To start the dish, you blend  2 italian plum tomatoes with a chipotle pepper and some olive oil and capers in the blender, for the sauce. The sauce is then drizzled on the bottom of the dish and then the microwaved taquitos are placed around the dish and some capers are sprinkled over the guacamole in the center with the fried eggs on top, garnished with cilantro and more of the chipotle tomato caper sauce around the plate.

Variation: a handful of shredded cheddar underneath the lacy edged fried eggs, over the guacamole for a bit of a surprise.

This is a hearty breakfast that two people can share if wanting to eat light.  The dish is very high in iron becuase of the corn tortillas and good fats in the guacamole and the eggs are very good for you. Just work out later or eat half of it as suggested. Minnesota’s farm fresh eggs from free range chickens are best for this dish along with some wonderful local cheese and sour cream if your waist and calorie count/weight watchers points can tolerate it. You are already killing it (your diet) by eating the taquitos but I reason they aren’t that bad, since they are microwaved or if you choose, baked – in order to save some calories.

I used already made chicken taquitos for this because I didn’t want to eat “lunch”, grin. ( I wanted us to have BREAKFAST? In other words, hand-made taquitos take like ALL day. ) Phooey to the purists, I just don’t have time to make them from scratch. And you know who you are Pawel. 

(I can make homemade corn tortillas, but that’s another time, another blog-post.) You can find a couple of excellent recipes for tortillas and taquitos at www.allrecipes.com- my secret is plastic zip lock bags with the sides cut off and a tortilla press. 

Ditto the guacamole if you don’t feel like making it from scratch. It’s great if you have fresh avocado, some lemon and diced sweet onion however, Sam’s club carries some ready-made guacamole in convenient individual bags at a reasonable price.

Ingredients:

4 farm fresh eggs, 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp. Capers, 1 chipotle chile (canned, adobo-style), guacamole, 8 chicken taquitos, 2 italian plum tomatoes, 1 tsp. olive oil, 1 Tbsp. Cilantro-chopped, 1/3 cup cheese and salt and pepper to taste.   

Some variations of garnish I played with are shown.

Chipotle caper sauce drizzled over chicken taquitos, and guacamole garnished with cilantro

He makes at least 90 cups of tomato sauce a week. According to the manner in which his Sicilian mother taught him. He told me he starts it during the weekend and it’s then ready for Monday.  The lunches are reasonable, and every dinner is accompanied by a selection of two types of salad: traditional, tossed iceburg or the Italian traditional salas with vinagrette, oranges and basil, which is the salad I really prefer.  Every dinner includes soft serve ice cream, too. Altony’s is reasonable and the portions are quite generous. They also serve beer and wine to accompany your supper. And they are now offering dinner for four, take-out style for $28.95 with a selection of Chicken Fettucine or Spaghetti.

He also makes ribs and you must call ahead and order the number of racks you would like. Altony’s is currently open for lunch & dinner M-F and will begin opening up Saturday nights for dinner on March 4th 2011.

Altony’s is located at:

• 4 Center Ave W
  Dilworth,MN,56529
• +1 218 287 5557

A picture of the shy food impresario in his kitchen:

I’m reluctant to run a half empty dishwasher which wastes 37% more water & energy than doing dishes by hand, however spending a half hour to an hour doing dishes, and wearing out my manicure, isn‘t my idea of time well-spent….I was relying upon temporary forms of tableware. And feeling all the while like I was contributing to a dystopian world the entire time.

Because when I use temporary eating ware or drink ware that I know will sit in a landfill unchanged for twenty years I think there has to be workable solutions and bright ideas to help us all be more responsible toward our environment.

The materials used for disposable tableware are made of paper or Styrofoam or plastic tableware. Very few products are natural and compost-able because of the chemical compounds used to form them into their familiar usable shapes. While big companies like Starbuck’s have sourced green compost-able packaging, the individual consumer hasn’t had so many alternatives. I did find compost-able plates at Party City once- but when I went back to buy more, they no longer carried them.

I believe that a new energy future starts as soon as awareness thus, we need to turn more ideas into action at home. Greener technology is available for the home consumer, you just have to look.

In my quest to find greener solutions I found Palm Leaf Plates. Sold and marketed by www.marxfoods.com they are firm enough to not allow juices or liquids to seep through its surface and can be rinsed carefully and dried and not lose their shape, for use again. The plates are made from naturally discarded leaves of the Adaka palm tree, washed, naturally-dried and heat-formed into elegant plate designs.

I used the plates at home for a reggae-themed rock party this summer, as serving dishes and eating ware and proceeded to use them for camping trips in July and August.

Theoretically, I saved stacks of plates and cups from being thrown in campfires or trashcans that are not biodegradable. Pleased to find our carbon footprint became much lower as a result, of using the beautiful leaf dishes, my guilt lifted.

The palm leaf plates allowed us to avoid wasting gallons of water, washing dishes in the camper and multiple fill-ups of the trailer’s tank. At $80 for 25 settings, including biodegradable birchwood tableware, I found the palm leaf plates, bowls and serving dishes a real, natural, guilt-freeing complete alternative to business as usual–as pushed on us by manufacturers who would like us to use Styrofoam and plates made with chemicals. And carelessly dispose of the chemical laden stuff in our landfills, after we’ve filled ourselves with food tainted by the same preservative chemicals.

The best part of these is that they look good. The wood grain design and elegant shapes are beautiful and trendy. It‘s nice to not feel guilty and elegant all at the same time.

You can find them here:

Also, anyone would love these as a Christmas present, wedding present this year. It is a gift that does not contribute negatively to our environment & looks great at the same time!　

So, I ordered a cheeseburger, and regular fries and a drink at Five Guys Burger & Fries 2877 45th St. South, Fargo, ND yesterday and am thinking my friend who made the comment, just wasn’t in the mood for a messy, juicy, huge cheeseburger. Or, she was wearing something nice that got stained? I assure you, if you get out of Five Guys without a stain on your clothing, it’s probably a sure bet that you didn’t eat anything there or you have picked up your lunch after ordering online and you will drip on your clothes soon enough. (Smile)

All items are a la carte and the menu is fairly simple. http://www.fiveguys.com/menu.aspx

What the menu didn’t tell me is that the cheeseburger would contain two patties of hand-shaped juicy beef! An incredibly gargantuan burger so big I could barely get my mouth open enough to get my first bite! [While I waited for my lunch, I sort of wondered why the man with the AG hat sitting in front of me was eating out of his foil wrapper with a fork!] I discovered soon enough that it was because the Five Guys’ Burger is incredibly messy and gushing with toppings like tomato, lettuce, mayo, relish, onions, ketchup, mustard, grilled onions and grilled mushrooms. Those are the ingredients you receive when you order a burger “All the way”. The only thing I left off was mustard because I’m not a big fan of popping Tums like candy after a really good lunch such as this one. Mustard will most assuredly do that to me. I know folks who won’t like any of the toppings, and requests are happily handled with no appreciable added wait time.
d.

While I wouldn’t be able to eat this meal everyday, due to the sheer largeness…[& fat content], it is a very satisfying fast food meal. Pricing is okay, –higher than other fast food places, but you receive so much food it’s a negligible point that I’m making.

My Cheeseburger “All the way” was $4.99, my regular fries were $2.59 and my drink was $1.79. With tax my meal costed $10.03.
The French fries OVERFLOWED the bag. There were 3 times as many fries to the size of the cup they came in! For my particular taste they could have been crisper. They were fresh but soft. They offer them cajun’ style too.

A couple personal notes about what I liked most and what I’d improve.

1) The location is great since it’s near the new ‘Urban Plains Arena”. But getting in to the parking lot is a hassle, there is only one entrance. The signage faces north and I was coming from the south so I passed it and had to pull a u-turn to get there. Leaving is just as problematic.

2) Use of recycled materials is very much in evidence from the peanut trays, to the bags to the drinking cups. It’s wonderful to see a socially conscious company.

3) The range of condiments available include malt vinegar, packaged and fresh decant ketchup in addition to extra salt and pepper packets.

4) And one note on deliciously messy? As abundant and generous as the Napkins provided were, Five Guys should also provide bibs and wet naps because it can get so messy for the average luncher who is faced with a return to the office.

5) And more than one trash can. It was 12:20pm when I left and the one narrow trash can was full when I left.

Five Guys Burger & Fries does mimic IN-n_Out’s clean tiled white and red décor and the notion of fresh-cut, skin-on, fried potatoes. It’s loud, due to the soundtrack of music which makes it feel hip but as my lunch companions pointed out, probably makes you eat faster.

Have no pictures ’cause I didn’t have camera yesterday, so you are going to have to go down there and feast your eyes on their juicy burgers and fries and hot dogs. I suspect that with the economy the way it is, –Five guys is going to be a go-to choice for folks from Moorhead and Fargo over pricier places to eat. Wonder when and where they will open a second one, hopefully in Moorhead near the colleges? The college version of me would have appreciated the veggie selections too.

Turned out purty darn good and tasty for $20 bucks!  Well, a little more if you count the $3 half order of sweet potato puffs they sold with the dinner of 1 1/4 pound lobster, corn on the cob, butter and two pieces of soft buttered Norwegian potato lefse.  Home of the Redhawks at NEWMAN OUTDOOR FIELD is where I headed at lunch yesterday for this first Maine lobster event ever paired with Norwegian Lefse. This charity event is being put on by the Rotarians to benefit the Fargo Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, Cass county YWCA  and some other rotary projects. Thanks to the morning news I found out it started on Friday instead of Saturday, since I WAS headed out there Sunday originally. The $3 admission was waived at lunch, to boot according to WDAY. “Hot dam! Can’t miss this!” said the little penny pincher in my brain. Got out there about 1pm and were told by folks leaving that it was an hour and a half wait. Egads! We questioned whether we should stay. We checked it out and..

The lines were a bit long:

An hour and a half long Line for Lobster - Fargo, ND

We figured we could wait a little, since the line seemed to be moving. It further helped us to stay when the volunteers plied us with nibbles of clam strips, potato puffs and coupons for a free beer. Someone had their marketing cap on…There were directions on how to eat your lobster since we don’t get to really do this every day!

 Juicy, rich, succulent, messy LOBSTER! Nom,nom.

Quite a deal, I got a 2nd lobster for the hubby for $18 to help him not feel left out since he couldn’t get away, and it proved difficult to transport what with the juices and all. It smelled in the car on the way home, so divinely– I wanted to gobble it up too. But it’s some work to eat it too since you have to have practically a queen size sheet, I swear, to clean up afterward!  ..Wasn’t going there, purloining the 2nd for myself I mean–but I was tempted. I’d already spilled lobster juice all over me as it was, in transporting it. Nice. Luckily, the clothes were dark and I was headed straight home from this spontaneous eating adventure…but the cost to benefit ratio was tipping in favor of eating it once that had happened, I’ll admit it. I am a foodie after all! But control reigned and the convo pre-lunch about ‘food as fuel’ echoed in my head!  (Smile)

Only complaint I have is no salmon or crab cakes were in evidence as touted on their site, but they weren’t missed. The star meal was the lobster.  The shrimp and clam strips were a close second. I would have liked wet nappies, for my face, arms, table and floor, steering wheel, purse handles…I caution you wear comfortable clothing and bring a roll of paper towels or something.

So messy, delicious, and affordable for my budget was my lobster lunch that I’ll definitely attend this eating event again next year. Since, this is the 1st annual Lobster and Lefse Festival they have held, I hope it will be back.  By all indications, it was a successful fundraiser. Who ever thunk it up surely knows that lutesfik and lefse would not have drawn the crowd gathered there yesterday, so this is a great variation. And Uffda! I have respect for tradition but, lutefisk is for me, and I’m sure many others, an acquired taste, dontcha know? Lutefisk is for the church hall dinners and Christmas since it represents the hardiness that the Scandinavians had to have to emigrate and settle in the Dakota territories. Lobster & Lefse represents the convenience of things like Allegiant Air taking you to LA or Vegas or Phoenix for $69 bucks in the 21st century Fargo, but also enjoying the bounty we have right here as represented by the potato lefse pairing!

The clam strips we tasted in line, were crisply fried and quite good. They also gave us shrimp and it was delicious. The potato puffs were made of a shredded sweet potato, then fried. [I'm seeing this root vegetable offered more and more and liking it.] They were really scrumptious and light. And a lot like a tater tot, I heard a few people commenting.

In conclusion, hey, Fargoans like the finer stuff in life too, just as much as the rest of the country. We’re no different, but much smaller by big city standards. This festival proves Fargo can have what big city folks enjoy in Chicago, St. Paul, Boston, D.C. and Atlanta, for example. Lobster is that much more of a treat when you’re land-locked on the eastern border of North Dakota!

The lobster & lefse festival costs a  twenty spot plus a few extra dollars for the tots, like I said. It was about right for value because the small slipper rock lobsters are $10-$12 each and the larger cold water east coast lobs are between $16.97-$25.00 per pound at the grocery store. And they are tanked lobsters or frozen of course, while I read on the event’s website (below) that these crustaceans were flown in fresh! You could taste the freshness and it came through in the firm texture too.

And the atmosphere? A lobster lunch, eaten in open air, before a Redhawks game on a sunny summer afternoon? Couldn’t beat it with a stick.

 Beats Red Lobber err, Red Lobster all to hell for the trifecta of price, taste and atmosphere. My friend Jhelsi (pictured) agreed, she et it all up!  And she looked gorgeous, doing it too. Damn, you have great genes, girl. Thanks Jhels, for coming with! (Smile)

Here’s their website if you want to go today: http://lobsterandlefse.com/

Had a tuna melt on ciabatta bread. The tuna was smooth and creamy and contained a fine dice of what tasted like green apple. Nice touch.  Instead of regular fries I had the sweet potato fries! They were still fried, but I felt like I was eating something that is from the area and was healthier for me becuase of the fiber and vitamin A. 

Carey Carr and Andrew Johnson are the chefs. I’ve heard a lot about their scallop appetizer and seared tuna dishes. Will have to look into this restaurant more. As for lunch I give it a 3.5 out of 5. The atmosphere and service were nice but the food I had just wasn’t the best quality. The ciabatta bread was at least a day old and therefore very chewy and the tomatoes on the sandwich were not ripe enough. I’ve got a thing about the sign, it’s just plain and looks well, homemade. What the Broken Axe lacked in other things it made up for in having a provocative name and interesting sign that made you want to come in and dine, or err rock which was the crux of the matter, but apparently no one did, becuase it didn’t last. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings here but with a name like Usher (reminds me of undertaker and Edgar Allen Poe’s story) you HAVE to PUNCH up the sign with color, a monk’s picture or something! Give it some character. The sign not withstanding, I’ll give it another go pretty soon here again. 

Here’s my lunch: 

http://www.ushershouse.com/menu.html 

I went back for lunch yesterday (08/11/2010) and had the perfect meal. I would give it a 5, my highest rating. I think it can and does show that Fargo, restaurant wise can compare with the ‘big boys’ and by that I mean the restaurants in bigger cities such as Minneappolis, Chicago, & Sioux Falls for example. I started with white chicken chili, then I had Seared Scallops sauteed with bacon, with a glass of organic Fair Hills Chardonnay wine and then creme brulee and coffee for dessert. It was all perfect, the view of the river and the green lawn and oaks and elder trees shone. As it softly rained over the setting, it was a peaceful & perfect view from my lunchtable through the big dining room windows. Aaahhh! and my lunch, oh what a lunch! 

Here’s a picture to salivate over: 

Scallops with sauteed bacon, tomatoes and vodka napped with a balsamic reduction

The picture is courtesy of the food network as I had no camara. Before I talk about the food, I want to note that the server at Usher;s House left me with a great impression. She was attentive, her timing was perfect and she kept my coffee coming throughout the meal. Having been a server myself, I believe a server is as much a part of a good food experience as the food’s quality , presentation and price. Well done Karen! 

Now for the food. My scallops –of substantial size, nice and plump. A trio centered on the plate with the bacon, shallot, tomato, tarragon, cream sauce over the top. Each scallop was seared and caramelized around the edges and juicy with a warmed ocean taste, inside. A sweet balsamic reduction the color of chocolate, dotted the edge of the plate artistically.  The bacon’s saltiness and the mild sweetness of the juicy scallops were paired perfectly with the sweetness of the reduced sauce. A good counterbalance of flavors. The Fair hills Chardonnay acidity accented the sweetness still further. Best lunch I’ve had in this town in a long time. And I like to think I am systematically eating my way through Fargo Moorhead at a pretty diligent pace!

I kid you not, this is THE hottest weather on record that I have ever experienced in my 8 years here. These drinks helped us cool down before the unexpected happened.  Last Saturday night; a real heavy rain started, cutting the humid air–finally along about.. midnight or so..!

It felt every bit of 115 degrees here in Minnesnowta!  Just a guess, I haven’t checked the actual figuures, but let me tell you sweaty and miserable were the only words appropriate for description.  Enter, the  SKIP & GO NAKED drink!   I used author and illustrator’s Susan Branch’s version from her 1995 book “The Summer Book” for inspiration and have also added a recipe for my very simple, no-brainer “Purr-fect Margarita”. Both, are very refreshing and in moderation, will quench your thirst and make you happy that it’s hot!

So go ahead & have one!

SKIP & GO NAKED

2/3 c. cold beer (preferably a pilsner beer or blonde)*

2/3 c. Frozen pink lemonade concentrate

1/4 c. vodka

straws or stirrers

Fill blender container

The PURR-FECT MARGARITA

Wet a rock glass and turn upside down in the lid of  a Margarita Salt container filled with SALT!

In the rock glass pour (Pour in blender and whirr if you want it blended) :

1 oz. or 1 shooter glass, 1800 Silver Tequila

Throw in 4-5 ice cubes

add, 4 oz (1/2 cup) Simply limeade

Splash with club soda

Garnish with a lime wedge

And as said previously, if you would like an alcohol slush then just throw all the ingredients–except the salt, into a blender and froth and pour into your salt-rimmed glass.

“Que se aproveche!” – Spanish libation for “Enjoy!” 

Icy Margarita and Skip & Go Naked drinks

Ravioli with olive oil and parmesan

Ravioli is so simple and very delicious and easy to make at home. You can keep it nutritious by using whole wheat and semolina flours. As mentioned previously, I love the fine milled texture of Tochi Products’s whole wheat pastry flour. My interest in using whole wheat flour is based on the fact that it contains more fiber than white flour and it’s unbleached. The best benefit is that whole wheat flour is classified as a complex carbohydrate which enables it to enter your bloodstream more slowly, due to its fiber content. As a result, one’s blood sugar is not as ”flooded” as it would  be with a white flour based pasta such as you commonly buy at the market.

With this in mind, I set about trying to create a flavorful and tender ravioli for a main meal or as a substantial side course. I believe I succeeded in keeping the filling the ‘star’ and the dough, a ‘supporting role”. When I have eaten lobster ravioli say at Jonny Carino’s or at Anthony’s in San Francisco it’s usually very generous on the seafood side of the equation. My goal was not to put so little shrimp in the ravioli that you couldn’t taste them, but still keep my costs down. So I opted to use whole medium shrimp, rather than whole Large shrimp.  To make a seafood ravioli that is generous, economical for your food budget and is still nutritious was my goal. I found four ravioli were sufficient for a dinner. The recipe makes 16-18 ravioli.

 The ravioli was filled with peeled and deveined shrimp and roasted tomatoes and yellow peppers.  What makes this dish a bit different and so delicious is the roasted peppers and tomatoes. The trick to making these was rolling the dough out thin enough without tearing the dough. I used a jar of northern beans laid on its side for the roller.

Who needs a rolling pin these days? When a jar works just fine.

The basicdough for the pasta for this recipe came from Italian cooking made easy, here: http://www.italian-cooking-made-easy.com/How-to-make-pasta.html

1. Take the yellow peppers and grape tomatoes and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, & salt and pepper to taste. Roast the vegetables in an oven at 350 degrees about 11 minutes or until wilted and letting out juices. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
2.  Add 1 tsp olive oil and one whole egg into a well in the middle of the flour. Holding a fork at an angle parallel to the table, stir the egg mixture quickly and let the flour fall into it from the sides. Keep stirring this way until you have formed a sticky dough ball. You will probably have leftover flour, so only use what you need. 
3. Dump the dough ball onto a floured surface and knead, incorporating more flour into the dough as needed, until the dough is smooth, elastic, even in color and no longer sticky. 
4.  To knead the dough, push down on the ball with the heel of your hand, then give the dough a quarter turn, fold it over onto itself and push away from you again with the heel of your hand. Keep turning and pushing until you achieve the desired consistency – this usually takes approximately 10 minutes. Once you have finished kneading, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes. 
5. Meanwhile, take fresh medium-sized shrimp and with a sharp knife, cut the vein out on the inside edge of the shrimp and cut off the tail, soak in ice water and blot on paper towels until ready to use.
6. Remove the skins from the cooled yellow pepper strips and mash the tomatoes and peppers together roughly–it doesn’t have .
7. To assemble, place a piece of shrimp on the thinly rolled dough, every 2 inches.
8. Spoon some vegetable mixture in the curve of each shrimp tail.
9. Sprinkle with dried basil.
10. Take second egg and beat into a froth and brush around shrimps in a square pattern, fold over, and press down.
11. Cut into squares and stamp edges with the tines of a fork or your fingers.
12. Boil in salted water until translucent about 6 minutes. {You could also slip the ravioli into a rich chicken broth for a winter soup.}
13. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the ravioli and dust with grated parmesan cheese.
14. Take scraps and reroll smoothly and cut into strips.
15. Dry the strips and put in a plastic bag for another meal.

[Ravioli could also be deep fried and served with pesto sauce]. Use your imagination!

 Here  are the sequence of steps, visually. 

Place raw, deveined shrimp on thinly rolled dough

Spoon pepper and tomato filling onto shrimp

Sprinkle basil on each shrimp mound

Brush with eggwash

Trim

Fold over dough, press down firmly with fingers and cut ravioli apart

Shape into 2" x 2" squares

Trim the remaining dough into fettucine, dry and seal in a plastic bag for later.

 When plating ravioli, dust with some chopped italian parsley and smoked paprika. Buono Apetito!,

Almond Joy pie has sweet chocolate chips layered over a freshly made crust, plus layers of coconut and toasted almonds and pecans with a whipped evaporated milk middle layer. I hope that is right, cause I guessed. (I never ask for the recipe from the cook or proprietor unless they insist on sharing.) I chose the Almond JOY pie because it’s not something you can get everywhere, right?

The place where I tasted this fresh and decadently sweet pie was at Valentino & Daughters Cafe Restaurant in Montevideo, MN which bakes fresh pies and breads every morning, from scratch. In addition to pie, they serve assorted sandwiches and espressos, lattes and mochas. The menu in book format, describes each entree’s ingredients including, whether it has salt and pepper! As in this example:

Chicken salad (sandwich)- chopped chicken, salt & pepper and Miracle Whip.  [I find this considerate as well as thorough on the owner's part.]

My slice of Almond Joy pie was just like the Almond joy candy bar except it had the light flaky crust as support structure for the filling. It was so good, I even took a piece “to go” for my better half, at home. He loved it, even without the fresh whipped cream. (Valentino’s declares on their menu that there is  ”no cool whip served here”.) Another standard I love.

 My lunch consisted of a warm sandwich made of smoked pork tenderloin, cut thinly, served with Dixie’s BBQ sauce on grilled ciabatta bread. The meat portion was generous & tender. And I could’ve eaten half the sandwich and taken the rest home later due to the large size of the sandwich. I also had a choice of soup, sweet potato fries or regular fries or a salad with my lunch. Offering sweet potato fries has become more popular I’ve noticed. I noticed recently that Usher’s house (Moorhead, MN) also offers sweet potato fries as a side with luncheon plates too*.

Valentinos’ salad was a pleasant surprise. Instead of a bagged type salad with a generic dressing, I received a cup of freshly made chopped bright green broccoli with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds dressed with Miracle Whip. I could’ve eaten just the salad and met my nutritional requirements for the day, but the sandwich was too irrestibly smoky and tender . The broccoli and nuts texture was crunchy and cool- it was so fresh! –and a nice compliment to the pork loin sandwich.

I debated in my mind and had almost selected the turkey sandwich on their homemade blueberry bread with “Cranberry pecan mayo” instead of the smoked pork loin sandwich.  However, I was able to try the “mayo” with crackers thanks to my friendly waitress, Shelly. I will give the sandwich a try on a future visit, I promise. The cranberry pecan mayo is definitely a de-luscious and unique spread to offer diners. Their menu is set apart but the cafe is very accessible. Valentino’s is a main street cafe with a bistro feel. They are open during the day and host catered parties for graduation and birthdays by appointment most evenings. With their antique-filled yester-year charm, and fresh baked goods and dishes, they have a winning combination for steady customers.

While there, check out the decor and don’t miss the beautiful model boat high up on a custom-made shelf in the left dining room. Antique buffs will be thrilled by the attentive thought put into this restaurant’s stained glass and furnishings. Best of all, the menu is designed to be read easily, but is elegant at the same time. The staff is super friendly & quick and the lunch is scrumpious when rounded out by pie with an array of coffees, espressos, chai drinks as well as a nice selection of beers and wines to go with main entrees.

I couldn’t leave without topping off my lunch with a Nutty Chunky Monkey espresso –with macadamia and banana and dark chocolate and steamed milk. Which, Eloise-one of the proprietors made for me specially, and she topped with whipped cream. It was to-die-for-yummy!

 .. and The 30 second user friendly byte about this restaurant is: Go, for the pie and an espresso, but eat dinner or lunch first, you will love it. And if you are attending the Chippewa County Fair (first week in Auguest), this place is a must-stop-and-eat place before you go home. Don’t miss it in 2010. Coming from the Northwest (Moorhead/Fargo), Go to the city of Fergus Falls via the 94 and head south toward Morris and Elbow Lake on Highway 59 (MN). Continue on Highway 59-South, The address and phone number for Valentino & Daughter’s restaurant is:

• 110 S 1st St, Montevideo, MN 56265
• (320) 269-5106

* A review of Usher’s house will be published soon.

Good eats & fresh pie in Montevideo, Minnesota

 So far, I have made a classic Lasagna with the Morels and Chicken with a Morel Merlot and Butter reduction. I think they made a wonderful sauce but there were some unavoidable gritty moments while eating the lasagna, (where I used wonton wrappers instead of noodles for a tighter layering, and less calories.

 And the chicken sauce may have still had sand, but I think it was left in the bottom of the saute pan since I spooned from the top. I buried the sauce in a well of garlic mashed red potatoes and covered the top so there was a suprise inside. I also spooned it over the chicken and served it with candied carrots and caramelized onions.

Rich and Flavorful local Morel mushrooms make this chicken dish phenomenal!

I am going to try a few mor recipes before the season is over and I’m happy I tried them since I’ve always wanted to ever since I went to Spain in summer and my cousins talked about their incredible flavor.