Category: Uncategorized

General Nov 17, 2008 The Waffle No Comments Game over.  We decided to go celebrate the Steelers’ victory with the locals and went looking for a place to do exactly that. Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 was even more packed then before, we could  barely believe it.  But we had no interest in lining up again, so we kept going down the street towards PNC Park.  The Ugly was too loud, 3 Deuces uninviting.  So we walked on into Firewaters. We weren’t sure at first.  The place was kind of small, and was kind of packed. It is an odd place – they have two bars – one right at the front entrance, where 20-25 people can sit, and a second bar at the back, the door being on the side street. The two bars are kind of separated by a dining area, where about 40-50 people can eat.  We walked around for…

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General Nov 16, 2008 The Waffle No Comments We had selected the Radisson Greentree as our home base for the Pittsburgh leg of our sports trip.  The hotel is not really close to downtown, in fact you have to cross the city through the crazy interchange and bridge systems, heading towards the airport.  But to compensate, the rates are cheap, and they had a free shuttle to the hockey game and back! After checking in, we got ready for a Hockey Night in Pittsburgh.  We got lucky and hopped on the shuttle as soon as we got back to the lobby.  Arriving at the Mellon Arena, we decided to find a place nearby to quench our thirst.  At the doorstep of the arena though, the view is spectacular, as the Arena is built on a hill.  We stood there and looked at the Pittsburgh landscape from our vantage point – tall…

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General Nov 15, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment As I told you in this post, Jerry and I went on a road trip to Pittsburgh for a formidable sports week-end. Nobody seemed in favour of us stopping at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, so we didn’t make the detour.  I still thought about it, since it would have only added an hour and 43 minutes of travel time.  But then, another 5 hours to eat the Beer Barrel Belly Buster would have been too much to make it in time for the Sabres–Penguins game at the Mellon Arena. Instead, we stayed on the I-90, also known as the AMVETS Memorial Highway.  Part of the Dwight Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the I-90 is the longest Highway in the United States, almost 5000 km long from Massachussets to the State of  Washington. We passed a bunch of service areas, and, as…

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Recipes Oct 25, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment I am discovering the joy of slow cookers.  I have got to say – it is pretty great to come home and dinner is basically ready. As Halloween is approaching fast, I carved two pumpkins and put them out on my porch. But instead of throwing out the carved pieces, I reserved most of it, hoping to do something with it. And I did, in this new halloween twist of an old classic. Pumpkin & Beef à la Bourguignone 2 1/2 pounds of beef, cut into 1-inch cubs 2 cups of baby carrots 1 medium onion, cut roughly 6 potatoes, cut into chunks 4 cups of pumpkin chunks. 4 tablespoon of flour 1 cup of beef broth 2 cups of red wine 1/2 pound of small white onions 3 cloves of garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon of thyme 1 tablespoon of tomato paste…

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Recipes Oct 21, 2008 The Waffle No Comments I don’t like papaya very much.  In fact, I think that most times, the flesh of a fresh ripe papaya tastes like vomit. So I couldn’t believe it that when I went grocery shopping at Provigo the other day I couldn’t resist buying a jumbo green papaya.  True, it was fairly cheap, 0.99$ a pound, but still.  Vomit. Anyway, now that I had it, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  I’ve had papaya in asian-style salads, often spicy, and didn’t mind it but, you know… I figured there must be a way to cook it in order to make it taste better.  And since it kinda looked like a squash, I figured that I should be able to cook it the same way.  To make sure, I looked for recipe on the internet and was confirmed in my thoughts.  While…

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