Happy Hour Report: #1

   Dear loyal following of two! We humbly submit to you for your culinary delight the further exploits of brave Sir Jeffrey and the fair maiden Caitlin. Today our intrepid gastronomes explored the tempting offerings of Opah Restaurant & Bar with their friend The Venerable Epicure de Caza Clint.

   Opah is a chic eatery, with a hip feng shui. The menu is a varied mix of offerings, sporting such range as a pulled pork sandwich and a roast beef dip, to Chilean Sea Bass and center cut Filet Mignon. However on this trip we focused our attention on their happy hour deals. We selected an assortment of appetizers and drinks, and patiently awaited their arrival. Lucky for us our first appetizer, and the three that followed,were all served in portions perfectly suited for three guests. First appetizer we sampled was the Prosciutto Wrapped Shrimp which was served with tomato, mozzarella, three herb pesto and young basil. While the cheese, shrimp and herbs had good flavor and played off each others subtleties, we found our bites,which included the prosciutto, over powering. Dish number two was the sugarcane tenderloin. Its a pork tenderloin skewered with a sugarcane, set upon a bed of mango, bell peppers, cabbage, Daikon radish sprouts. The meat was tender and juicy, and the small salad was crisp and refreshing. Our third appetizer where Thai BBQ, mango and Brie spring rolls.These spring rolls aren't your traditional "spring rolls", they are more like egg rolls with a crispy outer shell and the inclusion of Brie in the recipe. They came with a sweet and sour sauce that was a bit too sweet for our groups liking. Our Venerable Epicure forfeited his after the first bit. Once our third appetizer was finished, we settled in and discussed our opinions about the dishes, eventually deciding we were hungry for a forth, spinach artichoke and lump crab dip (pictured below), along with a duo of their signature martinis. As the plate of freshly fried pita chips and dip were placed, graceful, in front of us our first concern was that the portion size would not satisfy. Much to our delight the dip, with it's subtle crab and creamy goodness, sated our desires. As for our martinis, our waitress suggested the Plum Basil martini and the Asian Pear, which were perfect for their depth of flavor while not being too sweet.                    We plan on returning to Opah to enjoy their tempestuous entrees.

Happy Hour

  Sunday-Thursday
                4pm-6:30pm
  Friday-Saturday
                 9pm-11pm
  All Starters Half Priced
                 $6 Martinis
                 $4 Draft Beers

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Well it looks like the majority of you all will be enjoying stuffing the most today! We hope you all have a wonderful day of family, friends and of course FOOD!

Tis The Season For...Pumpkins!

That's right, now that Halloween is over and we've had our fill of carving pumpkins, it's time to eat them! We started with a pumpkin cheesecake on top of a brownie (Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie). The original recipe (Cheesecake Brownie) came from the Disney Dessert book (Cheesecake Brownie) we bought at Disneyland, but because of the holidays, we decided to make it a pumpkin cheesecake. We used a Paula Deen (Pumpkin Cheesecake) recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake, and the Disney recipe for the brownie. Initially we were afraid that the cheesecake wasn't done when we took it out from the oven, but after letting it cool in the fridge for a couple hours we found the cheesecake had firmed up nicely and it turned out AMAZING! The pumpkin cheesecake was the perfect amount of great classic cheesecake with a dash of holiday flavor, complimenting the brownie nicely. All in all it was a great success!

We then had the idea of making pumpkin pie from scratch. Oh yes, real pumpkins and hand rolled pie crust. We bought two sugar pumpkins from the grocery store, which had baking instructions on the bottom of them. Turns out that all you have to do to make homemade "pumpkin puree" is to cut off the stems of the pumpkins, then cut the pumpkins in half. Scrape out all the seeds and mush then place the pumpkin halves, skin up, on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the pumpkin is fork tender. You then scrape out the meat of the pumpkin  and put it into a food processor with all the spices needed ( we used nutmeg, ground ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves and ground cardamon, but I'm sure the good old "pumpkin spice" would do the trick). Then came the pie crust, which turned out to be super easy and super good! The pie turned out to be a great success! It was so much fun to make, and we suggest everyone make a pumpkin pie from scratch!(Pumpkin Pie)

Well Hello There!

So we were talking one night about our favorite foods and remembering all the amazing restaurants we have been to and all the great food we have shared together. We were thinking of recipes we have tried and so many we still want to try, and that sparked the idea of a blog. And so this is the beginning! We are going to share our adventures in food with all who are interested. From reviewing our local restaurants to sharing our experiences in new recipes, follow us through the adventure! We will also have bonus things like "Beer of the Month", provided by Jeff and "Wine of the Month" provided by Caitlin, and the "Top 5 French Fries". So we hope you enjoy the ride, we know we will! YUM!