4 Food Truths About Tony Stewart

Here is dinner from last Sunday - homemade red sauce, penne, romano crusted chicken, cherry tomato and fresh mozzarella salad, and a baby greens salad with tomatoes, bacon, and feta cheese. This is one of Tony's favorite meals in the world. Which brings us to...





4 Food Truths About Tony Stewart:
1. If dining in an Italian restaurant, Tony will only order chicken parmesan
2. If ordering Chinese food, Tony will only order chicken lo mien
3. If dining in a Mexican restaurant, Tony will always order cheese enchiladas. On occasion, he may also get a taco or a steak with his meal but he ALWAYS gets cheese enchiladas
4. Chinese, Mexican, and Italian are the only "ethnic" cuisines that Tony will eat. He will not eat Indian, Japanese, Thia, Vietnamese, Russian, or any other worldly cuisine. It's not that he doesn't like these cuisines, but he just won't try them.

*Tony once ate at Schmidt's Sausage Haus with me but he wasn't happy about it. From what I recall, he ordered a breaded and fried chicken cutlet which was as close to chicken parm as he could get in a German restaurant.*

Excessive amounts of burrito - 07.30.2009

I really wanted Rooster's for lunch today, but that wasn't fated to happen. Chipotle was the next best thing that I could come up with.






Everyone has his or her own special Chipotle combination and the possibilities are almost endless. My favorite combo is chicken, black beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, and hot salsa in a burrito. I've tried the burrito bol before, in an effort to avoid that 400+ calories in the tortilla wrapper, but it just isn't the same. You need the wrapper to properly heat all of the ingredients together and marry the flavors. I find it best to order the burrito but then open it up and eat the inside with a fork.

*You will notice in this photograph that there is rice in my burrito. I don't like rice in my Chipotle burrito. It's a waste of space that could be used for black beans or chicken. I told the guy "no rice, just black beans and chicken" and he loaded up the rice anyway. I'm a wuss and didn't correct him, so I just ate around it. I am not sure why I felt the need to clarify this, but I feel better now that I did.*

Blog This - From Chris Murphy

Thank you to guest contributor, and my baby bro, Christopher Murphy. He recently dined at Rooster's and ordered 15 hot wings and fries (and a few beers, if the picture is any indication).

Thanks to this picture, I've been daydreaming about Rooster's grilled chicken wings all day. A craving for Rooster's is an itch that must be scratched and I predict that we'll make a family trip there this weekend, if not sooner.

More Fun From the Fair

Tony and Connor prepare to die on The Super Shot

Our favorite ride, The Scrambler

The Franklin County Fair - 7.24.2009

Connor and Ian on the Scrambler

Ian throwing gang signs. The west side is the best side!

$48 in unlimited ride wrist bands.

Tony and Connor on the Super Shot.

The grilled chicken pita that I ordered. I didn't know what to do when the server asked what kind of dressing that I wanted on my pita because they didn't have anything spicy. In a moment of confusion, I asked for Italian dressing. Big mistake. It ruined the whole damn pita. I ate half of it before I gave up and threw the rest away.


Fair fries with extra vinegar and salt. Tony and each had an order of these. Tony actually stood by the condiment table and ate his so that he could re-salt and re-vinegar when he was half way through his fries.






Turkey legs! We didn't eat any turkey legs, but they really deserved to be photographic and posted on the world wide webs for all to see.







Carmel apple









Connor played this game several times on Wednesday when my dad took the kids to the fair. He came close to knocking all of the blocks off of the table with a baseball (the objective) but couldn't quite beat it. We tried again on Friday. I even made the guy stay the blocks in a different order before Connor's second try, just to make sure that the bottom one was weighted or bolted down. No go. Connor still couldn't beat it.

Good Stuff - 7/22 & 7/23

On Tuesday, I was inspired by the Mary Mac's picture that Erin sent me to make some southern food. I had some fresh black eyed peas on hand, so I made Hoppin John. Hoppin John (or at least the recipe that I used) involves sauteed onions and garlic simmered with stock, bacon, cumin, jalapeno and habenero peppers all served over white rice. OMG, this was a delicious meal! I made mac & cheese as well. Yummy.

Tonight I made tortellini and spinach soup. This was pretty much the best thing that I've cooked since... well, since I made Hoppin John on Tuesday. I sauteed garlic and onion in olive oil and added crushed red pepper, fresh basil, sea salt, cracked black pepper, chicken stock, and crushed tomatoes. Then I threw in a pound of cheese tortellini and a pound of fresh spinach, served with a little grated Romano cheese on top.

Truth For Sanity comes over for dinner & other stuff from this week

I've been getting over a sinus infection and bronchitis, so I spent most of the weekend and the beginning of this week cooking things that were bland and easy to prepare.

A couple of examples - noodles cooked in broth and topped with a little bit of cheese and browned under the broiler.







And mac & cheese out of a box... FYI - This is the three cheese variety featuring cheddar, colby, and blue cheeses - in powered form of course. This was really tasty!










Recently, Truth for Sanity (the band that my husband is in) came over for dinner. Just as I was about to throw food on the grill, the gas tank went out. Balls. Plan B... I had to cook everything inside on a grill pan. No easy feat when you are cooking 5 brats, 6 hot dogs, 2 turkey burgers, and 4 cheese burgers. I was so flustered that I forgot to a take a picture before serving dinner. What you see here is the aftermath.



On Monday, the kids and I had dinner with 3/5 of Truth for Sanity. We met Tony (my husband, the babies-daddy), Bill, and James at Iacono's. I don't know what the hell has been wrong with me lately but I only took a picture of the appitizers and not the pizza! FYI - If you are in the Hilliard area on a Monday, stop by Iacono's for their specials featuring $1 drafts, 1/2 price appitizers, $2.50 individual sized pizzas, and soup & salad bar with 1/2 a sub for $4.50. Good deals!

Guest Contributor - Erin Foy reporting from Mary Mac's in Atlanta!!! 07.18.2009

This photo comes from the lovely Erin Foy, reporting from Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta Georgia. She dined there earlier today.

Mary Mac's is an Atlanta institution that serves home cooked meals using real lard and animal fat. Erin tells me that she had the veggie plate, featuring a choice of any 4 side dishes. She had "fried green tomatoes, kick ass mac n cheese, hoppin john (black eyed peas with rice) and sweet potato souffle. Peach cobbler for dessert!" The peach cobbler isn't pictured here.

Just looking at this picture makes me want to run to the kitchen immediately and make mac n cheese. I've never had Hoppin' John but it sounds right up my alley. In all likelihood, you will be seeing homemade mac & cheese and Hoppin' John on my blog in the next week.

Thanks Erin!

Food and Self-Loathing in Las Vegas

I'm just going to put it out there... I hate Jimmy Buffet. I might even hate him more than I hate Nickleback. At the risk of alienating members of my loyal readership, I will go as far as to say that I even dislike his fans. The fact is that his music sucks. It's lazy music for people too lazy to find decent music to listen to.




And here's why I suck... I ate at Jimmy Buffet's restaurant while I was in Las Vegas. I was with my dad, the restaurant was right in front of us, we were hungry and thirsty, and I gave in. I hate myself for contributing to the evil empire that is Margaritaville.




I had the chicken nachos. They were okay. They weren't bad and they weren't great. But with each and every bite that I took, I felt like a bigger and bigger bastard.





Later in my travels, I had other meals that did not result in self-loathing. Here is a bowl of tomato bisque with mini grilled cheese sandwiches.





Here's a side salad and bowl of French onion soup. The soup was really good.




Here's my co-worker's chicken Caesar salad. She said that it was one of the best Caesar salads that she has ever had.

Swine Flu and Vegas II

At this very moment, I am sitting in the waiting room of an Urgent Care. It seems that I may have contracted the Swine Flu while in Vegas. While I am waiting, I might as well be productive and post the remainder of my Vegas pictures.




FYI - It is *very* hot in Las Vegas in July. I don't want to confuse anyone with fancy meteorological terms or anything, but the technical term for the weather that I experienced while I was there is Hot As Balls. This picture is a fairly accurate representation of how hot it was while I was in Vegas.




On our first night in Vegas we went to a charming family owned restaurant called Battista's Hole In The Wall. It's located near The Flamingo, but isn't inside a hotel. It's a cute place, filled with little statues and small liquor bottles and signed photographs of celebrities that I don't recognize.




The menu is posted directly on the wall. The big bonus to this restaurant is that salad, bread, and the House wine are all included in the price of the entree. I thought that the "free" wine might be a tiny glass and that you would have to pay for additional quantities. I was pleasantly surprised when two full carafes of wine were delivered to our table.




I had the Chicken Rio, which is named after the owner's wife. It's a boneless chicken breast covered in a sherry cream sauce, served over pasta with roasted veggies on the side. I wasn't a big fan of the cream sauce, but the chicken was really tender and the pasta was good.





I can't remember what Melissa had, but from the looks of her plate I think that it was some sort of veal. I really need to start taking notes about the foods that I am taking pictures of.


*Note: I have since returned from the Urgent Care... It came as no surprise to find out that I have the Swine Flu (and by Swine Flu, I actually mean Bronchitis and sinus infection)*

Vegas Baby!

On Sunday, I headed out to Vegas for an industry conference. I was joined by co-worker and partner-in-crime, Melissa. Despite the ungodly heat and several wardrobe malfunctions (broken shoe heels and busted shoe buckles - nothing of the Janet Jackson variety), we had a great time and got a lot of work done. We also ate some food.


The highlight of the trip (food wise) is pictured above... We had this at the Terrace Cafe at the Wynn Hotel. This bacon and cheese omelet was spectacular. I can't put my finger on exactly why it was so extraordinary, but it was. There was even something special about the hash browns. And do you see that little muffin on my plate? It is some sort of cheesy muffin, savory and not sweet, perhaps made with whole wheat. Whatever the ingredients, I loved it.



And here's the lowlight. This was lunch at day 2 of the conference. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either. I think that an all Asian buffet is an odd choice when feeding a large crowd, but it wasn't the cuisine that I had an issue with. The fact that many of the dishes were served almost cold and poorly seasoned was my issue.



Here is our late night dinner from Monday. This was from the Sugar and Ice Cafe (at least I think that was the name). I had a giant sized Cobb salad with chicken, eggs, bacon, and blue cheese. My cohort had Kobe beef sliders with fries.



Here's the view from our conference booth... Seriously, we didn't have a booth at the actual conference but we did hold several meetings at the Wynn poolside bar.

Hanging out with The Boss - This week

My Boss's office is near Indian Oven in downtown Columbus. They have a decent lunch buffet on the weekdays... It's quick and easy. This is tandoori chicken, Basmati rice, nan, and a couple of dishes that I can't recall the names of.




Later in the week, The Boss and I went to McCormick and Schmick's for happy hour. If you have never been to their happy hour, you must go immediately. They have daily appetizer specials that range from $1.95 to $3.95 in price, along with drink specials. We aren't talking about Applebee's happy hour food here. This is actually good food. We ordered fish tacos and a Mediterranean pizza (pictured), along short ribs and crispy zucchini (not pictured).

We are big fans of breakfast

Breakfast for lunch, at Scrambler Marie's. Or Marie Scrambler's... I forget which it is.

Connor is a grown up now. He only orders off of the adult menu, as demonstrated by the giant sized pancakes in front of him. He's also taken to dressing like my dad - Hawaiian shirts and baseball caps.



A few days later, at Frisch's. Tony had the breakfast bar, or the "endless bacon bar" as he calls it.



Pancakes....




And more pancakes.




My standard breakfast order. Frisch's doesn't have turkey bacon or turkey sausage, which is a major whammy.

Dublin Independence Day Parade - 07.04.2009

On Saturday, the kids and I got up early and headed out to my dad's house for breakfast and the Dublin Independence Day parade. He lives near downtown Dublin, so it's an easy walk to the parade.




My dad isn't necessarily known for his culinary skills, but he's pretty handy on the grill and with breakfast. The kids really enjoyed his pancakes.




I was in charge of the scrambled eggs.



After breakfast, we walked to the parade. The kids were armed with bags and ready to collect any candy that was thrown out during the parade. They made out like it was Halloween and each collected a big bag of candy and fliers for various churches and soccer leagues.



Connor is like a teenager. He's too cool to let his mom take his picture in public.

We stood about 4' from AJ Hawk, of the Green Bay Packers and formerly with the OSU Buckeyes, during the entire parade. He was with his wife Laura, who is Brady Quinn's sister. I somehow manage to take a picture of everything I eat, but I was too chicken shit to get a picture of AJ Hawk. Whammy.

Meine Familie und ich, tailgating - 07.04.2009

In display of unrivaled classiness, my family and I tailgated in the parking lot of a strip mall in Hilliard and watched the local 4th of July fireworks. We ordered pizzas from Papa John's, parked in their parking lot, popped open the back of my station wagon and had dinner and a perfect view of the fireworks.


Shadow joined us for the event. This is his first 4th of July with us and I wasn't sure if he would freak out once the fireworks started. He was as calm as ever and wasn't bothered at all by the noise.


Connor, Ian, Stacey, and David


Our decision to tailgate in the Papa John's parking lot was very last minute, but worked out perfectly. We had a great view without having to deal with the crowds in the park. I think that this will be a Stewart family tradition!



The big show!