A Local CoMo "Homey" Moon

Well as neither Brett or I are too terribly traditional, it shouldn't surprise you that not only was our wedding untraditional, but our honeymoon was as well. One area where some tradition did break through though was in our wedding gifts - I am a woman who loves to cook and I was really stoked with all the awesome kitchen stuff we got from folks who came to our wedding. I will be highlighting some of those things in coming posts.

I called this post the "Homey" Moon post for a couple of reasons - Callina, fellow CoMo'ian, Assistant Editor extraordinaire at MissouriLife magazine, and author of the blog The Gingerbread House coined the term for us. First off, we brought our "homies" back to Columbia with us, and we were celebrating our marriage in our home town. Thanks Callina, that is far more inspired than anything I could have come up with!

Anyway, since Neil (Brett's Best Man), Gerald (a friend), and Collene (Neil's daughter) live in Kansas and Selina and Jason live in Indiana, we don't have many opportunities to see each other very often. So we built a day in our honeymoon for hanging with pals. After we ate at The Drunken Fish, Neil, Gerald, Collene, Selina, Jason, Brett and myself all piled in our respective cars and had a convoy on I-70 from St. Louis to Columbia - we all checked into our respective rooms, but spent most of the time in Brett and I's "honeymoon suite". While we didn't get to do as much as I would have liked to have (nobody, myself included, wanted to get up for the farmer's market the day after the wedding seeing as how we didn't even get to the hotel until after 12), but we had a good time nonetheless. We spent Saturday showing them our apartment, swimming at the hotel pool, relaxing in the hot tub in our room, and playing the Sims, the WII, and the PS3.

Neil is a dear old friend, but he is quite the party animal compared to the rest of us so he was a form of entertainment in and of himself, we needed to relax in the aftermath of what is lovingly called "The Neil Experience", so after everyone left on Sunday, we just chilled out, got some grub, went a few places, and just enjoyed each others company. Most of the wedding party doesn't drink so our festivities were most definitely mild compared to what Neil is used to, but it was exciting enough for us.

Selina, Jason, Brett and I got on so well that we want to try to see each other again sooner rather than later, so perhaps in mid-June we will meet up in Peoria for a relaxed, laid-back, good time. I've never been to Illinois in the summer, so it might give me a different perspective of the state (which is miserably cold and windy).

Anyways, this post, again, contains a ton of pictures. I apologize about the quality of some of them. My dad gave us his old digital camera (I love hand-me-downs) and I am still trying to figure out how to work it.


Our hotel room had a window filled sunroom with a hot tub in it (thankfully there was a privacy wall and window coverings too). We had a good time taking relaxing in it, though you can't stay in there too long or you get all hot and pruny.


Brett and Collene playing the Sims on our laptop.


Gerald chilling in the "livingroom" of our hotel room. He discovered the comfort of swimming trunks after running around in them before we went to the pool. I think he may have found a more comfortable version of shorts. :-)


Neil, looking happy and smiling for the camera.


The main form of entertainment, the big flat screen TV which we hooked a WII and PS3 up to. The hotel actually tries to discourage folks from setting up gaming devices, but we were awash in techno-nerds who knew how to bipass their system. Take that!


Brett and I's hotel entertainment of choice - A mocha latte for Mr. B and a soy latte for Mrs. J - both from our favorite local coffee haunt Coffee Zone. We rented this game, but actually ended up taking it back and just buying NBA 2k9. There is a glitch in this game where you can't run. This makes the fast break and defense next to impossible.


Brett playing the Play Station.


We chose to be, of course, the Missouri Tigers.

Onto the local honeymoon eats - almost all the places we went were local. Acutally all the places I went were local. Brett had to get a bit of fast food in to scratch the itch he had been having. :-)


This is a local tea room called Kayotea.


This place always smells amazing and I love the atmosphere.


There is even a couch area with lots of magazines, some books, checkers, chess, etc. Brett and I have passed time here over a pot of tea and a game of checkers.


Brett's Caprese sandwich with a side salad and balsamic dressing.


A close-up of Brett's Caprese sandwich. Basil pesto, fresh tomatoes, and mozzarella grilled between ciabatta.


This was my meal: vegan black bean soup (it was really tasty) and a special-order sandwich - these pesto has cheese in it, so I ordered the veggie sandwich (grilled portobello mushrooms, onions, tomatoes) and subbed strawberry dressing for the pesto. It was really, really good.


Brett and I between basketball games.


Coffee Zone! As you can see it is right next door to Columbia's "famous" music establishment, The Blue Note.


Coffee Zone is one of those hidden gems in Columbia. Owned by some very cool Jordanian folks, it is much more than a coffee place, it is also home to some really cool Middle Eastern decor and fantastic food.


Another shot of Coffee Zone.


Meet Issam - the owner of Coffee Zone, Osama's, brother. Brett worked at Coffee Zone a few years ago as a summer job and really hit it off with Issam, who admittedly is a really cool guy. Issam also gave Brett two of his nicknames. Being Jordanian, he didn't say Brett quite right, at first it was "Breet" and then went to "Brate", those nicknames have stuck too.


Brett and I at the Zone.


Brett's gyro. I am ever-surprised at the beauty of the display and dishware they use here at Coffee Zone, the food isn't very expensive - I dare so it is underpriced - and yet they make sure that their dishes go out looking beautiful. Brett managed to scarf down this whole gyro with tzatziki and feta cheese. They even cut the gyro meat fresh from some sort of large hunk of meat each morning, this makes their gyro meat tender - something not often found in a gyro meat.


For me it was the falafel wrap with hummus. Issam has a special recipe for his falafel and I have never tasted a falafel better than what I get at Coffee Zone. I also love their hummus and that they use sumac.


This is a Hummus Sandwich from Uprise Bakery - it is on freshly baked Uprise Nine Grain bread, smeared with some really tasty hummus and topped with mostly local veggies - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.


Brett got the turkey sandwich on ciabatta with poblano peppers in it.


This is Brett's Rice and Bean Burrito from our favorite Mexican restaurant in Columbia, El Rancho. Voted Best of 2009 by Inside Columbia magazine, this is a place we can never seem to get enough of. I'm sure it isn't the absolute best place to get Mexican in Columbia, but for a vegetarian it is great because there is a variety of options and we love it. In the background is the other beauty of El Rancho - Lime Jarritos. You can buy this from most groceries around here, but it isn't the same without El Rancho's food accompanying it.


We both always get the same thing when we go to El Rancho - Brett gets the Rice and Bean Burrito and I get the Veg E Burrito without cheese. It is sauteed mushrooms, onions, and peppers seasoned with I think adobo seasoning, refried beans, and topped with lettuce, tomato, and guacamole. I love the hot salsa they serve with it too. I've been trying to figure out what is in it for years and I very successfully recreated it the other day - though that is the subject for a different post.


Here is Brett enjoying an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Obviously, as a non dairy vegetarian, DQ doesn't offer much for folks like me, but I was still stuffed from lunch, so it all worked out. :-) I was happy Brett got his Blizzard.


My goodness this is a bad picture. This is from Murray's. Murray's is a really cool place in Columbia, they often have live jazz. Brett was delighted by the famous Murray's burger which is made from local Show-Me-Farms beef. The horrible picture above is of my meal of a grilled eggplant and red pepper sandwich.


This was Brett's delectable breakfast from Lucy's Corner Cafe. We love this place for a number of reasons - first off, the food is good and inexpensive. Secondly, it reminds us both of a small town cafe. The service is great and the ladies who work there call you things like "sweetheart" and make sure you never run out of coffee.

Brett had two eggs, over easy, hash browns, and toast.


I don't really dig on the whole raw egg yolk thing, so I went for the one large egg, scrambled, with hash browns and toast. That was one big egg, I think I may have gotten "hooked up". I had to give my toast to Brett though, the eggs and potatoes were too much!


Here is Brett patiently waiting for his breakfast. Isn't he cute?!


Here I am drinking some coffee showing off my "bed-head ponytail". This is the only diner I've ever been to that has decent coffee. Another score for Lucy's!

Not pictured was the Egg Salad Sandwich I had from a restaurant here in Columbia called Bleu. This was definitely a little different from "normal" egg salad sandwiches I've had but it was amazing. They added capers and some other goodies to the egg salad and it was served on this fantastic Jewish rye bread. The night I enjoyed Bleu, Brett had a couple of burgers from Steak and Shake. Yes, he preferred to have Steak and Shake over something tasty from Bleu. Ask him about that one! I was just happy he was able to get what he wanted to eat.

The other meal not pictured was from Room 38, which is almost an upscale bar type place. From there, Brett enjoyed something called a "Beef and Brick" which is a beef and mozzarella sandwich as well as some Room 38 sliders, which I believe are just small burgers. He has had quite the appetite lately. He claims he can get fat now that we are married. :-)

I had the vegetarian flatbread from Room 38. It was a grilled flat bread topped with olive oil, garlic, and charred portobellos, artichokes, bell peppers, and onions. I also had some homemade tortilla chips and roasted red pepper hummus.

As you can see, we ate well on our Homey-Moon, but we have definitely been enjoying the at-home cooking that has taken place since as well.


Here is a picture of Gabby who really missed us while we were gone. We've been home a week and she is STILL all over us. I was trying to take a picture of Brett but Gabby really wanted attention and decided to be the focal point of the picture.


This was Brett and I's wedding present to ourselves. After having a lack of success with the college basketball game, we just decided to get the most recent version of the game we had for the PS2. We love this game. They have worked out a lot of the glitches that we didn't like about NBA 2k5. For one, certain players that weren't all that good were just unstoppable in that game, not so much any more and I really appreciate that.


Me doing what I do best - Chilling out!


The sign on the road leading to Danjo Farms, our CSA Farm. I have always wanted to visit a farm and never have. Since we had the car, we decided to take a tour of the farm that grows a good portion of the vegetables we eat each summer.

It was really neat to be able to see where and how our food is produced and all that goes in to it.


Here is one of the smaller veggie plots. This is a row of cabbage.


I think this is also cabbage, just purple.


Cauliflower.


Turkeys and chickens. These chickens don't even have to be pinned up. One of Dan's sons looked at me weird when I asked him if they ran away. Obviously I have never been on a farm or had chickens before. :-)


Brett holding one of the sweet, friendly little farm kittens. There were three of them and boy did they all want some love. I've never seen such social and friendly kittens. There were some very cute and sweet pups there as well, but every time I leaned down to get a pictures, I was ambushed my doggie kisses. :-)


This one reminded me of Nermal, she liked to meow to get your attention so you would pet her.


The three farm kittens hanging out, waiting for attention in Danjo Farms' Country Store.


Kohlabri.


Pig! I am displaying my ignorance here, but I didn't realize that pigs were this big. They are very, very large animals.


Rabbits, turkeys, chickens, and what looked like it could be a peacock or something, I wasn't sure.


Strawberries.


Here is the loot I picked up while we were in the Country Store. Starting from the bottom left: a yellow squash, a zucchini, 2 bunches of spring onions, 4 cukes, 4 tomatoes, and a container of strawberries. Yummy!


Here is a load of goodies from a new find right near our apartment in Columbia. Los Cuates Latin Market. This place has been around for awhile and I can't believe it took me so long to go over there. And let me tell you, I was shocked when I got to the counter and all this only ran $14. There was such a variety of dried Mexican peppers and spices I could have stayed in that tiny store all day. A bit of an odd place though, it is a combination grocery, boot store, and tacqueria. I keep telling Brett he needs to go try their food!

I bet you can smell a lot of even better, yummier, Mexican food coming. You'd be right! I've already experimented with some of the peppers, and I am just getting started.

I will be back to this store - many, many, many times.


Since I was so excited about my finds, I thought I'd highlight them individually. Here is some achiote or crushed annato seeds that is commonly used as a spice in Mexican cooking.


Arbol chiles! This is like the Mexican answer to the cayenne. Their flavor reminds me of a ripe serrano (which I love), but they are a little spicier (which I really love).


Guajillo chiles.


Mulato chiles - these are an awful lot like ancho chiles (dried poblanos), but they have a richer, earthier flavor.


Pasilla chiles! I am going to be making some damn good sauces and marinades with these.


Piquin chiles! These will be used to make very spicy chile sauces. w00t!

What follows are a few pictures I forgot to post in our wedding post.


Here is my ring. A 3 mm custom made mobius eternity band. We were able to get our rings made by a local artisan. He is an apprentice to a professional jeweler and we later found out that he lives in our neighborhood, such a small world.


Here is Brett's ring, a 5 mm custom made mobius eternity band. He did such an excellent job on Brett's ring, it is really gorgeous and Brett loves it.


This is the picture of Brett and I at the Arch that Selina was referring to in her comment on the Veg*n Cooking Wedding post. She is right though, this a good picture of us, and she took it. Thanks Triple S!


And finally I will leave you with another cute picture of Brett. This one I took at the Arch. I am one lucky girl aren't I? Not only is he cute, but is is also very smart, funny, and oh so kind.

I'm sure you all are pictured out if you managed to make it to the end of this post. Whew!

'Til next time.