12 days of Eating….

and eating.. and gorging… and drinking…

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve attended numerous social gatherings with friends that included lots of cheese, creamy dips, and many bottles of wine.  I’ve gone out to multi-course luncheons with customers and indulged in our awesome office holiday party and even participated in a  work cookie swap (which I won, “Most Creative Cookie!” for my “Mrs. Claus Whoop Ass Whoopie”)

Cook Swap Samplings

From succulent lamb lollipops and baked stuffed two pounds lobster at the Beacon Grille, the absolute best gnocchi at Strega Waterfront to    PF Chang’s “Great Wall of Chocolate “ cake, my dress pants are definitely getting a bit tighter. Tis’ the season to gain a few holiday pounds… after all I still have a few more days until New Years to get on those resolutions.

Beacon Grille’s Sirloin

Beacon Grille’s Lamp Lollipop

Salvatore’s Arancini Fiorentina

Salvatore’s Margarita Pizza

Fried Calamari

Salvatore’s Mussels Napolitano

 Having the next 4 days off work gives me the time to go grocery shopping at a variety of stores (not just Market Basket) and prepare some labor intensive or time consuming meals.  Most importantly, it also gives me time to BLOG!

For the next few days, I will post food pictures of the many meals I plan to make or indulge in over our short time off.

Cambodian Noodle Soup “Ka Thiew” Courtesy of Mo’s Aunt

We began our long weekend of great eating with the Mo’s aunt noodle soup.  This is a staple in most Southeast Asian countries where noodles and beef or chicken or pork broth makes a hearty meal and satisfies almost every tummy.  Having a mother that is also a great cook, it’s sometimes difficult for me to eat other people’s cooking and enjoy it or not be biased.

This is NOT the case with Mo’s aunt noodle soup broth. She simmers the beef bones for hours to maximize the beef broth flavor just as my mom does.  It’s absolutely delicious and I know we will be back at least one more time for a 2nd round of noodle soup.

When I went food shopping at Market Basket, Delmonico steak was on sale.  I got 2 decent size portions for under $ 10.00, which is quite a steal!  The Mo loves steak so I wanted to surprise him and serve it for dinner.  Although steak doesn’t necessarily need to be marinated, I went ahead and used this recipe found on allrecipes.com.

Onions, Rosemary, Steak Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Garlic, Salt, Pepper and olive oil in a mini food processor

Delmonico Steak

Adding the marinade to the steaks

With already chapped skin and a super dry face, it was probably not the best interest for me to be outside grilling in 30 degrees weather so I decided to cook the steak indoors using a combination of pan searing and baking in the oven.  For sides, I made oven roasted Yukon potatoes and a zucchini and summer squash casserole.

Potatoes tossed with garlic, Italian herbs, salt, pepper, crushed red peppers and olive oil

Zucchini and summer squashed pan fried with butter, Italian herbs and fried garlic

Crush croutons for a crispy topping for the vegetable casserole

Layer casserole with shredded cheese, crushed croutons and fried crispy onions

Bake at 400 for 10 mins

To cook the rib-eye steak (aka Delmonico), I used Alton Brown’s Pan-Seared Rib-Eye recipe. Since my meat was already marinated, I did not add the extra salt or pepper. Also, I left the steaks in the oven for 5 minutes on each side for a perfect medium well” done-ness.” It was great paired with Merlot.

It was my perfect steak yet, I’m not sure if it was the marinade or the cooking method, but I will sure make this recipe again!  Not only did the Mo finish his steak but he ate half of mine! 🙂

Happy Holiday and cheers to good eating! 

Restaurant Review- Moonstones

enjoy life.
one bite at a time
That’s their motto and I love it!

For our anniversary, we wanted to do something special and made plans to have dinner in Boston.  After Google Nav informed us that it would take us about 90 minutes from my office in Burlington to Brighton with the rush hour traffic, we opted to head back home to Lowell and find something nearby.

We finally opened up our new bottle of Balvenie Portwood 21 Year Old and had a few drinks before we decided on where to go for dinner.  The first option was our usual favorite, Fortunato’s in Downtown Lowell, but since it is under new management, we were a bit reluctant since their website lacked information.  We also considered Ricardo’s Cafe Trattoria but then chose Moonstones on a whim.

I’ve always received email specials from Scott Platt who owns both Cobblestones in Lowell and Moonstones in Chelsmford but never had a chance to make it over to Moonstones.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a friendly hostess who advised us that there was one single table left in the dining area.  We opted to sit at the bar and wait for a table in the lounge where the scene was livelier.  The restaurant decor was very chic and modern. It’s hard to believe that the place once used to be the Ground Round.

Moonstone’s Bar and Lounge Area (Photo Courtesy of Moonstone’s Website)

Moonston’s Raw Bar (Photo Courtesy of Moonstone’s Website)

At the bar, I ordered the House white wine and the Mo ordered a scotch.  I checked out what the other patron’s were eating and everything looked amazing.  Even something as simple as a burger looked delicious.  After a short 15 minutes, two tables opened up in the lounge and we chose the option of sitting in a cozy table in the lounge.  We ordered a few more drinks at our table and looked over the global menu.  There were dishes inspired from Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Thailand, just to name a few countries.

Mami Eggroll and House White wine

We started off with 2 pairs of raw oysters and home made chips.  The oysters were lacked the “plump” that I was accustomed to but they were still sweet and delicious. I was under the impression that the homemade seasoned chips would be hot or at least warm, but they were served at room temperature as if they were already premade.

Oysters on the Half Shell

The mo Slurping on oysters

Moonstone’s Homemade Chips

Instead of ordering entrees, we decided to share a variety of Global Small Plates and a side of Phad Thai Noodles.  The noodles were just OK and the flavor was not up to par with the traditional noodle dish served at authentic Thai restaurants.

Phad Thai Noodles

The Korean Spicy Wings were reminiscent of Korean Bonchon wings.  Although the flavor was similiar, it lacked the extra crispiness of the double fried staple wings that Bonchon offers.

Moonstone’s Korean Spicy Wings

The Turkish spiced chicken skewers and hummus was exquisiteness.  It had the perfect amount of seasoning that balanced well with the hummus.

Moonstone’s Turkish Skewers and Hummus

The Mo and I both enjoyed the savory Mango Lemongrass BBQ Beef Skewers.  The beef sticks were tender and had a nice sweet taste to it.

Mango Lemongrass BBQ Beef Skewers

The Asian BBQ 5 spice short rib reminded me of a dish my mom makes called, “Kaw Kow”, Cambodian beef stew which uses the same ingredients in the 5 spice blend.  The 5 spice is common among Asian dishes varying from Chinese Duck to Vietnamese Bon Bo Hue and Cambodian Beef Stew.  The 5 spice powder consists of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and fennel seeds.  The short ribs was very tender and succulent.  I am accustomed to being served short ribs on the bone but I was surprised that the dish was served boneless.

Asian 5 Spice Braised Short Rib

We are usually too stuffed for dessert, but we found some room for a Maple Cheesecake finale.  I’m glad we ordered it, it was scrumptious. It had a hint of maple and the perfect amount of chocolate and caramel swirls for dipping.

Maple Cheesecake

Overall, we would definitely recommend this restaurant to our friends and would be back.  We had a great time and would like to try the other global tapas on the menu.  Our final bill (less the original bar total) was just shy of $100.00 including a few drinks we ordered at the table.

Time to pay up