More catching up and a Panera review

Posted on January 6, 2014 by glenderella

Some more catching up in the New Year. Hopefully, I will get back to blogging more regularly, and these entries will be a little more coherent, rather than inspired by my pictures and what I can remember.

I actually finished a project this weekend, a hat for my niece. Will wait until she receives it to post pictures. I was developing a pattern from a picture, and it is not quite exact, but hopefully she (and her mom) will like it. If I make another one, I will have a better idea of how to do it.

Here are some cinnamon rolls I made this fall – it is strange for me to make cinnamon rolls because I grew up eating caramel rolls and calling them cinnamon rolls. But the DH prefers cinnamon rolls, so I usually make them. Using the Speedy Roll dough recipe.

I also ate at Panera bread this fall, specifically to try their seasonal menu items. Of course, then I neglected to get this posted while they were still available. But maybe they will bring these back. The Rigatoni San Marzano pasta – this was OK. The tomatoes in the sauce were nice, the peas were pretty pointless. The sausage in the sauce was good. Panera does a good job of cooking the pasta al dente, at least at the Panera shops I have been to. The turkey harvest wheatberry salad was also tasty, the wheat berries were a little soggy but I liked the vinaigrette.

Rigatoni San Marzano pasta – Panera Bread

Wheat berry salad, Panera

Quick dinner idea: roll up ham and cheese in crescent rolls and back. The DH will eat just about anything rolled up in a crescent roll. (Well, so will I.) Easy dinner for work nights, with a green salad or vegetable.

Ham and Cheese Crescent Roll-Ups

Tried a new place in Westminster, Goody’s Eatery, for breakfast. Two thumbs up! Nice decor, friendly staff, good food. I had the Huevos Garcia Hashbrowns, green peppers and onions, PKWY green chile, melted cheddar jack, two eggs over easy.

Goody’s Eatery – Huevos Farcia

Had a day off from work so ate at Taigun for lunch – on of my favorite places but not open for lunch on Saturdays. This was one of their lunch combinations, it was good. Not as good as on-the-coast sushi, but good. I really should stick to rolls in the middle of the country. /

Sushi Lunch, Taigun, Broomfield, Colo.

And this is the duck ramen at Uncle – finally got to go there with my friend E. We had the brussels sprouts for an appetizer, which were amazing. If I could figure out how to make those we would be having brussels sprouts once a week. Well, I would be having them, at least…..

Duck Ramen, Uncle, Denver

Tomorrow: Current projects!

Fried chicken, Fried chicken

Posted on July 8, 2013 by glenderella

Fried chicken, Wishbone restaurant, Westminster, Colorado

The Wishbone is quickly becoming our favorite restaurant. I believe this picture is from the meal where I suffered a small “incident” wherein a bone from the piece of chicken I was trying to eat came unattached and then flew through the air like the bone at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fortunately it landed in our booth and didn’t hit some other innocent diner. I thought Ken was going to have a heart attack, he laughed so hard.

Wishbone’s fried chicken is my favorite fried chicken that I have had in the Denver area. It comes with mashed potatoes (from a mix but good) and neon yellow chicken gravy. You get a cup of extra gravy, to use as you wish, whether you want to dip your Texas Toast in it or just drink it. I have learned that the best thing for me to order is the 3-leg dinner. If I get carried away and order soup as an appetizer, I get too full. Ken really likes the chicken tenders. Last Friday was National Fried Chicken day, so of course we had to eat there, with my friend Cathy who is also a Wishbone fan.

Also last week, Leo the cat got his summer haircut:

He actually seems to enjoy being cooler, and of course he gets all kinds of attention from us. And attention is what he loves best.

I don’t just eat fried chicken at the Wishbone. I am willing to try others.

Fried Chicken at the Southside Restaurant, Limon, Colorado

I was on a work trip and we ate at the Southside Restaurant at Limon. I think everyone else had the chicken fried steak, but I was very happy with the fried (broasted?) chicken. Real mashed potatoes. Nice warm roll. We did not have the crabby waitress experience that several people mentioned in various online reviews.

On the same trip, we ate at Shorty’s in Granada, Colorado. This is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, family-run, not the cleanest, but there are not a lot of dining choices in Granada, Colorado. I had to have the nacho cheese enchilada along with a regular enchilada. They were both tasty. No free chips/salsa here, but you do get a free serving of ice cream at the end of the meal. And free entertainment if the family’s 4-year-old daughter is there.

On work trips, we usually eat at Chez Du Vall’s in Granada, but it was closed on this particular day. Chez Du Vall’s is quite a good restaurant, we have had many meals there with meetings and with trade teams and have always had good food.

That evening, we had a dinner meeting at The Route steakhouse in Burlington, Colorado. They always have good food, too, although I recommend sticking to what they are best at: steaks.

The next morning, our meeting was at Dos Hijos Mexican restaurant in Keenesburg, Colorado. They opened early for us to have our meeting. They have a breakfast menu but usually don’t open until 10:00 a.m. Well, when I see something like “Breakfast Stuffed Sopapilla” on the menu, I have to have it.

It was pretty good. Their spicy green chile is actually spicy, which I am in favor of. The sopapilla is stuffed with your choice of meat, plus eggs and potatoes. It certainly filled me up.

We didn’t have a lunch meeting, so we ate at the Home Plate Restaurant in Fort Morgan, which I would also recommend. I just had soup for lunch, because I was saving room for the dessert fruit-stuffed sopapillas. It was a sopapilla kind of day.

We shared peach and cherry around the table. They were Amazing.

: Fruit Stuffed Sopapilla, Home Plate, Fort Morgan, Colorado

Fruit Stuffed Sopapilla, Home Plate, Fort Morgan, Colorado

Do not pass up the vanilla ice cream with them.

All in all, another tasty trip around Colorado.

San Francisco Trip Report 2013 – Part One

Posted on May 20, 2013 by glenderella

Oy! This weekend – some sewing, lunch in Boulder with a dear friend that I hadn’t seen in a couple of years, Front Range Gardens nursery (peonies on sale!) an attempt at the perfect recipe for Sesame Chicken (FAIL), weeding in the garden and flower beds and planting the two new peonies, then on Sunday: Hoarding estate sale (scary!), Paulino Gardens nursery (Crowded!) and grocery store – then nap! Turkey breast in the oven for dinner, and then planting of some of the flowers I purchased. So, this isn’t a very long entry because I didn’t have much time to write. I am tired just reading about it again!

I had the opportunity to return to San Francisco this January for a work trip. I am lucky I get to travel with my current board president, who also enjoys taking an extra day around some of our work trips to do some sight-seeing. So we planned on staying an additional night and going to see Alcatraz, the Embarcadero, trolley cars, Chinatown, and whatever else we could fit into one day! And then I stayed a little longer on the last day to see my newest nephew, O.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Airport – it was fine, just not at all close to downtown. I think it was a $60 cab fare to downtown, but since we were all there for a meeting, it made sense and was cheaper to have the meeting near the airport. But it looked to me from my internet research that the hotel was in a food desert, and that turned out to be pretty accurate. So I made sure we were well fed after we landed – the Yankee Pier Seafood restaurant at the San Francisco Airport. Both S. and I had the clam chowder, and then I had the “Triple Play,” which is 3 oysters, 3 prawns & dungeness crab cocktail, which was excellent.

Triple Play Yankee Pier

S. had the shrimp tacos, which she said were good but were quite spicy.

Shrimp Tacos, Yankee Pier Seafood Restaurant

Here is my room at the Hampton. It was nice and quiet, everything I needed in a hotel room, staff was very pleasant.

Hampton Inn Airport, San Francisco

Sorry for the bad lighting, I am still figuring out how to best shoot hotel rooms….

Hampton Inn Airport, San Francisco

The afternoon we arrived, I taught an optional short class on Facebook and Twitter to participants. Mostly on “What not to do on Twitter.” Everyone enjoys examples of Twitter mistakes.

That night, several of us walked to dinner (1/2 a mile or so) over a highway, but there was a walkway, to Ristorante Buon Gusto. I didn’t have the cioppiono (shocking, I know) but had the pasta that I believe must have been their special that night, since I didn’t see it on their menu – it had spinach, artichokes, pancetta, and peas. I thought it was quite good. Also had the minestrone soup.

Ristorante Buon Guston, South San Francisco

Ristorante Buon Gusto, South San Francisco

We had box lunches from the famous Boudin Bakery in San Francisco for our lunch the next day, and the sandwiches were good, but the peanut butter cookie was excellent. The peanut butter cookie will appear again later in this trip report.

That night, some of the more adventurous of the group (instigated by myself and my Yelp investigations) walked to Ben Tre – Vietnamese Homestyle Cuisine. I knew I wanted the Bun Bo Hue. I kind of discouraged everyone who had not have Vietnamese food before from trying that as their first foray, so almost everyone else had rare steak Pho. We also had an appetizer platter. The Bun Bo Hue was great, but it did have congealed blood squares in it (some of you are flipping out right now) so I was glad that we didn’t order that for the whole table. Not every Vietnamese place in Denver makes it so authentic. No pictures, sorry, but if you are in that area, I give them two thumbs up.

S. and I got up bright and shiny the next morning and caught a taxi to the Embarcadero. We got there so early we even had to wait a little while in the chilly morning to buy our Alcatraz tickets. We were glad we weren’t wearing shorts like many of the people in the line. Brrrrrrr.

Then we walked further down the pier and did some window shopping and looking around, managing to hang around the mini-donut place until they opened! I am not going to pass up a chance at mini-donuts.

Mini donuts Pier 39 San Francisco

Then we took the short cruise out to Alcatraz. S. and I had decided that since the Gardens of Alcatraz tour was available the day we were there, we would take advantage of that, and we were glad we did. Not only did we get to see the lovely plantings and hear about how they had been restored by volunteers, but I think we got to hear more of the inside story of the island.

View from Alcatraz:

Ocean view from Alcatraz

And some lovely fuschia. I have done in more fuschia than I care to tell you about. Maybe I will try it again this year. It is very fussy about its location, and I am not sure I have anywhere that will make it happy.

Fuschia Gardens of Alcatraz Tour

That is all for today! More tomorrow!

Las Vegas – Miss America 2013 – Day 3

Posted on January 11, 2013 by glenderella

As I write this Friday morning, it already seems so loonnng ago – Vegas does that to you.

Retired pretty early (well, comparatively, midnight, I suppose) because Thursday’s morning rehearsal started at 8:00 rather than 9 or 9:30, and Miss SD was first out of the starting gate in talent. So I was up before my alarm at 6:30 and went to the Miracle Mile Shops adjacent to Planet Hollywood, this time I went for the 3.99 breakfast special at La Salsa Cantina – 2 eggs, potatoes, bacon, and tortillas. This was also good! And the required Diet Coke (and water, trying to stay hydrated, Vegas is worse than Denver for being dry.)

I got to talent rehearsal in plenty of time before it started. Miss SD did change her talent from Miss SD – from using “Defying Gravity” from Wicked as her song to “Hot Honey Rag” from Chicago. And, this type of stage does not allow her to do as much of what I would call “flying” tricks – but it is still a marvelously entertaining talent, especially if you can see her face, which the judges can but 90% of the audience really can’t. I can’t wait to see her do this one on the Miss SD stage, although I am hoping she does both of them.

This group had, I kid you not, out of 17 contestants, FIVE who were doing a lyrical or jazz dance and were wearing white. Wow. As my top talents, I had picked SD of course, VT who sang Habernero very nicely, and WY with an original piano composition. I really liked ND playing the piano and singing, but also knew that it was kind of non-typical Miss America talent, so was delighted when she won! Way to represent the Dakotas!

I think this was the strongest group over all (Alpha) in swimsuit – the first round of rehearsal I circled five as ones to watch: WA, CO, OK, FL and TN. And then the second time through I couldn’t really narrow it down, but I thought probably FL or TN. And was delighted that one of my first picks, WA, was the winner.

My favorite evening gowns were CA in a seafoam green velvet strapless with a beaded/jeweled band at the waist, and OK in a grey/silver satin.

It was starting to cool off outside, and I could sense that, so what I really wanted for lunch was a big bowl of soup, so I went to P.F. Chang, I love their chicken noodle soup, and it is reasonably priced. Plus you can spice it up with the various condiments they give you like red pepper sauce and hot mustard.

And then I went up to the room to write the blog – these blogs on travel really take a long time, trying get in all the fun details, but I know I will enjoy reading it later and remembering, and I do enjoy sharing it with my friends who are not able to be here for the pageant!

Tried to nap, again, mostly unsuccessfully. So I enjoyed the soaking tub and read my book. Decided to just be simple and have a Pink’s hot dog for dinner. I go down there, and place my order, for a Planet Hollywood Dog: polish sausage, grilled onions, grilled mushroom, bacon (3 strips) & nacho cheese, and french fries. The lady takes my money, and says, #13 at the end of the counter. OK, I go down there. The lady at that end announces #13 right away, and I think, hmm, that was quick, but OK. I get back up to my room and I have a Polish Pastrami Swiss Cheese Dog: polish sausage, pastrami, swiss cheese & mustard and cheesy fries. Well, I wasn’t very happy, but I bet the person who got mushrooms and onions was even more annoyed. Maybe they noticed the confusion before they left the shop. I would have eaten it there, but they only had outdoor seating, and it was getting colder, so I wasn’t about to go back all the way down there. So no picture of that, because I was annoyed.

Worked more on the blog, editing pictures, and etc. I was having a craving for creme brulee – the ever-constant dessert on most Vegas buffets, but I have only been to one buffet this week, and it didn’t have creme brulee. Well, I thought, there is a little coffee place in the Miracle Mile shops, and I had seen that they had “Homemade” creme brulee. Hey, I am in Vegas, let’s go get a creme brulee. The first warning sign was when the lady didn’t know what I was talking about, I had to go show her in the case. I am pretty sure she was just going to hand it to me, “as is” – just the custard, but the other lady working grabbed it and took it to the back, to do the sugar caramelizing on the top. Then she overcharged me for it, as well as for the hot chocolate (which was really quite good) – I pointed that out and that required 2 different people to fix. The creme brulee came out, and it looked pretty good, but oy, not a good creme brulee. Lots of un-caramelized sugar on top, and the custard was not a good texture, or taste. So I was batting .5 on food for the day.

Disappointing creme brule:

Time to go to the room and get ready for the evening. I was wearing my new red dress from Torrid. Called Ken and explained to him where to find my flats, which I want for Saturday night since my feet are killing me.

I was meeting my friend Erin and her BF for drinks again before the pageant – the “PBR Rock Bar” has some $5 drink specials, so we thought we would try that, rather than the $12 or more drinks which are quite common here. Erin had texted me that she forgot the tickets and had to go back for them, so they would be a little late. Well, when they arrived, she was all aflutter – when she came out of the room with the tickets, TJ was on his knee in the hallway with an engagement ring!

Since she had apparently had an inkling that this was going to happen in Vegas, he decided to go with a surprise location instead of going to a fancy dinner or the top of the Eiffel Tower – and I have to say it worked perfectly – she was quite shocked! So that was very fun to be one of the first to share that news!

Enjoyed the show again – Miss SD had hurt her foot trying a more difficult move on the stage floor during her talent run-through in the morning, so substituted back to the previous move, which was also pretty spectacular. And you couldn’t tell that she had hurt herself at all. I also remembered the binoculars this time, which was helpful, it was so much fun to see her facial expressions during talent. I was sitting by a former Miss SD this time, who is one of the pageant fashionistas, so that was a fun commentary.

After the pageant, up to the ballroom for the visitation – again, the SD group is getting bigger each night! We took up a huge section of the wall for our group picture. What a hoot. And four former Miss SDs, plus our current Miss SD, so that is really pretty cool.
This is how Vegas/pageant messes with your circadian rhythms. You get all wound up seeing the pageant, and then your contestant at visitation, and then you need to do something to wind down, so you end up going out and staying up even later. So I went over to the Rock Bar again for another $5 frozen drink, and then hooked up with Erin and TJ and other pageant friends at another lounge in the hotel. This is Vegas – apparently you can carry your alcohol from one place to another quite freely.

We hung out for a while, and people watched, which is VASTLY entertaining in Vegas. I decided to make it not TOO late of a night and headed up for bed a little before 1:00, stopping at Earl of Sandwich (why didn’t we know this place was open 24 hours the FIRST night – strategy note, find out the places that are open late around the venue) to get a sandwich. I knew I had been up too late when I couldn’t find the buzzer they gave me but then discovered I had tucked it in my armpit. TIME FOR BED. But I enjoyed my sandwich first, they do good sandwiches, and then sacked out.

Las Vegas – Miss American 2013 – Day 2

Posted on January 10, 2013 by glenderella

After being out so late, I managed to sleep until 7:30 a.m., when I could see the sunlight coming in through the windows. Got up and showered and looked for somewhere cheap for breakfast – if there is one thing you should be able to do cheaply in Vegas, it is eat breakfast.

So I went to Ocean Prime, which promotes a $5.99 breakfast, there is also a $3.99 breakfast but I figured I would save that one until later in the week. I had the poached eggs instead of fried (healthier, huh?) with potatoes, truly excellent bacon, rye toast, and a much-needed Diet Coke.

Miss SD’s mom saw on Facebook that I was eating breakfast and used that as motivation to get up and get going, so she came down and had coffee with me and we caught up on the events of the evening and what was going on today.

I also got the pictures I took last night uploaded to Facebook.
Then I popped in to watch talent rehearsal – they take the first half of that night’s group, and they run through each talent, after doing some initial setting with lights, mics, sound, etc. And then they have a little break and then run through them again. One very different talent in this group is an artistic roller skater, she was kind of marking through her routine the time that I saw it, so I was excited to see it in full performance mode.

After talent rehearsal, I zipped back up to my room (how did it get to be 11:30 already?) and worked on my blog post about yesterday, edited photos, etc. At 12:30 I decided I better grab lunch quick, so i went to “Lobster Me” in the Miracle Mile Shops and had a lobstersicle. I am not sure if $14 is a good deal for a fried lobster tail on a stick, but it was good.

Burned my lip again – burned it last night on the cioppino too. I do appreciate my food hot but apparently I need to let it cool down a bit. I thought about having a frozen margarita or pina colada from Fat Tuesday to cool it off but decided that 12:30 was a little early for that.

I was thinking I might be able to get in a buffet for dinner, so a lighter lunch was reasonable. Then I checked out the rest of the mall, mainly looking for a place that stays open late tonight so we could go have a drink after the pageant and visitation. The “PBR Bar” claims that they are open until 2:00 a.m., or “whenever people quit drinking.”

I still had a little time before rehearsal started, so I popped back up to the room (thinking it was a very good idea to stay at this hotel instead of shopping for a cheaper one) and paid my $14 for 24 hours of wireless, and got a draft of my blog for yesterday posted, didn’t quite have time to get everything together, but with about 10 more minutes of work it would be ready to go.

Back down to the theater for evening gown/swimsuit rehearsal. Miss SD looks stunning in her black gown.She really had 4 different evening gowns that would have worked, but the black one was my favorite.

Some notable gowns in this group – IL had a RED dress with a very large area of ruffling at the bottom that extended into a train. Very beautiful but you would have to be careful if you were the contestant walking behind her. Lots of black and white in this group, including KY in a very simple, sleek-lined black and white dress – white bodice, black skirt, neck band and cuffs. NE and ND both chose green dresses, a nice note of color. MT wore a powder blue one-sleeved gown. WV was also in red.

I forgot my cell phone in the room when I came down for rehearsal, and there was no wireless in the theatre, so that was slowing me down a little bit. Waiting for the contestants to change from evening gown to swim suit, I was thinking Nap? Buffet? Nap? Buffet? Hmmmmmmmmm.

There was enough time to TRY to nap and then go eat, so I tried, but was not successful. It was good to lay down at least and I did some reading. Decided to go to the Aria buffet for dinner – this was roughly “across the street” but nothing is ever that simple in Las Vegas. Fortunately some kind soul had put directions on the internet on how to get across the street, through the Crystals mall, and then WAY through the Aria resort. It is very beautiful, but man, the buffet is way in the back. At least I walked off some calories.

I checked out the lay of the land at the buffet first and took lots of pictures – I started with the seafood, liked the big peel and eat shrimp the best, and then the regular crab legs rather than the king crab legs. The mussels were just fine – I like my mussels in sauce or broth, I should have grabbed some of the cioppino broth but I just thought of that now.

Then they had an interesting assortment of shooters, etc. – like scallops in lychee, shrimp ceviche, Ensenada seafood shooter, oyster shooter in tomato sauce – they were all quite good. The shrimp ceviche just bordered on almost spicy enough for me to really like.

Then I had some sushi rolls, which were not labeled, and were not particularly special or identifiable. Should have skipped those and went for cioppino.

Then I had some from the Asian section, a little steamer with three kinds of dumplings. They were ok, could have used some dumpling dipping sauce. The clams were good, only about half of them had actual clams in them, but the ones that did were good.

Unfortunately at this point, I was already getting full, so I decided to fit in a few desserts before I got too full. I had the butterscotch shooter, the panna cotta (possibly sugar free) and the little tiramisu cup. I think the panna cotta may have even been sugar free, but it was the best of the three.

Then I had some fresh mozz and a little mozz/heirloom tomato salad from the mozzarella bar, the mozz unfortunately had a little bit of crust from being sitting out, but it was tasty.

Then I had a peanut butter chocolate cake pop, which was pretty amazing, the little mini whoopie pies didn’t have a lot of taste. At this point I was pretty full and I knew I should quit before I felt ill.

Then it was the loooong walk back to the hotel. Took advantage of the deep tub again and read my book and tried to relax.

Got dressed, wore my new black pants, sequined black shirt and black and white striped top that the girls at Torrid talked me into. I got compliments, so it must have been OK.

Met my Miss SDOT co-producer and her BF at Cabo Wabo to have a Toasted Colada, which was good, but I don’t know if it was $12 good.

And on with the show – I thought Miss SD looked amazing and had to be in the top 3 in swimsuit, but I am slightly biased. I was not surprised that Miss IL won swimsuit. I didn’t have Miss MD as one of my talents that I thought would win, but I liked her voice and thought she did a good job. I also really liked NY’s tap dance, ID’s piano, and GA’s ballet. Dena the MC was hysterical once again. By the end of the evening she had herself, Lee Meriweather, and the current Miss America all wearing $12 ‘pleather’ pants, and had given a pair to judge McKayla Maroney, who had insisted that she couldn’t do flips on the stage because she was wearing a dress. Also, quite probably the first time the phrase “tape worm” was used on the Miss America Stage.

After the visitation, which was even more hot and crowded than the night before, I just hit the hay – too tired to do anything else, but also apparently too tired to sleep…

Visit to Houston

Posted on November 19, 2012 by glenderella

I had too much time to get ready for this trip. The flight didn’t leave until 1:00 p.m. or so, so I had too much time to pack, which means I didn’t really pay sufficient attention to my packing list and/or what I was actually packing. So when I got to the airport, I realized I didn’t have any books along to read. AAAAAAAA! Must have books. Well, that is easily remedied, they sell books at the airport. OK. Problem solved. I ended up kind of being disappointed in the book I got, but it served to keep me entertained.

Had lunch at the airport at Tamales by La Casita’s, which is relatively new. It is a nice change from the usual spots. I had the tortilla soup, big surprise that I had soup, huh? I wasn’t that hungry after the large breakfast (see last Friday’s entry about LePeep.)

Also, when the bill shows up on your work credit card, it is posted as being in Greenwood Village, which makes the office manager wonder what you are doing there and why you are expensing this meal.

As I settled in on the plane, I thought, “OK, I am going to read my book, and then after the plane levels out I will get out my knitting.” And then I reach into my bag and NO KNITTING. My three different projects are sitting at home on the couch with my BOOKS. Oh, the pain, oh the mental anguish. So I had to just read my new book. And I knew I would need to buy another one before I flew home, because I read really fast and one book wasn’t going to last the entire trip.

We stayed at the J.W. Marriott near the Galleria Mall in Houston. I didn’t even get to shop at the mall, we just walked through it to get to a restaurant once or twice.

It was a nice hotel. I asked for a quiet room, and was put on the top floor, which was actually NOT quiet, because I think the elevator mechanism was right about me. I heard the elevator motors ALL NIGHT LONG. So avoid the top floor if you ever stay there.

The room was perfectly nice, good chocolates on the pillow (they had some herb or seasoning in them which I now cannot remember.)

Do we really need phones in the bathroom? Then again, it is probably more expensive to take the phones down and patch the wall tile than it is to leave the phones there. I did not check to see if the phone worked.

I turned my board loose on their own that night and went out to eat with my best friend from high school, Brian, who works in Houston. Until this summer at our class reunion, I had not seen him for 25 years. So it was extra fun to get to see him again this year. We ate at Pappasito’s Cantina. The parking lot was jam-packed so I was a little concerned about how long we would have to wait, but we were seated immediately. This is apparently a great place for getting together, having your birthday, etc. It was very busy for a Wednesday night.

I had the tortilla soup. Big surprise. It had zucchini in it, which was new and unusual.

And I had the ceviche. I know the soup and the ceviche would fill me up sufficiently, and it did. I am pretty sure I also had some large alcoholic beverage.

They also had EXCELLENT chips and dip, including both salsa and a creamy dip (tomatillo maybe?) that you can see in the background here. Apparently there is a Pappasito’s Cantina in Denver, (well, Greenwood Village), we are going to have to eat there sometime when we are down south.

The next day we had a hotel-catered lunch which was really very good. The mixed greens salad had beets, which I love. The pork loin was well cooked and tender. I did not take any pictures.

That evening we went out to eat at Sullivan’s Steakhouse with another state board. Again, I knew if I enjoyed the appetizers that were ordered for the group (Calamari, Cheesesteak egg rolls, and a couple of other things that they made special for us that I don’t have pictures or recollection of) and wine, I would never be able to finish an entire entree. So I had the raw oysters, mmmmm, I try to take advantage of being closer to the ocean.

They were good, but ever since I had raw cherrystone clams in Boston, oysters just haven’t been the same.

The french onion soup was fine, I recall thinking it could have been warmer. We had a nice bottle of wine, too, no idea what kind it was, tho.

The next day three of us went to Kona Grill and had sushi rolls. It was excellent, fun to have three people so we could order a variety of rolls. No pictures, though, sorry.

That evening we ate at the Oceanaire Seafood Room. I really wanted stone crab claws, but they were just a little spendy. You could only get them by the pound, not any less than that. So I had the “Fin and Shell” seafood stew. This was very good – mussels, crab legs, shrimp, fish, and more. They give you a bib, which was a very good idea in my case. It was quite messy, cracking the crab legs. Sorry for the terrible picture, it was dark in there.

Everyone was very happy with their meals there. One of the sides was got was the best macaroni and cheese I have ever had: MAC & CHEESE Applewood Smoked Bacon, Smoked Gouda & Jalapeno. It was amazing. Not sure I would be able to duplicate it, and not sure Ken would eat the Jalapeno anyway. Yum!

For our last meal (lunch) in Houston, we walked down the street to the Grand Lux Cafe. This restaurant is owned by the same people who own Cheesecake Factory. I had soup and salad – the soup was tomato and white bean, and the salad was the Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese salad. I love beets, and I love them best when someone else prepares them for me. Mmmmm. They were both very good.

We got to go home on Saturday night, so that was kind of nice! Half of the weekend at home!

Friday! And food and crafting stuff

Posted on November 16, 2012 by glenderella

I am continuing to clean up by writing about the photos hanging around on my phone and hard drive – hmmm, lots of them are of food, go figure.

You might think these look like wonderful delightful fried dumplings, but you would be wrong. They were some of the worst dumplings I have ever had. Sad day. I will be avoiding China Wok on Harmony in Fort Collins in the future.

Same thing for the “Special” wonton soup, unfortunately.

I make a crocheted baby afghan, a pieced quilt, and an embroidered quilt for each of my nieces and nephews when they are born (or, hopefully, shortly thereafter, although there is a five-year old who will be getting her embroidered quilt for Christmas this year….). I also offer repair service on these items if they are repairable. This is the latest from my nephew C., age 7.

This was pretty easy to fix.

This one, I am not sure about. It is actually HALF of an afghan I made him (he got two, because he was allergic to one of the yarns in the first one, but he is over that now) – this aghan kept growing each time it got washed, so I cut it in half and finished the edges so he could have two. This one half is having a problem. I am working on unraveling the tangle right now. Considering I don’t even remember which pattern I used to make this one, I may not be able to have it repaired by Christmas.

This is the new pumpkin pie bagel from Panera. Apparently this is a seasonal thing.

Their website describes it as: Pumpkin Pie Bagel NEW! Freshly baked bagel featuring pumpkin and spice with a crumb topping and cinnamon sugar mixture, sprinkled with powdered sugar

I thought I might like it because I love the Cinnamon Crunch bagel (which is the highest in calories of all of their bagels, oy vey). Also – what is the point of Cheesecake flavored cream cheese? I tried it because it was also new, but HUH??? It has some brown bits in it that are supposed to be cinnamony-graham cracker crust flavor, I believe. I will stick with my honey walnut from now on. It was not bad, but not better than the Cinnamon Crunch.

It took me forever to remember where I ate the food in this next photo. It is a good thing that my phone puts a date automatically in the photo properties.

This is a crab omelet (or maybe lobster?) with brie cheese and avocado at the Le Peep near my house. I should learn my lesson, I like over-easy eggs or breakfast. But every now and then I get a wild hair and try something else. This was fine, better with the Hollandaise sauce for dipping. The toast was really QUITE well-done enough for me, I really prefer undercooked toast, I might have to start specifying that.

This was the morning I was to leave for a trip to Houston, and the fact that I had TIME to go out for breakfast bodes well for where my head was when I was packing, but that is another entry……

Panera Bread New Breakfast Souffle and Las Potrancas

Posted on October 16, 2012 by glenderella

Before I tried the new pasta at Panera Bread, I tried the new breakfast souffle. This souffle is part of the new fall menu, and so it does have information and nutritional data available online.

Panera’s description: Sausage & Gouda NEW! Savory egg mixture, sausage, and smoked Gouda, baked in our sweet croissant dough.

Well, how can that not be good? And it is good, in terms of delicious. Nutritional information: Sausage & Gouda 1 souffle 560 calories, 36 grams of fat. Yowza. Not an everyday breakfast item if you are trying to lose weight.

The gouda cheese is very rich.

Looking at the nutritional information, it is unusual that the lowest calorie (480) baked souffle is the Four-Cheese Baked Egg Souffle. It seems like the spinach and artichoke one would be the best, but it is only the second-best.

I had another breakfast that I was waiting to try – the Good Morning Arvada Skillet at Las Potrancas. The first time I tried to go there, it was on a Sunday, and they were just barely open. It appeared that the appointed cook for the day had not come in. The staffer who was there was telling a customer it was going to be about a 40-minute wait for his multiple (quite a few – like 24 or 30) breakfast burritos he had ordered in advance. So I decided not to hang around that day.

I finally got back on a weekday. The Good Morning Arvada Skillet is described as: “Two (2) egg omelet with onions, tomatoes, bell peppers. green chile and your choice of sausage, ham, bacon or chorizo.” But it is pictured on the menu having two eggs over easy on top, and that is what I wanted.

Here is what mine looked like, sorry for the bad lighting.

This was the greasiest thing I have been presented with in a long time. There was no way to finish. I was not sure how they got it so greasy, unless they fried those hash browns and veggies in a pool of lard. This was an excellent concept, not so much in the execution. I may have to try homemade.

I had a better version at the Ralston Cafe in Arvada last week – sorry, forgot the pictures. Here is their menu. Their version is the Huevos Garcia – sauteed onions and bell peppers topped with two eggs, smothered with green chili and cheddar cheese. This was much better. Still, I think a homemade version could be in the works. The problem is the green chile (or chili) – I have only really had one kind of green chile that I really, really like, and that is Santiago’s. So I would need to buy some of that, and keep from eating it long enough to put it on the hash browns, hmmm, maybe that is an idea. Needless to see, the spicy-averse husband will not be indulging in this breakfast dish.

Panera 2012 Fall Menu – Another New Pasta Dish

Posted on October 15, 2012 by glenderella

Panera still seems to be testing pasta dishes only in certain markets, so I feel it is my duty to the internet to report on the new ones as they arrive on the scene. I was dutifully keeping my receipt to help with this blog entry, and then I got caught up in a flurry of desk cleaning, so…..the newest pasta, which seems to have come out in conjunction with the Fall Seasonal Menu, is Spicy Sausace Rigatoni. Or something approximating that. I am sure the name was on the receipt, which I threw away. I was hungry and ordered the large – once again, you get this WITH something, a soup or a salad. If you don’t want the soup or salad, you receive a discount of about .49 so it is not worth it.

The pasta was very good. The sausage was quite spicy with fennel seeds. I don’t know about the peas. Are peas really necessary in this dish? The pasta somewhat al dente, not like “homemade in a very good Italian restaurant al dente” but good al dente for a chain restaurant. The peas were not mush. There was quite a high sausage to pasta ratio.The large portion of this is probably way more than anyone needs to eat for lunch. I got the baked potato soup and bread with it, and I saved them for dinner.

The bolognese is still my favorite, but I think this one is now second place. Oh yes, there is cheese on top of it, too. That never hurts. The fact that they still seem to be testing these means there is no nutritional information out there that I can find, and I am a queen of Googling. Perhaps it is best we not know in this situation.

I had the baked potato soup for dinner.

It was also very tasty, I think I would call this my favorite Panera Bread soup right now.

All I can say about these cookies is that they should be illegal. They are shortbread rather than a sugar cookie. They are amazingly delicious. There is a slight lemony taste to frosting, which helps keep it from being overpoweringly sweet. I could eat several of these, and that would be a bad, bad thing.

There IS nutritional information available on these, no wonder they are so good…..

Nutritional Info – Panera Bread Pumpkin Cookie (95g)
Calories – 450 (from Fat – 190)
Fat – 21g (Saturated Fat – 12g)
Sodium – 160mg
Carbs – 63g (Sugar – 35g)
Protein – 4g

So, again, Panera scores a hit with the pasta, I hope it is well received enough in the trial locations for them to roll it out around the country.

East Moon Asian Bistro, DiCicco’s, and IKEA

Posted on August 29, 2012 by glenderella

It may seem like I don’t do anything but eat, but hey, everybody eats three meals a day, and some of these meals are from WEEKS ago.

We had a board meeting at a hotel near DIA a few weeks ago, and the meeting went so late I stayed at the airport and went out to eat with a few of my favorite board members (the fact that I know some of them read this blog has no bearing on that statement!) (Grin.)

We ate at DiCiccos on Tower Road, and apparently there is a DiCiccos closer to my house, too. I think we tried it once and thought it was OK, but I think it is time to try it again.

We had the cheese sticks, and they were excellent, but I forgot to take a picture of them. What isn’t good about fried cheese? I also had the minestrone and forgot to take a picture there. But I am good about remembering to take pictures of main dishes. I have my board members so trained they will remind me if I forget.

I had the special, seafood risotto, which had scallops, mussels, and squid. It was excellent.

This is the combination dinner with spaghetti, lasagna and ravioli. The two diners who ordered this agreed it was very good.

This is the tortellone taranto – jumbo meat tortellini with pink cream sauce.
This was also deemed very good.

Mmmmm, now I am hungry for Italian food. I am very suggestible when it comes to food pictures.

I was returning from a work trip to Pueblo in the middle of the day last week, and I thought I would take the opportunity to stop and try the food at the IKEA cafeteria. I was all excited to have something with salmon, but they had no salmon entrees that day. They had meatballs, bbq ribs (why would I want to eat that at IKEA?), roasted chicken, and a breaded whitefish. So I went with the meatballs.

I was not impressed with the meatballs – they tasted like any meatball I could buy in a bag at the store. They needed the lingonberries to perk them up. The mashed potatoes, however, were excellent! I would gladly buy them. I was too full after this meal to even look at any food in the frozen section, so I didn’t, but I intend to in the future. Much better than powdered ones.

One of my friend suggested a chocolate tart with a cherry on top, which IKEA also didn’t have that day. They had “triple chocolate threat” cake – which was good but it was too much. They also had a elderflower cupcake which looked good. The chocolate mousse filling in this cake was very, very tasty. I should have requested it in a to-go box, though.

The pink lingonberry soda was also delicious, no idea on the sugar or calorie counts but as long as I was eating the cake, I thought I might as well go all the way.

And just this week I dined at the East Moon Asian Bistro in Fort Collins, after setting out to have lunch at Firehouse Subs, and discovering they were not open yet. They have been under construction for months! So I had a wonton soup, and the sesame tofu. Worthy substitute for a BBQ sandwich with coleslaw on top, I guess.

And every now I need to sit back and be thankful not only for the food I have to eat (and photograph, and obsess over) but also for the amazing place I live. Enjoy a few Colorado sunset pictures!

glenderella

Knitting, crocheting and burning down the kitchen.

Category Archives: Restaurant reviews