The Story of Noodle Nose NHL, Plus an Outback Giveaway!

Often times, when we’re talking to NHL, we’ll call him “Noodle Nose.”  Many people might think that this is a weird name to call your kid, but there’s really a funny story behind it.

When NHL was almost a year old, we went to a local Italian restaurant for my birthday.  NHL was starting to eat solid foods, so we gave him some of our pasta to try.  He, of course, loved it.

All during the dinner, NHL kept sneezing.  At first, we thought that something was bothering him in the restaurant.  B and her mother can be sensitive to perfumes and other fragrances.  Perhaps, we thought, someone at a nearby table has perfume on that is bothering his nose.  The only problem with this theory, though, was that we couldn’t smell anything.

As the dinner, wound to a close, NHL let out a tremendous sneeze and something flew from his nose.  Something that solved the meal-time sneezing mystery.  It was one of my fettuccine noodles.  Apparently, when he was eating them, a piece of one worked its way from his mouth/throat to his nasal passage.  There it lodged.  As with any nasal intruder, his body tried expelling it via sneezes until it successfully launched that noodle clear across the table.

From that day on he has been known as Noodle Nose NHL!

Giveaway

You can win a $45 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse (does not include alcohol, tax and gratuity).  To enter, simply leave a comment below answering this question: What kind of food do you like eating out with your kids?

You can also earn bonus entries by doing any (or all) of the following items. Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each item that you complete.  (Don’t just leave one comment listing everything you did.)

  • Follow @TechyDad on Twitter. (1 bonus entry)
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  • Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TechyDad, @Outback and a link to this post in the Tweet. (1 bonus entry per day) For example: Share some dinner memories with your kids thanks to @TechyDad and @Outback #Giveaway http://bit.ly/l84cih
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  • Write a post on your blog linking to this giveaway. Leave 3 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries. (3 bonus entries)

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today, June 28th and ends at Noon EST on July 14th, 2011. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Disclaimer: This post was written as part of the Outback Steakhouse Dinner With Dad Experience blog tour.  I was compensated by Outback with a $45 gift certificate.

A Change in Plans Leads to Great Sushi at Mr. Fuji

Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary.  Our plans were initially that we would drop the kids off at B’s parents house and then we would go out to dinner at a local Thai restaurant that we’ve been to before.  If we had time, we were toying with a movie or something else.

Unfortunately, fate (in the form of old corroded plumbing) intervened.  The plumbing job took so long that, by the time we left the house, we were pushing against the kids’ bedtime.  And they had anniversary cake for us waiting.  We went to B’s parents’ house and had dessert first.

We couldn’t stay in our house thanks to fumes from some chemicals used during the sink cleanup.  So while the kids were sleeping in strange beds (in B’s parents’ house), they wanted some degree of normalcy.  Meaning, have Daddy stay in their room until they were asleep.  Unfortunately, that took until 9:30pm.

The restaurant we wanted to go to was closed as were many others.  B recalled a new Japanese restaurant that she had heard good things about: Mr. Fuji.  We checked their website and found out that they were open.  Score!

With the kids safely in bed, and the clock pushing 10pm, we made our way to Mr. Fuji for dinner.  Given the time and our appetites, we decided to skip a big main course and instead have a dinner comprised of 2 appetizers and 3 sushi rolls.

The first to come out was the Age Tofu.  This tofu might be deep fried, but it was not greasy.  Instead, it had a nice crunch to it and the sauce was delicious.

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Up next was the vegetable tempura.  I’d say this was our least favorite dish, but that would give the impression that it wasn’t tasty.  It was very tasty.  The vegetables were big and nicely fried.  The only “problem” was that the rest of the food was so exceptional that the tasty vegetable tempura wound up in the back of the pack.

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Up next was our sushi.  See if you can identify the rolls.  (Click on the photo below to see a larger version.)

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Let’s begin with the ordinary.  A Philadelphia roll.  For the non-sushi aficionados, that’s smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber rolled up in rice.  Yes, it’s a Japanese version of bagel-lox-and-cream-cheese and it is tasty!

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Up next, is a favorite of mine that I’ve seen in a few places.  The sweet potato roll.  This isn’t just sweet potatoes rolled in rice, though.  It is first fried tempura-style and *then* rolled in rice.  This adds a crunchy texture to the soft rice and sweet vegetable filling.

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The big win of the evening, though, and the roll that will become a *must order* every time we go back to Mr Fuji, though, was the Peanut Avocado roll.  I’m going to let the pictures describe the roll first.  (As always, click to enlarge.)

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Yes, that’s peanuts in a sushi roll.  And not just any kind of peanuts, but honey roasted peanuts.  Delicious!  I could have eaten five more of these roll.  Ok, maybe not.  My stomach would have gotten full before they were done, but my taste buds would have kept screaming for more.

As I said before, we ate dessert before this meal, so we opted not to get any more dessert.  Still, the tempura cheesecake sounded good and the looked good when it was brought to the table next to us.  That will be a major temptation the next time we go there.

The staff was wonderful and the service was prompt.  In fact, when they heard it was our anniversary (and about our plumbing woes), they insisted that we couldn’t leave without some kind of dessert and presented us with a small plate of watermelon.  B was too full to eat any, so I ate the entire thing.  I just wish I thought to get a photo of it before I tore into it, though.  The four long watermelon triangles were arranged upright in a square.  It almost looked like some kind of watermelon flower.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to drool a bit while I think about the peanut-avocado sushi.  YUM!

Disclaimer: I wasn’t compensated for this review in any way.  We just found a nice restaurant and I wanted to blog about their great food.

Aloha Friday: Anniversary Date Night

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary.  Ten years ago today I got married to the most beautiful, wonderful woman in the world.  As B mentions in her post today, we didn’t eat much at our wedding.

During the first part of the reception, we were locked in a room together (a custom which we didn’t want to do but was forced upon us by an overzealous cantor).  According to the tradition, a couple is supposed to consummate the marriage right then and there.  Unfortunately, it was hot out and the room had no A/C.  Plus, being in our temple locked in a room we didn’t want to be in didn’t help the mood.  (Of course, even if we were in the mood, there was no way I’d have been able to get B out of her wedding dress in the period of time we were given.)  Luckily, we were given food to eat.  Not so luckily, it was hot appetizers.  Yes, hot appetizers in a very hot room while we were wearing a very hot wedding dress and tuxedo.

After our wedding lock-down, we munched on some leftover appetizers but mainly had to greet people.  Then came the wedding dinner.  We managed a few bites of food but most of our time was spent walking around and talking.  No real time to enjoy the meal.

We only really got to eat after the wedding was over.  We went back to B’s parents’ house for a bit and ate and actual meal consisting of our wedding leftovers.

This year, to celebrate our anniversary, I would love to drop the kids off at B’s parents and escape with B to a romantic weekend getaway.  Unfortunately, reality has only given us the night.  So we will be going to a local Thai restaurant tonight sans kids.  Imagine, a whole meal where we don’t have to hear whining about what food the restaurant has, when it is coming out, how much they should eat or whether they need help with a potty run.  A dinner together where the conversation can be adult (as in grown-up, not as in X-rated) in nature.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: When you go out on date nights, what do you do?  How often do you get to date your spouse?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #93

Aloha Friday: Smoothie Time

Lately, NHL has been begging me to make him smoothies.  While grocery shopping, he’ll spot the orange juice and beg me to buy some to add to smoothies.  JSL loves drinking them.  They also happen to be very nutritious, so who am I to object?

For dessert after one of my grilling adventures, I had purchased a small watermelon.  As it happened, I decided against slicing it.  It sat on the counter for awhile until I sliced it up.  At that point, I figured that it wouldn’t a long (refrigerator) shelf life so I searched for some watermelon smoothie recipes.  I found this Watermelon Blueberry Smoothie recipe.

Today, after dinner, I decided to whip up some smoothies. 

Doubling the recipe, assisted by JSL and so excited that I forgot to take photos of the process (yes, really!), I put in the watermelon, honey, lemon juice and frozen blueberries into the blender.  After pureeing, I fought off JSL who couldn’t wait for smoothies.

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We split the entire double-recipe batch among the four of us and drank up.  The verdict was unanimous: Delicious!  NHL and JSL both asked for seconds (thirds in NHL’s case) and drank until nothing was left.  This is definitely something we’ll be making again.

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My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you make smoothies?  If so, what’s your favorite smoothie to make?

Don’t forget to enter my Kung Fu Panda/General Mills gift pack giveaway or B’s Dove Men + Care giveaway.


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #91

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