Burnt Out

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Andrea

Last Friday, as I was heating up some leftover pizza, I noticed some sizzling and then a bright spot in my oven.

Um.

I opened the door to find smoke and a small fire taking place in the left front corner. Crap! I gave it a sec to see if it would burn out (In case it was food related) but it kept getting worse so I shut the oven off and pulled out the pizza (Save the food!).

After the heating coil cooled for a bit I realized what had happened and not only was I flummoxed but also annoyed. It seems that the coating on the heating coil decided to just melt off leaving a section of the coil exposed. The exposed coil reacted with the remaining coating causing it to spark and then catch fire.

Ugh.

So my oven is out of commission. Thankfully I have a double oven, the bottom half being a smaller oven drawer. It’s not large enough to roast a chicken or anything, but I can roast veggies in it just fine. Or, you know, heat up pizza.

Project Organize: Donating Furniture And Knick-knacks

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Andrea

One of the many things that needed done around the house was to donate household items that we no longer use. This included furniture items like office chairs but also things like knick-knacks and decorations.

Small decorative household items can be a challenge to donate because some places aren’t interested in those things.

They have to go some where though and throwing them out seems wasteful to me.

Volunteers of America is a organization that will take used household items and that includes things like decorations and knick-knacks. They will also come and pick up those items from your house for free.

Which is perfect if you have a little hobbit car like us and can’t transport many things at one time. It would have taken us several trips in order for us to get everything dropped off for donation. With Volunteers, that wasn’t an issue any longer. I called and scheduled a pickup appointment with them.

Cooking Classes Starting in January 2012

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Andrea

Starting in January of 2012 I will be conducting a series of cooking classes at Wild Goose Creative, called Embrace Cooking!

Each month we’ll cover a different topic and prepare foods around that topic. This is an interactive class series which means that everyone will be helping to create the dishes that we taste later in the evening.

Classes are two hours long and if you have an apron and a chef’s knife, feel free to bring those along!

You can register and pay for classes via my website. There’s a link at the top called Events. That will take you to the main discription page and then you’ll see links to each class as well.

I hope you’ll join me for fun and fabulous cooking classes!

Camelot Cellars Cranberry Dinner

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Andrea

This past Monday evening I had the pleasure of dining at Camelot Cellars. Camelot paired up with local caterer, Laura’s Catering, to create a dinner around the cranberry.

Cranberries are one of the staples of fall and winter dining. Typically we see the cranberry turned into a sauce and drizzled on top of turkey or perhaps on a dessert.

This dinner featured cranberries at each course and it was an interesting twist to the winter classic.

Each course of the meal was paired with a wine from Camelot. The wines accentuating the tartness and sweetness of the cranberry.

Janine, the owner of Camelot, created the dinners because she wanted to provide another way for patrons to get to know each other and the winery a little bit better.

We started off with a creamy cranberry soup, which I unfortunately do not have a picture of. My camera did not want to focus on the soup properly leaving me with very blurry pictures. It was a lovely deep pink soup that was smooth with hints of cream and garlic in the background.

2011 Hal and Al’s Pumpkin Beer Tasting

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Andrea

The last time we talked about Hal and Al’s I mentioned that we went for their pumpkin beer tasting. Can you imagine how excited I was for that event!

When we were in last, I was informed that they were going to be hosting a pumpkin beer tasting the following week which would include pumpkin beers and ciders.

I may or may not have almost toppled over a parton and bartender as I eagerly inquired more about the event, embarrassing both my friend John and Scott.

Okay, not really, they both know me well enough to not get embarrassed by my antics any more.

I immedately marked the event on our calendar and off we went to the pumpkin beer tasting!

We were serious about this tasting. I busted out the camera and my handy notebook featuring Snoopy with a pumpkin on green paper.

This was an intense tasting as well, there were 9 samples to get through.

Let me repeat, 9 samples!

Hal and Al’s Columbus Bar

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Andrea

My absolute favorite bar in Columbus, is by far, Hal and Al’s. My friend John is responsible for introducing me to this fabulous place.

He kept saying to me, “Andrea, they have a great beer selection and I really think you would enjoy their stouts.”

These are the kinds of friends you need to have in your life. The ones that seriously look out for you and have your back.

John, totally has my back when it comes to beer.

So I finally made it down to Hal and Al’s and fell in love right away. They have an amazing beer selection. I’m not exaggerating here, the menu is three pages long and has the beers listed by type. Meaning the beers are listed as, Lagers, Ales, IPAs, Stouts, Porters and so on.

And there’s usually some stuff they have either in bottles or on tap that isn’t listed on the menu.

Heck yes!

The atmosphere is exactly what I’m looking for in a bar. There’s plenty of seating in a wide open space. The bathrooms are clean and updated. It’s quite, no super loud music and no super loud people.

Read more on Hal and Al’s Columbus Bar…

Experience Columbus, A Bloggers Tour

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Andrea

Recently Experience Columbus hosted several bloggers here for a four day whirlwind tour of the city and all it has to offer.

I got a chance to read some of the posts and I was completely jealous of all the places they got to visit. How fun!

It was also nice seeing the city from someone else’s perspective and reading about their experience. Columbus is such a great city with so much to offer its residents, most especially when it comes to food.

Because I enjoyed reading the posts so much, I wanted to share them with you as well!

Have fun touring Columbus and live vicariously through these other bloggers!

Vanilla Icing:

The Hungry Dudes:

Part 1

The Heritage Cook

A Thought For Food:

Brothers Drake Mead

Blue Kitchen:

Braised Pork Chops with a side of Columbus

These are the blogs that I came across but there might be more! If I’ve left any out please drop me a note and I’ll add them to the list.

Three Years Strong

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Andrea

Yesterday was my 3 year blogversary! While I know that this year has seen a name change with the blog, that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been blogging about food and wellness for three years now.

Whooo!

In three years so many things have changed in my life but real food and eating well is always a constant.

Okay, so is wine, beer, and cheese. But you know what I mean!

I appreciate all of my readers, old and new, who keep coming back to talk about food and all of the many things we like to chat about.

Since I had a dream last night where I was talking about my favorite stout, I’ll post a few links to some of my favorite things on the blog.

Starting off with Buried Hatchet Stout since I brought it up.

Back when I used to post our daily eats, this is my favorite post.

This is our favorite event in Columbus, The Food and Wine Affair.

Common Ground Dinner

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Andrea

Last week I was invited to a women’s event to showcase a new organization in the food world called Common Ground. The goal of Common Ground is to connect people who provide food to those who purchase food. The target audience is women.

From the website:

Consumers aren’t getting the real story about American agriculture. We’re a group of farm women and we plan to change that by doing something extraordinary. Our program is called CommonGround and it’s all about starting a conversation between women who grow food, and the women who buy it. This is our chance to set the record straight and to help get you the facts about farming and your food. We hope you’ll join in the conversation.

The event was the first one for Columbus to introduce the local chapter of Common Ground and kick off discussions between farmers and consumers.

The event also put us in contact with people from The Soybean Council and Corn Growers of America. The idea was to gather together over a meal and talk about the food industry and where our food comes from.

2011 Taste of Hilliard

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Andrea

Last week was the second annual Taste Of Hilliard event. Local restaurants and businesses who are members of the Chamber of Commerce gather together at the Makoy Center for an evening of nibbles and chatting.

The great thing about The Taste of Hilliard is that it doesn’t just focus on food but also showcases local businesses as well so that community members get a chance to see exactly what their town has to offer.

You would be surprised by how many businesses are local to Hilliard and the wide variety of services that are offered.

I didn’t stay too long at the event because it was getting packed and fast. The event started at 4:30 and I got there around that time. My plan was to get there early to be able to take plenty of pictures without being in anyone’s way.

Best laid plans right? I arrived to a very packed parking lot. I was kind of surprised actually that it was so packed so early. People had to park far away and walk to the event, that’s how many people were there at the start.