If this is your first time hearing about El Pato Sauce, good.  I knew nothing about it till Ben mentioned it. You can find it in a yellow can with a duck on it in the hispanic isle in just about every grocery store.  For this recipe, you'll use just one small can, which is just over 7oz(costs maybe 49 cents).  This recipe is cheap, quick and very easy to make.  The great thing about it is you can change and edit it as much as you want.  Every time I've made it I've done something different.  I've added different hot sauce's.  Some times I put in cumin, cayenne pepper, or chili powder in.  The recipe shown is how I start the dish.  Depending on what I have in the spice rack and pantry, I may add to it.

Ingredients:
Coconut Oil
1 Can (7oz) El Pato Sauce
1 yellow Onion
Garlic - As much as you want
2lbs Grass Fed Beef 
Butter or Romaine lettuce 

Take your beef out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit on the counter.  While that is coming to room temp, get out your cutting board and favorite knife.  Cut up the Onion and Garlic as you see fit.  Usually I leave the onions on the bigger size and cut the garlic pretty small.  Once done, grab a tablespoon or so of coconut oil and put it in the pan over medium heat.  (If you couldn't tell from the ingredients, you'll probably need a 12in fry pan.)  Once the coconut oil heats up and turns to liquid, add the beef.  Brown the beef and when there's a little pink left, start adding your other ingredients.  This is another place to play with the recipe.  Some people like to add onions in first, let them cook for a few minutes and then add the sauce and garlic.  I've tried it just about every way I can think of and haven't found any one way better than another but your tastebuds are different than mine so have fun playing.  Now that you have everything added into the pan, let it simmer away at medium heat.  Essentially after it simmers for 3-5 minutes it's done.  I usually let it simmer for 15 minutes.  The more I can let it simmer at a medium heat, the more water will evaporate and therefore thicken the "sloppy Joe".

Once the sauce is at your desired thickness, put it on a bowl or plate with your lettuce and enjoy!

WHEN you decide to make this recipe, add a picture in the comments.  I'd love to see how they all turn out.  I'll be making it within a week and will put up some updated pics for you.

It's been too long since I've posted anything and for that I apologize.  About a month ago I started "The Paleo Diet" or the "Caveman" diet.  I have overhauled what I eat and how.  The Paleo diet tells you to eat lean meats, fruits and veggies.  No sugar, wheat, grains, legumes or dairy.  Since I have changed my diet and eating habits the content on the site will change.  I'll still be doing the same topics on the site but it will be geared towards my diet.  I'll have a new recipe coming out shortly (chili) that I can't stop eating.  Hope to hear from everyone soon.

Jim

Going to a new city is usual fun and exciting.  There's always new and hopefully great restaurants to try on the road.  Then there is always the not so exciting restaurants we try too.  Before I go on a trip I try to check yelp and google maps to search for restaurants and places to eat.  On this trip there weren't a lot of recommendations by my pilot friends or on yelp.  I just kept my eyes open when driving to the hotel to see what was around.  About a block from the hotel I saw a restaurant called "The Pancake Mill".  I'm a big fan of pancakes and syrup for that matter.  I knew I'd have to try this place before I left. 

The next morning I woke up with happy thoughts of pancakes and breakfast.  I met with my copilot around 830 or so and we went over to the Pancake Mill for breakfast.  The house/building is old fashion and quaint.  The ambiance was fun and reminded me of home and being a kid.  

Ever since I was a little boy, my dad and I went to Wisconsin to meet family and deer hunt during thanksgiving.  I remember many things about that time.  I'll always remember the Babcock cafe; a small cafe outside of town that has the best food.  I'm not sure who owns it but I see the same ladies inside working every time.  The cafe is always packed so you rarely see the women standing in one place for long.  Ever since being a kid and visiting there I've loved small home-town cafe's.  Pancake Mill is exactly that.  Big portions and great fresh ingredients.  Jams and Jellies you don't find at ihop or perkins.  Better maple syrup than you find in stores and fresh fruit syrups.  The ambiance at this restaurant was exactly what I wanted for a breakfast place.  This place hit my memory bank and for that I give the ambiance nine spatulas!

The staff was nice, attentive and polite.  They were all local women born and raised in the area.  They all had a small town niceness to them.  That niceness is something people from big cities never experience or when they do, they're too stuck up to notice.  Very eager to help and suggest menu items.  They'll talk to you about anything just to talk and be nice.  They treat you like you've been a regular at the restaurant for years.  That niceness is something you don't find often.  I give them nine spatulas on hospitality.

Onto to the meat of the review, the food.  Like I've said before, I love breakfast food.  Nothing better than some good pancakes, maple syrup, sausage and maybe some potatoes.  Well this place had everything and anything I could want.  I had an omellete the first day and pancakes the next.  They were both very good.  The pancakes were very big and the portion size was more than big enough for one person.  I ordered a side with the pancakes but could barely eat it since the pancakes were so big.  I have no complaints about anything I ordered.  My copilot also loved the food that he had.  The first day I saw they had these huge cinnamon rolls in there bakery window.  The second day I had to grab one to go just to try it.  I have a weakness for cinnamon rolls and seeing that huge roll two days in a row was too much.  It was all I hoped for in a cinnamon roll.  Just the right amount of frosting, the bread is nice and soft and a good amount of cinnamon.  The breakfast food was worth nine spatulas which brings the overall rating to nine out of ten spatulas.  I can't say anything bad about this place.  If you are ever in Coos Bay you have to try this restaurant and enjoy! 

Scott, my copilot, and I walked over to "The Landings" from Western Flight Services, our FBO at CRQ today.  The walk was a short couple of minutes and we had landed at a table with a beautiful view of the runway.  The restaurant was quiet, maybe three tables were occupied.  It was 4pm so I wasn't expecting a huge crowd.  The restaurant has indoor, outdoor seating and a bar.  We chose to sit outside under the umbrella and enjoy the nice weather.  It has been in the upper 90s lately in LA so it was nice to get to CRQ where the temps were in the 70s.  

If you tell someone that you're eating at a restaurant at an airport their initial thought is that it's probably nothing special.  People think, it'll be loud with planes and people.  Either a lot of travelers or pilots hanging around and the food probably won't be that good.  This place was far from that experience.  The ambience here is very nice, in fact I rate it eight spatulas.  The inside and outside is simple and a clean design.  Wooden tables outside with umbrellas and nice tables inside with a nice color scheme.  There were tall glass barriers outside to separate the airport movement area and the restaurant, which also acted like a sound barrier.  The ambience was 7 spatulas.

The staff was very nice and helpful.  Our waitress was a nice lady with what I believe was a British accent.  We sat ourselves and she basically followed us to our table to get our drink order.  She was very happy, easy-going, polite and knowledgable.  She gave us a few minutes to look over the menu and came back almost at the perfect time to take our order.  There is a delicate balance for waiting staff between bothering me and ignoring me.  I don't need to be checked on every two minutes, but maybe every ten minutes depending on the meal.  I don't want to come off as a snob.  I'm very tolerable and don't get vocally upset if a waiter takes 15 minutes before they even say hi.  I'm more interested and curious about how they act and treat customers.  It's interesting to see what kind of staff a restaurant has, tells a lot about the manager and the restaurant.  Although I only met one person of the staff, I rate her nine spatulas. 

The food was delicious!  Everything at the restaurant sounded good.  After looking over the menu, I found myself debating between a couple of items.  A burger always sounds good, a salad or maybe some fish.  But I wanted something a little healthy so decided on the chicken caesar lettuce wraps.  The wraps were very good.  They were nicely packed and the lettuce and chicken tasted fresh.  The tortilla was very soft and there was no overwhelming flavor from any one ingredient.  There wasn't a lot of dressing/sauce, so the wraps weren't soggy and did not have juice flying out as I ate them.  The fries were not as hot as I would've preferred but their flavor was still good.  I give the overall food seven spatulas.

My overall rating of "The Landings" was an 8 out of 10 spatulas.  In my opinion, airport food as a whole doesn't have a great reputation.  Airports attract a lot of different clientele.  A lot depends on where the airport is located.  Carlsbad is definitely a unique, higher end airport.  Therefore the better the clientele, the more appeal a nice restaurant/chef would have in being at the airport.  When visiting a small airport with no commercial airline flying in and out the clientele is a lot different.  Less foot traffic, probably less money coming into the airport and less appeal.  When you spend most of your job at airports you will find that some small airports hide some amazing cooks.  Finding a hole in the wall cafe or diner is some of my happiest moments as a pilot and food enthusiast.  After you've visited a few airport restaurants, you begin to understand that there are some amazing airport restaurants out there.  It seems there are two kinds: one, where you realize after the meal that you are in fact at an airport restaurant and that's the caliber of meal you expected, or two, where you finish a wonderful meal and feel surprised to be sitting at an airport.  

Every cut of meat is different in shape and weight.  Therefore, your grilling technique will need to adapt to the cut of meat you get (keep that in mind when buying the meat).  Tri-tip usualy has "tips", hence the name.  The center is thick and the ends are thin, this leads to the ends cooking faster than the center.  You may want to adjust your temperature/doneness depending on the thickness between center and ends.

I went to Henry's to get all the ingredients for the marinade and wanted to check the meat.  My initial instinct was to get the tri-tip at Whole Foods.  I saw the tri-tip at Henry's for $6/lb which is a good price.  I thought I'd call WF to see how much theirs was.  The tri-tip at Whole Foods was six dollars a pound more than the tri-tip at Henry's.  I was quite shocked at the difference and was glad I checked.

Ingredients:
- 7 Garlic cloves
- 1/2 Yellow onion
- 1 Cup Cilantro
- Mix of Von Hanson's seasoning, cumin and salt
- 2 cups of Simply Orange juice (high pulp)
- 2 lbs of Tri-Tip

**This if the first or second of many times I will mention Von Hanson's seasoning.  Von Hanson's is a meat market in MN (one in AZ) and a damn good one.  I can't get their meat and jerkey out here but I do get their "Von Hanson Seasoning" shipped out via my grandma or parents whenever I need a new supply.  It has a lot of the normal rub ingredients.  It has everything you would want to in an all-in-one spice.  I use it 90% of the time when cooking meat.**

If you have a bag big enough to fit everything in, I recommend using a bag to marinate the meat.  Otherwise, a tupperware container will work.  Cut up all the ingredients, except the meat, of course.  When cutting up the ingredients I like to leave them in bigger pieces.  I don't know if there is any truth to it but if you leave the garlic and onions bigger it will have more flavor to give off longer.  I rub the meat with the spices first, then I put all the veggies in the bag or tupperware before adding the meat.  I pour the OJ in last over the meat.  Put the bag or tupperware in the refrigerator to soak up the goodness.  I let the meat marinate for about 30 hours before I threw it on the grill, so you'll want to be thinking about a meal at least a day in advance.  You can let it marinate the meat per your schedule but length of time directly affects flavor and tenderness.  I would recommend letting it marinate for at least one hour at the minimum and a max of 48 hours.

About six months ago I was lucky enought to get a new grill.  I now have the pleasure of using a Weber Spirit Gas Barbeque (or grill, depending on your preference).  In my opinion Weber makes the best grills around.  Although they're usually on the spendy side, they have a remarkable product with excellent customer service.  The grills also seem to last forever.  So when you're ready to start grilling, begin by preheating the grill to 300 degrees.  I heat the grill up hotter than that initially to clean it and then turn the grill down.  I spray a little weber grilling spray on before I put the meat on.  When cooking a meat for this long it's best to use indirect heating.  Indirect heating is exactly what it sounds like.  There is no real searing or direct heat on the meat because the meat goes in the middle of the grill where the burner is turned off, and the heat basically circulates around the grill and cooks the meat slower and evenly.  Plan to cook the tri-tip for 45 minutes to an hour depending on the weight of the meat (more or less than 2lbs).  I have a nice Maverick digital thermometer that I used to keep an eye on the meat.  It's a pretty nice thermometer for the price ($40).  You preset the type of meat and the doneness you want.  It beeps once it hits the target temperature.  I wanted to cook my tri-tip to medium, medium-well, which is about 160 degrees.  I only turned the meat once, after 30 minutes, and the meat was around 140 degrees.  I took the meat off at 154 degrees and brought it inside to sit for another five to ten minutes.  While it was sitting I made a quick Asian salad.  Just some lettuce, cabbage, carrot slices, chow mein noodles and a little onion.  It's a nice contrast to have the warm meat and a nice cool salad on a hot day.  Here is the end result...

Now nicely cut up

Little Salad and Tri-Tip

Ingredients:
- 2 ½ Cups of Sugar
- 2 Cups of Blueberries
- 1 Lemon for lemon zest
- 2 ½ Cups of Flour
- 2 ½ tsp. of Baking Powder
- 1 tsp. of Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 4 Tbsp Butter
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 ½ tsp. of  Vanilla
- 1 Cup Buttermilk

Blueberry Jam:
- 1 cup of blueberries
- 1 tsp sugar
Fill a small pot with 1 cup of blueberries and 1 tsp of sugar.  Put the pot on the stove over medium to medium low heat.  I found with my stove I needed to use medium low.  Medium heat was too high and the blueberries started to crust on the side. Break up some of the blueberries with a wooden spoon to get rid of some the moisture.  Stir the blueberries often.  After about six minutes, transfer to a small bowl to cool to room temperature.  It should make about ¼ cup of jam.

Sugar Topping:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
Put the sugar into a small bowl for this mixture or even a coffee cup.  Use a microplane (if you have one) to zest the lemon into the bowl.  I got my microplane from Sur La Table for $15.  I don't use it as much as I should, but it makes zesting very easy.  Mix the two together and put aside. 

Batter:
- 2 1/2 cup flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and Mix together.  Once done set it aside.

- 2 eggs
- 1 1/8 cup sugar
I used my kitchenaid mixer to Whisk together the eggs and sugar.  Mixing it with a hand whisk will work just as well.  Mix for about 45 seconds until it becomes a light yellow color.  Then add;

- 4 tbsp melted/cooled unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup buttermilk

Once the wet ingredients are mixed together, add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and add 1 cup blueberries to the mix.  Fold together the wet and dry ingredients (and blueberries).  Folding is a technique to mix ingredients without knocking the air out of them.  To fold, use a large rubber spatula or large metal spoon.  In a single motion, run the spatula along the side, then along the base of the bowl.  Fold the mixture over onto itself.  Turn the bowl 90 degrees or so and repeat.  We want the batter to stay lumpy so don't do too much folding.  Spray the muffin pan with pam or whatever you have (I used Canola Oil Spray).  Fill the cups with batter to just under the top.  Add 1 tsp of jam to the center of each muffin.  Use the teaspoon to push the jam slightly into the batter.  Take a chopstick and swirl a figure 8 into the muffin to mix in the jam very slightly (only 1-2 times).  Sprinkle the sugar topping onto the top of each muffin.

Bake at 425 degrees until the tops are set.  Takes about 18 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Touch down lightly on the tops to make sure they're springy and set.  Take out and let cool for five minutes.  If the tops have baked together, use a plastic knife to cut them apart.  Enjoy these amazing muffins and let me know how they turn out when you make them.

Before

After

Before making the curry, start your rice.  I use a black and decker rice cooker when I make rice.  I usually make white long grain rice or basmati.  Last night the rice was basmati from "Royal".  It comes in bulk in a brown satchel bag from the himalayas, or so it says.  Lately I've been putting some EVOO on the bottom of the rice cooker first and then 1/2 cup more water than rice.  I made three cups of rice last night and put in 3 1/2 cups of water.  Dependeing on how you cook the rice and how much you cook will change the time it takes.  It took me roughly 30 minutes last night, which is what I was planning on.

The curry packet gives a recipe on the back and is very simple.  The packet recommends using 1 cup of water but I use the coconut milk every time.  I like have as much curry sauce as I can so I use a can of coconut milk or more some times..  I vary the meat and vegies depending on what mood I'm in and what's in season.  Most of the time I'll make it with chicken and red peppers.  Last night that's exactly what I made.

Curry Sauce Packet
3 Chicken Breasts
1 Can of Coconut Milk (1 1/2 cups)
1 Red Pepper

Directions:
I add a tbsp of butter to a large fry pan and turn the burner on medium.  Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces.  Once done, toss them into the fry pan with the curry packet and coconut milk.  Then cut up the red pepper length wise and put them into the fry pan.  Cook on medium/medium low heat for 30-40 minutes uncovered stirring occasionaly.  I've noticed if the temperature gets too low the sauce starts to seperate a little.  You may have to play with the burner setting depending on your stove and what works best.

I have called my grandma every Sunday (with few exceptions) since I left for college nine years ago.  A weekly recap of events ranges  from how the Twins are doing and what the new design is in the Mall of America to how different family members and friends are doing.  A fair amount of our talks include recipes and cooking for the week, whether it's her baking plans for the week or what's for dinner that night.  She bakes more cookies than anyone I've ever known, always baking cookies for any holiday or special event that she can.  She usually starts baking Christmas cookies in September and doesn't stop until after New Years.  Cooking and my grandma go hand-in-hand.  I can tie most of what I love about food and everything I make back to the things I've learned from her.  Basically, my grandma is a baking legend.

Today I give you two family recipes straight from my grandma.  I am a huge fan of both Potato Salad and meatballs - a love that has definitely come out of my childhood.  My grandma puts a spin on her meatballs, adding rice and cleverly calling them Porcupine meatballs as a result.  I've made the meatballs plenty of times, but ironically, today was the first time I've ever made her potato salad.  It turns out that these dishes go quite well together as a meal.  Add some bread or a salad and you'll have some satisfied diners.

Now, onto the food!  I started making the potato salad around noon with intentions of eating around 6pm.  You'll want to prepare it in advance so it has time to fully cool and get cold in the refrigerator.  This is a loose recipe, as with most recipes, everything is to your taste.  If you think it needs more sugar or potatoes, by all means add more.

Potato Salad

Ingredients - 
6 or 7 potatoes - either yukon gold or red
1 Cup Miracle Whip
1/2 Tbsp. Traditional French Dressing
2 slices onion (chopped) - I used red, but yellow onion works well too
2 tsp. sugar
3 tsp. milk
2 Hardboiled Eggs

Directions - 
I picked up seven red potatoes and the rest of my ingredients from Ralphs this morning.  I left the skin on my potatoes in the potato salad so I washed and cleaned the potatoes pretty well before cooking them.  I used a corn/soup pot about six inches in depth to cook the potatoes.  Put the potatoes in the pot and fill with enough water in to cover the potatoes by about two inches. Take a fork and push through the potatoes to check doneness.  Depending on the size of the potatoes it will take around 30 minutes to cook.  Let the potatoes cool, either in the pot or on a cutting board.  While the potatoes are cooling I make the hard-boiled eggs.  I make hard boiled eggs by putting them in a small pot with water.  Bring the water to a boil and then take it off the burner and cover it.  For a hard boiled egg I let it stand for about 12 minutes.  After 12 minutes I put some ice in the water to cool it.  Once the eggs are cool you can slice them up and add them to the bowl later.  Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them up, but not too thin.  Think of what size you want to eat them and cut accordingly.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and adjust to taste.  I'm a big fan of miracle whip, so I added more into the bowl than required. Add the potatoes and stir them gently so it doesn't turn in to a mashed potato salad (kind of like mine did).  Once the ingredients are stirred together well, stick it in the refrigerator to cool.  I actually forgot about the milk until i used the milk for the next recipe.  I added it to the potato salad and had no problem mixing it in. Upon first tasting the potato salad after making it (like all great cooks) I didn't even notice it was missing - it just didn't seem as creamy.

This potato salad may look like a hot mess but it tastes damn good.  The longer you cool it and assuming you put the milk in at the correct time the better it will taste and set.  In the future I'll make it a day ahead of time or early in the morning so it has time to set and get real cold.  I'll also make sure to add the milk right away.

Porcupine Meatballs:

Ingredients -
2 lbs ground beef
1 tsp chili powder
1 Egg
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Milk
2 can's tomato soup
2/3 cup uncooked rice (I usually use Uncle Bens)
2 can's of water
1/2 cup of chopped onion 

Directions -
First step is taking the meat out of the fridge and I like to let it sit a couple minutes, depending on how cold your fridge is to let it soften.  Mix the meat, egg, rice, milk, salt and chili powder.  I've mixed it in a big bowl with my hands, but I usually mix it in the mixer.  The mixer is a little less messy but lets face it; when you make meatballs you're hands are getting dirty.  Once you have everything combined get a pot out to fry the meatballs.  I use the same pot as I did with the potatoes.  I coat the bottom of the pot with Canola Oil and turn the burner to medium.  Form the meat into small-medium size meatballs and place in the pot.  Remember to not overcrowd the pot and to mind the grease splatter.  I've gotten hit many times by grease/oil flying over the edge.  I haven't found a solution to stop it or slow the grease down.  You can cover the pot, which helps until you take the cover off to take the meatballs out. The other option is to use a lower heat.  Tongs seem to be the best thing to use to rotate and take out the meatballs.  Take each meatball out as it gets done and put them on a plate with a few paper towels to soak up the excess grease and oil.  Once the meatballs are done and on the plate, clean the pot you just used.  After it's clean, put it back on the stove and turn the burner on medium.  Combine tomato soup, water and onion and bring to a boil.  Put the meatballs in the pot very carefully and combine the soup and meatballs.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and let cook for 1 1/2 hours (I let mine cook 2 hours).  When it comes to things slow cooking, longer is almost always better.

This is another very simple and inexpensive meal to make.  I love making the meatballs in the winter with some mashed potatoes.  Some times I substitute 1 lb of ground turkey for 1 lb of beef to make it a little healthier, but it's hard to change something so amazing.  Depending on the size of meatballs you create, you'll usually have around 20 from this recipe.

And on the plate...

My California friends, this is definitely a midwest meal and it may look a little scary at first but just taste it and assuming you like meat and potatoes you will fall in love with them.  I love you Grandma.  Thanks for always helping me be a better person and a better cook.

Thursday afternoon I flew to Sunny and HOT Palm Springs, CA for work.  My copilot Scott and I arrived around noon to Palm Springs and Signature Flight Support FBO.  After taking care of our passenger and plane we were both ready to find some lunch.  Signature FBO has a nice facility offering a crew lounge, a couple quiet rooms and they let us use the crew car (ford fusion) for lunch.  My girlfriend Meghan recommended Tyler's Burgers the night before but said they may not be open in the summer because it's so hot and not really the tourist season. 

We got directions via google maps for Tyler's, about a ten minute drive to downtown.  There was plenty of parking available and relatively close to the restaurant.  Unfortunately once we reached Tyler's we found out it was closed.  We didn't have a backup restaurant planned so we walked around to find something new. 

We stumbled upon "Zin Cafe Med", on the corner of La Plaza and S Palm Canyon Dr.  They have outdoor and indoor seating, we decided to sit outside - see how hot we could get.  The menu offered quite the selection of choices.  They advertised serving breakfast till 4pm daily, offering crepes and omelets.  For lunch they had paninis, tapas, salads, pizza and pasta.  I was having a tough time choosing between crepes and the margarita pizza.  The crepes used buckwheat flour and sounded pretty good.  I'm not a fan of tomatoes but somehow I love margarita pizza, so I took a chance and ordered it. This is what the pizza looked at when it arrived.

 Some of you may think this looks quite appealing, I disagree.  You eat with your eyes first and this was a bad start to my meal.  The tomatoes are too big for the slice, the basil is mainly placed in the center and the cheese just looks unappealing.  Since I'm not a fan of tomatoes I was upset with the placement of them on the pizza.  When I have to either cut the pizza and eat it or try to cut the tomato with my teeth or eat the whole slice of tomato in one bite.  After my first bite the taste reminded me of those small totino's pizzas; good but poorly made.  It had a thin crust but wasn't real crispy.  It was soft but not soggy.  There was some juice that ran off the crust as I was eating it which usually would make me happy but it wasn't a good sauce.  I tried a few of the tomatoes with the pizza and they weren't to my liking.  It was annoying trying to figure out how to eat them.  I bit one in half and I ate another one in a single bite.  Neither was better than the other.  Scot had the Prosciutto Panini and had no complaints. I rate this meal a 4.

The ambiance started off well but the music turned me off after ten minutes.   They were playing Mediterranean music to begin with and then the music turned to rap and then something else I couldn't really make out.  It definitely wasn't from the Med, which was disappointing.  The tables were nicely laid out and it wasn't overcrowded. There were misters on the awning outside but they we didn't feel them where we were sitting.  The restaurant ambiance was average, nothing special but good enough to not make me want to leave.  I rate the ambience a 5.

The staff was polite and courteous.  The Hostess saw us looking at the restaurant on the sidewalk.  She said hi and gave us a menu.  Our waitress was nice but didn't seem to know the menu that well, maybe she was new.  The busboy was the most attentive.  He brought us bread and water shortly after we were seated and cleared the table quickly.  Rating for the overall staff is a 6.

My overall rating for the restaurant is FIVE SPATULAS (there are no stars in cooking). This being my first visit to this restaurant I don't like being too harsh without trying other items.  But, next time I go back to Palm Springs I'll be looking for a different restaurant to try before going back to this one.  If I went back in the morning the likelihood of trying this restaurant again may be a little higher just to try the crepes and omelette's.

I'm taking the recipe from Giada's Food Network show and making a refreshing salad and dressing.  Giada is one of my favorite chefs to watch on the Food Network.  I love making Italian food and her recipes always sound so good.  She's also not too bad to look at.  Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa" is another one of my favorite shows and I'm sure she'll be popping up here later on.  I've made this salad a couple times before with great success - happy eaters all around.  Today I'm in the mood for a salad and this was the first one to come to mind. 

I went to Henry's Farmers Market this afternoon to pick up the ingredients I needed.  I have a bad or good grocery shopping habit depending on how you look at it.  I shop at Henry's, Whole Foods, Fresh & Easy, and a local grocery store (either Ralphs or Vons).  I'd shop at Whole Foods 99% of the time if I could afford it.  Lately I've been buying most of my grocery's at Henry's with an occasional stop at Whole Foods.  I will always buy my meat and produce at Whole Foods or Henry's.  They always offer the best, freshest ingredients in comparison to Ralphs or Vons.  I have some of the ingredients in my cupboard so I only needed a few things.  I got Romaine lettuce, a red onion, Garbanzo beans, Parmesan cheese, three zucchinis and some lemon juice - all for under $8.

The salad is pretty straight forward - cut up everything and put it in a bowl.  I'm using my new Dressing Mixer for the dressing (I reviewed it too!)... always fun to play with a new kitchen item.  Making the salad and dressing took me less than twenty minutes.  This salad is a great and easy weeknight dinner idea.  If you accompany the salad with some chicken there will be enough servings for four people.  If you want just the salad it makes enough for three, maybe four.  See the link at the bottom of the article for the recipe and enjoy.

 The End Product in my lovely salad bowl - a gift from my amazing girlfriend.

On the plate ready to eat...

 Giada's Recipe