Countdown to Passover: Event, Recipes, and More!

This year, Passover starts on Monday, April 18. That's good news for all the Boston Marathon runners - they can still enjoy a pre-race pasta dinner and hydrate with Gatorade along the way. For the rest of us, that means that we have a day off from work to watch the race and cook up our Seder feasts.

With about two weeks until Passover, it's the perfect time to start planning menus. Everyone has their favorite holiday foods but its always fun to put a new twist on your old favorites. I enjoy using local and seasonal ingredients in my Passover dishes, and also taking traditional ingredients and using them in new ways.

Are you looking for new recipes and new wines to add to your celebration? I'm excited to be partnering with the lovely folks at The Urban Grape for a fun Passover food and wine tasting that will give you both!  On Sunday, April 10 from 7-9 PM, come by The Urban Grape for a fun-filled Passover Food and Wine tasting! The tasting at The Urban Grape is a collaboration with with Whole Foods Market Brighton, Robin from Doves and Figs and me! Here's the event blurb:

"We’ll take a walk down memory lane as we pair traditional Passover treats like your Grandmother used to make – think chocolate covered Matzo, Charoset and Jelly Roll – with cutting edge Kosher wines from around the world. While we eat, our local farm-to-table experts will be on hand to help you think of ways to incorporate local foods and updated recipes into your passover meal. With an eye turned toward tradition, we’ll give you the tools to pull off an inspired Passover meal.  RSVP necessary for admittance – events@theurbangrape.com. SPACE IS LIMITED!"

An added bonus, if you attend the event you'll get to take home recipes for new Passover dishes! My recipes include chocolate maple matzo crunch and hard boiled eggs with horseradish and parsley (just to name a few). Hope to see you there!

Here's a look at some of the Passover dishes I've blogged about over the past two years. I'll be adding to the collection this year, stay tuned!

Passover Eats Part 1: Brisket with Concord Grape Wine

Passover Eats Part 2: Chocolate Toffee Matzo Crunch
Passover Eats Part 4: Roasted Beets & Asparagus

Here's a preview of this year's updated beets & asparagus recipe:

Passover Eats Part 5: Roasted Turkey Breast

Passover Eats Part 7: Fresh Horseradish

Here are some great Passover friendly dishes:
Quick and Easy Frittata

Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs (just make sure your mustard & mayo are Kosher for Passover)
Farmers Market Bounty Salad (skip the garbanzos and corn)

There are a lot to choose from, just remember to have fun! There's no need to panic, just plan to enjoy fresh fruits, vegetables, and sustainable meat and seafood. Think about it - it's a good way to focus on healthy eating!

What are your favorite Passover foods - traditional and new? I'd love to hear about them!

Atlanta Eats: The Varsity, Flip Burger Boutique, and CamiCakes

This past week I had a reprieve from the cool spring air in Boston. I headed south to Atlanta for a work conference. The conference was held at Georgia Tech and we stayed right by campus in Midtown. My day job is spent doing marketing and admissions for an executive MBA program. The conference brought together marketing and admissions professionals from schools across the world to learn about current trends, share best practices, and do a lot of networking. Even though the conference schedule was packed, there was still time to check out some Atlanta eateries. To make room for the less-than-healthy eats I spent my lunch breaks walking around the Georgia Tech campus.

With limited time available, I had to pare down my list of suggested restaurants. @JustinCanCook and @25Lifestyle had tweeted me some fantastic looking culinary options. Now I'll have a list for the next time!

I was fully prepared to venture out on my own for these dining adventures. Luckily I found like-minded conference attendees and had dining companions during the trip.

One spot that I've had on my list for a long time is an old Atlanta stand-by - The Varsity!

The "world's largest drive-in" has been serving hungry visitors for the past 83 years. You've probably seen them on the Food Network or heard about their long-standing presence in Atlanta. The can fit 600 cars in the parking lot and 800 people inside. Now that is a big place! According to their website they make a lot of food too:

"Two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili are made from scratch daily."

When dining out with new people, I find that it's helpful to explain up front that there will be excess ordering (to make sure to try everything) and picture taking before eating. My dining companion was understanding and I snapped a shot of her food first so she could eat a hot meal. After deciding on our orders, we approached a cashier calling out "What'll ya have? What'll ya have", and ordered up what we thought was a reasonable amount of food.

I picked out a chili slaw dog, a grilled pimento cheese sandwich on white bread, and a frosted Varsity Orange to wash it all down.

When I went back up to order a fried apple pie, I found out that we ordered a lot less food than everyone else. The man in front of me (clearly alone) ordered 5 chili dogs, fries and rings. The family to my right ordered almost two register screens worth of food.  Even though we didn't sample as much as them we still had a great time. I picked up two cans of chili to take home along with some magnets and postcards.  

We took a walk past the GA Tech Football Stadium and tried to burn off a few calories from our meal.

The next night we had an opportunity to try another Atlanta hot spot after a long day of conference sessions. If you are a Top Chef watcher, you'll know that Richard Blais is the culinary director for Flip Burger Boutique in Atlanta. Since I've been on a streak of visiting Top Chef related restaurants on vacation, I knew I needed to try this out.

The menu offered a variety of burgers, sides, drinks, and liquid nitrogen milkshakes. We all picked a shake (that's frappe if you are a native New Englander) flavor pretty immediately. No one was adventurous enough to order the foie gras shake, but we were all very happy with our choices.

Strawberry short shake, Krispy Kreme,
Turtle, and Toasted Marshmallow Nutella.

I ordered the toasted marshmallow, of course!

There were a lot of great burger choices for dinner. My dining companions were nice enough to let me snap a shot of their burgers before digging in. We each ordered a different side dish to be able to taste them all.  All of the burgers were 5.5 ounces of brisket, short rib, and hanger steak. The burger was cooked perfectly and juicy and flavorful.

On the top left below is the Butcher's Cut, blue cheese and caramelized onions, with fries. Top right, the bacon cheeseburger with vodka onion rings and beer honey mustard. Bottom right (my choice), the Local with smoked mayo, grilled onions, house made pickles and yellow tomato. You can see the fried bread & butter pickles in the background. Bottom left is the d'Lux burger. This all out treat was 2 patties, truffle butter, roasted mushrooms, French onions, and cheese). On the side are deliciously crispy fried zucchini.

My favorite side dish was the fried pickles and the fried zucchini. Hard to go wrong with either of those!

One of the more adventurous in our group ordered up buffalo sweetbreads (definition here). Yep, buffalo flavored sweetbreads served with blue cheese and ranch foam. I was a little hesitant, but decided to go for it. You could still taste the sweetbreads through the buffalo sauce and the foam was a nice creamy contrast to the tang of the sauce. I can't say I'd order these again, but they were fun to try!

After dinner, we decided to take a scenic ride down Peachtree through Buckhead and back to Midtown. One of the women had been telling us about a great cupcake shop and even though we were completely stuffed we made a stop. CamiCakes offers a huge case of creative cupcakes. Everything from classic vanilla to sweet potato to my choice, The Elvis. The Elvis is a rich chocolate cupcake topped with banana frosting, peanut butter, and a sprinkle of sea salt. It was delightful. Rich, sweet, salty, and wonderful.  With cupcakes in hand we headed back to the hotel to sleep off our food comas.

Thanks to the women who joined me in the dining fun! I'm looking forward to another trip to Atlanta to sample more Southern delights.

Mouthwatering Monday: Mix Bakery

I met Kelly from Mix Bakery last year and have been dreaming about the buttercream frosting since then. I am a frosting lover (not everyone is!) and her creations were rich, decadent, and just the right amount of sweet. When the hubby asked me what I wanted for my birthday dessert this year, I didn't hesitate with my answer. Cupcakes from Mix Bakery! He ordered my favorite flavor combinations and scheduled delivery for the day of my birthday dinner. Kelly makes all of her cupcakes to order and deliver the delicious treats right to your home or office.

Words can't describe how great these cupcakes are. I may have eaten 1-2 per day for the last week... My friend who is known for eating around frosting on cakes called me the day after dinner to tell me how much she liked the frosting. And the hubby told me I should spread the peanut butter frosting on toast for breakfast. It's that good.

You really need to taste the cupcakes for the full experience, but here is a photographic essay of cupcake deliciousness. I used the cupcakes as a subject to explore all the settings on my  new camera.I did not edit these photos after I took them.

If your mouth isn't watering by the end of this, I don't know what to tell you!

Cupcake delivery!
Mini-chocolate and mini-banana cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream.
Four mini cupcakes = 1 regular cupcakes.

S'mores cupcake with graham cracker bottom
and incredible marshmallow buttercream.

Close up - graham cracker crust and chocolate cake.

Here's where things get a little silly - a good twenty minutes of cupcake photography. I'll show you the highlights.

Graham cracker crust with chocolate chips.

Banana mini cupcake with peanut butter buttercream. Enough said.

Next time you need cupcakes, skip the store and check out Mix Bakery. You won't be disappointed. I'm going to start making up holidays so that I have reasons to order more!  

P.S. We ordered & paid for these cupcakes and were not in any way asked to write about them. They were so wonderful that I chose to write about and photograph them.