Belated Announcement.

I just wanted to plug a project I've been working on since September for work. We built this web site for the state of Georgia and I think it's really cool.

http://georgiahealthinfo.gov/sfc/

Basically, it allows citizens to search for medical service providers near their home/job/any place in georgia and see quality and cost comparison data for specific medical services. Hopefully this allows citizens to make more informed decisions about their medical care.

Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine Best of the Best Party

Last night Ann, Ann's friend Meagan and I went to the Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine's Best of the Best Party 2009. There was about a dozen restaurants serving free bite-sized foods plus free wine from Bridlewood (where I have actually been wine tasting) and some free Grey Goose cocktails.

We had a really good time and found a few restaurants to put on the list of places to try. The party was extremely busy and the worst part of the night had to be the line to check in. The food and drink quickly made up for it though. For me, the two best bites came down to Barrio and Lord Fletcher's. Barrio served a mini taco with seasoned ground beef, some queso fresca (I think that's what kind of cheese it was) and cilantro. Lord Fletcher's stole the show with a seared beef tenderloin sliced atop a potato chip and topped with some creme fresh. It's the only thing that made me go back for seconds.

Some of the other things we tried was some sort of artichoke with salsa from Solera, some braised pork belly from Smalley's Caribbean BBQ, Cobb Salad from Wildfire add Strawberries/Rice Crispy Treat in chocolate fondue from The Melting Pot.

I think I'll definitely be trying this party next year.

Minneapolis Ruby Meetup

Since I've been using Ruby on Rails for work for the last year or so, I decided to try and join ruby community in Minneapolis. HOWEVER, there doesn't appear to be a ruby community in Minneapolis (or St. Paul) that meets in a formalized fashion. SO, I've decided to create one.

If you're in or near the twin cities and are interested in ruby, join the meetup and come hang out with us. (Assuming anyone else decides to join. :) )

Who thought Chipotle was healthy?

If you (like me) have some ill-thought NYE resolution to lose weight, and still want to have chipotle on occassion then Chipotle Fan might be useful to you. You can "build" your burrito of choice and it will spit out the nutritional information including calories, fat and fiber. (Those are the three factors when determining weight watchers points.)

A chicken burrito with all the tasty toppings and a bag of chips is easily over a days worth of calories! A burrito of just rice starts at 450 calories and 13 grams of fat. The tortilla itself is 290 calories and 9 grams of fat.

Just some food for thought...

Supertasting

I think people like to think they are a supertaster. It implies that somehow their sense of taste, and therefore their likes and dislikes, are better than a non-supertasters opinion. (Though apparently supertasters are at higher risk for certain types of cancer that bitter compounds help protect against.) I admit I've had that feeling a few times. Being a fairly picky eater, I thought maybe that could justify being picky. However, I don't think I am a supertaster - and most of my food dislikes are due to texture rather than flavor.

Either way, now you can know for sure whether or not you're a supertaster by ordering a test. For 4.99 they send you some paper that has been soaked in an extremely bitter compound that only super tasters can detect.

I kinda want to order one even though I don't really think I'm a supertaster.

2 Down, 658 to go.

For my Birthday, Ann's parents bought me a book called 660 Curries I think they had some of their own interests in mind after I made them Chicken Tikka Masala with a recipe from America's Test Kitchen. That dinner turned out AMAZING and I think they wanted more offers of curry dinner at my house.

Fast forward a few weeks and I decided to make my first dish from the cookbook, which was chicken in a mustard greens sauce. (Sarson Murghi Kebab) It was terrible, awful, no good, very bad. We ended up ordering in Chinese food and tossing out every bit of the dinner except the rice which had no sauce on it. I don't blame the book entirely because I accidentally bought collared greens instead of mustard greens and I didn't have any Dill seed. 1 Down, 659 recipes left and it wasn't looking good.


So tonight I decided to try another recipe. I made Tari Waali Murghi or "Vibrant Chicken and a spicy tomato sauce." It is more similar to Tikka Masala except there is no cream or yogurt. And instead of using a premade garam masala spice mixture, I used a mixture of cumin, tumeric, cayenne, and some other stuff. This recipe turned out great! Again it wasn't 100% to the recipe, instead of making garlic paste, ginger paste and fried onion paste, I just cooked those ingredients in some oil. Also I was missing coriander seed because I couldn't find it at my local grocery store. Either way I would cook this one again for sure.

2 down, 658 to go!

Whisk(e)y tasting!

Yesterday I went to a Whiskey Tasting in Minneapolis put on by a local liquor store. For $20 I tried 11 different whiskies from the U.S., Ireland, and Scotland. It was really interesting. I love talking to people who are experts in something and Zipp's Liquors had a representative on hand who really knew his stuff. My friend Josh was much more knowledge about some of these whiskies already, but I'm starting to catch on. I admit that I haven't quite developed a taste for Scotch yet - but I love bourbon and tennessee whiskey (Jack Daniel's).

Here's a list of my five favorite whiskies and a brief note about each one.

• Thomas Handy Rye Whisky (67.4% Alcohol) - Freaking Delicious, needs a little water in it or it just tastes like alcohol.


• George T Stagg Bourbon 2007 - (72.4% Alcohol) - I can't believe how smooth this was straight.


• Eagle Rare Single Barrel 10yr old Bourbon (45% Alcohol) Really tasty, hints of caramel. I bought a bottle of this for $23 which was a great deal if you ask me.


• Ritten House 100 Proof Rye Whisky If any whisky could ever be called sweet, this would be it
• 
  
• Eagle Rare 17yr Bourbon

I also tried a couple of scotchs, an irish whiskey, two "premium" Jack Daniels and a handful of others.