Weekend treat.....

Who doesn't look forward to the weekend...

I look forward to the weekends that my girlfriends and I can get together and try a new place out for lunch or dinner. Sometimes there are 4 of us, most of the time there's 3 of us and from time to time there are just 2 of us.  No matter how many of us there are, we always have a great time and enjoy good food.

My friend Paige asked earlier in the week if we could meet for dinner Sunday and to let her know where we were going. We usually rotate who picks where to go eat.  I have been house sitting for my best friend and not really familiar with things out where I'm staying.  Paige suggested that she look and I look to see if we could find somewhere in the middle.

Paige texted me Sunday morning and asked what I found (gulp) really didn't find much that excited us.  She then suggested Humble Pie.  YAY!!!  Have been wanting to try them.  Didn't realize that they now have 4 locations. Perfect!  Decision made!

We went to the Humble Pie on 7th Street and McDowell.  This location used to be The Living Room.

I sat and waited for Paige to arrive.  While I was waiting, several of the staff members asked if I wanted to be seated.
I wasn't sure if she wanted to sit at the bar, a high top or a regular table.  I opted to wait and thanked the staff for asking.  As I was waiting for Paige, I took some pictures.

The bar has seating for about 12.

They have a good selection of wines and they have happy hour from 3-6 daily with glasses of wine for $5.00 during that time. Awesome deal!

If wine is not your thing, not to worry. They have 12 kind of beers on tap and they offer "Pick Three Flight" if you can't decide which beer you want.





You can see Papa or Jose make your pizza from scratch while you wait.

Papa making pizza

Jose tossing dough

I love the charm, character and ambiance of this place ~ the brick building , the open rafter ceiling, to the open brick oven for the fresh pizza made to order.

Paige hadn't arrived yet and I could see the staff was a bit concerned that I hadn't sat "somewhere".
So, I decided to sit at one of the high tops to wait for her.  My server's Lorine and Kyle were very friendly and attentive.  I still wanted to wait for Paige to arrive before I ordered anything.





The high top that I sat at was in perfect view of everything. There are 4 high top tables and about seating for 25 in the main dining room.


Papa and Jose's pizza station was right in front of me, the bar was to the right and the main dining was to the left.








This location also has live music playing on certain nights.  It so happened that there was a guitarist on this night.


He was great!  Music level was perfect.  You didn't half to shout at people to carry on a conversation.

                                 
                                     Paige had arrived ~ yay!!!  We chatted a bit and then ordered wine.

                           

I had the Norton Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina and Paige had the Pezzi King Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley, CA. I'm a huge fan of Malbec's and I really enjoyed this one. Full flavor, smooth tannins and hints of plum and red cherry. Yummy!

Sipping on our wines and chatting, we really hadn't looked at the menu but had seen all the wonderful foods passing in front of us.  Our server Lorine was great ~ she would just stop and check to see if we were ready or if we were still busy chatting.  We finally decided to order an appetizer.





















We ordered the antipasto board ~ prosciutto, salami, white cheddar, parmigiano-reggiano, roasted olive, ciabatta bread and a small bowl of caprese ~ cherry tomatoes in a balsamic reduction and chopped basil.

Perfect combination of everything.  The white cheddar was creamy and light ~ almost brie like.   The meats were perfect in their curing and the caprese, OMG!!  The caprese was amazing.  Did I mention the olives?  I don't like olives, never have.  Paige had me try one ~ loved it!!  All of that with the another glass of wine.
Well ~ can you say heaven?!?!

We enjoyed our wine and chatted while we decided what we wanted to have for dinner.  We were going to get a salad and pizza to share but the antipasto had filled us up a bit.  We decided to split a S.O.P. ~ sausage, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, ricotta cheese and tomato sauce.

When Lorine brought our pizza out ~ mmmm.......looked so yummy!

First bite, I wasn't sure if I liked it.  The tomato sauce was a little sweet for me.  But when I got to the second bite and got more of the ingredients in that bite ~ I LOVED IT!!  The slight spicy kick of the sausage and the roasted red peppers balanced the sauce.  It was perfect!  Needless to say we ate the whole thing and had another glass of wine.

Now the important decision ~ to have dessert or not to have dessert.  Paige loves our foodie dates because we usually split a dessert.  We decided to finish out the night with donut holes.

It was a nice way to finish out the evening.  They were light, sprinkled with cinnamon, dusted with powdered sugar and a bit of honey drizzled on top for the finish.  I think I ate most them. :)  But they were really good.

For sure will be going back and bringing other friends and perhaps enjoy their patio!!

I leave you with this quote :

"Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost; united and well matched they are body and soul, living partners." ~  André Simon  


~ Happy Eating!

Calling Food Trucks to the Farm!!!!

Last week I was reading through my Twitter updates when something caught my eye, Food Truck Round Up.   Hmmmm....what's a food truck round up??

This was what I read ~ "Superstition Farm hosts members of the Phoenix Street Food Coalition & other trucks around Arizona for a roundup of great food, fellowship and fun.  March 17th "   Well...I just had to know more.  I mean I know what food trucks are as I've seen them on FoodNetwork like The Great Food Truck Race and on Cooking Channel the Food Truck Revolution.

After reading a bit more I knew that I needed a partner in crime to go and check it out.  Lucky, I had just that partner and she was more than willing to go with me. YAY!! (thank you Jo-girl!)

Our Saturday started with a stop at Einstein Bagel for a light breakfast and beverage.

Mmmm... good start to the morning.

After we had our breakfast, the next stop on the list was the Phoenix Public Market on Filmore and Central.  

I was going there to take some pictures.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed walking around, but more so enjoyed seeing there are now more vendors.  To see the local farms selling fresh produce and vendors with fresh breads, cookies, lavender and much, much more.

I will be going back next Saturday to buy yummy stuff!!  If you've not gone before you're missing out!

Frogs Organic Bakery

  

Smart Cookie

                                                  

                                         

Windy Hills Lavender Farm

               


     

Crooked Sky Farms

After the Market, Jo-girl and I settled in for our journey out to Superstition Farm for the Food Truck Round Up!!





         



                Wooohoooo!!!  We had arrived!!!








     We were greeted by Farmer Jason, who was
     very friendly and funny.  Thank you for posing!
















              We didn't know what to expect, but we were both ready to embrace the experience and eat!

With tickets in our hand for the food trucks, we were ready to go.  We decided the first thing to do was to walk around and see what each truck had to offer and then decide which trucks we wanted to try.  I was a little surprised that there weren't as many trucks as they had mentioned, but the weather was a bit iffy so I figured that was the reason why.

Don't get me wrong ~ there were still plenty of trucks to try!

















We walked around for a good 15 minutes and checked out what the trucks had on their menu for the Round Up so we could make some choices.

Our first truck we decided on was Mamma Toledo.  I have to make a confession ~ we ate our pies and then moved onto the next truck when I realized that I FORGOT (OMG!!!) to take pictures of the pies!!  But Mamma Toledo's was my heroine and came to the rescue!  (thank you again!!)














I had the chocolate coconut cream pie and Jo-girl had the Bailey's chocolate pie.  It was YUMMY!


After we had our dessert first, we then moved on to something a bit spicy.  We headed over to Spice It Up!


















We both had the Cambodian ginger beef curry that was amazing!  I think we both could have eaten more but we wanted to save room for the other trucks.  Best curry I've had in a very, very long time.

We lingered a bit to decide what we wanted to try next, even though we had already walked around to pick out we wanted to try.... lol.   We laughed and said "creme brulee?"  So we walked over to the Torched Goodness truck.




Lemon creme brulee ~
mmmmmm...... was perfect. Not too tart but with a smooth zing. Oh so good!!!

Jo-girl had the sea salt chocolate creme brulee. Creamy, not too rich and just a hint of Fleur de Sel. Heaven!!





After the creme brulee, we walked around a bit and then just sat , talked and people watched.  We did notice that more people had arrived to the Round Up.

I didn't know what I wanted to try next and Jo-girl was still deciding as well.  Jo-girl decided that she wanted Mungo from Hey Joe Truck and I wanted the bbq beef taco from Qup BBQ.




































What I didn't mention about my bbq beef taco from Qup BBQ is that it came with coleslaw.  The reason for that is I'm not a huge fan of coleslaw.  When I placed my order I asked if I could get the taco without the coleslaw.  I was told that I could but that I should try it, that their coleslaw was different.  I explained that I didn't care for or really like coleslaw, again I was told to try it that theirs was different.  When I got my taco I was still given a side of the coleslaw. (sigh)  I went back over to the table we were sitting at.  Jo-girl laughed and asked if I was going to try coleslaw or toss it.  I decided to try a little of it.  YUM!!! It was very good and was not like regular coleslaw.  I put it on my taco and ate it.  I went back over to Qup BBQ and  bowed and told him that I stood corrected that the coleslaw was great!  It seemed to have an aioli taste to it rather than the traditional mayo and vinegar taste.
(thank you for not giving up!!)

What to have next.....we thought that we would try another dessert.  We headed over to Udder Delights/Super Farm Super Truck to get some cupcakes.  I wanted the white birthday cake cupcake but sadly they were out (tears) but Jo-girl had the red velvet cupcake.

Bummed that I wasn't able to get a cupcake or rather they didn't have the cupcake I wanted, while Jo-girl ate her cupcake we walked so I could figure out what I wanted.  Hmmm.... Pizza People??   Popeye Pizza?  Spinach, mozzarella and tomato,,,,,mmmmm.....sounded yummy.  And it was ~ very yummy!!


















Down to the last two tickets, we decided that we wanted to split something but what.....the verdict....catfish.
We walked over to BuzznBeez Good Food.  Never had catfish before so wasn't sure how I'd like it.

We shared the catfish. I just had the fish and Jo-girl had it as a sandwich.
The seasoning on the catfish was awesome!
Fan, huge fan!


Thanks Jo-girl for having me try it!  Delish!!





















Those were the food trucks that we tried.  There were a handful of other trucks that we were too full to try.

I hope there's another Round Up in the near future so we can try other amazing foods.

 

SEE Y'ALL LATER!!!