Keli's Coney Island is a flop.

"He Said"...

Went to an old Coney Island type restaurant in Dundee Michigan today named Keli's Coney Island. It is the old Nemo's and it was horrible. I ordered a swiss bacon burger and wifey ordered a steak and cheese sub and everything went down hill from there.

The waitress asked how I wanted the burger cooked and I said medium rare. She confirmed, "Just a little pink?". It was as well done as anything could be without burning it but somehow the cheese was not melted.

Wifey's steak and cheese makes you think Philly steak and cheese right? Yummy chopped steak mixed with cheese, onions, mushrooms, and maybe green pepper. Nope, not here. Her steak, if you could call it that, was whole and so full of grizzle it was impossible for her to eat. it was piled high with onion slices, tomatoes, and lettuce like you would see on a burger and of course her cheese was not melted either. This is a big pet peeve of hers.

Needless to say we won't be back.

Tootsie's Pizza Dundee Michigan

"He Said"...

Imagine this. You're anxiously awaiting the delivery guy, he pulls into your dive way and you would swear that you can already smell the pizza. The driver hands you your 2 large 2 toppings pies, cheese bread, and something called a Tootseroni all for $10.99 including delivery! (Still gotta tip scrooge!). You rush inside and open the boxes. It smells so good and it looks great. You slap a couple pieces on your plate and take that first bite and POW. You realize your mom snuck in, smashed two pieces of plain ole white bread together, spread on some of the nastiest tomato sauce you'll ever find, put three sprinkles of cheese on it and a few toppings, and threw it in the microwave and called it PIZZA!

No wonder you get so much for $10.99. Food likes this makes me with we had a dog again!

Seriously, the pizza crust was like biting into fresh plain white bread. It was super chewy without the slightest bit of crunch. The sauce has a very distinct and over powering spice that I just can't put my name on. For my money, Rivers Edge is the only place to get pizza in Dundee.

Shake'n off the Winter Blues

"He Said"...



This seems like the longest winter ever. Record cold and record snows (record heating bills too!). With the weather finally getting warm, you know it was a cold winter when 50+ is considered warm, we were craving summer food. G and I were watching Dinners Drive-ins and Dives on TV and it was all about hot dogs. We were inspired! Here's the menu:

Hot Dogs:
Koegel hot dogs split down the middle and "pan seared". I know this sounds nuts but it really did give the hot dogs a unique taste. I know what your thinking... What hillbilly pan sears hot dogs?! Trust me they were good.

Fixin's:
Bacon, sauteed onions, onions, sauerkraut, spicy mustard, pickles, and steamed buns.


Baked Beans:
My mom has always made the best baked beans but this recipe bumps mom to the back of the bus!

Ingredients:

• 3 (28 ounce) cans of Campbells pork and beans


• 1 teaspoon of minced onion


• 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard


• 1 cup packed brown sugar


• 3/4 cup ketchup, plus 1 tablespoon


• 5 slices of crispy cooked bacon(crumbled) and two raw laid on top.

Directions

• Combine all ingredients and place in greased 3 quart baking dish.


• Bake uncovered@ 300 degrees for 2 hours.

Sautter's Potato Salad:
This potato salad can't be beat. I used to work there when I was a kid and I wish I would have grabbed that recipe! Sautter's is on Main St. in Sylvania.

The Result:
Awesome. Just what we needed to shake of the winter blues. Oh and the steamed buns make all the difference!

We are back!

"He Said"...

We took a break from blogging for a while. Just got busy over Christmas and Thanksgiving and well just got out of the swing of blogging I guess.

That doesn't mean we have stopped cooking / experimenting / and trying new restaurants.

I'll write up something a bit more detailed later but here's a few places we've been.


Sonic
Finally went to a Sonic in Flint. Basically, we went because of the commercials in our area and there wasn't a Sonic around. It was one of those places where the more you eat the worse it gets. Awesome concept... Not so good food.

La Fiesta Mexican in Dundee:
Summary - EXPENSIVE and not worth the price. G liked her enchiladas and taquitos and I have to admit the shredded beef was good. But my steak fajitas had a very bizarre flavor. I didn't like them at all. The restaurant is also one of those places that nickles and dimes you to death. Every thing, sour cream, extra tortillas, etc. cost extra. Not any place I need to go back to.

Coach's Bar and Grill Petersburg Michigan:
Still just whole in the wall bar with more smoke (cigarettes) than flavor. This place seems to just cook frozen food and charge pretty high prices for it. We didn't feel like cooking and this place was close. This is definitely on the do not return list.

Joe's Walnut Bar and Grill Petersburg Michigan:
Now this place surprised us. Fresh burgers but frozen steak for philly steak and cheese sub. They even used frozen and pre-chopped bacon for the burgers. The food was really good if you were looking for bar food (and we were). It was taco night so I grabbed two tacos just to try them and those were very good too. We'll definitely be back here and from what I hear the owner of the bar just bought the pizza place next door so he may start delivering the bar food too! Now that will be awesome! They will definitely be worked into our monthly food budget!

Homemade Stuff:
I think I FINALLY have pizza and bagels nailed down. I also made the best Thai Basil Chicken a while back but I have had zero luck duplicating it since. I changed fish sauce and that's the only thing we can think of. G just picked up the old fish sauce at the store so next time I'll try the tried and true and if it's as good as that one time I'll post the recipe. Very good stuff.

Tonight we had buffalo chicken pizzas on homemade pizza crust. One had G's pizza sauce and the other had Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (From the packet) as the sauce. I cooked the pizza dough on a 550 degree pizza stone and it turned out awesome.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

"She Said"...

Over a year or so ago J went to Cracker Barrel with his mom and grandparents and had a Chicken and Rice Casserole. They all raved about how good it was. It was our turn to host one of the many birthday parties we have and J wanted to make something similar to the Cracker Barrel version and this is what we found. We have made this recipe a thousand times now and it has always been a hit and makes great leftovers.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
3 cups diced, cooked chicken (I use a pressure cooker to cook my chicken)
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans of green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
3/4 cup Mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1 (6 ounce)box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions (I use
Uncle Ben's Original long grain wild rice)
1 cup grated sharp cheddar
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.

Add all remaining ingredients to bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.

Pour into a greased 3 quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes before serving.


This is a great casserole to take to a pot luck or any other time you need to take food. If you are in my mom's group and pregnant this is one of two meals that I may be bringing you!

Oatmeal Carmelitas - Grab your glass of milk because you will need it!

"She Said"...

I stumbled across this recipe the other day while I was looking for another recipe and let me tell you, this is a keeper! Warm, gooey and oh so yummy. A perfect ending to a great meal or anytime for that matter, but don't forget your glass of milk because this baby is rich.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this because I don't like nuts in food!)
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9x9 inch square pan.

2. Combine the 1 cup flour, baking soda, oats, brown sugar, salt and melted butter. Mix to combine, mixture will be very crumbly. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

4. Let cool slightly then sprinkle over the crust the chocolate chips and chopped nuts (if using). Mix the caramel ice cream topping with the 3 tablespoons of flour and drizzle over the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. You will need to break it into small pieces to cover.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (it won't look done when you pull it out of the oven but as it cools it will cook more and harden). Let bars cool before cutting.

This recipe is so easy and so darn good. Believe me, you won't regret trying this one.

Thai Pizza?

"He Said"...

Okay this is a weird one and involves a bit of a story. Last night G and I got a babysitter (YEE HAW!) and went out to dinner and a movie alone! We went to this Thai place in Toledo called Tasty Thai. We both ordered this basil chicken dish and the waitress asked us how spicy we wanted it. The choices were none,mild, medium, hot, and Thai Hot. We started to order medium spice but the waitress led us to believe it was very mild. We both like spicy food so we upped it to hot. I'll save the rest of the review of that restaurant for another post but the food was HOT. I can't imagine what Thai Hot if hot was that hot! We are talking about nose running, lips burning, took an hour and 5 glasses of water to eat hot! G couldn't eat hers and had to order a new mild one.

We had to pay for the new one so we took the spicy one home and thought about what to do with it. Eating it was out of the question because nearly 24 hours later I was still suffering! So we thought about ways to tone down the spice factor. Somehow we ended up deciding to turn it into a pizza. (That's why I said it was weird!)

Turns out there are thousands of recipes for Thai Pizza. Whoda thunk?

All the recipes I saw had a peanut sauce and in one of my failed homemade Asian attempts I used a peanut sauce and it was gross so I didn't want to try it. G insisted and she's gotten pretty good at getting her way. (I'm not allowed to elaborate.)

I whisked the following together in a bowl until it was a creamy peanut butter texture but not quite as thick.

1/4 cup Jiffy creamy peanut butter

3 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce

1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground ginger (The recipe I based this on called for 2 tsp fresh)

1/2 - 1 tsp minced garlic (original recipe called for 1 fresh clove minced)

I had some frozen wheat pizza dough so I thawed that out and pre-cooked the crust, spread the peanut sauce on the crust, put the Basil Chicken leftovers on, followed by a little shredded mozzarella. I cooked the crust for 7-8 mins then put it back in until the cheese was melted (probably another 3-5 mins).

The pizza was awesome. The flavor was incredible. It was still too spicy for G but I could eat it without my lips burning. If we had leftovers of the mild it would have been fantastic and

definitely something we would make again. This is so far outside of the norm for me I can't believe I tried it let alone liked it! If your bored and don't know what to do with your leftover Asian food, give this pizza a try you won't be sorry!!!

Oh yea, the Basil Chicken had ground chicken, basil leaves, green beans, onions, and green and red peppers.