Bacon Popcorn

The other night, The Husband and I headed out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in this town; Hamptons.  Hamptons is a fantastic restaurant, and not just because the crappiness of this town makes it look good.  It would be a very, very good restaurant anywhere!  The Husband likes to go so that he can pretend that he's in a nicer place than this town, he says.

The menu at Hamptons changes constantly.  Sometimes this leads to some pretty difficult choices.  This time we ended up with the duck entree, over a sweet corn polenta with dates and bacon popcorn.

Yes, bacon popcorn.  On our duck.  Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Needless to say, like everything we eat at Hamptons, it was fantastic.  After dinner we were talking with our usual server, who makes great recommendations and he explained the recipe for the popcorn so that we could have it at home.  So tonight I whipped up a bowl and it is every bit as good as it was at the restaurant. I'm in love!

This recipe makes the amount of popcorn The Husband and I usually split.  We don't like to eat a ton at once so if you prefer bigger servings, adjust accordingly.

Ingredients

3 strips bacon
1 T bacon fat
1/4 c popcorn kernels
dash dried rosemary
dash sea salt

Cook the bacon, reserving 1 T of the bacon fat.  Set the bacon aside to cool.  Put the bacon fat and the popcorn into your whirley pop (or your usual pot) and heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the kernels start popping.  Then stir constantly until the popping slows and remove from heat.  Pour into bowl.  Then crush the bacon and sprinkle the bacon bits, rosemary and sea salt over the popcorn.  Toss gently and serve!

Foodie Fun

Yes, that is a half bottle of 1964 port that I bought for The Husband's birthday.  1964!  Barrel aged for 40 years, bottle aged for almost 10!  Further, the year 1964 has a certain significance to any Alaskan.  Commence drooling. 

Additionally, that is a half round of O'banon goat cheese wrapped in grape leaves that have been soaked in bourbon.  I finally made it to Fromagio's, the relatively new cheese store in south Anchorage.  It's super awesome!  The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, happy to help you out and answer questions.  I didn't know what I wanted and the selection was overwhelming, but all I had to do was mention a few other cheeses I enjoy and they whipped out a selection of samples for me.  I came home with some nice cheddar too, but the goat cheese was the clear winner.

More drooling.

Anyway, the point of this post (that's a lie, I just wanted to brag about the port and cheese) is a bit of an update.  You may have noticed that the blog got a little face lift.  The most important part of this face lift is just below the title.  Yes, I have tabs now!  My kick in the butt for finally getting tabs was joining the HH6 cooking club.  Basically, once a month I will be doing a cooking challenge along with the other fine ladies of the HH6.  If you want to know more, click the tab!  We get our first challenge Monday.

ps. The moose is just there for cuteness.  My mom made it!

Proa

Hafa Adai! Here's my second-ever restaurant review!

We met up with our coworkers (I say our, because one of my coworkers is married to one of his, which is why we were all in Guam at the same time, but I digress...) at Proa one night for dinner. Proa is a fairly new establishment, I understand, but the joint is hopping. Don't expect to get in without a reservation. In fact, despite calling several days in advance, we only got our reservations by convincing them to seat us in the front room, which is technically part of the bakery!

I only have one bad thing to say about Proa, and that is that the kitchen is incredibly slow. Of course, it's also incredibly tiny, so I suppose that's something of an explanation. Still, that flaw was tiny enough that we didn't think twice about coming right back the next night!

Now, onto the plusses. The first night I had the special, which was a prime rib. The meat was pretty good, but the real winner was the gravy and the whipped potatoes. I rarely eat potatoes at restaurants (I'm picky, yes), but these were amazing! The cornish hen I had the next time was a bit dry, but again the sauces really stood out. The Husband had a rib-eye, which he loved. Even better than the steak though was the candied pineapple on top, which I am dying to recreate!

If you don't want to deal with the slow kitchen, order one of their hibachi meats. They make these in bulk on the grill and always have some ready. The Husband got a platter - and I do mean platter - the first night. Delicious!

While the food was great, the desserts were simply to die for. They have a dessert menu, but don't limit yourself. There are daily specials filling the display case up front, too! The sampler plate is a nice choice. It includes two chocolate chip cookies (mediocre), chocolate-wasabi cheesecake (good), banana fritter (fantastic!), and mango panna cotta (the best!). The next night, The Husband got the Mint Bailey's Mousse, which he proclaimed the winner. I disagreed, thinking that my spiced apple cheesecake was even tastier.

So, the bottom line is - if you are ever in Guam, go to Proa. Probably several times. And maybe get some dessert take-out too.

Seven Glaciers

This is something new for me, but at the Husband's urging, I am posting my first restaurant review!

Seven Glaciers is a restaurant at the Alyeska Ski Resort located on top of the mountain and accessible by tram. It takes its name from the seven glaciers visible from its perch way above sea level - there's one in the upper right corner of the picture, but it's covered with snow so it's a bit hard to see.

Last weekend I stole the Husband away for a surprise get-away to Alyeska. Our finale was lunch at the Seven Glaciers. Lunch is definitely the way to go - this time of year it's dark by dinner time and what's the point of hauling all the way up a mountain to dine if you can't see anything?

Tram tickets are included with any Seven Glaciers reservation - thumbs up! The nice tram people even gave us tickets for complimentary hot chocolate up at the restaurant. That's another plus. The tram runs every 10 minutes, making it easy to get up there in time for your reservation. Be warned - it is chilly and icy. If you are wearing heels, beware!

The restaurant is, quite frankly, gorgeous. You have to climb an additional flight of stairs to get there, but once you do the first thing you see is a lovely wine room with glass walls. The wine shelves have a modern feel to them, playing with shapes and arches. Almost all of the tables have a view of the ski slopes and surrounding mountains. Those on the southern side also get a great look at Turnagain Arm. The decor and settings are definitely aiming for upscale and modern.

As the hostess checked our coats and escorted us to our table, I was getting pretty excited. With decor like this, service like this, the food must be quality, right? The first thing I got was my free hot chocolate (I was wearing a skirt, okay?), which did not disappoint. Fresh cream on top and all! Unfortunately, things started to go downhill from there.

First, our waiter did not tell us about the specials today. When we overheard another waitress telling the table beside us about the rib-eye special, he hurried back and apologized. He then told us all about the 8oz prime rib special.

Huh? So is it rib-eye or prime rib? He assured us that it was prime rib, but we weren't convinced. Either way, one of them was wrong.

The waiter proceeded to explain to us that the portions were designed so that a full meal would be one or two from the "Appetizers and Salads" side and one or two from the "Sandwiches and Entrees" side, plus a dessert. With this in mind, we ordered an appetizer to share. I ordered a sandwich and the Husband ordered the mystery-cut steak special, for which he was never asked how he wanted it cooked.

When the appetizer arrived, I was reassured. Small portions - we had corn and chicken fritters, which came with an array of sauces, all artfully plated. On the plus side, the chile-honey sauce was the most fantastic thing I've eaten in a long time. Unfortunately, the other sauces were boring at best and my fritters were not properly cooked. Almost burned on the outside, but still gooey on the inside. Blech.

When the entrees arrived, I was shocked at the quantity of food. It turns out that the Husband's steak was prime rib, but that mountain of meat was definitely not 8oz. It looked more like 16 to me! It was also slightly overcooked and no steak knife was provided. He did approve of the arugala salad that came along side it though. My sandwich of beef tips and gruyere on a garlic baguette sounded delicious, but when arrived it was clear that it should have been advertised as an open-faced sandwich. No way could I pick this thing up - I had to ask for a knife. The beef tips were tough, if there was garlic on the bread I couldn't tell. Nor could I tell if the little cheese shreds were, in fact, gruyere. In fact, all I could taste was this sauce which had been liberally poured over it. And it was not a good sauce.

Now, had we received this entree course at a different restaurant, I would have had a more favorable view. But the Seven Glaciers is clearly trying to be an upscale restaurant - I expect small portions, cooked well and tastefully plated. The appetizer followed these lines, but the entree just subscribed to the Alaska motto "Bigger is Better!" and was really quite shocking to me. I believed I described it as "Alaska trying to be fancy."

Still, we were up here, and decided to see what dessert had in store for us. We ordered the apple dessert. An apple-flavored brioche bread pudding, topped with roasted apple ice cream and rum sauce. Alongside, a mini apple tart and a miniature caramel apple.

With dessert, we were getting closer to the small portions and thoughtful plating (though I thought the tart was unnecessary from a portion and visual perspective). So I dug into the bread pudding, making sure to get some of the rum sauce. Now, I love rum sauce. I love rum, too. But I don't want my rum sauce to taste like I'm downing shots of bacardi, people. And that's what it tasted like. I don't know what they did to this poor sauce, but man. The only thing you could taste was raw alcohol flavor. And it wasn't even good rum!

That said, the bread pudding was fantastic, but the roasted apple ice cream was the star of the show. I could have eaten bowls of both. The tartlet was dry - unneeded in all aspects! The Husband proclaimed the caramel apple to be better looking than it tasted, but I can accept that in a garnish.

So, the bottom line for Seven Glaciers - they try too hard to be something they are not.

That said, I would absolutely come back again. But only for lunch. And then only for soup and salad - and that apple dessert, but no rum sauce, thank you.