Category Archives: Restaurant reviews

Soup and Jello Molds

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In preparation for an early morning board meeting, I am staying up at a hotel near work, where the board meeting will be. So, I thought I would take the chance to eat somewhere interesting in Fort Collins. Young’s Cafe popped up on Yelp when I searched for pho, they actually don’t have pho available at night, but I saw some other things I was interested in. First, since I am easily suggestible, and someone posted something about dumplings and I read it, I had to have some dumplings. Fried shu mai to be exact. They were OK, nothing special, they kind of had the temperature and texture that indicated they were being “held” in the kitchen and just (maybe) warmed up when someone ordered them.

Then I asked my waiter if the Lemongrass soup or the Flaming soup was better. He said if I liked seafood, the lemongrass soup was better, because it had shrimp, mussels, and squid, whereas the flaming soup only had shrimp and vegetables. Well, the flaming soup was also FLAMING but I decided to save that for another time. This soup didn’t have little wussy calamari rings in it, it had big chunks of squid, large flat pieces. Well, I knew I was getting squid and I don’t mind that. Kind of sad when I am eating a meal like this alone and don’t have anyone with me to gross out with my big chunks of squid. Four good sized mussels, so that was nice. And it was VERY lemongrassy and NICELY spicy, usually I have to ask for the chili oil or the sriracha sauce even with “spicy” soup but this was just perfect, plenty of chili oil.

Yes, that big white thing is the squid. And yummy mushrooms too.

I also hadn’t had a chance to go thrifting in Fort Collins yet, and I have been reading a new blog that got me excited about Jello  – The Jello Mold Mistress of Brooklyn, and I think I will doing some Jello-ing, so I wanted to look for some cheap Jello molds. The Goodwill was very disappointing, the Salvation Army was their office location, not their store (need to do more research next time) but The ARC Thrift Store came through for me.

So now I have 4 Jello molds to experiment with. I have told myself I can’t buy any more until I make something in each of these. Like many of my projects, I may lose interest after I get started, so this may be a good idea. They can always get donated back to Goodwill….

I also can’t resist vintage textiles, especially wool blankets. My dream is to find a Pendleton wool blanket at a rummage sale someday. Well, this one is a Faribault, and it is not 100% wool, but it was extra interesting for another reason.

Specially made for Continental Airlines! I thought that was pretty cool! And it was in good condition, a good sofa size throw blanket, I couldn’t resist. You can always use blankets, right?

Maybe I should pack this one and take it on my next airplane jaunt…

Did you vote in the poll yet on which recipe I will be making for your enjoyment? For cryin’ out loud, why not?

New Pasta at Panera Bread

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I saw a sign for new pasta at Panera, and of course I can’t remember where….it seems like it was outside my usual stomping grounds, but who knows where that is. Anyway, I couldn’t find ANYTHING on line about it, so I figured it was a test market thing and I had come across one store featuring it. But when I went to Knit Knight at the local Panera, there it was. So, as a public service, and to get it out there on the internets, here is my review of Panera’s new pastas. Well, two of them at least. (My review of the tortellini, here!)

I am betting they added these because of the success of their macaroni and cheese. According to a known mac and cheese fancier, my friend Cathy, who is a known macaroni and cheese fancier, it is pretty good. So they are trying three more kinds, and you can get them by themselves (more on that later) in a small size with a cafe soup or salad, or a large size with a cafe soup or salad. Well, at Knit Knight I had the pesto sachettini, with a Ceasar salad, and a chunk of baguette. The small combination is $8.29 and the large is $9.99. I find that to be a kind of questionable value. Even better, I stopped at Panera near work the next day because I of course forgot to pick up a copy of the flier that had information about the pasta on it, and I wanted to get one more kind, so I could have sampled at least 2 different kinds before I wrote this review. Without the salad or soup (you still get the bread) – a little tiny bowl of pasta is $7.79. Holy catfish. They are making money on this hand over fist. However, I guess it about in line with their other prices, which I do not consider to be a bargain. This is my opinion and my opinion only. Our knitting group is meeting at Panera, at least temporarily, and it is refreshing to have something different to order. I will try the tortellini next week so I can have a complete report.

Colorado is apparently a test market for these, since I have seen them in at least 2 different cities (and maybe 3, if I could remember the first place I saw them….)

On to the actual food. At Knit Knight I had the sachettini pesto. The sachettini are little “purses” full of cheese. They say there are six different kinds of cheese in there, but it was just kind of bland and cheesy. The pasta was well past al dente. I wasn’t wild about the pesto, because I like my pesto pretty strong, but it turned out to be pretty strong later when it was repeating on me all night (is that a tactful way to say that?) Maybe I was just drinking too much soda. One of my other friends tried it too and she gave it a seven or eight out of ten. I gave it a 5, better than Fazzoli’s but worse than Noodles and Company.

Now, the Rustic Penne Bolognese which I had by itself, was very tasty. The noodles are thick and quite sturdy, and hold up better than the sachettini. The bolognese sauce was very tasty. However, this is what you get for $7.79 –

If you don’t want a soup or salad with it. So, that soup or salad is valued at about 40 cents if I am remembering the prices right.

Here is the little informational sheet they have about the pastas:

So, my recommendation is: If you are tired of the “Pick two” option, you can try this one for something new and get pasta instead, with a soup or salad. Next week I may even try the ‘large’ tortellini to see how large it is. The sacrifices I make for the reading/eating public. But I wanted to get something out there because Google is remarkable lacking in information. So, here it is! Worth a try, especially the bolognese. I will report back next week on the tortellini. Great taste, at least on the bolognese, maybe not such a great value, but decide for yourself.

Last Day in Nashville

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It was our last day in Nashville and we had meetings scheduled for most of the day, but we did take time to drive to Cracker Barrel for breakfast rather than eat at the expensive hotel breakfast again, no pictures of that but it was delicious. Then, as long as we were so close, we HAD to visit Cooter’s Place, the Dukes of Hazzard Museum. This museum has memorabilia from the show, and most of the cars from the show, but mostly it has ALL of the merchandise the show generated. From Dukes of Hazzard Underoos to sleeping bags, video games, puzzles, and beach towels, they had it. It was fun to look at. We did not pay for the privilege of having our pictures taken sitting IN all the cars, but taking your picture in front of the cars was free.

Most favorite picture of myself in a while. No, we did not slide across the hood of the General Lee.

We went to meetings all afternoon and then decided to eat at the Italian restaurant, Ravello, at the Gaylord that night (I, of course, had scoped out the menu on the internet well beforehand.)

This is the bread with an amazing marinara dipping sauce. I think the sauce used crushed tomatoes, had a very nice texture. Mmmmmmm.

We ordered the antipasti selection for our appetizer – 3 different kinds of Italian cured meats, and 2 cheeses. They don’t specify which kinds on the menu, and I wasn’t taking notes, but one of the cheeses was a soft cheese with cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milk, and it was amazing. The hard cheese was also good, and the three cured meats were delicious. The side plate contains pickled vegetables, raspberry compote, and preserved figs, all of which combined well with the meat and cheese. The little triangles are pita bread.

I love soup, so of course I had to have the soup. This was carrot bisque with a citrus ricotta garnish. Again, amazing.

Going around the table, our entrees. Above: Aqua Pazza, classic spicy southern Italian seafood stew with lobster, scallops, shrimp, and mussels over pasta, lemon, and grilled ciabatta.

Angel hair shrimp scampi – tossed with San Marzano tomatoes, roasted eggplant, basil, and ricotta salata.

Gnocci in a Marsala mushroom ragu, with beef tenderloin tips and dulce gorgonzola.

I, of course, want to sample as many things as possible, so I ordered the appetizer sampler as my entree.

Hearth fired meatballs, in a house made tomato sauce with Bonnie Blue Chevre, fresh basil, and sambuca.

Charred beef carpaccio, seared tenderloin with crispy capers, shaved Grana Padano, red onion, and arugula, drizzled with Coloratura aioli. This was amazing, is essential Very Very Rare or raw beef, but it is cut so thin, and then seasoned so perfectly, it was the best thing I had all week. I know some of you are shuddering over the raw beef, but you know I will try anything once. I will definitely try this again.

Caprese – mozzarella burrata, slow roasted jewel box tomatoes, and fried basil leaves are drizzled with pesto and a balsamic reduction. I prefer my caprese with all fresh tomatoes, not roasted, but this was still good.

Polenta and asiago fonduta – creamy polenta dip with jumbo lump crab meat and grilled ciabatta. This was the blandest item of the sampler, all of the others were very tasty but this one just didn’t stand out. It was fine, just not my favorite.

The convention concluded with a trip to the Grand Old Opry with a concert set up just for our attendees. The featured entertainers were: Mike Snider (awesome mountain music/bluegrass and very funny), Sarah Darling, John Conlee (Rose Colored Glasses), Joey + Rory, and Darryl Worley. And, it pays to go over to thank the sponsors of the concert because then you might get invited backstage to meet Darryl Worley.

So all in all, a pretty good trip. I guess I can’t say my job is not interesting. And look, the biggest miracle is that I wore that white shirt all day and DIDN’T GET ANYTHING ON IT!

Arnold’s County Kitchen

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Note to my niece: Sorry, no General Lee picture yet, I have to post that when I write about Saturday, and I am still writing about Friday! XXX000 love you!

When I found out I was going to Nashville, of course I checked into what area restaurants had been on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.” (My favorite TV show.) There were a few in the area, but I thought the most authentic Southern-sounding one was Arnold’s Country Kitchen, which is cafeteria-style and serves “meat and three” – your choice of the meats they have that day and then you can pick three sides. Or two sides, or whatever you like.

My friend S. the artist (who gives invaluable advice on newt quilts) had diet RC Cola, BBQ beef on a jalapeno grit cake with jalapeno cheese sauce, grilled asparagus, and mashed potatoes and gravy. She said everything was excellent, especially the jalapeno cheese sauce.

I had a diet RC cola, roast beef, greens (with bacon and a little wasabi), squash casserole, and white beans. I would drink Diet RC regularly if you could find it around here.

They carved the roast beef right there in front of you, it was excellent. I was so excited to eat here I forgot to pay. I did go back and pay after I realized that. Everyone in line was busy talking about the expected tornado warning, and I just managed to wander through and not pay.

 
I don’t know what was in this squash casserole but it was very sweet and it was delicious.

Don’t you love the macro setting on this camera? Wouldn’t you like to get closer to my food?

These greens were great. Bacon, wasabi, probably a good quantity of bacon grease….

These white beans were great, another recipe I will try to figure out. I believe that is ham in there. Anyone who knows how to make these, please let me know.

A new culinary discovery! Bruce’s Tabasco Peppers in Vinegar. I don’t believe you can buy these in stores up here. I will look. They had them at our hotel but they wanted $10.95 for a bottle, and they are $1.99 online, so I think I will be ordering them if I can’t find them locally. I just put the vinegar on my meat and greens, I did not eat a pepper, although I am looking forward to that too.

 
The missing camera has been located! I apparently knocked it out of my bag when I was rummaging for something on the airplane, so thank goodness for Frontier Airlines. I have also lost my Blackberry on a Frontier flight, and got it back safe and sound, so I appreciate their good service.

More Southern Fried Goodness

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Thursday night in Nashville, we ventured out to Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant. It was a Facebook recommendation and it was excellent.

I am very lucky to have two board members along who understand my quirks and don’t mind when I say “Don’t eat it yet, I have to take a picture.”

We had been told to try the fried green beans and Yazoo beer. I am not a beer person, but my two board members tried it and said it was great. I had a apple pie moonshine martini which was excellent.

I had the fried chicken, excellent.

It came with a corn cake, green beans, and mashed potatoes.

I was torn on whether to order the chicken or the shrimp and grits, so I was glad when one of my board members ordered the shrimp and grits, because then I got to sample them.

They had a lot of cardamom in them, so very Indian spicy tasting.

Mmmmmm. My other board member ordered chicken fried chicken. It was a little larger than he expected it to be.

He also gave his meal the thumbs up. We were too full for dessert. They also had a live bluegrass band, Quickfoot and the Slow Downers – they were really very enjoyable. We hadn’t been actively seeking live music, but it was really nice to have someone to listen to. A delightful evening! And on our return to the hotel, “weather alerts” including the unnecessarily apostrophed “temperatures expected to rise into the 70’s and 80’s which could lead to the outbreak of tornadoes” so that may be festive.

Southern Goodness

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I am in Tennessee for work so will give a brief report on my travel so far. First of all, apologies to those of you (Tim) that I freaked out when you thought I had another fire right before my trip. No, those were PAST fires. I haven’t had a really good one since the grease fire in October.

I would like to give some appreciation to the Denver airport for their art on display. In the bridge to the A Concourse, they have several cases of Colorado art and design. I have taken the time to walk up both sides now and look at everything, the exhibit is mostly geared toward design but it is well worth looking at.

Then I would like to tell you that if you are going to eat on A Concourse, stay away from Panda Express’ veggie spring rolls, which have absolutely no taste or texture. The hot and sour soup was a very mediocre version but it was leaps and bounds above the spring rolls. There are not a lot of good places there at the hub on A, I would go out to C and get a calzone if you have the time.

Our first meal here in Nashville was at Caney Fork River Valley Grille. This is pretty close to our hotel, and we gave it a try. Our party had the chopped steak, the filet, and the Camp Fire Fish Fry, consisting of Southern Fried Catfish, fried shrimp, Fried frog Legs, Fried Cod, a crab cake and some hush puppies and some french fries. Plus two sides: fried okra and baked beans.

Two of us shared this and it was still too much.

Fried okra and various dipping sauces.

Plus, at the beginning of the meal they bring you fried corn fritters with powdered sugar.

Sorry, I took these pictures with my phone and they are not the best.

The best thing was the frog legs. They were really quite good. The catfish was fine, the okra was very good and fresh, but the cod had way too much breading, it was better when I picked it out of the breading. The baked beans were also excellent. And the corn fritters were good. Even splitting this between two of us, it was too much food.

The restaurant also had an excellent version of Long Island Ice Tea “Backwoods Tea” which was very good and about half as expensive as the ones at our hotel.

Plus they had many interesting stuffed and mounted animals on display, including many deer with “atypical” racks. So I would recommend it if you like a place with character. If you are a vegetarian, maybe not so much.

Please pardon any random capitalization, I have been at a reception where there was Wine.

Fun With the Nieces and Nephew

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This is the first time in a while I haven’t had a post written the night before and ready to go – sorry, the kids wore us out! My oldest set of nieces/nephew (my brother’s kids) and my brother Wade and his wife stopped in town on their way to go skiing over the long weekend. So we met at Dave and Buster’s, which is a nicer restaurant attached to a huge arcade/gaming place – fancier than Gigglebee’s or Chuck E. Cheese (the last time I was at a Chuck E. Cheese, I got pinkeye, while on vacation). Wade had some leftover cards with game credits from some work event, so we had dinner and then worked on using them up.

Dave and Buster’s has the excellent appetizer of soft hot pretzel bites – I have been missing hot pretzels because we used to eat at a restaurant in DC at our January meeting that had hot pretzels as an appetizer. Well, we moved hotels and we don’t go to that restaurant any more. But I love hot pretzels so of they are on the menu I am getting them. These came with three different kinds of sauce and rated a thumbs up from us – I personally like as much sauce as possible. I had Mediterranean citrus shrimp for my meal, and they were fine. My main object was to not get too full after having those pretzels as an appetizer. The kids didn’t want anything to do with them, they were happy with fried cheese sticks. Ken had teriyaki steak, which he said was good, my brother had a steak (don’t remember which) and he said it was good, Laurie (sis in law) had a steak which I think she liked, and the oldest niece, S, who is 12, had a steak and also liked it. The younger two had macaroni and cheese. We offered to take the leftover steak from Laurie and S. but they are staying at a condo for skiing so they have a refrigerator, shoot. :  )

It was amazing how much energy they still had after a 12 hour car drive across Nebraska and half of Colorado. Well, I guess they were shut in a car all day and needed to burn some off. We had a lot of fun with all the games.

I took S. her pepper pants and she liked them, telling her mother she was going to wear them over her pants the rest of the night, but then she didn’t after I had her take them off and showed her how to tell back from front. I am going to see them again on Saturday, I think I will take along some thread and embroider a “F” in the inside front, since it is kind of hard to tell w/home made pants. She also thought they would be awesome over her ski pants, but we didn’t know if the cotton material would be good for that, and I haven’t seen any fun rip stop nylon pepper prints.

There is a photo booth there that takes your picture and then “draws” it in a different style. You can see this one of the kids is drawn in the “Leonardo Da Vinci” style. Uh huh.

Ken and I were just as bad at the Jurassic Park shooting dinosaur game as we remembered. I believe I beat about everybody in the car racing game where you all have a different machine and race against each other, which is kind of unbelievable. There was also a trivia game (heavily slanted toward MODERN questions esp in the music category) and a Wheel of Fortune game which was hard because you only got to pick 3 letters and then you had to solve the puzzle.

D. (age 6) got his own picture somehow. His sisters explained “something happened!” and then “T. pinched Dawson!”

Earlier in the night I had said, “These kids are old enough that you could throw all three of them on a plane and send them out here by themselves for a few days,” by the end of the night I was questioning whether we would survive that…..

Well, a good time was had by all and the intrepid skiers headed up into the mountains at about 10:30, still having a 2 hour drive to get to their ski area. My brother is a good night driver so I am sure he got them there ok.

Nautilus and New Pants

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Wow, another short weekend. I spent a bunch of time quilting because I will be gone on travel next weekend, and the Wednesday after that is my Color Theory class, so I have to pretty much have the Nautilus/Tentacles quilt done by the time I leave on Tuesday morning. I may have a little time after I get back, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, to finish, but I am not counting on that. So I spent almost all morning on Saturday fusing everything down, and quilting the nautili and tentacles. Of course I had to listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on public radio, so I could only quilt on station breaks during that. So we went out to eat at Jack N Grill, because I was hungry for their posole, and was in no mood to cook.  Ken had a hamburger as big as his head. They have seriously large burgers, with homemade buns, there. We had their queso this time, too, it was also excellent.

More quilting in the afternoon. Then I had to run to JoAnn Fabric to get more fusible webbing, iron cleaner (needed after incidents with the former), and thread to quilt the background of the Nautilus piece. Did get Spaghetti with Parmesan and Bacon made for dinner. This is a Cooking Light recipe and is really good, and is excellent warmed up for lunches for the week. I will say, it does not need a whole teaspoon of pepper, a 1/2 tsp is fine.

Ken had to go into work this morning, and his alarm woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I had been having bad dreams anyway so I just got up. His alarm alternates between a buzzer and some religious station (because someone on that station is always speaking in a very EXHORTING tone) and I was exhorted right out of bed. He went off to work and I quilted on the background of the piece until a quarter to 11 – at 11 the mall opened, and I had to go clothes shopping.

I do not like clothes shopping. Currently I am not a small size. Designers do not usually chose wisely when they pick their designs to make in larger sizes. They do not look the same as they do on smaller women. The ones that would actually cute seem to be reserved for smaller sizes only. I really prefer to do my shopping at the thrift stores, but sometimes that is hit and miss, and sometimes you just need new stuff for work. And I felt like I had worn the same things to these meetings I am attending this week for four years in a row.

Well, I managed to get 12 different items for about $360. Believe me, I about went into shock spending that much on clothes in one day, but it had to be done. Between Coldwater Creek and Dillards, I got a blazer, 6 sweaters, 2 turtlenecks, 2 pairs of nice dress pants, and a white no-iron (we will see) dress shirt. So that is less than $30 per item, I still like to pay a lot less than that but sometimes you have to buy things that are work-worthy. That bad news was that I had to hem 2 pairs of pants, I really hate hemming. I did most of that during Iron Chef, so that was OK. PS Coldwater Creek is currently having 40% off their already on sale items, plus an additional $20 back if you spend over $80.

Ken had called while I was in the dressing room and said he was going to be at work for a while, so I had an Aunt Annie’s pretzel for lunch (that sounds healthy but I had the one with pepperoni on it, and had cheese dipping sauce, of course….). Also hit Forever 21 which does, surprisingly, have a Plus Size section. Usually I am greatly amused by most of what I see, and I find on thing that works for me, this time it was a belt, which I put on immediately, because my jeans were falling down.

So now I am carrying two very heavy clothing bags, and I stop by the calendar kiosk, because we haven’t been able to find a page-a-day calendar with cat cartoons (usually the New Yorker does one but not this year) so I bought us the Bad Cat calendar, for 75% off, so that was a good deal. I had no idea what day it was for the first part of this month, and we also like to use the daily sheets to make lists and notes on, so this was necessary.

Just to add to my heavy bags, then I go to Williams Sonoma to get a pizza stone. I had a gift card, and I also wanted a knife, of course they don’t have the knife, so I fill out a little card for them to call me when it comes in. Then I trudge all the way to my car with the pizza stone under one arm (huge) and the two bags in my other hand. My arms still hurt from that. Then when I got home, there was a message on the machine saying they found the knife after all and if I was still out shopping I could come get it. Grrrrrrrr. Very tempted to not get it there after all, now, since I am unimpressed with their inventory-finding skills.

I still beat Ken home. I had two pounds of hamburger thawed out, so I made that into meatloaf, knowing he could eat it for meals this week and we could also freeze part of it. (Sorry, no recipes today, I am about wiped out….).

For dinner, I had a tri-tip steak marinating since last night, and put that on the grill. Tri-tip is one of those steaks that you grill and then slice against the grain, it would be too tough to eat just as a regular steak. I think this is a new venture for my Mom and Dad’s butcher, I don’t think I have seen one of those from him before. It was good. Of course, when I planned the menus for this weekend, I thought it was going to be nice, and I thought I was going to be making the tri-tip for lunch. Well, even at lunchtime it was 40 degrees and wind gusts up to 50 mph, so all in all a lovely day, but I got it grilled. Also made Shepherd’s Potatoes, these are excellent, one of my go-to potato recipes now.

I give my mom a bad time about writing every detail of life in her diary each day, but I guess I have inherited those tendencies. Although I don’t have two delightful children to write about. From Mom’s diary – “Caught W. biting the cat today because G. told him to.” Brother W. doesn’t listen to me nearly so well as he did in 1972.

Health food makes me sick (Calvin Trillin)

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So, what have you been eating lately? Need some dinner/lunch ideas? Or suggestions on where I like to dine in the Greater Denver area?

Having convinced my husband that I was crazy when I started reading food blogs many years ago and consequently started taking pictures of my own food, well, I should do something with those pictures, shouldn’t I?

Now he is pretty much trained not to dig in before I get done with the camera.

I have a new comfort food as of this fall, matzo ball soup. I first tried this at the Bagel Deli http://www.bageldeli.com/ in South Denver, well, I guess this is the ONLY matzo ball soup I have ever had. The diner was featured on “Diners Drive-Ins and Dives” and Guy Fieri’s taste in restaurants seems to run about the same as mine (I like places with Character). So of course I had to try it. The first time I was there, I had the Guy Fieri sampler, which had small sizes of the three dishes he featured on the show – matzo ball soup, kishka (kind of like stuffing), and a brisket knish (pastry filled with brisket). They were all good but my favorite was the matzo ball soup. I love most soup, period. So the next time I was there (and I used to work close to the Deli, but now I rarely get to that side of town, except for when I am going to IKEA, and then I am torn about whether I should eat at IKEA or the Deli, and the Deli has won so far.

Look at those balls, those are some happy balls. And delicious.

I also had the prake, or stuffed cabbage. Also excellent. Although after those matzo balls, I didn’t have much room, so I didn’t fully do it justice.

Sorry, I had already started into it before I remembered to take a picture. Stuffed cabbage is not something Ken is going to eat any day soon, so I enjoy this when I am out and about.I fully intend to make some matzo ball soup, and I have matzo meal, but I haven’t had time yet.

Now for some home cooking, I have been reading And Immovable Feast http://animmovablefeast.blogspot.com/ and he makes sliders often. And he often tops them with very different toppings. I thought, hey, there is a clever way to try many different toppings without making huge burgers. And Ken will pretty much happily eat whatever I cook, as long as it is not scary to him (see stuffed cabbage) (and probably matzo balls too) but he will eat hamburgers, guaranteed.

These are Ken’s sliders – cheese and bacon bits, and cheese. I just used nice soft dinner rolls for the buns (and toasted of course, OF COURSE).

Now, looking at this picture, you would think that Ken got the better deal, because my onions braised in balsamic got just a little over done. But they were still tasty. And my other one just had cheese. It is really hard to get braised onions quite right here, I think it is the altitude. When you make something like red cabbage or french onion soup, you have to cook it and cook it and cook it, and keep adding liquid, something to do with the altitude, apparently.

This next one is a good way to use leftover steak. We had this often as kids growing up, which seems strange now because my Mom says my Dad doesn’t care for rice, so they probably don’t have it as often as we do. I think Ken likes it because it reminds him of Chinese food fried rice. I think this is slightly more healthy.

Leftover Fried Rice

2 cups Minute Rice
3 T butter
1 can Campbells Beef Consumme (I have not tried this w/plain beef broth, so I don’t know if it would work)
Leftover cut up steak, cut into a moderate dice (about the size of your fingertip)
1/2 can of water
1/2 to 1 cup frozen peas

Melt the butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Brown the rice in the butter. Add the can of beef consumme and the 1/2 can of water. Add the leftover steak, and peas. Cover and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until peas are cooked and soup is absorbed by rice.

Ken will happily eat this as leftovers for lunch, too, and I generally will let him, I have been eating it longer than he has.

This last weekend we ate at Toluca, a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant here in Westminster. Seriously, I am not sure this is the kind of place I would have ventured into without a recommendation, but the recommendation came from Denver on a Spit (http://www.denveronaspit.com/2011/05/denver-al-pastor-take-10-toluca-mexican.html), and he said they had excellent al pastor tacos, so I had to try it. They have a judo/karate school to one side of them, and a dog groomer on the other side, and their parking lot is in need of some resurfacing, but MMMMMMMMMM the food. We have been there three times now, since this summer. I always have the al pastor, and Ken always has the Tacos Duros (hardshell tacos). The first time he didn’t think they were very spicy, but the 2nd and 3rd times, he was sweating a little. Not enough that he didn’t order them again. They bring you regular salsa, and then a green salsa (much spicier) and a dark red salsa (maybe some chipotle? I can’t tell, unusual taste) which is also very spicy. I eat those, and Ken stays away from them.

Tacos duros.

The three salsas (and not small servings, either)

And my al pastor, mmmmmmmm fresh pineapple and porky goodness.

And finally, a recipe that my sister in law got us started on, and that Ken loves.

Baked Club Sandwich Rounds

1 lb. bacon (you can use less bacon than this….)
1 (11-oz.) can Pillsbury® Refrigerated Crusty French Loaf
4 oz. (1 cup) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 oz. thinly sliced cooked deli turkey
2 oz. thinly sliced cooked deli ham

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towel; crumble.
2. Unroll dough. Sprinkle cheese over dough. Top with turkey, ham and bacon. Starting with long side, roll up dough (Like cinnamon rolls); press edges to seal. Make 3 to 4 slits in top of loaf. Place on sprayed cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 350°F. for 23 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Cut into 1-inch diagonal slices.

You will see when you open the tube of french bread, it is actually a sheet of dough rolled up, so you can unroll it into a flat sheet again, carefully. If the can decides to pop open prematurely and then gives you difficulty, you may not be able to unroll. Flatten as best as you can. (guess how I know this.)

(Glenda brushes the rolled out loaf with pesto if she has it)

Kristyn: Once the loaf is unrolled, I put a tablespoon or so of Italian dressing on it and brush it all over, then add the cheese and meat and bacon.

At this point, it looks like a dish I made for some 4-H cook-off that my brother used to refer to as “The Worm” but really, this is quite good.