Monthly Archives: November 2008

Rocky River Brewing Company

November 28, 2008 | by Ben 1


We recently visited the Rocky River Brewing Company, which used to be one of our favorite restaurants when we lived on the west side. The place has a really nice feel to it. The lighting is just dim enough to be comfortable but light enough to see your food and for kids to feel comfortable. The prevalance of hardwood and brick all around and the visibility of the brewing kettles add to the atmosphere as well.
We ordered the beer cheese soup as an appetizer. It’s one of our favorites and is rich without being too heavy and very well balanced between beer and cheese flavors.

Sarah ordered the Pierogi appetizer for her meal which, once I’d tasted it, I wished I’d gotten as well:

The pierogies were really brought to life by what tasted like a reduction sauce, and the bratwurst was excellent too.

I ordered the Pacific Beach Tacos, which were a little … continue reading

In Defense of Food

November 27, 2008 | by Ben 2


I finished reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto a few weeks ago. I definitely planned to blog on it but had no idea where to begin. The subtitle is “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” These directives are much trickier than they initially sound, hence most of the book being devoted to them.

“Eat Food” is perhaps most central, because Pollan does not consider much of what we consume today to be food. His first directive is “Don’t Eat Anything Your Great Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognize as Food,” which eliminates a huge portion of what’s in the middle of any supermarket. One’s great grandmother, he points out, might look at Go-Gurt and ask “Is it a food or toothpaste”? (148)

Another useful adage is “Shake the hand that feeds you” (160) i.e. buy from farmer’s markets or CSAs. The low quality of America’s soil (due to a focus on maximizing short-range yields) … continue reading

Crispy Cheese — an easy way to make dinner yummy

November 20, 2008 | by Sarah 2

Last night I had the opportunity to cook dinner, but I had no recipes in mind. So I came up with the following to add to some simple sauteed chicken breasts and kale.

Ingredients:

goat cheese or cream cheese approx. 4 oz
handful of sliced almonds or other kind of nuts chopped (optional)
handful of dried cranberries or other kind of dried fruit
last few crackers & crumbs or any kind of bread/cracker crumbs
olive oil 1–2 swishes around the pan

Directions:

mash up goat or cream cheese in a bowl with nuts & fruit
pre-heat olive oil in a medium fry pan
shape one spoonful of the mixture into a patty like shape, then roll it around in the cracker crumbs
repeat until all cheese mixture is gone
when olive oil is hot enough drop the cheese patties into the oil, cook for about 30 seconds then flip and cook another 30 seconds. Don’t cook too long because the cheese will start getting to soft.
… continue reading

Cheap Eats at Bar Cento

November 8, 2008 | by Ben 0

I convinced Sarah that we should go to Bar Cento tonight. An excellent meal there can easily be cheaper than eating at a mid-priced chain (e.g. Champps, Friday’s, etc.). Here’s what we ordered:

The Pizza Bianco with Cheese ($8): Super-simple, but extremely good. Fresh garlic, olive oil, sea salt and a bit of cheese on a super-crispy but still chewy crust.

Pommes Frites w/ Belgian Mayonaisse ($7): Fresh cut thick fries with three different flavored mayos and ketchup. Jonathan loved these. The waiter pointed out that these are a better bet than the French Fries ($5), as you get a double portion plus mayo for only $2 more.

Mushrooms ($5): Local mushrooms sauteed in a very flavorful combination of oil and herbs.

On our waiter’s recommendation, I had a New Holland Cabin Fever Brown Ale ($6), which was very thick, flavorful and almost stout-like. It went well with everything.

For dessert we split the Chocolate Ganache Cake ($5), which looked … continue reading

Pulled Pork Enchiladas

November 1, 2008 | by Ben 0

I made Steve Raichlen’s Pulled Pork last weekend and, even serving six adults, had a lot of leftovers. So I decided to make some pulled pork enchiladas:

The smoky flavor of the pork somehow came through even more strongly in the enchiladas than in the sandwiches we had over the weekend, perhaps because of the cheese counterpoint. They came out really good.

I used Mark Bittman’s enchilada sauce from (ironically) How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. While you can get it canned, it’s much better if you make it yourself (in this case, using Spicehound’s dried Ancho chillies). Another tip (from Bittman again) is to lightly fry the corn tortillas in oil to soften them before filling.

Once you have your sauce and filling ready, these are pretty easy to make. Layer some sauce on the bottom, fry the tortillas, fill them with cheese (and whatever else), and top with more sauce … continue reading