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Yes, it shouldn’t be about prepared foods…

Friday, August 27th, 2010
yes-it-shouldnt-be-about-prepared-foods

It would be great if everything we thought was fantastic was organic, local, fair trade and eco-friendly.  But, things just don’t always work out that way, and sometimes some great guilty pleasures do nothing more than make us smile and put money in the pocket of a large corporation.  It’s not the end of the world – it’s just how things work sometimes.

Having said that – holy crap, I have a few new guilty pleasures!  First being Starbucks Via.  I am a woman who is not the biggest fan of instant coffee – at least when it comes to anything that is supposed to be a replacement for brewed coffee.*  I had been using Folger’s singles in a pinch when I either wasn’t in the mood to make a full pot of coffee, or out of regular coffee altogether.  Those worked quite well, and were better than any instant crystals I’d run into.  I was quite skeptical that an “instant” coffee could be better than anything I’d run into before.  When Starbucks did their initial rollout, my local store did “mocha mousses” with whipped cream & the Via crystals mixed – they tasted like coffee whipped cream with no graininess.  So, I knew it would least dissolve in water.  Let me say – this stuff is pretty good.  It’s not the same as a pot of coffee, but it is NOTHING like instant/freeze-dried coffee.  It’s more expensive than instant – I picked up an 8 pack for $8, but if you’re using it as emergency/backup coffee, it’s worth it.

My second guilty pleasure, courtesy of my new fridge/freezer.  It has been empty, cause the old one had defrosted and re-froze things multiple times, so it all had to go.  I happened to walk down the ice cream section of the market the other night…  I spied Twix Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches.  (Crappy flash link, but it’s there.)  AWESOME!!!!!!!  They’re very mini, which is fine – I am someone who can have 3 bites of ice cream and be happy.  It’s French Vanilla ice cream, with a ribbon of caramel, Twix cookie bits on top, and the whole thing covered in chocolate.  Just AWESOME!  Reminds me of the ice cream bars that Baskin Robbins used to have.  (And may still have, but I’ve not been in for a while.)

The third one is also ice cream…  Dove Cafe Collections.  Coffee flavored ice cream minis with chocolate chips & chocolate coating, or coffee ice cream with milk & dark chocolate coating.  Again, just a couple bites, but so insanely satisfying!!!!

*I will admit a love for GFIC’s Cafe Vienna & Orange Cappuccino.  I will readily admit that they aren’t really coffee, but a flavored delivery system for caffeine and sugar that presents itself in a hot-drink manner appealing to me.  I won’t say it’s really coffee.

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Posted in Americano, Awesome, Desserts | No Comments »

The Majestic Cafe

Thursday, August 12th, 2010
the-majestic-cafe

Met up with my friend Stephanie tonight and we went wandering about Old Town Alexandria for dinner.  As we approached the Majestic Cafe, she asked if I’d ever been there.  Nope.  I’ve walked or driven by it countless times, but never been inside.  (And honestly thought it was a diner.)  She said, “It’s pricey, but good.”

Well, when it comes to good food, I am totally OK with pricey, so in we went.

And it kicks ass.  To start off with, the water is awesome.  I know how totally bizarre that sounds, because it sounded a bit strange to me when she said, “Get the still water – it is incredible!”  But it was also a million degrees out and I wanted water – and as much as I love sparkling water, at $4.50 for sparkling vs. $0.00 for still with a very emphatic recommendation – I went with the still water.  I have no idea what filtration/water softening system they use at the restaurant, but it makes water actually TASTY.  And from me, that is actually saying something, because I really am not much of a water drinker at all.  I downed 2 LARGE glasses of this water without even blinking an eye.  In the normal course of a day, I have to *force* myself to down 8 to 16 ounces of water.

As humid and sticky as it was, I wanted an icy cocktail, but wasn’t quite in the mood for one of their many tiki-rum drinks, and the Salty Dog I ordered was top-notch, but the “Missionary’s Downfall” in the awesomely goofy tiki-glass that Steph ordered seemed to perfectly fit the bill for her.  (I have to be in a certain mindset for rum drinks.  I have no idea why.)

For dinner, I got the sauteed soft shell crabs.  Outstanding.  They were smothered in perfectly ripe off-the-vine-this-morning tomatoes, sweet corn and lima beans.  (And I SO love lima beans!  My only argument would be that they need *more* lima beans in it!)  Steph had the Amish chicken, which she definitely seemed to enjoy and took the rest home for tomorrow’s lunch.  (Bonus:  When you get a to-go box, they put the date on it.  However, I can’t imagine anything from this restaurant lasting in the fridge more than 24 hours.)

By the time the dessert menu came around, I was perfectly stuffed and felt I couldn’t really avail myself of their selections (though I was tempted by the chocolate & bourbon beignets, as was Steph!) but I couldn’t resist their Irish Coffee.  I **love** Irish Coffee and if someone is bold enough to include it as a menu item, I have to see how it stacks up to the rest.  And the Majestic indicated that it “looked like a Guinness!”  Well, I love Guinness, too, so I had to check this out.  It’s coffee, Irish Whiskey and brown sugar, topped with their homemade whipped cream.  And it really does look like a Guinness!  And is very, very tasty.

The cherry on the top was chocolate truffles rolled in coconut that came with the check.  Beats a peppermint any day of the week.

Seriously, if you want an un-fussy place to eat with spectacular food – hit the Majestic.

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Posted in Americano, Beer - Wine - Spirits, Crab, Restaurants, Bars & Such | No Comments »

Pancake incompetent no more!

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Made pancakes the other night, and for what I swear is the first time, they were terrific.  I’ve had problems in the past with pancakes for two reasons:  First, I didn’t have a decent griddle pan for them.  The pan I used is roughly omelet sized and was really not conducive to pancake making.  That has been fixed by acquiring a lovely 12″ non-stick griddle pan, from my local hardware store.  (They have an amazing kitchen gadget selection.)  I also have a weird problem with an inability to properly pour pancake batter.  I’m serious – it should be so easy, and yet, I always make a mess of it.  I’d seen a pancake dispenser in a diner once and thought “damn, I need one of those!” but I never really saw one anywhere.  And then I got my Avon catalogue…  HOLY CRAP, BATMAN, A PANCAKE DISPENSER!!

I was able to make perfectly sized pancakes that turned out wonderfully!  An excellent breakfast for dinner.  It comes apart easily for cleanup and does a great job controlling the amount of pancake batter hitting the griddle.  I love it.

If you want a pancake dispenser like this, Avon has it.  I am also an Avon rep, so if you want to order it from my site, that would be kinda awesome, too.  Just search on “pancake dispense” – and while you’re at it, browse the “Gifts for Home” section – they’re really rocking the cute kitchen stuff these days.

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Posted in Americano, Breakfast, Gadgets | No Comments »

Best Cheese Grits EVER.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

>матрациe has been snow here.  A lot of snow.  It’s finally starting to melt, but thanks to the snow, I have been eating a lot of cheese grits this past month.  They soothe the cabin-fevered beast and are a great warmup after shoveling snow.  But today, I had an idea – and it was a spectacular idea.  Instead of making the grits with water, why not chicken stock?  Well, the result was AWESOME.

I wish I had a photo – I took some quick shots, but when I pulled them off the memory card, they were blurry – and I’d already finished the grits by then.  (I’m quite certain I’ll be making this again, so there is hope that I can get a shot.)

Best Cheese Grits Ever:

1/4 c. old fashioned grits (NOT instant)
1 1/8 c. chicken stock or broth
2 ounces shredded chipotle cheddar cheese
salt & pepper

Bring the stock to a boil, add grits, stir well.  Set heat to LOW and cover.  After about 6 minutes I hit it with the salt & pepper.  Then at the 12 minute mark, I stir in the cheese.  I did notice that with the chicken stock, it was still a touch soupy at the 12 minute mark, so I let it go another minute or so.  (In the future I may just cut it back to 1 cup of stock.)

Once the cheese is stirred in, sit back and enjoy!

According to the grits package, 1/4 c of grits is 2 servings.  Maybe if you’re eating it with something else.  Otherwise, it’s one perfect serving on it’s own.

Posted in Americano, Breakfast, Brunch, Comfort Foods, Grits | No Comments »

I so love baked potatoes…

Sunday, December 13th, 2009
i-so-love-baked-potatoes

I really do.  When I gave my brother a choice of baked or fried potatoes with dinner and he chose baked, I certainly couldn’t argue it.

So easy, so simple, so good.  Prep time of a whole 2 minutes of washing them off, poking them a couple times with a fork and tossing in a pan. An hour in the oven at 400 degrees and that’s that.  Even twice baked are easy, another 5 minutes of mashing them up and a couple minutes back under the broiler.

They’re healthy (even with toppings – just don’t use an entire pint of sour cream) and easy and one of my favorite sides.

All hail the lovely baking potato!

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Posted in Americano, Potatoes, Sides | No Comments »

OMG, I must try this sometime!

Sunday, October 18th, 2009
omg-i-must-try-this-sometime

Baked Rigatoni Cake from Culinary in the Desert!

I think I gained 10 pounds just reading it, but WOW it looks great!

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Ocean Boulevard

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
ocean-boulevard

Ocean Boulevard still kicks ass, much to my delight. It’s jumped straight to the top of my list of favorites over the past couple years. The also bill themselves as a Martini bar, so a good 1/2 of the drinks page is martinis and other various ways to fill a martini glass with pure alcohol.

They have a drink called the South Beach. Stoli Oranj, Absolut Citron and a splash of something. (Air, I suspect.) Sublime, thought it should be called the “smack you on the ass” martini.

Shrimp and heirloom grits for my app, and I would not share. (Thought I do have to think that heirloom grist are simply a box of grits found in the back of the pantry that don’t have any weevils in them.) Shrimp was marinated and grilled, and the grits were done perfectly. And it’s an appetizer that is actually appetizer sized so you’re not going to ruin your meal.

My brother, the more generous of us, got the jerk beef tips app and actually shared with everyone. Those were great, too, and again a small serving that is actually appetizer sized.

I went for the special – seared Mahi-Mahi (always good) over a grits cake (sold) with succotash and bacon. (SOLD!) And some more shrimp thrown in for good measure. And the bonus: teeny tiny baby lima beans in the succotash that were soooooooooo good. (I know it’s a love/hate bean. I love them.)

Lisa and I were also apparently in an eating competition – except that no one told us it was a contest until the end of the meal. (For the record, I won. It seems it became a contest when we both ordered the special.)

From what I understand the crabcakes and steak that others got were quite good as well.

The only downside was that everyone was too full for dessert martinis at the end of the night.

Definitely on the “must go again next year” list.

MP 2.5 on the Beach Road. Make reservations!!

Posted in Beach Cuisine, Outer Banks, Restaurants, Bars & Such, Reviews | No Comments »

Port O’ Call and Meridian 42

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
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Port O’ Call is still one of my favorites. I don’t think the menu has changed in forever, but everything is great anyway. They also have a kickass gift shop filled with tons of shiny things and vintage jewelry, and who doesn’t love that? This is one of those places where I don’t think I’ve had the same thing twice, but I can’t be sure because all I can really remember from year to year is that it’s all good and whatever I get, I know I’ll like it.

Started off with the Oysters Rockefeller, which they apparently make a little differently from the standard, as it has spinach in it. (That was part of the reason I ordered it – one year I overheard a woman giving the waiter holy hell over the fact that OR is not supposed to have spinach in it. Though it’s quite clearly noted on the menu.) Well, I liked them and would get them again, so I can only assume this woman simply doesn’t like anything that doesn’t conform to her ideal of normal.

Then I moved on to the seafood carbonara. Shrimp and scallops and pasta and bacon. You can’t go wrong there.

Sadly, I made no note of what anyone else ordered but we all were quite satisfied by the end of the night.

They also have a very cool bar, if you’re just looking for a nightcap, it’s definitely worth popping in.

MP 8.5 on the Beach Road. Reservations accepted. Probably not needed but we always get them anyway.

Meridian 42

A bit of a bust. They did in fact change ownership last year and the new owner (who I think was one of the original partners, but I’m not 100% sure.) decided to scale back to just Italian.

The calamari is still fantastic, but the rest of it was just average. Tev did point out that the biggest problem is that they suffer from people knowing how great they were with the Mediterranean menu and plain Italian doesn’t really measure up.

Between the 4 of us, we had softshell crabs, sea scallops and veal marsala. The scallops were reported to be pretty good. The crabs were OK, but I’ve had better – something was off with the frying – maybe a bit overdone? The veal was OK, but it was also commented that maybe they just got a bad cut of meat, and there is only so much you can do with that. The side of the night was penne pasta with marinara, and honestly, it was mediocre at best. It’s just disappointing considering how good everything was in years past.

I can understand wanting to go with a “safe” menu in this economy, but you have to step it up and make sure it is GOOD. If you’re just average Italian, you’re not going to last around here, and in 2 years, there’s going to be yet another owner. Unless I hear that something has really changed between now and next year, I doubt a return trip is on tap.

#1 Ocean Blvd. Reservations accepted. (But probably not needed if things continue the way they are…)

Posted in Beach Cuisine, Italian, Outer Banks, Restaurants, Bars & Such, Reviews | No Comments »

Barefoot Bernie’s, the Black Pelican, and Kelly’s

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
barefoot-bernies-the-black-pelican-and-kellys

I’ve gotten poked for not getting the food reports out, so here they come – expect a slew in the next day or so. Here we go!

Barefoot Bernie’s Tropical Bar

New for us this year. They have all the standard beach seafood fare with some Jamaican and Tex/Mex thrown in and the usual fruity beach drinks.

Got the Tex Mex chicken potato skins, which were really good. Though, they don’t come with sour cream… Some other sauce, which was very good, but it was all I could do to not ask for sour cream. My brain can’t really process potato skins without sour cream. For dinner I got plain old fried shrimp. Not exciting, not exotic, but just what I wanted and they just hit the spot.

Little bro got wings to start and the steamer platter (clams, shrimp & crab) and polished that off in short order.

Not fancy or outlandish, just good and worthy of a return visit.

MP 4.5 on the Bypass. No reservations needed.

The Black Pelican

This is the third time I’ve been here and it’s been kind of all over the place. The first time I got the Prime Rib and it was delicious. The second time we went with Tev & Lisa, and it was a comedy of errors in getting our orders right, but the food was good and we got a free round of drinks for the issues.

This year – not so great. Started with the crab rangoon which was very good. Then moved onto the Cajun Fish bites – cajun fried catch of the day, which was swordfish. Not bad, but not much that was cajun-y about it.

Then I got the shrimp and grits. Shrimp sauteed in onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes, over jalapeño cheese grits. I just hoped that the jalapeños wouldn’t overpower everything. Turns out that was the least of my worries. They neglected to mention to half a jar of chili powder that was dumped in while they were cooking the shrimp as well as the chili powder dusting on the rim of the plate. (Every time the air currents changed, you’d get lungful of chili powder…) Even with the grits, the shrimp were WAY too hot, and I do like spicy food. However, the grits all by themselves were stupendous.

Donald had the same problem with the ribs he ordered – all spice and no taste. There’s a line between being spicy and inedible, and they seem to have lost sight of where that line is. Probably off the list for next year.

MP 4 on the beach road. No reservations needed.

Kelly’s

Kelly’s is weird. The food is quite good but there is always some odd thing that is more memorable. First trip it was the weird cocktail waitress that I was quite sure was trying to kill us. The the odd little room the four of us had to ourselves last year. (I guess we looked like we were going to cause problems.) This year it was the hostess with pink hair and a sternum piercing. (Not gross, just extremely painful to contemplate.)

Also, there is a bit of a fading glory thing going on. In 2000 it was named the best place to meet babes by Playboy magazine. I don’t think it still holds that distinction. It also seemed that the average age of the clientele had jumped about 15 years in the past 12 months.

But, weird or not, the food is great. You start with a kickass bread basket with 3 or 4 types of bread and biscuits, so everyone will find something to fill up on even before dinner arrives.

I got the clams casino started, and they were very good. (Awful Arthur’s is still #1 for those in my book, though.) The rest of the table shared a plate of calamari, and happy “this is good” noises were being made all around. (I was too busy with my clams to pay attention to any actual words.)

I got the special – rockfish with crab over rice and veggies. VERY good. (I also just love rockfish.) In an unusual turn for me, I ate all the vegetables – green beans that had a ton of butter and a touch of cumin of all things. (Took me forever to figure out what it was, and then when I figured it out I yelled, “IT’S CUMIN!” like some culinary tourette’s patient.)

Tev got the softshell crabs and said they were quite good. At this point, neither myself or my brother can remember what else we ordered, but that we were all happily stuffed at the end of the night. (As I said, there is always something else that prevents us from remembering what we ordered…)

Definitely a repeat.

MP 10.5 on the bypass. Still working out the kinks of call ahead seating.

Posted in Americano, Beach Cuisine, Outer Banks, Restaurants, Bars & Such, Reviews, Tex-Mex | 1 Comment »

Diet, what diet?

Saturday, July 11th, 2009
diet-what-diet

Ah, the beach. Where my diligent monitoring of calories expended vs. consumed goes out the window. Not only is there food, wonderful food, but tons and tons of SEAFOOD. Sure, we’ve got the bay right next door back home, but it’s not quite the same.

Last night we hit what has become our traditional first night spot – Awful Arthur’s. Sure, I suppose it could be considered a tourist trap, but you could say that about every place down where between May and September. And the food is great, so, whatever. No matter what time we go, it’s always an hour wait. But that’s not so bad, because after they inform you of the wait time, the hostess says, “But you can go up to the bar and we’ll come get you when the table is ready.” Gosh, go upstairs and drink beer and have a great view of the ocean. Yes, that sucks.

So we went upstairs and knocked a few back and watched the waves and Nascar and TdF, and in a near Rainman move, my brother closed out the bar tab a mere 2 minutes before the hostess arrived to take us to our table.

I have had a craving for clams casino all week, so a half dozen of those was a given. Fresh clams, sweet peppers, butter and bacon. Tell me how that could possibly go wrong? Oh – it can’t. We were also right under one of the a/c vents so coup was a must as well. The crab and lobster bisque is awesome. It’s think and creamy and tomato-y and just spot on. And then there were hushpuppies. Don’t think you can really go wrong with fried cornmeal and butter, either.

Little bro got the soup and the crabmeat in butter. I’d say it’s a classic rookies mistake of getting two insanely rich items, but I’ve made the same error myself many times. The crab in butter was great, too. I supposed it’s a good think I have a 5 mile run this weekend.

Matt – I didn’t get the oyster shot, but there is still plenty of time.

Tonight it’s Meridian 42, which in the past has been fantastic. I’m a tad concerned it’s been basically Mediterranean influenced seafood and such, and now they’re billing themselves as “Italiano” – which could mean new owners and/or management, or someone just decided that Italiano sounded a little less intimidating somehow. I’m hoping for the latter, as the couple items on the sample menu looked to be in the same vein as years past, and I really hope they haven’t “dumbed down” the food. If nothing else, they make a killer dirty Goose martini.

If you’re seeing this twice, it’s also over at my personal journal, so no stealing has occurred. Pretty much all the beach/food posts will be in both places.

Posted in Americano, Bacon, Clams, Crab, Lobster, Outer Banks, Restaurants, Bars & Such | No Comments »

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