Sunday night I caught Beatles tribute band Classical Mystery Tour‘s performance at Music Hall with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. My brother has an Enjoy the Arts membership and since his girlfriend could not join him for the show I got to go instead. I had never heard of  Enjoy the Arts before, but I now know it is the ideal gift for anyone aged 35 and younger. Worth almost $1,000, Enjoy the Arts members get free tickets to cool arts and a great way to experience the city all year-long for a fee of $50 ($35 for students with ID).

The performance started with a ten minute Cincinnati Pops medley overture of Beatles songs. From there the four members of Classical Mystery Tour arrived on stage to perform with the orchestra.  The highlights of the first set were mostly from the Magical Mystery Tour album, including “All You Need Is Love,” “Penny Lane,” and “Hello, Goodbye” because of the amount of orchestration on the studio versions of each song.

Beatles Music With Orchestra

The band had a number of costume changes with wardrobes spanning the Beatles career. And while they certainly looked the part, it was amazing how close their voices sounded so familiar and spot on. Orchestral highlights from the second set included “A Day in the Life,” as well as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and even Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die.” They also threw in hugely popular songs such as “Imagine,” “Something,” and “Hey Jude.”

This was a one-night-only show but it seems the band is on tour often, so be sure to catch them their next time through town. You will not be disappointed.

Friday night I was thrilled to join thousands of others at an event benefiting the A Kid Again organization.  A Kid Again strives to enrich the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses and their families by providing healing times of respite through fun-filled group activities and destination events.

Basketball Extravaganza

My father-in-law’s company helped sponsor Friday night’s 23rd annual Basketball Extravaganza. This event pitted a team full of former and current NFL football players against a team full of other area celebrities, including former Reds players. The game was entertaining and both teams helped get the crowd into the game by having kids shoot their free throws and occasionally letting an attendee inbound the ball.

It is always great to have a nice night out while helping to support honorable charities such as A Kid Again.

Today kicks off the third annual Cincinnati Beer Week. There are so many events this year that everyone should be able to find something that interests them. I’m hoping to hit up the  Lagunitas Official Cincinnati Release  event at Market Wines tonight after Broomball. Lagunitas has been distributing in all other corners of Ohio except for Cincinnati. But that all changes today and the California based brewery will be appearing in all of your favorite better beer locations.

My yearly collection of favorite songs and newly discovered artists, NOW That’s What Ed Calls Music,  is available for download from the links below.

1. Frank Turner – Recovery
2. The Mowgli’s – San Francisco
3. Ha Ha Tonka – Usual Suspects
4. Kodaline – All I Want
5. Matt Nathanson – Mission Bells
6. The Oh Hello’s – Like The Dawn
7. Twin Forks – Back To You
8. Michael Franti & Spearhead – Life Is Better With You
9. Jake Bugg – Me And You
10. The Avett Brothers – Another Is Waiting
11. Ivan & Alyosha – Running For Cover
12. The Wild Feathers – The Ceiling
13. The Head And The Heart – Shake
14. Al Scorch – Working Dream
15. The Lone Bellow – Bleeding Out
16. Brett Dennen – Out Of My Head
17. Will Hoge – Strong

This compilation is available for download from Dropbox  and from  my site  (much slower). It is also available for streaming on Spotify. Please support these artists by buying their full albums and attending their live shows.  As always I hope you enjoy the compilation and happy belated holidays.

Why is that kids traditionally despise Brussels sprouts? I don’t think I even tried them until a few years ago, but I have been on a major kick and will add them to my Green B.E.A.N. delivery any time they are available.

Oven Roasted

My favorite way to prepare them is very simply to roast them in the oven with a little salt and pepper. If you need an exact recipe to follow, try this one. I followed it the first time but have since made small modifications and even tried other seasoning, though it seems that salt and pepper are enough.

With Chicken And Potatoes

I haven’t had any luck getting our three-year-old to give them a try, but I hope to make sure he doesn’t wait as long as I did to discover these tasty little veggies.

Bell’s Hopslam is a  remarkably drinkable rendition of the Double India Pale Ale style that has a pretty serious cult like following. Each winter when it is released in January it disappears from shelves as quickly as it came into the store. People have stalked delivery trucks just to be sure they could get their hands on some. Though with so many stores utilizing social media now, it is no longer necessary to do so.

Cases O’ Hopslam

Just look at what  O’Bryan’s Wine  got delivered last Monday. Roughly twenty cases. It disappeared before the day was over though. I personally bought an entire case.  I believe that most stores in Ohio are now out of Hopslam. However Kentucky didn’t release theirs until this week, and I’ve heard that the Party Source still has some available.

2014 vs 2013

I set aside a couple of bottles from last year’s release in my continuously growing beer cellar. Normally an IPA is something that you want to drink as soon as possible, as hop profiles fade quickly with age. With that said I had read some somewhat positive reviews of cellar aged Hopslam. Personally in my taste taste I much preferred the fresh variety, though my wife (not much of a hop head) preferred the aged. I let her have my second bottle out of the cellar. For a much more descriptive comparison, check out what the Brew Professor had to think in a similar taste test.

The latest restaurant to open in Over-the-Rhine’s Gateway Quarter on Vine Street is The Eagle Food & Beer Hall. This latest venture is owned by the same folks who brought us Bakersfield OTR  and Currito, both of which I have enjoyed. The Eagle has received a lot of praise since opening, and needless to say it was just a matter of time before I tried it myself.

Fried 1/4 Chicken

The Eagle specializes in fried chicken and the rest of the menu is a pretty simple offering of a few sandwiches and various southern style sides (but no biscuits). I ordered 1/4 chicken white meat ($5) which comes served with a side dish of spicy hot honey. The 1/4 chicken is the perfect serving size for one, with most of the food coming from the large natural, free range, Amish chicken breasts. The chicken was perfectly cooked and delicious. The spicy hot honey was a lot hotter than I expected. I made the mistake of dipping my first few bites deep in the honey, which then overpowered the chicken flavor. I recommend to use the provided spoon to drizzle the honey on top of the chicken before eating.

Side Of Fries

I also ordered a side of fries with aioli ($3). The serving size is large and easily could be split between two. The fries were a fried shoestring style and perfectly seasoned with herbs. The aioli was a fine accompaniment to the nearly bottomless bucket of fries. Others in our group had the fried chicken sandwich, which looked amazing, and the grilled cheese. I will definitely try a sandwich on a future visit. I’m told they do have high  chairs and a somewhat kid friendly menu, so perhaps I’ll take the whole family down there for lunch sometime soon. And I will return to The Eagle soon, the food was awesome and the prices are very affordable.

One advantage to the below average and freezing temperatures we have had lately is that Mirror Lake in Eden Park is fully frozen. My buddy Kenny caught word of some pond hockey taking place on the lake this past Sunday at noon. I haven’t played pond hockey since high school, so I immediately let him know that I was definitely ready to play.

Kenny on the Ice

Sections of the frozen lake had already been cleared of most of the near six inches of snow that had fallen recently, but we brought along a few shovels to remove any extra that we found. It seems we weren’t the only ones using the lake for hockey, in fact there was another group of younger players getting in some extra practice time, as well as a steady line of others coming out with family and friends for a good skate.

Game On

We ended up with roughly twelve guys in our group. We started by playing with teams of four as the crowd was still growing, but quickly changed to teams of three. We randomly drew teams and created a little tournament. One of the guys in the group built some awesome goals, with two small openings on either end, that proved to be challenging and way more stable than a pair of shoes like we used to play with back in the day. Everyone had a great time and some were talking about playing again this coming weekend. Let me know if you’d like to give it a go and I’ll keep you informed on the status.

Sleepy Bee Cafe  is  a new breakfast and lunch spot that opened in Oakley just before Christmas. My wife and I finally made the five-minute drive from our house for breakfast a couple of Fridays ago. They are  committed to serving local, pesticide-free, non genetically modified foods when possible.   The menu will be dynamic and evolve with the seasons.

Bottomless Coffee

I started with a bottomless cup of coffee ($3) while my wife ordered a chai latte from the coffee bar. We enjoyed the drinks very much while looking over the menu. The inside of the restaurant is fairly spacious and is filled with many two and four top tables. It wasn’t busy during our visit but I’m told that wait times can be expected on the weekends.

Inside

For breakfast I went with the apple cakes, three buttermilk pancakes topped with sautéed caramelized apples, whipped cream and house-made granola ($9.50). The pancakes themselves were rather average and not as fluffy as I was expecting. The fruit and granola topping was wonderful though and was easily the highlight of the dish, as expected.

Apple Cakes

My wife had the Avi omelet with avocado, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, onions, and white cheddar ($9.95). I didn’t hear any complains from her and she seemed to enjoy every last bite. She choose to have the oven-roasted potato “hive fries” on the side, which I shared with her. The item on her plate that stood out the most to me (I did not try the omelet) was the house-made ketchup with a slightly smoky flavor and very little sweetness to it. It was a good start but I would like to see even more spice added to the ketchup.

The Avi

Overall the Sleepy Bee Cafe is off to a good start. We will definitely be back for more, though I would like to see the menu expand beyond the pancake and omelet offerings. The lunch menu looks really good, so I’m hoping that will be our next meal at the new café.

This past Friday night my wife and I took the kids to meet up with some of my in-laws for some indoor water park fun at Coco Key  in Sharonville. The temperature outside was below freezing and there was plenty of snow on the group, so a warm indoor activity was just what we needed!

Parrot’s Perch

I’ve only been to one other indoor water park, Fort Rapids outside of Columbus, but I have seen the inside of the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, and the size of CoCo Key is smaller than both. Basically there is a fairly large interactive play area in the middle of a lazy river. On the other side of the building is the  zero-depth entry area with slides for the little ones. At the back of the building are four water slides with tubes that run outside. To round out the attractions are an indoor/outdoor hot tub and an activity pool with basketball hoops.

Dip-in

I did not visit the small children’s  area, but my wife took our nine-month-old there and found the water to be much too cold. It didn’t help that the air temperature inside wasn’t as warm as I would have liked. One of the employees said that they are closed during the week, and since they just opened at 4pm the night of our visit, it would take some time for things to heat up. Despite what was said, we found the water to be much warmer in all other attractions. So we spent a good majority of the time either in the lazy river or the activity pool, but since life jackets are required for the latter (54″ and under) we didn’t stay there long.

I did find some time to spend with the older kids in our group and enjoyed the three water slides that were operating. One of the slides was boarded up and had no water flowing through it. The hot tub was also a nice feature but is restricted to those guests 16 and over. We all had free passes or discounted tickets through Groupon, which seem to be offered fairly regularly.  I would have a hard time paying the standard daily rate of $25 per person, but there are even discounts offered on their website.  We ended up spending the better part of four hours at the water park and would recommend it for a good winter activity.