Rocky's

Another nice weekend. We stopped at a little  food place in Harvard,IL. From living out this way I know that this place has been many things. It is currently called Rocky's. I bravely tried a gyro again. I loved it. The sauce that came with the sandwich this time was great. You could see the fresh Dill and pieces of cucumber. The meat was juicy and flavorful. Not to spicy or dry. It was not as greasy as the last one had been. My only complaint was how long it took to get the food. It was a nice surprise, though  that if you ordered 2 you got one free. That was not posted any where. We were told that as we paid for our food. It is definitely a s pot I would go back to for food.



Got a place you want me to check out. Email me and tell me.

Instant Pizza

My kids love pizza. That being said, I didn't have any in the house today. The quick frozen kind for hungry kids that can't wait. But I did have some Italian loaf bread, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, butter, garlic, mozzerella cheese. So I combined these to make a quick pizza that I cooked for 18 min at 400 degrees. My picky eater had one piece and my little bottless pit, ( its not to be mean, She can keep eating til she burst). had 3 pieces. So here's what it looks like.

Happy Eating

Quick Paprika Steak

I found this recipe while sitting in the doctors office and I thought I would give it a go. It calls for coating the steak with this :
1/4 c flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt.

I changed it a little I used a couple different kinds of paprika in 1/2 teaspoons. I used Hungarian, Sweet and Smoked. I also added a little garlic powder.

It also said to make a tomatoe sauce.
6 med tomatoes, seeded and pulsed in processor
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

You put EVOO in a pan and heat it at medium heat . Coat your steaks and put them in the pan. Cook the steaks on each side for 4-5 min. If they are thick that should give you a rare to med rare on the inside. Then it calls for cheese to be put over the steaks. I used Provolone. Recipe calls for Jack. After you pull the steaks out add the tomatoes from the processor, the garlic, sage and pepper and remaining flour mixture from what you coated the steaks in. Let it cook for 5 mintues or until desired consistancy. Then serve.

I tried it that way and decided next time, I will put it all in the processor and then into the frying pan. The steaks came out really tender and jucy. The sauce had a rustic taste to it. It was all equally balanced and harmonious.

Happy Eating.

Cake Pops

I have been working on the cake ball items for a while. I found a book that showed me how to make them into cute little cake pops. I thought, hey no sweat. Much harder than it looks. But I have successfully made my first set. So I have now blown open the possiblities of what I can do with cake and sticks. I am excited. These are cup cakes. The actual cake is butter pecan with a cream cheese frosting. I can't wait for my test group to try them out and give me some feedback.

Have any ideas of what you want me to try just shoot me an email ...

Watermelon BBQ

I found a recipe that is 6 ingredients. To include in this list is a seedless watermelon. You turn it into a bbq sauce that you marinate ribs in .I did  for 2 hours. It can be up to 24 hours. I am cooking them now. So pictures to follow shortly.

Dinner is done. I could have used less red pepper flakes. Over all it came out good, juicy and falling off the bone like it should have been. 

Happy Eating.

Food Review

 After the wonderful storm this morning we took a drive and ended up at Mama's Rini's  Restaurant in Crystal  Lake, IL. It was a fairly large place that for a weekend lunch service was slow. The menus were a little sticky and dirty but over all the place was clean. Our waitress was a little slow on getting to us.( I had my two kids with me ) their food did come out first but it was still a wait for it.
I had ordered the Zesty Medi Chicken Wrap and my husband had ordered The Schwerski sandwich. Our meals came with a cup of soup. I can say it was salty and definately made with real chicken because I pulled a bone out of my cup.

My sandwich, I thought was good. It was a home made wrap,  with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and chicken. The sauce was a cucumber sauce, which was balanced. Wasn't too overpowering and wasn't too bitter. The menu said it was suppose to have a bite to it. I didn't taste it. I would order this again from here. It was a good portion size. You could eat half and then take home the other half for another meal.
My husband's sandwich is a little bit of a different story. You really have to like spice to order it. The sandwich is composed of Italian Sausage, Ham, Italian Beef. I got a bite of the sandwich and the spices in the Italian Sausage completely wiped out my pallet . I felt like my mouth was on fire. I could not taste the cheese, or the other meats. When my husband took off the sausage, he said that the ham was a bit too salty for him and the it was okay, just not a sandwich for him. Too much spice. ( I am sorry  the picture of my husband sandwich is a bit blurry, I had a kid bump into me )

Happy Eating.

Tommy's in Woodstock

This past weekend, we were out running errands and stopped at one of our local favorite places. I have never had a gyro before today. I found out that I do like them. Although, I was not too impressed at how Tommy's made theirs. I know that most of them come on a spike. It was what they added that made it a little hard to eat. The cucumber sauce they used was way too much on the sandwich and was a bit tart. They had way too many onions compared to tomatoes on the sandwich. It looked pretty til you got right down to eating it. I would go back there for other food. Just a little disappointed in the sandwich. I hope next time I get a gyro it will be better.

Happy Eating.

Master Chef E book

I have the Nook app on my tablet computer and went to download Master Chef cook book. Nothing against the publisher just that they did not format it right. Every time I try to download the book, it would crash the tablet. So its back to the old fashion way of getting the book and that is driving to the store and getting it. I am ok with that. It would have just been nice to have it digital too. So If any of you have an Android based tablet, caution with Nook application. Sometimes the books will not download .



Happy Eating.

After the Shells

The after effect of the stuffed shell casserole. It was good. I'm sorry I cooked the shells a little too long before I filled them. With all the spices I had added, it was not too over powering and was that just amount of goodness that filled you up after one serving. One serving for our family is about 3 shells. So hope you enjoyed reading this.

Stuffed Shell Casserole

The original dish was suppose to be just stuffed shells, but my husband being a meat lover wanted me to put meat into this dish. So it turned in to a casserole. I par boiled the jumbo shells, and then stuffed them with ricotta cheese, baby spinach, diced fresh mushrooms, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram. I added 1 egg to the mix and some Monterey  jack cheese.(its all I had). I put them in a glass dish. I de cased some Italian sweet sausage and cooked it up. I then put some of the sausage in the shells with the mix. I then put the left over fresh mushrooms on top. Then, because I didn't have the time to make my own sauce, I put a jar of spaghetti sauce over the top, adding the remaining left over sausage and more cheese. Set the over to 350 and cooked for about 20 minutes. Will up date after we eat and let you know how it is ...

Happy eating

30 min Rice Pudding

So my son is sick, and I decided to help fix him by making rice pudding. He also can't handle milk  there fore I made the pudding wit Silk.
2 1/2 cup Silk
1 Bag of rice. The kind you boil in a pot
1/2 c sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.
1/2 c raisins
Simmer the rice, milk, and raisins for thirty minutes. Then add the sugar , Vanilla and nutmeg.

It came out a little sweeter than I had expected but overall good. My son is a picky eater and nothing other than hot dogs, pizza and hamburgers are good to him. He managed to get half a bowl down before giving up. Im hoping that it helps him.

Bad Food Experience

So another food review. This one I think needs to be passed along. Since most of you that read this are local to it. Joe's Crab Shack in Gurnee, IL. Sadly, is NOT the place to go for good sea food. I am always up for trying new sea food. I got their KJ Steamer Pot and the family I was with got  the Bean Bake.  I got mine with no seasoning, dead muscles, and really burnt scallops. My family had requested no seasoning and got it fully loaded, and their answer to rid the seasoning was to re steam it. Unfortunately, that made all the sea food good for the garbage. The suppose to be sweet lobster was like rubber, crab tasted like it was freezer burned and the shrimp had the shell on and were not de vained. The also dropped my son's pizza before it ever hit the table and had to re make it. He was the last to get his food. I think the only good part of the dish I could find was the sweet corn on the cob they served.
  It would have been nice to taste what it was suppose to be like, but this is one place I will not revisit. Just wanted to share the experience with my readers.

Time to Set Goals

As I look to the future months of holidays that are coming, I have decided to set a few goals for my self. A cooking wish list as it would be. Besides working on all the little cartoon ideas I have for cake balls like cowboy aliens and soldiers, I would like to work on the savory part of cooking. I love the pastry side of it all, but it is also a joy to cook a meal that is memorable and fun. Then there is the simple items that you see day to day that you think to your self "That's something I want to know how to do" So your not paying arm and leg for it at what ever restaurant that you frequent or stop in at. The goal is to learn and really know the dish. I would like to do countries like Ireland, England, Italy, France. The classics, first. Then expand into some of the more exotic areas like the middle east and other challenging places. I am part polish and I would like to eventually be able to cook some of the recipes from the cook book I got from a cousin. It was my great aunts. Problem number one, is its in Polish. Problem number two, from what I can read, some of the ingredients either aren't around or they do not use them anymore. So its finding a substitute for it. But that is in time.
Ok here goes the short list of things that sit at the back of my head daily that I want to cook .

Eggs Benedict
Souffle - sweet or savory. Want to see if I can get it out perfectly in a couple attempts.
Pasta Va zoo ( i know that isn't the correct spelling) But I love my aunt C's and want to create it
Lobster roll ( although with prices of lobster I will settle for crab)
Home made pasta
Jack ass sushi rolls ( got to be a fan of Guy to know what it its)
Paella
Crab meat wonton
That's a start. I was able to cross of Pasta Primavera off the list. Thought it was so difficult, til I took a breath and just did it. Never thought that it was so easy to make the sauce. 

Happy eating !