Texas Roadhouse

Those of you that know me well, know that I am a locavore (some one who eats locally, local restaurants and such).  So a big challenge is having to eat at a chain restaurant.  Not that they don't serve good food, but I find better food is home made or cooked at a local restaurant.  Every now and then you can have some pretty descent food at these places.  On my trip to Chicago, I stopped in Memphis, Tn to see my twin sister Heidi.  I was hungry, and nothing but chain restaurants around!  How unfortunate, but I figured a steak is simple and at a place like Texas Roadhouse they probably cut their steaks in house, which is a good sign... So I ordered steak and fries, and I tried to get my somewhat vegetarian sister to eat some steak, she pretended but it didn't happen.  Maybe some other time.

Picke Juice Sports Drink?

That's right, a pickle juice sports drink... what will they think of next!  the story... John Paul and I were at the grocery store (buying healthy snacks!  Ok, Molly knows better..) probably getting a 2 liter of Coke and a bag of chips, when low and behold, we see this abomination of a sports drink.  Of course we take some pictures because we just thought this was sooo odd... and of course we needed to send our mother a picture because, well, don't get mad mom, for me spilling one of our family secrets... she has been known to drink pickle juice on the odd occasion or two (I do it too, my mouth is watery thinking about it, yum!)  Well the next day I just had to call and tell her about this crazy sports drink.  She proceeds to inform me that my uncle Charles (her brother) for years made his football teams drink pickle juice before practice!  WHAT!!!  Crazy I know, so apparently its nothing new, you just don't get the delicious, salty, mouth-watering dill pickles.  I was told it does something good for you when you work out (like make you throw up after running... just saying).  So the next time your thinking of the next 5K race your going to do, pick up a mouth-watering, vomit inducing bottle of Pickle Juice sports drink!

Artisan White Bread

Well, I'm in Chicago, still with no job, and I have gotten behind on some of my blogging!  Sorry!  Anyway, before I left Texas, and while I was living at my brother's house (John Paul's palace of crazy kids, lol) I wanted to try my hand at some home-made artisan bread.  Found a recipe in Food & Wine magazine, thought it sounded good... and don't forget I had nothing better to do!  Well, so far it has been my experience that I'm not really good with home-made bread... I can make pretzels, biscuits, scones, muffins and pie crust, but not bread.  It always looks pretty and delicious, and smells fantastic (if I may say so...) but it never turns out right.  So... so far, baking bread and cakes from scratch are not my expertise.... Guess I just have to keep trying.

... So I was going to post a picture of the bread (because it does look good) but the computer is having trouble loading the picture... maybe its a sign that I should give up on bread baking, haha... maybe I can post it later.   Got it...

Jakob... grilling

As an uncle (the favorite uncle) I am ecstatic to see my nephew Jakob, take after my own heart.  He decided to jump in and help me grill the pork loin... Awesome!  And the best part is, he cooks like me... mess with the food a little, then sample, hahaha.

Grilled Pork Loin

On one of my last nights in Texas, my brother, John Paul and I decided to grill out... the weather was actually comfortable.  Because in Texas its either hot or really hot, there isn't anything else.  Anyway, we settled on grilling a pork loin.  So we get home, start making arrangements and the likes.  This is what we came up with...

and the finished product, grilled pork loin, hashbrown casserole and fried green beans with wasabi horseradish sauce... yeah, thank goodness for left-overs!

Random Cook Out

At some point this year, and judging from some of the pictures (which i'm not posting) early summer, my brother and I grilled out.  One such occasion we did barbecued chicken.  Now being a North Carolina native I am quite partial to a good vinegar based bbq sauce or a hearty mustard based one (NC has them both)... I did however make my own, and kinda mixed the two, a vinegar based mustard sauce with a kick from some crushed red peppers!  I believe remembering the chicken going down very smooth. 

the trick to grilling is sauce it at the end!  Dry rub and whatever before, but brush your sauce on a few minutes before pulling your food off the grill.

Next up, and for what occasion I don't remember... could simply have been because my nephew Jakob loves salmon and my brother John Paul loves shrimp, but we grilled shrimp and salmon... and not to be left out corn on the cob (with a chipotle butter, of course).

This is pretty much how I spent my days, from March till about August... good food and good company.

Texas State Fair

Last month, I think, I went to the Texas State Fair with some people from work.  Now Texas has this thing that everything is bigger in Texas, and they are fiercely proud of that fact.  The fair itself wasn't necessarily what I was expecting... there were definitely more crafts, a car show and the world's fattest pig. (Ok, i kinda expected the last one)  But if there is one thing I love, its greasy, OMG why did i eat that, stomach aches for two days, fair food.  I tried deep fried snickers, deep fried cheesecake and deep fried frito pies, all for the first time... but my favorite thing was the gargantuan roasted turkey leg!!! Grease all over my face and in my beard (pause break, my mouth is watering), ok I'm back, oh and not to mention the homeless guy asking for money or food or beer.  I am still not sure what he wanted, but I offered him the rest of my turkey leg and he looked offended, go figure.  I guess even bums don't want a greasy, delicious turkey leg... well that just saves more for me.

Homemade soft Pretzels

Several months ago, now, I got on this baking kick and decided to make homemade soft pretzels.  Not sure what recipe i used, where it came from or anything like that, but what i do remember is that they were good.  I made, garlic Parmesan, jalapeno cheddar, cinnamon sugar, and regular sea salt.  with a little tweeking, these may become a staple at my future bakery! (any bakery names are welcome, so far I like The Baker's Dozen).

Chicago style Hot dog

I am in the process of moving... which means, im sick, all my stuff is in boxes, i have no job and my car is in the shop... So I have free time to blog, go through pictures and generally waste time.  I just posted about Gino's East pizza, which for the price probably wasn't the best... however Portillo's Chicago style hot dog is amazing, and mind boggling at the same time.  From what i've learned a traditional style Chicago dog is a kosher, all beef frankfurter, topped with yellow mustard, sweet relish, a dill pickle spear, a couple sport peppers, and tomato slices, sprinkled with some celery salt and serve it on a poppy seed bun.  Is your mind blown yet... because that is alot of stuff for one hot dog... but it is amazing!  Enough said.  A few years ago, I believe after Norman's first trip to Chicago, we were cooking out and he was going on and on about making our hot dogs Chicago dogs.  I thought whatever, you can put what ever you want on it, i'll stick to ketchup, chili, cheese and maybe some diced onions.  I understand Norman's conviction now!  You wouldn't think all those ingredients would work, and they are physically hard to eat, so much stuff they just fall apart, but if you can manage to get a bite with all those flavors.... um, well my mouth is drooling, which is quite an accomplishment since im sick.

Gino's East (Chicago Deep Dish Pizza)

So a few weeks ago, my brother-in-law (Norman), and two friends Brandon and Matt went to Chicago.  We were suppose to run a road race, the Men's Health Urbanathalon, fate had other plans.  Not only was our hotel room not ready the first night (plumbing problems... okay, I worked in a hotel and that's code for over booked) anyway... besides that, most of us had injuries and we missed registration.  All those problems aside, we had a chance to experience some really good food and the city of Chicago.  Now, I'm a pizza lover, all types, thin, thick, medium sized crust, weird toppings and your traditional toppings.  So naturally, being in Chicago, I had to try traditional deep-dish pizza.  So we hoof it over to Gino's East (Featured on Man vs Food, I believe)... The pizza was good, filling, and the homemade sausage was tasty and savory.  It was more like pizza casserole or something like that... but what needs to be mentioned is that the service sucked.  Serving being my area of expertise, i am somewhat critical of others, but when your server walks by 10 times without acknowledging you... and you can see your drinks sitting in the bar window for more than a couple minutes... it doesn't look good for your tip!  But to say the least, if your in Chicago, try a deep-dish pizza.  It is definitely different, but good.