Sometimes you don't need a lot in a salad to make it great, just a few great things...

A friend of mine mentioned that he had a salad in Paris that had goat cheese wrapped in Phyllo dough. I decided to steal that idea. I made these two weeks ago but ended up freezing them since I wasn't ready to bake them then. These were baked on 350 for about 10 to 15 min. Super easy to make as long as the dough isn't frozen - you'll be fine.

I tried to kick up some raisins by reconstituting them with balsamic vinegar. Unfortunately, I forgot a final picture of the dish, but it was just greens and these two items. Yum! :(

Poutine!

I came home to discover Curtis making dinner tonight. He made homemade poutine. What is poutine you ask? It's french fries (these are homemade hand-cut by my honey) with gravy (also made from scratch) with crumbled bacon and mozzarella cheese. This is definitely up there on the calories.

Butter Lane Cupcakes

Butter Lane is conveniently in my hood on 7th between Ave A and 1st St.

These cupcakes were featured on the Food Network series, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Alton Brown had the banana cupcake with french vanilla frosting, so that's what I had to have too. The guy at the shop suggested that I get one french vanilla and one french chocolate. Let me tell you...it's the icing that makes these cupcakes so yummy! I don't know how they do it - but the icing is the best dang stuff I ever had! (They even sell icing shots at the bakery! You know it must be good if they sell shots of this stuff!)

Joe's Shanghai

Man, on man. Yesterday I was in a Pho mood again, so we headed over to Pho Grand on Grand St only to find out they were closed indefinitely due to a fire that took out half the block! So, we decided to walk to it's sister restaurant on Mott St and guess what...they closed down too! Double Oy! So, at this point we were over it and then we realized Joe's Shanghai was just around the corner on Pell St. So...we went there. Man, nobody can make a soup dumpling like they can. They are the BEST! We shared an order of pork soup dumplings ($7) and then Curtis opted for the pork fried rice and I opted for the Chinese version of Pho. Eww. Never eat a Vietnamese dish in a Chinese restaurant. Will I go back? Of course! The Chinese food is bangin' and the dumplings are famous!

It was so good the first time, let's do it again!

...Grill out, that is. We made burgers the other day. I know what you're thinking...what kind of hippy plate is this? Well...I'll tell ya...it's a healthy dinner, fool! I had this awesome thin wheat bread (100 calories for 2 slices) and carrots with roasted red pepper hummus (50 calories for 2 tbsp) and pickles (0 cal)...dude....pickles are by far my FAVE snack! Kosher Dill...REPRESENT!

Anyways...yummy and healthy...get up on it!

Porterhouse, welcome to my house!

Want to know how to make a melt in your mouth steak? A) Buy good meat. I purchased two porterhouse steaks last week and I'm so glad I did. It is so tender and delicious! B) Marinate it right. I like to make it simple with salt and pepper but I also added some Spicy Yorkshire sauce (courtesy of my new English acquaintances). C) Grill it over charcoal. = Bangin'!

English snacks.

So my neighbor has some friends in town visiting from Sheffield and they brought us snacks. I love these blokes already! :) Check the gummy pig faces out closely - the ears are kinda realistic looking - gross. But they are dang tasty. Also the Spicy Yorkshire Sauce is exclusive to Sheffield - you can't buy it in the States anywhere. I feel so special. Thanks guys!