Change Your Mind About Cleveland

Whenever I announce that I'm heading to Cleveland, I steel myself for the inevitable round of "CCCs" (crappy comments re: Cleveland). "WHY are you going to CLEVELAND?" "Didn't Lake Erie, like, catch on fire a few year ago?" or more simply, "Oh, I'm sorry." It's obvious to me when you say things like this that you've never been there, you don't know what you're talking about, and you should STFU. Or just read this blog about some great things to do in Cleveland.

You think Seattle has the market cornered (no pun intended) on outdoor markets? Cleveland has one of the best markets I've ever seen called the West Side Market. Started in 1840, the West Side Market features 15 bakeries, 34 produce stands (whose prices make me wish I'd never heard the words "Metropolitan Market"), about 35 butchers, dairy merchants, flowers, and the whole nine yards. We bought some of the most delicious baked goods I've had (other than my own! Just kidding.)

Cleveland of course features the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, but it's also a great place for sightseers of a more low-key type, such as those who like historical architecture. We stayed in the historic Clifford House Bed & Breakfast in Ohio City, and enjoyed walking neighborhoods of beautiful old historic homes. Clifford House itself was wonderful -- a beautiful home built in 1868 -- featuring an amazing breakfast each morning and a wonderful dog named Sherlock. In Ohio City was a really great restaurant named Heck's. We went there for lunch and everyone was incredibly impresed with their food, and then later that same day stopped by again during a sudden snowstorm for desserts and hot chocolates. Yum!

Another great haunt in Cleveland is the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern. Yeah, it's in East Cleveland, which isn't a really great part of the city by reputation, but I've never even seen anyone sketchy anywhere near the club and it's really fine. Parking is readily available and the location is a quick 5 minutes or so from downtown. The Beachland features good bands, bad bands, and a lot of music in between. It's just a great old school rock club and a fun place to meet people.

There are some great neighborhoods in Cleveland that are really fun to explore. Besides Ohio City and downtown, there are Lakewood and Rocky River, among many others. I personally love Lakewood, with its great boutiques like Turnstyle and delicious restaurants like India Garden.

So, please consider that that place you so freely dismiss sight unseen is someone else's beloved hometown and a wonderful place to visit. Book that trip to Cleveland and I dare you to tell me I'm wrong about it!

Real Simple = Real Bad?

I have a problem with Real Simple. For one thing, they've gotten way to woman's magaziney with their content. I don't need "morning make-up solutions" or "6 great new ways to do your hair." I don't care what the folks at Real Simple think I should be wearing this fall. There are far more fashionable magazines to get fashion and beauty tips, and I don't need Real Simple to tell me how to do crunches (um, hello? That's why I get Shape.)

But the biggest problem is that the quality of the recipes varies so widely. Last night, I made a recipe from Nov. '09's Real Simple that turned out perfectly. It's listed in their section, "Weeknight Meals," under the subsection "One Pot." Aptly named Roasted Chicken and Carrots with Olives and Lemons, this recipe is truly wonderful! See the end of the article for the recipe reprinted. I highly suggest you try it if you like chicken. It was an easy, no-brainer recipe that even novice cooks could get right. Plus, if you and your spouse don't like the same parts of chicken (for instance, I like white and Alex likes dark), since you're cooking a whole bird, you're both happy.

Heartened by my recent success, I cooked another Real Simple recipe tonight. This was only two pages away from the Roasted Chicken that was so fabulous. But unfortunately, "Steak with Crispy Potatoes and Pistachio Pesto" was not a winner. The steak was good, but I'd be surprised if all of a sudden I couldn't cook a sirloin steak and make it amazing. The crispy potatoes were good. But the two items that were the most work, namely the pistachio pesto and the broccoli rabe, disappointed greatly. The pesto required me to shell a number of pistachios, and while the pesto tasted nice, it was completely overpowered by the steak. This would be much better on a delicate fish, such as halibut. The broccoli rabe required a special trip to Metropolitan Market, where I learned it is pronounced "Rah-Bay. And, it was inedible. I cooked it EXACTLY like the recipe suggested and it came out nothing like it. Maybe broccoli rabe is just no good? Seems strange, considering I like leafy green vegetables like Swiss chard, bok choy, chinese broccoli, and kale. But it wasn't just me. My husband looked incredibly relieved when I declared the broccoli rabe disgusting and threw it in the trash. So, Real Simple approved this recipe that contained two good elements but added one element that was unnecessary and another that was inedible.

That's why I subscribe to Good Housekeeping, despite the fact that the magazine is very dorky and is overly geared towards moms. (By the way, don't moms have their own mom-related magazines? Why does the fact that I want to excel at "housekeeping," including cooking, mean I need to learn about how to resolve fights between kindergartners?) GH has this excellent policy of testing out all their recipes in their test kitchen three times before they'll publish them (oh how I'd love that job!) And so, only one time out of probably 50 or so recipes from GH I've tried has the recipe gone wrong.

Real Simple has great fonts, photography, and some interesting ideas about stain removal and alternative uses for everyday objects. Just don't count 100% on loving dinner if you use their recipes.

Recipe I LOVE (+ my notes):
Roasted chicken and carrots with olives and lemons
1 3 1/2 to 4 lb chicken, cut into pieces (can get them pre-pieced at grocery)
2 lbs carrots, cut into 2 in. pieces (halved lengthwise if thick)
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives
4 bay leaves
1 lemon, cut into wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 tsp paprika

Heat oven to 425. On a large rimmed baking sheet (such as a jelly roll pan), toss chicken, carrots, olives, bay leaves, lemon, oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Arrange in a single layer and sprinkle the chicken with the paprika.

Roast, tossing the vegetables once, until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender, about 45 min.

Serve with crispy Caesar salad, if desired.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!

I have a new motto for fall decorating: you can never have too many pumpkins. I thought before that you should only get as many pumpkins as you can carve for Halloween, so probably one, unless you're a staffer for Martha Stewart or something. Now it seems like the more the merrier. And there are so many cute pumpkins you can get -- the white ghost pumpkins, the tiny mini pumpkins, adorable and ugly squashes (which aren't even really pumpkins), and these perfectly sized sugar pumpkins.

Yesterday, I was in a hurry to get the place finished being decorated for Halloween before the kids came by trick-or-treating, and none of my several pumpkins were carved. I had bought all these pumpkins because I had a housewarming party a couple of weeks before Halloween. I've discovered something: uncarved pumkins = fall/harvest. Carved pumpkins= Halloween. Uncarved pumpkins, outside, will last for weeks in the cool fall air. But as soon as you carve them, they quickly begin to fade. That's why I waited until the day Halloween to carve the pumpkins.

Since I was in a hurry, I thought we should do the smaller sugar pumpkins to save time. Boy was I in for a surprise. Apparently the sugar pumpkins are designed for making pies and have much thicker shells -- making them harder to cut than the larger, normal pumpkins. Who knew? So we saved no time there. But we did make a really cute kitty cat and a "Boo!" pumpkin. Note: you must make enough airholes to feed a candle if you're using a real candle, otherwise it will extingish! Learned this the hard way with the "Boo!" pumpkin.

What to do with those seeds? Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and meanwhile clean the seeds using a round sieve and running water. The pumpkin bits go to the bottom. Then dry the seeds with paper towels, and put in a bowl. Add 2 tbsp olive oil (per about two pumpkins worth of seeds), 1 heaping tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp truffle salt. Stir with whisk until all seeds are coated. Pour the seeds on a cookie sheet -- you can use the whisk to spread them around. Roast seeds for about 27 minutes. Voila - spicy, delicious pumpkin seeds!

A Wild and Wonderful Day!

What an amazing day yesterday was! Just closing on our house was a huge accomplishment. Our lender was keeping us in great suspense by not turning in the paperwork until the final hour, but the title company really came through and did everything completely on the fly for us. But when we went over the papers, we realized that our lender had structured the deal in a way that left about $2800 of our money sitting on the table. Drat! So we got lender on the phone and worked out a way to make the deal happen so that we got all of our money, and we also got an even lower interest rate than we had originally bargained for! Our title agent was "double-fisting" it with phones on both ears, talking to people at the national HQ for her company and our lender down in Texas. It was pretty crazy, but for some reason I never got stressed out about it, at all. I think I knew it would all be o.k. A closing can be difficult, but I imagine it's rarely fatal, so I didn't get too worked up.

Nevertheless, afterwards I still needed to decompress, so I stopped for a mani/pedi and that really helped (even if the guy who gave it to me was highly unlikely to've been legally licensed... oh well).

Shortly thereafter, it was time to check out the exhibit. Here I have to stop and thank my friends for being open-minded to learn about the history of Tacoma's architecture. Just because I moved here in September and became fascinated with Tacoma's history, doesn't mean my friends did. But they still came and supported and that means the world to me. I also have to thank the director of Tacoma Historical Society, Mary Bowlby, for believing in me and my vision. It was amazing to see it played out in an exhibit, even in the cramped THS space. Many thanks also to Jeff Cunningham and his family for bringing treats to the reception, and Sanford & Sons antique shop, who let us use their space for the reception (very cool shop btw. I'll be there for an auction on July 20 if anyone cares to join me).

We all started to get hungry, so went down the recently-repaired Spanish Steps by the Elks (soon to be McMinemins!) to get to the Matador. It was a beautiful night, and the walk felt good. Matador was bustling with hip couples and groups of friends, and my Seattle friends seemed surprised that Tacoma is indeed fun and lively. Get used to it! We admired the wrought iron and wood decor, and crammed about 12 of us into a giant booth that still didn't feel big enough. My friends who arrived later were relegated to another large booth right next to us. Let me tell you, for me to butterfly between these two tables and still manage to get some dinner was no small feat, but I think I managed quite well. The mood was very festive and I had a fabulous time. Also, I am very blessed because I have not one but two friends who are jewelry-makers with great taste. So I got some pretties (thanks!). I also appreciated getting a book by Victoria Beckham called "That Extra Half an Inch" -- I'm told it refers to fashion, not to her hubby. Hee hee.

As we unfolded ourselves from our booths, the plan began to form of going to The Tempest for karaoke night. We said our goodbyes to those who had to go, and then several intrepid souls joined me at this fabulous joint on Hilltop. The Tempest is like a wonderfully shady living room, with funky secondhand furniture and plenty of atmosphere, and a bartender and karaoke host that almost immediately felt like family. While performing, I lost an earring (due to my insistence on wearing a platinum blonde prop wig and then flinging it away from me), and the bartender assured me in serious tones, “We will find that earring. Don’t you worry,” – and she did, minutes later. Many of us sang, and all of us seemed to have a great time. I did a reasonable job on “Hard to Handle” by The Black Crowes – you know what? That song is hard to handle! I realized while singing it that I’d never understood about 95% of the lyrics (who knew it says “Boys’ll come along a dime by the dozen/that ain’t nothin’ but dime-store lovin’”?) My friends said that my enunciation shed a whole new light on the song. Anyway, I never respected Chris Robinson, the singer of that band, the way I do now. Think rock stars don’t make enough money? Try belting that bad boy out at a stadium! That’s twice as hard (hee).
Anyway, we had a great time, and many great songs were sung, and I loved every one, even the country songs.

After we left the karaoke behind, Alex and I couldn’t resist a quick peek at our new abode. We went on in and practical me, I had to close the blinds in all the rooms to make sure no one can look in (at what? Beats me.) I took off my grey t-straps with their little maroon platforms and let my feet glide on newly-refinished hardwood floors that are mine-all-mine. Alex and I walked into the kitchen and my feet loved feeling my tile floors. We marveled at our bread box, our dishwasher, our butcher block island, our very own wonderful kitchen! We stepped out into the backyard around midnight, and the air still felt warm as I walked on the smooth wood of our deck, the cool concrete patio, the damp grass of our backyard. I hear the soft sounds of our new neighborhood, and I loved my life so much that my little heart nearly burst.

Sometimes life can be so hard, so terrible, and I don’t lose sight of that. It just makes me cherish days like this even more. Today I thank you, my friends, my family, the universe, and above all, God, for giving me such a day as this.

And now on to less lofty thoughts, such as packing my breakables and making a trip to Goodwill.

My Latest, Greatest Discoveries

I got a wonderful early birthday present from my husband: a bike! It's a little Trek commuter bike, very light, indigo blue, and I love it! I love biking right now the way I loved it as a kid, riding down dusty red roads in southern Maryland, loving the sun on my face and the breeze you get only riding a bike. So fabulous. So that's my first discovery, that apparently I love to ride my bicycle.

Today we rode over to my friend Lara's place in Hilltop; she and her husband are apparently moving to Kirkland. That's too bad, but I cannot imagine leaving the cool stuff I'm finding here! After we saw her baby and chatted a bit we caught this bike path to the Narrow's Bridge. Along the way, we stopped and saw the War Memorial. A little late for Memorial Day, but still meaningful. This park smelled so good; I kept thinking, I hope those POWs and MIAs who are remembered at the park get to smell beautiful flowers like this in heaven. I hope souls can still enjoy beautiful fragrances in the world after this one; hopefully it can make up for the terrible things these brave men had to endure during this life.

Anyways, back to my trek. We went over the Narrows Bridge! It is so incredibly beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking, the blue waters and Olympics to the west and on the way back over, Mount Ranier. Wow.

We were starving, and we just happened upon this place called Papa Eddie's Corner Cafe & BBQ. We got the barbequed chicken breast plus collard greens, cornbread, and yams. Just one dish was enough to feed us both! So delicious.

I also recently discovered this amazing Filipino restaurant in Lakewood, WA, called the Polynesian Grill. If you're ever in Lakewood, check it out. Actually, might even be worth a trek down there. It's at 10518 S Tacoma Way #G.

The last discovery of today was Don's Market. Yummy milkshakes. Not as good as Frisco Freeze (delicious Dick's-like burger joint) but still quite good.

Life is good! Today is Pentacost, so this could just be the Holy Spirit talking, but thank God for all this. I am so grateful to be alive and well today. Praise God for all this good stuff! Whoo-hoo!

This Just In: Sexy Hair Possible in Tacoma!

I finally did it. I had to lay off my Seattle hairdresser (thanks for all the good hair-dos, Sierra) and find a new stylist in Tacoma. A new business owner has to be as frugal as possible in all things, but she also has to look sharp. So this means finding ways to save, like driving less, and seeing if I can get less expensive haircuts. I had heard about Embellish, a salon in downtown Tacoma, and decided to give it a shot. I went on a "hair model day" which means, "we let the new girl practice on your head" day. It also means, hairdo is half-price!

My stylist, Eleanor, had a reddish pixie-cut 'do and big hazel eyes. I respected how she had come to styling hair a little later in life (she's in her late 30s), and just finished up at Gene Juarez. We had fun talking, but when I sat there with sopping wet hair, I was freaked out. What would this woman do to me? Was I going to look like some freakshow stereotype of Tacoma white trash? I imagined that I would look like a meth addict with slightly better teeth than average. "Do you think it's going to look o.k.?" I asked nervously. "I hope so!" said Eleanor, sounding a little worried. She blowdried me and a beautiful head of hair revealed itself. Then she asked the owner, Trish, to do that "thing she did" with my bangs and the fringey, piecy bits along the sides. Snip-snip, snip-snip, and voila! Perfect! I love it.

I feel more like I'm at home now. This is my place, now that I have a salon in town. In fact, Eleanor gave me a wig brush (of all things) and showed me how to backcomb the crown, for those days when I need some big, extra-sexy hair. Good stuff. Tacoma offers a more luxe lifestyle on my budget, without foregoing sexy hair. This means I can stay.

"Feels Right" Oatmeal Cookies

Baking is something that I'm good at usually because I'm very precise about following directions. However, I've baked so many cookies now that I wondered what would happen if I made cookies based on what "felt right." My husband loves oatmeal raisin cookies, so I decided to try those. I've only ever made oatmeal cookies once, and they were "Oatmeal Scotchies," which have these delicious butterscotch chips. So, I only had a vague idea of how much of each thing to put in, but I just did what felt right. I'm happy to report that Alex thinks they're some of the best he's ever had.

"Feels Right" Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/2 sticks very soft unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups oatmeal (quick or old fashioned -- I used old fashioned)
2 cups flour
1 heaping tsp baking powder
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/2 level tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3/4 cup raisins (optional)
3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped into small bits (optional - for if you or friends don't like raisins)

Put racks in upper third of oven (I was able to cook with both racks for once). In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until fully blended in. Add baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, oats, and flour and mix. Add nuts if you like and beat gently, then, if you want, divide the dough in 1/2, and add raisins to the one half and apricots to the other half. Mix until blended.

Drop rounded tbsps dough on cookie sheets covered by parchment paper. Ensure at least 1 1/2 inch space between cookies to avoid cookie joinage. Bake about 12-14 min, until golden-brown. Cookies will look soft but will firm as they cool. Leave on baking sheet about 2 min, then put on cooling racks.

Makes about 30something awesome cookies.