Pepino!

A few weeks ago, my cousin and my friend came over for pizza night (aka every Friday night at my house). I am a COSTCO shopper, and have been getting my canned tomato sauce by the case there for a while, and then doctor it into pizza sauce. My friend and cousin were disappointed in my Contadina selection of sauce. We got into a discussion about how the only pizza sauce to use was Don Pepino.

Having grown up with Don Pepino sauce on my pizza, I decided to try it once more. They were right. It is superior to Contadina. I also got some Cento pizza sauce to try this week, per my friend Meg's recommendation. I'm sure all five of my readers will be interested to know the outcome of this experiment.

Things I Like Thursday

I feel like I complained alot the last block of posts, so to make up for it, things I like on this Thursday:

-The trailer for the new Coen Brothers movie, Burn After Reading
-Hello Kitty
-Fruit Smoothies
-Iced Starbucks Doubleshot drinks (but only from an actual Starbucks and with 1/2 the sweetener)
-The Baltimore Orioles
-The Chick-fil-a cow
-Mold (as long as it's not growing on my food or walls)
-Snowglobes

Angel

Since I'm on the subject of vampire shows, I wanted to mention that I'm finally watching Angel. Yes, I know I missed out on watching all the Buffy cross-over episodes, but it's ok. I'm currently halfway through season two.

I thought Cordelia would get on my nerves, which is one of the reasons I waited to start this series. But, I have to say that I really love how her character has changed on this show. I find her endearing.

I am really loving Angel. I was sad to hear that Alan Ball hadn't watched either this or Buffy before creating his new one. He probably could have learned a few things.

True Blood

HBO has a new vampire series premiering next week (September 7th, to be exact) called True Blood. Normally, I would shrug this show off as just another Buffy wannabe, but it was created by Alan Ball, who created Six Feet Under and wrote American Beauty.

Since I loved Six Feet Under, and American Beauty is one of my favorite films, I'm going to give this series a shot.

Hopefully, it will be good.

Fantasy Football

Last night, I attended my first fantasy football draft. I set up my team, and hopefully, the players will score me some points. I didn't fair very well in my Project Runway fantasy team last year, so I'm a little nervous about it all. I also wonder if I'll have trouble rooting for specific players so they'll score me points.

But, I did get LT, and something tells me I'll have no problem cheering him on as he (hopefully) runs down the field week after week.

Let the football season begin!

GO RAVENS! (come on, I know you can score at least ONE offensive touchdown this year!)

Annoyed

My friend just informed me that the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been pushed to next summer. It was slated for a November 2008 release.

The trailer just came out last week!

Where are the nods for The Wire?

How is it that The Wire was completely shutout of any Emmy Nominations?

There is something really wrong over there at the Academy of Television of Arts and Sciences. Especially when crap like Desparate Housewives gets nominated instead.

I Lied

I said I wasn't going to watch the Olympics, but now I'm all excited to watch the Olympics. That swimming relay last night was fantastic!

Shoutout

Some time ago, I wrote about a burger I'd eaten at Duda's in Fells Point. I was scanning the posts on chowhound earlier this morning, and found this tale about the employees of Duda's. Just another reason to support this fine establishment:

My brother is in the middle of a 18 month tour in Afghanistan. He was fortunate enough to come home for two weeks near the holidays. During this trip, he obviously missed the Baltimore dining scene and we hit as many of his favorite spots as we could, including Dudas. Almost all restaurant / bar owners were extremely friendly upon realizing this was a brief respite for my brother. The guys at Duda's were no different. Until a few weeks later. My brother returned to the mountains of Afghanistan and received a large package postmarked Fell Point. The guys at Duda's had sent him a giant portable crab feast, crab meat, old bay, Utz potato chip, and other stuff. It went above and beyond a simple nice gesture (the shipping alone probably coat $50).

Random Monday

1. I received my copy of Comic Book Tattoo today, and all I can say is "wow". I cannot wait to go home and dive into this beautiful book. All Tori fans should buy a copy immediately.

2. Wall-E is the cutest movie ever made! I want one.

3. I am thankful they have finally made contacts for eyes like mine that are shaped like footballs.

4. I wish I could knit and read at the same time. I have been reading alot of books, but not knitting alot of garments. Some of this is due to the fact that it's summer and I just don't feel like sitting outside with a lap full of hot wool this time of year. But it is mostly due to the fact that I missed reading.

5. Read "History of Love". It's the best book I've read in years. I wanted to start it over again when I was through.

Friday Funny

That Ernie is hilarious

Project Runway

Is it just me, or are the designers this season kind of boring? I can't believe the guy with the patchwork dress I could have made when I was 10 wasn't eliminated tonight. It looked like those fabric wreaths crafty people make. Heinous.

Do Not Read

I was accidentally sucked (ha ha) into reading the first installment of the Stephanie Meyer vampire series, Twilight, after reading about how great these books were in Entertainment Weekly. I stopped at Borders and asked some of the workers if they had read it. They assured me the books were wonderful.

Perhaps I should have followed my intuition and stayed away from them. They are terrible. It's as if this woman watched a bunch of Buffy episodes and asked herself, "How can I make the Buffy/Angel relationship completely boring and devoid of feeling as well as interesting dialogue?"

What a waste of ten dollars. I really hope this is the last time I get drawn in by a pretty cover.

Yummy Cupcakes in Boston

Back to the Boston trip for a second. I promise there is a burger post from the trip, but now I turn to my other food love, cupcakes. I finally had some decent cupcakes that I didn't make myself.

We ventured to Lyndell's Bakery. I read that it's the oldest bakery in the country. It was exactly how I pictured my dream bakery. Beautiful baked goods. So many, in fact, that I wanted to order one of everything in the store. But, I limited myself to a half moon, and three cupcakes. A half moon is kind of like a flattened cupcake pancake with lots of icing on top. I got the chocolate and it reminded me of a cake version of a Berger Cookie.

The cupcakes were all vanilla cake with vanilla, strawberry, and orange/pineapple icing. They were all delicious. A little bit of a bakery flavor to the icing, but not too sweet. The cake was perfectly made.

I am jealous my friends can go here all the time.

I also ate a Mojito Cupcake at Kickass Cupcakes, but I didn't get a good picture of it. A little pricey at 3 bucks a piece, (the Lyndell's ones were only 1.50) but they were still terrific.

Pics from Lyndell's:

The Storefront:


View of the goods:


Cupcake closeup!:

1983 Orioles

Tonight, the 1983 Orioles were honored in a short ceremony before the game at Camden Yards. This team was the first I can remember cheering for as young girl. I got a little teary-eyed as they walked onto the field.

Here's some of my favorite memories of the Orioles when I was a young girl and they played at Memorial Stadium (which was luckily only about a 5 minute drive from my house):

At my school's Halloween party, I went dressed as Herself the Elf. My mom made me elf shoes, and a little wand just like she had. Only problem was no one knew who she was (most people still don't). But, I was voted "most original costume" and the Oriole Bird himself presented me with a gift basket filled with Orioles stuff. It included a T-shirt, a team roster, and some other things that I forget. I was in first grade, after all.

During one of the games of the World Series, most of my family went leaving me at my Nana's house. I was waiting on the back porch for everyone to get back when my Uncle Irv handed me a 1983 World Series hat from the game.

I had an operation on my right ear when I was in preschool. My mom brought me a stuffed Oriole Bird as a present when I was in the hospital. I can remember being super happy that she had gotten it for me.

My Aunt B and Uncle Irv got us front row seats and we went for batting practice. I was almost hit in the face by one of Cal Ripken's fly balls. The pole caught it though.

My mom opened a bank account once to get 4 free O's tickets. They were in the very last row against the brick wall at the top of the upper deck. I remember lots of bees and wondered if we would plummet to our doom because we were up so high. We paid for our Orioles tickets after that.

I loved the sound of people beating the bleachers when the fans would do the "We Will Rock You" cheers.

I grew up loving the Orioles and I still love them. It's funny to me to say that I "love" the Orioles, but I do. I know one day, they will be a great team again.

Best.Sandwich.Ever

I am not the biggest sandwich person. I actually go out of my way not to eat most sandwiches. But, this weekend, I ate the best sandwich ever. It was a Cuban from
Dave's Fresh Pasta on Davis Square in Somerville, MA. I can't believe my friends are lucky enough to have this place within walking distance of their house! I would eat many of these each week.

This might have just changed my view on sandwiches!

Fenway

Our kickass friends suprised us with tickets to the baseball game on Friday night. Luckily for us, it was the only game of the series the Orioles won. I was expecting Boston fans to be rude and obnoxious, but they were suprisingly really nice and approachable.

Here's some pictures!

Entrance to the park:


View usually seen on tv:


View from our seats (which were VERY close together!)


Note that the bullpen is checkin' me out...


O's win!

Off to Boston...

My husband and I are leaving for Boston in a few hours. I'm sure I will be back with some things to say about it. (Maybe I will even have a new burger post!)

Oh the excitement.

Our beloved Baltimore Orioles are playing the Boston Red Sox while we're in town. Cross your fingers for a sweep for us!

GO ORIOLES!!!!

4th of July Treats

For the 4th of July shindig at my Aunt and Uncle's house, I made some Paula Deen treats for the family to enjoy, bacon wrapped pretzel sticks, and cheese crackers. She uses breadsticks instead of pretzels, and makes cheese straws instead of crackers, but they're still her recipes. You can find them on the Food Network's website.

Bacon wrapped pretzels ready for the oven:



Out of the oven and rolled in grated Parmesan Cheese:



Cheese Crackers:

Addicted

I don't normally frequent Starbucks, but their petite vanilla scones have made me visit there about 3 times in the past few months. A stranger gave me a card for a free iced coffee every Wednesday in July, and I'm pretty sure it was just a conspiracy to get me to buy more of those little scones.

If you haven't tried them yet, I highly recommend getting one today. It's only 75 cents, and you'll have a happier day after eating one. I promise.

Countdown to the Movie of the Summer

Some Dark Knight Trailers. I can't wait!

Federer!Nadal!Nadal!Federer!

Have you ever seen a more wonderful tennis match than the one that was played today?

Fantastic.

This Time Last Year

I was on my way to Cedar Point!

I'm kind of sad to be home this year for the 4th of July. My friends are going to Cedar Point in a few weeks. They have no idea what wonderful roller coaster delights await them! I can't wait for them to visit! I wish I was going too...

Coffee

Should not smell like cinnamon rolls.

What I Made for Dinner - 06/29/2008

Since I get accolades from my "Burgers I've Eaten" series from one of my friends, I decided to expand the idea into a new column I'm calling "What I Made for Dinner". In these ever so interesting posts, I will let my lovely readers know what I made for dinner. I enjoy cooking and baking, but I'm definitely a recipe gal. I'll let you know where these recipes came from, but you'll have to look them up for yourselves. I'm not into getting in trouble for copyright things.

I'm implementing a rating system of "good" or "not the best". I inherited some cookbooks from my Grandmother, and she has many handwritten notes in the margins of the recipes. Some of them say "not the best", and I thought that was a nice way of saying she wouldn't make something again. So, in honor of her, I'm going to use her rating system.

And so, I present to you, the first installment of "What I Made for Dinner".

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Majorican Vegetable Pizza
Cooking Light, April 2008, page 158

This pizza contained several elements. First, a homemade crust for the pizza. It didn't have any salt in the dough, which surprised me, but didn't really make a difference in the final taste. Second, I made Samafina, also in this issue, for the topping. It consisted of sauteed onions, garlic, eggplant, red pepper, and zucchini with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. This was placed on the pizza dough with part skim ricotta cheese (I also added a little 2% 4 cheese Italian), and placed in the oven. I added some sea salt to the pizza before serving.

Here's some pictures:

Veggies are chopped!


Dough and toppings are prepared!


Pizza is ready for the oven!


Slice of the pie!


Good? or Not the Best?

I was surprised at how well this pizza tasted. I was prepared for the eggplant to overwhelm the flavor of the pizza. My husband says he doesn't like eggplant, but he still managed to consume a fair amount of this pizza. It goes in the good column.

Strawberry Shortcake

No, not the rad toy from the 1980's (please don't get me started on the pitiful remakes), the dessert!

This weekend, I made strawberry shortcake, from the America's Best New Recipes cookbook. They came out even better than I hoped they would. Here's a little photo montage...

Hulled Berries ready for mashing and slicing (it made me a little sad to mash them)


Shortcake is on the parchment paper!


For some reason, I like taking pictures of the tools I used to make things, even if they are messy


Shortcake is out of the oven!


Whipped Cream is made and the Strawberry Shortcake is ready to eat!

Awesome

These might be the coolest snowglobes ever. They are created by a couple, Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz. Here's an article written about them in January in the New York Times.

As a snowglobe collector, I really wish I could have one of these. Unfortunetly, they are a bit more expensive than my usual five dollar budget.

Summer=Snowballs

No, I am not talking about snocones, the snowball's evil nemesis. I am talking about good, old fashioned, Baltimore snowballs. I think these only exist in Baltimore. They consist of shaved ice with sugary syrup and a healthy topping of marshmallow.

I have fond memories of walking down the street to the snowball stand to get everyone's order, and gingerly carrying them back to Josie's porch. I remember basic flavors growing up: cherry, skylite, spearmint, egg custard. Maybe that's because those are the flavors we always had on the 4th of July. My Aunt B would sit on the porch and hand shave ice with this tiny little ice scraper. It was the highlight of the day.

When I was little, I usually ate Cherry. Now, my favorite flavor is egg custard. Egg Custard is such a hard flavor to describe - slightly orangey, but not quite, vanilla-like, but not quite. Skylite is also difficult to describe, as most people will tell you it tastes like blue.

The highlight of my snowball eating years came when my friend opened her own snowball stand. I would bike over to her grandfather's house every day and get a free snowball. It was one of my favorite summers.

I moved outside of Baltimore proper, so my favorite snowball stand now is aptly named, "The Snowball Stand". It's a short drive from my house, and they make excellent snowballs.

I hope you all get to enjoy a snowball sometime soon!

FOUND

For years, I've been looking for Red Rice Ale made by Hitachino Nest. I had had one at Monk's years ago, and could never find it in Maryland. Stores always had every other kind of Hitachino Nest, but not that one.

I found it at the Perfect Pour in Columbia. It quickly became my favorite beer store. It was just as awesomely oddly flavored as I remembered. Also, their lables are super cute.

The Perfect Pour

My husband and I decided to check out the new beer store in Columbia, expecting to find the same old sad selection of beer.

Luckily, we were mistaken. This place is the mecca of beer. Their selection is far and above The Wine Source in Hampden or Wells in Baltimore. They have pretty much everything, including a beer I'd been looking for for years.

If you're in the area, check it out. You will not be disappointed.

Address:

The Perfect Pour
Ste E
6630 Marie Curie Dr, Elkridge, MD 21075
(443) 285-0702‎

Adventures in Grilling - Part One

Where two suburban dwellers attempt to master the art of grilling with charcoal. Today's episode, the first foray...

We decided to grill something simple for our first attempt, and settled on turkey burgers and grilled corn. I used the "Quick Turkey Burger" recipe from America's Best New Recipes. It called for mixing the turkey meat with ricotta cheese, and spices.

I tried doing the Bobby Flay method of grilled corn preparation, where you pull back the husks, clean out the silks, and then place the husks back on the corn, but my husks didn't want to go onto the corn, and I was reminded again why Bobby Flay gets on my nerves.

So, I stuck with the old standby method of grilling the corn wrapped in aluminum foil with butter, salt, and pepper.

Corn!




Grilling Implements of Destruction:



After the food was prepped, it was time to light the grill. We used the cowboy hardwood charcoal from Trader Joe's and a chimney. I think we were a little impatient/too excited to grill because we didn't wait until they were hot enough before we poured them into the grill. So, we ended up adding some of the easy light/less awesome charcoal we had gotten with the grills to help kick up the heat after an hour of waiting for the grill to be hot.

First attempt at lighting the charcoal:


Food ready for the grill:


Cooking the food was no problem at all, and soon we were ready to feast on the burgers and corn we'd prepared as our first meal from the grill! I decided I wanted to try the corn mexican style, and used this recipefrom Tyler Florence for the corn toppings.

Toppings for corn:


It took a little longer than expected, but we were soon ready to try our first meal from the grill!

First Grilled Meal (I realize this food is not very appealing in photographs, but it was definitely yummy )


Stay tuned this summer as we attempt to prepare more food on the grill in our Adventures in Grilling!

Addicted

I bought a bag of Trader Joe's Kettle Corn on a whim yesterday and now I can't stop eating it. It's perfect.

Tasha Tudor

When I was a little girl, these were two of my favorite books. I just read that Tasha Tudor passed away this week. She was a terrific illustrator, and she will be missed!

Summer=Cedar Point

The first few days of summer make me want to go to Cedar Point. My family has been going since I was little, and I can remember the year I was finally tall enough to ride the roller coasters. We make it an event now, with 2.5 days of consecutive roller coaster riding.

Cedar Point has the tallest, fastest, craziest roller coasters in the world. No other park can compare to the fabulousness of Cedar Point.

Head over to their website and watch the videos for my favorites, Millenium Force and Top Thrill Dragster if you don't believe me.

Do Not Respect!

Last night was Nick Markakis bobblehead night at Camden Yards. I do not respect those who went to pick up the bobbleheads and didn't stay for the game. I think it is in poor taste and sad.

Especially since the Orioles need fan support! They have been fun to watch so far this year, and they're scrappy.

Congratulations to the Orioles for sweeping the Astros last night! And thanks to the fans who stayed to cheer. You have my respect.

How Did I Not Know About This Awesome Stuff?

First, they are making a movie of one of my favorite books from childhood, Where the Wild Things Are. Spike Jones and Dave Eggers wrote the script, and Spike Jones is directing it. They've been having some problems b/c of the stupid Speed Racer movie, but hopefully, it will be out sometime this year.

Here's an article, if you're interested.


Also, Tori Amos' song lyrics have been illustrated and are coming out in a huge comic book called, "Comic Book Tattoo". It releases at the end of July. Pre-order it now on amazon.

Concert Report

Last week, the husband and I went to see R.E.M. at Merriweather. Added bonuses were sets from The National and Modest Mouse.

While Modest Mouse didn't play "Paper Thin Walls", they did sound awesome, and totally made up for completely sucking at the Black Cat all those years ago.

R.E.M. were kick ass, as usual. They played a great set, and are still my favorite band.

Wedding Cupcakes!

This weekend, I made a bunch of wedding cupcakes for my Mom's Friend's wedding. My little sister's helped me decorate them. All in all, 144 cupcakes took about 8 hours to bake and decorate, but it was worth it. Here's some pics...

Mr. Sullivan Said It Best

Well, it was a great night for Barack Obama last night, as he clinched the Democratic Nomination for President. However, SOMEONE is a sore loser, and didn't concede last night. I really hope he isn't forced into having her for the Vice President spot. That would be a sad day. Here's a quote from The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan today. It really sums up my feelings on the whole mess.


From - The Daily Dish:

The speech tonight was a remarkable one for a candidate who has lost the nomination, though not remarkable for a Clinton. It was an assertion that she had won the nomination and a refusal to concede anything to her opponent. Classless, graceless, shameless, relentless. Pure Clinton.

Her narcissism requires that she deprive her opponent of a night, or a second, of gratification or attention. And she has now won, in her Bush-like version of reality, 18 million votes. Her invitation for her supporters to email their suggestions to her website is pure theater, a way of keeping herself in the spotlight and maneuvering her delegates to demand a second spot on the ticket. The way she is now doing this - by an implicit threat, backed by McCain, to claim that Obama is an illegitimate nominee if she does not get her way - is designed to humiliate the nominee sufficiently to wound him enough to lose the election.

Either way, she is clearly intent on getting Obama defeated this fall if she is not offered the vice-presidency. And if she gets the veep nod, the way she has gotten it will allow her to argue that a November loss was not her loss. It was his. And she will run again in 2012.

She will not go away. The Clintons will never go away. And they will do all they can to cripple any Democrat who tries to replace them. In the tent or out of it, it is always about them. And they are no longer rivals to Obama; they are threats.