Gardein Product Review

Feb 9

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | 2 Comments

I have a quick product review for y’all on some veggie mock-meat products I got to try when I was in Florida for the holidays.  When I first went vegetarian, I ate a whole lot of boca burgers and chick’n patties as a substitute for meat, but these days I’m not the biggest fan usually.  That being said, I had heard gardein brand products were pretty good, and figured I would give them a shot.  I found them at Publix in St. Petersburg, and picked up the Classic Style Buffalo Wings and the Beefless Tips.

I first tried the Buffalo Wings.  I baked them in the oven per the package directions, and my initial reaction was that these looked nothing like they did on the package.  They looked pretty disgusting, actually.

Appetizing presentation?  Definitely not.

Great taste?  Eh.  The texture was great, but they were unbelievably spicy, and that comes from a girl who pours Sriracha and Frank’s Red Hot over everything.  I could barely handle the heat, and my guess is that most people would find them too spicy.  The sauce just wasn’t good.

I don’t have a photo of the Beefless Tips, but they were much better looking and tasting than the wings, perhaps because they didn’t come with a sauce.  The texture was great, and the flavor was neutral enough that they tasted great both in a stir fry that my sister made and a “beef bourginon” that I made for myself for Christmas dinner.

Overall, C- on the wings and B+ on the beefless tips.  I probably won’t buy them very often, but I might pick them up every now and then.

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What I Ate on my Winter Vacation Part 3

Feb 7

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | 1 Comment

My getaway in Florida ended with a short trip to Orlando to spend some time with my sister and my aunt.  Our first night there, we decided to finally try out the restaurant where my sister works:  Wolfgang Pucks Grand Cafe in Downtown Disney.  We heard such great things from my sister Jen about the food, so we couldn’t wait to dive in for the special menu that the chefs had made for us.

We sat in The Cafe which is the downstairs restaurant in the building.  The next time I go I would love to visit The Dining Room upstairs because the view is awesome!  Thankfully, even though we sat downstairs, we got to try food off both menus! The whole staff was very warm and inviting, and really made us feel special for the whole meal. I have no doubt they went above and beyond because we are Jen’s family, but I’m sure any dining experience here would be the same- Fantastic!

My entree was not on the menu, and when I was told I was having Egg Foo Young I have to say that I was not at all excited about it.  All I could think about was something heavy, greasy  and full of salt.  Good thing I let Chef Alex talk me into giving it a go, because it was absolutely delicious.  It was really light, full of fresh vegetables, and just a bit crisp.  The dish was also very spicy, which always makes me happy.  The sauce on the plate was a bit sweet too, which was a nice balance.

We also tried the Four Cheese Pizza which was my least favorite dish of the evening, but was still good.  It was just a bit heavy on the cheese for my taste (but it’s a 4 cheese pizza, so that’s my bad).  We took most of this home and it made for a great lunch before we hit the parks!

This next dish was Creamy Roquefort Gnocchi.  This was pretty sinful, super creamy, cheesy, and crispy on top.  Really strong roquefort flavor, which is fine by me because I love the stuff, but I only managed a few bites of this one so I could save myself for the rest of the [gigantic] meal.

This is the best thing I have ever consumed.  Pumpkin Ravioli sounds pretty ordinary but this was far from it.  The pasta was soft, the filling was pumpkiny-sweet without being dessert, and the pine nuts, crispy sage (I think?) and balsamic reduction were an outrageous combination.  There was a lot of butter in this dish, which was fine by me because it was HEAVEN!  Order this, and send some to me.  Nom.

So after we thought our meal was over, we were served ENORMOUS plates of sushi!  Jen had been raving about the sushi for quite some time now, so I was anxious to try it.  However, I was insanely full at this point, even though I only ate a few bites of each dish.  I loved that the sushi chef made me a plate of all vegetable sushi, and that his creations were far from the standard avocado-cucumber rolls I’m used to.  (Not that there is anything wrong with them!)  The carrot sushi was so pretty, if a bit difficult to eat.  The shitakke mushroom was my favorite though, not anything I had ever tried before.

Look at those green bean bundles of tasty hiding in the back there.  Yum!  I brought 95% of this plate home with me.  Woo hoo for vegetable sushi!

As if we hadn’t stuffed ourselves enough, we were served a huge dessert tray.  I guess I failed to take a photo of the entire plate, which included Baked Alaska, but these Banana Beniets were all I ate anyway.  After seeing The Princess and the Frog (which you should all go see- it was so good!) all I wanted to eat were these delicious fried balls of heaven, and I was beyond rewarded.  They were like bananas foster doughnuts straight from the stove.  Amazing.

Thanks so much for the incredible dinner Jen!  I know she makes the staff read this blog so thanks again to the awesome people who stopped by to say hi, and our really friendly and sweet server and the chefs.  I hope to see you soon!

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What I ate on my Winter Vacation… Part 2

Jan 23

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | 3 Comments

For my contribution to our Christmas dinner, I wanted to try something new.  Everyone says this is a bad idea when cooking for guests, but I say it’s only a bad idea if you’re wimp.  I wanted to try a savory bread pudding.

It took some explaining to my family, because everyone kept thinking of sweet bread pudding, and thought my idea sounded gross.  How wrong they are!  Basically, savory bread pudding is like making stuffing.  Bread, vegetables, spices.  The additions that make it a “pudding” are the milk and egg “custard.”

I used this recipe from Cooking Light  for Mushroom, Roasted Red Pepper, and Goat Cheese Savory Bread Pudding.  as a guide, basically because other recipes I found were loaded with cream and butter and tons of eggs, which probably taste amazing, but I wanted to keep this light.   I kept the main ingredients the same, but changed the method a tiny bit.

I see no need to use jarred roasted red peppers.  They take no time to make either on the stove or in the oven, and are way cheaper.  So I used 2 red bell peppers that I roasted myself in this recipe.  I used a mixture of different mushrooms, left out the leeks in favor of sweet onions, used egg whites instead of egg substitute, and used this amazingly salty and pungent goat feta in place of the regular crumbled goat cheese.  Delicious.

I also made homemade peppermint patties while I was home.  Really, I had nothing to do during the day, can you tell??

The recipe I used is here and it was really simple and really delicious.  Here are the main ingredients:

Pretty straight forward, eh?

Here are my tips for making these: after you make the inside filling, refrigerate it for a few minutes.  Then form them into  ”pucks” by rolling into small balls and flattening, and then put them on a tray and place in the freezer to firm up for a bit.  Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and allow it to cool quite a bit before you dip the pucks in it.  Otherwise, the filling tends to melt.

My only complaint with these is that they need to be refrigerated to stay together.  I wanted to give them as gifts but once left out they were way too soft.

I used the same method as the peppermint patties to make homemade mounds bars and almond joys.  Just leave out the peppermint extract, and add in some flaked coconut to the filling.  Just eyeball it until the dough comes together.  Use the exact same method for refrigerating and forming the pucks, but make them more like little logs to mimic the real thing.  For the almond joy-ish treats, I simply pressed a whole almond into the top of the chocolate.

Really fun to make, simple ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard.  If you have a spare hour to kill, I recommend giving these a try.

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The Importance of Saying Thank You… with food.

Jan 17

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | No Comments

After spending a couple of weeks in Florida with my mom and sister, I still wasn’t ready to head back to Syracuse and responsibility.  So I didn’t.  Instead of taking my connecting flight from JFK – SYR, I schlepped my big hot pink suitcase to Jersey City to spend a few days with my uncle.  We had a great time: spent 3 hours walking around Lincoln State Park, went to Atlantic City for an afternoon, saw Avatar in 3D, watched old home movies, and ate falafel.  General uncle + niece things that I love.

Next, I headed to Brooklyn and while I had a slight mass transit nightmare on the way I made it to my friend Dan’s apartment in one piece.  I had a great time with Dan!  We got to meet up with my childhood best friend, made up rules to play shuffleboard, had awesome burgers (hold the beef on mine, thanks), and be lazy for a few days.

It was really sweet of  my uncle and Dan to host me so I could escape reality for a few more days, so I decided to thank them.  With food, naturally.  Dan requested key lime white chocolate cookies, because he’s fancy like that.  I hesitated initially because I dislike white chocolate a LOT, but found a recipe and gave it a whirl.  They came out pretty great.  The picture, however, did not.  The recipe is here.

Next, I figured cookies weren’t enough, so I made granola, of course.  Coconut Almond Granola to be exact.  I even used measuring devices and wrote down the exact recipe this time!

I packed it up in small plastic containers that I reused from the supermarket for easy shipping.

Coconut Almond Granola

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
  • 1/4 cup raw almonds, coarsely chopped
  • 1 T soymilk
  • pinch of salt
  • dash of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking tray with parchment.  In a bowl, combine the brown sugar with the soymilk.  Stir to combine, and microwave for 30 seconds, until the sugar is melted.  Add the salt and cinnamon, then the oats, coconut, and almonds.  Mix well, and pour onto the baking tray into an even layer.  Bake for 10 minutes to begin with, stir.  Bake in additional 5 minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until it is lightly golden, smells nutty, and sounds crispy (trust me on this one).  Cool to room temperature and pack in airtight containers.

Notes:

  • This batch took 10 + 5+ 5 + 2 minutes to be the way I like it.  Use this as a guideline.  Never walk away from baking granola!
  • Almonds are really easy to chop for baking, so instead of buying them ground or flaked, I just buy them whole so they are good for snacking and baking.
  • If you still need to be convinced that making your own granola is worth it, I ran numbers:  the total cost of making this recipe is right around $2.46, which works out to about $.31 per serving.  The same amount in the grocery store can be as high as $6.99 or $.87 per serving.  No brainer.

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Where to start… Pt. 1

Jan 14

Posted by Jessie in Jessie Bea Eats! | No Comments

Happy new year!

I have a lot of things to share from the month that I’ve been away from the blog, so I guess I’ll try to break it all up into different posts.

I’ll start with the baked goods I gorged myself on while at my moms house.

First up: gingerbread men.  Because it’s Christmas, which means you eat gingerbread men.  Nuff said?

As usual, I did a pretty lousy job decorating them:
Note the angry one in the middle, and the deformed fella on the bottom.

I made a Syracuse Orange man (heh. heh.) but he turned out pretty dopey looking.

Next, we have my favorite food in the world: Mom’s Apple Pie.  It’s really something special, and I beg my mom to make it every time I go home.

She made me one while I was there, and I watched her like a hawk to figure out how she makes it so good.  I made one myself while I was there, but it wasn’t as good as hers.  Ah well, the food someone makes for you always tastes better than the food you make for yourself.  Here’s my photo diary of the pie making process.  Note: my mom uses store bought pie dough.  It rocks.  And it’s easy.  Don’t hate.

The magic recipe.  It’s really nothing fancy, but it’s amazing in its simplicity.
The dough.The apples.

Fill ‘er up!

Action shot!

Make sure you put the excess flour + sugar + cinn from the bottom of the bowl on top.

Dot with butter.  I’ve always thought it was funny that placing pieces of butter on top of something it called “dotting” it.

Voila!  (Pronounced phonetically, of course.  Who speaks french anyway?)

So good even the dog wants a nibble.

I’m going to post the pie recipe on the recipe section of the site.  I’ll throw up a link in Part 2, where I will share a recipe for savory bread pudding and homemade peppermint patties and almond joy/mounds bars!  Part 3 will be a recap of the fabulous meal that I had at Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Downtown Disney. So much yum coming up!

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