Real Urban Barbecue - Vernon Hills, IL

Real Urban Barbeque has two locations.  We went to the Vernon Hills location.  This place is usually busting at the seams, since we were eating at an "off" time (2:00pm) we knew we could get in.  Their signature dish is "Burnt Ends". It is smoked twice brisket.  It is tender and full of flavor. This is a pound of meat with pickles.

Look at this limited edition BBQ sauce....it was delicious.  I couldn't get enough of it!!!  Spicy, sweet, thick and YUMMY!!!

My Dinner - Baked zitti

I made tomato sauce....very easy. 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes, 4 cans of tomato sauce, minced garlic, diced onions, and 6 cubes of basil (the Dorat frozen cubes, but you can just add dried basil). NO SUGAR needed when you make it yourself.  If you look at most marinara sauces you buy, they add sugar. Let it sit on the stove at a low level, stirring every so often.

I boiled whole wheat noodles for about 5 minutes - they are still slightly crunchy. It's a great time to sneak in whole wheat noodles.  With all the sauce, the kids don't know. In a sprayed baking dish, I stirred together the noodles and homemade sauce.  On the top, I put mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese. Quite a bit....this helps sell it to the family.  I baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes with a stop under the broiler for about 5 minutes.  Watch it closely when you put it in the broiler.  You don't want it to burn after all this.  But....if it does burn, just pull off the cheese and start again with the cheese.

Everyone loved it!!!  In fact I had extra and froze part of it and left the other half in the fridge.  The kids have been eating on it this week.  I'll let you know how the frozen portion goes.

Cookie Dough Creations Naperville, IL

Are you kidding me?!?!  Cookie dough to eat????  Oh yeah!!  

Here is the outside of the restaurant....nothing special.....but just wait.......

Here it is....buckets of raw cookie dough.  It has no eggs in it, so there is no worry of selmonila. There are 6 kinds of dough as well as 8 ice creams flavor.  You can have a cup with such a scoop (or two or three) of dough.  Or dough and ice cream....the choice is all yours.

This is one option that both of the kids we brought chose to have.  Raw dough between two cookies.  This one is sugar cookies with oreo dough in the middle.  Since you won't finish this, and I say that with complete confidence, they will be more than happy to wrap your sandwich up with plastic wrap to keep is fresh.

The painting on the wall there says it all....and I couldn't agree more!!!!

Tank Noodle - Chicago, IL

We wanted to try a new restaurant today - Tank Noodle - 4953-55 N.Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640.  We got there around noon on Sunday and were able to sit right down.  We were the only caucasians there - always a great sign when going to an ethnic restaurant.

 Their menu is very thick and the ingredients of each dish are in English.  They are very helpful, if you have questions when ordering - so don't be afraid to ask.

 This was at the center of each table.  I love it....different eating utensils (chop sticks, forks, etc) and a variety of sauces that you can add to your meal.

 I love these fresh spring rolls. They have rice noodles, shrimp and lettuce rolled in them. I don't care of it with the mint that also goes in them, but my husband does.  I just asked for it without, and that was no problem! Yum!!!!

 This was the dish our daughter ordered.  She is rather picky and she enjoyed this.  This is #145 with only broccoli and soft egg noodles (vs. crispy noodles).  The sauce was very tasty and there was a nice amount of meat with this as well.

 For the pho we ordered #39 - an extra large bowl that fed two adults for only $11! These were the additional, traditional ingredients they first brought to the table.  Basil, limes, jalapenos and bean sprouts.

 Here is our extra large bowl.  You can see the beef slices and onions floating on the top.  To this large bowl, you add all these extras on the plate.

 This was my bowl.  These is also rice noodles in the soup.  It was SO great!!  The broth was amazing.  There was not enough beef though, but the broth...oh the broth.

Try it in Vietnamese town in Chicago.  Don't be shy and ask questions to the servers and those around you.  They are usually happy to talk about their food!!

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Louisville, KY

 Here's the outside of the restaurant.  The outside is full of fun, colorful creatures and objects.  Parking can be tough, so be patient!!

 The inside has a store that the kids like to spend time in and the dining area is full of fun stuff - on the tables and all around the walls and ceiling.

 This was at our table and it just cracked me up and I had to take a picture of it.

 This is what Lynn made against Bobby Flay and won.  This is the famous bourbon french toast.  Usually it is delicious, but the bread was dried out and stale - to the degree that we sent it back.  Disappointing. But they were cool about taking it back and didn't give us any attitude - which you know happens sometimes when you complain about things.

 This was mine - Crunch cakes - great!!!  Slightly sweet and a bit crunchy.  I would have liked more granola in it.

 Paradise Pancakes—Our version of the classic pancake made with Weisenberger

stone-ground yellow cornmeal and whole wheat flour. Two giant cakes

Crunchcakes—Two generous multigrain Paradise pancakes filled with homemade

cinnamon granola

 This is what our son ordered.  See the hunk of mac and cheese on the top of the photo?  Our kids declared it the best mac and cheese they had ever had (see the recipe below!)....and that says A LOT!!!  The burrito was delicious too.  It had black bean chili, scrambled eggs, salsa and sour cream all wrapped up in a flour tortilla.  He ate the whole thing!!!

This is what my husband had.  "Just" eggs, sausage and biscuit with one side.  He ordered cheese grits as his side, for me.  I love cheese grits and these didn't disappoint at all!!  Creamy, cheesy, yummy!!  And check out this biscuit!!!  Are you kidding me?!!?  So light with a great top.....perfection!!!

On their website, they put their mac and cheese recipe -

(As seen on Oprah) 2 ounces butter, melted, plus extra for preparing the baking pan 1 quart evaporated milk 4 eggs, beaten 2 tablespoons paprika 2 teaspoons salt ½ teaspoon white pepper 1¼ lbs. shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (preferably Vermont cheddar) 1 lb. dry elbow macaroni, cooked al dente Crumb Topping: ½ cup dry sourdough breadcrumbs (or other firm-textured white bread) 2 tablespoons butter, melted ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 grindings of black pepper Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Butter a 13"x 9" pan. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together 2 ounces melted butter, evaporated milk, eggs, paprika, salt and white pepper. Set aside. Make the crumb topping by mixing all the ingedients together in a small bowl. Set aside. Layer one third of the cooked elbow macaroni in the prepared pan. Cover with one third of the shredded cheddar. Repeat the layers twice more, ending with an even layer of cheese on top. Pour the evaporated milk mixture evenly over the entire casserole. With gloved hand, press lightly on the top so the ingredients are moistened by the milk. Bake for 30 minutes, covered with foil. Remove the foil and sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top. Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit at room temperature 5 minutes before serving Yield: Serves 12 as a side for lunch or dinner

Thanksgiving Supper at Claudia Sander's Dinner House Shelbyville,KY

 Here is the sign for Claudia's Sanders Dinner House.  The dinner house also known to locals as The Colonel's Wife.  it is out in Shelbyville, KY, about 30 minutes out of Louisville.  Go when it is light out to see all the beautiful horse farms in the area.

 For Thanksgiving, it was packed.  We had 5pm dinner reservations.  I thought we would had been at the start of the dinner crowd, but we were at the end of the crowds.  They had started serving at 11am, and by the time we left at 7:30, the huge room we were in was almost empty.

 This is the grand entrance to the dinner house.  There is a little gift shop, to buy KY merchandise.

 All around the dinner house are these framed photos of Saddlebred horses.  These are amazing horses that were developed in Kentucky.  I had the honor of working as a groom for a saddlebred trainer for about 6 months (during show season).  These are amazing spirited horses that can be ridden or driven (the horse pulls while you sit in a little cart).  They are very fun horses with a lot of personality.

 Here's a portrait of Colonel Sanders and his wife Claudia.  They are both buried in Louisville, at Cave Hill cemetery. When you enter the cemetery, just follow the yellow line on the ground to lead you to his grave.

 There were two buffet lines in the restaurant.  We were in the larger of the two rooms.  Look at this buffet!!!  Just kept going and going!!!

 In this picture you can see (from top to bottom) the creamed spinach, sweet potatoes and stewed tomatoes.  The creamed spinach has always been one of my favorite dishes here.

 Here's my plate.  I'll give you a tour - starting at 12 o'clock position moving clockwise....creamed corn, stewed tomatoes, creamed spinach, turkey covered with stuffing and stewed apples.  See a theme here....stewed and creamed....WOW!!

 They served another favorite of mine - their cream of tomato soup.  Yes....it stays with the creamed theme.

And of course, the Colonel, sort of, was walking around greeting everyone.

My dinner - Cauliflower soup

Winter = soup.  I already made vegi beef soup (on a previous post).  Today I made Cauliflower soup.  I used one of my favorite tricks.  I bought the mirpoux at Trader Joe's.  Mirpoux is the start of every great soup - onions, celery and carrots.  They had a container of all three vegis cut up - 1 cup of each.  If I can't get to Trader Joe's, I get the cut up vegis from salad bars.  It helps to speed it all up, it doesn't cost much more than buying each vegi separate.  When you buy each vegetable separate, you have to get a bunch each of carrots and celery, so it usually goes to waste in my house, as I hate wasting food.

I roast the cauliflower in the over.  While that is roasting, I saute the mirpoux.  I like to get some color on the vegis, just a bit of browning.  This just adds to the depth of the flavor.  Once the cauliflower is soft and roasted, I add it into the pot, along with chicken stock, garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaves.  Let everything cook together about 30 minutes.  To this pot, I also added some curry - just to see if we would like this.

After the 30 minutes, I shooshed it with my stick blender.  I just got a more powerful one from William Sonoma.  It was on sale.  The blender I had before was 250 watts.  It never really got my soups smooth.  This new one is 600 watts....and yes, it is smooth.  No cream added = no fat added.  When you puree vegis to this degree, I have found there is no need to add cream to make it smooth and lush.

To try to kick my meals up to the next level, I tried something new.  While the soup was cooking, I used the vegi peeler and made some slices of sweet potato and thinly cut some shallots.  I put them on non-stick aluminum foil and sprayed them both with Pam.  I sprinkled some of the curry powder of them as well.  I put them in the hot oven after the cauliflower had roasted.  Watch them closely so they don't burn.  I took them out and let them cool.  They were nice and crispy.  We sprinkled them on the soup right before eating it.  Nice contrast to the smooth soup!!