Restaurant Review - Redstone American Grill

Yesterday was my birthday, as a present my Mom watched the kids (Thanks Mom!) and sent us out to dinner...well it was to celebrate both my husband and my birthday, his was in October. We picked RedStone Grill in Plymouth Meeting, PA to have dinner at, and boy were we excited. We had heard huge praises about this place from friends as well as our favorite local morning radio show.

We had made reservations for 7pm because we weren't sure if we would be able to make it any earlier than that, but much to our surprise we were at the restaurant by 530pm. We walked up to the desk and explained that we were earlier but wanted to see if we could be seated and sure enough there were tables available. We chose to sit outside at the outdoor covered bar, it was awesome. They had heaters out there that would melt an iceberg so we were toasty warm, even though for a November night in PA it was warm.

Our waitress was Nicole (she was AWESOME) and she came over and introduced us to the menu and offerings since it was our first time. We looked over the menu and decided to order the Margherita Canyon Flatbread (brusdhed with basil pesto and topped with thinly sliced beefsteak tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, balsamic vinaigrette & fresh basil). It came out in no time at all and was a great start to our dinner.

As we were waiting for our appetizer to arrive we decided on our entrees and Nicole helped us to pick a great wine to have with our dinners. Since my husband really doesn't drink wine she was a great help to him. She brought him a few samples to try before he settled on a red wine to complement his dinner. She brought me a sample of Kung Fu Girl Reisling wich was very sweet and had a great flavor. We then ordered our dinners. I ordered the signature filet with asparagus and a loaded baked potato and my husband ordered a NY strip steak topped with crabmeat and bernaise sauce along with a side of mashed sweet potatoes.

Our dinners came out in a nice amount of time to leave us some time for conversation between our appetizer and our meal. And let me tell you it was worth any amount of wait for the food. The steaks were so tender and cooked perfectly. The asparagus had just the right amout of crunch and a great grilled flavor. The baked potato was cooked perfectly and topped with cheese, bacon and sour cream with a sprinkling of scallions. My husbands entree also cooked perfectly and the mashed sweet potatoes were so good, they were served in a little cast iron skillet with a topping of pecans and graham cracker crumbs. He said he thought they had a pumpkin pie taste and really liked them alot.

We made room for dessert because we shouldn't have had any after such an amazing meal and appetizer. We ordered the warm chocolate chip cookie sundae which came with vanilla ice cream, candied pecans and whipped cream accompanied by a chocolate fudge sauce. Since it was my birthday, which my husband only mentioned in passing (proving how attentive Nicole was) it was a nice surprise to see our dessert come out with this pretty sparkler. The cookie was baked in a cast iron skillet and was warm and gooey, the chocolate fudge sauce was so good we wanted to take the rest home.

Redstone Grill gets a HUGE recomendation from us as a great place for dinner. Their website, http://www.redstonegrill.com/ , has all of their menus as well as their wine list. Check them out for your next date night or special occasion, they will NOT disappoint.

Grilling

So our grill decided it has put those lovely grill marks on it's last piece of meat. Needless to say we need a new one. To make do till we have the money to get a new one I broke out the cast iron grill pan/griddle we got about 3 years ago from Cabelas. I love it!! So if you have an apartment or just can't get outside to grill you should totally think about getting a cast iron grill pan for that wonderful, smokey grilled taste.

Christening Cake

Yesterday was one of my bff's sons's christening. I went to the house to be there for the caterer to set up and they did a fabulous job! She used Studio M caterering from North Wales, PA. The food spread was phenomenal and I would LOVE to have their pineapple salsa recipe...it was to die for. Check out their spread

I was honored to make the cake for his party.

The cake was from a recipe off of recipezaar.com. It was sour cream yellow cake. http://www.recipezaar.com/Sour-Cream-Yellow-Cake-99866. I filled with with yet another recipe from recipezaar.com. It was a strawberry creme filling. http://www.recipezaar.com/Strawberry-Cream-Cake-Filling-93743 Everyone said it was really good, I had a small piece and I really like it too.

pizza

I love pizza and so does my family. We were craving bbq chicken pizza the other night so I decided to give it a go. Something simple enough right?? Well here is what I did.

1 can of pillsbury pizza dough (I have tried the thin crust and regular and like both)
1 bottle of sweet baby rays bbq sauce
1 package of perdue chicken strips (the cooked ones that you can use for salads and stuff)
1 pouch mozzerella cheese
1 pouch chedder cheese mix

Place the dough on a pan, you can use a cookie sheet as the can instructs or you can use a pizza pan or stone and just form the dough into the circle shape. I used the cooking instructions right on the can and pre-baked the pizza dough before I topped it. I let the dough go until it was almost completely done baking and pulled it out of the oven. Take the bbq sauce and put some on the pizza crust, to you liking...some like more sauce than others. then take the chicken and either dice it or tear it into smaller pieces and spread it all over the pizza. Cover with the Mozz cheese and them sprinkle on the chedder cheese. For a decorative effect I put some bbq sauce ina criscross pattern on top of the cheese. Put back in the oven long enough to melt the cheese and to be sure the crust if fully baked.

My hubby loved this pizza and so did our neighbors, it is now a highly requested item for parties and game nights. Hope you try it out and let me know what you think and how you made it your own.

a little about me, the cook

I figured maybe I should introduce myself. I am a stay at home to a VERY active 2 year old. I love to cook and hope to someday go to culinary school. I am not a chef, but a cook. I like to take recipes and make them my own and I love to make up my own stuff. When I make up a recipe I hardly ever measure so my recipes turn into a little of this and a little of that. But I will do my best to guess if I place the recipe on here. Hope to get to know some people with the same passion for food that I have. Should be an adventure!

Super Bowl Munchies

I know the game is over but it is never to late to talk about food, right? So we had quite the spread to cheer the Steelers on to victory! From pork bbq in the slow cooker, BBQ chicken pizza, pizza bake and tons of munchies. It was a great success but we of course in our normal fashion had way to much food.

We had a fruit tray and at the last minute decided to make a fruit dip. Well I searched on www.recipezaar.com to see if I could find a good fruit dip. All I had was an 8oz block of cream cheese and some pantry ingredients (sour cream, powdered sugar, vanilla). All the recipes I found called for marshmallow creme which I didn't have so I decided what a better time to experiment but with a crowd to tell you just want they think of it. So here is what I came up with.

Fruit Dip
8oz block cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 tsp of vanilla
about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar (start with 1/4 cup and work your way up till it's sweet enough for you)

I put all of these in ingredients in my favorite appliance in my kitchen...my red kitchenaid stand mixer. Using the paddle attachement I set the mixer on 2 and let it blend for a little while. After a min or two I scraped the bowl with a rubber spatula and then mixed it again on 2 until it was well blended. Stuck it in the fridge until it was time to eat.

Everyone loved it, including the kids! So it was a hit for me...if you use it please comment I would love to know if you changed it up to make it your own or if there was something about it you didn't like...that's how I learn.