Restaurant Review In the Big D--Campisi's

Hello from the big D (Dallas, TX)! Most of my readers are personal friends and family, but if you're not--WELCOME, thanks for stopping by my little, tiny corner of the internet! Reason I am in Dallas is for the Cotton Bowl, that Texas A&M University is playing in against Oklahoma University which is on Friday. We decided to come a few days early so we can wine, dine, and shop! So obviously I won't be in the kitchen the next several days so I decided to share with you all what I eat/have eaten! Today I ate healthy and balanced, until dinner. We are exploring Dallas with a true "Dallasite", so we have the ultimate insiders guide to great food, which is obviously right up my alley! Tonight we hit East Mockingbird Lane and went to the original Campisi's for some great homemade Italian food. Here is a picture of my food (I will explain everything underneath the picture):

Campisi's is known for their crab claws and pizza! I, of course had to try the crab claws and let me tell you, they were DELICIOUS! They were soaked in a lemon butter sauce that was divine. For my entree, I got the Veal Scallopine--piccata style which means the meat was sliced, coated, sauteed and served with a sauce. The sauce was a light lemon butter cream sauce with capers and artichoke hearts. I adore capers and artichoke hearts, so it made it that much better. My side was ravioli with a marinara sauce. You could tell the marinara sauce had been stewed and just cooked for hours, it was great. The ravioli wasn't that great--it was definitely mediocre to say the least. It was not warm at all and the cheese in it had no flavor. But I love strong tasting cheeses, so maybe it was just my preference. But anyway, overall this dinner was a success--it was a local haunt that was a hole in the wall with great food and atmosphere. You could just picture Don Carleone sitting in the dark corner in one of the beat up booths smoking a cigar. The green and red walls were cheesy with the autographs from Scarface & the Godfather hanging on the walls. But the food was great, which is all you can really hope for. 

Here's a picture of me enjoying a fabulous Bloody Mary at the bar called GOSSIP, I considered it my "welcome" drink. Love me some extra olives.

Now I am sipping on some decaf and munching on granola chips, about to do some pinteresting, you can follow me Here!

Until next time, enjoy your night & I will see you tomorrow with a new post with my adventures as a foodie coming from Highland Park.

Lots of love.

Power Salad--Kale Style

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a blessed holiday! Sorry I have been MIA for a while, I have been spending time with my family and...trying to perfect bread baking. Let me tell you, bread baking is TOUGH! I still have yet to succeed, although I made this rustic Italian chocolate raisin bread that was divine on the inside, but I unfortunately burned the crust (that was hard as a brick, I might add). But anyway, my family and I made a trek up to Houston yesterday and of course, had to stop at Central Market. Mother and I are absolutely in love with this place and their turkey meatloaf and kale salad. We always tend to stop and get the same thing as always: turkey meatloaf, kale salad, & organic Asian yams, plus some new things that we find on our adventure every time we go! But anyway, this kale salad I talk about is incredible--Mom and I devoured two boxes of it in one sitting (oops). So I was thinking, kale is such a POWER FOOD and a lot of people's new year's resolutions will be to watch their weight and be healthy! So of course, I thought there is no better way to start the new year than without a kale salad! So I created my own version of a kale salad that to be honest, I'm eating it right now with my turkey meatloaf...But anyway here we go! I didn't do precise measurements on the dry stuff, so just do what you like! :)

Ingredients for Salad:

• Chopped Kale
• Tamarin roasted pumpkin seeds
• Sliced, Blanched Almonds
• Dried blueberries
• Dried cranberries
• Gorgonzola Cheese

Recipe for dressing (serves 1-2 people):

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon orange juice from concentrate
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Just dump these ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk until it is all blended. And then pour over salad with all dry ingredients, toss and then serve! 

Bon Appetit!

Texas Tumbleweeds, A Holiday Treat!

Well I got a call from my grandfather last night and he told me that he had eaten the most delicious thing he has ever put in his mouth yesterday. And I was like "TELL ME ABOUT IT!", turns out it was a good ol' Texas Tumbleweed! Sweet, little bit salty, and TOTALLY delish! He will be arriving tomorrow for Christmas so I decided that I would surprise him by making a batch, (BIG BATCH--4 dozen to be exact) for him to munch on throughout the upcoming Christmas festivities! Not only are they absolutely delicious, they are also extremely easy and incredibly quick to make! So here we go!

Ingredients:



1lb Chocolate Almond Bark
13 oz Peanut Butter Chips (they come in 10 oz bags, so I measured the last 3 ounces with my eyes!)
16 oz Dry Roasted Peanuts
12 oz Potato Sticks (I used three 4 ounce bags of potato sticks)

 In a microwave safe bowl, combine almond bark and peanut butter chips.

Microwave on 50% for 4 minutes (my microwave does not have the option to reduce power so I just eyed it until it melted) Once melted, mix together:

Then stir in peanuts and potato sticks (don't worry too much about crunching the potato sticks) Stir until EVERYTHING is coated (I had to transfer to a bigger bowl because everything together was bigger than I had anticipated!):

Then drop on parchment paper or foil (make sure to spray a tiny bit of Pam on it if you are using foil) take a large spoon and one hand (clean, preferably) and drop onto foil or paper, make sure all parts are connected so they will dry as a whole.

And then let dry for about 20 minutes or until they harden (to speed up this process, pop them in the refrigerator!) And then last but not least, ENJOY! :)

BON APPETIT!

Holiday Tea Cake Cookies

So in the post before this, you found out that I was rummaging through my grandmother's recipe collection. I have pulled out so many great old recipes of hers that I will be so incredibly full by the time Christmas is over that I will be in a food coma going into the new year. But anyway, I found this tiny, stained, scratch piece of paper with a recipe I could barely read. It looked so incredibly USED that I just had to make whatever was on this tiny piece of paper. Well turns out it was "my friend Mable's tea cake cookies"! They are cakey, fluffy, not too sweet and just delicious! I've never really tasted anything like them before. They are perfect for a cup of hot chocolate by the fire, because the cookie isn't so overpoweringly sweet that the cookie and hot chocolate balance it out to a perfect medium. So here we go "My Friend Mable's Tea Cake Cookies":


Ingredients:

5 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 eggs

First preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together.

then I creamed the shortening and sugar and then added in the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. This worked beautifully thanks to my Mom's KitchenAid Stand Mixer (secretly wish it was mine). Then slowly add in the flour and keep mixing until dough is formed.

Roll out on floured parchment/wax paper and cut with cookie cutters or roll into small balls to make normal cookies :)

Then pop them in the oven on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10-11 minutes until they have risen and look cakey and not sticky. I made icing and drizzled it on top...but I think I seriously joined the ugly Christmas cookie club. Actually, I think I'm the president of it. They taste delicious though! All that counts! 

bon appetit!

Microwave Peanut Brittle

Every year my Dad and I get in the kitchen and make homemade Chex Mix (aka trash, I honestly do not know why it is called Trash but hmm, something to ponder) and Peanut Brittle right around Christmas time! It is great father-daughter bonding time and I look forward to it every year! This year we had trouble finding raw peanuts at the local grocers (did you know raw peanuts are usually in the produce section in the grocery store? Yeah, me neither) but eventually found some just as fresh in our freezer from earlier this year. Since before I could remember, homemade peanut brittle has been a holiday staple in my house and I can't imagine this time of year without it. This easy, microwave peanut brittle recipe is my grandmother's recipe. Last night I had the pleasure of looking through her old recipe collection with her cursive scribble on scraps of paper that I could barely read, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside just looking at the incredible recipes that had been passed down through generations. So anyway, this makes one batch of peanut brittle, my dad and I made about 5 batches last night for all of the fun festivities coming up!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup raw peanuts

1/2 cup white corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon  butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

In a 1 1/2 quart bowl than can be used in a microwave, stir together peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, and salt.

Cook for 4 minutes, and then stir well and then cook 4 more minutes. After cooking a total of 8 minutes, add butter and vanilla and cook 2 more minutes. At the end of the last 2 minutes, take out of microwave and then add the baking soda, then stir REALLY fast until light and foamy/bubbly. 

Immediately pour onto a lightly buttered foil and spread out. When cool, break into small pieces.

(Set microwave on high. If this setting should burn the peanuts, reduce setting)

Remember: ALL MICROWAVES ARE DIFFERENT!!

OH! & if you want to add shredded coconut to this peanut brittle, add it after cooking the FIRST 4 minutes! :) 

bon appetit!

Have a great Friday everyone! I will be spending mine baking, listening to Martha Stewart Radio, watching Food Network by the fire, and drinking hot coffee! I LOVE this cold weather!

Sean's AMAZING Gumbo

So, my good friend Sean has been wanting me to try his gumbo recipe! And I kept putting it off because it just wasn't cold enough outside for gumbo. Well finally, we got a cold front in and it was chilly enough outside to have something warm and soupy in our tummies (that sounded really gross, my apologies). But anyway he sent me this recipe through text message photo and told me how to tweak it to make it perfect! I also added a few twiks and tweaks of my own. So here it goes:

2 links of venison Slovacek sausage
1 tsp Cajun spices
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 14.5 oz. can chicken broth, defatted
2 tsp onion flakes
2 cups frozen, cut okra
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 poblano pepper, diced
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2 cups water
1 cup instant rice
1/2 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Dash of seasoned salt

In large skillet put a few drops of water and then place both links of pre-cooked sausage in skillet and let warm. Warm until
both sides have dark marks on them.


Next, I cut the sausage into small pieces and tossed it into a large pot. Along with literally EVERYTHING else except the rice. I brought everything to a hard boil and let it stay there for about 3 minutes. Next, I added the rice and mixed it in, turned it down to low/simmer and put the lid on it and let it simmer for about 6 minutes, occasionally scraping the bottom and stirring. This way, it well cook the rice and condense and make it less soupy and more gumbo-y! After that, it's pretty much done. SUPER DUPER DUPER DUPER easy!

BON APPETIT!