Saturday morning I was in for a treat when I attended a very intimate, fun cooking class with some friends at the instructor's home. We prepared several delicious salads, my favorite being the Blue Cheese Cherry Chicken salad that I must make again at home! The photos say it all! I really loved this class because we really got to eat! None of this - here's one bite thing.
Chef Diane prepares the Salmon Salads
Here are our salads, ready to go!
Salmon Nicoise Salad "To-Go"
Surf & Turf Fajita Salad with Shrimp and Steak
Orange Chicken Salad - the dressing goes on!
Orange Chicken Salad
Blue Cheese Cherry Chicken Salad over Spinach
Our wonderful creation
On Friday night Cal and I made our own pizza from Trader Joe's dough, balsamic chicken, fresh mozzarella, roasted potatoes, green peppers and tomatoes. It was quite tasty, although I'm interested in buying a pizza stone to make it more authentic. We were inspired by the awesome pizza at Cameli's, especially the Joey Woolum pizza, which is our favorite (with jalepenos, add chicken!) I will try and do a post on that soon.
Fish with salad and fresh injera
Fish with salad and lamb tibs
Vegetarian sampler platter
Classic Chocolate Cake, Banana Nut Cupcake, Chocolate Mousse Cake
Matty Cakes is a relatively new bakery, conveniently located on Piedmont next to the "Gorilla Car Wash." I have enjoyed their cupacakes several times - the chocolate with cream in the center and the red velvet are my favorites and their giant cookies are fantastic. Today I stopped by with a couple of friends to try the goodies pictured above. The two chocolate desserts were fabulous, moist and rich with lots of chocolate. I love crumb crusts and the chocolate cookie crust on the mousse cake is one of my favorites. The banana nut cupcake was not as good - the cake was dry, leaving the icing to try and compensate, which is did to an extent, but really, there is no reason a banana cake should be dry - ask anyone who has tried my famous chocolate chip banana bread!
Matty Cakes also has great sandwiches, which we pick up on occasion from my office. I adore the turkey, cranberry brie sandwich on their homemade multigrain bread - TO DIE FOR! I've also seen some of their specialty cakes, including a cake shaped like a handbag. If you like that kind of thing, I'll bet they can make any shape cake you'd like. The owner is also around and friendly to those coming in to pick up orders. There is no seating in the place so be prepared to take out - it's near Piedmont Park so you could get great fixins for a picnic and go sit outside!
Matty Cakes Bakery
I won a gift card to Metrotainment restaurants back in January, so I thought it was high time to put it to use. Cal and I planned to attend the Friday Jazz at the High Museum, so we parked between the museum and Einstein's and walked to dinner, jazz and then dessert. Unfortunately we soon figure out that weshould have tried Cowtippers - or somewhere other than Einsteins to get our use out of the gift card.
We sat on the patio and the flies were horrible. We should have moved inside immediately but instead suffered through the meal. The inside of the restaurant is actually quite appealing, with modern decor and a pleasant ambiance.
The "sushi" appetizer, which I think has now gone off menu, was the best thing we tried, although it was far from exceptional. The cucumber salad tasted like cucumbers and Siracha - nothing else. While I love Siracha, this is not what I expect when ordering a cucumber salad. I would not recommend this place where there are so many other midtown hot spots with much better food.
Fried sushi roll with tuna poke on the side
Fish with Asparagus - can't remember what kind!
Crabcake melt with cucumber salad
Desserts from Chocolate Pink
Upon returning from the jazz event at the High, we stopped at Chocolate Pink for dessert. They have meticulously created lots of great choices, although the prices are quite high. The atmosphere is calming yet trendy and we enjoyed the strawberry tart and chocolate concoction, although the melon green tea drink was cloyingly sweet.
Einsteins
We dined at Fritti recently on the sidewalk patio. Everything we tried was tasty, especially the fried melange of mushrooms. I want to go back soon to try the calamari pizza, which one of my friends says is very worthy. You can also buy fresh pizza dough to create your own pies at home - interestingly some of the chains will not sell the dough for fear of you duplicating their "secret recipe". I'll take Fritti's over a chain any day!
View from our patio table
I dined at Noche recently with a friend to celebrate her birthday. We sat on the lovely patio and even though it was quite hot I was glad to be outside where it was much quieter than in the dining room. Overall I was not blown away by this place - I think Pura Vida and even Eclipse di Luna have much better food, but the location is trendy and I enjoyed trying it out. The calamari was tasty and I liked the addition of dried cranberries to the spinach.
Spinach with Cranberries and Calamari
Scallops with Risotto
Dessert Trio
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