Blog-tober

In honor of my birthday month, I've decided to try to update this blog every day until I'm up-to-date on my posts. Most of the backlogged photos are baking-related (as seen on Instagram!) With any luck, I'll post a picture of my birthday cake by Halloween...

Chicago

It felt like we took a bunch of pictures in the Windy City for a milestone birthday celebration, but it turns out there aren't a lot. Here's some of what we saw.

Looking up into "The Bean." Or "Cloud Gate" if you want to call it by it's real name.

Full view of the sculpture.

Mexican bakery. 

Pan Dolce.

Aye yay yay.

Sugar skulls for el Día de Muertos 

La Virgen de Guadalupe at Madonna Della Strada Chapel

Press the Eject

This band is as good as chocolate cake!
 

Questions

 A Question of Lust. 


Today is Martin Gore's birthday and when I heard that, all I could think of was this song. It is my favorite Depeche Mode song where he sings lead. 


I don't know if his Wikipedia entry is accurate, but it's a fascinating read.

Red Flags

This is one of my favorite songs released this year. I've liked Sondre Lerche for a while, and I thought this would be the year I saw him live. Unfortunately, he got a gig on The Late Show with David Letterman and cancelled his Cleveland show at the last minute. I hope Cleveland is a stop on his next tour!



The Letterman appearance:

Freegal

This might not be news to anyone else, but I just found out about Freegal. For those of you not in the know, Freegal is a music service website that lets you download up to three songs a week for $0. It's a small amount of free songs, but it's still something! Your local library has to subscribe to the service in order for you to use it and luckily, mine does.

I keep a running list of songs and artists on my iPod notepad, and Freegal has a good chunk of my list available. It's going to take me a few months to get through my picks, but I'm open to suggestions when my list runs out.

Hello!

I just noticed I have some followers! Hello out there! Thanks for following! See you in 2011!

History One Day Will Rave

I'm on a bit of a losing streak with Words with Friends. I've lost five of my last six matches. But, I got a great bingo today, which I hope means that I will soon be winning games again.

When I played this word I couldn't help but think of the Muppet version of The Frog Prince when Taminella keeps shutting up Robin by stuffing popovers in his mouth. "Have a popover froggy!"

Coming Soon... But Not Soon Enough

I had my camera with me today, and I was stopped at a red light so I took this picture.

Melt Bar and Grilled

I'm going to the westside location tomorrow, but can't wait for the eastside one to open soon! It's just about a mile from my house!

Yummy Gifts

Two of my favorite Christmas gifts are food and drink. Pictured below is a sample of the edible goodies I got this year: coffee and Hickory Farms gift sets.

Can you spot the two Christmas ornaments not hanging from the tree?

Adios, Passions!

One of my favorite television shows and definitely my favorite soap opera ever has come to an end. The series finale of Passions aired last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch it when it aired since I don't have DirectTV, but by following this link (thanks for sending it to me jenni!) I saw it today. It's a good ending to a crazy show.

Here's part 5 of 5 for those interested in knowing the fates of the residents of Harmony. If you never watched it (or haven't watched it lately) start with part one, which might not explain anything really.

So, goodbye Harmony residents! I'll miss you!

Come on in feel free to do some looking...

This isn't really new news, but I haven't baked anything lately so I thought I'd write about a show I just started watching. Chowder premiered last fall on the Cartoon Network, but I only recently became addicted. The main character (Chowder) is a chef's apprentice who eats anything and everything. All of the characters are named after food and most of the episodes revolve around a certain recipe or ingredient. It's all completely nonsensical and amusing.


Although it's a cartoon, they mix in stop motion animation, puppets and even live action. New episodes air on Thursday nights, but like most shows on basic cable you can catch it at other times. It's family friendly, and if you watch it with kids around you might even get them interested in cooking.


I've embedded the promo that ran last year to give you a taste of it.

Mixtapes

I used to love making mixtapes from songs on the radio and my albums and tapes when I was a kid. I made tapes from my CDs when I got a boombox that had a cool dubbing feature. And when I first got iTunes I made so many playlists-- a lot of which were CD copies of my old tapes.

Well, now I have a new reason to pick up my old habit. Mixwit.com lets you make mixtapes that look like oldschool tapes that you can customize with pictures and such. I first heard about it from Jason at Hands On Your Ears whose tapes can be found here.

Below are my first two mixes. "Sun Mix" has songs with good beats that are easy to dance to and "Moon Mix" has maudlin music you might find on a college station.

One crappy feature is that you're limited to the songs that the site has available unless you're savvy enough to get songs yourself, which I'm not. The worst feature has to be that songs can disappear on you once you've made the tape. Even with those flaws, it's still pretty cool.

A less exciting (and both more and less limiting) website is muxtape.com, which lets you upload your own songs into a single mix. You can listen to mine here, which is taken from an old CD mix from a bunch of years ago. That website is just as boring as a list of songs can be.

International Festival Update

For the curious, here's what my lunch/dinner companion and I ate at The International Festival this past weekend. Yeah it's a lot of food, but some of it was takeaway.

• Pastellios (Puerto Rican)
• Egg rolls (Vietnamese)
• Reuben balls (German)
• Pastellio (a different Puerto Rican booth)
• Stuffed cabbage (Slovak/Slovenian)
• Tamale, tostada, bean and rice (Mexican)
• Spanakopita, tiropita and baklava (Greek)
• Snoogle and lady lox (their spelling) (Polish)
• Piraguas (Puerto Rican)

The Hungarian booth ran out of chicken paprikash or I might have had some. I was thisclose to buying some dolemades. I thought about, but ultimately didn't get collard greens, chicken-on-a-stick, stromboli and jambalaya.

We saw one princess while we were walking around. We didn't see the Queen. But guess what? She's my cousin! Congratulations Natalie!

Lorain International Festival

Lorain, Ohio is famous for a few things: Toni Morrison, the Rose Garden, Dog 'n Suds and The International Festival.* The International is this weekend at the Black River Landing site in beautiful downtown Lorain.

I guess technically it's been going on all week, but the important part starts today -- the food bazaar. For the low (and still controversial) price of $1, you gain admittance to over 40 booths of ethnic foods. There are other things to do at the festival but those are just distractions between eating.

The princess pageant was last night. I'm not sure if any of them "tapdanced her way into the hearts of the judges," but here are some of this year's princesses:






I'll be on the lookout for the queen and her court while stuffing my face with paprikash, chicken-on-a-stick, tamales, pastelillos, baklava, lady locks...

*Lorain also makes the news periodically for things like seeing Jesus in an ultrasound.

One Walnut

One Walnut

One Walnut Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44114

216-575-1111

Lunch; June 9, 2008

Party of Two

Lobster Nachos with Guacamole, Lobster, Chips and Sweet Soy

Prosciutto Tart with Caramelized Onions, Spinach & Fresh Mozzarella
with Mixed Green Salad




Risotto with English Peas, Pine Nuts and Parmesan with Grilled Chicken




"Berries in the Snow"
White Chocolate Mousse with Berries and Fresh Mint


Mint Green Tea Crème Brûlée (background)

The last time my lunching companion and I were at One Walnut, we had a three course dinner with wine pairings that blew us away. Their sommelier really knows his/her stuff. However, this time, neither of us had alcoholic beverages and still had a fantastic three course meal.

The lobster nachos weren't new to us since the topping (without the chip underneath) was an amuse-bouche on our previous visit. The chips tasted like flour tortilla chips or some other light delicate crisp. The ingredients were a great combination that managed to keep their distinctiveness.

I added chicken to the risotto (food rut broken!) on the server's suggestion-- she suggested it because I was worried that the risotto wouldn't be filling. I LOVE risotto and this was perfectly al dente. The taste was good and got better when I stirred the dark sauce around the outside of the dish (sweet soy again?) into the rice. But, the whole thing was nearly ruined by the garnish of greens that you can see on top of the chicken in the picture. They were extremely bitter and smelled a bit foul when warm. I think the kitchen may have forgotten the chicken (before it reached the table) because the greens were both under and over the chicken. Once I removed them I really enjoyed the entree. The nuts and peas were slightly crunchy and really complimented the toothiness of the risotto.

If my lunching companion wouldn't have ordered the tart, I would have since I'm a sucker for anything with prosciutto, cheese and/or spinach. The bite I had was delicious. The flavors were strong but the flaky crust held its own. It looks like a piece of pizza in the picture but it was very pretty in person.

I've had a lot of yummy desserts lately, but since white chocolate mousse is one of my most favorite desserts, this one wins for best dessert I've eaten recently. The berries were so fresh and the mousse rivaled the one served in my all time favorite dessert (which might still be found at The Drake Hotel in Chicago.)

I didn't try the crème brûlée because I don't care for it. It's one of the very few desserts I refuse unlike French silk or banana cream pies, which I'll eat but don't prefer. It looked nice...

After lunch we went across the street to the newly relocated Phoenix Coffee where I had a great vanilla latte.

Brew Matters

Phoenix Coffee is having a seminar at their roastery this Monday called Brew Matters that will show how one type of coffee can be brewed five different ways. There is some inside dirt on the Phoenix employee blog.
A couple pals and I will be there. If it's half as good as the last event we attended at the roastery, it'll be smashing!
And how cute is their ad in response to Starbucks closing to retrain their staff?

Oscar Predictions

My picks are in bold

BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

I didn't see There Will be Blood, but I bet it wasn't any better than No Country..., friend-o.

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney
Daniel Day-Lewis
Johnny Depp
Tommy Lee Jones
Viggo Mortensen

People like that milkshake line, and he's been cleaning up at other shows.

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett
Julie Christie
Marion Cotillard
Laura Linney
Ellen Page

She was the best lip-syncher of 2007, and she shaved her eyebrows for the role!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett
Ruby Dee
Saoirse Ronan
Amy Ryan
Tilda Swinton

They love to give best supporting actress to a pregnant lady and to a lady playing a dude.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck
Javier Bardem
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hal Holbrook
Tom Wilkinson

C'mon, look at his hair!

BEST DIRECTOR
There Will be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Ethan and Joel Coen)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Juno (Jason Reitman)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)

It might go to Schnabel. I hope Sean Young interrupts him if it does.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Diablo Cody is totally going to win and then write about it in Entertainment Weekly.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Atonement
Away From Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

They like awarding actors (Sarah Polley) for writing.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Assassination of Jesse James...
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

When I watched it, I felt like I was in Texas.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort
The Counterfeiters
Katyn
Mongol
12

It is about the Holocaust. "Nuff said.

ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Who didn't cringe when the rats fell from the ceiling? Eww.

EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

I guess I'm rooting for this movie? I'm screwed if There Will be Blood cleans up.

ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will be Blood

Any screen grab looks like a work of art. I don't know if that's what this award means, but that's why I picked it.

LIVE ACTION SHORT
At Night
Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Sounds like a drink.

COSTUME DESIGN
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd

Keira's outfits look good on her because they look exactly the same as they do on hangers.

ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

The typewriter sold it.

MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

She looked convincing as a teen and as an "old" lady.

ORIGINAL SONG
Falling Slowly from Once
Happy Working Song from Enchanted
So Close from Enchanted
That's How You Know from Enchanted
Raise It Up from August Rush

I'm currently obsessed with this song and feel the movie should have more nominations.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Umm, it's an election year?

SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

The movie sounded good when I had my eyes closed because the shaky camerawork made me nauseous.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freehold
La Corona
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

No reason given.

ANIMATED SHORT
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Even Pigeons Go to Heaven
My Love
Peter & the Wolf

The Beatles are very popular.

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Did you see them transform? Awesome.

SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will be Blood
Transformers

Same reason as Sound Mixing.

I just had a great cup of coffee

I love coffee. Really, check my profile.

As much as I hate to admit it, coffee affects me. I don't get jittery or sleepless, but it causes my heart to race so I try not to drink too much. It's tough because, well, I love coffee!

And most decaf is disgusting. It tastes and smells like chemicals or plastic. Or Old Spice.

But, I do like Swiss wash decaffeinated coffee like they serve at Tommy's. And the other day at Zagara's I found a coffee that looked too good not to try.

Newman's Special Decaf from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. It's organic, fair-trade and water process decaffeinated. There's so much good on the label that I thought it was going to taste gross. But, it was bright, crisp and yummy.

It was weird to have a great cup of coffee without the bad feeling. I won't give up the real stuff, but I'm glad I found an alternative to my usual Kona.

Summer Movie Wrap-up

I like to see movies in the theater regardless of whether I'm watching the movie by myself or with a group. I also like to have popcorn and a Cherry Coke while I enjoy the show. Sometimes I get candy but not often.

I didn't manage to watch all of the summer releases that I wanted, but here's a list of the ones I saw and my grade for each. I'm basing the definition of summer on Entertainment Weekly's Summer Release Calendar, which runs from the first week of May to the first week of September.

Don't worry, it's spoiler-free.

Spider-Man 3
Grade: B
It was the weakest of the three movies by far. They tried to squish too much into it. I liked Tobey's goth makeover, though.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Grade: B-
Not as bad as the second movie, but parts of it were stupid, unfunny and not clever.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Grade: B+
I loved this movie but disliked parts of it enough to keep it below an A. It was funny and full of hotties.

A Mighty Heart
Grade: B-
Interesting movie, but I kept thinking that there was no way Angelina Jolie and Dan Futterman would ever be a couple. I don't care if there was a war going on; that would not happen!

Ratatouille
Grade: B
Nice animation. Okay story.

Transformers
Grade: B
Not as bad as I thought it would be. Decent popcorn movie.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Grade: C+
Had some cool bits but should have been longer. Another movie that tried to do too much. If I hadn't read the book before I saw it, then I would have been really confused.

Hairspray
Grade: A-
Excellent adaptation of the Broadway musical, but John Travolta drove me crazy and not in a good way.

La Vie en Rose
Grade: B-
Wasn't a traditional biographical movie and got really confusing with all the players in the life of Edith Piaf.

The Bourne Ultimatum
Grade: A-
It would have gotten an A+ if it didn't make me physically sick to watch it. Is all the jerky camera-work really necessary? Glad I watched The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy right before I went to see this since you really have to remember what happened in those movies to catch what's going on.

Mr. Bean's Holiday
Grade: B
Silly, stupid and subtitled. It was interesting to see a live-action G rated movie that didn't star a dog.

I guess that makes the best movies of the summer: