WS #5: TGI Friday’s
Yesterday, we had lunch at TGI Friday’s after going to church. We’ve been in the US for almost a year now and yet, this was only our first visit to TGIF. It maybe largely due to the fact that in the Philippines, our last few visits to this restaurant didn’t quite have as saying, “Thank God we ate at Friday’s!” Since we’re in the US anyway, we thought the TGIFs here should be a lot better than the ones at home (I’m not even sure if we still have TGIF over there!)
Abby ordered chicken fingers from the kid’s menu and chose a side salad over three other choices (fries, carrots & ranch dressing and mandarin oranges). She managed to eat a chicken finger and a half out of three and a few lettuce leaves. She didn’t drink a lot of her lemonade because she said it was too….sour. *rolls my eyes* Sorry, no chicken fingers pics! Abby was too hungry and coudln’t be made to wait any longer. 
Hubby ordered half a rack of baby back ribs, which he said was ok. You see, hubby and I have our restaurant biases already. And for ribs, it’s The County Line which tops our list. The TGIF half-rack’s serving size is good for one person and for once, we didn’t have any ribs to take home!
I had the grilled chicken primavera, another one of the restaurant’s dishes which was available in “solo size”. 
It’s another ok dish, and for some reason, my mind constantly wandered off to “The Olive Garden” while I twirled pasta around my fork. (I love you, Olive Garden!)
And because the food we ordered all came in wonderful solo servings, we had plenty of room to spare for dessert, which turned out to be our lunch’s saving grace. We had…
…strawberry with melted chocolate. 
Oh, that’s not all!
At the other end of the dessert plate is a slice of immaculatey white….
…Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. 
*sighs* This slice of heaven made up for whatever our main courses lacked…presentation and over-all good taste. *sighs again* According to the TGIF menu it is “made with real vanilla beans, baked in a vanilla graham-cracker crust. Layered with white chocolate mousse and white chocolate shavings. Served with whipped cream and a fresh strawberry.” Abby isn’t so big on cakes. But she liked this one so much she forgot all about her 2 humongous scoops of vanilla ice cream. Poor Daddy! He ended up with the ice cream instead.
By the time we were through with dessert, the plate looked like this…
Hee hee hee! Abby ate it all. Kidding. If only for the vanilla bean cheesecake, we’re definitely going back to TGIF…but only for dessert. Thank you, God for that slice of heaven…and the rest of our meal, too!
I have another weekend snapshot here.
Have a great week, y’all!
Restaurants, Weekend Snapshot | Comments (13)
PH #5: High - Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake
This is Cheesecake Factory’s Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake…
And here’s the exact description from the menu: Layers of Flourless Godiva Chocolate Cake, Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse
*sigh* This is one of ‘em heaven on earth. It is high in chocolate, high in sugar and high in calories. It’s priced higher than your ordinary chocolate cheesecake, too! And man, if you finish an entire slice, you’ll be so high you might even forget your name. Hee hee.
I have another entry here. Have a great weekend, y’all!
Desserts/Sweets/Baked Goodies, Photo Hunt | Comments (13)
Chicken Terriyaki (Short-Cut Version)
I recently made chicken terriyaki and I’ll tell you how in a bit. You just have to promise that you won’t clobber me with your woks and laddles or anything you can grab from your kitchen, that is, if you’re a “strictly made from scratch” type of a person. But if you’re the type who doesn’t mind getting a little help from prepared mixes, marinades and what nots, then by all means, read on.
So on with my chicken terriyaki…
This is so easy a gradeschooler can do it without or with very little supervision. I simply rubbed salt on my chicken pieces (all drumsticks) and poured half a cup (maybe more) of this store-bought marinade…
After coating the chicken pieces with the marinade, I left them in the fridge for about 30 minutes turning them over at the 15-minute mark. When I marinate something, I normally transfer the food pieces to a resealable plastic bag. So I would simply turn the bag over after giving the contents a little massage. It’s something I picked up from one of the cook books or magazines I have.
To cook, I browned the chicken pieces in a lightly oiled pan. I then poured the marinade that was in the bag and allowed the chicken to cook in it, turning the pieces every now and then. Saucy food such as this is oh-so-good with steamed rice.
I wish to thank my Mom for this because, when during her vacation with us, it was she who discovered a bottle of terriyaki marinade in the fridge and decided to do something with it. Hee hee! Thanks, Mommy!
Poultry | Comment (1)
WW #4: Funnel Cake
I have another WW entry here. Click here for more of Wordless Wednesday.
Desserts/Sweets/Baked Goodies, Wordless Wednesday | Comments (22)
WS #4: Chuy’s
Hubby and I are both fans of Mexican food. My sentimental favorite would be the old/original Tia Maria’s restaurants in Annapolis St. in Greenhills and Katipunan Avenue of my college days, before the restaurants underwent major renovations. And my second favorite would be Mexicali.
Here in Texas, our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, at least for now, is Chuy’s. And last Saturday, we were in Tex-Mex heaven for lunch. Yey!
These chips are on-the-house and served hot…definitely not fresh out of the bag, if you know what I mean. It comes with a sour cream dip and a very hot salsa. We loved the chips so much and our little red basket was emptied in a matter of a few minutes. Good thing there’s free refills. Hahaha!
Isn’t that salsa pretty? Don’t be fooled though, it is hot with a capital H! Whew!
Abby had a kid’s burrito which she barely touched. I don’t know why I ever let her choose her food. She pointed to the picture of the kid’s burrito on the menu and said that’s what she wanted. So that’s what she got. My bad! There’s nothing wrong with the burrito, believe me. I guess Abby just has to be more exposed to Tex-Mex dishes. Or maybe, she was just too full from the chips. She did finish the ice cream that came with her meal.
This was my lunch. *sigh* I had a chicken chalupa and chicken enchilada combo. I eat so much chicken these days I practically cockle in my sleep already. The chicken enchilada is soft, creamy and just plain yummy. See why I can’t ever be a serious restaurant or food critic? Food will simply be yummy or not yummy to me. Hahaha! Anyway, chalupa, as I found out, is like an open-faced taco. I don’t exactly know how to eat it so I just cut through it with a knife…
…so I can have pieces this big. It’s easier to eat this way. I drizzled a bit of the sour cream dipping sauce and less than a teaspoonful of the spicy salsa on top of my chalupa pieces. *sigh again* I love mexican rice so I ate it all as well. In the end, it was only the refried beans that was left on my plate. But that’s only because I was too darned full already.
This was hubby’s meal. It’s called a “macho burrito”..seriously that’s how it’s called! It’s from the daily specials and comes with green chile rice. The burrito has a filling of pork, jack cheese and guacamole and smothered with green chile tomatillo sauce. It must be really good because hubby did a good job of cleaning up his plate.
We wanted to try the flan for dessert but unfortunately (or fortunately?) they ran out already. Next time perhaps?
The trip to Chuy’s was well worth the trouble of going out of the house on a really really lazy Saturday afternoon. And I’d gladly do it again.
Have a great week, y’all!
ps. As always, I have a second WS entry here. Do check out the entries of other WS participants as well. Cheers!
Restaurants, Weekend Snapshot | Comments (14)
Adobo Rice with Fried Egg
Ok, not exactly the healthiest meal there is but hubby didn’t complain when served this bowl of adobo rice and fried egg for breakfast last Thursday. I saved the sauce from the chicken adobo we had some nights ago and finally found good use for it. I would have done so sooner but it’s fairly rarely that we have enough left over rice for fried rice. See the rice here? That’s all the left over rice we had. Not even one cup! Maybe I ought to cook more rice. Hahaha!
Happy Easter everyone and have a great week ahead!
“Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness.” ~ Floyd W. Tomkins
Quick Fix, Rice | Comments (6)
PH #4: Metal - Cookware
This week’s photo hunt theme is metal. And I have plenty of it in my kitchen! Here’s a photo of my daughter modelling the pots and pans we received as a thank you present from my California based aunt and uncle after they tremendously enjoyed their stay with us early this year.
Check out my other photo hunt entry here. You can bet other photo hunters came up with very interesting photos for this week’s theme. Do check them out here.
Cookware & Gadgets, Photo Hunt | Comments (5)
