Roasted Bone Marrow anyone?

It feels so great to be back from the long weekend.  I hope you enjoyed all my guest bloggers while I was away.  Kasey was calling them Adam's Angels.  I would have to agree.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you to Kasey, Laura, Ashley, Jules, and last but not least, my wife, Mrs. Throwing Quarters. 

It was a long weekend and I couldn't have blogged even if I wanted to.  I also want to thank you for all the great comments you have left for all my guest bloggers.  Thank you thank you and again, thank you.

So, now that I am back, what should I talk about?  Should I talk about mean customers?  No.  Been there done that.  Should I talk about the awesome Thanksgiving dinner we had this past Sunday?  Yes, but not right now.  I want to talk about food, but I want to share a more recent story.

When you go out to eat, what goes through your head as a parent?  Do you instantly think of what the kids menu is before you leave because you want to make sure your child eats?  What happens? 

It can be a point of anxiety for many parents.  For me?  I don't even care.  I go eat where I want to eat, and I know if I take Audrey along, she is going to eat something.  She isn't going to look for chicken fingers, Kraft macaroni, or pizza unless it's given as a choice.  She is a typical 7 year old.  She likes those things, I cannot fault her.  But as of late she has been asking for things I am not expecting her to ask for.  "Dad, can I try that mustard over there?" or "Dad, I'm not sure if I like it, but can I try that A-1 steak sauce?" or "Dad I don't like those sweet potatoes, but I tried them." 

She does this without me asking.  It literally warms my heart.  I have tried and tried and tried to give Audrey more than just the crap you can get on a kids menu at any restaurant chain.  She orders off it when available, but I don't fret when we go somewhere that doesn't have a published kids' menu.

Audrey and I watch Top Chef together all the time.  I am trying to show her that people get excited about food.  We watch Iron Chef.  We watch Diners, Drive In's, and Dives.  She gets excited about food. 

Well when I told her that my friends Josh and Carrie were coming in from out of town, we are all going to Bar Symon, she was more than excited. 

My friend Josh is a chef in the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Dining Room at the Pentagon, and a total food guy.  So when Michael Symon built a restaurant in our home town, we had to make sure he went while he was on leave. 

Audrey walked around school for weeks telling her classmates and teachers that SHE was going to Bar Symon and that she was excited.  She had no clue about the menu, but she was excited to go.  I knew the menu enough to know that there was something for her on it, but she is the big girl, she can pick what ever she wanted.

 [panorama shot from the table. You can see the Wifey, Audrey, and Josh's Wife Carrie]

So let's go through the progression last night.  Josh ordered the Roasted Bone Marrow for an appetizer.  His wife, Carrie, and I have read the Julie and Julia Project so we were curious about what roasted bone marrow was.  Josh had it many times in his line of work, but Carrie and I thought it was like a unicorn.  Something everyone always talked about but no one ever saw in the wild.  We have yet to see it on any menu at any restaurant we have ever been to.  Now I know there are some great French restaurants out there, but I have never seen this in the wild.  

To the table came the Bone Marrow [pictured to the left] served right in the bone.  Carrie dove in first, and I was just so excited to try it that I almost jumped out of my skin when Audrey said this:

"Dad, can I try it?"

What?  What does your kid eat again?  Oh that's right, Kraft Macaroni N Cheese off the mother fucking kids menu.

So with delight Josh scooped up some roasted bone marrow onto the toast it was served with and just watched, with my mouth gaping open.  What she said next I almost peed my pants.

"Wow, Dad, I like this, can I have more?"

What?  Yeah you have trouble getting your kid to eat chicken fingers at Friday's, my child eats roasted bone marrow!  You know the stuff from INSIDE the bones of a cow!  She eats that! And she asked for more!

So the waiter, named Steve, yeah he was that good I remembered his name, came back to take dinner orders and Audrey decided to try something I was equally impressed with.  Goat Cheese Mac N Cheese.  She knew it was not Kraft, but then again there is comfort in knowing your pasta is about to be smothered with cheese. 

I looked around.  There were other parents there with their children, all eating off the non published kids' menu.  Buttered noodles, chicken fingers, and who knows what else was on there.  Audrey was ordering off the big kids menu and loving it.  Score one for my daughter!  Even the wife was impressed!

Later on in the night I let Audrey's mom know what she ate and she sent back, Eww, that sounds gross. 

I just sighed in frustration and why doesn't anyone else think that this is the coolest thing in the world?!

So I ordered a braised pork shank, because let's face it, pigs are tasty.  That is also pictured.  The wife got the burger.  But Audrey kept tasting everything.  She tried the braised pork shank, the goat cheese mac n cheese [which she loved btw], and even the Bar Symon burger.  Along with the Bacon and Apple Bread Pudding, Brown Butter Whipped Potatoes, and many many other great things! 

For dessert we tried every dessert they had.  It was just a magical night all around.  Good brews, good eats, and good conversation.

It's always nice to talk to someone about Cleveland when they are away from Cleveland.  You can see a bigger picture of Cleveland and not the narrow-minded views of the residents.  The can't see the forest from the trees I believe is the analogy.  Cleveland, as it turns out, has become a travel spot for foodies.  I have read about this in the times, but I have yet to have it confirmed by someone outside Cleveland that I actually knew.

Anyway, our tour of Cleveland Food resumes tonight as Josh, Carrie, and the Wife head down to the Greenhouse Tavern for Blog it Forward Happy hour.  If you don't have anything to do, get down there.  There is more info about it here. 

Blog it Forward

When you start a blog you start writing for yourself.  You dance like no one is watching, if you will.

Then there comes a point when that whole thing transforms.  You make a few friends, you gain a few readers, and your blog which was coming straight from your heart is now a part of someone else's life.  Then your blog changes.  You start to have a voice in the world.  You become someone's center of influence.  You somehow are put in the position to help someone else, just with your ability to write.

This time of year is always tough and we often lose the meaning of these holidays on shopping and worrying about company.  We never stop and think about all the people out there who are having a tough time.

Yesterday I saw a post from a fellow Clevelander and blogger Chef's Widow.  She told us a story of a 35 year old mother who is in the ICU fighting for her life after having a stroke.  The woman's name was Anissa and her blog that she writes is called Aiming Low.

The Widow decided that she needs to take action.  So she organized a benefit at her restaurant on December 3rd.

I am going to do my best to make sure I am there, and if you are in town, I would love to see you there as well.  It's a good cause and The Widow's husband can sure cook!  

The Blogging community in Cleveland is already spreading the word as I have seen reposts on Cleveland Foodie and Cleveland's A Plum. If you are in Cleveland, please get the word out!

See you there!

Cleveland Blogger Prizes

So remember a certain contest that was run just over a month ago here on this blog?

Yeah, me to too. Well I announced a winner and it was buried in a blog about how awesome my child was, because this IS my blog and yes, I am the narcissist, so it's all about me me me.

So for a refresher, I was giving away a C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt as a price for guessing the Addy's birth time without going over. So many of you chimed in, and 1 of you won.

Kasey Crabtree. A winner. She won the much coveted C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt. As a bonus she was able to come over and meet the baby. Kasey, the clairvoyant she is, was able to guess to within 6 minutes of the correct time. 6 minutes. You know out of 1440 minutes in the day, she picked that particular minute. I couldn't believe someone could get it that close. When I was talking with her, she said, "I saw sixes, nines, threes, and so that's how I got it."

It was amazing and she won a great prize. Way to go Kasey, and for those of you on Twitter, go follow her, she has some great Tweets. She gives good Tweet, as LauraBlue would say.

So that being said, I have given out my first prize, and I look forward to hooking up with C.L.E. Clothing Co. on a future giveaway, but I have also won some stuff out there in Blog Land.

My very very very first prize comes from a very popular Cleveland Blogger Alexa over at Cleveland's a Plum. She was recently voted best blogger in Cleveland by the readers of Cleveland Magazine. She is so popular the C.L.E. Clothing Co. even made a shirt for her. She had a pow wow at her place to give these things away. The contest was genius and check it out so you can see how I won such a fracking awesome shirt.

Now that you are back, the Cleveland Food Scene has recently gotten a TON of attention. More specifically the Greenhouse Tavern. Named one of the 10 best restaurants in the country by Bon Apetite Magazine, and Chef/Owner Johnathon Sawyer was voted best Chef in Cleveland by Cleveland Scene, his wife Amelia runs a pretty fantastic blog as well as running their home lives. This couple is the dynamic duo. Amelia a.k.a Chef's Widow was selected by the Gap to be a Gap Brand Enthusiast and so they shipped her a ton of jeans and other giveaway things, along with a video camera and said, "Give our shit away".

Give it away she did. Check out how SHE gave it away, and how she got her readers [me] involved.

Well a few days ago I got my prize in the mail and off to the Gap I went. A coupon for free Jeans is amazing considering I can't afford much right now, so a coupon worth basically $55.00 is amazing, and the new Gap Jeans I got as a result are also amazing.

In closing I want to thank all of you who entered my contest, and I also want to thank Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow for making me look good, and also did for free.

[Rocking Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow Prizes]

I've been away.....

Before you get all mad, I had a good reasons to be away for so long. I have been losing focus.

Since last Wednesday, I have been hyped. We have a date for the arrival of baby. Between last Wednesday until tomorrow, 1 week later, my wife could have gone into labor at any time. With every vibration of my 2 BlackBerrys I sat on the edge. Was this going to be the phone call, text, instant message that will mark the arrival of labor pains, or a goodbye to my wife's water. All of these things would warrant my immediate departure from work.

These things never came. My mind was elsewhere at work. My sales goals are untouched. Out of the huge goal I have sitting in front of me, I have barely made a dent in them. I haven't tried. My mind was pre-occupied. Understandably, but it doesn't help. It was on Friday when I butted heads with a manager I usually have a good relationship with. That's when I really freaked out. It was 4 days into the month, I had almost all zeros on the board when he looked at me and said, "you are better than this". He had a look of disgust on his face. His #1 sales guy, was in the crapper. I have lost focus. My drive was gone. My ambition was gone. I was ready to see my new child.

My managers are pretty understanding. They didn't hassle me too much, so I unplugged from the blog, I unplugged from twitter [not cutting myself from that too much, but reduced my input], and unplugged from full time Facebooking. I needed to focus on my family and career choice.

This is the reason for me being a recluse from my blog.

I have a ton on my brain as a result. I am in the process of scheduling out some posts because I'm pretty sure I will not have time to do blogging for the rest of the week.

While I was away, some great things happened. I won some stuff and got fan mail.

What I won:
Not sure if you remember, but I won a Cleveland's a Plum t-shirt from Alexa from Cleveland's a Plum. I am forever grateful for this! Thanks again Alexa.

But there is something going on in the blog world that 2 bloggers from Cleveland were recipients of. Brand About Town selected 2 of my favorite Cleveland bloggers to be Gap Brand Enthusiasts. That basically means they get a bunch of free shit from Gap and get to throw a party to give it all away. Sometimes they send you so much stuff, that the awesome bloggers they are get to give stuff away to their readers who didn't get invited to the party.

For a long time I have been following Chef's Widow, who is the wife of Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer of the Greenhouse Tavern. Her blog has become one of my stops in my daily routine blog reading. Her adventures of moving have been hilarious, and her insight of what her husband's success in the culinary world by being named Bon Appetite's top 10 Restaurants in America. When she got her free stuff from Gap to give away, she threw a party for her restaurant. She gave all the stuff to her staff. She thanked them for being there for her.

So when she had a ton of left overs, she gave it away to us, the readers.

I am glad to say that I won!! I won a pair of Gap Jeans! First a t-shirt, now some jeans. How awesome!

So thank you Chef's Widow can't wait to try them on!

Don't worry, I will get photos of my Cleveland blogger prize pack!

What I got from a Fan:
Well a good friend of mine who is NOT a fan of blogs, but IS a fan of my podcast recently visited me at my day job. He walked in and gave me a package. I quickly opened it and out came a t-shirt.

George is the drummer of a Cleveland metal band Morality Check. They will be making an appearance on the podcast soon. George and I go way back. He went to high school with my older brother and he and I have stayed in touch throughout the years. I have been to his house many a night rocking to Guitar Hero with a bunch of other friends. My avatar is awesome.

So when I saw George that day in my store handing me a package with a t-shirt, I was interested as to what would be on the shirt. He often makes fun of me for blogging as much as I do, but not in a malicious way, just in jest.

I laughed when I saw the shirt.
How awesome is that?! Thanks George! Can't wait to have the band on my show!

If you haven't already, make sure you get your times in for tomorrow's side bet on the baby pool. Make sure you read the comments and see what everyone else has said! Also, if you would like to stay updated, I will be twittering I'm sure during the labor. Follow me on Twitter to keep in the loop.

Who needs Michael Symon or Jonathon Sawyer when you have me?!

So what does an impatient Dad do while he waits for his wife go into labor?

Cook.

Who needs Michael Symon or Jonathon Sawyer when you have me? I take that back. We all need them, but when you aren't going to venture to their fine restaurants, what do you do?

Cook.

Last night I decided to cook a summer staple in my house. Burgers! The variation we had was a play on the Royal Red Robin Burger, the Bar Symon Burger, and Napoleon Dynamite's osbession with tater tots.

The burger was stuffed with cheddar cheese, and bacon. Topped off with an egg, sunny side up, and served on an English Muffin. It was amazing. It was also breakfast for dinner.

Wifey wanted a vegetable, and I wanted more cheese. That's how we came up with the broccoli and cheese. I have a Napoleon Dynamite fascination with tater tots, so that topped the whole dish off.

I apologize for not having something more interesting to talk about, but once this child is born, there will be endless streams of stories. Right now. I am having hard time concentrating.