Dos Rios

So Shannon and I went out on a date, and on the recommendation of my boss, we headed down to Dos Rios. Afterwards, we saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which was really good.

Dos Rios
316 Court Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

We went in early, hoping to beat any sort of rush and to make the 7 something showing of Sweeney Todd. The restaurant is down on Court, which can make parking kind of annoying, but after a bit of a search we found a place to park. The first thing that I noticed was that the sign indicating the place, was covered up by the snow that was on over hang. Probably not the best of ideas, but snow can also be a pain in the bum.

Being early, we were seated right away. Quickly and efficiently by a pleasant woman. The decor of the place was fairy modern, with what appeared to be metal Aztecish ladies at the back of main area with star lights hanging from the ceiling. There was a mix of techno with general Mexican themes in the background...maybe a little louder then I liked, but it went well with the modern chic theme they were going for. One of the songs that we heard during the night was an odd take on a Rolling Stones song. After dinner, Shannon noticed the sinks in the restroom were narrow and rectangular. She said it was kind of odd, considering with the pressure of the water, it seemed to splatter at the end of the sink a bit...I think she also mentioned that they were touchless...

We were seated near the end of the restaurant, providing us a nice view of Court, so that we could both people watch, if we were so inclined. And we were handed menus (menu, drink menu, tequila menu) and were told about the basic theory behind the place (Authentic food using as many fresh and locally sourced food as they can). Niman ranch pork (based in California with some Iowan farms) and Sheeder Farms chicken were prominently displayed on the menu. We weren't given much time, but quickly ordered a few drinks. I had a 9$ Mojito...yeah...a bit much, but they were pretty good. I just noticed that there is a discrepancy on the bill. A minor one, but one none the less. Shannon was originally told that they had all the Mexican soda flavors available, but when she ordered the Limon one, she was brought Pineapple, and told that contrary to what our waitress was originally told, they were out of Limon. So she'd cover this one...which...well...she didn't. I can understand hey, come back and say we don't have X so you'll need to order something else, but if you say you are gonna cover the cost of something, you probably should...

Anyways...we ordered (from their menu):

Guacamole – Mashed Table side, Tomato, roasted poblanos, red onion, cilantro & lime served with Dos Rios spiced tortilla chips. (we had it medium spiced)
Empanadas de Pato y Hongos – Flaky Home Made Duck Chorizo Turnovers
Pollo Rostizado – Mojo Marinated All Natural Sheeder Farms Half Chicken (Shannon)
Niman Ranch Pork Burrito (Description not on website)
Tres Leche de Chocolate – Chocolate Tres Leche Cake - Three milk soaked chocolate sponge cake with dulce de leche icing
Tamal de Manzana – Roasted Apple Crepe Tamale - Cinnamon roasted apples & raisins folded into a Mexican vanilla crepe

When they say mashed table side on the Guacamole, they really mean it. When we ordered it, a young man came over to our table, picked up our molcajete (basically a big stone bowl like a mortar and pestle) and proceeded to split open a couple of avocados, scooping them out, using some fresh ingredients, including the juice from part of a lime, he mixed and mashed us up some spicy, but not too Guacamole. Certainly interesting to watch. After he was finished, he brought us over some of the spiced tortilla chips. They were also very good and went very well together. I actually kind like a few chips to try and figure out the spices that were on the chips (I have guesses, but nothing firm).

Near the end of our Guacamole, we were brought out the Empanadas de Pato y Hongos (Duck Empanadas). Now these...these I could've spent the rest of the night eating. They were really good. Flaky crust, nice spicing and duck...how can you go wrong? It makes me think that the next time we go there, we should stick to the first's menu and just have a wide range of sampling of things.

I ordered a second Mojito. Did I mention that it had fresh mint in it? Along with what I think was raw sugar cane in it...pretty good...though still not worth the 9$...well I guess it might be, considering I had two...

A little bit later, we were served our mains. Good and simple presentation (not overly fancy, but purposefully placed). Shannon's chicken was excellent. and I mean excellent. Tender, not too spicy and juicy. I wanted to steal more. The rice was good, and the black beans that she was served were also good. My burrito...well I think the only drawback for me was the spice that they used. I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. Even though all of the individual parts were done very well. Tender pork, good beans and rice, the spicing really distracted me. And it's not that it was overly spicy...I was just...I don't know...unfamiliar with it, so, I wasn't sure. Now I'm not one who really wants spicing to be made milder just because we're in Iowa (well...ok maybe a little less spicy on the Thai food...but that's not what we're talking about here). I've been seen with a red face and a sheen of sweat from the spicy food...and that's not what it was....it was just...well...odd to me. It makes me curious as to what it was.

Even though I had mixed feelings on the burrito, it was still finished. Shannon boxed up about half of her half a chicken, along with a good portion of the beans and rice.

Dessert was pretty good. The cinnamon ice cream on the Tamal de Manzana was quite good and Shannon's Tres Leche de Chocolate was also very tasty. They were also not out of a box, which a lot of restaurants end up doing (which I find annoying). Afterwards, we got our check and headed off to the movie.

So, Overall, other then the extra 3$ charge that was said wouldn't be on there (not that big of a deal, since Shannon did have a Mexican soda), and my mixed feelings over the spicing of the burrito (the ingredients were great), it was a very good experience, and I'm looking forward to going again. And maybe trying some of the tequila (they said there are a few where they're the only restaurant in Iowa serving them).

Merry Christmas!

Crappy CR Roads...it's like they didn't even plow...We dropped off our things at the Matta's and headed up to my parents....or at least tried to. Going up the normal way, we kept losing momentum until I decided it was best to just park and walk the rest of the way. I dropped off the Double Chocolate Banana Bread and the gift for my parents, and then we headed over to Shannon's parents.

We chatted for a bit before Kim and her family arrived. We feasted on the many things that Shannon's mom prepared. From cookies to cheese. The highlight of the night was the chicken soup she made from scratch which was very good.

I think through my vague whining in this here blog, Shannon's family tried to be a bit more organized this year. The effort is very appreciated. It is easier to pay attention to what is going on, when it is only about one thing at a time....After the opening of the presents, we watched the DVD of the 8mm films that we had transferred. It was nice to see the positive reaction of Shannon's family. A lot of work went into those film clips...and even if it wasn't hard, it was time consuming...After quite a bit of chatting, Kim's family took off, and then we did too.

We headed back to the Matta's and chatted with them well into the night, while they put the final touches on breakfast and Christmas for Taylor and Cali. Eventually we headed up to bed. The next morning, I heard Cali wake up...and then thought I hear Taylor, but I was mistaken...Eventually we had Christmas morning with the Mattas. After a very good breakfast, we headed over to my parents...

It was quite the day. My older brother's family was there...so it made for a rambunctious time. We had a late lunch, which was very good. Joseph made smoked pork and turkey (the pork was better, the turkey was dry, but was still pretty good. I tried to get more pictures, but I forgot the change the battery in my camera, so I was stuck at a few pictures into the holiday...

We eventually headed back to the Mattas, for dinner, though we ended up not eating. And Jenny baked a cake for a Mom's Club even the next day. Dan Knoff came over and Scott and Jessica and we had a nice little Scotch tasting. It was pretty nice. a couple I've had before, most I had not.

We goofed off most of Wednesday, and said our good byes to meet Clif for lunch downtown (since he's working). I made an absolute mess of myself, spilled salsa on myself twice or so, a few times down the front of my shirt...quite silly...but afterwards, we said good bye, wished him good luck on his trip to Africa (heading that way in a few days) for a wedding.

The drive home was pretty easy, though at the end it got very foggy and started to snow a bit. We made it home safe and sound. It's nice to be home, it's nice to see the kitties. We did have some meaningful conversation about our future as parents over this trip...and though I don't think it is 100% for certain, yet...but I think we are leaning one way over the other...

Grumpy Sam-ta

So I headed out this morning, while Shannon is doing a half day at work, to run a couple of errands. I first started off going to the Beaverdale Post Office...went in...and saw a sign posted that it would be closed today. Then I headed over to the Forest Avenue Post Office, right next to Drake....and this one was also closed. I was thinking hey, they've got self service, maybe I can get the DVDs we made all priority mail enveloped and sent. So...I labeled, packaged...and...no priority mail stamps. So at this point I was pretty frustrated. So I head to the main Des Moines post office. This one was open! You know, like it says it will be on their damn website. I wouldn't be so miffed if I hadn't checked the website and found that they were open, only to go and find they were not. Anyways, a few other people in line were mumbling about the Beaverdale office being closed. But, with all that, I got it setup and mailed to Shannon's uncle.

I headed back to our neighborhood and dropped by La Mie to pick up these sugar cookies with a lemon frosting (or lemon sugar cookies, either way, very delicious) that I brought home yesterday...since they were so good. I asked for two dozen...but they only gave me one dozen...but that's ok...so I came home, wrapped up the banana breads and put them into gift sacks for the families we're visiting.

Anyways...less grumpy now...

Woo Christmas!

Haven't been feeling to good...so heres a bunch of stuff

Last Saturday we headed up to Ames to visit the Tomson's. This has been the first time in a long long time that we've seen them. It makes me sad that we don't get to see them more often. Seth and Bri decided to have a Sake party and we decided to go. We joined Chris and Holly in the drive up north. We did have a bit of a spat over driving, since I wanted to drink, and Shannon didn't want to drive, but with Chris and Holly driving, the problem was solved.

We saw their house, which seemed very 70sish in the decor, though very pretty. I've always thought that Bri had a very good eye and did lots with very little. I missed out on a lot of the house, since they had it mostly closed off, but I think they did that for the party, and since they had guests over and what not.

We drank 6 or 7 kinds of Sake, between the 8 or 9 people drinking. There were a few that I didn't like too much...they just didn't taste that good, but over all it was a pretty good experience... Bri had also made sushi (pretty good) and this little pork rolls (a pork mixture inside a roll, they were fantastic). We ate many of the pork rolls.

After we were intoxicated to some extent, we drove back down to Des Moines.

Monday I started to feel sick. So I went home earlier then I have been, and kinda camped down in front of the TV. I then proceeded to go through chills, being so cold that even wrapped up in a blanket, I was shivering. It was quite the ride. Around midnight or so, I think my fever broke. I thought I could go to work the next day...but after being there for a couple of hours, I thought better of it and came home and was lazy for the rest of the day.

Thursday afternoon my younger brother Joseph, now free of his military obligations, came up to investigate possible job opportunities here in Des Moines. We ate at Uncle Wendell's BBQ and Joseph decided that he wanted to work there. So Friday morning, we headed out to catch Wendell at the store to pick up an application. We all headed there for lunch and Joseph got a quick little interview and it seemed to go well, but besides being overqualified (5 years of Fast Food experience including 4 of that being in a managerial role), he had apparently just hired someone and it appears to be working out.

That night we went to Appare Japanese Steakhouse. We tried to go to Miyabi 9 first, but they were so busy, that we decided to head elsewhere. Being Joseph's first experience with sushi we tried out a few different kinds of sushi. We had:

• Seacoast roll
• AJS roll
• King Lobster roll
• California Roll
• Spider Roll
• Dynamite Roll
• Dragon Roll
• Monster

I really liked the AJS and the Dynamite rolls, but all were very good. Joseph, after having a difficult time with chopsticks, began to get the hang of it and at the end showed quite the interest in having sushi again. He also wanted to do the teppanyaki part of the steakhouse and will probably come back to do so, eventually.

It was nice to hang out with him for a while. We headed back to the house and he headed back home.

Saturday, we finished up the setup of the DVDs of the home movies of Shannon's mom's family. And proceeded to burn the DVDs for the family. I also did a pork roast again (since I bought two for the previous movie night) I did it fairly similar to the previous time, though I didn't follow the recipe...since I lent the magazine to Holly...but it turned out great. The pork was much juicier (not that i was dry before...just not as juicy as I wanted). I was very happy. Since there were only two of us, there were lots of left overs...for sandwiches...mmm...pork...

Today we cleaned up the 4 or so inches of snow, and then I got to baking and made some double chocolate banana bread. In listening to the Sound Opinions Christmas Spectacular and baking the banana bread, I was really starting to catch the holiday spirit (for the first time this month) and I'm looking forward to seeing our families and the Mattas over Christmas and new years.

Mmm...time to make pork sandwiches....mmmm...pork... *drool*

Busy busy...

Last Saturday we trucked out through the slickness to go to the Jordan Creek Animal Hospital Christmas Party. It was fun. They held it at Joseph's Steakhouse and Lounge this year. This is our first trip there and everything was pretty good. Staff was attentive (relative to the size of the party), the appetizers and food were pretty good. I really enjoyed my steak (it is not often that I have such large pieces of meat). They gave out iPod Nanos to the staff at the party, which is pretty cool. So now Shannon has her own, and I've been helping her learn how to rate things and get all her music setup... I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the JCAH people, and it's nothing against them, It's really me, I don't have a lot in common with them, other then...well...Shannon. But they are a friendly bunch and I'm glad Shannon works there....

So over the last week we've had quite a bit of ice and snow and though most of the main streets are clear (well until it snowed again this morning), 43rd, 44th and Thornton (basically two and from work for me) are still covered in ice and/or very bumpy with ice mounds. 44th being the bumpiest and 43rd being the slickest...On Tuesday, we had quite a bit of ice come down and I ended up working from home, but Shannon still had to go in. It was a tough drive, but I've been in worse. Since not to many people were on the road, it made it much easier. I stopped at Hy-Vee on my way home and while I was in there, the power flickered twice...

Thursday I made a nice spread for movie night. Roasted Pork Loin with Maple-Mustard Crust, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Corn and bread from La Mie. The garlic mashed potatoes I made in the normal fashion, but I sautéed the garlic first, then let the garlic integrate with the cream (who needs milk?) and the butter. So it integrated with then potatoes very well. I did use about 3 cloves of garlic for about 8 servings...and I think I could ratchet it up a bit...maybe add another clove or two. The pork loin went pretty well, even though I cooked it at a higher temp then I intended for much much longer then I should've. It did ruin the apple and fennel bed that the pork was on, though some of it turned out ok... I was pretty happy over all though.

Friday I spent an extra long time outside finishing chipping off the ice from the sidewalks (around 2 hours), and I come in to find my phone overflowing with text messages. So I spent a good chunk of Friday figuring out that the problems that people were experiencing were entirely related to a push for an upgrade for another product that some how corrupted internet explorer...so..it was frustrating morning followed by a long frustrating afternoon (apparently I have two versions of the same software, and one would not install at all on Windows 2003 and the other would...course I didn't figure that out until around 4:30).

Freedom!

My brother is free. He showed up a few days ago at my parents with his paperwork in hand, and he is now free of his responsibilities.

Yay!

I don't know what I feel...

At work, our boss took us out to the gateway market and we discussed what is happening over the near term, as far as our group goes.

I'm not exactly thrilled with we talked about, or with what is happening, but when it comes down to it, it doesn't change my life that much...

I don't know...

I'm frustrated...

Bossman released us for the day (early) like he often does, and I was planning on going back to work anyways...but I didn't...I don't think I could've got my head into it. So I'm gonna take the night off, hit it hard tomorrow, make sure everything is in working order on Friday Morning...and show what's done on Friday afternoon

I felt so manly

Saturday, we had a plumber out, since the laundry room floor seemed to be a bit damp...Apparently the pressure relief valve took a crap, and he replaced it.

In turning off the water, however, some of the sediment loosened and then proceeded to settle back in the aerators of 3 of our faucets. In figuring this out, I found that the way that the water works in this house is kind of silly. Anyways, I ended up taking off the aerator parts of the faucets, cleaned them out, and put them back on. It felt really good to do some work myself, and have it work right.

I made a another cheesecake on Friday night, with the intention of taking it over to the Boelman's. They didn't get any of the last one I made. So I made one just for them. Since Saturday turned out to be such a crappy day (weather wise), we went over on Sunday and had some cheesecake and watched Dexter. The cheesecake turned out much better then last time. I think water got in last time...making a bit wetter then it should be. I bought 18 inch wide aluminum foil to wrap my 9 inch springform pan in. It works a lot better. I was able to to cut out nice perfect slices, rather then the sloppy mess (yet very tasty) that happened at the Halloween party. I was out of bourbon, so I ended up using Single Barrel Jack Daniels...so I guess it was a Pumpkin Single Barrel Jack Daniels Cheesecake.

I've been working silly hours. many nights until 6, some even till 7...I'm tired...but am trying to get as much as I can, done, before I present on Friday. I've also decided that I hate the "API" that they have in there the software. On the one hand, it's made some things easy, on the other, their code is slower then ox snot, so even generating simple forms is a lot slower then it would be if I just did them myself. If I had time, I would rewrite the application generator...but I don't...so it'll have to wait until the next step release.

Let the Ice Fall

So despite having "no travel recommended" warnings, Shannon still had to work this morning, and being that she doesn't particularly like driving in inclement weather, she asked me to take her. So I, being the dutiful husband that I am, did as I was asked. I wasn't even digging into weekend sleep time, since, as has been happing a lot lately, I've been waking up very early (5:30 this morning).

The roads weren't too bad, driving carefully. Some very slick spots. I drove her over to work, and then drove to my office. I figured since my office is much closer to her work then home, it'd mean less time on the road doing it this way. I got some work done...working for the first weekend in quite a while.

Shannon gets of work at one, so at around 12:20, I went out to the car to warm it up...and then proceeded to lock the keys in Shannon's car. Luckily for me, the passenger door was unlocked, so I was able to get back in, but for a bit, I was a bit freaked out.

After a bit, I headed back to get her...the roads were slushy and wet, but not near as slippery anymore.

Anyways...we're home and safe...and I don't think we're plaining on going anywhere.

Post Thanksgiving Thingy

So after making cheese puffs, preparing carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower, setting out 8 cheeses, 4 kinds of crackers, two kinds of salsa, and two flavors of sun chips, Shannon's Parents and Sister's family showed up, followed shortly by her Uncle and Aunt.

We all chatted...ate some food...chatted some more...

After a bit, Shannon reminded me that we were planning on going to dinner. So we quick cleaned a few things up and put food away and got everyone gathered up to head out to Drake Diner.

The late lunch/early dinner was very nice. Though it was kind of funny, since both Shannon's Dad and Uncle spilled their malts, but nobody else did...Can't take the kids anywhere...

Afterwards, we came back here, Showed everyone the Wii and then people started taking off.

I think I prepared to much...or expected more people or something, I don't know...it was fun preparing for it...