Picture From Hot Knives, Obviously
They looked like the picture above, but in pieces and far from a perfect solid color. They tasted pretty good, especially with some avocado, and sprouts.
Would I make them again? Maybe after a few lessons from Grandpa?
]]>
Steve: "Packaging and design on cookies is amazing. Wonderful appearance that works great as a decorative and fun holiday snack. However, the taste is a bit of a let down. This could've been the perfect holiday cookie I've been looking (edit: he has been looking very hard) if only they tasted as good as they look. As for the "Dew," It basically ruined my night and almost the entire holiday season. Not only does it taste like algae-filled pond water, the design team blew it."
Beth: "Mountain Dew remind me of my high school job at Sbarro's. I drank an XL Mountain Dew/pink lemonade mix every shift to take the food court edge off. I no longer have to wear a pasta-inspired tie to work and consequently i'm not so desperate. Plus i like producing my own insulin. In conclusion, Mountain Dew is gross even if the packaging makes it look like a present. I want to brush the Oreo out of my teeth. Now."
Todd, Steve, Beth, George
Methods:
Beth and Steve braved the intense weather conditions and patented holiday Meijer Madness to bring these colorful toritlla chips into our home, at reduced rate ($2.50/lb.). The chips were rated with a likert scale ranging from one (the worst) to five (the best). Our surveys judged the Merry Matties in the areas of Taste and Flavor, Appearance, Comparison to Classic El Matador's, Overall Experience, Overall Festivity, and concluded with our General Comments. Surveys were completed in secret on pieces of paper, which were recycled upon recording the results.
Results:
Todd: "Compared to the 'classic' El Matadors, the hint of lime was lass notable. These won me over with their holiday pallette. A TAKE NOTICE seasonal snack."
Steve: "This bag immediately caught my eye while walking the aisles of Meijer, knowing i would be in for a colorful treat instead of the regular yellowish bore. Just as tasty as the classic El Matadors, I recommend this snack for anyone who wants to liven up the holidays."
Beth: "This sophisticated snack put me right in the christmas mood. But! too salty - makes me feel like I'm licking my way out from underneath Detroit."
George: "It was almost like a winter wonderland in my mouth, but not quite. It could have had the best of both worlds: creative coloration and mouth puckering salty goodness. without salt, the El Matador holiday offerings are too colorful almost to the point of not making sense."
Conclusion:
With an over all average of 4.4, We officially deem these Merry Matties to be quality Seasonal Snack fare. While this is the first year in our collective memory that we have seen multi-colored festive El Matadors, we certainly hope it is not the last. In short, We approve.]]>
i got a recipe from here. i think i added too many chocolate chips so i don't really get the pumpkin flavor... but they are still so good. i added more cinnamon than what is suggested along with adding some ground cloves and i didn't add any ground ginger... which i probably should have.
good stuff. since staying behind in cali for the holiday... i will next be baking a homemade pumpking pie! i can't wait.]]>
They have many great salads. You can create your own by choosing from a huuuuge list of ingredients. They also have fantastic paninis. Even with all the salad choices, I had to get my old favorite:
Hail Ceasar, King of Salads.
I hope we get one of these place in Grand Rapids soon.]]>
Sara provides two scrumptious dining options: a pint for $4 and a quart for $6. each come with two fresh baked cornbread muffins. I opted for the $4 pint variety and as you can see from the picture above, it was still quite a bit of soup. I have to admit though, while i was satisfactorily sated i was left wanting a little more and would consider choosing the quart next time. i ended up snatching a few of todd's mellowcreme pumpkins and an especially juicy cameo apple for desert.
According to the note written on the bag, next week's soup is Golden Mushroom, and I heartily Recommend taking advantage of this service to all who live in the area. All you have to do is drop Sara a line at saturdaysoupGR[at]gmail.com with your order size, name and address, and approximate time you would want your soup delivered. Oh, and check her out on her soup blog here on G-RAD. it's well worth it, trust me:
i like my soups.
]]>
One deepfried spinach empanada; one deep fried spiced beef empanada; egg noddles with spicey beef and sauce; salad.
To drink: Beer of the Month [$3.50 a pint], this month is Würzburger Hofbräu
Tonight I shared dinner with lots of friends - new and old. [sorry for the blurry photo]
Every table gets this big bowl of salad
I had the shrimp tettrazini. As soon as they put it in front of me I remembered why I use to order it with no mushrooms: They used canned mushrooms. Who the hell does that????
My wife had the lobster pasta. Chunks of lobster in an alfredo sauce.
Friday started with a trip to Halo Burger Halo Burger is a local fast food restaurant that has the best burgers in all of Flint.
inside of Halo Burger (menu)
This is my QP Combo. I forgot to say no pickles so that is why there is a pile of them.
And to wash it down-A Boston Cooler! For those that dont know, a Bost Cooler is a shake type drink made with Vernors and Vanilla Ice Cream. Best thing ever.
I guess this isnt a Flint Specific thing, but I had one later that night.
Saturday started with an 8-inch Steak and Onion sub from Big Johns Steak and Onion . Big Johns is yet another local fast foodtype place. However, it is the only place in MI where you can get a steak and onion that is truly good. I have known people who live in Flint and work near Detroit that buy the Big Johns meat and sell it in Detroit. There is also one in Lansing if you ever want to check it out. Good stuff for real.
Saturday night @ 3 A.M. Coney Islands and Fries. Coney Islands are hot dogs with a "loose meat" type of topping made with mustard, meat, onions and various spices. They are usually topped off with mustard and about a half lb. of onions. I cannot handles that many onions so i get mine with just the coney sauce. If you are in a coney island in Flint and you need to order a coney dog.... this is the proper way "1 up" or if you want to it is "2 Up". I order them like this "2 up no onions or mustard,side of fries with tartar sauce". This is not a picture of the exact dogs I had saturday night.
Interestingly enough, I was at the Sloan Museum on Friday and they had a display of the local restaurants.
In the case is cups from Halo Burger, wrappers from Big Johns, a hat from Ya-Yas , plates, silverware, and a table from a coney island diner.
and here is a big coney dog.
]]>
I started with a glass of Sake. Green Ridge/Dewasansan or something like that. I dont clearly remember it. It wasnt too bad at all. I would have it again. It had a fruity/rubbing alcohol flavor going on.
We then had "Dynamite", an appetizer that is various seafoods baked in a spicy mayonnaise type sauce served on a big shell. It is soo good.
Then, main course was served. My wife had The "Kamehachi Combo" and I had "Kamehachi Sushi B". The thing on the far right on the bottom place is an omlette type thing strapped to some rice. It was really good. Sort of sweet. The piece of fish next to it was the nastiest fish I have ever ate in my life. I think it was some sort of whitefish.
We did have dessert, but I am so fat that I forgot to take a picture of it. I had the Bitter Chocolate Cake, and my wife had the White Chocolate Mousse cake. Both are out of this world good.
The next day we walked about 6-7 blocks in the horrible heat to go to Greeketown. We had Gyros & Fries at Greektown Gyros . It is a fast food type gyro place, and it was very unhealthy, and VERY good.
You can see they put WAY too much of the cucumber sauce on the gyro, see the glob in the back there that I had to scoop off? It was enough to choke a horse
Later that night we ate at Bubba Gumps on the Navy Pier . Obviously a novelty place. I dont know if it was cause we were really hungry, or if it was really good, but I Ioved it. It was an hour and a half wait to eat there, but we somehow befriended the hostess and some dude name CJ who let us skip the wait and get sat right away.
Drinks: Mamas Blue Hawaian. It was really good, i know it had that Malibu rum in it.
They had a pretty cool system set up to get the waitresses attention. If you didnt need anything you left the sign like this:
If you needed something you set the sign like this:
Appetizer: Hush Pups. They are hush puppies with mahi mahi in them. They really were not that good. Sort of bland. I ate them anyway.
I had the Southern Deep Fried Shrimp. I am a sucker for anything deep fried, which explains my cholestorol of 275. These scrimps were soo good, and that coleslaw wasnt anything to sneeze at either.
The wife, being the more sensible of the 2 of us, ordered some shrimp fajitas, very smoky, but as she says, very good. I wouldt try them because I didnt want anything non fried in my mouth.
Once again we ate dessert, but I am so fat that I couldnt take the time to take a picture of it. I had a Chocolate Chip Cookie sundae. It was a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie in a pan with ice cream on top of it. Soo good. I could barely eat half of it. My wife had THE BIGGEST PIECE OF KEY LIME PIE EVER.
So this isnt Chicago, but this is how we ended our vacation, XO downtown Grand Rapids.
Singapore Slings
Some of the best crab rangoon ever!
And Shrimp Pad Thai
By the way, if you are on Michigan Street and you need some quick eats, you can pick up some Tunarama at the Walgreens
]]>
Things I know about Jen Fodor:
1.She lives in LA
2.She blogs on g-rad
3.She was in the comic book club at GVSU
4.She is visiting GR this week
5.Everybody seems super pumped about fact # 4
The Hovey lovelies are so excited that they are ending the g-rad potluck hiatus in celebration of Jen’s visit. There will be a grill for anybody interested in grilling (BYOM) otherwise, just bring some food to share. The potluck starts at 7pm on Wednesday, July 12. If you need directions, email katerlee@sbcglobal.net
]]>