Since I have been on medical leave I have had a lot of time on my hands. When I am not feeling ill I have been doing something that I used to love, cooking! I have worked in several restaurants over the years and have always loved to cook. Sometimes I like to experiment or just make new(to me) things.

I have always loved Baklava but had never made it before, so I had to try. It came out pretty well but I must say it is a bit of a pain to make. When they say to put a damp cloth over the dough you better believe it. At first I didn’t, but I only lost a couple sheets of the very thin dough.

Did everyone like it?
The adults did.

Was it easy to make?
Yes and no.

Will I ever make it again?
Probably not!

Did I take a picture of it?
Yes and here is a single serving of it.

Yummo

I upgraded my theme to the newest version and it broke the blog. When I looked into my computer for the older version I found I had overwritten it, so I will wait till he fixes it.

Anyway, today I want to post about food! Specifically barbecue, I love a good pulled pork sandwich. That stuff that White Castle is offering may look like pulled pork, but it is most definitely not. It tastes good enough but the problem is a pulled pork sandwich should be big! They put theirs on those little buns and charge 99 cents for them. It isn’t worth it!

By now you might be wondering, is he done with the posts about his trip? No, this one is getting there now! See on our way South, we stopped in Cloverdale to grad a bite to eat. I picked a little place I saw on a billboard a ways back. It sounded interesting and they had BBQ. After my WC experience I was really wanting some good BBQ.

I found it at a little place called The Ice Box. They had BBQ and ice cream and all sorts of other wonderful things. I had the BBQ and an order of chili cheese fries, the biggest order of cheese fries I have seen in a long time. They smoke their own and use high quality ingredients and OMG are they delicious. I am drooling just thinking about it, unfortunately it is too far away just to go and get some. Their ice cream is also homemade and fabulous(I can’t believe I used that word). I had the raspberry chocolate chunk cheesecake, big name, even bigger taste.

If you ever find yourself anywhere near Cloverdale, I highly recommend The Ice Box. If you just want some good BBQ you can email them from the BBQ page and they can hook you up, you want to, trust me!

Dear Ronald,

I went to one of your dining establishments this morning. I was in the mood for some sausage gravy. So much so that I got up early and ventured out in the cold rain to vanquish this desire. Rather than go to one of the local truck-stops, where I am almost guaranteed a nice order of gravy, I chose your place of business.

I got out of my truck, the drive thru was extremely busy, and went inside to order my breakfast. There was no line inside, as everyone seemed to want to use your drive-up convenience, ordered my meal and went back to my vehicle. I drove home immediately and unwrapped my “sausage” gravy and biscuit, as I poured out the gravy from the Styrofoam container I was dismayed to make a horrid discovery.

Apparently, in order to make “sausage” gravy, you are only required to make sure it has at least 4 tiny pieces of sausage. Four, 4, FOUR! What the heck! I understand that the price of pork is up and the white gravy mix is cheap, but I really expected more from you. I would expect at least the equivalent of one sausage patty to be in my gravy. What I found was closer to what you scrape off the grill after you cook them. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed and more than a little angry.

I would love to say that I will never eat at your restaurants again, but that is a promise I can not keep. You are still a convenient way to feed my kids when no one wants to cook, or when we want to grab a bite to eat on the way to where ever we may be going. What I can say, without fear of being wrong, is that I will never order your “sausage” gravy and biscuit again. The next time that craving hits me I will either go to Hardee’s or a truck stop!

Sincerely,
Jeff A.

(Update- this was also forwarded to their corporate offices!)

We are going to do something different today. Yes I know it is Fry Day but I decided to forgo that for today. I am going to review a food item, just not fries!

You can probably guess by the title that it is something from McDonald’s, and you would be right. I decided that I just had to try the McSkillet burrito, it looked really good. To be honest it wasn’t too bad either. I think the roasted peppers and onions made the meal. I am not a fan of the sausage that McD’s uses but it was alright in here. I just wish they would have chopped it up, instead they cut the patty in half and lay it out that way. There are also potatoes and salsa in the mix, it all adds up to a very “hearty” breakfast that really is quite tasty.

Then comes the bad news! This burrito weighs in at 610 calories, 330 of which are from fat! There are 36g of fat, can you feel your arteries hardening yet? How about 410mg of cholesterol? Talk about death in a tortilla. Then you would think well at least it will fill me up, wrong again, there is only 8.4 ounces of food there. Now here is the kicker, sit back and count the things in the burrito. Lets see, theres a tortilla, eggs, sausage, potatoes, green and red peppers, salsa, and cheese. Thats not too bad thats only 8 things, but wait theres more. There are 114+ ingredients listed for this burrito 114! I’m not going to list them all here, you can go here and see them.

Was it good? Yes
Will I have it again someday? Only if my doctor says it’s ok!