Yes/No Detroit

Everyone always complains that January feels like a year in itself—I always feel kind of compelled to defend my birth month, when that happens, but I do agree it feels long. Today is the last day of January, though, and my husband and I took the day off work to head up to Frankenmuth for their Snowfest, which is basically an ice festival, and to get my free birthday chicken at Zehnders. We will also go to Prost for lunch, which is a wine and charcuterie bar. Tasty pizza leftovers: Buddy's (top), Green Lantern circular deep dish What I've been up to this week: Watching movies . Last Friday I went to see A Complete Unknown at Birmingham 8 after work, since I was working in the office that day. I unfortunately fell asleep for a bit of it (recliners ...) but Timothee Chalamet was very good in it, as was Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and the girl who played Joan Baez, another folk musician. From what I saw, I'd give it 4-4.5/5, but it was a bit long (2h20m, I believe). On Wednesd...

This week has gone by slowly, probably because it was my first week back at work in two weeks, and my birthday is Monday, although it doesn't feel like it, for some reason. We leave for Mexico on Thursday for a wedding and I'm excited to get out of the Michigan cold and snow. Wild mushroom pizza and margherita pizza at Crispelli's, WB What I've been up to this week: Doing DoorDash/dining in. On Saturday, my husband and I tried out DoorDash from Siegel's Deli, in Commerce Twp., because I had been craving latkes for a while. Theirs were huge and legit, and I also got some kreplach soup ($11; bit overpriced for the portion). The latkes were $3.90 each though and worth it, as they are ginormous. On Tuesday, I saw Six at the Fisher with a friend (more about that below) and we went to Crispelli's in West Bloomfield ahead of time, which is always tasty; we split a wild mushroom pizza and a margherita pizza. Their pizza is always delicious but the margherita one is my a...

October is moving right along ... I can't believe it's October 20th already. This week I took a very short trip to Kansas for work (arrived Monday around 9pm and got back to DTW around the same time the next day) and other than that have not been doing much.  Media Day at Corbion in Lenexa, KS What I've been up to this week: Quick 1-night/1-day work trip . I took an 8pm flight to MCI (Kansas City, MO) and then a Lyft into Kansas—about a half-hour drive—on Monday, and stayed there overnight, because at 8:30am the next day I attended a media day at Corbion (see above), in Lenexa, KS, for work. Overall it was a fun and informative day, and around 3:30pm I had to Lyft back to MCI, to make my 5:45pm flight, getting me back at DTW around 8:45pm. So, a very long 24 hours, but also fun. I had never been to Kansas before, or Missouri; if you want to be technical, I forgot I had a short layover at the St. Louis airport back in 2017, as my Swarm app reminded me of when I checked into ...

Weirdly, this week went by faster than last week, even though last week was a four-day work week for me. This weekend should be fun: I'm seeing the new Transformers  in 3D tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to Ford Field for the Taylor Swift concert! I was extremely lucky—a friend of a friend had a presale code for Saturday, otherwise we would have been going today, with another friend's code (and I myself received ZERO codes!).  Marley Spoon One-Pot Chicken & Rice Pulao What I've been up to this week: Weekend trip to Indiana . My boyfriend and I went to the Kokomo, Indiana area, where his family lives, to celebrate his May birthday and also his mom's—sometimes we take a Friday off and go, this time we left around 6pm after work so we arrived around 11pm (it's about a 4h15m drive, but 5 hours with stops). We came back on Sunday and arrived back in the Detroit area around 7pm.  Cooking . I had Marley Spoon this week and was planning on cooking Tuesday, Wednesday...

*Disclosure: I received a free Butcher Box in exchange for this review. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.  This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. If you follow me here or on my Instagram , you know I'm a foodie—but what you might not know is that I also love to cook, with steak being my favorite meal to cook. When I was offered the chance to try ButcherBox , I was excited to try it out, and definitely requested some of their beef; they also sent me some of their organic chicken, too. The meats I received included: Strip steak Flat iron steak Ground Beef Eye of round steak Sirloin tips Chicken nuggets I cooked the steaks a few weeks ago—the flat iron steak—and they were very good. I did not know that there were actually four smaller steaks in the package, I had assumed it was two large steaks, but either way, it worked out ... I had enough for leftovers. The chicken tenders are actually some of ...

I have been staying up too late recently, till like 1am, and then I'm super tired the next day ... just watching TV on my iPad and playing Wordle and whatnot, but I need to curb it back to like 11:30pm-12am. This was a fun and busy week and this weekend is colonoscopy prep, which I have been dreading, because it means I can only have liquids for two days straight. Pad Thai roll with chicken, from Bangkok 96 at Detroit Shipping Co. What I've been up to this week: Seeing shows in Detroit . On Saturday night, I saw Stars on Ice with my boyfriend, a friend, and her daughter, which was a lot of fun—I love ice skating but am terrible at it, so I definitely prefer being a spectator. The show was at Little Caesars Arena and thankfully not that busy. On Sunday, I went back to Detroit, this time to the Fox to see An American in Paris  with my boyfriend, a different friend, and her husband. I had seen the show a few years ago at the Opera House and it was very good; I'd give it 3.5/5 ...

This week has felt really long, for some reason, but I have a very Detroit-centric weekend planned: I'm seeing Stars on Ice at LCA tomorrow night with my boyfriend, a friend of mine, and her daughter, and I'm seeing An American in Paris at the Fox on Sunday with him, another friend, and her husband.  Margherita pizza at Crispelli's, Troy What I've been up to this week: Eating out.  On Sunday, I had a California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) gift card that a neighbor had given me last year for making a vaccine appointment for her, so we stopped by the CPK at 12 Oaks Mall in Novi to use it. I used to always like their signature BBQ chicken pizza, so I ordered that, but it was just okay. Everything was just okay there, unfortunately, including the service; the spinach artichoke dip was meh (Granite City's is much better). My favorite things were the bread + olive oil/spices that is complimentary, and we also got a Thai chicken pizza which was interesting. On Monday, we got B-dub...

I have not been doing much this week besides working, but this weekend I am going to Cincinnati—I won a 2-night hotel stay like almost a year ago now, from Yelp Cincinnati (while playing virtual drag queen bingo!) and I've never been there before, so I'm excited to check it out. It is supposed to have some great restaurants and cocktail places, and my boyfriend also has two friends who live there. Crumbl last week: Cookies & Cream, Chocolate/PB, Honeycomb What I've been up to this week: Dining out and doing takeout . On Friday, I finally got to try Noori, in Clawson, for takeout, as part of Clawson Restaurant Week. I forgot to tell them I wanted boneless wings, so I received bone-in wings instead, but they were very tasty, and the crunch was great. I also got their soy-garlic dumplings for my side and those were also very good. The CRW deal was $10.99 for both of those plus a soda to go, which was decent considering eight wings there are normally $13.99 (they are large ...

This week has had its ups and downs, but I'm glad it's Friday, as I have a fun weekend planned, starting with checking out the new Tigar Sugar location today at an influencer tasting event—it's located next to Ima, in Madison Heights, and its grand opening is tomorrow, 12/11/21. Detroit Public TV pizza, from Buddy's What I've been up to this week: Getting takeout . I think, shockingly, I only did takeout this week, and didn't dine-in at all at a restaurant. On Saturday, I got Buddy's takeout with someone, and we tried the "Detroit Public TV" pizza, pictured above—it had pepperoni underneath the cheese, as is tradition with Detroit-style pizza, and then their "Old World Pepperoni" ABOVE the cheese too. It was good but I prefer just their regular pepperoni. Also on Saturday, I had pre-ordered one of Crumbl's hot chocolate cookies; unfortunately, when I arrived at the Novi location, they had JUST run out, so I settled for a Pancake cooki...