Restaurant Review: E2 Emeril’s Eatery

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imageEmeril Lagasse’s newest restaurant, E2, opens in Charlotte Thursday January 26th.  Monday night, Vanessa, my favorite foodie friend, and I got the opportunity to check out the new restaurant space and sample the wares.  For those who aren’t familiar with Emeril, he is a boisterous celebrity chef, author, and restauranteur and (most importantly) my grandma loves him.  I first became acquainted with Emeril through his shows on the Food Network.  I was instantly attracted to the peculiar pairing of his cheerful easygoing personality and his serious kitchen demeanor.  He is, in my mind, an ultimate foodie, and I both admire and envy him for it.

imageI’ve always liked watching Emeril cook.  He’s a burly man with a big personality who likes even BIGGER flavor.  Arguably, Emeril is most known for adding spice to food.  He lets you know things are about to get serious by exclaiming “let’s kick it up a notch!” or voicing a booming *BAM* at the addition of a spicy ingredient.  Given this *BAM* factor and Emeril’s ties to New Orleans, I was ready for some serious flavors at E2.

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Amaze(meat)balls.

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I shamelessly consider myself a meatball connoisseur.  If meatballs are on the menu, you can bet your last breadstick I’m gonna order one.  Just one solitary meatball is all I need for my analysis.  Texture, taste, accouterments.  More often than not, I’m disappointed.  I’m not a fan of mushy ones and I need them to be thoroughly seasoned, preferably bobbing along in a vat of marina sauce (though I’m flexible on that stipulation).  Every once in a while, about 1 in 5 tries, I will sink my teeth into an amazing meatball and for that brief moment this crazy messed up world is right again.

Healthy Meatballs (1 of 6)

I have been trying to create a delicious healthified meatball recipe for YEARS, and have been wholeheartedly devoted to the cause.  I’ve tried dozens of impromptu turkey meatball concoctions, but they always left something to be desired.  Too dry, too poultry-ee, not meatbally enough, etc.  I kept crawling back to my favorite, albeit it no-so-healthy, meatball recipe:  Meatball Nirvana on Allrecipes.com.  I LOVE this recipe because it results in meatballs that are juicy, flavorful, and that have the coveted sink-your-teeth-in meaty texture.

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Sausage Stuffed Peppers

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During my kid years, stuffed peppers were in the regular dinner rotation at my dad’s house.  I hated them.  My step mom would fill crisp green peppers with a beef mixture in the morning, pop them into the slow cooker with some tomato sauce, and when we got home in the evening we’d find the crunchy green peppers had been transformed into a slimy mushy mess.  Back then, I had deep-rooted hatred for lots of cooked veggies—carrots, celery, and tomatoes to name a few—but cooked green peppers took the medal for most loathed cooked vegetable.  To my young taste buds, cooked green peppers had this toxic unnatural taste to them—like they’d been marinating in a puddle of Windex for a few hours.  It just wasn’t right.  Luckily, peppers were pricy so my step mom was more than happy to make me a meatball sans pepper for dinner while the rest of the family subjected themselves to green pepper poisoning.  I love a good meatball.

To this day, I’m still not a huge fan of stuffed green peppers.  As I aged and grew wiser, I discovered that other types of peppers could be stuffed just as easily and infinitely more deliciously than green peppers ever could. 

Case in point:

Sausage Stuffed Peppers (10 of 11)

Some of my favorite peppers to stuff are banana peppers, cubanelles, and Anaheims.  I usually buy whichever variety is the biggest (i.e., most stuffable) at the grocery store that day.

 
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Detox.

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A spongy glazed doughnut.  A homemade scone, still warm from the oven.  A yellow-cake cupcake slathered with thick chocolate icing.  A piece of jam-filled chocolate straight from Germany.  Sugared pecans.  A lemon ricotta cookie.  A miniature cupcake filled with champagne strawberries and topped with a dollop of vanilla icing.  A slice of carrot cake.  A caramel drizzled pecan bar with sugar cookie crust.

All of it.

Each and every sugary treat… down to the last crumb and gooey morsel.

I ate it all.

Today.

This is what we call an extreme lack of self control, and I am ashamed.  When presented with not one but TWO potlucks in the very same day, I cracked.  I ate with reckless abandon.  As I type this I can feel the jitters in my fingers and the creepy crawlies in my shoulders from all that sugar seething through me.

I am addicted and something has to give.

Sugar, I need a break.  Just some time to clear my head, get my thoughts straight, and get back on track.

It’s not you, Sugar.  It’s me.

Just one week apart, Sugar.  And then?  Well, we can still be friends?

/

 

Restaurant Review: Smalls Food & Spirits

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This past week, I got the opportunity to check out Charlotte’s newest restaurant, imageSmalls Food & Spirits, at their pre-opening friends and family event.  Smalls is situated on Elizabeth Avenue in a funky nook of the city just outside of uptown.  The Elizabeth Avenue area has a ton of character and rich history, but has been underutilized in recent years.

Smalls, which offers chef-inspired food in an intimate loungey-chic environment, is a perfect fit for the avenue.  From the outside, the restaurant is quite unassuming.  We actually passed it twice before we noticed the red lettering on the front door.  Once through the small entryway, the space opens up into an intimate dining and bar area that seats 80 people.

Smalls Charlotte (2 of 8)

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Photography Light & DIY Diffuser on the Cheap

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When I attended the Food Photography Overhaul last month, I learned good lighting is the KEY to good photos.  Now, I consider myself a pretty darn good student.  I listen carefully, I take notes diligently, and I try to implement my new knowledge as soon as nerdily possible.  Yet as mentioned in my last post I experienced some extreme frustration while trying to photograph those delicious balsamic pork tenderloin medallions in low lighting.  The need for light was obvious, but where the heck was it?!  I tried switching locations.  The stove top, the living room floor, the bathroom counter, the laundry room.   Photo after horrible photo.  It was absolutely infuriating!

A couple of days later (once I had a chance to cool down and drink some wine), the BF and I headed to Lowe’s to resolve this lighting issue once and for freaking all.

Here’s what we picked up:

DIY Light Diffuser (1 of 9)

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Pork Tenderloin Medallions with a Shallot Balsamic Reduction

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I learned two things while making this recipe.

#1 – Balsamic vinegar makes everything better.

#2 – It is incredibly difficult to photograph black foods in low lighting.  *insert childish temper tantrum here*

Baby steps….  baby steps.

This sweet and savory supper was courtesy of a Cooking Light recipe I had filed away in my big black book.  I went to the book in search of a new pork dish to make for dinner.  Truth be told, I wasn’t super excited about making pork, but the thought of pork covered in a sweet thickened balsamic glaze changed those feelings pretty darn quick.

Balsamic Pork Tenderloin (7 of 7)

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