Cinners

Image from Cinners Website

There's a new food spot opening in Chicago on Friday and by the looks of the website, it looks like a good time! Cinners is described as "chili parlour and cocktail lounge". The menu is simple but unique. I can't wait to try to Cinner Dip: cream cheese, Cincinnati Chili, onions, and shredded mild cheddar cheese served with tortilla chips. I'm used to being served that dip at parties with canned chili so it will be a nice change. I love the combination of chili and cocktails, there's something old school and kinda off about it, but still, it tempts me in ways I cannot describe. The prices seem reasonable and the drinks sound unique. Am I the only person who's getting sick of going to different restaurants and seeing the same ingredients in drinks except their names are different?

Cinners is located at 4757 N. Talman in Chicago 60625 from 4pm to around 2am 7 days a week.

Who wants to go for the grand opening on Friday?!?!

Housewares Show Chicago

Thanks to E'CLEC, I was able to score my Mom and I passes to the housewares show. We went yesterday and it also happened to be my cutie Mama's birthday. When we got there I said "this is going to be boring, I should have stayed home". And then we found the kitchen aid stage and I was oooooootay.

First up, Michael Chiarello


The crowd for Paula Deen was crazy so I ended up sitting on the floor in the aisle. I took video which I will post on youtube soon. Paula brought her husband along and they were super cute together.



I took pictures of Rocco Dispirito because I dislike him so much. I used to watch his show on nbc and yell at the tv because he is such a jerk. I texted my friends yesterday and told them if they hear about someone getting arrested for assault at the housewares show, it's probably because I attempted to beat up Rocco. Seriously, he's probably my least favorite person in the world (Rachel Ray comes in a close second).



Emeril was there too.



Cat Cora



There was a misunderstanding and Ming Tsai thought Karen was trying to flash him. It does look that way doesn't it?



We got cutting boards signed by Ming Tsai and then we all took a pic with him. He was ridiculously nice and funny. Love him!



We were getting ready to leave but I saw Curtis Stone would be on stage in a few minutes so I asked if we could stay a bit longer so I could just take a few quick pics of him and then we could leave. Well, my Mom and her friends found seats while I stood in the back and we ended up watching his entire set. He was hilarious and charming. Gotta love a chef who calls himself a "dickhead". Love Love Love him!



At the end of his set he announced the booth he would be in and that they were going to have a drawing for an entire set of kitchen appliances if you stopped by the booth and dropped in your business card. He also said you can make your way over there or you can wait for him and his crew and walk over with them. My Mom and her friends got in line to wait for Pam Anderson's cookbook and told me to go to the booth to drop in the business cards. It was in another hall and I didn't want to walk alone. My Mom told me to go and I said I would wait for Curtis and walk over with him. She said "just go, they probably took him the back way" and so I started walking. I had no idea where to go so it took me a while to get to the right place.

I finally got there and took my place in the line, which was not very long. A little bit later I hear someone say my name and I look up. About 5 people ahead of me is my Mom. "whaa? how? huh? where? why are you here? i thought you were waiting in line over there". She kinda looked down and then said "well, a few minutes after you left, um, Curtis came out and I walked over with him". I think my jaw dropped and I immediately asked for details. "Well, he was walking by and saying hi to everyone and so I said 'you know, it's my birthday and I really would have thought you would have something for me' and he told me to come with them and he'd give me a cookbook. So I walked over with him." I believe my response to this was "you bitch!". We keep going over the story because she can't get over how nice and sweet he was. I guess he kept making sure that she didn't fall behind and the group would make sure she was still with them when people stopped him for pictures. When we got up to Curtis, my Mom introduced me to him like they were old friends and he had a laugh with us because I told him how upset I was that she got to walk over with him. He was super sweet and took pix with all of us.





I got the generic signing in my book, but my Mom got "To Barbara, Thanks for the escort! Curtis Stone". So it looks like my Mom had a great birthday =)

Swirlz Cupcakes

Last night I had a delicious cupcakes from Swirlz. I tried the red velvet and it was quite good (I think it was my first time having anything red velvet). The cupcakes were unbelievably adorable! The best part was the picks with their logo and name were edible (made of white chocolate). The pick was definitely my favorite part!

They have some fun daily flavors listed on their website so I think I'm going to have to take a ride to Swirlz and try some out soon!

Swirlz
705 W. Belden
Chicago, IL 60614
Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-7pm

Fried Food and Bread Pudding

I had a meeting today but it got cancelled so what did I do? Cooked and baked! YAY! I had some bread that was a few days old so I decided to make some bread pudding but I also wanted to make cupcakes... what to do?! I looked online for recipes but I never follow recipes. I just look up the necessary ingredients and then do what I want. I used 4 eggs, some whipping cream, sugar, DiSaronno, and almond extract, oh and a lil melted butter. I mixed in the bread and let it soak for a bit while I washed out some silicone cupcake cups. I decided that these would be more like little cakes you would flip over onto the plate when serving, so I melted some butter, then added sugar, DiSaronno, and slivered almonds. I put some of that at the bottom of ever cup. I also sprayed them with Pam, but I don't think that was necessary.

While those were cooking, I started playing around with some mac & cheese that was a few days old. I've wanted to make fried mac & cheese balls for a while now so I gave it a go. I rolled the pasta into a ball and then tossed it in flour, egg, and panko (I didn't have any bread crumbs so I used panko which is just as good and sometimes even better). I tested one and decided it was good and I should make more.

I also ended up making some tempura vegetables (green pepper, red pepper, zucchini) and shrimp. I also mixed up some cream cheese, imitation crab, and green onion a few days ago for crab rangoon so I made a few of those (thank you frozen wonton wrappers from the local fruit market). The tempura batter comes in a box that you just mix with cold water. FYI: Tempura battered avocado is delicious. I used to work at a sushi restaurant and on my last day, I made tempura battered pb&j w/banana sandwiches topped with powdered sugar and caramel sauce. It was gooood.

Anyways, back to todays meal. Too much fried food is not a good thing so I didn't eat too much. The rangoon came out okay but it needed something else- I'll figure that out some other time. The tempura stuff was good as usual. I don't make tempura sauce because I don't have mirin on hand, so instead I just make the sauce I use when I make seared tuna (dijon mustard and soy sauce. The sauce is great and just like you get in the restaurants (in fact, it is what you get in a restaurant I used to work at because my chef friend told me how to make it).

As for the bread pudding, it was great! I'm going to have to make it again soon and take some better pictures... or better yet, someone buy me a digital camera! Thanks.

Here's the pix:

Fried Mac & Cheese

Tempura Veggies & Shrimp

The Bread Pudding Cupcakes

Inverted BP Cupcake

BP Cupcakes in the Oven

Superdawg

I love hot dogs. If I were a hot dog, I would eat myself...

Tonight we tried Superdawg for the first time. I've lived about 15 minutes from Superdawg my whole life and my Mom and I have talked about going for the past few summers. Tonight we finally decided to try it.

We drove up to the order box and stared at the menu for a while. When we were ready we pressed the button and the operator responded. One plain hot dog for Mom. One hot dog with everything but mustard and some onionchips for me. About 7 minutes after ordering the food came to the car. The total was $12 and some odd amount of change. Yikes, that's pretty steep for 2 hot dogs and some onionchips. But whatever, I was surprised that the gal who brought the food over had my change in ready as soon as I handed her the $13.

We ate the onionchips in the car, they were good but not exceptional. Oh yes, this meal comes just a few hours after I declared that I didn't want to buy anything but organic food anymore. HA! Anyways, I got home and took the pictures and began to eat. The neon green relish was a bit scary but I just covered it with some ketchup. Yeah, that's right, I'm a REAL Chicagoan and I like ketchup on my hot dogs. The fries that came with the hot dog were not good. They tasted like frozen fries bought from the grocery store. As for the dog, I wasn't impressed. I'd take Portillo's or better yet, Gene & Jude's over Superdawg any day. The only thing I would go back for is the old school ordering process.

Fresh Pasta with Basil, Tomatoes and Burrata

How beautiful does this look? YUM! I LOOOOOOOOVE fresh mozzarella- but that's not exactly what this is. It's a special cheese named burrata. It's made my stuffing fresh mozzarella with cream. How genius is that?

Thanks to Misadventures In Italy for the pic and info.

Bacon Wrapped Cherry Tomatoes

So simple and beautiful. My mouth is watering just thinking about eating one of these. I have a new found obsession with cooked tomatoes- not tomato sauce but nice, warm tomatoes that hold their shape. Everything tastes better with bacon. EVERYTHING.

Recipe: Bacon Wrapped Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 pack cherry tomatoes (12 oz)
1 pack bacon (12 oz)
Toothpicks (soak the toothpicks in water for a few hours)
Nanami Togarashi (Japanese assorted chili pepper)

Cut the bacon strip into half-length. Put the cherry tomato towards the end of the bacon strip and wrap tight. Hold the cherry tomato with a toothpick, set aside. Sprinkle some Nanami Togarashi onto the bacon.

Heat up an indoor grill and grill until the bacon turns brown and crisp. For an outdoor grill, use low heat. Serve immediately.

Thanx to this blog for the pic & recipe.

Sriracha Sauce

wow! i always wondered what this stuff was and recently I found out. I've seen the bottles in restaurants I've worked in and never gave it a chance. In the past few weeks I've enjoyed Sriracha on lots of sushi- I highly recommend it. But trust me, it's hot and spicy!

Strawberries, Brown Sugar, & Sour Cream

This is a delicious combination. Strawberries, brown sugar, and sour cream. If you've never tried it, I highly recommend it. I usually don't eat it this way but the presentation is fabulous.

Old Town Tortilla Factory

I read about this place before I visited Scottsdale and finally dined there about 2 weeks into my month long stay. The Poblano Mariscos was excellent! It could quite possibly be the greatest dinner I've ever had.

I went back a few nights later with my boyfriend who was visiting me and again I ordered the same dish. The fresh tortillas are different nightly and come with different spreads.

My only problem was that I ordered a french martini that was not so good. The server asked me what was in a french martini. I didn't know if he was inquiring for himself or the bartender. I listed the ingredients to the best of my knowledge (I'm not bartender). I'm guessing he rattled off the list to the bartender and he poured accordingly. My first sip was pure vodka. I gave the drink 3rd and 4th chances to redeem itself but I had no such luck. I wanted to send it back but thought it would embarrass my boyfriend so I simply ordered a virgin peach margarita. It was sooooo good! As was his margarita (we're not tequila fans but this was a great margarita). As for the fate of the french martini, I convinced my boyfriend to drink it and after a few sips, he too agreed that it was not good. When the bill came, it was marked as a "smirnoff martini"- NOOOOOO! They butchered my beloved, but the food is sooooooo great, I'd be back in a heartbeat.