toulouse petit breakfast happy hour...again

every other ad agency/publisher in the world has the week inbetween christmas and new years off except for razorfish. surprise surprise. i'm pretty sure we are the only publicis owned company that doesn't. so because of that we (nick, steph and i) decided to slack off slightly today and hit up some breakfast happy hour at toulouse petit before working the rest of the day from home :)

as you recall i jump on any opportunities i get breakfast happy hour (from 9-11) at toulouse because most plates are only $6!

today i went for the crawfish and tasso scramble. it has bits of asparagus, bell peppers and onions in it topped with black pepper tasso gravy. really the gravy is what won me over because i was debating the biscuits and gravy as well. of all the items i've tried there, this is probably my least favorite because while everything sounded great, the gravy wasn't very flavorful at all which was disappointing since the entire dish was drenched in it.

oh well. we also have monday off and we're making a reappearance!! this was decided before we left today :)

adult spaghettios...that's right.

sunday night i decided to make soup because i was feeling daring. soup isn't something i make too frequently. it's ironic because cat, megan and i exchanged our christmas gifts earlier on sunday and megan gave me a recipe book called 'for the love of soup'!!! girl knows me too well. right when i'd gotten home from oregon, cat found me on my bed with about 8 books sprawled around me looking for a soup recipe. and then two hours later i added another to the collection. :)




so the best part of it? i made soup and decided to just wing it.

bad decision.

i had this vision of tomato soup with some ground turkey, vegetables and some pasta in it so i got those ingredients. (p.s. have you ever had itty bitty star pasta? it is the cutest thing ever!! comes in a little box at the store.) chopped up all my veggies and browned the onions for a little bit, then added in some ground turkey with a bunch of spices. that part i got under control. then came the soup part. i added in some chicken stock (two cans and one container to be exact), a can of tomato paste and some cream. that's when i should've known better. i had WAY too much broth in there. i got desperate and put in some corn starch to try to thicken up the concoction (yea right) so finally i got smart and whipped out another pot and started transferring some liquid over before throwing in the remaining ingredients. that saved it for sure. i kept tasting the 'soup' as it was simmering and added salt/pepper/tobasco as necessary to give it a little more flavor.

in the end i ended up with what rachel ray has dubbed 'stoup'--a stew/soup. it actually isn't bad. i thought i was doomed at first but it's turned into something i enjoy popping back into the microwave to reheat. i call it the adult version of spaghettios because of the pasta and meat that's in there. i'd like to think it's a little healthier than the canned version. i oughtta trademark this before spaghettios starts putting it on the shelves...

in any case, i learned my lesson--definitely sticking to a recipe next time!!

christmas dinner

on christmas day, my family headed to portland to meet up with the rest of the bee hive...haha. yes, i said that. this year we met at my aunt sue's for a delicious dinner! of course as soon as we got there she had snacks which were very dangerous. if it were up to me, every meal would be a meal of appetizers. perhaps that's why i love dim sum so much.

anyway, she hit up costco which meant there were little spanakopitas and spinach artichoke parmesan dip (you know what i'm talking about). and then my aunt had smoked salmon that she caught herself, and another aunt brought homemade paté. mmmmm.

for the actual meal we had prime rib which was cooked pretty well--lots of pink in the middle and then a ham my aunt made which was excellent. i'm not sure how she made it--i should've asked but it tasted like it was somehow infused with orange which definitely made it yummier.

as for sides we had baked potatoes, broccoli, another dish of potatoes, salad, CORN (love it), and salad. i wanted to die i was so full. i was definitely in fetal position for a while!

christmas eve dinner

i decided to attempt to impress my parents by cooking them christmas eve dinner this year. i mean, my mom complimented my thanksgiving food so i decided to keep riding the wave.

on the menu was steak with a brandy dijon sauce, twice baked potatoes, and roasted vegetables.

they loved it!!!! yay go me!!!!!!!!!! :)

i've been a little pioneer woman happy but i followed her filet au poivre recipe. to cook the steaks, i heated up a pan, melted some butter and then threw the steaks on there to sear for about a minute on each side. both my mom and i thought the pan was hot enough...but it wasn't. boo. however, because i had the sauce to cover the steak, we could forgo the lovely seared color. then after i seared both sides, we threw it in the oven to finish at 500 degrees for about 5 minutes. if you do this, you get VERY pink meat, which my family enjoys. so you adjust your timing accordingly.

the sauce that i made with really quick and easy--after i took the steaks out of the pan (and out of the oven), i squired some dijon mustard and then got that going with some brandy. after letting the two cook together for a bit, i added in half and half (you could use whipping cream too) and then eventually peppercorns. give it a little time and it will thicken up and get saucy!

the twice baked potatoes took the longest to make so good thing i got a little head start on that. i baked the potatoes at 400 degrees for 1:15 and then you're supposed to cut them in half, scoop out the potato leaving the shell intact, and then filling it up again with your filling. well, i didn't have enough patience to try not to tear through every shell so after scooping out the potatoes and adding in sour cream, bacon bits, butter, a little milk, green onions, cheddar cheese and seasoning salt, i put the mixture into a baking dish and back into the oven. oh yes, and i topped with more cheese. you can never have too much, right? (side note, it was in the oven for about another 15 mins or so before i took it out)

and now for the vegetables. brussel sprouts and balsamic vinegar just sounded good to me so i went and found them at trader joe's. in case you weren't aware, brussel sprouts grow in stalks and now you can get them on the stalk at the grocery store! i think it's a new thing these days. all you have to do is snap them off the stalk, cut off the end, and then i halved them. i also got some fennel and cut that into chunks and threw in some carrots for good measure...although we could've done without. i mixed the veggies in a bowl with salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar before roasting them in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes. about half way i moved the veggies around so they could evenly brown and did a little taste test to make sure i didn't need anything else. they turned out SO tasty. you gotta try it!

yea. i was walking around trader joe's with one of those suckers. it's like a weapon.

beautiful, beautiful steak.

the finale!!

FROYO!!!!!!!!!!

i love froyo so much that i had to dedicate a post to it. what i love even more is self-serve froyo! mock all you want, californians, but this is the pacific northwest!

i was actually quite shocked to see that corvallis already has a few 'yogurt extremes' around town that have self-serve since we just got menchies in seattle a few weeks ago.

i must say that yogurt extreme is kicking menchie's ass in terms of pricing and toppings. i suppose seattle is expected to be a little more expensive. i'm sure once yogurtland comes in on capital hill, prices might drop. supply and demand, right?

yes, those are mini gummy bears. best invention EVER.

layered dip

so i gave my friend jason the idea of making the pioneer woman's layered dip the other week and it looked really yummy so i insisted that we make it when i came back to corvallis! it's actaully one of the easiest things in the world, you just gotta get all the ingredients!

the layers are (in order from bottom to top):
refried beans heated over the stove with chilis and tobasco (or your fav mexican hot sauce...i'm a personal fan of tapitio)
shredded cheddar
sour cream
guac (we mashed up avocadoes and then added in some of the pico de gallo we made)
monterey jack cheese
olives
pico de gallo

you could really do them in any layer that you want but jason insisted that we follow her order. i argued that it all looks the same once it goes down anyway ;)

kingfish café

my good friend troy is moving to maui (really rough life, i know) with his company in a few weeks so we had dinner together last friday at kingfish cafe on capital hill. it's a little more off the beaten path since it's back on 19th, but worth the trek. the only thing is they don't do reservations. luckily, we got seated pretty quickly arriving there around 8pm on friday night. otherwise i'd be prepared to wait about 20 mins.

i was in the mood to try a LOT of things so don't judge me!! :) i got a cup of crawfish chowder, macaroni and cheese with collard greens and then a mint julep! when in rome, right?

the crawfish chowder was delightful. it wasn't very thick and so full of flavor. it was perfect and not too filling. i also happen to love crackers in my chowder so i was very pleased with the amount they gave me. troy got screwed over a little though.



then came the huuuuuuge helping of mac and cheese. it was to die for. they use onions and some pepper in it with two kinds of cheeses. the cheese was a good consistency and the extra shredded cheese on top was very tasty as well. i should note that it reheated well the next day too. i should caveat that this dish usually comes with a green salad, but for some reason i was craving collard greens so they made the swap for me! the greens were bomb. they put some heat in them so that was a nice surprise and i felt like they never ending. no matter how much i ate, i felt like the amount left didn't change!

then there was the mint julep in a mason jar. holy hell it was strong. i haven't had too many in my day, so it's tough to compare, but it took me a while to drink that sucker :)

i need to go back soon and try everything else on their menu!!