window watcher

i want to hold your hand

For those of you wondering if my entire life is dedicated to picture taking and eating and baking cupcakes, I want you to know I also change headlights.

a first: red velvet

There is a first time for everything. A first bike ride without training wheels. A first kiss. A first day of school. A first love. A first job. There is also a first time for baking red velvet cupcakes. I've always enjoyed consuming them but have known little about their ingredients. My friend Meg is a cupcake baking connoisseur, so while visiting her this weekend we gave my favorite cupcake a try, from scratch. Buttermilk was the surprise ingredient. The texture of the batter was unbelievable, and I gained new understanding for the velvet part of the red velvet name.

at the drive thru

I've been to many drive thrus before: McDonald's, Wendy's, Starbucks, to name a few. It wasn't until about a year ago when I first visited Cincinnati that I got to drive thru a convenience store. My friend from Cincinnati laughs at my fascination with these lazy-person stops they simply call "drive thrus". Convenience is brought to a whole new level. Roll in and order as many packs of gum, cigarettes, cases of beer or 5 calorie energy drinks as you want. The employees scurry around to get you everything you order. You sit and watch in the driver's seat, then drive on thru.

[Curious: Anyone not been to a drive thru like this? Is this just an Ohio/Kentucky regional thing or more widespread?]

la comida de cincinnati

Skyline Chili


Graeter's


Melt


Take the Cake

The culinary high (and low) lights of my quick trip to Cincinnati. I'll let you guess which was the low light :-) I'm still wondering why I ordered chili and a coney. Seriously ...

I would like to recommend Graeter's Toffee Chip (not pictured) ice cream. If it had a motto it would be something like, "Would you like a little ice cream with your chunks of toffee?" Yum. Also, be sure to check out Take the Cake's website. It's a tabletop adventure!

cincy to the 'nati

Pics 1-3: Northside. Pic 4: Covington.

graeter's

This is a Cincinnati must. I've had Blizzards at the Dairy Queen. I've had concretes at Shakey's. I've had a Ted Drewes variation of the same ice cream and candy mix. This weekend, Graeter's took these all to the next level. Their titanic chunks of candy and chocolate inside of the ice cream was absurdly delicious. It's more like, want a little ice cream with that chocolate and toffee? It was a real treat.

great american ball park

A home run by Dunn, another by Griffey Jr. I picked a good one to attend.