Meatballs

These were meatballs we made for a family get together..we made pineapple barbeque sause to go with it..although there is no pic of the finished dish.. sorry. It was tastey!

The Mighty 'Runsa'

I have a new food love: The Runsa. Also alternately known as Runza, or a bierok. As the picture shows, it is a simple bun filled with beef, onion, cabbage, and cheese. Fairly easy to make, but until you've held one, it is hard to explain the attraction.

The first thing you notice is the denseness. It's a hand-pie, so you can munch it anywhere. It won't drip, and the ingredients are soul-satisfying. Of course, they're great fresh out of the oven, but I had one at room temp several hours later, and I think it was better yet. I understand they freeze well.

There is a Runza franchise out of Nebraska, that has about 70 restaurants. I can see these things selling like hotcakes, if they're done right.

A Decent Restaurant

*Every time I flipped on Food Network or the Travel Channel, someone was smoking, slathering, or munching on BBQ ribs. It was driving me nuts. So when we found ourselves in Muskegon, looking for supper and a little adventure, the van found its way to a Texas Roadhouse, a BBQ chain out of Indiana (?), started in 1993, that had a good local reputation.
*Judging by the cars in the overflowing parking lot, I anticipated a 45-minute wait for Friday night supper, so I sent Claudia in early. I was surprised that she hailed me down, said 'zero' waiting time, so I parked the van, went in, found Claudia, and she was already munching on yeast rolls and cinnamon butter. I'd only been gone a minute or two! Turns out that the details of this restaurant would continue to surprise us before the night was done.
*Texas Roadhouse prides itself on hand-cut steaks, that you can pick out of a meat case if you want, or have them custom cut. They looked good, but my mind was on ribs. They also provide fresh dressings. But what they don't tell you, is the SERVICE. These people were trained beyond anything I have seen recently.
*A recurring question we ran into was: "is this your first time here?" We suspect that newcomers get extra special treatment, which is a bit of genius. First impressions are still the most important for building a repeat business. We think we will answer 'yes' to this question everytime we go there.
*I love it that when your hostess ushers you to your table, she picks up a basket of warm yeast rolls with cinnamon butter on the way, so that when you sit down, you're immediately eating! Of course there is the obligatory bucket of peanuts for continued munching.
*The menu looked simple, but I didn't give it much notice. I found the ribs, and that was that. I got two sides of perfectly steamed vegetables, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy. Claudia got the house salad with fresh ranch. All the food was excellent. Although a couple of wet-naps were provided for my ribs, I didn't need them. A fork was all that was necessary to pick the bones clean. Very tender, good sauce, good char, good pork.
*Service was quick and efficient, and the wait for the food was nothing. In fact, she brought Claudia's salad first (which was excellent. how do they get croutons to melt in your mouth?), and I waited a bit more for my ribs. But somehow, the first salad was a mistake, so they brought a 2nd one at no charge. It now sits in our fridge.
The server had a picture of her kids on her ordering tablet, visible to the customers. Nice trick. I'm sure it helps in tipping to know she is supporting some little ones, or nephews, or whatever. The beauty of it was, it was a DETAIL, and this place likes details.
In serving our meal, up to 4 people serviced our table for various things, including the Asst. Manager that came over to talk to us. There wasn't a lot of waiting time for anything, which I'm sure contributes to good table turnover and keeps the volume up. But we didn't feel rushed.
*But the best part of the night was the bill. We decided ahead of time to split my meal, and get Claudia a house salad, order lemon waters, and skip dessert. MORE than enough foood for the two of us, and it came to $22.00. Add a generous tip, and we got away with $27.00. We took home a salad, 4 rolls and butter, for later. Next time, I'm going for a half-rack of ribs and we can get by for $21.00. Not bad for a great meal.

I love seafood

I made seafood chimichungas a couple weeks ago. They turned out pretty good. Still not as good as Chi-Chi's seafood chimichungas, but almost. But I had left over seafood mixture. So I put that into some chicken stock and let it simmer and then added some half & half and it made quite a tasty seafood soup.

Ann Arbor Copia

*We have just returned from taking Claudia to her cancer doctor in Ann Arbor, and I must admit, of all the places we would have shopped for a cancer doctor, I'm glad it was Ann Arbor, because I love to visit this freakish urban blob. The presence of UofM makes this little town a bit like New York, minus the crime and Donald Trump.
*The restaurant scene in AA is so un-midwestern, with heavy ethnic influences and latter day hippies that haunt the University. You don't have to travel far for falafel, or trek for Thai. Korean is around the korner, and African is all over. For organic, range-free, vegetarian, micro-biotic leftists, there are grocery stores and cafes in every section of town. Whole Foods on Washtenaw is the cultural center of all things healthy and free, where you can kill an entire afternoon just marvelling over what can be made from tofu. I believe that every product, on every shelf, was something I hadn't seen before... and I've been in a lot of grocery stores! It was very clear that there is a world of food out there beyond the boundaries of Wal-Mart and Meijer. Whole Foods is also a place for a meal, featuring deli counters for bread, pizza, salads, mediterranean treats, sushi, and things I can't pronounce without sounding Communist. If you consider yourself a 'foodie,' you need to visit Whole Foods, and get an education. Further, if you require an eco-friendly herbal deodorant, they have that too. You will still sweat, but you'll smell like soup. Some people like that. I tried their unagi sushi, and it was fresh and tasteless. Gimme Meijer any day.
*Although the population of UofM features world travelers and commune leftovers from the 60's in large quantity, it also is composed of masses of young americans, who could care less about tofu. They want College Food. The should be a genre of gastronomy all its own, and roughly consists of pizza, subs, burgers, sandwiches, and anything hot enough to burn your face off. Further, these culinary delights should be portable, inexpensive, and capable of being delivered by local teenagers in cars with enough metal left on them to which a glowing sign can be affixed.
*One of our first stops was Zingerman's Deli, which is a bakery and Jewish deli smashed together. Our pastrami reuben was pretty good, but at $13, nothing to write home about. Bread was tough to eat around the crusts. Caroline had a bacon-turkey sandwich which simply disappeared. It was that good. And can I fit in a word about pickles? Don't know where they come from, but Zingerman's pickles come in two varieties: garlic and crisp. The garlic was good, but the crisp tasted like a, well, cucumber! Yes, I know a pickle starts as a cucumber, but I've never tastsed one that stayed a cucumber. Awesome.
*I'll be back to AA on Monday/Tuesday, and hope to report more. We have the bagel shop, Blimpy's burgers, Cottage Inn Pizza, and Po' Boys sandwiches to test out. I'm thinking of wearing my Bill O'Reilly t-shirt with my Glen Beck hat, just to see what happens.

Panera Heaven

*If I dug into the recesses of my imagination, and attempted to concoct the perfect place to hang out, it would come close to the Panera Bread on 44th St. in Grand Rapids. No doubt the powers-that-be at Panera had some of the same thoughts, as they attempted to build a restaurant that would be adored and sought out by the masses. It is at this Panera that I write today.

*Let's start with the architecture: how many restaurants have a 'loft?' Accessible by stairs or elevator from the back of the store, that I'm sure many folks don't even know is here, this aerie is not unlike the tree forts I haunted as a child. It comes complete with fireplace, lots of plug-ins, restrooms, and heat that rises from below. Plenty of tables and a few pillow loungers to stretch out in. Soft jazz wafts in the background, along with the heady scent of fresh baked bread.

*Then there's the food: if you crave fresh bread in all its forms, Panera is for you. "Panera," by the way, is Spanish for 'Bread Box.' Appropriate for bread that is both soft and chewy, organic and grain-ful, unlike anything you'll find at Meijer. To use it for a bread bowl is almost too much, as the bread oversahadows the already excellent soups. The only lack is the pastries, which sit out all day for display purposes, and are always dried out and over priced. Bread. Soups. Sandwiches. Toffee Cookies. These are the reasons to hang here for a few bucks.

*Coffee: Get your own from the air pots out front, with a choice of light and dark, decaf and hazelnut. Always fresh and excellent. They even have little signs that tell you when it was brewed. Can't get that at Denny's.

*Wi-Fi is free and fast. With a full belly, and constant refills on coffee and pop (did I mention the restrooms up here?), you are free to surf, write, work, shop, chat, listen, research, and read. The virtual world is your oyster. Pop in your ear buds and you can leave this world for a while on violins or screaming guitars. And nobody bothers you.

*I don't know what would improve Panera. If you added burgers to the mix, it would be a violation of the organic healthy tree-hugging menu, akin to pouring gravy on a house salad. The chairs might have more padding, because after 4 or 5 hours you get a little sore. But to tell you the truth, its pretty darn perfect. 'Nuff said.

Carrabba's

Sure, it isn't the best Italian around, but Carrabba's is one of the best Italian chains around. Food is always good and service is attentive. And if crowds are any measure, you'll find the place packed on any night of the week.
But what Carrabba's has, that we can't get anywhere else, is the 'kitchen seats.' They have seating at a counter that faces the kitchen and prep areas. Take a seat, and you not only get served, but you get a show! You can talk to the cooks as they fly through the dishes, and everything is up for view. Sometimes, when its a little slow, they might throw a few tidbits your way.
For Claudia and I, we will gladly give up a dark booth corner seat to watch the show, and it is so romantic for us.
Tonight I had beef short ribs with a wine/vegetable sauce, served on risotto. Claudia had the gnocchi, with sun dried tomatoes, olives, and sausage, in a cream sauce. We watched it being prepared from start to finish, which just adds to its flavor. For dessert, we split a lemon bread pudding, topped with vanilla ice cream and a lemon liquer. With coffee, this was just right.
This is our splurge on our vacation, and so it will be a while before we eat like this again. But if you have a hankering to eat out, go to Carrabba's, and get a 'kitchen seat.' Wait if you have to. You won't be disappointed.