Weekend eats and cooking for the future

I'm feeling a lot less like cooking these days, despite all my cooking last week. By the end of the day, I just want to get off my feet. So we ate out a good amount this weekend. For date night on Friday, we ate dinner at Pop's. I ordered the housemade gnocchi. This was a slightly crispy on the outside, delightfully light potato inside gnocchi served with venison meatballs, spinach, mushrooms, pomodoro and romano cheese. This was a great dish. I wasn't completely into the sauce, but I think my palate has been a little off lately due to pregnancy so you should definitely judge it for yourself.

My hubby ordered the angel hair with smoked chicken, pickled banana peppers and a bacon cream sauce. This dish was creative and very tasty. If you like pickled banana peppers, I urge you to try it. They shone in this dish. Speaking of banana peppers, have you ever tried the deep fried ones at Bull McCabes? Or the Wooden Nickel in Hillsborough? Soooooo good. I'm off topic here, sorry.

Saturday night we ate at Shiki Sushi. As always the sushi was fantastic, the service was okay and the place was loud as hell. I don't know why they blast the music in there so loudly. All it does is force everyone to shout over it. I ordered the bagel roll and the shrimp tempura roll. The bagel roll is such a treat. It's salmon, cream cheese and avocado, battered and deep fried and garnished with eel sauce. Battered and deep friend sushi, it just doesn't get more delicious then this...

We also ate again at the Silver Spoon on Saturday morning. Having gotten enormous dishes the first time, we both ordered what we felt would be smaller portions and still were unable to consume it all. I had the egg croissant sandwich with home fries. Hubby had an omelet with homefries. We both loved our dishes. The only thing I felt could be improved upon are the homefries. I like mine a little crispy and these are monster potato slices, amply seasoned, but I think they're most likely baked and not crispy. Still the service was phenomenal, the portions huge and the food was served hot and exactly as I ordered it.

I did manage to prepare a good Italian Sunday dinner. I made egg parpadelle tossed with spinach, mushrooms, shallots, chicken and pesto. I served it with a big side salad. I was just too tired to photograph and write down the process, so I can't really share much beyond the description. I am going to work on making a lot of casseroles and food that freezes and reheats well over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned! I plan on stocking up the freezer prior to baby arrival :) Any suggestions for dishes are welcome!

Silver Spoon - N. Roxboro Road, Durham

Months and months ago, I read about Silver Spoon over at Carpe Durham. I had been wanting to try it, but often just didn't feel like that extra little bit of drive when starving for breakfast on the weekend. Today we ventured there and I can honestly say, I don't know that we'll eat breakfast anywhere else in this area again. We liked it that much.

It's quite obviously in an old Pizza Hut building and the atmosphere isn't changed much from it's predecessor. The staff is excellent: attentive, friendly and efficient. Coffee, water and to-go boxes were all brought prior to asking. It's very much a local's place. And my husband, being from New Jersey said it really reminded him of the diners up north.

The breakfast menu was expansive and some of the choices reminded me a bit of Brigs in RTP, but Silver Spoon far exceeded Brigs. For one, we didn't have to wait. The food wasn't even slightly greasy and it was seasoned perfectly. The portions were huge and definitely well worth the price. I loved the assortment of frittatas, omelets and skillets to choose from.

I ordered "The Duke" skillet. This was a plate full of homefried potatoes covered with sauteed mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, red and green peppers, crisp steamed broccoli, smothered in jack and cheddar cheese and topped with 2 eggs cooked to my preference (scrambled hard). All of the vegetables were fresh and cooked perfectly. The cheese was abundant, but not overwhelming and not greasy. The eggs were perfect as well. All of this came with an english muffin with strawberry preserves. I was unable to finish it. And ask I sit here typing this three hours later, I don't see eating lunch at all today.

My husband ordered "The Knight" skillet. It was homefries topped with onions, tomatoes, bacon, turkey, ham, loads of cheese and eggs. He loved his dish too. I can't wait to go back. The hostess strongly recommended trying the fried chicken and after reading about it at Carpe Durham, I'm sure I'll give it a try.

Strawberry cheesecake stuffed french toast

Back to the food blogging!

You know what the BEST thing about 9 months of not drinking is? No it's not that I'm always the designated driver...No hangovers! Upon waking up early, I took quick inventory of the kitchen new year's morning trying to figure out what to make for breakfast. This was what I came up with. I'm happy to have leftovers!Strawberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves
3 oz. softened cream cheese (I nuked it for 15 seconds)
8 slices of bread (I used a light whole wheat)
4 eggs
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
dash of cinnamon
2 tsp. oil
Powdered sugar and whipped cream to finish!

Directions:
Spread cream cheese evenly on 4 slices of bread (one side only). Spread the remaining 4 naked slices of bread with strawberry jam. Pair one piece of each type together in sandwich fashion (think strawberry and cream cheese sandwich).

Heat 1 tsp. oil non-stick skillet over medium heat. In a shallow dish, beat together eggs, white sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and milk.

Dip 2 sandwich in the egg mixture and coat both sides. Place into heated skillet and cook 2 minutes. Flip and cook 2 minutes more. Remove and add more oil to pan. Repeat with remaining sandwiches.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and top with whipped cream. Though it sounds decadent, the damage wasn't too bad. My bread is 50 calories a slice and I figured one serving to work out to around 250 calories.

Oh I got a new lens for Christmas from the hubby and am getting used to it. It was great to be able to shoot without a flash!!!

Photo of the Day - Missing my mark

I promise to have food photos and recipes tomorrow. Melanie and I will be cooking an Italian dinner together tonight and it should be really yummy.

Raspberry crepes - the easiest way possible

Yes I cheated. I bought pre-made crepes (from Melissa's). I used about 1/4 cup of raspberry preserves, and simmered with about 2 tbsp or orange juice and1/2 tsp of vanilla extract until smooth. Then I removed from the heat and stirred in a small container of fresh raspberries. I did use real heavy whipping cream (though the kitchenaid did all the work). And our fancy looking breakfast was on the table in 5 minutes. Oh and a sprinkling of powdered sugar topped it all off.

I will say that making your own crepes can not be substituted with these by a long shot, but for a super-fast meal, this beat the heck out of a bowl of cereal.