Marmalade Restaurant

This past Friday, my dad drove to Chicago to spend the day with Jeremiah and myself (Unfortunately Brad was working). Another unfortunately, Jeremiah was crankier than...well, I don't even know what to compare it to. In the moment, we thought it was a teething issue but since then we've come to discover that he was fighting off some virus that he picked up somewhere.

My breakfast dates, neither ready for a picture

Nonetheless, we packed up the car and decided that we would try to go out for breakfast anyway since Jeremiah is normally much better when he is out and about than when we try to keep him at home. And really, what's a visit with my dad without trying something new?

So after browsing through Chicago Magazine's Best Breakfast Places, we decided to try out Marmalade. One of the draws of this place is that it was started by a former chef of m. henry which we fell in love with earlier in the year.

 

And I, for one, am so glad that we did. I mean really, they had me at "Nutella". I tried the Dolce Vita; Nutella filled crêpes with fresh seasonal fruit, drizzled with chocolate syrup, topped with hazelnut cream, and sprinkled with mixed nuts. I could have done without the nectarines or whatever one of the fruits was in there. It wasn't quite ripe yet hence the indistinguishable taste and it changed the whole texture a bit since it was harder than the strawberries and bananas that were already in it. But those nuts! Loved their crunchy addition to the plate. 

I have to admit, I forget what my dad ordered. I know that he was between the Artichoke Omelette and one of their specials for the day and I'm fairly certain he went for the special. He also substituted fruit for the original side.

 

We also ordered some sausage from the kids menu because, despite the same amount of pieces on both the adult and children's menu, it was a dollar cheaper to order it from the kids. And since it was mainly to supplement our meals for Jeremiah I figured it was okay. The sausage was pretty good though too. Something I would be willing to order again.

I'm happy to report that Jeremiah did well the entire time and also made a friend towards the end, another baby in a high chair behind him that wanted to share his spoon.

Homemade Granola

Earlier this year, we were responsible for bringing snack to our small group, a responsibility that I look forward to to say the least. Anyway, I knew that one of the girls in our group did not care for sweets and also didn't eat gluten. It took some proding but I finally found out what her guilty pleasure was...granola.

And who knew that granola was so easy to make! Especially after seeing how much it can sell for in the grocery stores, this was definitely something I knew that I could do on at least a semi regular basis. So easy, so tasty, and definitely capable of variation. Success!

Granola
by Alton Brown


3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins

Directions

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar. 

• In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
• Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

 

Cupcake Crawl 2012!

This past weekend, Courtney took one last trip to Chicago  as her year here in the states to raise support was coming to an end. She wanted to spend one last time with her Chicago gang before jetting away to Costa Rica.

So as I racked my brain to what we could do for our one on one time (Jeremiah's crankiness and eventual sickness had thwarted some plans the night before), it hit me....a Cupcake Crawl!

You see, the couple of times that she has been here, especially as of late, her and I have gone on a couple of cupcake escapades, usually in the name of free, fancy cupcakes.

And then a couple of those cupcakes made it back to Michigan, the most notable a Key Lime Cupcake from more.

But during her last visit I told her that when she came back for her "Goodbye Tour", we had to go to Sprinkles so that she could taste the ultimate S'more cupcake.

So Saturday morning, I googled, and yelped, plotted, and contemplated...and then there were 7. Yes, 7 bakeries that we were going to hit up.

A cupcake from each to be enjoyed and tasted later on that day. And so our journey began. We came across bachelor/bachelorette parties, parking woes, anxiously awaiting friends, whispers of "sizzling", tiny morsels of goodness, and gigantic mouthfuls of sweetness.

And then we raced back home to finish out the day. Courtney went on to each a brunch style lunch and relax in the park. I did some things around the apartment, hung out with my brother and sister-in-law during an impromptu visit and waited for the "festivities" to begin.

Not only did Courtney and I sit down for the "tastings" but Brad, Catie, Jacob, Tony, Angela, and JoAnna joined in on the fun as well.

As expected, there was a couple duds, though only one cupcake got a clear "thumbs down" from everyone (the Coconut Cupcake from Magnolia Bakery). But the funny thing was that there was no clear "winner". The two favorites were the Drumstick from Swirlz and the Chocolate Cheesecake from Twisted Baker (though it was definitely not a winner in everyone's book, in fact it was one of Courtney and my least favorite).

But the rest definitely stood their ground. The S'more I think will always be a top contender for me, and people were also impressed with More's blueberry cupcake, to hugeness of Crumbs PB Cup cupcake, and the peppermint/chocolate concoction of SugarBliss. Why yes, I do believe we've found a new tradition.

Chocolate PB Cake

This past Sunday was Jacob's birthday, but since he wasn't going to be in town, we decided to "celebrate" a little early.

I made a chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and crumb coat, chocolate frosting then a chocolate ganache poured over the top. Followed by some chocolate chips for the bottom border and pb balls nested in piped ganache. So rich, so decadent, so good...Too bad I didn't take more time to take pictures in better lighting.

m. henry

Yes! My dad and Barb finally made it to Chicago for a day trip! My favorite tradition of course is trying out new restaurants and this time we traveled up to the northside to "chow for now" at m. henry.

Jeremiah trying out his menu options...literally

Tony and Angela beat us there and just so happened to walk in at the right now to secure a table for us right away despite the large amount of people who were gathering behind them. And luckily, we were able to get there before they gave the table away.

The decor and storefront was charming, as if the restaurant itself should be in France. But what impressed me more was that the waitress, without asking, brought Jeremiah a small bowl of cut bananas, strawberries, and candied cranberries. Granted, he isn't able to eat finger foods yet but the gesture was much appreciated anyway.

Rustic peasant quiche & mixed field greens

The menu was tempting. I think all of use had at least two menu options that we were debating on up to the last minute. And with the exception of my dad and Brad trading dishes (My dad's eyes lit up at the large amount of fresh mixed greens on the plate and Brad was surprised by the size of the quiche), everyone was very pleased with what they ordered (with Brad and my dad at no exception, both were very pleased with what they ended up with). Another win? The fresh squeezed orange juice. You know, the kind that transports you to a Florida orchard and tastes like you just bit into a freshly picked, ripe orange? Yep, it was that good.

fannie's killer fried egg sandwich

Unfortunately, not all the photos came out but I hope you get the gist. It was delicious and one that we would definitely recommend to others.

raspberry & rhubarb blisscakes with vanilla marscapone cream

Glazed Julienne Carrots

Since we've been making all of Jeremiah's food, we've definitely had more fresh produce in the house. I was in need of making some more carrots for Jeremiah and I figured, why not make some for us too? I considered just doing honey glazed carrots as I usually do but my mandolin caught my eye. As much as I love that thing, sometimes I steer clear of it just because it's somewhat intimidating with its sharpness. So with new found motivation, I started to julienne the carrots before I even had a recipe in mind :op

Thankfully there's google which led me to Cooking Light. Which is funny because I'm not quite sure what's "Light" about this recipe with the brown sugar and all. Perhaps it's because they call for margarine rather than butter. Because it was a spur of the moment thing, I don't think I had enough carrots because my carrots looked way more glazed then their picture did. But either way, they were delicious. I really need to break out that mandolin more often.

Glazed Julienne Carrots
by Cooking Light, Nov 2006

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons reduced-calorie margarine 
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 cups (2-inch) julienne-cut carrot 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

 Directions

1. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat; add sugar, stirring until melted.
2. Add carrots, salt, and pepper and cook 10 minutes, or until carrots are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley.

The soft opening of Flirty Cupcake Dessert Garage

This Friday my mom took the train into Chicago to spend the weekend. The night before, I just happened to see on my newsfeed that Flirty's new storefront was getting set to debut the following day as their soft opening. What timing! I knew my mother would be more than willing and would love to go which made the excitement even greater!

We have been frequenting Flirty's vans for almost a year now. Well, perhaps frequent isn't the right term. It's more of whenever we were at the same food truck event as well as whenever they are in Bridgeport. I just love their flavor combos and their creative names for the cupcakes.

Another love? That I can get a cupcake essentially whenever I want now without having to track down the truck and that it's in our old neighborhood (Ah, Little Italy, how we miss you). Yeah, didn't take too many photos though since I was pretty excited about just being there. Whoops!

Flirty warned on their facebook that there might be a couple of hiccups but everything was perfect. The smell of cupcakes baking wafts in the air and their display cases were tantalizing. Everyone was super helpful and quite cheery for it being their first day of business at their garage and there being a steady stream of customers coming in and out.

We tried their limited Valentine's Day edition of "For the Love of Chocolate" which was a Nutella chocolate cupcake and a "It's so new it hasn't been named because it just came out of the oven" coconut cupcake. The Nutella cupcake was nice since it actually had a Nutella center, unlike other cupcake shops and my mom couldn't stop raving about the their coconut concoction.

Ahhh, cupcakes, you have stolen my heart.