Christmas Trifle

Celebration this Christmas will be just our family. Which is perfectly fine. That said, dessert has to be over the top and has to last for days. So what is more perfect than a trifle? 

Trifles provide lots of portions and are so versatile - you can go pretty much any direction with it. The basic components of a trifle are some sort of cake (like pound cake), a custard, and fruit. You want to make sure you have a trifle dish as well, which you can get from pretty much any retailer. 

The trifle I made this time is a mixed berry one. I used normal yellow pound cake, a mix of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, and a vanilla bean custard. 

The recipe I used for the custard I found on Food Network's site (click here for recipe). Once you finish the custard, let it cool completely in the refrigerator until very cold. Rinse the berries and mix them in a bowl, sprinkling them with a couple tablespoons of sugar to get the juices flowing. With the pound cake, make little sandwiches with any type of jam in between. I used mixed berry jam to stay with the theme. 

After that, it is merely an assembly of the different parts. Start off at the bottom of your trifle dish with a layer of pound cake sandwiches. Press down on them a little so that they become flatter. Next, put a third of the custard and spread it out, especially near the edges. Next, put a layer of berries (about a third). Make sure that berries are pressed against the side so that you can see them. Repeat again with a layer of pound cake, custard and berries. Lastly, put another layer of pound cake, and cover with the final third of the custard. To decorate the top, cut strawberries in fourths and stand them up around the edge. Sprinkle the top with some of the remaining berries. To finish, put shavings of bittersweet chocolate on top. 

Like I said, you can go so many directions to switch it up. I have made it before with orange marmalade in between the pound cake and just strawberries as fruit. I have made a chocolate trifle before with chocolate pound cake, chocolate custard and cherries. But with the combinations of jam and fruit, you can let your imagination go wild. 

Hope you enjoy this recipe and try it out. 

Florida in April

I had a recent trip to the south of Florida where I was able to visit multiple cities. One of my stops was in the Fort Lauderdale area and so I looked up what some of the hot spots were. According to www.10best.com, their number one restaurant in the Fort Lauderdale area is Canyon, so I had to check it out for myself. Located about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, it is a tiny southwest-type, cafe-looking place from the outside; very chic looking from the inside. The restaurant only houses about 65 people and takes no reservations whatsoever. I went on a Monday night around 7:30pm and the restaurant was packed if that tells you something. All options looked amazing, but the Homemade Rigatoni with cabernet beef short rib, cremini mushrooms, baby arugula and manchego cheese stood out for me. The short ribs were absolutely fall of the bone delicious and the rigatoni soaked up all the cabernet, cremini and toasted garlic sauce. It was hard to put down the fork and it kept me going for more. For dessert, the waiter started the list with White Chocolate Bread Pudding and I had to interrupt him right there since there was no way you could go wrong with that. And right I was as the bread pudding was melt-in-your-mouth amazing and served with a warm compote of mixed fresh berries - the perfect ending to an amazing meal. Canyon absolutely deserves its first spot on the list of best restaurants in Fort Lauderdale.

We're going to Kentucky, we're going to the fair...

Alright, I didn't see any senoritas with flowers in their hair, but I did check out Lynn's Paradise Cafe for lunch. And that fun little restaurant looked like a fair of its own.

As I found myself in Louisville a couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a place for lunch. And while I certainly like healthy fresh food, I don't mind switching things up once in a while. Come to find out that Lynn's Paradise Cafe has been in the "news" quite a few times. Some notable appearances were on the Oprah show, the Food Network "Best Of", CBS Evening News, The Today Show, and Throwdown with Bobby Flay. And it's that last appearance that made me want to check them out, especially because Lynn Winter, the owner, defeated Bobby Flay for the breakfast throwdown.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe is a funky place where you can just be yourself. There is a huge tree in the middle of the restaurant that is decorated with fun little items. Everywhere you look around, there are little relics that are very unique looking. And this also extends to the outside of the restaurant. Take a look below at the pictures I took of the outside of the restaurant, including the unique seating.

The menu is very extensive so you'll probably need to take a while deciding what you want. Both breakfast and lunch items are served all day. Items range from your classic breakfast staples like omelets, scrambles, burritos, granola, and biscuits and gravy, to your lunch items, such as the BLT, chicken sandwich, and burgers, made with Kentucky grass fed beef.

But to truly get the Paradise Cafe experience, I had to try to dish that defeated Bobby Flay. And so I ordered the Bourbon Ball French Toast. As you can see from the picture below, it is not a dish for the light-stomached people. The french toast consists of their locally made cinnamon swirl bread griddled in vanilla nutmeg batter. It is then covered with Bourbon vanilla custard and Kentucky Bourbon whipped cream finished with some strawberries. The custard is amazing but what really makes the dish is their homemade bread. The bread is like a large baguette so the outside crust gets nice and crispy when it hits the griddle to make the french toast. I wish I could say I finished the whole thing but I would have ended up in a food coma for the rest of the afternoon.

I found the recipe for this dish on the Food Network, but I bet it won't even come close to the real thing. So next time you're in Louisville, check out Lynn's Paradise Cafe and be prepared to be amazed!!

Airport Food

Who likes being stuck in an airport for several hours, especially around lunch or dinner time, given the exciting food options available? You usually have a choice between your well-known fast food, chain restaurants, or pre-made sandwiches in combination with high-calorie, high-fat pastries that are way overpriced.

Things do seem to be changing up a little in some airports. Food and Wine magazine recently published an article on airport food and how some celebrity chefs are making their way into the U.S. airports. Wolfgang Puck has been around in airports for quite a while, but others are now jumping on the food bandwagon. Chicago, one of my frequent stopovers, now houses Rick Bayless’ Tortas Frontera in two terminals – a nice little place that offers freshly made hot sandwiches for sit-down or to-go. You can get fresh salads, guacamole and chips, or drinks, but the main star on the menu is the tortas. He has several options with various flavor combinations. Since I discovered it about two months ago, I tried the full-flavored Chipotle Chicken Torta and this past week, I gave the Roasted Garlic Mushroom Torta a try. That one had the flavors of chipotle mayo, cremini, oyster and shitake mushrooms, goat cheese, and arugula, topped off with a hint of lime. Prices range between $9 and $12 so if you consider your options between a pre-made sandwich at around $8 or this one, I hope you don’t have to think twice about it. To get a torta at Tortas Frontera is about 10-15 minutes, but it’s well worth the wait.

This past week, I also had a stopover in Houston’s Intercontinental Airport for a little over three hours. As I explored the food options, I was surprised to find Cat Cora’s Kitchen, a place to enjoy some nice entrees as well as some creative burgers and neat tapas. 

I tried the lamb meatball and also the chicken chimichurri sandwich. The meatball was very juicy and not dry at all and it came with a nice tzatziki sauce. Very delicious but at $8 a bit overpriced. The chicken chimichurri sandwich was delicious. The chicken had a wonderful flavor but the piece was honestly a bit too small for the bun. The sandwich also came with sweet potato fries, which I saw came out of a frozen bag. So the food overall was pretty good but I would have expected a bit more from an iron chef.


In summary, next time you travel and you find yourself at an airport for several hours, make sure you check out your options carefully before picking the first thing in your view. Who knows, there might be some good food waiting for you just around the corner.

There's some great food in L.A.

I recently went on a trip to Los Angeles for a week. While there, I was able to take out two nights and enjoy some of the great food that L.A. has to offer.

The first night I went out, I went to Border Grill in downtown L.A. I went there last year for the first time and simply fell in love with the food that they offer. At that time, I had done some research on restaurants by well-known chefs and ran across Border Grill run by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, both contestants on Top Chef Masters. When I entered their restaurant for the first time last year, I was amazed by the decor and relaxing atmosphere that the restaurant has. It has little tables on one side of the restaurant, a long couch on the other side where you can relax with some drinks and cozy tables at the back of the restaurant.

Last year, I decided to have Roasted Lamb Tacos, which were just heaven. The meat was so tender it just melted in your mouth and the flavors were absolutely amazing. For an entree, I had Citrus Chicken Quesadillas, which were amazing. Everything is made from scratch, including the tortillas, and you can really taste the difference. For dessert, I ended up having their Tres Leches cake with a prickly pear sauce, which was the perfect ending.


This time, they had a special where you had a three-course dinner for only $28. So as an appetizer, I selected a  Fig and Goat Cheese Empanada with a side arugula salad. The empanada was amazing. The combination of fig and goat cheese went so well together and the arugula salad was a great compliment. For the entree, I selected the Yucatan Pork, which was slow roasted in banana leaves. It came with mashed plantains, caramelized onions and brussels sprouts, which homemade tortillas on the side. I was amazed by all the flavors and how well they went together. I can tell you that the last time I ate brussels sprouts was when I was about 13 and I have never liked them. These were cooked to perfection and had no bitterness left in them whatsoever. If I were able to cook them like this, I would eat them all the time. For dessert, I ended up having Bread Pudding with Cajeta cheese and some vanilla ice cream, which was good but I expected more out of it.


I can't wait to visit them again. Below are some pictures of their delicious dishes. Check them out at www.bordergrill.com.

The second restaurant I was able to make it to is Red O Restaurant by Rick Bayless. Having been a Rick Bayless fan for years even though I haven't been able to make it to his star restaurants in Chicago, I didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. I already had a little taste of his amazing Mexican flavors right before I left to L.A. as he recently opened a little place in Chicago's O'Hare airport in terminal 2. And since I had some time before my flight, I had to try it out. Make sure you do too if you are flying through O'Hare.

I went on a Thursday night to The Red O, but even so, the restaurant was packed. The decor inside is amazing. It has lots of little areas for some privacy and many areas with couches to lounge around. You can check out the pictures on www.redorestaurant.com.

Their menu is very extensive, which makes it hard to choose because everything sounds so delicious. I ended up going with the Pollo en Mole Poblano. I simply had to try it since Rick Bayless is famous for his complex moles - one of the reasons he won Top Chef Masters first season. The flavors were absolutely great even though I had expected a little more heat. The chicken was also cooked to perfection with an incredible crispy outside skin. You could hear it crackle as I cut through the chicken. For dessert, I ended up having Churros with dipping chocolate. Churros are Mexico's version of donuts and while I was pretty full, I just couldn't resist eating all of them, especially with the chocolate as a compliment. I can't wait to make it to his flagship restaurant in Chicago.