Restaurant Week 2010

Ok, so I posted about this last year, and I'm continuing to be enamored by the glory that Providence Restaurant Weeks brings to the area!

 Providence Restaurant Week and there are some great specials going around. Check out the links and menu's Ive included!

Choose from more than 75 Restaurants

$12.95 for a three-course lunch

 $29.95 for a three-course dinner

Places that I will definitely NEED to check out: 


CAV  for their fish tacos or bison burgers, salmon frittata! Whew.

Local 121 Point Judith Fried Calamari Po'Boy, Big Train Farm Cucumber Puree
native corn relish, queso fresco, chili oil, hand cut fries!

Loie Fullers smoked tomato bisque soup, snapper burger, and Pot de creme! Yum!

Pane E Vino Carpaccio di Manzo -Thin Slices of Raw Beef, Tangy Horseradish Aioli, Rucola & Capers, Ravioli con Polpa di Granchio- Lump crabmeat Ravioli, Roasted Garlic & Saffron Cream Sauce- Sign me up!

Pot Au Feu Quiche Du Jour- Freshly baked in a pastry crust with a variety of seasonal ingredients, Pate Maison-
Chicken liver mousse with French Brandy and croutons, Crepes aux Fruits Frais-
A pair of house made crepes - hand flipped – thin and tasty, Quarter folded around sweet brandied cream and topped with fresh fruit of the season. Oh my heavens.

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Call for Submissions: Best Rhubarb Recipe!

Luckily, my friend casey left me a whole bag full of rhubarb stalks. But I have NOOOOO idea what to do with them.

Help!!!!

What is your favorite rhubarb recipe!? 

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Dessert Nachos? I think so.

Dessert Nachos? These fruity, not too sweet, just right snacks are the most delicious thing and everyone kept coming back for more! A great conversation piece, a fabulous food to bring to a friends house, and a fun project to make with kids! Thanks to my wonderful roomie Sarah for introducing me to these glorious delights! They look a little complicated, but I promise, easy as pie!  Enjoy!

Fruit Salsa:

2 cups strawberries, hulled and diced
2 large kiwi, peeled and diced
1 can mandarin orange slices, drained

Mix together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Cheese Sauce:
1 8 ounce package of Neufchatel cream cheese
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3 Tablespoons honey

In a 1 quart pan, combine Neufchatel cheese, orange juice and honey. Whisk (important to use a whisk because it will be lumpy if you don’t) over low heat until sauce is smooth (about 3 minutes)

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Nacho Chips:
You need about 8 6-inch tortillas and about 1/2 cup sugar and some cinnamon to taste.

In a shallow bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Working with one tortilla at a time, brush both sides lightly with water; Dip one side of each wedge in sugar mixture. Cut into about 6 wedges using a pizza cutter. Arrange wedges in a single layer, sugared sides up, on baking sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, in a 500 degree oven until tortilla wedges are crisp and golden (watch closely but in my oven it takes about 4 minutes. It depends on the tortillas. Some burn quickly). Remove wedges from baking sheets and let cool slightly on racks.


And there you go! Viola! Delish! Combine! Gorge! Partake!
Let me know how it goes :)

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Russian Crab Salad

FINALLY! A Russian salad that I can excitedly recommend. This is so delicious and I just couldnt stop myself. Perfect for a party or just an awesome recipe to share with family and friends. Try it out!

Ingredients:  
1 cup of dry Basmati or similar type of rice,
4 eggs
250 - 300 gr. of crabmeat or imitation crabmeat,
1 small can of sweet corn
2-3 table spoons of grated cheddar or old gauda cheese  
3-4 table spoons of mayonnaise.

Directions:
1. Boil the rice, so it remains "friable", not sticky. Do not overcook!
2. Hard boil the eggs.
3. Let rice and eggs to cool down to the room temperature.
4. Cut crabmeat in small cubes,
5. Cut eggs into small cubes,
6. Open corn can, pour out the liquid.
7. Mix rice, corn, cheese, crabmeat and eggs.
8. Add mayonnaise at least 30 min before serving, stir.
9. Put in a big salad bowl, decorate with greens and black olives.

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Rice Pudding -For Breakfast?

A few weeks ago while staying at the ADC Gastinsza (a “Hotel” in Zavolzhye) we were served this delightful dish -actually, every morning for breakfast. I personally thought it was absolutely delicious, and reminiscent of something I have had before. So I consulted my Russian friend and she said that it was probably just rice boiled in milk.

I made my way to the Spar grocery store across the street and bought the best kind of rice I could come up with, as well as some good old 2.5% milk. Then something clicked- Holy moly! It’s Rice Pudding! So I looked for a recipe online to guide me and marched forward, excitedly anticipating the results.
Since they don’t have half the ingredients here that are called for in this original recipe (which I encourage you to check out HERE) I will give you my Russian interpretation:

• 2 1/2 cups of any kind of milk
• 1/3 cup of uncooked short grain white rice
• Pinch of salt

1. Put the rice, milk, salt in a pot, bring to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
2. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until rice is tender, continuing to stir.
3. Eat your heart out.

Can you say easy and cheap and delicious- and exactly what we were eating last week! Due to my low budget and lack of resources, I am literally going to make this weekly. (Can someone ship me some cinnamon or nutmeg? I will love you forever.) It’s almost as good as my grandma graham’s recipe.

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Banana Pineapple Muffins

Yumo! Let me just say, these are delightful, and y'all should get on the ball to make them. So last night we had a smoothie night at our place and made probably 34234 different kids of smoothies. Well, we ended up with loads of extra fruit of all sorts, mainly pineapple and banana. I said to myself, Dang girl, what can you make that would be a crowd pleaser and pretty easy as well? So I googled banana pineapple and came up with this glorious recipe from Tammy's Recipes. I modified it a little bit to go from the original loaf idea into muffins. (And by modified, I mean asked my baking/pastry major roommates 26 questions about bread vs muffin, cut the time down half and hour, and plopped the batter in muffin tins.)

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mashed bananas (I used 6 bananas)
1 cup crushed pineapple (include the juice)

1. In lage mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt.
2. In small mixing bowl, combine everything else. Bananas and pineapple last. Mix it up good, but not too much there buddy.
3. Then mix the wet and dry ingredients until everything is wet.
4. Pour into greased muffin tins.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-23 minutes or until done.

Makes approximately 45 muffins.

Enjoy!

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