Saturday, March 17, 2012
Sautéed Chicken with Mushroom Gravy...
Preview of what we decided on last night after I read through my collection of cookbooks! Delish. Recipe to follow!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
We are going to dinner with Chris and Margot tonight... and so far we've thought of about 20 different restaurants to attend. We had planned on El Barrio, just found out that that's been cancelled and as of late The Grill at The Club it is.. we'll see if we end up there!
First Post:
The number one question I find myself asking or that I am asked over and over again is: "What are we going to do for dinner"? "Dine in or go out"? "What are you in the mood for"? Then from there it's "What are we going to cook, or pick up"? or "Where are we going to go"? Then another question that looms over the experience once you do actually pick a restaurant, is "What are you having"?
I feel like I am not the only person with this predicament so I plan to share the answers to these questions when they tend to work out or fail miserably. We'll see what and where we decide to go and how well it works out!
In Birmingham, we have a large variety of great restaurants, amazing chefs and varied cuisines. One would think that the decision of where to eat would be easy, but I prove it is not. Coming from a family of restauranteurs and growing up in the business I feel like these decisions should come second nature, as you will see, for me, they do not!
I'll start with last night, March 14, 2012 as my first post:
My parent's drove up to Tuscaloosa where we decided to drive over and meet them for dinner. Obviously the first question I asked my father is "Where would you like to eat"? We were celebrating his birthday so I figured we'd take him wherever he wanted. DePalmas was his first choice, which naturally is closed this week since Alabama is on Spring Break. I was excited about eating here, there mushroom ravioli with brown butter is amazing. Too bad. His second choice was Kozy's who too I called and is also closed for Spring Break. Love Kozy's. Quaint atmosphere with great cocktails. Then I went on to call Yazoos, we used to eat here all the time when I was in college, it apparently is closed permanently. All of this made my daily dilemma even more problematic.
My mom finally mentions Desperados Steakhouse. They have an amazing cheesecake that my family started using as "birthday cake" while I was in college. I call, thinking there's no way they will be open, luckily reservations were made for 7:30.
We ended up having a great time at Desperados. Orders from around the table were as follows: Classic Ribeye, with sautéed mushrooms and loaded mashed potatoes. 6oz filet with asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. New York Strip with asparagus and sautéed mushrooms and beef tips with rice and a side of corn. All of the steak was cooked to order (medium rare around the table), seasoned well and tasty. The asparagus were dry, undercooked and under seasoned. The mushrooms were amazing. Sautéed in a red wine and butter sauce. I tried the mashed potatoes and they were creamy, well seasoned and hot. We shared a bottle of Poppy Pinot Noir which was the best bottle we could find on their limited wine list.
The best part of the dinner was dessert. As we already knew the cheesecake at Desperados is sinful. To start four of us shared one piece and still did not eat all of it. I also do not want to leave out that this cheesecake is $10 a slice. Desperado's outsources their cheesecake from a local woman in Tuscaloosa whom they have a contract with to be the sole distributor of her cheesecake. The dense cheesecake is served with a white chocolate sauce that makes the cheesecake surpass all others. The crust is almost half of an inch of brown sugar, butter and graham cracker crust. Worth going to Desperados just to try a piece. We also found out that they serve half portions at lunch! If you want to pick up a whole cheesecake, they're $65.00 a cake. My dad had a few choice words about that price the first time he heard that, needless to say he was a few Maker's Mark drinks in.
All around our decision to go to Desperado's paid off, as we had a wonderful time and the food and service was good. Dinner decisions for tonight have already been changed a few times.. so we will see where we end up tonight!
The number one question I find myself asking or that I am asked over and over again is: "What are we going to do for dinner"? "Dine in or go out"? "What are you in the mood for"? Then from there it's "What are we going to cook, or pick up"? or "Where are we going to go"? Then another question that looms over the experience once you do actually pick a restaurant, is "What are you having"?
I feel like I am not the only person with this predicament so I plan to share the answers to these questions when they tend to work out or fail miserably. We'll see what and where we decide to go and how well it works out!
In Birmingham, we have a large variety of great restaurants, amazing chefs and varied cuisines. One would think that the decision of where to eat would be easy, but I prove it is not. Coming from a family of restauranteurs and growing up in the business I feel like these decisions should come second nature, as you will see, for me, they do not!
I'll start with last night, March 14, 2012 as my first post:
My parent's drove up to Tuscaloosa where we decided to drive over and meet them for dinner. Obviously the first question I asked my father is "Where would you like to eat"? We were celebrating his birthday so I figured we'd take him wherever he wanted. DePalmas was his first choice, which naturally is closed this week since Alabama is on Spring Break. I was excited about eating here, there mushroom ravioli with brown butter is amazing. Too bad. His second choice was Kozy's who too I called and is also closed for Spring Break. Love Kozy's. Quaint atmosphere with great cocktails. Then I went on to call Yazoos, we used to eat here all the time when I was in college, it apparently is closed permanently. All of this made my daily dilemma even more problematic.
My mom finally mentions Desperados Steakhouse. They have an amazing cheesecake that my family started using as "birthday cake" while I was in college. I call, thinking there's no way they will be open, luckily reservations were made for 7:30.
We ended up having a great time at Desperados. Orders from around the table were as follows: Classic Ribeye, with sautéed mushrooms and loaded mashed potatoes. 6oz filet with asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. New York Strip with asparagus and sautéed mushrooms and beef tips with rice and a side of corn. All of the steak was cooked to order (medium rare around the table), seasoned well and tasty. The asparagus were dry, undercooked and under seasoned. The mushrooms were amazing. Sautéed in a red wine and butter sauce. I tried the mashed potatoes and they were creamy, well seasoned and hot. We shared a bottle of Poppy Pinot Noir which was the best bottle we could find on their limited wine list.
The best part of the dinner was dessert. As we already knew the cheesecake at Desperados is sinful. To start four of us shared one piece and still did not eat all of it. I also do not want to leave out that this cheesecake is $10 a slice. Desperado's outsources their cheesecake from a local woman in Tuscaloosa whom they have a contract with to be the sole distributor of her cheesecake. The dense cheesecake is served with a white chocolate sauce that makes the cheesecake surpass all others. The crust is almost half of an inch of brown sugar, butter and graham cracker crust. Worth going to Desperados just to try a piece. We also found out that they serve half portions at lunch! If you want to pick up a whole cheesecake, they're $65.00 a cake. My dad had a few choice words about that price the first time he heard that, needless to say he was a few Maker's Mark drinks in.
All around our decision to go to Desperado's paid off, as we had a wonderful time and the food and service was good. Dinner decisions for tonight have already been changed a few times.. so we will see where we end up tonight!
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