Food Crawl 5

Yep, I'm still behind.  This food crawl is from June 30th!

That morning, Dave and I headed to Davis Square to check out Mr. Crepe.

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 We've had some bad luck with so-so crepes at places around Boston before, so we were hoping to find one that we liked.  Inside, this place was pretty cute. It was clean, with artwork on the walls.

The crepe we decided to split was AWESOME.  It was brie, apple, and grape.

It was warm and melty, and the crepe itself tasted very good.  Now, I feel like we can't completely judge Mr. Crepe yet, since we didn't try one with meat in it.  Good meat at a crepe place is sometimes hard to come by, so we'll definitely have to go back and give it another try!

There used to be a picture here of Dave, but he made me take it down :(

 This next place is not new to either of us, Dave's Fresh Pasta (also in Davis).

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The only reason why we decided to food crawl it was because I have never had their sandwiches before!   Dave has, but I have only eaten their fresh pastas and sauces. (Actually, that's a lie. I sampled a few paninis and drank wine when Leah had her bachelorette party there....)

Every time I've been there, it's been packed and totally crazy.  Today was no exception, but the service was pretty fast regardless.

 

 

We decided to split a Steak and Blue sandwich.  It's grilled flank steak, blue cheese, caramelized onions, baby arugula, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.  Dave LOVED it, and I really liked it (my only issue is that some of the steak pieces had more fat on them than I would have wanted.  But I'm weird when it comes to that stuff.  I like very lean meat)

We were pretty stuffed at this point, because we had the crepe and sandwich back to back.

Do I look stuffed?

We went to the Public Gardens to relax and check out some ducks who were chillin' in a row:

We did other stuff that day too, but I won't bore you with the details.

On the way home, we were both craving something sweet, so we checked out the newish yogurt place in Burlington, Yeh.

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The idea was great, but neither of us were thrilled.  I think the yogurt (both my vanilla and Dave's mango) were WAY to sweet, and the little bit of chocolate I tried was gross.  It tasted kind of like a Tootsie Roll.  ew.

I have to admit though- the toppings were pretty amazing.

I had coconut, kiwi, and these little Gushers-like balls of fruit juice.

Dave had his mango yogurt and juice balls blended into a smoothie. (that sounds weird...)

The verdict on Yeh? Meh.

(although apparently they now have tart greek frozen yogurt.  That might be worth a try...)

Coconut Rum Truffles

This one has been on my blogging to-do list for a while....Dave and I made these months ago!


Ingredients:
8 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
just shy of 2/3 c. heavy cream
2 Tablespoons dark rum
1/4 tsp coconut extract (or more...taste it to see what you like)
1 tbs butter - optional (I don't remember if we used this or not)
unsweetened coconut flakes, to roll truffles in

Directions:

1. Chop the chocolate into fairly even, small pieces—a heavy serrated knife works well. Place in a mixing bowl
2. Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it begins to boil. Remove from heat, and add the cream to the chopped chocolate. For an extra smooth truffle, add butter. Add rum and extract . 
3. Once most of the chocolate and butter look melted, whisk until smooth. Quickly but gently transfer the mixture to a bowl so that you can form your emulsion in a cooler environment. (I didn't do this)
4. Whisk the mixture vigorously until it’s thick and smooth, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl and incorporating all the cream and chocolate. If you have one, an immersion blender helps make sure the emulsion is stable.
5. If the ganache shows signs of breaking at this point (if it looks curdled or oily), you can add a few drops of cream to help re-emulsify it. A well-emulsified ganache should look like chocolate pudding: thick, smooth, and glossy. Refrigerate until firm.
6. Once the ganache has set into a uniformly firm mass, scoop out small balls with a melon baller or spoon. Roll each one briefly in the palms of your very clean (or gloved) hands. It helps if you have cold hands or are in a cool room.
7. Chill the truffles briefly, for about 15 minutes, while you prepare whatever you’d like to roll or enrobe them in.
8. Roll the truffles in unsweetened coconut flakes.

Store them at room temperature for up to a week, in the fridge for two to three weeks, or in the freezer for two months. They taste best eaten at room temperature.

note: I am unsure of the source of this recipe, since I combined aspects of a few truffle recipes I found online.