30 Things you (probably) didn’t know about me:

1. My right ankle cracks (loudly) every time I take a step. I broke it in high school and something just never healed right.

2. Because of my ankle – I’m not very good at sneaking up on people

3. I believe sandwiches and burritos should be made in an orderly fashion. If a sandwich or burrito artist makes mine sloppily – my entire meal is ruined. I don’t complain at the restaurant, I just whine and pout the whole way home.

4. My eyes are blue – but my left eye has a huge brown spot in it.

5. The very first time I met Mike, I knew I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life.

6. The very first time Mike met me, he thought I was an annoying drunk college girl.

7. I’m physically incapable of whistling.

8. I’ve had four surgeries in my lifetime, and only one has gone completely right the first time.

9. I think people who use non-glove pot holders to take things out of the oven are superheroes.

10. In grade school, I was 1 of 2 lucky 8^th graders that got to be the dismissal announcers (I’m sorry – is there anything cooler than being able to use your school PA system?)

11. I had braces from 4^th grade until the very start of my senior year (8. Freaking. Years.) I got them off 2 days before my senior picture.

12. I do not have adenoids, tonsils, wisdom teeth or a gallbladder. (The adenoid surgery was the only one that went right).

13. I’m oddly terrified of splinters, pink eye, and hemorrhoids. Luckily the first is the only one I’ve ever really an issue – the second I realize I have a splinter I go into a cold sweat and start freaking out.

14. My college degree is in Middle Childhood (specialization in Science and Social Studies, with a minor in Special Education.)

15. I taught 4^th grade for one year and then quit. Quitting was the one of the scariest, and simultaneously best decisions of my life.

16. I’ve never been to Disney (World, or Land).

17. I lived in North Carolina for one year and loved every single second of it. (PS. Duke is puke, Wake is fake, the team I hate is NC State….)

18. I’d pick a pound of gummy bears over a pound of chocolate – 100% of the time.

19. I think people who don’t get their driver’s license the day they turn 16 have something seriously wrong with them.

20. My head is 95% filled with useless, irrelevant song lyrics. (and yes, I’m awesome at Name that Tune).

21. Two words, listen carefully: Diet Coke. NEVER Diet Pepsi. Do you understand me?

22. I have a super sensitive nose. I’m pretty sure Mike cringes every time he hears me say “do you smell that?” because he never can, and he knows I’m about to complain or worry.

23. I’m super weird about numbers. Even numbers = good. Odd numbers = mostly bad, with the exception of 11, and any multiple of 5. The volume on the TV, on the radio in my car, the time on my alarm clock – all need to adhere to these rules.

24. I want lasik surgery so badly, but am too terrified of a laser being in my eyeball to actually get it.

25. I’m the oldest child of two oldest children – and I’m the oldest grandchild on both sides. And yes, if you are wondering – I act like a typical oldest

26. I think flossing is one of the best feelings in the world.

27. I can’t burp on demand.

28. When I was little, I went fishing with my Dad. I stood “way back” like a good kid. Didn’t matter – the first time he went to cast – I ended up with a fish hook in my nose. IN. MY. NOSE. So I guess I could say I was a bad ass and tell people “I got my nose pierced when I was 7”.

29. I still tie my shoes “bunny ears” style – it’s the only way I ever learned.

30. I loathe bananas. I want to like them – but I just can’t handle the texture. Banana bread? Delicious. Plain banana? GAG.

BONUS: 31. After 4 years – I’m leaving American Greetings for a new job! I’m excited, scared, anxious, and everything in between. Lots of good, but crazy stuff has been happening over here – thanks for being patient with my once a month posts!

And because I feel like it – hey look a picture of Harvey and Lando:

Thanks for loving me and all my weirdness over the years! Ya’ll are the best!

As I’ve mentioned – baking does not come naturally to me. Shocking, seeing as all of my recipes involve “I didn’t measure, just threw some stuff in”.

So when I got an email from the lovely folks at Oh!Nuts asking if I’d like to try to create two of my own recipes – I just HAD to accept the offer. Because you know I’m a sucker for a challenge, and any time it’s me vs. baking?

Well you know it’s going to be a good show.

The two products I picked as the “star” ingredient for my recipes were:

• Chocolate Covered Cherries
• Gummi Bears

I’ve never been a huge sweets fan (but give me a bag of chips and it’s entirely gone in 20 minutes) – but these two items are typically my weakness.

For the chocolate covered cherries – I had some inspiration from my Mike. He gave me the idea of stuffing a cookie with some frosting – and I ran with it, because really? Who doesn’t love a “stuffed cookie”?

I used this recipe from Six Sisters as my inspiration from the cookies – and then made some adjustments. My ingredients consisted of:

Devil’s Food Cake Mix, Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Covered Cherries from Oh!Nuts and more dried cherries for good measure.

First – I chopped up the chocolate covered cherries into small bits, and then mixed them together with frosting, to serve as the cookie filling.

I mixed the cake mix together according to the package (adding oil and eggs), and then added some extra dried cherries to the cake mix.

Then – I (quite messily and fairly gross looking-ly) put a dollop of cream in between two scoops of the cookie dough batter and rolled it together.

In the picture above, the top row here is finished, and the bottom row is half way done.

The end result:

I thought the cookies turned out looking pretty decent (I feel like it’s hard to make chocolate cookies look REALLY good – you can’t do much for the color)

But I was VERY disappointed when I bit into the “taste test” to find – the cookies had completely absorbed the frosting during cooking.  So the while the taste WAS delicious – you couldn’t see a fun glob of frosting in the middle.

Don’t things taste better when you feel like you are being very bad?

So YAY for great taste – boo for the “stuffed” factor not turning out exactly the way I wanted. Gives me something to work toward next time!

For the gummi bears – I had some pretty big plans as well. Because here’s the thing. When you tell me I can’t do something – I only want to do it more.

So in my research of awesome gummi bear recipes – when I continually found “You can’t bake them into anything as they melt” – I took that as more of a challenge than a piece of advice.

Yes, I’m a child. I know.

Since it was so advised against – I had trouble finding a recipe for inspiration/direction.

I ended up just making the cupcakes according to the Betty Crocker packaging. filling the cupcake tin half way, throwing five gummi bears into the center of the cupcakes, and then topping it with more batter.

But then at the end – I had more gummi bears left over so I figured I should top some of the cupcakes off with extra gummi bears as “sprinkles”.

You know the funny thing with children?

They never learn.

Only 6 of the 12 cupcakes were salvageable. It turns out – you really can’t bake with gummi bears. I thought the end result would be some funkier, cooler version of a funfetti cake.

Wrong.

It was weird, glob-y, hard in some spots, soft in others…really just a mess.

I’d say this fight went 1:1 – the chocolate cookies were successful in taste, just didn’t end up with the appearance I was going for, and the gummi bear cupcakes were a huge fail.

But hey – how can you get better if you don’t fail, and learn from your mistakes?

But seriously – if any of you know how to bake with gummi bears – let me in on the secret!

*Disclaimer: I was offered two products of my choice in exchange for making two recipes. As always – the thoughts and opinions in this post are very much my own.

So it’s only fitting that my first post of 2012 wrap up my 11 in 2011 Restaurant List, right?

The final tally:

1. Lolita
2. Ponte Vecchio (closed down)
3. Dante
4. Umami Asian Grill
5. Chinato
6. L’Albatros
7. Happy Dog
8. Flying Fig
9. Sokolowski’s University Inn
10. La Cave du Vin
11. Three Birds

I went to 8 out of my 11 restaurants (I could be greedy and say 9 out of 11 since Ponte Vecchio closed, but that would just be cheating.)

Not too shabby for my first attempt at a year long restaurant list.

Now, allow me to tell you about my final stop on the 2011 tour.

It just happened to be THE restaurant I was most anxious to go to. We actually had plans to go in March for my birthday, but then something came up and we had to cancel. 

But alas, thanks to fabulous friends like Michelle and Suzanne (and Katrina in spirit!) – I managed to get my butt to L’Albatros with exactly 1 day left in 2011.

It was cold, wet, and blustery on the day we went, so I very thoroughly enjoyed the warm, soft ambience of the restaurant, AND the fact that we got put in the far back room, right by the fire place.

While Suzanne and Michelle opted for wine – I went the drink route and ordered a signature cocktail:

And I actually can’t tell you what was in it! It was one of their specials so it isn’t on the regular menu!   It was very good – I believe it had St. Germain and some Hendricks Gin – so while my description of it may be lackluster, I promise it was delicious!

If you don’t know about L’Albatros – I’ll let you in on the secret.

They are known for their cheese.

Wonderful, amazing, phenomenal cheese.

Cheese – as in – they have an official expert dedicated to it (cheesmonger? fromager?). A person whose SOLE job is to present and recommend cheese (!!!!!) – I think I chose the wrong profession.

We ended up choosing 14 (yes, 14) cheeses to sample:

- and it was amazing. I already know where I want to go for my birthday dinner this year.

And then, as if I hadn’t had enough cheese already – I went ahead and ordered the Croque Monsieur (a sandwich with french ham, cheese, and bechamel sauce)

I’m smiling just thinking about it.

The whole meal was so amazing, and I’m mad at myself for delaying my trip to L’Albatros for so long.

If you try ONE new restaurant in Cleveland this year – my recommendation to you would be: “It MUST be L’Albatros!”

With three left and only two days remaining in the year – I don’t think I’m going to make it, but I’m going to put in a good effort.

Tuesday, I texted Suzanne “any desire to go to Sokolowski’s?” – and much to my delight – her answer was “yes”!

Sokolowski’s is a family owned restaurant that has been around since 1923.

Sokolowski’s is also the most shameful restaurant on my list. Shameful in the – I-can’t-believe-I’ve-lived-in-Cleveland-my-whole-life-and-never-been-to-this-Cleveland-staple – sort of way.

It’s surprisingly huge inside – there is a bar area as well as two large dining rooms.

One cool thing about the restaurant is that they serve all their food cafeteria style, which is a fun change of pace.

I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted because I had my heart set on stuffed cabbage but they were out – and then all of the other options looked so delicious – how was I supposed to pick just one?!

I ended up going with the pierogi dinner – which came with my choice of two sides – so I went with cabbage and noodles, and sauerkraut.

Sure – that might be a lot of beige and carbs on one single plate – but let me tell you. Every. Single. Bite. Was. PHENOMENAL!

Amazing!

Suzanne got the stuffed pepper dinner with corn and mashed potatoes – and I do believe she was also VERY pleased!

The serving size really is ridiculous. Both of these plates only cost $7.95, and while we ate lunch at noon – we were both full until well after “dinner time”!

So yeah – the final verdict is…I’m love Sokolowski’s (it totally lives up to the hype!!) and I’m very sad I wasted 29 years of my life NOT going to Sokolowski’s. Especially because it was one of my Grandpa’s favorites, and I won’t ever be able to go with him. I can’t get those years back, but I can try to make them up, moving forward.

Here’s to a 2012 full of Sokolowski’s visits.

So get this …

…I’ve lived in Cleveland my whole live, and I’ve never once been to Pittsburgh.

Weird, seeing as it’s only 2 hours away – right??

Well this weekend we fixed that – and headed off to Pittsburgh to celebrate our friend Brian’s birthday!

We checked into our hotel (that we snagged for $59 a night thanks to Priceline-Name-Your-Price – I just LOVE that option!) – and found the 20 foot ceilings in our room quite intriguing.

After a quick change of clothes we started our trek across the city to happy hour at our friend’s hotel, which was right next to the Consol Energy Center (which was totally happenin’ since there was a hockey game that night).

Once everyone was ready to hit the town – we took a cab over to Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 – the birthday boy’s restaurant of choice.

This place gets major props in my book – they were able to seat us immediately! (a party of seven, at 7:30pm on Saturday, no reservations)

The menu had a ton to choose from so my friend Stephanie and I just split to appetizers since we were having trouble with the decision.

The Korean bbq beef tacos – which were disappointing (you can see them in the background of the picture below).

And the nachos. Which were insanely huge, and equally delicious.

Nachos before: (the picture really doesn’t even do it justice!)

Nachos after (and the boys even jumped in and helped us out too):

When we finished – we were close enough to the casino (The Rivers Casino) to just walk, so walk we did.

Not without letting the birthday boy, a die hard Cleveland Brown’s fan, have a little fun first.

I dislike the Steelers like any good Clevelander should – but I will say – Pittsburgh at night, near the water? VERY PRETTY!

Once we got the casino – most of the boys went off to gamble, which left me, Mike and Stephanie to go in search of some beverages.

We got very excited when we saw the non-crowded “select-a-pour” wine tasting tour! (That should have been our first indication we were in trouble!)

Not quite sure WHAT we were thinking – the wine was crazy over priced, the cards malfunctioned three out of the five times we used them, and the wine was so stale I poured my last two selections out.

You win some, you lose some – right?

Since we weren’t impressed with the wine – we headed over to “Drum Bar” which had an amazing view of the water, good music playing, and decent drink prices.

The three of us were even able to snag a seat at the bar!

The best part? They had Great Lakes Christmas Ale on draft

Things got a little hazy from there – I just know that by the end of the night, my feet hurt so bad from walking around in heels, I was so grateful that we were able to snag a cab back to our hotel.

All said and done – I have to admit – Pittsburgh was pretty decent I’d definitely go back again!

EarthFare Gift Card Winner:

Nichole!  Send me your info!!

Once every few years there’s usually a rumor – like – “Did you hear Whole Foods in going in where the old Target it?” – and then the rumor slowly dies down (and no Whole Foods ever goes in )

But alas – our dreams have come true! There is now a healthy grocery store on the west side!

Even better? It’s 5 minutes from my house!  WOOOOHOOOO! Welcome to Fairview Park, EarthFare!

EarthFare invited me to come check out their new digs, and I very happily and eagerly accepted!

What sets them apart from other grocery stores is their food philosophy.

• They won’t call a food “LOCAL” unless it came from within 100 miles of the specific store it’s sold at
• If the item is stocked in EarthFare – it is guaranteed to have:
  • No high fructose corn syrup
  • No artificial fats or artificial trans fats
  • No artificial colors
  • No artificial flavors
  • No artificial sweeteners
  • No artificial preservatives
  • No bleached or bromated flour
  • No antibiotics or synthetic grown hormones (in meat or dairy)

That’s a pretty tough list to be stacked up against!

The even cooler part?

If you find a product in their store that breaks one of those rules? You can send them an e-mail, they will investigate, and if you are right – they will send you a gift card! Isn’t that awesome?

The store has so much to offer – I was totally giddy the whole tour! (Imagine that!)

From bulk nuts, candy, grains, coffee and tea…

…to fresh nut butters and raw honey, maple syrup and agave by the pound!

One neat thing (especially since I think, as do many others, that some healthy supermarkets are way overpriced) they have their own brand/line – so that they can offer quality products at a competitive price.

There’s TONS of beer and wine to choose from (which always makes a girl like me happy!)

And lots of delicious looking prepared foods:

Fresh baked bread and bakery treats:

AND a salad bar, hot foods bar, Mediterranean bar, and a juice/kombucha bar!

I had never tried kombucha – but since they have it “on tap” – I was able to taste test it!  Surprisingly good! (I was always terrified based on the pictures and reviews I had seen on some blogs!)

NOW HERE’S THE BEST PART!!! You can win a $50 gift card to EarthFare!

If you live near an Earth Fare and want a $50 gift card to shop for yourself:

1. Leave a comment telling me which Earth Fare is nearest you.
2. Tweet the following message: I want to win a $50 gift card from @greendogwine and @earthfarecle  (Be sure to post a comment letting me know you tweeted.)

You can post one comment and one tweet per day. I will randomly select a winner on Monday, December 19, 2011. Winners will be notified and need to provide me with their mailing address to receive the gift card.

*Disclaimer: I was invited to tour the new EarthFare to learn more about their brand and philosophy. I was supplied with a $50 gift for myself, as well as a $50 gift card to give away to my readers in exchange for showing up. As always – the thoughts and opinions in this post are very much my own.

Sarah from Both Sides Now!

Sarah – send me an e-mail with your mailing info! Thanks to everyone who entered!

Stay tuned – tomorrow I have another awesome giveaway for you!

1. Lolita
2. Ponte Vecchio (closed down)
3. Dante
4. Umami Asian Grill
5. Chinato
6. L’Albatros
7. Happy Dog
8. Flying Fig
9. Sokolowski’s University Inn
10. La Cave du Vin
11. Three Birds

Apparently I don’t want to cross Zack Bruell off the list since he still has two restaurants remaining…

This Friday I was able to cross off La Cave Du Vin – thanks to my lovely friend Michelle! She knew I was running out of time in 2011 and kindly offered to help me pair down my list.

(c/o – La Cave Du Vin website)

All of the pictures in this post are from La Cave’s website – because let me tell you – it is VERY dark in there. Which is definitely fun, and gives the whole place a laid back, almost sort of “secret club” vibe – but it is NOT conducive to good pictures.

(c/o – La Cave Du Vin website)

We ate down the street at Pacific East – then headed to La Cave for drinks. I started with a glass of Rosé (from their huge wine list) – and it was absolutely fabulous. I wish I could tell you what it was – but I can’t remember.

(c/o – La Cave Du Vin website)

I wanted to make sure to try both a wine and beer offering, so after my Rosé, I headed over to their beer cooler where they have tons of selection. You just pick your own bottle, and then the bring you the bottle opener and the appropriate glass.

(c/o – La Cave Du Vin website)

I picked a bottle of Three Philosophers (Ale with Cherry Lambic) based on a recommendation from Michelle – and it was TOTALLY. AWESOME. So awesome – in fact – I looked for it at three different stores this weekend to try and buy some for my fridge at home, and I couldn’t find it.

(c/o – La Cave Du Vin website)

We didn’t try any of the appetizers they had to offer since we had eaten right before – but it wouldn’t have mattered.  There’s no way the food could have been a make or break deal. I absolutely loved La Cave, and wish it was closer to my house.  Or maybe not because that would mean I’d go to happy hour a lot more often.  

Bottom line – if you have the opportunity – I highly recommend you stop in to La Cave and grab a drink – you won’t be sorry!

Now who wants to take bets? How many more restaurants can I check off in the last half of December?

PS – Don’t forget you still have about 30 hours to enter the coffee robot giveaway!

Cool, I thought so.

In September – I was invited to attend a blogger dinner, sponsored by Nescafe Dolce Gusto, at The Greenhouse Tavern.

We started with delicious food and drinks (mmmm frites!), and then headed down to watch a live demo by Chef Sawyer on how they make their beef tartare.

It was amazing. Holy, serious, amazing.

Then we headed back upstairs and watched another live demo, this time by the lovely Dolce Gusto girls, and saw how wonderful the coffee robots can be.

As if we already weren’t grateful enough for the delicious food and demos – we each got to go home with a Dolce Gusto machine to test out!

Fact: I love it.

It’s adorable (and not clunky at all on my already small countertop!) – and it makes a ton of different drinks!

Dear Coffee Robot,

I love you. Don’t ever leave me.

Here’s the best part – you can have your very own coffee robot to love forever and always!!!

You can enter to win the above Titanium model by simply:

1. Posting a comment telling me your favorite coffee drink.

2. Tweet the following message: I want to win a Dolce Gusto machine from @greendogwine & @DolceGustoUS #DolceGustoFTW http://bit.ly/rWc7b1

(Be sure to post a comment letting me know you tweeted.)

You can post one comment and one tweet per day. I will randomly select a winner on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. Winners will be notified and need to provide me with their mailing address to receive the machine.

*Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Foodie Feed-Up event to learn more about Nescafe Dolce Gusto. While there, we were treated to food and a cooking demo from The Greenhouse Tavern, and coffee tastings from Dolce Gusto. Additionally, every blogger was surprised with their own Dolce Gusto machine. As always – the thoughts and opinions in this post are very much my own.

So when I heard about the Fall Classic Half Marathon – I thought – MIKE AND I SHOULD SIGN UP FOR THAT!

Great idea/goal – right?

Wrong.

The problem for both of us is it’s something we’ve done before. We knew we wouldn’t have enough time to add speed work in to our training to try to PR – so – slowly and steadily we just sort of threw caution to the wind.

My longest training run was 7 miles, Mike’s was 6 – and those both happened over 2 weeks ago.  Mike actually only ran three times: 3 miles, 6 miles, and 6 miles.  I think I managed to log a total of 35 – way too few for me.

So we deemed this our fly-by-night half marathon. We knew we hadn’t put in the training so we figured we’d just go out and run – and see what happened.

I had high hopes because the weather today was unseasonably warm – but got a bad feeling when I saw I had an ODD numbered bib (don’t you know?!?! Odd numbers are bad!)

(yes, I’m crazy, I know. Ain’t no thang.)

We got to the starting line (CLE people – the race was in the Metroparks) with time to spare, so we hopped in line for the port-o-potties…

…which caused us to cross the starting line 6+ minutes after the gun had gone off.

Normally it wouldn’t be a very big deal, but this race was low budget so there were no chips to track our time (and no clocks on the mile markers which made it hard to pace yourself if you weren’t wearing a Garmin – which I wasn’t!) .  Therefore – any delay in your start wasn’t subtracted from your finish time.

This is the finish line – can’t you tell?

While this really is the finish line – I’m just teasin’. To be fair – the race fee was only $40 so I thought they did a great job. It was just a very bare-bones race compared to some of the bigger ones out there. It was a nice change of pace!

So yeah we finished.

Mike’s time: 2:09:47 (PR during his marathon – 2:08)

My time: 2:37:41 (PR – 2:26)

And while we didn’t PR – we are both perfectly happy with it.

Sometimes you have the most fun just wingin’ it.  

Goals are great but you have to be flexible to succeed – right?