I wrote a piece about secret menus for LifeZette a few weeks ago that got a lot of positive feedback and visibility. Prior to researching it, I had no idea there were so many restaurants — even swanky joints! — that had well-known but unpublished customer favorites available. I mean, there’s In-n-Out, but heck, their secret menu is published on their Web site, so how “secret” is that? A few days after publication, the marketing…Read More

I have to admit, BD’s Mongolian Grill restaurant in Denver, Colorado is one of our favorite places to eat. We’ve had birthday parties there, and we make at least once a month even though it’s almost 40min from where we live. There’s just something about being able to assemble a bowl full of each person’s favorite proteins, noodles, veggies and sauce then watch it quick grilled in front of you that makes it fun and…Read More

True confessions time: I’m slowly losing my mind and my son is becoming a vampire, as far as I can tell. He’s just about 15yo, so part of this is the exciting roller coaster of adolescence, but meanwhile, he can’t seem to fall asleep until he’s utterly exhausted and as a result I seem to end up staying up until all hours of the night worrying and making sure he’s okay until I too am…Read More

I bumped into yet anther debate in the long, endless stream of outrage over insensitivity online this morning and am again alarmed and disappointed at the PC police. Quaker Oats corporation posted a funny 50 thoughts every Mom has at snack time piece over on Buzzfeed that included the following lines: The kids will be home soon, and they’ll be hungry. Are they bringing that friend with all of those allergies? I really hope not. I mean,…Read More

Let me be honest with you, dear reader. I’m good at a lot of things as a dad, I do laundry, I clean the house, I make sure we don’t run out of food essentials, either for us or for our little furry pal Kiwi the cat, and I always make time to play games, help with homework and generally be involved with my kids. And then there’s food prep. There are some mitigating circumstances,…Read More

Anyone who has ever gone out for a meal with me has learned that the beverage I almost exclusively drink is iced tea. I don’t know if it’s the Englishman in me and that famed British love of tea or what, but I do enjoy me a glass or three of iced tea. Heck, I’m sitting at a coffee shop right now, with an unsweetened black tea in the cup next to me. It’s my fourth…Read More

It’s summer, which means that it’s too darn hot to have hot cups of coffee. And when I’m working at home while watching yet another amazing World Cup 2014 match, I need a beverage that fulfills my morning caffeine needs, is tasty and healthy and quick to assemble and blend. For bonus points for my smoothie with almond milk, something dairy-free is good too, since I just know my 14yo son is going to steal…Read More

My kids have long since learned that I’m often the sugar police regarding what they eat, especially the younger ones. I also strongly believe that a treat isn’t actually a “treat” if you have it all the time, and that for something to be special, it needs to also be rare. If you’re a parent, you know what I mean, even as your child might lobby for ice cream as part of a nutritious breakfast. As an…Read More

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. But it’s food. And we eat. As I’ve gotten older, the draw of neat and easily eaten food has overwhelmed some old favorites, and I can’t even remember the last time I had a sloppy joe. Pretty sure my Mom made ’em from a can, but…Read More

I cook. I don’t make super complicated meals, muchly because I find that I just don’t have a very eager audience for anything other than basic kid foods, but I enjoy a wide variety of different cuisines, and have to give my Mum a lot of credit for that because my Dad’s always been a meat and potato sort of guy. I don’t know that there’s a country’s cuisine that I haven’t tried, actually, from…Read More

I’ve written about this subject before, asking why companies add sugar to their peanut butter, but this time I’ve been hoodwinked by the word “organic” on the label. Actually, it was my daughter A- who caught it: I went to the store and knowing that we needed peanut butter, I picked up the Maranatha brand organic no-stir peanut butter, not paying particularly close attention to the label because, well, it was organic so it’ll be…Read More

We just got back from a ten day holiday in Southern California, a late spring break that tied into the Easter vacation and gave me an excuse to take the kids out to meet up with my sister (who flew down from Alaska) and visit Papa, always a good thing. We’re experienced SoCal travelers so I already had my contacts lined up to arrange adventures at Disneyland, Seaworld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo, along…Read More

I’ve had my steel wok for years and years, and it’s seen a lot of service. When I bought it at Cost Plus (I think, it was a long time ago) I dutifully “seasoned” it with oil and then for the first few years I’d wipe it clean but not scrub it with soap and water, since that’s what I’ve always read is the recommended way to manage the wok and avoid rust. But time…Read More

I swear, I really do my best with school lunches, but once the kids get to a certain age, there’s only so much I can do. It’s the “leading a horse to water” problem: I can assemble the best, most tasty and nutritious foods, we can even go shopping together so I ensure that I have what they like to eat, but when they get to school, it’s out of my control. And so it…Read More

Ever since I traveled down the Nutrisystem road and lost a bunch of weight, one of the things that’s stuck with me is having a fruit and protein powder smoothie as breakfast. Now in the Nutrisystem program it’s an accompaniment to a small bowl of cereal, a bar, a cinnamon roll, or similar, but outside of the program I prefer to have the smoothie become a bit more substantial and have it as my only…Read More

I’ve written about my Ninja blender and I have written about the weight loss program I was on earlier in the year, but while I’ve posted photos on Instagram [follow me on Instagram] of my smoothies, I’ve never explained step by step what I toss into the blender and how it comes out. So here it is, Dave’s Morning Smoothie Recipe! I start out with a banana and 1% milk, then throw in some frozen…Read More

I’ve been having fruit smoothies for breakfast for just about all of 2013, using my Kitchenaid blender acquired at Target a few years ago and while it’s done okay, I’ve been eager to upgrade to a high end blender. If they weren’t so crazy expensive, I’d have bought a Vitamix as they have a very good reputation. When the opportunity to give a Ninja Ultima BL810 blender a whirl (pun intended) came along, I jumped…Read More