I Don't Always Herdy Dur Mur Flerpty Floopin...

Area Four - Cambridge, MA

http://areafour.com/

The beautiful Carnivore Pizza

     I have heard so much about Area Four but have never been, so when my cousin Shannon mentioned she wanted to come in town with her kids and have lunch with me, I thought this might be a great place to go. Area Four, right in the heart of Kendall Square, apparently has great pizza and mac and cheese, and I figured you couldn't get more kid friendly fare. I can't say I've ever been to a restaurant like this before. It was a different (but awesome and unique) mix of modern and rustic, hipster and GQ. Everything was very clean and simple, clear and uncluttered. Water was served in tall, clear glass bottles, there was a bowl of 30+ eggs on the counter, and stacks of wood beneath the counter around their open kitchen. Their wood fired oven was in plain view in this portion of the kitchen and filled the air with delicious pizza smells.
   
     We ordered their Carnivore pizza with sopressata, sausage and bacon on it. Apparently sopressata is this great Italian dry salami that is incredible on pizza. Either that or Area Four just knows what their doing. Perhaps it's both. For their crust, they use a 12 year starter with no oil or sugar and over 30 hours of fermentation. This recipe + a wood fired oven made the crust bubble in a way I'd never seen before. It kind of looked like a dalmatian. Ha. It was perfectly simple, and the crust on the bottom held up flawlessly. It always bums me out when pizza crust gets all soggy and difficult to hold. Anyway, the sopressata, bacon and sausage on this pizza was amazing. Each different meat had its own unique flavor - some peppery, some spicy, some herby. The sopressata was cut into these super wide slices and their edges curled up as they cooked, almost making them like a saucer. The bacon wasn't your standard thin bacon. It was more like the "bacon pieces" most people never think to buy but are more delicious. These meats together had so much flavor. I could've easily eaten the whole pizza.

Oven Home Fries

     We also got a few other dishes to share and try since there were 5 of us. I tried their mac and cheese which they served in a small cast iron dish. It was perfect. They made it with that pasta in the shape of little shells, and you could tell it was their homemade cheese sauce. Not overly cheesy, but not too thin and unflavorful. And they topped it all with some toasted breadcrumbs. I tried a couple of their wood oven home fries which were more like potato chunks, also served in a cast iron dish. They were super soft inside, had browned and crispy edges, and were infused with parmesan and parsley flavors... at least that's what I'm guessing. They were to die for. Those crispy edges get me every time. 

To balance it all out, we tried two of their salads. One of them was their Kitchen Sink salad which, rightfully named, had everything but the kitchen sink in it. It had romaine, radicchio, salame, fontina cheese, mushrooms, green olives, banana peppers, chickpeas, roasted onions and lemon-roasted garlic vinaigrette. Like I said... everything. I mean... I like all of these ingredients, and I thought I would've liked it (which I did), but I didn't love it. Maybe it was the olives? I'm not sure. There was just a ton going on. The other salad however, was one of the most delicious salads I've ever

Brussel Sprout Salad

eaten. When I read "brussel sprout salad," I assumed I was going to get whole brussel sprouts roasted or something and tossed with some other things. Wrong. These sprouts were actually shredded and mixed with shredded kale, red onion, roasted hazelnuts, pecorino cheese and a lemon vinaigrette. The roasted hazelnuts added an awesome crunch to a rather delicate salad. The pecorino cheese was mixed in the salad in shavings and added a deliciously salty, nutty and powerful cheese flavor. Together with the lemon vinaigrette, these flavors combined to make something fabulous. I'd really like to experiment with this and try to make it on my own. All in all, such a great and unique culinary experience.


Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread - The Chabala's Kitchen, Milford, MI

Quite possibly the most beautiful bread ever seen

     For our annual "Classy Christmas" event this year, I decided I was going to make this Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread I found on Smitten Kitchen. The woman is a genius so I knew anything she was whipping up in her kitchen was going to knock my socks off. This bread went through multiple phases. I whipped up the sauce at my mom's house, made the dough at my dad's and assembled and baked it all at the Chabala's with the help of Dan and his mom. If you're looking for a quick bread recipe, it's definitely not this one, BUT I still highly recommend it. It was best straight out of the oven with a little butter spread and melted on it. Plus, look how pretty it is! Kind of like the pull and peel twizzlers. I really liked the combination of the cheeses and mustard together. I went with a whole ground mustard because it's my favorite and has the flavor I was looking for. I also added some green onions which I think was a great idea (to toot my own horn a little bit). Although, I wasn't too fond of the beer flavor. It could've been because I used Miller Lite in the dough. Yea yea... go ahead and laugh. I was running out of time, realized I didn't have the kind of beer she suggested, so I just went with what we had. I bet it would've been great with a darker beer. The only other difference between what she did and what I did was that I mixed all the spices in with the sauce and brushed it on the bread dough as opposed to tossing it with the cheese. This was all an accident. Completely a delicious accident.

Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull Apart Bread

Bread
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup beer, preferably dark but really, use whatever you like to drink
2 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour, divided
1/3 cup rye flour (I just used all-purpose flour)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1 teaspoon table salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

Filling
3 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon Dijon or a mustard of your choice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot sauce
1 teaspoon  mustard powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Several grinds black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar

1) Make dough: In a small saucepan, heat the 4 tablespoons butter and 1/4 cup of beer, just until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add the remaining 1/3 cup beer. Set aside to cool down slightly. You want the mixture warm but not steaming hot.

2) Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together 2 cups of the all-purpose flour, sugar, yeast and table salt. With the mixer on low, pour in the butter-beer mixture, mixing only until the flour is moistened. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. The batter will look lumpy, but will become smooth in a moment. Add the remaining 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and all of the rye flour, mixing until just combined. Replace paddle with a dough hook and let the machine knead the dough for 3 to 4 minutes on low.

3) Oil a medium/large bowl and transfer dough to it. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside for

50 to 60 minutes, until doubled. Meanwhile, prepare fillings.You can also rest the dough in the fridge overnight -- wrapped tightly with plastic. The next day, let it rest at room temperature for an hour before rolling out.

4) Make fillings: Melt the 3 tablespoons butter. Remove from heat and whisk in mustard, Worcestershire and hot sauce until smooth. Set aside.

5) In the bottom of a medium bowl, stir together mustard powder, paprika, table salt and several grinds of black pepper. Add shredded cheddar and toss until grated strands are evenly coated with spices.

6) Assemble bread: Either coat a 9-by-5 loaf pan lightly with butter or a nonstick spray and set aside.

7) Turn dough out onto a well-floured counter and roll the dough into a 20-by-12-inch rectangle, making sure it doesn’t stick to the counter by lifting sections and re-flouring the counter as needed. Brush the butter-mustard-Worcestershire mixture evenly over the whole surface, right up to the edges. Cut the dough crosswise into 5 strips; each should be 12-by-4 inches. Don't worry if they're not perfect rectangles. Everything will rise and mush together as it's baking. Sprinkle the first one evenly with a heaping 1/4 cup of the grated cheese. Place another strip on top of it, coat it with another heaping 1/4 cup of cheese, and repeat with remaining strips until they are stacked 5-high and all of the cheese is used.

8) With your very sharpest serrated knife, cut your stack into 6 to 7 2-inch segments (each stacked segment should be 4-by-2 inches).

9) Arrange stacks of dough down the length of your prepared loaf pan as if filling a card catalog drawer. It's easier if you stand up your loaf pan up on its short end.

10) Loosely cover the pan with more plastic wrap and set it aside to rise again for 30 to 45 more minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

11) Bake loaf for 25 to 35 minutes, until puffed and brown. Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for 5 minutes before flipping it out onto a serving plate/cutting board. Serve warm with butter!

New York Pizza - Boston, MA

http://www.newyorkpizzaboston.com/index.htm

   

Another meaty pizza :]

     Unfortunately, it was Rachel's last day as a co-op at work, but fortunately she ordered us all pizza! I know... it seems a little backwards, but my boss tried to convince her otherwise. Either way, she ordered a bunch of pizzas from New York Pizza down on Tremont St. This little place is a family run pizza joint rooted in NYC, but transplanted in Boston to serve up famous New York style pizza. I love supporting families and entrepreneurs like this. Makes me all warm inside... especially when they deliver me delicious goods.

     It's been forever since I've had pizza delivered to me, but it was absolutely amazing. OH gosh. So she got a couple different specialty pizzas and a bunch of cheese pizzas. Naturally, I had to try them all, so I cut all the pieces in half :] The slices were HUGE. One slice could definitely be an entire meal. Their "traditional crust" was great and had the cornmeal on the bottom. Relatively thin on bottom, but the crust around the edges was thick and fluffy. The cheese was the chewy kind of cheese and well... I just can't ask for anything better than that. Normally I'm not a big fan of cheese pizza just because I want more action, but I'd be completely fine eating this cheese pizza. The second pizza I tried was barbecue chicken. It was great because the whole piece didn't taste like it was covered in barbecue sauce (like many bbq chicken pizzas come). Just the chicken thrown on it was bbq. The next slice I tried was a veggie pizza with green peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, onions, olives and these big thick slices of mushrooms. I know I've blabbed before about my theory of the status of pizza places based on their mushroom selection, but in my opinion, this place has "arrived" because they do their mushrooms right. Big, fresh, thick slices. No canned nonsense. The next slice was the Meat Lovers. I bet you can't guess which was my favorite. It had hamburger, pepperoni, sausage, and ham. The hamburger was awesome. Although, I definitely thought it was just sausage until I looked up the menu just now.

French Onion Soup Potstickers - My Mom's Kitchen, White Lake, MI

Photo credits to Hailee Dion :]

     When we were younger, our get togethers always seemed to involve things like sledding, work out

videos, rollerblading, dancing, etc. Now? We sit around and eat food. It seems like that’s what we center all of our gatherings around, and I’m 100% ok with it. Hailee, Mallory and I (Jaime was in Florida.. boo) decided to have a Pinterest night where we all made a Pinterest recipe we’ve been meaning to try. Hailee made an amazing (low cal… ha) loaded potato casserole with chicken, bacon, cheese and potatoes. There’s no possible way you could’ve made those ingredients taste bad together. Mallory made a spaghetti squash mac and cheese with broccoli in it. It was so good! I really have to try making spaghetti squash more often.

    I wanted to try something out of my normal style of cooking. I made these French Onion Soup potstickers that I found on Iowa Girl Eats. I’m not even so sure I’ve ever had real potstickers before this. Either way, it was fun to try something new, and it was even more fun to eat them. They're pretty delicate, so putting them together was tough for me. I wanted to stuff them with the beefy sauteed onions and cheese, but the wonton wrappers wouldn't close, so I had to cut back a little. There were a lot of modifications that I had to make along the way. The process of cooking them was interesting too. First you put them butt down in a hot skillet with some oil and browned the bottoms. Then you threw in some water, covered them, let them steam for a bit, took the lid off and let them crisp up again. Crisp them up, only to make them soggy and then crisp again. Hmm. Anyway, they were delicious! Hailee, Mallory and my Mom loved them. I loved the way the bottoms turned a golden brown, the tops were soft and the insides tender. The onions were perfectly soft and the cheese was melted just like in a cup of French Onion soup. Mallory and I really liked dipping them in some cool sour cream to contrast the hot savory insides. They may have been a little bit of work, but they're fun to make and super tasty. Also, I didn't make the Au Jus dipping sauce that she did, but I'm sure that'd be good too. Here's the recipe!

French Onion Soup Potstickers

2 jumbo sweet onions, cut into quarters then sliced thin
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
2 small dried bay leaves (or 1 big one)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
20 wonton wrappers
vegetable oil

1) Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion slices and season with salt and pepper, then add Worcestershire sauce, dried thyme, bay leaves, sugar, and beef broth to the skillet and stir well. Turn heat up to high, bring broth to a boil, then turn back down to medium heat.

2) Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until very tender and dark brown. About 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and cool the onions completely, then place into a bowl and mix with mozzarella cheese.

3) Lay wonton wrappers out on a clean, dry surface, then place 1 Tablespoon onion mixture into the center of each wrapper. Wet all four sides with a pastry brush or your finger, then fold the bottom right-hand corner up the top left-hand corner and seal the edges, being careful to remove all air pockets. 

4) Heat 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in a medium-sized skillet. Place potstickers, being careful not to crowd, into the skillet, getting oil on the bottom of each potsticker. Cook until golden brown on the bottom, then add enough water to come 1/3 of the way up the potstickers. Place a lid on top and let the potstickers steam for 2-3 minutes.

5) When there is just a couple Tablespoons water left in the skillet, remove the lid and allow the water to cook out and the potsticker bottoms to crisp back up. Use a spatula to gently unstick the wrappers from the skillet and serve with Au Jus dipping sauce or sour cream. Mmmm!

But Now I Only Have Two Meats...

S&S Restaurant – Cambridge, MA

http://www.sandsrestaurant.com/

3 cuties

Griffin told me about S&S a long time ago when I asked him what his favorite brunch places were. After reviewing the menus of all the places he named, this one topped my list of places I wanted to go for brunch. It was my destination of choice after my weigh in for HOCR. After Meagan’s race, Karl, Kevin, Meagan and I drove up to S&S in Inman Square. Finally. This place is huge! When you walk in, there is an enormous bakery counter with everything and anything I’d ever want to eat. Then they have at least 4 huge rooms with tons of seating. It was packed and there were a ton of families and old people. I know it’s weird to say, but it was kind of refreshing. I feel like I live in an area with a ton of younger people, so it’s nice to see old couples out to brunch on a Saturday.

Parisian French toast and Corned beef hash

Anyway, their menu is absolutely outrageous. Every dish seems so intricately designed. Like the sushi of the brunch world. Their egg dishes sounded so good with things like salmon, cucumber, and canadian bacon, but I had my heart set on their stuffed French toasts. I finally went with the Parisian French toast. Oh my goodness. This was thick cut bread stuffed with warm, gooey brie and fig preserves, and sprinkled with a little powdered sugar. The subtly of the soft brie and the super flavorful and sweet fig preserves was amazing. The combination of the different textures was fabulous too. Crispy edges on the French toast, the gooey cheese, and the soft bread. At first I wished there was more, but once I started eating it, I knew it was going to be plenty because it was all so rich. The little fruit salad it was served with was the perfect way to cleanse the palette.

I kept seeing multiple people being served this bowl looking thing that was overflowing with some meaty concoction and knew I needed it. Turns out it was their corned beef hash and it was superb. I love corned beef, and I had truthfully never really corned beef hash in my life…at least I don’t think I had. I'm sure it had 4 years worth of fat in it, but it was so worth it.

Chocolate Lava Divine

I was so pleased with everything. THEN we had to go and get the Chocolate Lava Divine that I eyed on the way in. Had to. Such a great choice. It was a chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate truffle lava and topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. The warm gooey chocolate lava that poured in when you cut into it. Definitely not the first time I’ve had it, but it was incredible and gone in seconds.

The Neighborhood Restaurant – Somerville, MA

http://www.theneighborhoodrestaurant.com/

Eggs, homefries, grilled banana and linguica

When Jim and Audrey were in town, they raved about this one place they went to called the Neighborhood Restaurant up in Somerville. I had heard about this place before and they supposedly served up some great Portuguese food, including blood sausage. That was my goal. I wanted the blood sausage. The morning after the Charles party (I think) Jimmy, Meagan and I decided to check it out. It’s a very simple place. They have a nice open outdoor seating area, but it was too cold so we just sat inside. It was very small inside, the tables were simple, the chairs plastic, and the “art” hung on the walls was pretty standard for a rural hometown diner run my grandma and grandpa. It didn’t really look Portuguese, and only a few items on the menu looked Portuguese. Unfortunately they didn’t have any blood sausage that day. Apparently it’s one of those secret-not-on-the-menu things. I was real bummed. Guess I’ll have to go back. Anyway… I got the #15 which came with 3 eggs, half of a big grilled banana, awesome homefries, and a couple slices of this really good Portuguese sausage called Linguica. It was way different than any standard sausage we’re used to. It was very coarsely ground. You could see all the different hunks of things (the meat, fat, and who knows what else). Either way, it had a great almost smoky flavor. They also served a small fruit salad, a plate with toast and corn bread and a glass of OJ with your meal, which was an added bonus. Generosity. I like it.

Quebrada Bakery – Arlington, MA

http://www.quebradabakingco.com/

Bran muffin

So there’s this bakery in Arlington that Nina loves. She has brought in banana bread, cookies, croissants, and other pastries from this place and they have all been exceptional. I decided to get a birthday cake from there in my final days at Bluetrain, and it was a standard chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. It had these awesome fudgy layers in between each layer of cake and the frosting was a sweet buttercream. BUT… I’m not here to talk about the cake. I’m here to talk about the miniature bran muffin I got for myself while I was there. I absolutely couldn’t walk away without something. I love bran muffins. I love that I feel like I’m eating Earth and that it’s semi-healthy. This muffin was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. Perfect lightweight size. I loved how coarse the bran pieces were and the raisins inside were plump. Sometimes bakeries really screw up bran muffins and they’re too dry, but not Quebrada.

Spanish Chickpea Salad – My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

So one of our recent SSC meetings had a Spanish theme, so I stuck with my own personal theme of making the salad for the evening. I found this awesome authentic Spanish salad recipe on the Spanish food section of About.com that was delicious, refreshing, and a great way to finish off the meal after some of Nonna’s fabulous paella. This salad was very simple. Cucumbers, pomegranate seeds, chic peas, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. I cut everything up pretty small so that it was uniform in shape. It was super crunchy and so refreshing. I already said that… but it was. Totally something you could make on the weekend and eat all week.

Spanish Chickpea Salad

2 pomegranates
2 large cucumbers
1 1/2 - 2 cans (15 oz each) of garbanzo beans
2 Large cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
Red wine vinegar for dressing
Extra virgin  olive oil for dressing

1) Peel the cucumbers and cut into small pieces. Remove the seeds from the pomegranate. 

Nonna's Paella

2) Drain the garbanzo beans and add to the bowl. 

3) Peel and finely chop the two cloves of garlic and place in bowl with vegetables. Remove stems from basil leaves and chop basil. Add to the bowl of vegetables and mix.
4) Sprinkle red wine vinegar over the chopped vegetables. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil. Mix thoroughly. Generally, use 1 part vinegar to 2 parts oil. Taste and adjust vinegar and oil.

Blueberry Flan Pie – My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

In addition to my chickpea salad, Meagan and I collaborated on a blueberry flan pie for SSC - Spanish edition. I was pretty excited to find this recipe on this random website called Amazing Mexican Recipes. Even though the picture looks kind of funky, it turned out pretty good. It was a little sweet for me and I doubt I’d make it again, but everyone loved it. I’d say the insides were kind of a mesh between a custard and a blueberry pie.

Blueberry Flan Pie

5 cups blueberries (use fresh if possible, frozen if not)
1 tbsp lemon zest
Juice of 2 lemons
1 ½ cups plain yogurt
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup sugar
1 pie crust (premade or your own recipe)

1) Mix the blueberries with lemon juice and sugar in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher until about ½ of the blueberries are mashed. In another bowl, beat the eggs, and then beat in the condensed milk, lemon zest, and yogurt, followed by the mashed blueberries.

2) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you get your crust ready and in your pie pan. Pour in the flan mixture and bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes or until the flan is set and the crust is crisp and golden brown – you can check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the pie. Allow the pie to cool and chill for a few hours. Serve cold.

Parmesan and Prosciutto Asparagus – My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

I’m a super big fan of this cheesy asparagus dish I made for our Italian themed dinner. I struggled to

find an interesting Italian salad, so I took a base recipe I discovered on the Food and Wine website and tweaked it a little to make it my own. The original recipe called for raw, ribboned asparagus tossed in zesty sauce made with coarsely shredded parmesan cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I made a similar cheese sauce except I used finely grated parmesan romano cheese, half of the olive oil, and omitted the salt. I felt as though the cheese provided enough salt. Also, using a vegetable peeler to turn 2 pounds of asparagus into a ton of ribbons was WAY too labor intensive for my tastes. These asparagus went through multiple phases. First I tried shredding them. Then I decided I didn’t want them raw, so I steamed them whole. Then I thought that with all the other things that I was going to add, eating a whole asparagus could be difficult, so I chopped them up into smaller pieces. Some weren’t fully cooked enough, so I had to sort through them and re-steam some. It sure was a process. ANYWAY… I definitely recommend cutting them up into 1-2 inch long pieces and then steaming them.

At this point, I threw together the cheese sauce, cut up some dried apricots, and threw in some smaller pieces of thinly sliced procioutto. The combination of all these things was incredible. Woah. The cheese sauce had a zesty, lemony flavor, the apricots provided a burst of sweetness, and the procioutto added some saltyness. Great flavors all around.

The second big dilemma of the evening was whether to serve it hot or cold. It sure was delicious warm, but the original recipe said cold. Meagan and I decided to go cold, and it was a great choice because it served as a refreshing veggie dish after Jimmy’s hot soup. Good contrast. Very proud of that whole thing.

Parmesan and Prosciutto Asparagus

2 pounds large asparagus
1 cup coarsely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (3 ounces)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons warm water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1) Cut up/cook asparagus however you wish. Whole, raw, shredded, chopped, whatever. 
2) In a small bowl, mix the Parmigiano-Reggiano with the lemon juice, water and olive oil. Add to the asparagus and toss to coat. Season the salad with salt and pepper and serve at once.

Cinnamon Roll Waffles – Mary’s Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

There’s a photo floating around Pinterest that I’m sure everyone and their mother has pinned. Cinnamon Roll waffles. It’s simple. Open up a can of the premade cinnamon rolls, stick them in a waffle maker, cook as you would a normal waffle, drizzle icing on top and enjoy. Mary and decided to make these one day after a Saturday workout and it was one of the best choices of my life. We used the Immaculate brand of cinnamon rolls from Whole Foods. It was interesting because they didn’t really taste like cinnamon rolls, but they didn’t taste like waffles. It was a beautiful beautiful blend of the two. The outside was slightly crisp and the inside was soft and moist. We tried them with syrup, but they were best with the icing.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

I had a period of time a while back where I went a little nuts with all the Pinterest recipes. I wanted

to try making these cookies I found on Averie Cooks that had very few ingredients: peanut butter, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, baking soda and chocolate chips. I didn’t realize it at the time, but they’re a gluten free recipe. I was so skeptical because they had NO flour or butter. That’s basically not even a cookie. However, they were absolutely exceptional! They split and formed cracks kind of like a cheesecake or those chocolate crinkle cookies. Fresh from the oven, the chocolate was perfectly melty and the cookie itself had a hard time staying together. I was fine with that. Meagan was fine with that. We had an epiphany. Since we couldn’t hold them and dunk them in milk, we put parts of them onto a spoon and dipped them in milk. I must say… we thought we were geniuses.

Once they cooled they were just as delicious, but in a different way. I felt as though I got more of the peanut butter flavor when they were cool, and more chocolate when they were warm. Either way, they were just superb. I totally recommend trying to make them if you’re interested in gluten free recipes or just a different kind of cookie.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces semi-sweet, dark, or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips may be substituted)

Peanut butter cookie overloaded with chocolate chips

1) Combine peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-combined and the sugar is fully incorporated. Add the baking soda and beat to incorporate. Add the chocolate and beat slightly to mix. 

2) Form two-tablespoon mounds of dough, place on a large plate or cookie sheet, flatten slightly and refridgerate at least 2 hours. If chocolate is falling out of dough since there is an abundance, roll ball between palms to encourage it to stay in the dough.
3) Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are set and tops are barely set, even if slightly underbaked in the center. Do not bake them longer than 10 minutes, as the cookies firm up as they cool.
4) Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling. 

Pumpkin Granola - My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

Pumpkin granola

Yea... another Pinterest recipe. I had been meaning to make some granola for a while, and since it was fall, pumpkin granola sounded like a real winner. Normally I try to avoid things like oil and extra sugar in granola, and as a result, it has never turned out all that great. But this time I just wanted to follow a recipe almost exactly. I did not care about calorie content. I found this recipe for pumpkin granola on a blog called Foodess and was so so so pleased. This granola had achieved both the crispness, the chunkiness and the sweetness that I have been striving for in my last couple batches of granola. It was perfect, and you could really taste the pumpkin in it. Not to mention, it made the apartment smell delectable. I'm going to share her recipe, but I halved the recipe and it worked out fine. I get too scared of screwing up and I don't want to have a million trays of wasted granola. As far as the nuts/seeds/berries go, I used cashews, cranberries, and chocolate chips. 

Pumpkin Granola 

1 cup pumpkin puree
1½ tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger (I didn't use this because I couldn't find mine)
⅓ cup vegetable oil
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
5 cups old fashioned large flake oats
2 cups raw cashews

3/4 cup chocolate chips
2 cups dried cranberries

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, oil, brown sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Stir in the oats and cashews.
3) Divide mixture between two large baking sheets and bake 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally and checking frequently, until the cashews are golden and toasty and the granola is dry.
4) Let cool completely on baking sheets if larger clumps are preferred. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in cranberries and chocolate chips. Transfer to airtight containers.

Fedora Café – Lawrenceville, NJ
http://fedoracafe.webs.com/

I HAVE to write about Fedora Café. Princeton never ceases to impress, with PJ’s Pancakes, Hoagie Haven and now Fedora Café. Leigh recommended we go to Fedora Café for dinner on Saturday after our erg piece at Speed Order. THANK YOU LEIGH! Fedora Café is this cute little café. I’d say it’s my ideal café. Everything about it is unique. The art, the furniture, the tapestries hanging on the wall, and the dishes. No two things were the same. Leigh originally brought us because they offer an endless pasta bowl. You pick your noodle, sauce, and any toppings you want. If you finish your first bowl, they’ll refill it for free. It was so … much… pasta. I could’ve done it, but my shrunken stomach knew that I’d regret it, especially with a race the next day. I refrained, but OH MAN. It was some of the best pasta I’ve ever had at a restaurant. I got bow ties, blush sauce (a mix of marinara and a cream sauce I believe), portobella mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, peas, broccoli, spinach, artichoke hearts, peppers, and onions. The deal sealer was the sun dried tomatoes. The flavor of sun dried tomatoes is so powerful. I love it. The mushrooms were key in this dish too. They were big and thickly sliced. I loved how the broccoli soaked up a bunch of the sauce in the bushy part of each piece. There was just so much going on. So many delicious things. The sauce brought it all together in sweet harmony.  

The Ginger Exchange – Cambridge, MA

http://www.gingerexchange.com/cambridge/index.html

Prettiest little crab rangoons

I swear we’ve been talking about sushi for months. And I mean months and months and months. We’ll do it after trials! We’ll do it after the Charles! We’ll do it after Speed Order! Yea… whatever. So finally… we did it. After some pretty intense research, Mary, Meagan, Brandon and I headed to The Ginger Exchange up in Inman Square. I love going to Inman Square because there are so many interesting places there that I want to eat. It’s like traveling to another country. I had spotted crab rangoons on the menu during our research… and well… you can’t just not get crab rangoons. They were amazing. They came piping hot to our table like pretty little flowers arranged around the dipping sauce. The cream cheese and crab mix inside wasn’t too crabby or overly airy. Sometimes I think they whip up the mix that they put inside and it’s all airy, like whipped cream cheese you buy at the store. Know what I mean? Well… it wasn’t like that. It was much better. It was warm and creamy and smooth and had this great sweet dipping sauce (that Mary and I hoarded to dip other things in later in the evening).

Bo Bos

Mary also wanted to get the Bo Bo’s. Yea, I had never heard of them before, but they were described as some sort of dumpling stuffed with hunks of meat. We chose the beef. Three of them came to the table looking like tacos (as Meldrim put it) but I thought they looked like clams. A big puffy white dumpling was split in half and filled with the shredded beef. The flavor of the beef was amazing. It was kind of like an asian version of bbq if I had to guess. With hints of ginger and soy. So great. These came with French fries which, at the time, were like god’s gift to humanity. First fried food I had eaten in FOREVER and it was incredible. I mean… the fries were good, but I’m guessing they wouldn’t be super exceptional to the average person. Mary and I just thought they were like cake.

I was so happy with our choice in rolls. The Christmas was delicious. My optimal choice. It had shrimp tempura, tempura flakes, tuna, avocado, spicy mayo and eel sauce. We also chose the Mt. Fuji (spicy scallop, tobiko, crab stick, avocado, cucumber), Spider (soft shell crab tempura, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, eel sauce), Serendipity (seared scallops, tempura flakes, crab stick, spicy mayo, secret sauce, seared homachi, black tobiko) and the Farmer's Market (avocado, cucumber, yamagobo, sweet tofu, dried seaweed). The Mt. Fuji came piled high with this delicious shredded crab on top in some sort of mildly spicy sauce. The dried seaweed draped over top of the Farmer's Market was something new for me but I really liked it. The seared homachi (a type of fish) on top of the Serendipity had a really unique smoky flavor that I surprisingly liked. They all had something unique about them and that was really cool. 

Christina’s – Cambridge, MA

http://christinasicecream.com/

Peanut butter cup and cookie dough ice cream

As we polished off our last couple pieces of sushi at The Ginger Exchange, I asked if we wanted to order more. We all made the great decision that instead of ordering more, we would go get ice cream instead. We had passed Christina’s on the way in, and we had all heard at one point that it was apparently as good as Toscanini’s. We had to test it out. I’ll say, they had a decent number of flavors, but they weren’t as unique as Toscanini’s Browned Butter Pumpkin Sage or the B cubed. However, Christina’s had some incredible ice cream. Woah, so I got the peanut butter cup (duh) and the cookie dough. I love cookie dough. This was probably the best cookie dough I’ve ever had because not only were there delicious hunks of dough in the ice cream, but the ice cream itself tasted like cookie dough. Somehow they had infused the cookie dough flavor into the creamy part and ohhhh was it creamy. The peanut butter cup was delicious too. Sometimes peanut butter ice creams can have too much peanut butter, and it can be overwhelming, but this was far from. It was the perfect creamy balance of chocolate and peanut butter bliss. This is tough. Real tough. I’d still say Toscanini’s has the #1 spot, but Christina’s is definitely a close second.

Tatté – Cambridge, MA

http://tattebakery.com/

Beautiful Hazelnut Rose

After an unsuccessful attempt to sell clothing at Garment District, Meagan and I decided to slip into Tatté across the street. I had never seen this little café before, but I definitely loved the feel inside. It was very rustic feeling. It was very small and there was one long, battered, antique wooden table running through the middle. People sat munching on the most delicious looking breakfast sandwiches bursting with fresh greens. They had a BEAUTIFUL assortment of pastries and tarts. I opted for the Hazelnut Rose, which was sort of like a cinnamon roll with a great hazelnut flavor. It was tall, wrapped in paper, and split into two rolls at the top. Each one displayed on the platter was unique and had risen and grown in the oven in their own different direction. It was a bit more dry than your standard cinnamon roll (which was ok), and the cinnamon-y substance wrapped between each layer had what I think may have been ground up hazelnuts along with hunks of hazelnuts. It  was delicious. I ate it in the car, but I can only imagine how amazing it would be fresh from the oven. 

I Aint Never Had A Beef Like You

b.good - Cambridge, MA
http://www.bgood.com/index.php
   

Frank's Potatoes

     Eons ago, after a cleverly crafted tweet, the b.good truck came to my work and delivered free chocolate

milkshakes to us. It was THE BEST way to end the work week. So, that was my introduction to b.good and I've been following them and getting their emails ever since because I'm technically part of their "family." I'm not sure if I've explained their story yet, but their focus is making fast-food "real" by making it the way it should be... by people, not factories. I still hadn't visited one of their actual restaurants yet, when I got an email about Frank harvesting his potatoes, and if you came in before Sunday, you'd get a free order of fries. Also, I still had 2 other free orders of fries loaded onto my "family" card that I hadn't taken advantage of yet. Well... it's impossible for me to turn down free food, so one Saturday after the workout, Meagan and I went over to b.good to take advantage of two orders of free fries. On the wall right when you walked in, they had a picture of Frank on his farm and a little blurb about his potatoes from Hatfield, Massachusetts. Along with Frank were photos and information about two other families that b.good was sourcing their beef and other ingredients from. I'm a real big fan of this. Locally sourced and "real" ingredients. It's comforting to know who I'm supporting when I'm eating out. Not to mention, the environmental impacts of buying local.
     As I mentioned before, we went for our free fries and they were phenomenal! They came out looking just as I expected. Real. All different shapes, sizes, and textures. As if an individual, rather than a machine, had imperfectly sliced all different sizes of potatoes. The first thing Meagan said was "they're kind of creamy," and she was totally right. The outside was slightly crispy, but the potato inside was so moist and practically creamy. They also had some sort of delicious seasoning on them, perhaps with a little paprika? I'm unsure. But I do know that I can't wait to go back one day and try their burgers.


Coolidge Corner Clubhouse - Brookline, MA
http://www.thecoolidgecornerclubhouse.com/index.php

Mile High Nachos

     Remember my "nacho average run" pre-CRASH B? Well... I'm slowly checking off the six restaurants that I visited with "the best nachos in Boston." Very very slowly. I've currently only been to one. However, Coolidge Corner Clubhouse was highly recommended by everyone and their mom, so one Saturday evening after sitting outside at MixFest downtown, Meagan wanted to go get food. We scooped up Jimmy and headed to Coolidge Corner Clubhouse where I could finally put their nachos to the test. I was pumped. The place looked like your standard sports bar, but a little older. By that I just mean there weren't seven thousand TVs and the look and feel wasn't very modern. I will instantly love a place if they offer me something free before my meal. For example, bread, popcorn, peanuts, or in this case, small packets of breadsticks. I care not of the quality because it's free and delicious. Jimmy and I decided I'd order the half plate of Mile High Nachos, he'd order a greek salad and we'd split both. That's a lie. We didn't agree on the half plate size. I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes when I told the waitress I only wanted the half order.
     The greek salad was actually really awesome. It had a bunch of grilled chicken, green peppers, a few tomatoes and they used a mix of romaine lettuce, spinach and a bunch of other mixed greens. I love when places do that. Makes me respect them a little more. Maybe because it makes me think that they value nutrition and are willing to spend a little more on greens rather than just romaine or iceberg lettuce. I'm weird.
     The nachos were, in fact, a mile high. Never have I ever seen a place do such an incredible job layering cheese and chips. The entire bottom of the plate was covered in cheese, and it seemed like each chip in the entire stack had cheese on it. It was incredible. And it was a good blend of cheddar and monterey jack cheeses. The meat chili that came on top was great too. It was practically all meat and full of flavor, but I wished there was more. It also came with jalapenos and salsa with huge globs of guacamole and sour cream thrown on top. There was no skimping on these guys. I'd definitely say they're the best nachos I've had here in Boston so far. They beat out the nachos from Cambridge Brewing Club, the Hill Tavern and Tavern in the Square because of the cheese layering technique and the delicious chili.


Sloppy Joes - My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

   

My Heavenly Sloppy Joes

      I do like sloppy joes... I do. But when they're at some sort of function, I'm never going to be super excited about it or anticipating seconds before I even finish my first. Don't get me wrong, they're tasty, but generally, I feel like they're pretty standard and generic. However... I stumbled upon a sloppy joes recipe on pinterest (from Ellie Krieger on the Food Network) and thought I'd try it out for myself. Real homemade sloppy joes. No packets. No cans.
     Conveniently, that week Whole Foods had a sale on grass-fed, free range, antibiotic and hormone free 90/10 ground beef from some family farm in Missouri. I picked up about a pound and a half of it and knew it was sloppy joes time. First of all... this was the most amazing ground beef I've ever eaten. "The look of it, the taste of it, the texture... "(-Goldmember) was so different than any other ground beef. There was very little fat that cooked out, and it almost smelled game-y. The taste and the feel of it in my mouth felt so clean. I know that's really really weird, but it was just different and eye opening. I had no idea that ground beefcould be different in so many ways.
     Anyway, I threw in some kidney beans, a ton of spices, onions, garlic and a few other key ingredients (similar to the mountain meatballs recipe Jake and I made a while back) like molasses and Worcestershire sauce. I'm sure if I followed her recipe exactly it would've been delicious, but I made a few additions and substitutions, as always. I omitted the jalapeños and red peppers (simply because I didn't have any on hand), and instead of using a mix of tomato sauce and tomato paste, I used only a tomato basil tomato sauce from Trader Joe's (it's my favorite). I also added from fresh basil from my mom's garden. I would definitely say that this is up in my top 10 favorite dishes I've ever made. It's incredibly easy and incredibly delicious. I spent everyday at work dreaming about getting home to eat it. Here's my version of her recipe.

Sloppy Joes

1.5 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 3/4 cups no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4/5 fresh basil leaves, chopped

1. Brown the meat and the onion in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into crumbles as it cooks. Pour the drippings out of the pan and discard.

2.  Add the garlic and cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes more.


Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins - My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

She's pretty

     I want to bake everything... all the time. Brownies, cookies, cakes, muffins. You name it. But I can't for lightweight reasons. So whenever the opportunity arises where I can make a recipe I've been wanting to make for a while, and I can count on other people being there to enjoy 95% of the fruits of my labor, I seize it. Thank you Head of the Kevin 2! For the breakfast post HOK2 I decided to make these peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins. The picture looked great, they had great ingredients and they really caught my eye when I found them on Annie Eats. I've made similar breakfast banana-y muffins before, but these ones took the cake. They were so easy to make and incredibly tasty, especially when they were fresh. With a slight hint of peanut butter in the muffin, creamy peanut butter on top and the sweet taste of banana all throughout, it kind of felt like a treat but was still full of nutrition. An energy powerhouse.  I think it also helped that I used some super ripe bananas that were plenty sweet. This is key.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. applesauce
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
1 cup low-fat buttermilk (I mixed 1% milk and a tbs of lemon juice)

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin cups with paper liners (this recipe made about 15 muffins for me). In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with a fork.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the applesauce, brown sugar, eggs, banana, peanut butter and buttermilk until smooth. 

3. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients gradually and mix just until fully incorporated.

4. Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup - My Kitchen, Cambridge, MA

     

   

I wish you could've smelled these shrooms

     It's finally getting a little chilly outside and it's making me super eager to make soups. It's a very exciting time. I've had this Adventures in Cooking recipe for a Hungarian Mushroom Soup on the back burner since the spring. A little more rich than my normal soups, this one is up there in the top 5. I made it with sliced baby portabella mushrooms, sliced large portabellas, and a ton of paprika and dill. I wonder if the paprika and dill are what make it Hungarian. Hmm... Also, instead of sour cream like the recipe called for, I used greek yogurt (which I feel like is practically the same thing), and it gave it an awesome creamy texture. I'm pumped to have a huge pot of this in my fridge for dinner all week.

Final product

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

8 Ounces Crimini Mushrooms, thinly sliced
6 Ounces Small Portabello Mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 Cups Vegetable Stock
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Sour Cream (or Greek Yogurt)
2 Cups Onions, chopped
5 Teaspoons Hungarian Paprika
3 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 Tablespoons Flour
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
2 Teaspoons Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Dried Dill
1 Teaspoon Fresh Dill, finely chopped (I used only dried dill)
1 and 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Thyme
1/4 Teaspoon Marjoram

1. Sauté the onions in a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet for about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, 1/2 cup of vegetable stock, paprika, thyme, marjoram, dried dill and soy sauce. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms soften and become dark in color (This smell will blow your mind).

2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then whisk in the flour and continue whisking while the mixture cooks for another 3 minutes. Add the milk and continue cooking over low heat for 10 minutes allowing the mixture to thicken, stirring once every minute or so. Empty the mushroom mixture into the milk mixture. Add the remaining 1 and 1/2 cups of vegetable stock and the lemon juice. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and watch mixture until it stops boiling. When the boiling ceases, stir in the sour cream, salt, pepper, and fresh dill if you have it.

Cupcake Game Changer

Mojito Cupcakes - Jimmy's Kitchen, Brighton, MA

Mojito Cupcake/Best Cupcake on Earth

     I really do struggle from time to time deciding which burger is the best burger I've ever eaten, which taco is the best taco or which cupcake is the best cupcake I've ever eaten. Now... I'm a HUGE chocolate fan. Duh. I'd take a hunk of a chocolate over a cocktail any day. So I would think that I'd think the best cupcake would be a big fat chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate, topped with chocolate, and sprinkled with chocolate shavings or something. But this recipe... this recipe for mojito cupcakes that I found on Brown Eyed Baker... may have just changed the game. I had a mojito cupcake once or twice before from Kickass Cupcakes and they were good, but this one was a kajillion times better. Jimmy and I were going to purchase some for Karl just for the fun of it, but then we thought "why not just make them instead?" Such a great idea. The cupcake has rum in it, there is a rum glaze on top of the cupcake, and the frosting has rum in it. It's sweet (but not overly sweet), refreshing and minty. It's just to die for. They're the absolute best about an hour out of the oven when they're about room temp, the rum glaze has crisped up the top just a tad, and the frosting is room temp and perfectly creamy. I swear I ate a gallon of that frosting before putting it on the cupcakes. I attribute part of our success to Jimmy's kitchen aid. That thing whipped up butter like I've never seen before. Anyway... it may seem a little complicated, but these cupcakes are a real crowd pleaser, even if it's a one person crowd.

Mojito Cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup mint leaves, bruised
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
Zest and juice of 1½ limes
2 tablespoons white rum
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

To Brush the Cupcakes:
2 tablespoons white rum
2 sprigs fresh mint

For the Frosting:
1½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
4¼ cups powdered sugar
1½ tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons white rum

1. Combine the buttermilk and the ½ cup mint leaves in a small saucepan over medium heat. Warm until just starting to steam (do not simmer), then remove from the heat and cover. Let steep for 15 to 30 minutes. Once finished, strain the milk into a bowl using a fine mesh sieve. The milk may appear curdled or clumpy, but it will come back together. Press on any milk solids and mint leaves to extract all the liquid possible. Give the milk a quick stir to smooth it out and set aside.

2. While the mint is steeping in the milk, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

4. In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes).

5. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

6. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract and rum. Mix until combined. 

7. Reduce the mixer speed low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated, using a rubber spatula to give it one last mix by hand.

8. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until just slightly golden and a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached, rotating the pan at the halfway point.

9. While the cupcakes are baking, combine the rum and mint sprigs in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat until the rum is heated through (do not let it simmer). Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let steep until ready to use.

10. Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. Brush the tops of the cupcakes with the mint-infused rum. Set the cupcakes aside to cool completely before frosting them.

11. To make the frosting, whip the butter on medium-high speed of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl until all is incorporated. Give it a mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add the lime juice and rum and mix on medium-high speed until incorporated and fluffy. If the frosting appears a bit too soft, add some additional sugar, one spoonful at a time until desired consistency is reached. Frost cupcakes once they've cooled and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Zinnekens - Cambridge, MA

Fruit Delight

     You know those places where you walk by the front door and the sweet sultry aroma brings you to your knees? Zinnekens is one of those places. Thus the reason for me loading up when I found them on Groupon. I mean.... come on... their front window says "Coffee, Chocolate and Waffles." How could I go wrong? They offer gourmet Belgian waffles with a multitude of toppings. Meagan, Jimmy, Karl, Dave and I all went and Meagan and I split the Fruit Delight with Belgian chocolate, bananas and strawberries. The waffle itself was, hands down, the best part. It was totally unlike any other waffle I've ever had in that it was mildly chewy. It was just so simple and delicious. Plus the warm melted Belgian chocolate. Oh man. I also tried a bite of Jimmy's, which was the Gourmand with bananas whipped cream and caramel, and Dave's, which was the Zinneken's with whipped cream, Belgian chocolate and speculoos. Dave's was DEFINITELY my favorite. That speculoos filled every little square of the waffle and had warmed up ever so slightly. With a little chocolate drizzled on top, it was a sugary death trap. I debated going back in and getting my own. A return trip to Zinneken's is definitely in order.

Border Cafe - Cambridge, MA
http://www.bordercafe.com/

Corn and Bean Empanadas

     I know I've blogged about this place before, but I was reeeeeally watching weight for an upcoming race at the time, so I had a piddly 3 chips or something and a salad while there (don't get me wrong, the salad was incredible). This time, I went for the real deal. I wanted to devour 3 baskets of their piping hot chips myself... and I did. Ok not really, but I could've. After Zinneken's Jimmy, Meagan and I wanted something salty to follow our sugar overdose... naturally. We were just going to "get something small" at Border..... riiiiiight. Either way, we killed a few baskets of their phenomenal fresh tortilla chips with some queso dip before our "meals" arrived. I ordered the corn and black bean empanadas because I don't think I've ever actually had one. To me, they seem like the Mexican version of a pastie (a meat pie that us Michiganders are quite fond of). The little pockets of heaven were absolutely incredible!  I loved the crispy dough on the outside and I was really happy that the insides weren't stuffed full of cheese. That would've been too much I think. Instead it was just corn, beans and a little bit of melty cheese. The best part was the sauce in that little dish in the top of the picture. It was so good that I had to ask our waiter what was in it. It tasted like a pesto, had all the pesto flavors, but also had something different. Apparently it's some sort of roasted red pepper pesto with parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, etc. It was incredible on it's own and along with a forkfull of the empanada. So good. Great food, great service, great atmosphere.