Chicken nuggets - 2 ways

Ian loves him some dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. These are made by Tyson and are all white meat. I've tried them. They are tasty.

I prefer the Morningstar Buffalo Wings with a side of blue cheese dressing. Imitation chicken pressed in to the shape of a nugget and flavored like a spicy Buffalo wing. What's not to like about that? Seriously, these are really good.

Awesomeness

The upside to working at home is that, well, I work at home. I could wear my pajamas and slippers all day for all you know (but I don't... well, I do wear my slippers a lot... and pajama pants. But not my pajama shirts!). The downside is that I don't get eat out very often and my dog doesn't have much to contribute to lunchtime conversations. Today I was dying for Rooster's but didn't have time or motivation to make the 15 minute drive each way for carryout. So, I made my own grilled chicken tenders and they were spectacular!

More NYC Food

Pancakes at a diner in the East Village.



I tried to order a bowl of French Onion Soup at this diner and they were out. I had no backup plan so I fell back on what is usually a sure bet, a turkey reuben. Guess what? This was THE WORST ruben ever! Why? Because it was on toasted white bread and it had NO dressing.

Bagel breakfast sandwich... Yummy! This was at Europan, near Columbus Circle.

This pissed me off. While Ian and I were at Coney Island, I ordered a hot sausage on a role and asked for SAUERKRAUT. The guy served it with onions and peppers. I didn't correct him. He looked like he was working hard and I am sure that it was an honest mistake. I cannot stand green peppers. I loathe them, actually. So I picked them off and proceeded to eat the sausage. It was good. And it was served on a hoagie roll, not a hot dog bun, so that was special. FYI - The cost of this sandwhich, one Coors Light, one pretzel, and one Diet Pepsi was $19.00. Outrageous!




Here is Ian's Coney Island pretzel.

This is my wacky great-aunt. She took Ian and I out to dinner at Adriatic's in the East Village. I love this place. The pizza is great and the dinners are outstanding. She had soft shell crab Francese.

I had chicken Francese with a side of pasta with roasted garlic and olive oil. As Rachel Zoe says, I DIE! (that means that it was good!)

More Pictures From St. Louis

Here are some more pictures from St Louis.




Tony is thisclose to being banned from the blog. He hams it up for the camera at every possible opportunity.



Chicken quesadilla. The food at this little brewpub was really good. So was the beer.



Connor with onion rings as big as his head.



Ian and some chicken.



F*cking Jeff Hard strikes again. Enough already, Ian.

Father's Day cookout and some other pictures

Grilling out at my dad's on Father's Day. Grilled chicken marinated in balsamic vinaigrette, brats, hot dogs, potatoes, and corn.


Eating dinner at my dad... Guess what's in that big coffee can on the table? Think about.... Do you have a guess yet? It's a big pile of dirt and worms! There was no fishing involved with our Father's Day cookout, but my dad felt it appropriate to keep his big tin of worms on the table during dinner.

Here's lunch at Jimmy V's in German Village with "The Bosses". I had a grilled chicken salad, Boss 1 had a Greek paninni. I can't remember exactly what was on her sandwich other than the fact that it involved olives. LOTS of olives. I can't stand the sight or smell of olives, so I had to quit looking at the sandwich as soon as I spotted them. Boss 2 had a bowl of soup, but I cannot recall the specifics.

Dinner at my dad's a couple of weeks ago. Domino's pizza and wine.



Have we discussed Romeo's pizza yet? I don't believe that we have. The Minuteman Pizza near us was recently bought by the Romeo's pizza chain. The kids were devastated when they found out about it. Minuteman is their favorite pizza. Romeo's is pretty much the same as Minuteman, but maybe a little bit better tasting. Logic and taste buds be damned though. My kids hate Romeo's just because it isn't Minuteman.

Tony Likes Attention - 06.06.2009

Tony loves the attention that he's been getting on my blog, and if he tells you otherwise, he's lying. On Saturday we went to Barley's for a late lunch and he and the kids spent most of the time showing off for the camera.

Tony was delighted to discover that Scottish Ale is now served in a pitcher!




Next up, ale washed onion strings.




Then Ian decided to make his "cute" face for me.




Food - Shockingly, Ian had chicken fingers.





Tony had the Barley Burger.




Connor had grilled wings with medium sauce. Connor arrived at this decision after much debate and several minor fits when he found out the the wings would be served grilled and not fried.

I had a turkey reuben with perogies on the side.

Sounds Like Someone Has A Case of the Mondays! 4.20.2009

Ian asked to use my camera on Monday and I gladly let him. He knows how to navigate YouTube and several gaming web-sites. He also knows how to open the camera application on my BlackBerry and takes pictures with my phone. He's also quite handy with my digital camera. He told me that he was going to take pictures of "everything in the whole house". The result? He took about 200 pictures in an hour! About half of those pictures were of the episode of SpongeBob SquarePants that he was watching. Here's his picture of a Venom toy and some random LEGOs.


I love to make homemade chicken stock, but it's a little time consuming so I don't make it very often. On Monday, I had the ingredients on hand and some extra time so I made stock. You can throw whatever aromatics and flavors that you like in the pot. I like a combination of onions, carrots, celery, garlic, cracked pepper, and Kosher salt. The most important ingredient is chicken on the bone.


After an hour of simmering, I had boiled chicken and chicken stock so I decided to make chicken and noodles with carrots and peas. Good stuff!



Connor opted for pasta with marinara sauce on his favorite placemat.

The Stewarts Versus Food! 3.28.2009

I'll start today's blog update with a big FUCK YOU to whoever stole a bunch of stuff out of Tony's car on Friday night/Saturday morning. They took his backpack, Ipod, my camera, the Sirius radio, cash, and about 10 Truth For Sanity cds. They also stole Tony's new U2 CD. Not only is this person an ASSHOLE, but they also have shitty taste in music. I wouldn't wish a U2 CD on my worst enemy.

I'm not one to sit around and be pissy over something that I can't change, so our day had to go on.

Breakfast... Eggs over easy and dry toast. I ate half of the toast before I broke down and put some Smart Balance on it.

Lunch... Campbell's Heathy Request Chicken and Noodle Soup. Once the soup was thoroughly peppered and salted, it was pretty good (for canned soup).

Now for the big show! As I've posted before, we love the show Man Versus Food. We watched 3 episodes of Man Versus Food on Thursday night and decided that we should have a food challenge at some point over the weekend.

LOCATION: Rooster's on Henderson Road
PARTICIPANTS: Tony, Michelle, Connor, and Ian
BYSTANDERS: My mom and Stepdad
THE CHALLANGE: Pick your preferred type of chicken and the hottest sauce that you can tolerate. Eat all of your chicken. After you are finished eating, you are not permitted to wipe your face or hands with a napkin, take a drink, or leave the table for 5 minutes.

Tony picked bone-in wings with Donkey sauce (the 3rd hottest sauce available). Connor had 5 bone-in wings with medium sauce and a side of Donkey. I (the only TRUE competitor) had grilled chicken fingers with Killer sauce. Ian's challenged himself to do whatever the hell he wanted and eat only as much as he felt like. He had two boneless chicken fingers without sauce and a Diet Coke.


I don't consider Donkey sauce to be a challenge, but Tony's palate isn't as used to spice as mine is.

I should have gotten Super Killer sauce. I did sweat a bit while I ate mine, but it wasn't really a challenge. I have a very high tolerance for spicy foods.

Ian immediately declared himself the winner after one sip of soda and half of a chicken finger. My mom asked him why he's always making crazy hand gestures and he flatly replied "Because it makes me so super happy. Duh."

Ian finished his meal with a gum ball. He wanted everyone to know that blue gum balls turn your tongue blue!

AND THE WINNERS ARE: Connor and Michelle! Tony finished his wings but was immediately disqualified for using his napkin, taking a drink of beer, and going to the restroom. Ian was also declared a winner for his charming ways even though he failed to finish anything that he ordered.

Connor, Ian, and Michelle won! Tony Lost! HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHA!

My mom had Teriyaki chicken fingers, which are the most mild available, because she is a big girl-baby likes Teriyaki. My stepdad had 5 medium wings and a "all the meats" pizza. Unfortunately, the pictures of my mom's food didn't turn out.

And just for fun, here's a picture of our late night snack!

Spring Break Day 3 - Trip to Ten Pin Bowley Alley 3.25.2009

My kids are maniacs at home but are *always* very well behaved at school. Like most elementary schools, theirs uses a color system to track good and not-so-good behavior. My kids are always on Green, the color for good behavior. They've never once been on a orange, red, or blue warning. As a result of their good behavior at school, they each earned a gift certificate for a free hour of bowling at Ten Pin Alley & Spikes in Hilliard. I figured that since it was raining today, bowling would be a good way for them to burn off some energy. Although they are well behaved at school, they are raving lunatics at home so I need all the help I can get in keeping them entertained and occupied. Ten Pin Alley is really nice bowling alley - clean, nice lanes, and great food. They even have an executive chef, unlike every other bowling alley in Columbus.

Let's start with a picture of Ian. He doesn't so much roll his bowling ball as he throws it as far as he can and it slowly makes its way to the pins. His technique is unusual but effective. He got a strike today! Here he is in celebration mode as he does a victory dance and sings "Yeah, Ian! Go, Ian!"




Here's Connor. Don't let this picture fool you, he's actually a very cute kid. He got a few spares but spent the entire time being pissy because his brother got a strike and he didn't.


Now... The food! I really like the pizza at Ten Pin. They use fresh dough, good cheese, and good sauce. Ian ordered chicken fingers and fries and took one bite and refused to touch them again. Connor ate the fries and Shadow (my dog) had the chicken when we got home. Unfortunately, it was a little too early to have a beer. Equally as unfortunate was the fact that I couldn't bowl. I love bowling but I highly suspect that bowling is what caused me to slip a couple of discs that I had to have surgically correct 2 months ago... So, now more bowling for me. But the kids had a blast!