Hello cupcake!

We stopped in at Main Street Cupcakes today to place an order for my husband's birthday.   Decided to pick these up today.   They are The Bellini and Petal Cake.   From the website:

"The Bellini
Our white cake flavored with peach and champagne topped with our vanilla buttercream frosting garnished with a Champagne Buttercream"

"Petal Cake
Moist white cake with hints of almond, vanilla and orange covered in a vanilla buttercream frosting"

Joe's: A Fine Deli & Restaurant

Last night we went out to Joe's Deli, which was highly recommended to me by a couple of friends.  We went of a Friday night, so the place was busy.  The wait time for us was approximately 40 minutes.  The restaurant moved into their new building just last week, and the old one will be torn down for additional parking lot space.  The restaurant also has a dedicated counter for carry out.

We decided to order two different dinner combos.   Each comes with a soup or salad, potato or rice, vegetable, and a roll and butter.   The portion sizes are generous and can easily be shared (for an additional 2 dollar fee if you eat in). Although the wait to be seated was long, once we ordered, the food felt like it just flew out of the kitchen!  The service was speedy and polite.

My husband ordered the matzo ball soup.

 I had the chicken soup.  It was very tasty.  I couldn't finish it all though.  The kitchen didn't skimp on the noodles.  The bowl was swimming with them!

The rolls were warm and firm, but on my friend's suggestion we also ordered muffins.

This one was white chocolate cinnamon my husband picked.

Mine was the butter-rum flavored one.   I think the muffins were one of the best parts of the meal.  They were nice and warm, and I could tell they came right out of the oven.  They are truly a delight and could serve to be dessert.

My husband ordered liver and onions because he never had it before.   That's rice pilaf on the left.

I ordered by fish fry with mashed potatoes and gravy.  It's worth noting that the broccoli florets on the right hand side are about the size of my fist.

Lastly, we ordered dessert to go because we were already so full from all the food!   This is their cassada cake.   We split it for breakfast this morning.  It consists of fresh cream, sliced strawberries, and custard filling.  It's sweet, but not overly sweet.

The food at Joe's Deli isn't that expensive considering the volume you receive.  With two dinners, two breakfasts, and a couple of sets of left overs, I'm going to consider this to be six meals. 

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

I saw the Beck Center for the Arts' production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson tonight.  It's an amazing historical punk rock musical detailing the life and presidency of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States.

Now, you might think to yourself, "How the heck do you put punk rock and a Victorian era presidential story together in a musical?"  The answer: a large dose of anachronism.  Jackson's rise to the presidency is portrayed as a celebrity's ascent to stardom.  We see Jackson's orphaning as a young child, driving him to become a ruthless military leader, eventual President of the United States, and originator of the Democratic Party.  You have to see it to believe it.

The production makes it work.  I love the period costumes mixed with modern day punk clothing.  The language is mostly modern day English, with a heavy peppering of current day swear words.  Also, Jackson appears to be a blood fetishist who has a penchant for cutting himself when distressed.  However, the show emphasizes that it's just a metaphor.  Aside from translating the events into a vernacular type of situation, the play is historically accurate.  Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is funny, dramatic, and it seriously rocks.

Main Street Cupcakes

I've gone to Main Street Cupcakes a lot.  In fact, I got into the habit of posting pictures of their treats on my Facebook page.   The large response I received to the pictures was one of the things that inspired me to create this blog.

Main Street Cupcakes has three locations in Northeast Ohio.   They have a massive variety of flavors on a rotating menu of about a dozen flavors per day.   Special requests can be ordered by the dozen, including alcoholic drink flavors.

Left to right:
Top row: 
Mojito - White rum cake with hints of mint and lime covered in vanilla buttercream with a Mojito buttercream garnish
Chocolate Cookies and Cream - Crushed Oreo chocolate cake covered in crushed Oreo buttercream frosting, garnished with an oreo cookie or seasonal treat.

Bottom row: 
Half Baked - Vanilla cake mixed with chocolate chips filled with chocolate chip cookie dough topped with buttercream frosting
Carrot Top - Classic Carrot cake smothered in cream cheese frosting and covered in chopped walnuts
Salted Watermelon - Flavor of the Month for June 2012


I suggest buying a variety of flavors and splitting them with friends.  Note that the icing is so heavy that the cupcake just falls over when cut in half.

Melt Bar and Grilled

I love grilled cheese sandwiches!   There is just something so special and comforting about the simple combination of buttered bread and melted cheese.   Melt Bar and Grilled specializes in many varieties of gourmet grilled cheese and a large selection of beers.

This was my pick tonight, the Parmageddon.  2 potato & cheese pierogi, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, cheddar. 

My husband had the Turtle Pizza Roll Melt tonight.  Authentic pizza rolls, homemade marinara, basil pesto cream cheese, provolone, romano.  Notice that the pesto sauce resembles the mutagen slime featured in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series!   This was originally a limited time only sandwich of the month and I believed that we had missed it.  However, to our surprise, it is now a permanent addition to the menu!

We split the Wookie's Revenge bread pudding for dessert.  The website describes it as:
"Order 66 got you down? Tired of having your palatial treehouse paradise shot up by battle droids? Forget all your cares with Rich chocolate and banana bread pudding chock full of hickory smoked bacon and chunks of Reese’s peanut butter cups. Topped with a chocolate peanut butter glaze and toasted coconut and garnished with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, coconut flakes and crumbled bacon."

We were actually warned that it contained bacon and were assumed to be vegetarian tonight!   We just both happened to order vegetarian sandwiches tonight, so it was very nice of the server to make sure of our diet choices.

The bread pudding was very rich, but I think the most prominent flavor after the chocolate was the coconut.   I couldn't seem to locate as many peanut butter cups or bacon bits.  Still, it was very tasty.

My husband and I both boxed up one half of our sandwiches to go home along with a heaping portion of fries.   One order at Melt definitely yields two meals.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Today we went out to Jeni's for ice cream!   I love this place.  They have expanded their scoop shops beyond their original Columbus area.   Supermarkets such as Whole Foods and Heinen's now carry their pints, and you can order their products online.   However, there is nothing like ordering a triple at the ice cream parlor and trying new flavors.

Clockwise from the left:
Brown Butter Almond Brittle
Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet
Bangkok Peanut

These are all flavors from Jeni's Signature collection, and three of my personal favorites.   I realize my ice cream choices were all basically beige in color, but they are so delicious and flavorful!

Clockwise from the left:
Bangkok Peanut
Grapefruit Frozen Yogurt
Plum Sake Sorbet

My husband picked out these.  He was adventurous and tried some new sorbets, but I found them a bit more tart than I'd like.