Restaurant Review - Hotel Hershey

Had fabulous brunch at the gorgeous Hotel Hershey on Sunday. I'll start from the start. The building is incredibly beautiful. And Sunday brunch is held in the circular dining room, which has beautiful frescos painted on the ceiling, and pretty great views of the ponds and fountains behind the hotel. Very elegant.

Which, to maintain that elegant air, you'll be expected to get fancified. Jackets required. No jeans, no flip flops, otherwise you'll get no brunch. Pretty straight forward.

I thought the food was very good. And, actually, one of the most memorable things was the coffee. It was medium bodied and nutty. I'd be willing to say it was better than Dunkin Donuts, and I love their coffee! This brunch had a nice mix of different foods. Lots of seafood, numerous meat dishes. I thought the dessert could have been a little better done. In part because a lot of the desserts were just too big! I wanted to try a little bit of everything, but I ended up with a giant piece of cheesecake. Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, mind you. Yes, please cry for me now.

This was a very good brunch, and worth the money. It wasn't as amazing as the brunch at Rittenhouse, but that brunch was twice the price. So, if you're in Hershey for a weekend, hit up the Hotel Hershey for a classy time.

Stuffed French Toast!

So, this may sound strange, but I had never made french toast until I tried this recipe. Its not like I haven't done elaborate breakfast dishes before. But, for whatever reason, I've just never been inspired to make french toast. And I don't know why I decided to make french toast on this occassion, either! But I spent a week trying to decide what I wanted to do, and I ended up with a delicious decision. I was going to make french toast stuffed with pecan mascarpone filling. I had some mascarpone that was fast approaching (or passing!) its best by date. And I'm really into pecans right now. Its a phase.

This recipe may sound like it might be kind of complicated and fancy-shmancy-pantsy. But it was much easier than I had expected.

Anyways, here's what you'll need to make this recipe: (Serves 4)
Day old bread. I went with challah, but I think brioche would have been a nice choice as well.
6 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 an orange, juiced
1.5 tsps orange zest
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 container (8oz) mascarpone
1 cup pecans, chopped (plus a handful for garnish, if you decide to go that way)
2 tablespoons butter


Whisk together the eggs, cream, orange juice, zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar, and salt in a bowl. I actually used a pyrex dish for this.

Combine the mascarpone and chopped pecans. Spread the mixture on the pieces of bread. Make a sandwich with two pieces of bread, and then let them sit in the cream mixture for about 1.5 minutes on each side. Heat a nonstick skillet on medium heat, and melt half of the butter. Once the butter is melted, cook two of the sandwiches at a time until golden brown on both sides. This may take about 5 minutes per side. Once the first sandwiches are done, set them on a plate, melt the second half of the butter, and cook the rest of the french toast.

I put homemade whipped cream on my french toast and garnished with some pecans and segements of orange. And, of course, maple syrup. Delicious!

Don't get intimidated. This is actually pretty easy, and as long as you've had a cup of coffee before starting, I'm confident you can make delicious french toast at home.

Best. Brunch. Ever.

My mom took me to La Croix at the Rittenhouse in Philadelphia. I was super excited. This place had been named by Philadelphia Magazine as the best brunch in Philly. Man oh man. They weren't lying. SO GOOD!

This...http://www.lacroixrestaurant.com/menu_and_wine_cellar/documents/BrunchNov-Dec2010.pdf. This is the beautiful, delicious, amazing, incredible spread we got to devour. We ate for two hours. TWO HOURS! My mom was so full by the end that she felt sick.

I'm just going to give the "oh wow!" super highlights, because almost everything was fantastic. First prize went to the gnocchi with sunchoke and kale, which was unbelievably good. The dish was creamy and savory, and the gnocchi had the perfect consistency. A surprisingly delish dish was the coddled egg, which was maple glazed and topped with fried onions. The texture looked creepy and squishy, but it actually wasn't weird when you ate it, and was surprisingly sweet with a little salty from the onions. The best of the numerous perfectly sized starters was the foie gras mousse with grapefruit. It was the perfect little bite. Savory and smokey from the foie gras, with a tart finish at the end. And my favorite dessert, by far, was the goat cheese panna cotta with sour cherry compote and mini vanilla wafers. The dessert had just enough sweet, but wasn't overpowering. And paired with the crunchy wafer and the tart cherries, it just really came together perfectly. And it, too, came in the perfect size.

I haven't even done justice to this fabulous brunch. Everything was wonderful. The presentation of the food and the layout were pretty spectacular. They served all the hot dishes in the kitchen, so you got to see the work space and the kitchen staff! The service was excellent, attentive, and kept our coffee cups full and hot! And the ambiance of this restaurant was extremely upscale. They gave us a wonderful table for two, which allowed us to look out on the Rittenhouse Square and people watch.

One little warning. This place may give you major sticker shock. Brunch for two, with cocktails, ran us $150 before tip. But I promise it will be the most mind blowing brunch you've ever had.

Restaurant Review - Alexis Baking Company

The scene: Napa proper, hidden on a quiet semi-residential street. This is kind of a hole in the wall. Nothing fancy about the setting. Just a store front with about 15 tables. But I knew I’d made the right choice when almost everything else in Napa was asleep on Sunday morning at 8:45am, and this place had a waiting list.

The meal: I’m not even sure I need to describe the food I had the pleasure of eating. The names will do it. Stuffed pancakes with sweetened cream cheese and fresh nectarines. Cinnamon French toast with fresh nectarines and powdered sugar. Omelet with wild mushrooms and sweet onions, cinnamon toast, and breakfast potatoes. But, in case you can’t guess what these taste like, I’ll give you a little description.

The omelet had fabulous flavor. I might have made a few adjustments (cheese! Hello?!), but when you got a bite with the onion and the mushrooms together it was earthy and sweet and wonderful. The breakfast potatoes didn’t wow me, but the fresh, homemade cinnamon bread did. The portion size was also substantial.
The French toast was made with that same delicious homemade cinnamon bread. And it was just awesome. Plain and simple.

Oh, you thought the highlight of the meal was the French toast? Sure, it was awesome. But it was not nearly as freaking fantastic as the pancakes! The sweetened cream cheese between two fluffy and light pancakes was a little reminiscent of a crepe. But with better filling. The filling had the flavor of cheesecake (because, duh, it’s the same stuff!), but was creamy and smooth. With all that fresh fruit, it all came together for my favorite pairing. Sweet and tart. And wowow delicious.
You cannot go wrong with this place. I oogled everyone’s food until I got mine, and then I was so happy!

The service: Awesome! Our server, let’s call him T-Rex, was a big guy. The table was long, and it was hard to get to the farthest coffee cup, so he joked that he couldn’t reach it because of his little T-Rex arms. They were not little, but he was funny. When we asked what was better between the pancakes or french toast, he said, “Why don’t I give you half an order of each, then you can try them both.” Um, SOLD! He was attentive, and stopped by frequently to top off our coffee.

The price: For the portion size and quality it was worth it.

The highlights: The purple house across the street. Seriously, it was adorable. The ambiance wasn’t fabulous, but who the heck cares when the food is that delicious?

Final thoughts: Go. Enjoy. And then don’t eat anything else the rest of Sunday!

Brunch Club - Eurotrip!

This week's brunch club theme was Eurotrip. So, I thought about one of my eurotrips, to France and Italy with my mom. We had pain au chocolat pretty much EVERY day. So, that was what I decided to make.

I also decided to lazy it up hardcore, and I bought crescent rolls. Sort of a mistake, because I should I have bought puff pastry and cut it myself. It would have been lighter and fluffier. Sigh. Definitely will do that next time. Anyways, here are my suggested directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Cut puff pastry into squares, and then cut each square diagonally (to form triangles).
3. Spread nutella in a triangle shape stopping about 1/2" or so from the edges
4. Roll from the wide end of the triangle towards the pointed end.
5. Pinch the ends closed
6. Shape into a crescent and place on a foil covered baking sheet.
7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Be careful not to bake for too long, because no one likes burnt croissants.


Overall, this is a super easy thing to make in the morning for a brunch, and it'll be a big hit because, let's be honest, who doesn't love chocolate? If you don't, you are unamerican. Just putting that out there.

Apologies for the lack of pictures. They just looked like croissants. Not that exciting.

Brunch Club - Its November!

This week's brunch club theme is November. November makes me think of Thanksgiving, so I decided to incorporate some traditional thanksgiving flavors into my creation.

I started with english muffins. Then I added some sliced brie. I popped that in the oven for 5 minutes at 350, just to get the brie a little melty and the english muffins a warm and toasty.

I was lazy (and running way late because I went to the grocery store at 8:45 in the morning, and had to be done and at brunch by 11) so I used pre-made turkey sausage patties. Made this recipe SUPER easy. I prepared them in a frying pan, and put them on top of the english muffins. Then I chopped some sage and rosemary and sprinkled it over the top of the sausage patties.

While all this was going on, I also prepared a cranberry sauce to go on top of everything. I used this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/cranberry-sauce-recipe/index.html. Make sure you give it enough time to let the cranberries pop completely, because otherwise the sauce ends up having awkwardly bitter moments whenever you eat one of the cranberries that didn't burst. But, overall, super easy recipe to make. I took the cranberry sauce as a side, because putting it on too early would make things soggy.

This was a great brunch recipe, especially given the theme. It was fast and easy to make, easy to transport, and had a great flavor combination. The sage and rosemary were critical for that, because they really brought out the Thanksgiving feel.

In other brunch deliciousness, Kristin made an AWESOME corn casserole and Floren made a spicy pear bundt cake, with real pear. Recipes please!

Brunch Club - A Simple Souffle?

Hello! You should call me Substitution Sally, because I clearly just used this recipe to change practically everything! Here's what I started with: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cheese-souffle-recipe/index.html

And here's what I did to change it:

1. I didn't have any parm cheese, so I used some Gouda.
2. I didn't have a souffle dish, so I used a spring form pan.

3. I didn't have any garlic powder, so I used the same amount of garlic paste.

4. I didn't have any cream of tartar, so I used the same amount of lemon juice.

5. I added about 1/4 cup of roasted tomatoes.

6. I added about 1/4 cup of roasted red pepper.

7. I added about 6 oz of Gouda on the top of the souffle.

And, you know, for all these substitutions, it turned out delicious. My only mistake, and this was a relatively substantial mistake (as far as presentation was concerned) was adding the cheese on the top. I put it on with 5 minutes left to cook. I added it for two reasons. One is that I thought the top was getting a little too brown. But I could have fixed that by using foil. The second is that I really really love cheese. There is no fixing that. And I had all this delicious cheese in my fridge to use!

Why is putting all that delicious cheese on the top a mistake, you ask? Oh, because the souffle was so light and delicate that the 6 oz of cheese proved too heavy and caused my souffle to squish a little. And then the car ride over to brunch club caused it to squish more. And then cutting through that crusty layer of delicious cheese? Souffle explosion.

But it tasted delicious! I think if you make this recipe (with or without all my substitutions) I'd recommend adding somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper. A word of warning: this recipe has the potential to go terribly terribly wrong. You're doing a lot of things at once. And there is the dreaded requirement that you temper the egg mixture. Always a dangerous proposition, especially as far into the recipe as this was. But if you temper with tiny amounts at a time, you'll be fine. I honestly started with about a tablespoon at a time, and gradually increased to about a cup at a time. Better to be safe and slow than sorry, right?

Otherwise, this morning was another delicious and successful brunch club! Excellent work everyone!

Brunch Club - Breakfast at Tiffany's

This is going to be a short entry, because I'm pretty sure you all know how to make a mimosa. Which was really all I contributed to this brunch. But I wanted to thank everyone for coming and bringing great things.

And Floren's cookies deserve a special shout out. AH-MAZE-ING! Both tasty, and exactly on theme. Floren gets 5 stars. 5 entirely unimportant and meaningless stars! YES! But look at how beautiful these cookies were!

It was really a great showing. You all impressed my family and made them believe that I hang out with totally classy people! Post recipes, because I want them.

Brunch Club - The First

My friends and I are having our inaugural "Brunch Club" meeting this morning. I'm not going to review everyone's fare unless they request it, but you may see some future Brunch Club posts. Anyways...

I've been having a cupcake craving. But cupcakes are not really brunch food, especially for a brunch starting at 10am. So, I decided to go with a muffin-cupcake theory. Really, its just a muffin with frosting. Good deal, right?

I decided to lazy it up, so I bought boxed muffin mix. The reason I feel not so bad about buying boxed muffin mix is that it seems a big waste of my time to mix and sift flour/sugar/etc. I went with a box of Krusteaz Fat Free Wild Blueberry. I didn't notice the fat free part until I got home. Not a big fan of baking with the fat free, but it was fine because the frosting fattied it up. A lot.

I didn't want to be entirely non-creative with my box o' muffins, so I minced fresh strawberries and added 1/4 cup of the strawberries to the batter. I reduced the water in the recipe by 1/8th of a cup. I probably could have added more fresh strawberries, since strawberries are a rather mildly flavored fruit, especially when compared with blueberries. If I had used cranberries, then 1/4 cup would have been sufficient. But I also was aiming for a big strawberry taste. Oh well. This is what I get for being lazy. However, the muffins taste good, and considering how little time/effort it took, I was pleased with them. My only complaint about this box mix is that it makes 11, yes that's 11, muffins. Not very many, and why can't you give me enough batter to make 12?!

For the frosting I borrowed a Paula Dean recipe. You know what that means... BUTTER!!! Insane amounts of butter! The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/index.html

Now, when I looked at this recipe, I was pretty floored by just how much cream cheese and butter it was calling for. I made half the recipe, knowing that half the recipe would probably frost 24 cupcakes easily. Paula Dean must end up with cupcakes that have more frosting than cake! So, if you cut the recipe in half you will get delicious frosting and plenty of it. I actually didn't half the vanilla, but I like very vanilla flavor. I also added about 1/4 cup minced fresh strawberries, to compliment the flavor of the muffin. Deeeeelicious. But how could it not be, with that much butter and cream cheese?!

Brunch!

I hosted brunch before a UVA tradition: Foxfield.

The real challenge: How do you make two quiches, breakfast potatoes, mint simple syrup, lay a table, entertain guests, keep the dog out of trouble, and manage to get dressed and look fabulous while getting all that stuff done? Answer: It's all about planning!

Here are the two quiche recipes I used:

http://amicuscupcake.blogspot.com/ - the goat cheese and pesto quiche

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aaron-mccargo-jr/asparagus-and-cheddar-quiche-recipe/index.html

I've never made as many changes to a recipe as I did to these. On the goat cheese quiche, the onion cook time was too long/hot, as was the bake time. Some of my onions burnt, so I picked them out before mixing my ingredients. I baked the goat cheese quiche at 325 for 45 minutes and that was plenty.

On the asparagus quiche, I used only 1 tsp of salt. That 1 tablespoon is WAY wrong. I decided to get pretty with the look of the asparagus quiche by using fresh asparagus stalks on the top. The presentation on these quiches was *muah*, although I did think that the asparagus quiche could have been baked a touch longer. I did 325 for 45 minutes, and it might have been a little more solid with 50 minutes. But they still tasted great. The little touch of Dijon in the asparagus quiche gave it some bite.

I did all my prep work the day before, so in the morning all I had to do was roll out my crusts (giant pain!) and combine things. This was a very good plan, because cooking/baking in the morning is hard before I've had a cup of coffee.

While the quiches baked, I got dressed, and then made the potatoes. Thanks mom for that fabulous apron!

Here's the recipe for the potatoes:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/smoky-paprika-home-fries-recipe/index.html
The potatoes had great flavor, but honestly they needed some serious salt and pepper. Mostly salt. I also thought some cayenne or maybe some diced jalapenos would have added a little somethin' somethin'.

For mint juleps, because you can't have a southern horse racin' party without mint juleps, I made a mint simple syrup using fresh mint leaves that I allowed to heat with the syrup for a few minutes. I then strained them out, and popped the syrup in the fridge. Made for well mixed mint juleps with some serious mint flavor.

Overall, this was a successful operation. I had a little trouble starting, but having all my ingredients ready and all my supplies laid out on the counter really helped jump start my productivity.

This was a beautifully executed brunch, and I want to say thanks to everyone who brought something. It wouldn't have been as awesome without all your contributions!