Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rock on the Range, Day 1

Well, I'm still recovering from last weekend. We took a road trip to Columbus, OH to go to Rock on the Range, a 2 day concert.

Matt, his friend John and I drove up to Columbus on Friday afternoon and we walked around downtown Columbus.. Which I think half of the city is owned by Nationwide Insurance. The picture to the left is a building at night light up in the plaza of their world headquarters. The headquarters took up about 3 blocks of the city, including the sports arena and they also have a Children's Hospital named after them...

Moving on! The first night we explored downtown... Majority of the businesses were closed, except for a few restaurants but nothing was catching our eye....

We were looking for a hole in a wall, where the local's go, but nothing in site. So on we went. We eventually came across Michael O'Toole's Irish Pub & Bar. Which turned out to be pretty darn good! We ordered their Spinach & Artichoke Dip with homemade tortilla chips to start. For my entree I ordered Miner's Chicken, which is Char-grilled, barbeque glazed chicken breast topped with two crisp onion rings. Served with whipped potatoes and coleslaw. Super yummy!! I also had a Rouge Dead Guy Ale.. They have a wide selection of MicroBrews plus their own house MicroBrew. Matt ended up getting the Prime Rib French Dip and I can't remember what burger John got... but we were all extremely satisfied! Their food was too good that I didn't get any pictures, just the outside of their building.

Michael O'Toole's Restaurant on Foodio54

Michael O'Toole's Restaurant & Bar on Urbanspoon

So on to Rock on the Range! The first day we went later in the day, since the bands we wanted to see didn't start until 3pm... Kind of a bad mistake... We drove around for about a half hour until we found a parking space. The concert was held at the Columbus crew stadium and the lot was packed, plus people do not know how to park, but I digress... We found a spot near the campgrounds, but was about a half mile, well maybe a lil less, from the stadium. Which turned out to be a good spot at the end of the night, since it was right next to the exit, we didn't have to wait 13 hours to get back to our hotel!

We get in the stadium in time to see My Darkest Days, to the left. I have only heard one of their songs Pornstar Dancing. They turned out a lot better than I thought they would be. We then went to the main stage and saw Hinder.. The walk into the main stage felt like we were a herd of cattle to get to the floor of the stadium.

We went back to the FYE Stage to see Escape the Fate... Not really my style, but they were good. We left their set a little early to get a good spot for Alter Bridge. We then went back to the FYE stage to see Danzig... Which I have to say was a disappointment.. Our friend is a huge Danzig fan and he was not impressed with their performance... So we left to get our spot for the headliners for the evening.

The last time I saw Staind, they kind of went down hill... Their performance on Saturday was killer! They played a lot of their older tracks and Aaron was getting into it like he did when they first came onto the scene. Felt like I was 17 again when I saw them at Metropol with Tree. *wink wink maybe the lead Singer of Tree gave me my now nickname*

Next up was KoRn!! Again a great performance! I lost my concert virginity to KoRn, when they did the first Family Values Tour back in '98. I was onstage with them in the "KoRn Kage" at that show. It was hard to get a good picture of the stage so I snapped a pic of JD from the monitor on the side of the stage. They did an awesome medley of songs off of "KoRn" and "Life is Peachy". They also did a cover of One by Metallica.

By now my feet are starting to hurt... I knew I should of bought insoles for my shoes! :oP

It's 10pm and Avenged Sevenfold hits the stage! Talk about getting the crowd pumped up! They came out to "Nighmare" and the crowd went nuts! It was kind of bitter sweet for Avenged... The last time they played Rock on the Range they played with their drummer, the Rev, who passed away in 2009. So they did a nice tribute to him. Also M. Shadow's blew our his vocal cords a few days prior to this show and they cancelled their show before this one. He didn't talk for 3 day so they would be able to play at ROTR. Avenged put on a killer show I loved their stage set up, wish I could of taken better picture but what I have will do.Well, that was only day 1... Day 2 to come later on... I'm hungry and need to make dinner... Matt should be home soon so I need to get on it!

Monday, May 9, 2011

London Calling....

We had a pretty good dinner tonight and a big one too... London Broil, Sauteed portabello mushroom, sweet potato and a salad... and I'm stuffed!

I seasoned the skins of the sweet potatoes with olive oil and kosher salt... super yummy! The mushrooms I sauteed with a little butter and the London Broil I marienated for 24 hours in Matt's dads secret recipe... Sorry guy, it's a secret but ohhhhhh so good! ;)


I think we've had our fare share of meat the past few meals... Time to get back in the veggie train.... Matt and I tried to eat vegetarian as much as we can... but there are times we crave meat, so we flex...

Well it's getting late and almost my bed time :( G'night all!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Philly Mushroom Melts

As promised, here is tonight's dinner, Philly Mushroom Melts on Ciabatta bread...

This was too easy and too quick!

Ingredients:
  • 2 portabello mushrooms
  • 1 green peppers
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 tbsp Butter
  • Shredded Cheese (I used Mozarella and Colby Jack)
  • Ciabatta Bread
Preparation
  • Cut the mushroom, onion and pepper into long strips.
  • Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat and add veggies.
  • Cook until mushrooms are completely cooked through.
  • Serve on toasted Ciabatta bread

I think I had dinner complete within 20 minutes... Beat that Rachel Ray!! haha! ;)

We also enjoyed our dinner with a nice cold glass of beer that we also bought today from the market.

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig...

Today was the first day of the Monroeville farmers market... Only 4 vendors showed up... We picked up our breakfast from Craig's Bakery, I got a cheese danish and Matt got an apple turn overs. We also picked up a loaf of Ciabatta from Wood Street Bread Company and they also threw in a loaf of French Bread for a discounted price :) Thank you!

The day was still young, so we decided to run down to the Pittsburgh Public Market. It's probably a good thing I didn't have more cash on me than I did!

We picked up a small basket of fuji apples from Morning Dew Orchards, a growler of East End Brewing's Witte beer, Chili Cilantro Linguine from Olio Fresca (pictured below) and portabello mushrooms from Mushrooms for Life.

For dinner tonight I am going to make Philly mushroom sandwiches on Ciabatta bread.

Now off to do laundry... booooo! :(

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

This is *&%$^@# Good!!

First off I'm tired... This rain and no sun in starting to get to me and I really didn't feel like cooking tonight... but we are sick of left overs... so I cooked :oP

Tonight I cooked a steak (I can't remember which cut it was) with Montreal steak season, Broccoli & Cheddar pierogies with sauteed onions and shallots and a salad with red wine vinaigrette.

So your probably wondering about the title, eh? Well, I had to quote Matt on what he thought of the meal :)

Well, I'm going to hit the road... Tonight is catch up on TV night I have an episode of Chuck and Game of Thrones waiting for me... Ciao!