I have to say that moving to Spokane has been quite an adjustment.  Don’t get me wrong, I love it up here, but you quickly realize when you move away from Las Vegas that you begin to miss some of the luxuries of living in that kind of environment.  In Las Vegas, for instance, the normal time to eat is around 8 or 9.  Here, restaurants are dead at 8 or 9.  In Las Vegas, you can go shopping until the evening on Sunday.  The Wife found that when she tried to visit many of the boutique type stores in Spokane, they weren’t even opened on Sunday.

There are other things that I really miss.  Customer Service is so bad in Las Vegas that I found myself enjoying using kiosks to make some of my purchases.  If you go to The Home Depot or Lowes (I love you Gene Hackman) or any grocery store…even the Post Office, you don’t ever have to talk to anyone.  You can use the kiosk and do the old self service gig.  I loved it.  When we moved to Spokane, I really realized how much I loved the kiosk idea.  One day, I went into the Post Office to mail something to Tiff & TroyBoy and was met by the rudest postal worker.  I’ve had some pretty bad service at the Post Office in the past, but this guy Steve at the 57th & Regal Post Office was a real Frerking (big ups to The Greatest Vet of All Time, Dr. Thad Frerking) piece of work.  I was paying for my purchase and he told me that I needed to sign my credit card.  I told him I didn’t ever sign the backs of my cards because it prompts them to ask for ID.  He told me that the Post Office didn’t accept unsigned cards.  I quickly wrote “See ID” on the back of the card because a long line was starting to form.  Of course, a long line was of no concern to him because he  then responded letting me know he wouldn’t accept it because it wasn’t signed.  After a verbal battle, I reluctantly agreed “See ID” was not in fact a valid signature and therefore I signed it with a violent scratch followed by my promptly asking to see his supervisor.  Boy, I was going to show him!  As he left to grab the guy, I quickly realized as I scanned the crowd that not only was this going to be a a waste of my own time, but the crowd was starting to reach for their lynching gear and wait for me in the parking lot.  I quickly & quietly ducked out the door before the supervisor arrived and the lynching ensued.  I’m rambling.

I’ve also noticed since we moved that some of life’s conveniences aren’t available either.  Especially at Albertson’s.  I like this flavored water called Clear Excellence.  They make a really good Blackberry Apple flavor, but I found that when we moved, the Albertson’s in Spokane doesn’t carry it.  It’s an Albertson’s brand.  How do they not carry it?  I asked about 20 people that worked there if they could get it in and they finally put me in front of the stocking manager.  She told me they don’t make it anymore…I don’t believe her.

This past weekend, we decided to host part of a young adults group from our church at our house.  It was an interesting concept – a “progressive” dinner.  The group starts at one house for appetizers, then moves onto the next place for a small dinner, then the next place for the other part of dinner, then onto a final house for dessert.  We pulled the appetizers card, so The Wife and I decided we’d do the following:

• Caprese Salad – mozzarella cheese chunks with Roma tomatoes & basil, topped with Red Dog Vinegar.  Red Dog Vinegar was a Walla Walla Red Wine that The Big Guy made into vinegar.  I thought is was a pretty strange project, but it ended up being AWESOME!  One Point – The Big Guy.
• Hummus with Crackers and Carrots.  I spent a ton of time picking out red, green, yellow and orange peppers, only to find that we didn’t use them.
• Crostini’s with some sort of Feta Cheese mix (The Wife is guarding the recipe – sorry!)
• Fruit Skewers with Watermelon, Pineapple, Grapes & Strawberries.

The last item on the list was an interesting recipe I found in the Giadas Kitchen Cookbook.  She’s so hot.  I decided I’d make it.

I headed over to Albertson’s, running late as usual, and found all of the items on the shopping list.  In true Albertson’s fashion, though, I was completely unable to locate the most important Crostata with Apples, Walnuts, and Gorgonzola recipe ingredient – Mascarpone Cheese.  I didn’t even know what Mascarpone Cheese Frerking was.  And, much to my surprise, neither did anyone that worked for Albertson’s.  After asking for help, this mess of a deli girl and I scoured the shelves.  No luck.

So what do you do in this situation?  It’s 4:00 PM people are showing up at 6:00 PM.  Do you scrap it and go home with what you have?  Frerking no way man!  Giada’s way too hot for that lack of effort.  What you do is high tail it to Rocket Market and hope that they have it.  Much to my relief, they did and I made it home managing to prepare the appetizer in record time.  Just as the company arrived, we were pulling it out of the oven.

Question for Albertson’s: What’s it going to take to get my Blackberry Apple water?

My Girl, Giada’s, Crostata with Apples, Walnuts, and Gorgonzola Recipe (Thanks Babe!)

Giada Delaurentiis - Food Hottie

(see a similar recipe on the Food Network)

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• ½ cup Mascarpone Cheese
• 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons ice water
• 1 tablespoon sugar (added along with the dry ingredients, chilled)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 small Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼ inch slices
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

Directions

For the crust: In a food processor combine the flour, salt, and sugar, and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is finely chopped and the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the Mascarpone and lemon juice and pulse a few times. Add the ice water and run the machine just until the mixture is moist and crumbly, but do not form a ball¹. Roll the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a disk. Wrap the dough tightly and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

For the apple filling: Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the apple slices, sugar, and cinnamon and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, until the apples are softened but not mushy. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, walnuts, and Gorgonzola cheese.

Place on an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and reheat the oven to 400.

Unwrap the chilled dough and place it on a sheet of parchment paper. Roll the dough into an 11-inch circle, about ¼ inch thick.  Lift the parchment paper and transfer it and the dough to the baking sheet².

Spread the cooled apple filling in the center of the dough circle, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the dough border up over the filling to form an 8-inch round, pleating the edge of the pastry³. Brush the crust with the beaten egg.

Bake the crostata until the crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before slicing. Makes 4 servings.

¹Giada means this.  Do not form a ball. I did and it made it difficult to add the sugar when I realized I’d forgotten to add it.  I sprinkled it on top at the end before baking it and that made everything A-OK.

²I don’t know what parchment paper is, nor did we have it.  I went ahead and used wax paper.  NOTE: Don’t put the wax paper in the oven.  It smokes up the house.

³If you are a little out of the loop like I was on what exactly it means to pleat the dough, I can’t help you.  I finally handed that part over to The Wife for finishing touches.

When we moved to Spokane, we knew a few people from The Wife’s old high school days and some of her family.  Not ever living here, I’m comfortable saying I don’t have any friends here other than the people I’ve met through The Wife.  So, to help us engage in some networking, we’re open to attending some events that we might not have considered before.  In our World Wide Church Tour of Spokane, we came across three churches that we wanted to try and we can’t decide between First Presbyterian Church of Spokane (FPC) and Hamblen Park Presbyterian Church.  So, what does one do in this conundrum?  We attend both – is that like double dating?  Remind me to tell you about the “Three Sarahs Incident” in college.  I’m rambling.

While we were attending FPC last month, we read in their little program they hand out that they were sponsoring a 10 evening event they labeled “10 International Dates”.  Of course, this grabbed both of our attention because we are oh so worldly, even though the farthest we have traveled is Cabo San Lucas, of which I hardly consider “worldly” because its so Americanized!  Should that be capitalized?  Anyway ironically, we both read this and said, “Lets do this!”  However, after re-reading the description, we both realized it was INTENTIONAL dates, not INTERNATIONAL.  Woops.  Which is funny, actually, because I wouldn’t have thought Spokane to be this mecca of international cuisine.

We decided to do this thing – 10 evenings in all, every other week.  It’s INTENTIONAL because you are making a point to do this.  We’re making it INTERNATIONAL because we figured it’d be fun.  You go to the church for 20 minutes and this guy speaks – who is totally hilarious by the way – he’s sarcastic and you can tell he has a somewhat sick sense of humor.  He jokes about his wife a lot, which I always appreciate.  Anyway, then he dismisses you and you have to go on your date and read a chapter in this book they give you, then in the back, there is a 2 page worksheet you fill out based on the topic of the chapter.  It’s all real interesting…delving into one’s marital life.  I think its pretty interesting, especially since we’ve only been married for a year and a half and I feel like we’re already “working” on our marriage.  Actually, I am quite enjoying it.

All that was back story to give you a great story about what transpired last night.  So, we’ve just left the church and The Wife is driving downtown, trying to find a parking spot.  We were just getting along delightfully when all of a sudden, someone let out the monster.  Tension started building for some reason and by the time we got to the restaurant “360″ and thought we’d look at the menu, we were about to strangle each other.  While I’m engulfed in this menu reading, I see that they have the Monte Cristo Sandwich – OH YEAH BABY!  So I head for the door only to be pulled abruptly by the love of my life who proceeds to start yelling at me about how I’m not very attentive because I didn’t see the sign on the door that say enter through the Hotel Luzzo Lobby and as she drags me down the street, she gives me some lecture about how I am missing out on life because I don’t notice things.  She should be a CIA Agent – she notices EVERYTHING!

As we’re entering the hotel, we’re now softly screaming at each other so no one notices we’re at each other’s throats.  We walk down the corridor to the restaurant and she says, “Stop, lets talk about this”.  The gorilla in me brushes past her and walks right up the the hostess and answers “2 please” to her question.  Of course, I’m thinking “two tables please?”.  So we sit down and start thumbing through the menus and somehow sweep our little battle under the rug and I notice something on the menu – no Monte Cristo.  “Frerking (big ups to The Greatest Vet of All Time, Dr. Thad Frerking) dangit, now I just want to eat McDonalds.”  After ordering 2 burgers and Clam Chowder Soup (which was outstanding!), we decide to open our 10 Great Dates book and do our homework.

What’s the topic tonight? Conflict Resolution.  Frerking Perfect.

10 Great Dates to keep her from kicking you to the curb and dating that professional basketball player