Diners, Driveins and Dives/ Victoria's

I was watching Diner's, Drivein's and Dives over Thanksgiving. Lou and I are waiting for Guy Fieri to drop dead from a heart attack during one of the episodes from all the grease he is eating, but the food does look damn good at these places. I used to think he only ate a few bites of whatever he was eating, but after watching the marathon, he is chowing!

Anyway, this is my own version of Diners, Driveins and Dives!!! or just Diners, or rather Diner...

I have written about Breakfast at Victoria's Diner in Dorchester before, but I have never written about dinner.

Lou and I have come to appreciate Victoria's for more than just the 24 hour breakfast. We now go there for dinner too!

Lou's dinner usually consists of breakfast, but sometimes, like the other night.... He gets something different!

This last time at Victoria's we tried the Eggplant fries. Basically fried eggplant that looks like fries. I am sure this would contribute nicely to Guy Fieri's hardening of the arteries, but they are very tasty, and need no dipping sauce. Although I think marinara or ketchup would be a nice addition as well, we ate them plain. I get it Guy, I am working towards my own heart attack if I keep eating these, but this batch was work the extra cholesterol.
Moving away from the breakfast for dinner theme, Lou got this gigantic Cranberry and Walnut salad with Mandarin oranges above.
I got my equally large standard chef salad which comes with real freshly sliced turkey breast.

All salads also come with Pita bread which I love, love, love. I don't know why when I was growing up in NJ no salads came with pita bread. I didn't see this phenomenon until I moved to Boston. Maybe I just never ate salad back then...

Dinner for two at Victoria's is usually well under $30 and you get more food than most restaurants. The menu is the typically diverse Diner Menu with lots of choices for everyone, and they are open 24/7. Where was this place when I was in my 20's?

Cheesy Boy! Cheesy Boy! Cheesy Boy!

Cheeseboy

South Station Train Concourse

cheeseboy.com

If Squirrel only knew.... those of you from Bryant College years circa 86-90 may remember our friend, Ed, making his "Cheesies" in the bottom of dorm 2 late at night for the munchie crowd. He even had a hot dog cart umbrella to add to atmosphere!

Well 20 years later looks like another cheese master has decided to cash in on his own grilled cheese making. This kid's idea had to be born in a similar late night college dorm.

Cheeseboy is the brainchild of Michael Inwald, a guy who loved grilled cheese in college and who's friend's thought he had a knack for making them. Mark believed in his concept so much he left his Yale MBA program last year to invest 20K and go on the road selling grilled cheese. After obtaining outside investment, he was able to open the first Cheeseboy in South Station.

Read some of the naysayer's reviews and they will tell you grilled cheese consumption in restaurants is down, but Michael is being smart about it. He has a small, to go only stand in South Station, and his prices are extremely affordable. A classic grilled cheese is only $2.99
There are three main choices on the menu for low maintenance ordering, or you can mix and match bread cheese and fillings to customize your grilled cheese, from the choices below.

Choose your bread: Italian, rye, multigrain, or wheat

Choose your cheese: American, Cheddar, light swiss, Muenster, or Provolone,

Choose a meat: Turkey, Bacon, Ham Pepperoni

Choose some Veggies: Tomato, Basil, pickles, onion, spinach, roasted red peppers, Jalepenos

Cheeseboy also offers the tried and true grilled cheese pairing, Tomato soup!

Lou and I went to South Station last week to check it out.

I decided to got with Italian bread, Cheddar, Tomato and Basil for my sandwich

Lou got the Italian, Cheddar and Pepperoni

It took about 5 minutes to get our grilled cheese and they each came in their own sturdy to go box.

My verdict? The grilled cheese was tasty, and grilled to perfection with a golden brown evenly toasted and perfectly buttered crust. The price is right, the take away box is convenient and staff if quick with a great grilled cheese suggestion, like adding the basil to my sandwich.

I think this place will do well with commuters, and the nearby lunch crowd. It is affordable, and quick and who doesn't love grilled cheese?

I am not completely sold that anyone will go out of their way to stop by for a grilled cheese though. We did because we wanted to check it out, but unless I am being extremely lazy, I can probably make the same quality grilled cheese at home. Never the less, I don't think I am Cheeseboy's target audience, and I see a lot of grilled cheese eating commutes in Boston's future.

Thanksgiving in Boston Pictures and Recipes

I think I may have cooked the best turkey I have ever cooked in my life this Thanksgiving. It was completely by accident and I don't know if I will ever replicate it, but it was like butter. My husband who hates turkey found himself going back for seconds.

How did I do it? Somewhere between putting the turkey in the oven at 325 degrees at 9 am, and 11:30 am, the oven got turned off. I have no idea how or how long it was off, but when I noticed, it was only at 199 degrees! oops! I put the oven back on at 350 degrees. The turkey was at a safe edible temp by 2:30, we let it rest out of the oven for a half hour, and damn that was a good turkey! Even the leftovers are moist.
Lou's family came to dinner this year. There were 9 of us all together. Lou's mom brought a honey baked ham and green beans. Aunt Shirley brought her famous pound cake and mac and cheese, and Lou's dad brought a pumpkin cheese cake and a bag full of bread for leftover sandwiches!
Lucky for me I have a neighbor who was away for the day and let me use their stove, and a husband who remembered to take all these pictures when I first put the food out. Otherwise I never would have gotten everything out hot, or had pics for the blog:)
Two recipes I have never seen anyone make the or at least make in the same way are my grandmom's stuffing and my grandmom's turnips. Here are the recipes.

Stuffing

1 loaf of bread

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced onion

Poultry season to taste, which usually amount to half a spice bottle of it.

Mix with hands, and then stuff the bird with it.

It is so good, it doesn't have meat or pineapple or anything fancy, and sure it has a lot of butter, but for once a year, it is a treat!

Turnips

One large yellow turnip peeled and cubed

One half onion cut in thin rings

7 slices of bacon

Boiling the turnips until tender, set aside. Cook the bacon until it is crispy. Remove from pan and crumble. Reserve about 4 Tbsp. of the bacon fat in the pan. Cook the onions in the bacon fat until they start to turn transparent. Add the cooked turnips and the bacon, saute until blended and hot. Serve. I make them a day ahead of time often and they taste even better the next day, just microwave to heat up. Turnips are in the for front of the pic below.
Enjoy my pics and I hope everyone who was celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend had a great time with family and friends. Now get out there and work those calories off!

Shopping Detour at Spruce Pond Creamery

Spruce Pond Creamery and Franklin Flatbread Pizza

www.franklinpizza.com

370 King Street

Franklin, Ma

508-520-7900

Menu: Pizza, Pasta, Sandwiches, Salads, Ice cream

Atmosphere: Casual pizzeria and Ice creamery

Kid Friendly: If Ice cream is ever not Kid Friendly, then it is being served in a bar.

I wanted lunch, and why my husband wanted to check out a place called Spruce Pond Creamery made no sense to me. I was hungry though, and hunger for me means severe loss of brain power so I went along with his idea.

We were on our way to the Wrentham Outlets when we took this detour. This was not a case of twisting my arm. I am not a shopper. In fact, I pretty much loathe shopping except for maybe 4 times a year, and there is nothing that makes me loathe it more than crowds. When I saw the line of cars meandering off the the exit to for the outlets, there was no chance I was staying in it.

Lou knows me so well he actually said it before I did. As soon as he pulled into the back of the line he asked, "You want to get some lunch instead of shopping?"

It took me a second to process it, then I saw the same line on the other side of the highway getting off the opposite exit going to the same outlets. My worst nightmare! All I could think was, "Get me the heck out of this line before we are on the off ramp with no option to get out!"

Lou quickly pulled back onto 495 and we were out of there. We took out Lou's iPhone and used the app, Around Me, to see if we could find a restaurant nearby. Lou picked the Spruce Pond Creamery. I don't know what made him think they would have food, but it was only about a 1/2 mile off the next exit on 495, so we checked it out.

This is the first thing I noticed. This place looked like a very colorful ice cream stand to me, and it was getting a little chilly out. Lou looked at the main sign, however, and it said they had flat bread pizza, so we went in to check it out.
It turns out the Ice Creamery has an inside seating area, and a wood burning stove where they make some delicious pizza. They also have sandwiches, salads, and pasta dishes, various bakery treats and of course homemade ice cream.

Lou was excited when we sat down because he spied this cream soda in the display case.
For lunch we got the flat bread because it was the highest thing billed on the menu, and it looked really good on our neighbors table. We chose to split our pizza in half. One side was the Lightning Rod-hand-made herb & garlic sausage, organic tomato sauce, blend of organic cheeses, sautéed organic green peppers, sliced organic mushrooms & balsamic-splashed sautéed organic yellow onions.

The second side was Ben's trip to France- Organic eggplant & organic Roma tomatoes over organic garlic-infused extra-virgin olive oil base, with grated Reggiano Parmigiano cheese and balsamic-splashed organic yellow onions

I don't really get the name choices, but I guess I should thank Ben for going to France and coming up with this original pizza choice. It was a delicious blend of ingredients.

The staff at Spruce Pond was friendly. The ordering was a little unorganized. There was a line at the counter when we walked in, and several parties sitting down, but it wasn't clear if you should stand in line, order and then sit, or sit and wait for a server. We went to get in line and we must have had, "We are ordering lunch and sitting down written all over us, " because as soon as we stepped in the back of the line, we were told to sit and wait for a waitress.

A sign saying, "Seat yourself for eat in", would have been a huge help.

We didn't get ice cream, but the line for it was steady the entire time we were there, and it wasn't a very hot day, so it must be pretty good.

Outside the Creamery has a beautiful landscape rolling down to what can only be the Spruce Pond. I can imagine a lot of families hear hanging out on the hottest of summer days. It is a little far for us, but if I ever make the foolish decision to head to Wrentham on a popular shopping day, I will know I can always detour it to Spruce Pond Creamery.

Thanksgiving Feast Part I The Menu

I sat down last Wednesday and put together our Thanksgiving menu then went shopping Thursday night. Here is the feast.

Turkey- I make it simple and just rub olive oil all over it. This year we have a 20 pound bird.

Stuffing- It's my grandma's recipe, bread, onions, celery, butter, and a whole lot of poultry seasoning. I stuff it in the bird and it comes out moist and delicious.

Mashed Potatoes- The only secret I have is the blender. I use a whisk attachment to mix them.

Carrots, Celery, and Walnuts- Sounds strange, but is a yummy combo

Turnips- an old family recipe which includes onions and bacons, very simple and guests love them.

Savory bread- This is my mom's recipe. I don't know where it came from it is a mix of spices parsley and onions on bread. I absolutely love it. This one is for me!

Sweet potato casserole- This one is for my husbands family who always have sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving. I hope I don't screw it up.

Mac and Cheese- Courtesy of Aunt Shirley

Pound Cake-Also Shirley's. One of these days I will have to talk her out of her recipes:)

Baked Ham-My mother in law is bringing this, yes we are going to have a ridiculous amount of leftovers!

String Beans-Another in law favorite courtesy of Lou's mom.

I am also going to throw an Apple Pie, a Pumpkin Cream Pie and a Pecan Pie into the mix.

Come back for pictures and recipes!

Turkey Time

It's curtains for you Pal! Curtains!

Not So Friendly Toast

Dear Friendly Toast,

You should change your name to Not So Friendly Toast, Unfriendly toast, Anything but Friendly Toast. I hated that you were understaffed, I hated that your staff was rude. I hated the music you had blaring at 11 over my head. The music sucked, the food sucked. I hated the server who came to our table to "help" deliver the food and kicked a chair out of his way only to hit another patron with it. The best part is he barely turned around and muttered under his breath a snide, "Oh, sorry".

I hated most of all that I was too exhausted and hungry to get up when I realized how much I hated this place.
Here are the pics, the waffle, gross.. The onion rings below were the only good part. Dishes seemed old and dirty. Water tasted like you took it out of a rusty spigot.
Take note of my other posts Friendly Toast. I rarely hate a place, and even if I had a bad experience try to find the positive.

The only positive here was leaving. I only wish I did it sooner.

Stats On My Blog

In September I visited my good friend Kristin in Columbus, OH. She is a blogging force, writing www.cbusmoms.com (a blog about great activities to do with your kids in the Columbus area), www.glassofwhine.blogspot.com,( a more personal blog sharing stories about her home life) and contributing to various others, she has made a name for herself in Columbus as someone who knows how to work the blog. She has even been asked to speak on the subject.

I had been blogging off and on for the last year, and was seriously considering changing the format of my blog when Kristin pointed out some of the new features on Blogger. When I got home, I decided to try to take advantage of some of the new designs and change some of my format, but I became obsessed with checking my Stats!

The Stats show you which of your posts are getting the most reads, what country people reside in who are reading your blog, what search strings they used to find your blog, and what sites are pushing people to your blog.

I find it completely fascinating that my most looked at post is one on Ethiopian food and Boston Cream pie. Coming in second, Jelly pudding pops! My husband who is the straight guy in our relationship would probably love to know 96 people have seen him making his Bill Cosby face while eating our version of the pudding pop. My third most popular? Fuddruckers! They do have some damn good burgers. Fourth, I am proud to say is the entry I wrote about Lou's grandmother Mother Dear. She is 92 years old and still makes the best cream corn in the south.

The other thing I find fascinating is where my blog is getting hits from! South Korea, Germany, Spain, Russia, The Phillipines, UK, Canada, Bahrain, Japan, Ukraine, China and the Netherlands are all countries with people who have visited my blog. I feel honored. Even if you hit it by mistake, the fact that you saw it is just so cool;) If you were one of the spammers who hit my blog, do me a favor and at least click on an ad next time so I can at least get something out of your visit than an inane comment I need to delete.

Thank you to Quay Po Cooks for commenting on my Lyndells post all the way from Malaysia! If I could send you the black and white cookies and know they would be intact when they got there, I would get them right out to you. Heck I should do it anyway:)

I haven't gone anywhere new lately because my day time job has been eating up all my time, no pun intended, but this weekend we will be heading out to one of Boston's most famous Pizzeria's, Pizzeria Regina. We will be having brunch on Sunday and dinner out Sunday night, so stay tuned more posts to come, and thank you for stopping by:)

The Barefoot Contessa Comes to the Natick Collection!

A good friend of mine, Erin, hipped me to a book signing at the William Sonoma in the Natick Collection last Friday. The one and only Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten was coming to Natick to do a book signing between 12 and 2.

I have a completely unpredictable job, and Natick is about 35 minutes away, so I had to make a game time decision that day as to whether I was going to brave the crowd to meet Ina and get a book signed, or stay home and wonder what could have been. At 11 am I decided to call, and the store told me there were still some books left, but the line was already really long. If I didn't get there soon, I might not even get a book!

My whole reason for going was to get the book for my sister, she LOVES Ina and was the first person to get me watching her show. Suddenly my schedule cleared for the afternoon, I saw my window of opportunity, so I took off to try and meet Ina.

When I got to the William and Sonoma store front, the line had already wrapped into the mall and back on itself. There had to be about 800 people in it. I thought, how am I going to pull this off? I need to get back to work? This is going to take hours! But I was already there, and decided, let me at least buy the cookbook, and see how quickly the line starts to move once Ina has arrived.

As I stepped into the back of the line, I heard something that always makes me smile, "Krisburke! What are you doing here?" Anyone who calls me Krisburke has to be an old friend from college, and in this case it was my APK sister Carlotta!!! Turns out Carlotta was slightly more prepared than I was and got to the mall very early that day. Anyone reading this who knows the two of us, is not surprised by me winging it, and Carlotta being early to this event, but we do have one thing in common we share a birthday, and Carlotta was there for a similar reason. She was getting the cookbook for her mother because her mom is also a huge Ina fan.

Carlotta was only about 100th in line and she had convinced the women around her to let me jump the line and stand with her. In the end, I met Ina, got 2 cookbooks signed,(I got one for Erin too), I got to hang out with my dear friend Carlotta, and I was out of the mall in about 40 minutes. It was a huge blessing because my work got nuts for the rest of the day. I never would have been able to wait. Thank you Lottie!!!!!

Even Ina knows how awesome Carlotta is. Here she is asking Carlotta advice on how to roast the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.

and here is Ina signing Carlotta's cookbook. I think Ina wants to be an APK girl now....
Ina is still on her book tour, check to see if she will be coming to a place near you!

http://www.barefootcontessa.com/book_tour.shtml

Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Hill

289 Dorchester Street
South Boston, MA 02127

Atmosphere: Brand new local bar, GREAT place to watch any game. Not a bad seat

Food: Bar apps, Entrees, Burgers, Salads, New England inspired, New Orleans inspired, even some California inspiration. Something for everyone.

Prices: Lot of good food at a fair price.

Kid Friendly: Come on now, it's a bar.

Unlike most Dear John letters where the guy is being told to get lost because you found somebody new, I want to write a Dear John letter to John Lovett, owner of Telegraph Hill to say, "Please don't go anywhere!!!"

Telegraph Hill is the new bar and restaurant in town and they opened just a few blocks from our house. The block they are on is not the nicest one in Southie. In fact, it is filled with vacant store fronts and run down businesses, but John saw what we all want to see, promise, and he built a beautiful place.

Lou and I stopped by on Halloween to grab a bite to eat. It was an early dinner/ late lunch, around 3 and the bar was empty, so we got to choose where we sat. There were 11 flat screens filling the walls. There isn't a chance you will miss a game no matter where you sit.

Besides the bar, there are hightops scattered throughout which can sit 4 people comfortably. I have to admit, I have never seen a bar without low seats and booths. It isn't too large in here though and I imagine they wanted to be able to pack a bar crowd in, so if that is case, the seating makes sense.After being seated our waitress, Erin greeted us immediately. There was only one other couple in the whole restaurant, but it was that in between time so, I thought that made sense. Lou and I aren't huge drinkers, so we just got water, but Telegraph Hill offers a great selection of draft and bottled beer.

For our in between meal, I got the shepard's pie and Lou got a burger. I took the picture above when our meals first arrived. Both dishes were massive, so I took the two below to try to show some scale.

My shepard's pie was really tasty, with a cheesy, potato crust on the top. They cook it in the same bowl they serve it in, and because of that, it took a while for our food to arrive. At least that is my theory. It was delicious, but I can see the shepard's pie throwing off the kitchen on a busy night.
Lou's burger was really good as well. He loved that they had a California burger with avocado on it. That mound of fries is not only plentiful, but they are fresh. I caught a glimpse of one of the cooks preparing the fries in the kitchen.

The menu at Telegraph Hill is diverse. They have some typical bar food, some with a bit of a twist, like the fried mac and cheese. Most dishes seem like a mixed influence between New England, and New Orleans, with choices like the Southie Po'Boy, Battered Cod, onion strings, house slaw, garlic mayo, serves with the house fries. They have a raw bar, and they also have Sunday Brunch. The most expensive thing on the menu is the Black and Bleu which is a 12 oz sirloin for $19. I would say perfect price points for this neighborhood.
This is Lou after somehow finishing the majority of his giant meal. The reason I really took this picture was the flowers. I loved them. I thought they were original with a nice fall theme. They were fake, but didn't scream fake, but the most interesting part to me was the water. The water was fake too! I like when restaurants come up with an interesting way to keep atmosphere, but make it simple on themselves. Telegraph Hill could have these pre-made vases for every season.

As we neared the end of our meal, the Patriots game started and a few more people began to file into Telegraph Hill. I was a little disappointed to be honest because I expected a bigger crowd. This is a GREAT place to watch the game. There literally is not a bad seat in the place, and the interior is beautiful. The walls are all custom wood panel, and the wall of windows in front can open to the street on warmer days. The bathrooms are newly renovated, and overall it is really clean. I know it's new, but sometimes even new places have signs of uncleanliness. Best of all the service was awesome from the minute we walked in the door. Erin gave us the type of service where she was always available, but in no way pestering us. She even said to Lou at one point as she cleared my plate,"Please don't let me rush you." The whole experience was pleasant.

When we left, I drove past two other bars where people watch the game, Stadium which is around the corner, and Stats which is up the street hoping they had smaller crowds, but both of them were packed. I am hoping it is because Telegraph Hill is new and not too many people know about it yet.

Come on people of Southie! Get out there and check out Telegraph Hill!

Let's be honest, John Lovett did a great thing by opening this beautiful place in a less desirable block. I hope people realize it is there, that it has great food, service and atmosphere and frequent it. I also hope it inspires other future business owners to invest in Southie as well.

Dear John,

Please don't leave!

Bella Vita Caffe

Bella Vita Caffe

30 Charles St.

Beacon Hill Boston, Ma 02114

Food: Coffee, Soups, Salad, Sandwiches, icecream pastries

Atmosphere: Laid back Coffee shop

$$$$: Not too bad for this part of the city.

Who needs a web page when your one of a small few cafe's on Charles Street and Carolyn Meehan is your mayor? That would be your mayor on foursquare.

Apparently Bella Vita Caffe knows this because they don't have a webpage and they seem to be doing just fine.

Don't know who Carolyn Meehan is? If you have a business you are trying to promote you should. She is a social media maven, and President of The Keyturn, a unique digital solutions provider that specializes in the development and deployment of integrated, online and social media marketing strategies.

www.thekeyturn.com

Between a location on Charles Street in Beacon Hill and Carolyn bringing clients in for meetings over cappuccino what more could you ask for in terms of exposure when you don't have your own webpage?

This place isn't sheik, it doesn't have all new furniture, or a hip atmosphere. It just has great coffee, yummy pastries and cakes, and a few choices for soups, salads and sandwiches. It's also got, gelato, free wi-fi, lots of tables which can be pushed together for bigger parties, and a book trading book case in the back.

For some reason Lou and I always find our way here in the winter after trekking around the city shopping. I like to get a warm drink, sit by the window and watch the people on Charles St. as the bustle by.

If you are high maintenance, trying to impress, like superb service, this place probably isn't for you, but if you are laid back, want to take your time with a latte, have some good conversation, and great people watching, then check it out.