wedded bliss

Dinner and a Movie

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Last night Mark and I had a rare date night, made even rarer by the fact that it was a week night.  Being new to the area and still being new-ish parents we don’t have a long list of possible babysitters.  So, we tend to find one or two daycare teachers that M adores and ask them to come baby-sit.  Since these young women already know M, tend to have a degree in early childhood, are CPR and first aid trained and can drive we also insist on paying them quite well.  Even if we do find neighborhood kids who can baby-sit I will still pay them at least minimum wage.  By doing this it seems to assure that their schedules are always clear when we ask them to sit….amazing how that happens!

Since the sitter is a significant cost, we don’t go out too often.  However, last night we had the opportunity to screen a soon-to-be-released here indy movie for free at a local independent theater, the Cedar Lee. We both love this place because it’s close to home, it’s a small, old theater and best of all – they serve beer and wine.  We settled into the crowded theater in the front row as they were the only seats left; I guess a neck-crick is a small price for a free movie!

The movie was The Fall directed by Tarsem Singh who did R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” video. Apparently it was shot in over 20 countries including South Africa and India over the course of 4 years and the result is breathtaking.  The movie is visually amazing and the costume design is phenomenal.  The plot was well done and wove reality with fantasy, humor and dark sadness with skill.  We both really enjoyed the film and especially the little girl who plays one of the lead roles, Catinca Untaru who was incredibly natural in her role and a welcome break from saccharine-sweet norm of child actors.  The film was too violent and dark for children, which is a bit sad as it could be a wonderful fantasy movie for them.  Overall we thought the movie was fantastic but were disappointed that we couldn’t drink in the cinematography from better seats.

Afterwords, we strolled over to one of our favorite pizza joints, Dewey’s Pizza, to pick up a calzone to take home.  We ordered and waited at the bar, chatting about the movie and the stores in the area. After a few minutes the manager came up and told us the kitchen had burned our dinner to a crisp and asked us if we wanted a drink on the house while they made another.  Mark got a local brew and I passed; we were in no hurry and this was a nice gesture.  Then the manager, still apologizing, gave us a gift certificate for $15 off our next visit.  All this for a burnt $8 calzone!  We were very impressed, and as it is one of our favorite places we know we’ll be using that coupon.  We got home just in time for Top Chef and enjoyed our late-night dinner. 

A wonderful night of drinks, a movie and dinner all for about $5 (not including paying the sitter)!

I Heart TAL

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Is that that show by those hipster know-it-alls who talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?*
Yes, it is! 

I’m a huge fan of This American Life.  I love the show more than anything else when it comes to entertainment media.  I don’t often hear it on the radio since my new local NPR station doesn’t carry it (what the hell?) but do listen to the weekly shows via the podcast.  If you aren’t familiar with TAL and its host/creator, Ira Glass, it’s a really hard thing to describe.  The show tells unusual stories in unique ways…slice of life, fictional stories that are always so, so interesting. They can be touching, thoughtful, funny, and surprising; but they are always mesmerizing.  Each show has a bit of a theme running through it…in fact, the way Ira introduces each show is “of course each week we choose a theme, and bring you a variety of stories on that theme..” He has a great skill in weaving the stories and interviews with fantastic music and pacing them with a perfect cadence.  The show is simple, beautiful and transcendent storytelling and is next to impossible to explain.  So just go listen to an episode or two…I’ll wait. 

Last year, TAL did a TV show for Showtime and I wondered for weeks how in the world they could translate the unique quality of a radio show to a visual media without losing what makes the show so special.  We got Showtime precisely so we could watch and somehow they pulled it off – what was on the screen was a perfect interpretation of the show we knew and loved.  Balanced, simple, beautiful storytelling now paired with stunning visuals allowed the success of the radio show to shine in a new format.  (BTW – TAL season 2 starts Sunday…get those TiVos set!).  Showtime must like it because TAL now has a contract for 30 shows.

Last night, based on the success of the radio show (1.7 million listeners each week and it’s always listed as one of the top weekly podcasts on the net) and the TV show, Ira and crew did something no other radio show has ever done – they did a live broadcast of its show to theaters across the country.  Of course, we attended at a nearby theater to see Ira on stage in NYC before a live audience talking about the radio and TV shows while playing clips and outtakes from the new TV season.  I was so excited all day yesterday and when I tried to explain it to co-workers I would get really strange looks.  It’s hard to believe that some people have never even heard of the show!

Anyway, we arrived and were pleasantly surprised to see about 60 or so other TAL dorks who shelled out the $20 per ticket.  As we settled in with our dinner of popcorn and soda the “pre-show puzzles” (a hang-man like game to fill the screen before the broadcast started) were up but audio from the usual pre-movie commercials and previews was playing.  Then, right at 8 PM Ira appears on the screen and there was no audio!  We missed the first 7 minutes of audio as the idiots at Regal Cinemas got their act together and fixed it.  It was a strange thing to see Ira on the screen talking into his mic but hear the audio of movie previews.  I was livid that we paid $40 to see this and Regal Cinemas failed so miserably.  However, once the problem was fixed Mark and I were quickly caught up in the show.  Ira seemed totally relaxed, the entire crew did a fantastic job with the live broadcast and we laughed and “oohed” fo the next two hours.  It was a terrific night out and I’m so glad I got to see it.  I can’t wait for the new TV season to start, but in the meantime I will get my fix with one of the over 300 radio shows that are already done.

*Bonus points you know what TV show this is from.

The One Where I Ramble On & On About Cleveland Restaurants

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Alternate Title: How Many Links Can I Put In One Post?

This past weekend my parents offered to come up for the weekend to baby-sit so Mark and I could go out for his birthday. They got here Saturday afternoon and helped us clean up our garage (AKA the dumping grounds for all the wallpaper, carpet, etc. we have pulled out of the house) and organize our garden tools. It was great to be able to get that done and now we have room to get to things like the lawn mower, ladders and all the things that become vitally important when spring hits. Now we just have to hire a junk company to come pick up all the nicely rolled carpet and bags and bags of debris.

In planning for the weekend we started asking around for some restaurant ideas. Mark and I love eating out and have a healthy disdain for chains; we like to eat local and support the culinary community. In Toledo, this was a pretty easy task – there were several wonderful locally owned joints that served great food. In the 9 or so years we lived there we had discovered several favorites. Now that we are in Cleveland, choosing just one place is a herculean task! The more we looked the longer our list of possibilities got. We both knew that there were plenty of independent restaurants, but had no idea the caliber of the Cleveland culinary scene. (Yes, I read Michael Ruhlman, and I know that Tony Bourdain has brought No Reservations here, but somehow that never really sunk in.)

Of course, the first place that came up is the newly famous Lola. Chef Michael Symon has recently been making a big name for himself on the Food Network by winning the Next Iron Chef contest. And he recently announced that he will be taking over the FN show Dinner Impossible along with opening a new restaurant in Detroit’s newly renovated Book Cadillac building. However we decided that we weren’t up for the fancy-pants “see and be seen” atmosphere of Lola or its sister Lolita.

During our digging we came across several very favorable descriptions of the food of Jonathon Sawyer, a Cleveland native who was recently nominated for the prestigious Rising Star Chef Award from the James Beard Foundation. His Bar Cento has made several of the “best of” lists and the food sounded simple and down to earth. He’s a big believer in using locally-sourced and organic ingredients and it shows on his menus. He is also in the process of opening The Greenhouse Tavern, the first Green restaurant in Ohio and we can’t wait to check it out when it opens. Also, how cool is it that he does Cheffin’ with Kids? It’s a weekly event where kids can make their own pizzas along side Chef Sawyer at Bar Cento… we are so doing this someday soon.

However, reservations at Bar Cento were not to be had so we settled on grabbing a drink there to start our night. I had an exquisite lavender martini, made with lavender-infused Gray Goose and Mark and a local mico-brew while we sat at the bar. I couldn’t pass up a chance to order Sawyer’s legendary Pomme Frites with Belgium mayonnaise. These duck-fat-fried fries have been described as “breathtaking” and we totally agreed. Served in a paper cone with a trio of flavored mayonnaise, they were a fantastic taste of Sawyer’s reputation for using a few simple ingredients and letting the quality of the food shine. Bar Cento will defiantly be on our short list for a return trip and a proper meal.

As our reservation time approached, we headed through the cute area of Ohio City to our chosen dinner destination, Momocho. This is a cozy little place that was recommended for its fun menu, casual atmosphere and fun people-watching. If we were childless and moving to Cleveland, this would have been the neighborhood for us. Much like our old ‘hood in Toledo this Historic area is a great mix of people, architecture and that old school neighborhood feel – the kind of place where everyone is strolling about in the evening and visiting with neighbors. Unlike Toledo’s Old West End, Ohio City has a vibrate restaurant, bar and retail scene and Momocho is part of it.

Known for their guacamole, they have an impressive array of 6 different kinds and you can even get a sampler of 3 different kinds. Mark hates all things avocado but I had to try one, so I ordered the blue crab, corn and chile chipotle guac and it was heavenly. Amazingly Mark decided to have a taste and “he likes it! Hey, Marky!” We both enjoyed it immensely and Mark conceded that maybe he’s just never had properly made guac before. Their guac and salsas are served with freshly made corn chips which were warm and crunchy but a bit too salty.

We had also heard that they make a mean margarita at Momocho and Mark opted for the sampler of margs. He got a trio of mango, pomegranate and blood orange while I just ordered a traditional one. The “samples” are not samples – the are more like tumblers and one sampler order equals 1 ½ or 2 regular drinks. All of them were fantastic and made with fresh fruit. I’d love to try their sangria on a return trip. They have a darling outdoor seating area but it was too chilly on Saturday to use it, it would be a great place for a lingering summer meal with friends.

For dinner we both had their signature taquitos. I opted for the slow roasted duck with pomegranate ancho barbacoa while Mark had the carnitas with honey-chipotle mojo. Everything was fabulous – the meats were slow roasted, tender and flavorful. The sauces were a perfect complement to the spices. By the time we finished about half our food we were both overly full.

As we made our way back to our car we decided that we need to start a date-night at least once a month to discover all the great things our new hometown has to offer – from the ethnic fare to the gastopubs, I think we have a lot of ground to cover.

Peanut Butter Extreme

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First of all I have to wish a very belated birthday to my wonderful hubby, Mark, who entered his next year of life on Wednesday.  Of his 36 years on this earth, I’m sure he will tell you the last nearly 10 years have been by far the best, right honey?  Right?!?! 

One thing you must know about Mark is that he is a peanut butter fanatic.  He’s actually received huge vats of the stuff as gifts.  People are always bringing him new PB candies, suggesting desserts and the like as he’s got a bit of a reputation.  So each year I try to come up with some new PB confection for his birthday.  There have been a couple of good ones and a couple not so great ones.  Last year, I struck gold and he asked me to repeat the recipe.  So on Tuesday night I whipped up a batch of these bad-boys: Mark’s Xtreme PB Birthday Cookies.

Mark's Birthday Cookies

Basically they are just two peanut-butter cookies smooshed together with PB frosting.   But, hoo-boy those suckers are fierce!  They are ridiculously rich, sinfully delicious and all around decedent.  Most of the time Mark comments that some PB thing he has just eaten is “not peanut-buttery enough” but there is no such complaint after one of these wonderful treats. 

Ready for the oven

Mark’s Birthday Cookies for this year were made using this recipe minus the chocolate and peanut butter chips.  These cookies were perfect – chewy on the inside, crispy at the edges.  This recipe will defiantly be sticking around.  Based on making this item as a sandwich cookie before, I made half of the cookies with the traditional fork criss-cross for the tops and the other half were flattened with the bottom of a measuring cup for the bottom of the sandwich; this made them lay better on the plate. 

The filling is, I believe, a Barefoot Contessa recipe which was given to me by Amanda at KickyBoots after reading one of her posts last year (I can’t find the post, sorry!).  I have modified it a bit to use chunky pb and just a tad more cream.  This fantastic concoction would be heaven on chocolate cupcakes, but it also is amazing just on a spoon (or a finger). I had planned to coat the “insides” of the cookies with melted chocolate but decided against it due to time constraints and wanting the cookies to remain pure peanut butter. 

I do have to warn you that these cookies are extreme and they get inhaled instantly.  Mark usually takes them to his office on his b-day and they last 10 minutes tops.  Considering the fact that they have approximately 18 gazillion calories they are a good thing to share.

Spring Sprung

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Um…Hi!

Please forgive my lack of posting this week.  It is finally not gray and cold outside and we spent the majority of our free time during the last week frolicking in the out-of-doors.  It’s been a looooong winter and it’s been a blast watching M re-discover what awaits her outside.  She has already de-flowered all of the crocus in the yard, which is really my fault since I picked one to show it to her up close.  We found a small, child-sized rake in the garage of the new house and she busies herself “helping” clean out the flower beds. And the girl loves to dig in the dirt. She makes a bee-line for a patch of garden bed next to the garage as soon as she’s outside and settles down to dig, dig, dig.

As for walking, we have been taking daily family walks in the neighborhood.  We usually do this sans-stroller as M prefers to run free for the mile or so we walk.  The upside is that she gets totally worn out and sleeps like a champ for 12+ hours every night and her naps are up to 1 ½ – 3 hours.  The down side is that it can take forever and we end up carrying her a small part of the way.  Either way it means I have to do a little less time on the treadmill in the dark, boring basement.  Now that the weather has broken I hope to get outside for some post-bedtime walks just to break things up a little.

Finally, this weekend I had an uncontrollable urge to be a 1950s housewife, apparently.  I really wanted to bake some bread so I whipped up a nice loaf of cinnamon-swirl bread along with some standard white bread.  Both were made with ½ white flour and ½ whole wheat flour since I ran out of the white – oops!  The house smelled heavenly and the bread is fantastic.  Then, I had planned to do a lemon-garlic roast chicken but the nice weather (70 degrees!) was calling so I went to the park with the fam instead.  Oh well, I will roast the chicken later this week – I guess my quest to be the perfect homemaker fell a little short.  The fine patina of dog hair that covers everything in the house will also attest to this failure.

Silver Streak

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Happy Birthday to my (much older) sister, JMH!!

…………….
As I think I mentioned before we were in the market for a new car.  The lease on my car was just about up and some car companies were having their “sign and drive” deals which means you could drive off with no out of pocket expenses.  Plus we both work for very large companies in Cleveland and they both have programs set up with several dealerships to get discounted pricing on new cars.  Perfect!

Now, I have to preface our car choice with the fact that I love station wagons – big, boxy station wagons.  Not some stupid scaled down SUV or hatch back car, but an honest-to-goodness wagon with seating for 5 and a big ol’ back end.  Since some time in high school, I knew that someday I would drive a wagon.  My ideal car would be an early 90s Volvo wagon, when they still had the very square back.  Not many car companies make these any more and since Ford bought Volvo I didn’t want to go there.  Subaru was on the list but I don’t need all the 4-wheel drive stuff.  Mercedes and Saab make them but I don’t make that kind of money.  I would have preferred to buy another GM but they don’t make what I want (although Saturn sells wagons in Europe – what’s up with that?). So we settled on the VW Passat Wagon.

The new ride is silver and very pretty and clean. I would have loved to have the mocha brown but we live in a climate where they use salt on the roads so dark cars are a bad idea. One of my favorite features are the built-in rear sunshades.  They are incorporated right into the door, so you don’t need any tinted film or those suction-cup shades to shield your preshus baby from the glaring rays of the sun anymore.  It’s a totally mama-mobile.

Anyway, we went to get our new car this weekend. Well, MY new car really. We headed to the dealership on Saturday morning and I drove it off the lot while Mark had M in his car; we stopped off at Costco and for lunch on the way home (yes – we are suburban hipsters. Wanna make something of it?).  Later in the afternoon Mark – having not driven the car at all yet – decided to take it out for a test spin.  About 20 minutes later he comes back, speeding ticket in hand.  He got busted for driving 60 mph in a 35 zone about 3 blocks from our house!  It’s a good thing we didn’t buy the Wii we saw Costco for his upcoming birthday …now he gets to pay off his ticket instead.  Happy birthday, honey!

He’s not allowed to drive my car anymore.  It may be a mama-mobile but it can haul ass!

In the Beginning

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I attended the 3-Day Get Started Meeting tonight and officially registered as a walker. I’d love to say the meeting left me so inspired that I felt like this was the best undertaking of my life, but meh. Don’t get me wrong. I am very much excited about this walk and the entire journey I will be taking to get there. It’s just meetings like that are just not my bag. I’m much more of an introvert than what these types of things cater to, so I used my daughter as an excuse to leave early. The one thing that brought tears to my eyes was a young man – maybe 20 years old – who is the head of the security crew. As he was telling everyone his role and why he is involved (his mother was diagnosed 7 years ago) he said “there are 37 women in this room right now. Five of you will be diagnosed with breast cancer in your lifetime. I do this for each of you”. It was a very touching and well-stated sentiment from such a young man and it left me with chills up my back.

Good enough for me.

…………..

This past weekend my husband, Mark, and I finally had our first overnight get-away since M was born nearly 18 months ago. Can we pause a second to repeat that? 18 months without a single night away from our often wakeful child. Say what you will about sexy retreats, but honestly I was most looking forward to blissful sleep and staying in bed past 7 AM. My sister volunteered to take M and we booked a room at a small “boutique” hotel in Columbus called The Lofts. Our package included in-room massages, room service, etc. Everything was set for a day of relaxing and, most importantly, veging out.

We were told at check in that the room we specifically reserved because it had a soaking bathtub had physical damage from the previous guest and was unusable. Instead they gave us suite and a discounted rate. Fine with me as this was an expensive overnight – a bit of saved money is good. The room they gave us was next to the damaged room and upon entering we were impressed. It was a large, two-room suite with a nice big bathroom. However, upon further inspection we found the bill from the previous guest laying under the table, 2 discarded beer bottle caps on the sofa and toothpaste splatter on the bathroom walls. Oh well, we figured the room seemed pretty clean otherwise and we were too excited at the prospect of doing nothing to want to go through the hassle of changing rooms. The stay started out fine. We had our massages, and headed out to dinner. Upon returning we decided to watch a movie since it has been ages since we’ve seen a recently released flick. Too bad the movie service didn’t work on our TV. We called down and they tried to remotely fix the problem with no luck. They sent someone to the room to do the repair but still couldn’t get it to work.

By this time it’s nearly 11 PM and we decided to fill out our breakfast order for room service before turning in and when I grabbed the pen from the desk it was covered in something sticky that smelled like tobacco. I had to wash my hands 6 times to get the smell off! It was so disgusting I think I vomited in my mouth a little. We finally go to sleep content in the fact that there would be at least a solid 8-hours ahead of us. Not so fast. I woke up at 1:00 to the sounds of voices in the hall which lasted about 10 minutes. Then, after a few minutes of silence I we can hear a TV. It’s not muffled and actually sounds like the TV in our room is on with no picture. After looking like a fool, trying to figure what is wrong with our TV we discover the noise is coming from the room next door – the room that is supposed to be unusable! The walls are so thin we can hear everything. I call the front desk and they obviously call the guy in the room next door as we can hear every word he says. Then he turns his TV up!I decide to go downstairs in person and had to wait 5-7 minutes before someone came out of the office behind the desk. I explain my problem and he said there is nothing he can do. I am livid at this point so I ask to check out (remember that it’s about 1:30 AM at this time). I tell him I will pay for the package items that we used but won’t pay for the room. He tells me he can’t access the billing system so there is nothing he can do, our card has already been charged.

Fine – I get the name and number of the GM while Mark calls another hotel. The clerk prints my bill which apparently he CAN do and it includes a bogus $70 food/beverage charge which I dispute and ask him to produce a signature for the charge. He pulls out the stack of food recipets and says “There are too many here to through right now. I’ll do it tomorrow”. At this point I want to crawl over the desk and poke his eyes out, but am also so tired I just want to find a quiet bed. I write “DISPUTED” in large letters on the food/beverage bill and check out at 2:00 AM. We make our way over to the Northwest Columbus Marriott where the very nice night manager is expecting us. He knows our story from Mark’s phone call and set us up in a great room that is isolated from other guests. I don’t think there was anyone within 5 rooms of ours. He also kindly gave us a very late check out at no extra charge. We did enjoy our 11 hours at the Marriott, but were exhausted the entire day.

On the way to the Marriott, I used Mark’s iPhone to e-mail the GM at the first hotel about our problems and most likely used too many curse words in the message. He did call back on Sunday and after a lengthly conversation he refund our entire bill. He also offered a discount off our next stay. Yea right.

I’m still tired from the weekend. I think our next get-away may not be for another 18 months.