Arbor Brewing Company

1114 A2 Nachos

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

Woke up in a bit of a fog this morning after a lovely dinner at Vinology followed by an exceptionally too large bourbon at Babs’ with Holly, in town from Chicago for a conference.  As much as I love bourbon, it is clearly not my friend, and I spent most of the morning looking forward to the first outing on the A2 nacho tour.

I wasn’t around when someone first floated the idea of a nacho tour, but I have jumped on that bandwagon like nobody’s business.  Today we hit Arbor Brewing Company and The Arena, where we had two very different plates of nachos split five ways.  The first – blackened chicken – weren’t all that warm and didn’t taste all that blackened, though they had a good ratio of cheese to chips.  The second – vegetarian, with extra salsa – earned points for including a big scoop of guacamole, but lost some because the cheese wasn’t fully melted.  We also found a few bonus fries hidden in the nachos – not sure if that’s a good thing?

Regardless, a splendid time was had by all, and after two shared plates of nachos and two rounds of beer, all hopes of Sunday afternoon productivity went out the window – which was just fine by me.

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0506 Beer Battered Tempeh at ABC

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Sooooooooo unmotivated to cook tonight, you guys.  We were both home by 5 and were both hungry, but neither of us had any interest in making dinner, which was supposed to be a revisit of last month’s shrimp and grits.  Except that the bacon? Still in the freezer.  And the spinach? Gone after last night’s dinner.  We still had the bottle of clam juice, though, not that that would help with anything.

We opted for a quick dinner at Arbor Brewing Company – $3 pints during happy hour!  We’re not huge fans of ABC, but I had a damned fine beer-battered tempeh sandwich – crispy and delicious, served on a chewy onion roll with chipotle mayo.  Shane had fish tacos, which were WORLDS BETTER than the tacos I tried to make at home the other weekend (I threw them away, and let’s not talk about it).  Good stuff, and good ideas for future meals – that is, when we’re more motivated to cook.

A2 Update!

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been here a month, and some folks are wondering what sorts of shenanigans we’ve been up to. I’ll summarize in brief, and maybe be more vigilant about posting in the future.

Work: Shane started his job on Aug. 31 and seems to like it so far.  He’s going to a lot of meetings, taking a couple of fitness classes through UM, and getting burgers on Thursday with a regular crew from the office.  UM seems to be treating him well, which is a very good thing!  Shortly after starting, we discovered that I can be covered on his insurance as his Other Qualifying Adult, which is pretty awesome indeed – especially because I’m in my 6th week of being unemployed.

Job Hunt: I have applied for what feels like a bajillion jobs since leaving GW, interviewed for two, and been turned down for one (minimum wage = wah).  I am persevering, though, and am hopeful that something will come up soon.  Having just one income has meant a lot of conversations about money, long-term plans, etc – big and sometimes scary stuff to deal with.  I am incredibly thankful for Shane’s good job and for his support.  Being unemployed has also meant a lot of time to spend on things like sewing, running, and volunteering, all of which I’ll write more about later.

Wedding: we were due to get married on Oct. 10, but as previously mentioned, those plans were suspended when we decided to move here.  Now we’re talking about a spring wedding, maybe in Cleveland, maybe involving a lot of mimosas.  Stay tuned for more info!

Cats: Basil has been barfing up a storm for the last couple of days, but after a trip to the very affordable vet (no seriously – 59 bones covered the office visit and two kinds of meds), I think it might be under control.  The cats seem to be digging the new place and spend a lot of time stalking the squirrel that torments them by hanging out in the tree by our front window.

Domesticity: We’ve been homebodies a lot this month because we’re trying to save money – but eating well because I’m a good little housewife.  Lots of roast chicken, homemade bread, soups, stuff like that.  The sudden turn in the weather means that there will be more of the same to stick to our bones in the coming months.

Adventures: When we do get out and about, though, it’s to do inexpensive and tasty things like:

  • splitting sandwiches at Zingerman’s – tonight we had the Rocco’s Revenge, the sandwich of the month for September
  • blueberry picking in Dexter – we picked a couple of pounds for a grand total of $4 (including a soda)
  • beers at Arbor Brewing Company – not the best brewpub or beer by any means, but it does the trick
  • breakfast at FM@SELMA – I’ve been volunteering here since we first landed in town, but last week was the first week we made it to breakfast – amazing pork shoulder with pepper sauce, cornbread, and fried eggs.  Mmmm.
  • volunteer at the Homegrown Festival – we helped with set up, then poured for Arcadia, drinking a lot of free beer and eating excellent food along the way

Shane also went on a pretty epic beer tour spanning four states with Mike and Bill, but I’ll let him tell you about that later.  He’s off to San Francisco on Saturday – I’ll be holding down the fort with Mina and barfcat and enjoying a visit from my sister and her husband for a few days.  What have YOU been up to?