"Secret Eating Society"

DOMESTICATED

Forgive me because this post may end up being a little longer than normal. I have tons I've been needing to post, but just haven't worked up the energy to do so. (Truthfully meaning, last Saturday I took a day and sat on the couch and caught up on my DVR/On Demand for the entire day. Along with catching up on a few Zzzzs.) First, cookies and happy hour. I baked snickerdoodles for the first time because I had a MEAN craving for some, but my cookies HAVE to be soft, so I wasn't going to risk some store bought cookies. I therefore, went on an internet hunt for a recipe and made my own :) They were amazing, soft, and thick. I took some to work and shared with a coworker and she said they were some of the best snickerdoodles she had ever eaten. CHA-CHING! LOL! In the process of searching for a recipe, every recipe include cream of tartar which I don't own, so I did research on what the purpose of that ingredient is in baking, then called my stepmom who's a baker and she said I would be okay without it...The results...

Next up, Justyn and I went to Cheesecake Factory for happy hour one Friday, of course I went solely for the food. I ordered the only thing I ever order from there: buffalo chicken blasts, Justyn had the southwest egg rolls, and we shared postickers. Those were the best potstickers I've ever eaten, mainly because of the sauce they were in. My word! Their happy hour consists of $5 appetizers and $5 drinks to I believe. 

So as you can tell by the title, Whit and I finally got to go to our first "Secret Eating Society" dinner a few weeks ago. It was on a Thursday at an art gallery in DC at 8:30 pm, so I hurried home from work, worked out, then drove out there for an amazing time. It felt like the elite of the elite coming together for a fine dining experience. We told our names to the guy at the door, then walked in to the 7:30 dinner crew on the left eating and drinking, appearing to have a really good time.

The menu.

My extremely detailed review. On the other side was the ratings they wanted us to. I failed to mention that it was open bar and there were drink pairings with 3 of our courses.

First course: Ahi Poke.

Second Course: Hawaii Dreams of Spam.

The Art Gallery. This pic doesn't do it any justice, but I was focused on my food.

The pseudo innocent pose. LOL! She was late and had me looking lonely.

Third Course: Kona Luau, Chicken & The Sea

Fourth Course: Kona Luau, Coffee buried pork. The pork is inside the banana leaf.

Fifth Course: Many Mahalos, Pina Colada bread pudding. I'm not a bread pudding kind of girl, but this was amazing. 

The fifth course is pictured twice, because I ate mine and what Whit couldn't finish. LOL!

Killing my second helping of bread pudding. The frozen banana cream on top reminded me of P.F. Chang's coconut ice cream and banana wontons with fruit. Go ahead on down there and try that dessert, you know you want to. You won't regret it.

I had been on a hunt since Jamie told me she got her mason jars from the dollar store; I went to 2 different dollar stores and couldn't find them, so I gave up and went to where I knew they were: Target. I bought a pack of 12 and then right above them were these cute lids and straws. Meaning, I have to have another function at my house and make tasty teas or lemonades :) I bought the jars so I could make my green smoothies before the work week. For the past few weeks I had been blending my drinks daily before work, totally annoying, so now I can make my smoothies along with my meal prep and store them in the freezer until I need them. It's kind of cool how they're all different shades of green.

Mother's day I went to my grandma's in Richmond and got some fresh herbs out of her garden. I got rosemary, sage, mint, and basil. So I baked a chicken for my work week, stuffed it with sweet yellow onion and put some on top, ripped up some rosemary and sage, then sprinkled those 2 herbs on top. Next, I added a little salt, lots of lemon pepper, and a montreal chicken seasoning I have. Baked it at 350 for about an hour....

AND WA-LAH! The chicken is organic too, I got a pack of 2 from WalMart for $14. I was pissed because I let the other one go bad, Justyn and I were going to split it in half and toss it on the grill. I just literally licked my lips thinking of how good that chicken would have been. I had it in the fridge for too long, forgetting organic foods go bad quicker. 

Last night, my line sisters and I had a sleepover. Much needed catch up/girl time. We had a masseuse come over,  each of us got a 30-40 minute massage, then we went to a Chinese food buffet. You know one of those Teppanyaki buffets. But LISTEN HELEN, LISTEN! It was only $12! I was SHOCKED. YOU HEAR ME, SHOCKED! I stuffed my face to the worse degree. 

This was my second plate, it wasn't as good as the first, but it was okay because I was truthfully still stuffed from my first plate. LOL! I had something they called "grilled chicken" and I couldn't get enough of it. They even had yeast rolls like in Golden Corral. Apparently, I need to venture out to Laurel, MD more often.

Enlightenment: I haven't spent as much time with my friends as I should have the past few years, I got caught up in my relationship, like most people do in new relationships, and began to neglect my friendships. On top of that, being in graduate school, commuting, and etc. I never felt like going anywhere honestly because I was too tired. When you get texts from your friends that say "I'm so glad we've been able to hang out more lately," you know you've been slacking in the friend department. Plus, I don't want to be that girl who's only obsessed with her boyfriend and has no life outside of him. I'm glad I was able to get to this point before it became destructive, it's always good to have a level of introspection that allows you to check yourself. 

Random: I've been wanting to share a few things that have been working for my skin that are straight out of the kitchen. Organic apple cider vinegar has been working on my skin as a toner for acne. It has to be organic because of the mother in the cider. Secondly, raw organic coconut oil has been working for eczema relief on my back. It's also good for wrinkles, so I've been using it just about all over.

Enjoy.

Breakfast at Tiffany's.

DOMESTICATED

I've been living at my current apartment since May and I've never hosted anything until this past month. One, money was tight and two, I always want my decor to be right for the event. If I have people over to eat, it's going to be a nice event, that's just the way I operate. So I had 3 friends over on a Saturday for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" a brunch event, meaning I cleaned my entire apartment from top to bottom the night before, because that's just the type of girl I am. I created my menu well in advance and also sent out invites (text message. LOL!) about 1.5 months in advance. I'm a planner, I operate in the future because it helps calm my nerves. The beginning of course was food, followed by nail painting since I have about 40 different quality polishes.

Menu:

Breads: Whole wheat brown sugar/cinnamon pancakes and blueberry french toast

Meats: Sausage and cheese balls and salmon cakes

Sides: fruit bowl: strawberries, grapes, and mangoes; fried eggs with optional sauteed onions and mushrooms; and a cranberry compote to add on top of the pancakes

Drinks: Cucumber water and orange juice mimosas

Flowers, Justyn had sent to me.

Blueberry french toast, WW Brown Sugar/Cinnamon Pancakes, Sausage and cheese balls, and sauteed onions and mushrooms

Cucumber water, mimosas, and fruit bowl

My plate.

Table Setting.

Fruit bowl and salmon cakes.

Recipes:

Pancakes- I use the King Arthur recipe, I knew to use King Arthur because my stepmom is a baker and she swears by King Arthur flour, so I knew their recipe would be the bomb even though I used store brand WW flour.

French Toast- There's no real recipe I follow for the french toast mixture, it's simply eggs, milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon, some people use vanilla I don't-simply because I don't keep vanilla in my kitchen. The bread I used is the most amazing sweetened bread that could ever hit your lips... I also added this maple butter on top of the breads after they cooked that I got from Whole Foods...muy delicioso





Dip this baby in the french toast batter and LAWD!

Meats- The sausage and cheese ball recipe is stolen straight from the Bisquick box, it's on the side of the box. I don't follow the recipe anymore but it's mild breakfast sausage meat, shredded cheddar cheese, and the Bisquick mix... http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/sausage-balls-recipe.html Whenever in doubt about a recipe I use www.allrecipes.com or anything from foodnetwork.com they will never fail you, but always read the reviews from AllRecipes.com because people who have tried the recipes will make suggestions for changes to make.
Salmon cakes, well my mom makes those so I asked her what ingredients she uses and she told me and that's what I did...canned salmon, pull out the bones as much as possible, I used Phillip's seafood seasoning, black pepper, mayo, and a little italian bread crumbs and I believe that was it.