Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was my birthday and for those who know me, I love celebrating birthday's, typically I make it about a month long celebration! Oops! Anyway, this past weekend my friend Jenny and I had a little get together at a local place in town called Smokey Joes- for those of you in Charlotte that have never been, you must check it out. It is great-a little hole in the wall with an excellent outside area- pool tables, ping pong darts etc! We had a great time and I had great friends and family there to help celebrate, which meant a lot!
On Tuesday night, my boyfriend and I went to a little Mexican place for dinner off Central Ave. Tres Amigos- again, for those of you locals who have not been, great food and killer Margs! Then we headed over to the area of town called NoDa, cute artsy area....We stopped into a new place for a drink, The Mill, another little small hole in the wall. It was pretty quiet in there, but we sat and chatted with the manager for quite sometime and they are starting a dinner and jazz night on Weds which should be a great time. They are actually affliated with Boudreaux's Louisiana Kitchen- they are right behind it. I have never eaten there, but hear it is great and the Brunch menu looks awesome, so hope to check it out soon!
So overall it was an excellent birthday- oh wait, and one more thing, for lunch yesterday I went to Fran's Filling Station and let me tell you, I STUFFED my face, the meal was delish! If you have not been, get the number one, I was full all day, but it was worth it! I wish I had my camera so I could have taken a pic:(
Ok, so that is it!! Just wanted to share some new places I have checked out and if you go, I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ok, so last week I made this oatmeal pumpkin breakfast bar, unfortunately it was not that great nor good enough to share...however, something good just came out of that extra can of pumpkin pie filling I had...PUMPKIN PANCAKES!!! Now if you like pumpkin and pancakes, I can't see how you would not like these. I was searching around for recipes, but all had the pancake mix homemade and being that it is 10pm, I wanted something yummy, but EASY! I am sure there are tons of spices, well I know there are, that could make these even tastier, but I really liked them just the way they are.
Basically I took two cups of pumpkin pie filling (what I had left from that breakfast thing)
two cups of pancake mix and added water til it was about the consistency of a pumpkin pie filling before it is baked.
Now I will say, this is a thick batter, and I would not put the heat up too high, as it will burn them before cooking all the way through. I made pretty big ones the first go round and then a little smaller and more spread out the rest of the way...I have to say, these have a great flavor for not adding anything but cinnamon sugar as my extra spice...So if you try them out, I hope you enjoy!
Oh and with size varying, this amount of batter made about 18 pancakes.

Had to share- avacado fries..

For those of you who love avacado and love fries, here is a killer looking recipe I found earlier on food gawker...check it out below from The Adventures in Cooking blog...

http://adventurescooking.blogspot.com/2011/03/avocado-fries-with-cilantro-lemon.html?showComment=1300462770370#c4378159150320582448

Enjoy!
-M

I won! I won!

This morning has been pretty exciting thus far and it is only 9am! Not only do I have some great friends coming in town to help celebrate my birthday, but my brother is coming for the weekend as well! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and the weather is going to be fantastic! The other thing that I found out was that I won a contest on one of my favorite blogs! Eat My Charlotte...I never win anything! See below!! Woo hoooo! Made my day and I just had to share! The recipe I entered is actually in my 2nd blog, so check it out. I must admit, it was quite delish!
-M

Yoforia gift card winners

March 15th, 2011 by Priscilla Tsai in Smorgasbord, free food

Thanks for playing, everyone!
I received a bunch of tasty emails in which you shared with me  your best recipes in response to the Yoforia gift card contest I ran last week.
After combing through all the recipes, my computer keyboard is now covered in drool. I have selected the four most mouth-watering sounding recipes and will be sending the winners a $20 gift card to Yoforia.
And the winners are (in no particular order) …
Melissa D., for a her health-conscious, yet delicious recipe for Baked Pasta with Spinach Lemon and Cheese from Cooking Light.
Julianne M., for a sinfully rich Berry-Pecan French Toast.
Emily R., for a Southern Peach Cobbler recipe that will be a perfect dessert to make this summer.
Tiffany Y., for a Angel Hair Tomato Basil Toss recipe of her own creation.
Congrats to the winners. Hope you enjoy your free frozen yogurt!

Diners, Drive In's and Dives...

For those of you who do not know, Triple D and Guy are one of my all time favs. I love the show, DVR it and watch it whenever I can. The places he checks out are killer and I have decided to start putting the links to the ones I like the most in my blog. So where ever you are, if you are in the area of ones of these places, CHECK IT OUT! ...and let me know what you think! If I could work with this show it would be a dream come true!!:)

The episode I watched tonight had a place in Boulder, CO. Foolish Craig's Cafe..if this menu doesn't make you want to make a trip out there, I am not sure what else would!! YUM DE LUM!!!

PS, I am a menu junkie, so it is only fitting that I start putting my fav restaurant spots in my blog. Surprised I had not thought of it sooner! Enjoy!

"Cooking Light" Supper Club! Yum de lum...

About a year ago 10 of us started a supper club. Pretty typical set up- rotate different houses once a month. They have been a lot of fun and a great way to try new dishes. The host sets the theme and provides the main dish. This month was at my place, and my theme was "cooking light", which obviously means, you must make something from Cooking Light! We are always so stuffed at the end of these each month, I thought why not make it a little lighter and selfishly, I have a trip soon where my bathing suit must be worn;)

It was a HUGE success! Now I will say, we were still stuffed, who would have thought all these light dishes could be so tasty! We all agreed that we would follow the recipes to go with the theme, but thought each of them could have had a little more "fat" in the mix or that is what we thought til we looked down and all of our plates were completely cleaned, oink oink!

Here are some pics of all the delish-ish-ness!!!! Recipe links below as well! Hope you enjoy, and if you try any of them out, let me know what you think!

Eggplant Crostini- Cooking Light

Brie with Apple and Raisin Comptote- Cooking Light

BBQ Sirlion and Blue Cheese Salad- Cooking Light

Now we did have one thing not cooking light, however it was insanely delish- made from scratch, don't have the recipe on hand at the moment- cheesy gooey scalloped potates!

And LAST but certainly not least, dessert...still can't believe this was cooking light! It is KILLER!!!

Pear Pie with Struesal topping and Caramel Sauce

So there it is, "cooking light" supper club menu! Thanks to all my friends for making such yummy food. It was a great night, with great food and great friends!

Homeade Pasta and Meatballs...oink oink!

In typical Italian tradition, Sunday night I made homeade sauce and meatballs. I must say it came out fabulous! I would love to offer you the recipe, but it is not an option! hee heee Here are some pics though to make your mouth water. For those of you avid photographers out there, I took these in the macro setting! ha

Some side notes of the week thus far, I am loving my new bed, I got my new glasses, having dinner with a great friend at a yummy sushi place by the name of Pisces, getting a pedicure at Midtown Nails and hoping for no rain tomorrow night so I can work off some of these calories over the last few days!

Short, Sweet and free cheese!!

So this has been a pretty crazy week. I won't bore you with all the details, but will have to give a few! Tennis started this week, I got my new TyndallPedic Mattress and slept on it for the first time last night! It was killer, it is so tall, it is kind of weird sleeping that high...and my dog who is not used to it as well, fell right off the side, poor thing! Thank god I have carpet! I had my second photography class and as soon as I can get into the kitchen to cook a gourmet meal, I will be taking some food shots!
So one thing I did want to add in here if you did not already know...it is National Cheese (Fondue) Day on April 11th. So for all you cheese lovers out there, the Melting Pot is giving away free cheese fondue for two, no purchase necessary, can't beat that. You must make a reservation though! Oink Oink!
- M