Last November I went to work in Austin with Tara and Tina.  One day for lunch Tara took us to a place called Taco Deli, where the selection of tacos was unmatched to any I had ever witnessed before.  One of the tacos I had was called the Papadulce..."oven roasted sweet potatoes, grilled corn, roasted peppers, caramelized onions, toasted pepitas and a chipotle camote sauce".  Since the Taco Deli is hundreds of miles away, it's not somewhere I can just stop by and I considered asking Tara to FedEx me some, but I don't think they would make the trip.  Saturday I decided to create my own.  I skipped the corn, added cilantro and cojita cheese and about 30 minutes later I was enjoying my very own version of the Papadulce.  It's one of those things that I just threw in some of this and that, so I'll try my best to put together some sort of recipe.  It's a delicious alternative when you might want to go meatless.  Click here for the "recipe".

I've got 2 words for you...brown butter.  I've been on a kick of browning the butter in things I've been making to see how much the flavor is changed....improved I should say.  It started when I was developing a recipe for the "Home is Here" magazine story I did for the holidays (available in the next few weeks).  Brown Butter Rosemary Mashed Potatoes....I don't really need to say anything else.  AMAZING!  I could have sat down with a fork and eaten the whole bowl.  Over the weekend I made Butternut Squash Lasagna Rolls, and for a sauce I decided on a Bechamel type sauce.  I browned the butter for it and it was, again...AMAZING.  So sometime back I had heard of Rice Krispie treats made with brown butter, and tonight I whipped up a batch to see if those too would be AMAZING.  I did the basic recipe for Rice Krispie Treats, but I cooked the butter until it was nutty brown and smelled so delicious, I wanted to eat it right out of the pan.  I added the marshmallows, let them melt and then the cereal.  After I pressed them into the pan, wait for it...........I sprinkled sea salt over the top!!!  I  know!  Crazy!!!!!!  The best part of it is that it takes just over 5 minutes to make a panful of nutty, sweet, salty goodness.

I'll get the recipe out for the Butternut Squash Lasagna Rolls on the recipe page...it's a great, fall comfort food kind of dish, perfect for the weekend. 

In case you need to know, the way to brown butter...here's some help.
1.  Over medium heat, melt the butter in a saucepan, swirling the pan occasionally.
2.  Stir often, and watch as the butter solids turn brown and the butter smells toasty, maybe 3-5 more minutes.
3.  Watch carefully, because the butter can go from good to burnt in an instant. 

I just returned last Thursday from a few days on Cape Cod.  It was my first visit, and it came just after the busy season, so it was really an incredibly wonderful, relaxing trip.  Shawn and I flew to Boston, then took the ferry across to Provincetown, where we met up with our friend, Bill.  The weather couldn't have been better and the food just as great!
We tried to hit the "must eat" restaurants.  The Mews, which turned out to be my favorite meal of the trip, was amazing.
Starting with a Blue Marlin carpaccio, with seaweed salad and moving onto a 4 peppercorn crusted tuna with horseradish mashed potatoes, I was in seafood heaven.  The dirty martini was delicious as well, but honestly, I've never met a dirty martini I didn't like (except for the ones that I make for myself...)  The other dinner highlight was a place called Front Street.  I had an amazing Seafood Puttanesca and we shared a bottle of Malbec.  Our breakfasts were equally as delicious, an omelet stuffed with butternut squash, caramelized onions and goat cheese at a little place called Devon's, a breakfast burrito stuffed with spinach, eggs and black beans at Cafe Heaven and Eggs Schlosberg at The Post Office Cafe.  It consisted of wheat toast, topped with corned beef hash, a poached egg and melted cheese. 
We did lots of walking and sight seeing.  We climbed to the top of the Pilgrim Monument, went on a whale watching cruise (we saw about 15 whales and about 30 dolphins).  We visited a local winery and a restored life saving station.  The trip, as most do, ended way to quickly and then back to reality.  We ended up the week attending the Peoria Symphony Orchestra "Broadway Tonight" performance.  It was very good, and a preview of some of the shows coming up in the Broadway Theater League.  I'm excited to see some of the performances.  As for now, Dan is coming for his first visit to Peoria, so we'll be hitting all the best places for dinner around here...I'll report on those later.  Have a great week.