if anyone out there is still reading this sorry excuse for a food blog, we are getting hip to the modern times and moving over to blogger. you can now find us at Nom-Mitten.blogspot.com. thanks everybody for chilling out here on livejournal, its been real.

[i also have a fashion-sex-etc blog, Last Night's Glitter, that you can check out at well.]

peace out,
Jesika Lin

long time no blog.... y'all know im sorry so im gonna skip the apologies and get straight to the food. sorry this will be mostly photo free, ive been lax about that.

Lets go in reverse chronological order, shall we? starting with the leftovers i ate last night.



1. Uptown Diner
ive been here a couple times, first of all a super awkward breakfast with my ex bf mike, and then a year or so ago with my friends and body modifiers jenna and peter, where i had an awesome cajun crab cake benedict. this time, i had gone to see a rocky horror shadow show at the uptown theater in minneapolis with awesome new friend [and costume designer/air guitar champion!] alex, and afterwards we walked the few blocks to the diner, which is thankfully open 24 hours on saturdays.

it was about 2 or 2:30 am and they were PAAAAAAACKED. we had to sit at a table in the middle which was basically the same table as four strange guys, which was a little odd fo me especially being on a first date, but what're you gonna do.

once i sat down i realized i wasnt really hungry, but i ordered a burger cuz you cant really go wrong with that. it was a Cajun Burger, topped with sauteed onions, green peppers, mushrooms with cheese melted over the top, crowned with hot sauce, lettuce and majo. the burger might've been cajun spiced. it sounded really good on the menu but now i cant really remember. date jitters and all.

our waitress was a suuuuuper nice tattooed gal who was totally calm despite being swamped and really kept on top of our drink refills. i asked for my burger medium rare, and she said they arent allowed to do that, but when she brought the burger she said she'd told the cook to go as easy on it as possible and checked to make sure it was good with me. so nice! and thoughtful! i told her the well burger was fine, i dont mind that much. it was maybe medium well but still very juicy.

i only ate about two bites of it at the diner due to not being hungry/being nervous/talking my head off, so i brought it home and ate it last night. it was DELICIOUS. reheated burgers dont usually fare well but it was yuuuummy. the bun was very much a lost cause so i ate the thing with a fork and mmm.... the sauteed veggies and the melted cheese were delicious, the burger still juicy and flavorful. even the lettuce, wilted by mayo and heat, was still good. it may have been spinach.

so thumbs up for the uptown diner! if you go on a busy time like 2am on saturday night, i recommend going with at least four people so you can get a booth.

Uptown Diner
2548 Hennepin Ave,
Minneapolis, MN 55405 
(612) 874-0481

Also recommended are the Rocky Horror performances put on by transvestitesoup.org on the last saturday of every month at midnight at the Uptown Theater! super fun, awesome cast that seem like great people. im going again next month, with columbia costume!



2. Fuji
st cloud finally has a sushi/hibachi place! we've had tiny sushi restaurant Pok's Sakura forever, and while ive heard good things about it ive never been there [it being located pretty much in the parking lot of cub foods having something to do with it. it used to be in a somewhat swanky-looking locale in the division place shops and was just called Sakura, shouldve gone then]. fuji is located in what used the be the Center for Diagnotic Imaging which as you can see from the photo is a square, ugly little building, so that left me a little dubious... plus, sushi + st cloud? and mixed reviews from my friends? but i had a date [with another lovely friend, the very charming and fantastic justin] coming to town and i figured it was a good opportunity to try something new [and hopefully it wouldnt be terrible and leave me embarassed].

despite the exterior, its super nice inside! very dark and luxurious. there are two cute little waterfall fountains in the lobby as well as some lovely furniture. we were greeted by a very charming older woman who i believed to be the owner. you get your choice between hibachi table or a booth on the sushi side. there's also a drinks bar and a sushi bar. we had a booth on the sushi side, very dark, comfortable and private.

we ordered, to the best of my memory, spider roll, green river roll, rainbow roll, and two peices of unagi nigiri. their menu was extensive and i had a very hard time choosing, especially since they had many specialty rolls i had never seen before at my usual sushi spot, akita in woodbury. definately a go-back to try many different things!

our rolls came very artfully displayed on a large platter, swirled with sauce and arranged in arcs and groups. something about the presentation really got me.... at akita when you order more than one roll theyre just laid out in two rows the way theyre cut, but at fuji there was a symmetrical arrangement of green river along the bottom, spiky spider rolls on the top and middle, two peices of rainbow roll in each corner and one unagi on each side. very thoughtul and adorable. wish id taken a pic!! everything was wonderful.... the unagi was better than at akita, more tender.  the rainbow roll, which i usually find rather boring, was very good. green river was my favorite, and i wish i could remember the ingredients [im writing shit down next time i have sushi!]... i think there was crab inside, and the outside had some sort of pale green wrapper or powder on the outside, definately not nori. one of the rolls had regular lettuce inside it, which i thought was unusual! the spider roll had massive peices of fried softshell crab poking out, which were difficult and hilarious to eat. im really going to stop ordering sushi with giant things poking out of it though, its getting ridonkulous and i always seem to enjoy the completely-mouth-poppable kind better.

A+ for fuji! would definately go back. at $8-10 per roll and 3 rolls feeding two people it was pretty reasonable... i wish it was easier to do by yourself though, but with my love of variety its really better to go with someone else. the only downside was the somewhat bland and yucky iced tea i ordered. cmon.... japanese restaurant + bad tea???

Fuji Japanese Steakhouse
148 2nd Street South
Waite Park, MN 56387-1363
(320) 252-3838

3. Granite City and RJ's American Grill
ive written about RJ's before, as its right next to the porn store where i work. their food's really good but reletively expensive for an at-work lunch, so i dont usually get it, but lately ive been feeling very indulgent.

do you ever have food chains of events? i often do. earlier in the week id asked my mom to take me to granite city for lunch, hoping to get both the buffalo chicken salad and the wild rice almondine soup. well, they no longer make the salad, with its awesome cucumber ranch dressing, and the wild rice is only served on tuesdays. so i ordered the ale & cheddar soup and at the last minute i made a snap decision and ordered the lemon pepper basil pasta.

ugh. 1. ive ordered the ale & cheddar soup before and i shouldve remembered that i despise the rye croutons they put on top, as they have carroway seeds in them which i HAAAATE. and once i eat one the soup is done for me. 2. the lemon pepper pasta was a bust. i was expecting a cream sauce, but it was really just spaghetti with a basily marinara sauce. the chicken was juicy and flavorful, but meh. i ate like 1/3 of it and left the rest. bummer.

so this food fail left me feeling salad deficient. on friday night i perused the RJs menu at work and decided to order the [ugh] asian chicken salad. theres a margaret cho bit about that and whenever i read it i always hear her voice imitating a flight attendant: "aaaaaaasiiiian chicken salad? aaaaaaasiiiian chicken salad? [to margaret] .... chicken salad?" asian is such a fucking retarded generic term that always means "gingery" in applebeesish restaurants when it could mean things as bizarre as the philippene duck eggs that have the entire full grown duck fetus in them. thats asian.



mmm! from this disgusting & awesome cracked article.

whatever. so "asian" salad: lettuce, an entire, deliciously juicy grilled chicken breast, red peppers, mandarin oranges, green onions, a shitload of fried wonton strips [lol, so cringingly asian], and a creamy ginger-citrus dressing. the dressing was a little odd, but oh lords, that chicken was so fucking good. im rarely so excited about just a chicken breast. maybe i was just really hungry. the dressing and the green onions made a really interesting combination. ill never understand restaurants fascinatin with wonton strips [or the chip strips they put on southwest salads and that kind of stuff]... you cant stab them with their fork, especially not these which were as fat as egg noodles, and theyre just odd on a salad. i love salad toppers like croutons, baco-s and various nuts but for some reason putting chips on a salad seems fucked up to me. although the steak salad i made with shoestring potatoes and french fried onions was amazing.. maybe im just biased against wonton strips. MAYBE IM RACIST.

saturday i ordered a chicken ranch wrap, which ive had maybe five times and has always been amazing for just a wrap sandwich. again, its that awesome juicy chicken, plus the magic of an herb tortilla and this awesome cilantro ranch dressing. my boss eats this at least once a week, only she orders it minus chicken because she has this phobia about finding a stringy peice in her chicken, which is SO WEIRD because RJs chicken is so good, its not like its subway or something. so she pays $10 for a tortilla full of lettuce and ranch dressing. weird, but whatever. they do have pretty fantastic skinny seasoned fries too.

i ordered my wrap when the store was empty and had 15-20 minutes to wait before i could pick it up. of course, during that period of time about 5 people come in the store and take FOREEEVER to pick out toys and dvds. like, over an hour. the guy at RJs calls me to see if i am in fact coming to get my sandwich or what.... i told him i cant quite get out of the store, could he possibly send someone over with it? i would pay a tip. nope, he cannot do that. he cannot send a waitress literally NEXT DOOR in a strip mall for a tip. but he does stash the sandwich in the fridge for me. after an hour, hour and 15 or so everyone has finally gotten their porn and i can go get it... turns out he's put the fries in the fridge as well. i REALLY wouldve appriciated getting fresh fries when i came in, i dont think it would be too hard especially at dinner time when im guessing they make fresh batches pretty much constantly. for a $10 wrap and fries id expect fresh fries, even if it takes me a while to come get them, especially since he cant accomidate me and deliver NEXT DOOR. but im not much of a huge fry fan anyway so thats not that big of a deal...

the big deal is the sandwich. and the sandwich was not good. of the 5+ chicken ranch wraps ive had there, including ones ive eaten half of as leftovers, this was the worst. chicken was good, but there was tons of lettuce, which was rusting in some spots [should lettuce rust after being put in the fridge for a hour? its never happened to me before] and the lettuce tasted a little... suspect? you know? when a veggie tastes not quite right. and like NO FRIGGING DRESSING. like a drizzle which seemed to have absorbed mostly into the tortilla. BLEH. WORST TEN DOLLAR SANDWICH EVER. i was so angry. and after an hour wait i was sooooo disappointed.

i took a fifteen minute break to eat the disappointing sandwich, and when i came out of the backroom and went to unlock the front door of the store, there were some women waiting. i went to crack the door open for them and invite them in, and i was about to say "sorry for the wait, come on in," when they all yelled "WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" at the top of their lungs. scared the everliving shit out of me. fucking bachelorette parties. the bride was wearing crotchless panties over her pants.

Granite City Food & Brewery
3945 2nd St. South
St. Cloud, MN 56301
320.203.9000

RJ's American Grill
4221 Clearwater Rd.,
St. Cloud, MN 56301
320.257.7757

there will be MOAR!!

as the cake says, happy birthday jed! he turned 25 on august 15th, exactly 6 months after i did :) we threw together a last minute party at his apartment which turned out to be pretty fricking awesome. and i made a cake :)


its not exactly a culinary revalation... im no ace of cakes. its just a duncan hines marble cake with vanilla frosting, jed's request. it turns out i blow at spreading frosting... you can see all the little dark flecks in the frosting where the top layer of the cake crumbled as i was spreading the frosting across it... wtf is that?? i made the cake the night before, covered it, and let it sit overnight, and then frosted it the next morning... should i have not covered it so it dried out a little more, and formed more of a "crust" that wouldnt crumble and stick to the frosting?? i tell you, i was sweating bullets. normally i wouldve gooped another layer of frosting on, but i had bought the goods the night before, and didnt have time to run to the store again. but i figured everyone would be distracted by the big blue elephant :) jed loves elephants, weve kind of had a thing over the past six months which started with us making elephant and pig noises at each other... then i got a tiny blue elephant and tiny pink pig rubber pencil toppers out of a vending machine... then i bought jed a bronze elephant statue... so, heres the cake. it turned out okay. i wish i wouldve bought more blue icing to pile around the edges in those little poufs. oh well. ALSO i wish i had a cake pan with a lid! i had to ghetto rig one by putting a cookie sheet on top and taping it on. my big worry was that something would happen to the cake on the way to st paul... but it survived intact.
jed seemed to like it. people kind of made a big deal out of it, though i thought it was a touch pathetic... i mean, its from a box! but everyone liked it and thats the important thing, and i should stop being so self conscious.


my other contribution to the party: super classy liquors. another thing i biffed on-- i didnt have time to go to the liquor store the day before, so i saved it for last minute... not thinking that the party was on SUNDAY and liquor stores in minnesota are all closed then. GAY. you can however get 3/2 beer at some grocery stores and gas stations, and thats what i did. i ran through cash wise in my party dress with a cart, and got 6 packs of bud light lime, smirnoff ice, mikes hard cranberry lemonade, and OH YEAH  a case of miller high life!! its the champagne of beers you know.


jed played mad scientist and mixxed up a massive batch of spiked punch. what do we have here... hawaiian punch, seirra mist, bacardi dragon berry, and two other unidentified liquors. i dont know the recipe but that shit was SO GOOD. we had approximately 5 jugs of this shit and we drank ALL OF IT. it was awesome because we partied in the apartment company's clubhouse next to the pool, where youre not supposed to have alcohol, but the punch was sneaky :)


jed drank it in his pimp chalice of course.


"whats in the boooooxxxxxx?" you implore, much like brad pitt in seven. why, that is a case of off-brand flamin hot cheetos. approximately fifty little bags of them. which we ate, maybe... three. they're REALLY hot, way hotter than the real cheetos. and kind of gross. but they were free... jed's dad is a truck driver and gets free food occasionally.


i also brought some cupcakes, in case wanted cake in a smaller, more portable form. you can see di totally eyefucking them. they were GOOD. coborns makes some yummy cupcakes, even though their frosting is more like cool whip. they're all... spray painted pretty. oh so, thats [R to L] Jackie, Di, Brittany and Damien behind her. kickass kitchen, no? i wanted to live there. jed can rent this place for free. it has a stove and a fridge, which was handy... we made some frozen pizzas later.


oh and we found this gem. no, its a gag gift or something someone brought to the party as a joke. it was in the cupboard of the clubhouse. someone that works there probably just likes bizarre canned pudding for lunch. we used it as a door stop so we could get in and out of the pool.


and theres me hanging out by my cake up in the billard room. im pretty happy.

after this point it was all pretty much liquid refreshments... oh, except jello shots, those are kinda in between food and liquor. di made them with black currant vodka and they were extremely delicious. there was much feeding each other jello with spoons, and then i believe jed put his face in the pan. umm... then i did shots. then i spit a shot onto the kitchen floor because i thought it was gonna be currant vodka and it was disgusting generic rum. BURNSAUCE. partying continued.... we played P&A, with appropriate lincoln hat, which jackie wore and hid both the remote and a bag of fauxcheetos in.

and the next day i threw up a loooooootttttttttttt.

and then i had awesome hangover food! because my friend melissa couldnt make it to the party, she took me and jed out to lunch the next day. aww, so nice! it was a fun double date with her and her awesome boyfriend jeff, who is hilarious. we went to the wilde roast cafe in NE minneapolis, which id read about in Lavender magazine a few times and wanted to visit. its a beautiful cafe with very ornate decorations, and of course very gay friendly.
i had the turkey meatloaf dinner, which was perfect for my meat and carb craving angry tummy. mashed potatoes are just the thing when youve been ralphing all morning! the mushroom gravy was quite tasty, although there was a TON of meatloaf and i couldnt eat it all. what i was really coveting was jed's homemade mac and cheese, which was FREAKING AWESOME DELICIOUS. like, i was very close to punching him in the face and stealing it. FOODCOVET! a super creamy, rich four cheese sauce topped with yummy breadcrumbs... i had many bites but oh man, it was not enough. jed said that the salad with a light vinegarette was the perfect balance to the uber cheesy pasta. we didnt realize til we discussed it after that we shouldve switched plates completely, as he was coveting my meatloaf as well! damn! oh well, next time. im also eyeballing their curry chicken sandwich or salad, and the panna cotta [maybe?] dessert that jeff had looked fabulous. oh, as did the crab cake appetizer that melissa and jeff split. wilde roast cafe is a definate WILL RETURN.

http://www.wilderoastcafe.com/index.php
518 Hennepin Ave. E. • Minneapolis, MN 55414
Line: 612.331.4544

oh another great fooding discovery: Akita Sushi and Hibachi! a great discovery jed was introduced to via his friend Jackie in the pics above. the best thing about akita is they have a price fixe, all you can eat menu, $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner. this is great for a beginning sushi eater who isnt quite sure what to order... this way, you can take a chance and order several different things to share, and not worry too much about wasting your money [although akita will add a surcharge if there is "excess waste," so be sure you eat most of what you order]. i seriously loved it. lets see if i can remember most of what we ordered... i know we started with tempura shrimp, which were puffy, light and delicious, and potstickers. then the dynamite roll, which had tempura shrimp and a few other things in it, topped with spicy mayo, which were AWESOME and maybe the best sushi we had. that spicy mayo... mmm. and spicy tuna rolls. this was some of the first real sushi ive had, and i loved it. i buy grocery store sushi quite a bit but this is a whole different ballgame. its so fresh, and the textures were amazing. the rice and seaweed, so toothsome. the fresh, perfectly paired ingredients. spicy mayo. soy sauce. yeaaaah. mm, and snow mountain rolls, which were filled with crab and topped with yummy little crunchy bits. we ordered some teriyaki salmon from the hibachi section, which was delicious, the best teriyaki sauce ive ever had. jed had a bown of udon noodle soup of some sort, which he liked but wasnt really up my alley. asian soups always have a weird flavor to me.
i was planning on ordering a few more things, at least more tempura... but, oh, so full of sushi. it doesnt seem like we ordered much, but each roll had six pieces and were super filling. i wish i couldve eaten more!! next time i might totally gorge myself until i puke. we had to save room for ice cream though... i got red bean and jed got vanilla, then we shared. both were excellent. really good, fresh tasting vanilla, but i preferred the red bean. they also have green tea which i want to try.
omg i want to go back there soooooo bad. ive had massive sushi cravings since we went. if i lived near woodbury id be there all the time... i mean, for the price you pay its almost unbelieveable! $15?? ive paid more for totally shitty perkins or applebees!
highly, highly recommended.

779 Bielenberg Dr
Woodbury, MN
(651) 578-7888

soooo i havent updated since april-- BAD, BAD BLOGGER! have i just... not eaten anything in six months? haha tell that to my waistline. i just have been eating shitty fast food and not cooking too much. not much interesting eating out either. im digging through my photos to see if i captured anything interesting i made, but not much.

a few things:


ive become obsessed with this, the holy grail of frozen pizzas. its expensive, like eight or nine bucks, but seriously, THE BEST tasting frozen pizza ive ever had. ive never had frozen pizza that tastes like real pizza. the cheese, my god, THE CHEESE. it is real cheese and it is delicious. this is the fricking best. my only wish is that it were bigger... its not quite small enough to eat all at once,  but not quite big enough for two meals. however, this is the only frozen pizza ive ever had that can edibly be stored in the fridge then reheated. something horrible usually happens to frozen pizza when reheated... since comparing the two i can only imagine that other pizzas use fake cheese or too many preservatives.

id hit that.


some kickass leftover stromboli from Papa's Italian in Zimmerman. REALLY good. buttery, soft pizza dough crust.


dole ultimate caesar salad mix topped with chicken i seasoned and sauteed myself :) this was AWESOME.


for a while i was working at fashion bug and having to get up early to work at like 10 [waaaaay too early for me!]. i was really nervous about my new job and not able to eat a whole bowl of cereal or anything. plus i needed energy... so i started eating energy bars and nutrition drinks. i developed a taste for clif bars... theyre pretty awesome. the cran-apple one is my fav. they're reaaaally dense though, its almost hard to eat the whole bar.

i fricking lived off these. i love them. they're like $4 for 6 at walmart which is pretty good for weight loss drinks.

DONT BUY LUNA BARS. or at least not the lemon zest variety. this was fucking disgusting. it was gritty, mealy and fake-tasting. just... GROSS. nutrition bars are expensive, so when you get a nasty one it really feels like a waste of money... so i recommend the clifs. and at walmart if you can find good varieties there... they're less than a dollar, versus $1.25 to $1.5 that ive seen at grocery stores.

proceed to the next entry for jed's awesome birthday party... ok i admit most of what was consumed was of the liquid variety, its worth a look.

hi! hope you had a good easter! we had an awesome one... the usual ham and sides, not much to describe. my mom made the same cheesy potatoes i made for xmas. no pics of that because we ate IT ALL. i had some leftover ham... i really dont think ive ever appriciated leftover ham as much as i have this year. i took lots of pics:


look at that beautiful slice of ham!! mmm!! i kept eating it before it could make its way into my sandwich. i swear the best way to eat ham is ham--->mouth, no inbetweens. but i made sandwiches anyways.


LOOKIT THAT!!!! yuuuum! after three sandwiches i boiled down my perfect technique. just ham and mayo on the bread. cheese just complicates things. then i dipped in two kinds of mustard, koop's horseradish, and inglehoffer's sweet and hot honey mustard. at easter we had some yummy silver spring straight horseradish, not for the faint of palate, but delicious! i need to get some of that!
ham is all gone now :'(


easter dessert was this lemon thing my mom makes. i think its lemon jello mixed with whipped cream, and layerd with torn up chunks of angel food cake. then topped with toasted coconut. whatever it is, its fucking DEVINE, so light and delicious. after eating a huge meal of ham and cheesy potatoes, its the perfect dessert. not heavy at all, sweet, and slightly tart to really cleanse your palate. i ate my whole tub of leftovers in one day, two sittings. this stuff is irresistable.


still on my fried-egg kick. this is just a bowl of "oriental flavor" ramen, non-soupy, with two fried eggs on top. was just going to make one egg, but as i was cracking it i touched the hot pan with my knuckle and DROPPED the egg, and it almost fell into the crack between the stove and counter but i saved it... but the yolk was broken so i had to make anothe one to get that great yolkiness in the ramen. mm. hot sauce on top. this is the way ramen was intended. this meal cost about... 40 cents?? :D POVERTY MEAL YAAAAAY!


so i was at the grocery store looking to spend my last $10 on a few food essentials to last til payday [tomorrow, whew]. mainly getting soymilk, mustard for my ham, a few cheap natural colas, when what did i stumble across but BEAR BROWNIES for like $1.70!!!! mmm! i dont even like brownies really, but these have a BEAR on them. i really like bears. it reminds me of oksana the bear from Borat. and i had some good ideas to doctor them up. i was gonna make granola brownies with sweetened condensed milk on top! granola-milk brownies!!
plan: made brownie mix according to directions. mostly. i realized i didnt quite have enough butter left, a bit shy of 1/4 cup, so i added maybe an extra half tablespoon of vegetable oil. then as i was stirring it it was REALLLY hard to mix, so i added a splash extra water and it seemed good.
WHY DO I DO THESE THINGS??
so, i poured the batter down, then took two kashi dark chocolate cherry granola bars and chopped them into small peices. sprinkled these over the batter. then poured about half a can of sweetened condensed milk over that. and at least minute remembered i had some leftover coconut i had no idea what to do with, so i thought, hey, like magic bars, and threw that on it. win.


looks alright, huh? maybe a little too golden around the edges, if anything. this is after 30 minutes. i let it cool, and then start to cut it and fuck it, its still batter except for about 1/2 inch around the perimeter. that burny part. so, back in the over for 15 more minutes. nada. still batter. by that point i was tired and cranky so i just went to bed.
i woke up the next day and fired it for like 20 more minutes. fuck, STILL BATTER. the top is getting freaking hard so i just said fuck it, this is never getting done.


mmm. gooey. oh well, i like brownie batter right?


yeah. i ate this lump of goo. it was kinda good at first. suuuper chocolatey. i had no doubt the bear brownies would be good if made properly. supposedly they have... whole grains and shit. but after this one "piece" i felt pretty sick, so, i kid you not, and im ashamed to say this, i threw the rest of the pan away. im sorry.
does an extra half tablespoon of oil do that? really? i dont understand food. this is why i dont bake!! meat only, from now on!


never again, bear brownies!


lastly, let me share this wonderful message from the outside of bakers square with you. good food, good feelings. thats what its all about, son.
[baker's square crepes florentine is fucking awesome. so is their tomato basil soup. get the tomato basil, not the chili!!]

since its been a long time no post, im gonna post just the pics and as short of descriptions as i can manage.


my mom bought me a "meat bundle" from von hanson's meats... mmm. i need to get cooking.



tried the spinach&goat cheese pizza from target. it was meh. goat cheese was good. i dont even think i finished it.


i made some awesome steak salads and potato pancakes for me and jed. i should go into more detail about this later, and post the recipe. needless to say it was THE SHIT, steak was unbelievably good. i made two or three more steaks after this, but this was the best. pancakes were ok, but we probably didnt need them.


lasgana hamburger helper with butoni alfredo sauce mixed in and lots of pepper and red chili flakes, and cheese on top. bagel with garlic, melted swiss and italian herbs.


boneless pork chop stuffed with shredded ham, vegetable cream cheese and shredded cheese, and rolled in corn flakes. tasty! but extremely rich. i can post a recipe later too.


panera has the cutest chubby straws.


banana-coconut pancakes drizzled with apricot syrup and sweetened condensed milk. good, but i could only eat a few. leftovers DID NOT KEEP, the bananas turned nasty gray and thinking about it now makes me nauseous.


pork fried rice with fried eggs on top. i discovered fried rice + gooey egg yolks is the BEST THING EVER. pork was overcooked. but omgeggs.


poverty meal! frozen potato/green beans/red peppers in a butter herb sauce, plus two mushroom-cheddar veggie burgers, crumbled and sauteed til crispy, topped with shredded cheese and hot sauce.


key lime cupcake from target OMG SO GOOD, GO GET ONE!!!!!!!

Just a few additions to the 'home eats' blog i posted a while ago. this is another beloved pastrami sandwich [which i finally got sick of, after going through two tubs of pastrami], only this time i grilled it on my faux foreman. its some kind of cheese [muenster, swiss, or pepper jack, pastrami, mustard, and OH YEAH three cheese peperoncini dip ;) i know, right?
i have to say, it was pretty damn awesome. my only complaint was it turned out a bit too thin. i wish id had something else to put in it. like... sauerkraut. mm.



Last pastrami pic, i swear, im done with that shit. pastrami salad ;) butter lettuce, pastrami sliced into strips, cheese, diced tomatoes, and sliced almonds. after i took this pic i topped it with newman's italian and thousand island dressings, cracked pepper, and little hot sauce. this was damn good, im not gonna lie. the addition of sliced almonds improves ANY salad by like 200%.

thats all! kiss kiss. im biding my time until 3 when i can pick up my paycheck, cash it, and order a pizza hopefully in time before work. ive been craving the new "american classics" or whatever pizzas that dominos has. memphis bbq chicken pizza??? fuck yes!
http://www.dominos.com/home/index.jsp

Crostini Grille
This gorgeous puppy above is NOT what i ordered for my birthday. this is what my mom ordered. what follows is a tale of disappointment.

So usually i have dinner with my parents for my birthday. usually its in st cloud and we go to green mill or china star, but i was going to both those places actually ON my birthday with jed and my friends. my other choice, while slightly inconvienient in location, was Crostini Grille in Monticello. so a few days before my bday i drove to my parents house, and they drove us out to monticello. i was SO UNGODLY EXCITED for this delicious food i only get to have a couple times a year.

So first i ordered a drink. Mistake. i ordered the italian grown-up lemonade. baaaaaaad. very bad. it smelled like floor cleaner. you know, lemon pine sol? like that. like it would kill your insides. but i ordered it, so i *tried* to drink it, but jesus christ it was like rubbing alcohol going down. i am just not that hardcore. it was supposedly absolut citron, triple sec, campari, and sour. thats sounds alright to me, but i guess wtf do i know about alcohol. i was really jealously staring down my dad's beer, which was called GUIDO ffs.

Mistake #2: i was perusing the menu trying to find something i hadnt ordered before, even though everything ive ordered before was delicious because im DUMB LIKE THAT. delicious things ive had at crostini's in the past: seafood canneloni, sachetti proschutti, and the crostini special pasta. all come in cream sauce and maybe that's what i was trying to avoid? i dont know. i really wanted seafood. i was torn between the seafood pomodoro, which i like at olive garden, and the italian jambalaya. SHOULDVE GOT THE POMODORO. SHOULDVE GOTTEN ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT I GOT. but i was craving a bit of spice and i ordered the jambalaya. ugh ugh ugh why. i never in a million years wouldve thought i would order something at crostinis that i could say, really, that i hated, but i hated this.

Ok, description: "Italian Jambalaya – shrimp, chicken, sausage, olives, onions, and peppers in a spicy tomato sauce tossed with vermicelli." not bad, eh? shrimp, chicken, spicy, yeah? i was down. but it came and it was this.... sloppy joe looking MASS on my plate. i was picturing, idk why, like, beautiful slices of andouille sausage. and plump jumbo golf shrimp. and neat little bites of pepper and such. what i got was a sloppy joe/chili-ish mishmash of ground sausage, itty bitty petite shrimp, and assorted chunks of veggies. obscuring some vague pasta below. bleh. i could not conceal my disappointment. i tried to eat it. after a few minute my dad traded my for some of his chicken parmesan [which was okay, but personally i dont think chicken parmesan should come with meat sauce]. i was seriously ANGRILY EYEFUCKING my moms seafood canneloni, seriously trying not to have a fit and demand she give it to me. my selfish inner child was totally coming out, like, 'ITS MY BIRTHDAY GIMME YOUR FOOD."

Fortunately we ordered a dessert, which was tirimisu, and was extremely delicious [the wine-glass kind, not the square kind, as is my preference]. although since i pretty much hadn't eaten, i couldve used about two more.

No disrespect to Crostinis with all of my complaints. i still love you and ill come back. as you can see by they hypnotic effect my moms food had on me...

So my mom gave me her leftover canneloni. i took it home and ate it that night. it was SO FUCKING GOOD. this shit is the bomb. the canneloni is tender but has a little bite. the seafood mixture inside is perfect, with a little grated carrot for texture and just a yummy crab-ricotta blend. the cream sauce and melted cheese on top arent overpowering or too rich. OMG I WANT MORE. I WANT IT SO BAD. i might just drive to monticello some day and pick some up. its like a half hour drive. it seems so worth it.

http://www.crostinigrille.com/index.php
254 West Broadway, Monticello, MN 55362
763-295-8898

Olive Garden
Im sure youve all eaten at the OG before so im not going to bore you with details. lemme just say, Jed and I went there for Valentines Day [not our original plan, but we had a gift card from my parents so what the hell, free food], and we had a really odd experience. first of all, at 4:00 there was a reasonable 40 minute wait, so we sat down. i just wanted to comment that while their entry was BATSHIT CRAZY with people, once you got inside and sat down on their row of chairs it wasnt that bad. and while eating we had no idea that this chaos was going on outside, so dont let that discourage you if you come in and the entry is all nuts. we never did get a seat in the bar, but the chairs they had for waiting werent bad.

The main weird thing was: we finally got seated, and our waiter came over. he was a very obviously gay, lispy dude. he was like, hi how're you, whatever. then he was randomly like, i hate all this. jed said, yeah, its pretty crazy in here. and the waiter says, seriously, "this i like, it keeps me busy.  I JUST HATE VALENTINES DAY." lololololol. seriously. here we are spending our money to go out on vday, and hes like QQQ. boo fucking hoo. wtf. were we meaner people, we perhaps couldve gotten him fired. but whatever, i just thought it was odd.

http://www.olivegarden.com/default_f.asp
4701 AMERICAN BLVD WEST
BLOOMINGTON MN 55437
(952) 831-4044

Actual birthday eats were pretty good. China star was awesome as usual, pretty much the same as always. Green Mill so so, i ordered the Coconut Chicken Salad which was maybe a mistake. im so bad when i eat salads at restuarants, i usually dont enjoy it and just eat the chicken or whatever off the top. salads, imo, arent good for eating while youre talking to a bunch of people. Green Mill also just gives you a crappy sundae when you go there for your birthday, and they gave us a shitty high-top table with stools for our party of 15. lame.
We went to the White Horse afterwards for drinks. service was fucking awesome, our waitress was really nice and on top of things, plus i got a free shot on the house for my bday :) well, all my drinks were free for me, thanks peeps :) 

China Star Buffet
1004 Division St Waite Park, MN 56387
320-255-5588 

http://www.greenmill.com/
100 4th Ave South St. Cloud, MN 56301
320-259-6455

The White Horse

IMADEITMYSELF!!! ;)

this is based on a recipe i found on super supper for King Ranch Chicken Cassarole. i made a few adjustments.

here's what i used. you can find the original recipe above.
Ingredients:
2 serrano peppers, chopped
3/4 med. yellow onion, chopped
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can condensed fiesta nacho cheese soup [campbells] 
1 can (10 oz.) Ro*tel chopped tomatoes w/ onions and peppers
1 small can chopped green chilies
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
10-20 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
3 cups (12 oz) shredded mexican cheese blend
1 can of red enchilada sauce
Sour cream and hot sauce to garnish
assorted spices for sauteing chicken

a few adjustments are explained in my method:

-First i chopped everything. the recipe called for one onion, chopped; i did maybe 3/4 of the medium onion i got and later found it to be too much, overpowering the chicken [perhaps this was because i skipped the step of pre-sauteing the onions and peppers? if they had been more al dente, maybe they'd be less noticeable, a little mellower. ooh, next time i can saute them along with the chicken]. i would use about 1/2 an onion next time. the recipe also calls for one medium bell pepper. i dont like bell peppers and wanted a little more spice, so i used two serrano peppers, seeded and diced. you can use whatever pepper you prefer for flavor and spice level.

-The recipe calls for 2 cups of cooked cubed chicken. i wasnt sure how much raw chicken that would be, ie how many chicken breasts to buy, so we bought a package of chicken breast strips and cut them into bite-size peices. it looked like about 2 breast-strips more than 2 cups, but i just made it all and im glad i did. in retrospect i actually could've used a little more chicken. i would recommend maybe 4 whole chicken breasts.

-The recipe didnt specify any seasonings for the chicken before sauteing-- this doesnt stand with me. with Jed's roommate's pepper and tabasco-heavy spice rack at my disposal, i seasoned them with ancho chili powder, garlic powder, some kind of seasoning blend, and a little chipotle tabasco. sauteing up in some olive oil, it smelled seductively barbeque-y. mm. at that point i REALLY wanted some famous daves.

-cooked chicken went in a big mixing bowl with the chopped onion and peppers, and into that went the drained cans of diced green chiles and ro*tel. then came-- and i was extremely hesitant about this part, but following the recipe-- the cans of cream of chicken and fiesta cheese soup. well, the recipe called for two cream of chickens, but that sounded a little bland to me so i improvised with the intriguing fiesta cheese. the *glook* of the condensed soup hitting the bowl in a gelatinous cylander made me reaaaaally nervous. i was having flashbacks of TNS's horrific and hilarious attempt to make a paula deen recipe ['the horror, y'all, the horror']. again, jesi is trying to kill us! but i stuck with it, and when the bowl was mixed up, it looked and smelled pretty good, if a little soupy.

-In a 9x13 pan, i put down a layer of corn tortillas, torn up to fit the pan [you could use flour, but i prefer corn for stuff like this, it just has a nice texture]. then a layer of the filling mixture, topped with a thin layer of cheese. i maaaaaybe put too much filling in the first layer, as i almost ran out in layer #2. so, repeat: tortillas, filling, cheese. hopefully you wont run out of any. then one last tortilla layer, over which i poured a can of red enchilada sauce, spread over the top and allowed to drip down in the little crevices on the edges. mm. that wasnt in the recipe but i figured it would be good. then topped with the remainder of the cheese [it wouldnt hurt to divy up the cheese into 1 cup portions before hand, or to just have two full bags of cheese on hand so you dont run out. i think the top layer should have a little extra cheese].

-Into the oven at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. we let it stand for 5-10 minutes but it couldve used 15 to solidfiy a little bit. however long you can stand to wait.

-The cassarole was downright delicious. aside from my previous issue with the onions, all was good. the filling was a little oozy, and im wondering if the 2 cans of soup were nessesary. i suppose it cuts down on the amount of chicken you need for the filling, but i think next time i'll use just the can of cream of chicken soup and then do more chicken. my advice is to get extra of each just in case you need it, or something. idk, im bad at amounts. overall though, it was AWESOME. the corn tortilla layers were delcious. it actually turned out pretty spicy... the serranos are subtle but slowly catch up on you. the chiles and seasoning i used for the chicken all added different flavors of heat. it definately needed some sour cream on the side. yummm. i ate i think three servings the first round and hm, like three more the next day? ive eaten a LOT of it. i think it gets better with time.

a variation of the infamous fb '25 things' meme. probably crap you already know.


response to a note jamie left me on facebook: