Cadot Restaurant

Cadot Restaurant is further north than we like to venture for dinner, especially with so many delicious local places. "North of the Loop" is what we call it here at home, and it did seem like a far drive up to Frankford and Preston. However, we weren't disappointed with the service, the fare, or the piano player who dazzled us all night. Dinner was definitely a success.

We were seated immediately, thanks to our Open Table reservation.
We were charmed by their menu. Darling! The piano player was tickling the ivories to a Neil Diamond song, all was mellow. Then one of our favorite things happened: the presentation of the bread basket complete with warm bread and a generous serving of unsalted and soft butter. Heaven!


We began with the cream of asparagus soup. It was a perfectly portioned amount and very decadent. It did need a tad bit of salt, a personal choice. It tasted amazingly fresh. I would order it again. That was the soup of the day offering, but they had two resident soups on the menu that also sounded impressive: French Onion and Tomato with Roasted Red Pepper. All winners, I'm sure.

Our waitress, who was so very nice, ran through the specials that all sounded dreamy, but we had come prepared by pre-researching the menu. We knew exactly what we were ordering.

We had a vegetarian entree: the Gnocchi sauteed with royal trumpet mushrooms and tomato coulis sauce. Excellent presentation, excellent taste.

We also had the Veal Paillarde with lemon butter and caper sauce. This was a show stopper to be sure! Served with mixed vegetables and roasted potatoes, this dish exceeded expectations. The veal was pounded thinly, the capers were tart, the lemon butter sauce was a perfect compliment to everything else going on with the plate. I definitely appreciated this dish...and the tunes the piano player kept cranking out.


By the time the dessert menu rolled out, we were too full to continue.
We happily drove back to downtown, glad to check Cadot off of our list - glad to report that it is worth visiting!

Birthday Cake

We normally don't post anything about our own cooking experiences, but I had to post this one. This is a Giada recipe and I have posted the directions below! I highly recommend giving it a try if you have a sweet tooth and time to experiment.

From Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
Cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix
Crunch:
1 cup (about 4 1/2-ounces) hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
Filling:
2 (8-ounce) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1 cup cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping:
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

For the cake:
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter and flour 2 (8-inch) cake pans. Prepare the cake mix according to package instructions. Divide the batter between the 2 cake pans and bake according to package instructions. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

For the Crunch

Note: This was the hardest part of the entire process. I had to make the sugar several times to get it to the right color. Also, I had to double the amount that she calls for because this simply wasn't enough to cover all of the hazelnuts.

Place the toasted nuts close together in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir the sugar mixture until dissolved. Bring to a boil and let cook until the sugar is light brown, about 8 minutes. Let the bubbles subside then pour the caramelized sugar over the nuts. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and let the sugar nut mixture cool until hard, about 30 minutes. When the sugar nut mixture is hard and cool, top with another piece of parchment paper and pound into small pieces, or place the sugar nut mixture on a cutting board and cut into small pieces. Set aside.

For the filling:
Put the mascarpone cheese, cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer whip the cream mixture to soft peaks. Fold the Crunch mixture into the whipped cream.

For the topping:
Place the chocolate, sugar and zest in a food processor. Process the mixture until the chocolate is finely ground.

To assemble the cake:
Put 1 cake on a serving plate. Top with 1-inch of the whipped cream crunch mixture. Top with the second layer of cake and continue frosting the entire cake with the remaining whipped cream crunch mixture. Sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the ground chocolate. Serve.

Did Everybody See This?

The Dallas Morning News released their top 100 restaurants in Dallas.
Based on the list, I'd say someone called in some favors...deals were made...
However, it does give us new fodder for food!

Click here to see the Top 100.

Ellerbe Fine Foods

Saturday evening we had a large group dinner planned for Joe T. Garcia’s, but the weather was too cold. Instead, we opted for a smaller dinner in a warm and cozy atmosphere. Fort Worth, however, was still our destination.

The restaurant is located on Magnolia Street and is hosted in a renovated gas station. When you first walk in there is a small retail shop on the right and a serving station directly ahead. They were selling local jellies, honey, and various flavored dessert and appetizer kits. They also had a pretty good selection of dining and glass ware for sale as well. You are invited to purchase a cocktail while you wait/shop if you like. We made a reservation prior to heading out, which was a good idea! The earliest slot that was available was 9:00. The restaurant was pleasantly full, but you didn’t get a feel for it being packed.

We were seated after about ten minutes after arriving. There are two main dining areas with a large open feel. We were immediately served warm fresh bread with butter and a side dish of pink salt. Delish! The girls ordered a bottle of chardonnay and the guys ordered a bottle of pinot noir. Plenty of wine to go around ! Now, we could officially begin the process of trying to narrow down our choices for the evening. For appetizers, sweetbreads and a white bean salad were ordered. They both were served on a vinaigrette salad bed of sorts. Having never had sweetbreads before, I can’t really judge them fairly. I thought that the taste was decent (as long as I didn’t think about what I was eating) and slightly smoky. Overall, we weren’t blown away by either of the appetizers.

Meaghan and I had the same idea- order light. The soup caught both of our attention, and so we got it. It was a corn soup with a cream base. It had roasted red pepper flavors and queso fresco sprinkled throughout as well as a touch of cilantro. Yummy! We both took our time savoring every sip. Meagan ordered the green goddess and bibb salad. The portion was fairly small, but came sprinkled with bacon and watermelon radishes. I decided to try the maque choux which is offered as a side. After all, we couldn’t order the SAME exact things. This was really very good. It came mixed with baby shrimp, tomatoes, and I think chorizo (although I am not certain on this). The flavors were very good and the dish itself was rather filling.
The guys had the same idea- full entree. Justin ordered the steak which came served with mac and cheese. The steak flavor was really very good and the mac and cheese was covered with panko bread crumbs. Brad ordered the grouper. This came served with bay shrimp and a stuffed mirliton (vegetable that I had never heard of, but tasted like squash.) The entree was blanketed by a “tomato beurre blanc sauce” that was simply amazing. It was creamy and delicious!

Finally, we ended the evening on a sweet note. We couldn’t decide between two desserts, so we ordered both! We had the bread pudding that came with homemade whipped cream on top, whiskey sauce on the side, and candied pecans sprinkled all around. We also ordered the oatmeal cookie cake that was iced in a cream cheese frosting. Neither of the desserts left us disappointed and both plates were cleared!

We had a lovely dinner in a very inviting atmosphere.

http://ellerbefinefoods.com/menus.php

P.S. They had a nice patio are as well. We will have to come back when the weather outside is more accommodating!

Dallas Chop House

If you haven’t tried Dallas Chop House, make it a priority!

We decided to try it out after work for some happy hour specials. The dining area of the restaurant is huge and very nicely decorated. We ended up getting a table in the bar area since it was still early. The bar has floor to ceiling windows that look on to Main Street and their outside patio. It was raining so we couldn’t sit out here, but we definitely would have. They have a fabulous outdoor fireplace and fun furniture. By 6:00 the bar was packed with downtown professionals. Side note: While they offer a smaller bar menu, they allow you to order off of the full dining menu from the bar as well.

We ordered wine to begin with, but they have an array of cocktails as well. They even have Patron and Kettle One on tap! Apparently, this keeps the liquor much cooler. Who knew! Once the drinks were ordered, we were brought their complementary chips. They were basically a potato chip that was tossed with several different spices. I am pretty sure we ate the entire bowl!!

On our second round, we decided to order some appetizers to pick on. I asked the waitress what she recommended and the first thing that she mentioned was their mashed potatoes. Sold. You basically get to “design” your own because you get to choose the type of butter that you want to accompany your mashed potatoes. We picked truffle butter and we made an excellent decision! They were absolutely delicious. The waitress also mentioned that the lobster butter was also very good. I will be back for that!

We also ordered the steak fries, crab cake, and shrimp. The steak fries were tossed with garlic, swiss cheese, and prosciutto. The fries were really thick ( which I generally do not care for), but the coating was out of this world. They were crunchy and very flavorful. The crab cake was very unusual. It is sort of like a deconstructed crab cake that is served cold. It sounds weird, but it sure didn’t taste weird. The crab meat was mixed with an aioli sauce and then served on toasted brioche bread. The bread was buttery and the lump crab meat was scrumptious. We also tried the jumbo shrimp diablo. The shrimp were wrapped in bacon and served on a bed of cheese grits. They, they were drizzled with a creole meuniere sauce. The shrimp came four to an order and this could have easily been a meal in itself. The ingredients that were paired in this dish complimented each other perfectly.


I am sure you can tell, but we all absolutely loved this place. We will be back and all we have to do is go downstairs!
http://www.dallaschophouse.com/

Lemongrass

I know that Lemongrass is popular for lunch take-out when you work downtown; we went for dinner and I completely failed to see the appeal. The menu claims Asian dishes with French influences. I think a better claim might be undercooked and under flavored.


We were the only diners in the dining room the whole evening. Sometimes that can be uncomfortable. Our waiter was super nice, however. He lit the candles and did the whole rigmarole, and we appreciated his professionalism. But for being the only people in the joint, service was S-L-O-W.


We started with the soups. We had the cream of asparagus with crab meat and the cream of corn with premium crab meat. The prices were definitely appropriate, but they used the same stock base for both soup and just added corn or asparagus respectively. The difference between crab meat and premium crab meat was imperceptible. The crab was less than expected quality, so I would definitely skip that next time.

(not sure which soup this is...but it doesn't really matter since they were basically the same...)

The website claims that spring rolls are a favorite among the "regulars". I'm not sure why "regulars" was put in quotation marks...I can speculate, however. We split the vegetarian spring rolls. They were fresh, but after about two bites, the almost raw vegetables and the crunchy raw peanuts got tedious and lacked flavor.


We finished with the lemongrass chicken lettuce wraps. The lettuce that was served with the wraps made it almost impossible to wrap up your goods. The rest was decent: grilled chicken topped with peanut pieces, vermicelli, and fresh cilantro. It lacked that certain something, however, so we added some soy sauce to the mix in order to make it more palatable.



All in all - take a pass on Lemongrass.

Family Dinner

We know how to do it up RIGHT in our family.
This weekend we celebrated our Uncle's b-day in BBQ style.
Railhead provided the so yummy meat dishes, including ribs, brisket, jalapeno and cheese sausage, and regular sausage.





We provided the rest.
Take a look!
Appetizer #1: Cream Cheese, Pesto, Tomato Bake served with crackers
1 8oz package Cream cheese
1/4 cup pesto
1 plum tomato, chopped(or use little grape tomatoes)
1/4 cup grated cheddar

Heat grill to medium heat. Place cream cheese on an 8 inch square sheet of aluminum foil.~ top with pesto, tomatoes and cheese.Bring the sides of the foil together and roll down to kind of seal. Place foil on grill ~ cover with lid and grill for about 10 minutes. Transfer foil to platter. Serve spread with crackers. You can also prepare this in the oven 375 for 12-14 minutes

Appetizer #2: Relish Tray

Appetizer #3: Cream Cheese-Tomato dip with Fritos (everyone's fav)
1 package softened cream cheese
¼ can drained rotel (you can chop tomatoes, green chiles, onion,…instead, but why do that when you can just use rotel.)
Juice of ¼ lemon
1 to 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
**Secret ingredient**1 T. Wylors chicken granules. The Herbox granules don’t really work…not sure why.

Mix all ingredients until smooth and top with chopped fresh tomatoes or chives and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

Side Dish #1: Paula Deen's Crockpot Mac and Cheese

Side Dish #2: Paula Deen's Corn Casserole

Side Dish #3: Cole Slaw with Apple and Garlic (oddly, not pictured)
Side Dish #4: Green Beans with Bacon

We finished up with Chocolate Sheet Cake. Can't imagine why there aren't any photos of that...:)