Food Adventures: Richmond, Virginia

Well I really had meant to write a little about my trip to Richmond, VA sooner, but I just haven't been in the writing mood. This will be a bit minimal about my trip, I should have written about it sooner when my memory was fresher. I also wish I had taken more pictures, but I am just not that much of a photographer. I need to learn to be if I am going to write about things I do.

The first place we went where I took pictures was Capital Ale House. They had a very nice menu at this bar, and I think the rest of my family enjoyed the beer selection as well. It was also a pretty short walk from where we were staying during the trip as well.

This was the pulled pork poutine that was on the menu at Capital Ale House, french fries covered with cheese curds, gravy, and pulled pork. My dad is actually the one who ordered this, the portion was quite big, but of course there were too many fries and not enough toppings, but still it was quite delicious.

This was my dish at Capital Ale House, bacon and onion stuffed chicken, with au gratin potatoes, and broccoli. It was really good. I loved the garlic and onion flavor in the stuffing and the chicken was cooked perfectly. It was a great, slightly healthier option on the menu because I knew I would be having some less than healthy foods during the week.

The next morning my brother and I went off to a local English pub to watch some Premier League soccer, the place was called Penny Lane, and yes after The Beatles. I got the full English breakfast. It was quite mediocre, as I thought it might be at a pub, but it was high in protein and really filling.

We went out to a French restaurant with some friends of our father. There really wasn't all the much that appealed to me on the menu here, but I decided to get some mussels, since I was closer to the coast seafood was one of the things I wanted to eat. These mussels were flavored with ingredients that also go into clam chowder, and there were a few clams included as well. Seasoned with bacon, leeks, and cream, they were quite good, but were weirdly served with french fries, all of which together was quite salty.

This is the last food picture I have from the trip, the one thing I wanted to have more than anything else, Chicken and waffles! I also had it with some sweet tea for a true southern experience. The chicken and waffles was everything I wanted it to be, crispy, chewy, salty, sweet, and juicy. The one complaint that I would have preffered some pieces of chicken other than wings, but other than that it was amazing.

The one other thing I had to add to this was a picture of the Lucky Strike building in Richmond, I guess Richmond used to be one of the biggest cities for tobacco companies, and there is a long row of former tobacco warehouses that are being repurposed as apartments and condos. I just thought the Lucky Strike tower was really cool. There is also a Native American looking over the corner of the building.

The Lucky Strike building from a different angle.

Peter's Cooking Diary #12

So this week was a pretty simple meal to prepare, and it was using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner that I had with my family. I want to make something that was low carb as I am trying to get back on that wagon and trying to lose move weight. This was made more or less freestyle, I didn't have a recipe that I used for this, just combined many different ideas.

The first step to most of my cooking is starting cooking most of my vegetables, and in this case I actually used a lot of veggies. I used the whole pack of celery in this, trying to make it more hearty so it would be filling enough when eating it for lunch.

I didn't take a picture of lightly cooking the carrots before adding them to the crock pot, but I used the whole pound of carrots that I bought, I could have used more if I had bought more, but like I said it was just free style. This is the onions and garlic that I use as a base for just about every recipe.

This is the crock pot filled with onion, garlic, celery, carrots, stock, and some tomatoes that I got from my mom. I also added some herbs like oregano, thyme, and parsley as well as some red pepper flake. I also added a little bit of soy sauce, because I like the depth of flavor it adds to a soup. I think for the herbs you could actually just use some poultry seasoning if you happen to have that on hand as well.

My mom also gave me some green beans that she grew in her garden. I cut them up into about 4 pieces and added them to the mix.

I chopped up the turkey and added it to the pot, not sure how much I had, maybe a pound of white meat? I think you could just as easily use whatever leftover meat you have, or you can even make it without meat if you want to.

The second to last ingredient that I wanted to add was some wheat berries, which I think I have mentioned previously on here, but at least from what I have read they are the whole grain of wheat with the husk removed. They take about an hour to cook, and they need to be rinsed well. So I took some and boiled them almost the entire way to being done, but left them slightly undercooked and added them to the soup. They add a little bit of crunch and pop to the soup that was missing from the texture.

This is after I had added the cooked wheat berries to the pot.

The last thing that was added was some small butter beans because I wanted to add some sort of legume to the soup. I liked what they added to the dish as a whole. I have been eating the soup for lunch all week and have enjoyed it very much.

This is the final image I have, its kind of a bonus. My friend and I had another little food party. I guess the theme for this was sort of breakfast we had bagels, jam, some local Wisconsin honey, pears, apples, clementines, dried fruit that my mom gave me, crackers, goat cheese, some sweet oat crackers and some almonds. We actually didn't even crack into the loaf of bread at all.

Frozen

I just want to start off with my reaction from leaving the movie, and that reaction was WOW! I was extremely impressed with this movie. I really haven't seen many of the Disney movies from recent years, but we went to this as a family on Black Friday. It was actually nice to go to a movie together, to a small town theater. The first showing we tried to go to actually sold out, so we came back later for the next showing, which appeared to also sell out.

The movie was loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's story The Snow Queen. I am not familiar with the details of the story, so I don't know exactly how much they had taken from the story, and how much they had created themselves, but all in all I really enjoyed the movie. I don't recall that many Disney movies that were that dense with laughs, it almost reminded me of old episodes of the Simpsons in that respect.

I will say the story isn't quite what I would have expected out of a Disney movie, but then again thinking about it more I guess that lots of Disney's animated movies have an element of adversity in them. I guess I haven't rewatched a lot of the Disney movies I liked as a kid now that I am sort of an adult, there could be elements that I wasn't able to appreciate as a kid, because in Frozen I really enjoyed every part of the movie.

This movie has so much to it, there are parts that are sad, parts that are exciting, some great songs, and so many laughs. I definitely laughed so hard I teared up a few times during the movie. I think that Josh Gad's work as the snowman Olaf really made the film. He had possibly the 10-20 funniest lines in the movie, almost all of his lines had laughs. I was generally impressed by the number of laughs throughout the film, although of course it is easy to make me laugh a lot.

I think this is actually the first family friendly movie that I have seen this year. I would absolutely recommend this movie to everyone old and young. I know my mom and my younger brother also enjoyed watching it. I know it isn't technically an original story, but it is a very enjoyable story that would be a great thing to see with your family.

I had to put this movie in front of Catching Fire for the simple reason that even though I just saw Frozen, i kind of want to see it again right away, and I always value movies with rewatchability.

11. Pain & Gain
10. Thor: The Dark World
9. World War Z
8. Pacific Rim
7. Iron Man 3
6. Hunger Games: Catching Fire
5. Frozen
4. Star Trek Into Darkness
3. This Is the End
2. The World's End
1.Gravity

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

For reference, this was my favorite book in the series, I just liked the many elements of the story and how it added to the story of the first book. I liked the many twists and surprises that happened in the book. Along with liking the first movie, this was definitely something that made me optimistic about the execution of the 2nd movie.

I really should have written this back when I saw the movie, because it is not quite as fresh as it was when I had saw it. I remember leaving the movie being quite impressed with the it. I thought it was a bit more consistent with the book than the first movie was, but then again I read them right before the first movie and I have not revisited them since. I also just enjoyed this movie more than the first in general.

I really wish I could remember more of my thoughts from the movie, but nothing is really coming to me. I enjoyed it more than the first one, and I am very interested to see what they do with the 3rd book, although I believe they are turning it into 2 movies, which as the 3rd book was my least favorite could make for 2 bad movies instead of one decent one.

I liked the movie, and had some trouble deciding where to rank it this year, but I decided that it belonged before Iron Man 3.

10. Pain & Gain
9. Thor: The Dark World
8. World War Z
7. Pacific Rim
6. Iron Man 3
5. Hunger Games: Catching Fire
4. Star Trek Into Darkness
3. This Is the End
2. The World's End
1.Gravity

Thanksgiving

I just wanted to write a little bit about my Thanksgiving, and what I am thankful for in this holiday season. I really wanted to do this earlier, but I just haven't been on a computer to type this out during my extended holiday weekend.

I have not been someone who has really struggled all that much in my life, I really have been quite fortunate in most areas. I think that even the negative things that have happened in my life only it make it that much easier to appreciate all of the positive things.

Things I am thankful for (not an all inclusive list):

I am thankful for my family. I have 2 supportive and caring parents, both of whom I have great relationships with. We might not talk every day, but I am extremely thankful for them. I also have 2 great brothers who might not live in the same area, but I am always happy to have them.

I am thankful for my friends. I have some great friends in my life, both old and new. I have especially enjoyed making new friends in the past few years, I am glad to have each of them in my life.

I am thankful to have found some passions in life. I like writing on this blog. Its not about how many people read it, its more about being able to write in general, I like to have that kind of an outlet in my life. I also love movies, and thinking about movies, writing about movies, talking about movies, and just movies in general. I also am thankful for the ability to cook, I like trying new foods, I love cooking new recipes and everything in between. I prefer to make things at home rather than buying them when I can. I am always looking for new things to make or try.

I am thankful for my health, and the fact that I have not yet had to deal with any major health issues myself, knock on wood. I may have dealt with some issues mental healthwise, but I feel great in that department too, I have done a lot of work to get here, but also getting through depression has helped make me who I am today. I would not want to change that for the world.

The final thing I will list that I am thankful for is humor. I love my ability to laugh at things, I believe that I am able to find humor in so many different things in life, and I never take myself too seriously. I think humor makes it easier to deal with so many different things in life. I think the fact that I have spent a long time dealing with depression has helped me appreciate the humor in life.

Now that we have covered some of the things that I am thankful for, I want to show some of the foods m family had for thanksgiving:

We started off the day with some cranberry oatmeal bake made with steel cut oats and fresh cranberries, it was really good, I had a few servings of it over the weekend.

The table was set for our dinner, I was the one drinking the ginger ale, everyone else had wine with their dinner.

We set the food up as a buffet because there was not enough space on the table for all of the food.

A loaf of bauernbrot that a a friend of mine was able to get made at the bakery she works at, it was great, I could definitely remember the flavor of it from when we lived in Austria, the large loaf did not survive the weekend.

This was my main contribution to the feast, my mom had some purple and yellow potatoes that we baked with some garlic, oil, and herbs. The result was delicious, and even though it wasn't mashed potatoes, I still enjoyed them a lot.

Wild rice dressing made with dried cubes of my mom's own bread, I loved the flavor of the dressing, it went well with everything. The other dish was a cranberry baked squash, I tried it, but it was still squash so it wasn't for me.

Some home made green bean casserole, made with green beans from my mom's garden, home made cream of mushroom soup, and bread crumbs made with homemade bread and onion.

An apple crumble pie and pumpkin pie, the apples were locally grown, I helped to peel them and got the other pie ingredients together, there was a nice crumb topping on it, the tart apples worked perfectly in the pie. The other is the same pumpkin pie we have been having my whole life, it if ain't broke, don't fix it!

My place with all of the different items on it, the turkey we had was a fresh Wiscosnsin turkey. I was very happy to have a Thanksgiving with lots of home grown and home made ingredients, and we also wanted to use as many local products as we could in our dinner.

Thor: The Dark World

This is the first Marvel Studios produced movie that I almost didn't go see in the theater. I didn't really like the first Thor all that much, and it didn't seem like the story was all that great, and I just didn't care about the character all that much either. If Tom Hiddleston had not been in this movie, I can only imagine how bad it would have been.

Loki provides a lot of the comedic elements in the movie as well as a lot of the general entertainment. I wish there was a way that Loki could have his own movie, but that just doesn't seem likely, but he will likely be a part of all future Thor movies, especially with how this movie played out.

I found the style and special effects in the movie to be kind of off putting, they reminded me of a combination of the style and effects from the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings movies. It was trying to be a combination of both science fiction and fantasy. I really didn't like the science fiction elements, the awkward flying ships, the laser cannons that appeared for the situation, when also they fight a normal battle without cannons or anything, just hand to hand weapons. It really just didn't work for me, I think they wanted to replicate things that were successful in other movies, but that stuff didn't work all meshed together.

I felt like Natalie Portman really phoned it in in this movie. She just seemed out of place in it. I don't know if it was just the feel of the film, or the lackluster script, but it really felt like she wasn't really caring about her performance.

I don't know if there will be another Thor movie, but I think they can do a lot better than they did with this one. I think the fact that Thor isn't that well known to people who haven't read the comics makes it a bit harder for him to carry a film. A lot of the Avengers are in the same boat, Iron Man was able to break through this in the 3 movies, now I think people will know what to expect from an Iron Man movie. I really don't know what people will expect out of another Thor movie.

I have updated my movie rankings for the year, and while I haven't seen all that many movies this year, I just couldn't put this above World War Z. I think I would much rather see World War Z again than I would Thor: The Dark World.

9. Pain & Gain
8. Thor: The Dark World
7. World War Z
6. Pacific Rim
5. Iron Man 3
4. Star Trek Into Darkness
3. This Is the End
2. The World's End
1.Gravity

Food Adventures: Black Cat Cafe in Green Bay, WI

This will be a shortish entry, but I just wanted share about this amazing cafe that has the best savory breakfast dish I have ever had. My mouth is actually watering just as I am typing this.

The Black Cat Cafe is on Broadway Street just a little bit south of downtown. The cafe has 2 halves, there is a dining area as well as a bar area. The decor is quite unique with paintings by local artists all over the walls, as well as some unique kitschy decor. I really like the feel of it, almost a little bit hipsterish, there isn't much that is like it in the Green Bay area.

They only do the full brunch menu on Sundays, and I believe they are known for the variety of bloody marys that they offer, although I don't drink so I have never tried that specialty.

The main thing I wanted to show was the dish that I have gotten each of the last 5 times I have gone there:

I present to you the Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict from the Black Cat Cafe. The dish consists of cornbread topped with pulled pork, topped with poached eggs and some amazing hollandaise sauce, with a side of their cafe potatoes. Once again my mouth is watering just at the thought of this dish. I had it earlier today, but I am hungry for it again.

The buttery hollandaise, the gooey egg, the salty pulled pork, and the sweetness of the corn bread all combining together for an amazing taste combination. It truly is the best savory breakfast dish that I have ever had. I am not someone who will always get the same thing at a restaurant, but I can't bring myself to get away from this one, its just too delicious.

Here is the shot of my plate after I was done:

I would normally have eaten the orange but it was sprinkled with pepper so I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to eat it.

Peter's Cooking Diary #11

So last week I made my chili, but as usual I adjusted the recipe, I am always adjusted things each time I make it and based on what is on sale too. This time around I tried to use lots of spices out of my spice cabinet instead of a seasoning packet. There were no measurements for this at all, just put them all together and mixed them together.

I am going to try to remember all of the ingredients in this bowl I know there was curry powder, garam masala, ancho chile powder, sweet paprika, oregano, some kosher salt, and cocoa powder which I have seen used in many chili recipes, I think I need to add more of it next time as I couldn't taste it at all in the chili. I liked what the chili tasted like, I will keep trying to make my own spice mixture as it seems like the type of thing I would enjoy doing, I might even try to mix up a big container of it so I don't have to try every time.

The cooked down onion and garlic mixture that I usually use, 3 green bell peppers, and a pack that contained one red, one yellow, and one orange bell pepper that I got at Aldi. I normally check all the produce thoroughly at Aldi as not everything is great, but the bell peppers were firm and smooth which is what I look for in a bell pepper.

I added the spices from the bowl to the veggies and stirred them up and let them heat together in the crock pot on high for 10-15 minutes, to just get the flavors mixing together. I usually use fire roasted canned chiles but I forgot to buy them. This is also the step I would add in tomato paste into the mix if I were including it.

I added a large can of crushed tomatoes and a large container of stock to the pot and mixed to combine everything together. I put just a little bit of soy sauce into it as well, I love the depth of flavor of soy sauce, even though it seems a bit out of place with these ingredients. I seasoned some chicken breasts and cooked them on high on each side for 7-8 minutes to get a nice golden brown color in the pan, let them sit for a few minutes, and then nestled them into the crock pot with the mixture.

After cooking for about 6 hours on low, I remove the chicken breasts from the crock pot, and let them cool, once they cooled I shredded them up and added them back to the pot, along with 3 drained cans of sweet corn.

I stirred the corn in and added 3 rinsed cans worth of black beans, some people don't rinse their beans out of the can, but I cant stand the starchy water that comes with the beans in the can. I drain them thoroughly. I turn the the chili off before adding the corn and beans, I let them sit mixed in for about 20 minutes just enough to heat everything through.

Here is a shot at the finished pot of chili, my chili is very chunky, and doesn't actually have that much meat it in, I am sure you could take the chicken out and it wouldn't be all that much worse, you would just want to take out the chicken stock and substitute veggie stock and then cook veggies in oil instead of bacon fat and it would be vegan if you wanted it to be.

I wanted to fry up some potatoes to put on top of my chili for a little bit of crispiness. When I pan fry potatoes I will always pat them dry to try to get some of the moisture out of them, it causes less splatter in the hot oil.

I added some salt to the potatoes in the hot oil, they are just starting to brown a little bit in this picture.

I don't turn the potatoes too quickly or they don't brown up as well, let them be for a few minutes before doing anything at all to them. Cooking them like this only takes maybe 10 minutes before they are brown and crispy. I like using Yukon Gold potatoes for this purpose.

I drained the potatoes after frying them, and salted them a little more.

A bowl of my chili covered with cheese and topped with my fried potatoes, it was delicious, the chili with my own seasonings was good too. I will continue to adapt the seasonings, and will probably never have a set recipe.

One last thing I wanted to add was this item I found at Aldi, which chocolate peanut butter, it seemed like an amazing idea, they also had a dark chocolate version. I tried it, and well I was a little bit disappointed by it, its just a bit too sweet for me when it comes to peanut butter, I might have to get some of the dark chocolate, which I bet goes better with peanut butter.

Netflix Chronicles #1

Well I thought I would start posting my thoughts on different things I have seen on Netflix, they aren't new movies, but there are many great movies, and also many great tv shows on Netflix Instant, as well as on demand on the premium channels that I get, and even some movies on DVD that I might have missed watching when they first came out. I just thought I would write about them as I watch them, not everything will get written about, but anything I find interesting. Netflix may be in the title, but this is not really limited to Netflix.

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil- I watched this movie again recently with one of my friends, and I really enjoyed it, maybe not quite as much as the first time, but I definitely laughed a ton and jumped at the times I was supposed to. I think not knowing anything about the story going into it helps, other than knowing that it is a horror comedy, so there will be some scares and a bit of blood, while there are also some lovable characters. I highly recommend this movie.

Brick- This movie really wowed me, I really don't know where to start with the awesome things that it did. This was the movie that Rian Johnson wrote and directed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in it because they worked together again in Looper. This movie takes the classic genre of film noir and places it in a high school setting. I still got the feeling that the movie was from another time, other than the semi-modern tech like cell phones. The movie was just simply awesome, and I would advise everyone to check it out. It is available on Netflix Instant, and can likely be found through other means as well, that was just the most convenient for me. I think this move was somewhat of an independent film and did not get that large of a release back in 2005 when it came out, I definitely did not heat about it until much later.

House on Haunted Hill- This is the original with Vincent Price, I had seen at least one movie with Vincent Price in it previously, but I thought another would have been a good taste of history around Halloween. This movie, I believe was likely wonderful when it was released in 1959, there were some very scary moments. I think they chose the right times for scares and the right times for twists, I liked the story, and even some of the effects were good, I just think some of it was just too dated to hold up over the 50+ years since its release. If you want to see a classic, check it out, otherwise I think you can pass on it.

Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23- I honestly can't explain why I started watching this show on Netflix, but I did. I had always thought that Krysten Ritter was funny in a weird sort of way. I think the weirdness is what I really like about this show, you have the party girl, the quiet Midwestern girl, and James Van Der Beek playing himself, or a comedic version of himself in New York. There is a lot of strange and dirty humor in this show, but that is just my kind of thing after all. I would say it is worth watching if you want a short funny show to check out, I think there are only 26 total episodes, and I am almost half way through the series, and it has really breezed by so far.

Drive- There was a lot of hype around this movie when it came out, I guess I never took the time to go and see it in the theater, and for some reason I never really felt an urgent need to see it. I don't know if I just didn't connect with this movie, but it wasn't all that enjoyable for me. I honestly think one of my favorite parts was the opening driving scene, and how that opening chase ended, such a brilliant idea! Other than that part, I felt like the movie was a lot of flash with only minimal bang. I didn't find the story very compelling, and while there were a lot of people I like in the movie, I didn't think the performances were that great. I could be a downer, but I just thought this movie was a miss for me.

Well this concludes the first edition of my ramblings about random visual media consumption that I have to share.

Peter's Cooking Diary #10

Its time for a slightly delayed edition of my cooking diary, and this week I had some fun, I actually made 2 dishes in my slow cooker this week, but without much further ado I will start with some of the pictures!

 This is some of the onions garlic and mushrooms from last week as well as some bacon getting warmed up.

 Next I added some eggs and cooked up a nice scramble for breakfast, I had this for breakfast most days last week. It was a delicious and very flavorful way to start the day!

This is another example of things I mixed in with my eggs, chopped up and smoked salmon with bacon as well. Another delicious breakfast scramble.

How do I start just about every cooking day, bacon!!!!

The delicious bacon after it has finished giving up all of its delicious fat.

I also start a lot of my cooking with onion and garlic cooking in bacon fat, I love the smell of these all cooking together.

This is tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, and spices in my slow cooker on top of the pork loin that I was cooking this week.

This is what it looked like once I covered the pork with the sauce.

This is another reason why I love Aldi, they have great German food available for cheap prices. I love hand made Spaetzle a little bit more as they have a unique texture to them that I am not sure you can get from a dried product.

The cauliflower that would go into my 2nd dish, it was a total of 2 heads chopped up.

This is the creamy cheesy cauliflower when it went into the slow cooker. The foil was in the crock pot to prevent the cheese from burning. One of the ingredients in the liquid sauce is condensed cheddar cheese soup, which is a great base for cheese sauces.

This is the steamy and cooked cauliflower that I ended up with. I really like the recipe, I may try to add a little flavor to the recipe next time, but the recipe did call for it to be topped with the rendered bacon. I liked it with a lot of black pepper for that little bite to it.

This might be a little hard to tell, but this is what I ate for lunch this week, and actually some for dinner too. Pork loin steak served on top of spaetzle smothered in the sauce it was cooked in, along with some creamy cheesy, cauliflower.

So this weekend I also had a friend over for our own little dinner party, I don't do much entertaining, but we both wanted to have a kind of spread like this. There is some cranberry cheddar cheese, kalamata olives, smoked salmon, garlic and herb cheese curds, pickles I got from my aunt in Missouri, pumpkin spice cream cheese, almonds, amish hand rolled butter, wheat crackers and a baguette. It was great and a lot of fun!