Blue Man Group

Blueberry financier and coconut cupcakes

The blueberry financier with lemon curd ($1.75) were smaller than their usual cupcakes, but I'm sure it used twice the amount of butter. The crust reminded me of the buttery, firm, and sweet edges of palmiers. The plump blueberries nestled at the bottom were sweet. These women know how to pick their fruits. The strawberries from their Valentine themed cupcakes were the sweetest and juiciest fresh strawberries I've ever had.

I haven't touched the cute trio yet. I want to shellac them and squeeze them and call them George. Or buy more Totoro stuff and eat the cupcake.


Current song wreaking havoc in my head...
"Morning Dew" by Einstürzende Neubauten

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

More Somewhat Cheap Eats

My dinner plate tonight:
Beef curry rice, korokke, and gyoza

Still using the same groceries from our trip to the West Side Market last weekend, where we bought meat, fruits, and vegetables, Bug also made gyoza and a large pot of Japanese beef curry rice.

Gyoza

Ingredients:
gyoza wrappers ($2.99)
1 lb ground pork ($1.67)
1 cup cabbage, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped (dark green parts only)
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
light oil for pan frying
1/8 cup water

Gyoza sauce:
shoyu
rayu
shichimi togarashi
rice wine vinegar

1) Boil the cabbage, then drain well.
2) Mix pork, cabbage, green onions, garlic, sugar, and ginger thoroughly.
3) Scoop a small amount of meat mixture onto the gyoza wrapper. Using a drop of water on your finger, trace along the edges, and fold.
The pressed edges should be pleated and look sort of like a curved paper fan. It should have a somewhat bulbous bottom and be able to sit down flatly.

Cooking:
1) In a large pan, pour enough oil to thinly coat the frying pan.
2) At high heat, fry gyoza far enough apart so they are not touching. If they touch while cooking, the gyoza will become fused with one another.
3) Cook until the bottom of all pieces in the pan brown nicely, but not scorched!
4) Add 1/8 cup of water to the pan.
5) Cover the pan with a lid.
6) Lower heat and let the gyoza cook until the water dissipates.

The flat bottom of the gyoza should have a crunch and bounce when tapped with a utensil (a LIGHT utensil, not a Midnight Meat Train anvil-meat tenderizer).

Sauce:
1) Mix the sauce ingredients to taste.

This is a cheap appetizer or a side dish that yields 45 pieces of godly gyoza. Almost all the ingredients were already in our kitchen with the exception of the ground pork and gyoza wrappers.

Bug did an awesome job in making these look so pretty and uniform. When I tried to make these for the first time a few years ago, mine were broken, fat, skimpy, and/or deformed; basically, just all out sad.

We're planning on experimenting with the filling and the wrapper. Bug wants to make a curry wrapper. I want Jew's ear added for texture.

Gyoza freeze well, so a ton of them made it into a freezer bag as well!

Beef Curry Rice

Ingredients:
2 large boxes Kokumaro curry bricks, hot ($5.60)
3 lb beef shoulder, cut in large cubes ($14)
1 lb carrots, chopped
1 lb potatoes, cut in chunky cubes ($0.87)
2 stalks celery, chopped

1. Brown beef chunks in large pot.
2. Add water to pot so meat is sufficiently covered and compensate for evaporation.
3. Bring to boil then simmer for ~2 hours, until meat is 1/2 as tender as desired.
4. Add carrots and celery, simmer until 3/4 desired tenderness.
5. Add potatoes and curry bricks. Simmer until potatoes are cooked. Water may need to be added to obtain desired viscosity.

This should make 15-20 servings.

For dessert, we took Akemi to see her doting aunts at A Cookie and a Cupcake.

Cupcakes for dessert

I'm not in the mood to fuss with dodging that dark corner. I made a serious attempt, but after a few minutes, gave up when I saw that this was going nowhere fast.

Starting from the upper left going clockwise, we bought the following dangerously delectable cupcakes:
- apple
- carrot cake (can't say enough how much I love this)
- red velvet
- German chocolate (nom nom the topping)

Actually, they'll probably be consumed for dessert tonight and breakfast in the morn.

The cupcake of the week is a blueberry financier with lemon curd filling. They were out today, which means we'll have to return tomorrow!

- Cassaendra

A Cookie and a Cupcake
2173 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113
Tel: (216) 344-9433

Cheap Eats

Last weekend, we braved the seething masses of flesh and carts that run over your feet to shop for meat, vegetables, and fruits at the West Side Market. Bug wanted to make several dishes to feed the two of us for a few days.

Guess what this is?

Are they fish sticks swimming under water?

Close. They are korokke, Japanese croquettes, in a freezer bag.

Ingredients (prorated cost):
2 lb red potatoes ($1.75)
1/2 lb ground sirloin ($1.75)
1 Tsp S&B Japanese curry powder (pantry item)
pinch of salt (pantry item)
some flour (pantry item)
4-5 eggs, beaten (pantry item)
some panko ($1.10)
peanut oil (pantry item)

1) Prepare potatoes like mashed potatoes. Peel, chop, boil, mash, and set aside.
2) Cook ground beef.
3) Mix mashed potatoes, ground beef, and curry powder then form into whatever shape you want (patty, fingers, lobsters, Wookiee, ...).
4) Coat your potato masterpiece with flour.
5) Immerse in beaten eggs.
6) Coat with panko.
7) Deep fry until desired shade of brown.

Bug decided to make them into cylinders so they would be easier to store in the freezer uncooked. Using the ingredients above, he made enough to stuff a 1 gallon freezer bag.

Korokke with tonkatsu sauce

The korokke was a side dish to the mabo tofu, so ~8 korokke were deep fried for dinner. The rough and thick deep fried crunch contrasted the smooth potato and light curry center. The thick tonkatsu sauce adds a cool and spicy zing-tang.

Mabo tofu, tsukemono, and rice

I love mabo tofu, but mabo tofu is a sassy little dish. It's a different kind of spicy and a naughty thing to take to work for lunch. The smell of the sauce (garlic) lingers forever, not only in the office, but on you. These burps last for HOURS. No amount of gum will obfuscate a mabo aura, only time...or re-constituted dog poop wedged in the treads of your shoes.

Ingredients:
2 packets of House mabo tofu sauce ($5.25)
2/3 lb tofu cubed ($1.75)
1 lb pork ($1.67)
1/3 cup diced green bell peppers ($0.40)

1. Cook the pork.
2. Drain the fat.
3. Add tofu and bell peppers.
4. Add mabo tofu sauce, and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Cooking oil isn't necessary as the pork provides more than enough, even after draining. This makes 8 very filling servings.

Yeah, this dish is like making mac n cheese from a box. I have no clue how to make the uhh mabo in mabo tofu from scratch. The list of ingredients is follows...

INGREDIENTS: Water, apple paste, soybean paste(soybean, salt, water, malted rice), palm oil, starch(corn, potato), autolyzed yeast extract, spices, monosodium glutamate, potassium chloride, doubanjiang(red pepper, bean, rice, salt, spices, alcohol water), seasonings(rice, malted rice, glucose, corn syrup), sugar, sesame oil, green onion, soy sauce(soy beans, wheat, water, salt), salt, coloring(caramel, paprika), xanthan gum, artificial flavor

I'll let the good people at House take care of getting it right.

And three BANZAI for Bug for making korokke from scratch for the first time, as well as gyoza, which will be discussed next!

- Cassaendra

Jaunt to Jordan

Bug woke me up this morning at 5 to start making korokke (croquettes). By 8:30, he was hungry and asked me what I wanted that I wouldn't normally be able to get since he is rarely awake this early (or late) in the morning.

I plugged into Google, "breakfast Cleveland." The 2nd choice that came up was Jordan's Family Restaurant in Parma, so I went to their website. We more or less won't go to a restaurant if they do not have a website with a menu. Surprises are fun when it's a birthday present. They aren't so fun when you're hungry.

I glossed over the breakfast listing which was quite lengthy, down to their offerings that I wouldn't be able to get so early in the morning. Ooh, fattoush!

We hopped into the car and passed some spun out cars along the way because of the snow. For being near Chevrolet Boulevard, right next to the not-as-bustling Chevy plant, the snowfall, and the awkward time -- late for the early peeps and early for the unshaven masses, we were surprised to see the parking lot full.

Walking in, I was pleased at how bright the decor was. It has the feeling of a restaurant run by a woman, with plants, bright walls that weren't a depressing shade of blah, lots of snowlight, and clean tables and seats, reminiscent of a sun room.

Our server greeted us brightly and was gracious, allowing us quite a bit of time to figure out what we were going to eat. Bug couldn't decide because he was trying to decide between a few dishes he wanted to try, which is always a good sign. He also took a peek at the lunch/dinner menu and was intrigued.

We ordered:


- The Greek ($6.95), skillet w/ cubed potatoes, tomatoes, feta, gyro meat, and onions, with 3 large eggs over easy and 2 slices of buttered toast and jelly


- The Irish ($6.95), skillet w/ cube potatoes, bell peppers, Swiss cheese, and corned beef (ordered w/o onions), with 3 large eggs over easy and 2 slices of buttered toast and jelly


- side order of biscuits with gravy ($3.95) and home fries
- coffee ($1.25)
- apple juice ($1.95)

Bug gave me a few pieces of the gyro meat, which was yummy, as expected. I am not a western breakfast fan, so I let the oozing yolk run over my potatoes, and removed the white, as I'm not too fond of the strong sulfurous flavor of egg whites. I picked through all of the corned beef, ate whatever lightly seasoned potatoes that were attached, and found myself still stuffed. I wasn't surprised to find a few slivers of onions in my dish. :P The apple juice hit the spot for me.

Bug thoroughly enjoyed his Greek skillet and biscuits with country gravy. He also didn't mind our pretty Lebanese server.

When we paid, we bought a few pieces of baklava. The hostess handed us a card taking 50% off our next dinner entree.

Bug is itching to return for their country fried steak (Mondays) and some other dishes. I am curious to try their Lebanese offerings, in particular, their fattoush.

- Cassaendra

Jordan's Family Restaurant and Catering
11575 Brookpark Rd
Parma, OH 44130
Tel: (216) 267-5353

Shiba Schtuff

I spent the day website hopping while Bug slept.

I spent HOURS on I Am Shiba, an entertaining blog about the life and times of Cortez Squirrelsbane Shiba.

Cortez took the C-BARQ (Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire), so I was curious how Akemi would do. I was a bit afraid since we haven't made any effort in training her with the exception of housebreaking.

The assessment revealed that Akemi really needs training and is extremely energetic, a bit excitable, and friendly toward people and other dogs. She has some problems with coprophagia (eats poop), chewing things, pulling on her leash, hyperactivity, and tail chasing. Anyone who has spent 30 seconds with Akemi could have told you that. It was nice to see where she falls in comparison to other shiba (n=91) and dogs in general (n=10,097). I'd post the raw scores, but I don't know how to do it.

The Misanthropic Shiba was another site I visited. On the front page was a cute subtitled Japanese cartoon on YouTube, Hajimete no Tomodachi (My First Friend). TMS is an informative and humorous site.

Oh yeah, grab a box of Kleenex before you hit play.

Still listening to ~
Filigree & Shadow by This Mortal Coil

- Cassaendra

Hooked on Hermes

While I absolutely adore and frequently use my grey Hermès corded briefcase that my stepmother gave to me as a gift, I am referring to Hermes House's cookbooks.

Since our acquisition of 400 Sauces, we've been pretty impressed with their cookbooks. Even though we don't follow the recipes exactly, they are wonderful inspirations.

Newly acquired cookbooks

Three more acquisitions for $4.99 each...
:: 400 Best-Ever Budget Recipes
:: Baking
:: Cook's Kitchen Handbook

They have step-by-step and beautiful final product photos for each recipe. I also appreciate the nutritional information printed in Budget Recipes.

I feel I should mention that these books are printed in the UK so some of the recipes are interesting. "Toad in the Hole" is a classic comfort food made with pork sausage, and there are a large number of lamb recipes of which several use lamb kidneys and liver. It's amusing that a dish labeled as "comfort food" is nonexistent to my western upbringing. I was exposed to goat and lamb when I was in college, eating at Greek and Indian restaurants. I've always found those meats to be exotic and fairly expensive, not something I'd find in a budget recipe book! I'm excited to try the flatbreads with spicy lamb and tomato and the aubergine (eggplant) pilaf with cinnamon and mint.


The streets are quiet and the snow is lazily tumbling in tattered puffs...

CD on repeat today ~
Filigree & Shadow by This Mortal Coil

- Cassaendra

Crystal Lake

Bug dragged me to see Friday, the 13th. For a slasher, it was okay. Lots of deaths, lots of running in the woods in the dark, lots of falling in the woods, obligatory machete death, etc.

This was a pretty big production. I actually recognized 4 of the actors! Jared Padalecki from Supernatural; Amanda Righetti from The Mentalist; Danielle Panabaker from Shark; and Richard Burgi from The Sentinel.

Slasher films make me sleepy. Wait, I was sleepy before I walked into the theater.

Good night.

- Cassaendra

Badger, Badger, Badger...

Inspired by the yummy looking mushroom and barley soup picture that we saw in the Penzeys One magazine (vol 3, iss 5, 2009, pg 50) that we acquired during a recent excursion to Penzeys, Bug created a delicious pot of soup.

Ingredients:
9 cups chicken broth
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 lb fresh mushrooms, quartered
2 carrots, chopped
6 shiitake, sliced
1 chicken breast, sliced
6 cups cabbage, chopped
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano, bay leaf, thyme blend
1/2 cup barley

Bug took about 2-1/2 hours to prep and cook. The barley was made separately and set aside, so it could be added to each bowl before serving.

Mushroom and barley soup

The soup was clear, but well-seasoned with a pronounced chicken, shiitake, celery, and herbal flavor. There was no greasiness, which made me extremely happy. The soup was l-o-a-d-e-d with mushrooms, mushrooms!

...but no snakes!

- Cassaendra

Still Mine

MY quilt

Yoru is still enamored with Bug's quilt. Just a few seconds ago, he had his foot in the air cleaning his...undercarriage. Usually, he's just a melted furry goo in the quilt, unless you get near it.

I'm starting to feel sleepy...

- Cassaendra

Pocketful of Penzeys

We had to think of an excuse to go to the East side to justify the trip to Sonic yesterday.

Trader Joe's and Penzeys at Eton Shopping Center. Two excellent reasons. Taza Lebanese Grill, a great restaurant, is there as well but we had already eaten. I wish the Container Store was still there. The closest one to us is in Columbus, at the same mall where Restaurant Hama is located.

Bug digs shelled, salted pistachios, and Trader Joe's has 'em cheap. He has been talking about getting some curry powder as well.

Penzeys One magazine and curry powder

Since we walked through Penzeys doors 10 minutes before closing, we rushed through the store. The store always smells wonderful, but I have this compulsion with opening the jars of spices and smelling them, giving myself a headache every time I go there. One of these days I'll learn not to touch the jars.

After poking around the various curries, we grabbed the sweet curry powder. The associate gave us a Penzeys One magazine for free ($4.95). I was pretty excited so I leafed through the magazine while shuffling my way out of the store with Bug leading. 46 recipes! I think we're going to try the Mushroom & Barley Soup on page 50 soon.

No pics of the pistachios because Bug ate them all so quickly. I wouldn't suggest lighting a match at our place.

- Cassaendra

Penzeys Spices
28859 Chagrin Blvd
Beachwood, OH 44122
Tel: (216) 839-0777

Trader Joe's
28809 Chagrin Blvd
Beachwood, OH 44122
Tel: (216) 360-9320

Cream Slush, Ep. 2

This is the conclusion of my Sonic cream slush series (lol). It didn't take very long because I only tried 3 of the remaining 4.

The Lemon berry cream slush was really sour and the strawberry bits would interfere with my consumption of that sour flavor I didn't care for. After 3-4 sips, I handed the cup to Bug. He seemed to enjoy it.

Lime cream slush was weak. I'll need to try this again some time to make sure this wasn't a fluke. It was not as sour as the lemon berry cream slush, and had a li hing powder essence.

Cherry cream slush tasted like a light maraschino cherry shake. Straight from the window to my lips, the slush didn't taste very good. However, once I let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and drank it the next morning, I enjoyed it more. Oops, I forgot to take a picture.

Judging by my reaction to the lemon berry cream slush, I am going to skip the lemon cream slush.

Now that this rudimentary analysis is over, I can go back to drinking stuff off the Happy Hour menu, and occasionally treat myself to a grape cream slush.

- Cassaendra

Sonic Drive-In
9780 State Route 14
Streetsboro, OH 44241
Tel: (330) 626-9601

Pickle-Doh

A few nights ago, we stopped in at Corky and Lenny's for some deli grub. Upon entering the restaurant, we noticed a flyer on the front door advertising their meat knishes for $1.75 each.

Amazingly, service was awesome. Most of the time the service sucks moose...antlers. The attitude "comes with the territory" (being a deli) is a pretty lame excuse.

Bug and I did a role reversal this time. Bug usually orders the corned beef and latkes, while I order a corned beef sandwich. We also ordered 2 meat knishes.

The latkes were salty so I could only eat 1/4th of it and took the rest home. Bug ate it for lunch the next day, since I didn't want it. Of course, I complain about how salty the sandwich is and have no problem chomping on several spears of their complimentary trays of kosher dill pickles made by the restaurant. Those pickles could suck the moisture off sand in a desert at high noon. I'll miss those pickles when we move...

When we got our meat knishes with gravy, they were big round balls. This confused me a wee bit because I remembered years ago that I got knishes shaped closer to a disc. The meat was nowhere to be found, just lots of mashed potato, so I just wrote it off as the restaurant being stingy having mixed a paltry speck of ground beef per knish. Bug still feels that we got the potato knish and were charged the meat knish price. I commented to Bug that this was the worst tasting knish I have ever had. In addition, the center of mine was still cool.

As we finished our meal, I noticed deep fried pickles for $4.95 written on a hanging whiteboard. Since we can no longer get Pickle-Os from Sonic, or anywhere made the way Sonic made them 10+ years ago, I ordered it to go.

Deep fried pickles

The pickles didn't taste like Corky & Lenny's pickles, but more like jarred commercial pickles, so that was disappointing for me. Bug didn't say a word, so I'm thinking that the breading wasn't exactly what he wanted, plus they were spears and not rounds.

A glance over our check showed that our knishes cost $7. WTF? I inquired with the cashier and she explained that because we ate them dining in, it cost $3.50 each to pay for someone to heat them up and serve them to us. Of course, our deep fried pickles were the same price as the dine-in price. This left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

I made the remark to Bug about the knishes being the worst tasting knishes I have ever had before I saw how much they charged us for it. Having to pay double made me want to vomit.

I'm not even sure why I pointed out to the cashier that she missed the bottled soda that we picked up while we were in line waiting to pay for our check.

Bug was quite annoyed with the situation, so I'm not sure when we'll return. He made a comment about finding another deli.

It's been several days and I still feel ripped off...

- Cassaendra

Corky & Lenny's
27091 Chagrin Blvd
Beachwood, OH 44122
Tel: (216) 464-3838

MHQ

I've been reading through the Winter 2009 copy of MHQ, The Quarterly Journal of Military History, for several weeks now. It is a Bug thing to buy military publications; however, this time, I was intrigued when I caught a glimpse of the cover.

MHQ Winter 2009

I would have lightened the image on Photoshop, but my copy is currently out of commission.

My interest in history is rather whimsical, so a journal that spans time and place is more my cup of tea versus buying a 500-page textbook on a given topic. I do not mean to diminish the articles in MHQ as trivial. The articles are composed by authors and History professors with a passion for the topic about which they are writing that I, too, become transfixed with the narrative.

Perhaps one of the reasons for my lack of interest in history classes was because it was about rote memorization of dates, lacking depth, color, and texture. Oh, but I did take Sociology class...and hated it for the same reason. Or it could have been because I was hungry.

Prior to picking up the magazine, I was under the impression that Admiral Togo was a brilliant military leader during WWII. The admiral died in 1934, thus no direct involvement. Of course, those who served under him went on to participate in WWII. The article paints a mural of his birth and training in Britain, and death, concentrating on his campaigns, highlighting tactics used in key confrontations during the Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion, and Russo-Japanese War.

A related article covered the racist lubki (prints) used as propaganda in Russia during the Russo-Japanese War to garner support for the war that resulted in a shameful blow to the great Russian Navy.

It was fascinating to read about Timur Barlas, also known as Tamurlane, born near Samarqand, Uzbekistan and married to Genghis Khan's great-granddaughter, who prized artists, mainly so they could chronicle his conquests in beautifully drawn and written manuscripts as well as to erect buildings and monuments. He raided as far away as Moscow and Delhi, pillaging towns, and sending the artists to Samarqand. Looking at a few of the colorful drawings, they remind me of flipping through my father's Life Magazine photo books on WWII, just not as ornate.

The article doesn't glorify the destruction, as it is all...history, but details certain works and, in the midst of such devastation, the beauty that flourished as a result of Timur and his descendants' appreciation for the arts.

Gur-e Amir, Samarqand, Uzbekistan (image from Wikipedia)

Gur-e Amir was a mausoleum built for Timur's grandson. Timur built his own mausoleum in Shahr-e Sabz; however, upon his death, he was buried at Gur-e Amir because his mausoleum was inaccessible. I realize that Samarqand has been pillaged quite a number of times so its beauty from the time of Timur has probably seen better days. I would still love to see the ancient city.

What appears to be a recurrent article in each periodical is "Fighting Words," describing the etymology of colloquial words or phrases coined during a particular war. In this issue, the focus is on WWI, e.g., war of attrition, flamethrower, balls to the wall.

I still have more articles to read on the Battle of the Virginia Capes (American Revolutionary War); the North Korean prisoners who took over a compound at Koje-do and kidnapped a US general (Korean War); and Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Mexican War of Independence).

It's rare to find a magazine intriguing enough to read cover to cover. Mad Magazine's fold-ups don't count.

- Cassaendra

Cream Slush, Ep. 1

Since we've located a nearby Sonic ~30 miles away, we've been going there an average of 4 times a week.

Bug loves the cherry limeade so there's no way he'll order anything different to drink. Their cherry limeade is indeed a refreshing and unique drink made with of maraschino cherry syrup, Sprite, and a whole fresh squeezed lime poured over crushed ice.

Other than the cherry limeade, I've tried the cranberry and strawberry limeades. The cranberry limeade uses cranberry cocktail, Sprite, and fresh squeezed lime, poured over crushed ice. The flavor is a bit thin, so it was like drinking a pink-red tinted fruitier Sprite with lots of lime, which isn't saying it was bad.

The strawberry limeade is good, since there are chunks of strawberries, which is also it's downfall as the fruit chunks get stuck under the straw. It's also rather sweet.

The last 4 times we've gone to Sonic, or the past 1 week, I thought of trying their cream slushes. The Happy Hour 1/2-price deal does not apply to the cream slushes.

Strawberry cream slush is like eating a strawberry sundae through a straw minus the nuts. I really like how much strawberry stuff is put in this drink. Thus far, it's my favorite of the ones I've tried despite the occasional ear-popping strawberry chunks.

Grape cream slush was like drinking creamy grape Crush without the fizz. I actually liked it because it was different. How often does one come across a grape shake? This is another flavor I'll quickly return to.

Orange cream slush tasted like a creamier Orange Julius without the orange bits. It was a bit subdued for my taste. I would prefer the orange be more noticeable. Maybe I had a weak drink.

Blue coconut cream slush is interesting. Having spent over 2 decades in Hawaii, I thought I saw every type of coconut. Apparently, I did not. The blue coconut had an initial sourness, then a light brownish sweet flavor, similar to tamarind. If you are ever hankering for a tamarind cream slush, order this slush. Oh, and don't worry if you see moss green poop the next day, it's just the food coloring and not you turning into the Thing from Another World.

I still have lime, lemon-berry, cherry, and lemon cream slushes to try. Barring measurable amounts of snow, which would make the trip over an hour each way (we've done the trip during a snow storm), I should have tried all of their flavors by early next week. Maybe I'll take a picture, if it lasts long enough until I get home, which has yet to happen.

- Cassaendra

Sonic Drive-In
9780 State Route 14
Streetsboro, OH 44241
Tel: (330) 626-9601