Welcome back all…if this is your second visit thanks so much for coming back and I am glad you enjoyed it enough to come back. If this is your first visit I hope you enjoy it and visit us again soon.
This month has been such a whirlwind and it‘s not over yet. A birthday, another birthday, reuniting with friends and on and on…Oh and I made another recipe from my copy of The Art and Soul of Baking cookbook AND I went to La Note for brunchies with my BFFs Naomi and Kerry and Bear. Before we get started let me tell you we are short on pics because the pics I took at the restaurant with my mobile phone are well…lost, lost because I lost my mobile. Boo! I need to get a new one to carry on with the pics for you guys. In lieu of that, enjoy.
I decided to attempt the Cinnamon Streusel Sour Cream Coffee Cake on page…okay so I went down the recipe checklist…flour? Yep. I got that. Sugar? Yep. Got that. Cinnamon? Yep. Got that. Sour Cream? I could get that. One thing I did lack was a funnel cake pan. I went to the market to look for all the missing materials. No funnel cake pan.
Let’s note right here, and pay attention…cutting corners and saying “Oh that’s not what it calls for but it will work“…OKAY NO! It won’t work. In baking never substitute for any of the basics, namely the vessel. In the recipe it says to………I added the streusel on top of the second layer and then after the final layer. Okay so let me explain. If you don’t know what a bundt is, a bundt pan is meant to be turned over so what is initially the top ends up the bottom because you turn it over. Now can you imagine how I felt when I realized the fact that the yummy streusel topping would now be on the bottom? I was crushed but then I realized – Hey! That is what learning is all about. I am not a professional baker and this is why I decided to take on this book in the first place…to learn my shit. Next time I buy a funnel pan, the funnel pan the recipe asked for. I also realized that in cooking you can be a little more flexible than you can be in baking. I mean baking allows for a certain amount of creativity but not on everything. Cooking in general allows more flexibility. Oh and I almost forget to mention that the cake was perfectly baked, nice and moist and at least the ribbon of streusel was yummy. Next time I think I’ll double the streusel. One ribbon was not enough.
So I arrived late as usual and the day we chose happened to be one of the hottest weekends of the year and La Note IS NOT air conditioned. I was sweating up a storm so much that I mentioned that I may need to excuse myself to wipe myself down. After a fairly short decision time Kerry and I decided to share an egg dish and one of their amazing beautiful pancakes dishes. We ordered the Omelette De Pommes De Terre or Carmelized Onion and Potato Omelette and the Lemon Gingerbread Pancakes…Naomi decided on the Goat Cheese Omelette…and her sidekick, Bear ordered the Oatmeal Raspberry Pancake.
Our egg dish came first and the style of the omelette is more a European style omelette, not the big huge fluffy omelettes that we overweight Americans have become used to expecting in our restaurants. To me a European style omelette is flat and a little on the done side. Now don’t get me wrong, it was a delish omelette because it was much lighter or rather less dense than our “American” omelettes. The carmelized onion in it was a little under-done and mushy which gave it a strange texture. The potatoes in the omelette were my favorite, little red potatoes, and it made the omelette for me but then I am a cheesy potatoey Wisconsin cheese-head kind of girl. I do love me some taters. I will always use and choose red potatoes over anything else, with the exception of when making mashed potatoes. Check out the menu here for yourself.
http://www.lanoterestaurant.com/images/menus/2010/LaNote-weekday-breakfast.pdf
The whole wheat toast that came with it was very tasty and nutty. Loved it and on the table were delightful little pots of fresh preserves to complete the taste even more…I’m not sure I would recommend or order this egg dish again. I tasted a bit of the other egg dish that was ordered at the table, the Goat Cheese Omelette. I adore goat cheese and loved this and would probably order this next time if I wanted an egg dish. It was fluffier and the goat cheese is always to die for.
Now having said this I have to say that the next time I come back, if I do, I will order the Lemon Gingerbread pancakes again. They were unbelievably delicious. While I told Kerry we would share both the egg dish and pancake dish I regretted that I agreed to that once I took a taste. I wanted to keep them and hoard them for myself. They had a real gingerbready flavor and I didn’t even need syrup on them. Weird I know but they really were perfect the way were, cooked perfectly and amazing. Now when Bear’s Oatmeal Raspberry Pancakes arrived like a piece of art complete with swirls of raspberry preserves like a huge swirled hard candy lollipop….
I wasn’t sure about how to do this review because I wanted to say nothing but good but I really couldn’t. All in all it was nice to see my friends but I am not sure I would go back to this place. It was cute but way too noisy and well, hot quite frankly. It was a very cute place though with a very French Country vibe but not sure that the huge wait line outside was justified, but that’s just me.
Oh and before I forget…here are some shots of meals made by my newly married niece. The girl is meant to be a chef. Her eye for plating and the dishes she attempts are inspiring. Way to go Maritha. Kudos to you and keep them coming. Foodies want to know.
If anyone wants to share their dishes with me feel free to send me some shots and I’ll display them proudly here.
And…just an added extra for those of you good enough to read all the way to the bottom of my blog. Congrats. Click here to see an amazingly funny ad campaign http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_YimIsBUl8 You made it through another excited/exciting edition of ILoveBrusselSprouts: The Blog. We’re glad you came and we hope you’ll be back. Stay tuned for the Birthday Blog.
The Passion Project 