Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes

I begged off cooking dinner tonight (since I've been cooking all day, in preparation for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast), and my visiting father-in-law suggested that we go to Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes, a salad bar chain of which he was especially fond.

The salad bar was pretty good.

So were the buttermilk biscuits.

The chunky chicken noodle soup was very good.

I didn't especially care for the chicken pot pie stew, though.

The cheesy focaccia bread sticks were also fine.

Joe Morley's BBQ

The church women's group of which I am a member holds several fundraising events throughout the year, most recently in order to help my church pay off its mortgage. One upcoming event is the Silent Auction, which is apparently catered, so those of us chairing a committee or otherwise in charge of a specific aspect of the Auction met at Joe Morley's BBQ for dinner tonight in order to rate the food.

I ordered the Chopped Smoked Beef Brisket sandwich,
with smoked bacon.

I left my husband at home, but I was feeling nice,
so I ordered him a to-go BBQ platter with three meats:
pork spare ribs, smoked chicken,  and smoked beef
brisket, with sides of baked beans and onion chips. 

I also ordered the Polish Sausage Sandwich to go;
it came with with mustard and sauerkraut,
and steamed onions and BBQ sauce on the side.

Hoppers Grill & Brewing Pub

Today was a day in which my husband and I did Adult-Themed Things (tm): In the afternoon I had a mammogram, and after my husband came home from work, we scuttled on over to a lawyer to get our wills and medical power of attorney drawn up and taken care of.

I actually went into today not planning to cook dinner. I'd already recommended that we stop off somewhere on our way home from the lawyer's for dinner; my husband agreed, so we stopped off at the nearby Hoppers Grill & Brewing Pub.

Came with hot toasted bread!

I got black pepper parmesan fries.

My husband's appetizer was the brew cheese, which
included house-smoked gouda and gorgonzola cheeses.

My chicken caesar salad was good, although, oddly, it
came with penne pasta in it.

Bohemian Brewery

In the search for German food anywhere in the Salt Lake valley, I came to the conclusion that the pickin's were slim. There's a German deli - Siegfried's - in downtown Salt Lake City, and Wienerschnitzel ("Der fun since *61!"), and perhaps there are a few places I don't know about, but when I finally came across the Bohemian Brewery, I asked my husband if we could go there for dinner after Mass tonight; fortunately, it was right down the road from our church, albeit in the opposite direction from home, but it was close enough to make it easy to get to.

My husband had tried a sample of the Cherny Bock,
a Schwartzbier. He liked it so much,
he wound up ordering a manly-sized version.

It's not straight up German - most of their menu is not, in fact, German or Austrian - but they do offer a Bratwurst sandwich, Pilsener-battered fish and chips, pierogies and bratwurst, goulash, Bavarian brats (which are served with sauerkraut and potatoes), Schnitzel, and chicken paprikash. Some of their sides include Spaetzle, red cabbage or sauerkraut, Czech dumplings; desserts include Czech fruit dumplings and Moravian apple strudel.

I chose the quesadilla appetizer to begin with; it had
shrimp in it, and was served with a garlic dipping sauce,
sour cream, and smoked onion aioli.

My husband decided to start off with the roasted
garlic bulbs - fresh Gilroy garlic bulbs with
toast points and tomato basil tapenade.

We ordered a side order of Spaetzle, which...I did not like.
I'm spoiled, though, having lived in southern Germany,
I was used to the actual homemade version; that which
we had tonight tasted like it came from a box.

My husband ordered the pork Bohemian schnitzel,
which came with mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.

I ordered the garlic burger, which came with smoked
bacon and cheddar cheese, a paltry amount of very
good garlic fries.

The Moravian apple strudel didn't travel too well on the
way home.

The bread pudding didn't travel too well on the way
home either. And it probably would have been good warm.

Ganesh Indian Cuisine

In addition to last week (when we were on the east coast visiting my parents for Christmas), my husband took this week off from work. It was really nice, just staying home and being quiet, not rushing around everywhere: My husband gamed every day; I went to the gym a few times, did my regular volunteer work, and poked a little at the syllabus I'll be using for the classes I'm teaching next semester.

We decided to end our little stay-at-home vacation by going out to dinner at Ganesh, an Indian restaurant that serves both northern Indian and southern Indian food.

First up, we were brought some
dipping sauces that we couldn't identify...

...to go with our complementary papadum.

I ordered us an order of lamb samosas (left) and
vegetable samosas.

I also ordered us Gobi Manchuria - cauliflower battered
and cooked with green chiles and onions with
Indian spices.

I ordered the Poori - bread made with
whole wheat flower.

My husband went with the garlic naan.

My entree was the lamb saag - it was really good!

My husband went with the lamb coconut korma -
lamb cooked with coconut milk and a saffron cashew
nut curry sauce.

I fore went dessert, but my husband loved his
Gulab Jamun - light pastry made from milk and
flour, in thick sweet syrup.