Breakfast at Andy's--Chocolate Chip Scones

SCHOOLS OUT!
Which means....

Every morning I can wake up and NOT have to rush out of the house before the sun is even out. Thus, from a cooking standpoint, I can have a good breakfast every morning! With time to experiment in the kitchen before starting my days, I can have slightly more interesting things than Multigrain Cheerios.

So, to begin my summer of more interesting breakfasts, I made a family favorite. Grandma Johnson's Scones isn't a recipe from our grandmother, or a family recipe that's been passed down, it's simply our family's go to recipe for a good breakfast treat. 

The thing that makes these scones special is their secret ingredient...sour cream! Though it may sound strange, sour cream is actually the perfect thing to go in a scone. The classic dish that ends up always becoming too dry, sour cream keeps even the driest of scones moist.

Beyond the secret ingredient--most of the recipe is predictable. The recipe is as follows: 

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 TSP Baking Soda

4 Cups Flour

1 Cup Sugar

2 TSPS Baking Powder

1/4 TSP Cream of Tartar

1 TSP Salt

1 Cup Butter

1 Egg

CHOCOLATE CHIPS (Unless you're a sissy)

HEAT OVEN TO 350, Line two/three baking sheets with parchment paper.

Thankfully, since it's the morning, the recipe isn't too hard. Combine the dry ingredients (EXCEPT THE BAKING SODA) in a big mixing bowl, cut in the butter, then mix in the egg and sour cream and baking soda thoroughly. Mix in the chocolate chips last.

Once you have the scone dough finished, turn it out onto the counter and lightly flour it, and knead it just until it comes together. Roll it or knead it out into a round (similar to a big pizza round but thicker) and cut the dough into as many wedges as you can. Make them with the assumption that they're rise, but don't cut them TOO small. 

Bake the scones 12-15 minutes or until they're golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Hopefully they look like this!

• 
  

Mother's Day--A Pleasant Poundcake Recipe

It's been awhile. Sorry that I've been away for so long to all of my 10 fans who told me they miss my blog posts and wish that I had new recipes for them, but guess what--I'm back!

 I tried a new recipe a little while back for Mother's Day, a holiday annually filled with barbecues and cookouts. My family of course, who would never break from tradition (the way I like it), had a barbecue like the rest of the world. The recipe I tried was for a vanilla poundcake. I mostly wanted to try it out because I had cream cheese in the fridge and needed something to go with my favorite cream cheese icing, but this cake also served another purpose, one I secretly didn't realize i need it to serve. This cake is suppperr rugged. It's not too elegant...it's nothing fancy..but it tastes pretty good!

 If I have any regrets with this recipe, it's that I insisted on making it in two 9" rounds. This wasn't the best idea, because the cake dried out slightly. Ideally, this should be made in a loaf pan or at largest, a bundt.

 Ingredients are as follows:
 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
 3 cups all-purpose flour (I substituted 2 and 3/4 cake flour to keep it lighter)
 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
 1 teaspoon kosher salt
 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (or 1 cup milk with a tablespoon white vinegar if you forgot  buttermilk at the store, like me :()
 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (You can definitely up this a little, to get a vanilla flavor I used about a tablespoon)
 Preheat the oven to 350. Grease up two 9" rounds (although as I said, this made it a little too dry so if you'd rather, use 1-2 loaf pans. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes depending on your mixer). With the mixer on, beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. In another large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, combine the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the creamed sugar/butter batter, trying to begin and end with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, and bake for 26-38 minutes (check it occasionally, you never know). If you use loaf pans instead, it'll be more like 45 to an hour.

When the cakes are done, let them cool for 25 minutes.
Proceed to FROSTING! If you're a longtime Teenwithtaste fan, you'll know that this recipe is the same as the one I use for my Red Velvet Cake's cream cheese frosting. Sucks to have one good recipe, doesn't it? ;)
However, there's one twist. Going into this Mother's day, my sous chef (my sister), and I knew that my mother has a strange taste for jelly. So, we frantically tried to figure out how to put a layer of raspberry jam in the middle of our vanilla cake! Turns out, the internet (which knows everything) gave us two helpful hints:
1: Whip the jelly with a whisk in a bowl first. It thickens it slightly, to keep it from flowing all over.

2: Create an icing ring around the edge of your lower layer. Then, when you pour the jelly in the middle layer, it wont flow out the sides of your cake.

ALRIGHT: Continue with your frosting of cream cheese once your done the middle layer extravaganza. Ice it like you would any normal cake, and get your helpful older sister to decorate it like a madwoman. Cream Cheese Frosting:
 1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Then, add the sugar, mixing for anywhere from 3-6 minutes on high, scraping the bowl down occasionally, in order to make it smooth. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally).

Slight credits to Ina Garten for trying to make a good poundcake recipe, but not really doing it right. ...and the jelly/icing is all me. :)

A Plethora of Polenta

Over the recent winter holidays, I was a part of many "secret santa" celebrations in school. Being the lazy, not creative bum that I am, I baked here and there for my recipients. However, much more interesting were the gifts I received. In one secret santa party, I got a cookbook! My classmates know me too well...
While peeling through the book, entitled, "500 Main Courses," I found a recipe for something I always wanted to experiment with--Polenta. An old Italian peasant's dish, Polenta is a cornmeal driven side dish that can be served in a mashed potato like state, or cooled, cut, and fried. When deciding to make it--the choice was clear.
I mean really, who would opt to NOT fry?
Anyway, The recipe is simple (because beyond growing your own corn, what are you going to do?), and is as follows.

2 and 1/4 Cups Polenta
1/4 Cup Butter
4 Cups Water
A pinch (ish) of Salt
*FUN*

Line an 11x7 Baking Tin with parchment paper.
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, and add a pinch or so of salt. When it boils, turn the heat down to about 1/3 power, pour in the polenta, and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Spoon all the polenta into the parchment lined tin and put it in the fridge to cool. Like below!

Once it's cool, pull the dish out and turn the polenta out of the parchment and dish and onto a cutting board like below.

You'll want to cut off any awkward ends made by the dish, and then cut your polenta into strips. If there's any advice I can give you after my first trial, it's that polenta isn't good thick. You won't cook it correctly in very tall pieces, so try to cut your pieces of polenta as thin as possible. If they get too thick it'll be an unpleasant eat, as your teeth will be fully submerged in weird, dense cornmeal. Cut them even thinner than mine are shown whilst frying below:

The last piece of advice I can give you, is that you'll never over-season or over dress your polenta. The extent of my seasoning was to throw spices on the polenta while it was frying. If that is what you do, just be heavy. Cake the spices on.
Why?
Because polenta tastes like nothing. It was known as the beggar's side dish because it consists of nothing. There are no high priced ingredients inside, it requires no "black truffle oil," or "chipotles and adobo!" It's just polenta.

Thus, the last ingredient yet to be used in my list is *FUN*. This fun is to be used now! Once your polenta is fried, put something on it! Many people like to put tomato sauce and cheese on their polenta. Others (like myself) like a good batch of fried onions and mushrooms on theirs. It doesn't matter what it is, my friends, just please--put SOMETHING on your polenta.

Credits to 500 Main Courses a compilation by Jenni Fleetwood.

RECIPE--Red Velvet Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing

"Did someone say...CAKE?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmLFmp5kJCk&feature=related (Paste into search bar, Blogspot is a natural link-killer)

As the youtube clip above of my favorite children's cartoon shows, everyone, (including the grumpy teacher Mr. Ratburn)loves a good piece of cake.
The other day, a good friend of mine was approaching a very important birthday--her 16th. In order to make it special, I asked her if she could have any flavor birthday cake she wanted, which would it be? She said "red velvet" and thus, I went to the internet to look for a red velvet cake recipe.
I came across the following recipe courtesy of "Cake Man Raven," world renowned southern baker and confectionery king. I made small amends/additions to the recipe, changing parts of the process that I thought weren't quite right, but overall, I was pleased with the recipe, and as you'll see by the pictures below, the cake turned out great.

Vegetable oil for the pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (BUT I used around 2 and 3/4, 3 cups of Cake flour, it makes the cake lighter and more moist.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (I used around 2 teaspoons, 1 gives nearly no chocolate flavor in the end)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)(really just enough to turn it red, don't let a recipe tell you how much you need, put in a little, mix, and evaluate.)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Below, the greatest food coloring set ever. Gels>liquid drops.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans.

Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Then, add the sugar, mixing for anywhere from 3-6 minutes on high, scraping the bowl down occasionally, in order to make it smooth.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally).
`
Yield: enough to frost a 3 layer (9-inch) cake

FINAL CAKE: (garnished with red sugar and a classy red "happy birthday.")

Las Cazuelas (Philadelphia, PA)

"Didn't we go there ten years ago?"
"Wasn't that the old place across from that place near that other place?"

A typical "where are we going to dinner?" conversation in my family usually includes one of these interchanges. Seeing as my parents have been eating in the same city for over 25 years, they have favorite places, places they'll never go back to, and some that they just can't quite remember.
The other night my family went back to a little Mexican restaurant in the Northern Liberty area of Philadelphia called Las Cazuelas. My dad remembered it as a cute little place with an interesting menu, and so we felt we owed that memory a trip back.
Upon entrance, one can't deny that yes, Las Cazuelas is a cute little place. It has two small floors, a lower room that opens up to the kitchen, and a larger, two room upper floor with 10+ tables between the two rooms. However, seating wise, some people find the format of the upstairs a little funky, because one of the rooms is almost entirely dedicated to high tables with high chair seating that can be uncomfortable to sit in.
Getting past that, the menu seemed interesting. An array of items, all with authentic appearing names. My family, hungry as usual, ordered three appetizers. The Empanaditas de Tinga, the chips and guacamole, and a fried plantain special. Before getting to the disappointment let me say the Empanaditas were DELICIOUS. They were the best thing I ate all night. However, the other two were absolutely horrible. The plantains were good, but one thing our waitress did not mention was that the plantains were garnished (using the term lightly) with a quarter pound of hamburger ground beef. What? Really? What was the need for that? The meat completely ruined the plantains. The chips/guac/salsa was ALSO covered in meat. We wondered why this vital part of both had been left out, so we looked back at the menu..and still couldn't find where the "large amounts of meat" came into play. The meal was essentially ruined from the beginning.
Next, we ordered dinner. I got the Arrachera, a steak with black bean soup and a potato cake. The steak was highly average, it was spiced well but it was cut in such a manner that made it tough rather than tender. The accompanying soup was completely ruined by the half a bag of parsley garnish that the chef decided would go well on top. Instead of tasting like a deep, rich bean soup, it tasted like water with parsley in it, with a side of canned beans on the bottom. Finally, the potato cake was completely underdone, the potatoes had no crust on them, so I just gave up trying to enjoy the "cake." My mother ordered the Mole, (pictured from my shoddy cameraphone below) which was the best of the worst, but still, not a good meal. The mole was far too sweet, not lending much to expertise. My sister/father also had two more average dishes, each with a small upside, but bigger downside...and just when you thought it was gone, my sister's whole dinner was covered in the typical Las Cazuelas ground beef garnish.

If you read my blog often, you know that I generally don't go so harsh on a restaurant. However Las Cazuelas just didn't cut it for me. The food wasn't good, the atmosphere was kind of strange, and not to mention the prices were fairly high for the quality of food.
Bottom line: Cazuelas had mostly bad food, was a weird setting, and bad pricing. There are definitely better Mexican places/options if that's what you're hungry for. Avoid this one, it's not worth your time and money.
Rating: 1/5 Stars. (the empanaditas were the 1.)
Visit Las Cazuelas's website @ http://www.lascazuelas.net/

Fogo de Chao (Philadelphia, PA)

Recently, I had the pleasure of eating at a restaurant unlike any other that I've been to, Fogo de Chao. A true Brazilian steakhouse, Fogo is a most unique dining experience that you really can't get anywhere else. The basic premise is that you sit at a table, and are served endlessly from a selection of over ten meats, all roasted on a spit in the kitchen. If you want to hear more about the service, visit their website @ http://www.fogodechao.com/menu/dining-experience/
From the outside, Fogo's three part dinner service seems pretty simple. However, it's much more complex than you could ever imagine.
When you sit down for the first time, you'll be offered the salad bar. Consisting of endless vegetables, multiple pasta/potato/salads, aged cheeses (including a mammoth wheel of aged parmesan), as well as a selection of meats and smoked salmon, the salad bar is not to be overlooked. However, one must keep in mind the meat course (2nd course) is still to come when you're up there selecting your salad items. You wouldn't want to finish eating your raw vegetables, become full, and then not have room for the lamb chops walking around.
Now what about those lamb chops walking around? Well here is where Fogo de Chao separates itself from any other steakhouse you've ever attended. When you decide to begin your meat course (signaled by flipping your given Fogo De Chao two sided token from red to green) men with various accents and cuts of meat will begin to come to your table and offer you any one of their bites. From Filet Mignon, to ribs, to chicken, to flank steak, to pork loin and anywhere in between, you might find it hard to pace yourself. Speaking of pacing myself,within mere minutes of flipping my token...my plate looked as it does below

Now you may be saying, "THERE ARE THINGS OTHER THAN MEAT ON HIS PLATE. WHAT?" Well the next part of the meal that goes along with the meats is the group of endless side dishes that are served. Warm bread, crispy polenta, caramelized bananas (essentially fried plantain imposters), and garlic mashed potatoes are all brought to your table and refilled as needed. These are the weakest part of the meal, but hey, you didn't come for mashed potatoes. Pictured below is the polenta (the best of the side dishes).

But back to the meats. Overall the meats were somewhere from good to great. The draw of Fogo shouldn't be eating the best steak you've ever tasted, rather the most variety and in the most interesting way. If you truly want the best filet mignon, go to the best steakhouse in Philadelphia and order solely the steak. However, if you want a delicious filet, a taste of a rib, a bite of sausage, etc, Fogo is your best bet (and one of the only places that could supply you that as well). The most truly delicious steak on the menu, as a consensus of my whole party, was what they called the "house special," colloquially known as a top sirloin, and it out shined every other piece of meat I ate that night. As pictured below on the spit, it truly wowed me and made me want to just keep eating and eating.

Finally, we got to ordering dessert. On most dinners I'd say dessert at Fogo de Chao is like a leprechaun at a Bar Mitzvah in Lower Merion--not often spotted and if spotted, kind of uncalled for. However, it was my 16th birthday dinner, so dessert seemed fitting. I got what the restaurant praised to be their most requested dessert, the papaya cream (below). It was truly the best ending to the meal, a smooth, creamy, refreshing bite at the end of a mostly heavy, hearty meal. My friend got the molten chocolate cake as per suggestion by our hipster young male waiter, and it did not disappoint either. However, twas the polar opposite of the papaya cream. (picture further below.)

Overall, I'd say Fogo de Chao is an interesting culinary experience for anyone that likes to eat or likes to taste good food. If you can bear the stiff price tag, Fogo's a one of a kind dine.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Check out more about Fogo at their website: http://www.fogodechao.com/home/

Chiapparelli's (Baltimore, MD)

The other night, I found myself in a pickle. My family and I were driving home from visiting family in Potomac, MD, and the day was growing old quickly. It was getting later and later, and we had not eaten anything since much earlier in the day. We were all hungry but had no idea where to stop for dinner on the trek back home. My dad had a spur of the moment nostalgic thought about an old Italian restaurant he had once went to in Baltimore's Little Italy. I tried my best to put it into Google on my phone, and somehow it knew where I was going with my guess--and we set out a path to get to a restaurant called "Chiapparelli's."
As you enter the threshold of Chiapparelli's, a warm, embracing air greets you at the door. You'll most likely be sat by a representative of the very experienced, helpfully accommodating waitstaff. The menu is typical of any traditional Italian based menu, offering a large selection of pastas along with a few meat and fish dishes as well. You can see the whole menu here > .
To start the meal, we ordered a few appetizers. Arancine, a classic Italian dish that is made of rice balls that are creamed with cheese and fried, along with the another traditional dish of Italian sausage that Chiapparelli's gets from a local butcher stood out. Below is the Sausage and peppers--because it was short notice that we were going to Chiapparelli's, I had to take the pictures on my phone and thus they don't look quite as good as the food really did in real life :(

It only got better from there. For the main course I had the "Drooling Gnocchi," (pictured below) which was absolutely delicious. Chiapparelli's has been making homemade gnocchi almost as long as they've been in business--over 70 years. Creamy, cheesy and delicious, a great dish.

My sister, always the adventurous one, (...) had the spaghetti and meatballs. Apparently it was great, despite being "So much I just can't finish it!!!" (below)

Bottom Line:All in all, I can't say enough about Chiapparelli's, a delicious stop on any trip to or passing by Baltimore.
Rating: 4/5 Stars

You can find out more about Chiapparelli's at their website--