Restaurant Review: The Other Place

Jo has "Craft night" with friends & family once a month, and the rule is "No boys allowed". That means I have to leave the house on those Friday nights. It makes a good time for me to meet up with our son Chris for some Friday night dinner. We recently decided to try a place we'd never tried before...The Other Place in West Des Moines. Or, as it's also known...the O.P.
They were busy, with lots of TV's with games on.
We wanted pizza...and appetizers. We've actually been there twice now (I guess we like it!), so this is a compilation of our visits.
First, a look at the double-pepperoni pizza...

Both times, we were seated quickly. They have a lot of the tall tables with tall chairs (which I do not like...very hard to get comfortable, and they are never the right height to sit right!). But they also have shorter tables with chairs, and we've always gotten one.
They have a great selection of appetizers, so we tried the platter...onion rings, mozzarella sticks, breaded mushrooms, and breaded chicken tenders. Some tasty dipping sauces, too! This platter was very good and very filling. We won't be able to finish our pizza, but that's OK...we LOVE leftovers!

They also have a basket of seasoned fries. They're not heavily seasoned, and they are the perfect size that I like. And they're crinkle cut...my favorite! They arrived very hot, as a good basket of fries should.

This is the large sausage pizza. No shortage of cheese! They use a mild sausage, and I prefer a spicy sausage. That's why we chose the double pepperoni on our second visit.

The pizza is very good. Loaded with toppings. The only thing I think could be better is the crust. It seems almost like a frozen pizza crust. But, with all those great toppings, I can let an average crust slide.

Good service, and always there to refill the diet Mt. Dew. Chris and I give the Other Place 2 thumbs up. And the leftover pizza is great the next day!

Vacation Inspired Fish and Veggies

While we were in Mexico, I had some delicious fish. It was grouper with veggies. The chef was nice enough to tell me how to make it, so I thought I'd give it a try. This is how the dish was served in Cozumel. They put it all in a foil packet to steam it together. When it was almost done, open up the foil to let some of the moisture cook off.

I don't have any grouper, but we have some Swai fillets in the freezer. I got a couple out to thaw while I cut up some veggies...green pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and sliced onion.

The fish is thawed out and ready. I'm gonna throw in some cloves of garlic as well.

Here are the spices to use...chili powder, cumin, and paprika. We'll use a little salt & pepper as well.

I just sprinkled a little of each onto the fish. I used more paprika than anything else.

I sprayed some foil with nonstick spray and put it on a pizza pan. Then I added the veggies and sprinkled them with the spices as well.

Then I poured a little salsa over the top...

Seal up the foil into a pouch and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Then I opened up the foil to let some of the moisture cook off for about 10 minutes.

The finished product. Very good, and just like it was in Mexico. I've successfully re-created a favorite dish!

Vacation! Definitely Not Eating Right!

We had a wonderful cruise and ate a lot of good food. Below is the food we remembered to take pictures of. We got so excited when it got to the table, we didn't take a photo.

We had some good stuff, some pretty good stuff and some outstanding stuff.
Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Super fudgy and delicious. We will be making this for a potluck coming up. Cake on top and a warm, pudding/cake underneath.

New York style cheesecake with a strawberry sauce.

Stuffed mushrooms, not bad, a little underwhelming.

Not even sure what this is! Looks like some onion rings & potato chips...maybe hush puppies???

The lobster tail & garlic shrimp. To be honest, the shrimp were better than the lobster. They were awesome & garlicky! John ordered an extra one for the shrimp alone.

Souvenir drink...Tasty!

Battered shrimp & fish fillets.

Redfish. This was really good.

This is a chile rellano.  I'd never had one whole like this before. And the rice on the side was pretty good.

Chicken with a parmesean alfredo sauce.  Good stuff!

Eggs benedict for breakfast, with a side of corned beef hash.

Some beef & chicken fajitas for lunch during our excursion in Cozumel.

John opted for the steak tacos.

And the steamed grouper...really tasty!

Time for a "Boom-Boom" shot with lunch!

Jo even danced at dinner with our waiter, Zuban!

This is the fruit plate with cottage cheese. Mostly fruit...and about a teaspoon of cottage cheese!

Banana cream pie...

Salted caramel cheesecake...very tasty!

French onion soup...

Mahi-Mahi...Excellent!

We had a wonderful time and ate LOTS of great food. Now, back to reality, and TRYING to eat right, MOST of the time!

Best Ribs I've EVER Eaten!

Last night we went to the Memphis Barbeque Company for dinner. It is owned by a Barbeque pitmaster and "the winningest woman in barbeque".

Now we know why.  It was amazing!  First they brought fresh pork rinds to the table. They were like crispy bacon. I've never liked pork rinds but I realized last night that I wasn't eating good ones. 

Here we are so happy. Even after an hour wait. 

John had the spare ribs, turkey and brisket with fries and Mac and cheese. 

I had baby back ribs with chicken and sausage. I chose Mac and cheese and grits for my sides. I am now officially in love with grits. 

This selection made it so we got most of the meats in Pitmaster Sampler. That way we could share. It was all good. 

The ribs however were incredible. Cooked perfectly and spiced like nothing I have ever eaten. 

We bought rub to bring home. We waited an hour to get in and John said he would have waited two. It was that good. 

Great start to vacation!

Road Trip Food!!

When I was a kid we took a road trip from Iowa to Utah. It was a long trip and being on the lower end of the income scale, my parents brought snacks along. It was a treat to get to eat in the car and we soon downed all the snacks brought along. 

Among the snacks that stand out in my memory were Pepsi, (which was warm) ham sandwiches and trail mix. As we cruised along in the wood paneled station wagon something magical happened. Dark magic. This combination of food caused gas. Terrible, horrible, no good gas!

This is the only picture I could find of the car. 

We are going on a road trip to New Orleans in the morning to get on a cruise ship. It will be seven people in a van, so John and I made snacks for the road. The first being, of course, trail mix.

I had peanuts left from Christmas, added sunflower seeds, raisins, sesame sticks and M&Ms. 

We got some of John's favorite cheddar, peanut butter crackers. These have been a vacation staple for us. John also made a batch of his party mix.  

Then we made breakfast burritos, here is a video of John demonstrating his rolling technique.

We have enough for two each and a couple extra if someone is extra hungry.

Soda will go in the cooler, coffee in the travel mug and we will be on the road at six. Chris and Stevie will be here holding down the fort. We are ready!!

The Great Pantry Project Recap

Now the project is over. We were well within our $30 budget, which saved us at least $50 a week.

First the before and after in the pantry.

 The shelf by the fridge.

The little pantry. We rearranged it a little.

 


Finally the freezer! Here is the before.

And the after.

I'm thinking we could have done this for a few more weeks. But we won't!  We went out to dinner to celebrate a successful project.  We had mushrooms!

And pizza.

Then John couldn't resist going to see the meat specials!

We did learn some things. We probably won't be making so many trips to the grocery store in the future. I think we will be more likely to eat what we have. We got pretty creative in these six weeks.
Now my freezer needs to be filled with meat specials!!!