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.

The Soup Kitchen

You already know I love The Soup Kitchen on 1100 East and 2100 South. How could I not? A cup of soup for $2.69, an order of onion rings for $1.49, plus free bread sticks--it's like I've gone to cheap lunch heaven.

The potato leek soup is my new favorite. The soup is a nice creamy texture with big pieces of potato, bacon and leek. And since a leek is a "gourmet onion" I loved it. This is a grown-up's potato soup with lots of flavor.

I also grabbed a couple of the free cheese bread sticks. I ended up eating just one because that's all I needed for a cup of soup. The bread sticks are made fresh each day. My favorite part of the bread stick is the fluffy texture of the bread. The flavor is a little bland for me, but since it goes in my soup it's not a big deal. I just don't eat the bread sticks plain.

Finally the onion rings--the amazing golden rings of beer-battered and deep-fried deliciousness. I probably don't have to tell you how much I love the Soup Kitchen's onion rings, but I will. They are so good! Everyone should try them. The batter is rich and flavorful with plenty of herbs, spice and beer. Then they are fried perfectly so the outside is crispy and the inside is soft.

Served with a side of fry sauce mixed at a nice ratio of real mayonnaise to ketchup, the onion rings really couldn't get any better. And like I said lunch for just under $5.

The Soup Kitchen

The bipolar weather of April in Salt Lake City makes me want to cry. So while I wear my sundress in the snow, I enjoy a nice cup of soup. One of my favorite soup places is the Soup Kitchen. The shop is right off Highland and 2100 South. So it's super close to my house and my school.

I love going in and grabbing some soup on my way to class. It's great! But the last time I was there I made an amazing discovery, onion rings!

We all know, I love onion rings. Rings are indeed deep-fried, golden goodness. At the Soup Kitchen, they are beer battered deliciousness. So good! Hmmm...

I got a full order for about $2.50, which ended up being enough onion rings for two people. The fry sauce was okay, not the best, not the worst. The onion rings themselves were amazing. They were hand-cut onions, dipped in a beer batter with some great seasoning and fried to the perfect level of golden, brown, crispy good.

I also had a cup of broccoli and cheese soup with two free cheese bread sticks. The bread sticks were great! As always a nice fluffy homemade bread. The soup was pretty good, but after the onion rings kind of a let down. It's probably still one of my favorite soups, but not the best cup ever.

In all I spent about $7 for a drink, soup, bread sticks and onion rings. It was a fantastic on the go lunch for cheap. I will definitely be stopping by again. If nothing else for the onion rings.