How to Run Away From Home**

1. Make a plan

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you we were giving up restaurants for Lent? And I added the caveat of restaurants in Columbus? Here's why.

So there we were on Ash Gwensday Eve, eating our "last supper," so to speak, at Buffalo Wild Wings. I was lamenting that a year ago we were going to Jamaica and I wished we had done that again this year. Aaron said "let's go somewhere now." Jamaica was a wee bit too expensive for a last minute trip, but we found relatively cheap flights to New Orleans, which happens to be our favorite city to visit.

2. Leave

That was Tuesday. On Gwensday we double checked that we could actually do this. Then we booked our flights and hotel, and made sure the cats wouldn't starve in our absence. And on Thursday we were on our way! Columbus friends, check out Allegiant Air. They fly out of Rickenbacker and have direct flights to NOLA. Be warned, you pay for everything: checked bags, carry on bags, refreshments, having your boarding pass printed by them... But if you know that going in and you're prepared, it's totally doable.

3. Have a blast!

We stayed at the Royal Sonesta, which is right on Bourbon Street. That's not something we would normally do, but this was immediately after Mardi Gras so it wasn't super crazy. We got a room with a balcony on a side street and never had any noise issues (of course we also live in the city so we're used to some noise).

Selfie on our balcony

Famished, we went to the Napoleon House. They have muffalettas on the menu, which are a must-have for Aaron and he was not disappointed. I had a meatball sandwich, which I know sounds weird but I was super hungry and nothing else spoke to me. I actually was disappointed with my sandwich but that was the last time I didn't like anything I ate.

We stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall bar called the Copper Monkey where we talked to a local for quite a long time. He was displaced by Katrina (and actually suffered through the Superdome debacle) and lived in Pittsburgh for a couple years, so we had things to talk about there, and while he liked Pittsburgh, he was homesick and moved back.

Recently we've noticed that while on vacation, we tend to get up early and thus, we're not exactly night owls. #middleagedeasterntimezone

Friday we had the requisite biegnets for breakfast (not at Café du Monde this time but at Café Biegnet, where we should have split an order. Then we were off to the New Orleans School of Cooking for a cooking class. We considered a hands-on class but that would have been $250 and the demonstration class was only $65, which includes the meal and beer. We met a cool couple from Calgary and had fun talking to them. On the menu: shrimp and artichoke bisque; crawfish étouffée; bread pudding with rum sauce; and pralines. And beer. We did a class like this way back in 1992 and our instructor this time wasn't as entertaining as that one, but we had a good time and ate great food.

Aaron playing Vanna White at the cooking class

Then we did some bar hopping and met even more interesting people, including a farmer from the UK who was in the midst of a three month US tour. Then we walked by Maison Bourbon and Aaron was in heaven. There was a five piece jazz band playing so we sat at the bar and probably stayed for four sets (and would have stayed longer if hunger hadn't set in). I think Aaron talked to four of the five band members and we were really struck by the trombone player who looked remarkably like Aaron's grandfather (who also played trombone).

Dinner was at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar and Fish House. We had barbecued shrimp as an appetizer, which is one of those dishes that everyone has a different interpretation. This one was amazeballs. Aaron ate fried catfish with a side of jambalaya and I had a combo of jambalaya, shrimp Creole and crawfish etoufée. We really enjoyed this dinner, although our jambalaya was cold.

Saturday we decided to get some culture and exercise, so we walked to the New Orleans Museum of Art. Along the way we ate breakfast at Lil' Dizzy's Cafe. Freakin' awesome. We both had catfish (Aaron's was grilled, mine was fried), eggs (Aaron's scrambled, mine over easy) and then Aaron had grits and I had home fries (I can't do grits unless they're really doctored up). They also had a buffet, which I would have done but I knew I'd overeat.

Scenes from our walk to the museum.

What we really didn't think through was the fact that we'd have to walk three miles TO the museum and then walk AROUND the museum. But we did it and enjoyed it. The woman at the desk said she knew we were "foreigners" because we had short sleeves and no coats. It was in the 60s. Luckily, there was a street car right there that would take us to the edge of the French Quarter.

Then we did some shopping and bar hopping and eventually went to Pat O'Brien's for hurricanes, just because we had to. I've learned my lesson the hard way and only had ONE hurricane (that's a story for another time). We ate dinner at the Gumbo Shop and had a courtyard table, which was lovely.

Sunday we had reservations at The Court of Two Sisters, which is one of our favorite places for brunch. They have live jazz both inside and outside (we sat in the courtyard as this was the best weather day) and a wonderful brunch buffet. This is where I took my favorite picture of the weekend:

We checked out of the hotel, but our flight wasn't until late afternoon so we did some more shopping and finally ended up at The Boondock Saint, which is pretty much a locals bar and doesn't even appear to have a website. We met some of the best people here and had a great time talking to locals and the bartender. It was sunny and 80 degrees and yes, we were inside, but the door and windows were wide open. We talked to a guy who has lived there for 20 years. We've been to NOLA five times (you might call us "five timers") and he told us that the sixth time we have to move there. We met another guy who lives there about five months of the year and he showed us a photo album of pictures he took in the Ninth Ward after Katrina. Devastating. Then there was the couple from Slidell, about our age, whose high school aged daughter was doing a project in the Quarter so they were hanging out at the bar. So much fun! Naturally the last day was the best day and we didn't mind at all when we received a text that our flight was delayed an hour.

I talked a lot about food, but saved the pictures for the end:

1. Brunch and bloody Marys at Court of Two Sisters
2. Peel and eat crawfish and Abita beer
3. Breakfast at Lil' Dizzy's
4. Hurricanes to go
5. Biegnets and coffee

We're so fortunate to be in a situation in which we could just take off with no notice!

**Note that we love home, so we weren't really running away from home, but running away from responsibilities and frigid temps and snow.

Are you doing a 40 in 40?

So yeah, Lent started yesterday but it's never too late.

I'm not Catholic and I don't feel the need to "give up" anything for Lent, but there are a couple other ideas out there that I've shared before (see last year's post). One is the 40/40 Challenge. It's 40 minutes of exercise every day during Lent. The 40 days doesn't include Sundays; you can rest on Sundays, or not.

The other is 40 Bags in 40 Days, brought to you by White House Black Shutters blog. This is about de-cluttering. I'm pretty sure I could get rid of 40 bags in my closet alone. If you click on the link back there, you'll get some great tips and ideas if you think you might not have 40 bags worth of "stuff."

Having said that I don't give up stuff for Lent, this year Aaron made a suggestion that initially made me laugh my head off, but actually I'm kind of digging it. We are giving up dining out -- in Columbus (an important distinction which will become clear very soon). We shall see how this goes...

Since this is my first post of the week, I also wanted to share that last weekend was our annual neighborhood chili cook-off. Here are the winners (categories include Best Vegetarian, Best Traditional, Hottest, Most Unique, and Best in Show).

This year's Most Unique went to a chili called "Sexual Chocolate." They even made their own sign for it:

If you can't read it, some of the ingredients included chocolate stout and cayenne cocoa,
and the garnishments were chocolate-dipped bacon, cilantro and sour cream.
OMG, it was delicious.

All about that beer

I've laid a lot of heavy stuff on y'all lately, so how about something fun? Last week I was in Portland, Oregon for a software user conference. Sounds boring, right? Wrong. Don't forget that I work for a brewery. This is brewery-specific software, so when we broke for lunch, in addition to coffee, water and iced tea, there was beer. And for me, at least, the conference was super useful. AND, we had a good amount of free time, which I'll focus on now.

I traveled with my coworker Beth and neither of us had ever been to Portland. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and the conference started Wednesday. We stayed at Hotel Monaco, which I can't recommend enough. It's unique, the staff is lovely, it's dog-friendly, and they have a happy hour every day from 5 to 6 with free beer and wine.

Yes, that's a stuffed bear on the bed. They also had animal print bathrobes in the room.

Tuesday night we went to Deschutes Brewery. My beer of choice was the Fresh Hop Saison. For dinner I had the Steak and Blue Cheese Caesar Salad, which was good but was nothing compared to the Paprika Fries (which don't show up on the online menu). Um, amazing. Fries with smoked paprika, a garlic rosemary aioli and manchego cheese. We debated between those and the Curry Fries, which I bet are also incredible.

Wednesday night we had a conference welcome reception at Henry's Tavern. This place is huge and we had an area all to ourselves with free beer (they have over 100 taps - I had Full Sail's Amber Ale) and a buffet dinner. Afterward we went to Fathead's, which is a Cleveland brewery that just opened a Portland location two weeks ago. I had the Sunshine Daydream Session IPA (you'll notice that I don't drink dark beers; I like the flavor but it's just a little too much for me).

Thursday evening Beth and I went to dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish, which has been around more than 110 years and is now part of the McCormick and Schmick's family. We shared the Dungeness Crab and Bay Shrimp Cakes as an appetizer (fantastic) and for my entree I had Horseradish Crusted Pacific Salmon, which was OMG-amahzing. No beer for me at this dinner; I drank wine.

Friday - our conference ended at 11:30 and we weren't leaving town until Saturday so off we went for food and beer! First stop: Lardo's for lunch. We loved this place and it would be dangerous for my waistline if I had one close to me. I mean, they have salads on the menu but if I'm eating here I'm not getting a damn salad. I had the current Chefwich, which you can see below and it was delicious, as were the Lardo Fries, with herbs and parmesan. I had a couple different drinks, including Rev. Nat's Hallelujah Hopricot Cider (forget any preconceived notions you might have about cider; this isn't grossly sweet and the apricot flavor is very subtle). I also had Arch Rock's Gold Beach Lager, which won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in October (oh by the way, our brewery also won 2 medals - a gold and a bronze).

After wandering around the Pearl District, visiting an art gallery and grabbing some coffee at Stumptown, we rode a bus across the river to Cascade Brewing Barrel House. Cascade specializes in sour beers, which I first enjoyed in Denver last April and I have now confirmed how much I love sour beer. We did a flight of tasters and our bartender was so friendly and helpful, giving us suggestions on which order to taste the beers, then we tried the Glueh Kriek, a hot spiced mulled sour cherry ale (which sounds strange but was kind of the best thing ever. We could have stayed there all evening but wanted to spread out our patronage. In another example of how fantastic the staff at Cascade are, they recommended some other breweries to try.

We walked to The Commons Brewery, which is kind of hard to find in the dark, but so worth it. It's a tasting room - no food or even seating to speak of, but they have eight taps and it's some damn good beer. I had the Aji Citron Reserve, which isn't on their online beer list, but it's a Saison beer with citrus and chilis so it's got a kick. I loved it. Also, I left my purse in the restroom and someone brought it and made sure I got it back. Seriously, Portland in general is so polite and friendly!

1. Glueh Kriek at Cascade
2. The tasting room at The Commons
3. The Commons' tap lineup
4. Flight of sours at Cascade

Then I got to have a reunion dinner with my college friend Michelle who lives in Portland. She's my sorority sister (Gamma Phi Beta) and fellow choir nerd and we hadn't seen each other since college. We had a lovely dinner at Paley's Place and tried to catch up 20-odd years in 3 hours.

Saturday our flight didn't leave until after 1:00 so we went to breakfast at Fuller's Coffee Shop, which is a diner in every way, and paid a visit to Powell's Books - a perfect end to our stay.

I can't wait to go back to Portland and explore even more of the area!

This week in Gila's head

Well, not totally. You really don't want to be in my head right now. But here's some of the shit swimming around there lately.



Last Saturday we had garden cleanup day. For those who don't know, there are some empty lots next to our house and for the past 5-ish years we've had a community garden. I wish I had a "before" picture because it was pretty bad, but here's the "after:"

And then yesterday the recycle dudes showed up to pick up all the yard waste:

Last Friday we went out to dinner with friends to The Table (they don't seem to have a website yet). They do everything in-house, including baking bread and desserts, and smoking meats for their charcuterie selection. (Random thought: spell check suggests "charioteer" instead of "charcuterie." Who the hell uses the word "charioteer?") We enjoyed every last bit of our meals, including dessert. Seriously, save some room.

Those who know our cat Clover know that she has short little legs, so she doesn't jump up on higher surfaces. Well, yesterday I was stunned when I heard one of the cats jump on the built-in entertainment center and assumed it was Bella but instead saw this:

I have no idea how she did this!

In cancer news, I have a surgery date, although I'm not quite ready to share that with the world, but if you ask me privately I'll tell you. Let's just say it's sooner than I thought it would be. I'll let y'all know closer to the date. I have decided to definitely do the bilateral mastectomy, so we've cancelled the MRI because there's no reason for it. Meanwhile I'm now consumed with reading breast cancer blogs and websites. I'm a new member of a club I would never have chosen. A close friend recently lost his sister to this bullshit. And today I have two friends undergoing procedures related to breast cancer. It fucking sucks. (Oh, by the way, here's my blanket apology for the increase in cursing that is bound to occur. Cancer does that. I usually try to rein in my real-life potty mouth when writing on the blog, but that will likely change. Sorry Mom, Mom-in-law, and anyone else who might cringe at the word "fuck.")

I haven't been very good about responding to comments on the blog, and I'm sorry about that, but please know that I read them all and appreciate every one.

Have a great weekend!

Guess who's back? Tell a friend.

I took last week off from ye olde blog. I was in Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference (for those who don't know, I work for the Columbus Brewing Company, a microbrewery). I went with three coworkers, plus another friend who happens to be in the industry. We had three days of seminars, meetings, and trade show browsing, and four nights free for eating and drinking.

How many trade shows have beer stations at which you can sample beer all the live long day?

Restaurants/bars that I was able to enjoy included:

• Yard House - huge beer list, yummy food; I had tacos which were fantastic and not just because I was super hungry
• Lucky Pie Pizza and Taphouse, where I discovered a love of sour beer and sampled Bacon Peanut Brittle and beer battered cheese curds as well as pizza, of course
• Falling Rock Taphouse (twice) 
• The Cruise Room at the Oxford Hotel, where they use fresh-squeezed juice for their cocktails, resulting in the best Greyhound I've ever had
• Illegal Pete's, which is like Chipotle in a dive bar setting. I like the flavors of Chipotle better, but Pete's takes that extra step of mixing up your burrito's ingredients before wrapping it.
• Little India - I got takeout from here one night when I decided not to go out and party. While waiting for my food I drank a stellar Moscow Mule. The food was also excellent.
• Euclid Hall, where the food was so good I can't even describe it. I had mussels for my entree, which were good but the side of fries with bacon aioli? Sweet Jesus, my mouth is watering just writing about it. We also shared appetizers including Shrimp and Grits Fritters, Carnitas Papas Fritas, and the Pickle Sampler. I could go on and on.

Note my fab flip flops, which I purchased at Walgreens for $6.99 due to blisters.

Friday night was the World Beer Cup gala. We didn't attend, but we had entered three beers. There were over 90 categories and over 2,000 total entries. We happened to be at Falling Rock, where they were showing the live stream of the awards on their TVs. Well, guess what? We won GOLD in the Imperial Red category!!

What a great way to end the trip!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Technical difficulties prevented me from posting yesterday, but it was my grandma's 96th birthday. She's currently undergoing rehab/physical therapy after having what may have been a mini-stroke, and damn if she isn't stronger than ever. Last year I wrote a post about her; you can read that here.

Since today is Haikuesday, I give you this:

She's one tough cookie

Grandma Elmo's ninety-six

Those are some strong genes

A Fantabulous Free Weekend Windup

The only thing better than a weekend with no plans is a no-plan weekend that turns into a fun and fabulous weekend complete with friends and family.

Friday

Obligatory cat photos coming up. When I came home from running errands I found this:

And it turned into this:

Aaron said "I think they're best friends."

We went to our corner bar, Little Rock, for happy hour. The stars had aligned and a bunch of our neighbors were also there. Then there was live karaoke with keyboards and drums. Needless to say, happy "hour" became many hours. Such a fun night!

Saturday

My mom came over and we went to brunch at The Crest. I can't say enough about how delicious it was, and as an added bonus, I saw Alexis from Hummusapien (we had met last month at a Columbus Bloggers Brunch).

Clockwise from top right: we shared the honey-glazed goat cheese balls (amazing is not an understatement); I had the breakfast burrito with potatoes (the highest compliment I can give is that I didn't even put salt on these, they were that tasty); Mom had the coconut quinoa porridge with fresh fruit (yummmm). Not pictured: bloody Marys, also delicious, especially when doctored up with their housemade hot sauce.

Then Mom said, "let's go to that store where you buy all your clothes." OK, you don't have to ask me twice but this could be dangerous. And it was, but it was also super fun. I walked out of Cheesecake with three dresses, two tops and a pair of pants (two items pictured below). Now if only the weather would cooperate!

Aaron and a few guys from the 'hood, who are all running the half-marathon in May, decided to do a six-mile run combined with a pub crawl. One stop apparently included an encounter with a taxidermied bobcat (WTF?). While they were out, Amy and I took advantage of the sunshine and hung out on the screened porch, then met up with them at their last stop, Little Rock.

Sunday

I had to sing a solo at the 8:30 service. Aaron went with me and our neighbor Michelle was there so the three of us went out for breakfast and then we sang for the 11:00 service. The afternoon was a lazy one and then I made dinner (chicken tagine, couscous and roasted asparagus).


I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Happy St. Paddy's to those who celebrate it!

Stop #16 - The Pint House

If you're new around these parts, this post is part of a series called Restaurant Odyssey, in which Aaron and I visit every restaurant in the Short North area of Columbus. Today we're talking about the Pint House, which opened last April. Our visit took place in early June with several of our neighbors.

I'll just get this out of the way. Aaron and I both wanted to hate the Pint House. It was opened by a group which, at the time, also owned several bars in the Arena District that... let's just say they're not bars we frequent on even a semi-regular basis. But we were pleasantly surprised by our experience.

The Pint House is located in a space that most recently was a clothing store and before that it was a futon store(!). The inside is pretty huge and while it doesn't have a patio, it does have a roof that opens up when the weather allows, and the large windows street-side open up, so if you're lucky enough to get a table by the window you'll be treated to some fun people watching. That's all in the front section; the back section is darker with large picnic table-like seating.

Our gang: Aaron, Michelle, Amy, Colin, Angie and Eric (I was the photographer, so to speak.)

We arrived late afternoon on a Saturday and all the prime seating was taken so we sat in the back area and ordered beers from their large selection. They also offer wine and liquor, of course. It didn't take too long for a table to open up under the open roof so we ended up moving. (I have to mention that I was outvoted on this; I always feel bad for the server if we're moving to a different section.) BUT I must admit that if you can get a seat in the front on a beautiful day it's worth it.

The menu then was more limited than it is now but we ordered a couple pizzas, the pretzel appetizer and fish & chips. One of Aaron's favorite expressions is the food is "better than it should be." It's bar food, sure, but it's good bar food. And it's served on wooden planks which is just kinda cool.

Our takeaway from the Pint House is that we'll go back for sure but only on a weekend afternoon/early evening. Later at night it can be very difficult to get in, plus there's a much younger crowd and that's just not our scene anymore. But that's just us.


Next up: Union Cafe!

Food Weirdness

Oh, the strange things that inspire blog posts...

Back in December I was in Bath & Body Works stocking up on hand soap and I bought this:

I recently started using it in the kitchen and I love the way it smells. Actually, I like the smell and taste of pear "stuff," especially in my sauvignon blanc, but I canNOT eat an actual pear. I think it's the texture and it kinda grosses me out. This got me thinking about other food oddities.

Bananas. I'll eat bananas, though they're not my favorite, but I can't stand banana flavored things. And really, banana flavored things seem so over-the-top. Exceptions: I do like banana bread, and I LOVE plantains, maybe because they're usually doctored up with not-good-for-you seasonings. And speaking of not-good-for-you, I also really like the Bananas Foster dessert at Brennan's in New Orleans, but I'm not likely to order it anywhere else, and don't even attempt to get me to eat a banana split. Blech. ***Holy shit, I just found out that Brennan's is closed. This makes me sad. Aaron and I have very fond memories of that place and here's a picture of us there for our anniversary in 2012.

Broccoli and cauliflower. Do not even try to tell me that if I like one I should like the other. No. I love broccoli: raw or cooked. I despise cauliflower. I cannot stand it. Cauliflower could go to Asshole Island and I'd be perfectly happy. Perhaps I should seek therapy over my intense hatred of cauliflower. Full disclosure: a couple weeks ago Amy D made a cauliflower soup but fortunately I didn't know that's what it was before I ate it. It was all garlicky and shit, though, so that makes everything better.

Strawberries. I really like fresh strawberries and I like strawberry jam (especially homemade), but I do NOT like strawberry ice cream or candy or drinks or desserts. True story: when we were kids and we'd go out to eat at Elby's Big Boy (as it was known in PA), the only thing my brother would eat was strawberry pie. I mean that was his dinner. Yuck. Anyway, I have an exception to this rule as well: the strawberry balsamic martini at Marcella's is one of my favorite drinks ever. Of course, Marcella's is on the Restaurant Odyssey and at our pace, we won't get there until a year from now.


I know I'm not the only person who has quirks about food, so tell me yours!


For this week's #backthatazzup entry, follow my train of thought here. "Banana" made me think of Bananarama and I chose "Cruel Summer" because right about now I'm dreaming of summer.