In that vein, and to revitalize our blog a little bit, we had the idea to start a date series.  Whenever we go on a date, at least for a while, we will see if we can find the “best ever” of something, usually in Columbus.   This is the first installment. It is the search for the best ever egg roll.  To aid in this search, I went to Google to find the best egg roll in Columbus.  I found a handy site that I think we will now use for the rest of this series.  It is dishtip.com.  It is  very nice, in that you can type in an entrée and it will give you search results based on the best reviews for that entrée in Columbus, or another city that you choose.  Sadly I think Columbus is the only city close to us that is on the site.

For the egg roll, dish tip had a bunch of suggestions, but I went with Tai Asian Bistro.  There were other restaurants with a higher approval rating, but not with as many reviews.  Tai Asian also had the distinction of having the highest rating in Columbus for Pad Thai, another of our favorites.

So, with our rambunctious brood safely dropped off at my sisters, we headed to the restaurant.  I was very impressed when we went in, while it looked like a hole in the wall from the outside, inside it had an open kitchen so you could see the food prep if you wanted to and an extensive sushi bar.  Hmmm… Maybe we’ll have to come back for Sushi.  Kris grabs a table and I order two egg rolls, one order of Pad Thai to split and an order of Crab Rangoons, which is one of my guilty pleasures.  I was standing where I figured the food would be handed to me, they had given me a number after all, when Kris came to get me because a poor serving girl was wandering around the restaurant yelling out our number.   Oops.  I guess they take it to the table after all.  After that awkwardness, we sat down to the table to try out our meal.  First and foremost, the egg roll.

In the words of my wife Kris, who is the whole reason we were looking for the perfect egg roll in the first place, it was “really good.”  It was not, however, the “best ever”.  In case you are wondering, the best she’s had was some place in Nappanee Indiana.  I am not an egg roll connoisseur so I couldn’t tell you what it was missing, and Kris seemed rather vague on that.  In my opinion, it may have been a little on the heavy side.   Just a little too hefty with not enough crisp.  That being said, it may have been one of the best egg rolls I have ever had.  I don’t usually go out of my way to eat them though.  Kris does.  So after falling a little short (though still good) on the egg rolls, I turned to the crab rangoon, a dish I WILL go out of my way for.

They straight up look awesome.  After eating three of the four, I would say that it isn’t just looks.  These were light, crispy, had real crab (if not they fooled me) and were delicious.  Kris didn’t like them much, but could see that if you were a crab Rangoon fan, they would hit the spot.  They turned out to be my favorite part of the meal.  Finally we turn to the main course.   Pad Thai is a dish we occasionally make at home, though not from scratch.  Yet anyway, we have a recipe I want to try at some point.  We’ve sampled it at many establishments and look back on a restaurant in Chicago with a certain fondness as the best we ever had.

The Dish started off on a bad foot when pork Pad Thai showed up.  I’d order beef.  No matter, we dug in.  It was good, but not great.  Since Dish tip had this as the highest rated Pad Thai in Columbus, I was expecting more.  I’m not sure it is the fault of the dish however.  Kris and I both seem to prefer a sweeter Pad Thai, and almost every time we get it, it just isn’t sweet enough.  It should be sweet, spicy, savory all at the same time, and while this was spicy (just right) and I could taste the right flavors, the sweet was lacking.  Oh well.

All and all, I think the night was a success and I highly recommend the Tai Asian Bistro.  Kris and I really hope to make a return trip at some point because the Sushi looked slamming.  What “best ever”  should we look for next? I have a few ideas, but if someone really has a craving for something, we’ll gladly go first and be your guinea pigs, especially if you offer to babysit.  :)

Tator Tot Breakfast Casserole

1 lb tator tots, frozen

1 lb Bob Evans original ground sausage, fried

2 cups shredded cheese (I used a mix of yellow cheeses.)

1 cup milk

12 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

1/8-1/4 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp pepper

Spread tots on bottom of a greased 9″x13″ glass baking dish.  Spread sausage over tots.  Spread cheese on top of sausage and tots.  Beat (stir briskly) eggs; add and stir in milk and salt, onion powder, and pepper.  Pour over all other ingredients.  Bake at 375 F for 40 minutes or until set (not jiggly).  Can be made the night before and baked in the morning.  Serves 8-10.

I wanted to share more.  Maybe I can convince Ryan to put some more pictures on Facebook (where it is easier to share them).

Just had an ultrasound today.  Everything is fine…exactly the way it’s supposed to be.

Homemade Yogurt in the Crockpot instructions.

1. Buy some starter, the best we have found is Activia, but anything with live cultures will work.  After you have made some, you can reserve ½ cup to use for future starters and you will no longer have to buy yogurt.
2. Put 8 cups of milk in your Crockpot.  We have used 1 percent all the way up to whole milk, and I’m pretty sure skim would work as well.
3. Put the Crockpot on Low for 2 ½ hours.
4. At this point unplug it and let the milk sit for 3 hours.
5. Take out 2 cups of warm milk and mix it with ½ cup of yogurt starter, than pour that all back into the Crockpot.
6. Wrap the Crockpot in a towel and let it sit overnight or roughly 8 hours.
7. You have yogurt.  Mix sugar, fruit, or whatever you like with it and enjoy.

The baby is due May 12th and Kris is 8ish weeks along and everything looks good.

Korban turned one!  Yay!  He doesn’t walk yet, but he crawls and cruises.  He has eight teeth and loves to eat.  He says “da da, ba (ball), and uh oh.”  He would not touch his cake without Ryan forcing him and then he just looked at his messy fingers.  He wanted to eat the cake, though.  He kept doing his demanding grunt!  Like, “feed me!”  He loved the cake and ice cream; he just didn’t love trying to eat it himself.

Yes, that’s toothpaste on his forehead.

Glory on the other hand had her first loose tooth and now it came out!

And this is proof that we have some other children too.

Korban is getting so big.   He crawls like a champ and is pulling himself up on furniture and cruising.  He loves to explore and will play happily by himself if he has plenty of new things to explore.  His siblings love him and fight over who gets to play with him.  Kalvary can actually carry him around and helps quite a bit with him.  He so cute and chubby right now.  He’s also developing quite the sense of humor.

I go in and look at my kids one last time before I go to bed each night.  Helps me remember how blessed I am to have so many beautiful and healthy children.  The more kids I have the more I appreciate them…not sure how that works, but it’s true.  - Kris