Easy Raspberry Trifle (For One)

I’m not a big fan or eating fresh raspberries. I often only buy it for dessert purposes. I have some fresh raspberries staring right back at me in my fridge and was thinking of a quick, easy dessert to make with it. I did not want to let those berries go bad and throw them out. They were not cheap! Those babies cost me $3.50 for a small little container (6oz)!

Working with what I have, I decided to built a raspberry trifle! I have cake, I have cream, I have berries! Perfect! Here’s the recipe. I like the refreshing punch from the mint leaves and lime juice in the raspberry sauce. I composed the trifle in a martini glass coz I think desserts look pretty in it! =)

EASY RASPBERRY TRIFLE (FOR ONE) RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 Standard Vanilla Cupcake, Cubed (About 1 Cup) *
• 2-3 Oz Raspberries
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 2 –1/2 Tsp Lime Juice
• 2 Mint Leaves, Plus more for decoration
• 2/3 Cup Cool Whip (or a little less)
• 1 Martini Glass

*  Pound cake would work too.

Method:

Thinly sliced mint leaves and add them into a bowl. Add all but one (reserve for decoration) raspberry, sugar and lime juice into the bowl with the mint leaves. Mash the raspberries with the back of your fork.

Scoop about 1 tbsp of cool whip and place it in the martini glass. Add about 1 tsp of raspberry mixture. Layer with a little less than 1/2 cup of the cake. Pour about 3 tsp of the raspberry mixture onto the cake. Make sure each piece of cake gets some raspberry mixture. Spread about 1/2 of the remaining cool whip evenly on top of the cake and raspberry mixture. Repeat with layer once with remaining ingredients. Top of with the reserved raspberry and some mint leaves as decoration. Serve immediately. This would serve one or two. =)

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie is one of my favorite western comfort food. I’ve always loved chicken pot pie as a kid and I still love it now! I just adore the combination of a flaky crust and the creamy filling! These days, when I’m not making my own chicken pot pie, I would head to either KFC or Boston Market for a yummilious chicken pot pie.

Here’s my version of chicken pot pie. Hubby and I can REALLY eat. Between the 2 of us, we happily clean the whole dish of chicken pot pie over dinner!

CHICKEN POT PIE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Chopped Roasted Chicken Breast
• 2 Cups Boiled, Diced (3/4”) Potatoes **
• 1 Cup Frozen Sliced Carrots
• 1 Cup Frozen Peas
• 1 Chopped Chopped Onion (1 Medium Onion)
• 2 Clove Garlic, Minced
• 3 Tbsp Butter, Divided
• 1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 1 Cup Chicken Stock
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Sheet Puff Pastry, Thawed
• 1 Egg

** I use Yukon Gold Potatoes

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F. Over medium high heat, melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pot. Add minced garlic, chopped onion and sauté until onion is translucent and soft. Stir in chopped chicken, carrots, peas, potatoes, onion powder and garlic powder. Sauté mixture for about 2-3 minutes. Add chicken stock and heavy cream. Let mixture come to a boil, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix 1 tbsp butter (softened) and 1 tbsp flour until well combined. Add the flour mixture into the pan, stir until dissolved and cook until mixture thickened.

Pour mixture into a oven safe baking dish. Cover with puff pastry (make sure puff pastry is slightly large than the dish) and press the puff pastry to the edge of the dish to seal it. Trim excess puff pastry and use cookies cutters to cut the remnants and use them to decorate the pie. Make a few small slits on the pastry. Beat an egg, and brush pastry with egg wash.

Place dish on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Let pot pie cool for about 5 minutes before serving. This will serve 2-3 people.

June’s Comments: If you don’t have roasted chicken, feel free to use any cooked chicken. I just think roasted chicken would taste a little better! I don’t like to line the dish with any crust/pastry as I don’t like soggy crust. I love peas, hence I added about 1 cup of peas. Reduce to 1/2 cup of peas if you don’t want as much!

 

Tasca Tapas Restaurant @ Brighton, MA

We picked Tapas to celebrate Rob’s birthday and decided to try this place call Tasca Tapas Restaurant in Brighton, MA. We made a reservation to dine at 5pm; which we realized upon arrival  that reservation wasn’t quite needed since the place was quite empty. It took a while before somebody came to seat us; the staff were apparently still busy setting the place up for dinner. It was definitely CHILLY inside!

A basket of quite burnt (but still delicious) bread was brought to the table. It came with a little container of green mush later identified as mashed green peas. The mashed green peas were definitely a refreshing change to butter or olive oil. While it was quite bland, all of us enjoyed it.

We ordered a pitcher of Sangria @ $18.00 which serves 5 people perfectly. One glass each, though! The Sangria was pretty good. Surprisingly, we did not order a second pitcher!

 

Overall, we did not order as much as I anticipated. I wonder if it was coz we were not that hungry or was the portions THAT big that it filled us up? All of us picked 2 dishes per person.  Here’re some of the Tapas we ordered. Some of my pictures came out blur. =(

1) Atún salteado @ $6.95 (Pan seared yellow-fin tuna over a mixed bean ragout in a saffron Dijon aioli) (Bottom Left). It was a pricey plate of fresh melt in your mouth fish. Perhaps the saffron in the bean raqout jacked up the price of the fish. I think we could get more fish elsewhere for the price we paid. This is after all Ahi-Tuna. I did enjoy the bean ragout which was nice and refreshing.

2) Confít de pato @ $6.75 (Fall off the bone succulent roasted duck leg served over braised red cabbage and apples) (Bottom Right). Now that I read the description, this duck confit didn’t quite fall of the bone! It was just ok, still quite moist but not the best I’ve had. It actually looked deep fried to me. The mysterious sauce drizzled on top of the duck was a little funky.

3) Patatas bravas @ $4.50 (Cubed fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce topped with garlic aioli) (Bottom Left). I knew right off I needed to order this when I saw it on the menu. It was sheer disappointment. It was nothing like those I had in Barcelona. The potatoes were a little on the soggy and somehow tastes a bit queer. Not sure if it was the spicy tomato sauce. I regretted ordering this.

4) Pisto manchego @ $5.95 (Roasted Mediterranean vegetables served on garbanzo pesto toasted flatbread) (Bottom Right). This was just ok. I could hardly identify the roasted vegetables; they looked all the same. Perhaps there were some zucchini and eggplant. I think Seyda and I agreed that we couldn’t really taste the garbanzo pesto.

5) Caracoles Escargots @ $6.95 (Escargo baked in puff pastry with herb butter over a roasted garlic and sambuca sauce) (Bottom Left). Now, that I see the description for the escargot and compared with the picture and my memory; the puff pastry seemed missing. This was the only escargot dish on their menu. Hubby loves escargot and yes, he’s the one who ordered this. I did not try this oil butter soaked escargot. I prefer my escargot a little hidden, be it under layers of cheese or yes the missing puff pastry.

6) Calamares Fritos @ $6.95 (Fried calamari with salsa Andalucia) (Bottom Right; Right Corner). This was the best dish of the night! Plenty of perfectly fried, fresh springy goodness. The portion were quite big too, surprisingly. The only downside was they hid the sauce under the calamari. You sort of have to dig thru the calamari to find the delicious and slightly spicy (I think) sauce. I wish we saw the sauce earlier; it would have been better to dip the calamari in them!!

7) Albóndigas @ $4.95 (Homemade tenderloin meatballs in green peppercorn sauce) (Bottom Right, Left Corner). I did not try this coz it was beef. Hence, I can’t comment on it..plus I don’t know what the rest thought of it.

Here are a few others that we ordered and not pictured.

8) Empanadillas de queso de cabra @ $5.95 (Herbed goat cheese empanadas served on a roasted red pepper relish). The empanadas were light and crunchy. Too bad I loathe goat cheese, hence I did not enjoy this dish at all! I can’t stand the taste (or smell) of goat cheese but I did take a bite of the empanadas and still did not like the cheese filling. I think the others said it was pretty good.

9) Asado de cerdo  @ $5.95 (Char grilled pork loin over a rosemary infused white bean ragout with braised mushrooms). For some reason, I don’t know why I did not try this dish. I remember it looked pretty good from far.

10) Gambas al ajillo @ $7.50 (Sizzling shrimp in garlic with chili pepper). I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures of this shrimp dish. Whilst it’s good and plenty, the shrimp were really tiny! It would have tasted much better if they use large succulent shrimp (quality instead of quantity) to cook it in a pot of buttery garlicky goodness. Can’t really taste the chilly pepper though.

There is live music; a guy strumming his guitar in the dining room. In the summer, they supposedly have Flamenco performances. We enjoyed Flamenco performance while in Barcelona, Spain…perhaps we’ll make a trip to the restaurant in the summer for some Sangria and Flamenco.

Overall, I enjoyed the company more than the food. Can you believe they don’t serve Churros? And the waiter has not even heard of Churros!!! Oh yeah, the place did warm up a little..but I still needed my Pashmina to cover my freezing arms… And there were a little more people by the time we left.

I’ve only been to 2 Tapas restaurant in the Boston area and right now my vote still goes to Dali’s @ Somerville. I think Dali feels a little more authentic even though their prices are a little higher. Read my review on Dali HERE. I don’t know why the reviews on Tasca was so great (5/5 Stars); I don’t think I’ll give them 5 stars. Nevertheless, their prices were reasonable for those scouting for an affordable meal.

Check out Tasca’s website HERE and their menu HERE. Check them out in Brighton during dinner hours (yes, they’re only open for dinner) :

1612 Commonwealth Avenue
Brighton, MA 02135
(617) 730-8002

PS: Parking is quite limited there. There’s only street parking and you do need to watch where you park!

FREE Taco From Taco Bell

Here’s another opportunity to redeem some FREE food! Again, I’m not affiliated with Taco Bell in anyway, just passing around a free yummy opportunity! =)

Taco Bell is giving away coupons for a Taco Fresco, their latest promotion for their Drive-Thru Diet. Coupon is limit to one per person and expires 7 days from time of download or until 1 million FREE Taco coupons are redeemed, whichever occurs first. Hurry, first come first served!

Check out their range of Drive Thru Diet menu HERE.

PRINT YOUR COUPON HERE

Bacon Enoki

I made some Bacon Enoki Wrap for New Year’s Eve dinner and got my inspiration from the western Bacon Wrapped Scallops and the Asian Beef Enoki Wrap. So, I came out with this East Meets West easy-to-make appetizer! It’s great finger food and does not require much time preparing it! =)

For those of you who’s not familiar or seen Enoki Mushrooms…these mushrooms are off white, long, thin and are very often used in Asian cuisine. You can get them fresh (packaged in a bundle) or canned. It is probably easier to get them at Asian grocery stores, but do check out the refrigerated sections where they sell mushrooms at your local grocery store for the fresh ones or the Asian Food aisle for the canned ones. Specialty Grocery Stores like Whole Foods where they carry a variety of exotic mushrooms would most likely have them!

 

Next time you have a party, make this no fuss appetizers for your guests! =)

BACON ENOKI RECIPE 

Ingredients:

• 1 Package Enoki Mushrooms (About 7-8 Oz)
• 9-10 Thin Strips Bacon
• 1 Sprig Green Onion, Chopped (Optional)
• Black Pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F and line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut bacon strips into halves. Quickly rinse mushrooms and cut off about 1 inch from the ends. Separate enoki mushrooms into 18-20 smaller bundles. You will want a bundle of enoki mushroom on a half strip of bacon!

Take a tiny bundle of the enoki mushroom and place it about 1 inch from the end of the cut bacon. Stretch the bacon slightly as you roll and wrap the enoki mushrooms. Place the bacon seam side down on baking pan (lined with aluminum foil). Sprinkle with some black pepper and bake bacon enoki rolls for about 15 minutes or until bacon is slightly golden brown. Transfer to serving platter, sprinkle with chopped green onions and serve warm (or at room temperature).

June’s Comments: Feel free to make bigger enoki bundle if you like! =) Also, feel free to add slices of red pepper or green onion strips to the enoki mushrooms when wrapping them to make them a little more intriguing!