Bayern Stube and Harvest Moon Drive-In Theater (Gibson City)

So Lauren had been talking for a long time about how she wanted to go to a drive-in theater. There used to be a drive-in in Hawaii, but that closed down a while ago. Lauren found one in Gibson City. We were talking about it one day at her lab, and Aaron mentioned a German restaurant in the area called Bayern Stube. We'd never heard of it, but a lot of people had a lot of good things to say about it. We'd also never eaten German food before, so we decided to give it a try.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I did have German food before on a family trip to Epcot Center a long time ago. I don't remember much about it.......only that people on the adults table had sausage and meats, while I had a bunch of rye bread.
Walking into Bayern Stub is definitely an experience. Animals of all sorts adorn the walls and ceiling. Lauren asked me if I thought they were real. I'm no expert, but they looked real to me. The only one that looked suspect to me was the bear. You can see it in the picture in the left-center. It looked to small to me. If it was real, then it was definitely a baby bear.
***Mike is now currently back home in Hawaii, so I am finishing his post***
Bread with a smoked sausage spread. I thought it was a smoked salmon spread, but I guess my senses were off. Mike asked me what I thought was in the spread and I said, "smoked salmon and a lot of fat." I guess I got the fat part correct.
Fresh Nova Lox~ over a warm potato cake with Dijon horseadish sauce
Red Cabbage
Veal Schnitzel "Dietrich" Topped with Portabella mushrooms and Gorgonzola cheese on a bed of demi-glaze. Spatzle and German fries (potatoes fried with bacon and onions)

Mike thoroughly enjoyed himself at the restaurant. He drank two pints of beer and had fried beef...if he could have finished off a sausage, he would have. Since German food is characterized by meat, sausage, and beer, you can see why I was more excited by the apple strudel.
Although at one point of the meal Mike said that I was "going to town" on the schnitzel. But then images of the South Park episode kept creeping into my mind, and thought, "oh veal...baby cow."
Apple Strudel

Then we were off to the drive-in movie theater. It was about 90F and humid the night we went, but it was still an enjoyable experience. Prior to the start of the movie, Mike and I threw frisbee (apparently going to the drive-in theater is a family affair, and lots of kids were throwing frisbee or playing soccer). It's funny, Mike seemed to think that going to a drive-in theater was such an "American" thing to do. I don't know, but I've always been into watching outdoor movies whether it be a drive-in or on a big screen outdoors (like the IUB Summer Quad Cinema).
We watched Transformers 2 on the opening night, and the drive-in theater was crowded! Unfortunately, towards the end of the movie, I fell asleep. During the fighting scenes, all the machines started looking alike and I couldn't keep my eyes open. The same thing happened when I watched all the "Lord of the Rings" movies. But really, I think the falling asleep thing happens because I've watched these movies during the midnight or late night screenings.
Overall, this was a good "Mike date night." His tummy was filled with beer and meat and we watched a "boy" movie. Little does he know that our next date will consist of high tea and watching a musical or play...

Bayern Stube Restaurant
209 N. Sangamon Avenue
Gibson City, IL 60936
(217) 784-8304

Harvest Moon Drive-In Theater

1123 N Sangamon Ave

Gibson City, IL 60936-1058

(217) 784-8770

Daring Bakers~June Challenge~Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.
Prior to the challenge, I had no idea what a bakewell tart was. According to Wikipedia, a pastry with an almond filling. I did not want to attempt the challenge this month, partially due to the pictures and the description of the tart (I knew it was not going to be my favorite kind of dessert), and the other reason being laziness.

Well, I decided to make the tart...and since I was in a rush while making it, it didn't come out that well. I was trying to make it to a Cocktail Party at Aaron's house and misjudged the timing of preparing and baking the tart. I also used ingredients that I had in the house....

Unfortunately, that meant that my jam filling between the pastry crust and almond cake consisted of grape jelly (the cause of the oozing syrup in the picture) and some frozen blueberries. I don't know what I was thinking....I don't even eat grape jelly in the first place, but we had it in the fridge because Mike likes jelly. After I made the tart and Mike came home, he said, "That's a really runny grape jelly, I don't think you should have baked with it. Did you add any thickeners?"
FYI, Mike is the non-food scientist in the house. Arg...Let me reiterate, I WASN'T THINKING STRAIGHT. I was even wishing, "Man I wish I could double the baking temperature so I can shorten the baking time." My friends were really nice as they tried to conjure up positive comments about the tart, but overall the tart was one of my disasters in the kitchen. My lesson learned through this experience, baking should be fun and not rushed.

If you would like to check out other Daring Bakers attempts at this month's challenge, check out the blog roll.

Spiked Gummy Bears

My favorite type of candy is gummies. I love Haribo (it has to be Haribo, because they are extra hard and chewy) mini frogs and bears.
So when Aaron made these vodka-infused bears last month, I had to try them. They were so addicting, but that may be the alcohol talking.
The texture of these vodka-infused gummy bears is a cross between jello and those asian lychee jel candies (the ones that made the news for being the cause of kids choking).

The beginnings of my experiment. I had a bunch of mini bears which were becoming super chewy and dried out.
Recipe (modified from "Instructables")
3/8 c. apple juice
1/4 c. vodka
1/2 c. gummy candies (bears, worms, frogs, etc)

Combine all ingredients in a container and cover it. Refrigerate.
Stir the gummies daily, so that they do not end up sticking together.
Soak the gummies for at least five days (you can taste the gummies prior to the five day soak, but the middles might be super hard)

**Modifications***
*If you like the taste of a different alcohol, use it. The dominant flavor is the alcohol, so you can make tequila or rum-flavored gummies. I am not sure if Bailey's is a good idea.
*Non-alcoholic gummies can be made. Just use a flavored juice instead. Or, li hing mui juice. (that's how my sister used to eat gummy bears when we were younger).
For those of you who have ever gone drinking with me, you know that I cannot handle my alcohol. I think I can get drunk off less than one shot of alcohol. So, I modified the recipe. I used more apple juice than vodka. When Aaron made his gummies, he soaked the bears in grape juice and vodka, so all the bears were a dark shade of plum, and you could not appreciate the colorfulness of the bears. Aaron, Erika, and I discussed that a white cranberry juice or apple juice would be better to help retain the colors.

I made a tiny portion of gummies, so just multiple the recipe if you want to make more...and believe me, these are quite yummy so you might want to make more.
So if you want to be that "uuber-cool" person at your next social gathering, bring these gummies. How cool would it be to sip an apple martini with floating chewy gummy bears? or frogs?
Look how much liquid the frogs absorbed! The marshmallow portion of the frogs remained intact, but might have not survived a 10-day soak. They were slightly disintegrating, so marshmallow-type gummies might not fare as well as traditional gummies.

Cocomero

Last night Lisa invited a few of us bloggers to check out Cocomero the new (and only!) self-serve frozen yogurt place in Urbana. It's located where Moonstruck Cafe used to be right on campus. To be perfectly honest I wasn't exactly invited, Lauren was. But since we’re married, I figured it’s almost the same thing, and I didn’t want to be left out of this one. While self-serve frozen yogurt is new to UIUC, it definitely isn't new to me. I love frozen yogurt!
We were greeted by the manager Collin, who invited us to try anything we wanted. Anyone who has not been to a self-serve frozen yogurt place before would be a little confused upon entering Cocomero for the first time. There's no menu so to speak, and on top of that, the 8 yogurt machines (each holding 2 flavors), are out in front of the counter.
Basically you grab a container, go up to the yogurt machines and get whatever you want. Then you take your yogurt and finish it off with the toppings of your choice. They have fresh fruit (kiwi, strawberry, mango and blackberries), m&ms, nuts, cheesecake, brownies, cookie dough, and much more. They even have red beans (azuki beans) and mochi (really popular, and they were out when we went)! Cocomero charges by the weight….39 cents per ounce, and well worth it.

At first Lauren and I were going to share a container, but wise wife that she is, Lauren gave me a look that said “yeah right,” and said “you need to get your own.” I’m not sure if she was being defensive of her own yogurt or looking out for me (probably both), but either way I’m sure she was remembering the last few times she took me to a frozen yogurt place, and either way it was a good move. I set off like a little kid in a candy store and decided to take a sampling of the different flavors. Now I didn’t really think about it before, but 16 flavors is a lot of yogurt. I got about 3 flavors in and realized that as big as my bowl was it wasn’t going to make it. Not wanting to look like a total pig and not wanting to get the yogurts all mixed up I tried the flavors that most intrigued me: strawberry, cheesecake, expresso, fudge, original tart, California tart, raspberry tart, and green tea tart. At the checkout line, Collin asked me why I wasn’t getting any toppings. I told him that I wanted to focus on the taste of the yogurt. He said that I should try the toppings because they made the yogurt that much better. He was right!

Here are my impressions:

Strawberry - Your basic strawberry frozen yogurt. Creamy and smooth, and a must have for any yogurt/ice cream store.

Cheesecake - Rich, creamy and tasty. Not quite a stand-alone flavor but excellent when eaten with strawberry, fudge, or any flavor that’d be good in a cheesecake.

Expresso – Good, but I liked everything else so much more that it got a little lost.

Fudge - This really impressed me. It was a non-fat flavor, but tasted really good. It was creamy and rich. Collin said they were working on an even more intense version.

Original Tart - I love yogurt flavors, and this was everything I expected.

California Tart - The California tart was like the original tart, but a little less tart, and sweeter.

Green Tea Tart – My least favorite flavor, maybe because I’m just not used to the idea of a sour green tea.

Raspberry Tart – Just perfect. It has all of the sour goodness of a tart yogurt flavor, but with a strong raspberry flavor as well.

One of the best things about frozen yogurt (aside from the taste) is that it isn’t filling, and compared to ice cream, it’s pretty low-calorie. I really enjoyed our trip to Cocomero. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a fun choose-your-own-adventure dessert experience, anyone who enjoys indulging in a tasty dessert, or anyone who simply likes eating. Anyone who doesn’t should probably just stay home and eat mouse poop for dessert. Frozen yogurt is addicting. As Collin put it, it's just like coffee. We'll be back soon.

http://the217.com/articles/view/cocomero_replaces_moonstruck_locale_to_open_april_3

Cocomero

709 S Wright St
Champaign, IL 61820

(217) 328-3888‎

Hawaii Bakeries~Fendu Boulangerie; Las Vegas Bakeries~ Bouchon

I really wanted to check out Fendu Boulangerie when I was back home in Hawaii after I had read the reviews on yelp. Mike and I checked out this bakery late one afternoon after I had visited some of my undergrad professors at UH-Manoa.
Fendu Boulangerie is a relatively new French bakery located in Manoa Marketplace. It's a cute little bakery with very friendly staff.
There were a couple of people there who were waiting for their pizza orders. I guess pizza is the thing to order at Fendu. The pizzas range from $12.50-17.00/ 14" pizza, and $7.50-10.50/8" pizza. The pizza choices sounded amazing: Firecracker Shrimp pizza (with jalapeno peppers, fresh tomatoes, and sour cream), Cilantro chicken pizza (with white truffle oil, sauteed shallots, tomato sauce, and brie cheese). The pizza smelled so good that Mike and I would have ordered one. But we had dinner plans with my parents, so we couldn't arrive full.

According to Mike, this was "one good chocolate cookie." It was crispy on the inside and chewy on the inside. I really enjoyed this cookie too because of the gooey-ness of the chocolate. Only downside of the cookie was that it contained macnuts (okay, this is not a bad thing for the majority of the world, but I prefer chewy cookies to not have nuts in them).
We also purchased a lychee strudel danish. I mainly bought it because I've never seen lychee incorporated into a pastry before and I love lychee. The pastry was light and tasty, but the mild flavor of lychee was lost in the overall effect of the danish. Props for the concept of a lychee pastry, but these types of pastries need stronger flavored fruits like apples or apricots.
Moving on to Bouchon. Bouchon is owned by Thomas Keller (of the famed French Laundry). While I was back in Hawaii, Mike and I dog-sat at home while my parents went on a trip to the mainland. One of their stops was Las Vegas (that's where my sister lives), so I was lucky that my super nice sister bought a bunch of pastries from Bouchon. She took a few pictures of them, but I couldn't open the images that she had emailed me.
So what did she buy? Macaroons (Pink-Raspberry, Yellow-Lemon, Cream-Vanilla, Orange-Orange, Tan-Mocha, Brown-Chocolate), the nutter butter (think a peanut butter cookie sandwich), the TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo), and a chocolate cupcake. Mmmm....yumminess!
I cannot wait until I visit my sister later on this year. She's planning out all the restaurants and bakeries we'll check out. My sister was never a foodie, but this year she's slowly becoming one.



Fendu Boulangerie
Manoa Marketplace (closer to Long's)
2752 Woodlawn Dr. #5-119
Honolulu, HI 96822
(808)988-4310

Bouchon
The Venetian Hotel
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 414-6200

Curiosity Challenge~Squash Blossoms

I've always wanted to cook with squash blossoms. When I was back home in Hawaii I was able to get my hands on some squash blossoms from Chinatown for $2. I didn't know how to prepare or cook them so they ended up sitting in the fridge for a couple of days before I decided to cook them.
I've heard of "stuffed squash blossoms" before, so decided to stuff the flowers with random ingredients I found around my parents house. I wasn't very creative and decided to stuff the blossoms with raw garlic and mozzarella cheese.
I filled the blossoms with my garlic cheese concoction and gently twisted the petals together.
Then I quickly battered the blossoms with an egg dip followed by a cornstarch coating.

I pan fried the blossoms are here are the results. My mom really liked the final result. She thought that the cooked blossoms had almost a meat-like texture. Personally, I thought the texture was more like a meat-substitute texture (almost mushroomy).
With the broken blossoms, I chopped them up and quickly stir-fried them in garlic and made a squash blossom and mozzarella cheese quesadilla.
Would I purchase and cook squash blossoms again? Probably not, unless I was trying to impress someone. They tasted good, but were definitely not worth the effort to clean, cook, and stuff.

Hawaii~Kauai Chocolates and married life quirks

I always start craving chocolate when I read Kat's posts about all the chocolate she tastes. It makes me want to go out and buy some expensive dark chocolate, but I try to resist the temptation.
While I was back home in Hawaii, Mike's mom (a.k.a. my "mom") brought me back some Kauai chocolates from her trip to Kauai.

***Okay, here's a short side tangent about married life and my new "parents." My "real?" (that sounds awkward, my "birth") parents thought it would be a fun game to charge Mike and me one dollar every time we refer to each others' parents as "Mr.___" or "Mrs.___" instead of "mom" or "dad."

Since we've been married, Mike has paid my parents about $7. He even gets harassed by my real mother when he refers to my real dad as "Mr.___" while having a conversation with my mom. And Lauren has paid...$0. How? Because while we were dating for those five years, I rarely called Mike's parents by name or a "hey you." I usually used the elusive tap on the shoulder or avoided using their name.
Think about it, you can call your friends' parents "aunty" or "uncle" but really, that won't fly when referring to your your bf or gf's parents. Most of my girlfriends have this issue with the 'rents of their significant others. Oh and here's the funny thing, I have and had no problem calling Mike's aunts, uncles, and grandparents "aunty ___" or "grandpa ___." Go figure. I guess it's some mental block on my part.

The in-laws are cracking down on me though. When Mike and I talk on the phone, they shout, "Hi daughter" and I have to respond with "Hi dad!" or "Hi mom!" over the phone. Talk about a sweat-induced panic attack. But it's getting better, and like my real mom says, she's just helping us out so it will not be awkward in the future.

Back to those wonderfully delicious chocolate morsels of goodness.
These are the "chocolate opihi." How cute is that? They look like chocolate-covered peeps, but oh no, they are so much better than peeps.
It's a shortbread cookie, topped with caramel and a whole macadamia nut, enrobed in dark chocolate. Mmmmm...I wish I had thought of them first and then could sell these things as Hawaii omiyage. Mom, thanks for the chocolates!
Kauai Chocolates
Port Allen Marina Center
4341 Waialo Road
Ele'ele, Kauai
(808)335-0448