A favorite restaurant

Did you miss us?
Many moons ago, my friends Mo, Mary and me went to Kona Bistro for drinks and a few appetizers. Kona Bistro is a great restaurant in Oakley Square in Cincinnati. I have eaten there quite a bit over my three years in Cincinnati and I've always had a great meal. The atmosphere at Kona Bistro is really friendly and bright and cheery. They have bright murals on the walls and a funky decor. The food is fresh and eclectic and they always have great daily specials featuring ingredients that are freshest of the season.
We just had cocktails and 2 appetizers, the Mediterranean munchies and steak and Gorgonzola crostini's.
The Mediterranean munchies platter was really good, it's homemade hummus and baba ghanouj with pita wedges. They also put fresh tomatoes and spinach and feta cheese. The hummus is a basic recipe but it is really good and with a little kick to it (I think they add hot paprika). Baba Ghanouj is not my favorite, but combined with some feta and tomatoes, it is not bad.

The steak and Gorgonzola crostini was also really good and quite filling for an appetizer. Each bite had a bit of all the ingredients; flank steak, Gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes and red onion. The steak was a little hard to bite sometimes but I really liked the combinations of flavors. The Gorgonzola was really creamy with a sweet bite from the onion and sweetness of the tomatoes mixed withe crunch of the bread. I think it would be a great thing to serve for a party of company.

After our appetizers at Kona, we actually went to a party where there was even more food. The pictures from the party actually get a little crazy (flip cup in a friends basement) so I only put up one. :) By the way, the little guy we are holding up is Flat Stanley, a school project for a Mo's little cousin.

Easter Feast

Ryan and I made a lamb feast 2 years ago for Easter for our friends and it was a hit, so we decided it was time to for Easter Lamb: Round 2. This lamb recipe is from Ryan's mom so it was a nice way to bring family aspect to our Easter away from home.

We needed about a 10 lb. leg of lamb for the recipe and lamb is pretty expensive, especially around the holidays. So I decided to be the meat investigator and call around to various grocery stores and butchers to see who had the best price per pound. The butcher on the west side of town was definitely the most expensive, but they probably had the better quality leg than say, Kroger who had the cheapest. In the end it didn't really matter because when we went to go out and buy the lamb and other ingredients (we were out a little late Friday night and didn't get moving right away on Saturday) and Kroger and Bigg's were both out of lamb legs. Luckily, Fresh Market had plenty of lamb legs left and we were able to get a 6 lb. leg that worked out perfect for our Easter feast.

I'm going to let Ryan take it from here, he was the chef in charge of the lamb and I of course, was the sous chef, beautifully chopping the onion, potatoes and LOTS of garlic.

What's up, its Ryan...
So the lamb recipe is my Nonna's, given to me by my mom. I remember the tender, meaty, delicious lamb every Easter sunday, usually in Florida at my Nonna's home. Basically, its a meat roast, but it puts all the pork and beef roasts ever cooked to shame. We had the butcher at Fresh Market cut the leg into one inch thick "steaks". This allows you to get that tender, delicate texture without having to cook it for 6 hours. I cut away alot of the fat from the steaks once at home.


With Erin's cutting skills we lined a large roast pan with celery as a bed, then added the meat, potatoes, a couple cans of crushed tomatoes, some garlic (a couple cloves diced, a couple whole), onion, capers (chopped), and fresh mint (this was not in my grandma's recipe). I seasoned everything with some salt and pepper and cooked the roast at 400 degrees for about 1.5 hours. While we were waiting we had some panaconzata.

It came out pretty good. The lamb was pretty tender and very flavorful. The ingredients worked awesome together. It wasn't quite as tender as my grandma's. The other slight problem was that some of the potatoes could have used a few more minutes.

We had some friends over to help us eat this feast and celebrate Easter with us. Craig brought beer, JJ made a tasty green bean caserole, and Mo a great peanut butter pie. We also made a salad. The simple oil and vinegar dressing (really it was just some cheap balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and freshly cracked black pepper) that I learned from my mom was a hit.

We even had an Easter egg hunt... Erin won.

Happy belated Easter. Sorry this post is so late, we have had busy week. Check back soon for more posts. I'm going to guarantee 2 posts per week!

Cooking for friends

I always enjoy cooking for friends and Friday night I got another chance to try a new recipe, linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil. Ryan and I were going to cook for our friends but he came down with a bad cold (that I now have, thanks Ryan) so I went over to my friend Mo's to cook at her place for her, JJ, Mary and Mary's friend Eric who was visiting for the weekend.
This is actually a recipe my mom made for Ryan and I over the holidays and it's a meal she whips up for her and my dad all of the time. We also made panaconzata which I think we have mentioned in other posts, it is a wonderful Italian garlic bread that we have at Ryan's family gatherings.

To start, I put Mary to work making the panaconzata. For how tasty this bread it, it is surprisingly very simple and easy to make. Mary started by taking a loaf of Italian bread and slicing it horizontally (like a sub sandwich) and scoring the bread. After scoring the bread, she drizzled olive oil on each side and added salt and pepper and all kinds of spices including parsley, oregano and a little bit of crushed red pepper. The great thing about panaconzata is that you can add whatever you want, like sun dried tomatoes or fresh basil. Then she added shredded mozzarella cheese to each side of the bread and put the bread back together and wrapped it in foil. It's as easy as that! Then you pop it in the oven at 425 degrees and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Here is Mary enthusiastically making garlic bread:
















While Mary was making the garlic bread, I got busy making the lemon oil which is very easy, just zest 1/2 a lemon and add 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the bowl and let sit (you'll add it to the pasta at the end). I also put a large pot of water on the stove to bring to a boil for the pasta. Now, the recipe (which is copied below) calls for shallots but I used the red onion I had instead. So I began by sauteing onion in a large pan and salting the onions to bring out their moisture. Once the onions have cooked for a little bit I added some garlic and once the onion was translucent, I added the shrimp.














Once the pasta is done cooking I drained the pasta and added it to the large saute pan and mixed it with the shrimp, onions and garlic. I also added lemon juice and the lemon oil I made earlier and mixed it well. Then I added a few handfuls of fresh baby spinach and tossed it with the hot pasta until it wilted. I thought the meal turned out pretty well and my everyone seemed to like it. (JJ was able to get his vitamins and minerals for the day :) It's always fun to cook for friends and I'm glad I was able to try this great recipe for them. It is really simple and fast to make (moms are always right), a great meal to make any night of the week.