I actually found an awesome Lionel Richie mug with that exact saying at the thrift store.
Most of you know that I got a new job a few months ago, I'm still a graphic designer, but instead of making business cards and custom invites, I'm working with food! Right before the holidays I received a big gift basket filled with different specialty products, like these tea-flavored candies. They sound really refreshing, so let's get this review started!
Having a freezer meal on a work night is a necessity for my weekly survival. I always start out healthy with good food choices and making my own meals from scratch, but after a few days of getting slammed at my day-job and doing all this stuff online after-hours for my clients, various blogs and online shops...I'm on the brink of eating an entire box of banana Twinkies and telling myself it's healthy because bananas are a fruit.
I do all of my weekly grocery shopping at Aldi, and they have a decent variety of unique frozen entrees that are always changing. Every week it's something new! (Which can be a good or a bad thing. Sometimes you find something you love, but it's only available for a few days, then it disappears forever.) Aldi usually has a theme to it's weekly circular and offerings. Sometimes it's an upcoming holiday, or sporting event, or specific flavor profile (like spicy foods), but they also have this "Around the World" series where it features a bunch of products from a particular location. They've done Italy, Mexico, Germany, and even India. In case you didn't know, Aldi is a European company (more specifically German), so this is a German company, making Indian food, and selling it in America. It sounds like a bad idea, right? Guess again!
Are any of you scrambling for a last minute gift this season? Do they like Reese's cups? BUY THIS! Seriously. Buy this spread, slap a bow on it, and tie a fancy spoon to it using red and white striped twine or ribbon. BOOM! Best gift ever. I'm normally not the kind of person to gush over a particular product, but this...this is just gush-worthy.
Not convinced? Go ahead and read the rest of this review.
I'm trying out a new watermark, instead of using both my Poison & Antidote and a sometimes foodies logos, I made a new blogspot watermark to replace them both. Don't worry, I'll still be posting everything here on tumblr account, as well as my blog, but the blog seems to be a better platform for my content. (And my posts don't get eaten while I am writing all the time, which is nice.)
I feel like it has been a while since I posted something from an actual restaurant. This cold weather makes me want to stay indoors like a recluse, but I braved the cold to go to The Pop Shop in Collingswood with my boyfriend.
Apparently we picked a bad night, because a water-pipe burst in the main restaurant and forced customers to go to the side, party-shed, area that is usually reserved for kids birthday parties. Thankfully, the party area was practically the same as the normal dining area, so that didn't both us at all. (It just stinks for the workers and owners.)
I was originally going to order some french fries and a chicken pot pie, but they were out. So I opted for my favorite giant salad.
I ordered:
- Pop Shop Fries (as a side.)
To kick off the new year I wanted to photograph something that was really beautiful, and what's prettier than honeycomb?
I absolutely love honey, but that fake, syrupy nonsense that comes in a plastic bear just won't cut it for me. I need the good stuff. I usually buy jars of organic, unprocessed, honey, but my boyfriend totally one-upped me. He picked up this beautiful package of local honey and it includes a HUGE chunk of honeycomb! (I think he might of picked it up at Whole Foods, but I'm not sure.)
This slab of honeycomb is so beautiful that it doesn't need any fancy packaging. The clear plastic container works just fine. Although, I will say that the product sticker is in need of a major makeover. The label looks like the generic mailing address stickers you can order out of catalogs. When compared to some of the more trendy packaged honey products, this could easily be overlooked.
I hosted my annual cookie swap last week! It's year three and the cookies just keep getting better and better. As usual I made my gingerbread bats (and x-mas trees for those who don't want to explain bats at their Christmas party), and my friends and family each brought their own cookies and recipes.
I'm going to try a little something new this year, by photographing and posting links to all the recipes made this year. I thought this might be an easy way to record each year's recipes, so here we go....
This was a candy I bought solely because of the packaging. Just look at it! It’s freaking adorable.(Although some of the illustrated bananas kinda look like condoms…)
Although the illustrations and color palette are quite simple, the box is brilliantly detailed. The top flap pops open to easily dispense the banana candies and there is a removable banana peel that reveals your future luck. Sadly I can’t read any of it.If anyone can translate, please send me a message.
Thank you bealuhan!
There was a lot of thought put into this design and I absolutely love it.
Sorry I missed yesterday’s post, I was in Chinatown with some friends celebrating Sean’s Birthday. (You might remember that I made him a birthday cake POSTED HERE.)
We rode the train into the city to grab lunch at Terakawa Ramen, and then we explored Chinatown to do some shopping. (I’ll post a mini haul to show you what I bought, but photos and reviews will be coming up soon.)
Terakawa Ramen is a relatively new restaurant here in Philly, it opened last July so it is almost 1 year old and it’s already getting good reviews. (There is a location in NY too.) The restaurant is very narrow, but that is typical for the buildings in Philly’s Chinatown. Thankfully the restaurant makes great use of the limited space. There are about 12 small tables available, and the seats at each table are small square stools that allow you to store bags underneath them (great for purses or your small shopping bags). If you’re not with a group or a party of people you can grab a seat at the bar.
I guess it’s kind of silly that I didn’t order ramen, since the place is called Terakawa Ramen and all, but I was in the mood for curry. The chicken cutlet curry platter came with a small green salad, white rice, sliced chicken cutlet, and delicious curry sauce with diced veggies. It was very reasonably priced and potions were HUGE. I wasn’t able to finish everything in one sitting so I had to take the last of my curry to-go.
Happy Birthday Sean!
My friend Sean’s birthday was this week, so I asked him what kind of cake he’d like. He said lemon, so I made this lemon poppy seed bundt cake.
I made a few modifications:
- I switched the yogurt out for sourcream. (Mainly because I had some on hand.)
- I also used half the amount of poppy seeds. 1/4 a cup seemed like a LOT of seeds and I just didn’t have that many in my pantry.
- I topped the whole thing with a sprinkling of vanilla sugar I picked up from Ikea instead of glaze/icing.
The finished cake was really delicious. It reminds me a lot of the lemon poppy mini bundt cakes that were sold at Panera. (They are sadly discontinued.)
This was a delicious recipe with a bright lemony flavor, and I would happily make it again.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Cream of Wheat is one of my favorite breakfast items. It sticks to the ribs and warms you up. (Especially on cold rainy days.)
The box design is pretty busy for an American product. There are swirls, logos, photos, and splashes of text everywhere. The colors are a nice mash up of the two brand identities, the Cinnabon blue and Cream of Wheat’s blue text work nicely together. Although there is a lot going on, I think it works.
When cooked, there is a lovely cinnamon sugar aroma. The scent doesn’t remind me of a cinnamon bun, just plain old cinnamon.
Does this taste like Cinnabon pastry? No. It just kinda tastes like normal Cream of Wheat with cinnamon and sugar mixed in. It’s yummy, but I could easily make this myself.
I like the idea of having flavored Cream of Wheat, but this was a bit of a let down. I expected more than just cinnamon and sugar mixed in. I would pass on these in the future and just mix up my own.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
This is a VERY easy and VERY yummy recipe. (Plus the finished product looks professional and impressive.) Since pinning it, I have completely stopped ordering these from take-out restaurants!
All you need is a package of cream cheese, green onion, garlic powder, and oil. (You can check out THIS recipe for more details.)
The only modification I made to this recipe was adding crab meat. (I just mixed it in with the cream cheese filling.)
I have made these several times, and here are some flavor variations I have done:
Jalapeno Popper: I added shredded cheddar cheese and diced jalapeno peppers to the cream cheese mixture.Wonton wrappers are a fantastic item to have in your kitchen or pantry. They are easy to use and delicious! (I want to make some buffalo wing and pizza ones)
Pumpkin Pie: I had some leftover pumpkin pie filling and wonton wrappers from other recipes, so I fried up some little pumpkin pie wontons and sprinkled them with cinnamon.
Cherry Pie: The same as the Pumpkin, but with cherry filling.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Okay, I fell in love with the pizza dough recipe I reviewed yesterday, so I made another batch. It was just so delicious AND easy! I may have a pizza addiction. (And by “may,” I mean I totally do. And by “problem,” I mean don’t judge me.)
I used the same pizza dough recipe to make the base of these garlic sticks. Lauren, the original recipe writer, also has a cheesy garlic stick recipe, but I kind of made my own so I could use up more stuff I had in the fridge.
My sister and I went out to lunch today, and since I was craving sushi, we decided to go to Mikado. (I actually reviewed this place before and talked a bit about the atmosphere, here’s my last review.)
I ordered:
- 1 Amanda Roll
- Chicken Teriyaki Lunch Box
Mikado has an amazing lunch menu. (Plus you get a LOT for your money.) The “lunch box” special is $9.00 and there are a bunch of options to choose from: curry, sushi, teriyaki, yakitori, and many more. With that, you get a salad, miso soup, a spring roll, 4 California rolls, and white (or brown) rice. I chose the teriyaki style chicken and my sister picked the yakitori chicken. That was plenty of food already, but I HAD to get the Amanda roll. My sister’s name is Amanda, so it was too quirky a coincidence to pass up.
The food was delicious. (I’ve already raved about the ginger carrot salad dressing, so I’ll skip over that.)
Time for something new! This time I picked up Kabaya’s Ju-C Watermelon tablets! According to THIS SITE these candies have a bit of calcium in them to promote health, but the nutritional information on my package says they contain 0% Calcium for the whole tube. Oh well, candy-is-candy!
That’s right! Toasted corn ice cream! Sorry there wasn’t much of an update yesterday, but here is something really unique to make up for it. My friends Brian and Kevin told me about a place they had been to in Philadelphia called the Franklin Fountain. It’s an old fashioned soda fountain where the employees dress retro, the menu has classic malt-shop recipes, there are retro candies and soda…but they have some crazy out-there stuff. (Like this flavor!)
The shop is adorable! It is really small and the decor is vintage. They can only take cask too because the cash registers are vintage! They have wooden drawers and a bell rings when they open! It was so cool!
The flavor of the day was toasted corn and I had to try it. When was I ever going to see corn ice cream again?
There were corn kernels speckled throughout the vanilla-bean-based ice cream. It smelled kind of like movie theater popcorn, when I took a taste..it was a LOT like popcorn actually! The corn kernels had a freeze-dried texture to them. The mouth feel made me think of the little bits of corn inside instant ramen cups. The salty corn mixed well with the sweet vanilla ice cream, and I thought this was a really successful flavor!
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
This weekend I drove out to Long Branch to see a bunch of awesome underground bands play. (Specifically, The Zombie Mafia.) After a few sets my friends and I grabbed some food.It was during a classic car show, so the restaurant was only serving food from a specialty menu.
I ordered the “Authentic Mexican Tacos” with chicken, and my boyfriend got the same (but with beef.)
The presentation was really nice, you get 5 lite tacos with 2 roasted pearl onions and roasted cactus. I was really excited to try the roasted cactus!! (It was actually why I ordered this platter in the first place.)
The tacos were filled with onions, chicken and cilantro. They were pretty good, but a few bits of chicken were really fatty and chewy. I cut the roasted onions up and added them to my taco, but there was already white diced onion on them, so the onion flavors really overpowered the chicken.
The roasted cactus was really soft and tender, which makes sense because cacti are mostly water. It tasted a lot like a roasted green pepper, but much juicier. The cactus was my favorite part of the meal.
I wasn’t really impressed by the tacos, but the cactus was really interesting. I don’t think I’d eat at this restaurant again (it wasn’t very good and it’s far away) but this did make more more interested is cooking cactus. I might grab it the next time I am at the grocery store.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
My friends and I made a trip to White Castle! There are none in our area, so we drove over an hour away to get some of these itty bitty burgers.
I love White Castle. I have bought a lot of the frozen burgers they have in the grocery store, but I very rarely get to have a little burger from the actual establishment. So I went a little crazy.
They have directions for how to freeze the burgers you buy to store them for later.
Lots of White Castle photos and reviews coming up.
PS: Right now there is also a coupon available where you can get 2 free sliders!
- Cheeseburger
- Pulled Pork Slider
- Bacon Cheeseburger
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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