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.

You all know how assy I can be about BBQ, having found very little to write home about either here in Ohio, or in our travels.  On our recent trips to Kentucky and Tennessee, I wasn't even interested in trying out an of the local barbecue joints, because it seemed it was always a disappointment. Dry brisket, fake smoke flavor, and shitty sides.

About a year ago, a business acquaintance of mine left his post at a prominent local company to start up a BBQ joint with his wife and her family in Englewood.  It would be called Company 7 BBQ, after the majority of family starting this venture, who are all fire and EMS workers.  I kept in touch for a while and kept promising to make it up there to try it, and letting loose that I had a secret life as a food blogger.  Life has a way with making things slip your mind, so come this summer, I still hadn't made it to Englewood to try Company 7.  One night that cooking at home sounded too labor intensive, we headed north to check it out, based on the recent recommendation of a friend.

I was hoping to see my friend, but I figured since he was one of the head honchos, it'd be tough to catch him on the floor. Wrong!  We hadn't been seated for two minutes before he popped behind the bar and started filling drinks.  Come to find out later, the guy who brought our food out and chatted Mr. FvF about Texas BBQ was another owner, his father-in-law.  You can tell that the presence of owners and management keeps this place running pretty smoothly.  They had live bands on one side, a room full of full bellies on the other, apparently a buffet in the back, a full bar and still a little room to grow.  I'm not familiar with the area, so I'm not sure what this place used to be, but the size of it certainly surprised me (insert "that's what she said" joke).

Perusing the menu and the table-toppers presented some info I was happy to see.  Something along the lines of "When we run out of a meat - that's it. We won't have any more until the next day, because we smoke it for 18 hours."  After deciding that neither of us wanted to pick just one meat, we both got a two-meat combo, which comes with two sides and a cheese muffin. I chose pulled pork and brisket, and the Mister got pulled pork and smoked sausage.  We also threw in a last minute order of smoked chicken wings, for little other reason than the price was right.  I don't normally care for wings at all, but...
I obviously had no problems polishing half of this order off.  They were super crispy, likely smoked then maybe flash fried - and not too greasy. They come naked, because C7 already has six of their signature sauces on the table (no sugar added and painfully hot sauces also made in-house are available for the asking). I didn't use the sauce on my wings, but tried them all via finger-lickin' method (very scientific) before our entrees arrived.  Chief Smokey and Lieutenant Tangy were definitely the front runners for me, though they were all pretty good.  I was hoping I wouldn't even need the sauces, though. You know the rules.  Good BBQ doesn't need sauce. 


He's really the expert here, so I'll defer to him for comment.  From the desk of Mr. FvF:
It's really good - very sweet & spicy.  Close to Kruez's, but not the same as Black's.

The pulled pork was probably some of the best I've had in a restaurant.

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:

Danger, danger - high voltage! By voltage, I mean cholesterol. For the most part, I try to cook healthier meals here at Chez FvF. But, once in a while I see something so sinful that I simply must recreate it here at home. Enter: Dorito Dogs. While not nearly the arterial Hoover Dam that BBDs are, these still aren't anywhere near good for you. But, your husband and kids will treat you like you've just cured cancer for at least 6 hours after serving them. Well, my husband is always that nice and we have no children to please, so why do I still make shit like this? Because I can. As the great Roseanne Rosannadanna once explained, "It's always something. If food doesn't kill me, I'll get hit by a bus!"

We always have plenty of cheese on hand for snackin', so a lot of times, I'll put stuffed burgers on the menu for the week and have no clue what I'm going to do with them until the moment hits me. This past week, Kroger had some decent looking smoked gouda on sale - and few things go better with gouda (besides more gouda) than bacon (which of course, we also always have on hand).

Bacon & Smoked Gouda Burgers

1 lb ground chuck (80/20)
4 oz smoked gouda, cut into cubes
3-4 tbsp bread crumbs
4 slices of bacon, cooked crisp & coarsely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
1 clove garlic, minced

Garlic Paprika Aioli
3 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 minced garlic clove
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp smoked paprika


Combine all of the ingredients with your hands until very well mixed and form into patties. My personal preferred method is to make them into giant meatballs and flatten them just slightly - that way they don't cook too quickly or overcook. If you spy any of the cheese cubes poking out, thumb them back in and cover it up with ground beef. This will keep the precious cheese from oozing out during cooking when it starts to melt.

Toss them onto a hot grill (or cast iron, if you're sans grill) for about 3-5 minutes per side, or until they've got just a little give left to them, much like a medium steak (should create the same resistance as touching your nose with your finger). Don't squish the burger with the spatula. Love your burger, and let it keep all of it's juices. Love it!

As loyal readers know, Mr. FvF hates onions, otherwise I'd stuff those in, too. So, I like to caramelize some for myself and top the burger with it.

Mongolian Beef - specifically from North China on Far Hills Ave - is something I crave more than is natural for someone not suffering a hormonal imbalance. Like a lot of folks, we're on a limited dining out budget, which means you have to learn to make the stuff you love at home...and hopefully just as well, if not better.

I found a recipe that pretty well mimics the dish that I hold so dear pretty well. Aside from having to carve up an entire flank steak, it's pretty easy, too. Here's what you'll need:

1 c. vegetable oil
1 pound flank steak
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 cup total, chopped green onions and yellow onions

I'd attempted chicken fried steak a while back, and it didn't quite come out the way I planned, so I threw in the towel. Considering it's Mr. FvF's favorite, though, I had to give it another whirl. On the advice of my best gal, the Almighty Lando, I picked up some minute steaks, made a quick egg bath, and tossed some salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash into some flour, and away I went.

All in all, they turned out well, but I encountered a different problem than in my first failure at this dish. Instead of the breading lumping up and coming off all over the place (double dipping is the key there - turn once in the flour mix, once in the eggy bath, then again in the flour), the actually steak started coming apart on me. Only one, though - and I took a picture of that one, because it's the mister's plate and his plate always looks better because it's fuller than mine.

Anyhow, once you have them coated, toss them in a hot, hot cast iron skillet for about 3 minutes on each side, or until the breading browns a bit and gets all crispy and delightful.


The real star of the show, never to be outdone, were the smashed red-skinned garlic rosemary potatoes. Maybe someday I'll be not-lazy enough to tell you how to make those.

Last week, we decided to make a pizza out of just what we had in the fridge or freezer. I always keep Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough on hand. It's only 99 cents a bag, so I'll buy 3-4 bags at a time and freeze them. We also had a Greek-seasoned grilled chicken breast that we'd used the night before for pitas, and plenty of veggies.

You don't need a recipe to make a pizza unless you're a full-on jack-ass. But, since I'm a sweet gal, I'll tell you what it consists of. Thinly spread whole wheat dough, seasoned with olive oil, salt, garlic powder and parmesan cheese. You can pre-bake it a bit before you add the toppings, maybe about 10 minutes on 350. Once it's risen a bit, but still soft, pull it out and add your toppings. We used: thinly sliced chicken, caramelized onions, fresh tomatoes, pesto, chopped garlic and mozzarella. Bake it for another 5-10 minutes at the same temp, depending on how crispy you like your crust.

Belly up & enjoy!

Last night, all I had on hand to make for dinner was your standard meat & two veg. I knew I was making green beans and broasted rosemary red potatoes, but the Italian marinated chicken I'd thawed out from Dot's Market left a little something to be desired. As I was enjoying a glass of Riesling, I wondered what I should do to make it more appealing. Now is the part where you picture little monkeys driving Shriner cars around in circles to illustrate what goes on inside my head when I think really hard.


White wine cream sauce!

I've never been an ace at cream sauces, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I took about 3/4 cup of the wine and deglazed the pan I cooked the chicken in, then added about 1/2 cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon or two of flour, a teaspoon of salt and some parmesan cheese, cracked pepper and herbs. Cooked it down and whisked continuously until it came to a light boil, then reduced it to a simmer for just a couple of minutes. Viola! The shit was delicious.



You'll have to excuse the lack of food-porn quality in the photo. I'd mistakenly left it on the wrong setting from some earlier photos. Yes, occasionally, I use my camera to take photos of things not edible.

I'd been on a serious kick of not really cooking lately. Going to cookouts, dining out for birthday dinners, and crock-potting pork shoulder, which doesn't seem much like cooking as far as effort and labor. After all these days of laziness, I wanted something super easy, and also wanted to make use of the bulk sage sausage Pa FvF had brought me (what? I'm the baby! There doesn't have to be a reason for gifts). I had some staples in the pantry, like egg noodles, mushrooms and beef broth. A bright light appeared and the gods of food appeared and said unto me, "Flip mode! Flip mode is the greatest!" So, I decided to switch it up and make stroganoff with sausage. And the gods of laziness and deliciousness, they did weep.

Sausage Stroganoff
1 lb bulk sausage (you could use about any kind, but I don't advise a breakfast blend)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can sliced mushrooms (or 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced)
1 C beef broth
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 C sour cream
1/2 big bag or 8 oz egg noodles

Cook and crumble the sausage over medium, then blot with paper towels to drain. If you have a good quality bulk sausage, it should be relatively lean. Stir in your beef broth, mushrooms, soup and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat & stir in the sour cream. Serve over hot noodles, maybe garnish with some green onion if you have it on-hand.