Food

Eat a Chilis for $4.99 Everyday from 3 to 6 PM

Did you know that @Chilis has full-size meals for $4.99? We didn’t either. These specials are available every weekday from 3 to 6 pm, 9 pm to close and all day on Sundays. They are not available on Saturdays. We went to Chilis restaurant last night for my birthday and the waitress told us about the deal. We have seen it before but I guess thought of “happy hour food” as just small portions. Since we were eating light we decided to order from that menu and to our delight we found they are FULL SIZE MEALS – for $4.99! Who knew!

I think the table-top flyer isn’t eye-catching enough, needs photos of the food, or a big heading so customers know this is what they are getting. When you read it you think it is just small bites that people would order if they were sitting at the bar having a beer or cocktail but that is not the case.

The waitress said that not many people take advantage of this Chilis special and I think it’s because it isn’t explained very well. Believe it or not, I have seen that flyer about 5 times and remember reading it and still didn’t know that is what the Chilis special was about. That is why I am telling you personally about this great Chilis special so you won’t miss out like we did.

Since we love Chilis restaurant – it’s one of favorite chain restaurants – and we eat there often, we are definitely going to be taking advantage of this special. Now, if they would just add pasta to that special menu I would be super happy.

You can get the follow full-size meals at Chilis after 9pm any day and all day on Sundays. It’s worth going a little bit late if you can to get in on the money-saving deal from Chilis restaurants.

Big Mouth Bites and Fries
Classic Nachos
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
Grilled Chicken Sandiwch and Fries
Southwestern Eggrolls
Boneless Buffalo Wings
Wings Over Buffalo
Loaded Potato Skins

Other “happy hour deals” include bottomless Tostada chilis and Salsa, a favorite of ours, for $2.29. Did you now that if you sit at the bar these are Free! Miller Lite or Coor Light beer is $2.29 and Blue Moon beer is $3.49

Next time you go out to eat at Chilis restaurant make sure you look for this table-top display and order something good to eat.

Steak is now on Chilis 2 for $20 Menu

If you have been following me for any length of time you know how much Greg and I love eating at Chilis. The food is good, at a fair price and we always feel welcomed and enjoy our time when we eat at a Chilis restaurant. I found out that Chilis now has a 6 oz sirloin steak on their 2 for $20 menu so we decided to eat there last Friday night.

Really, the best deal you can get for a couple is the $35 meal deal. It comes with your choice of the 2 for $20 menus items, an appetizer to share, two mixed drinks and dessert to share. So, that is what we had.

We shared the fresh-made Chilis chips, salsa, and homemade guacamole dip.

Greg had the steak, potatoes and broccoli while I had the traditional Cajun Chicken Pasta (not pictured). That is always on the 2 for $20 menu. Both meals were fantastic!

We both had a Platinum Presidente Margarita. Each came in it’s own little shaker and we could both fill up our glasses three times. The waitress said the Presidente uses better quality Tequila. It was yummy and I sucked the lime off the rind!

For dessert we took the Molten Lava chocolate cake with us and ate it at the casino. Boy, you should have seen the looks on people’s faces at the walked past us at the casino – so jealous!

I don’t know how long the steak will be on the 2 for $20 menu or they will be offering drinks with the $35 meal deal so you should go there soon.

A Day in Life of a Krispy Kreme Donut

The day in the life of a Krispy Kreme doughnut starts with a semi tanker truck pulling up to the building and for 40 minutes the Krispy Kreme Quality Control people make sure that the flour meets their strict requirements.

Actually, the life of the Krispy Kreme donut starts with the secret recipe, bought by Vernon Rudolph in 1937. He bought the secret recipe from a New Orleans French chef.

We were able to get an almost close-up look of it when we visited the Krispy Kreme headquarters. It is held in a vault and only taken out for special occasions.

Inside of that envelope is probably a small piece of paper with hand-written scribbles that took 5 minutes to put together but we can only guess.

Once cleared to go, the flour is forced through a long tube into 36 foot high holding tanks and from there move on to the mixing tanks where the flour is mixed with the various other secret dry ingredients.

All along the entire process; the ingredients are probed, prodded, tested, weighed, and analyzed by high-tech equipment to make sure they meet the high quality standards to become a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Once all the secret dry ingredients are mixed, the mixture is either put in a bag for shipping to one of their many worldwide stores (in 21 countries as of this writing) or it stays at the NC facility to be turned into delicious doughnuts.

Here are some of the ingredients used in making the KK donuts but not all donuts have all of these ingredients: eggs, milk, butter, yogurt, whey, nonfat milk and nonfat whey, soy-based lecithin, and wheat, including bran, germ, gluten, starch and flour. The donuts are cooked in a vegetable shortening containing palm, soybean, and/or cottonseed and canola oil.

The donut process has been watched over by hungry customers since Krispy Kreme opened. We watch as they move through the hot oil bath, flipping onto their backs so they are evenly cooked – nice and toasty – and finally as they go through the fountain of glaze.

Once the donuts have been made, it is time to decorate them. Some even get filled with cream or jelly using these special machines.

Having just finished receiving the coat of glazing or been filled and decorated, the finished donut moves onto the packing station, where they get to see if I go into a box for shipment to a store or on a tray in a protected movable bin for shipment to a local Krispy Kreme shop.

Some of the donuts get boxed up into special Fund Raising boxes. Did you know that Krispy Kreme has an expansive fund raising program? Talk to your school, club or organization about selling Krispy Kreme donuts the next time you are doing a fundraising project.

For ever box of Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts sold your group will earn from $3.50 to $4.25 per dozen – that’s a lot of profit. When you think of how little a Girl Scout troop actually earns for selling those over-price cookies, Krispy Kreme makes a lot of sense.

You can read all about the Krispy Kreme Fund Raising program, Dollars for Dozens, at www.krispykreme.com

Of course, there is nothing quite like the Original Glazed Krispy Kreme donut – original goodness at the very first bite!

Want more? Learn how to pair coffee with Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Disclaimer: We were part of the KK Blogger Summit in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and got a first-hand glimpse of the business from the inside. Our travel and hotel was covered but our opinions were provided solely by us.

Krispy Kreme Coffee and Doughnut Pairings

Last week we were invited to attend the 2012 Very Important Blogger (VIB) Summit held at Krispy Kreme located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Krispy Kreme is celebrating their 75^th birthday this year, so watch out for some special things from them this year. One of the many sessions scheduled for us was the “Worthy of Our Doughnuts: A Coffee and Doughnut Pairing Experience.

This session consisted of two pairs:

Coffee education given by Branan Wagaman, Krispy Kreme’s Beverage Operations Manager. He is responsible for the development, planning, launch, and ongoing management of all Kripsy Kreme beverage programs. He focused primarily on Krispy Kreme’s new specially crafted Signature Blend coffees. He described the blends as we sample them.

Dougnut Pairings given by Ron Rupocinski, Kripsy Kreme’s Corporate Chef. As Corporate Chef, he uses his vast culinary and baking expertise / education to help develop and produce international and domestic food and beverage products.

After Branan educated us about the coffee and Ron educated us about product development, we moved into the coffee and doughnut pairings. Here Ron explained his process in choosing which doughnuts to pair with each of the three different Signature Blend coffees.

The new Signature coffees are:

“Krispy Kreme Signature House Blend – A smooth, medium-bodied, Latin American blend with a balanced flavor profile for the everyday coffee drinker.”
“Krispy Kreme Signature Dark Roast– With a dark roasted, full-bodied flavor, this blend of African, Indonesian and Central American coffees was made for those who prefer a bolder coffee taste.”
“Krispy Kreme Signature House Decaf– A decaffeinated blend of Columbian and Sumatran coffee with all the taste and none of the jitters.”

They also suggest pairings of their new coffee with different doughnuts from their wide varieties of doughnuts for different times of the day. The table below was copied from a pamphlet given to me by Krispy Kreme.

	House Blend	Dark Roast	House Decaf
Early Morning	Hot Original Glazed®	Pumpkin Spice	Hot Original Glazed®
Morning Break	Coffee Break Doughnut	Cinnamon Bun	Chocolate Iced Glazed
Lunch	Glazed Sour Cream	Apple Pie	Glazed Cruller
Afternoon Break	Powdered Jrs.	Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled™	Doughnut Holes
Early Evening	Glazed Lemon Filled	Hot Original Glazed®	Hot Original Glazed®
Late Night	Glazed Chocolate Cake	Glazed Raspberry Filled	New York Cheesecake
Special Occasion	Maple Iced Cake Doughnut	Dulce de Leche	Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles

The Apple Pie and Powdered Jrs. Doughnuts are only available at grocery and convenience stores.

Addressing their new Signature Blend coffee before we talk about the pairings, I fully agree with Krispy Kreme’s description about these new coffee blends. To me, their description is right on mark with how the coffee taste. The taste that came to my mind as I continued sipping the House blend was that of a Brazilian nut; nutty, with a somewhat creamy flavor. The Dark Roast blend was a bold, full-bodied coffee without much bitterness sometimes characteristic of other dark roast coffees. The Dark Roast is the one I prefer because it has what I look for in a coffee. The House Decaf taste much like the regular House blend.

Now, onto the pairings. Before I go further, one thing Chef Rupocinski suggested during the pairing was not to use sugar in the coffee because if you have sugar in your coffee and a doughnut that has a glaze or a filling, more sugar, all the characteristics of both the coffee and doughnut may be masked by the sugar, thus ruining a successful pairing. He suggested maybe a little dairy in your coffee.

The pairing we tried were:

House Blend and Glazed Blueberry

Dark Roast and Glazed Raspberry Filled

House Decaf and Chocolate Iced Kreme Filled

Each of these pairings worked extremely well, neither the doughnuts nor the coffees were overpowered by each other. In fact, each had characteristics that accented the other, like two main characters of a play, both working in unison to make the play itself the focus, not the individual characters.

I think just about any of their doughnuts would pair well with any of their new Signature Blend coffees.

Disclosure: We learned about coffee and doughnut pairings on our trip to the Krispy Kreme headquarters in North Carolina. Airfare and hotel were covered for us by Krispy Kreme for this trip but what we write is our own opinion and based on our experience.

Williams-Sonoma Free Monthly Cooking Class Schedule

Do you love to cook? Well, Williams-Sonoma has FREE cooking and technique classes each and every month. Here is our round-up of current classes. Check back each month to find out what new is being offered. In the Williams-Sonoma classes you will learn about cuisines from around the world and also close to home and get tips and hints from talented chefs and culinary experts.

Free Technique Classes

Your local Williams-Sonoma store has Free Technique Classes! The Williams-Sonoma Culinary Specialists will show you some of their favorite tips and techniques as they prepare and sample great recipes.

Free Junior Chef Classes at Williams-Sonoma

Hey, kids! Williams-Sonoma can show you how fun and easy cooking can be: Learn to make deliciousrecipes, from main courses to desserts and snacks, with plenty of tasting along the way.

Free Williams-Sonoma Cooking Classes:

Williams-Sonoma has an exciting lineup of cooking classes taught by talented chefs and culinary specialists. Each class includes a cooking demonstration, samples of featured dishes and recipes to take home. Each 1-1/2 to 2 hour class includes a cooking demonstration, generous samples of featured dishes and printed recipes to take home. Class participants will receive a 10% discount for store purchases on the day of the class.

Williams-Sonoma Cookbook Club

Cook your way through some of your favorite cookbooks within the Williams-Sonoma Cookbook Club Classes. Learn to prepare and enjoy several dishes that you will then get to take home with you!

Williams-Sonoma American Girl Cooking Classes

Join Williams-Sonoma and American Girl® for a hands-on cooking class. Each child will take home a special goodie bag! Space is limited. Reserve a spot now!

Space is limited and reservations are required. Click HERE to find a local Williams-Sonoma participating in your area.

About Williams-Sonoma Stores:

The first Williams-Sonoma store opened in 1956, selling a small array of cookware imported from France. Since then, the brand has expanded to hundreds of products from around the world, more than 250 stores nationwide, a direct-mail business that distributes millions of catalogs a year, and a highly successful e-commerce site. What has never changed is Williams-Sonoma’s dedication to customer service and strong commitment to quality.

Follow them at williams-sonoma.com, on Twitter, and Facebook

Source: williams-sonoma.com