Pepper Paints

Cleveland Rocks!

My husband and I both grew up in Cleveland. I don’t think we thought we lived in such a rockin’ place when we were younger. Last weekend we went home for a visit. I love being a tourist in this city! So much to see and do!!

Friday we took the kids to our old favorite hang outs on Coventry (the Greenwich village of Cleveland). Most are gone now and the crowd isn’t quite so hippy but it was still fun. Playing at the playground and eating dinner at Tommy’s. We need a Tommy’s here in Clintonville. It would surely do a bang up business!!! Pretty Pleeeeeze???

Saturday we headed to the newly renovated and free Art Museum. It is awesome!!!

Then we headed to The Botanical Gardens. I can’t say enough good things about the Hershey Children’s Garden. We could play there all day.

Look –apparently Ginger has a twin in Cleveland

Saturday night we took my in laws to Sokolowski’s to eat.  On the recommendation of Anthony Bourdain of course– we got in touch with our Polish heritage!

Sunday morning we boarded The Rapid and headed to the Terminal Tower for a view from the observation deck. It has been closed since 9/11 and is only open for a few weekends.

Just about everyone in Cleveland had the same idea! We waited in kine for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Ginger was not happy

The ride up didn’t get much better

But the views were so cool! Cleveland really does rock! The ethnicity, the history and the big city feel.

Thanks Cleveland!  We will  be back soon!

Our Holiday in Review

I absolutely love where we live. I also love tradition. I go out of my way to make sure we are making  memories together and carrying on family traditions. The 4th of July is one holiday steeped in tradition that  my kids really look forward to. Growing up, my parents always had a big 4th of July party–it started in the morning with everyone coming over for breakfast outside. Family came and went all day long. We swam and ate and then  moved the party into the garage in the evening. My dad and older cousins would blow off fire works in our back yard and a great time was had by all.

The apple must not fall too far from the tree.  We start each 4th of July at our Clintonville Community Breakfast. We walk over to the park early in the morning to begin our day.

One or more of my kids always participates in the pet parade

Then there is the fishing derby

And the party preparation

It is the part of the day that is the calm before the storm. Because the next thing I remember– It looked more like this

And this

This was before the fireworks show and the post fireworks snacking!! It was a late night. And today after cleaning all that up, I took a long nap–in the air conditioning. Hope your Holiday weekend was both fun and relaxing!!

Thursday’s Recipe ….. Raw Pad Thai With Kelp Noodles

Kelp noodles=heaven! Oh my, I can’t believe how good these are. Excellent texture! If you are local you can buy them at the Clintonville Community Market on Crestview.

I know every week I rave about how good my recipes are—and I am biased because I really do like to eat—but this Pad Thai is awesome!!!

For 1 package of kelp noodles

4 to 5 Tablespoons  nut butter

1 Tablespoon hot sauce

1 Tablespoon honey

1 Tablespoon tamari1 teaspoon vinegar

2 teaspoons seseme oil

1/4 cup of water

juice of 1 lime

I rinsed my kelp noodles and put them in a bowl then I  put all the above  ingredients in my vita-mix and poured it over my noodles.

Next I cut up lots of veggies and tons of cilantro. You can use any veggies you choose-I used red cabbage, scallions, pea pods, chard, shiitake mushrooms. Sprinkle a few cashews on top. Let the pad thai sit for ten or so  minutes to soften the noodles.

I have been participating in the green smoothie challenge this week.  I often drink green smoothies but not daily. I must admit I don’t really love green smoothies. But I wanted to see if I would see any benefits to drinking them daily for 2 weeks. I will let you know!

I Am Somewhere Else Today

Today I am blogging at Ohio Moms Blog

Relating all of our adolescent antics and high school foolery in and around the Cleveland area made me a little sad that my kids were not going to experience some of these same stomping grounds. I love when our neighbors here in Clintonville tell tales of when they were kids; the local schools they attended; Whetstone, Watterson, IC. Or when they recreate our street into farmland and our house into “The Doctors” house.

My Trip Back Home To Cleveland

I now call Clintonville home, but like so many others here in Columbus, I did not grow up here.  Thanks to OSU my husband and I are transplants.  I really like it here and if given the choice we would not move back to the east side Cleveland, but a visit back to your roots  is especially gratifying when you have a small audience to help you enjoy the  highlights of your past.

First we rode The Rapid downtown…

We passed the usual looking scenes..

As well as a few new ones..

We visited The Great Lakes Science Center…

Also a new place to those that grew up in Cleveland.  We decided to share one of the best things about Cleveland with our friends; Murray Hill AKA Little Italy.

First we had the worlds best pizza at Anthony’s and then had the worlds best treats at Corbo’s.

I tried making these photos smaller-but they really deserved to be big!

Then we rolled back to our downtown hotel that overlooked Playhouse Square.

Of course there was swimming.

Monday was a day of disappointment.  First we headed to Edgewater Park for “a day at the beach.”  Never mind that I poo-pooed that beach choice the whole way there.  We NEVER went to that beach growing up.  It turned out you couldn’t use flotation devices there so we packed up and headed to my beach-in Willowick.  Well, remember how we learned about erosion back in school-my beach was a perfect example.  It is the beach of no more.  So we headed out to Mentor headlands where we all got sunburned and found lots of sea glass.  A memory-check!

Then we headed back to Shaker to eat at Best Steak (not me-just everyone else!!).  The sign said closed for a few days-but it looked much grimmer than a few days.  My poor husband was about brought to tears.  So we went across the street for the worst Chinese food in the dirtiest restraunt I have ever been in.  It didn’t help that husbands families other favorite deli, Sol’s, was gone too.  W hat were we thinking-we should have gone to Corky and Leni’s!

But now we are home and the reality of  my life here in Columbus is hitting me over the head.  I promise some crafty posts sometime soon!