I discovered that it looks prettier to make deviled eggs into roses. It’s not very hard to do but might require a bit of practicing. The eggs come out delicious but you need a smooth filling or the rose tip will clog. Make any smooth recipe for deviled eggs. I usually just do a basic deviled eggs with Amora brand dijon and dust them with French red pepper. I suggest to season the egg white slightly too with a little bit of crushed sea salt and whatever pepper or paprika you like. Below is a cream cheese rose but the method is the same for just about any kind of rose you want to make.
First you need a rose tip.
Both tips are for roses but I used the bigger #104 Wilton Brand Tip
Then you insert tip (with out without a coupler) and fold down pastry bag and stuff.
Twist bag and push down filling to hold in filling and twist again. The shorter end of tip is away from you when you decorate.
Then you make a little mountain or Hershey Kiss size drop on a rose nail.
needed to use apple so I’d have a hand food my cell phone.
Then you squeeze out a little filling around the pointy tip and move the rose nail while you are squirting the little mountain.
Slightly below the tip make around three petals around the tip…
Then make at least five petals around the three but slightly lower.
Then a little lower make around seven petals. Scoop the flower off with a small spatula or butter knife.
I tried a lot of restaurants for take out during the pandemic. Most were good. Some old favorites are great for dining in but lost some of the magic with take out. But surprisingly some were GREAT beyond my expectations. Here are most but not in any particular order. One of the best take outs was from Confluence in Carefree.
This fried chicken with chilitepin honey is to die for. OMG it really is that good!
Binkley’s Dinner was pretty much over the top too!
It was the only take out dinner that felt like dining out when I ate the carefully packaged five courses.
A new restaurant that opened during the pandemic called Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale was also AMAZING!
They gave us these delicious complimentary muffins that were moist and seemed light as air. The muffins were studded with feta cheese and were laced with dill and also came with this warm honey butter with fresh chives…….(these alone were amazing)……We enjoyed an amazing appetizer. Both our dinners were incredible.
I had the salmon and it was one of the very best salmons that I had anywhere in metro Phoenix.
The Bianco pizza (left pizza) from La Piazza Al Forno just might be the best pizza in metro Phoenix……It’s that GREAT!
The untraditional smoked corned beef sandwich special from NakedQ BBQ in Phoenix just might be the BEST corned beef in ALL of ARIZONA! It was tender like butter but the flavors were just out of bounds!
The fried chicken thigh sandwich from CHZBURGR in Glendale is CRAZY CRAZY GREAT! I’ve been told that the cheese burgers are just as great!
Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix serves some the most DELICIOUS curry and jerk chicken.
The best tacos in town come from Taco Fusion in Glendale. All the tacos are really great but my favorite is the mild habanero chicken.
Alzohour Market serves delicious food. This time I had the chicken kabob and it is tender juicy and developed with flavors. All the food from Alzohour Market is delicious.
I may have forgotten a few and for the most part everything I took out really was good…but these are the ones that seemed the most memorable because they traveled well for take out and also were “knock it out of the park’ delicious.
Everything IS subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
Nothing is for certain and you can never be too careful. Dine in restaurant meals mean more contact with more people and germs flying threw the air conditioned air in restaurants. There are also other diners who are probably not wearing masks to hold in their droplets that might contain the coronavirus. We’ve done take out where we’d walk into a restaurant with a small amount of risk but curbside is safer. I note that I haven’t been everywhere but here are the restaurants that offered curbside pickup that I have been too..
Fabio On Fire (N Peoria)
At Fabio On Fire you order and pay on line. They communicate with you by text and a table is sanitized and your order will be placed on the table.
CHZBURGR in Glendale offers you to call in your order but it’s 100% touch free paying.
At Kawaii Sushi and Asian Cuisine you order and pay on line. You park at a special parking spot and call to let them know that you are there and they place your order on a table in front of your car.
The Grassroots Kitchen & Tap in Scottsdale also offers curbside pick up.
You order, pay on line pull into a curbside parking spot and someone runs out and drops off your order.
Vincent Market Bistro (Phoenix) offers curb side pick up.
We ordered and payed on line and gave them our pick up time. As soon as we drove in they asked who we were and placed our order in the back seat.
Chino Bandido in North Phoenix also offers curbside pickup. I don’t remember how we paid but I do remember a worker with a mask did run the food to our car.
The Larder and the Delta in Phoenix also did a curbside pick up. We paid over the phone and our order was placed on a pick up table outside of the restaurant.
Curbside pick up is also offered at Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. I don’t remember how we paid but I do recall that your order was placed on a table outside of the restaurant.
Tratto in Phoenix also offered curbside pick up.
We paid there and then we picked up at a table out side of the restaurant.
Binkley’s in Phoenix no longer offers curbside pick up and has returned to being a dine in fine restaurant again but they also were very careful and did contactless curbside pick up food a few weeks..
These restaurants we went to that had the safer curbside pick up were -.
Fabio On Fire – N Peoria
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Kawaii Sushi and Asian Cuisine – N Glendale
The Grassroots Kitchen & Tap – Scottsdale
Vincent Market Bistro – PHX
Chino Bandido – N PHX
The Larder & The Delta – DT PHX
Desert Island Eatery – N PHX
Binkley’s – PHX But as of this date (5-19-20) has discontinued curbside and has gone back to dine in service.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
These are the worst of times and also the worst of times for restaurants. Many restaurants already permanently closed because of the pandemic. We are trying to support as many restaurants as possible. As of May 14th there is no evidence that you can catch coronavirus by food (subject to change). Earlier reports stated that even if someone had coronavirus and prepared your food that it was unlikely that you would catch coronavirus that way too. I do note that I don’t know if that is factual. This week some restaurants have opened and now offer indoor dining again. It’s a fact that many people are still catching coronavirus and many people are still dying from coronavirus. I think I’ll still be doing take out for a while. At the moment I feel safer doing take out than dining in.
We packed up the dogs and did take out from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix.
My husband got a shaking Beef Banh Mi Baguette Sandwich.
I got a noodle bowl with chicken that comes with an egg roll. It’s way more food than I can eat but I had some help with that. (BTW – both dogs helped)
Next take out was from La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale.
We shared an antipasto plate called Tavola mista and we had a Bianca Pizza with added Calabrian Chilies and a Savatore Pizza. My GOSH! These pizzas were FORKING AMAZING! I almost didn’t want to share but I did.
Next we packed up the dogs and went to CHZBURGR in North Glendale.
They had a really great curbside completely contact free ordering and paying system.
Soon I was enjoying a BIG JUICY DELICIOUS fried chicken thigh sandwich with added Calabrian peppers.
My husband already got his teeth into his triple cheese burger. He said it was a great as this kind of burger can be.
I guess we will be going to CHZBURGR more often.
Next take out came from Vincent Market Bistro.
I ordered the Arctic char with basil pesto and ratatouille but they accidentally gave me salmon with rice and asparagus. We also got fresh local peaches, a lemon pomelo tart, some complimentary desserts and my husband got the pork loin. (my husband did call to let them know that they gave me the wrong dinner and they did the right thing and took it off the bill) My dogs were there to try Vincents Market Bistro.
Last take out of the week was from Greek Palace in Peoria.
Both entrees were served with fresh side salads and warm pita bread. On the left is the firefighter place that is gyro meat with vegetables, spicy peppers and rice. I ordered the salmon. Today it came with lots of rice and peppers and onions. It was a very large portion of fish so I will be making two meals out of it but I did have my usual help with that too.
“Don’t worry, we are in this thing together”
That was take out during the coronavirus pandemic week 9. The restaurants we went to were-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery – N Phoenix
La Piazza Al. Forno – Old Town Glendale
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Vincent Market Bistro – Phoenix
Greek Palace – N Peoria
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
I got this $17. jar of mustard for free when I made a purchase from yummy bazaar .com . It looks impressive and the mustard comes in a big crock that has some sort of plastic coating on the top near where the lid should be. I didn’t know how I should open this baby up so I started whacking the plastic off with a knife around the edges first. The ends of the plastic started coming off.
After most of the plastic on the ends got whacked off I stuck a little knife into the cork to lift it up.
I think that is a lot of work to do to open a mustard. I’m ok doing this but I imagine that many people could get injured opening up one of these mustards.
It really is a very good mustard though. It’s not harsh at all like most American Mustards. It’s very smooth, mild and creamy and is like mostly mild dijon with some grain mustard that is light with mustard grains and is laced with some cognac.
Now you know what to expect if you need to open a jar of Pommery Mustard Royal Cognac.
This week I thought I’d shop at Costco again since the delivery was so great last time. I didn’t need toilet paper or paper towels since the nice delivery person I had last time asked me if I wanted to add them n to my order. That didn’t happen this time but II don’t need those things yet. It’s still the same on line and you can’t order those paper products for delivery. I was surprised that I couldn’t order fresh whole carrots but most things that I wanted to buy I was able to order…………but I wasn’t able to get 🙁
I liked that I could virtually see my order going into the cart.
I also liked that I could add lots of wine.
I liked that my order was to be delivered in around 2 hours.
This time when I got my order I noticed that I didn’t get my major things that I needed for my lunches next week (romaine lettuce and spinach). We were also missing my husband’s meat and cheese roll up snacks that he likes. It’s no biggy but instead of oranges I got tangerines. I also got a few things that I didn’t order like apples, bananas and mangos….Oh my!
We texted the delivery driver to see if she would fix things and never heard back that whole day.
We waited an hour and didn’t hear back so I filled out the questioner from Costco and I got this before their response.
Then I got this.
I asked for a refund.
That’s how my Grocery Shopping from Costco delivery went week 8 of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the pandemic we are suppose to distance ourselves from other people as much as possible. Grocery stores are the places we go to with the most people these days so I elected to do grocery pick up. I had a good experience from Costco with grocery delivery two weeks back. Last week I didn’t need any groceries so I did without. This week I decided to try Safeway because I can’t get everything I want from Costco like scallions, herbs and many assorted other little things.
It was pretty easy to order and pay on line. I was surprised that I couldn’t buy radishes…or dry milk. I also couldn’t buy the 65cent watermelons that were on sale unless I paid $5.00 each for them….But I admit maybe I just messed that one up.
AnyWHO…….
When it came time to pick up we got into a parking space, called a number that someone answered.. Soon someone comes out with a cart of groceries to our car and loads the trunk.
When I got home I checked out my groceries.
They were out of a couple things that I really needed like garlic… 🙁
A few things were substituted …………but I marked no substitutions….. 🙁
But the one thing that made me upset was the rotten moldy basil they stuck me with.
I guess the person packing my cart for me was very tired and didn’t even look at the basil….?
But I wonder why would something like this even be on the shelf?
They also neglected to give me my Monopoly Tickets…for prizes and discounts. 🙁
That was Grocery Shopping During the CoronaVirus Pandemic – Week 7 – Safeway in Metro Phoenix AZ.
In our local Phoenix Newspaper (The Arizona Republic) our food critic Dominic Atmato highly recommended this mail away frozen ramen called Ramen Hero. After I read the article I wanted to try Ramen Hero. I went to the site and they were all sold out of all the flavors except for two Vegan Ramen varieties that come in a four pack so I ordered them. I got two called “Hippy Van” and the other two are called “Miso Impossible.” I got the four pack at around $73.00 that includes the shipping. They arrived about a week later and were packaged very well with dry ice.
They come in vacuum sealed bags with easy boil in bag directions. Each bag is filled with a frozen bag of soup, a bag with protein and vegetables, a bag with a sheet of seaweed (that you add at the end) and a bag of noodles.
Everything is heated up and I give it a try.
The soup is very good. It’s rich, developed with flavors and it’s good. Taste like I could have gotten it out from a restaurant.
The noodles are also very good and chewy. Not as good as the last ramen I had at a restaurant but nearly as good.
But WOW the protein is POLARIZING.
In the one bag with the protein I got strips of pepper, a squishy strip of zucchini, a chewy sun dried tomato slice. The protein has a nice texture that is similar to meat…..BUT WOW……. the protein taste like something that is IMPOSSIBLE to describe. (now I know why it’s called Miso Impossible) It’s FORKING INEDIBLE and is AWFUL to me……I can’t eat it. It doesn’t taste like food……and it’s painfully salty too like salt water. It’s like a combination of LOTS of salt, something burnt, something like coffee grounds and something funky. Even my husband can’t eat it. Thank God I made delicious ramen eggs so I’d have something good in this soup.
It’s not a total loss.
Well the soup and noodles really are very good….and the sheet of seaweed adds that just right flavor to it. Maybe the meat varieties of Ramen Hero are better?
I would NOT recommend the Vegan Miso Impossible many because I couldn’t stomach the protein it came with and wasn’t thrilled with the squishy and chewy vegetables. (now I’m afraid to try the other one…….I am hoping it’s better…..If it is I’ll write about it when I get the nerve to try it.
I think this soup would have been much better if it came with cubes of tofu instead of the vegan protein. Maybe a different vegetable like a mushroom would have worked out better here I’m thinking……
Those were my Forking Thoughts on Vegan Miso Impossible Ramen Hero and your Forking Thoughts may indeed differ.
www.RamenHero.com
Everything is subject to change and your experience may differ.
We are supporting restaurants as much as we can. These are the worst of times and all restaurants are hemorrhaging money. While nothing is for certain these days chances are that take out food is safer than food you purchased at a grocery store. Remember that you are suppose to avoid contact with as many people as possible and keep at least a six foot distance. I don’t know if the news is factual but on channel 3 news they reported that you are very unlikely to catch coronavirus from food anyway. They reported that even if the person preparing your food has coronavirus that you are unlikely to catch the virus that way. I hope that is true…….
Our first take out this week was from Taco Fusion in Glendale. I’ve been there a couple of times before this second take out. The Tacos really are the best that I’ve come across in this part of town.
Pastor and Shrimp tacosbarbacooa tacoMild habanero chicken, grilled chicken, fish and Tijuana asada
The handmade tortillas are different and also delicious. The flour tortillas are very thin but tasty and the corn tortillas are a little smaller but have a nice corn flavor to them. I still think all the tacos are excellent but the mild habanero chicken taco on corn tortilla is my favorite. It is extra delicious with any salsa on it but my favorite salsa the first time was the pineapple salsa. First take out they didn’t have pineapple salsa but this time the pineapple wasn’t mixed up or something and it was just juice but all the other salsas were flavorful and amazing.
We shared some with our furry companions.
Next take out was from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix. They are a casual Chinese/Mexican Restaurant mixed with a little Caribbean. You get a BIG PAN of food with a fresh baked snickerdoodle cookie there for around $10.00 a pan or less depending on what you get.
Pan on the left is a chile relleno quesadilla with red jade chicken, black beans and steamed white rice. Pan on the right is a pollo diablo quesadilla, carnitas, refried beans and steamed rice. In-between the pans are the fresh baked snickerdoodle cookies. For most people each pan is two or more meals each. Our furry friends love to taste the foods.
We also did take out from Rocket Burger in North Phoenix. This is a casual sandwich shop with a wall of 100’s of sodas. When they first opened the sodas were mostly root beers but after a few years they now offer all kinds of flavors.
On the left is a double Santa Fe Burger that is made with a giant fried green chili, veggies, cheese, bacon and it normally comes with (DELICIOUS) Rocket Sauce (but my husband won’t eat creamy sauces so it was ordered without). On the right is the Pescado de Cohete (Mexican Fish Sandwich). It’s a cornmeal crusted mild white fish topped with DELICIOUS, slightly spicy Mexi-Slaw and pico de Gallo. These sandwiches only cost less than $9. each.
Next take out was from Tratto the fine Italian restaurant from the James Beard Award Winning chef and the famous Mastro of pizzas Chris Bianco.
We got the family meal take out special that included a salad, hand made pasta, creamy chick peas, a loaf of Bianco bread and chicken sauce. Everything was prepared to perfection. Everything was amazing.
Last take out of the week was Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale. The food is always delicious from Grassroots Kitchen and Tap.
I got the house smoked salmon and orzo salad. My husband got the bbq brisket with cheese grits and beans. A MUST GET is the key lime pie because 40 yes FOURTY key limes get squeezed into every pie making it THE BEST Key Lime Pie in Metro Phoenix and maybe beyond.
“That’s all Folks!”
We tried to support as many restaurants as we could this week. This week we did take out from-
Taco Fusion in Glendale
Chino Bandido in North Phoenix
Rocket Burger in North Phoenix
Tratto in Phoenix
Grassroots Kitchen and Tap in Scottsdale
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.
When a new M&M comes out I just feel like I have to try it even if it rolls out during the pandemic. Armed with onion googles and a mask I risk death by entering an empty CVS store to purchase the last two bags of Fudge Brownie M&M’s. They were on sale for two bags for $5.00 and apparently they were sold out fast.
I get home open up the bag and take a whiff…Ummm it smells just like a bag of brownies.
I pour some out and I see that they are large for M&M’s and they are very irregular and sort of lumpy in shape. They come in the usual M&M colors yellow, orange, red, brown and blue.
I eat one.
It’s really different……It’s chewy….like a caramel-ee chewy brownie. It really does taste like a brownie….It’s the usual candy shell with the usual chocolate inside and the center is like a lump of chewy brownie….but it feels like it’s mixed with a non sticking caramel.
I eat a few more because they are pretty good tasting.
But the shells are melting in my hand.
HEY WTFork! That is not suppose to happen!
Maybe I got a defective bag?
Well they taste good. Gotta be happy with that.
Worth a try!
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Fudge Brownie M&M’s.
