Rambling: Phil’s Grill, First Attempt at Cookies, and How Popeyes is Romantic

I like hamburgers. However, Cristina isn’t sold on them…yet. She did have a steakburger in NYC over Christmas so there is hope. However, Phil’s Grill is a favorite spot for us even though it touts itself as a hamburger joint. And it is, but Phil was smart enough to know not everyone eats beef. Seriously, if a restaurant serves a chicken sandwich then why not make all sandwiches available as a hamburger or a chicken sandwich. Countless times, I’ve watched Cristina confuse a waiter just by asking a substitution of chicken for hamburger. Three out of four times she is receives what she orders.

This is the reason we enjoy going to Phil’s grill. Cristina usually just sticks to chicken sandwiches, of course. I rarely order the same thing twice. Sometimes I feel like angering my doctors by ordering a hot sausage blend with a fried egg and bacon; other times I’ll order the bison because it’s a leaner meat. This past time I ordered the burger of the month: alligator burger stuffed with boudin dressed with shredded cabbage, Crystal hot sauce infused onion rings, and Mardi Gras sauce (not sure I want to know what is in that) on a half a French bread. It was a very good but not great sandwich. First of all, it was too big of a sandwich. I had to stretch my face muscles to be able to eat it. Also, the rice in the middle of a sandwich makes for a weird texture. It tasted fantastic but texture wise there was just too much going on. Of course, I’ll be there in March to sample that’s month’s burger. Also, I really wish they would put the lamb burger back on the menu even if for a limited time.

Sunday, Crisitna and I stayed inside. I know, it was gorgeous Sunday, but we just wanted to curl up on the couch and watch TV. Cristina found a recipe for cheese and mushroom stuffed chicken. Don’t quite remember the recipe but the stuffing was a mixture of plain yogurt, flour, mushrooms, cheese, and parsley. I think it was a little under seasoned but that’s a fixable mistake. Next time, I want to do the same thing but use feta and spinach. There was enough leftover stuffing that for supper so I used it to make an omelet which was a painful reminder of how long it had been since I made an omelet. It tasted great but looked awful. Sunday night, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies from two different recipes or in other words I tried making my recipe. They came out buttery and dry at the same time. Next time, I’ll stick to one recipe and then the time after that try to get creative.

For Valentine’s, we went to our favorite restaurant – Popeyes. Yes, we love that chicken from Popeyes (I’m sorry for not resisting the temptation). We were on our way to see The King’s Speech (highly recommend) and thanks to basketball and traffic we were running late. It’s actually Cristina’s great guilty pleasure, so she saw it as a romantic gesture. Like she said, it’s not like I was taking her to Applebee’s.