New Toys and Cake

After 6 years without a proper food processor or blender, I finally broke down and bought a Ninja Professional.  OMG!  It is fantastic!  And it makes fantastic food so much easier.  

Today is my husband's birthday and his favorite cake is carrot cake.  Most of the cake, I make, is the easy from the box kind, but I have always made my carrot cake from scratch.  It just tastes better from scratch.  Without a food processor, this is a laborious task.  You have to grate the carrots but hand and thus you end up with orange hands for days.  Plus I am notorious for grating more than just the carrot!  Ouch!  

So here I go making another carrot cake, but this time I have my new toy.  I had so much fun!   So did my kids! They had never seen a carrot grated in a food processor.  There was a lot of giggling.  Who knew the entertainment value of a few carrots and a grating blade?  Carrots grated, eggs and oil added and I was able to mix the whole batter in the pitcher portion with the double blade!  No mixing by hand!  My shoulder and elbow are happy about this.    

With the batter done and in the oven it was time for frosting.  I got an amazing hand mixer for our wedding, and have always used this to make my frostings.  Cream cheese frosting, of course, has powdered sugar in it and with a hand mixer this can be very messy.  Now I can make frosting without the mess and it is smoother and creamier.  Here is the finished product:

It tasted as good as it looks.  Even my picky eater loved it.  So tonight I am a happy girl.  

Pizza House (Chipatis and Breadsticks)

My husband went to college in Ann Arbor and frequented a restaurant called Pizza House.   He remembers when it was an actual  house, in which the owners offered a small menu mainly pizza and breadsticks and chipati bread (pita bread).   It caught on, and by the time my husband first took me there, they had expanded to a large restaurant.   I LOVE Pizza House!   After I delivered my son, Pizza House was what I asked for (along with a giant diet coke).  I could eat their breadsticks all day everyday.   They are soft, buttery and covered with grated cheese!   Yummy!!

My husband always eats them with chipati sauce.   Pizza House's signature dipping sauce.  It is tangy and light, tasting of honey mustard and a hint of ranch.  He loves the sauce so much that once I, accidentally, ordered the bread sticks without the chipati sauce, and he wouldn't eat them.  He wants the sauce.  The breadsticks are just the vehicle to get the sauce to his mouth.

When we moved to Okemos, we were delighted to find a Pizza House right by us in Hannah Plaza, on Hagadorn in a East Lansing.   So began our almost weekly trips to Pizza House.   One fabulous visit my girlfriend, Stephanie, ordered  a chipati.   Now I knew about the sauce but I had never had an actual chipati.  OMG!  It is the perfect food!   Salad (any kind from their menu) stuffed into a warm, oversized soft, pita bread. Check it out:

I rarely ever order anything else.  I do rotate type of salad or filling, grilled veggie, greek, Caesar, but the chipati is my meal of choice.  

Pizza House has a bit of everything from pizza to sandwiches to pastas.  Their Italian meat pizza is so full of meat that you can barely see the cheese!  There is something for everyone.  This is why we always take family and friends here when they are visiting.  Plus, you can't leave without ever trying a Chipati!  

Therefore, when deciding on dinner tonight, I, of course, picked Pizza House.  I ordered the greek salad with chicken chipati, my husband, the buffalo chicken chipati, wings, nachos (which are one of my favorite, topped with lots of cheese, olives, green peppers, onions and jalapenos) and lots of bread sticks.  I am a very happy girl tonight!

Apologies and food can save the day

Yesterday, I had a really bad day.  I was in no mood to cook dinner but, unfortunately, I had decided to make fish tacos and once you decide on fish it needs to be cooked.  So there I was with the fish taco recipe staring me in the face and I was scowling back.  Did I say I was having a bad day?  So my daughter, who is 7, says she is hungry and asks if she can help me.  Now my daughter is sweet and loving and a lot of fun but she is also like me.  When I get hungry I exemplify the word Hangry.  She doesn't get hangry she gets Hinny (hungry and whinny).  Did I say I was having a bad day?  She was trying to be helpful but one hangry mom, who is having a bad day, and a hinny child in a small kitchen is not a good combo.  To top things off, my husband had been working from the counter in the kitchen and kept working while I was cooking.  Anyone hear the phrase too many cooks in the kitchen?  To my husband's defense, I didn't ask him to move, I just continued to huff around the kitchen, eventually getting snippy with everyone.  By the time the dinner was ready, I had made my husband mad and my daughter sad and thus I was in an even worse mood.
A few apologies and hugs later, some awesome fish tacos, and we were all in better moods.  Lesson learned.  Do not try a new recipe when you are hangry or hanky (cranky and hungry) or hinny.  Apologies, hugs and an awesome meal with your family can save the day!  I was a happy girl last night.

Here is the link to the recipe:  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/blackened-tilapia-baja-tacos-50400000110429/
The rub is very flavorful.  The brown sugar is a perfect compliment to the cumin and paprika.
Note: I didn't use lite sour cream.  My son and I didn't like the first batch of cilantro/lime sauce (it was too limey) so I added more sour cream and it was not only better, but thicker.  (of course if you are trying to be lite, this isn't the way to go but it did make a more satisfying sauce).  I also added tomatoes and lettuce to the tacos for more color and balance.

Cooking

My love of eating is not isolated to restaurant or take-out, I also love to cook.  When I first started cooking for my husband, we had three revolving dishes:  Spaghetti with and without meat in the sauce, chicken and rice in a mushroom sauce (I think it was actually called easy chicken) and chicken and broccoli pasta.  All of them contained less than five ingredients.  Wow, it was exciting!  As my palate expanded so did my experimentation with cooking.  I now make my own marinara (full of chucks).  I learned to cook multiple filipino dishes (thanks to my mother-in-law) and I am now trying other cultures.  My latest is middle-eastern.  I started making my own hummus a few years ago, thanks to a very simple recipe given to me but one of the nurses I worked with.  (Thanks Wafa!) Although my hummus is really good, I was nervous trying anything else.  My colleague Christine, who is from Iraq, introduced me to Teta foods.  They have everything from Shish Tawook, and Swarma marinades to Fattoush dressing.  It made eating middle eastern at home easy but I wanted to try something from scratch.  Today, I made Hashwi!  It is super yummy.  Here is the finished product:

I have to iron out a few kinks but it tasted pretty authentic.  (I will have to have some friends try it to verify that).  I am a happy girl tonight!  

Good company

Sometimes the good experience has less to do with the food, then the company you are with.   Tonight, I went to dinner with my husband and kids.  We had the standard nachos, wings and pizza.  Although, they were not the best nachos I have had or the best pizza ( that is always reserved for an NYC trip), I had a wonderful dining experience.  So remember, good conversation and good company can enhance, improve or even save a meal.  I am a happy girl tonight.

Hot Cakes

I figured there is no better way to start my food commentary then with comfort food.  For the past few weeks, I have been craving pancakes!  I am a carboholic to begin with but pancakes are my weakness.  I don't even need syrup half the time, I just eat them right off the griddle.  So where do I to get the best pancakes in the greater Lansing area?  A coney island of course!!

For those not from MI, Coney Islands originated in Detroit and are your classic greasy spoon diner known for coney dogs (hot dogs topped with a gooey meat sauce, onions and mustard).  They also have amazing breakfast!   

So I finally found the best pancakes in the Lansing area:  Sparty Coney Island in Fandor!  A picture says a thousand words:

They really are this big!  A full dinner plate size!  We have been twice this month.  The first time I mistakenly ordered a three stack (that would be three pancakes the size of dinner plates).  Oops.  Needless to say, we had breakfast for the next day.  This time, I only ordered a two stack and shared some with my son.  Not only are these puppies gigantic but they are soft, fluffy and buttery with crispy edges.  What more could you ask for in a hotcake?  If that isn't enough for you you can also have eggs with them.  Oh if you are not a fan of hot cakes (because you are nuts) their regular eggs and meat (thick crispy bacon) are amazing too.  All served with fresh home fries and toast.   Take a look:

Needless to say I am a happy girl tonight!!

History of tasting

I read somewhere that you need to try something ten times before you learn to like it.  Perhaps that is true.  I am a huge fan of food and I will eat or try almost anything. This was not always the case.  As a child, I lived on tuna, PB&J (or a variation of this), and anything plain.  I hated cheese and lunch meat and anything with chunks.  Boring!

Fast forward to college.  I went to a small liberal arts school outside of Boston.  There is a lot more variety for the palate in Boston then in Nebraska.  I was dared by a group of friends to try sushi.  Gag!!! But what the hell, they were buying so I went for it!  Thus began my love affair with all things food.  

Since college I have traveled to most of the large cities in the United States and several countries and have sampled the plain to the exotic.  One thing has held true throughout my eating adventures both at home and while traveling:

A BAD MEAL WILL RUIN MY WHOLE DAY!  

Therefore, I have decided to create a food blog to write about my eating experiences.  This will be therapeutic and fun and wil hopefully help some of you in your food journey.