Archive for the 'Food' Category

Snow storm snacks

Published
by
Chalupa
on December 19, 2008
in Cheese and Food
. 3 Comments

After seeing my coworkers enjoy some hotdogs from Ramon’s on Wednesday, and having a couple of loaded dogs myself yesterday, I decided to make a couple of my own for my breakfast/lunch.  Work today was called off yesterday afternoon due to the impending snow storms of death but I’m still able to get work done by watching help desk queues, etc.

So anyways, here are my hotdogs.  To start, heat those dogs up.  They’re no good cold.  Then put em in the buns, add some chopped onions, and green peppers, cheese it, sauce it, and then they’re good to go.

Hot Dogs with onions and peppers
Cheese and sauces added
Side shot


Thanksgiving Cheer

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 26, 2008
in Cheese, Cooking, Food and Story
. 0 Comments

Nothing warms my cockels like getting out of work early.  This morning I had hardly arrived before I was told I should head home.  That’s OK with me.  I was able to get groceries, clean up a bit, do laundry, and even try out a new grilled cheese idea - but before I get to that I have a warning.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR LOADED MINI-VANS FULL OF KIDS AND A “Warning unsociable homeschoolers aboard” YELLOW CAUTION STICKER ON THE BACK!!

Yeah, on my way to Market Basket this van full of kids cut me off, cut some other people off, and peeled into the little Dunkin Doughnuts.  You know, the one in the parking lot for Market Basket.  Apparently homeschooling your kids means you also endanger their lives while striving to feed your coffee addiction.

So back to the grilled cheese.  While at aforementioned store I picked up some tuna.  I’m a big fan of tuna and cheese baked on the ol torilla.  Why not inbetween bread?  I eat tuna sandwiches all the time.  So I buttered up my bread, applied cheese, tuna, and then some more cheese.  It was amazing.  I suggest you try it sometime.

JP’s Eatery

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 20, 2008
in Food and Review
. 0 Comments

Today I walked downtown and got some lunch at JPs.  They serve burgers, sandwiches, and subs.  As we walked in there was a “Wall of Shame” for those attempting to down the Slapshot, which consists of 15 sliders, 1 large fry, and a milk shake.  I was tempted, but only slightly tempted.  I don’t eat 4x the daily recommended amount of food anymore.  I was thinking maybe a burger, but I instead went with my gut instinct and decided on a sub.

The combo sub looked interesting.  The guy at the register wasn’t sure what was on it, but I soon found out it was piled high with turkey, ham, and roast beef.  I opted for all the veggies, cause that how I role.  Options included tomatoes, pickles, black olives, lettuce and onions.  The pickles were cubed and at first I thought they were green peppers.  They really worked well on the sandwich.  Subs come in three available sizes: 8″, 12″ and 16″.  I decided on a 12″ and it came out all wrapped up in butcher paper.

My only complaint would be there was so much stuff on my sandwich that it was hard not to let some of it fall out.  Luckily I had washed my hands before going over there so I just grabbed the first 6″ piece and dug in.  The meat was definitely high quality, the dining area had old-school bar stools and counters, and I didn’t have to deal with the 16 yr old attitudes that most Subway restaurants seem to acquire.  All in all, I give JPs two thumbs up.

Scottish Eggs

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 16, 2008
in Cheese, Cooking and Food
. 7 Comments

I’m not exactly sure when we started talking about these at work.  Either Marquis or Mike brought them up one day.  These consist of hard-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage and deep fried.  Doesn’t that just sound absolutely amazing?

So I tried making them today.  They turned out to be much larger than I expected.  This is partly due to the fact we only had the jumbo eggs and the fact the sausage wasn’t completely thawed in the middle so there were some larger chunks of meat.  The deep frying was a little tricky because we didn’t have enough oil for the eggs to be completely submerged.  We ended up putting some of them in the microwave for a tiny bit after we pulled them out of the oil.

It’s probably hard to tell exactly how big they ended up.  I’d say they were slightly smaller than my fist if that helps.  They were also quite filling.  The “traditional” recipe doesn’t call for cheese or ketchup to be added, but I couldn’t really resist.  With or without, these are really quite tasty.  in the last two pictures you’ll see I melted some New York Sharp Cheddar on top of half an egg along with a little sauce.

Caution!: Eating Scottish Eggs may force you to take a Thanksgiving style nap afterward.

Warren’s Lobster House

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 12, 2008
in Food and Review
. 1 Comment

Since Liz and I both had Veteran’s Day off from work, we decided to go check out Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery, ME.  Yes, we went to Maine.  Even though the state has turned into our de facto scapegoat on most issues, we do occassionally cross the border.  I had originally heard about this from a guy at work.  They have fresh seafood, a great salad bar, and it’s close.

Liz is really into all things that swim or live under water so this was a no-brainer for her.  We checked out their web site and printed off a coupon for the whole-lobster dinner.  This turned out to be a good plan because lobster is priced by market value and I think we save 6 or 7 bucks off the meal.

I ended up getting the Potato Crusted Haddock.  It wasn’t too awesome, but it wasn’t bad either.  The crust on top was supposed to contain a special horseraddish something, but I couldn’t really taste it.  The salad bar couldn’t hold a candle to any of the mega-salad-bar buffet restaurants, however, it definitely holds its own in the realm of salad bars.  All of the ingredients were very fresh and there were several things I’ve never seen on a salad bar before.  The bleu cheese dressing even had large, noticeable chunks of cheese in it.  Along with the salad bar as an option of soup with cheese and crackers.

We also decided to go all out and try an appetizer.  We chose one of the day’s specials - loaded potato skins.  They were pretty greasy and just bland.  I think it was just missing salt.  I guess we should have salted them.

All in all, I’d say this was an enjoyable experience.  We went during lunch when prices were a bit cheaper and we also had that coupon.  I don’t think we’d randomly go there for dinner or anything.  The bill would be kind of pricey.

Chicken Ranch Pizza

Published
by
Chalupa
on October 2, 2008
in Cooking and Food
. 1 Comment

All the pizza here in New Hampshire is pretty lame so I’ve had to resort to making my own.  Moving to Indiana I thought I was in the doldrums of pizza creativity, boy was I wrong.  You should check out the Northeast!  Instead of typing, typing, typing about this pizza, I decided to tell a story in pictures instead.

Searching for a good lunch

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 11, 2008
in Food and Review
. 0 Comments

Mmm-mmmm. That is a tasty burger. Vincent, ever have a Ramon’s Burger?

In my quest for good, cheap food, I’ve been taking my lunch to work every day in what my co-workers have deemed “the working man’s lunch box.”  It’s one of the smaller Igloo coolers that are sometimes associated with working men.  You know the types - construction workers, carpenters, plumbers, etc.

Today I did not bring my favorite lunch pail so I asked the guys for any lunch suggestions.  They listed off a few and I decided I needed to go get something from Ramon.  Ramon runs a lunch-wagon here on UNH’s campus.  He and his wife have to be some of the friendliest people on this campus.  They’ve given me free snacks on several occasions and today is the first time I’ve actually ever bought anything from them.

I decided to go with the bacon cheeseburger and fries.  The burgers are cooked on a George Foreman grill so they are dripping in grease.  That’s good for my arteries and the burger it rests upon.  Everything came in one of those large styrofoam food containers and the whole thing was bulging with fries.  This is one of the best burgers I’ve had in a long time.  It reminded me of something I’d make at home.

For the modest price of…

Bacon Cheeseburger - $3.50
Fries - $2.00
Total: $5.50

…I was able to stuff myself, not feel sick, and enjoy an amazing lunch.  If you haven’t been to Ramon’s, you need to check it out.

Blue Cheese experiment

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 6, 2008
in Cheese and Food
. 2 Comments

Some of you know I love cheese.  Really love cheese.  I picked up some Danish Blue the other day, and it’s definitely the strongest blue I’ve ever had.  A lot of times you eat some blue cheese and you hardly see any veining in it.  The stuff I got is probably 80% blue and 20% white.  I melted some on top of chicken the other day and tonight I made a grilled cheese with some in it.

Knowing this was going to be strong, I also included some New York cheddar.  That’s a bit strong all by itself.  It makes my face barely twinge when I eat it.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite strong enough to balance out the blue.

I don’t think I’ll be doing that again.  I’m trying to think of some innovative ways to use this cheese and not be forced to find something to wash that taste out of my mouth afterwards.

Texas Roadhouse New Hampshire style

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 4, 2008
in Food, Life and Review
. 0 Comments

Last night Liz and I checked out the local Texas Roadhouse.  This one happened to be located at the Newington mall.  The other day at work, some employees came in and gave Liz, and her co-workers, some bread and envelopes to be opened at the restaurant on a particular week.  So this gave Liz and I an excuse to go.

If you’re not already familiar with where it’s located, it’s easy to miss.  It’s tucked away on a hill in the corner of the parking lot.  Depending on which way you’re coming, it’s not hard to drive right on by - especially if the sun is in your eyes.

The food was standard and the service was pretty good.  The manager came by to see how everything was, as usual, but he wasn’t creepy, weird, or overbearing.  For a few years I used to frequent this establishment in Muncie with a group of friends from college and our server/waitress always tried to sit on my lap…totally unwelcomed.  At least I never had an incident like at the Applebee’s in Marion.

So at the end of our meal the manager came by to open our special envelope.  He kind of made a big deal out of it and I gave him my best “I care” attitude.  So he rips open the thing and plops down a free admission to the local roller skating place.  I said, “oh, ok.”  He then told me that prize kinda sucks and then gave me a coupon for a free entree next time we come back.  Not too shabby.

My first good lasagna

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 1, 2008
in Cheese, Cooking and Food
. 1 Comment

With the Olympics over and done with, there’s not much to watch on TV anymore, with the exception of the election brouhaha.  Tonight I decided I was going to make a lasagna.  A good lasagna.

I’ve tried this in the past and it’s never been anything I’d really want to share with anybody.  One daring thing I decided to do was use pepperoni for the meat.  One reason being I had no sausage or hamburger and chicken seemed just a bit too daring.  Here’s my ingredients.

  • 2 jars of Newman’s vodka spaghetti sauce
  • 1 pepperoni stick (it was over a foot long)
  • 2 tubs of ricotta (16 oz each I believe)
  • 1 lb shredded mozzarella (man-up and shred your own)
  • mushrooms (don’t know how many/much I had)
  • 1 box of lasagna noodles

So the first thing you need to do with store-bought sauce is beef it up.  I’m not talking about tossing some meat in there, I’m talking about adding some herbs and spices.  I always add some garlic, oregano, and basil.  Sometimes I toss other things in there.  Prepared sauces are always too bland for me.  You should also do this in a pot on simmer.  I think the heat helps loosen everything up.

While my water was starting to boil I shredded my cheese, sliced my pepperoni as thin as possible, and then washed and cut my mushrooms.  If you have one of those egg slicer things, they work great for this.  You’ll get nice, uniformly cut mushrooms.

After the noodles were done I drained them and let em cool for a couple minutes.  Then I started putting everything together.  Some people will tell you a lasagna needs six layers, or seven layers.  I never really care how many there are.  I just try to use up all my noodles if possible.  I did noodles, sauce, mushrooms, pepperoni, ricotta, mozzarella, and then started over.  I kept doing that until I filled up my baking dish.  You should also put a hefty layer of cheese on top.

I then cooked it at 350 degrees for about an hour.  I also made some garlic cheese bread with a fresh Italian loaf, some butter, garlic, and freshly grated Romano.  That went into the oven for the last 10 minutes.

I thought it turned out pretty well and Liz was also a big fan.  Didn’t take any pictures, but we had a copious amount of leftovers, so maybe I’ll snap a picture later on.