honey bbq gator ribs

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headed out in a freakish day of rain to the food truck bazaar a few weeks ago on a Friday night primarily because my one of my favorite food trucks, The YumYum Truck posted a tweet that they were selling loaves of their amazing bananatella bread.  They change some cupcakes monthly and we usually get a sexy six and each pick three-one for dinner and two for a rainy day.  I usually opt for the monthly changes as they become somewhat seasonal and usually whatever option is either vegan or gluten free.  One of my current favorites being the Lady Bird -which they say on their wesite is the following:

Many ask, “What is the Lady Bird?” Lady Bird is not only Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife, but its also our Gluten-Free cupcake option! Available every day, the Lady BIrd is based on
traditional Southern Hummingbird Cake and has pecans, pineapple, and bananas mixed into a spice cake topped with cream cheese.

What’s not to love?  But, since I can’t and shouldn’t live on cupcakes alone we picked up dinner from our other favorite, Big Wheel Provisions.  I had a tame (by Z standards) Florida Blackened Shrimp & Grits with charred corn & red-eye gravy – with some lightly wilted arugula.  Z on the other hand chose honey barbeque gator ribs.  Yeah, gator.  A sweet honey bbq sauce and chives smothering a little rack of gator ribs.  They were not too meaty as a gator isn’t really a huge beast in general but there was some kinda meat on them to knaw if you are so inclined.  A little tougher than I would have liked but a pretty good flavor.  Something to try and we did.

sizzling salads

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seriously behind in posting.   We have been working and playing so hard lately I am hard pressed to keep up.  One of the things that has changed for us pretty significantly since we began eating a healthier diet is the upswing in salads.  Where we used to eat one or so a week we now eat one almost daily.  Most of the time I am finding a homemade dressing far outweighs a store bought one and usually with minimal work.   I will work on posting some of those salads because they are incredible.   Recently there was a bogo at Publix and since we had my sister’s family coming I picked up a bottle of ranch and for the ‘free’ item chose one of Kraft’s new Sizzling Salad kits.  It is basically a chicken cooking sauce with a companion salad dressing.  I chose the Asian Chicken with a teriyaki ginger cooking sauce for the chicken and toasted sesame dressing for the cool parts of the salad.  It is a quick half pantry inspired dinner.  I filled big bowls with greens while the chicken sauteed and added some toasted honey sliced almonds that were hanging out in the fridge, a can of drained mandarin oranges from the pantry, sliced english cucumber, a couple of sliced scallions and a small pinch of terra stix for saltyness.  After quickly finishing the chicken in the sauce and slicing it I topped the cold salad with the hot chicken.  We opted for drizzling our dressing on top to preserve the crunch in the greens and limit our dressing intake.  It was a hot-cold-sweet-savory-salty-crunchy salad which is perfect for a work night and the hot summer which is nipping at our heels.

the rusty spoon

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with not one rusty spoon in sight I was still thrilled to sit down to dinner last night at The Rusty Spoon.  It is in Orlando right in the heart of downtown on Church St.  As a Saturday night and our second weekend in a row downtown we noticed again a lack of busyness but are kind of attributing it to our early eating hour of six.  It’s a bonus to find parking early but the hipsters aren’t really out in force yet.  The Rusty Spoon is a locally sourcing restaurant that emphasizes fresh local produce and a revolving menu.  We definitely noticed a ton of items in the ‘chef’s whim’ category – pork rillette’s, Oaxacan corn soup, a ribeye and verbena frozen dessert that I can remember off the top of my head.  The decor is right up my alley – black and white photography of eggs and pigs, edison bulbs hanging on wound black cords and dark wood.  We ordered and were brought an amuse of pureed waterkist tomatoes with micro basil -a little salty on the tongue and brightly acidic.  Z ordered the Oaxacan corn soup which was clearly buzzed at the time of our order as we could still see the froth – it was grainy in a real stone ground fresh corn sort of way.  Kind of reminiscent of the grind of grits but with fresh corn.  It was steamy and very ‘corny’ and slightly sweet with a garnish of tart tomatillo relish. I skipped the app and had a cucumber martini made with St Germain, lemon and lime.  The redolent scent of cucumbers wafting with each sip was refreshing.  We both went for a ‘handheld’ which is a marvelous classification of sandwiches.  I had a succulent braised lamb with ricotta salata and onion and white grape chutney on this fantastic roll.   Z had the ’55’ burger (address is 55 W – a downtown landmark) which was an enormous half pound filled with bacon and gruyere and the most melted onions we have ever had.  We both chose the haystack of fries which were dusted with cheese and fried herbs and had a side of housemade ketchup.  We felt the ketchup was good but could have used a touch of heat.  Full to my top Z still ordered the citrus meringues and verbena slush for dessert which seemed to be verbena granita with some kind of simple syrup sweetly saturating.   The meringues were nice and dry with a bit of chew.  The kitchen was somewhat heavy handed with salt although not leaving items salty-I did notice it was there.  I really loved the variety and fresh feel of every thing we ate.

burgers

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originally this post was named pine twenty2 for a restaurant that came recommended by a friend at work and we visited over the weekend.  It is in the heart of downtown Orlando and we got there around 6:20 on Friday night.   We were a little surprised at how empty it was and figured we were just too early.  It says build your own burgers, Bordeaux and barbeque in giant letters on the wall.  When we walked in we were confronted with a counter service where you have to fill out a big checklist for your burger that has sections starting with burger type, bun, cheese, sauces, toppings and finally premium toppings.  There were also check boxes for sweet potato or pine fries (shoestring) on the front and various others on the back of the form where all the pre-decided burgers resided.  We missed quite a bit of menu options based on feeling hurried through the process.  I messed up my first form with their golf pencils and had to stash it in my bag and grab another.  I do see now where I missed fried pies on the back which surely would have been added to our order and how did I miss the Bordeaux?  Anyhow,  I settled on beef, regular bun, mild cheddar, Chipotle aioli, charred onions and Applewood smoked bacon.  Not too inventive but I would know based on those items if I would be back to potentially try something a bit more challenging.  The burgers came out pretty quickly.  I am happy to report the burgers were super juicy and my choice of toppings were goopy enough to satisfy me.  I inexplicably love a goopy burger.    The fries were kinda funny and I felt like I was shoving them in my face and realized after the fact I should have used a fork on them.  We really enjoyed the food though and will be returning soon.

The reason for changing the name of this post from pine twenty2 to burgers is this.  I really don’t think the burger landscape in Orlando is that great but due to the fact that it is national burger month it is popping up everywhere I look.  I popped in to let my friend know we had checked out the restaurant and enjoyed it and we were talking about the burger scene.  Not an hour later he was in my office saying an Orlando Sentinel reporter wanted to chat about burgers based on a tweet he made.  Something about Five Guys, Pine twenty2 or American Graffiti.   He and I had a brief conversation that there weren’t many places around for a great burger.  At lunch, I followed up with my table in the cafe  and asked, ‘What is the best burger in town?’  I got three four of six responses of Five Guys.  I don’t know how I feel about that exactly.  I think their burger is ok – pretty good even, but hate the fries and wish that some of the comments had been something other than one chain.  Five Guys can’t be all that there is.  No one else could think of anything.  That took us to a conversation about gourmet burgers, which I can’t decide should even be a real thing.  Gourmet?  Top quality ingredients.  Check.  Careful prep and cooking.  Check.  Not pressing every ounce of juice out of the patty.  Check.  I have a rather lengthy bucket list of burger joints across the US to try as we travel but chains they aren’t.

Picked up my mail as I came in the door tonight and there was a Publix Grape (quarterly wine circular from our local market) advertising turning your house into a gourmet burger bistro on the front cover.    I guess gourmet burgers are a generic term in America now like love or Kleenex or Coke.  Good thing I love them.

panzanella – my style

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spring is here with new grass for my front yard and temps in the humid mid to upper eighties and I made something both old and new.  Z doesn’t really like tomatoes or soggy bread so panzanella hasn’t really been on my radar since we got married.  Last night I bucked the trend and made it anyhow.  It is panzanella my style and is a few tweaks from classic.

  • demi loaf of crusty bread – in this case jalapeno cheddar cut into 1″ slices
  • vine-ripe tomatoes cut into bite size chunks – deseeded
  • english cucumber cut into bite size chunks
  • red onion half moons thinly sliced
  • olive oil
  • red wine vinegar
  • butter
  • salt & freshly ground pepper

Slice your bread and lightly butter – toast in grill pan or panini maker – let cool slightly and tear into bite size chunks.

While your bread toasts toss the cucumber, tomatoes and onions together in a large bowl. Dress to taste with vinegar and olive oil.   Add bread and toss one more time.  Serve with a generous grind of pepper and a sprinkle of salt.

So, what’s different from traditional panzanella?  The bread – instead of stale bread soaked in water I use fresh high quality bread and butter and toast it to give it a warming bite.  When it picks up the oil, vinegar, juices running from the vegetables it takes on a style all it’s own.

On another note, Z plated everything but the tomatoes (he took one I think) and filled up on chicken and strawberries.  As for me?   Loved every bite.