Racoon Saloon - Chicken Laura

by request... We knew the Racoon Saloon had great burgers and fries, but dinner is even better. On the price scale I would say it's comparable to going to Outback for a filet. It's the local bar with a flair - most people are dressed up. Some ladies came in with fur coats on -I choked on my beer. It was pretty funny. I was wearing my work clothes so I wasn't out of place. It's not a fancy place other wise. Chicken Laura is chicken breast dipped in egg batter and sauteed in white wine lemon sauce and then the three slices (one breast sliced into 3 sections) are layered with freshly cut tomato (it was pretty beefy so it held up well) and fresh mozzarella with basil on top. It was very good. Fresh mozzarella melts funny though - makes it very chewy, but the flavor is good. It was very good - totally homemade. Not that I would try it at home. It came with mashed potatoes on the side and aspargus. The aspargus was really Mark's, but he wanted my veggies which was basically zuchinni and squash with onions. Mark got the prime rib and it came with the bone and must have been at least a pound. It was huge.
Had my leftovers last night and will eat Mark's tonight - he has a roast beef dinner at the fire hall and the wives don't go - guess they know better and don't want to get stuck doing the dishes?

Salt vs. Dinner

So we found out Thursday morning that it takes a lot of salt to melt the ice on our hill. Note to us... DO NOT SHOVEL WET SNOW THAT will just refreeze overnight. Big mistake. Just how much salt did we use? Mark mentioned that is was 100 pounds of salt. I know because I went and bought the 2nd 50 pound bag. Thank goodness for True Value being open at the crack of dawn and also for the really nice guy who loaded it in my truck. My car is all wheel drive and make it to the top of the hill so I was sent on my errand. Mark's is just a normal car.
So where does dinner fit in this mess? Well it was a bad day for both of us so we decided to go out to dinner and it was too late to cook. Dinner was less than the salt and it was a good dinner. Not just a burger and fries or a pizza. We are talking Chicken Laura and Prime Rib with potatoes and veggies. Racoon Saloon for the soul.
TGIF!

Snow, Sleet, Rain, Snit, Ice

All of the above have been here today - it's plain nasty out. The good part is that everything is closed so the roads are lightly traveled. Of course I had to work - we don't ever get a snow day. It was very quiet so it's not all that bad. I didn't find it very slippery, but the trip across the bridge was a nail biter. I did remember to breath. Here is a picture from the summer of our walk across the bridge. This is one of the places that I might see a sunrise now when I drive to work.

So the question of the night - will Mr. Snowplow driver ice us in or will it all melt overnight. I'm guessing an ice-in!

Albany River Rats Hockey!

Always a new experiene to check out another AHL team. Seeing how we have to pay for hockey tickets now days we are a bit more picky about where we are going. The River Rats are no exception. The night started good with free parking - maybe it's too cold for people to collect your money? Mark then found a scalper and being it was almost game time he just wanted to unload them and was easily talked down to $10 a ticket. All the tickets are the same price there and we had good seats at mid-rink.
You know it's going to be a good game when the gloves and helmets come flying off right after tip off. Fight night! It was hilarious. 5 minute penalties for both teams 3 seconds into the game. Old grudge being settled was our guess. They let them go at it at least two minutes. Entertaining. Later on in the game two other guys started to go at it and one guy ripped the other's jersey off - you would have thought he sucker punched his mama or something. He got all upset and stopped fighting. I guess you have to have your shirt attached to your protective gear to play and his got ripped. He was whinning to the refs.
Albany seemed a bit boondocky or behind the times with the entertainmet. They had cheerleaders who drew laughs - not the best of the bunch. The highlight for the night was a "Tan Girl Contest" - you know to see who is the tanniest and prettiest girl. Not joking! They had them strut up and down the stairs with a spotlight on them. Three girls per period and they would stop hockey to do it. I think it was during commerical breaks, but it was odd. I was dying laughing as their pants were falling down and underwear was showing. Short skirts and tight shorts were all the rage too. Dare I mention it was 7 degree's out and they had on tank tops? They were not pretty, but the group behind us had a friend in the contest and they were encouraging her to do something other than strut - you know like slide down the bannister. They really said that! This is the same girl who asked how many quarters were there and were they all 18 minutes. First of all they are periods and second of all they are 20 minutes each. Clearly they were there for the Tan Girl contest - not a bright bunch at all. Who the hell tans anymore? duh. This is something we would have never seen in Grand Rapids. Did I mention it was "boys night out" for the theme. Maybe that helps makes sense of all this?
The River Rats won - that means that Rochester lost - Mark's favorite team. It was good hockey and that is all that mattered.

Cheesecake Factory: A+

Our trip to Albany was a success. The wait at 4:40 pm for a table was only 40 minutes. They sucker you in by saying 15 to 30 and by the time you get to 30 minutes you are so close you stick it out. I would wait even longer truth be known. They did have a few new items on a special menu. Hopefully they add my new favorite to the real menu! I was brave and went for the Chicken Belliagio. They use the same chicken from the Chicken Costoletta, which is pounded very thin and has a crispy coating. Underneath the chicken they put basil pasta (think pesto, but not garlicky), a few dallops of parmesan cream sauce and finally a little argula and proscutto was on top. It was excellent. Quite a chick dish. Yummy! Mark went for the usual Chicken Costoletta - excellent as always. We planned on leftovers and got side salads to start. Loved the beets on top - they were shredded and added good flavor. No dessert - always way too full and by then it sounds like it would push me over the edge. Maybe next time. No idea how I would choose one anyway - way too many choices! Chocolate this, fudgy that, peanut butter fluffy, or strawberries on top. I can't decide!

Cheesecake Factory Here We Come!

We have never lived anywhere with a Cheesecake Factory within an hour so going there is still a special treat for us. Even here it's over an hour. I'll take any excuse to go near one. Generally it's a trip to a real mall - the mall in Newburgh and the mall in Poughkeepsie don't count as malls in my opinion. Just big shopping centers indoors. I mean what mall has a Target in it?
Mark has some birthday "coupons" to use so tonight we are going to Cheesecake for dinner and then off to a hockey game in Albany. The Rochester Amerks (his favorite AHL team other than the Griffins) is playing there. It's about an hour plus a few to get there so close enough for a date night once in a while. Last time we were there we hit PF Changs - another favorite - and while it was busy we got in in under 30 minutes. I heard the hostess tell someone that they sometimes have 5 hour waits - maybe this was in Connecticut... wrong city. Anyway my point is who the heck would wait 5 hours to eat dinner? Ever hear of reservations? They do take them. I think it says a lot for a city when a wait for good food is that long - your restaurants suck and there is room to open a few more good ones! I mean PF's is good Chinese and not over the top $ wise, but 5 hours. Get a life or get take out.
So the big debate ... what do I order? Something new or the same thing we always get. I'm feeling brave so I think I'll be checking out the menu a bit more closely.

What I Like

There are many things I am liking about our new area. It's been almost one year since we took our house hunting trip. We have had tons of snow this year so it's much prettier than that weekend we visited. Everything looks much better buried under white clean snow. Since it's winter and I'm trapped inside I might as well get in my daily blog. And TV is boring me beyond tears at the moment. I wish I could take pictures of what I see on the way to work and going home - it is truly cool. So I have to be at work way too early and a perk in the east is that sun is coming up now days around 7:00 am. Perfect timing for catching some great sunrises. The sun is usually rising to my left behind the mountains - they are not hills! so anyway... Today it was pink and blue streaks - Monday it was orange. The colors vary and I now understand what my neighbor meant when he said he likes to watch the sunrises from his bed in the morning - they are retired and have lived here for ages. It is quite the site and they have a much better view of the valley from the top of their house that we do.
On my way home I take the long way (ok it's like a minute longer...) and I get a view of the entire valley with the river and sometimes the sun setting as I am heading west. The mountains suround the river and make it look huge. The bridge I cross is two miles long or more like two long miles and if traffic isn't going 65 when they should only be going 35 I can get in a good look at the view. It is pretty awe inspiring and always reminds me I have vacation days to use. A much better"scenic" ride than what I had in GR driving down Division every day!
so where is spring? the countdown to Florida is on! just over two weeks from now we will be flying for warmth!

Mani is our Marley

After watching Marley and Me this weekend it's nice to know that we are not the only one's with a naughty pet. Let me point out a few similarities. He eats anything that is edible and loves his food. Spill it on the floor and he's all over it. He has ruined countless bags - not a couch exactly, but still annoying. When he wants your attention and you are not giving it watch out. Last time we went away on vacation for two nights he knocked a candle and jar to the floor in the kitchen. What a mess. From now on if it's more than one night he is off to "cat camp" - aka the vet's back room in a cage. Lately we've been hiding his food feeder during the day so he and Cali can't "snack" all day long. They stick their little paws up the shoot and pull the food out. I think we need something that is more along the lines of a candy machine, but anyway they are naughty (and getting fat I might add!) Sunday morning - very early - like 5:00 am we heard a noise coming from downstairs. Yes, you guessed it - Mani is knocking stuff off the counter. Pennies, camera, wallet and really anything that he can paw at. Lesson learned - clear the counter off at night.
His most naughty thing is peeing when we go away on vacation. Sometimes he will quit peeing and other times he will pee in the corners, on clothes, on bags and generally anywhere you don't want cat pee. Wait am I hearing you say cat pee anywhere is bad? It is! At this point he is on borrowed time because if he stops peeing again or has those nasty stones then who knows what they will do next. He's already gender neutral in way more ways than the normal fixed cat. Truely an It. And truley our Marley.
If you haven't seen the movie go see it -it's cute. Or at least read the book. It references Michigan a couple times and Jennifer was wearing CMU shorts in a clip.

Skype away!

so we have Skype now - tips are welcome! I was able to find mom and Julie. Then I got distracted.... It looks interesting and easy to use. Guess this means I need to do more than take a shower and get dressed on the weekends. Joking!

Wii Age Update

Yesterday I was 30! The day before 31 - and the day before 56. I guess I didn't get what I was supposed to do with my balance. Too funny.

Game Stop Visit

I think it was actually and EB Games, but either way same store. We went to see Marley and Me and then had some birthday gift cards to use at Game Stop so we went there to buy some Wii items. Thanks Sean (and family) and Ryan (and family)! Mark scored SimCity, Tiger Woods golf game and '09 Football something or other. I am not a gamer can you tell? I love my Wii Fit and bowling. I can do a mean hula hoop and have the ski jump game mastered. We also broke down and got a new laptop - Mark has a friend at Best Buy and we got hooked up with a techie - a very good techie at that. So we now have the webcam thingydo. Much exploring to do. Tips are welome. I'm so excited to finally have all the keys on the keyboard again.
Back to the movie experience - good movie - I love Jennifer Aniston - I know passe probably, but she was good, Marley was funny and naughty and Owen was a good match for Jennifer - that was her name in the movie too. Weird. While waiting in line we met some huge movie buff. I was not looking for advice, but Mark was asking me questions and she felt the need to make sure we knew the answers. LOL! Do I tell you now or later that this was a 10:30 movie? AM that is! Never gone that early in my life. So this lady tells us the movie is $4.12 and with taxes it is $5. I can do the math - that is 88 cents in taxes to see a movie or 20%. Hmmm... She was telling people which movies were good and bad and she had some special deals card. Clearly a movie expert.
Next up installing our wireless internet router. Supposedly this will allow us to play Wii online. Gotta love that one!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Today is Mark's favorite day of the year - his birthday! I made his cake last night and he even got to have a piece with ice cream - we had a repeat tonight and I sang my version of Happy Birthday - it's very short in case you are wondering. I almost had a cake disaster twice yesterday - first the oil was a bit old and then I had no frosting. Mark picked up the oil and I made the frosting - I had some chocoate squares on hand and it was very good! Yummy fudgy topping!
And the gift... well let's just say that is not my strong suite because I've been so busy this month, but I did manage to come up with something while he was off at drill tonight so he will get it tomorrow and open his gifts then. I was late coming home from work and we made it a pizza night so he could make it to drill on time. Drill is his weekly volunteer firefighter event and it can last from one to three hours. Tonight is three hours - quite the trooper to be going on his birthday!

My Mii age is...

or at least was 46 when I started playing Wii Fit - today I was 39 - not too bad in my opinion in less than 2 weeks of Wii play. Mark thinks my Mii even looks like me - need to grow out my hair a bit to make those pony tails for real, but still she is pretty cute. LOL! If you don't have Wii Fit let me explain something about it. The more you play the more things it unlocks for you to do. Even if you love to head the soccer ball or ski (like me) it seems to have a predetermined order of unlocking things. Today it unlocked this really cute game where a penguin - my Mii in a penguin suit has to balance on an ice berg and catch fish to eat. It's hilarious so much so that I think it really is a game. I did pretty good the first time, but then not so hot. My best game is the ski jump and downhill skiing through the flags. I've gotten to the advance stage and it still needs to go a bit faster I think. Now we aren't even going to talk about those balance games - not so hot at those. The bubble girl down the river game - I stink at. Pop that silly bubble about half way down the river at this point. And running - I'm a pro. Whatever. You actually run with the remote in your pocket or in my case tucked in my waistband of my shorts. So far so good and a great way to rack up those points. Need those points to unlock even more. Sorta fun for a video game. Wii later!

Mission Accomplished!

I had some goals for this weekend - namely getting the garage organized enough to fit in both cars (check!) and putting some pictures and stuff on the walls (check, check)! Handy man Mark also put the mirror on our dresser - we've had this mirror since just before we were married and in one house it didn't fit in the room and the next house the dresser that it would go with was in the guest room and we never got around to attaching it. You see to attach it you have to use a drill and we prefer a hammer for most projects. So we now have a mirror on the dresser in our bedroom and Mark used the drill. This means I won't be keeping stuff on top of the dresser any more. Why you ask? LOL! The junk reflects in the mirror making the mess look twice as bad as it is!
For dinner tonight we are making chili dogs - I even found a recipe to make the chili sauce. I'm getting braver and love the Food Network website. I first googled Pixie coney sauce to see if there was a knock off out there. (do I hear Julie gagging? She is on the Wall Of Fame there for eating way too many coney dogs in one hour in high school. I think six. I never tried...) I didn't see one, but I did see a comment by one person that the show "World's Dirtiest Jobs" should come visit the Pixie because cleaning those chili pans and grease wells is the nastiest job in the world. That's enough to make me laugh! Obviously they haven't had too many jobs in life. So anyway I did find a good recipe and it's now simmering on low. The secret... pulse the cooked meat and onions in a food processor and then add the saucy stuff. It looks like the real thing - Mark will be the ultimate tester. I'm hoping it turns out! If it's anything like pixie sauce I will share the recipe.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We are getting hammered once again. I guess they do get some snow here way more than we thought. First lots of ice earlier this week and now 10-12 inches tonight into tomorrow. Those who didn't clean off their driveways are screwed because they will now have the ice base below the snow. Mark is loving it and getting lots of use out of his new snowblower! For the first time ever since we have been married we have both cars in the garage at the same time. This is a huge accomplishment! When we lived on Walsh it was a one car garage. When we lived on Jefferson it was a two stall, but for cars from the 1950's so our cars were too big to fit in at the same time. And here... well we had it filled with stuff up until last week when we had the door openers installed and cleaned out one side. I just knew I could fit them both if I shuffled some around and it worked! They fit! This is exciting!
Next is to finish up the last bedroom... maybe next weekend.

Random thoughts ...

We are at the peak of winter and I'm bored. So let's just blabber a bit. First of all I swear the lady at the chinese food place I go to every week probably calls me Kung Pao Broccoli. I'm sure that's my nickname. You know it's bad when you call and ask for Kung Pau Chicken with no meat and broccoli instead and you forget to mention that you want the white rice and she remembers that I like white and not fried rice. Today she didn't even ask my name. When I walked in she immediately rang up my order and told me my total. And I was worried I'd end up with the fried rice - which for some reason doesn't go with this dish that well. It wasn't as good as normal - nothing is this week - I have a head cold and everything tastes weird. I did eat all the rice for once and tossed most of the rest of it. Anything sugary is out - it just does not have flavor. Olives are good - salty is in. Meat is out - funky textures. You would think I'd just give in and not eat, but no I keep trying to find something with flavor.
and the cats.... We forgot Mani's food the last time he stayed at the vet and he's now totally out - has been for three days. Don't worry I'm still feeding him just not his special C/D diet food. I consider it his special treat to have a break from the diet right? I'm sure this will rack up yet another vet bill as a result of the break in the diet. Yesterday I came home and was met by super friendly meowing kitties. I immediately figured out it was because the feeder was totally out of food and they hadn't been "fishing" all day for snacks out of the chute. So I let them split a can of wet stuff. They hate the Iams so I thought for sure if they were hungry they would eat it. I can't throw it out and Stephanie now lives to far away to take our donations. Poor Mani takes one bite and I get the look. "what the hell is this?" meowwww.... It was the most pathetic sound. Of course they both finally ate it. And today... forgot to get the food again. Bad. Tomorrow I have to remember to stop and pick it up or it will be an awful weekend with early wake up calls to "feed me". Gotta love the cat food feeder! Best invention yet.
And finally I'm liking this new line up of TV shows - nothing but junk, but at least there isn't a writers strike so there aren't a bunch of re-runs. The Bachelor is interesting and the Biggest Loser is the biggest show ever. I swear some of those people purposely gain weight before they arrive on the show. I mean losing 25 pounds in one week. Really is that possible? I had to laugh at the beginning because they chastised viewers for plunking down with a bowl of ice cream (or something along those lines) to watch the show. I mean how did Jillian know what was on my mind? It didn't sound good until she mentioned it. I never did go get it, but still it sounded mighty good. I just wish they hadn't sent 9 people home the first week I was excited to see them get in some good fights. There are some hot heads on there this season. Bring it on!

Magical Buttons!

This particular magical button will open our garage doors! Woohoo - big day in the Sens household! Several items were left undone by our builder and we've slowly been getting to the list of things to be done. This has been at the top of the list since the first big storm last month. That was our inspiration actually. Since we have a double garage - one side for my car and one side for all the boy toys we will have two magical buttons, but all I care about is being able to park my car inside when it's icy outside. They are being installed at the moment and just in time for another snow/ice storm. I'm hearing it might be ice, but hoping it will be cold enough to just be 4 inches of snow. Monday we woke up to a bright sunny day and an icy driveway. It took half our salt supply to get it melted enough for both of us to make it up to the top. And how did we find out it was icy? Mark took a slip-n-slide ride to the bottom of the hill. I'm not the only klutz around here. Don't worry he's ok! Yay for a late Christmas present!

Weekend in Conneticut

This is where I'm really missing my camera - I got some fun shots at the hockey game in Hartford. The Griffins unfortunately lost, but the night was still fun. We had dinner at the Big City Brewery Cafe near the Excel Center and it was very tasty. It sort of felt like we were walking into McFadden's in Grand Rapids, but that is where it ended. There were at least 4 open floors of seating and all sorts of character throughout the dining area. We split the French Onion soup - which was very, very good and a plate of sliders with sweet potato fries. Homemade burgers and rolls - couldn't have done better at home. The beer was also good and made onsite.
The Excel Arena is nothing like Van Andel, however the crowd really got into the game even without all the special effects you find at the Griffins - lots of dancing and the goal for most is to get on the camera while you are acting silly. Maybe next time they will win.
Saturday morning we left for Foxwoods MGM Casino, which was about an hour further down the road. It is in the middle of nowhere and the views are pretty cool as a result. We were on the 24th floor and could see for miles. Mark hit the casino floor and I hit the spa. If you had a spa service you could use all the pools, hot tubs and sauna's at no charge or you could pay $25. I choose the manicure and then made full use of the hot tub. They treat you right with fruit and bottled water and all sorts of current magazines - you know the ones you read while in line at the grocery store. I met back up with Mark for dinner at Al Dente which was at the casino next door. Great Italian food! We then went to see Jay Mohr - a comedian - who was the entertainment for the night. Lucky people that we are we got free tickets when we signed up for our Dream Card at the casino. Lucky I say because one of his headliners was better than him. He was ok, but we didn't know many of the people he was imitating and he really focused on Boston. It is a very nice casino to stay at and I loved the sheets - so soft! We ended out stay with breakfast at Junior's - which we have found in New York City. It was the best breakfast I've had since Real Food. I should have known since the cheesecake last time was to die for. So now we are back to reality and off to work in the morning.

Kicking off the New Year!

So I meant to post pictures of our dinner that we made on New Year's Eve, but our laptop took a turn for the worse and it appears will soon be replaced. Guess we talked about it one time too many and it heard us. Can't seem to find an operating system to even get it started up! back to dinner... Dinner was inspired by Tyler on the Foodnetwork and while good we have some tweeks for next time. The salt crusted steak was ok, but grilled is way better. We also made hashbrowns - the key is to squeeze out all the water. We also had a wedge salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, which was the best part of the meal. It was all topped it off with apple dumplings with ice cream courtesy of Hannafords. They have an awesome appetizer and dessert frozen food section. LOL! Seeing how we stayed home I also made special things on New Years Day. We got this really good cinnamon bread from Wegman's over Christmas and I think I have a new found love for french toast - it was very good. For lunch we started out with skillet deep dish Mexican pizza - a Rachel Ray special and it also will have a couple tweeks the next time around. It was however quite tasty with a cornbread crust (gotta love Jiffy in this case!) and topped with taco meat, cheese, jalepeno's, tomato's and red peppers. Next time we will use canned jalepeno's and also olives - and will make the crust thinner and bigger by using a smaller pan. I also made chicken taquito's later in the day and after seeing the reviews decided it would be best to make use of my food chopper after it was all cooked and before I rolled up the flour tortilla's - that was the key. I also baked rather than fried them and they turned out pretty good - need a better dipping sauce next time. The ranch pepper dip was tasty in the meantime and much easier than what Rachel was proposing I whip up. I have my limits. And what did I learn... the Foodnetwork has lots of great recipes and you should read the reviews before attempting them and also practice before feeding to others outside your family. All in all a good experience.