Cleveland Clinic on a Wednesday Afternoon

Cleveland Clinic on a Wednesday afternoon, I know I work here so I am a little bias but on Wednesday afternoon from the beginning of June till the middle of October sometime we have a farmers market open to all employees, patients, visitors and anyone who comes along and is in the mood for some good food and fresh produce.

I know that for those of you who are lucky enough to work in downtown Cleveland on Wednesdays it's Walnut Wednesday. If you are a twitter user follow them here @WalnutWed

I must admit I am a bit envious and would like to make it to Walnut Wednesday one of these days but as I don't work close enough to downtown for me on Wednesdays it's the farmers market.

We have vendors that have been loyal to our little farmers market since it started in 2008. the Cleveland Clinic made a union with the North Union Farmers Market (which if you are from NE Ohio is basically everywhere) they do markets at Crocker Park and Kamm's Corners as well. But we're not talking about those markets we are talking about the one at the Cleveland Clinic.

There is a band (of sorts) it's a steel drum band that I swear learns a new song each week and then repeats it  for hours till the market is over (I vote we find a new band) possibly these guys are friends of someone who work for the clinic or have family that work for the clinic or maybe the are performing for free. I am not a fan of steel drums so this is just my opinion. 

And the vendors, oh the vendors, we have guys that sell grass fed cheese (did you know that cheese ate grass?) Very tasty.

Also (not pictured) grass fed beef  I am told (I have never bought from them) tasty.

There is one stand specifically that sells Amish baked goods. Pies and cookies and pecan rolls I have bought from them (though not lately) but if the quality is the same this season as it was last season it's all delicious (and sustained many actor types during long Wednesday night rehearsals).

La Campagna, which has a restaurant and catering company in Westlake Ohio. They tend to serve tasty sandwiches today I had their tomato basil chicken patty sandwich. I would have taken a picture of it but lets face it I was hungry just take my word for it, it was very good. They make their own rhubarb ketchup and normally I am not a ketchup person (I tend to avoid it at all costs) but this was very good. 

Ohio City Pasta which again if you live in NE Ohio is a bit of a staple, they have stands all over at various farmers markets plus a permanent stand at the West side Market. All of the pastas are fresh made and delicious.

We have vendors that sell nothing but fruits and vegetables of all shapes and sizes. Many varieties (some that you may not know what to do with but if you ask they could give you a recipe on the spot and it's probably delicious)

Spice Kitchen and Bar is another stand I frequent, they usually make either burritos or sandwiches (but if you want that you better get to the market the second it opens because they sell out fast) 

Salad and soup, todays soup selection was tomato bisque with a leek pesto and house made croutons.

Also Perla Pierogie in Parma Ohio fantastic pierogies' and other sweet treats too (although I have only ever had their pierogies' as that is all they bring to the market).  

There are several other very good vendors at our market that if you want to see and meet them for yourself you need to get down here because, after asking a few of the vendors if it were alright if I post a picture of their product or sign on the my blog I felt like a bit of a douche bag. Nothing warrants me having a blog to begin with but here I am. Possibly no-one is even reading this non-sense but I will send it out into the Internets and see if by chance someone, some day stumbles across my little corner of the world and decides to stay for a while.

Disclaimer: All pictures in this post are pictures I took myself with my camera phone so the quality isn't great but it's what I have. 

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Hi!

Wow so it's been... well too long to think about since the last time I posted.

The last time I made a post on this thing was in January of 2011 :-/

So the last time anyone read this blog I was all excited and then not so much excited about the prospect of moving to a house in Sullivan. Our house is still on the market, we still haven't moved, but the prospect has changed for a house to move into. (Drum Roll Please) We are (as soon as our house sells) moving to Brunswick... Yeah I know. I have my ups and downs about this decision but this is what Dave really wants. We would be buying his parents house from them now, that being said there are a lot of things that need to be done with this place. The exterior is fine there are a few trees in the back yard and potential for gardens (which I recently discovered I really enjoy) and we will (this is a battle I am willing to fight) we will be putting up a fence in the back yard so the neighbours dog doesn't come over and shit up our yard like he does now. The interior however... I'll be changing almost all of it. It's just not my style, I've been reading Better Homes and Gardens and visiting websites like houzz http://www.houzz.com/ it's all rooms and furniture and some of the spaces tell you where to get the stuff that is in said room. I'm thinking semi rustic country. The major upside to buying his parents house is that I know what everything looks like. I know what I can do where and we both have started walking around the house picturing certain things in one place or another. We have to both agree on something for instance if I wanted to paint the living room neon pink and he said no and I did it anyway... Not that I would do that I have serious colours in mind, blues, yellows, reds, browns, grays (I'm really all over the board right now) but nothing as extreme as neon pink (anywhere). Also there's a wood burner not a wood burning fireplace but it's a step up from not having one at all (we had a fireplace when I was a kid and it was the best thing EVER). So that's my life right now, there's more but I'm not going to bore you (is there even still a you that reads this blog?) with everything at once.

until next time

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2011

Is it 2011 already? wow, weird! I have absolutely nothing interesting to say, nothing has changed on the house front (not really at least) it's on the market (has been for about 7 months) and we now have a place to move into. Incidentally it's Dave's parents current house. Kind of a touchy subject for me as I am not as in love with that house as he is (also I suspect he's all over this deal cause it'll be easy we don't have to wait once our house sells to make sure the house that we are moving to sells we can just slowly move our stuff in.) however it's nice cause I know the house so I am able to walk around and picture what I want to change once we've "taken over" BWHAHAHAHA!!! Aside from that nothing, we've had three people look at our house and none are interested, the price is good and it's a cute house (for a couple starting out or an older couple) but (and I am not a realestate agent) so please don't take my word for it but, in my opinion the town we live in at the moment isn't the place to be and it's the one thing we can't really change. Maybe someone will love it there as we do but it's a hard sell, it's not very close to the city, the commute isn't bad but... it's not by any means an easy 20 minutes. it's more like 45-60 depending on traffic and weather. I'm not trying to talk down our neighborhood or house but anyone who would want to move out there would have to love it too.

Wow for not having a lot to say I sure did have a lot to say. :-)

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Pros and Cons

Sullivan

Pros:

1. I'm sorry did you look at the pictures? You didn't? Well you need to.
2. 2.5 Acres
3. Brand new barn (built in 2007) with an indoor riding arena
4. 1 acre of pasture area
5. City water (as opposed to well) don't get me wrong I'd get over using well eventually but if we don't have to then why worry about it.
6. It's out in the country
7. I could have horses
8. The price is right
9. This is basically what I've always wanted
10. The house is small and manageable and we'd be able to add on if we wanted to (and we sort of already want to)
11. We could have a billy goat (that would be Dave's pet)
12. Dad is fully supportive
13. The house was built in 1997 (yes it's a manufactured house but seriously. I'm not that shallow that I care if I live in a manufactured house seeing what it has on the property completely makes up for it)

Cons:

1. There are some foundation problems and while I know that Dave and his father "can" fix the problems it's a matter of will they. I will have to mention it everyday and it makes me nervous
2. I'd like to be able to please my mom (this is not pleasing her even a little bit) I don't think she's even trying to be happy about it and I know she has her reasons but it's frustrating
3. It's far, while we are excited about living in the country I'll have to work at my current job and look for a new job at the same time because

A. I cannot imagine not working

B. This place is really far from my current job and while I can do anything for any given time I don't think I would like to spend the rest of my life driving 1 hour and 15 minutes to and from work.

4. Now we need to prepare our house to be sold and hope that everything falls into place because selling a house takes a lot of time and cleaning and (for lack of sounding like a whiny child) IT'S HARD!!!!

5. oh yes I don't want to have to move in with either of our parents because we've sold our home and something happens and this new house gets bought out from under us.

I'm sure that I will be adding to this list and modifying it as I go but right now this is all that I have. I know that I haven't done any posts lately but to be completely honest with all of the baby having going on around me I don't feel like I have anything interesting to say. That is by no fault of the baby having people my life just isn't interesting.

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Update on Sullivan added December 1st 2009.

Damn it, Damn it, Damn it!!! If I've seen you or talked to you since Thanksgiving you already know this but for the blog readers I don't see all the time the deal fell through. We have a bid in and everything, the people selling the property are on vacation right now and need to get back to us but we now can't do it cause Dave has hit a seasonal wall at work. Meaning he's been laid off. this is the earliest lay off we've ever had but I suppose it's better for it to happen now instead of after we've signed papers and done all kinds of stuff and are in the new house and something happnens that costs a large amount of money. So there you have it that's the update. We're still planning on a move at some point but it will probably be more like Spring.

Happy first day of autumn

Again I've been slacking it's tech week in my world which means any spare time I have right now is being dedicated to sleep, otherwise it'll be bad I'll be falling asleep at the wheel and it'll be mass chaos! I'm a serious bitch when I don't get enough sleep so I haven't really been keeping up on my blog lately. Here's what you have missed... Actually I don't think you've missed much at all, Autumn has arrived (YAY!) by far my favorite season EVER! There's pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, apple cider butternut squash (I'm very one track minded right now and it'll all about the food.) But aside from the food I love the colors, everything is so pretty and it's cool (but not so cool that we're freezing) and there's that bite in the air Oh how I love that bite. Over the weekend I went to Presque Isle with my sister Sarah to see the horse races. I've never been to a horse race before. I know you all think I'm crazy cause probably most people who go there are there for the race and nothing else (unless you're a trainer then in that case...) but all I wanted to do is sneak back to the barns and hang out there all night. (How much do you pay warmup riders? Can I totally do that? I know I'm not the right size but I'll work for free.) Yep I'm a dork but I'll say this it was really fun and cool and I'd totally go back in a heart beat.

When we wern't cheering for the horse(s) that we bet on we were admiring how pretty some of them were.

Other then that there is not a damn thing going on for me right now at all. Hope everyone is having a beautiful first day of autumn!

:-)

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Remembering a Legend

I have to admit I didn't know the last name Travers but Mary from Peter, Paul & Mary. Well that's a no brainer. this is me remembering a legend.

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Mush

And no I'm not talking about "MUSH!" as in if you were in a sled race with dogs and stuff. I mean I made mush. I know it doesn't sound very appetizing and to be honest it looks equally as non-appetizing. But it was damn good. So here's where it starts My friends Joe and Paul ask hey we have eggplant from our garden anyone want some? We'll bring them to rehearsal! And I'm thinking YUM Eggplant too bad Dave doesn't eat that stuff (see post before this about eating things plain) but I love eggplant. I've never cooked it before and have no clue what to do with it but what the hell I'll take some I'm sure I can figure out something to do with it.

So I go to the store and buy some Garlic (yes the jarred kind that is already minced up and everything, I'm sort of lazy like that) mushrooms and an onion. Tomatoes are easy to come by at my house, our neighbor grows them and I frequently find a bag of them on my front porch so that is an ingredient that I don't have to worry about buying.

First I cut up and soaked the Eggplant in salt water (you have to do this so they are no longer bitter) I soaked them for about 30 minutes.

I cut my tomatoes in half and tossed them in a pot with a little but of water.

I let those cook for about 10 minutes. Then I added the eggplant.

Again let them cook (covered I forgot to mention that before) for about 10 minutes. Add mushroom and another 10 minutes.

Add Onion and again (duh) another 10 minutes.

Add basil, thyme (and any other herb of your choice) Salt and Pepper to taste and let cook covered for another 5-10 minutes.

it resembles mush (I don't know how to keep my tomatoes from turning) but it's amazing. Add Mozzarella cheese and eat!

It looks disgusting but it' tastes amazing. I need to jar this stuff up and use it on pastas and what not especially since this bowl was an entire meal and it was a bit much for me I was stuffed afterwards. But again Dave wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole so this would be my personal pasta sauce. YUM! So I think that's it for today consider my slacking erased.

:-)

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Just another amateur restaurant review

I don't read restaurant reviews, I have read reviews that friends and friends of friends have written but as far as I know none of us are professional restaurant reviewers, we don't get paid and therefore are amateurs. This is no different, my husband was out of town all weekend (paint balling with the boys in Michigan.) So I figured I'd eat out at any of the places that he would probably never eat at and have all of the foods that he finds repulsive. One of these places happens to be Bar Symon, now I know what you are saying "how do you decide you would never eat at a Michael Symon restaurant?" Well as Dave said to me after I read off some of the things on the menu that I found on-line "You don't go to a Michael Symon restaurant and order a burger plain." (the Bar Symon burger by the way has a fried egg and cheddar cheese on it, he'd be removing the fried egg)

Huh, OK that makes sense and to be completely honest I don't think there is much else on that menu that he would eat, that is without taking everything off and making it as plain as possible.

But me on the other hand, Most everything on that menu looked amazing! Link for all that are interested http://www.barsymon.com/. Except for probably the bone marrow cause that simply freaks me out and the pork cracklings aside from those two things I would probably at least try everything on this menu.






Saturday after I got home from a long day at the barn and just wanted to relax and get some good food in me so I called Bar Symon and ordered some dinner to go. I have dined by myself before and it generally doesn't bother me but today was one of those self conscious days where I thought if I were to sit in this restaurant all by myself people would stare and wonder why I was there alone and the fact that it's in Avon Lake chances of me running into someone I know are really good. It was one of those days where I just wanted to go home to the comfort of my couch and eat quietly by myself. So I ordered the Lola fries with rosemary (for those of you who have been living under a rock or aren't from the Cleveland area Lola is a very popular Michael Symon restaurant located in Downtown Cleveland)

They were sort of that shoe string type of fry and they were cover in rosemary and salt and they were amazing!

I also got the Mac & Cheese which consisted of rosemary (I think Michael Symon has a thing for rosemary) Goat cheese and Chicken. Again so good definitely hit the spot.

These pictures would probably be prettier on plates but let's face it I'm lazy and just took the picture of them right in their to go boxes. I suggest of you ever get the chance to visit Bar Symon do it. The interior is beautiful, a mix of wood, brick and metal, Metal tiles hanging from the ceiling. Very low key and sort of rustic-ish.

Seems like a great place to go and grab a bite to eat I would absolutely suggest going here.

that's it my amateur restaurant review. enjoy!

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