One More Bite Catering and Events

Blog

Absolutely Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies: Cookbook Review

These cookies were made by Chef Marcel Desaulniers for The Trellis: Cafe, Restaurant & Grill.

Zoe’s Take:
8/10

I love a good cookie. If it’s an all chocolate cookie, even better. So when we saw this recipe in The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher, we had to try it. It’s a good cookie. It might even be a great cookie, but it’s not a 10/10, 5 star amazing cookie because it didn’t live up to the fudge bit. When a cookie describes itself as fudge, I expect melty chocolate chips and a richness. These cookies spread out quite a bit for me and were huge and got a little crunchy. Don’t get me wrong, I still like crunchy cookies, it was just not what I was expecting. Oh well.

Eric’s Take:
9/10

These cookies are VERY good! Super chocolatey and decadent. I thought this recipe was relatively easy to follow. There were a lot of steps and they were blocked in large paragraphs. There were also a lot of timed steps with mixing. I really liked these cookies, but the lost point was with the directions. Because of the steps being a bit confusing it led to inconsistent results between Zoe and my cookies.

February 28, 2019
National Kahlúa Day!

We’re celebrating National Kahlúa Day the best way we know how…Mudslides!!!!!! Check out our recipe featuring Kahlúa HERE!

February 27, 2019
Simple Manicotti

We’ve definitely said it before…but we love pasta. This classic dish can sometimes seem daunting, but it’s really easy. While you can certainly make everything right before eating, we prefer making this dish ahead of time.

For our Ricotta Filling recipe click HERE.

For our Pasta Sauce recipe click HERE.

You can use all sorts of pasta for this recipe. There’s large and small manicotti, lasagna noodles, or even wonton wrappers. You could also make fresh dough. The preparation can vary depending on your choice. If you’re making the pasta to eat immediately be sure to follow the instructions on the box. Most will par-cook for about 8 minutes. For fresh pasta or wonton wrappers you don’t have to par-cook.

If you use lasagna noodles or wonton wrappers, place a line of ricotta at the end leaving 1/2 inch for sealing the side. This will make a tube shape. For Manicotti noodles or pasta already in a tube, carefully spoon in the filling. It may be easier to use a piping bag.

To save time during the week, you can pipe the filling into uncooked noodles. Place a little sauce to just cover the bottom of the pan. Lay out the filled noodles in one layer. Cover with sauce and some cheese. Cover and refrigerate. The sauce will moisten the noodles in the refrigerator overnight.

If you make our manicotti recipe be sure to let us know!

February 26, 2019
Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears

I first learned to poach in culinary school. It was not my favorite type of cooking. We learned first on fish, then on chicken (yuck) and finally, on pears! As far as I was concerned, my favorite thing to poach is pears… and then maybe salmon.

Poaching should only be done on delicate foods, for instance, you wouldn’t poach a rib-eye steak. But pears are perfect. Generally, if I’m poaching pears in red wine, I will serve them with as much chocolate as possible. If they are poached in white wine however, I prefer to serve them with ice cream.

Get the recipe for my flavorful liquid here!

February 25, 2019
“Final” Blue Apron Review Series – Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce

This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

This week’s, and the final, recipe we tried from Blue Apron was the Smoky Chicken & Brown Butter-Orange Sauce with Sautéed Cabbage & Mashed Potatoes.

Quality of Ingredients: All of the ingredients for this recipe were very good. The produce was fresh and in good condition. The honey and butter were of great quality individually packaged in the correct amounts. The portions also seemed very appropriate.

Ease of Instructions: The instructions for this recipe were the most complicated yet. With multiple steps and times occurring simultaneously, things did get confusing. I ended up keeping the chicken in a little too long, but thankfully it wasn’t overdone.

Taste: The flavor of this recipe was excellent. I really enjoyed the spice blend with the sauce on the chicken. There was a great depth of flavor with the spice, fat and acid of the sauce with the brightness and sweet flavor of the orange. The potatoes and cabbage were simple but also paired well with the sauce and chicken.

Overall: Blue Apron overall provided great recipes with good quality ingredients. The recipes were sometimes confusing, but reading them through once or twice before beginning helped with that. The service was prompt with email alerts and an app to help you order and track your meals. I found this convenient. All orders ship at the beginning of the month, so you can’t simply order a meal at any point, which wasn’t a problem for me. However, due to inclement weather the first delivery was delayed a day. This just meant I needed to plan around it. The flavor of all the recipes were excellent. The attention to detail with the combination of ingredients is really amazing. Especially when there are so few ingredients in each one. I love the cards they give for each recipe as well. I’ll definitely hold on to these and make them again. Overall I’d give Blue Apron a 4.5/5. It’s a great service!

February 21, 2019
Cumin and Lime Spiked Grilled Skirt Steak with Avocado Corn Relish: Cookbook Review

This recipe is from Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken from the Border Grill.

Zoe’s Take:
9/10

I really enjoyed this steak and that’s saying something because I am easily bored by steak. The cumin comes on really strong and it’s supported really well by the lime. I marinated my meat for 24 hours and the meat was quite tender, but I really want to go for 48 and see how tender it gets then. the avocado corn relish is amazing, I want to eat it on everything. My biggest issue is the marination time, and also, I prefer not to use skirt steak unless I have access to a grill (which I do not at the moment).

Eric’s Take:
9/10

I was skeptical with this recipe at first. I had made something similar before, and it wasn’t my favorite to say the least. However, this recipe called for toasting cumin seeds and that made a big difference. The aroma held up to the other strong flavors. The cilantro paired well with the jalapeños, making it not only complex, but delicious. The accompanying corn relish was incredible. By far my favorite bite from this cookbook yet. This recipe lost a point due to the choice of meat. Skirt steak is not always available and is typically better grilled. The long marinade time required to develop a stronger flavor and break down the meat means you can’t just make this dish on a whim. There needs to be long preparation. However, other cuts would likely work very well with this recipe too.

February 20, 2019
Huevos Rancheros

On this lovely Monday, we are celebrating a holiday called: President’s Day! In order to celebrate correctly, and have some fun, Eric and I looked up the documented favorite foods of all the Presidents!

Some were incredibly boring, old fashioned or gross, and some were just not so doable. We settled on this delicious dish, a favorite of our 43rd President, George W. Bush. According to the Lifestyle section of Wide Open Eats, W. would have a post-church meal of Huevos Rancheros every Sunday they weren’t at Camp David.

Traditionally, this is a breakfast dish served in the style of large mid-morning fare on rural Mexican farms. The main ingredients are tortillas, eggs, a tomato-chili sauce, refried beans, rice, avocado or guacamole.

In order to make one that I would eat, and that I could keep improving on, I changed some of the ingredients to make mine. I did not use refried beans as I don’t like them, used a salsa verde sauce, and fresh tomato salsa and added a cheese element that isn’t necessary tradional. I kept the rice and the avocado of course because who doesn’t want that?

Sound good? Find the recipe here.

February 18, 2019
Blue Apron Review Series – Greek-Style Feta Burgers

This month we are reviewing the meal order service Blue Apron! Each week we’re going to review a new recipe, and in the last installment we’ll look at the service as a whole. Each week we’ll score on three key points: Quality of Ingredients, Ease of Instructions, and Taste. Each will have a five-point scale: 1-Poor, 2-Could be Better, 3-Okay, 4-Good, and 5-Excellent.

This week is the Greek-Style Feta Burgers with Tzatziki & Lemon-Oregano Potatoes.

Quality of Ingredients: The ingredients for this kit had a couple problems. To start the potatoes went bad pretty quickly. I wasn’t able to make this meal until about week after it was delivered. I’ve had potatoes in my refrigerator for a month and still be fresh, so it suprised me that these turned. The second problem is that the liquid in the feta cheese somehow leaked out. I replaced the potatoes, but the cheese and everything else was fine. Overall the meat was good quality and the buns were nice and soft, so I rated this as good.

Ease of Instructions: There were a number of steps to this recipe, despite being relatively simple. All of the instructions were clear and concise.

Taste: I really liked the flavor of these burgers. The cheese had a nice saltiness, and the tang of the tzatziki complimented it well. My only complaint is that the amount of lemon juice called for in the recipe left the potatoes with too much acidity. Luckily there was plenty of tzatziki left over which balanced it out well.

February 15, 2019
Valentine’s Day Vanilla Rhubarb Scones

It’s Valentine’s Day, and what are you doing? Maybe going out for dinner or heading to the jewelry store to pick up something shiny.

In my house, we don’t really do the whole out to dinner thing. Or the gifts, or the jewelry. I normally try to make something new. So this year, I made scones. But not just ANY scones (I also have a deep love for the word scone), vanilla rhubarb scones. Sweet and tart, these bring the perfect flavors to a Valentine’s (or any other day’s) morning!

If you already have a scone recipe you love, you can just modify it with ease to make them into these vanilla rhubarb scones. Add another teaspoon of vanilla, or crush up a vanilla bean and add that in. Then, cut rhubarb into small pieces and add those right into the scone mixture and voila! Vanilla Rhubarb scones for your Valentine’s Breakfast.

February 14, 2019
Cookbook Review: Warm Wild Mushroom and Chicken Strudel

This hors d’oeuvre is by Chef Charles Palmer and was featured at Aureole.

Zoe’s Take:
4/10

While I liked the flavors in both the sauce and the strudel, there was a lot that was lacking. First off, the instructions for forming the strudel itself was very confusing. The sauce was oily, and could have used more acidity. The strudel dough itself took a lot longer to cook. I used puff pastry because the strudel dough just didn’t work out at all. Also, the chicken and mushroom mixture felt dry. Overall, I disliked it, but it definitely has potential to become a better recipe with some work.

Eric’s Take:
5/10

I’m not sure where to begin with this recipe. I love basil, and the chicken and mushroom filling was good with the sauce. Then the problems come. I also could not find strudel dough, so availability of ingredients lost a point for me. I also ended up using puffed pastry. Flavor lost two because for me this was just ok. There was a lack of heat and fat. The sauce provided acidity, but for some reason mine was a bit thin. Double cooking the chicken ended up drying the filling out. The instructions were too vague on the folding method. Zoe took a hand-pie approach, and I made more of a stromboli. I understand that all the recipes in this book have been standardized to a particular format. This one may have been lost in translation.

February 13, 2019