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Dive Night ~ Mickey’s Diner (By Willy)

Posted in Dive Night, Food, tagged , , , , on October 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Dive Night is a semi-monthly adventure undertaken by me and Husby, along with our friends Ruthie and Ray. Each couple alternates choosing a restaurant, one which must come under the category of “dive.” Our definition of dive: a neighborhood gathering spot with a laid-back atmosphere and good food. We’ll find the interesting hang-outs in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. Casual attire required. A sip of beer or wine doesn’t hurt either.

If you live in St. Paul, MN or any of the surrounding areas you’ve probably heard of Mickey’s Diner.  The original is right downtown.  There’s another Mickey’s over there on West 7th away from the bustle of the city but with the same character.*  It’s called Mickey’s Diner (By Willy).  I’m not sure who Willy is.

Mickey’s is the epitome of the word “diner.”

When we arrived there was hardly anyone in the place.  One other couple, to be exact.  The staff consisted of a cook and a bus person.  The building is old and not exactly spotless, but not dirty enough to make me scared of eating there.

Classic Coca-Cola light fixtures.

I love diners with a counter like this. This is pretty much the extent of Mickey’s. The counter on one side of the aisle and small booths on the other. Quite cozy.

Mickey’s even has a bakery case. I didn’t try any of the bakery items, but they looked pretty good. Especially the muffins. I have a thing for muffins.

I thought it was pretty ironic that Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives was on the TV.

We laughed when we saw the Side Orders on the menu.  Whole pieces of meat.  As a side!  I guess it makes sense if you’re getting eggs and you want a steak with them, doesn’t it?  It seemed pretty funny to us though.  Funny ha-ah, not funny peculiar.  Well, I guess it was peculiar too, at least compared to the other places we’ve been.

Four- and eight-ounce steaks as a side.  Or how about a pork chop?

Finally, after consulting with Sam the cook we decided what we wanted.  We started out with an order of onion rings, just because we’re accustomed to getting an appetizer when we’re out for Dive Night.  The rings?  Okay.  I’m not an onion ring connoisseur, but I thought they were pretty average.

This plate of rings was shared by four of us and there were some left when we were done with our meal. Not outstanding by any means, or else we would have been fighting over the last ones.

We ordered our food and Sam the cook got to work.  I like it when you can see the cook making your food.  That’s called “transparency” in the business world.  I feel much better knowing the cook didn’t spit in my food on the off-chance he took a disliking for me.  Of course Sam was of such superior character he would never spit in the food no matter what his personal feelings.

Sam.

Ray had the most unusual meal of the bunch.  It was called One-Eye Jack and was composed of ham, cheese, and egg on toasted bread.  There was a hole cut in the bread/egg, which is what makes the “one eye.”  He got a side of hash browns with that and they looked really good.

Husby had a patty melt with a side of beans.  He said the sandwich was “fine,” but the beans were not great.  They were overdone, cooked and heated up in the microwave.

Husby’s patty melt. It looks pretty good to me – that bread is grilled to perfection.

Tomato-saucy baked beans. I don’t like baked beans anyway, so these look kind of disgusting to me. Husby didn’t like them much.

Ruthie had the Classic.  A cheeseburger with hash browns and some Mulligan stew.  I had the same thing only I got french fries with my hamburger.  The fries were pretty good.  The hamburger was too little for the bun and the cheese was pretty lame.  The menu listed three types of cheese so I asked Sam if I could have Swiss cheese.  He said they have “white” cheese.  He said, “Swiss cheese is white, but our white cheese isn’t Swiss cheese.  We only have the white cheese.”  Whatever.  It was laid lopsided on my burger so only half of it was topped with “white” cheese.

Ruthie’s Classic.  It looks like her cheese is more centered on the burger than mine was.  Those hash browns again ~ boy they look good.

The Mulligan stew was something else too.  Something not so good.  It was luke warm and the potatoes were raw and hard.  I couldn’t eat it.

Um, no.

Overall the food at Mickey’s was pretty bad.  Edible, but nothing I’d go back for.  However, there is something I would go back for.  The malt.  Oh my, what a glorious, thick, whipped cream covered malt.

My chocolate malt. The only thing that would have made this better is if it were served in an old-fashioned soda glass.

By the time we were finished with our meal there were some more people in the diner.  They all sat at the counter and no one spoke.  It was kind of creepy.  But Sam the cook was a delight even though the food he served was mediocre at best.  Seriously though, it’s totally worth a trip for the malts (shakes too).  They come in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Yum!

Sam the cook.

* This review is not intended to reflect the food, service, or atmosphere of the original Mickey’s Diner in downtown St. Paul.

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My Spicy Night

Posted in Everyday, Food, tagged , , , on October 7, 2013| 3 Comments »

There is nothing more frustrating than insomnia, especially if you have to get to work by 6:00 a.m. the next day.  A bout of insomnia on the weekend, however, is a whole different matter.

One weekend I had a really weird pattern of sleep, but I used it to my advantage.  The project: spice cabinet.  The hour: midnight.

Our spice cabinet was a mess.  I tried to keep it organized and put things in alphabetical order, but in so many other ways it was complete chaos.  Spices were stored in different sized containers, because you know buying in bulk is less expensive than buying those little containers every time.  But then when you fill the little plastic container you bought in the first place with the bulk spice you just bought, the bulk stuff doesn’t all fit in the small container, so you have to store the residual bulk stuff somewhere.  More than likely it’s stored somewhere in back where you forget you have it and then when it’s time to fill up that little container again and you know you have some bulk stuff stored somewhere you can’t find it, so you buy another bulk packet of the spice.  This happens with lots of spices, so the cabinet gets fuller and more disorganized as time goes on.  I’d had it.  It was time to change.

The first thing I had to do was empty the cabinet completely.  I was full of energy, even though it was midnight.  The only thing I had to concern myself with was keeping kind of quiet as Husby was fast asleep upstairs.

When I saw the nasty shelf liner I decided to replace that too.  I had some nice green and white liner down in Craftland, which was great because I didn’t want to put the project on hold until I got some shelf liner.

Also lucky for me I was stocked with quite a few spice jars, thanks to Husby.  So I went to work transferring all the spices to same-sized spice jars.  Yes, I had some leftovers, but I organized those all nice and gave them a shelf of their own.  So when I run out of the spice I know exactly where to go to see if I have some more.

The new overflow shelf. Two unopened jars of meat tenderizer? Yes, but there won’t be any more coming into the house until these are gone.

After the shelf liners were in place and the spices were in the jars I got to work printing labels. I wish I could remember where I found the template so I could give some credit. They were the perfect size and just what I wanted.  Once I got them set up and printed out I cut them all out.  Then I stuck them on the jars.  The reason I’m relaying every tiny detail is because if you remember I started this project at midnight.  After each phase of the project I would say to myself, “okay, I’ll just do (the next phase) and then I’m going to bed.”  But I kept going and going.  If you say I was like the Energizer Bunny I might have to push you down.  But it was kind of like that.

Finally everything was done and I could move things back into the cabinet.  Top shelf is the overflow shelf (see picture above).  Second shelf stores the things that I didn’t want to put into spice jars but are used on a fairly regular basis.

Yes, Duck Dynasty fans, that is Phil Robinson’s “zesty” Cajun Style Seasoning. And it’s pretty good.

The very tidy and organized spices. You can’t tell from this picture, but when you look into the cabinet all of the labels are visible, making the search for spices super easy.

And so the clock strikes 5:00 a.m.  Five hours of insomnia put to very good use.  I should spend all of my insomniatic nights like this!  Husby woke up shortly after I finished the project and was very delighted with what he saw.

The finished project. A neat and organized cabinet makes spending time in the kitchen so much more enjoyable.

That’s the story of my spicy night. Too bad Husby slept through it all.

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Dem Bones

Posted in Everyday, Food, tagged , , , on September 9, 2013| 6 Comments »

I’m the luckiest girl in the world because I have a husband who cooks nearly every single night.  Every.  Single.  Night.  It’s a very wonderful thing and I appreciate it really a lot.  It gives me time to do my crafty stuff.  Or just sit around letting someone cook for me.  If I just sit around letting someone cook for me long enough I start feeling a little guilty.  I can feel guilty for a long time before I actually do something about it.  This weekend I decided to do something about the fact that I never cook.  I cooked.

We had a delicious meal of barbecued ribs.  I browned the ribs under the broiler early in the morning and whipped up a batch of my famous barbecue sauce, which I haven’t made for a long time because I don’t cook much anymore.  After the ribs were browned I cut them up into serving sizes and put them on a bed of sliced onion in the crock pot.  I poured a cup of my barbecue sauce on top of them and plugged in the crock pot.  Because I don’t cook much I realized an hour and a half later than I hadn’t turned the crock pot on.  Merely plugging it in won’t necessarily make it heat up the food.

No matter, the ribs were finished by 6:00 and were absolutely delicious with some au gratin potatoes and coleslaw.  The meat of the ribs came right off the bones and was moist and savory.

As we sat at the table after we’d finished eating I noticed the rib bones on our plates.  The first thing I thought of was I wonder if I could do a craft project with these bones.  I even said it out loud in front of Husby, who kind of laughed and said, “we could put them in the dishwasher and get them all clean, and then dry them in the sun.”  I thought for a minute.  Hmm…

After dinner I Googled “pork rib bone crafts” and I found this:

Bones

I got a little scared because I thought if we actually washed the pork rib bones in the dishwasher then set them out in the sun to dry Jesus might make them alive and they’d sprout little bone arms and legs and smiley faces and start dancing all over the back yard.  That was too much for me to handle.  The bones ended up in the garbage.

Yikes.

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Cheesecake Extraordinaire

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , on June 18, 2013| 6 Comments »

You know how you go on Pinterest and pin all these decorating ideas, DIY projects, and most of all, recipes?  I’m not huge on the Pinterest scene, but I pinned something a while back and finally decided to try it.  The Salted Caramel Cheesecake.  It got a lot of attention on Pinterest and I think the comments to the original post (published in 2011) have been closed, so I thought I’d post my comment here.

I was a little afraid of this at first because quite frankly the amount of salt in the original recipe is astounding.  I made some adjustments and served the cheesecake at a Father’s Day/Birthday celebration for my mom and dad.  To see the original recipe, click right here.

This photo is credited to The Modern Apron. I forgot to take a picture of my finished product. My caramel didn’t have the deep brown color as this one because I was afraid of scorching it. It was still very tasty though.

Here’s how I made the cheesecake:

Crust

15 graham crackers
3 Tbsp sugar
1 stick butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place crackers in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin until they turn into fine crumbs. Put crumbs into a medium bowl. (I crushed half the crumbs in the bag, emptied into a bowl, then did the same to the second half of the crackers.) Add sugar and butter to cracker crumbs and mix until all are combined and the mixture is crumbly.

2. Transfer the mixture to a 10” springform pan sprayed with cooking spray. Pat crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan, and up the sides about 2”.

3. Bake crust until slightly brown, about 8-10 minutes. Remove crust from the oven and allow to cool completely on a rack.

Cheesecake

3 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 14-oz can dulce de leche*
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature

* Apparently you can find dulce de leche in the Latin section of the grocery store.  I couldn’t find it in my neighborhood store, so I made it myself.  Empty one 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk into a double boiler and cook over simmering water for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  It will turn darker, thick and caramely.  Whisk it smooth and let cool a bit before using it in the cheesecake recipe.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

1.  In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add dulce de leche and beat to combine.

2.  Add flour and beat to combine, scraping sides when necessary.  Beat until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  There should be no lumps.

3.  Add sugar and beat to combine.

4.  Add vanilla and combine.  Then add eggs one at a time, combing thoroughly after each.  Don’t overbeat as that will cause the cheesecake to puff up too much and cause the surface to crack.

5.  Pour cream cheese mixture into cooled crust and smooth the top. 

6.  Bake at 300 degrees F for 55-65 minutes.  The center will be a little wiggly, but the edges will be puffed up and have a nice golden color.  Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours.  This allows the cheesecake to become the rich denseness it should be.

Caramel

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and water. Swirl to combine.
 
2. Continue cooking until the sugar turns golden brown, swirling occasionally. You’re looking for something that’s about the color of dark honey.  It should take 3-5 minutes.  Or more.  Keep a close eye on it as caramelizing sugar goes from perfect to ruined in a split second.
 
3. Remove from heat and carefully add the butter, then the cream. Don’t wait until the butter is melted; toss in the butter, give it a whisk, then pour in the cream. It will foam up, seize, and otherwise look like a total failure. Persevere! Add the vanilla extract and salt and continue whisking.
 
4. Return to medium low heat and whisk until smooth. (Added note: if your caramel is too thin, let it cook for a while over a low heat.)  Allow to cool slightly, about 15 minutes.
 
5. Remove cheesecake from the refrigerator and pour caramel over the top, letting it pool in the middle.
 
6. Return the cheesecake to the refrigerator to let the caramel set, about 30 minutes. To serve, cut in slices with a sharp knife.
 
This dessert was a definite challenge but everyone loved it.  The original recipe has many more teaspoons of kosher salt in the crust and in the cheesecake, but I thought the amount of salt in the caramel was enough for the whole cake.  I can’t imagine having more throughout the cake, but if you’d like to try it out, follow the original recipe.
 
I’ll definitely make it again, for a large group, of course.  This cheesecake will serve 12-16 people.  If you decide to try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out and how you liked it.
 
Happy baking!

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Dive Night Part 1 ~ Goby’s Grille And Pub

Posted in Dive Night, Food, tagged , , , , , on April 30, 2013| 7 Comments »

Dive Night is a semi-monthly adventure undertaken by me and Husby, along with our friends Ruthie and Ray. Each couple alternates choosing a restaurant, one which must come under the category of “dive.” Our definition of dive: a neighborhood gathering spot with a laid-back atmosphere and good food. We’ll find the interesting hang-outs in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. Casual attire required. A sip of beer or wine doesn’t hurt either.

It’s been a long time since the last Dive Night.  I guess the four of us are getting busier, so we get together when we can.  The dive was the choice of Husby and me, which took me back to my old neighborhood of over twenty years ago.  I spent some time at this place during my single days as it was only a half block away from my apartment, and when Husby and I were dating we’d stop by for a bite once in a while.  We thought it would be a good place to share with Ruthie and Ray, and really fun for me to see what’s happened to the establishment since I’ve been there last.  I present to you, Goby’s.

Goby’s has a new facade since I was there last, but the interior was pretty much the same as it was oh so many years ago.  One thing I noticed right away that hadn’t changed at all ~ one of the regulars.  A little grayer, but it was the same guy.  We were there around 6:30 on a Friday evening and the crowd was more mature, like us.  I have no idea what kind of clientele they have after the dinner hour.

A view from the front door. See that wait person toward the center of the picture? The one with the short shorts? She also had a low-cut top that was very filled out. Besides being very bodacious she was also a very good server. I’m sure the boys tipped her well. I would have too ~ she was cheerful and served our meals perfectly.

Here’s a picture of the game room. It’s located at the back of the bar/restaurant. Lots of games to choose from. Lots. There’s also a juke box that holds lots of your old-time favorites.

Goby’s is a clean place to spend an evening eating, playing, and drinking.  Husby and Ray both got a Stella Artois (if I drank beer that’s what I’d drink because it’s just so classy) but Ray didn’t think the Stella was anything spectacular.  Husby still enjoys it quite a bit.  Ruthie and I got our typical glass of wine.  And now, on with the food.  Please forgive the blurry photos.  I’m still learning how to take pictures in a dark room.

For appetizers we got a basket of deep-fried pickles (Ruthie’s favorites) and deep-fried garlic mushrooms. Both were served with a ranch dipping sauce. The mushrooms were especially good with that garlic-y flavor.

Ruthie ordered a steak sandwich with mushrooms and swiss cheese. She ordered the steak rare and that’s exactly what she got. It looked delicious. She also got a side of onion rings which looked fantastic.

Ray got a hickory burger with bacon, cheese, and a hickory barbecue sauce. He also got a big pile of fries. The buns Goby’s uses for their burgers are my favorite. They’re toasted, but are lofty and kind of squishy. I love them.

Husby had the buffalo chicken sandwich. He got it with chips, which come standard with a burger/sandwich. The chicken was moist and the buffalo sauce was just the right temperature, spicy-wise.

I got the ‘shroom burger. It was a favorite of mine a long time ago and is still as good as ever. Goby’s uses fresh mushrooms and plenty of cheese. I got a side of crinkle fries and seasoned sour cream. The sour cream was a little sweeter than I expected. It tasted more like Thousand Island dressing, but was still tasty.

The burgers are eight ounces but you can also get them as twelve ouncers.  Twelve?!  I love to eat but a burger that big would put me in a food coma for a week.  But it’s available for those with extra huge appetites.

One thing that might turn some people off is the outdoor smoking.  Smokers stand close to the door, and the day we were there the door was open, so the smoke wafted in a bit.  If that bothers you, you might want to sit toward the back of the room away from the door.

All in all, Goby’s is every bit as good as I remembered it being.  It’s a bar, there’s no doubt about that, but the food they serve is well-made and served hot out of the kitchen and our service was considerate, friendly and accurate, not to mention a perfect hottie.

Whether you go to Goby’s for an after-work cocktail, a very reasonably priced and delicious meal, or to shoot a game of pool or two, you’re sure to have a good experience.  If you doubt it, just ask the twenty-five-year veteran Goby’s patron sitting at the end of the bar.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this very special Dive Night, which will be posted later this week. 

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