Food – Page 4 – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

A Trip To The South Bronx

Posted on December 13, 2014 by LFFL

Well in the middle of October, I finally made it to New York after all these years. My dad hadn’t seen his mother since he was around 20 years old! So it was about time!

We decided to take a LONG train ride there because my dad isn’t getting on a plane unless it’s life or death—and even then we don’t really know. I’m not a big fan of planes either—let’s get real.

I had never been on a train before—so I was looking forward to it.

Waiting for the train at 5:30 in the morning.

Boarding the train.

Leaving the station. The train is rocking too much.

On a stop to NYC.

A bird wandering the train station in NYC. Apparently, this is normal as no one looked twice.

The drug-sniffing dog at the train station all up in everyone’s business.

The train ride on the way to New York wasn’t bad at all—especially if you can manage to get two seats to yourself to spread yourself out and relax. The scenery out the window wasn’t much to write home about though.

The food on the train was even less exciting. Not only were the prices outrageous as I would only expect them to be—but the food pretty much tasted just like it looked. Thank goodness I brought lots of food and drinks from home, too.

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A Wine Festival

Posted on October 23, 2014 by LFFL

YES!! I had the pleasure of attending a wine festival this year with one of my girlfriends and how lovely it was. I’d never been to a wine festival before and was a little excited as to what was might lie ahead.

Well, I can tell you WINE IS DEFINITELY EVERYWHERE!! So make sure you eat a double cheeseburger and fries before you attend one of these shindigs, people!

This particular wine festival was being held on the grounds of an estate and tents were set up all around it. Most of the tents had different vendors from various places selling bottles of their assorted wines and giving away free tastings of them all. So—WHOA! That’s at lot of wine going down your insides. There were also other tents that were selling and giving away free tastings of different snacks of food—and you know I had no problem trying them ALL!

The tents.

Proof I’m at least 21.

The murder tape around the bees’/hornets’ pit.

Horse-drawn carriage ride.

Singing and playing guitar.

Chair massages.

Bottles of wine everywhere.

When we first arrived, we had to get wrist-banded so the vendors would know we were at least 21 years of age! First things first, you know. Then we were given our very own personal wine glass to enjoy all the tastings.

I’ll tell you—the lines to some of the tents were RIDICULOUSLY LONG! I couldn’t believe how long we stood in one line just for a tasting! So needless to say, we opted to go to tents with shorter lines—which were few and far between. I mean, we stood in one line for 35 minutes at one tent just waiting our turn for a tasting!

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

And OH, I found a coffee cake tent!! HEAVEN!! And pumpkin coffee cake at that. It was so amazingly good I had to buy a whole one just for myself to take home. I swear I’m going to stalk this company and order more throughout the year.

In the end, all the food and drink tastings were awesome and I came home with one bottle of sweet red wine, one bottle of sweet white wine, pumpkin coffee cake, and a big jar of yummy apple butter.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, attend the next wine festival you can find in your town.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If you don’t eat a double cheeseburger and fries ahead of time, you won’t be able to make your way around to all your rounds of wine tastings like you want to—if you catch my drift.

Time For A Festival

Posted on September 24, 2014 by LFFL

So I took myself to a festival a few weeks ago so I could have some fun and get out of the house. I have to say I actually enjoyed myself even though I went by myself.

I chose to go bright and early in the morning to this festival and arrived right at opening time. That’s the best time to go, you know, because there’s not a lot of people everywhere yet. You know how I roll.

It was fun to people-watch and eat up a storm. You know how I LOVE food! Festivals are some of the best places to eat to your heart’s content. There were food tents everywhere! I mean, how do you even begin choose?!

Fried Potatoes.

Corn Dog eating.

Pineapple Cobbler.

Sitting on a street curb eating a Corn Dog & Funnel Cake.

My first stop was for potatoes and onions. They were pretty ‘meh.’ As I sat on a bench eating my bowl of potatoes and onions, I looked up and saw a FUDGE sign through a window that was directly across the street. Oh, MAN, you know where I headed next!! A piece of plain chocolate fudge was all I needed.

I later headed towards the carnival area. You know a carnival is not complete without funnel cakes, cotton candy, and corn dogs. So, since there was really no place for me to sit, I sat on the street curb and ate a corn dog and funnel cake.

The only thing I was baffled by was why they’d be selling hot chocolate at a carnival when it was almost 100 degrees outside! Really?!

That fudge sign through a window and across the street.

Oh, the fudge.

Selling hot chocolate and it’s 95 degrees outside!

Kettle Corn tent.

Taters & Onions.

Oh my, the cobbler.

At some point, I made my way to a COBBLER booth. No way was I passing that one up. I chose the pineapple flavored cobbler. It was to die for.

This was also the first time ever that I stopped at a psychic booth. I really just did it for grins. It was only $10 I was losing. It was hilarious though because the very first thing she told me to do was sit down and take $10 out of my purse, put it into my right hand, and ball up my fist.

Then she proceeded to open my fist and take my money. I couldn’t stop laughing on the inside because she was being so dramatic about it. Even I saw that one coming!

I mean, why is she pretending the money in my palm is part of the psychic act of my palm reading—as if the spirits need the money in my hand first for my future to get predicted? Just take my money and read my palm already! Who are we really kidding here?

The psychics that read my palm.

Indian man playing a musical instrument.

Headed towards the carnival.

Entering the carnival.

Carnival rides.

This dome was spinning 100 miles per hour. No thanks!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, take yourself to a festival full of fun, food, and laughter—even if you just go by yourself. You’ll have lots of fun, trust me.

Take-Away Life Lesson: A psychic is obviously only there to give you a generalization about your future life—not specific details like you’d hope for. Saying you’ll have “happiness in your future” is something you can probably predict yourself. In that case—we’re ALL psychic. But giving detailed dates, times, places, and names of people and things that are going to happen in your future—now that’s a psychic.

A New Sports Bar In Town

Posted on August 30, 2014 by LFFL

Chicken Tenders with honey mustard & barbecue sauces and a side of Macaroni & Cheese.

I love meeting girlfriends out for lunch any chance I get. You can always get in good food and good gossip all rolled into one.

We decided to try a newly opened sports bar in midtown—and, boy, was it loaded with some good food. I really couldn’t make up my mind what to try on the menu. (Story of my life.) But after hours of analyzing it, I ended up going for the basic chicken tenders and—OH—they were amazingly good and crunchy.

It doesn’t take much for me to fall in love with a food item.

Pulled Pork Sandwich with fries.

Taxidermy.

Alcohol wall.

I always seem to order macaroni & cheese everywhere I go, too. I just like trying out different mac & cheeses because some definitely taste better than others—and, who are we kidding, it’s one of my favorite foods ever to eat in life.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, meet your friends out for lunch at a newly opened food spot.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Anytime macaroni and cheese is on the menu any place you go, definitely get a side order to go along with your meal. You can’t go wrong.

Mexican Food With A DJ

Posted on August 23, 2014 by LFFL

Frozen Strawberry Margarita

Oh, how I LOVE when I discover a hot spot I am absolutely coconuts about. This Mexican restaurant was absolutely fun and amazing.

A girlfriend and I were gallivanting in the ritzy part of town and stopped by this joint on a whim Friday night for some girl time and good eating. We had never tried this place before and, you know, I like trying things I’ve never done and going places I’ve never gone to before—so I’m always game for trying something at least once. I’m all about livin’ life, baby.

The DJ was groovin’.

The drink side of the menu.

Patrons enjoying themselves.

Apparently they have a live DJ on Friday nights—and, boy, was he rockin’ it out! I couldn’t stop dancing in my chair! And you’d think, as it was a Mexican restaurant, that there’d be Mexican music playing—but, no, he played a mix of everything BUT Mexican music. Go figure!

People randomly got up from their tables to dance—even though there was technically no dance floor. But I love when people just dance wherever they can find some space! It’s a restaurant, after all—not a club. But it sort of turns into a restaurant/club on Friday nights.

The DJ was so good at DJ-ing, I couldn’t help but go ask him who he was and how often he played there. I had to get up another time to go ask him the name of a song he played that I had never heard before but found myself chair-dancing to. (I’m a good chair-dancer.)

He was kind enough to tell me the song name and that song is now my new favorite song of the moment as I keep playing it on repeat on YouTube while I’m in the house messing about and I find myself house-dancing all day. Oh, the little joys of my life—I tell you!

Mushroom Quesadilla with crimini & shiitake mushrooms, jack cheese, spinach, and crema; Gaucamole & chips.

Needless to say, the restaurant filled up with more and more people as the night went on. It’s obviously the “happening” spot.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, take yourself to a restaurant that turns itself into a “club” with a “live” DJ for some good eating and good dancing all wrapped into one.

Take-Away Life Lesson: For goodness sake, it’s probably not a good idea to try to drink a margarita on a completely empty stomach. (There was a reason that quesadilla HAD to be purchased as an afterthought—but that’s neither here nor there.)

Cooking With Wine

Posted on August 1, 2014 by LFFL

Pinot Grigio

Moscato

If you’re going to cook with wine, I’d suggest you get a cheap brand of wine—because it’ll all just probably go into the pot anyway. I got mine at a local Walmart browsing the alcohol aisle—and I didn’t have a clue what I was looking for.

I mean great googly moogly—there are so many to choose from! What’s the big difference between all the different types and brands anyway? The recipe called for “white wine”, so I grabbed a white wine once my eyes could zero in on any particular one.

I’m not very experienced with wine or wine-cooking, but I remember when I first came across a recipe I wanted to try that called for a white wine. Though I went to the store to get the necessary ingredients for making the recipe, I couldn’t help but think my food was going to have a strong taste of alcohol and reek of the stuff.

How wrong I was, indeed. I mean, I even had one recipe that called for a whole bottle of wine and had the fish floating inside an entire pot of it boiling away—but when it was all said and done I couldn’t taste any alcohol in the fish at all. Go figure.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, give cooking with wine a try and see how you like it—whether you put the wine into a recipe or whether you drink it as you cook along makes no difference—it’s still “cooking with wine.”

Take-Away Life Lesson: Makes you wonder why a recipe calls for 1/2 cup wine during the cooking process if you can’t really tell a difference from if you hadn’t cooked with it at all.

It Was A Murder Mystery Night

Posted on July 26, 2014 by LFFL

This was definitely a night I’ll never forget.

Let me start by saying, a friend and I decided to go to a murder mystery dinner since we had never been to one before. I love trying things I’ve never experienced before so I was all for it.

The first thing that threw us off guard was the location of this place. We didn’t really pay much attention to it until after we purchased the tickets. The cross streets threw us off a little because neither of us could figure out what was in that location other than old buildings in the “rough” part of town.

Come to find out, we were right! Omg. I’ll never know how they can get people to come to this location in the first place other than the fact that these people don’t all know about this part of town—until they get there and it’s too late by the time they realize it.

There’s a homeless shelter across the street one way and there’s a park across the street the other way where the drunks and crack-heads mingle. It’s definitely a part of town I wouldn’t think to go to for a dinner theater.

On the night of the dinner, the amazing part was when I pulled into the parking lot behind the building where the dinner was held and saw the cars and people all fancied up in suits, ties, and dresses—but look directly across the street and you see a complete contrast. WHAT?! Two different worlds side-by-side.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not opposed to the homeless shelter—and the drunks and crack-heads have a right to mingle where they want to. I just didn’t expect to pay so much for a dinner ticket to a play in this area in an abandoned building turned into a dinner room that looked like a big warehouse of a bingo hall.

When we arrived there, we all waited in line to get our picture taken in 1950’s-style accessories they dolled us up into since it was a 50’s-themed play. But they weren’t going to charge us 50’s-themed prices for the pictures though!! They seriously were selling the photos for $20 a piece after the show was over. I could have had someone take a picture for me with my digital camera for free!

And don’t get me started on the food!

Chicken Parmigiana.

The bread.

The salad.

I don’t have a clue almighty what in the world I was eating. (Anything you see in quotes is strictly because I still don’t know if you can even call it that!)

Let’s start with the “bread basket”—a loaf of generic bread sliced down the middle. Seriously?! Did we really just pay for this?!
Let’s move on to the “second course”—the “salad & dressing.” First of all, the dressing was in packets. Packets, I say! Where am I?????? To top it off, my favorite dressing only came in fat-free and the other two options didn’t look so appealing. So I grabbed the fat-free Ranch and toppled it onto my salad. Let’s just say the entire thing tasted like grass with water. So I only ate one bite and I pushed it to the side. Done.

By now I’m scared to see what the “main entrée” looks like. A person came to “take our order” at our table. I ordered “chicken parmigiana.” CAN YOU SEE THE SLOP THEY BROUGHT OUT ON A PLATE TO MY TABLE!! No way! I can make a dinner plate at home better than that! It tasted just like it looked, too.

The bread and salad I couldn’t bring myself to finish.

During this whole time, the “play” was going on. I was completely lost as to what was happening at all. We could barely hear them talking on the microphones.

This was an interactive “dinner theater.” Each table was a team of 10 people. I refused to be our team captain because I was so baffled as to where we were in the first place! Someone else volunteered.

We were supposed to get up and ask questions and discuss the play with the other diners and the actors to find out “who dunnit.” We could “bribe” the “actors” with fake money, too, for more information.

I didn’t get up to interact with anyone since I didn’t know what to ask anyway because I could barely hear anything that was going on or keep up with it all. Come to find out—one clue was that the “killer” did not even know they were the “killer.”

My friend and I only stayed for two hours because we just couldn’t take it anymore. We had no idea how long this play was going to last—so, needless to say, we never did find out who the “killer” was since we left early. AND WE LEFT HUNGRY!!!

The detective.

The actors.

Dinner room.

My friend and I did have some good laughs throughout the entire thing though because we just couldn’t believe the entire experience we just encountered from beginning to end. All we could do was look at each other and laugh. Let the good times roll!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, give a murder mystery dinner a try if you’ve never been to one before—especially if you like the interaction of trying to find out “who dunnit.” You may come across a pretty decent one—and, if not, just laugh your way through it like we did. At least it gets you out of the house.

Take-Away Life Lesson: You never know what life is going to throw at you next, so try to find the humor in it all.

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