I have a friend who makes healthy choices when he eats out - scallops, fish... he doesn't eat a lot of meat. I, however, since I generally eat pretty healthy on a regular basis, like to take dining out as an opportunity to run a little wild and eat things that we don't make at home.
I'm a carbs girl, so I have to watch myself with the breadbasket in order to save room for the rest of the meal. Instead of ordering a calorific drink, I usually stick with water to save the calories for something yummy. To deal with portion sizes, I give myself permission to take home the leftovers - which sometimes has the side benefit of helping me to save room for something sweet!
Speaking of which, I am also a sweets girl. But rather than the popular chocolate, my tendency is to gravitate towards creamy (think creme brulee, panna cotta) and fruity (ie. apple, lemon) desserts.
One of my favorite food sayings is: Variety is the spice of life! And indeed, it is! I come from a background of family style dining, so I love it when my dining companion is willing to share dishes with me.
Good service is just as important as good food to an enjoyable dining experience. I'm not expecting my napkin to be folded for me when I return to the table (although that is kind of cool - however, that's a whole different tier in service!) - just keep my water filled, don't let me starve between courses, and be generally aware of your tables so I can catch your attention if I need something. And if you openingly share your food opinions when asked, all the better!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
How I Eat: Beloved Carbs
I love my carbs...
Pasta! Potatoes! Oh, sweet potatoes! Breads! Quick breads! Cakes! Cookies! Oh boy, I'm in trouble...
Anyhow, here's a list of some of my favorite bready carbs served up by the restaurants around here in the Boston Metro area:
(warning: Chains included and are actually unexpectedly super-represented in this list)
*Cosi - oh, what a flatbread! Great to snack on; great in a sandwich!
*Helmand's fresh baked flatbreads
*Texas Roadhouse's sweet warm golden rolls
*Cheesecake Factory's honey wheat loaf
*Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse's honey wheat loaf (hmmm... is that a theme I sense?)
*Bertucci's Rolls (I love it with their olive oil and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese)
*Meritage had a really great roll among its basket choices
*Oasis Brazilian Restaurant - yummy cheesey cheese bread available at the buffet
*Fiorella's cheesy flatbread strips
*Foccacia is great stuff, and Not Your Average Joe's serves a good one, as did Vinny Testa's before they transformed into Vinny T's (they may even still serve it, but the whole roasted garlic bulbs are what sold it)
Perfection is within reach when the bread is served warm to the table, fragrant and inviting...
And then there are some great spreads out there doing their best to steal the show:
*The Publick House's sweet red pepper relish with cottage cheese (super-old experience)
*Appetito's hummus
*La Morra's fresh ricotta
*(and like I said) Vinny T's whole roasted garlic
Pasta! Potatoes! Oh, sweet potatoes! Breads! Quick breads! Cakes! Cookies! Oh boy, I'm in trouble...
Anyhow, here's a list of some of my favorite bready carbs served up by the restaurants around here in the Boston Metro area:
(warning: Chains included and are actually unexpectedly super-represented in this list)
*Cosi - oh, what a flatbread! Great to snack on; great in a sandwich!
*Helmand's fresh baked flatbreads
*Texas Roadhouse's sweet warm golden rolls
*Cheesecake Factory's honey wheat loaf
*Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse's honey wheat loaf (hmmm... is that a theme I sense?)
*Bertucci's Rolls (I love it with their olive oil and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese)
*Meritage had a really great roll among its basket choices
*Oasis Brazilian Restaurant - yummy cheesey cheese bread available at the buffet
*Fiorella's cheesy flatbread strips
*Foccacia is great stuff, and Not Your Average Joe's serves a good one, as did Vinny Testa's before they transformed into Vinny T's (they may even still serve it, but the whole roasted garlic bulbs are what sold it)
Perfection is within reach when the bread is served warm to the table, fragrant and inviting...
And then there are some great spreads out there doing their best to steal the show:
*The Publick House's sweet red pepper relish with cottage cheese (super-old experience)
*Appetito's hummus
*La Morra's fresh ricotta
*(and like I said) Vinny T's whole roasted garlic
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Dying Bananas, Revived!
There's a saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
Well, when your bananas are black speckled... or wait even longer... if your bananas are yellow speckled (with a black base!)... no, don't toss it! You can now make banana bread! Dying bananas, as I call them, make for yummy sweet banana bread. =) Trust me!
I do tend to cut off the softer spots, but then today's banana seems to be different from the bananas I grew up with. Recently, I peeled the blackened skin off a small bunch of bananas and found perfectly nice looking still firm banana underneath, with maybe one or two soft spots. In the past, the banana inside would be sweet and mushy, with a few excessively soft darkened spots that I would proceed to cut away.
Well, I found a brand new (to me!) banana bread recipe online earlier this year on elise.com. It was a recipe that Elise's friend Heidi had begged from a ski friend's mother (Mrs. Hockmeyer), so we can call this Mrs. Hockmeyer's Banana Bread for (relatively) short! Elise called it a simple but perfect banana bread.
Well, I tried out the recipe as written (using the 3/4 cup sugar option), and it is simple, with the exception of the melted butter (because having to melt anything isn't simple in my book), due to the hand mixing/one bowl/one measuring cup structure of the recipe, however, my resultant banana bread had issues with tiny clumps of white powder found scattered here and there. I didn't like that.
Other than my speckled powder issue, the bread was moist and sweet with a great banana flavor and an interesting texture reminiscent of recipes using glutinous rice flour. The especially dark crust turned out to be a plus, being an extra sweet chewy with a slight crisp (until the bread gets stored in an airtight container) treat!
Banana Bread Recipe
Posted by Elise on Jun 15, 2006
Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
Method
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
Source: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001465banana_bread.php
I baked the bread in 3 mini loaf pans (I feared the batter would overflow 2 pans) for 35 minutes. To combat the speckled powder issue, which I suspect was the baking soda, I think I'll try either try A) sprinkling the powder over the mixture through a sieve (which however sort of defeats the idea of a simple recipe) or B) pre-mixing the baking soda (and while I'm at it, the salt) into the flour in the measuring cup.
But that'll just have to wait for a fresh new batch of dying bananas!
Well, when your bananas are black speckled... or wait even longer... if your bananas are yellow speckled (with a black base!)... no, don't toss it! You can now make banana bread! Dying bananas, as I call them, make for yummy sweet banana bread. =) Trust me!
I do tend to cut off the softer spots, but then today's banana seems to be different from the bananas I grew up with. Recently, I peeled the blackened skin off a small bunch of bananas and found perfectly nice looking still firm banana underneath, with maybe one or two soft spots. In the past, the banana inside would be sweet and mushy, with a few excessively soft darkened spots that I would proceed to cut away.
Well, I found a brand new (to me!) banana bread recipe online earlier this year on elise.com. It was a recipe that Elise's friend Heidi had begged from a ski friend's mother (Mrs. Hockmeyer), so we can call this Mrs. Hockmeyer's Banana Bread for (relatively) short! Elise called it a simple but perfect banana bread.
Well, I tried out the recipe as written (using the 3/4 cup sugar option), and it is simple, with the exception of the melted butter (because having to melt anything isn't simple in my book), due to the hand mixing/one bowl/one measuring cup structure of the recipe, however, my resultant banana bread had issues with tiny clumps of white powder found scattered here and there. I didn't like that.
Other than my speckled powder issue, the bread was moist and sweet with a great banana flavor and an interesting texture reminiscent of recipes using glutinous rice flour. The especially dark crust turned out to be a plus, being an extra sweet chewy with a slight crisp (until the bread gets stored in an airtight container) treat!
Banana Bread Recipe
Posted by Elise on Jun 15, 2006
Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
Method
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
Source: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001465banana_bread.php
I baked the bread in 3 mini loaf pans (I feared the batter would overflow 2 pans) for 35 minutes. To combat the speckled powder issue, which I suspect was the baking soda, I think I'll try either try A) sprinkling the powder over the mixture through a sieve (which however sort of defeats the idea of a simple recipe) or B) pre-mixing the baking soda (and while I'm at it, the salt) into the flour in the measuring cup.
But that'll just have to wait for a fresh new batch of dying bananas!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Baking with... Pears!
Apples... yes. Pineapple... yeah. Cranberries... yup! Bananas... most definitely, YES! But pears? Really? No, I've never baked with pears till just a couple of months ago. I had originally plucked a pear tart recipe from one of my favorite food sites, Chowhound... hmmm... maybe a couple of years ago now. If you are a frequenter of that site, I'm sure you've run into the Sir Gawain cake vs. the galleygirl tart debate. Both recipes are well received by the general Chowhound community, both consist of ingredients I normally have in the house (except perhaps the fruit), and both seemed pretty simple to make, so I saved both, but only just got around to baking galleygirl's friend's Laurie's Pear Tart, and I've already garnered a mass of compliments! Not to mention, I love it too! The key, as noted by galleygirl, is to underbake it, that way the center is sort of custardy around the sweet pear slices. When fully cooked, the batter bakes up into a rich butter cake, which, while still yummy, is less special.
The Recipe verbatim from Chowhound:
Laurie's Pear Tart
3 or 4 ripe juicy pears. (doesn't matter what kind, juicy and ripe are KEY!)
Peel, core, and cut into sixths or eighths
Cream 1 stick butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 teasoon vanilla
Add
2 eggs, one at a time...
Combine
1 c. flour
1 teasoon baking powder
1/2 t. salt...
Add to butter mixture.
Spray an 8" (important) spring form pan with Pam. Spread the batter in it. Now, in a pinwheel pattern, press the slices of pear, peeled side up, into the batter. Cram in as many as you can; since the batter rises and covers the pears, there's no points given for style here(g). The more pears, the moister the cake will be. Sprinkle with handful of sugar before baking. Bake at 350 degrees til a skewer comes out clean, about an hour(Start checking at 40 minutes!). If you have any doubts, UNDERBAKE. This is a whole different animal if it dries out. Then it's just a cake; correctly done, you'll love it. It's just one of those recipes that is greater than the sum of it's parts. really. Ask my Dad. ;)
Vivian's Notes:
1) Personally, I could only fit 1-1/2 pears into my 8 inch round pan.
2) Another Chowhound noted that she used 1.5 times the batter for her 9 inch pan - I tried this, but it was a touch too much batter for my short 9 inch round cake pan.
3) It was still wonderfully moist and yummy days after baking.
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