Asparagus with an Orange vinaigrette

I haven't posted a recipe in the longest time (I'm sorry), so this past weekend I lived in the kitchen to  bring you not one, not two but three Spring inspired recipes! I also have a very very special video series that I'm adding to blog and these three recipes will be the first video I'll be posting (stay tuned for that by the end of this week). 

I also want to mention that I'm in the process of changing blog platforms (pray for me) so please be on the look out for the new and improved Fashion According to the Menu powered by Wordpress.

Ok now for this delectable recipe. I have actually been in search for recipes that I could add to my list of spring inspired dishes and this dish made it to the top of my list. It's a very simple recipe but it was delicious and I love the fresh citrus flavor. All of the recipes that I will be sharing this week share that common citrus/fruit theme. I hope you all try this recipe and please be sure to let me know how it came out.

Maple-Mustard Salmon

Hello my hungry fashionistas!! I'm coming to you today with a quick and yummy recipe. This recipe is great for an easy weeknight dinner and the flavors are something everyone can appreciate. If you do decide to try this recipe, let me know how it comes out. 

Vision Board Brunch

This past weekend I hosted a vision board brunch at my apartment and invited some amazing ladies to brunch and make their own personal vision boards.
We had a wonderful time eating and putting our aspirations onto paper. I made a few yummy dishes and I figured I'd post recipes since the ladies enjoyed the dishes so much. The recipes are for Cinnamon Sugar donut muffins , Spinach and Ham Quiche, Sausage Pancake bites and orange sorbet mimosa .

2013 according to the Menu

In this previous post, I did a review of some of my favorite outfits of 2013. Now I want share with your some of my favorite recipes and restaurants of 2013. I was able to do as much cooking and dining out as I would have like but I will certainly be doing A LOT more in 2014. Please stick around because 2014 is going to be amazing.

Creamy pesto pasta with scallops. Recipe here. 

Central Michel Richard

It's been a while since I've done my last food review( here) and I am so disappointed in myself for that because I have been to some great places since then. I'm definitely going to start doing them again because I love sharing great my culinary experience. Today's review is for the DC restaurant, Central Michel Richard. 

Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers and Spanish Quinoa

 I'm going to save you the lame excuses as to why I haven't done a food post in a while and just say that I will start doing them again and more often. Now to the recipe, this dish came to fruition because of a strong craving for spanish cuisine one night. I searched my pinterest for a recipe that would satisfy this craving and came across this one. I thought this was a pretty health conscious choice but I wanted to add some kind of carb to it. I thought of making a mexican rice but thought it would be counter intuitive to eat rice with such a figure friendly dish like stuff peppers. Cue the Quinoa. I figured I could satisfy my rice craving with a tasty quinoa substitute. This make shift recipe came out even better than I could imagine. I probably won't eat spanish rice ever again (lie lol). Any way if you want to know how I made the peppers, check out the recipe above and the recipe for the quinoa and more pictures are below.


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Sweet and Spicy Meatloaf Cupcakes

Everything is better as a cupcake. These delightful little morsels of happiness are no exception. I am actually shocked to say that these meatloaves are even better than my mom's recipe. I love my mom's meat loaf but these cute cupcake versions are just so tasty. One of the key ingredient is actually the pesto I made for my Scallops with Linguini in a Creamy Pesto. It add the most delightful flavor along with the jalapeños I added for some heat. They are also pretty figure friendly. By swapping ground turkey for the usually ground beef saves you a good 50 calories per serving. Now if that doesn't have you breaking out the cupcake pans I don't know what will.

Ingredients:

Meatloaf

1lb Ground Turkey

1 small onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1/4 cup Parmesan Shredded Cheese

1/8 cup Jalapeño (finely chopped and deseeded to lower spiciness)

1/2 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

1/4 cup Buttermilk

1/4 cup Pesto

1/2 tbsp Cayenne Pepper 

1/2 tbsp Black Pepper

1/2 tbsp Salt

Topping

1 cup Barbecue Sauce

1 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Cayenne Pepper

Mashed Potatoes 

Chives for garnish

• 1.Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan and place over low heat.

2.Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Set aside to cool.

3. In a small bowl, combine Panko and buttermilk and set aside for 5 minutes. Then in a large bowl, place turkey, pesto, cheese, salt and pepper, the onion mixture, cayenne pepper, and the panko mixture. Mix with your hands until just combined.

4. Fill cupcake wells to the top with meatloaf. Brush top with some glaze, then bake for about 30 minutes, removing the pan every 10 minutes or so to brush on more glaze. (At the end of baking, you will not have used all of the glaze mixture – just keep it in the saucepan on low and stir it every few minutes.)

5. Cool for 5 minutes. Put mashed potatoes into a pipping bag and pipe about 1/4 of the mashed potatoes on to the top of the meatloaves. Garnish with chives.

                                            

Scallop Risotto

So I was searching the Internet for dinner ideas and I came across this recipe for risotto. I had all of the ingredients except for mushrooms and barley, so I decided to put my own spin on it (as I usually do with any recipe) and used some scallops and basmati rice instead. The recipe came out beautifully and it tasted amazing. Check out the recipe below so you can be the judge.




Ingredients
1 cup Basmati (jasmine) rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes, optional
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 pound thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces, 3 cups
2 cups Small Scallops
2 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1/4 lemon juice

1.Bring a pot of salted water (about 2 cups) to boil. Add the rice cook until al dente, 15 minutes. Drain well.

2.Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, pepper flakes (if using) and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the onion is tender and beginning to brown which should take about 5 minutes. Stir in the drained rice mixture. Add 1/2 cups of broth, cover and cook until the rice is tender, 6 to 8 minutes.

3. While the mixture is cooking, in a small frying pan, heat a 1/2 tbs of oil. When the oil is hot heat the scallops for about four minute and then turn off the heat.

4. Stir in the asparagus and scallops and continue to cook rice mixture, covered, until the vegetables are tender for about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup broth, cream cheese and Parmesan until melted and creamy. Sprinkle with chives and sprinkle with the lemon juice.

Yummy Germany

While on my trip to Germany (and Amsterdam), I was able to taste quite a bit of cuisine (which is why I have to work my a** off to lose these extra lbs). I thought you all would love to see some of these awesome dishes so I snapped a few pictures to give you a little taste (pun intended ) of my European cuisine experience.

El Toro - Gotha, Germany

Always have to start with libations

876 cafe

Being from caribbean descent , I have been forced fortunate to eat a lot of west indian cuisine. With all of this wealth of West indian cuisine knowledge, you can imagine my excitement when I was asked to come taste the food at a relatively new caribbean restaurant off of Connecticut Ave in DC, I was more than happy to lend my expert taste buds.

Mini Cinnamon Cheesecakes with Pumpkin Pie frosting

 In cast you didn't notice, it's fall! With fall comes all of the yummy comfort food that we know and love. One of those comfort food, that can be seen everywhere, is pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, it is just the essence go the winter fall season. Any variation of the dish is welcomed by me and today's recipe is no different.
I found this amazing recipe on pinterest (follow me here). I know I've said this before but I love pinterest, it's a creative mind's playground. As with all of the recipes I find, I always like to put my little Trisha-spin on it so I hope you like my variation of this fall classic.

El Parador Cafe NYC

Though I was on a tight schedule of shows and events and fashion stuff, I was able to find some time to  check out a pretty good Restaurant. El Parador cafe is a quaint restaurant located in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City. It's noted as one of the first Mexican restaurant in New York City and for having the best Margaritas. I didn't get a chance to taste the margaritas but what I did have were the lobster enchiladas and they were delicious. The pureed pumpkin seed and lentil sauce around the enchiladas was a perfect compliment.
My dining partner in crime Krystin of Be Loud, Be You, got the fish taco which she said was also pretty good.
As good as our main courses were, I have to note that one of the best part of the meal were the chips and salsa (more so the chips) that they served before the meal. The chips were some of the best tortilla chips I have ever had. You can tell that they were homemade.
Beside the great food, the atmosphere and service were pretty good too. The restaurant is really small so it was kind of packed but I think it added to the charm of the place.
Here are some picture from the evening.

The best tortilla chips! The salsa could have been spicier though. 

Banana Cafe and Piano Bar

On a trip to eastern market this past Sunday, the babe and I stumbled upon this gem of a restaurant in Capital Hill. Maybe I've been living under a rock or I haven't been around the block enough but it sure seems like others were hip to this cafe and piano bar. The ambiance, fun, colorful and full of Latin charm. The food, flavorful and just straight up tasty. The Banana Cafe and piano bar  is a restaurant renowned for it Latin fusion of Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine. There is also a piano bar upstairs with a great happy hour and live music every night. Check out the pics to see what I mean.

Very  interesting menu art

The Appetizer :Ceviche, which in basically a seafood salad. It was so good and spicy. It didn't lack one bit of flavor and the seafood was plentiful.

My Meal: Marinated Pork with rice and cassava. This has to the most tender pork I have ever eaten. The flavors were simple amazing. Two thumbs up!

My  Robbie's Meal: Stuff plantain, rice and oysters. I liked his meal even more than I liked my own. Such a wonderful and unexpected mix of flavors. Each plantain bowl with filled with a different meat. One beef, one chicken and one shrimp and they all we just so good. The sauce that accompanied the oysters, made me a fan of oysters. It was creamy and buttery and tad bit spicy. 

So colorful and bright

Thought this was pretty cool

Some colorful Dragon-thing

Another colorful Dragon-thing

The Peacock that great you when you first come in. 

All in all this restaurant will see my face again. I had a great time here. The food is amazing, the staff is warm and attentive and the atmosphere is fun and inviting. It you get a chance defiantly check this place out and for more info check out their website here.

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberry

Happy Friday all!! So as we all know, this past Sunday was mother's day and as per every year on that day, I made my mom a breakfast fit for a queen. This year, along with breakfast, I decided to finally try a recipe for cheesecake stuffed strawberry that I found on Pinterest. I love Pinterest. It's such a great place to find cool recipes, fabulous outfit ideas and even and diy or two. I will certainly be posting a lot more projects and recipes that I find myself trying from there. If you're on Pinterest, follow me by pressing the button on the side of the page. Anyway, back to our previously scheduled programming. This recipe is such an easy and quick recipe to make and the strawberries are the perfect dessert for a summertime picnic or party. If you are interested in trying this little delectable treat, check out the recipe below.

Ingredients: 

-1 lb Large Strawberries

-Graham Cracker Crumbs

-1 lb Cream Cheese 

-3-4 tbsp Powdered Sugar

-1 tsp Vanilla Extract

-Sandwich Baggie

 1.Wash strawberries thoroughly. With a knife, cut off the top and bottoms of the strawberries you intend  to use. Next, hollow out as much of the strawberry as you'd like to fill with cheesecake and then set strawberries aside. (Shown above)

 2.In a bowl, mix cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. (I was so tempted to lick the bowl haha)

3.Place the cheesecake mixture into a plastic sandwich baggie and push mixture to one corner. Cut the corner off, and fill the strawberries with cheesecake mixture.When all strawberries are filled, sprinkle the tops with crushed graham cracker pieces and serve. (Refrigerate if not serving immediately). 

Weekend happenings

Monday was the birthday of my lovely friend Blaire, so this past weekend we went to a wine tasting to celebrate. This was very exciting for me because the only other wine tasting I had been to was one that I attended while in France last year, so it was kind of cool to see how we do it here in states. Our wine tasting took place at Cassinelli winery  and vineyards which is located on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Cassinelli's is a very young winery, having only been around for about 7 years now but the owner is very knowledgeable when it comes to wine making. We had such a lovely day at the winery and the libations were not half bad. After the wine tasting, we went out to dinner at a place called Bridges. Please believe me when I say  that this place has the best cream of crab soup that I have ever tasted. It was amazing. The restaurant in located right next to the Chesapeake bay so we had an amazing view. It was such a great Sunday spent with a great group of people.

The Birthday Girl

Yours Truly

The Gang

The vineyard

The coolest wine bottle chandelier

The best Cream of crab Soup of my life

A Crab and Pesto pizza

NYFW eats

So while in New York for fashion Week I was able to catch a few meals here and there and I just wanted to share. Just looking at these pictures makes me want to experience the food all over again. New York is a mecca for restaurants and great eat and I was super happy that I got to eat at some really great places.

 

Tasty Italian Sausage and pasta

Some Amazing Dishes from a French Restaurant called "L'Experience"

The wonderful Lunch provided to us from at the Intentional Fashion Bloggers conference 

Amazing  Sushi from Sushi Bar