Surprise! A post that’s not about food! I’ve started watching more and more shows on YouTube and I thought I’d recommend some of my favorite shows/channels.

First up is another big surprise…TableTop from the channel Geek & Sundry. I’ve talked about TableTop many times before, but I just can’t stop recommending it. Because of TableTop, board gaming has become a hobby that Dave and I love and I imagine we’ll enjoy for the rest of our lives. It’s deep…board games rock!

The premise of the show is that each episode features a particular board game. Wil Wheaten gives a basic overview of how the game works and then the rest is an edited version of a full game of play with 3-4 guest stars. Many of our favorite games have been featured on TableTop. The particular episode above is for Settlers of Catan, which most people say is the gateway drug to European/alternative gaming (ie NOT Monopoly).

On a related note, I’ve been also enjoying the new channel, Geek & Sundry Vlogs featuring a number of interesting video blogs featuring cosplay, comics, writing, and special effects make-up. Who knows, perhaps I’ll find my next new hobby!

I first found out about Ask a Mortician from the website Jezebel. In each episode of Ask a Mortician, mortician Caitlin Doughty answers questions from viewers about the death industry. Might not sound like your cup of tea? Try it, you might like it. Caitlin is very knowledgeable and very entertaining. The goal of the show (as well as the related organization, The Order of the Good Death) to bring “the realistic discussion of death back into popular culture” and help with death acceptance.

The Brain Scoop is a science show that features Emily, the volunteer Curatorial Assistant for the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at The University of Montana, however she’ll soon be working (and continuing the show) at the Field Museum in Chicago. Some of the episodes are on a particular topic like antlers vs. horns or mammalian diversification, while others highlight the work that goes into specimen preparation. Emily, like Caitlin above, is also a very knowledgeable and very entertaining woman. It’s hard not to get excited about mammalian diversification because Emily is so excited about it!

I recently started watching Nerdy Nummies after seeing an episode featuring Felicia Day where Felicia and the host, Rosanna, baked 20-sided die (D20) cookies. I’ve only watched a few episodes and I already want to try some of the recipes out. The creme brulee cakeballs look really good even though I’ve never watched an episode of Dragon Ball Z before. I’m looking forward to catching up on all the previous episodes! Not to mention trying some of the fun, nerdy recipes.

Feminist Frequency is an ongoing series of video commentaries exploring gender representations, myths and messages in popular culture media by Anita Sarkeesian. Currently, the latest episodes of Feminist Frequency are highlighting tropes vs. women in video games which is being funded by a VERY successful Kickstarter campaign. Even though I’m not that into video games, the episodes are interesting and thought provoking. I particularly enjoy her older videos on tropes vs. women that is focused on all pop culture, not just video games.

Several weeks ago, we finally checked out the The Raven’s Club for cocktails and dinner. The Raven’s Club is similar to The Sugar House in Detroit, with a strong focus on scratch-made classic cocktails. Dave ordered the New York Sour which included bourbon, ruby port, fresh lemon, and egg white (not pictured above, that’s our second round) and I ordered a Sidecar, one of my favorite drinks, which is made with Cognac, Cointreau, Fresh Lemon. We both enjoyed our drinks. The Sidecar was really smooth and has overthrown Seva’s as the best Sidecar I’ve ever had! For dinner, we decided to order several appetizers and share them.

We started with the chorizo and cornbread, housemade Mexican chorizo, fried egg on top, bacon fat sweet cornbread and really would could have just followed up with another serving of it, it was that good. I said to Dave when we come in next time we’ll have to each get our own. The chorizo, onion goodness that sat on top of the cornbread and under the egg was fabulous. I have no idea what else was in it, but it was so good! We followed that up with the grilled asparagus, which was more like a salad with frisee, a 60 minute egg, orange citronette, balsamic reduction, and grana padano cheese. The frisee was much too bitter for my tastes and the 60 minute egg was just weird. The white was soft and runny and the yolk was firm and lacking flavor. I would skip this one.

To finish dinner up we ordered the smoked lamb short ribs that were served with a snap pea and mint salad. The ribs were fatty, but had good flavor and the mint from the salad was a nice accent. We also ordered a second round of cocktails. Dave tried the Ravens Club #2 made with vodka, St. Germain, blackberry puree, fresh lemon, and mint. And I tried the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail made with dark rum, Fresh lime, housemade Falernum syrup, and Cointreau. The Falernum syrup is infused with spices like allspice, vanilla, and cloves. Both drinks were excellent. It was difficult to pick which round we enjoyed more. I’m looking forward to trying the Raven’s Club again. A couple of cocktails and chorizo and cornbread sound good.

A couple of weeks ago, after visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts with my parents, we stopped at Green Dot Stables for lunch. Green Dot Stables specializes in sliders, in fact, other than drinks, side dishes, and desserts, that’s all that’s on their menu. Almost everything on their menu is $3, including sliders, sides, beer (they have some for $2) and cocktails. I ordered a Moscow Mule which is a combination of vodka, lime, and ginger beer. The drink was good and a very fair size for $3, but boy was it made with the spiciest ginger beer ever! Dad tried the seasonal Bell’s on tap (the name escapes me) and mom tried a red wine from Argentina.

I’m sorry I don’t have any photos, I only had my phone and it was rather dim inside the restaurant so the pictures didn’t really turn out that great. To start, we each ordered two sliders and a side dish. The sliders are small. I ordered the buffalo chicken slider which was chicken breast with buffalo sauce, blue cheese spread, and celery. For my second slider, I ordered the gyro which included beef (rather than lamb) gyro meat, a slice of tomato, and mint tzatziki sauce. I really enjoyed both of them and would order them again, though there are several on the menu that I’m interested in trying. For my side, I ordered the le poutine: skinny french fries with cheese curds covered in gravy. I’ve had poutine once before, but poutine at Green Dot Stables was incredibly salty. I would avoid it in the future.

My mom ordered a traditional cheeseburger with onions and pickles and a hot brown slider, a twist on the Kentucky sandwich favorite, including chicken breast, mornay sauce, and bacon. My dad ordered the BBQ bacon slider which was topped with sweet potato, BBQ sauce, and bacon. He also tried that week’s mystery meat which was a buffalo (as in bison, not hot wings) burger. He enjoyed both and for a third he tried the gyro. On the side, he tried the fingerling potato salad, which was a vinegar-based salad rather than mayo.

Instead of a third slider, my mom and I ordered dessert. She tried the marscapone cheesecake topped with blueberries and I had the Corktown smore. We both enjoyed our desserts. The smore was Nutella, marshmallow fluff, and cinnamon on a slider bun, different, but good!

I definitely would like to try Green Dot Stables again, Dave missed out and I think he would really enjoy it too.

We followed up our trip to Mackinac Island, with a couple of days in Ludington. On our way from Mackinaw City to Ludington, we made a detour to Traverse City for a late lunch/early dinner at North Peak Brewing Company. I had been dreaming about their root beer float since last August. In addition to the root beer float, Dave and I split a chicken quesadilla and the mozzarella sticks. And while I enjoyed my float, Dave enjoyed his Oreo cheesecake (as well as a beer!).

The next day, we went for a very windy hike at Nordhouse Dunes, a wilderness area about 30 minutes away from downtown Ludington. And as you can see from the photo above, we had a great time! We were just hiking along when a deer jumped across the trail about 20 feet in front of me. And then Dave noticed a little fawn walking among the trees. We stopped for a while and watched and then it laid down next to a tree. We walked by quickly, keeping our distance, but I paused to take one last photo. We circled around, bushwacking a bit, hoping the mom would return soon. Totally a highlight of the trip!

After our hike, we had lunch at the Angry Tomato in Ludington. We split an Italian sub that was quite delicious. They offer numerous subs as well as New York style pizza. Later that day, we checked out the Mitten Bar, a small bar that focuses on Michigan-made beer, wine, and spirits. There was a tap takeover by Saugatuck Brewing Company, but Dave was interested in trying one of the Michigan-made liquors. He tried the straight bourbon whiskey from Traverse City Whiskey Co. and really enjoyed it. I had a glass of my favorite wine, the late harvest Riesling from Chateau Grand Traverse.

After our drinks, we went around the corner to the Jamesport Brewing Company for dinner. In addition to the beer sampler, Dave enjoyed the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. I had the cheeseburger, which wasn’t that great and was overcooked as well.

As my reward as designated driver as well as the fact that we hadn’t gotten ice cream on this vacation yet, we headed over to House of Flavors, a retro-style restaurant and ice cream shop that’s been around since 1948. I ordered a scoop of the Tennessee Toffee, toffee ice cream layered with sweet whiskey sauce and Heath Bar pieces, it had great whiskey flavor. Dave ordered a scoop of Caramel Caribou, vanilla ice cream swirled with caramel & chocolate covered caramel pieces. The photo above shows straw wrappers stuck to the ceiling. Back when the House of Flavors was known as the Park Dairy, it was featured in Life Magazine regarding how the youth of the time were sticking their straw wrappers to the ceiling with malted milk and it kind of became a tradition.

The next day we headed home for the long holiday weekend.

We had so much fun last year during our spontaneous trip to Mackinac Island, that we were eager to return soon. Add that one of my best friends was doing a two week rotation as the island doc and bringing her husband and their small daughter along and it was too perfect to miss! We didn’t have the best weather, it was mostly cold, damp, and super windy, but we managed to have a great time. We stayed at our usual spot at the Murray Hotel (best fudge ever!). Right when we first got on the island, Dave and I took off on a walk around the circumference, which is about 8 miles. All around the island, people are starting to build cairns, which are simply stacks of stones. We noticed them during our bike ride on our last trip to the island and we were determined to build our own this time!

After our walk, we went to the Pink Pony for a late lunch of a couple of appetizers. We ordered the flatbread (above) which was topped with brie cheese, green apple slices, baby frisée, candied walnuts, and a drizzle of honey. Sounds weird, but tasted delicious. I’m totally going to try to recreate it at home. We liked it so much that we ordered it again the next day when we returned to the Pink Pony with our friends.

For our second appetizer, we ordered the BBQ chips. The thick-cut, handmade potato chips were topped with BBQ pulled pork and blue cheese. The chips were also very good, a different twist on nachos, though we both agreed they were kind of skimpy with the blue cheese.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with our friends and enjoyed dinner at the Seabiscuit Cafe, a favorite from our last trip. I didn’t take any photos, but we had an excellent meal. Dave had the Monte Cristo sandwich, I had the open-faced gyro, Katie had the whitefish, and Kyle had the jambalaya. While the food and cocktails were very good, they weren’t particularly kid-friendly. They did not have any high-chairs (which they claimed were a fire hazard) or booster seats and they required us to leave the stroller outside. However they did have a kids menu. I guess I would expect this kind of policy at an uber fancy restaurant in the city, but Mackinac Island is a popular family vacation destination, so we were all a bit surprised.

The next day we met our friends at The Pancake House for breakfast, followed by window shopping, and then a look around the Grand Hotel. Normally, it would cost visitors $10 EACH to take a look around, but since we were with the island doc we got in free. It’s all who you know! Hanging out on the porch was a good time, but inside was a bit chaotic, more like a cruise ship then the exclusive, elegant hotel I was picturing. It was still fun to take a look around and I’m glad we had a chance to. After our tour of the Grand Hotel, we headed back to the Pink Pony for appetizers and drinks. That evening Dave and I checked out the Mustang Lounge, local bar rather an a touristy one, and had a couple of drinks.

On our last day on Mackinac, Dave and I rented a tandem bicycle again and took a spin around the island. Afterwards, we enjoyed breakfast at the Pink Pony (I know, third time!). I had the Spanish omelet and Dave gave their huevos rancheros two thumbs up! After breakfast we picked up a couple of souvenirs and headed back to the mainland on the ferry.

I had wanted to try The Wafel Shop ever since I first saw their coming soon sign while the shop was still under construction. The Wafel Shop offers two types of traditional wafels, the liege and the Brussels. The liege wafel is denser and sweet and the Brussels wafel is lighter and crispy. Both Dave and I ordered a liege wafel. I had mine topped with Nutella and almonds and Dave tried bananas and caramel sauce. I really enjoyed mine and was very happy with my topping selection. Dave liked his as well, but wanted more caramel sauce. Dave also wished for more pre-made options, like the Lumberjack (bacon and maple syrup) or the Belgium Elvis (bananas, Biscoff, and bacon).

The Wafel Shop’s prices are a bit on the high side. The base wafel (either type) is $5 and toppings are either $1 to $2 each. They do offer a few free toppings, including butter, syrup, powdered sugar, and chocolate shavings. When you order a wafel at the Wafel Shop, you’re receiving a fresh, handmade item created with locally sourced ingredients and that makes them more expensive. Even knowing that, I wish they were cheaper!

I would return to the Wafel Shop, I’d love to try their Biscoff latte once it gets cold outside, but probably not as often as I would have given their prices. I would however, recommend that everyone try the Wafel Shop because they are still darn tasty despite the price!

Next time you’re in Greektown, save some room for a visit to Astoria Pastry Shop. So many desserts, so little time! Seriously, their menu is insanely huge. We had a really tough time deciding what to order. I ended up trying the “mini” versions of the tiramisu and carrot cake, as did Jacqui, but she tried the “mini” key lime pie as well. And Dave enjoyed the double chocolate cheesecake.

Biercamp is a local store that makes and sells artisan sausages and jerky. They’re located on State Street, right next door to the Produce Station. We’ve tried the Apple Wood Smoked Berkshire Belly Bacon, the Sriracha breakfast sausage patties (heart-shaped for Valentine’s Day!), the Hillbilly breakfast sausage with oatmeal and bacon, and the cheddar jalapeno all beef hot dogs. Everything has been fabulous! And there’s so much more we’re interested in trying. I have my eye on the duck bacon and the gyro hot dogs. They also offer pulled pork sandwiches for lunch during the week that we’d also like to try.

Follow Biercamp on Facebook to stay updated on their latest offerings.

A couple of weekends ago, Dave and I went on a long walk all over Ann Arbor. The 10 mile walk took us by the Frank Llyod Wright house off of Geddes and over to Burns Park, back downtown, over to Stadium, and back again. All that walking made us work up an appetite, so we headed over to Afternoon Delight for a late lunch. We’d been to Afternoon Delight several times before and while I love my usual cheese blintzes, I think this meal was my favorite.

I ordered the small fruit plate (I wanted something healthy!), a side of crispy bacon, and the muffin delight, a hot split cherry (they were out of blueberry) bran muffin filled with vanilla frozen yogurt. So good. The frozen yogurt slowly melted and coated the muffin with yummy goodness. The bacon was cooked to perfection, nice and crispy and not greasy at all. This was pretty much our lunch and dinner, it was a lot of food, but I only ate some popcorn for the rest of the day.

Dave ordered the veggie boule, which was a hollowed out French bread boule filled with an assortment of vegetables, scrambled eggs, cheddar, mozzarella and Swiss cheeses. It came with a side of hollandaise sauce. It was big, but it was good! I would consider ordering it in the future, but without the mushrooms and maybe with the addition of some bacon. Or maybe I’ll order the exact same thing I got this time…I have a habit of doing that.

This past weekend, Dave and I rented the yurt at the Green Lake campground at Waterlook Recreation Area. According to the Michigan DNR’s website: “A Yurt is a round self-supporting, tent-like structure that originated in central Asia and provides snug, weather tight, camping comfort. This Yurt overlooks Green Lake and sleeps up to 5. A propane camp stove is provided, but guests must bring their own propane canisters. The Yurt is open year round, but is hike-in only from December 1 through April.”

I want to stay in a yurt in Mongolia, in fact, it’s on my life list. I look at this as being a test drive for Mongolia.

We rented the yurt from Friday through Sunday. The yurt is equipped with two futons that fold down to double beds and a single bed on a loft over one of the futons. In addition to the beds, there was a rather large table, four folding chairs, a camp stove, electric lantern, and a propane heater. Propane is provided for the heater, but you need to bring a canister of propane for the camp stove. There was a nice deck that surrounded the yurt including a ramp for wheelchair accessibility. Pit toilets are a short walk away and are shared with the rest of the campsites.

Despite the third mile we had to haul our stuff to the yurt (the road was still closed for the season), we had a great time. On Friday night, we roasted hot dogs from Biercamp (more on that later!) with homemade baked beans and played a couple of board games. We had checked out a telescope from the Ann Arbor District Library (we’ve been on the waiting list since September!) and got a look at Saturn, definitely a highlight of the weekend. Dave also say Jupiter and three of its moons. On Saturday, we took an eight mile hike and played more board games in the evening. We left Sunday after breakfast and managed to get all of our stuff to the car before it really started raining.

If you’re interested in renting one of Michigan DNR’s yurts, they can be found at the following parks. Reservations can be made via their website.

• Craig Lake Yurt
• Glenbrook Yurt at Pinckney Recreation Area
• Green Lake Yurt at Waterloo Recreation Area
• Muskegon State Park Yurt
• Porcupine Mountains Yurts

While my friend, Jacqui, was in town we went on a tour of the Ann Arbor’s Urban Fairy Doors. These small doors appear on many local businesses. We visited doors at:

• The Michigan Theater
• Ann Arbor District Library
• Selo-Shevel Gallery
• The Ark
• Red Shoes
• Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea
• Peaceable Kingdom
• Found Gallery
• Nicola’s Books

We didn’t make the hike over to Mott Children’s Hospital, but I might pop-in one day to check it out. Months before I had discovered the unnamed location of the goblin door, so we visited that on our tour as well. My favorite doors were at the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor District Library, Red Shoes, and Peaceable Kingdom. During open hours at the Michigan Theater, a small screen plays cartoons behind the door, we saw it later that evening. If you peek in the door at Peaceable Kingdom, you can see an entire miniature store. Several of the doors had small “offerings” left behind including coins, trinkets, and even a small restaurant container of jelly!

If you’d like a nice walk around downtown, I highly recommend a fairy door hike. There’s a map available on the website.

Dave and I checked out Ann Arbor’s newest bookstore, Literati Bookstore. It’s small, but nice. Dave and I each found something we wanted to buy and were glad to show our support for a local business. We were a bit disappointed with the size of the science fiction and fantasy, but understand that they have limited space (and I hear they’re working on expanding it!). I’m looking forward to checking out their upcoming events. It’s two doors down from Arbor Brewing, so it’s a nice place to pop in to before or after dinner.

We are no strangers to Arbor Brewing Brewpub, but we had not tried their relatively new boozy brunch (Sundays 11am-3pm). However, that is no longer the case! Recently, Dave and I checked it out and really, really enjoyed it. The menu is somewhat small, but there are many excellent choices. For one price, you pick an entree, a side dish, and a dessert (muffin). For a little bit more, you can add two beers, and for a little bit more, you can add two cocktails.

I ordered the breakfast enchiladas, black beans and eggs scrambled with lots of jalapenos and bacon, wrapped in soft corn tortillas and topped with enchilada sauce and melted cheddar cheese. Served with salsa verde and sour cream. For my side, I went with the sweet potato bites which were a little like waffle fries but tossed in cinnamon-sugar (Cajun seasoning was also an option). And for dessert, I picked the vanilla blueberry muffin, to go. Everything was so delicious! The enchiladas were flavorful and the sweet potato bites were outstanding, so, so good! The muffin was tasty, though a bit on the dry side. I stuck with coffee, which was included in the price.

Surprise! Dave ordered huevos rancheros! Their huevos rancheros included fried eggs (poached was not available) topped with jalapenos, fiesta corn and cheddar cheese. Served with soft corn tortillas, black beans, salsa roja and sour cream. Dave went with traditional hash brown potatoes and the vegan walnut carrot muffin, also to go. Dave really enjoyed his huevos rancheros and hash browns and felt the same about the muffin.

Dave went with the cocktail option and tried the morning cocktail martini, which was Three Olives Espresso Vodka and ABC’s Michael Faricy Stout, and a cider mimosa, made with orange juice and Northville Winery’s Hard Cider. Dave really liked both drinks, he was quite surprised how well the morning cocktail martini was and I agreed. I took a taste and it wasn’t too beery/bitter for me. The cider mimosa was also nice.

As always, Dave and I are looking forward to our next meal at Arbor Brewing Brewpub, but their boozy brunch gives us another reason and opportunity to visit again.

The Ann Arbor Art Center is offering a once a month evening of art called Creative Social Club. They are being offered the first Friday of each month and run from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Each month there is a different type of art project as the focus. Dave and I attended Jackson Pollack Painting aka spatter painting session.

I have mixed feelings about how it went. First was the price, $35, which included instruction, materials and two beverages.

The instruction, which was very minimal. There were books about Jackson Pollack circulating around, but I expected at least a little bit of information on the artist and his techniques. The rest of the instruction was almost non-existent as well, with a very quick overview of color theory and possible techniques.

The materials included two small canvases, which worked out fine, and communal tubes of acrylic paint in black, white, red, yellow, and blue. The blue was not what I would call a true primary color blue so it was difficult to mix colors as they did not turn out as expected.

And finally, the beverages. I know my expectations were high in this arena, but all they had was a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine (not even chilled) and that’s it. I was expecting a cocktail or more variety, especially for $35.

I’m glad we went, but I wouldn’t sign up again. I’m happy with how my paintings turned out, but the evening certainly did not meet my expectations at all.

Dave and I enjoyed dinner at the Old Town Tavern recently. Dave used to go to Old Town back in the day when he worked in town, I had never been before. Old Town has a nice casual atmosphere and reminds me of two of my other favorite Ann Arbor restaurants, Casey’s Tavern and Red Hawk.

Dave ordered a burrito with house made beans, topped with melted cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, and corn chips, sour cream, salsa. He skipped the meat and went vegetarian. I on the other hand ordered a burger and boy was it a good one (sorry for the dark photo, I only had my phone!). The burger was perfectly cooked and super juicy. I had it with cheddar cheese, tomato, and guacamole. It was perfect, definitely in my top burgers ever! It came with steak fries which were darn tasty too.