Cornish Pasty

A new diner opened up where the old Scratch House used to be. The Cornish Pasty Company has a few other locations around but I have never heard of them.  Every culture has its egg-roll and this is what the English have come up with.  Traditionally, a pasty is dough filled with meat and potatoes.  Now they fill it with all sorts of stuff.  We tried the cottage pie and chicken masala but there are lots of other options that need to be tested.  They even have a peanut butter jelly one which sounds divine.  Hidden on the dessert menu is a most wonderful sticky toffee pudding which is is as good or better than the expensive Gordon Ramsey version.  Don’t skip dessert.

Tandori wings with mint yogurt sauce
Cottage Pie (this is with ground beef, the shepherds pie is with lamb) with a wine gravy
Chicken Masala with more mint yogurt
Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice cream

Update:  we came back for more.  Sadly, they were out of the toffee pudding.

Cheesy broccoli cauliflower bake
Masala and Ruben. (they were out of the salmon version)

Greek Bistro

Greek Bistro over by Sunset Casino is a nice little cafe with really good food.  We have gotten gyro’s to before but wanted to try some other menu items.  The babaganush is fresh, the spanikopitas are also freshly made upon order.  Everything was good.

Babaganush is tough to make and get the consistency right.
Spanokopita: Usually these are made earlier in the day and reheated as needed. These appeared to be made fresh for us. Should have ordered a dozen.
Pistachio: Greek lasagna
Mousaka

    

Retaining Wall

The driveway here is narrow and you cant open both car doors.  The neighbor’s retaining wall is starting to erode away and that side was an eyesore so we are attempting to fix all that.  The driveway was dug back a foot and some bricks were put down and now we just have to build up the wall using stones from the corrals nearby.  We gave the poor palm tree a new home.

Mid project
Mostly finished
Another Angle
Quality control, Project Manager, and OSHA supervisor keeps an eye on things
A little planter area 02 20 2022
A little planter area 02 20 2022
Looking great as of 02 20 2022
Looking great as of 02 20 2022
Rob made a little stairs for quick access to the porch.
Rob made a little stairs for quick access to the porch.

 

Ventano’s

Ventano Italian Grill is our favorite Italian restaurant in town.  Nora’s is a close second. It is in Henderson and has a good view of downtown from the patio.  They only had the lunch menu available this afternoon, but that’s okay as it is all good.  The dinner menu has a potato wrapped salmon which sounds strange but is pretty awesome.

Arancini: Risotto balls with peas, beef and cheese. Don’t skip these.
Linguini and clams
Pasta con Fungiloids
Lasagna with meatballs

 

Bellagio

Ventured to the Bellagio for somebody’s 79th birthday.  They had the Chinese New Year theme out.  It’s the year of the Tiger.  There were crowds inside but not crazy amounts of people.  Lots of marijuana smokers outside.

Fishies
Lookin’ good
Who dat
Money tree
Chihuly glass on the ceiling is still the best part of this casino

Chicken and Waffles

Everybody has heard of chicken and waffles.  Most of us think what’s the big deal, I know what a waffle is and I know what fried chicken is like.  Why would you put those 2 together?

The nurses at Duke took me to Dame’s in North Carolina 10 years ago.  It was packed at 3 in the afternoon and I was the only white person there.  You pick your own waffle batter, your own butter, your own toppings, and your chicken.  Get the spicy greens and you have your ‘sweet-salty-spicy’ food triangle.  That is where the magic happens – when you get all 3 of those elements in each bite.  I was hooked.

Roscoe’s in Los Angeles has a reputation for the best chicken/waffle on the west coast. Friend Bart and I went there one evening but it was a let down as it was run down and full of vagrants.  All of LA is like that now.

In Vegas we have Mama Bird which is very good –  but I had the chance to get back to Whiskey Cake in San Antonio.  They have half a dozen other places mostly in TX.  They have a gazillion types of whiskey too at the bar which unfortunately I cannot appreciate anymore.  The chicken and waffles bring me back anytime I am in the area.  They add bacon to the waffle batter.  They add 2 eggs to the waffle.  They have large boneless battered chicken tenders added.  They cover the chicken with a sausage gravy.   Then you cover the whole mess with maple syrup to tie it all together.

It might be worth flying to Texas just for this

Kungfu Noodle

This Chinese Noodle shop doesn’t look like much from the outside or even inside decor, but don’t let that fool you.   This really is a hidden gem.  You thought the tortilla lady at Cafe Rio was fun to watch, well you ain’t seen nothing yet.  These folks are swinging and stretching and twisting all the noodles by hand.  Here is a video.  So you get fresh noodles but the beef broth is really, really good.   The szechuan brisket soup is devine.  The regular brisket soup is also very good.  The sesame balls  (filled with red bean paste) are a good appetizer not seen often on menus.  We will be back but I dont know how we will ever try anything else on the menu as the brisket soup is perfect.

 

Sesame Balls
Szechuan Brisket. Look at that hot yummy red color
Regular Brisket soup

 

Surviving Covid

Right before Thanksgiving, covid came to visit.  After 2 years of full time travel and working in hotspots without a single issue, we get it while both working from home.  About 5 days after exposure you get slight fever, body aches, head aches, light cough, and loss of taste/smell.  Tomoko got it first and after a few days went to CVS for a test and it came back positive. I knew it was a matter of time before I would get it.  The first week wasn’t too bad, just take it easy and sleep a lot.  Unlike a common cold, it keeps going strong for a second week.  You think you are getting better but then your fever spikes. You think you are getting better but then your cough gets much worse.  Once it gets in your lungs, then you need to get antibiotics. Tomoko had to go to the clinic and get Rx for zithromax, medrol, and codeine cough syrup.  That made a huge difference.  It can take a month for your smell and taste to return.  We both still have a lingering cough a month after.

I had the advantage of seeing this coming so I was able to hit the pony paste and HCQ a lot sooner and had a much milder time.   I did stop taking these meds after a week and that is when my fever spiked.   So keep taking your IVM, D, C, Zinc, aspirin for a full 2 weeks.    I should have also used the neti-pot to flush the sinuses  (use some iodine or peroxide) to knock the viral load down.  Also get some azithromycin to have on hand.  You want all these things readily available BEFORE you get sick.  You need to have a plan for home treatment.

The good news is we both have good natural immunity now which is orders of magnitude better than the gene therapy being pushed.

Thanksgiving

Even though we hardly ever leave the house anymore, a virus of some kind snuck past the mandatory masks into the household.  Nothing major, but to be safe it is best not to infect others and have the traditional thanksgiving with others.  So we made a small dinner here on the BBQ.

Green Beans, Stuffing (bacon, craisons, walnuts, onion, celery, apple), Turkey (boneless with apple, onion, sage).  Not shown is home made cranberry sauce.
Lulu sleeping on the job while supervising