Great Broke Food, Chapter 3

I made this the other day, and it was the easiest, cheapest thing ever

Mac n' Cheese with hot dogs and peas

Ingredients:
One box of mac n' cheese (cheap, kraft style)
A little extra cheese of your choice, shredded
2 hot dogs (I prefer all beef, but if you're really broke, the mystery meat ones!)
Frozen peas, as much as you like

Fix the mac n cheese according to the way you like it. I recommend a little more butter and milk that you would normally use for this version. While the noodles are cooking, microwave the hot dogs for one minute and then cut into small chunks. About 1 minute before the pasta is done, add the peas to the boiling water to warm through. Drain. After you add the milk, butter and that cheesy packet stuff, add more cheese and melt in slowly over low heat. Add the hot dogs. Mix. Eat. Enjoy.

Great Broke Food, Chapter 2

My mother has made this casserole as long as I can remember. It looks kinda weird, but its really good!

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef (or you could use turkey)
1 can chicken noodle soup
1 can cream of chicken or cream of celery soup
1/2 C rice (any kind)
1 1/2 C chow mein noodles
1 1/2 soup cans water

Brown meat. Drain off fat. Add all ingredients in roaster or dutch oven. Reserve about 1/2 C of the chow mein noodles to sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

Note: I usually throw in some sort of veggie mix too, but this is optional.

Great broke food, chapter 1

One can of tomato soup ( I use low salt)
Salsa of your choice (today I had Herdez's verde)
Red pepper flake
1/2 can of milk

Mix these and cook until warm. Add shredded sharp cheddar on top. Crush tortilla chips in the soup. Voila! Good broke food.

Cannon River Winery

Last weekend, we visited Cannon River Winery in Cannon Falls, MN.

When you go there, there is a mini self-guided tour of their showroom space that covers their wine making process. Actual tours of the vineyard, which is located a few miles away, are sporadic.

Of course, we tasted wines here. For tasting, you have two choices. You can taste their basic wines for $5, or you can pay $7 and taste their reserve varieties as well. Because they were out of one of the three reserve wines, I decided to just do the basic taste. An interesting fact is that this winery creates a white and a red wine for Mancini's Char House in St. Paul. However, you can buy them at the winery too.

I won't comment on every wine I tasted, but I will give you my overall opinion and highlight my favorites. All in all, I enjoyed their white wines more than their reds. This winery, like many minnesotan ones, uses a lot of Minnesota frontenac and foch grapes. These add a slight bitterness that I am not very fond of, which is especially noticeable in red wines because of their higher tannin level.

My three favorite wines:
1) St. Pepin: This one uses a Minnesota St. Pepin grape. Its very light, and has a nose of citrus fruits. The flavor is dry with a citrus flavor as well. This is very light and pleasant to drink.

2) Sogn blanc: This uses the Minnesota Edelweiss grape, which I think is my new favorite! The nose of this wine is sweet like peach and mango, and the flavor is very soft, delicate and sweet in the mouth. I have never had anything like this. I can't even describe the pleasure I had in drinking it.

3) Gunflint red: This red is sweet rather than dry. However, the thing that I remember the most is that the nose of the wine smelled to me like caramel. This was nice when mixed with the sweet wine in my mouth. Very unique.

Overall, this winery puts out a great series of wines that I would recommend you try.

Little Oscar's

Last weekend I visited Little Oscar's Restaurant in Hampton, Mn.

This is a great little diner located of highway 52. Its a small place, with all the accoutrements of any small town diner, PLUS, a little electric train that goes around the dining room. It also reminds me of the mom n' pop places of my childhood in Iowa, with those little wooden and peg brain teaser games on the tables, except now all those games have their website listed for purchase.

But I digress....

The food we has was spectacular. I ordered the crispy chicken wrap with a cup of chili. The chili was sweet and thick. Tomatoey and very tasty. The wrap was excellent too. Used chopped rather than shredded lettuce, and it had the right ratio of lettuce to the other ingredients. And a good price too, only 7.89 for all of that.

I cannot remember the sandwich my husband ordered, but it came with mashed potatoes. They were GOOD. Real mashed potatoes with the thick beef gravy that comes standard at any roadside diner.

This was a great experience! I will totally return here again when I am on the road.

It's Restaurant week again!

Go!

Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque

http://www.smalleysbbq.com/

I visited Smalley's this evening and I enjoyed it very much. I have passed the place many times while visiting Stillwater, MN without giving it much thought. Then, I read this article in Minnesota monthly that made me give the place a try. This is a pirate themed bar with a 6 page rum menu. It's good fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the food and libations I had there. I started out with a drink called a "dark and stormy" which was made from ginger beer, lime and rum. VERY GOOD. I could drink these all night. Then, we got the plaintain and tortilla chip appetizer with queso and habanero salsa. Good! I love plantain chips, and these were good. The habanero salsa was hot, but tolerable.

Then came dinner. Mmmmmm. I ordered the coal fired pork shoulder plate, and my husband ordered the pulled pork sandwich. When you order meats here, you can have them made regular barbeque style, or jamaican jerk style. Go for the jerk. Its amazing. An interesting fact is that all the meats at Smalley's (and all true jerk meats) are smoked over pimento wood, which was banned from import to the U.S. until recently. Smalley's importer for the wood is a minnesota company!

My pork shoulder was very good, and an ample, but not overwhelming portion. The meat iself had a mild favor, and is served unsauced, with jerk and bbq sauces you can use at the table. The meat by itself was moist and spicy, with very little fat. The sides I chose were pork and beans and macaroni and cheese. The beans in this side were an afterthought! But still very good. The mac n' cheese was creamy and delicious. It also came with a piece of cornbread that contained some sort of mild green pepper or chile. It was good, but not spicy.

My husband got the pulled pork. It came with a pirate brand in the bun! (see above!) He got the close slaw. Very enjoyable he says.

For dessert we got a "drunken banana chocolate cake." WAY TOO RICH. Share this with 3-4 people if you get it.

I would definitely go back to this place if I was in the Stillwater area.