Eating in the South

Here are some pics from the food we picked up on our southern trip. I am missing a bunch. I forgot to take pics at the chicken n' waffles place and the BBQ in North Carolina. But I will post what I've got and I yelped about them. The pics are the hamburgers from Flipz in Atlanta. A BBQ, blue cheese, and chorizo burger. The burger from my previous post is from the Vortex where the mouse fell on me! The double bypass burger or something like that. The mouse was very cute though!

Appalachia

I have returned. My journey started on Friday July 3rd. We left Miami and got to Gainesville for a quick overnight stop and proceeded to Atlanta on Saturday July 4th. Atlanta is a typical big city. Got to eat at Flip. Very good burgers with some great combinations. Blue cheese burger is always a winner! The Spanish chorizo burger is a little to thick for such a spicy rich sausage. Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles is a MUST! I never thought I'd enjoy the combination but WOW! The best waffles I have had in a long time. Soft and mildly crisp on the outside combined with perfectly cooked fried chicken. Not overly spiced but crisp and tender at the same time. I didn't have mustard for it which really sucked as I have heard that is the way to have them. Chicken and waffles with mustard on top. Some highlights are the World of Coke and the Atlanta Aquarium. The World of Coke is definitely the place to see. It's like a Coke-themed Disney World. There are wonderful exhibits with vintage coke posters, bottles, clothing, jewelry, and art work. My favorite were the life sized decorated Coke bottles lining the building. But the best part is that you get to drink EVERY SINGLE COKE PRODUCT ever!! Wahooooo! I thought I was going to explode! Diet Coke, Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Mellow Yellow and a bunch of other stuff they sell all over the world. The Asian drinks are super sweet. The European drinks are very Euro-trash tasting. The bitter lemon drink called Kinley from England tastes like a mixer for gin. But the worst had to be Beverly from Italy. Absolutely repulsive. EVERYONE who drank Beverly left with a bad taste in their mouths. That stuff is rank. The African beverages had a lot of ginger in them. Krest from Mozambique was super-powered ginger ale. Some of those African ones had strange fruit flavors that were unidentifiable. The Latin America drinks aren't that different except that the Nestea is flavored with Mango and Inca Cola from Peru is actually for sale here in Miami. I can't imagine why as I can't even think of one Peruvian here in Miami. The most eventful portion of the trip occurred in Atlanta. We went to the Vortex for lunch. This place has very delicious, outrageous burgers. After we sat down I ordered my double bypass burger. Two grilled cheese sandwiches are the "bread" for a 1/3 lb. burger covered with 3 more slices of cheese, 5 slices of bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles and 3 fried eggs! Yummmmmmmieeeeee. Well as you can imagine you need to wait a while to receive your lunch so as we waited we were just chatting. When I suddenly felt a cold "plop" on my chest. I immediately looked down and there he was. A lovely little mouse just sitting on my arm slightly stunned from his fall off of all the junk hanging from the ceiling. I let out a terrifying scream and whipped my arm out which sent the poor little fellow flying to the floor. One guy a few tables down screamed right after I screamed. He didn't even know why he was screaming. When the little mouse fell to the ground two girls sitting at another table started screaming and another table full of people started screaming. They didn't charge us for our Cokes.

The next leg of the tour led us to North Carolina. The people are wonderfully friendly, warm and inviting. What a pleasure! All these great people surrounded by beautiful, winding mountain roads, rich red soil and emerald green trees. We stayed in a moderately small town only a stones throw from all the great national parks. Grandfather Mountain, Linville Caverns, Linville Falls only to mention a few! Incredible hiking trails and a pleasant temperature for July. I am used to scorching sun and baking temps here in Miami. The BBQ in North Carolina was spicy and tangy. I really should have bought some of that sauce damn it! The hush puppies were not what I am used to but they are delicious.

The next stop was Savannah, GA. A lovely town. The historic district is filled with important American history. You can feel the ghosts in that town. Which reminds me. We went to a ghost walking tour at the Sorrel-Weed house. It's one of those the master-is-screwing -the-slave-and-the-lady-of-the-house-kills-herself-and-now-they-all-haunt-the-mansion thing. Anybody ever read King's Rose Red? Similar story. There is the house where the owner was the subject of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the Kehoe House is now an inn. The last stop was at Gainesville and then home. Great stuff. I haven't been on vacation in years and really needed this. I want to visit North Carolina again. Don't need to see Atlanta and Savannah is a good place to return.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here they are. The best cookies ever.  Cooks Illustrated uses some subtle techniques to tweak the traditional ingredients that go into a chocolate chip cookie recipe.  For example: a large portion of the butter is melted first then removed from the saucepan into a bowl with the rest of the butter to be mixed into it.  Then you add 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, vanilla and sugars.  This is mixed. And mixed. And mixed.  And then mixed some more until ALL of the sugar is COMPLETELY dissolved. Whisk it folks. Whisk it good with resting of about 2 mins between about 30 seconds of whisking. ALL sugar MUST be dissolved.  Add your dry and chips and you are ready to bake. Use about 3 tablespoons of dough and bake for about 8 to 12 mins. depending on your oven.  Set to 350 F.  Lovely chewy cookies every time. Even if they are over baked.  ENJOY!

New Stuff

The weekend is almost here and I think it will be a pound cake recipe this time.  I actually have a lot to do this weekend but I hope to be able to squeeze in some baking. Now that I think about it I don't think there are enough hours in one day for everything I have planned. I will attempt the baking on Sunday but I promise nothing!  Cheers and luck!

The red velvet cake was a bust.  They were supposed to be alternating layers of red velvet cake and chocolate cake with cherry filling, chocolate ganache and cream cheese icing.  This did not work because the fillings were so heavy it made the layers of cake collapse.  It finally became a sort of trifle.  Everything was piled into a trifle bowl. It didn't look bad but it was too sloppy for me.  The whole trifle thing reminded me of a pile of cake chunks, which is what trifle is but still. It wasn't appealing enough to consume. I have a film of it being put together and I will try to post it but for now here are some pics.

Red Velvet Cake Day

Today is the Red Velvet cake day. I filmed some video but I am having a lot of trouble posting it.  I will make another attempt to post the video later today.  The recipe is from some guy who was on tv on a showdown.  This cake is blood red and Marisela was concerned about the unbleached flour. I have faith in the addition of the entire bottle of red food coloring! Pretty scary but I do believe they are tasteless and odorless. 

BTW I am looking for a 1,2,3,4 golden cake. Anybody have any good recipes?

The final product.

This is it. The final product. The cake was assembled and delicious!