Every once in awhile we do the segment called Out ‘n About with The Manly Housewife. It’s a fun way to go eat and experience some different restaurants and cuisines. Last night, with some urging from my wife, we went to a great sushi place called MK’s Sushi. What a great atmosphere and superb food! It was like dining in a nice martini lounge, without the scantily clad cocktails waitresses walking around. Forgive the quality of the pictures with this blog; they were all taken on my Blackberry.

Our meal started off with a nice bowl of miso soup. Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called “dashi,” which is mixed with a softened miso paste. It was light and tasty, seasoned with scallions and full of texture from the tofu pieces, a perfect starter. From there we moved on to the Ahi Tower. The Ahi Tower comes out in a fun, round tower shape and is then mixed together to become what my wife and I decided would be best described as a dip. I am sure that’s not the impression they’re going for, but we could have both gone with a bowl chips to eat this with.

Ahi Tower

Crab, Cucumber, Avocado, Topped with Spicy Caviar, Tuna & Sauce (I forgot to take a picture)

For dinner we enjoyed a couple of different sushi rolls. My wife and I have progressed  toward different palates when it comes to sushi. When we first started to eat sushi together, we would share rolls and make our own a la carte-style dinner. Now we seem to almost run screaming in different directions. I tend to go for the meatier, hefty-style rolls; while she aims for the very delicate, lighter-fare rolls. We still sample each others’ rolls but are developing our own unique styles. She really enjoyed the Beach roll with the mango dipping sauce; while I had the Yummi Yummi roll (how can you not like that name?).

Beach Roll

Crab, Avocado, Cucumber, Mango, & Shrimp wrapped in Rice Paper

Yummi Yummi Roll

Deep Fried Shrimp, Avocado & Rice topped with Fried Shrimp

Our drinks where as fun as our dinner. I went with my traditional “Hot Sake,” which is an alcoholic drink made from rice. I learned to love sake during my service in the Marine Corps. My wife enjoyed a “Femme Fatale” martini.  It was light and  fruity (and I got to eat the cherry when she finished, so it was all good by me).

Femme Fatale

Soju,

Pomegranate Liquor

Champagne

Sweet & Sour

Shaken and poured into a chilled martini glass and garnished with a cherry.

We really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere at MK’s Sushi and highly recommend  this place. I couldn’t find a Facebook page for them, but here is the address:

Mk’s Sushi

2901 Fair Drive, Fort Worth, Texas76131 (817) 306-0003 ()

Panini presses are a fun, versatile kitchen tool. There are so many things you can do with them that help make a quick dinner a breeze. They can function as an indoor grill or griddle and they sit right on your counter-top. Last night I broke mine out and was on a mission. My wife and I had planned to make Philly cheese steak paninis and had purchased all the ingredients we thought we’d need to make them. However, we forgot one key ingredient. . . the sourdough bread! Arrgh! That’s kind of a biggie for paninis. So I had to improvise a little bit and come up with a secondary option. What’s one thing we almost always have in our house? Tortillas! So Paninis became quesadillas, and it worked brilliantly! You should definitely try this one out. As my wife always says, “Messy food is great food,” and let me tell you, these were messy as all get out!

Philly Cheese Steak Quesadillas

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 Slices Angus Roast Beef (we got this from our local deli)

4 Slices Thick-Cut Havarti Cheese (our new favorite cheese)

1/4 Each Thinly Sliced  Onion, Red Pepper, Orange Pepper, Yellow Pepper

2 12-Inch Flour Tortillas

1 Cup Sliced Button Mushrooms

Directions

1. Heat panini press to directions for a panini or quesadillas.
2. Lay tortilla on a flat surface and layer.
3. Cheese 1 Slice Cut in Half, Roast Beef, Peppers, Mushrooms, Cheese.
4. Fold tortilla over, making a half moon shape  and grill for 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Repeat for second quesadilla.
6. Enjoy!

You know, everyone should hope to have a close group of friends that stick together through life’s ups and downs.  Luckily, I have been blessed with this for many years. I have a very tight-knit group of friends that have been hanging out for almost 20 years. We have been there for one another through all the good stuff in life, as well as life’s inevitable  heartaches. It’s always fun every time we get together because we relive the stories of our youth and and catch up on the current going-on’s in all our lives. Last night, my wife and I went to see the gang. It was great to catch up! It had been a couple of months since our last get-together and a lot had happened in all our lives since then. Within the group, some of us are long-time members and some of us are newer additions, which includes my wife, now a 5-year veteran of the group, and my buddy Lou’s wife, who is our newest addition (she has been great for him, and it’s truly nice to finally see him happy).

Nikki and Joe are the stable couple of the group and have had that relationship everyone should strive to have. Nikki has jokingly always been the “dude with long hair.” She is a beautiful woman that has been “one of the guys” as long as we all have been hanging out. We have some other friends that have come and gone. Some passed on, some just left, but the core group remains.  Soon, you will read a blog where we rally all the friends and do one hell of a get-together. All right then! On with the dinner. . .

First, before my wife and I left the house, we made a quick drink so I was able to make sure I had something to blog about today. You know how it goes: get around your friends, few drinks go around, and then you forget to take any pictures.

Asian Peach Cocktail

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 Ounce Spiced Rum

1 Ounce Peach Vodka

1 Ounce Sake

1 Ounce Pomegranate Juice

Lime Twist

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a shake with 1 cup full of ice.
2. Shake vigorously covered.
3. Pour into a long stem fluted glass.
4. Add a twist of lime.
5. Enjoy!

Be careful with these! They pack a wallop!

When we got to the house, the gang was already rolling and going with dinner. We were told before our arrival that it would be a Tex-Mex-style dinner, and, man, were we in for a treat! The dinner started with two wonderful appetizers. 

Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp & Cream Cheese Stuffed, Bacon-Wrapped Jalapenos

These two dishes where great! Each had a unique, robust flavor that heated up the senses, without setting them on fire.

The shrimp were wrapped in bacon and pan fried, which allowed for the crispness of the bacon to meld with the shrimp. While the cream-cheese-stuffed jalapenos were oven baked, they held up well with the cheese really mellowing out the intense heat of the jalapenos. The stuffed jalapenos were such a hit with EVERYONE that a two-second lapse in judgment (and a really fast dog) resulted in a very large Mastiff now being carefully watched after ingesting 8 or 9 of the said delcious jalapenos.

The main course was a buffet-style extravaganza of fajita-style offerings. Tex-Mex being one of my favorite foods, I was delighted to see that all the good stuff there.

Buffet-Style Fajitas

When serving a large group, buffet-style anything is the way to go, and it worked well here.

Pan-Roasted Chicken

Skillet-Seared Flank Steak

Homemade Guacamole

Sour Cream

Tomatoes, Onions, Peppers, Salsa, Lettuce, and Cheese (the cheese really makes it Tex-Mex).  What a brilliant dinner! It had me so stuffed, they would have had to roll me out the door to get me home. But wait, there’s more. Just because my stomach was filed to capacity didn’t mean there wasn’t still one more course to go.

While digesting dinner, some funny conversations ensued about ’8Os movies that had been seen or not. Being from the Atari (then Nintendo) youth, we’d seen a lot. We were all surprised to find out Bonnie (Lou’s wife) had hardly seen any. She grew up in the country, where they did real things, like went outside and played (can you imagine?!), so she missed a lot of the movies the rest of us “inside kids” had seen.

It now become the group’s mission to help Bonnie experience the movies she missed out on in her youth. She probably has a better head on her shoulders than the rest of us because of it, but we aimed to remedy that. To begin the journey, we finished off the night with dinner and the movie, “The Never Ending Story.” Can anyone hear themselves yelling “FALCOR!” I sure did!

Strawberry Dessert

This dessert was phenomenal! It was a cake with a  light, fluffy texture and a wonderful strawberry topping. I definitely ate too much and was completely miserable on the drive home.  However, it was still great and well worth the misery.

What a great time and a great dinner. The group has decided to be more regular with our get-togethers and try for once a month. Everyone is excited about the blog and even considering  sharing some favorite dishes to put on the blog.  Thanks to all of you that follow this blog.  Because of you and the comments and feedback you leave, it inspires and motivates me and my wife to continue to enjoy and share Good Food, Good Drinks, & Good Friends!

Cheers!

The Manly Hosuewife

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The Manly Housewife and Ancient Fire are teaming up again, and this time we are looking for healthy and fresh side dishes for our backyard barbecues.

For the next two weeks, we are asking for visitors to submit comments to this post with a healthy and fresh recipe that they would bring to a backyard BBQ. Defining healthy could be a challenge, so we are going to keep it simple. Recipes should be low in bad fats and salt, with a reasonable calorie count and as many vitamins, minerals, and other good stuff as possible. Maximize the flavors and enjoyment while minimizing the negative impacts. You’re going to be eating burgers and dogs with it after all!

Recipes must include all ingredients with exact measurements, detailed preparation steps, expected servings, and any recommended service steps. Make sure you also tell us why you love a certain ingredient or what your goals were for combining the flavors, and of course anything else that excites you about healthy and fresh food.

The prize for the lucky winners will be a feature in each of the hosts’ blog one day the following week. The hosts will pick multiple winners randomly from all the entries we accept (see the rules above) and will contact winners for more information. Take pictures of anything applicable. If you win and you can get us photos, we’ll post them. Also include the address to contact you at for follow-ups.