I Am Back... By No One's Demand!

Yes, it has been 1 year, 30 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes, and 22 seconds since the last time I've posted (don't hold me to the detailed minutes and seconds... b/c I suck at counting).  Time flew, as usual, and I'm back because, honestly, I am tired of writing reports for work and I JUST NEED TO DO SOMETHING ELSE!!  A quick chat with the family about our "interests" and "hobbies" last night also sparked my desire to restart this blog.  I just finished reading my earlier posts and it was fun and delicious, so why not!  Let's start again!

I've been doing a lot of traveling for work lately, so at the same time I've been eating out A LOT also.  Enjoy some pictures from my iPhone (excuse the quality) of the things I've tried all around the country...

Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse in Manhattan, Montana.  I shared a 16 oz NY Strip, chose the deep-fried potato jo joe's (sp? a speciality of the area I was told), and 2 pieces of garlic toast.  Not pictured, and also included with the meal, were soup, salad, a tray of relish veggies, choice of dessert (that day it was chocolate sundae or rainbow sherbert), and coffee.  Yeah!  All that for entrees ranging from $12-$26!  The only negative thing is that if you share a steak, you need to pay for a Plate Sharing Fee of (I think) $6-$8.  Well, I think the sharing was a good idea because I barely had any room left to eat those humongo jo joe's.

The Uptown Cafe in Butte Montana.

I was amazingly surprised by the quality of food in this restaurant, especially when it is located in a deserted downtown area in Butte.  I ordered the Artichoke Ravioli (cheese-filled with artichokes, sundried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese).  It was DELISH.  The entree also came with a summer strawberry salad with raspberry vinaigrette, and I ordered creme brulee to finish the meal off.

Another visit to Uptown Cafe I ordered the Duck Breast in a reduced cranberry sauce with sugar snap peas and mashed sweet potatoes.  It came with a few sides - apple salad with homemade vinaigrette, vegetable soup, 2 clams maison, and roasted squash.  All this = S-T-U-F-F-E-D-!!

In Columbus, OH I found a vegan cupcake bakery called Pattycake Bakery via yelp.com. 

I went sugar crazy and got tons of cupcakes and whoopie pies.  From top and clockwise, vanilla whoopie pie, mint whoopie pie, pumpkin cupcake, chocolate cupcake, vanilla cupcake, and lemon cupcake.  The cakes tasted the same as "normal" cupcakes and whoopie pies, so I was curious in how they cooked these vegan-style.  A good find!

In Columbus I also found White Castle!  This was my second time eating these (fresh from the store, not those frozen wanna-be's) and are still as good (for my mouth) and bad (for my body) as last time.  I gobbled this jalepeno cheeseburger in seconds while waiting for my flight back home.  Stomach satisfied.

Fulton's Crab House - Downtown Disney - Orlando FL.  I was a fatty that day and ordered Blue Crab Cake with cucumber salad and mustard sauce, Baked Potato with all the fixings, and a Guava Mojito.  The plate of bread that came with the meal was also good.  The only disgusting thing was (unfortunately) the mojito - it tasted like sweet syrup juice - no alcohol, no guava-flavor, no minty-ness.  100 negative points.

Walking around Downtown Disney in the humid hot September day, I was happy to spot a candy store with a wonderfully creative display of caramel apples.  Gosh, I wanted to get one of each! 

Tomaso's in Phoenix, AZ.  My new love of red meat is lamb, so I ordered the Rack of Lamb Provencal without thinking.  Roasted rack of lamb encrusted with Herb de Provence, drizzled with honey mustard and raspberry vinaigrette.  There were no meat left on the bones when I was done...

Another great restaurant I went to in Phoenix was Tarbell's (which was literally 2 restaurants down from Tomaso's).  The owner and chef of this restaurant is Mark Tarbell, who had once cooked against Iron Chef Cat Cora on Iron Chef America.  Cool huh?

Mark's Famous Spaghetti and Meatballs.  I was only able to eat one meatball and that was done by forcing all of it down because it is so DARN BIG!  The sauce and spaghetti were cooked to perfection.  I highly recommend this if you are in search of good 'ol comfort food.

Mark's Mom's Mac 'n Cheese with Vermont cheese.  Only two words: YUM YUM!!

A co-worker ordered the Pan-Roasted Chicken with buttermilk mash potatoes and broccolini. 1/2 of a chicken and the meat was juicy and tender.

 This day was also my co-worker's birthday, so we ordered Warm Chocolate Cake with Pistachio Ice Cream.  This combination does not go wrong!

Are you insanely starving by now?!!  If yes, mission accomplished.