DDD in the big D

So the hubs and I spent four days in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area last week. We visit at least once a year to see his sister, brother-in-law and adorable nephews. This trip was little different as we turned it in to a gastronomic delights tour. For those of you who follow follow this blog, you know we are big fans for the show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives". We even took a west coast road trip, mapping out our DDD stops along the way. I blogged a bit about it here. I also made mention of a couple Wisconsin DDD locations last November. But, this is all about everything being bigger in Texas (including our stomachs).

Our first stop was in the Dallas neighborhood of Deep Ellum, at the Twisted Root Burger Company. From the outside it was a bit unimpressive.


On the inside, we were shocked to see the 20+ people ahead of us in line. We were kept occupied by reading all the quirky signs covering the walls and our bottle cap table.


D and I ordered the Green Chile, Guacamole & Pepperjack Burger and the Chipotle, Guac & Cheddar Burger w/ Fried Onions, along with Twisted Fries and Spicy Fried Pickles.


We both agreed the burgers were just average, but the Green Chile was absolutely delicious. The fried pickles were extremely salty, yet the buttermilk ranch was one of my faves. As for the fries... who doesn't love curly fries? Even better was the Ancho Chipotle Ketchup. And I don't really even care for ketchup!

For dinner that night we went to III Forks. Although it is not a DDD location, it was more than worth mentioning. We had heard how great it was, but figured, "eh, it's just steak"... and our state mascot is the cow! How wrong we were in saying it's just steak. From the first bite of the III Forks Salad, we knew this was going to be different.

D and I had both ordered the Ribeye. It was melt in your mouth delicious. This was definitely in my top 3 steaks ever (I think I need them all side-by-side to really answer that). I loved sides too... the duchess potatoes and the cream corn. Oh my, the corn... it was "like butta". Literally. Creamy, buttery and so amazingly good. For dessert we ordered Grand Marnier Creme Brulee which was also excellent.

(photo from IIIForks.com)

The next day we headed to what might have been the most unusual of any restaurant we have been to before.... a gas station. When we pulled in to the lot at the Chef Point Cafe, we were impressed with the 20 or so Harley's that lined the front of the restaurant. Clearly word was out about this place.


We walked in to a restaurant of full tables and had a 35 minute wait for lunch... plenty of time to browse the menu. I had originally planned on ordering the "Better Than Sex" Fried Chicken, but, when my sister-in-law ordered the Blackened Stuffed Chicken, the waiter said it was his fave dish. So, I changed my order to the Blackened Stuffed Pork. D ordered the Duck a l'Orange and the kids went with the Chicken Tenders and Kid's Mac & Cheese.





We were a little concerned when our waiter said more adults like the Mac & Cheese. Seeing as how he was only 5, his palette tends to lean more towards the flavors in the blue box. I am pleased to say he loved it! His brother, who rarely eats anything that is not white, could not stop talking about how good the Chicken Tenders were. At one point I looked over, noticed that his chicken was mostly gone, and it appeared he had not even touched his fries. He even said that his chicken was better than KFC! Quite a declaration from a 7-year old.

D loved his Duck, and so did I. My pork was smothered in an incredible asiago sauce. The angel hair pasta was very good and the pork itself was so tender and flavorful. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the crab filling. D and I both thought it was 'too fishy' and, after my nephew's rave review, I was starting to think that I should have stuck with the fried chicken after all. However, my sister-in-law loved her crab stuffed chicken.

Despite the food being so delicious and filling, we knew we couldn't leave without trying the Bread Pudding... and thank God we didn't. It was incredible. That bread pudding is reason enough to make a trip back to Texas. I would also like to throw mention to our fantastic, friendly server. Unfortunately, I cannot recall his name.


In the evening we went to dinner at Prince Lebanese Grill in Arlington. Before the trip, this was the spot I was most looking forward to. It's hard to find good Mediterranean food in Wisconsin, and it's something I often miss. While the restaurant itself is fairly understated, the owner is front and center of the action in the dining room.


After some menu debate, we finally settled on the Lamb Mashwi Shish, the Falafel Plate and some Babaganoush. Our dining partners both ordered the Gyro Plate.






We first dove in to the babaganoush. I can say that it is the best 'baba g' I have ever had. I cannot say the same for the falafel. While it was good, it was certainly nothing to go back for. I am also sad to say that I did not care for the mashwi shish. I was so looking forward to it because it is was very highly rated, but I thought it was dry, overcooked and bland. In all, I felt our meal was quite disappointing. I did sample some of the gyro and thought the meat was incredible... one of the best I have ever had. I also tried the stuffed grape leaves our nephew ordered and was not impressed.
In finale, we ordered some bakalava and thought it was very good.


Whew! I cannot tell you how hard it was to write this blog while hungry... I gotta find some lunch.

homemade pizza

We decided to make our own pizza; or more importantly, our own sauce. We went on the hunt for some recipes online to get some ideas. Since we could not find anything that sounded ideal, we blended a few ideas and came up with the following:

1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes
1 small white, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch salt, ground black pepper and sugar.
dash of red pepper flakes
olive oil

• Pour tomato into mixing bowl and crush tomatoes your hands (leave them slightly chunky)
• Cover bottom of 2-quart saucepot with olive oi.
  
• Saute onions over medium heat until slightly translucent. Add the garlic and saute until golden (about a minute). Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
  
• Season with salt and pepper, to taste; add basil, oregano, sugar and red pepper flakes.
• Simmer for at least 15 minutes, stirring often.
  

The first pie was topped with goat cheese and caramelized onions. I loved the sweet from the onions on the pizza. So yummy!


We wanted to be a little different with the second. After some wandering in the grocery store we settled on ground Moroccan lamb, feta and kalamata olives. Certainly not your typical pizza toppings, but so good.

byo frittata

A Frittata is such an easy, quick, delicious way to make dinner, using leftover ingredients. You can really use anything you have to create your own flavors. Just think of it like an omlette... it is perfect for making your own way. With a variety of ingredients in the fridge, I decided to make one for dinner. I just needed some eggs. $.99 cents for a dozen? Done!

Below I have listed the base recipe, as well as some sample versions. But for our dinner, I used the following items:
5 slices bacon
1 cup co-jack cheese (leftover from the Sweetie Pie's mac and cheese I made last week)
scalloped potatoes (leftover from this crock-pot recipe)
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 cup asparagus, chopped (Asparagus is only $.99 lb this week, so I bought five pounds to freeze as I plan get this oven roasted recipe into a weekly rotation)

Here is the base recipe I use:

Build Your Own Frittata

8 eggs (if you use egg whites, increase the total number of eggs to 12)
1 cup cheese
3-4 meat and/or vegtables
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Turn on broiler in oven.

• Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in 10-12 inch non-stick skillet; add vegetables.
• In bowl, mix eggs, cheese, cooked meat and salt/pepper; pour into hot skillet.

• Cover and cook (w/o stirring), about 4 minutes, over medium-low heat until set on bottom and sides (will be runny in center).
• Wrap skillet handle with foil and place on top rack of oven. Broil 3-5 minutes until center is firm.

• Flip Frittata and serve on plate.

Here are some other sample recipes, if you are not feeling as creative to come up with your own:

Lorraine

1 small onion

1 c. asparagus

1 c. Swiss cheese

1 c. ham

Italian

2 c. sliced zucchini

1 c. diced potatoes

1 c. chopped onion

1 c. mozzarella

¼ c. Parmesan

top w/ marinara and basil

Tex-Mex

2 poblano peppers, chopped

1 c. chopped onion

1 c. cheddar

1/2 c. cilantro

1 c. corn kernels

top w/ salsa and cilantro

Vegetarian

16-oz pkg sliced mushrooms

¾ c. sliced scallions

1 c. Swiss cheese

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

top w/ chopped tomato and parsley or scallions

Potato, Bacon, Gruyere

3 medium baking potatoes, peeled

4 strips bacon

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese

best baked eggplant

We finally perfected our baked eggplant! Through much trial and error of making eggplant (baked and fried) at home, we recently made some that we decided is the best at-home baked eggplant.

First off, the male eggplant has a much better flavor; the female tends to be more bitter (insert joke here) because of the excessive amount of seeds. It's mother nature and that whole reproduction thing. So, how does one determine? Look at the bottom. The male has a rounded naval, where as the female spot is more of an elongated slit.

The other key thing is to eliminate much of the moisture. By doing that we slice them into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces, then lay them out on a layer of paper towels; sprinkle generously with sea salt and top with another layer of paper layers. Place a baking sheet on top for some additional weight and let sit for at least an hour.


Remove paper towels and place the eggplant on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil. You may also top with a bit more olive oil and spices of your choice. I am making into eggplant parmigiana, so I just used a little pepper. Place eggplant in 400 degree oven and bake for 30-45 minutes.


I like to eat it as is, but since we had some extra homemade red sauce from the weekend, I decided to top it with that. I also boiled some packaged ravioli we had in the freezer. YUM!

weekly slow cooker, take II

In spite of my past attempt to make one dinner per week in the crock-pot, I think I only got through 3 weeks before it fell apart. With the Holidays and house guests well behind us, I am getting back to some level of normal. Honestly, with not working I have had lots of time and have not found the slow cooker to be a high priority in getting dinner ready. However, I am working on getting back to use it regularly and here is my return recipe.

Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes & Ham

3 pounds potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped cooked ham
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

• Place sliced potatoes in slow cooker.
• In a medium bowl, mix together shredded cheese, onion and ham. Mix with potatoes in slow cooker.
  
• Using the same bowl, mix together condensed soup and water. Season to taste with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over the potato mixture.
• Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.
  

This recipe appears in the Allrecipes "Tried & True Slow Cooker & Casserole" cookbook.

In making this recipe, I also got to christen my new food processor! We had a mini prep for many years and I had not used it in probably 3 years or more. When I brought it out to shred 6 lbs of cheese for Christmas, I then learned it was dead. Last month we finally decided to get a new one. We got a great deal on ours from Kohl's. With is being on sale, an additional 30% off, plus $40 in Kohls cash and some gift cards to spend, we could not pass it up... and I am already so glad.
In seconds, it thinly and perfectly sliced 3 lbs of potatoes. Why did I ever even buy a mandolin! Now if only there was a way for it to peel the potatoes too...


To go along with the potatoes, I pulled some boneless pork chops out of the freezer and leftover panko bread crumbs from the pantry to whip up the following....

Panko-Crusted Pork Chops

3-4 pork chops (I used boneless)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 heaping teaspoon dried parsley
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3-4 tablespoons oil

• Lightly beat egg in shallow bowl. On a plate, combine bread crumbs, parsley and thyme on a plate.
• Season pork chops generously with salt and pepper. Dip the chops in the egg; then press them into the seasoned crumbs to coat.
  
• In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook chops about 3 to 4 minutes per side (longer for bone-in), adjusting heat under skillet to prevent burning.

These just might be my favorite pan-fried pork chops yet.