Fish Fry-day #2

This week the 2014 tour brings king Cod and his fish fry loving posse to Church of the Ressurection in Brookline. I knew there was another Church in Brookline, but I honestly didn't even know where it was. This gem was right off Brookline boulevard, nestled in a residential neighborhood. Unfortunately, by the time we finished eating dinner the church was closed so I couldn't check it out. Rumor has it that this may have a gorgeous wooden interior. Next time we are geocaching in Brookline we will be sure to check it out. 

The important stuff.... We got there around 6:15. There was not much of a line at all. Once our dinner posse joined us we went straight to ordering. The options were pretty simple - a fish dinner (baked or fried) for $11 which included a roll, stewed tomatoes or vegetable of the week, Mac and cheese (homemade) or fries, and slaw or applesauce with coffee, tea, and iced tea; or a la cart fish sandwich on fresh local bread works bun, any of the above sides, homemade Pierogirs, and pizza. I went with the dinner, King Cod went with the sandwich. It was a lot of food for the price. I even wound up sharing some of mine with my dinner buddy Wyatt. Only down side was the normal rule - show up late and they might run out of the good stuff. 

I loved the atmosphere here. It felt like a neighborhood event. The room was smaller and even had a play area for the kids. It felt intimate and like everyone was glad you were there and most knew one another's names.  Lots of little old ladies were working the food line. We even ran into some friends of friends leaving while we waited for our posse!

Puppy love

Who would have ever thought that this day would come?

Table Greenery

I thought that this was a pretty take on storing my leftover parsley until later in the week ;)

Who doesn't love mason jar craftery?

Fish Fry-day #1

This week was fish fry-day number one on the 2014 Great Fish Fry Tour. 

We started out the year with a return trip to St Margaret of Scottland in Greentree. This is a perennial favorite for us. It happens to be near his office and a couple we are friends with send their daughter to the school. They are required to volunteer at the fish very to help support the school, so we talways go on a week that they work. Since they live on the far side of town this is usually the only time I see them all year :( 

Food offerings are pretty secent - fried cod, baked cod, crab cakes, fried shrimp, a pasta of the week, and a fish of the week (blackened cod). David and I both got the fried cod with fries and green beans (me). I regretted not getting the blackened cod - it wound up looking pretty good. 

The bad - (1) service was slow, (2) they ran out if food early. There are new people running the show and it is week one of lent  they didn't have a good system in place yet. 

The good - (1)  fried food!, (2) great friends, (3) BYOB fish fry, (4) a great atmosphere, (5) our friend who made it BYO Pie!

Even though the running out if food was disappointing, I look forward to returning again next year. This is one of our favorites in the area. 

Sunday laziness

Yesterday started my return to working Saturdays. I only worked a half day, but it was work none the less. David picked me up before lunch and we went to the Pitt game. I enjoyed my first ACC game - and Pitt defeated Wake Forest handily. We finished off the day with a visit to The Strip District, which is definitely my favorite part of the city. We picked up some awesome dry goods at Penn Mac (and some smoked mozzarella ravioli and cheese curds) and fresh tortillas from Renyas. Yum!

Today was a lazy-ish day - yoga and major dog walking followed by a yummy dinner of lasagna rolls!

Tour de Lebo between the two dogs. The time is embarrassing, but they are slowpoke sniffers. 

We de-Christmased the house and rearranged the living room. I think D likes her new hidey hole. 

Welcome to 2014

Today was a beautiful day. Although I went back to work Thursday, today is really the end of vacation time with a return to the real work today. I spent some time cooking (soon to be uploaded to the blog). The weather was amazing. dogs 1 and 2 both enjoyed long walks. It is hard to imagine we will go from highs of 45 degree today to highs in the negatives on Tursday. Post walk Madison was pretty tired out. 

Til next year Christmas Vacation time...

Cookie Tour 2013

Last weekend we headed over to the hipster neighborhood of Lawerenceville in the city for their annual cookie tour. This is a great local event -the neighborhood stores all baked a ton of cookies and print out the recipes. Then as you walk from shop to shop and do your Christmas thing you get cookies!  It is a great local idea. 

We started out with a stop at the Roundabout Brewery where we tasted their newest drafts. It is a little craft brewery in town, relatively new to town. They do growler fills of whatever is seasonal. I had an awesome cranberry wheat. I admit I enjoy a good fruit ear but this was tart and delicious without being sweet or overpowering. I would totally drink it again. And again!  We also sampled the poor man's milk stout, which was tasty enough that we brought home a growler. 

We continued up to Upper Lawerenceville to check out the Wild Purveyors -a cool shop selling locally sourced grocery goods. We saw them on Andrew Zimmerman's Pittsburgh show a few weeks ago, so it was cool to actually check out the shop. 

The afternoon continued on with a mosey back to Lower Lawerenceville, stopping at several art galleries, crafty stores, florists, and the card store. The highlight of the trip was stopping at La Goumandine, the amazing French bakery on Butler Street. Everything in the cases looked like it came straight out of a boulangerie or patisserie from Paris. I picked up some baguette rolls for book club later this week and treated myself to an croissant aux amandes (almond croissant). Depspite the blustery snowy cold day in Pittsburgh I was taken back to our honeymoon in Paris before I even tasted it.  I can't wait to go back -I see us stopping there again to pick up some French sandwiches on baguettes before going up to the reservoir for some geocaching this spring. 

We finished up with a stop at Arsenal Cider House.  Arsenal is quickly becoming a Pittsburgh celebrity putting ciders on tap all over town. We sampled 5 different ciders and an orange blossom mead. The mead wasn't overly sweet and had a nice floral nose. They had ciders in Apple, blueberry, and raspberry. The Christmas spiced cider put anything you have had from Woodchuck to shame. David is heading back this weekend to pick up a growler of the Christmas Cider for over the holiday.  Get ready Kate!

This was a great opportunity to do two of my favorite things-eat cookies and shop local! Our walk up and down Butler gave us a3mile hike, making all the treats worth it!  Maybe if you are (un)lucky your gift came from the land of the hipsters!