A Fun Spring Day (Part 1, Teatime)

March 25th was a splendid day for me, from start to end! Here is the first of a series of posts about my day...

It started off with Bikram yoga aka hot yoga in the morning. What a great way to start your day!

Then I headed to Orange to met up with onewishfulgeek at a teahouse called Paris in a Cup. We decided that we would dress up in vintage dresses for our teatime. She wore a off white lace dress and I work a button up blue and white polka dot dress. Since onewishfulgeek was running late, I decided to check out an antique store nearby. It was my first time in an antique store and it was so much fun to look around.

Now, on to what we had at the tea house. Onewishfulgeek ordered a green tea, which was light a fruity, and a chicken salad sandwich on a crossiant with a baked potato soup. I ordered a spicy black tea, which was pretty mild compared to chai and it was also known as a "lover's tea" whatever that means, and tea sandwiches with a broccoli cheddar soup. The food pretty good for a light lunch and the tea was splendid. After our meal, we got a cookie platter, that consisted of a raspberry or passion fruit macaroon, glazed puff pastry cookie, and shortbread cookies. They were all lovely, but my favorite was the puff pastry cookie.

The whole place is just so darn cute! In the front they have a little store with teatime trinkets and what nots. In the back is where the tea palor is. The staff there were all so friendly (they didn't even get mad at us for being late to our reservation) and wore cute aprons.

Paris in a Cup is located in the heart of old town Orange, which is the cutest and most quaint place around where I live. The area is centered around a big roundabout. The area kinda reminds me of Stars Hallow in Gilmore girls. There are cute little shops and restaurants and they have town events. One of them was a Civil War reenactment. I didn't know those happened anywhere besides the south! Anywho, I totally love the area and will be spending more time around there in the future hopefully! Also, I can't wait for my next outing with onewishfulgeek!

Little Cheesecakes

Mini desserts are so much fun! They are just the perfect size!  I've made a goal to make more mini desserts so here I start with my Little Cheesecakes....

Here is the cheesecake recipe I used. I also used Keebler's pre-made mini pie crusts that I found at the grocery store. Normally, I would make the crust, but I was lazy that day and wanted to take a shortcut.  

How to make the berry compote: I didn't use exact measurements this time. I placed about 16 blackberries, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tbsp of honey, and some lemon zest into a small saucer pot and simmered it until all the ingredients were combined and the berries were broken down. 

My littel cheesecakes came out perfectly! They were a great treat after a session of power yoga with DJ Sandok. He normally does not like cheesecake, but he told me that he liked mine and we each had one all to ourself. DJ Sandok is also the one who took these lovely pictures. Thanks!

Animal Restaurant

Last Sunday night, I went out to Animal Restaurant to celeberate my best friend's birthday. I read some reviews about the chefs and the restaurant before we went.

Key points from the reviews....

• great food
• really friendly staff
• the restaurant feels very New York
• must try the chocolate bacon dessert

I must say that all of them are right on. We were running late and they say they have a strict 15 minute leeway policy for your reservation but they were able to accomodate for us still. The restaurant is a little hard to spot, since it had no sign whatsoever posted on the outside. (I know, so hipster, right?) The only sign was at the valet booth, but we knew that ahead of time so it wasn't too big of a problem for us. The restaurant definitely felt NYCish. It was quite small with plain walls, dim lighting, and dark furniture. The ambiance was nice and I really liked it. (menu picture)
Now on to the food....it was WONDERFUL!!! Our table shared a bunch of appetizers. Fried hominy, sweetbread with creamed spinach, blood orange salad, and blanched kelp salad. The entrees we had were the rib eye with escargo (It's made for 2 and it was ginormous as you can see from the picture), the flat iron steak with potatoes, and a salad but I forgot what it was. My favorite dish was the sweetbread. My friend and I ordered it thinking that it would actually be bread but it wasn't. We learned that it is actually the thymus or pancreas gland from usually a cow. However, at Animal, the sweatbread was from a hen. It was delicious!

Finally, I get to talk about their desserts. Right now, I guess there is a trend of pairing bacon and chocolate or just puttin bacon in desserts in general. Animal is known for their chocolate bacon dessert, so of course we had to order it to try. I am not a huge fan of sweet and salty but it was pretty good. It was a dark chocolate fudge bar with walnuts and of course crispy bacon. The texture was like that of a Crunch Bar but less airy. We also ordered the tres leches cake. Again, I am not a huge fan of tres leches cakes, but this one was amazing!!! It had the perfect amount of moisture and sweetness to it. I'd definitely order it again!  (Tres Leches Cake and Chocolate Bacon Bar Picture)

I really enjoyed my time at Animal Restaurant. The menu changes daily according to what if fresh and available from local farmer's markets. I love the fact that they use local ingredients!