November 22nd, 2009 | permalink

Sausage Stuffing Balls

It would not be Thanksgiving without Grandma Kraus’ Sausage Stuffing Balls. This recipe has been passed down from her mother. Here is the recipe…

Sausage Stuffing Balls

3 lb. Fresh Pork Sausage
2 1/4 cup hot water
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
24 oz. seasoned stuffing mix
1 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 cup finely chopped celery

Combine stuffing mix with hot water. Break sausage into small pieces and add moistened stuffing mix. Stir in onion, celery, eggs and baking powder. Shape into balls (1/4 cup). Place on baking pan. Cover with foil, bake at 325° for 15 min. Remove foil; bake at 350° for 25 min or until done.

Serve hot, but also great as leftovers, cold.

November 11th, 2009 | permalink

A Very Cleveland Christmas

The follow is a list of things to do, places to go, things to buy and events to attend around Cleveland during the Holiday Season. After living here in Cleveland for almost five years, we have been lucky enough to do most of these things and are looking forward to some of these things that we have not tried or done yet.

Cultural Happenings
All sorts of activities in University Circle.

University Circle is one of our favorite areas of the city. We are truly lucky to have all of the great Arts and Cultural Institutions that we have all housed within its neighborhood. During the holidays, the area is bustling with activities. On Wade Oval an Ice Skating Rink is set up and the annual Holiday Circle Fest is the main event of the season. One of the best and most creative events is the Gingerbread House Display at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Old Timey
We have heard great things about these Country Lights tours at the Lake Farm Park. This year we got tickets to see for ourselves.
Our children love the Lake Farm Park (and all of the animals there, Sheldon is still in the prayers). We went to the Haunted Hayride for Halloween this year and decided that We could not miss the Country Lights. It entails horse drawn carriage rides, lots of lights and the kids even get to make their own wooden toy in Santa’s Workshop at the end.

Good Food
Cleveland is one of the best food cities in the country, support our local independent restaurants.

The holidays are a time to eat, drink and be merry, so why not help out fellow Clevelanders while you partake? Cleveland Independents makes it easy by offering gift certificates to these restaurants. Give them as gifts, or keep them for yourself. I can’t wait to hit The Greenhouse Tavern and L’Albatros and try some new local establishments.

Crafts & Shopping
There are a slew of local shops and craft fairs around the holidays with great gift ideas.

Mark your calendars for Made in the 216, Bazaar Bizarre and Shoparooni and mark your maps with Banyan Tree, Room Service. You can probably do 90% of your holiday shopping at these locations. I am sure that there are more events and shops that we should hit. Please feel free to add in the comments.

Decadence
Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate.
If you have not tried Lilly’s Handmade Chocolates in Tremont yet, you are missing out. This would be the perfect treat to take to a holiday gathering or to savor sitting by a fire with a nice port, wine, champagne or beer which they also sell at the shop. We will be picking up some of these little beauties for our holiday parties.

Light it up like Vegas
So many light-up nights and  holiday events. Here are my picks.

Last year, we were very pleasantly surprised by the events at Tower City Center. There are many events including a Toy Soldier and Fairy Godmother show, Higbee Window Holiday Display, Holiday Express Train Ride, The Twigbee Shop, Gingerbread Lane and Kringle’s Inventionasium. Kringle’s Inventionasium is an attraction that features visits and photos with Kris Kringle, and where you’ll also meet his entire staff of brilliant toy inventors and take a tour of their wacky and wonderful workshop.

We also plan on hitting the light-up night in Downtown Cleveland and Legacy Village.

Beverage
With many local breweries to choose, there is no shortage of beverages.

I think we may be the luckiest beer drinking region in America. Not only do we get the best beer from the east coast and the west coast, but we also have some of the best beer in the country here in the Great Lakes region. To top it all off, we have a good helping of local breweries: Great Lakes Brewing Company, Hoppin Frog, Thirsty Dog, The Brew Kettle, Brew Keeper, Buckeye Beer Engine and Indigo Imp. All of these beers and more are available locally at Warehouse Beverage and Heinen’s.

Offbeat
You’ll shoot your eye out.
We still have not gone to A Christmas Story House. This is the house that the movie was filmed in and it has been retrofitted to look like the set. I have heard mixed reviews but still think it would be a fun thing to do.

Clothing
All about the C.L.E.

The perfect gift idea for that ex-Clevelander on your gift list: t-shirts from C.L.E. Clothing Company. Nicely designed t-shirts that focus on everything from the Cavs to Dead Man’s Curve. I have to admit we own a few of these shirts. Looking forward to kids versions too. Strangely enough, met the founder at Lollapalooza in Chicago while wearing one of his shirts.

Well that is it, my Very Cleveland Christmas list. I am sure I have missed some items but I thought I would share some of the finer things that Cleveland has to offer. Again, please add anything that I may have missed in the comments. Happy Holidays.

October 25th, 2009 | permalink

Cleveland Beer Week: BREWzilla

Cleveland Beer Week 2009 ended last night with BREWzilla. I had been looking forward to this event for quite some time and it was finally here. I was unable to attend any of the other events during the week, so this was to be my night out for Beer Week. I ordered the tickets for Matt and me early in the week. We purchased the regular tickets, not the Brewer’s Circle tickets that got you in an hour earlier with more drink/food tickets. I am glad I did not spend the extra money on them because there was no real benefit. The beer tickets supplied were plenty, some exhibitors did not even take your tickets and the food did not look like the greatest so I did not partake in the food.

I was able to sample some things that I have never had before and had to stop myself from trying things that I have had before. Some of the beers that I sampled are as follows. Magic Hat: Roxy Rolles, Sierra Nevada: Chico Estate Ale, Ommegang: Abbey Ale, Indigo Imp: Winter Solstice, Thirsty Dog: Siberian Night, Fat Heads: Shock the Monkey, Southern Tier: Hop Sun, Brooklyn: Local 2, Hoppin Frog: Hopmaster’s Abbey Belgian Double IPA, Ithaca: Cascazilla, Stone: Old Guardian Barley Wine Ale, Stone: Smoked Porter, New Holland: Dragon’s Milk, Erie: Railbender Ale, Allagash: Tripel. The best beers that I tried on the day were Avery: Hog Heaven, The Brew Kettle: Old 21 IPA and Victory: Yakima Twilight (available Nov. 1).

Matt and I had a great time, wandering around trying all of the beers. It was nice to run into Kelly and Jose, Brad and Kristy, and Mel and hlivkopj (that is one strange username). I was also happy to get to meet Greg Koch, co-founder of Stone Brewing Co. I heard that the event did sellout, over 800 people.

The venue was excellent. The Arcade in Downtown Cleveland provided a great atmosphere and backdrop to the event. The tasting stations ran two floors and there was plenty of room to maneuver around to get from station to station. There was a silent auction with some very nice items available. One of the most impressive items was the Stone Epic Series from 2003-2009 which was won by Mel and hlivkopj. I know that the winning bid was not cheap.

I would say the the first year of Cleveland Beer Week was a great success and I look forward to many more years to come.

More photos on Flickr.

**Thanks, Jessica, for being our Designated Driver for the night!

October 10th, 2009 | permalink

Grandpa Kromer

I have to say I never really knew Grandpa Kromer too well. The memories that I have from my childhood include fishing trips on his boat, rare stops by our house with chocolate milk and ice cream treats, and our yearly trip to his home in Norwalk, Ohio. Every Christmas we would pile into the car and make the “long” drive from Sandusky to Norwalk. As we would make our way down to the basement there would be the usual batch of homemade Christmas cookies on the table that included some buckeyes and my favorite, the cornflake wreaths with red hots as holly berries. Then, we would make our way to the back room filled with hunting trophies, collectible beer cans, antique milk bottles and 70’s furniture. We would play pool on Grandpa’s pool table being very careful not to scratch the table or color the ceiling blue with the chalk from the cue.

Those holidays meant a lot to us. After shooting pool and playing with all of the Star Wars and castles, we would sit down to sing all of the songs from Grandpa’s “song book” before we could open the gifts. The gifts, to be honest, were an afterthought. As kids, we had fun just being at Grandpa’s house. To be there meant it was a special occasion. We would all gather together and celebrate the holidays as a family.

My Grandfather and Grandmother were divorced when I was a child. He remarried and moved to Norwalk with his new wife, Marge, and her family. There were a lot of children, step-children, grandchildren, great grandchildren in the family so I was not very close with him. He was a farmer, a fisherman, an outdoorsman. He worked for Toft’s Dairy and went around to the local farms and checked on the cows and the milk for the dairy. He worked hard and was “the rock” in the family in the eyes of my mother. Even though I did not have the closest relationship with him, he provided my mother with a sense of safety and comfort especially when she was going through her battle with leukemia.

Tonight, my Mother called to inform me that Grandpa Kromer had passed away. He had been sick, battling pancreatic cancer for the past few months. We knew he did not have much time, so I am glad we were able to go visit him one last time a couple weeks ago. It was surreal walking into his home, taking the kids down to the basement to try to share some of the memories that I had experienced in my childhood. As we all gathered around Grandpa, I think we all knew that this would be the last time that we would all be together with him. The great grandchildren probably wont remember much about this last visit with Grandpa, but it is up to us to share the stories and the memories so that they do remember him.

Rest in peace, Grandpa.

May 31st, 2009 | permalink

The new definition of busy weekend

Saturday began bright and early with Kade’s last soccer game of the season.

Then, we moved on to his first tball game (rescheduled from Weds.). We played 4 good innings and the boys did pretty good. Looking forward to the next game.

Since Great Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma and Grandpa Kraus came up for the tball game, we ordered some pizzas and picnicked out back.

They brought up a new batting cage/soccer goal for the kids.

Sunday morning. Planning on a dog day afternoon, but that is not very fun. Sit at home and chill or go out and enjoy the day?

Brunch at The Vine and Bean on their patio. Great food. We tried the waffles with peaches, rhubarb and whipped cream and caramel; turkey, avocado and bacon panini; and the veggie egg pie. Their homemade hot sauce is pretty great too. Then, we spent the afternoon at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. Beautiful day for it.

I have to say, that the new definition of a busy weekend suits me just fine. Kade’s last soccer game, his first tball game, mowing the lawn in between, grandparents up to see the tball game and picnic afterward, brunch and botanical gardens on Sunday. We had a great day on Saturday followed by a good Sunday, we can’t ask for much better than that.

May 18th, 2009 | permalink

Not so silly

Great idea… silly putty in bed. All that I have to say is olive oil works well to get it out of hair, nothing helps to get it out of bedding, and Kade is very lucky that Ted survived the incident. His HULK jams were not as fortunate.

May 18th, 2009 | permalink

Taking Back Sunday

Last week we had a lot of fun as Erika’s mom came up to watch the kids for a couple of nights. She stayed with us which allowed us to get out with some friends.

On Thursday night, we were invited to meet up with one of Erika’s old time friends, @NicciReyes at the House of Blues to see Taking Back Sunday. She is the wife of Eddie Reyes who is a guitarist in the band. They left us VIP access passes at will call. It was a really great night. Erika and Nicole were finally able to see eachother for the first time in years and we had a lot of fun catching up with the Karis’s. TBS and Anberlin sounded pretty good live as they were kicking off their tour in downtown Cleveland.

And yes, I did have some of their music since back in 2004 with “This Photograph is Proof”.

We went to the after party at Mecury Lounge where we hung out with the band, which was pretty cool, and we were trying to talk Eddie and Nicole into moving to Cleveland. They would be great neighbors and have two kids around our children’s ages. It was pretty funny seeing Erika, Nicci and Adam all looking at baby/kids pictures while we were having the rock and roll evening.

We stayed out pretty late and it was a weeknight. We paid for it the next day. There is a reason, besides the whole musical ability thing, that we are not rockstars. But we did have a great night and look forward to hanging out with Nicci and Eddie again. More photos.

May 12th, 2009 | permalink

Nostalgic

Sorry to get all nostalgic, but Kade graduates from preschool tomorrow and after watching Parenthood with Erika it makes me think back to when he was just a little guy. In the Fall he will be heading off to Kindergarten and Liv will be entering preschool. They really do grow up so fast.

May 9th, 2009 | permalink

Barbecued Pork Tenderloin

Ever since we have lived in Pittsburgh we have been making this recipe for barbecued pork tenderloin. It was in Cooking Light magazine (circa 2003), along with a few other staples that we make, and we have been toting this old magazine around with us ever since. Seriously, this recipe is great. People always ask us for it, so here it is.

May 6th, 2009 | permalink

We were Witnesses

Last night we attended our first Cavs game in the LeBron era. It just so happen to be a playoff game and the first game after winning the NBA MVP award. He received the trophy the day before and had a press conference at his high school alma mater, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary. Before the game there was another ceremony with the commissioner, David Stern, presenting the trophy to Lebron.

We were able to get tickets due to friends of ours, Jeremy and Amy getting selected in the playoff ticket lottery. Amy put their name in and she was selected. I was amazed that the price was under $40 per ticket. It beats the price of the ALCS tickets that I got when I was selected in the Indians playoff ticket lottery when they took on the Red Sox a couple of years ago.

The Cavs were unstoppable and beat the Hawks in the first game of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. LeBron got his obligatory double-double and put on a great show. I am looking forward to the next game, and the rest of the season for that matter. Could this year finally be “next year”?