Good Eats: Molly's

Good Eats: I'm a fan of food. So for my Good Eats series, I will highlight either good recipes or restaurants that I've recently come across.

Restaurant Review: Molly's

Last Friday was Girls Night Out (GNO henceforth) to see Pride and Prejudice at BYU. Of course, with such an event, you have to go out for dinner! I've always wanted to try Molly's while I was going to school in Provo, but it was only open for lunch and it was inconvenient. Well, ta da! It was open for dinner on Friday. 

We popped on by and it was busy! Which is always a good sign. The restaurant was a little small, but the food was delicious. The eating area was light and friendly. It is homestyle BBQ with the most gorgeous dinner rolls I think I've ever seen. The lemonade was sweet with a little splash of pineapple juice, which made is 10x better than any other lemonade I've had recently.

Lastly, if nothing else convinces you, four words: chocolate-cream-cheese-cake. Yes, it was real and it was beautiful delicious.

Good Eats: Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

At the start of the new spring semester, we got new FHE families. (For those of you who unfamiliar with LDS terminology, go here.) I wanted to make a good impression on my fellow wardmates, so I brainstormed some good eats ideas. Nay was in a cookie mood, so she suggested Cookies and Cream cupcakes. At first I was hesitant, but I found a recipe. (Here)
Aaaand, it was a hit!
Seriously, these are good stuff. A little on the rich side, so they are definitely a special time dessert. But they are soo good.
When I was topping them off with the icing, I kind of felt like DC Cupcakes except without all the drama and whining. I don't really understand the whole cupcake craze. I mean, seriously, a whole wedding cake out of cupcakes? But they are ok sometimes, and this recipe is so good. It's definitely going in my cookbook.

Good Eats: JCW Burger Boys

A variety of condiments!

Sometimes my roommates and I joke around that we should start a burger blog. Actually, we aren't joking that much. There is a startling variety of burger places in Utah Valley. And we eat at a lot of them and we still haven't run out of new burger places to eat at. So, like I said, we kind of like burger pros or something.
I had read about JCW's when they were still in Lehi or American Fork (so far enough away from Provo that it would have been an extra special trip to make it out there for just a simple dinner). But then they moved to Provo! And poof, we had no more excuses not to go. So we did.
It was a celebratory end-of-semester/finals thing with the roomies.

Product Placement

 Overall, the food is really good burger food. The fries were nice and thick and hot! The burgers were huge and they had a variety of toppings and flavors. Seriously, if you get more than one patty, it makes it hard to get into your mouth. The buns were different too. I can't really describe it which is another sign that I am not the best food blogger, but one fault was that the buns crumbled pretty quickly as you were trying to eat the thing. So there were some pros and cons there.

This is Stell's "how-am-I-supposed-to-eat-this-thing" face

Close up shot of the goodness...

So definitely wouldn't come here every night for health reasons (obviously...) and a little pricey but if you want some good burger joint food with a nice, clean atmosphere, JCW's is a good choice. If you are at all familiar with the Burger Supreme/Crown Burger/Apollo Burger (I swear, they were all started by the same people...) chain here in UT then you have a pretty good idea of what the food tastes like but unlike those places which are very dark on the inside (maroon tiling and dark wood paneling come off somewhat dour when you are trying to enjoy your dinner) JCW's is bright, clean, and happy.

My Shake face. Specifically ice cream shake-face.

Oh! And their ice cream is de-lish. They also come in huge sizes, so underestimate your hunger pains and get a small or mini. Trust me, you will be glad you did. You don't get as much for your money as say Iceberg shakes, but in the world of ice cream, they are not too shabby.
P.S. Blogger has been all sorts of messed up. I don't know where my review on the movie Something Borrowed  went, but I am kinda bummed that it is gone now...I don't have the energy to rant about it again. Hopefully it will get restored. It was a good one too. :(

Good Eats: Cake Pops!

Original source for the idea: Bakerella.com
Directions: here.
To make the actual cake pops from the cake ball directions above, just place sticks in them and dip them in chocolate and voila! Cake Pops.
Bakerella has all sorts of creative variations which are way beyond my talent or motivation level, but they are pretty to look at. Mine were just good to eat. :)
Basically, you make a cake mix (or from scratch, which is what we did because it's really the only way to go) and once the cake is cooled you crumbled it into one giant bowl. Take frosting (you can really mix and match flavors any way you want.) and hand mix it into the crumbled cake. It's kind of like making hamburger patties, because it's cold and sticky. You want to just put enough frosting into the mix that the cake will stick together in a ball form. Once they are formed, stick them in the freezer while you get the dip ready!

These are our cake pops, freezing in the freezer.

So, because we are the highly creative, poor college students that we are, to top the cake pops we scrounged around for any kind of chocolate. And I do mean any.

 Even an old (age undetermined) Easter bunny was sacrificed into the pot for pure deliciousness.

 Look! He's happy to see you! :)

 Nay is quite skilled at dipping things. Strawberries, cake pops, you name it, she'll dip it. One thing we learned from this experience is to invest in some melting chocolate or candy coating. We found out that when you add milk to the various assorted chocolates we had gathered, it never really hardens up, so the cake pops were more like brownies on a stick. Still, they were quite addicting and fun to make. But probably not often, because as one recipient noted, it's like a heart-attack on a stick.

But oh what a way to go. ;)
Let me know if you try these out!

Good Eats: Valentine's Day Challenge

 

This is a lesson in perfection. What you see is not always what you get...

Case in point:

 Those cookies above do not equal the cookies below.

 Even though they were ugly, they tasted pretty decent.

 Maybe perfection is overrated a little too much.
Wishing you and yours a Happy Valentine's Day.
Go kiss someone!

Good Eats: Aebleskiver!

Look at how crafty I am!

I made aebleskiver!
They are this delightful little Danish...thing. A little like pancakes, but a little different.
Supposedly, the history of aebleskiver is something like this:

Once upon a time, Vikings were tired after a rather exhausting raid and so they got back to their ship and they wanted something to eat. Pancakes! However, they didn't have anything to cook it on but a badly dented shield, so they made do with what they had. Pancake batter in a dented shield and viola! You get aebleskiver. 

The name, when literally translated means "apple slices" which...doesn't make all that much sense seeing as there usually isn't any apples in them any more...but it's fun to say!

"abe-el-skae-ber" would be the phonetic way of saying it. Danish...it's all at the back of your throat, just swallow the words.

Anyways, this ^ is the type of pan you use to make them with. You pour in the batter and turn it as it cooks so it's done all the way in the inside and golden brown all around the outside.

I am going to make them for my History 201 TA class on Thursday. I get to teach and since there is a connection between  Scandinavia and the Kievan Rus, why not make class more enjoyable with treats!
Except, since this was my first time, they are a little gooey.
However, in the immortal words of Scarlett O'hara, "Tomorrow is another day!"
...
And tomorrow will bring more aebleskiver.

p.s. I made these Norwegian cupcakes a couple of weeks ago. They are really just chocolate cupcakes with the Norwegian flag in icing on the top. Still, I think they are pretty creative. They tasted pretty good too.

Here is Nay, modeling them for everyone.
Labor of love, I tell ya, labor of love.