One of my brother-in-laws is currently studying Aviation Technology at the University of Cincinnati. He already has his private pilot certificate for single engine planes, and eventually will receive his commercial certificate as well as part of the program. This past Saturday he rented a plane for an hour to give family members a ride.

The Rented Aircraft

He took both of his parents and younger brother for rides first. Here is a video of one of the takeoffs.

Fortunately after they were all finished with their rides, there was still time for me to take a quick ride!

Instrument Panel

First Officer Paff

View From The Air

Commander Hais

Also, here is a video of our smooth landing despite a shifting headwind.

Thanks for the ride, Chip!

I attended my third Cyclones game of the season this past Friday night. My uncle works for Chatfield College, which provided us with $3 tickets to the game. It is really hard to pass up a Cyclones game, and at this price we would be completely foolish. Plus we ended up with tickets just a row off of the ice. While I typically prefer to sit up higher to watch the full play develop, it was neat to be so close to the action.

Up Close And Personal

It was also King of Pop Night, featuring tons of Michael Jackson music, specialty jerseys worn by the team, and even bobbleheads. The Cyclones mascot, Twister, is pictured on the bobblehead in Jackson style clothes and appears to be doing the “Thriller” dance. I just put ours in Trey’s room, and I hope it doesn’t scare him too much.

King Of Pop Bobblehead

We had a great time at the game with so many family and friends and the Cyclones squeezed out a 2-1 victory over the Florida Everblades.

Prior to my first visit, I read some pretty terrible reviews of the Tumi Cafe, so I went in expecting the worst. We had a LivingSocial coupon to use, so I figured it was worth a try anyway. Upon entering the small Peruvian restaurant, we soon realized that we were the only customers for lunch on this Saturday. We were greeted by the owner and showed to a table near the back of the room.

Inca Kola

I started out with an Inca Kola, a popular soft drink from Peru, commonly described as having a bubblegum flavor. It pours a similar color to Mountain Dew, but is even sweeter. I was disappointed to find out that Coca-Cola actually owns the trademark and that the soda is not really an export of Peru. I wouldn’t order it again, but I figured I had to try it.

Sweet Potatoes

While the owner walked us through the menu, our one-year-old son was growing very hungry, so we rushed in an order of sweet potatoes while she continued to tell us all about the various dishes on the menu. Within a few minutes, a plate of oven baked sweet potatoes with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar and rum was given to us, and they were very good! Our son loves sweet potatoes and he quickly ate his way through these with no complaints.

Aji de Gallina

The easiest decision we had to make was to try their most popular entrée, Aji de Gallina ($8.95). This dish features chicken covered in a sauce of walnuts, aji peppers, and Parmesan cheese. Also on the plate is their green rice and a side of hot mayo. Not pictured but also included is a small cup of salsa criolla (aji peppers, red onion and vinegar). Though the menu describes this as very spicy, I didn’t think it was, but it was actually very tasty. The hot mayo did add a little kick, if needed.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

Since we were splitting the Aji de Gallina, we decided to order something else to try as well. With a somewhat limited menu, we decided to give the pulled pork sandwich ($4.95) a try. A full half pound of pork was served on a bun with more hot mayo and a little barbecue sauce. It too was good, though I think the Aji de Gallina was the standout item of the two.

While we enjoyed our food, the owner continued to share information with us. The tables, chairs, plates, and silverware are all mismatched items and have all come from the salvation army. Nothing they serve is fried, in fact they only have a small oven and use crock pots to keep things warm, cook rice, prepare soups, etc. The chicken is baked and then sliced by hand for use in a variety of dishes. She also provided some samples to us, the standout being their aji chili con carne.

It was also interesting to learn that all tips are donated to the Mt. Washington Music Project. Acts from this non-profit provide evening musical entertainment on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. It sounds like some nights can become quite crowded, so we may have to check that out in the future. Also of note is that the restaurant is BYOB, there are a couple of alcohol retailers just behind the restaurant.

Tres Leches Cake

To wrap up our first visit to the Tumi Cafe, we ordered the Tres Leches cake ($2.95). This is a traditional Peruvian light cake dipped with three kinds of milk and covered with cinnamon. It was light and spongy cake and was the perfect ending to a good meal. Despite what I had read about the Tumi Cafe before our visit, I was pleasantly surprised and would not hesitate to go back in the future.

Overflow Crowd At Memorial Hall

Last Friday, I took a long lunch and headed downtown for the Cincinnati Streetcar groundbreaking. It started at 1pm, and when I arrived around 1:15 there was already an overflow crowd gathered outside Memorial Hall. While I didn’t get a chance to go inside to hear the speeches from Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood or Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, I did get to see them along with other members of the city council turn the first shovels on the old brick paved Elm Street.

Shovels Lined Up

Groundbreaking!

As many projects have had a ceremonial groundbreaking and then sat idle for a while, it was nice to see that before this ceremony even took place there were visible cuts through the old pavers. They have wasted no time getting started on the project and have already posted a progress video on YouTube, which you can find below. Other information and photos can be viewed on 5chw4r7z.com and UrbanCincy.

In our last produce delivery from Green B.E.A.N was a bundle of collard greens. I can’t recall ever eating collards before, let alone preparing them, so I went searching for a recipe that could be a good introduction to these leafy greens. I found this recipe for kickin’ collard greens and loved that bacon was included. Even though I’m sure it would have been even better with regular pork bacon, I prepared the dish with peppered turkey bacon instead to please my wife.

Adding Collard Greens

Other than the bacon substitution, I followed the recipe really closely. The result was pretty good, much better than I was expecting actually. The red pepper flakes definitely gave the dish a spicy kick. I wouldn’t say that it was my favorite dish, but it definitely was a great first attempt with collard greens. My wife seemed to love it, so perhaps I will give other recipes with collard greens a try. Anyone have any favorites?

Finished Product

A spot opened up between sessions on my men’s league hockey team, and my brother has now joined the team. Our game on Sunday was the first time he has played organized hockey in ten years. It is also the first time that him and I have played on the same team since we were very young, both of us were probably under 10 when it happened last.

I'm carrying the puck, while my brother looks on from behind.

Surprisingly he picked it back up, almost as if there was no lull in his play. Sure he took a few good falls, but I was shocked at how quickly he was able to deliver quality passes and even take a couple of decent shots on goal. Our team dominated the play and won the game 6-1. We now features five alumni of Moeller High School, four of which are pairs of brothers. Hopefully we can add more alumni to the team in the future, and maybe even have an all alumni team.

A couple of weekends ago, during our lunch break from the 5B Conference, I had the opportunity to finally try Cafe de Wheels. This food truck was gracious enough to park their operation just outside the convention center for conference attendees to order lunch. On first glance the offerings from this truck are very similar to Bones’ Burgers, which used to park near my office building during lunch. Basically burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches, though there are a few other choices from Cafe de Wheels including a cuban, chicken sandwich, and a couple of veggie options.

Menu

Since I was still nursing a decent hangover from the Cincy Beer Fest the night before, I decided I needed a greasy meal and went with the grilled cheese on wheat and an order of sweet potato fries, $4 each. Our group was keeping the truck busy, and it took a good while for my order to be ready, but I’m always happy to see things made to order.

Grilled Cheese

My grilled cheese was as you would expect, nothing crazy but still a good lunch. I much prefer the more adventurous grilled cheese offerings from Bones’ Burgers, but this definitely got the job done. In hindsight, a friend of mine had good things to say about the homemade Mt. Healthy veggie burger, and perhaps that would have been a better choice. Or maybe next time I would get the chicken sandwich or even the cuban.

Sweet Potato Fries

The serving of sweet potato fries was pretty large, but also pretty expensive at $4. However, they were perfectly cooked and very tasty! I didn’t have any dipping sauce, not even ketchup in the bag, but fortunately the seasoning was enough on its own. I do think $3 would be more appropriate to charge. Overall, I didn’t like this food truck as much as the similar Bones’ Burgers, but I would give it another try as I think there are some other sandwiches that are worth a try. I just wasn’t in the mood on this particular visit.

After a late Friday night at the Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest, I was up early and on my way to the first ever 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites and Blogging Conference. I woke up with quite a headache that was still lingering after a shower and getting dressed for the day, so I cracked open my last remaining bottle of Founders Breakfast Stout to start off the day. I figured if beer was involved in the conference there was nothing wrong with starting the day off this way.

Turns out I wouldn’t be the only one drinking before noon that day, as Troika Brodsky from Schlafly brought along some of their beers for us all to try. I wish more would have followed in his footsteps and brought beer along for us to sample, but that truly is my only complaint of the day. Maybe next time I should bring some beer along myself, I don’t think anyone would oppose.

Throughout the morning and afternoon there were various presentations and conversations that fit into one of the three main categories: beer, bites, or general blogging. Each hour there were three different sessions to choose from, one for each of the categories. I primarily stuck with the beer blogging track, even though I rarely write about beer (something that may change soon).

The first hour I sat in a presentation from Tamre Mullins of Girls Pint Out and Elle Potter of Zephyr Adventures as they filled everyone in on the upcoming Beer Bloggers Conference that is scheduled for Indianapolis on July 13-15, 2012. It sounds like a really cool event, and I may consider attending if my summer isn’t already busy enough. I know that my friend Adam, who was also attending the 5B conference, is also interested in going.

The next hour I did switch over to the general blogging session where Troika from Schlafly and Jay Kulpa, a freelance social media manager, discussed being a professional social media coordinator. Truthfully I wasn’t sure what the session was going to be about, but I knew there was beer being served, so I was in! Turns out Troika had a ton of very interesting stories about how he started the social media campaigns for the brewery on both Facebook and Twitter without anyone knowing. Now he serves as the communications director of the brewery and still manages the social media accounts.

Free Beer

After lunch (which I will write about later) I stuck with the brewery track. First I listened to the CEO of Christian Moerlein, Greg Hardman, tell us all about the brewing history of Christian Moerlein and provided us a very descriptive picture of what the Moerlein Lager House will look like when it opens in just a couple weeks on February 27. I was hoping for a tour, but I guess I will see it soon enough.

The next session featured three of the brewers of the Cincinnati Beer Week Barleywine, Mitch Dougherty of Rock Bottom, Jared Hamilton of Mt. Carmel Brewing and Jason Roeper of Rivertown Brewing. It was my first time meeting any of the brewers from these establishments and it was great to hear of the difficulties encountered while brewing, and how successful the beer was in the end. I later had a chance to talk with both Mitch and Jared more and they both were really great guys and very informative on their beers.

Finally, Tom Streeter of Hoperatives (the website who was more or less in charge of the conference) led a beer blogging town hall, where good discussion occurred on what things we’d like to see change in the Cincinnati beer community and how beer bloggers can be better involved with the breweries that are already in our city and those that are soon to open. It was a nice recap of all that we had learned and already discussed earlier in the day. As I wrote earlier, I really do hope that this becomes an annual event. I would definitely attend again.

We had an awards banquet and pizza party for my broomball team last night, celebrating our 3-3 season. Typically a season with a .500 winning percentage wouldn’t normally be celebrated, but our team had yet to win a game in the previous seasons and somehow managed to only score one goal in doing so. I have a feeling that even if we lost all of our games again, the Little Kings would have still celebrated a fun six weeks, but winning games is always nice too.

After chowing down on some Adriatico’s pizza and beer at Market Wines, awards were given out to members of the team and even some infamous members of our fan club. Some of the awards that I can recall for other team members were Best Falls and Best Dressed. Personally I won the award for Best Beard! My face has never been so proud.

Best Beard

I spent the majority of the last weekend down at the Duke Energy Convention Center for both nights of the fifth annual Cincinnati Winter Beer Fest and the first 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites, and Blogging Conference, which I hope will become an annual event. In addition to great presentations and conversations, the 5B offered cheap admission to both nights of the Beer Fest. I will write more about the conference in future posts, but for now I will keep my focus on the Beer Fest itself.

A couple of things I saw that need immediate attention are the overall lack of organization to the entire event, and the extreme crowds that were present on Saturday night. Fortunately there were so few people in attendance on Friday night, that I was able to sample nearly everything that I wanted in just one night. Top beers for me included the Tazza Mia Espresso IPA from Rock Bottom Cincinnati, as well as the X-Hop IPA from Fat Head’s and D.O.R.I.S. the Destroyer Double Imperial Stout from Hoppin’ Frog. It was also nice to have some special release beers from local breweries Rivertown, Listermann, and the soon to open Blank Slate. I also have come to the conclusion that I do not care for cask conditioned IPA’s.

Packed House For Beer Fest

On the organizational front, it all starts with the terrible website that is in place for the event. Not only is it flash based, but navigating the site to find information is nearly impossible. No where is it mentioned if food would be served inside. A map of the festival was promised on one page but was never posted, or if it was I could never find it. Once inside the event center, there were signs directing people where to go based on their ticket type, but I was given the wrong type of wristband on the first  night and completely missed the connoisseur session that I had paid extra for. I had assumed that it would be inside the main festival floor, but when I finally tracked down a map I could not find the connoisseur section listed. Turns out it was on a separate floor away from the rest of the festival.

Obviously I will likely still attend an event like this in the future, but it doesn’t hurt to hope for some improvements that are much needed. And if a stricter limit isn’t placed on the number of tickets sold for each night, I would definitely opt to skip the Saturday night session. It was much too crowded and every single booth had at least a ten minute wait for a beer. Plus a number of breweries ran out of beer before closing, some even packing up their booth and heading home early. I joined them and was back home by 10pm on Saturday night after having tasted less than ten beers on the main festival floor.

Cincy Beerfest Cake