Okarche - good as can be!

Okay, first of all, I love how the first thing you see when you come into town is this:

Aa plane nose sticking up outta the ground at the army surplus store. Folks, we've entered small town America.

25 miles NW of Oklahoma City in Okarche lies two amazing dives of equal
but completely different dimensions.
Eischen's Bar has been around since 1896. It's a little place off of
2nd and Oklahoma that serves THE best chicken I have ever had. And if
you know me, you know I'm a poultry girl.

The menu is rather limited (roast beef and bbq sandwiches, whole fried
chicken, nachos, chili, and okra), but everything they make that we've
tried is impeccable. Credit/debit cards are not accepted, so bring
cash with you. Also, coffee and tea are not served - they offer 'beer,
pop, and water' on all their signs. Another bit of a warning: the place
is called Eischen's BAR for a reason. There's a huge old fashioned bar
that's the focal point of the restaurant, and the drinks are flowing.
So if you are at all uncomfortable with eating in a bar like atmosphere
(and some people are) or you have little ones, go during the day when
it's less busy and you have more room to spread out.
The first time Carl and I went was in 2006 for our 6 monthish
anniversary. It was a Friday afternoon and the place was dead. We had
the video arcade inside the restaurant to ourselves, including the
packman machine, which Carl of course thoroughly enjoyed.
Not so tonight! We brought some friends with us, and it was so busy we
felt lucky to get a seat! We ordered a whole chicken (8 pieces) and a
side of okra. It all comes with bread, onions dill pickles and bread
and butter pickles. We had to take home some leftovers, obviously -
that's a lot of food! It's perfectly golden fried wonderfulness. It's
a wonder Okarchians aren't all 600 lbs..... the food is so addictingly
amazing!

You've got to stop at the Tower Cafe on your way back to the city and
have yourself a cinnamon roll. These are rumored to be the same rolls
served at the state fair. However, they are super fresh from the
kitchen, not bused into the city. The cafe and bakery also serves some
good sounding burgers and a buffet. I've never had anything else there
besides their rolls, but someday I hope to come back to the Tower for a
burger or salad. They sure look tasty.

So if you're in the metro area and want something new that's not far
away, check Okarche out. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Krebs

Okay, if you're whole or part Italian and you've never been here, shame
on you.
And if you're an Oklahoman..... double shame.
And if you're one or both of the above mentioned and you've never heard
of Krebs, something is very very wrong. With you.
Krebs is a tiny town about 1 mile outside of McAlester. Wikipedia says
that the population is 2.051. Small town. But in this town are 3 of
the most fabulous Italian restaurants:

Isle of Capri
Pete's Place
Roseanna's

Handmade Italian food. So good. I was lucky enough to have a good deal
of family from McAlester, so we ate at these places often. There's
another Italian place in McAlester (or as grandma called it, 'in Tandy
Town'), Gia Como's, which is also authentic.
All places boast the best food and Italian sauce, and are in friendly
competition with each other. Many times a reservation is required to
guarantee a table. A warning though - if you try to go for a meal
during the lunch hours, you'll be disappointed - half of the restaurants
are open for dinner only.
All the restaurants have their own special exclusive delicacies. Gia
Como's has great golden chicken, hand rolled ravioli, and homemade
sauce. Pete's Place has their own Choc beer and some darn good lamb
fries (yep, I'm an Okie, so I eat lamb fries!!). Roseanna's has great
homemade sauce and gnocchi. I don't believe any of the other
restaurants even have gnocchi. And as for Isle of Capri..... you know,
I haven't eaten there since before my granda died in 1997.... I couldn't
really tell you what delicacies they boast about.
If you want food that looks and tastes like something from Carino's or
Olive Garden, it's not the place for you. But if you want REAL Italian
food with a homey atmosphere (no joke, all of the restaurants are
actually IN converted houses), you're reading about the right place.

No visit to Kreb's is complete without stopping by Lovera's Italian
grocery store. You can get some amazing Made in Oklahoma Italian
products to take home with you, including olives, pickled okra and
peppers. They also sell meats and cheeses, but by then you've stuffed
yourself with so much Italian food at the restaurants that you're not
too interested in more food! Still, it's an interesting little place to
visit. Go at least once!

For this visit to Krebs, we ate lunch at Roseanna's. Mmmmm.
Picture explanation:

1. My Italian sausage sandwich I ordered. To give you an idea of their
humongous portions, this made FIVE meals for me. Crazy, right?
2. Carl's half size portion of the Italian dinner. It came with
spaghetti, lasagna, gnocchi, a meatball, ravioli, and a salad. It's
hard to see covered in all that yummy sauce, but it's a huge meal.....
and that's only the half portion!!
3. Carl victoriously finishes his meal. He's the only one of our group
to have done so. I don't know how he did it!
--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Cafe 7

Last Friday we decided to try a new place that was mentioned in the
gazette several months ago. Cafe 7 is just north of the May and
Memorial intersection. It's a cool little 'build your own' kind of
place, where they prepare sandwiches, pastas, salads, and pizzas as you
like them. Cafe 7 claims to make your order in 7 minutes or less, and
each meal costs about 7 dollars. Nifty idea, yes?
I ordered pizza made with pesto, chicken, bacon, fontana cheese,
pineapple, and fresh basil.

This combination was heavenly, and it makes
me realize that more places would do good to have a pesto based sauce
option rather than the tomato based or alfredo sauces. Carl got an
alfredo based pasta that he said was yummy.

Cafe 7 is good food at a great price!!

Happy Belated Pi Day!

Picture explanation:

1. Carl ravaging a pecan pie that never had a chance.

2. Me, excited about my vanilla moonpie. Wahoo!

3. John is clearly enjoying himself. :)

4. Two things every southerner should have. There's nothing like an RC
Cola and a moonpie!

5. Just waiting for us - one reason 7-11 beats the pant off Walmart:
moonpies.

Yes, happy 3.14 everyone! Most people probably don't know it, save for
the true geeks, but March 14th is Pi day (and if you need further
explanation, leave this blog because your daftness is beyond help).
Last year the husband and I celebrated in transit to Europe. As it can
be difficult to find Pies of sorts in international airports, we had to
get creative. Therefore a pizza pie was how we celebrated this geekful
event.
This year it nearly passed us by. Last night we stood outsode 7-11 at
11:57 PM and celebrated Pi day the hick way - eating moonpies and pecan
pies by our pickups! John Teasley joined in the merriment with us.
What fun!

I hope to always celebrate Pi day a different way every year.
--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Bye bye Nancy

My fabulous Kenyan friend Nancy (or Naika) has finally moved to Austin.
what better way to celebrate then with a homemade cake with homemade
frosting, compliments of Dona?
We'll miss you, Nancy!

Kelley's Urban Comfort

So last Friday I was with my girls for our monthly dinner/ chill time.
We were hanging out at Janet's abode in Tuttle (I find it so ironic that
while most of us born and raised Tuttle-ites have moved out of the area,
Janet moves in!). This means that if we wanted to eat dinner in town,
the meal options would mainly consist of Mazzio's, Taco Mayo, Sonic, or
Walker's gas station.

But wait! Janet informed us that a new restaurant had opened last fall
- Kelley's Urban Comfort. Kelley's sits on main street in T-town, and
is the only place open on the whole strip on a Friday night (save for
the gym across the street.... and where did that come from, anyway?)
Janet single handedly convinced us ladies to give it a try. And we were
all so very glad she did. Kelley's doesn't disappoint. Three of us got
the chicken fried steak, and it was so gigantic I made 3 meals out of
it. It is hugely amazing, and the picture makes it look like it engulfs
the fork.

I had to snap a pic of Megan's pan seared catfish as well.
Doesn't it look incredible?

When you're with the ladies, it's hard to pass up dessert. 4 of us got
pie. Which was also enormous. And tasty. Pictured is my chocolate
cream next to Janet's coconut cream (and her nicely manicured hand).

All in all, Kelley's exceeded all of our expectations. I was really
surprised that a place in our hometown (one that's not our mama's home
cooking) could be so good. If you are in the area, check it out!

Thanks Janet!
--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

A blog is born

The reason for this blog....
Basically, this blog was created from a conversation my husband and I
had. This conversation was about how we enjoy cooking, eating out,
trying new and different foodstuffs, etc. I must say that it's because
of him I try new things. Anyway, we were talking one night last week
and we were thinking 'wouldn't it be cool to have a blog that was about
the different things we try, and the different quirky dives and places
we like to frequent.
So, a blog is born.
Stay tuned for pics, info about cool restaurants, and new products we
try. This blog may sound a little obsessive and crazy. And maybe we
are. But then again, if you could moblog about anything, what would you
moblog about?