Fundraiser to support Old Country Girl & the “Schnitzel Wagon”

Tags

appreciation, business, finance, financing, Food, food truck, fundraiser, german, goal, recipes

  
This person recently followed my blog and when I looked at her site, WOW!!! The recipes look fantastic! It appears she is trying to raise money so she can start her own food truck! I would love do something like that myself, but it’s only a twinkle of a dream. But maybe by sharing this, I can help her achieve her dream! Check out her site and if you have the means, maybe you can help her in her fundraising venture!  Good luck Country Girl!

This one is a very special post for myself. I have not posted any new recipe for a while … it`s because I`ve been working on something else. I did actually start a campaign to raise funds for my own business!  Actually, you have no idea for how long I`ve been planning this. I don`t […]

https://paganusdc.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/fundraiser-to-support-old-country-girl-the-schnitzel-wagon/

Chicken and Waffles – Oh Yes We Did!!!

Tags

chicken and waffles, Food, lakefront, Riva Grill, South Lake Tahoe, travel, woody

  
If you have never tried chicken and waffles, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!? These things are a diet buster for sure, but maybe once a year I have to splurge on these. My sister and I are on a girl’s trip in South Lake Tahoe and yesterday we decided to head to one of our favorite local restaurants, Riva Grill, for brunch. What to order? No brainier! We both had the exact same thing! A raspberry woody and chicken and waffles!

Now these are no ordinary chicken and waffles! We’re talking rice crispy, buttermilk encrusted fried chicken that is so crunchy and tender with the perfect fry on it. BACON stuffed Belgium waffles. Oh yes, I said BACON!!! And don’t forget the fresh berries, maple syrup and chipotle blueberry syrup. OMG! This stuff is to die for! They give you a very generous plate full, so I am blessed to have leftovers for breakfast this morning. Never fear! I’ll burn some of this off by shoveling snow later!

Now, what is a raspberry woody you ask? It is a frozen concoction with raspberry puree, Malilbu and 151. One of these beautiful, tasty things was plenty! 

I highly recommend paying Riva Grill a visit if you’re ever in South Lake Tahoe. It sits right on the lake. You can see the view from my picture below. This restaurant is particularly nice in the summer. They have a lovely patio and there is nothing better on a warm summer’s day that sitting out there with an ice cold drink and one of Riva’s wonderful dishes. They offer a wide variety of foods. I’ll just say there poke appetizer is to die for too!
  

  

Champions Bar and Grill at the Lone Tree Golf Course – Fabulous Outdoor Dining!!!

Tags

Antioch, Champions, Dining, Eating out, Food, Lone Tree Golf Course, Pation

  
Since I love to cook so much, eating out is a special affair for me. My philosophy is why eat out unless I’m in wonderful surroundings with fantastic food? I can stay home and have good food in the comfort of my own home.My husband and I especially enjoy eating outdoors, so we love restaurants with a nice patio. If you saw my Tahoe blog posts, you probably noticed we ate at quite a few places with a patio. We are especially blessed to live very close to a great restaurant that has a patio with a beautiful view, Champions Bar and Grill at the Lone Tree Golf Course in Antioch, CA.

We are regulars at this place! Yes, we ate there once this week already and we may go again! Who knows?!? So what do we like about this place? Well in no particular order…

1. The staff! Since we are regulars, we have gotten to know the staff pretty well. Some we would even consider friends. They are incredibly friendly and work very hard to make sure they give great service. They are incredibly flexible too and will allow you to order things not on the menu. If the kitchen has the ingredients they are usually willing to make what you want. Since they’ve gotten to know us, they will even recommend new things they think we might like or even slip us a sample to try before we actually order it. When things aren’t right, they are also open to feedback. We’ve approached them in a respectful, pleasant manner with feedback and they are very grateful and do their best to implement improvements.

2. The food! They have a standard menu and most days they also have lunch and dinner specials, except on Sunday when they do their big brunch. Both the regular menu and the specials are very good. Some of our favorite items are…

a. Steamed Clams with Chorizo

b. Calamari Fries

c. Strawberry Fields Salad

d. Carnitas Sandwich

e. Chicken Monterey Sandwich

f. My husband’s favorite: Ravioli’s Alaska with Grilled Salmon

g. Whatever Tacos are the lunch special!

h. OK! Pretty much everything is good!

Their brunch is good and gets great reviews on Yelp, but to me it’s just too much money and I know I’m not going to eat $28 worth. Why spend that much when I’ll be perfectly happy with a $12 entre?!?

  

And they make a mean Mai Tai!!!

  
3. The view! I will say this. I really don’t care to sit in the event center space, but that’s just me. It does have huge windows with the same view as the patio, but I’d rather be outside. I LOVE sitting on the patio overlooking the 18th putting green and our local reservoir. It’s just lovely! They have lots of umbrellas, so you can pretty much be guaranteed some shade if you want it. If it’s chilly outside, I do also enjoy sitting in front of their gas fire place. It’s kind of a cozy spot. It can get a little noisy in the bar, so I’d rather not sit in there.

On another note, this place does a great job with large events! We checked into using them for our daugter’s wedding reception, but they were booked on her date and we found another place. I did attend my brother’s wedding and reception here and it was a wonderful event. They have a private patio for such events and that is where the wedding ceremony was. The reception was then held in the indoor event center space. I have seen this space be decorated and transformed into some awesome looks! They did a fantastic job on the food too! I’ve found the food at most large events to be poor to mediocre, but not the case here! Everything was delicious! They do offsite catering as well.

If you’re ever in the San Francisco East Bay Area, you should check this place out! Oh and yeah, they have a golf course too!

Mountain Grill at Sunnyside Resort – Our New Favorite Lake Tahoe Restaurant!

Tags

Fish Tacos, Food, Hula pie, Lake Tahoe, mai tai, restaurant, Sunnyside, Tuna

  
We found a new favorite restaurant at Lake Tahoe! This restaurant certainly isn’t new, but it was new to us. We usually stay in the South Lake Tahoe area, so we are more familiar with the restaurants in that area. Occasionally, we do venture around the lake in search of new dining experiences. Early in our trip last week, we decided to try the Mountain Grill at the Sunnyside Resort in Tahoe City. The best part about this place is the huge patio, that puts you right on the beach of Lake Tahoe! They even offer boat-in valet service!
While nothing can top the view of a beautiful Alpine lake, the food and service at Sunnyside does a good job of keeping up! We were so impressed we went back a second time later in the week! Ironically, we got the exact same table both times. It was a great table on the patio’s edge, so no complaints from this foodie!

  
So what did we eat you ask???

1st Time – We were very cooperative and shared everything this entire meal, 50/50 down the line!:

• We started with their Halibut Ceviche Tostadas. We received 3 smaller (but perfectly sized!) tostadas topped with fresh Alaskan halibut, avocado and salsa made with tomato, red onion, cilantro and lime. These were so fresh and light tasting! The perfect appetizer for a warm, summer lunch in the sun!

  
• Next we shared two dishes (See photo above):

o Sunnyside’s Famous Fish Tacos – These are filled with mahi mahi cooked as requested. We went with cajun grilled. I find that fish doesn’t taste as fishy when it’s grilled. I know, I know! Isn’t fish supposed to taste “fishy”? Well, mine isn’t! These were served topped with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo and we added avocado, which they were very generous with! We also added some of their garlic chili sauce. They came with a side of house-made tortilla chips (that had the perfect texture and crunch) and salsa. How were they? YUM! The perfect amount of spice and freshness!

o Shrimp and Lobster Roll – OMG! I’ve had a crab melt. This ain’t it! I’ve always wanted to try a Lobster Roll, famous on the east coast. I think we’re getting closer. This sandwich was just so very good! I do believe it topped the fish tacos a bit. The sandwich was filled with a chilled lobster and Oregon bay shrimp salad, pickled veggies on a brioche bun and served with house-made potato chips. The chips were forgettable, but that sandwich was so savory with a tangy dressing. My husband was surprised that it was a cold sandwich, but again for a warm, summer lunch it was perfection on brioche!!!

• I can’t forget to mention the Mai Tai’s at this place! Sunnyside is a sister restaurant to Duke’s in Kauai and yes, they make their Mai Tai’s using Duke’s recipe. A little bit of POG (see earlier blog post on Hawaiian foods), a little Mai Tai mix and a whole lot of rum! They are just tropical yumminess!

• And last, but not least is the Hula Pie! Again, just like they serve at Duke’s! What is Hula Pie you ask? Well it is the mother of all ice cream pies! An Oreo crust, piled high with macadamia nut ice cream and topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. I don’t recommend trying to eat this on your own. Share it with a friend! It is ginormous!!!

2nd Time at Sunnyside – No sharing this time, except for the appetizer!

• We started with their famous Sunnyside Crispy Zucchini Sticks. They were good. They’re deep fried and breaded! If you screw that up, you shouldn’t be in the restaurant business.

• I went on to have their Albacore Tuna Asian Chop Salad. This was really a delicious salad! The tuna and salad could each stand alone very solidly. The dressing on the salad was just this delicious, tangy Asian concoction and the salad consisted of napa cabbage, bean sprouts, shredded carrots, cilantro, broccoli rabe, edamame and topped with friend wontons, chili mayo and ponzu. The tuna had been marinated in teriyaki and was grilled through. This was fully cooked tuna, yet still very tender. I thoroughly enjoyed this salad. I felt like I was eating pretty healthy, but getting all the flavor I want in a restaurant dish.

  
• My husband, who was still swimming from all the seafood we ate the first time, decided to go with their cheeseburger. This was another tasty, very solid dish! The burger itself was a Wagyu Angus beef blend topped with aged white cheddar on a soft potato bun. My husband also opted to add avocado to it. Good choice and this place does not skimp with their avocado! It was served with shoe string fries.

We’ll be going back to Sunnyside! The service was great! They have a wonderful group of young, conscientious servers who know how to keep it fun on the beach of Lake Tahoe. The food was great and the view was stellar!!! I definitely recommend giving this place a try! Go early for lunch though as the patio fills up fast!

Cold Water Brewery and Grill – Great New Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe!

Tags

beer, dining out, Fish Tacos, Food, pork, restaurant, South Lake Tahoe, tostados, travel

  
If you’ve spent much time at South Lake Tahoe, you’ll remember the Swiss Chalet restaurant. It was a very distinctive building and was pretty much an institution. I’m not sure how long it was open, but for most of my 49 years! Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep up with the times and closed a few years ago. On a happy note though, a new, updated restaurant has opened in it’s place. We had the opportunity to visit the new Cold Water Brewery & Grill for lunch and we were pleasantly suprised with this new dining option.

I’m not a beer drinker, but my husband is on occcasion and decided to try their Mr. Toad’s Wild Rye. He really enjoyed it. I had a sip and did as well. He doesn’t like beers that have that overly hoppy taste and this one didn’t have that.

The food was also incredibly enjoyable! I was happy to see a casual menu that you would expect to find in a brewery. I hate brewery restaurants that try to be hoy paloy!!! To me, a brewery menu should include rustic, down home foods; burgers, tacos, fries, great sandwiches, and lots of fried foods! Cold Water did not disappoint! While I didn’t have a burger, I did enjoy their South Lake Fish Tacos filled with beer-battered, fried Alaskan Cod. They also had a generous serving of avocado and this fantastic watermelon, jicama and cucumber slaw. Simply delicious and fresh tasting!!! My husband ordered the BBQ Pork Tostados. These were also served with watermelon. This combination was surprisingly wonderful and one that we decided to try at home this summer!

This is a restaurant that I would recommend. It’s fairly new, but solid. They don’t have it available yet, but they are working on an outdoor patio and we did see significant progrress during our week in Tahoe.

Give this place a shot! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

  

Riva Grill – We’re Eating Our Way Around Lake Tahoe!!!

Tags

Chipotle, Dining, Food, Lake Front, Patio, restaurant, Riva Grill, South Lake Tahoe, Swordfish, View, Water Front

   
We sent our younger daughter off to summer camp with our church and now it’s time for mom and dad to have some vacation time to themselves!!! Woohoo! We decided to head north to beautiful Lake Tahoe. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have the luxury of visiting the Lake Tahoe area at least once or twice a year, so we’re pretty familiar with where to find good eats.

We hit the road with no other plans than relaxing and eating at the best restaurants we can find and cooking a few good meals ourselves. Luckily, the Lake Tahoe area has a lot of great restaurants to offer. The restaurants up here range from elegant & expensive to a burger joint where you eat under the pines at a picnic table. We don’t discriminate in our family!

So we got out of church yesterday and by the time we got home it was about 1:30, but we weren’t starved yet and decided to hit the road. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be late for vacation!!!! We decided to eat the snacks we had in the car and save our appetites for one of our favorite restaurants. Riva Grill in South Lake Tahoe that sits right smack dab on the lake! The views are great! It’s one of the few restaurants right on the water in South Shore. Of course, we had to get a table on the patio facing the lake! This is the life!!!

We started our lunch by ordering a couple of drinks. My husband couldn’t resist their Mai Tai. They make them using the Trader Vic’s recipe. Vic Bergeron invented the Mai Tai and that guy knew what he was doing! I decided to try their signature drink, the Wet Woody. OK, the name is a little embarrasing, but it is this fruity, blended rum concoction that is yummy! They have a variety of these drinks in different flavors. They are definitely worth a try.

On to the food!!! My husband’s meal definitely stole the show! He had a swordfish steak topped with an herbed butter served over this wonderful orzo and a side of broccolini. It was so fresh and flavorful! I ordered the Chipotle Chicken Salad. Honestly, it was disappointing. All the ingredients (chickien, corn, avocado, black beans, cotijo cheese, cilantro dressing) sounded like they would add up to a great salad, but not so much. The chicken was a little too charred and I hate that bitter burnt taste and the rest of the salad was just OK. Not bursting with flavor as I had hoped.

   
 But this hasn’t usually been our experience here at Riva. Their Ahi Poke Stack is to die for!!! We also had the cheesecake topped with blueberries and candied lemon zest. This was beautiful and delicious, so much so that we devoured it before I could get a picture.

Anyway, I do still recommend this place and we will go back. Maybe even on this trip!

Oh! And we had our first bear siting of the day. It’s garbage pick up day and the bears around here seem to think it’s a buffet meant just for them! Everyone needs a little fine dining in their life, right???

Caps Oak Street Bar and Grill – Great Northern California Restaurant

Tags

Brentwood, Caps Oak Street Bar and Grill, Food, restaurant

   

  

  

 We were kid-free last night, so my husband and I decided to hit the town! We went to one of our favorite local restaurants. We live in the San Francisco East Bay and Caps Oak Street Bar and Grill in Brentwood is a jewel in suburbia! The decor is very classic and the service is old school, classy with servers in shirts, ties and black vests. Caps has generous indoor seating and a lovely patio as well.

The food here is consistantly great! They even have some awesome off the menu entrees. You didn’t hear it from me, but if they have the ingredients they will make you a rockin’ Beef Wellington. It’s to die for! This is usually what we order, but last night we decided to stick with the menu.

We started our meal with their delicious crab cakes. They were so beautiful that I forgot to take a picture and just started stuffing my face! My husband had the delicious Seafood Alfredo, which had salmon, clams, shrimp and scallops. Yummmm!!!

Don’t kill me, but I was politically incorrect and had the Veal Scallopini. It’s only the second time in my life that I’ve eaten veal. I SWEAR!!! It was so very good! It was a veal cutlet smothered in prociutto and motzarella with a mushroom sauce. The pasta on the side was also delicious and the corn was perfection!

I was stuffed, but my husband insisted on ordering dessert. He ordered their special, off menu dessert of apricot crisp. Of course, I had to steal a bite (or two or three)!

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend you enjoy a meal at Caps!