North for the 4th

Happy Fourth of July from the North! I'm spending the weekend doing a little shopping, relaxing on the beach, going to the Beulah parade, watching fireworks over the lake, eating local ice cream, and tickling this cute little puppy's belly! I hope you're enjoying your holiday away from the daily grind.

Ozzie the pup

My very own Blue Ball...

Book of canning that is! Following in lovely Kristal's lead last year, and Stephanie's enthusiasm this year, I think I've decided to try my hand at canning. I'm planning to start off small at first, with a strawberry freezer jam (both pectin and pectin-free), then I'll progress my way to raspberry, cherry, and apricot preserves. Then come fall, I've got plans for canning cranberry apple compote, tomatoes and jalapenos. Brad's tacos will be so excited! I just hope I get the hang of canning fairly easily.

New Canning Schtuffs

P.S. My canning jars are kind of mini! Only 4 oz in size. My inner child is pleased.

iphone love

A quick little post this evening to talk about being smitten with my new iphone 3GS. I don't really need a phone that has a data plan, since mostly all I do is talk and text. But now that I have one, I can tell you that after just 24 hours, there is no going back. This thing is awesome! I'm quickly finding that I'm way more productive during "wait" times, i.e. at the salon, picking up carryout, on hold to service agencies, etc, because I'm able to do things like check email, update social network sites, and track my diet. I'm also seemingly obsessed with all these apps ("There's an app for that" commercial running through my head all the time) and think it's great that I can track my workouts, have an alarm clock, identify plants, and find recipes by ingredient, all at the touch of my fingers. Can you tell I've got a little Apple love?

One other unintended consequence, is that I'm getting much better at managing my iTunes account; something I've wanted to make happen for a long time. Having a phone sync to iTunes forces me to do just that! I also, in the "great deal of the day category," found an Agent 18 iphone cover for only $7.99 at Marshalls! That's a steal considering they're still selling them at the Apple store and online for almost $25. I had to get some sushi to celebrate!

A couple of firsts

This weekend found me doing some random things. First, my in-laws came over on Saturday afternoon for a pre-Father's day BBQ. In my brother in law's infinite wisdom on a windy day, we decided to fly kites. Flying kites ended up being a blast, and I'm not certain after doing it yesterday, that I'd even ever flown a kite as a kid. There's a first time for everything! We also couldn't stop laughing (even though it was really sad) about our neighbors joining us in the field behind our houses to fly their kite as well. Unfortunately about 2 minutes in, their son let go of the line, and the kite fluttered off at lightening speed. It eventually got stuck high up in a power line about 2 1/2 miles away. I guess they'll have to wait until the wind dies and then cut the line to retrieve it.

Jay and Sylvie fly a shark kiteUncle Beez flies his childhood kite!

After our afternoon of kite flying, we went back home for a good old fashioned BBQ of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit salad, corn on the cob, and ice cream! I managed to find these CUTE little mini versions of Edy's slow churned, and I almost couldn't contain myself. My freezer will be stocked with them all as soon as I find a sale!

An ice cream mini spotting

Finally, I headed off by myself this morning for a visit to the Rolling Hills County Park water park. In six years of living in Milan, I had not ever been to this park. I'd heard about it, but never actually researched and found out what it was all about. My goodness was I ever missing out!! The park was GREAT, and was perfect for this scorching, sweaty Michigan day, which ironically enough, is the first official day of summer (see, I told you there a couple of firsts in this post). I snagged a lounge chair near the lazy river, grabbed my book, and sunned myself for hours in between trips on a tube. The park entry for county residents was only $7 on the weekend, which I think is a pretty good deal, considering how clean I found the park to be. I will definitely be headed back many times this summer, especially when Seth and his girlfriend Lisa come to visit in mid-July. For anyone else who wants to spend a day in the sun relaxing, give me a buzz and we'll head to the park with my newly purchased annual pass.

Rolling Hills kid splashgroundWater slide area

A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Logan

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Tonight, for my final night of reservations for Restaurant week, Logan wowed me with a prime example of what restaurant week should be. Everything was perfection. I'm walking on clouds after this meal. :-)
Brad and I arrived to Logan during a break in all the rain we've been having, which was just about 7pm exactly. I was a little nervous as we entered the restaurant, since it seemed somewhat busy, and there were several couples eating outside. I was going to be really bummed if our reservation was outside because I hadn't even brought an umbrella with us. Instead, we were greeted by the super friendly hostess at the door, who immediately showed us to one of the two white linen covered tables in the only window facing Liberty street. Did you just read that correctly? We got a two-top in the window! There are only two of them! I felt like royalty.

Our view from the window

Fairly soon after being seated, we were greeted by our server for the evening. She knew the menu well, suggested several things, and even mentioned that chef Thad had prepared a special wine flight for the evening to accompany our menu choices. How could we turn that down? With our drink and dinner orders in hand, she disappeared off to the kitchen to fulfill them. She soon returned with our first glasses of wine, explaining the varietal and the region from whence it game. There's no way I was going to remember each of them without having written them down, but I think the first white was from Australia, the second red from Chile, and the third red was a mixture of Cabernet franc/syrah from somewhere on the west coast. The wines were good though. Darn good. They were also reasonably priced at $12 for the whole dinner flight.
While we were enjoying our first glass of wine, our appetizer arrived. Brad and I both ordered the asparagus tempura, and I just want to take a minute here and honor it. This was by far the best dish I've had in a long time. The tempura batter itself was incredibly light, the asparagus was perfectly balanced, and the sauces, oh my goodness the sauces. The combination of what I think was tahini, soy, chili and sesame flavors, was unrecreatable in my mind. I tried so hard all evening to think about how I would made that dish, and I just can't do it. That's perfection.

Asparagus Tempura

Just after Brad and I were still relishing the last taste in our mouths from that awesome mouth teaser, our pasta course arrived. Brad went with the lemon asparagus penne, while I chose the green olive gnocchi. I really wanted the penne, but decided to go for the gnocchi in order to compare it with the gnocchi from Vinology that I'd had a few nights prior. Since Brad was getting the penne anyway, I knew I could sneak a few bites of his. Turns out, I liked the gnocchi a lot though. While the green olive sauce could have been a bit better incorporated into the gnocchi itself, I thought the texture of the gnocchi was dead on. Much better even than the ricotta gnocchi at Vinology. Brad's penne had a lovely little lemon sauce, that was oh so tenderly blended with the thin angled slivers of asparagus. Again, perfection in our mouths.

Lemon Asparagus PenneGreen Olive Gnocchi

After the pasta course, I think Brad and I were both excited and afraid for our main courses. Excited, because everything up to this point had been so good, and we were just waiting for what else Logan could wow us with. Afraid though, because what if our main courses ended up being a disappointment? I didn't want to leave Logan on a sour note! Our main dishes arrived, and thankfully, they did not disappoint us. My sea bass had a glorious crispy flavored skin, the fish itself was perfectly cooked (you should always judge a restaurant on how well they cook their fish), and the coconut sauce, while looking a bit drab in color, made up for itself in flavor. It was spicy without being overpowering, the scented jasmine rice complemented both the fish and the sauce, and I thought it was a good dish. Brad's pork tenderloin on the other hand, was even more amazing if you can believe it. The bourbon sauce was absolutely incredible and highlighted the pork in a way I haven't experienced before. In addition, the parmesan potatoes with the tender center and crunchy outside crust also helped to mop up the extra bourbon sauce, which we were thankful wasn't going to waste. And speaking of mopping up sauces. Along with our main course arrived four of the cutest, most tender little biscuits I've ever seen! I almost didn't want to eat one they were so cute. If only I had a picture.

Jerk Sea BassBourbon pork tenderloin

After finishing out such an amazing tasting menu, Brad and I were both completely blissful. The wines matched well with each individual course, our service was impeccable, and the portions for each course were exactly the correct size. We lounged at our table for a few minutes after our plates were cleared, discussing our meal and commenting about how we almost didn't want to leave. Of course, this was the precise moment our server came back over to us with a display tray of Logan's dessert offerings. Just when I thought we were done with our meal, my mouth started to water all over again. You would not even believe how lovely each of the desserts looked and sounded while being described. From the six made to order fresh cookies (2 each of peanut butter, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodle) served with a cold glass of milk, to the nearly flourless chocolate cake, to the giant chocolate truffle, to the pear roulade, my brain was on overload trying to comprehend just how many of these delectable desserts I could fit into my stomach. Thank goodness Brad came to my rescue though, and limited me to just one. So the red wine pear roulade it was, while he chose the flourless chocolate cake.
Without getting too verbose here once again, Logan did not disappoint. The vanilla ice cream served with each of our desserts was surprisingly cold and definitely homemade. The roulade had a depth greater than the Grand Canyon with it's wine marinated pears and it's delicate pastry shell. I almost didn't even get to try Brad's chocolate cake, as he was devouring it like it might actually disappear. It was delicious and dark though, almost like the cake was made with so much dark chocolate that it tasted like coffee. Yum.

Red wine pear roulade with vanilla ice creamFlourless chocolate cake with cashews and vanilla ice cream

I think my descriptions above have more than adequately stated that this dinner at Logan was a good meal. So good in fact, that Brad and I even discussed coming back for a special occasion later in the year. Which is good, because I love finding new restaurants that I love!

A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Cafe Felix

I write this review tonight a little saddened. Not because of Cafe Felix itself, but because lunch this afternoon signaled the last of my lunch dates for Restaurant Week! I've got dinner with Brad tomorrow night at Logan, but then things are all buttoned up for the first annual Ann Arbor Restaurant Week 2009. While I have been enjoying all the eating and socializing, I am a bit exhausted from all this writing and posting! Alas, on with today's review though: delicious foods are waiting to be described.This afternoon at 1pm, Kristal managed to momentarily walk away from her chaotic real estate listing life, and met me at Cafe Felix for some lunchtime nosh. The super friendly hostess greeted us at the door, and we were given our choice of dining inside or outside. Dining outside was an obvious choice, since the weather today here in Ann Arbor had cooled down some from earlier in the week, and it was a sunny, lovely 75 degrees. We were seated at a table just off of Main Street, which totally satisfied my inner gawker. I love a good people watching session! Once we both got settled (and the hostess found me a missing chair!), our server JD wandered on over to present us with the menu.

RW lunch menu for Cafe Felix

Cafe Felix was offering a choice of sandwiches paired with a green salad, plus a choice of two crepes for dessert. This was pretty standard based on other menus I'd seen for the week, but the surprise, was learning that Felix also included a fountain drink in their $12 price. Score! I quickly decided on iced tea with a Croque Monsieur and the vanilla berry crepe, while Kristal went with iced tea, a salmon sandwich, and the same vanilla berry crepe. Why mess with a good formula, right?
Once our food arrived, I was happy taking pictures of our lunch in the natural sunlight. :-) We both couldn't wait long though, and dug into our sandwiches just as soon as we could. I thought my Croque Monsieur was really good. I loved the salty bite of the ham with the subtle swiss, and it being broiled all over the delicious marble rye bread didn't hurt one bit. While I didn't particularly love the layer of beschemel sauce on the bottom of my sandwich, I understand it's traditional in a Croque Monsieur, so I took it in as all part of the experience. Kristal also really liked her salmon, and her only comment was that she thought it was sort of strange that they served the burger (of sorts) with a layer of tarter sauce under the cheese. She said it didn't make the sandwich taste offensive or anything, and she liked it, but it was not something she'd had before. The greens that arrived with both of our sandwiches were also served with a really tasty balsamic vinaigrette, and we chowed every bit of it we could stab on our plates. I do like a good salad.

My Croque Monsieur in ode to StephanieKristal's salmon "burger"

After eagerly finishing our sandwiches and anticipating dessert, JD did not disappoint us and brought out our crepes in lightning speed. Unfortunately, my disappointment stopped there. I thought the crepe was pretty bad. In fact, I think a more descriptive term for my dessert could have been "pliable rubber pancake served with runny vanilla sauce and a sub-standard vanilla ice cream." Ouch right? I hate to do it, but Felix advertised their crepes as authentic, and I can't help but call them out on their crap! I've been to Paris, I know what crepes are supposed to taste like. This was not it I warn you.

Vanilla berry crepe

So terrible crepe in mind, I have to say Cafe Felix is definitely off my list for next year. The lunch itself was lovely, and I've even been to Cafe Felix before for drinks and tapas that were splendid! But I think this is another case of a small restaurant being ill-equipped to create well-prepared food for the masses. Oh well. Maybe one of these days a restaurant will get it right. Until then, my quest for a perfect restaurant week meal continues!

Cheap Food Alert

I'm being told that several of the Jimmy Johns sub shops in Ann Arbor today only are offering $1 subs from 11am-3 pm. The subs offered are #'s 1-6, and come with a "one sub per person, in-store only" disclaimer. For a regular price of $4.25 each though, that $1 is a great bargain! Check it out if you're around town.

A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Vinology

Underwhelmed > Disappointed. I'm throwing out there a little dorky equation that I think sums up my visit to Vinology tonight. It makes me sad to have to say it, because I really do love Vinology, and I wanted to come back with a glowing recommendation. But tonight I just wasn't feeling the fresh local love. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I didn't give it a fair shake because Brandon Johns isn't the executive chef anymore. Maybe I'm just in a grouchy mood because I'm still a little bit hungry. Whatever the reason, Vinology tonight was not grand like I wanted it to be, it was just merely "good."
The evening started off just before 7pm as Stephanie and her husband Bradford joined Brad and I at Vinology. We arrived to the restaurant just on the tail end of the rain, and were promptly seated in a booth near the kitchen. Brad and I managed to wiggle our way ahead of our companions, which meant that we ended up on the side of the booth facing the restaurant, as opposed to the mess of a kitchen view that Bradford had to tolerate all night. Other than the view from that particular angle though, Vinology has a cool, dark, cave-like ambiance that I dig. So I reveled in it as much as I could. Then our friendly server Joey brought us the restaurant week menu. I guess this is where things got disappointing for me.

Vinology Restaurant week menu

If you know me, you know that I'm not much of a literature snob, and therefore, don't often complain about language, grammar and the written word. That's because usually any mistakes and mishaps I find are often ones I would make myself! But also knowing me, you know how much I love food. Specifically, well-described food that makes me salivate just thinking about it. Now, did you take a look at the menu above? Sliced Filet? That's the best description you could give me Vinology? You see where I'm going here. The actual food for restaurant week at Vinology could have been complete crap, but if they had only spent a little more time describing it, I might have been more enthused about eating it! In spite of the dismal visual images in my head though, we placed our order. We also ordered up some pre-dinner booze, and I was not disappointed with my glass of brut Segura Viudas cava. No comment on the drink orders from the rest of the peanut gallery, but I didn't hear any complaints either.
Everyone at our table went with the local green salad to start. The salad was good, but not the best one I've had this week. And while I appreciated the generous sprinkling of dried cherries (I'm betting they were local from Traverse City too), Brad mentioned to me that it was an odd choice for a staple salad, because there does happen to be a heck of a lot of people who don't like sweet things (my husband included) mixed in with their greens. The other option was a gazpacho though, which left me even more unexcited. So I think I made the right choice.

Local greens salad (sorry about the dark exposure)

Next up, it was time for the main course. This is the point in the evening where we all made different choices. I went with the gnocchi, Stephanie with the chicken, Bradford with the filet, and my Brad, being a rebel, ordered something off the regular menu, the seared sesame tuna. The first thing I noticed when our entrees arrived, was that the portions were adequate. Now when I say adequate, it's because the raging beast in my belly was screaming "Are you kidding me, that's it!!?" while the calm collected rational voice in my head was saying "portion control, portion control, portion control." Other than that little internal dialog, the food was well presented, and quite honestly, my gnocchi was good. Brad took a bite and exclaimed it be much better than my ravioli earlier in the week at Bella Ciao. While I didn't whole-heartedly agree with that sentiment, I did think the sauce on this gnocchi (a pesto of sorts with some mushroom thrown in for good measure) was very well incorporated with the dish, and I gobbled it up lickety-split. Brad and Stephanie across the table, both thought their dishes were good, but I didn't hear any oohs, or ahhhs, or mmmms, either. The surprise of the evening though, I would have to say was my Brad's tuna. Oh. My. Goodness. It was fanTAStic. I managed to sneak one bite, and my mouth was exploding with the contrast of the crisp sear on the tender tuna, combined with the soft as silk jasmine rice, and intermingled with a heavenly lime oil around the plate. This dish was grand. It reminded me that while Vinology may be disappointing me for restaurant week, there were still plenty of reasons to come back and order off the regular menu when all was said and done.

Ricotta pesto gnocchiSesame seared tuna

In closing out the dinner menu, we returned to our earlier approach and all ordered the dark chocolate mousse (well, all except my Brad, who didn't get dessert and just ate mine). While I thought the mousse was really good, I did once again have to mentally tame my inner beast as it complained about the size of my tiny ramekin. Paired with local fresh strawberries and a cute little sprig of mint though, this is what I think good local cooking should be all about. A clean, refreshing end to a well portioned meal.

Dark chocolate mousse

While I did enjoy the good company and the experience tonight, I don't think I'll return to Vinology next year for restaurant week. I think Vinology's forte is creating well prepared local dishes that might take a bit more time than your average dish to create. So I don't think a format like restaurant week, catering to mass quantities of people, allows them to exceed at what they do best. That being said, I'll save my next visit to Vinology for a quiet ordinary day when the kitchen isn't so overwhelmed and the poorly described menu isn't so overpriced.

A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Gratzi

Today's lunch installment for restaurant week found me checking out Gratzi on Main Street with my good friend Kristal.

Gratzi flags hanging above the entrance

We met up for lunch just before noon, and found no problems getting seated in a quiet booth for our standing reservation. Our waiter was more than friendly (albeit a little new it seemed) and we got right down to business of ordering up lunch from the special lunch menu which included your choice of an Antipasti (appetizer), a Primo Piatti (entree??), and a Dolci (dessert). The selections were as such:

Antipasti

Insalata Mista Della Casa (mixed greens with tomatoes and sharp asiago cheese, tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette
or
Zuppe del Giorno

Primo Piatti

Orecchiette Rustica (disk shaped pasta with sweet Italian sausage, garlic, chile, broccolini, radicchio, extra virgin olive oil and pecorino romano)
or
Margherita Pizza (tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and fresh basil)

Dolce

Torre di Cannoli (cannoli wafers layered with berries, ricotta and pastry cream)
or
Sorbetti (assorted Italian ices)
or
Gelati (assorted Italian ice creams)

I know my Kristal well, so I knew before we even got to the restaurant that she would order the Margherita Pizza for her main dish. This left the Orecchiette for me, which I was more than happy with since it's actually a dish I make myself at home a lot, and I was interested in flavor comparisons. We both chose the Insalata Mista to start (because it's way too hot in Ann Arbor for soup the last few days).
Our salads arrived looking rather lovely on their large white plates, which almost made up for the fact that our waiter had overlooked giving us bread when we sat down. No worries though, he quickly corrected this mistake upon seeing our carb-hungry eyes, and we were treated to a big hunk of a warm, crusty Italian loaf (word on the street; i.e. Kristal, says that Gratzi gets their bread from Zingerman's. Yeah for more local!). The salad itself was minimal, but the tender greens were lightly oiled and well paired with a generous slice of asiago and a few quality slices of tomato. It's not a salad I would write home about, nor was it a traditional Italian Insalata Mista (I know because I took an Italian class where we learned how to make one) but it was perfect for our quick lunch date.

Insalata Mista

Next up our entrees arrived. Unfortunately, there was a slight mess up with Kristal's order, so she got to watch me eat my pasta while she waited on her fresh pie. While I didn't think my pasta was perfection (am I picky about my pasta or what?), I was really pleased with the pecorino grated on top and thought the noodles were well cooked and dressed with the sauce. This orecchiette was a little bit more spicy than my dish, and it was also a little bit more oily, but I appreciated the flavor profile a lot. It's something I would order again, and was even more pleased with my choice when I found out it was also the one served on the restaurant week dinner menu. That made it feel like even more of a steal for only $12. Once Kristal's pizza arrived, I didn't get a chance to snag a bite, but I didn't hear any complaints from her side of the table, so I assume all was well in mozzarella, tomato, basil, pizza dough land.

Orecchiette (similar to a dish I make!)

To close out our lunches, we both pretty much decided immediately that we had to have the cannoli. I do enjoy both a good sorbet and gelato, but pastry cream was calling my name. It did not disappoint. While our salads and main entrees didn't win points in the presentation department, our dessert definitely did. I thought the cute little cannoli crisps topped with piped pastry cream and paired with a raspberry sauce and pistachios looked spectacular on the plate. They say you eat with your eyes before your stomach anyway, so it was not lost on me that this not only looked fantastic, but tasted marvelous too!

Cannoli dessert

I would say overall, for only $12 stinking bucks, this three-course lunch was a steal at Gratzi. While I sometimes find the ambiance in the restaurant a little pretentious (it captures a lot of the over 50 business executive crowd due to it's ornate decorations, white swanky table linens, vested waitstaff, etc), I didn't feel too out of place and certainly didn't feel poorly treated by any of our servers. My feelings on Gratzi's environment could also just be leftover sentiments from when I was a lowly college student on campus though, and all the rich kids would go to Gratzi with their parents. So don't let that color your impression. It's worth a visit for a great meal at a great price for sure!

Summer Panzanella

Tonight I've got a quick post about a lovely little (mostly healthy) dinner I cooked up. The healthy part was necessary because I've been extremely lazy lately (darn you deck building!), and quite frankly, I've fallen off the workout wagon. I'll be honest and say I haven't missed it, but I'll be even more honest and say my jello belly surely has. Since I'm also on track to eat thousands of extra calories this week for restaurant week, I decided there was no time like the present to get back on the horse. So despite the 85 degree heat and the relative high humidity in the 5 o'clock sun, I laced up my tennis shoes and went for a run. I won't say it was fun (it most certainly was not), but I did feel better after my 5K was complete, and it only took about an hour and half for my face to stop looking like a beet from overheating. Next time, maybe I'll wait until a little later in the evening to travel down my well worn dirt path. :-)
Anyway, about tonight's dinner. I read about a recipe for an arugula bread salad (the Italian's call any variety of bread salad: Panzanella) recently in Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life. The recipe stuck with me, since it sounded so simple. I also had arugula growing like crazy in the backyard and had just purchased a big pound of Rainier cherries earlier in the week, so I was mostly set with ingredients. Molly's original recipe goes something like this:

Arugula Bread Salad
6 oz rustic white bread
Olive Oil
1/2 lb cherries, halved and pitted
1/4 tsp pressed or cracked garlic
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Arugula
Fresh goat cheese, such as Laure Chenel, coarsely crumbled
Black pepper

I won't post all of the instructions (since I want you to go check out Molly's book!), but basically, you toast up some chunked bread in olive oil, add some garlic, toss this with slightly mashed cherries, mix in a quick vinaigrette with balsamic, oil, salt, and pepper, toss in some torn arugula, and top with some crumbled goat cheese.
I followed those basic directions, but because I love tomatoes, I added two chopped ones. I also used orange infused olive oil, and rainier cherries, because I think they're so much better than the tart Bing variety.

Toasting up some bread chunksMixed tomatoes and cherries shortly before light mashingFresh arugula from the gardenOrange olive oil

Paired with a sliced orange, this was one of the better meals I've made for myself in the last few months, and on top of it, it tasted fantastic! I really liked how the bread soaked up the vinaigrette and cherry/tomato juices, and the goat cheese with the herbs added just the right touch of creaminess to contrast the spicy bite of the arugula. This will get added to my frequently used recipes box immediately.

Mmmm, tasty panzanella dinner