restaurant review: rudy's bbq

Today for co-worker Tom's birthday, the office group went to Rudy's BBQ for lunch. Rudy's is a combination gas station/BBQ restaurant. I know, that sounds weird. I'm not sure which came first - the gas station or the BBQ. Did someone have a gas station that sold BBQ? Or did they have a BBQ restaurant and decided to add gas pumps to help bring in customers?

In any case, Rudy's is a great, quick meal place. They have fabulous breakfast tacos (pretty much any combination you like: chorizo, ham, brisket, sausage, etc.) which are available all day. They have wonderful smoked meats like brisket, ham, sausage, turkey, and ribs. as well as roast chicken and pulled pork. On Friday and Saturday nights they have smoked prime rib which is the bomb. Better get there early, since they always run out! Very traditional side items - potato salad, cole slaw, three bean salad, creamed corn, baked beans - and you get white or wheat bread with your meat. Desserts are banana pudding or chocolate pudding. Again very traditional southern/Texas BBQ staples.

You'll get your meal in a plastic tray that looks a little like a cut-down milk crate, lined with white butcher paper. No plates. You get another sheet of butcher paper for a "placemat". Paper towels serve as napkins. Plastic utensils on the bar with the "fixin's" like pickles, onions and peppers. On the table you'll find salt & pepper plus two bottles of sause: regular and "sissy" (mild) sauce. When you're done, wrap up your trash in the "placemat" and throw the whole thing away.

Not a fancy place but really good food!

restaurant review: the keg

For a friend's birthday, last night we went to The Keg steakhouse in Plano. We hadn't been there for quite a while - we used to go several times a year when we were members of their birthday club. Mike gets a lot of grief for being super-predictable in what he orders, and that all came from this place where he would routinely order caesar salad, steak & lobster, baked potato, and carrot cake for dessert. Tonight he was almost true to form - he skipped the lobster - but stayed with tradition for everything else.

I had the spinach & strawberry salad with goat cheese, pecans and balsamic dressing as a starter. Very good and not too heavy on the dressing. Then a New York strip steak - cooked very well - with twice-baked potato. I ate about 1/3 of the steak and 1/2 the potato - just too much! Then I had some chocolate-raspberry cake for dessert and again ate about 1/3 of it plus the ice cream that came with it. The food here has always been very good and we were not disappointed tonight.

It seemed a little slow for a Friday night. As I recall, the last time we were here there was a prom group here as well and maybe that made it seem busier. In any case, the restaurant was not full so maybe there are new choices nearby that are pulling some business away. We actually had two servers tonight, but it was because one was training the other. In any event, they did a great job and got everything right. I think we might have to put this place back in the rotation.

cupcake of the day #2: peeps!

Well, since it is Easter weekend I just had to make something Easter-themed for my second cupcake to take to the crawfish boil. So I made these lemon cupcakes from The Cake Mix Doctor original book, frosted them with a basic buttercream tinted green, and garnished with candy grass from Target and peeps! I think they turned out really cute and they were very tasty too.

cupcake of the day #1: appletini

Today Mike & I went to a friend's crawfish boil, and of course I naturally volunteered to bring dessert. I made two cupcakes, the first being these Appletini cupcakes from Bakers Royale. Vanilla cupcake, appletini glaze, and appletini-flavored swiss meringue buttercream icing, garnished with some green sugar and maraschino cherries: yes please! The appletini flavor was there but not overpowering and these were definitely a hit at the boil.

rough day.

It's all over the news, so I'm sure you've heard... today JCPenney laid off 600 home office associates or about 13% of the people that work in the building. Such a sad, sad day to see so many of my friends & co-workers leave. I know that no door closes without another one opening, but it is truly a grieving process that we must go through. Today was naturally a very unproductive day at work and tomorrow will most likely be more of the same as those of us still with the company move through the emotions. I will truly miss some of the best co-workers I could ask for.

wild and crazy weather.

Today was a day for a classic dose of unpredictable Texas weather. Started the day beautiful, sunny, warm, highs forecast in the 70's. A lovely spring day. Still beautiful at lunchtime (birthday lunch at Kenny's Burger Joint for co-worker Kim) and we got back to the office around 12:45 or so. At 1-ish it gets cloudy & dark & starts raining. A little while later, the PA announcement is made that a tornado or severe weather warning has been issued for the area around the office. Then the tornado sirens go off. Then the PA announcement comes that we all have to seek shelter in the safe rooms within the building. So off we go, first to the xerox room and then to one of the training rooms, for about an hour. Finally the "all clear" and we return to our work stations. All the while I'm trying to contact Mike, Mom and other friends. No luck getting on the internet or getting a phone call through, and only about half my text messages were making it through.

Fortunately the storm passed us by, doing most of its damage in the southern part of the DFW area (around I-20). Arlington, Forney, and Lancaster were hit hard, and there was big hail at the airport and in the Coppell area. American Airlines says about 100 planes were hail-damaged, and my co-worker Christie's husband's car was hailed as well (in Coppell). But no deaths or serious injuries, so we are very lucky.

I'm glad that everyone is safe & sound tonight!

restaurant review: cowtown diner

Last night a group of friends went to Cowtown Diner in Sundance Square in Fort Worth. It's under new ownership/management and I'm not sure it's been a success yet.

We'd been there a couple of times before, under the previous owners, and the food was good but the service not so much. Tonight the food and service were both just OK. They had taken our favorite appetizer, deep fried deviled eggs (I know, it's a Texas thing but really they are fabulous!) off the menu! Fortunately they were still able to make them for us (so I have a feeling they will be adding them back to the menu soon). Good start. I had the caprese salad which is served with a tomato vinaigrette, not the traditional balsamic.  I guess I'm old school, because I don't think it did much for the salad. Among the other starters at the table, the spinach-artichoke dip and crab cakes were hits, but the broccoli soup was not.

For entree I had the rib eye. It was cooked perfectly, but on the small size (no way that was a 12 oz. steak). Side items were mashed potatoes (super smooth - like Betty Crocker potato buds smooth) and green beans that were overcooked. Mike's flat iron steak was very good; he got the same potatoes & green beans sides. For dessert, I had sopapilla cheesecake which was good but honestly, the one I make at home with crescent rolls and cream cheese is better.

The last two times we've been here, it has been very busy. Tonight, a Saturday night in the 80's, it was half empty. But even so, there appeared to be only two servers for the entire place, which meant that our server Megan was forever behind. She had a good attitude and really tried, but I think she was just overwhelmed. One more server on the floor would have made a huge difference.

After dinner we all (10 of us) piled into two horse-drawn carriages for a spin around downtown Ft. Worth. I've never done that before and it was really a lot of fun. The driver points out the sights like the Bass Performance Hall, and the people-watching is great! Then we walked over to The Cupcakery for a little sweet something to finish off the evening. Now that place was busy! A lot of people there and at the chocolate shop next door had the same idea as we had!

Overall a very nice evening with good friends, and a restaurant 3 out of 5.