Let's be serious: I drank a lot more than I ate in Las Vegas. This is comical in and of itself, considering drinks run about $11-20 a piece. But hey, when in rome - get loaded on expensive craft cocktails, right?



Rx Boiler Room - Mandalay Bay

Food portions are on the smaller side, but the citrus braised veal cheeks were excellent. If you're my co-worker, they may throw a hot plate of pastrami sliders at you and then only offer to replace that spilled plate for free after ruining your shirt.
The basic rundown is this: all of the servers are outfitted in steampunk regalia. If you don't know what that means, imagine if Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bauhaus had a kid, and it got picked on at school all the time (why wouldn't it?). More importantly, the female servers and hostesses are wearing little more than a corset and some tulle. Which is great when they're pouring you one of these right out of the skull-shaped, smoke filled bottle:
Doesn't look like much, but check out this video for the full experience (and no, that lightweight is NOT me). It really was tremendous. It smelled like someone was boiling maple syrup over a campfire, and the blend of cola syrup was just right. I enjoyed the hell out of this. Service here was meh. They made a big misstep in how they attempted to correct the food spillage on my work buddy. 3.5/5


Carmine's - Shoppes at Caesar's Palace
I'll admit, this photo of Chicken Saltimbocca looks gnarly, but it was delicious. I can't find this dish on a menu in Dayton to save my life. Even more amazing, but not pictured, was the veal. Holy hell, it was out of this world. For those unfamiliar, Carmine's is a family style Italian joint with its original location in NYC. This is their Las Vegas second coming, which I hear happens a lot there. By family style (now it's your turn to get your minds out of the gutter), the dishes serve about 3-4 people a piece, so don't be alarmed at the $30+ per entree pricing. Service was outstanding, mostly because our server really knew the menu and wine list.

Wings, dip, now casserole.  Is there any format that you can't find Buffalo chicken in?  I would say milkshake, but I'm sure it exists somewhere.  I didn't come up with this recipe - Betty Crocker did, but wanted to share it with you guys, because it was easy and damn tasty.  Follow your nose!

I cooked my chicken halfway through prior to tossing it in the wing sauce, because I'm funny about tossing raw chicken into a casserole with other ingredients.  Yes, I'm a spazz - but it didn't dry out.  Here's a photo of how ours turned out. The only thing I might go flip mode on next time is cutting the bleu cheese dressing a smidge with some ranch.  It was a bit overwhelming for a couple of folks who never use that dressing.

Thanks to the generosity of a family friend, we were able to take our first (almost) full-on family getaway a few weeks ago.  I've been dreaming of a beach since we got back from our honeymoon, but a coastal trip just wasn't practical. So instead, we headed to the Gatlinburg area to a cozy, baller Lincoln log mansion that this generous friend let us borrow.  Mr. FvF and I had tooled around Gatlinburg proper for our babymoon vacation.  We had a good time, but this time we were in the market for something more secluded. Nana and Papa FvF came along and helped with the little guy so we could do some relaxing.  We had all agreed to share the cooking, but go out to dinner one night while we were there.  I'd heard quite a bit about Applewood Farms, so I made an executive decision that our one dinner would be there.  It seemed family friendly, and had a simple, down home style menu that I knew would please everyone's palate.

We were greeted & seated very quickly, and they had no problem accommodating the little guy.  They start everyone off with a basket of fried apple fritters and apple butter, as well as their housemade Apple Julep.  If you're thinking of donuts on the fritters, you're a bit off base.  They're more like a sweet hush puppy, and they're great.  The apple butter, which my southern mother approved of, was delicious.  The Apple Julep was sans booze - a mix of a few different juices, and not memorable.

The entrees, on the other hand - were very memorable.  Pictured below, from top to bottom are the Mister's Fried Catfish, Nana's Chicken Sampler (fried chicken, pot pie, and chicken & dumplings), and my Chicken Florentine.  I sampled everyone's food, and it was all rich without feeling shamefully heavy or greasy.  Pa FvF had the meatloaf, but he was into it faster than I could snap a photo. It was very tender and tasty with a nice baste, even though I don't care for meatloaf that's not my own.   The fish was wonderfully batter-fried and and super tender and flaky.  According to Mr. FvF, some of the best fried fish he's ever had.
My Chicken Florentine was a massive, pounded-thin chicken breast, stuffed with fresh spinach, Swiss cheese and sugar cured ham, topped with an alfredo cream sauce.  As rich as the dish was, it still tasted amazingly fresh.  Kudos to using grilled chicken and not breaded or fried - it would just be too much in this dish.
 We were all quite hungry from a day on the road, but the portions were so huge that we were all lucky to even make a dent in our plates.  Everyone left with half of their meal (plus extra fritters) to eat for lunch the next day.

There's really no sense in posting dozens of tiny updates about the new products I've loved and loathed over the last couple of months, so I'm going to try to compile them all for you.  A lot of them are things we've come to rely on after realizing that creating every side dish (or main course) from scratch becomes a thing of the past when your growing baby wants to be entertained all the time.

Trader Joe's Butternut Squash Risotto - Smelled terrible.  Y'know how sometimes squash can smell like BO when it cooks with a lot of pepper?  Yeah, that.  On the bright side, it was delicious!

Trader Joe's Polenta Provencale - Boom.  Our new favorite ready-made side dish.  Little nuggets of polenta with frozen-yet-fresh-tasting veggies in a wonderful spicy cream sauce.

Kellogg's Krave Cereal (chocolate) - Tastes like the marshmallows from Count Chocula, but surprisingly not-hateful nutrition facts.  120 cals, 24 carbs and 3 grams of fiber. For being fairly low in sugars, the chocolate is very sweet, so I'm not sure I'd be interested in trying the double chocolate.

Barber's Stuffed Chicken - Available in Broccoli Cheese, Cordon Bleu, Brie & Apple, Chicken Kiev.  So far, we've tried all but the Kiev and they've all been very tasty.  Only drawback is that it's not truly a "stuffed breast."  It IS all white meat, but rib meat is also used.  I'm normally very picky about frozen chicken items, and these don't bug me out.  Especially with the convenience factor and fairly friendly nutrition facts, these are a weekly staple for us.  We've also tried the Koch Oven Cravers - which are the same idea, only not breaded.  All of those have been good as well.

Trader Joe's Better'n Peanut Butter - Well, it probably would have been great.  I remember it being too sweet for sandwiches, but it may have been great for baking.  Why am I speaking hypothetically, you might ask?  Because it was supposed to be shelf stable for 2-3 months, according to the expiration date, and the shit molded less than one week after I opened it, and the jar was sealed tight.  This is one of maybe ten times in the last year that I have either bought spoiled food from TJ's or it has spoiled within a day or two.  Boooooooo.

Here we go, eaters - FvF is officially in print!  Right now, the column is running in the Xenia Gazette, and will probably branch out to the rest of the Times Community Newspapers' weeklies and dailies.  As not to deprive you of any juicy gossip, reviews or recipes, I'll be posting the links here each time my column runs in the paper. everybody wins!

You can checkout the intro and a recipe for Chipotle Chicken Tostadas here, and last week's bit on making stuffed burgers here.  Enjoy, and please give feedback on my new print adventures!

Now that I'm fully back to my natural rhythm at work, which entails virtually living out of my car and driving around 100 miles a day, getting lost frequently and eating entirely too much fast food and takeout - I've had a chance to sample some of the new offerings from Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC.   Most times, I will order something like a salad, or a grilled chicken sandwich and eat it open-faced.  But, when the big guys offer something new, I feel like it's my duty to try it for you. Aren't you glad I'm sacrificing my own waistline so you'll know if it's worth it to ruin yours?

First and foremost, Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos.  Simply put, these are their regular ol' tacos in a shell made of  Nacho cheese Doritos.  And guess what it tastes like?  Exactly that.  A TB taco covered on Dorito dust.  It's one of those borderline-shameful meals that you should have at least once to say you did (assuming these will only be here for a limited time), but never again.  One thing I will commend them on is the way they chose to package these.  When you dig into your bag, you find the standard paper taco wrapper, but inside that, your crazy taco is cupped by a thin cardboard shell of its own that helps you eat it without getting your hands covered in cheedle.

Then there's KFC's Chunky Chicken Pot Pie.  I had only caught the tail end of the ad they've been running for it, featuring a groovy ebony & ivory bro-fest and a pretty awesome car - so that's not what led me to check it out.  It's not that I don't love pot pie - let me be clear that I DO.  But, the same as Mr. FvF agreed to turn the grill over to me, I gave up the quest for the perfect pot pie recipe when I realized he's one of those people who hates all of his foods mixed together.  What lead me to try it was all of the positive reviews I kept hearing from reputable sources.  One week, I had to drive back and forth from Dayton to Columbus every day for work. Naturally, I wasn't in the mood to cook when I got home - so one night, we decided to let the Colonel take care of dinner.  I have to admit, it's among the top three pot pies I've ever had and one of the best fast food items I've ever eaten.  For me, KFC rarely gets things right.  Their chicken is always either too hot to eat, below room temp, and greasy. I don't like any of their sides, either.  So, it astonishes me that I'm calling this pie a total home run.  The crust is perfect.  Golden and flaky on top, soft and buttery underneath. The sauce is somewhere between what you'd find in your own pot pie or any number of frozen pot pies, and a creamy white gravy.  The filling is heavier on big chunks of white meat chicken than you'd imagine for the price, and the veggie ratio is pretty reasonable, though it could use a few more bursts of color.  At an ball-dropping 790 calories and 45 grams of fat, this is probably another thing that you should find an occasion to eat.  I'm sure you won't have trouble finding one, though.

Burger King is really McDonald-ing up their menu lately.  I say that in the nicest way possible - but I can't find another way to explain the addition of new all-breast meat chicken offerings, slightly healthy wraps and fruit smoothies.  They're making an attempt to healthify things, which I respect.  The last menu change they did - their new thicker-cut fries - still has me salty.  Otherwise, as long as BK keeps serving Icees and Whoppers, I don't give a shit what else they put on their menu.  I had already tried one of their new Chef's Choice burgers, and can report that it was tasty.  Higher quality bun and toppings, and a thicker, less greasy tasting patty made for a big improvement on their burgers (which I'll admit I already liked).  On a whim, I decided to try Burger King's New Chicken Strips.  I've never been a fan of BK's tenders/nuggets/whatever.  They're all the mechanically separated and processed, super soft stuff.  If I wanted that, I could eat the fake Morningstar Farms chicken and be making a much healthier choice.  I had no idea what the difference was between the tenders and strips on their menu, and I still do't know now.  So, I ordered the strips and was pleasantly surprised - they really are all white breast meat.  But, the breading leaves a lot to be desired.  It's lacking tremendously in spices and seasoning, and the texture doesn't really do anything for me, either.  They have a new line of sauces for all this new chicken, too.  People who work at Burger King don't know what the hell a food blogger is, so I can't try all the sauces unless I want to pay 25 cents extra for each one outside of the one that comes with my food.  I chose the Kung Pao, but they also have roasted jalapeno, sweet & sour and something else I don't remember.  The Kung Pao was good, but a little too heavy on the soy sauce for my taste.  Just too damn salty for a mid-day meal.  Overall, it was very meh.  If you want good chicken strips, find yourself a Hardee's.

The winner of this Fast Food Thunderdome is....

The Colonel!  KFC's new pot pie is legit. I highly recommend trying one, but make sure you're aware it is an indulgence.  This isn't something anyone should beat eating everyday, unless you want to wind up looking like this guy. Or this lady.

Here's the deal, lunchboxes - I should be welcoming a little tiny eater in about T minus two weeks.  I have a metric shitload of reviews that need written. At this point, making separate entries for each one is NOT going to happen.  So, you're going to get a lot of quick, abridged reviews, without photos.  I'd be happy to provide photos and additional commentary if you're curious about a specific place or dish - just leave something in the comments section.  Loosen up your Sans-a-Belts, here we go!

Smashburger - Dayton, Ohio (UD)
Hadn't gotten around to trying this place or Five Guys, and there was a groupon-type thing available for around $12 worth of food.  Two burgers, one order of fries and one soda was $16.  DAMN!  A bit steep for what I consider fast food.  I can't seem to recall specifics, but their menu was a little limited and confusing - and the staff had no idea what their signature sauce was.  I do specifically recall that the restaurant was filthy.  The floors were so dirty and sticky that I lost my shoe to it three times.  EW, Smashburger.  The food itself wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't impressive.  Fries were so greasy, they were transparent.  I'd choose Tank's any day, for my money.  Hell, with the experience we had, I'd probably pick Hardee's over Smashburger.  
1 out of 5 sporks! 


CJ Chan - Dayton, Ohio
Finally tried this place out for date night after hearing nothing but rave reviews.  Situated in a really odd spot, in a tiny shopping center just between the ass-end of Kettering and Walnut Hills, the place has very limited parking and seating (not to mention pulling into the lot at over 2mph can do some damage to your car).  We lucked out and gt their just before dinner rush and had a terrific meal.  Mr. FvF had sweet & sour pork and I had Mongolian beef - probably some of the best and most traditional I've ever had.  Fried pork dumplings were also excellent. Prices were right on point, service was tops and the menu is extensive and impressive.  Can't wait to go back.      
5 out of 5 sporks! 



Rootbeer Stande - Kettering, Ohio
Exactly what you'd expect from a drive-in restaurant.  The girls don't wear roller skates, but otherwise it's just as old-timey as you'd expect.  Burgers, dogs, and lots of fair-fare (corn dogs, Texas tenderloins, funnel cakes), and nothing over $5, if memory serves.  More importantly, the rootbeer is super tasty, and heavy on the sasparilla, which is just the way I like it.  My bacon cheeseburger was nice & messy, loaded with toppings, and the Mister's tenderloin was mammoth and delicious. We also split the fried pickle spears and mini corn dogs, which I highly recommend.  FYI, they only take cash.               
5 out of 5 sporks! 



Brunch Club - Dayton, Ohio
Another groupon-type deal. Hadn't been here in years, since it was The Breakfast Club.  We met another couple there for brunch and had an excellent meal.  Kind of made me wonder why I don't hear more about the place - but judging by the wait for a table, maybe it's the kind of place everyone tries to keep secret.  Mr. FvF and I were thrilled to see Chicken & Waffles on the specials board, and even more excited to see that it's on their everyday menu.  He couldn't resist ordering that, I had the meat lovers' omelette, and our brunch buds had the eggs benedict and breakfast burrito with sides of potato cakes.  Everything was spot-on.  I'm not usually a hash brown fan, but theirs were crispy, onion-y and not greasy at all - just perfect.  The omelette was fluffy and on par with my favorites from Golden Nugget.  Mr. FvF's dish was downright impressive.  The waffle was just a waffle like any other, but the super fresh, hot broasted chicken was out of this world.  The breakfast burrito was incredibly fresh-tasting for something that was covered in gravy, and I have to take someone else's word that the eggs benedict was very well done also. The service could have been better.  Our waitress was a bit slow (cutting her some slack b/c of the crowd), but incredibly clumsy and forgetful.  We had to ask for my husband's coffee three times, and she spilled water all over our table right out of the gate.   Also, when I ask for chocolate milk "with my meal," that's when I want it.  With my meal.  Few things irritate me more than letting milk sit for 5-10 minutes, getting warm while waiting for my food.  And when are eateries going to get hip to frosty glasses for milk?  Every place I order it, it's practically room temperature.  As far as price, serving sizes are commensurate with the cost.   Will definitely be heading here again.    
4 out of 5 sporks! 



McCormick & Schmick's - Beavercreek, Ohio
Sadly, this is from Restaurant week, back in July.  Pitiful, I know.  We double-dated with another couple - the boys both ordered the cashew-crusted tilapia (regular menu)and sweet potato cous cous, and the gals both ordered off the RW menu - filet florentine, cucumber salad and flourless chocolate torte.  The main dishes and cous cous were pitch-perfect, but some of the sides and salads needed a little touching up.  The vinaigrette on the cucumber salad was far too tart.  A little sweetness would have gone a long way.  The boys' cous cous was amazing and finished with Jamaican rum butter, but the risotto that came with the RW specials was, well - nothing special.  One of the dessert choices was supposed to be chocolate silk pie with bourbon creme anglaise, but had been changed to the torte with raspberry sauce. It was very good, but could have used a few fresh raspberries to balance the dense sweetness.  Service was good, despite our wait for a table when I had reservations and partied of the same size who arrived after us were seated before us.  Price points were very fair on their regular menu - most entrees between $15 and $25.  I can definitely see us dining here again, perhaps for a special occasion, outside of Restaurant Week.                
4 out of 5 sporks! 


El Toro - Huber Heights, Ohio
Ew.  I won't even go into too much detail here, because it's not worth it.  Standard Mexican-fare menu, price points are about the same no matter where you go.  I ordered something with shredded beef, which was incredibly fatty and bland.  Service was so-so.  Again, EW.  Would not go back.  Giving them one point because my co-workers swear their food was good.                                      
1 out of 5 sporks!



Blueberry Cafe - Bellbrook, Ohio
Best breakfast I've had that wasn't at my mama's house.  Excellent service, huge portions and the food was simply outstanding.  I went there because I had a hankering for French Toast, and I heard they do it right. Upon arrival, I realized that this place was truly sent to answer a pregnant girl's prayers.  On the specials?  Banana bread pudding french toast.  I almost wish I was making it up, because I want to eat it every day of my life.  I think there was unicorn blood in it.  Magical.  The leftovers - about half a slice, took more than one hand to hold, and Mr. FvF and I split the half piece for breakfast the next morning.  Two very small complaints - the goodness that oozed from my French toast got all under my potatoes and eggs, making them more sweet than savory.  Boo.  And again, with the milk.  I asked for it with my meal, and it came out 10 minutes ahead - not all that cold, and just getting warmer.  Blueberry Cafe seems to be renowned for their breakfasts, but their lunch menu also looks impressive, as do their Friday night dinner offerings.  The place is very tiny, so a wait is likely, but well worth it. They do take reservations for dinner, not sure about breakfast and lunch, though.  Price points might be considered on the higher end for breakfast and lunch, but the portions more than warrant it.
4.5 out of 5 sporks! 

I'll start off by saying that I added and removed the tag "Irish pub" from this post at least six times before just leaving it there. No matter how drunk I was when I got there, this place was no more Irish than my Uncle Mario. The most Irish thing about Michael O'Toole's is the name itself, which is a complete misnomer. I have a feeling that the person who came up with the concept feels that serving pasta and ribs is as authentic to Ireland as clover tattoos on St. Patrick's Day and Celtic tattoos on fat, pasty white folks.  If you're a dirty mick, people just deduce your heritage when you spit on cab drivers or your husband openly mocks your drinking problem.  At least that's what I hear.  At any rate, you don't have to go advertising it, and false advertising is even worse.

That said, they had a good looking beer list, and a decent, yet incoherent menu.  We ordered an appetizer sampler, but nothing was really memorable. My entree, the prosciutto and Gorgonzola stuffed chicken was tasty, but small.  When I read "whole airline chicken breast" I was expecting a fair amount of bird, but what arrived on my plate was somewhere under six ounces.  They left the skin on, which I think is great.  There are several different opinions about this, but in fancier-pants cooking, skin-on is the way to go.  It retains all of the moisture and a fair amount more seasoning than boneless-skinless.  The bird was well-seasoned and you could actually tell what it'd been stuffed with, without having read the menu description. 
I didn't get much scoop on the food that the other gents ordered.  You see, as much as I always detested Seinfeld, there was a lot to George Costanza's theory about worlds colliding.  It's a bit of a push for me to report on dining I did on business trips, but I'm certainly not going to ask my co-workers how their dinner hits their palate.  FvF world must stay completely separated from regular work world, as well as in-law world. 

Service was okay - just okay.  Nothing to write home about, and he wasn't very knowledgeable about their wines or top shelf bar items.  The price points, in my opinion, are a little steep, considering portion sizes.  The part of the menu that almost made me stroke out was the side orders.  Mac & cheese, cole slaw, fries, wild rice, any of them - $5 each.  Yeah, American dollars.   Shut the front door!  Do they have a special decoder ring in them?  Are they gemmed with gold bullion?  Will they be spoon-fed to me by an oiled-up immigrant?  Chewed up by my server and spit back into my mouth like I'm a baby bird?   If the answer to any or all of those questions is no, then I can see that we're quite finished here. 

Plans of rummaging all over the Cap City for the greatest food were marred by the late March snow we got both days I was in Columbus for work.  At least I was prepared for it, though I can't say as much for my Texan co-worker.  The first day of the convention it wasn't too terribly cold, but started snowing just as we left for lunch.  I hadn't brought a hat, so I opted for the closest place open for lunch - Char Bar.  I really wanted to go to Martini, which was equally close - but not open for lunch.  What the hell, Columbus.  Arena District eateries - you could have made a stone-cold fortune during this convention, but hardly any of you were open for lunch.

The menu had a fair amount of choices as far as salads, burgers, sandwiches and wraps, and even some fork & knife options.  One thing I wasn't expecting was the handful of Hungarian menu items, and I made a snap decision to order the Chicken Paprikash.  The food took a little longer than I'd have liked to come out, but it gave us time to get our shop talk out of the way. 

The menu didn't note what my dish came with, aside from Texas toast - so I just hoped and prayed that the little dumplings served with the chicken were gnocchi and not wheat pasta dumplings.  Either way, I was eating them, because the chicken was gnarly.  It had a consistency somewhere between chicken thighs and the overly-processed, mechanically-separated stuff that comprises the "grilled chicken breasts with rib meat" that you find in the freezer section.  The sauce was decent, but not on par with other similar Hungarian sauces I've had.  I'd love to show you a photo, but blogger is STILL being a dick and only the top third of the photo will upload. 

Service was decent enough, but price points were a little out of range for the food you're getting - mostly due in part to the area you're in and your lack of options.  Next year, I'll just eat at one of the 20 places *inside* the Columbus Convention Center. 

I'm shamefully behind on posts right now.  So behind, in fact, that I made Hamburger Helper for dinner just so I'd have time to hammer a few out.  Don't weep for me, you guys.  And don't front like you never show some 'Helper who's boss.  Over the last couple of weeks, I've eaten my way through at least three different cities.  But, before that, I tried out plenty of places in Dayton that I haven't gotten around to telling you about.  After the boys fell in love with some wing sauce from a local restaurant that they bought at Dot's Market, we decided we had to go right to the source and check out Bunker's Bar & Grill for ourselves.

It was dark outside when we arrived, but not much brighter inside the place.  We looked around waiting for someone to seat us, but everyone mostly just stared, so we seated ourselves.  Our very put-out waitress got three of our drink orders, and just walked away and left the fourth person hanging.  Seriously.  We had finished our huge tumblers of soda before she ever came back around for our food orders.

Despite the under $10 shrimp dinner, Mr. FvF decided for boneless wings in their Firecracker sauce, which is a pretty damn spicy Thai chili flavor.  I went with boneless wings as well, but in the much sissier spicy garlic sauce. We also ordered the Po'Anna and Jalapeño Bottlecaps to share for apps.  It took forever to get out food, and our drinks were never refilled while we waited on the grub.
This was the Po'Anna - shredded potatoes, deep fried and covered in melted cheddar, bacon bits, ranch dressing and chives.  Much like Tanya Harding's teen years, this was a white trash party in your mouth.  The fried shredded spuds were less like a big mess of hash browns and more like those Tater Sticks that come in a can.

The photo of the chicken chunks is just obligatory - you've seen one, you've seen'em all.  I do wish I'd gotten a pic of the real wings, because they were pretty massive in size.  The Firecracker sauce was still right up the boys' alley, but still way too spicy for this ol' gal.  My "spicy garlic" sauce was slightly above par for the salty disaster that usually awaits me when I order anything garlic.  It wasn't spicy, but it was fairly garlicky.  Not too shabby.  The Sweet & Mild sauce, however, was really interesting.  It was very, VERY sweet - like the Cinnabon of wing sauces.  I can't say it wasn't damn tasty, though.   I always have a soft spot for house-made sauces, but they have a little work to do if their customers want more of a variety than sweet, salty, and balls-out hot.

The price points were so right on, I almost felt like I was stealing...then I realized the service had not only not improved, but slowly gotten more and more non-existent.  I considered chalking this up to us being newbs  - this looking like the kind of place where they have a lot of regulars.  But, then we overheard a table of regulars bemoaning the same server.  Overall - decent food, decent beer menu, good prices.  But, you all know that a bad service experience will sour me on a place in a hurry.  As far of a hike as this was (clear out on 40 in Vandalia), I think I'll just keep buying their Firecracker sauce at Dot's for Mr. FvF and selectively forgetting that Bunker's is a place you can visit.

 It always throws me off that at such a swank-feeling restaurant, almost every other diner you see is dressed like they got a surprise invite to dinner after a day or working in the yard.  I'd already eyeballed the menu, so my heart was set on the stuffed chicken medallions with chorizo, poblanos and queso blanco.  With all those great ingredients, it would be tough to make it taste bad - but they really knock it out of the park on this one.  The chicken was tender and juicy, stuffed with spicy goodness, coated in (I'm guessing) panko, and somehow not the slightest bit greasy.  I'm not normally a big fan of this style of cooking beans, but even they were aces, with little bits of bacon stewed in with them and a nice smoky flavor.  I had to force myself stop eating them in order to avoid ruining our romantic evening with a fart symphony.  I was also a big fan of the Skinny Margarita on their drink menu, consisting of just lime juice and tequila, with a touch of Splenda.  I love margaritas as much as the next gal, but I have two problems with them: Mexico totally spoiled me on good ones, and they're a real waste of calories when using a mix and/or triple sec.
 Mr. FvF had the Fajita Chimichanga, because one entree name isn't good enough for him, and he really likes saying "chimichanga."  I had a bite of that, and his papas. They were both good, but he agreed we'd probably both be ordering the chicken medallions next time.
The service was as close to perfect as you can get.  Our server was friendly, attentive and easy on the eyes.  It seems that Abuelo's doesn't hire ugly people, which is alright by me.  I always find it easier to digest a meal when Gollum isn't staring me down asking if I want dessert.  The price points were so right on, too.  I'm a big stickler for the dollars charged not matching the amount or quality of the food served, and it felt like we were robbing these people. My dish was around $14, while Mr's was just under $9, and copious amount of fresh, paper-thin chips with salsa for free.

This is all comprised of shit that we almost *always* have on-hand at Chez FvF.  Wicked easy, and the dude loved it.  Here's what you'll need:

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs, if you prefer)

 2 tsp olive oil  

 2 minced shallots 

3 tbsp dijon mustard 

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (white wine vinegar works, too)

1 tbsp butter 

7-10 oz fresh spinach 

salt and pepper

Let me preface this by saying - and you may want to sit down - but, prior to this, I'd never eaten Indian food before. I used to be a real nervous Nelly about trying new things, but once I got past that - I just never got around to trying it.  So, I really haven't a clue how authentic (or not) this recipe is.  But, aside from a few spices I needed to pick up, it was something I already had all the ingredients for and seemed easy enough. Here's what you'll need: 

2 Tbsp olive oil 

1 cup diced onion 

1 1/2 tsp cumin powder 

1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

2 tsp coriander powder 

1 tsp turmeric powder 

1/4 tsp ground cloves 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp to 

1/2 Tbsp red pepper flakes (or more, to taste)

2 tsp minced fresh ginger 

2 tsp minced garlic 

2 Tbsp tomato paste 

1 can petite diced tomatoes 

3 chicken breasts, 

2 chicken breasts, diced (raw)

Anytime I get an inkling of something new Mr. FvF discovers that he likes, I try to find a way I can create a meal around it. I can't remember how, but he realized he liked Asian-style sesame, dressing - so I figured I could make a spinach salad of it. But, just any regular spinach salad wouldn't do. Unlike lettuce, green leafies like cabbage and spinach are sometimes even better when they wilt under a bit of heat, so I thought I might try putting a chicken stir fry on top of a bed of it.

A while back, Mr. FvF and I stopped into Bob Evan's for lunch and he went on all day about how great the chicken and noodles were. I'd had it before, and it was no match for my mom's chicken and noodles, so I realized I was going to have to whip up a batch soon for him to realize Bob's wasn't all that. This will feed a small army, is fairly inexpensive and WAY easy. Here's what you'll need:

I ordered the Taste of Woody's (heh heh), which includes spare ribs, BBQ pork loin, beef smoked turkey, broasted BBQ chicken, and of course, two sides. Oh, and Texas toast. I wanted cole slaw and onion rings as my sides, and they didn't even up-charge me for the rings. Score. I actually wanted to order a different sampler, but they were out of brisket. This was fairly late in the dinner hours for this sort of place, so I wasn't too miffed about it, since they had plenty of variety in their combo platters.

I couldn't believe my husband had never had a dish that contains his own surname. I mean, if you're bob Smith and there was a dish called "Pork Chops a la Smith," wouldn't you have tried it by now? Well, now that it's my namesake, too, I figured it was time to try recreating another one of my childhood favorites - Chicken a la King.

Melt butter over medium heat and add drained mushrooms and green pepper, cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Blend in the flour, salt, and pepper and cook over low - stirring constantly, until it's bubbly.
Stir in instant bouillon, milk, water, and reserved mushroom liquid. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly and cook for 1-2 minutes without reducing heat.
Stir in chicken and pimiento and heat through.