Breakfast

My wife has been on a huevo rancheros kick since she had it at The Fat Cat Cafe in Grand Lake. By the way, The Fat Cat is the only place we go for breakfast in Grand Lake. Every dish is consistently good and the atmosphere is warm and inviting. And if you're nice to Sally (who is wonderful) she might share some of her traditional homemade English scones with you. You'll be lucky if she does!

Anyway, it inspired me to make my own version with whatever leftovers I had. This version has 2 corn tortillas filled with refried beans, cheese, taco-seasoned ground beef, topped with a 3 egg omelette, more cheese and enchilada sauce. Yum! -- Drew

Ming Tsai

I've always been interested in cooking more Asian style cuisine, so I thought of Ming Tsai's East Meets West and got the cookbook. I've cooked a few things out of it so far and here are 2 lessons learned so far...1. Just about anything you try of Ming's will be good and 2. If it's a "spicy" dish, cut the heat AT LEAST in half. I've cut it in half and it's still on fire. I can't imagine cooking his spicy dishes at full force. I think my head would explode! Here is my latest from his book. -- Drew

5 Herb Vinaigarette

Fried Goat Cheese Salad (with the vinaigarette above)

Spicy Mango Salsa

Seared  Cod with Mango Salsa

(pan wasn't hot enough for the fish...rookie error!!)

Crave Real Food in Castle Rock

Nutty Professor

peanut butter (yes, peanut butter), bacon, jalapenos and onion

 

Velvet Elvis

Peanut Butter, Bananas, and Bacon! Just the way the King would have ordered it.

Crave Real Food in Castle Rock is the real deal. Without question one of the most memorable meals I have ever had. It’s close to the theater so I would imagine a lot of folks are planning to go here, then a movie. That may sound like a great idea but you will have to cancel the movie and head straight for confession. This place is naughty good. I’m talkin’ complete and utter indulgence. Jeff the Chef/Owner is like a Mad Scientist behind the counter. This guy is AWESOME!! He definitely grabbed the “Abbey Normal” brain in the jar for this one. As you can see from the pictures above things got out of hand. When I coined the phrase “Grub Chub” this is what I was referring to. Thank god the teacher didn’t ask me to get up and work out a problem on the chalkboard during this noshfest, because I was sportin’ a pretty serious Food Woody. I almost hesitate to let you all know how good this place is because I always want to be able to get a table but when something is this good, I gotta share. They give you a card that is a check list of all their burgers, great idea but I’m going to have a hard time ordering anything other than The Nutty Prof. We were there last Friday evening during the heaviest rain storm I have ever seen. It was like Armageddon outside and I had no idea that while I was making sweet nasty love to this burger my backyard was filling with water and about to flood our beautifully finished basement. As I was down on my knees trying to reconnect the sump pump in 3 feet of water two feet from an electrical outlet I’m thinking “Damn that was a good burger and shake” Seriously GO GET YA SUM - Shannon