City Lobster and Steak

My hubs and I had a super early dinner yesterday (5pm, senior citizen's style) - we checked out City Lobster and Steak.  The reviews for the restaurant are mediocre, but I wanted to try it anyways.  The restaurant week menu looked mouth-watering, so despite some of the negative reviews, they had me sold.  Goes to show that putting time in to create a menu that really sounds amazing will entice customers (or maybe just me…). 

Check it out:

Pumpkin Pie Brownie 'Cupcakes'

Four words.  Pumpkin Pie Brownie Cupcakes. 

Ok, allow me to elaborate.  Imagine a thick layer of fudgy pumpkin spiced brownie topped with a layer of pumpkin pie filling.  Now I dare you to maintain that image in your mind and try not to drool.

I stumbled upon this recipe in a blog geared towards vegans.  Yes, I repeat, vegans.  First thing that struck my mind when I saw this was “wow, vegans actually eat delicious food?!”  Obviously, a bad assumption on my part, as I know nothing about being a vegan and consider myself the polar opposite…someone that eats absolutely everything and anything in sight.

Back to the recipe – although I did want to see what living like a vegan was like even if only for a second, I un-veganized the recipe.  For one, I didn’t have coconut oil and wasn’t going to specially purchase it since I’m clearly not vegan, so I used good ‘ol butter.  The original recipe says it only makes 8 large brownies and 2 small, so I doubled it because I was planning to share.  Somehow the math must have gotten mixed up, because when I doubled the recipe, I ended up with 24 large brownies, and 24 mini brownies.  More brownies?  Psh, no complaints here.

After I took the first batch out of the oven, I couldn’t wait and had to have a sample.  These brownies made me speechless.  Essentially a rich, decadent brownie with gooey pumpkin pie on top, I was definitely in a happy place.  I was very confident in these pumpkin pie brownie cupcakes, but here came the ultimate test: what will the hubby think?  

And then, he proceeded to eat five in a row.  I think they passed the quality control test =).   

Amazing brownie batter

Sweet Potato Biscuits

One of my absolute favorite foods is sweet potatoes.  Whether I’m at a restaurant or perusing recipes, whenever I stumble upon something with sweet potatoes, I’m instantly sold.  The other day I was trying to be good and went to the gym, only to sit on the bike and read gossip magazines.  I picked up an issue of SELF magazine to read as well, and to my delight, it featured a recipe for sweet potato biscuits!  I was so excited to make these, especially since the recipe is so simple and only needs 5 ingredients – very quick and easy!

The original recipe uses whole wheat biscuit mix as the base – my grocery store didn’t have this, so I settled for Bisquick.  I had to use a bit more Bisquick than the recipe called for in order to get the dough to the right texture, otherwise it was too moist and sticky.  I also altered the cook time to 25 minutes because my biscuits were still raw at the 15 minute mark.  I had to wait a few extra minutes, but boy, these biscuits were well worth the wait!  The recipe makes a total of eight biscuits, and as always, my husband and I always split everything down the middle.  I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I managed to polish off my four biscuits within the same day.  Yes, these biscuits are THAT good.

I'm already drooling