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| Photo by Horia Varlan. |
Did you miss any of our readers’ favorites from this year? Here they are: the ten most popular posts (based on traffic) from Rate the Plate Utah in 2011.
10. Lucky Country Aussie Style Green Apple Licorice
9. Boma
7. Ruth’s Chris Sweet Potato Casserole
6. Brown Sugar & Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin
Photo by drewgstephens.
Best wishes to each of you for a wonderful 2012!
I’ve been making this Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread for years. It’s a recipe inherited from my grandmother’s collection. This year, we made a couple dozen mini loaves for my husband’s co-workers for Christmas. It’s simple, but if you like cinnamon bread, it’s a tasty treat. You probably even have everything but the buttermilk on hand.
Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread
Bread:
2 c. buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1 T. cinnamon
Glaze:
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
3 T. milk (or as needed)
Yield: 2 large loaves or 6 mini loaves.
Notes: My mini loaves took about 45 minutes to bake. For the large loaves, I use 9” bread pans.
Average Fork Rating: 4
Mrs. Diner: 4
Crazy, crazy, crazy. Since the first time I heard of El Pollo Loco, I thought the name was absolutely fabulous: “The Crazy Chicken.” Love it! I had never actually been to El Pollo Loco until this week, but with a name like that, I expected the chicken to be crazy good.
El Pollo Loco in Lehi, Utah treated us to a fantastic Utah Blogger’s Meet-up lunch. The Lehi location is the first in Utah, but more are coming…I hope one of them will be opening in Provo or Orem because I loved my lunch!
Since their specialty is chicken marinated in citrus juices, spices, & herbs, I ordered the 2-piece breast & wing chicken meal with two sides and warm tortillas (corn or flour). They have a large variety of side choices. Meals come with classic sides, but you can upgrade to a premium side for only 10 cents each. I got the Loco Side Salad (classic side) & the Sweet Corn Cake (premium side). I noticed they have a new Tropical Habanero sauce that you can choose for one or all your chicken pieces, if you like. I chose to try it on my wing piece.
Both pieces of chicken were excellent, tender, & juicy. The regular piece was wonderful on its own, but shredded into a flour tortilla and topped with salsas from their fresh salsa bar, it was even better! (Oh, did I not mention their fantastic salsa bar with all sorts of goodies from pico de gallo to jalapenos to avocado salsa? Mmmm…fantastic and freshly prepared!) The Tropical Habanero sauce was superbly sweet and spicy…they got this one spot on!
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The Loco Side Salad was gigantic and full of crisp lettuce, cotija cheese, tortilla strips, and topped with their tasty creamy cilantro dressing. If you have tried sweet corn cake at another Mexican restaurant before, you know the soft, sweet, and crumbly goodness of this dish. This one didn’t disappoint.
To top it off, churros and flan for dessert (I was so full I had to take mine home for later)! The churros were the standard fair, but the flan! Ah, the flan! It was creamy and caramel-y, and wonderful. Actually, I was very surprised that a fast food restaurant served such a great flan.
Not only does El Pollo Loco have good fast food, it also is involved in a lot of local charities and fundraising. You may find a coupon for a free kid’s meal in your child’s backpack sometime soon or hear about a group earning 20% from all purchases on a certain evening.
If you don’t get a free kid’s meal coupon, make sure you stop in on Tuesdays when they serve up free kids meals with every regular combo purchased (if you go with a family meal, you will still receive 2 free kids combos)! And while you’re there, they may also be having a kid’s activity like the one planned for February: kids will get to decorate a cookie from Smart Cookie! More information will be available on their upcoming Facebook page.
Entrée Price: $
Average Fork Rating: 4
Mrs. Diner: 4
Now for something fun for my wonderful local readers (sorry to those of you who aren’t nearby!): coupons for a completely FREE 2-piece chicken with tortillas & salsa and for $20 off their 48-piece chicken meal from their catering menu. (Yes, you can get their great chicken catered for your event…think New Year’s Eve.) Both coupons are valid at the Lehi location only. Permission to distribute these was given by El Pollo Loco.
A complimentary lunch was provided for this post, but all views expressed in this post are our own honest opinions.
California Pizza Kitchen has a lot of things going for it: it’s family-friendly, serves one of America’s favorite entrees (pizza), is creative, and (at least for our family) is one of Amazing Diner’s favorite restaurants. It has been since the first time he tried it when he was just a toddler. For his birthday, he would consistently choose CPK or a Japanese steakhouse, and we’ve pretty consistently liked it over the years.
On this visit, we were seated quickly and served promptly. Mr. Diner & I both ordered Italian Sodas (Strawberry & Raspberry, respectively for $3 each). We both love these creamy, bubbly drinks and love to make them at home, too. They were served with the cream on the side; I know some don’t like to add the cream, but to me it’s a must.
However, I wasn’t really in the mood for pizza, pasta, or salad, which are the mainstays of the menu. I love their creative pizzas and have a thing for their chopped salads, too. I felt like an appetizer with a cup of soup that night and made the mistake of letting the kids choose the appetizer (why? I have no idea). They have been on a dumpling kick lately, so they chose the Sesame Ginger Chicken Dumplings ($7.35). They came out quickly, but were on the soggy side…extremely limp. The flavor was okay, but the texture was just too soft and slippery.
I ordered the seasonal soup choice: Artichoke & Broccoli ($4). I love Broccoli soup and thought the combination of artichoke and broccoli blended with their trio of cheeses and topped with croutons sounded wonderful. It should have been, but was not the thick, creamy, and flavorful soup I expected. It was thin…almost a bit watery and lacked much flavor at all. A big disappointment, as it should not have been difficult to make this soup a winner.
Mr. Diner, Amazing Diner, & Little Diner all had Pepperoni Pizza ($11.75). They love to order this standard when they go to California Pizza Kitchen. I just don’t understand it when there are so many interesting combinations to choose from, but they love it.
The crust at CPK is a decent crust…not greasy and not too chewy or dense. You can also select the Honey-Wheat with Whole Grain crust on any of their pizzas. I’ve had it, and it’s good…especially on what I call the “sandwich pizzas”: the ones like the BLT or California Club.
Sweet Diner also ordered her favorite: the Kids CPK Salad ($5.50), which is romaine tossed with dressing (her choice is always Ranch) and topped with Goldfish crackers. She loves it. I love that almost all their salads are tossed with dressing. Yes, it doesn’t give you the ability to control the amount of dressing, but it does ensure that your dressing is evenly distributed…love it! And, you can ask for the dressing on the side if you wish.
Overall, we love CPK. Just learned from this visit not to order the dumplings or the Artichoke-Broccoli soup.
Entrée Price: $$
Average Fork Rating: 3.8
Mr. Diner: 4
Mrs. Diner: 2 (for this visit)
Amazing Diner: 5
Sweet Diner: 4
Little Diner: 4
Balsamic vinegar is so awesome. I love it on salad, bread, meats, and even fruit. When I saw this recipe that combined it with other amazing ingredients in this simple and quick recipe, I knew it would be a winner.
The raspberry jam provided a nice sweetness combined with the sweet acidic taste of the vinegar. The flavors came together really well into a sweet & slightly peppery chicken dish that was well-received by the whole family. This dish is easy and quick enough to make as a weeknight meal, but feels special enough to serve to guests.
As was noted on the original recipe, other fruit preserves would make appropriate substitutes for the raspberry such as apricot, blackberry, & peach.
Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken from Cooking Light
1 tsp. vegetable oil
cooking spray
1/2 c. chopped red onion
1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
4 (4 oz.) chicken breast halves, skinned & boned
1/3 c. seedless raspberry preserves
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp. pepper
Notes: I butterflied my chicken breasts to make them cook evenly and have nice, thin, tender portions. This also results in a shorter cooking time. I like to keep my chicken warm by tenting it with foil.
Average Fork Rating: 4.2
Mr. Diner: 4
Mrs. Diner: 5
Amazing Diner: 5
Sweet Diner: 4
Little Diner: 3
There’s a new website around for the “eat out” crowd. It’s called Smorgie and I took it for a spin this week.
The idea behind Smorgie is for people to create lists: lists of restaurants they love, lists of restaurants they want to try, etc. Hey-you could even create a list of restaurants that were so bad that you never want to go back. Whatever you want. There are no review or ratings…just lists that you can keep for reference for yourself or that you can share. You can also browse other people’s lists to get ideas for yourself.
I created an account and started a couple lists. I already keep lists on my computer of restaurants to try, so I started with that and also added a list of some of my favorite local restaurants. One additional feature I liked is the option to add notes to the places on your lists. For instance, if you want to remember that a place has free kids meal on Monday nights or that you heard great things about the Beef Medallions and would love to try them on your next visit, you can make those notes right there on Smorgie.
They have a friends feature where you can follow people’s updates, but you have to search by name for your friends. It would be much easier to add friends by searching via Facebook, Twitter, etc. to see which friends were already on there.
I can see the sharing of lists as a helpful feature, especially when trying to decide where to go out to eat as a group (girls night dessert group). But I wish the lists were searchable. There are a bunch of lists on Smorgie, but just going page by page through other people’s lists is not appealing to me. I’d love to search for other people’s lists by location or even restaurant name.
Smorgie is in beta right now, so it will be interesting to see what changes they make as they continue to work on it. If you create an account, search for “ratetheplateut” & we can be friends.
This sponsorship is brought to you by Smorgie.com who we have partnered with for this promotion, but all opinions are our own honest review.
It is well-known that one of my favorite snacks is chips with salsa or guacamole…love them! But tortilla chips (well, pretty much any kind of chips) are not known for being nutritious. However, there is a new kind of chip that arrived at our doorstep recently: Beanitos Bean Chips. You heard me: bean chips.
Beanitos are made from black or pinto beans with some whole grain rice (and flaxseed in the case of the pinto bean flavors) through in. When I heard about them, I was really intrigued. I like beans and I like chips, but I just couldn’t imagine what chips made of beans would be like.
We got to sample all four flavors of Beanitos: Black Bean, Pinto Bean & Flax, Chipotle BBQ Black Bean, & Cheddar Cheese Pinto Bean & Flax. They have a great crunch just like tortilla chips, but are a little heartier than some. I really liked them. They did have a little bean flavor to them, but the flavor was mild enough to make the regular flavors suitable for dipping. The Chipotle BBQ was a clear favorite, but the Cheddar Cheese was also popular.
Not only were the chips delicious, but they are also gluten-free, have 6 grams of fiber per serving, and are low glycemic. The Pinto Beans & Flax varieties also contain 1200 mg of Omega-3’s. These chips make a satisfying snack that will stay with you longer than your regular corn or tortilla chips.
You can find Beanitos in select Whole Foods, Sunflower Farmers Markets in addition to other stores and from their online store and from Amazon. Print a coupon for $1.00 off here.
| Black Bean Average Fork Rating: 4.3 Mrs. Diner: 4 Amazing Diner: 4 Sweet Diner: 5 | Pinto Bean & Flax Average Fork Rating: 4 Mrs. Diner: 4 Amazing Diner: 4 Sweet Diner: 4 |
| Chipotle BBQ Black Bean Average Fork Rating: 4.7 Mrs. Diner: 4 Amazing Diner: 5 Sweet Diner: 5 | Cheddar Cheese Pinto Bean & Flax Average Fork Rating: 4.3 Mrs. Diner: 4 Amazing Diner: 5 Sweet Diner: 4 |
We were given complimentary chips for this review, but all opinions are our own.
National
Utah
This post contains referral and affiliate links.
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| Photo by katalicia1. |
Here’s the top-rated restaurants, recipes, & foods we’ve reviewed over the past six months in case you missed some of them.
Top Restaurants
Kids’ Favorite Restaurants (kids’ scores only)
Top Recipes
Top Food Reviews
Here’s a new food blogger that I’d love to share with you: Courtney from Peace Love Recipes. She has some really great recipes on her blog. Come learn more about her.
Tell us about you & your blog.
Hello everyone! I'm a 21-year-old stay-at-home mother and wife. My husband and I got married on October 20, 2010. Our beautiful daughter, Riley, was born on March 14, 2011. I love my family, friends, cooking, movies, music, and reading. My blog, Peace Love Recipes, is all about sharing recipes that I've found that I have either tried or am trying in the near future.
How long have you been blogging?
I have only been blogging since November of this year! I love it so much. It's honestly a great stress reliever and it makes me feel so good when I post a recipe that someone says they are going to try, or that they have tried and loved. It lets me know that I'm doing a good job.
How did your blog get started?
Well, I am a big collector of recipes. My mom always used to collect recipes (and she still does) and I just basically "inherited" it. One day while I was sitting down copying down some recipes I thought that I should share them with others because I know some people don't have a lot of time to go to the library and get books or magazines and go through them and I wanted to be able to share them. That's where the idea got started for my blog.
What are your favorite foods?
My favorite foods are pasta, macaroni and cheese, and I make an amazing chili. My husband asks for it several times a month, it's that good!
Favorite restaurants?
My favorite restaurants are the little "mom and pop" ones that aren't part of a big chain. Two around my town that I absolutely love are Nick's Restaurant (Harrison, OH) and P&S (Colerain, OH). I also do love Steak n Shake (I'm a sucker for their white chocolate milkshakes that are out for the holidays, along with their delicious chili) and Skyline (there's nothing that beats a good Cincinnati chili, in my opinion). 
Favorite recipe (or more than one)?
One of my all-time favorite go-to recipes is definitely the Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie. It is so simply and so delicious! And a favorite dessert of mine is Thanksgiving Cranberry Cream Cheese Salad. It has Thanksgiving in the name, but it's good anytime of the year to me!
Favorite childhood memory of food?
My favorite childhood memory of food would be helping my mom make Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. We didn't have a big family, so it was just me and my parents, but my mom would always have me help her with dinner.
Favorite food tradition?
My favorite food tradition is between my husband and me. At least once a week we make dinner together. Some nights my husband will make dinner and others I will do it, but at least once a week you can find us in the kitchen making dinner together. It's a great way for us to bond because we both love making food, and we definitely both love eating it!
Ever been to Utah? If so, do you have a favorite Utah restaurant?
I have never been to Utah, but one of my goals in life is to visit every state in my lifetime, so I know I'll make it there sometime!
If you’d like to be featured in our Saturday Spotlight, email us at ratetheplateutah@gmail.com.
I can’t think of many things that are better than fresh, hot rolls…especially when they’re light and fluffy and spread with honey butter. Mmmmm.
Now if you’re from Utah, you know about The Lion House and their legendary rolls. If not, let me tell you….The Lion House is a historic family home built by Brigham Young. It is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City and now houses events, a catering business, bakery, & restaurant. I’ve had the privilege to attend a wonderful wedding luncheon there and really enjoyed it.
The Lion House has several cookbooks and also sells their roll mix among other bakery mixes. However, the recipe for their rolls is easy, and what’s better than the real thing from scratch, right?
The rolls are large and just the way rolls should be…soft & light. And the method of shaping the rolls by slicing the dough into strips and rolling them is easy-peasy!
Lion House Rolls from The Lion House
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup instant nonfat dry milk
2 Tb. dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening (butter or margarine)
1 egg
5-5 1/2 cups flour, all purpose (bread flour can be used if you have it on hand)
Yields 18 large rolls
Average Fork Rating: 4.8
Mr. Diner: 5
Mrs. Diner: 5
Amazing Diner: 5
Sweet Diner: 5
Little Diner: 4
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