There are a couple of reasons that Karl and I moved to Highland. For Karl it was because I was here. Full Stop. For me, it was because of where I worked, the feel of the neighborhood (as Tom would say.. i would be surrounded by my tree-hugging liberal brethren), it feels like NE in it's hay-day and we found a house that was double-flipped foreclosed and we were able to horn-swaggle a poor agent to duel-represent us and walla we were in Highland.
But... I had one other reason for pushing the reason of moving to Highland. Highland actually has an ordinance about fast food chains. I swear there is a league of awesome old-school city folks that will re-design the zoning to purposefully NOT allow fast food. As a matter of fact, they barred Noodles from opening on Grand Avenue. My guess is that zoning had something to do with Chipotle sneaking in at Victoria Crossing - but none the less - unless you are REALLY in the mood for a ten thousand calorie bomb, low on dough or in a big hurry how could you possibly pass up Cafe Late??? Or Bread and Chocolate? Or even Axles or Billies? They are all a stones throw away from eating a burrito so big it will make you sweat and the next day? O my god... that hot sauce is destructive!
Ok back to what I was saying - Karl would insist that barring commerce is a bad bad thing for a society built on capitalism - to which I run out the back door, rip off my cloths and do a interpretative dance with the back yard tree - mourning all of the trees lost to industrialism. The polarity of our politics is astonishing.
Ok so this isn't perfect - I can count about 10 "fast food" or even "fast casual" food that has made it through the cracks. Even a certain subway's wait staff on Grand Avenue that instead of asking you what you would like will just stand there with their hands on their hip and cock their head at you with a snark on their face and ask "what shoe want" after waiting an uncomfortable 30 seconds. I can't help myself - I usually say "a sandwich" and then we run through the list of other options like selecting bread type, cheese type, meat/vegetable type (I usually have to stop them and ask them to nuke the veggie pattie otherwise they will deliberate add it frozen to my sub), then some "fixins" - yes really they are called "fixins" and that is what staff is trained to address them as. I want all of them. Seems simple doesn't it? Not really, because the lady will stop at each one that she doesn't particularly care for, or thinks is redundant (like both hot peppers and banana peppers??? GOOD GOD YOUR MOUTH WILL EXPLODE). Then once that is done I have to yell STOP before they automatically dump a freaking load of mayo on my sub the size of something I can't even talk about on this blog for fear of making it x rated. Finally, the check out comes at which time I get the customary "getting a lot for your money ha?" yes, if you can believe it - I ordered a veggie patty with veggies on it. How fibrous of me. The final step is when they try to jam the sandwich in the vertical bag - perpendicularly. Hmmmmm. not so sure about that approach. I usually want to yalp. I mean I came this far!!! Only to have it destroyed. In my mind I picture said Subway staff member drop kicking my sub out the door into a puddle just as the chain owner walks in and she says "good afternoon sir! Would you like a sub with all of the fixins?"
Needless to say texting an order of subway to a friend about to bring some lunch to your house when you are on surgery bed rest is harrowing and will give an awesome thumb cramp.
So, sure we have fast food in Highland, even a couple of them - and god knows we have three Walgreens... but most of our lovely neighbors choose these places as a third or fourth option and to the couple of fast food chains we do have about 150 other self owned restaurants and specialty food shops. I am a happy foodie girl. We can co-exist. Lord knows on a busy night we have stopped at each one of them - and can you really re-duplicate a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard? Not really. And did you know if you ask for a "pup cup" when you have your dog in the car with you they will give you a tiny cup of vanilla soft serve? How awesome is that? And it is a Minnesota company.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Can we get a hand with this fettuccini ala vomit sauce?
Last weekend we went to lunch with Eric and Jen - the spaderlings not the Gaffys we went to Yarusso Brothers - a really old school Italin resteraunt in Saint Paul with famous Dagos. I like their $5 spaghetti special.
Anyhoo we got settled in when all of the sudden Alex leans forward and projective vomits every single thing that his little undigested belly could purge up. Dear god - it was on the table, it was on the chair, it was pooled on the floor, it was all over his expensive bobux (damn!!) and we had nothing but the crappy little napkins rolled around our silverware. Four little napkins was not going to do so I ran back and fourth from the bathroom about a dozen times with toilet paper hoping that at sometime the waitress would give us a hand. No such luck. Fortunately, we were one of only two people dining in that side of the restaurant - another family was seated next to us I am sure the smell and sound was about enough to drive them off of a clif - or if not dramatically change their reflection of the experience.
Once we had everything cleaned up and settled down again the manager comes around the corner and is like "aaa do you think you could like wipe things down with this spray" to which I was like "no we are trying to eat and I cleaned up with your toilet paper and my son's butt wipes" with a smile. I honestly think he expected us to scrub after ourselves once we were done eating. However, we did a pretty darn good job cleaning up the mess.
I wouldn't stop going there because of that - in fact we like to go there and then stop at Morelli's across the street and kill two birds with one shot (and then eat them). My parent's told me that they have everything Italian you could ever need. when we got there we realized it was 90% booze, 9% meat and 1% Italian stuff. Hell - to a lasser man this is pretty much close to everything you could need. So, we buy the meat because it is really cheep - and good - I mean seriously cheep and good. We do check the expiration dates on anything they sell in their tiny nuk in the corner designated for Italian miscellaneous. If the can is dented and covered in dust it's probably wise to skip it.
While I am talking about good Italian - don't miss Buon Giorno Italia off of Sibley memorial highway - they have FANTASTIC make your own pasta lunch and deli and you can definitely find the little nuanced stuff you are looking for like 5 kinds of prosciutto.
Ok so the point of this blog is probably that you should not be afraid to take your babies to lunch - what's the worst that could happen? They projective vomit their lunch all over the place and onto your friends and neighbors? Hell - we made it through and so should you!
ps - if anyone sees a sale on bobux let me know - I need a replacement.
fettuccine
Anyhoo we got settled in when all of the sudden Alex leans forward and projective vomits every single thing that his little undigested belly could purge up. Dear god - it was on the table, it was on the chair, it was pooled on the floor, it was all over his expensive bobux (damn!!) and we had nothing but the crappy little napkins rolled around our silverware. Four little napkins was not going to do so I ran back and fourth from the bathroom about a dozen times with toilet paper hoping that at sometime the waitress would give us a hand. No such luck. Fortunately, we were one of only two people dining in that side of the restaurant - another family was seated next to us I am sure the smell and sound was about enough to drive them off of a clif - or if not dramatically change their reflection of the experience.
Once we had everything cleaned up and settled down again the manager comes around the corner and is like "aaa do you think you could like wipe things down with this spray" to which I was like "no we are trying to eat and I cleaned up with your toilet paper and my son's butt wipes" with a smile. I honestly think he expected us to scrub after ourselves once we were done eating. However, we did a pretty darn good job cleaning up the mess.
I wouldn't stop going there because of that - in fact we like to go there and then stop at Morelli's across the street and kill two birds with one shot (and then eat them). My parent's told me that they have everything Italian you could ever need. when we got there we realized it was 90% booze, 9% meat and 1% Italian stuff. Hell - to a lasser man this is pretty much close to everything you could need. So, we buy the meat because it is really cheep - and good - I mean seriously cheep and good. We do check the expiration dates on anything they sell in their tiny nuk in the corner designated for Italian miscellaneous. If the can is dented and covered in dust it's probably wise to skip it.
While I am talking about good Italian - don't miss Buon Giorno Italia off of Sibley memorial highway - they have FANTASTIC make your own pasta lunch and deli and you can definitely find the little nuanced stuff you are looking for like 5 kinds of prosciutto.
Ok so the point of this blog is probably that you should not be afraid to take your babies to lunch - what's the worst that could happen? They projective vomit their lunch all over the place and onto your friends and neighbors? Hell - we made it through and so should you!
ps - if anyone sees a sale on bobux let me know - I need a replacement.
fettuccine
lie to your dad if need be
If I had five words to describe Tom's reaction to my cooking it would be "What the hell is that?".
Since then I have learned two important things 1) make sure the pepper grinder is on fine so he doesn't think that the large chunks of pepper corns will change the entire taste of a dish and result in him not even trying the food or 2) totally lie to him - right to his face - without being bashful about it. This was approved by mom and we both plan meals together to trick Tom.
Sometimes we just omit certain ingredients when we tell him what is in it. Sometimes we switch out things w/o telling him.
When it came to this one dish - Tom's first reaction was of course: "What the hell is that?" but when we said it was Irish Shrimp Cocktail he tried it and ate it - dare I say he liked it. Now, if you ask him today he will act like he doesn't remember a thing. Trust me on this.
But given that it is almost saint Patrick's day I figured I would post my recipe for Irish Shrimp Cocktail. Actually it is super close to Giada De Laurentie's Shrimp in Endive Boats - ya pretty much spot on.
Irish Shrimp Cocktail:
Ingredients:
12 oz uncooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined (doesn't matter what size)
5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
3 teaspoons of lime juice
1/4 cup fine chopped parsley
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1/4 cup low fat plain yogurt
3 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
2 tablespoons drained small capers
2-3 heads of Belgian endive (google this if you are not familiar)
This recipe has two parts 1) make the shrimp and put it into the endive boats and then 2) you put sauce on it.
Making the shrimp: Toss shrimp in one tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and heat over medium heat for until shrimp is cooked, pink about 2 minutes per side transfer to a plate, toss with 1 tsp of lime juice and let it cool completely. Once cool dice into small bits. Toss the bits with the chives, capers and remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Check again and see if it needs more salt and pepper.
Sauce: blend parsley, sour cream, yogurt, remaining 2 tsp of lime juice a smidgen of salt and pepper either in a blender or stir really fast and hard (this is what men are for).
You can serve this one of two ways:
1)Separate the endive leaves and arrange them on a platter, add some shrimp to each boat and add a tsp or so of parsley sauce - maybe put a little twig of thyme to make it look snazzy or
2) Once separated put the endive into one bowl, put the sauce into another bowl and put the shrimp into another bows. Of course you will have to demonstrate how to eat it because people aren't a bright as you may think they are these days.
This is good and also happens to be pretty darn healthy - adkins friendly and I am sure I could ask my mom and she would tell me how many weight watchers points it has - she is like a human points calculator.
Now
Since then I have learned two important things 1) make sure the pepper grinder is on fine so he doesn't think that the large chunks of pepper corns will change the entire taste of a dish and result in him not even trying the food or 2) totally lie to him - right to his face - without being bashful about it. This was approved by mom and we both plan meals together to trick Tom.
Sometimes we just omit certain ingredients when we tell him what is in it. Sometimes we switch out things w/o telling him.
When it came to this one dish - Tom's first reaction was of course: "What the hell is that?" but when we said it was Irish Shrimp Cocktail he tried it and ate it - dare I say he liked it. Now, if you ask him today he will act like he doesn't remember a thing. Trust me on this.
But given that it is almost saint Patrick's day I figured I would post my recipe for Irish Shrimp Cocktail. Actually it is super close to Giada De Laurentie's Shrimp in Endive Boats - ya pretty much spot on.
Irish Shrimp Cocktail:
Ingredients:
12 oz uncooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined (doesn't matter what size)
5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
3 teaspoons of lime juice
1/4 cup fine chopped parsley
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1/4 cup low fat plain yogurt
3 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
2 tablespoons drained small capers
2-3 heads of Belgian endive (google this if you are not familiar)
This recipe has two parts 1) make the shrimp and put it into the endive boats and then 2) you put sauce on it.
Making the shrimp: Toss shrimp in one tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and heat over medium heat for until shrimp is cooked, pink about 2 minutes per side transfer to a plate, toss with 1 tsp of lime juice and let it cool completely. Once cool dice into small bits. Toss the bits with the chives, capers and remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Check again and see if it needs more salt and pepper.
Sauce: blend parsley, sour cream, yogurt, remaining 2 tsp of lime juice a smidgen of salt and pepper either in a blender or stir really fast and hard (this is what men are for).
You can serve this one of two ways:
1)Separate the endive leaves and arrange them on a platter, add some shrimp to each boat and add a tsp or so of parsley sauce - maybe put a little twig of thyme to make it look snazzy or
2) Once separated put the endive into one bowl, put the sauce into another bowl and put the shrimp into another bows. Of course you will have to demonstrate how to eat it because people aren't a bright as you may think they are these days.
This is good and also happens to be pretty darn healthy - adkins friendly and I am sure I could ask my mom and she would tell me how many weight watchers points it has - she is like a human points calculator.
Now
Why on Earth am I Starting a Blog?
Whenever I cook something I always validate the effort - (and the fact that I stand hanging over every one's meals with a look of expectation on my face) by saying I was a Fat Italian Gramma in a former life. I think this makes me feel better because in the Italian culture the gramma is respected for her efforts and is given a "pass" when she wants to hear how people feel about the dish. And it doesn't hurt that most grammas make really great food. So I accept compliments greedily.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I force food and pester picky people. I have even been know to pick favorites based on people who like my food and will eat it. Fortunately, my friends are all too polite to tell me my food stinks and therefore 1) I really don't know if my food sucks and 2) I don't get any pointers on how to make the food better - or if it is worth sharing.
I have had two recent food surprises: First, my good fried Jennifer - the pickiest person I have ever know visited a local foodie restaurant and tried all kinds of exotic foods. I was totally jealous! But, I knew that she could be my new Guinea pig and that helped calm my envy. We are one step closer to "same same".
Second, my in laws accepted an invitation to eat at our local Indian restaurant - Tandor Restaurant. Let me interject here that I was totally under the assumption that their uber Midwestern Norwegian pallets could only handle one turn of pepper mill before it was way too "strong" for them. So, when they tried everything (but saved the goat for next time) I was astonished! Apparently all of the food that I cooked and either renamed or they were too polite to refuse had made a difference! Awesome! More new guinea pigs for me!
So, to a make a long blog short - I have a lot of food memories, funny experiences and recipes to share and let's face it - facebook doesn't really have a function that allows you to easy share these things. There is only so much witty crap you can fit into four sentences before you have to make a decision to remove the phrases like " yes - I mean use real garlic - not the pre cut stuff from a jar, not the little frozen cube from Trader Joes - for god sakes smack a clove or garlic and dump it into your sauce - come on people!!!!" If I didn't specify these nuances then they would use the grap garlic and the recipe would be bunk and it would turn out bad and then what would my reputation be? Snoody Foody with Bad Recipes? No thanks. So read at your own caution - and if you choose to make a recipe and omit or tweak a detail do so at your own risk and make it your own - because once you change something from my recipe it is no longer mine. Which is just fine.
One last thing - I am really bad at writing so excuse the bad grammar, lack of punctuation run-on sentenses and miscellaneous use of symbols like - ! ~ and (). It feels more personal when I use them and plus I went to Fridley. Ok, one other thing - I will try to keep this G rated but I make no promises. Sometimes you gotta keep it real.
Anyone that knows me, knows that I force food and pester picky people. I have even been know to pick favorites based on people who like my food and will eat it. Fortunately, my friends are all too polite to tell me my food stinks and therefore 1) I really don't know if my food sucks and 2) I don't get any pointers on how to make the food better - or if it is worth sharing.
I have had two recent food surprises: First, my good fried Jennifer - the pickiest person I have ever know visited a local foodie restaurant and tried all kinds of exotic foods. I was totally jealous! But, I knew that she could be my new Guinea pig and that helped calm my envy. We are one step closer to "same same".
Second, my in laws accepted an invitation to eat at our local Indian restaurant - Tandor Restaurant. Let me interject here that I was totally under the assumption that their uber Midwestern Norwegian pallets could only handle one turn of pepper mill before it was way too "strong" for them. So, when they tried everything (but saved the goat for next time) I was astonished! Apparently all of the food that I cooked and either renamed or they were too polite to refuse had made a difference! Awesome! More new guinea pigs for me!
So, to a make a long blog short - I have a lot of food memories, funny experiences and recipes to share and let's face it - facebook doesn't really have a function that allows you to easy share these things. There is only so much witty crap you can fit into four sentences before you have to make a decision to remove the phrases like " yes - I mean use real garlic - not the pre cut stuff from a jar, not the little frozen cube from Trader Joes - for god sakes smack a clove or garlic and dump it into your sauce - come on people!!!!" If I didn't specify these nuances then they would use the grap garlic and the recipe would be bunk and it would turn out bad and then what would my reputation be? Snoody Foody with Bad Recipes? No thanks. So read at your own caution - and if you choose to make a recipe and omit or tweak a detail do so at your own risk and make it your own - because once you change something from my recipe it is no longer mine. Which is just fine.
One last thing - I am really bad at writing so excuse the bad grammar, lack of punctuation run-on sentenses and miscellaneous use of symbols like - ! ~ and (). It feels more personal when I use them and plus I went to Fridley. Ok, one other thing - I will try to keep this G rated but I make no promises. Sometimes you gotta keep it real.
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