Restaurant review - Fleming's Steak House Lincolnshire, IL

We had a gift certificate to Flemings for $100 so we went there for dinner.  I had been there one time before and the only memory I have of that dinner was how loud the restaurant was.  But having the gift certificate gave us reason to go back.

Walking in there was a sign $6 by 7p - certain drinks were only $6 up to 7p. We got there at 6:45, so we ordered a tropical martini and a pomtini.  The tropical drink was our favorite...made with Malibu coconut run.  I spill some of our pomtini, so our waiter brought us another Tropical for no charge (since he knew we liked that one better).  Nice touch.  I do have to say though, as the consumer of most of those drinks, they were very weak.  I guess that's what you get when you pay $6 a drink.

Our waiter was great.  Very attentive and just the right amount of talkative.  But, one of our biggest gripes was the fact that our water glass was left empty WAY too often. It was not our waiter's fault since he doesn't handle that part of service, but that was a big problem.  When you are paying for a place like Fleming's, this should NEVER happen, especially repeatedly.

Our meal started with bread with some butters.  It would have been nice if the butters were explained to us.  I think one was vegi butter and one had chives.  The bread was nice and fresh and the butters yummy...what butter isn't great?!?

We ordered the calamari to share....
SWEET CHILE CALAMARI 
lightly breaded and tossed with sweet chile sauce
It was was delicious.  Tender calamari and the coating wasn't too thick.  The sauce was the right combo of sweet and spicy.  Good dish....

 I had the chilled seafood tower as my dinner.  This is an appetizer on the menu, but I tend to like apps more because they tend to be lighter.  I was disappointed in this dish.  It had on it shrimp, lobster, lump crab meat, ceviche, and crab legs.  The ceviche was tasty and reminds me I would like to try to make one some time.  It was the best thing on this "tower". The shrimp was a nice size.  The lobster was almost non-existent.  There was barely any meat in this tiny tail....poor lobster. You can barely see it in this picture because it was covered with parsley. Pitiful indeed. The lump crab meat was fine....not too much flavor.  And the crab legs were awful. Soggy and thin....not very appetizing.  And again with the non-purposeful parsley.  One of my dining pet peeves I guess...stupid waste of a plant. 

 We sat in a side area, so it was quieter than the main dining room. All in all....we won't be going back there.  Just not worth it for us.....

Dinner - BBQ Pulled Pork, coleslaw, pickles and beans

Made a family favorite.....slow cooker BBQ pulled pork.  I made it on January 1, but I will post the recipe again here.  I also served it with "hamburger" pickles, canned baked beans (I like "country style" baked beans), and my homemade slaw.  Yum Yum!!!!  This is a meal that always has no left overs!!

SLOW COOKER BBQ PORK

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped celery  1 cup chopped onions (I buy these already chopped from the salad bar....and not too much more money than buying the whole onion and whole celery) 1 cup ketchup  1 cup barbecue sauce  1 cup water  2 tbsp vinegar  2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce  2 tbsp brown sugar  1 tsp chili powder  1 tsp salt  1/2 tsp pepper  1/2 tsp garlic powder  3 lbs boneless pork roast 

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients except roast in the slow cooker.
When well mixed, add roast.
Cover, cook on high for 6-7 hours.
Remove roast.
Shred the meat and return it to the sauce.
Note - You may want to thicken the sauce some.


Number of Servings: 12

To make the coleslaw - I buy shredded coleslaw at the grocery store...I like the angelhair style.  I add in miracle whip - low fat (I know - either you are a mayonaise or a Miracle Whip person), 3-5T apple cider vinegar (depending how vinegary you like it), 1t celery seeds, and 1-3T agave syrup.  Just stir it all together and it is ready to go.  SOOOOO yummy with the bbq!!

Restaurant review - Prairie Moon Evanston, IL

Had brunch with my new book club at Prairie Moon in Evanston, IL. We read "MWF Seeking BFF".  The author is Rachel Bertsche.  What was special was that Rachel came to brunch with us!!!  It was great to meet someone who has had a published book by age 30.  She was SO nice and open about talking about her process of writing, publishing and the PR that comes along with keeping her book in the public eye.  And the book is a really great read about what it takes to make friends. It was eye opening to see what is out there now to aid in making friends - you can even rent a friend.  I am not kidding...Rachel did that and writes about it in her book.  I put a link to her website on my blog.  Go check it out....

Now onto the food....I had the Wild Mushroom Omelette.  It had swiss cheese with 3 kinds of mushrooms in the omelette.  It was good with HUGE portions!  It also came with potatoes and onions and toast.  All good, solid food.  There were a lot of mushrooms and cheese, something that can be lacking in omeletees. The restaurant was nice and is much larger than it appears.  In fact, I think it would be a nice place to hold a family gathering or event.

Dinner - Mussels and Kraft Fresh Take Chicken and Fish

I made supper with a new product - Kraft Fresh Take.  There were different flavors to choose from - I chose Italian, knowing this choice has the flavors the kids tend to like.  I bought chicken breasts, for the kids, and tilapia for my husband and myself.  This is a neat product...it has two pouches - one has bread crumbs and spices and one side has the cheese.  You pull apart the middle divider and mix the two sides together.  Then you open the top of the whole pouch and put in each breast (or piece of fish) one at a time.  I lined a pyrex pan with non-stick foil (a product I love) and put each coated piece of meat on it.  Per the instructions, I baked the meats at 375 degrees.  The chicken needed longer than the fish, but everyone loved everything.  In fact, I have even had requests to make it again next week.

I also made mussels, per my husband's request.  Mussels, I think to many, are very intimidating to make.  I think they are actually one of the easiest things to make.  They tell you if they are good to eat and they tell you when they are done cooking.  For a light side to our dinner I bought 1.25 pounds for just my husband and myself to have.  If I was making it just for our supper, I would have made 1 pound for each of us.  ALWAYS make sure, wherever you buy them from, have every mussel checked over all the mussels you are getting.  As I said earlier, mussels tell you when they are good to eat, meaning that they are closed = alive.  By having the fish monger check every mussel, you aren't paying for mussels you can't eat.  I put all the mussels into a small pot, cut one large shallot into little pieces, and added a small bottle of white wine.  I like to keep those small size bottles of white and red wine in the house for just this reason.  Put the lid on the pot, turn the heat up and let them steam away.  Within the first 10 minutes, check and see how the mussels are doing.  As long as most of the mussels are open = done and ready to eat.  You want to get them off the heat as close to the opening point as possible.  This ensures that your mussels aren't overcooked - which may lead to chewy mussels - yuck!  Whatever mussels don't open, throw those out.  They aren't good, don't even try them.  It's really just that easy and quick to make mussels.  Such a treat and show stopper when you have people over or want a healthy quick dinner!!

Mussels, shallots and wine in the pot and ready to be covered.

See all that yummy juice down there.  Great to mop up with crusty bread!!