Tag Archives: food

No Happy Hour, But Happy Dinner

Posted on December 20, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

In lieu of my usual Friday Lame Post, I thought I’d give a shout-out to a local business. We just had a lovely dinner thanks to Salvatore’s Pizzeria and Restaurant.

I had a shout-out to a different local business planned. Steven only worked till 4:30 this afternoon. Since I usually get home by four, I thought, “Perfect! We can meet at the Belly Up Pub for Happy Hour!” In fact, we would have been too early for Happy Hour, which begins at six most Fridays. However, I have a few half price drink coins, which I won in drawings at previous Happy Hours. Additionally, I had some stew beef I could put in the crock pot in the morning, so we could come home to a nice dinner after enjoying a couple of Happy Hour cocktails.

As it happened, I knew this morning I would probably be too tired for Happy Hour. Also, the stew beef had not thawed in the refrigerator. I know you can put frozen meat in the crock pot, but I was too tired and used the beef’s frozen state as an excuse.

“I’ll just cook the beef when I get home,” I told Steven, wondering even then if I would feel inclined to do such a thing.

Of course I did not. I don’t think Steven expected it either, because he almost immediately started talking about sending out for food. He had already decided a garlic pizza with sausage and green peppers sounded good. It sounded good to me, too. I further suggested an antipasto salad, and Steven got on the phone to Salvatore’s.

The meal arrived promptly and was delicious. I said, “I’m going to write my blog post about this!” And I’m sure we’ll make it to the Belly Up Pub for a cocktail one day soon.

Salavatore’s is located at 650 1/2 W. German St., Herkimer, phone 315-866-2600. Their website is www.salvatores-herkimer.com. The Belly Up Pub is at 122 W. Albany St., phone 315-219-5578, website www.bellyuppub.com. Both businesses are also on Facebook.

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, local business, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

A Serendipitous Snack

Posted on December 12, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

I first heard of That Little Place on Main in Little Falls, NY some time ago when I visited the Little Falls Historical Society. The intern said her father recently opened it (it came up in a conversation). The Place had already closed that day, and I did not make it back to Little Falls at a compatible time until recently.

Full disclosure: I did not go to Little Falls specifically to go to That Little Place on Main. My friend Phyllis and I were adventuring with no set plan. We thought we would stop somewhere sometime for a cup of coffee and a snack. While driving down Main Street, I saw it! And the Open sign was lit up! I pulled right into a parking space almost directly in front of the Place. How’s that for serendipitous?

Inside was a traditional, homey diner with a long counter and booths. I saw more seating available in a small back room. We sat at a booth and looked at the Specials Board till the waitress brought us menus.

I got a piece of cheesecake while Phyllis ordered French fries. We both had coffee. The cheesecake was delicious. I helped Phyllis finish her fries, because they gave her a heaping mound of them. Yum! The waitress kept our coffee full. I made plans to return soon and bring my husband Steve.

That Little Place on Main is located at 28 W. Main St., Little Falls, NY. Phone number is 315-508-5083. They also have a Facebook page which features photographs of delicious-looking food. I think I’m going to have to make this Place a regular stop.

Leave a comment

Posted in diner, humor, local business, personal and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Breakfast Before Adventures

Posted on October 30, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Steven and I began our adventure-filled day last Friday with breakfast at Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner in Herkimer. I mentioned that in passing the other day, but today I’d like to give them a proper shout-out. Of course I’ve written about Crazy Otto’s before. It is something of a landmark in Herkimer and one of our favorite spots. We rarely get to go out to breakfast together, so we were happy to take the opportunity last Friday.

For anyone who missed my previous posts about Crazy Otto’s or for anybody who has forgotten, the diner is an authentic 1950s trailer. It’s been on the corner of West Albany and North Main streets for as long as we’ve lived in the area. In 2006 it was taken over by Scott and Kim Tranter, who changed the name from Empire Diner to Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner. You can read the history of Crazy Otto’s on the menu.

Steven and I got there around nine Friday morning. It wasn’t too crowded, being a weekday morning. We got a booth right away and as usual sat enjoying the retro decor. We especially like all the license plates hung on almost every available surface. We gave them our Georgia plate for the purpose. I think it’s still the only Georgia plate they have, but I couldn’t be sure. That’s a lot of plates to check.

After much debate I ordered an egg sandwich of bacon, egg and cheese on a kaiser roll, one of my favorite breakfasts. Steven chose a waffle with eggs and bacon. We discussed our upcoming adventure while we waited for our food. Everything was delicious, as usual.

As we were walking back to our car, a rap on the window called us back in. Our friends Phyllis and Jim were about to have breakfast. As you can see, Crazy Otto’s is patronized by many people of discriminating taste. We were tempted to sit down and have another breakfast, or at least some more coffee, but we had adventures to get on with. We chatted for a few minutes before continuing with our day.

Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner is located at 100 W. Albany St., Herkimer, NY. Phone number is 315-866-8801. For more information you can visit their website at www.CrazyOttosEmpireDiner.com. You can also like their Facebook page. I did.

Leave a comment

Posted in humor, local business, personal and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

NOT Chicken Cordon Bleu

Posted on October 21, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

On Sunday when I asked Steven what he would like for dinner, he said something involving cheese, because we had a brick of colby-jack in the refrigerator. I knew we also had deli ham, so I suggested Chicken Cordon Bleu.

“You’ll need to get some chicken,” he pointed out.

“I’m going to the store,” I said.

“And some cordon bleu.”

We had a good laugh speculating on which grocery aisle that would be in or if I would have to stop at the Cordon Bleu Store. We do get silly.

Full disclosure: what I make is not really Chicken Cordon Bleu. I’ve never followed a recipe, for one thing. I use chicken, cheese and ham. Beyond that, I make no promises. I was happy to find boneless skinless thighs at the grocery store. I have a problem with the breasts drying out. I suppose real chefs know how to combat that dilemma, and here we come to the ugly truth about me.

I was going to make spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer, so I put some frozen spinach in a colander and poured hot water over it to thaw it. Then I crushed up some garlic and set the timer for 15 minutes so it would reach its full health benefits (at our age, we need all the help we can get). I crushed enough for the dip and the chicken. I also grated enough cheese for both. I thought that was pretty efficient of me.

Digging out a bread pan to put the dip in, I remembered I had left my favorite bread pan at Mom and Dad’s house (where I had brought my spinach and artichoke dip for a gathering). It was originally her bread pan, so I guess I can’t feel too bad about it. Anyways, I have other bread pans. I ought to bake more bread, but that’s a whole other blog post.

I chopped up a jar of artichoke hearts then a yellow onion. I hadn’t put onion in the dip before, but it sounded good. I planned to put some in the chicken, too. Steven read somewhere that once you peel and chop an onion, you should use the whole thing right away, because onions become toxic if you save them. If that is truly the case, I probably ought to be dead by now. Just the same, I’ve been buying smaller onions lately.

Artichokes, spinach, garlic, onion and cheese in the pan, I added a couple spoonfuls of mayonnaise, stirred it good, and put in in an oven, which I had preheated to 350 degrees (I perhaps should have mentioned that at the beginning of the description, but I rather doubt any of my readers are cooking along with me as they read). We ate the dip with tortilla rounds. It was pretty good.

For the chicken I put the rest of the garlic and the rest of the onions in with the rest of the cheese and mixed it up. I took the chicken thighs and kind of spread them out. I can never make the pound them down thing work. I put the cheese mixture on along with some fresh mushroom slices I had. I folded the chicken over and rolled it in seasoned breadcrumbs as best as I could.

It was awkward. I dug around in the drawer for some toothpicks and made the resulting bundle as neat as I could. I put them in a pan and put the pan in the 350 degree oven. I baked them for about an hour, testing with a meat thermometer, because I didn’t want to cut them open and look for pink.

They tasted pretty good. I was halfway through mine before I realized I had left out the ham.

4 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Not Much of a Recipe

Posted on October 2, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Today I offer a cooking post. Sort of. Well, regular readers know this is not a cooking blog and I’m nobody’s chef. Still, this is Wuss-out Wednesday and I didn’t quite wuss out on dinner. I’m writing a post about it.

The post really started last week when Steven made rice for dinner. It was brown rice. He put a can of mushrooms in it. There was some left over.

The next step came on Sunday. I wanted to offer food to the lovely people who helped us with our fence, so I put some chicken legs in the crock pot. I put butter, honey and mustard in it. This is from a recipe I got out of a book put out by a church group. The recipe is actually for chicken wings baked in the oven, but I thought it would be fine for legs in the crock pot. I was right. Again, we had leftovers.

It was Steven’s idea to combine the chicken with the rice. I luckily remembered it and decided to implement it before he got home today. The first thing I did was to put the leftover chicken in the microwave to melt the butter, which had solidified. I guess I should have seen that coming.

I put the rice and mushrooms in my cast iron frying pan after spraying the pan with no-stick stuff. When the chicken was once again in liquid, I pulled some of the meat off the bones and added that. I poured in some of the liquid as well. I still have chicken leftover. I probably won’t write another blog post when we eat that.

Before I started heating it up, I added frozen spinach. I love spinach. Steven likes it when it is part of a dish, not just by itself. So I add it whenever it seems appropriate.

It did not take long for everything to heat through. Steven declared it tasty. I hope my readers will declare the blog post OK.

5 Comments

Posted in cooking, humor, personal, Wuss Out Wednesday and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Dining Dilemma

Posted on June 3, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Why is it that as soon as you make up your mind to save some money, the only thing that sounds good for dinner is take-out?

As I write this (using ballpoint pen and a spiral notebook) (I’ll type it into my computer later, if this turns out to be usable) (and I guess it did; always feel so time-warpy when I write these things), I am sitting in the laundromat watching my laundry tumble and getting hungry. I certainly do not have the energy to go home and fix something worthy of a cooking post. I question if I even have the wherewithal to manage scrambled eggs or grilled cheese. A raw cheese sandwich? Can’t face it.

In the meantime, I have a blog post to write and I’m too hungry to think about anything beyond how hungry I am. Before I started writing this, I felt my brain was so fuzzy from lack of nourishment that I would not be able to write anything at all. Proved myself wrong on that one. I daresay I’m wrong about not being able to fix anything to eat. I could probably go home, pull out a frying pan and whip up something grand. Then I could write a blog post about it. I am da woman!

Or is that just a hunger-induced delusion?

There are a number of very find dining establishments handily located relative to where I am now. In fact, we can look out the window at one of them and get the phone number to order ahead on my cell phone. We don’t have a menu, but I happen to know they have delicious garlic wings and antipasto salad. Will we succumb to temptation? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Just kidding, I won’t make you wait (as if the issue was even in doubt to begin with). While I was writing the previous paragraph, Steven made the call to Sorrento’s. Hurry up, laundry!

Leave a comment

Posted in dining, humor, personal and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Fun at Fly Creek

Posted on May 16, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Any place that offers free samples is an OK place in my book. At the top of the list is the Fly Creek Cider Mill.

You can walk around the sales floor and sample dips, sauces, salsas and more. You can also try the hard cider and apple wine, if you’re over 21, which I am. If you’re hungrier than samples will satisfy, there is a snack bar. On a recent trip with a family group, some people in the group were that hungry.

“But if you buy something inside, you can get 10 percent off at the snack bar,” I told them. “You can have some free samples to hold you over.” I was out-voted. That was OK. The snack bar offers some pretty tasty stuff, and I saved room for samples.

The fellow at the wine tasting bar was very knowledgeable. I learned that true ice wine is made when the fruit has frozen before being picked. Some unscrupulous winemakers freeze the fruit after picking and fall it ice wine, but the Apple Wine we sampled was the real thing. Very sweet, definitely a dessert wine, in case you wanted to know.

After some sampling, we went upstairs to admire gifts and decorations. I’m not exactly ready to think about Christmas yet, but they sure do have some pretty stuff.

One of my favorite things to do at the cider mill is to feed the ducks, geese and chickens. Several vending machines dispense a handful of corn for a quarter. I also gathered some corn from the ground, where people had dropped it. Waste not, want not. I especially like to go up on the deck and toss corn into the pond for the ducks to dive for.

I usually go to the Fly Creek Cider Mill several times a year. For more information you can visit their website at www.flycreekcidermill.com. You can also Like them on Facebook. I did.

Leave a comment

Posted in area attractions, cider mill, Fly Creek, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

A Classy Dinner

Posted on April 15, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Steven and I used to eat dinner out more frequently, often so that I would have a topic for a blog post. Unfortunately, we have fallen out of the habit. I think the last time we went was over a month ago, for Steven’s birthday. When our friend, Tracy, visited last weekend, I thought it might be time to go out again.

We decided to go to the Herkimer Elks Lodge, where they serve dinner on Friday nights. As I told Tracy, I think it used to be a Friday Fish Fry, but now it is — no offense to all you real fish fries — classier. The food is by Dominick Scalise of Dominick’s Deli and there is a pretty good menu to pick from.

We found a good parking space right on Mary Street. I didn’t notice if the parking lot was completely full, but it may well have been. These dinners are popular. On the way in Steven purchased tickets for a raffle they were holding.

We were taken right to a table and given menus to peruse. I went into the bar to get a glass of wine. That is another good thing about eating at the Elks, good drink prices. The bartender even let me sample a little of the Riesling, to make sure it was dry enough for me (it was).

Tracy ordered salmon, which looked delicious. I chose baked haddock, which was quite tasty. Under no Catholic obligation to avoid meat, Steven had pork chops, his favorite. The service was great and the food was yummy.

We greatly enjoyed our evening out, and even took home leftovers (so I got to try the pork chops — excellent). The Elks Lodge is located at 124 Mary St., Herkimer, NY. Phone number is 315-866-1439.

Leave a comment

Posted in dining, Elks, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Big Smiles and Full Stomachs

Posted on March 4, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

One thing Steven and I had been especially looking forward to on our weekend off together was going out to breakfast. We used to have breakfast out together all the time, but when our work schedules changed, it became a thing of the past. We set out Saturday morning with big smiles and empty stomachs.

We went to Liz’s Diner on Main Street in Mohawk, the previous home of the Mohawk Diner. Donna and Liz greeted us as we walked in the door. We remarked on how happy we were to be there.

Donna brought us coffee. We admired the chicken-themed decor as we perused the menu on the wall. They offered some tempting specials, but I just wanted scrambled eggs and toast. Steven got eggs over medium with bacon and toast. However, it was toast from Heidelberg bread. Yum! I got Italian while Steven had peasant.

As we ate, we were amused by the interactions of Liz, Donna and the regulars sitting at the counter. Two men with long beards were especially amusing. After they left, Donna told us she called them ZZ Top. I thought that was very appropriate. I like ZZ Top.

We liked our breakfast, too. It was a great start to our weekend. Liz’s is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., serving breakfast and lunch. I noticed the lunch menu on the wall. Some of the selections looked pretty tasty. I may have to go back, even if I can’t bring Steven.

Leave a comment

Posted in breakfast, diner, humor, local business, personal and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Soup du Cold Jour

Posted on January 31, 2014 by mohawkvalleygirl

Last night I improvised a soup I thought might be worth a blog post.

I used a smaller pot than I usually make soup in, because I have a tendency to make huge pots of soup that don’t all get eaten. I chopped up a half a yellow onion I had in the fridge and put it in olive oil. I added a green pepper and put the lid on tightly. This is my trick when I cook things in olive oil. The moisture from the vegetables stay in the pot and they end up getting steamed or even boiled if there are enough vegetables.

I crushed some garlic and set the timer for 15 minutes, so it could breathe, or whatever it does. Then I added it to the pot.

When the pepper and onions were soft I added chicken broth, lentils and a can of Great Northern beans. I had originally thought to use black beans, but my back was bothering me and I just couldn’t keep bending over to search the cabinet. It is a most inconvenient cabinet.

When I had been planning the soup in my head, I had thought a can of diced tomatoes would be good, but I did not have any of those. Must remember to add that to the grocery list. I put in basil, oregano, lemon pepper, cumin and parsley flakes. Then I just let it simmer.

I added more chicken broth as some cooked away. It ended up being a not very brothy soup, but it tasted pretty good.

Steven put the leftovers in the freezer, so now we have that to look forward to on a future cold day. Maybe with some kind of hearty bread. I guess winter does have its compensations.

Leave a comment

Posted in cooking, humor, personal and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →