Mom Memos….

My husband plays softball every Friday and there are several Fridays that I am on my own for dinner with the kids. On our meal plan for the week, we had Quesadillas. So, I went looking for a interesting Quesadilla recipes for us and the kids. I came across Rachael Ray’s Hot Dog Pizza-dilla.

Do my kids love hot dogs? Yes

Do my kids love Pizza? Yes

Do my kids love Cheese Quesadillas? Yes

So, why not combo them all?

This recipe was really easy! Slice the hot dogs into small pieces, brown the tortilla, add salsa, ketchup, cheese and hot dogs. Eat!

I would love to tell you my kids gobbled it up, but it wasn’t as big of a hit as I thought it would be. My youngest decided he didn’t like hot dogs and my oldest discovered the “green things” from the salsa and suddenly decided he didn’t like it (even though he already ate half). I, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. The mixture of salsa and ketchup with the hot dogs was actually pretty good.

So, I don’t think I’ll be making this again for a while, but maybe I’ll try again in a year or so. But if your kids like salsa, I would definitely recommend this recipe.

Hot Dog Pizza-Dillas

November’s recipe of the month is a recipe that I received at the Fresh and Easy Holiday Event. I made this at Thanksgiving as a healthy alternative to mashed sweet potatoes with marshmellows, but it’s a great fall dish for any meal!

Sauteed Sweet Potatoes with Spinich

Ingredients:

Last weekend, my husband and I went on a date night….yes an actual date night. We’ve been wanting to try a restaurant close to our house called The Keg.

From the outside, we figured this would be a great restaurant to go to….without our son in tow! However, when we got there, we saw several families with kids. They even had a kids menu leading me to beleive this restaurant was more family friendly than I originally thought. The kids menu included “steakhouse items” such as ribs, steak and burgers. It also had chicken strips, Prime Rib Beef Dip (French Dip) and BBQ chicken.

The ambiance was dark and quiet…..quite the romantic restaurant for a couple. The menu included mostly steak, but did offer a few alternatives such as salad and chicken. They also had an extensive wine list, but my husband and I are not wine drinkers (and even if we were, I could not partake considering the whole pregnancy thing).

We started off with some garlic cheesy bread. My husband chose Prime Rib and I chose the Teriyaki Sirloin. My steak came with a baked potato and my husbands came with garlic mashed potatoes (however, they let him subsitute a baked potato instead). We ended our meal with a Brownie Sundae.

I definitely enjoyed the more “date like” atmosphere”….the candlelit table, cloth napkins, and fireplace. The food was nothing earthshattering. The steaks were good, but not necessarily the best I have ever eaten. However, the brownie sundae was terrific! The brownie was warm, but not too hot that it melted the ice cream.

The cost was higher than you would get at a larger chain restaurant. However, the service was pretty good and seemed knowledgable about their menu.

So, all in all, it was a great date night and I’m really glad we finally tried this restaurant.

The Keg Steakhouse and Bar

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from Kristen @ Motherhood Uncensored for a Holiday Event at Sur La Table sponsored by Fresh and Easy. I still am unsure how she found me, but I’m really glad she did!

I really had no idea what I was walking into, but it sounded interesting. Last night’s event started out with cheese and crackers and wine (or in my case, water with lemon). Then Chef Cindy from Fresh and Easy began the evening. There were several dishes that we would be making and several that she would be demonstrating. The menu included Roast Turkey, Toasted Almond & Cranberry Stuffing Stuffing, Cranberry Spinich Salad with Spiced Pecans, Green Bean Casserole, and Sauteed Sweet Potatoes with Spinich.

We divided into groups and the demonstration began. Since this year, I would be making Thanksgiving Dinner for the first time at my house, I was really interested in learning and watching as much as I could. One of the most important thing that I learned was how to brine a turkey and have decided that that is how I would like to prep my turkey this year. I also really enjoyed watching her make a new twist on sweet potatoes.

I also had the opportunity to meet many new people. Not only did I meet the marketing staff from Fresh and Easy, but I also met a several others who also have blogs. Everyone was so nice and seemed genuinely interesting in meeting new people. My cooking table included Rebecca, Vivian (and her husband Arthur) who made the class even more entertaining!

At the end of the night, I was one of the 3 winners of a Fresh and Easy Gift Card and a bottle of wine (I’ll have to save it for others to enjoy at Thanksgiving). Also, I received a “goodie bag” filled with Fresh and Easy products: pancake mix, maple syrup, coffee, tea, snacks and chocolates! Yum!!

Special thanks to Kristen for finding me and inviting me to this event, Fresh and Easy for sponsoring the event, Sur La Table for hosting the event and my table mates for making the night enjoyable!

You can see photos from this event on Fresh and Easy’s Flickr account

You can also read Fresh and Easy’s Blog about the event

For the past week and half our microwave has been broken. It was supposed to be fixed today, but it has been deemed “unfixable”. We were banking on having a microwave for dinner, but since that didn’t happen, we decided to go out to dinner.

We have seen Grimaldi’s Pizza many times while around the mall area and have had good intentions of trying it for a couple of years. So, tonight, we finally did. After we convinced our son that he wanted pizza for dinner (good grief….who has to convince a 3 year old that he wants pizza???), we went in the restaurant. I was quite surprised that the menu was so limited. The choices were: pizza, calzones or salad. Everything is served family style and there is no kid’s menu.

We ordered pizza with Italian Sausage. Now, my husband and I were raised on Chicago style pizza, so this was a bit of and adventure for us since this is New York style pizza. It sometimes is hard for me to change my expectations of pizza based on the part of the country it is from.

Our son was given pizza dough to play with while we waited for our pizza. I made sure he understood that the dough is for playing with, not for eating. He understood so well that when he saw the toddler at the table next to us take a bite out of his dough, he began shaking his head and looked horrified that this adorable boy actually ate his dough! Needless to say, our son definitely did not eat the pizza dough!

The pizza came out and it was wonderful! The pizza cheese is actually slices of mozzarella (as opposed to shreed mozzarella that is customary on Chicago pizza) and the crust was thin but nice and crunchy. The sauce was really good…..not overly powerful, but just enough for pizza.

The prices were resonable….not cheap, but ok. The check for the 3 of us….1 18″ pizza, 2 drinks was $23.00.

Grimaldi’s is only in certain parts of the country, so you’ll have to check to see if there is one close by. I would highly recommended this pizza restaurant, if you are looking for New York style pizza. We will definitely be back!

Grimaldi’s Pizza