txaggie

I made cupcakes for Halloween.

Dinner on Sunday night was beef stew with a horseradish sour cream.

Last night's dinner was italian-style chicken with sausage, peppers, and onions and mashed potatoes. The recipe was a Cook's Illustrated recipe that we were testing.

Dinner a couple of Wednesdays (my night to cook) ago was comfort food...Roast chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, collard greens, and mac n cheese. Sunday's dinner was stuffed pork chops and roasted root vegetables. Dessert was lady fingers and a fancy fruit mousse dessert that cjsadler made in pastry class.

Birthday cake at Eve! It's great.

The proportion of dry ingredients to wet ingredients for the carrot cake roulade in the Kinkead's cookbook is wrong. I made this dessert for a Father's Day dinner and luckily, I had the sense to do a trial run of the dessert before the actual dinner (I ended up making the cake 4 times!). After some research on the internet, I tweaked the recipe and cake was a huge hit!

Every now and again my friend's 10-year old daughter is under my watch. Unfortunately, her dad is not an adventurous cook or eater, but she she loves to try new things! We've made a variety of homemade pizzas and many things with pesto (noodles, on pizza with cheese and roasted red peppers). She LOVES hummus, white bean dip, pita chips, and spanokopita. It's fun to cook for her.

Last night's dinner was a bacon and onion tart and a salad. Simply delicious. cjsadler was testing the tart recipe for Cook's Illustrated.

On Saturday afternoon, cjsadler and I treated ourselves to cupcakes and coffee from Stacy's Coffee Parlor. What a great little place! The coffee's good and the cupcakes, esp. the icing, are excellent. A touch of almond extract does wonders for the icing. In honor of the delicious Le Cupcakes, I made cupcakes on Monday. A good friend of mine had a birthday on Saturday, and because every person needs a cake on (or close to) their birthday...

I went to school at Texas A&M in College Station. I second the recommendation for Cafe Eccell. I love their BBQ chicken pizza. And Freebird's is an institution in College Station. The best burrito ever. Go to the original location in Northgate (319 University Dr.).

May 21

Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' is full of useful information.

Boise Boise is not what I expected. It's quaint and picturesque. The backdrop of the city is mountains (which are snow-capped right now). Last Thursday, my co-workers and I dined at Tapas Estrella in downtown Boise. You order the tapas like you order sushi at a sushi restaurant. Circle your choices, choose the small or large portions, and, as in any other tapas restaurant, the food comes out when it's ready. The space was trendy and fun. Very hipster. Funky chandeliers, exposed brick behind the open kitchen. Colorful. Festive. The food was wonderful - cheese plate (manchego, cabrales, and a third that I can't remember), chicken empanadas (the worst dish we had, it was extremely dry and our waitress expected that comment from us), spinach empanadas (much, much better than the chicken), garlicky crimini mushrooms (yum!), herb roasted new potatoes, rock shrimp cakes with avocado relish (the favorite of the night), garlic roasted prawns with chili and olive oil, mushroom, goat cheese, and serrano ham tart (my favorite dish), and meatballs in a romesco sauce. Dessert was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache. The dinner at Tapas Estrella ranks number 1 in among my Spanish tapas experiences. Tonight's dinner in Boise was at the Milky Way restaurant (sister restaurant to Tapas Estrella). Overall, the meal was delicious. Our wine was a 2004 Hartford pinot noir. Bright, fruity, a little sweet, and enjoyable. For starters, we shared the smoked salmon flatbread (the texture of the flatbread was too crispy; I was expecting a pizza crust texture) and shrimp and scallion potstickers (perfect in every way). I had the sea bass with a black eyed pea succotash (the succotash was more like a spicy southwestern vegetable soup - different but good). My dining companions had the meat trifecta (salmon with a pesto aioli, hangar steak with a chipotle aioli and a sausage (turkey, maybe?) with a mixed green salad and corn and the smoked salmon and marscapone ravioli. Everyone was happy with their dishes, but the clear winner of the night was the smoked salmon ravioli. It was extremely rich and flavorful. Dessert was a triple chocolate cake with caramel sauce, cr�me anglaise, and vanilla ice cream. The ganache on the cake was rich and chocolaty. The cake, itself, was just ok (too dry). The caramel sauce was perfection (we asked for a little more!). Cake is my favorite dessert but I hate a dry cake. I ate the ganache, ice cream and sauces and left the cake for the others. So far, we've eaten well in Boise... Binni

Boise I'll be in Boise, Idaho next week and the week after for work. Does anyone have some recs for me? So far, I've found Milky Way and Tapas Estrella. Please no potato jokes!

Breakfast on Sunday morning was popovers. They didn't pop as much as I would have liked, but they were tasty. In the picture, the popovers look like corn muffins.

It was my turn to cook dinner last night. We had asian glazed pork chops and pan-roasted broccoli with asian flavors. Delicious. Both recipes were from Cook's Illustrated.

I'm interested!

Just give them a call and they'll fax you a menu.

I made the carrot cake from 'Caprial's Desserts' on Sunday and it was great. In fact, two days later, it was dynamite. Very moist and super carroty. I don't have the recipe with me, but if you'd like it, PM me and I'll send you the recipe.

Dinner on Sunday was seared hangar steak (from Cheesetique) and roasted vegetables (butternut squash, fennel, turnips, parsnips, and brussel sprouts -- cjsadler went crazy at Grand Mart).

A sandwich -- I made a pumpkin focaccia (sort of) yesterday. The bread sliced and toasted. There's a bit of artichoke and sun-dried tomato spread on both slices of bread. Sliced tomatoes andd avocado, spinach, gruyere, and a touch of salt and pepper. YUM!

Dinner last night was a white bean soup and squid salad. Both recipes were quick, easy, tasty, and from Cooking Light. Dessert was inspired from the Eve dinner last Thursday. It was sliced figs with a strawberry-basil puree and almond brittle. Awesome!

cjsadler and I and were also at Corduroy last night. We had planned to meet there for dinner and then cancelled later in the afternoon because we both were in bad moods and it wouldn't have been a pleasant dinner. Luckily, we changed our minds again and did have dinner at Corduroy. It was a great way to end the day. The meal was wonderful. I had the North Neck corn soup (rich, flavorful, but not too creamy), scallops (melted in your mouth), and the chocolate hazelnut bar (what's not to like? it's a kit kat) for dessert. cjsadler started with the mozzarella porcupine (a fun starter but the mozzarella was cold after a couple of bites), had the lamb (an excellent dish. the lamb was so tender) for his main course and the blueberry tart (tasted like summer) for dessert. Everything was delicious and cooked to perfection. Thanks, Rissa for being a gracious and attentive hostess. We'll be back soon. Binni

Leftovers -- black bean, corn, and cranberry salad and tomatoes with balsamic vinegar. Oh, and a couple of mini milky ways.

Dinner on Sunday was a barley risotto with fava beans from Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. We had caramelized carrots and onions with the risotto. Yummy meal though the picture doesn't do it justice. Dessert was a blueberry lemon (well, orange, because I ran out of lemons) ricotta souffle from Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast. It was good but we're not souffle fans (this confirmed that fact). We had a few bites and then finished up the blueberry pudding cake from the night before.