Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar

Style: European and Wine Bar
Website: http://www.orzokitchen.com/

My Rating: 5/5 stars

Likes: Divine food, excellent wine, friendly staff that was able to deal with splitting checks in many ways, beautiful decor

Dislikes: It's too far away to return and finding it was tricky the first time (but it does have a parking lot which means no parallel parking!)

My friend Lindsay, from Eveery Day is an Adventure and I had just finished a long day of travel. The night before I had been out for a going away party for my cousin who was moving to Alabama. Then I had to get up around 3:30 a.m. and drive with Lindsay to Charlottesville, VA in order to attend a Google Teacher Conference. The conference was an amazing adventure in its own right as we spent the day learning about ways to use Google Apps. However, after the conference session was done for this day, it was time to take our tired brains and retire to the hotel. But first, and most importantly, it was time to eat.

My cousin had mentioned a restaurant to try that was nearby called Orzo Kitchen and Wine Bar.   So Lindsay and I loaded up into our big white whale of a car that we named Bertha and tried to find it. We drove up and down Main st. and looked for it. It was helpful that we found the street address because it was tucked away inside a shopping center. We parked Bertha and walked in the back way, realizing that there was a front door. Whoops. Then, both the host and a manager asked if we had a reservation. We didn't because we weren't even sure if we could find the place. They both seemed deeply disappointed, which left Lindsay and I slightly puzzled.

We were seated right next to the open kitchen and a dessert case. From that moment on the awkwardness subsided and excitement took over! When we were handed the menu, I was tantalized by the variety of savory excitements that awaited us. This was the type of menu that is good for your soul. The pairings of food were beckoning to me and I easily found six or seven dishes that I wanted to try. The ones that I did not get to were such a tease! I still feel them calling to me and my mouth waters for them.

Glass of Water at Orzo

When we ordered, we were served with a delicious artisan bread that was crusty the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. There was a tasty and aromatic hummus that accompanied the bread that we spread over the top.

We ordered an appetizer of figs served with buratta, bacon, and grilled lettuce. The sweetness of the fig was opposed to the salty and savory bacon and brought together by the mixture of textures that were present. It seemed like each flavor in this bite was clearly present as an individual, but was united in a perfect union with the others. It went especially well with my wine pairing of the Chianti that they offered. 



When we were ordering food, I thought for sure that I would be able to remember all of the little components of the dishes we ordered. If not, then I thought I would be able to look at the menu online. However, the menu online is not the same as when we visited last weekend. Therefore, I am going to wing it!

Lindsay ordered a filet of trout on a bed of calamari. I loved the bite I had because it was a beautiful seafood taste with tomatoes without it tasting like a cup of ocean water.

I ordered pork belly on a bed of spinach gnocchi and broccoli rhab. The bitterness of the broccoli rhab was absorbed by the gnocchli dumplings and the pork belly addition added a flavorful explosion to the palette. 

We were not necessarily hungry at the end of our entree, but we were so impressed by our meal that we had to get desserts. I ordered Tiramisu, which had the correct flavors. I tasted the lady fingers, coffee, and cocoa. The consistency was slightly more like pudding than I am used to though.

Lindsay ordered a bread pudding, which was very tasty, but barely recognizable as bread pudding. It had a sheet of caramelized sugar over a bed of sweet sauce and a chocolate bread cube at the top. Although  not what I was expecting, it was still very tasty.

I loved my experience here at Orzo. I look forward to making the long trip bak since it is now beckoning me. This is my definition of soul food.

Spicy Shrimp and Grits

There is a restaurant in Williamsburg called Food For Thought that has really tasty shrimp and grits. I have never actually ordered them before because they also have other tasty dishes, but my husband orders them consistently. As a Yankee, I had never heard of grits with shrimp. Grits are a breakfast food, I thought. Kind of like Cream of Wheat, right? Shrimp just doesn't belong there.

Now that I am being trained and sculpted into a quasi-Southern Belle by my husband and colleagues alike, I get the whole shrimp and grits thing. I have learned the error of my ways. Why don't they make these up North? Seriously. The Greek diner owners need to get on this. They have everything else under the sun already. Why not a touch of southern classics? Now with all of my pondering and finger pointing at the Greeks, I came to a realization. I have never made grits before. Ever. 

How can I be a southern man's wife properly without ever having made grits before?

Tonight I faced the challenge. I had pinned a recipe from Martha Stewart on how to make shrimp grits from her style. Then, I checked other recipes and thought of what to add to it or alter. I made up my own concoction from fusing a multitude of recipes together. I liked this recipe because all of the different flavors of the bacon, shrimp, tomatoes, and paper melded together into a spoonful of heaven! It was also a touch spicy, but not overly spicy, so that we could taste the flavors of the ingredients, and not just spice. 

 Here is what we did!

Not Martha's Shrimp and Grits

Serves 3 (would be 4 if none of men at the feast were State Troopers)

Ingredients

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup to-cook grits (not quick cooking)

2 Tbsp butter

3 slices of thick bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 large jalapeno with seeds, halved and thinly sliced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes in juice (we used Redpack. We always use Redpack.)

1 pound large peeled and deveined frozen shrimp, thawed

2 Tbsp Sriracha (or just hot sauce to taste)

***We think the next time we make this, we would add a red or a yellow bell pepper. Something to think about...

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 4 1/2 c water to boil. Whisk in grits and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, whisking occasionally, until grits are creamy for about 30 minutes. 

2. About ten minutes into the grits cooking, cook bacon in a large skillet until the pieces are browned. Transfer the pieces to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the oil using a slotted spoon.

3. Add the onion to the bacon fat in the skillet and cook until the onion is soft and browned. Add the jalapenos and the garlic and cook for another 2-3  minutes.

4. Add tomatoes with the juice and 1/4 cup of water to the skillet mixture. Bring to a boil and then add the shrimp. Cook the shrimp until cooked throughout, about 2-4 minutes. Stir in the hot sauce. Taste. Then add more sauce if desired. We did. :)

5. Serve the shrimp mixture over the grits and sprinkle the bacon on top.

Enjoy!

Bottom's Up

Style: Pizza
Website: Bottom's Up Pizza

My Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

Likes:Fantastic "pizza," interesting decor, friendly service, gargantuan portion size

Dislikes:horrible parking, not enough quality beers on tap

On a dreary weekend in February, it was time to add a little culture to our lives. My husband and I took my grandma to the Virginia Fine Arts Museum and we spent the day there. There was quite a crowd because it was also "Chinafest" day. We saw a huge celebration ceremony for the Chinese New Year. After walking around and looking at art and chinese dragons for over two hours, we decided that we had had enough. None of us had eaten yet, and by 4:00 pm we were starving. So, we went to Bottom's Up.

When we walked in, there were only a few people sitting at tables near the bar that were getting their drink on. We sat down and rested because we were quite annoyed after trying to find a place to park. There was limited places to park on the street and we couldn't find one. We had to pay for parking. But once we sat down in the booth, the smell of pizza wafted over us and we became content. 

The decor in the restaurant is awesome. I love that they have the Richmond flood line painted on the wall after it flooded and closed in 2004 after Isabelle and Gaston. They also have twinkle lights on the ceiling and plenty of things to look at. 

 We each ordered two difference slices. Since the restaurant is far from us and we don't eat here often, I usually get two slices and end up taking two halves home for another home meal. I ordered first and requested a slice of ham and pineapple and the BBQ Chicken Pizza. After I ordered, the waiter asked me if I had been here before, I assume so that I realized that it is actually quite a lot of food. I told him I knew the slices were huge and that I would need a box. He laughed and nodded in understanding. But really, the slices are huge. HUGE. They are also not necessarily traditional pizza either. They are thick slabs of chewy and crusty bread that have toppings piled high on top. They don't skimp out on anything.

The picture below is one slice. My grandma ordered the Bottom's Up Loaded slice, that had Italian sausage, fresh ground beef, ham, pepperoni, sliced onions, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives. You can see in the picture below, that the slice is huge. When you take into all of the bread from the crust and the density of the greasy toppings and cheese, one slice is an easy meal and I am usually stuffed.

In the picture below, you can see the spread of our slices. At the top is the Greek Slice, which I thought was somewhat lacking in taste when compared to the others. At the bottom left is the Ham and Pineapple slice. This is my favorite slice of all the ones that I have tried. There is SO MUCH CHEESE. It is sweet from the pineapple and salty from the ham, and it wrapped together WITH A LOT OF CHEESE (are you noticing a theme here?). In the mid bottom is the BBQ Chicken slice. It had BBQ sauce slathered on instead of pizza sauce and was topped with chicken, and cheddar. I liked it, but the BBQ sauce was overpowering and it didn't taste like pizza at all. Not that it was bad, but it was not my favorite. My other favorite is the slice at the bottom left. The Mexican slice that they created is filled with taco seasoned meat, jalapenos, onions, and cheddar cheese. Normally it comes with a leaf of lettuce that has sour cream and salsa on top. This time they skimped on it and just gave us sour cream. It was no matter because it was still and explosion of taste and goodness. 

Bottom's Up pizza is a fabulous place to go in Richmond. It is a great place to take a date, a large group of people, or family. This pizza just serves any purpose you might need!

Cranberry Bliss Bars Copy Cat

This post is one of two posts that I have had the mind to write and yet and have neglected to do for two months. This first one is a copycat recipe of Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars. I loved these bliss bars the first time I purchased one from Starbucks. I have always loved cranberry, but never cared much for white chocolate. However, when the white chocolate is paired with cream cheese and the cranberries, it is sensational! It was so sensational that I baked three batches of them over Christmas break because we couldn't keep them in stock!

There are a lot of cranberry bliss bar recipes online. Going through and comparing about three or four of them from other blogs that I follow, I chose the one from The Girl Who Eats Everything. I chose this one because in her description, she said the blondie portion was chewier and less cakey than others. For the original recipe that I followed, please visit here. The only major difference that I did was replaced regular cranberries and orange zest with orange flavored cranberries that I got from Trader Joe's. 

Sara's Version of the Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bar

Ingredients

Blondie Layer:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, cubed

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup dried Trader Joe's Orange Flavored cranberries

6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped

Frosting:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted

1/2 cup dried Trader Joe's Orange flavored cranberries, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.

2. Prepare the blondie layer: In a medium bowl, melt butter for one minute in the microwave or until melted; stir in brown sugar. Pour the butter and sugar into a large bowl and let cool to room temperature. Use an electric mixer to beat in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. 

3. Stir in the cranberries and chopped chocolate. Notice that the batter will be thick and difficult to mix by hand. See the picture below. 

3. Spread the blondie batter into the prepared pan. I used a spatula to spread it evenly. 

4. Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool completely on a wire rack.

4. Prepare the frosting: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until combined. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate; beat until blended. Frost brownies. 

Sprinkle with chopped cranberries. Drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Let the frosting set (speed this up by throwing them into the fridge) then cut into bars- square or triangle-shaped. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

We had a few leftovers from our third batch... because in reality it takes a lot of people to eat 70 bliss bars. My Mom kept the rest and froze them in her freezer. She said that they froze and kept well. 

Next Christmas, if you love your family and remember about these, please feed them with these. It is so worth it. 

Safe Haven

By Nicholas Sparks
My Rating: 4/5 stars

Goodreads Summary: When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo’s empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

My Summary: Erin is a girl who is not educated and doesn't have a driver's license to be able to drive around her town in Massachusetts. Kevin is her husband and she tries to take good care of him. She is sweet and kind-hearted, but has very few friends. The friends that she does have will one day save her life. 

Kevin is a police detective who appreciates a neat and clean house. He is also a delusional religious zealot who drinks too much. Vodka is his best friend. Pretending to belong to the perfect family, he controls Erin to look perfect to the eyes of outsiders. 

Katie is a strong woman who just moved to Southport, NC out of fear. She rents an old hunting cottage and turns it into a home. She makes new friends with the locals, waiting tables and the nearby restaurant. She then falls in love with Alex.

Alex is a widower with a gentle heart and two young children. He runs a general town in Southport and is well-loved in the community. He helps out Katie who intrigues him, and he falls in love with her.

I loved watching the love story develop between Katie and Alex and it made this novel worth a speedy read. I spent no time lagging in the page turns. For 250 page turns, I was in love with Katie and Alex, but I feared for the moment when Katie met Kevin.

I recommend this story for anyone who loves the romanticized version of a love story with a handsome and down to earth man and a story when the characters are magically fixed by falling in love.

Some Other Thoughts: I am glad that I read this before the movie came out. I enjoyed reading this story and was let perplexed by many things about it. While I was reading, this character named Jo continuously appeared throughout the book. I hated her up until the last twenty pages. The end of this book ties up the entire story line and adds so much more the plot. I would suggest that even if you are thinking about putting it down, keep going. The ending was worth it.

Vietnam Garden

Style: Vietnamese
Website: www.vietnamgardenva.com

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

Likes: Comprehensive menu with items for many different tastes, prices are reasonable, helpful service, certain dishes are available that are hard to find at similar restaurants

Dislikes: It is too far away for me to visit more often, some more common Vietnamese dishes (such a broken rice and pho) are not the best I have had

Vietnam Garden is about an hour away from my house. My husband and I first went the restaurant because we were prompted by a Groupon about our months ago. Yes, it is the usual case. Since then, we have been back over five times. For an hour long car ride over a painful interstate and often in rush hour traffic, we have been frequently. This is because it is so worth it.

We decided to take my Grandma out on February 15 for a belated Valentine's Day. She had never had Vietnamese food and was excited to try it. However, the husband and I were hesitant to take her because we didn't want to upset her stomach with spicy food. We decided to take her Vietnam Garden because the menu is so extensive and there were a lot of "grandma-friendly" menu items.

The restaurant is located in a strip mall with many other ethnic restaurants. India K. Raja and Teppanyaki Buffet are two of these (which are completely UN-noteworthy).  It appears to be just another random restaurant with old carpet and cheesy Asian decor.

Walking in, the cheesy Asian decor is apparent, but so are the other diners. About six of the the seven other tables are Asians. We always consider this to be an excellent sign of authentic quality! When we are seated, we are served glasses of water and we place our orders. Here is what we had:

We ordered steamed dumplings as an appetizer. These are my favorite Asian dumplings because the pastry around them is very thick and soft. I like to poke a small hole with a chopstick before I dunk it for the first time. The ginger soy sauce that comes with it will flow into the opening and make the first bite a delectable sensation of sausage, spice, and pastry.  It is garnished with a thick cut of carrot and a mystery white vegetable that I have yet to discover what it is. 

My grandma ordered a Pork with Mixed Vegetable with a special house brown sauce, which tasted like an oyster sauce. It was served over white rice. When I sampled a taste of pork, carrot, and mushroom with rice soaked in the sauce, it reminded me of a tasty Chinese food dish. I liked it better than the Chinese I have had recently because everything tasted so fresh. It hadn't been sitting out and it wasn't overly salted. 

Brad and I ordered two different hot pots. A hot pot is a selection of meat served with a broth in a bowl over a bunsen burner. Brad ordered the Volcano On The Sea. This hot pot has prawn, fish filet, squid, enoki mushrooms and scallion in a seafood broth. The pieces of seafood in here are sizable and the portion is very large, especially for the price. My favorite thing about this dish is that or all of the seafood, it is not overly fishy. The broth is hot, buttery, and spicy. When it is spooned over the rice and the fish, it tastes like no other dish I have had before.

I had the Spicy Beef Hot Pot, which has beef, shitake mushrooms, tofu, carrot, Chinese cabbage, and cellophane noodles. When I had my first sip of broth, I coughed. It was spicier than I thought it would be. It wasn't too spicy though. My tastebuds quickly got used to it when I was eating it paired with beef, mushrooms, and rice. It was like eating a spicy beef and rice soup with an Asian zing! The only thing that I didn't like was the amount of tofu. I don't mind tofu, but I don't need really big chunks. This dish was a chunky tofu dish. 

The waiter that was serving us was an expert. He carried both hot pots at the same time without spilling anything. I was impressed. However, the best part about our server was that he asked us if we liked the hot pots. When we told him that we drove from Williamsburg just to have them,  he pointed out a few other menu items that we should try. He said that they are Vietnamese favorites and that he liked them better than the hot pots. We now have a take out menu with four menu items that he circled for us. I think that next time, Brad and I will try some Cripsy Egg Noodle Seafood Delight and Carmelize Fish In A Pot... and yes, that is not a typo :)   . 

Every Day

By David Levithan
My Rating: 2/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis: There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

My Review: When I read that this story was about a person who woke up in a different body every day and was trying to stay with the girl it loved, I was so ready to read this book. I really wanted to like it because it seemed it was right up my alley. Unfortunately, this story turned out to be more about how to complicate and ruin a perfectly reasonably tortured love story. 

I love reading romantic stories, whether adult or young adult. I love when there are two souls who find each other and their whole worlds stops and shifts itself to center around that newly found person. If this story had centered on this principle, I would have loved it. Instead, it centered around the difficulties there were to be in a different body every day. The person may be a boy or girl, straight or gay, or rich or poor. They may be hungover, depressed, or crazy. I felt that this story was trying to hard to make different people seem the same as they are tied together by this one body invader. Instead, it was like an out of control train that makes stop after stop to crazy town. All of the stops took me farther away from the love story to the point where they just seemed like two really stupid teenagers that just needed to drink a cup of grow the hell up.

This story is not for people who like love stories. It is not for people who want to read about happy endings. It is a story for people who want to make political statements about the diversity of the American population.