Deliciousness: The Prohibition Pig

Tom and I paid a visit to Waterbury last evening to have dinner with a good friend of ours, Matt. Matt was in VT for the week and we were fortunate to have the chance to meet up with him before we left. We needed someplace between Milton and Montpelier, so Tom decided that we would check out the new restaurant, The Prohibition Pig.

He made a good choice.

This new restaurant takes the place of the Alchemist, which was flooded last August during Tropical Storm Irene. It looks quite classy inside, with a darker interior and jars of pickled vegetables along the walls. Their wine and beer list is quite extensive, providing many options for diners. I opted for a Vermont brew, the Hill Farmstead Florence, and was very pleased with the choice.

Barbecue is not always my thing, but it was last night. I ordered their house burger, served with pimiento cheese, a fried green tomato, and house smoked bacon. The burger was sandwiched between a sweet potato bun and was accompanied by a house pickle. It was the most delicious burger that I have ever eaten. Although I wanted more after taking my last bite, it was the perfect amount that left me satisfied after the meal.

The boys ordered apple cider donut holes and a bowl of maple, bourbon, and bacon ice cream. I nabbed one of the donut holes, but cannot tell you why I decided not to try the ice cream. Again, very tasty.

Question for you: What is the most unique burger combination you have ever had?

Grilled Prosciutto and Mozzarella Sandwhich

Last Sunday (4/29) I successfully made a tortilla Española for dinner. Normally I destroy the tortilla when I flip it, it comes out burnt, or the flavor is just bland. This time I made sure to really salt it, cooked it on low, and didn't bother to flip it. Instead, I put a lid on the pan and cooked it for 20 minutes. Perfecto.

By Monday I was craving more Spanish-style comida (food). More specifically, I was craving a bocadillo de jamon y queso (Serrano ham and cheese sandwich), but was lacking the authentic Serrano ham and Manchego cheese.

I discovered the next best thing: A grilled Mozzarella sandwhich with Red Hen bread, basil, tomato, and prosciutto! It was amazing, and so much better than the American grilled cheeses.

Fun fact: Growing up we knew grilled cheese sandwiches as "Toasted cheese sandwiches". My mom broiled them in the oven, toasting them, rather than grilling or frying.

Anyway, to make this sandwich it is quite simple:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Butter two sides of really good bread (I used Red-Hen)
3. Lay 1-2 pieces of prosciutto on each un-buttered side of the bread.
4. Lay slices of fresh Mozzarella on top of the prosciutto
5. Cover the cheese with fresh basil leaves.
6. Put the two halves of the sandwich together, making sure the butter is facing outward.

1. Heat olive oil in a small frying pan on medium-low heat. Place sandwich in pan and cook for 3 minutes, until crispy and slightly toasted. Flip and repeat for other side.
2. Place sandwich onto pan and bake in the oven for 3-5 minutes, until cheese is melted. 
3. Remove from oven (careful - it's hot!). Open sandwich and place slices of tomatoes between layers of basil leaves.

Apparently my Spanish-styled food cravings did not end last week. This Tuesday I was whipping up some Valencia-styled paella. I wonder what the next dish will be!

Sunday Soup: Tomato Basil Parmesan

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I headed home for the day and it was great to catch up with the family. We ate an early meal for us (2:00 instead of 5:00) which was great because I needed those extra hours for digestion. I was full well before I could finish my plate and still didn't pass up apple-pie dessert. 

The week off from school was wonderful and it gave me many opportunities to try out new recipes over the vacation. Pinterest had my eye once again, this time a Tomato Basil Parmesan soup recipe from 365 Days of Slow Cooking. 

I used skim milk instead of half and half, but did add a little bit of heavy cream (I was too lazy to run out to the store for the half and half).The soup was delicious but probably would have been amazing had I used fresh basil. 

It's back to school for me tomorrow for another two weeks before I'm finished with the rest of the semester. Yikes!

P.S. Wilson turned two years old on Thanksgiving! 

Besides getting three new awesome toys, he got a photo shoot in his too-small Santa Suit. 

I think it's hilarious to watch him try to squirm his way out of it. 

Summer Memories

Fall is most certainly here. The trees are turning colors and it's a cool 55 degrees this morning. Tom and I are running in the Leaf Peeper's half marathon tomorrow, another sure sign of fall. I love this race because it's an out and back, and also because there's Ben & Jerry's waiting for me at the finish line!

So now that the season has changed I wanted to leave you with a few photos of my summer that didn't make it onto the blog.

Running, Running, Running! We held our 9th Annual Milton Freedom 5k in June

I got to shake Michelle Obama's hand!

There was plenty of wedding cake baking. One cake took almost 13 lbs of butter, 36 eggs, and 14lbs of confectioner's sugar!

Whoopie Pies!

Beautiful flowers everywhere we went

My first day of school - one of three 1st days.

Tomatoes from Dad's garden

Hurricane Irene paid a visit to Vermont. Fortunately, Montpelier did not receive a lot of damage. 

Beautiful September drives through VT - Pre-foliage season

Cupcakes galore to celebrate birthdays!

And now I'll leave you with some photos of my favorite little creature, Wilson! This summer was big for him! Not only did he learn how to fetch tissues, but he learned how to take the entire box's worth out of the box and spread them across our bed, across the floor, and even into the kitchen and bathroom. He also learned how to sit and give high fives. I'm thinking we may need to schedule him for a TV appearance soon!

Next week we have a visitor from Washington DC. I expect to be posting many photos as we play Tourist and explore Vermont.

Long Runs, Cake, and a Birthday Celebration

First, tell me what on Earth could be better than having a long run, a cake, and a birthday to celebrate all at the same time. Second, it was handy that I did have a birthday to celebrate as I had leftover cake to eat before my run today. My maybe-8-miler turned into a 12 miler and those extra calories were much needed!

Yeah.... I'm probably crazy to eat cake before a run. And to eat chips and salsa. I know I should be fueling my body with nutritious foods, but the cake always looks better than a banana. *sigh* I definitely need to work on my pre-run food decisions....

Anyway, I'm not posting about my own cake creation, but instead am introducing you to the decorator-in-training - Tom! His mom's birthday was this weekend and to go along with the new serving platter we bought her we decided to make and decorate a cake.

Unfortunately Friday wasn't a good day for me baking-wise. My attempt at a Boston Cream pie looked more like an omlette when I flipped the cake onto the cooling rack. Lesson: don't forget to pre-heat the oven and make sure you put the batter immediately into the pans and into the oven if the instructions say to. I reluctantly threw out the "pie" and began a batch of chocolate cakes. After a little snag baking those I finally had two cake layers and Tom began to decorate. 

For a first timer, he did a great job. He started to get the hang of doing a shell border and is way better at centering his lettering than I am. His mom was very happy to receive the-one-of-a-kind cake. 

We celebrated her birthday yesterday, and enjoyed a seriously-delicious dinner of fresh pasta with garlic shrimp, prepared by the Tom, his brother, his dad, and a family friend. It was very entertaining to hear four men in the kitchen attempting to create this at the same time. For someone who doesn't eat shrimp, I ate all of the shrimp that were on my plate! Although I don't have the recipe, it seems fairly easy: shrimp sauteed in  butter, with parsley, lemon, 5 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Cherry tomatoes were thrown in at the end and that was served over warm, fresh pasta. 

Sadly, my one-week summer vacation has come to an end and tomorrow I start class full-time. I promise I'll try my best not to forget about the blog. 

CSA: Weeks 6 and 7

Summer is in full swing which means we're starting to get the REALLY good veggies! I've been quite happy with the type of veggies we've gotten over the last two weeks, but we discovered that we've needed more than the CSA has been giving us. I found myself going to the farm stand at work or to Montpelier's farmer's market on Saturdays to get extra veggies. It seems odd to be going out for extra veggies instead of extra desserts!. I'ts been really neat to see new, random veggies, like purple carrots and purple peppers.

Last week's CSA included Mesclun mix, red Norland potatoes, colorful (purple!) carrots, (purple!) sweet peppers, pearl onions, turnips, parsley, kale, eggplant, and tomatoes.

We've made a lot of dishes over the last two weeks. While they were good, none have looked appealing enough to take a photo. There's been baked haddock with peppers, onions, and tomatoes, as well as kale chips (which are super easy to make). We used the eggplant on Saturday night to make eggplant Parmesan with fresh basil. A safety dish that's always delicious is oven roasted potatoes. Last night I threw in the carrots, onions, and parsley to jazz up the dish. 

My most favorite thing to make this time of year is bruschetta. Actually, I could eat it all year round. Tom's become the master bruschetta maker: He chops up a tomato, adds some garlic, olive oil, and basil, then adds it to the top of fresh bread. Next he adds Mozzarella cheese before putting it in the oven to broil. He went a little overboard with the garlic last Wednesday.There's no way either of us were getting close enough for a kiss after that meal!

Thanksgiving in July

Saturday night we hosted a Thanksgiving-in-Summer feast at our tiny apartment! The idea came about last weekend when I pulled a turkey out of the freezer that I had gotten for free at work last fall. It sat in the fridge all week, and come Saturday morning we realized it had been thawed a few times previously. Not wanting to make anyone sick, we decided to bag the full turkey idea and picked up a few turkey breasts at Hannaford. After a morning stop to the Montpelier's Farmer's Market we had ourselves some fixings for a feast.

Our menu included:

Appetizers

• Pete's Greens' cherry tomatoes, Pete's Greens' basil, and Maplebrook mozzarella salad. 
• Cabot cheddar cheeses and crackers

Entree

• Sage-Roasted Turkey Breasts (with Pete's Greens sage from our CSA)
• Marshmallow Sweet Potato
• Stuffing 
• Cheesy Zucchini and Summer Squash with Garlic and Parsley, using all Pete's Greens vegetables and herbs from our CSA
• Red Hen Waitsfield Common Bread

Dessert:

• Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (made by Tom)
• Blueberry and Raspberry Pie (made by me)

Needless to say, we were stuffed after dinner. But seriously, who can pass up homemade pie and ice cream?