Late lunch

I love being able to introduce a new restaurant or a place I like to someone, to be able to share in the experience of what I know and like.

Travis was visiting for the holidays, and we went to one of my new favorite spots in Lansing, MBC or the Michigan Brewery Company.

Quick background on MBC: Based out of Webberville, which is where all the brewing is done. They transport all the beer to Lansing to sell from there. They carry Kid Rock's Bad Ass Beer, which I haven't tried and won't because everyone says it's bad. All of their sandwiches and burgers come on a pretzel bun (which is to die for) and are served with choice of pub fries, waffle fries and my favorite, sweet potato fries.

During today's visit (which we went for a late lunch only since I had to go to work after and Travis doesn't like beer) I had the giant, messy Bobby's Brew House BBQ Burger, with cheddar, BBQ sauce and bacon. I saw a little pink in my meat even though I asked for it be cooked well, but I didn't notice it or anything. It really is a mess to eat as with every bite, there's sauce coming out of every which way. Check out this baby.

Travis ordered the Olive Burger, which is topped with MBC's own olive sauce and he had it with waffle fries.

I also recommend the Sandpiper, which is ham, coleslaw and swiss cheese, or the Twisted Turkey, with smoked turkey breast, bacon, mild cheddar, tomato, onion and mayo.

MBC is a hotspot during the lunch hour rush and once all the state workers are out of work. When we went around 3, there were two other people in the entire place besides us. It's not the biggest of restaurants, although they did add more tables from my very first visit there, so if you go, it's probably best to go when it's not as busy.

Check out the Lansing State Journal's review of the place.

Holiday wine party

A week ago, I hosted a pretty successful (at least in my opinion) wine and cheese party, the first party I have thrown that wasn't just a hangout to drink or even do power hour. We were dressed up, I received an awesome hostess gift (thanks, Jenny) and everything felt very adult-like.

That's the setup before most of the people arrived. There were 12 of us, 10 bottles of wine, 3 bottles of champagne and 2 Boones Farms, which were chugged by Aaron and Feeny after our gift exchange. (Aaron won). The cheeses that were served were year-old cheddar, brie and Mandola, this Spanish-type of cheese that's a lot lighter than I expected it to be. It's a Michigan-made cheese and the guy at Goodrich's recommended it.

Here's a few things I learned throughout the whole process of preparing for this party:

- I read this somewhere online and it turned out to be true: People aren't going to chow down on cheese like they would chips or something else. I feel like it's more for soaking up the taste of the wine as you try more than one. I thought I wouldn't have enough cheese but there was so much left over.

- You can't really see it but I used placecards to label what kind of cheeses there were and looked online to see which types of wines were best paired with that type of cheese. But it was still fun to taste test everything and figure out which cheeses worked with which wine.

- I was a little iffy on the grapes at first. Because wine: made with grapes, obviously, and I didn't want it to be grape overload. But no one mentioned it and it didn't feel like that at all so that was fine.

- I accidentally threw out the box of toothpicks I bought that I wanted to stick in the cheese. I am not going to forget that next time.

Laura brought this Riesling that was the hit of the night. She said she bought it for the really cool-looking bottle (the main image is different.)

Another one I really liked was the Pinot Grigio. Yes, I'm a white wine drinker although I like some semi-dry reds.

I also have to mention these amazing prosciutto-wrapped melon balls that Angela made. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it!

Controlling indulges

It's difficult to control what you eat when there's always people bringing in treats at work. Last week there were Burbon balls, oatmeal cookies and cake. It's so difficult to avoid these treats when everyone is having them. This isn't an issue just around the holidays; it happens year round

Thankfully, I work nights and someone if someone on the day side brings in treats, for example the oatmeal cookies last week, by the time I come in, there's one or two left. If I can't resist it, at least I know that having one is better than say, having three.

I've realized that I'm not into trying to avoid the foods I want to eat. Because if I'm actively telling myself "don't eat this, it's unhealthy for you" I want it more and it sounds more appealing. I also don't try to make myself feel guilty after eating it. What's the point of beating yourself up and making yourself feel worse?

What I do is take that treat but make sure it's just one. I try to eat bits and pieces of it instead of all at once. That way, it feels like I'm "eating more," instead of actually eating more. Then I make to get up from my desk. Sometimes, you're so focused on your work that you forget to just get up and walk around. Doing that a few times during the night will go a long way than if you don't.

Fake it, don't make it

Do you know what's missing out there in TV land among all the Top Chefs, Paula Deans, naked chef guy whose name doesn't matter, and Rachel Rays? How many of its audience, the "average" American if you will, actually cooks those meals on the show? You do if 1) you're an aspiring chef or 2) you actually have the time to invest to make those big meals.

Me? If the recipe calls for too many complicated ingredients that I won't use ever again ... forget it. It's not practical. There needs to be a cooking show geared toward working professionals, likely recent college graduates whose main meals centered around frozen meals, Ramen noodles and anything else that can be cooked in the microwave.

It also doesn't help that in the grocery aisles, there seems to be something new that's instant. A box of something has all the ingredients you need and all you have to do is add some sort of meat. Mix it all together, cook it and in less than 15 minutes, your meal is complete and probably plenty to spare for leftovers.

When it comes to Chinese food what else is better than take out? But last night I made fried rice — just add chicken. (Thanks to Melissa for introducing me to it.) It's from the La Choy line, and the $3.99 box comes with a seasoning packet, chicken stock with peas and carrots and long grain rice.

The recipe basically calls for cooking a pound of chicken and then adding the ingredients; let it cook for 15 or so minutes. It also says to add 1 1/4 cup of water but that, I skipped. I thought the broth was more than enough and adding water would make it even more watery, which is kind of how it turned out. Even though most of the broth got absorbed by the time it was done cooking, you didn't really get individual pieces of rice — it was more clumpy. That didn't make it bad or anything because the seasoning was awesome, if not even a little overpowering. If any of you have made this with the added water, please let me know how it turns out.

After letting it cook for awhile, I added two eggs for some added protein. I snapped a pic with my phone of the finished product but the photo makes it pretty unappetizing.

Unfortunately it definitely didn't look like this:

Enjoy Enso

For lunch today, Aaron and I visited Enso, a new upscale restaurant in East Lansing. It's a lunch spot by day, dinner place by evening and nightclub at night. With a dark and orange theme to the decor inside, the atmosphere is warm and inviting, and it's one of those places you would come to hoping to "be seen."

There were many lunch items that I wanted to try: the brie, apple and prosciutto grilled cheese sandwich, the Asian chicken salad roll and the crab cake sandwich. But after a good review from my boss, I went with the grilled portabella mushroom sandwich (with pesto, provolone, roasted red peppers on ciabatta bread - $8). It came with house fries, but there's the option of sweet potato fries for a dollar more.

The fries were take-a-bite-and-then-can't-finish-the-rest hot. But for a chilly day, I welcomed the heat from it, and they were seasoned just right. The sandwich was great, too. I thought the ciabatta bread would make the sandwich too heavy, but it wasn't. From the pesto, cheese and mushroom, it got kind of messy for me and I couldn't finish the final two bites.

Aaron ordered the General Tso's chicken roll (with General Tso's marinated chicken, guacamole, mandarin oranges and romaine with chow mein noodles sprinkled on top - $9) and it came with General Tso's dipping sauce.

We both thought the chicken would be warm because General Tso's chicken —warm, right? The chicken is cold, but that didn't seem to take away from the taste. The pieces are definitely the biggest pieces of "sushi" I have ever seen, but for $9 and without anything on the side with it, it needed to be filling and it was.

If you're thinking of coming to this place for dinner, I suggest you make a reservation as soon as possible. The people who were leaving as we were going in were trying to make a dinner reservation for 7 p.m. Friday, and they were all booked. The main dining area didn't seem to look like the biggest of places but the tables were pretty close together.

I'm not sure how soon I'll be coming back here for dinner, not because I don't want to, but you know, money is tight, and one dinner trip there the same as groceries for a week, and then some

Check out another review here, and a news story about the restaurant here.