Free Burrito @ Chipotle = yum

Last night Albany John and I went out in the freezing cold to wait for some free Chipotle burritos in Clifton Park, NY.

I was hoping the bitter cold would deter people from lining up, but wow! If this was how many people willing to brave the cold, imagine what it would have been like in nicer weather? This was when we got kind of close to the front. The outside wait was only 15-20 minutes though. Not too bad. Chipotle does crowd control very well.

Since I'm a creature of habit, I got another CHICKEN BURRITO. They are so freaking awesome. I'm normally not a chicken person, but the chicken they've got at Chipotle is delicious. Dark meat with a little bit of char to the outside. So flavorful and moist!

And guess what? They did give me two salsas! I got mild and red-hot! Soooo good! I also got guac, pinto beans, and sour cream. Yum, yum, yum.

Albany John got a steak burrito. So good! I think I want a steak burrito next time I go. Or maybe chicken AND steak. I bet that would be really good.

The only thing about Chipotle that isn't super-awesome is that they don't have any extra veggies (well, lettuce) to put in their food. I am an onion fiend, so I diced up half an onion and ate it along with my burrito.

They've also got this mild jalapeno Tabasco sauce that BLEW MY FREAKING MIND. Oh, 'Potle. I love you.

Chipotle - Free Burrito Day!

One of the most glorious days is upon us! Free Burrito Day at the new Clifton Park Chipotle!

I got to go yesterday because I’m awesome. Okay, and because Katherine N. Smith was super awesome and invited me to go to the neighborhood pre-opening. Thanks to Katherine!
I almost didn’t make it to this, because I had a prior dinner engagement celebrating my awesomeness, but I made it home a little early, around 7 pm.

Albany John was like “Free Chipotle tomorrow night, right? Free burrito day in Clifton Park. Right?”

I mentioned that I had gotten invited to check out this neighborhood run and he promptly chucked me into the car. “Go.” I buckled my seatbelt; don’t worry.

Now what I should have done was PRINT OUT DIRECTIONS since I saw 22 Clifton County Road, Clifton Park, NY and something about “Crossing” and it looked like it was in The Crossings at Clifton Park.

IT IS NOT AT THE CROSSINGS. NO NO NO.

Albany John and I drove around for about 20 minutes bickering about where it could be and why I didn’t print out directions, when he decided to call the master. Err, The Profussor.

The gracious Profussor returned our frantic call tout suite and directed us to the right location. WE LOVE YOU, DANIEL!!! He totally saved the night!

Here it is, right on the corner. Underneath the gigantic Clifton Park Center. You can see small Chipotle signs on the sides. The Clifton Park Center sign is really bright. You’ll see a JC Penny in the background (to the left and behind).

Check that awesome sign of AWESOMENESS. Free Burritos today (January 28, 2010) from 11 am – 8 pm.

And now you know what it looks like so you won't get lost and frantically call your friends 10 minutes to close going "CHIPOTLE!? WHERE IS CHIPOTLE?! PLEEEEEAASSEEE!"

Albany John got a carnitas burrito, and I got a chicken burrito (the one on the left). And we got chips + guac. Their guac is awesome. My little cup had TONS of jalapenos in it. Caliente!

Albany John's burrito was so full that the person rolling it up had to take her plastic glove off to get a better grip on the tin foil. FATRRITO!

At 10 minutes to close, the folks behind the counter looked tired as hell. No doubt, it was a long day. Hopefully they'll hold up okay 2 days in a row. Today is really the onslaught of free burrito lovers.



CHECK OUT THAT SPICY GUAC ACTION!

I had 2nd dinner a little later, around 10 pm. I was kind of full from 1st dinner at 6 pm, so I didn't get hungry again until then. My chicken burrito was delicious. Albany John also gave me some munches of his carnitas burrito. He tore into that mass of burrito as soon as we got home. I think he got just about everything you could on that burrito. Guac, sour cream, THE WORKS. That was a fat burrito.

I am going back again tonight. I'm going to see if I can get TWO salsas. I love Freepotle!

And don't be a complete mo'. If you're not familiar with Clifton Park, BRING DIRECTIONS. Or be a complete ditz, call a friend, and then permanently remember how to get there out of sheer embarassment.

Adzuki Sprout Salad + Canned Octopus

Albany John is a sprout master. He’s so successful at sprouting whatever he puts in that sprouting jar of his. He normally hates adzuki beans (the beans that all of those Asian sweet bean desserts are made of), but he likes sprouting them. I like them too – they are really hearty beans!

They take about 5 days to sprout, and you need to rinse them 3 times a day. They’ve got just a hint of sweetness, but for the most part they are beany and dense (more so than mung bean sprouts or soy bean sprouts).

We always eat them raw, usually in some kind of salad. Albany John made a salad of mung bean vermicelli, blanched napa cabbage, and raw onion to accompany these pinky-red adzuki sprouts. He also made a kicky dressing that went really well with all of the ingredients.

I “helped” by foisting one of my new favorite foods on top of our salads. Canned octopus!


(I know, I know, Grace, you’re gonna gag lol)

I’ve had a couple of these cans of octopus already and I really like them. They’re Del Sol brand Octopus in Garlic Oil. I get them at Save-A-Lot for $0.99 per can. It works out to under $4 per pound. It’s a nice way to affordably treat myself to little bits of seafood, and I normally don’t buy octopus at all – it’s a little hard to find around here and costs more than $4/lb fresh.

The octopus might be a hair potent on first bite (I mean, it is canned seafood), but that quickly dissipates. Anything tart helps counter this (lemons, vinegar based salad dressings, etc.). I don’t find pungent fish too repugnant, so it doesn’t bother me much. Surprisingly, it's tender. For the price, I was expecting some tough pieces, but these are tender little pieces of cut up tentacle.

For what it is, I really enjoy it. Like I said, it's just a little seafood treat. I'm like a cat. Mewmewmew cheap seafood mewmewmew.


I also tried making mashed potatoes again. Next time I just have to work on adding less liquid. I peeled, chopped, & boiled potatoes for 10 minutes, then browned butter (it tasted like the freezer otherwise), added milk and cream cheese, and mashed them all up.

They were a little thin, but not mashed potato soup. I'll keep trying.

The adzuki sprouts were really filling! I had two bowls of salad and couldn't finish my 2nd bowl of mashed potatoes. Dinner’s usually my biggest meal of the day, so this was on the small side for me.

Pizza Mare

Got some fried calamari from Pizza Mare (1839 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12205). This was a large for $7.99.

Portion-wise, it was huge. The small is $6.99. I wonder what the size difference is.

Flavor-wise, the calamari were cooked well. No rubbery squid pieces, but the flour was still a bit raw tasting and I think it could have used a just a little more time in the fryer to cook more and to crisp up the breading.

The bottom half of calamari was oily (but still crispy), which made it a little hard to eat. It was probably for the best, otherwise I would have eaten the entire container. There was only a thin sheet of paper lining the box, so that didn't really do anything to absorb leftover grease. I ended up re-heating leftovers in a pan in the oven and they gave off tons of grease, but tasted really good.

There were tentacles and rings, which I liked, and I also enjoyed the marinara sauce.
The two little slices of lemon might seem skimpy, but they were more than enough for me.
The pieces themselves were tinier than I'm used to in calamari. Just a little, but just enough for me to notice. I am thinking that's why there were so many of them for $7.99. Good price and amazing serving size, the only trade off is that the pieces are a bit smaller (and easier to eat, haha) than you might expect.

I'd order this again. Smaller pieces of squid don't bother me if it means I get a lot them that are well fried! I'd just tuck a bunch of napkins underneath to absorb some oil, or only eat the not-too-greasy top pieces and re-heat them at home to pull out more oil.

Soup Swap 2010

The lovely Renée of Almost Foodies hosted her 4th Annual Soup Swap! So many soup swappers showed up to her place – it was awesome. So much hubbub and movement in one space! Her kitchen is also the most awesome shade of blue.

This was my second year participating and after last year’s ho-hum entry of miso soup, I wanted to try something a little more challenging, so I tried chicken gumbo. I made way more than 6 quarts, and I loved it, so I was happy with putting this soup into the swap.

After everyone stacked up their soups – all TWENTY SIX of them! Renée wrote all of the soups up. Yum! She also cooked up these cracktacular cheese cookies. I ate at least a dozen of these tasty buggers, and near the end there was some zesty jalapeno jam that went wonderfully with them. Tasty, ja!

Here's the all of the soup mid-swap. Some are gone, but still plenty left. Yummers! With 26 swappers I could not wait for my turn. Everything sounded soooo good.

Here's Renée telling us to get the hell out of her damn house. Haha, we all sure had a blast! I think you can feel all the happy energy here. Renée is so bubbly, it's easy to perk up around her.

Thank you for another great soup swap, Renée! You rock!

Once I had my sack of soups, I hightailed it back home to finish up the no-knead bread I was working on before the swap. The crusty outside and soft inside were perfect for soup.

Albany John and I both made soups this year - my aforementioned chicken gumbo, and Albany John made a smokey black bean soup. He even smoked his own onions in that smoker my sister gave us!

This also meant we had 12 quarts of soup. YAAAAY! Soup, soup, soup!

Albany John jumped on this lamb stew. He is all about anything lamb.

Meanwhile, the first soup I picked at the swap was Sébastien cress & potato soup. He actually made 2 soups, and I had to jump on some awesome-looking French soup.
It was also nice to meet Sébastien after seeing so many cool pictures posted on All Over Albany. He took some cool soup swap pics too!

Also bringing the camera goodness was Bennett! He was also really neat to meet.

Can you say yum? Because I sure did! This was so tasty. The potato part was very silky, and the cress added a nice and light vegetal flavor. This was a great starter soup since it was so light and refreshing, but warm and satisfying at the same time.

I’ve been craving corn lately, and someone folks made corn chowder! I picked the lighter sounding one and OMG!! This might be my favorite soup so far! It is milky rich and thick, but not too creamy; the niblets of corn are sweet and pop in my mouth; overall the flavor tastes so fresh and so true to corn.

I've been doing my best to not completely house this quart, and am pleased to say that there is still a little bit left.

And the last soup we've been working on this weekend has been a sausage and veggie soup, made by someone else who had not made soup before. She did a great job! It tastes great and vegetable-y, accented nicely by the sausage. I love it when the veggies in a soup are soft but not mush. Yum indeed.

Now the hard part will be seeing how long I can make this soup last. So far it's better than last year, I think because we have 12 quarts of soup and not 6. Pretty sure we housed all 6 quarts by the end of the week last year. This year I put some in the freezer, too. We'll see how long they last.

Blue Cheese & Caramelized Onion Dip

I spent the past week trying not to buy groceries. It was a pretty successful week – I love grocery shopping, but… you know. Budget and all that stuff. The monthly payout from my trust fund was running low and I didn’t want to have to run to Mummy or Daddykins and look irresponsible – you guys know how it is. I even had to cut back on the beluga caviar and Dom Perignon.

Albany John and I managed to not buy more groceries and live out of what we had at home. We’ve got a well-stocked kitchen, it’s just so easy to run out and grab “one more thing” to really jazz up a recipe. I know my girl CuteElla likes playing the grocery shopping holdout game, but oh man, not me! If I could grocery shop every day I totally would (I’d also be funneling seafood at every meal and swilling cheap champagne).

Still, adjustments in lifestyle of any kind (even if they are as fabulous as my own) aren’t always a peach to adapt to. Thank goodness my food coffers were way more stocked than I had initially though. This week was also probably good just to not consume as much, in both budget and in commodities.

And so I give you: blue cheese and caramelized onion dip.





Things I have had in my fridge since Thanksgiving: cream cheese and blue cheese. That blue cheese really lasts a long time! Wow. Color me impressed. It was the cheapest blue at the co-op (and really, not that cheap at $10-11/lb…) but too sharp for me to be enjoyable. The cream cheese was unopened – you know how long they last unopened (forever).

I used both of them and a little butter. Damn, that blue cheese really lasts a long time. But, Albany John pointed out: “It’s moldy cheese. What’s it going to do? Get moldier? Oh no.”

I’ve almost always got onions at home, so I caramelized 4 of them in the oven (way less work than stove top) and blopped them on top of the cheesy, buttery goodness. Also chucked in some salt. The heat from the onions softened everything up so all the ingredients blended together to the pile of dip you see above.

This was a creamy blue-y dip. It would also be pretty damn good as a non-traditional béchamel or ricotta-filling sub for lasagna. We learned this the next day when we were eating leftovers another night and Albany John was slathering the hell out of this dip all over some manicotti.

Fried Spring Rolls & Cilantro Chutney Rice

Albany John whipped up a small arsenal of fried spring rolls. Holy cow were these good. I noticed he had the Vietnamese Cooking book out and he said "Yeah, I looked at the recipe and... this is basically nothing like that, but I kind of went from there. I just used what we had."

He's so modest. They were super crunchy and good. I think they'd be even crunchier if we let them dry a little more. I think the excess water made them harder to fry cleanly.

What's inside? Well, we've got some rice noodle action going on as the main filler, and some reconstituted dried shrimp & mushrooms (not shiitakes), some nam pla (fish sauce), and some chopped up roasted peanuts because Albany John is just crazy about me.

I've been on a serious peanut kick lately, and he is so sweet to indulge me. These babies were great - savory, crunchy, and really plentiful. We were wondering how much a serving should be. Maybe a 2-4? I ate about a dozen.

But I ate it with this rice, so that cancels out all negative health effects. I didn't steal any rice from a Seuss novel, but this one was my idea. Albany John maned up and put it into action.

I have serious love for The 'Potle. Chipotle's cilantro-lime rice is fan-freaking-tastic. There's a small tub of Indian cilantro chutney in my fridge. A little goes a long way flavor-wise, and what would happen if you put some in with your rice to cook?

Result = Green chutney rice! There are some dyes in the chutney, haha. I really thought it was cute. The flavor was like a milder version of the chutney, which makes sense since you're cooking it with rice and water, not just rice + cilantro chutney. A teensy bit of butter made me allllllmost think of Chiptole's rice, but not really.

But now I've got a great side dish for St. Patty's Day!

Buh Bye Cake

One of my friends is moving soon. Guatemala or something like that. I am sad to see him go. I don't hang out with him tons, but he is one cool dude.

He invited peeps over to hang/etc to say bye (and a belated happy bday) and made a kahlua banana cake. It was freaking awesome! He said he accidentally added 4 T or t of baking soda so the cake really poofed up in the oven and formed a crust. I really liked that since bundt cakes are usually fairly uniform in texture. This was just lightly dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with kahlua. Decadent and simple at the same time. I ate two slices!

Pie Love You

Albany John was cleaning out the pantry and found coconut jell-o pudding and chocolate jell-o pudding. I think my Mom gave them to me a while ago when she cleaned out her pantry.

Fact: If you give me food stuffs, I will take it.

So as a result of my hoarding tendencies, I have a lot of random stuff in my pantry.

Albany John whipped up a tasty pie crust, then filled it with chocolate and coconut pudding for a retro layer pie.

That dessicated coconut never really re-hydrates. It is kind of annoying to eat. But the pie itself was good.

Those Awesome Cinnamon Rolls

So those cinnamon rolls I was proofing yesterday turned out really, really well. Super sticky sweet, caramel-y, and with a soft and fluffy dough. I fuond some pecans in my pantry and tossed those in there too.

Definitely give this recipe a try, I love it tons! I was skeptical about adding the egg and butter after the water to the dough (wasn't sure if it would fully incorporate), but it worked out very well, with a nice tender & sticky dough that rose beautifully and resulted in the best cinnamon rolls I've ever made by a long shot.

I only made half of the recipe since this was just for the two of us (well, a surprise for Albany John) and wow - it still made about a dozen! I put them all in a small-ish glass baking dish and they rose to fill the whole pan.
The only real deviation I had from the original recipe was that I used approximately 2 egg yolks since I had some leftover yolks in the fridge. If anything, it helped create a richer dough.

Mmm, caramel glaze, so yummy. The baking time is perfect - just lightly browned all over and the bread was incredibly moist. It still is a day later, and you know how baked sweets tend to dry out. Love it. The caramel was just the right amount of sticky sweet, too.

These remind me of the cinnamon buns/rolls Papa Amherst made during Christmas - I just love that caramel coating. Sooo good.

Sticky Sweet Cinnamon Rolls, etc.

I was hoping to surprise Albany John with these cinnamon rolls from gourmeted.com, but he woke up right before the second rise.

This weekend was so boring. I actually watched the golden globes last night with Ellsbells. We decided we need our own Albies - like the Dundies from The Office. Goodness knows I'll be the one to be banned from a Friday's for one too many watery margaritas.

Tried Wide Eye Mango Chilli Schnapps. Found it on sale for $5 -something a bottle - way cheaper than its $20+ normal price range. AND MY GOSH. It SUCKED. I thought it was some kind of flavored vodka.

I was up for HOURS AND HOURS longer than I wanted to be after I had some. I have no idea what the caffeine content is other than equal to Satan in a cup. I had about half a shot to just give it a try and I was jittery for a good 8 hours after and felt incredibly spacey. I had a few vodka + crystal lights, and oddly enough my tolerance was also upped by this stuff and I didn't even catch a whiff of a buzz. Flavor-wise it was inoffensive and not at all spicy. I would much rather drink a crappy mango vodka. If you like getting high off of caffeine, give this liquor a try - now I know why it was clearanced up the wazoo.

Last night I successfully made garlic and olive oil pasta - turns out the secret is essentially poaching your garlic in oil at the lowest possible temp on your stove top for a while. And lots of parsely, too. But I was really happy with it. Midnight pasta never tasted so good.

Ok, now I gotta go mow a couple of those sticky cinnamon rolls. They smell really good.

Chipotle Opening in Clifton Park, NY

It's that time again! Another Chipotle is opening in Clifton Park, NY!

Here's their press release:

WHAT: Free Burrito Day

WHERE: Chipotle, Clifton Park Centre, 22 Clifton Country Road in Clifton Park

WHEN: Thursday, January 28, 11 am. until 8 p.m. – Free Burrito day

MORE: As a pre-opening celebration to say hello to its new neighbors, Chipotle will throw a free burrito day. You read it correctly. FREE. All day. Thursday. Stop in and you will get a delicious, giant custom-made burrito. Chipotle will even give you a fountain drink to wash it all down. And, you pay nada. Nix. Nothing.

AND MORE: On Grand Opening Day, Friday, January 29 the first 100 customers after 3pm will receive a free t-shirt and free burrito card to use at a later visit AND any customer that day can register to win free burritos for an entire year! WOW!!

About Chipotle

Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman and CEO, started Chipotle with the idea that food served fast did not have to be a typical fast food experience. Today, Chipotle continues to offer a focused menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls (a burrito without the tortilla) and salads made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods and served in a distinctive atmosphere. Through our vision of Food with Integrity, Chipotle is seeking better food not only from using fresh ingredients, but ingredients that are sustainably grown and naturally raised with respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers who produce the food. Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 900 restaurants. For more information, visit www.chipotle.com.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Hours from 11 :00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.

Clifton Park Centre, 22 Clifton Country Road, Clifton Park, p. (518) 371-0362 f. (518) 371-1923

Other area Chipotle Mexican Grills

3057 NY State Route 50, Suite 5 Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 p. 518-587-0478 f. 518-587-04892 Wade Road at Troy Schenectady Rd, Latham, NY 12110 Ph: (518) 783-0648 F: (518) 783-4519

Thanks, Katherine!

Cooking The Tree Of Life

Hey Guyzos!

The good folks at the New York State Museum will once again be hosting Cooking The Tree Of Life, or as I know it - EATING the tree of life. They has it last year, and it was such a blast (that's an understatement).

You can find their schedule up here.

It will be the first 3 Wednesdays of February - 3rd, 10th, & 17th. They begin at 7 pm.

This year they will be doing Hot Peppers, Sweets, and Birds.

Bring your manners - it's a fun presentation at the end of the day. If you get a glorious sample, awesome, if not, then you've got some great recipes to try out. Last year I witnessed a chubby Asian girl totally gank a scallop from a chef's son trying to deliver it to his mom/the chef's wife. When the tyke said it was for mommy, the chickie fake acted like it was a misunderstanding, and the wife was too polite too accept it. (And no, it wasn't me - haha)

And don't even get me started on the arm wavers or "Ooh!Ohh!"ers.

Thanks for the heads up, Jason!

Stuffed Pasta (Manicotti)

Panda came over for dinner the other night, and I wanted to make something tasty for him.

Albany John has been asking that I make spinach pasta the next time I make pasta. I figured this was a good time to try it out, and decided to forgo the usual pasta noodles for something a little out of my comfort zone. Stuffed manicotti.

Okay, well, technically these aren’t manicotti since they aren’t perfect circular tubes, but I’ve been seeing people say they’re easier to make with lasagna sheets because then they don’t break. So that’s pretty much what I did. Rolled pasta, cut it, wrapped it.



Here’s the pasta dough. I love how speckled the color of the dough is with spinach. So cute.

Here is how I made the pasta:

Spinach Pasta
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained as much as possible (10 oz of squeeze-dried spinach is akin to a large handful)
3 medium eggs
½ t salt
2 C AP Flour

Process the spinach, eggs, and salt until well combined. I used my magic bullet. Way less mess than hauling out the food processor.

Put flour in a bowl and make a well. Stir in the flour with the spinach mixture, and once it is too stiff to mix, use your hands and knead it for about 5 minutes. Everything should be cohesive, but the dough shouldn’t be too sticky or dry.

Let dough rest 20-30 minutes, then cut up into quarters to roll out in pasta machine.

Rolled spinach out to a level 5, and then cut up into rectangles and boiled for 30 seconds – 1 minute. Just to firm up the dough and make it a little more pliable to stuff and roll.

Spinach pasta is a little more delicate than regular pasta, in that the spinach content makes the dough less stretchy. But it possesses a very pleasing toothsome bite in the end.

I used a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, ½ a can of tomato paste, a bit of water, 1 onion, garlic, and some herbs to make a quickie marinara sauce. I only let it cook for about half an hour. I think a jarred pasta sauce would be fine in this instance as well. I’ve been on a diced tomato kick lately, so as you can see, that’s what I used.

I had some leftover butternut squash filling I’d defrosted earlier and combined with some more ricotta (it was too garlicky for me, and it helped stretch the filling to load the entire pan with manicotti).

I just put a little bit of marinara sauce on the bottom of the pan, then put a sheet of semi-cooked spinach pasta in it, filled it up and rolled it. It made me think of enchiladas. When I was finished rolling I slathered the rest of the marinara all over the lot of them.

One of the best things about rolling these manicotti is that even if there is a little break or tear in the sheet of pasta, you can probably roll it to hide it.

I covered the pan and cooked it for 40 minutes in the oven, then sprinkled the top with a little bit of cheese bits that were left in the fridge and let it cook 10 more minutes.


And ta-da: stuffed pasta. We all really enjoyed this. Is pasta stuffed with ricotta ever a bad thing? The thick spinach pasta noodle had a nice chew to it that went well with the soft ricotta filling. I probably could have flavored up the filling some more.

This has also held up very well in the fridge for leftovers. Not too gummy or anything - the pasta is really retaining its firmness.


Estimated cost of this dish:
$0.99 spinach
$1.20 marinara sauce
$2.00 flour, eggs, cheeses

$4.19

I think I want to play around with using this spinach pasta dough for making some kind of Italian-Mexican enchilada-like thing. I really love enchiladas.

Meatballs

Albany John made meatballs and cooked them in a creamy sauce. They were freaking amazing.

Chock full of paprika - I could even see ribbons of paprika in the middle of some meatballs.

We kind of needed to use the meat up, and this was a good use for it. Otherwise I think meatballs are a little meat heavy for me - I can eat a lot of meatballs because they're so freaking good! I can't just eat three of them. So for me, meatballs aren't very frugal since Albany John and I can do lots of frugal things with ground meat that stretch it a lot farther than meatballs.

Feta Pupusas

My artsy designer friend was clearing out his pantry and gave me some masa harina from the co-op. It is a finer grain than the masa harinas I get at Aldi and Save-A-Lot. I made some tortillas and pupusas, which are like tortillas, only stuffed with things.

Basically, you make a small bowl of masa harina in your hand, pack it with feta (or whatever else you want to fill it with), then cover it with more masa and pat it out or put it in a tortilla press.

The feta was firm, so I thought it could handle the tortilla press.

Plop it in a lightly greased pan

Flip, then eat it. It's nice and crispy, but it stays crisp for a while. The feta didn't melt either - it went really well. Salty and tangy, it added a lot of flavor for the little bit that was in each pupusa.

Here's Albany John's plate. He wanted his eggs over easy, and I opted for scrambled (top pic). I served the eggs over some regular corn tortillas, and then just mixed up some random veggies in the fridge with canned tomatoes and spicy seasonings.

The veggies were okay - daikon isn't too bad to use.

SCCC Spring 2010 Dining Schedule is Up!

The 2010 schedule for lunch and dinner at Schenectady County Community College is now up.

This semester is more global. And the menus look great.

I can't wait to try one of them out. They cost $16 per person for lunch and $22 pp for dinner.

Schenectady is far for me, but I had such a great meal there the last time I will gladly make this trip to SCCC again.

Mashed Potato Bread

This week has been a little hectic for me. Bro and Margarita moved to Mississipi. Albany John and I helped them pack up some of the big stuff into the U-Haul truck on Monday evening. From here on out I am officially banning my friends and family from moving in the winter. Seriously, I think I've moved more people in the center of winter's freezing grasp than in the summer.

They got pepperoni pizza and some wings. Yay - too many people do not understand that when people help you move, you buy them some galldurn pizza and beer. When there is no food and/or beer after moving someone's crap in and out of somewhere for free, I generally think "Geeze, what an ass. Well, I'm not doing that again." Seriously, I'm an awesome mover - I can move or help move just about anything and I've moved enough that I know just how to tetris all that junk into your vehicle.

And then there were just my normal idiosyncrasies of thought. I haven't felt like drinking that much/at all this week, so my brain feels all hyperactive. Or something like that. I'm kind of curious to see how long this clean living kick will last.
Baking bread generallly quells my restlessness, and eating makes me feel good. So I searched around for a hearty-yet-tender bread recipe, and by golly if I didn't find one that looked gooooood.

Potato Sour Cream and Chive Bread

I didn't have chives, but I kept everything else about the same in the recipe. I used 2 medium peeled potatoes - that seemed to work out to about the amount the recipe called for. I didn't mash it all that well - there were still some lumps. But the bread turned out moistly dense, but not too heavy and gummy like some other potato bread recipes can be.

I didn't get much of a tang from the sour cream. I wonder if yogurt would also work?

I really like this bread. If you want something a little heartier than white bread, definitely try this recipe out. I made one big loaf and about a dozen rolls (I froze the rolls). Ellsbells can attest to how moist and tender this loaf was. It looks kind of dry in the sliced picture, but trust me - it's not at all.

And lemme say - slathering a slice with some unsalted butter and bacon salt? Definitely a good idea. Definitely.

Shining Rainbow Restaurant

On Sunday we had to return CVS and Manhattan Maka to their bus to go back to NYC. Boo hoo.

However, Manhattan Maka was all about getting some dim sum. Why she'd opt for dim sum here over NYC is anyone's guess, but hey, I'm always down for it! I decided to try Shining Rainbow. It's kind of the new guy in town, and I haven't heard anything bad about it yet.

Ellsbells came with us since she hadn't seen them all weekend. Evidently I am quickly becoming deaf to hearing my phone ring.

Their lighting is so dramatic, no? We were the only ones in the place when we walked in, and were seated at a large table in the back with a lazy susan and served 2 pots of tea. The staff were listening to some fun sounding game show, and we asked if they could switch off the football on our TV and put that one on. The cable box only ran it to one TV tho, and they offered to move us. But c'mon. Lazy susan. And y'know... I'm lazy.

And then they turned the TV off. Hope we didn't make them want to, since we said we were find just listening to it even if we couldn't see it. *shrugs* Oh well, we still had each other to talk to.

We ordered a lot of food. Like, a LOT. We didn't get a couple dishes and they didn't show up on the bill, so either they were out and didn't tell us, or the waiter decided "Hey, these people ordered WAY too much food" either way, it was a good thing. We were close to bursting when we left. As is customary when eating dim sum.

First up came a double order of lotus balls. $2.95 per order. These are bready dough plops that are filled with lotus paste, covered in sesame seeds, and deep fried. They cut them in half for us at the table. They were piping hot, and deliciously sweet and nutty.

Turnip cakes ($2.95) on the left and seafood roll($2.95) on the right. The turnip cakes seemed to be deep fried. I'm used to seeing them pan fried, but I really enjoyed this way. The exterior was perfectly crisp. I can never get enough crunch on the outside of turnip cakes. And the inside was the moist, firm goo as usual. I'm probably not selling it, but this is a tasty and savory snack. Dried shrimp and some kind of preserved meat (lop cheong, bacon, etc) diced up inside, too.

The seafood roll was very oily on the outside. The batter was like a beer batter - crunchy outside, slightly soft and poofy underneath. It was filled with a lot of seafood bits - a mish mash. But surprisingly, they weren't overcooked. They were in some creamy (I wanna say mayo) sauce, which I wasn't a fan of. Overall, this was just too rich for me, but it was enjoyable.

Roast pork buns. $2.95. They're pork buns. I didn't eat any, but they look good.

HAR GOW! $2.95. You bet your pants I ate some of these. These are probably the best har cheung in the Albany area. The rice wrapper was soft, smooth, and bordering on gelatinous in texture (which might sound gross, but trust me, it's a totally good thing). The shrimp inside were pleasantly white-peppery, moist, and perfectly cooked. We ordered two of these, and rightly so.

King pork bun. $2.00. CVS ate this, and I'm not sure if anyone else did. He said there was a LOT of filling in it, and was very savory in comparison to the steamed pork buns, which were sweeter. It was really big. King Pork indeed!

I also figured we should order a veggie dish since we'd be eating so much rich food. Ellsbells took the helm in ordering baby bok choy with mushrooms. The mushrooms were reconsituted shiitakes. I liked them, and am not a big fan of shiitakes that have been reconsituted. Everyone else raved about their deep flavor and meaty texture.

I absolutely loved the bok choy - perfectly cooked. They still retained a lot of firmness without being crunchy. I love it when they are cooked this way - just enough to take the rawness out of them and enhance them. This dish was $8.95.

MOAR FOODS.

In the front are veggie dumplings - I think they were Even Vegetable Dumplings ($2.95) on the menu. They came 4 to an order. The skins looked good.

Behind them to the left are stuffed eggplant, which cost $2.95. Japanese eggplant stuffed with shrimp mixture and fried, then slathered in sauce. I think the eggplant was a little undercooked and had a hint of bitterness, but it was much less greasy than it normally is as a result. The shrimp filling was great though, and kept me eating it.

King pork shui mai came four to an order for $2.95. These were very large and meaty. Perfectly steamed. I became overwhelmed with the meaty flavor and couldn't even finish one! haha, I passed it off to Albany John to polish off.

I forget what these ones are, but they were also vegetarian. They came 3 to an order, and were also $2.95. I didn't try any of the vegetarian dishes. Boy, I was an eating wuss! But I was really full when we left.

Spareribs with blackbean sauce. $2.95. Yum, these were great! They had a nice and spicy kick and weren't too greasy. A lot of times this dish is very heavy from the black bean sauce, but these were very light. I enjoyed the spiciness in the dish as well - this dish isn't typically spicy. A very nice change in flavor. I think we ordered two of these, too.

After tax, the bill came to $59 and change. So $60 for 5 people pre-tax. Not too shabby, and boy were we ever stuffed!

I'm glad I checked this place out. I probably would have taken forever to do so if JoJo hadn't raved about it at the cookie swap last month. I'm glad she talked it up, because I really enjoyed myself! Since the har kow were so good, I think I'll even try their har cheung (shrimp rice roll) next time! No one up here can make them - so far they've all sucked, and HARD.

I'd liken Shining Rainbow to CCK, plus sushi/Japanese food.

Service was okay. Not offensive, fairly friendly, and only slightly pushy with trying to give us forks in addition to the chopsticks already at the table. They kept pushing the sushi. It seemed good, but we were there for dim sum. I'm not sure if I could mix sushi AND dim sum at one meal. It just seems so... different! Dim sum is dim sum! And Sushi is sushi!

Shining Rainbow is located at 209 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12206. T 518-396-3881. Their menu says 10% off pick up! They also do the $5 or so lunch specials during the work week, like most of the other Chinese/Japanese places here do. They take credit cards.