Blog Awards & Restaurant Review: The Dorrance

Hello Jalapeno Margarita!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!Toby and I are going to Cape Cod, Massachusetts this weekend thanks to my in laws and I could not be more excited. We are so close to Cape Cod, being in Rhode Island, but we never go there. So we are taking a relaxing weekend away. Hooray for mini vacations!

Anyway before my review I wanted to give a quick shout out to a few people that nommed me for blog awards this week!

Hawaiian Chicken & Coconut Lime Rice

Now that the weather is getting nicer it was time to brush the dust off of our outdoor grill and start grilling!! I was fiddling around on Pinterest ( like any other normal day of course) and came across a recipe for Hawaiian chicken. What makes this chicken "Hawaiian" I'm not entirely sure.I have never marinated chicken in coconut milk before, but it was such a great idea!

Chipotle Carnitas Tacos with Brie

I love love love carnitas. For those of you that are unfamiliar carnitas means "little meats. It  is a type of braised or roasted meat. You most often have it in burritos, tacos, on anything really. I have been trying different variations of carnitas and my belly is enjoying it so much. I did a basic preparation for my previous carnitas post. For this version I wanted to go with a smokey spicy flavor so I bought a can of chipotle peppers in adobo ( usually found in the international aisle.)

WIAW & Veggielicious Pad Thai

 Horray! Half way through the week! This week has been flying by, ( which I am totally ok with.) I wanted to do a WIAW recap on some things I ate this weekend. My friends came down from Baltimore and Long Island so we had a big reunion of eating drinking and over all bad habits. I love weekends like this. It makes me happy about all the good eating I do during the week!

Zucchini Tots

**News Flash** My husband is awesome. I came home to one of the best birthday gifts ever. Do you guys remember my post about making a photo box for better blog photos? Well, not only did he make me one, he made me two! What a nice surprise! Big thanks to my father in law for helping! They are so handy! Take a look. Bigger, better, made of wood. Totally bad ass. I love it! 

Ode to Truffle Salt

Flecks of black truffle=Goodness

I got a great idea from Andrea at Quest for Delish that I should do a post about the most simple and amazing dish I made this week that I was so enamored with I tweeted it and put it on Facebook .It is funny that sometimes the easiest, most simple dishes are the ones we like the best.

Most Common Cooking Mistakes

Happy Friday Everyone!It has been so nice out all week in the tiny state of Rhode Island! We have had such great weather.. well for March anyway. Eighty degrees in March? Yes, please. Global warming- a possibility. I thought I would leave you all with common cooking mistakes people make from Cooking Light Magazine. I picked ones I have done myself so you won't all feel bad. For the complete list of mistakes click here!

Citrus & Olive Oil Cake

I was super excited when I saw this recipe. It immediately transported me back to the Amalfi Coast. Sorrento, Italy to be specific.Brittany, if you are reading this, how many lemon flavored cakes did we eat that trip? I swear, it was every meal. We sat in lemon groves and ate the most amazing desserts with the scent of lemons in the air. Good news for me, I love lemon cake. This recipe from Saveur Magazine is no different.

Dr Oz's Weight-o-rade

So for this WIAW, I wanted to talk about some other awesome meals I had in Seattle this week! These were just some highlights I haven't posted about yet so I am super excited to share them with you. I also wanted to share a recipe for Dr Oz's "Weight-Orade."In fact, I am sipping on some now. It is delicious!After you read about what I ate in Seattle you can see why I have to drink this!

Greek Style Pasta Bake

I love Greek food. So many of it is fresh and uses tons of lemon, oregano, and other delicacies from an amazing country. When I think of Greece, I picture sipping on a cocktail on the island of Santorini and eating fresh fish with lemon. Yeah, this dish is nothing like that. It is rustic, hearty, and well.... probably fattening. I took an idea that I saw on The Chew called Pastitsio. I am familiar with this dish. In fact I have had it many times just never made it myself. My baked pastas for never failed me so I figured I would try it out.

Sweet Treats: Yogurt Dipped Strawberries

So we are back from Seattle on a red eye flight and let's just say we are not bright eyed and bushy tailed.  It is Sunday night and I dreaded going grocery shopping, doing laundry or even doing my homework. The one good thing that came out of today was a new snack!

Birthday Dinner: Seattle Style

A very happy birthday to me indeed. My sister and brother in law made us the most amazing salmon dinner for my birthday! We found the most amazing King and Sokeye salmon at Pike Place so we decided to prepare them two different ways. We prepared one with a salmon rub from that same store World Spice we went to yesterday and one with a teriyaki glaze. It was delicious! The store also had jumbo sea scallops so we decided to make scallops wrapped in bacon! Toby's favorite!

Outside the Kitchen: Birthday Celebrations at Pike Place Market

Greetings from Seattle!! I had the best day ever today! Toby, Renee, Liza and I went to Pike Place Market where I had a very merry, foodie birthday. TI turned 27 today, which is pretty insane to me. Oh so close to the big 3-0. There was a steady rain all day, but i didn't care. I had lots of foodie ground to cover.

Outside the Kitchen:Seattle Bound

Greetings from Seattle,Wa!! Please excuse my sporadic posts until then! If you know any hot foodie places to check out let me know! In the mean time.. Toby and I will be playing with our new niece Liza!! Hooray!
Tomorrow... Pike Place for my birthday!!!

Coffee Crusted Roast Chicken

I have been wanting to roast a whole chicken for awhile now. I saw a recipe on Whole Foods.com and I got super excited. Toby and I really enjoy coffee crusted beef and pork so chicken would be next on the list I suppose. You cannot really go wrong with a recipe that has three directions and you let it roast in the oven for an hour. So easy!

Best Ever Truffle Parmesan Potato Wedges

Potatoes are one of my favorite foods. I actually never really met a carbohydrate I didn't like. Potatoes and pasta are by far my favorite things to eat. Thick cut french fries are my favorite fries to eat by far. I absolutely hate those shoe string fries. The thicker, the better. I ended up getting this amazing aged Parmigiano Reggiano on sale at whole foods and I knew what I wanted to do with it.I know alot of celebrity chefs give truffle oil a bad name, but I happen to really like it. It bumps up the earthy flavor of whatever you are cooking. Bottom line, if I had their money I would go to Italy and get really expensive truffles, but on my salary, I will have to settle with truffle oil.

Outside the Kitchen: Bacaro

I have been hearing rave reviews about Bacaro in Providence,RI for months now. Kaitlin, if you are reading this. I know, you told me it was amazing forever ago. My friend Katie and I decided to go to dinner there last Friday night and might I add, I will be going there many times after this.

Recipe Swap: Orecchiette with Roasted Tomatoes,Garlic and Spinach

Orecchiette, or little ears is one of my favorite pastas. It holds sauce really well and well... I really think they are so cute. Quick side story, my husband and I actually had the same favorite pasta dish when we first met. We both said we had only ever had one dish at the Olive Garden. We both dared each other to say the dish at the same time and we both said Garlic & Herb Chicken Con Broccoli.I almost died. So that is what we did on our first date. Went to the Olive Garden and both had chicken con broccoli.This dish reminded me of that.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burgers

WIAW is veggie themed this month, and what better way to celebrate than with Sweet Potato and black bean veggie burgers! I really enjoy making veggie burgers, but I find that I keep using the same ingredients. I found a recipe using sweet potato, which gave these great texture and just the right amount of sweetness! Here is a taste of what I have eaten since Monday. Don't judge my giant cupcake or cheese fries.

Coconut Braised Cod

I must confess, I was in the mood for "something different." I don't know what would constitute as different per se, but this recipe was not something I make often so it was different enough for me. I feel like I do not cook enough fish in general, so this was my chance. I have had a can of coconut milk lurking in my pantry for weeks just asking to be used. Now is its chance to be center stage in this super easy dish that I found on Wholefoods.com

Olive Oil Ice Cream

Before you overreact and say,"Ewwww." Let me tell you how amazing olive oil ice cream is. I, like many of you did not think there was anything appealing about olive oil ice cream. Toby had the idea of making it for our All Local Dinner. I was sold. I borrowed an ice cream maker (soon to be my new guilty pleasure when I buy myself one)from my friend Jen  and we were on our way to flavor town.

Coffee Creme Brulee

Creme brulee is one of Toby and my favorite desserts. We usually get it at restaurants and a few years ago started making it at home. This is actually a really easy dessert to make. It is perfect for dinner parties because you can make it the night before. In fact, that is what alot of restaurants do anyway. As you know, all week I have been blogging about my All Local.All Rhode Island party ( sponsored by Foodbuzz.) This was one of our desserts. I used all local eggs,cream, and coffee beans. I did a play on coffee milk ( one of the most beloved drinks in RI.) Well, for me anyway. Growing up we would always drink coffee milk. Envision chocolate syrup for chocolate milk. This is what coffee milk was. Coffee syrup that  you mix with milk. This probably got me on my caffeine kick early on in life. 

Braised Local Short Ribs

Braised short ribs. Quite possibly the most amazing cut of meat EVER. They are so succulent and tender. The trick to short ribs is cooking them ( repeat after me) low and slow. I had these in the oven for about seven hours and they just came out so perfectly. I don't have a  dutch oven (sigh) so I roasted these in a large roasting pan that I loosely covered with tin foil. If you use a roasting pan keep the oven at 300 degrees F for about 6 hours. If you are cooking for 4 hours I would put it up to 350 F. If you are using a dutch oven then follow this recipe exactly.

Steamers with Wine & Butter Sauce

I must confess, this was my first time making steamers. Steamers, if you are not familiar are steamed clams. Like most shellfish, they are so easy to cook. You literally throw them in a pot with some liquid (beer,stock,wine) and they open and absorb all that yummyness!Serve this with some crust bread and you have yourself a great meal or appetizer.