Fried Pickles!

Ever have a craving for a certain item from a restaurant but you don't want to go anywhere? This is me most of the time...except for tonight! I decided to attempt my own fried pickles...they were great! Messy to make but really easy! I love fried pickles any way, spears, chips, whatever! I decided to make the chip version tonight but we have a new deep fryer so I will try spears later this summer.

It looks like there are two different types of fried pickles, and that's because as I started doing the milk-flour-egg-cornmeal, they were a lot thicker than I like, so I tried just milk and flour, and I liked those mucho better!

To make them I got hamburger dill chips, 2 for 1, who's the lucky girl?!..Whole milk, all purpose flour, 2 eggs and cornmeal. Again, I preferred the milk and flour dusted more so than what is traditionally done. I also have a strong preference when it comes to ranch dressing. I love the thinner kind, Majestic Grill in Charleston had the absolute best ranch dressing, but sadly they closed the year after I moved from Chucktown....second place goes to Naturally Fresh Ranch, it's really good!

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday so far!

In your kitchen...

What can you NOT live without? A specific tool? You're favorite cooking dish?

I always find myself staring in the cooking tools aisle (especially in Marshalls) thinking, I know I NEED something, but what was it!? For my birthday last year, I got a Williams Sonoma gift card, and went nuts in the cooking accessory section...and still, I feel like I need more! If I had all the money to spend on things like this, I would get these knives..

However, I stick more to buying the cheaper things like a garlic press, which is still on my wishlist, and new measuring cups and spoons, and a mortar and pestle. Unfortunately, and luckily for my bank account, we don't have a store in Spartanburg, so Greenville is where I have to venture. I just love that store! And they give you samples! Sur la Table is equally awesome, and a tad cheaper, but the closest one of those is in Charlotte, boooo!

And speaking of Sur la Table, a few years ago, I bought this little lovely in the impulse section they so cleverly place beside the registers...

...it's primary purpose is to prevent pots from boiling over, but then I was looking online and saw something that looked identical that you put inside the brown sugar bags to prevent it from hardening...and decided to stick the pot minder into my own brown sugar supply...and let me tell you, it works like a charm! I have not had one ball of rock hard sugar since! I think it must soak up the moisture that seeps out of the brown sugar, but whatever it does, I love it! This is the actual brown sugar ceramic stone

In my kitchen I cannot live without my nesting bowls, whisk, cheap bamboo spoon set, silicon baster, spatula, potato masher/tomato masher, and micro grater, just to name a few :)

What are your favorite things in your kitchen?

In my fridge right now, I'm loving a new flavor of Naked juice I hadn't tried yet, it's reduced calorie tropical, it tastes so refreshing and isn't as thick as the others, which I like

...I also picked up some of the best pickles I have ever had this weekend at Lake Jocassee, they are from a little gas station/grocery store right near the lake...SO GOOD!

Happy Eating!!!

SLACKER!

I'm disappointed in myself for not blogging in so long...and I have had so many amazing food experiences in the last few months...now I guess I can lump them all together! First, we traveled down to Charleston for a week to visit with friends and get some sun and sand! We ate at all of our fav's and threw in some new ones as well! The most memorable one being Bowen's Island, I knew I wanted a TON of oysters and from what I heard on travel channel it was the place to be. It was ZERO frill, eat as many til you pop oysters, as well as crab cakes, fried shrimp and fish, etc...ALL good. It was our last day down there, and it was the perfect ending to such a fun week. The view and sunset were amazing...

Heaps and heaps of shucked oyster shells..

I LOVE this sign for some reason, it was in such an odd place to be in front of the screen door, plywood restaurant that I had to take a picture, which now lives on my bathroom wall :)


Earlier that day we ate brunch at Hominy Grill, which isn't my favorite, but Poogan's Porch wasn't serving brunch on Friday and I was super depressed, so on to the next. I got eggs over easy and their awesome double cut bacon, but I mean, how can you screw that up?

During our mini-vacay we also ate at Coast, my all time favorite seafood restaurant down in Charleston. We started with their crab dip which was, as you can see...awesome


Sadly, I didn't take a before picture...we were hungry

Mike had their Raw Bar Sampler, in which we tried the baby octopus ceviche...I could have eaten an entire plate of it.


I ordered the Crab Encrusted Tilapia with Red Pepper Sauce, it was really good, I probably could have done without the sauce, but don't get me wrong, I still devoured it!

(Apologies for the sub-par quality of the iphone camera)

That same night we attempted to get reservations for Husk, because I have heard awesome things about their food, but they didn't have a reservation until 9:45 and the sunburn I was rockin' was not waiting that long to eat!...Coast was definitely not a let down though!

Some other restaurants we revisited were of course, Moe's Downtown Tavern, old stomping ground when I worked/lived in Charleston and still crave their BLT all the time when I'm home, Andolini's pizza, who has the BEST salad ever made, Basil of course, where we tried new menu items! The 3 flavor fish, was TO. DIE. FOR., and we walked to Magnolia's for some pecan pie--amazing.

(After reading this post, so far, I am SO glad I do not own a scale, Lord knows how much I gained on our tour de fatty in Chucktown.) WORTH IT

The first day down there we went to McCrady's and had some of their bar food...and one of them was very out of the ordinary for such a nice place!


that's right...sour cream and onion pork rinds, and I must say, out of the 2 times I have had pork rinds, these were considerably better!

We also tried the beef belly lettuce wraps with kimchee...a little too much of a fatty-texture for me, but tasted really good! We also had their pickles, which consisted of a lot of different veggies like okra, cucumbers, and some others that I cannot remember now...still great though!


That's about all that stands out from that trip! I was sad I couldn't get my Poogan's Porch fix, but we'll be back soon.

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On a totally separate note, for my 24th birthday I got a gorgeous Kitchen Aid mixer, in copper *swoon* and Mike's family got me the pasta attachments! I can't wait to try making my own pasta!


For now I have used it pretty much for chocolate chip cookies, which is the best recipe I have ever made!


and lots and lots of cream cheese frosting...this is what happens when you double an enormous recipe...

Sometime this week I plan on making these delicious looking bars, they are called "Talkin Crack Bars" and I stumbled upon them on a blog tonight, they look beyond good. They are also good for you too, bonus!

One dessert I am obsessed with is baklava...I always put making it on my own, in the very back corner of my mind, thinking it was too monotonous for my ADD self, but alas, I made it, and it was THE BEST THING I think I have ever made...in the dessert department anyway.

They were absolutely everything I had hoped for :)

Since we seemed to be grilling out a lot during the cold first few months, we shook things up and made our own version of "Juicy Lucy's" that we saw on the travel channel.




Muenster cheese, yes please!

Looking forward to hot days and cold pools!

Much Love!

You know you’re a foodie when…

* You have more than 3 kinds of vinegar in your home

* The thought of eating at Applebee’s sends you into a state of depression

* The idea of eating head cheese or tongue bologna makes you drool

* You refuse to use the parmesan Kraft cheese in the green can…must be freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

* You get annoyed when TV chefs explain what deglazing is for the 389th time.

* Watching Sandra Lee makes you want to stab yourself in the eye

* You get offended when anyone has you cook their steak for 12 minutes longer after
they are the perfect medium.

* Your little foodie heart skips a beat when iron chef is on.

* You get really sad when you hear about a Food and Wine festival at the last minute and wish you planned your year around it.

* Bizarre Foods makes you hungry.

* You have at least 3 types of cheese in your refrigerator.

* You are meticulous about your presentation of food, whether fancy or casual

* Williams-Sonoma is like your Christmas, everyday

* Someone says apple or orange, you ask which kind

* You can’t resist taking photos of food when you’re out to dinner

* You have had such great food experiences that you actually giggle while eating it

* You receive cookbooks for every occasion as gifts

Catching up!

The last few months I have cooked quite a few things, but taking pictures of all of them continues to slip my mind! I do have pictures of some of the great recipes I have found!
My favorite that I made over the holidays was a cranberry cheesecake. I found this recipe in Cooking Light and it was delicious, definitely didn't taste calorie friendly, but it was!




I didn't take a picture of the cooked product, but let me say, I have never liked cheesecake, until this one.
I also found a great recipe from Barefoot Contessa for simple roasted brussel sprouts, just halved them, tossed with EVOO, salt and pepper and a little garlic salt, and voila! They were fabulous!

After this venture I decided I had enough time to make chicken stock from scratch and make Egg Drop Chicken Soup with Spinach. Took forever, but worth the effort.




I also baked a little bit over my hiatus. One of my best friends needed help with a cake so I didn't hesitate to help! It was a carrot cake with homemade cream cheese icing...it was heavenly...at least that was what I was told haha I will have to make it again to have a piece for myself!



On Christmas Eve, myself, the boyfriend and his family headed South...We went to West Palm Beach and Orlando to visit family and go to Disney! We went to a very popular cuban restaurant called Havana and we had some amazing food! I love tamales and had to try a homemade one! It was garlicky and so delicious!

We also went to a great Irish restaurant in Downtown Disney called Raglan Road, I had a portabello mushroom burger with Dubliner cheese (my favorite ever) and white truffle oil and parmesan infused french fries....beyond delicious.


Mike ordered Bangers and Mash with Guiness Stew and it was a close second to homemade.

And what is a great meal, without a cold bev? I had a Blue Moon with a juicy Florida orange slice...yum!



Hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Valentine's Day!

(P.S. - See that BMW commercial during the super bowl? That's where we live!)


If anyone wants a recipe seen here, just comment and I will post it! Just didn't want to post them all!