Luscious Foodie: Chop Squad

Happy hour is one of our favorite after-work activities, bringing coworkers together with tasty food and cheap beer. I was recently coerced into going downtown (during an Indians game) to one of my favorite eateries. Fans with bags of peanuts rushed in front of my little Civic, causing me to cringe as I thought there was going to be a massacre of peanut-strewn, foam-finger-laden bodies on East 9th.

The light at the end of my traffic-jammed tunnel was the Chop House, one of our favorite breweries. Operations Manager Liz and I hopped up on a tall bar table and proceeded to order two light lagers. There was a generous amount of eye candy strewn about the floor of the Chop House to keep us busy.

Liz and I ordered “The Tower,” as we call it, which consists of chicken strips, calamari, shrimp cocktail, portabella mushroom caps, and the crowning glory of hand-dipped onion rings. We dug in and saw a table of crazy-looking girls next to us eyeballing our tower. I was prepared to fight over my chicken strips, but I hardly doubt that the grape and grasshopper martini drinkers could put up a fight.

A nifty recipe for your next shindig:

Beer and Brown Sugar Steak Marinade

This marinade is really quick and tasty, bringing out the natural taste of any steak. Created for any two steaks. This marinade may attract good-looking men into your home.

¼ c dark beer (go ahead and drink the rest…you deserve it)
2 tbl teriyaki sauce
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl instant coffee (coffee and steak are really great combinations. You can add more or less to your taste)
½ tsp seasoned salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder or fresh (mmm)

Directions:
Take out your aggressions and poke holes all over the surface of your meat, mix together all ingredients and pour daintily over the steaks. Marinate between 30 min and 2 hours. Next, throw the steaks on the grill, pour the remaining marinade into a small saucepan, bring to a boil and let it simmer. Baste the man-attracting meat to enhance the flavors. Cook to the desired temp as you like and enjoy! Please use a knife and fork; it is tempting to eat with your fingers.

What I am currently eating: peanut butter and Nutella on toast. I wonder if I could actually shampoo myself with Nutella….

-- Megan @ L.V.

Hot Card of the Day (Zombie Edition)

Today's hot card backdrop is a tribute to this kid, who has become something of a hero on the Luscious Verde campus.

Friday Shenanigans

Liz, our operations manager, is no stranger to this blog. This week, she brought in a collection of childhood photos for a few of us to paw through. Unbeknownst to her, we scanned one that we thought was simply amazing and decided to share it with the world. Sorry, Liz. (And sorry Drew, her little brother.)

Hot Card of the Day (L.V. Family Edition)

Today's hot card comes to us from, well, us. It's an in-house design by Megan, who graced us with yesterday's "Luscious Foodie" blog (right below this blog entry). It's an invitation to her brother's upcoming wedding, complete with unique paper color choices and a beautiful printed motif on the back layer.

Luscious Foodie: Melt Mania

[Today is the first installment of Luscious Foodie, a new regular feature by L.V. estimator/all-around stylish gal Megan. She'll be giving us the lowdown on area hotspots where all the hip kids are going nowadays. And when I say "local," I mean Cleveland. If you don't live here, well, would it hurt you to visit us for your summer vacation? We totally have couches you can sleep on.]

Hey all you fashion forward foodies! I recently visited a favorite restaurant of mine, Melt Bar and Grilled, and happily ate a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich. Now, this place is not your Wonder-bread-and-American-cheese kind of eatery. They offer amazing choices of sandwiches served by the hippest of indie guys and gals around.

Being a "Big Cheese" member allows me into the secret Melt society. Yes, that means free refills of their amazing blue cheese and delicious draft beer choices. I chose a tasty Oberon draft by Bell's Brewery to compliment my half-combo dinner, which consisted of half of a smoked gouda grilled cheese, red pepper, cucumber and mixed green salad, and a mug of steamy white bean tomato soup, and, of course, a small side of fresh cut seasoned French fries with a spicy chipotle dipping sauce. (My stomach is extremely happy merely writing about my dinner last night.)

My eating partner moseyed on up to the sandwich of the month which is a tuna steak melt. Rare tuna, with a spicy aioli sauce, and your cheese of choice went into this treat. If you’re still hungry after visiting the Melt Bar and Grilled, then you can easily enjoy a sampling of fried Twinkies in a berry compote or their locally homemade cheesecake. So, if you happen to be in the Cleveland area check out Melt – you’ll be extremely excited and full.


RANDOM FOOD NOTES

Interesting food fact: Lindsay, our assistant operations manager, gave up chocolate for New Year’s, but I just caught her in the back licking our chocolate envelopes with chocolate return “icing” address.

What I am currently eating right now: a large Tupperware container filled with watermelon and blueberries. If I could fit my tiny body in a whole watermelon my life would be happier and moister…

For Art's Sake

We recently got a pretty cool package in the mail from local school Mosdos Ohr Hatorah, located in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. It was from L.V. friend Dodi Schwab, who teaches sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade art. "You cannot imagine what an exciting windfall this paper is for our art program with its tiny budget," she says. We think the paper we gave is a small investment with a huge return, that is, these cool thank-you notes we got. We have a feeling these kids would make good Luscious Verde employees, but we aren't in the mood to violate any child-labor laws.

Hot Card of the Day (Keys Edition)

Today's hot card comes to us from Susan Gildea Personalized Printing in lovely Berkeley, California. It's a lovely card as well -- the only problem with the picture is that I (Rob) took it. The keyboard is there to remind me that I have to write a jingle for the winner of our jingle contest.