Bricks and Scones

Bricks and Scones - Possibly the cleverest of names. My mom and I went to this little tea and coffee shop on Larchmont last month.

Every time I come home, we go have tea somewhere and scarf down some scones. My mother has been on a great scone hunt since 1998 when she had her first scone at some unknown cafe in Portland. It was the only thing she enjoyed during our trip (even though the real purpose was to check out Reed College).

Since then, we've been on a hunt and had countless afternoon teas together. At this cute little eatery, for about $5 you get 3 fresh baked huuuuuuge scones and an endless pot of tea. Not bad, right?


My mom decided that the scones at Bricks and Scones place a close second to the mythical Portland scones. I really feel that she hyped up the Portland scone too much in her memories and now nothing will compare. Oh, Mom.

Viva Las Vegas! Part I. Eating of Epic Propotions: Bellagio Buffet

I'm back and with a vengeance! I have so many food adventures to share with everyone, but I decided to start off big and over the top! And what's more over the top than Las Vegas!!!

There was actually a 2 year Vegas boycott that ended over the summer - and because of that break, it allowed me to really appreciate all the things I had missed - THE FOOD!

I also got to enjoy the Bellagio Buffet this past weekend with my girl friends (all pros at eating at buffets) and Glenn (who is definitely getting better at his eating strategy), and Jo (he still needs to work on his skills. Sorry Jo).

For those of you who haven't been to Vegas and think it's just all about the bright lights, the debauchery, the gambling - it's all that and so much more!

In this post, I'm going to walk you through my buffet eating strategies. The pictures are taken from my trip over the summer.

Pre-grame:

Make sure to wear something comfortable. You don't want to have to unbuckle your belt or undo the top button of your jeans.

Be hungry but not so hungry that you can't pace yourself while at the buffet.
And this is the most important pre-game advice:
Try to go in when lunch is almost over (even better if it's brunch) and dinner is about to begin. This allows you to get in at a lunch price and enjoy all the delicacies of both lunch (sometimes brunch) and dinner.

Once you're in the buffet, tell your server real quick what you want to drink and make a mad dash to the buffet.


Don't just start piling the food onto your plate. Bellagio Buffet has the craziest variety of food that it's imperative you take a walk around and look at each serving station. Start ranking the dishes in your mind. What delicacies are a priority for you? Which ones should you just avoid entirely.

It's important to take this first step because sometimes people tend to jump the gun, pile everything on their plate, and waste precious stomach room on food that would normally not rank very high on their palate.

For example, there are 3 things that I always make room for at Bellagio Buffet:

Prime Rib (the medium rare part)
Crab Legs
Creme Brulee


Nothing stands in my way of eating these items. Everything else are just lovely additions.

Also, avoid bread and salad. You can have these things anytime and anywhere. Why have a piece of bread when you could've had a delicious piece of Chilean Sea Bass or a 4 additional chocolate covered strawberries? See, how important it is to prioritize??



Also, when it comes to side dishes, just put enough on your plate for taste. Also, sometimes it's a good idea to just take a little bit of dishes your not too sure about. This way, you can take a taste and if you like it you can go back for more, if you don't like it - it's ok you didn't get a lot anyways and you don't have to guilt yourself into feeling like you have to finish it.





Remember to pace yourself! You can stay there all day. No reason to eat too fast, which would cause you to feel sick, and then you can't eat anymore. That is a big NO NO!

This should be an enjoyable experience. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to savor every bite. The longest I've stayed at a buffet - almost 4 hours. It was amazing.


I have two favorite buffets: The Bellagio and The Wynn.
Because they have the same head executive chef, the menu at both buffets are almost identical.
However, I have to say that you will more likely get creme brulee and chocolate covered strawberries at the Bellagio.
Whereas, at the Wynn, they have a gelato bar.

The quality of the food is impeccable. No other buffet can compare to the variety of dishes they make available. So really, you get your money's worth (around $30). I mean where else can you get kobe beef, beef wellington, fresh sushi, fresh lychee, and rack of lamb all at one place? Nowhere! That's where!


Glenn is happy wherever they have fresh Poke. It reminds him of the summer he lived in Pearl City, Oahu.
MMmmMmm Rack of Lamb.

Happy to be getting started! You can't see in this picture, there are actually 3 plates full of food all for ME! And I went back for more. I drool just thinking about it.


Tessa was super excited about these strawberry tarts.

Joanne looooves the dessert. I think it's her favorite part of the meal.


Obviously, major damage can be done at the Bellagio Buffet.

** Sorry the pictures aren't that great. As you know, there's no flash on an iphone and the lighting is pretty low at the buffet.

Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwiches & Grilled Zucchini Salad

I have a confession to make. I gained an enormous amount of weight when I visited my family and friends back in SoCal. It was all the beer and good food. But how could I not drink beer? Lakers were in the NBA finals, I was back home, friends wanted go watch at the bars. Lakers are the champs. Woo!

But now I'm paying for it. So to try to make up for my terrible, terrible eating habits, I made a healthy and delicious dinner. I plan to keep this up for the duration of the summer.
(I am also back in the gym. Ech. I'm sore already.)

So what I made for tonight's dinner was adapted from other people's recipes. First, was a swordfish burger that Giada made with tapinade. I had neither. But I did have frozen ahi tuna steaks from Costco and garlic aioli mustard from Trader Joe's.

First, heat some olive oil on my grill pan. Seriously, I love this Calphalon grill pan. Thank you to our godparents who bought this for us as a wedding present.

Then, place sliced bread onto the pan. Here, I specifically used whole grain bread from Costco. It came in two loaves from their bakery section. This worked out well because it allowed me to cut super thick slices of bread - something that's very important because the ahi tuna steak is pretty heavy.
After the bread developed pretty grill marks on both sides, put them aside. Then, add more olive oil and placed the thawed tuna steaks on the grill.
I put a generous amount of salt and pepper on both sides of the tuna for taste.

The tuna should take about 2 minutes on each side to cook. It really depends on how hot your pan is though. Once the meat is white on each side and you have substantial grill marks, they should be done. The middle of the steak should still be raw and reddish pink. While searing the tuna, spread the garli aioli mustard onto the bread. Glenn and I both like the taste of the spread, so we put some on all the pieces of bread.

Place the cooked tuna onto the bread. Look at those gorgeous grill marks! This is why everyone should have a grill pan.
Add arugula (or whatever kind of leafy green you like) and red onion.
And there you have it! Done! Seriously, this only took less than 20 minutes to make and it was sooooo grood. I mean great. And good.
I thought avocado would be good with the sandwhich, but Glenn thought it would make it difficult to eat. As a compromise, I sliced up some avocado and put it on the side.I also made grilled zucchini salad - a recipe I found on the back of the baby zucchini bag from Trader Joe's.

They don't really taste any different from regular zucchini, but look at them! They're so cute!!! How could I resist?

The grill was already hot because I had just cooked the bread (I grilled the zucchini after the bread and before the tuna).


Slice each piece of zucchini in half.
Place the zucchini in a bowl. Add about a table spoon of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix up the zucchini so that all of the pieces are covered with the mixture.

Then, put the flesh part of the zucchini onto the grill pan.

Did I mention how cute baby zucchini looks?
While the zucchini grills on the pan, mince one shallot.

Add the minced shallot to the bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.
Throw in some balsamic vinegar.

Once the zucchini is finished grilling, add it to the mixture. Then, add sundried tomatoes (which I bought at Costco because you get this HUUUUUGE jar of quality sundried tomatoes for super cheap).

Optional: You can also add garlic herb goat cheese or regular goat cheese to the salad. I happen to be partial to the herb goat cheese from Trader Joe's.
Hmm...how many times have I mentioned Coscto and Trader Joe's in this post? I think they should pay me.

Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken and Penne Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes

Before you say anything dear reader, I know - I have yet to post my pictures from O'ahu. I just can't bring myself to do it. I already started the post, but when I look at the pictures, I get depressed.

So I decided to just leave it be until I'm ready to write about my trip and food adventures.

Ok onto today's cooking experience.

Glenn requested that I make Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken. I made this dish the first time in college and it's been a hit ever since.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 8 slices prosciutto
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder
  

Here are the directions from the cookbook, SuperCooker: Quick and Easy Recipes

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  
• Mix strained spinach with ricottt. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
• Using a sharp knife, slit each chicken breast through the side and enlarge each cut to form a pocket. Fill with spinach mixture
• wrap the chicken tightly with prosciutto (about 2 slices per piece of chicken) and secure with a toothpick.
• Heat up the butter in a skillet and brown the chicken for 2 minutes on each side.
• Place the chicken in a large ovensafe dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook for another 10 minutes.
• Take out toothpicks and serve.

Usually, I follow these directions - but I was limited on time because I had to hurry up and finish dinner to watch the end of the Celtics/Orlando game and more importantly, the tip off of the Laker/Rockets game.

So here's the breakdown of what I actually did - and it turned out pretty good.

Microwaved the Spinach. Didn't have time to let it thaw.
Mixed in the ricotta, pepper, salt, and garlic powder.

Cut slits into the chicken breasts and stuffed them with the ricotta/spinach mixture.

Wrapped the chicken with prosciutto. The prosciutto was extra sticky, so I had a bit of trouble. I prefer the prosciutto at Costco (if you can't get it cut fresh at a deli).
Trader Joe's proscuitto is a bit too thick and salty.

Didn't have toothpicks. Skipped the skillet part. The clock was ticking. So I just placed the chicken a dish and cooked for 20 minutes, turned the pieces over, and cooked for another 10.
By the time the chicken was done, it was almost the end of the 4th quarter of the Celtics/Orlando game. So I didn't have the time to make it look all pretty. I just slapped the chicken on a plate and ran to the t.v. to witness an agonizing game. Why Orlando Magic, Why? How could you let the Celtics have that crazy ass come-back?

Despite the fact that it doesn't look so pretty, it tasted really good!

Penne Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes and Herb Goat Cheese
While the chicken was baking, I realized that I needed to make something to eat with it. Oops! my bad. So whipped up this pasta dish together. I made this dish once with spaghetti noodles, and it wasn't so great. But this time, I used penne and it turned out so much better!

Heat up some sundried tomatoes and put a lot of the oil from the jar.
I really like the sundried tomatoes from costco
because you get huge juicy pieces and it's so cheap!

When the oil begins sizzling, add the cooked penne pasta.Add crumbled herb goat cheese.
Here, I used herb goat cheese from Trader Joe's.
For those of you who think you don't like goat cheese or who fear it, this is a good introductory cheese. Glenn swore up and down that he would not like goat cheese, but he loves this particular kind. It goes really well with sundried tomatoes (something that I learned from Tessa).

The only crappy part is that the goat cheese is so messy.
I feel like the cheese that sticks to my fingers goes to waste.

Add some red pepper flakes to spice things up.

Mix all together. If you want a more creamy consistency, you can add some hot pasta water.

There you have it! I've been able to write this blog while watching the Laker game because they're up by 27 points. I have to say, I love the Rockets also - actually, I only love Yao Ming. But my first love will and always be the Lakers.