Sunday, January 30, 2011

Birthday Adventure

My hubby's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year so we went out for his birthday the day after. Being the day after a major holiday when lots of things were closed we couldn't go to his favorite BBQ place (Smoque). They would have had to work the night before to make the BBQ!

So we went to Cemitas Puebla http://www.cemitaspuebla.com/  for a quick bit on the way to pizza!
I have blogged Cemitas Puebla before but I had something new and very, very good. Chalupas: five corn tortillas doused in salsa verde and salsa roja topped with onions, cheese and choice of meat. They are great especially the salsa verde ones!
Chalupas
 Atomica
Cemitas Atomica with Milanesa, Carne Enchilada and Jamon.
Milanesa
Cemitas Milanesa- breaded butterfly pork chop.
Taco Arebes
Taco Arebes- spit roasted pork and onions wrapped in a thick tortilla served with a chipotle salsa.

Then we went to Vito and Nick's for pizza.

Oh wait, on our way to Vito and Nick's we passed a Harold's Chicken Shack. I have been wanting to try Harold's fried chicken so my Husband stopped and we went in. This was a carry out only place. I don't know if all of them are carry out only or not this was our first one!


 

 
My Mother-in-Law really likes gizzards, so we got some gizzards and a white meat dinner.
Gizzards.
 All of it was very good. Nice light, crispy skin and not greasy.

Now on to the pizza! Vito and Nick's http://www.vitoandnick.com
Sausage Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza
 The crust was very good, nice crisp, thin crust.
This is a DDD restaurant. At this place when they put the pizza in they toss the pizza peal back to the other person.

So then we had to stop at Jimmy Jamm for some sweet potato pie! 
At Jimmy Jamm, one of my husband's favorites! 
A great way to end a birthday day out!



 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

5 course New Years Eve Dinner

We decided to stay in for New Years Eve and do some cooking for close friends and family.

Appetizers: stuffed Peppadew Peppers (again if you have never tried these you really must!) stuffed with goat cheese, garlic and thyme and topped with walnuts; Calamari with aioli and spicy mayo.
Stuffed Peppadew Peppers
Calamari 
Calamari with the spicy mayo.
Soup Course: French Onion
This is America's Test Kitchen recipe and it is great an easy.http://www.americastestkitchen.com/video/index.php?docid=24402&extcode=M**ASCA00 
 Third course: Lobster Linguine with Poblano Crema.



heating up the crema in the new toy my husband got for Christmas, an induction burner.





Fourth Course: Rack of Lamb with Pesto Sauce and sauteed Green Beans.
Dessert: Fresh Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts with Chocolate sauce.
These were fabulous! They are made from canned biscuits and deep fried, then covered with cinnamon sugar and served with chocolate sauce. The chocolate sauce is Nutella and whipping cream heated to the thickness you want (it gets thicker as it cools).
even she's full and wiped out!

We all had a delicious time!

Monday, January 17, 2011

2010

The Food Train's final adventure for 2010 was a day trip to Wisconsin. We hit a lot of places, did a lot of things and had a lot of fun!

We started out the trip with a reservation at Franks Diner in Kenosha, WI for 7:00 am (reservations required for parties of  5 or more). www.franksdinerkenosha.com  Needless to say we had to leave fairly early, so we picked up a fellow Food Train traveler at 5:00 am and set off in the snow for Kenosha. 2 hrs later (for what should have been a 1 1/2 hr trip) we arrived at Franks Dinner.

Franks Diner is a DDD place, and it is in an old train car, (fitting for the Food Train)  with a dining room added on one side and a kitchen added to the back.

I had the Cinnamon Swirl French Toast: Three pieces of cinnamon swirl french toast dusted with
cinnamon sugar and a big slab of butter.
Cinnamon Swirl French Toast.
My husband and our friend had the Homemade biscuits and gravy. My husband said they were the best biscuits and gravy he's ever had. He gave me a bite and it was very good, and I do not like sausage gravy. The biscuit I had on the side was O.K. not great though, but the bite I had of his was real good. Our companion said her's was very good also. Oh yeah, and both of them had monster Bloody Mary's that were very good also.
The people working there were really fun and ready with a snappy come back for anything you might ask or be talking about. It was a really fun time!

We had caught up with two other Food Train members by this time, that had been delayed by the snow, and we headed for Milwaukee

Destination, A.J. Bombers. We arrived in Milwaukee to early for lunch, so we found a place to park and wandered around in a Little Italy type neighborhood for a bit. The first place was a bakery. www.petersciortinosbakery.com


 We sampled many items and they were all very, very good! Biscotti, Twists (apricot), Apricot Tea cookies, some lemon puff pastry and many, many more!
Snacking right outside
Then we happened to see this sign that said "wine", never being one to pass up the chance to find a good wine we decided to pop in. It was an Italian food market.
This place is very nice. It's like an Italian "Fresh Market". They do have quite a selection of wine, and cheese and interesting meats. We decided we needed to do some sampling. We had some candied nuts, sweet and delicious, and some spiced olives and Peppadew peppers, very, very good. If you have never had Peppadew peppers I must say you really, really, REALLY need to try them! They are so sweet and have a very interesting spiciness, and they are very versatile. We also had this awesome cheese that is so nutty and flavorful! This is now our favorite brand of cheese. Sartori Bella Vitano

 We had a blast and are still on our way to lunch, at A.J. Bombers. www.ajbombers.com/
photo by A.J.Bombers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

A.J. Bombers is a burger joint that air-lifts peanuts and beer to your table.
photo by A.J.Bombers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
The Barrie Burger.
The Barrie Burger is a "1/4 lb burger with bacon and natural chunky peanut butter. Sounds weird but the two people in our group who had this burger both said it was very, very good. The peanut butter is a strong flavor in the burger but complements the meat and bacon very well.

Milwaukee Burger
The Milwaukee Burger is a 1/4 lb burger that has double WI Colby cheese, double Nueske's bacon and Schlitz onions. Very tasty!
Stuffed 'Shroom
Stuffed 'Shroom
 Stuffed 'Shroom: "crispy fried or baked portabello stuffed with WI cheddar and muenster cheeses,with lettuce, tomato and Bomber sauce". This is a very unique portabello sandwich, the cheese is stuffed in the cavity of the portabello mushroom and it is breaded and deep fried. This keeps the cheese in and makes it very crispy and delicious! The two of us who ordered this "burger" really liked it. It was very crispy, and cheesy delicious.
Bomber Burger
My husband had the Bomber Burger: which is the AJ Burger and Stuffed 'Shroom stacked together. The AJ Burger has American cheese, tomato, lettuce and bomber sauce, then it is topped with a stuffed 'shroom to make it the Bomber Burger. He thought it was great, the crispy of the deep fried 'shroom with the burger and the cheese was just fantastic!

We had a great time.
If you are in Milwaukee and have a taste for a burger check out A.J. Bombers! On to the beer and cheese pairing at Sprecher Brewery! http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/index.php
We had reservations for a Beer and Cheese Pairing so you get a tour of the brewery and tasting of the sodas they make.
Then you go into a special tasting room for a pairing of 10 beers with 10 cheeses. 
The sheet with the descriptions of the beer and cheese.
This was very fun, some good beer and surprising how the cheese changes the taste! It really does.


Their soda was good too.

Now on to Dinner at The Comet Cafe! http://www.thecometcafe.com
This is a DDD restaurant, the food looked really good the place seemed pretty cool.
I started the meal with a big hot chocolate and the Veggie Chili.
Yummy hot chocolate
The chili was great good seasoning and just as thick as I like it.
Ever since seeing the show I have been dying to try the AJs Compact Turkey Dinner. I was not disappointed!
It is "Three battered balls of roasted turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy". They are just as awesome as they sound!
My husband and one of our friends had the Meatloaf Sandwich.
"A tower of meatloaf, bacon-chive mashed potatoes, grilled onions and tomatoes all on two slices of rye bread covered in beer gravy". They both said it was fantastic.

Our other two friends both had the Reuben sandwich. Grilled corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing on rye. They both liked it very much.
Their hand cut seasoned fries are also very good, they also have regular hand cut fries and are served with spicy mayo or cucumber sauce.
It was a great trip and we all had a great time!