today's cupcake: toffee crunch

For scrapbook group yesterday, I made these Toffee Crunch Cupcakes from Bakers Royale (via Pinterest). Let me start by saying they were delicious, but wow they were more work than I bargained for! (That'll teach me to read the ENTIRE recipe before I begin.) Basically it's a chocolate cupcake with a caramel frosting topped with caramel & chocolate drizzle, chopped nuts and toffee bits. The recipe instructions weren't in the correct order (which I would have realized had I read them all the way through prior to starting). The cupcake part was easy - basic chocolate cupcake, with the addition of espresso powder to really intensify the chocolate flavor. The icing was the tricky part: it's a cooked icing, which I rarely make, and very VERY soft. Not sure if it was due to the humidity or just the nature of the icing itself, but I chilled it for 30 minutes prior to piping and even then the frosting practically fell off the cupcakes. The recipe calls for the frosted cupcakes to be chilled and then dipped in a warm chocolate ganache, but the frosting was so soft I didn't think it would stay on the cupcakes for dipping, so I garnished with chocolate & caramel ice cream sauces, chopped nuts and toffee bits.

restaurant review: the french room

So, for a friend's birthday her wish was to have dinner at The French Room which is one of Dallas's most highly-rated restaurants: top of the Zagat ratings, AAA five diamond etc... It's pretty fancy (the men wore suits & ties) and I actually busted out a pair of panty hose (well, only because it was too cold to go bare-legged)! Anyway, it's in the Adolphus Hotel, one of Dallas's oldest hotels, and since it's not very big the wait for a reservation can be pretty long. We thought it would be nice to take Mom there for Mothers Day but the next available reservation isn't until the week AFTER, on May 19th.

But enough about that, how was it? Normally I don't make a judgement about a restaurant until we've been there at least twice. But I think I can safely say that this is a fabulous restaurant without waiting for another visit. They have a prix fixe menu (choose appetizer, entree and dessert) for $80 or the Chef's Tasting Menu (appetizer, two entrees, fruit & cheese course, dessert) for $110 or $165 with wine pairings. We both chose the prix fixe. First we were offered an amuse bouche/small bite of quail egg and beef tartare with a carrot-ginger mousse. Delicious! Next came my appetizer of pork belly with caramelized apple. Wonderful! Then came my entree of dover sole with swiss chard. Fabulous! After a palate-cleanser of apricot sorbet I had my dessert of a blood orange semi-freddo. Amazing!

I was amused to sit down to a place setting that included a knife rest (haven't seen one of those outside an antique store in a long time) and a bread plate with butter knife. As we went through the courses, the cutlery changed and we saw some rare and probably endangered species: demitasse spoons with the sorbet, a fish fork and fish knife for me with my entree, more specialty cutlery for others at the table, far beyond the usual salad fork-dinner fork-steak knife-soup spoon routine. The decor is a little over-the-top French: lots of gold leafing, cherubs painted on the ceiling, etc. but it works. The restaurant was full, but because of the high ceilings it wasn't overly loud and we had no trouble conversing with everyone else at the table.

The service for such a large group (10 of us in total) was very good with the exception of not being offered anything to drink if we didn't want wine. I had to ask three times for bottled water. For this reason only I have to take a little bit off the rating: 4.9 out of 5. I would definitely go back, especially with a smaller group. Maybe we'll take Mom for a late Mothers Day dinner?

today's cupcake: black bottom cupcakes

In exchange for help with a home improvement project, today I made Bakerella's Black Bottom Cupcakes. I'm a big fan of Bakerella's recipes - they are always delicious! On this one I'll have to take the word of my husband and my friend's husband since I don't like things with bananas. (I like bananas, just not anything made with bananas, like pudding, pie, cake, bread etc.) The cupcakes received two thumbs up from both the men so I take it they were a success!

restaurant review: ana mia's tex-mex

Second visit tonight to Ana Mia's Tex Mex a restaurant that's been open a couple of months. It's actually a new location for a small local chain, located on Preston & Parker, in the old Kirby's Steakhouse building. They've completely gutted the restaurant and it looks great! Very light & bright... The food is terrific! On our first visit last week, I had the camarones al mojo de ajo (grilled shrimp & veggies with garlic-lime) and this time around I tried the carne asada. Also ordered at our table were brisket tacos, carne asada tacos and the garlic-lime shrimp. Something unique is the tableside guacamole: they have a cart with a HUGE bowl of avocados that is wheeled to your table and the server makes your guacamole to order. It was excellent!

We think this could be one of our "go to" Mexican restaurants - can't wait to go back & try some of the other interesting things on the menu, like the rib eye fajitas or some of the fish dishes. A very good value for the price too - overall rating 5 out of 5.