Shelley Does Marin

Chicken & Black Bean Tostadas

2010-10-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

I soaked my Rancho Gordo Midnight black beans for about 6 hours today and just put them on to simmer for about 3 hours. I also put some chicken breasts in the crock pot with some salsa, chicken broth, oregano, & cumin. My house smells good! Everything should be ready by 6:30. I'm making tostadas with the chicken & salsa. Need to work on a better way to get pictures on here so that they are bigger! Will post recipes & pics later on.

I haven't gone running in 10 days. Ugh. I just haven't been able to get myself motivated. My clothes/shoes are laid out, so maybe I can muster enough energy to at least walk the dogs and run 2 miles tonight before dinner. My next half marathon is in 12 days. I'm so excited to meet Zoe in person! We've been online buddies for over 3 years; she lives in England. Her and her husband are coming out to run the US Half Marathon with us. Both Corey & I have come to just love Zoe & her husband Dave. We're going to have fun. But I'm not sure that any of us are quite ready to run the entire 13.1 miles. Well, actually, I just ran the Nike Womens Half 10 days ago (last time I ran! lol) so I'm sure I could run it, but everyone else is planning on doing lots of walking, so walk I will. I hope to get at least 6 miles of running in that day. We'll see!

Ok, well, I am getting tired of just posting recipes, so I wanted to do an actual blog entry for once. :)

Stuffed Pork Chops & Butternut Squash

2010-10-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 bunch kale leaves, stems & ribs removed, chopped fine (use whatever greens you want)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
4 slices ham (I used rosemary ham from Trader Joes)
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
4 thick-cut pork chops for stuffing

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, 1 minute. Add kale (or spinach, swiss chard, etc) , 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and the Italian seasoning; cook, stirring, just until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place the pork chops on a flat work surface; cut a slit horizontally to the bone so chop can be opened like a book. Stuff each chop with 1/4 of the kale mixture, the ham, & the shredded cheese. Secure chops with toothpicks.

To cook and serve:

Preheat oven to 375 degree F.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet. Add chops; cook 2 minutes per side or until browned. Place chops in single layer in a baking dish just large enough to hold them. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Bake the chops in the oven for 15 minutes or until the internal temperature registers 155 degrees on an instant-read thermometer when inserted in the pork. Remove chops to a platter; cover with foil. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes in warm place before serving.

Serve over a bed of butternut squash. I just sauteed Trader Joes frozen squash with olive oil until it was hot.

Dragon Bean Pasta Fagioli w/Cheesy Garlic Bread

2010-10-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

*adapted from The FoodNetwork Magazine, but I made a few changes of my own*

Active time: 45 min/Total: 2 hr 25 min/Serves: 4-6 (I served 4 and theres a ton leftover)

Ingredients:

5 T extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

5 cloves garlic, smashed

1 small onion, roughly chopped

1/4 t red pepper flakes, or more to taste

1 t finely chopped fresh rosemary (from my yard! ;)

1 2-oz piece pancetta (optional, but I recommend it!)

5 canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand

1/2 t oregano

Fleur de Sel

3 lbs fresh dragon/cranberry beans, in pods, shelled (or 1 c dried cranberry beans, soaked overnight. I used fresh dragon beans)

2 bay leaves

1 piece parmesan cheese rind, plus 1/2 c grated parmesan, and more for topping

2 c small shell pasta

1 bunch kale, stems & ribs discarded, leaves chopped

1/4 c roughly chopped fresh parsley (I omitted this cuz I didn't have any)

Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat 3 T olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, rosemary, and pancetta, if using, and cook 2 mins. Stir in the tomatoes and cook 2 more minutes; season with oregano & salt. Add the beans, 3 quarts water (if you can use chicken or veg stock, I say go for it), the bay leaves and parmesan rind. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the beans are tender, 1 hour 30 mins to 2 hours. (Mine took a full 2 hours)

2. Uncover the pot and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 8 mins. Add the kale and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 5 or 6 mins. (The soup should be thick and creamy; thin with water, if necessary. I didn't need it)

3. Remove the bay leaves, parmesan rind and pancetta, if used. Add the grated parmesan, parsley, the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt & pepper to taste. Top with more olive oil and parmesan. Check seasonings. I added more salt.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Halve a loaf of Italian bread lengthwise, then crosswise. Mix 3 T olive oil, 1 clove minced garlic and 1/4 t dried oregano; brush on the cut sides of the bread and toast 10 mins at 400. Mix 2 T grated parmesan and 1 cup each shredded asiago & cheddar; sprinkle on the bread and bake until melted, about 15 more minutes.

Polenta with Chunky Tomato Sauce

2010-08-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Polenta:

Ingredients:

1 cup dry corn grits

3 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter

Bring water to a boil, add the corn grits, simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring, until the grits pull from the side of the pan. Stir in butter, let sit for at least 10 minutes. Invert onto a plate, cut into portions. Fry each portion in butter and/or olive oil on medium for about 4 minutes per side, or until just brown. Set aside.

Chunky Tomato Sauce:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 sweet yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 bell pepper, chopped

4 mushrooms, diced

2 carrots, sliced

6 large tomatoes, chopped (I like to use mostly red, with a few yellow or orange tossed in for variety)

2 tbsp tomato paste

8 fresh basil leaves, cut up

2 tsp oregano leaves

Parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil, saute the onion, garlic, bell pepper, mushroom,, & carrots for about 10 minutes, or until softened. Add the tomatoes, paste, basil, and oregano, bring to a boil, then simmer on low for at least 20 minutes, until the tomatoes break down. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Serve over a portion of the polenta, garnish with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

*you can use any kind of onion, bell pepper or tomato that you prefer. You can also "eyeball" the measurements to your taste: more or less of each ingredient, etc. If you simmer the sauce for too long and it gets too thick, add a little water*

*this goes really well with hot Italian Sausage*

*mushroom lasagne recipe coming soon*

Grandma Tillie’s Polish Spaghetti Recipe

2010-08-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

I taught my daughters how to make this today, and they asked me to write it down. Its all in my head and I just remember watching my Grandma Tillie and my Dad make it for as long as I can remember. I believe the only reason its called “Polish” is cuz of the meat.

Ingredients:

2 T Olive Oil

4 carrots, sliced thickly

1/2 an onion, diced

1 small bell pepper, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 14 oz can of tomato sauce

3 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes

1 6 oz can of tomato paste

1 tsp each: oregano & basil

3 bay leaves

salt & pepper to taste

1 or 2 fresh tomatoes, diced

Leftover meat from the freezer. I used some ribs and tri-tip, but you could use chicken, pork chops, ham, whatever you have handy. This is the Polish part!

Rigatoni noodles, cooked according to package.

Directions:

Saute the onions, bell pepper, and carrots in the olive oil for about 7 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook another 2 or 3 minutes. Add the spices and cook another minute. Add the canned tomatoes, bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for about an hour. Now add the fresh diced tomatoes and the meat and simmer covered for another hour. If it seems thick, add water, beer, or wine to thin it out. I always check the spices at this point and usually end up adding a little bit more oregano & basil.

Serve over hot cooked pasta with grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Cinncinnati "5 way" Chili

2010-06-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Saw this on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives and did my best to recreate it.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs ground sirloin
1 large can stewed tomatoes
1 TBSP each: crushed garlic, oregano, basil flakes
2 TBSP ancho chili powder
2 cups water
Salt & Pepper
1 can red kidney beans
Red onion, diced
Bucatini pasta, cooked according to package (I'd use capellini next time)
Shredded Cheddar cheese ( I used white Cheddar)

Brown the beef in a large sauce pan, season with salt & pepper. Drain. Return to pan. Add a l tomatoes, spices, & water. Bring to boil, simmer for about 40 minutes or until it cooks down. Check seasoning and add more salt, pepper, & oregano if needed.

Layer in a bowl: Bucatini pasta, meat sauce, sprinkle of kidney beans, cheddar cheese, & onion. Serves 4

Baked Potato Soup

2010-05-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

(Borrowed from AllRecipes.com)

My kids love this Baked Potato Soup and its whats for dinner tonight!

Ingredients

6 bacon strips, diced
2 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon pepper
6 cups chicken broth
4 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Minced fresh parsley

Directions

This recipe's Ingredients were scaled to yield a new amount. The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield of 4 servings.

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley.

Capellini Pomodoro w/Prawns

2010-04-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Step 1. Marinate the prawns.

Ingredients:
10-14 frozen raw prawns, tail-on, deveined
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo), plus 1 TBSP
1 TBSP crushed garlic
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, more or less to your liking
1 TBSP Hungarian paprika

Rinse prawns in running water until defrosted, devein the bellies (optional). Mix the next 4 ingredients in a glass dish, put the prawns in a zip lock bag, our marinade over them, then let them marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Heat 1 TBSP EVOO over med high heat, toss the prawns in, and cook about 3 minutes per side until pink. Set aside.

Step 2. Italian "Salsa" (Pomodoro Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 each red & yellow heirloom tomato, chopped into chunky pieces
1 TBSP crushed garlic
8 large basil leaves, cut into ribbons
salt & pepper
Whole Wheat Cappellini pasta, cooked

Heat the olive oil over low heat, toss all ingredients into pan and just warm through. Put the hot pasta in 2 individual serving bowls, spoon some sauce on top of the pasta, then arrange 5-7 prawns on top of that, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over it, and enjoy!

Parasols New Orleans

2010-03-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

We just got back from New Orleans and since we were going to be there, we specifically wanted to go to places seen on Triple D. We walked 45 minutes through some cool, eerie, and interesting neighborhoods to get there all the way from downtown. Tiny little hole in the wall....the food was delicious....not what I was expecting it to taste like even though I had seen the show. I had the roast beef po'boy and my husband had the Italian sausage. We went through many napkins and a lot of Louisiana Crystal Hot Sauce. I give it 5 stars and will definitely return to New Orleans and to Parasols!!!! :)

Toffee Cookies w/chocolate and pecans

2009-12-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

Today I'm finally going to bake these delicious looking cookies that I ran across on Steamy Kitchens Blog the other day. Also, I'm going to be baking my moms "famous" Lemon Bread, and my daughter is currently in the kitchen baking her own version of Oatmeal-Cinnamon cookies.

Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze

recipe from Salty Sweet by Christie Matheson

Makes 20 to 24 cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
¼ cup chopped toasted pecans
sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well.

Combine the flour and salt in a small, bowl then add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, mixing until well combined.

Shape the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thick. Cut out circles with a 2-inch round cutter and place the cookies on the baking sheets.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Let cool completely on the baking sheets.

Bring water to a simmer in a double boiler, or set up a heat-proof bowl over a small sauce pan with water simmering in the bottom. Melt the chocolate over the simmering water. When the cookies are cool, spread them gently with a thin layer of melted chocolate. Before the chocolate dries, sprinkle lightly with the pecans and a few grains of fleur de sel. Let the chocolate set. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Beef Fajitas w/Guacamole & Cilantro

2009-12-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

By Dave Pepple's Request:

Shelley's Beef Fajitas with Guacamole & Cilantro (etc!)
(you should be warned that my measurements are never exact! I always add more or less based on taste, but this is a good guide to go by!:)

Beef Fajitas Marinade
Ingredients:
1 pound flank steak, sliced into 3 inch strips (easier if the meat is partially frozen)***
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregano
salt & pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil
*obviously, you can double or triple this recipe. This was enough for 3 people to have 2 "tacos")

Place all ingredients in a Gallon sized Zip Lock and marinate in refrigerator for up to 24 hours, but for at least a couple hours. The longer the better, in my opinion. Turn often while in the refrigerator. *** (my husband said that you should marinate the flank steak whole, then slice afterward to keep the juices in. I disagree with him, but maybe he has a point. However, you didn't ask him for HIS recipe, now did ya? :)

When the meat is ready, saute in olive oil until it gets a nice golden color. You might need to cook off all of the excess moisture; I ended up pouring alot of liquid out before I finally got the meat to brown. Another option is that you could pat the meat dry with a paper towel before putting in the saute pan, then it might brown a little quicker.

Fajita Veggies
Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet yellow pepper, thinly sliced
3 bell peppers of various colors (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green, etc), thinly sliced into strips
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in saute pan until it ripples. Add vegetables, salt and pepper. Stir and saute until veggies are soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Just leave then in the pan "full of love" until everything else is ready. :) They keep nicely and you can give them a quick re-heat.

Guacamole
Ingredients:
2 ripe Hass avocados
juice of half of a lime (or a lemon)
1 tbsp red onion, diced fine
several dashes of ground cumin
a dash of cumin seed
a dash of garlic salt
pepper

In a small bowl, smash the avocado with a fork. Squeeze the lime juice in, toss the rest in, mix it up and let it "marry" in the fridge.

Sour Cream with toasted Cumin Seeds
Ingredients:
1 cup sour cream (I use light)
2 tbsp cumin seeds

In a small non stick pan, toast the cumin seeds on med-high heat for about 5 minutes, until fragrant. Let cool. Toss in a small bowl with the sour cream and let "marry" in fridge.

Additional ingredients:
Flour tortillas ( I steam/toast mine over a gas burner on my range top)
Cilantro
Hot sauce, pico de gallo, or salsa

Now the fun part! Fill a flour tortilla with the fajita meat, onion/peppers, guacamole, sour cream, several sprigs of cilantro and a few dashes of hot sauce or salsa. Personally, I like to use Sriacha sauce, but its really hot. Or else I make my own pico de gallo, which is just diced tomato, red onion, jalepeno, cilantro, a little lime, salt & pepper.

Enjoy!!
And thank you for asking! :)

Graceland and The Majestic Grille

2009-12-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

We had set Sunday aside for Corey and I to do some sightseeing on our own. I tried to make plans to have lunch with my friend, Shelley Hargraves, from high school, but she couldn't wing it. We had a nice talk on the phone, though.

Corey and I wanted to see Graceland before leaving Memphis. We took a shuttle there and our driver was pretty informative. He dropped us off and we took another shuttle up to the residence. It was so different than I expected it to be. I thought it would be more lavish, but it was an older home, and looked pretty understated to me. I was kind of shocked, for some reason, at the 70's decor! It was amazing how well preserved it was! It was literally like walking into a time capsule of the 1970's! Elvis didn't live super lavishly at all. At least not from what I can see in his house. I mean, he liked the flamboyant outfits and stuff, but you can tell that he was a total family man. It was pretty emotional for me. I really am glad we had a chance to do this....even if we were still sore from the race and had a hard time getting up and down the steps.

After Graceland, we took a tour of Sun Studios downtown. It was full of history and the supposed birthplace of American rock and roll. Its where Elivs Presley and Johnny Cash signed on, as well as Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. I enjoyed the studio portion of the tour, but I was a little bit bored in the beginning. Overall, I'm glad we went. I was really hungry by this point and was ready for some dinner!

I don't have many nice things to say about The Majestic Grille in downtown Memphis. One thing I thought was cool was that it was in an old historic movie theater and there was an old film playing on the wall: The Holiday Inn with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. I thought it was cool until the music/song/dancing part started every 5 minutes and the volume went up 25 notches.

We were greeted and seated immediately, but it took forever for our waiter to greet us. We ordered a cocktail and waited at least 10 minutes before he finally came out...empty handed...to see if we were ready to order. We only knew that we wanted to start with the onion rings and horseradish sauce (terrible! Greasy, batter kept falling off, and it was just tasteless!). Our drinks finally came, we ordered, and we waited quite a while for our dinner to arrive. I had the New York Strip steak with mashed potatoes and a side of spinach. Corey had the same, except with the market vegetables. The food was good, but our steaks were really fatty and gristly. I was overall pretty disappointed in the Majestic. Our poor waiter was so slammed and the bad service was not his fault at all and we told him that we understood when he apologized. Its not that the place was packed, but they only had 2 waiters and they had ours going from the back of the restaurant to the front, etc. He was literally sweating when he first approached us. I overheard another party complain.

I wish we had gone to Circa by John Bragg instead. I loved the menu, but when we got there it was dead, and Corey had said he walked into the Majestic the night before and thought it looked good, so we tried that instead. Kristin, if you're reading, I was so convinced that we went to Circa, that I told all of you (on Facebook) that that is where we went. I was wrong. It was not Circa, it was The Majestic. Oops. Next time in Memphis, I will try Circa instead! :)

Corky's BBQ

2009-12-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning Corey and I headed to the lobby to meet Angela and Bridget so that we could walk to the starting line of the race together. The girls and I headed to the back and Corey went up to corral number 4. He was all set to run the full and the girls and I were ready to walk/jog/wog the half. It was freeeeeezzzzzing!!! But we got started and somehow, 3 hours and 40 minutes later, we crossed the finish line. Angela was a trooper. She hadn't trained at all because she had an injury and had decided to drop out a while ago, but at the last minute she decided what the heck, she'd join us. Kristin was gonna be at mile 7, but her warm and cozy bed got the best of her...and I don't blame her one bit! I would have stayed in bed, too!!!! Anyway, the race was fun. I figured if I wanted to run ahead, I would, but I was having fun trying to motivate Angela and I had so much crap in my pocket that it made it harder to run anyway, so I just walked it with them. This was my 4th half marathon and definitely not my best time, but who cares? I was there to hang out with my blogging buddies. After the race, there was pizza, donuts, and cookies! And boy did I indulge!!!! Yum. Best post race food ever!

We went home and took a nap. I slept for 2.5 wonderful hours and then got ready for dinner. Kristin picked us up and we headed to Germantown to meet Angela, JD, Tatum, & Bridget for some BBQ at Corky's! We were excited. It was fun to catch up and talk about the race. We ordered nachos and the cheese and sausage platter to start. No complaints here! For dinner, I had the brisket and Corey had the rib & pulled pork combo. He had no complaints, either. We couldn't eat it all and took the rest home. We nibbled on it later on that night, but still ended up throwing a lot of it away because we had no fridge. :( We had a lot of fun Saturday night, said our final goodbyes, and then Kristin drove us home via the scenic route. Thank you Kristin for driving us home!!

Mesquite Chop House

2009-12-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

I went to Memphis over the weekend to meet some fellow Extra Pound Bloggers. They had all met before several times, so I was the newbie. I've known Angela and Kristin for about 3 years and Bridget for a little over one year, I think. I immediately bonded with all three of them and was really looking forward to meeting them in person. So, we came up with a reason: the St. Judes Memphis Half Marathon.
My husband joined me on this trip so that he could run the full marathon. We arrived Friday afternoon and went straight to the expo, where we met Angela and Bridget! I was so nervous! I was worried that they wouldn't like me. They both seemed nervous, too. But we made our way through the expo and then headed over to meet Kristin for dinner. Corey went on his merry way because it was girls night.
The concierge at The Westin made a reservation for 4 at Mesquite Chop House for 6:00. We showed up at least 15 minutes early, but our table wasn't ready. We ordered a glass of wine (well, me and Kristin did anyway) and noticed that a few parties came in without reservations and were seated immediately. I was irked, so I asked the bartender/hostess what exactly we were waiting for...she said she was hooking us up with a better table in the downstairs library and with one of their stellar waiters. Whatever, sounded good at the time.
Well, we were seated and greeted, made our selections, placed our order. The salads took quite a while to arrive, but the entrees took even longer. The service was extremely slow and we were all pretty hungry. I think all of our steaks were cooked to order, but for some reason, Angela's steak didn't come out with ours and poor Kristin kept having to ask for a napkin and a new steak knife. I'm going to chalk this up to them seating us downstairs and the rest of his station being upstairs. I was a server many moons ago and when you have one party in a separate station, it is hard to keep on top of it. We were mildly annoyed, but once we got our food, I think I was just grateful for the chance to have a nice conversation and get to know these girls in person.
I thought the food was delicious, but the service could have been better.
Thanks to Kristin for the lovely Friendship Soup and for picking up the check! That was a really nice surprise!! I know we all appreciated it!

Marin Brewing Company

2009-09-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

We met my husbands brother, his wife, his two sons, one sons girlfriend, and her mother at Marin Brewing Company last night. We didn't know we could make a reservation, but apparently they take them for parties of 7 and more. Oh, well. We had a little wait, but no big deal. By the time we got our pitchers of beer, our table was ready. So, I'm just gonna say that we got excellent service, the food was really good, as usual, and I highly recommend this place. I ate like a pig. We shared some appetizers: Buffalo wings, Steamed clams, and onion rings. I had a garden salad with Vinaigrette, and then me and my husband shared a club sandwich with French Fries and the daily special pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, serrano chilis, and cheddar cheese. It was so good!! Oh, and I had an Indian Pale Ale and a Blueberry Ale. They have the best beer, by far. Go there.

Mustards Grill

2009-09-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Mustards Grill is located in Napa right off the St. Helena Hwy. Its been around for over 25 years and its still amazing. Cindy Pawlcyn is the owner of Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, and Go Fish, all located in the gorgeous Napa Valley. I've eaten at Mustard's a handful of times since moving to Marin 20 years ago and its never disappointed me yet. I have yet to try the other two establishments.

With my friend visiting, we decided to drive up to Napa and spend the night. I had a pretty light lunch earlier that day, so I was hungry and in the mood for a steak. Going to Mustards was a last minute idea, so we showed up without a reservation on a Wednesday night at 8:45. The place was packed and there were about 5 parties waiting for a table in the tiny hostess/bar area. We were told there would be a 30 minute wait, so we ordered a drink at the bar and stood in the corner happily waiting. Many of the people seated at the bar decided to have dinner there, so we got to view several of the items offered on the menu. I eyed the Lemon Meringue Pie and decided immediately that I definitely wanted to order that for dessert! After about a 35 minute wait, we were seated and greeted right away....a good sign! :) My friend wasn't very hungry, so she just got the Whole Roasted Garlic and the Heirloom Tomato & Burrata salad (for those following along, yes, we did have some version of the caprese salad for every meal that we ate 2 days in a row! ;). I had the Three Greens salad with Maytag Bleu Cheese & toasted pistachios to start out with and for my entree I ordered the "Truckstop Deluxe": Always Meat, Usually Potatoes, & Rarely Vegetables! lol Its a daily or weekly special, and on this night it was a 21 day aged Rib Eye with bleu cheese butter and roasted potatoes and peppers. It was amazingly delicious!! The service was outstanding, the food was excellent, and I was so full that I did not have room for the coffee and that beautiful Lemon Meringue Pie that I so badly wanted!

If you go to Napa, you must go to Mustards. You will not be disappointed! Reservations are highly recommended and the dress is casual, but dressing up is always funner!

Tra Vigne

2009-09-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, Tra Vigne!!! It used to be so good! What happened? My friend, Lisa, wanted to have lunch at Tra Vigne the other day since she was in town visiting and hadn't been in about 15 years. Since I live in Marin, I've been to Travigne several times over the years, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that it just isn't the same as it used to be! I love Michael Chiarello, Tra Vigne's original executive chef/partner. I've even met him once in person. Unfortunately, when Michael left Tra Vigne in 2000 to open NapaStyle, things just have not been the same. I'm truly happy for his success, especially his newly opened Bottega last year, in Yountville.

The problem isn't necessarily the food. The main problem is the service!! We arrived on a Wednesday at around 2:45; late for a lunch, I know. But we were greeted by 2 hostesses, passed a manager on duty, plus the bartender and 3 servers. So, they were fully staffed for the 3 tables already seated outside, plus us as the one table inside. We must have waited 10 minutes before we were greeted. At that point, we weren't annoyed yet because we had not decided what we wanted yet, but seeing as we had both done our fair share of waitressing, etc, we knew this was going to be a bad sign. We ordered a glass of wine (we were on a mini vacation and staying overnight in Yountville, so we splurged), and she brought them back in a timely fashion. But, then we waited a good 20 minutes before she ever came back. We had our menus down, were looking around for help, the hostess, 2 servers, & the bartender were around, but no one seemed to notice that we were obviously in need of attention. Our server finally appeared and I thought she was coming toward us, but no, she walked out to the patio. She finally made her way over to us and we ordered 2 appetizers to start, held onto our menus for our entree. The Caprese salad arrived along with the Crispy Fried Squash Blossoms. Both arrived in a timely fashion and were beautifully presented. I loved the Burrata cheese and the heirloom tomatoes, but I wasn't a fan of the overly crispy squash blossoms. They were a little greasy and of nondescript taste.

Once we finished our entrees, we still had not seen our server again, and we were quite ready to order our appetizer. So, we waited. At this point, we finally were approached by a busboy who brought water. We finally asked for bread because we hadn't yet been offered it. I must say that our busboy, once he appeared, was very attentive and we appreciated that. He even brought over a small side table for us to put our menus and wine menu on because they were clearly taking up too much of our two-top table space.

Our entrees arrived about 10 minutes after we ordered, so again, the problem was not in the kitchen, although I will say that my entree was very salty. I had the Halibut Alla Picatta with spring peas, pea tendrils, and snow peas. Very difficult to spear with my fork; I gave up on it. It tasted like dirt, anyway. The halibut itself was cooked perfectly and very good, but the lemon-caper sauce was over powering and salty. My friend, Lisa, had the Maltagliati Verde, which is an herb infused pasta with slow cooked Sonoma lamb and Sangiovese wine sugo. She loved it and it was a large serving so she wasn't able to finish it. She saved room for the Tiramisu. I had a bite and it was delicious!

Although the food wasn't "bad", it just wasn't as good as I remember it being the first few times I dined there when Michael was around. The last few times were just ok. It seems like the menu is much smaller, too. But my main issue with Tra Vigne these days is the slow service! By the way, after our entree was served, we were introduced to a new server who would be taking over for Jaye, our original server (I had to look at the receipt to get her name! :). The service definitely picked up with our new server! But I just noticed that overall, the service was less than attentive. Staff just standing around not even aware of our needs is just bad service. Tra Vigne is so beautiful and its such a legend, so I wish they would pay attention to the service. There is just an "I don't care" attitude.

Bix

2009-09-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

I love Bix in San Francisco! Its down this quaint alley in the financial district. Its like a 50's supper club, with a dark smokey interior and live jazz music playing downstairs by the bar. I met my friend Lisa for a cocktail at the bar before dinner. She had just driven up from Los Angeles to spend a few days visiting with me. We met in the 6th grade and instantly became best friends. We had our fair share of ups and downs, and we lost track of each other for 13 years, but 3 years ago, she called me out of the blue and we have been keeping in touch ever since. I saw her for the first time last April when I was down in Orange County on my annual shopping spree. It was good to see her again, and I was happy that she was interested in indulging her culinary nostalgia at a few of her favorite SF haunts.

We were led upstairs to a nice little table overlooking the downstairs dining room and bar area. Our server greeted us right away and I could tell that the service was going to be exceptional! We started out with "A la minute" Ceviche (halibut) with jalepeno and habanero chiles, avocado, cilantro oil, and toasted corn nuts. It was delicious! Our next course was the raw oysters on the half shell with mignonette sauce. Also delicious! I'm a sucker for mignonette sauce. After that, we couldn't resist the "Summer Tomato Cart" with heirloom tomatoes and House-pulled mozzarella with EVO and basil, prepared tableside! Wonderful!

Lisa ordered the Chicken Hash ala Bix, which is something she has ordered years past and has enjoyed. She said it was prepared differently than the last time she had it (15 years ago!!), but that it was still delicious and very filling. It looked like 2 veggie patties to me, and it topped a mound of mashed potatoes. I tried it and it was pretty good, but not something I would order. I'm a meat and potatoes girl, so I ordered the American Kobe "Bavette" steak with Pommes Puree and roasted Cippolini onions. I ordered it Medium Well, with my apologies to the chef (lol), but my medallions of beef came more like Medium Rare. I didn't mind it, though, because it didn't taste as raw as it looked. Normally, I would have sent it back, but I know that if I had, they would have been overcooked and ruined. If it were a filet, that would be different.

Lisa wanted dessert, and since I am also a sucker for Bananas Foster, we decided to share one order of that. It was a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream, to which the server poured a caramel and banana sauce on top of. I had just one or two bites, because I just don't have much of a sweet tooth. Everything was wonderful, especially the service. I've been doing a poor job of remembering my servers names; I wish I had made a point of recalling this one.

Bix is very hopping, even on a Tuesday night. I made a reservation about two weeks in advance, but I don't think it was necessary to make it so far ahead. But I definitely do recommend a reservation. If I didn't have to drive back to Marin, I would have liked to enjoy a drink in the bar while listening to the lovely lady singing by the piano in the bar.

I love Bix and look forward to my next visit.

Hotel De Anza

2009-08-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

This hotel is the best! Totally worth the extra cash. I made my reservation over the phone about 15 minutes before we arrived. The manager who checked us in was super friendly and efficient. He suggested the in-house restaurant, La Pastaia, for dinner and upon reviewing the menu we decided to check it out. Out of this world!!! But back to the hotel. I was soothed instantly by the gorgeous ivy green walls in the hallway. Our room had a king size bed, not much of a view, but the bathroom was large & gorgeous with a mini TV and a Lather Bar.

Things I loved: The bolster pillows!!! The ivory cotton duvet!!!! It smelled of bleach! :) The ice machine dispensed filtered water!! And it was the cool little ice pellets that I love so much! It was close to our room, so it was convenient. The glass pitcher they provided was a nice touch! The Raid our Pantry is so cool! We came home from the Green Day concert and were ready for a snack, so we went downstairs to the pantry and made ourselves a sandwich and grabbed a cookie. Awesome bonus! I also loved that it was only a 10 minute walk to the concert! Although we could hear the traffic outside, the hotel itself was sooo quiet! I never heard anyone out in the hallway or through the walls. Amazing. Free hi speed internet, too!

Things I did not love: The bathtub is elevated, so there's quite a step down. Even though there is a sign that clearly states "caution, step down" etc., I still managed to slip on the wet marble floor and ended up falling pretty badly. I bruised my wrist and thigh. Ouch. I could have cut my head open, so I'm lucky that's all I got. Just be careful.

I loved this hotel and I already can't wait to go back. I'm still thinking of the amazing dinner we had at La Pastaia! Our server was very sweet & attentive. We started with the carpaccio. Delicious! I had the bistecca & fava beans w/ pecorino, and my husband had the osobuco d'agnello. I can't rave enough about our meal. It was fantastic!

Loved Hotel de Anza!

Trail of Crumbs

2009-04-07T16:27:00.001-07:00

I am reading the best book right now! I've been reading a lot of crappy books lately and I really needed one I could sink my teeth into. Well, I had no idea when I picked up Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee that it would leave me so hungry! At first the book started out a little slow for me, but now I can't seem to put it down. Its based on her memoirs...her personal life and her passion for food and cooking. Truly interesting. I'm only about half way now, but I decided to Google her. I was shocked that I have actually heard of her before. She was a judge on Iron Chef not too long ago. I love that show and anything on the Food Network. The secret ingredient was basil and I thought that was such a great secret ingredient! I always hate when they show a huge table of fish or suckling pigs or an aquarium full of live fish. Basil! Who knew how many varieties there were! Anyway, I was like: wow! I remember her! She was so pretty and refined! She also has a blog!! Yay! I am always so envious of my food blogging buddies who have somehow managed to make a career out of doing what they love. I love to cook and I love to write, but I don't put forth the time or effort to try to make money off of my blog. I say good for those that do. I'm still a little jealous, though. :) Happy for them, but jealous. Its funny, because I call them my food buddies, but its pretty one sided. I read their blogs but I'm pretty sure no one reads mine. Which is fine. I'm ok with that.

Anyway, I'm getting off point. I just wanted to mention how excited I am that I love this book and that I was excited to realize that I had heard of her before but didn't put the two together. I like small coincidences. I chose this book because it said that if you loved Eat Pray Love, you will love Trail of Crumbs. I did love Eat Pray Love--a lot!! I even went to a reading by Elizabeth Gilbert. I love these memoirs by these amazing ladies!! Oddly enough, the next book I plan to read is Drink Play F@#k. I saw it at Borders the other day and laughed out loud at the title....bought it for my husband, but something tells me I'll get to it first.

Chili-Cilantro Prawns

2009-03-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

I found this recipe on the FoodNetwork.com by Michelle Bernstein. These little guys were out of this world! I marinated them for about 7 hours and I was sure to reserve about 1/2 cup of the marinade before putting the prawns in. I didn't happen to have any sugarcane (?) skewers so I used Rosemary skewers from my yard. :) After I grilled the skewers, I let them cool for a few minutes before putting them over a bed of lettuce, mache, & ciliantro. I put some avocado on the side and drizzled the reserved marinade over the whole dish. OMG YUM! We had a few leftover that I popped in the fridge and they are almost even better chilled!!! Another way I might serve these next time is in a martini glass swimming in the marinade...kind of like a ceviche cocktail....and with some diced avocado and tortilla chips. Avocado goes perfectly with the lime and cilantro flavors. Next time I plan to use two habaneros rather than one because it wasn't hot enough for me. Also, the marinade made plenty, so I will double the amount of prawns, too! Ok, I'll shut up now and get to the recipe! :)

Chili-Cilantro Shrimp Skewers

(Michelle Bernstein)

"Ingredients

Marinade:

1 bunch cilantro, chopped coarsely
1 habanero chile, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
2 lemons, zested
2 limes, zested and juiced to 1/4 cup (juice more limes if necessary)
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 vegetable oil
16 jumbo shrimp, cleaned, deveined
8 sugarcane skewers
Marinade
1/4 bunch cilantro leaves, as garnish

Directions

Puree all marinade ingredients in a blender. Reserve 2 tablespoons of marinade.

Skewer two shrimp per sugarcane and place in marinade and refrigerate. After shrimp has marinated 2 to 3 hours, grill for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side, making sure they are fully cooked.

Serve with a drizzle of the reserved marinade and cilantro, as garnish."

Red Cabbage Salad

2009-03-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Wow its been a long time since I posted here!

When I was a little girl, we always had family get togethers on my moms side at this cool place in Southern California called The North Woods Inn. It looked like a big cabin and it had fake snow on the roof. They didn't take reservations, so there was always a short wait, especially for large parties. I didn't mind because I got to enjoy a Shirley Temple and eat peanuts then throw the shells on the floor!! They encouraged the shells on the floor and I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, once we were seated, the server would put down 2 bowls of salad: one was a delicous & tangy red cabbage salad and the other was a tossed green salad with creamy bleu cheese dressing. Yum.

Well, the one near where we lived closed down many years ago and I moved away, but recently I've been dreaming about those salads. I've been trying to figure out how to recreate the red cabbage salad, in particular! I knew it couldn't be raw...but did they blanch it or what??? I had an idea of what the ingredients would be, but how did they get it to soften??? Well, I finally Googled it and found the recipe and its exactly like it was when I was little at the North Woods Inn!!!

I got this recipe from About.com by Peggy Trowbridge Filippone:

Red Cabbage Salad:

"This is a clone recipe of the very popular sweet and sour cabbage slaw served at the popular North Woods Inn California restaurant chain. Plan ahead. This salad needs a long marination time. It's good after 48 hours, but even better after 4 or 5 days. This is the perfect make-ahead salad.

Ingredients:

1/2 head red cabbage
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp onion powder

Preparation:

Shred half of the cabbage finely and the other half coarsely. Place in a large bowl.

Whisk together vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, seasoned salt, black pepper, and onion powder.

Toss the dressing with the cabbage. Scrape the salad with the dressing into a zip-top bag or covered container and refrigerate at least 48 hours or until cabbage turns deep red, softens a bit, and flavors meld. It's even better after 4 or 5 days."

Paradise Bay

2009-01-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

My husband wanted to try a new place we haven't been to before for his birthday dinner. I had a hard time coming up with places, but I narrowed it down to Johnny Garlics and Paradise Bay. Since Johnny Garlics was so far away and the menu seemed a better lunch option, we decided to go ahead and try both places. JG for lunch (see below) and Paradise Bay for dinner.

Paradise Bay is located on Bridgeway in Sausalito with a nice big parking lot, so its convenient. They don't take reservations for parties smaller than 6, so we took our chances and walked in at about 7:45 on a Friday night. As we pulled into the empty parking lot, we saw right away that this was not going to be a problem. It kind of worried me that the place was dead on a Friday night, but a lot of people are just "done" with the going out thing and a lot of places are closed on the second of January. Trust me. I've had a lot of difficulty finding restaurants to dine at on the second over the years.

As we walked in, I noticed that sure enough, the place was empty. The hostess greeted and seated us by the window in the back. It was fun to see the boats with their Christmas lights up, but my daughter complained that it was rather chilly. There were actually two other occupied tables all together, so we weren't the only ones there. Whew. The decor was really pretty and this place really has a lot of potential. I was shocked that they had no daily specials.

We ordered two appetizers: a crab, prawn, & calamari cocktail and steamed Manilla clams & PEI mussels in a ginger, coconut-lime cream sauce. The cocktail was ok. There were only 2 prawns, a couple chunks of crab, and way too much calimari, which I left to my husband. I thought that the presentation could use some help. The tall breadsticks sticking out of a high ball glass looked strange and I thought it should have been served in a lower, wider dish. The sauce was just ok. The shellfish, however, was delicious. We all shared it, so I only had one clam and 2 mussels, but they were really good tasting and the texture was perfect. The sauce was aromatic and delicious, but was a little cold. In fact, everything was cold.

I asked the server if he would recommend the filet mignon or the New York with prawns & Mongolian sauce. He suggested the filet. It was a certificed organic Prather Ranch filet, looked to be maybe 6 oz, served with butternut squash & sage ravioli, Maytag bleu cheese, served with Cabernet Demi-Glace & Tempura asparagus. Sounds pretty good, huh? The steak was cooked to order, was very good, but was at the most, warm. Maybe lukewarm. It was served in a puddle of demi-glace, the bleu cheese was too overbearing, and the ravioli were soggy. I couldn't even taste the squash or sage. The Tempura asparagus was laid on top of the steak, which was on top of the ravioli, so the asparagus was not soaked with sauce, but they were so greasy that all I could taste was oil. I couldn't tell if I was eating a green bean, let alone asparagus. The only thing I liked was the steak, and that was all I could manage to eat. I think they would have been better off just putting a drizzle of demi-glace over the steak and keeping it far away from the ravioli. And perhaps serve it hot. Just a thought. Like I said, this place has potential.

My husband asked the server if he would recommend this dish or that dish. His answer did not include either dish, but two other dishes. I thought that was odd. My husband went ahead and ordered one of his own choices, which was the Cioppino. It was served in a large bowl with two breadsticks spearing out of each side. I thought the presentation was beautiful; it looked delicous. It had fresh Dungeoness crab, mussels, clams, prawns and fish in a broth of tomato & fennel. I didn't try it but he said it was pretty good, if not a lot of work! Which is why I didn't order it! I ordered Cioppino at Yankee Pier a while back and it was delicious, but it took me forever to finish. No complaints about the Paradise Bay Cioppino.

Both the girls ordered the cheeseburger. One was ordered well done but came back clearly medium. She desacrated it so much that it was impossible to send it back. Neither of the girls ate more than a quarter of their burger saying it tasted weird. I took a bite, so did my husband, and it was actually quite good. I like my burger to be medium well, but sometimes medium is good, too. I did let the server know that it was not cooked to order, but that it wasn't necessary to send it back at that point.

Overall, I have to say I was disappointed in Paradise Bay. The service was fine but lackluster. The busboy was friendly, but our server just seemed bored. And who can blame him? The place was a ghost town! Its a shame because they have a good menu, the flavor is there, but everything we got was served cold. You would think that since we were one of very few diners that they would have been able to step it up a notch. We didn't bother mentioning that it was my husbands birthday. Just a few little changes could go a long way. Until then, I doubt we will return any time soon.

Its really too bad. Lots of potential (redundant, I know!), great location, beautiful interior, decent service, but cold food, meat not cooked properly (or at least how we ordered it), too much flavors battling against a steak, etc. etc.

Johnny Garlic's Pasta Grill

2009-01-03T11:02:00.002-08:00

We are huge Guy Fieri fans over here, as I may have mentioned before! We've been to Tex Wasabi's twice, so we decided that Johnny Garlic's was a great place to go for my husbands birthday lunch yesterday. Its a bit of a hike, took us about 45 minutes to get there. Its in a suburban area, not downtown like both locations of Tex W's.

We were greeted right away and seated in the covered patio area. It appears as if on a beautiful day, the plastic panels could open up, but yesterday was wet and cold. It was a little dark in the back; they could have used some light or at least opened up the blinds more.

We ordered the Key Lime Calamari to start. It seemed undercooked to me, so I had just the one piece and left it at that. The marinara sauce was "on point". :) My husband and youngest daughter enjoyed the curly part of the squid with delight, as me and my oldest daughter sqeamishly looked away. ;) The menu was large and very diverse, but I decided right away on the Johnny's Dip, which was a large portion of roast beef, melted pepper cheese (I saw no peppers...), and served on a nice soft roll and with a ramekin of au jus on the side. It came with chips, but I ordered a green salad instead, which was just ok. It looked pretty, but the veggies seemed kind of old. My sandwich was pretty good and very filling--I wasn't able to eat all of it.

My husband had the pasta and salad combo, in which he chose the Volcano Chicken Penne & Caesar. He said it was delicious, and it sure looked good! My daughter Rory had the same, but she opted for the Penne Pomodoro. She said it was good, but complained that the portioned seemed small.

Bella, the youngest, had the kids chicken tenders & french fries. The chicken was breaded and fried and looked way over done.....but she said it was really good. She couldn't even finish her dish.

Overall, the food was fine, the service was great, but I'm not sure we would make a special trip up there again. If we happened to be in the area, then yes, we'd dine there again.

We still love Guy Fieri! Can't wait for all the new Food Network shows to begin next week. I need to make a trip into Mill Valley to check out Tyler Florences new place.

Maya

2008-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

The other day, my husband and myself found ourselves kid-less, so we decided to drive up to Sonoma for lunch. We weren't sure where we were going; we had heard of a place called Mondo, but it was closed, so we ended up at Maya. We have been there several times and its always been good. This time was no different.

We were greeted right away and asked to wait in the bar area for a few minutes. Chips, salsa, and water were served right away by a friendly busboy. After about 10 minutes, we were seated at our table. We weren't greeted by our waiter for several minutes, but when he did show up we were not only ready to order our Maya Margarita, but we were also ready to order our lunch. The food took a little bit, as it was obvious that the kitchen was busy since the restaurant was a full house.

I ordered the house salad, which was green leaf lettuce, jicama, mango, and a chipotle papaya vinaigrette. I opted to add the 5 grilled tiger prawns, and it was a delicious addition. For my entree, I ordered the cheeseburger, which was served on a soft roll, and with yucca fries. It was very, very rare, but I still enjoyed it. The waiter never asked how I wanted it cooked, and I didn't even think to order it medium. I gave half to my husband, and he shared his carne asada tacos with me. The meat was tender and flavorful, and served on top of a corn tortilla, with finely diced red onion and a spicy red sauce. The tacos were served with a side of rice and pureed white beans.

The service was a tad slow, but the food was delicious as always. I will definitely return in the future! :)

Pho Noodle Soup

2008-12-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't find a recipe that would work for me, so I decided to wing it. Usually I like to follow a recipe and adapt it, but all the recipes I found called for a bunch of ingredients I either don't have or don't like.

(Americanized) Vietnamese Pho Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
2 TBSP sesame oil
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 TBSP whole pepper corns
1/2 tsp sea salt
10 thin slices of fresh ginger
2 carrots, julienned
2 mini bell peppers, thinly sliced
4 cups beef broth
1 bundle of rice noodles
cilantro, loosely chopped
lime, cut into wedges
1 red and 1 green chili peppers, minced
Sriacha or homemade hot chili pepper sauce

Directions:

Saute the cinnamon stick, onion, garlic, peppercorns, salt, ginger, carrots & bell peppers in sesame oil until soft, about 8 minutes. Add beef broth, bring to boil, simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, add the noodles and cook until soft..mine took 4 minutes.

Divide the noodles into 4 soup bowls, ladle the broth over the noodles, garnish with cilantro, lime, and hot chili sauce.

The verdict:
There is a lot I would do differently next time. For one, I would get some lemon grass in there, and the other is that I would strain out the ginger, peppercorns, & garlic from the broth after letting those simmer for a few minutes.....and then I would add the rest of the vegetables and let them simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Other than the annoyances of biting into the garlic, ginger, and especially those peppercorns, the flavor was really, really good!!! Even my kids liked it....course, they didn't add the hot sauce or chili peppers...those really added some major heat.

Salad

2008-12-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Stacey got me thinking about salads today! I thought I'd post a couple of my favorite salad recipes. The Bean Salad with citrus juice and hot sauce is by Rachel Ray and the Food Network. I've made it several times and I love it. Its good chilled, too.

Bean Salad w/Citrus juice & Hot sauce:

Ingredients

Salt
2 pounds store-bought, trimmed fresh green beans or mix yellow wax and green beans, coarsely chopped on an angle
1 orange, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Fill a high sided skillet with 1 inch of water and bring to simmer. Liberally salt the water. Add beans and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Drain and cool under running cold water.

Whisk juices and hot sauce together in a shallow salad bowl and stream in olive oil. Add beans and toss to coat. Season the beans with salt and pepper, to taste.

I got this recipe below from Alosha's Kitchen, but she got it from The Kitchen Sink. I've made it about 3 times and its just so tangy and yummy!!! I'd never bought chipotle in adobo sauce before, but now I always keep a can on hand!

Chipotle Corn Salad

courtesy of The Kitchen Sink

Ingredients

4 ears of corn
1 medium Vidalia or Walla Walla onion, thickly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for garnish
1 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon chives, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
salt and freshly ground pepper

1 head of romaine, sliced

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced

Directions

Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. Brush the corn and onion slices with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill over moderately high heat until charred in spots but still slightly crisp, about 7 minutes. Let cool slightly, then cut the kernels from the cobs and coarsely chop the onion. Add the sliced tomatoes.

In a medium bowl, mix the sour cream with the lime juice, chopped chipotle chiles, sliced chives and salt and pepper, to taste. Add the sliced romaine to the bowl and stir to coat the lettuce with the dressing. Arrange the dressed romaine on a platter.

Top with the corn mixture. Arrange the sliced avocado on top of the corn mixture. Garnish with chives and lime wedges.

My Mom's Lemon Bread

2008-11-30T17:45:00.000-08:00

My mom used to bake this bread every Christmas and put into individual tins wrapped in colorful cellophane to give to family, friends, & neighbors. It was a big hit and everyone looked forward to it every year. The bonus was that the lemons came from our lemon tree in the back yard.

Nancy's Lemon Bread

Ingredients:

1 med. lemon

2 1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 c. sugar, plus 2 tsp more for glaze

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 c. butter or margarine

3 eggs

3/4 c. milk

Directions:

From one lemon, grate all peel, squeeze juice, set aside. (I like to put my lemon in the microwave for about 10 seconds and then roll it around on the counter to make it juicer)

In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, & salt with fork. Cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in lemon peel.

In small bowl, slightly beat eggs with fork, stir in milk, then stir this mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened.

Spoon into greased pan, bake 1 hour or until lightly browned. Cool in pan 10 minutes.

In small saucepan over med-hi heat, whisk lemon juice & 2 tsp. sugar to boiling. Cook, stirring until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Brush with pastry brush evenly over top of bread.

Grandma's BBQ Pork

2008-11-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

I am so thankful that I had the good sense to ask my grandma for her bbq pork recipe a few years before she passed away! I still have her handwritten recipe that I cherish. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas that I ever spent with my dads side of the family included this delicious appetizer. I try to make it at least Thanksgiving or Christmas, if not both! I've got 4 pounds marinating in the fridge since last night (16 hours and counting!), but this recipe calls for 3 pounds and marinate overnight. I'm taking it to my brothers for Thanksgiving (an 8 hour drive!!) and I wanted extra meat and extra flavor. I tweak it a little bit..like add more of each ingredients...and mix the marinade in a small bowl first, but here is my grandma's recipe word for word:

Grandma Tillie's Barbequed Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

4 TBSP ketchup
3 TBSP Hoisin sauce
1 tsp 5 Spice
5 slices of fresh ginger
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 TBSP Mirin (or sherry)
1 TBSP sugar
3 pounds pork tenderloin

Garnish:
Chinese Hot Mustard
Ketchup
Toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

In a large glass dish, mix Hoisin, 5 Spice, ginger, garlic, ketchup, & salt. Add the pork, and smother.
Marinate overnight.
Put water in bottom of roasting pan. Arrange pork on rack. Bake in preheated oven, 350 degrees, for one hour and 15 minutes. Turn once during roasting and baste with extra sauce.
Cool, then chill. Serve thinly sliced with hot mustard, ketchup, and toasted sesame seeds.

Chicken Pot Pie

2008-11-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

I was raised on those little Swanson chicken pot pies that used to cost about 19 cents...remember those? Well, I couldn't stand them and when my mom announced that we were having pot pies for dinner, I cringed. Sometimes they were beef, sometimes they were turkey. I'm sure they were pretty good, but I was just sick of them. My mom was not the greatest cook, God rest her soul. We ate a lot of canned and frozen food. I learned to cook at the age of 9, believe it or not. I've always loved to cook and I think I'm pretty ok at it. I remember bringing home assignments for extra credit in Home Ec. in the 7th & 8th grade. My mom was loving it! I came up with all kinds of dinner ideas and was earning extra credit to boot.

Anyway, several years ago, a good friend of mine invited us over for dinner. She made a chicken pot pie. I must have made a funny face, because she picked up on the fact that I was not too thrilled about her menu! So, I admitted my dislike and told her my reason, but like a trooper, agreed that I was open to trying her homemade version. I have to say, it was actually very, very delicious!!! I always wanted to ask her for the recipe, but never did. Last week I was looking for a new chicken recipe in my new Taste of Home cookbook that I won over at Dine & Dash a few weeks ago. I adapted this recipe that is actually for a turkey pot pie, but I had chicken, so chicken it is. You can use either one.

Ingredients:
Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (should sit out for 15 minutes)
1 large potato, peeled & diced
4 carrots, finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 TBSP butter
1 -14 oz can reduced sodium chicken broth
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 cups cubed cooked chicken (I used a store bought rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:

In a large saucepan, saute potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic in butter for about 5 or 6 minutes. Add broth, cover and cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, combine flour and milk until smooth. Gradually add to vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add the remaining ingredients; simmer 5 minutes longer.
Fit crust onto a pie tin. Pour hot filling into crust. Place the second crust on top; crimp edges. Cut slits in top of crust.
Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. Serves 6.

Minestrone Soup

2008-11-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Adapted it from a crockpot recipe and I made my own variations.

Minestrone Soup

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tomatoes, diced
2 cup stewed tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
2 bay leaves
Salt and ground black pepper
12 oz pkg small whole wheat seashell pasta
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Saute celery, onion, & zucchini in EV olive oil until soft, about 10 minutes. Slowly add the chicken broth, bring to boil. Add remaining ingredients, simmer on low for 15 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Serve with parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

How easy is that? Feel free to mess around with the liquid and spices, etc. More, less, navy beans instead of kidney beans, throw in some carrots if you don't like celery, etc.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

2008-11-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

Buffalo Chicken Soup (adapted from A year of Crock Potting, who adapted it from RecipeZaar.....but you know me....I always have to make my own changes! :)

Ingredients
* 1 yellow onion, finely diced
* 3 stalks celery, finely diced
* 3 TBSP butter
* 3 TBSP cup flour
* 3/4 cup milk
* 3/4 cup chicken broth
* 2 cups diced cooked chicken***
* 1/4-1/2 cup chicken wing sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
* 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Saute onions and celery in butter until tender.

Stir in flour until smooth.

Slowly add milk and broth.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally. Serves 4. (I tripled the recipe and it still looks like maybe it will serve only 6)

***I marinated my chicken breasts in Franks Wing sauce & Siracha sauce for about an hour, then I grilled them for about 6 minutes per side on med-high heat. Let cool, then dice.***

Leek & Potato Soup

2008-10-28T17:21:00.001-07:00

I just made some leek & potato soup. I winged it:

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. EV olive oil
1 large Walla Walla onion, chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
1 large leek, sliced, white part only
salt & pepper
generous dash of ground Thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
4 cups vegetable broth
3 tbsp. white wine
2 sm. celery stalks with leaves on
1 bay leaf
4 potatoes, peeled & quartered

Directions:
Saute the onions, shallot, & leek in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add the spices & melt in the butter. Add the flour, mix to make a roux. Stir in the broth & wine. Add the celery & potatoes, bring to a boil, simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Discard the celery & bay leaf.

Normally I'm not a fan of the blender and I prefer my soups chunkier, but in this instance, because of all of onions, etc., I used the blender in an attempt to fool the kids. I'm calling it Baked Potato soup as far as they are concerned! LOL Also, you can first brown some bacon and add the onion/leek mixture to that as oppossed to the olive oil. I'm still trying to avoid red meat. Its really hard!!!

Update on my bleu cheese/pecan dip: I bought some from Trader Joes today and checked the ingredients. I was pretty damned close except theirs has milk, more spices, and preservatives. I tasted the TJ's dip and damned if mine isn't much better! ;) Theirs is a thinner consistency, whereas mine was much thicker. I'd probably thin my down a little bit next time, but I'm thinking I will stick with my home made version from now on!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2008-10-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

*First, you want to preheat your oven to 400, carefully cut your squash into quarters, seed it, dot it with butter, sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar on top, then bake for about 45 minutes or until its soft. OMG yum. And if you're lucky, you'll have some leftover for another use. Be sure to discard the skin before adding to the soup.*

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup (1/4-inch) diced onion
1/4 cup (1/4-inch) diced celery
1 cinnamon stick
Sea salt, preferably gray salt
Freshly ground black pepper
About 4 cups reduced sodium chicken stock or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon ground toasted coriander, optional
1 1/2 cups roasted butternut squash (see above)
1/2 cup half-and-half, optional--but I recommend it!

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add the onion, celery, and cinnamon stick and saute until soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the stock/broth and the coriander, if using, and bring to a boil. Simmer for several minutes. Stir in the squash until smooth, then simmer gently to let the flavors meld, about 10 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick. Mash the squash inside the pan, or if you want you can put it in a blender. I didn't. I like a chunkier soup.

Add the half-and-half, if using. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Serves 4-6.

(Adapted from Michael Chiarello's recipe, but with my own variations. I love that man. This soup is absolutely delicious. And all you need with it is a small salad or a piece of crusty bread to dip into olive oil and grated garlic. My friend brought me the coolest plate from Italy last summer. The artist put these rough indented lines into the ceramic that are meant to grate a clove of garlic on. You pour olive oil over the garlic directly onto the plate and it is delicious.)

Now I'm dying to try Cowgirl Yoga's Curried Pumpkin Soup! It sounds delicious and I have all the ingredients on hand. I've been slowly dropping subtle (and not so subtle) hints to my husband that I really want to go to a retreat next summer in Big Sky, Montana! It sounds so amazing!!! Keeping my fingers crossed!

Bleu Cheese & Pecan Dip

2008-10-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Trader Joes makes this delicious dip that is perfect for dipping celery, carrots, bell peppers, green beans, etc. I haven't had a chance to get up to TJ's recently, but I realized this morning that I have all the ingredients that I think I needed and I could try and whip up my own batch. It turned out super good and I thought I'd pass it on. It comes out to about 160 cals for 2 tablespoons, but I figure its one way to get a bunch of fresh veggies down my throat, so its worth it.

Trader Shelley's Blue Cheese & Pecan Dip:

8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
2 oz low fat sour cream
3 oz bleu cheese crumbles (you could adjust more or less to your tasting)
1 oz pecans, smashed up into pieces
Cracked pepper to taste

Mix thoroughly and enjoy! I love it with celery, in particular.

Bungalow 44

2008-10-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to dine at Bungalow 44 for quite some time now. We consider it often, but we always shoot it down because their menu seems to change often. Plus, its way down in Mill Valley, and it always seems too far to drive. But since Thursday was my birthday, I decided I wanted to try somewhere we've never been before and the menu was looking good.

Their parking lot is really tiny, so we had to park up the street, which gave us a nice little walk on a beautiful evening. We were seated promptly in a lovely booth in the small dining room next to the bar. Its a very lively place and the patrons were all very well dressed. I had heard that its one of those seen and be seen kind of places, and it was. I loved the ambiance.

We were greeted right away by our very attentive waitress. We finally decided on the "Double Dip" onion rings and the Heirloom tomato flatbread as our appetizers. Both were very good, although, I've had much better onion rings before. These were thinly sliced and very light, but I guess I prefer a thicker slice and a little more batter.

It was challenging to find something for the kids to eat, but it turns out that they did have a kids menu. Bella ordered the cheeseburger and so you know I had to try it! Delicious!!! Rori had her usual pasta with butter and cheese. Boring child. My husband ordered the Steak Frites and the bite I tasted was delicious. I ordered the Filet Mignon with Pt. Reye's Bleu Cheese & Broccolini. I didn't think it would be enough, so I ordered a side of creamed spinach. My steak was perfectly cooked, but the broccolini seemed a bit tough to me. Everything was absolutely wonderful. We even ordered dessert, seeing as how it was my birthday! Bella and my huband shared the Butterscotch pudding, while I eagerly attacked my chefs selection of cheese. It had sliced apples and a few pieces of toasted artisan bread. I couldn't finish it all; it was too huge! I didn't even mind the one cheese which was doused in honey and golden raisins.

I give Bungalow 44 5 stars and I really look forward to returning. Next time we'll go alone or with another couple. Its not that its not kid-friendly, but its just more of a party scene. Lively and bubbly. A great place to spend my birthday!

Today we head up north to shop for costumes and to pick some pumpkins. After that, we're stopping in at Guy Fieri's place, Tex Wasabi. Yum! Can't wait!

Future post

2008-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a few days, but I made Arroz con Pollo and Eggplant Parmesan recently, and they both turned out really good. I'll do that later when I can breathe.

Time for some Chili!

2008-10-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

Something about October says "Chili" to me! I've been meaning to make it for a few days now, so today I finally got around to it. I adapted it from Bobby Flay's Beef & Black Bean Chili recipe, but as usual, I always add my own twist to it.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp EV Olive Oil
2 lbs stew meat
1 large Walla Walla Onion, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
2 Pasilla peppers, diced
2 red jalapeno peppers, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 bottle of dark beer
2 cups stewed tomatoes (fresh, homemade :)
5 cups chicken stock
salt & pepper
4 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tsp cumin seed
1 Tbsp Chipotle in Adobo sauce
2 lgt.cans black beans
2 sm. cans kidney beans
1 sm. can garbanzo beans

Brown beef in olive oil. Set aside. Saute onion, peppers, & carrots in reserved oil from meat until soft. Add garlic, cook for 2 minutes. Add beer and cook until liquid evaporates. Add stewed tomatoes, chicken broth, and spices. Bring to boil, simmer for an hour. Add all the beans and the diced fresh tomatoes, cook for another 3o minutes. Garnish with cilantro, toasted cumin sour cream (see below) and avocado.

Toast 1 Tbsp cumin seed in a saute pan over medium high heat, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool. In a bowl, add 1 cup sour cream, salt, pepper, and cumin seeds. Mix, chill for at least one hour so the flavors can marry. This was also adapted from Bobby Flay, but I omitted the lime juice because I didn't have any lime.

This was delicious!!!!! Maybe a little too thin of consistency, so I would add less liquid next time. The beer was a great flavor enhancer! :)

Tomato Salsa & Spaghetti Sauce

2008-09-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

I picked a few more tomatoes today and also grabbed a couple red jalapeno peppers. So, it occurred to me to make some salsa! Duh! I haven't had a clue what to do with the peppers and I'm running out of tomato ideas, so there ya go: salsa.

Ingredients:
4 large tomatoes, chopped
2 red jalapenos, seeded & minced
1 small shallot (any onion is fine)
1 tsp ground cumin
a few whirls of freshly cracked pepper and salt

Mix together in bowl, check spices, chill.

Last night I made spaghetti. It turned out pretty good. I winged it and did not follow a recipe, but i sort of followed my grandmas recipe from memory.

Ingredients:
Sweet Italian Sausage
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large Walla Walla onion, chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 cups stewed tomatoes (mine were fresh from my garden! :) or a 15 oz can.
28 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can of tomato paste
15 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp each: oregano, thyme
8-10 basil leaves, torn
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 large bay leaves
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup water
Fresh pepper to taste

Brown sausages; set aside.

Saute vegetables in until soft, about 10-15 mintes. Add remaining ingredients (except for the sausages), bring to a boil, turn to low, and simmer for about 2 hours. Add more water if needed, check frequently for spices. Add the sausages the last 30-45 minutes. Yield: 8 servings.

Serve over hot pasta. I used half regular linguini, half whole wheat linguini. Its a good way to trick the kids. :)

Caprese Salad

2008-09-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

I made a beautiful Caprese salad with more tomatoes from my garden. I chopped up 4 medium tomatoes, threw in some pearl mozzarella, torn basil (from my window garden), freshly ground salt & pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and some red wine vinegar. Its all marrying together in the fridge, so in about an hour it will be perfect. Its also good at room temperature.

Stewed Tomatoes

2008-09-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

I had a ton of ripe tomatoes from my garden that I needed to do something with, so I decided against canning, but rather to stew them. I'd never stewed tomatoes before--it was really easy and I'll do it again, I'm sure. I didn't follow a recipe, just common sense.

First, you boil some water then drop in a few tomatoes at a time. Leave in until the skin bursts (I scored the "belly button" first), remove with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl filled with cold water until they are cool enough to peel.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, saute some bell peppers & onion in butter until soft. Hand crush the peeled tomatoes into the pot, add some salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar, some basil, & a few bay leaves. Bring to a boil; simmer for about 2 hours, covered. Remove bay leaves, let tomatoes cool, then transfer to quart size freezer ZipLocks and store in freezer until needed for your next recipe that calls for stewed tomatoes.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

2008-09-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe on Crockpot Lady's blog and knew I had to make it. I ended up modifying it quite bit, though. I did not use the crock pot, so I mostly followed the recipe on Recipe Zaar by Nonnie4Two. I used yellow onions instead of green, and I omitted the Velveeta for two reasons: one, I didn't have any and two, it just seemed wrong to me. Theres no cheese in Buffalo wings! If anything, I'd sprinkle some bleu cheese crumbles on the top next time.

Buffalo Chicken Soup:

Ingredients

1 medium Walla Walla or Vidalia onion, chopped
3 stalks, celery, chopped
2 TBSP butter
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup skim milk
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1/4-1/2 cup chicken wing sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

Saute onions and celery in butter until tender.
Stir in flour until smooth.
Slowly add milk and broth.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cheese has melted.

This soup was really good. I mixed in some Sriacha sauce with the wing sauce for a bigger kick and I had marinated the chicken in the same mixture first. Of course, I tossed out the sauce that the chicken was cooked in (that would have been gross and something my husband would have done) and added fresh sauce to the actual soup. Like I said, some bleu cheese crumbles would have been good. I'll have to get some for the leftovers.

I think we're going out to dinner tonight, so I'll do a review next. And hopefully, I'll have some race training details to add....since my race is in 14 days!

Asian Fusion

2008-09-17T20:40:00.001-07:00

I bought some soba noodles the other day and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I found an interesting recipe by Guy Fieri. I love Guy. He's Money! I absolutely love his restaurant, Tex Wasabi up in Santa Rosa (he has one in Sacramento, too). Anyway, this recipe turned out really good. I give Guy the credit, but I didn't follow it exactly. As for the veggies, I ommitted the napa cabbage (I used red cabbage instead), bean sprouts, & bok choy, simply because I didn't have them on hand. I would kick it up a little bit next time and add some red chili pepper flakes. I also used Ponzu flavored soy sauce instead of regular. I hope by giving Guy the credit, its ok for me to post it here...?

"Dang Cold Asian Noodle Salad, by Guy Fieri:

1 package soba noodles (I used 2 bundles and it was plenty...there were 3 in the package)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon hot chili oil
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (I cut it down to 4)
1 carrot, thinly sliced or julienned
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced or julienned
5 green onions, bottom 4 inches, thinly sliced
1/2 cup thinly sliced napa cabbage
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced or julienned
1/2 cup julienned bok choy
1 cup bean sprouts, optional
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted, for garnish
4 tablespoons unsalted peanuts, for garnish

In a medium stock pot, boil water, add salt and cook noodles. When finished, place noodles in an ice water bath to cool. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine, sesame oil, vinegar, soy sauce, hot chili oil, hoisin and extra-virgin olive oil. Mix thoroughly and then combine prepared vegetables and noodles.

Garnish with sesame seeds and peanuts."

I did not use peanuts, and I would let it chill for an hour or two next time, so that the flavors have a chance to marry. I didn't take pictures. I'm trying to remember to do that. I think this salad would go amazingly with Guy's Wasabi Sake-Tini!!! He puts powdered wasabi on the rim of the glass, mixes vodka & sake, and garnishes it with a pickled ginger stuffed olive. OMG! Yum! Guy, can you feel my love?

Tomorrow I'm going to make the Buffalo Chicken Soup that Stef at 365 Days of CrockPotting posted a few days ago. I marinated the chicken in the buffalo sauce before I baked the chicken tonight. I would have made it today, but I'm out of Velveeta. Well, its just not something I always have on hand. What can I say? But God, this soup...it looks so good!!! Can't wait to try it.

Meat Loaf

2008-09-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

I had defrosted some ground beef, some sweet Italian pork sausage, and some spicy "Caprese" (?) Italian sausage, so I decided to go ahead and make a meat loaf. Its been a very, very, very looooong time since I've made meat loaf. The main reason being that my kids don't like it...actually, they just don't really like meat very much. Its getting exhausting trying to get them to eat what I make. Anyway, I followed Elises' recipe from her website, Simply Recipes. Love that site, btw. I was out of carrots & celery, so omitted that and the butter, and I am out of bread crumbs, so I smashed up some stoned wheat crackers. Funny name, but thats what they are called. LOL.

The goulash turned out really good. I had a bunch of mushrooms so I added those in for the heck of it and also to make up for the fact that I didn't have enough tri tip. I made a gorgeous cucumber salad, too, which turned out good. The Basil-Lemon sorbet? No so good. It was just way too sweet! And I cut the sugar from 2 cups to 1 and 3/4!! The basil was weird, but interesting. I should have used more mint, too.

My husband and I went to see "Burn After Reading" this afternoon. OMG, it was hysterical!!!! I was dying! There was this little old lady sitting by herself in front of me and she was laughing so loudly it cracked me up. She was laughing so loudly and for so long at this one scene where it was not even funny! It was sad, actually, but I won't give it away! Oh, why not? No one reads this! LOL It was when Brad Pitts' character was "offed"! I was bummed because he was so funny!! I won't tell "you" who else died, though! ;)

I am tripping out on how Twitter works. I mean, I get it, but I see something that sparks my interest and I try to follow the "conversation", but can't. Its kind of frustrating. There was some buzz about someone being on some talk show and I was finally, after lots of searching, finally able to figure out that a few of my favorite food bloggers are going to be on Martha Stewart on Wednesday. How fun! I'll have to tape it.

Stuff I'm making

2008-09-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm making Hungarian Goulash for dinner tonight. I wanted to try to do it in the crock pot, but I don't think I have time. I suppose I could do it anyway and have it for dinner tomorrow night, instead. But then what will be for dinner tonight? I'm obviously craving some comfort food! Because meatloaf sounds good, too, but no one else in my family will eat it. You know what else they won't eat which makes me mad? Manwiches....or Sloppy Joes, whatever. Who doesn't love a Sloppy Joe?

I made the best Tiramisu yesterday! Its the first time I made it and well, it turns out that I'm really good at it! LOL You just beat together 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 TBSP strong coffee or espresso, & 2 TBSP brandy or cognac for about 3 minutes. Fold in 8 ozs Mascarpone cheese and beat for about 4 minutes until smooth & creamy. Then in a separate bowl, you whip 3 egg whites & a apinch of sugar until it forms soft peaks. Dip the bottom half of 10-12 lady fingers into espresso or coffee, then layer the cheese mixture on top, sprinkle some cocoa powder ( I used Green & Blacks organic), keep layering, and Well-a! Tiramisu! My kids complained that it was too wet on the bottom, but I think its perfectly delicious and my husband agrees.

I put the freezer barrel in the freezer two days ago so I guess I ought to get busy and make that Basil Lemon Sorbet I've been meaning to make. Doesn't that sound good? It has mint in it, too. Yum.

I'm not keeping up with this blog much. I love reading all the other great food blogs out there!! I'm totally addicted to it. Between the weight loss blogs and the food/recipe blogs, I am on the computer way too much!! So, having said that, I better get myself into the kitchen and figure out how to do goulash in the crock! My meat is still frozen, sooo.....yea, I'm kind of screwed. I wanted to brown it first, but this was a last minute idea..well, I've been putting it off for over a week now, so not so last minute. I'm rambling, but who cares? I have no readers! LOL

Ca Bianca

2008-08-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was our girls spa getaway for Melissa's birthday. I pretty much planned the whole thing and it was kind of stressful! I mean, how hard is it to decide between a facial, a massage, or both? I personally went for a facial and a pedicure and it was pure bliss. My complexion is glowing and my feet are sooo soft and my toenails are Tangerine Scene. I don't really know these girls too well, but I've been invited to hang out with them on occasion. I met a few new ladies and we all had a blast.

The birthday dinner was held at Ca Bianca in Santa Rosa. It's in a gorgeous white Victorian House with the most beautiful garden in the front yard, which is surrounded by a white picket fence. We had a reservation for 9 since 3 ladies missed spa day and were just meeting us there. We were greeted and seated right away in a small room located near the back of the house. Our waitress was great, the service was excellent, and the food was delicious. Now, I had not eaten all day and I was famished, so it may be that reason that I felt that the portions were small, but in retrospect, I still do think they could have been larger. Especially since we had 9 people sharing appetizers. We started with Beef Carpaccio, Caprese Salad, Eggplant, and Polenta. They were all amazing and delicious! For my entree, I had the Chicken Picatta. The chicken itself was delicious, but the sauce could have been more lemony and the side was a tiny portion of salty, diced potatoes & bell peppers--it reminded me of a breakfast hash. Again, the portion of the entree was very small for this ravenous girl. The waitress brought out a trio of desserts with a candle for Melissa: Chocolate Mousse w/ mini Biscotti, Apple Tartlette w/ Vanilla Ice Cream, and Tiramisu. Delicioso!

Picante, Bobby's Cafe, & Jason's

2008-08-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to White on Rice Couple who reminded me that I promised to review these restaurants soon. I'm so glad you liked my blog and I hope it comes in handy! :) Thanks for your comment!

We went back to Picante's the other day because we were in the mood for fish tacos. I should have tried the pork to see if it was any better than last time, but I just wanted a fish taco. It was really good with grilled Mahi Mahi, red & green cabbage, a slice of avocado, and salsa verde. They have the best salsa! I really do like Picante and I'm sure we will continue to go there.

We finally had a chance to try Bobby's Cafe in downtown San Rafael a couple of weeks ago. I was not very impressed with either the ambiance nor the food. The service was ok until our waiter disappeared for about 15 minutes at the end of the meal, making us wait way too long for our bill. We couldn't wait to get out. We ordered 2 items off of the "Specialties" section of their menu: Fish & Chips and a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. Both were just terrible. The fish was overly battered & greasy. The chicken was like a frozen chicken tender and the baguette it was served on was too hard to bite into. I wish Bobby and his crew all the luck, but we won't be returning any time soon. Maybe they serve up a good breakfast; I don't know.

Now Jason's, on the other hand, was delicious!! His old space was in an industrial area of San Rafael and did well there for a little over 3 years. Well, when Giorgio's moved out a few months back, Jason didn't waste any time moving in. And I have to say, maybe he should have. The decor was a little bit tired and I would have liked to seen at least some new, updated carpet. I have a few complaints regarding the service, but the food was actually pretty amazing.

We did not have a reservation, so we put our names in around 6:40 pm on a Saturday. We were quoted a wait of 40 minutes, then they said 45-60. Not a good sign especially since there were clearly several unoccupied tables. We decided to wait in the bar and have a cocktail. At about 7:30, we were offered a deuce that we saw at least 2 couples refuse (they did not appear to have a reservation, and I even asked one couple if they did, and they said no), so we of course refused. It was right in front of the kitchen and I wanted to be in the dining room or the patio. Well, at 8:00, I was quite upset. I was hungry and cranky. I told the hostess, who I think was Jason's mom, that we had been waiting well over an hour and we'd seen many people who came in after us being seated. Turns out the other, younger hostess was somehow under the impression that we were waiting for the patio. No idea how she thought that, but whatever. So, we finally get seated, waited at least 10 minutes before we were greeted by our waitress, Jennifer. I'm just going to leave it at this: the table service did not improve and was very, very slow. She didn't seem bombed, just not in a hurry, I guess.

We ordered the Dragon Prawns appetizer which was out of this world!!! Tempura prawns are drizzled with a wasabi aioli sauce, chili oil and tobiko on top of a cucumber salad. Yum! We also shared a delicious bleu cheese salad. Then for our entree's, my husband ordered and enjoyed the Seared Cajun Ahi Tuna, which was served with a mango salsa over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, and these amazing crispy tempura fried green beans on the side! I ordered the Blackened Rib Eye Steak, which was cooked beyond the medium I asked for, but it was still delicious, and served sliced over a bed of jalapeno mashed potatoes that were to die for. We did not have room for dessert, but next time--and there will be a next time--I'm going to have the Bananas Foster.

Bottom line: Check out Picante, avoid Bobby's, but run as fast as you can to Jason's...but be sure to secure a reservation!!

Aurora Ristorante

2008-08-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Wow! An authentic Italian restaurant complete with authentic Italian wait staff & chefs! We have been wanting to try Aurora's in Novato for quite some time now, so last night we finally decided to check it out. After reading a few reviews, we were a bit apprehensive and I kept saying, "I hope its really good because I'm starving!". Well, it was fabulous!!! We cannot wait to go back.

We were greeted immediately & seated at a large booth right by the front door. Next time I wouldn't mind getting a bit more into the dining room, but we were content. The decor was nice and warm, the walls were adorned with artwork by local artists, and the place was packed! And a bit loud. I think it would also be nice to sit outside on the lovely patio on a nice day. Our waiter, Luca, was so sweet and attentive! We loved Luca. His Italian accent was adorable.

For starters, we ordered my favorites: Beef Carpaccio & Caprese salad. They were delicious! The beef was thinly sliced and had capers and a slight drizzle of dijon mustard, and the Caprese had thick slices of tomato topped with thick slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, strips of basil, and a drizzle of olive oil. My daughter had a Caesar salad and it was light and devoid of anchovies, which we appreciated!

On to the entrees. My daughter had the Mushroom & Sausage Pizza, without the mushrooms. She liked it alot. My husband and I decided to share two dishes: the Tortellini with Proscuitto & Peas in a creamy white sauce and the Chicken Saltimbocca, which was served with some steamed veggies & what appeared to be scalloped potato slices. Both dishes were excellent!!!

We even decided to order dessert, which is rare. I had the tiramisu (lady fingers, rum, espresso, & marscarpone) my daughter had the affogato al caffe (vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and espresso), and my husband had proffiterol (tiny cream puffs, chocolate sauce, & ice cream). Again, they were all absolutely delicious and made in house by their passionate pastry chef!

Aurora & Carlo Scatena also own Arrivederci and are co-owners of Caccicucco Cucina Toscana here in Marin. We've been to both places a few years back, but those visits were not as memorable as this visit was. Aurora rocked our socks!

Branching Out

2008-07-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm getting bored of doing only restaurant reviews. I think I'm going to start writing about other stuff, too. Like running and recipes. My primary blog (at extrapounds.com) is about weight loss and I have a "following", if you will. Here, I never get any hits at all, no one reads it, so I can maybe be more open. And talk about more than just weight loss, food, & exercise--or lack thereof.

So, I'm a runner. It took me a long time to get here, but I do love to run and I've already done a half marathon, a 10K, and a 5K. I've been shopping around for another 10K and I think its gonna be either the Golden Gate Presidio Trail 10K or the Embarcadero 10K-they are both on November 9th. I wanted to do the Napa Valley Stomp 10K on September 27th, but we have tickets to the Giants/Dodgers game on the 26th. And there will be beer involved. My husband I are planning on staying over so we don't have to drive home. We usually take the ferry, but its a night game, and I don't think it will be running that late. It doesn't matter because I won't fee like running the next morning anyway. I'm excited about seeing my beloved Dodgers! I hope they win again like they did when we went to the game on July 6th. I'm from Los Angeles, what can I say? I like the Giants, too. After all, my favorite color is orange.

Anyway, the problem is that I've been slacking off on the running. Big time. I've only run a little over 6 miles this month!!! I have 2 more days, so I could probably get in another 4-6 miles, but still. On average, I like to run 3-4 miles a day, preferably 4-5 days a week. My goal is to get back to that. Which is why a race is in order....I need something to train for!!! I have had all kinds of excuses not to run: its too windy, its too hot, too humid, etc. But the real reason is I'm just too lazy. Sometimes the gear is just too much of a hassle! Those sports bras are torture chambers, the lycra sticks to my skin when I sweat, and every time I put my running shoes on the dogs start barking and jumping because they know that I will be walking them as my warm up. You know, just writing this makes me realize that those are such lame ass excuses! LOL Just lace up my shoes and go running already!

Ok, so I enjoy running and love the Dodgers. I also love the Rolling Stones. I love the beach and love to shop. Oh, and I'm on a womens doubles tennis league that I enjoy. I also love to cook and have been obsessed with some really great food blogs that I've found. I've been adding them randomly-without permission. Oops. I think thats ok, though, isn't it? I mean, when I see my name on someones friends list I get a little smile on my face. I love all my friends over at extrapounds.com. I've lost 44 pounds with the help of that website and all the friends I've made. But I've been blogging there for over 2 years now and I am feeling like I've worn out my welcome. I still need to lose about 10 pounds, but its not happening. I'm eating ok but I am not exercising as much as I should. That needs to change.

I'm excited that I have a new place to write! I still need to review Jason's new restaurant in Greenbrae. The food is fantastic! Next time!

Shelley

Fujiyama

2008-07-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

We got a last minute invite to go out to dinner with another couple who lives in our neighborhood. We've socialized with them before, but never one on one...or two on two. ;) It was a lot of fun getting to know W & C a little bit better.

Anyway, we headed to downtown San Rafael and stopped for a beer at the Broken Drum Brewery. Its been there for several years now...I remember when they first opened. Boy does time fly! We each ordered a different beer, and they were all good. I had the pale ale and it was lighter than your average pale ale. We also shared an order of onion rings, which were light and airy and yummy! Not greasy and the crust was very smooth. It was served with Ranch dressing....I'm not sure what else I would have preferred instead. I guess usually I just eat those plain.

Next we headed down the road a bit to Fujiyama, where we had reservations, unnecessarily. There was only one or tables seated, and we were greeted right away by one of the owners. Apparently, its husband and wife owned and operated. I saw no other employees, in fact. We sat down and were served a small bowl of steamed soybeans...we had no clue where to put the shells, though. Then she brought us a small bowl of a spinach salad that was really delicious! It had a sesame seed dressing and a tan/brown-ish curly little vegetable that I have no clue what it was. It was kind of nutty tasting. I could have eaten the whole bowl myself. 2 orders of seaweed salad were ordered, too, but one taste and I was done.

Next came the sashimi: yellow tail tuna and albacore tuna. I preferred the albacore. We had to wait quite a while before I finally got up and asked for some plates.

We all sort of agreed to order some large rolls: the Marin Roll, the California roll with real crab (ordered by me), and the Rainbow roll. The problem was that we forgot to order all of them with real crab. That put a huge damper on things for me. So, I ended up going home hungry since all I had was a few soybeans, a few bites of the spinach salad, 3 pieces of sashimi, and about 3 pieces of the roll. I didn't want to be assertive or offensive by ordering something more to my liking. Also, I would have tried more if they hadn't used imitation crab in the rolls. And clearly, there just wasn't enough to go around, anyway. I mean, I didn't want to eat all 6 (only 6!!) pieces of California roll.

Although the service was for the most part very attentive, I felt that the sushi was just average. I don't think we will return. The owners were most gracious, though.

Picante

2008-07-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

We were going to try the new Bobby's Cafe in San Rafael today, but at the last minute we decided on Picante. Its tucked way back in a residential area, so you really have to know about it otherwise, you probably would never know it was there.

There were several patrons there, and many of them were Latin, so I took that as a good sign! :) The overhead fans were loud and windy and the music was also very loud, but other than that, it was a fun atmosphere.

Rory had a cheese quesadilla, which was really, really cheesy, to the point of being super greasy. Bella had a rice, bean, & cheese burrito. They don't have a kids menu, so it was a huge burrito and she wasn't able to finish it. She said it was perfect. My husband had a "super" carne asada burrito and he loved it. It had steak, rice, beans, salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. I chose the regular carnitas burrito, but I didn't "love" mine. It would have been delicious if the pork had not been so dry and hard. It had good potential, though. It was stuffed with tasty Spanish rice, salsa, and pinto beans. Their homemade bottled hot sauce was really good with a nice kick to it.

Maybe it was just a bad "pork" day at Picante. I'm sure we will go back again some day; maybe I'll try the fish tacos next time.

I'm dying to try the new Jason's in Greenbrae so I can review it. I never had the opportunity to visit his old location in San Rafael, and I'm glad to see he got better "digs" in the old Giorgio's spot by the water. And we will have to give Bobby's a try sometime, too.

Amici's Pizza

2008-07-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

With this heat wave we've been having, I decided ordering pizza to be delivered sounded like a good idea. Amici's has this really great new york style reduced carb extra thin crust that the kids love, so Amici's it is. Kind of weird doing a review on pizza, but I guess I haven't gone out since we went to Sams! Unless you count the fair (I had a deluxe burrito from Noel's. Delicious! Ground beef, beans, cheese, tons of lettuce, tomato, & sour cream. Huge!) or the Giants game (I had a Hebrew National all Beef hot dog with sauerkraut, relish, & mustard. It was big, messy, and kind of soggy, so I couldn't eat it all).

I ordered a mini cheese pizza on the NY thin crust for Rory and a mini cheese pizza w/black olives and mild Italian sausage (regular crust) for Bella. They raved about it. I also got them some Minestrone soup, which is always good, even if it is 100 degrees out. The soup was more on the warm side, but full of huge chunks of veggies (cabbage, carrots, green beans, etc), pasta, & kidney beans.

I ordered the Amici's Combo for us. It has pepperoni, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, & black olives. Since theres so much stuff, it isn't wise to go with the thin crust, so I went with the regular. I also ordered an antipasto salad with salami, mozzarella, pepperoncini's, red onion, kalamata onions, & mustard Italian vinaigrette. Yum. At first the guy said he left it at the restaurant, but thankfully, he left it in the car and I got my salad!

I give Amici's a big thumbs up. Its not as good as Mulberry Street Pizza (they won the Food Network Mushroom Lovers award!!), bu they don't deliver. One of these days, when its not 100 degrees out, I'll drive down and pick it up. Its worth it.

Sam's Roadhouse

2008-06-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Sam's RoadHouse is right down the street and I've always wanted to try it. It used to the German House and we never did check that place out. This place was awesome! They just installed new cherry pergo flooring and it really complimented the red booths. We walked in to an empty diner, but were greeted immediately by Shelley! :)
The menu was pretty basic with some good surprises tossed in. I had a house salad, which was served with mixed greens, red onion rings, tomato, cucumber, and bleu cheese dressing. It was delish.
My entree was a hot pastrami sandwich served on light rye bread with swiss cheese, a generous portion of pastrami, pickles, mayo, and much to my surprise, avocado! It really wasn't the best pastrami sandwich, but I think the main problem was that the pastrami was kind of dry and a bit tough/fatty. I had my choice of side salad, potato salad or fries, and I chose the fries. They were a little greasy, but they were good. The service really couldn't have been friendlier or better, honestly. We weren't completely blown away by the food, but I think I just ordered badly. We've already decided that we will come back and give dinner a try.

Horizons

2008-05-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

We went to dinner at Horizons for Mothers Day. We had a reservation. It turns out that it may not have been necessary but it did secure a window table for us!This place has a very cool, yet funky interior. Its very casual and we were a bit over dressed. It's been around for while, but in nearly 19 years of living here in Marin, I've never actually dined there before. I have eaten at Ondine, which is above Horizons and under the same ownership, but much more posh.

We were seating immediately at a table with a gorgeous view of Belvedere, Angel Island, and of San Francisco. We were greeted right away, our cocktails arrived in a timely manner, but they were not garnished and my husbands vodka tonic was lacking vodka and the tonic was flat. So he sent it back and ordered red wine instead. I was bummed that my dirty martini was lacking olives, and my daughter was equally upset about the lack of cherries in her Shirley Temple. No garnish? I ordered her another one and had to request cherries in this one

Our next disappointment was that they were out of steamed clams. However, they kept enough on hand for the paella & bouillabaisse. Hmmmm. We were all looking forward to some steamed clams, but instead, we ordered fried calamari & a Colossal prawn cocktail. I loved the presentation of the calamari. It was battered and breaded, fried a golden brown, and served in a newspaper printed paper cone inside metal spiral cone. It was served with cocktail sauce, a chipotle aioli, lemon remoulade, & cocktail sauce. It was good. The prawn cocktail was not very "colossal". There were only 4 prawns, 3 of which were decent sized, one of which was considerable smaller, and they were very tough. The cocktail sauce was described on the menu as "spicy", however, it was not spicy at all. We love spicy. The hotter, the better.

My girls ordered pasta: one with marinara, one with butter & parmesan. These portions were very tiny and the parmesan was absent. They were still hungry, so we knew dessert were in their future. My husband ordered the Seared Sea Scallops with ravioli and he was very happy with the flavors, but again, the portion was small. I ordered the Surf & Turf after much consideration. I wasn't sure how the quality would be based on our appetizers. But it actually had potential. It was an 11 oz New York steak which I ordered medium well, but came extremely well done, and about a 3 oz lobster tail. The flavor of the steak was good, but because it was so over cooked, it was a bit tough. If I order my steak medium, its always too rare, so its always hit or miss with my medium well preference. The lobster was also tough. The mashed potatoes were of good consistency, but rather salty. The green beans were perfectly cooked and delicious. My entree was a good size portion, and I took home more than half of my steak.

We rarely order dessert, but we did last night. My daughter chose the raspberry & mango sorbet duet, I ordered the Tiramisu, and my husband and other daughter shared a "Fishbowl hot fudge sundae". The desserts were all very good, but the word "fishbowl" implied a larger portion than what was actually served.

The service was slow and just plain bad. It was a holiday and our waiter was busy, but it just took longer than necessary. I know he was trying to be attentive, but he only did what he had to do and was just not overly helpful. I was content just enjoying my time with my family on Mothers Day, so I did not complain. I don't think we'd go back, though. Maybe if we just want a beer and some fish & chips after a long day of touristy sightseeing when in the area, but we won't have high expectations. We really should have gone to my absolute favorite, The Spinnaker. But we went there last year for Mothers Day and we wanted to try something new. One thing I've learned is to not try new places for special holidays. Go to somewhere tried and true.

I've been ignoring this blog for too long. Honestly, dining and writing reviews is a passion of mine, so I need to get here and blog more often.

Falafel Hut

2007-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a falafel in about 20 years, I'm guessing. But DH has been wanting to check out Falafel Hut for a while and I finally gave in. I'm glad I tried it, but I wasn't really all that impressed. I mean, it was good, but not something I'd ever crave or anything. I ordered the Vegetarian Combo Plate which came with 2 good size balls of deep fried ground chickpeas (hence, the falafel), hummus, baba ghannoush, tahini, tebouleh, cucumber salad, warm pita bread and 2 small dolmas. I am kind of a expert when it comes to the hummus and baba ghannoush because I worked at a fabulous company for a few years and they made absolutely the best dips you'll ever taste. My husband thought Falafel Huts dips were better than my ex-clients stuff, but I totally disagree.

The falafel itself was good-really crispy on the outside softer on the inside. The dolmas were underneath the falafel, so they were warm, and that ruined it for me. I like my dolmas chilled. The cucumber salad was really good and so was the tebouleh. Everything was good, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. But it was a healthy choice and different than what I would usually eat. My husband tried the shawerma and he loved it. I put a link to the menu in case anyone needs definition's on any of this stuff! LOL

This stuff was quite filling! I don't think I was even able to finish half of my lunch--good size portions, though. I have gotten quite the assortment of good grains in my diet these past couple of days! :)

Noonans

2007-12-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

The husband and I have eaten at Noonans several times, but the last time we ate there, we got into a huge fight (over my weight!) and I have refused to return. Until last night. Sadly, I think last nights visit made me want to never return again. I always say that I'm happy as long as I get good service, good food, or obviously, both. In this case, it is true that the service was excellent, but the food just kind of sucked. No, thats not completely true. Some of it was pretty good, but the bad stuff overruled. No big deal for Noonans, though, because I will always frequent their other two excellent spots: Moylans and Marin Brewing Company. And not for the beer--their food is quite awesome. In fact, I don't believe I've done reviews on either before...? I know I've intended to do one on Moylans, so just consider this it. Moylans is awesome, good micro brews, and the best Reuben you can get at a non Jewish place.

Back to Noonans, though. BTW, I should have listened to Becks and Posh's review of Noonans form 2004, but I didn't. I ordered with the intention of writing this review, not that I compromised my taste at all, though.

I was intrigued by the Grilled Pancetta Wrapped Prawns. Molasses & cumin? Interesting. These little guys were good. They were presented in a bowl and were swimming in the sauce. I never did taste any cumin, but the molasses was apparent--not as sweet as I was afraid t would be.

I am sorry to say that the only salad that interested me was the Baby Iceberg salad! Still almost kind of a wedge, but not quite. It was beautiful! It looked like it was almost like an intact head of butter lettuce or frisee, but it was indeed iceberg. It had baby tomatoes, sliced red onion, and a delicious bleu cheese dressing, which was pleasantly on the creamy side. Not as many chunks of cheese, which was a nice change.

I ordered the crab cakes off of the appetizer menu as my entree. I really wanted a steak, but wanted to eat a little healthier. These were some of the worst crab cakes I've ever had. And I've had bad crab cakes. I really should learn that no one makes them better than I do! LOL But seriously, I do have a knack for crab cakes. I'm going to make them next week for the family Christmas gathering, so I'll have to post my recipe. Anyway, the presentation was beautiful-4 dots of green sauce of undetermined flavor, and a endive leave with what was supposed to be remoulade sauce, but tasted more like tartar sauce to me. And in the middle of that was two crab cakes the size of a silver dollar at most. Very tiny. But for the price, it was fine, and after all, it was just an appetizer. But still. I've had crab cakes from appetizer menus before and they were much larger. These crab cakes were just flavorless. Even the sauces couldn't save them.

The husband ordered the daily fish special which was Opaka Paka...which sounded great in theory, but it wasn't. Again, it was a tiny portion-and this was an entree. Beautiful presentation, but just not great. Now, I don't always review the husbands food, but since I was still hungry from only eating half of one of my tiny crab cakes, I tried some of his dish. So the fish was baked and a bit overdone. Neither one of us can remember the waiters description of what it was supposed to be, but we're going with an orange/citrus sauce that was drizzled on top of the fish. It was bland, but thats ok because I think they were trying to highlight the fish. As they should---assuming that they hadn't over cooked it, I bet it would have been better. Does that make sense? What I'm saying is that they had good intentions. On the side of this dish was something rarely seen: a pleasant surprise of a scoop of quinoa!! Unfortunately, it was also bland, but the sauteed bell peppers complimented it nicely enough.

On to Bella's dish! I took one bite of her delicious grilled cheese sandwich and I wanted to eat the rest! But I didn't. Of course, neither did she! When will restaurants learn that children generally do not like cheddar cheese? The french fries were really good, though.

This review ended up being more mixed than I thought it would have been. I went away unimpressed, but in thinking back and writing about it, I realize that it wasn't all bad. There is a lot of room for improvement, though.

A message to diners who insist on using their cell phone in restaurants: whether you realize it or not--and I'm guessing you don't---you are being extremely rude. There was this party of 3 in the same dining room as us last night. 2 very large black men and a cute black girl. One of the men was YELLING so loudly into his cell phone that I nearly got up and took the phone away from him and wanted to smack him so badly!! The only reason I didn't is because he would have mopped me up with the floor. Anyway, it's really rude to chat on your cell phone in restaurants--not only to the other patrons, but what about your table mates? Rude.

Bottom line is that I don't think we will go back to Noonans again. The service is really good, but the food is just too inconsistent.

McCormick & Schmicks Seafood-DC

2007-12-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

This place was awesome! It was bustling busy with lots of big Christmas parties, but even without a reservation, we were greeted and seated right away. Our table was set back in a little alcove with lush red velvet drapes so we felt semi private. There were coat hooks on either side so we could easily all fit our coats, scarves, & mittens. We were greeted right away by our waiter, who recommended a nice glass of wine to start out with. He was very attentive! I was very happy with the service!

We ordered 2 bowls of steamed clams for everyone to share and they were delicious. Not too small, not too big. The broth was delicious, not salty like it can be sometimes. It was served with a few toast points on the side. Yummy. I split a wedge of iceberg with my husband. The lettuce was cold and crisp, the bleu cheese was generous, and it was sprinkled with bacon bits and red onion slices. My only complaint would be that the dressing was too heavy, but thats not such a bad thing--unless you happen to be counting calories! ;) For my entree, I ordered the seared ahi tuna off of the appetizer menu. It was very deep red in color; I prefer mine more pink. But it was fresh and very good. It was served with soy sauce & wasabi for dipping, and a garnish of a really good seaweed & sprout salad.

McCormick and Schmicks are located all over the country, primarily on both coasts. I've eaten at the one in San Francisco many times and it is always delicious. The one in DC was equally as good, if not better. Delicious food, excellent service. What more could I ask for?

Sometimes I rate, sometimes I don't. I give this place 5 out of 5 stars!

Thank you Tracy for the great comment! I have a lot more to go! Next time I dine out, I'm going to remind myself that I'm getting tired of writing "I had the wedge and ahi tuna"!! LOL Maybe I ought to think outside the box next time! :)

Cosi-Washington DC

2007-12-12T21:31:00.001-08:00

After walking in the freezing snow for miles, and miles, and miles (ok, 1/4 of a mile) we found a place called cosi. After perusing the huge menu above the cashiers head, I decided on the bagel sandwich. However, since it was 10:59, I was informed that breakfast was no longer available, so I had to resort to lunch. This was a flat bread sandwich type place, and since I was friggin' starving, I went for the Turkey, Cheddar, & Tomato with honey mustard. It was ok. The honey mustard had an unexpected "bite" to it, which was a pleasant surprise. But, it was drippy. The service was more than confusing, the food was mediocre, but hey, they had wi-fi! Too bad I left my laptop at the hotel!

I didn't eat much on our trip, but I do plan to do a review of McCormicks & Schmicks because they absolutely rocked! Thanks, Tracy, for the gentle kick in getting me to post on this blog! RBR----if you are reading----add my EP account to your friends list, ok? I'm out of the closet now LOL Love you guys!
Shelley
PS Tracy--how do you do the swirly dash before your name? I don't have that...

Upcoming Reviews

2007-11-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

I've let my blog go to the wayside because I've been too consumed by ExtraPounds lately. I did a copy/paste/edit job of the blog I posted there today, and my friend Tracy gave me a lovely compliment and I decided I'd better get cracking again. My readers demand it! LOL (I have zero readers on this site!)

Recent Restaurants I've visited and plan to do reviews on are:

Deer Park Villa (thats where Kendall's Bat Mitzvah was last weekend!)
Moylans
Flemings Walnut Creek
Gaspare's Pizza
Boca
Eat

Recent Restaurants I've visited that I do not plan to do ANOTHER REVIEW ON, but here is a quick update:

Seafood Peddler-we took Bella there on Wednesday for her birthday and we had good service again and the food was also good. I didn't care for my stuffed prawn that came with my surf n' turf, though. It was too bready and I couldn't even tell there was crab in there. Other than that, all was well.

Izzy's-We took Bella (have I already mentioned that Rory very rarely joins us out to dinner? Although we did force her to go to SP for B's b-day.) to Izzy's again 2 weeks ago and once again, this place just shines!! I love that we always have to wait in the bar because I don't get to do the whole bar thing too often now that I have kids! We waited in the bar just long enough to finish half of our drink, then we were happily seated at our favorite table, with our favorite waitress, Gabriella (say that in your best Mexican accent!)!! She is a sweetheart, Bella loves her, and we are going to always request her! OMG, the food, the service! I had my usual filet mignon with Izzy's Own Scalloped potatoes & creamed Spinach. (I'm sharing this blog for the first time---with an EP friend---so, Tracy, are you sitting there thinking to yourself, "no wonder Shelley isn't losing weight!! LOL I did go running that day, so it almost balanced out, but not quite!!)

Cheesecake Factory-someone please remind me not to go here anymore! Its always a long wait, the service sucks (although our server was really attentive in the beginning when I was still at Nordstrom trying to find a dress and my family was waiting patiently for me), and the food just is not good! I had a grilled chicken breast sandwich and it was just tasteless. I will say that they make a mean cheeseburger--Bella had one and I had a bite (or 2). The problem is that this is the only restaurant at this mall.

Man, I am rusty! I can't even figure out how to add a link to a blog, or anything else for that matter. Practice, Practice.

The Panama Hotel

2007-11-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

I met my husband at the fabulous Panama Hotel for dinner. What an awesome place. It's a tiny little jewel of a place tucked away in a corner in a really cute neighborhood. We've been there once about 10 years ago and keep meaning to go back.

There was live music last night, which is always cool! The guys name was Mark Robinson and boy, can he croon! He's kinda cute, too, and I had first row seating status! We bought his CD. Have a listen! I liked some of the jazzy cat faster songs better than the ballads.

After finding the somewhat hidden entrance, we made our way to the front desk. We were seated right away at a deuce right in the front. I would have preferred the available 4 top by the window, but surprisingly, this place was hoppin' for a Thursday. After having a moment to peruse the menu, we were greeted by our waitress, and we ordered a glass of wine.

I'm an appetizer slut, thats for sure. I always have to have one! Last night we tried the Ahi Tuna Ceviche (w/avocado, red onion, Serrano chile, yellow cherry tomatoes, & cilantro), and it was just ok. It reminded me more of a tuna tartare than Ceviche. It was served in a low ball glass and homemade tortilla chips, which were delicious.

I couldn't decide on my entree, so I asked our server for a recommendation, and she suggested the daily special. So, my entree was a grilled Petrole Sole served over a cherry risotto cake and a bed of hericot vert salad with cherry tomatoes & Kalamata olives. It was very good--lots of flavors popping-- but it was too busy for me. The fish itself was very good, as it was firm, and simple. I was trying to behave and went for the fish, but I really wished I had gone for the pork chop. I mean, doesn't this sound delicious?: "Grilled Pork Chop--Organic double cut with ancho chile peach chutney, mashed sweet potatoes, & hericot vert. The man at the table next to us had it and it had a great presentation and he seemed to enjoy it. Oh, well, I got some fish in.

I also got dessert in!!! I was so bad!! I think I needed to make up for the lack of satisfaction with my dinner, because I never order dessert!! I had bread pudding with a caramel hazelnut sauce and a teeny glass of ruby port wine. Delish!

I look forward to retuning to the Panama Hotel soon. Their menu is a bit limited, but the food was very creative and overall delicious. Plus, the service was impeccable! And I'm all about excellent customer service!

I'm giving this place 4 stars. ****

Mary's Pizza Shack

2007-07-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been doing too many reviews ( all you zero readers out there! LOL), but I haven't really eaten out much. Well, I ate at a great place in Las Vegas last weekend, called Studio Cafe (Excellent!!!!) inside the MGM Grand, and at Wolfgang Puck (Good service, HORRIBLE FOOD), also at the MGM, but I try to keep my stuff somewhat local.

I will be doing a fabulous review of the highly anticipated and newly opened, Nick's Cafe soon, but first I wanted to write about Mary's Pizza Shack in Sonoma, CA.

We had to take a quick trip there on Saturday to pick up The Husbands registration packet for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon on Sunday. It was about 2:30 and I was starving! The only reason I tagged along is because I had hoped it would involve food! Well, it did. Mary's has been around forever and it's family owned and operated since 1959. This is the first time I ate in the new location; they just moved around the corner recently.

We were seating immediately even though all of Sonoma was packed with pre-racers. We had time to check out the menu and see a few new items before our server greeted us. I can't remember his name! Justin? Austin? Anyway, this was a bad sign because unfortunately, the service never really improved. I mean, it was just slooowwwww. But, like I said, they were very busy and he had tables out on the patio, too. When I was a server, I hated when I had the whole patio and then asked me to pick up another table...you tend to forget about that table! Anyway.

Now to the food! It was delicious, as always. We tried the hot and spicy chicken wings, but it came solo-no bleu cheese or celery, which I thought was odd. So, we asked for the dressing and he actually brought it out somewhat quickly. The wings were hot, spicy, & sticky! Very good. Then I just had to have my favorite Mary's house salad: crisp lettuce, 3 bean salad, salami, eggs, red onion, & mozzarella w/ housemade bleu cheese dressing. Delicious as usual. I always, always get the fresh brewed iced tea and the house salad when I go.

We ordered 2 entree's and shared. The new Vinnie's Meatball Pizza was really good. It had small bits of meatball, pepperoni, onions, a ton of mozzarella cheese, and fresh garlic. Nice thin crust, too. Whole wheat, I think. Then we shared something I wouldn't normally order: a Southwestern Chicken Wrap. It was a tomato basil tortilla filled with BBQ glazed chicken, cheese, corn, & a huge amount of field greens w/a sweet vinaigrette sauce. Interesting, but in a really good way. Would I order again? No. The pizza is what you come to Mary's for! I can't wait to go back. I highly recommend Mary's Pizza Shack. And Mary? If you are reading this (LOL)...why don't you deliver to Marinwood??? Its only a few more exits down from your Novato location!! Just a suggestion.

BTW, The Husband finished 117 out of 1,016 at the marathon yesterday! He placed 9th in his age range out of 75 people. 1:40:06!!!!! Not too shabby! I just really need to get in on the action! This is was his second race and my first one isn't until October 14: San Jose Rock & Roll!! Which reminds me: wasn't I supposed to run 2 miles today???

Sushi Boat

2007-06-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Bella requested dinner at Sushi Boat after swim team the other night. I wasn't really in the mood for sushi, but we all went. The staff is always so friendly and of course greeted and seated us immediately. We ordered california rolls and kappa rolls to start with, including a hot sake, a white wine, & 2 7-ups. What I love about this place is that even if you only order sushi, you still get a bowl of miso soup and a salad. I love their salads! Crisp lettuce, shredded carrots, a slice of cucumber & tomato, and just the right amount of ginger sesame dressing.

Bella ordered a bowl of tempura udon, Rori had the prawn & vegetable tempura. They were both done perfectly and were delicious. The prawns were huge! So were the servings. Da Husband and I just had tuna sashimi & a rainbow roll. Both were very good, generous portions and we were stuffed!

We had an orange cup, got our bill right away, and on we went. Its always a pleasant experience at the Sushi Boat!

The new Izzy's

2007-05-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

I love Izzy's! This spot has changed hands so many times, but it has been Izzy's for quite awhile. It was bought out in October and everything is the same, but there are new additions to the menu.

We were told there would be a 20 minute wait, so we took a table in the bar and ordered a drink. Of course, as soon as our drink was served, our table was ready, so the cocktail waitress brought our appetizer-popcorn shrimp-to the table. The shrimp was really good, but my suggestion would be to offer one more ramekin of a different sauce to add some variety. Plus, the remoulade sauce ran out way before the shrimp did.

Our waitress, Gabriella, was an angel! The service was excellent. It seems like Blake listened to Leslie on her review in the IJ about getting the staff up to speed. Gabriella was attentive, knowledgeable, and a self confessed foodie!

We split the "Wedge" and it was served on two seperate plates for us, which is always nice. The dressing was not your usual bleu cheese, but I can't put my finger on why. There was some tomato, red onion, and a nice kick was the pine nuts.

I ordered the 10 oz Filet Mignon-medium-for my entree, and had Izzy's Own Potatoes & Broccoli for my sides. My steak was perfection. So were the potatoes. The broccoli was a bit cold, but I never could figure out how restaurants keep it so hot...mine always gets cold when I serve it, too.

The Husband had New York strip, which he loved. I tried it, too, and it was good, but not as good as my filet. He got the creamed spinach, which was delicious, as usual.

We did not have dessert, but we did get our check in a timely manner and off we went. I know we will return. Izzy's gets 5 stars.

The Yankee Pier

2007-04-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of Bradley Ogden's places. Its right next door to the Lark Creek Inn, which I think we need to check out again one of these days. Anyway, we were greeted and seated right away. Our server approached us in a timely manner, we ordered wine and fried calamari to start. The calimari was fine. Nothing to write home about, but one thing that I noticed about this place before is their portions are very small. It was served with cocktail sauce and a spicy remoulade sauce.

The Husband ordered a bleu cheese wedge and I ordered 4 grilled prawns for his salad. Wasn't that nice of me? The prawns were delicious, and of course, I've never had a wedge I didn't like. The dressing was on the mild side, though. I had a difficult time deciding on my entree, but I ended up with the Cioppino. Big mistake. For many reasons. The flavor was fine, but kind of mild. It didn't have the "kick" it usually has. I did not enjoy having to work so hard for my dinner...cracking the crab legs and picking it out was kind of disgusting, but at least my family found it hilarious! Unfortunately, by the time I was done picking everything out of their shells, the cioppino was cold and everyone else was done eating. I guess it was a good way to get me to eat slower! :)

The kids had pasta with butter and parmesan. Nothing new there! Again, not sure how I ended up with kids who won't even try fish and chips! Whats not to like? I almost ordered it!

I forgot to ask The Husband if his dish was any good. Can you put a comment here about that? Thanks! xoxo

We all did something we don't usually do. We ordered dessert. The kids had the kid sundae, which was vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whip cream. To Bella's dismay, no cherry on top. Not even for the shirley temples! She got sprite with strawberry syrup instead. The Husband got a chocolate shake with whip cream on top and he said it was just ok. Kind of weak. I had the Black and Tan Sundae. It was also vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate sauce, and whip cream, but it had a drizzle of carmel and some slivered almonds. It was good and the portion was so big I couldn't finish it.

The service was excellent. I didn't catch her name, but she attentive enough and everything came out on time, etc., including the check, which is one of my pet peeves. When I'm done, I want my check and I want out of there. Why most servers don't get this, is beyond me.

I didn't get to steal a bread plate, but I did write down the name of the manufacturer! We were right up front, so there was just no way I was gonna swing it. They are so cute, though. The have a little lobster with a fishing pole..adorable.

There you have it. The Yankee Pier gets a pretty decent review. A little more saffron in the cioppino would be my only suggestion, that and larger portions. I won't be ordering cioppino anytime soon---from anywhere! Too much work and too messy!!

I am behind on my reviews. I need to do Ricky's, and what else? The Husband? Can you remember? There are about 4....Maria Manso, Star...and one more.....?

Flemings Steakhouse-Newport Beach

2007-03-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

I've been here once before with the The Husband many years ago, and we fell in love with this place! We've talked about it ever since and have been dying to go back! Thankfully, they will be opening one in Walnut Creek this summer!

But, again, since I happened to be in Orange County this past weekend, and was meeting one of my best friends from high school, I decided to make a reservation at the one in Newport Beach. This place is friggin' amazing!! The decor is so rich and warm. Dark leather, wood chairs, dim lighting, red paint on the walls. Gorgeous! Of course, it didn't hurt that we showed up in my friends brand new 2007 Bentley GT Coupe! Nice!

We were seating immediately...and in not only my favorite room, the library, but at my favorite table! Perfect. Our server, Belinda, was a sweetheart! Let me just start right off by saying that this was the best service I have every had. She was so attentive...not too attentive, just right. I ordered a Merlot Wine Flight, and my friend ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Flight. She had never heard of them before, and I was astonished! I love, love, love the wine flight! You get 3 (or 6) glasses of 2oz servings of 3 different wines. You can do a white, a red, and a port, or 3 whites, 3 reds...you get the idea. This allows you to decide which one you really like in case you want to order a bottle. Well, I was really interested in some of the reserve wines, but we ended up getting a bottle of BR Cohn Cabernet for $60.00. Not the $800.00 bottle of ZD, Abacus that we really loved!!

I was inclined to try the Wicked Cajun BBQ Prawns to try and get away from my boring addiction to Ahi, but my friend wanted the Seared Ahi Tuna, which, of course, I was fine with! :) And boy, am I glad I did! This was the best tuna I've ever had!! It was tender and juicy, seared to perfection! It was served on a bed of julienned veggies such as zucchini and daikon radish, and a spicy mustard sauce. I do prefer wasabi and ponzu, but this was a nice twist.

My salad was incredible!! After much discussion several weeks ago, The Husband and I determined that the very first Iceberg Wedge we've ever had was here at Flemings and it was also the best one we've ever had. Well, Saturday night, I had the absolute best salad in my entire friggin' life! The Wedge. Surprise! Crisp Iceberg lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onions, crumbled bleu cheese, and just the right amount of bleu cheese dressing. My friend had her fair share of this salad and I still couldn't finish it...thats how huge it was! To be fair, she had the Flemings Salad which was seasonal greens, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, tomatoes, and croutons. This is not my cup of tea, so I didn't try it, be she seemed to enjoy it.

Because I am a creature of habit, I ordered the 8 oz Filet Mignon, without butter. I really wanted to try some fish since I'm trying to stay away from red meat, but since none of their seafood selections appealed to me and this was, however, a STEAKHOUSE, I went for the filet. OMG YUM!! I ordered it Medium and it was perfect! I also had the most perfect order of steamed spinach, which I shared with my friend. She had the special, which was a Potato and Pecan encrusted Halibut served over a bed of broccolini. I meant to taste it, but she had already scraped off the potato and I kind of lost interest. She said that it was just too thick, as far as the potato was concerned. It was a huge portion, by the way. She had that, and my leftover spinach and filet mignon for lunch the next day. Since I was out of town, I couldn't take my steak home to my dogs. I need to start eating ALL of my steak, especially when its this good!

We ended our meal with one final glass of cabernet, received our check when we asked for it, chatted with Belinda some more, and headed out. In her Bentley. Nice.

Del Taco-Costa Mesa

2007-03-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ha Ha Ha! LOL

Ok, I just couldn't resist a review of Del Taco! I love this stuff! Thank God there is only one around here (Market and 3rd), otherwise I might be tempted to reinstating Taco Bell Tuesday but changing it to Del Taco Tuesday. Anyway, since I was down in Orange County last weekend, and KNEW that there was a Del Taco right across the Unity Bridge from my hotel to South Coast Plaza, I figured I would indulge.

I ordered a Del Combo Burrito. OMG Yum. I took it to go and scarfed it down in my hotel room. I barely had a chance to enjoy it; I was so hungry. So, the next day I just knew I had to try it again...and since I ordered it incorrectly, this time I got it right.

I have to remember to order the Deluxe Combo Burrito! It is the same as the Combo, beans, seasoned ground beef, red sauce, onion, and cheddar cheese...but with lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. Now, that is a good burrito! Add some El Scorcho sauce and you are set!! Unless you have a few extra calories left and are super hungry, then the Macho Combo burrito is the way to go!

I also ordered a plain cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato added on, but I was way too full to eat it! I ended up having to toss it. Bummer. I was also bummed that I didn't order the fries. They have such great fries!!! Crinkley and perfect. Next time!

Claim Jumper-Costa Mesa

2007-03-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been to a Claim Jumper in oh, I'd say about 20 years. But, I was to meet some of my EP friends there and I was excited! I had already looked at the menu ahead of time and knew what I was going to get.

The service was good, but way too attentive. I felt bad for the girl, because she kept coming up to our table to see if we were ready to order, but we were too busy talking to look at the menu. Finally, one of my new friends said, Look, how about if you come take our order when our menus are all closed. Sounds pretty obvious to me. Anyway, once we ordered, it was all good. They arrived before me, so I don't know if they were seated promptly or not. It was 1:00 on a Friday afternoon and they didn't seem too packed.

I ordered the Seared Ahi. I need to stop ordering this for blog/review purposes! Its getting old, even to me, but I love the stuff. The Ahi was horrible. It was dry and overcooked, but not only that, it was really peppery. I could barely keep the first bite down, and felt obligated to try a second piece. Ugh. I should have sent it back, but I was nice and said I just wasn't in the mood afterall. Its too bad, too, because it was a very generous portion, as is all of their dishes.

For my lunch entree, I ordered the Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato salad. It was very good, a little too much balsamic vinaigrette, but otherwise pretty tasty. Of course, I expected it to be stacked like the picture on the menu, but it wasn't even close. I tried to add a link here, but it didn't work.

We got our check in a timely manner...my biggest pet peeve...and we were on our way! Next time I will order something a little more safe, like a hamburger or a sandwich. I'm not sure Claim Jumper is the place to expect quality fish.

The Cheesecake Factory

2007-03-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

This is my first review after having been diagnosed with prediabetes. But, after having pretty much behaving for 4 days, did that stop me from dining at this place? Nope. I've had some really great experiences at other locations, but for some reason, most of my experiences at the Corte Madera location haven't been all that great. Sometimes its the service, sometimes its the food. The service is definitely inconsistant, as is their staff. The reason I say this is because every time I've been there, the server has indicated to me that they are new. When a restaurant can't keep their staff, it makes me wonder whats going on in the back of the house...

Anyway, today I was craving something I shouldn't have and we needed to go shopping for shorts for The Husband at the Village, and I had some returns/exchanges to do.

Our wait was just a few minutes, which was nice. We were seated in that horrible round room in the back, which I hate, but it was a booth with a view of Nordstrom. Our server was fine. We were involved in a heated conversation and she seemed to respect that, so there wasn't a whole lot of diner/server interaction.

We ordered the chicken potstickers as an appetizer because that is what Bella wanted. I'm not a fan of chicken anything, unless it's a chicken breast. The presentation was 5 potstickers in a bowl of dipping sauce, which was quite thin. The wonton wrappr was soggy, and when I cut my peice in half, it pretty much fell apart. The filling was basically just chopped and mushed up tasteless chicken. Not a fan of this dish.

TH (the husband) and I shared the Steakhouse Salad, which was sliced mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, chunks of bleu cheese, red onion, sundried tomatoes, and a bed of greens tossed in vinaigrette on the side. I enjoyed this dish and wanted more!

My entree was the Cuban Sandwich. What a disappointment! In their defense, it was my first one ever, but I'd heard of them and have been wanting to try one. It had slow roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard and was served on a "pressed cuban style roll". The pork was really dry and tough, so I took it out, but with it went the swiss cheese. So I was left with the ham, which was fine, pickles, a roll, and if there was any mustard, I didn't taste any. I had a few french fries, and I have to say, they were actually pretty good.

TH had the Spicy Chicken Chipotle Pasta, which I didn't get to taste until I reheated it at home. It was very good. I like a lot of spice, but I doubted this dish would come close to being considered "spicy", but it proved me wrong. It had a nice zap to it. Penne pasta was served with honey glazed chicken medallions, asparagus, peppers, peas, garlic, and onion in a spicy parmesan cream sauce. It was topped with some (unnecessary) tortilla strips. I've never been a fan of those. Overall, this dish was delicious.

Bella once again ordered a 20 dollar dish, which needs to stop! She wanted the beef ribs, which were served with french fries and onion stings. She loved it. I'm not a fan of beef ribs; I prefer pork, so I didn't try them, but I trust her judgement. Besides, my dogs benefitted from them being beef since they can eat bones from beef! :) I don't think any of us had a chance to try the onion strings, but I was eyeing them! I'm sure they were delish. I guess my only question was: where was the vegetable? Ya know, some steamed veggies or a salad? For me, a meal is not complete unless it has a fresh, green vegetable.

My biggest pet peeve is when I'm ready to go and I can't get the bill or I get the bill and I can't get the server to take it and process it. This was not a problem today; we got our bill, payed it, and went on our way to get some shopping done.

I have a question for The Cheesecake Factory people: where is the Southern Fried Chicken Salad? That was the best salad I've ever had!

Giving The Seafood Peddler another chance

2007-03-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

We have eaten at The Seafood Peddler on several occasions, but we either got bad service or the food sucked, or both. Since we are more into seafood now, we are always looking for a good place. Saturday night, my husband suggested The Seafood Peddler, so I agreed and decided to see if they can redeem themselves.

I'm happy to say that they did. Upon entering, we were hesitantly greeted by 2 hostesses who kind of ignored us at first, but then told us there would be a short wait. No problem, we were seated by the window in the main room and I don't believe we've ever been in the main room before, so I was happy. Our waitress, who's name I didn't get (pre-blog idea) was very friendly and attentive...always a plus for me since I used to waitress my way through college and believe in good service.

We ordered the Crispy Fried Calamari and Steamed Littleneck Clams for our appetizers. Our daughter, Bella, was with us and she loves this stuff. The clams were good-not too big, not too small. The broth was good, not too salty like I've had before, and it came with 2 garlic toast points, which were also good. The Calamari was served with "marinara fra' diavolo" sauce and tartar sauce. Also good, not greasy at all.

I ordered the Iceberg Wedge, which was more like half of a head, and it was served with bacon crumbles, red onion, some diced hard boiled egg, and way too much bleu cheese dressing, which was also on the watery side. I could have done without the bacon and egg, but the ingredients were fresh and I ate my fair share. My perfect idea of an Iceberg Wedge is the wedge, crumbly bleu cheese dressing-not too much-, some red onion slices, maybe a little tomato, and then I like to add a lot of pepper. Ruths Chris makes a perfect wedge. So does Flemings (coming this summer to Walnut Creek and I can't wait!!).

For my entree, I ordered the Sesame Seared Ahi Tuna from the appetizer section of the menu. The fish was fresh and very tender, and was served with avocado and mango slices fanned out on top of a bed of greens and a lite vinaigrette. Very delicious! I'm not a fan of mango, but my husband is and he loved the dish as well.

Speaking of my husband, he ordered the nut (macadamia? pecan? we can't remember!) encrusted Mahi Mahi off of their daily specials menu, which they seem to update frequently on their website, which is appreciated. His fish was light and moist, and was served on top of very yummy Wasabi Mashed Potatoes.

I have no idea how we ended up doing such a dis-service to our daughters, but neither one of them has ever had Fish and Chips. Nor have they had a fish stick! But they eat clams and calamari. Go figure. Anyway, because Bella refused to try the Fish and Chips or anything else on the kids menu, and because I wanted to try it, we allowed her to order the Petrale Sole Picatta. It was sauteed in butter, lemon, and capers--as it should be!--and served over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. It was equally delish.

It's kind of funny that I am doing my first official review on The Seafood Peddler and I'm very surprised at what a good experience it was. I'm glad I gave it another chance and it didn't let me down. It isn't every day that you get good food AND very good service, but on Saturday, that is what we got!

Coming Soon...

2007-03-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

Seafood Peddler!

My new blog!

2007-03-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Hello there! My name is Shelley and I am a restaurant junkie living in Marin, CA! I love going out to dinner/lunch and I have a lot of opinions. I found that when I'm trying to decide where to eat, there aren't many sites that offer up to date information and opinions. Yea, there's Yelp (lots of places that are closed) and Open Table (very few listings) and B&P--which I love, but seems to have given up as of August 2005. So, I thought I would come up with my own place to post reviews or acknowledgments of restaurants. I needed a new hobby anyway! Thanks for reading and please feel free to give me your honest opinions, ok?
Cheers!
Shelley