Motor City Casino Hotel, Detroit, MI

This was going to be where I told you that I would no longer be posting to this site, or at least I am taking a hiatus.  Bread pudding has gotten to be a habit that I need to break (among others).  I was ready to prey on your sympathy, though I can't think of a reason that anyone would feel sorry for me.  This is not a necessity.  ANYWAY, I am giving up bread pudding dessert, but on a technicality let me tell you about the GARLIC bread pudding I had at the Motor City Casino Hotel!  I totally avoided the sweets table because I was sated by this magnificent savory offering. A hint of rosemary and a subtle garlic flavor melded with some really good bread - I mean, could it have been stale and tasted this good?  I think some places are cheating and using fresh bread, but I digress.  I am thankful for this "transition" bread pudding and y'all pray for me that I have strength to resist any other surprises of the bread pudding variety that come my way.

More reviews in a bit (duration to be determined).

Price:  None, part of a lush buffet
Raisins: n/a
Sauce: n/a
Ice cream: n/a
Visited: July 2012

Butternut-Chard-Cheddar for the Nashville Food Bloggers Holiday Shindig

To debut the new version of the ratings, the forks, I review the Butternut-Chard-Cheddar Bread Pudding that I made. I found this relatively low fat (but high effort) recipe on A Veggie Venture.  It was well worth the effort, though I wish I had a sous chef to peel and chop the squash and wash and cut the chard.  The butternut, cheddar and sage melded wonderfully and the chard added a feel of rightness.  I used Great Harvest's Rosemary/Olive Oil bread as a base.  The custard was simple to prepare and I only needed a little more milk (I used 1% instead of whole), admonished by the instructions to make sure each piece of bread was moistened.  I will likely upgrade myself to four forks when I let the mixings soak together for a while longer before baking.  It was good!

I am so thankful for the incentive, which was the Nashville Food Bloggers Holiday Shindig.  It was my coming out party for the blog.  What a wonderful, diversely-inspired group of food writers.  I had no idea that people knew about it, so thank you, viewers!  And thank you to Lisa of Wine with Lisa for helping me add the email widget to the blog.

It was not the finger food that the Nashville Food Bloggers Holiday party specified, but hey, I write about bread pudding, so what was I to do?  Maybe I'll figure out a way to create bite sizes before the next event.

Oh, by the way, it's only 7 Weight Watchers points as an entree and 4 as a side.  It serves 8 or 16.

Many thanks to Teresa Blackburn for the lovely photos.  And a disclaimer because she is a professional food stylist, and there was a "glowy" lighting situation that defied her talent.

Firefly Grill, Nashville, TN

Talk about some kind of good! This was a savory BP with different types of mushrooms and fresh herbs. It was made with challah AND brioche so it was buttery tasting and flaky and fresh and crisp at the top, formed in a muffin tin. It was the size of a dinner roll and that was just right to give a hot different texture from the crisp asparagus, arugula/almond/beet salad, and sauteed spinach. I will back to Firefly Grill.

Price: $10 for vegetable plate
Visited: October 2011