Marietta Diner

I am an Food Network junkie, and one Saturday morning I caught a quick minute of Diners, Drive In's and Dives. I had never really watched the show but I heard them talking about a place in Marietta, GA that sounded a lot like the "Greek" restaurants I miss so much from my home in Wisconsin. Don't be fooled by the word Greek. Although most of these restaurants have fantastic Greek fare, it referees to the people that own the restaurant who are normally of Greek descent.

Peter and I made the trip over to Marietta Diner last Saturday and I loved it from the moment I saw the sign!

There was a short wait so we had time to take a quick self-portrait and when we were being shown to our table we spotted the Diners Drive in's and Dives poster! Pretty cool!

I could not wait to try the Spanikopita that I had heard about on the show. Upon being seated I asked our waitress for it right away. Her response, "If it's ready." Ok.....I wasn't sure what that meant, especially when about 5 minutes later a table near us got a plate of it. I was craving that Spanikopta so much, but sadly it never arrived. Disappointing.

However, I recovered and enjoyed my Gyro. YUMMMMM!!!!! This is one of my favorite sandwiches ever and it was great. The Tzatziki sauce that came with it was one of the best I have tasted and I used it on my Greek salad and french fries. I couldn't get enough!

Peter had an awesome Bacon Cheese Burger (sans bacon, thank you again stellar waitress) that I wanted to eat most of as well but resisted and had only one bite.

The desserts lure you in as you are shown to your table. Huge cakes and pies call your name!

Peter enjoyed a massive slice of carrot cake and I had the chocolate cream pie. Both were scrumptious but the portions were way too big and sadly we could not finish them.

I highly recommend checking out the Marietta Diner (hopefully you get a better waitress). They are open 24 hours a day and the menu was fantastic! It really was hard to decide what to eat. The breakfast plates that went by our table looked especially good, I think I will try that next time we go back.

Boiled Eggs

They should be easy, right? Not so. I find that I either over cook them or the shells are difficult to peel and I end up with a mutilated egg! At last I think I have found the solution thanks to my Martha Stewart Cooking School cook book, and by catching about 5 minutes of Paula's Home Cooking on the Food Network.

Here is my new method.

Place eggs in cold water with 2 teaspoons of salt (the salt is what I learned from Paula).
Cover and bring to a boil (the rest is what I learned from Martha).
Keep covered, turn off heat and let rest for 13 minutes.
Run under cold water to stop cooking.
Peel and eat.

Perfect every time.....or at least the 3 times I have tried this method!

Two blog posts for the price of one

This past weekend I made two blog worthy recipes. Both were delicious and very different types of fare.

The first I made for Saturday lunch, Teriyaki Chicken Lo Mein. Lo Mein is one of my favorite things to order when going out for Chinese food so I thought I would give this one a try. Very easy and quick recipe, it took about 30 minutes to come together. My only complaint was that it was a little too sweet even after cutting down on the sugar. Next time I will cut it down to maybe 2 tablespoons.

3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 1/2 cups water

4 (3-oz.) packages ramen noodles, broken into large pieces, seasoning packets discarded

1 (16-oz) bag coleslaw mix

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Simmer soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, sugar, and cornstarch in large saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking often, until thickened, 2-3 minutes. Transfer half of soy sauce mixture to large bowl and reserve. Add water to sauce pan with remaining soy sauce mixture and return to boil. Add ramen and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 4 minutes. Off heat stir in cole slaw mix. Cover and keep warm.

Pat chicken dry with paper towels. heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Transfer chicken to bowl with reserved soy sauce mixture and toss to coat. Transfer noodles to platter, top with chicken and serve.

The second recipe was for Super Bowl Sunday. We went to the Gilbertson's to enjoy the big game. Everyone brought a dish to accompany the delicious ribs and pork shoulder that Jeremy cooked up. My contribution was a potato salad from Tyler Florence.

What I liked about this recipe was the dill. Lots of dill and dill pickles!! Dill is one of my favorite flavors and unfortunately I don't get to use it very often. The salad was good on Sunday evening, but it was GREAT for lunch this afternoon. The flavors really married together over night. I can't wait for summer cook outs to make this one again!

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are some of my favorite. I am on the hunt for the best recipe, any suggestions? Earlier this week I made the traditional recipe on the back of the chip bag, they were good right out of the oven, but got crispy after they cooled. I prefer a chewy cookie so I was a bit disappointed.






2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated [white] sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12-ounce package) NESTLE TOLL HOUSE Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts


COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.


BAKE in preheated 375-degrees oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Sunday Brunch with the Ladies

Yesterday some of my girlfriends and I had brunch at Traci's house. It was a great way to start the morning. We all brought something to share and I made a Steusel Topped Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake from ATK Family Cookbook (pg. 489).

An interesting tip given for this recipe. Have you ever noticed that when you add frozen berries to a cake they dye the entire cake their color. The recipe suggests that you run the frozen berries under cold water until the water runs clear to prevent this. Nice tip, worked like a charm.

The cake was delicious (as was everything else). Very moist and quick to put together. I am a sucker for steusel toppings and this did not disappoint.

Traci and Presley set a beautiful table complete with a full menu!

Waffle House Lattes made by Barrister Traci.

Vanilla Banana Shots & Fresh Squeezed Citrus Juice

Poppyseed Fruity Salad

Sausage Pinwheels

PMS Potato Casserole (the crowd favorite made by my sister in law Lindsey)

Drunken Ham Casserole

We all had such a great morning. It was fun to catch up with everyone and to see our friend Amber, it had been far too long!

New take on Lemon Spaghetti

Last night I put together a quick and delicious pasta for dinner. Again, using things I had one hand I added to the Lemon Spaghetti recipe I posted about I think last spring.

This one had:

Chicken

Parsley

Chives

Peas

Garlic

Parmesan

White wine

Lemon

Butter (just a touch for richness)

I loved all the green in the pasta, it tasted light and fresh. Really good after having a had a big brunch (see next post) earlier in the day.

I have a real problem.....

I love cookbooks! I really, really LOVE cookbooks! And honestly, I have way too many and I really don't use them all. There is just something about them, I can't get enough. My favorite are those that have lots of photos, they help inspire me to make my meals look just a beautiful!

Here are the books I currently have in rotation (I am too embarrassed to post the instead of the cookbook cupboard). I leave them on the shelf over the kitchen sink to remind myself to actually look through them and use them rather than only using my latest one which I have been known to do.

Yesterday, I feel off the wagon so to speak and picked up yet another one! Tyler Florence's, Dinner at My Place. There I was killing time at Barnes & Noble before an appointment and it called to me. I just had to have it. Not only because I really enjoy Tyler's shows on Food Network and have made (and really enjoyed) several of his recipes, but also because this man it sexy as all get out! I just love him! :-)

Does anyone else have this addiction or is it only me? I wonder if there is a Cookbook Buyers Anonymous group in the Atlanta area.....