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

PSU. October 27th 2012 (instagrammed)

Let's Go State!

MK