Restaurant Widow

Things to do in Columbus::January 30th Edition

Is anyone else ready for Spring?  If I spend any more time sleeping and eating carbs, I am going to emerge from my house sometime in May, as jiggly and ghostly pale as a panna cotta.  Just yesterday, I think I ate 3 slices of potato bread, toasted and spread with sour cherry jelly (YUM. Tastes just like July), some egg noodles, and about a pound of white rice with butter.  Yay, things that are white! 

If it makes you feel any better, I was just reading through last year's posts, and I think I bought my first farm market goods on March 31st.  Of course, with this year's Worthington Winter Farm market, you don't have to wait so long, thankfully.

Well, here are a few things to do this week, if you can bundle up and face the wind and cold (weren't we supposed to have snow, too?)  As always, leave your events in the comments section or email me.

• First up, if you are feeling the pinch of January and need a cheap date, how about the Columbus Underground Movie Happy Hour tonight at Studio 35!?  Get this - 2 movies (Sweeney Todd, which is awesome, and No Country for Old Men) for $5, and $3 draft PBRs.  The event begins at 7pm.
  
• And, since I'm not the only one who listed Franklin Park as their favorite place in Columbus, don't forget the Orchid Forest is ongoing; tonight, from 5p - 8p is one of their "Winter Days, Orchid Nights," with music and tropical refreshments.  Yet another cheap date, boys!
• All kinds of great things are going on at the Wexner Center.  First of all, tonight you can see a selection of short films from OSU students.  Throughout the month of February, director Spike Lee, winner of the Wexner Prize, will be featured and honored for his work; you can see his moving When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts continuously during regular Wexner Center hours, in the Box.  Click over to their site for even more events.
• Of course, this weekend is the Gallery Hop in the Short North.  Bundle up!
• The Ohio Statehouse will feature the work of Etch-a-Sketch artist Tim George throughout the month of February.  Yet another fun and cheap (free, event!) date.  It is located in the crypt of the State House, which sounds very scary.  While you are there, take a tour of the Statehouse.  It is very pretty.  Being that February is Black History Month, the Statehouse will also feature an exhibit detailing the struggle for civil rights in our state.  There will be special soul food specials in the Statehouse Cafe, and there are free lunchtime concerts throughout the month.  Click to their website for more information.
• For those of you bloggers or blogger wannabes who are interested in the NPR Social Media Cafe, the next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, January 31st at COSI; parking is $3.
• This week in the Sur la Table cooking school: Thu 1/31 - Stocks & Soups with Mike McCauley ($65); Fri 2/1 - Seasoning & Flavoring with Mike McCauley; Sat 2/2 - Essential Knife Skills with Mike McCauley (10:30 am); Mon 2/4 - Eating Healthy with Michael Frank; Tue 2/5 - Mardi Gras Party with Mike McCauley.  Unless otherwise stated, classes are $69 and take place at 6:30pm.  Click to their website for more information.
• This Week at Whole Foods Dublin: Mondays will feature special tastings; next Monday the 4th, taste some great Mardi Gras fare and enjoy music by Arnett Howard (6p - 8p); Saturday the 2nd, learn about the Whole Body product line with free lectures; Next Wednesday the 6th, there will be a special pre-store-opening yoga class for only $5.  Registration is required.  Click to their calender for more information.
• This Week at Wild Oats/Whole Foods Arlington: Sat 2/2 - Enjoy a clambake on the patio (12p - 3p)!  Wear your cutest scarf and enjoy a meat or seafood clambake for a mere $5 (notice a cheap date theme?); Thu 2/7 - Free singles wine tasting from 6p - 9p with food and prizes!

Tee Shirt Designs!

Vote for your favorite of these three!  If you have an idea, please don't hesitate to email it!  Obviously, we don't much care for deadlines here at RW.  Thanks to  my readers who are smarter than me, the PDF only file is now visible, and we have a new submission. 

Eat Me:

Eat Locally:

Keeping it Local:

Gothic Girl

Enough About Me, Part 2

Well.  I think it's time for another reader survey, how about you?  I love to read things about my dear readers, even if I don't always answer their emails in a timely manner

*speaking of which.  I have received a lot of emails lately which I am certain aren't spam, but when I respond, the email bounces back.  I don't know if it's you or me, but please be sure that when you email me, you use a valid email address if you expect a response.  I feel very bad when the emails are returned because you might think I ignored your question.  The first that comes to mind was a reader who was recently going to Jungle Jim's.  Please don't hate me, Jungle Jim's girl, my response bounced back!!

Okay.  Now that we have that out of the way . . . Here is the survey.  Please copy and paste it into the comments section along with your answers.  Of course, you can still answer last year's survey.  As always, I will go first.  Not that you need to know anything more about me, I talk about myself nonstop . . .
Name:  Lisa
Location:  N. Campus
Occupation:  Server
Cats, Dogs or other:  lots of cats; also enjoy other peoples' dogs, but fear cats would eat me in sleep if I got a dog
Blog?:  Restaurant Widow
Favorite Place in Columbus, non-restaurant:  Franklin Park Conservatory
Favorite Columbus restaurant, cost no option:  Refectory
Favorite Columbus restaurant, affordable to the masses: Hm.   
One thing you are afraid to cook/bake/whatever:  Pastry Cream
Feature you'd most like to see on Restaurant Widow: videos & podcasts/endless resources for dining out
Biggest RW pet peeve:  Where to start?  I know for a fact you take pictures of perfectly fine meals you never write about, and you don't answer your emails in a timely manner.
Favorite kitchen tool: bacon
Most coveted kitchen tool: Shun 9" santoku
5 favorite foods, or however many you'd like to list: anything white (potato, pasta, rice), popcorn, olive oil, salt, beer, yogurt, pizza
Favorite cocktail: dirty Bombay Sapphire martini, up
Favorite wine: as a group, Riesling. The queen of wines
Favorite beer: cheap
Anything else you'd like to add?:  I'm ready for a still-warm-from-the-sun tomato on a BLT

Dim Sum at Lee Garden

A few weeks I headed up the old 161 trail west to yonder city of Dublin for a bit of dim sum with my fellow Columbus Foodlovers (there's a meetup group; you should join.).  Immediately upon arriving at the restaurant the owner looked me over and said "your friends are in the back."  Hm.  Do I stick out that much?  At any rate, our group sat at 2 giant round tables with very large lazy susans (like a wooden turntable).  And the, the carts started coming.  There were 10 of us at the table, and while it was a nice group, a pleasingly diverse group, from all age groups and all nationalities, I think 10 people might be a few too many.  We decided to go back with a smaller group, this time with for (I think 6 is the magic number, just for the record).

So.  For some basics on dim sum.  Dim Sim is a brunch thing.  Saturday or Sunday mornings you head to your local dim sum-serving-Chinese restaurant (best to make a reservation, you never know how busy it's going to be).  You sit down and ask for tea, and then you beg for water; try to drink so much water they will just put a picture of it on your table.  I've never eaten a meal where I had to consume an entire gallon of water.  The tea at Lee Garden is very good, and here's a little trick our server told us - if you are ready for a tea refill, you don't have to ask, you just put the lid up on the teapot.  That's the secret signal. 

You don't order anything.  Carts and trays and steam tables begin coming around, and you make a choice based up what the server is offering.  But be careful, because if you don't plan things correctly, you will be too full when the one thing you really want goes by.  They will let you take leftovers home, though, so don't be afraid to over-order a little bit.  After you say yes to a few concoctions, tuck in:

We chose fried pounded sweet rice buns which were full of pork, tiny shrimp, and black mushrooms.  The thick rice wrapper is sweet but the savory insides and the crispy fried exterior both act as a counterbalance.

We had my favorite taro buns; the soft, slightly pink taro root flesh surrounds bits of chicken and vegetables - and the occasional bone fragment - and the whole bun is covered with shredded taro and then fried, so it ends up with a shredded-wheat kind of texture. 

Shrimp crepes made with giant rice noodle sheets, a savory and slightly spicy sauce is poured over.  These are great - a little slippery and challenging with chopsticks, but definitely more than the sum of their apparent parts.

We had chicken feet in a slightly spicy, slightly sweet black bean sauce.  My second encounter with chicken feet and I'm still not sure about them. It isn't the taste - they are very delicious - it's just the bones and the negotiating.  Once I can eat them the proper way - put the chicken foot in mouth and extract the naked bones, one by one, I think I'll like them just fine.  Then there's also that creepy feeling that one is eating a tiny little hand.  Which, of course, I was the only one to think of, and then Husband was like, great I was fine until you said that.

We had a huge variety of dumplings, and a lot of them looked the same, so I won't bore you.  We had pork shumai, which as very good, and we had two types of shrimp dumplings, one round and one moon-shaped, and they were also very good, we had a triangular dumpling with greens inside.

We had calamari in curry sauce.

We had pork ribs, which I think are more like rib caps, because each piece is a piece of bone or connective tissue surrounded by a morsel of porky goodness, and you really have no choice but to put it in your mouth, try to chew as much meat as possible off, and then extract the bone as ladylike as possible.

At some point, one of the servers decided we were adventurous, and offered us tripe & tendon, and pig's blood & scallion.  Of course, we said, giddy with our success eating chicken feet.  And that moment was when the scariest bowl of food I have ever encountered was placed before me.  It jiggled.  It had parts I have only seen in human anatomy class.  It quivered.  It mocked me.  Husband took a bite - I should mention here, that Husband is an extremely adventurous eater; he loves all sorts of innards and offal and tripe and bits - so Husband takes a bite and instantly turns completely white.  He is stuck in time for a moment, caught between the shame of spitting something out and the horror of looking at the quivering innards for another hour of brunch.  "I"  "i"  "no.  I'm fine," he insists when the moment is over, but for the next 3 minutes, his voice still sounds a little shaky.  So much for our bravado.

We did, however, try the pig's blood.  The pig's blood is formed into little cubes and then served with scallions - these scallions really tasted a lot like ramps; maybe they were Chinese chives?  I nibbled a scallion to prepare myself, and then took a little square of the blood cake.  It was refreshingly easy to eat and almost disappointingly without challenge, except the mental challenge.  It's like meaty tofu.  The texture is almost exactly like tofu.  I would probably try it again with a little chili sauce.

And then came my favorite, the sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf.  I don't know what I love these so much except of course the presentation, and then the lotus gives the rice a rich and earthy flavor.  The rice surrounds a variety of meats; this time it included pork, shrimp, and dried shrimp, along with scallions.  These rice balls are so good I could eat one for lunch every day.

And so was my most recent dim sum experience at Lee Garden.  A friend recently went to Sunflower and gave them the edge over Lee Garden, so we'll have to try that one next.  And, to any enterprising Chinese cooks, I think a dim sum spot around campus or even close to the Short North would be an amazing hit.  You'd have to start serving at like 3am, though, but you can close at 1.  I promise I'll be there on opening day.

Here's another bonus for Lee Garden - they serve food until very late.  So if you're looking to get away from the jerks who hang at your local after-work spot, go to Lee Garden for some late night Karaoke and plates of Chinese broccoli.  And maybe some crispy duck.

Info:  Lee Garden  2685 Federated Blvd Columbus, OH 43235614.754.1525

New Photo Group for Columbus Eaters!

(update, at bottom) I have created a new group in Flickr for anyone who eats, cooks, or shops in Columbus (I think that's about everyone).  You can post anything food-related - pictures of your favorite dish, something you love to eat, favorite ethnic grocery store, farm market pictures, cocktails, restaurants, whatever!  So if you are one of those people who loves to take pictures of food but don't have an outlet, please feel free to post your pictures!  Here's how it goes:

You can get a Flickr account for free.  I love Flickr and paid the $20/year or whatever for a pro accout, because the free level only allows for 200 pix at a time.  Upload any picture you'd like into your account from your computer or phone or whatever.

Click here.  When you get to the group, click on "Join this Group," you will then get a prompt which says "Do You Really Want to Join this Group?" Click yes, of course. 

Go to your account and click on the photo you would like to add to the Columbus Food Group.  There are a few options above the photo, to the left is a link for "Send to Group," which will display a pull-down menu of your groups.  Select the Cbus group, and your photo will appear!  You can even geotag your photos by putting them on the group map!  Just drag and drop the photo wherever it belongs!  ***Update*** If you are going to map your photos, please make sure anyone can see the location.  You can do this by: placing the photo on the map, then click the photo to edit it in the map.  A tabbed screen will appear, click on the right hand tab, "location" and click the last option for who can see where the picture was taken: "Anyone." Then click Save. 

Let's please keep everything PG and food-related so that anyone can use this tool!

Things to do in Columbus::January 23rd Edition

Updated Friday Morning with Tast of OSU, last event.  Am I the only person who doesn't want to go outside when it's colder than 30 degrees?  It's not the cold so much as it is the idea of the cold.  I could seriously spend the entire winter bundled up in the house with some really good hot chocolate and watch movies, write, eat potato products and play Guitar Hero until sometime in April - say, when the leaves come out.  Unfortunately, if I didn't leave the house to work every once in awhile to work, I would no longer have said cozy house in which to hibernate.  Alas.

All of that to say, maybe you should also consider getting out of the house this week.  Here are a few ideas...  You know the drill - leave your events in the comments!

• First of all, for you Columbus Undgergrounders, there will be yet another CU I can't attend tomorrow (Thursday, the 24th) at Tip Top Kitchen & Cocktails on E Gay Street.  The adventure begins at 6pm.  Have some eggplant fries for me!
• Next up, a repost from last week, because what better location to spend a frigid day than the Franklin Park Conservatory?  They are displaying orchids, hosting special events on Wednesday evenings - all sorts of fun things to take your mind off the cold.
• Don't forget that this Saturday is another winter Worthington Farmer's Market.  Doors open at 10am, and the market takes place at the Griswold Center at 777 N High St. just north of the intersection of High & 161.
• This week's cooking classes at Sur la Table include: Thu 1/26 - Winter Appetizer Party with Mike McCauley; Fri 1/27 - French Bistro Classics with Mike McCauley; Sat 1/28 - Great Winter Breakfasts with Mike McCauley (10:30a) and Hearty Tuscan Dinner with Tom Johnson (5pm); Tue 1/29 - Escape to the Southwest with Mike McCauley; Wed 1/30 - 5 Classic Recipes Everyone Should Know.  Unless otherwise noted, all classes are $65 and take place at 6:30pm.  Click to their calendar for more information.
• This week at Whole Foods, learn about the foods & wines of Tuscany (Thu 1/24, 6:30pm); next Tuesday, 1/29, bring the kids along to learn how to make pizza (4pm); and on Wednesday the 30th, the whole family can learn how to eat healthy after the holidays (I need that).  Click to their calendar for more information.  Also, through the end of January, Whole Foods will be supporting the Children's Hunger Alliance.  Stop by the Bistro for a ricotta Beignet; WF will donate $5 to the CHA for each beignet sold.  Tasty and helpful.
• And, this week at the Wild Oats/Whole Food Market on Lane, Today, 1/23 - learn 100 foods to live by; enjoying samples and get recipes to incorporate these foods into your diet (free, 6pm); Thu 1/24 - a free Pranic healing clinic at 6pm; and on Monday 1/28, a recipe demo and sampling of Foods to Live by (free, noon); and, this location has adopted the Whole Foods "Fridays After Five" event; receive 5 tastes of wine and samplings of foods.  This week's event (1/25) will highlight Mardi Gras, featuring Cajun foods & French wines and includes a free "Whole Foods Upper Arlington" wine glass.  Click to their event calendar for more details.
• Friday night is the Taste of OSU Carnaval in the Ohio State Recreation Center.  The event is free, and tickets for food & drinks are $1.  There will be a dessert competition and foods from around the world.  Best of all for international students - free phone calls around the world!  Click over to their website for more information.

Things I Love but Have Never Written About

Alsatian Tart flambé at Spagio Cellars

That's right.  I ended the the post title with a preposition.  I was getting my pizza delivered the other night and was thinking, "Hounddog's probably doesn't need any more business, but I should still give them some ink.  or pixels. or whatever."  So, in that spirit, I thought I would reveal a few things I love but, for one reason or another, haven't documented.  I know you want to think we eat nothing but the finest vegetables and the happiest animals, and, while we do try to do so, life occasionally gets in the way.  So, without further ado:

1. Hounddog's pizza.  Located in Clintonville (or more properly "Hudsonville/far North Campus), Hounddog's is home to 2 styles of pizza: the regular Hounddog pizza, which features a nice thinner crust and is cut into squares (the scandal!), and the chewy, butter & herb basted crust Smokin' Joe's style pizza, which is cut into pie shapes.  We are quite fond of the Smokin' Joe's style pizza topped off with Italian sausage, green peppers, onions, and jalapenos.  A large pizza with aforementioned toppings is about $16, and delivery has always been faster than the quoted time, which is an extra bonus.  There have been many Sunday afternoons which were made even better with the addition of a Hounddog Pizza.  Resist the urge to get a salad to go along with the salad.  Info: Hounddog's Pizza, 2659 N. High St (North Campus) 614.261.4686.
2. Speaking of pizza, if it's during normal business hours and I want a pizza which is ostensibly healthier than the above, it's Mama Mimi's all the way.  We love Mama Mimi's, and have been fortunate enough to live close to one at 3 of our 4 last places of residence.  The owners are great people who have won all kinds of awards for their pies.  Their pizzas are take & bake, and are best if you preheat your oven for awhile before you bake the pizza (one at a time, please).  What we like to do is set the oven to 450, call our order in, and then when we get home from picking it up, the oven is ready.  Their salads are great, and I've heard good things about their lasagna, but we've never tried it.  The wheat pizza crust (Clintonville location) is excellent; very sweet and chewy.  We love the BBQ chicken and their veggie pizza is really great as well.  Info: Mama Mimi's (Multiple Locations) 2923 N. High St (Clintonville) 614.261.0800.
3. Hm.  I guess this is going to be a pizza post.  As a general rule, I don't like the prepared foods at Whole Foods.  First of all, they are bland and amazingly overpriced.  Every time I have made a salad from their salad bar, it has been $20.  No joke.  Granted, I am usually getting it for Husband & I to share, but still.  $20?!  I have to keep reminding myself it isn't worth it, and force myself to resist every time I stop in.  Their sushi is terrible - *shiver* - and don't even get me started on their overpriced in-store trattoria; but, all of that being said, their pizza by the slice might be some of the best in Columbus.  I usually get a few slices to go for Husband and I, and every once in awhile if I flirt with the pizza oven boy, I get a free slice.  The free slice probably has more to do with the fact that most of the shoppers at Whole Foods are horribly selfish and rude line-cutting sorts (ah, the suburbs) - who are always snapping and stamping their feet when told they'll have to wait 12 minutes for the next cheese pizza, or get livid when the person in front of them orders the last slice of brie/apple/pancetta nonsense.  So, when I get in line and am nice and say "May I please have," and "thank you," the poor abused pizza oven boy is so relieved to wait on someone who is grateful for his services that I get a free slice just for being nice.  Seriously, what is with the shoppers at Whole Foods?  Every time I go there I get run over by some donkey and their shopping cart, and the parking lot is a nightmare of people who don't seem to know the rules of parking lots, and would just back into you because they are more important than you, and no one can put their cart away, even if their car is right next to the cart return.  It's amazing.  Every time I go there I am blown away by the other shoppers.  What is wrong with people?  Don't you get a better feeling when you can make someone's day better by being nice than having to assert to everyone what a horrid and impatient person you are?  My blood pressure is creeping up just thinking about it, and all I'm doing is sitting on the sofa watching football with a few cats lying about.  Every once in awhile I've thought about getting a job at Whole Foods, and then I think about the clientele and reconsider.  I don't know what sort of strength it takes to work there, but everyone is always really nice.  Maybe they take Xanax before work.  From the fish counter to the cashiers, they do know how to train their employees in customer service.
4. Whew.  What a diatribe.  Number 4 is a chain restaurant, and I don't normally write about chains, but I love the sandwiches at Potbelly.  Specifically, I love the Italian sandwich on wheat with tons of their yummy hot pepper medley.  Their macaroni salad and chili are also tasty.  On par with the delightful hot peppers is the young staff (I always go to the campus location), who always make my day by saying things like "what year are you?" or "have you declared a major yet?"  At which point, after I stop choking, I tell them I just graduated, try not to take their idealism away by telling them I'm a waitress with an English degree, and then float on clouds for the rest of the day thinking I could pass for someone far younger than me.  I love those kids.  They are probably trained to say that sort of thing, but I love any 20 year old who thinks I'm still a student, and not one of their professors!
5. I love the Alsatian tarte flambe at Spagio.  A crispy, probably butter-rich crust is topped off with nothing more than a little crumble of goat cheese, bacon, and caramelized onions.  It's really good.  It seems to be frequently sold out, so I can't be the only one who loves it.  (Recently when I was in they reminded me that it's also spaetzle season again.  Why does spaetzle season always come right after it's-the-holidays-and-I-gained-five-pounds season?  *sigh*)
6. Mid's pasta sauce (and it comes from Ohio!!).  My former sous chef turned me on to Mid's, and I am forever grateful (oh, how I miss that egg salad with the scallions and bacon...).  I have friends who would never dream of using pasta sauce in a jar, but sometimes you're tired and lazy and you still have to eat, and that's where the Mid's is priceless.  Well, it does have a price, which is significantly more expensive than other jarred sauces, but the jar is much bigger, and the quality is far superior.  I like all of the flavors, but especially Italian sausage and Mushroom basil.
7. Speaking of pasta, the Garofalo brand of pasta at Costco is really, really good.  For being so reasonably priced (a pack of 8 pound packages of spaghetti is something like $6), it is a true bargain, especially for a food snob on a budget.  It is nice and starchy, resists overcooking, and likes to stick to pasta sauce.  Other good pasta choices at Costco are their frozen raviolis.  I've enjoyed both the spinach & ricotta and the crab raviolis.  The take around 5 minutes to cook in boiling water, and are good with just a pinch of butter and red pepper flakes (or some sauteed greens or Brussels sprouts), so they are a fantastic choice for people with not a lot of time, and a $10 bag has about 15 servings or something like that, so again, perfect for someone on a budget with a freezer.
8. As much as I love Jeni's Ice Cream, I still have a special place in my heart for Graeter's Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.  Mint Chocolate Chip is probably my all-time favorite ice cream flavor, and Graeter's makes their chocolate "chip" ice cream by pouring liquid chocolate into the freezing ice cream, resulting in irregular chocolate bits - many are huge.  Nothing is better than digging into a pint and getting a 2-ounce chunk of chocolate.  For some reason, it only works for me in the mint flavor.  Yum!
9. Hm.  Only 8?  I had hoped to make it to 10.  But I'm drawing a blank.

New Feature - My Flickr Map

I have been working on a map for my website; I have experimented with many types of maps - Google, Yahoo, etc. and nothing seems to have exactly what I am looking for; however, I think I like the Flickr map the best.  The only problem is I can't embed it into my website at this point (to my knowledge and/or skill level), so I can only have a link.  All of that being said, the thing I like about it is that you get a strip of pictures across the map, and you can click on a thumbnail that strikes your fancy, and it will show you where on the map it was taken.  From there, you can see other pictures which were taken at that location, or you can click on the picture and see a description, which will include a link to my review of the restaurant or whatever (some links are still in progress).  This is a great tool for people who are visiting Columbus, because you can see an overview of the city and zoom in on the area where you will be visiting and see all of the spots which I have visited or logged onto the map.

Ideally, I'd like to have a map which includes a list of places, but, being a visual person, I would rather have the photos tell their story instead of a list.  Google maps have a tendency to get too busy and complicated; every time I've tried to create and embed one, it never seems to have the right focus or look I'm going for; I haven't been able to get it to fit correctly - this is probably user error, I'll admit . . .

So, give the map a look and let me know what you think.  As always, you can feel free to comment on the photos or add notes or whatever.  At this point, I don't think you can add places to the map, but if you see something amiss, please let me know and I'll make every effort to add it.

By the way, if you would like to explore the places before the photos, zoom in - the original map will look as though it only has 4 points, but when you zoom in you will see the points divide.  There are about 200 photos mapped at this point, and I plan to add more.  My photos are divided between 2 computers and an external hard drive at the moment, so I still have some work to do before I have all of my reviews documented.

You can see the map in satellite form or a hybrid of map/satellite by clicking on the appropriate link in the upper right hand corner of the map.

I will be adding many other stores, etc, and hope to have this be part of my "shop & eat locally Columbus" page (no, it's not there yet).

Menu for Hope Winner!!

I am pleased to announce that the winner of my Menu for Hope prize, courtesy of the fabulous folks at Jeni's Ice Cream, is Kalen, aka Melissa's (Traveler's Lunchbox) Mom!  She has wisely chosen her flavors (Gravel Road, Dark Cocoa Gelato, Pistachio, Black Coffee, Butterscotch with Cocoa Nibs, Creme Fraiche and Amerena Cherries, fyi) and now has to sit on hands in anticipation of their arrival!  I only hope she enjoys them as much as I do.

This year's Menu for Hope raised $91,188.  Amazing what a few foodbloggers can do. 

Cheers to everyone who participated!

Does Anyone Out There Have Helio?

I desparately need a new cell phone (my screen has been broken for a year and a half), and cell phone company.  I have been thinking of getting Helio - they have a 3MP camera phone which is far more affordable than any other 3MP camera phones out there.  I have wanted to begin moblogging forever now, and this phone would allow me to do so without forking out $500 for one of the really good camera phones on the market (even Verizon's FlipShot is around $300 - for that, I could buy a new camera).

Helio is a lot more popular on the West Coast than it is here in the Great Lakes States, but I was wondering: does anyone have Helio?  Any complements or complaints on the service/price/phones, etc?

If you do have Helio, and would like free month of service, you can email me your number and I will use you as a reference when I set up my service, and they will give you a free month.  I promise to never call you or sell your number! 

And before you Apple nuts start bombarding me, listen here: I cannot afford an I phone.  It has a 2MP camera, and the monthly service fee does not include texting, surfing, geotagging, etc.  Helio has a plan with unlimited web usage and texting.  I hardly ever use any minutes, but I do plan to use the phone to send lots and lots of pictures to my Flickr map.

Any advice would be useful!