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    • The Salads of Summer 2019

      Posted at 11:17 pm by Rachel, on October 6, 2019
      vinaigrette the beet goes on2
      vinaigrette 22
      panera strawberry caprese2
      panera southwest chile lime ranch2
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      panera modern greek with quinoa 22
      panera green goddess cobb with chicken2
      mcdonalds southwest chicken2
      mcdonalds bacon ranch2
      embassy suites amarillo house salad2
      chicken caesar embassy suites birmingham2
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      bread and cie - cranberry goat cheese2
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      My food goal for our summer road trip was to eat a salad for lunch or dinner every day. I wanted to do this mostly because it can be hard to eat enough vegetables when exclusively eating out, and not eating enough vegetables makes me feel gross. More simply, greens > fries.

      My husband surprised me by joining in my pursuit, which was great because it made choosing restaurants easier. Unfortunately I didn’t always remember to snap a picture before eating, but we ate a lot of salads from a wide range of places. Fast food salads, fast casual salads, room service salads, sit-down restaurant salads… we tried a bit of everything.

      I’m going to start out with the saddest salad I ate on the trip, this Chicken Caesar from the Embassy Suites in Birmingham, Alabama. When I say “sad salad,” I’m talking about that salad you pick up out of the refrigerated section of a gas station with limp, pale lettuce and like one tomato. If you have only ever eaten sad salads, I’m sorry. I don’t usually order Caesar salads because I think they frequently do lean towards being sad, but this was the only salad that room service offered during our stay. The chicken was decent and it did have some nice big parmesan shavings, but that lettuce was so limp and yellow. Sad.

      chicken caesar embassy suites birmingham2

      For comparison’s sake, here is another room service order from the Embassy Suites in Amarillo, Texas (I think this was called the “House Salad,” it was the most basic offering and I added chicken). Some nice lettuce goes a long way, and a couple more tomatoes, some croutons, and pickled onions don’t hurt either. I had pickled onions a few times on this trip – I’m not a raw-onions-on-salads person, but pickled onions were a welcomed addition.

      embassy suites amarillo house salad2

      Really though, lack of toppings is not what makes a salad sad. The Simple Green Salad from St. Leo in Oxford, Mississippi lives up to its name, and it might be the happiest side salad I have ever eaten. Look at those greens! Quality over quantity, folks!

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      We stopped at McDonald’s a few times because they are just about everywhere. It had been a while since I had been to a McDonald’s, so I don’t know when it happened, but apparently they updated their salad offerings. I was impressed by this one – the Bacon Ranch with Grilled Chicken – that I tried somewhere in Alabama. The chicken was still warm from the grill and everything else seemed really fresh too.

      mcdonalds bacon ranch2

      I think that McDonald’s two biggest shortcomings are lack of variety (they only have two entree salads) and lack of consistency/availability. This salad – the Southwest Salad with Chicken – was from somewhere in rural Arkansas. That McDonald’s actually only had enough to make one salad, and as you can see they subbed in a lemon for the lime. It was still tasty and I am glad I caught the last salad, but definitely be aware of.

      mcdonalds southwest chicken2

      The Spicy Southwest Salad (with grilled chicken) is the only salad I get from Chick fil A. There are two other salads on the menu that I have never ordered, which I guess means that I really like this one. It is kind of spicy, so if that’s not your thing then this is not for you. I’ve gotten this salad all over the place and it is *very* consistent.

      chick fil a 11

      Of course we sampled just about every salad from Panera too. New-to-me salads I tried included the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken, Modern Greek Salad with Quinoa, Southwest Chile Lime Ranch with Chicken, and the Strawberry Caprese Salad. The Green Goddess originally appealed to me because it is a cobb salad without blue cheese. As I previously mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by the pickled red onions, but my favorite part is that they included like half of a large avocado. Avocado lovers know what a big deal that is! The only thing that would have made this better is a crunchy element, maybe some nuts. I suppose that isn’t part of a “true” cobb salad, but I think it would eliminate some of the mushiness that can happen with a cobb salad.

      panera green goddess cobb with chicken2

      I tried the Modern Greek Salad twice. The first time was a take-out order; I was very impressed by the size and quality of the take-out salad. I have heard people say that you get more when you dine-in, but that was not my experience. In fact, I think that the take-out salad was larger than the dine-in portion I had a couple of weeks later. The Modern Greek Salad is in the least expensive menu category – the same category as the Seasonal Greens, Caesar, and Greek Salads. In my opinion, it is much more substantial than the other “basic” salads and better suited to standing on its own for lunch or dinner, even without adding chicken. As I mentioned, my dine-in salad surprised me by being a bit smaller, but even then I wasn’t starving afterwards.

      panera modern greek with quinoa12
      panera modern greek with quinoa 22

      The Southwest Chile Lime Ranch was my favorite “Southwest” salad from this trip, and maybe of all time. Everything about it is good, especially the plentiful and perfectly ripe avocado and the quinoa tomato sofrito blend. I am pretty sure than this is the same quinoa in the Modern Greek Salad, and although they are two very different salads, the quinoa is a chameleon that blended in seamlessly with both of them. This is one to recreate at home if you are looking to up your salad game! (I might do this in the near future but with the addition of beans.)

      panera southwest chile lime ranch2

      Last up for Panera was the Strawberry Caprese. I love Caprese, and this felt like a fresh take on that salad without completely ruining a classic. Strawberries seem like the best fruit they could have chosen for the mash-up – I don’t think it would be as good with say, blueberries, but maybe a peach Caprese would work? Sadly I made the mistake of adding too much dressing and ended up with a borderline-soup situation… and I still ate the whole thing.

      panera strawberry caprese2

      The last two salads that I enjoyed on this trip are from smaller, local restaurants. In Albuquerque, we had the pleasure of finding Vinaigrette. This place is the stuff my wannabe-hipster dreams are made of. As you may have guessed from the name, Vinaigrette is a restaurant centered around beautiful, delicious, nutritious salads, and it is unlike any other restaurant I have eaten in. I was not expecting to love this place so much – I was in kind of a sour mood that day, and when we arrived to the restaurant the hostess looked at our three kids, gave us a less than welcoming look, and then set a place at the table with a regular chair (as opposed to a high chair) for our 9-month-old. It was not looking promising. Fortunately for us, our waitress was great (she even brought us a high chair).

      There were so many tempting options on the menu, but I decided on The Beet Goes On with Grilled Marinated Baby Artichokes. This is another excellent example of a relatively simple yet powerful salad – it’s just greens, goat cheese, pistachios, beets, vinaigrette, and artichokes. When I say powerful, I mean that it was absolutely fantastic. I still daydream about this salad (not joking) and I when I get an oven again I absolutely plan to try to recreate this positively magical food. I was surprised by a couple of things. First, it was actually a lot bigger than I anticipated. Second, the artichokes specifically were a lot bigger than I expected – the word “baby” had me thinking they would be teeny tiny. I don’t think I have ever purchased fresh artichokes, so that may just be my lack of experience showing.

      vinaigrette the beet goes on2

      My husband ordered the Reuben with a side of the Omega, which turned out to be a gorgeous and generously portioned side salad. In case you are wondering, we ordered a mac & cheese for the kids. They did not eat any of the mac & cheese, but they did eat the sliced fruit and veggies that came with it. I wish that we could have ordered more raw fruit and veggies a la carte (that might actually be an option, we did not ask, but it is not on the menu). They also ate the bread that we requested for the table. They did not eat the side of roasted vegetables that we attempted to feed them.

      vinaigrette 22

      We visited the Albuquerque restaurant, but Vinaigrette has other locations in Santa Fe and Austin, Texas. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping in, or if you are miles away like I am, check out their menu online for a treasure trove of salad inspiration.

      The last stop on our trip was San Diego, where we sampled some of Bread and Cie‘s offerings. I think we chose Bread and Cie because we wanted some baked goods and they had excellent reviews, but I wanted to eat a salad before indulging. I deliberated between the Chicken Papaya and Cranberry Goat Cheese salads, and ended up going with the Cranberry Goat Cheese. It was exactly as advertised. Not a groundbreaking salad, but a solid performer and it got the job done before I ate some sweets. I probably wouldn’t seek out Bread and Cie just for salad, but it is a good option if you are there anyway.

      bread and cie - cranberry goat cheese2

      Overall, I am really pleased with how my salad challenge turned out. I felt so much better eating this way than how I have eaten on road trips in the past, and just reminding myself of that made it relatively easy to stay on track. Right now I make a big salad for dinner about once a week, and hopefully I can do some more at lunch time soon too. I have probably mentioned before that restaurant salads are where all of my salad for dinner ideas come from, and thankfully this trip has left me with plenty of inspiration to freshen things up for the next few months.

      Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Dinner, inspiration, lunch, restaurant review, salad
    • Oxford, MS

      Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on September 22, 2019

      My family recently drove cross-country en route to Hawaii. Many years ago, my grandmother told me that she had visited all 50 states (twice!). I admittedly have a touch of wanderlust, but I was so impressed by my grandmother’s travels that I made a goal to visit all 50 states. Everyone has different criteria for what constitutes a “visit;” for me, it means actually spending some time doing something there, even if it’s not overnight.

      We tried to stop and see as many states as we could as we headed west. Now, my husband and I have lived in Alabama three times, and while we did a fair bit of traveling around the area while we were there, we never visited Mississippi! Natchez always intrigued us with its beautiful historic mansions, but it was not close enough for a long weekend trip, and taking vacation days to visit Mississippi was not appealing. Natchez was not along the route we took, so we decided to stop in Oxford. The main reasons for stopping in Oxford were because it was along the general route we were taking and there were places to stay, so let it suffice to say that I had VERY low expectations for this stop. As we pulled into our AirBnB, everything seemed pretty humdrum. Then we went out to find dinner… You guys, Oxford is BEAUTIFUL and a total food destination! My jaw literally dropped driving through the Square and past all of the historic homes on North Lamar Boulevard. I actually wish we had more time there to explore and eat!

      If you are passing through the area, it is totally worth a stop. We spent a lot of time that Sunday just walking around the Square (Square Books and Square Books, Jr. were a treat) and walking around the Ole Miss campus. It is still Mississippi, so a number of eateries are closed on Sundays, but on the bright side, Sunday parking is free.

      Here are a few places we tried that I would recommend:

      1) Snackbar

      We were headed over to the Oxford Canteen – and pretty excited for it – but when we got there it looked closed. I spotted the Snackbar across the street and it had really good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. The menu and prices gave me the impression that this was a fancier place, so I sent my husband inside to order some takeout (he ordered at the bar). Considering that 2 of 3 kids were asleep in their car seats by the time we parked, and most of the people inside did not have kids with them, I think it was the right choice :D.

      We ordered a Tomato Stack, a Monte Cristo sandwich, a Fried Catfish sandwich, and a grilled peach (my first choice was the Suman but they did not have this option at the time).

      snackbar tomato stack

      I thought my kids would eat the Tomato Stack, and I was completely wrong. I was actually really surprised by what this was – it really is stacked up in a neat little tomato, soft cheese spread, and bread tower. It was not at all like a caprese salad (this was clearly a reading comprehension fail on my part) and is not easy to separate out the different components. We ended up feeding our kids some odds and ends we had from stopping at Trader Joe’s earlier in the day, so it’s not like they starved, but I just want to be clear that unless your kids like some seriously bougie food, you might want to find them something else. In the end we were glad to have our Tomato Stack as it was arguably the best item we ordered. The tomatoes were as ripe and red as I have ever seen, and the sourdough bread was like a giant crouton, but not as hard to bite through.

      snackbar monte cristo

      I had the Monte Cristo sandwich, although I did surrender a couple of bites to my 3-year-old and husband. It was very well executed – my favorite component was the challah bread – although I don’t think there was anything out of the ordinary about this sandwich.

      snackbar catfish

      My husband had the Fried Catfish. He reports that it was rather plain and he liked both my sandwich and the tomato stack more.

      There are two types of french fries at the Snackbar and we tried both kinds. One was covered in parmesan and was quite savory. I ate them plain and also dipped in the mustard that came with the Monte Cristo. The other fries were a bit spicy, but not unbearably so. I ate those ones plain, but my husband dipped them in the mustard too.

      snackbar peach

      Last up was the grilled peach. I started laughing when I opened the box for this because it was literally half of a single peach! For the price I thought that we would get at least one whole peach. Cost aside, the whipped goat cheese was very interesting and it played nicely off of the sweet brown butter sauce. I didn’t taste pecan in the pecan crumble, but it did add a nice crunch to every bite.

      If we went back, I would want to try more of the small plates and desserts, and I might just make an entire meal of those items. Maybe that’s why it’s called the Snackbar?

      2) Uptown Coffee

      We headed here after mass on Sunday morning. I ordered a regular 16 ounce iced latte (pretty sure that this is a “mom drink” now but whatever, I’m a mom) and a couple of chocolate milks (also about 16 ounces each) for the kids. Everything was very reasonably priced, I think it was like $7 total. The baristas were friendly and gave my kids the “fun” green straws for their drinks. My kids let me sample their milk; it was very chocolatey, which is really all that matters with chocolate milk. My latte tasted different than other lattes I have had of late, I still cannot put my finger on why, so I’ll just chalk it up to whatever locally roasted beans they used. Not the strongest coffee I’ve ever had, but it was still a solid cup of coffee, and very refreshing as we strolled around in the Mississippi-in-August heat. If coffee isn’t your thing, they had a big tea selection and some very tempting cakes and pastries too.

      3) Saint Leo

      I loved everything we ordered from Saint Leo. We ordered the large size Simple Green Salad, a Prosciutto, Arugula, & Mozzarella Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza.

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      The Simple Green Salad is the quintessential example of elevating basic ingredients. It was just three components – bibb lettuce, radish, and lemon vinaigrette – and they were all perfect. Seriously. The lettuce was the best lettuce I have ever seen in a restaurant – not wilting, not soggy, just bright green with a great texture. The jewel-like purpley-pink radishes really popped against the lettuce – I didn’t know that radishes could be so big! The vinaigrette was intensely lemon in the best way. I appreciate that they put it on the side because I for one am not a fan of salad soup. We ordered the smaller size and had enough for 2 very generous servings (I think 3 people could easily share this salad).

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      I generally don’t like gambling with new-to-me pizza places because I love pizza so so so much and bad pizza makes me alternately sad and angry. Maybe I am just less critical of it, but Neapolitan pizza seems to be a pretty safe bet. These pizzas had a flavorful crust and classic toppings.

      I know that Oxford is not completely unknown or even overlooked – it is actually featured in 36 Hours and it does have Ole Miss, after all. This visit still felt like stumbling upon hidden treasure. If you love small cities and college towns, Oxford is definitely worth a visit!

      Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged coffee, pizza, restaurant review, salad, travel
    • Food Journal #6: Farmhaus Burgers

      Posted at 2:00 pm by Rachel, on March 11, 2019

      Last month, my husband and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary and decided to splurge with some Farmhaus take out. We make most of our meals at home these days, and while I genuinely enjoy cooking, sometimes it’s just nice to have a night off of cooking and dishes. When we do eat a meal out (or get take out, as the case is here), I really want it to count, especially on a special occasion like this one.

      We first heard about Farmhaus Burgers more than a year ago on a visit to the Augusta area. Friends of friends spoke very highly of it, and we added it to our “must try” list. Since then, several other people we’ve met have sung Farmhaus’s praises. My research taught me that Farmhaus is actually owned by the same people as Frog Hollow Tavern, another local restaurant where we dined over the summer. With all that hype (and an awesome experience at Frog Hollow Tavern), this seemed like a solid choice (spoiler: it did not disappoint).

      I am pretty indecisive, so it was hard to choose what to get. As much as the BLTC grilled cheese was calling my name, I really wanted to try something off of their curated burger menu (as opposed to a build your own burger) to get the full experience. I ultimately decided on the Wild Turkey. My husband chose the New Mexico, and we shared sides of Haus Cut Russet Fries with Split Creek Farm’s Feta Dipping Sauce, Hausmade Sweet Potato Tots, and Fried Pickles with a buttermilk ranch dipping sauce. There was also a third mysterious sauce, and I wish I knew what it was called because was my favorite of the three. The mystery sauce was orange and tasted similar to Chick-fil-A sauce.

      The Wild Turkey, which the menu describes as “Ground Turkey Patty, Avocado, Lettuce, Tomato, HAUS Pickled Onions, Sriracha Mayo,” surprised me in a few ways. I hate to say that I expected to be kind of disappointed by my order, but you know, it was a turkey burger and sometimes turkey burgers are dry and bland. This one was not that! It was well-seasoned and moist, and it actually had a pleasant heat to it, which I really did not anticipate – I guess I forgot that Sriracha is spicy, whoops! All in all, I did not spend the whole night wishing I had gotten beef. I almost forgot about the bun! This burger came on a whole wheat bun, and unlike lackluster grocery store finds that taste like spongey pillows of nothingness, it had body and flavor and I actually enjoyed eating it.

      wild turkey burger

      Burgers on the good china – life is good

      I shied away from the New Mexico, which the menu describes as “Hatch Green Chiles, Pepper Jack Cheese, Lettuce, Duke’s Mayo,” but luckily for me, my husband wanted to try it. I like spicy food – or at least I did before I had kids. The flavor combination sounded delicious, I just worried that it would be too spicy for me these days. Anyway, my husband tried it and loved it. He is not into super spicy foods and he pegged this as only mildly spicy, so next time this is probably what I will order.

      new mexico burger

      Now let’s talk about the sides. The Fried Pickles were normal fried pickles – crispy outside, delightfully sour inside. The buttermilk ranch was a little gritty but overall a satisfying pairing. Next up we had the Haus Cut Russet Fries with Split Creek Farm’s Feta Dipping Sauce. If you’ve had Five Guys fries, that is what the Haus fries reminded me of. They were obviously hand cut with a crispy exterior and perfectly salty. I read in another review to try the feta sauce with these fries, so I gave it a shot – it was unlike any dipping sauce I have had before. The feta sauce is bright, lemony-minty, and lightens up the flavor of the fries.

      farmhaus sides

      The Hausmade Sweet Potato Tots were my favorite side item, and were especially delicious dipped in the mystery sauce. Really just dip everything in this sauce and you won’t regret it. But I digress… Technically I think these are croquettes and not tots, because the centers were quite smooth, not the shredded potato chunks you would find in a tot. Whatever they are, they are slightly sweet and a nice change of pace from french fries. And we all know that I can never get enough of sweet potatoes, so there’s that.

      So there you have it. If you’re in Augusta and wanting to try a local burger place, check them out!

      Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Augusta GA, burgers, Dinner, restaurant review
    • Food Journal #5: Boston

      Posted at 12:47 am by Rachel, on August 19, 2018

      Earlier this summer we got to spend a few days in Boston. It was not nearly long enough (it never is!) but we did pack in a ton of our favorite things, including lots of good food! I probably would have gained 10 pounds here if we hadn’t balanced it out with a bunch of walking.

      Our AirBnB host left some oranges so we could make freshly squeezed orange juice. Oh man, this was so good! I don’t think I’ve had fresh orange juice before this trip. I’ll say that while I’m not usually an orange juice drinker, this had me considering getting my own juicer. It took 2 large oranges to fill this glass:

      Boston fresh oj

      Tatte was on our must-eat list for this trip; I have been dreaming of their Balakani sandwich (literally) since the last time I ate it in 2016. While Tatte has several locations, I’ve only ever been to the one in Brookline. It is such a cute little place! It was hard to appreciate the last time we were there because it was so packed (brunch on a holiday weekend is not a good time if you’re looking for a quiet spot!).

      Boston Tatte inside
      Boston Tatte floor

      Boston Tatte menu

      The Balakani did not disappoint this trip either. The eggplant was so perfect – roasted to creamy perfection – and really wonderfully complemented by the salty feta. If you want something salty, this is a satisfyingly salty sandwich.

      Boston Tatte sandwich 2
      Boston Tatte sandwich 1

      We were there about an hour before closing but they still had a few grab-and-go style sandwiches. This one that my husband picked up wasn’t on the regular menu – it’s open-faced with prosciutto, arugula, and pear.

      Boston Tatte sandwich 3Of course we picked out a few pastry items as well:

      Boston Tatte pastry 2
      Boston Tatte pastry 3
      Boston Tatte pastry 4

      Boston Tatte pastry 1

      Honestly, the top 2 pastries with the chocolate crusts are not something I would order again. They are so pretty to look at, and I love the fresh berries, but they are just not as chocolatey as I was hoping for. They were kind of dry too for my taste too. I know that we picked them up at the end of the day, but we usually buy a few items and do not eat them all immediately – if they’re dry after just a few hours, buying for a couple of days isn’t really good idea. The cheesecake cup was better – not dry and no disappointment in the intensity of its flavors. I would get this one again. Fortunately there are a lot of options here, so the next time I am craving a Balakani I can just try a different pastry.

      Next up was Eataly in the Prudential Center. We were headed to the Skywalk Observatory and planned to eat breakfast somewhere in the Prudential. Apparently the food court closed since the last time we visited, and I am the only person left from the Northeast who does not like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, so we gave Eataly a try. This place is HUGE – so huge that you can grab a map on your way in. It was pretty early when we showed up, so most of the stations inside were closed. We still walked around the whole upper level just to see what there was, and I was impressed. I loved The Italian Store in Arlington, but I always thought that it should have been bigger or carried a wider variety of products. Eataly is more what I imagined the Italian Store would be like.

      Boston Eataly_censored

      Boston Eataly map 1
      Boston Eataly map 2

      The coffee was solid, albeit small. We also ordered a variety of pastries from the cafe next to the front entrance to share. We chose one with almonds, a cream-filled brioche, a chocolate pastry, and a ricotta and jam turnover. My absolute favorite was the cream-filled brioche, followed by the chocolate pastry. I enjoyed the flavor of the jam in the ricotta and jam turnover, and the pastry had a great crunch, but I wasn’t quite sold on the texture of the ricotta. It was kind of crumbly. Really it was not bad – none of it was – but I don’t know that I would order it again when there is brioche and chocolate pastry to eat.Boston Eataly breakfast pastries

      After breakfast we took the elevator up to the Skywalk. It was such a clear, beautiful day to be up there. You get free admission with a military or dependent ID, although these views are worth buying a ticket to see. My cell phone picture does not do them justice.

      Boston view

      After the Skywalk, we walked over to the Public Garden before heading back to the Prudential to pick up our car. It was almost nap time, so we grabbed some quick sandwiches from Eataly to go. By the way, if you do drive in and park at the Prudential, Eataly will validate your parking.

      My husband ordered a PLT (prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato) and I got the Cavolino, which had pesto, cheese, and caramelized onions. These are BIG sandwiches, and you could probably split one between two people depending on how hungry you are. I think I ended up saving part of mine to eat later. The Cavolino was very fresh tasting – I think there was some lemon in the pesto – great for an early summer sandwich. It was also very oily. It wasn’t oily in a gross way, but it was messy, so if you choose this sandwich, keep some napkins nearby.

      Boston Eataly sandwich 2
      Boston Eataly sandwich 1
      Boston Eataly sandwich 2
      Boston Eataly sandwich 1

      That night we picked up a few slices from Regina Pizzeria and took them to DeFilippo Playground around the corner. There were a couple of picnic tables and a great selection of toys in addition to the playground equipment. I was too hungry to wait to snap a picture, so if you’ve never been, it’s a perfect, delicious, thin crust pizza. I think I could eat it every day and not get sick of it.

      My husband walked down the street to Mike’s Pastry to pick up some cannoli. We got one plain ricotta, one strawberry, one Florentine, and one chocolate chip. The strawberry was for our 3-year-old, but I did try some – I can’t say I recommend this one unless you are buying it for someone who cares more about the color than the flavor. The others were all great. I always get the Florentine, which has nuts (I believe they are almonds) and honey in the shell, and chocolate chips on the ends. My husband tried a bite and he found the shell to be a bit *too* crunchy. If that’s something that would bother you, then the chocolate chip might be a better match. I really enjoy the extra flavor the nuts bring to the table though.

      Boston Mikes cannoli

      On the way back, someone commented that we looked super touristy with our Mike’s box. Maybe it is a tourist staple, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t tasty. We’ve been getting cannoli from Mike’s for years and we love them, which is all that matters.

      I was sad to discover that Finale, a fixture of our college days and past trips, closed a couple of years ago. Apparently it was already closed the last time we were in Boston and we didn’t notice it! Whoops! Anyway, we obviously had more than enough food to fill our bellies this time around, and I am sure we will find some new places to visit in the future. In the meantime, I will miss their dessert-centric restaurant in general and their molten chocolate cake in particular.

      Until next time, Boston!

      Posted in dessert, Dinner, Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged balakani, Boston, breakfast, cannoli, coffee, dessert, Dinner, Eataly, Finale, juice, lunch, Mike's Pastry, pastry, pizza, Prudential Center, Regina Pizzeria, restaurant review, sandwich, Skywalk, take out, Tatte
    • Food Journal #4: Frog Hollow Tavern

      Posted at 8:37 pm by Rachel, on August 6, 2018

      Frog Hollow Tavern is an upscale farm to table restaurant in downtown Augusta, GA. Augusta’s downtown is actually pretty big – which is appropriate considering that it was Georgia’s capital for a hot minute – but also has a lot of empty storefronts. Maybe one day it will fill up again, but in the meantime I will take the easy parking 😀

      Anyway, my husband and I went out to celebrate my birthday and the fact that we had a babysitter. It had been about 2 years since we had a dinner out without the kids, so this was a real treat. Really this is a place to go without the little ones. It’s kind of noisy (Frog Hollow is also a bar), expensive, and they literally clear the crumbs off of your table between courses. We had a reservation for 8 PM on a Saturday; it was busy when we arrived and without a reservation the wait was at least 30 minutes, so if you want to visit, plan ahead.

      Frog Hollow Eggplant Fries
      Frog Hollow Watermelon Salad

      We started with a couple of appetizers. I was not sure what to expect of the Eggplant Fries – I think the fact that they are topped with powdered sugar threw me off. Despite the sugar, they were savory and delicious with a creamy inside. It’s one of the better done eggplant dishes I’ve tasted. The watermelon salad was good but a bit underwhelming. The parts of the salad were all individually very good but it felt like there was something missing to tie it all together. We tried pickled watermelon rind in Williamsburg last year, and for some reason I anticipated something more like that. The most interesting element of the dish was the feta. Grocery store feta usually just tastes kind of salty to me, but this tasted very much like goat cheese to me. In fact, I double-checked the menu description to see that it was feta! This feta comes from a local farm and is made from goat’s milk – I guess I have never had fresh feta before – this is how feta should taste.

      Frog Hollow Spring Pea and Mushroom Gnocchi

      I LOVE gnocchi, so of course I had to try the Spring Pea and Mushroom Gnocchi. There were more mushrooms on this plate than gnocchi! I was disappointed for about 30 seconds until I tasted it. The whole thing was amazing. I know my picture isn’t the best, but the hen of the woods mushrooms look so much fancier than any mushrooms I can buy at my normal grocery store, and I loved how the thinner caps have a more delicate texture. It looks like this was a seasonal item as it is no longer on the menu – I’m glad I caught it while it was available!

      Frog Hollow Pork Chop

      My husband had one of the night’s specials – a pork chop that had been marinated for about 12 hours and some sort of tomato salad. While it was a special that night, our server said that it was a customer favorite, so I think they offer it somewhat regularly. It looks huge because it is bone-in but it was a reasonable serving size. Most importantly it was not dry, as pork chops, in my experience, tend to be.

      Frog Hollow Peach Buckle

      To finish off we shared a Peach Buckle. The peaches are a special variety (Lori Annes) from another local farm, and I’m pretty sure that the ice cream was house-made. I could have eaten this whole thing myself, even after everything else.

      I hope we get the chance to go back to Frog Hollow. It was such a treat to indulge my inner foodie for an evening and there are a lot more dishes on the menu that I want to try. This place is highly rated for a reason, folks!

      Posted in Dinner, Food Journal | 2 Comments | Tagged Augusta GA, Dinner, Frog Hollow, restaurant review
    • Food Journal #3

      Posted at 12:00 am by Rachel, on March 15, 2018

      Welcome back to my Food Journal, where I share the more memorable things we’ve been eating, what we liked, and what we didn’t. Let’s get started…

      2/7 Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl

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      This recipe was a mixed bag. My husband loved it (as usual), but I was frustrated by how long it took to make and how the sweet potatoes ended up super crunchy. My #1 pet peeve with recipes is probably when the actual cooking time does not match up with how long the recipe says it will take. In the case of these Buddha bowls, the recipe states (many times) that this will take 30 minutes, and it ended up taking me about an hour. I often wonder if I am just a slow cook, and that may still be the case, however my prep speed would not affect the cooking times once food is in the oven. I did side-eye the recipe saying that a sweet potato half would cook through in like 25 minutes (because I usually dice mine and they take about 40 minutes to cook through), but I tried it anyway; as I have already said, the results were not good.

      I would be open to trying this again with diced sweet potatoes – it would be a little bit more prep work but at least they would cook through before everything else burned. I would also line the baking sheet with aluminum foil to make cleanup a bit easier. Overall the flavors were really good; I love the variety of vegetables this recipe incorporated, the chickpeas were outstanding, and the tahini sauce was something new for me. By the way, if you have never used tahini before (I hadn’t!), it is super runny when you open it, kind of similar to natural peanut butter in its consistency. I wish that I paid the extra dollar for the jar with a twist-on lid instead of one that needed to be opened with a can opener – that was a mess!

      2/13 Brunch at Founding Farmers

      For our wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate with our favorite meal of the day and took the kids out for brunch at Founding Farmers. This restaurant has a few locations and all of them are owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union. From what I understand, a lot of the ingredients they use are sourced from North Dakota farms – neat! We went at about 9 AM on a weekday morning, so it was not crowded – most of the other patrons looked like they were having working breakfasts.

      We were hungry when we arrived, so we ordered a Jefferson Donut, coffee, and a New York Egg Cream while we looked at the rest of the menu. Our waiter explained that the Jefferson Donut is Founding Farmers’s take on a cronut. It was fairly light and filled with a pastry cream. We all really liked the donut – if I could get a box of these instead of whatever Dunkin’ Donuts is offering, I would.

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      I would not say I’m a coffee snob, but I don’t drink bad coffee anymore. If I order a coffee and it tastes old and watery, I throw it out. This happens more often than I like, so I didn’t have high hopes for Founding Farmers. I was pleasantly surprised, though, because the coffee was really good. I just got regular drip coffee; it was very smooth and delicious and when the waiter offered me a refill I gladly accepted. And how cute is that little milk carton?

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      The egg cream was the most interesting item we ordered – I know that this is not unique to Founding Farmers, but it is the only time I have seen one on a restaurant menu. The best way I can describe it is watery, fizzy chocolate milk. We probably would not order it again – personally I would prefer regular chocolate milk – but it was fun to try it!

      There is no children’s menu here, so for our kids we ordered the Vanilla Cream Filled French Toast to share. This was a huge dish! My husband ended up eating some too because it was just so much (this was his favorite item we ordered, by the way). It was more like french toast sticks than french toast you would make at home, which is fine because my 3-year-old was all about dunking them in the syrup.

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      I ordered the Roasted Vegetable Pan Scramble which comes with a biscuit (and butter & blueberry compote) and one side – I chose fruit. The sweet offerings on the menu were very tempting but we were going to have waffles for dinner so I went savory. This is an egg white scramble with a ton of veggies. Like most restaurant offerings, it was a large, filling dish. I found it a bit too salty, but overall still pretty good. I liked that I didn’t feel gross after eating it. The fruit was nice and fresh, and a good size for sharing with my kids. I really enjoyed the biscuit; if there was still room in my belly after eating everything else, I would have ordered more of them.

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      My husband ordered the Traditional Ham Eggs Benedict with a side of Leek Hash Browns. If you are a fan of eggs benedict, this one was a well-executed classic that you may enjoy.

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      We really liked Founding Farmers and are hoping to go back before we leave the area. The time that we went was pretty low-key, and we even saw some other people with kids towards the end of our meal.

      2/15 Dijon-Pecan 2-Step Chicken

      This is one of those rare recipes that is fast and easy to prep, inexpensive, and tasty. It took me about 5 minutes to put this together in the baking dish:

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      I used Harris Teeter’s fresh chicken breasts (from the meat counter) – they are the best price in the store and they are massive. I used 4 of them since the recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts, but really 2 of these cut in half is probably the portion size the author had in mind. Mine took a little longer in the oven because the chicken breasts were so enormous.

      The fastest way to crush the pecans is to toss them in a plastic bag and roll a rolling pin over them a few times. If you want to be a bit greener, chopping them with a knife would probably not take that much longer.

      I served them with egg noodles (quick and in my pantry) and roasted broccoli and cauliflower. I took the lazy way out and used a bag of the already-prepped veggies from the produce section.

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      2/20 Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

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      This soup is pure comfort. It is buttery and rich but not too heavy. If you are craving soup and don’t want to do a lot of work, then this is a recipe to try. I use Better than Bouillon to make my chicken broth; it has a great flavor that adds a lot to the depth of this soup. For recipes like this, I used to boil water and prepare the broth before adding it to the recipe, but lately I have just been adding water and the Better than Bouillon to the pot at the same time. I’m about to bring the water to a boil anyway, so why dirty another dish? Using the immersion blender to puree the soup cuts down on dishes too.

      I’ve heard that cream-based soups don’t freeze well, but I have frozen this one with a lot of success. Just give it a stir after reheating and it is as good as fresh. This is an easy recipe to double, it just takes a little longer to bring the soup to a simmer. I actually made a double batch this time because both of my kids slurp it up and I love the leftovers.

      2/21 Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas, Sweet Potato Cornbread

      We had company over this night and I completely forgot to take any pictures! These fajitas are great; all the deliciousness of Tex-Mex but without the heaviness of something loaded down with cheese. Now I am not always a mushroom person – I think it is a texture issue – but the mushrooms really shrivel up in the oven. Once they get mixed in with the other veggies I cannot usually tell that they are there. My kids have not eaten these yet because they do not really like spicy food, so I set aside some of the cut up veggies for them to eat raw with tortillas.

      The cornbread was interesting. The “basic” cornbread that I usually make is a lot denser and more savory. This recipe was very light and fluffy. It was also a lot sweeter (to be expected with that much added sugar). Honestly it kind of reminded me of cake… not that that is a bad thing! It was definitely more “dressed up” and I could see myself making this again if I find myself with some extra sour cream lying around, especially since it was not a big undertaking.

      2/22 Rosemary Chicken Thighs, Butternut Squash Gratin with Onions and Sage (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)
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      In case you missed the recipe for my rosemary chicken thighs, you can find that here. This is one of my family’s favorite recipes. It is so flavorful, tender, and easy. My 1-year-old gobbles it up!

      I took advantage of this super easy main dish to experiment with a new side: butternut squash gratin with onions from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. While it was time-consuming to make, it was not labor intensive. I cut down on my prep work by using pre-diced butternut squash. I did a cost comparison a few months ago and found that a whole fresh butternut squash cost about the same as the package of cubed squash – really I think my dollar goes further with more squash from the package because I am not paying for the seeds and skin. Plus it just takes way less time. My food processor made the rest of the prep very fast. I used it to slice onions, shred cheese, and make bread crumbs. Like I said though, it is a time-consuming dish – 15 minutes to cook onions, then 8 minutes to brown the squash, and 50 minutes total in the oven. I like the idea of this dish, and it has piqued my interest in other gratins. My one complaint with it is that I
      found it too thyme-heavy. I decided to use dried thyme instead of fresh because I already had it on hand, and I think I miscalculated the conversion between fresh and dried thyme, so the thyme ended up overpowering the other flavors.

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      Posted in Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, Founding Farmers, freezer friendly, kid-friendly, restaurant review, side dish, soup, vegetarian
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