Honey Bear’s slider trio, Te Haru sushi, Jack’s rotisserie pork butt with beans and rice, Trattoria del Piero and lemon bars for Easter

Happy Easter, Everyone!

My aunt Char has summoned me to make lemon bars for our dinner today. She is doing a bbq turkey and olive oil/lemon marinated broccoli, Mom is making potato salad (I think that is the plan) and dessert is being brought by yours truly. I was a bit daunted at the task, since the only other time I made lemon bars was from a mix (they did turn out pretty good) but my days of cooking from a box are over (albeit making Uncle Ben’s wild rice mix because it goes with everything).

Char provided the recipe (courtesy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook), which eased my fears. The kitchen is smelling very good right now, I just finished making the lemon bars…and now you can do the same.

Lemon Bars:

1/3 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

powdered sugar (optional)

Beat butter with an electric mixer and add 1/4 cup of the sugar. Beat until combined. Beat in the 1 cup flour till crumbly. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 8x8x2 inch baking pan. Bake in an 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine eggs, the remaining sugar, the 2 tablespoons of flour, lemon peel, juice and the baking powder. Beat until thoroughly combined. Pour over hot baked layer.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes more or until lightly browned around the edges and the center is set. Allow to cool and sift powdered sugar over the top. Cut into bars. Makes 20. In the spirit of abundance (and at my aunt’s behest) I doubled the recipe and used a larger pan. For this recipe I was very glad that I have a Microplane zester-grater. You can zest citrus in a snap with one of these. I borrowed this picture from Microplane’s website. Since I am promoting them, and use their product, I hope they don’t mind.

If you don’t have one yet, I am pretty sure you can get one at Standard Restaurant Supply on McDowell and 29th Street.

http://www.standardrestaurant.com/ecom/app/forward.action?page=%2Fapp%2FphxMap.jsp

Last weekend Jack was working on a friend’s car (other duties as assigned) and he was quite hungry after the job, so we headed over to Honey Bear’s for some lunch.

We took it home so we could watch movies from RedBox (don’t ask me what movies we watched because I’ve since done a data dump). Honey Bear’s does these cute sliders – you can get the trio meal and a drink (it comes with a side – think coleslaw or beans) for under ten bucks. The trio of sliders is pulled pork, brisket and pulled chicken.

Yum yum.

http://www.honeybearsbbq.com/

On Sunday Jack had to trade cars with friend so he could work on her car (other duties as assigned…continued) so we decided to meet for dinner at Te Haru sushi in Tempe. This place is fun. You pick your sushi plates off the conveyor belt and all are $2 or under.

A steal, really. We three ate and ate for less than $50.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/22/723449/restaurant/Phoenix/TeHaru-Sushi-Tempe

The kitchen wench has new seat covers on her cute car! Just in time for spring.

Ladybugs are good luck, and as we have a lot blooming right now, flowers seem appropriate.

Early in the week, Jack made fried tilapia. We found some beautiful filets at Mekong Plaza market and I have been craving fried fish, so when I came home one evening after a long day of work there was this beautiful plate of fried fish.

It was so good! We had Uncle Ben’s wild rice mix on the side with green beans Jack prepared with bacon (mercy, heavens) and slivered almonds. I know, he is a real gourmet.

On Friday we were celebrating the end of the week (and month end …since we both work on commission month end can be a big stress reliever) with a pork butt Jack had marinated with citrus, salt, pepper and garlic and had lovingly placed in his rotisserie oven (he boiled it first to get off some of the fat). He also made red beans with ham hocks and Puerto Rican red rice.

We both ate two plates and I might have enjoyed two ciders from Angry Orchard.

Yesterday Dad and I spent a wonderful part of the afternoon at Bilmore Fashion Park, where Trattoria del Piero is located (conveniently). I had been wanting to go there for awhile for a lunch opportunity as they make sandwiches, salads and have a full bar. We shared a salami sandwich which came with coleslaw and a few marinated olives. I drank a vermouth straight up with a couple of olives (not pictured) and Dad opted for a prosecco.

We also chose an arugula salad with bacon and candied pistachios. We might have also drank a couple of mimosas made with almond champagne and peach juice. If you don’t drink you should just get one and smell it. The almond smell is overwhelming and the taste is crisp and fresh.

This place is owned by the nice folks at Queen Creek Olive Mill, so it is local, which I like. They do a board and bottle for $20 two nights a week and then board and bubbly one night a week. That sounds like such a deal, I will have to go back.

http://trattoriadelpiero.com/

We shared a flight of olive oil mini cupcakes in 5 flavors. Lime, chocolate, orange, vanilla and lemon.

Dad has this wild look in his eye like Giancarlo Gianni did when he was about to pounce on Mariangela Melato in the movie Swept Away. Haven’t seen it? You must.  But make sure the kiddos are out of the room.

In the spirit of Easter I would like to say that I am excited that we may have Federal benefits for same sex couples soon. And I am very happy about the new Latino pope…I mean, how many Latinos are Catholic? It was a good move for the Vatican. Now we just need some females as priests and I might convert.  Probably not, but I like that the new pope wears humble shoes (no red Pradas) and washed prisoner’s feet this week. Some humility in religion is not a bad thing.

Skiing at Snowbowl, dinner at Fez, St. Patty’s day in Las Vegas and Dad’s birthday at Avanti

We had a great time skiing at Snowbowl a few weeks back. It had been awhile since Jack had been skiing, and it turned out that he never lost his touch. The weather was beautiful (spring skiing, think slushy snow and no-jacket required). We were able to rent equipment right on the mountain and our hotel in Flagstaff (Rodeway Inn) had all of the creature comforts of home. A great dinner at El Criollo. If you go to Flagstaff, you must eat here. We enjoyed fish and pork belly tacos, ceviche, margaritas and chicken tortilla soup. I believe they also have a Tucson location in the works, so check before you are heading in that direction. You will want to eat there. On their happy hour they have a Sonoran hot dog wrapped in bacon. Enough said!

For some reason, a bloody mary tastes very good while you are sipping it on a mountain.

My friend Rob just headed home for South Carolina. He spent last week visiting me and Jack here in Phoenix. He also was the catalyst for our trip to Las Vegas.

Yup, two nights (count em) at Excalibur. Our view was amazing (from the 26th floor no less). Their pool area is really beautiful. If you can pull a couple of days together and make a trip to Vegas, you should do it. A fun town, even though we didn’t gamble that much. Just a little video poker. Our hotel had Krispy Kreme (deadly) and Baja Fresh so we were able to get our feed on quite easily. We didn’t make it to the MGM Seafood Buffet as we had planned, so we will have to make a trip back in September when Carlos Santana will be playing at House of Blues. I know. A sacrifice. We did enjoy some live St. Paddy’s day music on the strip, along with a Guiness, in the spirit of showing our support for the Irish.

When we got back home, we needed a feed (I mean you can’t go from a vacation right back to the kitchen) so we stopped at FEZ. OMG. You must go and eat at FEZ. It was happy hour and Jack enjoyed a regular margarita, Rob ordered the citrus version and I stuck to Kiltlifter.

Their dinner specials are a must-try. $8.95 for arroz con pollo (the seasonings in this dish were out of this world) and the pork chop with fingerling potatoes and brussel sprouts in a lemon sauce was very juicy. Oh. Mercy. Heavens. And their fries are deadly. We had fries two ways: with rosemary and harissa spices. Quite a punch. And we shared a creme brulee and had fancy coffee with Bailey’s, vodka, Kahlua and I don’t know what else was in there.

I just know I was feeling really good.

Recently Dad had his birthday and we celebrated at Avanti. If you have $100 and a date (or not) go there and have yourself a special dinner. They make a pretty good manhattan (I might have enjoyed two). They serve escargots, oysters, shrimp cocktail, and the list of special offerings goes on and on. My entree was a beef shank ragu with homemade wide pasta. I cannot wait to go back and order this again. Also, next time I will have the Benito salad. It has shrimp and avocado. We all got a little gussied up for the occasion.

It was a super-fun evening.

Today I picked up a pair of crocheted earrings from the nice lady at my Walgreens at 44th St./Indian School.

Her daughter makes them for $5.00 a pop. I think it is such a deal. Just go and see her (I think she is the only redhead there) and place your order. Or I can do it for you.

Jack made some latkes last week with mini sliders. I think I ate three latkes and one slider and then I needed a wheelbarrow to move, honestly.

We bought some mini kaiser onion rolls onion from Karsh’s bakery on 7th Street. They also make hot dog buns and if you don’t want to go all the way down there, you can also get them at AJ’s.