My wife and I have  been trying to find a local Mexican restaurant close to our house in Cincinnati to replace Benny’s, our neighborhood staple in Denver. El Toro Mexican Restaurant is only a mile from our new house, in fact we would have walked there if the weather wasn’t bad. They are located in the large strip mall named Hyde Park Plaza, next to Ace Hardware and just around the corner from Kroger. The storefront doesn’t appear very large, but the restaurant is very deep and has seating for plenty. We arrived just before 7:30 on a Wednesday to find the restaurant mostly empty.

Inside El Toro

We settled into our booth seating and noticed that all the booth tops are shaped like bull horns. El toro translates to the bull, so some care has been made in designing the restaurant. Shortly after sitting down an employee dropped off some chips and salsa and some water. The chips didn’t seem very fresh but they were warm. The salsa was pretty good overall, though most of the time I prefer a salsa with more chunks in it. This was very thin, but the spice was there and the flavor was good.

Complimentary Chips And Salsa

Shortly after receiving the complimentary chips and salsa, our server came by to take our drink order. My wife asked if there were any specials, and fortunately one of the smaller sized margaritas was on sale. We both ordered one on the rocks with salt. When they arrived I was shocked at how large it was.  According  to the menu there are two sizes larger than the ones that we ordered. The taste was decent. It wasn’t heavy on either sweet or sour, just middle of the road on flavor.

Huge Margaritas

For dinner I went with the combination plate #1, which includes a taco, two enchiladas, and either rice or beans (I chose beans). Overall the food was not good. The taco was completely bland, and though the enchiladas were a little better due to the red sauce on top, they still were bland. The red sauce was simply not full of enough flavor, and their chicken all seemed very dry. The beans might have been my favorite part of my plate, since they actually tasted like I was expecting. For $7.99 the amount of food was good, but the taste needed a lot of work.

Combination 1

My wife created her own combination plate with  chile poblano, burrito, and tostaguac. She almost ordered the chile relleno but when she realized it was filled with beef she switched to the poblano, which is the same thing except with cheese filling. The poblano was better than anything else on my plate, but still not very good. It too had the same red sauce on it, which really needs work. The burrito was equally as plain and boring as my enchiladas. While the tostaguac (basically guacamole on a tostada) was probably the highlight of the meal.

Custom Combination

I always thought that it would be hard to find Mexican food that was less flavorful than Don Pablos, but I think El Toro has done it. I really doubt that we will make the effort to return anytime in the near future. Our quest for good Mexican food near our home continues.

Black Out Crowd

Another home game for the University of Cincinnati last Thursday night and another great win! Similar to the other games this season, Isaiah Pead scored the first Bearcat touchdown, followed by a couple of keepers from quarterback Zach Collaros. It was 21-0 before the NC State Wolfpack got on the board with a touchdown of their own. The Cats added a field goal before half making it 24-7.

Here come the Cats!

After halftime UC added another field goal and touchdown before allowing seven more points from NC State, but finished it off with one more touchdown and a field goal to finish at 44-14. I was hoping for a good competitive game after the first few home blowouts of the year, but the Bearcats dominated much of the game once again. Not that I’m complaining. They take on the Miami University Redhawks this coming weekend for the 116th  Battle for the Victory Bell. UC has a chance to make it six victories in a row, which would be the longest streak by either team.

My cousin Corey, friend Rob, and me enjoying the game.

While I’m talking football, here is a quick update on my fantasy football games. My teams in the traditional head to head games all went undefeated this week! I’m now in 1st of 12, 5th of 12, 6th of 12, and 1st of 4 in my division (though I’m the only undefeated team left in the league). I also gained 1st place in both pro and college pick’em, but  unfortunately  I’m out of the survivor game after New England lost to Buffalo for the first time in 16 tries. I moved up to 11th in the salary cap game, so some improvement, but still a long way from the lead.

One last note on sports for the week. I finally made it back out onto the ice on Sunday with my new hockey team. I’m playing with a couple of my good friends who I played with in high school, and even one of their older brothers. Our team played really well together considering it was the first time that some of us had ever shared the ice. I scored our first goal of the season and our team went on to win with four or five goals while also helping our goalie gain a shootout. This should be a great season of hockey.

A couple of Saturdays ago I made my way to Fountain Square for the Cincinnati Beer Fest. Though the lineup of beers wasn’t anything special, especially after attending the Big Band & Bigger Beer Festival just over a week earlier, I did find some awesome food. I had heard of Tom + Chee before but this was the first time I would sample one of their gourmet grilled cheeses. My wife actually made my selection for me and decided on the BLT grilled cheese.

BLT+CHEE

She must know me too well. This was an amazing combination of two sandwiches that I love. It would have been very hard for me to be disappointed, but the sandwich easily exceeded my expectations. It was perfectly grilled and ready for pickup in about five minutes. The cheddar cheese was still warm on the inside and the other ingredients inside couldn’t have tasted any better. I definitely will be back to sample some other  sandwiches, including the Flying Pig (roasted turkey, bacon, pickles, and gouda on sourdough) and the hot+spicy (pepperoni, hot peppers, onions, and pepper jack on wheat) just to name a few.

My recording of MER‘s performance at this year’s Pig-Fest XVIII is now uploaded to archive.org. This is nearly three hours of new original songs and a wide variety of classic and more recent cover songs, including “Friends In Low Places” with everyone in the crowd singing along. Remind me next year to point the stage mic toward the crowd to pick up the singing better on tape. MER is currently busy recording a couple of different albums that we hope to hear soon. He also has a bunch of music available on iTunes for purchase. Please support him now and in the future.

My wife and I stumbled into Zip’s Cafe a couple of weekends ago after Lunken Aviation Days. We actually attempted to stop in at Terry’s Turf Club, but quickly left when we were told that they didn’t have high chairs and it seemed a little too crowded for our infant son. We got back in the car and ended up at Zip’s, which worked out well since a couple of my wife’s brothers and some guests all joined us for lunch.

Turkey Burger

I had been to Zip’s before but not for many years. They are famous for their hamburgers, but I am not a big red meat eater so I wouldn’t know if they are any good. My wife tried the turkey burger with cheese ($5.75) and she seemed to enjoy it. I also saw a black bean burger on the menu that I may try in the future. She also ordered a side of french fries ($2.25) which actually looked better than they tasted. I’ve read good things about the fries, so maybe we had a bad batch, but they seemed to be exceptionally dry and perhaps overcooked.

Chicken Salad Sandwich

I went with the chicken salad sandwich ($6.00) and a side of onion rings ($3.25). The size of the sandwich was a little small, but the taste was great. Though the real standout from my meal were the onion rings. These large slices of onion had a great tasting batter on them and were perfectly fried. I would definitely recommend these over the fries for just a dollar more. Others in our group had Zip Burgers and they all seemed to enjoy them. Overall I enjoyed the food that I ordered and I hope to go back to sample more of their bar food style offerings.

After the race on Saturday morning and returning home to get cleaned up, we all headed up to the University of Cincinnati campus to tailgate before our second home game of the season versus the Akron Zips.  We spent a few hours before kickoff hanging out in the new on-campus tailgate spot, the GRID. In addition to reserved spots, fans are also allowed to bring their own coolers and chairs onto the campus green. With pregame performances by the band, and the team walking through a couple of hours before the game, it is a good option for pregame activities.

Trey ready for his first game!

We didn’t take Trey to the first game since it was a late start, but the 3:30 kickoff for this game was perfect. Plus the weather was really nice despite a cool start to the day. He really enjoyed seeing the band up close and was happy hanging on a blanket covering the grass during the tailgate. He decided to take a nap shortly before walking into the stadium and stayed asleep through the first few minutes of the game despite the loud crowd and  occasional  cannon shots.

Trey napping inside Nippert Stadium.

As far as the game goes, it was just as much of a blowout as the first game against Austin Peay, if not more. In the Peay game the score was 42-0 at the end of the first half. This time the score was 49-0 after the Bearcats scored seven touchdowns including three from the defense. The second half the Cats added another touchdown and a field goal before allowing Akron to score two touchdowns of their own. In the end eight different Cincinnati players scored each of the eight touchdowns. Final score 59-14. A bigger challenge likely awaits this Thursday as the team takes on North Carolina State. Be sure to tune into ESPN at 8PM EST to cheer on the Bearcats!

Family photo at the game.

In the world of fantasy football I had a mediocre week, going 2-2 in my four leagues. One of my losses came against my parents team in a league that I’ve joined for the first time this year. I’m still learning the ropes in that one as they only score touchdowns. Standings at this point are 1st of 10 (big money league), 8th of 12, 9th of 12, and 1st of 4 in my division in the last league. I moved up to 2nd place in college pick’em from 8th but dropped from 1st to 8th in the pro game. I also dropped from 3rd to 13th in the salary cap game, so some big changes are needed  there. I am still alive in the survival game picking Pittsburgh over Seattle.

To kick off a jam-packed weekend, I ran the Hudepohl 14K Brewery Run on Saturday morning. As I mentioned before, I planned to run the race with my dad and also had convinced a few others to join us for the fun.

Ted, Corinne, me, my dad, and Melissa before the race.

The morning started off cool meaning perfect running weather. Despite a little disorganization, I enjoyed the race very much. It seems that some race volunteers didn’t show up on time, which I think delayed the start of the race about ten minutes. That wasn’t really a big deal, though it threw off the times I gave to our spectators along the route. Also some of the bands were still getting setup as we ran past, but I’ve seen this happen with a variety of races. The biggest issue, though it didn’t impact me, was that they forgot to put out the signs for the 7K turnaround point, or if they were there it wasn’t easy enough to see. I saw many people lost on the course and some ended up running the full 14K even though they registered for half of that.

Me and my dad on the course.

We all started off in a pack together, running even faster than the 8:30 pace that I had told everyone. We also had a few others in the group not pictured above that helped bump up our initial pace. My dad commented that he didn’t think he’d be able to hold the sub 8:00 pace, but we did. For some reason my results from my timing chip aren’t online, but my dad’s results say 1:09:19 total, or 7:59 pace, though according to our GPS watched we ran even faster than that. Since I ran the whole race with him, I’ll assume my time would be the same. This would be good enough for 24th place out of 102 in my age division. My dad’s results say 255 out of 1393, and 12th of 44 in his division. Speaking of my dad’s running, he is officially registered for next year’s Boston Marathon. I can’t wait to see him run this race.

We earned our medals!

After crossing the finish line we were given these nice looking medals. The after party was hard to gain access to at first, as they setup the food and beer booths inside their old warehouse. Eventually we were treated to a couple of free beers, a commemorative pint glass, and some free food samples. I enjoyed running the longer than normal distance and hope they work some of the kinks out and decide to hold the race again next year.

Hanging with the Little Kings mascot.

Last Saturday I attended the Lunken Aviation Days down at Lunken Airport. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this display of aircraft, but Kim’s family wanted to check it out and we are always up for new things, especially if it is right in our backyard. The display was pretty small and it didn’t take long to make our way through it. The coolest thing on display was the large B-17, Aluminum Overcast.  This is one of only a few  surviving  B-17 Flying Fortresses  in existence. Rides were available for over $450 per seat! I was happy to just take a couple of photos. I wish I would have brought my SLR with me though.

I first heard of the Kolache Factory through a coupon we received in the mail, likely from ValPak. I lost the coupon but my wife and I still decided to check them out anyway. For me breakfast is often a disappointing experience as I don’t eat eggs. It is therefore hard for me to find quick breakfast options that still have  protein. Our visit came after an eight mile run in the morning, so I needed to find something to fill me up.

Enter the kolache, “a type of  pastry  that holds a dollop of fruit rimmed by a puffy pillow of supple dough.  Originating as a semi-sweet wedding dessert from  Central Europe, they have become popular in parts of the  United States. Often in the United States, kolaches are used for breakfast, stuffed with ham and cheese.”  I remembered a picture on the coupon showing bread stuffed with things other than eggs and knew that we needed to give it a try. The Kolache Factory was founded in 1982 in Houston, TX and is expanding nationwide.

Inside Kolache Factory

When entering the Kolache Factory you immediately recognize the layout of the restaurant as similar to a donut shop, with trays filled of the offerings back behind the registers. They have a few of the standard kolaches, similar to what I think you could find in central Europe. However most of the options utilize the same dough, but instead of placing various toppings on top the ingredients are stuffed inside the near baseball sized ball of dough. They also offer a couple of longer varieties with a few different kinds of sausage stuffed inside the pastry.

Sausage Gravy and Pepperoni Mushroom

I decided to try the most popular item from the menu, the filled dough balls. I went with one breakfast selection (sausage and gravy) and one more lunch offering (pepperoni and mushroom). After making my choices the employee taking my order offered to heat them up, to which I obliged.  Unfortunately  they are just microwaved for a minute and then served. It would be nice if they were heated quickly in an oven, which would make the outside a little more crisp instead of chewy. Regardless the dough was a bit sweet and tasty. The sausage and gravy was just as good as I imagined that it would be, with the dough it tasted almost just like biscuits and gravy. The pepperoni and mushroom also had some pizza sauce on it and was even referred to by the staff as a pizza kolache. It too was very good, spicy, and filling.

Sausage Egg Cheese and Chicken Enchilada

My wife also ordered one breakfast and one lunch style kolache. I didn’t sample her sausage egg and cheese kolache but she seemed to enjoy it. The chicken enchilada was again quite good. There was definitely some spiciness in it from the enchilada sauce. We also split a  cinnamon  roll for desert. Since they didn’t have any ready, it came fresh from the kitchen a few minutes after we started eating our meal. It was warm and topped with melted icing. It is hard to mess up a cinnamon roll, but this one was definitely toward the top of my personal list. To reiterate what I said before, I think the next time I will get a large variety pack of kolaches to go and then warm them up myself in the oven to see if that makes them even better. I hope that next time is sometime soon.

It’s that time of the year. Time for the return of my weekly sports updates. Though my new hockey team hasn’t started playing yet, we will have our first game on Sunday. That always adds a little excitement to the blog. As far as my own sporting goes, I have been running quite a bit in preparation for the 14k race this weekend. I logged eight miles just this past Saturday, which I think could be my longest run ever.

The football teams that I attempt to cheer on to victory had mixed results this weekend. First, the Bearcats were thumped down in Knoxville by the Volunteers of Tennessee, 45-23. The game started off great, but the bigger and stronger Vols proved to be too much later in the game. The Cats shouldn’t have problems this weekend with Akron before hosting NC State next Thursday. On the other hand the Bengals had a nice win over Cleveland Sunday. The game started off great, was not very great in the middle, and had a wonderful ending, 27-17. I watched the game without sound on the big screen at fountain square so it was hard to follow along at times, but it was nice to be outside for decent weather that day.

I am playing in four fantasy football leagues this year. Things could not have started off any better for me as I had wins in all four leagues. Based on points scored for tie breaking I am in 1st of 10,  5th of 12, 3rd of 12, and 2nd of 4 in the league that has divisions. I am also playing in both college pick’em (8th of 11) and pro pick’em (1st of 14). The college game uses the spread, which apparently I am not very good at doing so far. In the salary cap game I am in 3rd of 13. I’m also alive in the survival game with my pick of San Diego over Minnesota. Four people have been eliminated already.