A Restaurant Review

It is time for another restaurant review.

Why?

Because we found a GREAT ONE.

Great things MUST be shared.

 This is Twenty-Nine Brew Bub and Wood Fired Pizza 

(click for FB page)

found in Marion, Ohio

(make sure you check out their about page for contact info)

Just wait until you see the run-down of our satisfying feast.....

When we do a restaurant review we order from appetizer to dessert.

That is the only way to get the full affect. 

Then we roll home,

moan and groan a little,

consume antacids,

and reminisce in the joy of finding wonderful food. 

These are wood fired pretzel sticks with beer cheese to dip them in.

Some other appetizers I noticed on the menu:

deep fried dill pickles
spinach and artichoke dip

I'm not going to list them all because you have got to go and see for yourself......

<---------------- over here is the Chicago Style hot dog. They serve 1/4 pound hot dogs on a slightly wood fired hoagie bun.
And if you like "hot stuff", those little peppers packed a mighty fine punch.
On the side they serve homemade potato chips. Crispy and browned to perfection.

The one below is a Smokehouse hot dog.

The hot dog was topped with BBQ pulled pork, spicy coleslaw, and topped with onion straws.

After eating this food, I'm seriously thinking about contacting The Food Network and letting Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives know about it. 

OR?

Do I want to keep this secret for just Johnie and I?

But WAIT!!

I haven't gotten to the best part yet.

DESSERT!!

They definitely have a one-of-a-kind dessert.

Do you have any idea what this gold mine is? 

It is a deep fried Reese's cupcake.

Yes, I did say cupcake.

And then on the side they serve it with beer stout ice cream.

I even challenged the waitress when she mentioned it.

"There is no way you can deep fry a cupcake!"

I was proven wrong.

And you don't have to eat the Reese's one.....

You get to choose your cupcake.

And let me tell you, they have many to choose from:

Triple Chocolate

Turtle

Carrot Cake

And many, many more.

Do you want to know how good it was?

Take a good look below.

You have got to make the trip to Marion just for the deep fried cupcake.

See ya'all soon

Meat Loaf & The Weekend

With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping,

planning,

dreaming,

and decorating,

We really think it's time for some comfort food.

 Meat Loaf is a comfort food, right?

It is in our book anyway.

Meat Loaf is so versatile.

You can eat it just as is in the photo,

or you can make 

cold meat loaf sandwiches,

add it to a grilled cheese,

brown it in a skillet for breakfast,

crumble it and add in taco shells,

and the list goes on......

 We went out three times over the weekend 

to torture ourselves in the madness of Christmas shoppers.

Stocking stuffers always kill the pocket-book.

Our kids out-grew the stockings years ago.

They have advanced to large Christmas bags.

And they are stuffed full!

 We spent some time at Kay's Jewelers.

Johnie was doing a lot of sneaky business with the sales person......

Does that look like a bunch of Kay's boxes under the tree?

And I am being tortured to WAIT.

Kay's was having a really awesome holiday sale. 

We got all the adult girls some beautiful jewelry. 

 Then we went to Hobby Lobby.

Can you believe I have NEVER been in a Hobby Lobby?

First time ever on Saturday.

I was in crafty heaven.

I put together this bouquet of flowers to dress up our newly painted bathroom.

I also got some really cool candle holders.

And their clearance isle.....

Well, that filled most of the Christmas bags. 

 So after endearing all the madness, we created ourselves some comfort.

MEAT LOAF

 Meat Loaf is a "dump all" kind of food.

All the flavors meld together to create goodness.

 And some of the things we added to this one gave it just a little kick.

 Meat Loaf

1 1/2 lb. ground pork (seasoned)

1 1/2 lb. ground chuck

1 c. salsa (of your choice)

2 eggs

2 TBS hot pepper jelly

1 c. crushed, Duoz Cheez-Its

1/2 sleeve soda crackers, crushed

salt and pepper to taste

4 TBS Worcestershire sauce

1/4 c. prepared mustard

Mix ingredients all together.

Using two loaf pans, divide meat mixture.

Press meat mixture in to both pans.

Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 50-60 minutes. 

Definitely the comfort we needed.

See Ya'all Soon

Chicken Cordon Bleu & The Weekend

 Johnie and I spent the whole entire weekend in Christmas mode.

We spent the day in Columbus on Saturday.

It was a day of shopping, and of course, eating.

We found these huge ornaments at Sam's Club. 

 They fit perfectly inside the large glass vases that we have.

We just dropped a couple in the vases and added some Christmas

ribbon to dress them up a bit.

Our Sunday consisted of attic digging.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.....

The dreaded "dig out the Christmas" tree,

ornaments,

wrapping paper,

cards,

and decorations.

Johnie dug out his Christmas tree (pre-lighted) of fifteen years.

We worked on it,

(Christmas music in the background)

and worked on it,

(Christmas music in the background)

and worked on it,

(Christmas music in the background)

but could not find any success 

in getting all the sections to light up.

So we finally gave up and headed to Sears.

We bought two new (pre-lighted) Christmas trees.

One is tall and skinny and the other is just a normal size.

We have a big picture window in our living room 

where we wanted both trees to sit together.

But as the evening went on we decided to move one 

in front of the picture window in the dining room.

 One thing we did find out on Sunday:

We are compatible when it comes to assembling

and decorating Christmas trees.

Kind of like our compatibility with cooking. 

After we got the house decorated for Christmas

we headed to the kitchen to make this wonderful

Chicken Cordon Bleu.

 This is a very easy recipe.

We used prosciutto instead of ham.

 All you do is:

pound your chicken breast flat.

 Place prosciutto and sliced Swiss cheese on top of the chicken.

Roll the chicken around the prosciutto and cheese.

After you get them all (we did four) assembled,

roll in flour,

dip in egg wash (three eggs and a splash of water), whisked

and then roll in Italian bread crumbs mixed with Parmesan cheese.

Bake them in a preheated 450 degree F. oven for 50-60 minutes.  

We served ours over chicken flavored rice,

and roasted asparagus on the side.

A very good meal.

See Ya'all Soon

Pumpkin Crunch Cake & The Weekend

 Did you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving?

We sure did!

But I got so caught up in the moment of having all of 

our children here together that I forgot all about the camera.

It took us six hours to prepare our meal,

and only eight minutes for everyone to destroy it.

I realized I forgot to capture our Thanksgiving the next morning.

So I quickly snapped some pictures while the grand kids

were destroying Grandma's pumpkin bread French Toast.

 This is sweet baby Tristan.

I say baby lightly.....

He is growing so fast and will soon be ONE.

 He was going to town on the French Toast.

 This is bedhead Lydia.

She is such a little helper with baby Tristan.

Johnie and I continued our Thanksgiving into Sunday.

The three heaping plates of Thanksgiving food,

and sixteen servings of dessert just wasn't enough.

We headed out Sunday at noon to visit one of our 

favorite eating spots.

The 1812 Food & Spirits in Port Clinton, Ohio. 

 I had the Prime Ribeye Steak,

 and Johnie ordered the Alaskan Steak.

His steak was topped with crab meat and mushrooms 

with a really yummy white sauce.

 One of the perks of knowing the manager personally is,

he allowed us to walk the hotel lobby and restaurant to 

see all the Christmas decorations.

It was absolutely beautiful!

Ceiling high Christmas trees,

Christmas accents on banisters, and mantels.

Definitely gets you in the mood for Christmas.

And I finally snapped a shot of their famous people

"guest list"

Did you happen to see Marilyn Monroe is listed there?

 Johnie and I stole the opportunity to snap some selfies with Christmas 

in the background.

I played around with the picture and made it look like a personalized

Christmas card. 

 Here are some of the decorations in the hotel restaurant.

I would love to reserve for our family Christmas celebration this year.

Or maybe next year.

 I can't believe Johnie photo-bombed Santa.....

But that's Johnie.

He is fun like that all the time....

 Now as far as the Pumpkin Crunch Cake goes....

Definitely delicious!

This recipe came from Flour Me With Love.

The only thing I did differently is,

I drizzled some vanilla icing over the cake 

while it was still slightly warm.

All you have to do is visit the Flour Me With Love link

and you will find a fantastic holiday recipe.

See Ya'all Soon

Italian Baked Chicken

 I know our posts have been very few here lately.

But as long as we connect with you as we can, 

I think everything will be okay.

Per our work schedule we know that people cannot

cook every day of the week.

That is what leftovers are for.

Right?

Right!

I have been traveling for my job which leaves my cooking

days limited.

But I always try and leave Johnie with something he can 

pack in his work lunch.

And even eat at home if he needs to.

I threw together this Italian baked chicken last week.

I will share with you what I do to prepare this.

 I used to make this a lot when my kids were growing up.

I always mixed up the spices so it never tasted the same.

I had three chicken leg quarters, which is more than enough

for Johnie and I.

I started with a half of a stick of butter.

I placed it in a foil lined baking dish big enough to hold three

chicken leg quarters.

I placed 1 1/2 TBS garlic powder on top of the butter.

 While the oven was preheating to 350 degrees F. I placed the pan in the oven.

The butter and garlic powder melted together.

It's okay if the garlic powder browns.

Everything is going to bake anyway.

The chicken leg quarters that I purchased were already seasoned with

Italian seasoning.

But it wasn't enough for me.

After the butter melted I rolled the chicken pieces in it.

I got them good and coated and then added more Italian seasoning.

I baked the chicken for an hour.

See Ya'all Soon

Mom's Best Meal

 First off,

we would like to apologize for being MIA.

We have both been down with illnesses.

Me, I was fighting a chest cold that attacked my lungs.

I thought for sure Johnie was going to have to rush me to the 

hospital for lack of air in my lungs.

Scary situation right there.

But Johnie was quick on his feet and saved me with an inhaler.

Johnie....

He has been covered from head to toe with hives.

The cold weather does that to him.

I hate to see him all swollen and itchy.

So today I thought I would focus on the comfort of MOM.

My mom used to make this awesome meal.

She would stuff an electric skilled to the brim with 

pork steak and mushroom gravy (Campbell Soup).

Then our family (of five) would wipe it out eating every last drop.

She would serve this dish with homemade mashed potatoes 

and green beans. 

 This is what I did:

I used sliced pork loin.

1 TBS olive oil.

You will want to fry it up nice and brown.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Leave the drippings in the pan and add:

Mix together

1 can cream of onion soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 can milk

1 small can whole mushrooms

Pour the mixture over your browned tenderloin pieces

and simmer (I like to simmer it for an hour).

We chose to serve this over white rice.

With it just being Johnie and I, this meal made enough for 

my lunch, Johnie's lunch for work, and a plated dinner for 

Johnie in the evening.

See Ya'all Soon