Breakfast at Dixie Quicks: Yes Please!

I had often heard tales of the fantastic Dixie Quicks and their amazing food, but had somehow never managed to eat there. Mostly because I had no idea where it was. It wasn't until Eric and I were driving down Leavenworth Street a few weeks ago that I happened to notice their little window sign. That set the plan in motion to go have some good eats down at Dixie Quicks.

Dixie Quicks Magnolia Room
1915 Leavenworth St.
(402) 346-3549
www.dixiequicks.com


Two Sunday's ago (obviously my goal to post weekly still hasn't worked out) I felt the need to go out for breakfast, like I do almost every Sunday. We decided it was a perfect morning to try the infamous Dixie Quicks. Luckily, Eric knew the "rules", and was able to get us in. Yes that's right, there are rules to abide by before you get to dive into the deliciousness. Really, they just very strongly recommend that you have a reservation, because they have very limited space. If they are full with a full reservation list, you may be turned away. There are a few other minor rules, all really deal with reservations, you can find a full list on their website.

Now that we were armed with our reservation, we were ready to go. We headed down Leavenworth Street and pulled up in front of the very non-descript building. There is no sign, so you really kind of need to know where your going. Walking in, there is a small reception area, which leads into the dinning room. We were asked if we would like to sit inside or out, and since it was a glorious day, we opted to sit on the patio.

Because they buy all their ingredients fresh daily, there are no paper menu's, but rather a large calk board in the dining room. Their menu consists of mostly southern style cooking with a lot of Cajun and Southwest influence. I decided to go for the Eggs Blackstone with a side of the home fries. The Blackstone is basically just Eggs Benedict with bacon instead of ham. The dish came out looking so beautiful, and it tasted amazing. The eggs were cooked perfectly and the hollandaise sauce was so buttery and rich. The bacon was wonderfully crispy and added just the right amount of saltiness. Oh and those potatoes. Cooked just the way I like them and seasoned perfectly. No need for salt or pepper on anything. I could not of asked for a better breakfast!
 

Eric went for the Chiliquilles. In all honesty, I don't even know what a Chiliquilles is. But I think it must be Mexican for Delicious! I'm really not even sure how to describe the way it tasted. Imagine... Mexican Lasagna. That's the best thing I can come up with to compare it too, so that's what I'm going with. Anyway, it tasted amazing. Eric loved it, and kept stealing bites off his plate. :)

From the time we took our first bites we knew almost right away that all the hype that Dixie Quicks has received is well deserved. It's no surprise that they have been featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives as well as several local and national magazines. The chiefs have truly mastered the art of great food. Eric's thoughts; he's pretty sure he has a new favorite breakfast spot... I can't say that I disagree. In fact after writing this review and revisiting the menu online, I'm pretty sure I'll be having breakfast there next weekend. I'm feeling the need to try the Cactus Scramble.



Paprika Chicken & Egg Noodles

This is yet another recipe from my from my "29 Minutes to Dinner" cook book that I have wanted to try for a really long time. I think it took me so long to give it a shot because it has kind of a long ingredient list, and seemed a little complicated. Again, I did not come close to finishing this dish in 29 minutes (in fact it was closer to an hour), but it turned out well. So I thought I would share.

Paprika Chicken & Egg Noodles:

From: "29 Minutes to Dinner" a Pampered Chief Collection

• 
  
  8 oz. green beans
• 
  
  1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 
  
  1 tbsp paprika
• 
  
  1/2 tsp salt
• 
  
  1/2 tsp coarsely ground pepper
• 
  
  1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 
  
  8 oz. mushrooms
• 
  
  1 medium onion
• 
  
  3 tbsp butter, divided
• 
  
  8 oz. egg noodles
• 
  
  2 tbsp snipped fresh dill
• 
  
  sour cream (optional)

1). For noodles, bring salted water to a boil. Cut green beans diagonally into 2-in. pieces. Set aside.

2).Lightly spray skillet with vegetable oil; heat over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until hot. Meanwhile, dice chicken into 1-in. pieces; sprinkle with paprika, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper, if desired. Cooke 5-7 minutes or until centers of chicken are no longer pink, stirring occasionally. Remove chicken from skilled; set aside.

3). As chicken cooks, cut mushrooms into quarters. Cut onion in half lengthwise; then into 1/2 in wedges. Add 1 tbsp of the butter to skillet. Cook and stir mushrooms and onion over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until golden brown.

4). Meanwhile, add noodles boiling water and cook 2 minutes. Add green beans to noodles. Cook, uncovered, 5-6 minutes or until noodles aer cooked to desired tenderness. Carefully remove 3/4 cup of the cooking water for use in sauce. Drain noodles and green beans.

5). Add chicken and cooking water to skillet; stir to loosen browned bits from bottom of skillet. Cook and stir 2-3 minutes or until sauce is thickened and chicken is heated through.

6). Meanwhile, toss noodles and green beans with remaining 2 tbsp butter. Snip dill. To serve, divide noodle mixture among serving plates; top with chicken. Sprinkle with dill and garnish with sour cream if desired.

So there you go. It is a little complicated, unless you are a master multi-tasker in the kitchen (which I definitely am not!). It tasted pretty good though! I really didn't change much, except that I used chicken breast instead of thighs because I couldn't find any at the store. This is a change that I would not recommend, because I think you need a little fattier meat to get the sauce to thicken. I stirred my sauce for a good long time and it never got thick - so I finally just added a little corn starch to make it thicken up. Also, I didn't measure any of the spices. I just poured them on the chicken until it looked like it was fully coated. I thought the color of the spiced chicken after it was cooked was beautiful (that's why I included that picture above).

I did like this dish a lot, but as I mentioned, next time I will make sure I use thighs. I could taste a little bit of the corn starch in my sauce and would have preferred not to have to use it. On the other hand though, the chicken was extremely flavorful, the egg noodles were nice and buttery and the green beans and onions added a nice texture. My favorite thing about this dish was actually the fresh dill sprinkled on top (snipped right from Eric's herb garden). It sounded a little strange to me, but it added this wonderful fresh pop of flavor that I really wasn't expecting. I think the dill and sour cream really helped to pull the dish together nicely and give it a nice tangy finish.

And there you have it. My return to the blogging world. Already have one more dish ready to post, but I think I'll save it for another day.

Stay hungry my friends.

Back from "Summer Vacation"

Hello all. I think I'm coming back from my metal summer vacation. I lost all motivation to do much of anything once the weather got warm. I had planned several posts that never happened. Actually even started a couple a couple posts, but just couldn't seem to push myself enough to finish them. Posts that should have happened but didn't include a dinner at Espana complete with another round of escargot (this time in a red sauce that I loved) and my first experience eating rabbit. And then there was a night at The Pizza Gourmet Company. An okay place for dinner, but an excellent place for drink specials. 


As far as the cooking side of my blog, that got pretty much put on hold all together. It sounds silly, but when it's hot out, I just have no desire to cook at all. So, I'm cooked almost nothing. Any thing I did cook was pretty much instant, and nothing new and exciting at all.


Luckily, I woke up Friday with a suddenly renewed sense of motivation. I got myself out of bed, picked out a few new recipes to try, and went grocery shopping. I'm excited to get the blog up and running again, and I'm going to try to stick my original goal of getting a new post up at least weekly. So, here we go. Back on track.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: Great to feed a crowd!

Ok. So I'm backtracking quite a bit. I actually made this recipe almost a month ago, but then life happened (as it does all too often) and I got busy, and took a mini vacation. So I'm just now getting around to getting it posted. This is not the first time I have made this recipe, but it had been probably two years since the last time I made it. Since Omaha was having a little bit of a cold spell at the time, I figured it was a great time to make a nice warm, cozy soup. This is a great recipe if you have a family, or crowd of people to feed. Since it was again just Eric and me, we lived off the left overs for a couple days (which were equally delicious).

Chicken Tortilla Soup:

Recipe from Taste of Home's "Celebrations Cookbook"; Recipe submitted by Laura Johnson

• 1 Large onion chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
• 1 jalapeno pepper; seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14-1/2 oz) diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, undrained
• 3 cans (5 oz each) white chicken, drained
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 2 tsp lime juice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Tortilla chips
• Shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese

1). In a large saucepan, saute onion in oil; add the chilies, garlic, jalapeno and cumin. Stir in the broth, tomato sauce and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. 

2). Reduce heat; stir in chicken. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Add the cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Serve topped with chips and cheese. (image to the right is before adding the toppings).

Really fast, really simple, really delicious! 

Now for the changes I made. I did not use canned chicken, I used a left over pepper lime chicken breast that I had made the day before (I'll have to post that recipe another time, cause it's wonderful!). Actually, I have never made this with canned chicken, so I can't speak to how good this recipe would be with canned chicken. Also, since you know I like things spicy, I used two jalapenos unseeded.  Then the only other thing I did that was a little different was add some cheese to the soup and let it melt in. I'm guessing I used about a cup of sharp cheddar and melted it down into the soup before serving. Then for my topping cheese, I found a wonderful new shredded cheese at Bakers. It was a cheddar and Monterey jack mix seasoned with habenero. Turned out that cheese was like heaven on top of that soup.

 I don't know if it was the pepper lime chicken that I used, or the special spicy cheese, but this was the best this recipe has every tasted. It's so good with the chips and cheese on top. Everything gets all nice and melted down, and then it's like having nachos on top of the soup. Really delicious. This recipe makes a HUGE pot of soup, so we did eat it for a couple days. Really, I could have eaten it for a couple more. It tasted really amazing. I'd recommend making this if you have a family, or lots of friends to feed. Or if you just want to make something that will give you left overs for days. Good stuff!


So there you go. Finally got this recipe up. I actually wrote out this whole post about 2 weeks ago, but then due to an Internet issue, I lost the post... it was very annoying. I still need to get one more post up, then I'll be back on track. Hopefully you'll hang in there with me.

Pitch Coal-Fire Pizzeria: Dundee's new hip place to be

Pitch Coal-Fire Pizzeria
5021 Underwood Avenue
Omaha, NE 68132
(402)590-2625
www.pitchpizzeria.com


Another Thursday night; another search for a great new place to eat. Pitch opened a quite a few months ago, and I have been dying to go since I first heard of it. However, every time we'd thought about going, we would drive by and see how packet the place was and decide to go somewhere else. Last night we had a little more luck. We managed to walk in and were seated right away.

Located in the heart of Dundee; Pitch is the new brain child of Willy Theisen, Omaha local who introduced us all to Godfather's Pizza. Pitch uses a coal-fired oven for their pizza and most of their other dishes, which give's a unique yummy charcoal flavor to pretty much everything. The interior has a very hip and trendy feel, which made Eric feel a little underdressed. It really seems to be the new place for the "it" crowd to hang out, and  even for a random week night, it was still pretty packed.  

We started by ordering some drinks. They have a very extensive wine list (about 2 pages), as well as a decent selection of beer, and even some speciality cocktails. Since I have been on a major bloody mary kick lately,  I decided to try the "Pitch Midtown Mary".  A Martini Style Bloody Mary with Skyy Vodka and House-Made San Marzano Tomato Mary Mix, Basil Ice-Cube, and topped with a blue cheese stuffed olive. I have to say I did really enjoy my bloody mary. It had a nice rich, savory flavor and was just spicy enough to give it a little bite. Although I do have to say, that while I really enjoyed my drink, I didn't feel it was quite enough booze for the $8.00 I spent on it.


Then on to the food. It came out in kind of a funny order, but it actually seemed to work out okay. So, I'm going to talk about it in the order that it came out.

I had ordered a side of their Roasted Brussel Sprouts. Which was the first thing to come out, which I though was strange since they were on the menu as a side. But it actually turned out really well as a kind of appetizer. They were roasted with in oil with garlic and pancetta, and were really tasty. The pancetta added this lovely salty flavor and a crunchiness to add some texture that really made it something special. Eric said this was actually his favorite dish of the evening.

The next thing to come out was the actual "appetizer" that we ordered. Since we decided to go with a vegetarian pizza, I thought we'd get a little protein with our appetizer. So we ordered their Calabrese Meat Balls in tomato sauce and grana cheese. I was a little shocked when they came out and were the size of baseballs, but it turned out that this was my favorite dish that we ordered. The meat balls were super tender and very well seasoned. The tomato sauce tasted very fresh and was really nice and savory. It was also served with a couple little pieces of delicious focaccia bread, that I just couldn't get enough of. In all honesty, these meat balls were so big that I could have made of meal of them by themselves. Luckily I did have someone to share with. However, we still brought almost a full meat ball home with us.

Finally, out came our pizza. Rather than pick our own toppings, we went with one of Pitch's signature pizzas. We chose the "Shrooms" pizza. Which was topped with thyme cream, roasted mushrooms, truffle oil and oven dried tomatoes. The crust was really nice, which is where I believe the coal-fire oven makes the difference. It was a thin crust, that was crispy with out being too cracker like, and I did get just the slightest hint of charcoal. Which does set it apart from the other pizzas in town. Surprisingly my favorite part of the pizza was the oven dried tomato. Although, I think that is probably since I am really not a huge fan of white sauces on pizza. So the tomatoes were giving me that little bit of acidity that I needed with my pizza fix. This really was more a pizza for Eric than myself, and he really enjoyed it. I thought it was okay, but I think next time we go back, I'll be trying something different.


At the end of our meal we were both stuffed, and had a box of goodies to take home. I'm sure we will make a trip to Pitch again, especially when we can take advantage of their pizza and bottle of wine for $25 special (every Monday 8-close and Tuesday-Friday 2-6). If you get a chance, check it out. Then definitely let me know what you think!

My own recipe: 5 Cheese & Macaroni with Bacon!

Sunday I knew that I wanted to cook dinner, so I asked Eric what he would like. He requested Mac and Cheese... "fancy style". He of course was referring to the kind they serve in restaurants that have are a bit more gourmet and have lots of different, bold cheeses in them. Rather than spend my time searching the net for a great recipe. I decided to take a recipe I had for a more basic mac and cheese and tweak it. Thus this recipe was born, and I have to say... it's a pretty darn good!

Five Cheese and Macaroni with Bacon:

Recipe by Angela Coleman (ME!)

• 5 cups water
• 1 lb. pasta*
• 8 slices of cooked bacon
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 3 oz. sharp white cheddar cheese
• 1 oz. gouda cheese
• 1 oz. parmesan cheese
• 1 oz. gorgonzola crumbles
• 1 tbsp. crushed red pepper
• salt and pepper (about a tsp each)

1). In a large pot bring water to boil.  Meanwhile grate the cheddar, gouda, and parmesan cheese. Once water is boiling add pasta, cream cheese, grated cheeses (cheddar, gouda and parmesan), salt and pepper and crushed red pepper. Cover and simmer vigorously 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2). Meanwhile, cut bacon into bite sized pieces. Uncover pot and cook an additional 5-7 minutes until pasta is cooked al dente, and sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in bacon and gorgonzola cheese. 

*Any shape of pasta can be used for this recipe, but be sure to pick a shape that cooks in 10-12 minutes for best results. Otherwise you'll end up with super soft pasta.*

This is a great, simple, one pot recipe. I was really happy with how it turned out. Eric said it was exactly what he was craving, and really loved it. The cheese sauce was super rich and creamy, and since the gorgonzola was added last, all the little crumbles stayed in tact. Which gave a great little punch of bold cheese flavor with each bite. The bacon also helped to make the texture a bit more interesting. Since you'd get that lovely little crunch of the crisp bacon with the creamy pasta and soft cheese crumbles. It was really delicious. 

I'm really excited about how much I am growing as a cook. I have really never been able to cook anything without following a recipe exactly. Even with a recipe things did not always turn out as well as they should. In fact, the last time I made mac and cheese from scratch it was a disaster. The cheese sauce ended up too thick and sticky. The noodles ended up soft and super mushy. It really wasn't good. So this is kind of a little personal victory for me. I'm going to try another new recipe tonight, but I'm not sure just what as of yet. So I guess I better get going to search for something yummy for dinner. See you soon!

Bringing a little Cajun to the Coleman household: Crawfish Etoufee

While searching through my cook books last Sunday looking for something different to try, I cam across a recipe for Shrimp Creole, which reminded me of a little packet of recipe cards that I had purchased on my last trip to New Orleans (my favorite city ever). Upon digging out my little packet of recipes, I read over the recipe for Crawfish Etoufee. This is a recipe that I'd never tried before, and thought it would be a great day to give it a shot, but first I had to find crawfish tails. This turned out to be no easy feat, but 4 phone calls later, I found frozen crawfish tails in a one pound bag, already de-shelled. Surprisingly, the HyVee on Cass was the only one that had such a thing in stock, however every other store offered to special order some for me. Now that I was armed with the proper ingredients, it was time to get cooking! 

Crawfish Etoufee:

Recipe from "Louisiana Cajun Cooking; 12 Authentic Recipes"

• 1 lb. peeled crawfish tails
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 lb. butter
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 green pepper
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

1). Melt butter in dutch oven (do not use iron pot). Add paprika. Add crawfish tails and saute approximately 5 minutes, then remove and set aside.

(the tails after their hot butter bath)

2). To pot add onion, bell pepper and garlic and saute well (approximately 10 minutes). Return tails to pot. Add 2 cups water and Worcestershire sauce. Stir and simmer slowly for 40 minutes. Check taste... add salt and pepper as desired. 

3). Mix cornstarch with a little of the liquid from the pot and add to pot. Stir until slightly thickened. Serve over rice and enjoy! Serves 4.

(after cooking down for 40 minutes and thickening)

Mmmmm. How I love me some Cajun Cookin'! Since Eric and I like things a little on the spicier side, I did add a hefty amount of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce to my pot before it cooked down. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe exactly.

This dish really turned out well. The crawfish were nice and tender and the sauce was really flavorful after cooking down for that long. Eric and I both really enjoyed it. However, he would kill me if he knew I fed him something with a full stick of butter in it while he's trying to loose weight. Oh well. It still tasted good!