Food: Lemon cake cookies

I used the recipe from Half Assed Kitchen. I threw together a box of lemon cake mix, a 1/2 cup of butter and two eggs. One suggestion I have to make is to let the cookies rest in the fridge overnight (or up to 48 hours).

I rolled my in sugar since I didn't have powder sugar on hand. And let them cook for about seven minutes in a 350 degree oven.

They came out soft, chewy and delicious.

Enjoy!

Food: So good, so naked

Naked Fish Japanese Bistro in Downtown at 67 West 100 South is Salt Lake Magazine's Japanese Restaurant of 2010. And there is little question why.

Naked Fish is undoubtedly my new favorite place for sushi in the City of Salt. It started when Manfriend, Ava, Erin and I walked through the doors into the beautifully decorated space. The website says the concept of Naked Fish is to serve contemporary Japanese cuisine in a swanky Downtown location. They definitely hit the mark.

The place feels very modern, comfortable and clean. The bathrooms are AWESOME! I want to take the sink, floors and walls and move them to my apartment. Seriously if there was a shower I would move in.

We didn't make a reservation so we missed out on the private omakase rooms, but our table was still comfortable.

We started off with some drinks. Ava and I ordered some cocktails. My Cosmo with champagne was a touch too sugary for it to be my favorite drink, but it was well made and yummy. Erin had a glass of wine that paired well with the sushi. And Manfriend tried a Japanese beer for the first time. Not surprisingly, the beer went best with the sushi, but that's not keeping me from more cocktails at Naked Fish in the future.

The sushi rolls are between $7 and $12. One roll was plenty for me--so Naked Fish can be done cheaply. But it was Ava's birthday so we splurged.

These were hands down the best sushi rolls I have eaten. Ava ordered the caterpillar roll and loved it. I don't remember what roll Erin ordered, but I believe it was the tekka maki roll. It was also outstanding. I ordered a stand-by favorite of mine, the Wasatch roll. I was very impressed with the freshness of the ingredients, the solid construction and the great mix of flavors. Manfriend ordered the Mexi roll, while the flavor was great it was too hot for me, and I barely made it through one piece with a glass of water.

At this point, I had deiced Naked Fish is the BEST. JAPANESE. BISTRO. EVER. Manfriend disagreed. He insisted the mark of a good Japanese restaurant is in the vegetable tempura. He disagreed with Ava and said Tsunami was better. So of course, I had to take him up on the challenge. And I promptly ordered the vegetable tempura.

Oh.My.God. It was amazing! The asparagus, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and Japanese squash were all cooked perfectly. The tempura batter itself was crisp, light and delicious. The sauce on the side was also wonderful and went fantastic with each vegetable. Although I can't even begin to guess what was in it.

After the vegetable tempura, Manfriend acquiesced and agreed Naked Fish is the best Japanese restaurant in Salt Lake City. And that was before the ice cream.

The waitress suggested mochi ice cream for dessert. We had the plum and green tea ice cream rolled in mochi. (I'm not sure what mochi is, but I think it's a red bean paste.) I love, love green tea ice cream. It was the perfect dessert to end such a wonderful meal.

I can't wait to return to Naked Fish. And this time I'm making a reservation.

Food: It's like you're drunk or something...

Ava's discovery of UrbanSpoon.com has led us down an interesting path. A path you come to when you are hungry, lazy and tired. A path that leads to Koyo Restaurant.

Manfriend, Ava and I arrived at Koyo after going to Iron Man 2, and the answer is yes, it is bad ass. The small restaurant was inviting once we got through the odd entryway. We waited awkwardly for a minute before our waitress sat us.

And this is where things get interesting.

There were three tables across from us in those nifty tea rooms with the rice paper walls. And one of the guests was very, very drunk.

So instead of telling you a story about delicious, perfectly prepared tempura, rice, fried chicken and beef sukiyaki, I'm going to tell you a story about how not to be obnoxious in public.

Rule number one: Don't drink until you can't stand up. Drunk Girl was so loud that the three tables around here could barely have a discussion among themselves. And needless to say, the talk of the restaurant was Drunk Girl in the middle.

Rule number two: Don't drink to the point that your friends are embarassed. When Drunk Girl left, it turned out she was meeting friends of a friend for the first time. The table quieted down considerably, but there was laughter at Drunk Girl's expense once she was gone. And Sober Friend explaining, why Drunk Girl was not a friend of hers anymore.

Rule number three: Don't drink until you steal someone else's shoes. I'm not making this up. Drunk Girl attempts to leave. Platinum Blonde has to help her stand. Drunk Girl puts on the first pair of flip-flops she sees and stumbles away. Later Sober Friend leaves and says, "I think she took my shoes." Oh yes, Drunk Girl, was so far gone she took someone else's shoes.

Rule number four: Don't be louder than the baby crying. Yep, after Drunk Girl left, I was suddenly aware that a small baby was crying on the other side of me for most of the night. Hmm...maybe I would rather listen to drunken stories of ex-boyfriends than a baby crying.

Rule number five: If you are Drunk Girl, or likely to ever be Drunk Girl, stay home.

An entirely delightful evening with wonderful food and friends was ruined by a complete stranger. Next time I see you Drunk Girl, I'll switch out your vodka for water and stuff painkillers in your food.

Not even kidding.

Food: Meet the Parents Part Deux

Bambara Restaurant is housed in the Hotel Monaco in Downtown. Manfriend's dad was sweet enough to invite me to dinner at his favorite Salt Lake City restaurant when he was in town. On this visit, The Dad's wife came, too.

The Dad, The Step-Mom, and The Sister were running late which gave me time to explore the lounge of Bambara. It's the Vault. And it's awesome! The room is beautiful and Bambara used the vault to handle the Zion Curtain law (bar tenders could not serve drinks across the counter until 2008) in the most beautiful way I've seen. The bar tenders were very friendly and set me up with a great side car and conversation in just a few moments from when I took a seat at the bar.

Manfriend got a beer on tap and we had a nice, comfy half hour before the family showed up. We were promptly sat by the host. (He was amazing!) The outstanding service was the theme for the evening.

I started off with a tuna tartar The Step-Mom was brave enough to try. It was delicious. The tartar was served with fresh, homemade potato chips. The combination of soft flesh with crisp chip was amazing. The textures went together perfectly. The softer flavor of the tuna paired well with the lightly salted potato and the the Italian herb salsa cut right through. This is a dish I wish I could prepare on my own.

Next I tried the chicken because it was served with mashed potatoes. (It's physically impossible for me to say no to potatoes.) And I was so in love with this entree. The chicken was moist, the skin was crisp. It was so good! But after all that tuna I went straight for the veggies. The potatoes were so creamy and smooth, with mushrooms and garlic thrown in for delicious measure, I couldn't stop eating them. I ate until I was past full.

Then I ordered dessert.

A lovely dish of ice cream including strawberry, lemon and vanilla flavors. The waiter also brought us adorable cupcakes. The homemade ice cream was as good as it sounds.

Bambara brought me one of the most impressive and satisfying meals in my life with superb service. I would love another excuse to go back.

Not to mention, the company. The Family and I had a great time. And Manfriend also commented on how delicious the calimari, steak, and cupcakes were.

Bambara is worth the money.

Food: Meatloaf results are in

My last column in The Forum will let you know, my meatloaf lost hard to Cristy and Manfriend.

Ah, well. I think everyone can agree the surprise strawberry short cake Jen brought was the best dish of all.

Thanks, everyone, for all your help!

Food: Inspiration cupcakes

Look at this!

Ming Makes Cupcakes has over 20 easy and beautiful cupcake recipes. Including a florless recip for the gluten free, some of them just sound so wonderful "Sourcream Raspberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting" or how about some "Coffee Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Irish Cream Frosting?" I can't believe this is real. It's so beautiful!

I feel so inspired. I'll have to try these out soon. The cookies and savouries (savory, rather than sweet, cupcaks) also sound delicious.

Amazing!

Food: My meatloaf brings all the boys to the yard

My latest column brings on the comfort food show down.

Who's meatloaf will reign supreme? Find out April 23 at 12 p.m. in Converse Hall at Westminster College. Everyone is invited to taste test and vote!

Food: The most diverse cookie. Ever.

I decided to try out an old family recipe. I like to call these cookies "Uncle Richard's cookies." But after some googling, I realized these powdered sugar cookies are also called Ukrainian, Mexican and German wedding cookies. Since these cookies are butter rolled in powdered sugar so I'll just call them delicious.

Powdered Sugar Cookies

1 C. soft butter

3/4 C. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon liqueur

2 C. flour

1/2 C. chopped pecans

1 lemon, zested

1-2 C. powdered sugar for rolling

Cream the butter and gradually add powdered sugar. I used a whisk because I don't have a mixer, but I think a rubber spatula would work better.

Next add the vanilla and lemon liqueur, cream well.

Now, gradually add in the flour, nuts and zest from one lemon. At this point, I switched to mixing with my hands. I used closer to 1 and 3/4 cups of flour than the 2 cups called for, so add the flour slowly and stop when the dough is smooth and crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Shape the dough into 1" to 1 and 1/2" balls. I made mine a little bigger--maybe 2" in diameter.

Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies at 300 degrees for 35 minutes. The bottoms will be light brown, but the tops will still be white. My cookies took closer to 30 minutes and because I sprayed some water into the stove to create steam the cookies came out a little darker brown in color.

Take the cookies out of the oven. Put one to two cups powdered sugar in a large shallow dish. (I used a pie pan.)

Now roll the cookies in the powdered sugar and place on a serving platter. Let cool.

Enjoy your sugar and butter love! I know I did.

Food: Bread baking, maybe?

Over spring break, I felt ambitious so I decided to make some bread.

My first experiement was with Julia Child's French bread recipe. It did not go well.

I love The Art of French Cooking mostly because it was a thoughtful and generous gift from CBC a.k.a Manfriend. However 1960s recipe writing really wasn't focused on how the recipe was used. For example, I had to flip three pages to see what step I was on in the recipe and how the dough should be kneaded.

In the end the bread came out hard, dense and burnt. The final loaf of the three I made came out the best, but I wasn't very proud of my baking efforts. It took a good seven hours for me to make the bread and it was a frustrating failure.

A few days later, I decided to take on an easier recipe. I used Emeril's Basic Italian Bread recipe. This time the process took about half as long and came out about twice as good. Perhaps I just needed less time to lose my patience. The bread was much tastier and althought still dense, I'll take Manfriend's suggestion and be careful to not let it overrise next time.

I'm really enjoying the baking this week, but I definitely need to be more committed to staying at home when I bake. Next up: Powdered Sugar Cookies.

Food Recipe: Congee, again!

So I tried to be inventive and figure out how to make this dish on my own. Unfortunately, I should really stick with making traditional American/Italian comfort cuisine. Sometimes I can handle a taco, but you know anything else just throws me.

This picture is not what my congee looked like. It was much more gloppy and less overall appealing. I put 13 cups of water with one cup of rice vinegar into the 50s rice maker with two cups of medium grain rice. This was a bad idea. About four-fifths the way into the rice cooking, I realized I should've left the lid half off so the water could actually cook down.

The next bad idea was trying to recreate the century egg from Bay Leaf Cafe. I went ahead and steeped three bags of green tea into a pot of hot water for about 15 minutes. Then I boiled the eggs for about 20 minutes.

I successfully died the egg shells a funky brown color and made the eggs looked disease. This was clearly not enough tea time to actually have any effect on the egg.

In the end, I determined the congee was edible and served it up with some steak strips, onions, boiled egg and sweet red pepper. My thought was this would taste like a hearty breakfast dish perfect for dinner.

Ava was a good sport and ate some. She even said it was good for a first try. My roommates are amazing!

I think I'll try congee again. I just need to do some more research before I boil anything again.

The South in the City of Salt

Squeezed in between two decimated buildings, across the street from Murphy's Downtown is a tiny new restaurant well worth the wait. The Bayleaf Cafe was originally slated to open in fall 2008, they finally opened their door in early September 2009. I don't know what happened in that extra year, but I'm sure happy they got it together an opened up.

This place is brought to Salt Lake City via Georgia. Everything from the decor to the menu screams the South to me. The cafe has a simple, clean elegance to it that makes their all night cafe tag line seem wrong. But it's not, Downtown officially has an all night restaurant that isn't Denny's--count your blessings. The one TV on the back wall seems out of place with the ambiance and decor, but give their Downtown Salt Lake City location I can't blame them for adding ESPN.

Although the wait staff is fairly new and inexperienced, they are helpful, friendly and happy to see you. The first visit I made was with Man-boy and we showed up buzzed. The waiter was chill and let us take our time ordering. At the waiter's suggestion I ordered the fried pickles to stave off my greasy, midnight, drunken food craving.

The pickles were the perfect fix. The chef uses a thick, crisp pickled battered in a spicy flour mixture. The pickles are deep fried just long enough for the batter to crisp then served with a side of fry sauce.

Pure deliciousness! I like pickles, but I normally wouldn't eat them without a hamburger. This appetizer I would happily eat as a meal, again.

And I did. The second visit I made to Bayleaf was with T. This time our waiter acted a little ADD. I'm not sure what was going on, but he seemed to have difficulty focusing on the waiting part of his job. He was exceptionally friendly and really sweet, just not waiter-ish.

Again, I ordered the fried pickles. Why explore the menu when you already know the best dish they serve, right? T had the hot wings to go with the football game on TV.

Once again, I loved the fried pickles and was completely happy with the dish. I have to try and make my own.

I couldn't resist the hot wings though. They were spicier than I expected. This place is so Southern, they serve drinks out of Mason Jars and sweet tea unless unsweetened is specified. I expected the usual definition of hot from the South as in mild. Nope, these wings were hot. The sauce had great flavor and was served with a fantastic blue cheese dressing (I'm guessing Lighthouse) and messy. Just the way great wings should be.

So for providing two lovely experiences I have to give Bayleaf mad props. I will be back again, not that I'll be venturing far from the fried pickles.

Food: Savory sweet breakfast

After a late night and an even later morning, I was craving breakfast with some serious punch so I came up with the savory and sweet combination of pancake eggs.

I've seen the "breakfast sandwich" on The Park Cafe menu, but I thought it sounded a little strange. Turns out, it's the perfect fix when you're starving for breakfast at 1 p.m.

First, for the pancake I threw together the Krusteaz mix (1/2 Cup mix with 1/2 Cup water) with a little cinnamon (about 1 teaspoon) and a little nutmeg (just a pinch).

Following Alton Brown's rules of pancake mixing, I whisked it four times clockwise and three time counter-clockwise. He says this keeps the dough soft and I concur since following this rule the texture of my pancakes has improved tremendously.

Next I poured the batter on my hot, buttery skillet.

Then I heated up a baby skillet for some egg frying. I used a little bit of spay-on grease and cracked the egg directly into the pan. I tossed in a pinch of Kosher salt and a dash of fresh ground pepper.

Back to the pancake side of the stove. When the dough on top started to bubble, I flipped the pancake to reveal a nice even golden brown crisp. My dad says the dough should bubble, burst and leave a hole in the dough. It's the best way I know to check a pancake is cooked without a lot of messy flipping.

I added just a drop of water to the frying egg and covered the pan. This is the key to properly frying eggs in my kitchen.

Then I removed the perfectly cooked pancake just like my dad taught me and slathered it with butter and syrup just like my mom would love.

Next I turned the flame off the egg and let it hiss for a couple minutes before sliding the egg on to the syrup drenched pancake.

Then into my tummy in about five minutes. This was such a delicious combination. I loved the salty sweet combination of syrup and salt. Plus the egg yolk mixed with the cinnamon, nutmeg pancake really well.

Now I'm off to enjoy a huge mug of coffee with loads of cream and sugar. Happy afternoon morning!

Food Review: At home with the Irish

When @formulaoneut asked me what my favorite watering hole in the city of salt was, I didn't quite know what to say. Then I realized the one place Ava, Erin and I go to most often is the Irish pub proudly proclaiming itself, "a step down in social clubs." Yep, Murphy's Bar and Grill at 160 South Main Street.

It's not exactly the kind of place you would expect to find three 21-year old women on a Friday night, right? I mean, it's a pub in a basement lined with leprechauns. They serve PBR on tap, Irish stew and cheese fries. The food is good, but not yummy enough for me to go out of my way to get there. And it's not especially cheap, with $7 Newcastle and $9 burgers it's pretty average for a Salt Lake City pub.

Last time I was there, I had the fish and chips for just under $9. The menu declares the meal "world famous." I have no idea how it would have that designation given that the food was pretty average-exactly what you would expect from a pub.

So why is it when I'm starving and thirsty in Downtown, I inevitably end up at Murphy's? Well, because it is a pub. Murphy's is the kind of place where the city's blue collar guys go after a long day of work. They are at the bar to drink a few beers and talk with their buddies (intense man-bonding) before they head home to their wives and girlfriends.

And strangely enough, that suits me just fine. Every once in a while it's nice to go to a place where the guys are not ogligng every woman who walks in the door. Sure, no one pays for my drinks, but I can pay for myself. The waitresses aren't intent on picking up their clientele and manage to wear clothes that constitute cute, comfortable and covered. And if any guy gets out of hand, the waitresses are right there taking care of business.

So I guess on a quiet Friday night, I find myself with my two favorite girls at an Irish pub for middle-aged, blue collar guys because everyone is there just to hang out with their friends. And seriously, where else can you hear two Irish guys talk for hours about Ireland?

Where do you like to hang out after a long day?

Food Review: Smash in line, Smashburger is in Utah

Last week Ava, Eirn and I were invited to the opening of SmashBurger in Sugar House. Smashburger is a franchise and is located inside the same building as Pei Wei on 2100 South. The opening was a smashing success everything was on the house and the line was l-o-n-g.

I'm not a fan of crazy busy restaurants, but considering the food was free I'm not complaining. I had the mushroom swiss burger. It was yummy. My favorite part was the egg bun even though it sounded scary it was soft and delicious. I also tried out the haystack onion rings. The rings were paper thing slices briefly drudged in a batter before being quickly deep-fried. They were good, but they won't be replacing beer-battered rings for me any time soon. The aioli sauc (spicy fry sauce for Utahns) was very good. It had a nice kick and great flavor.

Erin had the spicy burger. It came with a few jalapenos and was a little too spicy for her taste buds. She also had the smashfries (shoestring fries with rosemary). She loved these little guys.

Ava also had the mushroom swiss burger and declared it good. I believe she had regular fries with salt and fry sauce. They were also very yummy. Ava and Erin also tried the chocolate shake, which I'm guessing they liked, but I don't remember hearing any comments about they level of yumminess to Smashburger's shake.

I probably won't be back to Smashburger anytime soon. As a casual-dining-meets-fast-food restaurant (think Noodles & Co. with burgers), the average burger costs about $7 along with $2 for fries, more than my beloved local Millie's across the street.

Any burger joint, you just can't get enough of?

Food news?

Fifteen bizarre restaurants. I like to eat, but not from corpses or toilets please. I can handle the hobbits, though.

And if that's not enought, here's some more weird. I want to be a ninja princess!

Food Review: The South is sweet, not spicy

On Sunday night I flew to Athens, GA for MSCNE 2009, a conference for editors of student news media. Well, after the first 12 hour day of classes I realized this would be a long week of hotel food, college cafeteria fare and fast food.

It was a rough start to my foodie week. It started Sunday night with dry chicken, bland honey mustard sauce and over-cooked broccoli that will never make a good dinner even if it is catered by a hotel with a trained chef.

As for the offerings in the UGA cafeteria, it was pretty yuck. Georgia does not know how to do Mexican. The state loves their sweet and for some reason the salsas and guacamoles I sampled were sweet. There is also an overabundance of mayonnaise on nearly everything including in guacamole from the student cafeteria. I do have to praise their sweet tea though, it was yummy.

Friday afternoon Rikki, Jenny and I went to Don Juan in the CNN center in Atlanta. Once we got the mayo-guac with our chips and salsa we knew we should be afraid. Don Juan also advertised serving enchiladas with gravy. I mean really guys? Are there no Mexicans in your state? American food and Mexican food can mix and work, but brown gravy should never be the sauce to a spicy corn wrapped meat.

The end of the week brought the yummy to my week of food.

Thursday night Melissa, Rikki, Jenny and I went to RA Sushi. For mysterious reasons the menu described nearly every roll with cream cheese. Luckily they also had all the basics like caterpillar, rainbow and California rolls so I was a happy camper. The sushi was fresh and delicious. Melissa was terrified to try the raw fish, but she seemed pretty happy with the chicken terriyaki. I was proud of her for being brave enough to try the veggie roll Rikki ordered.

After days of deep-fried and mayo covered food, it was nice to eat something as fresh and light as the sushi at RA. The restaurant is very lounge-y and super cool as it caters to the young professional night life of Midtown Atlanta. After RA I think everyone felt ten times better about six days of living in hotel rooms and duffel bags.

Around midnight Friday, Melissa and I went to Taco Mac for some munchies. I ordered the original buffalo wings with french fries. Taco Mac was voted "Best Wings in Atlanta" at one point in their history because it says so on their menu. And I can see why.

The wings looked a little dry when they made their appearance. Thankfully appearances are misleading and the chicken was tender and juicy. The flavor was a nice blend of sweet and hot. Our server Louis said his favorite is the habanero spicy, but I stuck with medium. The blue cheese dressing on the side cooled the heat nicely. The fries were salty, crispy and fresh. I had them with a decent ranch dressing, but I missed fry sauce.

Louis also pointed out that Georgia is the home of Coke so asking for Pepsi is not wise. If you like soda, you will only find Coke products in the entire state. Nice little tidbit for you.

Saturday morning started off with my favorite breakfast at the Midtown Cafe. I started off with coffee and water. The coffee like most in my Georgia experience was weak, but it was definitely the best cup I had in Atlanta. The two eggs over-medium came out a little closer to over-easy and without any salt or pepper which I quickly remedied. Toast is toast and I don't really have anything to say other than yays for real butter. The hash browns suffered the same fate as the eggs and had no salt or pepper. But the potato was cooked all the way through and crispy on the outside so I dug right in and was happy to pay the $7 for a full breakfast.

After that it was back to airports and mass transit, now I'm off to enjoy some down home Salt City food.

There's burgers in them there hills

Oh my readers, I have so many stories for you. I'm happy to say I have Internet access here in the land of peaches and peanuts for the next few days. So y'all better get used to hearing from me right regular again.

Now on to the recap for the so-called, "Burger Week."


St. George, UT
On the way to Las Vegas Erin, Ava and I stopped at Iceberg in St. George for lunch. I ordered the "Famous Thick Shake" in the flavor of lemon custard. The shake was nearly $5 and huge. I ordered the small and felt overwhelmed by the pint or more of ice cream staring me in the face. The ice cream itself was yummy. But I wouldn't recommend the lemon custard flavor. It was just too much cream for the sweet, artificial lemon to counteract. If you have a big appetite for a shake, Iceberg is worth the price for the size of their shake.

Las Vegas, NV
Oh yes, in Sin City we found burgers at Planet Hollywood. The food was not very good. Our waitress worked really hard to make sure our table was happy. The decor is pretty cool. It was exciting to see John Wayne's high school yearbook and Harrison Ford's jacket from "Indiana Jones." Unfortunately, the decor is not enough. I will most likely never go to another Planet Hollywood restaurant.

Our next burger joint stop was at In 'n Out Burger. As always with any chain the food is consistent. One of my favorite things about In 'n Out is there limited menu. I had the cheeseburger with french fries. The burger was pretty tasty. The fries are marked at mediocre. I suppose my only real complaint about In 'n Out is the ridiculous amount of people in line. Their food is good, but it's not that good. I just don't understand the In 'n Out cult following. Sorry, kids.

Salt Lake City, UT
In the in-between time, I went to Amber's for dinner. Eli made delicious BLTs with avocado replacing the lettuce. So I guess, it's a BAT. A cool trick I noticed was that he peppered the bacon before frying it. It worked out well. Although, I think when I try these on my own I'll have to forgo the dill rye bread. I like rye bread it just didn't work as well with the bacon as I would have liked.

Monticello, UT
Back to burgers again, my dad handled the grill for our family reunion. He made some dutch oven potatoes with bacon. As the man who gave me my love of anything potato he makes a pretty decent dutch. He also grilled burgers and it was dinner with the family. A million kids running around, everyone talking at once and more food than people.

Next up were Navajo tacos at the Pioneer Day celebration in Monticello. I love this dish. You pile up fry bread with chili beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and onion. Unfortunately, the booth I went to didn't have very good beans so the whole dish suffered. The beans were bland and undercooked as the ingredient to give the whole meal it's flavor that's a serious problem. However my craving for fry bread is temporarily fixed until next time I venture into San Juan County since it's apparently the only place to get traditional fry bread.

Athens, GA
Well, I just landed so I haven't eaten anything cool and new yet. But I was told that almost all the local restaurants have live music every night here. I'll be sure to check it out and let you know. Have a fantastic week!

Balsamic onion steak

Let's talk about food again shall we? I know it's been awhile, but I want to share my secret for an incredible steak that is oh-so-summer easy.

For the tools, you will need:
A sharp knife
A cutting board
A skillet
A wooden spoon
A spatula

For the yummy stuff, you will need:
4 1-inch thick grilling steaks (like sirloin or round)
1 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 C. Balsamic vinegar
Kosher Salt
Pepper

Let the steak reach room temperature. I know, when you got your food handler's permit they said this was a no-no, but trust me your steak will be juicier and more tender.


Heat the skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Rub the salt and pepper into the room-warm steak. I just read about this method of salting if you're feeling adventurous. (I'll try it out and let you know how it goes.) Throw the steaks into the hot pan and let cook for seven-ish minutes.

While the steak is happily grilling, slice the onion. You want nice, thin even rings. So slice carefully and slowly. Now, mince the garlic clove. You should end up with about a cup of onion rings and two tablespoons of garlic.

Turn the steaks over and let cook for another seven-ish minutes. The outside should be a little bit charred and a nice brown.

When the steak is cooked through, remove to a plate and let rest for five minutes. The resting lets the steak reabsorb all it's yummy juices.

Keep the heat on your skillet. Toss in the EVOO, the onions and garlic and Kosher salt. Cook the onion and garlic, stirring with a wooden spoon until they are nice and sweaty-about five minutes. Add the 1/2 C. of balsamic vinegar and let everything simmer.

The onions should cook down until the juices run clear. The balsamic vinegar should cook down until it becomes sauce like in it's consistency. About seven more minutes.

You may notice this gives you more than five minutes for the steak to rest. I like to cover the steak with a tent of aluminum foil so it stays warm. If you must, you can cover the steak and place it in the oven on warm. Be warned: the oven will dry out the steak a little bit.

Top your yummy steak with your Balsamic caramelized onions. Enjoy!

Note: The recipe is for medium rare steak. The photo is from Colavita.

Food News: Brookside is now Yellowfin

A quick update in the Salty City food world.

Brookside Broiler and Grill near Hidden Hollow in the Sugar House Commons has closed. The beef kabobs will surely be missed.

Yellowfin will open in the same location soon. The sign still says broiler and grill, but I believe it's a sushi place. When I spoke with the owners today, they said they are hoping to open next week. The restaurant is waiting on a liquor license that has been delayed for two weeks.

Yay! Utah, always making it easier on your local business.

Bulky chicken

This whole not having money thing means I've been eating at home a lot more, which in turn means I'm learning more about the value of knowing how to make something yummy with the food stuff that's been in the cupboard for a smidge bit too long.

For example, adding chicken stock to the water for instant rice. It adds much more flavor and since I usually have some stock in the pantry it doesn't cost anything more. (Thanks, Andrew!)

Or learning the combination of paprika, cayenne and pepper flakes will make salsa just as spicy as the jalapeno pepper I didn't buy. Oh and if I add some cumin I pretty much can make anything taste like Mexican.

And of course, the best trick for getting by when you can't go out is butter. Seriously, just add a little extra butter and the extra richness will make you think you're eating out.

I almost forgot to mention the salt. Ava's cousin said, "If something tastes a little off I just add a little salt and it's better." It's true, kids. Seriously, a pinch of Kosher will you get you far.

Then there's the tested truth of buying in bulk to save money. Sure this means I've eaten chicken for nearly every dinner since last Sunday. Just switch up the spices from the cupboard. One night it's Mexican (paprika, cayenne, cumin) the next it's Italian (oregano, thyme, rosemary and basil) and another it's American (garlic, onion and barbecue sauce) . Thus the monotony of eating chicken is staved off for a few days.

That is until the Cheez-Its I'm eating run out and I'm back to more chicken with lots of butter and a little bit of salt. Maybe, I'll try Japanese chicken tonight. After all I have some soy sauce in my fridge full of condiments.