TGIF...wow, that is like the ultimate suburbanized dining adventure...

Alright, I was guilty of patronizing a TGIF the last time I was in MN, but in my own defense it was the only place (nearby) where we could get booze on a Sunday! That's right folks, MN has a "dry Sunday" law, in addition to not allowing alcohol to be sold at convenient stores or supermarkets. So basically, the only place you can buy booze is at a liquor store Mon-Sat or if you go to a restaurant.

Anyone else feel like there's something wrong with this picture? I mean, if the Lord didn't want us to drink on Sunday, he would not have made it so f*cking delicious...and FUN. Anyway, it was TGIF or get drunk on wine coolers, which is the only thing low enough in alcohol to be sold at grocery stores (and sadly, we had already done that).

Well, drinking woes behind me, I'm a Californian now and I'll never forget that first time at my local COSTCO when I got that special feeling as I realized, "They sell ALCOHOL in BULK?!?!"

:oD

I like to bake. I don't do it all that much, but I still enjoy it. A few years ago, I made a lot of bread. Nothing too fancy, just foccacia, pizza dough, cheese bread and a random things that came with the bread machine (though I generally just used the bread machine for mixing, and I liked to use the oven and pizza/bread stone for the baking part. This wasn't because I was elitist and thought I was better than the bread machine, it was just that I didn't like my bread to come out in that bread machine mold.

The other day, I had dinner at Venus in Berkeley, and they had some majorly yummy olive bread there. Inspired by that, and the fact that I had some extra olives that I needed to put to use, I decided to try to replicate their olive bread which was sort of ciabatta-ish. I've never made ciabatta before, but I figured I should give it a try. I consulted several online recipes and realized that you have to really give it a lot of time. It basically took me one and a half days to prepare the dough, which only needs to be baked for about 20 minutes. anyway, I do all this prep work, much of it by hand (even though I would have been much better off with a kitchenaid - note to santa) only to run into a major snafu.

My oven is hell bent on fucking me over. The oven is usually okay, but seems to just automatically shut off whenever I'm trying to make something that I'm really looking forward to. E.g. I made mac and cheese a little while ago, and it totally fucked me over when I couldn't pop it in the oven for that final browning step. It didn't really seem to mind cooking my cast-iron pan for an hour when I was coating it with oil or the other day when I baked my ravioli cake. but today, I'm trying to make my bread, and it decides that it doesn't want to stay on for more than 5 minutes. For those who don't know, if your bake time is compromised, it pretty much messes up whatever you're baking in the first place. (I'm going to try to make up the extra baking time in the toaster oven, but I'm not really holding my breath...)

To make things even worse, after all this effort and wasted time and energy, I realized I forgot to put the olives in my dough...

I may as well have just went to Trader Joe's and bought a loaf there.

The Grand Cafe


That's right, kids. Free din din at this place for "the juice".


Hmm, I guess I can say that it definitely lives up to its name. The place was very "grand" with 2-story ceilings and massive columns. My boss and I have this habit of ordering the most decadent thing on the menu (since WE'RE not footin' the bill) and so of course we ordered bacon-wrapped scallops for our appetizer. For the main course I got the "Grand Cassoulet" with crispy duck confit, garlic sausage, braised lamb, and garlic crusted marrow beans...I went to cut a piece of the lamb and it just fell off the bone. Also got a side of truffle french fries...soooo GOOD! It totally brought me back to Italy.

For dessert I just got a glass of moscato and had a piece of other people's dessert. Tried the flourless chocolate cake which was actually really tasty--would not have known it did not contain flour...I also tried the banana cream pie, which was far superior in my opinion. (The muscat goes well with both.)

I was buzzed all the way home. I likey Grand Cafe...try it if you got extra money or if you know someone who does (then take me with you).