2013 top eats #1-#6

#6 Hacienda Colorado – chicken chimichanga at Westminster CO Full Review

 
 

#5 palisade peach dessert at A Taste of Home Cooking Wheat Ridge, CO Full Review

 

 

 

#4 pizza at The oven PIZZA E VINO® Lakewood, CO Full Review

 

 
 
 

 

 

#3 stuffed cheeseburger and chocolate cream pie at Midwestern meats Mesa Arizona Full Review


 

 

 

#2 Mix and Match of Blueberry muffin, pineapple upside down and banana split pancakes. at Dream Café –Grand Junction Colorado Full Review

 

 

#1 filet mignon at The Briarwood Inn – Golden Colorado Full Review


 

Jalapeno Christmas Muffins

This year I decided to make something new to go with Christmas dinner Christmas muffins with red and green jalapenos.  I’ve added jalapenos and other peppers to muffins before, but one day I thought why not put red and green peppers in together which would be perfect for Christmas.

 

To do this just add 1 or 2 red and/or green seeded jalapenos or other peppers to your favorite plain muffin recipe or even cornbread muffin recipe.  Our favorite recipe is from the original Make-A-Mix Cookery, which makes multiple batches.  I like the original recipe better than the new version because it has less sugar which I think is better for jalapeno muffins.

2013 top eats #7-#12

I was going to do a top 10 list, but couldn’t get down to 10 so Here’s my top 12 eats from 2013 split into 2 posts.

 

#12 orange juice and French toast at Butterfields pancake house Scottsdale Arizona Full Review

#11 Strayhorn Grill – chocolate cream pie at Loma Colorado  Full Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

#10 baked lasagna at Enzo’s Italian restaurant – Grand Junction Colorado Full Review

 

 

 

 

#9 green Chile stew at Blue corn Café Santa Fe New Mexico Full Review

 

 

 

 

#8  Paprika schnitzel at Haus Murphy's Glendale Arizona Full Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

#7 al pastor tacos and salsa at Roberto's Mexican restaurant Anthem Arizona Full Review

 

 

 

 

The Briarwood Inn – Golden Colorado

November 16, 2013

I visited here for an anniversary dinner.  First they served appetizers, including various spreads like a salmon spread that was my favorite with crackers, there were also shrimp which I don’t care for and didn’t try.  After we found our seats for dinner we had a choice of one of the soups or one of the salads and a choice of entrees.  I chose the French onion soup and a filet mignon for my entrée. 

 

 

The soup was outstanding, it came with a piece of bread and gruyere just in the bowl then they poured in the au jus at the table.  The cheese was a little difficult to handle, but it was delicious.

 

 

 
 The filet mignon was really great and the best piece of meat I’ve ever had.  Although the prime rib was better, this wasn’t a bad option at all.  The filet mignon was 8oz and topped with fried leaks and served with fingerling potatoes, carrots onions and mushrooms all on top of a demi glaze that was very good.  I really liked the mushrooms and the other veggies were not bad either.  But with that great of a steak who needs veggies. 

 

 

 Following dinner they brought out dessert plates with various small desserts.  I tried one of each, one with coconut covering a banana I didn’t care for and my favorite was one that was like a little pecan pie.

The Briarwood Inn is a great place for a great meal especially when someone else is paying.

 

1630 8th St, Golden, CO 80401

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Golden Europe Restaurant - Arvada, CO

September 28, 2013

 

Hungry for a Schnitzel we stopped in for an early dinner.  Soon after being seated our waitress came and took our drink orders mom had an iced tea, dad and I both ordered a Pepsi. 

 

 

 

In a few minutes she brought out our drinks with the Pepsis still in the can.  Our waitress explained the special which was a pork schnitzel with a creamy dill sauce along with red cabbage and spätzle.   In a few minutes she came back to take our order mom and dad got the special. I went with the Jaeger schnitzel, on the menu they list the sides that come with each schnitzel but the waitress did ask if that's the sides we wanted. So I decided to try the red cabbage instead of the sauerkraut along with the spätzle. These schnitzels also came with a salad.

 

Soon after this the waitress brought out our salads and a basket of bread.  The bread was all right

 

 

and the salads were just basic salads with carrots, tomatoes and a slice of cucumber on top.   The Ranch dressing was really thin and runny. Once our salad plates were taken away we only waited a little bit before our meals came. 

 My Jaeger schnitzel was a pork schnitzel with a brown gravy with a large amount of mushrooms and onions on top. This came with spätzle and the red cabbage that I substituted. This was quite good but I think they were kind of too many mushrooms and onions and more than enough gravy, but the extra was good with the spätzle which was rather plain but good. Also the gravy covered most of the schnitzel so I wish there would've been a little less so I would've had more of the crispy fried part of the schnitzel.  It all still tasted very good. The red cabbage however I wanted to try out had a strong vinegar taste and was also very sweet and after a few bites I couldn't handle it anymore.

 

Mom and dad both enjoyed their meals. I tried the sauce from dad's schnitzel and I didn't really like it as well as the brown gravy on my. After we're done eating the waitress brought the check in a little glass which was different but it gets the job done. After paying we went outside and there was quite a bit of a line waiting. One guy waiting held the door for us on the way out and said it must be good for such a line. This guy was in luck if he was ready for a very good German meal. As we left to head home I was fat and happy and had a box of leftovers for the next day minus the red cabbage.

 

 

 

  

  

6620 Wadsworth Blvd, Arvada, CO 80003

 

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A Taste of Home Cooking - Wheat Ridge, CO

September 21, 2013

 

After just seeing this place featured on Diners Drive ins and dives, I wanted to try it out especially for the krautburgers which are something I’ve always enjoyed.  I was assuming this place would have cheap prices and be way too much food to eat, but I was wrong on both.

We arrived close to 5 o’clock; the place seemed kind of empty.  The hostess said it would be a 5-7 minutes to get a table ready. I’m not so sure why, but we waited for a few minutes.  When there was a table ready we were seated.  All three of us ordered iced tea.  When I opened the menu, I realized the prices weren’t so cheap and I also couldn’t find the items from DDD.  So we asked about it, the waiter said didn’t you get and insert in the menu.  He said there was a new girl up front and maybe she didn’t put it in, so he went and got them.  After reading the insert dad and I both got the krautburger dinner ($20). Which came with a salad or soup and fried calamari or a dessert, we both got salads and went with the dessert.  Mom after reading the regular menu got the jaeger schnitzel ($21) this came with Spätzle and red cabbage as well as a salad.  After seeing the prices and reading reviews saying they have big portions, I was thinking the portions must be huge.

 

I thought the salad was not exactly fresh and had seen better days; the homemade ranch dressing was really good and was thick.  Our waiter told us about it being homemade as well as telling us about everything that was homemade, it’s good to know things are homemade but I kind of got tired of hearing this after a while. 

 

The bread was great and homemade and had real butter with it.

 

My krautburger was good, but was hard on the outside and too cooked.  I thought the meat and cabbage mixture was very good, but I thought it could have used more of it and less bread.  The honey mustard dipping sauce was really good to go with it also homemade.  I never thought about honey mustard with krautburgers but it was very good.  I also didn’t know I needed such a heavy duty knife for a krautburger.  Mom enjoyed her meal very much and I approved of it.  Once we were all done the waiter came and gave us our dessert choices. 

 

I chose the palisade peach dessert which I don’t recall the exact name of.  This was very good and fairly simple just a pastry shell topped with a whipped cream with fresh fruit on top. I wish it was larger because it was really good. 

 

 

Dad had a mocha brownie ice cream dessert which he enjoyed very much.

This place turned out completely different than I expected not exactly cheap prices and not really huge portions.  Also it seemed like they were trying to be fancier than I thought it would be.  I didn’t think my meal was great, good but not great. That was until the dessert came, which was great.

 

 

 

 

4101 Kipling St, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033

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D' Corazon - Lakewood, CO

September 7, 2013

I wasn’t   a big fan of the salsa, it wasn’t too fresh and probably out of a jar, but mostly there was some flavor in there that I didn’t like.

 

 

I had a chicken chimichanga.  This was just ok the shredded chicken inside was good, but the whole thing was kind of fried, but not fully and not really crispy on the outside even the part that wasn’t covered in green chili.  The green chili was good, but had a different taste that I couldn’t figure out. 

 

 Mom and dad both had the chile relleno dinners, these were a lot better than my chimichanga and I wished I would have had them instead.

 

 

 

 11903 W 6th Ave, Lakewood, CO 80401

 

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High country Orchards – Palisade Colorado

August 23, 2013

Excellent Palisade peaches. I’ve never had fresh peaches besides at the grocery stores, and these are so much better.

 

3548 E 1/2 Rd, Palisade, CO ‎



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My favorite muffin – Grand Junction Colorado

August 23, 2013

 

 

These muffins were huge and really delicious, but I think cupcakes would probably be a better way to describe them.

 

 I got a Boston cream pie muffin it was just like a Boston cream pie with chocolate on top in the cream in the middle. Mom got a carrot cake muffin dad got two muffins a Boston cream pie muffin and a blueberry cheesecake I think. We also got a variety of mini muffins. There were plenty of tables there to eat, but we took ours to go. On our way home this day we stopped at a rest area and ate the large ones.

The next day when we got home we ate the mini muffins. These were all really good and I don't think there was a bad one in the bunch. These muffins might just be the greatest muffins out there.

683 Horizon Dr, Grand Junction, CO ‎






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El Tapatio – Grand Junction Colorado

August 22, 2013

We stopped here before a Grand Junction Rockies game.

 

 

They brought out chips and salsa and this slaw type thing. This was different than anything I've had with chips at a Mexican restaurant, I’m not even exactly sure what everything in it was, but it was good Just different. I really enjoyed the salsa, it was very fresh and one of the better salsas I've had in a while.

 

I decided to get the el tapatio enchiladas which had three different enchiladas pork with green sauce, a chicken enchilada with an orangish cream sauce and a chicken mole enchilada. All these are really good the pork with a green sauce was my favorite then the chicken with the cream sauce. Finally the mole was my least favorite, but still good, was a little too sweet for me. The Rice and beans were both good as well there were veggies in the rice, this was interesting but good. Mom and dad both had different combo plates I can't exactly sure what they were. But they didn't have many complaints.

1145 North Ave, Grand Junction, CO 81501




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Strayhorn Grill – Loma Colorado

August 22, 2013

 

This restaurant is connected to the sale barn, where they auction the animals they are only open for lunch during the week and they have dinner on the weekends. We were here during the week so lunch it was. I knew they had some sandwiches and assumed steaks. When we got there weren’t really many steaks on the menu mostly sandwiches so I decided to have the prime rib sandwich. Dad had the cheesesteak and mom had the pulled pork sandwich and all two of us choose fries as our side and mom had coleslaw. During our meal our waitress changed. The original waitress got busy with a large group so someone else came and took our order. Shortly after the original one came back and made sure we got our order taken to make sure it got in before the group. In not a whole lot of time our sandwiches came.

My sandwich was all right but the meat I thought was kind of tough really and just not as good as I was expecting. It was pretty plain and simple just the prime rib on toast with au jus which was good.

 

Dad really liked his cheesesteak. He said it had chunks of steak and not just the little thin stuff, he really enjoyed this.

 

Mom liked hers as well and it was gone very quickly.

 

 

 

After we were done eating mom and dad both decided to get a slice of chocolate cream pie. They both thought this was a really good chocolate cream pie. I tested it and have to agree it was really good.

 

It was a little confusing if we pay at the counter or at the table. Eventually though waitress came and took it, but I think we were supposed to pay at the counter. 

I don't think what I ordered would get 4 stars, but everyone else liked theirs more and when you add the pie it does boost the rating for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

1369 12 1/2 Rd, Loma, CO 81524

 

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