Weekend Update: Labor… er… Memorial Day!

Posted by Erin L. in Weekend Update and tagged with BBQ, beurre noisette, brown butter, browned butter, butter, chipotle, dessert, deviled eggs, eggs, holiday, Memorial Day, picnic, rice krispie treats, rice krispies, weekend September 5, 2011

Whoa, summer! Slow your roll! I can’t believe it’s already Labor Day and I’m just now getting around to posting about Memorial Day. Dre + I aren’t up to much this holiday weekend so I’m happy to throwback to one of the best BBQs I attended all summer – Jenny C’s White Trash BBQ! I was sort of in “introvert mode” that day so I just laid back, shot some photos, and enjoyed the delicious food into the suburban Jersey night. Of course, I showed up with some solid BBQ staples and was thrilled they were such crowd pleasers. How can you go wrong with deviled eggs and rice krispie treats? You can’t… and I did them oh-so-right!

Chipotle Deviled Eggs FTW

Now let’s take a hot minute to talk about my rice krispie treats. I discovered a super simple way to make them Snap, Krackle, and mother-effing POP like no other rice krispie treat before it. Melt some butter in a sauce pan, melt it some more w. a few swirls of the pan, melt it until it starts to brown but careful enough that it doesn’t burn… and proceed with your usual back-of-the-cereal-box recipe. Brown butter instills a distinct nuttiness that no one can deny. Extra marshmallows are a no brainer, as well, and a sprinkle of sea salt to finish them like a salted caramel doesn’t hurt either. Steal my secrets. Do it. Everyone will love you!

Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

See the rest of my Memorial Day photos on my Flickr photostream….
including Gilly Jo’s Grilled Cinnamon Pineapple and the 100ft Slip + Slide!

Quickie: Marathon Catering

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie and tagged with breakfast, catering, corporate, delivery, dessert, events, food, lunch, marathon, Marathon Catering, marathon grill, Marathon restaurants, pastries, Philadelphia, restaurant, restaurants, salad, salads, sandwich, sandwiches April 13, 2011

I can’t believe it’s been 10 months still I started at Marathon. I’ve learned so much about how a family-run six-restaurant local chain with successful catering & private event departments functions and thrives. My role began as the Director of Sales & Marketing, but when our event planner left, I was tossed right back into the private events world and juggling many hats. There’s certainly pros and cons to every job, but I truly appreciate the times I get to let my talents shine. With the recent update of our catering menu, I had the opportunity to shoot some photos of the amazing food we deliver to Philadelphia businesses every day. Let’s eat!

Rise + Shine

Jay’s Hand-Cut Turkey Sandwich

Market Salad

Sweet + Salty

I can’t speak of Marathon Catering & Events without a shout-out to my office ladies.
You bring (update: brought) sunshine into each of my work days! Thank you.

Marathon Catering & Private Events
215.561.0500 | www.eatmarathon.com/catering

Weekend Update: Italian Market Festival

Posted by Erin L. in Weekend Update and tagged with 9th street, al pastor, cannoli, chili, chocolate chip, cilantro, corn tortilla, dessert, dining, dinner, food, italian market, lime, lunch, lust, mango, Mealticket, Mexican, Philadelphia, pork, powdered sugar, restaurant, ricotta, salsa, salsa verde, spicy, street food, taco, tacos, Termini, tortilla, Trompo May 25, 2010

After our Spring Patio Brunch, Kerry came to scoop Tom, Dre, & me to join her at the Italian Market Festival. 9th Street was alive with South Philadelphians, music, arts, &, of course, amazing food! We settled our brunch over a few beers and perused our snack options. Dessert was up first! The Italian Market has always had a battle of the cannoli between Isgro Pasticceria on 10th & Christian and Termini Bros. on 7th & Dickinson. This day, Termini Bros. wins with their fresh “filled to order” cannoli! The cream was a cool, decadent on a hot South Philly day.

Termini Bros. Cannoli - Filled to order with a smile!

Termini Bros. Cannoli

Making our way back down 9th street, we relocated the impressive Trompo of marinated pork for some tasty Tacos al Pastor. Again, “to order” service with a smile!

Trompo of Al Pastor on the Italian Market

The spiced pork was moist & tender and brimmed with flavor & depth. What I was truly impressed by, however, were the tortillas. Each order didn’t just call for hand-shaved pork, but also hand-pressed & fresh grilled corn tortillas. To top them off, literally, were fresh cilantro, mango, and salsas. Taqueria Los Taquitos de Puebla (9th b/t Ellsworth & Federal Sts.) “officially” wins best tacos in Philly!

Tacos al Pastor

UPDATE: Special thanks to Drew Lazor, of CityPaper’s Mealticket food blog fame, for the shout-out! Without you, dude, we wouldn’t be able to do what we all do so well.

Italian Market + Food Love = Al Pastor Lust

Saturdays w/ Sarah: Chocolate Stout Cupcakes w/ Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted by Erin L. in Saturday w/ Sarah and tagged with baking, beer, brown butter, butter, chocolate, cocoa, cream cheese, cupcakes, dessert, flour, frosting, Guinness, icing, stout, sugar, vanilla January 2, 2010

I hope to make a habit of spending more time in the kitchen with my friend, Sarah. For our first session, we decided to bake something to start getting in the holiday spirit. We poured some vodka cocktails, played some Rummikub, and cracked open a Guinness for a batch of Chocolate Stout Cupcakes. We followed a simple Dave Lieberman recipe on my FrankenBerry.

The Ingredients + The Frankenberry

I measured out each ingredient as Sarah combined them. Nothing better than a batter from scratch!

Mixing Bowl

I like extra large muffin tops on my cupcakes so we filled the cups to the top. None of that 2/3 full business.

Batter cups

Cream Cheese Frosting seemed like a perfect topper to these cupcakes but I knew adding Brown Butter would make them even better. After a few samples, I packed up a plate of the oozy, sweet Chocolate Stout Cupcakes for Sarah to enjoy at home. Til the next Saturday…

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes To-Go

Quickie: Snacktime w/ Chef Brauny

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie, via Blackberry and tagged with birthday, cake, chocolate, dessert, shortcake, strawberries, strawberry, whipped cream December 1, 2009

I’m embarrassed to say, but we didn’t get Olivia a Birthday Cake today! She’s always the one on top of taking care of the rest of us coworkers on our birthdays, so thanks to Chef Brauny for whipping up a yummy Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake for her! YUM!

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

Quickie: Snacktime w/ Chef Derek II

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie, via Blackberry and tagged with dessert, galette, nectarine, Quickie, snack time, summer, whipped cream August 19, 2009

Chef Derek to the rescue, again! Woke up at 4am to get to work at 6am, so needed a midday pick-me-up to regain any chance of productivity. Today, he delivered this delicious Nectarine & Granola Galette to my desk with a bowl of fresh whipped cream. Wish we had snacktime like this every day!

Netarine & Granola Gallete

P.S. I have 4 meals in the queue waiting to be blogged about so you can continue to drool over their deliciousness! Between lots of wedding planning @ work and a visit from Mama, running low on blog time. Promise updates SOON!!

Quickie: Snacktime w/ Chef Derek I

Posted by Erin L. in Quickie, via Blackberry and tagged with biscuit, dessert, peach, peaches, snack, strawberries, strawberry, summer, whipped cream August 12, 2009

As many of you know, I not only love cooking, eating, & sharing meals with friends & fam – I work in the food biz, too! This November I’ll celebrate 6 years with Max & Me Catering. I moved up the ranks from the greenest of banquet servers to my current title of Senior Sales Manager. I have the not always glamorous, but very rewarding, job of planning weddings, fundraisers, convention events, & corporate galas from the the menu & timeline to the look & “feel” of the events. But enough of all that… it’s really the food I care about!

Today, Sous Chef Derek made us an awesome summer afternoon snack! Possibly the best “shortcake” I’ve ever had & damn sure the best biscuits! Apparently some sort of process involving freezing & grating butter & sour cream is what makes them so scrumptious! Can’t wait until the next Max & Me snacktime…