New Jersey / New York

We got back from vacation on Wednesday. I love only having to work 2 days this week! Here's a little run down of the New Jersey / New York leg of the trip.

We didn't get in till after midnight on Thursday (someone ended up working a half day so we left later than planned). Friday after everyone woke up, showered and got lunch we finally made it to the History Museum around 2:30pm (they close at 5:45 - way to hustle people!). We looked at all kinds of stuffed animals, dioramas, dinosaurs and watched the planetarium Cosmic Collisions show. Robert Redford is the narrarator and I found that his voice made my eye lids very heavy. Well, either his voice or all the walking I did. We also went to Strand Books and strolled through Central Park - admiring all the New Yorkers with either their babies or dogs.


Saturday we went to Jersey City and went into a bunch of Indian grocery stores. They were really crowded with people so I couldn't get any pictures. Plus, all the fresh produce was covered in fruit flies which made me not want to get very close to any of them. Of course we didn't leave before stuffing ourselves with samosas and dosa (sans bugs) for dinner. Yum!


Sunday, our last day of visiting, was spent doing more shopping, eating and walking. We went to Chinatown and I fell in love with Pearl Paint - 5 floors of art supplies! Very inspiring. We ate a huge lunch at a restaurant called Il Fornaio located on Mulberry Street in Little Italy.



I left the city with a few souvenirs - art supplies, something from the Swatch store and a new pair of red and pink Pumas. My husband acquired a few new obsessions for double expressos and bottled sparkling water. Don't feel bad, he got a new pair of shoes too!

finally...a vacation

Tomorrow we're loading up the car and heading towards New Jersey. We'll be visiting family and spending lots of tourist time in the the city.

Thanks to a very good friend (and her generous wedding present) on our way home we'll be stopping for a few nights in Connellsville, PA to have our first B&B experience.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Your Birthdate

Your Birthdate: January 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Growing!

I took these a few days ago...before all the rain started.

4 of the 6 tomato plants have babies on them.




The hydrangea bush is just about to explode.


This is a "weed" that's growing in our honeysuckle.

*thank you Gloria for identifying my "weed" as a Sweet Pea!

first ATC swap

I finally put together my "Fairy Tales and Fables" ATCs and envelope last week. They were even mailed out a few days early! Now, I'm anxiously waiting to see what I get in return :)

Participants were instructed to make any kind of an mailart envelope so I decided to keep up my personal theme of atlas envelopes. I recently aquired quite a lot of old atlases and have been thinking about them a lot and using them for many little projects. It's interesting to match swap recipients up with their respective atlas pages. I get to find out where exactly these swap strangers live.

So here's my first ever attempt at making ATCs and my mailart envelope:

Strawberry Cobbler

Lucky me! Someone very sweet gave me a quart of strawberries the other day. They are one of my favorite things about summer. I wanted to make a classic strawberry shortcake but found a cobbler recipe in The Best Light Recipe. Instead of using 2 STICKS of butter, this only called for 3 tablespoons. There's some corn meal in the batter which really gave it a great little crunch and sweetness. A few bites out of the pie pan was my breakfast yesterday morning!

My Tuesday night Culinary Adventure

I went to Legacy Village. I don't really like going there; it makes me feel like such a consumer. But when my iPod breaks or I need to look at pretty furniture the need must be met!

Anyways, Tuesday my need was to attend the Michael Ruhlman book signing at Joseph-Beth. We arrived a bit early. It didn't seem like the crowds were pouring in so we got a cup of coffee and I read about celebrity babies. Close to 7pm people started gathering in the signing area and Ruhlman decided since it was such a small crowd we should just go to the bar. Ok!

We pulled chairs together to form a circle and ordered some drinks. At first it was a bit intimidating – sitting there with a group of self proclaimed foodies and a local food author/celebrity.

Then he looks at me and asks – Why did you come tonight? What did you like about my book? Or something similar to that, I can’t really remember because I was totally panicking.

Um, well, I haven’t actually read any of your books. Ha ha ha. I met you at the Chili Cook-Off and read somewhere that you were having this book signing…

I = Loser

He was really nice didn’t give me a hard time about it at all – thank God.

The conversation started off a little slow but by the end of the hour there were about 10 people talking over each other about making corned beef or kielbasa from scratch, how much they hate or admire Rachel Ray and who’s actually eaten at The French Laundry. Yes, he was the only one.

I found it very ironic that as we walked back to our car there were crowds, tons, lots! of people sitting outside, on the restaurant patios, having dinner. They all seemed to be enjoying the weather and their cheesecake or pasta, but they could have been experiencing a genuine culinary event, just a few doors away. I actually felt lucky that not many showed up – that’s what made the whole environment and conversation so intimate and enjoyable.

If you don't have any of his books either you can ready Ruhlman's article from last Sunday's NY Times Magazine - he was delighted that his name was listed on the cover! Also his newest book "The Reach of a Chef," was reviewed in the NY Times Book Review (special food edition) 2 weeks ago.

ChickCAN

Photo Documentary on using a ChickCAN Beer Can Chicken Rack.

Product Description: Are you ready for Beer Can Chicken?! Our ChickCAN rack will hold beer and bird steady while your beer can chicken cooks to a moist seasoned perfection. Includes cooking directions. (usefull things like - don't touch the can because the can and the beer are HOT and don't get too wasted and catch something on fire)

Put beer and chicken on rack, and plug with a potato keep her juicy! Hey, she's looking pretty happy here. Wave to the camera!

Grill on indirect heat from 1.5 - 2 hrs

See you in a bit birdie.

OMG! Has it already been 2 hrs? Oh, wait I think it's been more like 3 hrs!

Oh honey, your potato head is burning!

Poor little chicken that literally fell off the can, burned in half. NOT juicy at all :(

Memorial Day

This week has been really busy at work and I have not had a minute to update this little blog. The weekend has finally arrived and I have a minute to post about last weekend when we celebrated Memorial Day.

Saturday was the Great Lakes Fiber Show.
Lots of alpacas, llamas, bunnies, yarn and fiber to see. I bought 2 skeins of yarn to add to my growing stash - I need to start using the yarn instead of buying more. I think these guys look like they're wearing helmets or something. They have the most beautiful eyelashes!















Sunday we cooked out at our house. I made a summer vegetable pasta salad and my friend made a gorgeous mint julep tray - we drank and played bocce ball (in our tiny backyard) into the wee hours of the night.
















































Monday we went to my in-law's house for more bbq, bocce and the added bonus of slip-n-sliding with protective sunglass goggles!

Curried Tofu and Green Beans

This recipe is from Everyday Food issue #11. Never having cooked tofu before - this recipe used simple ingredients and didn't look very time consuming. I added a red pepper, some mushrooms and used coconut milk instead of the called for half-and-half, hoping it would add some sweetness. The curry madras I picked up at Urban Herbs smelled fabulous while cooking with the vegetables. If I would have read the recipe correctly and added 1 Tbs instead of 1 tsp of curry I think my dish would have turned out much more flavorful - must try making this again!

Curried Tofu and Green Beans

1 package extra-firm tofu, drained
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
8 mushrooms sliced
1 Tbs curry powder
salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. light coconut milk
1 box (10 oz.) frozen green beans
4 roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces
cooked white rice, for serving

1. Cut tofu into 16 triangles or cubes. Press tofu to remove excess water for 20 minutes.
2. Heat 1 Tbs oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook tofu, turning once, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to paper towel lined plate.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining Tbs of oil, onion, red pepper, mushrooms and curry powder. Season generously with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 minute.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add coconut milk and 1/2 cup water, bring to gentle simmer. Add tofu and green beans. Cover, cook until beans are bright green, about 2 minutes. Uncover, add tomatoes. Cook until soft, 3-4 minutes. Serve over rice.

drive in

I forgot to post about my first drive-in movie experience!

Last Thursday the Cleveland Museum of Art hosted a showing of Targets at the Memphis Drive In Theater. They showed an episode of the 3 Stooges and some funny old drive-in commercials before the movie started. It was fun! It would have been MORE fun if it was not freezing or raining - but we had the windshield wipers going and got through the evening. I think more people would have turned out if it the weather was better - who would have guessed it would be that cold in MAY?

John Ewing said that they are thinking about doing another drive-in movie this summer and I'll post about it when I find out more info. I'm so happy to see that the museum is getting creative while it's closed. Their film series is being held at CASE while the building is under construction.

I hope that Parkworks is going to have the Meet Me on the Mall series again this summer. I went to 2 movies last summer on Mall B and had the BEST time. It was such a great experience to sit on a downtown lawn with a crowd of people, look up at the stars and watch E.T.

Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone

My parents used to lived in Nelson Township for about 7 years. It's located in between Middlefield and Garrettsville. I lived with them while I went to grad school so I was the official "tour guide" on Saturday when friends and I went for a field trip.

Our three destinations were -

1. A plant sale at a farm called Herb Thyme (I found out about the sale on the food forum)










































There were about 100 different varieties of tomatoes to choose from. My friend Erin (she lives downstairs from me) and I decided to get:

Tomatoes
white - Cream Sausage
cherry - Yellow Pear
red - Elberta Girl
pink - Julia Child
purple - Japanese Black Trifele
stripe - Mr. Stripey

Herbs
Basil
Sweet Basil
Dark Opal Basil
Sage

2. Middlefield Cheese House



























I purchased noodles, cheese cubes, port wine cheese spread, a muffin mix corn meal and a cook book.














3. Garrettsville City Garage Sale













My finds included a mason jar, Stuckey's coffee mug and picnic basket.














A seller gave my friend this scary bunny that somehow ended up in our stairwell!


















Later that day we went to Rosby's and bought some additional plants - dill, rosemary, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, marigolds & sunflowers. We finished planting everything that night and now it all sits in our driveway.

Food Links

Great link from Apartment Therapy discussing what it means when recipes call for dry white wine.

Restaurant Window informs us what we (in Ohio) should expect to find in our CSA boxes each month.

This Garden Is Illegal posts some great tips she learned about container gardening.

"To Do" List

Ever since I read this post at Distracted Mind, I've been thinking about how I spend my time. Things that I used to enjoy doing I just can't seem to find time for or a reason to do now. A lot of it must have to do with "growing up" and becoming an adult with reasponsibilities to more than just myself. I get to have all these great adult things that I can very easily turn into excuses for why I don't or am unable to do "_______".

I see my friends do the same thing too. We used to spend lots of time together. Now it's difficult to find one evening where 4 girls are free to go out. I guess it's that we're not just girls anymore - we've all taken on bigger roles in life. Not to mention those damn responsibilities and date books. Can you tell that my 10 year high school reunion is only 1 month away? Yikes.

Anyways....starting Thursday I will have a little vacation from work. Some time off that I'm very looking forward to. Of course (with all of my profound thinking) I have been putting together a huge list of things to do and I'm determined to actually get some of them done, instead of wasting entire days watching daytime tv, wearing my pajamas and eating bon bons - what I like to refer to as "relaxing". These may not be life altering tasks but they're things I enjoy doing or are at least productive - and that's how I want to start spending my free time.

I've alsocame to the realization that I was in swap overload and am focusing on swaps where I can create something rather than swapping stuff that no one wanted to begin with!

To Do List:
label flat file drawers
clean car
buy herbs and tomatoes & plant in containers - not as cool as the salsa garden!
Sew & Stencil
Art School Confidential
finish a few books
work on the one skein, shrine, recipe card and atc swaps
(I've really dropped from quite a few!)
lunch with all my working friends
interview scheduled for Thursday

Couscous with Carrots, Chickpeas, and Herbs

I usually try to borrow cookbooks from the library before I make a purchase - to see if they're actually worth buying. Sometimes there are complete duds or I find only one or two recipes that look good. Other times I don't like how the book is set up or find out that the index is terrible. My favorite part of cookbooks are the indexes!

My friend gifted me a subscription to Cook's Illustrated and I have checked out many of their other books. The recipes always turn out great. I knew that The Best Light Recipe would be a book worth buying sight unseen. So far, it's been just as good as I had expected!

Last night I made baked cod, french green beans (both frozen from Trader Joe's) and this couscous for dinner. I have never made baked cod before and found out that I would much rather eat it deep fried and dipped in ketchup!

Couscous with Carrots, Chickpeas, and Herbs

1 1/2 c. couscous
1 medium onion, chopped fine
4 tsp. olive oil
salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 c. water
3/4 c. low sodium chicken broth
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley, cilantro, and/or mint leaves
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
black pepper

1. Toast couscous and transfer to large bowl.
2. Combine carrots, onion, 1 tsp oil and 1/2 tsp salt in saucepan. Cover and cook on medium heat until vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and increase heat. Cook until vegetables become slightly browned. Stir in garlic, coriander and ginger until fragrant. Stir in water, broth and chickpeas and bring to a boil.
3. Stir boiling liquid into couscous, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let sit until grains are tender, about 12 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork. Stir in remaining oil, herbs, and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

from The Best Light Recipe

Foodie News Links

Parea on Daily Candy.

Pho Hua name change.

recipe card swap

moki is at it again! She's hosting a hand carved stamp recipe card swap. Believe me, you will be amazed at the creativity of these stamp carvers!

translation

The Part-Time Buddha thoughtfully posted this gem. Go to Gizoogle and enter the url of a blog and laugh!

Roasted Veggie Salad

TasteBuds is a really great place for lunch - it's a bit pricey, but the fresh and quality ingredients are worth it! My favorite salad is the Roasted, Toasted and Grilled - roasted vegetables, pine nuts, carrots, grilled chicken and their homemade balsamic dressing on the side. But if I go on a Wednesday I'm always torn between the salad and the mini meatloaf.

This is my home version - you don't really need a recipe! It makes a really great dinner because you can use just about any leftover vegetables available in the fridge. Last night's chicken or pork or even a can of tuna would be good to top it off. Be liberal with the seasons and there is no reason for any additional dressing.

Roasted Veggie Salad

2 red peppers cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 red onion sliced into wedges
1 bag tiny potatoes, halve the "big" ones
8oz mushrooms, quartered
any seasonings of your choice, today I used some Mr. Spice.
1 bag mixed greens

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Toss the potatoes in olive oil and seasonings to coat. Put on rimmed baking sheet and into oven. Repeat with other vegetables. I keep each vegetable separate on the baking sheets due to different cooking times.

Allow vegetables to cool a bit before assembling salad.

Cleveland on the board

Scott posted about this on Cleveland vs. The World:

Vote for either Cleveland's Euclid Avenue, Jacobs Field or North Coast Harbor -- one of these will have a spot on the new Monopoly Here and Now Edition gameboard.

I started casting my votes (what fun!) and began to notice that whenever there was a sports venue in the running, it was winning. Why do so many people want sporting venues to be identified as their national landmarks? Is Jacobs Field the landmark we want Cleveland to be identified with on a Monopoly board? According to the voters - YES!

The other Cleveland options aren't that great. Does anyone outside Ohio really know what the North Coast Harbor is? Why wasn't the Rock Hall an option? And Euclid Avenue? How about Playhouse Square? I would like to write in the West Side Market or the Cleveland Museum of Art, even if it is currently closed. Any other ideas?

There is so much emphasis on sports already - you could fill up an entire board with sporting venues. If the theme is national landmarks...would it really hurt to for once to make them a bit more cultural, historical or educational? I would be the first in line to buy the Monopoly Museum Edition gameboard. lol.

Go cast your votes!

cool places to eat?

Last night I went to dinner at Fat Cats with my husband and his parents for his birthday. We had an 8pm reservation. They weren't too busy so we had a couple of drinks at the bar and we were then seated at the table next to the kitchen doors. Employees continually walked out the kitchen doors and around our tableto access the patio area. Personally, I think the kitchen door table, while a necessary evil, should be left for "walk-ins."

We ordered empenadas and calamari as appetizers. The 6? empenadas came out on a HUGE white plate with a little container of marinara. They looked so tiny and out of place on that plate. The calamari was the same calamari served at the Lava Lounge but with 2 different dipping sauces instead of green salsa.

My 3 dining partners each ordered a fish entree which they all really enjoyed. I chose the seafood linguine special - it was the same dish I ate at Halite minus some shrimp.

I just felt like the table was terrible and I was disapointed to order things on the menu that I have already eaten at other "cool places".

Pottery Sale

Yesterday I went to a little pottery sale and bought this vase and - well, I'm not really sure what the other thing is but it is really cool. The artist is Andrea LeBlond. I'm planning on setting some little pots of flowers or herbs on it. The type reminded me of the fabrics used by A Bird in the Hand to make her charming log cabin pillows - but I now see that her fabric is all numbers, not letters. Same feel though.

Spring is here!

Some photos I tood during our Easter egg hunt...we found a fat bubble bee, a real robin's egg & my niece climbing a tree!

Local Lasagna

I was inspired last week by 101 Cookbooks's Thousand Layer Lasagne. Heidi's pictures are beautiful and always make me want to cook. Inspired I was, but homemade pasta and sauce just didn't happen. I went to the Market and bought ricotta from Meister Foods and sheets of egg pasta from Ohio City Pasta. Then I went on a little field trip and picked up sauce and mozzarella cheese from Gallucci's. I rolled the pasta sheets as thin as I could with a rolling pin and ended up with about about 9 layers of pasta.

Hungry Magazine

Someone posted about Hungry Magazine on the Cleveland.com Food & Wine Forum. Cleveland Cooks is their current feature article, the author says...

"Cleveland is certainly a spoke in this food renaissance. While it is not yet a mecca, it’s no longer a one trick culinary pony. I had a chance to check out some Cleveland restaurants last week including Lolita, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Flying Fig, and Fahrenheit."

Who was the one trick pony?

Also available, a Michael Symon podcast I need to download and a review of Lelolai bakery’s coconut flan.

clothing frustrations

How is Target allowed to sell things like this polka dotted shirt for $18? Against my better judgment I bought this top a few weeks ago, in addition to 2 other equally cute ones, knowing it would take a lot of work to care for them and I probably would end up wearing them each just about 3 times before having to dispose of them. But they are so cute and light and airy and I thought perfect to wear on a hot day to work and I had money in my checking account....hmph. I couldn't even wait for a sale!

So, I washed them all in the gentle cycle last night with Woolite and hung them on hangers to dry in my closet. If they shrink the slightest bit I know they'll all be too small. If I wash them in the regular cycle all the sparkley/special like buttons will fall off. So today, at the virginal wearing of the purple polka dot top 2 buttons keep unbuttoning. Not the usual ones - the last 2 on the bottom of the shirt. I really hate clothing malfunctions!

This weekend was a bit of a blur. I worked Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend shopping for something (not from Target) to wear on an interview that I had today and also obsessing over the interview. One good thing is that I had one of the most memorable shopping "deals" so far this year - I got a suit from TJMax for $16.99. Yes, for the cost of a disposable cotton top I got a suit that "regularly retailed" for $250.00. I think it was mismarked. Maybe it all ended up coming out equal in the end.

Chili Cook-Off for Autism 2006

The Autism Chili Cook-Off was a great success! The individuals from the Cleveland Food Forum that donated all their time and energy to organize it, did a fantastic job - everthing ran smoothly. It was a large turnout. Lots of beer, chili, and fun were had by all!

I cooked my chili then dropped it off at Special Editions Catering in Rocky River. They were kind enought to reheat and transport any amateur cook's chili to the Great Lakes Brewing Co. This REALLY made participating easy. They provided all the equipment for us too - chafer, ladel, bowls, spoons, napkins, etc.

This is my chili, cooking in a crock pot. I ended up making 12 batches of chili = about 4 gallons!

This is everyone setting up their stations before the guest started to arrive.














I was put at station #10 - between the only other vegetarian chili cook (my ONLY competition) and this super nice guy Glenn who is LeBron James' personal chef. What a cool job!





























Near the end of the night...

carved stamp swap

I think this was the best swap I have participated in so far. It was a hand carved stamp swap hosted by moki. Each participant created a 1" hand carved stamp and made 25 mini stickers. Then I sent my 25 strawberry stickers to moki and received this assortment a few weeks later - one sticker from each participant, or little envelopes with 3 or 4 stickers in each. It was such an easy swap to get together and the package was great! moki created this really cool flickr "who did what" image.