Food of the Gods

The second sidedish that I know you've been waiting in suspense for (relax, the wait is over!) is ambrosia, which literally translates to "food of the gods." If you've ever had it, you know that it's a sweet, light, and fruity side — not to mention a little unusual looking and old school. But delicious nonetheless!

Ambrosia is something I equate with family poolside BBQs at my grandparents' house — a dish that my late Aunt Patti always brought. When I was asked to bring it to our annual August birthdays party this past weekend, I knew I had to do her proud! There are many variations, but I started with a recipe from Alton Brown and made my own adjustments from there.

Asian-Inspired Coleslaw

Sure the main dish is important, but the sides should be just as interesting! Recently I've made a couple side/salad recipes that were colorful and tasty additions to summer meals.

The first side was Asian-inspired coleslaw, a recipe that I got from my good friend Melissa (shout out, yo!). It's very fresh and has a little more flavor than your average coleslaw. The original recipe calls for ground ginger, but using fresh ginger makes it smell and taste amazing! And if your coleslaw (store-bought or self-chopped) has a lot of red cabbage in the mix, it's a pretty attractive dish as well!

Asian Coleslaw (about 6 servings)

Ingredients:
1 lb. pre-shredded coleslaw mix (Whole Foods makes a great one!)
1/2 cup reduced fat mayo
2-3 tbsp. lime juice (2 limes for me)
2 tbsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger (or 1/4 tsp. ground ginger)
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:

• Blend all ingredients except coleslaw mix in a small bowl and thin with a splash of milk. 
• Pour over coleslaw mix and stir well. Refrigerate coleslaw for at least an hour before serving and garnish with a little chopped cilantro if that's up your alley!

Stay tuned for side #2...

Restaurant Review: Taco Riendo

Taco Riendo (or "laughing taco") is a small (but mighty) taqueria in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philly (1301 N. 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122). A few years ago, Brad and I were craving authentic Mexican and found a listing for this little place. Now it's one of our favorite places for a quick, cheap bite!

Now that we've been going for a few years, we each have our "standard" orders. My staples include: elote asado, grilled corn on the cob with Mexican mayo, lime, chile powder, and Oaxaca cheese; a fish taco, which has Mexican rice, grilled fish, and lime wedges; and a choriqueso taco — their homemade, spicy chorizo and Oaxaca cheese grilled in corn tortillas.

Jello for Adults

This past Saturday I was a Parrot Head at the Jimmy Buffett concert. If you've ever been to one, you know that the tailgating scene before the concert is actually the event...the concert itself is just icing on the cake!

For the occasion, I was in charge of making jello shots. So that I didn't feel like I was in college again, I decided to jazz them up a bit — and I must say they tasted pretty awesome! My kitchen was like a jello shot science lab, complete with intoxicating fumes...

Even though it's not "cooking" by definition, I thought I would include the recipes (if you can call them that) on here. For the most part, I simplified them to 1 box of jello — obviously you can multiply the amounts by the number of boxes you're making. Just keep in mind the basic principle behind making jello shots — for every box of jello, you want 2 cups liquid total. You can use sugar-free jello for a lot of these, but the fancier flavors of jello (e.g., Melon Fusion) don't usually come in sugar-free varieties.

Healthful Zucchini Bread

Living in Philly, it's easy to find fresh New Jersey (i.e., the Garden State) produce all summer long. This time of year, zucchini is especially plentiful, as it grows like a weed in these parts! Wondering how I'd use the zucchini I bought, I came across a recipe for zucchini bread on Whole Foods' website.

I was happy to see that the recipe incorporated substitutions to make it lower-fat and higher-fiber. And despite this fact, it is one tasty treat! If you find yourself elbow-deep in zucchini, here's a good way to use up some of it. It's also a great way to sneak some veg into a delicious snack!

Restaurant Reviews

I've decided to start logging our experiences dining out. We eat such delicious food here in Philadelphia! And since this blog was inspired by just that, what better place to write about it?

Just wanted to let you know... :)

Spicy Grilled Shrimp or Chicken

This is a great marinade that I've been using a lot lately! It has nice heat to it and is great with shrimp or chicken. It's also a rather attractive marinade...

As I often do, I started with someone else's recipe and adjusted it to my liking (as follows).

Easy-as-Pie Apple Cake

This recipe is as easy as it gets, and it's quite delicious! We're not quite into apple season yet, but the granny smiths (my apple of choice for this recipe) were cheap and I couldn't resist.

The recipe came from my mom who got it from someone named Donna — and that's all the information I have about its origins. I did, however, come up with the name all by myself...I'm just sayin. This cake is a tasty treat to follow a meal (maybe with a cup of tea or coffee). And this morning at work, I passed it off as breakfast food — so it's versatile too!

Indonesian Grilled Swordfish

We were looking to make something "of the sea" and found beautiful swordfish steaks at John Yi's in Reading Terminal Market. I was a little unsure since I'd never made swordfish and had no recipe in mind yet.

I remembered seeing Ina Garten making swordfish on one of her episodes of Barefoot Contessa, so I decided to start off with her recipe. It happened to use several of my favorite ingredients — fresh ginger, lemon zest, and garlic — and seemed promising! The smell of the ginger alone was enough to make me enjoy the recipe!

As usual, I made a few changes to her recipe. My version is below.

Blondies Are More Fun

I have nothing against the brownie, but it's just not my dream sweet treat to bake. Maybe I'm biased, having been a blond my whole life?

The blondie takes all of the best properties of the brownie and chocolate chip cookie and melds them together into a yummy bar treat. (Note that the recipe is different than regular cookie dough — the primary ingredient is brown sugar, which makes them deliciously chewy. Oh man.)

I was looking for something quick, transportable, and delicious (of course) to bring into work, so I started with a blondie recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I modified the recipe slightly and also doubled it (as written below). And let me just add my two cents  about the walnuts: I'm not necessarily a put-nuts-in-baked-goods kind of gal, but they go really nicely with the chocolate and brown sugar. It works.