We love Dylan’s

Dylan’s is a locally owned hamburger restaurant. It’s fantastic.  The burgers here are better, larger, and slightly more expensive than typical chain fast food places.

Located in Kaysville Utah right on Main Street, it’s convenient to most of Davis County, and not a bad drive from anywhere in the Wasatch Front. Probably no more than half an hour’s drive north from Salt Lake City.

But boy is the food good! My favorite burger is anything with bacon. Dylan’s puts real, high quality bacon on their bacon burgers. Be sure to try the sweet potatoes fries. They also make a wonderful line of sandwiches and the have high quality ice cream.

We go to Dylan’s all year long, it’s our quick destination on special occasions. We’ve made Dylan’s our place to go after school events and for birthdays. But Dylan’s is especially traditional for us in the summer.

On really nice summer days I’m sure to hear someone in my family say: “Can we go to Dylan’s tonight?” I hope we can.

White Chip Cocoa cookies

These cookies made me famous.

Even I love to eat these cookies. They are so delicious I can’t even begin to explain. And they are very attractive cookies too. They always cook up nice and fluffy, and never turn out flat.

Lots of my friends and family have had great success with these cookies.
No matter how many cookies I make, they disappear in a big hurry after I’m done baking them. Sometimes they even disappear faster if my family can get to the cookie dough. These cookies look as good as they taste. They are dark chocolate cocoa cookies with white chocolate chips. They haven’t really got a name. We just call them “Those cookies”.

Here’s the recipe:

Dry ingredients:

2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup Nestle toll house baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

1 cup ( 2 sticks ) butter or margarine / softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups ( 12 – ounce pkg ) Nestle toll premium white morsels.

Mix up all dry ingredients (by hand) and set aside.

Beat: Butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until creamy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Gradually beat in dry ingredient mixture. Stir in morsels.

Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 9 to 11 minutes. 9 minutes gives you soft cookies, more than 10 gives you crunchy cookies. Let stand for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Café Rio

If no one can agree on where to go to eat, someone will eventually say, “Café Rio?” and everyone will suddenly agree. Café Rio is absolutely one of my favorite places to go for dinner. Café Rio is home-style Mexican food.

I suppose that Café Rio is technically fast food, but the quality of the food is top notch. There are always lots of people here, but we never wait too long in line, and we’ve never had a problem finding a table.

A lot of people ask me if I like to come to Café Rio because I’m from Mexico and therefore I want to find good Mexican food.
Nope.
I just come to Café Rio because I love the food here period.
But as Mexican food goes, there are some things here that make me happy. I love their Horchata. Horchata is rice water, and when it’s made right, it’s very very delicious. It’s hard to find good horchata here in the States. But in general I find the preparation of the food at Café Rio very appealing to the Mexican palate.

I will say that I brought my mother to Café Rio when she came to visit, and she was very impressed. My sister and her family came from Mexico to see us, and they were wowed by Café Rio. So I guess you can say that Café Rio scores points with the Mexican population.

My favorite dish is the steak tostada on a corn tortilla. The burritos are huge and very filling. I love that the flour tortillas are fresh and made right before your eyes.  I’ve always wanted to request one just to take home. Maybe I’ll try that on our next visit.

Sounds like I have a reason to go back soon!

If you love Cafe Rio, then go try The Oaks! ( <-- click there to visit my entry on The Oaks)

Meat Salad

Whenever I can’t think of what I want to make for dinner, my family will always say, “Make meat salad!”

Yep, Meat Salad. Simple name, simple meal.  It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s delicious. The only hard part is making the video, but I’m learning and they will get better over time.
This is not a Caesar salad. I let my family put their favorite dressing on once the salad is served. This salad is sometimes made with beef and sometimes with chicken. I get the feeling from my family that they prefer the beef.

This is a very easy meal. It’s very quick and complete.

Start with a salad. Any green salad you like. I’m not going to tell you how to make a salad. Just get some lettuce. Maybe add some of your other favorite vegetables.

I like to add Salad toppings or seasoning.

When I make this salad with beef, I often use fajita meat. On special occasions I buy a nice selection of steaks.  I marinate the meat while I prepare the salad and set the table.
The marinade is a combination of vinegar, olive oil, and beef marinade seasoning.

Then I brown the meat. If I’m using steak, I cut the grilled steaks into strips.

Obviously the browned fajita meat is then added to the salad. The meat must be added right when the salad is ready to be served or the meat will wilt the lettuce.

This is a familiar meal. It’s a lot like a Caesar  salad. Caesar Salad just a salad with caesar dressing and grilled chicken.

If you go to Applebee’s, you can have a Ceaser Salad with steak on top, and they’ll cut up an actual steak on your salad.

At my house you’ll have some fajita meat in your salad, but I promise you’ll like it. Or some great grilled chicken. We do that sometimes too.

We’re fans of Famous Dave’s

There’s just nothing like sitting there in Famous Dave’s, listening to good blues music, taking in that wonderful smell of barbeque, waiting for your ribs.

The service is fast and enthusiastic.

We just went to Famous Dave’s for my birthday. My daughter and her husband were able to join us. It was a Friday evening and there was a good crowd out at Famous Dave’s. But the thirty minute wait was not bad at all. The atmosphere in Famous Dave’s is fun and cozy and it makes waiting for your table part of the fun. There is a big fire place in the entry with plenty of seating all around. The fun blues music playing throughout the restaurant leaves you with a good feeling.

But the smell, holy cow, the smell is what makes waiting at Famous Dave’s the best.  It just makes you think of good times.  By the time you get a table, you are READY for some great barbeque. And that’s what Famous Dave’s is all about.

We always order “The Feast”. We usually ask them to switch the barbeque chicken for more brisket. The pork and beans is great, and spicy.  And finally, the corn bread muffins are the best!

Most of all Famous Dave’s is a great place for a cozy dinner with my family. I get sentimental about that restaurant!

A-1 Chicken

Another frequently requested dish in my house. This is one of my many recipes that come from a need for a quick, inexpensive, easy meal that everyone will love.

A-1  Chicken evolved from just a simple grilled chicken recipe. I knew I wanted a marinade for chicken, and I knew that our family loved A-1 steak sauce.

The marinade is liberal squirts of A-1,

Salt, pepper,

Vinegar, Olive oil,

All to taste.

 I’m currently trying some pineapple juice in the marinade.

Then I let the chicken sit in the marinade in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

The chicken is then grilled. On the grill outside, or grilled on the stove.

Filming the video for this recipe was NERVE RACKING!! But I hope you get the idea, and I’ll try to get more into the swing of the videos for the next recipe.

If you like this recipe, you'll like my recipe for Meat Salad!  Give it a look!

Julie’s food blog.

My name is Julie Mangum, and it has taken me twenty five years to admit that people like to eat when they come to my house. I’m not trying to brag in anyway, but it’s time I accept the fact that cooking is one of the things I can do well. I’m ready to share my recipes.

None of my recipes are hard, or complicated, or time-consuming, or fancy. These are dishes you can prepare with your children. But at the risk of sounding like I’m bragging, these are recipes that people who come to my house love.

The names of many of the dishes in this blog have been lost. I was told the proper names for each recipe when they were shared with me, but they were lost a long time ago. The names of our favorite dishes slowly changed to names that little children and a silly husband found easier to remember.

I was raised in Sinaloa Mexico, and I was brought up in a tradition of great cooking. My mother’s kitchen was a place of great activity. My mother is a great cook. So are my sisters. We loved to gather in Mom’s kitchen to laugh and cook and talk and eat. Shared recipes were a matter of arguments and demonstrations.

Now I have a family of my own, and I’m trying to pass on this tradition of great cooking to my own children. Now my kids like to be in the kitchen with me suggesting changes to recipes, experimenting with spices and laughing and sampling and even arguing about how things should be done. Even my husband gets involved, and cooking is NOT one of his talents. But that’s what I love about family recipes, they include everyone and anyone who wants to participate.

I’m going to try to keep this blog fun. I have things to say other than just recipes. And I’m hoping to get lots of feedback an input from readers.