Lucile's: Boulder [Colorado]

When I visited my sister last week in Boulder, we wanted to end the trip with the bang, so what did we do? eat :)


We went out to breakfast at Lucile's. It is a little breakfast restaurant located in a house {reminded me of Logan} in downtown Boulder. For those of you who haven't been to Boulder, you need to go visit it at some point in your life. It is a very unique place. It is beautiful. There are tons of places to hike and many other outdoor activities. Everyone is very healthy there. In fact, I hate driving in Boulder because there are so many pedestrians and so many bikers. The people are a little crazy though, so watch out. Most of them are high, which can be pretty entertaining, but a little scary sometimes.


The people of Boulder take pride in being different from everyone else. Therefore, it has a lot of places that are unique only to that town. Lucile's is one of the many.

Not only is it adorable, the food is amazing. Okay, well the items Jess and I ordered were to die for. Seriously. It may have been the best breakfast I have ever had.


We started out with an appetizer called beignets. They are New Orleans style doughnuts - they looked liked scones to me and tasted like sopapillas. mmm.

Beignets {$4.75}

On the table, there were two jars of marmalade to dip the beignets into. One was orange and the other one was more of a tart flavor, but I am not sure what it was, strawberry something maybe?


After we devoured those, we moved on to our main course...since I am terrible at deciding what to order, Jess and I got creative and ordered two different meals, each eating half. 

Meal number one: Eggs New Orleans {$9.20}

Fried eggplant slices with creole sauce, poached eggs, and hollandaise. Served with grits or potatoes and a biscuit. 

Again, I apologize that all of my pictures have a bite taken out of them. I get too excited to eat and forget to take pictures until halfway through my meal. 

I love eggplant. However, there are not a lot of restaurants that serve it. Most restaurants that do serve it, never cook it very well. I swear every eggplant I have ever had has been soggy. I try to stay away from fried eggplant, too. Just a tip: if you ever go to an italian restaurant that fries there eggplant- DO NOT ask for it not fried because 99% of the time it will be gross. The only restaurant I have ever found with eggplant that is not fried (and actually good) is Romano's Italian Restaurant in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. My sister, Jessica, worked there for a long time and she would always bring me some home. It is layers of UNfried eggplant that is cooked to perfection (not soggy and not crunchy), along with cheese and marinara sauce.  

Lecile's unfortunately fries their eggplant, but I decided to go all out and try it. It was not a mistake. The soft poached egg with the crispy eggplant was a perfect combination. The red sauce provided a little spicy flavor, but it was countered with the creamy hollandaise sauce. Also, it was filling! After finishing this half of my meal, I could only eat half of the second one. 

Lecile's serves grits! The first time I tried grits was in Alabama last year. I only tried grits because I had no idea what they were and I knew they were some kind of famous Southern food. Now, every time I see grits, I order them! They are so good! I have never seen grits on a menu since I went to Alabama, until Lecile's. 

Moving on...to the biscuit... unreal. The picture doesn't do it justice, this thing was HUGE! It was sweet and fluffy and delicious. 

That was only the first meal. Here comes the second:

Second Meal: New Orleans Praline Waffle {$8.45}

A pecan batter waffle topped with pecans, fruit, and fresh whipped cream. Served with praline syrup.

Normally, I don't order waffles at restaurants because I think it is a waste of money. Usually they taste like the ones you make at hotels (which are good), but I don't want to pay $8 for a waffle I can get for free at the Holiday Inn. I like my waffles soft, too, and most of the time restaurant waffles are too crunchy for me. Or maybe it is just that my mom makes the best waffles on Earth and it is hard for anyone to compete with that. Whatever the reason, I usually skip the waffles and go for my favorite- the french toast. Today, I decided to change it up. A pecan batter waffle. It jumped out at me. 

The waffle was soft, but not undercooked. It had pecans in the waffle as well as on top. There were fresh bananas and strawberries on top, along with some serious whipped cream. To top it off, the syrup was to die for! It wasn't your average maple syrup. It was a lighter color and a lighter, sweeter flavored praline syrup. This was definitely the best restaurant waffle I have ever had.

Third Meal: Totally Organic Breakfast {$13.95}

Eggs scrambled with spinach, tofu and ginger topped with sesame carrots. Served with whole wheat toast.

I apologize for the bad quality of the picture... but I guess it goes with the Totally gross Organic Breakfast. Nicole was trying to stay on the lighter side and decided to go with this meal. It was only her second time eating tofu and I think it will be the last. For $14, the only good thing was the toast. Maybe people that eat organic food often would like this meal, but we certainly did not. So if you ever go to Lecile's, don't go when you are on a diet because you will regret it.

Everything about Lecile's makes for a great experience. Located in a cute house in downtown Boulder, with a feeling of a southern home, this New Orleans restaurant is worth every penny- and pound :)  

If you want to check out Lecile's menu, here is the link:

Lucile's Menu

2124 14th Street, Boulder, CO 80302303-442-4743

303-939-9848 FaxMap to Boulder Location

Hours of Operation
7am-2pm Monday through Friday
8am-2pm Saturday and Sunday
Call-ahead seating accepted Monday through Friday. 

Chicago Style Deli:Dallas

Shout out to my best friend Juss, who went to Dallas this week to visit her boyfriend and sent me a picture of this aweseome deli she ate at. She went to a sandwich place called Old World Sausage Company: Chicago Style Deli and said it was the best sandwich she has ever had. So if you live in Dallas or are just visiting, stop by this place. It is located in downtown Dallas, right next to the farmer's market.

Juss got the open face roast beef sandwich which had roast beef, mozzarella cheese, sauteed red and yellow peppers, and sauteed onions, all on a hoagie roll. Looking at some other reviews online, the Roast Beef and the Rueben are both popular choices. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the Roast Beef sandwich. 

Here are some other items on the menu:
Pasta Side, Vienna Hot Dog, and the "Beef" sandwich: 

  "The Best" Reuban Sandwich - Big Enough for 2 people! 

  Here is their website if you would like to look at their menu:

Old World Sausage Website

Here is where they are located: 

Location

Spring Rolls

I am in the biggest spring roll phase right now. They are so fresh and so healthy for you, perfect for summertime :) Since the only place in Utah I have found good spring rolls is Mi La Cai, and it is all the way in Salt Lake City, I decided to go big and attempt some on my own. Since my favorite food is a mango, I decided to try some Mango-Shrimp spring rolls. They were amazing.

Ingredients for Mango-Shrimp spring rolls:

 

Rice Paper

I found this at Macey's, they didn't have it at Walmart

Vermicelli Noodles

a.k.a. Rice Noodles

p.s. you only need to buy one package of each of these, they make a TON

Thai Kitchen Chili and Ginger sauce

Also found at Macey's

Other Ingredients:

1 Cucumber

Fresh Cilantro

Mint Leaves

1 bag of medium-sized shrimp

1 Avocado

2 Mangoes

Directions for Preparation:

Step 1. Boil a pot of hot water- enough to cover the noodles. Once the water is boiled, put the dry rice noodles in a large bowl, pour the water over the noodles, and let sit until the noodles are soft (about 10 minutes) and then drain water.

Step 2. Thaw shrimp in a bowl of cool water

Step 3. Cut the cucumber julienne style, in about

(1 cm wide by 3 in long) ish..I only ended up using half a cucumber

Step 4. cut the mangoes in long slices as well (same as cucumber)

Step 5. Slice the avocado into strips

Step 6. wash and cut leaves off cilantro. Chop into small pieces

Step 7. Wash and chop mint leaves

To make the spring rolls:

Step 1. Get 2 plates, fill one with water and leave the other one empty

Step 2. Take one sheet of rice paper, lay it flat on the plate with water, and submerge until the paper is completely under the water. Push it down for about 3 seconds and then carefully (try not to wrinkle) lay the paper on the empty plate.

Step 3. Immediely grab a small handfull of noodles, fold them into thirds and lay them on the paper.

Step 4. Add a couple pieces of each ingredient (fight the urge to add too many ingredients or the paper may rip)

Step 5. Fold spring roll like a burrito (short ends first and long ones afterward). At this point the paper should be sticky and it shouldn't be hard to hold together.

Step 6. Pour a few tablespoons of the dipping sauce into a dish or on the plate and Enjoy!

If you like peanut sauce, here is an easy recipe:

Peanut Dipping Sauce:

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves (optional)

Directions for Sauce:

Step 1.  Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of cold water; set aside

Step 2. Whisk together soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, white vinegar, sesame oil and 1 cup warm water in a small saucepan over medium heat; simmer and stir until sugar has dissolved

Step 3. Stir in the cornstarch mixture; simmer until sauce is thick, 1 or 2 minutes, serve warm. Garnish with chopped peanuts and mint leaves if desired.

Grandma's Bakery:Logan

There was about a span of 4 months last year when I was obsessed with cake pops. Just ask the people sitting around me in my Economics class. They heard more about cake pops that semester than they did problems with the economy. 


For those of you that don't know what cake pops are.. here are a couple examples to get you up to speed: 

Mr. Potato Head Cake Pops

Cupcake Cake Pops

Microphone Cake Pops

Spa Cake Pops

Ice Cream Cake Pops

Rudolph Cake Pops

Just wait: These are what I Really want to make: 

Mustache Cake Pops!!

Mustache and Lips Cake Pops!!

The possibilities are endless

When I finally decided to bake them, I made cake pops almost everyday for about a week, and every single one failed. So, being stubborn and persistent, I bought a cake pop maker, hoping it would solve all my problems..that was a negative. I couldn't figure out how to keep the cake pops on the sticks and make them perfectly round. Anyways, I never mastered cake pops and sadly moved on. 


Last week, a couple girls on my team and I ventured up to Richmond to find a bakery that I read about in the newspaper recently. Supposedly, there is a bakery called Under The Frosting that sells cake pops. I wanted to check it out and see how the lady makes such beautiful cake pops. 


We drove all around Richmond (it took us about 5 minutes haha) and couldn't find the bakery. However, we stumbled upon a bakery called Grandma's. Someone Molli knew said she used to go to Grandma's all the time to get homemade Oreos, so we went in to check it out. 


They didn't have hardly any food there, literally only like 5 items. The girl said they bake everything on Mondays - so if you go  - go on a Monday. Luckily, there was ONE homemade Oreo just waiting for us to devour. After paying for my $.90 homemade Oreo, I split it into thirds and the three of us sat down to eat it. It was GOOD. The top and bottom were chewy chocolate cookies and in the middle was a thick, whipped vanilla frosting, that didn't run down the sides of the oreo (which I was happy about). 


All in all, the day was a success. The little Richmond bakery was a nice surprise. Molli, Alyssa, and I decided we we are going to start our very own bakery right next door to Grandma's (the space is available). So no one steal it :) We're calling it Grandpa's. 


Here is our homemade Oreo. 

p.s.

If anyone knows where to find the Under the Frosting bakery, or if it even exists, let me know :) There is still a little place in my heart for cake pops.