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!