Weekend Notes and a Restaurant Review

This weekend was fun...a little different than what we had planned, but still fun.  It started out Friday night with a fun gathering with friends Becky, Sharon and families. We had pizza and a cookie exchange at our house. We all have girls, and they had a good time playing dress up, house and all of those fun girl things. They took a break for dinner, but otherwise they played all evening and us big kids had a great chance to visit. Their kids were all so well behaved. I knew they were already, but I was still impressed!

Jeff and I had planned to do date night on Saturday night, but about midday Saturday, Lexi came down with a fever. She had no other symptoms, but we definitely didn't want to leave her with a sitter. So we opted to stay home and of course at about the time we would have been leaving to go out, she had no fever and seemed much better! However, it has been going up and down since then, so I still think it was a good choice. Still have no idea what is going on with her. No cold, coughing, upset tummy or anything. It seems like my girls do this every so often and I have no idea what brings it on. 

With date night cancelled, Jeff and I decided we should still treat ourselves to some take out. We tried Jimmy Johns's for the first time and it was excellent! I am a sandwich girl and would choose a good sandwich over pasta, pizza or lots of other things almost anytime. Well, Jimmy John's is definitely what I would call a good sandwich. The bread is great which is always key to getting a great sub. It's got a crisp crust on the outside, but is very chewy when you bite into it. The toppings were all very fresh and I think the price is very reasonable too. For an 8", it's $5.50. Since I knew I would do a review, I of course took pictures. :)

Lizette and I also had an outing to Craft Warehouse on Saturday which turned out to be super fun. We picked a craft for her to do along with some supplies for me. She was able to grab one of the child size shopping carts decorated with feather boas and she was thrilled with that. Although, she wanted to take off the boas (I guess she's got simple taste). So we pushed our carts around together, gathering up fun projects to do and we both left the store excited to go home and start creating. (I know, I know, I did ban crafts a while back, but I guess I couldn't give them up altogether.)

Today was pretty low key, but it ended on a high note when I actually made a good dinner. I found a good recipe for chicken salad sandwiches on the Real Mom Kitchen blog. I decided to give it a try even though this was a risky proposition for Jeff. He doesn't like celery and is very picky about his chicken. I did my best to make sure the chicken was cooked perfectly and the celery was chopped extra small. In the end, he loved it! He actually scarfed it down. Winner, winner chicken dinner...literally! It's always nice to find a good dish we can add into our dinner mix.

Then, Jeff got a couple of cute videos of Lizette singing the preschool songs they performed at their Halloween party. Pretty cute!

Looking forward to this week because there is not a ton of stuff going on! I will finish up with my transcribing job, hopefully tomorrow and that will be a bit of stress off my plate. I've been staying up until like 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning to work on it because it's the only chance I really have to work. I'll look forward to sleep again! Then on to getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Have a great week!

Restaurant Review #4 and #5 and a few other tidbits...

I ate out twice for dinner this weekend. Excessive, I know! It was nice though. I didn't take my camera to either place, so you will have to live with my descriptions.

The first destination was Tucano's in Boise where I enjoyed a lovely dinner with the 'Lambs'. The 'Lambs' are two great friends of mine. If you want to figure out how we arrived at this nickname, here is a clue: Think about a particular wood product that I used to sell. Second clue: this nickname has nothing to do with plywood. Those of you who have only known me for a few years had no idea I had such a colorful past in wood products, did you?  :)

Okay so on to the review. I thought Tucano's was fantastic! It is an all you can eat buffet and very well done. You can opt to have the salad bar only which would be enough to feed a king, or you can add the Churrasco meat selection for extra. The meat was great, but I think if I were to go back again I would just order the salad bar. There were so many yummy varieties of foods to choose from including deep fried bananas, yummy rolls, pastas, risotto, soups, and of course great salads. This is a fun and different dining experience because they bring the varieties of meat to your table for you to choose what you want to sample. You can visit their website here: Tucano's. The website includes their menu and pricing.

My next dining experience was tonight at Smash Burger in Meridian. (They also have a location in Boise). I was not overly impressed. I ordered the Classic Burger but switched out the American cheese for Sharp Cheddar. I also ordered sweet potato fries and a diet coke. The burger was good, but not outstandingly awesome. I was disappointed that the sweet potato fries were completely overpowered by the rosemary that they seasoned them with. When I order sweet potato anything, I simply want sweet. I think they would do better to leave them plain and offer some type of brown sugar or honey sauce either on the side or drizzled on top. Just my opinion, but I didn't really care for the fries. The Diet Coke was perfectly carbonated. :)

On to the other tidbits...

Tonight was date night. We went to Smash Burger for dinner and then saw the movie Contagion. Have you seen it? After seeing it, I never want to open another door or touch another ATM machine or touch anything for that matter! I want to ramp up our food storage and hide some money in my mattress. I thought the movie was well done, but I am easily freaked out by movies such as these.

Another tidbit: I heard a rumor. Just a rumor that IKEA might be coming to Boise in 2013. Do you realize how this would completely change my life? I love IKEA. Love it. I so hope that the rumors are true.

And now for the last tidbit. I took away most of Lizette's toys today! I think I have officially turned into Mommy Dearest. Lizette is an absolute sweetheart, but I think I have done her a disservice by spoiling her a little too much. Lately a little bit of what I call an attitude has begun to emerge. So I took 90% of her toys away and put them in the closet. I told her that in order to begin to "earn" her toys back, she must go an entire day with no back talk, no disrespecting mommy and daddy, or talking rudely to anyone. After each day of doing that, she can pick one small toy to put back into her mix. After an entire week of good behavior, she can pick a big toy or set of toys. I realize this is maybe a little extreme or maybe I should have just not allowed her to get spoiled in the first place, but this is the best I could come up with. Her toys are sort of a big deal to her and I want her to appreciate what she has a little more as well as hopefully think about how she treats others. I must say, this parenting thing is very difficult sometimes! I don't think I'm going to be winning any awards for mother of the year, but hopefully my approach will work. I'll keep you posted.

Restaurant Review #3 - The Creperie

It has been a while since I've posted a restaurant review, but thanks to our new babysitting situation, I should be able to get out to dinner more often from now on!  

Jeff and I had a date night last weekend and we chose The Creperie at the Edward's Theatre complex on Overland as our restaurant for the evening. I had eaten dessert there the night before with Marsha and Angel. It was so good that I wanted to go back again for dinner.  

This place is great! The food and service were fantastic and prices are very reasonable. You can get Creme Brûlée for $3. What?!! They had me at hello, or I should say, they had me at Creme Brûlée. Love that stuff! (Even though I didn't order it because I had to try the crepes first. I'll get the Creme Brûlée on my next visit.)

Anyway, here is a link to their website where they have all of their menu items listed along with prices and photos of each item.  http://thecreperieboise.com/   It is a great website.  Full disclosure: my brother in law Thayne built their website for them.  That is why their website is so hip and totally user friendly.  He does a great, great job. If you are ever in need of a website, you can find him here: http://www.antishrillwebdesign.com/.  By the way, I'm not just trying to butter Thayne up because I want him to help me with my website. Seriously. Who would do that?  

Okay, back to the Creperie. I would highly recommend this place. It's different, fun, reasonable and most importantly very tasty!  

I had the La Cochon (bacon and cheese) and Jeff had The Islands (chicken, pineapple, cheese and a special sauce) for our savory entrees.  Both great!

For our dessert crepes, I had the Citron and Jeff had the Nutella.  Both were very, very good.  The Citron was a great, light dessert.  Eating the Nutella made me want to start buying Nutella to have at home.  

I would give The Creperie an A rating. These guys can also be found at the downtown market on Saturday mornings. Check them out!

Restaurant Review #2 - Guido's

For our second restaurant adventure, Jeff and I tried Guido's in downtown Boise. It is located at 235 North 5th Street just down from the Flying M Coffee House.

Guido's serves up New York style pizza along with a small assortment of salads, stromboli and sausage rolls. The menu is simple but offers most anything you would want from a pizza joint. The atmosphere is very relaxed. Definitely nothing fancy and not somewhere to go for a 'nice' dinner.

Okay, on to the food. It was great! The crust was cooked just how I like it. Thin and slightly chewy. A couple of bites tasted a little burnt, but I think that's just a matter of taste as thin crust pizza often times has a slight charcoal taste to it. Jeff ordered straight up pepperoni and I ordered a version of their white pizza with sausage, tomato and spinach. The sausage was not the best I've ever had, but the rest of the pizza was fantastic.

Prices per slice range anywhere from $1.80 to $2.05. You can order a large cheese and basil pizza for $12.50. Not bad!

If I were to give Guido's a rating, I would give it a B+. They would have gotten an A if my sausage would have been better. I would recommend this as a great place to grab a quick and inexpensive bite if your in the downtown area.

Restaurant Review #1 - Donnie Mac's

I am starting a new segment on our blog called Restaurant Reviews. Original title, I know. Jeff and I have decided (well, I decided) that whenever we go out for date night, we will try a new restaurant that we haven't tried before. I am so excited about this! I love trying different foods and there are so many restaurants in Boise with great reputations. Can't wait to get to all of them!

First stop: Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine located at 1515 W. Grove Street in downtown Boise.



When you first walk in to this place, you get an instant impression that this isn't going to be your normal restaurant experience. From the eclectic decor to the 60 something hipster looking guy playing live guitar music.

I had heard the food was very good and could not wait to try it. Their menu is not huge, but has plenty to offer any appetite. It looks to be pretty basic American fare offering things like burgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese, several salads, some fried chicken dishes, a few sandwiches and shakes.

The mac and cheese caught my eye right off and I ordered the kids size portion. (Which was plenty by the way! I couldn't even finish that and I can put down food with the best of them.)

Jeff ordered a double cheeseburger. We both chose the sweet potato fries for our sides.


Verdict? Awesome! Both meals were great. The mac and cheese was perfectly cheesy and Jeff said his burger was really, really good. He is very picky, so this is saying something. We both liked the sweet potato fries. In fact, I think that was my favorite part of the meal. They serve the fries with a sweet and tangy sauce that is great. I kept thinking that it tasted familiar. I don't know if there is a hint of brown sugar in the sauce that resembles having sweet potatoes and brown sugar during the holidays or what. Anyway, it was good.

The prices are very reasonable. My meal was $4.99 since it was a smaller portion. I think Jeff's was $7.99 or something. We also ordered shakes which were $4.50 and very yummy.

Next time we have family in town or something, this is definitely going to be top on our list of places to take them. It's fun, different and the food is great.