This past Saturday was my bridal shower hosted by my awesome maid of honor and uber-cool bridesmaid. One of the games we played was based on a series of questions the MOH sent to Chris. He had to answer the questions, about himself. And then I had to give the right answers. Everyone first guessed how many they thought I would get right.
I knew right off I was going to fail miserably. Out of 20 questions, I was hoping for 50% correct. I actually did slightly better than that. It helped when some of the questions came with hints. Knowing that I like to cook, she asked Chris what his favorite dish of mine was and his least favorite.
Since Chris has a number of “home run” dishes he talks about, and has been known to lick the plate clean, literally, I needed a little guidance but I was able to determine the winning dish. Funnily enough, I haven’t made it in months. The Squash Risotto is really more of a fall/winter dish in my head. I knew for sure that some kind of seasoned and bread-crumb coated chicken would be part of the dish.
As for least favorite. Well, I was briefly insulted that he would be able to choose anything since I’m so fabulous but this wasn’t really that hard. I never blogged about this dish but there is a Twitter comment referencing a turkey meatloaf gone awry. It really wasn’t awful. It just needs some work. And the first step will be using the proper ratios of peppers and onions to ground turkey. I thought I had the 2 pound package of ground turkey, not the 1 lb; realized my error after cutting up onion and pepper. It was a recent experiment so I’m not surprised it would come to mind when asked.
The luncheon at the shower was partly made up of some little deli sandwiches from a new place in Flint, Hoffman’s Deco Deli. I don’t know the all the varieties chosen except one was a vegetarian sandwich that looked pretty tasty. I had what I believed to be the Dillyliscious: Stacked turkey, provolone cheese, a dill mayo spread with leaf lettuce and a tomato. Good bread and a nice size to go with the salads and such. The deli itself is one of several new places in downtown Flint on my list to check out next time I’m in the home area which will probably be this weekend.
For dessert, we had cute sugar cookies and some really tasty chocolate cupcakes with a secret. When Chris came back to pick up his mom and the gifts, I had him try a cupcake. He was impressed with the flavor and shocked when I told him the secret. My MOH picked this up from Weight Watchers apparently: 1 batch cake mix and 1 can of diet soda. If its a dark cake mix, use a dark diet soda. If its a white/light mix, use something like diet Sprite. And don’t add anything else like egg or oil as is usually directed by the box.
After the shower, my ‘maids and I headed over to a friend’s house for relaxing before heading out for girl’s night. On the way, we stopped at this gas station near I-75 because I needed a diet coke. I almost forgot my soda when I walked in to this place, Aaron’s. It was so much more than a gas station stop. They had a couple aisles of beer including some unusual microbrews along with a few aisles of wine ranging from $7 to more than $50 per bottle plus a full deli, small fresh produce section and probably more we didn’t notice.
I grabbed 3 bottles of wine, one for the night and two to take home. The two take-homes were not rare or necessarily good wines but they spoke to me. Number 1: the winery name is CMS, Chris’s initials. Its on the front in fancy font- had to buy. Number 2: Earth, Zin and Fire. Silly name but earlier, during the shower game, I got the answer to “Chris’s favorite musical group” wrong. Apparently its Earth, Wind and Fire. I had no idea*. To make up for this, I bought the bottle. We also bought some artichoke-asiago dip which was absurdly tasty
*In retrospect, I need not feel guilty because when Chris arrived, we made him take the test as if I answered the questions, excepting the few that wouldn’t apply, like cooking related topics.
He got 6 out of 11 so we were quite close percentage-wise. He didn’t know my favorite color but did know my first job. Lucky for him, she didn’t ask my birthday. He gets that wrong all the time.
After a night on the town in Royal Oak during which some guy in a neck brace gave me a list of bachelorette things to do (i.e. kiss a gay guy, switch underwear with someone, etc), a little greasy food was required to round out the night. We went to National Coney Island in Royal Oak. Which is funny because I don’t think I’ve been back in that restaurant since my 30th birthday celebration a few years days ago. Anyhow, there is nothing quite like fries with ranch dressing to top off a fab girls night out.
The next morning, my bridesmaid and I were driving home and decided we needed some food. My MOH was in the back and definitely didn’t want food. We dropped her off first then considered our options. Time was a factor so we ended up doing a drive-thru but somehow the topic of Angelo’s came up. Angelo’s is a Flint Institution, an old-school coney island and likely inventor of the Flint style coney sauce. The location is not great for late night dining and since I don’t really eat hot dogs, I rarely go. But back in college, my roommate’s dad used to drop off a half-dozen dogs once in awhile. I’d walk in the door after class, immediately recognize that distinctive dog, sauce and onion aroma and be transported to my youthful days (which again, were just a short time ago) hanging at Angelo’s with my parents and grandparents. I still need to take Chris there, just once. They serve Pepsi but he will have to suck it up.
The Thursday before this weekend adventure, I cooked dinner for Chris, his mom and I. She wants to move in with us now. Guess what? I made breaded chicken with pan sauce. It runs in the family I guess.
Good Food Hunting 