Fast forward to the end of the night and all you are left with is disappointment and an empty wallet. Sound familiar?

That is why I love restaurant week. What a great time to try out a restaurant that would normally be outside of your budget.

Here in Rhode Island we have a few cities that once or twice a year will put together a week where participating restaurants will offer pre-fixe lunch and dinner menus at fantastic prices. Newport’s Restaurant Week took place March 23-April 1, 2012. Participating restaurants offered prix-fixe menu options: three-course lunches for $16, and three-course dinners for  $30.

Farrah and I decided check out a local place neither of us had been to before one Friday afternoon for lunch. We chose DeWolf tavern in Bristol, RI. Now don’t let the name fool you, this is no tavern that serves lunch. DeWolf is a top notch eatery that earns rave reviews.

We were seated in the downstairs dining area and our server was very eager to share with us the restaurant’s history and give us a tour of the upstairs dining room overlooking the water.

Our Server explained that the tavern’s location is a renovated warehouse dating back to 1818 that was built by maritime merchants for their shipping business. She also went on to say that she noticed how we had stopped to take a closer look at the wooden barrel on display in the lobby and explain that it was used in making rum and had been found during the building’s restoration.

We thanked her for taking the time to tell us so much about the history of the restaurant and left out the fact that we had actually been taking a closer look at the entrance to make sure we were at the right restaurant!

We had our choice of soup or salad, entree and dessert. Farrah chose the shaved filet mignon sandwich and I chose the seafood salad sandwich. The filet was served with Swiss cheese and a horseradish sauce. The seafood salad sandwich consisted of lobster, shrimp and scallops in a lemon pickle tartar sauce. Both dishes were served with their house made chips.

We were both pleased with our sandwiches and the house chips were delicious.

For dessert we got to choose from several flavors of house made ice cream. We both chose the chocolate pecan ice cream. It wasn’t as rich as we would like for a chocolate dessert but we also both cleared the bowl so I think that speaks for itself.

Overall we were both well pleased with De Wolf Tavern. The service and ambiance were  excellent and our meals were tasty and plentiful. I look forward to returning there for dinner on the waterfront this summer.

- Stephanie

Wow 40!  Most women don’t want to even think of 40.  30 is the new 20, but what’s 40?  Nothing your just 40 and don’t want it to happen.  I still have some time before I’m 40 and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

By the time I’m 40 my daughter will be 22 and my son 18.  Thinking of the number 40 makes me feel OLD but maybe I should start feeling young since my kids will both be adults.  Does that mean freedom for Mr. P and I??? LOL Probably not.

Since there aren’t many chocolate Oreo molds that have numbers on them I needed to improvise.  I purchased a number mold and made the number 40 fifty-two times.  Yes you read that right fifty-two.  In theory not that bad, however I probably made at least 75 number 4′s.  The number 4 kept breaking in the mold, not fun!  They turned out rather well in the end, so I got over the pesky number 4.My next order was being shipped to beautiful and sunny California.  Bride to be ordered some cookies for her upcoming wedding.  Another order for seashells and starfish.  Blue and brown are such pretty color combination that you are seeing it more and more in weddings.
 Ribbon options! I must confess something.  I have a ribbon fetish. I don’t know when it actually happened but I know I was in Michaels. I cannot stop myself from picking up ribbon. It’s addicting, there are so many colors, patterns and textures. It’s kinda like Pokemon, I must catch them all!!  I felt that it was my duty to give the bride to be all different ribbon options.

I love the mini cookies! They look adorable and you can just pop them into your mouth!

Mama and baby starfish!

Mama and baby seashell.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

Well I hope the bride to be is happy with the favor options I provided her.
Now onto Easter and Spring baking.

This isn’t one of those posts.  

How could it be? This post is about cupcakes. Let’s face it there is so much to love about cupcakes that even when they’re bad they’re good, kind of like pizza. When we learned RI Food Fights was promoting a local cupcake competition we prepared to do some tasting. 

The event was held at a local nightclub, The Spot Underground. When we arrived there was a line going out the door and around the corner waiting for the event to begin. From the first step in the door their staff was so welcoming and accommodating that I am looking forward to going back for a cocktail sometime soon.

 With over a dozen local bakers displaying their cupcakes it was hard to know where to start. After strategizing our plan of attack and viewing some cupcake artwork on display for silent auction we grabbed some plates and started down our path of consumption.

 Most vendors had mini cupcakes on hand for the tasting however there were some believers in go big or go home and as sinful as it felt we did have to throw away a lot of half eaten cupcake.

 We tasted vegan cupcakes, Girl Scout cookie themed cupcakes, tropical cupcakes, ice cream sundae cupcakes and of course the ever popular chocolate cupcake. One thing we didn’t find was savory cupcakes. We thought for sure with their surge in popularity some would be on display but we were wrong. 

The nice folks over at Whole Foods hosted a milk bar to help wash down all that cake.  They had all kinds of milk dairy and non to chose from, very nice touch although I must confess I opted to head for the bar for a mimosa.

Our top picks of the day came from the Duck and Bunny. Their banana and Nutella cupcake was my favorite and Farrah enjoyed their espresso cupcake.

The judge’s must’ve liked them to , first place as cupcake champion was Duck & Bunny of Wickendon street, followed by second place winners City Girl Cupcake for their Caramel Chocolate Walnut cupcake. The People’s Choice went to The CupCAKE Contessas for their spice cupcake. The judges’ honorable mention went to Mi-Mi’s Sweet Shoppe and the people honored Duck & Bunny as second place

Stephanie

Other meals the Irish are known for is the Irish stew.  Which is like a regular beef stew but you add Guinness stout and replace the beef with lamb.  Then there’s shepherd’s pie. Really? I’ve never related shepherd’s pie as Irish, probably because I was brought up on it and my mother is nowhere near Irish descent.

What you can do is to make something that isn’t Irish and add stout, potatoes or green food coloring and say it is.  Whose going to say that it’s not?  Surely not your kids or husband because they are too busy eating the green potatoes that are liquored up with ale. Just kidding!!

I was asked by some co-workers and friends if I was going to make those “beer pops” again for St. Patrick’s Day.  Just add liquor and everyone wants them!  Since they were requested I couldn’t pass it up. I mean people needed them okay they wanted them.  There was a demand, so I put on my green cape (super mom),  point shoes, died my hair red, grabbed a pipe and got to work.  I had to put some liquor and green food coloring into everything.  Crazy picture of me in my kitchen just popped into your head right? Yeah not a good image.  Erase it!
Decorated very similar to last years.
Everyone loves chocolate covered Oreo’s people cannot get enough of them, so because it’s St. Paddy’s day it needed to be green.  I bought the mint Oreo’s dipped them into dark chocolate and Stephanie enjoyed them yesterday.  I think she would bite hubby’s hand if he dared to grab the last one.

Lollipops are always a cute gift for kiddies, especially when they are filled with maple, black  raspberry or chocolate hazelnut.

I’m aware that people like sweet and salty but apparently people LOVE pretzels!
I purchased 3 bags of Bachman pretzel rods and of course almost 1/4 of the bag is busted.  Not very nice manufacturer companies or delivery man.  Pfft cannot dip broken ones.
Next time I will add some mint extract to the chocolate so they will be chocolate mint pretzels…. I’ll try that out on Stephanie since she enjoys the sweet/salty treats.

I hope you enjoy your St. Patrick’s day eat and drink all the green items that you would like.  For me I’m thinking of a pot roast with some Guinness, potatoes and carrots. See its IRISH!! lol

Bring on zeppoles and sfogliatelle for St. Joseph’s day.  I’ll be making some pizzelles to take into work. Mmmmm thin lemon sugared cookies.  I cannot wait to eat them!

Since I found the restaurants online and was using reviews as my decisioning factor as we drove there I was a little hesitant.  Some people are very picky, some people are too easy to please, some people like eating at swanky restaurants.  For the most part we are far from swanky because both of us don’t like dressing up.  The only time that we do is for funerals and weddings with an occasional holiday party.  However it seems a lot of the restaurants that are on my list I cannot walk in there with jeans.

Since Mr. P is a meat and potatoes man I couldn’t lose with a steakhouse.  He’s not a fan of bones so no T-bones or Porterhouses but loves a sirloin or filet.  Prime rib he can do without since we eat our steaks medium rare and the big ole piece of fat that doesn’t get cooked much really isn’t appetizing  I knew I would love the interior and wouldn’t want to leave because the restaurants name is The Library located in Portsmouth NH. I’m an avid reader anything that is going to have books on the shelf, is rustic, warm and homey I’m all over that! The woodwork was absolutely stunning!  We made reservations and thankfully we did. This place was hopping!  We were seated and for some reason my husband and I are always seated near the kitchen.  Normally I’m not fond of that because of the staff zoooming by you throughout your whole meal but this time we loved it.  It felt like a private table, there was only a couple of other seats I would’ve wanted and they were right in front of the windows overlooking State Street.

We both order the filet mignons but completely forgot to pick the sauce, side dishes are ala carte and are enough for two.  We don’t order appetizers because I fill up quickly.  They have a book of martini’s which they specialize in and there are 96 to choose from.  I chose one called the urban monkey that had coconut rum and banana liquor and some other goodness. It was really tasty, and had a good ole kick that would be make me sing Christmas carols if I had two of these bad boys.

My husband and I both enjoyed our filets, it was as tender as butter and beautifully seasoned.  However we both regret not having a sauce as their sauce selection sounded wonderful.  We had a plate full of onions which my husband was in his glory and I was shocked that he didn’t eat the whole bowl!  We both kept saying how much we enjoyed the steak and that it was the best steak that we’ve ever eaten. <Sorry the picture that I did take was too dark to post.>  Needless to say we have to go back! You know just for the sauce and to take pictures, oh and the martini’s, and the desserts which I missed out on because I was trying to be good to my waist line. (stupid me I know) Thought it was really cute how they gave you the bill.  It comes in a book!
The only two negative things I have to say is I really wished that our server asked what sauce we wanted and the overall service was slow.  We were there for 1.5 hours  which truthfully didn’t bother us since we didn’t feel rushed like other places and we didn’t have anything going on afterwards but 1.5 hours is long for just entrées.  Still isn’t going to deter me from going back at all!! I cannot wait for the 2.5 hour drive for dinner!

In the morning a diner was calling my name, my husband and I love 50′s diners.  The black and white with a splash of red shining on stainless steel.  So cool!  We went to the Roundabout Diner located in Portsmouth NH.  The place was extremely busy, we had a ten minute wait and we were given a booth.  It’s like someone read my mind, this girl prefers booths.
 Our waitress was so bright and sunny in the morning it was lovely.  Service was fast and they make a lot of their breads.  They bread called “toast of the day” so of course I needed to find out what it was. It was apricot nut bread.  I don’t like apricot  but in this bread….. OMG I do! The nuts gave it such a nice crunch and the apricot adds a nice sweetness thankfully they weren’t sickeningly sweet.  I ordered a cornbread and egg soufflé.  It was my first soufflé I’ve ever eaten.  It was good, I prefer a lot more cheese than what was in it.    Hubs doesn’t really like eggs so breakfast isn’t his thing.  He’ll always hand his egg yolks to N and just eats the whites but this time he ordered an omelette. I was freaking stunned.  This is the man that doesn’t try new food and he’s never eaten an omelette before. Yes you heard me right EVER.  He at the whole meat omelette even before I could take a picture.

I cannot wait to go back to Portsmouth, I’m hoping the next time the weather won’t be so windy and cols so we can enjoy the city more.  We would’ve loved to walk around browsing the shops and look at the other restaurants to put on the list.  So if you are ever in Portsmouth check out The Library and The Roundabout and let me know what you think.

A couple of witty things we saw along the way.
I really wished I could grab this sign and take it home.  we were in Biddeford Maine and had to do a u-turn to catch a picture of this.  This is where Wonder/Hostess/Drakes/Nissen corporate location is.
Now I have 3 Christmas trees at home but this hub cap tree definitely would not be put up!
Crafty and cute but yeah.. not happening!
This was located in New Hampshire called Plum Beach, they serve seafood and ice cream. We didn’t eat there as it was closed but the lobster holding ice cream cones is beyond adorable!

If you live in New England and have any restaurants with specific dishes you would like share please let me know.  Stephanie and/or myself would love to visit them!

I am someone who is obsessed with food. I talk about food, research food, dream about food, one of those dreams being going in to a restaurant and asking for a taste of one of everything on the menu. Oh, I should mention as I am sure you will come to realize, I enjoy food the most accompanied with wine.

I’ll be honest this obsession has caused me some trouble. Used to be that just a bite would never suffice, no matter how many dishes were on the table. It took some time and a few stints with Weight Watchers to get my all or nothing attitude under control.

I am sure my little contribution to this blog will evolve over time as most things do but its intent is to share with you my foodie adventures. There will be some great New England restaurant reviews just in time for summer travel and food crawls with Farrah are in the works. The food crawls will make for some entertaining posts as our taste buds do disagree on some important topics. Can you believe she hates guacamole?

I hope you come to look forward to reading the food adventures you will find here!

Stephanie

I found a 60th chocolate lollipop mold online and was very pleased on how they came out. I liked the flowers surrounding the number.  The customer requested that the pop be in solid colors.

Along with the lollipops she requested individually wrapped chocolate covered Oreo’s and Nutter Butters.

Last week hubby and I took our first ever overnight trip (not counting our years ago Anniversary weekend getaway). Your jaw dropped that I said first ever huh? It was a spur of the moment something; we never ever do in all the years that we have been together. We had a wonderful time even thought it was very short we enjoyed every minute of it. I now have a favorite restaurant, I just have to drive 2.5 hours to get to it. But it’s so worth it!

Speaking of restaurant reviews have you noticed in my banner I have a new page? No? I’ll give you a hint.
Welcome to Stepehanie’s Korner.  Stephanie is one of my closest buds.  We work together, hang out together, read the same books and talk about food. A LOT!  Our palettes may differ but we both enjoy a great meal and great company.  Steph has a great personality, she’s beautiful, has somewhat of a shoe fetish (which I just don’t get), is an animal lover and has a wonderful husband and adorable daughter.  I cannot wait until she starts posting about her food reviews and whatever her heart desires.
WELCOME ABOARD STEPHANIE!

Here’s a small in sight of what happened first I was sick, if it wasn’t sickness, I burnt myself out from all the baking back to back.  Then it was Thanksgiving, then I had a birthday lollipops order for a very special little girl, then came my ridiculous amount of baking for Christmas that I made 21+ platters of cookies and delivered/shipped them.

January came very quick and took off as too. Now here it is Valentine’s Day.  I know I suck, I admit it! But what better way to win back your luv than on Valentine’s Day??

I’ve heard that two people have been very concerned about my well being. They were thinking that I was in the hospital or gave up baking.  Then a big ole WTF Farrah blog dang it. LOL Sooooo here I am.

No Valentine’s recipes today but I have some pictures to share.  Hope all is doing well and I’ll make sure it doesn’t take me over 3 months to post something!

How many of you like Oreo’s?
How many love Oreo’s?
These Oreo’s you cannot twist the tops off to lick the middles because they are covered in chocolate.  Anything (for the most part) that is covered in chocolate is wonderful. The heart shaped packaging was the icing on the cake.. Since there isn’t any cake should I say the chocolate on the cookie??
Would you like to buy your someone special a rose? How about a chocolate molded rose with a filling.  Say black raspberry? Ok, not a fruity fan, try maple to get a taste of New England? I have to get you on this one chocolate hazelnut! Sooo gooood! These pops rocked!

Roses are red and violets are blue, how about some sugar cookie pops for you? Corny?? I guess I’ll leave the poetry to V.

I decorated the cookies 3 different ways.  One drizzled with chocolate, the other with sanding sugar and lastly with fondant.  Not every one likes fondant, some people don’t like chocolate (they are just sooo wrong) and others who want to some extra crunch and a sugar high chose the sanding/coarse sugar.
 So you don’t want to eat a cookie off the stick you say because you don’t want to injure yourself or because it looks kidish. So take the cookie outta the bag and chow.

Still feel that I haven’t showed you any love??? How about some cake pops?

How about some cake balls?? Loved how these cake balls look sitting in this heart saying pick me!!
 Well I hope you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day with your loved one or special someone.  I hope you got pampered.

Now for those that are Anti-Valentine’s Day please scroll down to see Halloween LoL!

Mammograhams are chocolate covered graham crackers. Milk chocolate covered plain graham cracker and dark chocolate covered a cinnamon graham cracker. The dark chocoalte is my favorite!

Top Tier: Vanilla cupcake (colored & layered yellow and orange) topped with vanilla frosting and a candy corn. Middle layer Apple Spice cupcakes. Bottom layer is Vampire cupcakes. Red velvet cupcake with strawberry preserve filling, cream cheese frosting and a vampire bite!

Vivian made homemade whole wheat bones for people who love their four-legged friends!

I’ve been wanting to make some Halloween bark.  I originally wanted to add candy corn and caramel pieces but my kids voted against it. Man they always get their way. Well considering they will be eating most of it I bend. LoL  Next time instead of melting and smoothing out the chocolate, I will mix the ingredients into the melted chocolate so it will be hidden and top with the Halloween sprinkles.  Because as I was breaking it up the some of the M&M’s would crack in half.  Didn’t bother me to eat the pieces but I think it would look better.

These are my Skulls & Bones cupcakes. They are a triple chocolate cupcake filled with a marshmallow creme, frosted with milk chocolate and topped with a colored chocolate body part.  Next time I will insert the feet & hands into the cupcakes so they are rising out of the cupcake.  I couldn’t do it this time since they were being transported to work and the container I had wouldn’t fit them sticking up.


My favorite. I needed to make some Halloween chocolate apples for the lil kids next door when they come trick or treating. My neighbors children love coming to our decorated house! I’ll post some pictures this week of the outcome.



Last but not least the punk rocker sporting a mohawk Bailey, who also dresses up for the occasion!

ROCK ON!!!

I hope you have a safe and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! We’ll be dressed up scaring the trick or treaters on the front lawn. MUAHAHAHAA!

So if you hear their screams it’s because of us!

Wondering why I’m talking about the Food Network?  It’s because of this:
This challenge is like Iron Chef and Chopped.  I have no idea how the Chefs can handle the pressure, the quick thinking and time restraints.  Never mind the secret ingredient.  On Iron Chef you are given only 1 ingredient but they must make up to 5 dishes.  Chopped you must make 1 dish but from 3-5 ingredients.  Half the times I scratch my head wondering what some of these things actually are.  For instance crosnes pronounced crones.  I’ve never heard or have seen these gnarly lil buggers before.  They are the Chinese artichoke but taste like a potato.  So like these two shows I’m given 2 ingredients to bake or cook with.  This is the very first challenge and the ingredients to use is Apples and Caramel. I have the option to make up my own recipe or find a recipe.  Over 100 foodies have joined this Challenge on Sheryl’s site.  Pretty cool huh?

I have to admit, this time I took the challenge very safe and very easy.  No I didn’t make caramel apples. Close though.  I hopped over to Pillsbury’s website and found this recipe that I adapted from.
Caramel Apple Biscuit Pops
adapted from Pillsbury
makes 12

1 can Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits
2 TB margarine; melted
1.5 medium granny smith apples; peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces
3 TB granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
15 wrapped caramels; unwrapped and cut each into quarters
1/4 cup caramel sundae syrup; warmed (optional)
12 cupcake liners
12 craft or lollipop sticks

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the can of biscuits into 6 pieces place in a mixing bowl.  Add butter, apples, sugar, cinnamon and caramels. Gently mix.

Spoon mixture into each lined muffin pan.

Bake 18 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Immediately remove each biscuit pop from the cupcake pan and place on platter that you will be serving them on.  The bottoms are buttery so I lined them all with an extra cupcake liner.

Warm up the caramel sundae sauce in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and lightly drizzle on top.  Push a lollipop stick in and serve immediately.
The stick cannot actually pick up the pops, its purely for decoration.  V and I ate these with a fork, but the cannibal I mean N ate them with his hands.

See easy, I told you!

N preferred the extra caramel sauce drizzled on top, V didn’t think it needed it.  You can eat these in the morning for breakfast, a snack or for dessert. If you don’t eat these right away the caramel will harden.  I’m sure you can just pop it into the microwave for 10-15 seconds to warm up and get all gooey again.  What am I thinking of, you won’t have any left over because you ate them all and need to make a batch for the rest of the family members.
 Make sure you check out all the other foodies recipes, because I know you will be running to the grocery store to purchase some apples!!!

Pssssst Next month the two ingredients are cream cheese and pumpkin.  If you have any ideas send them over my way!