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Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Blue Ribbon Muffins

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , on April 19, 2013| 10 Comments »

When I was in seventh grade I took Home Ec(onomics) in school.  I didn’t do so well in the sewing part of the class, but I did pretty well in the cooking part.  In fact, I did so well with making muffins that during the summer following seventh grade I entered my muffins in the county fair.  And won a blue ribbon!

I love muffins.  I mostly love muffins that are plain or have berries in them.  I won’t eat a chocolate muffin, and oaty muffins are wasted on me.  I thought I’d share my recipe for Blue Ribbon Muffins in case you like muffins as much as I do.  It’s a plain recipe, and you can add a cup of berries to the batter if you like.

First of all, grease the bottoms only of your muffin tin.  Bottoms only.  This is very important because if you grease the sides your muffins might not have a nice, rounded top.  Then, whisk together:

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar

In a separate bowl mix together:

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold gently until the dry mixture is completely moistened. Don’t over stir because then you’ll get air holes or “tunnels” in your muffins. The batter should be lumpy.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.  You can use paper liners if you prefer (and you wouldn’t have to grease the tin at all) but I find that makes the muffins drier than if they are baked right in the tin.

This is a good consistency for muffin batter. The wet ingredients are carefully folded so there is no dry flour in the mix, but the batter is still lumpy.

After the batter is evenly distributed between twelve muffin cups, bake in a preheated 400° F oven for about twenty minutes.  It might take longer or shorter, depending on your oven.

A perfect muffin! Nice rounded top.

Let the muffins cool for about five minutes in the pan, and then remove to cool completely.

Like I said earlier, this recipe can take a cup of berries if you want a more fruity muffin.  I like to add blueberries or raspberries when I’m in the mood.  You can mix up these muffins in the time it takes your oven to preheat, so you’ll never have the excuse of “I have no time to bake.”

These plain muffins are divine with a bit of butter.

You can also freeze the muffins for a later date.  I put them in the freezer immediately after they’re completely cool, to prevent them from drying out.  However, I don’t normally freeze them unless I’ve made two batches.  We can eat one batch of muffins pretty quickly in my house.

Who would have thought I’d still be making the muffins I made forty years ago in Home Ec class?  And why wouldn’t I?  They’re blue ribbon winners!

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Utilizing Pinterest To Generate A Laugh

Posted in Food, Holidays, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2013| 7 Comments »

The Inspiration

I use Pinterest as a filing system.  I hope that’s why it was invented because it works really well.  The internet is filled with craft ideas, recipes, household tips and all sorts of other things I’m interested in.  When I see something I like I’ll “pin” it and pretty much forget it.  Until that one day when I decide to remind myself of all the things I pinned.  Then I get all inspired and eager to try something new, or sometimes even buy something new. I found some cute little chocolate/pretzel Easter treats on the internet a long time ago and pinned them.

When the Easter season rolled around I decided to try to make them.  After all, someone else did the hardest part of thinking of the idea.  I just had to execute the already brilliant idea.  The original recipe said to use yellow candy melts for the fill, edible black pearls for the eyes, and orange chocolate-covered sunflower seeds for the beak.  I used vanilla almond bark tinted with yellow food color for the fill and for the eyes and beak I used decorating gel.  I also didn’t look at the picture before I started painting on the eyes and beaks so I didn’t have the embellishments in the right position on the pretzel.   The results made me laugh out loud.

Eyelashes?

Quite sad.

Very serious.

As singular little chicks they didn’t look quite right and I just kept laughing and laughing.  My little chicks looked much better when they were in a group.  You could kind of tell a little better what they were supposed to be.

I took my little Easter chick treats to my mom and dad’s house for Easter.  They were received with great enthusiasm, even though I didn’t do it exactly like they were shown on the site I pinned because 1) I made a treat from scratch that beared a slight resemblance to an Easter icon and 2) everyone in my family loves chocolate and pretzels no matter what they look like.

I hope your Easter was a happy one and that your sugar coma is short-lived.

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Are You Making Popovers?

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 18, 2013| 4 Comments »

The plan was to make some clam and pasta soup for dinner.  There was also a plan for snow and slippery roads.  I wondered what I could do instead of going to the store to buy some bread sticks or ciabatta rolls to go with the soup.  Make popovers, of course!

Lots of people think popovers are difficult and complicated.  Guess what?  There are only four ingredients and chances are better than good you have them all in your house right now.  Eggs, milk, flour and salt.  Who would guess these four ingredients would make such a delicious accompaniment to a winter evening soup?  The best thing about popovers is that everyone thinks they’re really fancy ~ only you’ll know they’re the easiest thing you could ever make from scratch.  I love them hot out of the oven with some a substantial amount of butter on them.

I make them in popover tins, but you can use custard cups or even muffin tins.

I use a basic recipe from Betty Crocker.  The recipe offered online is the same as it is in my cookbook, which is about thirty years old.  The classics last forever.

 

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Dive Night ~ Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room

Posted in Dive Night, Food, tagged , , , , on March 4, 2013| 10 Comments »

Dive Night is a once monthly adventure undertaken by me and Husby, along with our friends Ruthie and Ray. Each couple alternates choosing a restaurant, one which must come under the category of “dive.” Our definition of dive: a neighborhood gathering spot with a laid-back atmosphere and good food. We’ll find the interesting hang-outs in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. Casual attire required. A sip of beer or wine doesn’t hurt either.

Some of you who are über old might remember this place as Al’s Place. It was established in 1949.

Others, who are not quite über old (like Husby and Ray) might remember it as Stasius. It was established in 1975.

It’s the really young people who have only known this place as Stanley’s Northeast Bar Room.

Don’t misunderstand.  It’s not only young people who frequent Stanley’s.  I was happily surprised to see people of all ages at this Northeast Minneapolis (“Nordeast” if you’re from around here) landmark.  It used to be a favorite stomping ground for Husby and he was excited to see what it had become.  Even the über old people are still coming to enjoy Stanley’s.  It was a great mix, and it was packed.  We had to wait about thirty minutes for a table.

I love to see these old buildings being renovated rather than torn down.  The inside of Stanley’s was right in line with the building’s integrity.

When ordering a drink, don’t ask what’s on tap.  The list is way too long.

The atmosphere was very friendly and it’s the kind of place I would make a habit of haunting every Friday night if I were younger and could stay up past 10:00 p.m.  Remember the days when 10:00 was when things just started to get rolling?  Ruthie’s age really came through when she needed the flashlight app on Husby’s phone to read the menu.

And on with the food…

Mini corn dog appetizer. These things were so dang good I could hardly stand it. The batter had a nice texture with the corn meal and was so crisp. Much better than any corn dog, appetizer or full-size, than I’ve ever had. Sorry Pronto Pup.

OMG. The second appetizer we got were these gigantic deep-fried mushrooms. Seriously, it took three bites to finish one off. They came with a delicious seasoned sour cream. So, so good.

Husby ordered the turkey burger topped with lettuce, tomato, and a cranberry chipotle chutney. He also got sweet potato fries with a chipotle mayo dip. Yum!

Ruthie got a grilled cheese (swiss, cheddar & gouda mix) topped with tomato and bacon on wheat bread. She also got the colossal onion rings with that.

I also got the grilled cheese topped with bacon but no tomato. Mine was on marble rye bread. I also got some really good french fries with seasoned sour cream.

I also got a cup of clam chowder because resistance of chowder is futile.

Ray had the reuben. He gets reubens a lot because he loves them so. This one was packed with a ton of meat and served on marble rye. He also got the french fries and seasoned sour cream.

We were all thrilled with our meals.  They were hot and served to us in a decent amount of time.  And speaking of service, Ruthie thought our server was flirting with Husby.  And why wouldn’t she?  Husby’s a hottie.

One negative thing about or evening at Stanley’s was the fact that we waited a really long time for our check to come.  Our server checked in on us to see how our food was, but after that we didn’t see her for a really long time.  We had to flag her down for our check.  It was a pretty busy night so we cut her a break, but it was worth noting here.

I’d definitely visit Stanley’s again.  It not only has good food, but the atmosphere had a definite effect on me.  Seems like the places we’ve been to recently were frequented by older people, where we fit right in of course.  But Stanley’s was a breath of fresh air with the energy of the younger generation mixed with really cool, more mature people.  Nordeast rocks!

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Dive Night ~ Beartown Bar & Grill

Posted in Dive Night, Food, tagged , , , , on February 11, 2013| 15 Comments »

It was a cold and snowy night.  The dive was to be chosen by me and Husby so we decided to keep it local, avoiding a slippery and treacherous ride for Ruthie and Ray.  We chose the Beartown Bar & Grill, or Beartown Lounge, or whatever it’s called.  They don’t have a website but if you Google Beartown you can find some stuff on it.

Those are snowflakes you see glowing against the dark sky, not orbs from beyond the veil.

We walked in and saw on the floor a sign that said, Please wait to be seated.  So we did.  It didn’t take long for someone to come and greet us and she asked, “where do you want to sit, bar or dining room?”  We all kind of looked at each other, then let her know we would sit anywhere she decided to put us.  She hesitated.  I turned to Husby and said “if we can sit anywhere we want why did the sign on the floor say to wait to be seated?”  Well, someone spoke up and said dining room so that’s where she took us.

This is the bar, the place we didn’t sit.

This is the dining room, the place we did sit. It’s like we were put in the room of shame. Weren’t we cool enough to sit with the regulars?

We started out with some cocktails.  I must say the drink specials were hard to resist.  Buy one get one for $1.50, except for tap beer.  Ruthie and I got a couple of wines each, Husby got a couple of Greyhounds, and Ray got a tap beer.  The waitress asked if he was sure, because he wouldn’t get the deal with that.  Yes, he was sure.

Even though we were set away from the crowd in the bar the service was pretty good.  We actually had three people checking in with us throughout our visit.  So once we got our cocktails we ordered appetizers.

Ruthie and Ray got chips and salsa. The chips were pretty good. The salsa was more like picante sauce, not chunky, and not really enough was supplied for a whole basket of chips. It was all pretty good though.

Husby and I ordered the cheese quesadillas. It came with the same “salsa” as the chips, and also a couple of tubes of sour cream. Tasty and cheesy.

In case you’re new to the dive night reviews, each couple orders an appetizer and we all share.  So far you might think this is going to be a Mexican meal considering the appetizers we chose, but that’s not the case.

I ordered the fish fry special and I totally forgot to take a picture of it so you’ll have to rely on my description.  The waitress said “sometimes they give you a choice of cod or pollock but I don’t know if you get a choice tonight.  If you had a pick which one would you choose?”  I told her it really didn’t matter, and I have no idea what kind of fish I got because I’m not a fish connoisseur.  It was white and flakey.  However, the batter was pretty greasy and was pretty nondescript as far as flavor is concerned.  My dinner came with waffle fries and seasoned sour cream.  I also got a side salad which was also pretty nondescript, but salads are always pretty nondescript to me.  I ate it all up so it must have been good enough.  And now on to the other meals I remembered to photograph.

This is Husby’s French dip sandwich with onion rings. He liked the onion rings because he could bite them without having a string of onion sliding out of the batter. He didn’t have much to say about the sandwich. “It’s okay,” he said.

This is Ruthie’s chicken with waffle fries. The cup of white stuff is seasoned sour cream for the fries. She said the chicken was okay but “it could have a little more seasoning.”  The dinner allowed two pieces of chicken and she got her choice of what pieces she wanted.  She chose two thighs.   She also had a side salad with her dinner.

Ray ordered the meatball sandwich with onion rings. The sandwich looked great with its toasted bun and six meatballs with sauce and cheese. When I asked Ray (whose mother is an excellent Italian cook) how the sandwich was he responded “it’s kind of bland.”

It was very clear that none of us was overly thrilled with our meals.  We came to the conclusion that seasoning is not high on chef’s list of priorities.  The appetizers were fine, so we decided that if we had been sitting in the bar and were half in the bag with a big case of the munchies the appetizers could satisfy a need for food.  Going for dinner?  Never going to happen again.  I was extremely dissatisfied with the food at the Beartown Bar & Grill, although as I said before the service and drink specials were good.

I can’t close out this post without mentioning that this restaurant used to be called Big Ben years ago and served the best pie in town.  Like, the best.  The Beartown doesn’t even serve pie.  Although if they did they’d probably have canned filling and soggy crust.  None of us was happy with our dive experience at the Beartown, but we all agreed we’ve been pretty lucky over the past few years with the other dives we’ve tried and we deserve to come across a clinker once in a while.  Beartown is definitely that clinker.

Ruthie says, “Not.”

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