Krik's Picks

 I love finding a neighborhood restaurant that checks all the right boxes.  Family friendly Comfortable ambiance Good food Reasonable prices Risata Cucina in Robbinsdale (northwest Minneapolis suburb) fits that description.  My wife and I took our son and his family there for a Saturday night dinner. There were six of us - 2 grandparents, 2 parents, 2 teenagers. With a group that size, we were able to try a variety of items on the menu.  We started with appetizers - fried calamari and arancini. We were served a generous portion of the calamari; everyone could get some. An order of arancini is four; our server brought us an extra half order so everyone could get one. I liked the calamari, but my favorite was the arancini. They were mushroom arancini and the earthy mushroom flavor was great.  Everyone ordered from the pasta menu for our main dishes. My son and his daughter had casarecce scampi. The pasta was short, twisted noodles with smoked bay scallops, lemon...

On vacation, you really should have a personal chef. I offer that advice after having experienced the pleasure of professionally prepared meals in the comfort of a vacation rental in Palm Springs. As I noted in my post about our family vacation , my son-in-law is a chef. When we arrived at our Airbnb in Thousand Palms, near Palm Springs, he offered to do the meal preparations. I had expected that he might want a break. But, he explained, preparing exciting meals for family is different from running a catering kitchen. Besides, he was eager to use the fantastic backyard grill and outdoor kitchen.  My wife and I only have limited experience with vacation rentals. And when we have stayed at an Airbnb, we haven't done any creative cooking. We use the kitchen to heat up leftovers from restaurant meals, or to make coffee while lounging in the morning before embarking on vacation activities.  Grilled steak and asparagus, baked potato For this family trip, it was pretty much a forego...

 My wife and I have offered our son and daughter to take their families on a trip. It's basically an open invitation. We'll negotiate the specifics of when and where. But we want to take them where they want to go.  Our daughter was the first to take us up. So for Presidents Day weekend this year, we flew to Palm Springs for a long weekend. The plan was to get away from the Minnesota cold and do a bunch of hiking. My wife and I are in our 70s. Our daughter and her husband are in their 40s, and the grandchildren are teenagers.  For lodging, we opted for an Air Bnb . In case you don't know, vacation rentals in Palm Springs can be tricky, and short term rentals present a challenge. (As you might expect, a lot of vacation rentals in the area are aimed at snowbirds who want to stay for several weeks.) We ended up picking a house in Thousand Palms. It was well maintained, not large but roomy enough for our family. It had 3 bedrooms; my wife and I claimed the master suite....