Get Steppin!

The company I work for started a Get Fit challenge. For those that wanted to participate, they sent a pedometer (to measure how many steps you walk each day) and a log book (to record your daily progress in the competition).

Did you know....
You should aim to achieve 10,000 steps per day? I didn't. Here is the breakdown of activity level based on steps per day: (Sources: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Step Index from the American College of Sports Medicine)

How depressing is the word Sedentary for your activity level? I'm so afraid that I'm going to be Sedentary! So today is my first day wearing the Pedometer and as of 11:00 am, I'm at....

Do you think I can hit 10,000? Stay tuned.

Cleveland Scoop

No, this post isn't related to the Mitchell's ice-cream I ate last night. But I can confirm that their seasonal Peanut Butter Chocolate Covered Pretzel yogurt is AMAZING. Did I mention Mitchell's is in walking distance of our house? Ugh....

This is actually much more exciting than ice-cream. While getting my haircut yesterday, I got some scoop on Cleveland - specifically West 25th. I knew about most of these but all the chatter got me really excited so I thought I'd share for those that weren't in the know.

Coming Soon!!!
Market Garden Brewery & Distillery
Same owners as Bier Markt, Bar Cento, & Speakeasy so you know it will be good. Supposedly, it's going to be similar to a traditional Beer Garden (like in Germany). Basically an open-air area where beer & local food are served. The rumors are flying and I hear it might have a retractable roof? Probably a smart idea for a Cleveland Beer Garden. Location: 1947 West 25th Street (right next to the West Side Market)

SOHO Kitchen
Chef Nolan Konkoski (same Chef as Tartine Bistro, which we love!) is taking over the former Lelolai Bakery (which is actually very sad, because they closed after 10 years and that was one of our favorite lunch spots). But, I'm excited about SOHO (short for Southern Hospitality) which is supposed to open by late summer. Who in Cleveland doesnt' want a little Creole and BBQ?!?! Location: 1889 West 25th Street

Crop Bistro (is moving to W. 25th)
As listed on their website:  
It’s official, Crop will be open through the end of April on West 6th Street so that we can focus on getting ready for our next chapter. Thank you to all of our customers and friends  for just shy of four great years in the Warehouse District.  We truly appreciate your unwavering support that has made us successful. Please check back for details about our opening in Ohio City later this summer.  
New Location: 2537 Lorain Avenue (on the corner of W. 25th & Lorain, across from the West Side Market)

West 25th has so much goodness already, I can't wait for these spots to open up. Talking with my friend Chris (Cleveland native, Temporary NY'er) he said, how great would it be to have juices at the Beer Garden & walk over the bridge to the Tribe game? Yes, please.

Can't wait!!!

Happy Easter!

This is the only thing the Easter Bunny brought to Maplewood this year. A White Chocolate Easter Bunny from Malley's. Rick's childhood favorite.

And I think this is the first Easter I didn't have a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg for Breakfast. My childhood favorite.

It was a pretty quiet Easter morning at Maplewood, we opted to hang shades in our bedroom vs. exchange Easter baskets. Thanks to F&ML (my parents) who hosted us for Easter dinner, otherwise, it would have felt just like any other Sunday.

I couldn't resist sharing my niece Lucy Marie. This is at my parents house and that's my mom holding her while we all sit around waiting for her to say doggy & Harley because she's so darn cute when she does!

We Fancy: Hitachino Nest White Ale

It's about that time, when we switch from Guinness & Three Philosophers to Modelo Especials (in cans of course) & Holy Moses. Cut the limes, cut the oranges, the birds are singin, the sun is out and what's summer without good cold juicers?

We definitely have our summer favorites but a recent discovery took Hitachino Nest White Ale to the top of our list. We stumbled on this one at Bar Cento and later discovered it was noted in our "Worlds Best Beers" book.

Here is some background according to Worlds Best Beers author Ben McFarland:  The Kiuchi Shuzou company was established in 1823 in the tiny hamlet of Kounosu (Nest) as a producer of Japanese Sake. But in 1996, the company branched out to brewing beer. Having won numerous international awards, its range of bottle-fermented beers and bottles adorned with a funky looking owl, have developed a strong following in the US. It's a refreshing mildly hopped Belgian style Saison brewed using coriander, orange peel, and nutmeg.

How good does that sound? Trust us on this one, give up the Corona Light (if you're still seriously drinking those) and try it!  And...how cute is the bottle - love it!!!

The challenge is, it's not easy to find. We order ours from Grady's on Lake Road but they only order them in 750 ml bottles, approx $10/each. Whole Foods also carries Hitachino but only in individual 12 ounce bottles.

We are beer lovers, not experts so this is all personal preference. And we definitely recommend Worlds Best Beers for those that want to learn more (great gift too!)

Cheers!

 

Baked

I'm a wannabe baker. The challenge is, I don't have any patience. And baking requires exact measurements, slow pouring, sifting, all sorts of things that take precision and time. With that said, I love sweets and baking at home is actually much healthier than buying baked goods at the grocery store and/or your local bakery. I like to know exactly what ingredients are used and I love that my baked goods don't have extra dyes or extra ingredients to help shelf-life. I'm definitely not the next Carlos of Cake Boss (love that show) but I am getting better and the best thing about it is...practice makes perfect so guess whose sweet tooth has been getting a lot of action lately?

Knowing that I'm a wannabe baker, Rick bought me BAKED Explorations for Christmas. I was a little intimidated at first because my experience with baking cookbooks has been overwhelming but I quickly fell in love! This is truly the easiest cookbook to follow and these guys are foodies, can't you just tell? I love their witty writing and they don't make you feel like you need William Sonoma as your kitchen. In fact, they say in the Kitchen Tools & Equipment section that their kitchen once "overfloweth with useless, discarded, and unnecessary kitchen tools & utensils".

I've vowed to bake every recipe in the book (I've got two under my belt, one in the works) and rather than pressuring myself to do a certain amount of recipes in a certain amount of time, I just wait for something to come up (a brunch with family, Easter, a birthday, a Sunday night sweet tooth) and I pick what I feel like.

So far both the Double Chocolate Loaf and the Maple Cupcakes have turned out amazing! Double Chocolate Loaf being my favorite of the two (without the frosting, it was amazing just plain).

Without typing another couple hundred words on the topic. I have to just quickly mention that while in NY for St. Patty's day, I insisted that we visit the BAKED Brooklyn location - well worth the long walk over the bridge and can't-find-a-cab-catastrophe, the whoopie pies (which are next on my list) were amazing!!!

If you're looking for a gift for the baker in your life - this is a good one that won't break the bank!

We Fancy: Goop & Gwyneth

We definitely fancy GOOP!

If you haven't checked out Gwyneth Paltrow's website GOOP, you are missing out. She shares recipes, personal travel notes, advice, and so much more. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter or just check the website for new posts.

Although there are some neat recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and clothing - we like the recipes best. Most all of them are healthy and the ones we've tried are delicious!

Be sure to check out the following:
Do it Delicious
The Halibut over spinach is silly easy, healthy, and tasty.

Lunch Box
Wild on Chicken & Sorry Charlie are SO good.

Vietnamese Salad
This one requires a lot of ingredients and takes some time to prepare but it's super healthy and really good. It's my favorite salad.

We also did both of her recommended Detox programs. The first one is only 7 days and it wasn't easy but we learned a lot about ingredients and fell in love with the smoothie recipes. We actually have them for breakfast all the time. The second one is called CLEAN, it's a 21 day detox and it was amazing, highly recommend it!!! It's strict but both my husband and I lost weight and I haven't felt that good in a long time. If you think you're up for the challenge and want specifics on how we survived our 21 days - shoot me an email growingmaplewood@gmail.com.

By the way, is Gwyneth popping up everywhere these days? Goop, GLEE, Country Strong, Music Awards, New Cookbook? And yes, I definitely bought her new cookbook. Is it weird that I want to be her? Ha! Anyways, we are cooking our way through it (Julie & Julia style) and we'll be posting our absolute favorites, stay tuned.

Look what Rick built!

Who's kidding who, Rick can't build things. These are our new Gronomics planters (read more here) which all we had to do was take out of the box and slide the wood together. No nails, no hammers, no saws, no tools at all! I think this might be the easiest project we've done so far.

Since we haven't been paying attention to the sun patterns in the back yard, we're not sure where we're going to put them yet (for now they are behind the screened in porch). They are great quality and I'm hoping with a little Cleveland exposure they'll take on a weathered look. The plan is to start our Organic garden in May which should be interesting since we have no idea what we're doing.

Diaper Cake

I was wrapping a present last night for our friends who recently had a baby and it reminded me of a diaper cake I made for a baby shower last year (with the help of my Aunt Char - who showed me the best technique using round cake pans). I had SO much fun making this thing and it was super easy. What cracks me up is they actually sell diaper cakes online, some cost $50 plus! I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure I made mine for $15 or less. If you're hosting a shower, it's not only a great take home for the Mom-to-be but it's also great decoration. I used mine on the desert table.

This shower happened to be hosted by one of our single guy friends so I jumped in where I could to help make it baby and not bachelor. I strongly suggest if you're hosting a shower to give the diaper cake a try. I picked up the white cake plate from Marcs for $1.99 (again, thanks to my A.Char) which was a nice touch and again, the Mom-to-be can take that home.

Gronomics

No, I didn't make up that word. Gronomics is where we bought our planter boxes. One of the reasons we moved home from the city was because we really wanted a backyard with a garden. We also wanted it to be organic and since it would take years to adjust the soil in our backyard, we opted for planter boxes.

Right now they look like this:

Hopefully we'll get some good weather and Rick can get building. The plan is to fill these with our favorite vegetables. We are definitely new to gardening but we've been reading a lot and Rick's mom is a gardener so we have her as a reference when we need it.

I'll definitely post any and all lessons learned. I did read that it requires patience, which I don't have so this should be interesting. We also learned that squirrels are considered "thugs" in the gardening world. Funny, because I had already tagged them as my enemy when they had their way with my pumpkins last fall.

We Fancy: Wendy Kromer

It was a butter cream-sweet surprise today when I received the below email from Wendy Kromer who did my wedding cake.

Hi Katie,
I hope this find you, and finds you well!

Quick question...would you or your Wedding photographer have a digital image of your Wedding Cake? The NY Times requested images of cakes that I thought were interesting, for a Wedding Cake story they're doing. There is a quick turn-around time, so this is rather time-sensitive. If you can help, that would be great.

I loved your cake!
Thanks,
Wendy Kromer

I was tickled (to say the least). So of course I jumped into our Pictures folder and started digging. As I looked I was reminded of how much I truly loved my wedding cake and the entire experience. Although my Mom and I didn't see eye to eye on much during my wedding planning, one thing we both agreed on was the cake. We wanted classic, simple, beautiful, and to-die-for! And that is exactly what it was.

We cake-hopped about 3 different shops and one step into Wendy's, I just knew, this was it. She was amazing to work with and she truly gives you a custom cake. My invitation was the inspiration for my cake and she nailed it.

Keep your fingers crossed, maybe the NY Times will feature my cake!
Click on this link to check out the pictures I submitted.

http://gallery.me.com/amburgey/100005