3 Ocak 2013 Perşembe

Finnigan's Wake Irish Pub in Winston-Salem, NC

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I took a detour along one of my road trips and ended up in Winston-Salem, NC for a festival. It was my first time exploring the city, and I ate while there. The restaurant I chose was an Irish pub called Finnigan's Wake. I had the fried cod sandwich. The fish was Guinness battered and fried, topped with lettuce, tomato, and sauce. I found the fried fish to be soggy rather than crispy. Not good to get soggy fried fish on a $9.00 sandwich. Mashed potatoes and a pickle were served on the side, both of which I liked.
This was my one and only food experience in Winston-Salem and I wasn't too impressed. Finnigan's Wake was on the expensive side (my sandwich was one of the cheapest items on the menu) and nobody I was with was happy with their food. Hopefully the other restaurants in Winston-Salem are better!

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Durham's Best Barbeque in Elkton, MD

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I stopped in Elkton, MD for lunch. I got off I-95 at this exit and had a few interesting food choices. One was a seafood restaurant selling food from a shipping container. Another choice, and the winner for the meal was BBQ in a log cabin called Durham's Best Barbeque.
I had the beef brisket sandwich, topped with peppers and onions. Durham's gave a huge amount of meat, all overflowing out of the bun. It had nice flavor but was a bit dry. The small cups of barbecue sauce that were supplied weren't enough to moisten the sandwich. The peppers and onions were very skimpy and went almost unnoticed.

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Marlow's Tavern in Orlando, FL

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Marlow's Tavern is a new restaurant that has recently opened in Pointe Orlando on International Drive. I was invited to their media preview to sample some of the food. Be prepared for a mass of food pictures from this new restaurant!

Various appetizers that Marlow's Tavern offers were sampled first. First up was J.T.'s Kettle Chips, consisting of potato chips with Gorgonzola cheese, bacon, roma tomato, and scallions. This was served alongside the Shrimp & Crab "Nacho" Plate, topped with rock shrimp, crab, pepper jack cheese, and jalapeno. 
Ahi Tuni Poke: Ahi tuna, Hawaiian style sauce, avocado, teriyaki sauce, scallion, and crispy wontons. This one had a very nifty presentation.
Asparagus Fries were served with a tasty citrus aioli sauce.
Marlow's Famous Hummus was topped with feta and served with toasted pita points, carrots, and celery.
Next up were a couple of burgers. The first was the Everything and the "Kitchen Sink" Burger. It was topped with apple-wood smoked bacon, caramelized onion, wild mushroom, chipotle BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and crispy onions. Entire pieces of fried okra were served on the side.
The Black and Blue Burger was next, topped with Gorgonzola and applewood smoked bacon. Fries and a pickle came with this one.
The "Infamous" Fish Tacos were filled with blackened tilapia, shredded romaine, black bean corn salsa, smoked chili cream, and served with a side of grits. The Open Faced Tenderloin Steak consisted of a marinated bistro filet, garlic kale pesto, gorgonzola, caramelized onion confit, roma tomato, and a balsamic glaze on grilled ciabatta. Asparagus and a pickle were served on the side. We also sampled the Seared Ahi Tuna Salad. The tuna was seared with a teriyaki glaze and served over field greens, Napa cabbage, avocado, cucumber, tomato, crispy wonton, carrots, scallion, and a soy ginger dressing.
Shrimp & Grits consisted of white cheddar grit cakes topped with shrimp, spinach, roma tomato, shallot and roast tomato Beurre Blanc.
After all that food, three desserts were served, including the Classic Creme Brulee, Warm Chocolate Tollhouse Pie, and my personal favorite, the Fried Apple Pie.
I enjoyed the food at Marlow's Tavern and it's definitely a nice addition to Pointe Orlando. I'd return...

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Mama's in Copiague, NY

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I headed out towards a Long Island beach town while in New York. This brought me to Copiague where I had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Mama's.
The meal started out with a basket of garlic knots. The doughy knots of tastyness were covered in plenty of garlic and parmesan cheese and were served with a bowl of tomato sauce for dipping.
 For another appetizer, everyone shared one of the specials that Mama's had for the day. It was a large caesar salad topped with fried calamari. I've never seen that combination before, but I liked it. We also had the Margherita Pizza. This pie was topped with lots of fresh mozzarella, sauce, and basil. It seemed like the pizza was cooked a little unevenly with one side of the pie being way more doughy than the other, but otherwise this was a very respectable pizza!



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Nathan's in Coney Island, NY

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I was in New York. I had just rode thirteen miles on a unicycle from the Brooklyn Bridge to Coney Island. The end of this epic ride was in front of the original Nathan's Famous hot dogs. It was time to eat and a hot dog seemed like an appropriate food.
The inside of Nathan's was very busy with lines stretching out of the building. I got the feeling that most people in here were tourists, just like me, coming to get their taste of a famous Coney Island food.
I ordered a hot dog with sauerkraut. It was exactly as I expected, just like what is served at the countless other Nathan's locations around the country. It was a hot dog, nothing more. The sauerkraut did dress it up a bit, but in the end it was still a pretty standard hot dog.
Nathan's hot dogs are highly overrated, but a visit to Nathan's in Coney Island isn't really about the food. It's about the whole experience of going to a fast food landmark. Just don't throw up your hot dog when you get sick on the Cyclone or Wonder Wheel afterwards...


The Original Nathan's Famous Est. 1916 on Urbanspoon

2 Ocak 2013 Çarşamba

avery's 5th birthday

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On September 14, Avery turned 5.
In the Magic Kingdom.
To celebrate, we treated her to breakfast with Cinderella and the Princesses in the Magic Kingdom.

Avery was so excited to be dining with the Princesses in the castle.
Charlie was excited about breakfast.
But was not so excited about waiting for it.
The Princesses came out one by one, and each one greeted us at our table - taking time to give Avery a hug, and pose for a picture or two.
Sometime during breakfast, the waiter brought Avery a special treat - her own lighted cupcake.
When Ariel saw her cupcake, she said, "Cupcakes for breakfast? Oh man... all I had this morning was seaweed!"

Charlie greeted every princess with the same look... which made me giggle. The Ladies make my brave little man a shy quiet guy.
Who knew?
Belle was one of our favorites. When Charlie asked her where the Beast was, she answered by saying, "The Beast went on a beastly run this morning... and he is taking a bath."
At the end of Breakfast, Avery made a special wish with her wishing star and magic wand.
Ariel helped her close her eyes to make her birthday wish...


And... Charlie got... a sword. A sword.
Giving Charlie a large object that is designed to be used as a weapon can only lead to certain disaster.
And multiple injuries requiring swift medical assistance.
They may need to reconsider that idea.
And my Charlie may be the reason for that.
It was such a fun experience for the family.
But my favorite Princess was definitely our sweet little 5 year old princess.

Charlie's Superhero Party

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Charlie turned three on November 21.
He is unbelievably obsessed with superheros and "bad guys", so it seemed only fitting that he have a superhero themed party for him.





For this party, I decided to make the cake from scratch. Which, as it turns out, is a pretty nerve-racking decision since the only way to know if it's good or not is to serve it to everyone.
At the party.

Thankfully, Al Gore invented the internet.
And the Food Network invented Ina Garten.
And Ina Garten invented a seriously amazing chocolate cake recipe.
And included a handy video to watch while you make her amazing chocolate cake.

Bless you, Barefoot Contessa. You and your fancy scmancy parties, smugly overpriced ingredients, and fantastically intricate recipes are a-okay with me.
And - Charlie.

We rented a giant bounce house for the day which arrived at 9 or so that morning.
Charlie and Avery probably bounced in it for 7 of the 8 hours it was at our house.
The energy they have astounds me.
I bounced in it for 15 minutes and had jello legs the rest of the night.
Which either means that bouncing in a bounce house is hard, or I am seriously out of shape.
I can't be sure which...

Happily, a few months ago, I discovered that my brother Joseph is a close, personal friend of Spiderman.
Charlie insisted that he be invited to his party and talked about how "Piderman" was coming to his "bewrfday pawty" for weeks and weeks.

The next picture is what he did when he saw "Piderman" come around the corner:

 After greeting him, we sprayed him down with Spidey Spray.
 And Charlie opened his present from Spiderman.

Everyone loved Spiderman, but none more than our little friend Spencer.
She asked him to hold her hand and take a picture with him.
Then she sang him the Spiderman theme song.
I think it's safe to say that Spiderman's heart melted just a bit.
 My Boy is Three. And announced to me the other day that he is no longer my baby, but a Big Boy.Sorry, Kiddo. You may be a Big Boy, but you'll always be my baby. *** Special thanks to my friend Spiderman for donning what he called a "grownup onesie" in public. I owe you one. Or two...