Finish February Strong With All Your Favorite Cheeses!

Seeing this sign outside of Di Bruno Brothers inspired me to make a meal with my favorite cheeses. Di Bruno Brothers in Philadelphia sells over 400 types of cheese from around the world.

Blue Cheese Roasted Broccoli

1 lb broccoli florets

1 cup baguette crumbs (I love whole wheat)

4 oz blue cheese

1/8 cup olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees

In a bowl mix together bread crumbs, blue cheese, lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Place broccoli on a cookie sheet and drizzle olive on florets and toss to coat. Sprinkle blue cheese mixture over broccoli and roast for 25-30 minutes, turning once.

Parmesan & Garlic French Bread

If you love garlic as much as I do you will love this garlic bread recipe!

1/2 whole wheat baguette

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tbsp dried basil

4 cloves garlic, mashed

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice baguette lengthwise and place on a cookie sheet.

Crush garlic and sprinkle kosher salt over garlic. Starting at one end of the pile of chopped garlic, press down with the flat side of the knife. Move the knife a little further into the pile of garlic and continue until the garlic becomes a paste.

In a small bowl combine butter or margarine, garlic, and herbs. Spread butter mixture on both pieces of baguette. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over baguette.

Close baguette and wrap in foil. Bake for 15 minutes, remove foil and bake for 5 more minutes or until butter is melted.

Slice and serve warm.

El Vez

2 Stephen Starr restaurants in 2 days! We went to El Vez the morning of my flight for what we thought was going to be a quick lunch. We had such a good time with their friend Dr. Grey that we lost track of time and almost missed my flight back to Kansas!

El Vez is self proclaimed "Mexican-American meets LA in a Tijuana Taxi". Items on the menu range from fresh salads and tacos to heartier, more traditional Tex-Mex dishes. They have four different types of guacamole with the goat cheese & pistachio being the most popular. The restaurant is filled with natural sunlight from the floor to ceiling windows. Pictured above are the Crispy Mahi-Mahi Tacos with red cabbage and a chipotle remoulade that Jon ordered.

I had the Mexican Chopped Salad (Above) with pumpkin seeds, queso fresco and a cumin-lime vinaigrette.

Marybeth had the Black Bean Enchiladas (above) with caramelized onions and smoked yellow tomato sauce.

Dr. Grey had the Queso Fundido De Hongos (Above) which had truffled wild mushrooms with chihuahua cheese and huitlacoche

I was able to re-create the goat cheese and pistachio guacamole and I will post the recipe soon!

Buddakan

Let me start off by thanking my wonderful friends Marybeth and Jon Paul Uritis for showing me around Philly! I had such an amazing time I hope to visit again soon!

(Jon, Marybeth and myself out on my last night in town).

For my last night in Philly we decided to go to one of Stephen Starr's restaurants, Buddakan. Buddakan is an Asian inspired restaurant with an eleven foot gold Buddha in the middle of the dining room.
The dim lighting and top notch table service was the icing on the cake to an amazing meal.

*These photos were taken with Marybeth's iPhone, so they are a little dark!*

First Course:
Edamame Ravioli
Steamed Chicken Dumplings
Lobster Fried Rice

Pictured above is Buddakan's Edamame Ravioli. This is quite possibly the best thing I ever ate. These raviolis are filled with a puree of edamame, cream and truffle oil. The raviolis are covered in a light shallot Sauternes sauce and garnished with whole edamame and green onions. I am determined to recreate this recipe!

While I was blown away by the ravioli, I was not very impressed with the Chicken Dumplings, I felt that my recipe for pork dumplings have a more flavor and texture. We also had Lobster Fried Rice and it was a great addition to the ravioli.

Second Course:
Asian Barbecue Pork Tenderloin with chinese broccoli and giant panko crusted onion rings

The pork was very tender and was laying atop a bed of Chinese broccoli and was covered in a sweet and tangy sauce. The panko fried onion rings could have been omitted, they were served in a bowl on the side.

Marybeth had the Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass which had sauteed haricots verts, butternut squash, maitake mushrooms and a sake truffle jus (Pictured Below)


Jon Paul had the Grilled Lamb Chops with chinese eggplant in a garlic sauce with thai basil pesto. The lamb was my second favorite dish of the evening! (Pictured Below)

Third Course: Trio of Sorbet

From left to right: Passion Fruit, Dark Chocolate & Raspberry
Both fruit sorbets sat atop a mixed berry salsa of sorts and the chocolate on top of cocoa nib.

Truffle Heaven

Teuscher Chocolates

Teuscher Chocolates is located in the historic Bellevue building in Phildelphia. Teuscher makes copious amounts of Swiss chocolates including my favorite, dark chocolate truffles. The Triple Dark Chocolate truffle contains 77% cocoa cream ganache. (Pictured below)


I also tried Nama for the first time at Teuscher's. Nama is Japanese for "fresh", it is very delicate and literally melts in your mouth! (On the lower right side of the picture above the stripped chocolate).

Philadelphia Adventures Continued

National Mechanics

I have been drinking Bloody Mary's for some time now, so I feel that I am somewhat of an expert. Hands down the best Bloody Mary is at Louise's West in Lawrence Kansas. While I know it will be hard to top the Louise's West Bloody Mary, I am always open to trying others. With that being said, I came across a bloody Mary that was so bad I had to send it back!

While I was disappointed with the drink, the food and atmosphere made up for it. National Mechanics is a restaurant and bar located in Old City where neighbors gather weekly to play Quizzo. They also infuse their own liqueurs. Black Pepper Vodka, Jalapeno Tequila and Bacon Vodka were just a few displayed in large class jugs behind the bar. I was excited to try the bacon vodka in a Bloody Mary but with the combination of clamato juice I found it repulsive. The bacon infused vodka sounded promising but was executed poorly.

Our team did very well in Quizzo except for the random 5th team member who continually tried to sabotage our team with her stupidity. The Erin Isles in Ireland are not a county, they are islands! And last time I checked "The King and I" was set in Siam NOT Vietnam!