Weekend Happenings and The Fold

We've conquered another Monday, y'all. Though admittedly Tuesdays are notoriously worse for me than Mondays, it still feels pretty victorious. So here's a recap of what our pre-Monday activities looked like.

Friday night involved another Home Depot and Best Buy run - the first for the final missing pieces to resolve our hot water heater issue, the second as reward for all the hard work in getting hot water again. 

I might have ordered Donkey Kong for Wii. It's maybe supposed to arrive tomorrow. What can I say? I'm a sucker for new games based off of old school games.

On Saturday we headed to The Fold. Down in the Designer District (bottom of Cantrell), it looks like something out of Miami sometime in the 50's. Considering I'm pretty sure it's been renovated from an old garage, that's really saying something.

Photo Courtesy of The Fold Facebook Page

They can even open the garage doors so you get an awesome breeze, and despite the amazing interior..

Photo Courtesy of The Fold Facebook Page

..we decided to embrace the beautiful summer breeze and take advantage of the patio while we can. Which, let's face it, we'll sit on a patio in January, but still. 

We started out with margaritas - for me, the lemon rosemary.

 

And for EH, the Jalapeno.

  They were both delicious but forewarning, the jalapeno has quite the kick to it. The iphone did no justice to the plethora of jalapeno seeds that were swirling about. If you like a little heat though, definitely give this one a try.

The Fold's Menu is big but not overwhelmingly so.

We went for the queso which is a classic choice - I'd share the picture but it was half way through devouring it that I decided to take it, and well, just trust me and order it for yourself.

For our main course, we both centered in on the tacos. Though I ordered a Pollo y Poblano and a Loco Taco, the fates aligned and I ended up with a Tejas instead of the chicken and man...stars aligned on this one.

While EH decided on an assortment of three.

You can also see the beloved queso in this shot. Or what's left of it.

To wrap this up, if you are local or driving through, please stop at The Fold. Try to pick a nice day where the garage doors are opened up or you can sit on the patio and I promise, between the fun atmosphere, the friendly service, and the fanatastic food, you won't be let down.

After that, the rest of the weekend was spent meeting friends at the Stone Throw Brewery's Birthday Block Party - they closed off the entire block and brought in amazing food trucks and there were people and live music everywhere. We only caught the last hour but definitely will not miss an event like this next time.

Terrible picture of the tail end of the night but at least you get the idea.

Also, one of our friends brought his new friend, Brasil. I might have some competition.

Look at that face! So cute. The dog is pretty cute too. ;)

So unless you're interested in my Sunday cleaning spree, that's the recap. Hope the rest of the week is a great one!

Chicken Caesar Salads and a Happy Mother's Day!

It's been an eventful weekend. EH and I ventured out Friday night to meet some friends for dinner at Ciao Bacci, followed by lots of drinks at the Fountain. Though I feel like we are always doing something, it's pretty rare for us to stay up as late as we did. Fun! But we paid for it yesterday.

After finally powering through the dreaded mid-20's two day hangover, Mother's Day we woke up bright eyed and feeling tons better. We headed to EH's hometown to see my in-laws, Grandmother-in-law and Sister-in-law for a Mother's day lunch. It was extra special because my sister-in-law is having her second little girl this Wednesday!!

Back at our homestead, I decided to put together one of EH's favorite dinner dishes. Poor guy did five hours of yard work yesterday, and came home today to do some wood working and now he's finishing up a project for work, so I know he is pretty wiped out.

EH loves chicken caesar salads, so when I read this recipe for homemade caesar dressing from The Pioneer Woman, I knew this would be right up his ally.

So here is what I do, which is really following The Pioneer Woman's recipe word for word.

What you'll need:

• 2 large cloves of garlic
• 4 anchovy fillets (you'll find them near the canned tuna & chicken)
• 2-3 Tbs Dijon Mustard (I get the Private Selection Garlic Dijon Mustard - very grainy and sooooo good!)
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Little bit of salt
• Little bit more of pepper
• 1/4 cup grated/shredded parmesan cheese 

 Start by pulsing the garlic, anchovy fillets, dijon mustard, lemon juice, worcestershire, and balsamic. Stop every now and then to scrape the sides.

Once that is good and mixed, turn the food processor on low and slowly pour in the olive oil. Stop to scrape the sides and give it good mix.

Finally, add a little salt and plenty of black pepper and the parmesan cheese. Pulse until it's all good and combined and smelling delicious like you want to smear it all over your face.

Or..until it's ready to pour into a jar and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

When you're getting close to starving, cook up some chicken (I cook mine on the stove top in a whole mess of butter and olive oil). Once they're done, slick them into big hunks and toss with big crunchy pieces of romaine, some croutons (I cheat and buy the bagged kind) and plenty of parmesan cheese and your delicious caesar dressing.

Here's what ours looked like all put together. It looks like a lot of dressing, but once you toss everything together it coats everything perfectly. I hope you enjoy!

And to all the wonderful and fabulous Mother's out there - I hope you had a wonderful day!

The Main Cheese

Little Rock has really grown on me. Especially the past couple of years since we've been gifted with some great new restaurants.

A few weeks ago I saw someone post on Facebook about a really unique restaurant coming to our area - one specifically geared towards grilled cheeses! Which..come on, is a restaurant based on one of the greatest and most purest forms of deliciousness. It also made me fondly remember a certain Hammontree's up in Fayetteville that we used to frequent pretty often.

So last Saturday Engineer Husband and I headed out to The Main Cheese on Cantrell to imbibe on some melty cheesy goodness.

We showed up right in the middle of their lunch hours when the place was hopping. The sweet hostess gave us a wait time of 30-45 minutes but after glancing around the restaurant and noticing several already empty tables we figured it wouldn't take that long, even though the front area was pretty packed. There's no dedicated bar, though we did spot their beer and wine menu at the hostess stand, which was a small letdown as we were hoping for a little pick me up after the previous night's adventures (Seriously..birthday parties at the Cowboy always end up..epic?) but thankfully we were seated a lot quicker than the estimated time.

Settling into a table for two in the back, we ordered up a couple of beers and picked out an appetizer - the Caponata.

Terrible picture after we had devoured half of the bowl but this was a thick salsa like dip with diced tomatoes, eggplant, black olives, capers, garlic and basil served with fresh pita slices.

While we piled up the caponata onto our pita slices, our friendly waiter took our sandwich orders and sent them back to the kitchen via his ipad. Engineer Husband opted for The Big Dipper -

Carved roast beef with melted provolone, horse radish and garlic butter dipped into homemade au jus sauce - paired with their house fries. Of course we remembered to snap a picture halfway through, but glad we did because a few minutes later and this plate was empty!

I went for something a little less protein-y and chose the Farmer's Market paired with seasoned chips -- 

A whole mess of avocado, cheddar, grape tomatoes, spinach aioli and arugula sandwiched between parmesan multigrain bread. 

Both sandwiches were delicious and you could really taste the fresh ingredients in each. We made the mistake of comparing it to Hammontree's, which seems much more true grilled-cheese oriented, but the variety of sandwiches found on The Main Cheese menu will surely not leave anyone in your dining party disappointed.

Their hours are a little different but they are open daily from 11AM - 2PM where they close for the afternoon (perfect time for a little afternoon nap, in my opinion) and reopen at 4PM for dinner. No full or dedicated bar area but they do have very reasonably priced wine and a decent selection of beer - including several craft and seasonal options. 

Also check out the desserts! There was a donut option that looked particularly interesting, but since I'm an one bite dessert eater and EH was contentedly full, we skipped the sweet course this time.

Hope you enjoy!

PS - here is their website! I believe they have a facebook page as well!

Melted Roast Beef Deliciousness

Now that Engineer Husband and I are back to a little home time (seriously..we had something big every weekend in August!), I can get back in tune with our kitchen. I come from a long history of women who enjoyed and excelled at cooking. I...was a bit of a late bloomer. I really started within the past year, but so far it's been a blast and according to EH (who I don't think would lie about food!) I'm actually not terrible at it!

That feels like a victory, for sure.

Tonight I made a new recipe I found when I was playing on Pinterest. It was quick, easy, and EH and I both made happy plates! I had big plans to take step by step pictures, but the camera was charging and seriously, these are so easy you wouldn't need them anyway.

Melted Roast Beef Sandwiches (original recipe here)

-Cooked Roast Beef (I bought a packet from the deli aisle, which was okay, but next time I'll hit up my deli counter and get the good stuff!)
- 2 TBS Mayonnaise (Helmann's! None of that Miracle Whip nonsense)
-1 TBS Dijon Mustard
-3 TBS diced green chiles
-2-4 Slices of Swiss Cheese
-4 Slides of bread (original called for rye, which would have been delightful. I had sourdough. It was just as good I think!)
-2 TBS softened butter 
- Salsa* optional

Keep in mind this recipe is for two people. You could easily double or triple up the ingredients if you needed to cook for a larger crowd! 

Combine the green chiles, mayonnaise and dijon mustard in a small bowl. I mixed ahead of time and put in the fridge for a few hours to let all the flavors get good and combined.

To assemble, coat all 4 slices of bread with your new delicious mixture. Pile on your roast beef, top with as much swiss cheese as you'd like. Once the sandwiches are assembled, coat the outside on both sides with a generous amount of softened butter.

*Little side anecdote - H (who is the more experience cook in our house) asked why I was using so much butter on the bread. Trust me, I said! No problem, I love butter!, he replied! And in the end, it worked out. The thick butter on the outside of the bread made the most amazing crust. 

Anyways. Once you're all assembled and ready - heat up a skillet or non-stick pan. I put ours over low, which is more like medium for normal stoves. You want the pan hot, but not scalding. Place both sandwiches on the pan and let the bread get nice and toasty. Ours became perfect right between 3-4 minutes.

Flip! Which is the hardest part of this ordeal, and let the other side cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. I squished ours down with a spatula so everything got nice and cozy in the middle. 

Aaaand..that's it. Once that second side is good and golden brown, and you can see the swiss cheese oozing out the side you should be good to go!

See? 

I'm usually not a HUGE fan of roast beef, but this paired with the swiss cheese, and the surprise little kick of green chiles made it divine. And, as you can tell from the picture, I forgot the salsa! But remembered just in time to get a few bites with it at the end. It was good! But I wouldn't have missed it. Entirely up to you!

Try it next time you're lazy but still want something home cooked. Swap it out for different ingredients. Go for it and make dinner easy and victorious!