Hitting More Pavement

than expected. Before we left Vegas, Rick and I stopped in the Rainforest Cafe for breakfast. He ordered a waffle and I ordered the eggs benedict. Both were well executed, but nothing to write home about. Mr. Monkey liked the eggs benedict...or maybe he just liked being back in the jungle.
Since our drive back was a HUGE U around the mountains, a detour to Los Angeles was only going to take two extra hours. We both thought, "ehh, why not?" and headed towards the famed Sprinkles bakery in Beverly Hills. There was a 15 minute line to get into the very understated bakery. We ordered half a dozen mixed cupcakes and I hate to admit...I was a little disappointed with the majority of the cupcakes in the box. The cupcakes were very dense and the icing was waaaay too sweet (perhaps we were tainted from our European bakery experience). Out of our mixture, the vanilla vanilla and the spicy red velvet would be worth eating again only if I already happened to be in the neighborhood for something else. This was the black and white cupcake up close:Since we hadn't eaten lunch and it was already 3:30 PM we thought well since we're in L.A. why not go to world famed dumpling restaurant Ding Tai Fung? I ordered my all time favorite steamed pork dumplings (shao/xiao[I included xiao because Rick fussed about adding China's version of ping ying] long bao), which did not disappoint. OMG, it was sooo good, what a touch of Taiwanese nostalgia. Here they are:

Savory and Delicious Sin City

Rick and I decided to go on a last minute trip to Vegas today! Our adventure started with strolling down the Strip and we entered the Bellagio to get some yummy pastries at Jean Phillippe's place. The main feature of the little cove of a restaurant is the world's largest chocolate fountain. I didn't get a great shot of the chocolate fountain, but if you visit the website, there's a much better photo.I completely forgot the name of the pastry we ordered, but it had brunoised mango atop a coconut cookie tucked in white chocolate mousse encapsulated with a velvety white chocolate shell. It was a Valentine's special. Gorgeous!
We entered the Venetian mall after both of us crossed a river of rainwater and soaked our shoes and socks. We decided to eat at Postrio after a quick cross reference on Yelp!. We devoured the country white bread (perfectly crusty and tender) that was served with a flavorful tapenade. I ordered the mushroom tortollini in cream sauce and he ordered the lasagna. Both were heavenly and the portion size was perfect! The food was so good that we completely forgot about how miserable we were just half an hour earlier. This is what it looked like on the "patio" which was actually indoors:

Southern Cravings

I had a hankering for some good old fashioned BBQ, which is hard to come by. I had passed by Teaila's B-B-Q a couple of times and the fragrant scent of the roasting meat has tempted me many times. I should have kept going today, but I stopped in and ordered the tri-tip BBQ dinner combo. Waaaay to sweet, same with the potato salad. Someone was a little heavy handed with the sugar. Wouldn't recommend it, I may go back, hoping it will be better the next time. Here's the combo, minus the potato roll that I devoured in the car:

Crunchy and Satisfying

I had some pork chops in the refrigerator that were starting to go bad, so I thought what better time to make a Japanese style dish? Tonkatsu pork! It is so fun to say and more fun to eat. On my journey to figure out how to make this dish, I found the most amusing YouTube channels I've seen in a while, "Cooking with Dog." Here's the video I watched:

I grabbed and modified the Chicken Katsu off of AllRecipes again, which is posted below. Here's the final result with some sauteed spinach and steamed rice:

Tonkatsu Pork

Ingredients

Sauce
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
pepper to taste

Pork
2 cups vegetable oil, for deep-fat frying
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten
4 pork chops

Directions

1. For the sauce, stir together the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce, and a pinch of pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in deep-fryer to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Place flour and panko bread crumbs onto separate plates and season with salt and pepper. Place the beaten egg in a medium bowl. Dip scored pork pieces first into flour, then egg, and lastly bread crumbs.
4. Fry breaded pork in preheated oil until golden brown and no longer pink in center, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil. Slice pork into 1" strips and top with a drizzle of sauce.

Cake Cake Cake

I attempted to make a tiered cake today. I iced the cake with a crumb coating, which was a first for me. Not very pretty, but did the job of keeping the crumbs on the cake.I was able to frost the entire cake without peeling up half the cake, also a first for me. You can see the HUGE offset spatula I used to ice the cake:The experiment turned out alright in that the cake did not collapse on itself. The icing job wasn't pretty. I put the cake on cardboard and stuck sniped drinking straws to help support the cake. Not very pretty, but a start:

Magnificent Magnolia

After an emotional breakdown from cabin fever, Rick and I decided to make cupcakes. I didn't have any cake flour on hand, so we decided to use Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe (below). Ahh...one of my favorite bakeries in the world. I would LOVE to return back there one of these days. It is the bakery that inspired my cupcake obsession. We didn't have butter after I used it for the cake, so Rick made Wilton's version of buttercream icing (good for decorating, bad for tasting).

Here's the cupcake, Valentine's Day style complete with wrapper and sprinkles:Here's the cupcake dissected, the darker (very very slightly) area is where I cut out a little cone and drizzled honey into the cupcake. Yes! So sweet.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing:
Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.


Ingredients:

1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
3 tablespoons water
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

MMM Processed

I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast today with the usual shortcuts. :) I bought Pillsbury flaky biscuit dough and baked those up. The biscuits didn't soak up the gravy like I had hoped and are better served with jam. In the future, I'm either going to use buttermilk biscuits or just make my own country biscuits.

The gravy turned out okay, I think we should have used a cheaper brand that had more fat because I had to add a pat of butter to the sausage to have enough to make roux. I also used reduced fat milk, which I think also had an impact on the creaminess of the gravy. I also reduced the gravy for a long time because of the reduced fat milk, which I think intensified the sweetness of the gravy from the lactose in the milk. All in all, not bad for a first attempt.

Gravy Recipe:
1 pound of sausage
4 cups of milk
4-6 tablespoons of flour

1. Brown sausage in skillet. As soon as sausage is completely brown, turn to medium heat.
2. Add flour by the tablespoon, stirring constantly. Let the flour turn BROWN before adding another tablespoon (if you don't, your gravy will taste like flour).
3. After you have added enough flour to mske the gravy as thick as you like, add milk and stir with whisk.
Serve over biscuits.

Fast Snack

I wanted a quick tasty snack today and topped some Triscuits with Neufchatel cheese and cracked black pepper. The pepper definitely made the snack.

Thighs that Size

I love dark meat and always complain about how chicken breast is often dry. So, when Rick did the grocery shopping this time around he bought boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I didn't realize what a pain in the ass it is to trim thigh meat. I think I'll live with the dry breast meat in the future. So, I made a chicken rice casserole today, where did I get the recipe? Why...AllRecipes of course! I have to say the dish was quite disgusting when it first came out of the oven after a couple days it became slightly more edible. I didn't take any pictures. Boo.

The Usual

Rick and I went to Thai Kitchen for dinner last night. YUM! I ordered my usual which was the red curry. I don't know why I insist on ordering it when I go to restaurants if I already know how to make it. Anyway, it was delicious.

Lackluster Cookies

Boo. If I could give myself one star on Yelp, I would. I made some chocolate chip cookies today, but with a couple handicaps. Of course I can blame the handicaps or just my lack of baking experience for these flat, poorly mixed cookies.

So, here's the list of why things went wrong, could be just one or a combination:
1. I started with Milk Chocolate Chips (I prefer bittersweet/semisweet)
2. I don't have my handwritten recipe book with Russ' Delectable Chocolate Chip recipe, so I used the one on the back of the chip bag
3. The recipe called for baking soda and I used baking powder (there was no acid in the recipe for the soda react with!)
4. I don't have a hand mixer or stand mixer, just my actual hands and a wooden spoon to mix
5. The butter and the sugars were not completely creamed (thanks to #4)
6. I didn't have an "ice cream" scoop to consistently measure out the batter

What did go well:
1. I used a Silpat (yay for minimal dishes!)

Here's what the disaster looked like (very flat cookies):Here's my tribute to Silpat!Here's the recipe if you feel so inclined to use it, or not:
HERSHEY'S Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped nuts(optional)

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 5 dozen cookies.

Burger without the Bun

After staring at the ground sirloin and pork chops in the refrigerator for half an hour, I decided I was too lazy to make a brine for the pork chops. So, we had burgers for lunch with no bun, so really it was more of a burger salad. I keep referencing AllRecipes lately to find recipes for food. Today I tried the Tex-Mex Burger with Cajun Mayo. It was rather tasty, as usual I made a couple substitutions, but it turned out quite well, if not a tad dry. I also used Miracle Whip instead of mayo because Rick LOVES Miracle Whip. I added a frozen southwest vegetable mix to the frying pan after the burgers were done. The veggies picked up all the bits and pieces that were left on the bottom of the pan. Very flavorful. Can't say I'm dying to make this recipe again, but it wasn't bad.

Here's the top of the salad:

How to Make Other People Fat

Otherwise known as, I have half a buttercream vanilla cake that I don't want to eat for fear of getting fat. Rick bought me a cake from Wal-Mart which was rather tasty, but I didn't want to eat all of it. I have always wanted to try making Cake Pops, but since I didn't have the sticks to make cake pops, I made cake balls. Here's a link to the Cake Pop Queen herself: http://www.bakerella.com/I basically mushed up the cake and frosting in a bowl and formed little balls and coated them in chocolate. Very sweet, fattening and decadent. I just need to figure out how to make the chocolate coating a little thinner.
Here's a peak inside one: