Traveling...

I am pre-posting this post.  By the time you see it, Mike and will be flying back in the States from our vacation! Yes, I actually had some time between my work travel to travel for pleasure.  Stay tuned to see pictures from our exciting travels...

Grand Rapids, MI~Marie Catribs

I'm glad that I checked out this restaurant while I was traveling.  Marie Catrib's is one of those restaurants that Mike would be hesistant to step foot in.  Mike tends to shy away from restaurants serving "vegetarian," "gluten-free," and "vegan."  But he may have given this restaurant a chance because they also serve hamburgers and other kinds of meats. 

Sweet potato  and quinoa burger. The "burger" is filled with sweet potato, quinoa, onions, almonds, cumin, and other spices. I am not sure if it was the additional vegannaise and the tomato-ginger chutney that made this sandwich delicious, of it was the creative combination of the ingredients of the swee potato burger. I want to attempt to recreate this burger at home. I've never had a vegetarian burger that contained the sweetness and dense texture of sweet potatoes, with the interesting texture of chopped almonds. 

Falafel with homemade hummus and tabouli. I ordered this thinking that I would be able to sample some of the salads that Marie Catrib's offers.  I think that the falafel fell inthe shadow fo the sweet potato burger.  If I had only ordered the falafel, then I would have thought it was a yummy falafel (although I've had better in Australia). 

Marie's Seasoned Potatoes-These are supposed to be famous potatoes, but I thought the flavors of the sweet potato burger and the falafel but these potatoes to shame. 

I really enjoyed this place. It's kind of eclectic and had a Berkeley feel to it. It would neat to own a restaurant similar to this hippie-type of place. But then agian, I'd feel like a poser if I owned this kind of restaurant. 

Marie Catribs

1001-1003 Lake Drive SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616) 454-4020

Making Chocolate from Cacao Nibs

Here is another fail in my kitchen experiments.  I'll leave you with some pictures of my attempt to make chocolate from Cacao Nibs.  

I tried to make it using the "cheat" way and placed a handful of cacao nibs in a food processor and pulsed it....for over 30 minutes until I slowly started to see the nibs start to liquefy.

Here's the final product. Grainy, liquefied cacao nibs.  It had a deep dark chocolate taste, but it was gritty in texture. I think I have to invest in one of those power blenders that Jamba Juice uses and Costco sells to liquefy my cacao nibs.  Meh, it was worth the initial experiment, but I don't know if I really want to attempt to make chocolate this way again.

Homemade Caramels

If any of my co-workers read my blog, they are now realizing just how slowly I post on this blog.  Okay, I do not take a year to post, but it sure does feel like it. 

I made an assortment of caramels prior to the 2010 Christmas holidays, but look it's perfect timing as a holiday gift idea.
 
After Mike and I returned home from Paris in late November 2010, I was on a "salted caramel" kick. I loved Laduree's salted caramel macaron and had it on my mind. I bought fleur de sel (French salt flakes) and grey salt from France just to experiment with it at home. 

Look at the pretty caramel wrappers. I purchased food grade candy wrappers from Amazon.com.  My mantra-wrappers and packaging make everything look pretty and more presentable.

I heated the sugar and water to caramelize it.  I heated the solution to 260F because I was afraid they would become to hard and glassy in texture. I should have actually cooked it to 310 F for a harder texture. 

Poured the mixture into a pan and let it solidify.

I also attempted to make chocolate caramels. The Flavor was similar to See's Candies Chocolate lollypops.

Most of the caramels that I made were a bit on the soft side.  If the caramels were refrigerated, they were the perfect texture after taking them out and letting them sit at room temperature for a few minutes. 

Hmmm....after blogging about this, I may make caramels again this year.  All though if I have time this year, I have my heart set on experimenting on some other creative concoctions.

"Flour: A Baker's Collection of Spectacular Recipes"

I really enjoyed reading and using Joanne Chang's "Flour: A Baker's Collection of Spectacular Recipes."  The book was filled with beautiful pictures, easy to follow recipes, and background stories about the tried and true recipes.
I borrowed this book from the library and liked the recipes I tried.  I may purchase a signed copy from "Flour" bakery when I'm back in Boston next year.  I liked how all the recipes listed ingredients amount by volume and metric mass units!
Baking is just as much as science as it is an art, and sometimes weighing the ingredients versus volumetrically measuring the ingredients is the difference between a bad versus good recipe or a good versus great recipe.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (I made oatmeal cranberry cookies).

Lime Cornmeal Cookies-These cookies were average. I thought they were a bit pasty and dry in texture.

Snickerdoodles. Yum! These were light and crunchy (I overbaked them by mistake).



Puffy cookies right out of the oven

A lot of people on the mainland enjoy soft and chewy cookies. I'm familiar with crunchy cookie recipes, but have been working on perfecting a soft/chewy cookie.  I think the secret is to slightly under-bake the cookies. 

This is a picture of the underbaked cookies after sitting on the pan for 10 minutes after pulling the pan out of the oven.  I think my favorite cookie recipe that I tried was the chocolate chunk cookies.  It may even become my "go to" recipe instead of the traditional Toll house cookie recipe.  I have to work on tweaking the recipe a little bit. I'd like the finished cookie to have a little more shape instead of becoming a thin pancake. 

Cucumber Kimchee

Every so often, Mike and I receive care packages from back home containing random food stuffs from Hawaii.  My mom seems to find these random new products that she's tried and then sends us some to try.  Last year, she sent this huge bottle of kim chee sauce to us and I haven't been able to make a dent in the bottle.

The katana on the bottle reads "Kim Chee" so I am not sure what company produces this base, but I think my mom picked it up from Marukai or Don Quixote back home.

I bought some Persian cucumbers and sliced them up for some quick cucumber kim chee. I haven't been able to find Japanese cucumbers in the Texas markets, but I have found these Persian cucumbers at Asian markets and they are similar to the Japanese cucumbers with small seeds. 

I do not like a lot of flavor on my kimchee, so I added only a little bit of sauce to the sliced cucumbers. I added more after I snapped this picture.  I then left the container in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and ate it with my dinner.

I think that this sauce produces pretty good kim chee. This is my extent of kim chee making. (Yes, I am part Korean and do not know the first thing about making kim chee). Mike is not a big fan of the flavor and said that there's a strong fishy taste to it.  I think it tastes pretty good for a "ready to use" (cheat) sauce and would purchase it for that quick Korean food fix.   

In-N-Out

Back in May of this year, In-N-Out opened in Texas.  Mike and I finally checked out one of the restaurants in Allen, TX. We had been meaning to check out In-N-Out for a while, but every time we happend to drive past the In-N-Out the parking lot looked so crowded that we decided to put off our visit.
It's difficult to compare burgers from restaurants because you are relying on your memory of the burger. The last time I ate a burger from In-N-Out was in June 2011 when I was in Las Vegas. I did not eat a "fresh" burger because someone had picked it up and I ate it about 20 minutes after it was made. 

Man In-N-Out is one of the most efficient fast food places I have ever been to.  They quickly churn out order after order and the line keeps moving. The only way that they could improve their efficiency would be to install TV monitors with order numbers instead of having a worker shout out order numbers on the speaker.  I saw this at a Rosa's Cafe the other night and I think they might have the slight edge in speed over In-N-Out.

Mike ordered the "Animal Style" burger-includes extra sauce and toppings. I just had a plain cheeseburger (I rather eat a hamburger sans cheese, but I was saving us seats and Mike ordered me one with cheese).  We were hungry, and those burgers tasted good. The fries were okay (I prefer twice-fried fries), but I overheard a kid shout, "These are the best fries," so everyone has their own preference on fry type. 

Neapolatin Shake

Meh. Mike and I were not a fan of the fan of the shakes.  Sorry Jay, I know that you really like them. I think so far, our favorite fast food shakes are from Chick-fil-A.

So here's our verdict on In-N-Out, for the price of a burger (<$2) it's a great deal. The burgers are tasty and have a fresh taste to them, if given a choice between McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, and In-N-Out, I'd choose In-N-Out. 
If I throw "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" into the mix, I might choose Five Guys.  Five Guys burgers set you back about $6 each (that's like 3-4 In-N-Out burgers), but I think I'd give Five Guys my vote because I like that you can add a lot more toppings to your burger (sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, etc) AND I think the fries are better at Five Guys. 
Mike says that it would be a toss-up between the restaurants because price becomes a factor. If he wanted a good cheap burger, he'd go to In-N-Out. If price wasn't factored in to the decision, he'd choose Five Guys for the win on flavor.

Stacy's Gingerbread Pita

I've been pretty good at not disclosing where I work, but a lot of you probably know where I work and the products I work on. I work on the Stacy's Pita Chip brand.  I love my job and love keeping up with food trends. 

We just launched a new product, "Stacy's Simply Gingerbread" and it's a really tasty product. I'm not saying this just because I work for the company (do not worry, I am not receiving any perks by posting about this product).  I did not help with the formulation of this product, but I think the flavor profile is delicious! Just imagine the Stacy's cinnamon and sugar pita with a spicy (ginger, cloves, etc) bold taste. It's so good! I think I like it more than the Cinnamon and Sugar pita chips, but that's debatable depending on my mood. 
Okay, don't you all worry, I will rarely post about my job and new products that are launched. I just think that this flavor is wonderful and would post about it if I were just an unassuming customer. 

The materials/opinions posted on this blog are my own and do not represent those of PepsiCo or any of its subsidiaries or divisions. Nor do they constitute any official communication of those companies.

To My Wonderful Husband

Trees outside of my hotel

Today marks the 7th continuous day that I've been gone for work travel. Mike's been taking care of the house and taking care of our little Butters. Our pup was sick (Mike thinks it is because Butters is eating bird poop on our patio) and Mike had to wake up at 3:30am one night to take care of him (it was during the work week). Then Mike had to deal with Butters jumping up on the sofa top (not on the seats, but the top of the sofa backrest) because he has so much energy.  

The patio with bird poop

I would like to share another story about why Mike is awesome. (Mike, if you're reading this back in Texas, yes I used your name and awesome in the same sentence. It's probably the lack of sleep and long hours taking a toll on me. :P). 
Last month, I was on yet another trip for work and Mike decided to clean the apartment. I walked into our closet in the morning and saw that he had organized the closet.  I let out a squeal of excitement because it looked like my pants wardrobe had expanded.   Just to let you know, I have always had that many pairs of work pants; they just were not hung neatly and some were probably on hidden on the ground. 
I have my select few pants I wear often because a)they are easily accessible; b)they are the perfect length for the shoes I want to wear. Now my choice of pants has expanded by a two-fold!

My wonderful husband cleaned and organized my clothes while I was gone! He also organized both bathroom drawers and other cabinets around our apartment!
Yay for awesome husbands!

Nutrition Educator Part 2~Chocolate Silk Pie with Tofu

The other week I was teaching a lesson on lean protein and was discussing meat alternatives that provide protein. We started to discuss different ways to mask the flavor of soy and tofu if you are a tofu newbie.  I remembered this awesome chocolate pie that Aaron made in grad school and told the class about it. 

Here's a Chocolate Silk Pie recipe.   If someone told me that you could mask the soy flavor of tofu in pie, I would not believe it either, but this pie is delicious! I think it's the chocolate and the coffee that masks the soy flavors.
Ingredients
Crust
1 prepared pie crust (I wanted it to be extra chocolaty so I bought an Oreo crust)

Filling
1 cup chocolate chips, melted
12 ounces silken tofu, drained
1 teaspoon vanilla

The tofu has to be a "Silken" or soft tofu. I haven't tried making the pie with firm tofu, but I'd imagine that a firm tofu may result in a gritty texture or you will end up spending more time blending the tofu.

I used Girardhelli's 60% cocoa chips because I like the rich flavor of dark chocolate.  Plus I think it tastes better than Nestle morsels, but is cheaper than a Scharffen Berger or Valrhona chocolate chips. I use Girardhelli chocolate chips in most of my baking because it's a happy medium between quality and price.

Tofu in the blender

Directions
Melt chocolate chips over the lowest heat. Meanwhile in a food processor or blender, blend tofu and all the other ingredients until very smooth. Add melted chocolate and blend again until smooth. Pour into prepared crust. Cover and refrigerate.

*Disclaimer-I am not saying that this is a "healthy" dish.  It is healthier than an original chocolate pie recipe containing egg yolks and heavy cream.  It still has to be eaten in moderation.

During the class, we discussed how to read "Nutrition Facts" labels, how to calculate Calories from different macronutrients and compared the Nutrition Facts between the pie containing tofu and a chocolate pie.