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Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Snack Time -- animal crackers and milk make for a post-nap treat.

This is Ella's snack of choice these days. She goes through phases. I hope this one lasts awhile -- the animal crackers came from Costco, so we have a lot to plow through :)

WDW Trip Report Day 2 - Epcot

On Wednesday, Jon and I headed over (not too early in the morning, though) to Epcot.  We had major plans for the Food and Wine festival, which unfortunately, didn't really come to fruition -- more on that later.

We started out going on the "new" Nemo ride at The Seas -- new to us, I should say.  We've visited several times since the ride was added, but had just never made it over there before.  It was pretty impressive.  The technology used apparently took a really long time to develop, and having seen it, I can understand why.   Very cool stuff.  The ride drops you off in the aquarium portion that was there before the ride existed, and we spent some time looking at the manatees and sharks and whatnot.

Since we got to the park sort of late-morning, and had to wait a while to exchange our vouchers for our annual passes, we were coming up on our lunch reservation.  We decided to head back to the World Showcase and start the trek to Italy, stopping in a couple of shops along the way in Canada and the UK.  

Lunch was at Via Napoli in the Italy pavilion, which had just opened a couple of months or so ahead of our visit.  The restaurant was lovely on the inside -- a nice big open space, gorgeous wooden beamed ceilings, and three fantastic wood-burning ovens.  We were seated on the back wall, so we had a good view of everything.  

The dining plan worked a little differently here, so we wound up each getting an appetizer (calamari for Jon and the arancini for me), and then we shared our two entrees -- the shrimp Caesar salad and the quattro formaggi pizza.  

Jon and I both were pretty excited about eating here, and I think we both were pretty underwhelmed.  The food was good -- don't get me wrong.  But it wasn't great, and if we hadn't been on the dining plan, I think we would have felt really ripped off.   Jon did really enjoy his dessert, though, which was the gelato frizzante (and Italian ice cream soda).  And I will say, the service was outstanding.  We were taken care of by about three different people, and our main waiter, Andrea, clearly knew how to earn a good tip with the ladies -- he was chatty and flirty, and very easy on the eyes.  (Sorry, Jon.)

After lunch, we wandered through the rest of the World Showcase.  Jon grumbled about Disney's newest moneymaker, Duffy the Bear, whenever he saw any of his merchandise.  My threat to make him have his picture taken with Duffy and wear the "I Hugged Duffy" sticker, sadly, did not come to fruition.  We also made our one and only Food and Wine stop at the Poland kiosk.  We were just too stuffed from lunch to do much damage otherwise.  We shared (although Jon drank most of it) a Belvedere Strawberry Balsamic Chiller, which was as odd as it sounds.  

After a ride (at my request) through Spaceship Earth (which for some odd reason was the ride I had been thinking about the most before our trip), we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit.  I should mention here that it was HOT while we were down there -- we had planned for a bit cooler weather than we actually had.  So we wound up going back to the hotel and taking showers each day before dinner.  

Full moon over the Boardwalk

We headed back to the Boardwalk and hung out there a little while before heading to dinner on the other side of the lake at the Yachtsman Steakhouse.  We'd eaten there once before, were very impressed, and were looking forward to our return visit.  

We were seated in a small alcove off the main dining room with only three other tables, which was nice and cozy.  Only one other table in our room even had kids, and they were very well-behaved!  

On a quest to be somewhat adventurous with my food on this trip, I decided to branch out and try the escargot to start.  I'd only ever ordered escargot once before, and when it arrived to the table, I was unable to eat it.  However, that was a number of years ago, and I've branched out a lot since then, culinarily speaking, so I was excited to give it another shot.  I have to admit, they were not what I was expecting at all, but the flavor grew on me, and they were pretty dang tasty!  (I expect that the very liberal dousing they got in the garlic-herb butter helped out with that.)  Jon started out with the charcuterie board, and I can't find a listing for the components online, but I recall some sort of venison sausage, maybe?  From the looks of my picture, there was also some proscuitto and a cheese with some manner of jam.  He seemed happy with the whole spread.  And yes, it really was brought out on a board -- good thing, as we both would have been disappointed otherwise :)

For entrees, we had -- you guessed it -- steak.  Jon went with the New York strip, and I chose the filet mignon.  Both good, but not the sort of knock-your-socks-off steaks that we remembered having the first time we were there.  

When dessert came around, we ordered the same thing again (two times in two meals!), which was the trio of Valrhona  chocolate.  We were both tempted by the description of "salted caramel".  Yum.  

All in all, lovely, if very hot day.  For Day 3, we planned to head over to the park we visit the least: Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 1

For our 5th anniversary, Jon and I decided to splurge a bit and take a few days for ourselves at Walt Disney World.  It only made sense -- we were engaged there, and spent part of our honeymoon there.


So last Tuesday, 10/19, having deposited Ella at Grandma and Pop's, and the dogs at the vet's for boarding, we headed to Raleigh to catch our 1:00pm (direct!) flight to Orlando.  Our flight was somewhat late in leaving -- never a fun way to start off a trip.  But I guess the pilot was able to make up some time in the air, as we arrived only about 20 minutes later that originally planned.


When we arrived, we collected our luggage and made the long trek from Terminal A to B, so that we could catch our ride on Disney's Magical Express.  This was our first time using this service, and as it was free, I really have no complaints about it at all.  (I should mention that normally, when using the DME, you don't even have to worry about collecting your own luggage.  It's done for you and brought right to your room.  However, we waited 'til the 11th hour to sign up for it, as we were hoping to get a cheap rental car, and because we waited, we didn't get the special DME luggage tags in time.)  The bus was there waiting for us, so we were able to get right on (and in typical Disney fashion, the process was super-efficient and organized), and the ride went by quickly -- they showed a cute video with the characters all about the check-in process and whatnot, followed by an old Donald Duck cartoon.

Our home base for the next few days would be the All-Star Sports Resort -- crossing another resort off our list in our quest to eventually stay at all of them.  (So far, we are at 9.)  I had used the online check-in service, another first for this trip, which was wonderfully convenient.  There was no line at the check-in desk, so we had all of our documents and information in no time at all.   We had booked a standard room, but were upgraded to a preferred room, which turned out to be in the building right next to the main building -- a nice treat, and not expected at all.

Since we arrived so late in the afternoon, we opted not to hit a park that day, and instead killed a little time at Downtown Disney before heading over to the Boardwalk.  We had dinner booked that night at the Flying Fish Cafe, and I have to admit, I was leery.  I'd gotten *really* sick after eating here a few years ago, and was definitely nervous about going again.  However, Jon is a big fan of the place, and he finally talked me into it.

I wasn't disappointed.  In fact, it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

The "cafe" wouldn't light up for me at the right time.  Hmph.

I started out with the Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala, "Ugli Ripe" Beefsteak and Tiny Florida Grape Tomatoes -- your basic caprese salad, more or less, which is always hard for me to resist when I see it on the menu.   Deeeelicious.  Jon had the  Signature Flying Fish Cafe "Crispy Maine Coast Jonah Crab Cake" - Savory Vegetable Slaw, Roasted Red Pepper Coulis, and Ancho Chile Rémoulade" to start, and said it was quite good as well.  

For entrees, we did something we hardly EVER do --  we ordered the same thing: Oak-grilled Maine Diver Scallops - Pumpkin, Sage, Pecorino Romano and Mascarpone-laced Risotto di Carnarolli, with Proscuitto di Parma Cracklin'.  (When we were planning our meals, this was actually the dish on the menu that convinced me to give them another try.)

Oh my, oh my!  This was so, SO good.  The scallops were cooked perfectly -- they just seemed to melt in your mouth.  The risotto was amazing, and complemented the scallops perfectly.  And the cracklins!  Here's a bit of advice for you, my friends: if you ever have the chance to order a dish with ANY kind of "cracklin" listed as an ingredient -- DO IT.  If you don't, I might just hunt you down and smack you, because really, you've just done yourself a major disservice.  

L-R: Mozzarella Salad, Crab Cake, Scallops, Banana Napoleon

My dessert was the "Signature Flying Fish Café Caramelized Banana Napoleon - phyllo, banana mousse, creme caramel, exotic fruit coulis and bitter chocolate".  Very yummy, although I found it a little difficult to eat -- all the stuff in the phyllo keps squishing out, so it became kind of messy and hard to get a nice bite with everything on it.  I can't remember for the life of me what Jon had for his dessert -- I'll have to consult with him and get back with that one.  

We received personalized "Happy Anniversary" menus, which we got to keep, and a complimentary glass of champagne each -- both very nice touches that made the evening a little more special.



After a relaxing evening, and a delicious meal, we headed back to our resort.  The day of travelling had worn us down, and a good night's sleep was in order before we hit the parks the next day.

A visit to the farm.

This past Sunday, the Goat Lady Dairy had their fall open farm day, so we headed out to see where some of our very favorite cheese comes from!  We buy their stuff at the farmer's market all the time, and it's all so very good.  If you're in the Greensboro area and have never tried it, you're missing out.

The dairy was about a 40 minute drive, and Ella, who had not had a nap, fell asleep about halfway there.  Needless to say, she was a tad on the crabby side when we arrived and had to wake her up.  Poor planning on our part, I guess.

Anyway, it wasn't too crowded at all when we got there.  I don't know if maybe the semi-overcast weather kept people away or what.  There were several other local farms there selling various meats, cheeses, breads (all of which were gone by the time we arrived...boo), etc.  We picked up some kielbasa and a gorgeous flank steak...and of course some goat cheese!  This time, we got Sunny Paris, which is full of happy, bright flavors.

Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon:

DC Trip Report - part III

Friday and Saturday were both crap in terms of weather, so our outings were not all we had planned, unfortunately. The weather, did not, however, stop us from eating more fabulous food.

Lunch on Friday was at Good Stuff Eatery, which is owned by Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef fame.  You remember him -- he was the one with all the fedoras.  And he did not disappoint when we were there, as it was a brown hat day.

We got there right before the lunch rush, but the tables were already full up -- I had to stalk for one while Jon waited for the food. 

The stalking was worth it. 

I had the Coletti's Smokehouse: "Applewood Bacon, Sharp Vermont Cheddar, Fried Vidalia Onion Rings with Chipotle BBQ Sauce".  (Oddly, the burger Jon had, which was called something to do with Obama, is no longer listed on their online menu, so I can't tell you exactly what was on that.)  We split an order of Sunny's Handcut Fries, and we each had a toasted marshmallow milkshake.

Oh, boy.

In part II of this little trip report, you might remember me singing the praises of Central's burger.

After I tried today's burger, the thought in my head was, "Central who?"

It was really hard to compare the burgers at Central and Good Stuff, actually.  They both were really amazing in their own right.  However, in terms of an overall meal experience, Good Stuff got the blue ribbon hands down.  And it was all because of that toasted marshmallow milkshake.  Seriously, it was like a religious experience in a glass -- it was that good.  If you go to DC and don't treat yourself to one of these shakes, you're doing yourself a serious disservice.

No pictures of the food... I was too busy enjoying it. 

After lunch, we headed over to the Library of Congress, which neither of us had ever been to. 

We wandered around there for awhile -- pretty interesting stuff, and a gorgeous building on the inside.

After that, we took the underground tunnel across the street and looked around in the new Visitor's Center for a bit.  We didn't plan to have a tour or anything, so there wasn't a whole lot there we could do.

The rain had gotten pretty heavy by then, and it was cold, so we made our way back to the hotel, beating rush hour again.  We'd left our dinner plans open, and since our trip to Hank's the previous day got screwed up, we decided to go there.  We figured this was also a good option, as they don't take reservations, but you can call 20 minutes ahead, and they'll put your name down.  So that's what we did. 

I took this when we thought we were having lunch there.

We slogged back out into the nasty weather, and still had a bit of a wait once we made the walk, but it was well worth it. 

To start, we were brought a small bowl of Goldfish crackers to munch on, which I thought was a cute touch.  Jon ordered some of the day's oysters (I don't touch those things when they're raw -- BLECH), and for our entrees, we decided to get the lobster roll and fried oyster dinner, and share.  This was my first lobster roll ever, and it was delicious.  Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  The fried oysters were great too, but they can't hold a candle to the lobster roll.  Num, num.  Once our meal was done, our waiter brought out another little bowl, this time with chopped semi-sweet chocolate.  He said that's what they do, since they don't serve dessert. 

One thing I will say is that the tables at Hank's were PACKED in.  I don't think I've ever been in such a tight space in a restaurant before.  That was really my only complaint about the whole meal, and even that wasn't a huge deal...even though the old guy behind me did have his elbow jammed into my back for several minutes after we sat down.  Hmph. 

DC trip report - part II

Thursday actually turned out to be the best day for us weather-wise, and if we'd known it at the time, I suspect we would have taken a bit more advantage of it.

Anyway, we slept super-late, which was lovely, and woke up with lunch in mind.  We headed over to Hank's Oyster Bar, but somehow, both of us had neglected to notice on their website that they aren't open for lunch.  So that left us a bit stumped, and wandering around for awhile.  This only led to us getting hungrier and grumpier, and every time I found a Wi-Fi network with my iPod touch, it wouldn't connect, and that made it really hard to know where we were and/or where we were going.

Finally, like a beacon in the night, we spotted the Washington Monument in the distance, and that gave us some idea of our bearings.  We headed that way, and figured if nothing else, we'd grab something at the National Museum of the American Indian, which was supposed to have a good food station area (not a buffet, exactly...one of those places where they cook the food for you at different stations...you know?). 

Soon enough, we ran into the White House.  I suppose I shouldn't have found the shooters on the roof alarming, but I did. 

We'd been to DC a couple of times since 9/11, but I'd never noticed the sharp-shooters before.  At least I assume they were sharp-shooters.  I don't think they were up there doing shingle work.

And of course, the nuclear protester were there.  They always are.

By this time, we were starving.  We knew there we a restaurant we wanted to eat at on Pennsylvania Ave SE (we were on NW), so we took off -- in the wrong direction.  But all was well soon enough, as we stumbled upon Central, where we actually had dinner reservations a couple of nights later.  So  I called an audible, and decided that we were going to eat lunch there.

We sat at the bar -- we figured we might be a little under-dressed, even for lunch, but the bar is always a safe bet in a situation like that.  Jon, having done all his restaurant homework, knew that Central was meant to have excellent burgers, and that's what we both went with.  Jon got his with just cheese, and I had cheese and bacon. 

Oh heavens.

What they brought out was perhaps the most delicious hunk of cow muscle between two buns that I'd ever had.  EVER.

The burger also had potato tuiles, which were like super-super-thin, crispy potato cakes.  I wasn't sure how they would work, since I don't usually eat potatoes ON my burger, but they were quite good.   The burger came with fries, which were good -- not great -- and I had a house-made grapefruit soda to drink, which was delicious.

Go ahead and drool.  It's okay.

We decided then that we probably weren't going to come back for dinner, since it would be really hard to top the meal that we were having then, and we didn't just want to have the same thing again.  To that end, to get the full Central experience, we ordered dessert -- Michel's Chocolate Bar (formerly known as the Kit-Kat Bar, until the Kit-Kat people had something to say about it).  I think it probably ruined Kit-Kats for me for the rest of my life :)

After lunch, we soldiered on to the Mall, and wandered around there for a bit.  We saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

We beat the Metro after-work rush back to the hotel, and were able to relax a little before dinner, which was at Obelisk, just around the corner from the hotel.  (I'd put a link in, but there's not one for me to put.)  Walking into the restaurant felt like walking into someone's home, since there wasn't a sign outside, and really, the dining room wasn't much bigger than the average living room.  There were about 12 tables in all, down both sides of the room, with a large table in the middle where the waitresses prepared a number of the dishes.

All in all, we had 6 courses, if I remember correctly.  We started with an amazing burrata cheese, which is a fresh cow's milk cheese that tastes like mozzarella, but has more the consistency of cottage cheese, although not quite.  This was followed by several more antipasti, including polenta fritters, pork belly tureen (which confirmed by dislike of the tureen), chicory with a creamy anchovy dressing (sort of like a Caesar salad), and Tuscan-style meatballs.  After all that, we finally got to the first course.  Jon had a lobster bean soup, while I had eggplant ravioli, which were so fresh and delicious.  For our entree (we had 3 to pick from), we shared a veal chop that came with perfect roasted potatoes and some kind of mishmash of olives and peppers that I avoided.

Are you feeling full?  'Cause we aren't done yet.

The 5th course was cheeses, served with a fig jam.  One was a goat's milk, one was a sheep and cow's milk, and one a sheep's milk (I can't remember the names -- I know that two were from Piedmont, though).  The cheeses were all excellent, although let's be honest -- I rarely have met a cheese that I didn't like. The fig jam didn't do much for me though.  Too raisin-y.

Finally, dessert!  The cocoa nib panna cotta I had was a great finish to my meal.  Jon had some sort of pineapple thing, I think -- I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple.  

On the whole, a most excellent meal.  I thought all the surrounding courses were actually better than the main (that may partially be because veal's not really my thing), and it wasn't hard to see why Obelisk consistently receives rave reviews.  The service was also outstanding.

Thus concluded our second day in the District -- not a bad way to end!

Washington, DC trip report - part I

Jon and I had a rare long weekend away this past week as part of Christmas to us from my parents.  They kept Ella for us, and we took off up to Washington DC.

After dropping off Ella and taking the dogs to puppy camp, we hit the road late Wednesday morning.  We had our usual road-trip stop at Cracker Barrel, and picked up an audio book on Billy the Kid, which turned out to be a dud.  The rest of the drive up was uneventful, aside from going around in a few circles once we got into DC proper, which is pretty much standard operating procedure.  Our home base for the next few nights was to be The Fairfax at Embassy Row -- we used our Starwood Points to book it, and on the whole, it was super-nice.  (We did have some ongoing hot water issues, which were kind of a pain, but no major complaints other than that.)

After we got checked in and dumped our stuff in the room, the first stop for us was a Washington Capitals game, and they just happened to be playing the Hurricanes that night (yes, we planned the trip around the game).  We had originally planned to grab dinner before the game, but we ran short on time, and wound up going straight to the Verizon Center.  We knew which stop we needed off the Metro, but weren't sure where to go after that -- luckily, there were plenty of Caps fans heading the same way we were, so we just followed them.

Our seats were AMAZING -- 3rd row, right behind the goal where the Caps were shooting twice.  

The game was tons of fun, despite being two of the very, very few 'Canes fans in the building (which was sold out -- the Jumbotron told us it was their 48th sell-out in a row!).   No one harassed us for wearing our enemy jerseys -- except for Slapshot, the Caps mascot.  He came all the way down to where we were sitting, pointed at our jerseys, then at his, then shook his head at us. Ha!

Much to the surprise of both Jon and myself, the Canes gave Washington a run for their money.  Given the season that both teams are having (them: fantastic; us: not so much), we really hadn't expected a whole lot, but the game actually wound up going to overtime, which was completely nerve-wracking.   The Caps won in the end, though.

After the game, we headed over to Matchbox, where we had originally planned to go before the game.  We had some delicious mini-burgers (part of our whirlwind cheeseburger tour of DC...more on that later), and split one of their wood-fired pizzas.  Yuuuuuum.

On the way back to the hotel, while we were waiting for the Metro,  Jon poked me, nodded towards a group of very well-dressed gentlemen, and said, "Don't look now, but I think that's Ron Paul over there."  I took a glance, but wasn't really able to tell.  Once the train arrived, the man in question wound up on the same car with us, and sure enough -- it was Ron Paul!  He was chatting with another passenger about the hockey game.  Kind of neat.

A great start to our trip!

Thanks, Fresh Market!

Jon and I went to The Fresh Market last night to pick up some stuffed chicken breasts to take over to mom and dad's for dinner. While we were there, we decided to go ahead and get the standing rib roast that they had on sale which we wanted to have for Christmas dinner.

They had a plain roast, and a seasoned one, and we opted for the seasoned. The butcher took it out put the whole thing on the scale -- over $50 worth of meat, WAY too much for us. Jon asked him if he was able to cut it down any, and he said, no, that they weren't supposed to cut down the seasoned roasts. No problem, we said we'd pick out something else.

While we were trying to decide what to get instead, the butcher came over to me and asked me how much of the roast we were wanting to get. I had no idea, so I called Jon over and asked him. He told the butcher we were looking for just a couple of ribs -- maybe 2-2.5 pounds. So the butcher told us he would cut down one of the unseasoned roasts for us, which was awesome...and after he did that, he seasoned the whole thing for us!

So we came away with a seasoned roast like we wanted, with a sane amount of meat for 2 people, and we wound up still getting it on sale!

Great customer service, Fresh Market!

Gorgeous homemade salsa.

I haven't tried it yet, so it might taste like crap... but it sure is pretty!

If you ordered a pizza, and it was crummy...

...would you expect to have to bring the bad pizza back to the restaurant to trade for a new (presumably good) pizza? Or would you just expect the restaurant to offer to make you a new pizza?

The former just happened to us, and frankly, Jon and I both were a little baffled by it.

We order from this particular restaurant on a regular basis, and have for ages. This is the first bad pizza we've gotten from them. To me, it tasted like the cheese was off, although the manager said they had had no other complaints all day.

He said for us to bring the first pizza back, and they'd make a new one... almost like he thought we were trying to scam him out of a pizza or something.

Is this the norm? We've never really dealt w/returning take-out before, so maybe this is par for the course....

Dining debacle.

Jon and I went out to dinner last night w/my folks at a slightly more upscale place here in town. I ordered a sirloin, cooked medium.

When our food arrived, I realized a couple bites in that the steak was more rare than I was comfortable eating....really red all the way through. So I sent it back for another go-round on the grill.

I got it back, cut into the middle to check the temp, and it was no more cooked than when I sent it back the first time. Jon flagged down the waitress again, and I explained that while normally I would have no problems eating a med-rare steak, I'm pregnant, and really needed it cooked a little more. She was really nice about the whole thing.

After I got it back AGAIN, I checked it, and it was now well-done... I'm pretty sure they were just pissed in the kitchen and just chucked it into the fryer. Still not what I ordered, but at least it was cooked, and I ate it.

While waiting for it to be brought back the 2nd time, the manager did come over and apologize, but didn't offer to comp my meal, give us free dessert, or anything. I was a little surprised, given that this is a little bit nicer place, and also that I had to send my meal back 2x.

Jon did leave a rather scathing diatribe on the comment card, but really, was I remiss in expecting *something*?

Raw bar

Since meeting Jon, I have become a good deal more adventerous in my eating habits. One thing I like, and will almost always get when we go to the beach, are oysters...so good! Now don't get me wrong...I get them fried. I still can't do the raw thing yet (although Jon *loves* them that way). But when we're at the beach, I gotta have 'em.

I was reading about the post-harvest process that Gulf oysters go through...pretty interesting. Commmercially, there are 3 different processes out there right now that help to make it safer for people to consume raw oysters.

Do you like 'em?

A perfectly lovely Saturday.

I met Sara for lunch in Durham today. We went to PF Chang's, which was delicious as always. Afterwards, we went over and poked around at the mall for a little while. I went to Macy's and managed to find another sweater like the one I shrunk to Barbie proportions in the dryer...and it was on sale, so woohoo!

The Hurricanes won tonight, after getting off to a sluggish start. My man Rod Brind'Amour had 2 goals :)

All in all, a very nice Saturday. And I still have one more day to sleep late. Woo!

Mixin' it up

I love baking. My sugar cookies are always popular (well, I say they're "my" cookies, but it's really Alton Brown's recipe). I made them when we went to the beach this past summer and everyone loved them. Here's the recipe for anyone interested:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

My problem with baking is the fact that we don't have a proper mixer. I mean, I have a hand mixer, but that's such a pain to deal with. What I want is a good stand mixer, like this Eclectrics® Mixer. It would make cooking (and especially baking) SO much easier. I'd probably do it a lot more often.

The Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer comes in a number of cool colors, which I am always partial to. It's got enough power to make 9 dozen cookies at once! And the Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer runs quieter than most other stand mixers, which is nice too.

Definitely give it a look if you're in the market for a new mixer.

Never let it be said that cake doesn't keep.

It's a long story, but when we moved to FL, we didn't take the top of our wedding cake... we left it at mom and dad's in their freezer. So we missed eating it on our 1st anniversary, and just decided to wait till our 2nd.

Fast forward to last month. We were both sick on our anniversary and didn't feel much like eating anything, much less cake. Then my schedule got switched around at work for 3 weeks, so I have been working days, while Jon was working nights. We FINALLY had a night off together last night where one or the other of us wasn't sick, so we hacked into it.

Chocolate cake w/peanut butter and chocolate ganache and buttercream icing! It tasted pretty good, believe it or not.

Jon ate my pizza, and as retalliation, I decided to burn down the kitchen.

Well, not really, but that's kind of the events of the evening.

I'd ordered pizza last night, and was all set to eat the rest of it tonight, only to find an empty box when I got home. Boooo.

So I preheated the oven to at least have the leftover cheesesticks, and I didn't know what else. I went to put them in, and there was a big-ass flame on the bottom of the oven!

!!!!!

Apparently some foodstuff had fallen down by the heating element and caught aflame. I was able to blow it out, but it scared be bejebus out of me.

Now I'm traumatized, and have ordered a replacement pizza. No more cooking tonight.

Let me talk to you about a few things.

1) All-Dressed Chips. These are possibly the most delicious, delectable potato chips ever made. "What?" you say. "I've never heard of these treats." Well, that's because Ruffles, for whatever reason, only sells them in Canada. This is a travesty. People in the States like freaky-flavored chips just as much as the next country, and I have little doubt that they would be a big seller. There's actually an online petition to bring them here, which Jon and I have both signed.

2) Disposable placemats for little ones. Let me tell you how much I hate these things. A freaking lot, that's how much. Really, if your child needs a placemat at a restaurant, is it that much trouble to roll up a plastic one and tuck it in your diaper bag? I understand that some things are for the sake of convienence, but this just takes the cake.

3) Jon and I are both still sick. It's been almost a week now of coughing, sore throats, fevers, chills, and general malaise. A trip to the doctor might be in the near future for both of us.

This is what good customer service is all about.

Jon and I had reservations for dinner at Fleming's tonight. We'd never been before, and since we had won some gift cards through work, we decided to put those towards the meal and try it out.

Our reservation was at 7:45pm, and we arrived a little early, but were seated promptly. Our waitress stopped by quickly, took our drink orders, and told us about the specials. We each ordered an appetizer, an entree, and a side.

The appetizers arrived in pretty short order, and while not amazing, they were good. I had the tomato and mozzerella salad, while Jon had the lobster bisque.

We anticipated our entrees to arrive soon after we finished our appetizers. We waited. And waited. And waited some more -- over an hour. They were busy, but not THAT busy. We hadn't ordered anything complicated or had any special requests. Our waitress checked in with us, and while we weren't nasty or rude, we did let her know that it seemed to be taking a particularly long time.

Then one of the managers checked in with us as well, assuring us it would only be another few minutes. Jon told her, "The sooner, the better."

When our food finally did arrive, it was good. Again, nothing amazing, but perfectly acceptable. We were both expecting a lot more, I think. That fact, along with the very slow service, had pretty much decided it for us -- we would not be be returning for a future meal.

As we were finishing our meal, our waitress offered to bring a dessert menu, but we declined, asking instead for the check. She said she'd bring it back, but when she returned a few minutes later, she told us that the meal was going to be taken care of for us. They realized that we weren't happy with the service, and they wanted us to come back for another meal, so the meal was on them.

I was pretty shocked, and I think was Jon too -- we were expecting maybe a small portion of our bill to be comped, but certainly not the whole thing. Needless to say, we left her a good tip, and now we will certainly be back to give them another try.

Inappropriate!

We were out to dinner w/Jay and Janet last night at Village Tavern. We'd never been waited on in the past by our particular waiter, but the service is usually spot-on, and we've never had any complaints in the past.

We sat on the patio, which was pretty crowded, and it did take a little longer than usual for our appetizers and salads to come out... but it was a nice night out and we were having a good time visiting, so we didn't think much about it.

A little while after our entrees arrived, our drinks were empty, but we hadn't seen our waiter in awhile. We finally snagged another waiter and told him what we needed, and he ran into our waiter on the way in and sent him over to check on us. We told him what all we needed, and as he was clearing up empty glasses and plates, he said, trying to joke, "Oh, I don't know if I'll have time to get that for you."

Then when none of us laughed at his comment, he huffed a big sigh as he walked off.

Excuse me, what? Your JOB is to have time to do that.

Ironically, his name tag indicated that he is a "training mentor". Wow.

And we didn't have the money to leave him a good tip.

Gift idea!

I'm a pretty easy person to buy gifts for. If you don't know what to give me, give me a gift card, and if you don't want to give a gift card, gift BASKETS work just fine. Gourmet food gift baskets are always welcome in our house! Take a look at these italian food gift baskets -- holy cow, those are awesome! With the holidays coming up, you're bound to come up with someone who you have no idea what to give them. A gift basket could be the perfect solution -- and even better, you can have it shipped, so that's less wrapping paper you have to buy!