Wine & Chocolate!!

Last Thursday.. the Ogre and I went to a wine tasting at Spice & Tea Exchange. It was hosted by Wines For Humanity. This is an awesome company and I had no idea they even existed before last Thursday. I will be buying my bottles from them from now on!

We tasted 5 different wines from a very light white on out to a robust Bordeaux. There was even a framboise champagne. Each course of wine had a little appetizer paired with it and we learned alot about how to pair wines with food. It was surprising what kinds of food paired together.

One of the courses had these salted chocolates that just burst with salt and chocolate and spices. It was definitely a party in my mouth. I resolved on the spot to try and make them. Today I attempted it and I think I succeeded. They were entirely awesome.  As my first attempt at copying something I ate -- I am entirely happy!

12 oz Ghiardelli Bittersweet morsels
3 cups mini marshmallows
4 Tbl butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 package Cyprus Flake Salt
1 package Spiced Cocoa mix from Spice & Tea.

Grease an 8x8 pan and line with parchment paper. Be sure the paper is long enough to hang over the edges of the pan,

Melt chocolate and marshmallows in a double boiler. Add 1 tsp of vanilla. When fully melted and combined pour into 8x8 pan and spread evenly.  Sprinkle with flake salt. Refrigerate for about an hour until cool and firm. Runa knife around the edges and lift chocolate out of pan and cut into 1" squares.  Roll in the cocoa spice mix and put into mini cupcake papers.


I have to try and remember what wine they paired with ...I should have written it down.  But still that doesn't matter so much. They are chocolate and yummy!
XXOO
Daybird

Mix 'n Mac in Middletown

We've been there a few times, so this review is overdue.
This is not your average mac and cheese place.  The first time we were there, the special of the week was lobster mac and cheese with tarragon cream sauce with sherry and caramelized shallots.  Um, yeah.
That first time, Craig had the Buffalo chicken.  Chunks of chicken dredged in Buffalo sauce, mixed into macaroni with gorgonzola.  I had the Cheeseburger - ground beef, cheddar, roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions, and bits of pickle!  We also had the weekly special of fried white cheddar triangles with compotes (blueberry, apple cilantro).  Which.  Were. AWESOME.  Especially the apple cilantro compote.
The next time we went, I picked up takeout for Craig at work.  I got the Cheeseburger (why mess with perfection?), and for Craig I got the Chipotle Chicken BBQ (american cheddar, chicken cutlet, roasted corn, cilantro, chipotle BBQ) and the Mexi (pepper jack, chorizo, seasoned ground beef, pico de gallo).  Home run all the way 'round.
This past weekend, our friend ordered the Mushroom Swiss (sauteed mushrooms, port wine cream, smoked gouda) with bacon.  She was thrilled with her food.  I think she might have proposed to the chef.
I had the Cheesesteak, but I subbed out the roasted tomatoes for the green peppers (I can't eat them).  It was wonderful.  Nice chunks of ribeye, bits of onions, chunks of tomatoes.  Teh awesome.
Craig had the Fiery Steak.  Pepperjack cheese, ribeye, spicy pepper blend (kinda like sriracha), broccoli, cilantro soy.  He loved it, but said it was really spicy.  REALLY SPICY.  Because he's pretty resilient to hot food, so if he says it's hot, it's HOT.
We also got some of the mac balls.  These are deep-fried mac and cheese balls, with add-ins.  We had the mac and cheese and bacon, which were okay (the tomato cream dipping sauce is AMAZING.  These people need to bottle this stuff and market it).  The triple cheddar cranberry mac balls were phenomenal.  Chunks of cranberries mixed into mac and cheese?  Awesome to the max.
Summation:  This.  Place.  ROCKS.  Go there.

Adventures in Yogurtland, part two

Once more into the breach.
This time, I used a mix of skim milk and Simply Smart, which is a skim-plus type milk.  I didn't stir it at all, and when I added the yogurt starter I was very gentle and just slipped it into the milk.  I incubated it in a bowl inside my crockpot filled with water.  I set the temperature to "warm" and left the lid half off to maintain the proper temperature.  It came out much less grainy, but still not as creamy as I was hoping for.  I have seen posts that showed the drained result being whipped with an electric beater, so that's my next attempt.  The taste is great, though, and it's still less than a fourth the cost of the Fage.

Adventures in Yogurtland, part one.

The boyfriend and I have been doing the Nutrisystem thing since about August last year. We've lost a total of 65 pounds, with about 120 to go (mostly mine). The diet requires that you eat a certain amount of non-fat dairy to make sure you get the necessary amount of calcium and protein, so we buy a lot of Greek-style yogurt. Since it's not cheap, I decided to try making it at home.
Four cups of skim milk, heated to 180 degrees in the microwave, to kill off competing bacteria. Cool down to about 100 degrees and add around a quarter cup of starter (Fage non-fat). Culture at about 100 degrees for 8 to 12 hours. Strain for a bit through a mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter. Save the whey - it's usable, as liquid in biscuits or pancakes or bread. The result was about 2 cups of yogurt and an equal amount of whey. That amount of yogurt costs $4 when I buy it. Making it cost me 84 cents.
The taste of the resulting yogurt was great. The texture was a bit grainy, more like ricotta than the rich creaminess of Greek yogurt. I did some checking on-line, and apparently I made three mistakes: while heating the milk to 180 degrees I stirred it, when I added the starter I stirred it thoroughly, and the incubation temperature was too high.
Stay tuned for Adventures in Yogurtland, part two. But while you're waiting, here is my non-fat dip recipe:
4 oz. non-fat cream cheese
12 oz. non-fat Greek yogurt

Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Gradually blend in yogurt. When thoroughly incorporated, add dip flavoring. Lipton's Onion soup mix, Hidden Valley Ranch dip mix, whatever, to flavor 2 cups of sour cream equivalent. Chill.
If you use Fage, the fat levels and cholesterol are extremely low.

restaurant review - Portofino in Staatsburg, NY

Well, this one isn't a new place. I've been going to Portofino for years. The chef, Brian, is a good friend of my younger cousin Vicki, and he catered both my cousins' weddings. That having been said, this review is way overdue.
Craig and I went there again tonight. He ordered his favorite appetizer, the carpaccio. As always, it was perfect: rare rare rare beef, beautifully dressed with olive oil, capers, shaved parmesan, and lightly dressed spring greens (or maybe arugula?). My appetizer was OMG duck wings. DUCK WINGS! With a chipotle-maple glaze. Absolutely fantastic. Crispy duck skin with a fantastic sweet-hot sauce. Lovely.
Salads were perfectly dressed, not drowned in dressing. Fresh baby greens, grape tomatoes, carrot shreds, and house-made garlic croutons.
Entrees. Oh, my, entrees. Craig had the pulled pork with hand-cut french fries, cornbread, and broccoli rabe. The pulled pork was absolutely AMAZING. It was moist, flavorful, a bit sweet and spicy, and not overpoweringly smoked. The fries were served on top of the pork. They were very flavorful and crisp. The cornbread was of the savory type, with real corn kernels throughout. The broccoli rabe was deep-fried, and its bitterness made a perfect contrast to the rich sweet/spicy/porky goodness of the pulled pork.
I had the linguini carbonara. Pancetta, prosciutto, peas, roasted garlic, red onions, parmesan, tossed in a cream sauce with the linguini. It. Was. Awesome.
Dinner (without drinks or dessert) was about $54 (before tax). If you go there, try the gnocchi. Brian makes the best I've ever had - light, fluffy, and absolutely wonderful.

restaurant review - Palace Dumplings in Wappinger Falls

Craig and I have driven past this place with its neon "DUMPLINGS" sign for a while. Finally, I decided to check teh Intarwebz for information about it. I saw a bunch of reviews, virtually all of them positive. As I am a HUUUUUGE fan of all dumplings, we decided to check it out.
Side note - every ethnicity has dumplings of one sort or another. Pierogies, ravioli, what have you, I loves them all.
We started out our meal with soup. I ordered the egg drop soup and Craig chose the hot and sour soup. Which is the reverse of our usual choices, but what the hey. My soup was very light, not the usual thick bright yellow concoction I'm used to. It was excellent! Craig's was pretty much the same soup but with added rice wine vinegar, hot chili oil, and some tofu. It was an excellent and different version of the traditional hot and sour soup.
Next was our "salad" course. I ordered completely randomly - flavor green beans sheets. It was a bit weird, but it grew on me. It was tagliatelli-sized strips of a very chewy noodle-type thing with strips of cucumber, shreds of chicken, and maybe parsley dressed with a sweet rice wine vinegar dressing. The noodles were perfectly clear, similar to konjac noodles. I was a bit taken aback at first, but the flavor was so amazing that I just kept eating them. They are really, really, REALLY hard to eat with a fork, though. Chopsticks are kind of necessary.
Craig's salad course was the horseradish cucumber, which was very tasty and not too overwhelmingly horseradishy, even for weenies like me.
The dumplings. OMG the dumplings. There are twenty-five different kinds, vegetarian included. We ordered the pork and scallion dumplings and the beef and onion ones. Both were absolutely wonderful. Thin wrappers with lots of filling. There were a few choices of sauces on our table - straight soy sauce, something labeled dumpling sauce (garlic, rice wine vinegar, maybe Chinese mustard), another labeled sweet dumpling sauce (soy, sugar, rice wine vinegar), and a hot chili paste.
Our total bill came to $28.
There is nothing on the menu that is typical of what we think of as "Chinese food." No egg rolls, no fried rice, no sweet and sour pork. This is northern Chinese food, and it's absolutely wonderful. Highly, highly recommended.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

I've been asked to provide this recipe, so here it is. This is exactly how I made it this past weekend. There are cheaper substitutes at the end.

Mexican Chicken Casserole (serves 8 generously)

3 cups of cooked chicken, diced
1 tub Knorr chicken stock
1 package Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Cajun flavor
1 package Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Santa Fe flavor
1 eleven oz. can Mexicorn - it is a mix of corn, beans, and peppers
1 sixteen oz. jar of garden salsa - it has corn in it. I used medium.
1/2 of a twenty-one oz. can of Bush's Fiesta Black Beans
2 cups shredded four-cheese Mexican cheese blend
2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning

optional topping:
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt


In a small dish, dissolve the Knorr stock with the liquid from the canned Mexicorn. Combine all ingredients in a casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes. You can also microwave this until the cheese is melted rather than baking it.

If you are using the optional sour cream topping, mix the sour cream, Mrs. Dash, and salt. Chill while casserole is baking.

To make this less expensive, you can substitute 4 cups brown rice for the Uncle Ben's.

Not My Brother's Chili

This recipe is a tweaking of my brother's chili recipe. His is very good, but I made some changes to suit my tastes.

Chili - serves 12

London broil - about 3 lb. (buy it on sale and it's cheaper than ground beef)
oil for browning
2 medium onions, diced
2 fifteen-ounce cans diced tomatoes (I use one of fire-roasted and one with green chilies)
2 fifteen-ounce cans of pink beans with sauce (Goya is best)
chili powder
cumin

optional:
chopped bell pepper (red or green)
chiles in adobo sauce
tabasco

Have the butcher slice the London broil in half so that you have two pieces half as thick as the original. Cut the meat into half-inch chunks. The meat will be easier to dice if you put it in the freezer for 20 minutes before you dice it.
Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook the onion until transparent (if using the optional bell pepper, cook that as well). Remove from the pot. In SMALL batches, brown the beef. As each small batch is done, remove it from the pot and start the next batch.
When all the beef is browned, return the beef and cooked vegetables to the Dutch oven. Add the canned tomatoes and the beans (don't drain the beans). Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of chili powder and 1 to 2 teaspoons cumin. If using the optional chiles in adobo and tabasco, add them to taste. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Adjust seasoning and serve.

All of the proportions are flexible. If you like more beans, add more. If you want more tomatoes, add another can.

restaurant review - The Greek Cafe in Middletown

Tonight Craig and I had dinner at the Greek Cafe in Middletown, NY. We've been looking for a good Greek place, hell, ANY Greek place since he moved up here from Long Island. Driving home one evening a few weeks back, we saw a sign for the Greek Cafe. Craig got out his phone and found their number and called to ask if they had skordalia on the menu. When they said "of course!" it was a definite. I checked out the menu online and it looked fantastic. We tried to go last weekend, but they aren't open on Sundays, which is our only day off together. Tonight with the holiday we got a chance.
Craig ordered his beloved skordalia for his appetizer. It's a cold dip made with mashed potato, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice, served with warm pita bread. It was just great, an overly generous portion. I had the halloumi cheese, which is a Cypriot sheep's milk brined cheese, sliced and fried in olive oil until browned. I had it when I was on an archaeological dig on Cyprus when I was in college, and I loved it so much I tried for 20 years to find the cheese in this country with no luck. Finally about 5 or 6 years ago, they started importing it.
We both ordered the avgolemono soup as a second appetizer - a chicken-lemon-egg soup with rice. Wonderful!
For our entrees, we both chose the pastichio, which is a pasta-meat-cheese concoction, which is the lower picture above. It came with an excellent salad, lightly dressed and perfectly fresh. The portion of the pastichio was so huge that we barely finished a third of it and brought the rest home. We also wanted to save room for dessert - baklava for Craig and galactoboureko for me and Greek coffee for both. Again, the portions were huge (see the top picture) and both were excellent.
Total tab for the meal (half of which came home with us as leftovers) was $57. I believe the place doesn't have a liquor license, but a table near ours brought their own homemade wine with them and sent us over a couple of glasses! The waiter (owner's son) was very nice, service was great, the place is very pretty.
Highly, highly recommended!

Breakfast Frittata

Mowgli requested some easy breakfast items, so I'll be posting a few over the next couple of days.

Frittata - serves 4-6

butter or cooking spray
1 cup chopped broccoli (optional)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped pepper
1 cup diced cooked meat (sausage, bacon, ham)
6 eggs
2 Tablespoons milk
4 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese


You must use a frying pan that can go into the oven for this! No plastic handles allowed.
Preheat broiler.
Heat frying pan on stove over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add the butter or cooking spray. If using the broccoli, add that first and cook for about 4 minutes. Add the onion and pepper and cook until onions are transparent. Add the cooked meat and cook for another 2 minutes or so until the meat is heated through.
In a bowl, scramble the eggs with the milk and Parmesan cheese. Pour over the vegetable/meat mix. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the bottom is set up. Transfer the pan to the broiler. Broil for 3 to 5 minutes or until well set. Watch carefully, as it can burn easily.
You can cut the calories by using cooking spray rather than butter, turkey sausage/bacon/ham, and swapping skim milk for whole. Serve with a green salad or fruit salad for a nice brunch.

restaurant review - Spice Aroma in Poughkeepsie

Tonight Craig and I went for dinner at Spice Aroma, the in-hotel restaurant at the Clarion in Poughkeepsie. We were looking for something different for our New Year's dinner, and I stumbled across this Indian/Chinese/American restaurant via Google.
We arrived a bit late in the evening - 9:15, which is late for a restaurant that closes at 10. There were three other parties there, every one of which was Indian. In my book, it's a good sign when you go to an ethnic restaurant and a lot of the patrons are of that ethnicity.
The place smelled fantastic even from the parking lot. We were seated promptly and the waiter asked us about drinks right away. We both had hot tea with lemon, which was excellent. Really excellent, so much so that we asked the waiter what kind of tea it was. It was Lipton's. Color me surprised, because it really was one of the best cups of tea I've ever had. Maybe it was the water.
The menu has a nice selection of foods of varied spiciness. We ordered the bread basket sampler, which included three of the seven different options. We chose a paneer-stuffed bread, a whole wheat bread stuffed with spiced potatoes, and an onion-stuffed bread. I'm not entirely sure which was which, but they were all very tasty.
With all that bread, we didn't order appetizers. For our entrees, I ordered the Tandoori chicken because I'm a total wimp when it comes to spicy foods. Craig ordered the chicken Vindaloo because he watches Red Dwarf and they mention it all the time. We also got an order of the vegetable biryani (a rice dish with assorted vegetables and fruits) to help with the spiciness factor. Along with our food was included white rice and a yogurt sauce.
The Tandoori chicken was wonderful. It came on a VERY sizzling platter with mixed vegetables, four good-sized chunks of chicken (hacked pieces - beware of bone chunks). It was seasoned in a very complex and tasty way without being too spicy for me.
The biryani did have a certain spiciness to it that was nicely offset by the yogurt sauce, which had chopped onions, cilantro, mango chunks, and something I couldn't identify. Creamy, savory, sweet, cooling, and the perfect finishing touch for the spicier elements.
Craig's chicken Vindaloo was very good. I actually tried it, though I made sure to have plenty of white rice and the yogurt sauce to tame the heat. It was very, very good.
Because we had ordered so much food (the menu was just that appealing) we brought lots of leftovers home and didn't have room for dessert. But they have a buffet on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so we're looking forward to checking that out and trying even more of their food.
Oh, and did I mention that with all of that food our bill only came to $43? Yeah, totally recommend this place.