'CUSE - Dinosaur BBQ

It’s the day after my birthday and we’re keeping it super chill; lay in bed all day and watch tv kinda chill. This is how I like to spend my days because I’m an old lady and I’m just embracing it.

But actually, on my birthday yesterday we got up to get some breakfast and then went off to a nearby corn maze. I love corn mazes and the fact that my birthday is smack in the middle of autumn with apple picking and corn mazes makes me so happy. Apple Cider and tractor rides, all day. Another girl in this Cortland friend group is the one who really planned this event. Her birthday is in a couple days so she wanted to do a corn maze the weekend before which just so happened to land on my real birthday. I’ll piggyback off of that and celebrate my day in a maze, why not?

Trinity Valley was actually super cute and a had a fun scratch off puzzle for their corn maze which was really adorable. We make it through pretty quickly seeing as Caleb and his housemate Matt both work at the environmental center and are pros at orienteering. There were about 10 of us so we naturally split off into groups but trekked through the maze without a problem. The Dairy Farm gave out a free donut for finishing the maze and we got to pet some baby goats and a sheep after so it was a successful morning with perfect weather.

After, Caleb and I decided we wanted to head to Syracuse and go to Dinosaur BBQ. Trinity Valley was in the slight general direction and I initially wanted Korean BBQ but it turns out its much harder to find out here than I anticipated.

LOCATION: 246 W WILLOW ST, SYRACUSE, NY 13202

Being a Saturday there was quite a crown when we arrived a little after 2pm. We just hit the tail end of lunch so our wait for a table for 2 was only 15mins. Not bad for how popular this place is. Of course, there is a Dino BBQ in Rochester and Caleb and I have each been there before but this was our first time together and my first trip to the Syracuse location, the original.

Caleb loves bbq so this was more his pick than mine but I’ve been watching too many good eats episodes involving BBQ that this really hit the spot.

I’m not a huge BBQ fan but I enjoy good food and this is it. Caleb loves a good pulled pork or a bbq chicken but brisket is my favorite. He got a combo plate with his two meats and two sides (mac and cheese and rice with black beans) which also came with a couple sides of cornbread. I ordered the deluxe brisket plate which came with slow-smoked hand sliced brisket, pickled onion and jalapeno relish, and sliced jalapeno. I opted for my jalapenos on the side since I’m not a huge fan, and my two sides were fresh cut fries and simmered greens with smoked turkey. I don’t typically order greens but I really felt like a vegetable today what with all the fried doughy-buttery foods we had all morning. I almost went with a mashed potato or a chili but decided against it. I was pretty happy with my selection. Caleb’s dish came out wrong with brisket instead of his pulled pork so we mentioned it to the super nice waitress and she fixed it, bringing him his pulled pork. This just mean that we had another half serving of brisket and Caleb isn’t really a fan of beef so it was all for me.

The dino sauce that they put on the brisket is just what I like - vinegary and tart to brighten up the meaty flavor. This brisket was a little leaner for me and some of the edges were a little chewier while some slices were marbled really nicely and fell apart really well. It’s a hit or miss i guess with the cuts you get at the high volume they have to cook and serve to keep up with this place.

I’m super happy with my choice of greens. At first bite was a little skeptical about my decision but as I continued eating brisket with greens it was a wonderful blend that I was happy I did. The greens, like the bbq sauce, were tart and vinegary so there was my hit of that. I saved most of my fries for later because I knew going in that this was a two meal order - more like three with Caleb’s extra serving of brisket. But the fries were perfect. They’re warm and crisp on the outside while still being soft and potato-y on the inside. They were seasoned well and they have that freshly cut and fried taste which I can appreciate.

Overall, this was a great birthday meal. We didn’t mention that it was my birthday so I wonder if they do anything special (i.e. free dessert) but we were so stuffed and had so many leftovers we decide to call it a day and head to the nearby mega mall and walk it off a little. A successful birthday lunch - it wasn’t KBBQ but it was close enough and very tasty.

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Another weekend, another opportunity to bake! I’ve been on a Good Eat’s kick and I’ve been slowly re-watching all 14 of the original season before I start the newest one. I’ve only made it up to season 7 so far so it’s slow going but it’s worth it. Good Eats was one of my favorite shows growing up and it fostered this love of cooking and baking but also the science behind it. Not to mention Alton Brown’s mix of sarcastic and witty is just a great way to live life. So this week’s recipe is from season 7 and it’s the Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookie.

I’m not going to lie, these cookies were a bit of a challenge. The dough was a little dry for me which made it difficult to roll but I think that could be help by rolling it out in a warmer place (my kitchen is freezing) and monitoring the amount of time I refrigerate everything for. It got to be a little frustrating but I got it to work with a little effort and some patience.

These guys came out a little more peppermint-y than chocolate-y which I think is fine. I am still getting used to my oven and I will admit that I over-baked them slightly. The tops look perfect but the bottoms are quite crisp and while it’s not burnt, it’s a little tough. I did eat a slightly thinner end piece so I’m hoping the middle cuts are a little softer but with my oven, I’d opt for a 9-10 min bake instead of the instructed 12mins. I was just deceived by the light color tops and should’ve done a better job checking them.

So far I’ve gotten that they’re a good paring with coffee (to soften them) and with a little more baking they could hit biscotti hardness which also works. I guess I ended up in the middle being not quite too hard but also not soft either. Life’s a balance.

Overall, these aren’t bad and they’re a good doable challenge compared to other easy roll and cut recipes. They just take some patience and perseverance but they could probably also used a little more warmth and a little less time in the oven.

Orecchiette with Bacon, Black-Eyed Peas and Spinach

I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m doing it! I have these stacks of food magazines from years ago and before I moved this summer I sifted through all of them an make recipe cards with things I’d like to try to make. Now that I have a kitchen and have decided to learn to feed myself things are coming along. I should really be doing half portions of everything because that yields enough for me but the accidental meal prep is also fantastic because I always seem to forget about lunch.

This week I’ve shuffled through the stack of recipe cards and the the one on top is from Food & Wine. I’m a fan of theirs obviously and figured I’d give this a go. I substituted the black eye peas for just regular black beans and I actually wilted my spinach a little. I’m cutting it close with that golden hour light to finish the dish but it worked out.

I’ll top with bacon and cheese each day when I sit down for lunch. Pretty excited about how this one turned out.

Ratatouille

Ever since the pixar movie came out in 2007 I’ve wanted to make a ratatouille, of course. But while it’s been on my list, it’s never made it to my kitchen. Whenever I’m living with my parents, cooking doesn’t usually happen too much. My dad is a chef and neither of my parents really eat ‘American’ food so I’m left to eat anything I cook while also being served their food left and right. But I’ve finally done it. I’ve pushed myself to actually cook this now that I don’t have mountains of homework and an actual kitchen that’s all mine.

We also went to the farmers’ market on Saturday and I found amazing zucchini and yellow squash to use and I should’ve bought eggplant and tomatoes while I was at it but of course I didn’t plan ahead so I ended up with a trip to the grocery store for the rest of my ingredients.

I googled ratatouille and found a couple different recipes and pieced them together so I don’t have anything specific to share. I bought myself a cute overly-expensive mandolin/grater and sliced the eggplant and tomatoes by hand and lined them up in my square casserole dish and called it a day. It actually came out a lot nicer than I was expecting and I’m pretty proud of myself for finally making it. Of course one eggplant, one zucchini, one yellow squash, and a whole bunch of tomatoes means I’ll be eating ratatouille for the next two weeks but at least lunch is all set!

The Best Blueberry Muffins

I still have a whole container of gingerbread crinkle cookies sitting at Caleb’s house but they don’t make for my kind of breakfast so this week I decided I would make blueberry muffins so my stomach won’t grumble up a storm while I’m at work trying to keep my eyes open at 6:30am.

My friend Julia from high school gave me the recipe for her family’s blueberry muffins that I’m in love with. Back when we were in middle and high school her mom would bake these muffins with the perfectly crisp tops that popped right off full of huge blueberries melting inside. Of course the muffin tops are the best part so you save those for last and you eat the bottoms while the sugary crisp tops wait for you on your plate. Then when that’s done you get to take a bite of this amazing piece of pastry. It’s the best. These muffins are seriously my favorite, and I’m not a huge breakfast/sweets person. The cinnamon sugar balance is so good and makes me so happy. I’m eating one right now at my desk trying not to get crumbs all over the place.

Of course it’s not my recipe to give so it’ll have to be a secret that I keep. But rest assured, even if you have the recipe, these guys are hard to make so perfectly. Julia’s mom has obviously had years of experience but maybe if I’m making these every couple of weeks I’ll be able to nail them down. As it is right now I can’t get those perfect tops which is the reason to eat these things in the first place but I’ll get there. I just need to fill my tins with a little more batter so that they puff over the top and actually make a removable top that doesn’t get stuck to the paper liner. It’s a work in progress, a very delicious one. I also modified these this time with some raspberries so its a blueberry raspberry muffin which I think is a great combination. There just happened to be a sale at the grocery store for BOGO berries so I figured a little experimentation can’t hurt. It came out tasty and since the blueberries are going out of season with this wrap up of summer, they’re a little sour and the raspberries helped balance it out because for whatever reason, they’re still sweet. While this batch isn’t perfect yet, they’ll get there, I just need a few more tries.