(photo courtesy of cookingtwins.blogspot.com). On Saturday, as an early anniversary present, Charles and I signed up for the first-evah cooking class at Local Three, conducted by Chef Todd Mussman. Todd is from Boston, so the class was appropriately titled "Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah." The premise: everything you wanted to know about chicken. Todd is awesome, and we had a great time. As the class started out at 9am on a Saturday morning, we were offered water, coffee, bourbon, wine, whatever. We opted for coffee (served out of really cool handmade mugs, made by Todd's "Vermont hippie sister,") and then the pastry chef, Gary, brought this plate out. Only difference is that in the middle of the still-hot biscuit platter there were two gorgeous globs of buttah. I almost felt rude abstaining, but we held strong. There were even gorgeous blueberry muffins brought out next, which again were lovely and oh-so-tempting. However, Todd did serve us some of his home smoked/cured bacon, which I'll take over a biscuit any day.
In the interest of full disclosure, we did have some wine with our roasted chicken (and the chicken had this awesome truffle butter stuffed between the skin and meat), and a small cocotte of the chicken pot pie - while crustless - which did have some flour in the roux. Not sure the upset stomach all day Saturday was worth it.
If you have not been to Local Three yet, and you've not tried their Brussels sprouts, I have it under good authority that they are coming off the menu soon. The good news about Local Three is that there are so many things you can be proud of eating that are not paleo offenses!
I had to fight off temptation-HARD- this past weekend while visiting my family in NY! I was able to prove to myself just how dedicated I am to the BTB45! I'm not saying I've been a saint--I mean anyone can look at my evernote log and note my tequila cheats! (Pineapple infused tequila is my downfall!) I digress...back to the yumminess at hand...my parents and I went out to eat one evening at a local Peruvian eatery in NJ--they serve some of the best anticuchos, choncholi, pollo a la brasa, etc...around those parts! Before Paleo, my meal would consist of a any of the aforementioned items, with fries, Inca cola (best soda ever!) and for dessert, my own plate of picarones! Picarones are ADDICTIVE! They are my crack! They are this fried doughy goodness with a spicy sweet flavor that is dipped in a uber sweet syrup! OMG!! The taste is just something that is indescribable! Eating these always brought back childhood memories-especially since my Grandmother used to make these suckers, by hand, at family gatherings. My grandmother passed away a few years ago, but I was fortunate enough to learn her cooking secrets and have made these for my family--tastes just the way my abuelita (grandmother) used to make them! After finishing my plate of organ meat and salad, my parents decided to share a plate of picarones =(...oh how I almost crossed the darkside. But I stood strong and rejected my mother (multiple times) as she almost forced fed me this gluten bomba! It was truly difficult--you don't know how persuasive my mother can be. Needless to say, my parents enjoyed eating their picarones as I sat their drinking my water. Love you Mom&Dad ;)! (in one of the pics, you can see my father poking fun as he was about to devour his first picarone!)
