Taste Albany, NY

One of the things I have been hoping to do with this blog, in addition to my recipes and cooking is some reviews of restaurants both local and when I travel.
Taste, in Albany is on beaver st and was a little hard to find right off pearl street. I recommend the valet parking, we went on a Saturday night and it is around the corner from the times union center so parking is difficult.
The inside was beautiful, very clean, and the service was wonderful. We had a very attentive waiter who was very knowledgeable about the menu which is always good. They have a great seasonal menu and I did have s living social deal which got me a $50 voucher for $25!
I wish I could get the photos into the proper order but as tapas we had the cowboy tempura (photo 4) and the duck confit cannelloni (photo 2). Both were very good and full of flavor. The only downside of the tempura was that it did not come with chopsticks which made it a little hard to eat. The sauce on the side was a lemon aioli. I wish I had more of that, though they brought some out with the house bread, which was warm and fresh, yum! The duck confit cannelloni was also good. It was paired with a blueberry sticky rice. The blueberry mixture was quite good with the duck, but the sticky rice just did not have the right consistency. The overall bite was very good though.
Now on to the main courses! We had the pan seared diver scallops with pork belly croutons. (photo 1) Who knew such a thing existed but they were like crunchy little bits of heaven.... If I could have pork belly croutons all the time I would eat salads 24/7! The scallops had an amazing buttery texture and were cooked perfectly. And the braised romaine hearts were a great texture combination.
Our other entree was charred swordfish and mussels over angel hair pasta with lobster butter. It was very good, though not as good as the scallops. The mussels were much better than the swordfish, good not great. The dish itself just didn't tie together very well.
Overall taste was a wonderful experience and I hope you all support our local Albany restaurants. You can visit them at http://www.tastealbany.com/

Indie garage sale

So Designs by Maeve was at our second official craft fair! We were at the indie garage sale in Utica NY. It was a great success and I wanted to post a photo of my booth for my readers. Can't wait for my next show, I'll keep you posted.

Why did I not think of this?!?

So I just found out burger king is testing a bacon sundae, with my passion for bacon and love of the salty/sweet palate I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Next time I pick up some awesome bacon from oscars smokehouse in warrensburg,NY I will be trying this!

Drunken strawberries

So here is the easy recipe for the strawberry part of my drunken shortcake listen below. I like to do a layer of strawberries on top and in between the layers of cake.

Go out and buy a bottle white wine, I prefer Glenora Cayuga white which is a NYS finger lakes region wine and probably my favorite wine. I always stock up on Glenora wines when I go to the Finger Lakes wine festival.
Then slice up some strawberries, I do thin slices so it doesn't disrupt the layers of the cake. And put them all in a bowl, for two layers of strawberries on 9" round cakes I used 2 quarts of strawberries. Then I pour the wine over the strawberries and mix in a 1/2 cup of granulated sugar. Mix them with a spoon, coating the berries with sugar and wine.
Then you let them soak overnight in the fridge. Super easy! Drain the berries and put them on your cake. And don't toss out all that juice from the wine and berries!!! Trust me it tastes delicious, just drink it on moderation since it can sneak up on you.

Drunken strawberry shortcake!

Had Easter dinner with mom and dad this year and for once I didn't have to cook. I did insist on baking cake for dessert, there was only the 3 of us but it was delicious. I was lazy do I just used cake mix but here is the recipe for my fluffy cream cheese frosting. I've gotten requests and passed the recipe on so I thought I would post it all here. I promise it's a super easy and yummy alternative to sweet frostings. Its the same frosting I used on my lemon cake as well.

Ingredients

1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 cups cool whip (original not generic)

All you do is soften the cream cheese, the easiest way is to leave it in the foil and put it on top of the stove while you bake the cake. Then you whip the cream cheese and sugar together in a food processor or electric mixer.
Then mix in the 2 cups of cool whip and put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Then you just go to town and frost the cake!
One more quick tip the edging I did was done just using a plastic bag with the corner cut off!

Yum cake!

Last week was another birthday so I made a cake for dinner. 3 layers of white cake with lemon filling and fluffy cream frosting. Enjoy the photos!