Oh Canada!

Last weekend my husband whisked me away on mini-vacation.  He works long hours at two jobs, and understandably misses our kids a lot.  Whenever he has time off, he wants to be with them, so we almost always make our weekend plans to include them.  I am home with the kids all the time, though, so I get very little "adult time."

To give me a break, my husband planned the whole trip himself, and kept the details a surprise.  I knew we were going and when, but nothing else -- not where, or how, or what we would do once we arrived. 

Take note, fellas, girls really like this. 

We have been married nearly 9 years, but I felt like a new girlfriend again!  Not only did my husband spend precious free time thinking about me and what I would like in a vacation, but now we would have some time together, just us, hopefully doing some of the things I like best -- eating late multi-course dinners at nice restaurants, enjoying a glass of wine or two afterwards, and then sleeping-in -- most of which have disappeared from my everyday life, now full of quick and dirty early dinners and insistent awakenings.

I was so excited.  We renewed our passports, and were on our way.

I figured we were flying, but when we drove right past the international departure gates at the airport, I began to wonder where we were headed.  I kept my eyes averted from the details on the boarding passes as we checked-in and went through security.  This took tremendous will power, though not as much as I figured because I was enjoying the surprise so much.

I knew when we arrived at the gate that I could easily look at the sign indicating where we were headed.  As we rounded the corner, I eagerly searched for the city name next to the gangway door.

"Buffalo, NY."

Ummm, Buffalo, New York?! 

I'm sure Buffalo is lovely in the dead of winter, but with all the great cities in all of the world, why Buffalo?!  My husband saw the thinly veiled look of surprise on my face and reminded me gently that I had said I would be happy going anywhere as long it was just us. When I sheepishly admitted this was true and tried to regroup and figure out what the heck we were going to do all weekend in Buffalo, he laughed and explained that Niagara Falls and Canada were just a short 30 minute drive from the Buffalo airport.

He had booked us a gorgeous hotel room on the 34th floor with wall-to-wall windows overlooking the Canadian and American falls. 

On our way to Canada, we walked around the national park on the American side of the falls and watched endless gallons of water plunge down into the Niagara River.

American side of the falls and Rainbow bridge

Both the American and Canadian falls

Mist created by the water descending the Canadian falls, with our hotel in the background

After crossing the Canadian border via the Rainbow bridge, we checked into our hotel and got ready for dinner.  The area around Niagara Falls has become pretty touristy, but along with many chain restaurants, it also has upscale restaurants overlooking the falls.  A little after dusk each night the falls are lit with white lights and then alternating colors before they finally fall dark about an hour later.  The fancier restaurants boast windows that take advantage of the show, along with menus created by celebrity Canadian chefs.

On the first night we went to Windows by Jamie Kennedy.  Not the goofy actor from Scream -- this guy:

While most of his restaurants are in Toronto, he recently opened his Niagara restaurant, applying his devotion to local, sustainable, and seasonal food.  Beside the regular menu, there was a daily "Some of My Favorite Things" menu which listed two four-course Prix Fix menus with wine pairings.  To me it was obvious what had to be done: we would order one of each set menu and share it all.

Our first courses were an amazing Great Lakes Fish Chowder, whose creamy chunky goodness was gone before a snapped a picture of it, and this beautiful Root Vegetable Salad.

It was a gorgeous stack of multi-colored thinly sliced beets, carrots, and jicama.  It was all raw, which made it tart, crunchy and refreshing, but I can't help but wonder how wonderful it would have been if the vegetables had been roasted and the natural sweetness enhanced.  It would have been soft, but I think I would have preferred it that way.

My second course was Pickerel out of Lake Erie. The fish was light and flaky, and served over a mayonnaise based potato salad.

The Saltimbocca was classically prepared with veal medallions, cheese, prosciutto, and sage. It was pretty good, but the braised greens underneath stood above the rest.  My husband's Beer Braised Short Ribs had mushrooms, and since I am allergic I only took the tiniest of bites. It was hearty and tender, and he liked it.

Our meal ended with a rich and creamy chocolate pot au creme and a tart apple Tarte Tatin.

    

The next day was rainy and foggy, making the falls nearly invisible.  It was still beautiful watching the mist from the water mix with the low lying clouds and waft slowly down river.  We decided to drive to Toronto for the day (about 90 minutes around Lake Ontario from Niagara Falls) and en route found this great website listing the fifty best restaurants in Toronto.  We wanted French food and, at random, picked Le Kensington Bistro in the Kensington Market area of the city. 

It was amazing, the best meal of the weekend.  So good I spent all my time savoring and didn't take any pictures.  We both started with a thyme-y version of French Onion Soup, and then my husband ordered the Duck Confit, which fell off the bone and was served with the best brussel sprouts I have ever eaten.  They were sauteed in duck fat, charred, smokey and hearty.  He offered me a few, and I fished out a few more when he wasn't looking.

I ordered the steak tartar, and borrowed this picture from Le Kensington Bistro's website for your viewing pleasure.  That is a quail egg seated on top.  Peppery and deliciously raw, I loved every bite.

On our way back to Niagara Falls we passed what seemed like hundreds of wineries.  Each exit on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way -- the main highway between Niagara and Toronto) listed four or five within 5km.  Since the area is well know for its cold varieties and ice wine, I wanted to stop somewhere and pick up a bottle to drink before dinner.  Again at random (isn't the spontaneity of travelling without kids amazing?!), we picked an exit and went to the closest winery.

This gorgeous place is called Peninsula Ridge Estates.  The house and barn where the wine shop was date to the late 1885.  We bought a bottle of Riesling ice wine and headed back to enjoy in front of our window overlooking the falls.

Ice wine is made from grapes that are frozen. According to the folks at Peninsula Ridge, they are harvested by hand between 10pm and 6am, and each grape gives off about a drop of juice, resulting in a rich golden wine with a heavy mouth feel.  Meant to be a dessert wine, we drank a little as an aperitif instead and then caught a cab to dinner.

The second night we dined at the Rainbow Room courtesy of Massimo Capra.  Apparently he is very popular and on Food Network Canada and seems quite a showman if the mini-movie in the elevator on our ascent to the restaurant is any indication.  There was lots of mustache twirling, in a campy villainous style.

It was so foggy when we arrived that we could barely see the falls at all from our window seat.  Our waitress assured us that the fog would probably lift once it got dark.  This sounded like faulty science to us, but sure enough, once the sun went down we could see the American falls pretty well.  We even got to see the light show.

I started dinner with a Caesar salad, and then we both moved on to pasta dishes -- the Bolognese for me, and a chicken carbonara for my husband.  Both were tasty, but didn't knock our socks off.  My homemade fettuccine and the very meaty sauce was quite filling, and though I ordered a dessert of berries in a brandy snap basket, I couldn't eat much of it.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend in Canada.  And my favorite part?  My husband agreed to do it again next year, only this time, I will do all the surprise planning.  I can't wait. 

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Cold and rainy March nights require something hot for dinner to shake off that winter chill, so tonight I made Thai Chicken Noodle Soup.  It has the comfort factor of traditional chicken noodle soup, but the addition of peanut butter and coconut milk makes it soft and silky, and cayenne pepper adds palatable warmth.  Incredibly rich and soothing, this recipe is the food equivalent of a cozy blanket.

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1lb chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 can coconut milk (about a cup)
48oz chicken broth (6 cups)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 cups thin egg noodles
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, divided in half
S&P to taste

Directions:
Heat the oil in a large soup pot and saute the chicken, mixing in the garlic, turmeric, and cayenne, until no more pink is visible. The dusty turmeric will turn the chicken bright yellow:

Add the coconut milk, chicken broth and lemon juice to the pot.  Bring to a boil.

Add the peanut butter, stirring and breaking it up with a spoon until it is incorporated.

Add the noodles and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes.

In the meantime, take 1/4 cup of the coconut and put it in a dry cold saute pan.  Turn the burner on medium-high and stir the coconut constantly until it toasts.  This takes some time to get going, but once it starts turning brown, all of the coconut becomes brown quickly.  Take it off the heat and remove the coconut from the pan once it has reached the desired darkness.  Set aside to use as a garnish.

 

Once the soup has started to thicken, add the scallions and remaining untoasted 1/4 cup of coconut to the soup.

Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with red pepper flakes (if desired) and the toasted coconut.

Enjoy!

Only 18 more days until Spring!

Pennsylvania Farm Show

This past weekend we went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show, which fills a huge dedicated Harrisburg convention center with acres of indoor space showcasing tractors, live penned animals, displays of local produce, arenas for competitions, a large, crowded food hall, and, of course, a 12 foot sculpture made solely of butter:

Although we went to satisfy my husbands inner-farmer (he is a country boy at heart, and I am a city girl...so suburb living seems to be our compromise), I really loved the theme: Farm Gate to Dinner Plate.  There are always die-hard organic-eaters with concerns about modern farming methods, but salt of the earth Pennsylvanians are proud of their advanced methods that provide ample, affordable food.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show highlights all that our fair state has to offer agriculturally.  According to PenAg Industries Association, a Pennsylvania farmer advocacy and lobbyist group, the average PA farmer produces enough to feed 155 people, and one in seven jobs in the state is agricultural.  Pennsylvania produces maple syrup, wine, honey, squash, and is the "mushroom capitol of the world."  Here is a prize winning rabbit sculpture made entirely of mushrooms:

And here is the award winning squash.  Yeah, it was huge.

While the produce was judged by its size and perfection, and some animals were prized for their special talents -- alpacas and sheep for wool, cows for milk, chicken for eggs, and horses for strength -- most animals at the Pennsylvania Farm Show were prized for their meat. 

And no one pussy-foots around it. 

While watching the Farm Show's sheep competition (think Best in Show, but with sheep strutting around the ring instead of dogs) on Pennsylvania Cable Network, the judge casually used the word "carcass" instead of "body" when describing the desirable attributes of the live sheep. 

Despite Google's #2 definition for carcass: the trunk of an animal such as a cow, sheep, or pig, for cutting up as meat, I immediately think of the first definition: the dead body of an animal. The sheep were being judged and prized for their eventual meat, so I suppose it is the right term, even if it initially smacks as "Dead Man Walking."

Many other competitions at the Farm Show judged animals for their potential yield and deliciousness: pigs for their ham hocks, young bulls for their loins, lambs for their chops, and rabbits for their meat.  I have eaten rabbit before, and will surely again, but I'll admit it is hardest to look without compassion into the faces of these bunnies when faced with the reality that they are designated as "meat."

I, like wise Farmer Hoggett from Babe, need to remember that every animal on the farm has a purpose.  Sometimes it is a delicious purpose, and sometimes the purpose is work.  We spent a good chunk of time watching the Farm Class Horse Pull competition.  A double team of large horses (Percherons, Clydesdales, etc.) were hooked up to a metal sled filled with increasing weights of cinder blocks. The two horses weighed together upwards of 4000 lbs -- these are truly the largest horses I have ever seen, grown men could nearly walk under their flanks without ducking -- but they could pull over 9000 lbs.

It isn't just a test of strength, either.  The horses had to pull gently to start so that a tennis ball seated in a small tuna can mounted to the top of the sled didn't pop out.  The larger horses had a tougher time with their finesse when the loads were low because of their inherent power, but once they got through the first round and more weight was added, their prowess really shined.

After watching the competition and viewing the animals, it was time for lunch.  And what amazing offerings they had!!  The PA Co-Operative Potato Growers, PA Cattlemen Association, PA Mushroom Growers Co-Operative, and the PA Maple Syrup Producers Council all had booths.  I wanted fried vegetables from the PA Vegetable Growers Association booth, and my husband picked up hot dogs and a pulled pork sandwich from PennAg Industries Association. 

The lengths of the lines for milkshakes from the PA Dairymen's Association rivaled those seen at Disney World, so we opted for the equally delicious ice cream offered by PA Beekeepers Association, which was sweetened (and optionally topped) with Pennsylvania honey.  I chose Butter Pecan and topped it with a drizzle of blueberry honey.

We had a really great day looking at the animals, playing on the parked tractors, cheering on the horses, and eating local food.  It is quite a reality check when you spend the morning looking at the farm animals, and then head to the food hall to eat their brethren.  The truth behind the origins of the meat may be easier to ignore at the grocery store, but at the Farm Show, we were proud that our lunch was the product of hard working Pennsylvanians. 

Melt Down Grilled Cheese

UPDATE (10/22/12): Unfortunately, Melt Down Grilled Cheese has changed their menu, removing nearly every sandwich mentioned below, including the Honey Apple.  The new sandwich I tried, Ham and Cheese was lackluster and disappointing.  Bring back the Honey Apple!!
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Sorry for the silence on this blog, but all of my writing energy was focused on my [paid] column over on Upper Moreland Patch. 

I knew reviewing restaurants in the finite area of my tiny town would end sooner or later, but I am still sad to see it go.  I tried a stint at the Examiner but their compensation is laughable (think cents, not dollars), so here we are back where it all started.  I'm still looking for a real food writing gig -- and if you know of something, PLEASE pass it on -- but in the meantime, you'll find me here.

Last week I was headed to lunch at Saladworks with my 18 month old daughter, but the new restaurant next door caught my eye instead.  Poor Saladworks, I bet it is hard to compete with Melt Down, which offers grilled cheese, grilled cheese, and more grilled cheese.

According to my friend Jill from culinary school, who helped with menu development (she always has the coolest jobs!), Melt Down is from the guys who created Peace A Pizza.

Now, I know who these guys are, and if you read my Examiner article and earned me a half-penny, you know who these guys are too.  I was pleased to find that they brought the same level of innovation to grilled cheese as they do Eggplant Parm Pizza.

Instead of a hippie culture, though, Melt Down has modern tables and big floral Ikea light balls juxtaposed by 1950's big band classics blasting on the sound system.  Besides Frank Sinatra's standards, I loved hearing him sing Nimue's "Follow Me" from the musical Camelot. 

Like at Peace A Pizza, there is a tiny table set up at the back for kids with a large screen tv, quiet on the day we went, and New Hope cane sugar soda in flavors like Orange Mango, Root Beer, and Skinny Cola.

After ordering at the counter, we settled in at the tiny table.  By the time I collected napkins, utensils, and my drink, the food was brought over to us in metal baskets lined with paper printed like a the front page of a 1905 Hawaiian newspaper.

I ordered the kids meal for my daughter, which consists of half of the long diagonally cut Classic grilled cheese sandwich, one side, and a kids drink.  We were given the choice of cheddar or American cheese on the sandwich, chips or applesauce, and juice, milk or soda. 

She's 18 months old and still communicates with single words and shrieks, so I chose for her: American cheese, applesauce, and milk.  They were all very well received.  The sandwich was melty on the inside and dry on the outside, saving us from greasy hands, cheeks, clothes, etc.

Though there were lots of sandwiches I wanted to try -- the Maryland Crab, Baja Melt, Melt-akopita -- the Honey Apple caught my eye.  Sharp cheddar surrounded thin, soft apple slices and tiny square dices of raw red onion that added just the right sharp tang.  The honey and Dijon mustard spread separately on the toasty bread didn't combine to make honey-mustard; one bite had smooth sweetness from the honey, while the next zipped with mustard. 

As if the sandwich wasn't good enough on its own, it came with a tiny cup of Truffle Garlic sauce.  Holy deliciousness.  Though a slightly off-putting color of brown (from the truffles, no doubt), this sauce was insane.  It complimented and enhanced the Honey Apple grilled cheese, taking it from sweet to savory.  (Kudos, Jill!)

The menu boasted a Signature Grilled Ice Cream Sandwich, which layers vanilla or chocolate ice cream between two slices of grilled pound cake topped with raspberry glaze.  It sounded amazing, but I was stuffed.  Too much Truffle Garlic sauce, perhaps?

Dont worry, I'll be back to try it another time.

Hungry?  Go get yourself some!

Location: 111 Garden Golf Road, North Wales, PA
Hours:  Monday through Saturday: 11am - 9pm; Sunday: 11am - 8pm
Website: http://meltdowngc.com/

Groom's Cake

As much as I hate to admit it, I am pretty excited about the upcoming royal wedding.  I have never cared much about the princes, but I feel somehow kindred with Kate.  

Kate was an art history major in college, as was I, and she wrote her masters thesis on Lewis Carroll's photography.  I also wrote a major paper on Lewis Carroll's controversial photography (of nude little girls, by the way) while studying at The George Washington University. It was one of the highlights of my academic career, as GW's wonderful DC location afforded me the opportunity to do all of my research at the Library of Congress, which had some of his actual photographs in its collection.

Besides these similarities, Kate and I both scored our Prince Charming.  In what I consider a Southern American tradition, Kate's prince has requested a groom's cake.  When I came across this article with the recipe, I just had to make it!  William's Chocolate Biscuit Cake requires no raw ingredients or baking, making it a perfect recipe to do with my son.

Here are the ingredients, slightly modified from the original recipe linked above:

10 oz butter tea biscuits (the recipe calls for 7oz, but I thought we needed more)

1 cup half and half (the recipe called for heavy cream)

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 stick butter

16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (the recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Plus the following for the glaze:

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup half and half (the recipe called for 1/4 cup heavy cream, but this amount made the glaze too thick to pour)

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (again, the recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate)

 
I couldn't find butter tea buiscuts, so I used these instead:

 
I microwaved the butter, half and half, and honey while my son had fun breaking the cookies in quarters.

Then, we added the chocolate chips and vanilla to the hot half and half/butter mixture and stirred until the chocolate melted. 

Then we stirred in the cookie pieces and poured it all into a Pam-sprayed springform pan.  We had to finesse the mixture around to get it flat on top, but then we put it in the fridge to solidify. 

Three hours later, we popped the springform pan open and put the cake on a wire rack with wax paper underneath.  It was a little difficult getting it off the bottom of the pan, but a long knife helped. 

Then we mixed the glaze ingredients and poured it over the cake, the wax paper catching the drips.

We put it on a nice plate and placed it back in the fridge to further solidify until serving.

Prince William must love chocolate, because this cake is really rich.  To serve, we plated a small piece with strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

If the royal wedding reception is anything like ours, the bride and groom will be too busy talking to everyone to have the chance to enjoy thier wedding cake.  That is always a shame, but maybe they follow the American tradition of freezing some for their first anniversary.  We were surprised how much we loved our cake a year later!

Tonight, my husband loved the Chocolate Biscuit Cake, so it will be long gone by Will and Kate's wedding day.  Maybe we should mix up another one to have for breakfast while we watch the wedding on April 29th! 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  My husband loves Irish Potatoes (the sweet confection, not the starchy staple), and I thought it might be a fun and easy recipe to do with my almost 3 year old.  There are no raw ingredients and therefore no scary bacteria to worry about, and I figured that forming them would be a little like working with Play-Doh.  I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and we gave it a try.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup softened butter
8oz softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
cinnamon

The mixing part was easy -- combine the softened butter and softened cream cheese with a hand mixer.  Then add the vanilla and sugar mixing between cups, and then mix in the coconut.  The recipe then said to roll it into balls and then roll them in the cinnamon, chilling afterwards to set. 

This proved impossible, as right after mixing the whole thing was, literally, a hot mess and just gooped all over our hands instead of balling up.  These ingredients are the exact same as those for cake icing, at about the same ratio, so I dont know why I was surprised at the consistency.

We stuck the mixture in the fridge for an hour and that helped a little, but my son still thought it was too sticky.  He tried molding a few, but they came out looking pretty nasty and he soon gave up. 

I soldiered on and found that you could toss a hunk of the mixture into a small cinnamon filled bowl, swirl it around quickly and the centripetal force (or is it centrifugal?! I never did very well in Physics) would form it into a ball and coat it in the cinnamon.  Two birds, one stone.  Here's the before and after. 

The recipe yeilded about 35 one inch round Irish Potatoes, and once chilled they had good texture and flavor.  They are much better than the chalky ones you buy boxed at the grocery store.  You know, the ones that have so much cinnamon coating them that it goes straight to your lungs and makes you cough. 

The homemade ones soon get sloppy again, though, so keep them in the fridge.  I thought about adding more sugar to stiffen the mixture, but they are really sweet as is, and so decided against it. 

Enjoy your Saint Patrick's Day!  And sorry for the long duration between posts, I am now getting paid to write about food and that is taking precedence.  Check it out my new column, Worth the Whisk, where I reveiw local restaurants on http://www.uppermoreland.patch.com/. 

Cooking with Kids

With two kids and winter weather like this, this stir crazy mom has to come up with new ideas to beat the cabin fever.  My go-to activity is baking and today we made scones.

Scones are breadlike Scottish pastries, regularly included as a part of British afternoon tea.  You can make virtually any kind of scone -- nut, raisin or other dried fruit, chocolate chip, or any combination therein.  You can also make savory scones with herbs, bacon, sausage, or cheese.  Today we made cinnamon almond scones.  My two and a half year old loves to measure and mix, and most of the ingredients made it into the bowl.  Some, however, ended up on the floor or on his once dark brown sweater.

 To make scones you will need the following:

2 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs
3/4 cups milk or heavy cream
1/2 cup chosen added ingredient (I used chopped almonds, plus 1 tablespoon cinnamon)

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  (Add cinnamon here, if using.)
Cut the butter into the dry mix, or smoosh it in with your fingers, until it looks like large crumbs
Combine the eggs, milk, and added ingredients
Pour the wet into the dry and stir until combined
Knead inside the bowl until it is dry and uniform, adding flour as necessary
Form a circle and cut it into 8 wedges
Separate and place on ungreased baking sheet 2 inches apart
Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we had some sort of international fair that required kids to bring in a baked good from their cultural background.  Based on the small percentage of Scottish blood on my mother's side, I decided to make scones.  My mom and I found a recipe for plain scones, and I wasn't surprised when none of the kids wanted to try them.  They were pretty bland.

Since then, I have tried many additional ingredients and come to love the slightly dry crumbly scone not only for their taste, but for their infinite possibilities.  Tomorrow we can use the same basic procedure and create a whole new treat by substituting dried cranberries.  Or fresh rosemary.  Or cocoa powder.  Baking scones is a simple kid-friendly activity, and they make a delicious afternoon snack.  I was glad to share the experience with my son.  I'll remember the apron next time, though.

Serve warm with lots of butter!