sörenberg bahnen

Ralph’s Great Divide has been on the list for-EVER, so the other day I was downtown and met my friend @wibia for lunch over there. Neither of us had been before. It’s certainly the feel of a bar inside, although with a fresh coat of paint outside anyhow. Our server was friendly and attentive, although it took awhile to get our food once we ordered. Everyone said I needed to try the hot pot aug for sure, so I went with a combo of that with a half a chicken salad sandwich ($6.74)(for those of you who followed the great chicken salad debate on twitter the other day, this one is fruit-free --when I asked what was in it, she said, “there’s none of that fruit or nut stuff in there.”  Anyhow, the “hot pot aug” is a potato soup that is topped with croutons and cheese and broiled.  There are some pieces of potato in the soup, and the whole experience is a chunky one overall, but the soup was pretty tasty. I really liked the bites with croutons in it. In the cup that I had, the cheese...

Since we’re heading into rich and creamy sauce season, I thought I’d use a nice hunk of Gorgonzola as an excuse to post a tutorial for a classic “cream sauce.”  Unlike what’s passed off as the real stuff at casual dining chains, a true cream sauce contains nothing but heavy cream, and is on another level when it comes to taste and texture. A regular diet of cream sauce isn’t recommended, but once in a while, it’s nice to take a break from the old 2%, and the technique is dead simple. Simmer cream in a saucepan until it reduces and thickens slightly, flavor it however, and toss in some hot (hopefully stuffed) pasta. Done and done. I went with a fairly mild, crumbly Gorgonzola this time, but no matter which you choose, be careful not to “cook” the cheese. You just want to stir it in on low, until it’s almost gone, and then turn off the heat. Otherwise the cheese will “break,” and you’ll have a greasy mess. Since my mini-ravioli delivery system featured a squash filling, I decided to ...

According to Twitter, today is National Chocolate Day, and to celebrate I'm re-posting one of my all-time favorite ways to enjoy this ancient pleasure, the Savory Chocolate Sea Salt Crostini . You can read the original post here , but to summarize, these are awesome. Enjoy!

I am a "list maker" and one of the lists I thoroughly enjoy making is my holiday baking list. From October through early December, I pour over my old tried and true recipes then surf the web for new recipes I want to try. I make a ton of cookies for Christmas, so I'm always on the hunt for a new one to try. Below are three great Christmas cookie recipes; I hope you and  your family enjoy them. click on the link under the photo for the recipe; Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies   These are made with a spritz type dough that is baked in a mini muffin pan and when they come out of the oven and are still piping hot, you press a FROZEN mini-Reece cup into the cookie; they are wonderful and look very pretty on any cookie tray.    Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies Spritz cookies are traditional at Christmas, however cream cheese spritz cookies are even better!! They are similar to a shortbread cookie in overall taste, however, they are light as a feather and crispy. You c...

We all know there’s really no such thing as a truly frightening Halloween treat, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give our guests a few moments of pause, as they process the sight of these fun, fang-filled apples staring up at them. Well, actually those are the bloody eyeball truffles staring up at them, but you get the idea.  I kind of like the minimalist look here, but there are dozens of ways you could up the grossness factor with these. Maybe some fancy fruit gummy worms, or rice pudding “maggots?" It’s been a while since we posted a “scary” Halloween treat, and since most tend to be sugar bombs, I thought it’d be nice to share something a little healthier. I’m assuming there will be no shortage of candy around. Enjoy!

You have to love it when the food trucks come to where you’re going to be—such was the case the other day when several of them came to our kids’ school bonfire.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to try Big Ron’s Bistro truck—one that I hadn’t really heard much about. They have a pretty wide menu, and the kids were happy with a hotdog and a chicken and cheese quesadilla (neither of which did I get a bite of before they ran off with their friends) but hubby and I went with the sandwiches, which seem to be the specialty of the place. They are all served on Texas toast-style bread that is grilled with garlic butter. I already liked it when I saw that theme running through. I chose the California chicken club ($8), which was a marinated and seasoned chicken breast with fresh spinach, tomato, and avocado and a healthy smear of red pepper pesto mayo. Oh, and did I mention, PICKLED RED ONIONS? Only one of my favorite things. Right up there with avocado. This sandwich was made for me—an...

I'm about to post a Halloween treat that's so scary, I actually had to pixelate the photo! Stay tuned...if you dare.

This time of year pomegranates make their annual appearance in produce aisles, and despite being beautiful, delicious, and nutritious, many shoppers avoid them because they simply don’t know how to work with the colorful, but mysterious fruit. This video shows a great method for harvesting all those juicy seeds without any mess. By the way, the individual kernels are water-proof, so don't worry about them losing any flavor in the bowl. Enjoy!

This is one of those wonderfully versatile recipes that is just as good with apple filling, as it is with cherry filling, or blueberry; whatever your family likes the best. The crumb crust/topping goes together in just a couple minutes with the food processor and if you can wait long enough for the bars to cool down to room temperature, they cut beautifully. We (obviously) couldn't wait that long (in the photo below). CRUMB CRUST/TOPPING 3 cups all purpose flour 1 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup COLD butter (cubed) 1 egg, beaten Put the flour, sugar, baking powder salt and cubed butter into the food processor and pulse until well mixed.  If you don't have a food processor, do it with a pastry cutter and work it until the butter is well mixed. Add egg and mix well (it will look like coarse sand). Press HALF of this mixture into a greased 9" x 13" baking dish.  Top with fruit filling and top with the other ...

I hadn’t been to Northside Kitchenette in awhile, so when my two favorite Pilates instructors wanted to meet there for lunch, it sounded like a good idea. I had been in a phase of craving some greens, so I liked that they have a half sandwich/half salad combo. I also like that they make their dressings in house, which makes a side salad even more appealing to me. I had the crusty grilled cheese with bacon added and side salad combo ($11). We also shared a side of fries ($4.50) On a side note, I had a bottle of Pellegrino as well that ended up costing $6, which seemed a little excessive (half the price of my lunch), but I digress. The food here is good. I can’t say in the 4-5 times I have ever been really wowed by anything though, although I do like their salad dressings. My sandwich was three kinds of cheese (cheddar, Swiss and American on Asiago cheese bread.  The bread itself had a strong flavor of toasted cheese and then the cheese inside was nice and melty. The added bacon gav...

This bolognese sauce is dedicated to the late, great Marcella Hazan , who passed away in September, at the age of 89. She was considered the Julia Child of Italian food, and at a time when most Americans though “bolognese” was spaghetti sauce with chunks of hamburger it, Marcella taught us just how magnificent this meat sauce could be. One thing that always surprises people making this recipe for the first time is the absence of garlic. Hazan railed against the common belief that garlic should be added to any and all Italian recipes. She once wrote, “the unbalanced use of garlic is the single greatest cause of failure in would-be Italian cooking,” and “Garlic can be exciting when you turn to it sporadically, on impulse, but on a regular basis, it is tiresome.” Would a few minced garlic cloves ruin this incredibly delicious pasta sauce? Probably not, but since this is supposed to be something of a tribute, I decided to remain true. Speaking of ingredients, I used ground beef here, bu...

    A sweet blogging friend recently emailed me and said that she saw one of my recipe photos posted on another persons recipe blog. It was disturbing, but it wasn't the first (and probably not the last) time this has happened to me, so I tried not to over react. But today, totally by accident, I ran across another web page (from Indonesia, no less!!) that had a TON of my recipes and photos posted as if they were this persons own work; not a single mention or link back to my recipe page at all!! So I started looking around the Internet, and I was shocked to see how "common" this practice is.  So far, it seems that all of my photos that were swiped, were one's I posted before 2011. I'm guessing that must be, because in 2011, I started putting my name on my recipe photos; evidently, people don't like to steal photos that are labeled (I wish I had known that!!) The funny thing is, is that I'm a terrible photographer!! Why are they stealing MY photos when the...

We met my friend Suzanne and her hubby recently for dinner before an event we were all attending. Trying to figure out a good option near Fishers landed us at Izakaya. Hubby and I had gone for lunch once before and had a decent experience, so we thought we’d give it another try. We debated trying the hibachi side (which was extremely popular the night we were there) but ultimately decided we’d save that for the kids (who love this sort of thing). The first thing I noticed, this time and last, was how cold it was in there. They did adjust it for us, but it remained pretty breezy. I think the fans from all the hibachis running may have had something to do with this, but it made the other side of the restaurant cold. We also had an extremely enthusiastic server who told me how he was just exceptionally happy that day (nothing wrong with that). We started with the agedashi tofu ($4.45) (seems to be a standard order for me and Suzanne at Asian places) and this was one of the better ones. T...

I saw a tweet about October 23 being National Mole Day, which served to remind me that I’ve still not done a take on this magical Mexican sauce. The video below is from my friends at Allrecipes.com , and looks like a great place for me to start my experiments. By the way, as I searched for more info on how National Mole Day came to be, I realized it wasn’t “Mole” the sauce; it was actually “Mole” the scientific unit of measure. Now, why would scientists name a unit of molecular weight after this delicious Mexican sauce? Anyway, enjoy the video (you can see the written recipe here ), and if you have any secret mole-making knowledge, feel free to pass it along. Enjoy!

After doing such a great job folding the egg whites into this apple and cheddar soufflé batter, I celebrated by dropping a measuring cup into the bowl. By the time I fished it out, cleaned the sides of the bowl, and shook my fist at the heavens, I’d lost a lot of micro-bubbles. I pressed on, and despite my tragic encounter with gravity, the resulting soufflés were simply fabulous, which just goes to show that maybe we need to relax about this whole folding thing. Sure, more bubbles would make it go a little higher, but if you’ve never made a soufflé before, I hope this gives you some new-found courage. By the way, I don’t know why most similar recipes call for extra egg whites. Actually, I do know; it’s to make them more visually impressive, but I think this dilutes the flavor. I use about half the egg whites normally called for, and these are still light as a feather. If you decide to give these a whirl, please promise me you'll use a great cheddar. I used a sharp and creamy Cab...

People are asking if you can make larger loaves, and the answer is a definite yes. Here you see a batch of dough made into two larger baguettes, which took about 20 minutes to bake, I think. I should have timed it for you, but I was mesmerized by their beauty as I kept peeking to see if they were done, and never checked the clock. It's hardly my fault. You can also make one giant loaf, but may want to reduce the temperature to 450 F., since the baking time is going to be longer, maybe 35-40 minutes or so. By the way, you can always test with a thermometer, and pull the bread at an internal temperature of 190-200 F. Enjoy!

Every so often I ask on twitter for favorite restaurants in an area, or cuisine, or whatever just to try and get some new motivation. The other day I asked for favorite lunch places and was surprised when one of my twitter friends suggested a place I wasn’t familiar with—Lulu’s Coffee & Bakehouse. So naturally, I had to try it. I took the BFF and we headed for lunch. It’s a small place and you order at the counter. I was intrigued by the “Greenwich Panini” special and asked what was in it—a very nice lady from the kitchen came and was happy to explain it to me (and answer several other questions about the menu, like is there fruit in the chicken salad? (Yes)). I went ahead and got the Greenwich Panini because it sounded interesting—it was cheddar and provolone cheese, sliced avocado, jalapeno cream cheese and a sprinkle of cilantro. It was pressed flat and served hot on sourdough bread. The sandwiches are served a la carte, so I ordered a side salad as well (my whole meal with a ...

Whenever someone asked me why I hadn’t done a baguette video yet, I’d tell them because you just can’t recreate an authentic loaf of French bread at home.  I’d explain about the water, the flour, the centuries old starters, and the steam-injected ovens. I told them what I’d been told; that it was simply impossible, or as the French say, "impossible!" That was, until I actually tried to make some. Much to my amazement, not only was it possible, it was really pretty simple. The key is water. That goes for the dough, and the baking environment. The dough must be very sticky, as in hard-to-work-with sticky. This is nothing well-floured fingers can’t conquer, but I did want to give you a heads-up. Besides the water content in the dough, the oven must also be moist. This humidity, in addition to some occasional misting will give the crusty baguettes their signature look. How does this work? You know how when someone pours water on the rocks in a dry sauna, and suddenly it feels wa...

It’s almost that time of year again. The holidays are still a little ways off, but you’re already starting to wonder (worry?) what creative side dishes will adorn the season’s holiday tables. This delicious, and very versatile roasted mushroom and potato salad could be worth a look.  “Wild” mushrooms have never been less so, and that’s a good thing. Not that hunting for mushrooms in a dewy forest isn’t fun, but I’ll take a nice safe grocery store over actual labor anytime. Especially since the selection has gotten so much better over the years. You can easily find 5-6 varieties of mushrooms in the big markets, and they all will work. I’ve given you an almost blank canvas here, with possible additions being as numerous as they are obvious. One geometrical change I’d make next time, would be to quarter the potatoes instead of halving them, to add surface area, as well as decreasing the cooking time. Not only is this salad good hot, room temp, and cold, but it also works for breakfas...

Hubby and I wanted to go see a friend’s exhibit opening on First Friday this month (and you should go check it out , it runs through November 16th. It’s a cool exhibit about my friend’s grandfather who was an influential, impressive architect.)  We decided with so many options in Fountain Square, we’d just grab dinner somewhere close by. The first place we stopped into was Mama Irma’s and it was completely packed with a wait. It was nice to see and we put it on our mental list to return (hubby has never been). We just walked a little further and decided to try Siam Square. I think it’s been 2-3 years since I have been there (hard to believe). It was also quite crowded but we lucked into the last 2-top. Our server was very friendly and attentive and quickly brought drinks. After looking back at our last visits on my blog, we settled on the veggie tempura appetizer ($5.95)(last time we wished we had gotten the all veggie version because we liked them better than the seafood). I love...

This recipe video is inspired by a Lebanese yogurt cheese spread called Labneh, but I decided to call it homemade cream cheese because my sources deep inside Google tell me that “cream cheese” is searched for more often than “labneh.” In fairness, and with apologies to my Lebanese fans, it really is almost identical in texture and mouthfeel. Like I say in the video, the taste is a bit bolder and tangier than that stuff from Philly, but when is that ever a bad thing? Michele found some amazing sheep’s milk yogurt at a local farmer’s market, and it was incredible in this, but I've used regular yogurt and it works wonderfully as well. You can use it as you would any commercial cream cheese, but the honey and pistachio variation I tacked on to the end would make for a memorable holiday brunch addition. On the savory side, you can’t beat simply drizzling over some olive oil and eating as a spread with crispy bread or pita chips. Most recipes for this say you can eat it after one day, ...