Week 17 - Medieval

It was a bit of a challenge for me during medieval week to try to find things I wanted to make. I wasn't really inspired by much of what I saw, and there was also a lot of red and game meat (not surprising) which I don't really cook at home. I still hadn't really decided on the meal by the time the challenge week rolled around, but when they mentioned that they had done this theme in honor of the return of Game of Thrones, that sparked an idea. If this was for Game of Thrones, why wouldn't I just look for recipes based on Game of Thrones? That seemed the easiest and most logical and would obviously be "medieval enough" for the challenge.

I decided to follow a recipe for honeyed chicken and another one for white beans and bacon, both of which I found on the Inn at the Crossroads site, a Game of Thrones food blog. In the end, I also added a salad with some bacon and onion dressing. This was mostly because we had a bag of salad greens in the fridge that I had bought with the intention of using it for something else which didn't happen. But more vegetables are always welcome in our meals, and they did eat salad in medieval times, so it worked.

Honeyed Chicken

I adapted the honeyed chicken quite a bit from the original recipe, mostly because I didn't want to roast a whole chicken. We keep boneless skinless chicken breasts (Costco-sized bag) in the freezer, and while they're not the most exciting or, in some people's opinions, the best parts of the chicken, they're convenient and they work for us.

The ingredients for our version of the honeyed chicken were:

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3)
- olive oil to rub into the chicken ($0.50)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- handful of raisins ($0.50)
- 1/3 cup honey ($0.55)
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar ($0.15)
- 1 tbsp butter ($0.15)

The cost for the chicken and sauce was about $4.90, not too bad for this portion.

To prepare the chicken, I rubbed it with olive oil and then sprinkled on salt and pepper. In retrospect, I probably should have poured the olive oil on while the chicken was on some other plate instead of the baking pan, because the excess oil smoked up a lot and kept setting off the smoke alarm. Then I roasted it until it was cooked through, checking the temperature with our likely unreliable meat thermometer. I think it was about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, but it's been a while and I can't seem to find my notes from the night I made this.

While the chicken was roasting, we worked on the sauce. I'm not usually a huge fan of mixing fruit with savory dishes (I know I've mentioned that a whole bunch of times in previous posts), but I was willing to give it a try in this sauce. To make the sauce, you combine the apple cider vinegar, honey, raisins, and butter in a saucepan, and let it simmer until the sauce reduces a bit and the raisins soak up some of the sauce. I don't remember how long this took, but it wasn't a super long time.

Once both parts were done, we poured the sauce over the chicken and that component of dinner was done. Overall, we thought it was fine, but it isn't something we necessarily need to make again. I wasn't the biggest fan of the sauce because of its sweetness. A liked it more than I did, but that was the result we both expected. He thought the sauce and the chicken paired very well. The original recipe also included a dash of mint, but I didn't want to buy an entire batch of mint just for a few leaves and also didn't have any dried mint on hand. It probably would have been better with it, but it was okay without it.

White Beans and Bacon

To go with our medieval chicken, I decided to make a side of white beans and bacon. The site we got the recipe from provided recipes for both medieval white beans and bacon and a modern version, but we of course went for the medieval one.

The ingredients for our white beans side dish were:

- 1 can of cannellini beans ($0.89)
- 5 pieces of bacon, chopped ($2.75)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped ($0.08)
- pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon to taste ($0.20)

The beans cost about $4.42, mostly due to the cost of the bacon, but they were really filling for the price. Combined with the chicken (which was the original conception of the meal), it came out to about $9.32, which is pretty reasonable.

We followed the recipe pretty closely, which began by frying the bacon until mostly cooked through. After the bacon was done, we moved it to a bowl, and sauteed the onions and garlic in the bacon fat until they were tender.

The bacon then got added back in, along with the beans. We let it cook for a while over low heat, basically until all the chicken stuff was done. I seasoned it with freshly ground pepper periodically, but only added the nutmeg and cinnamon near the end. The recipe had said to add poudre douce to taste, which according to Wikipedia (since I had no idea what it was) means sweet powder and is often used in medieval and Renaissance cooking. They wrote that it might include grains of paradise, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and galangal. Instead of making my own mix, I just went with cinnamon and nutmeg to get some of the sweet flavor. The nutmeg came across really intensely, much stronger than I thought it would be, but I added that and the cinnamon anyway to see how it would taste.

We liked the white beans and bacon. It was definitely filling, and comfort food in that stick to your ribs way. I personally liked it much more than the chicken, mostly because of the sweet sauce on the chicken. I would consider making this dish again, although I feel like I might do some more experimenting with the spices. I'm not sure what other ones would go well with it, but perhaps some additional ones or a little less nutmeg would be good.

Salad with Onion and Bacon Vinaigrette

The final component of our medieval meal (although we ate it first) was a salad with some Sorrento greens from Trader Joe's. That mix has baby arugula, baby spinach, and baby lettuces. I wasn't sure how historically accurate it was to eat those greens, but according to this site, they did have lettuce at the time, just not iceberg.

That site also advised that people did use oil and vinegar dressings with some herbs and seasonings. I was originally going to just use olive oil and some vinegar, but then remembered that we had this sweet onion and bacon vinaigrette dressing in the fridge. I thought that would work since we did just use onions and bacon in other parts of our medieval meal. It seemed to fit perfectly.

Since we haven't done a separate post on the greens or the dressing before, here's the quick reviews:

Sorrento Greens
Price: $1.99
Quick review: A more interesting blend than just plain romaine or spinach or arugula, but sometimes tougher to find a good bag without wilted leaves. When there's a good bag, it's a good salad green because of the variety and it's not as bitter as the regular rocket.
Buy Again? Sure, when they look good, but since the greens at TJ's are hit or miss in terms of quality, depends on the batch.

Sweet Onion and Bacon Vinaigrette
Price: $2.99
Quick review: As soon as I saw this on the new items shelf, I knew I had to buy it. It's not bad - a little on the watery side - but it didn't have as much onion or bacon flavor as I would have expected from the name. The dressing has actual sweet onions and bacon bits, along with mustard, some spices and seasonings, and natural hickory smoke flavor.
Buy Again? Maybe, but we like the sriracha ranch better.

Our 3 part medieval meal was interesting, but I think I prefer "modern" cooking a little more. It's always fun to do these experiments and explorations though, which is why I'm thankful the challenge exists!

Rodeo Rings

I went to Burger King recently and had a ridiculously unhealthy lunch. I went with the intention of trying the new chicken rings they've been promoting all over the place (even if I hate that they are actually named "chicken fries rings" because I think that name sounds so wrong), and I can never resist the call of onion rings when I'm there. I figured I'd end up sharing some of the chicken rings with everyone else, so I also tacked on a rodeo chicken sandwich that I found on the value menu but had never heard of before.

The chicken rings (I really can't say chicken fries rings; I know they trademarked chicken fries and that's why they're named that way, but I still can't) are similar to the chicken nuggets and chicken fries at Burger King, lightly breaded, seasoned, and shaped white meat chicken. I wasn't entirely sure what the seasonings were, but according to the nutritional information sheet, the seasonings are paprika, garlic, onion, and "spices."

As far as size, they're quite a bit larger and thicker than the onion rings, which are probably the best point of comparison. The box had 6 rings for $2.89, but I think that price varies by branch. I liked the chicken rings a lot, and would consider getting them again. But I've always liked the fried chicken nuggets and fries at Burger King (and chicken nuggets in general), ever since I was a kid, so it's not surprising that I like these too, despite the horrible name.

The rodeo chicken sandwich combined everything that I usually get from Burger King into a single sandwich - fried chicken, onion rings, and BBQ sauce. I'm not sure if I just missed advertisements for this when it was a new menu item (since even if they're playing on TV, I often tend to mentally tune them out) or if it just appeared on the value menu with no fanfare, but I never noticed it before. It was kind of like deja vu, same type of experience we had when we went to McDonald's on a road trip last year and found the grilled onion and cheddar burger on the value menu that we'd never heard of.

Although the rodeo chicken sandwich was okay, I think I preferred the fried chicken (in the form of the rings) and the onion rings with my dipping packets of BBQ better than the sandwich put together. I think it's because the onion rings on their own were crisper than they were in the sandwich, and I could control the amount of BBQ sauce better. Also, the sesame seed bun had the same problem a lot of fast food buns do in that they get a little bit soft and soggy. The sandwich was fine, but I think I'll stick to the nuggets (or rings or fries) and onion rings separately.

I definitely overdid it with all the fried food that day at Burger King, and probably should have mixed it up with some other stuff instead of just fried chicken, fried chicken, fried onions, and more fried onions. I made all my choices pretty quickly, so now I'm wondering what else was on the value menu that I didn't know about but could have tried. I'll take a closer look next time.

Yialos

Five years ago today, we had an amazing day in Naxos, Greece on our honeymoon. After starting the day off with a giant breakfast at the hotel, which had such a fantastic spread every morning, we went over to Agios Prokopios Beach, spending our time basking in the sun and wading in the crystal clear water. It was incredibly relaxing. We continued our beach day after returning to the hotel since our hotel was next to another beach, Agios Georgios (Saint George). That one was pretty different because you could walk out for yards and the water would still only be knee deep. It was fantastic.

Since we ate such gigantic breakfasts every morning at our hotel, we rarely ate a full lunch on our days in Naxos (which is the opposite of how we usually travel, when we eat a granola bar for a breakfast and then focus on having a bigger lunch), instead choosing to get a couple of light snacks before dinner. Our local beach had a bunch of small beachside tavernas, and it seemed like the perfect extension of our beach day to get some food from one of them for our daily snack. The one we stopped at was called Yialos, and we got a table with a full view of the beach. It was glorious.

We decided to order two dishes - stuffed vine leaves and a dip (which we think is skordalia, but aren't 100% sure this many years later), which we ate with some bread - and a couple of Mythos beers. We don't really remember a ton of specifics about how the food tasted there, other than that we liked it, but we absolutely remember the experience. It was perfect, exactly what we wanted on our last afternoon in Naxos. There was good food, cold drinks, a great view, and just a super relaxed atmosphere. While we sat there, just people watching, relaxing, resting in the sun, we didn't have a care in the world. It's a feeling I think we both wish we could replicate on every vacation, but we're not always successful.

The entire experience only cost us €11 (no idea what it would be now, but that's what it was 5 years ago), and it was totally worth it for a relaxing afternoon on the beach with tasty snacks. Once we left, it was time to head into town to buy our tickets for our next destination, take in a last sunset over the Portara (an absolutely magical experience in our opinion), and try to enjoy every last minute of our final night in Naxos. That was truly our favorite island, and the relaxing vibe and good food we had at Yialos was pretty representative of why we loved it so much.

Welcome Sticky's

We've been watching the progress of the new Sticky's Finger Joint in Hell's Kitchen over the past few months, and for a while, they've looked almost ready to go. Of course, the day that we didn't check on them was the day they actually opened with a special on $1 baskets of chicken. Oh well. In any event, this weekend was opening weekend, so we decided to go check them out. Service was a little slow and the staff still seemed like they were learning what went into each menu item, but considering they had barely been open for 2 days, we weren't expecting service perfection.

We ordered 2 things - a basket of fingers and fries and a wrap sandwich (they said the wraps were only on the menu at this location). There are 2 options when you order a basket. You can either get it plain, which is just 3 fingers, fries, and a sauce (a little takeout sized dipping container of sauce), or you can get a "signature" basket, which adds on a bunch of pre-designed toppings and douses all of the fingers and fries in sauce. We opted for the second, and got the General Sticky Tso style, which meant Sticky Tso sauce, scallions, hot peppers (pepper flakes, not actual peppers), and black and white sesame seeds. A had been in the mood for General Tso's chicken for a long time, so he was immediately drawn to that one.

The difference in price between the 2 baskets is a little less than $3, so you're paying (quite a bit) extra for more sauce and some garnishes (and I guess the fact that it's a composed combination). That said, the basket was pretty good. There was enough sauce and toppings to cover all 3 chicken fingers and the fries, the sauce was tasty (although a little salty, but we were expecting that because General Tso sauce is usually salty), and the chicken fingers themselves were succulent and a nice size. We were pretty happy with these, although the upcharge to get the toppings does seem a bit disproportionate to the amount of food actually added.

For the wrap sandwich, I opted for the spicy classic, which included a couple of spicy chicken fingers wrapped up with greens, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and chipotle mayo. We really liked this. The flavor reminded us a lot of the Fuku finger crunchwrap from Mission Cantina (which we still haven't written about, but will hopefully get to soon...) but without the crunch. The spice on the chicken seemed similar, and that zesty chipotle mayo was also comparable. Everything in the wrap worked well together.

We had a nice opening visit to Sticky's and are glad they're finally open, since we love fast casual and the more options in the neighborhood, the better. We're also fans of chicken fingers, so I think we'll be back here quite a bit.

V{IV} Thai

A little over 4 years ago, we tried out the lunch specials at a new-ish Thai place in Hell's Kitchen called V{IV} Thai. V{IV} stood out from some of the other restaurants at the time as it had a bit more "trendy" decor, but the lunch specials were still pretty reasonably priced. We got one rice dish and one noodle dish, but we both had the same problem once we tasted them. They were so incredibly salty that we had to send them back to the kitchen, and we hardly ever send food back. They made the dishes again, at a much better sodium level, and we were pretty satisfied with them. But with so many Thai restaurants in the neighborhood and the initial high sodium experience still in the back of our minds, we never found the time to go back and try them again.

A couple of days ago, I was looking for something for lunch that wasn't chicken nuggets from the freezer, and decided to give V{IV} another try. I had seen some interesting things on their menu, like nam prik ong (something we really liked out in Vegas), Chiang Mai sausage, and avocado massaman curry (which was also available for lunch specials). I ordered that curry lunch special, and then headed out in the drizzle to pick it all up.

Each lunch special came with a choice of appetizer, and I chose the fried chicken and shrimp dumplings, which seemed to be accompanied by a sweet chili sauce. I bit into the dumpling and was pleasantly surprised to see something that actually looked like shrimp and that it wasn't just mashed up meat and shrimp together. But that initial thought was followed by the realization that the dumpling was really, really salty. The sweet chili sauce masked it a little bit when I used it on subsequent bites, but it was still pretty salty.

The avocado massaman curry (with chicken) came in a big soup-type container with a side of rice, so I mixed it together in one of our bowls. I had been curious about what avocado massaman curry would be like, whether it would be any different from any other massaman curry, but it was really just massaman curry with half an avocado soaked in it. The potatoes, carrots, onions, and peanuts were fairly standard, and it tasted (as far as spices) on par with other massaman curry preparations we've had before.

That said, I had the same thought once I tried the curry as I did about the dumplings. Salty. Too salty for me anyway. I didn't think it was solely residual from the dumplings, since I drank a glass of water between them, but the dumplings probably didn't help. As I kept eating the curry, it seemed to get a little better, but I think I just got used to the salt. I ended up drinking a ton of water all day to counteract all the sodium. I don't know if it's just that I notice the salt more since we cook more at home (without all this extra, unnecessary salt) or if the folks in the kitchen there just have an entirely different idea of what is a good amount of sodium, but it just feels like we're not really on the same page. The food itself seemed to be fine, but all that extra sodium just made it harder to enjoy. I haven't had this problem with similar dishes from other Thai restaurants, so I'll probably stick with those and leave V{IV} for people who like and tolerate salt better than me.

Vanilla Bean Yogurt

Continuing on with the Trader Joe's yogurt posts...

Product: Nonfat vanilla bean Greek yogurt

Price: $0.99 for 5.3 oz

Quick review: The first thing I noticed when I opened this yogurt was the flecks of vanilla bean. In most vanilla yogurts, you get vanilla flavor but no evidence of actual vanilla bean. Perhaps I should have expected it given the name of the yogurt, but I didn't. There was "natural vanilla flavor" in the ingredients list higher than vanilla bean, but I was impressed that it had real vanilla bean in it at all. The second thing I noticed was the texture, nice and thick like the other TJ's Greek yogurts, probably my favorite thing about their Greek yogurt line. The vanilla flavor of the yogurt wasn't especially strong, not as strong as other yogurts (even other TJ's vanilla ones), but I liked it overall.

Buy Again? Yes, unless I'm looking for a stronger flavor, in which case my vote is still for black raspberry.

Week 16 - Root to Stem

The theme for Week 16 of the challenge was root to stem, sort of like nose to tail but more inclusive of people who wouldn't be doing meat challenges. I'm not really into buying and using whole animals or fish, so I knew I'd be going with vegetables. But what would I pick? The only things I came up with were beets and beet greens (which we've made before) and using all the parts of fennel (which I had never done before). I decided to go with the fennel. Most recipes that I found discarded the fronds and the stalks and used only the bulbs, but I did find one for braised fennel (source here) that seemed to use all (or most) of it so I used that as my starting point.

The ingredients I used were:

- 2 whole pieces (what's the right terminology?) of fennel ($2.49)
- 1 lb of carrots, chopped on the diagonal ($0.75)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.60)
- 1/2 head of garlic, chopped ($0.08)
- 1 tbsp olive oil ($0.20)
- 2.5 cups of vegetable broth ($0.40)
- dried thyme, a couple tsp ($0.10)

The braised fennel was half of our dinner that night, and cost approximately $4.62. Not too bad, but when combined with the other half of dinner, it wasn't an inexpensive meal.

I had never worked with fennel before at all other than fennel seeds. The recipe I was following cut out the core and didn't mention the stalks at all, but since this was the root to stem challenge, and all of those parts were edible, I decided to use it all. Well, all of it other than the bottom which I cut off just like I do for any other vegetable.

I cut off the fronds, chopped them a little, and put them aside since they would be mostly used as a garnish. I tried to cut the stalks on the smaller side since I had read that they were a little tougher than the bulb. The stalks, bulb, and core all got chopped together since they would all be thrown into the pan together. It was my first time chopping up the fennel but it seemed easy enough.

The actual cooking was fairly standard braising. I heated the olive oil in the pan, then cooked the onion and garlic until it was soft. After that, I added the carrots and fennel, and cooked all of it for a few minutes. Next, I added the vegetable broth and sprinkled on some dried thyme, then brought it to a boil, and then lowered the heat and let it simmer covered for about 25 minutes.

I checked the vegetables after that and they were actually fairly tender, which was good. I tried some of the stalk pieces and they were definitely a little more fibrous than the bulb, but still fine. I let it cook uncovered for another 5-10 minutes. The fronds got added on top as garnish and really brightened the whole thing up.

We ate the braised fennel alongside some really good salmon (more on that in another post). It tasted really clean and healthy, and it felt good to know that there was very little waste at all by using all the parts of the fennel. I love trying out a new vegetable (at least new to our kitchen) and figuring out something good to do with it. I always say I should do that more, and I'm glad it worked out well with the fennel.

Fig Bites

Product: Fig Bites made with Turkish Figs

Price: $1.99 for 10 oz package (18 pieces; they sold some smaller packages at one point)

Quick review: I've liked Fig Newtons since I was a kid, and lately we've been buying Costco boxes of fig bars (which used to come in fig flavor, but now appear to only come in apple cinnamon, blueberry, and raspberry flavors), so we were curious how the TJ's version would stack up against the others. They were a little different. They seemed "stickier" than the others, and the cookie part was much more soft. That meant that the cookie then didn't really provide much contrast with the fig portion, and it was all a soft, sticky block. The cookies also had a habit of squishing/breaking apart when you first tried pulling them out of the plastic packaging. I didn't love them when I first tried them, but they grew on me the more I ate. I think A liked them more than I did, but we both still prefer the Costco ones overall.

Buy Again? Maybe, maybe not. They're not bad, but not our favorite fig bars/cookies ever.

Week 15 - Brazilian

For the Brazilian challenge, I decided to make a fish stew based on this recipe I found on Allrecipes. It sounded relatively quick and easy, and didn't require any ingredients that I would have trouble finding nearby. I couldn't remember trying any fish stews at Brazilian restaurants before so I didn't know how the recipe would compare, but just hoped it would taste good.

The first step was marinating the fish, which I started the night before. The ingredients for the fish portion were:

- juice of 2 limes ($0.58)
- 1 tbsp ground cumin ($0.08)
- 1 tbsp paprika ($0.08)
- 1 tbsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- pinch of salt ($0.02)
- a few grinds of black pepper ($0.03)
- about 1 lb of cod, cut into chunks ($6.43)

The marinade was very simple - just mixing all the ingredients together and then adding the cod. I stirred it up a few times to make sure the fish was all coated, and then tried to submerge as many pieces as possible in the marinating liquid. By the time I pulled it out to make the stew, it had probably marinated for over 15 hours. It's been a few weeks, so I don't remember exactly how long, but probably upwards of that.

The rest of the ingredients for the stew were:

- a couple tbsp of olive oil ($0.30)
- 1 large onion, chopped ($0.60)
- 3 bell peppers, chopped ($2.27)
- 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained ($0.80)
- 1 can of coconut milk ($1.69)
- 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped ($1)

The total for all the components of the stew was approximately $13.93. Not terrible for a fish meal for two. We ate it over brown rice, so that would add another $1 or so to the total, bringing it to $14.93. I had spent most of the day wondering how this stew could possibly be filling enough to feed 6 people like the recipe said, and then decided that I would just put it over rice. When I re-read the initial description of the recipe before making it, I realized that they said they serve this with rice or tortillas. Guess I missed that the first time since it wasn't in the recipe itself (which I did read carefully in advance, learning from the past), but at least I was on the right track on my own.

To make the stew, I heated the olive oil in a large pot and then cooked the onions over medium to medium high heat. Once they were translucent, I added the peppers, diced tomatoes, fish, and coconut milk. (I always forget to shake the coconut milk before opening the can. I need to get better about that.) I let it simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes, stirring every so often.

After the 15 minutes were up, I added the cilantro and let it keep cooking for another 10 minutes until the fish was completely cooked as the recipe suggested. Unfortunately I think that might have been too long for the fish we used, since when I tried it after that, it seemed a little on the tough, rubbery, and dry side, and was certainly not the flaky, soft fish I was expecting to find.

Overall, the stew was fine and made for a good dinner. We liked the flavors, although the coconut milk didn't add as much flavor as we thought it would once it was mixed with everything else. If I remember correctly, A also thought it had a little bit too much lime juice, but that's probably because I added whatever marinade was left into the stew along with the fish. I didn't mind it though. For me, the biggest issue was that the fish wasn't the texture I wanted it to be. Whether that was because it marinated too long in that combination or because I cooked it for too long, I don't know, but I had been hoping it would turn out better than it did. Even if we might not make this exact dish again, I'm glad we tried it.

Doughnuts on the Road

Last week, Food Network Magazine and the Sweetery food truck teamed up for another promotion, this time called "Doughnuts on the Road." We've enjoyed this promotion in the past, trying out different cupcakes, popcorn, and macarons, and were really looking forward to this one. (If there was one last year, we must have missed it.) The doughnuts sounded so good, and the location-based flavors for each travel sponsor always give us a little bit of wanderlust.

A stopped by the truck at its first stop while on his way to work. A was glad that he got there so early as the line was already starting to curl back on itself when he arrived. Thankfully they had all of the options as he really wanted the king cake doughnut. M was sure that he would get the key lime pie, but he had been craving king cake for so long, and without access to New Orleans during Mardi Gras there was no way to get it without spending tons of money.

Unfortunately this didn't really taste like the king cake he had had earlier in his life, but it was still good. There was a nice bite to the skin of the doughnut followed by the pillow-y insides. The frosting was fairly standard vanilla, but it paired well with the doughnut and the sprinkles strewn on top. All in all, it was a good doughnut, but it wasn't king cake.

M went to the penultimate stop, about halfway through the truck's time there, and was super excited to get the king cake doughnut too. She thought of a couple of other flavors as "backup" just in case they had run out of king cake, but it was primarily going to be dictated by whether or not they had filling, as she's not a huge fan of doughnuts with filling.

When there were about 10-15 people in line in front of her, they made an announcement that all that was left was vanilla and key lime pie. Vanilla? There wasn't even a vanilla doughnut listed on the card. When she got to the front of the line, she asked the person handing out the doughnuts if either had filling. They said no, so M picked the key lime pie, figuring she should try the doughnut that was actually part of the travel promotion.

The no filling thing was a lie, as there was so much filling in the doughnut (way more than it looked like in this picture), and in fact, that's where most of the lime flavor was. The doughnut itself seemed okay, but it was totally overshadowed by all that rich, creamy filling. M caught a glimpse of what looked like someone else's vanilla doughnut when leaving the event, and it looked like a regular glazed one with sprinkles, so she had such chooser's remorse. Too bad.

The king cake was clearly the winning doughnut of these two, so at least A got to try it!

Breakfast Trash

The Ample Hills Flavor Frenzy tournament ended about a month ago, and we're still sad about the results (and still catching up on posts). It was a multi-round bracket tournament between ice cream and sorbet flavors that would lead to one flavor making it back into the permanent rotation for the year. We voted in every round, and the majority of our choices all lost. It was pretty sad. For the last round, the votes were tallied based on how much ice cream sold. We went multiple times to "vote" for our favorite and were pretty invested in our candidate. Which, of course, lost. Sigh.

The battle came down to Peanut Butter 4 President (the reigning champion, who we're hoping can now be retired from competition since it has won twice), a peanut butter cream cheese ice cream with peanut butter chocolate ooey gooey butter cake, and Breakfast Trash: Frooty Edition, a cereal-infused ice cream with clusters of Froot Loops and Fruity Pebbles. We tried both of them, but the Breakfast Trash completely won us over. Not as surprising for me since I seem to like lighter flavors (my favorites there are both marshmallow based ice creams), but for A, a huge lover of peanut butter, to choose Breakfast Trash should prove to you how good it was.

We were completely invested in the Flavor Frenzy tournament (which I'm sure was the goal), which led to me repeatedly refreshing all the social media channels all the time to find out who won. We were hoping we'd be able to get more of that sweet cereal milk ice cream with all the cereal bits in there all year, but as we watched how quickly the peanut butter was selling out at our local location, we became increasingly resigned to the fact that this might be the last time we would be able to get this (unless we got lucky and it made a surprise appearance some other day or unless it made it to the finals next year). When the inevitable news popped up that Peanut Butter 4 President won, we were so sad. Next time, Breakfast Trash. Next time. Until then, we've got some pints of Light Side (we'll write about the Star Wars ice cream soon) in the freezer to console us.

Week 14 - Food in Disguise

It's been some time since we've posted anything, and a big part of that is probably because I've been doing hours and hours of uploading and organizing our photo collection in preparation for Google killing off Picasa. But while that is preserving some of our memories in some fashion, not writing is probably causing others to fade. So, since it's a new month, it's time to get back to writing again. We've got lots of catching up to do.

While I enjoy looking for ideas for the 52 week cooking challenge, some of the weeks I have the hardest time with are the creative concepts. The Week 14 challenge (for April fools week) was food in disguise, making food look like something else other than what it is. I had no clue what to do, but luckily A is pretty good with these creative weeks. His idea was to make a cake out of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Sounded good to me!

I really liked the meatloaf I made back in the Week 24 challenge in 2014, so I made that again for this challenge. It helped that it was glazed in ketchup, so it was like a layer of red cake. For the mashed potatoes, I just made pretty standard mashed potatoes with butter and milk and added in some chives. Instead of sprinkles on top of the cake, I went with chopped up chives. To build the cake, I cut a slice of meatloaf in half and put a layer of potatoes between the halves, and then also potato frosting on top, topped off with the chives.

I don't know why I envisioned a layer cake for this challenge the entire time instead of a single cake layer "frosted" with mashed potatoes. I just thought I could make us "slices" of layer cake. I probably needed to build the meatloaf into a bit of a taller loaf to make it really look like a cake slice, but it sort of worked. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes are always a good match, so as far as taste, this was a great dinner. The meatloaf was just as good as last time. Definitely our favorite meatloaf recipe at the moment.

Apparently A's idea to combine meatloaf and mashed potatoes was pretty popular for that challenge week as it turned up in a lot of people's dishes. Most people however made meatloaf cupcakes frosted with mashed potatoes, which I thought of but thought sounded a little too similar to the stuffins I made last year. I wish the cake had come out a little more looking like a giant cake slice, but since the components themselves tasted good and I care more about that than their appearance, it was still a very satisfying dinner.