Never Thought I'd Be Able To Do It

We have a friend family (that means we all are friends, not just the parents being friends) that live up the street.  They and Mark are very willing to try just about anything.  The Marks family love Ethiopian food.  Tom knows a great place...can't tell you the name, or even where it is...or how wto get there.  I am clueless on this one.  The Marks' are good friends with the Ethiopian family.  Mark can call and say he is bringing so many people and order what he thinks everyone would like.  And then the magic happens.

Never in a million years had I planned to eat.  I was just going to sit there and enjoy them all eating.  I am a chicken when it comes to trying new foods.  Family, you would be soooo proud of me!

And there is a little taco stand right out the back door.

The front of the building is a store.

The bathroom and handwashing sink.  When eating this food, one must eat with your fingers using a spongy pancake-like bread.

The boys...

The girls...minus Katie.

The food...the rolled things are the bread that you tear pieces off..going left from bottom middle...cabbage, spicy beef, chickpeas, beef tips with onions, two types of lintels, potatoes, and more beef tips.  In the middle were three deviled eggs covered with some sort of sauce.

Almost finished...but wait there is more.  There is a huge pancake as big as the plate that has soaked up all the juices.  Oh my!

We licked her clean!

And with this meal you get a drink.  I mean a bottle of something that you mix with mineral water.  You get a solo cup with no ice.

We headed back to the Marks for sitting in front  of a fire, hot tea and dunking cookies and we played Apples to Apples Jr.  Fun time to unwind for my stay in WV with my dad.

Emmy and Cassie, we can't wait for you to go!

Mamaw's Ham Salad

Lots of us look forward to seeing jars of this stuff in the fridge!  There is nothing better than Mamaw's ham salad on a slice of Heiner's white bread!  Well, maybe my grandmother's chocolate peanut butter fudge.

Mamaw's Ham Salad

leftover ham ground up

hard boiled eggs

sweet pickles

some sweet pickle juice

some mustard

about a half of a jar of mayo

about half a jar of Miracle Whip

I can't give you exact amounts because it all goes by taste.  Mark is my taste tester.  Also very important.  It is supposed to be stored in an empty mayo jar but I didn't have one.

Best ham salad you will ever eat!  Seriously!

I Love Apple Butter

I 'grew up' peeling apples, taking turns with the long paddle, sampling it before it was actually ready and scrapping the inside of the kettle with warm homemade biscuits.  Lots of precious memories with more precious people.  I was so lucky to have those opportunities.

I love a good 'cinnamony' apple butter.  So the other day I decided to make some.  Well, not exactly like I did in the past but in a crock pot.  One day I will have a copper kettle and a long-handled stirring stick.

Really super simple...

5 pounds of apples, peeled and cored and sliced into 1/2 inch chunks

1 cup of brown sugar

1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

1 pinch of ground cloves 

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

2 dashes of salt

Spray crockpot really well .  Add apples and then add all other ingredients.  Cover and cook on low for 10 hours.  Once cooked take an emulsifier until smooth.  Cook for another 2 hours or more until it is as thick.  Then put into jars.  This is what I got from 5 pounds of apples.  That part was a little disappointing, but it tastes great!

It's The Yummy Time Of Year

I love the smells of my crockpot and oven this time of year.

I was the only one that carved a jack-o-lantern this year.  So you know what that means...I get the seeds (well, maybe I will share the with Emmy because she asked nicely).  I wash them and dry them.  The only thing I do is cut up about a half a stick of butter and coat them with Lawery's Season Salt.  Plop them in the over at 425 for as long as it takes...stirring when I start to smell them.  Delicious!

And then there is this.  Crockpot salted apple spoon cake.  Oh, my word!  We are having a crockpot dinner at church next week and I am trying to find a winning recipe.  I heard there are going to be  prizes!

2 cans of apple  pie filling

a white cake mix

a bag of  salted caramel chips

1/4 cup of butter cut into slices

  Spray inside of crockpot with vegetable spray,  Dump ingredients into the crockpot in this order.  This is the tricky part.  Take about 6 paper towels and lay them on the crock pot making a cover (not touching the ingredients but laying on the rim.)  Then place the lid on top.  The paper towels collect the steam from the cooking.  Cook on high for 2-3 hours.

If you want to read about the other things that I have tried in the crockpot check it out here.

Jean Paul's Paradiso

Jean Paul's Paradiso 

7632 Clough Pike

Cincinnati, OH 45244

(513) 2231-2780

(in the same parking lots as the gas station)

Seating outside in good weather.  Seating inside two table...enough for 8 people.  Real homey and comfortable.  Check out that menu.  And they even have take home containers in the fridge that you can take home.

Salads are huge and delicious.  And really pretty too.

Blackened Chicken Alfredo

Big Daddy Stone Pie!  Oh my goodness.  It is worth the 30 minute wait time

And then there are desserts!  Tom and Jen split a chocolate torte.

Pecan pie for me...Janice warmed it up for me and put some real whipped cream on top.  Delicious!

Key Lime Pie!  Mark could only eat half of it...darn that is a shame!  

I can't wait to take the Oakes here.  And Emmy, they have vegetarian black bean soup.

The Marks found Jean Paul's Paradiso by looking on Yelp.  I'm going straight there and giving them 5 stars!

El Coyote In Anderson Township

El Coyote

7404 State Road

Cincinnati, OH 45230

513-232-5757

The first time we lived in Cincinnati, El Coyote was right up the street.  That is a good thing but can be a bad thing also.  We love it!!!  So tonight we got to have a Date Night!  

El Coyote has been serving the best Tex-Mex for nearly 30 years.

The chips and salsa are sooooo good.  We eat our way through at least two baskets.

Mark loves the stuffed peppers.  But tonight he switched it up to stuff peppers and a chop.

Not me I get my favorite every time...butterflied filet and mashed potatoes.  The steak is so tender you can almost cut it with just a fork.

Holtman's in OTR

Holtman's Donut Shop

1332 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

We just had to take Ms Yvonne to get a famous Holtman's donut!  It was almost right across the street from Venice on Vine.  when we walked in the line was snaking all around the room.

Michael and Ms Yvonne together again in front of Holtman's!

Venice On Vine

Venice On Vine

1301 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH

513-221-7020

in  OTR

We had no idea until we came out and found this sign in the window.

When you walk in there are menus and a counter where you place your order.  The place isn't big at all, a few tables and this long bar type table.  We waited her until a table became free.  

The wait staff was so good.  Very polite and knew just what they needed to have on the tables.  They were out of knives so our waiter said we would need to share because there were no more clean ones.  We all chuckled on that one.

The hoagies looked delicious.

And the fries were delicious!

Salad and pizza...I would do again.

The owner came out to see how we were doing.  We gave glowing reviews and he asked us to go their FB site and let people know.  I would definitely go back.  My kind of place.

Krueger's Tavern

1211 Vine Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

513-834-8670

It was a great day to walk to the OTR.

We had a great table by the front window which is actually a glass wall that can be totally opened up.

I had a a chicken BLT salad.  The chicken was hiding on the bottom.

I wish I had gotten a pic of Tini's salad...a simple kale side salad.  It was really pretty and tasted just a good.

One of Mark's dishes was a chicken salad sandwich. Some Spicy Morrocan Lentils and Cannellini beans with Pepperanota. Different but delicious.  And Michael had the biggest burger I have ever seen.  He said it was really good.

Bryce had a Cuban.  And a whole bunch of sausages.  I think we had just about everything on the menu between us.  Everything was delicious.

Apple Thingie

We have had some snow and some really cold days.  I'm not saying that I have cabin fever but I just needed a little something sweet.  I have been saving a pie crust in the back of the fridge for some time.  Today was the day to whip that baby out.  Mark bought some apples that he has decided he didn't like.  Apples and crust...sounds like a little apple thingie to me.

I got out the bigger muffin tin.  Cut out circle out of the crust to fit in the bottom.  Cut up the apples and added a sugar, cinnamon, and butter syrup.  Then topped it off with another round of pie crust.  Baked it according to the pie crust box.  When it was almost out I added a little dollop of butter to each top crust.  Perfect little warm sweet treat for a cold night.  Think I am going to hide the rest.