June 30, 2011- Nachos

Ben got his hair cut tonight after work, and Katie and I met him at the salon.  As soon as we walked out the door, he said "to Cactus?"  So, to Cactus we went.  Ben and I split an order of nachos while Katie had a cheese quesadilla.  The nachos were excellent tonight.  We added chicken and chorizo to the nachos covered in roasted corn, jalapenos, charred tomato salsa, cheese, and buttermilk crema.  Last time I think the nachos were short on cheese.  Not the case tonight.  Oh...so...good!  We are leaving for the long holiday weekend tomorrow, and it is great to not have to clean up after a dinner meal. 

Friday, 3/11/2011

Ben went to a photography workshop today with his friends Ryan and Tim.  Ryan's wife, Vanessa, drove up from Puyallup this evening so that she and Ryan could go out to dinner with Ben, Katie and me.  Thinking that we might be able to beat the Friday night dinner rush by a few minutes, we decided to give Cactus, our favorite West Seattle Mexican restaurant, a try.  Luckily, we did, quite literally, just beat the rush and got a table right away.  

As of late, I haven't been able to keep myself away from the half order of nachos at Cactus.  I got the olives on the side for Katie, asked for no guacamole, and added chicken and chorizo.  This time, I think they skimped on the cheese a bit.  I had too many chips without any cheese on them.  Over all, it was still delicious.  Ben had a half order of nachos too, but with different ingredients.  He asked for no olives, jalapenos, or pico de gallo, and added chorizo and skirt steak.  Katie polished off my olives very quickly and then picked at her cheese quesadilla. 

It was so nice to catch up with Ryan and Vanessa.  We last saw them at Katie's birthday party in December. 

Friday, 2/4/2011

Katie and I picked Ben up from work today and headed to Cactus, our favorite restaurant on Alki beach.  I can't seem to stay away from their nachos with roasted corn, jalapenos, pico de gallo, charred tomato salsa, buttermilk crema, chicken, and chorizo.  Yum!!!  Ben had a pork dish off of the menus of specials for the evening.  The pork was extremely tender and was in a delicious sauce.  He didn't care of the carrot topping.  We got Katie a chicken quesadilla.  She ate some of it, but was more interested in coloring.  

The best part of the meal, not really, was when Katie leaned over in her booster seat to give me a piece of tortilla chip.  She fell over onto me, dragging her paper placemat and the bowl of salsa resting on it, into her lap.  I was blowing my nose at the time and couldn't do anything to stop her.  It makes me want to use high chairs until she can't fit anymore.  The benches in restaurant booths are just not stable enough for booster seats, at least not for our squirmy toddler. 

Friday, 11/12/2010

We ate out at Cactus tonight.  Ben and I both had half orders of nachos with chorizo and chicken.  They remain my favorite nachos ever.  We ordered Katie a grilled chicken breast, which came sliced.  Knowing her like we do, we asked the waiter to bring her a bowl of ketchup.  Sure enough, she was only willing to eat the chicken once it had been dipped in ketchup multiple times.  She also ate a good helping of olives from my nachos.  I just order them on the side so that I can give them to her to eat.  

After we got Katie down for the evening, we watched the movie "An Education."  It was the last movie nominated for Best Picture in the 2010 Academy Awards that we needed to see.  Yes, I know that the Oscars were in March, but it just takes time to get through 10 movies when you stop to watch TV series like Mad Men:)  It was a good movie that I am glad I watched; although, I don't think I would watch it again.

Friday, 9/10/2010

Today is technically not the first Friday of the month; however, Ben's company celebrated "First Friday" tonight. In a nut shell, employees from his company gather together the first Friday of each month at a local restaurant or tavern to chat, eat, and have a few drinks.  Due to Labor Day weekend, this month's gathering was postponed a week, until today.  Katie and I had been out and about, running errands, and stopped by Ben's office to take him home.  When he mentioned that first Friday was in progress, we decided to park the car and partake.  We met his coworkers at El Malecon, on the corner of Seneca and Post Alley.  It is just a block away from his office; so, it is convenient.  The servers are nice and the food is OK.  The best part is that there is always room for a large party. 

I was starving by the time we got there, so I basically ate nachos along with a margarita for dinner.  Ben only ate a couple chips, so he had left over spaghetti and garlic bread when we got home. Katie was quite entertaining at the restaurant.  She said "hi" to everyone, gave fist bumps and high-fives, and played with her food.  She didn't eat much, but that does seem to be a dinner trend these days.  

After we put Katie down for the night, I started to bake cookies for our church's 2nd time sale tomorrow.  If you are in or near West Seattle and you like to hunt for treasures, you should stop by Fauntleroy Church UCC tomorrow, between 9am and 3pm.  In addition to the great deals, you will find delicious baked goods...like my cookies:)  I baked Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies using a recipe I got from www.verybestbaking.com--a Nestle website.  The specific recipe is found here:  http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32364. 

A couple notes about the cookie recipe:

• I add in a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for each batch.  The recipe says you can add an optional 1/2 cup.  I found that I needed more chocolate:)
• I have never made the glaze that the recipe calls for.  I don't think the cookies need it with the chocolate chips.  Also, the glaze would make them too sticky to stack and store efficiently.  
• In my oven, the cookies are definitely done in 15 minutes.   
• I don't grease the baking sheets, because I line my baking sheets with Silpat--non-stick baking mat. 

After eating his first pumpkin cookies of the season, Ben said "Ah, Fall is here" with a big smile on his face:)

Tuesday, 8/31/2010

This morning I accounted for all of our receipts from the month.  I found that we had a little more money in our dining out budget than we usually do on the last day of the month.  What a nice surprise!  So, Katie and I picked Ben up from work and took him to Cactus for dinner.  The last time we ate there I had the nachos and fell in love.  I couldn't try something new tonight; I had to have them again.  As expected, the nachos were delicious.  I am a little disappointed in myself for finishing the whole dish.  I actually stopped halfway through with the intention of taking some home for lunch tomorrow, but found myself eating them all.  Oh well.

Ben ordered a Chimayo Enchilada--blue corn tortillas, house-made chorizo, chicken, spicy green chile sauce, and jack cheese.  It was served with their delicious rice and black beans.  He was disappointed in his enchilada.  He said the quality had gone down hill a bit--something about the tortilla being broken up and not wrapped around.  We still enjoyed our meal out together as a family.  

Katie ate a little cheese and a few grapes, drank some water, ate a lot of black olives, and refused chicken and sausage.  Her nap schedule has shifted to later in the day and is causing her to eat lunch late in the afternoon. I imagine that is making her less hungry for dinner. Thankfully, she was in a pretty good mood while we ate. 

What a nice way to end the month!

Sunday, 8/29/2010

We had a nice, leisurely morning at Jennifer's. Katie let us sleep in until 8am!!! We got ready, had breakfast, and then took our time packing and loading the car. Thankfully, the traffic was pretty smooth for our trip back to Seattle. We got home mid afternoon and had plenty of time to unpack and settle in before the Emmy's started:)

Our dinner was primarily left-overs from the birthday party. Before we left Jennifer's this morning, she helped us divide and pack dips, chicken, potatoes, etc. How nice to come home and have food ready to eat! In addition to the party food, Ben and I also made small plates of nachos, using taco meat from last week.

We watched the Emmy's all the way through and were thrilled that our favorite new sitcom, Modern Family, won several awards tonight. Nicely done!

Monday, 8/23/2010

It's nacho week at the Ackers home.  Well, really, it will only be nacho Monday and nacho Thursday.  Anyway, I covered two plated in tortilla chips, added a layer of shredded cheese, a layer of taco seasoned lean, ground beef, a little hot sauce, and then another scant layer of cheese.  Popped in the microwave and dipped into salsa, these were pretty good nachos:)  

I tried to give Katie some left over pork, grapes, and cheese for dinner.  She wanted nothing to do with them.  She was only interested in dipping things into the salsa.  The catch was that she really didn't want to eat any of the things she dipped into the salsa.  So, she would whine and grunt and point and make awful sounds to get something like a chip and then continue that noise until she was given the salsa to dip into.  She would dip in, lick it, then give it back to me.  I will admit it--it got quite annoying after a while.  Sorry Ben, I wasn't very patient with that tonight. 

Saturday, 7/10/2010

We got home from our vacation around 4:30 tonight. Since the fridge was pretty empty and the house was hot, we decided to go out for dinner. Ben and I both wanted to go to Cactus on Alki beach. There were so many people at the beach today for the West Seattle Summer Fest and the Seafair Pirates Landing. I was shocked that we didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes for a table. The garage doors on the front of the restaurant were open and we had a great breeze throughout our meal.

I ate a 1/2 order of nachos. I am pretty sure that was the best plate of nachos I have ever had. I had roasted corn, jalapeños, pico de gallo, charred tomato salsa, buttermilk crema, chicken, and chorizo on my chips. Oh, and I know there was some kind of cheese on them too. I ordered the black olives on the side so that I could give them to Katie. She dumped them all out of the bowl in front of her and then put almost all of them back in. Wow, each bite was soo full of flavor. I would DEFINITELY order that again!

Ben had the House Chimichchanga: crisp flour tortilla, chorizo, jack cheese and green chile sauce. We both love the rice they serve at Cactus. It has small pumpkin seeds in it, which give a little crunch. Katie had a pretty big lunch, so she only ate some of Ben's rice and my olives for dinner. She was far more interested in people watching and coloring on her placemat than eating.

Sunday, 5/2/2010

Ok, time to finish off the chili. I covered two plates with tortilla chips, added the chili that I made earlier in the week, and topped with shredded cheddar. A minute in the microwave each and we each enjoyed chili nachos. It was a fine, filling meal, but I now know I prefer to use taco meat for nachos. The chips got a bit soggy and would have been better dipped into the chili.