Shane Life

Alli and I went to see Away We Go at the 9:50 a.m. showing at the Fork & Screen on Saturday.

We’ve been trying to find a time to hit the breakfast option at the Fork & Screen since it opened and with the release of Away We Go (FINALLY), we were excited to give it a shot.

I’m going to cover the movie review separately.

The Fork & Screen needs to stick what it does pretty well, which is bar food. Their breakfast was pretty bad. The portion sizes were decent and the potatoes were OK (fries and homemade chips are what the Fork & Screen does best at lunch and dinner), but my biscuits and gravy were average at best.

While the biscuits were pretty good, the “sausage” gravy was flavorless and seriously lacking sausage. I got it with a side of scrambled eggs with cheese that was just a really bland, boring, dry version of truck stop eggs, except not as good as I’ve described. No amount of salt or pepper could salvage this plate of MEH.

Alli didn’t have any better things to say about the French toast, saying:

The French toast was almost certainly frozen at sometime. I couldn’t even cut it with my fork.

I don’t think we’ll head back to the Fork & Screen for breakfast anytime soon. While I love that the movies cost only $10 that early in the morning on Saturday (with $5 towards your food), the food just wasn’t very good.

Alli made this terrific relish a while back that was a part of a Rachael Ray recipe for Vegetarian Sloppy Joes.

It’s not too difficult, basically chopped cilantro and pickles mixed together and served on top of whatever you’re eating. We’ve had it a few times since, on top of turkey burgers (for me) and vegetarian sandwiches (for her). Alli has made it with dill and sweet pickles, both of which are good, but I vastly prefer the dill pickle version.

If you want to try it out, it’s not hard.

1. Chop some pickles.
2. Chop some cilantro.
3. Mix.
4. Serve.

Enjoy!

No, that’s not Chipotle.

That is Mexican food leftover from the wedding. Still.

One huge benefit of attending Big Omaha was that Alli and I could stay with her folks and spend the weekend up here with them. Today, while Alli’s dad and I golfed this morning (and I played some of my best golf ever), she and her mom shopped. We came home, showered and then headed out to see Star Trek.

On Star Trek: WOW. What a movie! JJ Abrams put together an interesting cast of characters to reimagine and reboot one of the most iconic franchises of all-time. It was entertaining and action-packed – everything that a summer blockbuster should be. I had heard good things about the movie, but I reserved my judgment until I saw it. My judgment: Awesome. Go see it.

After the movie, we headed to Stella’s Hamburgers for a great diner-style burger (see above).

So, let’s recap:

• Golf
• Star Trek
• Bacon Cheeseburger

Yeah. Today pretty much rocked.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that Top Chef is easily my favorite reality show. I love the competitions, the drama and I think that the judges are some of the most knowledgeable and respected minds in the culinary world (although I think that Padma sometimes pretends to be a little more knowledgeable than she should).

Last night was the competition finale. Held in the historic Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, Hosea, Carla and Stefan competed in the best competition of the season - cook [the judges] the best three-course meal of your life.

Even Stefan responded by saying something to the effect of, “No challenge? That makes it tougher.”

I had some high hopes for this season. I felt like it was deep with talented chefs, particularly Team Europe (Stefan and Fabio), but I felt like two of the most talented chefs (Jamie and Jeff) were eliminated entirely too early. And while Carla grew on me eventually, the fact that she made it as deep as she did was pretty shocking. She took far too long to find her groove and should have been eliminated earlier.

As far as Hosea winning…I picked him around week four as a finalist and Alli put it best last night when she said, “He seems like a small-town chef. He needs more everything. More experience, more exposure, just more.” Too true. Because currently, I’d say that Hosea is battling Ilan as the worst winning Top Chef of the five seasons. He has a lot of potential and he cooks good food, but there were two huge problems that Hosea encountered:

• He was far too motivated by Stefan. Stefan will not be in his kitchen down the road to challenge him, so he’d better find some more motivation.
• The whole thing with Leah. That was not classy at all. And the on-the-mouth kiss after he won it all…well, we’ll see what that meant in the horribly-hosted reunion show next week.

My highlights of the season:

• The Super Bowl challenge. I loved that one, especially seeing the crazy “I have a culinary boner” Andrew again.
• Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters.
• The Le Bernadin challenge. Having to recreate Eric Ripert’s food in his restaurant for him…that’s nothing short of daunting.
• The premiere. It was a great way to weed out people and gave them plenty of opportunities to save themselves.
• Toby Young. He can’t really replace Gail, but he was a decent replacement for Ted Allen, who went off to host that horrible Chopped show on the Food Network.

It certainly wasn’t my favorite season of all, but I’m ready for the next season to start. I’m hoping that in the future, they’ll downplay Padma a little more and bring back Tom C. into the mix. He’s such a great chef and I felt like he was lacking from this season.

One fun thing that we got to do as a part of the planning process for Ashley and Tyson’s wedding was to taste the cake, made by the awesomely local Dragonfly Bakery of Olathe.

We found this bakery through a dance team parent who had brought Alli and Ashley cupcakes prior to their competitions the past two weekends (which they really did amazingly at, BTW).

Dragonfly Boba Tea and Bakery is a locally-owned and operated little shop right next to Pei Wei at 119th and I-35 in Olathe. One of the reasons that they came to our attention was that they have the ability to make gluten-free cakes and desserts. Since Ashley and Tyson both have a gluten intolerance that borders on celiac disease, they didn’t think they were going to be able to have a wedding cake when they get married in April.

With Dragonfly, they will.

We got to taste both the gluten-free and the regular cakes from Dragonfly and I could barely tell the difference between the two. The cakes are amazing. Ashley and Tyson decided to go with Dragonfly’s signature white chocolate cake for both their own personal gluten-free cake as well as for the main cake for those of us whose intestines can tolerate gluten.

Not only are the cakes terrific, but the owners are a terrific group of ladies that use recipes from their grandmother Opal, who passed away in 2006. Now, three generations of Opal’s children and grandchildren run the business in honor of her, a great tribute to a lady that made a heck of a cake.

If you’re looking for a cake for any occasion, I suggest you go check out Dragonfly.

I was not paid for this endorsement, although I would certainly take free cake for it.

Don’t forget. The Top Chef: New York premiere is tonight.

Watch it.

(And yes, this is my NaBloPoMo post for the evening. Don’t mess with me on Top Chef Premiere Night.)

I’ve never been shy about my adoration for the cooler months. The changing leaves, snuggling up under a blanket when your house is 62 degrees, scarves, football, the holidays – all of this and more makes late fall and winter my favorite time of year.

Another thing that makes this time of year great is soup.

Soup is warm. Soup is tasty. Soup is even healthy. (I refuse to say that it’s Mmm Mmm Good).

Tonight, Alli put a soup in the crockpot before she took off for practice and when I got home, I walked into a house that smelled like her tasty Mexican soup concoction. Corn, beans, stock, tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, cumin and some other awesomeness topped with some cheese and corn chips…are you drooling yet?

So good.

I love soup and I love my wife for making it.

My favorite reality TV show is back. Emmy-nominated Top Chef is in New York City this season with new challenges, new food, and a whole lot of kitchen drama.

After spending two seasons in San Francisco, then taking the show on the road to Miami and Chicago, Top Chef is in the culinary center of the universe now. I can’t wait.

For those of you that do not watch this brilliant show, you are fools. It starts Wednesday night on Bravo, so set your DVR now so you don’t miss it. Seriously. It’s Project Runway meets the Food Network and it’s totally awesome.

I predict a possible live-blog of the 9 p.m. Wednesday premiere.