The Best Beef Stew EVER!!!!

Hi, I’m Cooking Monster and I have an addiction.


I LOVE Pioneer Woman’s blog. If you have not been, GO!

I have to go every day (if not more than once a day)

I laugh and cry with her life. I read her home schooling section and think about doing it in my mind. I look through her Photo section and wish I could take photos like that. (Thank god I don’t have to, that is my brother’s job). I get ideas from her home and garden section.

Then you get to the cooking section.

I can not stop cook from it!

Not a single recipe is bad. And oh my god the cinnamon rolls and I don’t like them. (I know the husband is working on my issues).

I typical stick to the baking, it is what I do best!

However I branched out the other day and found the best beef stew! It has beer in it. How can it be bad!

Just try it!

The Best Beef Stew ever.

Old favorite, only new and improved

I have a Candy Dish at my desk. I have had it there for years, but since the move to a larger office I ask for donations. I’m sorry but going from an office of 5 to an office of 60 makes a difference. Most give money and then I go and buy the candy. You learn what people like and what they don’t. (I have found that M&Ms are always good!)


I have one co-worker that just brings me candy. Which I have to say is nice.

Anyway, after lunch she brought me….

“How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie roll pop?”

I love that old ad, but I digress.

You have Cherry…

Grape…

Orange…

Chocolate…

Raspberry…

And Pomegranate?????

Sorry, when did Pomegranate become a flavor?

I know I have not bought Tootsie Pops in a while but still, when? What? 

Sorry, this has throw off my whole day.



P.S. it taste really good!

A New Year, A New Blog

I have decided after talking to friends and family to change things up a bit.


How can I talk about food with out talking about the people and what was going on at the time, plus there are a few blogs and forums that should be talked about as well I think.

For starter:
If you have never been to cake wrecks you should! Also, the pioneer woman, her stories are everyone of the idea for me. (In the Recipe section on the side I have linked to her.) Please go thru the Tenth Annual Weblog Awards, there are so great blogs!



The next thing I must talk about is my hubby's rule. See I don't like trying things that are new. You would think with being a foodie I would but sadly I am picky, that is right,
I am Cooking Monster and I am a picky eater!
So my hubby and I would go to dinner and he would say "try this", my reply was "I don't like that". The problem with this is I had never eaten the food item before, so I would not have known if I liked the food or not. My hubby, well he realized really quickly what I was doing. (He is smart like that, but don't tell him I said so)
And so The Rule was made!
"I have to try the food once. If I do not like it, I do not like it but I have to try it!"
I have found that fried veggies are not that bad. Sushi should be tried more than once. It may look bad but taste good.
Need least to say, you the reader should have some good reads and maybe even a video or two of me eating something. (which my hubby loves doing)

So until the next post,
try the rule,
Cooking Monster

VORTEX

For those of you that don't know GA. The Vortex is the best burger in town. and to prove it Please
"SEE THE VORTEX ON TV!In the Travel Channel's new series, Man vs. Food, host Adam Richman sets out to travel the country in search of the best places to do some serious indulging. This Wednesday, January 7th, the show is set in Atlanta. The three restaurants featured are Gladys Knight's Chicken & Waffles, Big Pie in the Sky Pizzeria and The Vortex Bar & Grill. So tune into the Travel Channel on Wednesday at 10:00 pm to see Adam chat with Vortex customers, staff and co-owners Michael and Suzanne. Or, head down to either Vortex location where we'll be playing the show live, with the volume turned up and everything! It should be some ridiculous viewing. "

http://www.thevortexbarandgrill.com/
(little 5 - location)

i have posts to come about three differnet places including the sister bar to Vortex.

Anyone know a really GOOD Italian place?

I wish we had better Italian places in Atlanta. And before you start emailing and commenting on the blog, I’m talking about one of those restaurants that you crave, that you can not stop thinking about until you eat there. I really don’t think we have one of those places. Every place you go they have a pasta dish on the menu; the Italian places, like Olive Garden and Provino’s, they are fine but not great, not memorable, not amazing, not… they are just pasta that you did not have to cook.

In Duluth alone, we have over 111 places listed on yellow pages.com but over half are pizza joints, where pasta is an after thought, something that rounds off the menu it seems. Most of the rest are pasta and (insert food type). You rarely find a place that does just pasta or has pasta as there main food.

I know some of you are going to say, what about … Provino’s or Bi Ba’s Italian or Antoneta Bibas or Macaroni Grill. But are they great, do you get cravings, do think that place would be incredible/astounding/unbelievable! I don’t, so if anyone has an idea or place that would be good to try, please tell me.

Road Trip - Charleston Seafood

ROAD TRIP! So the Hubby and I took a trip to Charleston for some friend’s wedding. (Which was a blast and congrats) We get seafood when ever we go to the coast; it is the one thing we have to do! We asked around on Friday night and we were told to go to A.W. Shucks, which thank you guy.
This was the best Seafood I have ever had!

The hubby and I went with a couple that came down with us from Athens, Ga. We took one look at the menu and could not deicide what to get, so all ordered something different and shared, like an episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. The starters were She Crab soup, Calamari and hush puppies. I only eat soup when I am sick, for some reason it only tastes right when I am sick. But that She Crab soup was sooo good! The calamari was good but it was not great. Hush Puppies, I love hush puppies, I wanted to order more.
For the main meal we had shrimp and grits, a fried Market st. platter, crab cakes with stuff shrimp and more fried fish and shrimp. I have nothing bad to say, the food was fantastic.
Coming from Atlanta it was so nice to have good seafood. The price was about 20 dollars a person, which is not bad for all the food we got and the quality. A.W. Shucks is right off market st in the down town area. Please if you are ever in Charleston, try the seafood!

To fondue or not!

As my husband and I ran errands around the house, the subject of dinner came up, since we love food way to much, we are tried of all the same old places. He wanted a new place and I am picky. (I know, I am writing a food blog and I am a picky eater, but my husband and I have a rule: try everything once) So we are driving around and he said the melting pot. I am hesitated, I have had it before but he has not. I pulled up to the curb and had him look at the menu. He wanted to try it, so we went in.

The last time I had it was at least 7 years ago with my brother and friends. I say this because the menu is a very confusing, they had to order for me then and this time the waitress had to go over it twice! Hubby and I finally figured out what we wanted to eat after several minutes and started to people watch.

The first course came, the cheese course, to my dismay. I don’t like cheese! I really don’t cheese. I will give you that cheese does make some things taste better, but really as the main part of the dish, it is awful. The hubby could take it or leave it. He wants to forgo it the next time but I think he should give it one more chance.

The next course is the salad. The hubby got a garden with ranch, he loved it. I got the California salad; mine was drowning in dressing but very good.

Then came the meat; everything was really tasty. The veggies taste like they have been steamed in beef stock just right. The dipping sauces have that perfect little something for each meat and veggie. They take a little bit of time but it is worth the waiting (cooking).

At last the Chocolate!!!

“Hello, my name is Cooking Monster and I am a sweet-ohlic.”

Since it was my hubby’s first time, he picked the happy ending!

He picked Plain old White Chocolate!

I was a little disappointed BUT he had never been and he said that next time we will pick something with a little more to it.
Oh my god, even as just white chocolate, it tasted SOOOOO good!

The Melting pot is a little bit pricy, but it is an experience I think everyone should try once. I don’t care if you did it at home or you went to one of those parties, you should go to one of restaurant.

http://www.meltingpot.com/