Veggie Tarts

Do you remember that old school vegetable pizza appetizer made with the ranch cream cheese mixture?
Oh I bet you do, if you went to any sort of shower party in the 70's or 80's I'm sure you did!
I did feature that on my blog awhile back, check that out here Vegetable Pizza Appetizer.

This finger food appetizer, Veggie Tart is very similar, but different!

I love my little mini muffin tin, if you don't have one your gonna want to go and get one :)

What your going to need:

1 container of crescent roll dough (found in your dairy area of the grocery store)

4 oz , cream cheese - softened

1 Tablespoon mayo

1 Tablespoon greek yogurt

2 Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

A pinch of salt, pepper and sugar

And a dash of garlic

Toppings- broccoli, onion, tomato, sliced black olives (this is what I used)

Shredded cheese

You're going to use small amount of these vegetables, because the tarts are pretty tiny

How to make them:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Lay out your crescent dough and cut approximately 2x2 inch square

Take your non stick muffin tin and lay out your dough into them

Bake for 5-6 minutes

Chop up the vegetables that you decided to use

Mix the cream cheese, mayo, yogurt and seasonings

When you remove them from the oven to cool, take a spoon and press the dough down a bit, they raised a bit didn't they? :)

Ok once the little cups cooled off, add a little scoop of the cream cheese mixture.

Top with shredded cheese and vegetables of your liking.

They are ready to eat!  

Also these cute little cups will keep in the fridge for a few days.

I know you will just love them!  

Enjoy!

Nacho Mamas

Do you not love the name of the place?!  Nacho Mama's!
Downtown Stillwater, MN.  Seriously good food, monster proportions, and on the cheap people, you need to get there!
You also NEED to order the street corn, OMG good!  Everytime I go here that is a have to order item, just delicious.

Trying to be a good, we thought we would split a meal, well that didn't work.
The food looked so wonderful we could not agree on anything and had to get our own dishes.
I went with the tacos, you get 3 and that comes with rice and beans.  It was SO good! But way too much food for me.

Hubbie ordered the chimichanga.  He gobbled that right up & it look wonderful!

Last time we came here we sat inside, really fun place.  Very colorful.  The servers are really nice and on their game.
This visit we sat out back on their patio, there is a nice little fountain back there and you can watch the happenings on the street.
I really liked sitting on the patio, but unfortunately this visit it seemed to be bring your toddler and baby day, those little stinkers were splashing in that fountain and climbing it, I think all their parents were sauced on margaritis, I got splashed several times.
Oh well I lived :)

When your in Stillwater - totally put this on your list of places to stop by, hey by them I bet they will be done with the expansion!

Lions Tavern

Lions Tavern, hey right across the street from my last review, Nacho Mama's!  Located in downtown Stillwater.
We did dinner here for our anniversary, we wanted to kind of keep it on the casual side this year, I mean we have been going out lately like mad dogs!  No complaints on my end!
It was a Sunday night, not very late at all.  They seemed to be wrapping things up early here.  Sorta strange.
When we got there the band on the patio was leaving :(  Also when we were done with dinner they were closing up inside too.
But that patio is awesome! Outdoor bar, lots of seating, a little waterfall.
The server was a doll but she did get real busy so her Mom off all people helped out, yes she actually worked her but would that not be funny if she didn't !?
So what we ordered, I'm totally on a spin - dip kick right now.

It was sorta bland really, guess I just need to make my own! Not that I'm sort on those recipes, I have a ton!
I swear I feel like a broken record, but you guessed it we ordered the burgers.
I had the Tavern Burger with regular fries, again really bland.

Hubbie had the spicy Lion burger he wanted sweet potato fries but, they were out.  So he asked for the garlic parsley fries, and they served him regular fries, yughhh... 

The food was disappointing, but the atmosphere was really nice.  Even the interior of the restaurant.  

I think this place would be really fun in the summer having drinks and listening to music.

Hell's Kitchen

Birthday Weekend Dinner #1 was done at Hell's Kitchen, I actually did not know where we were going, it was hubbies surprise after bringing me to the beautiful W hotel.
Hell's Kitchen was right around the corner, I always wanted to go here, but the Duluth location, but then it closed.
We get there (the downtown location) flashback we had been there before about 16 years ago!  Silly us :)
Got seated in the band area, but got stuck behind the dj.  That's ok we could still hear the music.
I didn't realize how large this place was until we went to leave.

Oh the bathrooms were spooky!  Kidding, you know those pictures that are holographic in all the Halloween stores?  Yeah they have them in the bathroom but even scarier !
It was happy hour we started off with the artichoke dip, YUM!

Got a couple beers, I think they were only $2 each, deal!
We were not super hungry so we split the juicy lucifer (lucy, ya you called it, we got the burger).
Good, not the best I've ever had.

Our server was really good and attentive.
I would totally go here again.
Best part was the bill was about $42 !  Cheap night!

Hen House Eatery

A breakfast review - what - what!?!  Yes breakfast this might be my second one in all my years doing this blog, by the way I have been writing this thing for 4 years now!
We had a weekend away from home & stayed downtown Minneapolis, we stayed at the W hotel, very nice place by the way.
The Hen House Eatery was just a quick walk away.
It was really adorable, I loved all the bright light coming in and the vibrant colors.
We were going to be out on the town all day, so I did not get any of the pastries in the front area to go, but if you can do not pass them but.  My lord they looked fantastic, especially the brownies!
Started off with a cup of black coffee, very good & strong! Got me going.

I ordered the eggs benedict, it was pretty ok.

Hubbie had the chorizo omelet, he really liked that.

We ordered a side of bacon, it was good but only 3 pieces.

The server was very quick and the food was also.
I would love to come back here sometime, but I am not downtown much anymore.
But if you are check them out!

George & The Dragon

I'll admit it, not much cooking going on around here lately.
Sorry your going to have to wait awhile for some new appetizer recipes, now I have no shortage of ideas.  I have lists going on new apps to make, that you are going to love!
It's gardening season and the month of Mom we call it around here!
The month of Mom consists of Mother's Day, then my bday then my anniversary - this year's anniversary is our 15th!  How did that happen!?  And 18 together.  Oh and forget it I'm not telling you how old I am :)
Ok enough rambling onto George & The Dragon, first off what a cool name for a restaurant!
I mentioned this place to my husband once and he has not let me forget that we had not been there yet.
Honestly I was a bit turned off by hearing they are a british restaurant, well at least that is what I read somewhere, I am glad that did not keep me from going here.
The place is in a nice little neighborhood, it's a pretty hoppin place so you may have to wait.  We did call ahead of time to see how long the wait was so we got right in.
But if you do end up waiting, there are a couple little shops right there you could pop into.
George & The Dragon had a great beer list.

Our server was so friendly and totally on her game, we did not have to wait long for anything and we did not sit with an empty glass for long either.
It was my bday so I picked the appetizer - I chose the onion bacon dip served with toasted bread - OMG I could have just ate it all myself!

We each had a burger with fries - I know, what else would we get, so predictable!
I had the George Burger, aged Widmer cheddar, with mustard cream & frizzled leeks.
Hubbie had the Beef Rib Toastie, Loaded with caramelized onions, same cheese as mine, arugula and a horseradish cream.

Everything was perfect, can't wait to go back! 

* Try the fried green beans, they looked great - I'm going to ! 

Fireside Foundry

Fireside Foundry previously Fireside Pizza a long time neighborhood pizza place in Richfield.
They remodeled recently, not sure if it's new owners, I'm guessing it is.
I believe they are going for a steampunk theme here, kind of gears and sprockets, futuristic.  I don't think I am explaining that very well, I don't even know if I know what I'm talking about here hahaha!
Ok think Mad Max.

Alright whatever let's get onto the food.
First we ordered the garlic cheese bread, that came with a marinara sauce, I was not fond of that.  But the bread was good!

Next we ordered a pepperoni pizza and the Fireside special pizza, both very good, I think the thin crust, and the firesides choice of toppings.  Again not a huge fan of the red sauce.

There was a lot more then just pizza on the menu.

A wine list but no beer list, but luckily the server had them memorized.

  

She was very friendly.  I think the kitchen was backed up when we were there food took a while.
We sat outside, street seating, there are a cool fireplace, someone made, architecturally interesting. Can a fireplace be architecturally interesting? Well you know what I mean right?

Patio is a little crowded on the smaller end, not sure how the people on the inside would get out if someone was sitting at the other table.
I think I would try it again.  But not really the first place I'd pick for pizza especially because Pizza Luce is a short distance away.

Best of the Twin Cities Event 2016

Hit up The Best of the Twin Cities event, got some VIP tickets!

We went to this event back in 2014 & had a blast.  

It wasn't as great as that event but it was entertaining for a bit.  Ya can you hear my enthusiasm?  Nope.  We even left early.  Bummer :(

Ok so VIP your paying twice as much for your tickets, you expect something great right?

Entering in was a great process there was good directions until the lady that told us the bar was upstairs, well there was a bar upstairs but was not going to be open for another hour.

Alright back down the stairs, find the 1 bar that was open for all the people who payed $$ for VIP and we waited and waited for a drink.  There were only 4 food booths open with samples for VIP.  

There was much, much more  a couple years ago.

DJ was rockin' it though!  Loved her!

The red carpet people didn't seem to want to be there.  You had to go up to them to ask to have your photo taken.

We wandered for a bit checking out the booths, there seemed to be more of those this year.  

Got a couple freebies, kinda like going to the state fair.

Alright somehow an hour passed, more people came, a few more bars opened.

A few more food booths opened.

And hold on to you pants, do you know how much a can of beer cost?!  $10!!!!!  

Ya I switched to water.

DJ was done then the next entertainer started her music was very beautiful, but really brought down the whole mood unfortunately.

I think my favorite part was people watching.

OH also the oysters by Sea Salt Eatery and the Spam Musubi sandwiches, who I don't even know who made them!  OHHH YUM!

I just looked at the photos they published online today seems as though there was more entertainment after we left :(

No one was even dancing the whole 2.25 hours we were there.  Ridiculous. I was table dancing :)  well mostly because vip was upstairs, dancefloor was downstairs.
The VIP Swag bag - they should have called it the VIP Lame bag!  

We left early, we were super bummed out.

Had one of the worst uber drivers on the way home too!  Thank God we are still alive!  

I don't think we will be going back to any of those events :(