to Providence, brought some Via Elisa pasta to me.  I am sure that I can get great homemade pasta on Federal Hill, but I haven't tried yet, and Via Elisa is really a treat. And my mom didn't just bring me the ravioli, she also brought me some Spinach and Sheep Milk's Ricotta Gnocchi:

I have written about gnocchi several times on this blog already. It is my absolute favorite type of pasta. So, one night last week, I was alone for dinner and I had some leftover lobster from my dinner at Providence Oyster Bar, and the gnocchi in the freezer. So I whipped up a butter-garlic sauce with the lobster while my gnocchi cooked, and then combined it to make a very decadent pasta dish. The gnocchi had a lot going on- a lot of tastes and textures, and the light lobster and butter sauce balance it out well.  I was glad Andy wasn't around to ask for a bite- I wanted this dish all to myself!

St. Patrick's Day!

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. An excuse to drink in the afternoon, listen to Irish music, and eat something fried. Since my last name is also a famous Irish hard cider, I really love this holiday. And I loved it even more this year because I got to celebrate it at East Ave Cafe, or more recently, Doherty's East Ave.

I drank Guinness:

And I ordered lunch. They had a specific menu for St. Patrick's day with only a few options. Which was too bad because Andy and I had really been looking forward to the wings, and there were only 5 items on the menu. I decided to go with the fish n chips:

It was a huge piece of fried fish! But the batter was nice and light and well seasoned, and it all paired very well with my Guinness. Andy had the burger, which he also enjoyed, and we sat and listened to the Irish music and the rowdy crowd for several hours. Slainte!

Oysters

The first time I had an oyster was three years ago, in Paris, on Christmas Eve. My sister and her fiance brought them back from Nantes for our Christmas Eve feast, and after trying them with the traditional French mignonette, I fell in love with the oyster. But, because of price and availability, I have only ever eaten oysters in France, and never from a restaurant.

Last Monday, I broke this tradition, because my mom and I went to Providence Oyster Bar for dinner on her last night in the city. Before eating our oysters, we sopped up this delicious olive oil mixture with fresh bread:

The olive oil was mixed with roasted garlic, salt and pepper, and Asian chili sauce. It was so delicious, I'm going to have to make it at home.

And then the oysters:

The farthest one on the left is a P.E.I oyster, the other two are from Jamestown, Rhode Island, and the sauce in the middle is a mixture of cocktail sauce and horseradish. The P.E.I oyster was huge, but the RI oysters were the best. They were also pretty big, but had more of that gritty, right-from-the-sea taste and texture that I love. I could do without the sauce. I prefer a light mignonette of vinegar and onions instead, because I think cocktail sauce overpowers the flavor of the oyster.

For our main dishes, my mom and I both had the 1 3/4 pound lobster:

The nice waiter shelled it for us, while we happily feasted on our mashed potatoes and green beans:

These mashed potatoes were divine. Creamy, buttery, with the skin still on, and lots of fresh parsley and pepper. The green beans were also delicious, packed with garlic, and crunchy. The lobster also melted in your mouth and there was a lot of meat. I ended up taking some home and whipping up a nice pasta dish with the leftovers (details on that in a later post...!).

And for dessert, profiteroles:

These were okay. I think they needed a little more chocolate sauce on top for flavor, more crushed walnuts for texture, and no whipped cream. The vanilla bean ice cream was delicious though!

I really like Providence Oyster Bar. I like that it is brave enough to stand between all of the popular Italian restaurants, with only a few nods to Italian cuisine on the menu. The decor is very sleek and has a great lounge feel, and the food was definitely up to par (although expensive). It also had an interesting wine menu, including one of my favorite white wines- Sokol Blosser Pinot Gris from Oregon!

Party Setting

I know, I love Blaze East Side. It's no secret to anyone who reads this blog. But my trip to Blaze last weekend with my mom was different than my other trips- I got to meet the chef!

But first, before that, here is some food porn. I experimented with "party" setting on my camera to see how the pictures would come out. I don't know if I'll keep using it, but I do like the way it makes these dishes look:

Coriander Dusted Pan Seared Salmon with pumpkin hash

St. Louis Style spare ribs with cornbread, yams, and collard greens

Both dishes were yummy, and my mom followed in my footsteps and fell in love with Blaze. To make the experience even better, the chef, Ashu, agreed to meet me and my mom. He talked to us about his culinary education, and how his culture influences his cooking. Ashu is from India, but he says he doesn't cook his regional dishes. Apparently, his mom won't even let him in the kitchen when it comes to Indian food! But he does like to use his knowledge of Indian spices to create interesting and original dishes for Blaze. It is always nice to meet the chef of a great restaurant- especially when they are eager to talk to you and thank you for your love of their food, like Ashu.

Blintzes

For the next stop on my mom's food tour of Providence, we went to Red Stripe for brunch. We were originally going to go to Nick's on Broadway, but we found ourselves wandering around Wayland Square in the Sunday afternoon sunshine, and thought Red Stripe looked like a good place. My mom had the lox scramble with homefries and toast, but gobbled it up before I got a chance to take a picture (I don't think she's used to the pre-eating picture taking) and I had the blintzes stuffed with Farmstead cheese:

I know, this picture is blurry. And I am very sad. I tried taking a dozen pictures and they all came out like this (my camera is often very finicky) and the person next to me started to look a little annoyed. So I put the camera away, and resolved to post this blurry blintz anyway!

I am not a huge fan of fruit, but the raspberries and strawberries in this dish were ripe and tart and sweet and blended well with the creamy Farmstead cheese. The crepe was piping hot and wonderfully doughy. My only gripe was the whipped cream on top. I really, really do not like whipped cream. Unfortunately, the menu didn't mention that there would be this nasty substance on top, so I didn't have the opportunity to ask for it without. So I just pushed it to the side and enjoyed my crepe whip-free. I also had a bubbly mimosa to wash it down with- perfectly done with mostly champagne, and just a drop of orange juice.

I like the bistro atmosphere of Red Stripe. The place was bustling for Sunday brunch, but our waitress was still very nice and attentive. The prices were reasonable, and I think I'll be going back to try out the dinner menu. Stay Tuned!

Was it worth it?

My mom came to visit me this past weekend and she had several requests. After drooling over my blog, she wanted to visit some great restaurants, and she wanted nice weather. Lucky for her, the sun was shining all weekend. I also had some restaurant choices up my sleeve, and hoped they would turn out as good as the weather.

For our first night, we decided to try Al Forno. I'd heard mixed reviews about this Italian restaurant near the water. Some people said it was a must-try, others said it had gone down the tubes since the chefs changed. I decided I wanted to form my opinion. Al Forno is one of the most famous restaurants in Providence, and I thought this blog, and myself, would benefit from the opportunity to critique it.

We arrived at 6:45 pm. The host rudely informed us it was at least a two hour wait, but we put our name down anyway and decided that by the time we found another restaurant, the wait would be at least an hour, and thus our wait time would be similar. I also overheard a woman say, when her friend balked about the 2 hour wait, "they always say it's two hours." So I figured that meant Al Forno has a reputation for purposely over-estimating their wait times. We luckily got a seat at a bench in the upstairs bar and had a nice chat over a drink and a basket of bread. After about an hour and fifteen minutes, the rude host came to inform us our table was ready.

We were seated at a nice table downstairs. Admittedly, it is a beautiful restaurant and very lively. We were happy to have a nice waitress because we were worried that after both a bad host and a bad bartender, we would be facing similar service for the rest of our meal.

We started with the margarita pizza, which thankfully came out quickly because we were starving:

First of all, it is a huge appetizer. But we had to try the infamous wood-grilled pizza! It was as good as I expected. It had a very thin and very crispy crust, fresh garlicky tomato sauce, and the perfect amount of cheese. The julienned basil on top was perfectly fragrant and tasty and we had to stop ourselves from eating more than one small piece. We had a lot more food to save room for!

Then we tried the caesar salad:

This was not good at all. It was doused in a terrible dressing that tasted like over-ripe lemons and little else. The only thing redeemable were the croutons- fresh pieces of buttered bread lightly toasted. My mom and I ate only a couple bites and decided we couldn't even stand it. We figured it was better, because our pasta dishes were bound to come out soon and we wanted to save room.

Little did we know we were going to wait almost 45 minutes after the salad was taken away for our pasta course. When it finally arrived, we were both annoyed and tired (it was almost 10 at this point). I had the gnocchi in a sausage sauce:

This was actually very good. I thought the portion size was perfect, the sauce had a lot of nice chunks of sausage, and the gnocchi was tender. I ate the whole thing up.

My mom had the rigatoni with lamb ragu:

She also thought hers was good. It was a basic lamb ragu, nothing special, but enjoyable.

For dessert (which you have to order with your entrees) we had the apple tart:

While this looks very pretty and delicious, it wasn't. The crust was buttery and sugary, so it was tolerable, but the inside was not. The green apples had their skins left on, and were sliced very thin. You had to separate all the skin from the rest of the tart before eating it or the stringy pieces of green skin got stuck in your throat or between your teeth. It made the whole thing difficult to chew and the skins also left a nasty aftertaste if you accidentally put some in your mouth. This dessert was also $20- a complete waste of money.

At 10:30 when we were driving home, we discussed our meal. This was our consensus: was the food generally good? Yes. Was it 2-hour wait and very expensive good? No. If this had been a quick meal at a humble Italian restaurant with moderate prices, I probably would have raved about the place. But seeing as we waited an hour and fifteen minutes to be seated, and then an additional almost two hours for our main course, then paid a fortune for it all, I am not inclined to rave about Al Forno at all.

Spinach Tortellini Soup

Before I tasted the challah from the previous post, but after I bought it, I decided I wanted to make a soup to accompany it. The soup had to have a lot of broth, so I could do a lot of bread dunking, but be hearty enough to act as my full dinner.

I decided to make spinach tortellini soup, one of my mom's dinner staples when I was little:

This is probably the easiest soup you'll ever make. First, boil some good chicken stock (how ever much you need for a nice bowl- I used between 2-3). Once the stock is boiling, add in your tortellini. Any flavor works but I always use three-cheese. Cook the tortellini according to directions, then bring the stock down to a simmer. Add salt, pepper, and a couple good handfuls of spinach. Stir well, until spinach is just wilted. Then serve! I love the way the tortellini burst in your mouth. They soak up a lot of the chicken stock and it makes them that much more flavorful. I wasn't too thrilled with the chicken stock I used (a brand from whole foods) because it was fairly flavorless, so I would use a brand you know and trust!