CINCI - Graeter's - Done right!

Two years ago, just around Thanksgiving I went to Ohio with this same friend. Only instead of spending the week with her back then, I went to visit my friend at Xavier and followed her and some of her friends back here to Rochester in time for Turkey Day. Before that we made a stop to Graeter's and I ordered Elena's Blueberry Pie ice cream. I'm not a huge chocolate person so I don't eat chocolate ice cream leading me to gravitate towards fruity flavors. It was pretty good but nothing too exciting. 

I got back to school and mentioned that to my Ohio native friend.. and she quickly told me that I did it wrong. Apparently the point of going to Graeter's is their chocolate chips. And I of course, ordered one of the very few flavors without chocolate chips, therefore messing up my first visit to Graeter's... whoops... 

This time around I did it right though!

I got the special Strawberry Chip and it was great! I understand the hype about the Graeter's chocolate chips now. First off, I'm in love with strawberry ice cream. It's my go to favorite which makes me picking strawberry kinda boring. The chocolate chips were incredible. The big chunks you find in the ice cream are chewy and soft but still chippy! I don't understand how they do it but I'm sold. Graeter's is going to be a must any time I'm in Ohio now.. now that I'm there very often. 

CINCI Just missed it..

The reason I ended up in Ohio is because a former roommate of mine is from there and when our plans fell through to head south for the break she decided I could come home with her if I was interested. I know it's only Ohio, but it's not Rochester so.. lets go! 

Because of this, we went to a lot of local places to eat that she swears by. One of which being the European Cafe. She was really excited about the breakfast hash/home fries and said no matter what I ordered, we were getting a side of home fries to share. We walked in at 11:34am. Breakfast ends at 11:30. She was a little upset. 

We made up for it with loaded fries. They were incredible. The fries were the perfect size so that they were potato-y but still crispy enough. Then cheese, bacon, and sour cream. We couldn't stop eating them.

For brunch I was feeling like a hot sandwich so I ordered a hot steak sandwich with au jus and a side of chips. I'm not a huge steak person but when I want it, I really want it. And this sandwich hit the spot! It was warm and the cheese on top was melty and perfect. The bread was really nice and soft and the au jus was just perfect. I was beyond happy with my choice and it was even good the next day when we had it for leftovers. Yummmmmmm.

Maybe next time we'll wake up in time for those home fries because if they're as good as the rest of this meal was, I'm not going to be disappointed.  

CINCI - Oh hey, Ohio

I'm lame and broke so for my last spring break as an undergrad I went to... OHIO! (Yeah even when you try to make it sound exciting, it's still Ohio). But I love roadtrips and I had fun so that's what's important! 

First note-worthy food stop was Tom+Chee. I know, I don't usually post so much about chains but these guys were pretty good.  

Turns out they have their special donut grilled cheese. I was a little iffy about trying it, and not all super hungry. My friend and I ended up splitting a mac and cheese grilled cheese sandwich. That's right, I have a professionally made one finally. 

It was awesome. Hot and cheesy, this place knows how to make them right. Maybe I'll venture for the special next time I see a Tom+Chee. 

Chicken Cacciatore

Fancy name for a pretty simple dish! 

All we did for this was dredge about a pound of chicken pieces (legs, thighs, breasts, all of it!) in flour, salt, and pepper. We heated a little olive oil in a pan and browned the chicken really quickly on all sides and then took it out of the pan. We added 2oz of medium diced onion, 2oz medium red peppers (we didn't have green like the recipe called for), and 1 clove of minced garlic and sauteed them. Then we added 2oz of sliced mushrooms a pinch of dried thyme and kept sauteeing until the mushrooms were soft and tender. 

We deglazed the pan with 2oz of white wine then added a cup of chicken stock and half a cup of tomato concassee (basically pureed tomatoes). 

We threw the chicken back into the pan and covered and cooked it for 30minutes until the chicken was done and served it! (Don't turn up the heat too much! We don't want it burn!). I'm not a huge fan of peppers so if I made it again at home I wouldn't add them but they did add a lot of the flavor to the dish so I'd had to season a little more, but overall it was really good and a simple one pan dish!

Turkey Scallops!

It's a weird name but basically it's just round turkey slices with pine nuts! So. Good.

For these guys we took a heavy saucepan and heated it with about 3 tbsp of virgin olive oil. We threw in about 2 or 4 tbsp of chopped shallots for about 5 minutes. Next 1/3 cup of white wine vinegar, 1 cup of water, 10 black peppercorns, and 3 bay leaves to simmer for 20 or 30 minutes to reduce the liquid by half.

While that was going we beat 3 egg whites with salt and pepper in a bowl. We coated the 8 turkey breast cutlets in the egg mixture and set them aside then heated another heavy sauce pan with 2/3 cup of veggie oil. Once that was HOT we coated the turkey cutlets in about a half cup of bread crumbs, then browned them in the pan (about 1 or 2 minutes per side. They cook fast).  

We plated the turkey, sprinkled on a combination of 1/2 cup of chopped parsley, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, and 1/2 grated orange zest. We topped it with the sauce we had going in the first pan, then threw on some toasted pine nuts (one of the best parts in my opinion!). 

This was such a good dish and I'm questioning why I haven't made it again (even those this was just a couple weeks ago). It's going on my grocery list really soon.