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as the cake says, happy birthday jed! he turned 25 on august 15th, exactly 6 months after i did :) we threw together a last minute party at his apartment which turned out to be pretty fricking awesome. and i made a cake :)
its not exactly a culinary revalation... im no ace of cakes. its just a duncan hines marble cake with vanilla frosting, jed's request. it turns out i blow at spreading frosting... you can see all the little dark flecks in the frosting where the top layer of the cake crumbled as i was spreading the frosting across it... wtf is that?? i made the cake the night before, covered it, and let it sit overnight, and then frosted it the next morning... should i have not covered it so it dried out a little more, and formed more of a "crust" that wouldnt crumble and stick to the frosting?? i tell you, i was sweating bullets. normally i wouldve gooped another layer of frosting on, but i had bought the goods the night before, and didnt have time to run to the store again. but i figured everyone would be distracted by the big blue elephant :) jed loves elephants, weve kind of had a thing over the past six months which started with us making elephant and pig noises at each other... then i got a tiny blue elephant and tiny pink pig rubber pencil toppers out of a vending machine... then i bought jed a bronze elephant statue... so, heres the cake. it turned out okay. i wish i wouldve bought more blue icing to pile around the edges in those little poufs. oh well. ALSO i wish i had a cake pan with a lid! i had to ghetto rig one by putting a cookie sheet on top and taping it on. my big worry was that something would happen to the cake on the way to st paul... but it survived intact.
jed seemed to like it. people kind of made a big deal out of it, though i thought it was a touch pathetic... i mean, its from a box! but everyone liked it and thats the important thing, and i should stop being so self conscious.
my other contribution to the party: super classy liquors. another thing i biffed on-- i didnt have time to go to the liquor store the day before, so i saved it for last minute... not thinking that the party was on SUNDAY and liquor stores in minnesota are all closed then. GAY. you can however get 3/2 beer at some grocery stores and gas stations, and thats what i did. i ran through cash wise in my party dress with a cart, and got 6 packs of bud light lime, smirnoff ice, mikes hard cranberry lemonade, and OH YEAH a case of miller high life!! its the champagne of beers you know.
jed played mad scientist and mixxed up a massive batch of spiked punch. what do we have here... hawaiian punch, seirra mist, bacardi dragon berry, and two other unidentified liquors. i dont know the recipe but that shit was SO GOOD. we had approximately 5 jugs of this shit and we drank ALL OF IT. it was awesome because we partied in the apartment company's clubhouse next to the pool, where youre not supposed to have alcohol, but the punch was sneaky :)
jed drank it in his pimp chalice of course.
"whats in the boooooxxxxxx?" you implore, much like brad pitt in seven. why, that is a case of off-brand flamin hot cheetos. approximately fifty little bags of them. which we ate, maybe... three. they're REALLY hot, way hotter than the real cheetos. and kind of gross. but they were free... jed's dad is a truck driver and gets free food occasionally.
i also brought some cupcakes, in case wanted cake in a smaller, more portable form. you can see di totally eyefucking them. they were GOOD. coborns makes some yummy cupcakes, even though their frosting is more like cool whip. they're all... spray painted pretty. oh so, thats [R to L] Jackie, Di, Brittany and Damien behind her. kickass kitchen, no? i wanted to live there. jed can rent this place for free. it has a stove and a fridge, which was handy... we made some frozen pizzas later.
oh and we found this gem. no, its a gag gift or something someone brought to the party as a joke. it was in the cupboard of the clubhouse. someone that works there probably just likes bizarre canned pudding for lunch. we used it as a door stop so we could get in and out of the pool.
and theres me hanging out by my cake up in the billard room. im pretty happy.
after this point it was all pretty much liquid refreshments... oh, except jello shots, those are kinda in between food and liquor. di made them with black currant vodka and they were extremely delicious. there was much feeding each other jello with spoons, and then i believe jed put his face in the pan. umm... then i did shots. then i spit a shot onto the kitchen floor because i thought it was gonna be currant vodka and it was disgusting generic rum. BURNSAUCE. partying continued.... we played P&A, with appropriate lincoln hat, which jackie wore and hid both the remote and a bag of fauxcheetos in.
and the next day i threw up a loooooootttttttttttt.
and then i had awesome hangover food! because my friend melissa couldnt make it to the party, she took me and jed out to lunch the next day. aww, so nice! it was a fun double date with her and her awesome boyfriend jeff, who is hilarious. we went to the wilde roast cafe in NE minneapolis, which id read about in Lavender magazine a few times and wanted to visit. its a beautiful cafe with very ornate decorations, and of course very gay friendly.
i had the turkey meatloaf dinner, which was perfect for my meat and carb craving angry tummy. mashed potatoes are just the thing when youve been ralphing all morning! the mushroom gravy was quite tasty, although there was a TON of meatloaf and i couldnt eat it all. what i was really coveting was jed's homemade mac and cheese, which was FREAKING AWESOME DELICIOUS. like, i was very close to punching him in the face and stealing it. FOODCOVET! a super creamy, rich four cheese sauce topped with yummy breadcrumbs... i had many bites but oh man, it was not enough. jed said that the salad with a light vinegarette was the perfect balance to the uber cheesy pasta. we didnt realize til we discussed it after that we shouldve switched plates completely, as he was coveting my meatloaf as well! damn! oh well, next time. im also eyeballing their curry chicken sandwich or salad, and the panna cotta [maybe?] dessert that jeff had looked fabulous. oh, as did the crab cake appetizer that melissa and jeff split. wilde roast cafe is a definate WILL RETURN.
http://www.wilderoastcafe.com/index.php
518 Hennepin Ave. E. • Minneapolis, MN 55414
Line: 612.331.4544
oh another great fooding discovery: Akita Sushi and Hibachi! a great discovery jed was introduced to via his friend Jackie in the pics above. the best thing about akita is they have a price fixe, all you can eat menu, $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner. this is great for a beginning sushi eater who isnt quite sure what to order... this way, you can take a chance and order several different things to share, and not worry too much about wasting your money [although akita will add a surcharge if there is "excess waste," so be sure you eat most of what you order]. i seriously loved it. lets see if i can remember most of what we ordered... i know we started with tempura shrimp, which were puffy, light and delicious, and potstickers. then the dynamite roll, which had tempura shrimp and a few other things in it, topped with spicy mayo, which were AWESOME and maybe the best sushi we had. that spicy mayo... mmm. and spicy tuna rolls. this was some of the first real sushi ive had, and i loved it. i buy grocery store sushi quite a bit but this is a whole different ballgame. its so fresh, and the textures were amazing. the rice and seaweed, so toothsome. the fresh, perfectly paired ingredients. spicy mayo. soy sauce. yeaaaah. mm, and snow mountain rolls, which were filled with crab and topped with yummy little crunchy bits. we ordered some teriyaki salmon from the hibachi section, which was delicious, the best teriyaki sauce ive ever had. jed had a bown of udon noodle soup of some sort, which he liked but wasnt really up my alley. asian soups always have a weird flavor to me.
i was planning on ordering a few more things, at least more tempura... but, oh, so full of sushi. it doesnt seem like we ordered much, but each roll had six pieces and were super filling. i wish i couldve eaten more!! next time i might totally gorge myself until i puke. we had to save room for ice cream though... i got red bean and jed got vanilla, then we shared. both were excellent. really good, fresh tasting vanilla, but i preferred the red bean. they also have green tea which i want to try.
omg i want to go back there soooooo bad. ive had massive sushi cravings since we went. if i lived near woodbury id be there all the time... i mean, for the price you pay its almost unbelieveable! $15?? ive paid more for totally shitty perkins or applebees!
highly, highly recommended.
779 Bielenberg Dr
Woodbury, MN
(651) 578-7888
