Food Follies – Page 15 – Cooking, Baking, Recipes, Food, Desserts

Joey & Eddie’s Italian Restaurant in San Francisco

Recently, I was up in San Francisco for a day of meetings with a bunch of compadres and we had the pleasure of being treated to a night out in the private upstairs dining room at a fantastic Italian restaurant called “Joey & Eddie’s”.

(Pardon the photo – I forgot to take a picture until the very end when we were getting back on the bus that was rented for us – but you get the idea.)

It was one of those amazing multi-course, choice of wines type events. We had terrific bread with butter or olive oil, fantastic salad with all kinds of greens, crab bisque (or white bean soup), spaghetti topped with a cherry tomato concoction, white fish, chicken cacciatore, and then a big finish with a fabulous chocolate and hazelnut torte with pannecota served in these fancy dishes that looked like hubcaps – LOL! I wanted to eat so much more of each course, but knew I’d regret it later, so I managed to space out my samplings.

So if you’re ever in San Francisco and have a hankering for some tasty tasty Italian, check out Joey and Eddie’s. And as an additional bonus, on the way out we walked through the front room and saw Sammy Hagar sitting there at the bar enjoying a meal – he seemed to be with a tall blond, so no one bothered him – LOL.
[Tags: food, Italian, California, San Francisco, restaurant]

Just This Once

I just have to share this one from icanhascheezburger – it’s a food joke though, sort of, and in any case it just cracked me up….

[Tags: bread, cat, lolcat, funny, humor]

Food Critics Don’t Need To Be Anonymous

Get the best seats in the house and maybe even a complimentary drink or two when you walk into a restaurant with our “Restaurant Reviewer” or “Food Blogger” t-shirts and sweatshirts! Even if you aren’t an official food critic or have a food blog of your own, most restaurants know the power that word of mouth holds in this business, so give them a chance to show you how good they can be.

Each design is available on many different styles of t-shirts and sweatshirts (and bumper stickers and mugs as well) – just click on the sample t-shirt above to see the entire selection.

[Tags: food, funny, humor, food blog, restaurant]

Snapea Crisps

I was in Trader Joe’s one day (my favorite grocery store) and they had these Snapea Crisps hanging off of one of the shelves. Feeling bold, I bought them secretly dreading that they might end up tasting like freeze dried peas.

When I opened them I was delighted to discover that they were light and tasty (not like peas at all) with a texture that reminded me of Funyons. They have their own flavor which is hard to describe but is well worth the two dollar investment.

They work ok on a salad (as suggested), but actually work really well as a snack food by themselves. They compliment a trail mix nicely, going well with dried fruit or nuts.

[Tags: Snapea Crisps, peas, snacks, food, review]

Spinach & Artichoke Chips

I was in the chip aisle last week searching among the plethora of MSG coated chips looking for something with genuine flavor. There were a few standard entries which I liked but was tired of, but then I noticed this bag of Spinach & Artichoke Chips by Jensen’s Orchard.

Spinach & Artichoke? I wondered, it made me think of some of the weird flavors that Jones Soda tries. I hoped that they wouldn’t end up being fancy dog biscuits and gave them a try.

The spinach flavor is quite pronounced, as pronounced as the green color of the chips themselves. The artichoke however often remains hidden, only peeking out once in a while. I wasn’t sure if I liked them for at least the first ten chips, until my taste buds became accustomed to the flavor. My brain needed to make a new category. This was not in the salty,BBQ, cheesy or spicy category, but a new deeper sort of flavor which I find unique among potato chips.

The ingredients were a refreshing surprise too. Spinach is actually the third ingredient, artichokes were further down, and spices like parsley and turmeric were listed as well.

Overall I would highly recommend them particularly if you are looking for something different or if you’re having company and want to add a new dimension to the same old fare.

[Tags: food, review, potato chips, snack, spinach]

Baconated T-shirts

Attention all bacon lovers! Due to our own recent re-appreciation of bacon (particularly the no-extra nitrites/nitrates added apple smoked bacon we’ve discovered) we’ve created another way to celebrate bacon – our “Powered By Bacon” design on t-shirts and buttons and magnets and bumper stickers and yadda yadda! Here’s one sample product:

Click the tee above to see the whole range of baconated t-shirts and stuff available!
[Tags: food, humor, funny, t-shirt, bacon]

Calzones

We made calzones again the other day – this time stuffed with ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and some fresh (pan fried) italian sausage coins – yum! If you want to play with a little yeast and dough, here’s the recipe to make your own calzones.

And this isn’t the best photo, in fact, it’s a little TOO golden, but you get the general idea:

[Tags: food, recipe, italian, calzone, cheese]

Italian Chicken Sandwich

This is a really easy recipe for a very tasty sandwich! Marinate boneless chicken breasts in Italian Dressing overnight. Shake off excess dressing and grill the chicken. Open ciabatta rolls and dress with mayo, lettuce, and thinly sliced tomatoes, then chicken, then top with a slice of jalapeno jack cheese and wah-lah!

Serve with a side of potato chips or potato salad if you like.

[Tags: chicken, sandwich, cooking, grilling, food]

An Explosion of Soda and Candy

Many of you might know what happens when you drop a mentos candy into a bottle of soda. Now, can you imagine what happens when 1,500 students all do it at the same time? Click here for photos of the resulting simultaneous explosions – science at its funnest!
[Tags: mentos, science, soda, belgium, food]

Jello Cut Out Cookies

This is another one of those food photos that I took a while ago and haven’t blogged until now, as you might be able to tell, since these are CHRISTMAS cookies – hah!

Anyway… my mom never made normal sugar cookies, we always made Jello Cookie cutouts instead, which always had great flavor AND color. (You can make these cookies with a cookie press instead of cutouts if you want too.)

And these are the (raspberry flavored) Jello cookies we had over the holidays:

Below is the Jello Cookies recipe so you can play along at home! Oh, and I used a little extra jello powder instead of colored sugar on top of the cookies to give them a bit of darker accent color.

Jello Cookies

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups oleo or butter
1 cup sugar
1 pkg. (3 oz.) jello (any flavor)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour with baking powder and set aside. Cream oleo, gradually add sugar and jello, beating well. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing well. Force dough through cookie press (or make cut outs) onto ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle with additional jello or colored sugars, decorate if desired. Makes about 10 doz (from press only). Bake at 400 degrees about 8 minutes or until sides are golden brown.

Note: This makes an excellent alternative for regular sugar cookies, both in color and flavor. Use orange jello mix for Halloween cookies, etc.