Toast in Ferndale

For the sake of posting something, I'm going to gush about my breakfast yesterday.

It was so tasty, I felt like tap dancing and flipping the table over.

I went to Toast in Ferndale, with Jimmy, my uncle Jeff, and my lovely cousin Kira. I had heard wonderful things about Toast, but had never been. Now I want to go every weekend until I try everything.

Jimmy had the Spicy Cali omelette, which has tomatoes, herbs, guacamole, salsa, and pepperjack cheese. He chose home fries and the marbled rye toast. I only stole a bite of the toast, which I assume is homemade. It was heavenly. Lots of flavor, but it wasn't heavy. MmmMM! Kira got the Greek omelette, which had spinach, kalamata olives, tomatoes, pinenuts and feta. Brilliant! I'm so used to seeing the standard coney island Greek omelette; gyro meat, tomatoes, onion, feta, side of tzatziki. Toast raises the bar a few notches with their version.

I have a proven method of testing the worth of a breakfast dining establishment. Eggs benedict, or biscuits and gravy. The restaurant must make either (or both), and make it well! Unfortunately for me, Toast has both items on their menu. It was an extremely tough, taxing, emotional decision.

....Not really. I'll go back next week and get biscuits and gravy.

Uncle Jeff and I ordered essentially the same thing. Mine was traditional eggs benedict, he got the "sausage benny", which is sausage instead of Canadian bacon.

And the heavens opened up, and rained hollandaise. What a good time! What a party in my mouth! Their ham was exceptional, the pig must have eaten brown sugar and love. It was served on pieces of baguette that weren't too crusty, and a delightful switch from an English muffin. The eggs were poached just right, with a garnish of green onions, they added a perfect zip. Normally, they also put tomatoes on their eggs benedict, but I'm anti-tomato. Save your gripes, I've heard it all, I just don't like 'em. Get over it.

I chose the southern fried cheese grits as my side. What a good choice. A crispy crust of cheese, with creamy grits hiding underneath. I don't know how they do it, but it's magic.

I can't stop thinking of nice things to say, but I've got to end this somewhere. I recommend to go check out Toast yourself! You could tell them Cait sent you, but they'd probably look at you like you're crazy!

Tempt your taste buds, their menus are online:
Toast

Quick Breakfast

Fun fact: I don't really like cereal. Breakfast is kind of a struggle for me, unless I have time for an omelette, hashbrowns, coffee, brunch type stuff. This meal is like brunch squeezed down to two items. Sweet potato fries with maple syrup to dip, and a pineapple-berry smoothie!

Sweet Potato Fries:

1-2 sweet potatoe(s), cut into sticks
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees F, spread sweet potatoes onto cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil over top, spread around to make sure the potatoes are coated. Salt and pepper evenly. Bake 20 minutes, flip the fries over, bake another 10 minutes. Bam! Nice, roasty potatoes. Serve with maple syrup for breakfast. Ketchup or mayo for a savory sauce!

P.S. Trader Joe's has sweet potato spears, all cut and packaged for you. That's totally what I used.

Pineapple-Berry Smoothie

1/2 cup frozen pineapple tidbits
1/2 cup mixed berries (my mix was raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)
1/2 cup juice of choice (I used a Bolthouse Farms juice, 50/50 berries and veggies)
1/2 cup milk of choice (I used soy)

Put ingredients in a robot culinaire or blender, blend! I like my smoothies thick, so you may want to add more liquid. My measurements are also guesstimations; measuring means more things I need to wash. Wompwomp.

I've found using frozen fruit is the easiest way to make smoothies. Using fresh fruit, ice, milk and yogurt tends to be a drag. The ice cubes never break up evenly, it gets watery. Yuck! I highly recommend Trader Joe's frozen fruit selection.

Off to work!

Cait

Salsa!

I've been on a salsa kick this week. My mom appeared to be a little concerned, "But didn't you make salsa yesterday?", I told her, "Cool it! There's some salsa coming your way."

I think she was just worried I'd forget to share.

Three salsas. One similar to "Jack's Special" by Garden Fresh, another similar to Manuel's Taco Hut hot sauce, and a jalapeno salsa mimicking one from a market in Lansing. They're super easy to put together, just bust out your robot culinaire (that's a food processor) and let it do all of the work. No robot culinaire? Use a blender! No blender? Use a rock and a hard place! Which...will take some elbow grease.

The texture of most of my salsas is pretty thin, which could be considered more of a "restaurant" style. I just happen to prefer this. If you like chunkier, chop your ingredients rough, and pulse sparingly in the processor. The only sauce here that's supposed to be very thin is "Manuel" salsa, which is more of a taco sauce, for those that have not been blessed by a visit to Manuel's Taco Hut.

Also, please use gloves while chopping your jalapenos. One little pepper might not get you, but do 5 or so, and the spice burns will set in. It is the opposite of fun. The key to controlling heat with jalapenos are the seeds inside. If you want a mild heat, remove the seeds. If you like to set your face on fire, keep 'em in! I seeded most of mine, but that is completely optional.

Fresh Salsa
1 large can whole tomatoes (I use San Marzano), drained, juice reserved
1/2 onion, diced (I used a sweet yellow)
2-3 green onions, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded, minced
2-3 garlic gloves, minced
1 large handful cilantro
Juice of one large lime
Sea Salt
Cumin
Optional: Roasted garlic cloves, added with the onions, jalapenos and garlic.

Pulse onions, jalapenos and garlic 4-5 times in robot culinaire, until very fine. Add drained tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice. Add a pinch or two of ground cumin. Salt is optional, I added just a few shakes. Pulse until tomatoes and cilantro are your desired texture. Some of the reserved tomato juice can be added to make the salsa thinner, I added just a few tablespoons to mine.

Manuel's Hot Sauce


Down in Allen Park, Michigan, there is a super little Mexican restaurant called Manuel's Taco Hut. My whole family is in love with the place; cheesy, greasy, kitschy...it's just great. Their salsas are very thin, and are kept out on the table in maple syrup dispensers. Everyone gets their own little ramekin to pour salsa into, and can make their own mix of mild and hot. My riff on their recipe is my ideal mix between the mild and hot sauces.

1 large can whole tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
1/2 large onion
1 jalapeno, chopped, seeds in
1 can green chiles
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons Sriracha
Red pepper seeds
Garlic powder
Salt

Pulse the onion, jalapeno and chiles until ultra fine. Add drained tomatoes and tomato paste, pulse the heck out of it. Add sriracha sauce and some of the tomato juice if it needs to be thinned. Once again, I added just a few shakes of salt, about 6-7 shakes of garlic powder, and about a scant tablespoon of red pepper. The goal is to see the seeds in the sauce.

Jalapeno Salsa
4-5 jalapenos, seeded, chopped
1/2 onion, diced
2-3 green onions, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 roasted garlic cloves
1 roasted Poblano pepper, skin removed and chopped
1 Anaheim chile, seeded, chopped
A handful of cilantro
1-2 teaspoons sugar or agave syrup
Juice of one lime
A pinch of ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste

Add everything except salt and pepper to the robot culinaire. Pulse with reckless abandon until a nice, minced consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Honestly, I would have preferred to have kept the seeds in one or two of the jalapenos, but I was scared it would be a face-melting mistake. Next time I will, because this batch came out very mild.

That's all for now! Give making salsa a try, it's more fun than a box of hammers!

Cait

Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Today I made soft, delicious cheesecake bars. I was perusing Bake at 350 the other day, and Jimmy peeked over my shoulder and noticed the recipe for them.

Jimmy freaks out about anything cheesecake. Cheesecake pancakes, cheesecake ice cream, cheesecake cheesecake, you get the picture. So he twisted my arm into making these. Sigh, what a burden!

Of course, the recipe calls for chocolate wafer cookies, which I've never been able to find. I've always wanted to make an icebox cake, but have never come across the elusive chocolate wafer cookie. So I scraped the fluff'n'stuff out of Oreos! Another option would have been buying an Oreo pie crust and crushing it. This was more fun, however.

I used reduced fat cream cheese as well as sour cream, and it only calls for one whole egg and an egg white. There's enough chocolate flavor, and a hint of espresso, which makes it rich enough.

Have I mentioned that my egg dish is super cute? Well, it is! Thanks Jimmy!

Back to the chocolate wafer cookies...how in the heck is it that a store like Meijer doesn't have such a simple item?! Every time I shop there, which isn't often, I'm disappointed. For being a huge store, they always seem to not have items I'm looking for. One time, I couldn't find Velveeta! VELVEETA!! I thought it was an American institution that your average grocery store had stockpiles of! Neigh...

By the way, Velveeta doesn't make the best queso dip. I had to try, but it turns out I make a way better one with a variety of real cheese! Whodathunk, cheese tastes better than orange melted plastic!

I ran out of daylight for the photo of the finished product, so it may look a little off. I assure you it's nice and light and tasty! The recipe is here if you'd like to make your own!

Next up, adventures with salsa!

-Cait

Hello, hello!

Hello blogworld!

This is my first post. Later today I'm going to post my first cooking adventure, complete with pictures and a recipe. Oh boy!!

New things are exciting,
Cait