Life: So, yeah...food!

I realize I haven't done a great job of keeping you posted about life or food via my blog. Twitter is my new favorite tool for annoying updates about myself and you can find me @kristamaesmith.

But I do have a few things, I would like to share with you.

First in food.

April 5 is officially Cafe Rio Day in Utah. So thank Governor Gary Herbert for giving you a reason to sit down with chips, salsa, guacomole, relleno and margaritas today. Or is that just me?

Meditirina was kind of a let down last time I was there. The house made sangria was delicious and the patas bravas were as delicious as I remembered. However the Drunken Oreos were soaked, not dipped, in port wine, not a reduction sauce. All in all, Manfriend and I still had a good experience, but I think I'll stick with my own Drunken Oreos in the future.

And I'm on a mission to steal the bruschetta recipe from the Meditirina kitchen as well. Balsamic and tarragon soaked strawberries with chevre cheese on top of crisp, buttery bread. Mmmm....so good!

In the past two months Millies and the Soup Kitchen have been mainly responsible for keeping my grease quota. But I've blogged enough about them for you to know how much I love burgers and onion rings from both of these great Sugar House icons.

Second in life...

I'll be graduating May 29 at 1 p.m.-ish at the E Center in West Valley, UT. If you like me enough to read my blog, you are invited. Of course, leading up to that I'll be in a panic about finishing my senior project, writing a research paper, writing a film theory paper, editing the paper and writing a column. So in advance, I'm thanking you for your patience. (Especially, Manfriend!)

I'm in the middle of my application to teach in Taiwan, but I feel good about getting it done on time. Next weekend, I should be able to get the video done. Once I have my passport, I will be elligible to begin training.

Otherwise things are pretty normal. The St. Patrick's day party was fun. We played "Apples to Apples' for forever. Long enough anyway for me to leave and talk with Harry. The sidecars were awesome! The combination of one part cognac to three parts lemon juice is so good! I love the sour tanginess of it.

I'm looking forward to trying an old school daquiri with rum and lime juice, next.

The potatoe skins were pretty good. I completely forgot to add any butter. Luckily, no one seemed to notice. I think they were distracted by the bacon. Or the booze, whatever.

Finally I tested out the Black Magic Chocolate cake recipe Amber recommended. My version didn't come out quite as good. I think because I did a buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese frosting. So next time, Sis, my chocolate will beat up your chocolate. Or at least, taste as good. The cake was easy to bak and did well divided up into a dozen cupcakes and a 9" square cake pan.

The next shindig I'm putting on will be the Mad Men cocktail party. So get out your cocktail wear and tell me your favorite classic cocktail. We'll be partying Don Draper style following my graduation.

I know, you're excited. I am.

Drunken Oreos

It's not like there could possibly be enough posts about alcohol, right?

I thought today I would share with you one of the most simple and delicious deserts I've run across. This recipe is rip-off from Meditrina's own Drunken Oreos. Mine is not as delicious as the original, but does a fair imitation.

Drunken Oreos
To begin you will need the following tools:

Hardware:
One 2-quart sauce pan
One mixing spoon
One ice cream scoop
One shallow bowl
One fork
Two desert plates

The yumminess comes from the following:

Ingredients:
1 Cup port wine
1 Tbs. lemon zest
8 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup of red wine
Vanilla Ice Cream (a real ice cream with actual cream and vanilla bean is best)

First, you will make a port wine reduction sauce. This is the trickiest part of the whole dessert and requires patience. Pour one cup of port wine into a 2-quart sauce pan over medium low heat. Add one tablespoon lemon zest. Let the mixture boil for about 1/2 hour constantly stirring. When the mixture is close to being as thick as sauce, but still thin it is done. There should be about 1/3 the amount of the original liquid left in the pan. Turn off the stove.

Now, the sauce is done, so onto the the dunking. Pour 1/2 cup of red wine (whatever you have will work) into a shallow bowl. Using a fork, dunk an oreo into the wine then flip the oreo over so both sides are soft. You want to dunk the oreos quickly so they're soft, not soggy. Place four oreos on each dessert plate. Now the oreos are ready.

The next step is the ice cream. Top the oreos with couple scoops of ice cream. Now, using your mixing spoon drizzle the ice cream and oreos with the port wine sauce.

Bust out your spoons and enjoy.

A couple of things: First, this dessert sounds, tastes and looks far more expensive than it is. Second, This dessert is also very easy to add or subtract from to serve however many people you have. The recipe I found for port wine reduction sauce also suggested an orange zest. I haven't had an opportunity to try that out, but it sure sounds yummy!

Love at First Bite

Meditrina

1394 S. West Temple

Lunch : Monday--Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Dinner: Monday--Thursday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

I'm in love! Honestly, the dinner Ava and I had a Meditrina is hands-down one of the best dining experiences I've had in Salt Lake. This place is amazing.

Meditrina is in the house where Mama's Southern Plantation used to be and in every way has improved the place. It was dark, but the outside looked far less sketchy than when it had housed Mama's. Probably because they put up lots of Christmas lights so the area has some lighting.

Inside the owners have vastly improved the interior on a small budget. From the wooden floor to the geometric art to the bright purple ceiling the interior is warm and modern. They also have some cool chandeliers hanging up that add to the feeling.

My only complaint about the decor is the brown couch and that's just because it's not a very nice brown. I would love it if they reupholstered in black, but really they just moved in and they have a couch. That's impressive. It took me four months to get my first couch and it's really my roommates.

Our waiter was Tim and I have a small crush on him. For a couple of reasons, first he's adorable, second he was friendly and willing to make jokes at his own and my expense, and finally he brought me delicious food.

I knew you were wondering when I would get to that. Because we all know a restaurant is only as impressive as their menu, right? Well at Meditrina they've put together a fabulous menu of tapas.

I ordered the Patatas Bravas and Insideout Chicken Satay. Ava ordered the curry shrimp and steak. Because everything is served tapas style we got to share everything. That's right; it's all delicious food presented beautifully than you go family style and serve yourself. It's like snack time just became dinner time. Yay!

The potatoes were amazing. I'm guessing the bravas part meant the spicy tomatoe sauce the roasted potatoes were served with. As anyone who knows me can tell you: I will eat only potatoes and be happy, but these potatoes were truly amazing. The sauce was so good I would eat it without a potatoe.

The shrimp curry was my favorite of the dishes. I still can't get over the yumminess of the curry. I have decided I must learn how to make curry based on Meditrina's shrimp. It was that good.

Next was the inside out chicken satay. I'm not familiar with a chicken satay, but it was yummy. The almond crust was sweet and good. Ava didn't like this dish, but she doesn't like nuts. So all I can say is if you like chicken, almonds and sweet peanut sauce you will love this dish.

On to the steak. This was probably my least favorite of our four dishes. The steak was served with a pile of mashed potatoes and asparagus--both of which I love. The potatoes were good, not the best mashed potatoes, but obviously freshly prepared and homemade with pleanty of pepper and butter.

The asparagus was fantastic. The roasted spears were cooked perfectly and not to raw or overcooked, just a nice crisp bite. The steak was a little tough to me and not as flavorful as I expected it to be after the potatoes, shrimp and chicken. However, Ava loved this dish and ate most of the steak.

Oh. I almost forgot dessert. Ava and I split the Drunken Oreos Tim suggested based on "popular response." I don't know what that means, but drunken oreos are yummy. The oreos are dunked in red wine than topped with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with a port wine reduction sauce. Again, the sauce was fabulous. Plus, it was a good kind of ice cream not a crappy store brand, but actually a quality ice cream where you can see the vanilla bean and taste the cream.

See what happens when I'm in love? I talk way too much. For two beers, four plates of tapas and dessert the bill was right around $45. A little more expensive than my usual, but totally worth it. Plus, massive props to Ava who once again fed me.

What cool, new restaurant have you discovreed lately?