Review - Sanders Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels

I love dark chocolate, I like caramels, and I like sea salt, but when I saw the three of them together in this Sanders Candy, I couldn't imagine it! Sanders is a Michigan candy company, they have been around over 100 years when there were Sanders lunch counters. The lunch counters are gone, but the candy and various confections remain.

I'm not a big candy eater. I'd rather eat cake than eat a piece of candy, but DivaMom received a box of the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels in a gift basket, and I was intrigued. DivaMom doesn't like dark chocolate, so I claimed them right away. I was a bit leery, I mean, I like eating savory and sweet things in rapid succession, but salt on candy? Seemed weird. I opened the box and it smelled like normal chocolate. I picked up the first piece and bit into it. I could taste the salt, the chocolate and the caramel, but my mouth was having a hard time distinguishing the flavors. They were just kind of a jumble. One moment the bitter chocolate was the strongest flavor, the next the sweet caramel, and then the next the salt. Major mouth confusion. I didn't know if I liked it or not. I had to try another...same result. Mouth confusion. I decided to give them a try again the next day.

The next day I knocked off some of the salt granules and tried again. Much better. The saltiness was still there, but the chocolate and caramel were able to shine through. This time the salt brought out the amazing sweet creaminess of the candy, rather than the three flavors duking it out for dominance.

I still don't know if I like the candy. I think I do, but only if I remove some of the salt first. At least I have the rest of the box to experiment with :)

Review - Bar Louie (Several States)

I had some shopping to do so I went to the Bar Louie in the parking lot of Genesee Valley Mall in Flint, MI. Bar Louie is an interesting place. Part martini lounge, part sports bar, part restaurant with an unique menu. This place has an identity crisis. I use to love Bar Louie when it was trying to be a little more like an upscale bar and grill with an extensive martini menu. Over the years it has watered down it's menu, becoming a lot more like a Champs or an Applebees.

They have a new drink this month called the Hot Chocoholic. It's Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Bailey's Irish Cream, hot chocolate, and topped with whipped cream. This sounded too good to be real, so of course I had to have one! I ordered my drink and watched. It took quite a while for the drink to be made, and once it was maid it sat on the bar for a couple of minutes. Once I received it, the "hot" chocolate was barely room temperature. I'm guessing the alcohol is chilled, then the sitting on the bar didn't help matters. It was NOT worth almost $10!

One of my pet peeves when I go out for food and drinks is when my drink is empty the server doesn't ask if I want another. I really hate that! If I want another, and the server doesn't ask, I won't order one, and that's affects his/her tip! If you are a server, take note! Always ask if the patron wants another drink!

For lunch I chose the Aged Wisconsin Grilled Cheese with fries. It's Cheddar Cheese, Tomato, and Bacon on multi-grain bread. I was not impressed. It wasn't what most people think of with grilled cheese, meaning that the bread wasn't buttered, and then placed in the pan with the cheese, et cetera, inside. This was merely a sandwich on toast, but the cheese was melted, for whatever that's worth. Very disappointing.

Bar Louie has had fabulous desserts in the past ranging from an amazing chocolate cake to fresh made donuts. They have gotten rid of all of those, and now have nasty, dry, store bought desserts. Don't waste your money.

Bar Louie use to be a good, if not great, restaurant, but they have made changes that are to their detriment. I hope that the management team will grow a brain and return the quality to the food and the selection that Bar Louie should be known for.

I Baked - Cup o' Joe Cookies

'tis the season for baking cookies. I love chocolate and coffee, so when I ran across this recipe making it was a no brainer!

So this recipe calls for blending cocoa powder, instant espresso granules and whipping cream together, then "crumble" the sugar cookie log into the mixture...I just decided to throw the whole log in there!

And mixed (hey, it's hard to stir!):

and mixed (Pretty gross, huh?):

until it was well blended. Then I formed it into little balls (yeah they looks like little brown turds) :

And then I took a drinking glass and smushed the balls flat. (my friends always called me a "ball buster"):

And then I topped each one with chocolate chips or chunks. You can use whatever kind of chocolate you like. This time I used Semi-Sweet, but next time I might go with dark chocolate.

If the chocolate has a while film on it, it is perfectly fine to use. The chocolate hasn't gone "bad", but the cocoa butter in the chocolate has separated from the other solids and rested on surface.

Here's the finished product (notice the white on the chocolate chunks has disappeared):

These were pretty easy, didn't make a mess, and were quick to bake. If you have little kids you can make this with them as a treat...if you don't have issues with the little bit of espresso powder.

Review - Big Boy (Nationwide)

I hadn't been to Big Boy in probably 10 years, so I thought today would be the day I returned. I have been seeing advertisements for the soup and sandwich lunch deal and the food looked so good, I had been wanting to try it.

I walked into the restaurant (Grand Blanc, MI) and was met with chaos. So many people just standing around everywhere (I assume to pay), no sense of order, no definitive line for the register, no greeter, just chaos. I ducked into the bathroom to wash my hands and OMGoodness the smell! Wow! It smelled like something crawled up an animals butt, died, and was pooped out of the dying carcass! I won't be going back in there again! When I came out the chaos had dissipated, but there still wasn't any greeter, nor was there anyone at the register. I finally walked up to the little old lady in the blue big boy shirt that was straightening up the salad bar and asked her if I can sit anywhere or should i wait to be seated. I figured that was a reasonable question, but she looked like a dear in the headlights. After taking a few moments to process what I had asked she said I could sit anywhere and she'd bring a menu to me. Once seated and with menu in hand I set about the task of picking my lunch.

It's a pretty standard diner menu, but they had a few new items that sounded good. When the server arrived and asked what I would like I asked her about the soups. As soon as she said Cabbage Soup I forgot everything else as I started having nightmare flashbacks to the "Cabbage Soup Diet" that my mother forced me on when I was in high school (yes my mother has a sadistic side). I decided to skip the soup/sandwich combo and went with a Texan Jack BLT (one of the new menu items), fries, unsweet iced tea, and a hot fudge ice cream cake for dessert.

The sandwich was lettuce, tomato, bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, on Texas toast...if you could really call it toast. it was slightly brown, but mostly soft bread. I would have liked it toasted a little longer. The cheese was cold, and the bacon was pathetic consisting mostly of very thin bacon crumbs. The lettuce was the typical iceberg lettuce (aka: crunchy water), and I picked off the tomatoes. I like tomatoes, but I'm allergic so I don't eat them often. The fries were really good. They were fresh, hot, and lightly salted. I was impressed with the fries. The hot fudge ice cream cake was ok. The cake was dry, the ice cream was good though, and the hot fudge was amazing. It tasted like Sanders hot fudge. The hot fudge and ice cream would have been better by themselves.

Overall, Big Boy was pretty much as I remember...ok food, for ok prices. Typical diner. I think in the future if I want diner food I'll pick one of the little mom and pop places in the area rather than a chain with mass produced food.

Review - Red Robin (Nationwide)

I've been thinking about a bacon bleu cheese burger for days, so I finally broke down and went to Red Robin and got one, and some other stuff.

I don't usually go to Red Robin. I prefer the hole in the wall kind of burger joints, but today I was out running errands and there was a Red Robin along the way. I like Red Robin just fine, I don't avoid the place, but it's usually not my first thought when it comes to eating out. There are usually a ton of kids, and it's really loud, and the decor is busy, and I get a little agitated there. But I got take out so it wasn't so bad.

I ordered the Gourmet Cheeseburger which comes with a laundry list of items. On mine I selected bleu cheese, bacon, lettuce, pickles, red onions, and yellow mustard. Of course the burger came with a heap of fries (when you eat in the restaurant the fries are bottomless). And I also ordered a Freckled Lemonade (Strawberry Lemonade) and a chocolate cupcake! I drank the Freckled Lemonade while I was there and they were kind enough to top off my to go cup before I left.

I got the food home (about 1/2 hour drive), and it was packaged in cardboard boxes. I prefer this method to styrofoam not only because the cardboard is biodegradable, but because the bun and fries don't get soggy due to condensation, double win! The food was still hot, and the burger was amazing! I recently discovered that I like bleu cheese and really can't get enough of it! The sharpness of the cheese the saltiness of the bacon, the savory sweetness of the onion and the sour of the pickle all came together and sang in perfect harmony! Each bite had a little bit of every flavor, and by the end of the burger I was almost sad to see it end! Red Robin is one of the few establishments that has steak fries that are perfectly crispy! Most places under cook the steak fries, but not Red Robin! The outsides are nice and crisp, while the insides are almost buttery smooth. These fries need only a dash of salt to draw out the flavor of the potato, no ketchup needed! In the take out container there were a mountain of fries. I have enough to snack on through the evening.

The Freckled Lemonade is a favorite of mine, my only desire with it is that instead of using Minute Maid Lemonade, that they use fresh squeezed, but I guess with the quantity of lemonade they sell, that would be unreasonable.

New to the menu (at least new since the last time I'd been to RR) are cupcakes! They aren't even listed on the website yet. I ordered a chocolate cupcake and it was fantastic! Lots of places make chocolate cakes and cupcakes that are dry, but not Red Robin. The cake was so moist I thought it was going to drip! The cake was soft, and it practically melted in my mouth. I don't like frosting, but the chocolate frosting didn't taste like a mouthful of brown colored sugar, it actually tasted like real chocolate fudge!

The food at Red Robin is excellent, and if you have kids it's kid friendly. If you can tolerate the chaos of the restaurant, it's worth the trip. Otherwise get a takeout, it's just as good as eating there, but without the insanity!