Poor Oscar woke up with a skin infection around his ears. Hugo made it worse, while he probably thought he was helping, by licking them til they were extra sore.
So it was off to the vet to get pills, drops and a lovely inflatable neck pillow. Cones don't work well on pugs without a neck. They even shaved the fur below his ear.
He will be better soon, but in the meantime he looks like a passenger on a cruise ship. "Is this ship going down or what?!"
When Aaron and I were at The Cub Room, he ordered a Bloody Mary. I tried a sip... and I liked it... except for the alcohol. What can I say? I'm not much of a drinker.
I wanted to make our own at home so I could leave the alcohol out of mine... and experiment with what sort of additions I could have sticking out of the glasses!
After looking online and doing some tweaking, this was the recipe we came up with.
3 cups of tomato juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons lime juice
1/3 cup pickle juice
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons horseradish
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon pepper
(if you are having it spiked - 1 oz vodka)
For garnish, we rimmed the glasses with bacon salt and added sticks of bacon and stirrers speared with olives.
I would also like to point out that I don't like the name "Bloody Mary", (invented and first called that in 1921). A drink with the word "blood" in it grosses me out. I have opted to call these "Spicy Mateys".
When were were in Korea, I remember seeing street vendors selling sweet pancakes or hotteok. They are a crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside, sweet brown sugar syrup filled delight.
I thought about making some from scratch, but then I spied this box of mix at the Korean grocery store and it seemed the way to go.
Plus it came with the handy dandy pancake squasher tool pictured above.
They were easy to make and I put the squasher to good use.
They are supposed to be a snack food but we had them for breakfast. Really can't go wrong with sweet and yummy for breakfast.
The seed catalogs have been flooding our mailbox. Time to start planning our spring garden.
I get a little overly excited when I see a new reusable bag design at Wegmans. This one is especially cool because it is for Wegman's 100 Year Anniversary. If you are from Rochester or live anywhere near a Wegmans, you know this is the equavalent of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Wegman's never does anything halfway so there are plans for cake and more to celebrate 100 years.
In other Wegman's news, as I was trolling the aisles, I spied this new Smartfood Spicy Jalapeno Ranch popcorn. I LOVE popcorn so I threw two bags into my cart in a flash and tore into one bag in the car.
There is nothing on the Smartfood website about this delightful product, so I am left to wonder - what else is out there?!!!
UPDATE: a search revealed that somewhere out there you can also find Smartfood Buffalo Cheddar Flavored Popcorn!
After spotting this in the end credits of The Man from UNCLE, it would appear that it is actually the man from Rochester, NY!
After seeing all the Korean food at The Cubroom yesterday, I had a hankering for some kimchee. Aaron and I picked up a few supplies and make a batch at home.
Actually we made a lot. I need a bunch of recipe ideas for using up kimchee.
Here is the recipe from when my mom first taught me how to make kimchee.
Is it possible to have two fantastic brunches in one weekend? Well, yeah! Keeping with our South Wedge circle of delicousness for the weekend, today's brunch was enjoyed at The Cubroom.
While McCann's Local Meats (where we ate yesterday)only has brunch on Saturdays, The Cubroom only has brunch on Sunday. Starting at 11:30 to be exact. Did we have to drive around for half and hour waiting for them to open? Yes.
The Cubroom opened in the Spring last year and the owners are from NYC. It is said that it is modeled after the Stork Club which explains the environment which is a little more upscale with a Great Gatsby feel but still comfortable. The menu is very experimental and eclectic. They feature a lot of locally sources items like meat from McCann's.
In fact, I don't think I can explain the dishes that Aaron and I got for brunch. I'll just copy and paste them from the menu...
Aaron got Red Wine Baked Eggs - polenta, wild mushrooms, parmesan cheese and I had The Banger - IPA BAners, blue cheese/bacon bread pudding, fried duck egg, Java stout red eye gravy. See what I mean? Not your usual fare.
One of the best parts was the Scotch Egg we split as an appetizer. A Scotch Egg is a hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, rolled in bread crumbs and baked or deep fried. It starts to make me think of a Turducken. Why stop there? Wrap it in bacon and put it in a pork chop!
The Cubroom's Scotch Egg is soft boiled which I loved. I have toyed with the idea of making them at home but they seem difficult. How do you get the sausage to stick to the egg?!
Maybe I'll just keep going to The Cubroom to get them.
This weekend I vowed to visit two fairly new spots (opened this summer) in the South Wedge. Add in last night's trip to The Playhouse/Swillburger and it's a South Wedge weekend! The two spots are McCann's Local Meats and The Cubroom.
We hit up McCann's Local Meats for brunch this morning. McCann's is primarily a butcher shop that offers some deli items and has a small cafe. It has a very cool open vibe with chalkboards and giant meat coolers. We were impressed with the big chain belts the butchers wore with all their knives attached around their waists.
Aaron's beef, egg and cheese sandwich looked so amazing I had to take a picture of it before my own food. I got a few bites so I can say it tastes as good as it looks.
I got a chorizo and kimchee frittta. Kimchee you say? Yes. The owner's wife, or should I say Yeonmo McCann, is Korean. Besides this surprise ingredient there was bulgogi, japchae and Korean stew available in their display case also.
While chatting with the owner, Kevin McCann, he mentioned "Koreans are very similar to Germans. They both like to ferment cabbage." Boy was he spot on - (we have made our own saurkraut and kimchee at home).
Note that an order of beef fat french fries rounded out this brunch nicely. ALSO note that McCann's only has brunch on Saturdays.
We got a pack of pork chops to try at home. Marinated in a hard cider! UPDATE: THE PORK CHOPS WERE DELICIOUS TOO.
You can follow McCann's Local Meats on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Over in the South Wedge neighborhood, there is a very cool new establishment. Within an old building that was once a church then a machine shop then a theater, is now The Playhouse and Swillburger. This includes burgers, a bar and an arcade. How many cool things can you fit in one spot?
Aaron and I went there for a date night. Swillburger offers just what you would think - burgers. Besides the burgers you can get fries, a salad or milkshakes. I noticed that one of the burger toppings was hot jam. I didn't get it but I really need to try it sometime.
I thought the fries were fantastic. Thin and crispy. We also got an order of vampire fries which are covered with garlic. That was a bit overwhelming.
We didn't get anything at the bar but we did enjoy the arcade. My favorite is the zombie shooting game, House of the Dead.
To top it all off, Ugly Duck Coffee was there with their pop up espresso bar. I have been trying to catch up with UDC for awhile so it was nice to try them out.
Turns out one of the owners of The Playhouse is the owner of the Owl House, another favorite spot in Rochester. All in all, The Playhouse and Swillburger make for a great date night!
You can follow The Playhouse and Swillburger on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
We have made the last step in our journey of Cutting the Cord. The cable cord. While we got rid of cable five years ago, we were still getting our internet through the cable company. Finally, Greenlight Networks came to our neighborhood with fiber internet connection. It offers up to 100 times as fast internet speed as what we were used to but at a fraction of the cost. They came one afternoon and ran the cables and we were up and running. We are so thrilled.
It's a big deal for us because most of the tv we watch is through Roku. Instead of cable we use Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
What is interesting is the number of exclusive shows each of these services are offering. Much like the show Wet Hot American Summer that we watched a few months ago, Netflix has this movie, The Ridiculous Six streaming only on their service. We like Adam Sandler movies so we watched it. It's not The Magnificent Seven or The Hateful Eight. It's like The Good The Bad and The Ugly combined with Three Amigos and Airplane.
Watching The Ridiculous Six led us to start watching the Rob Schneider series, Real Rob. It is a strange mix of his real life, with his real family and Hollywood life you can hardly believe.
We started watching this other Netflix series Master of None with Aziz Ansari, but it didn't click like Rob's show. Maybe we will try again later.
When we came back after the holidays, it seemed like everyone had watched the Nexflix documentary series Making a Murderer. I usually cannot tolerate crime re-creation shows but there is something to this one that has us hooked.
Amazon also has an orginal series we are watching called Mozart in the Jungle. It's on it's second season and I had not even heard of it until it was up for some Golden Globes and I started seeing ads for it in Instagram.
It's a lot funnier than I expected. I told my violin instructor about it and he said, "I love a good orchestral drama."
And there is The Mindy Project. I nearly threw a fit when The Mindy Project was cancelled last year. I didn't understand how something so funny could be cancelled and Two and Half Men carried on for years and years. Then Hulu came to the rescue and picked it up. Bravo Hulu.
I'm not truly in the new year mindset until I have made the transition over to a new May Book planner. I traded bikes for bees this year.
We also had to trade up our juicer. After many years faithful service from our old juicer, it suddenly stopped working. Seeing how much juicing I do, Aaron got us this fancy new one. It's like the Cadillac of juicers.
Mmmm carrot apple.
And my classic green juice. Carrot, apple, and spinach. And whatever else I might have hanging around. Grapes, oranges, or kale.
We got this star on clearance at Target after Christmas, so it became the January mantelscape. Aaron thought it looked a little lonely there by itself, so I picked out red lanterns from his collection and added them.
The winter kitchen decor is a little toned down with a lumberjack theme. I am ramping up for Valentine's Day decorations!
Our secret weapon against the cold weather this winter is pho. A big bowl of rice noodles with beef, veggies and broth. We like to add a bit of spice too. Our favorite spot in Rochester for pho is SEA Restaurant. Besides the pho they also have great spring rolls and limeade.
It all started in Seattle when I had a bowl at What the Pho. It was so warm and satisfying.
The beef meatball version is my favorite.
If I hear about a new Mexican restaurant in Rochester, I am on it. I'm all about the tacos.
These all convey my taco sentiment.
The new spot I heard about is Guacamole Taqueria in East Rochester. I got the tacos and they were delicious.
Aaron got a very interesting sandwich called a Torta. It's a bun filled with meat, cheese and mayo, then smashed on the grill. I had never had one before and I had quite a few bites of his.
The best part? They have churros! The hardest decision of the evening was deciding on caramel or chocolate dipping sauce.
Aaron's mom is in town for the weekend and we took her to visit the Lamberton Conservatory.
It's a great place to visit in the winter because it is warm and tropical inside. While everything is white and ice outside, it's still green and flowering inside.
There are also little critters scurrying around.
There are lots of these button quail. They have become quite tame and you have to watch where you step.
So cute, poufy and round.
I can't get over the cacti collection. They must be a hundred years old to be so large.
Only one of these Aarons can grow a beard.
At first this memorial bench gave me the heebie jeebies but later found out that he is still alive and kicking in Rochester. Ha hah. Well played Leo.
Oscar is soooo ready for the weekend!
Finally, a solution that helps a bit with the insane sign in/sign out situation on Instagram!
I was thrilled to see that Star Wars: The Force Awakens passes the Bechdel Test.
Planning on trying these ice bikes in Buffalo this winter!
Need some help dealing with post holiday depression? That's me every year.
I'd like to try more light painting photography this year and I love these animated ones.
Two amazing foods combined into one amazing dish - French soup mac and cheese.
I'm sort of obsessed with these mechanical pencils. I've ordered a 12 pack.
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know my new iPhone 6s did this.
Ahhhhh it's friday! Like this.
Looking back at my 2015 To Do List, I was able to scratch off two things. Dutch oven cooking and Korean food cooking. Two doesn't seem like a lot but this isn't a resolution list, just a fun list so no worries. Just roll the other eight over to 2016.
2015 To Do List
1. make a quilt
2. bake the perfect whoopie pie
3. start an etsy shop4. make paper
5. learn flower arranging
6. camping with dutch oven cooking
7. more Korean cooking
8. more leather crafts
9. make to go breakfast bites - homemade poptarts, muffins & granola bars
10. take a CPR class
2016 To Do List
1. make a quilt
2. bake the perfect whoopie pie
3. start an etsy shop4. make paper
5. learn flower arranging
6. more leather crafts
7. make to go breakfast bites - homemade poptarts, muffins & granola bars
8. take a CPR class
9. play more records
10. finish a big puzzle
