Information: Food Reviews

We went into Create with high expectations because we're marketing suckers. The sign was shiny, the stucco was painted to match and they only do 2 things: "Gourmet Burgers" and Custard. The inside looked really nice, designed with the same theme, and the register girl was delicious. (Waaay hotter than those spies) They obviously put a lot of time and effort into the decor, so they must really have good burgers, right? Well, yes and No... The concept is sound & pretty simple. The menu is 2 sided... One for custard, one for (duh) burgers. They have really interesting topping choices like buffalo mayo, atomic mayo, 4-5 kinds of cheeses, and a bunch of other things I don't remember because I took too long to write this and I didn't take a menu. I also couldn't find anything online about them because they picked one of the dumbest names possible. "Create" is hard to search for. They might just be too new, the back tables were still covered with decorating or construction supplies. Both of us had the same image of what we ordered in our heads, but that's not what came:
Click for a larger image. The fresh cut fries sucked. Not just a little, but a whooole lot. They were soggy and greasy and somehow still seemed burnt. The quality of the burger, for what it was was very good, and the toppings were all excellent... But take another look at the picture. The buns are "Gourmet Burger" sized, but the patties are Happy Meal size. That picture was taken after the girl I was with tore off half of the bun. The food was pretty cheap, we would have happily paid another $5 per burger to get what you would expect at a place that only serves 2 things. The custard was average, nothing really special to say about it except that "strawberries" on the menu meant "strawberry topping". Not quite the same and a little gross when you're expecting fresh strawberries. Overall, I'd try it again in a few months (if it's still there) to see if it's improved, but that would be their last chance. Then I would want to buy it and put something that doesn't suck in its place to take advantage of the design.

We were having a birthday celebration at our house this week and it called for lasagna. I however didn't get to go shopping until just before dinner. So, when I saw no-boil needed lasagna noodles I was interested.

I did hesitate in purchasing them at first because the idea of not boiling the noodles before baking is just odd. But, I needed a recipe in addition to noodles and these noodles had the best back of the box recipe. So I decided to go for it.

It was really neat to not have to prepare the noodles. You just throw down the sauce, add on a few noodles, spread out some ricotta cheese mixture, sprinkle on cheese and repeat. Then you throw it all in the oven and out comes a really yummy lasagna.

The only tip I would give is make extra sure that you cover each noodle completely to the edge with ricotta and sauce because if you miss any of the noodle it does come out crunchy in that area. Otherwise, it is a remarkably good noodle.

Little did I know what was going to happen when we broke open the two bags of Fresh Express: BLT Caesar salad we had sitting in the fridge, awaiting a special moment such as 'not knowing what to cook for dinner'.

The little packets are nigh impossible to open; using the combined powers of my fork and teeth I managed to sever the ironclad baggie of sundried tomatoes, which have to be the most potent and wonderful tomato flavor I have ever purchased; the little baggie of real, cooked bacon bits, which smelled kind of like human waste but tasted pretty fantastic overall; the parmesan-romano-asiago packet; and the caesar dressing. Overall, it was pretty darn fantastic for what I expected to come from a bagged salad. I wouldn't mind eating it regularly. But do yourself a favor and do not open the bacon bits with your teeth, or bring the baggie close to your face after it is opened.