Siro’s Bistro originally opened in 1994 in the Lafayette Oil Center. In October 2014 the restaurant was relocated to The Boulevard Shopping Center off Johnston Street to be in a more centralized location.  Despite a relocation and a time span of two decades, not much has changed.  Siro’s still offers the same variety of menu items as it did when it opened.  

A unique combinations of European style flavors, freshly baked breads, and many homemade ingredients are used to make the best salads, sandwiches, paninis, wraps, and soups.  Unparalleled freshness and quality make Siro’s Bistro a favorite local dining spot. 

Mark and Charlene Stroud, owners of Siro’s Bistro, have over 30 years of combined experience in the restaurant industry.  They and the Siro’s staff are proud to serve loyal customers in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere suitable for business meeting diners as well as families with children.

Siro’s Bistro is open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.  The restaurant serves sandwiches, wraps, paninis, soups, and salads, as well as appetizers and daily specials.  The menu also includes children’s options such as grilled cheese, and yummy muffins, macaroons, and cookies for dessert.

Whether you’re looking for a quick lunch spot or a sit down family dinner, you won’t regret dining at Siro’s Bistro!

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Shrimp is my absolute favorite seafood.  It’s such a versatile ingredient, and it’s so tasty no matter how it’s cooked. 

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always look for a yummy shrimp dish.  When bang bang shrimp is on the menu, I’ll almost certainly order it.  There’s something about battered, crispy fried shrimp smothered in a spicy and creamy Asian sauce that I simply can’t resist!

This recipe is a copycat for Cheesecake Factory’s bang bang shrimp.  I must say that it tastes nearly identical, and it’s much cheaper to make yourself!  You can fry these babies up in half an hour.  Serve with a glass of sweet Moscato to balance out the spiciness of the dish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb large shrimp, peeled, deveined
• 2 cups cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon creole seasoning
• cooking oil to saute
• green onions to garnish

• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Asian chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Asian chili paste
• 2 tablespoons Asian chili oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Rinse, peel, and devein shrimp.  Leave tail on shrimp if desired.
2. Mix bang bang sauce ingredients and set aside. Add about 1/2 cup of sauce to shrimp and marinate for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix cornstarch and creole seasoning and set aside.
4. Place around 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Coat shrimp in cornstarch, dusting off excess.
5. Cook shrimp in two batches in oil for about 3 minutes per side. Remove from oil place on paper napkin. Add more oil to pan if needed. Add shrimp back to pan and pour sauce over the shrimp.
6. Serve immediately; garnish with green onions if desired.

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Most of the foods we grow are annuals: Each winter, they disappear and must be replanted in the spring. A bountiful garden of delicious organic food is worth the work of planning and planting, but smart gardeners also curate a few perennials, which come back year after year with little maintenance required. Here are some classic perennials to plant and enjoy practically forever.

1. Globe Artichoke
Artichokes are the edible flower buds of a bushy plant in the thistle family. Best suited for moist, light soils and full sun, artichoke plants grow larger each year, eventually producing several plump buds a year. They don’t do well in dry soils, so mulch and compost well, and give the roots plenty of water. If you have cold winters (zones 6-7), cut the plant back in fall and cover it with a layer of straw.

2. Asparagus
Asparagus shoots are one of spring’s first delights, poking out of cool soils alongside other perennials like tulips and crocus. But they’re a long-term investment: The first year, you won’t harvest asparagus at all, and each year you must leave plenty of shoots behind, letting them flower and grow into the next year’s harvest.

3. Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes)
Sunchokes are tubers grown from a flowering, towering relative of the sunflower. They’ve got a nutty flavor and are delicious roasted or in soups. Plant a single sunchoke in the fall or early spring, and it’ll grow into a hearty plant with multiple tubers to dig up. Remember to always leave a few in the ground for next year — and give it plenty of space, because this plant is a hardy native that can invade your yard with its sunny, food-producing blooms.

4. Alliums
Garlic, onions and chives are all able to survive cold winters from their roots buried under the soil. Plant garlic and onion cloves, sets or seed in the fall, and they’ll push up green shoots in the spring; leave a few behind each year, and they’ll flower, seed themselves and divide their own bulbs to create the next year’s crop.

5. Radicchio and Chicory
Ever chopped off a lettuce plant in summer, only to find it growing back the following spring? Some leafy greens are able to regrow from a root — an advantage for gardeners who’ll have robust greens growing quite early in spring. Radicchio and other chicory relatives are good bets, but as most of us grow several types of lettuce and mesclun greens mixes, you never know what might come back. Instead of pulling up your roots, cut the plant back at the soil surface, cover the bed with straw through the winter, and see what pops up in spring.

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News

Buying an investment property can be an excellent way not only to generate income, but to build wealth over time. However, as with any other investment, it’s important to know exactly what you’re getting into before you buy your first rental property. With that in mind, here are three things you may be surprised to learn about rental income.

1. Rental income isn’t the consistent income stream many people believe it is.

There are several variable costs of owning rental property that can cut into your net income. For example, property taxes and insurance costs change every year — and usually not in your favor. Maintenance expenses can vary dramatically over time, as you can have several trouble-free years and then suddenly be forced to complete an expensive repair, such as replacing an HVAC system.

In addition to the variable costs of property ownership, be sure to consider unexpected breaks in your income stream, such as the possibility that your property will sit vacant between tenants for longer than you anticipate. Hopefully, you’ll never need to go through the process of evicting a tenant, but I can tell you from experience that it can be lengthy and costly.

The point is that the money you collect in rent can produce varying amounts of net income from month to month and from year to year. Be sure to plan for the unexpected when buying a rental property — not just the best-case scenario, as many rookie landlords incorrectly do.

2. If you rent out real estate on a more casual basis, you might not have to pay any taxes on the income you earn.

If you rent out a vacation home or other property that you use for residential use, then you can qualify for a special exemption that prevents you from having to report the income that your rental generates. The maximum period for which you can rent the vacation home over the course of a year and still qualify is 14 days, but if you stay at or below that level, then the ordinarily extensive reporting requirements essentially disappear. Many people take advantage of the 14-day rule with second homes, especially if they happen to be located in areas where certain annual events regularly happen.

One thing to keep in mind with this rule is that you’re also not allowed to take any deductions for expenses related to the rental of your vacation home. However, with most vacation homes, your personal use of the property precludes you from taking deductions for losses in any event. The 14-day rule lets you get a taste of rental income without all the hassles involved in committing to making your property available year-round.

3. All real estate investors aim to make money on their property, but there’s an upside to losing money, too.

Depreciation is a real estate investor’s best friend. Over time, the tax code allows you to depreciate the value of a home to zero, even though it is more likely to have gone up in value than gone down. Thus a home purchased for $150,000 would create $5,455 per year in depreciation expenses against the rental income it generates for the next 27.5 years.

Rental income is classified as passive income. However, depending on how much you earn each year, you may be able to use passive paper losses from real estate investments to offset income from other sources. Those who earn less than $100,000 per year in adjusted gross income can use up to $25,000 of losses from passive investments like real estate to offset other income. This benefit eventually phases out for the highest earners, but it can be a significant advantage to investing in real estate, as paper losses can help shield more of your returns from the tax man.

Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News