Not Our Typical Friday Night

Let me start by saying that last Friday night was a good night.  I saw Michelle Obama’s motorcade and my first sharpshooter.  Ben met the First Lady and I met an awesome bartender at La Belle Vie who told me that I can swap my caramels for a cocktail anytime (clearly I met the better person).  And maybe most importantly, we ate like we were preparing for a cold, long winter at The Butcher & the Boar.

If you know Ben, you would know that he is not easily swayed by celebrities or politicians or really anyone that “pats themselves” on the back.  So, when he shook Michelle Obama’s hand on Friday night at the Gen44 event and extolled that “I will never wash this hand again,” it meant a lot.

While Ben was at the event, I was enjoying a cocktail at La Belle Vie which may be the most beautiful bar in the city.  They described the drink as a "sparkling concord grape gin punch with explosive flavors."  I don't know if I would have used the word "explosive" to explain the added absinthe and balsamic but it was definitely tasty.  

And then there was the food.  Perhaps it was because we thought the world was ending as it was in the upper 70s on March 16^th or we were confused that winter was around the corner so we needed to build up a fat reserve...but in either case, the food was too delicious to turn down once we sat at the bar of The Butcher & the Boar.  

Our dinner included the:

1. Pickled Heart Marcella: The hearts come from the StoneBridge beef farm in Long Prairie. I believe that the dish is a family recipe named after the owner's grandmother. This dish is not for the faint of heart (no pun intended) but definitely worth a try. 
2. Wild Boar Hot Link: The sausage was great but did not taste as unique as I would have liked. Next time I want to try the walleye-wild rice sausage. 
3. Fulton Beer-Battered Fries: Thank goodness there were only ten of these because I could have--and would have--eaten 50 myself. 
4. Lobster Grilled Cheese: I do not use this phrase often but this was honestly one of the most amazingly delicious things I have ever eaten in my life.

Pickled Heart Marcella

Wild Boar Hot Link & Fulton Beer-Battered Fries

Lobster Grilled Cheese

Food aside, you must like this restaurant simply because they have one of the best logos ever:

Hamantashen

A common joke among Jews is that many holidays can be summarized with the following phrase:

"They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat."

Purim fits this phrase quite well. 

The holiday of Purim just ended and for those of you not familiar with its significance, it recognizes the “salvation” of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot to destroy, kill, and annihilate them.

This holiday is celebrated with a carnival-like party AND delicious cookies called hamantashen. The cookies are triangle in shape and filled with a variety of flavors. 

The recipe that I use comes from my mother. To be quite honest, the way that this dough comes together is unusual. That said, it works perfectly and tastes delicious so I feel no need to modify it.

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Hamantashen
makes 45-50 cookies

Make the cookies: Combine eggs and butter in a small bowl.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl then add the eggs and butter mixture.

Mix until combined and chill for a few hours; when ready to use, let dough soften at room temperature.

Using a decent amount of flour, roll out dough to roughly 1/8" thick; using a round cookie cutter, cut 3" circles.

Fill with 2/3 teaspoon of desired filling and fold to create triangle (note: this takes practice!)

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

1 cup melted butter (cooled)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh orange juice
Grated rind of orange
Grated rind of lemon

Desired fillings (apricot, poppy seed, cherry, chocolate ganache, fig, etc.)

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Apricot

Chocolate Ganache with Almonds

Axes and Mustaches and Scotch, Oh My.

Last summer I went to a wonderful event at the Architectural Antiques space in NE. The space is gorgeous on its own but exponentially better when filled with pop-up shops from great local stores and American-made manufacturers. The event was repeated two weeks ago for their first "winter" version of NorthernGRADE which they titled, SnowGRADE. Although I loved the event last summer, I was quite pleased to not be sweating through my clothes due to the 100 degree, 100% humidity weather that was last September.

Highlights from the event:

1. A 1930s Jaguar
2. Handmade Axes
3. Mustaches
4. A barber to trim your mustache
5. Satchel from BlackBlue

Gear Patrol wrote a great review of the event which I suggest reading as this post does not do it justice.

Now I just need a reason to buy an axe...