Baked Fish and Chips

Corned Beef and Cabbage is the traditional St. Patrick's Day fare.  Unfortunately, we did not have any brisket, so I couldn't make it.  Maybe I could have used another roast, but it was getting kinda late when I thought about that so I didn't have time to make it.  So instead I made Fish and Chips for dinner tonight.  Hand cut some fries.  Tossed them in oil and some seasonings, and baked them.  Baked the Tilapia with a seasoned flour breading.  Mom made cole slaw.  I made cocktail sauce for the fish.  It was good.  It tasted better than it looks.  Would have looked better if it would have been fried.  I don't have a deep fat fryer in the house, so I baked it.

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Bourbon Bacon Brownies

The other day I decided to do something different at work... make a bacon dessert.  We never had a bacon dessert before.  So I looked online for some recipes.  Seems like the most popular bacon dessert recipe is bacon brownies.  After a few more minutes of searching I found an interesting recipe for Bourbon Bacon Brownies.  It looked too good to pass up.  I copied down the recipe.  Was going to make it Friday evening at work, but we were rather busy, so I didn't get to it.  I made it Saturday afternoon then.  They are pretty much like regular brownies, except for the added bacon.  So it's like a salty and sweet.  Right after I baked them I got an order for them because one of the bartenders wanted one, and then some customers overheard and ordered one.  They said it was quite good.  Cool, because that was the first time I ever made something like that.  Now I wonder if there are other kinds of meat desserts?

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Pizza

I made pizza for dinner tonight.  Made it from scratch all by my lonesome.  Dough and everything.  Maybe I am starting to be better at baking because it turned out quite good.  I made the dough from scratch and then made a Hawaiian with ham, sausage, and pineapple.  I was going to make a Supreme or something for the second pizza but we didn't have any onion or bell pepper.  So I used sausage, pepperoni, and broccoli.  I used two cheeses for both of them, mozzarella and cheddar.  It was a success.

Ready for the oven.

Ready for my mouth.

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Restaurant review: El Rey Tolteca - Manassas, VA

My cousin has been wanting to take Austin and I out to eat for a while now.  He owed us one, or so he said.  So we went to El Rey Tolteca.  I haven't been there in a long time.  The rage lately is upscale Mexican cuisine.  This place isn't really upscale, but the food is great.  Much good.  They serve you chips and fresh salsa when you first sit down.  I ordered the Chile Verde, sliced beef with chile verde sauce, refried beans, and rice with two flour tortillas.  Yum!  I was full to order dessert or I would have gotten flan.  I make flan, and one day I will get authentic Mexican flan.  I want to see how it compares to mine.
As is my policy, I did not take any pictures.  I will instead direct you to their website, http://www.elreytolteca.com.

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Lasagna with a Twist

I love lasagna.  Lasagna and cooked puddings, two things I love the most.  Speaking of pudding, I should make banana pudding.  We have fresh bananas now.  Anyway, about lasagna.  Yesterday I was browsing MasterCook for lasagna recipes.  I came upon Lasagna with a Twist.  It is pretty much the same as regular lasagna, but instead of lasagna noodles you use twist pasta.  I used cheddar and mozzarella cheese.  I also made an Italian salad and baked some garlic bread that we had.  The lasagna turned out pretty good.  It is almost like pizza casserole though.  Pizza casserol just has pepperoni and maybe some mushrooms added.  Next time I will just make pizza casserole.  It's almost the same thing and just as good, if not better.  The salad was good.  Janina makes it sometimes too, so that is where I got the idea.  Chopped lettuce, grated carrot, pepperoni, sprinkled with Parmesan and Mozzarella.  It's good.

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Pimiento Mac and Cheese

The other day I got my Bon Appetit magazine in the mail.  The cover recipe is Pimiento Macaroni & Cheese.  It looked so good I had to make it.  It is your basic baked mac and cheese with a breadcrumb topping, but the cheese sauce is inspired by pimento cheese.  I used cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella, and banana peppers for the sauce.  It turned out quite lovely.  This recipe is a keeper.  I also make some coleslaw and steamed broccoli.

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Minestrone

Tonight I made Minestrone.  Now there is really no set recipe for this kind of soup, so I looked online.  Found a recipe from Taste of Home that looked pretty good.  Called for beef, carrots, onions, cabbage, rice, and other stuff.  So I cooked it up.  Made some cornbread muffins and a salad too.  Let me just say, the minestrone needed salt!  After adding salt it was pretty good.  Good, but not great.  I think next time I make minestrone I will either find another recipe or just start adding stuff to make it to my liking.

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