Showing Off is just to show you that I am still cooking or baking things.
Up above is a plain pizza with a good amount of fresh mozzarella on it.
Next is a slightly different onion galette. I used asiago cheese and added seeds and flake sea salt to the ends of the crust.
Below are spaghetti cupcakes
Next are-
Baked Salmon Mousse Balls and I also made a Mandarin Ginger Sauce to go with them and they sit on these cute little cracker bowls.
Sweet Potato Hand Pies
From the leftover sweet potato filling I just added an egg, more sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, pomegranate, and a few chocolate chips, and then embellished the tops.
Sweet potato bites with pomegranate and chocolate chips
Servehzah Bottle Shop and Tap Room’s original location is in the Las Vegas Arts District and a second location is in North Las Vegas Nevada. Besides all kinds of craft beers they also offer food. Some of the offerings are shareable snacks like nachos, chips and dips, quesadillas. The specialty plates are the protein bowl and the street hot dog. They also offer tacos, burritos, desserts, and a few brunch dishes.
The North Las Vegas Location has an outdoor patio.
Inside is spacious with a bar and tables but there is no wait service. In the middle of the room is a refrigerator with many cans of beer. At the bar are many beer taps. They also have many big screen TVs across the room.
They also have these cards on the tables to remind you to order and pay at the bar.
My husband tried 4 tacos. (asada, chicken, shrimp, bang bang cauliflower)
They look good but taste is another story. All four arrive cold. Nothing was heated up. We don’t know but the fried ones (shrimp & cauliflower) have a breading that is wet, cold, and falling apart. Don’t know but they seem premade and frozen and didn’t thaw right?
I tried a specialty dish the protein bowl with chicken (that also arrived all cold).
The only parts that I can stomach are the avocado, chick peas, and fried onion. Something is also wrong with the dressing….It’s hard like cold cream cheese and doesn’t pour or taste edible.
I do NOT plan to ever return to Servehzah Bottle Shop & Tap Room nor do I recommend.
Bites of Europe is a European Style Restaurant and Bar in Las Vegas Nevada.
They offer European Style foods that you might be familiar with like pierogi, schnitzel, and cabbage rolls. They also offer some Other Foods that you might not expect like Norwegian Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs, Lunch Paninis, Pumpernickel Fries, and Fish and Chips.
We started out by sharing the Norwegian Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs.
They are milder softer deviled eggs embellished with dill and capers wrapped with smoked salmon. Good but I personally would have preferred the capers to be fried crisp instead of fried moist.
We also shared the fried potato and cheese pierogi.
These pierogi are fried very nicely and also come with very good caramelized onions. The pierogi dough here is whisper thin. Inside is different…. I don’t really taste the cheese but I can tell some dairy is mixed into the potato filling. My guess is that maybe a little bit of Farmer’s Cheese might have been used here?
For our main we share the Turkey and Rice Cabbage Rolls (no sour cream at my request). With mashed potatoes.
The sauce is much thicker and a lot less sweet than what I’m used to. Inside seems mostly like ground turkey…..tasty
We have to try the dessert of the day that was lemon semifreddo with peaches.
Bramare is a fine dining Italian Inspired restaurant, cocktail, and wine bar located in Las Vegas Nevada only about ten minutes from the strip. They are open for dinner and late night dinner. Some of the food they offer are small plates that serve one to two people like onion focaccia with olive-caper spread, king salmon collar with Calabrian chile and agrodolce. A couple of the medium plates that serve around two to three people are things like wagyu hanger steak, and brick oven chicken. They also offer large plates that might serve four or more people such as porchetta with root vegetables and salsa verde, and twenty eight day dry aged Flannery rib steak. They also offer a variety of pastas, pizzas, and more.
It seems dark when you walk in and you notice that there are no visible windows inside.
Instead of candles they have these spiffy thin lanterns that light up the table surface really great.
We shared several small plates-
Funghi Fritti – with garlic and Chile sauce, pecorino cheese – the honshimeji mushrooms have a thin crisp coating and are delicious with all the flavors and a mild heat.
Fresh baked Onion Focaccia with olive caper dip – tasty
King Salmon Collar with Calabrian spicy cucumbers and agrodolce. The salmon is caramelized and MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH amazing and also delicious with interesting flavors. I do like the spicy cucumber salad but for my taste it is overpowering for the salmon so I ate them separate.
For our main we shared a medium plate of Beef Cheek Brasato with chili, verde fregola, and parsley salad.Tender beef and the parsley salad adds a nice fresh taste to it. LOTS of tasty firm fregola…This one can stretch to three servings.
With the beef cheek brasato we also had a small plate of broccolini.
This broccolini is really great!!!!! It’s a mix of crunchy and cooked with tasty flavors from black garlic cream, breadcrumbs, and pecorino cheese……
We were pretty full but decided to try hazelnut and pistachio gelato.
They had a pasta sale at my local Smith’s Grocery. Pasta was only $1.00 a box so why the Fork not? This is pretty easy to prepare. You will get around 10-20 servings depending on if your serving size is one or two. I think some people will eat one and at least half the people out there will eat two so I’ll say 15 servings.
Ingredients for around 15 servings
1 lb spaghetti
2 cups spaghetti sauce
1 egg – beaten
1 cup ricotta
1/2 cup parmesan – grated – plus extra for serving
2 oz cream cheese – room temperature
1 egg
1 cup spaghetti sauce
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
non stick spray
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F and spray two cupcake pans with non stick spray.
Boil spaghetti 2 minutes less than box suggests.
Drain spaghetti and mix with 2 cups sauce and beaten egg.
Fill about 21 cups from the cupcake pans with the spaghetti.
In a medium bowl mix together the ricotta, parm, cream cheese, egg, salt and pepper and set to the side.
Next they get topped with the cup of sauce.
Next use a spoon or a small scoop and top each with some cheese mixture.
About 20 minutes on the middle or lower rack and they are done.
Spaghetti Cupcakes
Serve with extra grated parmesan, hot red pepper, and if you have them some fresh basil.
I noticed these Savoursmiths Truffle Rosemary Potato Chips for around $6.99 a bag at my local Sprouts Grocery. They became discontinued and were marked down to a $1. a bag so I decided to give them a try.
The bag is marked Vegan and the ingredients don’t seem too far out so they seem safe to try.
I open the bag and take a whiff.
They smell strange…………Maybe a little like a herbal soap?
I pour some out.
The chips differ in size from small to large in size and do appear to have bubbly layers in the chips……
Texture-wise the chips are amazing. Crisp but not too crisp with layers also dry and not oily.
but-
The chips are coated very heavy with powders and are over seasoned. They even seem cheesy but cheese is not listed in the ingredients.
Between the cheesy taste, mushroom, onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, truffle it is all too much and is far too powdery to enjoy.
Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Savoursmiths Truffle and Rosemary Chips.
Juan’s Flaming Fajitas is a Mexican Restaurant and Bar with Three Locations in Las Vegas. The North Las Vegas location often has live music at night. This is the type of Mexican Restaurant that gives you complimentary house made chips and more. They offer most of your usual favorites, FLAMING FAJITAS and they do sing, “Happy Birthday” to birthday guests.
And makes their own tortillas.
With whatever you order they always start you off with hot chips, bean dip, green salsa, and red salsa.
Then they give you Fideo Soup (chicken broth, tomato, short noodles).
Most likely you are going to order a fajita.
This is a double steak and chicken fajita (Steak, chicken, peppers onions). The fajitas are served with tortillas and a side dish.
Above is a side dish of rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de Gallo.
Cafe Breizh is located in Las Vegas Nevada. They offer fine French Baked Goods, some grocery, and also serve breakfast and some French Cafe Type Meals like galettes, crepes, salads, hot & cold sandwiches, and platters.
As you enter you get so see so many pastries……
YIKES! This is only a small fraction of what to see…………What to get? think I’m gaining weight just looking at all of them.
Then you make it to the dining room if you are ordering a meal.
My husband tried to order the croque madame but we were told they were all sold out of them today so he went with the La Tartiflette Galette not knowing that it was a buckwheat crepe……In America galettes are flat pies.
This Galette is stuffed with prosciutto, roblechon cheese, potatoes, onion, and cream.
I tried a salmon platter.
I got toasted brioche bread, smoked salmon with capers, cucumber slices, sweet tomatoes with onions, lemon, and chive cream.
I thought both desserts we tried were fabulous!
Lemon Tart
Brownie – quality chocolate and lots of it but very rich…..
Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano is a North Italian Type Full Service Restaurant located on Restaurant Row in the Palazzo part of the Venetian Hotel/Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. (Not pictured) is a cocktail bar on one side of the restaurant and on the far end (not pictured) is a pasta bar and in the middle is the main dining area.
Whatever you order they start you off with complimentary ciabatta, oil, and balsamic.
We shared an appetizer of sweet and spicy peppers stuffed with soft cheese.
They were adorned with pesto, grana padano, arugula, and oil.
For my main I had the Insalata Nizzarda.
This bountiful salad was made with confit blue fin tuna, seasoned hard boiled egg, olives, green beans, potatoes, and a salsa verde aioli.
My husband had the Gnocchi.
This plate was made of semolina dumplings, pork sausage ragu, onions, spicy tomato passata and cheese.
Everything was perfect and delicious.
Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano is Worth a Fork!
Worth a Fork!
Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano at The Venetian (Palazzo Restaurant Row area)
I had a can of salmon and got the idea to make salmon balls. I also got some inspiration from a Jean George Vongetichten I read. It is a very different recipe (Crab Balls with Grapefruit Salad) but it still gave me interesting delicious ideas that I had to try. This recipe makes around 28 balls and 2 cups of sauce. So that means about 28 cocktail servings or around 5 meal servings. I don’t mean to brag but they really came out FORKING AMAZING! Much more delicious than a lot of food I eat out. I think most people will make this recipe for a meal so I will say 5 servings.
Ingredients for around 5 servings
1 Tablespoon butter
1/4 cup onion – grated
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (mine was separated so I poured the watery liquid out and used the thickened coconut milk) *****NOTE you might need slightly less if your coconut milk is not as thick****
1 – 14.75 oz. can salmon – remove skin and bones and crumble the fish
1 cup panko
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Aleppo red pepper
sea salt – to taste
2 Tablespoons white sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons black sesame seeds
non stick spray
4 oz unsalted butter
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons yuzu (or substitute lemon) juice
2 Tablespoons ginger – fresh grated
4 mandarins – skin removed – chopped
1 Thai Chile – chopped
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray a couple baking sheets with non stick spray and set them to the side.
In a large bowl combine the corn starch, coconut milk, salmon, salt, pepper, panko, eggs, and the cooked onions. Mix well and set to the side. (Below is to show you how thick my coconut milk was and a picture of the can it came from)
In a shallow pan add the sesame seeds.
Use a small scooper and make meatball sized balls and roll them in the sesame seeds and add each finished ball to a nonstick sprayed pan leaving a little room around each one.
They go in the preheated 350 F oven for about 15 minutes.
While they are in the oven you can whip up the sauce.
Melt butter in a pan on medium high heat with the sugar.
Blend the yuzu (or lemon) juice, ginger, mandarins, Thai Chile, soy sauce, together. Then add the sweetened butter and mix well.
Baked Salmon Mousse Balls with Mandarin Ginger Sauce
