Travels in the South

Last November, mom/dad traveled to Chicago, Illinois.  Or should I say, mom planned a trip and told dad absolutely nothing about it until the car came and picked them up at the Hotel Thompson the morning of departure.  Mom had already packed everything for their adventure.  Why Chicago?  Well first up, my Aunt Tina lives there with my cousin Sherlock Bones.  Second up, daddy has *always* wanted to go to Ditka’s Chicago.  Are you asking yourself what is that?  Well Mike Ditka is a former football player, was an awesome coach and a television commentator.  He coached the Chicago Bears back in the day which was one of dad’s favorite teams.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be highlighting some of the food that everyone enjoyed during their trip to Ditka’s Chicago.

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Doesn’t this dish look mouth watering?  We saved one of the coolest things we experienced at the restaurant for last.  A lot of times, mom/dad split meals when they go out.  This night was no different.  Mom/dad decided to split the 16 ounce slow roasted prime rib.  This plate comes with burgundy mushrooms (that melted in your mouth), horseradish cream and an au jus.  Mom also had the steak added with a horseradish crust.  They were expecting to get one giant steak delivered to the table to split.  But no.  The restaurant was so awesome that they went ahead and ‘split’ the steak in the kitchen and delivered two dishes like the one above, one for mom and one for dad.  Wasn’t that awesome?!  And the steak was so tender that you didn’t need a knife to even cut it.  It was juicy and had the best flavor with the horseradish and mushrooms.  Dad said he would give two thumbs up for sure!

 

Travels in the South

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I agree.  Mom has fixed me omelettes for breakfast and dinner.  However, I’ve never had an omelette like this one before.  It seems mom likes something called a Colorado Omelette.  It has all kinds of wonderful yummy stuff in it – some things I can’t mention because well I’m an oinker and it wouldn’t be good for me so I’m letting mom take it from here.

For obvious reasons – this omelette is loaded.  Loaded with goodness that is.  It has bacon, sausage, shredded beef, ham, onions, green peppers, mushrooms and cheddar cheese.  And let’s not forget to top off that deliciously wonderful omelette with salsa.  Yum.  Have you ever had an omelette topped with salsa?  It just brings so much more to the table.

 

 

Shopping Around the World

Today’s Shopping Around the World is being hosted by our cousins Teddy and Angel Sammy from TWOspoiledcats.  This month Teddy and Angel Sammy are hosting main meals that do not have meat. Now this is a tough one.  Anyone that knows my daddy, knows that he is definitely a meateater.  So mom got creative.  She told daddy he had to come up with a meatless dinner.  HA!  It’s not so funny or easy when the job falls on the daddy.  Good one mom!  So without further ado, this is what daddy came up with for Shopping Around the World.

Dad here.  I told the mom I had this one.  I can do a meatless dinner.  Sure I can.  I have that much talent.  Okay, maybe it’s not how the mommy does things on Shopping Around the World but I’m a man… give me a break this time okay.  So over the weekend since we had a difficult time, I told the wifey I had dinner.  That’s when we went to a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom.  See, I know you are suppose to cook and post recipes but I do have a visual impairment so I get a learning curve, right?  Thanks friends.

We started out by ordering a lil salad to share.  It had romaine and iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, red cabbage, onions, cucumbers, green peppers, mushrooms, Kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes and mozzarella.  See that’s a great start.  And I added candied pecans for crunch.  Yummo!  The salad cost $4.49 and there was plenty for me and the missus to share.  Sorry for the picture.  I forgot to snap it before I dug in.

Now came the hard part.  Getting a meal without meat.  This was the most difficult choice in my life in some time.  I mean heck, first up my wife usually makes my food choices and she knows I like my meat.  This body was made for meat!  Second up, I don’t do much cooking so I kind of had to cheat and go out since I was challenged with this Shopping Around the World.  I thought hard about what to order as a meatless entree.  I think I nailed it.

May I introduce you to a large wheat dough Mellow Mushroom pie with an olive oil and garlic base (extra garlic please), fresh mozzarella cheese and black olives – no meats.  Doesn’t that look awesome.  I also sprinkled it with red pepper flakes.  The pizza cost $16.96.  And here’s the kicker.  Me and the wife like to call this kind of meal, a meal that keeps on giving.  There is enough pizza to last a couple of more nights – Deal of the Day, right?

So for a total of $25.00 (including a tip), we have a meatless dinner that lasts three nights for two peeps.  So that’s what, $4.17 a person?  Not bad for a dude huh?  So I hope I pulled off Shopping Around the World this month.

Thanks again to cousins Teddy and Angel Sammy for hosting this month.  Sending you much love from the Hotel Thompson ❤

 

Shopping Around the World

Thanks to everyone for another great edition of Shopping Around the World last month.  It’s so awesome to see the various prices around the world – and the pictures with recipes!

This month we are concentrating on salads and I present to you mom’s salad.  It has a little bit of everything and mom/dad eat these several times during the week as their meal at night.  Hope you enjoy it!

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What you Need:

1 head of lettuce ($0.98); package of grape tomatoes ($0.99); croutons (package $1.19); shredded cheese (package $2.49); Cucumber ($0.98); sliced ham (2.49 for quarter pound); mushrooms (pack $2.49); chopped walnuts ($2.49 pack); Catalina Dressing ($1.49)

Everyone knows how to put together a salad.  What’s interesting is what people put ‘in’ their salads.  AND if this is what’s for dinner, you want the salad to be hearty.  Mom/dad eat this salad usually 3-4 times during the week, especially here in the Summer where it’s just too hot to cook anything on the stove or in the oven.

Now mom will change it up sometimes and use chicken from the night before instead of ham, or sometimes she even puts spicy pickles in the salad.  It just depends on what ingredients you have on your hand.

Mom fixes an entire bucket of salad and keeps it in the refrigerator for us at night.  And yes, even I eat salad – wouldn’t you with all of these ingredients?  Except mine doesn’t have ham – you know for obvious reasons but chicken night we all win.

When you think about the ingredients above averaging out for 2 people and 1 pig (snorts) over 4 nights, it only equals out to $3.90 for each dinner night.  Now that’s not bad at all!

 

Changing…

Yawns.  What was that noise?  What woke me up?  I lay here in my bed and stretch.  Oh my – either my legs are getting longer or my bed is getting smaller.  What is up with that.  Surely I can’t still be growing.  

Oh yeah…what woke me up?  I opened one eye and looked around.  It’s still dark in here.  Surely it was just my imagination.  That’s when something strange happened.  I had this strong urge – kind of like an internal clock ticking to wake up mom for breakfast.  What?  When did that start happening?  The urge was strong too.  I opened the other eye, sat up and stretched.  Okay – this has to be a dream.  Where the heck am I?  I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and looked around.  No wonder my feet kept hitting the bottom of the bed.  What is this – a toddler bed?  Where am I?  This is not my bedroom.  I look over at a wall – what does that say?  It’s a picture of a pig wearing cow house shoes and states “Moo Shoe Pork Palace”.  Que diable?!

Again, the strong urge to wake up mom.  I don’t wake up mom like this, especially before the birds start singing and it’s still dark outside.  But for some reason the pull is strong to my bedroom door.  That’s when something so weird happened.  I opened my mouth to bark and it didn’t happen.  Instead of a bark it was a squeal and an oink?!  What in the world!  

A few minutes later, my bedroom door opened and I heard a voice say, “Thanks Bacon, time for breakfast.”  Okay, something weird is going on.  First, a cheerful voice telling me it’s breakfast time?  But the voice called me Bacon… then again who cares because they mentioned food.  

I take off down the hallway and stop in my tracks.  What?  Where are my stairs?  There’s nothing here but a long hallway.  I go into the living room and look around but my nose tells me there is food coming from the kitchen.  I poke my head into the kitchen and walk through sniffing.  That’s when the voice tells me, “Hey Sunshine.”  I tell you, I had to look around.  Who is Sunshine?  I’m Easy.  That’s when the voice puts down an amazing looking array of food – eggs?  Oh yeah – I like this room service.  Eggs with spinach and some kind of nuggets.  I quickly snarfed it down and looked up. Now to think of it, the call of nature is like calling big time.  I was at the point of crossing my legs by this time.  Can’t this woman see the whites in my eyes floating?  I need to use the facilities BIG time.  I walk through the kitchen and see the back door.  I brush up against it and plead to this woman.  Finally she gets the drift.  “Oh Bacon, you want to go out and play this early?”  No woman – I need to PEE – let me out – let me out – let the weimaraner out!

I run out the back door and almost fell down the stairs of the porch.  Where am I?  This isn’t my backyard.  Although it does look magical – what is that over in the corner?  Is that a squirrel?  I gotta go meet him and I take off running towards him.  Can you believe the guy doesn’t move.  It’s like he knows me or something.  He even talked!  “Hey Bacon, how’s it going this morning?”  Who is this squirrel?  Before I could say anything he further said, “Well have a great day pig, I gotta go work on some important holidays for your blog.”  What?  Who does he think is, Journalist Rocky the Squirrel – barks atcha my friend.

A talking squirrel – now I’ve seen everything.  I shook myself, marked some territory and went back to the door.  What the heck did I eat last night to give me these illusions?  Those mushrooms had to be psychedelic mushrooms – yeah that’s it.  Remind me to never eat those again – ever!

I went back inside and the woman said, “Time for snuggle time” and kept looking at me.  What?  You think I’m a trained pup or something?  Darn this body – where are these guttural movements coming from?  Before I could stop myself, I jumped up in this woman’s lap and started oinking.  Shaking my head.  I gotta stop eating after 8pm.  It definitely had to be the mushrooms last night?

After a while, she said she had to go to work and did I want my television on in my bedroom?  What a television all to myself in a room all to myself.  You have got to be kidding.  Now this part of the nightmare I could get used to… snorts – I mean barks.  I gotta get my barky thing checked out.  I’m going back to bed.

Something is definitely wrong.

But before I could go back to bed, this man appeared all magically delicious and said, “Hey Bacon, you want a snack?”  What?  I tell you at least my dreams have great room service.  The man gives me this piggy plate full of goodies.

Okay – what is up with this?  I mean there’s all kinds of bacon and piggy stuff.  Sure I know my brother across the pond but why give this kind of stuff to the weimaraner?

If anyone figures out this freaky stuff, please let me know okay and thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom’s Birthday Lunch – WOW!

Today was a great and wonderful day for mom with her birthday.  Daddy took her to one of their favorite restaurants called Fogo de Chão (pronounced fo-go dèe shoun) for lunch downtown Atlanta, Georgia.  This place is superdelicious even from this oinker’s point of view… not that *I* would know first hand.  For some reason, I don’t think they would be too accommodating for me to walk in and order lunch.  Then again.. they might if *I* was lunch but that’s not going to happen okay! Snorts – I’ll just live vicariously through mom and dad with their fantastic lunch date.

When you first get seated at your table, there is this round disc that is next to each plate.  Just like a stop light – flip it to green for “Come on Gauchos bring me some meat” or flip it to red for “Hold back cowboys – I need a moment” – snort. 

But, I’m getting way ahead of myself.

 

After you get settled and order your drinks, you can go visit their magnificent salad bar.  And trust me, I say salad bar but mom and dad said it was a culinary experience.  There’s everything on that bar!  Aged parmesan, aged manchego cheese, artichokes, fresh mozzarella, smoked salmon, shiitake mushrooms, all kinds of different breads, potato salad, apple salad, tomato/cucumber salad and huge green and black olives.  Mom said they even had fried bacon strips on the salad bar. I admit that this scared me for just a few minutes and had me shaking in my hooves.  Fried bacon – that would be me?!  But, mom calmed me down and explained that it wasn’t this type of piggy.  You know, the loveable, snuggable, huggable miniature pot bellied pig.  I’m not for eating – just loving 🙂 winks

After you get your fill of the ‘salad bar’, the wonderful gauchos will bring some awesome side dishes to your table.  They include crispy polenta, garlic mashed potatoes and caramelized bananas.  They also bring these delectable little cheesy rolls they call pão de queijo to the table in little baskets.  Mom says they are heavenly.  She and dad went through THREE baskets of them.  I was shocked!  But, I told mom that it was her birthday and we *all* know that there are absolutely no calories on one’s birthday, right?!  And I must admit, these rolls are out of this world.  Someone – looking around – brought this oinker back one.  Now I understand why they had three baskets – oohh yummy!

Now it’s time to flip that little card to green and bring on the meat!  Gauchos start flocking to your table to carve meat right in front of you.  It’s amazing!  This is daddy getting one of his favorites called Picanha (pronounced pea-CAN-ya).  Picanha is top sirloin, so juicy that it literally almost melts in your mouth!  Daddy says it’s even better when there is a some ‘fat’ on the edges that are caramelized from the heat of cooking over the fire.  They have all kinds of meat that are served.  They are:

• Filet Mignon which dad says is THUD delicious – either bacon wrapped or without bacon
• Beef Ancho (pronounced beef AN-cho) which is rib eye
• Alcatra (pronounced al-CAT-ra) which is top sirloin
• Fraldinha (pronounced fral-DIN-ya) which is bottom sirloin
• Cordeiro (pronounced cor-DAY-roo) which is lamb.  You can get lamb chops or leg of lamb  Either way is succulent with a little bit of mint marinade on the side!
• Frango (pronounced FRAHN-go) which is chicken.  You can get chicken legs or bacon wrapped chicken breasts.
• Costela de Porco (pronounced co-STELL-a gee PO-co) which is pork ribs.
• Lombo (pronounced LOM-bo) which is pork loin.  This is encrusted with parmesan cheese coating before roasting over an open flame.
• Linguica (pronounced lin-GWEE-sa) which is sausage.

And mom’s favorite is Costela (pronounced co-STELL-a) which is beef ribs.  Mommy says this gaucho has the hardest job of all of the gauchos at the restaurant.  Not only does he have to carve the meat, he has to hold the cutting board as well.  That is some job – right?!  But mommy says it’s all worth it because the meat just melts in your mouth.  And, she loves the beef ribs with a side of horseradish sauce.  Yummy!

 

 

 

And then to top off the meal – they brought mommy birthday flan with happy birthday written on the plate.  So sweet, huh?  Mommy and daddy said it was so great – not too sweet.

So you see, mommy had a terrific birthday lunch.  I’m glad I could share the pictures and fun with you.  Mommy would be for some reason she is sleeping.  She said she ate too much – snorts.  The amateur – double snorts.