Friday, June 27, 2014

Coming Your Way

The purpose of this blog is evolving to help me be more focused and me more accountable for time. There is absolutely no reason I have not posted something more recently except plain and simple procrastination. Now that I am done with graduate school that seems to be a focus in my life: Procrastination. It needs to stop. So it starts with the blog here are few posts.

Coming your way hopefully by the 4th of July not necessarily in this order:
1) Fish Out of Water : A tale of my struggles with my identity
2) Thrifty Tuesdays: An idea for a cheap date night
3) Burger and Brew: Recap of a date night
4) Immigrant Moments: A fun heart warming moment
5) Changes: Like I said I graduated but that's not the only change

So stay tuned.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

A Bassett Street Brunch And Macarons

This is the first in the series of our dates : Brunch and a Cooking Class!

For some reason nights and evenings have capitalized "dating." Poor days!It's like one cannot be excited and romantic during it. Well this first date definitely breaks that mold. Morning and afternoon dates are especially great on Sunday, so you can still go to bed on time starting the week fresh? Just kidding... that did not happen but we did have the date on Sunday. Part of the date was impromptu, and  the other part had been booked a week in advance.

We started by heading over to Bassett Street Brunch Club, a place we have enjoyed in the past, and did this time too!! We decided on Bassett Street because we had a gift certificate that sweetened the deal. Definitely recommend the Fried Chicken with Biscuits. This is a good entree to split if that is your thing. We did not this time but might in the future. They also have donuts. In Madison given the reputed Greenbush I was skeptical. But these were good! M especially likes the Maple Bacon Donut.

After filling up with brunch,we headed to Orange Tree Imports to learn how to make some macarons. In addition to being a gourmet food store, they do cooking demo classes. We love macrons (and had heard they are temperamental) so why not have a professional show us how to make it? We did book this class in advance. I came across it while looking for something else. Unfortunately, at that time the class was all booked up. I put us on the wait list and two spots opened up the previous weekend. And so the wheels were put in motion for this date. While the class was informative and useful, it was not what I expected. It's more like an extended demo, and there was minimal hands on cooking. So that was a tad disappointing. But learning, and eating macarons was pretty cool.
 

Overall  I think as a date: brunch, and a cooking class is a pretty solid option. Would I say this particular class? Not sure, I did learn, and the instructor was good. But it was quite pricey at $80. 00 for two people. And without an hands on experience- not really worth it in my opinion. The brunch was reasonable I think it was about 30 something with beverages, and an appetizer. And it was yummy. But together this put the date in the $100 + category which is expensive for us. And not really a possibility to do often. But something to consider is this can be adapted to be cheaper if done differently?A cheaper spot for brunch, and  
may be a cheaper class? Or a Free Demo at a Grocery Store? It can!! So it is something we will change up, and do again.

So would I recommend; Basset Street: Yes, Orange Tree Imports Cooking Class- May be, it depends on what you are looking for, and Brunch and a Cooking Class as a date? Yes!