2 lbs. green beans – trimmed and boiled in salted water for three minutes and then optional ice bath (you do the ice bath if you want the vegetable to stay green but it gets cold.
12 oz. kale – chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-small bottle capers (mine was 3 oz.) – drained and pat dry
1/2 lemon – just the fresh juice
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper – to taste
Directions
On medium high heat add the oil to a medium sauce pan. fry the capers till some of them open (3-4 minutes) Remove the capers and add them to the green beans. Fry up the kale. Add some salt and pepper. Fry the kale till it’s wilted and add it to the green beans. Finish with lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
At my local Sprouts Grocery Store I came across these Kimchi Dill Pickle Cranberries. I thought I was seeing things. Why would anyone want Kimchi Dill Pickle Cranberries?
You may not agree but I think someone was on drugs to think this one up.
Kimchi Dill Pickle Cranberries just might be the FORKING WEIRDEST Food Find Ever!
Pizza Baby’s origional location is on Craig Road in North Las Vegas Nevada. This is a neighborhood type pizza restaurant. That means you go to it if you happen to be in the neighborhood. They offer 2 sizes of pizzas (large and xtra large) made with 72 hour fermented dough. They also offer salads, cheesy sticks, fried pepperoni Bambino pockets, fries, chicken tenders, chicken wings, kid’s meals, and Blue Bell Ice Cream. Soft beverages are served here.
Looks like a pizza place inside.
You order and pay at the counter and seat yourself.
we started out by sharing an entree sized “Baby Loves” salad.
It’s bigger than I expected it to be. t’s different than the description. They gave us apples instead of strawberries and blue cheese..Without mentioning the substitution………………Anyways…….. This salad also has blueberries and candied pecans in it….It’s pretty good anyway. We both had small salads out of this and there is plenty left.
Here comes the Margherita pizza.
They put lots of fresh basil on it. The crust is light and not too heavy or dense. The sauce is very thick and rich. Cheese is decent…Not bad.
From what I tried so far it seems like a decent neighborhood pizza restaurant.
Las Pupusas is a casual Salvadorian/Mexican restaurant with a few locations in Las Vegas Nevada. I went to the North Las Vegas Location on Craig Road and had the grilled salmon there.
It’s not a fancy plate of food and is very basic but is a large portion and the salmon was prepared nicely with a soft moist center.
I was surprised that this $15. meal was prepared this nicely.
On another night we went to MRKT. It’s the nicest restaurant at Aliante Casino Hotel. It’s a steak and seafood restaurant. I’ve previously enjoyed steak here. I thought tonight I’d try the salmon.
It came out with a great sear on it and shattering crisp skin but was terribly over cooked and very dry. Incase you don’t know…salmon doesn’t taste good when it is over cooked.
What a shame…….the quality of this fish means nothing when it’s over cooked like that.
I send it back since it was $38.00. (without sides)
Then I get this……
It’s raw in the middle and like seared sushi…….
This got sent back too…..
Was waiting for a third one but it took so long we left.
Incase you don’t know what a quality perfectly cooked salmon is like …….here is what you should expect to be at a nice restaurant.
The salmon should have a nice sear. When it’s cooked like this you get that special silkiness in your mouth and the salmon flavor is its best. Also at better restaurants the blood line is removed (that is the dark meat on the bottom of filet).
The $15. Salmon from Las Pupusas was prepared better than the $38. salmon from MRKT.
Las Papusas
945 W Craig Rd North Las Vegas NV
702-648-6200
I have not found a working website for Las Papusas.
MRKT Sea & Land at Aliante Casino/Hotel
7300 Ailante Pkwy North Las Vegas NV
702-692-7320
www.Aliante.BoydGaming.com
Every THING is subject to change. (maybe the chef at MRKT will learn how to cook salmon?)
Umami Sushi is located in the Centennial Area of Las Vegas Nevada. This is a really Great “Neighborhood Type” sushi restaurant …………Not a Morimoto Type Sushi Restaurant where you spend like $500.00 a couple for sushi….instead you get a sushi fix for only $29.95 per person for all you can eat sushi. You can order a la carte or take out at Umami Sushi but most people do the All You Can Eat Here and it’s very popular. BE PREPARED TO WAIT FOR A TABLE…….We came extra crazy early for dinner (4:30) and they were already on an hour wait. We left and tried lunch instead. We came 15 minutes before opening and were #3 in line…About 15 minutes later a whole dining room of people were waiting outside for them to open.
(Best part of fish the collar) Hamachi Kama (these are limit one a person)
One of their specialty spicy rolls called , “A Little Tease” WOW! This was maybe the tastiest sushi roll I ever had anywhere……..Spicy tuna, cucumber, cajun tuna, fried onions, jalapeño, spicy mayo garlic ponzu, eel sauce. I’ll be sure to get this again!
Tuna Belly and Ocean Trout (limit one a person on Ocean Trout)
Tempura Vegetables
Fried sausages that look like octopus (my husband said that these were very good and he ate TWO plates of them.
Korean Fried Chicken…..Tasty but this ran a little sweet for me.
Some sort of pork dumplings that look like tater tots.
I came across Emeril Lagasse’s Recipe for Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies with Vanilla Milk. I trust Emeril Recipes so it was worth trying for me. This recipe is different from the one I developed for chocolate chip cookies. The biggest differences are the amount of butter and browning the butter. The other big difference is that it is suggested that you use candy bar chocolate instead of chocolate chips…..I did change a few things based on what I had at home. The other change was the size of the cookies…Emeril says to portion the cookie balls at 2 ounces. I thought that was too much cookie for one serving so I cut the cookie ball size to one ounce.
See photo below.
Brown Butter Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
The 4 bigger cookies are from 2 ounce cookie balls and the smaller ones are from one ounce cookie balls. Do whatever size cookie you want.
I got around 5 large cookies and at least 29 small cookies. If I did all small cookies that would have made at least 39 cookies. I do note that these cookies came out too soft and too gooey for me warm………Or maybe that is how my oven works after getting it fixed????……..and maybe you might prefer soft and gooey? ……I also didn’t make the vanilla milk suggested for dunking cookies.
I will say this recipe makes around 39 cookies
8 oz. unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz turbino sugar
4 oz dark brown sugar’
2 oz white sugar
2 eggs
12 oz bread flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
6 oz milk chocolate candy bar broke into 1/2 inch squares
6 oz preferably dark chocolate bar broke into 1/2 inch squares (I used 6 oz, 60% chocolate chips)
sea salt flakes
Directions
Put a sauce pan on medium heat and add the butter. Cook till it browns and put to the side and let cool down to room temperature.
In a large bowl add the three sugars and then add the butter. Mix. Next add the vanilla, and eggs. Mix well. Next add the flour, baking soda, salt. Mix well. Then add the chocolate and mix well.
Roll this dough into two logs. You can bake in one hour or let sit over night in the refrigerator. But if you let it go over night the dough will need to sit out a bit to warm up because it will be too hard to roll into balls.
When ready to bake-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Decide if you want 2 ounce balls for BIG cookies or one ounce balls for smaller cookies. Then go well spaced on a parchment lined sheet pan.
For small cookies they need 5 minutes (NOT DONE YET) on middle rack or 7 minutes for big cookies. NOW YOU NEED TO SPRINKLE THEM WITH SEA SALT AND PUT THEM BACK IN THE OVEN…….
For really soft melty cookies small cookies only need 4 or 5 more minutes and larger cookies need 5-6 minutes.
If you don’t want such soft cookies leave the cookies in a few minutes more till they look slightly browned.
A Special THANKS!!!!!!!! To Emeril Lagasse for sharing such a GREAT Recipe so I could do what I got here!
The FORKING Truth is that Facebook & Jetpack (a WordPress Plugin) wants a LOT of Money from food bloggers that don’t make a dime on their blog.
Recently I published a story on BBQ Mexicana. Facebook suggested me to pay them $91. for 385 views…….
Everyday they ask for a different amount of money for a different amount of views.
A few days latter-
Facebook asked for $168. for 11,149 views.
Then on another day-
Facebook asked for $147. for 15,465 views.
Jackpack doesn’t really ask for money on a daily basis but periodically they upset me.
Sometime in the last year or two I wasn’t able to “Like” other people’s blogs. They said I ran out of “free” likes and needed to pay them another $200. yearly to like other people’s blogs. Since I couldn’t “like” other people’s blogs many of those people stopped liking my blog. But also many of those people also discontinued their blogs…(I wonder why….only kidding)
I don’t know why or how but sometime latter I was able to “like’ blogs again but most of my old “blogger” friends are long gone now.
Now Jetpack wants more money from me again. They want $4.50 monthly so I can view my statistics.
I figure this is the reason why most people are switching to Pod Casts, You Tube, and Tic Tok.
I have to tell you I AM JUST SICK OF THIS! ……..(Thank You for listening…I feel slightly better now)
El Nopal Mexican Grill is a neighborhood type Mexican Restaurant located on the NORTH LAS VEGAS Restaurant row (Craig Road) Nevada. They offer much of your usual Mexican foods like soups, nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos, burritos, salads, burgers and more. Soft beverages, beer, and margaritas are offered. They have festive seating inside and a small patio outside.
They start you off with complimentary chips and salsa.
The salsa is good but VERY SPICY HOT!!!!!!!!!! The chips are average. We tried margaritas. They were made with fresh squeezed juice and do taste good but are light with alcohol.
They also give you fideo soup before your entrees.
It’s a chicken-tomato based broth with thin noodles in it.
For my main I tried a chicken fajita.
It’s a very large portion of food that can be two meals for some people. The chicken is tender and came on a sizzling skillet with beef peppers, tomatoes, onions, a jalapeño and this sauce…(that I can’t stomach) that brought it down for me. If this sauce was removed this could be great. This also came with rice, beans, guacamole, and chile of tortillas.
My husband tried the Asada Alambres (sizzling skillet with beef, ham, tomatoes, peppers, chorizo, onion, bacon, and cheese).
He thought that it was also made with the sauce that I didn’t like but he was able to eat this whole thing.
Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant is located in North Las Vegas Nevada. They offer a variety of Pho Soups, Vermicelli Plates, Vegetarian foods, a few sandwiches, and they also are Tea House.
Here’s the tea menu. There is a lot to pick from.
It’s small but cozy inside.
We started off by trying the chicken potstickers.
The potstickers here are crispy all over and seem like deep fried. The jalapeño is a nice touch but soy-like sauce seems extra salty to me……..
They gave me an extra generous serving. I got a big bowl of lettuce, vermicelli (rice noodles), fine shredded pickled radish, carrots, cilantro, scallions, and this tasty, not too spicy, tender as from a sous vide, sliced chicken. It’s tender like butter…….On the side are peanuts and nuoc cham. It’s different but is good…..Even the vermicelli is different to me….maybe a little softer and thicker?
My husband tried the Beef Combination Pho (rare steak, brisket, beef balls in beef broth).
This one is also a generous serving size. I only tried one spoonful of the broth…it’s different….beefy but not rich beefy…..more like summer broth beefy like the way a good steak sandwich taste……..I did try a small bite of the steak…..it didn’t have a lot of flavor to it. I thought that the chicken from the vermicelli bowl was much better. My husband did say that the brisket had a better flavor but was slightly chewy.
Those were my thoughts on Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant.
Worth a Try!
Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant
4210 W Craig Road North Las Vegas NV
702-224-2708
I haven’t found a website for Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant.
I have found their menu on www.Seemless.com and www.UberEats.com
Aroma Latin American Cocina is a small full service Modern Latin American Restaurant located in Henderson Nevada that is not far from some parts of Las Vegas. This is NOT A FANCY PLACE but does serve a mix of familiar cuisine mixed with something amazing and unexpected. Soft beverages, some Spanish beverages, and limited alcohol is served here.
Some of the appetizers might be things like watermelon salads, guacamole, Peruvian Ceviche, and beef empanadas. A few of the mains are things like enchiladas, short ribs, and pork chops…..They sound familiar but you probably never had them quite like this before.
We started out with the watermelon salad called Sandiada Salad.
This was PACKED with all kinds of surprises. The greens are dressed with chamoy vinaigrette. There’s spiced cashews, watermelon balls, grapes, and these FORKING MAGICAL tomatoes nixtamal………..(it’s that process that you do to corn that makes corn taste like a taco shell but on tomatoes it does something deliciously different!!!!!!!! and truly amazing!)
This was a salad like no other.
We also shared one of the most incredible Ceviches that I have ever tried. Here’s the Peruvian Ceviche.
This was made with sweet potato, corn nuts cancha, leche de Tigre, cilantro, and yellowtail…….You can’t see it but under the green leaf were these unusually delicious pepper rings…..(that might have been Fresnos?…..They had something done to them that made them extra special. Everything was just delicious together and the fish seemed fresh as can be.
Everything was so top notch……But we were blown away yet again with the Gaucho Sandwich.
This was even way more amazing than it looks…….The grilled piachna (Latin Cut beef) was off the charts melt-in-your-mouth tender and also darn so flavorful…It truly was amazing. It also was embellished with chimichurri, house dressing, lettuce, tomatoes, caramelized onions and was served on a hoagie roll with Chimi Baby Dutch Fried potatoes on the side. This was one of the most spectacular sandwiches ever!
It was such a home run that we had to try one of the desserts and tried the White Chocolate Roasted Corn with Popcorn Cream and Chicha Morada.
It was different with interesting flavors and textures. It was like it came from the finest restaurant.
Aroma Latin American Cocina is a Exceptional Hidden Gem!
