Missing photos

It seems quite pathetic that is has taken me this long to post any photos of our trip to Europe to demonstrate how yummy the adventure was. However, what must be taken into account are the following facts: 1) the moment we touched US soil (in Philadelphia) we were on the phone to car insurance agencies trying to work out our car situation (Ed was rear ended driving my car on 8/28, our anniversary, a day and a half before moving out of our apartment and leaving the country for a month. The car was totaled but he was fine). 2) The house we bought with Ed's brother had not closed the entire month we were gone. Therefore we were homeless for a day after returning. the house closed the following day. 3) We moved into a vacant house that needed a good amount of repairs which we have been working on diligently. Ed has but a TON of work into the new place! 4) I had to get a new car, see fact number one. 5) On top of all of this I had to return to daily work. Okay, my excuses are out there...now for some photos.

After our picnic we posed in front of the Eiffel Tower, from left: our friend Kevin, Ed, me.
Ed and Kevin discuss meeting at the Louvre the next morning while enjoying hot chocolate and a beer and waiting for the rain to pass.Kevin stares at my dessert even though he is eating the same, exact thing. The baked apple tart thing was quite good but for the price we paid for this meal at an ubber fancy place not too far from the Lourve I was disappointed. We found better meals for less money.Speaking of better meals for (a little ) less, this was one of our best meals over all. The restraunt he is sitting in is the restaurant we "stayed above". My pest raviolis filled with pesto that was made right there in the town...OMG! Ed enjoyed his mussels too (i'm allergic so I don't dwell on them. I'm sad I can never have them again). My raviolis were followed by grilled calamari and Ed had a steak as his main course. The meal was finished off by a glass of a sweet raisin wine I can not spell or pronounce. The wine is unique to the region and really quite good, and really quite expensive. luck for us it was on the house because we were staying there!After our all day hike we got some to go food from a delicious cheap place and enjoyed the food and wine on our balcony as we watched the sun set. Gorgeous!In Florence we ate at cafe Zaza on a few recommendations. Everything was delicious but again, for the price was a little disappointed. Our meal the next day in a random hole in the wall place with only locals. The food was cheap and good!Another recommendation was made to us to climb up to the stairs by the bronze David and watch the sunset. We'll who is going to do that and not bring a bottle of wine. Truly only a few groups of people did NOT have beer or wine with them. The sunset wasn't the best but you couldn't beat the view!

Pesto and other good things

I visited the birth place of pesto, I know you are jealous. Cinque Terre is the area of 5 fishing villages on the side of the cliffs inthe Italian Riviera. Half of the town consists of beautiful, old, colorful buldings on top of each other piled on the side of the cliff. The other half of the each of the five towns and the space between them are terraced hill sides growing tons of produce; grapes, basil, lemons, tomates, etc. I had booked a room above a restaurant in the 2nd town of Manarola. When we arrived we went to the restaurant where we then followed a woman to our room. it was definitely ABOVE the restarant, we hiked up to nearly the top of the town where she lead us into a beautiful room with an amazing view!!!!!! (pictures eventually) That night we ate at the restaurant way down below. It was fantastic! Raviolo Pesto, grilled calamari and local wine that was okay. But the dessert wine a sweet raisin wine was superb but cost about $40 for a small thin bottle. so we only got the glass which was actually compliments of the restaurant i guess cause we were staying there. The big thing to do in Cinque Terre is the hike. we woke up early the next morning to start the trek to each of the other 4 towns. They say it takes about 5 hours to do the whole hike with little stopping. It was an all day adventure and it was so worth it. The trail at times was no wider the width of my foot with a hill on one side and a four foot drop on the left. 4 feet does seem like much but it is not an easy trail.. but it is a fun one!

Eating our way through Europe

Yay, we made it to Europe and are enjoying the food! Paris had the best bread! Ed indulged in steak tartare and we enjoyed a delicous picnic under the Eiffel tower with procuitto, cheeses, wine and our good friend Keving who arrived on the same day as us. We also had a fun time eating at the cafe where Amelie was filmed, Le Deux Moulin. Ed fell in love with the 3 cheese quiche, one of the cheeses was bleu! On to Avignon where we wandered the old walled city and toured the Pope's palace and has some pretty good tapas. Now we are in Nice where the weather is gorgeous (it rained in Paris, but not bad and the wind was crzy in Avignon). Last night we stumbled upon a delicous and inexpensive Tunisian restourant. it is great what you can find by accident! Today a quick trip to monaco and tomorrow off to Cinque Terre Italy ( where we stay above a retaurant).

Shopping When Hungry

Going to the grocery store when you are hungry is always a bad idea. You'll make impulse purchases, spend too much money and worst of all not be able to decide what to eat for dinner therefore postponing eating time even longer.
Last night Ed and I wandered through Trader Joe's hungry and indecisive. We picked up pre-cooked curry chicken as a fast meal, lentils for a Indian curry sauce, ground beef for meatballs, potstickers for fun, chicken pate for an appetizer, wine, beer and more beer, a salad for lunch and yoghurt becuase its yummy. Then we got home and had to deciede which delicious item to make as fast as possible to quench out hunger.
We chose spaghetti and meatballs as our main course. And becuase we were starving the impulse buy of chicken pate was already on the table. While the water was boiling, the meatballs baking and the frozen homemade sauce was defrosting in the microwave we had a mini feast. Chicken pate, leftover stilton bleu cheese and Espiral Vinho Verde (a portugese slightly sparkling, crisp white wine that has become my new favorite aperitive, thanks mom).
Eating these three appitizers together reminds me how much I LOVE food! We moaned and groaned over the delicious pairing until the oven timer went off and we cleared the table for the main course.
Spaghetti and meatballs made on the fly may not be nearly as elegant but can satisfy a craving just as well. I was craving meat, why? I don't know. But the meatballs in meat sauce made my mouth very happy! My stomache was not quite so happy with me though and wished I had stopped after the first two meatballs due to lack of room after so much pate and cheese.
MMMMM...food is soooooooo good! I Live to Eat! Throw caution and money to the wind and don't go hungry when your shopping. Buy what you want and eat what you please but remember, everything in moderation.

Sitting on the Can

Cooking the same thing the same way all the time gets boring. Sure, you can change up the main ingredient but you really only have baked chicken, baked fish, baked lamb or grilled chicken, grilled steak, grilled pork chops or sauteed chicken, sauteed vegetables, sauteed ground beef. Sometimes you have to mix it up a bit, sometimes you have to be different, sometime you gotta be crazy. What about cooking it on a beer can? Beer can chicken has become quite popular. I even saw Target carrying a wire device that held the beer can and helped steady the chicken on the BBQ. Normally beer can chicken is prepared on a covered BBQ with a whole chicken on a 40 ounce can of beer. Ed decided to go crazy on an already crazy idea. He made beer can game hens. Cornish game hens were placed on normal sized beer cans and cooked in the oven (so yes, they were baked). As funny looking as they were they tasted great! The beer cans should be only about half full of liquid when the hen is placed on top making some pleasurable work for the chef before hand. The left over liquid is then absorbed into the chicken (or the hen) during cooking making the meat tender and moist!
Good weather means its grilling season! Get out there and make some beer can poultry of your own.

Philly Food Part II

A couple of days into the convention I spotted a window of time I could escape. Armed with a map, my cell phone and notebook of information in case anything was urgently needed (which it was, of course but fixed in minutes with a couple of calls) I scampered off towards the Liberty Bell to do some sight seeing.

I was lucky enough to catch the Liberty Bell with very few people around. While I was slowly making my way through the museum a big group of school kids entered the hall. I ran down to the Bell and got a few photos with it before the big group came. (strangers are not the best photographer. The bad thing about sight seeing alone) I lingered to hear the park ranger give his speech about the bell to the school group.

After seeing the bell I set off in the direction of the river. I can now say I've seen New Jersey but I've never been there. Walking down the historic looking Chestnut street a brewery caught my eye. I had some extra time and I figured I could use a quick rest. I sat myself at the bar of the Triumph Brewery and ordered a pint of seasonal ale brewed on site. A bizarrely named beer intruiged me. The bartender gave me a taste of their crazy concoction. It was particularly strong but very good, I would have rather drank a pint of that, oh well.

Philadelphia provided me with many good meals some of which where fancy gourmet entrees but it were the inexpensive unexpected meal that were the best. The first night that several other people arrived for the leadership meeting I grabbed some dinner with a couple of them. We wandered away from the hotel with a specific cantina in mind. When the wait turned out to be over an hour the pizza place we passed on the way sounded great! I ordered two enormous slices, the second only because it sounded crazy and I had to try it; potato and egg pizza. It tasted like breakfast. The food was good. The restaurant even offered several pasta dishes which, according to my dinner mate, were pretty good. And it always helps that everything was very inexpensive with no tip required.

My last full day in Philadelphia was spent in an all day leadership meeting at our Courtyard Mariott Hotel. We got a quick break for lunch. Unfortunately it wasn't long enough to go anywher other than the hotel restaurant. I ordered a crabcake sandwich with high hopes. I was disappointed with a soggy pile of crab mush. I picked at it and then excused myself from the group exercise that I wasn't really apart of. The outdoors were calling me and I had to get some fresh air.

The next morning I woke up early to squeeze in anymore sightseeing I could do before we left for the airport at 11:30am. I arrived at Independence Mall just before everything opened and asked a park ranger where I could grab a bite for breakfast. She suggested a buffet place inside the Bourse Building. I expected something expensive with tons of food. Tons of food yes but you only paid (by weight) for what you put on your plate. Some eggs, a few pieces of french toast and syrup cost me $3 and change. I gobbled the affordable food and ran off to see the US Mint, Ben Franklin's grave and the US Treasury.

Yummy trip to Philly!

Philly Food Part I

With my new job I got the chance to travel to Philadelphia for a convention and leadership meeting. I was very excited to visit the East coast for the first time. For months all I could think of was trying a real Philly Cheesesteak. I did my research and planned on exploring the Reading Terminal Market for every meal. Conveniently the Reading Market is located right underneath the convention center and one block away from my hotel!
The night of my arrival began with the cheesesteak I'd been dreaming about for so long. Philadelphia tradition prepares the cheesesteak with CheezWhiz, I opted for the provolone. It was good and I should have tried another one from another vendor or restaurant but I found so many other wonderful things I didn't feel the need to return to the famous sandwich.
My first big breakfast on my own was one to remember. I ventured into the Reading Terminal Market and chose a seat at the busy counter of The Dutch Eating Place. I had heard good things and a busy place is always a good sign. Each of the small counters in the market have a few seats for counter service. You take a seat where you see an open chair and the person behind the counter will get you your food. If you don't have the time to sit or there are no free seats you can order take away food at the register. I was lucky as one person, one seat was easy to find.
I ordered the raisin french toast with one fried egg on the side and a small organge juice. Sure, that sounds like standard breakfast fare but what I received was heavenly. Everything in the french toast was incredibly fresh! The butter was like nothing I'd ever tasted before. The butter actually had TASTE! ( it was home-churned) The orange juice was thick and fresh squeezed. The maple syrup wasn't Aunt Jemima, it was real Vermont maple syrup. And the atmosphere was fun sharing the counter with other tourists and locals.
For lunch the same day I returned to the Reading Terminal Market and settled on the Tommy Dinic's counter. I ordered the Italian pork sandwich and boy was it filling and fantastic! Unlike The Dutch Eating Place Dinic's didn't have a menu other than the sign that hung above the counter. There were only about five options so ordering was simple. The woman behind the counter was very nice and happily bagged the other half of my sandwich for me. If you go to the market keep in mind most places are cash only so be prepared and stop by an ATM.

Catching up

How sad is it that I haven't written in five months? Hows sad is it that I have also never posted a meal consumed in our new(7 months ago) apartment.
This is what happens when I change jobs and and homes and am much more sane and happy.
So what have I been eating? What has Ed been making?
Bleu cheese topped grilled pork chops served with sweet potato fries and their own bleu cheese dip.
40 Clove Chicken. Guess what? It is crazy garlicey! The garlic becomes so tender we spread it on crackers!
The good ol' Jambalya! nice and spicy, made from scratch and provides awesome leftovers for days.