Happy Hour is the best Hour

Yesterday I finally went to Cheesecake Factory for happy hour. My best friend has been bugging me to go for years (I’m not kidding). She’s been dying to go once she turned 21. So I caved in, and we went last night.

We go to school during the year, so going to happy hour together is impossible. She’s all the way in Baltimore and I’m in Philadelphia. During the summer I work until dinner time, so Cheesecake Factory happy hour is always out of the question because it is from 4pm to 6pm.

But I had a day off yesterday, and our one friend is leaving to go to DC for her new job. So we ended up going to Cheesecake Factory for a quick bite and drink before we said our goodbyes.

This happy hour is one of the best I’ve been too so far. Everything on the happy hour menu is $5. FIVE DOLLARS. Now that is a good deal, considering the portion sizes at this restaurant. (For those who are not familiar with this place, everything is basically super-sized, for roughly $10 and up for a meal and around the same for a drink).

My friends and I shared two dishes, nachos and macaroni cheese balls. We were so full afterwards. These two dishes could easily feed four. We ended up getting the mojitos as a drink. Everything was delicious and full of flavor.

I can see myself coming back to try other meals and drinks. And most importantly, you can’t beat the price! Everyone go to happy hour at Cheesecake Factory!

Xoxo

Today’s Creation- Potato Salad

I am a lover of all things BBQ. The food, the fun, the friends, you name it, I love it. My family is really into BBQs and every summer as long as I can remember, we throw BBQs for all our friends and family. I live on a dead end, so all my neighbors are really close with each other. When we have a last minute BBQ, they are the ones who come over for food and beer.

To me, the food is the best part. We always have your staple dishes. Hotdogs, Hamburgers, macaroni and cheese (baked, in this case. A family favorite), potato salad, macaroni salad and watermelon. But we also have new dishes we like to swap in sometime. Either a panzanella salad, which is chopped vegetables tossed in a mustard vinaigrette, or a staple dish with a twist. In this case, a twist on potato salad.

The other night I made dinner for my mom and I (My dad was traveling for work and my to sisters were out of town with friends). I love being in the kitchen and coming up with things on the fly. I made chicken as the protein. I marinated it in homemade pesto, and grilled it. And I had two sides to go along with it- quinoa and potato salad.

For the potato salad, you make it as you normally would. In my case, because it was only my mom & I, I only used three yukon gold potatoes. I cubed them up, so they were roughly the same size, and threw them into a pot of boiling water. While they were cooking, I started to make the dressing for them. My mom & I wanted something lighter than the usual dressing on potato salad.

I grabbed mustard (yellow and dijon), garlic, honey, olive oil, parsley and salt & pepper.I also grabbed an onion, but that was to be tossed into the salad, not for the dressing. I combined everything in a bowl and set aside until the potatoes were done.

To tell if the potatoes are done, all you have to do is stick a knife in the biggest chunk, and if it goes through easily, then they are ready! So once my were done, I drained them into a colander, placed them into a bowl with the chopped up onions and tossed them into the dressing. I wanted to put the dressing on when the potatoes were warm, because the flavors absorb better. And thats it!

xoxo

Today’s Creation- S’mores Pockets

When Im bored, my creative side kicks into high gear. I haven’t been eating sweets lately, so I was craving one of my all time favorite dessert- S’mores. Now, the classic s’more calls for a fire so you can roast marshmallows and make a sandwich with a piece of hershey chocolate in-between two graham crackers. Today, I decided to use pillsbury crescent rolls.

I took the crescent rolls out of the package, and took apart each triangle. I was using a cupcake tray to cook to the s’mores in, so lightly grease a pan. I folded each triangle over, so it made a square (it won’t be perfect) and pressed together the edges. I then placed the dough in each cupcake holder. When you make pies, you stretch out the dough and press it in the pan, the same goes for this. Lightly press down and stretch the crescent roll dough as much as possible. Then I took a quarter of a graham cracker and crumbled it for each pocket. On top of the graham cracker crumbed, I placed a tablespoon of toll house semi-sweet chocolate chips. Finally, on top of the chocolate chip cookies, I placed a giant marshmallow. I put the tray into the oven for 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 8

Michelin or Market: Europe Eats

Bird's Eye View

My travel journeys over the past four years, which I have been so fortunate to experience, have always been on a student budget. That being said, I have a good barometer for what experiences I will and wont splurge on. I know myself and know what I will regret once I leave a destination. So food being one of the largest expenses of traveling abroad, I budgeted for a few splurges along the way. We decided to splurge on nightlife in Berlin instead of food,indulge in seafood in Croatia, and splurge on any amazing house specialties in the trattorias of Italy. The rest of the trip would consist of lots of fruit, cheap pizza (mostly in Croatia, ha), cheaper vodka, and some nuts. Great for the wallet, and waistline. I am a true believer that while some amazing meals do come from Michelin rated restaurants, amazing memories and meals can…

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Cupcakes with Homemade Icing

When I babysit, I always get the kids in the kitchen. We always have a good time either making cookies from scratch or doing a little semi-homemade baking. The other day, I was with the youngest kid, who is four years old, and he wanted to make cupcakes. The family has these really cool cupcake trays, and he really wanted to use them. So we make dinosaur and truck shape cupcakes (wish these were around when I was growing up!).

I was a little hesitant to use the pans, only because there were so many nooks and crannies. I made sure to grease the pans really well, so the cupcake won’t stick, and break once they were done cooking. I was happy withe the result, as was the kid.

When it comes to baking, I love being creative with the icing. I am not a fan of canned icing. I always make my own. Its so easy! To make vanilla icing, all you need is butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. To make chocolate, it is the same as vanilla, but you add in cocoa powder instead of vanilla extract.

I wasn’t able to find cocoa powder in the house, so I used Nutella and Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix. I used these two together, because Nutella on its own is delicious, but when its added to butter and cream cheese, it loses its richness and chocolate flavor. The Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix helped to bring that rich, chocolate flavor back.

 

The final product was delicious to say the least! Both of us were very pleased and enjoyed eating our cupcakes.

xoxo

Urthbox Gluten Free Box Review – Medium – June 2014

I always have a hard time looking for something to send to one of my best friends, who has celiacs. I love that this company creates a box based on those diet restrictions!

Urthbox is a Subscription box that delivers monthly healthy FULL SIZE treats! YES FINALLY! I hate paying for samples, samples should be free. They have four different boxes you can sign up for: Vegan, Gluten Free, Diet (healthy snacks to help you lose weight), and Classic (which is just healthy snacks).  The box is the medium box which is $29.00 a month for 12-15 FULL SIZED PRODUCTS! But since I had the living social deal I only payed $19.

This is the box it arrived in

Urthbox Unveiled

Ground-Based Nutrition Superfood Protein Smoothie $3.33 SAMPLE SIZE!? Thats really disappointing since they advertise only full sized products on their website. This is a single serving packet. This is a plant based protein blend. It is vegan friendly, no soy, dairy, or whey. It has no artificial colors, flavors, or dyes. It is high in fiber and is all natural. Includes…

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Counter Action: Black bean–corn chowder

I love chowders- this is definitely worth trying

The Yodeling Shadow

Goodbye, white balance. I’ll call you if I need you.

Do you ever have days where it feels like 4 a.m. all day?

Maybe it’s because you have actually gotten up at 4 that day. Maybe you ran out of bread and cereal and pancake mix and had to make do with a mushy banana for breakfast. Maybe you checked your library account and discovered that you had three books a week overdue. Maybe you glanced at the New York Times Bestseller list and found that the book at the top — the one everybody is raving about, even that crusty old critic in Chicago — has a setting, characters, and premise very similar to the book you’re currently writing, and now if you try to publish or promote your book in any way, everyone will think you copied.

This has never happened to me. Well, except for that one…

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Makeshift Pizza

The other night my roommate got a craving for pizza, but did not want to spend the time ordering and waiting for it to be delivered. Her boyfriend, being a chef, knew that he could make something healthier, more delicious and much faster than any pizzeria. What he came up with was amazing.

We have a small, cute convenient store by us, so he walked over and grabbed a few ingredients. On the shopping list? Pita bread, fresh mozzarella, mascarpone cheese, cherry tomatoes (but any type could work), spinach, arugula and of course garlic. Can’t forget fresh garlic when it comes to cooking. Makes a HUGE difference in my opinion.

Once he got back to the house, he went to the kitchen and got straight to work. He preheated the oven. As that was heating up, he began assembling the pizza. He took the pita bread out of the package, spread mascarpone cheese (a substitute for sauce), sprinkled mozzarella cheese, placed arugula, spinach & tomatoes on top. He finished the entire thing this a drizzle of olive oil, fresh garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Placed it in the oven for 20 minutes. What came out was a masterpiece.

Here is the recipe for what he calls, “Pita Pizza”-

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. Spread mascarpone cheese on the pita bread

3. Sprinkle mozzarella and fresh garlic on top of the mascarpone

4. Scatter arugula, spinach and tomatoes on top of the mozzarella

5. Finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and cracked black pepper

6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes

You will be in heaven with the first bite

xoxo

Simple Salads

If I could pick one thing to eat the rest of my life, it would be salad. I love everything about it. You can literally put whatever you want with lettuce and call it a day. When I have arugula in the refrigerator, I see what kind of meat I can add to it. Sometimes I cook fish (either tilapia, halibut, or even salmon) and add it on top, or I use prosciutto. And I always add some kind of cheese to it. Mozzarella and feta are my personal favorites because they hold up well in a salad, and they absorb the dressing. I love crunch so I add some kind of nut on top. Walnut, almond, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds. You name it.

The perfect salad to me would be: arugula, prosciutto, crumbled feta, pineapple, a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice for a dressing, a light drizzle of olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper

Roasting Vegetables

Roasting vegetables is probably the easiest thing to do. It takes little to no time, and I like to make roasted vegetables when I make some kind of protein- chicken, beef, fish etc. This is a dish I like to call- put it in and forget about it. All you need to do is set the oven to 400 degrees and toss the vegetables in olive oil and salt & pepper.

Wondering what vegetable to use? ANYTHING! Any and all vegetables are great roasted. When I am home with my family, my dad cut carrots, parsnips, and turnips into half inch pieces and tosses them with olive oil. Sometimes he will use acorn squash, beets, or asparagus. It all depends on what you are in the mood for or what is in season. Going to the local farmer’s market during the summer and fall is the perfect place to get vegetables. But when I am at school, I tend to roast asparagus.

The prep time is under 10 minutes, which is perfect for a busy college student. So this is what I do:

-Wash a pound of asparagus

– Cut the ends off (roughly an inch or two to get rid of the white on the ends)

– Pat dry (IMPORTANT!! otherwise oil will not coat it)

– Lightly drizzle the asparagus with olive oil (A lot goes along way)

– Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

– Spread asparagus out so it is one even layer

– Place in a preheated oven for 25 minutes