This month's challenge was caramel cake with an optional addition to make homemade caramel candies.

I opted to make the cake into cupcakes and mini cakes. I had friends over for dinner last week and so I made three mini cakes for us, one of which is pictured. I had left over praline from the DB challenge a few months ago and so I grated that on top.

I enjoyed the texture of this cake, although I wasn't that big fan of the flavor. Caramel isn't a favorite. Many participants had complained that the cake and frosting were too sweet and so I did reduce the sugar in the cake down to only one cup. For the frosting it called for a pound of powdered sugar but I just made it to consistency, which was way less than a pound.

More interesting was the caramels.



I had two complications with the caramels. First, I didn't pay close enough attention to the recipe which said to use a large 3 qt pan. Turns out that the caramel boils violently up and I almost had it boil over my too small pan! Secondly, it took FOREVER to reach the 260 degree temp for soft caramels. Later I read others suggesting to stop at 248 degrees. Anyway, my caramels are a little harder than I would have liked (about the same as Brach's), but still great little morsels. They are sprinkled with fresh ground sea salt on top. Took them to work and everyone loved them.

Our host of the month is Dolores ably assisted by Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo), Jenny of Foray into Food. With gluten free advice from Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go. The recipe author was Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater . Shuna's recipe is for the cake with caramalized butter frosting is here.

For over two years I have had Mulvaney's on my dining to-do list. So many people have said that it is wonderful and equals The Waterboy, which I love. Lately I've been adding some higher end restaurants to my Meetup's calendar, so tonight we had a group of eight willing to pay up for a nice meal.

Mulvaney's is located in an old brick firehouse on 19th Street. I'm sure it used to have a pole somewhere, although it is not evident now. Prior to Mulvaney's it had been a coffee shop/bakery where I would indulge in fantastic black bottom cupcakes and cinnamon rolls. It is not very large. Part of the kitchen is out in the dining area with stools at the chef's block for four diners. In the back is very small bar area. I found that a little surprising because my BFF's brother-in-law is a head bartender and I would have thought it would have a big bar. There is additional dining out on the patio, which I've also heard much about, but the weather is getting too cold for that now.



We sat down and were presented with the day's menu. Each day is a fresh menu because M's is known for locally grown, organic produce and meats. They have both small plates and a selection of entrees. Small plates range in the $teens ($14, etc) and the entrees are in the $20-$35 range. On this day none of the entrees jumped out at me as being truly unique or different whereas quite a few of the small plates did. I ended up with a salad, small plate, and dessert. Eileen got three small plates and dessert! The thing is, the small plates are definitely ample entrees for lil ol me.



The server came out with an amuse bouche for us. It consisted of raddichio with some duck confit and apple chutney. I love getting amuse bouche. It's like you get a little something extra for free.



I got to try something new with my salad. I ordered the Frissee Salad with Duck Tongue and Poached Quail Egg. The idea of poor little ducks being plucked tongue-less is not a good one, but sometimes you need to put such thoughts out of your head. There were quite a few tongues and I was surprised to find them rather soft and salty versus what you would assume to be chewy. Not sure if saltiness is a trait or not. Anyway, the salad had plenty of those and homemade croutons with a perfectly cooked egg atop. Although I did enjoy the salad, I found that the addition of the egg made it just a bit too rich for me.



Sue was kind enough to share some of her house smoked salmon. It was served with a whole grain toast point that was rather disappointing to me. It wasn't toasted, for one, and it overpowered the very thinly sliced salmon. I had to bunch the salmon to the end of the point so that I didn't get too much bread. I was not impressed with the salmon either. I guess I just like it a bit more smoked.



For my main course I would have liked to try their homemade pastas, but the dishes were heavy with mushrooms. Yuck. I opted for the sweetbreads. Both Biba and Waterboy have sweetbreads that I would consider equal in deliciousness. This version was not in the same league. First of all the serving was about half of what you get at the other two. Then these were fried and then served with a polenta and mushrooms. So on their own they were dull. Perhaps if I had made a forkful with polenta, mushrooms, and the sweetbreads the flavors would have blended well, but on their own - dull.




Looking at everyone else I could see quite a variety of dishes. Sue and Christine ordered the cioppino which was full of seafood and gigantic scallops. Eileen and Rhonda had ordered the pasta with the mushrooms and it definitely looked delicious and rich.

Sue Ann was nice enough to let me taste her dish. We both couldn't remember the exact description but it appeared as kind of homemade raviolis stuffed with duck confit and then in a rich sauce with finely chopped veggies. I wish I knew more from the description because there was a wonderful blending of flavors that was a bit unusual, but delicious.



There were quite a few tempting things on the dessert menu. I was really drawn to the Ding Dongs, but opted for the Sticky Toffee Pudding. I've been wanting to make a sticky toffee pudding because it has become quite a popular flavor lately. I've never had an authentic English one, but from the descriptions it sounds like a pretty decadent dessert. I was a bit disappointed but am unsure as to whether it is to my ignorance or to a bad version of the dessert, so I'll refrain from too much comment. I'll just say that the 'pudding' was just a cake and had just a little toffee sauce on top. My impressions had always been that it was a moister and stickier (more sauce soaked in). I guess I'll have to wait til I try making my own.

Update: I did. Here is my version. Based on this, I would say Mulvaney's version is a sorry excuse for sticky toffee pudding.



The Ding Dongs certainly looked beautiful. But after seeing them I was glad that I had passed because it was just a mini-cake like the kind I've been baking so many of lately.



Rhonda had the pumpkin brulee. 'Brulee' means burnt and so it is the burnt sugar topping and has nothing to do with what is underneath. I make this distinction because Rhonda said that the filling wasn't what she usually associates with a creme brulee. Apparently it wasn't as creamy custardy. She still liked it, though, and said the accompanying huckleberries added a nice contrasting flavor. Certainly the presentation was nice.

We all enjoyed our meals very much and even though I wasn't overly impressed with my individual orders, I was impressed overall with the table's worth. I look forward to going again.

There's a new venture in Sacramento that is fun, affordable, leads to making new friends, and includes food! The Sacramento Grub Crawl. Started earlier this year, this new activity is worth taking note of.

The premise is simple. For your $25 fee you get to spend an evening checking out five or six local restaurants. You spend about 45 minutes at each location before moving on to the next. Each location puts out a spread of food and has drink specials. The food is included in your fee, the alcohol is not. During the evening there are also giveaways of wine or gift cards. You could easily recoup your $25 if you are a lucky winner.



We joined the Halloween crawl on Wednesday night downtown. The restaurants for the evening included: River City Brewing, Three Monkeys, Parlare Eurolounge, Sofia, Fuzio, and Zokku. Each place put out a great spread of food and we did not leave hungry, although this might not always be true.

Because it was a Wednesday and started at 5 p.m., the crowd was a bit smaller, about 25 people. According to Cline (more on him in a moment), some crawls have over 100 people and can be quite a rowdy bunch. Personally I was glad of the size because we did get plenty of food and I was able to talk to Cline about his venture. I'm sure the restaurants were a little disappointed, especially because a lot of food was left when we moved on to the next stop.



Cline Moore is your crawl host. On this evening he was dressed as a pimp. He explained that last week's crawl had been on Fair Oaks Blvd. and had included Ruth's Chris, Scott's Seafood, Zinfandel Grille, Piatti, and somewhere else I forget. That one had over 100 people. He's got other crawls planned according to themes and different areas of town like Roseville and Folsom. The restaurants are happy to work with him because it helps to promote their restaurant. In my case I had been to each of the locations before except for Fuzio, which only just opened. But in the group, many had never been to most of the restaurants.


At each spot Cline gives away bottles of wine or gift cards to the spot you are in. I highly recommend that you bring your purse/wallet. I had not brought anything but my license and so missed out on some giveaways. It was like Let's Make a Deal where he would ask you to find a credit card with the most #3's on it, or, be the first to pull out and show him $50. Bring your business card as well as a couple of drawings were picked from those. My friend and I ended up with a couple of gift cards, which was great because we don't drink wine. Lucky for us, the smaller group meant better odds!


TONIA AND PERRY

PHIL AND LINDA

GIRLS GONE WILD

Cline says that he's trying to expand this idea to cover company events. Why have a boring office lunch or dinner at one location where you are stuck sitting next to someone the whole evening. Instead you could move from spot to spot and mingle more with your coworkers. Other groups are booking them as well. He's got a fraternity doing it as an activity in November. I'll be skipping that one. LOL.



This is just the kind of activity I want for my meetup group, so I will be adding it to our calendar. I'm looking forward to hitting one a month myself.

October's Daring Bakers Challenge was pretty easy - pizza dough. But it was fun. I've done pizza dough from mixes and from frozen dough before, but not absolutely from scratch. This recipe is a good one, although it was a bit too stretchy for me, as you will see by the video. We were required to put a video showing us tossing.

Did you ever wonder why pizza dough is tossed? It's because by tossing and stretching you are stretching apart the dough molecules so that the crust is nice and tender. If you were to roll it out with a rolling pin, it would be pressed, condensed, and thus, tough.

Earlier this month I had actually posted my pizza creation, I just didn't mention that the dough was for the DB challenge. See my post about my fig pizza.



BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled -
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast -
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar -
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to three days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

The airline industry is in a sad state. I've been on planes since I was three weeks old. I've traveled all over the world and gone on different airlines. Foreign carriers are still pretty good (I love Singapore Airlines the most) but domestic carriers are sad, sad, sad. Gone are all the freebies that were included in your ticket price. Now you have to pay to check your bags, for your drinks, for your meals (depending on each airline's new policies). A long time ago we lost the hot meals in the little trays. Flying is no fun.

I've really gotten to appreciate Amtrak. I've taken it a few times now and recommend it if you can deal with rail time, which I'll explain first. Rail time means you have patience and your schedule is flexible. You see, Amtrak has a lot of delays. So you have to be able to roll with it. The number one reason for delays is the fact that they don't own their tracks. The tracks are owned by the freight railroad companies. So if a freight train and an Amtrak need to use the same track or cross each other, the freight train gets priority. How stupid is that? Like a trainload of cars, vegetables, cows and ipods need to be on a schedule.

The second part of rail time is the schedule. There is only one train per day that goes along the route (we are not talking about commuter routes like the Capitol Corridor train). So each day in Sacramento there is one train going south from Seattle to L.A. and another one going north from L.A. to Seattle. Basically you need to make your schedule fit the train's.

Once you are on the train, though, you can relax and enjoy the scenery. If you pay the big bucks you can get a roomette which includes a little bunk so you sleep and some privacy. I've only traveled coach so far and it ain't that bad. Airline seats are jammed in there so that you have no leg room and you have to worry about the size of your seatmate in case they start invading your personal space. Not so on Amtrak. There is so much leg room that my short legs can barely reach the footrest on the seat in front of me. I can stow my smaller bags at my feet and still have room. Plus, the seats recline really far and have legrests that come up from underneath so that it's like an extended Barcolounger. Most of the time you can end up with a row (2 seats) to yourself so that you can really spread out. There are overhead bins as well and each coach car has five bathrooms below.

If you've got electronics, outlets are at a premium. The coach cars only have one each and so you have to try and snag that row. There are a couple of outlets in the Lounge car as well, that people compete for. There was also an arcade on the lower level of one of the coach cars, but the games were pretty lame.

Speaking of the lounge car (or observation car)... A lot of people like to hang out there for their entire trip. The upper floor has tons of windows for enjoying the scenery outside. There are different seating arrangements and there are some tables in case you want to play a game of cards. On one trip up to Oregon there were a bunch of volunteer ladies who got on at Klamath Falls and gave a history and trivia talk about Oregon all the way to Eugene. On the lower level of the lounge car is some more table seating and the snack bar. They carry items such as pizza, burgers, breakfast sandwiches, beer, coffee, and other snacks.

The first class passengers (in the sleeping cars) had their own parlor car. I imagine that it is very similar to the lounge car, but perhaps a tad more upscale. During each direction of my trip they offered a wine tasting in the parlor car. For the first class it was $5 and for the coach passengers it was $10.

Then there is the dining car. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A server will walk through the train to take down your desired reservation time. When you arrive at the car you will be seated at a table with other passengers, so it is very social. The tables are set with linens and silverware and you can even have wine with your meals. On my recent trip I went in for dinner. The special for the evening was crab cakes with a lobster cream sauce. The fish was ahi tuna that was fake grilled. (They put grill marks on it, but it is finished in the oven.) The pasta special was cheese ravioli with marinara sauce. There was also a flat iron steak with baked potato and veggies, but I opted for the half herbed chicken. Although the menu said it came with rice, I was given the choice of rice or either mashed or baked potato. We had a nice warm dinner roll, a small salad, and then our entree, which was piping hot. WAAAYYYY better than airplane food (or the lack thereof).

My coworkers might have had a 5 hour roadtrip in cramped cars dealing with traffic and construction, but my 8 hours was a nice relaxing trip where I could walk around, read, sleep, dine, and enjoy the scenery. I think I chose the better choice.

My dad lives in Salem, Oregon. A very small city. So small that they don't have a Costsplus, Trader Joes, or other chain stores or restaurants that we have. So when he comes to visit he likes to eat out. It's from dad that I got my foodie ways. On Friday we had gone to L Wine Lounge, which I like and liked, but he was unimpressed with. (Probably cuz he just ordered a boring steak.)

I had offered to take him to an ethnic restaurant as well. He chose Afghani, so I took him over to Kabul Kabob on J Street. Boy, is downtown DEAD on a Sunday night! That is, any street lower than 15th. I was even concerned it would not be open, but it was, just very empty. I could see the owner way in the back, but the only person who worked the front the whole evening was his very Western teenage daughter. We chose a table and she brought out menus and water right away.

After we ordered we received a small salad with a cream dressing and herbs. Very simple. Then came samosas. This version was deep fried in a flaky crust, a bit on the greasy side. But that could be because it was completely filled with ground meat. There were no veggies in it. They were rather bland but were served with a cilantro chutney to add some spice.

We split our main dishes. The first was aushuk - raviolis stuffed with leeks and seasonings and topped with a ground meat and yogurt sauce. The half circle raviolis were very light. I really like this dish. My only complaint is that when they put the yogurt sauce over it, it cools it down. Cold yogurt on the hot raviolis. I'd rather the yogurt be room temperature so that it doesn't kill the heat in the dish so quickly. Our second dish was a chicken curry that came with a side of rice. Nothing special here. Just an Indian style curry. But it was a good choice to compliment the aushuk.

We then tried two Afghani desserts. First was ramalayee - Afghani cheesecake soaked in cream and cardamom syrup and topped with crushed pistachios. This was served in a goblet with little cut squares of their cheesecake. Their cheesecake is very firm and not that great on its own. But it is sitting in a goblet full of the cardamom cream, which was like sweet milk. You could drink the goblet down after finishing the few chunks of cheesecake.

The other dessert was firni - Afghani pudding with rosewater, cardamom and crushed pistachios. We both preferred this one. It was sweet and creamy with bits of cardamom and pistachio in it.

I will note that Kabul Kabob also has a weekday lunch buffet. Do not judge their dinner food based on this lunch buffet. The buffet is simply mediocre. I like Kabul for dinner and a friend keeps going for lunch and saying it stinks. I keep telling him that, yes, the buffet stinks. Go for dinner!

It's been at least 15 years since I last went to Biba. It was time for another visit. I set it up and six of our Meetup group went for a lovely dinner on a Monday night.

Biba is in the same location and still even looks just as I remember it. Hopefully there's been a coat of paint, lol. Seriously, though, it is bright and cheerful versus some other restaurants that are on the dark side. It still has a very tasteful elegance with beautiful flower arrangements and crisp white linens. So nice to walk into after walking through the dust and diverted traffic from the construction just outside its doors.

Laura and I were there first and took a seat in the bar to wait for the others. They had a pianist playing the baby grand piano, even on a Monday night. The bartender came out from behind the bar to serve us. All very nice.

We were escorted to a nice round table at a corner of the restaurant. During the evening I was surprised to see the place pretty much full - for a Monday! We did see Biba come out to greet some bigwig at the next table. Years ago on my last visit, she had come around and visited each table individually.

At the time of this dinner I am in the middle of a two-week detox diet. I haven't eaten carby foods, sugar, salt, fat, or dairy in seven days. But I had this already scheduled and had to try and pick the best thing I could off the menu. That meant I would have to at least take in the fat and salt for a night and probably consume more than my allotted size of protein for the day. Oh well. Besides, I was a Biba's! I had to make the most of it.

I started with a small plate of the sweetbreads. Sweetbreads are the thymus glands of lamb, beef, or pork. They are one of those items that had been on my "to try" list for years and when I had them, I really liked them. At Biba they were sauteed with smoked pancetta in a limoncello sauce. One of the best things about sweetbreads is that they are so tender, they just melt in your mouth. After being completely fat free for a week, the silky saltiness of the pancetta grease was to die for. I was in heaven.



For my entree, I chose the rabbit and vegetables, hold the polenta. It was braised in a roasted bell pepper, tomato, balsamic vinegar and fresh herb sauce. As you see, it was a generous portion with plenty of sauce. My veggies were delivered on the side, green beans and tomatoes. The rabbit was nice and tender and the sauce was full of flavor, a little too much. It was very salty. Of course, I've also been salt free for a week. But Carol had also ordered the rabbit and found it salty as well. It did not decrease my enjoyment of the dish though.



I had to be a good girl and pass on dessert. Laura was the only one who had a dessert there and she chose the tiramisu. I've never been a fan myself, but I will say that the slice was large and both Laura and Carol said that it was "light as air".

Our server had been great as well. She was pleasant and fun with a good memory for our orders. She checked on us just the right amount, not being too intrusive or too neglectful. As for price, I had always considered Biba to be on the high end of local restaurants. Actually it wasn't too bad. My sweetbreads were $13 and my rabbit was $29, and that was one of the highest priced entrees. So it's not a terrible stretch on the pocketbook.

I enjoyed my meal and only wish I could have had the added benefit of bread, pasta, and dessert. Guess that means I'll have to come back another day, just not fifteen years down the road.

A couple of months ago I had dinner at Sacatomato Ann's house. We had a look at her backyard garden and there were two things I took away from that day.

First was their great raised garden made from the concrete they had torn up from their backyard. I had been wanting to do a raised garden for some time but didn't have the extra money for all the keystones or bricks I would have needed. I loved the idea of free broken concrete. Later that week I just happened to see some men tearing up concrete. They agreed to deliver it to my house. So this is the raised garden I built.



The second thing I learned that day was about amaranth. They had quite a few amaranth bushes growing with the lovely purple flowers. Turns out that it is quite an interesting plant.

Aside from amaranth being such an attractive plant it is extremely adaptable to adverse growing conditions. It resists heat and drought, has no major disease problems, and is among the easiest of plants to grow. Simply scratching the soil, throwing down some seeds, and watering will reward you with some of these lovely plants.

Amaranth can be cooked as a cereal, ground into flour, popped like popcorn, sprouted, or toasted. The seeds can be cooked with other whole grains, added to stir-fry or to soups and stews as a nutrient dense thickening agent.

Amaranth flour is used in making pastas and baked goods. It must be mixed with other flours for baking yeast breads, as it contains no gluten. One part amaranth flour to 3-4 parts wheat or other grain flours may be used. In the preparation of flatbreads, pancakes and pastas, 100% amaranth flour can be used. Sprouting the seeds will increase the level of some of the nutrients and the sprouts can be used on sandwiches and in salads, or just to munch on.

(More info here.)

Turns out amaranth is a plant that many are trying to see cultivated in third world countries that have poor growing conditions. You can not only eat the seeds, but also the leaves and flowers.

I've been trying to get into new grains. I love quinoa and use it in place of rice whenever I cook at home. It's a healthy whole grain that is high in protein. It cooks the same as rice. So whenever I make anything that would normally have rice as a side, I use the quinoa instead.

I wanted to check out the amaranth and found it in the bulk bins at the Co-op. I took only 1/2 a cup home and cooked it the same way. Then I ate it as a porridge with a little soy milk, cinnamon, and stevia. Delicious. I've found another new grain to play with.

First, I'll explain the picture. I made these lamb meatballs and then packaged them all up for work lunches before I remembered that I needed pictures for the blog. Thus, the not so attractive presentation.

This recipe comes from the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. I liked it, but think it could use a bit more bite. BUT>>>> it might be because I had to do a workaround. It calls for ground cumin and I only had cumin seed. They are too little to put in my mini food processor and I don't own a mortar and pestle. (Note to self to get one now!) Veena suggested that I try crushing them on my granite countertop. She had me roast them in a pan for a couple of minutes first and then we put them on the counter. I remembered I had my Pampered Chef meat tenderizer.



This tenderizer is reversible and so I had it on the flat size and used that to mash the seeds as best I could. But it still wasn't a great solution. Suffice it to say, I went to the store a couple of days later and bought ground cumin.

All in all the meatballs were tasty. I did leave out the flour coating and I ended up baking them on my stone versus cooking them on the stovetop. I also made sure I got European style yogurt, which is zingier than the American stuff. I put lots of mint in the yogurt and really enjoyed it. I also no longer cook rice at home and so I served them with quinoa.


Lamb

Summer is the best time to eat Napoleons and as summer draws to an end, I've been filling up. Here is a comparison of the three best Napoleons in the area.



Tower Cafe has the winner for me because of what you get for the cost. They have Napoleons all year long, but in the summer they are filled with berries! In the fall berries will give way to spiced apples or something else and it just isn't the same. The pastry is a good size for the price of $4.25 and is generous in the amount of berries and cream and the puff pastry is light and flaky. I like that it is divided into thirds instead of just halves.



The Napoleon at Davis' Little Prague is without berries. They call the one with berries the Josephine, but for our purposes that's the comparison I'm using. This is a monster slice of pasty with a monster price of $5.75. I'd say the higher price probably comes because they have the bottom layer of pastry cream and the upper layer with whipping cream. They are less generous with the berries, but you were definitely satisfied with extra creaminess of the pastry cream layer.

I didn't take a picture of the Napoleon I got at Ettore's. For $3.75 it was the smallest of the three. This one had the best Bavarian cream filling. It was super rich, creamy, decadent. But the puff pastry was tough and difficult to cut through. Very few berries as well.

Really, I can't complain much. I'm so happy that I can find Napoleons so abundant and especially thrilled that Tower's is just a couple blocks away.