Taking A Stake in Omaha

Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I were walking around our town with our two kids trying to enjoy the nice weather when we realized that we had nothing for dinner. We thought about going out to eat since we were already out of the house, but sitting our 2 week old daughter in a crowded restaurant filled with people infected with who-knows-what didn't really sit at the top of our list. So... we needed to find an alternative. Chinese? Not really in the mood. Italian? We just had that the night before. Thai or Indian? There are no good Thai or Indian places in our town. However, there is an Omaha Steaks Store. I've never been in there before and we've never had their food. In fact, I always found it a little odd. But our car was parked right in front of the store, so we went in. Luckily, they were having an in-store sale yesterday, so we grabbed a box of bacon-wrapped filet mignon and some stuffed baked potatoes. I have to say that the steaks were awesome. Sure, a part of that was due to my grilling ability - but most of it came from the steak. I was lucky enough to get the box of 4 steaks for only $15.99 but they usually cost way more than that. Now I'm going to be wanting to get steaks from there all the time. Especially with the places around here - I've purchased spoiled meat at almost all of the major supermarkets around here - Stop and Shop, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and A&P. Only Kings and Shopright haven't disappointed yet.

NP: Comfortably Dumb, Extreme

Eating Inn Ho-Ho-Kus

Right before our baby we born (1 day before) we decided to go out for dinner and a movie. While we usually like to go into NYC for our dinner, this time we decided that we wouldn't travel so far. My wife was supposed to deliver our daughter in a little more than a day and we felt it was probably better to stay closer to home. Also I don't think my wife was really up for walking around the city streets. So... we decided to check out the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn for dinner. This place is in my sister's town and we had read a few good things about it.
The place is very quaint, but also very old inside. There was an area of outside seating set up, but it was still very warm out so we opted to sit inside. Unfortunately, that meant we were the only people sitting down for dinner who didn't have hair a shade of gray, silver, blue or white (this may have been due to our choice of an early dinner so we could make a showing of The Dark Knight later in the evening). Anyway - the staff were very attentive and nice. although it still amazes me the number of waiters/waitresses we've encountered who do not know what the word "pasteurized" means.
We both had some appetizers to start out the meal. I had a special - it was an avocado and corn chowder with king crab meat. It was actually very good, but our waiter failed to tell me that it was to be served cold and I wasn't expecting it. After mulling it over for a minute, I felt that I should have realized it was cold - but I still think the waiter should have told us. My wife decided to have the warm goat cheese over mixed greens, candied walnuts, granny smith apples with lemon herb vinaigrette. This was excellent.
For dinner, I had the crispy Long Island duck breast and leg with wild berry sauce, while my wife had the Canadian farm raised salmon with horseradish crust in a grainy dijon mustard glaze. I paired my entire meal with a couple of glasses of Barton & Guestier Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Pays d'Oc, France. I really enjoyed this wine and our meals were very good. It was a little expensive considering the fact that I was sitting in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, but that's the general feeling I get whenever we go out to eat in Jersey. Too expensive for what you get.
Would I go back? It was definitely good enough for a second try. Is it likely to happen? With 2 kids and limited going out time - probably not.

Kugelhopf!

Every once in a while, I get in the mood to try and make something good to eat. The other day it was breakfast time and I wanted to make something good for my wife and myself (we are both off of work this week). I was perusing through the Joy of Cooking when I came across something called a Kugelhopf. The Joy describes it as similar to a brioche with less of a buttery-goodness. Even with that basic description, I really wanted to try it. It wasn't something I could make for breakfast - it takes way too long - so we made pancakes. However I began crafting my latest achievement in baking later that evening.
The kugelhopf is either from the Alsace region of France or somewhere in Germany or Austria. I've read sources that point to all different regions. Some feel it is more of a holiday bread, but it is great for breakfast. This is one of those bread recipes that needs to be started the day before you want to bake it because it's technically a 3-rise bread. The first is about 1 hour, then there's a 4-12 hour proofing time in the fridge, then another hour of rising before you finally bake it. This thing takes commitment.
Anyway, besides for substiuting dried cranberries for the currants called for in the recipe, I stayed pretty close to the cookbook's instructions. You know what? This is a great breakfast bread. Especially warm out of the oven with some butter on it.

Complaining Is So Easy To Do

Even though this is supposed to be a very happy time in my life (it is) - we have been welcoming our new daughter into this world this week - my drive into work tonight has made me finally want to complain about the drivers in New Jersey. We moved a little less than a year ago, and I've been trying to see if I was just being a stuck-up New Yorker having problems with transitioning to the suburbs. However, I really don't think that's it. Why, does it seem, that no one understands the concept of "the passing lane" in New Jersey? People mosey along in the left lane driving at 40 mph in a 55 mph zone. Then, they get mad if you want them to move over so you can keep going. Driving slow is what the right lane is for. These people need to move over. Another thing that really bugs me is that no one seems to know how to merge. I've seen people come to a complete stop in the center lane so that they could merge into either the right or left lanes. Screw the flow of traffic - they just stop. And it's not a gradual slowing down - it's 40 mph to zero in no time flat. On my route home, you could not imagine the number of rear end collisions due to this phenomenon. I could keep going on but I have to get to work.
All I know is that I've lived in New York City and Boston (owning a car in both) and have driven in Italy, Spain, Puerto Rico and Mexico and New Jersey has had some of the worst driving I have ever seen. I always thought it was a stereotype created by New Yorkers, but now I'm really not too sure about that.