by TT Jr. on May 14th, 2012 | Recipes, Spreads & Sauces
I love bagels. I just love them, specifically toasted. And with cream cheese. They are so delicious when they are still hot and the cream cheese starts to melt on them. My favorite flavor is salt bagels, and they are delicious with plain cream cheese, but sometimes that gets a little boring. So, I decided to make a vegetable cream cheese to see how it tasted with my mom's yummy salt bagels. It tasted like heaven on a hot bagel. The sweet crunchy carrots with the tangy, slightly spicy chives against the salty, hot, soft, crunchy bagel is incredible.
A
by TT on April 26th, 2012 | Recipes, Spreads & Sauces
In an attempt to broaden my 14 year old's seafood palate, I decided to cook tuna last week. Unfortunately, the fish counter that I visited had none available, so I went with her current favorite fish, salmon, and jumbo shrimp. Shrimp is a type of seafood that she doesn't like, but the rest of us do. I figured if I got her to try it again, it may start to be a seafood item that she likes. She adores coconut, so I thought some
coconut shrimp might do the trick.
Apparently, the lure of a coconut coating isn't enough
by TT on March 15th, 2012 | Spreads & Sauces
I know I've written about it many times, but I thoroughly adore Tapas Mondays. Even though it means not eating dinner until after 9:00, it is such a wonderful way to start the workweek. The kids are in bed, working on homework, or entertaining themselves on a different floor of the house. The dining room is lit by candles, and my husband and I sit down to a delicious dinner and some prosecco.
Many of these nights involve a fair amount of cooking. While the kids eat their dinner, I am working on that night's menu. However, sometimes there are
by TT on April 30th, 2010 | Recipes, Spreads & Sauces
It's April vacation week in our state, so the kids have had a relaxing week. With no school there also has been no gymnastics, no track practice, no conditioning sessions, no dinner has to be served at an exact time to meet our schedules' needs. Of course, that doesn't mean that it was a quiet week here. When you have a teen and almost teen in your house, time off from school equals time spent with friends. So, for three of the four weeknights there were sleepovers either at our house, a friend's house, or both.
On the fourth night, in
by TT on April 28th, 2010 | Equipment Reviews
Most mornings I am a creature of habit. Without the aid of an alarm, I am awake at 6:00. By 6:15 I am starting that day's workout. Some time after cooling down, I make my breakfast. Typically, this breakfast is an egg white wrap or a fruit smoothie. The egg white wrap never was a problem; cook a few eggs in the skillet, throw them in a wrap, and add some spinach or veggie sausage and cheese, and breakfast is ready. The smoothie, however, was a bit of a problem.
I've owned a few blenders, and all of them have
by TT on April 26th, 2010 | Restaurant News
I had an interview scheduled with
Ed Aloise last Monday at 10:00 a.m. Ed is the co-owner and restaurant manager of
Republic in Manchester, New Hampshire. I arrived at the designated time and was informed that Ed was not there but would return shortly. My initial impression was that perhaps he had forgotten the interview. However, after a few moments waiting, I received a phone call from Ed; he hadn't forgotten. However, his restaurant had had a greater crowd than anticipated over the weekend. Therefore, he was trying to restock before Monday's lunch diners arrived.
When Ed arrived a
by TT on April 21st, 2010 | Main Dishes, Recipes
One of the great things about having access to a grocery store with a fabulous butcher is the amazing variety of meats we can purchase. When we first visited this grocery store, we were excited to see sections for lamb and veal, each of which were as big as the chicken section in a typical store. With a department this big and only two freezers in which to store our purchases, we experimented with new cuts, seasonings, and meats in each shopping expedition.
The variety of sausages available there is just as amazing as the rest of the butcher department. They
