Thursday, April 26, 2012

                Throughout the course of college, you develop relationships with those around you. Even classmates share a special bond. My public affairs class has been together for a year now. Since we are in the same major, we see a lot of each other, and we have become relatively close. I have had my professor for four classes now. We consider her our journalism mom.
                She wanted to take the class out to dinner, since we will soon be leaving each other and heading out into the real world. Last night, most of the class met up at Fireworks, an Italian restaurant located on Main Street. It is relatively new, and I heard the food was fantastic.
                When we walked in there, I was amazed at what I saw. The restaurant used to be a hotel, so the room is huge. Tables are far enough away from each other where we get our space. One of the students from our class worked at the restaurant, and happened to be our waiter.
                The room was darkly lit and in the back you could see the over where they made the pizzas. There was also a bar in that vicinity as well.
                I wasn’t sure what to order as we sat down at our table. We each started off with drinks. I always have a difficult time deciding what I would want, so I ordered precco, which is sparkling white wine. My friend ordered that and said I would like it.. I did. And to be honest with you, I don’t usually like wine.. at all.
                Usually at restaurants, you are started off with bread. At Fireworks, it isn’t just ordinary bread. It was a braided loaf, cooked with garlic, parmigiana cheese, and parsley. It was delicious. It was basically garlic bread. It was served with both olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
                To start off, my professor ordered two risotto cakes. I once told my mom that when I ate the mac n cheese from Panera, I started to cry because it was so good. This was one of these moments. The risotto was creamy and cooked with mushrooms. After, it was fried and it looked like a cake. The creamy inside and the crunchy outside made a good pairing.
                For dinner I ordered an individual pizza. I got the bianco, which is a white pizza. It was cooked with mozzarella, and ricotta cheese, along with garlic. There were caramelized onions on top, and I added on wild mushrooms to the dish. As you can see, I love mushrooms.
                The pizza was delicious, along with the risotto cake. My friend and I were going to order dessert, but we realized we were too full. I give the place two thumbs up. Although it is pricey, it’s nice to treat yourself once in a while, and Fireworks is definitely the place to go.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

It always sucks when you realize you have no snacks in your apartment and you are looking for something to much on. Thank god for Easter and all the candy I received. After eating my swedish fish and almost finishing off my nerds, I realize that I am down to only chocolate. For most people, that would be a great thing. But for me, I am more of a candy connoisseur. All I am left with is some lifesaver sucking candies.. but there are only two more in the bag. Maybe I should stop being cheap and go pick up more candy from the school store.

Monday, April 23, 2012

              I know I haven't been keeping up with my blog recently.. between school work and classes, and figuring out how I am going to spend the rest of my life, it is difficult to keep everything in tact. This is not an excuse. I love food, and I love writing about food. So here it is.. I will start blogging everyday.                    This is not just for me, but for those who read my blog as well.

             It's nice to have a break in between classes to sit down and enjoy a meal. Today I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a couple of my good friends without having to rush. The DC was serving chicken tacos. I was rather excited with this selection, given I love being able to create my taco the way I would like.

            My soft tortilla was filled with salsa, sour cream, shredded lettuce (of course the best kind in my opinion), and shredded chicken. Oh and of course cheese.

           Good? Not so much. Halfway through enjoying my taco, I bit on something hard. When I realized it was a bone, I grew disappointed. It was a small bone, but nonetheless... who likes finding those in your food. I reluctantly finished my taco, but was not satisfied in the end.

Friday, April 20, 2012

School has taken over my life, which inhibits me to blog as often as I would like to. Although I have not been blogging, I have been eating.. and eating some more. Last weekend, I tried chicken croquettes for the first time, and I must say.. I was impressed.
As my friend described them, they are a ball of chicken. And literally, that is what they were.
My roommate's friend was up for the weekend, so we wanted to take him to the best places in town. So naturally, we went to the diner.
The chicken was shredded up, put into a ball, and then fried. They were served with two sides, which had me excited. I decided on ordering mashed potatoes, and turnips. Yes, that is a strange side to order, but my mom makes them back home and they are delicious.
The gravy that was served over the food was delicious. It was thick, and it had a buttery taste to them. The turnips tasted like they were cooked in butter  as well. I like turnips because they remind me of potatoes, but they are lighter and they kind of have the consistency of zucchini.
Anyway, I was impressed with the meal.. and the whole thing came out to less than $5.00!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

It's bad when you have been craving nothing but McDonalds for the last 3 hours. I have been on a McDonalds kick for weeks now, and I am sad to say it is not getting better. Whenever I go, I can't seem to stop eating. I always start off with a double cheeseburger and end the night with a snack wrap. That's not including the chicken nuggets and fries I get in between. Tonight I was supposed to go with my friends, but unfortunately, that did not happen.
There is something about McDonalds burgers that I love. I don't generally like burgers as I seem to find them dry, and not a good texture to eat. With all the grease that the double cheeseburger consists of, I somehow find that extremely appetizing.
As I start to read Fast Food Nation for class, I realize that I have to get all my McDonalds consumption in. After I read the in and outs of fast food, I may be repelled to eat anything from the golden arches for quite some time.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

It was my third time in a row celebrating Easter, and I have no complaints about that. The food seems to be the same every year: ham, potatoes, and a vegetable. I have heard other families eating fish, or eating lasagna, but for me ham always seems to be served.
Growing up, my family never really ate ham. We would eat chicken, steak, and brisket. Ham never really seemed to be of interest. After eating it three years in a row, I may want to bring it to the family table.
The ham is thick cut, and it is generally not tough, nor too chewy. It cuts easily, which comes in handy for somebody who has trouble with the knife and fork.
Along with the ham this year,  we had a side of mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were good, but I like adding butter to them. They also had seasoned salt that was put on the table, and I threw that on as well. It adds extra flavor, and makes the dish pop. Carrots were the vegetable of choice, and although they were just steamed, they were good.
Next year i want to bring Easter traditions back home. When I meantioned to my family that I would like to have an Easter egg hunt, they didn't seem to keen on the idea. Probably because the youngest person in my family will be a freshman in college next year, and I think they may have other ideas of fun.

Friday, April 6, 2012

This is my first year missing Passover, and instead of celebrating, I will be partaking in Easter dinner. 
I came home with my friend for the weekend. I get to enjoy four nights of home-cooked meals. Last night, I almost finished off the dish. Her mom made sausage cups, which were out of this world. 
The cups consisted of Jimmy Dean sausage, cheddar and monterey jack cheese, and ranch. The cups were made out of wonton wrappers, which were thin crispy cups. After they are baked in the oven, they are reading to be eaten. 
They would make the perfect appetizers for a party, and I can't wait to make them when I go home. Unfortunately, they are little heart attacks in a cup, so eating twelve in one night may not be the best idea..

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

It's getting closer to graduation, which means time to see everybody before I walk across the stage. Oh, and it also means hit up as many restaurants as I could. So, I started with Applebees.
My friend who I haven't seen since last year was going Easter basket shopping, and she invited me with her. Before we had the chance to go to the store, we decided on eating dinner beforehand.
Making decisions on what to eat is the worst. I could never decide, and I sit there forever second guessing what I should get.
I finally decided on getting the 2 for 20 with my roommate. We split the Spinach and Artichoke dip. The chips that came with it were extremely warm. They went great with the dip, which was filled with cheese through the dip as well as melted on top. There was enough chips to fill 3 or 4 people, but my roommate and I polished it off.
I also ordered clam chowder, which was extremely creamy. I don't often eat clam chowder. Actually, I don't even remember the last time I had it. The chowder consisted of clams which were good and not to chewy. The soup also had potatoes. The potatoes were a little to big, but that's just me.
For my main course, I ordered steak. I love ordering steak because it comes with 2 sides. One is a starch, in which I chose mashed potatoes. They were creamy and garlicky, and there was a good amount there. It also came with cole slaw, which was mounded inside the container. That was also creamy as well, but it went well with the steak and potatoes.
I recently started eating steak, and I never know how to order it. Since my family always orders it medium well, that's what I went with.
The steak was a little bit chewy, but I mean, what steak isn't. It had a nice flavor to it. The fatty parts of the steak are my favorite parts.
Overall the meal was good, and it wasn't expensive either. This however, didn't stop me from making a box of macaroni and cheese later that night.

Monday, April 2, 2012

It's always the worst when you are stuck in class and you suddenly become extremely hungry. For some reason, right when I got to my class this morning, I was really in the mood for a panini. I have no idea where the craving came from, but it was hard to concentrate it class. Well that and the fact that it was at eight in the morning and I as half asleep. 
After my second class of the day, I finally had time to go eat some food. I met my friend in the dining commons and we sat down for a nice forty five minute lunch.
The DC didn't really have much to eat today, so obviously I went straight to the vegan station. I helped myself to two servings of ravioli. I can't explain it, but there is something about vegan cheese that I love. After finishing the second plate, I was still hungry. I chose to eat a salad.
The salad consisted of everything from cheese to chickpeas to sunflower seeds. The salad was good, but it definitely is not my idea of a well rounded meal.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

                There is something very valuable to college students regarding food: leftovers. Since we don’t have a lot of money to spend on meals, we look to be resourceful. The other night a couple of my friends and I ordered Dominos. We went all out, and the three of use split two large pizzas and cheesy bread.
                The first pizza we ordered was one of their specialty pizzas, which was chicken bacon ranch. We requested for it to be deep dish, which makes it all the unhealthier. The other pie we ordered was the Wisconsin 6 cheese. If you ask me, it seemed like regular pizza, and if I was going to order a specialty pizza the next time, I would choose something different. It wasn’t bad, but somewhat boring.
                The chicken bacon ranch pizza was delicious. It was creamy from the ranch, and it had bacon and chicken running through it. There were also tomato pieces running through the pie, but if you ask me, I wouldn’t mind if those were left out.
                Since we left so much over, yesterday I found myself reheating the pizza multiple times throughout the day. The first time was a couple hours before dinner and the second was late night snacking. There is nothing more exciting than opening up the fridge to find boxes of Dominos waiting to be reheated.