New Spindles

One day, while walking through Home Depot (which Steve really should get a job at because seems like we are always there spending lots of money), I noticed railing spindles on sale. I looked at Steve with my I have an idea look and I got the oh no, now what look.

Well that day we came home with new beautiful, matte black spindles for our railing in our front room.

Two owners before us did a beautiful job opening up the wall exposing the staircase which makes the room feel so much larger and spacious, but inserted cheap white spindles. Yes, we could have painted them, but I didn’t feel it would add the same richness to the room, plus I wanted to tie the metal curtain rods in. We are going for a rustic modern feel in the house with a touch of traditional.

White Spindles

The project was actually really easy to do.

First, we took out all the spindles. Then there is a piece of wood that goes down the middle of the base of the opening called a shoe (sorry, no picture) which houses the bottom of the spindles, we removed that, then got sanding. We didn’t want the clear shinny look, we wanted the natural wood appearance.

After sanding, we stained it a pine color, matching the rest of the wood in the house. Then, we needed to make new holes in the base for the spindles to sit in. We made a plumb, which is made simply of string and a nail. You attach it to the top of the banister, line up the top hole and make a dot with the nail where the bottom hole is to go. Drill. You now have two holes for the spindle. Insert new spindles. Wallaaa. Whole new banister which looks beautiful.

New Spindles

This lead us to do the upstairs banister and the downstairs banister, which turned out to be a little bit more than just replacing the spindles. We opened up the wall just like the front room. Pictures will be on another post.

Restaurant Week 2013

Steve and I LOVE trying new restaurants. Lucky, in the Twin Cities, there is restaurant week, which is our favorite week out of the year.

Restaurant week started back in 2007  as an opportunity for  food lovers to enjoy the best dining of the Twin Cites at a discount price. Participating restaurants offer two course lunches for $10-$20 and three-course dinners for $15-$30. It’s a wonderful opportunity to try a new restaurant that you have been dying to try, but might be to expensive, hard to get into or it’s just your favorite place to go.

Check it out!

http://mspmag.com/Contests-And-Promotions/Restaurant-Week/Diner-of-the-Day/

This last restaurant week we went to Aj’s Japanese in Hopkins for Sushi Buffet and Cro0ked Pint Ale House.

First, Aj’s Japanese in Hopkins. We went here for lunch, which was crazy, but so worth it.

The sushi is so fresh with lots of different options. I love sitting back watching the art of sushi making. Something that is so fun and not always easy to do. The people are always so willing to answer your questions about the different roles as you go through the buffet. This is one of our staples during restaurant week.

*the restaurant was so busy that it was really hard to take photos so these are from Aj’s Japanese Website**

Sushi

Second, we went to Crooked Ale Pint house for dinner with a group of friends.

None of us had been there before and we all would return. The atmosphere is relaxed with a classic pub feel. They have great beer on tap, which is served in the appropriate glass for the type of beer. The staff is knowledgeable about the types of beers and able to answer questions or give great recommendations.

For dinner I had the Peanut Butter and Bacon Lucy. It was stuffed with peanut butter and topped with bacon. It was soooo good!! I am a peanut butter lover, so anything with peanut butter I am all over.

Steve had the Hangover Lucy. It was stuffed with Ham and American Cheese topped with a fried egg. I had a bite of his and it was amazing too!

We were enjoying our food so much and in deep conversation that by the time we remembered to take a photo we were all done. 😦 I guess you will just need to stop there and see and taste for yourself how good the food is.

Almost a year…

Wow, it has been a while since we have updated.

A lot has happened in the last few months and we are thrilled to share why have been gone… not all at once though.

Lets start with May 2012.

We bought our very first house!!

Clean slate. Just waiting for us to make it beautiful.

Side View

We love being homeowners and can’t wait to create many memories together in our first place.

Two new melons

Recently we wrote about Sumo’s (the fruit) guess what, we have two new ones to tell you about that.

Pepino Melons

Kiwano Melons

Steve and I love trying new foods and are always willing to try something once no matter how pokey the skin is or how interesting the color may be. This is the case with the melon’s above. We went to our local grocery store to get some more of our favorite fruit, Sumo, to find out they were gone…*tear*. So instead we tried a Pepino Melon and Kiwano/Horned Melon.

They were so good! Let’s talk about the Pepino Melon first.

Pepino Melon, also called tree melon or melon pear are sporadicaly avilable February through May. The pepino melon is actually a berry within the nightshade family, which includes tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants. It is the fruit from a small evergreen shrub. They are native to Peru and today grow in subtropical climates in other regions of the world; especially in California and New Zealand.

The melon size can be as small as a plum and as large as a papaya. It will be a light-yellow to light green color with streaks of purple. When ripe the flesh is golden yellow with narrow seed cavity.

The word “pepino” is Spanish for cucumbers, which helps describes the taste. It had a nice crisp texture, a slightly sweet bitter flavor with hints of pear and banana. The whole melon is edbible; skin, flesh, pulp and seeds… so dig in!

Now for the Kiwano Melon. Don’t worry the spines are not sharp.

Kiwano Melon, also called African horned cucmber, jelly melon or English tomato; to name a few. In the southeastern part of the United States it is nicknamed the blowfish fruit. It is part of the cucumer and melon family and grows on a annual vine. The melon is native to Africa, now grown in Claifornia, Chilie, Australia and New Zealand.

The Kiwano Melon is edible, but mostly used for food decoration. When reading more about the melon we learned that the skin is edible, but we only choose and would reccommend eating the flesh and seeds. The flesh had a lightly sweet flavor with a hint of tartness. At first we thought eating the jelly-like flesh would not be appealing, but we were wrong, it was really good and the texture didn’t bother us. If a texture thing is an issue for you, you might not like this melon. For a ripe melon, choose one that is yellow-orange skin with a lime green jelly-like flesh.

Let us know if you try the new melons and what you think!

The Sumo (Not The Wrestler)

My wife has recently introduced me to this wonderful citrus fruit called the Sumo.  When you first look at it you are not quite sure what it is, but it is intriguing.  You say to yourself, “I wonder what this tastes like?”  To keep you wondering I will first start with a little bit of history of the Sumo.

It was originally developed in the 70’s, in Japan, and was called the dekopon, now known as sumo.  It was developed by crossing the satsuma mandarin and a California orange, resulting in a sweeter citrus fruit.  Or as my wife describes it, it’s the shape of a orange, peels like a clementine, and has the sweet citrus flavor of both fruits.

The shape resembles a sumo wrestler with the point on top resembling the iconic hair and leading to the round shape that resembles their bodies.  It is now commrecially grown in California, which began in 1991, so cost could be cut on shipping.

The sumo trees have many blooms throughout the year, however, the later the bloom the sweeter the fruit. Sumos are only in season for a short time, February through May.  The best time to buy them is the end of April.

So run out to the store and buy yourself some before they are out for the season!

Sumo

 

Red Wing

If you ever want to get out of the Twin Cities for a day or two there is one place that is wonderful, that is Red Wing!

We found out through the Star Tribune travel section that they have eagle spotting there, at Colville Park. It is a prime spot, where many eagles nest and hunt. They had an eagle expert there next to the river with scopes and binoculars to watch the eagles.  The gentleman was very informative and willing to answer any questions we had.  We were lucky and able to spot a few eagles flying.

Bald Eagle Flying

With it being only an hour from the city, we went downtown to check out the Red Wing shoe store where they have the world’s largest boot on display! They also have a small museum on the top level which we found quite fascinating. Then on the bottom level they have a whole clearance section if you want to go and find yourself some nice, new, and more affordable red wing shoes. Once done there we went to look for somewhere to eat.

We went to the Brickhouse, they have traditional american bar food, but it was good, filling, and affordable.

Brickhouse Menu

I enjoyed a pulled pork, mushroom, onion, and swiss cheese sandwich on potato bread, with a side of kettle chips.

Pulled Pork on Potato Bread

Jackie enjoyed a tasty chicken sandwich topped with parmesan cheese, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes on a focaccia bun with waffle fries.

Chicken Sandwich with Waffle Fried

For our final stop of the day trip we went to the large antique mall right by the Red Wing pottery store.  It was a large mall with two floors of antiques, lots of fun to look at. We found a couple of really cool unique kitchen pieces. Those are the best to find, something that you don’t find in an everyday store.

So if you ever want a quick trip to get away form the Twin Cities, feel free to take a short drive to Red Wing!

If there is anything you think we missed from Red Wing, please feel free to comment on it.

Bubble Tea

What is this drink that has little black pearls in the bottom of the cup?  That drink is called bubble tea with large tapioca pearls.

There is not a whole lot of history on bubble tea because it is not that old, but most people agree on where it came from.  Bubble tea originated in Taichung, Taiwan in the 1980’s.  There are two shops in the village of Taichung that claim they invented the drink, but no one knows exactly which one.

After bubble tea was created it was not largely popular, but became popular by a japanese advertising company. They put it on some billboards and it started to spread throughout southeast Asia.  Eventually it emigrated itself to Australia and then all the way across the Pacific Ocean and making its way to the U.S. west coast.  Now, to this day, it has slowly spread throughout the U.S. and is even in the U.K.

Despite not being advertised much within the U.S., but due to word of mouth, it is a fairly popular drink. Bubble Tea can be found commonly in the The Tea Garden stores, and a few select Asian, mainly Thai, restaurants.

Many recipes vary for this drink, but most will commonly contain a tea base or fruit based which are blended with either milk or water.

Recently, when we first tried to make bubble tea we found finding the ingredients turned out to be more difficult than we thoguht.

We learned from talking to the shop owner at a small local shop in Burnsville, MN that the following is recommend to make bubble tea. We also learned to ask the “locals”, you would be surprised how willing people can be about helping you.

• Large tapioca pearls
• Ice
• Sweetened condensed milk
• Milk
• Flavored drink mix (we bought strawberry)
• Large round straw

Bubble Tea Ingredients

                          

A bag of large tapioca pearls

Strawberry flavor mix

That night we made our first bubble tea at home. Here is what we did, which makes two large servings.

1/2 cup dry tapioca pearls

 

Boiling pearls

Start by adding 1/2 cup dry tapioca pearls to boiling water. Boil for approximately 5 minutes. When done, they float to the top, similar to ravioli.

Then drain the pearls under cold running water.  To keep the pearls from sticking put into a cold water bath.  You want them to be chewy, not mushy.

If you want your pearls sweet, add 2 tablespoons honey to your cold water bath.

For an ice-blended version, fill the blender 3/4 of the way full with ice, 2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk (you can always add more depending on how sweet you want it), and 3 tablespoons flavored drink mix.   Blend until desired consistency.

Strawberry ice-blended version

To assemble the drink, place 1/4 cup cooked pearls into bottom of large cup, pour half the blended mixture over pearls.  Insert fun large straw. Enjoy!!

We are looking forward to experimenting with many variations of bubble tea. Check back again to see what we come up with. Also, please share with us on how you make your bubble tea.

Swedish Meatballs

Kottbullar-Swedish Meatballs (Courtesy of http://www.sweden.se)

I am a very Swedish person, my great-grandmother came over here from Sweden back in the 1920’s.  I understand a few of the customs of food, such as lutefisk and lefse, which I both love.  One thing however that I love the most is Swedish meatballs.  But with almost every ethnic group out there having their own version on the meatball I wondered what made the Swedish meatball Swedish?

So I dug into it a little and found out that there is actually a combination of two ingredients that makes the Swedish meatball, Swedish.  That is milk and bread crumbs. The breadcrumbs are placed in a bowl with the milk and soaked, which helps gives the meatball the common soft texture.

Also, interesting, is the meat that makes up a Swedish meatball.  In northern Sweden beef is mostly used to make a more lean meatball. In the southern region pork is more commonly used.

In my families recipe we use pork and veal, which leads me to believe that they came from southern Sweden.  So, there really is something that helps to make the Swedish meatball, Swedish.

This is the recipe that my family likes to use:

1/2 cup fine bread crumbs

1 cup milk

1 lb pork and 1 lb veal

1 cup onion-diced

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp dry mustard

Put the bread crumbs and milk in a large bowl and let them soak for about 5-10 minutes until all absorbed. Combine remaining ingredients into bread crumb mixture, mixing until well incorporated. Using, melon baller or your hands form the meat into balls about the size of 3/4″- 1 1/2″ ball.  The smaller size meatball is more common to Sweden, as other meat balls around the globe tend to be larger.  Set oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the meatballs on a sheet pan and bake for about 15 minutes or until brown on the outside.  You can make your own gravy with a mix, or you can take the juices and put them in a sauce pot, add some stock and boil it down to make a gravy out of the left over juices.  But ultimately the gravy is up to you.

Hope everyone can learn about and enjoy Swedish meatballs as many other people do. Give them a try!!

Sunday Date

WOW!  This past Sunday we had a wonderful, adventure filled day. We did one of our favorite things- eat breakfast out. Its been a while since we have gone out for breakfast so Steve thought he would find something fun and interesting for us.

A crowded cafe, beautiful weather, good food, and great company, what a way to start the day.  We went to brunch at the Aster Cafe down by Nicollet Island at St Anthony Main.  It was a cozy cafe right by the Mississippi river with a beautiful view. Can you imagine what its like when the sun is shining; it’s warm out and people are enjoying themselves. Asters has a patio area where you could enjoy just that.

They have a small, but tasty brunch menu, which is sure to satisfy just about everyone.

Brunch Menu

We each had a scrambled egg sandwich.  Jackie’s had the egg sandwich with spinach and cheddar cheese and Steve with brie and bacon each served with a couple orange and grapefruit slices.

Spinach & Cheddar and Bacon & Brie with Orange & Grapefruit Slices

At 11 am a live jazz band began to play. Aster Cafe features a lot of  live music throughout the week, in fact almost everyday. Go to their website, http://www.aster-cafe.com to check out the full schedule.

The combination of good food, great company and a fun live band made for a wonderful Sunday brunch and the perfect start to a fun day. We both would totally go back and recommended it to anyone.

After breakfast we took a relaxing 20 minute walk across the Stone Arch Bridge and headed to the Mill City Museum.

Walking along the Stone Arch Bridge

The Museum offers so much history about both the flour industry and Minnesota. The Mill was one of the driving forces in Minneapolis’s economy back when it was in operation.

To give you a slight “history lesson” … the wheat from the Dakota’s, Montana, and Minnesota made the milling company so large that it was the largest flour producer in the world at one time. In 1928 Washburn Crosby Company and others merged, creating General Mills.  General Mills has grown to be one of the largest food companies in the world! The Mill was in operation till 1965, shut down because the technology became obsolete.  It was believed that squaters moved into the building and one night  in 1991  a small fire was started to keep warm, getting out of control, burning down the Northeast side of the mill.

Image from the street outside the museum of the area where the Mill burned in 1991.

In 2001, construction began on the museum, opening in 2003.  While there take in the Flour Tower, interactive activities and talk with all the wonderful volunteers. They all were so knowledgeable and willing to share with you what they know about the history of Mill.

Check out www.millcitymuseum.org for more information.

Minnesota has rich history and great food to try along the way. We would highly suggest making a day out of visiting the Museum starting off at Asters for some brunch and great music.