Great things to wake up to

   As many of you know, we had quite the Christmas surprise this year - we woke up to about 3" of snow covering everything outside. It was really something, whether or not you've had a white Christmas before. Of course, since there wasn't any snow (or really any chance for it) when we went to bed on Christmas Eve, I yelled when I looked out the window the next morning. Unfortunately yelling while jumping out of bed probably isn't high on the list of things Derek wants to wake up to - at least not with me at 8+ months pregnant. So, once we had clarified that this was a yelp of joy and not a need to go to the hospital, we ran outside to catch snowflakes on our tongues and throw a few snowballs before heading back inside to enjoy Christmas morning.

   Seeing as how I am too close to delivering to travel, we enjoyed a quiet Christmas at our new home. And although we are both very close with our families and miss them all terribly, it was really nice to have a relaxed holiday.  We made sure to cover all the important traditions - baking Christmas cookies, Christmas morning casserole, we even baked a ham for dinner... oh yes, and a fire in the fireplace and presents under the tree. A bit of a food-focused Christmas this year, but it was very nice and I think we will both remember it pleasantly.

   Speaking of food, in all of our eating adventures so far in Huntsville, we haven't touched much on breakfast places. This is mostly because we haven't gone out to breakfast much, even though we did quite a lot back in Santa Barbara. Fortunately, we have stumbled upon a tasty hole-in-the-wall right nearby.

   Cafe Lemon Bleu is located near the Target only a mile or two from us. It's small and tucked away, but has some very good dishes on their small menu. Apparently French inspired (both in name and menu), we both opted for breakfast sandwiches and were not disappointed. I had a fried egg sandwich with brie and sautéed mushrooms on sourdough, while Derek enjoyed a Monte Cristo (fried sandwich with ham and cheese) with a fried egg on top. As you can see, I couldn't help but eat half of my sandwich before I could pause long enough to take this picture. The combination of brie and egg with the mushrooms and a little bit of dijon mustard was delicious; I highly recommend this flavor combo.

   And to top it all off, Derek's cappuccino was served in one of the largest coffee cups I've ever seen - a great thing for a coffee lover like him. So although we still miss the view from Sambo's and the yummy selection of Cajun Kitchen, or the margi's at Mesa, we are starting to find some good local joints in our new surroundings that definitely give SB a run for their money.

Finding the Huntsville Scene

   The questions of "Have you found the scene yet?" or "What do people do for fun in Huntsville?" have come up from many of you, so I'm going to take a time out from food discussions to try and explain...

     Now when Derek and I first arrived in Huntsville, we began a casual search for the young professionals 'scene' - aka, we tried to find the good bars, the hang out places, and basically where people went after work in an attempt to meet our new peers and get to know the area. Well, a couple of things stymied us - first, it gets cold here in the winter, and the summers are humid beyond belief (so we've been told), so outdoor patios don't really have the same appeal that they do in a place like SB. This meant that we were driving (or walking) past social establishments without even realizing it. Second, the buildings around here are old - we're talking 100 - 200 years old, so they weren't designed with big picture windows or obvious architecture that screams out "people eat and drink here!" It's more like an old post office or office building has been converted over the centuries to house various different things inside, one or two of which are pub-like. Finally, with some help from a local, we eventually stumbled upon an establishment of this sort known as Mason's Pub. Complete with beruit tables, pool, local beers on tap, and a decent selection of pub food, this place immediately reminded us of our old Neighborhood Bar.

   So, we've now concluded that Huntsville in some senses is about as opposite as you can get to Santa Barbara - instead of being know for a demographics described best as "newly weds and nearly deads," Huntsville was recently voted in the nation's top 10 cities to raise a family (#5 according to Kiplinger). So, one thing that Huntsville definitely has is families - young ones, old ones, new ones, almost fully grown ones, .... you get the idea. And therefore many of the activities to do around town cater to this demographic group. There just doesn't seem to be the same pub/bar scene for singles and couples that was prolific in Santa Barbara. We have gotten the distinct impression that unless your car/truck/minivan has a carseat permanently affixed to the back seat, or did up until recently, you just don't fit in around here.

   When asking people what to do on nights and weekends, we are time and time gain urged to check out the following: NASA space center (home of "space camp" and the Saturn 5 rocket, this is a place with fun for the whole family), the Botanical Gardens (complete with a children's garden and fully decorated with xmas lights during the holidays, we've been promised that this is more than just pretty plants), Burritt-on-the-Mountain (a restored 19th century mansion with time period actors and a full farm of animals to play with).

   As you can see, the recommended attractions are very much focused on children and families. I have often gotten the response starter of "well, once you have kids...." And as many of you know, we are working on it. Actually, baby Spadaro should be here in a few weeks, so we have been spending a good amount of our time preparing for that event (and our impending induction into the Huntsville scene). We have even purchased our carseat, and once we install it, we'll be fitting in around here in no time!

801 Franklin

An interesting question for Huntsville, from Santa Barbara, is of course What do you have for fancy restaurants? Santa Barbara playing, in this particular anthropomorphism, the (familiar) role of snobby West Coast Cousin. Try 801 Franklin, Huntsville resolutely replies. So we did.

For a birthday, as a matter of fact, on account of we are speaking about a pricey enough joint to require some sort of occasion. 801 Franklin is, overall, a very respectable and enjoyable restaurant, and the points to critique are fairly minor. The reality is that there are none too many places of a similar caliber in the area, which makes it to a certain extent difficult to criticize. Luckily, I don't know how to write a restaurant review anyway.

The menu is not uber-minimalist but neither is it full to bursting with dozens of choices alongside pictures of the food. Actually, rather than "appetizer"/"entree" or "firsts"/"seconds" their thing was "small plates"/"large plates" which was somewhat cute and remarkably useful when deciding what to order. Of course, first things first. There was an extensive martini menu, for people who love extensive martini menus; they carried Beefeater, which was enough for me. (For those simply appalled at my willingness to partake in martinis while my poor pregnant wife must suffer through sweet teas, just remember she would do the same to/for me. Besides, it was my birthday)

Ultimately I ordered a coffee rub NY strip, complete with fixin's (here's looking at you, Ruth's Chris) and received a fairly helpful wine recommendation alongside it. The service was, in general, attentive but not overbearing, and continued strong throughout the night despite the fact that we closed down the restaurant. The steak was very nice and well-cooked, although I had no taste for what made it "coffee rub" or different than any other NY strip. It came with a gravy that did not add a whole lot to the meat but did not detract from it either, which sometimes is about as much as you can say for gravy on good beef.

Now, cheese plates are something I received exposure to in France last year, and we were quite pleased to find a very respectable cheese selection. "Respectable" in this context meaning the cheeses got their own little menu, as I really have no clue what constitutes good cheese. We made our selections, however, and each one was extraordinary. I now firmly believe that every meal should include a cheese plate.

After several courses, and good cheese, there was no more room at the gastric inn, but our server insisted on desert--on the house, for aforementioned celebration--which turned out to be excellent. Just imagine cake, with various chocolates (if you like chocolate) and/or caramels (if you like caramel) and some various other awesomeness on top. I don't remember what it was called. It was good. Short-short summary: will go back, although most likely not until we stumble upon some other prerequisite occasion. And apologies Santa Barbara, but as it turns out we needn't fly out West to enjoy an excellent Fancy Dinner.

How do you say "Elephant Bar" in Southern?

   As we start to explore our surroundings a bit more, we decided to try a restaurant nearby called 'Cheddars'. We figured it must be good because it always has a packed parking lot. As expected, we had to park on the other end of the shopping center, but despite people standing around everywhere waiting for a table it only took a few minutes to get seated.

   And to our surprise, we have discovered the E-Bar of the South! Complete with large leaf-like ceiling fans and some bamboo style decorations adorning the rooms, it seems to be a direct match for the cozy Aussie style restaurant we left back in Santa Barbara. The food was cheap and good, although there was nothing fancy or remarkable about menu (I enjoyed my chicken strips). So, as a good alternative to any Chili's or AppleBee's, with a more elegant atmosphere, we were happy to find that a little bit of SB followed us here.

Jason's... it's almost like home

   It has been a crazy few weeks. As Thanksgiving in Portland ended, Derek and I thought we'd have all sorts of down time and be able to both finally get settled in our place as well as get to know our surroundings a bit more. Well, so far we just haven't had time. What with childbirth classes, work, car fun, and trips to the doctor's office, it just seems that the days fly by. I can't believe that it's already almost halfway into December!

   What that really means is that I know it's about time for an update. Us being the Californians we are (yes, I know I was a transplant there, but after 10 years it really felt like home), we're still learning things slowly. I'm happy to announce that we made a step up from using credit cards for ice scrapers and are now using plastic rulers. It seems that we forgot after the last freeze to go find an ice scraper at the store and therefore found ourselves in another cold spell before we did anything about it. And of course, the first store we checked didn't carry ice scrapers; and I thought Target had everything!

   At least the ruler seems to do a good (and faster) job on the inside of my windshield. Yes, my car has a bit of a leak (it's a true Californian as well and not accustomed to the rains that we get here in 'Bama). Since it hasn't yet had time to fully dry out, whenever it freezes I get a good bit of frost on the inside of the car. Oh, the adventures!

   But, what I really wanted to share was that we have found a great sandwich place that makes us feel almost like we're back in California. Totally by chance, we found ourselves hungry for a sandwich and decided to check out a place called Jason's Deli. Yes, it is a chain (from their website it looks like everywhere except the Northeast and the West Coast), but they have a great selection of fresh sandwiches and a salad bar that rivals Rusty's (don't laugh - the pizza place in SB has my favorite salad bar by far). They offered several different soups, salads, and sandwiches, and you could even as for "skinny" which means a full sandwich with half the meat. And they offer avocado on a lot of their sandwiches, which I was not expecting to find around here. It isn't quite as tasty as the avocado you can get in SB, but beggars can't be choosers, right?

   So, although the stereotype is that everything in the South is fried (and it's not that far off), it is refreshing to know that a good deli can be found. And that it tastes good too!

Microwave Dave and Indian Creek DG

As forecast, I found my way to watch Classical-Blues Cabaret at the Flying Monkey Theater last Friday. How to describe? ...well, walk with me as I paint a picture: A veteran blues guitarist, a fairly accomplished classical guitarist, and (I believe) a music instructor at a local academic institution on piano. By themselves, each very enjoyable to listen to. Tango on the piano. Bouree on the nylon. Blues on the electric. But when we combine all three... its interesting. I don't think anything as a group was done to blow socks off, but there were enough solo numbers to sufficiently showcase a goodly amount of local talent. Which brings me to: Microwave Dave on the cigar box guitar is a thing to behold. If anyone watched the video I had dredged up earlier, it was sort of like that, but Live, and Better. Simply put, I am making myself a cigar box guitar. Easy.

While we are on the subject, the Flying Monkey is a fascinating venue. It sits entirely inside an old textile mill, in a WWII-era-shotgun-houses type of neighborhood. As far as I could tell it is 40% contemporary art exhibits, 20% hippie shops, 30% theater and music studios, and 10% dog kennel. If one had asked me if such a place existed in Huntsville, I would have told One "certainly not".

My only other contribution at the moment is to gladly report on the condition of the still-new Indian Creek Disc Golf Course, not but a statutory mile from our house (sorry, I just recently discovered eggcorns). Very challenging course, even for such a professional as I. Extremely well-marked and not particularly busy. If disc golf sounds like a strange dance move to you, I would highly recommend it. Take the "walk in the park" aspect of regular golf, but without the occasional urges to wrap metal sticks around the closest telephone pole. Good deal. ...whelp, time to hit the old dusty trail. Don't worry--I almost promise to ensure pictures with all subsequent posts. I dislike reading as much as the next dud.

oh, almost forgot. links:
http://www.microwavedave.com/
http://www.flyingmonkeyarts.org/
http://www.pdga.com/course_directory/course/indian-creek-disc-golf-course

What is this on the windshield?

   It's becoming apparent that we are "not from around here" by the little things that seem to surprise us. For example, Derek and I jumped in the car yesterday morning for a relatively early trip to the airport (yes, I'm already off to Portland for Thanksgiving, leaving Derek among the boxes for a few more days). After enjoying the sunrise and our steaming bowls of oatmeal to keep us warm outside, we hopped in the car. Well, to our surprise, there was ice on the windshield! Actually, it was probably more like frost, but it was still a very foreign substance to find on the windshield of our car. Confirming that we weren't going crazy, we did notice that the grass was crunchy with morning frost and that a lot of things seemed to have a sparkly sheen to them. I guess it really does get cold around here.


   Having no ice scraper in close reach (or anywhere closer than the nearest store), we resorted to the next best thing - I removed the little credit-card fob that gave me access to the gym in SB from my key ring and handed it to Derek. As you can envision, this is similar to those mini fobs that most grocery store chains hand out to frequent shoppers - approximately 1" wide and 2" long. So Derek jumps out of the car and dutifully scrapes off the entire windshield with this tiny make-shift device and we were on our way.

   I think an ice scraper will need to be a purchase in the near future. Otherwise people might start to wonder who exactly has moved into the neighborhood. Crazy Californians!

Oops, I didn't give this a Title

As Vincent Vega said, 'It's the little differences'. I mean, they got the same stuff over here as anywhere, it's just--here its a little different. Example you say? At work there is a cafeteria on the first floor (which actually has impressed me, at least as far as quality of food for the money; we should really do a food review on it seeing as it is open to the public as a general eatery and I wanted this to be a food blog anyway) where I recently ordered a sub sandwich. It took four slices of pepper jack--in addition to the swiss we had already requested--before we achieved our goal of obtaining peperoncinis on said sandwich. You see, it seems nobody here would ask for "peperoncinis": they ask for "banana peppers" (INTERNET would argue that technically these are not the same thing, but we are unclear whether INTERNET has ever resided in Alabama). And to get pepper jack, we say "pepper cheese". Or "peppercheeze". Like "peperocinis". Go ahead, say them both out loud, right now. We won't judge.

But point taken, I am sure. In other news, not only Guiness but also Boddingtons (!) has been found on draft not but a mere 100 yards from our humble abode. I am speaking, of course, of the Mellow Mushroom, which is, in terms of decor, about as far as you could take the whole 'psychedelic mushroom' theme and still reasonably expect people to eat there. Pizza was excellent, though, and great beer selection. Another food review needed (with pictures; Courtney is the Official Photographer).

Finally, we should mention, as many people associate blues guitar with (roughly) this region of the country, we did come across an exciting prospect, who call themselves Classical Blues Cabaret. I heard these guys were going to be around this Friday, and looked them up, and was quite blown away by their videos on the site. http://philweaverguitar.com/cbc.html. Check out the "Trail of Tears" clip at the bottom of the page. He fiddles around until about 03:13 and then goes off. Rockin. Hopefully we will get a chance to check them out and report back with excellent reviews (and by "we" I mean "me" and yes we know we have been alternating grammatical persons, its my entry, I do what I want. and it is artistic).

High Gravity Beer

    As we wandered the supermarket yesterday, I noticed this beer on the shelf and instantly thought of Santa Barbara. I'm sure drinking it is not quite the same as riding around town (and the harbor) on a land-sea vehicle while consuming curious types of alcohol, but it still made me smile.

    And speaking of alcohol, there has been some concern (by us and others) as to whether Alabama and more specifically Huntsville, are considered Dry. Well, after some research, and exploring around town, I've learned some things...

    As a state restriction, residents in Alabama cannot have wine or alcohol shipped directly to them, so unfortunately we have to cancel our wine club membership at Buttonwood. It's very sad, but there's nothing we can do unless Free the Grapes makes huge advances in allowing direct shipment of wines across the country (good luck!).

   Out of a total of 57 counties in Alabama, 26 are considered Dry - all sales of alcohol are prohibited. Huntsville resides in Madison County which is one of the Wet Counties. Fortunately for us, this means that we can purchase beer and/or wine in the grocery stores, but hard alcohol and liquors must be purchased in an “off premises” store; these are commonly referred to as “ABC” (Alabama Beverage Control) or “package” stores.

   Madison County is somewhat unique in that we are allowed to purchase alcohol on Sundays, too. Only 6 other counties in the state allow sales of all types of alcohol on Sundays – most either prohibit sales on Sundays or restrict it to bars and restaurants only. Furthermore, Madison allows the sale of Draft Beer any day of the week (even the wet counties don't allow this by default). Makes me proud to live in Madison County – we're so progressive!

   Now, despite all this freedom we started feeling, we have learned that there are still some very arcane laws on the books. Here are a few:

1. Consumption of beer is prohibited on the premises of a Brewery. Beer can only be bottled for off premises sale. Meaning that a Brewery could give you a tour, but no tasting allowed!
   
2. Brewpubs do exist and can sell alcohol for consumption on the premises, but only if they are located in a historic building AND only if the city was known to brew beer before Prohibition. Needless to say we haven't found a single brewpub yet...
   
3. All beer served or sold must be 16 ounces or less (other than draft beer for commercial establishments). Sorry, but no 40s in Alabama.
   

   There was also a law stating that no beer with an alcohol content of more than 6% was allowed for purchase, but thanks to Free The Hops (an organization dedicated to repealing these laws), the Gourmet Beer Bill was passed in May 2009 that now allows for beer up to 13% to be sold. The people of Huntsville are still enjoying this new found freedom as we've seen several advertisements for “High Gravity” beer.

   Overall, it seems that Huntsville treats alcohol very much like we are used to on the West Coast. We'll just have to get used to going to the ABC store if we want something more than beer or wine, and say goodbye to our beloved wine clubs...

Ma'am, Can I help you with that?

    I'm not sure if it's the fact that we're in Alabama, or that I was a pregnant lady shopping on my own, but my first trip to the grocery store without Derek was a bit of an experience.

   As I wandered the store today, every employee smiled and said hello. I assumed this was just part of the great "southern hospitality" that everyone has heard of. But when I got to the checkout lines, each checker that was free was standing in front of his or her aisle welcoming shoppers to choose their checkout line. New experience number one.

   Then when I got to unloading my groceries, a nice store clerk came over and insisted that he unload my cart for me. That's not something I've ever been offered before. New experience number two.

   Once my cart was full of grocery bags (I asked and people do bring their own bags to the stores, so it wasn't too odd of me to come in with my own), the clerk who had bagged all my groceries took my cart and started to wheel it out of the store for me. I was really surprised and a little uncertain about what he was doing, but when I asked he said that he was more than happy to help me to my car. Being as I've never asked for assistance with my groceries before, I told him I could handle it. I think I might have screwed up on that one though, since he was really surprised and seemed a little uncomfortable letting me walk out of the store with my cart by myself. New experience number three.

   And I thought I was getting the hang of things around here...

Coming from Wine Country

   As you all probably know, Derek and I have really loved living in Santa Barbara Wine Country. Although we didn't go wine tasting all the time, we certainly enjoyed trips up to the Valley or around town to sip our favorite wines and enjoy some leisure time with friends and family. Well, this pastime of ours has certainly made itself known this week.

   In our adventures of unpacking, we have discovered that we currently own 83 wine glasses! Yes, a shocking number. And this is after we donated several boxes of wine glasses to friends last summer for their wedding. As we started going through them, we discovered that we really only have one or 2 of any given winery...Apparently our indulgence in wine has not been focused to merely a handful of wineries. I'm glad to see that we covered a good number of the establishments in Santa Ynez over the years.

   So now the challenge becomes - which ones do we keep for mementos and which ones do we donate or give away? Which wineries are our favorites? Which wine glasses make the cut? It will be a challenge, and not quite as much fun as acquiring the glasses was, but I think we can do it.

Wish us luck!

Mexican Food Anyone?

   Today we found ourselves at the Madison Mall around lunchtime, so we decided to stop in at the Food Court for a quick bite to eat. From the titles of the restaurants, they had quite the selection: Cajun, Mexican, Japanese, Hot Dogs, and Italian. Unfortunately looks can be deceiving...

   We decided to brave it and went to the Malibu Mexican Express. I think they are using the 6-degrees of separation philosophy when claiming Mexican heritage - it was a much closer resemblance to Panda Express than it was to any Mexican food I've ever had.

   As you can see, my meal looked more like orange chicken, chow mein, and fried rice, and it tasted that way too. I found myself looking around for some chop sticks, but it wasn't bad at all, just certainly wasn't Mexican food. I guess it is to be expected... maybe.

We Live Here

Now it is official - we live here.

    Today we moved out of the hotel and into our new apartment. Yes, until now we've been spending our nights at the Embassy Suites, enjoying the complimentary happy hour after long days of dusty unpacking. It certainly is true - if you have someone professionally pack for you, they will pack it all! We've found several empty boxes (ie. for the toaster or for some hiking boots) while also finding the actual item packed in another box. So glad we moved empty boxes from SB! Hahahaha.

    It's been nice to be able to take it slow though. Means we were able to unpack our hundreds of wine glasses before having to hit the grocery store. Now if we can just find the plates....

    Oh, and I can now attest that Target has it all. We had our first grocery adventure at the Super Target today, and it really was impressive their selection. They have pretty much everything you could find at Vons (Safeway), just the produce isn't quite as nice as in California. I think we'll find we just have to get used to it though.

    Well, it's supposed to get down to 26 degrees tonight, but the rain had stopped and the sunset over the colorful Fall trees is pretty beautiful. Thank goodness I just found our ski jackets! Now onto making dinner so we can actually have some vegetables (they're not kidding when they say that macaroni and cheese is considered a veggie around here).

We've Arrived

Well, we made it!

   It was great to see so many of our friends at the Neighborhood Friday night, even if it was only for a few hours. And we had a nice weekend with Derek's parents - even got to see all of his grandparents, so I think we covered our goodbyes pretty well. And since it still hasn't sunk in yet for me, that was all pretty easy.

    As a final goodbye gift, LA gave us horrible rush hour traffic Monday morning, so although we left Thousand Oaks just after 6am, we didn't get to LAX until 8:30! And of course that meant that we couldn't check any luggage for our flight at 9. Luckily we were only going to check my suitcase, so Derek managed to pull out a few things. I was wearing flip flops so thank goodness he grabbed some shoes - it's supposed to be in the 20s in AL on Friday! Hopefully Derek's dad will mail it to us soon.

A prayer left on our pillow by the hotel

    Other than that little emergency, the flights were fine and we got through Atlanta without delay or hiccup. They put us up at the Embassy Suites, where we have a 1 bedroom place. It's pretty nice - not only do we get complimentary breakfast, but there's a free happy hour with snacks and drinks every night.  Too bad I just get the meatballs. Haha

    Today we wandered around historic downtown and took it easy. Found the visitors center and loaded up on brochures of things to do in and around HSV (everyone here loves to refer to the city in abbreviated written form, so we're learning to use the airport code in our lingo). The movers are ahead of schedule, which means our stuff is showing up tomorrow morning. Since the moving van is too big to make it into our apartment complex, it'll be an interesting day for sure. Glad today has been relaxed!

One of the historic homes on Franklin Street. Built circa 1825