A Cereal Inspired Dinner

 John and I are big fans of chicken dishes when it comes to cooking our own meals. So, as always, we decided to cook chicken for dinner this past Tuesday night. To spice things up a bit we decided to try coating our chicken with Frosted Flakes. This sparked the idea for a "cereal inspired dinner." Along with our chicken, we also made Rice Krispie Sweet Potatoes.
 Preparing the chicken was actually a good time. I got to take my aggression from the day out on my Frosted Flake coating, by smashing it with my fist instead of crushing it some other way (this just seemed more fun)! However, mixing the butter into the coating was not as easy as it was supposed to be. This may have worked out better if our butter was completely melted, but it was not. Consequently, our coating did not stick as well as we had hoped to the chicken, so we ended up sprinkling it on top. Once it came out of  the oven we were pleasantly surprised with the way it turned out. The Frosted Flake coating had not fallen off and they looked appetizing. When eating this dish, John suggests dipping in BBQ and I suggest making a gravy because it was a bit dry.   

Ingredients for Frosted Flake Chicken:

• Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cups of Frosted Flakes
• 2 tablespoons of MELTED butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of water
• salt 
• pepper
• poultry seasoning (we used "Perfect Pinch Original")

For directions on preparing this recipe visit: http://www.food.com/recipe/cornflake-crusted-chicken-328726

 The Rice Krispie Sweet Potatoes were absolutely delicious for all of you sweet potato lovers out there. The mixture of the cereal, marshmallows and potatoes was perfect. The recipe was super easy and did not require much preparation aside from mixing the ingredients in a bowl. Once the dish came out of the oven the cereal was now a golden color which made it looked really nice (I wish we had remembered to take a picture). We thought that the meal would be too sweet when put together, but luckily the two recipes complimented each other nicely and we enjoyed a sweet but not too sweet meal.


Ingredients for Rice Krispie Sweet Potatoes:

• 2 cans (23 ounces each) sweet potatoes, drained
• 6 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 cups miniature marshmallows, divided
• 2 cups Kellogg's® Rice Krispies® cereal
• 3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar 

For directions on preparing this recipe visit: http://www2.kelloggs.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?id=1750

Good Dog Bar and Restaurant

  We were recently watching an episode from the tenth season of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" during which we were excited to see that one of the feature restaurants was in our hometown, Philadelphia. During the show they featured some of the foods Good Dog Bar and Restaurant specializes in such as: truffled cheese steak empanadas, and duck pot pie.
  Last night we weren't in the mood to cook or go anywhere too far so we figured it was a perfect night to try out this bar and restaurant. After conquering the feat that is Center City parking, we walked into Good Dog. We were like lost puppies not knowing if we should seat ourselves or wait for a hostess because it was surprisingly busy for a Sunday night. After deciding to seat ourselves in a bar-side booth, we looked over the menu and decided that all appetizers was the way to go.
   We ordered:

• Truffled cheese steak empanadas 
• Tinga quesadillas
• Classic chilled spinach dip

    After ordering we had a chance to look around at the decor of this bar and restaurant. The walls were covered with pictures of all types of dogs. The lighting was dim and there was music playing loudly in the background. There was definitely a large age range which varied from a younger crowd to middle aged men and women.
  Our food came out rather quickly and all at once. First, we tried the "Classic chilled spinach dip." This dish was served with cubes of pumpernickel bread and a bowl of the cold spinach dip. The cubes of bread were a change from the usual tortilla chips usually served with dip. We, however, thought they were a bit too heavy for the dip and we found ourselves full after only a few cubes. The "Tinga quesadillas" was John's dish of choice.  Although he enjoyed them, he didn't find them to be anything special. The one and only set back in the quesadillas was a small chicken bone that he found inside. Our favorite was by far the "Truffled cheese steak empanadas." They were small, fried, pockets of ribeye steak and truffled cheddar cheese. They were such a different take on the classic Philly cheese steak, a staple of our hometown. Some definite positives we found in these was the lack of grease, mess, and heaviness of a normal cheese steak.
  Overall:

• Likes: choice of seating, quick service, Truffled cheese steak empanadas
• Dislikes: volume of the music, pumpernickel cubes with the spinach dip

  If you are looking for a twist on a Philly classic Good Dog Bar and Restaurant is the place to go! 

Address: 224 South 15th Street
              Philadelphia, PA 19102
*If you would like more information go to: http://www.gooddogbar.com/

**If there are any restaurants that you would like to see us write about please e-mail us or comment with the name of the place!

Mission Statement

 After much debate we finally settled on calling our first blog "Mission Statement." John, being the business major that he is, was adamant on having a structured business plan for our blog. I, Alicia, just want a good reason to go out and try new restaurants. So with a little business and a little fun we embark our journey through the culinary world.
 In all seriousness we hope to bring you our opinions on each restaurant we go to.Our tastes are not limited to one kind of cuisine so our blog will incorporate all types of restaurants. Not only do we like to go out to eat but we also like to cook. So, we will also write about our experiences in our own kitchen. 
  We started this blog because our dream is to one day become restaurant and bakery owners. We hope that through our experiences we will gain knowledge about what we would like our business to become. We frequently find ourselves criticizing the meals, service and ambiance of the places we go so we thought this would be the best way to save our thoughts for our eventual business planning.
 We plan to write at least once a week about our experiences in restaurants or our kitchen. Enjoy!