How we do Buffalo

Today I was going through our old wedding website. There is a page for out of town guests that included places eat and things to do. I read some of me descriptions and think they are pretty spot on. I'm copying the page over here. 

Does everyone agree with my opinions of these places? I only included on of our "things to do" since it's the only one that has to do with food.  

I want to know what you think too, so please comment! It will make me feel like someone actually reads this! If you have a special place to eat or drink too, please leave it in the comments. We are always looking for new places to go!

Things to do:

Wegmans: yes, we put a grocery store on our list of things to do in Buffalo. But seriously, folks, this is a grocery store on steriods. They have everything you need and tons of things you don't. You can enjoy dinner here- anything from sushi and chinese to pizzas, subs, salad bar, soup, burritos, and $6 meals. Trust us, your visit to Buffalo is not complete until you have gone to Wegmans. They're open 24 hours, so there is sure to be time to fit a visit into your stay. Visit www.wegmans.com for locations throughout Buffalo and the suburbs. 

Places to Eat:

Duff's: you can go to Anchor Bar, but we promise, Duff's has the best wings in Buffalo. With three locations around Buffalo, you can experience the food that made Buffalo famous. Tastebuds beware- prepare yourself if you order hot wings, as "hot" is a loose term. Visit www.duffswings.com/ for more info. 

Frank's Sunny Italy: Anna and Ryan's favorite Italian place in Buffalo, they are famous for their sweet marinara sauce. Portions are huge- the spaghetti plate can feed about three people easily. They also have a take out service. Address: 2491 Delaware Ave. 

Pano's: a personal favorite of Anna and Ryan's. They are a Greek restaurant, but all the food on the menu is great-you really can't go wrong here. Recently remodeled, Pano's is a Canisius staple and a local favorite. Visit panosonelmwood.com for more info. 

Pearl Street Grill and Brewery: a favorite hangout for before and after Buffalo sporting events, Pearl Street has four floors, with a bar on every floor, tons of beers on tap, and good food. They have a lovely balcony with a great view of the city. Visit www.pearlstreetgrill.com/home for more info. 

Anderson's: Ever heard of beef on weck? Here is your chance to give it a try. Trust us, it's delicious. And after, wash down that sandwich with some Perry's ice cream. Ryan loves the Pistachio ice cream, while Anna like the cajun fries with her roast beef, and cotton candy ice cream. Visit www.andersonscustard.com/ for locations and more info. 

Brodo: A tiny restaurant with a boatload of style and awesome food. Their salads are out of this world, and everything on their menu sounds so good, Anna and Ryan can't pick a favorite. From appetizers to soups and sandwiches, to entrees, the food here is reasonably priced for how good it tastes. Visit www.brodo.net/index.php for more info. 

Betty's: This gem is in a unique location in a quirky old building. They are famous for their brunch, but its also a good place for dinner. It's also a popular hangout for the multitudes of hipsters that call Buffalo home. Check out the location-behind the restaurant is a tiny neighborhood full of tiny little cottages that are so unique. Visit www.bettysbuffalo.com/ for more info. 

Brennan's: A suburbs hangout that has a huge bar but also has great food. We love their fries, but our friends like the potato skins and also think they have pretty good wings. Sandwiches are always a safe choice here and they all are great. Visit www.brennansbowerybar.com/ for more info. 

Chef's: Probably the most famous Italian restaurant in Buffalo, Chef's is located in the middle of nowhere in a crappy area of Buffalo, but it's worth it for the food. Sports stars  can frequently be spotted having a meal here. So, if sweet sauce isn't your thing, head over to Chef's. Visit www.ilovechefs.com/ for more info. 

The Frog Hair: If you enjoy golf and hanging out with the cougars of Williamsville, then this is your place. There are multiple simulators where you can swing a golf club and have 40-somethings check you out- every guy's dream. They have amazing warm pretzel rolls and a wide selection of food. Visit www.thefroghair.com/ for more info. 

Grovers: As seen on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Grovers has the best burgers in Buffalo. Although it's a fair drive (about 30 minutes) outside downtown Buffalo, if you like Burgers, you absolutely have to make the trip. Ask to try the cheeseburger soup if you're feeling adventurous. Address: 9160 Transit Rd, East Amherst. 

Olivers: This is a pricey, high class restaurant in Buffalo. So, if you're looking for a good, classy meal, this is your place. Plus, it's right across the street from the vet's office Anna used to work at. Visit oliverscuisine.com/08/index.html for more info. 

Fast Food: This is a loose term for the next few places that aren't sit down, but are still Buffalo traditions. 

Mississippi Mudds and Old Man River: Located on the banks of the Niagara River, enjoy a hot dog, chicago dog, or other variation of a wiener. Old Man River has food and milkshakes, and Mississippi Mudd has ice cream. Once you get your food, you can enjoy the river walk and see Grand Island and watch the boats go by. Visit www.mississippimuddswny.com/ and www.oldmanriverwny.com/ for more info. 

Mighty Taco: Like Taco Bell, only better. Be sure to order a loganberry to drink. Visit www.mightytaco.com/main.php for locations are more information. 

Jim's Steak Out: Are you really drunk and are just looking for some good drunk food, even if it is after our wedding? That's ok. Jim's Steak Out is your place to go. Subs of all kinds are sure to please, but if you don't see anything that catches your eye, try the chicken finer sub. Their motto is "if you're up, we're probably open," so they definitely cater to the intoxicated crowd. Visit jimssteakout.com/ for locations. 

ETS: Short for Elmwood Taco and Subs, this place is just across the street from Heenans, and a favorite place for Anna to get drunk food on her walk home from the bar. They have great waffle fries here. Located in a newly remodeled building, ETS is a place to go for a quick, cheap bite. Visit www.etsbuffalo.com/ for more info. 

Breakfast Food:

Spot Coffee: A small local coffee shop that specializes in unique coffee and breakfast drinks. They have pastries for breakfast, and is a popular place to study and hang out with friends. Visit www.spotcoffee.com/ for locations and more info. 

Tim Hortons: Seriously the best coffee you'll drink in Buffalo. They have great doughnuts and bagels too, and also serve iced coffee, called an icecap. Pick up a party pack of timbits (similar to munchinks) to bring on the plane home with you. Don't let the long drive-thru line fool you, the staff there moves so fast that you won't wait long at all. Visit www.timhortons.com/ for locations and more info. 

The Pancake House: The mother of all breakfasts. This place is famous for fresh squeezed orange juice (for some $$$) and some specialty dishes, including an apple pancake, and a dutch baby, which is a large German pancake with butter, powdered sugar, strawberries, lemon juice, and strawberry jelly. It is to die for- a must try dish before you leave. If you can't make it early, don't worry, they serve breakfast all day long. Visit www.originalpancakehouse.com/ for more info. 

Places to Drink: 

Loughrans: An Amherst bar with a great atmosphere and good food to boot. We recommend the fish fry if you plan to eat here. The front of the bar has huge windows that open out to the street and the entire bar has that lived in feel. It's been around forever and is pretty low key (except for St. Patricks Day). Tell the bartenders you went to Clemson and you'll probably get a discount- the owner's son went to Clemson as well. Address: 4543 Main St. 

Snyder Bar and Grill: a favorite suburban bar of Ryan's and a popular hangout for all our friends. Don't be intimidated by the front door that is essentially a large piece of plywood. SBG has a great atmosphere, a dart board, and shuffleboard. The service is excellent and bartenders are very friendly. Address: 2067 Kensington Ave

Heenans: A Canisius tradition like no other. Anna spent many a Saturday night here. Your shoes will stick to the floors, but drinks are cheap (cash only) and you can get the full experience of being a Canisius student if you head over on a Saturday night. Address: 946 Elmwood Ave. 

The Thirsty Buffalo: lots of selection including many local beers from Buffalo and Canada, with plenty of TV's. Try some Labatt Blue or Molson Canadian-both favorite Buffalo beers. Happy hour here is from noon to 7pm (really!) so stop in for $2 pints and well drinks. Address: 555 Elmwood Ave

Geckos: Located in the Hertel Ave area, Geckos is a sports dive bar. There are tons of other bars within walking distance from here, as well as the Italian neighborhood of Buffalo with tons of small restaurants (may we recommend Kostas for breakfast or a late night bite). Address: 1464 Hertel Ave. 

Frizzys: It's awesomeness stems from the fact that this bar has a photobooth. That's right folks, leave your mark in Buffalo by forever posting your drunk pictures on their wall, and take some home with you for photo documented evidence of things you may not remember doing. The back area of the bar has pool tables as well. Address: 140 Allen St. 

Cecelia's: The best martinis in Buffalo. Order the appletini. Trust us. Go on a Monday during happy hour for half priced Martinis. Address: 716 Elmwood Ave. 

Colter Bay: Ryan describes this place as hipster with a Western park theme. They have lots of ale on tap, and be sure to try a Southern tier beer to get a taste of Buffalo beer. Address: 561 Delaware Ave. 

Brick Bar: Located in the popular Allentown district, and similar to Backstreets for all you Clemson folk. Address: 229 Allen St. 

Founding Fathers: Tucked away from the main streets, Fathers is a nifty, old fashioned bar full of presidential decor and free snacks. They have a trivia night on the first Tuesday of the month as well if you plan on staying longer. Address: 75 Edward St. 

So what do you think! Leave your comments. PLEASE!!!!

The Oscars Are Coming!

And so begins one of my favorite times of the year. Movie stars (and not movie stars) come out dressed in their finest attire (or not) to celebrate the best movies of the year. Seriously, people, this is like my own superbowl. And I've been trolling pinterest for some great appetizer recipes. I don't want to give away all my secrets but here and here are a couple of my ideas. It should be a lovely night filled with Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, and those quick camera shots of George Clooney with some woman 20 years younger than him hanging on his arm.

Anyway, on to this past week of dinners. Monday we had mini turkey meat loaves. It's kind of a novel idea, where you make the meat loaf in muffin pans. This is especially appealing to me since the concept of a "meat loaf" absolutely disgusts me. Seriously, its a loaf of meat. The only thing that should come in a loaf is bread. Not meat. Ever. It's gross. Anyway, I like my ground meat in muffin form better. I tried this recipe first last year and it didn't get rave reviews, but I liked it. A little spicy, but otherwise it was good.

Tuesday we used leftover ham from my mom's on Friday and made pseudo-reubens. Essentially a ham and cheese sandwich dipped in egg and grilled. We also had leftover mashed potatoes. 

 Wednesday was the first day of Lent, so we had cornflake crusted halibut. We've also tried this recipe before and liked it, so if it ain't broke, dont fix it.

Thursday we had personal chicken pot pies. It was pretty easy but I wasn't a fan for two reasons. 1-I like my pot pie nice and soupy, and this one didn't have very much broth. 2- The crust was just pie crust that you cut in a circle and baked. I usually like my crust slightly more bread like and less crusty. Despite this, I ate the leftovers for lunch twice this week. 

 Here it is with the crust broken up.

 Friday we were meatless again. Ryan made shrimp scampi with some leftover pasta and some special seasoning. I call it special because I honestly have no idea what it is. But it was good.

Saturday we went out with Ryan's parents, and Sunday we went skiing and packed our own lunch since food there is expensive. We just had sandwiches. On to Monday. We are trying some recipes from the Wegmans Menu magazine. Here is teriyaki chicken with udon noodles. I HATE green beans but ate them for this recipe. And I took it for lunch too. Suck it, beans. 

Tuesday we really wanted to try this tortellini recipe from a magazine, but you had to make your own pasta and filling. We opted for the easy way out, especially since we don't have a pasta attachment for the stand mixer. We did make the sauce. It was our first time making homemade sauce and it was a big success. We have a ton left over so we need to make something italian next week. I just heard about an Italian pasta place near where I work called Gondola's and they have Ryan's favorite, lobster ravioli, so that might be in the cards for next week. 

 Wednesday we tried a new pork chop recipe. It looked good, but it wasn't excellent and there were a ton of dishes. We didn't like it because the pork did not cook all the way through and we had to put it in the oven to cook completely, and the sauce got really caramelized and hard, almost crunchy. it is were more liquid like it maybe would have been better.

That's all for this time. I can't wait to announce the winner of our Awards Season competition. SPOILER ALERT: Ryan is currently down by 18 points. 

And here's the crazy Southern transplant oxymoron of the week: We listened to country music while driving to go skiing. Crazy. 

Events

It's been a while since I posted, and nothing big has happened in our cooking lives. We did, however, celebrate the super bowl last Sunday, and my birthday, which was also this week. Without further adieu, I give you, our week in cooking.

Last Friday, I went for my first appointment for contacts. I never wore them before, mainly because my mother insisted that I would be careless with them and would somehow lose my vision. Now that I pay for my own insurance, I decided to try them out since my vision is getting really bad, and I hate glasses, mainly because they actually hurt my face. As it turns out, I may have to get used to it because I was a miserable failure with putting contacts in. It took me about 20 minutes to get just one in, and then I couldn't get it out. I get another try, but the place won't let me go home with them until I can take them in and out three times. My hopes are not high. That night,  I made a chicken enchilada casserole. It was good, but our friend Parissa's (featured in 'The Reel Belles') is much better.

The entire casserole-we cut it by 1/3, making 5 instead of 8 enchiladas. 

Saturday, we went out to dinner at a local sushi restaurant that everyone raves about. We went skating at a free rink downtown, then went for sushi. It was cool because we got our own private room (mainly because they forgot our reservation) and watched Finding Nemo during dinner. The sushi was good, but expensive. I've had better sushi for cheaper, but I can say our service was amazing.
Sunday was the super bowl, the cornucopia of a football fan's year. The Ravens won, as I expected. So far, Ray Lewis has not gone out and killed anyone. Yet. For the game, we went to a friend's house and snacked on sandwiches, pizza, pigs in a blanket, and some assorted dips.

Monday we went back to the grind. I made a corn and potato chowder. This has been the first time since I decided on wedding registry gifts that I regretted not putting an immersion blender on it. I had to transfer the soup to a blender slowly to finish it, which was what the recipe called for, but I think the immersion blender would have made the job much easier, and made for less clean up.


Tuesday, which is my late day at work, I made something simple, chicken and bacon roll ups. Sounds bigger than what it really is. Essentially, it's a sandwich. The "mayo" was miracle whip, tarragon, and lemon juice, and it was really good. Deli chicken, bacon, tomatoes and lettuce all wrapped up was all this recipe needed. I took a picture of it before because when it's all rolled up, it totally looks like we ate a tree branch for dinner.





Wednesday I made a pork and potato skillet. I liked that I had to cut up a ton of vegetables and used the skills I learned in my knife class. I also liked that you essentially made everything in one pan, making cleanup nice and easy. The potatoes were frozen hash browns, and there were tons of vegetables in the dish-peppers, onions, peas, and carrots. It was fairly bland, but with a little salt it really picked the dish up.



Thursday I made braised beef short ribs. I used to love making this in South Carolina mainly because I could find short ribs at the grocery store for $2 a pound. Back in Buffalo, I can't find a good cut of beef for making this for under $5. Actual short ribs are almost $8! So we bought a fatty cut of beef and prayed for the best. Again, I cut the original recipe, this time in a quarter. This is helpful when we are working on portion control, and also helpful when your husband does not like "the taste" of leftovers. Whatever that means. 45 minutes in the oven and this is what came out.




It was pretty good, but it was very clear that the beef we bought was not short ribs. In Carolina when we made it there was no need for a knife, the beef fell apart with a fork. We had to use a knife with dinner tonight, and it was still tasty, but the beef wasn't melt in your mouth good. I personally like the juice it's cooked in best. It consists of blasamic vinegar, beef broth, red wine, onions and tomatoes. I usually end up eating extra onions and tomatoes before I do the dishes.



Friday was my Birthday, so we went to my parents house for dinner. My mom made me ham and potatoes, and then carrot cake for dessert. My dad attempted to help on this cake matter, because if you know my father, you know he loves dessert almost as much as his firstborn. Last week was their dog's birthday and my father not only baked and frosted the entire cake, but also wrote out "Happy Birthday Bismarck" in red and blue sprinkle colors and placed them on the cake carefully with tweezers. He tried to do the same thing for me- not baking and frosting, but just the lettering. Apparently he got tired of it because mine was in all sorts of colors and it read "Happy Birthdy Annn." Not joking. In case you didn't know, my name is Anna. Le sigh.

Saturday Ryan took me out to what is arguably one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo: Frank's Sunny Italy. They have the best sweet sauce ever! I had ravioli, which is odd because I have only ever gotten spaghetti at Franks. Normally I ask for my sauce on the side because it gives me such bad heartburn (any tomato based sauce does this to me, not just Franks.). I went for gusto, and the ravioli was good, but I should have stuck to old faithful.
Afterwards, we went to a housewarming party for our friends who recently bought a house. Our friend Morgan was there and she was drinking something called skinny wine. So of course, we both tried some, and loved it. We were at Premier when they opened today, along with some other alcoholics who must have ran out last night, and bought a bottle 3 bottles. Each serving has 89 calories. I picked up about a dozen other bottles to see if they had the calories listed, but the did not. Anyone know how many calories are in a normal glass of wine? Or does it really not matter if you single-handedly drink the entire bottle in one night?

Tonight we're having the leftovers my mom gave us from Friday. Simple, and it saves us money. Next week begins Lent, which is Catholic for "no meat on Friday." The next 40 days should promise some interesting twists on fish as well as some soups. Until next time!