Excited about Eating by Ernie Hiers

/ Dora Hiers / 14 Comments
This edition of “Excited about Eating” has me stepping out of my comfort zone as we visited Hazelnuts Crêperie.  
Now, I wouldn’t consider myself a crepe-type guy. I tend to steer toward BBQ and chicken wings, but I am willing to try anything once. If you have never had a crêpe, it is a very thin pancake, usually made from wheat or buckwheat flour and is cooked on a crepe griddle. Their consumption is widespread in France. 

Hazelnuts Crêperie is tucked inside the lobby of a skyscraper in downtown Charlotte. 
Their menu offers a variety of sweet, savory, and vegetarian options. I chose a breakfast crepe, “The Mariachi”, which incorporates scrambled eggs, black beans, bacon, tomatoes, mozzarella, red onions, avocados, and Jalapeno cream inside of a perfectly cooked crepe. 
My wife also chose a breakfast crepe, the “Chevre & Mozz”, which integrates scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, olives, red onions, and goat and mozzarella cheese. 

As for my first crepe ever, “The Mariachi” was surprisingly good. I can truly tell you that I was not expecting the depth of flavor that melded together. If fact, I have never really liked avocados, but mixed with the Jalapeno cream, the taste was exceptional with just the right amount of kick.
The Mariachi
My wife’s “Chevre & Mozz” also had very deep flavors. For the most part, I do not like mushrooms or olives, but this combination was outstanding, and the goat cheese definitely was the star of the show.
Chevre & Mozz

For dessert we shared “The Chunkster” which consists of peanut butter, bananas, chocolate chips, trail mix and maple syrup. As a peanut butter lover, this crepe was a little on the sweet side. 

One dessert crepe cut in half
My wife, not being a peanut butter lover, felt that the peanut butter overwhelmed the crepe and for the most part, it tasted like a warm pb&j minus the jelly. Not one she would try again.

Overall I would highly recommend this restaurant for the crepe connoisseur or for anyone that has never tried a crepe. I would rate this establishment 4 spoons out of 5 for a family friendly restaurant serving great food.

Dora here, adding my two cents. Although I was excited to try a crepe, I really thought I’d be raiding the pantry by mid-afternoon, but that wasn’t the case. The Chevre & Mozz and half the dessert crepe were hearty enough to last me until dinner. The fridge and pantry were safe. 🙂

Unlike last week, we left Bruiser at home, but still, parking was an issue. We ended up parking in a nearby garage and forking over $5. So, if you’re heading here, make sure you factor in the cost to park.

Have you tried crepes? What fillers do you enjoy in your crepes? Do you prefer sweet or savory?

Hazelnuts Crêperie on Urbanspoon

On My Kindle ~ BETTING ON HOPE by Debra Clopton

/ Dora Hiers / 4 Comments
Pre-Order Link

The Cover Story~

Book 1 of FOUR OF HEARTS ROMANCE series
A bet gone wrong. A small town’s meddling. And a cowboy intent on saving his ranch.
Maggie Hope is an advice columnist whose background leaves her with little advice to give . . . and it’s beginning to show. When Maggie fills in at an interview with champion horse trainer Tru Monahan, the on-camera chemistry between them is undeniable. Maggie’s bosses know this is the opportunity she’s been looking for to launch her career—and their bank accounts. In order to save her column, Maggie takes Tru up on the bet that he can teach her to ride a quick-stepping cutting horse like any cowgirl, despite the fact that she has never been on a horse. And in the meantime, she can get the scoop on the man under the cowboy hat.

Tru has been on the competition circuit for longer than he’d like, but he knows it’s the only way he can afford to keep the Four of Hearts Ranch that means so much to his ailing grandfather. So when his sponsors see the opportunity for Tru’s fans to get to know the star on a more intimate level, he knows he must oblige. To his dismay, Maggie not only invades his small town of Wishing Springs, but she also invades his heart, and that is something he cannot let any woman do—for her own good.
In Wishing Springs, Maggie finds what she has always been looking for: a community and a home. But when her past catches up to her, it threatens everything, even the tender hope that this town holds all of her heart’s desires.

My takeaway~ 
Horse Trainer Tru Monahan’s life is more public right now than he’d like, but those endorsements help pay off the staggering debt on his beloved Four of Hearts Ranch. Advice Columnist Maggie Hope longs for a family, but that would involve trusting a man, something her father taught her not to do from an early age. It wouldn’t be a Debra Clopton book without town matchmakers, and Reba and Clara Lyn, co-owners of the Cut Up and Roll Salon, fill that role nicely. Also, just like the Mule Hollow series, Wishing Springs becomes the new “dating destination.”

Betting on Hope packed in plenty of real life issues like Alzheimer’s, teen pregnancy, adoption, sterility, and a main character hoping to keep an unsavory past hidden. While I cared about the three-dimensional characters and the story kept me turning pages, I would have preferred more, um, sizzle in the actual romance, but that’s just me. I bet (lol, pun intended) fans of the popular Mule Hollow series will enjoy Betting on Hope, available 2/15/15 with Thomas Nelson Fiction.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the purpose of sharing my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I received no monetary compensation.

What Happened to All My Peoples?

/ Dora Hiers / 8 Comments

Our four-year-old grandson calls his daycare friends “his peoples.” His accent is so cute with that North Carolina twang, that I admit to asking him about his “peoples” every time I pick him up from daycare just to hear him say it. 🙂

Whenever we talk about his “peoples,” my mind wanders to my “peoples” or my friends all over the world on social media. In case you didn’t know, I’m a big fan of Twitter, second favorite only to Pinterest. I appreciate that Twitter allows follows without the obligatory follow back, unlike Facebook’s friend policy. Also, the 140 character limit and the list option makes for quick scrolling at different intervals throughout the day.

Recently, I was using JustUnfollow.com to purge followers who immediately unfollow me or folks I follow who choose not to follow back for whatever reason. But, I must confess that I have never cleaned out my “inactive” followers, those people who haven’t been active on twitter for three months or more.

Yowza! The list was so long. I probably spent an hour “unfollowing” and I hadn’t made it to the bottom. Crazy.

Some didn’t surprise me. Maybe they just decided that Twitter was one too many distractions, or they’d only tweeted a few times and Twitter just wasn’t for them. But what did surprise me was the number of inactive users who had ten or twenty thousand or more followers.

What happened to all my peoples? 
Image Courtesy of Pixabay

Why would they abandon a Twitter account with such an impressive platform? I could only conclude that something traumatic happened in their lives, whether it was death, illness, or job loss. Who knows, but this process made me sad, and I found myself praying over the profiles.

Finishing that task will have to wait for another day. And it just might take me four more years to get it under control.

How do you feel about Twitter? How often do you purge your inactive followers or have you put that off like me? What’s your favorite social media hangout?