Happy Sunday TKW Family! So how was your week? This past week was pretty much the norm for me – lots of work to get done, working out and TKW stuff. I did try a new restaurant – twice actually and yeah, not impressed. It’s really hard when you’re a food blogger or better yet, recipe developer to go out to eat. It’s not the mindset of “my stuff is better than this” but rather an expectation of quality and taste. My friends call me a huge food snob. It’s not about “well I would have added this or that to the dish” but honestly about taste. Does the dish taste good? Does it meet my level of expectation on flavor? Does it look like it was just thrown together (presentation)? And okay yes, is it worth the money I’m paying for it?
Okay sure, there are comparisons against my recipe and theirs. You taste to see what they did differently; their interpretation of a dish. Take simple macaroni and cheese. Discounting the boxed stuff (seriously, cheese is not neon orange folks), we all make it differently and that’s OK. We like what we like. However when you taste something that is flat out a big ‘no no NO, why in the world did they put that in the dish???’ it can be rather off-putting.
While my friends adore me (or so I hope they do), I’m one that doesn’t enjoy going out to eat. Well wait, let me preface that with – going out to places I’ve already been to a few times and hated. New places I’m all down for that! I’d rather do a happy hour, even if it’s just drinking soda or some libations, versus a full blown meal. I can’t turn that part of my brain off that’s in this food world. There have been times where I’ll just sit there with them while they eat full meals and eat a side salad (seriously how can you muck up a salad of lettuce, croutons, veggies and cheese? – actually this has happened to me a few times). For me going out to eat is about the company I’m with, food is secondary.
So with my friends if I do order food they will often watch me while I eat; they want to gauge my reaction. Most love it and have commentary amongst one another “I can see by the look on Lori’s face that’s she dissecting apart her chicken. The judges are out on this one. Oh wait! Wait! We have a decision…” haha However what’s funny is if I’m at their house I don’t have that part of my brain switched on. I’m eating whatever and not judging the presentation (trust me – I’ve eaten chili out of a plastic bucket) or how it tastes. That’s my ‘off time’ to just actually enjoy my friends. The food comes last. Make sense?
How many of you recipe developers out there are like-minded when it comes to eating out? So yeah back to that new place I tried twice. I thought the first time I went and I didn’t like my food it was because I wasn’t a fan of the overall dish; wasn’t what they were known for. So I went a second time as most everyone else liked them. I went the second time, got their ‘specialty’ and yeah, hated it. What I hate more than anything is when a restaurant tells you that something is homemade (i.e., tomato soup) and it’s not; that you know it came out of a commercial freezer package. How do I know? Well you have to pass the kitchen to get to the bathroom and when you have garbage cans for the kitchen there with a big old empty package of “Campbell’s creamy tomato soup” on top of the trash… yeah, FAIL!
Anyway, I have a pretty busy week ahead of me so here’s to you having one amazing week! Hopefully my weekly menu will inspire you with a few new dishes!
Best Kitchen Wishes!
Monday – Pressure Cooker Wings with Bourbon Honey BBQ Sauce
Tuesday – Chicken Prosciutto Roulade
Wednesday – Hot Sausage Subs
Thursday – Spinach Pepper Chicken in a Wild Mushroom Béchamel Sauce
Friday – Cheesy Ranch Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Pizza Puffs
Saturday – Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups
Sunday – Mom’s Ground Beef Stroganoff
Dessert of the week – Cinnamon Roll Baked Donuts with Cream Cheese Frosting
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