Madison Merchant Disappointment

Hey all!

On Friday night Bryan really wanted to go out to dinner, but I just wasn't feeling it. So on Saturday I was feeling a lil guilty and decided to make us a reservation at Merchant. I was pumped to try a new place and thought Bry and I deserved to reward ourselves after a long run in the humid hell of the Midwest.

As soon as we walked in I was kind of bummed by how loud it was. It was not particularly crowded, but the high ceilings made the place almost unbearably loud. I thought, oh well, as long as the food and service is good I can deal.

We started with the mini corn dogs, which was house made sausage breaded, fried and served with raspberry mustard and maple syrup. They took quite a while to make their appearance (as did our drinks) but they were well worth the wait. Bry and I absolutely loved these, probably one of the best appetizers I have ever had.

About 35 minutes after our appetizer we finally got our entrees (way too long to wait). I had ordered the mixed green salad with cherries and the sweet corn chowder.

Both were good, but nothing mind blowing, especially for the price (the salad was $10 and had only about 5 cherries on it). In fact, my soup was cold and I had to send it back to be reheated. If I wanted microwaved soup I could have eaten a can of Campbell's at home. They also did not bring me a spoon so Bry had to go hunt someone down to bring me one. The dinner was more stressful than relaxing, major fail.

I love the idea of Merchant, they only serve local food, but their service and execution is lacking. I would not recommend this place to anyone. I feel when you go out to eat and spend a lot of money the food and the service should be amazing. Wouldn't you agree?

Tomorrow I am checking out a new to me place for restaurant week, hopefully it will make up for my crappy experience at Merchant.

- Lauren

Dinner At Fresco

Hey there!

About once a month I go out to dinner with two of my girlfriends here in Madison. We like to go to places that none of us have tried; one or more of us has tried and loved; or just a place that is beautiful and fun. Last night we went to a place that was all three of those things, Fresco.

Fresco is located in downtown Madison, on top of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and is known for serving local and fresh food. I started the night off with a Blackberry Crush, which is a mix of tequila, crushed blackberry's and ginger beer. It was delicious and I am sad I didn't take a picture because it was pretty. The only issue I had with the drink is that it took about 20 minutes for the waitress to bring them over to us and the place wasn't even busy! In fact, our food came out quicker than our drinks, very strange.

For dinner I ordered the Bibb Wedge Salad (all these pictures were taken with my cell phone, my apologies).

To go with my salad I had the vegetable filled flatbread.

The salad was amazing, probably one of the best salad I ever had. The bacon, feta cheese, cucumbers and egg were all incredibly fresh and the house made buttermilk salad dressing was light and refreshing. I would definitely order this again. The flatbread on the other hand was just okay, which is sad because it had the potential to be amazing! The toppings were perfect - carrots, purple potatoes, asparagus, onions, provolone and arugula, but the flatbread itself was awful. It actually tasted like cardboard and was obviously not house made. I think they should keep this on the menu, but change the flatbread they use.

My friend Lauren had the beet salad and scallops (I did not get a picture of the scallops).

While Sara had the seared tuna and wild mushroom salad.

Overall I would give Fresco a 7. The service was slow and slightly strange and the flat bread was meh, but the drink was delicious, as was my salad. I would definitely go here again to enjoy drinks on the rooftop deck, but I think I would go to the bar and get the drink myself.

- Lauren

Fried Egg, Avocado and Hash Browns

Hello!

I hope all of you had a great weekend and by all, I mean my mom, aunt and husband :-).

My weekend was spent in Chicago in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria and yes, I am bragging. The place was beautiful. Definitely the best hotel room I have ever stayed in.

 Living Room

 More of the living room

 The view from the balcony

 More views

 Bathroom of my dream (the mirror is also a TV!)

 More of my dream bathroom

The comfy bed

In Chicago we ate a lot of food, drank some drinks, went on an architectural tour and did a little shopping. 

Pre Brunch Shot

Bacon and Spinach Quiche

 Navy Pier

Dinner at Tavernita

For dinner tonight I did not really want to make anything too complicated and had a craving for Hash Browns. I saw this recipe and had to make it. It was really easy to prepare (probably because I opted to not shred the potatoes and onions). I opted to use two sweet potatoes and one idaho potato. I also topped with two eggs instead of one for extra protein. The hash browns took about 40 minutes to make in my cask iron skillet and came out just the way I like them, a mix of soft and crispy.

This is a meal I absolutely loved! The husband liked it, but did not love it. His vote doesn't count though because he does not like breakfast for dinner. I, on the other hand, could eat "breakfast" foods for every meal. If you love eggs, avocado and hash browns you should definitely try this one out!

- Lauren

4th of July Eats

Hey there!

So after a very long hiatus I have decided to start blogging again. I will probably not post more than once a week, but I will definitely try to do at least that. I really want to start cooking again and feel that this blog might hold me accountable to make some good eats.

Today I scoured through my Every Day magazine to get some ideas of what to make. I think one of my biggest hurdles to trying new things is I always second guess my choices and than I revert to making the same meals I always make. Today was different and I opted to make something with an ingredient I have never ever used before - radishes. This is a huge step for Bryan and I because we really don't like trying new things, mostly because we know what we like and are boring people. So the recipe I made was Grilled Corn and Black Bean Salad and I followed the recipe exactly except halved it (it was so delicious I am kind of wishing I didn't). We also had BBQ grilled chicken, but everyone knows what that looks and tastes like so no pics.

Extreme close up.

For desert I made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. I made some substitutions to the recipe by using Andes mints instead of chocolate chips and skim milk instead of 2%. I also omitted the salt. It was some amazing stuff and if you don't have an ice cream maker yet you are bananas because homemade ice cream is the best!

Chocolate sauce is a must, obviously.

Hope you all had a great 4th with some awesome food! I'll be back with some more good recipes and probably some bad ones as well.

- Lauren

Before and After

My kitchen is finally done (well, pretty much, we still need some knobs put on, cabinets replaced and the dishwasher hooked up) and is functional. I am so in love with the kitchen, it makes me giddy.

I thought it would be fun to show some before and afters of a couple of rooms we have redone in the house. We bought this house knowing it was going to be alot of work and we are nowhere near finished, but we have plenty of time to make it the way we want it.

I will start with the downstairs bathroom. This room will eventually get a complete renovation, but the kitchen had to come first.

Before

After



With this bathroom we just painted and cleaned it up, but I think it looks 100 times better.

The kitchen was our huge project this year. We gutted the entire room and bought new everything!

Before

After

Isn't it lovely? I am really starting to love the house now that I have a kitchen. It was hard to be excited about the house with the horrible kitchen we initially had, but now I am in love with the house and looking forward to all we can do to improve it.

Yesterday we finally got some snow, about 4.7 inches of the stuff. Bethe loved it.

Yay for Friday!