Valentine's Day Treat!

Happy New Year everyone!

There are visible signs that the holidays are over; spent Christmas trees line the sidewalks, pointy hats and noisemakers are packed away, and stores have replaced their winter wonderlands with little pink hearts. That’s right; Valentine’s Day is just around the corner!

This change in scenery has made me think back on some of the recipes I’ve used in the past to celebrate this day of love, and how nice it would be to share them with our readers. One of my favorites that I’ll share with you today is my famous flour-less cake! Prepare this for your loved one, and we guarantee a happy Valentine’s Day.  Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Flour-less Chocolate Cake             Bake 30-35 minutes  

Ingredients:

¾ lb plus 2 oz unsalted butter

15oz semi sweet chocolate chips

10 large eggs (separated)

1 ¼ c. unsweetened cocoa powder

21/4 c. sugar

½ tsp. salt

2 ½ Tbsp. Vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a springform pan by brushing it with melted butter and lining the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

Combine butter and chocolate in a large, heatproof (glass or stainless steel) bowl and then rest it over a pan with boiling water (double boiler) until melted – be careful not to burn it!

Sift the cocoa powder and sugar in a bowl, then set it aside.

Whip egg whites with salt until it forms soft peaks- be careful not to over whip.

Remove chocolate/butter mixture from double boiler and stir until smooth, and then add cocoa mixture, egg yolks, vanilla and ¼ of whipped egg whites. Stir until smooth.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in remaining whites until they are just blended. Do not over mix.

Put mixture in springform pan, then place it in a larger roasting pan and fill that halfway up with hot water.

Bake 30-35 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the cake should not be completely clean, and if you shake the pa, the cake should be jelly like in the center. Allow the cake to cool .

Serve cake with fresh whipped cream and raspberries to really fit the holiday!

Big news for Laura and Tony's!

If you've been to Laura and Tony's Kitchen recently, you may have seen our awesome new rack cards! They look so great, we just had to thank our graphic designer, Darren Wotherspoon Design, for his fantastic work! We've been getting compliments on it ever since we got them, and we think they really capture the spirit of fresh food and fantastic environment that defines Laura and Tony's! Darren is a local artist who has gotten international recognition, and we could not be happier with the work he's done for us. Come in, check out his work, and try some of our fantastic buffet while you're at it! 

But that isn't all!  Hopefully by now you've heard our new radio ad. My niece Lauren makes an appearance, and we show that this family friendly restaurant has a fantastic atmosphere, great prices, and more food in our buffet than you could ever want! We had a ton of fun making it, and we hope you have just as much fun hearing it. 

Laura's Famous Bagel Recipe!

At Laura and Tony's restaurant, we are proud participants of the slow food movement. We make food with fresh ingredients, and we give it the time and care it needs to become the absolute best. As a result, we get a lot of interest from customers who want a taste of Laura and Tony's Kitchen at home. We hope that the recipe serves you as well as it serves us, and come in to let us know how it turns our for you!

Laura's Bagels

Starter: Let sit for 2 hours

4c all purpose flour

1 tsp yeast

21/2 water room temp

For the dough- add to the starter

1tsp yeast

3 3/4 flour

1 tbsp sugar

Let dough stand at room temp for 20 minutes, and then put on a sheet tray. Cover with plastic and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight .

To finish, fill a heavy metal pot half with water and add 2 tbsp baking soda, then bring to a boil. Take the dough and cut it into 12 pieces. Roll these pieces into a ball then pierce with thumb and shape them - place in boiling water for 2 minutes for a chewy textured bagel. Remove from water and place on a greased sheet tray( if you want to add a topping like sesame seeds or poppy seeds do so while bagels are still wet ). Place in a preheated oven ( 425*F) for15 minutes then lower the temperature to 350*f for another 15 minutes.

How we made Southern Specialties a staple on our buffet!

When we were developing the items to feature on our “ Amazing Breakfast Buffet”, we knew that we would have the basics; eggs , potatoes, pancakes and sausages. But we also wanted to include some more unique items, including one that we enjoyed on our winter road trips down south – Sausage Gravy and biscuits!

Many a salesman tried to convince Tony that the gravy should be made the easy way, with a pre-made mix: “just add milk”.  This didn’t satisfy us.  Instead, Tony set to work, and with a little trial and error he found the perfect recipe for this southern specialty!  Like everything at Laura and Tony’s, it is prepared fresh and from scratch. 

At first people were very skeptical. Then it became so popular, we made it a buffet staple!

Our success with the gravy inspired us to expand our menu even further with Southern Specialties.  Tony’s father John, an avid hiker, inspired us to create a meal that sticks to your ribs and gives you energy all day long.  One of his favorite breakfasts while hiking was grits; a southern breakfast staple. 

The grits we serve are no ordinary grits. My husband makes them with the same love reserved for a creamy polenta, adding caramelized green onions, ham, or andouille sausage with caramelized red onion. And, of course, always finished with Cabot Cheddar Cheese, and more importantly, always delicious!!

We know have people coming in and asking when the grits will make it to the buffet.  I wonder what  we will think of next to add to our “ Amazing Breakfast Buffet”?  Come in and give our southern specialties a try, and suggest anything else you’d like to see on our menu!

Our Food Philosophy

Our motto is “Fresh is best”! One night, while preparing Tony's Award Winning Clam Chowder for a catering event, we realized that our kitchen doesn't even have a can opener! Tony actually had to run to our house to get the opener; we laughed, but this is an example of how we believe that fresh ingredients produce fresh results.

We prepare all of our buffet items from scratch using fresh ingredients. We focus on local, organic products whenever we can! We do all of our cooking in small batches to help ensure that all of our customers enjoy a warm and tasty breakfast, fresh from the kitchen!

We serve “The Beanstock “, an organic Sumatra Coffee. It's locally roasted, and sometimes the beans are still warm when they deliver! Who else can say that?

We squeeze our own orange juice daily - we know that we could save a lot by purchasing “ Fresh squeezed Orange Juice” but we have taste tested them and our fresh squeezed is just that much better. No preservatives , no pasteurizing - just the juice of the orange!!

To put it simply, we've found that fresh, organic, and local ingredients make the best food. We use the same philosophy when it comes to our catering menu - Fresh is always Best! Come in and try it; we think you'll agree!

House Made Cinnamon Rolls

Many years ago  I remembered going to this funky little café in Vermont.  They served the best coffee in mismatched coffee mugs and  an amazing Cinnamon Roll that came straight from the oven - it was so warm and so delicious that I wanted to try to recreate that experience for my customers at our restaurant!
I played  with a recipe until I was able to get it as close to what I remembered. Now, we are proud to say that at Laura & Tony’s Kitchen, we make our Cinnamon Rolls daily and serve them warm straight from the oven; the way they taste best!
        They have definitely caught on through the years. We even have customers who like to buy them unbaked so they can bring them home and enjoy them hot from their own oven.  Our Cinnamon Rolls are in big demand!
  Of course, those aren’t the only baked goods we serve.  We also have our Signature Carrot Cake with an Old Fashioned Cream Cheese Frosting and our own Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping, among several other additions. Most importantly, we are happy to be able to say we do all baking at Laura & Tony‘s Kitchen!!

How Laura and Tony's Kitchen came to be….

        We were winding down another season at “ Aesop’s Tables “ and although we loved working at “Aesop’s”,  we always had a dream, like most chefs I know, about owning our own restaurant.

  Late, one afternoon in October, I was driving on Route 6 and I saw that the Art Deco building that  was formerly occupied  was finally available. I quickly  pulled over and called the landlord - we set up an appointment to meet the very next day.

        I convinced  Tony to join me, just to look, but  it was love at first site for both of us. We returned the next day and  quickly gave the landlord a deposit. We had been looking for years for a place of our own, and come very close to buying buildings in years past, but we had always had a feeling that it wasn’t quite right. With this building, neither one of us had any other feelings then this was the one , the funky building that would be perfect to showcase our food!!

   We were  lucky to have our good friend David Martin (who is very creative) to help us design the dining rooms, filling them with glorious color to reflect the spirit of our restaurant.  Dave also created a colorful mural on the wall for us that joins our two dinning rooms. It can even be seen through our vast windows from Route 6!

   As far as the name, we spent days (which felt like weeks) filling notebooks with all kinds of possibilities.  In the end we couldn’t agree on any of them; those who knew us, however, were already calling it Laura and Tony‘s! We settled on “ Laura & Tony’s Kitchen” because that’s what it is! It is OUR kitchen to express our creativity through our food and to nourish all who enter through our doors!!!