Salt Lake City Thai

We went to Chanon Thai Cafe on a Thursday night around 6pm. The restaurant was about 50% full, by 6:30 it was packed. Despite this, our servers were attentive and helpful and our food arrived in a reasonable amount of time. 

The lighting didn't allow for a good picture of our food, but we ordered:

Pad Him Ma Parn: A popular cashew nut stir fry with onion, pineapple, mushrooms, shitake mushrooms and bell pepper. $9.95

and

Yum Woon-sen: Thai glass noodles mixed with ground pork, prawns, squid, cashew nuts, green and red cabbage, carrot, green and red onions, lemongrass, fresh lime juice, sugar, spicy Thai chili and salt. $9.95  
(we sub. tofu and it was excellent)

There was so much food we had enough for lunch the next day. 

***One important note, we specified that we wanted medium/mild spiciness - both dishes were extremely mild, so if you like some kick to your dish, better let them know.

Check out this place the next time you are in Salt Lake City. You won't be disappointed. 

Chanon Thai Cafe
278 E 900 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Phone:  (801) 532-1177

LUNCH:
Wed-Fri 11:30am-3:00pm

DINNER:
Wed-Sun 5:00pm-9:00pm

Last minute holiday baking anyone?

Thanks to Leah Lewis for this awesome guest post. Check out the great pictures below. 

(Merry Christmas everyone!)

Almond Biscotti

  

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

4 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon liqueur (optional: brandy, Disaronno) * I used Disaronno

2 tablespoons Raw Sugar (optional)

1 cup almonds, sliced or chopped (or substitute for any other type of nut)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place nuts on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes until golden brown. 

Beat eggs and remove 1 tablespoon of egg and set aside for egg wash. Beat sugar, vanilla, and liqueur into egg mixture.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.  Blend this flour into the egg mixture. This will form soft and very sticky dough. Divide the dough in half and place onto a very well floured piece of parchment paper. With well-floured hands, pat the dough down into an approximately 9-inch square. Scatter half of the nuts and press into the dough. Divide the dough in half and place onto a very well floured piece of parchment paper. With well-floured hands, pat the dough down into an approximately 9-inch square. Scatter half of the nuts and press into the dough. 

Divide the dough in half and place onto a very well floured piece of parchment paper. With well-floured hands, pat the dough down into an approximately 9-inch square. Scatter half of the nuts and press into the dough. Roll the dough into a cylinder and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat this process for the remaining dough.

Stir in a small amount of milk or cream to the egg that was set aside. Brush this mixture onto the biscotti logs and sprinkle with raw sugar (optional).

Bake at 350° for about 25-30 minutes or until slightly firm and golden. Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes. 

Place biscotti onto cutting board and slice into ½ inch pieces. At this point the biscotti will still be slightly moist. Be sure to use a sharp, serrate knife to ensure a clean cut. I also like to cut the biscotti at an angle. 

Return these slices onto the baking sheet (you may need an additional baking sheet) and bake another 20-30 minutes or until dry and crisp. They will harden slightly as they cool. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Makes about 36 biscotti.

**This recipe is very easy to adapt for a variety of flavors. If you want a chocolate almond biscotti replace ½ cup flour with ½ cup of Dutch cocoa. You can also add a variety of nuts or dried fruits as the filler. Another great combination is orange zest and cranberries. The options are nearly endless.

BBQ Black Bean Burgers

2 T olive oil
1 c EACH chopped onion, bell pepper (whatever color you like)
4 garlic cloves, or to taste, diced
2 c. cooked black beans (if you use canned, be sure to drain and rinse)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp jalapeno, or to taste, diced
1/2 c BBQ sauce
1/2 c (rounded) cooked rice (I used brown rice, whatever you have on hand is fine)
1 1/2 c (approx.) bread crumbs, unseasoned

cook onion, bell pepper in oil until translucent, add garlic cloves, when garlic is soft, add the rest of ingredients (except bread crumbs), heat through and dump into heatproof bowl, or Cuisinart (when cool a bit). Use whatever method you prefer, but you need to mash up the mixture. I preferred to put it all in a bowl and use the bottom of a glass to smash everything together. When incorporated, add 1 c of the bread crumbs to the mixture. 

The goal is to form the mixture into patties, if it seems too dry, add a splash more of BBQ sauce, if it seems too wet, sprinkle in some more bread crumbs. This will all depend on how wet your beans were when you added them, the consistency of your BBQ sauce...etc. Just approximate....

When you have the consistency right, place patties on a cookie sheet. If you want to cook them later, you can freeze them like this and place them into zip-loc baggies when they are frozen. If you are eating them the same day, be sure to use a good, nonstick or well-seasoned cast iron skillet.
To cook:
Heat 2 T canola oil on med. in skillet, when hot, place 2-3 patties in pan, they should sizzle, when you have a good crust on that side, flip and place a slice of cheese on the top if you like. (I highly recommend this...). Cook for a couple minutes longer and enjoy. yum.

Visit to Vancouver, BC

Granville Island, BC
They have an excellent indoor market, reminiscent of the Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA

Awesome

What a great idea!!!! Definitely need to make a boatload of banana espresso cake and fudgy  espresso brownies so I can use up my espresso and make this lamp.

genius.

http://www.sweetpaulmag-digital.com/sweetpaulmag/summer2011/?pg=134&pm=2&u1=friend

(Adapted) Devil's Food Cake with Hazelnut Crunch

pretty proud of myself for this one...

I've never attempted a 3 layer cake before. Always seemed too intimidating. Well, a friend's birthday calls for a special effort. So here goes....

I adapted Gourmet's version of this Devil's Food Cake with Hazelnut Crunch

A couple notes about the recipe:

For the hazelnut crunch:

1. I didn't use hazelnuts (I'm a grad student, not a fancy-pants lawyer or something, who can afford hazelnuts??? I used toasted almonds instead)

2. I didn't use Nutella, instead I used peanut butter and added 1/2 oz square of unsweetened baking chocolate 

For the frosting:

3. I didn't use upscale Scharffen Berger chocolate like the recipe calls for. I used plain ole' semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips, again, see fancy pants comment above.

For the assembly:

4. I didn't cut off the domed parts of each layer to create even layers when I assembled the cake. Excuse me but I worked hard for this cake and I really don't care enough about how it looks to sacrifice any part of it!

Now that I got that off my chest, go to the store, stock up on butter and chocolate and get baking. enjoy...