Tasting The Menu At 15 North Roadside Kitchen

Last night I was invited to a little event organized by Kelly.  She came up with the idea to do a Girls Night Out and have our group sample some things on the menu at 15 North Roadside Kitchen, a cute little restaurant located on Montford Drive in Charlotte.

At first glance, the outside of the restaurant looks more like a retro diner than a fine dining establishment.

Inside, the decor is actually modern and pretty chic though.

Our group was sat at one end of the restaurant at a long table near the garage-style windows.

We were given a private waiter, who also manned the wine station situated next to our table.

Kelly worked with the chef and our group to choose a bunch of things off the menu for our meal. 

Here was our tasting menu.

First up were the appetizers. 

We had deviled eggs and fried green tomatoes.

The fried green tomatoes were accompanied with a generous scoop of pimento cheese, some bacon bits, and a tomato puree.  All were delicious with the tomatoes, which were cooked to golden brown perfection.

Our second course was the crabcake.

The crabcake had a good amount of lump meat in it and was great combined with the sauce and corn it was paired with.

Next was the Caprese salad.

One thing I loved about this classic salad was that the chef took the time to season the tomatoes.  They were lightly salted to bring out the flavor, and tasted terrific with the creamy mozzarella, basil, and balsamic.

Our entree was a wild mushroom risotto.

The risotto was probably the best I've ever had, and I think I make pretty good mushroom risotto.  It was extremely creamy and rich, like it was bathed in cream!  So so good.

I wasn't sure I could eat anymore, but they eventually brought out the dessert course: cheesecake.

The cheesecake was really light and airy, yet rich and velvety.  I could also tell the graham cracker crust was homemade.  I sometimes don't like graham cracker crust if it tastes too packaged and stale, but this was fresh and buttery.

Wow, what a great meal!  Thank you to 15 North Roadside Kitchen for having our group in and accomodating us for a tasting dinner.  It was all completely delicious!

That Wasn't Chicken

Have you guys ever see this picture with this fortune? 

Oh man, it makes me laugh every time!

The other night, Greg was home and I decided to make us "not real chicken" chicken for dinner.

I've used meat-free options before, like meat-like veggie crumbles, so I figured it was time to give the chicken substitute a try.

This dinner was really easy and came together in about 20 minutes.  Win!

I just used the oven directions to cook the "chicken", which was basically just cooking it in the oven with sauce (plus I added cheese to make it "parm style").  Then, I threw together leftover pasta and spaghetti squash, with a little extra tomato sauce.  Plus some grilled zucchini for my veg.

Viola! 

The verdict?  We liked it.  It definitely tastes a little different than chicken, but it's a pretty good substitute, and wonderful if you are feeling lazy about cooking like I was that night!

What other meat-free options have you tried?  Any recommendations?  I've seen BBQ "tips" and tofu sausages.  I've wondered how they are...



When Home On A Sunday

Sunday was admittedly a lazy day at home for me.  And for Clyde...

I tried walking Clyde at one point, but he was not a fan of the heat.  We got about 10 houses down and he was done.



So, to entertain myself, and use some very overripe bananas, I made Chocolate Marble Banana Bread.

I knew I wanted to make banana bread but wanted to mix it up a little.  This recipe jumped out at me.  Chocolate in there?  Yes please.

While my banana bread cooked, I also decided to bake a spaghetti squash.  I cut it in half and put the halves face down on a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil for 45 minutes on 350.  Same temp as the banana bread, so it worked out great.

I made a sauce consisting of onion, garlic, red pepper, Italian seasoning, tomatoes, and a little stock.

I also grilled a couple jalapeno chicken sausages.

I scraped out my spaghetti squash and mixed in the sauce and sausage pieces.  Topped with Parmesan cheese.

Oh yeah, spaghetti squash goodness.

Dessert was a slice of the Chocolate Marble Banana Bread, still warm from the oven.

I'm pretty sure chocolate and banana belong together :)

It was eaten while watching yet another Sister Wives marathon.  That show fascinates me for some reason!

How was your Sunday?

Weekend Refreshments

Hey friends!  How's the weekend going for you all?

It's been good, low-key weekend for me. 

Friday night I met my friend Josie for dinner at a local pub to catch up.  I ordered something a little bit unusual for me, salmon!  I'm kind of weird and picky about fish and normally don't gravitate towards most fish, except maybe shrimp and crab.  I try to branch out though and have decided I really like fish like Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, and sometimes even salmon. 

My salmon came with veggies and wild rice and was simply grilled with a buttery/lemony sauce.  It was delicious!  Glad I branched out!

My Saturday consisted of a walk around the neighborhood with Clyde, errands at Target, a little local farm stand shopping, a nap, and some reading on the deck.

I also made Katie's watermelon lemonade, with a watermelon I bought at the farm stand yesterday.

Except I subbed out freshly squeezed orange juice for the lemon juice.  So maybe it would be called watermelon orange-ade?  Actually, I think it was more like a watermelon slushie, because I also added ice cubes to the blender.

OMG- this is so refreshing and good on a hot summery day!  I enjoyed mine on the deck while reading our new book club book, Little Bee.



Later, I had plans to meet up with some fellow bloggers at Menchie's, Charlotte's latest self serve fro-yo place!

I met Katy, Allison, and Kelly.

Katy was in town visiting after running the Charity Chase half marathon in Hickory in the morning. 

Charity Chase was my first half marathon!  I ran it last year.  Can't believe it's been a whole year.  Wow!

Oh, and Happy came too :)

I chose a mix of red velvet, dulce de leche, and cake batter topped with a bunch of chocolatey things and some raspberries and strawberries.

Kelly also brought along our friend Thomas.

Thomas created the most epic sundae ever.  It was like Man Vs. Food!  Man won ;)

Seriously, check this thing out! 

We had a great time hanging out on Menchie's patio.  The weather was totally gorgeous and it was a wonderful night to sit outside.

It was great meeting Katy and a pleasure to see Kelly and Allison as always.

Dinner Date and Book Club #2

Hey all!  It's been an interesting week over here, lots of stuff going on.  Greg started his June schedule this week.  He was only home two nights this week and didn't get home til after I went to bed Wednesday night, so we didn't really have any time together that day.  I realized that Thursday night was really the only night I could see him, but alas, I had my book club that night!  Quickly I plotted out a way to both see him and go to the book club.  There's a Mellow Mushroom right near FABO where we meet for book club, and I knew I could lure Greg over there to meet me by mentioning pizza.  Works every time!

He met me at Mellow Mushroom for dinner after I got out of work, so that we could at least enjoy dinner together before I headed to book club.

Mushroom-y

We ordered a large Greek salad to split.

Um, yeah, we had already kind of attacked it at this point.

We got a medium mushroom and roasted red pepper pizza.

Totally delicious.

After dinner we walked around the area, since Greg hasn't really been over there much before.  We ducked into the Reid's Fine Food store, and actually ran into Katie!

Greg headed home and I headed to book club with Katie. 

So you probably remember that we read A Friend of the Family, by Lauren Grodstein.

The one thing the book really got me thinking about the most was this: wanting The American Dream. Even though the story in the book is dark and kind of disturbing at times, the narrator keeps coming back to the topic of just wanting a this classic American life- to grow up, have a successful career, get married, have children, then successful children that basically repeat the process. I think part of what derails the protagonist in this story is that he freaks out when he sees deviation from the life he'd always envisioned and worked for.

In a weird way, I felt like I could relate to this. I know in this day and age things have changed a lot in that not everyone conforms to the traditional "perfect life", but I am not ashamed to admit that I actually do want this. Some people don't care about getting married. Some people don't want children. Some people want to backpack around the globe for a lifetime. I am not one of those people. Maybe it's because I was brought up in a happy nuclear family and that I just loved how it felt growing up this way and want to continue the chain of it. I guess I've always felt like I'd be missing out on something pretty important in life if I didn't get married and have children.

Like the author in the book, I feel like I've had to work really hard to get all these things in my life and it's almost like juggling and keeping all the balls in the air. It's exhausting keeping a career, a marriage, the house, and trying to conceive a child so that I can obtain the perfect life I've always envisioned.  So I kind of get why he was so determined to have and maintain this life.

Anyway, just my take on it.  The book club was fun though.  We brought questions to discuss, and this one was a great book to debate because some of the members hated the book and some liked it.

We chose our next book at the end of the meeting, which is Little Bee.

All I've heard about this book is this:

"WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.The story starts there, but the book doesn't.And it's what happens afterward that is most important.Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds."

And that my friends who have read said it was great!  Just bought a copy today and hope to get in some reading this afternoon!  Have you guys read this book? 



Orange Ricotta Cookies with Chocolate Swizzles

The other night I made my Orange Chocolate Pinwheel cookies (I use Alton Brown's Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel recipe and sub out the peppermint flavorings for orange zest and orange extract)  for my winning bidder of Tina's bake sale.  The pinwheel cookies are awesome, but are pretty time consuming since you have to chill the dough a couple different times during the process.  I worked on the pinwheels for a couple hours on Monday, and once finished I had a nice little batch all set to go, but I felt like my winner deserved some additional cookie goods for her generous donation.  Unsure of what flavor cookies she liked besides orange and chocolate, I decided to attempt an additional batch of cookies using these same flavors.

Enter Orange Ricotta cookies with Chocolate Swizzles.

The ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature.
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
7 oz ricotta cheese (or about half a 15 oz container)
1/2 teaspoon of orange extract
The zest of a small/medium orange
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
About 3-4 oz melted chocolate (I used chocolate chips).

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, using a mixer, combine butter and sugar til light in color.

 
Add eggs, ricotta, orange flavors and blend well.
Add flour, baking powder, and salt and blend.
Drop by rounded tablespoons on to cookie sheets 2 inches apart. 

Bake about 12-15 minutes, til edges are lightly golden.

Let cookies cool a few minutes on sheet, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooking.
Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring til melted.
Once cookies are cooled, place back on parchment sheets.  Use a fork to "swizzle" chocolate over the top.

I'd say I still like the pinwheels best, but the ricotta makes these cookies seem much lighter and airier.  They actually reminded me a little of scones, meaning, they are totally acceptable to eat for breakfast, right?


I sent a box of these babies, along with the pinwheels off to my winning bidder in Ohio.  Hope she likes them!