Quest for the Best Fries: Roots Steakhouse

Roots Steakhouse is one of the restaurants we've frequented ever since we first moved to Jersey.  It's a dependable fixture in the area when you're in the mood for a classic steakhouse meal.  So we figured it'd be a great next stop in our Quest for the Best Fries!

We went on a particularly hot day, so Mel decided to splurge on her favorite summer treat meal: the lobster roll.  Delicious as always!

DJ went for a simple steak salad, we shared an order of the Applewood Smoked Slab Bacon (joy!), and of course - the fries!  They were definitely the perfect thin stick shape and fried to perfection.  However, after the first bite we remembered that they toss them generously with Old Bay seasoning.  For those who love that flavor, it would certainly be a treat.  But, it quickly became apparent that our Fry Guy does not fall in that category.  He definitely gave them a fair chance, but wound up drinking half a glass of water after every bite.

Between sips of water, we asked him to rank the restaurant fries we've tried so far.  The results:

1.  Committed Pig

2.  Echo Tap and Grille

3.  Roots Steakhouse

And the quest continues...

Quest for the Best Fries: Echo Tap and Grille

Next stop on our Quest for the Best Fries: Echo Tap and Grille.  We visited this place a few times after they first opened years ago.  Nice modern decor (love all the natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows!), fun sports bar ambience, typical bar food.  So we figured it was a safe bet they'd have solid French fry options.

DJ tried the Chipotle Taco Flatbread (fun and tasty!).

Mel and Fry Guy shared the sliders.  

Translation: Mel ate the sliders and he tried the fries.

We say "tried" because he definitely gave them a fair chance, but they didn't get devoured like usual.  In the end, not a huge fan of the stringy style and prefers them a bit thicker.  Noted.  

The Quest continues...

Quest for the Best Fries: The Committed Pig

We haven't posted since March, but not for lack of content.  COVID-19 restrictions were slowly lifted as 2021 warmed up, and we actually had a pretty great foodie spring!  We personally aren't comfortable with dining indoors yet, but we've found plenty of outdoor seating options at a lot of wonderful restaurants.  This first taste of freedom was made even sweeter by the fact that our little picky eater now loves French fries!  Woo!  So we decided to make a point of visiting places with fries on the menu to find the best plate of potato goodness.  

 

Our first stop back in May - which was also our first time dining at a restaurant table since 2019! - was The Committed Pig.  DJ has eaten there a bunch of times with a colleague, and Mel once tried their Cubano sandwich.  We figured a place dedicated to burgers and sandwiches would have decent fries.  And our hunch was right!  The kiddo was beaming from ear to ear as he devoured nearly the whole plate.  At one point he lovingly patted the table and said, "This restaurant is amazing!"  

Cheers to being out and about in the world again!

Banza PIZZA Now, Too?!?!

Our love for Banza products is not a secret, so when we saw Banza Pizza offered as a new item on Fresh Direct we put it in the cart immediately.  We enjoy making cauliflower crust pizza, so we were curious how this would compare.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we like this chickpea crust even more than cauliflower.  It bakes crispier and the chickpea adds a depth of flavor even closer to pizza dough.  

Banza knocks it out of the part yet again!

Aussie Bites

During the holidays, DJ's parents shared a box of Aussie Bites from Costco with us.  Both DJ and I fell in love with those tasty mini muffins almost immediately because they're loaded with super grains and dried fruit.  They're a wonderful not-too-sweet breakfast treat.  We don't have a Costco membership, so we were pretty bummed when we finished the container.  Mel realized we might not be the only people who faced such a conundrum, and figured it'd be worth a quick Google search to see if anyone came up with a copycat recipe.  And indeed - someone did!  

 "The Stay @ Home Chef" Best Homemade Aussie Bites taste just like the ones from the store and are super easy to make.  At first it seems like a lot of ingredients to gather, but the bags of each component are plenty to last for several rounds of making the muffins so it's worth it in the long run.

After making them a couple of times, there are two tweaks to the recipe that we prefer:

1. leave out the granulated sugar
2. use uncooked quinoa
   

Tex-Mex Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

Snow Day!  At least 2 feet.  Epic!

No better time for a new slow cooker recipe - come in from the cold to the warm smells of spicy stew all day.

The spice packs a punch and sneaks up on you a bit, but overall it's a nice hearty stew!  Very glad we could enjoy it during this chilly blizzard.

Slow Cooker Oxtail

Mel is always excited to order oxtail from Caribbean restaurants.  With the right spices and preparation, the meat can be so tender and flavorful - a nice break from the normal rotation of chicken, pork and steak.  Unfortunately, she's never found oxtail at our local supermarkets.  Well, during the pandemic we started ordering meat deliveries directly from two awesome butchers in NY (Cassanova Meats and Vincent's Meat Market), and they carry oxtail!  

Knowing that oxtail meat would naturally be a bit tough, Mel wanted her first recipe attempt to involve the slow cooker.  Some of the recipes promising "Caribbean" flavors involved a million ingredients and she just wasn't in the mood for all that rigmarole, so she found this simpler one:  Southern Smothered Oxtails.

 We admittedly improvised a bit (i.e. adding a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes for extra sauciness), but the basics of the recipe were super easy to follow and yielded delicious results!  

 

Jersey Exploration: Millburn Deli

When we first moved to Jersey, everyone told us we had to check out Millburn Deli for the best sandwiches - particularly their famous Gobbler (a Thanksgiving meal in sandwich form) and Godfadda.

So the first few times we came to the house to start setting it up before moving in, we picked up sandwiches from there for lunch.  Here we are enjoying our first Gobblers before we had any furniture.  (Seems like a million years ago!) 

Over the years, we've enjoyed branching out and trying a lot of Millburn Deli's other fun offerings.  

 Here's a running list of them (screen shots from their DoorDash menu), each one as delicious as the next and highly recommended.

 

 

 

Vegetarian Breakfast Casserole

One week when we wanted a break from meats, we decided to try out this Vegetarian Breakfast Casserole recipe.  The roasted veggies were so delicious, Mel almost ate them all out of the pan before adding them to the egg mixture.  Sometimes having breakfast for dinner is a nice change of pace.  

 Screenshots of recipe from WellPlated.com:

Sheet Pan Dinner Guide from NYT

New York Times Cooking posted these super helpful graphics on their Instagram - a guide for making sheet pan dinners.  Definitely wanted to share/save them on our blog for future reference!

GH Best Slow Cooker Brisket

 Back during the holiday season, Hana and Josh were committed to seeing family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So they admirably quarantined in Josh's parents' basement for two weeks so they could join them for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Then, after staying there for a few weeks, they headed up to CT and stayed with the Haile-Mariam crew for Christmas through New Year's Day.  It took a lot of dedication, but they did it and it was awesome to be able to have family time during the pandemic.  (Especially since now that they're back in BK, we probably won't see them until it's warm enough for socially-distanced outdoor gatherings.)  

During that quarantined window, they stopped at our house for a break on the long drive from DC to CT.  As luck would have it, the stop was on the second day of Hanukkah so we decided to make a traditional holiday meal to celebrate.  Mel knew the main meat should be brisket, but that cut of beef can be notoriously tough.  After a bit of research for the best brisket slow cooker recipes, she came upon this one from Good Housekeeping. 

She was a bit skeptical because the recipe is so simple.  Would it really be tasty and tender?  The answer:  YES!  This was the best brisket she's ever made.  And the best part: we froze some of the leftovers, and it tastes just as delicious (dare we say, better?!) reheated weeks later.  This recipe is for sure a keeper.  (Hence, the very delayed but effusive blog post.)

Here are the GH recipe details copied and pasted in case the link above ever breaks:

Ingredients

• 1 beef brisket (about 4 lbs.), trimmed
• 1 can (14 oz.) crushed tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 medium red onion, sliced
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• Finely chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions

1. Season brisket with 3/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper; add to large slow-cooker bowl along with crushed tomatoes and garlic. Cover and cook on low 10 hours in slow cooker or Instant Pot, or until very tender.
2. About 25 minutes before meat is ready, on large rimmed baking sheet, toss red onion and yellow onion with olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Roast at 425°F 20 minutes or until browned. Top brisket with roasted onions and finely chopped parsley. 

Our Alterations 

Mel accidentally put both the red and yellow onion in the slow cooker with the tomatoes and garlic at the beginning of cooking time.  So we wound up skipping the second step altogether and it still turned out great!  Score for a 1-pot dish.

2021: Attitude of Gratitude

First post of 2021!  Our posts for 2020 were clearly lagging.  We had some cool food adventures at home, but the days went by in a blur of Zoom school/work and wiping down groceries so we rarely had a chance to keep up with blogging.  But we wanted to mark the first day of 2021 with the theme of the year: Attitude of Gratitude.  The key to facing each day of the pandemic is to take a moment each day to remember what we're grateful for.  Because truly, while the lives we were used to were completely turned upside down we still have so many reasons to be thankful.  Most importantly right now: our health, our extended family's health, the roof over our heads, and the food we eat.  So in honor of that, here's a picture celebrating our annual Soup Joumou (Mel is pretty sure it was her best one yet!).

And also in the spirit of gratitude, we want to offer up a huge thank you to Hirut for creating this AMAZING cake for our little guy's 5th birthday.  All the CT fam quarantined for 14 days in order to be able to have a maskless visit with us for Christmas, and they surprised us with an early birthday celebration!  Our resident space expert was over the moon (pun intended) when he saw this special treat just for him.  Unforgettable.