Sweet Juicy Cow Meat

Nacho's By Millers - Charlottesville, Virginia

Nacho's By Millers - Charlottesville, Virginia

This month has been rather busy and so I have not been in the kitchen as much as I would like.  However, I have been fully unhinging my jaw to try my share of food since my last post.  I am dedicating this post to food by others. 

The month started off by enjoying a lunch with Baby Mama.  You may recall her from such great kitchen stories as Meatloaf Football (see earlier post).  At one point in my brief near 2 decade career of working retail I found myself in downtown Minneapolis scouring the skyways (above ground and enclosed sidewalks for those of you still braving the elements of weather) for a cheap/filling/good lunch.  One day revealed to me, like the tablets to Moses, was The Burger Place.  It is literally called The Burger Place. Hidden in east downtown Minneapolis above the lightrail this very clean dive has a cornucopia of burgers, the most amazing fries, fountain soda and little to no turnover on staff (always a good sign).  My burger of choice is the Triple Cheeseburger.  Before you start chanting "two by four, can't fit through the kitchen door" it is not three patties of sweet juicy cow meat, but three tastefully chosen varieties of cheese and one pattie of bessie.  Topped off with lettuce, pickles and some secret sauce I like to call mayonnaise you too wouldn't hesitate to unhinge your jaw to consume.  Pictured above you will see Baby Mama and love of the french fry.  My apologies for not getting the camera out before we both inhaled out lunch.  We had to eat at lighting speed due to Baby of Baby Mama being ill and needing a pick up at the nanny's. 

My second venture out for food this month was to a little dive called Miller's in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Boyfriend and I braved the South this month. 

And by braved the South I mean we stayed in North Carolina for two days, got spooked and ran North to Charlottesville seeking shelter at our friends Phil and Sarah's.  Nothing against North Carolina.  Beautiful state.  We really just wanted to see Phil and Sarah. 

Back to Miller's.  According to Miller's web site if I was inclined to Hoover down a whole pan of nachos in one hour by myself said nachos would be free.  Not one to turn down a food challenge (I have a t-shirt to prove it) I made the group head straight to Miller's.  Sadly the food challenge no longer was being offered.  Thankfully the nachos were still on the menu.  Wonderfully layered in a stainless steel skillet the nachos were just enough to fill the four of us and potentially all the other bar patrons.  There was one ingredient that stood out beyond the rest in that skillet.  At one scoop of tortilla chip I was taken back to my childhood of Dortito's and shelf stable nacho cheese dip (you know the kind you buy next to the chips with the sardine like pull off top...I won't judge).  There found beneath the lettuce, jalapenos and sour cream was a layer of processed cheese.  And because this is something I would not normally buy in my sojourn to the grocery market it was like manna from Heaven.  

Other notable foods for during out trip:  Sarah's Purple Cabbage Sweet Potato Thai Soup which I am sure she will email me the recipe now that I have put the request out on the Interwebs.  Dunkin' Donuts.  That's right.  Dunkin' Donuts.  Back in the dark ages Minnesota drove all Dunkin's out of our state.  We are a donutless state and therefore Dunkin's was visited every day of our trip.  And finally Pizza Hut.  Now you can judge. 



Brain Freeze, Cakes, and Raven Simone

Yesterday was Boyfriend's birthday.  Sadly Boyfriend shares his birthday with a couple other major events (though none so major as his birth).  Labor Day and Duluth Superior Pride fall around his birthday every year.  People leave town and drag queens take the stage leaving what feels like little time to appreciate all that is Boyfriend's Birthday. 

Last year I went so far as to throw a bingo themed surprise party a month in advance.  This year involved a last minute trip to Duluth to visit Just Joni and to attend a BBQ/Pride event at Professor Keith's pride pad.  While there was no iPhone or Bingo shaped cake as there have been in the past, I did use some stealth texting skills to make sure Boyfriend had his birthday ice cream cake.  Thank you Professor Keith for making the cake a reality.  And if the ice cream cake was not enough I fulfilled the wet cake dream of making the store bought box confetti cake that Boyfriend would certainly body check me for to get the last slice.  His birthday cupcakes are pictured above.   

I am sure you are thinking this could not be all the kitchen shenanigans that have occurred since my last post?!?!   The last few weeks have been mildly busy as I try to take on the cut throat world of food styling while balancing my passions for dressing mannequins at the mall and using up the rest of my swollen ovaries in baked goods (I had to get that in one more time).  There have been many subsequent loaves of zucchini spice bread, continuous consumption of the most adorable teeny tiny tomatoes from the garden of Boyfriend's parents, and a dairy explosion of ricotta and mozzarella with hints of fried eggplant to create an eggplant parmesan .

The above mentioned BBQ got me back in the kitchen this past Friday to try zucchini based brownies.  After I pulled the nearly 1000 lbs pan out of the oven, let them cool and carefully sliced a Cliff Huxtable style sample piece I came to a zucchini conclusion.  No matter how you dress it up when you bake zucchini you are simply making zucchini cake.  You can shape it like a cookie, but all you get is a mookie.  You can shape like a brownie, but all you get is chocolate cake.  I'm sure out in the great Internets there is a true gooey brownie recipe that uses swollen ovaries, but I have yet to find it.  And truth be told I'm getting a little bored with my chocolate zucchini experimentation.  Later this week I hope to try zucchini chips.   We'll see what happens...

And one last note.  Boyfriend and I recently had dinner a our friends home in Narnia (some may call this an outer ring suburb).  Our friend Baby Mama is not a cook (she once made a meatloaf for dinner and forgot the bread crumbs - which means she baked a seasoned football shaped hamburger).  However this past meal was amazing.  She discovered the crazy fun past time of homemade pizza making.  We dined on BBQ Chicken and Supreme style pizzas.  Both were delicious.  For dessert we had ice cream cake. 

Happy Labor Day. 

photo by me