Yearly Archives: 2013

Pieces of Cincy & Wonderful Surprises

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As a going-away present to remember our wonderful 2+ years in Cincy by, a sweet friend of Ted’s from CCM sent Ted to Rochester with a goody bag full with housewarming items for us – all of which were made in Cincinnati by Cincinnati companies! After 9 months of living in Rochester, It was so nice to unwrap each item and be reminded of our time in a city I truly loved.

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Our Cincy items gift bag included Puffs tissues, wine from Valley Vineyards (an awesome winery and grill-your-own-steak place in the country just outside the city), Dawn dish soap, Schiavone’s marinara sauce, Kroger Private Selections stone ground mustard, Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce, and La Rosas pizza sauce and Italian dressing. Practical, thoughtful, and amazing! Thanks Patti & Todd!

When Ted and his dad arrived in Rochester with the truck and trailer loaded with the last of our belongings on Monday evening, they had one more Cincinnati surprise as well. 10 whole pints of Cincinnati’s own amazing Graeter’s ice cream (stashed in coolers with dry ice to survive the 9.5 hour drive)!!!

I opened the freezer and screamed.

ImageWe are so loved! Cincinnati, we can’t wait to come visit you!

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Chapter 2

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As of Monday evening, after 11 long months of living apart, Ted is finally home with me in Rochester to stay, and we are now residents of New York state!

I made pie to celebrate and Ted brought the ice cream (more on that later)

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Happy Chapter 2 to us! We are so thrilled!

*****

More shameless schmoozy lovin’ below…

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Best Food Day Ever: WIN

Inspired by the amazing looking and smelling shaved asparagus pizza my friend Becca was eating for lunch on Friday at work (made with the asparagus from the CSA share we’re splitting), I literally could not help myself and decided to make the same recipe this past weekend.

Mind-blowing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Thanks for the inspiration and recipe-sharing, Becca!

I used this homemade olive oil pizza dough recipe, and adapted this shaved asparagus pizza recipe. I stuck to the pizza recipe almost exactly except that I used liberal amounts of fresh mozzarella and fresh shaved Parmesan (because “there’s too much cheese on this pizza” has never been uttered from my mouth) and, because I have a mad love affair with Boursin (a soft garlic and herb cheese), I added hunks of Boursin to the pizza as well. I also substituted the scallions for fresh chopped garlic. It was incredible. Easily the best pizza I have ever made. I have extra dough leftover in my freezer and extra cheese and asparagus so I will be making it again very, very soon. Even if you think you won’t like this pizza, you should try it anyway. I think you’ll be just as impressed as I was.

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And because I was on a roll (and because a bolt of lightening/crash of thunder struck so close to the house that I literally lost my mind with terror and decided that if I was going to out with the lightening, I was at least going to die with a belly full of awesomeness), I baked these whole peach individual pies, and took it a step further by topping it with a scoop of fresh vanilla bean ice cream.

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Best food day ever: I win.

And now you know the secrets of food greatness, so you can win too…lucky you :)

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A Foodie’s Favorite Topic

Ready to drool?

‘Cause the past two weeks have pretty much been filled with some intense deliciousness…and I’m sharing it all here.

And it’s been excellent.

IMG_4469{The first day my parents were in town I took them for an evening picnic among the lilac trees in Highland Park. We picnic’d on jalapeno poppers, cheese bread with balsamic dipping oil, shrimp cocktail, salami, fresh mozzarella balls, olives, and my homemade mini Le Cordon Bleu fruit tarts….followed by a long, leisurely walk among the flowers to work it all off. A totally perfect night with perfect company!}

IMG_4475{Super tasty overstuffed NY style deli subs at Harry G’s}

IMG_4474{My French dip sammy au jus with garlic butter and spicy shoestring fries did not disappoint!}

IMG_4477{Shared salted caramel and espresso ice cream at Hedonist Artisan Ice Cream}

IMG_4479{Bunches of farm-fresh rhubarb from Rochester’s outdoor public market! All of this amazing rhubarb for only $5. Be still my heart!}

IMG_4482{Nachos from Blue Cactus in Fairport}

IMG_4483{And afternoon snack tacos!}

IMG_4484{Lemongrass ginger and Irish cream ice cream from Moonlight Creamery}

IMG_4496{The best BBQ chicken I’ve ever had, and incredible cheddar chorizo grits and ratatouille from Sticky Lips BBQ}

photo 5{Flavorful Italian cuisine from Bazil on Irondequoit Bay}

IMG_4585{Food Truck Rodeo: Brick-N-Motor’s fab menu}

IMG_4586{Food Truck Rodeo: Pickled watermelon and duck tacos!}

IMG_4582{Food Truck Rodeo: Macarollin’s fare}

IMG_4587{Food Truck Rodeo: The Classic}

IMG_4590{The macaroni of my dreams!}

IMG_4594{Chocolate covered turtle cheesecake on a stick!}

IMG_4629{Week # 2’s bounty of our Community Supported Agriculture share from Peacework Organic Farm: Mizuna, thyme, rhubarb, asparagus, leeks, komatsuna, bok choy, vivid choy, and lettuce. Week # 1 included asparagus, leeks, lettuce, bok choy, carrots, garlic scallions, and oregano.}

IMG_4632{Ugly-looking but crazy tasty Asian noodle dish I made with the bok choy, leeks, and carrots from our CSA share, along with chicken, buckwheat soba noodles, toasted sesame oil, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sherry, salt and pepper}

IMG_4702{My homemade strawberry rhubarb pies!}

I am pleasantly shocked my pants still fit, though I don’t suppose I should push my luck.

And that’s not even all of it!

Food fans, you definitely don’t want to miss tomorrow’s post!

;)

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An Open Letter

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Hello loyal readership,

Again, I find myself excusing my blog absence lately. And, again, I find myself thanking you for your gracious patience despite the serious lack of posts around here. I do, actually, intend to get back to my regular schedule of blogging (for real this time) next week. Summers are so wonderfully fun and busy yet lazy and relaxing in all the best ways, are they not?

In addition to this lengthy, spread-out, three-week official move from Cincy to the Roc City and subsequent month-long unpacking and organizing spree, my awesome parents and Ted came to town for a visit over the past six days, so justifiably, my time was much better spent hanging out with these fabulous people, eating a lot of stellar food, and touring beautiful upstate NY rather than stuck inside with my face planted in my laptop. That, I do not apologize for. 

I’ll have a full recap of all the great places we explored coming your way soon, but for now…a sneak peak of our afternoon on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls this weekend – gorgeous! You can even glimpse a bit of a double rainbow (upper rainbow very faint, lower rainbow a little brighter) in the bottom left corner. More to come!! 

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Can you believe it’s almost JUNE!? Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We sure did! Thanks mom & dad! :)

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Recipe for an Awesome Monday Night

1 part tap dance class

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1 part campfire, melted campfire cone goodness, beer, and girlfriends

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Monday night done right!

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Amen.

If you’ve never made yourself a campfire cone stuffed with chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, marshmallows, nuts, toffee, MnMs, coconut, etc. (and preferably topped with butter pecan or vanilla bean ice cream!) roasted over an open fire with a cold beer sitting right beside you…you should get on that immediately.

Also, I don’t say this nearly enough, but I feel SO LUCKY to have made such incredible friends in Rochester. These ladies really are the best. I had a lot of acquaintances and great, fun work friends (with whom I only occasionally got together with outside of work) in Cincinnati, but I also really struggled for nearly two years to find a solid group of friends in Cincinnati as a newlywed, in a new state, intent on spending time with her new husband and building her career, and working with people mostly younger (as in, still in college or recent college grads) than I was, who had vastly different agendas, priorities, and work ethics than I did. And, with the exception of my wonderful Allyson, I never really did make those true blue friends. And it left a void in my otherwise wonderful existence. It felt like something was missing. I definitely worried about how I’d make friends, knowing absolutely nobody, when I learned I’d be moving to Rochester. Finding good friends gets exponentially more challenging after college, I think. But almost instantly I was welcomed by these ladies. And within a few months I had a solid core group of friends – from work, from book club, from church, from random happenstance meetings – from all over. They are wonderful and strong and talented and passionate and adventurous and whip smart and funny and compassionate and a complete joy to be around. And I feel really grateful to have them. All of them.

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Ace in Action

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Ted captured a great little video clip of one of our awesome blue crays, Ace, flipping…literally!

Adult crayfish molt their shell a few times a year (that’s what the second, only slightly more translucent, blue thing is in the tank when you watch the video), and after they molt, their new shell isn’t quite hard yet (until they eat either old molted shell, which is full of calcium that hardens their new shell). While their new shell is still hardening, crays are extra vulnerable to attack from predators, so they’re on high alert for a few days (and total garbage disposals too…Ace will eat anything, and lots of it, after she molts). Even though Ace’s tank is her own and there’s not a predator in sight, just the reflection of Ted walking by her tank sent her into a panic. And this zipping-around-the-tank maneuver is what happens when crays panic…(or get a random burst of energy). I love her little claws wide open and ready to snip at the very end!

Check her out here!

Ace and Gigi are the greatest :)

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On Backyard Cookouts, Sparklers & Food Galore

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After our Saturday morning aerial arts workshop adventure (if you missed it, you can read – and see! – all the shenanigans in yesterday’s blog post), Shawnda and I dragged our aching jelly bodies to meet Becca at Aladdin’s Natural Eatery for a long, lazy, and tasty lunch of Greek and Mediterranean food. We shared a massive plate of pitas and hummus, and then we ordered two delicious gyro salad plates and a phenomenal pistachio and broccoli with goat cheese cream sauce and basil linguini dish. Everything was excellent. Lazy midday girl lunches are always so perfect! Life’s little luxuries, right? :)

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And only a few hours later we all met up again at Shawnda and Chris’ house for a sweet backyard cookout. Chris grilled up awesome hamburgers and hot dogs (first cookout of the year…mmm!), I brought blackberry beer, Becca baked homemade oatmeal chocolate chip sea salt cookies (which we devoured), and we sat outside enjoying the cool spring weather, some music, lots of conversation and laughter, and some sparklers (my very first sparklers ever….and I didn’t die….and it was fun!) with their adorable little boys before they headed off to bed. Once it got a little too chilly to stay outside, we wrapped ourselves in blankets and headed inside for some wine and girl talk. A totally lovely evening!

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{Meg channeling Carmen San Diego}

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{These cookies are dangerous…}

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{Sparklers! I’m a little terrified…}

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{But they’re so FUN!}

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{This = Awesome. I love summer!}

Thanks for inviting us over for such a wonderful evening (to follow such an epic day!)

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Epic Aerial Arts Adventures

{Don’t miss the best picture of the day at the very bottom!}

How can your day not start out awesome when you are instructed to “park in the lot by the red elephants and yellow smile benches”?

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Awesome, right?

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And this is where it all gets even more supremely awesome. A few months back Meg, Shawnda and I bought LivingSocial deals for an epic sounding hour-and-a-half Aerial Arts Sampler Class at Aerial Arts of Rochester, a studio that specializes in circus arts! As if there was any doubt…RIGHT UP MY ALLEY.

I have been anxiously awaiting this class for weeks! We were so stinking excited!

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After all the necessary precautions, waiver signings, safety briefings, proper stretching, and warnings of how sore we would be tomorrow and where (blah blah blah), we were divided into small groups to learn a few basic positions on the aerial silks, the hoops, and the yoga hammocks.

First up…

Aerial Silks

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The Hoop

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Yoga Hammocks

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Clearly, this was just about the most fun class I have ever taken.

The silks were my favorite with the hoop coming in a close second. Fortunately, they offer classes in both (and as soon as I can afford to, I’m signing up!) And I totally saw a trapeze in there as well that I can’t wait to get my hands on!

Running away to join the circus…kind of a dream come true. I have a rather fond affinity for anything circus related.

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They did, in fact, warn us that we would likely be quite sore in several spots.

They, apparently, weren’t kidding.

We were physically exhausted after class – I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired from a workout before! It took about 30 minutes for the motion sickness nauseous feeling to completely subside (turns out spinning upside down for extended lengths of time will really mess with your equilibrium until your body gets used to it). My arms felt like total jelly for the next two days, and I have some vicious victory bruises in all kinds of great locations! And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.

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Worth it?

Absolutely!

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And now it’s time for my absolute favorite photo of the day….

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{Graceful butterfly pose: Nailed it.}

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Checking In & Catching Up

First things first:  Thanks for bearing with me in my blog absence. I try not to escape from this old blog too much, but sometimes it’s just not feasible to keep up. And, truth be told, I probably won’t be around quite as often for the next two weeks either, but fear not: once we’re all settled, regularly scheduled blogging will resume!

The townhouse is coming along quite nicely. The kitchen is about 98% finished (I have few small fun projects up my sleeve for it yet!), the guest room/office is set up my parents visit this week, our bedroom and bathroom are done, and I have the rest of the place all unpacked, organized, and clean just in time for Ted to arrive with the next load of stuff for me start all over again with. Of course, we have zero furniture in the whole joint except for our bedroom set and a blow up air mattress for my parents, so the place looks super clean and organized…and bare…but, baby steps. We’re getting there and I’m loving it so far!

Onto the good stuff!

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On Thursday night I finally tried Dogtown for the first time with three friends after volunteering with the supper program. Rochester is famous for its white hots (and its love of garbage plates, which totally gross me out – click the link to read about them), so even though the menu was packed with nasty garbage plates and awesome dogs (including a Cincinnati style chili & cheese dog!) I tried a plain old Rochester white hot with sweet potato fries…and it was really good. Simple but really delicious. Consider me a convert to the Rochester white hot!

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After dinner, I met up with my YP book club group at The Little Theatre for a 9:30 showing of The Great Gatsby. And it was just as terrible as expected. It wasn’t boring or unbearable and, thankfully, it didn’t even feel like it was two-and-a-half hours long. It just wasn’t amazing. The gangta rap music they played throughout the movie (set in the 1920s, mind you) was kind of ridiculous, and the costumes (which I had hoped would be the movie’s saving grace), weren’t that spectacular after all. The acting wasn’t awful, but it was a little cheesy and nobody really stood out as stellar. And while Baz Luhrman’s very eclectic style and across-the-screen-writing and music and camera angles worked for Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge, it just didn’t work for Gatsby. I’m glad we saw it; we had fun seeing it together (and, of course, the Book Thieves are always fun to hang out with!), but we’re happy to move on to our next great read!

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Friday night Becca and I saw Venus in Fur in the theatre’s Nextstage, which was definitely interesting and thought provoking (and funny). And that was only the start to the weekend… :) Stay tuned!

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