Mexican Inspired Ramen Noodles

I want to make a home cooked meal but have no meat, very little bread, no useful cheese and very few veggies...so what do I do? 

I went to Target today and bought a 6-pack of chicken flavored Ramen Noodles (a score at $1.20) and we had a black bean and corn salsa in the fridge and fresh limes in the fruit bowl. LIGHTBULB! 

Mexican-Inspired Ramen Noodles 

1 Tbs olive oil

2 packages of chicken Ramen Noodles, one spice packet

2 cups black bean and corn salsa (recipe below)

1/2 lime (for garnish)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp cilantro 

2 Tbs adobo sauce (optional)

Break apart the ramen blocks (I prefer to make fourths).

In a skillet heat olive oil and then warm up salsa (simple enough, right?) and season with salt and pepper. 

In a separate pot bring 3 cups of water to a boil (do not salt the water, trust me there's plenty of sodium in the ramen packet) add in ramen packets and cook for about 2 minutes - any longer and it gets gummy. Drain pasta and replace into pot. 

Mix in warmed black bean and corn salsa , cilantro, seasoning packet and adobo sauce. Garnish with a quartered lime wedge. 

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

1 can black beans, drained

1 can corn (or fiesta corn if you're feeling adventurous), drained

1/2 yellow onion, diced

Salt and pepper to taste 

Mix together ingredients in a bowl. 

So next time you're wanting something quick and easy but want to break out of your routine try mixing flavor profiles with every day ingredients you find in your pantry! If it's bad you'll end up with a good story! Enjoy readers!

Birthday Celebration

Good morning, readers! Today I'm feelin' 22 (cue Taylor Swift music). My 22nd birthday is Tuesday but we decided to celebrate last night at St. Clair Winery and Bistro located at 901 Rio Grande Blvd, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104. 

This winery is the perfect mix of casual and formal. Sounds funny but it's true, you can feel comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt or in a dress and heels. The resturant has 2 patios (one available for private parties) as well as 2 dining rooms, a bar, and a small shop where you can purchase their wine. Every month they have a "wine of the month" which can be purchased for a discounted price. They have a separate lunch menu with sandwiches, salads and half-orders of popular entrees while the dinner menu has pasta, steak, seafood and salads. 

We ordered the cheese nosh as an appetizer; Nate ordered the St. Clair Cabernet Sauvignon (perfectly dry and pairs well with pretty much anything) while I sampled their "wine of the month" La Clairette (semi sweet red with subtle Cabernet notes). 

The nosh was a platter of 5 different cheeses, Kalamata olives, fresh raspberries and chocolate served with crostini and water crackers. Last night's selection included bleu cheese (strong bleu cheese flavor which I personally love), marbled sage (hard cheese, not sure what the sage was marbled with though), apricot (way too sweet for my taste), Asiago (not my favorite but Nate liked it) and a delicious roasted red pepper spread (honestly the star of the show! It was creamy, tangy and had roasted garlic cloves on top: can you say yummy?)

After the nosh I was pretty full but had to press on with my feast so I settled on the grilled salmon with lemon compound butter and vegetable medley while Nate got the prime rib special; again we had to get a perfect wine pairing so Nate went with the Lescombes Cabernet Sauvignon (a little dryer than the St. Clair) and I went with the St. Clair Pino Grigio (crisp, fruity and dry).  

Decor: good, the resturant is all mahogany wood and very inviting. The subtle lighting make it a perfect place to cozy up for a date night or gossip with girlfriends and get classy trashy on wine.

Cleanliness: excellent, despite the fact it was a packed house (Friday night, live entertainment, hungry working people) the staff bussed tables quickly and the bathrooms were spotless. 

Food taste: excellent, my salmon was amazing! Grilled perfectly, the compound butter wasn't too heavy for the fish, the vegetable medley (steamed squash, zucchini, green beans, red peppers and tomatoes) were seasoned perfectly and paired with the freshness of the fish and I was given a surprise potato croquet! It was fried to a beautiful golden brown and not too greasy while the inside was the consistency of herbed mashed potatoes. 

Food appearance: excellent, the food was all presented beautifully and you can really tell the kitchen had an eye for detail. 

Service: excellent, our server was attentive, friendly and more than happy to meet our requests (such as put my birthday cake in the fridge and bring us a lighter). She even sold us on a bottle of champagne! 

Total: 14/15

I highly recommend St. Clair for any and all occasions (at least try their wine! They have 3 separate companies in a variety of flavor profiles to appease any palet). 

My cake, though regrettably not St. Clair was a tiramisu cake from Whole Foods market and married very well with the St. Clair Bellissimo bubbly we ordered! Another great thing is if you order a bottle of wine (which most people did last night because they were $10 off) and didn't finish it at dinner they re-cork it for you!

Avocado Brownies

What comes to mind when I say "guilt-free"? Taste free? Yummy free? Happiness free? Why-even-bother? Believe me, I feel you readers; often "guilt-free" just means the tasty stuff has been replaced with chemicals or taken out completely...which results in sadness. 

However, I have a recipe for delicious guilt free brownies made with avocado that are both decadent and guilt free! What? How can this be? One word: avocado. Yes ma'am (or sir) avocado can be used in baking to replace flour and oil without adding an "avocado" flavor. 

Avocado Brownies

1 ripe avocado, pitted

2 eggs

2 Tbs vanilla extract

1 Tbs water 

3.5 oz dark chocolate (I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate) 

1 cup and 1 Tbs cocoa powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt 

Preheat oven to 355 degrees and grease a square baking dish or cake pan. 

Puree (in a food processor) avocado, eggs, vanilla and water. 

Melt chocolate (I used a double-boiler; heat a saucepan of water and place a glass bowl with chocolate on top of the pot to melt). Once chocolate is melted add to food processor and combine. 

Mix in dry ingredients. If batter is too thick add in water 1 Tbs at a time. 

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until you can do the toothpick trick. 

Let cook before cutting into it. 

These brownies are so good, eating them  should be a crime! 

Bea's 2 New Mexican Resturant

I love going to visit old haunts from my childhood; like Bea's 2 for instance. I remember coming here as a child before spending a day at the New Mexico State Fair. 

Bea's 2 (there was once an original "Bea's" that closed when I was about 6) is located at 8603 Zuni SE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108. 

This place is just good old comfort food in a greasy spoon atmosphere. There are no frills, no fuss, just honestly good New Mexican for reasonable prices.

The space is quite large (roughly 100 seats) and includes a private banquet room. 

I walked in and was told to seat myself (it is 10:30 on a Monday after all...seating may be different when there's a packed house). I chose one of the booths by the window so Nate (who will be arriving later) could easily spot me...not that that would be particularly hard at the moment seeing as I'm one of only 15 other diners and the only person sitting alone. 

The menu has American breakfast classics such as omelettes and pancakes as well as New Mexican favorites such as carne adovada (tender cuts of pork simmered in red chile sauce) and chili rellenos (green chile pods stuffed with cheddar cheese, battered, fried and smothered with red or green). Additionally, they have daily breakfast and lunch specials. 

Decor: good, the restaurant is decorated in the traditional "New Mexican" way. There are hanging plants, chile ristras (clusters of hanging red chiles used for decorative purposes), a sombrero room, and a piñata that I'm fairly confident has been here since my youth. 

Food taste: excellent, we received a basket of chips and salsa which was perfectly spicy. For an entree, I ordered the chile relleno with green and it may have been the best chile relleno I've had! The batter was light and fluffy, and fried to a perfect golden brown, and chile pod was spicy and flavorful. 

Food appearance: good, nothing too fancy. 

Cleanliness: good, tables and chairs are all clean, booths in good condition (no holes or tears), carpet and banquet-style chairs are a tad outdated but clean and scuff-free. 

Service: excellent, the wait staff was attentive (even when I was sitting there for 30 minutes) having ordered nothing but coffee and water. 

Total: 12/15

Julia Child is my Spirit Animal

One of my favorite movie lines (regarding food) comes from the Disney animated film, Ratatoullie. If you haven't seen the film first of all, shame on you go rent it immediately and secondly, the story line is about a rat, Remy with an unusual aspiration - to become a cook. Anyway, the line is as follows "the best food in the world is made in France. The best food in France is made in Paris." Frankly I could not agree more with a statement. French food is refined, romantic, indulgent and decadent (not that my ignorant 12-year-old self enjoyed any of it when I visited Paris. I found escargot and other delicious French staples to be "weird" and refused to try anything unfamiliar. I wish I could go back 10 years and kick and force feed myself). And who's the queen of French cusine? Julia Child of course! I don't care who you are or where you come from, Julia Child is the undisputed culinary master of French cooking.

I was therefore inspired to crack open my copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" authored by my culinary inspiration, none other than queen Julia Child, to search for dinner plans and settled on pan broiled steak with shallot white wine (or dry vermouth) sauce and garlic mashed potatoes and served with sautéed spinach with a balsamic vinegar reduction. 

I began with the mashed potatoes since they will take the longest. Bear in mind that this dish is not for the faint of heart - literally, this dish contains an entire stick of butter. 

Purée de Pommes de Terre A L'ail

(Garlic Mashed Potatoes) 

6 cloves garlic, pealed but left whole

8 Tbs butter 

2 Tbs Flour

1 cup boiling milk 

1/4 tbs salt

Pinch of pepper 

2 pounds baking potatoes (Idaho), peeled and quartered

3-4 Tbs whipping cream 

4 Tbs minced parsley

Begin with a 3-4 cup saucepan and begin melting 2 Tbs butter over low heat, add in garlic cloves and cook covered until they are tender. 

Mix in flour and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add in milk and salt and pepper. 

Puree the mixture with either an immersion blender, sieve and a spoon or a traditional blender until smooth. Set aside. 

Meanwhile, bring a large stock pot to a boil. Salt the water (for that reason no one knows? Does it season the potatoes or pasta? Do we just do it out of habit?) and add in potatoes. Cook until tender and then drain. 

Rice or mash the potatoes. 

Reheat garlic purée until a film forms on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and add in 4 Tbs of butter and correct seasoning if necessary. 

Before serving beat the sauce into the mashed potatoes. Beat in heavy cream in spoonfuls as to not thin out the purée too much. Add parsley. 

Next I began the sautéed spinach and balsamic reduction. 

Sautéed Spinach

2 Tbs olive oil

6 oz bag of baby spinach

4 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and pepper

Heat large skillet on medium heat and add garlic. 

Sautée garlic until fragrant and add in spinach (6 oz of spinach may sound like a lot but believe me it isn't). 

Wilt spinach until tender. 

Balsamic Reduction Sauce 

1 cup balsamic vinegar 

Bring balsamic vinegar to a boil over medium high heat. Turn to low and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until it can coat the back of a spoon (took mine 20 minutes, stupid reduction). Watch it very closely because it can easily burn

And now for the main event: the steak. Allow me to explain that I've never made any meat other than chicken (breasts and drumsticks), seafood (salmon, shrimp and scallops), and bacon and sausage. I have never in my entire 21 years cooked a steak. 

Bifteck Sauté Bercy

(Pan-broiled Steak with Shallot and Dry Vermouth Sauce) 

1 pound steak (ball tip petite serloin) 

5 1/2-6 1/2 Tbs butter

1/2 Tbs olive oil 

3 Tbs shallot, minced 

1/2 cup dry vermouth 

Salt and pepper 

2-3 Tbs parsley, minced

Heat skillet (I used my trusty cast iron) over medium high heat and add in 1/2 Tbs butter and oil. Once butter ceases to foam, add in steaks and reduce heat so fats are still hot but not burning. 

Sautée steak for 3-4 minutes per side or until medium rare (the moment you observe a little pearling of red juice beginning to ooze at the surface of the steak). Trust me you want this steak to be on the rare side. 

Remove steak from skillet and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the fat out of the skillet and add in 1 Tbs butter. 

Stir in shallots and cook for 1 minute. 

Pour the vermouth into the skillet and boil it down quickly, scraping up the tasty beef bits until the liquid reduces to a strip. 

Remove from heat and add in remaining butter a Tbs at a time until thickened. Add in salt and pepper to taste and parsley. 

This meal was my best. BAR NONE. It was by far my most ambitions and paid off. 

PLEASE COOK THIS FOOD! And get a copy of my bible (Mastering the Art of French Cooking). Happy eating, readers! 

Mariachi Resturant

Ever have one of those days where you just feel like doing nothing? You wake up at 8 am because your cats are meowing at you or you realized that those 4 beers and a Jack and diet (Coke) gave you a slight hangover...whatever the reason you just don't want to be productive. Well, I definitely had a morning like that. I got out of bed and then went to the couch to read some Harry Potter (I'm halfway through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and laid there until 12 when Nate told me to shower and function. 

I did what I was told so we could go ahead and begin our day of errands (bakery for bread, grocery shopping, gym, and cleaning our apartment). We decided that grocery shopping while hungry was dangerous and should thus be avoided so we began our search for food. 

Nate requested New Mexican so we drove down a busy street near our apartment to search and came upon Mariachi Resturant located at 2110 Juan Tabo NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87112. 

The dining room itself is tiny - only about 15 seats but the small space is packed with big flavor! 

The menu has all the New Mexican favorites: burritos, chile rellenos, stuffed sopapillas, Indian tacos and of course your choice of red or green chile. 

We were served an order of chips with salsa to start and the salsa was definitely housemade and a great recipe. The salsa wasn't too spicy but had a great garlic-y flavor to it. We liked the chips and salsa so much we even ordered seconds! 

Decor: good, the small dining room was decorated with large prints (available for purchase) of New Mexican landscapes. It was kinda like eating at your grandma's house - cozy, warm, inviting.

Food taste: excellent, I ordered a beef burrito platter that was accompanied with Spanish rice and pinto beans and topped with "christmas" chile. For you non-New Mexicans or those of you who have never visited New Mexico, our state question is "red or green?" Any New Mexican food is not complete without chile; some prefer red because it has a smoky flavor while green can be either mild or hot. I prefer to get my food "christmas" which is a mixture of red and green chile. The burrito itself was absolutely stuffed with spicy ground beef and cheese and smothered in my favorite chile choice. The rice had a surprising spice added to it (I think it was cloves) but it made the rice so delicious! I normally will forgo beans because I do not care for them but I decided to try them and I'm so glad I did! They were cooked to tender perfection and a great lard flavor (yum!!!). At the end of the meal we were given a traditional New Mexican dessert: sopapillas and honey. Sopapillas are fluffy pillows of fried, doughy perfection. They aren't particularly sweet (hence why they're served with honey) but make a great end to a meal. 

Food appearance: excellent, ok look at the picture above and you'll know exactly why they got this score! 

Cleanliness: excellent, the dining room was spotless, booths and tables in great condition, trash out of sight. 

Service: excellent, we were greeted warmly by the owners (older man and woman) and she came over to our table to get our drink orders and bring us chips and salsa while wearing an apron (how cute!). After we ordered she asked us if we had ever been there before and then said "you're going to love it and you'll be back" well she's definitely right on both counts! 

Total: 14/15 

It is great to finally have somewhere closely and local for good New Mexican food! You'll definitely be treated like family. 

Lazy and Starving

Readers picture this, you've come home from a long week at work, you're hungry, you're tired and don't want to put forth much effort to do anything other than opening up a beer or the bottle of Jack Daniels (what? No this isn't about me, I'm just speaking in general...). You consider ordering a pizza but you just had pizza on Sunday and your alternative delivery options are slim; you don't want to go drive somewhere because you already changed into your comfy pajamas and don't want to risk being seen. So what do you do?

Nothing will make you quite as creative as being lazy and starving. You open up the pantry looking for something quick and easy and the only suitable options are soup (eh), pretzel sticks (but there's nothing to dip them in) and cereal (no thanks) so you look around for plan b. You find bread and cheese! Score! 

Who doesn't like a good olde grilled cheese? They're quick, relatively little effort, and if you make them correctly, can be both filling and delicious. 

Lazy and Starving Grilled Cheese

Canola spray 

2 slices bread (I used Great Harvest Bakery sourdough) 

1/2 an avocado, pitted and mashed 

2 Tbs salsa (El Pinto hot) 

1/4 tbs salt

1/4 tbs garlic salt 

1 Tbs yellow mustard 

2 (or more) slices cheese (Kroger Thin sliced Swiss and Kroger Sliced Pepperjack) 

1 slice deli sliced turkey breast (Boar's Head Mesquite)

1 Tbs Giardiniera or jalapeños, drained (optional) 

1/2 tomato, thinly sliced  

So grilled cheese should be a standard in any cook's wheelhouse, I think it's the first thing I ever learned to cook myself, (ask Nate, the first year of our relationship he ate copious amounts of grilled cheese ). 

Spray skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium. 

While skillet is heating up, take the halved and pitted avocado and scoop contents into a separate bowl, mix in salsa, salt and garlic powder. Spread mixture on one slice of bread. Spread mustard on other slice. 

Place one slice of bread (I used the avocado one) in the skillet to begin grilling. 

Place one slice of cheese on avocado side and then layer slice of turkey and final slice of cheese on top of that. Now you can add on your hot peppers or tomatoes (if you wish). 

Top with final slice of bread. 

I like to weigh my grilled cheeses down with a small sauce pan lid (this creates a steaming effect which ensures more even and quicker melting). Let cook for 5-7 minutes before flipping and then repeat the cooking process. 

Seems pretty basic and standard right? Well perhaps, but I can honestly say that the 10 or so minutes I put into making this meal was definitely worth it. I am full, relaxed, and maybe slipping into a food coma in front of the tv with my cats. 

Good food doesn't always have to be complicated or time consuming, sometimes some nostalgic food with a face lift is all you need to make a hard and long week melt away. 

Bosque Brewing

Good morning readers and happy Thursday! I, for one cannot be more pleased that this week is almost over; the adjustment from working 20 hours per week to 44 has been a tough one and my sleep (and possibly my sanity) are being sacrificed. 

Last night Nate's American Nuclear Society had a fun "Welcome Back" event (the spring 2015 semester at UNM began on Monday). The event was "bounce and beer"! 

Basically it was an excuse for grown men (and myself) to jump around on giant trampolines for an hour and then go drink beer and eat delicious brewery food. 

If you read my "Flossmoor Station" review you know I love a good craft beer and Bosque Brewing definitely delivers that and much much more. 

The brewery recently opened a Public House location (congratulations, guys!) but we visited the brewery location at 8900 San Mateo Blvd NE, #1 Suite 1, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113 

The tap room itself is small, perhaps only about 30 seats but the warm woods used in the bar and few tables coupled with the soft lighting and the industrial ceilings and metal fixtures create a cozy atmosphere - an atmosphere perfect for craft beer drinking! The tables are also all equipped with a small puzzle to challenge drinkers to solve (I was at a table of 9 Nuclear Engineers who spent the better part of 2 hours trying to solve it without success). The tap room also has 3 large flat screen TVs (last night tuned into the Lobo Men's basketball game against the Air Force). 

The brewery boasts 6 year-round beers as well as 6 rotating seasonal beers. You can order most in sizes ranging from 5oz samples to 64oz growlers (Wednesday's and Sunday's are discount growler days!) the brewery also has a happy hour Monday-Thursday 3-6 pm with $1 off any regularly priced beers and discounted food. 

I had 2 of the rotating beers: the first was the Acequia IPA. The IPA was perfectly balanced and bitter and oddly refreshing after an hour of "exercise". The second was the Rio Grande Tortoise Black IPA. Now fellow beer drinkers, if you've never had a Black IPA because you don't like IPAs I encourage you to try them immediately because they're nothing like what a typical IPA is. I can't really describe how but they're just incredible and I wish I could drink them daily. The Rio Grande Tortoise was a little heavy to go with my sandwich so I was happy I only ordered an 11oz size. 

Decor: good, as I've said the atmosphere is comfortable and inviting, kinda like going to your friends house (if your friend owned a brewery in an industrial district). 

Cleanliness: excellent, the bar itself was clean, the tap room was clean and the bathrooms were clean. 

Food taste: excellent, I've said it once and I'll say it again, breweries have the best food! Although their menu is limited (paninis, salads, soups, pretzels, brats) they take exceptional care creating every dish. Nate and I ordered chips with IPA salsa to share and it was pretty good (the salsa wasn't as hot as I would've liked but the IPA flavor was present and I was starving from the hour of bouncing). For dinner I ordered the turkey sandwich. Sounds boring, right? Wrong! This panini was anything but! Served on a grilled chibata roll, the sandwich had sliced turkey, melted Gruyere cheese, chipotle aioli, mixed greens and thick sliced tomatoes and served with housemade kettle chips - chunchy, crispy, not too greasy, perfectly salted. 

Food appearance: good, the food was arranged on the plates in the most appealing way (sandwiches cut in half to show off all their tasty ingredients). 

Service: excellent, seeing as only 2 people were working the front-of-house and they had to cover the bar and tables I'd say they did a sublime job; drinks were refilled in a timely manner, food was brought out quickly and accurately, they were both friendly. 

Total: 13/15

I would love to check out the Public House location very soon to compare them. If you're in the industrial district of Albuquerque and craving some fantastic beer and tasty nosh check out Bosque Brewing! 

Tuna with Avocado

Hello again, readers! Allow me to begin this post by stating I hate chunk light tuna and mayo.  Tuna always reminded me of cat food and mayo is just so heavy and thick and eggy that I can't stand it! Having said that you can imagine my surprise when I suddenly had the urge to buy tuna. 

However I had a secret weapon that made it palatable to me: AVOCADO! Anyone who knows me personally knows that avocado is my vice. I add guacamole to my New Mexican food regardless of what it is, homemade guacamole is gone within hours at my home and if a sandwich has avocado in the ingredients you can bet I'm ordering it. 

Tuna salad with Avocado 

1 pouch chunk light tuna in water

1 ripe Hass avocado

1 Tsp lemon zest 

1 Tsp lemon juice 

Salt and pepper to taste 

1/4 tsp garlic powder 

1/4 tsp chile powder (optional) 

Half and pit avocado and slice and then cube into a small bowl (or Tupperware if you're bringing it to lunch).

Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Upon opening the pouch I had the smell wash over me and had to keep myself from thinking I was about to willingly ingest cat food (probably didn't help that our cat Sammy wouldn't stop circling my legs and meowing either). 

However I am currently eating the tuna salad and, I honestly can't believe I'm admitting this but I LOVE IT! Who'd have guessed that a food that would've sent me running to the hills is making my mouth water? Just goes to show your tastebuds change, I suppose. 

Happy eating! 

Tortellini with Champagne Cream Sauce

Hello readers! Long time, no blog! Unfortunately I haven't done much "true" cooking since New Years (been trying to adjust to my 8-5 schedule and fitting in workouts, binge-reading the complete Harry Potter series and sleep). However, last night for dinner I made five cheese tortellini (courtesy of Costco Wholesale), baked chicken breasts and covered it all with a velvety-smooth champagne cream sauce. 

Now, I didn't make the chicken breast so I can only guess how my husband made it, therefore I will only give the recipe for the cream sauce. 

Champagne Cream Sauce 

3 Tbs olive oil or butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced 

1 C dry champagne 

1/2 cup Italian cheese, shredded

3 Tbs heavy whipping cream 

2 Tbs champagne mustard 

2 Tbs all-purpose flour (or Wondra flour)

Zest of 1 lemon

1 Tbs herbs de Provence

1 Tbs oregano 

Salt and pepper to taste 

In a medium size sauce pan sauté minced garlic in olive oil over medium heat until the garlic becomes fragrant. 

Add in champagne, be careful it will bubble profusely. Let the mixture reduce for about 5 minutes over high heat. 

Once the mixture has slightly thickened, whisk in the shredded cheese (I used an Italian cheese blend from the grocery store), next add in the whipping cream, mustard and flour. The mustard may sound strange but trust me, it gives the sauce a wonderful tang that it needs. The flour is added purely for thickening, if you want a thicker sauce add more. Add in the spices and lemon zest right before blanketing the pasta (or chicken, heck it'd probably even taste good on a flip flop). 

Hope you enjoy the sauce!

Strawberry Balsamic Sorbet

Today I have a terrible sweet tooth…maybe it's from the 3 mile hike Nate and I took…or I'm watching the Blackhawks…or I just really want sugar…at any rate I'm wanting something sweet without undoing my whole day and then I remembered…I HAVE STRAWBERRY BALSAMIC SORBET!

So the ingredients for this amazing dessert are simple enough: fresh strawberries, sugar, and balsamic vinegar. Wait? Did I just say balsamic VINEGAR?! Believe it or not readers, the addition of the balsamic brings out the sweetness of the strawberries and you can't taste the vinegar in the sorbet once it's done.

2 pounds organic strawberries, washed, hulled, quartered
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Pre-freeze your pan. You could also use an ice cream maker but I do not own one so I put a metal loaf pan in the freezer overnight.
Combine all ingredients and then seal in mason jar (trust me you don't want to try to combine all the ingredients in the mason jar…it won't work) and refrigerate overnight (the longer you leave it in the fridge the more the strawberries will infuse).
When you're ready to make sorbet empty the mason jar into a blender or food processor (or if you're like me and don't like to pull that stuff out to clean just use an immersion bender) and puree the strawberries.
Pour pureed mixture into your pre-frozen pan (or ice cream maker) and freeze overnight with the sorbet covered with plastic wrap (or follow the directions on your ice cream maker).

I made myself a bowl of this sorbet and remembered I had a Hershey's Special Dark with Almonds bar (thanks, Mom!) in the pantry so I broke off a couple squares to eat with the sorbet and it was the perfect compliment! The sweetness of the strawberries were perfectly balanced with the bitterness of the chocolate mmmmm

Enjoy, readers!

Pizza Castle

Pizza is the best food…EVER. I mean think about it for a second readers, pizza has every food group you need for a balanced diet (assuming you order it correctly); you got your grain from the dough, dairy from the cheese, fruits and vegetables from the toppings and sauce and your fat from the well…fat. Now, I'm not advocating eating pizza to be healthy, although I secretly wish eating pizza would make you skinny but I'm just giving you something to think about. 

I have not been to Pizza Castle located at 1309 Eubank Blvd NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87112 since I was 12 years old and taking piano lessons on Friday nights; after telling Nate (basically anytime we would pass its storefront) about how fantastic their pizza was last night he finally consented to letting us order pizza from there! 

The store itself looked exactly the same as it had…god 10 years ago; the doors open up into the restaurant in front of the order window. On either side of the order window are about 8 tables, 2 flat screen TVs in either corner (last night they were tuned to the Cardinals/Panthers game) and a few arcade games are also in the restaurant. The entire establishment is bathed in the delicious aroma of baking pizza. 

The menu has pizza (of course), hot and cold sandwiches, salad and special deals like 2 slices of cheese with a 20 oz drink for $5.30 or a slice of one-topping pizza, a salad and a 20 oz drink for $5.25. Their prices are honestly insane! The beautiful pizza we ordered last night was only $21 including tip! 

We ordered the jumbo sausage and hot green chile pizza last night and oh man was it amazing! Perhaps it was just my nostalgia but this pizza was some of the best I've had. 

Now for using my cool new scale I developed:

Decor: poor. The restaurant has no decoration at all and the tables and booths are kind of old; however despite their age (as I said before it looks exactly the same as it did 10 years ago) they seem to all be in pretty good condition. 

Cleanliness: good. No tables had been left with plates or napkins left on them, nothing on the floors either. 

Food taste: excellent. The pizza was piping hot, crust had the perfect blend of crunch and tear, cheese was melty and delicious, sauce was incredible (I can't put my finger on it but the sauce truly does make the pizza) and the other toppings were high quality. 

Food appearance: good. I would love to give them "excellent" for this category but I must remind myself that it was only a pizza and all pizzas (assuming they're made correctly) tend to look the same. 

Service: excellent. Nate called to place our order and said the guy who took the order was very friendly; when we picked the pizza up we were greeted warmly and our pizza was given to us quickly. What they did which I thought was wonderful was they opened up the pizza box and showed it to us before we left to make sure it was to our liking. 

Total: 11/15 

Readers, if you're ever in Albuquerque and craving some honestly delicious New York style pizza, go to Pizza Castle.