salads and salads...

I wasn't kidding when I was talking about salads.



1) mixed greens
2) grilled chicken tenderloin marinated in a rosemary spice blend
3) sliced boiled eggs
4) shredded mozzarella cheese
5) green onions
6) all topped with a blend of cous cous, tomatoes, corn, onions, cucumbers tossed with balsamic vinegar

El Vaquero please forgive us for our indiscretion...

Instead of resuming a healthy diet of cooking at home -- Monday (April 1st) found us spontaneously trying Rancho Alegre. The relatively new restaurant that opened up down 33 from our favorite restaurant El Vaquero. It is located in the building that used to be Tee Jays. It seemed sacrilegious at first to go there considering El Vaquero is the truth -- but we got over it. The place is a more family friendly version of El Vaquero like if Bob Evans opened up a Mexican restaurant. There is plenty of natural light and booths by the windows and spacious tables and chairs in the middle. The bar area has a flat panel tv for those who want to hang there. When we pulled into the parking lot the place was empty which was slightly alarming but it was right after work. They had a pretty extensive menu and we were surprised to see that they had a meal with the same name as our all time favorite from El Vaquero -- The Pollo Ranchero. Betty ordered the Pollo Ranchero and I ordered the Nachos. Betty and I then began our food commentary. It was hard not to compare this restaurant to El Vaquero but here goes:

The chips and salsa were delicious. A smooth and sweeter salsa with cilantro...Can't complain. The chips were warm and tasted freshly made w/o too much grease on them. A good start.


Margaritas were lime on the rocks with salt of course. These were very tasty. I rated them higher then El Vaqueros. I asked for a hot salsa and it wasn't bad. Similar to El Vaquero's with a vinegary taste but not as many green chilis or cilantro in it.

The food.



Well my chicken nachos were okay except that i ordered the Super Nachos which were supposed to come with beef, chicken, and beans. I think they mistakenly gave me the grilled chicken nachos which had only chicken and onions and peppers. It was difficult to tell whether i had the right order until i had eaten quite a bit of nachos and at that point I didn't want to fuss. The nachos were not bad -- just not what i ordered.


Betty's Pollo Ranchero was a tangier version of our favorite El Vaquero Pollo Ranchero aka the 141. The usual description for such an offering is "chicken with our special red sauce". The sauce was not so special for me. The Ranchero sauce was lighter but almost tasted like chef boyardee. I didn't care for the rice and was disappointed that beans did not accompany the meal especially for $10.50. Refried beans are essential for me when we eat mexican. I was tempted to order them on the side but Betty and i were already getting stuffed.

Overall Betty and I thought Rancho Alegre was an "a'ight" place with average food. Though we might go back there for margaritas and chips we found our palettes craving the bold flavors of our timeless favorite El Vaquero just a jaunt down the road.

2 Flipped-Finger Chicken Good Y'all...

It's been a while since we've purchased chicken. Normally I prefer to get the frozen chicken tenderloin from Trader Joe's trusting their label that the animal was living a good free range life without steroid injections. The past week or so saw me pulling the chicken out of the fridge and grilling it with various seasonings.

The meal below:

Mixed Green Salad with Radishes and Cucumbers; Grilled Brussel Sprouts with Yukon Potatoes + sauteed onions and garlic; Grilled Chicken rubbed in rosemary seasoning mix splashed with Balsamic Vinegar + Worcestershire.

I was very pleased with the meal. I tried a new approach for cooking the chicken which involved only turning it twice. Historically I'm guilty of flipping the chicken a number of times while it cooks. For this I cooked it on medium for 5 minutes on each side and presto. Good tasting chicken seared on the outside tender on the inside. Boom!

home Surly home...

Betty and I have been on a kick of eating at home during the week and then trying new restaurants on the weekend to get outside of our comfort zone and to explore new places and tastes. This goal lasted about 3 months so Thursday's date night with Betty at Surly Girl Saloon was a homecoming of sorts for us. Surly Girl is one of our favorite restaurants in Columbus for a number of reasons including their excellent beer selection, their sausage pizza and their roasted turkey sandwich. Sure I could go on about how Betty and I fell in love in the shortnorth and really made the bars and restaurants there our stomping yards but I won't. It had been some time since we had been back to Surly Girl and as we placed our drink orders Betty and I wondered if our favorites could still hold their own after all the complex and new tastes we had experienced over the past 2-3 months.


roasted turkey sandwich with bacon and poblano mayo on wheat with fritos

traditional italian sausage pizza

Not sure what we were worried about. The food was as delicious as we remembered it. The turkey sandwich has gone through some changes in the past year and a half including less turkey actually on the sandwich and a vendor change that we were pretty bummed about last year. I am not sure if SGS switched vendors again but the sandwich tasted better than the last time we ordered it. The sandwich is served on toasted wheat with bacon and a delicious poblano mayonaise. I am not a sandwich person but I truly love this sandwich. As for the pizza - I think it's strange how much I love their traditional Italian sausage pizza especially considering all my other favorite pizza joints across Columbus but simply put I love it and that's all i have to say about it. It's comforting to know that no matter what new places and tastes cross my palette that at the end of the day I can still count on our timeless favorites and reminisce about Columbus and why we call it our home.

the salad days...

For the last 3 years my new years resolutions have included eating more veggies. With that goal i have had many great experiences making various kinds of salads. The one below was extremely delicious. Let's see if I can remember what was in it:

1) mixed greens
2) shredded brussel sprouts
3) carrots
4) 3 pepper blend
5) black beans
6) grilled chicken tenderloin marinated in a rosemary spice blend
7) tomatoes
8) onions
9) sliced boiled eggs
10) shredded cheddar cheese



With all the different flavors in the salad I did not really need a dressing but I did put a splash of balsamic vinegar on it.

home cooking...

Still trying to get caught up with all of my posts. Betty has agreed to let me live and we've cut back on the lean cuisine completely for the past 2 weeks which I've been pretty happy about so I'm back to cooking. I've been doing a lot of the same stuff I normally cook including mexican and santa fe. The pic below is my tony bourdain inspired dish of moroccan flavored beef with rice biryani accompanied with a pepper salad topped with goat cheese and hummus. Not the most pleasant looking of all meals -- but the taste was bold and I loved it.


Moroccan Beef with Rice Biryani + Pepper Salad with Goat Cheese/Hummus Dressing + Sriracha


nacho bowl with pepper salad

Hmm. What else am I missing. I made ground turkey enchiladas this week that were good. I included refried beans with bacon in the enchiladas. They were delicious. We also had Mom's mattar paneer with Trader Joes Nan that was bonkers. Then my mother-in-law came over for a visit and she made pasta which was mighty tasty. Reading this now makes me realize that I need to hit the gym twelve-fold this weekend.

St. Toppy's Day at Tip Top...okay not quite...

so I was starting to finally feel better after a week and a half of this cruise vertigo bug and my vision for the perfect St. Patty's day was friends, Ohio Nachos from Tip Top Columbus and Irish Car bombs. The plan was perfect but there were some challenges including parking. I dropped Betty off at Tip Top and 25 minutes later I joined her and our friends. As it turned out Tip Top had no Irish beers on draft so I elected not to trouble the bartender with car bombs. This year would be a tame St. Patty's day. My disappointment last 3.6 seconds as we ordered some appetizers. Ohio Nachos hands down are my favorite appetizer in Columbus, OH. They are essentially kettle chips covered in a white cheese sauce with olives, tomatoes, jalapenos and green onions. I brought a bottle of green el yucateco (my favorite hot sauce) to commemorate st. patty's day and to add some extra heat. As much as I love this appetizer I think it would taste that much better if they would heat the kettle chips. Most of the time the chips are luke warm. Our friend hipped us to the salmon fritters the last time we met up with him and we ordered them again and they were divine. Don't sleep on the Ohio Nachos or Salmon Fritters at Tip Top. We met up with some other friends there and had some good conversation and catch-up. Then we were off for cabbage and kraut at another friends place.


Ohio Nachos South. Salmon Fritters North.


steaming boiling cabbage.


corned beef with previously mentioned cabbage

So St. Patty's Day was a treat. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited over for a traditional St. Patty's day dinner. I had never had this meal of corned beef and cabbage and man oh man was it good. The meal was straight-up unadulterated cabbage, potatos, carrots, celery, and corned beef with some vinegar on top. I thouroughly enjoyed the homemade meal with some Bell's 2-hearted. I know not an irish beer. This St. Patty's Day was different than many of yesteryear. It was tamer and toner but tastier all for the better!