-Heading to the AT&T Ball Park for a Giants game? If your love southern and soul food, or are a Golden State Warriors fan, try Big Nate’s Barbeque: Former Golden State Warriors Nate Thurmond opened the popular Memphis-style barbeque joint in 1974. Carnivores say the oak-smoked ribs are addictive. Take out, eat in, or they deliver. For more info: bignatesbarbeque.com/ 1665 Folsom St, San Francisco, (415) 861-4242
Open Mon-Sat 11am-9:30pm; Sun 12pm-9:30pm

-For traditional San Francisco low-key power-dining to impress the boss, granddad, or potential in-laws, or if you are in the Financial District on business, don’t miss the nearly 160 year-old Tadich Grill. Opened in the Gold Rush days as a coffee stand, it’s the oldest restaurant in San Francisco. The dark wood walls, white linen and enclosed booths give it the feel of a men’s club. Try favorites: fried calamari, Dungeness crab cakes, sand dabs, cioppino, and creamed spinach is a favorite too. Arrive early because they don’t accept reservations. Located on the California cable car line at 40 California Street between Battery. 415/391-1849

-Swan Oyster Depot: This atmospheric spot on Polk Street has been a fixture since 1912. It’s casual and perfect if you’re walking all over the City. Hop on the California cable car line and get off at Polk and you’re there. Sit at the marble counter and dig into crab, oysters, sour dough bread and sauvignon blanc. 1517 Polk St. 415-673-1101
Mon-Sat 8am-5:30pm. Cash only.

-Molinari’s Delicatessen has been in North Beach since 1896 making quintessential take-out 5-star Italian sandwiches. NYC can’t beat this slice of Italy. 373 Columbus Ave (between Grant Ave & Vallejo St) 415-421-233 Open 9-5 except Sundays.

-The Absinthe Brasserie & Bar is located in the popular Hayes Valley neighborhood, near the Civic Center. It’s a popular choice for classic upscale French fare for lunch, dinner, or late-night café after the nearby symphony, ballet and opera. Brunch is served on Saturday and Sunday. The bar offers over 500 domestic and international wines, and Thursdays are their popular "Flight Nights" from 7-12M. Visiting hipsters, go here. 398 Hayes Street. Check it out: absinthe.com

-Farallon–If you and your sweetie are hitting the upscale shops in Union Square and want an equally impressive dining experience, Farallon is your fantasy spot. Named for our offshore islands, Farallon is one of the best and most beautiful restaurants in the country. For more information: farallonrestaurant.com

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I was recently at an Applebees restaurant and I got to wondering how they make all their food. Not just how long it takes them to cook a chicken breast or anything like that, but how they prepare the whole dish. It bothered me like a buzzing fly that won’t stop swarming around your head. I finally had to do something about it. I got on the internet and started doing a little research, and now I can make the food that tastes so great, and it even saves me money!

My favorite copycat Applebees recipe is hot artichoke spinach dip. It’s so easy it can make the worst of cooks look good.

The ingredients are:

1 (10 oz.) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 cup shredded parmesan-romano cheese mix

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

10 oz. prepared alfredo sauce

1 tsp. minced garlic

4 oz. softened cream cheese

Pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and spread mixture into an 8"x8" baking dish.

3. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheeses are bubbling and melted.

4. Serve with chips or bread.

It led me to copycat recipes from Applebees and many more restaurants and now I can eat in, impress my family with my cooking skills, and save some cash! What started as a pesky thought with a visit to Applebees has become a way for me to get my family together for food we can all enjoy. I would highly recommend you do the same!

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What’s not to like about going a restaurant? Just about everyone loves the ambience, atmosphere and social experience of eating out, but I expect most people particularly love the fact that you can your favorite foods prepared in just the way that you like them. But, that said, however much you might like going to restaurants, I expect that you probably find impractical and unaffordable to eat all your meals in a restaurant.

Let’s be honest about it. Eating at home is often cheaper than going to a restaurant, more convenient and practical (especially if you have a family), and, all things considered, offers a wonderful to bring your family together around the dinner table to discuss the day’s events.

It may be the case that you reserve eating out in restaurants for vacations, holidays and special occasions, many people do that. However, there’s no reason why you can not make eating at home a special occasion from time to time too! One idea that you may not have considered is what if you could prepare and serve your favorite restaurant-style dishes at home? That could certainly liven up meal times!

Cooking restaurant-style dishes might sound like a tough challenge, but it could be easier than you think. Just like any other type of dish, if you have the recipe, you can simply follow it step-by-step. I won’t pretend that you can pop into your favorite restaurant and simply get their recipes, but what you can do is look for "copy cat recipes". These are recipes that have been developed to be similar to your favorite restaurant recipes, and while they may not be exact duplicates, can still be highly enjoyable and very tasty.

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But quite often it’s the small extras that we remember from our favorite restaurants and find ourselves craving at the oddest times. Those condiments and side dishes such as the tartar sauce and cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster, the cole slaw from KFC or the desserts at Applebees.

One of the best things about being able to make your favorite restaurant recipes at home is that you can make make only the parts of the meal that you crave. So being able to use a restaurant’s side dishes or condiments with any home-cooked meal is a cinch. You can pair the restaurant goodies up with your homemade specialties whenever you want. Last year the huge bowl of Red Lobster Tarter Sauce I made for our family reunion fish fry (Walleye from Lake Erie — Yum!) and it was a big hit. And I have made the Cheddar Biscuits several times for breakfast.

A quick google search reveals that I’m not alone in loving to do this.

And since I can make up a heaping batch anytime, why limit myself to just fish? I can whip up some Big Boy Tartar Sauce to slather on a hamburger the way they do at the restaurant. Or use it any other way I please. The recipe easily makes 3 cups.

Thanks to Copycat Restaurant Recipes I am able to feed my crave almost anytime at home without having to go to Red Lobster or Big Boy and buy a complete dinner.

Red Lobster’s Tartar Sauce

Ingredients:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1½ tablespoons finely minced onions
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
• 1½ teaspoons shredded & chopped carrot (bits the size of rice)
• 1½ teaspoons sugar

Directions:

• Mix thoroughly by hand or with an electric mixer until the sauce is smooth and consistent, and completely blended.

Big Boy’s Tartar Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 cups mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh onion
• 1/3 cup dill pickle relish
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 hard boiled eggs, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/3 cup chili sauce

Directions:

• Mix thoroughly by hand or with an electric mixer until the sauce is smooth and consistent, and completely blended.

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Eating your own cooking is not only healthy, but the procedure of preparing food is enjoyable, beneficial and rewarding. It is a good thing to separate you from our other duties for some time and put all our concentration and creativity in the food. It is a way to love your family, friends or special someone. It is an activity that attaches warmth, satisfaction and bonding to family life. Another important thing for your children and whole family is home cooking. It is good for their physical growth and mental development. They can understand the most essential act of love and care. Home cooking has vast benefits, more than just being healthy.

Apart the health benefit there is one more important thing that is; it saves lot of money in the long run as well. It seems that the prices of essential items are rising all around us, including the prices of our basic foods. Buying take-out food is expensive and not always of the quality you want.

Surprise your family and friends - try this wonderful recipe!

Red Lobster’s Spicy Spring Shrimp Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound medium or large shrimp — cooked, peeled, tail left on 1/2 pound rice noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 carrots — cut into matchsticks
1/2 pound snow peas — trimmed
1 small green chili — cored, seeded,
and cut into julienne strips
1 small red chili — cored, seeded,
and cut into julienne strips
1 tablespoon very-thinly-sliced ginger
1 garlic clove — minced
1 bunch scallions - (8 to 10 ea) — sliced thin
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons orange juice

Method:

If you are cooking your own shrimp be sure not to over cook them.
Prepare the rice noodles or ramen noodles according to their directions (for ramen noodles do not add seasoning packet).
Drain well and hold warm.
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
Add carrots, snow peas, peppers, ginger, garlic, scallions, and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add shrimp and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and orange juice.
Stir-fry for 1 minute.

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Canada is an exciting and beautiful country, but it’s also a vast nation stretching across an entire continent, and is in terms of area, the second largest country in the world. As might be expected for such a huge nation, Canadian cuisine has many different regional variations.

Canadian cuisine is also influenced by the country’s historic associations with Britain and France, and by cultural exchange with the neighboring United States. Additionally, German, eastern European (including Polish), and Scandinavian influences can be seen in the West of country, and Canada has developed its own unique variety of Chinese food (including the "Chinese smorgasbord" (which is believed to have originated in Vancouver in the second half of the 19th century), and there are also, of course, Inuit and First Nations traditions too.

Some popular Canadian dishes and meals include:

- Lumberjack’s breakfast - A huge breakfast of eggs, ham, bacon and sausage, accompanied by several pancakes.

- Fish and brewis - This is a traditional meal from Newfoundland. It is made from salted cod and hardtack (a savory cracker type biscuit made from flour). The cod and the hardtack are both soaked over night (separately), then boiled (still separate) before being cooked together. Pork fat or rind ("scrunchions"), or drawn butter (melted butter thickened with chopped onions and flour) are then drizzled over the fish and hardtack mixture.

- Jigg’s dinner - This is another traditional meal of Newfoundland. It consists of salt beef, boiled potatoes, cabbage, carrots and turnips, accompanied with pease pudding (a baked paste made from peas).

- Flipper pie - A Newfoundland dish made from seal flipper.

- Toutin - Also from Newfoundland, a toutin (there are a variety of spellings, and many alternate names such as "damper dogs" or "damper devils") is a pancake-like dish made from dough fried in fat.

- Montreal bagels - The Canadian version of bagels; boiled in honey-sweetened water and then cooked in a wood-fired oven. The bagels are usually topped with either poppyseed or sesame seed (the varieties being referred to as "black seed" and "white seed" respectively). Please note: Most bakeries in Montreal are not certified as being kosher.

- Oreilles de crisse - Deep-fried pork jowls, usually served with maple syrup.

- Pâté chinois - A French Canadian dish somewhat similar to Shepherd’s pie: a layer of ground beef (usually mixed with peppers and onions), covered with a layer of corn (a mix of whole kernel and creamed corn is usually used), covered with a layer of mashed potatoes. The dish may be sprinkled with paprika, and is often served with pickled beets.

- Poutine - Originally from Québec, but now popular throughout Canada, poutine is French fries topped with cheese curds and covered with gravy.

- Tourtière - A traditional Québec meat pie, especially popular during the Christmas period, made using ground pork, veal or beef. A variation, tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean, contains diced game and potatoes.

- Ginger beef - A Chinese dish popular in western Canada, consisting of deep fried strips of beef coated with a sweet sauce (the sauce has been described as being somewhat similar to Japanese teriyaki sauce).

- Butter tarts - Butter, sugar and eggs in a pastry shell. Various ingredients such as nuts, coconut, dates, chocolate chips, butterscotch, etc., may optionally be added.

- Figgy duff - A dessert from Newfoundland, made by boiling butter, sugar, eggs and raisins in a bag.

- Nanaimo bar - A traditional Canadian dessert consisting of three layers, from bottom to top: a crumb layer (made using coconut, nut and wafer crumbs), a layer of vanilla custard, and a layer of chocolate.

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China is a vast country with many different regions, each with their own distinct style and flavors of cuisine: Anhui (Hui), Cantonese (Yue), Fujian (Min), Hunan (Xiang), Jiangsu (Su or Yang), Shandong (Lu), Szechuan (Chuan) and Zhejiang (Zhe). Additionally, emigrants from China can be found all over the world, and these emigrants have created both new variations on traditional Chinese dishes, by adapting Chinese dishes to local tastes, and entirely new dishes.

Most Chinese meals consisting of two main components:

1. Zhushí which in Mandarin means "main food" - Rice, noodles or steamed buns ("mantou").

2. Cài which in Mandarin means "vegetable" - One or more accompanying dishes of meat, fish or vegetables.

Some popular Chinese dishes include:

- Dumplings - Dumplings containing ground (minced) meat and/or vegetables. They may be boiled ("shuijiao"), fried ("guotie") or steamed ("jiaozi").

- Xiaolongbao - Steamed buns containing meat soup (meat gelatin is placed inside the bun before steaming, the steam heat melts the gelatin into soup), seafood or vegetables. Xiaolongbao made from raised flour are common throughout China and are often known as "baozi". In the South of the country, xiaolongbao are also sometimes made using unraised flour.

- Congee - A porridge, usually made from rice, but sometimes cornmeal, millet, barley or sorghum are used.

- Soy egg - A hard-boiled egg in soy sauce, sugar and water, flavored with herbs and spices.

- Kung Pao (or Kung Po) chicken - A spicy chicken dish flavored with Sichuan peppercorns, Shaoxing wine, and unroasted cashew nuts or peanuts. Westernized versions using locally available Chinese ingredients and bell peppers are popular in the United States and Europe.

- General Tso’s chicken - A sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken dish that is popular in Chinese restaurants in the United States and Canada, but is practically unknown in China itself.

- Peking duck - The signature dish of Beijing: A duck, glazed with a syrup and then roasted. The dish is traditionally carved in front of diners and eaten with scallions, plum sauce and steamed pancakes (Mandarin: pinyin). In the United Kingdom, the dish is usually known as "crispy aromatic duck" and is prepared using aromatic spices including five-spice powder, and by frying the duck instead of roasting.

- Zongzi - Glutinous rice with various fillings, wrapped in bamboo leaves and then boiled or steamed.

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I love to go out to eat. Any given day if I had the extra dinero I would visit one of my favorite restaurant or fast food joint and go to town. Now granted if you are healthy conscience person, some places do not appeal to you, but most of them do have healthy items on the menu. Places like Applebee’s have weight watchers items so you won’t have to feel guilty about eating out. Now the reality is our economy is very poor at the moment. With gas prices going sky high and some companies are not increasing our salaries, it’s hard for us to go out and enjoy the simple luxury of dining out. One of my favorite restaurants to go to is Carrabba’s. Their Chicken Marsala is to die for! Another favorite restaurant of mine is the Olive Garden. The soup and salad deal is bar-none! And the bread they serve you in the beginning of the dining adventure is sooo good on it’s own. I’m sure reading this makes your mouth water and maybe your stomach is starting to growl.

In these hard times though, wouldn’t it be nice to make those same dishes you eat at these fast food places and restaurants in your own kitchen? A lot of these establishments have their secret recipes on locked down. Imagine having a cookbook with these same secret recipes at your fingertips! Not only would you save time but also money! By re-creating the same food thats on their menu would make you a chef of a lifetime. Your family and friends will be amazed at your new found cooking skills. I found such cookbook and you will be astonished by how many yummy dishes you can whip up in your very own home. This cookbook created by Ron Douglas of RecipeSecrets is the only cookbook I found that has almost every fast food place and restaurant you have been to or heard of. You don’t have to be an expert- just follow the step-by-step instructions and you’ll be complimenting the chef…which will be yourself!! No more waiting in line or dealing with people with poor customer service skills. Give it a try and check it out yourself-you won’t be disappointed!

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This recipe just plain makes me hungry and if I ate all the recipes that I write about, I would weigh about 350 lbs. Good thing I eat in moderation or I might wind up like the before picture of Jared.
This Chicken Marsala recipe shows you how to easily create an elegant main dish at home. This Chicken Marsala recipe is one of those quick and easy chicken recipes using wine and mushrooms. If you are having company and want to make something easy but really flavorful, try this chicken Marsala recipe.
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 25 - 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1/4 - cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 - Pound chicken breasts (2 - 8 oz)
1 - Egg
1/4 - milk or cream
1 - Cup flour, for dredging chicken
1/4 - cup (1/2 stick) butter
3 - Cloves garlic, minced
10 to 12 - ounces white mushrooms, sliced
3/4 - cup Marsala wine
1 - (15-1/2-ounce) can low-sodium chicken broth
2 - Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Cooking Instructions:
Take olive oil and heat (med high) in a skillet.
Prepare 2 - 4 skinless/boneless chicken breast, cut width wise or pound to make chicken very thin. The idea is that the thin cuts will require less cooking time. Mix flour with spices (salt - pepper) in a bowl. Mix egg and milk in a bowl and mix well. Take chicken dunk in egg mixture and dredge in flour and put into skillet. Sauté chicken 3 - 5 minutes on each side until golden brown add mushrooms last 2 minutes of cooking, remove skillet from heat. Mix the butter, garlic and broth in a small sauce pan and heat, until butter is melted. Add butter mixture and wine to skillet. Reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking for 5 - 10 minutes (until liquid evaporates and the mushrooms begin to brown). Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste.
This is a savory dish, and if you are carb-friendly, make sure to have garlic bread ready to soak up the juice. There are many cooking variations for this recipe, so don’t be shy and try adding ingredients that you like. You never know you might add a twist that no one has thought of before. Viola, you have your own personal recipe!

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When you are putting together the menu for your own sports party you’ll have an easy time if you follow the standards of your favorite sports bars. Food is easy to pick up with the hand and doesn’t require you to look away from the television for too long at this party!

Appetizers are the best bet for your sports party. Think potato skins and chicken tenders. Look out for Buffalo wings and cheesy chicken quesadillas. The guys and gals will love this menu because it’s got all of their favorite bar foods on it. Mini eggrolls with sweet and sour sauce dip are a great way to slip some veggies into their diet, if you can stand the aftermath of the cabbage. You can also set up a platter of sandwiches for the guests to eat at half-time. A flaky croissant with ham and Swiss is a tasty and classic way to dress up your sports party.

Egg rolls

You can make your own egg rolls with these ingredients: 1 pkg. egg roll wraps, 1 tablespoon flour, 4 c. cooked and minced meat of choice, shredded carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, celery or combination of vegetables, shredded onion, dash of garlic powder, mustard, onion powder, ginger, soy sauce

For the Sports party egg rolls, combine all of the filling ingredients in a saucepan. That includes the meat, veggies and seasonings. Sauté until veggies are tender.

In a small bowl or cup mix a paste of one tablespoon water and one tablespoon flour.

Lay an egg roll wrap flat and spoon a small amount of filling into center. Wrap three corners of the egg roll wrap up over the filling, so that they meet at the center of the filling. Spread a small amount of the paste on the inside edge of the fourth corner and wrap that over the other three corners to secure the egg roll. Fill all the egg roll wraps.

Fill a pan with about 2 inches of oil. Heat on medium high. Place three or four egg rolls into the oil and let sit until they are golden on bottom. Roll over and let cook on other side. The egg rolls should be completely cooked in about 2 minutes. Place on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

These tasty egg rolls will definitely be snatched up by your guests at the sports party. Just make sure you have a lot of them on hand and plenty of paper goods to eat from.

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