Cafe 222- San Diego

For our anniversary breakfast we went to Cafe 222 in the historic Gaslamp District of San Diego. Such an cute area, we walked there and the restaurant had patio seating, it was a very fun atmosphere. Like most restaurants I seek out I found out about this one on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Bobby Flay went there and ordered up their stuffed french toast with bananas and peanut butter. We thought that sounded like a swell idea, so we did the same. The dish came with three halves of stuffed french toast. They were more like french toast sandwiches, two pieces of bread with bananas and peanut butter in the middle and then griddled to perfection. They were very tasty, but quite filling. I couldn't eat my whole plate, but Brian polished his off no problem. Brian always laughs at me because when we go out to eat I'm constantly looking at the food and trying to figure out what's in it and how they made it, then I tell him, "I could totally make this at home." (I get that from my mom, she does the same thing.) And while I haven't actually perfected any dish I've said that about, I honestly could totally make those french toast at home. Not that theirs weren't good, but I don't think there were any secret ingredients, or anything too special about them. Get some wheat bread, soak it in some french toast batter of eggs and whatnot, spread some peanut butter on the inside, slice some bananas, and throw them on the griddle, throw a little powdered sugar on top, voila! I'm going to try it, and I'll let you all know how it turns out.

We also ordered their biscuits and gravy. Very tasty. The biscuits were cheese and chive and the gravy had chives in it as well. It was a totally different take on my moms classic, and Brian and I both enjoyed it. It was a very good thing we decided to walk around and check out the sites after breakfast because we were stuffed, like those french toast!

Las Vegas Restaurants

Not too many blog posts this past week, as I was on Spring Break! (Read with much excitement!) The week went by way to fast, but I did manage to squeeze in a trip to Vegas with the family (minus Brian). Definitely not a lot of cooking going on, but I thought I'd give you an overview of my tasty travel finds.

I did a bit of research to see which of our famous chefs has restaurants in Las Vegas. The first night there we hit up another Mario Batali restaurant, Enoteca San Marco, located in the Venetian Hotel. I blogged about another Mario Batali restaurant in LA, and this one had a very similar menu. This time we got a starter of cheeses and it was amazing. I honestly can't remember the different types of cheeses we had, but they were accompanied by apricots, cherries and honey with truffle oil. When you ate these with your cheese it was pretty much the best thing ever. I personally liked the apricot and the honey the best. I ordered a arugula and parmesan salad, Penne alla Norma (pictured at top) with tomato, eggplant, and ricotta, and finished it all off with some dark chocolate malt, salted caramel, and olive oil gelato. Throw in great conversation with most of my favorite people and it was a near perfect dinner.



The next night we decided to go to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace. I actually ate at his New York location a few years back and absolutely loved it. So I figured, why pass up an opportunity to share this restaurant with my mom and sister. We all ended up ordering the same thing: Grilled Mahi Mahi with roasted pineapple-cascabel chile sauce, caramelized pineapple-green onion salsa served with creamy green chile rice. I thought I died and gone to heaven. I haven't had fish in a while and this far exceeded my expectations of what mahi mahi could be. The sauce was sweet and had a bit of a kick, and my mom couldn't get enough of the creamy green chile rice. (I'm pretty sure she was trying to figure out how she could make it at home.) We also shared the gala apple salad. It was made with thinly sliced baby spinach, Maytag blue cheese, toasted pecans and tossed with a spicy orange vinaigrette. It definitely was spicy, which was interesting on a salad, but of course Bobby knows what he's doing and the flavors were perfect together.



Another New York favorite that has made its way to Las Vegas is the ever popular Serendipity 3. It has a new pink color scheme and sits outside Caesar's Palace, but the food is exactly the same. Well, I can't speak for the real food, I've only eaten real food there once (in NY) but they have my favorite chocolate cake/brownie and ice cream dessert ever. It's huge, messy and topped with the most amazing hot fudge. The Forbidden Broadway Sundae is a dessert to share with friends, but you'll wish you could eat it all by yourself. It's that good. I always hope that someone I'm with with orders the frozen hot chocolate, it is, after all, what they are famous for. I can't handle two desserts, but I always want a long sip of the frothy, frozen drink.



You can probably tell that my vacations generally revolve around food, but I have absolutely no problem with that. Feel free to share great restaurants you've eaten at. I currently have a list going of a dozen cities and places I want to eat when I visit there!

Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

I'm going on a little spring break vacation to Las Vegas, but Brian can't come. So whenever I leave him, I always make him some treats so he's not too sad and lonely. I've been looking for a reason to make these brownies I saw Bobby Flay make on an episode of Throwdown. He actually lost the throwdown, but of course his brownies looked delicious, and these ones definitely are. The brownies are so fudgy and rich.

They don't take too long to make, but there are a few parts to them. You start by making a peanut butter caramel. It was simple and delicious. I think my pinch of salt in the caramel was a bit too big since the peanut butter is already salty, so just be careful. Then you melt unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Then mix that up with the eggs and sugar. The brownies only use one cup of flour, which, I think, is what makes them so fudgy. I thought about using more, thinking it wasn't right, but they came out perfect.







The only thing I did adjust was the cooking time. After reading the reviews online everyone said they needed to be cooked a big longer than the 25 minutes is called for. I ended up doing them for 35, but think 30 would be perfect. (Brian likes them more on the gooey side.)

Whoever came up with the idea of putting peanut butter and chocolate together, I thank them. And these brownies are just another great way to get these two amazing flavors together.



Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies Recipe

German Chocolate Cake

Monday was by husband Brian's Happy Birthday! I was so excited to celebrate his birthday this year. It's the first one we've been married for, and I got to make a new cake and throw a party! I asked Brian what kind of cake he wanted and he picked German Chocolate. I was up for the challenge. I have never made one before and was anxious to being my search the a recipe. I headed right over to food network to search it out. I expected to find a recipe from Ina and maybe a few others. I came across an episode of Throw Down with Bobby Flay where he challenged Harlem, NY bakery Make My Cake to a German Chocolate Cake throw down. Turns out I saw that episode and the cake looked delicious. Make My Cake actually lost the throw down, but I figured it must be a pretty amazing cake for Bobby to want to challenge it. So I went for it.

I made the Coconut/Pecan Frosting and a chocolate ganache the day before. I read over the recipe and it looked like a lot to take on after work on Monday before I had to serve it up that evening. Doing half of it ahead of time was perfect. Then the day of I just had to make the cake, which was very doable, and put it all together.


The coconut/peacan frosting was absolutely delicious. When I tasted it I figured if the cake didn't turn out too great it wouldn't matter because I would just slather it with the frosting and all would be well! I cooked it according to the recipe. I thought it seemed a little runny after the 12 minutes, but once it cooled (I refrigerated it over night) it was just the right consistency for a frosting. I toasted my pecans in a pan on the stove just for a few minutes. The recipe calls for a chocolate frosting to put around the outside of the cake, but her's is a secret family recipe that she didn't give out. I read through the reader comments on the recipe and a lot of people just used a basic ganache and said it worked out great. The recipe I used is below.


Again for the cake I followed the recipe as written. I started melting the chocolate and water in a make shift double boiler with a glass bowl and pan, but apparently my glass bowl wasn't heat proof and it cracked. (Mom it was that little one you gave me.) Yikes! So I carefully got rid of the broken glass and hot liquid and started again. This time in the microwave and it worked like a champ. I used the Baker's German chocolate as recommended. I beat the egg whites, which I had never folded into a cake before, but it definitely made the cake very fluffy and the other ingredients made this a very moist and delicious chocolate cake. And just the right amount of chocolate taste too! One thing different from the recipe, that I found, is that I didn't have enough batter to fill three 9-inch pans, so I just filled two. Not sure if that is a miss print, but it didn't matter. The cook temp isn't included so I just cooked it at 350 for a little more than 30 minutes until my toothpick came out clean.


When I put the cakes together I had quite a bit of the pecan frosting, and maybe that's because I didn't end up with three layers, but I used most of it and no one complained of too much frosting. I forgot to take pictures of the layers as I was putting it together and it was eaten up so fast once we cut into that I couldn't get any pictures then either. Oh well. I'd say the cake was a hit and made Brian's birthday. If you like German Chocolate Cake I strongly recommend giving this recipe a try.

Make My Cake German Chocolate Cake Recipe

Chocolate Ganache
4 oz semisweet chocolate, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla.
Melt chocolate and cream together on low heat until even, add vanilla, chill 15 minutes

Just a few pictures from the party. Brittany and I made this fabulous, if I do say so myself, Happy Birthday sign and hung it over the food table. Brian loves Henry Weinhard's Root Beer, so we chilled some of those and put them in cute bowls. My wrapping paper even matched the sign! It was a very successful birthday party.