Sunday, August 6, 2017

The D

Country Girl kindly accompanied me on a trip home recently.  I hadn't been back in a number of years and it was her first visit to the Motor City.  We took in a couple of Tigers games and I showed her around my childhood neighborhood.  Lots of Stroh's, a yummy, dirt cheap meal at a coney island and a river front stroll to Hart Plaza.  Despite sad times in the old neighborhood, the city shows surprising vibrancy in other areas.  Very much looking forward to the next visit. 














Burgundian - Tangle Town

Interesting decor, if a bit dark, and warm service weren't enough to make up for the uneven fare at Burgundian.  Country Girl quite enjoyed her biscuits and gravy while my wagyu burger was decidedly uninspired.  No risk, no fun though, eh?  In any event, our outfits were on point that day so not all for naught.
  

Talking Book and Braille Library

Country Daughter joined us for a service event at the local Talking Book and Braille Library.  Was my second time helping out there and hopefully won't be the last.  Very interesting place and readily apparent the difference that volunteers make there.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Mustard Crusted Salmon

Sauce delivered very nicely even with City Boy botching the salmon grill job.

Earthcorps @ La Villa Meadow


We discovered a new park not far from the Ranch and helped clear some invasive species.  Not a bad way to spend a few hours in the sun.




Saturday, May 20, 2017

Seared Chicken with Creamy Cous Cous, Seared Salmon and Roasted Potato Kale Salad (Blue Apron)

Recently, a friend was kind enough to send a Blue Apron referral our way so we got to give their service a spin w/ no out of pocket cost.  Long story short:  interesting recipes w/ high quality ingredients resulted in one amazing meal and two not quite amazing tho still excellent meals.  Sadly, City Boy dropped the ball and failed to photograph the first meal we made (garlic lemongrass burgers w/ sriracha mayo).  Turns out, it was the amazing one out of the three.

Meal two was seared chicken w/ creamy cous cous.  While it didn't quite reach the high bar set by the first meal, it was very good.  Chicken only had minimal seasoning, wasn't brinned and was simply pan seared, its sauce topping of olives, raisin and verjus more than elevated the taste to the next level.  Crème fraîche, celery and tomato paste gave the cous cous surprisingly excellent texture and flavor. 


Meal three was another pan seared affair; this time, salmon alongside roasted potato kale salad.  Perfect potatoes (made by Country Girl, bien sûr) with pickled shallots was next level. Salmon also turned out well.

All three dishes were noteworthy in how much flavor resulted from so few ingredients.    City Boy was amazed at this whole stove top protein cooking approach ending well.  At least in this box, Blue Apron absolutely knocked it out of the park:  providing fun, interesting and accessible recipes paired with high quality ingredients.  Super happy we tried it and will def be open to doing trials w/ other services.  With that said, hard to justify it as anything other than an occasional indulgence at ten bucks/meal.


Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Panama City, Tulum

Tour over = holiday time!  So off we went to Panama City, Panama and Tulum, Mexico.
























Why yes, City Boy did discover the "vivid color" setting on the camera!  Funny you should ask :D