Brunch is always, always, always a good idea. Continue reading “Brunch Round Up: Winter '17”
Brunch Round Up: Winter '17
Homemade Adventures: Bringing The Garbage Plate To Albany
If you’ve ever been to Rochester, or even within 100 miles of the central New York city, you’ve without a doubt heard of the famous Garbage Plate. Although initially hesitant to trying the mish-mash of greasy cheeseburgers, spicy meat sauce, macaroni salad, and french fries, today I find myself craving a plate quite often.
The problem is, I don’t live in Rochester any more and getting a plate is not as simple as a drive down the street to the closest diner. Since buying a plate was not an option when my most recent cravings kicked in I decided to attempt at bringing the garbage plate to life in my very own kitchen.
The first step in bringing the garbage plate to Albany was to find the perfect meat sauce recipe. Lucky for me, Nick Tahou’s, the restaurant who put the garbage plate on the map, had a website floating around on the internet (check out the recipe here) which turned out to be pretty close, although not nearly as perfect as the real thing.
While the meat sauce was simmering I started making the home fries from scratch. I took a couple potatoes and cut them into small pieces, seasoned them up with a bit of salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning for added spice. I heated up the oil and cooked the potatoes until brown. While traditional garbage plates often have two cheese burger patties, one was enough for the my own plate. Although I made the sauce, burgers, and home fries from scratch, I ended up cheating just a little bit on the macaroni salad, buying a pre-made container from my local Whole Foods. 
Overall, my homemade fries were way too salty and the meat sauce came out a little bit too thick, but my first attempt at making a garbage plate was a success. Have you ever made a garbage plate yourself? Was it a success? Let me know in the comments!
As always, stay up to date on my food adventures on Instagram @erin.eats.upstate
A Smoothie Bowl Addiction
When it comes to health food trends I’ve always been a step behind, so naturally I am just catching on to the acai smoothie bowl. After seeing them all over Instagram and watching my favorite YouTuber’s vlog about them I decided it was time to try my own. It’s only taken a couple at home attempts and a trip to a local juice bar, and I am hooked.
Since I did not know exactly what I was getting in to when I first attempted a smoothie bowl at home, I decided to use the Sambazon frozen acai packets to get me started. The first time around I just used one packet and almond milk but found that it wasn’t enough and was too thin. Now, I use almond milk, a frozen packet, some extra frozen berries and about half a banana (the other half I cut up and put on top).
My favorite toppings to include are strawberries, blueberries, banana, granola, toasted coconut, and Justin’s vanilla almond butter. On occasion I will switch up toasted coconut for sliced almonds, and use regular peanut butter instead of almond butter. Toppings are really what make the bowl so I like to load them up!
Since trying my first bowl I have started to crave them more and more often. Part of the reason for this is probably because of how tasty they are. Eating a smoothie bowl in the morning feels like eating a bowl of ice cream for breakfast, and honestly who doesn’t want that. I’ve had bowls for both breakfast and lunch and they typically hold me over for a few hours, which surprised me because I doubted that it would be enough.
Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of places around the Capital Region to get acai bowls, so for now I’ll have to get adventurous and try my own. If anyone knows any great places or recipes please let me know on my Instagram page!
