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Buitoni Pasta!

So this morning I got a HUGE box delivered from Foodbuzz!! It contained my Buitoni Pasta samples I had requested a few weeks back. Inside the huge box was lots of syrofoam, ice packs and some lovely Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti.


I will say that first and foremost, they couldn't have sent me a worse pick because generally I am not too hot on mushrooms, but I sent a text to Kristi about meeting her for some Starbucks later and I asked her to come over for dinner so we could try them out.

She showed up around 5:30 with some random ingredients ad we planned a rough menu and then headed out to get what we didn't have on hand.


We ended up getting some parsley and sugar snap peas....

Pancetta...


and some Margarita mix for later!


Then we headed home to concoct some delicious foods.

We started off by dividing the agnolotti into two, one for the appetizers and one for the meal.

For our appetizer we made Italian panko breaded agnolotti and artichoke hearts, deep fried them and served them with a creamy marinara sauce.


First we dregged the agnolotti and artichoke hearts in flour, than in an egg wash and finally into a mixture of bread crumbs, panko, Italian seasons, Parmesan cheese ad parsley, then flash fried them in hot oil. The creamy marinaria is made by mixing equal parts marinara sauce with ranch dressing, I know it sounds odd, but trust me.


For our meal Kristi and I wanted to make a sauce that just enriched the yummy flavor of the pasta, so we started with some butter, and left it to brown in a pan. We then added sweet peas, and diced pancetta and let them sautee.


The browned butter was then drizzled over the boiled and drained mushroom agnolotti, and topped with the sauteed pancetta and peas. Mizithra cheese and chopped Italian parsley was sprinkled on top.


The Pasta was tender and delicious. The mushroom mixture inside held up almost as if it were meat, and the cheese was a lovely addition. We both decided that we would love to try these again, and all the other flavors of Buitoni pasta. If you want a nice light meal with a buttery nutty flavor, this sauce is perfect.


Berta and Kristi's Browned Butter Sauce:

4 tbsp Butter
1/2 c Pancetta, diced
1/4 c fresh sweet peas
2 tbsp Mizithra cheese
1 tbsp chopped Italian Parsley

Brown the butter in a medium pan on medium heat. It's best to cook it long and slow, you want it browned not burnt. When the butter starts to change color, add the pancetta and peas and allow them to sautee until butter is browned. Drizzle over pasta of your choice and top with grated mizithra. Garnish with Parsley. Enjoy!

Absinthe

This blog post is about 3 weeks late, and that is only because 3 weeks ago I did not have this blog. I reviewed and rated this restaurant on FoodBuzz, so if you want to check that out you can go here.

My best friend Michelle came home to visit from Ireland. She lives there now. So my other good friend Melissa and I decided it would be best to go visit her over the holidays seeing as San Ramon, is much closer to us than say, Ireland.







The day after Christmas, we drove up to the Bay Area to spend a few days with Michelle and her family, and since we were so close to the city, decided one night to take the BART into San Fransisco. I have family up there. My aunt lives in Berkley, one cousin goes to CAL, one cousin lives in San Jose, and another is a bartender at this swanky little place called, Absinthe. It's located in the Hayes Valley, and if you were to take BART, you would hop off at the Civic Center stop, and walk a few blocks and BAM! There you would be.

We showed up on a busy night, no reservation, and just a lowly text message to my cousin letting him know we were coming by. The place was packed, people were waiting outside, and we pretty much figured we were screwed. Erik, my cousin, handed us the bar menu and before we could even make a decision, was back with 3 concoctions for us to sample.







Michelle grabbed up the Ginger Rogers, which we both agreed would have been perfect for our friend Andrea back in Atlanta. It's got gin, fresh mint, ginger syrup, lemon juice and ginger ale and is served on the rocks with a squeeze of lime. Even though Michelle was fighting some sort of cold thing, we all stuck our straws into her drink and stole a sip or two. I hate gin, but for some reason this drink was delicious and didn't even slightly resemble a gin laden beverage.










I chose the Galapagos, which the website says is Pisco, Kaffir lime leaf muddled in pepper syrup, lemon-lime juice, and a splash of grapefruit juice. Served up with sunken brandied cherries, and let me tell you it was to die for. It's was sweet and spicy and those brandied cherries were AMAZING.











Melissa got the Citron Lemonade, in fact I had it first, but she wasn't digging the martini, so we switched drinks. This one has Ketel One Citron, ginger syrup, fresh lemon-lime juice, ginger ale and a topping of cranberry juice. It was pretty delicious and I guess is the alcoholic version of their "Absinthe Lemonade", so even if you don't drink you can enjoy the virgin version of it.









After she finished her drink, she got brave and ordered the Absinthe. It's actually pretty interesting how the drink is properly prepared. Basically you put a shot into the bottom of a fancy glass, and then place a sugar cube over a slotted absinthe spoon, and then slowly drip water over it with an absinthe fountain as it dissolves. It gets all creamy opaque and is then called "louche" which I believe roughly translates from french as "cloudy".



I tried it. It's pretty rough for anyone who doesn't like Licorice, which I don't, but I managed to enjoy the ritual of it, so no harm no foul. It's not as syrupy sweet as something like Jagermeister, and it's got a bit of a kick to it at the end, almost like a burning feeling which makes sense considering it rounds in at about 127 proof. It's distilled though wormwood, and was once believed to be hallucinogenic, but I never saw the green fairy. Melissa ended up sipping on that the whole night.



I opted for a bit lighter of a drink for my dinner cocktail and got a drink that I don't see on the websites menu, but basically it was a tequila martini, with pomegranate liqueur and a floating lemon rind of absinthe set ablaze, then dunked to add. It had that same licoricey bitter spicy burny aftertaste, but the tequila calmed it down.




We finally found some seats at the bar, and with a bit of help, we ordered some food. They got the Absinthe Burger, medium rare, which I stole a bite of, and it was to die for, and I got the Chicken Breast Sandwich. It had pretty much the best bacon I've ever tasted on it, with some garlic aioli (yes I know thats a fancy word for mayo, and I LOATHE mayo, but when in Rome...) greens, and avocado on this rusticy grilled toasty bread that made me wanna die right there. It was that perfect of a meal. We also got a side of fries which came adorably wrapped in a menu.



Absinthe also has like THE BEST French Onion Soup in the history of the world. Melissa pretty much devoured 2/3rds of it.



Then we got the beet salad, and Melissa pretty much finished that off too. Oh did I mention that Melissa said she wasn't hungry before we even got to Absinthe?




We finished off our night with a yummy flammable coffee drink with 151, cinnamon, hot coffee and fresh whipped cream. The presentation alone was worth the trip.



Caramelizing the sugared rim...



Adding the cinnamon...



Alcoholic Coffee Perfection. (Thank God for the BART)

We paid our bill as we sipped this last drink...



It's Absinthes versions of a Pimm's Cup, called the 21 Hayes. It's Damrak Gin muddled with cucumber, a healthy splash of Pimm's No.1, lemon-lime and simple syrup shaken and served up with a fresh cucumber slice plus those yummy housemade cocktail onions, that are brined in brandy and juniper berries.

Melissa ate all those too.

Kath wins at life.

My best friend Michelle has been reading my blog! Yay! And shes been mega linking me to lots of foodie blogs for my blogroll! We were talking about how hard it becomes to eat healthy on your own, without any kind of other foodie blogs, cookbooks, or recipes from friends. I told her that I enjoyed my daily routine, but I knew that if I didn't change it up, it would get old soon.

Living in Southern California everyday is mostly beautiful and hot, and so enjoying cold cereal with fresh raw fruit is super yummy, but lately we've been having these weird cold spells and now I have a yummy hot cereal to eat when it's cold! Yay!

Michelle linked me here, to Kath Eats' blog. It's a super awesome vlog about her classic oatmeal, which I had heard about, but had never made. Obviously on a whim I didn't have EVERY ingredient but I think I did pretty well considering. For those of you who prefer a written version (of what I made) to Kath's vlog, you can read on. Or just watch her vlog and come up with your own versions.







I started with quick oats (not from Costco, but I think I might have to put those on my list since this oatmeal was so yummy)and 2% milk. 1/2 a cup of each, plus an additional 1/2 cup of water.









I threw it all into a pot over med-low heat and let it come to a slow boil. Then I sliced up the other half of my banana I saved from breakfast yesterday and threw that in there too so it could get all warm and gooey.









Then I got out the rest of my ingredients, or "toppings" as Kath calls them. Pure Vanilla Extract (if you don't have it, just step away from the computer and go buy some. I NEVER use the imitation stuff, let this be a life lesson), Light Brown Sugar (dark has more molasses)1/4 cup of toasted walnuts (mircowave them for 1:30 min), and Cinnamon.



I set aside the walnuts and added the rest into the oatmeal as it was simmering on the stove, then dumped it all into a bowl, topped it with the walnuts and added a tsp of peanut butter since I didn't have the almond butter Kath recommend.



Seriously it was uber yummy. The peanut butter got all melty on top and I eventually mixed it in. I'll most likely try this again with some other toppings and maybe use pecans instead of walnuts next time, cuz I tend to have more of an affinity for pecans. I didn't bother doing a calorie count, but I assume it's not too much higher than 300, if it even reaches that. If anyone wants to make it and do the calorie counts, by all means let me know. Here's my finished product in all its warm oatmealy gooey glory.



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