You’re In Caribou Country

Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I took a trip to Minnesota.  Minnesota, you ask?  Well, the reason for going to Minnesota is because this is where my husband is from.  In fact, the majority of his family still live in Minnesota.  When we arrived and were trying to figure out our plans for our time in the Twin Cities (that’s Minneapolis and St. Paul for those of you who don’t know) my husband jokingly said he was going to go in search of Starbucks.  My sister-in-law immediately said to us, “you’re in Caribou Country.”  That means, Starbucks are few and far between in this metropolis.  Instead, what you will find is a coffee-house called Caribou Coffee.  I soon found out that my sister-in-law wasn’t joking when she said we were in Caribou Country.  As we spent some time driving around Saint Paul (located on the Eastern bank of the mighty Mississippi River), I discovered that much as I can find Starbucks every 2 blocks here in Los Angeles, I can find a Caribou Coffee location every 2 blocks in Saint Paul.  Naturally, I was intrigued at what Caribou Coffee was.  It’s no secret that I love coffee drinks (see: Cold Coffee Drinks Come in Many Forms), so I knew I was going to have to give Caribou Coffee a try before I left Minnesota.

In 1990 the idea for Caribou Coffee was born.  From the top of Sable Mountain in Alaska, after a long and strenuous climb as part of an adventure trip, and having seen a breathtaking view filled with endless mountains as far as the eye could see, limitless blue skies and a herd of caribou thundering across the valley floor below, the founders found their “aha” moment.  This view, with the herd of caribou became the vision for the company that stands behind the thought that excellence is bourne of hard work, and that life is entirely too short for anything less than that.  They want each guest to visit caribou coffee and not only experience the highest-quality coffee but an amazing customer service experience.  The culture at Caribou Coffee is that they are here to share “an extraordinary experience that feeds the soul.”  And they aspire to be “the community place I love.”  Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Caribou Coffee has over 500 locations mainly located in the Upper Midwest, Midwest and Plain states, with over 200 locations in Minnesota alone.

Like many other coffee houses found throughout the country, Caribou coffee serves your standard fare of coffees, teas, cappuccinos, and hot chocolate among other items.  But, keeping with their philosophy of creative, environmental sustainability and high-quality, they also serve a number of coffee- and tea-based drinks that have a distinctively Upper Midwest flair.  For instance, a number of their drinks feature berries which are abundant in that region of the country, such as the berry mocha cooler.  Or perhaps other regional fruit flavors such as Apple Blast Cooler, or the White Peach Berry Smoothie or the Pomegranate Oolong tea latte.  Some of these items, among others, that I’ve never seen in my local coffee shop before.  For me, an orange key lime smoothie not only sounds unique, but refreshing.  Or what about the campfire mocha, which is a blend of premium melted chocolate in steamed milk, mixed with espresso shots and marshmallow flavors topped with whipped cream, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.  Yum.  How could you resist?

Another interesting twist to the drinks Caribou Coffee serves is the choice they give customers for their drinks that come with chocolate.  All of their mocha drinks come with premium chocolate.  But it’s not just any old kind of chocolate, they actually give the customer their choice of whether or not you want dark, milk or white chocolate.  This is the first time I’ve ever heard of anything like that.  Options like that certainly make for a different experience every time you order a coffee drink!

For my first, and only (but hopefully not last) experience with Caribou Coffee, I knew I wanted to try something that I couldn’t get at my local Starbucks.  After quickly looking over the menu, I saw a drink that caught my eye.  Something called the cookies & cream snowdrift.  With a drink named a snowdrift, how could you go wrong?  I was specifically looking for a blended cold drink that this drink certainly caught my eye, though I had no idea exactly what it was.  I later came to learn that I had actually ordered a coffee-free drink.  Oops!  But that didn’t make it taste any less good.  My snowdrift was a blend of chocolate with vanilla syrup, cookie bits and milk.  The drink is then topped with whipped cream and more cookie bits.  Since I had never been to a Caribou Coffee before, I was actually stumped by the cashier who asked me if I wanted dark, milk or white chocolate.  Being caught off guard, I made the quick decision to order milk chocolate.  Had I realized that I was going to be given a choice of chocolate, I probably would have ordered white chocolate instead.

It made no difference though.  The drink was delicious.  Creamy, smooth, and just a little sweet.  The cookie flavor really comes through, which I liked.  My husband wasn’t originally going to have any of my drink, but couldn’t resist when he saw it.  After trying the drink, he was actually pretty impressed as well as to how it came out.  So much so he wanted to finish the rest of my drink and joked that he thought I had ordered it for him.

You can bet that the next time I’m out visiting family in Minnesota, I’ll make sure to stop by Caribou Coffee again and try some of their other drinks.  Really, you just can’t go wrong with a place that calls itself Caribou Coffee!

C&O Trattoria

Due to a change in our normal weekly routine, my husband and I have been spending a lot more time in the Los Angeles area on the weekends lately.  With our Sunday’s mostly free to do whatever we want, my husband suggested that we take small little side trips on Sundays to do things that are in our area that we would normally never do on our own.  The first of such trips was down to the canals in Venice.  One day, before we took our trip to the Venice canals, my husband came to me with a suggestion he had received of where we could have lunch while we’re down in Venice.  He told me he wanted to eat at C&O Trattoria.  Boy, that brought back memories for me.  I couldn’t believe that in the 2 years that my husband has lived in Southern California, I’d never taken him to C&O Trattoria before, especially since I used to go there all the time when I was in college.

Back in the day, when I was new to the LA area, having spent my whole life behind the orange curtain known as Orange County, and I had just started college, was living in the dorms, was working on campus and was without a car, some friends took me down to Venice and introduced me to C&O Trattoria.  During the 4 years I was in school, I found myself down at C&O’s (as we’d call it) all of the time.  I remember that my boss where I worked during school was moving on to another position, so we had a large group farewell dinner for him at C&O’s.  The last meal that I had with my 3 other roommates after we had just graduated from college together and were about to move on with our lives was at C&O.  However, I realize now that in the 10+ years I’ve been out of school, I’ve probably only ever gone back to C&O’s twice, and I haven’t been back in at least 8 years.  So, when my husband asked me if I had ever heard of C&O Trattoria and that he wanted to give it a try, I was excited beyond words and was left wondering why this place that I had so loved while I was in school suddenly became a place I hadn’t been to in years!

C&O Trattoria is located right off the world-famous Venice Boardwalk and just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Venice pier.  With this incredible location, the restaurant is a perfect place for a romantic Italian dinner and stroll in the moonlight along the beach, or for a leisurely brunch or lunch while dining al fresco in their outdoor patio.  Open since 1992, C&O’s (which stands for cheese & olive) has both an indoor seating area and an outdoor dining patio that serves gargantuan portions of classic Italian favorites at affordable prices.  If you dine at C&O’s at night, you can participate in their nightly sing-a-long to the classic song “That’s Amore” where every patron raises their glasses, sings along with the song and toasts to a fun-filled evening.  Another popular tradition of the restaurant is their honor wine bar, where they have a large decanter of house chianti set up, guests just go and fill up their own glass and are charged by the honor system.  Of course, when you go to C&O’s during the day time, you can sit out on their beautiful outdoor patio and enjoy the sights and sounds of the beach life while being stuffed with some amazing Italian food.

The day we chose to go to C&O’s was an absolutely gorgeous day.  The calendar said that we were technically still in winter, but the clear, sunny day with temperatures in the 80s begged to differ.  We couldn’t have picked a better day to head down towards the ocean, eat outdoors on the outdoor dining patio and take a stroll along the Venice canals.  We apparently weren’t the only ones that thought it was a great day to be outdoors as the beach was packed with people!  Good thing we weren’t exactly headed to the beach, though the restaurant is less than a block from the beach itself.  When we arrived at the restaurant just past noon, the outdoor dining patio was busy, but we were still able to grab a table for two.  C&O’s, which serves a breakfast brunch until 1:45 pm on the weekends, along with their daily lunch menu which runs until 3:00 pm and their daily dinner menu which you can order off of at any time was in a bit of a transition mode as some guests were still finishing off their breakfast selections while others were already ordering up plates of pastas and salads.  We each quickly ordered a glass of lemonade which was certainly refreshing and thirst quenching on this beautiful sunny day.

While we perused the menu trying to decide what to order, a waiter came by our table with plate overloaded with the restaurants famous “Killer Garlic Rolls”.  C&O is well-known for their killer garlic rolls, and believe me, if you love garlic, these are to-die-for.  They are made fresh all day long and brought out to your table piping hot.  Waiters walk around with plates filled with these little bread rolls and when they see that the plate on your table is empty, they will gladly refill your plate with the killer garlic rolls.  And they’ll keep them coming throughout your entire meal.  The killer garlic rolls are these little 3-4 bite bread rolls that come hot out of the oven and then are drenched in a homemade olive oil/butter sauce that contains dried herbs such as oregano and a load of fresh minced garlic.  The smell of these garlic rolls is enough to have your mouth-watering.  You can order a side of marinara sauce to accompany your garlic rolls, if you wish.  But these babies also stand on their own.  One bite and you know you’re in garlic heaven.  It’s that incredible.  After awhile, you have to remind yourself that you’re here for the food as well and not just the killer garlic rolls.  But you could literally eat enough killer garlic rolls to fill you up before your meal ever arrives!

Since I love Caesar salad so much, I decided to order a salad Caesar salad with my meal.  I like places that bring the salad out to your table and then ask you if you want fresh ground black pepper on the salad.  To me, that only helps to enhance the flavor of the salad.  The Caesar salad here was terrific.  It was the perfect sized salad to serve as a side to a meal.  The romaine lettuce was nicely dressed with the right amount of dressing – the lettuce wasn’t drowning in dressing, but it wasn’t too light either.  The dressing itself was the right hint of tangy and creamy.  And the lettuce was cold and crisp.  The parmesan cheese was fresh grated.  And the croutons were perfectly crunchy.  Great way to start off the meal.

My husband and I both decided to order a pasta dish for lunch.  The restaurant serves pasta in 2 sizes: individual and gargantuan.  The individual sizes come out way too big for one person to finish, so I can’t even imagine how big gargantuan must be!  After having received their individual-sized meals, I heard a couple of guests around us ask their waiter if they had received gargantuan instead of individual since it was so big.  Individual is really more than enough for one person to have for 2 meals.  No need to get the gargantuan size unless you’re sharing your meal with someone else.

For my meal, I decided to order the rigatoni with tomato cream sauce and grilled chicken.  Though, now looking at the picture, I realize that the grilled chicken can’t be seen!  It must have been buried at the bottom because I assure you there was grilled chicken in my dish.  As always C&O did not disappoint.  This dish is huge, even though it’s individual-sized.  I couldn’t even finish half of it and I was hungry.  This is the first time I’ve ever ordered rigatoni, as I generally like penne.  But I really liked this rigatoni.  The tubes are larger than penne tubes and it really allows for the tomato cream sauce to coat the inside and outside of the tube.  The tomato cream sauce was delicious too.  Nice and rich, but not overly creamy and liquidy.  I would certainly order this dish again.

My husband ordered a dish of penne pasta with alfredo sauce and sausage.  He said his was really good and flavorful.  He loved the sauce and the addition of the sausage.  Sausage is not something I’m a fan of, so we never have it at home.  But, my husband loves sausage and likes to order dishes that have sausage when we go out to eat.  As soon as he had a bite, he was hooked.  And he enthusiastically said that he would definitely come back to C&O again.  And he’s usually not that enthusiastic about most things.

After our wonderful meal at C&O Trattoria, we just headed inland a couple of blocks and spent some time exploring the historical Venice canals.  It was the perfect day to dine al fresco at C&O’s outdoor patio and follow it up by gawking at multi-million dollar homes along the beautiful and pristine Venice canals.  We’ll definitely be doing this again in the future.  After all, who could resist those killer garlic rolls?

Napoleons

Are you one of those people who gets an idea in their head and then just can’t get it out of their heads?  You think about it so much that it’s all that you can think of?  If you are, you’re just like me!  It’s dangerous for me to think about something and then not act on it.  It’s like it eats away at me until I have to act on it!

This happened to me recently with food!  I had thought about making my own version of a napoleon and then got derailed and instead made Angel’s Delight, which was fantastic, but it wasn’t a napoleon.  I kept thinking about making an napoleon the way I had it pictured in my head, and it kept eating away at me that I just broke down and had to make it.  So, what did I do?  I gave in to my thoughts and made my take on a napoleon.  I used: frozen puff pastry, Chocolate Whipped Cream, powdered sugar, and fresh strawberries and blueberries.  That’s it.  Simple, yet delicious.  And the best part is that this dessert comes out looking like it’s a million dollar winner at the restaurant.  No one has to know how simple this really is.

Start off with a box of frozen puff pastry.  You can pick it up at most grocery stores in their frozen food section.  You’ll need to thaw out the puff pastry before you can work with it, so leave the box sitting out on the counter for 40-45 minutes and it should be soft enough for you to use.

This particular box of puff pastry comes with 2 sheets.  Since I only needed one, I wrapped the second sheet in plastic wrap and stuck it back in the freezer to use at a later time.  When you’re ready to work with the puffed pastry, place the sheet on a lightly floured flat surface.  The puff pastry sheet is folded over on itself in thirds, just unroll the sheet so you have a large sheet of puff pastry.  Take a knife and cut the pastry sheet in thirds, exact where the crease marks are where the sheet was folded.  You should end up with 3 long strips of puff pastry that are about equal size.

Take your knife and cut each strip of puff pastry in half.  Now each of your 3 strips have been halved to give you 6 rectangles of puff pastry.  That is what you are looking for.  This will yield 4 napoleons.  Place each rectangle on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Put the baking sheet into a preheated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.  When the puff pastry has started to rise and the tops have turned a nice golden brown, the puff pastry is done and you can take the baking sheet out of the oven.  Keep an eye on the puff pastry, there’s a fine line between light, flaky and fluffy pastry and overcooked pastry.  Transfer the puff pastry immediately to a cooling rack so that it stops cooking and has a chance to cool down.

Alright, it’s almost time to start putting together the napoleon.  For the filling to my napoleon I used fresh fruit, in particular fresh sliced strawberries.  Clean, hull and thinly slice some strawberries.  You want them thin enough to use as filling so that your napoleon won’t be chunky.  To appease my husband, we also used blueberries.

When the puff pastry has cooled, you’re ready to begin building your napoleon.  Remember, a napoleon is traditionally made with 3 layers of puff pastry alternating with 2 layers of pastry cream or whipped cream or even jam.  In our case, we used chocolate whipped cream, which I though would go well with the strawberries.  After all, is there a better combination than chocolate covered strawberries?  Start with the puff pastry squares we made.  Take a knife and cut the pastry square in half lengthwise, right through the middle.  That way, you have a top half and a bottom half.  Can you see where I’m going with this?  We’re starting to build our napoleon.  Take the bottom half of the puff pastry and set it down on your serving plate.  Start piling it with some chocolate whipped cream.  Top the whipped cream with the fresh fruit, strawberries, blueberries, peach slices, banana slices, whatever you want.

Take the top half of the pastry square, and put some chocolate whipped cream on the underside of the square.  The purpose of this is to act as glue to keep the puff pastry together so it’s not slip sliding all over the place.  Take the top half of the puff pastry and sandwich it on top of the fresh fruit you’ve piled on the bottom half.

Now, it’s time for some more chocolate whipped cream.  Take a dollop of it and put it right on top of the puff pastry you’ve just put together.  Put more fresh fruit on top of that.  Cut another puff pastry square in half, take one half of it, put some chocolate whipped cream on the underside of it and sandwich it on top of the second layer of fresh fruit.

Alright, now you’re talking napoleon.  3 layers of puff pastry with 2 alternating layers of whipped cream and fresh fruit!  Take a dollop of chocolate whipped cream and dab it on the side of the plate next to the napoleon.  Lay a few slices of the fruit that’s inside the napoleon right alongside the whipped cream.  This way, when you serve the dessert, they can see exactly what’s inside the dessert by looking at what you’ve put down as garnish on the plate.  Take some powdered sugar and sprinkle it over your napoleon.  Time to serve your napoleon; sit back and look at all the smiles you get once your guests have taken one bite of their fresh fruit and chocolate whipped cream napoleon.  Don’t tell me this doesn’t look like a million dollar dessert you’d get a restaurant!

The Restaurant at the Getty Center

For a restaurant with such wonderful food and a fantastic atmosphere, it has a pretty plain jane name.  The Restaurant at the Getty Center.  How much more generic can you get than that?  But don’t let the name fool you.  My husband came up with the idea to take a trip to the Getty Center to see what all the hype was about.  After having lived here for 2+ years, he’d never been to The Getty Center.  The Getty Center, which is a campus for the J. Paul Getty Trust which runs the center, specializes in “pre 20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts; and 19th and 20th-century American and European photographs” also is well-known for its architecture, gardens, and expansive views of the Los Angeles basin including the Pacific Ocean to the west and Downtown LA and beyond to the East.  Though my husband has never been to The Getty Center, I’ve previously visited the museum twice since the time it opened to the public in 1997, and I can’t believe he and I had never been there together.  With almost 1.5 million visitors annually, the Museum see a lot of visitors and can get pretty busy, especially during times of good weather.

Since we were already going to be going to The Getty Center, I figured that I’d take a look at what dining options the museum had for visitors.  I didn’t really expect much, but at least it would be something new to try.  After searching through the website, I found out that The Getty Center has a restaurant that is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and for brunch on Sundays.  After running the sample menu they had online by my husband, we decided to make reservations and give the place a try.  The menu looked good enough and the reviews online for the restaurant were pretty spectacular.  The restaurant is offset from the pavilions that make up The Getty Center and is located its own stand-alone building.  With floor to ceiling windows that span the entire restaurant and look out north and west towards the hills and the Pacific Ocean, there’s not a bad seat in the house.  Though, on our reservation, we specifically asked for a window table, which we got when we arrived to the restaurant.  During the summer months, the patio is also open for diners.

The interior of the restaurant is gorgeous with beautiful, but subdued murals on the wall.  With simplistic lines, and minimalist furniture, the view is the star of the show at the restaurant.  I’m sure that at night, or during sunset, the view must be even more spectacular.  On the day we had brunch there, the morning started off overcast and gray, but as we dined in the restaurant the sun came through and lit up the hills in vivid colors of green and gold it was beautiful and relaxing.

The brunch menu features a few classic breakfast items along with some heavier and heartier entrees for those seeking lunch.  There was also a generous selection of lighter fare appetizers that many people turned into their lunch selections.  The restaurant also has a fully stocked bar with various beers, wines and selected cocktails.  Everything on the menu sounded absolutely delicious.  My husband had to remind me that we were there for brunch, so I should stick to brunch items rather than going for a heavier meal when it wasn’t even noon yet.

Every table seated for brunch was brought out a plate of fresh-out-of-the-oven biscuits.  My husband and I theorized that this biscuit-like scone-type items must have contained honey as an ingredient because they were slightly sweet, but not sugar sweet.  The biscuits were served alongside some apple cinnamon butter.  It was a great combination to start off our meal.  We both remarked that it is very similar to what you get as a bread basket at Lucille’s Smokehouse.

As this was brunch, and it was still overcast, gray and chilly outside, I decided to indulge in a cup of hot chocolate.  What I got was a piping hot mug of real hot chocolate with steamed milk mixed with chocolate sauce as opposed to powered hot chocolate or hot chocolate out of a machine.  This was rich and luxurious but not overly sweet.  The nice dollop of whipped cream on top sealed the deal.  I’m a sucker for good hot chocolate.

When we finally had time to look over the menu, so many things looked amazing that we had a hard time narrowing down the choices.  In the end, we decided that we’d split part of our meals so that we would have a chance to try a couple of things.

We started off ordering the fuji apple salad to begin our meal.  The menu advertised the salad as being made with a mix organic greens with fuji apples, cucumbers, candied crumbled walnut, bleu cheese, and vanilla balsamic vinaigrette.  The salad was incredibly refreshing.  My husband said that the vanilla balsamic vinaigrette was really sweet as far as salad dressings go, but it was a perfect combination when blended with all of the other ingredients in the salad.  The dressing cut right through the bitter radicchio, and the candied crumbled walnuts provided a sweet and crunchy note to the soft and sweet fuji apple and the distinct taste of the bleu cheese.

My husband ordered a flatbread topped with prosciutto, fig jam, brie cheese, pears and arugula salad.  The dish looked like a piece of culinary art and tasted like heaven.  My husband was in love with this after the first bite.  The crunch of the flatbread was a great pairing to the sweet fig jam, the creamy slightly melted brie cheese, the salty prosciutto and the crunchy pear.  Top the whole thing off with a lightly dressed arugula salad and some aged balsamic vinegar drizzled over the plate, this was a great appetizer to get the taste buds going.  It was a great combination of textures and flavors, slightly sweet, but with a peppery and salty bite.

For my brunch entree, I ordered the brioche french toast.  Thick and eggy, brioche bread cooked in a light batter, it was topped with grand marnier strawberries, topped with rice krispies and a chocolate hazelnut powder, maple syrup, served alongside a generous portion of banana cream.  When the dish was served at the table, it elicited a “wow” from me and looked so good I just wanted to dig in.  The dish tasted more amazing than it looked, and that’s hard to do.  The brioche was perfectly cooked, slightly crunchy on the outside and warm and rich on the inside.  A bite of the french toast with a bit of the strawberries and some of the banana cream and it was perfect.  Rich, creamy, sweety and slightly tangy.  There was some crunch from the rice krispies which I thought was a whimsical, but cute, idea.  The banana cream was luscious and perfect. and married well with the strawberries; after all any combination of strawberries and banana always turns into perfection.  I cleaned the whole plate!  It was really that good!

My husband ordered the crab cake benedict.  He didn’t even bother to look at the menu and see what was on the dish or how it was made, he saw crab cake and he was lost.  He knew right away that was what he wanted.  I was initially concerned because he had never had eggs benedict before and I thought that the dish would come out drowning in hollandaise sauce and I had no idea if he would like the hollandaise sauce or not, after all, he doesn’t like most sauces and dressings.  But I was surprised to see that the restaurant really made the crab cake the star of the dish and they didn’t hide it underneath mass amounts of hollandaise sauce, rather choosing to use a very light hollandaise sauce lightly drizzled on top.  Instead, when the dish was served at the table, it had that blow-y0u-away-wow-factor that had us both staring at the dish in wonder.  The crab cakes benedict was made with english muffins, nueske’s bacon, wild mushrooms, wilted spinach, crab cake, poached egg and light hollandaise sauce.  It would have been enough to get one crab cake benedict, but the dish actually came with 2 crab cake benedicts.  It looked amazing.  One bite of the dish and my husband immediately said that he would go back to The Getty Center just for brunch to have the crab cake benedict again.  He was blown away by how good the dish was.  He loved the combination of the english muffins with the spinach and mushrooms and the salty bacon.  The poached egg was perfectly cooked and sat right on top of the crab cake.  And of course, he was in love with the crab cake.  He couldn’t stop talking all day about how good his crab cake benedict was.

As if all of this food wasn’t enough, we figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look at the dessert menu when the waiter asked.  We weren’t really intending on ordering a dessert, but later said we might not come back to eat here again, so we might as well try something.  We went for the chocolate hazelnut crunch.  The dessert was a dark chocolate fudge cake layered with a hazelnut mousse and topped with a chocolate hazenut sauce.  The slice of cake was topped with 2 caramelized hazelnuts.  The dessert was huge, especially after we had just had our big meal.  The hazelnut mousse was really good and the chocolate hazelnut sauce really added to the dessert.  I thought that the dark chocolate fudge cake could have been a little bit more moist, and though it was dark chocolate, it wasn’t bitter enough.  The dessert was really sweet, but the hazelnut flavor really helped to cut through some of the sweetness.  Not sure I would order this dessert again, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.

My husband told me again and again that we had to come back here to eat again, that he would come back here just for the crab cake benedict.  He really was blown away by it.  The ambience of the restaurant was really nice, the food delicious and the service superb.  This restaurant was like finding a hidden gem where you least expected it.  I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to going back there to eat again, especially after I eyed the braised beef short ribs on the menu!

Asian-Style Noodle Stir Fry

Every weekend, my husband and I try to stick to a schedule of coming up with the following week’s dinner menu so that we can do our grocery shopping all at once and be prepared for the week.  We hate having to run out one night at a time to have to buy what we need for dinner.  Well, in the course of planning dinner one week, my husband mentioned that he wanted me to make stir fry with bok choy.  While I can run to some grocery stores around here and find baby bok choy, it’s super expensive.  Luckily for us, not too far away is an Asian grocery store that stocks every single sauce, vegetable, noodle, meat, seafood or anything else you need for Asian cooking.  So, I told my husband we’d wait a week and stop at the Asian grocery store, pick up some bok choy and some other ingredients and we’d make stir fry with bok choy.  Later that week, while we were doing some shopping at our local Costco, my husband saw in the freezer aisle a frozen noodle dish and he made a point of showing it to me and telling me he wanted to make a bok choy stir fry with noodles and he wanted the dish to look similar to the display picture on this particular product.  Talk about pressure.  Now, my husband wants me to come up with a stir fry dish that looks similar to a professionally photographed box display of Asian noodles.  This is going to be no easy task.

At the Asian grocery store, we pick up some baby bok choy and the noodles that my husband selects.  At first, I had the impression that my husband wanted something similar to soba noodles.  Generally, soba noodles come fresh made and packaged in the refrigerated.  It turns out that my husband, at the store, chose a form of pancit noodles.  These noodles are generally associated with Filipino cuisine.  They were introduced to the Philippines by the Chinese and are commonly found in all Asian cooking.  The appeal of these dehydrated noodles is that they cook quickly and easily and are extremely versatile.  This would be my first time trying these noodles, but hey, I’m Asian and I’ve cooked tons of different noodle dishes before, so how hard could this be?

The ingredients for this dish are many and varied, they include: chicken, ginger, garlic, egg, carrots, baby bok choy, broccoli, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, corn starch and rice wine vinegar.

The easiest way to cook any meal is to have all of the ingredients ready to go when you are starting to cook.  The French refer to this as mise en place, where everything has its place.  If you organize everything beforehand, it makes it that much easier to just start cooking and finish it.  I start with the greens.  I chose to use both broccoli and bok choy.  Why the combination of both?  Well, I happened to have broccoli, which I absolutely love, on hand.  And I felt like the broccoli would help add volume, and flavor, to the dish.  Of course, you can just stick to bok choy.  Remember though, like most greens, bok choy will wilt and soften as you cook it, so you do lose volume.  I cut both the broccoli and the bok choy into bite-sized pieces and washed them thoroughly.

Next is the Asian aromatics.  Asian cooking often times uses either garlic or ginger or a combination of both ingredients to help bring out flavor in a dish.  Both are very pungent in their own way.  Ginger has the bite of spice to it and garlic tends to sweeten as you cook it.  Garlic cultivation began over 6,000 years ago in Central Asia and ginger originals from South Asia, so it’s no wonder that Asian cooking tends to rely heavily on these two items.  Finely dice the garlic and the ginger.  Of course, the amount you use is entirely up to you.  Again, both of these ingredients do tend to produce a very strong flavor individually, and in combination it is that much more pronounced.

The last ingredient to prepare is the chicken.  I tend to use chicken breast meat.  It’s the easiest part of the chicken to work with and the meat cooks fairly quickly.  For this dish, I wanted to make sure that the chicken had some volume to it, so I cut the chicken breast meat into 1/2 inch cubes.  Again, I wanted the elements that went into the dish to be identifiable and noticeable.  I also wanted these ingredients to stand up to the noodles and not get lost in them.  That is why I chose to cube the chicken rather than thin slice and quickly saute it.

In a large sauce pan on the stove over medium-high heat, add in a couple of teaspoons of canola oil.  Once it has heated up, add in the minced garlic and ginger.  Allow the garlic and ginger to infuse into the oil, but make sure that the garlic and ginger don’t brown.  At this stage, all we want to do is infuse flavor, not necessarily cook the ginger and garlic.

Just before the ginger and garlic start to turn brown, add the diced chicken directly into the sauce pan.  Saute the chicken until it is 90% cooked.  It doesn’t need to cook all the way through because it will continue cooking as you add the other ingredients and make this dish.  If you over cook the chicken right now, it will become dry and tough.

It’s now time to start adding layers of flavors.  To the almost-cooked chicken, add oyster sauce, salt and pepper.  It’s important to add flavor to each layer as you cook the dish so that everything is flavored and perfectly seasoned.  If you don’t season until you are done with the dish, the seasoning spices tend to become concentrated and won’t evenly distribute through the dish.  Saute the ingredients together so that the seasoning and oyster sauce coat the chicken.

The next ingredient to add is an egg.  When stir frying food, most Asian dishes call for an egg to be added.  The egg acts as a binding agent for the ingredients as well as adding flavor and dimension to the food.  In this case, you would crack an egg directly into the sauce pan.  I generally create a well in the center and crack the egg right into the well.  Before the egg whites cook, I’d crack the egg yolk and stir it around to coat all the chicken.  Immediately, I add the broccoli right into the sauce pan.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  The broccoli florets will become coated with the egg.  When the broccoli and the egg cooks, the egg almost becomes a coating to the broccoli as well as the chicken.  Again, this adds a level of flavor to the dish.  Also, the reason in adding broccoli and not bok choy at this point is because the broccoli takes much longer to cook and become tender than does the bok choy.  You will see that by adding an egg to the dish, the egg will cook fairly quickly.  Also, the cooked bits of egg will also add volume to the dish and is perfect for the gravy we are about to create for these stir fried noodles.  It’s almost like creating the effect you would see with egg drop soup, where you have bits of cooked egg in the gravy/broth.  Of course, you can also leave out the egg from this dish if you want to.

When the egg has cooked, it’s time to throw in the greens.  Add the broccoli and the bok choy.  The broccoli especially will require some time to cook before it becomes tender.  So, if you are afraid of your bok choy wilting too much or being overcooked, you could add the broccoli in now and then add the bok choy in later.  Also add in some flavoring agents now.  It’s time for the oyster sauce, some fish sauce and some rice wine vinegar.  Also a little bit more salt and pepper now.  Now stir the greens and the seasoning you added and incorporate it into the aromatics and chicken and egg you had previously added.  You want everything to mix together and combine into one uniform dish.  This also incorporates all of your seasoning throughout the dish.

It’s time to allow the greens to cook and become tender.  The easiest way to do this is add about a half cup of water into the pot, take the pot lid and cover the pot for a good 6-8 minutes.  The water you’ve added will add moisture that will allow the greens to steam and tenderize.  Personally, I like my greens to be pretty tender, but if you still like a little bite to your greens, only cover the pot for a few minutes and then continue with the rest of the cooking.

You’ll see that a lot of Asian stir-fry dishes aren’t strictly stir-fry, but rather the dishes generally have some gravy to them.  Of course, this is personal preference as to how you like your noodles.  Creating the gravy for the dish is easy, especially since you’ve already added some water to the pot which helped to steam your vegetables.  In order to create a thick gravy-like consistency, you’ll need to make a corn starch slurry.  Corn starch is often used to thicken sauces and soups, but you can’t just add corn starch directly into the liquid you are thickening otherwise it will just end up clumpy rather than making the sauce thick.  What you need to do is, in a separate small bowl, create a corn starch slurry combining equal parts corn starch and cold liquid (such as water, broth, etc.).  Combine the liquid and corn starch together until you get a white milky substance.  This is your slurry.

When the greens have become as tender as you’d like, take the lid off the pot.  It’s time to add the cornstarch slurry right into the pot.  Almost instantaneously, you’ll see the slurry thicken and create a nice gravy for the noodles.  All you need to do is stir in the slurry, make sure it’s all around the pot and then you’re good to go.  Speaking of noodles, it’s time to add the pancit noodles to the dish.  Using dried pancit noodles is part of the reason we need to create a gravy.  The noodles need to rehydrate so that they are soft and silky and tender.  When the dried noodles are tossed into the pot and incorporated, they react to the heat from the stove and the hot gravy in the pot and become these wonderful full-bodied noodles.  Remember, the noodles are already cooked, so once they have softened and become hydrated, that’s all the cooking you need to do with these noodles.

The final step is to added shredded carrots into the pot.  I am not a big fan of soft, mushy, over-cooked carrots, so when I do choose to cook with carrots, I tend to add it at the very end so that it cooks, but is still left with some crunch, flavor and texture to them.  Just toss the carrots in and stir them around.  Give the dish one last taste test to make sure it doesn’t need more seasoning and then it’s time to plate the dish!

Since I’m Thai, it’s common to see dishes garnished with crushed peanuts.  Noodles are the perfect dish to garnish with crushed peanuts.  The crushed peanuts add texture, crunch and most of all that slightly salty flavor to the dish.  Dish up your Asian-style noodle stir fry, top it with some crushed peanuts and serve it.  This dish is a wonderful mix of flavors, salty, sweet, and sour.  And you can make it spicy too by adding some chili sauce to the dish.  My husband came up with the wonderful idea to make an Asian noodle dish at home, and this Asian-style noodle stir fry hit the spot!

Chocolate Whipped Cream

After I tried making homemade whipped cream for the first time, I thought that nothing could be more cool than being able to make your own whipped cream.  After all, you can dollop whipped cream on to a variety of items, like ice cream, hot chocolate, use it to dip with sliced fruit, etc.  But, then I discovered chocolate whipped cream!  Now, I’m convinced that there isn’t anything better in this world than chocolate whipped cream!

Very similar to making whipped cream, chocolate whipped cream only requires 3 ingredients: heavy whipping cream, unsweetened cocoa powder and powdered sugar.  However, the use of only 3 ingredients is where the similarities end between whipped cream and chocolate whipped cream.

The first step in making chocolate whipped cream starts with combining the heavy whipping cream with the unsweetened cocoa powder.  The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder.  Be careful that the cocoa powder is unsweetened because this will play a part in the flavor of the chocolate whipped cream.  If you use sweetened cocoa powder the whipped cream will turn out entirely too sweet using this recipe.

Unlike with regular whipped cream where we just put the heavy whipping cream and vanilla extract into the stand mixer and blended it together, for chocolate whipped cream, we have to try to combine the unsweetened cocoa powder and heavy whipping cream in advance and let it rest before we can whip it up to make chocolate whipped cream.  So, take your tablespoon of unsweetened powder and dump it into a bowl containing 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.

Now, take a spoon or a fork and try to combine the two ingredients together to make a chocolate milk-like concoction.  You will find this more difficult than you think.  Trying to combine cocoa powder into regular milk is fairly easy; trying to combine unsweetened cocoa powder into heavy whipping cream is not easy.  Because the heavy whipping cream is very dense and full of fat, it doesn’t come together with the cocoa powder.  The cocoa powder tends to rest on top of the heavy whipping cream and seemingly repels the fat of the whipping cream.  It’s almost like trying to combine oil and water.  Just keep at it until eventually they start to come together and you have a light chocolate-colored mixture.  Once combined, cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and stick the bowl into the refrigerator in order to allow some time for the cocoa powder and whipping cream mixture to set.  Also, this allows the whipping cream to get cold again, which will help in the whipping process.

During the hour you are waiting, it would be a good idea to put the mixing bowl you will be using into the refrigerator as well.  Heavy whipping cream whips up better when it is at the coldest possible temperature.  Maintaining the cold temperature through the whipping process is a key step, and having the mixing bowl be cold as well as the whipping cream be cold ensures that everything remains cold through the process and the whipping cream whips up to double its original volume.  After the hour is up, pour the chocolate whipping cream into the bowl of a stand mixer.

Start your stand mixer going on medium speed in order to begin whipping air into the chocolate whipping cream.  This is where the magic happens.  As the wire whisk beats the whipping cream, more and more air is added to the mixture and the whipped cream starts to come together.

You will be able to see when soft peaks start to form in the whipping cream.  The chocolate whipping cream will be thicker, full of volume and less liquid.  At this point, you will want to stop the mixer.  Again, the key is not to over mix the whipping cream.

Now it’s time for the final ingredient, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.  As with regular whipped cream, the powdered sugar is added at the end so that it doesn’t make the whipping cream too heavy, therefore not allowing the whipping cream to fill with air and double in volume.  The two tablespoons of powdered sugar go right into the mixing bowl.  Turn the mixer back on at medium speed just until all the powdered sugar has mixed in completely with the chocolate whipped cream.

When everything has come together, you’re done.  chocolate whipped cream, made from scratch.  The chocolate whipped cream should be light and fluffy with just enough sweetness from the powdered sugar and a subtle undertone of chocolate flavor from the cocoa powder.  Use the chocolate whipped cream on anything you’d use regular whipped cream for.  For me, the chocolate whipped cream went especially well served alongside sliced strawberries and bananas.  Chocolate and strawberries, is there a better combination out there?

Wetzel’s Pretzels

I’m certainly not the biggest fan of pretzels.  They’re ok to snack on if I’m at a gathering or what not, but it’s not something I will pick up at the grocery store.  I know it’s healthy for you, but they just seem so bland and plain and I generally like to snack on something with more flavor and substance.  But, give me one of those big soft pretzels, the kind you see at a baseball game that people slather mustard on, and I’ll take one any day (minus the mustard).  The big soft pretzels are so soft and chewy and buttery and delicious all around.  I’ve even gotten my husband hooked on these pretzels!

When my husband and I head to Downtown Disney for a fun evening out, one of the things my husband must have is a pretzel from Wetzel’s Pretzels.  I discovered Wetzel’s Pretzels over 10 years ago when I was in college.  At our student union, in the section where they had all of the outside food vendors, they opened up a small Wetzel’s Pretzels shop.  When I was in the mood, I’d head down to the student union and pick up a pretzel with some pizza sauce.  I loved it.  It was a cheap and quick meal.  When my husband moved to California, he’d never been to a Wetzel’s Pretzel’s shop before until I introduced him tot he one at Downtown Disney.  I think he was, at first, skeptical about how good a place that sold pretzels could be.  But now, of course, he’s hooked.  We like pretzels so much that in a pinch at a couple of airports while we’ve waited to catch a connecting flight, we’ve snacked on pretzels at pretzel shops inside the airport.

When you walk into a Wetzel’s Pretzels shop, part of the experience of ordering a pretzel from them is to actually be able to see the pretzels being made before your very eyes.  Inside each Wetzel’s shop is a glass-encased area that encloses the workstation used to pump out all of the fabulous pretzel offerings the store has.  Wetzel’s doesn’t just make pretzels, they make gourmet pretzels, taking pretzel-making to a whole new level.  In this picture, you can see one of the workers making their ever popular pizza pretzel.  This pretzel starts off like any of their other soft-baked pretzels, but then is topped with fresh mozzarella cheese and finally pepperoni slices.  It’s like having a pizza and a pretzel all in one!

It’s kind of fun to watch the workers make pretzels.  From a long rope of pretzel dough, they twist and turn out these pretzels in an instant.  Next thing you know, the rope of dough is transformed into the pretzel shape we’re all familiar with.  But then Wetzel’s takes it further than that.  The flavor combinations that they’ve come up with as a “topping” for your soft-baked pretzel are amazing.  You can get a Jalaroni, which is a soft baked pretzel topped with cheese, pepperoni and jalapeno slices.  There is Grateful Garlic which is a soft baked pretzel topped with hot melted cheese and light garlic flavor.  Or you can just try the cheese and jalapenos without the pepperoni and order a Jalapeno Cheese Melt.  Like the idea of a pretzel and a hot dog combined into one?  You can order a pretzel dog which is a hot dog that has a fresh-baked pretzel wrapped around it, you can also top this one with cheese.

My husband and I are always enticed by Wetzel’s Pretzels.  Whenever we go to Downtown Disney, we can’t resist getting something from there, no matter how long the line may be, and sometimes it’s a rather long line.  Wetzel’s stores are meant to be a quick, walk in, order, and take your order to-go type of place.  There’s no eating area inside the store.  But sometimes the employees inside can’t make the pretzels fast enough for the people who are ordering them, so there ends up being a long line of people waiting for their pretzels to come fresh out of the oven.  Unfortunately, my husband and I are creatures of habit and always end up ordering the same thing.

We love Wetzel’s frozen strawberry lemonade.  It’s tangy, tart and sweet.  Being frozen lemonade, because it has all the ice crystals, I think it keeps it from being too sweet.  It’s cold and refreshing and a great drink for a warm summer evening.  Also the tartness of it goes well with the buttery and sweet soft pretzels.

Although Wetzel’s sells all sorts of fancy gourmet pretzels, we are traditionalists and stick to the regular soft-baked pretzels that are brushed with butter and hot out of the oven.  You can get these pretzels with salt on them, but who needs salt?  Along with the pretzels, we’ll also get an order of pizza sauce (for me) and cheddar cheese sauce (for my husband) and we use the sauces as a dipping sauce for our buttered soft pretzels.  It’s a great combination; hot soft pretzel, dipped into a savory dipping sauce.  Put that all together with a tangy and tart frozen strawberry lemonade, you’ve got a perfect snack!