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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A Conglomeration...

It's been a few days since I've posted, so this blog is a collection of things to share.

First thing to share, a restaurant review.  Hubby and I were in the mood for some Mexican, and decided to try La Patrona in Clintonville.  It had stellar reviews on Yelp, and the added advantage of being really close to another errand we needed to run.  It was indeed pretty tasty, and I liked the added touch of the Dos Equis "I don't always..." guy as a cardboard cutout with a fancy sombrero on his head.  Tasteful.  But seriously, it was pretty good food, and a fun atmosphere.  I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars, I think.

We've also done some cooking.  The first recipe was the Enchilada Skillet from A Couple of Cooks.  This was really quite good.  Although ours wasn't technically a "skillet".  We don't have an appropriate stove-top-to-oven skillet, so I did the first part on the stove top, then transferred it to a casserole dish to finish it off in the oven.  Other than ending up with an extra dish to wash, I don't think it affected the recipe in any material way.  It was super easy, and my very carnivorous friend who also prepared it declared herself shocked at how good it was with no meat in it.  She was very skeptical, but was convinced after making it.  Hubby and I loved it, but seeing as we both have a penchant for bean enchiladas, it could hardly have been any other way.


The next recipe we made was one of the easiest things we've cooked in a while, but damn it was good!  Cheater Korean Beef from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I will admit, both Hubby and I are totally ignorant when it comes to Korean food.  We've looked for recipes on occasion, but it seemed everything we found had something in it that one or the other of us wouldn't eat {that was too important to leave out.}  So I can't vouch for how Korean this recipe is or isn't.  All I can say is that it was delicious.  I doubled the sauce ingredients to have extra to put over the noodles, and had to use powdered ginger because I forgot to buy fresh.  Otherwise I think I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter, and it was a quick, easy and TASTY dish.  Also, as a side note, I used the noodles from the Asian foods section of the grocery store {one of these days I need to write down what those noodles are!} because they are both yummy, and cook really fast.  This whole meal was done in about 25 minutes.  We couldn't even have gotten take out that fast!

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Also, I watched a movie!  For most people that's probably not a very remarkable occurrence, but I am not a fan of watching things.  I rarely watch tv other than some MSNBC, and even more rarely watch movies.  But I watched What If with Daniel Radcliffe and Adam Driver in it, at Hubby's insistence.  He got it at the library and watched about half of it before deciding it was cute and I should watch it with him.  Since he doesn't frequently demand I watch a movie, I acquiesced without too much of a fight, and in the end was very glad I did.  It was a super super cute movie, especially for someone who loves both Daniel Radcliffe and Adam Driver. I'm normally not the romance movie type, nor romantic comedies, but this is one definite exception to the rule!

More in my normal pattern of behavior, I finished a book.  The Secret History of the Pink Carnation  by Lauren Willig.  This one was a chance discovery by Hubby at the thrift store.  He proudly brought it to me, positive he had found a book I would love, and he was not wrong.  I found out about 2/3 of the way through the book that it's the first in a series of 12.  That was a bit of a surprise!  Since I'm a sucker for a good historical fiction/historical romance, I was hooked from beginning to end.

Speaking of historical fiction/historical romance, the Westerville library is going to be hosting author Susanna Kearsley next month.  I already registered for the event.  I haven't yet read her work, but it has been on my to-read list for some time.  Now that I know she's coming, I'm gonna get on the ball with it so I can properly appreciate seeing her speak.  I'm currently reading Ruby by Cynthia Bond, which I am absolutely loving.  Once I finish it, it's on to reading Ms Kearsley in preparation for her visit.

And on that note, time to read.  Hope everyone is having a great week!