A Coffee Community

I recently joined the corporate world doing a job I was made for - administrative assistant.  I love my job, but it definitely requires a cup of coffee every morning because you are constantly on your toes.  My 8:30 coffee run has become quite the ritual and I don't know what I would do without it.  I almost always make this coffee run with a coworker - which got me thinking about the social side effects of coffee. 

Coffee is the perfect drink to get while chatting.  You're expecting an energy buzz from the caffeine so you're already feeling better, and then add in the fact that you're socializing and boom!  Winning.  Your day has significantly improved before you even took the first sip. 

The act of getting the coffee is soothing to many in the corporate world I've found.  It is a chance to slip away from the desk for a moment and collect your thoughts - whether about work or home.  I like to get coffee because it makes me think through my day while not working on something else - multitasking doesn't always work best.  Getting coffee also makes you physically move around, unless of course your coffee is just in the other room.  I highly recommend going outside your office for a cup of Joe once in a while - it will do you wonders!

Some of us though, don't always have someone to get a cup of coffee with.  Well do not fear!  It just so happens that coffee houses are usually more sociable than the local bar!  I have struck up so many random conversations in a coffee house and I absolutely loved every one of them.  One morning I was preparing for an interview and some random guy in a suit asked me what I was doing and it just so happened that he worked in the same industry so he was able to give me some pointers.  As a barista I've been given the chance to hear so many interesting stories.

I guess what I'm trying to get to is that you should go out and socialize - and if you need some liquid courage, try coffee.  When you're hopped up on caffeine rather than liquor, you're less likely to make an ass of yourself.

Wild Game!

Last night Patrick took me to my first ever NHL game.  I've seen the Gophers, and I've seen the Moose, but I never had the chance to see the Wild.  Well this was it, and it was good.  The Wild won 1-4 and I got to see some great goals and fantastic saves.  I was really impressed by how much faster the games moves when you're there rather than watching on TV.  I loved it!  We got seats in the upper deck on center ice - it was a great view.  The nice part about the Excel is that no matter where you sit you have a great view.  The refs didn't let anyone fight and I didn't get to see any blood on the ice, but it was still a great experience.

The Wild warmed up in special National Guard jerseys

We had a great view right down the middle!

Pre-game

After the 2nd period we moved a little closer to the action.  Had some great guys with thick Minnesotan accents behind us which just made the experience better.

Wild Win!

Keeping an Open Mind

I'm a coffee snob, I'll admit it.  I take pride in being able to tell you all about my high priced, organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee's brightness, flavor tones, and more.  I will also admit though, that I drink gas station cappuccinos.  I can't keep this secret any longer.

Gas station coffee is good - when you're in a hurry.  There is no comparing it to the higher end coffee, but when you need a pick me up and are running low on cash and time, this is a good place to turn!  I don't really like their regular coffee, so I go for the "cappuccino" machine.  These are in no way real cappuccinos.  They bear a slight resemblance since they both have caffeine, but that is about it.  They are however, still quite tasty.  I love all the flavors and the fact that you can mix them up on your own!  Yes, I am the person that mixes all the different pops together at the soda fountain.

I also like fast food coffee.  McDonald's will make a pretty good mocha - and they even let you customize it a little.  If I need black coffee though I'm heading to Burger King where they serve "Seattle's Best" and it is actually one of the best cups of coffee even compared to Caribou or Starbucks.  If you prefer a stronger cup of coffee though head to McDonald's.  It has a brighter flavor while Burger King has a more mellow taste.

So don't feel shame when buying a quick cup of joe.  Isn't it all about the caffeine anyways?

Date Night

Our date nights are simple, not because I like simple things, but because I like dates and its a lot easier to have a lot of dates when they are simple.

Drink: Pinot Grigio by Black Swan
I have never been much of a wine person, but in the last couple years I have started to try more and more.  I've realized that I like white wines with a bit of citrus flavor.  You get this citrus flavor from wines made in Australia, which is where Black Swan is made.  This wine was only $6.99 and for the price I would say it was pretty good.  It was as exciting as some other Pinot Grigio wines I've had but I liked it enough to finish the bottle on my own.  Oh yeah, Patrick doesn't like wine so he got a Gatorade, which he likes, so it's all good.

Appetizer: Cheese Curds & Apples
If you didn't already know this, apples go really well with cheese.  I don't know why, I just know they do.  I really like cheese so I wanted to go with a fancy cheese, but this was not a fancy date night.  So I went for the good ol' Wisconsin Cheese Curds.  You just can't go wrong with cheese curds, especially when your date is with a Wisconsin man.

Dinner: Garlic Chicken Pizza with Alfredo Sauce
A white sauce pizza is my favorite especially with spinach and chicken.  I have yet to be able to make a decent pizza so all of ours come out of a box.  This was Culinary Circle brand which I highly recommend!  I have never had one of their pizzas that I didn't like.  The other part that makes our pizza so good is the Pampered Chef Pizza Stone!  Another thing that I would highly recommend if you like softer crust.  Our pizza was a thin crust which usually ends up too crispy for us, but with this pizza stone it cooks just right.

Dessert: Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
For some reason I can't make cookies.  It's really stupid.  I can make truffles and intricate cakes, but I can't make a simple sugar cookie.  So we buy these too.  Which is alright because it means that for our Date Night I had hardly any cooking to do!

Our Date Nights are always paired with a movie.  We have decided to go through our "10 Must See Musicals" to make sure that we are really happy with what we have.  So we started with #10 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  We had more time and nothing better to do so we also watched #9 The Phantom of the Opera.

It was a good night.

There's a cat, in a filing cabinet!

What is it doing there!?

Minnesota or: How I Learned to Stop Whining and Embrace the Cold

Minnesotans are a resilient people – it’s why we still live here.  We bear through the rough winters, the dangerous summer weather, the springtime floods, the congested highways, and even the crappy sports teams.  We may not be able to change any of this, but we learn to live with it. 

The most delicious way of warming up is the Minnesota Hotdish.  Not to be confused with the casserole.  My favorite is Tater Tot Hotdish.  It's ground beef mixed with cream of mushroom soup with tater tots on top.  You throw it in the oven for half an hour or so and viola! you have pure Minnesotan heaven.

The best example of dealing with winter is how we move indoors in the winter without locking ourselves in the house.  Minnesota is home to the first fully enclosed mall in the world – the Southdale Shopping Center in Edina.  Southdale was originally designed to be a place where people would come together and become a community.  Later came the Mall of America – the largest mall in the United States (until King of Prussia came along in Pennsylvania.)  This was the same idea, just on a much grander scale.  This even has a park in the middle which makes it even easier to forget you’re not outside.  The halls are decorated with fences, benches and lamp posts too that give the appearance of the outdoors. 

A similar idea to the mall is the Minneapolis Skyway.  The second floor of many office buildings are connected to one another which enables people to walk from building to building without ever having to take a step outside.  There are also a ton of restaurants and stores that are only in the skyway – that is how popular this system is!  Even some of the food trucks found outside in the summer move to indoor spaces for the winter. 

That's me in the water on Valentine's Day

Another way to deal is actually to not deal at all, but rather embrace the cold!  We call it Hockey.  Almost every neighborhood in Minnesota has a small neighborhood hockey rink.  Around here kids grow up on skates.  When you’re moving around and having fun you don’t have time to think about how cold it is.  This sport is near and dear to Minnesota, more than any other state in my opinion.  If skating isn’t you thing there is also skiing, snowboarding, cross-country, snowshoeing, ice-fishing, dog sled racing, and polar plunges!  If you haven’t tried the polar plunge you really should, it’s a blast!  There are also fun events like the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships on Lake Nokomis.

Of course you could always just up and leave for Christmas in the Bahamas instead.

There are many other fun ways to deal with a Minnesota winter.  What’s yours?

Root Beer Challenge

The Contenders: Killebrew, Henry Weinhard's, IBC, Boylan, Sprecher, Point, Dorothy's, Natural Brew & Stewart's

Patrick and I really like root beer.  We also like listing stuff and ranking it.  So we decided to stock up on a bunch of different specialty root beers from the area to see which we like the most.  All of these sodas were found at the grocery store.  

Cups set up and ready for the blind test.

We wanted to do this right so we set up a blind test and started drinking.  We had a cracker in-between every drink and wrote down what we thought about them.  Then we continued sampling while we ranked them.  Here is what we found and how we ranked them:

#9 - Natural Brew from Chico, NJ
Amanda's Ranking: 9
Patrick's Ranking: 9
This was the worst root beer hands down.  It was the only one that when I drank it, I cringed.  It is really hard to find a root beer that neither of us like, but we did.  Both of us described it as being sweet to the point where a couple of drinks would make you sick.  I also thought it had an awkward spice to it.  This is the only one I would tell you to not even bother trying it.

#8 - Henry Weinhard's from Hood River, OR
Amanda's Ranking: 6
Patrick's Ranking: 7
Both of us agreed that this was a very sweet drink.  I thought it tasted more like liquid candy than root beer.  It didn't have any flavor that really jumped out at you and with the sweetness you couldn't drink much of it.

#5  - Stewart's from Mansfield, OH
Amanda's Ranking: 5
Patrick's Ranking: 5
Obviously we both were in agreement that this was a good #5 root beer.  Patrick described the flavor as rich and while I agree with him, there is also a lot of caramel flavor going on.  This is a classic American root beer that would taste best with a scoop of ice cream.

#5  - Dorothy's from Ely, MN
Amanda's Ranking: 2
Patrick's Ranking: 8
As you can see, we had different feelings on this one.  I like it because it has just the right amount of sweetness to create a nice smooth flavor.  It was just a little too sweet for Patrick's taste though.

#5  - Point from Steven's Point, WI
Amanda's Ranking: 7
Patrick's Ranking: 3
Again we have differing opinions about the root beer.  Patrick liked it because of its right down the middle taste.  It wasn't bland, but it was awful either.  It was just a little too bland for my tastes.

#3 - Boylan from Moonachie, NJ
Amanda's Ranking: 8
Patrick's Ranking: 1
This is the most we disagree about any of the root beers.  Patrick likes this because of its deep flavor that has a punch to it.  I thought it was too dark and just not quite there.

#3 - Killebrew from Cold Spring, MN
Amanda's Ranking: 3
Patrick's Ranking: 6
This root beer is named after good ol' #3 Harmon Killebrew, which makes it ironic that it landed at #3 on our list.  I liked the mellow, yet rich flavor that this root beer offered while Patrick enjoyed the deep taste that it offers.  This is also the lowest in calories of all the root beers we tried.

#2 - Sprecher's from Milwaukee, WI
Amanda's Ranking: 4
Patrick's Ranking: 2
Both of us had thought for a while that this was out #1 root beer so we were surprised to find out that through a blind test, it wasn't!  We both like the deepness of the root beer that offers both sweet and sour flavors.  You can really taste the honey in the root beer, which also comes from Wisconsin.

#1 - IBC from St. Louis, MO
Amanda's Ranking: 1
Patrick's Ranking: 4
This has been my personal favorite root beer for a long time.  I'll never forget trying my first IBC in high school at Applebees.  Both Patrick and I love the variety of rich floras that blend together so well to create a rich and smooth taste.

Interesting facts:
Amanda's #2 and #3 were both from Minnesota while Patrick's #2 and #3 were from Wisconsin.
The root beer made from corn syrup tended to rank higher on our list and had less calories and sugar than the root beer made of cane sugar.
At the end of this we felt sick.  I would not recommend drinking this much root beer in one sitting.

In case you're wondering, that is glue on the middle one.

La Belle Crepe on Nicollet Mall

View of La Belle Crepe from Nicollet Mall

La Belle Crepe
825Nicollet Mall #100
Minneapolis, MN 55402
http://www.labellecrepe.com
Cuisine: Crepes and coffee
Attire: Casual
Cost of Drinks: $3
Cost of Food: $6

La Belle Crepe is closest I have ever come to seeing an actual hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  It's tough to find because the restaurant is maybe 10 feet wide and 20 feet long.  The eating area is a small bar inside the restaurant and then 5 tables out in the hallway.  It is connected to the skyway which is how I found it.  Once you walk inside though, you don't even notice how small the place is because the atmosphere is so big!

Inside La Belle Crepe

The room has tall vaulted ceilings which are decorated like a fancy European restaurant.  There are paintings on the wall and a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling.  French music and the smell of fresh crepes fills the air.  The restaurant is owned by a very kind gentleman from France who you can see working often.  The other people working there are also a great bunch.  The food that is served is intended to be a healthy, but fast meal.  I take a more laid back approach though and spend my full lunch hour eating, drinking and reading.

There are a wide variety of crepes available in three different categories; Sweet, Savory, and Breakfast.  I can't speak for the breakfast crepes myself but I have been told by co-workers that they are quite good.  The savory crepes are served like a wrap and on a salad which makes it a very healthy and quick lunch.  The crepe is made of whole grains and the cheese they use is fabulous.  But in my opinion, the Sweet crepe conquers all others!

"The Elvis"

The sweet crepes feature fruits and nuts and are designed to be a dessert or an entrée - which is how I eat them.  My first one was the Berries & Crème which has a fresh mix of berries tucked inside a nice warm crepe with crème fraiche on top.  I basically melted in my seat it was so amazing!  Next I tried the Mango crepe with almond paste which was absolutely wonderful.  Then I decided I needed to try the Banana crepe which came with your choice of peanut butter or Nutella - I chose the Nutella and I never looked back!  The Nutella melts inside the crepe covering the bananas is chocolaty goodness.  To make matters even better there is a chocolate sauce on top with powdered sugar.  I basically went into a chocolate coma, and it was all good.  I also tried the caramel apple which was good but as I am not a huge fan of caramel apples, I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.  I have not tried the Orange Dream yet which features orange marmalade and crème fraiche.  Also for dessert they feature a selection of sorbet and gelato which is quite flavorful.

There is actually a fourth category and this one is always changing; the Specials.  Last time I went the special was "The Elvis."  It contains banana, bacon, honey, peanut butter, and whipped crème.  It was amazing!  Seriously it was so good I couldn't believe it!  All the flavors came together and balanced out quite well.  It was one of the greatest things I have eaten in my entire life.

"Sipping Cocoa"

La Belle Crepe also features a wonderful list of drinks.  The first is the authentic Italian Soda which they mix right there and that makes all the difference.  They also have a full coffee bar which I love.  They have everything from black coffee to authentic Italian Cappuccinos served with a small spoon so you can really enjoy the froth.  The final drink on their list is a true delicacy - Sipping Cocoa.  Sipping Cocoa is simply a small glass of warm chocolate.  No milk, no sugar, no additives, no powder - just chocolate.  It is so thick, rich, and smooth that you are going to think you have died and gone to heaven.

I hope this was enough to convince you to find La Belle Crepe.  It is a wonderful restaurant that I hope will continue to serve wonderful food.  I have also heard that soon they will be serving Panini's which I'm sure will be consistent with their other great foods.