State Fair 2012 Review

Mom, Cari, and I had our annual girls day at the fair. I was pumped to be in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy which meant a little extra stomach room for all the great food! Plus with baby craving salty foods, deep fried goodness was right up my alley. I did a pretty good job this year of remember to take pictures of everything we ate, although most of the times it was after we were a few bites into it. You still get the idea. We created a rating system for the food this year based on thumbs. Each person could give the item a total of 2 thumbs, so the ratings are out of 6 thumbs each.

We started breakfast at French Meadow with their new sausage and gravy scone. I thought it was awesome and gave it a big 2 thumbs up (which is how the scoring originated). Overall it got 5 thumbs. We also had their egg, cheese, tomato, & bacon croissant which got 6 thumbs.

Mom needed something sweet to go with her coffee so we hit up the deep fried cookie dough next. This was an enthusiastic 6 thumbs. A perfect combination of melty cookie dough and sweet batter. 

As a lunch time appetizer we tried Giggles new walleye roll. I had heard great reviews about it, but we were all underwhelmed. It was nice, light, and refreshing but overall didn't have much flavor and the bun was a bit over buttered. We gave it only 2 thumbs total. I would much rather have their delicious walleye cakes.

For lunch we hit up the food building and tried all new [to us] items. We started with a wild rice corn dog. It was pretty good, but you didn't get a lot of rice flavor. We gave it 3 thumbs. Then we tried the Sausage Sisters new item Great Balls of Fire. This was the winner of lunch with 6 thumbs! It came with a cool cucumber sauce that complimented the spices nicely. The loser of lunch with a lowly 1.5 thumbs was my pick - a Jamaican jerk roti. It was chicken, carrots, onions wrapped up in a flat bread, but it needed a sauce or something. The only flavor I got was a burning after taste. It was good for clearing your sinuses.

Our afternoon snack was the new poutine - french fries covered in gravy topped with cheese curds. I didn't care for the cheese curds on it. They were rubbery but it was so good that it still got 5.5 thumbs. 

Finished the day with the new Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Puppy. Sooooo good if you are a pb and chocolate lover like I am. Mom wasn't as big of a fan but it still got 5 thumbs overall. 

Somewhere in there was also tried cheese curds which I have been craving. They were great but so standard it wasn't picture worthy or rated. I did decide I like the ones from the food building better than the ones from the big yellow mouse trap booth. Need to remember that for next year. 

Cari & Mom continued fairing into the evening, but my tired and hot pregnant body was done. We go back again on Friday with the kids. I'm already making my list of must haves. The only new item left I want to try is the bacon ice cream. Reviews of that to come! 

State Fair '11

After not going to The Fair last year I did everything I could to make up for it this year. I think I did a pretty good job! Cari, Mom, and I went out on Friday. Here's some of our food highlights.

For breakfast we started off w/Axel's new breakfast lollipop - sausage patty dipped in a corn batter, deep fried and dipped in a maple syrup. It was delish!! I would definitly get it again. Since mac n'cheese on a stick was at their booth too I thought I might as well grab it. And then we added French Meadow's strawberry n'cream scone with coffee to the mix. Quite the way to start the day!


For our mid-morning snack we tried the new cookie dough on a stick. It was great too. The cookie dough stayed in dough form but the deep frying warmed it up and made the chocolate all metly. Since we were in the food building, Cari had to pick up her favorite Sausage Sister's thai sausage dipped in a peanut sauce. Always tasty too.


For lunch we went the "healthy" route and stopped at Giggles. Had their walley cakes (LOVE those!) and the new salad on a stick. Sounds boring? It was actually very tasty and good for my stomach to have something not deep fried. The salad greens were topped with a wild rice mixture and balsamic vinaigrette. Then the tomatoes and mozzarella balls were skewered and laid on top.


A bit later we shared a Gizmo. It's crumbled beef mixed with italian sausage topped with a red sauce and mozzarella cheese melted on top. mmmm. I want to try and make these at home.




That was the end of my pictures for the day. We of course continued to eat but stuck with traditional stuff. My mom has always loved pronto pups and corn dogs. Her goal for this year was to figure out which one was better so we did a taste test. The pronto pup claims to be "The original corn dog" but when we asked their batter has a little corn meal in it, but is mostly flour. The corn dog is all corn meal. Side by side we tasted and determined the corn dog's batter was sweeter and we all liked it better. BUT the pronto pup had a much more flavorful dog. So who won? The pronto pup! Surprising but the dog was that much tastier.

There's my fair review. I'm going again next Friday to give Sienna her first experience. Probably won't be pigging out quite as much...but you never know. Any other new recommendations I should try?

NEED to try these

Graham Cracker
Roasted Marshmallow
Reese Peanut Butter Cup
Roasted Marshmallow
Graham Cracker

OMG delish! Next bonfire we're having these!

pictures from Simple Girl

Foods News!

They have released the new State Fair foods for this year. I am very excited to go since I missed out last year. I wasn't too impressed with the list this year, but here's a few that intrigued me.


Deep Fried Cookie Dough - love me some cookie dough, and anything deep fried is great. This is on the must try list.


Sweet Corn Ice Cream - I am really not sure what to think of this. Most of me says disgusting the rest of me wants to taste a few bites.

In other news there's another restaurant week coming up July 10-15. Not too many menu's up yet but I can't wait to see them and am hoping to hit up at least one.

(pictures compliments of City Pages Blogs)

Free Cone Day

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day is back!! Next Tuesday the 12th. Don't miss out. You can find me standing in line at Stadium Village. How good does this one sound, "Clusterfluff: Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Caramel Cluster Pieces, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Swirls"!?!

New Blog

The new blog is up! Everything is still in the works but we have the first few recipes and product reviews out. Check it out...

GF/DF: Not Just A Fad

This is why I workout

Have you tried these? Soo good. Nothing better that peanut butter and chocolate together.

Happy Weekend!!!

My Favorite Week

...is back!! (restaurant week for those who don't want to click the link) And it's over my birthday again. Need to start working on a baby sitter now!

Cooking Club V

This post is a bit overdue but I wanted to show off our great cooking! This was a more low key cooking club because Sienna and Abbie joined us to start developing their culinary skills.

Justin's teaching them important lessons.


Appetizer
Peperonata on Baguette Toasts. (I had my camera on a weird mode so the food pics aren't great this time)


Main Course
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta
Sweet Potato and Turnip Mash with Sage Butter (I LOVED these)
Fall Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette


Dessert
Pear Cranberry Crumble - we must've ate it too fast cause I didn't get a pic!

Everything was very delish. We did a great job at making this meal dairy and gluten free. I think we're getting better at all of the substituting.

The best part of the night was when the corkscrew broke mid wine opening. Good thing we had a couple MacGyvers there.

Call me Martha

My co-worker, Mary, and I both enjoy baking and use our department as a test ground for many of our creations. A couple months ago I found a box on my desk with 4 star cake molds/cutters in them. I asked Mary if they were hers. She said yes and hinted that her birthday was at the end of July. I thought they looked like a fun challenge, but put them away hoping come July I’d remember, and feel up to making them. Somehow through the pregnancy brain I actually did remember! The molds came with a recipe for this delicious sounding vanilla pound cake. I just wasn’t feeling that ambitious and went for Betty Crocker's boxed vanilla cake with a homemade chocolate butter cream frosting.

Here’s how Martha’s cake looked. Something to aspire to.

I made 2 9 X13s pans of cake and used the molds as cake cutters to cut out my stars.

 

I had enough cake leftover to fill a whole 9X13. I decided to turn that into a pudding cake. Yes, my ambition was really starting to wane at this point.

 

Here’s how mine turned out! The cake carrier that I was using only allowed for a 3 tiered cake. Definitely not as pretty as Martha's but it sure tastes good. I don’t own a frosting piper thing, nor did I want to try and make one. Like I said ambition was going quick. I was hoping to frost the outside too but the cake was very fragile and would’ve turned to a crumbly mess.

 

My 4th tier. I’m bringing it to work too. Maybe I’ll try to assemble it all there. Or I’ll just let people eat different parts…

Anyone have ideas on how to cut this thing? I think I’ll let the birthday girl tackle that part!

mmmmm food...

Look what's back!! Right before baby girl is due too. Hopefully we can check out one last restaurant just the 2 of us!

Homemade Pop Tarts

I made these over the weekend...(too lazy to take my own pics so that one is stolen) All I can say is wow! They are super flaky and delish! I tried 3 different filling options: Nutella, brown sugar and cinnamon, and raspberry jam. Since the recipe ended up making 12 poptarts, I froze half of them unbaked hoping it'll work to thaw them and bake them up. It was a bit putzy to do but well worth it. I'm sure it'd be easier with just 1 filling. Next time I'm trying them gluten and diary free so Justin can enjoy them too. We'll see how that compares!

Cooking Club IV

This past weekend Justin and I hosted the 4th edition of Cooking Club. We chose to do a Thai theme. Between Justin and Cran we have quite a few food allergies to deal with and Thai turned out to be great for gluten and diary free! No substitutions needed. It might become a new staple in Justin and my meals.

We started the night with a Thai drink of Iced Watermelon. It's literally just ice and watermelon blended together and was so so delicious. Might've been my favorite part of the night. It'd be very refreshing on a hot summer day.


The appetizer course tasted a lot better than this picture shows. It consisted of rice cakes with 2 sauces: a spicy dipping sauce and a prawn and coconut dip. The spicy sauce I didn't care for. All I could taste was the shrimp paste and I didn't think it was spicy at all. The coconut dip was great though. The 2nd appetizer was egg rolls. Not the traditional kind but actual cooked eggs rolled up. Served with a lime soy sauce. Quite tasty.


The second course was a hot and sour noodle salad. Really good. I'd definitely make again and easy to make.


The main course was thick beef curry in sweet peanut sauce served over coconut rice and sided with stir-fried pineapple with ginger. Again all of it was great!


The dessert course was steamed custard in nectarines. It was ok. Very easy to make but not sure I'd do it again. I accidentally over-cleaned before we served the dessert and threw away the garnishes. oops!


More pics of the night plus some others from the weekend.

Free Sweets!

Tomorrow is a pregnant girls dream...free pastry at Starbucks and free cone day at Ben & Jerry's! Doesn't get much better than that!!!

Cooking Club III

Last weekend we had our third round of Cooking Club. If was Jeff and Jenny's turn to host and they did a great job. The food was all very good even if Cran and I did chop for 2 hours straight. :) Brent was gracious and stayed home with Mikayla that night due to some issues she was having. Cran asked Cari to sub in and be her date for the night. Thanks Cari! I think unofficially the theme for the night was mangoes - and as a bonus Jenny's baby was the size of a mango that week too. Perfect. All the recipes were from a cook book they got on their trip out east.

The night started off with cocktails/mocktails called Mango Bellinis.


The hors d'oeuvres was plantain chips with mango pomegranate guacamole (This might've been my favorite of the night. soooo good!)


The first course was the one Cran and I made and consisted of julienne chopping MANY ingredients. They were delicious though. Spring roll salad with green apple-mango vinaigrette


For the main course we ventured into seafood. Jenny is the only one who's had experience making scallops. This dish was very rich. Shrimp beurre blanc atop pan-seared sear scallops. Served with long grain rice and vegetable confetti.


The evening rounded out with chardonnay poached pears served with a raspberry sauce.


All in all a success. I've uploaded all the nights pictures.

Happy St. Patti's Day

How I plan to celebrate the tiny bit of Irish heritage that I have.




Mmm mmm a million times better than green beer (to me at least) :)

Restaurant Review

I got to check out 2 different restaurants for restaurant week this year: one for dinner and one for lunch. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the food! Use your imagination.

Oceanaire was the first one. We went there for dinner on my birthday. I've always wanted to go there and have heard so many great things about it. They did not disappoint. For my meal I choose:
App - Maryland Style Crab Cake Appetizer Mustard Mayonnaise
Entree - Grilled Costa Rican Mahi-Mahi Ancho Chile Sauce and Mexican Pickled Vegetable “Escabeche”
Dessert - Banana Bread Pudding Glazed Bananas and Caramel

We also added 2 family style sides of asparagus with hollandaise sauce and red potatoes topped with a thick cut bacon. They staff must've thought we hadn't eaten enough because they brought out an extra dessert for my birthday where a liquor was lite on fire and then poured over the top of it. Very festive and fun. The food was all outstanding. The crab cake was the best I ever had with HUGE chunks of crab in it. I highly recommend checking this place out especially for restaurant week. Such a great deal and the portion sizes were huge. I didn't come close to finishing anything...besides my crab cake.

Pic of the desserts. The one in the middle is the extra one they brought out.


The other restaurant I checked out was Ginger Hop in NE. It's a new Asian restaurant where The Times used to be. We were there for a lunch and I got:
App - beef satay with sesame sauce
Entree - pad thai

I'd say the food here was good but not wonderful. The satay was really good and done perfectly. The pad thai couldn't compete w/Spice (my fav thai restaurant in Savage) Instead of asking how spicy you wanted your food they brought out this spice tray where you could add your own spices/sauce to any part of the meal. I was glad they brought it because my meal would've been really bland without it. Plus baby is craving REALLY spicy foods so I could load it on. (no I don't get heartburn...yet at least) I'd go back if someone else wanted to try it but it's not a place I'd crave on my own. Also their restaurant week deal wasn't that great. I think I only saved $1 on my meal.

It's time to eat!

Wooooo!! It's back. My fav week(s) of the year!! And this time it starts on my birthday. What better way when the start the big 3-0 then eating great foods for cheap? By the way, I should add that I have officially started my last 30 days of being in my 20s. Not that I'm counting...

Restaurant Week Spring 2010 | Promotions + Events | Mpls.St.Paul Magazine + mspmag.com

Cooking Club II

I've been a bad blogger lately but hope to make up for it soon! Work has been crazy and then I was too depressed after Sunday nights game. :(...

We had round 2 of Cooking Club last weekend. Again it was a success but still learned a few things this time.
1. The cook should always taste the dish to confirm the right ingredients were added (yes this was an issue and a funny story but would lose too much in translation to type out. Ask me and I will tell you!)
2. We need to work on plating as you will soon see.
3. Still not a huge fan of lamb but I was glad to try it again

Here's the dishes we made and all the pics have been uploaded.

Crab cakes with a lemon dill sauce


Chilled avocado and cucumber bisque


Roasted Rack of Lamb
Butternut Squash Risotto
Steamed asparagus with vinaigrette


Brioche and Berry Bread Pudding with Lemon Fondant

Cookie Baking

Last weekend I spent the majority of it baking cookies. Saturday Cari & I went over to Moms' for our annual cookie baking day. 7 hours and 7 different types of cookies later we went home loaded with sweets. Sunday I had some girlfriends over for another afternoon of baking. This year seemed to go much more smoothly than last year. It was either the lack of alcohol or we're just that much more experienced. I'm going with the first option. :)