Dinner Out

Last night, we had dinner with my friend Claire and her family. We had a blast and laughed almost the entire time! It was definitely a treat to have dinner with such good friends and be off the hook for cooking!!!

I am not sure what is on the horizon for tonight's dinner. I have some ground beef thawed, so I am sure that will come into play. Stay tuned...

Dinner Out x2

On Friday night, the husband and I decided that we were going to have a family dinner out. It is a rare treat for us to eat in a restaurant, so I was pretty excited. After my nieces went back to my In Law's, the boy and I had a busy morning of errands and then we met up with friends at a public pool for more swimming. By the time I got home, I did not have the energy or the inclination to cook a meal. The boy and I have had a hectic couple of days, and I just wasn't prepared to come home and figure out what eat. So, the husband and I made an executive decision to let someone else do the cooking. I was dying for some more Mexican food, so we went to a local, family-friendly Mexican restaurant. It turned out to be a perfect choice, since it was exactly what I wanted...right down to the fried ice cream for dessert. After we got home, we put the boy down to bed and the husband and I continued our mini-date night with a Wii bowling tournament, right in our living room. We had a blast, and I loved having a perfect Friday night with my two favorite guys!!!

My fun weekend continues today with a real date night with the hubs. We are getting my In Law's to babysit our son, so we can go have a dinner out by ourselves and then go see the new Harry Potter movie. Again, I am looking forward to a night off and I am ridiculously excited to have my husband all to myself for a few hours. I hear the movie is awesome, so it should be really entertaining. All in all, this is shaping up to be a great weekend!

I will be back on Sunday with my regular dinner rotation. I am still feeling "eh" so I am going to continue my light cooking duties. The good news is that I have figured out what my health "issue" is, so at least it is no longer a mystery. I still need to take it easy for a few more weeks, so more repeats are on the horizon. I will continue to post my daily meals and try to work in a couple new things here and there. For now, I am just going to enjoy my fantastic weekend!!!

Dinner Out

The husband, boy, and I are going to have dinner out tonight. My mother in law was nice enough to get me a Carrabba's Italian Grill gift certificate for Mother's Day. I really like Carrabba's, so this gift certificate has been burning a hole in my pocket! I will be back tomorrow with another new Cooking Light recipe.

Dinner Out

There is really nothing exciting to report for last night's meal. We spent all days at my In-Law's yesterday, helping them get ready for a party. We pretty much ate dinner on the run, and we didn't get home until almost bedtime. It was one of those hectic and exhausting days. I will be glad to spend the rest of my weekend at a much more leisurely pace.

Vacation

As you may have guessed from reading my other posts, I am going on vacation. Be back soon. See you in about a week. I will send you a postcard (probably not). Bye.

Dinner Out

No cooking for me tonight! The family and I are going over to my in-law's for dinner and a visit with my husband's aunt and uncle that are in town. I am certainly looking forward to having the night off! I will be back tomorrow with the new recipe that I had planned for tonight. Catch ya later!!!

Dinner Out

I am a little behind on posting, since I had a really busy day yesterday. My friend Claire and I got to go shopping, sans preschoolers. It was very relaxing!!! We usually have to tote our kids along when we go on an outing, and mayhem typically ensues. This time, we only had to bring her sweet, little, smiley 4 month old baby...no 3 year olds. The best part was that we cleaned out the Le Creuset outlet store. They were having a sale, and we both found some great deals on our favorite cookware. It was very exciting! We stopped for a late lunch and cocktails before we came home, which we really enjoyed. When I did get home, the husband, boy and I had to turn around and immediately leave for my cousin's house. We had a yummy dinner and a lot of laughs over at her new place, so a good time was had by all. It was a little hectic, but a really good day, nonetheless. Tonight I will be back to my normal routine, although I am not sure what I will be making for dinner yet. I need to get my menu plan and grocery list together for the week. I will be back a little later to share what I will be cooking tonight.

Dinner Out

We need to go do a little shopping at Costco today, so we decided to have dinner out. I recently got some certificates for four free dinners at Chili's, so we may as well take advantage of those while we are out and about. Chili's is not my favorite (I really have issues with chain restaurants), but their food is decent (it will be better since it is free). The husband says that everything at Chili's tastes like it comes from Chili's. Who can argue with that logic??? At least I am off the hook for cooking tonight!!!

Dinner Out

I am not certain what our exact "dinner plan" is for tonight. We are going to the Glendale Chocolate Affaire , as part of my MOMS Club 'Family Day Out'. There will be lots of booths with chocolaty sweets on hand...my favorite being dark chocolate dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick. Yes, I know it sounds wrong...but let me tell you...it is oooooohhhhhh sooooooo right!!!! Anyway, since we are going later this afternoon, I don't have to worry about cooking dinner. I am sure we are going to grab something out, but I am just not sure what that 'something' will be. I look forward to the Chocolate festival every year, so I am very excited to go again. I just hope my little one takes a good nap. It is going to be a long night if he doesn't!!!

I should be back in my kitchen tomorrow. Our local market has a really good sale on berries, so I am going to see if I can score some. My friend Jen A. had a bake-fest yesterday, so it has inspired me to try my hand at baking up some goodies. Also, I have a new dinner recipe to try out, which is always exciting. I always love a cooking break, but it will be nice to get back into the groove of my normal routine.

Par-tay!

I am off the hook for cooking tonight, since we have been invited to a BBQ dinner/birthday party for one of my son's little friends. Thankfully, the parents are way cool and decided to make it fun for both parents and kids alike. The boy and I are meeting my friend Claire and her kids at the party, so I know we will have an excellent time. The husband is still sick, so he is going to stay home and fend for himself. Don't worry he won't starve...my house is stocked with plenty of cold cereal and microwaveable chicken nuggets. I will be back tomorrow with the dinner I was originally going to make on Friday night.

Dinner Out

I did not feel like cooking last night, so we decided to use a restaurant gift certificate that we got for Christmas and have dinner out. I will be back to cooking (and posting) tonight, as soon as I figure out what we are having. Hi Mom!!!!

Dinner Out

It seems I have been a little remiss with my posting lately. In my defense, I am still struggling with putting Christmas behind me, and we had a pet emergency to deal with yesterday. My poor cat had gotten a really bad infection,and had be hospitalized overnight. We have been traveling back and forth to our Veterinarian for the past two days, which is a pretty long journey (we kept our old Vet, located by my old house...45 minutes away). Luckily, the cat is at home now and on his way to recovery, but the whole ordeal threw quite the monkey-wrench in my weekend plans. Oh well...I am just glad my cat is going to be okay.

So, really there is nothing exciting to report, cooking-wise. We did take-out pizza last night, due to the cat situation. It is unusual for us to eat take-out thrice (is thrice really a word???...I mean three times, just in case it isn't) in one month, but we did in December. By the time we got home I was not in the mood for cooking at all. Ugh.

I need to get organized for the upcoming week, and do my meal plan, grocery list, and pay some bills (ew). It seems that everything goes on the back-burner during the week of Christmas (yes, I am still annoyed that my house is still a disaster), and it is difficult for me to dig my way out of it and get caught-up. Hopefully, I can get some basic things done today that will get me ahead of the game for next week. I am not sure what the dinner plan is for tonight yet, but I will figure it out and post it later.

Dinner Out

I did not feel like cooking tonight, so the husband went to the local pizza shack and got some take out. Nothing really exciting or noteworthy to report, other than I did not have to cook!

Dinner Out

We had a busy evening...going to the mall, and what not. So, we grabbed bad food court pizza for dinner and called it a night. We did a little Christmas shopping, and we got the boy's picture taken with Santa. All in all, we had a fairly productive evening that did not involve me cooking dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am off cooking detail for a few days, while we visit with family. Hooray for me! I will be back after the holiday weekend with more of my usual antics. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Dinner at My In-Laws

Sorry, nothing exciting to report for Saturday night dinner. We worked on getting all of our Christmas decorations up, both inside and out, during the afternoon. To avoid extra help from a precocious toddler, we thought it best to send the boy off to the grandparent's house for a day of spoiling. Once we were done with our Christmas decorating, the husband and I went over to pick up our son at the Party Palace and we just stayed for dinner. I love having my Christmas chores completed early...I feel so accomplished!

Date Night

The husband got his parents to come over and babysit last night, so we could have a "date night". We ate dinner out and went to a movie. The movie was good. The dinner was not good. We had heard about this (icky) restaurant from several of our friends, saying it was a really great place to go. Let me tell you...it wasn't. I am not sure if we ordered the wrong thing(s) or what, but it was BAD! Terrible, in fact. One of the worst restaurant meals that I have ever had, in my life. Yeah, I am not kidding...it was awful. The only thing that could have made it worse was if I found a roach in my food!
If you are curious to know the name of the place...just ask me...I will gladly give you the details. I hesitate to name it and trash it on my blog. Since I am going to trash it...I can at least be nice enough not to expose the name of the place in writing. There were only four people in the whole joint when we were there, as it was...this place needs all the help it can get. Seriously...it was that bad. The funny thing is that this restaurant is a family-owned business that has been in that location for quite awhile. I don't know how they get any repeat business! Let's go over the horror blow by blow, shall we??? Okay...here it goes:

Their main claim to fame is gourmet pizza (which we did not have) but did not seem all that special from the menu. The choices for their pizzas were unimpressive, at best. I could make all of their pizza choices at home without breaking a sweat. Since I could not see actually paying money for the pizzas (which were over-priced and comprised mostly of toppings from Costco), we decided to go with an appetizer, pasta, and an entree instead (which were even more over-priced).
Both of our dinner choices should have been solid, no-brainers(albeit way, way over-priced). We ordered a chicken dish and pasta dish. I mean really...it is very hard to screw up chicken and pasta. Oh, but they managed to screw up both!
The appetizer was one of their daily "specials", so I was expecting fresh seasonal ingredients (as touted by the host when we sat down) and for it to be edible. It wasn't. I even questioned the waitress before we ordered about the "daily special" appetizer. She did not know anything and had to go and ask the "chef" (I use that term loosely)the details about the dish. She came back with some acceptable info, so I took a gamble and ordered the appetizer. I shouldn't have...it was probably the worst thing we ate all night. Everything that was on the appetizer was awful. The dish itself was supposed to be bruschetta with black truffle cheese and fresh porcini mushrooms. The cheese was frozen and grainy with powder seasoning mixed in (black truffle powder and garlic powder) and the "fresh" porcini mushrooms were not porcinis' at all, but instead slimy, cold, beige, regular button mushrooms, from a can then refrigerated...not even drained or rinsed of the can oil.
I can literally reconstruct how the dish was put together by the taste of it. First the "chef" toasted the bread to give it the illusion of freshness and warmth. Then, he took his grainy frozen cheese out and tried to spread it on the bread. It partially thawed because of the bread warmth. He dusted it with the different powders. Then he went to the fridge and got his canned, packed in oil, mushrooms and scooped them onto top of the cheese layer. A sprinkle of garnish...and...voila...crap! The only "fresh" element was the sprinkling of chopped fresh parsley around the rim of the dish for garnish. It reminded me of someone putting lipstick on a pig.

Whoever writes the menu knows a lot of cooking terms and fancies themselves quite the foodie. They put the correct words and descriptions on the menu. Then, when you order the food you realize they have no idea what they are doing in the kitchen. Also, there was no salt and pepper out on the tables. This seems like a minor detail, but really it is bold and cocky statement. I noticed it when we sat down and I was actually excited and hopeful about this little fact. When there isn't any salt and pepper offered at at restaurant the "chef" is telling you that you will not need them. It says, the "chef" knows that the food should be properly seasoned when it is cooked, and you will not have to worry about extra salt/pepper after the meal is served to you. It is a bold gesture to tell you that you are in good hands. Well, it was offensive to realize that whoever was cooking and serving the food took all their customers to be morons. I think they put on a good show, but really considered their patrons to be idiots. Their whole business revolves around the fact that they are counting on their customers not to know that they are being cheated with crappy quality food. The right menu description is designed to distract you from the fact that they are charging you way too much money for sub-par food.
Most of the ingredients that we had on our entree, pasta dish, and appetizer were straight from a can and/or jar. I know that they were straight from a can because of the texture,flavor and the ever-present hint of a 'metallic tinge' permeating every item. Gross is the only accurate way to describe ALL of our meal items. Canned ingredients are very easily spotted...especially when you are promised fresh, and understand the difference between the two.

Next, the "chicken breast"(that was over-priced) was partially cooked the day before and then re-heated in a microwave. How do I know this? Again, it had the flavor, texture, and hot and cold spots that only a microwave can produce.Rubbery and stringy all at the same time...yum! They didn't even try to disguise the fact that it was previously cooked by trying to reheat it in an oven!
Also, the "chicken breast" that was promised, was not a "chicken breast" at all. It was the breast of a Cornish game hen, which is about half the size of a chicken or smaller. How do I know this? Well, the "chef" left it bone-in with part of the wing attached. It was way to small to be a chicken (unless it was some sort of freak of science type of dwarf chicken). It was a game hen. WHAT A RIP OFF! Not only did the food suck, the "chef" literally is trying to cheat the customers by cutting back on food costs and calling something one thing when really it was something else entirely. Then, charging $18 for it! I am not kidding...$18 for a partially-cooked-then-microwaved Cornish game hen breast. The "crust" on the chicken was unpalatably salty and not crusty at all...just coagulated paste.
The side items were also a joke. Over cooked orzo with vegetables that were from a can, partially cooked and then put on a sheet pan to "roast" before the meal was served. Again, how do I know this? By the black spots on the way too gummy and out of season vegetables. Blaeech. I switched plates with my husband because I could not choke my food down.
There really was not one dish that stood out as "good". The husband's pasta dish was, for the most part, edible...which I cannot say about my entree. That is the most positive compliment that I can muster about our food. I at least had a few bites of his meal without incident. By no means was it good. Olive Garden would have been a blessing. I don't even have the energy to go into all the details about why his pasta dish was bad. Just trust me when I say it could not even be described as mediocre, at best. "Sucky"...that sounds about right.

To be fair...the husband has a strong stomach and is not a picky as I am about food. I can be overly critical sometimes. Yeah...not the case here! I assure you that this experience was not about just me being a food snob. The husband hated it too...and he is usually pretty forgiving. He literally gagged when he was three bites into the appetizer. Gagged!!!! He had to stop eating so he would not get sick at the table.

We suffered through the rest of our dinner and then promptly left. Needless to say, we will not be going back to that establishment ever again. I am just glad that we did not get food poisoning.

Dinner at My In-Laws

Tonight, I ended up not having to cook. We had an impromptu cook out over my In Law's house this evening. My Mother In Law and I ran to Costco to pick up some stuff for a lunch she is hosting tomorrow, and we ended up picking up some really nice steaks to grill. Our dinner was very yummy, and we had a nice visit too. Best of all, she gave my son a much needed haircut after dinner. The boy usually sits still for Grandma's haircuts without much fuss, so I usually ask her to do it. We tried Supercuts once...never again. Also, my son loves to play and run around in their huge back yard, while we all sit on the porch and chat. On nights that we come home from their place, the boy literally conks out without a single peep! That in itself is worth its weight in gold.

Dinner at My In-Laws

My nieces are in town from Reno this week, and are staying at my in law's. Yesterday morning they came over for a visit, and I ended up juggling three kids for the better part of the day. They were very well behaved and Connor and I loved spending time with them. I had a really fun day with all the kids, and we had a lot of activities planned to keep them busy. When the husband came home from work, we loaded up the children and took them back over to my in law's house. Once we got there, they had pizza was waiting for us. I really have an awesome family! We stayed and ate pizza, played with the kids some more, and then came home. We all had a great time, and I got off the hook for cooking!

Dinner at My In-Laws

The boy went to Grandma and Papaw's Party Palace today, since Greg and I attended a memorial service this morning. Connor loves spending time at G-ma and P-pa's pad, so he was very excited to hang out at their house all day. After the service, the husband and I grabbed some lunch and spent a few precious hours of child-free, couple time at the mall. It was a really nice break to have the person I married all to myself for the better part of the day. Anyway, we went and picked up the boy and stayed for dinner at the Party Palace. We had Chalupa and a lot of laughs. My in-laws are a very entertaining pair, and we always have fun visiting them. I was off the hook for dinner tonight, but I will be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.