Restaurant Meals on my Road Trips, part one.

 I usually post about the food I make and enjoy eating, but I'm in a situation right now where I'm not cooking, well, not much, that is.  
I am however eating many of my meals in restaurants, well, I've actually been eating in restaurants a lot. 

Along the way, I've been 'one of those' people who takes pictures of my food. Mainly because when it's presented to me in an appealing, visual way, I want to honor the artist who plated the food.  

Anyone can slop food onto a plate, but much of the time, actually, most of the time, whoever prepares the plate in the kitchen takes pride in how that meal is presented.   I know I did when I cooked in a restaurant.  I wanted the food to not only taste good, but be of visual interest as well.  

Without further ado, well, not much of it, and where I can remember which restaurant I was in at the time, here are some of my meals from the past month.  

Clam Strips - Warmhouse Restaurant - Neah Bay - WA

Sweet n' Sour Pork - Fried Rice -Dynasty Restaurant - Sequim WA

This is my usual 'test' dish when I try a new Chinese Restaurant - if they prepare it well, I'll go back and I'm going to be returning here and trying more of their menu, cause this was hands down delicious. 

I'd ordered a french dip with salad here, and the salad came out just like this.  So pretty, I had to not only admire it, and take a picture of it, but also complimented the artist.  Salad at the "In Place", Forks, WA  It was so appealing, and made me happy to eat it. 

Pork Fried Rice at Seven Brothers, 7 Cedars Casino   

Beautifully cooked pork belly. Look at the presentation.  Adelicious meal, and one I'll go back for. 

Blackened Cajun Salmon at Applebee's, Sequim WA

On the way to Sequim, I was hungry and stopped at the Halfway House in Brinnon, WA.   I saw that they had a Monte Cristo on the menu and I didn't bother looking any further.  It had to have been at least an inch thick, perfectly cooked, and so good, I think I kinda overate.  I even got a slice of their coconut pie to go, and scarfed that down later on.  Didn't get a picture of that one, but I am so tempted to go back there and have a meal again.  Totally worth the stop. 

And last but certainly not least, I also stopped at a Mexican Restaurant, called SOL de Mexico, in Reedsport, OR and ordered the Chile Relleno Combo     So good and it hit the spot.   I admit it, I kinda pigged out a bit, but it was totally worth it.  Lots and lots of cheese in both the Enchilada and the Relleno.    

And there you have it.  A few of the dishes I've considered good enough to take pictures of, and blog about.  

I do admit to ordering a few, 'test dishes', in restaurants, Chile Relleno's is my test dish for Mexican Restaurants, and I get excited when I find one that measures up to my taste.    As did this offering.  Chile Relleno's is one dish I do know how to make and make well.  

I'll continue to be one of 'those' people who takes pictures of their food, but only when the dish warrants it.   

Garlic Scapes Stir Fry

 Have you missed me?  👀😉   I've been around, just haven't done a whole lotta cooking the past few months. 

 I either haven't felt like it or have been busy packing up my house, and well, gee, good home cooking hasn't been on my radar.    What didn't help was having most of my toys packed, and well, gee, it's kinda hard to cook when you've packed most of your tools.  

And now, I'm in an interesting 'pied a terre, a temporary apartment, and it's just fine.   There is even a two burner cooktop, and I couldn't help but think that this entire apartment, complete with the two burner stove insert was pretty much the same size as the apartment my parents had in Copenhagen, and they had 4 kids there. YIKES!!!  My mom would have been right at home cooking here. The kitchen is teeny, but serviceable, and I'm enjoying the challenge.  

Back to my story, I was first introduced to Garlic Scapes by my one of my sisters, she threw some on the grill and we ate them with a steak I think.  I was offered some scapes the other night and said Yes Please, and came up with the following concoction.  

A Garlic Scape is basically the flower stalk that comes up from the garlic bulb.  Growers cut the flower stalk to encourage the garlic bulb to get larger.  And ummm, the scape is totally delightful.  Mild, very mild garlic flavour.    And it lends itself to so many applications.  I don't have a full on kitchen or my usual supplies handy, otherwise I might have been seduced into making some pesto, with walnuts, or pureeing them and adding to some hummus.  I had all kinds of ideas floating through my head.   And next year, I'll be growing some of my own and then I'll have even more fun.  

But in the meantime, I also had some asparagus, carrots and a couple mushrooms, and decided that they would lend themselves well to a stirfry.   I also had a shallot and well, gee, I had to add it, not just for color but flavour as well. 

I also cooked some pasta to add in, cause my body doesn't think it's a complete meal unless there's either carbs or protein involved somewhere.  

There aren't any kinds of proportions here, just cut up what you think you'll eat and go from there. 

I did start cooking the carrots and shallot first.  Mainly cause carrots take a little longer to cook, and I wanted the shallot to cook and start breaking down a little to add a touch of sweetness to the dish. 

 After letting them saute for a couple of minutes, I added in the rest of the veggies, let them cook to crisp-tender, and finally dumped in some pasta.  (I forgot to take a picture, sigh.)  The only seasoning was a touch of salt, a salt free herb mixture and a couple grinds of black pepper.  And it was insanely delicious.  I ate every bite. 

I'm so totally making this again, but next time I'll actually take a picture of the finished dish.   In the meantime, I've still got some scapes left, along with more asparagus, and I'm wondering how they would taste mixed into some ooey gooey mac n' cheese?  

 

Mushroom Duxelle

 It's Sunday Funday again, and this time round I'm going to share a favorite of mine.  

I don't think I've ever shared the fact that I love mushrooms, I'll cook up a package and just eat them, for breakfast, on toast with a piece or two of bacon.  OMG, one of my all time favorites.  

This week, Camilla of Culinary Cam is hosting and asked us to come up with some nibbles for New Years Eve.   

My idea of a perfect New Years Eve is to stay home and party in my living room, with some good noshes.  And this is perfect, you can make it for yourself or bring it to a party or ?  you choose.   I'll be over here in the corner eating my contribution, well, I might share if you're good.   

I served this with my home made No-Knead bread, made into baguettes.   I first made this bread several years ago as part of a group that used to post once a month, called Secret Recipe Club.  I've probably made hundreds of loaves since that initial loaf.   I used to bake them and sell them at a local farmers market, and they've always been popular.  I make them now for myself, cause I like them.   Actually, I made some baguettes with my No-Knead recipe, baked, cooled and then sliced the bread and served it with the Duxelle.  BTW, this is pronounced Duke-sel, not duxxell.  I got corrected, when I told someone what it was.  

Enough about the bread, you're here to make some of this lovely Mushroom Duxelle.  Cause you've got plans for New Years Eve, and need an amazing and surprisingly easy to make appetizer to bring.   Or to the last minute gathering, you just got invited to.  

BTW, this is usually what is wrapped around a Beef Wellington, underneath the puff pastry.  

To start with.   Pick up some lovely fresh mushrooms, make sure they pass the poke test and aren't spongy.  My personal thing, I like firm mushrooms, and not spongy ones.   I usually buy the white button mushrooms, mainly cause they're readily available and affordable. 

Wash and wipe off the mushrooms, cutting a thin slice off the stem and discarding it.  Then process the mushrooms in a food processor, along with the shallots, and garlic.   Then place the mixture in a fry-pan along with the butter and saute until all the moisture is gone from the mushrooms.  I like to add the fresh herbs at this point and stir them through.  But if I've used dried herbs, I'll put them in right away and let them kinda hydrate along with the cooking mushrooms.   

They should be looking kinda like mushroom paste at this moment.  I do have to say, this is not a great looking dish, it's not all purty and bright, but gosh dang, it sure tastes amazing.  Serve them as I do with some lovely slices of baguette, or toasted crostini or even crackers if that's your vibe.     

Recipe next

Mushroom Duxelle on Toast

Yield: 4-6

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking adapted from many recipes

Prep time: 5 Min Cook time: 15 Min Total time: 20 Min

A festive fun appetizer or nosh for New Year's Eve or any special occasion - also great for a Beef or Veggie Wellington.

Ingredients

Mushroom Duxelle

• 1 lb. fresh mushrooms - button, crimini or mixture of mushrooms
• 1-2 shallots-
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 stalks fresh parsley - just the leaves, finely minced or chopped - you can also use fresh or dried thyme - 1-2 teaspoons if using fresh, or 1/2 tsp. if using dried thyme.
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Melt butter in large pan. Finely chop mushrooms, either by hand or in a food processor. I put the mushrooms in a food processor.
2. Mince shallot/s and garlic and saute in pan with butter, until softened, but not browned. Add the finely minced/chopped mushrooms and cook over medium heat, stirring often until most of the liquid in the mushrooms has cooked off. This will take a while. It did for me. The mushroom mixture will be sticking a little on the pan by then, and will resemble a bit of a paste. Remove from heat and add finely chopped parsley, just the leaves and stir together. Taste a bit and add pepper and salt if desired. Serve on toast triangles, while warm, also tastes great cooled. This is perfect on fresh made baguettes, bruschetta or even slices of toasted homemade bread. The mixture will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator and can be easily heated up again, in a buttered pan.

 

Did you make this recipe?

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• An Elegant Start to a Dinner Party for the 4th Day of Christmas by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Boiled Egg Sandwiches by Sneha's Recipe
• Fried Cheesy Pickles by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• From Cheesy to Chocolatey - Using My Caquelon All Evening Long by Culinary Cam
• Mushroom Duxelle on Toast by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Scotch Quail Eggs by Food Lust People Love

I had some leftover Duxelle and froze it in small cubes, but before I did that, I added some to my brown gravy and served it over some leftover roast beef on top of a Yorkshire Pudding wrap.  That oomphed up the gravy to another level entirely.   I've actually been enjoying these wraps for awhile now.  

Candy Cane Bark

 It's Sunday Funday again, and I'm back for another round.    This time we're featuring Peppermint and there are lots of great ideas on what to make with it.   

I don't know about you, but I seem to collect Candy Canes, the little guys hang around long after Christmas, after their main job of dressing the Christmas Tree is done.   

Personally I like using them as a stir stick in a cup of hot cocoa, but you can only drink so many hot cocoa's and then you're done.  

So this year, I decided to sacrifice a few candy canes and make some candy cane bark.   I also bought some of those melting wafers and then googled how to make bark, and then basically winged it.   I also discovered I rather like that stuff, and had to give the leftovers away so I wouldn't eat more than I already had.   TMI? 

 

I also added some good dark chocolate to the chocolate type wafers to make them more chocolatey, is that a word?  All I know is I nibbled on quite a bit in a bid to make sure it tasted good.  

My original plan was to mix some crushed candy cane in with the vanilla flavored candy melts, but my initial try resulted in some weird looking stuff, so instead I spread it on top of the swirled melts and then added some Christmas sprinkles, cause 'It's Christmas'.  I also had a bit of the white vanilla spread left and decided to dip some pretzel sticks in there and again, 'It's Christmas' and since I had a few sprinkles left, they got coated as well.  I taste tested some, and had to stop myself cause those little suckers were delish.  

And the Candy Cane Bark, was pretty toothsome as well.  Next time I'll spread them out in a larger pan, cause it was a touch too thick, but it still tasted amazing. 

I'd never worked with Candy melts before but I googled and one suggestion I found was to mix good dark chocolate in with the chocolate flavored candy melts so I pulled out a bag of dark chocolate chips and went to town.  OK, so I melted them in with the chocolate, and dang, they worked. 

To start with, I took a few candy canes out and crushed them with my handy dandy meat mallet.    I did put them into a plastic bag first cause I didn't want little bits of peppermint permeating my kitchen.  I didn't crush them into powder, just enough to break them into little pieces.  

I lined an 8x8 inch pan (Next time I'll do a 9x13 pan) with a piece of parchment paper.  Set it aside. 

Next I measured out about 2 cups of the candy melts, into a heat proof measuring cup.  

Read the directions on the bag and proceeded to melt them in the microwave according to their directions.  Stirred it a bit, then added 1 cup of chocolate chips to it, stirred them  in until they melted.     Poured it into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly.  While that was cooling a bit, I melted the white chocolate bark, about 2 cups of the wafers, and poured it over the chocolate layer.  I used a toothpick to make swirls through the layers, but didn't mix them too much.  

I then took the crushed candy canes, spread them evenly over the chocolate mixture, along with some Christmas sprinkles.  I pressed them very lightly into the surface of the bark, with another small sheet of parchment paper, and put them in the fridge to cool and set. 

Once they were set, I broke the bark into smaller pieces and put them into a plastic bag for later.  

 I had a little of the white vanilla melt left and decided to dip some pretzel rods into it, and put them aside on a parchment paper, and sprinkled the last of my Christmas sprinkles on them.  

And now to all the amazing people who participated today, here's what they made and the links to their creations.  

• Candy Cane Bark from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Candy Cane Meringue Kisses from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Peppermint and Chocolate Chip Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Hot Chocolate With After Eight Peppermint from Sneha's Recipe
• Mint Chocolate Cookies (Biscuits) from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Painted Peppermint Cookies from Culinary Cam
• Peppermint Patty Surprise Cookies from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Mini Berry Pies

 You might have noticed I'm not posting as much these days.   I keep meaning to make something I can share but get caught up in real life.  However, a group I'm a member of,  Sunday Funday, happened to post about the fact that December 1 is Pie Day, and I'm not talking the mathematical 'pi', but rather the eat until you can't eat no more pie, pie. 

Now, isn't that cutest little baby pie?  I thought so, then I ate it.  Cause I could and there was no one watching me.  

And as it just so happened, I had cooked up the most delicious fruit filling for pies and thought, I can share this, and have to admit that not only did I bake this luscious, unctuous berry filling into mini pies in my cute as a button, electric mini pie machine, but had also been enjoying the sauce on top of waffles, with some heavy cream on top and just plain as well.   And yes they did get a touch brown, but... 

  I also bake and sell various kinds of bread at a local market and decided to make some pies and bring them to sell.   These were the pies I made for the market and they were a hit.   I sold out fast on these.  And who could blame me.  Each one of these little beauties is about 2 1/2 bites, not even a whole slice of pie, so you can enjoy a couple almost guilt free.  Almost...

This past summer I got on a berry kick and was buying various kinds of berries to eat fresh, as a snack, and freezing what I didn't eat, so they wouldn't spoil.  I ended up with a lot of fruit in the freezer.   I also have the habit of weighing stuff, and writing on the freezer bag how much is in there, just in case I want to use it for a recipe later on. 

I even had a little pastry left over from the mini pies, from this batch of pies, so I did a slightly larger pie for later, and ummm, kinda bobbled it taking it out of the oven so it made a bit of a mess, but I'm eating it anyway.  So there. 

What can I say, my memory is shot, and it helps me to know just how much of anything I have in the freezer, cause I'm in the CRS stage of life.    Look it up, if you have to. 

To make a long story short, (er)  Here's what I did.  All the berries were frozen when I put them into the pot to cook. No water was added. 

Blueberries - 1.5 lbs

Cranberries -1 lb

Blackberries -8 oz

Raspberries 8 oz 

1 oz. Lemon Juice (frozen from my lemon tree)

3 + cups sugar - to taste

Cornstarch slurry

Add all the berries to the pot at once, then add the lemon juice and heat over low heat until the berries start to pop and let out their juice.  Raise the temperature and let come to a simmer, and simmer about 20 minutes.  Next add the sugar, starting with 1 cup, stir to dissolve and then add the second cup.  Taste for sweetness, and add another cup or more of sugar if needed.  (your sweetness level may be different from mine, I used about 3 1/2 cups of sugar).  Make up a cornstarch slurry, depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. I like mine on the thicker side, and have to admit I didn't measure really well. Start with 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed in with 1/4 cup water, swirl into the sauce, let it come back to a boil, and check.  Add more cornstarch slurry if needed.  I did and ended up using 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.   Again, your mileage may vary.  

I also had lots of berry filling left, so I froze it in 2 tablespoon portions, using a silicone cube tray.  

And you can take the berry filling straight from the freezer and put it into the mini pies, but I would suggest thawing it first.  

I also use commercial pie pastry for this, as I find it a little more sturdy and that really helps the pies to come out of the pie cooker.  

I'm loving this little pie baker/appliance.  It bakes a pie in just about 15 minutes.  You can top the pie with a crust or not.  I've done it both ways.  I've also done a little weave on top, and they've come out nicely.   For me, they're perfect.  I can make pie, just for me, and freeze the rest for a snack later on.  I've been playing with different fillings and I think I like the Mixed Berry Filling the best.    

Hey, if you're going to indulge, ya gotta make it worth the calories...

• Karen's Kitchen Stories: Apple Cider Pie 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Impossible Lemon Pie 
• Sneha's Recipe: Magic Crust Custard Pie
• Sid’s Sea Palm Cooking: Mini Berry Pies
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Mini Pumpkin Pies with Cinnamon Swirl Crust 
• Mayuri's Jikoni: Mini Spanakopita Pies