Indirect Grilling/BBQin'

Is your BBQ getting burned? Is it charred on the outside and cold on the inside? Do you have a barrel pit or a small pit that you think can't possibly work for making big cuts of meat such as brisket or shoulder clod? The best way to make great slow cooked BBQ is the indirect method. It's important to remember that if you don't want your meat tough the indirect method will work wonders. This has to do with how you set your fire up and where you position your large cut of meat. If you have a barrel pit pour about half of a large bag of charcoal into it on the left side. Make sure you make a tight hill of your coals. Then fill a chimney starter with more coals and light them. When they have gotten nice and orange along with gray ash pour them over the mound of coals you have made. Give them about 10 minutes with the lid closed and then check the temp. Drop in your choice of soaked wood chips. Feel free to use the ones that you like most. I'm partial to a mixture of wood chips that bring complex flavor to the meat. The temperature in the pit should be between 225 to 250 when you place your brisket or clod in. With your coals close to the door on the barrel it should be easy to add more coal or more wood chips as needed. Keep the temp constant at 225-250 for the next 4 hours. Purists will say not to use a pan when you cook your BBQ but I think moisture can be saved by using a pan that collects the juices. You can flip your brisket using silicone gloves to make sure you have an even smoke ring when it's in the pan. After the 4 hours (maintaining the temp the entire time) you can cover your meat in the pan with foil and leave it in the pit for at least another 2 hours while the fire dies out. Make it a tight seal. This will help tenderize the meat and finish off the cooking process. YES it takes a while! Be patient! It will be worth it! After you take it off the pit, leave it covered and take it inside and set it on the top of your stove. Let the meat rest 1 hour before slicing. No PEEKING! You can precook it like this on the weekend and then reheat it during the week. 1 hour in the oven at 350 totally covered in the pan. It keeps the moisture in. Your meat should be very tender and in some cases may be falling apart. I recommend and 8-12 pound brisket for this. To me the 9-10 pound range is best. But remember to use a size that's in proportion to your pit. Always start with your brisket fat side up for the first 2 hours. The fat that melts off during this time bastes the meat and flavors it as well. For a Weber grill the process is a little more difficult but can be done. The only difference it that you will need to have a grill that lifts up on one side (hinged) to add wood chips and coals. Meat on one side coals on the other. Indirect method. Trust me it works. Feel free to let me know how it turns out. OR better yet bring me a sample! Enjoy your BBQ! Let me know if you have any questions!

New Blog Feature!

I'll be sharing some new things on my blog that pertain to grilling and making BBQ. Get a notebook and a pen as I'll be sharing some great tips.

BACK IN TEXAS BBQ

I had a couple of flights to make it back to Texas and when I got here I was really ready for some good Texas style BBQ. Cousins BBQ was voted into the top 50 by Texas Monthly and yes it's at the DFW airport but don't let that fool you! They have other locations too! The meat STANDS on it's own. No BBQ sauce needed. Brisket and sausage plate with beans, potato salad and a TEXAS sweet tea. It doesn't get any better than this. Check it out: www.cousinsbbq.com Read their story. Very interesting. It sure hit the spot! Go there. Eat there. Thoroughly enjoy your BBQ there. I promise you will. Good food and prices. Atmosphere is what you would expect to find in a BBQ joint even at the terminal B location I ate in.

This was my last meal on the road for a while. See you soon!

Friday Bakersfield California

I had breakfast at Farmer Boy's again on Friday. WOW it was good. See their menu here: http://farmerboys.com/pdf_docs/papermenu_rev020408a.pdf

For lunch on Friday a couple of friends from the office took me to Tony's Pizza. 6 bucks for a huge slice of tasty pizza, a salad, and a drink. Not bad at all!

Friday night topped off a great week in California and it was the last taste of Bakersfield I had before I left. http://www.mamatoscas.com/ WOW Mama Tosca's was great. We started out with an appetizer sampler consisting of calamari, Italian sausage, deep fried shrimp with an Alfredo sauce and some Bruschetta alla Romana. Then it was on to a Caesar Salad. Everything wonderful so far and then my meal came out. BELLISIMA!!! Beautiful. I ordered Veal Parmigiana along with fresh seasonal veggies (brocolli, peppers, carrots, zucchini and some others). It also came with some fresh pasta tossed with some herbs and olive oil. After that I had my favorite dessert Creme Broulee. This dessert had a lovely raspberry topping. Totally tasty and a great ending to my meal that night.

Lots of great experiences in California and this one topped everything. Great food. Thanks to my work family for a great time.

Friday.....Bakersfield California

Friday was a good day. I ate at Farmer Boy's again for breakfast.

Lunch And Dinner in Bakersfield, California

Time flew by and on Thursday I had lunch at Mexicali restaurant close to the office. I ordered the number 2 meal. It was enchilada, tamal, and taco with rice and beans. See here: mexicalifood Everything was very tasty. This was the closest to what Mexican food that I'm familiar with tastes and looks like. I do have extensive experience with eating....just look at me! LOL. The Tamal was larger than what I'm used to and had shredded meat in it and was covered in an enchilada type sauce. The enchilada was standard fare and had onions in it just like I like it. Rice was almost like home made...that's a huge plus in my book. Beans were the same. Atmosphere was great as you can see from the pictures. The only thing I thought was that the price was very high for what's basically grains and sauces with a little meat. Corn, rice, beans, more corn, more corn, pork, and beef, and sauce. The same plate in Texas would have been about half the same price. Other than that I can't say how much I really enjoyed this. It was very good.



My dinner meal was spent with April, Jessie, Trudy, Sam, Don and Sam's cousin. Shogun Palace is a Tappenyaki and Sushi restaurant. I'm not really one for Sushi but I did try a lot of it. We had Dragon Rolls, Spider Rolls, and a California Roll. I also had Teriyaki Beef with bean sprouts and rice. All eaten by the way with chopsticks. Yes I can do it! LOL. I did also have some of the Sashimi, and a couple of other things I had no idea about. I enjoyed the majority of what I had. I don't have any pictures of this but everything was beautiful. I didn't really look at the prices (my bosses paid, Thanks to both Don and Sam.) Atmosphere is standard for this type of restaurant. As I passed by the Tappenyaki area I was impressed by the tricks they did. You don't see a lot of that at Ichiban here or Bonsai Garden for that matter.

Bakersfield the last 48 hours

Time is going by quickly here in Bakersfield and I've really enjoyed it althought I'm missing my family terribly.

I took about a 15 minute walk up California Avenue from the hotel and had Mexican food at El Torito on Tuesday night. It's not Tex-Mex or what I'm used to but it was good in it's own way. I had the Combo Magnifico which consisted of a couple of different types of Enchiladas, a Carnitas Burrito, a shredded meat taco, and beans and rice. Everything was very tasty and did look like the pictures on the website. See that here http://www.el-torito.com/ . Prices here do reflect the amount of food you get which is quite substantial. I do have to say that I would come here again but I would try something else like fajitas. They weren't in the budget this time.


Yesterday, my boss, Sam was nice enough to take me to the Petroleum Club. It's a member's only club here and sit's atop a towering building here in Bakersfield. See here: http://www.thepetroleumclub.com/ I had the Oil Boys Favorite sandwich combo. It was a roast beef sandwich, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes, pickle spear, and au jus sauce. It was excellent to say the least. Hot roast beef dipped in the au jus. WOW. I'd eat here again but only if Sam takes me! LOL.


Last night I finally got to go eat at Famous Dave's. This restaurant has a lot of the cool stuff that commercial chains have. Atmosphere is great, prices are high compared to what I'm used to. I had the 2 meat Combo and there are plenty of choices there. I happened to have the brisket and sausage. Don't I always try those 2 things out? LOL. They were tasty but the old tried and true idea of meat standing on it's own doesn't seem to be the way they go about things here. Sauce was needed but the meat was extremely tender and the lack of a smoke ring caused me to think it a little less authentic than the claims they made. TEXAS BBQ is truly safe. There are 5 or six BBQ sauces on the table and the concept of this restaurant bringing regional faves together is great. Take a look at the website and see all the great pics and menu items. My meal was finished off with corn on the cob, pork and beans, potato salad and a pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped topping. Over 23 dollars for it. I think I could have gotten exactly everything I had at Bubba's for around 15 and the smoke ring wouldn't have been lacking. I would eat here again. I do recommend it but be ready to fork over the cash. See www.famousdaves.com When I get home I'll tell you more about it!

See you soon.

Breakfast at the Office 2-2-09 M and M catering truck.

The catering truck came out to the building. M and M catering has a truck full of goodies and I had a chorizo and egg burrito. I thought the price was high when I saw it up on the side of the vehicle but then I got the burrito. There was enough meat in this one for 3 Diego's burritos. It was very good and VERY filling. Price wasn't as bad as I thought considering what I got for it. No open ends on the burrito. The salsa was different than I'm used to and a bit more vinegary. It did add the needed heat though. I enjoyed it. Have a great day!

Dinnertime....In and Out Burger Bakersfield

One of the managers took me to pick up a burger from the famous In and Out Burger. The service was quick and the price was reasonable. The burgers were good and the fries were awesome. I had the double double which translates to a double meat, double cheese burger. Greasy good! The fries are hand cut on premises. That's really unheard of in today's fast food world. They were excellent. The other cool thing about In and Out is that under the bottom of their cups there are scripture verses. I found John 3:16 under my cup. I liked that. I had that meal for less than 7 bucks. It's a bargain. When you come here be sure to stop in and enjoy In and Out.

Taj Mahal Bakersfield California

If there is anything I can say about my boss Sam it's that he has a knack for expanding your mind and goes the extra mile to expose you to cultural things that for me have otherwise gone unnoticed. With that being said, Taj Mahal was an experience for me that was interesting. I had never had Indian cuisine. The restaurant is in a strip mall and the proprietors are dressed with traditional turbans. They had a buffet and a TV that had on the latest music videos from India. The buffet had quite a few different food items on it and everything was really colorful. There was Chicken Curry, lentils, garbanzo beans, Mamosa (don't know if I'm spelling that right) it was like a Chinese wonton with potatoes and peas in it. My favorite thing there was the Tandoori Chicken. This chicken was grilled and had a bright orange hue. I'm a huge fan of almost anything that's grilled, BBQ'd or smoked so this went over very well for me. The other thing that I enjoyed was the flat bread. I think it was called Naan. It's like a long tortilla but a little thicker. Very tasty. I almost wanted to ask for some butter! LOL. Basmati rice (Bright yellow) with fragrant herbs was also a hit. I can say it was very different and I found some things I liked and some I didn't but at least now I know what I enjoy. I was pretty full so I didn't get to try the cauliflower potatoes together. All I can say is that you'll do yourself a favor by giving other foods a try. I may have to try to get a recipe for that Tandoori Chicken. I think most of you would love it! I didn't get to see how much it cost. My boss took care of it. I'm enjoying my time here. The scenery is great but it's just somehow missing my family's faces that would make it so much better. Just a few more days! See you soon.

Bakersfield California.....The Bistro

Last night when I arrived I was very hungry. My flight from San Angelo was pretty long but I enjoyed it. I arrived at my hotel Four Points by Sheraton and the restaurant here is The Bistro. The Bistro was very dark with candlelight and I thought to myself "I wish my wife was here!" The menu was more of a fine dining than casual eaterie. Prices are medium high. About the food, in one word: Excellent. I had the Prime Rib with Au Jus. Cooked just like I like it at medium. To say this was a hunk of meat is an understatement. Almost 2 inches thick and about 8 X 4 across I almost could't eat it all. This was not a dessert night for sure. The salad the preceded the main course had some mixed greens with Gorgonzola cheese, pecans, and a light vinaigrette dressing with croutons and parmesan. Fresh veggies complimented my Prime Rib. Fresh Asparagus steamed and bright green was laid on some mashed potatoes with a waffle potato garnish in the middle. Presentation was awesome to say the least. This meal started my time here very well and I'm looking forward to more. The Bistro comes highly recommended! See you all soon! It's off for my new opportunity!

Laredo Restaurants Continued.....Dinner

(Please read the TWO ealier posts before you read this one.)

We had not planned on staying in Laredo this late but due to the tailor (still not being finished and who promised to have it ready by 5 P.M.) we had to get a bite to eat. We drove to a nearby place called Coyote Creek. Coyote Creek is very interesting. Each room we saw had a different theme. There was a room that seemed it was straight out of Gone With The Wind. Another was like an old Western town. The room we were in was the Big Game room where they had stuffed animals. DISCLAIMER: IF YOU are a vegetarian don't come here. If you don't like seeing dead animals mounted to the wall don't come here. If you have a problem with those poor, defenseless, bears, wildcats, foxes, ibexs, and rams don't come here. I got no problem with it! I love animals...THEY TASTE SO GOOD! Since this was great day to get some new reviews in we were going to cap it off big. We were promptly seated and served quickly. I had the Texas Trio which consisted of Brisket, Sausage, and Chicken along with some Borracho Beans, and Potato Salad. I must first lament that the brisket did not stand on it's own (see Bubba's Review and you'll understand) It had to have the sauce and it wasn't very tender. The chicken was dry and had no flavor. This chicken couldn't hold a candle to Pastor Jehu's. That's was the first thought I had as far as BBQ'd chicken standards are concerned. I had certainly hoped for something as good but was a bit disappointed. The sausage was flavorful and not fatty in the least bit. BEANS! Oh the Beans were the saving grace of my meal. The potato salad was great too and had some ingredients I couldn't recognize although I'm thinking possibly very small carrots. TEENY, ITSY BITSY, MINISCULE. That's how small. Bread was dry. BBQ sauce was on point and probably store bought. I wouldn't call this meal poor but it was fair. Elizabeth had a burger with American Cheese, Avocado, and Jalapenos. She said the Jalapenos cancelled out the Avocado. She did get a couple of bites when it was just the Avocado flavor but she really liked it. It came with Fries and Onion Rings. Onion Rings were tasty but I felt they probably came out of bag and were not hand made there on site. Kandra had some Shrimp skewers. I sense that my daughter likes shrimps. I better be careful when she chooses a fiancee someday. LORD HELP ME! How tall is Nick Jonas anyway? No te creas, Mijita. I was just playing. I am surprised she didn't eat shrimp tacos for breakfast. The skewers had shrimp, pineapple, and tomatoes on them and were very tasty. Shrimp were basted in a flavorful sauce that had a slight sweetness. She also had some rice that was very tasty and some sauteed veggies. She sure knows how to pick them! She also had a dessert of a Bunuelo with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream sprinkled with cinnamon and chocolate syrup. Very tasty. This place gets and A++ on atmosphere and a B because of my wife's and daughter's food. I don't recommend the BBQ however. Price is par for the course here which means medium to high depending on what you get. Of course I would come back and try it again. Service was stellar. Our server was very friendly and reminded my wife of our great friend Abby, who we miss so much. We need to seriously go and visit her. It was a great day but I really missed my boys who stayed with the best mother-in-law in the world. We didn't make it home until around 11 P.M. and got straight into bed. I wish I had the pictures. Ask Elizabeth to see them.

Laredo Restaurants Continued LUNCH

After getting a few great deals on some new clothes and waiting for the alterations to be done by a guy who has been a tailor for 50 years (who still wasn't done by 9:30 P.M. but that's a whole other story) we were on our way to have some lunch. We decided to try a local favorite: Mariscos El Pescador. This is a fairly large building right on the I-35 access road. There is more than 1 location (I saw another one while we were driving later in the afternoon) here in Laredo. The Menu was very nicely laid out with great pictures. TONS of choices were available. They had some platters that started out around 15 dollars were you could get a little taste of just about every seafood choice they had available including Octopus, Oysters, Fish, Shrimp and a host of others. We didn't have those platters but they looked really great. Those platters doubled in price on the menu by adding 2 more people on so it would have been a great feast. Everything else on the menu was moderately priced for Seafood in my opinion. The plate I had was listed as $7.49 on the menu as was Elizabeth's. I had the Filete ala Veracruza which consisted of Fish lightly grilled with a sauce containing olives, onions, tomato, celery and other herbs and spices. This sauce reminded me (except the olives) of the kind of sauce you get on a Spanish Steak at a Mexican food restaurant which leads to another question. Why is it called Spanish Steak when it's Mexican food or Tex-Mex cuisine? I often wonder about that! I had a baked potato and some steamed Normandy Vegetables. The fish was a little bland but the sauce made up for it. Elizabeth had a grilled fish and it was also a little bland and I started to understand why there were 4 types of bottle hot sauce including a Habanero sauce, and a couple of Tabasco style or Louisiana style sauces. Habanero hit Elizabeth pretty hard. I thought it was pretty tasty. She had Rice and Veggies with her meal. They were good accompaniments to the meal but as I had told my wife and my daughter they were really nothing to jump up and down about. Now Kandra had the best meal on the table. She chose the Fettucine Alfredo with Shrimp. The sauce was so creamy and tasty and we all thought that it was even better than the Olive Garden version. I enjoyed my meal and Elizabeth did too even though it was a little bland the extra sauces would have made them a little more flavorful. Of course they did ask if we wanted tartar sauce but Elizabeth doesn't like it and I wanted to experience the flavor of the Veracruzana sauce without any outside interference. I would recommend this place because I know there were some other choices that would have probably been more likeable. Another thing I liked was the atmosphere (sans the CNN). In the foyer there are nets and shells and all the other high seas appointments. Very nice! Inside there are pictures covering most of the walls of famous people including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Selena, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, and even DARTH VADER. Not really impressed with all that but the truth must be told! Service was excellent. FLAN was on a different plane. It was heavenly to say the least. I haven't had Flan that good EVER in my life. I was thoroughly impressed with it. The surprise of the day was the bill. I didn't realize that what my wife and I were having was on special. SO instead of $7.49 we paid $4.99. I LOVE SAVING on a meal. Oh and did I mention they had Fish Soup and Shrimp Soup? I say give it a try

ROAD TRIP EDITION - LAREDO TEXAS RESTAURANTS

I've been on the road with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday and we had a great meal on Thursday with lots of Turkey, Dressing (not stuffing, LOL) and the other accompaniments that are customary. As is usually the case when we are on the road we get a couple of chances to go out to eat and we had a few good choices.

Our first place was bright and early (7:30 A.M.) in Laredo. Elizabeth, Kandra, and I took off to Laredo to take advantage of some Black Friday sales and so we rolled into town and stopped at Taco Palenque. Taco Palenque has 9 locations in South Texas including stores in Brownsville, McAllen and they are set to open a new store in San Antonio very soon at North Star Mall. They have a wide variety of South Texas favorites. See their menu here: http://www.tacopalenque.com/ourmenu.html . Their salsa bar is phenomenal with 7 different choices along with veggies to put on your tacos including cucumber, radishes, lettuce, and others. I tried 4 of the salsas with my barbacoa tacos. A green tomatillo salsa that was mild in flavor but very tasty. Pico de Gallo was another traditional favorite I had and it was fairly mild but also a great addition to the tacos. I also tried their hot and mild salsas and both were very good. Everything was so fresh so that's a big plus in my book. Elizabeth had a bacon and egg taco that she seemed to really enjoy. One of the cool things is that it's very easy to get full on 2 tacos. You don't have to eat 3 or 4 to make it. IN fact 2 was almost too much for a HUGE dude like me. In South Texas they are called tacos not burritos. Burritos down here are deep fried. These tacos are thick with lots of filling in a Norteno (should have a tilde over the second N) style thin tortillas. This was very enjoyable. Plenty of drink choices and quick service. This was an excellent choice to start of the day with. Atmosphere is appropriate and prices are medium-high. When you come down this way try it out

Bubba's Smokehouse - San Angelo, Texas

Bubba's Smokehouse is a brand new BBQ place in San Angelo, Texas but you wouldn't know it by the meat they serve. I was in today for my first try and being the BBQ aficionado (in my mind THINK NACHO LIBRE, LOL) I am I must say the meat impressed me. From the looks of things they have 4 choices on the menu as far as the meats are concerned. Brisket, Pork Ribs, Sausages (2 flavors), and Chicken. I tried the 3 meat platter with Brisket, Ribs, and regular sausage. The pitmaster obviously believes in the old tried and true axiom which is: THE MEAT MUST STAND ON ITS OWN! This means that sauces are a choice and not automatically drizzled, squirted, or showered on the meat. When I saw that I knew this place was for real. Brisket was tender and juicy with a good smoke ring, a black crust, and plenty of flavor. The ribs came right off the bone with a little work and were delicious. Again, these ribs were not drenched in sauce. The sausage was also very tasty. I tried each meat with and without sauce. They had 2 sauce choices. The rib sauce (as it was called) was a sweet sauce while the BBQ sauce was a bit more tangy with very little sweetness behind it. Mrs. Baird's bread was on the table and she's always a great choice. I did have a couple of minor issues to speak of. The beans are canned and the potato salad is also store bought as far as I can tell. The meat more than makes up for that and Bush's does make some good beans BUT not as good as the slow cooked, homemade beans. They also had baked beans but I didn't get to try them. Sweet and unsweet tea are available along with Coca-Cola products. If I'm not mistaken they also had cobblers available and other sides like corn on the cob. Don't come for the atmosphere to Bubba's although I'm sure as it grows that will get better. DO come for some of San Angelo's best tasting BBQ with moderate prices. Right now there is no other better BBQ (except at home) for the money.

Nuttin' But Wings CLOSED

OK OK OK......I've been hearing about this place for a while so WE finally took the plunge. Well unfortunately there are a few things I just couldn't get past. At the location on South Chadbourne we walked in and really weren't welcomed into the restaurant. It seemed we were an interruption more than a welcome sight on what looked like a very slow day. I was always taught that we have jobs because we have customers and that they are not interruptions but the very basis for our business to exist. I can't say I got that kind of vibe here. It's hard to get good help nowadays I guess! We did go up and order from the menu and had a few good choices. I ordered 2 different kinds of hot wings, the too _am_ hot (a moniker that doesn't even come close to fitting the bill,) and the original hot. They were served with Rojos when they came out (at the same time our drinks were served by the way...a little over 20 minutes after we ordered.) The Rojos were tasty but weren't authentic. In this town any unpealed, sliced, and breaded potato is being called a Rojo. A lot of them don't live up to excitement the name creates for me. These fall into that category. Good but not great. We had the 2 can dine special of 16 wings, Rojos, and 20 oz drinks and had to pay extra for ranch dressing. Jared had a burger AGAIN! LOL. Kandra had chicken strips. These are the kind you buy from a foodservice provider already breaded off premises to save time. They were actually tasty as were the home made french fries. I'm a sucker for doing stuff in house! Fresh, handbreaded, home made, are all words I like to hear from a restaurant. Opinions, aren't they great?!?! Jonah had a corn dog. Don't come here for atmosphere. This old Dairy Queen restaurant needs a revamp with a more festive atmosphere that goes along with what Hot Wings are all about. For example: tailgating, sports, parties. A couple of TVs, some sport memorabilia, maybe a couple of video games and what a difference. One more thing that is very unfortunate and I'm sure they heard about it from my kids because they yelled it out at least 5 times, the restrooms stunk horribly. Jared says, "The restroom stinks," and his mom tries to shush him. SO then he yells out, "The restroom SMELLS BAD." Oh yeah that's a big difference Jared! Yes they did STINK and not just in there but out in the dining area. We were at least 30 feet away from the restrooms and could still smell that stench. Restaurants definitely can't have that and expect to have a lot of dine in customers who will come back. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing. The wings and Rojos were ok but bad service, no atmosphere, and stinking restrooms simply won't allow me to come back here again. OH and lets not forget the rap or hip hop music coming from the kitchen. Totally inappropriate. The only place for wings in San Angelo as far as I'm concerned is Wing Stop. They are truly the wing experts.

OCTOBER 31st LIL Gil's CLOSED/REPLACED BY MENDEZ CAFE

It was good to recently see some activity at what has been a few restaurants over the last 5 or 6 years. Catfish used to be served at this location (I don't remember if it was Katfish Korner or Catfish Haven or some other catfish place....If it was Catfish Haven it really wasn't a "safe haven" for them now was it?) Hamburgers also used to be served at the former burger shop (Barney's Burgers) and now Lil Gil's has opened up shop. One of the good things about this (or bad things depending on how you look at it) is the fact that this place is VERY close to where I live. Quick, convenient, and easy from that standpoint. Lil Gil's offers Mexican food at modest prices but big on taste. The night we came in there was one waiter and normally this would bother me because of a lack of good service but in this case he had everything under control. I had a Mexican dinner which consisted of a taco, enchilada, rice, beans and I will say that this meal was very good. Plenty of flavor and plenty of food. Elizabeth had cheese enchiladas and she enjoyed them. Jared of course had a burger which is nothing new and I'm sure he enjoyed as he inhaled it, I mean ate it. My son did get his love for food from me! Of course I am trying to teach him to savor it just a bit more though. Kandra had fried shrimp and I actually got a sample of it. It was very tasty. Jonah had enchiladas too and I think he ate them all so I know they were good. We also had some beef and bean nachos for an appetizer which we tend to do when we know there is going to be a review coming up. With prices that are fair and food that is very good I would recommend this place. Although some changes have been made to the asthetics of the building, atmosphere isn't what this place is about. The food is really tasty and I'm sure that you and your family will enjoy it. I feel a guy's night out coming on. LOL.

Nakamura Sushi House

Today was my 13th wedding anniversary and we decided to go out to eat without kids. Anyhow my wife reserved a spot at a fairly new spot in town: Nakamura Sushi House. I'm sad to say that neither one of us was really in the mood to try something new so NO we didn't have raw fish. I would have welcomed some samples had they been offered but I really wasn't interested in trying something that different on my anniversary. I wanted to EAT! Especially since I've been on a monotonous low-carb diet for a while.

The first thing we had was coconut shrimp. It was deep fried tempura style which is really redundant saying it that way. If you are a cook or chef then you totally understand what I mean. Coconut flakes were were incorporated into the crunchy breading which had a mildly sweet flavor. It came with a peppery-sweet dipping sauce and had some flavors I had not experienced before. I enjoyed this very much. 5 medium shrimp come with this appetizer for 6 buckaroonees. I'd eat this again if I wasn't doing low carbs!














We also had salads with romaine lettuce, carrots, 2 different kinds of sesame seeds, cucumbers and an onioney ginger dressing. I also decided to try the Miso soup. If I'm not misostaken this soup had tofu, seaweed, chicken broth, fresh green onions, and other unknown spices. Miso is a soybean paste that defines the flavor of this soup. My Mexican-American wife thought the tofu was kind of like flan. "Es flan mi amor?" she said. "No amor, es toe food chee said." I chimed in. Well it was kind of like a small piece of flan in the soup and I neither liked it nor did I hate it. I felt very indifferent about it. The soup had a great flavor and really hit the spot.















The main course was Hibachi style stir fry.















As you can see there was beef, shrimp, onions, broccoli and rice. VERY TASTY to say the least. I actually ate with chopsticks for the majority of the main course which was fun but I eventually went to the fork for maximum shoveling. A little dash of soy sauce and it was perfect.

We went to another restaurant for dessert and unfortunately it wasn't all that as the yufe of today say.

It's miraculous that my wife and I are still together after all these years but I thank God every day that he's still in control and that our love still endures. God's been good to us and I'm thankful for all he's done and for my wife of 13 years. All my LOVE to you sweetheart. I never deserved you and I still don't but God has blessed me with the joy that's you. Days, nights, weeks, months, and years pass by but the love you have shown me continues to astound me. Thanks for that and receiving my love. Big hug, little hug. Big kiss, little kiss. XOXO xoxo

I enjoyed my evening very much. This was a new place that I enjoyed and I do recommend. Next time I'll have to actually try the sushi. Go see for yourself!

Olive Garden

Sunday was a great day for us. We were blessed enough to have someone we love pay for us to go out to eat and it was a great meal. It was a special day because it was Cheli's birthday and she's one of our favorite people too. She makes us laugh and is just one all around great young lady. We love her very much. It was so good to spend the afternoon with our church family and eat great food. I had Grilled pork tenderloin marinated in extra-virgin olive oil and rosemary. It's usually served with Tuscan potatoes and bell peppers but I had it with sauteed vegetables consisting of yellow squash and zucchini with some other herbs. Since I'm currently on a low carb diet this was a perfect entree to have. Of course I saved my full carb load for the cake afterwards. I'm still losing about a pound every day and a half so I'm on point. The food was great. The pork was marinated in a rosemary sauce and had a sprig of rosemary pushed down into it. I enjoyed it very much. The carrot cake afterward was also very tasty. A wonderful meal with wonderful family and friends after a blessed day at church.....It really doesn't get any better here on earth.

Not eating out a lot lately

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've written anything but I've not really been eating out a lot lately. I've been on a little diet too and that hasn't helped my blog at all! Of course I have lost between 8 and 9 pounds so I am happy about that just another 80 or 90 to go! Lets see Monterrey Cafe has a new owner and the food is about the same as before. Service needs to be a little better but other than that not much has changed. I sure wish we had 5 or 6 new places to go eat but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Oh by the way I'm currently available for amateur eats for anyone who wants to invite me to come eat at their home and feature them on the blog. I'll take pictures and give a critique. It will be fun! I'm sure it's tons better than the diet food I've been eating lately. Bethany's sandwich today sure looked good. I'm missing bread a bit but 8 pound plus in the last 2 weeks means that it's working and my cravings aren't really overwhelming so I'm ok.