it's okay to start over

Slacker!

No, not slacker - just - sidetracked.

Summer is here, but passing quickly - a lot has happened and there is a lot to come. I figured this is a great time to restart the blog:

A lot has happened, but I'm just going to start fresh. I will share that over the past two weeks I have had a lot of good eats; I visited Il Pizzaiolo, Verde, Azul (where I had the best Bloody Mary of my life), Salt of the Earth and Tessaro's. 

Il Pizzaiolo:

Il Pizzaiolo was great. I was a little weary about the wine selection - I remember this same thought the time that I visited the Mt. Lebanon location - this time I was at the newer Market Square spot - which I found to be bigger and more comfortable than Lebo overall. The waitress chose the closest option to a Sauvignon Blanc - which is my favorite wine on a hot summer night - and I was happy with her choice. Though I hate being blind to wine.

My salad was phenom. I had the Insalata Romana with arugula, radicchio, frisee, tomatoes and anchovies (which were optional - but they MADE the salad) yum:

And, naturally, I ordered a pizza, for myself:

To be fair, their pizzas are thin crust wood-fired pizza - and I did take half home ;-)

I went with the Funghi - but it was hard for me to choose between that and the Prosciutto E Arugula pizza - I was very satisfied with my choice though.

Service was good, 'til the end - when I think our waitress forgot about us. We waited for our check a little longer than I think we should have, but overall, satisfied with the service and food.

Verde:

I had a similair experience at Verde as far as service goes. Started off great and then slowly faded off, we all could have gone for a second margarita, but weren't really given the chance - pretty sure this waitress just wanted to go home. That did not, however, make my experience a bad one.

I came in with the mind set of getting the Lavender Margarita that everyone was telling me about when they talked about Verde and their delicious craft margaritas, but much to my dissapointment, the Lavender Margarita was only on their Spring menu, and we are in full swing summertime - so I had the Black Rose Margarita, which was very tasty. Loved the rosemary garnish:

For dinner I went with a pork quesadilla appetizer - which was far from just a starter and was more than enough for a meal - however, I could have been pretty stuffed from the first round of free chips and salsa that they give you, and the fresh guacomole that we had ordered before our dinners came.

Everyone I have talked to really loves this place - and I definitely give it a thumbs up as well.

Azul:

As I had mentioned before - I had the best Bloody Mary of my life last Sunday at Azul. I needed to go the grocery store because I had no food in my house, but I was starving, so I decided to go down to get a bowl of Azul soup - when the waitress (owner) presented it to me she said, "Here is your chicken stew," and that it was. Heart and delicious, great flavor and loved the big chunks of avocado in it:

AND I figured I would get a Bloody while I was waiting. Such a good decision. I'll repeat what I had mentioned earlier -  this was the best Bloody Mary I have ever had in my life. The owner (I wish I knew her name!) explained to me that they do not use any horseradish and that they use orange, lemon and lime juice. They also use a spice called Tajin, which is what is around the rim along with salt in the picture below. Basically Tajin is dehydrated lime juice, chili peppers and salt. SO GOOD. I stopped at Reyna's in the Strip this weekend to pick some up. She said it's great on cantelope and I looked online and saw that it would be good to put on cucumbers too, for something simple - excited to use it.

Salt of the Earth:

I have been wanting to go to Salt of the Earth for some time, so when my friend Lisa was coming into town for a few days I suggested that we go. It was pretty fantastic.

Their menu changes constantly because they only use fresh and local ingredients - they don't actually have a menu, they write their menu on chalkboards, as shown above. Now, I was able to check out the menu online - but it was just subject to change. Dinner was a tough choice, some very interesting combinations of food. After some help from our waiter, we went with the Alaskan Salmon and Chilled Udon as our appetizers, and I had the Hanger Steak as my main dish. The flavors and presentations were spot on:

(poor quality pictures, I blame the lighting)

Tessaro's:

So much to my surprise and excitement, my very good friend Marianne decided to visit this past Saturday. She drove in with her sister who was planning to meet some friends at Tessaro's for burgers. Having never had one of their famous burgers, I was pumped. I had the Gourmet Burger (pictured below) which was topped with pepper jack cheese (my choice), sauteed onion, sauteed mushroom, lettuce, tomato and mayo. Yea, it was good:

So, it's defintely been a foodie type of two weeks, and I'm happy for it. Looking forward to sharing more. 

xo. cheers. namaste,

MK

success

Well, another successful week has passed. Successful in that I got a new kitchen table - a happy hand me down, had drinks with my friend Anna who was in town for a few days, got my nails done (a favorite treat of mine), had some good food at some good restaurants with good friends, made a delicious pork roast and homemade chicken noodle soup, played with some doggies, and got some time to myself too.

Saturday night I had dinner at Round Corner Cantina, and it was amazing. Best guacamole and margaritas I've had in awhile (and I ate at Stephen Starr's El Vez in Philly just last week!). Yay for Pittsburgh and your good food. Here are the Tacos de Pescado that I had:

Tempura mahi-mahi, delicious. Plus I got to hang out with my good friends who I haven't seen in way too long, Alison and Andrea. This morning we decided to keep the good eats coming, so we went to one of Pittsburgh's famous breakfast spots - Dor-Stop Restaurant:

A family diner that is worth a visit if you're looking for breakfast or lunch. Even Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives has stopped by:

And, as mentioned before, I did some cooking of my own. I made this pork roast that I got from a blog I stumbled upon called Cafe Johnsonia:

I will most definitely be subscribing to this fab food blog. The pork turned out beautifully and was simple and easy to make. Plus it was a slow cooker recipe, which I have been experimenting with lately. The convenience of the slow cooker is ingenious and I can't believe I've waited so long to utilize mine...you live, you learn! I also made chicken stock in my crock pot this week, a recipe I found on a food sharing website, Tablespoon. I put all the ingredients in, went to sleep, and woke up and it was done! It's kind of magic. Then I made a cold weather classic - Chicken Noodle Soup.

So, like I said, a successful week - friends, food, new furniture, and new finds - plus I got to play in the snow with two of my favorite pups:

Cheers,

MK

photo montage

A photo montage of a fun filled week/weekend:

Lincoln at the Ambridge Theatre:

Pittsburgh Restaurant Week: Root 174

Philadelphia Weekend:

Cheers,

MK

Few Things

For the past two weeks of this new year, I have taken the time to take time for myself - been a bit of a home body -  relaxing, watching movies, catching up on some cleaning, cooking, and Pinterest. Let me tell you, I have loved every minute of it. I have had a chance to think, evaluate and plan - this time was much more needed than I even realized.

I have definitely learned a few things during this brief two weeks and the most important thing I have learned is that: This Is Going To Take Time. What is 'This'? Well, to by honest, I'm not exactly sure I can define it. Perhaps the changes I want to make, the person I want to be, or the life I want to live. Regardless of what 'This' is - I just know that it is not going to happen overnight, and that I have to create goals, work at it, not get discouraged and as per usual - carry on.

I am ready for this challege.

As for the cooking of the weekend, I hadn't seen my good friend Dana in quite some time, so I invited her over for some dinner. I made a pork loin roast, a beet salad and we had some spinach for some greens as well.

Pork is one of those foods that I tend to forget about, that I don't eat very often, but always enjoy it when I do. I have wanted to make a pork roast for quite some time and figured this was a great opportunity to do so. I used a recipe right from The Joy of Cooking (one of my favorite cook books along with Mark Bittmans 'How to Cook Everything'). It was simple and turned out great. I simply took 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil, 1 Tablespoon of dried Thyme, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a half teaspoon of pepper mixed together and rubbed it over my 2-3 pound pork loin roast. I then put it on a rack in a glass lasagna dish (I don't have a roasting pan) and put it in the oven at the highest temperature my oven will go, which is probably about 450 (my oven is a little shisty, I don't actually have any idea what temperature I'm cooking at because the knob is much to be desired and there is no digital thermometer - my next kitchen purchase is going to be a temperature thermometer that I can put on oven on a rack inside the oven) and I roasted it at that temperature for about 10 min. Then I lowered the temp to about 250 and cooked it for 45 minutes. I took the pork roast out, checked the temperature of the meat, and it was at a perfect 160 degrees. I let it rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and enjoying.

Now, my beet salad - as soon as I invited Dana over she asked that I make this dish! 

The best way to cook beets, I have found is by roasting:

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees (really the beets can roast at any temperature, just may vary the time it takes to cook.

- Prepare beets by washing and cutting into quarters if they are large, or just making sure that they are all relatively the same size, so the cooking time remains the same for all of them. Leave the skins on. 

- Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper and wrap each beet or beet quarter in aluminum foil. Place on baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes. Beets are done when you can easily pierce a knife into the center of the beet.

- Wait til beets cool then peel off skin.

To make the salad I just cut the beets into bite size quarters, added walnuts (I usually toast my walnuts to get the best flavor) and goat cheese - and delicious beet salad there you are!

To my surprise and luck, Dana brought desert. Cupcakes from The Ultimate Pastry Shop in Sewickley:

So all in all, I will say that the weekend was a success. I feel relaxed and ready for the week - and the rest of 2013!

Cheers,

MK

D's Cabbage Soup

The following recipe comes from my Croatian friend Dubravka. She offered me a bowl of this soup one evening and I made sure we set a date so she could teach me to make this delicious dish. The next day I brought the soup to serve as a first course to a turkey dinner in January at my parents house. Very easy to make, and can be adapted for what you have around the kitchen. 

D's Cabbage Soup

1 head of green cabbage

4 carrots

4 celery

1 white onion

3-4 bay leaves

4-5 cloves of garlic

4 - 6 cups of chicken stock

Water (if necessary)

1 can of diced tomatoes

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Cayenne pepper

Hungarian paprika (if available)

- Roughly chop cabbage, carrot, onion, and celery. Put in large pot with chicken stock, bay leaves and whole cloves of garlic (add water if necessary). Bring to a boil and cook until veggies are soft (about an hour, give or take).

- Blend veggies together in blender and return to pot, removing bay leaves (but do not discard).

- Blend tomatoes and add to pot

- Return bay leaves to pot and add olive oil. Season the soup with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper (or Hungarian paprika) to taste. Bring soup to boil for another ten minutes.

- Remove bay leaves and serve hot. Enjoy!

Happy eating,

MK

The New Year, #The365Project and Prosperity

Well, 2013 has arrived. Welcome.

I am spending most of this weekend preparing (or planning to prepare) for 2013  - aka I am analyzing, creating (and negotiating) my New Years Resolutions. Looking back, my very first post of Intrepid Moves was "new years resolutions" - many carry over...still working on the person I want to be, I suppose.

One new project I decided to take on this year is #The365Project - a single photo every day. I'm excited because this project challenges me to be creative everyday, and to share my creativity. I am documenting my photos here @ a.k.a. MK:

1:65

I chose this one for today, because yoga is a big part of my New Years Resolutions. I haven't been as dedicated to the practice as I was a few months back, and I feel noticeably different. I need more yoga in my life! Today I took a Kundalini class and we focused on prosperity. I like the idea of the new year being full of success. Of course, since I made this project a focus of my day, I took a few other photos:

Local diner breakast

I like the way this sun comes in

Juice Bar, Southside

D's cabbage soup - recipe to come!

From spending some time thinking about 2013, I can see the year is going to present it's challenges.

I am ready.

xo,

MK

Restaurant Review(s)

Well, Happy Holidays!

As per usual, I have been a bit off the radar - life moves too quickly at times it seems...

To jump back into blogging (which I am putting on my New Years Resolution list) I figure I will give you a brief taste, if you will, of a couple restaurants I have visited in the past few months:

ELEVEN

Seasonal Heaven.

Eleven. was. delicious. I'm a big fan of innovative, fresh food - and that is exactly what this restaurant offered.

I chose a selection of appetizers and small plates versus an entree because there were just way too many exciting dishes to choose from. Being a big fan of beets, I started with a beet salad:

These roasted red beets were dressed with a light vinaigrette and were mixed with pumpkin seeds. This was an interesting October touch, unique and delicious, and while overall I enjoyed the meal, the salty roasted seeds made the dish, to me, seem a bit too salty. Didn't stop me from eating every bite though!

Next on my list were crab cakes - little filling and mostly all lump crab meat - delicious they were:

Being quite partial to crab cakes, I didn't notice what the dish was topped with - beets. As my friend Bianca said, beets are quite underrated - but I kinda wish I had paid more attention to the fact that both of these dishes were beet involved - it was a bit of an overload. I shared some of the beets on this dish with Miss Bianca.

I'm also a big brussels sprout fan, so how could I turn down a side of brussels sprouts:

And sauvignon blanc. I'm a big fan of sauvignon blanc:

 Oh, and since we were there in late October - Happy Halloween from Eleven!

Great food, a bit pricey, but not extreme - the prices wouldn't deter me from going back for dinner - but I will probably wait for a special occasion or event. The bar area, called 'The Tavern' has a different menu, a little less expensive it seemed - it is now on my list of places to try.

BURGATORY

Beers and burgers make me happy. So for a happy birthday, I went to Burgatory.

At Burgatory you have two options. You can either choose a burger from the menu (and there were some interesting burgers to choose from, believe me!) or you can create your own custom burger. I decided to go with a create your own, and so I had my burger topped with sauteed mushrooms and banana peppers (which is a standard for me) - I had them throw some onion straws on as well:

For a side, you can choose from your standard frites, or other typical burger sides, but to my surprise, they offered a Quinoa salad - that's what I went with, along with a good fall pumpkin beer:

The following did not come from Burgatory, but it is worth noting that this was waiting for me at home after burger time:

 Happy fall, and happy birthday to me!

POINTE BRUGGE

Not a whole lot to say, other than I now know why this place is known for their mussels - these were, by far, the BEST mussels I have ever had:

While I am trying my best to try new restaurants before going to places twice, I know I will break my rule with Point Brugge. Thank heavens they have a sister restaurant for me to try!

Happy eating,

MK