Rzasa Recipes: December 2012

A rustic log of butter :)

I found a few methods on how to make butter online, and this is the method I used:

Ingredients:
2 c heavy cream
Mix-ins (salt, roasted garlic, etc.)

Directions:

In the Kitchenaid mixer (with whisk attachment), beat the cream until whipped cream forms.
Continue mixing until things start to clump together and look ugly. The butter will begin to separate from the buttermilk (see photo below).
Drain off the excess liquid....SAVE THIS! Buttermilk can be used in many recipes.
Return the butter solids to the mixer and continue mixing- more buttermilk should separate. You want to get as much out as possible.
Rinse the butter in extremely cold ice water. This will help the butter stay fresher.
Once dry, you can mix in salt or other ingredients. I thought sea salt would be a good option, but I forgot that since the crystals are large you end up with big salty bites- not so good. Next time I will use kosher salt.

This is what the butter looks as it separates from the buttermilk:

...and the finished butter (hand is there for size comparison)

----WARNING: long post ahead----

Back in August (the weekend of Dave's birthday), we went to Montréal for what we essentially thought of as one big food crawl. Yes, it was a vacation too, but what vacation would be complete without a focus on food?!? I'm pretty sure we documented all the food that we ate from the second we left home until we got back (meals only- of course we snacked a bunch in between too!!)

First stop? Dunkin' Donuts.

I went with the classic egg and cheese on a toasted English muffin. If I recall we were trying to eat healthy this summer, so Dunk's was "no-no" food. It tasted soooooooo good to have this sandwich after months of avoiding it!

Dave went the slightly fancier route, eating a ham, egg, and cheese on a toasted bagel. It also got rave reviews :)

We took a stop somewhere in Vermont and saw these chairs:

I thought they were so cute with their bright colors, all in a row:

(view from the chairs)

While leaving the rest stop, we saw a sign that reminded us that we were only 10 miles from the Ben and Jerry's Factory!

View Larger Map

We didn't take the factory tour. We didn't even eat any ice cream! But we DID visit the flavor graveyard.

(Dave is in mourning)

The funniest part of the visit to Ben and Jerry's was when we found the lonely cow. Dave got close to take a picture, and upon taking a step which was apparently too close, the cow promptly took a dump and ran away. hah!

We did in fact get food right after we checked into the hotel in Montréal. We didn't have a plan, so we walked the streets until we found a place that looked good. Sadly, we ended up walking into a not-so-great neighborhood, but in the end it was okay because we found Piazzetta!

Piazzetta

1101, rue Sainte-Catherine Est - Montréal

View Larger Map

We split a Mexican "pizza roll" with grilled chicken, salsa verde, cheddar, mozzarella, serrano peppers, red onion, and fresh coriander.

The guacamole was a perfect complement!

We also got a pizza- one of their specialties.

It paired well with Boréal beer...yum!

Here's a view of the inside of the restaurant:

The street outside was so pretty:

Our next stop of the trip was the underground city. It's like a big mall but...underground. (We were at Eaton Center)

View Larger Map

We hit up La Crémière to get a quick bite.

La Godasse is a pastry that comes in a few varieties.

We opted for the "choco noisette," which is just the pastry covered with a thick layer of Nutella. Not my fave, but Dave loved it!

See?

Our bubble tea from Bubble Tease was a little sweet for my taste, but still good.

Lola Rosa was a cute little restaurant...
545 Rue Milton Montreal

View Larger Map

I liked the table we sat at...there was a drawer with funny little things inside:

Pics of Dave:

...and of me:

We weren't very hungry after our snacks at the underground city, so we just split one meal. This was some kind of enchilada:

Those sauces were awesome!

The next day, we took advantage of the free croissants offered at our hotel each morning.

I have a few non-food-related pics coming up...sorry!

Old Montréal:

Olympic Stadium:

Botanical Gardens:

One of my must-eats for the trip to Montréal was a crêpe. So naturally we went to Muru Crêpe.

View Larger Map

Woohoo! A crêpe! It was excellent.

And since we needed a meal to eat as well, we split a roast beef Croque Monsieur.

For Dave's birthday dinner, he wanted asian food. Lucky for us the hotel was right across the street from the entrance to China Town! We hit up the Restaurant Noodle Factory to see what we could find to eat: