Recently at Cafe Du Dad

Chili Night!

I know it's cliche. I know every man believes his chili is the best. But, if you care to take a dare, I think you will agree that mine is the best. You don't have to admit it to me or your significant other. Consider this a gift from me to you. Now you can quit obsessing over your chili and concentrate on the grill.

Here you go:

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1 15oz can tomato sauce
2 cans chili beans
1 4oz can green chilies
2 1/2 cups chunky salsa spiced to taste
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Combine ground beef, onion, garlic, pepper and salt and cook until beef is browned. Combine remaining ingredients, stir and bring to boil. Add ground beef mixture to the sauce mixture. Bring to boil. Simmer covered on low for 20 minutes.

Serve with your choice of sour cream, peanut butter, cheese and crackers. A cold beer won't hurt either.

So, now you know.

Food from the Road

While traveling, I take it upon myself to try things that are not available in our fair Farmington. Sometimes it is a challenge. For instance, any trip on one of our fine interstates. Interstate exits have fast become the territory of the top twenty fast food restaurants, 16 of which call our area home . But rules are rules and if I make them, how can I break them?

You can officially consider this post as my plea to Culver's. Please, please do not expand to Farmington. I look forward to stopping at your always clean and comfortable restaurant while traveling. Your food, not prepared until I order it, is always fulfilling. And I can count on you to satisfy my sweet tooth with your vast frozen custard menu. You have never disappointed me, please do not start now by expanding into our well kept market.

Thank you Culver's for being there away from home.

Plan your next trip on their website: www.culvers.com

Happy Traveling!

You Have To Be Here

Sometimes the best laid plans do not work out. After recruiting several family members to accompany me to Colton's Steak House for the express purpose of a hugely entertaining blog post, we were given a great big fake Texas welcome and informed of a 1 1/2 hour wait. Wow, this place must really be good! After soundly rejecting the thought of waiting an hour and a half for food prepared by anyone short of Thomas Keller, we gazed across the parking lot and saw this:

Sometimes you just have to follow the signs.

"Party of 8? Follow me please."

While wandering into the dining room one cannot help but be mesmerized by all of the action in this place. I may have double counted, but I think I stopped counting TV's at 137. And oddly enough, none of them were playing even one of the three football games I was flipping through before leaving the house.

One thing to consider when choosing Buffalo Wild Wings: This place is loud. Really, really loud. Which can be a good thing. For instance, say you've spent a nice holiday weekend with lots of family and your group decides to peel themselves away from football on TV and head out on the town. By this time, you've had two or three days of catch up. Your long lost uncle has been sleeping on your couch. You've received all kinds of advice on how to be as successful as your cousin that you haven't seen since you loaned him fifty bucks this time last year. You haven't reached rude stage yet, but you're getting close to it. Going to a place like this allows you to absorb yourself in the noise and confusion and completely ignore these people without offending anyone.

We all shouted our orders to the friendly waiter and two beers later, the appetizers started to arrive. The fare here is the usual bar food. Fried this, fried that, will a little bit of grilled thrown in. And of course, chicken wings.

Honestly, the food for me was just an afterthought. By this time I was happy to have a beer and an honest reason to retreat from the conversation. I think I had some fried mushrooms and a buffalo chicken sandwich. It was exactly what I needed.

Anyone who believes in fate understands that fate took me to BWW that night. I left there that night with a smile that only my beautiful wife Alison could read in to. Funny, I detected a hint of the same look on her face. A few hours later, after the ringing in our ears went away, we shared a laugh and remembered to remember to take the family back next time everyone is in town.