New Restaurant - Hector's On Henderson

Pops and I spent a lot of time eating in Dallas this weekend. Friday night we went to The Porch. It was great, as always. We had the sliders for an appetizer. That is always a must. I had the Beef Short Rib Stroganoff with Parmesan Noodles. That is the only entree that I have ever tried. Once you find the best dish, it is hard to try something else.

Saturday night, we decided to try Hector's on Henderson. It is next door to Hibiscus, one of our favorites. Every time we go to Hibiscus, we say we need to try Hector's and we finally did.

I would classify Hector's as Upscale Comfort Food. You feel like you are eating at your grandmother's house, but way upscale. You also feel like you are at your grandmother's by the hospitality. By the time we left, we felt like we had several new friends. The only thing that Hibiscus and Hector's shares is the adjoining wall, everything else is really different. Hector's pulls in a completely different clientele. Don't get me wrong, I still love Hibiscus, they are just very different, much to my surprise. I expected them to be a lot alike since they are next door neighbors.

When we came in the door, we noticed how friendly Hector was. He was warmly greeting everyone and making his way around the room. When he was not visiting, he was singing upbeat songs in the microphone at the piano. The atmosphere was very upbeat and added a fun flair that I was not expecting.

Now down to the food. I had a hard time making a decision because there were so many choices that looked good. The wheat bread that was served was so addicting. I am glad they only brought out one basket, because I would have been full on bread alone.

I started out with one of the best salads I have ever had. It was the Spinach Salad. It had baby spinach leaves, sugared pecans, caramelized marinated onions, applewood smoked bacon, crumbled blue cheese and a very light honey mustard dressing. It was so good I could have licked the plate!

The appetizer I didn't try, but wanted to, was a deep fried avocado, stuffed with cheese and lobster and topped with a cream cilantro sauce. It looked delicious. Definitely a must for next time.

For my entree, I chose the "Not My Mama's Meatloaf". It was delicious. Mostly meat, with a sweet tomato glaze. It was served with White Truffle Whipped Potatoes that were melt in your mouth flavorful and swimming in butter. I substituted the carrots for the creamed corn. Since I am a salt-a-holic, I did have to add salt to everything, but that is nothing unusual.

Pops had the Bacon Wrapped Ribeye. He substituted the Jalapeno Bacon Hashed Browns for the Anson Mills Cheddar Grits. Everything we ate was bursting with flavor.

We were so full, but couldn't pass up desert. We ordered the German Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. The cake was the gooiest German Chocolate I have ever tried.

When we paid our check, our waiter Michael said to stick around, he had a treat for us. I had no idea what it was until Chef Blythe Beck appeared, and what a treat it was. She is the mega chef on steroids. We visited for about 5 minutes and she was hysterical. She was telling us all about her new realty show that she was pitching in Hollywood last week. There is a video on her website, but be warned, it is not rated G. Her show is "The Naughty Kitchen" and it is appropriately titled. She was fun to visit with and it was the perfect ending to a fantastic meal.

We will be back! I am craving the salad as I write this. We made a reservation for our next dinner as we left.

Crazy Hawaii Pictures

When Pops and I were headed to the North Shore, we stumbled on the Dole Pineapple Plantatio and decided to stop. It was interesting. Neither one of us knew how pineapples grow and were surprised to find out they don't grow on trees. They grow on small bushes.

We ate a Pineapple Whip and took some crazy pictures.

Same Kind Of Different As Me

I love to read, but I don't read as often as I would like to. People Magazine is the bathtub reading of choice. Before I go to bed, I read books. By that time, I am usually so sleepy that I don't remember what I read the night before and I have to go back and reread it. That is why it takes me so long to read a book.

I am having different issue with my current book. It is so good that I don't want it to end, so I am only allowing myself to read little bits at a time. It is a true book about real unconditional love and forgiveness that passes all understanding. The forgiveness is beyond anything that I could ever imagine.

One aspect of the book that makes it interesting to me is that some of the people are from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and I am familiar with some of the people and places in it, but it is the story that is so incredible. It is a great book and I highly recommend it.

On a side note, one of the places mentioned when I read last night was The Gladney Center. He adopted his son from there. For many years that was a huge part of my life and whenever I read about it, it bring back such great memories. Volunteering at Gladney was probably some of the hardest work I have ever done in my life both physically and mentally, but one of the most rewarding!

Update: I got to meet Ron and Denver this past week at a book signing in Grapevine. My only disappointment is that there were so few people that got to hear their awesome story. Ron spoke as if he were talking to hundreds. The thrill of the night was to hear Denver sing the song he sang as he worked the fields. I will cherish my signed copy of "Same Kind Of Different As Me."

Food In Hawaii

The last time we went to Hawaii, we didn't have very good food, so this time, I did my research and made reservations at several restaurants before we went. I was pretty successful.

All of the restaurants turned out to be really good, except one, Nick's. All of the info I read gave it great reviews as a great seafood restaurant, but we didn't give it much of a try.

We saw it a few days before the night of our reservation and the outside, along with the hotel it was in, looked very old and run down. We decided to give it a chance. When we were seated, it was ugly and dark and it smelled funny. I almost decided to bolt then, but thought I would look at the menu. That is when I decided to leave.

There was not anything that looked good and given the atmosphere, I knew it would be a bad experience. We left money on the table for our drinks, and slipped out the front door. As we were almost at the garage, the waiter followed us and asked why we left. He was nice, but I must say, it was a little awkward. I was glad that Pops wanted to leave too, because sometimes he thinks I can get a little too picky.

We ended up going to Bubba Gumps and had a good meal.

The next day, we decided to drive to the North Shore. It was gorgeous! As we were driving, we saw a bunch of what I have always called "roach coaches". They were everywhere. I remembered seeing these on Rachel Ray's $40 a day. We saw one that was really crowded and decided to stop.



As you know from this post, I am a huge Rachel Ray fan.



I was so excited when I saw this sign. We had the garlic shrimp and it was great. It was also really messy. This is where you wash your hands. A sink in the middle of a parking lot.



I think my friends would be a little surprised at me for eating here. It seems kind of funny that I wouldn't eat at the seafood restaurant, but would eat out of a truck on the side of the road.

My New Look

Jennisa at "Once Upon a Blog" just finished my new design. She did a great job and was great to work with. Thanks Jennisa, I love it!

I Am Home!

We just got home this morning at 6:30 after an all night flight from Hawaii. We had a great trip. I have some neat pictures that I need to download.

It should be an interesting weekend. I am still wiped out from my Xanax/Ambien funk from flying. I was hoping I would spend the whole time sleeping, but it didn't work too well. I am now paying the price for my drugged state.

We have graduation tonight with a late dinner and Justin and Jordan are supposed to be moving. It should be fun! Pictures to come later.

I am also getting a new blog design. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Italian Food and Tuna

Saturday night, Pops and I tried a new restaurant. I was so hopeful, as I always am, that it would be good. I was disappointed. It was not horrible, but it wasn't great. Just mediocre.

We went to Taverna in Sundance Square. We started out with a meat and cheese appetizer and shrimp appetizer that were both served with polenta squares. The polenta badly needed salt. I had the chicken and spinach ravioli with Parmesan cream sauce. Sounds great doesn't it. I piled on the salt and more Parmesan and it didn't help much. Pops had a risotto with lots of different seafood and it was bland. We had creme brulee for dessert that was good. Our waitress was great, but that didn't help the bland food. I think this is the first Italian restaurant that I have been to that doesn't serve bread. A little strange.


After dinner, we went to see Tuna Does Vegas at Bass Hall. It was fun. We have seen all of the Tuna's multiple times and were excited to see a new one. Although we enjoyed it, I thought the first half was better than the 2nd, but would definitely recommend it. They are so funny!