Golden Road Brewing

On Memorial Day last, Katie and I remembered it was our Four Year anniversary since we started going out. In celebration we decided to try out a new restaurant, Golden Road Brewing.

The best way to describe their menu, is Gastropub. Many different eclectic dishes (including the Banh Mi which I got) that were anchored with some good ol' American favorites like the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast that Katie got (Hands down favorite of the evening). We wanted to get the soft pretzel, but they had just run out when we ordered so we instead went with the Wild Mushroom Risotto Fritters with Vegan Pimento Cheese, which I can only describe as 'meh'. Not much taste to these, but the cheese dip was pretty tasty.

They have a pretty good selection of rotating house brewed beers as well as a large rotating menu of other local brews. I got the Get Up Offa That Brown, another resounding 'feh'. I think it would've been much better with a burger. Katie chose the Golden Road Berliner Weisse, with Woodruff syrup and, well, let's just say she won the night in terms of her choices. Clean taste, slightly bitter, with a hint of vanilla.

Katie and I toasting each other (via Instagram)

Only complaint is the service is a little wonky. You order everything at the bar. The "server(?)" who helped us was very friendly and happy to help us make our selections. You're given a flashy-pager thing like you'd get at an Olive Garden waiting for your table, and when it goes off, you go pick up your food at the counter. When I went, no one was there to help you, you just grabbed your food and left. This seemed to work okay when we went, but I hope they have a better system for busier nights.

All in all, we loved it and will be back. We'll probably bring all visitors and even the locals when we can. Great food, good beers, atmosphere, and prices!

Until next time. Love and PEACE!

Strawberry and Golden Raspberry Pancakes and Bacon

Quick post this morning.

Katie and I have been looking for a decent substitute to Gene's Sausage Shop back in Chicago. I went searching on Yelp this morning and found Handy Market of Burbank.

As a market, I'm not overly fond of it. It's not the cheapest and there's not a giant selection of organic or natural products outside of the butcher/deli and produce. Their meat selection isn't quite as large as Gene's but it all looked great.

We got their thick cut bacon today and Katie and I practically died. This may be the best bacon I've had in my life. Perfectly crisp, fatty but not terribly so, and just salty enough. If you're in the Burbank area, I highly suggest dropping in and getting some for your weekend brunch or breakfast.

I don't want to undersell the pancakes, they were also good, I used fresh strawberries and golden raspberries that I got from the Burbank Farmer's Market. I'm just not sure anything can stand in comparison to that bacon.

They also cook BBQ all Saturday and sell it on a truck just outside of the shop. On a future Saturday I can see stopping for that BBQ with maybe pick up some of their craft beer's. Sound good to anyone else?

Spinach-Filled Gnocchi Rolls with Sweet Butter and Basil

So I made this recipe, probably about 6+ months ago. I really loved it and I've been thinking about making again sometime soon. What better time to finally get around to posting it!

Ho boy. So Katie and I had been receiving bags upon bags of potatoes through our CSA Angelic Organics. I hit the cook books to find some recipes. Katie's mom leant us a book last summer called Smith & Hawkins: Gardners' Community Cookbook. This book isn't necessarily the best organized for my mind, but it comes with a huge amount of great, fresh recipes.

Spinach and Camembert-Filled Gnocchi Rolls with Sweet Butter and Basil

I was really skeptical about making this recipe at first. I've never made my own pasta before, but the recipe made it sound fairly simple so I gave it a shot.

All in all, it was simple to make this recipe, but it was also time consuming. I think it took me nearly half a day to make and cook the gnocchi. 

The sweet butter with basil was the perfect sauce to go with the gnocchi as well. It was perfectly light and the sweetness really worked well with the camembert cheese.

So, if you've got a day to kill and want to make a great late spring/early summer dish, I'll figure out a way to share it with you, just let me know!

That's all for now.

Love and PEACE!

The recipe made four rolls. One was more then enough per person.

Spinach-Artichoke Ravioli-Lasagna

Wow. So the last time I posted was about mine and Katie's trip to LA from nearly a year ago to this day.

This may come as a shock to many of you, but I tend to be a little lazy. About the weirdest things too. Yeah I'll MAKE the food, but to write maybe a few hundred words, take a couple pictures and form an opinion? Too much can't be bothered.

Anyway, tonight's recipe was courtesy of the Food Network. Rachel Ray's Spinach-Artichoke Ravioli-Lasagna.

As usual, the master of lighting strikes again. End result wasn't quite this yellow.

The recipe is as delicious as it sounds (and more delicious then the picture makes it appear).

Rachel does some fun things like adding lemon zest and nutmeg to your ricotta cheese and it offers a subtle taste that works well with the rest of the ingredients. I wish I would've let it bake maybe a little longer, I like my lasagna to have a little crust to it.

Overall, tastes great and it's easy to make. Unless you're having/going to a dinner party and are strapped for time, I'd suggest avoiding the packaged ravioli. It's incredibly expensive. If/when I make this recipe again I'll probably use some fresh mushrooms and other vegetables and just use traditional lasagna noodles.

See y'all next time! Hopefully not a year from now...

Love and PEACE!

Los Angeles Back Logs

Hello again friends,

So about 2 months ago, Katie and I took the opportunity to head on out to Los Angeles, and while we were out there, we found some great restaurants for me to review and share with you just in case you're ever in the area.

I'm gonna start off this series with the only restaurant I really wanted to try while we were out there, Lucifer's Pizza. 

One of the luxuries of working for Groupon is that my job is to check the quality of businesses all day, and Lucifer's Pizza was one I stumbled upon awhile ago and thought it looked amazing.

Our amazing host, Melissa Pryor, Katie, and I decided to check out some neighborhoods one morning, and Melissa insisted that we do a little bit of hiking while we were in the city. Katie and I are big fan's of nature but normally don't get much of an opportunity to get into it living and working in Chicago, so we happily accepted this invitation.

Well, after an awesome morning of spying on more hipsters in one area then I've ever seen in my life, we took a long hike up a small mountain (not really a mountain) to the Griffith Observatory

After our successful hike we went over to Lucifer's.

Initially I was taken aback at how small this place was, it seems like mostly a carry-out/delivery operation. There were enough to seat maybe 10 people on the inside. 

Now, I guess Lucifer's gets it's namesake from the amount of chili they put in your sauce, anywhere from zero to blazing, but I personally loved this place for the bold choices of pizza toppings. Katie got the Caeser's Palace (chicken, caramelized onions, olives, anchovies, bacon, romaine & parmesan cheese), and it was pretty delicious. This was where I found out, however, that I'm not a big fan of anchovies, they had large chunks of it on the pizza, and I wasn't a fan of the flavor. I got the Greek Lamb and Rosemary (lamb, caramelized onions, feta, kalamata olives, rosemary, garlic, lemon pepper & chopped parsley) which was pretty amazing aside from the kalamata olives placed on top which were just too salty.

All in all, I'd recommend this place to anybody who loves pizza and likes to experiment with toppings like I do. Also, those of you who need it, they are gluten and vegan friendly!

Welp, until next time friends.

Love and Peace!

Fish Tacos w/ Chipotle Cream

Hello again dear friends.

So far I've failed at updating this blog regularly. But you can't have irregular without regular, amiright? Huh? Anyone?

Anyway...so today's entry is Fish Tacos with Chipotle Cream from mine and Katie's favorite cookbook Ellie Kreiger's Food You Crave. So far every recipe out of there has been a winner and today's entry was no exception.

So now that Summer has finally graced us with its presence, Katie and I look to lighter foods. Who wants to be weighed down by a ton of grease and then go to the beach? Lately I've been craving seafood, which is incredibly odd for me, but at the same time I really wanted some Texmex. Solution? Fish tacos.

 I admit, I was a bit nervous about this dish. Until this recipe I've never cooked fish before. Turns out fish, well halibut anyway, is by far one of the simplest things I've ever had the pleasure of cooking. Besides having to let the fish marinate for at least 20 minutes, the total prep time for this meal was probably about 5 minutes. Cook time was 6 minutes per cut, during which time I spent prepping the lettuce, cilantro, and corn.

I'd say the stand out winner of this recipe though is the Chipotle Cream. Super simple to make, way healthier then sour cream, and it comes with a little kick. Just some 0% Greek yogurt, a little mayonnaise and some chipotle powder. Ellie originally calls for canned chipotle in adobo. Be aware, that when Ellie thinks spicy, she means she's trying to melt your eyes. This coming from a guy who likes spicy foods!

Paired with a little corn on the cob, maybe a Corona on the back porch of a nice summer evening could be called heaven in some cultures.

That's all for now. Thanks for checkin' in tiny but devoted audience!

Love and PEACE!

Chicken Lime Soft Tacos/Pear and Ginger Crumble

Hello dear friends and readers.

It's been awhile, ever since Katie and I went out to LA I've been super busy and have not had the time to do any cooking. Now that things are calming down I've committed to joining allrecipes.com.  It's a great resource to find a recipe to match whatever mood you're in.

Today's installment is Chicken Lime Soft Tacos.

Here's a taco as constructed by my beautiful girlfriend.

I don't know if you know this, but Katie and I are huge fans of Mexican food. This recipe was exceptionally easy to make. It called for 50 minutes total prep/cooking time, but can easily be done in about a half hour. The chicken ended up extremely flavorful, and although we're used to smothering our tacos in sour cream, these tasted just as good without.

I also made Pear/Ginger Crumble for Dessert. I am not normally a fan of pear, but when it's smothered in sugar and lemon juice and beneath a ton of brown sugar and oats I was in love.

Ala Mode!!

This came from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger. I'm not gonna lie, this lady often looks straight up crazy, and if she ever mentions that a recipe has a little spice, she's lying! She's trying to give you an ulcer. What she does do right is make healthy, delicious recipes. This was no exception. Katie was even surprised to hear that there was absolutely no butter in this amazing dish.

So anyway, now that my life is slowing down again, I hope to be cooking more. I also have a plethora of restaurant reviews coming up soon! So stay tuned to this blog station.

Love and peace!