The Square Root

I’ve been to the original location in Brevard a few times, so when I needed to find a bit to eat on a Sunday in Hendersonville The Square Root seemed like a good choice.  I ordered a Munich Dunkel from Brevard Brewing Company, which was right up my alley for a spring day (not too heavy or sweet or hoppy), and the eggs florentine as nothing else really jumped out.  LB had a kids pizza with a side of fruit along with most of the fruit that came with my benedict. The pizza was cheap enough, but it was heavily sauced and extra messy.  My eggs were nicely cooked, and the portion was standard.  I am not a fan of biscuits in lieu of an english muffin; the hollandaise has enough buttery goodness for the dish without adding a biscuit.  One of our party ordered hard poached eggs, and they were served on the soft side of medium.  The service was fine until our server disappeared at the end of our meal; I was able to walk a block and back to change a diaper before we finally asked the hostess for our check.  If I’m back in Hendersonville on a Sunday and West First Wood Fired Pizza remains closed on Sundays, I’ll be likely to return to The Square Root.

 

 

Piazza redux

Dining out with my family is difficult between everyone’s different tastes and expectations so frequently we end up at some chain (e.g. Outback, Carabarras, Brixx) which in the best case makes me feel guilty for not supporting a local restaurant and in the worse case leaves me feeling ripped off at the mediocre food or service or both. Eating on Sunday poses additional challenges as my mom refuses to eat anywhere that serves only brunch.  Now that I have broken up with Nona Mia, I suggested Piazza on a recent outing, and as far I can tell it was a winner.  I split a large salad with my mom, and at $8 it is a steal as it easily could’ve worked as a four person starter.  My complaint is that it was labeled a caesar, but the dressing tasted like a nice vinaigrette.  The Sunday we visited they had a deal of buy one pizza get the second half off so I went with the fungi and the margherita for LB.  These are generously topped wood fired pizzas so they are quiet filling especially if you’ve eaten half or more of a huge salad.  The fungi was seasoned with rosemary to give it a bit of a twist, and eating so many mushroom dishes when I eat out it was nice.  The Greek wedding that my mom and brother shared looked delicious (and generously topped) too.  Much to my delight I was able to order the tiramisu for dessert unlike my first visit; it was good, and it was right at $5.  Our service was attentive, and I look forward to returning.

R Thomas Deluxe Grill

On a recent visit to Atlanta, I ate lunch at R Thomas Deluxe Grill; it was a windy and cold day so it was surprising to see several birds caged up outside along one wall near the entrance.  The interior is cramped and funky (or kitschy depending on your taste), and we had to wait queued up in a space near the kitchen.  We were sat within the enclosed patio, and it was drafty when the wind gusted and comfortable otherwise.  The vegetarian selections aren’t bad (0r exciting), and they serve all day breakfast in addition to being open 24 hours.

I decided on the lemon-herb pasta which was not a good choice for me as it was super cheesy and heavy; the portion and price were typical for any restaurant.  My grandmother ordered the veggie burger, and it was massive; however she was charged $1.50 each for the tomato and onion.  She also requested mustard which never arrived so I don’t know if that would’ve been an additional charge too.  On the whole our service was fine, and the food was okay.  On the bright side, they do validate!

Our trip to the High Art Museum to see Frieda y Diego was definitely the best part of our trip.

 

Raw kale salad

While I love kale I never thought I would want to eat it raw until I saw this recipe at Use Real Butter.  I didn’t immediately make it, but then I failed to make anything for a potluck so this salad fit the bill as we had everything aside from the almonds.  I decided to sub pepitas as they are much cheaper and still tasty.  The second time I made this I used bottled orange juice rather than fresh, and it was just fine.  The only failed version involved  lacinato kale; I love it cooked, but it was too dense and bitter for my tastes uncooked.

 

Toddler Hooded Bath Towel without the cutesy animal themes

My sewing skills leave much to be desired mostly because I’m not detail oriented or patient, and sewing seems to stress my patience.  However, I wanted some more larger hooded towels for my LB, and those at the store were a bit pricey in addition to not leaving much grow room (although I do confess that I love the cutesy animal themes).  I first got the idea to make my own here, but I need more help so I dug around on Pinterest and used this and this to create my own.  My supplies were about $10 for the bath towel, hand towel, and the thread from my stash.

I found the center of both towels on their lengthwise edges then I pinned the hand towel to the bath towel.  From there I stitched them together, and to close the hood I stitched the hand towel’s top unattached lengthwise edges together.  I didn’t cut off any of the already finished edges, but I did get rid of the tags as they seemed scratchy.

The hood is super deep and huge which LB loves to play peekaboo with, and the homemade version is much more plush than the cute duck towel she received as a gift.

 

Swiss Buttercream, you’ve broken my heart one too many times.

Spurred by memories of my honey’s delicious homemade coconut cake last year as well as Short Street Cakes’ delightful version, I caved to impulse and purchased some coconuts at the Coop a few months back.

I used Alton Brown’s cake recipe which my husband did so well with, and Smitten Kitchen’s Swiss buttercream which I had previously done so well with.  This cake is crazy labor intensive, and it is really is a really special occasion cake (unless you just happen to love working your tail off in the kitchen for hour upon hour).  My husband tried the 7 Minute Frosting provided by Alton Brown, but it was an utter disaster so my Swiss Buttercream saved the day.  However, the two attempts since my first attempt have been hideously sweet and greasy.  Maybe one day I’ll get the courage to try it again.

Gingerbread sculptures 2012

We’ve decided that visiting the Grove Park Inn’s Gingerbread Sculptures will be a nice tradition, so we sucked it up and paid the $10 parking fee so we could park really far away from the inn.  Admittedly we’re part of the reason the fee was instituted: we will not spend any money there unless forced to.  The last time we spent money there it was for a gin drink and a beer, and it set us back about $20 including a normal tip (plus that was at least five years ago).  To make it even more difficult for locals to view the pieces, they’ve restricted visitors to Monday through Thursday.  We took these changes in stride as my honey works every weekend so it was six of one and half dozen of another for one of us to take some time off work.  It seemed that many more of the pieces were missing as they were on display in New York, whereas last year I only recall the grand prize being off site.  Below are my favorites.

Apple Butter Recipe Fail

Back in the fall, LB and I went to Hickory Nut Gap Farm to get some apples and some sausage for my honey and to explore.  LB was too small to enjoy the play areas as she had just begun walking a few weeks before so the admission I paid felt steep considering it is a dollar less than the WNC Nature Center.  Plus your admission doesn’t get a discount at the store.  However, they don’t charge admission for spring or winter visits or if you just want to shop, and next fall LB will be more able to enjoy the hay bail jump and tricycle track as well as the animals.  Her favorite part was reaching into the huge apple bins and putting them in the bag.

The apples were thankfully much cheaper than at that store, but most of them were too ugly to get sold in the store so maybe they were seconds.  We purchased some pink ladies, granny smith, and winesaps.  The winesaps were terribly mushy, and I won’t be purchasing those again.  While we ate a few sliced apples, most of them went to the apple butter.

I’ve been afraid of canning, but this experience was easy; plus, how awesome is it to open your refrigerator to find homemade apple butter.  I decided to base my recipe on Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy mostly because I liked the Shakespeare reference in the recipe title.  I understand that sugar is  important in helping the ingredients gel, but I loathe oversweet apple butter so I had to reduce the sugar which meant the cooking time was mind numbingly long before I reached the desired consistency.  Next time I think I’ll also reduce the cider, and while I liked the taste there is some wiggle room on increasing the sugar.

Ooops!  I can longer find the notes for my recipe adjustments except that I started with 5lb and 5 7/8oz of whole apples which became 3lbs and 10 1/8oz after peeling and coring.  I guess I’ll do better this fall; below are pictures of the process.

Crepes sans a non stick pan

I love crepes, both savory and sweet, but I was frequently frustrated trying to make them without a non-stick pan.  I don’t like non-stick pans because they’re too high maintenance not to mention their questionable safety especially when you fail to perfectly maintain them.

With my most recent attempt, I conceded and used the non-stick pan my husband insisted on purchasing.  I tried our large cast iron skillet and our aluminum saute pan, and below is a pathetic result juxtaposed to crepes from the non-stick pan.

I began my quest for a crepe pan online, and I was irritated by how much they sell for.  Even the lower priced ones seemed too expensive (especially when you factor shipping) not to mention too large and sometimes even non-stick.  I found a 6″ cast iron pan at a kitchen box store for less than $10, and I’ve made beautiful crepes ever since (although an inch or two larger pan would be ideal).

I found my recipe on Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Alton Brown.

 

2 large eggs
1.25 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Butter or oil, for coating the pan

Mix the flour and salt.  In a large measuring cup, measure your water then whisk in the eggs and oil.  Place the crepe batter in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for one hour or up to 48 hours.  To make pouring into the pan easier I like to use my spouted bowl.

Heat your pan over medium high heat. Heat your oven to 180F and leave a cookie sheet or broiling rack in the oven to store your cooked crepes and to keep them warm until you’re ready to serve.  Add oil to coat. Pour a couple tablespoons of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook until firm enough to flip. Cook for another 10 seconds. Keep your cooked crepes warm in the oven until you are done cooking all of the batter then fill before serving.

I typically fill these with savory toppings, but they tasted great with chocolate hazelnut spread on Christmas morning.

Savannah Food

Savannah’s food left us underwhelmed.  Everything was expensive even by tourist standards.  I concede that I didn’t expect much to begin with considering I don’t eat seafood or “Southern” food.  We never thought of the eating at the mayonnaise queen’s place, and if you are ever in Savannah and think you might, try Mrs Wilkes’ Dining Room instead (the people we rented the condo from strongly encourage it).

For our first night, we ended up hungry without a clue where we wanted to eat, and we ended up at a corporate restaurant, Rocks on the River, where we parted with a disgusting sum of money for some quite mediocre fare.  My honey had the shrimp pappardelle for $20, and I had a margherita thin crust pizza along with a $9 kir royale where the creme de cassis did precious little to cover up the cheap sparkling wine.  Our server was nice and attentive, and we enjoyed the people watching as well as the access to the riverwalk for LB to burn some energy.

A recurring theme of our trip was poor timing, and our trip to PJ Thai was one of those missed stops.  912food2go saved the day by delivering Pakwan.  While I cannot recall what I ordered, I do know I enjoyed it, and we’ll definitely eat there again.  LB’s bread sampler was huge, and we ate it again the next day.  The rice was perfectly cooked and delicious, and my honey loved his saag paneer (again enough for two meals).

If we hadn’t decided to have an appetizer and drinks at Vic’s on the River, we probably could have eaten at PJ Thai.  We didn’t sit anywhere with a view of the river or much of anything, but our server was quick to get LB’s fries out as well as good to remove our finished plates.  She also entertained LB with her crumb clearing skills.  The food was expensive without being wonderful.  I went for the fried green tomatoes; they were great with the goat cheese once I freed them from the super heavy and less than delicious breading.  My honey had the oysters rockafeller, which he really enjoyed.  Two cocktails, two apps, and a plate of fries set us back $42 before tip.  Don’t let the white tablecloths and live piano player fool you, the tables are much too crowded for a romantic dinner.

Our final dining experience was a Huey’s on the River.  We enjoyed a nice riverwalk view, and our service was fine.  My pesto pasta dish reminded me of the frozen raviloi we buy when we want some cheap stuff to throw together, and my husband’s crab cake suffered from too much filling not enough crab.