Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Be safe on this night of tricks and treats..

BOO!

Mochi

After splurging on an oh so delightful Angie's sub in our most recent visit to Jacksonville, D and I had a conversation that went roughly like this:

A: Should we stop?

D: mmmmm

A: It's on the way to the free way...

D: I can just get a small one.

A: haha, yea you can, lets go!

Once again, D was all up in my head. He knew I was talking about his favorite FroYo place before I even uttered the word Mochi.

D's history with Mochi started long before the frozen yogurt chain arrived to Jacksonville's St. John's Town Centre. One day my college roommate brought home some of the most peculiar candy I've ever tasted...mochi. There is no way to describe the weird texture of the pounded sticky rice turned cake filled with, in this particular case, chocolaty creaminess. I was not a fan. I was just wigged out...but Dan, on the other hand, loved them. So much so that he ended up taking the box home with him! I swear he is the most asian white boy I know!

So the first time we visited a Mochi dan was delighted to see that they actually sold bits of mochi as a topping for their FroYo.

Still stuffed from my sub, I opted out of having my own FroYo. Although, I did get a little tasting cup of strawberry, which I must say was delightful. And that's saying a lot coming from someone who does'nt typically enjoy yogurt of any sorts.

D opted for the lychee (tropical fruit native to China) flavored yogurt. I don't particularly like the flavor, it's not nearly fruity or sweet enough for me, but it's D's #1 choice.

He loves it. D kept is simple and topped his FroYo off with some colorful bits of mochi.

But the real excitement came when we were checking out. Not only did they have whole pieces of Mochi, similar to the candy, but they had the frozen ice cream filled kind. I immediately snatched the mango flavor up for D, before he had a chance to protest. I just knew he would love it. And boy was I ever right, but unfortunately he made me take a bite. Even frozen and loaded with yummy fruity flavor, it still didn't win me over. Eck. But D loved it and that's all the mattered, because Mochi is most defiantly a "D place."

-A

Hours: ?? - 11:30 p.m.

Address: 4860 Big Island Dr., Jacksonville, FL 32246

Phone: (904) 807-9292

Web Page: http://www.mymochiyogurt.com/

Angies Sub Shop, Jacksonville Beach

Angie's = ♥. It's simples. For four years Angie's Subs was my comfort food when I missed my family, it was my reward after a crazy week and the must-see place I took visiting friends and family. Angie's was there for me through four solid years of expensive text books, canceled classes and finally my baccalaureate graduation.

So needless to say when me and dan had a mandatory errand in Jacksonville, Angie's Subs was my only choice for lunch. And let me tell you, after six months of withdrawals, I was not disappointed!

Luckily, D and I stopped in on a pretty tame Tuesday afternoon and didn't have to wait long for our little slices of heaven. It's not unheard of to wait an hour at Angie's for your food. It's not even uncommon.

We pulled up to what one might suspect to be a convenient store, but in all actuality happens to be one of Jacksonville Beach's most popular local sandwich shop.

Even more intriguing than the exterior, the interior of Angie's will keep your eyes wondering for many visits. Mismatched chairs and tables create the dining room furniture and random signs and pictures decorate the walls. Looking for a missing sock? It might be on the wall. Don't forget to check out the surfboards on the ceiling and just wait till you visit the bathroom!

I kept it traditional and went with my regular order of 7" Peruvian ($4.99). As Angie's signature sub, it is by far the most popular. Ham, Genoa salami, bacon, Italian sausage, provolone and peruvian sauce all lie in between a hoagie roll and bake to perfection in a 550 degree pizza oven.

I had my peruvian all the way minus tomatoes and onions, which includes lettuce and Angie's special Italian salad oil mix. It's simply the best sub ever. The peruvian sauce gives it a great mixture of perfectly spicy sweet and all the meat just melts in your mouth along with the provolone cheese. The bread is just a little crunchy, but taste great dipped in the additional Peruvian Sauce located on every table.

D chose this particular visit to give the 7" Dirty Gringo ($4.99) a try.

On a hoagie roll as well, The Dirty Gringo contains roast beef, turkey, mushrooms, bacon, provolone and peruvian sauce. D ordered his fully involved with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and the house special italian oil mix. D had never had the same feelings towards Angie's as me, but he enjoyed his sub enough to scarf it down.

All in all, our Angie's visit was everything I expected without the long wait. The familiar looking convenient store turned sub shop was hard to leave when the time came, but I grabbed my extra large styrofoam cup and dumped it in the suggestion box, otherwise known as a trash can, and bid ado until next time.

-A

Open: Monday - Saturday 10 am to 9 pm, Sunday 11 am to 4 pm

Address: 1436 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville Beach, FL

Phone: (904) 249- SUBS

Facebook page: Angie's Subs is God's Gift to Man

Cupcake in a Jar

I finally made the cupcake in a jar to celebrate my cousin Brandy's birthday and my other cousin Emily's belated birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Hope you enjoy!

Thai Erwan

Today for lunch, D and I finally ventured out to Ormond Beach's first Thai restaurant, Thai Erwan. We'd been meaning to try the cuisine since we first heard wind of it at the beginning of the summer, but were often times distracted by other delicious asian eateries (coughedamamecough).

Thai Erwan is located in the same plaza as Peach Valley, TGI Friday's and Noah's Market. So, there is definitely a little competition. Although, none provide the spicy sweetness that accompanies most Thai cuisine.

Nor do they provide the same tranquil environment

as Thai Erwan successfully does. As you walk in your greeted by the sounds of a waterfall that can be heard throughout the entire dining room. And often viewed too! The color scheme consists of a lot of natural dark colors with accents of gold to give it that real asian vibe. With it's great atmosphere, D and I were already loving Thai Erwan before our server even saw us.

They had a lunch special running that enabled us to have their soup of the day and some fruit in addition to any entree. The soup came out piping hot shortly after we ordered and I must say the presentation was beautiful. The chicken and rice noodle soup came with a spring roll on the side and sweet chili sauce for dipping. The spring roll was absolutely wonderful with the sauce and complimented the soup beautifully. There was some sort of seasoning that I wasn't fond of, but it didn't prevent me from finishing most of it off.

Shortly after finishing the soup, our entrees were delivered. D had previously heard great things about the Roasted Duck ($9.95), so he couldn't resist having it for lunch. Pictured above, you can see that Thai Erwan consistently has a beautiful clean presentation. D loved the duck and all the vegetables. I thought it was pretty good myself and was particularly fond of the spicy cashews. When we do cook rice, we work with Jasmine rice, so it was nice to enjoy the same at a restaurant.

I had planned on ordering the Pad Thai, something I knew I would love, but decided when we got there to try the Amazing Beef ($8.50). I'm a long time lover of Thai peanut sauce, so I just knew this would be good. Well as you can probably guess by the picture to the right, I recieved Amazing Chicken. Normally, I wouldn't have said anything, but I really was not in a chicken mood. The waitress was very apologetic and had my Amazing Beef to me in what seemed like record time. I was really impressed by their quick action.

Unfortunately, I didn't find the Amazing Beef to be all that amazing. It was good, just not amazing. The menu describes

the dish with a Thai peanut butter sauce. To me the sauce seemed like it was too peanut butter-y. I think I would have preferred a simple Thai peanut sauce. Don't misunderstand me, it was still very tasty and I ate most of it. But in the past, I've enjoyed a Thai peanut sauce that was not as thick and had a bit more spice to it. I felt like peanut butter was overwhelming the sauce. On the other hand, the rice and broccoli were both steamed to perfection and quite yummy. I think for our next visit, I'll go with my original choice of Pad Thai. That's right, we'll be heading back.

As we came close to finishing our entrees, our waitress dropped off two of these cute little fruit plates for each of us to conclude with. All the fruit tasted very fresh and delicious. It really was a nice touch to end our meal with.

We will be returning to Thai Erwan another day for lunch. The prices are reasonable, the atmosphere is amazing and I really want to try their Pad Thai!

-A

Open: Monday - Thursday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 4:30 - 10 p.m.

Friday - Saturday 12 -4 p.m. and 4:30 - 10:30 p.m.

Sunday 4 - 9 p.m.

Address: 219 E. Granada Blvd. Ormond Beach, FL

Phone: 386 677 0999

Website: www.thaierwanrestaurant.com

Let the games begin!

HAPPY

GATOR

FOOTBALL !!!

I made these wonderful little treats for my mom and sister, two of the biggest gator fans I know. I dyed the insides orange and blue, and the icing green to imitate grass. I also added a chocolate covered almond on top that is suppose to act as a football. Get it? ... football on the gator field?

An experiment in baking...

It's no secret that I love cookies and what's better than having them freshly baked? With little to do around town, D and I set off on an adventure in cooking. I should mention, baking is about the only type of cooking I successfully manage. There were ups and downs, but the cookies were always quickly consumed.

Our first batch was beautiful and scrumptious, but far from perfect. We used butter cake mix and to make some cake cookies similar to the

funfetti cookies I've previously made. We combined the batter with 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Everything was looking great. Thinking it would be fun to do rainbow cookies (similar to the cupcakes), we sought out the food color. We kept it simple with green and yellow, thinking at least it would be blue if the colors did mix. But surprise! The colors held together with no hint of blue anywhere.

Lesson #1 Dyed cookie dough colors do not blend.

D and I had a blast mixing the colors and forming our cookies, but I did find that the texture was more like play dough than cookie dough. It seemed like too much oil, which could be explained by the addition of food coloring.

Lesson #2 Add less oil to your cookie dough to compensate for the addition of food coloring.

Our cookies also seemed to spread quickly while in the oven, likely due to the excess of oil. Some time in the fridge might have made the dough easier to handle and prevented such quick flattening.

Lesson #3 Be patient. Let the cookie dough sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before sheeting it up.

As you can see, our cookies were large and very thin. They

tasted great, but lacked the fluff of most cookies.

For icing, we decided to use the Pillsbury Easy Frost No Fuss Frosting again after they great results from last time! The icing gave us lots of control to create a wide array of designs, but a lot of the cookies ended up with too much icing. In some instances, the layer of icing was thicker than the cookie.

Lesson #4 Use the classic icing from a can and spread it on, so as to better control the amount of icing on each cookie.

Although the cookies weren't ideal, they will still delicious and gone within a matter of days. Not to mention, I learned a lot from them. Isn't that half the fun of baking? Discovering what works and what doesn't?

Well, a few days later, D and I decided to give the cake cookies a second go utilizing everything that we had learned. But this time it was all about the chocolate.

We used Pillsbury Devil's Food chocolate cake mix for the cookies and the funfetti chocolate fudge icing. And yes, it was nearly a death by chocolate.

We didn't add any food coloring this time, so there was no need to adjust the oil. We simply combined the ingredients to a doughy consistency and let them sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

After chilling, the dough was much easier to work with. We rolled small balls and flattened them slightly with the spoon. Fifteen minutes later at 350 degrees, we had beautifully fluffy cake cookies.

Then after the appropriate time for cooling passed, we had gorgeous cookies!

We couldn't have been happier with the results this time around. Not only were they tasty, but they were everything a cookie should be, including fluffy.

Give this basic recipe a try if your ready to turn your favorite cake into some yummy cookies.

Compile ingredients: Pillsbury Cake Mix, 1/3 cup oil, 2 eggs, icing

Combine ingredients into a yummy cookie dough.

Sheet them up.

Watch them like a hawk in the oven.

Ice the cookies after appropriate cooling time.

And, please, whatever you do, don't make my mistakes! Have fun!