Thanksgiving Melt

To celebrate Thanksgiving, the special sandwich available this month at Melt is the New Bomb Turkey Melt. It is a Thanksgiving meal between two buttery grilled slices of bread sounds like an idea cooked up by Willy Wonka.

Day 163/365

The meal consists of mesquite smoked turkey breast, sage stuffing, butternut squash, Muenster cheese, gravy, and cranberry dipping sauce.

As with all of their sandwiches, a generous portion of crisp french fries, coleslaw (unfortunately, with a lot of chopped onions), and 2 slices of pickles are also included.

Day 163/365

While the roster of ingredients sounds overwhelming, the sandwich truly works. I was most impressed with the spiced, sweet, plump, and slightly tart cranberries. The sauce complements the sandwich, as well as the french fries.

Of course, we packed up leftovers to feed ourselves for another meal and ordered the bread pudding of the month for dessert -- the ultimate chocolate chip cookie.

Day 163/365

The steaming amalgam arrives at the table, and reads like another indulgence -- vanilla ice cream, molten dark chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter -- but it is actually a delight to the senses of smell and taste, as well as [mouth]feel (there, I said that word!).

Each bite has a texture within itself, so it is never like mashed bananas, nor is it ever bland or dry like a loaf of week-old bread. As much as their sandwiches are a delight for their flavor, quality, and ingenuity, their bread pudding rivals their namesake.

- Cassaendra

Melt Bar and Grilled
14718 Detroit Ave
Lakewood, OH 44107
Tel: (216) 226-3699

Neon Pizza

Day 162/365

It's what's for dinner.

Well, it implanted the idea, then we hopped into the car, drove 20 minutes to Donato's, and picked up a pepperoni and Works pizza -- thin crust, of course.

- Cassaendra

Timelocked

Day 161/365

Lying motionless with the ubiquitous rolling cadence of a clock announcing each second, shallow breathing from beyond bleeds through between troughs of silence. With each attempt to concentrate on the present, the slope becomes steeper until I slip back into the viscous darkness.

Floating to the surface, the metronomic tapping fades in. Was it a second, 3,000, or 7,000 that passed? I realize the distant breaths are my own.

One eye opens stickily to an anemic yellow light filtering in from a cracked window near the ceiling. The other eye unwillingly complies. A dull pain envelopes my eyes, forcing me to squint while trying to focus. Grey dust particles drift down, becoming luminescent in the sun's path for a moment, then disappearing briefly behind the shadows cast by the bars along the window, reappearing until they melt into the oblivion of the dimness below.

My eyes slowly travel up toward the ceiling and follow another pack of invading particles. Where do they come from?

Another Sunday morning.

- Cassaendra

6 Degrees of Bacon

It has been over 20 years since "Tremors," which starred Kevin Bacon, played in theaters. Where has the time gone? I remember going to the theater to see this movie on its first run.

Day 160/365

For those who missed it the first time around, "Tremors" is playing at midnight tonight at the Capitol Theater. As is often the case with the Capitol Theater's Late Shift movies, Melt created a sandwich to pair with the movie: 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon BLT Melt ($16.00).

The sandwich is enormous! The list of goodness includes hickory smoked bacon, applewood smoked bacon, black pepper crusted slab bacon, pancetta, candied bacon, herb cream cheese mixed with bacon bits, bacon infused mayonnaise, sharp cheddar, romaine, and tomatoes.

I could barely make a dent into my half of the sandwich with my first bite. What a glorious first bite it was - a bit of hickory smoked bacon, some lettuce and tomato, and a beautiful marriage of flavors from the herb cream cheese, bacon, and mayonnaise.

Subsequent bites were on the verge being overwhelming with the combination of smoke, pepper, saltiness, and sweetness. It was like taking a culinary dive attached to a bungee cord. Just as you are about to hit the ground screaming, the cord reels you back.

 - Cassaendra

Melt Bar & Grilled
14718 Detroit Ave
Lakewood, OH 44107
Tel: (216) 226-3699

9 Lives

Day 159/365

I'm surprised this cat has lived as long as he has as much as he enjoys sitting out on in the middle of the street and under cars.

- Cassaendra

Holiday $pirit

Stores are gearing up for the winter holiday [shopping] season.

 Day 158/365

Cosmic Bobbins, a pop-up store in the Tremont West Development's meeting / show room, opened last weekend and will remain open until December 23rd. More items were added to their storefront display since I last posted about them with rings, shawls, jeans, shirts, ...

Day 158/365

Not one to celebrate the holidays, I find the retail craze this time of year to be bewildering. More puzzling, and quite obscene, are the people who are attempting to force stores to remain closed until it is convenient (for whom?) because Thanksgiving is about "turkey and football."

It is certainly not about spending the holiday with their families. Where is the decry on working New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day?

I will never understand why some people feel entitled to shove their ideals down everyone's throats by attempting to take away others' freedom to choose.

- Cassaendra

Leaves, Leaves

Everywhere...a snapshot before the evidence of the chaos 2 days ago is cleared.

 
Day 157/365 

After the leaves have been flung, kicked, and leaped upon, what does one do with so many leaves other than admire its beauty or reminisce wistfully?

Anyone have a mulch monster that needs to be fed?

- Cassaendra

Lift - How To...

Today, we're going to learn how to operate a lift.

 
Day 156/365

Well, not really. I love looking at diagrams, especially when arrows point all over the place.

If I operated this lift, it would probably topple over and crush me. Meanwhile, if I saw someone learning to operate a lift, I would likely be the first person to laugh hysterically as the arm jerks and lurches, and the person in the basket above grasps, white-knuckled, the edge watching his life flash by.

The arrows make my toes curl (in pain) because they remind me of dance steps.

- Cassaendra

Walking Wet

With camera in hand, Bug, Akemi, and I were headed out when I felt the phantom sensation of rain drops against my face. I was about to discount the probability of rain, when I felt the same cool pricks again.

I peered above at the swirling clouds, then took a few quick pictures of squirmy Akemi tugging at her leash toward the street. In an unusual decision, I stashed the camera at home.

Day 155/365

Not ten minutes later, the scant water droplets that were enjoyable in the warm breeze were mixed with sporadic plump splotches. Within a couple of minutes, gusts of cold wind sheered down the street where we were walking and the rain pummeled us with ferocity.

Flailing tree limbs bare from the high winds from the day before made poor shelter as we sloshed along. Shielding my eyes with one hand did little to help with the water-smudged distortion ahead. I struggled to keep my eyes open as they burned from the unrelenting rain slicing into them.

Within eyeshot of our place, my pants felt like leaky water bladders from trudging through the streams that sprouted as sidewalks and streets flooded.

A thought crept into my head that forced a slight smile as we noisily squished our way into the house -- I am glad I left the camera at home!

- Cassaendra

6 More Months

10/2011 - Autumn leaves

In less than a month, the gilded leaves that draped this tree revealed its naked limbs. The spectacle of autumn is brief as we invariably have a couple of days of high wind and/or rain soon after.

Day 154/365

Today, the winds were gusting 30-50 mph. The tree was bare before the high winds would have taken the last of the stragglers, which is evidenced by the clean sidewalk...or the person who resides here is meticulous. Our place has leaves piled pretty high everywhere, creating a bit of fun running through.

It'll be at least 6 months until we see leaves sprouting.

- Cassaendra

Electrified

 
Day 153/365

When we walked by, I presumed the track attached to the wall was for running electricity into the building. I realize that the cables are protected from the elements, so a stray leaf, bird, or receipt (if it really is an electric cable) won't set the building ablaze if it happens to land. It still had me pondering if it is a good idea to have plants growing where cables are run.

- Cassaendra

Rectory

I feel bad that I don't know any information about this rectory.

Day 152/365

When I first moved here, it was the first time I had ever seen snow. I spent hours that first weekend walking around outside taking photographs (not digital) of snow on hedges, snow on statues, snow on berries, snowy shoeprints, ...

It was magical to see tiny bright white puffs of snow perfectly piled on each red berry on their premises.

- Cassaendra

Bear

Day 151/365

Meet Bear, the shiba inu~

Bear is 2-3" taller than Akemi. They get along very well, which means they act aloof toward one another. He is mild-mannered and raised to be a show dog. It is *almost* embarrassing to see them together, since Akemi trots around like a bossy queen of the hill tomboy.

- Cassaendra

Hydrant - How To...

I've never seen a brand new fire hydrant,  a hydrant so new it still has instructions attached. Aside from new developments, when do you really see one?

Day 150/365

It didn't have a new car or computer smell that I could detect, just a beautiful untarnished surface.

Day 150/365

It's too bad that in just 4 short months, this hydrant is probably going to look like it has been standing there since Dick Goddard began doing weather, looking dull, dinged, and decrepit (the hydrant, not Dick). 

- Cassaendra

Murasaki

Day 149/365

Pillowy purple petals in the park.

- Cassaendra

Kitty's Lot

We were ambling down the street chatting about computers, when Akemi lurched forward and strained against her leash. She stopped at a church parking lot gate and began acting squirrely (well, more squirrely than usual).

Day 148/365

We wondered what caught her interest.

Behind the presumed safety of the gate, we noticed a cat peering back at us. Akemi stared longingly through the fence as the feline walked teasingly to and fro just 10 feet away.

Day 148/365

Akemi tends to lose interest rather quickly, so I wanted to allow her time to snort and walk away in disinterest.

We waited.

She looked on quietly as the cat slunk back and forth.

Day 148/365

Even the scratching of the dried leaves skipping down the street did not distract her. The warmth of the sun felt nice on my face as chilly tendrils crept through my thin jacket.

Several quiet minutes passed.  

Bug lost.

He instructed Akemi, "Let's go," while he motioned her away from the gate. She looked back as we walked away. After several steps, the cat's existence dissipated as a large fluttering golden leaf wedged in a tuft of grass caught her fancy.

- Cassaendra

Mag Bag

Day 147/365

A display of woven purses and doodads now grace the Tremont West Development Corp storefront window on Professor Avenue.

From reading a blurb printed on the backside of their tag, it reads that Cosmic Bobbins' handbags are "organically handcrafted from previously read magazines and are fair trade manufactured, to create jobs to help lift people up out of poverty." The purse shown above is listed at $150.

The pop-up store is scheduled to open its doors on Friday, November 11th for the Art Walk through December 23rd.

- Cassaendra

Cupcake Cat

Cats roam freely around the neighborhood. Pink Heart Cat was guarding a cupcake shop this afternoon.

Day 146/365

I don't want it to seem like we have roving hordes of felines terrorizing the residents. It is quite the opposite. They tend keep to themselves, but I'll occasionally see two cats staring at each other.

- Cassaendra

Twinkle

Day 145/365

Akemi appears to listen to Bug intently as he tries to coax her to sit. After a couple of minutes, she finally did...for 2 seconds.

- Cassaendra

76

Day 144/365

Since I don't know my muscle cars, I have no idea what kind of car this is. I would have taken a picture of the back of the car, but I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to steal it.

This would be one of the last cars I would steal. (Too obvious)

- Cassaendra

Pretty Vacant

A store sits vacant.

Day 143/365

It was just 2 years ago when this studio-gallery was being spruced up, getting ready to open.

Taken 08/2009

Prior to this gallery, the shop was a combination dry cleaner-curio shop twice, and a florist once or twice. Space gets gobbled up quickly, but with the turnover this place has seen, this may need to be a solid and unique venture.

I wonder if the cat will remain...?

- Cassaendra