Fuzziwig's Candy Store

*highly recommended*

 

From the street, this place doesn't look as good as the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory, which is right down the road. I actually wondered how they stayed in business with a big brand competitor only a few blocks away. The answer is their homemade fudge and caramel.

I must have eaten three sea salted chocolate covered caramels everyday. Thank goodness for those hours of skiing or I would've gained fifteen pounds alone on candy. Really, I actually purchased these caramels in bulk and took them home for my coworkers as souvenirs. They agreed that it was the best caramel they ever had in their life. It was soft and easy to eat while Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's caramel was too hard to bite into. Preston loved the peanut butter cup fudge, and the candy coated apples looked like something out of a movie, with so many different mouthwatering toppings. 

The Ticket: one sea salted caramel, one hunk of peanut butter cup fudge. About $5

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Dinner in Steamboat

Beau Jo's Mountain Pies  *highly recommended*

We saw this restaurant from afar and assumed it was Cajun. WRONG. It's all about the mountain pies, and by that, I mean pizza. Glorious, lovely pizza. You walk in, order at the bar and then find a table and wait for them to bring you the best pizza you've ever had. They had several specialty pizzas on the menu, but we went with an 8 inch pepperoni mountain pie and a small Caesar salad, perfect for two people to split.

 

The place had a great vibe, where other customers let you know they are about to leave so you can have their table and give you the remaining half of their pitcher of beer because they can't finish it. When I asked for dipping sauce, for the crust, they brought us three different sauces on the house. Only warning: The mountain pies have a lot of crust, so if you like a thin pizza, go with the prairie pie. 

 

Customers place pins on this map to represent their hometown. We were the first to claim Nacogdoches!

The Ticket: An 8 inch pepperoni and sausage mountain pie with three cheeses, a small Caesar salad, one beer and one glass of Chianti. About $30.

Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill  There were a few expensive items on this menu, but the pretzel wasn't one of them. I ordered a skewer plate from the appetizer section, two veggie and two steak, that turned out to be a less expensive version of the larger plates.

They have a large selection of wine and brew a few different beers. Husband wasn't too crazy about the lager but was more impressed with the second beer he ordered.

The Ticket: twisted pretzel with cheese and porter cream sauce, Build Your Own Satay Platter with two veggie and two steak skewers served with three different dipping sauces ($3 per skewer!), an Italian beef sandwich, two beers and a glass of wine. About $40.

The Tap House Sports Grill  Only place in town with the NBA package. We ended up here three times during the trip, and it got a little old on the last night. Pretty good bar food for low prices. Excellent French onion soup and garden salad. The wings were average, although it's hard to appreciate wings when Flashback Cafe, right here in my hometown of Nacogdoches, serves the best wings ever. The food was pretty average, good, but nothing to rave about. The big highlights were the NBA package and the low prices and the Big Buck Hunter arcade game in the back. 

The Ticket:  French onion soup, garden salad, double rum and coke, Hawaiian chicken sandwich with fries, 5 beers. About $30.

Noodles and More Saigon Cafe and Sushi Bar Sushi bars are always a little intimidating to me, but this one was pretty comfortable. It was a bit expensive, compared to everywhere else we went in Steamboat, but in my opinion it was worth it. I ordered two rolls, which were both great. The only thing we didn't like about this meal was the pork in the pork spring rolls, which was impossible to bite into. 

The Ticket: Softshell crab roll, shrimp tempura roll, pork spring rolls, beef stirfry, 2 sporros and a glass of wine.About $50.

La Cantina

I am a firm believer that Mexican food north of Texas will always lead to the statement, "They call this queso?" We only ordered drinks at La Cantina, but it had a great atmosphere, friendly bar staff and all the plates that zoomed by us looked and smelled amazing. It seems like a Mexican restaurant that might break my rule.

The Old Town Pub  This was okay, nothing to write home about in my opinion. I ordered a buffalo burger that looked great but tasted like it had been frozen.

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Magdalenas

 

Magdalenas is Spanish for cupcakes. I think it's fitting because these particular cupcakes are so wonderfully festive. I've been obsessed with cupcakes lately, so I decided to make some for my husband on Valentine's Day. 

Okay, I may have made them for myself. 

We chose to go with my Pink Cake recipe. By MY recipe, I don't mean that I made it up. I mean that Pink Cake has been hanging around my family forever. It's my standard homemade birthday cake. I could eat a whole pan of it, and have, over the course of a week in a college dorm room or two.

However, I accidentally made thirty something cupcakes. Split the recipe, you say? Never heard of such a thing. I took the Valentine's Day survivors to work for the kiddos and they were gone in a few hours. One even said the frosting was her favorite and asked for the recipe. I blushed!

 

Pink Cake
1 box white cake mix
4 tbsp. flour
3/4 c. vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. water
1 pkg. strawberry Jello
1 c. crushed fresh strawberries
1 c. sugar (You could probably omit the sugar, or use half for a less sweet cake. This is REALLY sweet.)

Pink Frosting
1 box confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 c. melted butter
8 oz. cream cheese
Crushed strawberries
Dash of salt

Mix the cake mix, flour and Jello together, add water and oil, blend well. Add the beaten eggs and sugar and mix well. Add strawberries and stir until thoroughly blended. For Magdalenas, or cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. For cakes, pour into two or three greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 or 40 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

 

For frosting, Add the melted butter and cream cheese to the confectioners' sugar, mix. Add enough crushed strawberries to make the mixture the consistency to spread on the cake.This is completely up to you. For this batch of magdalenas, I made the frosting much more creamy, as the cream cheese is not a part of the original recipe, and dipped the cupcakes to frost.

Enjoy! or in Spanish, disfrutar!

Steamboat Restaurant Reviews

A guide to the restaurants we visited in the downtown Steamboat Springs, CO area. Take an hour or so to walk along the storefront shops on Lincoln and check out the menus and specials in the shop windows on the first day. There are lots of happy hour specials, early bird specials and I noticed free wine samples on specific nights at two places (Mazzola's and the wine/beer store). Like always,  dining on the mountain and at the base is expensive, but the cider and rum beverages at the beer tent at base made for some fun memories.
  
Breakfast Reviews 
Dinner Reviews
Others Worth Mentioning


Foodie Features:
To Bagel, or to Pretzel?
Five Pounds of Fudge

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Others Worth Mentioning

Off the Beaten Path *highly recommended* This is a great local book store with a welcoming sign, inviting atmosphere and isles of staff picks and book club recommendations that I could spend hours perusing. It was a little small, but rather than say it was stuffy, I'd say it was cozy. I didn't eat or have coffee here, but the coffee bar looked great.

Bella's Wine Bar 

When I think wine bar, the first thing that comes to mind is sampling different types of wine, or a wine flight, so I was surprised to find that this wine bar didn't offer anything like that on their menu. They were happy to fix something up for me regardless and the wine was really good. This place feels like it could be pretentious. They served very authentic Italian meats and cheeses and I think I may have been sitting on a wolf skin that was draped across my bench, but the wine was so good that it was worth it.

The Ticket: One large German beer, one glass of wine, one wine flight (three generous samples). About $24.

Other recommendations from locals and visitors that we didn't get to sample: Creekside Cafe and Grill, Sambi, Winona's, La Montana (Mountain area)

A restaurant and dining guide for the Steamboat, CO area

http://www.steamboat-dining.com/

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