Man vs. Food Madness

For the past few years, as we have travelled to different cities around the country, we always made a point to research all of the Man vs. Food stops along the way.

We don't go to these places for the crazy food challenges or jumbo sized food, we just think Adam Richman has pretty awesome taste in food.

(Also, Josh does a ridiculous impression of him, and I thoroughly enjoy watching him eat and describe every bite in Adam's distintive, dramatic voice.)

Here's some of our favorite Man vs. Food stops at various cities around the country: 

When in Denver, we always stop at Cherry Cricket.

Amazing burgers with a bazillion toppings to choose from.

The first time I had cream cheese on a burger!

 We were in Denver for the Mile High Music Festival in 2008.

While in Seattle we hit up Red Mill Burgers and Beth's.

My fav burger in the country.

They had us at "secret Red Mill sauce" . . . 

. . . not to mention the mile high stack of bacon.

Beth's was pretty much a waffle house on steroids.

Hashbrowns for days.

While in Boston, we checked out Eagle's Deli & The Barking Crab.

(This was the only place that we've actually attempted a food challenge, and failed.)

A trip to New Orleans isn't complete without a stop by Cafe du Monde, Mother's, & Acme Oyster House.

The po-boys, jambalaya, and bread pudding were well worth the wait in the rain.

After Josh convinced me to bravely eat my first oyster, we got to meet Stormin Norman! 

In Memphis, me, Josh, and Mikey checked out Rendezvous BBQ, Kooky Canuck, and Gus's Fried Chicken.

In Chicago, we went to Lucky's Sandwhich Shop and Gino's East for deep dish pizza.

Deep dish pizza overdose face.

Fried egg, bacon, and cheese . . . what could be better?

Oh yea, just add some fresh cut french fries on that 'ol sammy right there.

Redic.

Man vs. Food gang sign.

In Atlanta, we checked out Pie in the Sky and then Vortex Burger before the Saints vs. Falcons game.

My second place fav burger in the country: Vortex.

In Vegas we loved Hash House-A-Go-Go so much that we went there twice.

Chicken and waffles!

(with bacon cooked into the waffles. yes. seriously.)

. . . and then wanted to barf our guts up.

In San Fran, we got some sandwiches at Ike's Place.

We even met Ike himself!

They gave out caramel apple suckers with every sammy, how cool is that??

While in St. Louis we went to Crown Candy Kitchen and Iron Barley . . . but somehow all the pictures from that fateful trip mysteriously disappeared.

Hmmm . . . 

If you are ever out and about gallavanting around the country, I would highly recommend checking out the website tvfoodmaps.com (thanks Trish!) to get a complete listing of all sorts of restaurants seen on tv!

Tunes we love: Lana del Rey "Video Games"

Josh showed me this song over the weekend, and I probably listened to it 436,849,232,971 times on the ride back to Louisiana last night. 

Addiction at its finest. 

The vinyl was released today, and the digital single will be released tomorrow . . . until then just check out her fantastic video below.

By fantastic I mean probably one of the coolest music videos I've ever seen, just so yo know.

Bonus: Pitchfork.com named this single "Best New Track" so you know it's good

Definitely adding her to our ever growing concert to-do list . . . 

"God Bless You" . . . get it right

So I have this roommate named Trish.

She lets me cut holes in her socks so I can try to make my boring flat hair into culry vivacious hair.

(Fail)

She miiiight be an alien because she has two right eyeballs.

. . . but it's ok, because she's a sweet alien who leaves us candy and sweet messages on the counter.

Anyways, the other night Trish and I were discussing how no one ever says "God bless you" anymore.

I immediately thought of my favorite Dane Cook joke and told her once she sees this video she will never be able to say a regular 'ol fashioned "bless you" without lol'ing.

(Side note: Lol means laugh out loud, by the way)

(Saw this on my fav website ParentsShouldntText.com, but click here for some funny texts of my own)

Even though Mr. Dane Cook tends to tell jokes in the dirtiest, cussiest form possible, I found an edited version that is still just as funny.
Be patient and watch the whole video to the end, there's a great kicker!

Happy Monday! 

THE Dinoroar

One of Charlie's most awesome quality is his ability to be weird.

He's widely known throughout the land for his infamous "dinoroar"

It's kinda his way of saying "Pay attention to me dang it!" or "If you don't do what I want in the next 10 seconds I will go nuts, even though I'm a dog and I can't speak words to let you know what exactly it is that I want"

It's getting to be a daily occurrence, particularly in the mornings when Charlie wants to go outside, and sometimes we like to ag it on.
I felt weird typing the phrase "ag it on"
That can't be a real word, but thats exactly how we say it and there's not another appropriate word in the thesaurus, sorry.
Anyways, it's pretty fun to say "Wanna go outside?" two millions times until we get a dinoroar.
It's the little things . . .

This one is too dark to see Charles, but just wait for it at the end, epic Dinoroar.

Dinner (If I were a housewife)

Being a PA student with hardly any spare time, I often daydream about the amazing meals I will make one day when I get to spend less time studying and more time doing cool things.

In planning these imaginary future meals, I have developed a mile long list of bookmarked recipes online, so I thought I would share some of my favorites.

These dishes pretty much cover my main food groups: starches, carbs, and cheese.

Easy Beer Mac & Cheese

Photo credit: Howsweeteats.com

Here's the link to the recipe at HowSweetEats.com

Crock pot french onion soup
Like Jessica, at HowSweetEats.com, I am not very good friends with vegetables and I also have a recently (bravely!) developed love for caramelized onions.

Photo credit: Howsweeteats.com

  Here's the link to the recipe.

I guess we should try to throw something kinda healthy in the mix . . .
SkinnyTaste.com's Bangin Good Shrimp

(It's a copycat of one of my favorite things at Bonefish Grill, the BangBang Shrimp)

Baked chipotle sweet potato fries

(with skinny ranch dip on the side)

photo credit: Skinnytaste.com
Here's the link to the recipe.

I prefer marshmellow cream/cinnamon/cream cheese dipping sauce over ranch, so I will probably improvise.
(Not that I'm cooking this anytime in my near future)
I guess this counts as a vegetable, right?

Sweet potatoes (and caramelized onions) are really the only veggies in my book . . .

Sometiiiimes sweet potato fries count as a dessert in my brain.

But hey, vegetables aren't supposed to be desserts, no matter how much sugar covers them.

The real dessert in this imaginary meal of my future life will be these magical creations:

Cookie dough stuffed cupcakes

(Kris from YoungMarriedChic's brilliant invention)

(and it's the only picture on the post that I actually took and didn't borrow)

Recipe Here.
Bake. Now.
Just ignore the whole 6 1/2 sticks of butter thing.

I've actually made these puppies before, and I'm already looking forward to making them again!