Pappy's corner pub - Ft. Collins CO

 February 16, 2012

We decided to stop here for lunch mostly because I had a coupon from the mail.  We entered the restaurant and there was a sign that says please see yourself so we did, and someone was right behind us with menus and took our drink orders which were both cokes. Then we looked over the menu but I was thinking I wanted a French dip or something like that anyways. And that's what I decided to get, it also came with a side dish choice which I chose French fries. My dad went with the Ruben which is one of his favorite sandwiches with fries as well. 

The first thing I noticed when I bit into my sandwich was that it was really really salty, really too much for me at least and I usually don’t complain about too much salt. It tasted like they put extra salt on top of something that was already really salty.  My sandwich was okay but it's really not that good, but it was decent.  The meat was ok but really nothing special, I actually thought the bread was pretty good and the fries were good but not great as well.

My dad liked his meal and said everything was good and better than what I thought of mine.

I thought that Pappy’s was pretty average, nothing great and nothing terrible.

1027 W Horsetooth Rd # 111  Fort Collins, CO 80526

Baked Fried Pickles

Awhile back I heard about fried pickles and wasn’t sure but I wanted to try them.  Finally I had them at Smash Burger, and I still wasn’t sure if I liked them.  I tried them again later and I thought these are pretty good.  So this led me to try to make my own. 

I decided to try and bake them instead of frying them because I figured it would be simpler and easier.  So I searched and found an onion ring recipe online and thought why not try it with pickles instead

• 1 1/2 cups cornflakes
• 1/2 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Dill pickle chips
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Drain pickles and let dry a little bit on a paper towel

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Crunch up the cornflakes and mix breadcrumbs in a pie plate. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, flour, and cayenne and season with salt and pepper.

3. Pour oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven and heat 2 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and tilt to coat evenly with oil. Arrange pickles on sheet

4. Dip pickle chips in egg mixture (letting excess drip off) and dredge in cornflake mixture; place on the baking sheet. Bake, turning once, until pickles are golden brown, about 16 minutes. Season with salt

I have also used

• 1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, quartered crosswise and broken into rings (discard small center rings)
• Pickled jalapenos
• Sliced mushrooms
• fresh green chiles
• Pickle spears

Sam's number three - Aurora Colorado

Friday the 13^th January 13, 2012

It was Friday the 13th and we had another trip down to the Denver area for doctor appointments, and I had seen Sam’s number three on diner’s drive-ins and dives.  We were seated pretty quickly then our waitress came.  She set water and cups on the table, she asked if we still needed time, we did since the menu was huge; they have a whole Greek menu, a whole Mexican menu, a breakfast menu, and a sandwich menu all together to make one huge menu.  We did go ahead and order an appetizer which was cheese curds, but she didn't ask is for our drink orders which I thought was kind of weird.  When she came back with the cheese curds, we figured out what to order including drinks. 

The cheese curds were not the best, but they were good and so was the marinara sauce. They were just like the cheese curds we had had in green bay, which happened to be my least favorite of the cheese curds we had on our trip to Wisconsin. I decided to get the chile relleno with eggs (8.99)which came with home fries and toast, I had a choice of the bread/potatoes also could have had biscuits and gravy or pancakes. My mom had the chile relleno (8.99) that came with the rice and beans on the Mexican part of the menu with cups of sour cream, guacamole and salsa on the side. My dad had the chorizo and eggs. He thought the chorizo was okay but nothing really too great.

My mom really liked her chile relleno with the rice and beans. I thought everything was really good I thought my chile rellenos were good, but they were a little too cheesy and I actually almost choked on the cheese. 

 They were pretty good and were the crispy type l like, but what I really liked was the green chili.  It was a little spicy, but not really too hot and I liked that it had tomatoes in it which I thought was good and quite a bit of pork.  I thought my eggs and home fries were kind of boring and thought that more green chili on would've made them a lot better.  The next day I realized that I was supposed to have toast with my meal but I did not get it but that’s not the end of the world. Overall this place was good, but not quite great.  I had survived eating out on Friday the 13^th.

2580 South Havana Street
Aurora, CO

El Alazan Restaurant-Windsor Colorado

Closed and reopened as a new restaurant Sol de Jalisco

January 11, 2012

The godfather wanted to take me out for lunch for my birthday so we decided to come to this place since I really enjoy Mexican and I had heard that El Alazan was good.  I had been here once previously, but all I remember was that I did not care for the chile rellenos.

The first thing I noticed is the walls decorated with various Mexican things like sombreros and chairs being painted with various Mexican themes. 

After we were seated, we were brought chips and salsa; the chips were not anything special, but not anything bad either. I did think the salsa was good, which came in a jar type thing with two dishes to pour the salsa into.  Then I turned to my menu, it took a while to find what I wanted on the menu since they have so many combinations listed. 

It took time but we finally figured out what we wanted. I went with the number five combo which came with a beef enchilada, a cheese enchilada along with rice and beans (8.50).  The godfather had the number one combo that came with two beef enchiladas and a beef taco and the choice of rice or beans, he chose the beans. So we continued eating the chips and salsa and continued our sports talk while we waited. Not too long after, our food arrived.

My plate looked good right away; the waiter sat down the godfather’s plate which had rice instead of beans.  He realized this right away and went back and brought back a plate of beans. I thought the enchiladas were very good, the sauce was pretty good. The beef was just basic beef and the cheese wasn’t like cheese at most places, I don’t know what kind it was but it was very good. I usually like Spanish rice more than the beans at most places, but the beans here were nice and creamy and were not over cooked and tasted very good. The rice was okay, it was a little on the hard side in places.   The godfather also said many times how good his meal was as well.  He seemed to have really enjoyed his enchiladas and taco and he also mentioned that he liked the beans.

Since it was my birthday they brought out a sombrero for me to wear and sang happy birthday to me, and brought a plate of sopapillas. They were not big sopapillas but 4 smaller triangles that were drizzled with honey and cinnamon with whipped cream in the middle. I thought these were very good and easier to eat than the big ones.

Getting to spend time with my godfather and having very good Mexican food with good service and birthday sopapillas made for a really great birthday lunch.

1345 Water Valley Pkwy # 300  Windsor, CO 80550-6224

Sanford's grub and pub -Ft. Collins CO

 January 4, 2012

I met a friend at Sanford's grub and pub for lunch. It was a late lunch after one o'clock. First thing that I noticed was everything was big and there was a ton of random things on the walls and all throughout the place, from large cartoonish moose’s to old license plates.  First they gave us our menus at our table and they were huge and almost too hard to handle and to open it. It was filled mostly with choices of burgers and sandwiches, but I already knew what I wanted from reading the menu online. We both got the big country Burger with Cajun fries and my friend had the onion rings (nine dollars and 97 pennies, according to their menu.)

When the burgers arrived which seemed like quite a while, they were on huge plates the burger was pretty big.  The onion rings on top were stacked higher than the burger and topped with ranch dressing.  The plate also had lettuce, pickle and onions to top the burger, along with a huge plate amount of Cajun fries and my friend had a huge pile of onion rings that were not really rings more like onion strings.  I had to squeeze my burger down as much as I could, so I could get my burger in my mouth.   It seemed like a good burger, but not to long into it the onions on top got really soggy and didn't taste so good.  If you like lots of greasy food you’ll love this place.  After quite a while the waitress finally brought the check, but she was quick when she left and came back with change.

I did enjoy my burger, but I don’t know if it was that great of a burger, it was good and was huge.  It was just way too much for me to handle, and I ate probably half of my burger and fries and couldn’t eat anymore.  This was a pretty good value under 10 for more food than I could handle.

1526 Oakridge Drive  Fort Collins, CO 80525

Machine shed Urbandale Iowa

September 16, 2011

We enjoyed our meal the before so much that we decided to come here for breakfast.   

I had the basic breakfast with bacon, a English muffin, over easy eggs and home fries.  Itwas a very good breakfast and very delicious nothing out of the ordinary just really good. My mom and dad both had the same but made different choices of potatoes meat and the bread item.  We enjoyed our breakfast  as much as the dinner the night before.

11151 Hickman Rd  Urbandale, IA 50322-3741

machine shed Urbandale Iowa.

September 15, 2011

 We walked here from our hotel the sleep inn it was across both parking lots.

 It was a little chilly and I was starving so I thought something nice and hot will be good so I got the turkey pot pie and it was delicious.  It had a flaky crust was excellent and all the ingredients were very good, it was very creamy and it was just great. 

Before the meal  they brought a bunch of stuff out family style; bread with real butter,  spice cake as well as cottage cheese and coleslaw. My dad had the chicken fried steak and he thought it was very good. My mom tried the famous baked potato soup and really like it as well my dad also wanted a piece of cherry pie which I tasted and I was very good too.   The food was excellent, the portions were big and the service was good.  This place reminded me of a cracker barrel, but with a lot better food.