It's Carnival Time

For some reason, much like schools, all of the fire and safety crews outside of the metropolitan areas here have to raise their own funds.  This turns into a giant country folk-fest, called Carnivals.  They are like real carnivals, but without rides, and, from what I can tell, without corn dogs.  But it is amazing to see a whole community come together to have fun in the name of building a better place to live.  This one was the Rocky Ridge Carnival, which supports Alan's hometown, of which the only business of any type that exists is the Volunteer Fire Department.  Click here for the full album.

Chili Makin'!

I finally got around to making chili.  The results were good enough to cure my extreme need for some spice.  To see how its done, click here for the visual directions.

Rocky Ridge Disaster Night

Well, the Rocky Ridge carnival didn't turn out to be the good times I remember it, or maybe made up in my head.  But, that could have been due to injuries sustained.  Granted, I am not the kid that got impaled with an 8-inch piece of wood on the "big sliding board", but I did manage to slice two fingers to the bone on a broken bottle in a cooler.  You would think at a fundraiser for a volunteer fire company I would be tended to, but I did the doctoring myself, then promptly drank 3 beers to ease the pain.  I know it doesn't look that bad, but 1.  I am a pretty good doctor.  2.  In my attempt to "ease" my pain I became a horrible photographer and got one one of the giant blood stains that now consume my favorite jeans.  Maybe I'll show the wounds tomorrow.

Restaurant Week!

The most delicious week of the summer in Baltimore, this year running August 13-22, and from what I understand there are usually a few other weeks the pop up in the fall and spring.  During restaurant week patrons get to enjoy a three-course dinner from special prix-fixed menus for just $35.10.  This is probably a little more than you would spend on a single course at many of the restaurants, but if you choose wisely, you get a fantastic deal. 
We chose Blue Grass, a pretty high-end Bourbon bar that has only a rotating menu, just a block down the street.  It is so close that I have considered asking the valets to park my car for the entire night.  The only think that stays the same around here, aside from wine and cornbread, is the natural beauty of the staff.  I've never seen a male server, but I might not pay attention when you have a woman that bares striking resemblance to Famke Jansen waiting on you.  And not just by their looks, but their knowledge of the food and their pleasant attitudes, do the waitstaff here only add to the atmosphere.
Our Menu Options (click here for the full album):

I started with the scallop ceviche.

Second course:  Watermelon salad and chilled corn bisque.

Alan's third course, the hanger streak and roasted potatoes.

I had the Rockfish with sweet corn flan.

I started out with cucumber gin martini.It was the prefect refreshment for our outside seats.

 

Spoiler Alert--The Tiffany Miller Custom Design Is In!

I am so excited to get to make a trip back West for Labor Day weekend for a great wedding, a baby shower, and a family BBQ, not to mention, a much-needed visit with my BFF Breeann in Montana.  So, my fantastically talented cousin, Tiffany has designed my "sports themed" dress for Jenn's wedding that I am officiating in two weeks.  It was a task out of Project Runway... take my old hockey jerseys and make them into a dress befitting a wedding...and make it work.   Spoiler alert:  The pictures of this dress that I am in love with, are below, so if you don't want to see...just check out tiffany's other works.  Stop at the Etsy site link.

Tiffany Miller Designs

By the way... I am the proud owner of this shirt too!

Connected Threads, An Artistic Contribution to Worthy Causes

 Yeah... I own one of these too.

She also has an etsy site with amazing one-of-a-kind items.

Yeah... I have this one too.

But, wait for it... here are the picks of the fantastic dress I get to wear for Jenn's wedding.  These custom-design pieces can be acquired by visiting here.

Rub

We finished a pretty stellar weekend, starting Thursday at the Raven's game, followed by a weekend at the lake with dinner at Rub, a Texas-style BBQ about 5 blocks from our place on the South-End of Light St.  The building was in a perfect spot and had tons of room, unlike a lot of the former-row-house types that you mostly find in SoBo.  The wall was adorned with pictures drawn from kids professing their love for Rub, but don't let that make you think that this is a family-only joint.  The bar is plentiful and stocked not just with tons of tap and bottled beer and booze, but there are 15 or so different frozen beverages that you can get.  I tried to go with a margarita, but they were out, so I opted for something that was pina colada'ish.  It was really tasty, but after one I switch to beer.  The Sunday special had me pounding Coors Lights for only $2 a piece.
So, on to the food.  For 10-15 bucks you can get a platter with your favorite BBQ, but what is even better, especially as a first time visitor, is for $16 you can get three meats, plus two sides.  With two people there, that means you can try just about all the meats, and about 1/3 of the offered sides.  So here is the review of what we had.
Alan:
Sausage:  Good enough, neither of us would probably get this on its own, but it was spicy and the texture was a perfectly dry smoke
Smoked Turkey:  This is one of Alan's favorite meats and he wasn't disappointed.  It is always a little odd to me to eat turkey that tastes like ham, but with this one it didn't matter, and it didn't need any sauce, it was great on its own.
Brisket:  I think that I like my brisket to be cooked sloppy.  It just wasn't doing it for me to do the dry-rubbed with my own sauce.  To me, it is just too close to roast beef when it is done this way.
Beans:  Spicy and sweet, half texas-style pinto, and half baked beans with a BBQ-y thickness.
Coleslaw:  It was alright, kind of tasted like slaw you would get from the deli, but we are kind of ruined after tasting the slaw at Mother's.
Shannon:
Pulled Pork:  Good, but a bit vinegary for my taste, probably would only get it on a sandwich
Flat ribs:  Some of the...wait for it... best ribs I have ever had.  I am quite finicky about ribs and these were good.  The meat was just dry enough, but still fall-off-the-bone and was great with or without sauce.
Chicken:  Sweet and tender with good spices coating the outside.  I wouldn't get it again, based on how awesome the ribs were, but Alan said it was one of his favorites.
Corn Pudding:  I had just asked what this was a few days ago, so I was excited to try.  I was overly impressed, and Alan about lost himself in it.  It was a sweet and spicy concoction of bread, corn, Serrano peppers and milk.  I wouldn't be able to resist this ever.
Mac N Cheese:  Really good, very creamy the combo of pepper jack and American cheeses.  The garlic was a little harsh at first, but after a few bites it earned its keep.
Click here to see the whole album.

Raystown

We went to some real rural Pennsylvania this weekend, complete with "You'uns" and home taverns.  We finally got the Jet Ski on the water at Raystown Lake, a 35-mile stretch of Army Corps of Engineers dammed water.  The lake has plenty of space, even with the massive amounts of boats and PWC's on it, with some beaches and coves, but beware, it is, as stated above, rural.  We had no phone or data service, had to buy our beer at the one bar in town (10 miles away).  But, we did have some of the best white pizza ever at OIP: Original Italian Pizza.
I tried to run the economics of the $150 a month payment for our jet ski over 12 months of ownership, times 12 hours of usage... which seems kind of silly until we started calculating things like boats and RV's.  We did our first towing with it and it things were pretty perfect.  So I guess we are now forced to get the wakeboard going behind it.

Gage takes on the wake.

 

 

Click here for the full album... and note that Picasa auto-captioned many of the photos.  I would like this to stop ASAP... Thanks Picasa.

Saaaweet!

Last night we took a jaunt down to M&T Bank for the Preseason opener of the Raven's game.  Which, would have been "neat", except that we had the great fortune of sitting in the President's Suite, which to put it loosely was SAWEET!  The whole Cass family was incredibly gracious, and this was, by far one of the coolest things I've ever done.
The Ravens came out strong and showed off the new talent from the receivers.  Ray Ray was as entertaining as you can imagine, and makes you understand what it means to "Play Like a Raven".  I came out strong and gorged myself on the amazing food that chef had prepared.  There were Raven dogs, crab cakes,  quesadillas, and tons of delicious cheeses and chocolates, not to mention all the beer, wine, or whatever you I could drink.  Check out the full album for all the details.  The only question is, how do I go back to sitting anywhere else?

I'm The Icecream Man, Stop Me When I'm Passing By...

Sunday was a walkabout adventure of sorts.   The morning started by watching 8 episodes of Arrested Development, which was a perfect cure for the heat that is setting back in, after a week of slightly relaxed temps.   In the afternoon we decided to find a place to get a pizza in the neighborhood.  We were pretty set on PubDog, but unfortunately they didn't open until 5, so we wandered into The Abbey Burger Bistro.  I had heard that this is the place to get a burger, not just in SoBo, but in B'more, so it seemed like a sure win.

Hennepid Belgian Ale at The Abbey

That's what I get for high expectations.  The Abbey was, ok.  The burger was good, but shaped like Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which made it a little sloppy and hard to eat.  The Service was. meh... We got a couple of mix ups in out pretty simple order and my beer raneth dry a few times.  The two big wins were the Hennepin Ale from Ommegang, which was a perfect beer for the hot day, light and fruity, but with a punch and strong spicy flavors; and the Onion rings, which tasted like they were straight from a carnival midway:  big, fluffy beer batter that covered the whole onion and was fairly soaked in oil.  I only ate two, which is about all that a heart could possible handle.

Philly Burger

Hawaiin Burger and Rings

We walked back to our place, and, as always, there is something interesting to be seen along the way.  In fact, I finally snapped some shots of stuff I have been meaning to for awhile, but never seem to have my camera when I pass by.  This window is one of two that house a lot of cat paraphernalia.  You just always have to wonder.

Said the cat....

Then there is the church with the rad gargoyles that also sports their Bible- school ads on the reverse of a banner advertising sale-priced beer.  What?  Are my parents running this thing?  If so, your kids will learn nothing about the Bible.



And, lastly, I finally snapped a shot of the ice cream truck that drives by every night at 10:38PM.  I know, you would think with such accuracy it wouldn't be that hard to get a shot, but again.... camera access.  So last, I got it.  It is completely reminiscent of the "24-hour Flower Shops" in Houston.  Obviously the need for flowers at 3AM isn't all that great, likewise, who lets their kids run out to an ice cream van when it is dark?

Sunday's full album

It Wasn't Where the West Started, But Where the East Came In...

Some Highlights from my first year as a Teach For America corps member.

Click here for the full album

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...Day

Saturday was fully of cool stuff.  M&T Bank for the Raven's practice.  This is likely the only time I will sit 8 rows up mid-field.  It was pretty cool.  Lots of Ray Ray action, which was good for me.

Click here for the full album

We also saw The Other Guys, mostly in an attempt to find some air conditioning, but it turned out to be a really funny movie.  Normally, I follow the rule that Will Ferrel as Headliner is not equal to funny.  In this case, I was proven very wrong.

Friday Night

Centro Tapas Bar

Last night brought a great new find in the neighborhood, Centro.  It was a great Tapas joint, that had a really interesting menu, was contained in a row house that was still originally laid-out with small rooms that contained 2-3 tables.  There was also a tropical patio, but due to the newly-formed AC restrictions in our house, we opted for a table right in front of the window.
The food was amazing and the prices really reasonable for a joint with valet.  We shared 5 tapas, 2 beers and 2 sangria for $65.  Even better is that, our highly informative server let us know that if we come back on a Tuesday they serve $3 tapas, beers, and sangria.

We started out with Sangria and Negro Modelo

Then moved on to a black truffle chicken pate.

Then we moved on to another special that was a seared piece of salted cod with caramelized onions and peppers, dressed with citrus aioli. 

Then came a unbelievably delicious quadrofecta, parrillada--bacon-wrapped petite filet mignon, grilled chorizo, caramelized plantains, fried yuca, cilantro mojo

We finished up with some jamon serrano, 18 month salt-cured ham and aged Mahon, a  traditional farmhouse cow's milk cheese, hard but creamy, from the island of Menorca

And to top it off, we finished with a 3-block walk home, where Alan accidentally hailed a cab by pointing to a really amazing rooftop patio.

Goodbye AC, it was Nice While it Lasted

I about lost control of my bowels when I open our utility bill for the month of July.  When our AC got hooked up, Moody told us we couldn't turn the AC off at first, and we just kind of ran with that.  The consequence is this:

This is only for electricity for the month of July.  How, I would like to know, is electricity on the East Coast more expensive than water in the desert?  Needless to say, I made a firm commitment to discontinue use of the AC.  So now, at 11AM it is 86 degrees in the coolest part of the apartment.  The good news is there are job prospects on the horizon that might let me scam some AC like I do internet signal.

Maybe My Fave B'more Band

The Stuff of Legends

For many years, I heard the tales of this place, but finally, I got to see it first-hand.   Miss Lindsay's (Gentlemen's club and Toy Story, BYOB).
Due to the lack of such establishments in Maryland, this is where the majority of bachelor parties for Alan's circle of friends have taken place. 
Now, I have heard a lot of stories that make me question the "gentlemen" who use this place.
1.  Part of this building has a dirt floor
2.  When the power goes out they use a generator, thus making it smell of gasoline.
3.  Tales of boils, match-blowing, and tampon strings
4.  BYOB...now normally, this is where a strip club's racket takes place, but here, they let you save your cash for the ladies
5.  When we drove by... as you may notice... the back door is open, allowing one to actually see directly into the building.
It was just a stop on the way to Caledonia, where we actually spent the weekend after hanging out with our good friend Josh (of parents have a dollar-house fame for you followers--a few shots of the dollar house for your consumption).  Click here for the full album.

It also reminded me of one of my favorite music videos ever, by Muse, Knights of Cydonia.  So, just as a bonus, here it is:



Well, then that reminded me how good they are live... so here is that too: