The wedding I wasn't invited to

Food is food, and that's worth talking about. So even though I wasn't invited to Jeremy's & Alicias wedding, the one guy at work, Higle, who was invited brought back souvenir pictures of the wedding dinner.
Roast beef, mashed potatos, asparagus, salad, it all looks good, but was it really?.......i'll never know.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Wow, this was fun. Deb & I tag team this one. I didn't read the part about cooking the crust first, the first time we made it, but recovered nicely. Desert,  t-minus 15 minutes.

Mexican made easy. The Best.

Who'd thunk Vale, Oregon would have a Mexican restaurant that I nominate as Southeast Oregons BEST mexican restaurant. Why does the most delicious Mexican food have to be found in Malheur County? Deb says this is it! Believe it.
Chabelitas Taqueria my friends, is 5 Stars! Love their salsa bar. Esto es muy bueno, mi amigo.



The meat selection on the tacos, super yummy choices, hmm wanna try the tongue?

  

Salsa Bar

Carne Asada, Grilled Chicken and Shrimp tacos on corn tortillas

 

Carne Asada, Grilled Chicken and Shrimp tacos on hand-made flour tortillas



Even dogs love food

Newt borrows Harleys rawhide bone and then transforms from mellow-man to ALPHA boss-man and shows Harley a 3 month old pup is still just a pup. Happy nawing Newt!

It's RJ's Thursday

A regular crowd, except for Petty, who has a little trouble with the 0600 call to feed his sole, parlayed $10 into breakfast & tip again this morning.  That adds up to about $500/year X 10 years = $5k.
We should OWN this table.
Well, back to reality. This mornings choice, a 1/2 cheese & fungus omelette & rye toast.  Especially yummy with ketsup and pepper. Happy plate!

Snack attack

Oh, the pangs of hunger are overwhelming. Problem solved.

Breakfast of Champions

Oh woe is me......the pantry is painfully stocked thin. Sorry Chandler, I ate the last of it.

Happy Birthday Kris

Whoa, Kristina, brings in the left over birthday cake from her Dads B-day. Oh-yah! Nice treat, but you should have seen Jeremy stick his finger in the chocolate frosting in a hallway passing low-down finger swipe. Crude, very crude. An overwhelming oooo from the crowd followed. Diet, my ass........

Another tastey Newport breakfast

 Our original breakfast destination, Cafe Stephanie, was already full up & busy and seemed like an uncertain wait was in store. As we wondered around I stopped a cop in Nye Beach when we were searching for an alternative breakfast spot. Mitch, one of Newports finest, was happy to share his thoughts on the subject. He suggested Szabo's on the north end of Newport. I elected to share my status as a volunteer fireman and he loosened up even more.  As a matter of fact he nodded me over and reached behind his passenger seat of his patrol car and whipped out the left overs from his breakfast he had there this very morning as a sort of show & tell. Biscuits and gravy. Yummy. He also mentioned to me, that Newport fire dept was planning a burn to learn later that morning. Wink. Thats some intel a volunteer firefighter would be interested in. Well, we found the breakfast spot.  The place was sooo good, Wow, they delivered quite a spread. I mean nobody cleaned their plates. Thumbs way up for breakfast!

Status: Food=5, Service=4.5, Cops in Newport=5

note to self, do breakfast here, dinner=not so much.

Check out the menu and the description of the Philly Cheese stake.

NEWPORT, Oregon Thai

Ahh, the salt is in the air. Newport is much bigger than I remember. It seems to encompass quite a bit of Hwy 101 and area on both sides.  We have rented a beach house, "Spirit of the Sea". Right on the ocean, about 100 yards down a funky set of stairs to the water, Harley, grand kids and all.

Now Newport has a ton of restaurants. Dinner last nite was a Bangkok Thai, on the bayfront. Oh my.
This place has 7 tables, and  four of those were put together for us.
This is tiny, quaint, claustrophobic, cozy, you get the picture. 1 waitress, 1 cook. Simple.

Appetizers included:
Fresh Rolls:

Crispy Squid with Shataki mushrooms and broccoli

Chicken Satay

Yellow Curry

Seafood Pad Thai

Seafood something

Drunkin Noodle

Rice was White rice topped with Brown rice, aahhhh.

Seafood curry

All right you get the picture, best part of the meal? 10% to the Red Cross, 10% off for Government employees!

Tally: Food=4.5, Service=4, Atmosphere=5

It's Thursday, this must be RJ's.

Well for a very long time, thursday mornings at RJ's have been the 6am stop for breakfast with the boys. We even have our own corner table.

Considered the old standard, breakfast at RJ's has its appeal.  I ordered a #1, (see below,  Ha! Scientific facts are so awesome!), bacon & eggs with rye toast. By far the best bacon in town, but, you must finish draining the excess bacon grease, and the toast is way heavily buttered. But, in more than 10 years of sitting at this table, breakfast here has been consistant.

Now even without coffee, some reading time in the library is not far off. ahhhh. Sweet.

Even dogs have to eat

Big bone......big pup, Harley the German Shepard dog enjoys a bit of antler. Pass the ketchup.

Oh, my error, Antler donated to the cause by K. Higle.

Dog House Breakfast Sandwich

This morning I grabbed a newspaper and stopped at the Dog House to try a breakfast sandwich. This is made to order so expect a short delay, available with a nice long hot dog or sausage, scrambled egg, cheese, onion, mustard and a touch of mayo. Pretty substantial breakfast meal, hey and free cup of coffee!
Thumbs up!

A new Mexican Restaurant

A simple cardboard sign tacked to the door.

A photocopies menu page, prices have changed in the 2 weeks they have been opened. But this menu item was meant as a challenge.

Odd decorations for a Mexican Restaurant, oh thats right its the Ye Old Castle bar area and the bicycles hang all around the ceiling...

The dinner items arrived after a kinda extended wait

Verdict: eh, service=2, food=2, music=5



Ha! Scientific facts are so awesome!

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/menshealth/15-ten-second-health-tips
Read #1, enuf said.

Dinner basics

Ahhh, spaghetti and sausage meatballs, simple elagance. Even on a paper plate.

Desert Riders at RJ's

Sunday morning 0800 is breakfast time for the Desert Riders. Nice enough to gather up the 'big tables', Bobs crew puts up the "reserved" sign out each Sunday. This Sunday, an especially big crowd of 17 gathered for a couple important note worthy items. First is our member Norm's 76 birthday, including a surprise visit from Norms good buds, Steve & Dan from the Tacoma, WA area. Deb was nice enough to bring him a present of a special selection of the finest hand rolled cigars. A nice after breakfast touch.
Secondly, was the gathering of the minds for the 1st annual 4th of July parade & hot dog feed for the communities. Hmmm, I am in charge of the Hines Park segment, including the communities free hot dog lunch. Yippie!

Chans is Good!

Chans in Bend opens at 1130, but for some reason, we were there at 1115 ready and hungry. Bob, who had a chiropractor appointment to get cracked, brought along 3 firefighters from Hines to attend a training later in the day.  The gals in the office didn't know Chans had reopened.

Now sometime this winter Chans burned down.  Just reopened a couple weeks ago, they have a nice new restaurant and clean kitchen to start over with. How convenient.  For $5.95 you get soup, eggroll, entree, fried rice. quite a barganza.

Now our waitress was very accommodating even posing for a post ordering photo op with Wd. Nice.

Funny, as we were coming out the chiropractor assistants we coming in. Am I a food critic or what?

Drive thru, I mean drive thru don't stop!

Advertised on the big sign was the "Crispy Onion BBQ Burger" at the local DQ.

Oooh la-la, a distant cousin to the world famous McRib perhaps?

Hmmm. those onion ring strips, that tangy BBQ sauce, that picture looked so good. Even my new puppy would have salivated at that picture at the drive-up window. When the cashier asked , may I take your order, I quickly replied BBQ Burger!

Oh, let the trombones play a New Orleans Cajun funeral march. What a disappointment, 2 big onion rings, a dollop of un-flavorful BBQ sauce and some limpy piece of lettuce.......

Oh, do I have to wait 9 more months before McD brings back the McRib?

Uggg.

Give the new guy a try

Wow, one dog stand leaves another fills it's shoes. Dog House, on Hwy 20 near Ebar was my stop this morning. Interesting driveup. The windows a bits high off the ground as well as the menu, seems like you need to be in a high rider pickup to easily view it.
Biscuits & gravy $2.50, or breakfast sandwich $3.50.  Hmmm, B&G it is!
Although, nicely prepared it was awkwardly packed into a tall, large, Styrofoam cup, and kinda pre-mixed. Not sure if all her dish supplies have arrived yet. Good, hot, tastey, but for me needs more pepper.
Next time, breakfast sandwich.

Welcome

Hello, to anyone, although of course, I am the only one reading this. This is my blog, encouraged by the throngs of co-workers tired of my lecturing only them on the drolls and excitement of a particular restaurant.
Here I intend on sharing that with the rest of the world. Thats you.