Beijing Noodle No. 9

While in Vegas last week, we ate at this cool place called Beijing Noodle No. 9 in Caesar's Palace.

What a cool atmosphere! (Those are fish tanks in the background.)



The actual noodle bar, and all their spices/pastas/beans.


Chef in the back cooking. Most of us ordered dumplings - I got the pork dumplings, and they were really good. Still, nothing is as good as those pork soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown NYC. Sometimes I wonder if I remember them better than they were....I guess I'll have to back and have them again! Somebody else ordered some sort of shrimp (I can't remember what the sauce was), but it was really good. The food was a little pricey, but what isn't in Vegas?

Food: 4 stars

Atmosphere: 5 stars

Would I go back? Maybe, but it's not at the top of my list.

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade

So I've been inspired to try out lots of new recipes, thanks to Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade! I picked up her Oct-Nov magazine since I love holiday treats, and it has tons of great (and easy!) recipes. Most of them were winners (while eating, my way of finding out if Jack likes it is asking him if it's repeat-worthy, and almost all of them were)! And in less than two months, I've tried out pretty much all the recipes from the magazine that I wanted to. Time to buy the next one, just in time for Christmas! Here are the recipes we've done:

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy - yum!

Las Chalupas (this one was actually from her website)

Caramel apples - thumbs down! This wasn't a Semi-Homemade thing, but I wanted to try and make my own "gourmet" caramel apples. Didn't turn out so great, and we threw pretty much all of them away. Maybe one day I'll try again...

Ann Brooks' Shredded Pork (this recipe made soooo much pork!)

Loaded Potato Soup (this was one of our favorites)

Black and White Loaf Cake (talk about sweet! and it was so tall, it was hard to make it stand straight!)

Spicy Red Beans and Rice

Chicken & Dumplings (I know this one doesn't look that great, but it was really good.)

Tombstone Treats

Breaded Chicken and Spaghetti

Originally I thought I'd do one post for each meal, and include the recipes. But...you know how life gets, and this was much quicker! So let me know if you want any of these recipes. And check out Sandra Lee's website or magazine - you won't regret it!