Sylvia's Scenario

My brother came up with a fun idea to have a food and beer pairing dinner so he sent out an e-mail to see who might want to participate. Naturally, I was in. My husband's favorite beer is an IPA and we always have it on hand here at home. I looked up what food went well with an IPA and apparently spicy foods pair well with it so a curry dish it was. (Although, before this dinner I really never thought it mattered what you ate with beer) We had four courses and each couple brought one, an appetizer, a salad, an entree, and a dessert. We all got approximately a 6 oz. serving of beer to sample with each course. I think the pairing makes a difference because all the beer was so good, yet so different. I'll outline below all the pairing we sampled tonight.  We started out with appetizers of homemade spring rolls, an original recipe from one of the couples. They were made with pulled pork, bean sprouts, carrots, cabbage, etc. and served with soy sauce. We each got two s

Here is my dinner tonight - homemade granola. Yummy. My first night home from vacation after a 10-hour work day, I just want a bowl of granola for dinner. No more fancy dinners, vacation is over. But this granola is a treat. My sister brought me this batch of granola she made from a recipe of Molly Wizenberg who is a food writer in Seattle, runs a restaurant called Delancey, and has the award winning blog, Orangette .  Check it out. Looking for a good homemade granola recipe? Here it is. It's good enough to eat for dinner. Makes 7 cups 3 cups rolled oats 1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds 1 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds 1 cup  unsweetened coconut chips (not flakes) 1-1/4 cups raw pecans, whole and coarsely chopped 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 1 tsp. kosher salt 3/4 cup maple syrup, preferably Grade B 1/2 cup olive oil dried cherries, optional  (My sister used dried blueberries which I love) 1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with par

We arrived in Orlando for our Disney vacation without a full day to spend at the parks so we took it easy and spent time reading our Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2012 and hung out a bit at Downtown Disney. It's an area that is open to the public with lots of shops and restaurants. It reminded me of a teenager's paradise of hanging out at the mall! Disney style, of course…It's a huge place, as is all of Disney's adventures. If you just arrive to Orlando, like we did, it's a fun way to break into the Disney hype gradually. We were so excited to hit the parks after spending the evening there. We picked an Irish pub to eat dinner, called Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant. This was a very authentic Irish Pub. Many elements, including the bar, were hand-crafted from hardwoods in Ireland and sent to the United States for reassembly. The venue was huge by Irish-pub standards, but the dark polished-wood paneling, as well as the snugs (small, priva

We have been on vacation to Walt Disney World for the past week so blogging has been pretty quiet lately.  Do I dare say…yes, we've been eating our way through Disney World!  I bought the book The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2012 which we've been reading daily to plan our attack.  I mainly read all the stuff about where to eat and all the guides on Dining In and Around Walt Disney World which is actually a whole section of the book (Part Ten).  Plus, there is also tear-out pages in the back which lists all the places to eat at each park which you can incorporate into your touring plans.  I love traveling and exploring new eating establishments.  It's my favorite part of the vacation, as warped as that sounds.  But is pays off because we've eaten at some awesome places.  Like tonight for example, we ate at Epcot for our second time and chose the French place Les Chefs de France. The aroma of buttery croissants fills the air, how can one resi

So, why am I making an apple cake when it's suppose to be spring? Is it because it's April Fool's Day? Or because it was spring and then it suddenly turned to fall! Brrrrr! Then I remembered I still had apples from our tree that I still need to use up before our next crop this coming fall and so I whipped up this recipe for a nice, quick dessert and it was so easy and yummy. I haven't had any type of apple dish for awhile so it sounded appetizing to me. You'll like the fact that you don't have to make frosting for this cake. You just make an accompanying sauce and drizzle it over the cake and serve warm.  Scrumptious! 12-14 servings 1/2 cup butter, softened 2 cups sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 6 cups chopped peeled tart apples Butterscotch Sauce 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup butter, cubed 1/2 cup he