Van Leeuwen is very rich extra fattening high quality packaged ice cream that you can buy from your local Walmart or Sprouts market.
Take a look at the calories….It’s fattening.
I thought Limited Edition Strawberry Shortcake might be a good flavor to try so I bought it.
I open it up and try some.
I am quick to decide that I can’t enjoy this flavor. The strawberry part is very good but that isn’t short cake……..It’s spreadable cookie dough…ICK!!!!!!
It’s nasty.
Not worth getting fat for.
Down the drain.
Not Worth a Fork
Those were my FORKING thoughts on Van Leeuwen Limited Edition Strawberry Shortcake French Style Ice Cream. I do note that YOUR forking thoughts may indeed differ.
I was sort of gifted with a ton of tomatoes and a ton of zucchini. I removed the tomato skins and reduced the tomatoes around 8 hours and made home made tomato sauce and home made salsa. I got the idea to make a layered casserole with the zucchini with refried beans, the home made salsa and cheese.
Slice your zucchini long ways in planks. Cook them however you like…on a grill, broil, or fry, or in my oven on top rack at 425F works like a pretty good broiler. You want them slightly charred. Salt and pepper them lightly.
Line a big pan with the zucchini.
Lightly top the zucchini with small amount of a very good salsa and top that with refried beans.
Top with cheese. I used cheddar, pepper jack, and some home made queso sauce. Then finish with a little more salsa and some more cheese.
Mexican Inspired Zuchini Lasagna
Finish with some scallions.
Mexican Inspired Zucchini Lasagna
Something very tasty that isn’t too heavy..(If you used good salsa)
Confluence is a small but upscale high quality restaurant located in Carefree Arizona that is just above North Scottsdale. This restaurant is usually only a husband and wife team. That MEANS one of the most talented Top Chefs of Metro Phoenix is actually doing the masterful cooking for you…..(that seldom happens anywhere).
insidewindow view
They offer changing seasonal menus of hot and cold appetizers, fresh fish dishes, meat dishes, desserts or cheese. You can order your meal a la carte or you can take advantage of a tasting option.
Tonight we took advantage of the tasting menu and went for the four courses for $75. (subject to change)
Whatever you order they usually start you off with bread and oil embellished with white balsamic.
Desert Pony Tavern Bar & Pub recently opened in the NEW North Scottsdale Arizona Hilton at Cavasson. They are a Southwest Style gastropub that also offers breakfast and happy hour. On the all day menu they offer snacks like bacon fat popcorn, appetizers like wings, nachos, and poblano hummus. You can also get salads, sandwiches, kids meals, desserts, and entrees after 5pm.
They offer indoor and outdoor seating with views of McDowell mountains and the pool.
The bar is an indoor/outdoor bar has wide screen TVs.
It looks like the glass walls might open on nice days.
We started out by trying the Four Peaks Beer Fondue.
It’s suppose to come with pears, smoked sausage, and soft pretzels.
The cheese taste very similar to processed American cheese. It might be made with a little splash of beer.
Today the sausage is dry…..The cook forgot the pears and the server didn’t seem trained to know that this dish is suppose to come with pears. We asked for pears and we got some. The pears were really great. Good thing we asked for the pears.
I got the Native Chopped Salad.
This salad contains, achiote salmon, native grains, corn, dried cherries, manchego cheese, arugula, and avocado dressing. I do have to say that this is a really great salad. The salmon is cold but much better than I expected it to be. It’s light moist, and fresh tasting. All of the bloodline was removed too. It’s also enhanced with delicious flavors.
On the other hand burgers don’t seem like a specialty here.
This is the Tavern Stack Burger. It’s suppose to be American Cheese, Aged Swiss Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, grilled onions, slab bacon and either fries or onion rings.
The request for the burger was medium rare and it came out medium well……..
An orange colored sauce was on the burger that wasn’t in the description. Our server thought it might be thousand Island Dressing? My husband sent it back because he doesn’t eat creamy dressings. I tried one onion ring. It was extra heavy with batter. Almost the texture of a cake doughnut that tasted like it was fried in very used oil.
Newly Opened
Desert Pony Tavern – Hilton North Scottsdale at Cavasson
A found a recipe in Cook’s Country Magazine for Miso Black Cod that was developed from Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa. He has 40 restaurants worldwide and also writes cookbooks so I thought that this should be a good recipe. I don’t have good fresh fish by my house so I picked up a bag of frozen sea bass that I hope is ok. It looked and smelled better than most frozen fish that I try. The Cook’s Country version broils the fish but I have an electric broiler that doesn’t cook evenly so I’m just roasting the fish. I also used less soy sauce because liked the flavors and wanted to cut the salt a little.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 cup white miso
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon roasted sesame oil
4 6-8 oz filets of fish – preferably with skin
optional – pickled ginger for serving
optional – sliced scallions for serving
Directions
Whisk the miso, sugar, mirin, sake, soy sauce and oil together in a medium bowl. Pat the fish dry and place the fish in a gallon Ziplock bag. Pour the miso mixture into the bag with the fish and squish the fish around the miso. squeeze out the air and seal the bag. Refrigerate 8-24 hours and turn bag occasionally.
Set oven to 350F on a middle rack cook fish until it’s at least 125 degrees F (around 15 minutes.
Or you can broil fish skin side down on a lightly oiled pan. 8 inches from broiler for 8-12 minutes.
You might want to finish with pickled ginger and scallions.
Miso Marinated Sea Bass
A Special THANKS!!!! To Cook’s County Magazine so I could come up with what I got here.
I came across Milk Chocolate Honey Graham M&M’s at my local Fry’s Supermarket today so I thought I’d give them a try.
I glance at the ingredients and nothing seems too terrible.
Next I take a big sniff from the open bag…..It smells like chocolate. I’m thinking….maybe they might be good?….
Then I spill some out.
The M&M’s are extra small and all of them are deformed in shape. They almost look like current sized but wrinkly like raisins.
If they are good there is no way in the world that this is a serving.
Anyways I give them a try.
They are sweet. Maybe too sweet for some adults. The sweet is something like a honey taste. You also get a savory taste………it’s closer to cereal mixed with malt than a graham taste that is also mixed with a little bit of chocolaty taste.
If you let them melt in your mouth you get different flavors. The candy shell is the normal sweet candy shell that you expect……Then you do get a honey sort of taste that mixes and dilutes the chocolate taste. Then you are left with small cereal nuggets….
They are better if you just eat them.
It’s too hard ti eat just one serving.
For me they don’t really taste like honey graham but I do like the light texture and flavors that they have. I think that these Honey Graham M&M’s would be best as a Sundae topping.
Those were my FORKING thoughts on Honey Graham M&M’s. I do note that your Forking thoughts may indeed differ.
This is a slight twist on the tuna salad that I make most often. I put it together real fast and didn’t really measure but it extra easy to prepare. I didn’t have anything fresh green at home so I thought my Italian Chili Crisp would be really good here and WOW it really works! BTW- The Italian Chili recipe I used is on my site but I did notice that some jars of Italian chili crisp might be found in some stores these days. I made 4 servings.
2 – 6oz bags of drained light tuna
1 medium onion – skin removed, cut in half, sliced extra thin
1 medium apple – remove core, cut in wedges, slice each wedge extra thin
1 lemon – the fresh squeezed juice and fresh zest
1 small jar 6oz artichokes drained light chop if needed
small handful of olives (10-12) remove pits if there, rough chop
2 Tablespoons capers
1 slightly heaping teaspoon Italian chili crisp
1 can (around 15oz drained and rinsed three times beans (today I used canolini)
good splash extra virgin olive oil
good splash balsamic vinegar
Some scallions or chives – sliced thin
Directions
Everything goes in a large mixing bowl. Mix and serve!
Italian Chili Crisp Tuna Salad with Artichoke Apple & Beans
Hummus Republic is a fast growing chain of fast-casual Mediterrean Restaurants. They offer many vegan and vegetarian options and do offer enough meat to please meat eaters. The restaurant is set up “Chipotle Style” and you build your wrap, pita, or bowl going down the line. They also offer extras like a vegan burger, sweet potato fries, and pita chips.
the line
We tried an order of falafels.
We got six falafels. They have shattering crisp exteriors and were moist and slightly herby inside. You have to order tahini sauce if you want that with the falafels.
We both tried bowls and they came out very different.
Base of mixed greens, couscous, garbanzos, lemon chicken, regular hummus, eggplant hummus, harissa hummus, beets, cucumbers, onions, stuffed grape leaves, fried vegetables, hot Moroccan saucecouscous, garbanzos, spinach, pickles, fried vegetables, onions, feta cheese, Moroccan steak, olive hummus, harissa hummus, feta whip, green chili sauce
Both bowls came out tasty. The lemon chicken bowl was only $12. and it filled me up and I couldn’t eat dinner latter. Steak is $1.50 extra. I liked the lemon chicken more than the steak. The steak did have a good flavor to it but was slightly chewy. They also offer many interesting sounding beverages and lemonades.
Worth a TRY!
This chain is doubling their locations this year so they might be somewhere near you soon.
Hummus Republic
16205 North Scottsdale Rd Scottsdale AZ (in the Scottsdale Quarter)
Food Truck Friday West is a weekly gathering of Food Trucks from all over the Valley. This happens Friday nights 5pm-9pm at 18551 83rd Avenue in Glendale Arizona. See www.GetLocalArizonaEvents.com for current Food Truck Lineup.
We tried King’s Mini Pancakes because the chicken bites with mini pancakes did sound like a tasty treat. They offer several varieties of mini pancakes and also offered several different flavors of sauces for the chicken.
Mr. King himself suggested the hot honey sauce so that’s what we went with.
We got chunks WHoOops! I mean BITES of tender breaded chicken breast covered in a tasty spicy/sweet sauce with a little kick to it. They are good but what is really great really are the MINI PANCAKES. The pancakes seem light as air and just melt in your mouth! They really are GREAT!
Kings Mini Pancakes – 480-529-1485
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram
We had to go to Good Eats Only Mexican Kitchen because last time I was super impressed with the chicken taco I tried. It really was among the best chicken tacos I’ve tried in Phoenix. They offered a limited menu of Mexican Foods like tacos, burritos, plates, and fries.
Today I had another chicken taco and a carne asada taco.
The tortillas are delicious and are fresh hand made! Both the chicken and steak are tender, charred yummy, and infused with flavors. The taco also came embellished with grilled onions, cilantro, and a scoop of guacamole and a side of hot sauce. VERY GOOD TACOS! Among the better ones out there!
I had enough but my husband can eat a little more so he tried Coney Shack Grill. They offer Coney Island Style food but with a Midwest Twist. They offer things like wings, sliders, pitas, and Coney dogs.
He said it was a very good hotdog!
Coney Shack Grill – 12325 W McDowell Rd Avondale AZ – 602-882-6032
www.ConeyShackGrill.com
At Food Truck Friday West they also offered many activities for children.
Children’s Train Ride.
A bounce house.
A bounce car ride
And a child’s petting zoo. I also saw some novelty children’s balloons being sold there.
Food Truck Friday West
18551 83rd Avenue Glendale AZ (between Sam’s Club and Walmart)
Friday nights 5pm-9pm
See www.GetLocalArizonaEvents.com for current food truck line up
I came across a recipe for Persian Jeweled Rice. I thought that sounded interesting so I looked up 6 or 7 more recipes for Persian Jeweled rice and none of them were the same. But I did get ideas from all of them and I thought I could make a vegetable taste sort of like the Persian Jeweled Rice. I picked out the flavors that I thought would work the best with amounts that I guessed were good. One recipe called for rose petals. I happened to have rose water so I used a little bit of that instead. Somehow I guessed the amounts right because this came out really tasty. This recipe makes around 6 servings give or take.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1 cabbage – remove core and rough chop
1 onion – rough chop
1 green bell pepper – remove stem and seeds – rough chop
1 red bell pepper – remove stem and seeds – rough chop
2 carrots – peel if not organic – slice on diagonal around 1/4 inch slices
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon rose water
1/2 teaspoon saffron (if you don’t have substitute ground turmeric )
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamon seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 Tablespoon date syrup
3 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup salted roasted pistachios – lightly crushed
1/4 cup dried barberries
1 Tablespoon dried mint (fresh is better but I didn’t have any if you use fresh mint mix with some fresh parsley to mellow out the strong mint)
1 orange – just the fresh grated zest
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a large mixing bowl combine the cabbage, onion, bell peppers, carrots and set to the side.
In a small bowl that you will lightly microwave or in a sauce pan that you heat on medium heat on the stove combine the butter, oil, rose water, saffron, cinnamon, cardamon seeds, date syrup, garlic, salt and pepper. Heat gently till the butter is melted and the contents are fragrant. (about a minute)
Pour the small bowl of liquid over the vegetables and mix till the vegetables are coated. The vegetables go on sheet pan(s) preferably on the middle rack. Roast until slightly charred and so the carrots are fork tender (about 25-30 minutes).
Finish with pistachios, barberries, mint, and orange zest.
