I hope everyone had a good weekend. Once again I can’t believe it’s Sunday night again. We had some warm weather, but the trees let me know it’s fall.
Alex and I went back to Suzie Wong’s, which now has a liquor license and a patio. We sat outside and had a great view of a beautiful church. Well, I viewed the church. Alex was looking at an office building.
Cactus Pear is a Tex-Mex restaurant, or Southwestern Bistro if you prefer, with two locations, one in Blue Ash and the other in Clifton.
Although I’ve been once or twice before, we went again recently because there was a coupon in one of those magazines that comes in mail, addressed to Resident. Usually I get a little shy and feel like a cheapie when I use coupons – am I alone on this? It was something like get $4 off a second entree, so just enough to make a difference.
The food was good, though. Alex and I went to the Blue Ash location late on a weeknight to treat ourselves after an exhausting trip to the mall.
We got chips and roasted tomato salsa brought out right away. I understand sometimes they charge extra for the chips, but even with our coupon they were on the house. I wonder if it was because we were late, or maybe because we ordered beer?
Alex chose the Aztec tofu sandwich, which he loved. The tofu was well seasoned and topped with avocado and a chipotle sauce, and even the bread was good. We certainly weren’t expecting great bread at a Tex-Mex place, but we found it. These came with a side of roasted potatoes in a sticky spicy-sweet sauce that was really good.
I got the vegetarian soft tacos, which was a heaping portion of mixed grilled vegetables including bell peppers, onions,mushrooms, and zucchini, with warm tortillas on the side. They also have fajitas, so I’m not quite sure what the difference is (unless it’s the iron skillet?). There are more fajita choices, too: you can get portabella, eggplant, or tofu fajitas. These veggies were good. I ate them all. They were much less oily than my typical experience Cincinnati-Mexican fare.
All in all, the food was good and our waitress was really helpful when I was asking questions about the tacos. Plus, we practically had the place to ourselves. So although I don’t think Cactus Pear would be at the top of your list when dining in Cincinnati, it’s a nice place to get some good food, especially the tofu sandwich making an unexpected but welcome appearance on the menu.
In my nearly three years living in Cincinnati, I’ve made fun of the Reds, the local baseball team. I’ve talked about how easy it is to get to a game and laughed at the locals who skip work for Opening Day and then give up on their beloved team before the All Star Break. But now, the Reds are in the playoffs. For the first time in memory.
This afternoon’s game didn’t look good, but I have hope in the Redlegs to at least pull out a win or two. They’re playing the Phillies, who have made it to the playoffs with their core group of players a lot recently and even won the World Series in 2008. I even said that we should cheer for the Reds now because we’ll probably have a chance to cheer for the Phillies later. I think someone phrased it best saying, “The Reds played like the Reds.”
I mention all this because it’s a coincidence that these two teams are playing each other; I lived in Philadelphia for five years and that’s Alex’s hometown, where we met. Plus, I work out of a Philadelphia office, so there’s no Reds love with my coworkers. But I am hopping on the Reds bandwagon, and I think they can do better than they did tonight!
So, in support of the Reds, I made a Cincinnati themed dinner. Cincinnati seems a little behind the times sometimes, but the interesting consequence of that is how many local oddities there are here. People aren’t advocating progress or globalization. So instead, we have old traditions and things done the Cincinnati way.
One big-deal thing here is Cincinnati chili, which is served over spaghetti and is notoriously sweet. I made my own, adapting this recipe from Allrecipes that got great reviews. This chili includes chocolate, allspice, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and chili powder. From what I’ve heard, Cincinnati chili came about when Greek immigrants served a traditional Greek stew and rebranded it as a local food. I know the need to rebrand is true; I have a friends whose Greek grandparents had a successful local restaurant by never telling anyone they were Greek.
I made a few changes. Of course I substituted the ground beef (I used tvp) and I also put some pinto beans in the mix, which normally isn’t done. Cincinnati chili starts as a 3-way (spaghetti, chili, and cheese) and you can make it a 4-way by adding beans or raw onions, and it’s a 5-way when you add both. So mine doesn’t fit any “way” – do you think that’s why the Reds lost?
We drank Little Kings Cream Ale, a local beer that comes in 7-ounce bottles. According to their website, this beer has been delighting the masses since 1958.
The Redlegs play again on Friday. My ’Nati Night didn’t help the Redlegs win, but maybe the can get one on their own. What do you think, are you superstitious?
I took part in the care package swap through Cook. Vegan. Lover. and I got the best partner. This was my first care package swap, and I was looking forward to gathering up some favorite treats and sending them off. But the package I received in return, from Jodie at The Picky Vegan, was beyond incredible.
Just look.
There is so much goodness here, it’s hard to see everything!
She sent some awesome vidalia mustard and blackberry jam, some pure maple candies, mulling spices, and handmade pomegranate acai chocolates, perfect for fall. Alex saw me eating one of the three delicate shell-shaped maple candies and I offered him a tiny bite. He said no thanks, he’d have a candy later, and I had to let him know that he would not be having a candy later. I hid the other two for myself. However, he did eat half the sweet potato chips while I was at work today. Of course, this means I had to finish the bag when I found it open! Delicious!
There’s also a peanut butter and jelly Clif bar that was very tasty (enjoyed Saturday morning while walking downtown to Books by the Banks), oatmeal, coconut water, powdered protein shakes, pumpkin seeds, a lime ginger fruit leather I can’t wait to try, a raw cherry pie treat, a gigantic oatmeal cookie, and snapea crisps (yes they are open in the photo).
No, I’m not done yet. She also sent me pomegranate herbal tea and maple stroopwafels! I ate more stroopwafels than a person should as a student in Belgium, and I’m excited to try these maple ones. Finally, there’s pomegranate lotion, essential oil towelettes, and a candle.
Thank you Jodie!
It is cold. Between Saturday and today, it got really, really cold. I wanted soup anyway, but as it’s the first Monday of the month I needed to make a big batch to take to Ronald McDonald House. This soup is almost as easy as those just-add-water mixes, and it’s a million times tastier.
Poor cauliflower got a bad reputation as a healthy alternative to potatoes. Because we’re used to seeing it white? Because it goes well in soup with leeks?
This soup is delicious, and using cauliflower makes it super easy. No potatoes to scrub or peel. Just chunk the cauliflower and boil and steam it. Cleaning the leeks takes the longest, but even that is quick.
For this large batch, I used four large leeks, sauteed briefly in a olive oil, two heads of cauliflower, and about 6 cups of vegetable broth. It’s okay if not all the cauliflower is submerged in the broth. Cook for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
This is where you’ll want an immersion blender. I still make a mess with the immersion blender, but it would be worse trying to transfer the soup to a stand blender. Blend the soup, add a little nutmeg (or other spices, but I like it with the nutmeg) and finish with some almond milk to make this extra creamy. I like mine with some black pepper on top.
Voila! Easy soup. Perfect for cuddling weather.
Some weekends, I cook a lot. Some weekends, I take it easy and we go out or eat leftovers. This weekend had a major focus on food.
First, Saturday morning, I went to Books by the Banks at the local convention center. This is a celebration of books and authors with a several discussion panels, and the authors were available to talk and sign their books.
I had the pleasure of meeting Tamasin Noyes of Vegan Appetite, author of American Vegan Kitchen. I attended her panel, where she and three other cookbook authors talked about their books and answered questions. I was really pleased to see that when the moderator opened the floor for questions, the first few questions were for her – even if they were “what’s the difference between vegetarian and vegan?” and “my vegetarian friend eats fish and chicken.”*
My favorite part was when the moderator (a chef himself) asked Tami to talk about the flavor gap between meat and vegan dishes. Tami responded, “Good food is good food.” The moderator looked disappointed and unconvinced, but I think the audience’s curiosity in veganism showed his disappointment was unfounded. I loved her answer. She was a great representative for veganism in the Porkopolis.
Saturday night, we had a special visitor – Alex’s sister came into town. Being around this much family is absolutely spoiling me. We talked about going out, but we decided to eat at home instead. She was happy to have some home-cooked food and was amenable to me wanting to use up my produce bin. My wish was my punishment, though, because I stayed at home cooking while they were out playing.
I had a butternut squash and some collard greens I wanted to use, so I did a quick search through my Reader and found that many blogs have mentioned butternut recently – including some non-food ones! I made two recipes straight from the blogs.
First up: Lemony Orzo with Roasted Butternut Squash and Pine Nuts from Clean Eats in the Dirty South. I love roasted butternut, and this seemed like a filling main dish and it did not disappoint.
I made a side of collards with garlic, dried cranberries, and pine nuts, and I still let them cook for almost an hour (cranberries and nuts added at the end). Alex’s sister mentioned that she doesn’t like vegetables that are cooked for too long, but I made these collards for me. This is what happens when you marry into a family from a different part of the country. No kidding, when I getting ready to move to Philadelphia my grandfather told me not to fall in love with a Yankee. True story. Plus, I had never eaten green beans that were still crisp until I had the ones their mom made.
Also: Curried Squash Hummus from The Kuntrageous Vegan. I used some of my butternut and also an acorn squash, along with some chickpeas and copious spice and heat. This actually got hotter after I tasted it, so this was a pretty fiery dip. But delicious. I was digging in on this before Alex and his sister got home. We ate this with some delicious fresh bread from Shadeau Bakery.
This was a great weekend, and fall has arrived. Saturday I had a big butternut, and now I have plenty of squash leftovers to enjoy.
*I know this isn’t even a question.
I was just telling you about going back to my brother’s place after our late dinner at Kerbey Lane Cafe. He lives almost two hours from Austin, in the sticks, and about 20 minutes out of town. That’s a big change from me – I live on a busy, noisy, city street, where it’s less than a 10-minute walk to the grocery store.
I didn’t know they grew cotton in Texas.
The neat thing about being in the sticks, though, is a huge backyard for the dogs. Samari is up front; see Lugnut running, along the right?
Samari rolls around outside and picks up burrs in her coat. For anyone who thought my brother is attractive, just look at him plucking burrs from his pup.
All their pets are girls, but they also have two cats. We met Zoe in December 2009 when she was a baby, and now she’s all grown up. Alex, who has met many more cats than I have, says this the only female orange cat he’s ever seen. Does anyone else know if the gingers are all (or mostly) male?
See the Titans blanket? My brother is a huge football fan. (Good thing he moved to Texas, right?) We spent most of Sunday at their place, watching games, and we cooked. Shelby was really happy to eat some things with us that she doesn’t normally get to enjoy, like chili (even though it had beans and no meat) and tofu stir fry with peanut sauce.
I know this post is getting long, but I left for Texas a week ago, and I’m ready to be done telling you about it. When I mentioned they live so far from Austin, did you bother wondering where they live? Outside of College Station, Aggieland, home of Texas A & M.
We went out to Ozona, Tex-Mex place, which was having $1 margaritas, served in plastic cups. Ah, college life. We did enjoy some fried pickeled okra, or at least Shelby and I did. Alex ate a few pieces and some loose batter, but Andy wouldn’t touch it. This stuff was great, though – a combo of fried okra and fried pickles! My dinner was great, too, delicious grilled vegetable tacos. This came with a side of beans, and I asked the waitress if they were made with meat. She said no – but before taking a bite, I found big chunks of bacon in them! Shelby, our native Texan, says bacon isn’t meat to the locals.
I’m heading out for the weekend, but I have one last photo to share. This is a local bar advertising pitchers of cold beer and Mario Kart. Minus the Old West theme, this is my kind of place. Have a great weekend – I can’t say that beer and Wii aren’t in my plans for tonight.
