Mini Blueberry Scones
At no shock to anyone I once again found myself crying at cruising altitude. This month over at Yes and Yes I review Jojo Moyes' Me Before You. A wonderfully gut wrenching story about a quadriplegic and his caregiver. To get myself through it I had to binge eat some mini blueberry scones. And drink lots of coffee.
Let me know if you enjoy it! And if you think I should venture to read the sequel.
Check out my review here!
Homemade Roast Beef Sandwiches
It's book club time again! Head on over to Yes and Yes to check out my review of Tyler Oakley's Binge while binging on Homemade Arby's Style Roast Beef Sandwiches! Learn how Tyler became the man he is today. Which involved a short stint at Arby's, totaling multiple cars, meeting Michelle Obama, starring on Amazing Race. Check out the article and recipe here! Also see his response to my desperate tweet...
BIg Little Lies Cocktail
It's Yes and Yes Book Club time again! This month I read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and drink Fizzy Pink Cocktails. This perfect for the beach book takes us deep inside the crazy lives of suburban Australian families with secrets to keep and cocktails to down.
Head over to Yes and Yes here to read my review and get the recipe!
If you have any suggestions on new Summer cocktails please share below!
This past week I had the pleasure of getting together with my awesome friend Sarah from yesandyes.org. If you are a regular reader of this golden nugget of goodness (my blog of course) you SHOULDN'T hesitate to visit hers. She's one up on the world.
A few months ago she raved about this Vietnamese restaurant that I immediately forgot the name to. And once an inexcusable amount of time went by that I could do nothing but sheepishly ask her again what it was I just told her to meet me there for dinner so I could see it through her eyes.
Trieu Chau is located in what I consider Eastern Wisconsin but I think is technically South Frogtown of the eastern wood of St Paul. Look for the fawn next to the lamp and ask for Aslan. He'll set you up. It's really at 500 University Ave West. Right on the soon to be running Green Line of the light rail system or the present day 16 bus line.
The joint is small and pretty darn cute. Handful of tables and booths. Ever attentive staff. In fact Sarah was talked to like a true regular. Something I LOVE when going to a restaurant.
Not one to normally nosh down on Vietnamese I followed Sarah's lead and enjoyed the Mock Duck with Mixed Vegetables. It was a spicy number with a bowl of rice the size of right moob (it is always been bigger than the left, why?). We unhinged jaws and took down our meal between a think tank like exchange of cool crap we've been up to these past few months. Her party attendance card was more full than mine, but I had tattooed little people stapling dolla bills to humans on mine.
Very reasonably priced, I tossed a $20 their way for both plates and got some change back.
While there the place kept a steady pace of people coming in and I vowed to venture back as soon as the weather is more cuffed biking pants and less chinchilla lined man panties.
Take a bus, take a train (when they finish it), take your darn car. But certainly try out Trieu Chau and let us know what you think!
p.s. Trieu Chau has no internet homebase. but you have the name of the joint. I gave you the address and you have a smartphone. Use all that and you will be fine.
Some of you may recall that last December I partnered with Sarah over at yesandyes.org to help her knock bread baking off her annual bucket list. Last week I had the pleasure of hosting Sarah in my home while we attempted to make Turkish Delight.
What's that you ask?
Well for the uncool kids who never got to read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or watch the bitchin' 1979 cartoon version that knocks all other versions out of the water...turkish delight is the confection that the evil White Witch uses to seal the deal with Edmund to sell out his siblings. Edmund has serious middle sibling issues. Trust me, if I was in Edmunds place I would have held out for a Whatchamacallit. Those candy bars are worth saying "sayonara" to the sibs for.
Long story short. Sarah showed up. I was mildly unprepared. And let's face it, the two of us have way too much to talk about to pay attention to anything as important as boiling sugar (namely men and crap we do with them). Turkish Delight was a failure. Please see Sarah's take on the process here.
However...I tried again! And it was a success! At least visually. I have yet to actually bite into them. And what did I do different this time? Well folks there is this thing called technology. And long ago we didn't have it. We used to take temperatures of boiling things with mercury thermometers. Then we decided that mercury was a bad thing (even though we used to roll it around in our hands for fun). After that we smartened up to non mercury thermometers. And most recently in our 21st century digital thermometers have taken over. Initially I thought "holy crap! now I can set it and forget it!" I know all you rockin' to the oldies folks remember that classic.
But sadly you cannot just "set it and forget it". While Sarah and I caught up on all the juicy details of our sordid lives I failed to notice the new fancy e-lec-tron-ic thermometer was actually set to CELSIUS. That damned temperature rating from all other countries. So while I thought we were taking our sweet time getting to the right temperature, in reality, I was deep frying our sugar. Lesson learned.
I promise to follow up with pictures of the "good" turkish delight when I get around to cutting into them. Until then please live with wild abandon in your own kitchens and dig out your grandma's candy thermometer.
Benjamin Plante is a North Carolina based food blogger with recipes and food photography for the emotional eater in all of us.
Benjamin Plante
info@benjaminplante.com
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