a tavola

a tavola

we went there

for a date

that was mostly a thank you

because i threw up all saturday night

and aaron made sure i didn't drown or wash in my own bile.

"it's proof i love you," he says.

"i could have just let you lie there and die."

so apparently not letting me die = incomparable love

now you know.

ANyway, i was beyond grateful.

and beyond grateful means something nice.

i took him out.

and for MONTHS aaron has been trying to go to a tavola

which for some reason or another,

has never worked out.

well, it was a wednesday.

tonight was the night.

and we never go out, never.

so i showered

and curled my hair

and put on what little bit of my Good Make-Up I actually have left (that shiz is expensive!)

and wore heels

and met aaron for dinner.

here's what i have to say about a tavola, and i wish it wasn't so persnickety:

the tables are too big.

seriously.

i sat a grand canyon across from my boyfriend.

that's not fun!

look, a lady that's pretty and out on a date and wanting a little TLC

wants to be able to sidle up next to a date, right?

she wants yon date to look in her eyes and tell her she's gorgeous and for their feet to touch comfortably while they bask in the glory of oven baked pizza.

which, by the way, is AMAZINGLY GOOD.

yeah, their pizza is pretty darn tasty.

we had the artichoke, bacon on half (aaron's half,)

and a follow-up of salted caramel ice cream.

hello! that's the way to do it right! 

and it was ttttttaaaasssstttttty

and fresh

and a little bit grilled in the good way

that makes you think of your mom making pancakes in a cast-iron skillet

very yum.

so that was all good.

and the decor is cool.

sleek, sophisticated, modern.

our table was beautiful, i kept wanting to touch it and love it and feel how smooth it was

but aaron was soo far away from me

that the very long table just didn't contribute to a cozy time.

i would have had to work very hard to lean across the table to connect with him

and jesus christ i'd look like an idiot doing that.

easily, i could have moved my chair to the side, caddy-cornering with aaron

but sheesh, i was all self-conscious and didn't.

i should have.

maybe i will next time.

all in all, a tavola is tasty tasty, but not my favorite restaurant of all time in cincinnati.

i'm really in love with taste of belgium

but i've only been for lunch

and you all know i love lunch more than i love my birthday

weeeeeellll, maybe not that much.

but a lot.

A LOT.

have you ever seen two bloggers at lunch?

so my new real-life friend, lara,

of Newlyweds

and I both had an audition today.

and surprise surprise!

if we hadn't scheduled it for the same day before we ever knew that we'd be friends.

and as luck would have it, our auditions were one auditioner apart.

and as even more luck would have it,

lara,

loves groupon

and bought a groupon to tom + chee

which

i just blogged about

and she was gracious enough to share.

WE DID LUNCH, PEOPLE.

and man oh man, if we didn't do it well.

first can i say this:

two bloggers, at lunch, is very easy to spot, and very funny to see.

we take pictures of our food.

we talk about colors.

we talk about stories and as we're living the moment, living the lunch date,

we're both probably writing our respective recollections of the event for our blogs.

lara's blog is more grand-scheme than mine;

she writes full reports of her day, her life

and i blip in and out about mine

but here we were!

together!

dying in heaven!

i went pretty conventional: three cheese grilled cheese + chunky tomato basil soup

totally onolicious.

basically, whatever is good about a grilled cheese is made even better at tom + chee

they have no magic ingredients, no ridiculous bread

they're just effing normal and good

and that is tasty as hell to me.

PLUS

the bread practically melted away into my chunky tomato soup

and whether or not this should or should not alarm you

it pleased me to no end. it was so yummy!

lara got REAL crazy and ordered the grilled cheese donut,

which, as a new pansy,

i decided not to in case it upset my stomach and ruined the rest of what was being a perfect day.

she contemplated putting brie, pesto, and hummus on it,

and lord knows, i've not yet heard whether or not it has made her vomit.

but she ate it, god willing,

and i applaud her.


***ALSO***
lara blogs it over here.
hers is better.
go read it.

cheese.

perhaps it's the fact that i'm savoring a veggie-full diet

perhaps it's the fact that my office is located underneath a cafe 

that specializes in fried food.

nonetheless, grilled cheese is on my mind.

i'm not gonna lie--i'm a cheese lover.

jarlsberg is where the good stuff is, 

and it's delightfully cheaper than all those other fancy pants

cheeses you can buy from a cheese deli.

and now that i live above a gourmet cheese and wine shop, 

life is looking pretty delightful, 

amiright?

and so here we are today

me, dreaming of cheese;

you, probably dreaming of cheese, too;

the both of us benefitting from my research.

turns out, there's a lauded grilled-cheese cookbook,

as if cooking grilled-cheese really requires a recipe.

perhaps it's more of a grilled-cheese inspiration book

in which you'll find LOADS AND LOADS AND LOADS 

of grilled cheese ideas.

you better believe i'm checking this one out from the library soon.

in fact, i've been flying right through books on vegetarianism and veggie cook books.

this one would certainly make a pleasant addition, don't ya think?

cincy, itself, has a few grilled cheese specialities, i do believe.

i've lost my mind over my favorite cafe, lavomatic, in which i've only been once in my whole life and probably should go again right now,

where i ordered, with a friend, both the grilled cheese and the mac n cheese, for lunch.

cheesy, delightful heaven.

speaking of that, you guys know my love of all things fancylunch,

Lavomatic Cafe happened to be one of the best lunches evar.

if you're new to cindy

or your name is lara rhyner

and you like to do cincy-flavored things,

this one better top your list.

also. cincy's big hooplah,

tom and chee

WHERE I HAVE NEVER BEEN

and thus, shame on me for not having eaten here before.

srsly, tho, you google "best grilled cheese in cincinnati"

and you get three pages of people going nutso over this place 

and their grilled cheese donut.

i obvs want to try.

duh.

and the, finally,

my haven of cheese 

is arthur's fried cheese appetizer in hyde park

which i had over a year ago

and still often have dreams and taste-attacks over.

oh whoop te doo, i'm living less that 200 yards from Arthur's heavenly fried cheese?

go ahead, TELL ME that wasn't an accident.

so.

you guys feeling cheesy today? :)

bum dum ch!

ALSO

i tried to get lots of oozy goozy grilled cheese pics for you from interest

but the damn thing had a hernia and died

right as i needed it.

go google it yourself.

you'll love it.

yuuuuuummmm

christmas cookies

 i mean, today, and every day of my life,

i

love

christmas

cookies.

is there anything better?

no wisecracks, aaron clements,

and NO, there is not a single thing better than christmas cookies.

the perfect christmas cookie recipe has to be complicated enough to be an Event.

it has to be Special.

but

in my family

it also has to be kind of easy

i mean, you'd think we were baking and cookie specialists

but man, oh man, are we not.

except, surprisingly,

for Duane! yay duane!

who baked his face off when he lived at home before landing a job and a wife.

Duane's cookies are always TO DIE FOR

and I DON'T EVER UNDERSTAND WHY.

he makes the kind of cookies that you eat, like,

SEVEN OF THEM

before telling yourself you need to stop

and then, by that point,

you just CAN'T.

you have a HUNGER Duane's cookies

and that hunger is never satisfied.

i remember begging him for months to send me cookies up in cincinnati.

i remain a beggar.

ANyway, I am in love with Christmas Cookies!

There is NOTHING BETTER

and few better ways to spend the holidays at home.

Chester makes an excellent baking partner and conversationalist,

and I dream of whipping up batches of yum with him, soon. :)

ohmygod! these are adorable

crafted cookies

oh yum yum yum yumyum

holidays

i don't need another reason to eat a cookie

and i won't take one

but oh my god! so cute!

also.

WHILE I'M THINKING ABOUT IT.

aaron's mom made him cherry cupcakes

for his bday

BUT

the cupcakes were so good i could die.

yum yum yum

fat kid brownies

aaron keeps saying he's a fat kid.

let's note, please, that he's 5'10" and maybe weighs 160.

maybe. :)

so when he changed my flat yesterday morning

i decided the only way to thank him

was to thank him the way fat kids like to be thanked.

with brownies.

and caramel.

and LOTS of m&ms.

it just so turns out that i live in a healthy household

where e makes food out of organic, local ingredients

and does it very, very well.

we like heathly eating.

so yesterday, when i'm stirring a melting pot of caramel over the stove

m&ms separated and in a bowl

first layer of brownie goodness baking in the oven

and layer two spread and shaped on the counter,

nobody in my house really knew what to make of it.

we stopped.

we stared.

we kind of salivated.

and then i just kept mixing it up!

because, all things considered, it's not hard to make a delicious brownie.

and if you're in the business of making Said Fat Kid adore you

then why the hell not!

go ahead a toss another handful of m&ms on those babies

and give that caramel an extra shot of zing

we'll cover eating habits later. :)

for the curious recipe-minded, we'll have the breakdown this way.

make some brownie batter.

split it.

bake a bottom layer for 8 minutes.

let it cool.

melt 50 pieces of caramel and 1/2 cup evaporated milk.

spread it entirely over the first layer.

put your poison in (m&ms, nuts, choco chips, mint, whatevs,)

cover with remaining brownie batter.

NOTE. i used a brownie batter that mixes up almost like a cake. it's light, it's thick, i can actually pick it up and shape it with my hands. i'm telling you, you're gonna get better results with something like this. a messy, sticky batter is just too messy and sticky.

*besides we all want caramel to be the rockstar here, not the chocolate.*

oh and then i decided what the hell and tossed the rest of the m&ms on top.

fat kids love m&ms, what can i say.

bake it up!

20-25 minutes later, pull it out and LET IT COOL.

remember all that caramel? it's hot. it's gooey. it's super delicious.

if you were to put your fork in the brownies now and take a little bit of the corner

you probably would want a second bite. and a little nibble.

and i'm not saying that i did that or anything,

but there were nine fat, square brownies when i brought it out of the oven

and only eight of them made it to aaron. soooo, you do the math.

NOTE. that picture, the one at the very top, is me trying to remove a brownie before putting them in the fridge. i mean, it was delicious, yes, warm and gooey, BUT not entirely transportable. be patient, obi-wan.

but back to the caramel, you want it to re-harden.

put it in the fridge.

and when you're ready

(and seriously, i went to sleep on this one)

cut it up, wrap 'em up

(soo gooey)

and put 'em in a cute box.

i did that.

the cute box thing.

with polka dots and colors and stuff.

and then give it to aaron.

he'll kiss you and tell you AWESOME!

and your work here is done.

i hope we can borrow a blender

ashley carran

and i 

are having a halloween sleep over

(no mind that her bf will be there too.)

we're doing halloween things

and making candy

and i'm contributing grown up pumpkin milk shakes.

why?

because i work out four hours on any day doing boxing.

because we're young and hot and man our metabolism is better now that it will be eventually.

and hello?? did you read the words "pumpkin" and "bourbon" and "MILKSHAKE?!"

yeah, it's more than rad.

the raddest.

i just took my blog to the highs of rad-dom with these.

check it. how sweet it is has the works

(I'll let you know if we actually make it past the eat-out-of-blender phase into the cute-glasses-and-sprinkles-thing. i'm guessin' probably not.) :D

My Name's Allyson, and I have a problem.

that problem is called "holiday love."

i just CAUGHT MYSELF LOOKING AT CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES.

and i haven't even yet full begun my love affair with halloween.

My name's Allyson, and I have a problem.

**also, RUM BALLS. don't call me "late to the party" or anything, but i'm 23 and have yet to create/taste/andlovethem. are they amazing? have you had them? ALSO. why am i obsessed with liquor lately? isn't it enough that i drink at least once a month? what's the deal?? ;P

blllleeeeegggg!!

oh i love guacamole!

and i love clever ideas.

balls to the walls, my friends, balls to the walls.

(and on that note, if you're a younger sibling/cousin of mine,

 let's pretend i didn't publicly say "balls.") thanks.

pink cake

glorious treats

if you are also feeling autumnal...

perhaps

you should look for a reason

to order these.

for yourseslf?

yes?

i mean, srsly, you can eat them. they're adorbz, and they're edible.

dddooo it. :)

hooooo is gonna make these?

they're killing me, they're so cute.

A Brownie Recipe for Ashley

Friend Ashley wrote in requesting a good recipe for brownies. I told her I didn't have one, but I knew where to find one immediately, and pulled up Smitten Kitchen, an amazingly classic foodie blog with delectable recipes. They're sooooo so good.

I've many a favorite foodie blog, but Smitten Kitchen takes the cake for its reliability. Here's the link to SK's Classic Brownie Recipe, and the recipe below. :)

Enjoy, Ashley!

Classic Brownies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

Be sure to test for doneness before removing the brownies from the oven. If underbaked (the toothpick has batter clinging to it) the texture of the brownies will be dense and gummy. If overbaked (the toothpick comes out completely clean), the brownies will be dry and cakey.

1 cup (4 ounces) pecans or walnuts, chopped medium (optional)
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into six 1-inch pieces
2 1/4 cups (15 3/4 ounces) sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1.Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 18-inch length foil and fold lengthwise to 8-inch width. Fit foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking dish, pushing it into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhand pan edges. Cut 14-inch length foil and, if using extra-wide foil, fold lengthwise to 12-inch width; fit into width of baking pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.If using nuts, spread nuts evenly on rimmed baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3.Whisk to combine flour, salt, and baking powder in medium bowl; set aside.

4.Melt chocolate and butter in large heatproof bowl set over saucepan of almost-simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. (Alternatively, in microwave, heat butter and chocolate in large microwave-safe bowl on high for 45 seconds, then stir and heat for 30 seconds more. Stir again, and, if necessary, repeat in 15-second increments; do not let chocolate burn.) When chocolate mixture is completely smooth, remove bowl from saucepan and gradually whisk in sugar. Add eggs on at a time, whisking after each addition until thoroughly combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three additions, folding with rubber spatula until batter is completely smooth and homogeneous.

5.Transfer batter to prepared pan; using spatula, spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Sprinkle toasted nuts (if using) evenly over batter and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of brownies comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan by lifting foil overhang. Cut brownies into 2-inch squares and serve. (Store leftovers in airtight container at room temperature, for up to 3 days, or, ahem, in the freezer until your resistance gets the better of you.)

**Note, Smitten Kitchen takes and copyrights all her own photos.