Sometimes Foodie

Cream Cheese and Crab Wontons - Pinterest Recipe Review : The Pin

This is a VERY easy and VERY yummy recipe. (Plus the finished product looks professional and impressive.) Since pinning it, I have completely stopped ordering these from take-out restaurants!

All you need is a package of cream cheese, green onion, garlic powder, and oil. (You can check out THIS recipe for more details.)

The only modification I made to this recipe was adding crab meat. (I just mixed it in with the cream cheese filling.)

I have made these several times, and here are some flavor variations I have done:

Jalapeno Popper: I added shredded cheddar cheese and diced jalapeno peppers to the cream cheese mixture.

Pumpkin Pie: I had some leftover pumpkin pie filling and wonton wrappers from other recipes, so I fried up some little pumpkin pie wontons and sprinkled them with cinnamon.

Cherry Pie: The same as the Pumpkin, but with cherry filling.

Wonton wrappers are a fantastic item to have in your kitchen or pantry. They are easy to use and delicious! (I want to make some buffalo wing and pizza ones)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Frank’s RedHot Wings Pringles - Walmart : Lumberton, NJ

I haven’t had Pringles since they attempted a dessert line, and since I no longer see any of those flavors on the shelves, I’m guessing that didn’t work out. I wanted to like them, but the chips just weren’t good. (Check out my reviews on the White Chocolate Peppermint and Cinnamon Sugar versions if you don’t believe me.)

I saw an announcement online that the limited edition Frank’s RedHot Wings Pringles were being re-released. I’ve heard good things about this flavor, but I missed out on it last year. This time I was able to get a can before the shelves were cleared.

Like all Pringles, the chips are stacked inside a tall foiled container with a color scheme that plays off the flavor. For Frank’s RedHot, the design features a bright yellow-orange gradient and a bottle of buffalo wing sauce. Compared to the other packaging I photograph/review, Pringles have a lack-luster design. I’m not really liking this label, and I feel like they could have done a lot more with it.

Once opened, I could smell the traditional potato-flaky Pringles aroma mixed with a hint of hot sauce. (Really, it was more like a tangy vinegar aroma, than hot sauce.)

The chips have a very uneven dusting of red-orange flavor powder. Most of the chips have a thin, dull, diagonal streak of flavoring on the underside. There is an occasional chip with more of an even coating, but those are few and far between. The lighter the color, the less flavorful the chip.

The chips with a light streak, which are the majority, are barely flavored. They taste like a plain Pringles chip that might have a teeny drop of wing sauce on the edge. If you manage to find one of the chips with a more even coating, they actually taste a LOT like wings! The flavor is tangy, slightly sweet, and there is even a hint of chicken. Sadly, these properly coated chips are rare, and typically at the bottom of the can.

My biggest complaint is the severely uneven flavoring. If the chips had been coated more evenly this would have been absolutely delicious. (I will say these are the best Pringles I have had in the past year, but since I have only had the dessert line, that isn’t saying much.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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White Castle Burgers

Sorry I missed today’s update! I’ll make up for it by posting something awesome tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some photos from my last trip to White Castle in Tom’s River NJ. It’s over an hour away, so I go all out and buy a LOT of burgers. Everything in that first photo was just for me. (The freezer kind just aren’t the same.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Homemade Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks

Okay, I fell in love with the pizza dough recipe I reviewed yesterday, so I made another batch. It was just so delicious AND easy! I may have a pizza addiction. (And by “may,” I mean I totally do. And by “problem,” I mean don’t judge me.)

I used the same pizza dough recipe to make the base of these garlic sticks. Lauren, the original recipe writer, also has a cheesy garlic stick recipe, but I kind of made my own so I could use up more stuff I had in the fridge.

For my garlic sticks I used:

2 containers of Papa John’s garlic dip (I had several stockpiled away)

Shredded/Grated Cheeses: Fresh water mozzarella, Parmesan, shredded Italian blend, and white queso

Garlic salt

Romano cheese (like the kind you’d find in a shaker)

I had a LOT of leftover shredded cheeses from various recipes in the fridge, so this was a great way to use them up!

The base was made by following Lauren’s instructions.

Once the dough was finished, I stretched it out on a pizza pan and used a fork to poke uniform lines of holes into the dough. I then took two containers of Papa John’s garlic dip, the kind that comes with pizza, and spread them onto the pie. I let that soak into the dough for a few minutes, and then I began adding the shredded/grated cheeses. (I just eyeballed it and started adding them one by one until I reached desired cheesy-levels.) Once all the cheese was on, I sprinkled everything with a bit of garlic salt and popped it into the oven. (I baked at 425 F for 15-20 minutes.) After I pulled the finished pie out of the oven, I shook a little Romano on top and they were done!

These were fantastic! (Hey Lay’s! THIS is what cheesy garlic bread is supposed to taste like!) I am definitely going to make these again when I have friends and family over.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Homemade Pizza - Pinterest Recipe Review : The Pin

Here are some photos of the pizzas I made for dinner tonight!

I used THIS pizza dough recipe, that I found on Pinterest.

The recipe was VERY easy to put together, and the finished crust was crispy and delicious. What I really liked was that the finished product was sturdy enough to hold all the toppings I added.

I made 2 pizzas tonight, each one used ingredients I already had in my fridge.

Sausage + Veggie: Fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheese with red, orange, yellow, and green bell peppers, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, sausage, and banana peppers.

Cheese: Fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheese with garlic butter basted on the crust.

Both pizzas turned out fantastic and I plan on making another one tomorrow. (Possibly Buffalo Chicken or BBQ chicken.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Parmesan Goldfish -Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

I am not a fan of the original Goldfish crackers. (My sister and mother love them.) As a kid, Cheese Nips were my go-to cheesy cracker. Now that I am an adult, I am addicted to Parmesan, so I decided to give this flavor a try.

Goldfish are made by Pepperidge Farm, which uses foiled-paper-bag packaging for a lot of their products. The sweet Goldfish (reviewed here) actually broke the mold and used a foiled plastic bag, which I surprisingly liked more. Typically I like paper packaging because it provides a lovely texture, but I feel like the plastic bag kept my graham crackers fresh for a longer period of time. As for design, the bag follows the traditional Goldfish branding. Instead of cheddar, it features a little block of Parmesan. Instead of orange, it has a swoosh of green. This is not an amazing or innovative design, but it’s simple and it works.

Inside, the little fishy crackers are quite pale. Instead of the cheddar orange, these are the color of a typical soup cracker. The little fish smell lightly cheesy, but the aroma isn’t distinctly Parmesan.

These are pretty flavorful! Each little fish has a light dusting of salt, which you can physically feel in your mouth, and as you chew you get a nice Parmesan flavor with a cracker finish.

Do these taste like freshly grated Parmesan? No, but they are really yummy. Even though I don’t like Goldfish crackers, I can really see myself buying these again. I guess this flavor converted me. (My sister is looking forward to having these in her soup, but I think these might make a yummy breading for chicken.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Herr’s Boardwalk Salt and Vinegar Chips -Target : Cherry Hill, NJ

Salt and vinegar seems to be an acquired taste. People either love it, or hate it. As a kid I hated this flavor of chips, but now, as an adult, I can’t get enough of them.

The packaging has metallic pops of color with a matte background. (Most kettle chips seem to use a matte packaging, I wonder why?) The design uses overlayed textures to create a cohesive look between the brown, matte, areas and the blue metallic ones. This is a technique I use a lot in my digital work, but it is rare to see it applied to snack food packaging (especially chips). I think this design is really quite simple, but well thought out.

Inside, the chips smell like tangy vinegar. If you like strong vinegar chips, then these are the ones for you.

These are very tangy and delicious. The outside of the chip has the powdered vinegar flavoring and they are pretty heavily seasoned. You can actually feel the texture of the powder with your tongue on some chips. As for the chips themselves, the kettle cooking process produces a thicker, crunchier, chip than the fried variety. So the chips have a great potato flavor and texture.

This is my go-to brand (and flavor) of salt and vinegar chips. They are heavily flavored, and have a great crunchy texture. if you are a fan of this flavor combination, be sure to give these a try.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Chicken Teriyaki and Amanda Roll -Mikado : Cherry Hill, NJ

My sister and I went out to lunch today, and since I was craving sushi, we decided to go to Mikado. (I actually reviewed this place before and talked a bit about the atmosphere, here’s my last review.)

I ordered:

1 Amanda Roll

Chicken Teriyaki Lunch Box

Mikado has an amazing lunch menu. (Plus you get a LOT for your money.) The “lunch box” special is $9.00 and there are a bunch of options to choose from: curry, sushi, teriyaki, yakitori, and many more. With that, you get a salad, miso soup, a spring roll, 4 California rolls, and white (or brown) rice. I chose the teriyaki style chicken and my sister picked the yakitori chicken. That was plenty of food already, but I HAD to get the Amanda roll. My sister’s name is Amanda, so it was too quirky a coincidence to pass up.

The food was delicious. (I’ve already raved about the ginger carrot salad dressing, so I’ll skip over that.)

I have a confession to make. I don’t like miso soup. I know a lot of people love it, but I just don’t get it. With that being said, this miso wasn’t too bad. The broth was salty and there were little bits of tofu to add some texture, but I’m just not a fan. Although I wouldn’t want to order more of it, I did finish the bowl. The soup was the only thing in this meal that I didn’t fully enjoy, but even that wasn’t bad.

As for the rest of my lunch box, the chicken was tender and juicy with the tangy sauce. Each lunch box meal also comes with a spring roll and 4 California rolls.

The spring roll was tiny and very flavorful, while the California rolls were pretty standard.

Now, the Amanda roll was AMAZING. It is made with yellow-tail, tuna, jalapenos and a spicy, tangy, sauce. Although I ordered it on a whim because of it’s name, I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Cheesy Garlic Bread Lay’s - Target : Delran, NJ

I’m sure most of you have seen (or heard) about Lay’s “Do Us A Flavor” competition. If not, here is the gist of it. Lay’s created a build your own flavor app on facebook. Users made their own flavors which were compared and voted upon. (I actually participated and submitted General Tso’s Chicken as a flavor.) From all the entries submitted, the final three flavors were actually put into production to be tasted and voted on by America.

The three final flavors are:

Sriracha (My Review)

Chicken and Waffles

Cheesy Garlic Bread

This favor was really hard to find! I finally tracked down a bag (thanks to my friend Sean who texted me about their location) and now here is the review!

All three of the flavors have similar bag designs. The overall background has a pattern of random foods and voting slogans, but with a different primary color. (In this case yellow.) I like that the general design layout looks very clean and uncluttered.

Inside, the chips smell very cheesy. The aroma is similar to the Parmesan shakers at most restaurants and pizza joints. It isn’t a 100% authentic cheese, more like the processed shaker equivalent, but you can definitely tell that it is supposed to be Parmesan.

The first chip was really plain, I felt like I was eating regular Lay’s, so I tried a second chip. The second one had more flavoring, so these don’t seem to be very evenly seasoned. Some chips taste normal and others may be more garlic-y or cheesy.

After a few chips I figured I was able to weigh in on the flavor. The cheesy notes are pretty authentic! I was quite impressed that these tasted like a form of Parmesan and not Cheetos. The garlic is very mild, and you don’t taste much of it while you are eating the chips, but you are left with a garlic aftertaste in your mouth.

Overall, these were nice, but If I ate these with my eyes closed I would have thought that these were Parmesan chips, not garlic bread. I wish these had a stronger garlic flavor.

Out of the two flavors I reviewed I still LOVE the Sriracha. Even if they don’t quite taste like the real deal, they were spicy and delicious. I really hope they win. I have already gone through 3 bags of the Sriracha chips since their release, and even though these Cheesy Garlic Bread chips are yummy, I don’t see myself buying a second bag.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Lite General Tso’s Chicken and Wontons - Chinatown Garden: Washington DC

I had to grab a quick dinner before we made the 2 hour drive back to Jersey, so I headed into DC’s Chinatown for a bite to eat.

I decided to get an order of General Tso’s with some dumplings, but this restaurant actually offered a “lite” version which I have never seen before. I was curious, so I gave it a try.

The wontons were the doughiest that I have ever had. The filling was very minimal, and although the filling I did taste was quite nice, it was barely there. I felt like I was just eating fried noodles. This was not a good start to the meal.

Next up was the General Tso’s, it wasn’t fried and it looked really delicious. When I took a bite, the chicken had a really nice flavor and texture, but the sauce was lack-luster. I had asked for it to be spicy, but it was VERY sweet. Almost sickeningly so. I had to pile it onto white rice to balance out all the sweet sauce.

Overall, I find Chinese food to follow the same rules as pizza. You never really have a BAD pizza. The pizza might not be good, but it is never really inedible. So while this was not an amazing dinner, it filled me up and did it’s job. Would I eat there again? Probably not.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Palmer’s Giant Peanut Batter Cup - Dollar General: Cinnaminson, NJ

Today I have another giant Palmer’s cup. The cake version was simply…not good. It was artificial and VERY sweet. Let’s see if this one is better.

The packaging is a baby pink color which I actually don’t like as much as the lavender cake-cup wrapper. This shade of pink just seems obnoxious to me, but then again I am not too fond of pink. While the color is a bit off, the package’s design is much better. There are no creepy cartoon children. There is just a picture of a peanut butter cup and some text. I think this is much more sophisticated. (The cake Batter cup should try and look more like this.)

Inside the wrapper is a very large “chocolate” cup, just like the cake cup. (Again, the package claims that this candy is 1/4 lb but I didn’t double check.) Unlike the cake cup, this one does not smell artificial. (Well, not AS artificial.) This cup smells like processed peanut butter and milky chocolate.

Thank goodness this one is not as sweet. The filling is more like a creamy peanut butter with a touch of honey than the crumbly filling of Reese’s peanut butter cups. The filling actually has a nice honey-roasted flavor. I was pretty impressed, but I think it would have benefited from a touch of salt. The chocolate doesn’t seem to be “chocolate” at all, the flavor is more like a chocolate syrup than a milk chocolate bar. Together, both flavors work rather well, but alone the peanut butter filling is definitely the star.

While neither of these were gourmet, by any means, I did enjoy the peanut butter version quite a bit and it is leaps and bounds better than the Cake Batter variety.

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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Soft Pretzels and Buffalo Cheese Dip - Pinterest Recipe : The PIN

Time for another Pinterest recipe! I think I’ll try and do a Pinterest recipe every Sunday so I can slowly work my way through my recipe board.

I have been wanting some warm soft pretzels for a while, and pinned a bunch of recipes for them. I finally decided to make some last night and opted for this recipe which included some yummy buffalo cheese sauce for dipping.

The recipe was very simple and easy to follow. (Especially if you have a standing mixer with a dough hook.) At first glance the steps can be a little intimidating, since you boil the pretzels before baking them in the oven, but really it’s all very easy to do. (The boiling step is very important for the proper texture.)

The finished pretzels were soft and fluffy inside and chewy outside. They were perfect! The buffalo sauce was tangy and delicious as well, it tasted just like the buffalo chicken dip I made for the New Years party I went to.

The original poster made 8 pretzels with their recipe, but I made my pretzels a bit smaller and made 11. (They were still really big.) I am definitely going to make this recipe again! Next time I might make little pretzel nuggets instead. (Those are better for dipping.)

© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net

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