Exploration Dayton

Oh, hey, Monday! Nice of you to stop by and interrupt a perfectly good weekend. That's okay. I want to tell you about all the new, fun things we did this this weekend anyway. You will be so jealous that you're not as cool as Saturday and Sunday.

I'm on a new quest to explore the city and surrounding areas. I have lived in Dayton for more than 7 years now (can that be true?!) and yet John and I continually frequent the same restaurants, shops, etc. Time to branch out. Time to explore. Time to discover something that could become a new favorite. I had lots of new discoveries planned for this weekend so let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start)

For YEARS, we have been waiting for a good frozen yogurt shop to come to Dayton. I know. Life is tough. We have a couple froyo places but they do not live up to the caliber of shops that we used to go to when visiting family in Austin. The places we have offer limited flavors, mostly fruit, and are not self serve. Where is the fun in that? A new place opened up nearby and I thought, "Sigh. OK we'll try it. But, it won't be as good as we're hoping."

I. Was. Wrong. This is Soyo Yogurt. Not only is it self-serve, but they have AMAZING flavors. How amazing? Well, what about peanut butter, or cake batter? Does that do anything for you? Because that's what I had. John had Angel Food Cake and something else I can't remember. 45 cents an ounce so be careful. Those giant cups fill up fast! For you locals, it's in Centerville by the giant, new Kroger.

Peanut buttery goodness

 That was Friday night. I may have also coerced John into going to the Gap because it was 30% off everything. I may or may not have purchased yet another maxi dress. I was a good girl and passed up the tote bag I've been eyeing though. If I can find the right fabric, I can make it cheaper than buying it. We also bought a power tool (not at the Gap) but that's a story for another day......

Moving on - Saturday, Sadie needed a hair cut and thankfully, she was with a good groomer she's had before so it turned out cute, even though we prefer her hair long. We ran a few errands and made a sizable purchase at Lowe's (another story for another nother day) had good runs outside and were all cleaned up by noon. Productivity is the name of the game. Oh, rewind. Because we had to get Sadie to the groomer by 9:00, we treated ourselves to breakfast at Saxby's. I had the oatmeal. It was creamy and filling. John's breakfast sammie was tasty too. OK, now moving on.

This left time for lounging and a little house project. See above paragraph re: power tool. Then we cleaned up again and got ready for new adventure numero dos.

A friend that I've known since 6th (or 5th?) grade lives in Cincinnati and we've yet to meet up in all these years. We both laughed about how we see each other every Christmas in our hometown and say "we should meet up sometime" and then we never do. Time to right that wrong! Her husband is a musician and was playing at a local coffee shop in Dayton that we had never been to so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to get together, check out a new place and hear him play.


This is the counter of Ghostlight Coffee (on Wayne Ave. for the locals). Funnily enough, if I still lived in the very first apartment I had in Dayton, I would pass this on my way to work each morning. It definitely wasn't there in 2005 though.

They are known for their artisan sodas and pour over coffee. I'm still not sure what this is because I didn't order it (the coffee, I mean). To start, I had an orange hibiscus soda. I really wanted to try the Tangerine Lavender Honey soda but they were out. Guess I'll have to go back! John got a cream soda. Mine was really refreshing but his was out of this world! If you're thinking bottled cream soda, this is not that. This was super creamy and sweet. Actually, you can add cream to all of their sodas for a richer taste. We got our drinks while we were waiting for our dinner from this:

 

This is the Fressa Food Truck. I believe one of Dayton's ONLY food trucks. Just like we're slow on the froyo, we're also slow on the food truck front. Normally, Ghostlight Coffee closes at 7:00 pm but on Saturday nights in the summer, Fressa parks it until 10:00 pm and the coffee is brewed until then while customers can enjoy some live music. I ordered the Fressa Burger (juicy!) and John had the Fressa Dog with bacon jam. We split the Fressa chips and a fruit salad. For $17 we had quite a feast. Although they did lose our original order. But when remedied, we had a delightful dinner.

Then, it was time for the show!

Here is Matt. Also known onstage as WolfCryer. He plays the banjo and harmonica and it was awesome! All original music and he has a great voice too. The tunes filled the rather intimate space nicely. He performs with his friend Eric, who plays guitar. They played for 2 hours. During this time I enjoyed a chai latte and split a Honey Lavender Whoopie Pie with John. I didn't want to share it but it was the last one for sale. Heavenly!

We had a great time catching up with friends, listening to music and enjoying local cuisine and coffee.

A successful exploratory weekend, wouldn't you say? 3 for 3 on new destinations! 4 for 4 when you count the music as we'd never heard them play before. Winner winner food truck dinner!

Recipe Reblog #25

Last weekend, we hosted our wine night with a theme of VinOlympics. When caught up in Olympic fever, add wine! We chose wines from around the world and the menu also came from assorted countries. The appetizer round wasn't too foreign but it was delicious. I'm quite proud of myself for coming up with a crostini trio. I cannot believe I didn't take a picture. One topped with bruschetta (from my garden!), one topped with a honey-lemon ricotta and strawberries, and one topped with this.........

Sun-Dried Tomato Jam: This is a Giada recipe from the Food Network. It uses a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and a few other ingredients and coaxes them into a savory jam. Let me tell you, mine never jammed up. I simmered the heck out of it too but there was too much liquid. No matter. My guests and I could not get enough of this! It was extremely tasty. Packed with flavor! Hers has you add goat cheese too but we skipped that part. This recipe is also relatively low maintenance as once the pot is going, you just let it simmer. I made my own crostinis in the oven but you could certainly do storebought. Serve this stunner at your next get together!

P.S. Blogger told me all the Italian words in this post were spelled incorrectly. Mi scusi!

Road Trip - Last stop, Wine Time!

I just realized I forgot to tell you all about our marathon winery day to cap off our summer vacation. My apologies! Niagara-on-the-Lake is about a 20 minute, scenic drive from the Falls. It's a quaint little town that's home to the Shaw Theatre Festival, umpteen B&B's and about a thousand wineries. None of these wineries export to the States (at least not that I've found) so we were ready to go load up! I think you can purchase online but where's the fun in that?

Reif Estate Winery

Our first stop and one of the very first wineries you come to on River Parkway from the Falls is the Reif Estate Winery. We had been here before but this was the first time we toured. $5/person got you a tour and 3 tastings, but you got a $5 discount on any bottles you purchase. We purchased a 2009 Cabernet Merlot blend here. It was delicious, even though I don't like Merlot.

Peller Estates

Peller Estates has some of the most gorgeous grounds of all the wineries. I've toured here before so this time we just tasted. Unfortunately once again, they were sold out of their extremely popular Baco Noir. I was pretty bummed about that. $7 for 3 tastings but then you got that off the price of a bottle as well. Service here was kind of impersonal but I remember the tour being very good. This time we purchased a 2010 Gamay Noir for a little something different.



Pillitteri Estates



This was our favorite stop! Pillitteri Estates Winery had been on our last trip but this time we also toured. Their tours were free and we were the only ones so we got to ask all kinds of questions and our tour guide was really knowledgeable. Another bonus here: free tastings! We liked everything we tried but they are most famous for their Riesling Gewurztraminer Fusion. Incidentally, besides ice wine, that is the one VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) bottle I've seen in the States. We purchased a 2010 Cabernet Franc that was amazing. I could have bought a lot more here.
 


Sunnybrook Farm Winery

When touring through Ontario's wine country, I suggest you try to visit a mix between larger estate wineries and smaller, personal niche wineries. Sunnybrook Farm Winery is one of the small ones. They are known for their array of fruit wines, all made with fruit and no grapes. Peach, cherry, apple, etc. No tours here but we tasted a few. $1/taste. They tasted like juice, but good juice. They had a wonderfully effervescent hard cider that we purchased as a gift and I'm kicking myself for not buying some for us.




Strewn Winery

Strewn Winery was a new one for us. We only tasted there, no tour, although I think there is a tour available. I can't remeber how much the tastes were but I forked over $4 in Canadian coins to cover it. We purchased a special white release for summer called the Cottage Block. We tasted all whites here and they were all good. I think we also bought a Riesling. We tried to balance our white and red purchases. There's also a cooking school and a restaurant here but the timing wasn't right for us to eat.

 Hillebrand was next. I totally forgot to take a picture here! It was our 6th stop so details got a little fuzzy. We bought a white here but I can't remember which one and I'm too lazy to go look in the wine rack. Sorry! They have a nice look restaurant here that we considered for dinner but didn't feel like leaving our wallets on the table. Yikes!



Jackson-Triggs

Here's one of the big guys. We toured Jackson-Triggs Winery last time so we just tasted here. Truthfully, we only stopped here because we had free tasting vouchers. One standout was a Sparkling Merlot. I mentioned above that Merlot is not my favorite but I'll try anything that seems interesting. It was different. The girl serving said that's what everyone says about it. We didn't purchase it and I don't regret that. We bought a Sparkling white instead. I can't remember what the variety was.



Inniskillin

Inniskillin is also one of our favorite wineries. We toured last time and had a great tour, especially trying the $100 ice wine as a special treat. This time we didn't tour because we were short on time and while we love it, we only really tasted because we had free vouchers. Ask your concierge (wherever you stay) if they have any tasting vouchers. There is also a wine shop in the Fallsview Casino hotel that has free tasting vouchers. We stopped in there the first night and when I told her we were touring the next day, she handed over the goods. This time, we purchased the 2009 East-West Cabernet Shiraz. This was our 8th and final stop!



I would be remiss if I didn't mention the ever popular ice wine. Ice Wine is made from grapes that are harvested while frozen and pressed in December. It is an extremely sweet dessert wine. We love it but the bottles are PRICEY. It takes 10 times the amount of grapes to make a bottle of ice wine than a normal bottle (fact.) So, definitely try it when it's available but I have a hard time forking over $50 for a 375 mL bottle of wine. We did try it everywhere though. Yum!

And that's it!

Can't get enough wine info? Here's my post from our last trip there back in 2009.

What is Up

• The other day I passed up 5, count them, FIVE, pairs of Kate Spade heels (in my size!) severely discounted at TJ Maxx because I knew my terrible feet couldn't even handle them to wear out to dinner, let alone a full day of work. Progress.
• I have zero trips booked right now and this makes me sad. I'm not counting our Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina as booked because there is no official booking to be done with my sister. Yes, it's a trip but I don't look at a confirmation in my email every.single.day like I do with other vacations.
• Do you have trouble falling asleep, most especially on Sunday nights? You're not alone. Take Melatonin (natural - by the vitamins). Thank me when you're well-rested.
• I have officially turned into my father. The other day, someone tried to give me Olympics results that had just happened. Honest Abe, I plugged my ears and started screaming 'NO NO NO NO' until I was certain they had stopped talking. I like to watch the prime time taped delay, much like my dad watches football games on taped delay. Woe betide the fool who tries to give him any results.
• One of the best moments of my week was purchasing a Groupon for Hot Yoga. I've always wanted to take Hot Yoga and now it's come to Dayton for a fraction of what it should cost. Thanks, Groupon! Sweating is the best.
• There has been a lack of birthday cake in my life lately. How come I'm not around for the few summer birthdays in my life? Cake is the best.
• Last week I spoiled my appetite for lunch by eating a bag of animal crackers from the vending machine at 10:30am. Which is weird because I thought I was 29 and not 6.

What's up with you lately?

Recipe Reblog #24

Here's a summer dinner for you. Take advantage of those fresh zucchinis!

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats: This recipe caught my eye because we've had lots of good summer zucchini already and I was looking for another use for it. It's a main course in which you stuff the zucchini with meat, marinara, cheese, etc. I did switch out the sausage for ground turkey though. That was the only change I made. This was super tasty! Here's another bonus: it's way healthy for you! One boat is only 155 calories. Our zukes were small so we each had two which probably upped the calorie count a tad but that's okay. Still a very reasonable dinner. Whip these up for yourself!

July Running Round Up

Spoiler Alert! I didn't hit 50 miles this month. Between vacation and a trip home, I just seemed to run out of days to log those miles. But, I did have some OK runs in there. Let's review!

Jul 3: 3 min OT in VT, 30ish mins
Jul 10: 4 mi in 35:55 TM, kinda rough
Jul 14: 4 mi OT in 40 mins, felt good - very little walking
Jul 15: 6 mi TM in 55:53, 9:25ish pace, tired legs but felt decent
Jul 17: 3.3 mi TM in 30 mins, 9:21/9:03/8:46 - felt decent
Jul 21: 3 mi OT in 30 mins, leg pain halfway
Jul 22: 5 mi TM in 47:07, rough run, pain and tired :(
Jul 24: 4 mi TM in 34:46, 1@6.5mph, 3@7.0 mph+
Jul 31: 4 mi TM in 35:52, 9:40/8:58/8:44/8:30 -tight hamstring

36.3 miles total

(OT is outside, TM is treadmill)
Also in July, I registered for my first scary half marathon and got new shoes.

Here are my new best friends, the Adrenaline GTS 12th series by Brooks. I've been in the 11th series for the last year so I hope I love the new model just as much. Only time will tell! I'm not too concerned that I didn't run 50 this month because my training program for the race is pretty intense and adds in an extra day of running each week. In 12 weeks, I'm supposed to run over 200 miles. So.....I think I'll be okay on my 500 goal. I just hope to stay injury-free. Fingers crossed!


P.S. Happy 2nd birthday to my nephew, BEN!

Still Missing

Yes, two books in a row. What can I say? I'm a read-read-read-read-readin' machine.

Source

Still Missing, by Chevy Stevens, was recommended by my sister as a fast, somewhat suspenseful read so I picked it up from the library last week and got down to business.


Good Reads' Synopsis: On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.


Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.
Still Missing is that rare debut find--a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted debut novel.
What I Thought: I really enjoyed this one. The story had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing and the outcome was not one that I expected whatsoever. Annie’s tale of abduction definitely held my attention and I was rooting for her to escape (duh) and felt her pain and anguish as she tried to get back to normalcy. The juxtaposition between her speaking to her psychiatrist and retelling her story was a literary device that I’m not sure was necessary but I suppose it added some interest. A good freshman effort for Stevens. Looking for a suspenseful mystery/thriller? Give this one a shot!

Rating: * * * 1/2