Cheesy Roasted Potatoes

Here is a quick side that will knock your socks off! We love Cheesy Potatoe Skins around here. But this mom, does not love to make them. Too many steps, there's so much time invested in making them and they're devoured in a blink of an eye! So I came up with these tasty morsels. No scooping and rebaking, I use the whole potato, so I don't have "potato waste guilt".

Here's what you will need to start:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cheesy Roasted Potatoes

printable recipe

3-4 pounds of Red Skinned or Idaho Potatoes, washed and cut into bite sided pieces

1/4 pound of Bacon + grease

Morton's Natures Seasoning Salt

2 tablespoons of Butter

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

4 green onions sliced

Sour Cream

Place potato pieces on a baking sheet, drizzle melted butter and olive oil over potatoes, sprinkle generously with Morten's Natures Seasoning Salt. Spead evenly on pan, place in preheated oven. Bake for 25 minutes, occasionally giving potatoes a flip so all sides are baked evenly.

While potatoes are baking, fry up your bacon, and reserve the bacon fat. Chop bacon into little bits.

As you can see I fried up a bit more than 1/4 lb. Hey, a girl needs a snack now and then, and then there is the subject of her pesky kiddos always begging for bacon......

Some where in the middle of baking your potatoes, take them out of the oven and drizzle some of this bacon fat over them, give them a toss with a spatula or you can just give the pan a violent jiggle...if you feel confident doing that sort of potato jiggling.

Continue to bake potatoes until they are nice and brown and crispy.



Now for the good stuff.

Crowd potatoes together on pan, sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese generously over roasted potatoes.

Spread bacon on top of cheese, pop pan back in the oven until cheese is melted and bubbling. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and serve with sour cream on the side.

Stand back because the vultures are going to descend upon you. Cheesy Roasted Potatoes make an easy appetizer. Or they are fantastic served with Barbecue Ribs, or Grilled Hamburgers.....

They can be paired with any number of main dishes. Recently when we had some friends over I served Cheesy Roasted Potatoes with Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Cole Slaw. It was a hit!

I hope you enjoy!

Prize winning Burgundy Mushroom Beef Stew

Since the wind is whipping 80 miles an hour and they were predicting possible snow flurries yesterday. Which became reality!! SERIOUSLY...when is Spring going to arrive?! It's Stew weather in April!

A few months ago I was gushing over my friend Ree's Burgundy Mushrooms, and another good friend mentioned she aways wondered what those catastrophically delicious mushrooms would be like if they were in a stew.

Ree I love you, but if I had to choose between you and your mushrooms...well um er rHmmm...lets just say it would be hard to pick.

So I salivated all over my keyboard for a little while thinking about how I might make the Burgundy Mushroom recipe into a Beef Stew recipe. Then I decided to consult Hyacinth since she started the whole thing! She is trouble that one! We went back and forth on the details of the recipe.....carrots or no carrots, the order in which to cook the meat...yadayadayada.

As luck would have it my church was doing a Stew and Soup Cook Off! Hot-diggity-dog I had an audience!!!! Thankfully God has blessed me with a church full of foodies.

It looks like a fair amount of ingredients to gather up, but most likely you have it all in your pantry. Nothing too fancy here. But oh it tastes fancy!

If you prefer you can buy Stew Meat already cut up for you or if you'd rather you can buy 4-5 pounds of Top Round Roast and cut it into bite sized pieces, about and 1 1/2 inches each..

I cut the roast up put it in a Zip-loc bag, doused (1 teaspoon) it with Lawry's Season Salt and set it aside while I cleaned the mushrooms. You could do this step a day ahead of time.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 6-8quart dutch oven. Dredge the meat in flour, brown in oil.

This step will need to be done in shifts, don't over crowd the pan. Brown then remove to a dish as you add more meat. Add more oil as needed. Turning pieces with a fork or tongs to get all sides nice and brown.

Continue until all the meat has been browned. The meat doesn't have to be completely cooked.

All the meat is browned and set aside and now you have all these beautiful bits of flavor left in your pan. LEAVE THEM THERE. Do not wash the pan or wipe it out or anything crazy like that.

Skip to the wine...I mean skip ahead to the wine in the recipe...you don't need to skip to go get your bottle of wine although I do on occasion. Now that you have your bottle of red wine opened, any dry red wine will do, pour yourself a little sip. Taste. Now proceed with your cooking.

Add the cleaned mushrooms, bag of onions, butter, and the whole bottle of red wine (minus a sip or two) to the pot. Turn up the heat to medium and bring it to a boil.

I had a helper. She unwrapped to pesky bouillon cubes for me. Those little foil wrappers are like nails on a chalk board for me....I know I have some weird hang ups. I could tell you I'm working on them, but I'm not. So get used to it.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the roasted taters, and the browned meat.

Cook on stove top for 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

It's extremely hard to get an appetizing picture of half cooked meat.

Add the browned meat back into the pot. Give it a stir so it can get friendly with all those luscious mushrooms. I think they became more than friends actually.......

Now cover your pan and pop it in the 300 degree preheated oven and go watch West Side Story or Fiddler on the Roof, a movie that will make you sing. Or how about Mama Mia? That will make you dance too, which you might want, so you can burn off the calories from this stew. Bake for 2-3 hours, leave it alone, you don't need to check it or stir it, just go relax.

After your movie is done, then you can roast your potatoes. 5-6 Idaho potatoes or Redskin Potatoes would be good too. Preheat oven to 425. Clean and cut potatoes into chunks, lay on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper. You can use a heavier hand with the pepper if you like, but be careful with the salt you wouldn't want your Stew to be too salty.

Roast potatoes for 30 minutes, using a spatula to turn once or twice. So they become browned on all sides.

When you remove your stew from the oven, remove the lid and add the roasted potatoes. Serve with a crusty loaf of bread to sop up the gravy. This is comfort food at its finest.

I did just so happen to win the prize for Best Stew! My prize was a ladle with a ribbon....I will cherish for all my life.

Burgundy Mushroom Beef Stew with Roasted Potatoes

Serves 10-12

printable recipe

4 1/2 pounds Top Round Roast or Stew Meat, cut into bite sized pieces

1 cup Flour

4 tablespoons Olive Oil

48 ounces White Button Mushrooms, cleaned, and if large cut in half

1 pound bag frozen White Pearl Onions

2 sticks of Butter

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 bottle Burgundy Wine, Zinfandel or a Merlot will work also.

1 teaspoon ground Pepper

4 Chicken Bouillon cubes

4 Beef bouillon cubes

1 tablespoon, heaping of fresh Dill chopped fine or you can use the freeze dried dill

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

2 cups boiling Water

5 or 6 Idaho Potatoes, cleaned, cut into 1 inch cubes + salt, pepper, and olive oil for roasting.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1. Cut roast into bite sized cubes of meat.

2. Clean mushrooms and cut large mushrooms in half.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in large pot (6-8 quart), dredge meat in flour and brown meat in oil. do not over crowd pan with meat while browning. You will have to do this in shifts removing meat to a dish as it browns. Add more oil to pan as needed.

4. After all meat is browned and removed from pan ad mushrooms and remaining ingredients to pan except potatoes or the browned meat. Do not clean pan, leave all the browned goodness from the meat. Bring to a boil, and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add meat back into the pan. cover pan with lid and put in preheated oven for 2-3 hours. Checking and stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees to roast potatoes.

5. wash potatoes, cut into chunks, spread on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, bake in oven for 30 minutes. Turning occasionally with a spatula so potatoes brown on all sides.

6. Remove Stew from oven and add hot roasted potatoes to the stew, fold them in.

Serve with a Crusty Loaf!

I hope where ever you are you can't see your breath outside and the wind is not whipping your car door open and slamming it into the car parked next to you. Mostly I hope it's not snowing.

Hope you enjoy this Stew as much as my church family did....they ate it so fast I couldn't get a end picture of it. If you are a visual person, sorry you will have to use your imagination, or make it for yourself and send me a photo!

Enjoy!

meal fit for a King: Boursin Steak

This is one of Kenny's favorite meals. It's a mans meal. Not that a woman couldn't love a good steak slathered with Boursin Cheese, and then smothered in caramelized onions and mushrooms.

Uh-huh....that's what I'm talkin about.

Definitely the way to a mans heart is through his stomach, and if you are wanting to show your man some love, this one is a cinch. Add a potato and garlic bread, maybe some roasted asparagus. And VOILA! Your honey is gonna be singing your praises!!!

This is so easy I don't think I even need to add a printable. (I hope you don't mind.) It really is that easy!!

New York Strip Steaks or Delmonico's, are a good place to start, however many will feed your crew. Give them a good douse with Lawry's Season Salt. Front and Back. Let them sit at room temperature for an hour or so before grilling. A room temperature steak will grill more evenly, than a cold steak.

Fill a 12 inch saute' pan with sliced mushrooms, a medium sweet onion sliced,

and as much butter as your diet will allow...this is about 4 tablespoons.

Give this a nice sprinkle of Lawry's.

Cook on stove top for 15-20 minutes over medium heat, until mushrooms cook down and onions caramelize.

Boursin Cheese makes me smile.

I would recommend spreading 1 tablespoon of Boursin on your hot of grilled steak...it will get all melty and creamy. But by all means if you want slather more on there. GO FOR THE GUSTO! That's my motto!

Now for a heaping serving of mushrooms and onions right on top.

I'm telling you... your man ain't gonna know what hit him!

He's going to be...like huh...what?! "Is it my Birthday...Fathers Day, what did I do to deserve this meal?"

And you can say, " it's because I love ya baby." Just because I luv Ya! (wink)

If you have leftovers, here's a great way to use them. Slice up the steak in thin slices, warm it up in a pan with the left over mushrooms and onions, drizzle some Honey Mustard Dressing in the pan, toss it around until it's heated through. Place that mixture on top of a bed of Baby Spinach and top it with crumbled Blue Cheese.

Heaven..... I'm in heaven...

and my stomach groans so I can hardly speeeeak...

and I seem to find the happiness I seeeeeek,

but after eating all this...

I will have to diet for a weeek.

Eat your heart out Sinatra!

Sorry lost my mind for a minute there....

Have a great week end and don't forget to check out all the other amazing recipes submitted to Kim's Saturday Swap at Quit Eating Out!

Luv Ya,

Tamale Pie

Phew! Spring is here. Winter is gone. Hallelujah! Even though I've long for the green grass, blue skies, and warmer weather, I always have a sense of anxiety as Spring arrives, because with this season comes much activity. Four kids, four sports, plus two of my four are training for races they run in in the Spring. My day is relatively calm until school lets out then I begin the cycle of pick up drop, off, and car pools etc.

So when does dinner happen in all this hysteria?

When all activities are done for the night. Last night that meant dinner at 7pm. Another night it might mean we eat as early as 4:30 and then head out the door. It's all about making mealtime together a priority. That means being flexible.

Since the kids were babies, I have always been very strict about meal times. We attempt to all sit down to dinner together four nights a week. I decided that we had to make this a priority, because of Ken's whacko schedule. If Dad is home with us bonus, but if he is not then we still eat together, and someone else takes Dads place saying the mealtime prayer.

My kiddos LOVE tamales!! So I thought this would be the perfect alternative, since I have never attempted to make the real thing myself. We have a couple different friends that make them and we always are happy to take them off their hands. I am hoping to learn, how to make tamales, one of these days.

I found this recipe for Tamale Pie in Pam Anderson's Perfect One-Dish Dinners. This is one of my favorite cookbooks. All the recipes are easy and full of flavor, and this recipe in particular is SUPER quick to make! Perfect for a night full of track, soccer, softball, running club, meetings, and trampolining!

Tamale Pie~ from Pam Andersons

Perfect One-Dish Dinners Cookbook

Being the recipe rebel that I am I modified Pam's original recipe to the taste of my family. Pam and her daughters have a great website full of amazing recipes, you can find them at Three Many Cooks. But if you want the original recipe for tamale pie you might have to buy her book. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Tamale Pie

printable recipe

1 1/2 pounds ground Chicken or Chicken breast cut into very small pieces

salt

1 tablespoon +1 teaspoon Chili Powder, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons Cumin Powder, divided

1 16 ounce can Pinto Beans drained and partially mashed

1 16 ounce jar store-bought Salsa (2 cups) I used medium spice Pace chunky salsa.

1 can Green Chiles, undrained

1/2 cup fresh Cilantro, chopped and divided

1 cup Cornmeal

1 cup grated sharp Cheddar Cheese

1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack Cheese

Adjust oven wrack to upper middle position and turn broiler on.

1. In a 12 inch ovenproof skillet cook chicken over medium-high heat, salt to taste. Cook until chicken is no longer pink.

2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of chili powder and 1 teaspoon of cumin. Add drained beans partially mashed, chilies, salsa, and 1/4 cup cilantro. Cook to blend flavors for about 5 minutes.

3. In sauce pan, while meat mixture is cooking, bring 3 cups water, 1 cup corn meal, 1 teaspoon chili powder, and 1/2 teaspoon cumin to a bowl, stirring constantly with a whisk, so lumps do not form. Cook until thickens to mush.

4. Remove meat mixture from heat, sprinkle with monterey jack cheese, pour cornmeal mush over cheese, spread out with spatula to completely cover meat. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and remaining cilantro. Place pan under broiler for 5 minutes or until cheese melts and mush starts to form a crunch on top.

After removing from oven, let rest for 5 minutes, if you have time to wait! Serve with corn chips, pica de gallo, and sour cream.

My kiddos loved this meal and they let me know Tamale Pie has to be added to the list of regular dinners!

I hope in the business of your day you find time to belly up to the table with your family, and show them how much you love them with a home cooked meal.

Enjoy!

So much FOOD so little time........

You might want to pop a few TUMS before you proceed. It's Spring Break here in West Michigan, and unlike other Michiganders, that headed South, I headed due East with my oldest son. He has been asking to go to the Big Apple for some time now. I guess he wanted to see what was so great about the city, his mama has always gushed over.

I LOVE NYC!!!

Our primary goal was to take in as much food as humanly possible, in three days, as well as some sporting events and a site or two.

Are you ready?

Here goes. I will give you the unedited, and quick low down on ALL the places we ate, and MOST of the sites we took in. Did you take your TUMS? Don't say I didn't warn you!!!

Bagels had to be our first official foodie stop. Sunday morning we walked a few blocks(10 or 12) to this AMAZING bagel spot. Ess-a-Bagel.

The bagels here are perfection. Crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. HEAVENLY.... It's not the typical place you would find tourists taking pictures of their bagels. ie. Me. We each had an everything bagel that we watched grandpa making in the cozy baking area behind the bagel bin. Noah had his plain. I had to try the olive cream cheese. It was a beautiful thing. We took a plain bagel to go. Just in case we were held hostage somewhere or something, you never know....

We did not eat flowers. But you know how I LOVE flowers. They are everywhere in the city in abundance. If I were a New Yorker I would have a flat full of flowers and my tummy full at all times.

Next stop... the same morning was Doughnut Plant. We walked, so we kinda walked off our bagels....that's what I was telling myself. We arrived before 9am on Sunday morning. We got in just ahead of the masses. I had been here before. I knew it was worth going again. I once told Kenny that it was just a short walk to "this donut place"....Er..Umm, we ended up walking about 50 blocks!!! OOps.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Housemade Strawberry Jam.

OOOh doggy this donut was TDF!!! or WGABO...translation: worth getting a blister over.

Fresh Strawberry Glaze. This one had my name all over it. Literally.

Just between you and me we landed ourselves here again on Tuesday afternoon. One visit wasn't enough!!!

What are the chances that the Tigers would open up the season with the Yankees, while we were there. We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and then high tailed it via the subway up to the Bronx to catch the last half of the game. We had some french fries and a Pop, I don't think New Yorkers say Pop. I recieved a concerning look or two.

Tigers 10/Yankees 7 WHOOhooo!

Another great recommendations by Justin at Just Cook NYC, Keste' Pizza & Vino. This little place was on Bleeker St in Greenwich Village. It was fantastic. We split the Rustica Salad and the Prosciutto and Parme pizza.

Is that not a thing of beauty?

The next morning my boy was hungry for a "real" breakfast. So I found this place on Yelp.

Johny's Grill and Luncheonette, would never have gotten a second glance from me if it hadn't garnered 4 1/2 stars on Yelp.

This place was a steady stream of regulars all picking up their bagel sandwiches to go, and exchanging lots of eavesdropping worthy conversation. There is only counter seats, it's great, you can sit and watch all the action. I was so fascinated by the joint that I forgot to get any insider pictures. We had pancakes and bacon, but if I went again I would get one of their Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches.

Milk and Cookies Bakery ~ they bake a dang good chocolate chip cookie!

Monday, was our Food and Cultural walking tour through Greenwich Village. I've done a food tour the last two times I've visited and would highly recommend doing it. Each time I've used the Foods of New York Tours, it is money well spent! It's a great way to get the history of a neighborhood and get the scoop on all the best places to eat and their background.

Bert was our guide...yep just like Bert and Ernie!

First stop was a nice hot cup of Lobster Bisque at Lobster Place-Seafood Market. The bisque was incredible but what I really wanted was some of the Sushi that they were making behind the counter.

Then it was around the corner for a perfct slice of New York at Joe's Pizza.

Simply wonderful. Thin, crispy, fresh ingredients. I would eat here often if I lived near by.

We didn't actually eat in Amy's Bread, but we had her bread with the olive oil and other delicious accompaniments at O &Co. I purchased myself a souvenir from this heavenly little shop, I had them ship it, silly airlines won't let you transport jugs of olive oil on the plane these days. Drat. I am waiting patiently for my package to arrive. I bought this and this.

Next stop Soy and Sake. We were able to have a seat and enjoy a generous sampling from this vegetarian restaurant.

It is a cultural walking tour so we were guided through the Village and given many interesting facts. This is just a little spot that I decided when I grow up I'm gonna live here.

More Pizza. Noah was in heaven. This time it was from Bleeker Street Pizza. It was very different from Joe's, but also good. Crust was thicker and the sauce was more like a marinara than a fresh tomato. It apparently was voted Best Pizza by the Food Network. It's easy to find right on the corner of Bleeker and 7th.

Rocco's Pasticceria. Here we sampled, filled to order, cannoli's. They were the perfect treat to end our tour.

Oh whoops! I missed a few stops. I'm getting ahead of myself, and a little out of order. I hope you will forgive me. After we left the tour we headed to Grom because we couldn't leave the Village with out partaking in this amazing gelato. Which was amazing....but we found one better.


And I forgot to tell ya, we made a stop at Murray's Cheese Shop. For a little cheese sampling and some luverly olives. I have just one thing to say. Buh-bye Kenny....Murray will you marry me???!!!

Look at that Blue Cheese selection. I started singing "heaven I'm in heaven....". My son ditched me.


Then I saw this and I started singing again. He told me if I didn't get a grip he was gonna call dad. Ok, I get it. I took a deep breath and regained my composure. It was not easy. The things we do for our kids.



We headed right over to Chelsea Market, home of the Food Network, and lots of wonderful food shops and Anthropologie. Basically a very good place to go.


Here we(or should I say I) felt the need to sample milk from RonnyBrook Farms...which by the way is the most fabulous milk on the planet, and a brownie from Fat Witch Bakery.

This completely pushed my son over the edge. He actually put his head down on the table and said STOP, I feel sick. I know. Call in child protective services on me.....I'm out of control sometimes, especially when my hubby isn't around to reign me in.


So I left my child to chill at a table and people watch while I did a little shopping. Jacque Torres chocolate bunnies anyone?


It took a few hours and alot of walking, but eventually he was hungry again, and dyeing to try this quirky place right around the corner from our hotel. Perfect! My dogs were tired, so we got take out and took it up to our room. BrGr was actually pretty tasty. The sweet potato fries were worth going back for. If you had to go to a fast food type burger place while in NYC, I would say this is the place to go. BrGr...we couldn't stop saying it BrrrGrrrr got a thumbs up!

Magnolia Bakery. I heard about this "to die for" cupcake bakery from my friend Dee a few years back. I have the cookbook. I really wanted to try their cupcakes...well what do ya know, we happened to walk right past their Bleeker St. store, stumbled right on it. It was meant to be....


Look at the window, full of gorgeous, fluffy cakes, and cupcakes. It's so fun. You grab a box and fill it yourself.


I chose the flavor of the month, Lemon and the Red Velvet. Did I mention we stumbled on Magnolia after our food tour on the way to Chelsea Market? I carried these two cuppy cakes all afternoon. They made the perfect dessert after our BrrGrrs.


We slept off our food coma and headed out the next day to take in more NYC sites. We ended up on the top of the Empire State Building. The weather was cold and rainy, but I actually think this picture is kind of interesting. We were right up in the cloud line. It really looks like Gotham from this perspective.

We decided to buy tickets for the 'hop on hop off' buses. I am plus minus on this guided tour bus thing. If the weather had cooperated with our plans of walking we would have stuck to the streets but, I thought this way we would be able to see alot, while having a tour guide give us facts about the city, and keep out of the rain. We took the blue buses, BUT the Red busses seemed to be more abundant when it was time to hop on and off. There were two reds to our blue....of course.

We hopped off at Houston St to get ourselves some lunch at the FAMOUS Katz Deli. A scene from one of my favorite movies evah was shot here.

Anyone know what movie I'm talking about?

It is a must do if you are in New York. It's not the cheapest sandwich you will ever order. This Beef Brisket sandwich rang in at $15.95. We split it, that made it easer to swallow.

The rain let up so we decided to walk. We headed right to the Pickle Guys. We had seen these guys on the Food Network and my son is a pickle freak so we had to have a pickle.


This place was amazing. There was all sorts of picked deliciousness barreled up in this little shop. We controlled ourselves and only bought one dill pickle. It was the best dam dill pickle I've ever had....don't tell my Grandma that!

Ok, it was our last day. So don't judge me.

We had lots of places to eat. We knew we were not going to be able to get in Justin's whole list, but we were going to try our darndest! Next stop was Pommes Frites. I had also seen this place on Food Network. Plus, I always am first in line for some REAL european "french fries" with mayo.

They fry them up to order. She's giving our fries a toss with a healthy dose of kosher salt.

This was the small. It was huge. We each chose our own condiment from the list of about 25. Noah chose the Mexican Ketchup and I had the Pomegranate Teriyaki Mayo.

Pommes Frites is a MUST. In my book it's complete and utter comfort food.

Our last meal. We decided to have a nice sit down dinner. We decided to go with a cuisine that we had never had. Cuban. We went back to Greenwich Village to Little Havana.


It was perfect. My son loves black beans and rice. So it scored there and the flank steak that he ordered was melt in your mouth. I ordered the above, some sort of pork....my fortysomething noggin can't remember what I ordered, but I do know it was exceptional. As was the service. And it didn't break the pocket book!

One fun note: Noah had to use the Mens Room, he had to walk through the kitchen to get to it. He said it was like someone's little apartment kitchen, just one cook, and one stove. He didn't tell me this until later, or I would have checked it out for myself.


Well of course, we had a sweet tooth after our Cuban dinner. Little Havana had dessert but we needed to walk a bit. We ended up at Arte Del Gelato. THIS IS the BEST gelato I have ever had. It was perfect on so many levels. I had the Fresh Strawberry and the Marscapone. My son had the Peanut Butter and the Chocolate. The Peanut Butter tasted just like this peanut butter frosting I make....and if I do say so myself it's scrumptious.


We had one morning left before we had to high tail it back to mo-town. We still had not gone to the 9/11 site or Wall Street.

Who woulda thunk that we would stumble upon Food Truck heaven on Wall Street. I guess those boys need to eat down there.

They were every where. I had to pinch myself!! We decided to partake of a tasty treat from Wafels & Dinges. They had a throw down with Bobby Flay and won. Rightfully so. I ordered the de Bacon Syrup Wafel, Noah had a Brussels Wafel. They both ROCKED!


I want a Food Truck. I am obsessing since I returned home about it. If I had a food truck what kinda of food would it be? Would anyone hunt me down. Would Bobby Flay want to throw me down. Oh Golly!

S'MAC was another place Justin recommended, but I had seen on T.V. and obsessed over. We made it our last hurrah! All that they serve is mac-n-cheese. And this ain't no Kraft. This is serious macaroni.

We ordered three nosh sized portions (small), All-American, Buffalo Chicken (this one is great if you are a Buffalo Wing fan, it's got a kick to it!), and the Alpine (with gruyere and slab bacon, I couldn't pass up the bacon).

It was the perfect way to end our eating frenzy. Warm, comforting, oohey~gooey Mac-n-Cheese.

A few other highlights from our trip:

Knicks vs. Caveliers.

Knicks won. Celeb sightings: Whoopie Goldberg, FiftyCent, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Madison Square Garden is a great place to see a game, and their hotdogs ain't bad either!

9/11 site.

They now have a store front open that you can go into and view what the Memorial is going to look like. See video of the days surrounding 9/11. It brought back alot of memories. Alot of things I had forgotten. Heart wrenching. It was good to show Noah he was only in pre-school at the time, too little to remember.

We became pros at using the subway. Our hotel was on 26 st right off 7th ave. This made it super easy to hop on the subway and go up or downtown really fast.

Central Park, Bethesda Fountain.

The T-shirt my son wanted to buy his dad as a souvenir, but I talked him down from....cause I knew Kenny would think it was funny, but would never wear...now my father on the other hand would wear this everyday.

Hilton New York Fashion District Hotel

So this is my "room tour" portion of the post. Our hotel room was clean, had a comfy bed, a nice shower, but I could literally take a giant step from the door to the bathroom.....if I remembered to say "mother may I" that is.

I would definitely recommend staying in this area of New York City. If you're traveling on any sort of a budget, you need to use the subway system to make the most of your trip, so staying right off 7th Avenue near the 1,2, and 3 lines made it easy to get up town or down town fast.

Well how's your tummy feeling? Hope you don't have heart burn after this post.

"Start spreadin' the news I'm leavin today....I wanna be apart of it New York New YOORK..."

OH ooops, I'm back, it's over. Sorry, just having a little post trip nostalgia blast there.

Thanks for stopping by!