Arch and Eddie's- Jackson,Ohio

 Very recently, my grandma had taken my family and me to a place called Arch and Eddie's. Arch and Eddie's used to be called The Colonial, but it recently reopened with this name. This was a special place for my family, because our family has been going there for over 50 years! That's a long time! I had heard of this place many times before, but never actually been to it!

The outside of Arch and Eddie's

Once we got there, I immediately felt welcomed. The place itself has a warm and fuzzy feeling to it, like you were being invited to someone's house for a dinner party! The restaurant was painted a light
creme color, and had many windows, making it not only feel but look like a house, which I found really cool. The inside of the restaurant had walls made of brick painted over with a pastel yellow paint, and tables made of mahogany. There were many rooms within the restaurant, and at first I feared that if I left the table I might get lost! But as we walked to our table, I realized that there were not nearly as many rooms as it had seemed, diminishing whatever fear of getting lost I might have had

Those LEGENDARY mushrooms

 When our party took a seat at the table, I grabbed my menu and began looking over it. On the car ride to the restaurant, I had overheard my dad rave about these fried mushrooms they had, so I knew we had to get an order of those. Boy was my dad right! They were delicious! My favorite thing about them was not that they were fried, but how they were fried. The chef did a fantastic job on these by applying a light batter to the mushrooms, so they were crispy on the outside, but never lost their juice, flavor, or slightly chewy texture on the inside. I am a huge fan of mushrooms, mainly because of their texture and flavor. This dish went way beyond my expectations! After we had finished up FOUR ORDERS of fried mushrooms, we decided that it was time to order our main dish, but only after ordering ANOTHER ORDER OF MUSHROOMS!  I was a little afraid of being too full to eat a main course. I wrestled between between a few things on the menu, and I chose fish and chips. And believe me, I was very, very, very glad with my choice, but

Mmmmm..... Fish and Chips

I'm sure that everything I was thinking about ordering was great! When my food came, I dove right in. The fish was haddock, and the batter was really crispy, a perfect combination! The soft fish was falling apart, and the batter gave the fish a great crunch! The fries were really great as well, with a soft inside and a crisp and crunchy outside. One of my favorite foods is bleu cheese, so I asked the waiter for some bleu cheese dressing, and once I got it, I put it with the fries. Even better! The cheese and the fries went perfectly together! I had a few leftover mushrooms from the appetizer, so I dunked those in the bleu cheese dressing as well. Result: Heaven on a mushroom! I was already pretty full before I got my main course, but soon after getting my fish and chips, I was stuffed. The problem was I couldn't stop eating it, I just felt it was too good to give away.  After I had finished most of my meal, I decided I would take the rest home, because I felt like I was going to burst! Even though I really, really wanted dessert, I decided against it, because I was already stuffed. But if you do get the chance to go there, Dad says the pineapple icebox cake is fabulous!

 Arch and Eddie's was a really great place with great food, great service, and a great atmosphere. If you're in the area, I strongly recommend you stop by for a quick bite! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one cookie being burnt, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness, and ten cookies being perfect, warm, gooey chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness. My Cookie Counter ratings for Arch and Eddie's are:


Food: 9 Cookies
Service: 11 Cookies
Atmosphere: 8 Cookies

Arch and Eddie's Website: http://archandeddies.com

Until next time, keep cooking!

Ristorante Il Latini - Florence, Italy

The crowd outside of Il Latini
(This is only a small part of it) 

This is my first review of a restaurant outside of the United States, and it's for a great place!  My family and I traveled to Italy for two weeks and I wrote about everything on the trip, including the restaurants, in a journal my parents bought for me! Before the trip we were searching the internet for amazing restaurants to go to while on our trip, and my dad stumbled upon Ristorante Il Latini in Florence, Italy. It sounded like a great place online, and everyone in our family became super-duper excited to go to this restaurant - so my dad made reservations for us several months before the trip! During the trip, it was one of the stops my family was looking forward to the most.  For dinner on our second day in Florence we took a cab to the long-awaited Il Latini. The road in front of the restaurant was absolutely PACKED!!! Outside in the street there were way too many people crammed into way too small of a space waiting to get in.  The road actually was not small, but it certainly felt like it.  If you are thinking of going there, make SURE you have a reservation, because if you don't you will NOT get in.  But if you do, you are in for a real treat.

When you walk into Il Latini, the first thing you notice is the ceiling. But this is no ordinary ceiling, no, this is a celling full of hanging hams!!! No, I am not kidding, but there seriously must be at least 50 hams hanging from the ceiling!! My brother absolutely LOVES meat, and we he was really excited!!! One of the things that makes Il Latini so unique is that there is no menu. You get what you get, and I can assure you that you won't be upset. The first course for us was melon with some super-yummy, meaty,  prosciutto. At first I was skeptical about putting fruit and meat together, but once I tried it, I thought it was pretty good! I mean, who would've thought that some fruit and some meat together (A pretty weird combination if you ask me) tasted so good? Not me!! After we finished off the first course, out came the second: toasted bread with chicken liver! When it came out, I didn't know what it was, and my dad told me it was beef, because that's what

My brother and I enjoyed our prosciutto!

it looked like. Little did I know he was kidding and took a big bite. Yuck!! I like almost everything, but liver is one of the few things I don't like. It's really good if you like liver, but if you don't, not so much.  My dad really liked it.  We then had a "tuscan salad" that we all really liked.

When the next course came out, we had three different kinds of pasta - ravioli, penne bolognese and one in particular that caught my eye.  I was told that it was gnocchi with a rabbit sauce. Now, I had never had rabbit meat before, but I was assured that it would be good. However, after my liver experience I wasn't sure, but...they were wrong... It was AMAZING!!! The rabbit was gamey, which was nice, the gnocchi was cooked to perfection (a little crispy, a little soft ), and the warm sauce just brought it all together. In my journal, I described it as "One of the best things I have ever eaten". If that tells you anything, it was pretty darn amazing! So amazing in fact, I stole some of my brother's gnocchi!! After that we had the meat course - a huge plate of meat!   They brought veal, steak, chicken, lamb and pork.  I love steak, but only get it once in a while, and this was excellent!  It was really juicy, and cooked medium rare, just the way I like it! Mmmmmm.......just thinking about all this food is making me hungry!! But seriously, I can promise you that is one of the best steaks you will ever have!

A group picture!
Grandma Carol, Mom, Dad, my brother and me.

On to dessert!! For our final course, we had a platter of different desserts. I wanted the Strawberry Tart, Biscotti, and Chocolate Cake. The desserts came with some warm chocolate sauce that I put around each desert on my plate. To make it fair, we split up all the desserts and we each got a little taste of each one. The strawberry tart was really good, the tart being flaky and crispy, and the filling sweet and fruity.  The biscotti was so good, it was almost as if it had just come out of the oven. It was warm, and had a really great texture to it. The chocolate cake was very rich, and had a chocolate ganache on the top that was exquisite!!

The staff was really great, and they were very impressed when we started having conversations with them in Italian.   We had studied Italian at home before the trip and had a lot of fun talking in Italian with people there.

All in all, this is definitely one of the best meals I have ever eaten, and would go back in a heartbeat. If you happen to be in Florence, and happen to have a reservation for Il Latini, be prepared for the meal of you life!!

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookiness, with 1 cookie being  burnt, old, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness, and 10 cookies being a perfect, warm, gooey chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness. My Cookie Counter ratings for Il Latini are:

Food: 12 Cookies (that's right - 12!)
Atmosphere: 9 Cookies
Service: 9 Cookies

Il Latini's Website: http://www.illatini.com

The Cheesecake Factory-Boca Raton,FL

Those AWESOME Pot Stickers!

Just today, my family and I went out to brunch at The Cheesecake Factory for my grandparent's 50th Anniversary! When we were thinking of a place to go, The Cheesecake Factory came up, and we all decided that it sounded good to us. We got there pretty early, so there weren't many people there. One of the great things about The Cheesecake Factory is that even if it's morning, you can get whatever you want! Knowing that the entire menu was open, I began searching for things that sounded good to me. As I was looking through the menu, something caught my eye - Chicken Pot Stickers!!!! I absolutely love pot stickers, and could probably eat them all day, so I decided to get an order of those. I knew I also wanted pancakes, but there were just so many choices! After a few minutes, I decided to try something new and go with the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. These were pancakes in which lemon zest and ricotta cheese had been mixed in with the batter. My dad got the Bang-Bang chicken and shrimp, my grandma got the Pasta Da Vinci, my brother got the Brunch Combo, my mom got the Asian Salad, my other grandma got an Omelet, and my grandpa got the Baja Chicken Hash.

 

Me and my pancakes!

Before anyone had their entree, we all split the Chicken Pot Stickers. They were even better than I expected! They were very juicy, and crunchy on the outside of the wonton, but soft on the inside! Very good, but the sauce was pretty salty. Soon after we had finished off the Pot Stickers, our entrees were served.  The size of the pancakes was impressive - I felt like they were the size of my head, and there were three of them!!! My pancakes were kind of tangy, but at the same time kind of sweet. They were ok, and after a few bites, I was too full to eat any more. Overall I didn't like them as much as I had hoped.  I also tried my grandma's Pasta Da Vinci. That was really good!! It had mushrooms, chicken, and onions with penne pasta all tossed together in a beautiful Madeira Wine sauce. It was like comfort food, to a degree. It was exquisite!

BEST CHEESECAKE EVER!

     At the end of the meal, although everyone wanted cheesecake, we were all too stuffed to eat it right then, so we decided to take it home. So my grandma and I went up to the big display case that held about 30 different kinds of cheesecake, and after discussing our options, opted for a slice of S'mores Cheesecake, and a whole Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake. Once we got home, we dug in. Like OMG this stuff was THE BEST CHEESECAKE EVER!!! The S'mores cheesecake was my favorite, even though it didn't really taste like cheesecake. It was like a super-rich and super-moist chocolate cake that someone decided would be better with a marshmallow on top! And they were right!! The sugar high was awesome.  For all chocolate fans, this one's a must-get! The Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple cheesecake was really good too, but it didn't come together as nicely as the S'mores did. I really liked the peanut butter frosting on top, and the chocolate went really well with it, but I personally think that it should be a cake, not a cheesecake. I mean, the cheesecake kind of ruined the whole dessert which is really a shame because otherwise, it could have been a super-great dessert.

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one being burnt, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness, and ten being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness. My Cookie Counter Ratings for Cheesecake Factory are:

Food: 6
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 7.5

Until Next Time, Keep Cooking!

Cheesecake Factory's Website: http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com

Charm City Burgers - Deerfield Beach, FL

That awesome mural!

      Not too long ago, my family and I were out and about and realized that our entire family was hungry. My Dad and brother both wanted burgers, so my family and I went to the best burger place we know in south Florida, Charm City Burgers. The place is kind of small, but with all the awesome decorations, you can't notice any difference! They have this really awesome mural on the wall with their burgers as characters! Once we got to Charm City Burgers, we looked at the menu and were in a pickle of what we should get. My Dad and brother both ordered the Cowboy Style Steak Burger, my Mom got

My dad's Cowboy Style Burger!

The Mobster burger, which had sausage instead of beef, and I decided on the Good Ole Steak Burger. My Mom, Dad, and brother all wanted onion rings with their burgers, but I decided to try the one side we had not tried before - the tater tots. Those tater tots were amazing! They were really crispy on the outside and perfectly soft on the inside. The Cowboy Style burger has bacon, aged cheddar, grilled onions, and sautéed shrooms (mushrooms) The bacon was really crispy, and full of flavor, which made the burger really good! My Mom's Mobster was really superb, and had a great meaty flavor from the sausage topped with peppers, onions, and provolone cheese! My Good Ole was good, with just the meat and the cheese. ( I like the classics)   All of the burgers can come with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles and the house "Charm Sauce" and you can choose between a sesame or whole wheat bun.  My family and I have been to this restaurant a few times.  The other times I went there the burgers were off the chain, but this time we all agreed that the burgers just weren't quite as good.  I'm not sure why, but they just didn't hit the spot like they have on other visits.  That being said, we are still big fans.

This is a great place with inexpensive burgers, and the only complaint I have was that I felt that my burger was just a little bit under-seasoned this visit. My Mom loved her Mobster, and my brother and Dad liked their burgers a lot.  My burger was pretty good and the tater tots were a cool side dish.  This is a great place to go if you just hit a sudden burger crave, or are just looking for some good local food.

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookiness, with one being burnt, stale oatmeal cookie nastiness, and ten being the perfect, gooey chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness.  My Cookie Counter ratings for Charm City Burgers are:

Food: 7.5 Cookies
Atmosphere: 8 Cookies
Service: 9 Cookies

Until next time, Keep cooking!

Charm City Burger's Website: http://www.charmcityburgers.com

Pineapple Grove Art District in Delray Beach, FL - The Grove

A few days ago, my family and I went to this new restaurant called The Grove. It has been open for less than a year but my parents had been there before with friends and wanted to take my brother and me there.  Wow am I happy they did. This was one of the best meals I have ever eaten! When we arrived at The Grove, we were seated down at a table along the wall. The Grove is pretty small, with 8 tables on the inside and a few on the outside, but that combined with the warm decorations and an overall homey feel to the place, I think it suits The Grove well. Their menu changes frequently, so you

The Kitchen!

may not be able to get the same thing every time, but it's a great place to try new things at, because everything is just so delicious! One of the cool things about The Grove is that you can see the kitchen through a large glass wall that is full of wine bottles, allowing you too see the kitchen through the spaces between the huge wall-shelves. Once you sit down, you are brought a platter with some home-made warm brioche on it, and that in itself was mind-blowing!

My amazing portobello soup!

I love mushrooms so once we received our menus, I was in a debate about whether I should get the chantrerelle agnolotti or the portobello soup for my appetizer.  Thankfully my family was going to order appetizers and share them all, so it helped make my decision easier.  My mom and dad each ordered a grilled octopus and my brother wanted the chanterelle agnolotti, so I ordered the portobello soup. Seriously, I could eat that
soup every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. It was like heaven in the form of soup! We were supposed to be sharing our appetizers, but I was very protective of my soup and let everyone have only one or two spoonfuls of it! I couldn't wait to try the grilled octopus, and was amazed to find out that it tasted like bacon! Who knew? My brother's agnolotti was like a light ravioli and was just awesome! The home-made pasta with the chanterelle mushrooms.....so good!!

Mmmmmmm...... Chicken!

When we had finished our appetizers, we ordered our dinner. My dad wanted the brioche-crusted chicken, and my brother and I decided to split one as well.  My mom ordered a local wahoo. As soon as we got our dinner, we were amazed! The plates looked so pretty to the point that I didn't want to eat mine because it was so beautiful! Now, after my big bowl of portobello soup, I didn't feel hungry at all, but after one bite, I couldn't stop eating the chicken! It was crispy on the outside, but really super-tender on the inside. The brioche gave it a great flavor and it came with some corn and goat cheese on top as
well as a little pesto and some gnocchi - YUM!  My mom's fish was really tasty also and filled with flavor!

After our entrees, everyone was stuffed, but because my parents had been raving about the cheese plate, and I love cheese, we decided to all split one. The cheese plate came with toasted bread and three different kinds of cheeses: a Saint Agur bleu cheese, a Brillat-Savarin creamy french cheese, and a Piedmont mixed cheese. The french cheese was really creamy, smooth, and melted on your tongue. The bleu cheese was very good, and the Piedmont mixed cheese was awesome!  My favorite cheese was the Piedmont.

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one being burnt, stale oatmeal cookie nastiness, and ten being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness. My Cookie Counter ratings for The Grove are:

Food: 10 cookies
Atmosphere: 10 cookies
Service: 10 cookies

I rated The Grove this high because it is just that good. Like seriously, you should stop whatever you are doing, get in your car, and go to The Grove!! Until next time, keep cooking!

The Grove's Website: http://thegrovedelray.com/home/

Boca Raton Florida- Rocco's Tacos

There are a lot of great mexican cuisine restaurants out there, but in my personal experience, this is one of the best. Not only is their entire menu great, but there is one thing in particular that I would go back every day for. Can you guess what it is? It's their guacamole! I will admit, their salsa is pretty good too, but this guacamole just blows anyone's idea of good guacamole right out of the deep blue sea! Anyone who says that a different guacamole is better has obviously never been to the right place. It's that simple! I had a day off from school recently, so my family and I decided that since we hadn't been to Rocco's Tacos in a while, we should go!

One of the great things about Rocco's is that there is an inside seating area as well as an outside one, which is really convenient depending on the weather!  We sit outside most of the time and did so this trip.  As soon as you sit down to your table, a waiter comes up to your table, introduces themselves, then asks you what you would like to drink. Once you receive your drinks, your waiter asks you if you
would like chips and salsa or guacamole or both. My family always gets both because we love the guacamole so much, but it tastes even better if you mix it with a little salsa! One of my favorite things at Rocco's is when they make their guacamole. After you order your bowl of heavenly guacamole, a server rolls up to your table with the guacamole cart, and begins to make the delightful guacamole fresh, on the spot. I know that the guacamole has avocado, cilantro, lime, onions, and tomatoes in it. I also know that they mix in their secret Rocco's Tacos spice that they also put on their chips. I think that the secret spice is made up of salt, chili powder, and a little bit of paprika, but if you have any ideas, tell me in the comments below!

My Enchiladas! 

After you have received your chips and guacamole, you can have a little bit of time to look over the menu or order right away if you were already looking at it. Rocco's regular menu has a lot of great items on it, but the kid's menu does not. There are only four choices on the kid's menu, and only one item is mexican related; the cheese quesadillas. Although the kid's menu is limited, the adult menu is quite extensive. As I was looking over the menu (the adult menu, after I gave back the kid's one) the enchiladas stood out to me. I decided on a pulled chicken enchilada with melted cheese and a green tomato sauce. The enchiladas also came with a side of refried beans and a side of rice. My brother ordered the exact same thing but with a red tomato sauce, and my parents ordered California fish tacos. The California fish tacos were different from regular fish tacos

The California Fish Tacos

because they contained not only the fish but also cabbage, golden raisins, thinly sliced jalapeño, and fresh pineapple. Everything looked amazing! My enchiladas were exquisite, and the chicken was perfectly seasoned. My only complaint is that the rice was pretty spicy. The fish tacos were a cross between sweet and spicy, but were excellent, and that explains the reason we order them every time we go! This is a good place to go if you are looking for some great mexican food and a good atmosphere. There aren't a lot of decorations, but there are bikes hanging from the ceiling, which I thought was pretty cool!

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter scale of Cookieness, with 10 cookies being perfect chocolate chip(my favorite) goodness, and 1 cookie being a burnt, old, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness. My Cookie Counter ratings for Rocco's Tacos are:

Food: 9 Cookies

Atmosphere: 7 Cookies

Service: 8 Cookies

Rocco's Tacos Website: http://www.roccostacos.com/

Cookie's Culinary Adventures-Baking for Days!

Over the long Labor Day weekend, my mom and I realized that we were running low on home-made cookies, and in our family, this is a DISASTER! My entire family loves home-made cookies and treats!!  Since it was a long weekend, we decided it was the perfect time to bake and restock with some  yummy and delicious treats.

Because my mom and I were the only ones baking, we got to choose what we wanted to make. I wanted to make church windows, which are mini colored marshmallows covered in chocolate and walnuts. What I love about these treats is that when you cut into them, you see all the different colors of the marshmallows, and it resembles a "church window"! If you like coconut, you can be sprinkle some on the top of them before you put them in the refrigerator. These are one of my favorite cookies that my mom and I make!
We also wanted to make my mom's famous brownies(Recipe Below), and those things, I swear make magic happen! The brownies are so rich, and so chocolatey, I can't even bear to sit hear and think about them without having to go get one. When we were making them, I had forgotten to turn off the mixer and accidentally took it out of the bowl without noticing that I hadn't turned it off. All of the sudden, there was brownie batter EVERYWHERE! My mom and I were lucky enough to be able to dodge the brownie batter, but sadly, our cabinets couldn't move out of the way! We spent quite a bit of time cleaning the cabinets and the countertop.
After the church windows had cooled in the fridge and the brownies were out of the oven, I decided I  wanted to keep baking and making new sweets for my family.  I pulled out a few cookbooks and got to work. I found two recipes that I wanted to create. One was a recipe for the treats called "cherry bombs".  These are pretty easy to make and taste amazing. All you have to do is mix up 1 1/2 cups of dried cherries and 1 1/2 cups of chopped walnuts, then melt some dark chocolate, mix it all together, spread on a baking sheet, and pop them in the fridge! Since those were super easy to make, and not very time-consuming, we decided to make those first! As soon as we were done, I told my mom that I wanted to make a cake. At first she said no. Then I told her I would do it in small cake pans,  so we'd have several small individual cakes
 instead of one big cake, and she agreed. So we set out to work on what would soon become a masterpiece, and I was sure we could do it! I was as right as my right hand! WE DID IT! I decided that I wanted to use my piping bag and tips to decorate the mini cakes I made.  I knew that I wanted to use chocolate frosting, so I opted for a vanilla cake so that you could see the frosting. After a while, we had finished the cake, and I began to decorate! I had ten mini-cakes, and I took my time icing each and every one. Once I was finished, I was really satisfied with what I did!

The Best Brownies in THE WORLD!

Boca Raton Florida-Stir Crazy

For my birthday this year, I chose to go to one of my favorite restaurants in Boca Raton, Florida. And that restaurant is "Stir Crazy", a stir-fry restaurant chain that has restaurants in six states! Stir Crazy has a menu that includes soups and other foods, but the thing that brings people to this restaurant is their create-your-own stir fry bar. When you order the create-your-own stir-fry, you are asked if you want chicken,

shrimp, or beef, and if you want rice or noodles. You are also brought two bowls. One medium one for ingredients, and a small one for sauce. Once you grab your bowls and head to the huge  stir-fry bar at the back of the restaurant, you pick what you want. There are always about two dozen vegetable options that you can put into your stir-fry.  They also have a "Vegetable of the Month"! This is a vegetable that is typically not on the veggie bar, but Stir Crazy adds it for one month, making it fun to try something new. I have a trick to getting as many vegetables in the bowl as possible. The trick is: add the largest stuff first, and the smaller stuff on top, that way it is easier to 

carry as well! After you have picked out your vegetables, you can choose your sauce. They have a dozen different flavors of sauces that you can experiment and mix-and-match with. I personally love the peanut sauce! The sauces are labeled by spiciness, so you don't accidentally burn your mouth off!!! After you have all your ingredients, and your sauce, you head on up to a counter right next to the sauces, and wait until it's your turn. When it's your turn, you hand the chef your two bowls, and you watch him stir-fry your stir fry! There is a point where these huge flames fly up really high, and it looks amazing!  When I went there recently, I put onions, bamboo shoots (sound weird, but are really good), carrots, pineapple, baby corn, garlic, ginger, water chestnuts, green beans, and the peanut sauce all together with chicken and noodles, and it made an awesome stir-fry! Although it may not seem like a huge stir-fry when you are adding the ingredients, it is HUGE! Not only that, but it is really filling! One stir-fry can last me up to three meals! It's Stir Crazy!!!! As for pricing, it's a great deal for kids, a make-your-own stir fry is about 6$, and it's the same size as the adult make-your-own stir fry. Also, we were there on a Thursday night, which happened to be one of the nights (Tuesday is the other) when Stir Crazy has a special deal. For each paid adult meal, you get a kid's meal free! For the five of us (3 kids, 2 adults) it was only 36$ for the whole meal! For a healthy, great meal, it doesn't get much better than that!

As always, I will be rating the restaurants I visit on my Cookie scale of Cookieness, with 10 being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness, and 1 being burnt, stale, oatmeal raisin nastiness! My ratings for Stir Crazy are:

Food: 8 cookies

Atmosphere: 9 cookies (You get to see your food being made!!!!)

Service: 8 cookies

Until Next Time, Keep Cooking!

Stir Crazy Website: http://www.stircrazy.com

New York City-Dylan's Candy Bar

When I found out that my family and I were going to New York City for a week, I immediately knew I had to go to Dylan's Candy Bar. Dylan's Candy Bar has been in New York City for a while, since 2001, but definitely still an amazing store! It is not only a HUGE candy store with an extensive collection, but it also features an upper level with a mini cupcake shop and an ice cream bar that serves really unique flavors. Dylan's Candy Bar has three levels! A main floor which holds the main checkout lines, and a bulk fill your own bag candy area. A lower level that holds a huge line of all the different flavored Jelly-Belly's, an area that sells lots of old-timey candy like Necco Wafers, Clark Bars, and even more! It also features an area that sells merchandise, such as pajamas, sweatshirts, and purses to have as a souvenir of Dylan's after you have eaten all your candy! One of the best parts downstairs is their fudge stand in one of the two rooms on the lower level! There they have about a dozen different kinds of fudge that you can only get at Dylan's! They let you try as many tastes of whatever there as you want, and everything is so amazing that you will want to try them all! The upper level, as I said before, features a mini cupcake shop, as well as an ice cream bar that has about a half-dozen flavors that are truly unique to Dylan's! They have quite a bit of seating on the upper level, with three booths that

Me looking at all the old candies!

are shaped to look like cupcakes, with frosting-shaped lamps above the booths. There are also a few tables that are pretty sweet because they are filled with gumballs! During the time I was in New York City, my family and I went to Dylan's twice. The first time it was getting late at night, and because they close at nine o'clock, we didn't have much time. When I stepped into Dylan's Candy Bar for the first time, I became overwhelmed, and almost passed out. No matter where you looked, there was candy! We only had time to scope out Dylan's that night, but as we were leaving, I decided to get a small treat

Like the sign???

because even though I knew I would be back to get candy the next day, it seemed foolish to me to come to and leave Dylan's Candy Bar without getting something. During our scope, I knew that I wanted to get a lot of candy from the "older" candies section, because some of the things in the store I knew I could get anywhere.  So I focused on the hard-to-find things as well as stuff exclusive to Dylan's. When we returned to Dylan's the next day I got tons of candy! I got a lot of "old" candies, a few of Dylan's exclusive candy bars, as well as gifts for some friends of mine! Even though we had just finished a great dinner and had finished our shopping, we went up to the upper level and decided to try some of the unusual ice creams that Dylan's Candy Bar had to offer! We tried several flavors, but my favorite was the Candy Bar Blast! It was so amazing because it has tons of little chunks of different candy bars that made this ice cream so unique!


I will always rate the places I visit on my Cookie Counter scale of Cookieness with 10 cookies being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness, and 1 cookie being burnt, stale oatmeal cookie nastiness. My Cookie Counter ratings for Dylan's Candy Bar are:

Candy Selection: 10 Cookies
Ice Cream: 9 Cookies
Atmosphere: 10 Cookies
Service: 8 Cookies

This is an amazing and magical place that can bring out the inner child in everyone.  However, there are so many great things that it is easy to spend a lot of money, so bring some extra cash when coming!

Until Next Time, Keep Cooking!

Dylan's Candy Bar Website: http://www.dylanscandybar.com

Cookies Culinary Adventures- Making French Macarons!

While I was in New York, I saw lots of french macaron shops. One day as we were passing one, I decided I wanted to try one. So my family and I went inside and because we were literally ready to sit down for lunch we ordered two macarons to split amongst the four of us.  We got a lemon and a chocolate raspberry to split.  Luckily my Mom and Dad just wanted a nibble!  As soon as I tried them, I knew I wanted to learn how to make these amazing treats! A major difference between a macaroon (with two "o"s) and a french macaron (with one "o") is that macaroons usually are made with coconut, whereas french macarons are made with almond flour. French macarons also have what bakers like to call "feet". These feet are the little lines that look like

French Macarons vs Macaroons

ruffles near the middle of  the french macarons. When my family and I returned home from New York, I took a class with a pastry chef, (Shout out to Amy, Thanks again for everything!) on how to make these awesome treats. During that class, I learned that french macarons have very few ingredients, but are very hard to make because if you don't whip the egg whites enough OR if you whip them too much, it won't come out good. I am including the recipe below, but I warn you, it takes patience and a little bit of adjusting depending on where you live, the humidity, and the elevation.

While I was at the class, I made some vanilla macarons to take home and fill myself, and Amy had prepared some earlier so she could teach me how to fill them. When I came home with my macarons, my entire family decided to experiment with making the frosting into different flavors, and found out that it is really super simple to make amazing flavors. The trick is to add whatever you want into it, but you can adjust the consistency by adding more sugar or a little bit of milk. I  have a few tips for first-timers:

1. When making a fruity frosting, use fresh juice  or zest

2. If you are using jam, make sure it does not have any fruit chunks in it, or else it will come out really weird

3. Be creative, because you can really use anything!

Until next time, Keep cooking!

New York City-PB&Co

The outside of PB& Co

While I was in New York City recently, my family and I had to think of fun and good places to eat. My Dad had found PB&Co online, and we decided we should go there because it looked like a fun place with good food.  PB&Co is a little restaurant very close to New York University. Almost everything the restaurant serves is different kinds of peanut butter sandwiches. My family decided that we would each get a sandwich and split it among everyone, which was a great idea, so everyone could have everything! My dad got a "The Heat Is On" sandwich, which consisted of a cold piece of grilled chicken, pineapple jam, and spicy peanut butter. My mom tried a "White Chocolate Wonderful" sandwich, which was white chocolate peanut butter with orange marmalade and some sliced almonds. My brother loves bacon, so he decided on "The Elvis" which was a grilled peanut butter sandwich stuffed with bananas, honey, and bacon! I love cookie dough, so I wanted to try the "Cookie Dough Surprise"that had dark chocolate peanut putter on one side, vanilla cream cheese on the other, and stuffed with chocolate chips!  We split up all the sandwiches, and we each got a quarter of each one.

The Elvis! Yum!

The first one I tried was The Elvis, and that was a great sandwich! The peanut butter went amazingly well with the honey, and I don't even like honey! The bananas were great, but the bacon was the all-star of this grilled sandwich! The second sandwich that I tried was the one that I had picked out, the Cookie Dough Surprise! I was shocked that it really tasted like cookie dough! Although my family didn't care for it, I thought it was pretty good. Then I tried the White Chocolate Wonderful, and even though they said it tasted like white chocolate (which I hate), all I could taste was the orange
marmalade. Not the best sandwich. Lastly, I tried a quarter of a The Heat is On sandwich, which to be completely honest, I thought was disgusting. The sandwich was served cold, and there was chicken on it, and personally, I don't like chicken unless it's hot. The pineapple jam didn't even taste like pineapple to me, to me it tasted bland. Although the place was clean, it didn't have much decoration except for a wall that they stacked tons of jars of their special-made peanut butter. This is a restaurant that kids will enjoy, but not somewhere that I am rushing back to.

I will always rate the places I visit on my Cookie Counter scale of Cookieness with 10 Cookies being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness and 1 Cookie being burnt, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness. My Cookie Counter Ratings for PB& co are:

Food: 6 Cookies
Atmosphere: 6 Cookies
Service: 7 Cookies

Until next time, Keep Cooking!

PB&Co's Website: http://ilovepeanutbutter.com

New York City-Max Brenner's

My brother and me in front of Max Brenner's

That's their tag line! Chocolate by the bald man!

Before my recent trip to New York City, I was informed by a number of friends that Max Brenner's was an amazing restaurant and I would miss out if I didn't go there. (Shout out to Michele, Hannah, and Dylan! You guys are the best!) I learned that Max Brenner's is a chocolate-based restaurant, meaning that many dishes use chocolate in some way. I became super excited about this restaurant! I love chocolate, I live chocolate, and I breathe chocolate, so this was the perfect place for me! During our time in  New York, we had to fit a lot of places we wanted to eat onto a small schedule, so we only picked the best ones, and thankfully, Max Brenner's made the cut.

You can see the pipes pumping chocolate through the resturant above

When we walked into the restaurant, I became overwhelmed! There were pipes on the ceiling that were carrying chocolate made by Max Brenner's, and it was amazing! It reminded me of the chocolate river in Willy Wonka's factory! To think, delicious chocolate that you can only get in Max Brenner's was right above your head! The entire restaurant is booths on one side and chairs on the other, which I
found really cool! They also had big chocolate bricks on top of the booths that were made of Max Brenner's special dark and milk chocolate, I was so tempted to eat it that I had to take the seat farthest away from the bricks so I wouldn't eat them!

Me and my heavenly mac-n-cheese

Everyone wanted to save room for dessert so my mom and dad ordered wings and a salad to share, my brother ordered a burger, and I ordered the macaroni and cheese off of the adult menu. The difference was the kid's macaroni and cheese had nothing in it, but it came with a plastic syringe of tomato sauce, and the adult's macaroni and cheese was the same thing except it was bigger, and had tomatoes and applewood smoked bacon in it, and it still came with the syringe of tomato sauce. My family decided to split an order of onion rings that were dusted with cocoa powder and came with a chocolate ranch that was so amazing I wanted to lick it out of the container. The onion rings were light, crispy, and full of AWESOMENESS! We never got to take a picture of them because we ate them too fast! Soon after,
everyone's food came. It took every bit of self-control I had to not start digging into my macaroni and cheese immediately because it looked amazing and smelled even better! But I managed to control myself long enough for a few pictures. When I finally was able to eat my macaroni and cheese, I could've sworn it came from the heavens, it was so amazing! the tomatoes were like little pockets of tomato sauce, an added bonus with the syringe that I got. The bacon was full of flavor, and brought the whole meal together! My mom and dad's wings were coated in a sweet sauce that was really amazing! I could have eaten a whole plate of those alone! I managed to coax my brother into giving me a bite of his burger for a bite of my macaroni and cheese, and it was worth it! The burger was super juicy, and cooked to perfection!

The Chocolate Syringe

Everyone at the table wanted to keep eating, but we knew we had to stop, because we were saving room for dessert. We decided to order a dessert pizza that had chocolate, marshmallows, and carmel on a fluffy sugar cookie crust! That was pure joy! The only thing I would have changed about it was make the cookie a little thinner, because I personally don't like thick crusts on anything. But overall it was great! Everyone at the table was stuffed, but we had to power through one more thing, The Chocolate Syringe!!! Everyone who had been to Max Brenner's had told me I had to get this, so I decided that even though we were full, we were going to do this! We ordered, and in a few minutes, it came out of the kitchen onto our table, and all I could think was that this was going to be AWESOME!!!! My brother and I each had a giant chocolate syringe, and we we really enjoyed eating the chocolate out of the syringe.  The chocolate was warm, rich and very sweet - actually I was surprised that it was even a little too sweet for me.  Despite that, I powered through but I could barely finish my giant syringe. Overall, though an amazing place!

As a reminder, I rate the places I visit on my Cookie Counter scale of Cookieness with 10 Cookies being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness and 1 Cookie being burnt, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness. My Cookie Counter Ratings for Max Brenner's are:

Food: 10 cookies
Atmosphere: 10 cookies
Service: 9 cookies

Until Next Time, Keep Cooking!

Max Brenner's Website: http://www.maxbrenner.com

New York City- Jane Restaurant

Out of all the places I went on my recent vacation to New york City, Jane Restaurant was one of my favorites. I had originally seen this on a Food Network show, "The Best Thing I ever Ate: Personal Favorites". In this episode, the featured food from Jane was their Crispy Ricotta Gnocchi. We were riding back to where we were staying one evening, when we realized we were passing right by Jane. My entire family yelled "STOP THE CAB!" to the driver, and he stopped. We hopped out, and headed into Jane for this unexpected treat. Jane had a very homey feel to it, really bringing a bit of warmth to it that served it well. We ordered one crispy ricotta gnocchi, a grilled calamari, a fried chicken (a special on mondays only) and a fried artichoke. Everyone had a little bit of everyone's dinner, so we could try everything. Everything was good, but what came out on top by a long shot was the crispy ricotta gnocchi, we were even fighting over it!  It was so amazing because it was soft and tender on the inside and lightly fried on the outside, making it crispy. It was perfect with the three-cheese cream sauce and white truffle oil drizzled on top. Totally worth the trip! Even though I felt the fried chicken was good, but not my favorite, the rest of my family loved it.  Seriously though, the crispy ricotta gnocchi was life-changing!!

I can't start rating without pointing out something about the service. It was amazing! When we were at our table raving about how amazing the gnocchi was, and that we had saw it on the Food Network, our waiter brought the chef out so we could meet him.  We complimented him endless times on how great the gnocchi was and he talked to us about how to make it.  We didn't have to wait very long for our food, and the entire staff was very nice! Great Service!

I plan to rate the places I visit on my Cookie Counter scale of Cookieness with 10 Cookies being perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) goodness and 1 Cookie being burnt, stale oatmeal raisin nastiness.  My Cookie Counter ratings for Jane are:

Food: 9 Cookies
Atmosphere: 8 Cookies
Service: 10 Cookies


Until next time, keep cooking!

Jane Restaurant's Website: http://janerestaurant.com

Welcome to the world of food!

Hi Guys, and welcome to Cookie's Culinary Adventures!
Here I will be showing you some of the best places there are to eat in this amazing worldwide culinary scene! Most of the places I will be reviewing will be in the United States, but there will be quite a few international excursions. My real name is Brooke and I'm 11 years old, but because I love to bake and eat cookies, I picked up the nickname Cookie! I am a chef, and have always loved to cook and bake, but what is the best part of cooking? Eating the finished product! This brings me to my other love - EATING GREAT FOOD!  Lucky for me, my whole family loves to travel and eat great food also, so we go to a lot of fun places.  So what are you waiting for? Follow my adventures and lets get started!