I’ve always had a thing for old recipe collections where half of the recipes are illegibly written on 3×5 index cards and the other half are crude cutouts from magazines and newspapers.  They jam little recipe boxes so tight they are chore to get out. 

There is something nostalgic and sentimental about these collections that people took time to create, especially now when recipes are emailed off with the click of a mouse.  I’ve got an inbox full of recipes and while convenient, it’s also pretty vanilla. 

I was sent a link (by my favorite knitting/gardening blogger) recently for a website that combines these two worlds into one easy to use, but beautiful website: Recipe Curio

Recipe Curio has scans of old recipe index cards and cutouts, so you can enjoy the sights of those times now long gone.  Additionally, they type up the recipe for you so you can make some of these forgotten treasures.

Really a lovely site, I hope you check it out.

recipecurio.com

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I don’t know about you but I’m so happy that spring is finally here.  I love the warm weather, the flowers are beginning to blossom, the trees are getting all their leaves… and the little baby animals are learning how to walk/fly.  It’s such a wonderful season!!  Nature coming alive is definitely a perk, but another wonderful perk is the fact the grill can come out of the garage, or from under the winter cover top.  Now, we could have a post just on finding out what people before more, gas/propane grills vs. charcoal, but I wanted to give you a quick tip of what my hubbie and I do when we cook veggies on the grill.  (We have a gas grill, neither of us have the patience for anything else… )

Use tin foil/aluminum foil to cook vegetables on the grill. 

How To:
Tear a nice sized piece of foil and lay out on the counter.  Cut up mixed veggies such as mushrooms, squash, zucchini, green and/or red peppers.  Pile he veggies on the foil.  Drizzle olive oil on top of the veggies, and season to taste with a little bit of sea salt, crushed black pepper, parsley, drizzle of soy sauce and minced garlic .  Fold up the sides so that all the veggies are tucked nicely in a little rectangular packet.  Take outside, and throw on the grill. (Note: Depending on what else you are serving with the veggies, whether it’s a steak, hamburger, chicken or pork… you can determine if you need to add the veggies before the meat, or after it’s already been cooking for a while.  Just gauge how long you think the meat will take.  The veggies take me about 20 minutes to cook.  Make sure that the heat is set to a medium heat on a gas grill, and the veggies are on the cooler coals so as not to burn them.)

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For those of you planning on being regulars at the ballpark this season you of course are not only look forward to awesome games, but you also are looking forward to food… YUM!!!! There’s hot dogs, soft pretzel, nachos,  bags of peanuts, and of course if you drink, you look forward to that nice cold beer.

There are a variety of different places to eat in the ballpark; the terrace club, club lounge, and the luxury suites.  Not only do they serve food the many many fans who come on out to root for the Indians, but they also have a catering service for those who come to the ballpark for a special event.  They have all types of events at the ballpark; from business meetings, special events, to weddings.  (If anyone reading has gotten married at Progressive Fields… we’d love to know about it, and hear your story.

I found a Menu of what they serve all throughout the ballpark as well as what they have on their catering menu on the Progressive Field’s website.

Food Court
Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, and Bratwurst with a Variety of Toppings
• Possible salads include: Fresh Fruit, Chop Salad, Potato Salad, Pasta Salad, Macaroni Salad, Garden Salad, Tomato Cucumber
• Traditional Caesar Salad
• French Fries and Onion Rings

Mini Marche
Ball Park Nachos with Jalapenos, Salsa and Sour Cream, and Hot Dogs

Club Lounge West Kiosk
• Homemade pizzas including Cheese, Pepperoni, Veggie Pizza, Chef’s Specialty Pizza and Assorted Antipasto.
• Pasta Action Station (located in The Club Lounge on the upper dining level). Possible pasta combinations include: Italian Sausage and Marinara, Provencal, Tortellini w/ Proscuitto and Peas, Prima Vera.

Carvery Station
Located in the Club Lounge on the upper dining level. Roasted Turkey (every day) and a second meat choice (rotated between other meats such as beef strip loin, pork loin, corned beef, bbq brisket, top round, smoked pork shoulder, salmon, lamb, pit ham)

Chef’s Action Station
Made from the freshest ingredients, this station changes daily and consists of: Green Curry Chicken Stir Fry with Steamed Rice, Fajitas, Jambalaya, Mashed Potato Bar, Kielbasa and Pierogis, Mussels

Snacks
Hot Pretzels, Whole Roasted Peanuts, Popcorn, Cracker Jack, Cotton Candy and Hand Dipped Ice Cream

Catering Menu (click for PDF link)

So, if you live in the Cleveland area, or are coming to Cleveland just for a visit, I suggest you make your way to see the Indians a Progressive Field…  get a ticket and of course…. buy yourself something to eat!!!  Cause, it’s all about the food folks. 

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Just a reminder that the contest to win the free Penzey’s Spice kit shown above is still open.  Check out this post for all the details.

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• Congratulations to our Penzey’s Spices Winner
• Recipe Contest

The Contest

The contest is very simple.  On your blog (doesn’t have to be a food blog) you need to write a post linking back to this post.  Doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just needs to link back here.  Once your post is up, come back here and leave me a comment on this post to confirm your entry.

Example: The fat guy over at Eatingcleveland.com is giving away some Penzey’s Spices.  I hope I win.

The contest will run from November 1 until November 30.  I will collect all of the links received during the month and have one chosen at random to be the winner. 

US sites only.

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Everything on the menu looked so good, that after 20 minutes of looking over it, trying to decide what to order we settled on three different pizza’s and a side of their delicious pomme frites with Belgium mayonnaise.  

Our first Pizza choice was the Sausage Pizza ($10) with tomato sauce, mozzarella & sweet Italian sausage.  The second, and my favorite was the Bianco Pizza ($6) with sliced garlic, olive oil and seal salt.  This pizza made truth out of the saying “less is more…”.   The third choice was Margherita Pizza ($12) with fresh tomato, basil & mozzarella.  I’d like to mention that the pizza served at Bier Market are a flat bread pizza with a deliciously crunchy crust.  The side of pomme frites were probably the best fries I’ve ever had.  You may order a single serving ($6) or a serving for table share ($10). 

Bier Market is open 365 days a year, 4:30 pm to 2:30 am every day.  Their kitchen is open every day until 2:00 am.

Head to Bier Market this weekend to enjoy the delicious food, the awesome service, and the great atmosphere.

Picture By: avlxyz

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Have you ever been to the restaurant MALLORCA?  It’s located on West 9th Street in downtown Cleveland.  A few weeks ago, the Latin America Sales Team that my husband supports came in to town for a week long training.  The last night they were here, they wanted to go shopping and then out to dinner.  We decided to take them to Mallorca.  Neither my husband or I had ever been there, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect.  I must say, we were both pleased with the whole experience.  From the moment we were seated to the moment we got up to leave we were given excellent service.  My water glass was never empty and the table was cleared after every course.

Since we had never been there, I decided to check out their menu online first.  I figured I’d like to have an idea of what types of dishes were being served at dinner so I didn’t end of being that “person”, and yes we all know there’s one in a group, that takes forever looking at the menu deciding what to order.  After reviewing the menu – pasta dishes, rice dishes, fish, steak…. pretty much a little bit of everything, I decided to go ahead and try the Paella Valenciana.  If you been reading our site for a while, you’ll know that I grew up in Venezuela.  There is quite a “melting pot” within my group of friends, one couple in particular are from Spain.  They used to make this dish for me and the rest of my family all the time.  I felt like trying something that perhaps would bring those special Sunday evening dinner memories flood back to me.  Indeed, it was an excellent choice.  For those of you who have never heard of Paella let me go through the ingredients so you can get and idea.  To start off it’s made with saffron seasoned rice to which they add chicken pieces, thin slices of chorizo, shrimp,a halved lobster tail, baby scallops, clams, and to top it off they have mussels lining the plate. 

If you enjoy the ingredients I just listed, you HAVE TO TRY THE PAELLA VALENCIANA!!! It’s the perfect place to take that “special someone” to.  If you end up going, make sure you let me know about your experience…. I’d love to hear from you!

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Ingredients: a bamboo mat (for easy cleaning you may cover it with plastic wrap), seaweed (Nori), sticky rice, black sesame seeds, avocado slices, strips of imitation crab meat. 

Place the bamboo mat on a flat surface. Then place a half sheet of Nori/seaweed on top of the mat.  You will need to cover the surface of the seaweed with sticky rice. You want to make sure that the rice is as flat as possible without clumps.  Lightly sprinkle the surface of the rice with black sesame seeds. Flip the rice over so that you are now looking at the seaweed side. You will then take the slices of avocado and slices of imitation crab meat and lay them in the middle of the rice, length wise.  At this point you are ready to make the roll.  Take the mat and roll it over the avocado and crab.  The put a little bit of pressure on it so it will stay in that form, and continue to finish rolling it.  One you have made the roll, make sure you have a sharp knife ready.  Cut the roll in half, and then go ahead and cut each half into 4 pieces.  This will give you 8 rolls.  This is the amount one would normally get at a restaurant. 

I recommend that you try making this recipe more than once.  It may take a few tries to perfect the art of making sushi rolls.

What’s your favorite sushi? 

Picture by: tschorda

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