Penne for My Thoughts

Hi everyone! I have a new, official website. Check this recipe out: https://www.penneformythoughts.com/recipes/easy-delicious-black-eyed-pea-soup There are a few inevitable things that come with New Year's in my house. The first is my sleep schedule getting messed up. The second is me beginning the countdown to my birthday and the third is this absolutely amazing black-eyed pea soup. It has been passed down my family for a while and I (shockingly) have made some minor tweaks. It is the perfect soup: meaty, warming, and absolutely delicious. I honestly make this soup all winter. I have no idea why people only eat black-eyed peas for New Year's day. Plus, it has been so flipflamming cold outside this week and, without this soup, I'm pretty sure I'd be an icicle right now. A very cold, unhappy icicle. Brr. Anywho, the full explanation-free recipe is at the bottom of this post if you'd like to skip my explanation.  Ingredients: 1 lb bacon 1 large onio

Hi Everyone- I have a new official website! Check this recipe out at: https://www.penneformythoughts.com/recipes/cinnamon-apple-fritters Hello everyone. It has been a while and I have missed posting. I usually do restaurant reviews but I've noticed that I am in the kitchen a lot more than I am out eating. It's more affordable and sometimes better tasting than doing out! I've had a lot of people ask me for recipes and honestly I have a hard time doing this because I just kind of make my own. So, this made sense to me. Perfectly crisp and delicious For the end of the year, my husband and I wanted to go out with a delicious bang. I had some beautiful honey crisp apples and an odd desire to fry something. So, I made cinnamon apple fritters. These are a lot like free form donut holes but with chunks of apple in them. Uh, yes please.We received a little home fryer last year and I really wanted to use it more because I love fried anything.  This recipe came t

Tom and I decided to go to Cafe Normandie for Valentine's day. Thank goodness this wasn't our first date because the experience we had was not good at all and it would have ruined the mood. Out of everything that we ordered, only the bread and one other thing was tasty. Everything else was either disappointing or just meh. The service was also meh and we got seated in a place where, every time the door opened, I was chilled to the bone (it was about 2 degrees when we went) and we were uncomfortable close to the two couples on either side of us. I actually can't even comment on the decor of the entire restaurant because our seats were pretty much in the entrance of the establishment. I would not recommend this place to enemies, let alone you lovely readers. It is expensive and you get nothing out of what you paid for. The Bread First, the brought out bread. There were three types- a sourdough roll, a traditional white roll and crusty white bread. I really enjoyed all t

My fiancee Tom came to me one day and suggested that we go to Vin 909, a farm-to-table food and wine establishment and an Annapolis staple. After looking at the menu, I was very excited to go try this place out. Amazing food, great company (thanks Tom!), great service and a very romantic atmosphere all combined to create a perfect night. As a warning, this restaurant is super popular (which is a good sign). Tom and I went late (7ish) on a Thursday night and we still had to wait for 15-20 minutes before getting a table. Plus, they don't take reservations here. So, get ready to wait if you want to eat here. First and foremost, I love wine but I am not a wine person. I look at a wine menu in fear because I will most definitely pick the one wine that I won't like. So, I told the waitress what flavors I like in wines and she steered me to a wonderful choice. Plus, Tom was excited because the beer menu wasn't bad, especially considering that this is a wine bar! Tuna Tarta

My family was so excited when Yokozuna Southside opened. Now they could get great sushi without having to drive downtown. Yokozuna (both southside and downtown) are super hip, sushi places with amazing sushi and entrees (for the people that aren't really feeling sushi). The issue that my family ran into here was horribly slow waiting times and bad service. Let me explain.. My family called and made reservations ahead of time. It was for 5 people and we know it gets booked. Plus, we had my grandfather there and he can't really stand around waiting for long. When we got there, they had a table for us in the loft. That's normally fine but my grandfather could not walk up the stairs (this is totally not anyone's fault, I'm just laying the groundwork).  So, we asked if we could get another table. Normally, you'd think that it wouldn't take them long to get a different table set up but, unfortunately, that did not happen. We waited for 45 minutes for our table w

I was looking for a new restaurant to try a while back and I came across Cafe Ole. Cafe Ole is a super tasty, fun Mexican restaurant on Brookside that has amazing and comfortable outdoor seating. So, I decided to drag my friend there and try it out and, man, I was super happy that I did. I would highly recommend this place. I try to eat here as often as I can. The food is tasty, the atmosphere is fun and the service is solid. Queso and my margarita First, we ordered the Ole Margarita and the Classic Queso (please note that they also have a Ole Queso that is cream cheese based. We did not order this). The margarita was absolutely amazing. It was the right balance of sour and sweet. Warning- the margarita was deviously strong! The queso was creamy, thick and delicious. It was definitely on the saltier side but, other than that, it was pretty great. Queso Relleno I ordered the queso relleno which is a roasted poblano pepper that is filled with cheese, battered and fried. It th