Hey Look – I’m a student

For my time in LA with the HUC program, we spent some class time at the hotel and the rest of the time at the HUC-JIR Los Angeles Campus. (post about walking around Beverly Hills here)

The campus is directly across the street from USC, which provides a nice opportunity for HUC students to benefit from the development and resources built up around the USC campus. For example, when we had a lunch break during our first day of classes at the HUC campus, we walked across the street to USC and then found our way to the student center.

There were several dining options within the student center, including Coffee Bean, Panda Express, California Pizza Kitchen, and a burger joint. We all grabbed food from different places and then ate together outside:

Not having gone to a large university, it was a little overwhelming to be on the USC campus. There are so many people! And children take tours there!!

tour group of kids looking at the Trojan statue

Besides getting a glimpse of a two new (to me) campuses, a highlight of my time in LA was a trip to the Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Pier. After the last day of classes wrapped up in the evening, a bus brought us to the promenade where we had a chance to walk around and stroll down to the ocean and pier:

I walked with a friend, and we arrived to the ocean walk just as the sun was setting:

The Santa Monica Pier juts out from the ocean walk pathway and has a lot of energy – almost a fair-like feel (note the ferris wheel):

The pier is lined with tourist shops and restaurants, and the view looking out towards the beach and ocean is amazing:

Since it was the last night for the cohort to be together, we had a group dinner at a restaurant called Ristorante al Mare. This was an Italian restaurant right on the pier, and it was a great spot for a big group. They had a fairly extensive wine menu as well as a nice assortment of salads, seafood, pasta dishes, and meat entrees.

I got a dish called Il Petto di Pollo Funghi e Patate – which was basically just a chicken breast topped with a mushroom sauce and served with potatoes.

The next morning, it was time to conclude the program and head home. The official graduation ceremony was very nice (although sad to say goodbye to the cohort!), and I now have a very crisp certificate which I hope to frame some time in the future! After the graduation ceremony, we ate lunch together before adjournment. And, since celebration so often involves cake…

(CAEA stands for Certificate [in Jewish Education] for Adolescents and Emerging Adults). Wahoo!

Overall, this was a great trip – leaving feeling proud to have this certificate and also lucky to have been able to enjoy a few great days in Los Angeles!

 

Three days in Paradise

After the horrible winter and ‘spring‘ in Minnesota, the weather is finally turning and warming up. Nonetheless, it was nice to escape for three days to the sunny paradise of Los Angeles. Don’t get me wrong, I know LA can get hot as blazes and I don’t think I’d classify it as an Eden during the peak of summer, but for this last few days it has been absolutely perfect weather.

I was in LA for the completion of the Certificate in Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults program I’ve been part of throughout the last year through Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The program is comprised of a cohort of 16, and we come from all over the country (and one from Canada!). We all stayed at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills.

The hotel was colorful, boutique-y, clean, and comfortable – plus there was a very swanky pool area!

The room itself was very nice, with an extremely comfortable bed, a mini-fridge, and a shower with AMAZING water pressure:

When I got to the hotel, I had a few hours until the first session of the program, so I set off to explore the area with another member of my cohort. The hotel is in the heart of the Beverly Hills area, surrounded by shops, restaurants, and plastic surgeons (not kidding).

We meandered from the hotel to Beverly Drive, where we stopped at Urth Caffe – a popular, natural/organic, and local cafe chain (suggested to me by a friend – thanks, Jinai!).

Urth has an impressive selection of coffees, teas, smoothies, and specialty beverages (including tea espresso drinks!). The dessert display is certainly a sight to behold:

I ordered a blended green tea smoothie, and my friend got a cappuccino (complete with some amazing foam art!) and a kale salad:

The salad looked so good, I went back to Urth for dinner the next day to order it myself!

After being rejuvenated by food, we explored the area around Beverly Drive for the rest of the afternoon.

I saw pretty much every store I’ve ever heard of plus a lot more that I never even knew existed. Mostly we window shopped, but if somewhere looked particularly appealing we would go inside to poke around. Attracted by its massiveness, we went into the mega-sized Anthropologie:

I know that lots of people love this store, but I’ve never really shopped here. I saw a lot of dresses that I thought were cute:

But then I looked at the price tag…

…and now I know why I don’t shop here! I’m perfectly content with my dress from Gap Outlet, thank you very much.

There is one thing, however, that might be a bargain at Anthropologie.

Who knew they sold wedding dresses?! Maybe it is only at this or other very large locations, but they had a pretty broad selection:

After Anthropologie, we wandered for a while and then noticed a place called Go Greek. The shop caught our attention because a sign in the window advertised the fact that they had yogurt flown in fresh daily from Greece. Wha?!?!

This place was very neat. In addition to the (now) ubiquitous self-serve frozen yogurt bar…

…You could also get fresh greek yogurt with the toppings of your choice:

We didn’t order anything since we had just eaten. I was hoping to be able to go back later in the trip but ended up not having the opportunity. Oh well – maybe next time!

The last store that captured our interest was Merimekko. Merimekko is a Finnish design company with brightly colored and bold patterns. They make clothes, home products, and a variety of trinkets. I had heard of Merimekko previously because Noah’s parents have a set of placemats from them, but I was impressed to see the wide variety of products they sell: pillows, dresses, baby clothes…you name it!

Eventually, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the start of the program so the day of exploration had to come to an end. This was a great day though of soaking up the sunshine and posing as someone who knows a lot about shopping and fashion. 😉

 

How to learn from a loved one

The title of this post was inspired by an article I read online about how to increase blog traffic. I can’t remember where the article was or I would link to it…so forgive me!

The article said that making post titles that are highly searchable (ie, ‘how to…’) is a good strategy for directing more people to your blog. I’m happy with my readership and like writing primarily for friends and family, but if tons of people start reading my blog, it might lead to a new car and free trip to Hawaii. So, why not give it a shot?!

It’s probably pretty rare for two people to have the same set of interests. And, if I did have the exact same interests of someone else, what fun would that be? So, this post is devoted to two things I have learned more about and come to enjoy through someone else.

1. Games

2. Cheese

To me, games always fell into distinct categories: sports, computer games, video games, board games.

I love sports and have had a lifelong affinity for Clue, but my video and computer game involvement never got much past Mario Kart and Pajama Sam. Noah knows a lot more about games than I do and has taught me a lot about types of games that I never even knew existed.

Dominion, for example, is a deck-building game with a slightly medieval twist.

The object of the games is to buy provinces (victory cards), but to do so requires accumulating treasure cards (like money), often obtained through action cards. The game is a lot of fun because it’s different every single time depending on what cards you purchase and have in your deck. In fact, the action cards available each game change because only 10 action cards are available for purchase each game.

I’ve had a lot of fun learning something new, and it’s a good excuse to work on getting my competitive spirit in check.

The second new thing that I’ve been introduced to is cheese. Growing up, my family never ate cheese on its own (ie, cheese board style). I have a couple memories of eating cheddar cheese on Ritz crackers, but that’s about as far as it goes. Noah, however, is really into cheese (remember The Wedge & Wheel?). We were so impressed with the Wedge and Wheel that we wanted to look for someplace similar in Minneapolis. After a little research, Noah thought that France 44 would be a good place to check out for dinner.

France 44 is at the intersection of France and 44th (der) in the Minneapolis (but almost Edina) area. They specialize in wine and cheese:

In addition to cheese, they also sell an assortment of specialty foods:

They sell a wide array of cheeses which are all cut to order and available to-go or as part of a snack/meal at the shop:

The selection of constantly changing cheese-inspired deli items are also a highlight:

There were a lot of great looking items, so making a choice on what to order was difficult, but eventually we settled on a cheese board (selected by the cheesemonger with input from us), mac and cheese, roasted vegetables, and a roasted garlic chevre sandwich. For the types of cheese in the flight, there was cheddar, gruyere, and gouda.

Everything was delicious! Now that I’m discovering the great world of cheese, I’m actually starting to notice that there are a gajillion different types, and it’s a lot of fun to try different varieties, figure out likes and dislikes, and go visit fancy cheese stores (obviously).

So glad I have someone great to teach me about new things. 🙂

 

 

Late Morning in LAX

I woke up this morning at 5:00am to catch a flight to Los Angeles. I’m in LA to complete a Certificate in Jewish Education for Adolescents and Emerging Adults through Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. I honestly can’t say enough great things about the program – I have learned SO much, everything has felt extremely applicable, and I find myself thinking constantly about things I have read/studied/done in class. Extra bonus, the program is heavily subsidized through funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation, so it is both a wonderful educational opportunity and doable financially (how unique is that?!).

The program is a hybrid learning program, combining both distance learning and on-site intensives. This third and final intensive is in Los Angeles at the HUC Campus, and we’ll be staying at the Avalon Hotel. Yes, I can’t stop singing Weezer’s ‘Beverly Hills’ song. The hotel looks awesome from the website, and I’m excited to see it in a couple hours. Right now, I’m waiting at a Starbucks near baggage claim at LAX. Another member of my cohort is landing within the next hour, and we’re going to share a cab to the hotel.

I have been spending a lot of time at Starbucks lately thanks to a Starbucks card I received as a gift. I have immediately become a Starbucks card fan (especially since I’m not paying!). Using the card, you earn stars which allow you to get free coffee and tea refills and also earn free beverages. I already got a free drink and still have about $10 left on the card!

Plus, Oprah likes Starbucks.

‘nuf said. 

In other news, I flew Spirit airlines for this first time today and IT IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SECOND WORST TO COMCAST. I know Comcast is not an airline so it’s apples to oranges, but – hey – they’re both fruit!

These are my grievances with Spirit airlines:

• Not only do they not allow checked bags, but you are also not allowed a carry-on bag!!! To bring a carry-on bag to and from LA, I would have needed to pay $90!!! My outrage forced me to stuff everything into my backpack and have an extremely uncomfortable travel day.
• If you do not print your boarding pass prior to arriving at the airport you will have to pay $10 just to get your boarding pass!!!
• There are NO complimentary beverages. If you would like a water, coffee, juice, or soda – guess what?! – you have to pay!!!
• To express any seat preference, you have to pay!!! If you don’t pay for this, you are randomly placed at check-in (bad for groups and anyone who doesn’t like a middle seat)

Listen up Spirit, I bought a ticket on you because it was the cheapest option on Orbitz, but it was not THAT much cheaper and I will certainly never be seeking a seat on your plane again. My back will thank me.

In other news, I love my bowl from ‘Paint Your Plate‘ and will miss eating breakfast from it while I’m out of town. Thanks, Noah! 🙂

 

Weekend Visitor

This past weekend, Noah’s sister visited from Chicago. I’d say it was an opportunity to act like a tourist…but I sort of think we always act like tourists.

Rachel got here Friday afternoon and we went to the Midtown Global Market (site of Kitchen in the Market) for dinner and then to a Ragamala Dance show at the Walker.

No pics from Friday, but there are plenty of photos from Saturday’s activities. It was a super active day, with a run in the morning and most of the afternoon occupied by a bike ride.

Noah and I each had our own bikes, and we rented a bike for Rachel from Nice Ride.

Noah has a leftover Nice Ride membership from the summer, so we were able to get the bike for no charge. Also, Nice Ride has recently added a lot of new bike stations (including one very close to my apartment!) and extended the no-charge ride time for members from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Noah and I had high ambitions for the bike ride, and we wanted to show Rachel all of the Minneapolis highlights:

• Chain of Lakes (Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, and Lake of the Isles)
• Hiawatha Bridge and Midtown Greenway
• Guthrie Theater and Mill District
• Stone Arch Bridge
• University of Minnesota
• Nicollet Avenue Pedestrian Mall and Downtown

Please note the magical fact that all of these wonderful locations were accessible via protected bike path.

We somehow mustered the energy to hit all of the spots, although we didn’t actually bike along the chain of lakes because we could see it some from the greenway and had also run near the lakes that morning.

Hiawatha Bridge along the Midtown Greenway:

View from the bridge linked the east and west banks of the University of MN:

View of the Guthrie and Mill City Museum from the Stone Arch Bridge:

Slightly over two hours later, the journey was complete and it was time to return the Nice Ride…

…and get some beer!

A friend of mine has a coworker who knows a guy who knows a guy (yes, I meant to type that twice) who works at the Excelsior Brewing Company and said he would give us a tour, so a group of us headed out there in the late afternoon. Apparently, it was one too many degrees of separation though, because when we got there the fellow in question was out boating and unable to show us around. We somehow managed to recover and sample some of the brews. On tap was a brown ale called Bitteschlappe,  Bridge Jumper IPA, and Big Island Blond. They were out of their pale ale (called XCLR), so those who ordered flights had to double up on a different variety:

I ordered the brown ale because it had the lowest bitter rating. I enjoyed it for approximately 3oz. and then the beer flavor was too much. They say it’s an acquired taste…but I certainly have yet to acquire.

After a sufficient amount of time in the brewery, we decided to walk around the town of Excelsior. From the drive in, we knew there was a cute Mainstreet that led to a park and pathway along Excelsior Bay. We walked through town to get to the water:

Notice the prom pictures happening in the background behind us. This was clearly a hotspot for photos since we also saw a wedding!

When we got back to Minneapolis, we were all hungry and ready for dinner. We tried to go to Brasa but the line was too long, so we ended up at Bryant Lake Bowl instead.

Noah ordered a bison steak salad, I ordered a beef sandwich, and Rachel ordered a black bean and beet burger:

The food was good, but we were still hungry after (maybe because of all the biking!). We picked up a slice of pizza to go from Pizza Luce later in the evening.

It was a lot of fun to have a visitor over the weekend, and I especially enjoyed the bike tour. Especially now that I know I’m leaving Minneapolis, I’ve been eager to go back to all of my favorite places one more time and, of course, take lots of pictures for the memory books!

 

Humans Can Fly

A friend of mine recently got into aerials. What is aerials, you ask? It’s a form of acrobatic exercise that uses silks and other methods of mid-air suspension. I didn’t know about aerials until my friend began taking classes, so imagine my surprise to learn that it’s a fast-growing exercise option and there are a few studies around Minneapolis where one can take aerials classes.

As soon as I heard about aerials, I was fascinated. People flying though the air? Normal people who aren’t circus performers? How could there be such a thing?!

Luckily for me, Xelias, the studio where my friend hones her aerials skills, puts on an adult student showcase (essentially a recital for friends and family). I was so there!

The studio itself is in a warehouse building in Northeast Minneapolis, and the aerials equipment hung from the ceiling over a hefty layering of mats and pads:

There were fourteen acts with small groups performing on a particular apparatus. The show featured performances on the trapeze:

Tissu (the traditional silks):

And the rope:

I couldn’t take my eyes off the show the whole time. This was partly because it was entertaining/impressive to see people twirling around in the air and partly because I was wondering if someone was going to fall and plummet to their death a broken limb. Aerials seems like it takes an enormous amount of upper body strength and muscle control, and I’m sure it’s a really difficult workout. I looked into trying some classes though, and most studios require people to sign up for a semester or class package rather than just doing drop-in sessions. I suppose it makes sense given the need for skill development…but I’m not ready to make that level of commitment. Also, aerials generally seems to be pretty pricey running about $20/class or more. While it looks like it would be fun to try, I’m not exactly itching to make that sort of investment!

In other news…the Paint your Plate items are done!

I received a call on Wednesday saying the items were ready for pick-up, and I stopped by after work on Friday to get them. The mug and bowl came back wrapped in newspaper so it was extra exciting opening the package:

Both things came out great:

I’m looking forward to eating breakfast out of my bowl this week!

Recipe Round Up: Putting the Internet to Use

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how easy it can be to bookmark tons of delicious looking online recipes and then never actually make them. In my previous post, my goal was to use a different breakfast recipe from my Pinterest board each morning. The experiment was highly successful and I enjoyed the variety to my breakfasts and the sense of accomplishment – it felt like I made an achievement when I could put a mental check next to all the recipes I made!

Since then, I’ve tried to continue actually making some of the recipes I set aside ‘for later.’ Here are the highlights of what I’ve tested from around the web in the past week:

Whole Grain Brown Soda Bread from Texanerin Baking
served below topped with tuna, melted cheese, with an asparagus and carrots side dish

Oatless Oats from ‘fitting it all in’
topped with yogurt, dried currants, and cashew butter

Bison Meatballs with Sage Onion Gravy from the Whole Foods Market Recipe App

 

All this ‘cooking by the book’ got me inspired to try some of my own recipes, so I made up some of my own creations for the kitchen…

Peachy Green Tea Smoothie

  

Ingredients
- one peach, chopped
- 2 T chia seeds
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 T of edible green tea whole tea leaves
- 1/4 cup steel cut oats
- 1/4 cup yogurt
Method
-Combine peach, chia seeds, 3/4 cup of the almond milk, 
and green tea in a container and let sit in the refrigerator overnight
- In the morning, cook oats with 3/4 cup water
- combine oats and chia seed mixture with yogurt and remaining
milk in an emersion blender
- blend and enjoy!

I poured my smoothie into a bowl and ate it with a spoon because somehow it tastes better that way!

Basic (but not boring) Taco Meat

Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 onion
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 T coconut oil
Method
- chop onion and saute in coconut oil just beginning to soften
- add meat and cook until no longer pink
- add tomatoes (including juice) and spices
- simmer for 5 minutes and serve with tortillas, avocado,
or the toppings of your choice

 

Wonderful Weekend

People often ask, “what was something fun you did this weekend?” Sometimes the question puts a lot of pressure on because if nothing immediately comes to mind I think, “oh no! Did I do nothing fun?!?!”

But, right now I would love to hear the question.

you: What was something fun you did this weekend?

me: EVERYTHING!

Yes, I had an absolutely phenomenal weekend. Not only was the trip to Stillwater great, but the rest of the weekend continued to be full of fun shenanigans with the love of my life, man of my dreams.

Yes, I made that meme and am very proud.

The man in question planned a surprise outing for Sunday that I was looking forward to with great anticipation. I hopped on my bike without too many questions and followed the leader until we got here….

Paint Your Plate is a make-it-yourself studio where you can select from a variety of dishes, figurines, and trinkets what (and how!) to paint. When we walked in, the average age of people in the store went up by about 10 years. But, no matter!

There were a lot of items to choose from, so we took some time decided what we wanted to paint:

Eventually, I settled on a bowl and Noah chose a mug. We chose a seat at one of the tables and lightly cleaned our pieces to wipe off any dust:

Next, it was time to choose paint colors, select stencils and stamps if we wanted, and sketch the outline of what we wanted to paint on the outside of our piece with a pencil. While we were there, we hardly talked because we were both so engrossed in our work. 🙂

Noah put a geometric diamond design on his mug and it looked great:

I decided to cover my bowl with stars, flowers, and polka dots.

And since I am planning to use it for breakfast in the morning, I put a sunny message in the bottom:

We couldn’t take the bowl and mug home with us because Paint Your Plate will glaze and fire the pieces over the course of the next week. When they’re ready, they’ll give us a call to come pick them up. I can’t wait to see what the finished product looks like!

By the time we were done at Paint Your Plate, it was past 6:00 and we were ready to bike home and go for dinner. Since we are leaving the Twin Cities soon, we are eager to go back to some of our favorite restaurants one more time. We settled on The Lynn on Bryant which we visited about a year ago and loved. As we remembered, the food was great. We even saw the Vermont-born head chef and owner sitting and talking with some customers!

We ordered the gnocchi to share as an appetizer and it was fabulous:

The sauce was creamy and smooth, and we both especially liked the bread crumbs on top. For my entree, I ordered the Bryant Burger (veggie burger with chickpea fries).

This is the same dish I ordered last time we visited the restaurant, but it was so good I knew that I had to get it again.

Noah ordered a lamb dish that came with a small pot pie as a side. He also thought it was excellent!

Our eyes were a little bigger than our stomachs though, and we ended up ordering dessert even though it meant we left pretty stuffed.

Noah ordered an affogato (vanilla ice cream topped with espresso) and I ordered the warm chocolate cake:

The chocolate cake was very dense – almost more like a thick mousse – and the ice cream on top was the perfect compliment to the warm chocolate.

This restaurant is SO good! It can be quite expensive or affordable depending on what you get. The burgers and sandwiches are $15 or less, but the regular entrees are closer to $30. So, you can definitely come on a smaller budget but be conscientious about what you order! Either way, I would say this place is worth a splurge. 🙂

Homemade Pizza

Big news from my day…

1. I biked to work because the week of no sunshine finally ended and the weather was A++++ beautiful!

2. I finally severed my relationship with Comcast, effective June 1. They said, “why are you canceling your service.” I said, “Because I’m moving somewhere that doesn’t have Comcast.” In my mind, I said, “Because I hate you with a passion that burns within the deepest parts of my soul and I will do everything in my human ability NEVER to use any Comcast service again.” Ahh…fantasy.

3. I updated my iPhone to the latest operating system. I have a natural skepticism towards upgrades, but my reluctance to do so was interfering with my ability to facetime. Woe is me.

4. I listened to a great radio show by my baby bro (8-10pm EST on Mondays, http://wamh.amherst.edu/)

5. I have now completed a third consecutive day without chewing gum (a record from the last 6 years!!). I wonder how long I need to go before I can say I’ve broken the addiction and am safe to reintroduce the substance in moderation. 🙂

6. I made homemade pizza!

I have had my eye on a yeast-free pizza dough recipe I pinned to my Pinterest board a long time ago. I decided to make the dough recipe and scrounge up whatever toppings I could from what I already had in my kitchen.

Making the dough could not have been easier. You mix everything in one bowl, spread it on a baking tray, and cook for 10 minutes at 400º. so simple

While the crust baked, I worked on assembling toppings. I identified the following as possible toppings: black beans, tomato, green onions, smoked mozzarella cheese.

I started by making a black bean hummus to use in the traditional role of tomato sauce. I drained and rinsed one can of black beans, combined it with 3 tablespoons olive oil, and then pulverized the whole thing using an immersion blender.

I chopped the tomato and green onions and grated 6oz of smoked mozzarella cheese (cheese unpictured):

After the dough baked into a crust (10 minutes), I topped with the black bean spread, then tomatoes and green onions, and finally cheese:

I put the pizza back in the 400º for fifteen minutes and…

yumyumyum. I served with mixed greens on the side:

After dinner, I made a cup of ginger yogi tea and was told these wise words:

“Live in your strength.” It caught my attention because it made me wonder what my strength to live in is. What’s your strength to live in?

 

Day Trip to Stillwater

Stillwater is a relatively small town near the St. Croix river along the eastern edge of Minnesota. It’s only about a 40 minute drive from the Twin Cities, and I have long been eager to go for an afternoon and explore the town. My impression was that Stillwater had lots of cute restaurants, shops, and antiques, and I loved the idea of spending an afternoon in a scenic, little, Minnesota town.

When we pulled into Stillwater in the early afternoon, we saw that lots of people had a similar idea to us and the main street had a bit of traffic!

After parking, we immediately walked down by the St. Croix river to check out the elevated water level:

Stillwater has A LOT of hills. There are several historic staircases around the town that serve as a way to get up and down as well as a great sightseeing opportunity.

Going up was quite exhausting, but the views were definitely worth it!

After all the activity, it was time for a break…

…and a trip to Nelson’s Ice Cream.

Nelson’s is a Stillwater classic with lines out the door and a gajillion flavors to choose from. The flavor selection is impressive, to say the least, but the real madness of Nelson’s is the size of their scoops.

This is a child’s size:

Yes, that is real life. I ordered monster cookie and zanzibar (dark chocolate) and Noah ordered java chip and cookies ‘n cream.

Needless to say, we did not finish our child size cups. NOT EVEN CLOSE!

After the ice cream insanity, we were in need of some activity so we got out our bikes and went for a short ride:

We started our ride on a protected path near a lake within a residential area of town. The lake path didn’t go too far (maybe only 10 minutes of riding), so we ventured out along the roads for a bit before backtracking to our starting spot and then heading to main street again for some window shopping.

Highlights of mainstreet were Tremblay’s Sweet Shop:

And Stillwater Olive Oil Company:

While we were walking around, Noah spotted a place called The Wedge & Wheel.

The Wedge & Wheel is a specialty cheese shop. Rather than simply providing a wide selection of gourmet cheese, however, they also offer sit down service with custom designed cheese plates, simple dishes, and a large wine menu. Noah is a cheese fan. Or, should I say, CHEESE FAN. Read: has a lot of affection for cheese. Thus, it would have been pretty sad to leave Stillwater without visiting this store.

We waited until right before we were ready to head home and then stopped by The Wedge & Wheel for an early dinner. As soon as we walked in, we were  immediately impressed by the cheese case and then shown to our table and given a menu to peruse.

The menu was brief but included an American cheese board, European cheese board, cheesemonger’s flight (hand picked for the customer), a grilled cheese sandwich, and a few cheese-focused salads.

We decided to order a cheesemonger’s flight and grilled cheese sandwich to share. To best assemble our flight, the waitress asked if we had any particular cheese likes or dislike (yes to chevre, no to blue cheese) and then came back with this:

Our custom made board included a soft cheese from Jasper Hill Farm (we can’t remember exactly what type!), Red Barn Cheddar, and a goat’s milk cheese. The cheese board came with pickles, dried fruit, and toasted baguette. The grilled cheese sandwich (pictured on the right below) came on a cranberry bread and was also accompanied by pickles.

Everything was delicious! Cheese is not a food that I generally consume in large quantities, so I did feel a little cheesed-out after having it constitute nearly my entire dinner. Nonetheless, this was a really neat and unique restaurant, and I would highly recommend it to any cheese (or food!) lovers who take a visit to Stillwater.