Why? American Cancer Society CPS-3!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Congratulations to Laura B. (comment #6), randomly-selected winner of two tickets to IPM’s Namaste. Please check your email and respond by the end of the day or a new winner will be chosen. If you didn’t win, you can still purchase tickets by clicking here.***

Cancer. The C word. It’s touched way too many of us and taken way too much from us. Cancer took my Grandma and the woman who would have been my Mother-in-Law before I even had the chance to know them. I know so many of you have stories of the devastating effects of cancer on your own families.

This is why I want to tell you about a way you can help on the road to eradicate cancer. The American Cancer Society, which will be celebrating its 100th birthday in May, is currently conducting a Cancer Prevention Study. CPS-3 will study the connections between lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors in developing cancer.

This is the third nationwide Cancer Prevention Study undertaken by the American Cancer Society. The first, which ran from 1959 to 1972, established the definitive link between smoking and cancer. The second, which started in 1982 and is still ongoing, established a link between nutrition/physical activity and cancer.

These studies clearly provide important research toward the goals of better understanding and, one day, curing cancer. The American Cancer Society hopes to enroll 300,000 people nationwide in CPS-3. In Cuyahoga County alone, the goal is 528 participants. The American Cancer Society is hoping for a diverse mix of study participants. This video explains more about the study and its potential impact.

So, how can you enroll? If you are between the ages of 30 and 65 and have never been diagnosed with cancer, you qualify for the study. Registration is taking place at St. Ignatius High School on April 18 and 20 and at Case Western Reserve University on April 19 and 20. Click here for more information on times, locations, and to sign up for a registration slot. There will be more registration days in both Cuyahoga and Lake Counties in June as well.

By participating in CPS-3, you can help the American Cancer Society in its fight to end cancer, so that we no longer have to add to the list of people it has taken from us.

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win 2 tickets to IPM’s Namaste? Today is the last day to enter. Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries.***

It was another busy weekend of friends and family in the CLE! On Friday evening, Matthew and I met up with Amanda, Scott, Kate, and Brian at Dante. We had won $100 in gift certificates from our Playhouse Square Partners’Trivia Night victory and finally were cashing in our winnings.

I hadn’t been to Dante in awhile and now we were there two weekends in a row! Luckily, there is plenty on the menu to tempt me. Matthew and I started with the Maine lobster spring roll, with butternut squash, shiitake, and ginger sauce. The spring roll had huge chunks of lobster and the delicate vegetable and ginger flavors all stayed distinct enough to identify and enjoy.

For dinner, Matthew had the bone-in strip loin, served with oyster mushrooms and a horseradish potato puree. I had an appetizer size of the pasta special, which was ricotta cavatelli with lamb ragu sauce, and a tasting size of the pasta carbonara with poached egg and pancetta.

Matthew’s steak was absolutely delicious: perfectly cooked and seasoned. I loved the pasta special with tender lamb and hint of mint in the sauce, but felt that the carbonara tasted a bit flat. For dessert, I ordered another special for the evening: a chocolate mousse with sesame crunch and ginger ice cream.

One of the things I love about dining at Dante is getting both Asian and Italian-influenced dishes in one meal. It was a tasty and fun evening!

On Saturday, I went up to John Carroll University to speak to potential incoming JCU freshman on a panel called “JCU: Preparing You for the Future.” The incoming freshman class will be the class of 2017! Having just registered for my 10-year reunion, that number gave me pause. But, I got over that and was happy to be able to talk about the role JCU played and still plays in my life.

From there, I continued the college theme for the day by attending a christening party for my college friend Tracy’s daughter, Nina. It’s hard to believe that a bunch of us who met as freshman are now celebrating children’s lives milestones together.

The christening party was held at Gambitta’s Party Center and was quite the affair. Tracy’s husband Luca comes from a large Italian family, so the parties tend to be big, filling, and fun. And Nina, the star of the show, was a very well-behaved and entirely adorable guest of honor!

On Sunday, my friend Katie and I started the day at Harmony Yoga for a power vinyasa class, where I saw this, which I just love:

Oh yoga studio chalkboard, you are so full of wisdom!

Later that day, we celebrated Easter with Matthew’s side of the family, a week late so everyone could attend. As usual, it was a blast playing with our nieces and spoiling them with Easter treats. The weather was so nice and we took the kids outside for an Easter egg hunt and lots of drawing with chalk.

I love her face. Pure amazement at the wonder of the Easter egg.

How was your weekend? Are you still involved, formally or informally, with your college?

***Disclosure: I am the VP of Special Initiatives for the John Carroll University Cleveland Alumni Chapter and a member of the Class of 2003 Reunion Committee. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Today is the last day to enter my giveaway to win 2 tickets to Market at the Foodbank. Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for more entries!***

It was a wonderful weekend of friends and family celebrations! On Friday morning, I went to a butt-kicking vinyasa flow at Nishkama Yoga. I don’t get to practice at Nishkama as much as I would like, so I was happy to take advantage of one of my days off before I start my new job to get to class there (more on the new job tomorrow).

I spent the rest of the day on Friday learning how to make nut roll and poppyseed roll with Mom. This is a traditional Eastern European holiday dessert and I’m all about tradition at the holidays.

For my first try, I was pretty happy with the results and, from the way they were gobbled up, everyone else was, too!

Friday evening, Matthew and I met up with the usual suspects to fete our lovely friend Kimberly for her birthday. We started with the ridiculously well-priced Friday wine tasting at Wine and Design. Two delicious wines for $5? Yes, please!

Then it was off to dinner at Dante. Matthew and I decided to share a little bit of a lot of things on the menu. I love Dante’s options of tasting or appetizer-sized portions, which gives you a chance to taste even more dishes.

We thoroughly enjoyed everything we ordered: the wild mushroom and baked brie tartlet, the Hawaiian tuna tartare, the “chunky” soup with lobster, potato, and leeks, the green spaghetti, the three-cheese polenta, and the black squid ink risotto.

Since Kimberly and Chris are Dante regulars, Chef Boccuzzi treated us to quite the dessert spread on the house. I was so blissed out, I don’t remember the exact names of most of the dishes, but there was a chocolate and orange meringue, baklava with pistachio and cherries and cardamom ice cream, a chocolate banana crepe, and a heavenly s’mores-like sundae.

It was a fabulous evening befitting a fabulous friend! Kimberly is truly one of the sweetest, most caring, funniest people I know and I am so blessed to have her in my life! I hope this year is her best yet!

Saturday morning brought more yoga, this time at Harmony Yoga. Then, it was into holiday prep mode. I hosted my parents, grandfather, and Matthew’s father for a traditional Holy Saturday dinner of kielbasi and sauerkraut.

We got our kielbasi from Pinzone’s Market Fresh Meats, which is one of my go-to stands at the West Side Market. Tradition is tasty!

On Sunday, we went to Easter Mass and had dinner with my parents and grandfather.

I also broke my Lenten no-sweets fast (Friday night’s dessert bonanza excluded) with some yummy chocolate from Malley’s. All in all, it was a great weekend with some of our favorite people!

How was your weekend? Do you celebrate Easter? What are your traditions?

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Today is the last day to enter to win a $25 gift card to B. Lux Boutique! Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries.***

For every crazy, Jump-Back-Ball-type weekend, there is the low-key, mostly-relaxed weekend. Balance is a good thing. This weekend, I found myself back in the flow at Harmony Yoga. I was away from my regular studio for a couple weeks, taking workshops at Nishkama Yoga and Pink Lotus Yoga. While I enjoyed my workshop experiences, it felt good to get back to Harmony, which is how I know I found a studio I like.

Plus, our teacher on Saturday morning dropped this yogi knowledge bomb on us:

So true!

Saturday evening, Matthew and I met up with my parents for the John Carroll Cleveland Alumni Chapter‘s first Mass and a Meal event. The idea of these events is to pick a neighborhood to both attend Mass and share a meal with other John Carroll alumni. We attended Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Little Italy, followed by dinner at Trattoria on the Hill.

For dinner, most of our table chose the chicken marsala, which had a delicious, dark brown gravy packed with mushrooms.

Mass and a Meal was a great chance to connect with other alumni, while spending an evening in a wonderful Cleveland neighborhood! If you’re a JCU alum, check out the Alumni Calendar for other great upcoming events!

On Sunday, Matthew and I spent most of the day visiting with his sister, brother-in-law, and their adorable girls. They’re growing up so fast, that even a few weeks seems to make a huge difference in them!

I got to spend lots of time in kitchens, both helping make dinner in the actual kitchen and helping my niece “cook” in her play kitchen.

It was a perfect, low-key weekend! How was your weekend?

***Disclosure: I am a member of the board for the John Carroll University Cleveland Alumni Chapter. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win one of five prizes from Pure Barre? Click here to check out this awesome giveaway! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries. Giveaway closes tonight at 11:59pm.***

It was a fun first weekend of 2013! Friday night, Matthew and I headed to Hoopples to celebrate our dear friend Jennifer’s birthday with beer, bar bowling, jukebox tunes, and general good times.

I enjoyed Fat Head’s Bumbleberry Honey Blueberry Ale and lobster mac ‘n cheese. I was a bit skeptical at first, but the creamy, garlicky mac ‘n cheese won me over. Plus, you can’t beat the view of Cleveland from Hoopples.

It was a fun night and a great first Friday of the year!

Saturday was mostly spent yoga-ing at Harmony Yoga and taking down Christmas decorations. Have you ever noticed that it’s much less fun and much harder to motivate taking down the decorations? That said, it’s nice to have it all finished and the house returned back to it’s normal, less-glittery-and-twinkly state.

Saturday evening, Matthew’s boss had an open house party that we were invited to attend.

Cue me stressing over what to wear (I was way overdressed) and what to bring (a nice bottle of wine and some cute wine charms). I should have just relaxed, because his boss was the ultimate hostess, despite having an absolutely packed house. I tried deep-fried turkey for the first time and loved it, there was some guy wandering through the party passing out mozzarella sticks, and we just generally had a great time!

Sunday brought our much-anticipated lunch date with our 2-year-old niece. Much to our surprise, she really enjoys Aladdin’s Eatery, so we had a tasty lunch of hummus and pita. I think I was in my 20′s before I tried hummus!

From lunch, we headed to Build-a-Bear Workshop. We may have had our hands a bit full, but to see how excited she was by the whole experience made it worth it. There were lots of cuddles for Teddy, her new bear.

How was your first weekend of 2013?

Why? Fresh Fork!

With all the holiday parties and eating out, I was amazed we still found time over the last couple weeks to cook with our Fresh Fork Market food!

What We Got:

1 pork shoulder

2# homemade sauerkraut

1 dozen pasture-raised chicken eggs

1 lb carrots

Approx 2 lbs parsnips

2 pie pumpkins

1 lb colored heirloom beans, dried

12 oz grassfed swiss cheese

1 bag stir fry mix of greens, radishes, and leeks

5 lb bag white kennebec potatoes

1 head broccoli

1 head cabbage

What We Made:

Note that many of these recipes were made with previous weeks’ food. For what we got those weeks, click here.

Slow Cooked Whole Chicken and Vegetables (click here for the recipe)

This made a wonderful, easy dinner. Everything goes in the slow cooker and comes out tender and flavorful. The only “non-Fresh Fork” ingredients when I made this were the seasonings and the chicken broth. Also, I substituted onion for the celery called for in the recipe.

Spicy Macaroni and Cheese with Chorizo Sausage (click here for the recipe)

This made a perfect winter dinner: hearty, spicy, and entirely delicious. The chorizo and pepper jack cheese gave this dish the right amount of heat. Matthew loved the roasted cherry tomatoes in this too. An all-around hit and just as good leftover.

Egg Strata (click here for the recipe)

This was an easy, tasty brunch that I made for Matthew and my father-in-law on Christmas Eve. This recipe can be made the night before if you’re going for an early breakfast, too. While the recipe said to bake for 45 minutes, it took almost an hour and 15 minutes before the strata was fully baked.

Sweet Potato Casserole (click here for the recipe)

I made this as a side dish for the TWChristmas party and it complimented Alicia‘s stuffed pork tenderloin perfectly. I left off the streusel topping since Alicia is gluten-free.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts (click here for the recipe)

Anything with bacon has to be good, right? After having shredded Brussels sprouts at Deagan’s Kitchen, I wanted to replicate that texture with our sprouts. This made a great side dish with simply-prepared chicken breasts.

How have you been using your Fresh Fork winter share?

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Random.org has chosen. Congratulations to Kathleen S. (Comment #22), winner of 4 tickets to the #KeyLegLamp Cavs game on Wednesday, December 5! Please check your email and reply by the end of the day or a new winner will be chosen.

If you didn’t win, you can still purchase tickets to attend the game and get your leg lamp bobble head by clicking here. Also, remember you have until Saturday, December 8 to enter the A Christmas Story House Night Out Sweepstakes, sponsored by Key Bank. Click here for details and an entry form.***

December is here and it’s time for lots of holiday fun! It’s also time to try to keep in shape, what with all the additional cookies and Christmas Ales. Confession time: I’ve been a lax yogi lately, but I got back in the swing on Saturday morning at Alicia‘s class at Nishkama Yoga. Sometimes you need a teacher who is also a friend and will totally call you out for avoiding chair pose or wimping out during three-legged dog.

After getting my asana kicked a bit, Matthew and I met up with Amanda and Scott and Kimberly and Chris to check out Glow at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Confession time again: I had never been to the Cleveland Botanical Garden before! I have no idea how that happened, but I’m so glad I remedied it. Glow decks out the Garden in twinkly, merry holiday splendor and is a truly festive way to spend an afternoon. Plus, you can stop in the main greenhouse and get a warm, butterfly-filled taste of summer too.

We saw Christmas trees everywhere, decorated by local gardening clubs. There are also hundreds of gingerbread houses, which were entered in the Glow gingerbread house competition. The details and creativity that went into the creation of these houses is amazing. Some of my favorites included the A Christmas Story-themed house, the West Side Market replica, and Santa’s Barn, complete with miniature farm animals.

While at Glow, you can decorate your own gingerbread house ($20) or castle ($30) to take home or go the easy route like we did and purchase one of the tasty gingerbread man cookies and a hot cider. While sipping your cider, take in live holiday music in a room that truly just glows.

Even the outside of the Garden is decked out with holiday decorations, from gingerbread men to peppermints. There is also a Garden Express train, which takes kids and parents on a ride through the Garden. The taller among our group vetoed experiencing the train firsthand. You can also head over to the Rink at Wade Oval for some ice skating.

Glow left us feeling, well, all glowy. It’s a truly magical and beautiful way to celebrate the season in Cleveland! Glow is open through December 31. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6.50 for children. Click here for times and ticket information.

From Glow, we headed to Little Italy for dinner, which is just a short jaunt away. The last time I was in Little Italy was for the Feast of the Assumption, so I was looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying a sit-down meal in one of the restaurants. We chose Trattoria on the Hill and had a lovely, unrushed, completely filling Italian meal.

We started with the stuffed banana peppers, which were not too spicy and stuffed with a tasty sausage and cheese mixture.

We went with classic choices for dinner: I had the meat ravioli with tomato basil sauce and Matthew had the chicken piccata.

Both provided exactly what we wanted: a traditional, no-frills, delicious Italian meal. Somehow we made room for dessert and split the tiramisu.

This was some of the best tiramisu I have ever tasted! Definitely worth stuffing ourselves to enjoy every bite. It was a great end to a festive day that left us all in the mood to enjoy the holiday season.

On Sunday, Matthew and I celebrated six months of being married! First of all, where did the time go?! Second of all, I promise we’ll stop counting in months soon. Anyway, that was the second-most important celebration of the day, as we also had our niece Leila’s second birthday party to attend.

There were lots of presents, plenty of cake, and time with the cutest little 2-year-old I know. Pretty great way to cap off the weekend!

How was your weekend, CLE?

***Disclosure: I was asked by the Cleveland Botanical Garden to help promote Glow. In exchange, I received 2 complimentary tickets to the event. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***

Why? Weekends!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win some holiday glam products yet? Remember, you can tweet daily for more entries! Click here to enter!***

I hope you all had a fun, food-filled, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend! Mine was full of good family time and good eating, which is exactly how it should be, in my opinion.

On Thursday, Matthew and I hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new home. We moved into this house in February, so I’m really excited for our first holiday season here. We had my Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Father-in-Law over for a Thanksgiving feast.

This year, we ordered our Thanksgiving turkey, as well as some other necessary items, from Fresh Fork Market. The turkey had a very different taste than your normal, every day Butterball. It was much fresher and a bit more gamy. It was also incredibly tender and juicy.

Almost every dish on our table had at least some Fresh Fork ingredients in them. One of the favorites was the streuseled sweet potato casserole, which had Fresh Fork sweet potatoes, maple syrup, egg, flour and butter in it. Click here for the recipe.

We also had a special bottle of wine to enjoy with dinner.

As a bridal shower gift, I received wines to be enjoyed on certain special occasions. So I was very excited to pop the cork on this bottle to toast our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.

It was a wonderful day of eating too much and spending time with family!

On Friday morning, Mom and I continued our 20-plus-year tradition of going out on Black Friday. Truthfully, we get very little gift shopping accomplished and we start later and later each year. But, we have a great time together, talking, browsing, and being a little bit silly.

As a respite from the craziness at the mall, we stopped for lunch at Rosewood Grill in Strongsville. I started with a very interesting cocktail: the 82 & Spicy. It has Hangar One Chipotle vodka, raspberry puree, lime, and bubbles. Sweet and spicy and really tasty!

We split a selection of appetizers for lunch, starting with the calamari and sushi shots.

I loved the breaded banana peppers that came along with the calamari! The sushi shots are phyllo cups, with mashed avocado and tuna, served with sriracha sauce. The sauce provides a nice kick, but these shots are good with or without the added heat.

We also shared the exotic mushroom and brie flatbread.

Brie and mushrooms are two of my favorite things and this combination was rich and earthy. The crisp sea salt crust on the flatbread added just the right texture to each bite. I definitely will be heading back to Rosewood Grill! In an area overrun by chain restaurants, it’s nice to have a foodie, independent option.

Saturday, Matthew and I loosened our belts for Thanksgiving, Round 2 with his family. Fresh Fork played a large role again, particularly in Matthew’s light, sweet apple cake dessert. This is from a recipe he found in the only English cookbook in his apartment in Italy when he studied abroad and it is one of my favorite things he makes.

It was another fun day with family, particularly catching up with our nieces who are growing up so fast and are ridiculously adorable.

Sunday was dedicated to decorating the house for Christmas. I always enjoy holiday decorating, but particularly with it being the first year in this house, I was really excited. First stop was picking out a tree.

This is only my second year having a live Christmas tree. I always had artificial trees and Matthew always had live trees. I’ve found I really like having a live tree: the smell just says Christmas! Then it was time to come home and decorate. The finished product blends Matthew’s and my holiday traditions and I know I will spend a lot of evenings snuggled up on the couch looking at the tree.

How was your Thanksgiving weekend, CLE?

Why? Birthday Recap!

I’ll admit it: I love my birthday. This year, like every year, I got spoiled by some of my favorite people. And while I love that people make a big deal out of my special day, anyone who knows me will tell you I’ll make an equally big deal out of other people’s special days.

My mom had us over for a fabulous dinner the weekend before my birthday. She is a wonderful cook and I thoroughly enjoyed grilled Chilean sea bass with mango salsa, coconut mango rice, asparagus, and homemade cake!

It was a day of good quality family time, from dinner to enjoying a sunny, breezy Corvette ride with my dad. Those kinds of days are one of the best gifts you can get.

Good times with the fam

On Wednesday, the actual day of my birth, I finagled (underused word) a half-day of work. I was able to start my day with practicing yoga at Cleveland Yoga. This is not my usual spot to practice and I heard that their power yoga classes can be pretty intense. Well, I totally got my birthday butt kicked, but I loved being able to start my year with yoga. I’m still a sworn Nishkama Yoga girl. Although, if you’re up for trying Cleveland Yoga, $15 (the drop-in price) will get you 8 days of unlimited yoga as a new student to the studio!

That afternoon, my mom took me out to lunch at Lola Bistro. I don’t frequent Lola as much as I do it’s sister restaurant, Lolita, which is on my “top 3 restaurants” list. In fact, I hadn’t been to Lola since my birthday three years ago! Yikes! It was a welcome return to this lovely restaurant and an appropriate choice given that Chef Michael Symon and I share a birthday.

Scallops, blueberry pomegranate sorbet, and beef cheek pierogi (not eaten in that order)

Wednesday evening was essentially Girls’ Bday Night Out, with a side of husbands who patiently pretended not to hear certain conversations and provided rides home. My dear friend Melissa organized the get-together at Market Avenue Wine Bar, a favorite spot for its cozy decor and fabulous wine selection.

Two new favorites

We started the evening with one of the sweetest bubbly toasts I’ve ever heard courtesy of Kimberly and ended with delicious cupcakes from Great Scott’s Bakery courtesy of Melissa.

The Boston Creme Pie cupcake was my favorite

In between, there was plenty of laughter, wine, and food with the my nearests and dearests. Everyone there is such a huge, vibrant, wonderful part of my life and I couldn’t be more grateful to have gotten to celebrate with them.

This weekend, I’m cashing in on Matthew’s perfect birthday present : a trip to DC to see old friends and missed sites.

I’m a very lucky lady to have such wonderful, generous, loving people to help me celebrate another trip around the sun! Much thanks to all of you for making the start of my 31st year a great one…I can’t wait to see what this year brings!

Why? Weekends!

After Matthew and I slept off the effects of Midnight Brunch, it was time to get down to the rest of the last weekend of the summer. I swear, it was just the Fourth of July…this summer flew!

On Saturday afternoon, we went over to our friends Brian and Laura’s new house for a Housewarming BBQ. Our summer has been packed with friends’ backyard parties and they have been one of my favorite parts of the season. This BBQ was no exception: lots of good food, good conversation, and getting to check out their new digs. There were also cake pops, which were a particular favorite with some guests…

From Brian and Laura’s, I headed over to Willoughby Brewing Co. for a birthday celebration for my college sorority sister, Katie.

I always enjoy the beer at Willoughby Brewing. My standing favorite is the Peanut Butter Coffee Cup Porter, but I also really liked the Oktoberfest that I tried. Willoughby Brewing offers a more variety on their menu than the typical brewpub. However, I was not impressed by my entree on Saturday.

I chose the sun-dried tomato pasta and found the seasoning lackluster and the pasta/sauce ratio skewed (way too much sauce for the amount of pasta). I’ve had some dishes I really enjoyed at Willoughby Brewing, but I don’t think I’ll be ordering this one again.

From Willoughby Brewing, we continued our tour of downtown Willoughby with stops at Mullarkey’s Pub and Nickelby’s Roundbar and Kitchen. At Nickelby’s, I had my first glass of Southern Tier Pumking for this season. I love this “pumpkin pie in a glass” beer and may have convinced the entire table to each order one. It’s officially fall in beer land!

It was a fun night celebrating Katie’s birthday and reminded me how much I enjoy downtown Willoughby – it’s an eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, and people that’s laid back and not pretentious. Cheers to the birthday girl!

On Sunday, we had our parents over for some holiday weekend grilling and feasting. It was a perfect end to an amazing, fun, busy, whirlwind summer in Cleveland!

How did you celebrate your holiday weekend? Are you ready for fall?