Vegas Food

Hello. My name is Kara, and I’m a foodie. I love to cook. I collect cookbooks, and I’m addicted to the Food Network. When we went to Las Vegas last month, I took pictures of lots of food. I know there are at least a couple of my friends that are anxiously awaiting the pictures of the food. So here you go! (If you’re not as interested in the food as we foodies are, scroll down, the trip log is posted below!)

Before I show you pictures of food, please keep a few things in mind. I’m not a great photographer. I had a brand new camera. I’m still trying to figure out the settings. Food photography is really hard! But, lousy pictures aside, I think you’ll get the idea. :)

Ghirardelli

I could have spent so much more money here. Wow. The smell alone put inches on my thighs… We had an ice cream sundae called the trolley car, I think. Oh so good. And just the trick to get you through a three and a half mile hike from the NYNY to Treasure Island.

Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House

We went here on our first night in Vegas. It’s located in the MGM Grand, not too far away from Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Craftsteak. Wolfgang Puck has a beautiful restaurant close by… Ok, so there were several NICE places to eat. We loved Emeril’s restaurant, NOLA, in New Orleans, so we made a reservation on our way through the hotel from the monorail station. When we arrived back at the restaurant about two hours later, we were not disappointed.

Waiters in fine restaurants always seem shocked when we place our drink order. We don’t drink. Nope. Not even in Sin City. Our waiter was surprised, but he also offered to make us a mocktail. Cranberry juice, pineapple juice and 7-up. So good. I’m feeling inspired to host a mocktail party of my own. How fun would that be?! :) Sorry, no picture of the fabulous drink.

After a bowl of Fall River Clam Chowder for me, and the gumbo of the day, shrimp and andouille sausage, for Doug, (sorry, soups are not photogenic) we enjoyed some amazing fish entrees. From the menu I ordered:

Emeril’s Sweet Barbecued Scottish Salmon
Andouille Sausage & Brabant Potatoes with Spicy Onion Crust and Emeril’s Homemade Worcestershire

I was a little disappointed in the presentation, since there wasn’t much variation in the colors, but the taste didn’t disappoint. I don’t think I’ve ever had homemade worcestershire sauce before. Oh, it was good! I wouldn’t normally think of fish and worcestershire as the ideal combination, but it was awesome!

Doug’s selection was:

Herb, Sea Salt & Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna
Homemade Sopressata Sausage, Italian Cheese & Spinach Ravioli with Basil Pesto, Tomato Olive Stew and Balsamic Extraction

It was visually more appealing, and I loved the clean flavors of the pesto with the ravioli. I really need to recreate that tomato stew. It was so flavorful, but not overpowering. Even though both dishes were spectacular, Doug’s choice was a better dish. :) Oh, and don’t ya just love the shadow of Doug’s arm across the plate? I told you we’re not great at food photography. Sorry!

Bellagio Lunch Buffet

What’s a trip to Vegas without a trip to a buffet? :) This was the second day of our trip. You may be asking, where’s breakfast? Honestly, we had a Starbucks breakfast most days. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on breakfast. I would rather spend my money on lunch and dinner… Ok. So, I’ve never seen a buffet like the one at the Bellagio, and it was a little crowded, so I didn’t take a ton of pictures of the food in the service line.

This display case was in the middle of the dessert section of the buffet, and my photography does not come close to how fabulous these cakes were. Yes, the stack of boxes on the right was a CAKE.

What were some of our choices, you ask? Leg of lamb, seared flank steak, duck confit with an apricot glaze, buffalo sliders, sushi, stirfry, shrimp cocktail, spring rolls, artisan breads, salads, sauteed baby patty pan squash, marinated mushrooms, bbq ribs, fresh fruits, pastas and homemade raviolis with different sauces…

Oh, and the desserts! Oh, well, see for yourself!

Let’s see from the top left, that’s a cream puff, lemon tart, and an apple something or other – I can’t remember, and cheesecake. This was Doug’s dessert plate. Here’s mine:

The top one is chocolate pie. The red thingy is colored white chocolate. The bottom one is a chocolate hazelnut torte. I also had a little taste of some raspberry sorbet.

Wow, was I stuffed!

Mon Ami Gabi

We didn’t eat again until almost 11pm. We were pretty stuffed from too much food at the Bellagio. We visited Freemont street and saw the sights there, then stopped at this French bistro. It sits right in front of the Paris Las Vegas with a delightful view of the Bellagio water show. We didn’t have patio seats, but we could still hear the music and see the water from our table. :)

I know it’s not the best picture, but the white stuff is the water show. :)

This restaurant was decidedly more casual than some of the other restaurants we visited, but the food was outstanding. I had the Lemon Chicken Paillard with green beans and lemon butter.

The picture doesn’t do justice to the flavor. It was divine. Doug ordered the Pork Tenderloin with date-glazed bacon, mashed potatoes, and a port-wine cherry sauce.

So good! The bacon was so flavorful from the glaze. A taste of that with the mashed potatoes… oh my goodness… The only negative: I wish the greens on the plate had been dressed with some kind of vinaigrette.

Mesa Grill

Thursday, we ate at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay’s restaurant. I’m glad that we went for lunch since we could actually afford the tasting menu for lunch. I’m sure we wouldn’t have done that for dinner. This was my favorite restaurant of the trip. Doug preferred Emeril’s so we’re calling it a tie. I took lots of pictures. :) Here we go!

This was my favorite selection from the bread basket. A cornbread muffin with blue and yellow cornmeals. A little spicy kick, but not too much.

Tomato Tortilla Soup. Nice and spicy, but not overwhelming. The heat was nicely balanced with some sweetness and some richness from the avocado. This was my appetizer on the tasting menu. Doug had something different:

A blue corn pancake with braised duck breast inside. The orange and green sauces on the plate were so flavorful and delicious.

The tasting menu offered two different entrees as well. Doug had the Buffalo burger, served with fries and jalapeno ketchup. Have you ever tried jalapeno ketchup? Oh, I need to figure out how to make some. It was really yummy.

And, my entree was this:

Oh. My. Goodness. Seared scallops with jalapeno pesto, guacamole and homemade tortilla chips. There are no words to describe how amazing this dish was. Wow. So. Good.

And dessert. Profiteroles. Banana ice cream inside. With crispy caramel-ly crunchies, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. What an awesome ending to an amazing meal!

It took almost two hours to eat lunch, so when we left we were definitely satisfied, but not feeling heavy at all. There was a nice 10 minutes or so between each course. It’s so nice to be able to slow down…

The Rest

Well, that’s the last of my food pictures. We also had some smoothies at Ben & Jerry’s. We had great fast food at In-N-Out Burger. We ate our last Vegas meal at the Hard Rock Cafe…

What a fun trip! We had a blast! :)

Our Vegas Vacation

Doug has wanted to go to Las Vegas since we were married.  We discussed it as an option for our honeymoon, but we chose New Orleans instead.  So, Doug finally got to take me to Vegas for a few days in June.  It was so nice to get away for a little while, especially without the kiddos.  I love them, but a little break was nice.  Check out some of our pictures!

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The first day we were there, we watched Mystere, a Cirque du Soleil production at Treasure Island.  We didn’t think it would be that far to walk since we could see Treasure Island from the New York New York, our hotel.  It was THREE AND A HALF MILES!!!  We were so exhausted when we got there.  Once we picked up our tickets from the will call desk, we discovered the monorail.  Monorail tickets were, by far, our best purchase of the trip.  We went back to the hotel, had dinner (at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House – more on the food later) and then took the monorail back up to Treasure Island to see the show.  The plot was a little strange, but it was an amazing show!  Click here for a preview.  By the time we made it back to our hotel, we had logged more than five miles, I’m sure.  I should have brought a pedometer.  :)  And, since I have trouble sleeping on a plane, I had been awake for 21 hours.  I was beyond exhausted. 

 

On the second day, we slept in, had a Starbucks breakfast, and visited the Stratosphere, Paris Las Vegas and the Bellagio.  We decided, after reaching the Stratosphere, that we didn’t really want to pay that much money to see Vegas during the daytime.  Nighttime might have had another response, but it just didn’t justify the price of the elevator ride.  Neither of us had any intention of riding the rides up there.  So, we left.  We walked back to the Sahara, through the casino to the monorail station, and then rode the monorail back to the Paris Las Vegas.  We found some fun shops inside Paris.  I got some new bracelets (3 for $20!!), and then we went to the Bellagio for lunch.  The buffet is pricy, but it was outstanding.  After lunch, we played at M&M’s world, bought a bunch of stuff there and then went back to the hotel for a nap.  Wednesday night, we took a bus to Fremont street to see the light show there.  We got there too early, though, and since we still weren’t hungry, we just had some Starbucks and listened to some live music before the show started.  The light show was great!  They did “Bad to the Bone” first, and then about 20 minutes later, they did “American Pie.”  When we were done on Fremont Street, we took the bus back down to the Strip, and had a very late dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, a French restaurant in front of Paris.  We wanted to sit on the patio, but there were no tables there, so we were just slightly indoors.  We had an amazing meal and and pretty good view of the Bellagio water show.  What a fun day!  Oh, and on our way back to the monorail station, we saw this:

 

Only in Vegas!!  :)  Apparently, it’s a crane game for dinner.  For only $4 per attempt, you can try to catch your own lobster.  If you catch one, the restaurant will cook it up for free.  I wonder if the odds are better here than in the casino.  :) 

 

Thursday, after riding the roller coaster at our hotel (yes, I even rode it), we visited Caesar’s Palace.  We ate at Mesa Grill, the Las Vegas incarnation of Bobby Flay’s popular New York restaurant.  Wow the food was good!  We can’t decide between us if we preferred Emeril’s or Bobby Flay’s restaurant better, so we’re calling it a tie.  They were both amazing!  :)  We picked up a rental car in the evening, and we watched a variety show called V.  We felt a little ripped off when the show was over.  It wasn’t a horrible show, but it wasn’t worth the price.  The juggler was pretty awesome, but you can see most of his stuff on YouTube for free.  After the show, we had a fabulous fast food dinner here:

 

We checked out of the hotel early on Friday morning and drove our rental car, a red Ford Mustang, to the temple.  It was so nice to get away from all the filth on the Strip and enjoy the spirit of the temple.  We did a session and then drove around North Las Vegas for a little while.  Doug was born in Las Vegas, and he lived there until the sixth grade, so we found the houses that he lived in.  Here’s the first one, 1901 Bassler street:This neighborhood was SCARY!  And it was still not even noon.  I can’t believe that my husband walked to school in this neighborhood when he was in kindergarten!  Yikes!!

They moved to this house when Doug was in the fifth grade: It was hard to get a good picture because of all the vehicles parked in front of the house.  There were at least four cars.  Apparently, the cars make a great fence for the playground in the front yard?  I know.   I’m confused too.  I’m told that the backyard WAS just fine. 

 

We made our way back toward the airport, had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went to return our rental car. 

 

Did I mention that Doug was so thrilled to be driving a mustang?  He was almost giddy he was so excited.  We gassed up at a 7-eleven, and then the lovely mustang would not giddy up.  It would start, then sputter and die.  So, we called the rental car people.  They called a tow truck.  We were less than a mile from the rental car return facility.  But they told us that it would be 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive.  We had been planning on arriving to the airport early…  We were having a pleasant, leisurely kind of day.  That instantly changed.  Would we make our flight on time?  We still had to wait for the tow, return the car to the rental car people, wait for the shuttle bus to the airport, get through airport security, and find our gate.  It was looking like we wouldn’t make it.  The tow truck didn’t take 45 minutes.  It was more like 15 minutes.  So, he dropped us off at the door, we grabbed our bags, and we made our way to the counter to finalize the rental.  We had to wait until they checked out the car to make sure that it wasn’t our fault that it was broken…  Anyway, we made it to the airport with time to spare.  :)

 

And it was so good to be home!!

Jared

Jared graduated from high school! I was a senior when he was in kindergarten, so I’m feeling a little old, but I’m really proud of my baby brother. He’s accomplished lots of fun and impressive things in high school, and I’m excited to see what the future brings for him.

It was also fun to see Carl for a little while. He came to visit for a few days for Jared’s graduation, and he took a bunch of great pictures with his fancy camera. It was fun to chat with him and catch up. He needs to visit more often, or better yet, move back to Texas! :) Here’s a picture Carl took of Tanner. I love it!

OK. And, because I’m WAY behind on my blog, it has taken me a month to blog about Jared’s graduation, and now, today is his birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!! I think he’s pretty stoked to be 18. I was too when I turned 18, but I think I sighed a deep sigh of relief when that year was over. It was one of the hardest, if not THE hardest year of my life.

Jared is leaving in a few weeks to attend BYU. He’s going up a little early to start his job, which is basically Carl’s old job, working in the IT department at the Y. His boss is Michael Ralls, a guy my family has known forever, whom I dated when I was 17-18. It’s good to have connections. :)

I hope Jared enjoys college life and all the new adventures that come with the freedom of living on his own. Jared has had it pretty easy at home, so I think he might be in for a bit of a wakeup call when he realizes what real life is all about. But wasn’t it a little shocking for all of us? :)

Jared, I’m proud of you and the great person that you’ve become. I hope your birthday is great, and I hope that you succeed in your future, just as you have in your past! I love you, bro!

Camp and the Camera

I got a new camera within the last year. Nothing too fancy, just a decent point and shoot with a nice big display screen. Well, apparently, that camera cannot handle any moisture at all. I had it in my bag at Sea World, and it got too close to a damp towel, or something, because it just quit working. It wouldn’t even turn on. So sad. It was a good camera. Did I mention that this happened about ten days before I left for Girls Camp? Yep. I didn’t have a camera to take to camp. My friend Esther loaned me a camera (thanks, Esther!!), but I didn’t really know how to play with the settings, and I had so much going on while at camp, that I just didn’t take any pictures at all. Thankfully, there were others that got some pictures. I hope they share! (hint, hint!)

The Monday before camp started, I hurt my back again. I was drying my hair with a towel, and my back just gave out. I’m lucky I caught myself, because I almost fell. And I was in so much pain! I’ve been visiting a chiropractor several times a week since April, so I called the office and told them that I needed to come in. I went to the chiropractor twice a day all week before camp. I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to go to camp or that I would be in a lot of pain when I was there. I borrowed Mom’s back brace to take with me just in case. I used it once, and only because I was hurting a little bit and didn’t want it to get worse.

Camp was a blast! The girls in my ward are awesome. I think this is amazing: I took 14 girls to camp, and they all get along pretty well. We had so much fun together, and I loved getting to know the girls a little better. :) We had great devotionals. We played fun games. I hope all the girls had as much fun as I did! :)

Timmy’s new favorite snack:

Ants on a Log.  And he makes it by himself!  That’s just awesome.  :)

He loves to help…

and I don’t complain. 

Playing in the sprinkler

The yard needed water.  The boys needed entertainment. 

We were all a little sunburned at the end of the day, but we had so much fun!