Spears

Bug was in an experimentin' mood and whipped up a soup of our favorite ingredients - asparagus, mushroom, and potatoes.

What? No bacon?

I don't hate bacon. I'm just not a big fan of really salty (oniony or garlicky) foods. Bacon tends to overwhelm soups.

Asparagus mushroom potato soup

This will make 10-15 servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus
fresh mushrooms, quartered
3 lb potatoes, 1/2" cubes
4 c milk
1 c water
salt
pepper

Roux:
1 stick of butter
1-1/2 c flour

I wasn't paying attention when he cooked this. As far as I know, Bug pureed 1/2 lb of potatoes with the asparagus stems, made the roux, then cooked the potatoes with the roux, milk, and water. When the potatoes were about 3/4 done, he added the asparagus spears and mushrooms, added some salt and pepper, then simmered this for a wee bit.

The soup had a smooth texture that wasn't runny, thanks to the roux and potatoes. The asparagus played nicely with the potatoes, the two predominant flavors, as the mushrooms watched close by. I loved it.

Bug was quite satisfied with the soup also, so we're going to see an encore. Yay!

Current album...
Gypsy Punks - Underdog World Strike by Gogol Bordello

- Cassaendra

Grilled

Just a few days ago, we experienced a 30°F drop in temperature over a span of 4 hours, from early morning high (late night) of 68°F to a 36°F drive to work at 07:00. Yesterday morning, we discovered a dusting of snow on the car.

We woke this morning with a hankering for some grilled grub. Perfect weather to kick back, grill some food, and chill. The air was calm, the sky was a bit overcast, oh, and it was 31°F.

Before we could have our picnic, we needed some breakfast in us since we planned on going to Harry & David early to pick up our spiral cut turkey and ham sampler, and whatever treats our eyes and bellies would sucker us into purchasing.

Slightly smashed port cherry, strawberry, and espresso cupcakes

For breakfast, we ate cupcakes from A Cookie and a Cupcake. A new pink polka-dot over brown awning was installed above their storefront window on Wednesday. The special this week was a port cherry cupcake, with large cherries soaked in port as a topping and a filling, with buttercream icing, and vanilla cake.

Fortunately, the port was enough to flavor without overpowering, so I was able to enjoy it. My favorite regularly available cupcake is their strawberry. Overall, my favorite is still the date cupcake, their special from a couple of weeks ago.

We bought our stuff at a very busy H&D and hurried home as we had some chicken, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, broccoli, yellow squash, and linguine waiting for us.

In addition to their ham and turkey sampler, we bought 2 sleeves of thick-sliced pepper bacon, 3 soup mixes, 2 sets of pretty paper napkins for a work party coming up, and some interesting sounding snacks from Sahale that will find their way into someone else's home as gifts:
- Sing Buri cashews with pineapple, peanuts, lemongrass, mild chili pepper
- Louisiana pepper pecans with peanuts, bananas, brown sugar
- Cashews with pomegranate and vanilla
- Marrakesh pistachios with pomegranate, sea salt, and marash pepper

You're probably thinking this must have cost a lot. It should have cost $125. We had two things going for us, an overstock price on the sampler and a coupon, which dropped the price down to $50 total.

Anyway, time to fire up the grill.

Sort of.

Bug started by opening all the windows. He then flashed his seasoned grill pan that we acquired about a month ago. He cooked the chicken breasts and halved Brussels sprouts in the pan, while steaming the zucchini, broccoli, and yellow squash, and cooking up the linguine. Our place looked like a scene from The Fog.

The chicken received a dusting of seasoning that I received as a gift from CJ consisting of Thai red chilies, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, brown sugar, sea salt, and some other [secret] spices that aren't listed.

A lot of grilled yum

The smoky grilled chicken had a slight zing and a balanced blend of woody, citrus, and peppery flavors. The Brussels sprouts were awesome, being grilled to a perfect crunch. The noodles were done perfectly since I'm the noodle madame of the household, but Bug put too much garlic on it, so I whined about that a little (ungrateful wench!). The steamed veggies got overcooked a little, but it wasn't a disaster. It didn't turn to soup or anything.

I was extremely pleased with tonight's dinner, especially considering my task in helping to prepare this entire meal was to chime in that the noodles were officially done as they were delivered to me to taste. Bug even served me my platter, which prompted me to quickly get up and grab my camera to take pictures of this fabulous meal.

After we finished eating, I made numerous excuses to myself to walk past the kitchen, past the bowl of beckoning sprout halves, and swipe one or two each time. Nom.

The amount of food that Bug prepared could easily feed 4 people -- all for under $10 total.

I didn't forget to thank him for preparing such a lovely and nutritious meal, which he took graciously and cashed in as he ran across volumes 7-14 of the Blade of the Immortal manga series in pristine condition for $7.95 each (list price new is $17.95) at our neighborhood bookstore, Visible Voice.

Current album playing...
1000 Fires by Traci Lords


@#$@#$@% I just noticed on Visible Voice's website that they have a customer loyalty program, where every $100 spent earns a $15 gift certificate. *grumble* We've shopped there numerous times over the years and nary a mention.

Bah.

- Cassaendra

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

Luck o' the Irish

Since it's St Patrick's Day, we went to Famous Dave's Barbecue for dinner. And since it was Tuesday, Bug ordered the "Two for Tuesday" dinner ($25) -- dinner served on a rubbish can lid. Now that's dining with crass...err class!

This used to be a Chichi's Mexican restaurant several years ago. Not much of the place has changed structurally, but it's transformed quite nicely.

Entrance

We were so impressed with our first experience here that we've returned...this time, with a camera! This post will be fairly text sparse since I've already made it clear that I love this place in my previous visit here.

I wish there was a way to peel off some of the food from the screen...

Sauces

At each table, there are five sauces plus ketchup in each carrier. The napkins are paper towels fitted into a pipe and wood contraption.

Depending on the server, you'll get a complimentary bowl of wedge-cut fries to try out their 5 sauces. Because of their peppery flavor and slight zing, my favorite sauces are the Devil's Spit and Texas Pit. I'm not one for very sweet and tangy or mustard sauces, so the Rich & Sassy, Georgia Mustard, and the Sweet & Zesty are all right.

Smoked salmon spread with fire-grilled flatbread

As I mentioned in my previous visit, I ADORE the smoked salmon dip here, especially the crumbled smoked salmon atop the spread. It's how I imagine an opium haze to feel.

Flatbread

I actually doubled the amount of spread on subsequent slices, and we still had leftovers to munch on. The flatbread is delicious on its own, peppery with a nice char.

Two for Tuesday

The Tuesday special is their "Two for Tuesday," a dinner for two for $25. I actually didn't want to order this much food, but Bug loved the idea so I went along. It turned out great because we had leftovers for my lunch and his the next day.

What do you get for $25? 6-7 ribs, ~8 thick slices of brisket over Texas toast, 1/2 of a roasted chicken, 2 cobs of corn, 2 corn muffins, a bowl of baked beans, a bowl of cole slaw, and wedge-cut fries.

The chicken was great like last time, except this time around it was better because there was no lemon pepper running interference, which is funky for me to say since I am a poultry burn-out. The beef brisket is, as always, STELLAR that it HAS to cause cancer because it's SOOOO good.

Nappy time

I hate to repeat myself, but Famous Dave's is consistently awesome in every way. This is one of our favorite restaurants in the city.

- Cassaendra

Famous Dave's
26410 Great Northern Shop Ctr
North Olmsted, OH 44070
(440) 777-0200

Spring Preview

It has been nice out this weekend, 50s during the day (upper 20s overnight though) -- cool enough for Akemi's heavy coat and warm enough that we aren't strapped into Arctic tundra suits to take her out for walks. Mush!

Akemi enjoying the morning air

We're regulars at India's Cafe every since we walked through their door for the first time 1-1/2 years ago. The price of the buffet has gone up from $5.95 to $8.95, but so has the number of items offered. Also, the buffet is, instead, on the weekends so it's accessible without taking a day off from work.

Bug's plate

From the top left going clockwise, Bug had spinach and cheese, lentil, and lamb curries over basmati rice, pickles, pakora, and aloo baigan sabji (curried potatoes with eggplant).

The "aloo" dish rotates each time we've gone. My favorite is aloo gobi (potatoes with cauliflower).

There are always two vegetarian curries offered. The spinach and cheese curry is a mainstay. The other is usually a chickpea curry. Of course, this week it was lentil curry.

Samosa are also served with pakora as appetizers.

Papadum and pickles

We love their papadum, a delicate, thin, crisp, and smoky flavored chip with cumin seeds. I wish they were offered at stores along the chip aisle. Of course, this would never happen, as they are very delicate and would be pulverized one day out on the floor.

The pickles are a wonderful kick in the pants. I LOVE them! I still don't know what they're made of. At first, I thought they were limes because of the sourness, but there's a shell fragment attached that's similar to mango. I need to ask the owner one day.

Other offerings in the pickle platter are raw white onion slivers and chili peppers.

Nan

Their nan is always fresh made. While not being a huge fan of bread, I will eat nan by itself here. Some weeks, the bread offering changes from nan to poori or chapati. From what I've been able to gather, nan is baked using leavened white flour. Chapati is cooked on a griddle using unleavened wheat flour. Poori is deep fried using unleavened wheat flour. Thus far, the soft, tender, and light poori are my favorite!

My plate

My plate is a bit simpler. I had tandoori chicken, a spinach and cheese curry, and lamb curry over basmati rice. This is all I usually eat, plus dessert.

The red meat curry alternates between lamb and goat. I adore their goat curry. It comes bone in, versus the lamb that comes boneless. The two curries have a very rich, deep, spiced flavor, tasting a lot different from the chicken and vegetarian curries. Part of it must be the meat, but I'm sure different seasonings are used as well.

The chicken pan varies between tandoori chicken, butter chicken, and chicken curry. Despite not being a fan of chicken, I do love his chicken offerings. A lot. The tandoori chicken above had a slight smoky flavor and a dusting of spices. It's my favorite of the chicken dishes.

Bug and I shared a mango lassi ($2.99).

I forgot to take a picture of the two dessert offerings. I do not know the names of the desserts, but one was a cool, sweet, milky rice pudding. The other was not particularly sweet and looked like farina (Malt-o-Meal) with almond essence, honey or brown sugar, and slivered almonds sprinkled on top. It wasn't tightly packed like halvah, just the same texture as Malt-o-Meal that you'd eat at breakfast. I wanted to eat a vat of this!

The desserts from week to week vary. Aside from what we had recently, we've had a milky vermicelli dessert, dough ball in a light syrup that was surprisingly not cloying, carrot halvah, and mango ice cream.

A smart business move regarding spice level with the buffet is that the offerings are not spicy (hot/caliente!) at all, so those with gentle palates can enjoy everything offered without worrying that the food will sear on the way in and out. The heat can be layered by pairing the meal with the raw onions and chili peppers offered.

When ordering meals a la carte, the heat level is made to order. The serving sizes are huge, too.

The owner is a very kind man and makes us feel at home each time we go. He always remembers that I order mango lassi. We also see other regulars who, it seems, dine there more often than we do ranging from families, students, businessmen, to a gathering of grandfatherly men. We're almost always the only non-Indians in the restaurant, which, in my mind, gives the place a stamp of authenticity.

- Cassaendra

India's Cafe & Kitchen
5549 Ridge Rd
Parma, OH 44129
Tel: (440) 842-7724

Death in June

These lyrics have been floating in my head for a day or so...

From the ashes of liars
Grow the flowers of hope
From the steeples and spires
Hang each tear from a rope

...and now I'm on a mission to re-acquire The World that Summer, by Death in June, my favorite album of theirs. I used those lyrics from "Come Before Christ and Murder Love" (above) for a senior yearbook page that my friends and I bought.

The embossed flowers covering the entire LP cover was my favorite. I bought it at Reckless Records when they had just opened on Haight Street during one of my annual summer trips to San Francisco with my mother.

There was an inscription along the center of the LP that I had forgotten about until I saw the lyrics on their website. I remember "one is the number..." but I don't remember "anonymous in glory." Back then, I used to look forward to opening up my LPs to read the inscriptions.

Come Before Christ and Murder Love

Drown me with your sorrow
Taint me with your treason
To find your God is hollow
Brings death to all reason

Wolf grey adonis
A cruel life dawns
Curse me with obsessiveness
Futility and scorn
Moved to speak?
You made your choice
We had our chance
And lost our voice

Your alleyway, your terror
Glistens with despair
Dead meat and error
The only crown I'll wear

From the ashes of liars
Grow the flowers of hope
From the steeples and spires
Hang each tear from a rope

Moved to speak?
You made your choice
We had our chance
And lost our voice

I still classify this as goth, but it's labeled as folk rock or Neofolk (!).

- Cassaendra

Soup Kitchen

Bug went on a soup spree and was inspired by a few soups posted at Allrecipes.com. He decided to try the avocado and bacon (surprise!) and the beef barley lentil soups first.

There wasn't much deviation from the posted recipe for the avocado and bacon soup. The recipe below includes his changes, but is more or less taken verbatim from the original post.

Avocado and bacon soup

Avocado and Bacon Soup
Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb bacon
1 red onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 qt chicken stock
2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and chopped
1/2 c white wine (we used Dona Paula Los Cardos chardonnay 2006)
1 lime, juiced
1 c heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until evenly brown. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon grease in the skillet, chop, and set aside. Place onion and celery in the skillet, and cook until tender.
2. Transfer the onion and celery to a blender or food processor. Pour in 1/2 the chicken stock, add avocados, and blend until smooth.
3. Transfer blender mixture to a large pot over medium heat. Whisk in remaining stock, wine, lime juice, and heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until heated through, but do not boil. Garnish with chopped bacon to serve.

Bug blended this until *mostly* smooth. He wanted a bit more texture to the soup. He loved it, I liked it and would eat it again. When queried what I would change about this recipe to transform it to a soup I'd love, I haven't been able to place my finger on it. The nutty, slight sourness, viscous, and crunch were all technically good. The bacon was overwhelming for me, so I did not add it to subsequent bowls. I'm sure Bug secretly jumped for joy - yeah, more bacon!

The key to not failing with this, or cooking with avocados in general, is to watch over it constantly and not let it boil. I had always wondered what happened to my mother's fabulous (in theory) soup until I read a comment posted on this recipe.

My mother made a seasoned avocado puree and ladled them in six avocado shells with shrimp and crab packed on the bottom. She placed them in the oven to cook. When they came out of the oven, it smelled great and made a beautiful presentation for dinner straight from the oven.

I LOVE shrimp, crab, and avocados so I anxiously awaited my first bite. When we all finally arrived at the table and took our first bites, I was stunned...it was BITTER like nothing I've ever had to this day.

My mother got up and threw away her serving and the remaining servings sitting in the kitchen. She asked me to hand mine over. I ate a few more bites. My father ate the soup in its entirety without complaint. She was so disappointed. It was my mother's only failure in cooking I've ever witnessed.

~~~

Bug was a little more liberal with the posted recipe for the beef barley lentil soup. The directions are different because we don't have a slow cooker, so I've altered it to reflect cooking with a pot over a burner and an onion hater in the midst.

Beef barley lentil soup

Beef Barley Lentil Soup
Makes ~20 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 red onion, chopped
4 c red potatoes, cubed (1/4 inch pieces)
2 c celery, chopped
2 c baby carrots, diced
1-1/4 c dry lentils, rinsed
1 c medium pearl barley
12 c water
2 tsp beef bouillon granules
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes

Directions:
1. Cook beef. Drain. Set aside.
2. Cook onions, celery, and carrots in water and bouillon on low for 1 hour.
3. Combine vegetables, beef, lentils, barley, and tomatoes in stock pot. Add salt and pepper.
4. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours.
5. Add potatoes. Cook on low for another hour.

This was our first time using lentils at home. The smell of the beans when I got home was a bit overwhelming, but the soup was fantastic. I loved the super beefy and vegetable flavors, as well as the various textures of the barley, lentils, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and meat. The vegetables were nicely done with no onion crunch (yay!). It was a great combination with my smoked turkey sandwich.

I actually consumed dessert before my bowls of soup -- chocolate stout cupcakes from...

Chocolate stout cupcake

Surprise! A Cookie and a Cupcake. I enjoyed the airy cake. The almond dust blended well with the sweeter icing and the subtle bitterness of the chocolate.

There's only one cupcake displayed because I scarfed mine down before thinking about taking a picture (notice the incriminating crumbs left behind). Who would want to see two of the same cupcake in a picture anyway, right? Yeah...

I am anxiously awaiting next week's cupcake of the week, port cherry vanilla!

- Cassaendra

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

Ha Ahn

I didn't feel up to eating lunch today and wasn't feeling well or hungry when we stopped in at Ha Ahn at 4 for an early dinner.

The banchan format has changed since our first visit here. In the past few months, they've changed from little platters shared between diners to a separate sectioned platter of banchan for each person, as shown in the background below.

Kim bap

We ordered kim bap ($5.95), a Korean rolled rice dish similar to sushi, with carrots, crepe, takuan, spinach, and imitation crab wrapped in Korean nori. I've been an addict of Korean nori for years. My father introduced them to me and sends me packets of them in care boxes. It was only in the past month or so that I tried kim bap. While it is a little greasy on the fingers, I love the blend of vegetables and sesame, and especially enjoy the firm texture.

Bug wasn't overly impressed with the banchan assortment today. It wasn't bad -- Napa cabbage kimchi, fried tofu and onion strips in sesame oil, sausage (kielbasa?) and onions, and potato tempura.

Beef jjigae

I ordered dwenjang jjigae ($8.95) or maybe it was another kind of jjigae (hehe). I don't recall which, but it was a chili peppery soup with beef and tofu brought to the table bubbling intensely in a cauldron. I wish I could have done the lava justice in the photograph. A raw egg is cracked over it, where the heat warms the egg. It doesn't cool the soup by much! Whichever jjigae it is, I really like it.

Dolsot bibimbap after it was mixed with gochujang

Bug ordered dolsot bibimbap ($8.95). When this arrives, it is like watching fajitas swish past you, but Asian -- the scent of sesame oil, the sizzle of the rice, and the array of colors. The ingredients arrive neatly arranged and then some magic happens. A bottle of YUM (gochujang and umm faerie dust) is squeezed over everything and the bowl of rice, egg, carrots, zucchini, beef, nori, and bean sprouts are transformed in a ray of light and chorus of angels sort of way. I love it!

We always enjoy eating at Ha Ahn because their food tastes good, it is relaxing, relatively close to home, and the prices are decent. It is one of two Korean restaurants, of the four that we know of, that we frequent; the other being Seoul Garden with the 14 banchan (!). We've even run into the proprietress of Seoul Garden eating here.

- Cassaendra

Ha Ahn Korean Restaurant
3030 Superior Ave E
Cleveland, OH 44114
Tel: (216) 664-1152

Private Future

I'm home sick with cramps and diarrhea (yum!) from who knows what. If I were in Taiwan, I'd probably scoot over to Modern Toilet. I really like the shave ice dish on the bottom! I would so wipe that bowl clean.

With nothing butt time, I've thought more about some future projects -- immediate and long term.

In the near future, I plan on making okonomiyaki with Bug. For years, I've been telling Bug about my mother making this when I was young. My father does a better job of describing the dish in an article from the Honolulu Advertiser. The great thing about okonomiyaki is that it can range from very simple to quite elaborate. Even though there are expected ingredients, it really comes down to what you want to put in it.

Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima (image taken from Wikipedia)

For an extremely quick lunch, my mother would make it with shredded cabbage salad that we would buy in plastic bags at the grocery store. It was a "pantry item" for us since my mother almost always served a small serving of salad with western meals.

My father and I were treated to okonomiyaki by our family in Hiroshima. It was delicious but difficult to finish because of the serving size with numerous layers of texture and flavor -- grilled noodles, crepe, vegetables, katsuobushi, squid, sauce, and my favorite Kewpie mayonnaise.

This was the only time I've ingested the sauce combination since my takoyaki fiasco years previous...and enjoyed it. Two weeks of a severe case of diarrhea while on vacation with my mother in Okinawa visiting family (oh my, we have a theme going!) when I was a teenager sort of ruined the sauce for me.

Takoyaki (image taken from Wikipedia)

I ate a family-size box of takoyaki and dipped it with GOBS of sauce while riding in a van for a long time -- think of a carrier 2x bigger than a 20-piece McNuggets box. My cousin's son, Joji, who was only ~3 years old, stared at me the entire time. I don't recall if it was in disbelief that the strange pig-lady ate the entire box, or if he just wanted one morsel.

A life lesson my mother passed on to me and I will pass on to anyone reading this -- avoid ordering okonomiyaki at a ramen-ya. The experience is akin to expecting a well made poached [insert your favorite fish] at a hamburger joint.

A long term project that's just in the kicking-around-in-the-mental-sandbox phase is to publish a family cookbook. My dream would be to have step-by-step color pictures of family preparing their recipe. I would like to have kids and adults contributing and I don't want it to look cheesy or half-assed.


Current MP3 music folder...
Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven by Love and Rockets

I'm showing my age! "A Private Future" is one of my favorite songs off this album. I bought the UK version LP when it came out while I was in high school and have fond memories listening to it a lot lying in bed at 3 a.m. with the crisp air creeping in while doing my homework.

A Private Future

Thinking of your private future
You snatched at the trees
In the starry dark green sleep
Thinking of your private future
You think at the river and set it flowing
A late fog's lifting a fast wind's rising
So you turn to reflect on your brief life
Session slip

Thinking of your private future
Cut by the scars of timeless coming back
Realize the unreachable is nothing
Cool winds wash down your hope and you slipped
Cool winds wash down your hope and you slipped

God's good to the humble
As the devil is to fools
Stop looking back in anger
Cause you can't change the rules
Believe in where you're going
But don't lose your yesterdays
To terrify to cry its true
Your life is just a game

So I need a million dollars
To sit on mountain tops
To see the stars surround you
Is to see an awful lot
I see the work of sinners
I see the work of saints
So I see the work of everyone
That's ever ever played

Sleep without reason
Your laughing masks your love
You've got so many scars
How does it feel deep in your heart?

Cause when the covers blown over
It'll crack up your skin
So now you're drowning your sorrows
In whiskey and sin

Live the life you love
Use a god you trust
And don't take it all to seriously

- Cassaendra

WTH

The past 2 months, when I've taken my dog out for a walk, I would run into one, MAYBE two, other people walking their dogs. Since the warm front yesterday, I've seen 4 people walking 3 dogs at a time, 3 people walking 2 dogs at a time, and 5-6 people each walking 1 dog in a span of 45 minutes. Where did all these dogs come from?

One elderly woman was having a hard time controlling her three barking half-pint bloodhounds -- well, that's what they looked like. She was hunched with one dog spilling from her arms and the other two straining at their leashes hopping and barking in tandem.

I'm afraid to see what the poop piles look like when I take Akemi out tonight.

- Cassaendra

Nobody Better Lay a Finger

Because we were too late on Tuesday for the weekly special at A Cookie and a Cupcake, we stopped in today. Perhaps walking in one hour before closing on the first day of their weekly special is a bit wishful thinking.

This months weekly cupcakes are:
March 3rd - 8th: brown sugar cake?
March 10th - 15th: chocolate stout
March 17th - 22nd: port cherry vanilla
March 23rd - 29th: vanilla cake with orange custard and butterscotch frosting

Their regular vanilla cake is with vanilla buttercream.

Date cupcake and Butterfinger cheesecake

I got the last date cupcake, the special today? this week? It looks a bit daunting, but the steam pudding made with dates was quite amazing. I'm not sure why I was so surprised. I've never had steam pudding before. The spicy, not so sweetness, molasses, and almost chewy texture were quite enjoyable.

The Butterfinger cheesecake was good, but I think I'll order the plain next time. While I like Butterfingers, there's something about the nutty orange stuff that, for me, clashed with the normal sourness of cheesecake. It was almost as if the flavors were so close, but not close enough, so it was slightly off-key. My tongue is weird, I realize that.

The other personal cheesecakes available are Oreo, apple caramel, and New York style. This is the first month cheesecakes have been offered, so they are being made in small batches.

Orange and pistachio macaroon

The pistachio cream and puffs of orange bliss are a great combination. The pastry is moist and airy with an interesting puffy chew. There are three to a package. Between Bug and I, we usually inhale all of them before we've gotten out of the shadow of the storefront.

I would love to dive into a pool of these. This would beat out my other dream of being in a pen with 50 really young, fluffy little chicks (the kind that go peep), having the fuzzies running all over me peeping away...as long as someone takes the time to tape their little poopers so there are no droppings.

- Cassaendra

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

California Dreamin'

To avoid the early evening grocery store rush, we stopped by Target to get some olives needed to complete the spaghetti Bug made for dinner. As we walked the long way around to the grocery section, I picked up a notepad and a nice dark grey polo shirt for Bug. Bug grabbed some mozzarella cheese and a stinky pew-pew container of parmesan and asiago cheese. :(

While Bug was standing in line to pay for our filled shopping basket, I peered over at the food counter, then found myself standing before a refrigerator of salads and drinks. An Archer Farms California chicken salad ($4.00) sitting on a shelf caught my eye, as well as the pomegranate blackberry water.

S-U-C-K-E-R.

Yeah, so what?

Archer Farms California chicken salad

The salad contained Romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, whole walnuts, feta crumbles, and dried cherries.

I picked through the salad and ate most of the lettuce and all the walnuts, feta, and cherries. The textural and flavor combination was quite delicious. The crisp and umm nutty walnuts, the smooth, creamy, and inoffensive feta, and the moist, plump and wrinkly, tart and sweet cherries. The poppy seed dressing was meh so I tossed it. The chicken could go, since I don't really care for chicken. The lettuce was crisp. I would buy it again.

Bug's baked basghetti

The baked linguine with beef, tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives was delicious!

I wonder what makes a salad "California." The dried cherries? I'd ponder on this more, but I am too full to care.

- Cassaendra