sketch

Have you ever been to Sketch Burger, my Philly Friends? DJ and I were debating on where we should have dinner in Leotah's Place yesterday and decided on this joint. Our friend sitting nearby had never been, so I am going to tout its awesomeness.

First, it has great food, not just burgers.

Second, it has yummy deserts and ice cream. DJ and I have our favorite milkshake there: coconut & peanut butter!

Third, they have many vegan/vegetarian options. No really they do, even their treats!

Fourth, you get to decorate the place with your sketches. Here is mine from last year that is still on display by the drink fridge.

yes we came here for our anniversary

So needless to say, you should check this place out. End of plug.

August already?

This summer is flying by! July was a full month of school, vacation, friends, and a new job. Here's the details:

I am finishing up my first semester online for my Masters of Special Education at Saint Joseph's University. It has been wonderful getting back into academia. It feels like I have never left.

DJ and I camped at the wonderful little Reeds Gap State Park. We hiked, waded in the stream, napped in the hammock, and the best: cooked our favorite camping foods over the fire. We also went to the Remington Ryde Bluegrass Festival in Reedsville, PA. The whole vacation reminded us why we love our state and how much we miss the country.

We had friends over to our little apartment for dinner. DJ's friend from the port, Michael and his beautiful new wife Rachael visited. We had shepherd's pie with turkey sausage and strawberries for dessert. I even got out the good Blue Ridge pottery from Mrs Clapp and Siesta Ware mugs from Smartz. We had such encouraging conversations. I felt so blessed to have over.

tiny kitchen set up

At the end of July I was asked to fill in at Circle Thrift. Soon enough the position was extended and I will be there for a while. I love working there. Everyone should come by to see me and buy some awesome merch from CT!

I am excited for what August has in store. More updates to come.

birthday

Today I turned 26. I don't really like parties, and never have, so DJ and I had a low key birthday lunch at one of my favorite places: Zama. Its a sushi place, which is not usually on our rotation of places to go because sushi doesn't always fill us up.Today we got two veggie rolls, a super crunchy spicy tuna roll, the smoked salmon and fig roll, and the Philly cheese steak roll. All were so amazing! After, we went to a cafe that we have been meaning to check out: Pure Fare. The coffee was really smooth and the pistachio-dark chocolate bark was rich and certainly worth the price.

But before all of this, DJ came home with a great little gift...

Classy? Maybe not, but definitely thoughtful!

Along with all the great wishes that I have gotten through text, FB, and calls, it is shaping up to be a good B-day!

strawberry and rhubarb shortcake

I had a great day! I checked off most of the weekend tasks and also got in a trip to Greensgrow! There I bought so much fresh produce including a pint of strawberries and four stalks of rhubarb! I had to make something awesome! Exclamation points!

Now I do not really like pie crust and I like making it about as much. I looked in the vegetarian cookbook for a recipe for shortcake. I saw one make with walnuts, but I figured I would modify the recipe to what I already had. Here is what I came up with...

Shortcake:
1 cup of roasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted
1/4 cup of flax seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
8 tbsp butter
1/4 cup (approx) coconut milk

Filling:
1 pint sliced strawberries
4-5 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
1/3 cup sugar

Special Tools:
Food Processor


I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I combined the pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sugar, and rosemary in the food processor and turned it on until it was ground to a cornmeal consistency. I then added the flour and baking powder and ran it again until mixed. I cut up my butter and added it to the mixture with the processor on and continued to process until the mixture started to come together. At this point I added the coconut milk while it was running until a ball started to form. I dumped the ball into a pie pan and pushed it into the sides. I tried to make the bottom thicker to hold the filling.

For the filling I slices up the super ripe strawberries and chopped the rhubarb. I combined them in a bowl with the sugar and stirred until the sugar started to dissolve.
I poured the filling into the pie pan and baked it for about 40-50 minutes. I could tell it was done by checking the rhubarb with a fork. When the fork was able to go through it without any resistance it was done! I let it rest for about 30 minutes before serving it.

And oh man was it good. I had been jonesing for a strawberry and rosemary desert for a while now (ever since I saw a desert pizza like this in Better Homes and Gardens) DJ and I ate it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I am sure my vegan friends could substitute any number of solid fats for the butter, so go crazy!

First Holy Communion

It has been a crazy week! Here's the haps from Connor's First Holy Communion!

The Brown Boys looking very serious. From left Hunter and Connor

Hunter and Connor with Uncle Jay (my brother and Connor's Godfather)

The church had such a cool roof! There were so many people we had to stand!

My mom made a cake for the Connor's party. She asked Connor to choose two verses for the cake

 He picked Job 28:18 (left) No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies, and Luke 24:41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them,

 “Have you anything here to eat?” Connor is a fun and witty kid!

Mom made these grapes and the chalice out of gum paste (I think) 

Five Days later  there are now 3 Brown Boys!! Welcome Parker David Brown born
 Friday, May 25th. at 3:40 pm, 7lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long!

Trenton Ave Arts Fest and Kinetic Sculpture Derby

Today Chompsky and I went to the Trenton Ave Arts Fest and Kinetic Sculpture Derby! I was so excited that I almost forgot to take some snapshots. Here are a few highlights...

Such a beautiful day.
You can just see the Comcast building in the center of the photo.

Little Baby's Ice Cream!! So good!

So tempting! But we collect the brown glass ones.

The Kinetic Sculptures travel around the neighborhood and then drive through mud.

One of the sculptures. This one was blasting dance music.

Nice little three-seater.

Yards Brewing Company's mobile. I love the taps on the steering wheel!

A very tired Chompsky

Our spoils! T-shirt for me and a bandanna for DJ.

The weekend is off to a good start. Tomorrow, DJ and I are going to my nephew's first communion celebration. I am excited to see my family.

Trenton Ave here I come...

Excited about this today! Stay tuned for the haps!

hot dog truck

The Memphis Beer Garden is OPEN! DJ and I went on opening day on Saturday and yesterday. I had the Surf which is like a Vietnamese Hoagie but with a hot dog and my favorite the California Uber Alles (pictured below) which is like a California Roll with a beer battered hot dog!

my mouth waters just looking at it

CALIFORNIA UBER ALLES

Our healthy diet is definitely in trouble! Seriously if you are in Philly anytime this summer you should check this place out! 

our new burger place.. vegans & vegetarians beware

DJ and I have a problem. We love burgers. When we go to a new place that is supposed to have a good one, we must have it. For instance, we went to Kraftwork in Fishtown. This place had a huge tap list and a burger with duck fat and bacon jam (sorry vegan/vegetarian friends.) The burger was the best in the city...

...and then they screwed it all up. The burger is now sans duck fat and on a ciabatta roll (NOOOOO!). So DJ and I went in search of our new favorite burger place.

Our usual hangout place, Memphis Taproom, has a great burger. However, the temperature inconsistence and limit of toppings have tired us. The burger at Prohibition Taproom is great as well, but lacking. The burger at Sketch is messy goodness on a roll with rockin fries, but alas no tap. Our search continued.

Then we tried the burger at The Belgian Cafe. We have found a winner.

Their burger is moist, cooked to perfection, and comes with one of a list of amazing topping combinations. Bonus: their award winning fries. Seriously. They come with an aioli sauce that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Second bonus: Monk's Flemmish Sour on tap all the time. Since this cafe is owned by Monk's I can be certain that they will have my favorite beer every time I need a burger fix. Probably the only downside is that it is in Fairmount. "Why the downside," you ask? PARKING! If you want to go there any time after 6, good luck finding a spot. I say go early and walk the beautiful streets while you work off your buzz.

baked cauli and cheese

One of DJ's favorite meals is meatloaf, mac and cheese, and stewed tomatoes. I decided to try to make a somewhat healthier version substituting cauliflower for the macaroni and sans the meatloaf. I steamed a head of cauliflower and when it was just tender, mixed it with shredded cheddar cheese in a casserole dish. I baked it at 400 until the cheese was bubbling and slightly brown on top. The tomatoes were from a can, so that was just a matter of opening, heating, and adding a little sugar and corn starch to thicken the liquid. The dinner was so delicious. Next time I will use 2 or 3 heads of cauliflower because we like to have leftovers for lunches. Sorry for no pics, this meal went quick!

Pi Day

When I realized what day it was I knew what I had to do- make pies! I was super hungry, so I did what any woman would do in my situation- make pot pie. Now this isn't the PA Dutch noodle pot pie. This is the crusty goodness that the rest of the country calls pot pie. I picked up a couple of ingredients at Cousins and got to chopping. I love the colorful veggies all diced up on a cutting board.

I let the onions sweat in some oil with garlic before throwing in the rest of the veggies and some stock. I also cut up some frozen green beans. To get the sauce more like gravy, I added a cornstarch and soy sauce mixture to the filling. While that was cooking I made some whole wheat crust and let it chill. After it was all combined and ready I baked it in a 425 degree oven for 30 min. The veggie pot pie was delicious. The little Scotty dog is just for fun.

I had some pie crust left over so I cut up some plums that we got from the Spring Garden Market and almonds and cooked it apple pie style. It turned out pretty good. Next time I will bake it longer.

Who knew math could be so tasty!

pizza first attempt and success!

Our fantastic bread maker has been used almost daily in the last 2 months making numerous loaves of bread and cake so it was time to try something different. I got home from work earlier than I thought I would today, so I decided I would try making homemade pizza.

After the dough was done in the bread maker, I let it rest on the floured counter for 15 min. I then rolled it out into a circle and let it rise for 20 min. I had trouble transferring it to the pizza stone, but after a few failed attempts (holes in the dough) I was able to form it and top it with marinara with bell peppers, homemade ricotta, and shredded mozzarella cheese. It baked for 18 min at 425 and turned out browned and delicious. It was so good I burned my tongue because I couldn't get enough.

Definitely more pizza to come!

Update: 3/10

We made pizza again using the bread maker and split the dough for a thinner crust. The first pizza was small, but the second was about the same size as the one above. Two pizzas filled us both up!

King Cake

Happy Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Carnival everybody!

I decided to celebrate by making a King Cake. It is a traditional dessert from the Big Easy. The cake is consumed on Fat Tuesday at a party and whoever gets the piece with the baby (a plastic baby or nut that is baked into the cake) is the king!

I looked around at some recipes on the internet, but realized that the cinnamon roll recipe that came with my bread machine was similar. I put the ingredients together and let the bread machine do its thing. Meanwhile I made some homemade food dye for the colored sugar.

Purple was made with blueberries, yellow with turmeric, and green with spinach

the green didn't work very well

After the dough was stuffed and rolled I formed it into the traditional round shape and let it rise.

a couple of hours later and out came a cake! I decorated it with a powdered sugar glaze and the colored sugar. I wonder who will get the baby? (or in this case the almond)