Favorite Vegas Places and Christmas!

Now that I am home, I have had time to reflect on my favorite parts of Vegas. Here is a collection of our favorite restaurants, shows, and places for a drink in this amazingly fun city.

Food

Raffles Cafe. This restaurant is located in Mandalay Bay, so we stopped here for a bite to eat before looking around the shark reef.

Apparently this cafe is open 24 hours. This is good to know for the next time we are in Vegas, in case we find ourselves wondering around at 4am looking for a bite to eat. Seriously, though, the food here was great.

I ordered a chicken salad and loved it.

Stephen enjoyed his turkey club. And mom and granny enjoyed their soup and shared a reuben. One of the cheaper Vegas sit down meals, and definitely a stand out.

Claim Jumper. A West Coast chain located in Town Square.

We found this restaurant after finding out that Lolita's Cantina cancelled our reservation. We were hungry and cranky and just wanted a warm meal. This place had tables open and had decent prices. Thankfully, it also had very delicious food. HUGE poritons, but seriously delicious. I ordered a grilled veggie sandwich. Not to be healthy, like Stephen's mom thought, but becausae it sounded incredible. The sandwich had avocado, eggplant, zucchini, roasted red peppers, and goat cheese. It was exactly what I was craving. And the fruit on the side was a great compleent and a nice dessert as well.

Not a restaurant, but Vosges Chocolate deserves mention. It is located at the Forum Shops in Ceaser's Palace.

I actually got giddy when I saw this store. I have tried their bacon chocolate bar and liked it, but I have never actually seen the store or their other flavors of chocolate in person.

They have so many exotic flavors, and I seriously want to try all of them! Stephen bought me a bacon bar. It saved me many times during the week when I craved a desert but was dining with Stephen's faimly, who does not order dessert.

Their toffees and other treats look incredible as well.

But it is the crazy flavors and the amount of them that leaves me drooling. Here are some of the more interesting (to me) flavors:

Naga: Sweet Indian Curry and Coconut in deep milk chocolate

Red Fire: Mexican ancho and chipotle chili, cinnamon in dark chocolate

Cherry Rooibos: African rooibos tea and Michigan cherries in deep milk chocolate

Black Pearl: Ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds in dark chocolate

You can order chocolate bars online. They would make an incredbile present (hint hint).

Speaking of chocolate, one of our favorite restaurants that we visited and would certainly visit again is Max Brenner's Chocolate by the Bald Man. Also located in the Forum Shops.

How could you not want to enter a restaurant that looks like a chocolate paradise?

And has signs about chocolate all over the walls.

And...serves you incredible burgers and the most amazing chili and cocoa dusted waffle fries in the universe? Next time we come here (and there will be a next time) I want to completely spoil myself and get waffles or dessert, or something with lots of chocolate. The kids in the restaurants shouldn't have ALL the fun. I want some too. And of course, more waffle fries. At once.

Our happy accident meal, and another one that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to repeat is Table 10, Emeril's restaurant. It is located in Palazzo Hotel.

Be sure you are willing to pay for this amazing food. And please do not be like me and panic about how much the food costs. It could jeapardize one of the most delicious meals of your life.

The food is nothing unusual. You will get pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes or BBQ chicken with mac and cheese. Yes, these are things you can make in your kitchen. But the quality of the ingredients and the perfection of the techniques truly make all the different. To be completely cheesey again, Emeril takes basic foods and kicks them up a notch. Just a notch, that's it. And that is all it takes.

A restaurant that was decent, was BLT Burger in the Mirage. The grill was broken, so we could only get fried foods. This was not necessarily a bad thing.

I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich that had the best buffalo sauce I have tasted in a while. I asked for extra on the side. I also ordered sweet potato fries. Delicious. It was one of the best sandwiches I have eaten in a while, and the first fried chicken sandwich I have eaten in...I have no idea. And there is a reason why I never order them. For some reason, fried chicken causes my mind to panic. I ate the whole piece of chicken and I could not stop freaking out about it afterwards.

Ironically enough, my camera decided to eat the picture I took of the sandwich and fries. Funny, right? It's like the world is telling me to embrace the fact that I ate the food and move on with my life. It is a sandwich for goodness sakes, and a very yummy one, too!!

Stephen ordered nachos and loved them. It was a good burger place. Just keep in mind that the food is so good that you will want to eat it all. Try your very best to not feel guilty about it. There is nothing wrong (at all) with enjoying your food, even if it is fried chicken!

Shows

We saw 2 very great shows in Vegas.

Phantom of the Opera is definitely a must see. The music will stay in your head for days afterwards. I promise. I am still singing songs all day long. If you have seen the movie and enjoyed it, see the live show when you get a chance. There isn't too much to the plot, but the performance is stunning and gives you chills. Also, the costumes are gorgeous and make me want to join them on stage.

Blue Man Group lived up to the hype for me. It was so cool and the blue men do not break character, even when you meet them after the show to take pictures. How much fun would it be to be part of this show. I bet the bad, the crew, and the blue men have such an incredible time. Again, I highy reccommend this show! See it when you get the chance.

Drinks

Having a drink or two is always a fun way to enjoy an evening in Vegas. We are not big drinkers at all, but we love have one or two beers or good drinks. There are several good places for this. If you want to learn about clubs, ask someone else, I strictly do the more quite bars and piano bars (apparently).

Although we did not have a drink here, this bar in the Cosmopolitan hotel had several of my favorite beers on its list. I ADORE Stone Pale Ale, Paulaner's Hefeweizen, and Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. If you like beer, go here. And if you don't like beer, go here and order one of the three I mentioned.

There is a quiet little bar in Ceaser's Palace that serves an incredible Bloody Mary. They give you Ketel One vodka, which is pretty classy in my opinion. Delicious. The only thing is that I would have prefered a celery stick instead of the olives. Did you know that the first drink I ever ordered when I turned 21 was a Bloody Mary? I guess this is just my drink.

Our favorite place for a drink was Eastside Lounge in Encore Hotel. I love piano bars now. The only thing about this bar is the two drink minimum. They do not have to be alcoholic drinks, but the lounge boasts a selection of ogranic farm to glass cocktails. Pretty cool in my opinion. I, however, opted for beer.

Christmas Day

The best part of being back home is not eating out anymore. I do enjoy the occasional meal out, but having so many in a row is draining on my mind and body. I like being able to put together my meals. And I like my breakfasts, my veggies, and my desserts.

This breakfast may seem odd, but I was craving brussel sprouts. I made som french toast with rose jam, and had some brussel sprouts and cottage cheese on the side.

Then I got to work making cookies for Christmas lunch and for presents.

I made some ginger chocolate chip sugar cookies with chocolate frosting.

I used my basic sugar cookie recipe, but added molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and chocolate chips. I also made the cookies smaller and made a chocolate frosting.

They came out so adorable.

And suprisingly had the texture and taste of gingerbread. With chocolate. Definitely not a bad cookie considering that I threw them together this morning.

We went to Waco to spend lunch and the afternoon with Stephen's family. I spent some time playing with this lttle guy.

His name is Little Boy. He is grandma's pug. Such a cute, silly little man. I was feeling antsy, and he was looking plyful, so we helped each other get rid of some excess energy. We ran around the house and I pretended to try to catch him. He had a blast (and I did, too).

I didn't take pictures of our Christmas lunch, but I did throw together the left overs for a dinner.

I used left over rolls to make mini sandwiches with leftover brisket.

Hannah (Stephen's sister) made amazing potato salad. And I am not just saying that. I usually don't like potato salad, but I loved this one! And beans. I love beans.

It was a nice dinner (and lunch, too).

How was your Christmas? Any fun presents? Any fun stories or cute pets?

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog. I love all of you and wish you the best in the holidays (Christmas or not).

"Did you ever notice that life seems to follow certain patterns? Like I noticed that every year around this time, I hear Christmas music." ~Tom Sims