In Review: Mulberry Italian Ristorante

My fiancé took me to Mulberry's Italian Ristorante for my 24th birthday this past weekend. YUM!

I would never complain about going back, but I am still on the hunt for an Italian restaurant that is as good as Little Italy, in NYC. Here's what we ordered & my comments.

7up & RC cola - good, if anyone drinks a lot of pop like me, you know that this matters.

Stuffed mushrooms - I don't eat mushrooms, but Joe liked them!

House salads - the house Italian dressing, which is home made, was GREAT. Joe wasn't a super fan of the roasted tomato, but he doesn't love tomato so I'm not entirely sure why he ordered that in the first place.

Chicken Parmesan - Very good! The portion of chicken was more than plenty, I ate it for dinner that night & for two meals after that. I would have enjoyed some more pasta with it, the pasta noodles were delicious and I ran out while eating my leftovers and that made me sad. In general, I prefer a sweeter sauce as opposed to an strong tomato based one, which is what Mulberry's features. It was good, no if's and's or but's there - but I tend to favor the sweeter sauces.

Frutti di Mare - Spicy! The flavors were good, but it was too strong for me to eat. I tried a small bite off his plate, and that was enough for me. He enjoyed, as he likes spicy, but he did admit it would have featured the flavor of the meal a bit better if the hotness level of the dish was toned down a bit.

No dessert for us, because we were stuffed, but all their options sounded delicious!

I encourage you to go there, but I strongly recommend making reservations. It's not a huge place, and its quite popular, so call ahead and make reservations.

Also, from what I've heard - we missed out by not ordering THE MEATBALL. It's legendary, but from the size of it, I knew I would be full before my Chicken Parm came, so we passed. However, next time it is alllll mine!

Erica's Famous Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip

I am not the type to "toot my own horn" but I can not explain to you the amount of compliments I have gotten on this dish and how many people have asked for this recipe. There are several versions of this around the internet but if you want the best recipe you need to go right to the source - in this case, someone from Buffalo! So enjoy :)


Ingredients

1 brick of cream cheese
10 - 12 oz sour cream
1 large can white chunk chicken or 1 & 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Franks Red Hot sauce
Tortilla Chips [or whatever you want to dip in it]

1] Soften cream cheese in microwave; 30 seconds, stir & another 30 seconds should do it.

2] Add sour cream and mix until it is reasonably consistent

3] Open can of chicken, drain out juices. Stir chicken in can until it is 'frayed' out into small pieces. It should look like this when its done:

It is easiest to pour out the can into a separate bowl and use a fork to fluff it, I just do it right out of the can because I have had a ton of practice..

4] Add in chicken and stir until it is reasonably consistent

5] Add cheese and stir until it is reasonably consistent

6] Add hot sauce, *TO TASTE*, and mix until it is consistent in color

I actually don't measure the hot sauce, I tried to give you a ballpark guess, but I just judge on taste.

7] I use tin foil disposable trays because once this gets baked it is very difficult to wash, however you can use any oven safe dish. These below are 3" x 6" x 2" small loaf pans.

8] Sprinkle some cheese across the top & bake in oven at 325F for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted

*I prefer to bake the dip, stir it, let it cool in the fridge, then reheat it, because it thickens & I like it better than way*

And the final reason that this is the best recipe ever, because it can be done without dirtying a ton of dishes

ENJOY! & let me know your thoughts!