Homemade Valentine's Day Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies

                                                                                                                               VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES!                  YUMMY HEART-SHAPED TREATS! :)                                 So for Valentine's Day I decided to go ahead and make       Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies from scratch! .. sort of! LOL         I bought myself a powedery flour mix, just add eggs, water, etc  to make the dough. Roll it out on a flat surface.. flour sprinkled beneath it and a lil on top.. crab your cookie cutters and have at it! I bought all different kinds of red and pink sprinkles and other edible decorative stuff to do some artwork a-top my cookies!    Put everything on the raw cookies before you bake them (except for the icing as you will see I used to make smiley faces on a few). The finish product came out pretty good, at least I think so for my first try! Really like how the sprinkles, colored sugar and tiny candied hearts looks on top of the cookies too. :)

Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day! <3

Muscles, Fried Calamari, Caesar Salad and a Pizza Pie @ Nick's Pizza!

                                        Nick's Pizza..

Muscles Red

A group of friends and myself decided to go for some Italian. Sometimes it's just a great idea to get a bunch of yummy appetizers and split with the group! As was the case here. Add a yummy pizza and you're good to go!

I have to say we had a very nice evening at Nick's Pizza! The atmosphere was modern but casual. The food was tasty and fresh. We loved how they made their 'regular' pie. Sure reminded us of more fancy pies! ;)

Fried Calamari w/ Lemon Slices & Marinara Sauce

Caesar Salad

Large Pizza Pie

Ciao Baby's

Italian Bread with Parmesan Chunks, Olive Oil & Vinaigrette

So my bestie and I went to check out  Ciao Baby in Massapequa, New York. 

They have a Lunch Pre Fix Menu with a $12.95 category and a $16.95 category. 

For this price, you get an appetizer, your main course and a dessert. 

We both ordered the same exact trio. Go figure, lol. 

For our appetizer, we ordered the Calamari Arrabiata Semolina. Yes we ended up with two orders, one for each of us. Yes, they were both a normal sized appetizer. Lots of calamari = 2 happy ladies. The calamari came with two dipping sauces: a yummy plum tomato sauce, and a more spicy one with hot Italian cherry peppers... Oww! :)

"Calamari Arrabiata Semolina: crusted calamari fried and pan sauteed with fresh garlic, hot Italian cherry peppers, finished with a plum tomato sauce" - Ciao Baby Menu

Eggplant Rollitini

For our main course we each ordered the Eggplant Rollitini. They come with macaroni, for mine I ordered the mashed potato alternative, and yes, they placed that rollitini right on top of the mashed potatoes. YuM!

"Eggplant Rollitini: egg battered thinly sliced eggplant with ricotta Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh herb filling, topped with plum tomato sauce, served over macaroni"

                    - Ciao Baby Menu

Dessert is important, and I'm glad with the choice we made! 

We ordered the Homemade Ice Box Cake, two of them! 

I can't even describe how delicious this was. 

Graham Crackers layered with thick, rich chocolatey pudding, 

served with a side of homemade whipped cream 

(the lightest, fluffiest, more tasty whipped cream ever) 

and a strawberry slice. So sinful but so good!

Maybe this picture *might* do it some justice:

Homemade Iced Boxed Cake

Kodiak's Burgers, Wings and Other Things..

Kodiak's Signature Wings with the Memphis BBQ Rub

This is basically Part #2 to a previous post from last month. "Kodiak's Fried Chicken Wonton's & Lobster Fritters"  where a group of us went to celebrate a friend's birthday! We ordered such a variety of food, now that I've sorted through all my saved pics, here's round two! What the rest of the table ordered...

BBQ Grilled Cheese

"BBQ Grilled Cheese: Texas Toast Memphis style pulled pork with melted Muenster cheese & our signature BBQ sauce"...

12oz The Colossal Steakhouse: Filled with smoke house bacon bits & aged cheddar, topped with Alpine lace swiss, fried buttermilk onions & drizzled with BBQ sauce on our Bavarian pretzel Roll"

- Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar Menu

12oz The Colossal Steakhouse Burger

Signature Stuffed Mountain Man Burger

"Aged blend of prime chop meat, grilled to perfection topped with
melted mozzarella, sauteed mushrooms, friend buttermilk onions & A1 sauce"...

- Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar Menu

Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar is located in Farmingdale, New York. 

A Rainbow...

A Rainbow... 

How often do you get to really see a rainbow? 

After a light rain shower on a super hot and humid summer day, 

this is what appeared off into the distance... 

Greek Soup & Salad at Panera Bread

Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

So I stopped at a Panera Bread during a little day trip. Yes it's a chain, but there's nothing wrong with that. Their food is awesome, and fresh, regardless! :)

I love their soups and salads. Every now and then they change up their menu to go along with fruits and produce better available during the particular time of year...

Greek Salad

Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup & some Greek Salad...

do you seen a theme yet? 

For any of you who have been following my posts, 

you probably already know how much I love Greek food. 

My friend opted for a Turkey Sandwich and a Caesar Salad.

Turkey Sandwich

Caesar Salad

Mario's Bakery Casino Birthday Cake

Casino Themed Birthday Cake

Once again Mario's Bakery  hit's the spot with this winning birthday cake! :) This 2 tiered cake is so festive you almost forget it's an actual cake and not a centerpiece. Let me tell you though, this cake was so good.
The bottom tier, the larger tier, had 2 layers of vanilla cake with chocolate fudge in between. The top tier had 2 layers of vanilla cake with fresh strawberries, bananas, and vanilla pudding in between. The icing was a whipped cream icing (my favorite kind) which is light and fluffy compared to buttercream and other super sugary sweet types. Both layers were ridiculously yummy, and I'm not a huge cake-cake lover.

In case you're curious..
Previous Mario's Bakery Post:
http://foodadventuretravel.blogspot.com/2012/02/mario-cheesecake.html

Kodiak's Fried Chicken Wonton's & Lobster Fritters

Fried Chicken Wonton's

So last month a group of us went out to celebrate a dear friend's birthday. We decided to make a reservation at Kodiak's Restaurant & Bar located in Farmingdale, New York. I have never heard of the place but one of my friends who was helping me orchestrate the event said it was awesome and we should go... so we did, and they were right.

Lobster Fritters with Avocado Slices and Mango Salsa

         
We started with drinks and appetizers and ended with a round of carving board sandwiches and burgers.

The Fried Chicken Wonton's & the Lobster Fritters were PERFECTION :)

I can still taste them.

The sandwiches and burgers are HUGE. I don't think anyone was able to fully finish their plate. 

A lot of take me home containers were distributed around the table at the end of this event. With the sandwiches and burgers you get to pick your choice of fresh baked bread: Brioche Bun, Bavarian Pretzel Roll, Oat Topped Whole Wheat bun, Italian Hero, Flour Tortilla Wrap. Come on! A juicy burger on a pretzel roll! You know you want to try one! haha

Kodiak's isn't your typical Restaurant or Bar... Car Shows, Bike Nights, Jukeboxes, 

Video Games, Pool Tables, 50 Flat Screens, Cooking Classes, a Concert and Events schedule 

and DJ's on the weekends, and all kinds of beer, drink and food specials throughout the week.. 

There's something for everyone any day of the week. This place is pretty amazing and I can't 

wait to go back sometime on the weekend when the joint is in full swing.

The All American on a Bavarian Pretzel Roll

The pics in the post courtesy of my bestie KLC :)

Sakura Sushi

My bestie and I love Sushi!                 I think it may be starting to border obsession status, but we're not complaining. So she found a new sushi place for us to try called Sakura, located in Farmingdale, New York.       We decided to order a variety of rolls and share, which is what we seem to always end up doing in these situations. This time we went for the Boston Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Regular Tuna Roll and a Salmon Roll.

Sakura is smack in the middle of the downtown area, where other joints I love, such as Croxley's Ales, is located. Come to this area during the day for a nice lunch and a stroll or in the evenings for dinner and drinks. Visit on the weekends for a late night bar crawl or to dance the night away. Either or, this place has something for everyone any time of day, or night.

We went to Sakura around lunch time and ended up getting a really great lunch deal! 2 rolls and either a soup or salad for $8, and 3 rolls with either a soup or salad for $11... so the 2 of us had soup and shared 5 sushi rolls for $19... with such great savings we decided to splurge and get ourselves a yummy dessert!

Fried Ice Cream with Fried Banana's

Athena Greek Cuisine

Taramosalata (Greek Caviar Dip)

Looking for authentic, clean Greek cuisine, Athena Greek Cuisine was absolutely amazing! :) My best friend and I have a thing for Greek food. We <3 it so much and try to visit as many Greek spots as we can!

I wanted to try something different, something we never heard of or had before, so we started with Taramosalata (Greek Caviar Dip), which came with Olives, Tomato, Cucumber, Onion, Hot Peppers and Pita Bread for dipping. If you're looking for something interesting and unique, this ap is definitely worth a try. If you're a fan of hummus, try this! It's like a hummus dip with zinggg!

We also ordered the homemade Iced Tea, which came with slices of honeydew, lemon and a side of Greek Honey Sauce to add for sweetness. This was the best iced tea I've encountered so far in my life.

For the main course, we each had Gyro Platters. Lamb and Beef slices a top rice, served with Onion and Tomato with Fresh Pita Bread and some of the best Tzatziki Sauce on the side.

Gyro Platter

The Opa Grille is a classy, clean restaurant with great service and utterly delicious food.

Everytime a plate came out of the kitchen and brought to a table, we couldn't help but take a look. Everything that came out was fresh and spot-on perfect. I honestly can't wait to go back again and perhaps try the Mousaka or Spinach Pie.